Chicken Fajitas with Spice pods plus giveaway

Disclosure.  This post is a review of products I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

It has been a little while since I shared a recipe post, as I rather lost my blogging mojo lately following my mum’s death. But now that I am confined to my home apart from when I am volunteering to help the vulnerable or a quick essentials shopping trip or a daily run / walk, it seems time to take up the blogging mantle again.

I think I got my love of cooking from my mum, although it had been a while since she had been able to cook due to increasing frailty herself. As a small child, I can remember kneeling up on a stool at the kitchen table beside her and learning to make the likes of jam tarts and gingerbread men. My mum would encourage me to enter the children’s cookery section at the local WI show. And when I unwisely chose broccoli and melon as ingredients for my cookery practical exam, it was my mum who searched to locate them for me. Those were the days before such items became commonplace on the supermarket shelves all year round. And now for a different reason, they may again have disappeared from the shelves.

I’m certainly feeling rather sad about all the panic buying we are seeing currently, as I’m sure it is leading to increased food waste, particularly with regards to fresh food. So it may still be a little while before I feel ready to post again on my series of “Reducing Waste” topics.

However after turning down a few product review requests whilst grieving, I agreed to do a review for The Spice Pioneer, who caught my attention due to their fabulous tree planting initiative. They kindly sent me a set of their five flavours of spice power pods to try for free. The flavours, which can also all be purchased individually are as follows…..

Fajita
Chicken Lollipops
Chilli Con Carne
Katsu Curry
Peri-Peri Chicken

So I decided to try out the Fajita Power Pod first and cook a tasty Tex-Mex dish of Chicken Fajitas, along with all the traditional accompaniments. The power pod box includes this recipe on the back. However I did adapt it slightly to include an additional vegetable, namely courgette, as due to empty shelves, I couldn’t get three colours of peppers.

Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients (serves 4)

Fajita seasoning
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp oil
1 onion
3 mixed bell peppers
4 skinless chicken breasts

Method

Peel and slice onion.
Peel garlic and squeeze through garlic press.
Slice pepper, (saving seeds to sprinkle in a salad).
Slice chicken into 1cm strips.
In a large bowl, mix the fajita seasoning, garlic, oil, onion and peppers.
Add the chicken, mix to coat evenly and marinade for 10 minutes.
Stir- fry in a large frying pan on medium to high heat for 10-12 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Add more oil while cooking if needed.
Enjoy in heated tortilla wraps with guacamole, salsa, sour cream and a sprinkle of cheese.

I made a batch of tortilla wraps and you can see my guacamole recipe below. But I did cheat with the salsa and used a shop-bought jar. However part of the joy of power pods is the simplicity with the spices being perfectly portioned, so I didn’t feel at all guilty for cheating. In fact, I wished that I had cheated with guacamole too, as my avocado was rather under-ripe for the recipe. The power pod spice mixes aim to make cooking an easy, stress-free and enjoyable experience.

Guacamole

Ingredients

1 avocado
Juice of half a lime
1 small clove of garlic
Half a spring onion

Method

Cut avocado in half and remove stone.
Scoop out avocado flesh, with a fork, roughly mashing it.
Squeeze the juice from half a lime.
Peel garlic and squeeze through garlic press.
Mix together avocado, lime juice and garlic.
If the avocado isn’t that ripe, blend the mixture in a blender.
Serve and enjoy.

I was pleased to see that the power pods are 100% natural ingredients. They are free from oil, preservatives, additives and refined sugar and are also gluten free. The products were all long-dated, best before December 2021 and they have been handmade in the UK. The boxes indicate that you can make your meal for 4 people in just 30 minutes. And they also show how mild or spicy each mix is.

The outer box was nicely sized to fit through a letterbox, so no missing a parcel if your delivery arrives when you are out. And look how well packed it is, certainly no excess packaging.

It is a nice touch to have a recipe suggestion on each packet, plus there are plenty more recipe ideas on The Spice Pioneer website. The power pods can be purchased individually or as a subscription. All are reasonably priced.

