Baking Mad Healthy Baking Challenge

So it's the end of January. Have you succeeded in your healthy eating plans for 2012 so far? Personally I've been finding it hard to avoid treats - which inevitably ends up in me feeling fat and guilty! So when the chance came up to join the Baking Mad Healthy Baking Blogger Challenge, well I quite simply couldn't pass up the chance. 'Healthy' and 'baking' in one sentence? Count me in!

The lovely people at Baking Mad gave me a choice of recipes, we opted for the Low Calorie Banana Bread. I love banana bread so the chance to try out a low calorie version was too much to resist. We were then sent a box with the key dry ingredients we needed to do the job - we just had to provide bananas, mixed spice and milk!

Ingredients

100g      self raising flour (Allinson Nature Friendly)

100ml    semi-skimmed milk

25g        Half Spoon Granulated Sugar (Silver Spoon)

25g        pecans (chopped)

2            bananas, small and ripe.

0.5tsp    mixed spice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C, fan oven 160°C, 350°F, gas mark 4

2. Place flour, sugar, spice and nuts in a mixing bowl.

3. Mash the banana on a plate with a fork until mushy.

4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture.

5. Mix the banana and milk together and pour into the flour mixture. Mix well.

6. Pour the mixture into a loaf tin or the individual loaf tins.

7. Bake for 20-25minutes (35- 40 minutes for a larger loaf) or until firm to touch and golden brown and when a skewer is inserted in comes out clean.

TIP - Omit the nuts and add a handful of dried fruits or 1tbsp dark chocolate chips.

This recipe is really quick and straight forward. It's the perfect recipe for rustling up in a hurry and for using up those bananas that are a bit on the ripe side.

We made one big loaf, but in hindsight we'd probably make four smaller loaves as we felt the large loaf didn't rise as well and was fairly dense. The image above is Baking Mad's banana bread, ours didn't look as pretty but certainly tasted fab!

Baking Mad have a range of low calorie baking recipes on their website - I think our next challenge shall be the Low Calorie Chocolate & Beetroot Cupcakes! mmmmm

For more information on Baking Mad and their great recipes and competitions like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. (@bakingmaduk).

Ingredients were received for the purposes of this post. No other reward, financial or otherwise, was received in exchange for this post. All opinions expressed are entirely our own.

Car Insurance - Sainsbury's Finance Guest Post

Today I'm pleased to share with you a guest post from Sainsbury's Finance. Personally I dread it when the time of year comes round to renew any form of insurance. It's finding the balance between getting exactly what you need and it not costing the earth!


Sainsbury's Finance team have put together a guest post about finding the best car insurance policy for your family.

How do I find the best car insurance policy for my family?

When you think about car insurance you have to think about your family. For some families it is important that you are able to add named drivers on to a policy. Others will need a specialist policy to take into account individual family needs.

All insurance policies are different, and all families are different. The important thing is to find the policy that best suits your family.

What type of policy is right for my family?

Many families choose to go for a fully comprehensive policy, believing that the extra cover is essential.

If you have young members of your family listed as named drivers, it is important for them to be well covered. Unfortunately, young people are statistically more likely to be involved in an accident, so it is nice to know that you can get the repairs done without breaking the bank if disaster strikes!

Third party, fire and theft cover can be an alternative but you have to remember that you are not covered for any damage to your own car. You may find that a third party, fire and theft policy is slightly cheaper, but when it comes to protecting your family, cost shouldn’t be your number one priority if you can possibly help it.


What should I be looking for from individual policies?

When you start searching for the right car insurance, it’s important that you look out for the little things that set great policies apart. The small details really can make all the difference in the event of a claim. Decide what is important to you in a policy and stick to your guns.

Car Seats

A lot of families with young children appreciate a policy which takes into account child seats. It’s recommended that a child seat that has been involved in an accident be replaced, whether or not there appears to be any damage. Some insurance policies include child seat replacement in the event of an accident, which can be a major benefit for families. Child seats can be expensive items, so this can be a real moneysaver in the long run.

No Claims Discount

You will also find that some insurance policies will offer no claims discounts for named drivers on the policy. If you have a young person in the family who is going to be using your car, then building up a no claims discount is a great incentive for them to drive sensibly.

Courtesy Car

A courtesy car is another must-have item for families looking for good car insurance deals. When you have a million and one ferrying trips to make in an ordinary week, being without a car is just not an option! Look out for policies that give you a replacement car that matches your own.

Will I find a policy that matches all of my requirements?

