Berndes One Pot Wonder - Red Wine Beef Stew Recipe (WIN)

You may have already heard but Tesco are running another great sticker promotion (between 29th September – 25th January 2015) where you can save up to 70% on exclusive Berndes cookware products. It's a great way to replace your old pots and pans for the New Year and save money in the process, just by doing your usual grocery shopping! 

For every £20 you spend online OR in-store you can collect a sticker and once you’ve collected five you can use these to get your discount on professional kitchenware items. Tesco sent us an Oval Cast Iron Casserole to put to the test and with it being winter I decided to make one of our favourite family dishes. It is a great quality product, heavyweight and it minimises washing up as I can pop everything in the one pot!

Simple ways to upgrade your home

Our home is our sanctuary: a place that we can truly make our own. There are so many different ways to decorate our home, and the best part about that is if you don’t like it, you can change it! Taking a trip to Tesco and picking up a few bits in the home section can make the world of difference.

An upgrade to your interior decor doesn’t have to be this big event; some simple changes can transform your home into whatever your heart desires. Here are a few ways to upgrade your home decor.

Fun with Food - Apple Tortoise

Struggling to get the kids to eat their fruit and veg? You aren't alone!

Carving food into something more appealing really helps to encourage them to tuck in though and that's exactly what we have been doing this week with the Thomas Kitchen knives from Tesco!

The 5 knife set, worth over £100 and complete with block, is really useful for dicing and chopping but with seriously sharp blades they make transforming ordinary food into something a little more exciting easy too...

Tortoise Apple

• Slice your apple in half straight through the core.

Where Do You Hide The Presents?

When it comes to hiding Christmas presents it's probably easier to list where they aren't hidden rather than where they are. They are EVERYWHERE!! They arrive in dribs and drabs from around October and I tend to pop them away in one place, until it's filled, before moving on to the next location. This is the reason why I always find little extra gifts I had forgotten about when storing birthday presents away come March.... Ooops.

They are stacked top to bottom in my wardrobe so some of my clothes end up discreetly piled in the corner of my bedroom until January...

in my drawers...

on top of cupboards...

under the bed...

...and in the spider filled area under the stairs where the children definitely won't look - it's far too scary to even take a photo! 

When the Mini Mes were younger I even remember hiding boxes under their beds, somewhere they would never look as that would involve tidying their rooms! They are far to inquisitive for that these days though. Larger items go in the shed or attic and some boxes even remain in the open wrapped in layers of tape to keep prying eyes at bay. If things aren't hidden the kids are generally not even that bothered by them!

As yet nothing has been discovered... not that I know of anyway.

Where do you hide gifts?

This post is my entry into the Hudl Christmas cheer competition

Tesco Clubcard Christmas Boost

Christmas is fast approaching and the Tesco Clubcard Boost is here - such great timing!

It's the opportunity to exchange every £5 of your clubcard vouchers for £10 of boost vouchers to spend in store or online.

I've got my eyes on a few goodies for the Mr, the Mini Mes and myself!

1. Jamster is after a Furby Boom for Christmas so boosting my clubcard vouchers to get one will definitely save some pennies. Tesco have a variety of styles available but the Sweet Waves version is his favourite.
2. The Tesco Hudl tablet would make a great gift for the Mr, for both work and play, and it is seriously great value! With 16MB of memory and around 500,000 apps it will certainly keep him occupied.
3. This cute pink Teksta is a lovely alternative to a real pet dog which should keep Minxy happy. It comes complete with ball and bone too.
4. I fell in love with this camera as soon as I saw it - red is a fav colour of mine and with 42x zoom it's bound to take some amazing pictures. I'm in need of a decent one and Nikon is a fantastic brand.
5. I grew up with Playmobil and the Mini Mes are just starting to enjoy it too - this pirate set looks like great fun for them, and I, to share.

You can find out how to boost your Tesco Clubcard vouchers here:

You can find out more information and view which categories are included here:

http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/boost-at-tesco/#which-departments-are-included

What have you bought for Christmas so far?

*Sponsored post*

Banana fudge cake - with Flora Cuisine

For family baking fun and as part of a sponsored post for Collective Bias® I made this delicious banana fudge cake using Flora Cuisine.

We hadn't used banana while baking for some time so the Mini Mes helped me look online for the perfect recipe and they chose this one from the Flora website to try. The recipe included Flora Cuisine which I had heard of and seen in stores before but had never used - this was a great opportunity to do so.