Do take a look at The Spice Pioneer website to see the rest of their products. They also sell a range of recipe boxes and gin infusion kits. Great gifts for foodies. Every purchase contributes to their tree planting in the Scottish Highlands, which definitely gets my seal of approval.

And I’m hosting a rafflecopter competition to giveaway a starter set of spice power pods like I received from The Spice Pioneer to one lucky winner. You’ll certainly be able to cook some great easy meals with these.

a Rafflecopter giveaway – Please click on the link to enter.

And you may see my other giveaways here.

I’d love to hear your recipe suggestions using any of these products. I’m going to make chicken lollipops next, so check back soon to see that recipe.

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Move over hot dog, introducing the Chickfurter

I’ve been buying sausages from the local butcher this year, as I can take my own container to avoid any packaging, but I have previously purchased HECK sausages from the supermarket. Both the boys enjoy sausages. So when I heard that HECK were launching a new product, the Chickfurter, I was interested in the concept. Son1 is quite a hotdog fan, but it is a treat that he doesn’t often get the opportunity to try. Meanwhile son2 does not like hot dogs.

So I received two free packs of HECK Chickfurters to review. How would these go down with the boys?

First the nutritional side. They are gluten free like all the rest of the HECK range and contain 97% British chicken. Apparently the HECK Chickfurter is the only frankfurter on the market currently made of chicken breast, rather than mechanically reclaimed meat. That sounds good. I was also pleased to note that they had 9 days until the use by date, which is pretty impressive for a refrigerated product. Plus they are suitable for home freezing.

Each 320g pack contains 4 large chickfurters. I’m used to the method of cooking hot dogs in water, but the packet said to pan-fry for best results or to grill. So I opted to pan-fry them, serving them in traditional long rolls with ketchup and optional fried onion.

Son1 loved them and wanted two which at 72g each was a huge meat hit. I certainly couldn’t have eaten a second in one sitting. But son2 lived upto expectation and did not like them. He was in the minority though as the rest of us enjoyed them. I loved that smoky flavour.

And now to discuss the packaging. I knew that I would be compromising my ideal by receiving a packaged product but what type of packaging? It was a plastic tray covered with film in a cardboard sleeve. And at least the tray was not black plastic, as sorting equipment cannot detect the colour black. So all recyclable apart from the film, which could be eco-bricked, but it would be preferable to swap the tray and film to a more sustainable material. For instance when I buy frozen vegetarian sausages, those are just sold in cardboard.

Also by receiving the product via post, there was a lot of additional packaging in order to keep the product chilled during transit. So I would recommend purchasing in-store rather than online, although currently, the chickfurter has only been launched in Morrisons.

Do take a look at the HECK website to see the rest of their range. I was particularly interested to see they make a wide range of vegan sausages too. I was unaware of these previously. I’ve been eating meat-free more regularly recently and often adapt a sausage recipe to be veggie sausages for me, whilst the rest of the family have butchers sausages.

And I’d love to hear your recipe ideas for chickfurters.

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Disclosure.  This post is a review of a product I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

Guest post: How does the Ketogenic diet work?

Guest post by Ricard Ponsi of Workout-Temple

Nutritional ketosis is a dietary protocol whose objective is to improve our metabolic flexibility when using fatty acids as the main energy substrate. For this, the intake of carbohydrates is limited, depending on the individual, approximately 50 g net per day.

With this we generate low levels of insulin in plasma and, subsequently, a reduction of glycogen levels in muscular and hepatic reserves. In the absence of the main fuel of our body (glucose) the ketogenesis process is activated, where the liver will produce ketone bodies to feed the different tissues and cells.

KETOSIS is a NATURAL state that human beings have experienced since the beginning of time. Therefore, we are evolutionarily adapted to use both energy substrates (ketone bodies and glucose), which means that past civilization may have consciously sought a state of fasting or induced ketosis. This is why, evolutionarily speaking our physiology seeks an alternative mechanism to glucose as it is the only source of energy.