The more individual your requirements are, the harder it will be to find the perfect car insurance policy. You always have to balance affordability against cover, but having a few specific needs for your family shouldn’t be a stumbling block to finding good car insurance.

Don’t lose sight of the details of the insurance policy you need. If you search carefully and investigate each policy thoroughly you should find car insurance that is suitable for your family.


If you've liked this post then I recommend you take a look at Sainsbury's Money Matters Blog.


Thank you to Sainsbury's Finance for providing this guest post. No reward, financial or otherwise, was received in exchange for this post.

500 Baby & Toddler Foods Review

A few months ago I was lucky enough to win a competition on another blog. The prize was a fabulous KitchenAid Blender and a copy of Beverley Glock's 500 Baby and Toddler Foods book.

Looking at the book I new straight away that Liz would love it so I passed it on to her. The other day Beverley (founder of Splat Cooking) got in touch with me through twitter and asked if I would write a review on my prize on my blog. So here it is, Liz's review of 500 Baby and Toddler Foods.

Brilliant book and a great addition to our recipe books. This book has been really well thought out and is so user-friendly (even for baby-brained mothers). It starts with excellent advice on weaning (first foods, moving forward, toddlers etc), food restrictions (with a useful definition on the difference between intolerances and allergies), useful equipment and safety. Even though we’re now onto our second child eating solids the advice is very welcome. Beverley Glock sets out the advice in a very practical way which is simple to follow and not condescending in the slightest.


There are loads of recipes for each stage and we have certainly made good use of them. They are clearly set out with good quality pictures showing what they should look like. They are really tasty and we cook a large quantity for the whole family to eat and then freeze the leftovers for Jonny and Sophie. This has the added benefit that we’re all eating the same thing at the same time for lots of meals. They are easy to follow and make so Jonny gets involved in the cooking too.


This book gives you all you need but is also great to be used in tandem with other baby recipe books. There are obvious links with other recipes but Beverley has her own take on them so you come out with an array of options. Definitely the greatest pages of the book are the ‘variation’ ones. What a brilliant idea! Not only does it mean the number of possible recipes is immense (probably about 500 from reading the book title) and you can generally use what you have in the fridge to make something. Just by reading that variations are possible means you substitute other ingredients also so you can cook really cheaply. I generally buy whatever fruit and veg are on offer in the supermarket so I don’t end up having to buy anything expensive just to follow a specific recipe. These pages are worth buying the book for themselves.


Definitely a 5 star rating. We love it!


Signed copies of Beverley's book are currently available through the Splat Cooking online shop, priced at £8.50.

For more information about Beverley visit her website, follow her on Twitter (@beverleyglock) and check out her Splat Cooking website!

What's That Flavour?

I do love my competitions....and I enjoy my snacks too. Walkers Crisps have come up with the perfect combination "What's That Flavour?"

Walkers have released three new flavours of crisps, Mystery A, Mystery B and Mystery C .... our challenge is to guess the flavour! All we know is that the new flavours are inspired by ingredients and recipes loved by the Great British Public...and that there is one meaty, one spicy and one dairy among them.

We were lucky enough to be sent samples of the new flavours to try and have had loads of fun debating what the flavours might be. Normally I would share our thoughts with you BUT Walkers are giving away a fantastic £50,000 to three people who correctly identify the mystery flavours....so you'll understand if we keep our thoughts to ourselves!

It's really easy to enter the competition, simply go to www.walkers.co.uk or www.facebook.com/walkers to submit your guess.

It's definitely worth "liking" Walkers on Facebook as they may well give us a few hint over the course of the next few weeks!

For the full list of terms and conditions check out the Walkers website.

Hope you have fun entering this fantastic competition and lots of luck to you all!

Samples of the new crisps were received for the purposes of this post. No other reward, financial or otherwise, was received in exchange for this post. All opinions expressed are entirely our own.

Nominate Your "Most Deserving" To Win A Car!

I'm fairly sure we all know someone who deserves recognition. Someone who goes above and beyond the call of duty, someone who devotes time to charity, someone who selflessly cares for others... I can think of numerous people that do these things. Wouldn't it be nice if we could show them how much we appreciate them, their time and their generosity? Well if you enter the new competition from Motors.co.uk you might be able to do just that!

Motors.co.uk are searching the UK to find outstanding people who go above and beyond to help others. The winner will receive £10 000 towards a car from Motors.co.uk plus £2500 to give to a registered charity of their choice.

