Forest feast Perfect picnic foods * Review *

Summer Holidays are just days away and i for one can not wait! Lazy days and no school runs, Getting to spend time together with Bodhi before he starts big school in September. We was very kindly sent a bag full of yummy snacks and treats from forest feast.



They stock a huge range of nuts/seeds/fruits and street foods, I couldn't wait to try them out and with my mums birthday coming up i planned to take her for a picnic with the snacks. We packed the wonder berries / sour cherries and coconut flakes along with the coated peas.



We had a lovely picnic and we all enjoyed the forest feast items, My dad ate most of the peas but i did get to try some of the BBQ flavours and they were very tasty and just slightly on the spicy side. A perfect change from other snacks . Bodhi enjoyed them and asked for them the next day with his lunch.

    

The dried fruit was also a huge hit, I have always struggled with dried fruit as Bodhi can't have raisins and most mixed fruits (Always) have raisins in them but i was pleased to find the wonder berry mix was packed full of yummy berries we mixed these with the sour cherries and coconut and we all tucked in and enjoyed. I have future plans to make flapjacks with this mix of fruit for more summer picnics and days out. The Wonder berry mix is also one of your 5 a day per 25G 

To make the most of the summer we have lots of days out planed that i will be taking snacks along with me to keep costs down. 

* day at the beach 

* zoo 

* soft play 

* play dates at the park 

* family visits

* summer holiday to Spain 

* picnics ( At home or out and about ) 

Hope you all have a lovely summer Holidays and i would definitely recommend them check out the summer snacks that forest feast stock you can buy online from amazon and also online via Ocado. 

Winter meals into summer meals

In our house the family favourite meal has got to be pie ( steak or chicken ) we all just love it, clean plates all round, but when the heat starts to pick up the thought of sitting down to eat a steaming hot pie isn't my ideal summer dinner.

simple things like adding a side salad rather then veg or swapping your roast potatoes for maybe a jacket or a new potatoes salad with fresh herbs and mayo and the best thing of all ? eat your dinner out in the garden ( pure bliss )

One of our most loved pies is the wild Beaver pie from Brockleby's Pies these can be ordered online via the website but Chris loves to visit county fairs and Brockleby's are often at our local ones ( Bedfordshire area )



these pies are amazing they are so full of meat its unreal they have a wide range of filling from the normal chicken to more unusual fillings such as venison i am keen to try one of the sweet pies either apple pie or apple & blackberry pie

what is your family's favourite meal? is it more of a winter or summer meal? id love to know in the comments.

Grow your own with your kids

I have always dreamed of picking my fresh produce from my garden for cooking and the idea of a few chickens for eggs, when in reality it isn't going to happen, last year I grew tomatoes that didn't ripen and my raspberry plant produced seven ( yes seven ) berries so I am putting the veg patch space to better use this year and just sticking to my little herb garden.

The other reason I wanted to grow our own is for feed our pet tortoise Tuc he eats salad leaves and green, I also wanted to get Bodhi a little more green fingered so I popped to the shops and picked up some cress seeds and Cotten wool.

You can't get any simpler then growing cress !! I had saved and old plastic egg box and this was perfect, bodhi pretty much did it all him self, from ripping up the Cotten wool to sprinkling the cress seeds onto the Cotten wool and lastly giving it a good drink !

After only a few days we had fresh cress growing and I had one very happy four year old and a very happy tortoise , you can pick cress seeds up from garden centres/pound shops and most supermarkets I got our from wilkos 

The cost of Easter? Aldi

FEED YOUR FAMILY FOR LESS THAN THE PRICE OF AN EGG THIS EASTER

working with Aldi and with my own views it is shocking at just how much we are spending out for bank holiday meals and four day weekends! i spent over £60 on four days worth of food ( sadly not from Aldi as i just didn't have the time to get over to my local store) Aldi managed to feed a family of four for a shocking £15.19 thats £3.80 per head and this included wine, i will often spend £3 on a meal deal for a sandwich , drink & crips! i know what i would rather, this is also cheaper for a meal then a supermarket easter egg that  most people piled trollies high with. 

My plan is to make more time to meal plan and to shop in my local Aldi more often once a week rather then my two/three little shops a week that soon add up to around £6-£80 a week for out food shop. my goal is to bring this budget down to £40 a week ( this is for a family of two adults a very hungry four year old and also feeding a cat & tortoise ) 

This Easter, at Aldi, customers can feed a family of four for a mere £3.80 per head – cheaper than a single luxury Easter egg in most UK supermarkets – and to celebrate, the supermarket has commissioned a life-sized chocolate dining table, complete with a lamb roast dinner and all the trimmings.

 Aldi’s edible and intricately crafted ‘Chocolate Roast’ includes all the components customers would expect to see on a Easter celebration table including a Whole Leg of Fresh British Lamb (£3.79 per kilogram) and Good Housekeeping Institute approved Specially Selected Hot Cross Buns (99p, 4 pack), as well as cutlery and plates.

 Accompanied by fluffy Maris Piper potatoes (£1.89, 2.5kg), garden peas (69p, 907g), fresh carrots (45p, 1kg) and Bramwell’s Mint Sauce (39p, 180g), this mouth-watering table also includes a bottle of Aldi’s Exquisite New Zealand Pinot Noir (£6.99, 75cl) all of which, can be picked up in store, for less than a twenty pound note!

 Tony Baines, Joint Managing Director of Corporate Buying at Aldi, said: “At Aldi our everyday low prices reflect customers continued demand for best value, good quality products, particularly around family celebrations such as Easter. 

 "We are proud that for the cost of an egg in other supermarkets, you can feed a family of four with delicious, quality British products, showing once again we are the supermarket that won’t be beaten on quality or price.”

 Master chocolatier, Jen Lindsey-Clark, spent three weeks creating Aldi’s ‘Chocolate Roast’ which has been made from a whopping 50 kilograms of melted Aldi Moser Roth Premium Easter Egg (£2.99, 185/195g).

 Jen said: "Aldi certainly set us a challenge with this very quirky commission. It has been great fun moulding and carving all of the classic Easter roast features. I'd say the trickiest item was the Ashfield Farm British leg of lamb which took 4 days, 4 moulds and 2 kilos of chocolate to complete.

“We’re all really pleased with the final sculpture - it has got to be the ultimate chocoholic's Easter lunch.” 

Earlier this month, Aldi won Good Housekeeping’s price comparison* for the cheapest Easter supermarket shopping basket beating nine other supermarkets including Morrisons, Asda, Lidl and Iceland.

To find out more about the range of products available at Aldi this Easter, visit aldi.co.uk


                         ( This is a collaborative post with Aldi, my views are my own  )