Photo source: https://pixabay.com/

Nutritional ketosis and metabolic flexibility

We can define the metabolic flexibility as the efficiency of our body when using energy substrates depending on demand such as walking, running or sprinting. Remember that, although our glycogen reserves (both muscular and hepatic) are limited, the same is not true of our fat stores, the latter being able to represent a much greater amount than the former. So… Why doesn’t our body use fats? What happens is that in a traditional diet based on hydrates (and not always from the best sources) our body always finds plasma glucose and glycogen stores full. Therefore, it does not need to look for any other energy source. Our body has simply ‘forgotten’ how to use fats as energy. It is here when the ‘low carb’ or ‘ketogenic’ guidelines are an interesting tool.

Adaptation to a new fuel

It is the process called Ketoadaptation, which we could define as the process through which human metabolism adapts to the use of fats optimally as the main source of energy. In the beginning a drastic change it can condition sports performance and your daily life, but in most of the cases the symptoms are diluted after the first week.

Symptoms of Keto-adaptation:

– Fatigue
– Worse sports performance
– Dizziness
– Cramps
– Constipation
– Palpitations

Once past the moment of adaptation we will see how the symptoms disappear, signal that our metabolism works optimally and achieving efficiency in both our sports and personal performance.

Very important considerations

Ketosis is NOT a pathological state. And I must emphasize this because, in a still very widespread way, nutritional ketosis is often confused with diabetic ketoacidosis.

Many symptoms may be due to a lack of electrolytes during the beginning of the ketosis process. There is a reduction in glycogen levels and, as a consequence, also a loss of water associated with this glycogen. With this loss of water there will be a ‘drag’ of electrolytes that we should know and replace, with special emphasis on 3 of them.

– Sodium DRI = 5000 – 7000 mg
– Potassium DRI = 1000 – 3500 mg
– Magnesium DRI = 300 – 500mg

I must emphasize that nutritional ketosis is NOT a hyperproteic diet, but moderate or protein-adjusted. The amount of protein is maintained at constant values depending on the objectives of the subject, and can range between 1.4 to 2.0 g / kg body weight.

Ketosis and sports performance

Resistance discipline: In this type of activities there are promising investigations and cases of ketoadapted athletes where the fat / glycogen use ratio is optimized, which positions as a great tool to maximize performance. Nutritional ketosis improves fat oxidation and metabolic flexibility, which is vital in long-term efforts where the main energy system is aerobic.

Discipline of strength: In disciplines where the main component is strength and power, the dominant energy substrate is the path of phosphogens, which is not impacted by a nutritional ketosis.

Hypertrophy training: This modality seeks to increase the total volume (series and repetitions) so the glycolytic pathway is a very important metabolic pathway. Since nutritional ketosis reduces muscle glycogen levels and also circulating insulin, it makes sense to think that it is not the optimal state to build muscle mass.

Conclusion on keto diet

In my opinion, the ketogenic diet can be an interesting strategy to introduce in periods of 6 to 10 weeks (a couple times a year) and benefit greatly from its effects.

During the intervention time there are very notable improvements in fat loss (extensive benefits proven), while maintaining the muscle mass and keeping performance levels measured through RM in different exercises.

Guest post by Ricard Ponsi and Pere Coll
Originally posted on the Workout-Temple website here.

Chicago Town Cheesy Stuffed Crust pizza review

Disclosure.  This post is a review of a product I purchased using vouchers I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

I was recently asked if I would like to review the newest variety of Chicago Town pizza. Now I had to think hard about this request, as this is one of my favourite brands of frozen pizza, but I’ve been avoiding buying frozen pizzas this year, instead either making homemade pizzas or enjoying one at a restaurant.

But in the end, I decided my blog would be a great way to highlight why I’ve been avoiding buying something that all the family enjoy. It is all because of what is hiding between the cardboard box and the pizza – namely plastic! And not just any plastic, but a single-use film which is not recyclable. If frozen fishfingers can be sold loose in a cardboard box, then why not pizzas? Come on Chicago Town. I hope you’re reading this. Let’s lose that unnecessary plastic please. The pizza will be just fine loose in the box.

