Food & Drink
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Subscription Boxes for Foodies (…that are actually affordable!)
It used to be that if you had a foodie in your life and you were looking to buy them a gift, you would buy them a hamper. Don’t get me wrong, the wine and chocolates in hampers always go down a treat, but who needs more jam or a box of crackers to go stale at the back of the cupboard? Luckily, in recent years, there has been a rise in the number of subscription boxes for foodies. I absolutely love a subscription box – it is quite literally the gift that keeps giving! It’s also perfect for people who don’t need more ‘stuff’. I love how they can…
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Free Costa Coffee on October 1st
To celebrate International Coffee Day on Tuesday October 1st 2019, Costa are giving away free coffee via their Costa Express machines (the type you get in supermarkets and petrol stations). Please note: Some stores will still require the coffee to be processed through the till. Remember to bring your reusable cup!
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Bringing the Restaurant Experience Home – Hosting on a Budget
It’s good to socialise with friends and loved ones, but at times the cost of going out for a meal can cause certain anxieties around trying to stick to a very strict budget to cover the costs of everyday living. This can be particularly challenging when there are kids growing out of clothes, or coming home from school with another letter about another school trip/ activity session/ fundraising event. Being short on funds doesn’t mean missing out on grown-up time with friends, though. Thanks to popular reality TV shows, the popularity of hosting dinner parties from home is increasing-eating at home is more comfortable for most, and with lots of…
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Low Carb Cauliflower Soup Recipe
Low carb cauliflower soup is a staple lunch in our home. My recipe makes enough soup for 5 portions, so it’s great for batch cooking. This is a staple lunch in our home, I make it almost every week, especially over the Autumn and Winter months. My kids, who are both fussy eaters when it comes to vegetables (but eat so much fruit I have to replenish my fruit bowl every day), absolutely love this soup. I think it’s because it is white so they don’t realise that it’s jam packed with a nutritious vegetable. Please, no one break it to them. What I love about this is that because…
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Freezing Sandwiches: My #1 Lunchbox Hack to Save Time and Money
I’ll be honest: making sandwiches for lunchboxes, to take on outings or simply to have for lunch at some is one of the necessary parts of parenting that I’m not a big fan of, but unfortunately it’s an essential job if you want to save money. I’m not really sure why I hate it so much… I just find it a really monotonous task, usually done in a hurry with little hands tugging at my jumper. Recently however I have discovered something which has been a total game changer: freezing sandwiches. When I first read about the concept, I thought ‘hmm, do the sandwiches actually taste OK once they are…
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Keto Chinese Chicken Curry (cheap, easy & low carb/calorie/syn)
I am currently following a keto diet (i.e. I keep things as low carb as possible – always under 20g a day). I am looking forward to sharing with you some of my favourite cheap keto meals – let’s face it, it isn’t the cheapest lifestyle to follow. A couple of weeks ago, I had an overwhelming craving for Chinese food. I almost caved and ordered a takeaway, but decided to see if I could satisfy my craving whilst sticking to my keto lifestyle. So I set about making a keto Chinese chicken curry, based on what I already had at home. This recipe takes 5 minutes to cook, only…
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Meal planning – the foolproof, flexible way I meal plan
Why I do meal planning My main reasons for doing meal planning are as follows: I save money by no longer buying things on impulse and it also makes me consider stretching things over several meals, e.g. if I buy a large chicken I can make a roast dinner one day, a chicken stir fry the next, then make stock for a soup the third day It is good for the environment – there is little to no food getting thrown away as I have a plan in place for everything I buy Why other methods of meal planning don’t work for me The internet is full of blog posts…