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Food

Five reasons to love Gousto

Remember during lockdown when items such as meat, rice and pasta were in short supply? Our local Co-Op served us well but it got to the point where we couldn’t get the ingredients we needed to make a meal. Although we hadn’t considered the likes of Gousto before, the initial decision to give a meal delivery service a try was prompted by the desire for a proper dinner. You know the meat and two veg kind! Gousto wasn’t taking on new customers then but we were able to order a Chosen By Gousto box with the ingredients to make three meals.

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Delicious cottage pie recipe

One of the nice things about spending more time at home has been the cooking. While much of it has been focused on baking with nine-year-old POD, we had to share this cottage pie recipe as it’s SO good! It makes enough for around six large portions which is great if you want seconds.

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Cooking with kids: Easy banana cake

We don’t bake together often enough but now we’ve managed to get hold of essential ingredients, like flour, eggs and sugar, it has been an absolute joy. We’ve made this banana cake a couple of times while we’ve been in lockdown and it’s delicious! What’s more, it’s super easy and quick to make as well as being a great way to teach kids how to measure ingredients. If you have some bananas on the turn and you’re not sure what to do with them, get baking!

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Win a Hotel Chocolat Christmas Luxe gift box

If you’re looking for delectable chocolate, Hotel Chocolat provides exactly that. From boxed chocolates, sleeksters and H-boxes to selectors, batons and slabs, you can expect melt in the mouth chocolates that are simply exquisite. We’re especially fond of the salted caramel, coffee chocolate and boozy chocolate varieties. But the Hotel Chocolat range is broad spanning from chilli chocolate, caramel chocolate and cookie chocolate to fruity chocolate, cocoa gin chocolate (yes really) and raspberry chocolate. Plus there’s a choice of scrumptious milk chocolate, deliciously dark chocolate and silky smooth white chocolate. We’re delighted to give one lucky reader the chance to win a Hotel Chocolat Christmas Luxe gift box worth over £35.

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McDonald’s Love Where You Live Campaign

When POD was asked if she’d like to go on a litter pick, her immediate response was “are we doing it for the environment?”. Even at the age of seven, she understands we all have a responsibility to look after our planet. POD has seen videos at her school of islands with more ocean waste than fish. She’s seen litter discarded on the street and wonders why it’s not been put it in a bin or taken home.

The Blue Planet effect and the subsequent war on plastic have made everyone aware of the damage we’re causing to our environment. Its currently estimated around 12 billion tonnes of plastic waste will be in landfill or our natural environment by 2050 if we don’t act now.

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7 reasons to visit Borough Market

We lived in London for many years before relocating to Surrey when I was pregnant with POD. Much of our time was spent in South London and we have fond memories of the decade or so we spent there. Those pre-parenting days seem such a long time ago, given we’ve been a three for 7 years, but we had some great times. Borough Market was only a few miles away from where we lived and a fairly regular haunt so it always feels special heading back there. That said, London’s oldest food market IS special and one of the most well-known food markets in the world. It’s also famed for being the location of Bridget’s flat, located above The Globe, in Bridget Jones’s Diary.  Continue Reading…

Win a £100 voucher with #OreoCookieQuest

The Doves are a family of adventurers and we love to explore the great outdoors whenever we get the chance. Seven-year-old POD always enjoys creating treasure maps too so she was thrilled to hear we were going on an #OreoCookieQuest. If you’ve not heard about this yet, delicious cookie brand Oreo has launched an exciting on-pack competition and interactive cookie quest – you can play just by purchasing a promotional pack of Oreos. You could win a VIP trip to San Fransisco, explore the Wonderfilled city and experience the technology of tomorrow at GooglePlex in the Silicon Valley! Not only that, to celebrate those wonderfilled family moments, we’ve re-created our own scavenger hunt in this post which could win you a £100 Virgin Experience voucher!

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Giving back to the community at Christmas

In the midst of settling into a new routine, we were asked to get involved in the Co-Op’s #DoorstepChallenge. It’s a great way to give back to the community and saw us fill a stocking shaped carried bag with Christmas goodies. We’d received a voucher from the Co-Op, which we added to, along with a musical card which six year old POD absolutely adored. Although there are a number of great charities in our area, we wanted to visit somewhere we had a personal connection with.

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Gin Festival: A gin lover’s dream

Did you know I’m a gin convert? Having mistakenly sampled a G&T as a child (I thought it was lemonade!), I didn’t try gin properly until two years ago. And you know what, the gin cocktail I had then was absolutely delicious. There are so many gin varieties available these days too, many of which paired with a complementary garnish and mixer. What’s more if you’re new to gin, or indeed a lifelong gin enthusiast, the Gin Festival is the ideal place to experiment.

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Vitamin D and #PetitsFilousGoodness

POD loved Petits Filous the moment she tried them and they’ve been a firm favourite ever since. Whether it’s tucking into one of the Little Pots or pairing it with fresh fruit. Her preferred choices are apple, banana, strawberries or raspberries depending on what flavour Petits Filous she’s picked. Now she’s older she enjoys Petits Filous Big Pots too whether after a meal or as part of a packed lunch. Typically this is on a Saturday when she has Stagecoach Performing Arts plus of course whenever we take a picnic out. Petits Filous pots and pouches can survive out of the fridge for up to five hours so they’re an ideal snack for our little adventurer.

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