So I received five £2 money off vouchers to try out the new Chicago Town Cheesy Stuffed Crust pizza along with any others from the range. I headed off to one of the large superstore branches of Sainsburys. But luck was not on my side. Surprisingly that branch didn’t seem to stock the new variety. And since I had already told the boys that it was pizza for tea, I bought the following varieties.

Tomato Stuffed Crust Cheese pizza – £2.50 (special offer)
Tomato Stuffed Crust Pepperoni pizza – £2.50 (special offer)
Deep Dish Four Cheese – £2

The first two for tea and the latter reserved for my next 12 hour shift at work, since the Deep Dish mini pizza range are suitable for microwave and have a quick cooking time. This used to be one of my regular night shift dinners before trying to reduce plastic. And the Tomato Stuffed Crust pizzas were a huge success. Not only very tasty and a good size for all of us, but son2 who never eats his pizza crusts, actually cleared his plate for the Tomato Stuffed Crust Cheese pizza and gave it the thumbs up. Cooking instructions are simple to follow too, plus the pizzas are easy to lift from baking tray to plate without sticking.

A few days later and it was back to the shops for another go at buying the Chicago Town Cheesy Stuffed Crust pizza. After unsuccessfully trying at Co-op, Tesco, Waitrose, M&S and at a second branch of Sainsburys, I finally hit the jackpot at a second branch of Tesco. There it was, the elusive Chicago Town Cheesy Stuffed Crust pizza, although wrongly labelled on the shelf.

So I put the last 2 vouchers towards the cost of that plus a Classic Crust Chicken and Bacon Melt, which were both on special offer at 2 pizzas for £6. The boys would be overjoyed at getting pizza twice in less than a week. How lucky are they!

And the big question. Would son2 eat the pizza crust this time too?

Unfortunately not, but he did still enjoy the rest of the pizza. And I have to say that I found the cheese in the crust tastes quite different to the cheese on top, as it is a cheese sauce, which is something else he won’t eat. He is a very fussy eater and the only cheese he eats at all is mozzarella, but only the pizza type, not the mozzarella balls. So hush, he quite happily ate mozzarella, monterey jack, mature cheddar and emmental on this, assuming it was just mozzarella.

This is another area where I haven’t been able to find a plastic-free solution yet. I always feel guilty buying the bags of grated mozzarella or packs of mozzarella slices for him so if anyone knows where to buy plastic-free mozzarella, then please do let me know. I can’t even seem to find a block of mozzarella, which should be marginally less plastic than buying grated or sliced.

However the rest of the family all enjoyed our Cheesy Stuffed Crust, plus the Chicken & Bacon Melt too. So I can recommend these pizzas for being great tasty and excellent value for money. But as said above, my only complaint is to please please lose the inner plastic. In my opinion, a frozen product is fine loose in a cardboard box.

And for those who are interested, here are some more Chicago Town posts from my archive a few years back.
Chicago Town Takeaway pizza review
Chicago Town Deep Dish pizza review

I’d love to hear what is your favourite pizza?

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Swede and Bacon Gratin

Swede is often ignored for recipes and just served on the side mashed, either on its own or with carrot. But let me share this delicious main course recipe, which I served with crusty homemade bread and salad. And it is very good value too, since swede is so reasonably priced.

