English Provender Co.'s Cheese-Board-Tastic Chutneys Review*

The nights are drawing in and I can’t help but start to feel a bit festive. Christmas is my favourite time of year and I love everything about it from the crisp air to the pretty lights and especially the food. My Christmas eve revolves around food and I love putting on a big buffet to feed the family. One of the things that always makes the list is a cheese board, which everyone loves.

With just 7 weeks until Christmas, The English Provender Co have kindly sent me some of their new range of chutneys and pickles, an ideal pairing for my cheese board! I can confirm they were all absolutely delicious! I’ll definitely be serving these alongside my festive spread.

The range has undergone a bit of a makeover and I love the new packaging. The stunning watercolour labels are vibrant and each jar looks great with my cheeseboard or even wrapped up as a gift for someone this Christmas. I received three flavours, all of which I had to try out just to test them of course.

First up was the Caramelised Red Onion Chutney which I thought was going to be my favourite as it is definitely one I have tried before. This is best paired with a strong cheese like a mature Cheddar or something like Stilton. I personally love having this with a bit of Brie, on something toasted. I tried this on a toasted wholemeal bagel and my goodness, with the Brie it was absolutely amazing. The sweetness of the chutney paired so well with the cheese and I highly recommend you give it a go.

I also received the Sweet Tomato and Chilli Chutney which was also really good. The sweetness balanced with a bit of a kick from the chilli was a great combination. This is best paired with a mild Cheddar or a smoked log cheese. It would also be really good with Red Leicester and I think would be nice on crackers.

Finally, I received the Plum and Bramley Apple Chutney which in the end turned out to be my favourite, which did surprise me. This was really sweet and is best paired with Brie and other soft cheeses. I actually had this with some Wensleydale with cranberries and it was amazing. It tasted like the sort of cheese and chutney combo you would want to get on a cheeseboard for dessert as it was a real sweet treat.

Overall I really enjoyed giving these chutneys a try, they have really added a bit of zing to my cheeseboard and I know they’re going to go down a treat at Christmas. Know a cheese lover? I think these would make the perfect stocking filler! What do you think?

For more information head over to the English Provender Website.

*I received these items free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way.

Summer Salad Ideas - feat. Florette Salad*

I don't know about you, but as soon as the weather starts to get a bit warmer I crave fresh foods and salads are at the top of my list. Gone are the days where I will chow down on soup and hot meals, as soon as the sun is shining it's time to get my salad on!

Many people I know have the misconception that salads are 'boring' and fair enough if you're just going to pile up some leaves on a plate then it's not going to be too exciting but there are SO many things you can do with a salad and hopefully this post will inspire you to come up with some of your own variations.

The first Summer Salad recipe is one I got from the Florette Salad website. They have some really inspiring ideas and ways to use their salads in food and I urge you to check them out here. This grilled chicken Caesar salad is not only healthy, it is packed with flavour. The baby kale is a superfood and is packed with vitamins A and K. This took very little time to prepare which is what I loved most, healthy fast food! You can find the full recipe here.

The second salad I came up with was a Tuna Nicoise salad which is one I have loved for a long time. It is also so easy to prepare. For this salad which served 4 people, I used 1 bag of Florette Classic Crispy Salad - 1 can of drained tuna - 4 hardboiled eggs - 2 large tomatoes - 2 spring onions and a handful of green beans. I used a pre-made honey and mustard dressing, but Florette have a great recipe for a homemade dressing over on their website.

The final Summer Salad idea I created was something I consider a bit more substantial. This would be great for carb lovers that are trying to introduce salads slowly or want to try them out without going completely leaf mad. For this salad I used Florette Classic Crispy Salad, pasta, bacon, mushrooms and some low fat cheese. You can throw it all together in a pan, but I prefer to mix the cheese into the warm pasta so it melts a bit, then mix the salad in cold. This is a great salad to take to work for lunch cold.

For more recipes, please check out Florette's website for plenty of Summer Salad Ideas and be inspired this summer to eat healthy fresh food. 

Let me know in the comments what your favourite salad is.

*The Florette Salad was provided free of charge in order for me to create these recipes. All opinions are my own. For more information, please see my disclaimer. 

Happy Halloween! Party Ideas!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Over the past few weeks I have been posting recipes that you can use for a Halloween party, suitable for a children’s party or even for nibbles for an adult party before hitting the town so I thought I would summarise and link back to all of the recipes I have posted!

These ghostly pizzas were super tasty, the ghost shapes can be melted onto mini pizzas or onto a larger one and sliced up which is what I have done. You can find instructions on how to do this yourself here.

 

These broken glass cupcakes went down a treat! The ‘glass’ was made from mints so was 100% edible and the ‘blood’ was made from red icing. Recipe can be found here.

This was pretty self explanatory so I didn't need a recipe post. I hollowed out a mini pumpkin and filled it with a ‘dip’ I used cottage cheese but you can fill this with anything! Serve with carrot sticks, peppers, celery, bread sticks or cucumber. The possibilities are endless and the pumpkin ties this in with the Halloween theme perfectly.

 

These mummified cake pops look too cute to eat! They were so easy to make and look great at any Halloween Party. I’m going to make these again tonight for trick or treaters! You can find out how I did these here.

My pumpkin cake pops came out slightly paler than I had hoped for, but still worked well for the Halloween theme. The eyes melted a bit under the heat of the lights but you can sort of see what they are, right?! Recipe can be found here.

 I hope you enjoyed reading about my Halloween food ideas.
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