What do you get if you assemble over a 150 budding chefs in London's Borough Market, get top chef and School of Wok founder Jeremy Pang in charge and give all of them the motivation to feed a thousand of London's food insecure? The answer is an incredible Wok For 1000 event that saw friendships made, Asian cookery skills developed, a huge amount of food prepared, and about 1400 people fed. I was incredibly proud to be part of yesterday's Wok For 1000 event as it was an amazing opportunity to understand what is already being done to help so many people that are short of food, and what more ... read more
Celebrating Halloween American Style with Post Cereals
As a kid I was mesmerised by watching children eat cereal in American films. It always just looked so exciting compared to the boring cornflakes that I always used to have for breakfast. American children's breakfast bowls seemed to full of bright colours. It always looked so much more fun. Fast forward many years and I was still very excited to be contacted by Post Cereals with an offer to send me some of their American cereals, that are now available in UK supermarkets for the first time. That fascination with American cereals continues today though as my 13 year old step-daughter was ... read more
The Power Of Food
Throughout the years, there has been so much research conducted into the power of healthy food, and the dangers of bad food. Yet so many people choose a nice McDonald’s, over a wholesome meal. There’s good reason for this. Bad food seems to just taste so much better. The chemicals and preservatives pumped into the food are designed to taste better on the palate, and are in a way addictive for humans. But if you just give healthy foods a try, the below points will show your the rewards. Pixabay Weight Loss So many people complain about wanting to lose weight, yet the first thing ... read more
Adding a taste of summer to school packed lunches with #ChileanEasyPeelers
Making school packed lunches is one of those jobs that I really don't enjoy. Apart from having to do them for Master C's pre-school lunch club I've luckily avoided them until now. Universal Free Infant School meals meant that whilst Little Miss C was in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 she had a school meal each day, and if she didn't like the hot options she could opt for a school prepared packed lunch - all nutritionally balanced, as worked out by the catering company that the school uses. It made my life much simpler. This September saw LMC start in Year 3 at the local Junior School and with ... read more
FitBeer – A Proper Good Beer
I know I've got myself a bit of a reputation online for liking a tipple sometimes in an evening, but I'll let you into another little secret... I also quite like a non-alcoholic beer every now and again... I've always enjoyed the taste of beer, and when I was pregnant with Master C I started to absolutely crave the stuff. Obviously there are rules about drinking when pregnant (let's not open that can of worms right now) but I chose to try to find alternatives, and so spent what felt like the entire nine months trying to find a good non-alcoholic beer. Towards the end I had indeed managed ... read more
Pork Pasta Bolognese #HealthyRedMeat
Over the summer life at home has been somewhat disjointed. Moving house, and changing family dynamics, mean that I've followed the advice of someone who very early on told me that the key thing in the early days of all this change was to remember to eat something, and to remember to make sure everyone else eats too. For a little while I was allowed to not aim for a nutritionally balanced home cooked meal every evening, but I just had to make sure that I had a meal every day and that the kids didn't go hungry either. It was quite seriously one of the best bit of advice I could have been ... read more
British Steaks at Aldi – Peppered Steak Recipe
Steak is one of those meals that I love, but one that I don't cook very often. Not because it's difficult or anything like that, but mainly because I always look at it as a bit of a treat and hence something that can be a bit expensive. When Aldi sent me through some steak facts and a tasty looking recipe for Peppered Steak (see below) I thought I'd better rectify that matter. It did prompt some questions between me and the other half about what type of steak we both like, and also how we like our steak cooked. Compatible as we are, it turned out that both of us are in the 22% of the ... read more
I Love My Wok – Nicola Graimes
When I moved house recently a replacement wok was one of the first things I bought for my new kitchen. I've always used a wok loads for cooking a variety of different dishes in, and so I was quite surprised to read a press release for the book I Love My Wok describing it as "often... underused and undervalued". It's far from that in my house! I'm no great cook and have to admit that my wok based meals aren't really thought through as meals designed to be cooked in a wok, more that it's just the thing I choose to use in the kitchen. I was intrigued therefore to take a look at I Love My Wok ... read more
7 Tips To Teach Your Child Healthy Eating Habits From The Start
It’s well known that children learn by mimicking the behaviour around them. The adage “do what I say and not what I want” doesn’t work with them. Parents who want their children to keep their room tidy need to show how it’s done by keeping the home clean and organised. Similarly, it’s likely that kids who are shouted at as a punishment adopt this kind of behavior too: loud children = loud parenting. So, it’s your responsibility to show your children the behaviour that you expect them to copy. This goes for social skills as well as developing healthy habits. If you want your children to learn ... read more
Discovering Ciao Gusto at Ocado
This last week has been like living in the Mediterranean hasn't it? It has been so, so hot that I think everyone has wished they were on holiday instead of trying to get on with their day to day lives in the extreme heat. For me though, that holiday feel comes not only from the weather, but also from the food. Years ago I went to a conference in Sorrento in Italy and had one of the best food experiences of my life. Simple Italian food that was so delicious and plentiful that I still talk about that meal years later. I love Italian food and therefore it was a complete pleasure that I was asked ... read more