Swede and Bacon Gratin

Ingredients (serves 2)

350g swede
2 cloves of garlic
300ml milk
30g margarine
2tbsp plain flour
Salt and pepper
3 rashers smoked bacon
A handful of grated cheddar cheese

Method

Peel the swede and dice into approx 1-2cm pieces.
Peel the garlic and push through a garlic press or finely chop.
Put the diced swede into a bowl and cover with boiling water for 10 minutes.
Grill the bacon until crisp and cut into small pieces.
Drain the swede and put into a saucepan with the milk and garlic.
Bring to the boil and cook over a fairly gentle heat for about 10 minutes until tender.
Lift the swede out of the milk with a slotted spoon and place in an ovenproof dish with the bacon.
Leave the garlic in the saucepan.
Whisk the margarine and flour into the milk. Whisk it quite vigorously to avoid lumps, and bring back to the boil to thicken.
Season with salt and pepper.
Pour the sauce over the swede and bacon.
Mix around to coat everything with the sauce, then top with the grated cheese.
Cook in a preheated oven at 200 degrees centigrade, 180 fan for 20 to 30 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.
Serve and enjoy.

Could be served as a side dish either. For vegetarians, substitute the bacon with onion.

I originally posted this recipe on Gourmandize.

I’d love to hear your ideas for recipes using swede? It is such a reasonably priced vegetable, but so often over-looked.

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Guest post: Useful food eye-opener on healthy eating by Colin Campbell

Can one and the same nutrient budget be allowed for everyone? Why can even the best vitamin supplements not replace apples and spinach? What oxidation is and how animal albumen and foods of plant origin influence on it? What is the problem of modern researching? Colin Campbell answers these and many more questions in his The China Study bestseller.

Perfect ration

Those products, which are useful for some reason, are considered to be not tasty and not interesting. People think it to be boring but it is not like that. Evolution programmed us to enjoy food, which strengthens our health. A perfect ration is like this: vegetable food, as whole as possible. Eat different vegetable, fruits, nuts and seeds, beans and whole grains. Avoid strongly processed and foods of animal origin. Stay away from salt, fats, and sugar. Strive for getting 80% of calories from carbohydrates, 10% from fats and 10% from proteins.

This is it. This is what whole plant-based diet is, sometimes a lifestyle.

Be more specific, more actions

Look at such words as medicine and health in a different way. Health means more than a few superficial expressions like eat healthily, do not binge drink, do not use an elevator but use the stairs. It is all good but they do not include a possibility of actual changes. Those are ethical expressions with no specific and content.

It is important not just to follow a diet during a certain period of time but to change eating habits and stick to these changes during the lifetime. Those people who changed their eating habits and started eating healthy noticed that wrong product they consumed daily caused all the problems they have had before. Odd uncontrolled oxidation is an enemy of health and longevity just like overmuch oxidation makes it to where a new car turns into the junk heap, and a piece of an apple into a compost. Free radicals appear in the process and they are responsible for getting old, cause cancer and atherosclerotic plaque leading to heart attacks and cerebral accidents.

About modern research studies

There is a story about 6 blind men who were describing an elephant. Needless to say, that each of them describes it in their own way. They argue upon which of the descriptions is right. This is the best metaphor for the modern research studies problem. The only difference is that there are 60 000 researchers instead of 6 and each of them look at a problem through the lens of their own.

Medicine with no side effects

What you eat has more influence on your health than DNA and the major amount of harmful substances. Food can get you healthy faster and more effective than the major number of expensive medicine and most serious surgical operations. At that, side effects are going to be pleasant. Eating healthy, many diseases are easy to avoid, cancer, cardiac disease, diabetes mellitus type II, macular dystrophy, blind headache, erectile dysfunction and arthritis and this list is far from full. It is never too late to stop eating healthy. The healthy diet may help to avoid all these diseases.

An apple instead of a pill

We got used to taking food in the context of separate necessary elements. We eat carrot in order to get vitamin A, oranges for vitamin C, drink milk because there is calcium and vitamin D. If we like a product, we will get digestible nutrients with pleasure but if we do not like something, spinach, brussels sprouts, or sweet potato, we think that we can live without it, if to find some other product with the similar substance content to replace. But, for example, an apple gives more than just a sum of elements it contains. Nevertheless, due to the reductive worldview, we cannot believe that food is important in general and not only its substance content.

One approach for all

Medical community repeats oftentimes that one approach does not work for all. Nature organized our biological functions way better than we would most like to think but it is very important in terms of holistic nutrition.