 

 

Ingredients:

1 large ripe banana
1½ tbsps skimmed milk
70ml Flora Cuisine
90g self-raising flour
90g soft brown sugar
Pinch of salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 large egg, beaten
3 chocolate fudge bars diced into small pieces
50g dried banana chips, broken in half (reserve a few whole ones for decoration)
50g dark chocolate, broken into pieces, for decoration

 

Method

 

We preheated the oven to gas mark 3/170°C/150°C fan/325°F then mashed the banana with the milk in a bowl.

We added in the Flora Cuisine, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and egg then whisked it all together.

We folded in the Fudge and banana chips, saving some to one side ready for decorating at the end.

 

The mixture was poured into an ovenproof dish and cooked for about 45 minutes until it was springy to the touch and brown.

I allowed it to cool slightly then we melted the chocolate on the hob (we used milk instead of dark as our preference) and drizzled it on top before adding the remaining Fudge pieces.

 

It was then sliced to serve.

 

I was very pleased with the final result as the outside was firm yet the inside of the cake was soft, moist and full of flavour. Flora Cuisine has 45% less saturated fat than olive oil and is good for baking, frying and roasting. It has measurements on the side of the bottle which were really useful (and saved on the washing up!) so I think I'll have one stored away in the fridge for future cake baking!

 

 

 

You can view this recipe and others on the Flora website here:

http://www.flora.com/Flora/Tasty-and-healthy-recipes/

 

Christmas Preparations

With the year flying by it really is time to start thinking about Christmas and preparing for the big day, regardless of how much the Mr would like to leave it until 24th December to get organised.

Most years I find myself out and about Christmas eve fetching the last few bits in for dinner that I have forgotten and in a mad panic wrapping gifts I hadn't remembered were hidden under the bed/in the boot of the car/up the attic/under the stairs. I felt it wise to create a check list for to ensure nothing is missed out as I would love a completely stress free day and the chance to sit and drink wine for the majority of it.

Buy the most wanted and expensive gifts first. It helps to spread the cost a little so you only have the little bits and bobs left to purchase and prevents your child from missing out if things are sold out later on. Pick up your variety of toys and other goodies now!

Prepare your Christmas cards. You don't need to post them just yet but writing a list of who you are sending them to now, or even writing them, saves the time nearer the big day when things will be a little more hectic and the shops will be a lot busier.

Stock up on batteries. Not only will you need these for all of the toys but for the camera too. You don't want to miss out on those magical moments.

Sticky tape and gift tags are usually the two I run out of first so I will be having lots of these spare this year, colour coordinated of course!

We usually put the tree up on 1st December but it would look a little bare without lights and decorations so make sure all of yours are in working as soon as you can and pick up some more if you need to.

Get your advent calendars. I used to buy chocolate filled ones for a tasty treat each day but I often found doors hanging open earlier than they should be! I have therefore resorted to Advent Calendars with play sets that you build instead as they last a lot longer and save on the E numbers (and calories).

You may be preparing a huge family feast with all the trimmings this Christmas but don't forget your basics. You will need milk and bread and the shops wont be open so stock up. You can always freeze some if necessary. You can also make and bake bits now and freeze them for later too.

Make sure you have stamps, and plenty of them to get your parcels and cards out in plenty of time. 

Check out Royal Mail's last postage dates:

Thursday 13 December - Standard and Mail Order Return Parcels

Tuesday 18 December - Second Class and Recorded Signed For™

Thursday 20 December - First Class and Recorded Signed For™Special Delivery™

Friday 21 December - Special Delivery™ with Saturday Guaranteed 

Saturday 22 December - Special Delivery™

Discuss where you will be spending the day. If you are travelling to spend Christmas with friends and family get your tickets for trains, coaches or flights and hotel arranged well in advance. You don't want all the seats and rooms to be booked ruining your plans.

If family are coming to you make sure you have enough cups, plates and cutlery for everyone to enjoy their meal with. Think about sleeping arrangements and if you don't have spare duvets and air beds get them to bring them along with them.

Make a cooking schedule so you know what needs going in and out of the oven when and defrost your turkey in plenty of time. This saves a lot of time Christmas eve and day reading boxes and packets and faffing about in the kitchen when you could be downing sherry.

Are you looking forward to the big day? 

What preparations do you enjoy the most?

*This is a partnered post. As always, all my opinions are my own and not swayed by outside sources*