If you can think of someone who deserves recognition ... and a new car... simply nominate them at mostdeserving.motors.co.uk. You can write up to 500 words, include links to images and websites to get your message across.

The competitions is being held in two rounds. The first stage is the public nominations for their "most deserving". The Most Deserving Panel at Motors.co.uk will then choose finalists from all regions in the UK, and the general public will be asked to vote for their favourite. The three finalists with the most votes will then be assessed by the Panel who will choose the winner.

So what are you waiting for? Get nominating!

For more information about this competition visit mostdeserving.motors.co.uk. Keep up with the latest competition news via the Twitter hashtag #MotorsWinaCar or like Motors.co.uk on Facebook.

ThermaCare HeatWraps

Did you know that 1 in 5 mums carry their kids around for four or more hours a day when they are young - this equates to two full months a year! It's no wonder then that almost half of mums who suffer aches and pains say that lifting up their kids causes the most strain.

ThermaCare have devised HeatWraps that allow you to put your pain aside and get on with the day. Day to day I suffer a lot of pain throughout my body. It's often my wrists that suffer the most and I find that heat helps and often wear splints to help cope with the pain. I was sent a pack of ThermaCare HeatWraps for the Upper Back, Neck, Shoulder and Wrist to try out and couldn't wait to try them.

ThermaCare HeatWraps use heat cell technology to give warming relief to muscles and help to accelerate the body's healing process. The wraps are easy to apply,  you just peel off the paper on the back to reveal the adhesive tabs and apply to the desired area. You can wear the wraps for up to 12 hours - they will maintain their heat for up to 8 hours and give an extra 8 hours of sustained pain relief and muscle relaxation.

I was really impressed with how long these wraps maintained their heat. They take a wee while to heat up but once they reach their heat they really are very warm! I found that they really did help to relieve my pain however I didn't think the adhesive lasted as long as I'd have liked it to. Perhaps this is because I was using them on my wrists, which by nature need to move a lot, but I did find that they started to fall off after about 5 hours. That said, I just fashioned a way to keep them on and they continued to stay very warm indeed.

ThermaCare HeatWraps are available in three different shapes to accommodate each area of pain more comfortably - Lower Back & Hip (£6.12 for pack of two), Neck, Wrist & Shoulder (£6.12 for pack of three) and Knee & Elbow (£6.12 for pack of two).

All in all I really like these wraps. I would love it if they were a bit more adhesive, but on the whole they are a great way to relieve pain naturally.......and much easier than carrying a hot water bottle about with you all day.  If you are one of the Mums that suffers pain from carrying your kids for 2 months of the year then I can recommend these, they are discreet, effective and wont slow you down.

For more information about ThermaCare HeatWraps visit their website or like them on Facebook.

A sample was received for the purposes of this review. No other reward, financial or otherwise, was received in exchange for this post. All opinons expressed are entirely my own.

MAM Bite & Relax Teether

Today is Liz's first guest post of the year. Her review? The MAM Bite and Relax Phase 2 Teether. 

Phase 1 on left, Phase 2 on right

MAM are at the forefront of baby and toddler care, with innovative products to make your life easier and your child's life more comfortable.

Their latest innovative product to hit the shops is the MAM Bite and Relax Teether. We were lucky enough to be sent one of these teethers to review....and with perfect timing too as Sophie is now teething (where does the time go?)

The MAM Bite and Relax Teethers are available in two forms, phase 1 which is available from 2 months, and the phase 2 which is suitable from 4 months. It was the Phase 2 we were sent to try.

The Bite and Relax Teethers are designed to be light weight and suitable for little hands. They feature a range of different textures and structures meaning that there is plenty to chew on and to help soothe the pain of new teeth. While the phase 1 is designed more for front teeth, the phase 2 is designed to relieve the cutting of back teeth.

Sophie and Liz have been using it for a while now. Here is what Liz has to say about it...


"Teething is just hideous. It’s as simple as that. Any one who designs anything useful to help your baby deal with it deserves a pay rise and acknowledgement from the Queen. When your child hurts themselves you can usually brush it off with distraction but when it’s their teeth hurting they look at you in a certain way that says ‘HELP ME PLEASE’. When you have toothache when you’re an adult it’s painful so for a baby it must be awful.


The Bite and Relax Phase 2 landed on the doorstep before Christmas and at the perfect time as within that week Sophie cut her first two teeth in two days. The memories of Jonny waking up screaming in the night and being grumpy and restless in the day came streaming back, as did the pretty helpless feeling of not being able to do much except fix the Calpol bottle to a drip and comfort him as best we could. We’ve tried the teethers that you put in the fridge or freezer with both children and they hated them. The designs are quite bulky and it’s not surprising they couldn’t get their teeth around them. Material didn’t work either. Nothing did. This teether, however, is different.