No magic

Magic solutions are advertised as fast, easy and troublefree, which is why they are more realistic, requiring time, affords, and difficult for understanding. Notice that when it comes to advertisement, much is given preference to magic, from extra weight and financial services to cleaning and cosmetics. The more magical a product is, the easier it is to sell it and all the more so it feels like buying it. Magical solutions work with symptoms but not with causes. Symptoms are easy to clear; work with causes take more time. Fast clearance of isolated symptoms is the easy thing. Causes are more difficult and require more affords and responsibility on the part of a human. So, the holistic solution is for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and extra weight. It removes the source: attempts of our body to cope with reworked and animal products. In spite of the fact that it may give more than a pill, an injection or operation, they should be followed all the time.

The force of superstition

There are many superstitions. Firstly, concerning proteins. Society believes that milk and meat are valuable and it is difficult to imagine that these products may cause harm. It is far from what we were taught for years to be true and it does not matter how much is true about it. Secondly, a paradigm of reductionism due to which we are focused on parts separate and excising the whole thing. A body is a holistic system with many inner connections but we got accustomed to thinking it to be a set of separate parts and systems where chemical substances make transformations apart from each other. Through the paradigm of reductionism, we see a nutrition as a sum of separate nutrients actions but not a universal process and consider dietology an isolated discipline and not the most influential factor of our health in general. Thirdly, profit-oriented system, which condemns to  reductionism. Unlike holism, it gives simple, fast and merchantable solutions aimed to one out of thousand potential problems. The industry remains the force determining what scientific tasks to pose, what studies to finance, and what results to publish and put a status of official politics to what has been published.

About the author: Melisa Marzett is the author of many articles available for viewing on her Google Plus profile and other social networks. Currently working for bigpaperwriter.com, she keeps writing more and more pieces on different topics. She enjoys reading and communicating with other people quite often of different nationalities exchanging cultural background, customs and traditions let alone experience.

Guest post by Melisa Marzett

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Another Chewy Moon snack box review and giveaway

Regular readers of my blog may remember how much we all loved Chewy Moon healthy snacks when we reviewed them last year. Well I’m very pleased to say that we have received another free snack box and this time it is cheaper per snack and bigger. Yes you read that correctly.

By changing deliveries from weekly to fortnightly, reducing packaging and portion sizes slightly, they have reduced prices from £1 per snack to £0.50. So customers get 25% more snacks for every £ spent now.

So 10 snacks now instead of 5 and yet they still fit through the letterbox. Wow what great news and the boys couldn’t wait to dive in. Plus lots of fun with a sticker book, a fungi fact sheet and 2 battle cards. And a nutrition leaflet for the parents.

The 10 snacks we received were:-
Silly Circus (Honey Cookies)
Crack A Beet (Organic beetroot crackers)
Jack N Berries (Flapjack, pure strawberry fruit hearts, cranberries, blueberries)
Silly Vanilly (Vanilla Cookies)
Freaky Fruits (Blackcurrant drops, apricot sticks, cherry cubes, peach cubes, raspberry strips)
Nature’s Cherry Cola (Natural cola flavoured raisins, cherry, cranberry)
Boogie Bites (Popped cheddar cheese, pesto breadsticks)
Safari Snack (Italian herb cashews, garlic mini bread chips, popped cheese)
Strawberry Munch (Strawberry fruit strings, strawberry fruit stars, strawberry fruit hearts)
Beary Friends (Pure strawberry fruit hearts, cranberries, blueberries, raspberry strips)

Son2 chose the Silly Vanilly Chewy Moon snack first based on it being the only one with a pug on the box, his favourite character from last time, but it was a great choice as he loved the vanilla cookies. He read the limerick on the back of the box, telling me they had been learning these at school.

Meanwhile son1 selected the Beary Friends first. He wasn’t overly fond of the raspberry strips but liked the other fruits. They soon discovered that there was a sticker in each snack for the sticker book.

