Review: Tesco Finest cheese

A couple of months ago I heard about The Orchard at Tesco, a programme that allows you to sign up for certain projects and write about them in return for free money off vouchers for you and your family/friends. The first one that I was invited to participate in was a Tesco Finest meats activity that I didn't blog about, but you may have seen me mention on Twitter or Facebook. The most recent was for Tesco Finest Cheese and given my love of cheese, I just had to sign up for it.

My welcome pack contained lots of money off vouchers so our next task was choosing which cheeses to buy. Luckily our local Tesco in Winchester has a good range to choose from and I decided to buy my two favourite cheeses - feta and buffalo mozzarella - and compare how they are against my usual brand. The first thing that struck me was the detail that had gone into the packaging complete with details about the cheese's origin.

I chose to use the salty feta in a fresh but simple salad complete with cucumber, tomato, red pepper, spinach, lettuce, lemon juice and olive oil dressing, and my favourite thing to put in salads that contain salty cheese.... Dried mint. Try it, it's gorgeous! The feta crumbled beautifully and made what is a very simple salad, utterly delicious. This would be great as a lunch with a couple of falafel or bundled into a wrap with grilled chicken and a drizzle of Greek yoghurt.

The buffalo mozzarella was meant to be used to posh up a tomato and chilli pasta bake, but I ended up eating most of it out the packet! It melted so beautifully in the mouth and had this mellow milky consistency that for people who've only had its rubbery counterpart could prove a bit strange. I enjoyed some of this mozzarella torn up along with finely chopped tomatoes and some oregano that I stirred through some couscous for a great packed lunch friendly treat.

The remaining vouchers were given to my mum who chose the Stilton and apricot log that I understand she inhaled :)

I think for the quality of the cheeses they were fairly priced as you would probably pay more in a posh deli, but it would be nice to see the range increase further.

What do you think of these types of programmes? What cheeses would you have chosen to try?

*Disclaimer: I was given money off vouchers as part of The Orchard at Tesco in order to purchase the items mentioned here, but was not required to write a positive review and all words are my own

Silent Sunday - 23/3/2014

 

Mother's Day gift ideas

This year will mark my first Mother's Day as a mummy and I am really looking forward to spending the day with the Mini Grumpy Egyptian. While March 30 is about so much more than gifts, I think all mum's will admit it is rather nice to open something gorgeous on the day so I searched the internet and picked my top eight gifts for Mother's Day.

1. Handmade two peas in a pod necklace by Muriel & Lily. Notonthehighstreet.com £125

2. Spineless Classics Pride and Prejudice print. IWOOT.com. £33.99

3. Chocolate letter with smarties by The LetterRoom. Notonthehighstreet.com £9.95

4. When life hands mum lemons print by Wink Design. Notonthehighstreet.com £16.50

5. Six month membership to The Cake Club by The Cake Nest £39.99

6. Tassie bag by White Stuff £65

7. Michael Kors watch at John Lewis £209

8. Mandarin and Tangelo scented candle by The Body Shop £10

Now I don't know about you, but I would be so happy to receive any of those on Mother's Day. How will you be celebrating Mother's Day? Any exciting plans?

World Book Day: Touch and Feel books

Happy World Book Day!

Since we had the Mini Grumpy Egyptian, I have found there is less and less time for me to sit down with a good book and relax. It seems as though I'm constantly cleaning, feeding, changing or trying to entertain her. I believe it is really important to instil a love of reading in little ones from a young age and in order to make me feel as though I am still reading, have read to the mini one since she was born. In her play area there is a small tub of board books that she is able to access herself and a book is part of our bedtime routine. While classics like The Hungry Caterpillar and Inch Wincy Spider puppet books are regulars, the Mini Grumpy Egyptian's favourite stories are without doubt the touch and feel books.

Charity shops and second-hand sales have been great at picking up copies of the fantastic "That's not my..." series and our favourites are the monkey, dinosaur and Princess books. They are great for a curious ten month old baby as they are short enough to keep her interested and with lots of different textures to feel.

I have noticed though that there are a lot of bad touch and feel books out there that feel as though the author just threw a couple of random textures down without paying much thought as to whether they have anything to do with the story or feel interesting enough to touch. When they are charging £5+ for a book, they need to be much better than this. My least favourite are the touch and feel books that don't have a story and just follow a general theme such as animals.

Our favourite book however is one the Mini Grumpy Egyptian got for Christmas and that is the my First Gruffalo -  Touch and feel. It is brilliant and comes complete with stick wart, felt spikes, furry stomach and gritty teeth. We can read this a couple of times a night and the mini one is as happy reading it the third time as she was the first. If you were looking to introduce a touch and feel book to your little one, I would suggest this is a great start. The book itself feels solid, durable and fantastic quality. Despite a number of tugs on the felt spikes, they show no signs of coming loose.

The next book we plan to add too up collection is the Peter Rabbit touch and feel. Can you suggest anymore? What books did you read with your ten month old? Did you allow them to free play with the books at this age or wait until they are older.

Milestones: Crawling, standing and pointing

In a couple of days the Mini Grumpy Egyptian turns ten months old and the past couple of weeks have really given us a sign of things to come! It started off a month ago when she took two small crawl movements - having never attempted it before - before racing across the living room. It was amazing! I tried to get her to do it again so I could film it but she seemed to go camera shy. Speed forward a couple of weeks and she doesn't want to sit still for a second. The stair gates are all up now, but I didn't realise how dangerous a house could be for a baby! There's radiator knobs, sharp corners, glass tv stands, doors they want to swing and drawers they want to open! I think she's been planning on going for all these things for months. I'm trying to make things as safe as possible, but I'm starting to realise there's only so much you can do.

As if crawling wasn't enough, the Mini Grumpy Egyptian has also decided that standing is the funniest thing ever! I was in the bedroom with her last week when she crawled over, grabbed my legs and pulled herself up! I actually screamed. Now she clings onto the safety gate in the bedroom doing her best baby convict impression, climbs up to her toy box and smiles with glee when she holds onto her walker. I just can't believe how quickly she has mastered these things and I must admit to being a very proud mama.

And then... Last week we were at Rhyme Time doing Wind The Bobbin Up - one of my least favourite rhymes - when the Mini Grumpy Egyptian started copying the pointing action in the song! She has even looked sternly at me and wagged her finger a couple of times. I wonder who she gets that from *ahem*

I can't even imagine what she has next in store for us!

As these were some big milestones, I am teaming up with the following linkys:

Magic Moments over at The Oliver's Madhouse

 

and Small Steps, Amazing Achievements at Ethan's Escapades