The design is great and Sophie finds it easy to hold on to and pass from hand to hand. Once she had it in her mouth there was no letting go and she chewed and chewed. The little rivets on the teether are ideal as they can massage the gum to help the tooth cut through. She can fit it right to the back of her mouth whilst still keeping a firm grip and it certainly made a difference during those painful days.


The portability of the product is excellent. It can be sterilised any way at all and has a little box that it is sterilised in which makes it really easy to keep clean and transport. If you have a microwave you literally bung in it (after washing) for three minutes and it’s done so no messing around with sterilising solutions and plastic tupperware. My only criticism would be that the mark on the box for the amount of water isn’t very clear as the condensation hides it. However, that’s just a small point as after a couple of times using the box you know where the mark is anyway.


I really wish we’d had this for Jonny. Excellent product."


MAM Bite & Relax teethers are available online from the MAM shop with an RRP of £4 each. For a list of other MAM stockists click here.


For more information about MAM visit their website or like them on Facebook.


A sample was received for the purposes of this review. No other reward, financial or otherwise, was received in exchange for this post. All opinions expressed are entirely our own.

Make 2012 A Money Saving Year!

I don't need to tell you how much I love a bargain....I'm pretty sure that you've gathered that over the past year or so. I love saving money on something or knowing that I'm getting the best possible deal on it.

Until recently I used to spend a lot of time comparing prices between websites until I found the best price...that was until I came across InvisibleHand.......

InvisibleHand will change the way you shop online, at least it has for me and for those I've introduced it to. Basically it's a FREE add-on to your web browser that will run in the background and discreetly notify you if there are lower prices available on the product or flight you are looking at!

It is currently available for the UK, US & Germany, and although it doesn't yet search ALL retailers they are constantly adding to it. To find out which retailers and airlines InvisibleHand currently covers click here.

I used this to do the majority of my Christmas shopping and definitely saved myself money. Make sure that you take into account any delivery costs when comparing the prices though as occasionally the cheaper price actually ends up costing more with delivery included.

So how do you get this fantastic wee add-on? Simply go to the InvisibleHand website and click on DOWNLOAD. InvisibleHand is available for FireFox, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer.

It's really to install and you wont know it's there until it finds you a product or flight at a cheaper price. It's great for all purchases, large and small, and all those saved pennies will turn into pounds!!

I just wanted to share this with my readers, I have no connection to InvisibleHand.

Sacla Pangrattato

Happy New Year to you all, I hope that 2012 will be a good year for you all.

I was just thinking about tying up the loose ends from 2011 when I remembered, in horror, that I hadn't written up my review of Sacla's Pangrattato! So, better late than never, here it is...

I've long been a fan of Saclo for their delicious pestos, I reckon I'd put pesto on everything if I could get away with it! So I was very interested when I was asked to review Sacla's Pangrattato.

Pangrattato are crispy baked breadcrumbs that Italians use to add a flavour full crunch to their pasta. In Southern Italy they sprinkle Pangattato over their pasta, so naturally we had to give this a go.

Saclo's Pangrattato comes in two flavours, Garlic & Herb and Fiery Chilli. We were lucky enough to be sent samples of both to try out.

The breadcrumbs are baked in olive oil before being spiced with the chilli or infused with the garlic and herb meaning that there are no artificial flavourings in the product.

We have tried these products several times sprinkled over pasta and both of us have loved the addition. It really adds a crunch to the pasta as well as a blast of flavour.

Both flavours are quite strong so I would say you might not want to eat the Garlic & Herb before a night out! Personally I much preferred the Garlic & Herb, but Jonathon leans towards the Fiery Chilli, which I find to be just a bit too hot for my tastes.

We actually go for these pots before we go for cheese these days to top our pasta, and I find a little goes quite a long way.

You could actually use the Pangrattato for many dishes not just pasta. I'd like to try them on cauliflower cheese, baked mushrooms or maybe even on top of a fish pie. They are very versatile, easy to use and will give even the most basic of pasta dishes a great boost - great in these frugal times!

Pangrattato is available in Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado with an RRP of £1.99. For more information about Saclo and their products visit their website or join them on Facebook.

Samples were received for the purposes of this review. No other reward, financial or otherwise, was received in exchange for this post. All opinions expressed are entirely our own.