With so many choices, we found on the whole that son2 liked the cookie types best followed by fruits, whilst son1 liked the savouries best followed by cookies. Son2 wasn’t convinced about us being addressed as Moonas though!

These packs are ideal for an after school snack and some of them count as 1 of your 5 a day. They are 100% natural, being free from added sugar, artificial colours, flavours, preservatives and other nasties. But if your children attend a school that has a nut-free policy like my boys’ school, then you wouldn’t be able to send Safari Snack in as a playground snack. However there are “no nuts” and “no dairy” options when ordering.

You get to rate the snacks, to build up a profile of which your child does and doesn’t like for future boxes. Each box of 10 snacks currently costs £4.99 including P&P, but you can get your first box free. Additional sibling boxes are £4.50 and there is also £2.99 option for a 5 snack box. You select between fruit box, variety box or savoury box and you can order for multiple children. The boxes are aimed at children from age 3 upwards. The boxes are delivered fortnightly and you may cancel your subscription at any time. A very competitive price in my opinion.

Also I was very pleased to note that every box sold sponsors a hungry child‘s lunch. You may read the details here.

Plus I have a special offer to share with my readers, where you can get your 1^st, 3^rdand 5^th boxes completely FREE. Just use code AEP4LUV.

And I’m hosting a rafflecopter competition to giveaway a 3 month Chewy Moon subscription worth £30 to one lucky winner. What a tasty prize.

a Rafflecopter giveaway – Please click on the link to enter.

And you may see my other giveaways here.

I’d love to hear about your favourite snack ideas.

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Disclosure. This post is a review of a product I was sent for free. All opinions are my own.

Chewy Moon snack box review and giveaway

I have received a free sample Chewy Moon healthy snack box via Talk To Mums. The box size is designed to fit through your letterbox.

These boxes are aimed at children from age 3 upwards and son2 was really excited when he saw the pug on the outside of the box. Even though he is fairly dog-phobic, he has recently started asking if we can get a pug. Whilst son1 who is equally wary round dogs wants a labrador. But no need for them to argue over breeds, as a puppy is not on the agenda since I work full-time.

These boxes contain 5 individual snack portions along with some fun activities and a page of nutrition facts. Our activitites were a pop-out frog, a short comic story and facts about ants.

The 5 snacks we received were:-
Snacko Italiano (Tuscany cashews and baked cheese)
Happy BBQ (smokey almonds and coconut chips)
Crazy Crunch (smoothie bites)
Cherry Cola (cola raisins, cherry, cranberry)
Freaky Fruits (blackcurrant drops, apricot sticks, cherry cubes, peach cubes, raspberry strips)

Son1 chose the Snacko Italiano first whilst son2 opted for the Cherry Cola. He did insist that son1 give him the empty Snacko Italiano pug box afterwards though. Son1 loved the pieces of toasted cheese, but only liked the Italian herby cashews. He let me try a couple of the cashews and I thought they were delicious. Meanwhile son2 quickly scoffed the Cherry Cola.

The next time son2 selected Freaky Fruits whilst son1 went for Crazy Crunch. Once again son2’s snack vanished very quickly and he gave both a resounding thumbs up. Although son1 is a huge smoothie fan, he wasn’t convinced by the Crazy Crunch flavour, so offered them to the rest of us. We all enjoyed them but none of us guessed the flavour correctly which was blueberry and red beet.

And to avoid arguments, I got the fifth pack, the Happy BBQ, which was right up my street, as I love almonds and coconut. Very yummy indeed.

These packs are ideal for an after school snack. But if your children attend a school that has a nut-free policy like my boys’ school, then you wouldn’t be able to send either Snacko Italiano or Happy BBQ in as a playground snack. However there is a “no nuts” option when ordering.

You get to rate the snacks, to build up a profile of which your child does and doesn’t like for future boxes. Each box currently costs £4.93 including 98p P&P, but you can get your first box free. You select between fruit box, variety box or savoury box and you can order for multiple children. The boxes are delivered weekly and you may cancel your subscription at any time. A competitive price in my opinion.

And I’m hosting a rafflecopter competition to giveaway a month’s Chewy Moon subscription of 4 boxes to one lucky winner. What a tasty prize.

a Rafflecopter giveaway – Please click on the link to enter.

And you may see my other giveaways here.

I’d love to hear about your favourite snack ideas.

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Disclosure. This post is a review of a product I was sent for free. All opinions are my own.

What food do you miss when away from your native country?

Now hands up if when you’re away from your native country, you miss some of your favourite foods if they are not readily available. I’ve got an Australian friend, who when she goes back to Australia, returns to the UK with her suitcase, packed full of her favourite foods. And she was very pleased when she discovered that she could buy Violet Crumbles via Ocado here.

Some of us love trying international food but others are not so adventurous. So wouldn’t it be great if you could still get your hands on a pack of jaffa cakes or a jar of marmite. Well you can, by ordering online from the British Corner Shop.

I have just received a free hamper of goodies to review from the British Corner Shop. Very well packed and it contained all the following items from traditional British brands.

Crumpets
Tomato Soup
Ginger Nuts
Sage & Onion Stuffing
Mushy Peas
Custard
Marmite Crisps
Steak and Ale Pie
Ribena
Jelly Babies
Caramel Wafers
Flake Chocolate

It was nice to note that they sell short-dated bakery food like crumpets. That is a regular item on my shopping list. The whole family love buttered crumpets and we would certainly miss those. And I like mine best with marmite, another traditional product sold by the British Corner Shop. But you will need to check the estimated delivery times carefully for short-dated products.

And they even offer a chilled service to selected European countries so you can enjoy British cheese, sausages, bacon, yoghurts, butter, fish and so much more fresh produce!

British Corner Shop is the online supermarket for British Expats and others who simply appreciate great British food. They have a range of 10,000 products and last year they delivered over 4 million products to 138 countries worldwide.

Delivery cost is based on the weight and volume of your order plus destination. It will be calculated automatically as you add the items to your basket.

We haven’t tried all our goodies yet, but I’ve enjoyed everything so far and I’m looking forward to the rest except for the mushy peas. But I’m sure one of you is shouting at me, that you love mushy peas and would really miss them if living abroad.

And I have a special offer to share with my readers of £15 off your first order over £75 from British Corner Shop. Enter the code MUMMYBLOG15 at check-out. This offer is valid until 9 December 2015.

I’d love to hear what food you would or do miss if away from your native country?

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Disclosure.  This post is a review of products I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

Chicago Town Deep Dish mini pizza review

Disclosure.  This post is a review of a product I purchased using vouchers I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

It is only a week or so since I reviewed the Chicago Town Takeaway pizza, so you may remember that I mentioned that I already purchase the microwaveable Chicago Town deep dish pizzas on a regular basis as they are a staple for me when working night shifts, since I only have access to a microwave and toaster at work, with no proper oven.

Well the PR then asked me if I would fancy reviewing the deep dish pizzas too, as there are four brand new flavours in the range. So I have now received 2 vouchers to try some for free.

The four new choices of toppings are:-
New Yorker
Chicken Club
Pulled Pork
Sloppy Joe

When I popped into my local small supermarket, they only seemed to stock one of the new flavours, namely the New Yorker. So I purchased that and the Pepperoni with the vouchers. Usually I would buy the Four Cheese.

These frozen pizzas can be cooked either in the oven or by microwaving, but I stuck to my usual routine of heating them in the microwave at work. The cooking instructions are simple to follow. I do like to eat something hot during a 12 hour night shift. and these mini size pizzas are ideal for that purpose, plus they are quick to cook. I enjoyed both flavours, so may be varying my purchases in the future.

These pizzas are available at most major supermarkets, currently with an RRP of £2.19. I consider this is great value at just over £1 for each individual pizza. How about that for a good deal.

I’d love to hear what is your favourite pizza?

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