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Cinco de Mayo with a Healthy Twist!

By Mum's the Word on May 8, 2013 in Food, Review

turkey fajitas

Last week, I got an email from the delightful ladies at BritMums, who had partnered up with Discovery Foods to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, asking if we’d like to try some of their range. For those who aren’t familiar, Cinco de Mayo literally means ’5th of May’ and is, according to Wikipedia (oh, font of all knowledge…) “ a way to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War, and today the date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride”

We’re huge fans of Mexican food in the Mum’s the Word household and we make fajitas quite regularly, but we’re on a health kick lately so I thought we’d try them with turkey. Lean turkey can contain less than 3% fat, which makes it healthier than chicken. We also added a couple of handfuls of chopped mushrooms which gives extra nutrition and bulks the mixture out, which means you effectively need less meat. We used a yellow and an orange pepper as they’re our favorites and they add an element of sweetness to the flavour combination.

Accompanying our fajitas was Discovery’s Soured Cream topping which really helped to cool things down for Sausage, who’s pretty good but not able to take a whole lotta heat, and some shredded lettuce. The perfect fajita!

The Discovery Fajita seasoning gave a lovely smokey flavour with a hint of heat and actually worked really well with turkey. We’re thrilled with the result of our experiment and happy to know that we can continue to enjoy a favourite meal but with a healthy twist. We’ve also been sent the Cajun Season and Sauce to try and I’m really looking forward to giving this a go. We may even use turkey again, so that we can enjoy it without diet guilt!

Comments { 2 }

Can Cook, Don’t Cook

By Mum's the Word on February 19, 2013 in Education, Family, Health

Food is something with which I have a complicated relationship but if I were to try and put it in a nutshell for you, it’d go something like this; I eat too much of it and I like all of the wrong things. That’s not to say that I don’t like healthy food, but I have this addiction to junk that probably goes way back into my childhood, when money wasn’t hugely abundant and things like KFC were a real, once-in-a-blue-moon treat. Now, the idea of takeaway still gives me a tiny, illicit spark which is ridiculous because a) I’m a grown up and b) I usually regret eating junk immediately after finishing the meal.

The thing is, I love to cook. I’m not saying I’m very good at it and I’ve probably had more disasters than successes in the kitchen, but for me, there’s nothing more satisfying than making something for my family which is nutritious and prepared with love. But, I do have a few problems in that area. See, while I consider myself a food-lover, I probably have a rather unsophisticated palette, which means that I don’t do much inventive or off-the-cuff cooking as I simply don’t know what goes with what. I lack the confidence to experiment and to be honest, a modest family food budget doesn’t really extend to celeriac-related accidents when I have hungry mouths to feed and a limited time in which to do it. Obviously, Husband cooks dinner too but we both work and it’s only fair that we share the load.

And there’s the other thing; that mother of all bitches – TIME. I now work until 5.30pm, which means on a good traffic day, I roll in between 5.45pm and 6pm. Sausage is on a medication for her asthma that can’t be taken until 2 hours after she’s eaten which means our window for dinner is relatively small if I want my 4-year-old to go to bed at a reasonable hour. This, again, limits me in terms of experimentation.

Despite all of this, something I heard on Food and Drink last night (does anyone else absolutely adore that show?) really resonated with me and that’s that involving kids in their meal preparations can really set them up to have a healthy relationship with food. If there’s one thing that I really don’t want Sausage to inherit from me, it’s my weight and food issues so, really, the crux of all of this is this:

Husband has bought me some beautiful cookery books recently and I plan to use them to learn how to cook with different ingredients and hone my skills in the kitchen, but I need to learn to cook healthy, well-balanced, time-moderate food which Sausage can get involved with and won’t break the bank, for our day-to-day lives.

I’m sticking a linky below. It’s just a one-off thing but if you have any recipes at all that you think fit the bill, I’d love it if you’d leave me the link. I need to make some serious lifestyle changes and if there’s one thing that the last few years has taught me about the blogging community, it’s that you’re a super helpful and supportive bunch.

Thanks.

Comments { 8 }

Frankie and Benny’s Southend on Sea – A Mixed Review

By Mum's the Word on April 11, 2012 in Review

Here at Mum’s the Word Towers we, along with myriad other bloggers and their families, were given a £50 voucher to take along to our local Frankie and Benny’s to give their menu and service the once over. We went on a Wednesday afternoon and it was moderately busy, with probably a third of the tables taken. We were seated promptly, although we were unclear when we walked in if we were supposed to seat ourselves as there didn’t appear to be any staff around.

The first thing we noticed as we were seated in our window booth, is that the windows were filthy. They’d obviously had kids sitting next to the windows as it looked caked in dribble and sticky hand prints, which I understand is a hazard in any family friendly restaurant, but it still made our experience a little unappetizing, right from the word go. We also had to swap Sausage’s fork for a clean one.

Our server was super friendly and came over to take our drinks order right away, leaving us to peruse the food menus. There was a fair variety of meals and a lunch menu including cheaper options for just £5.95, which is quite reasonable, as well as a kid’s menu with more child-friendly options. Sausage chose Spaghetti Bolognese.

Five minutes after we ordered, our waitress came over to tell us that the steak burger that Husband had ordered wasn’t available, so he chose a chicken burger instead. Our food was served about 15 minutes later, which wasn’t too bad a wait. The first thing we noticed was the my mother-in-law had been served the wrong thing, I had ordered her the All Day Breakfast from the lunch menu but they brought the larger All Day Breakfast, which she had not chosen as she didn’t think she could manage it all. I was going to complain but we decided to leave it.

Sausage was very happy with her Bolognese, which I tasted and though was very bland, but she seemed satisfied. Husband was a little disappointed with his chicken burger, which he described as “two overpriced chicken nuggets in a bun”. My mother-in-law, despite being given the wrong meal, really enjoyed hers although she said she was really disappointed to have wasted so much food because, as she predicted, she couldn’t manage the whole meal. I had the ‘chicken and ribs’, which was a mixed bag. The chips were really lovely, crispy and tasty. The chicken was okay, although a bit dry and clearly a cheap cut of chicken as it was about 40% bone. The ribs – well, goodness only knows what animal the ribs came from but they were the smallest ribs I’ve ever seen. To be totally fair, the meat on the ribs was melt-in-your-mouth tender and very tasty, there just wasn’t enough of it. It also came with coleslaw which was okay, just a little bland.

Overall, our food was pretty disappointing. The bill came to £46, which included three soft drinks and a cup of tea, so an average of £11.50 per head, which isn’t too bad for lunch, but I don’t know if I’d go back. The service was great, our waitress was attentive without being overbearing, but between the hygiene levels in the restaurant and the underwhelming food, I’m not sure I’ll be rushing to go back.

Sorry Frankie and Bennie’s, I gave it a go!

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“I’m so optimistic I’d go after Moby Dick in a row boat and take the tartar sauce with me”

By Mum's the Word on March 9, 2012 in Personal

Yesterday was a bit of a ranty day. My Tots100 rating went down, despite me thinking I’d made a bigger effort with it all this month, I was feeling rough from the beginning of another cold and various things had pissed me off in the course of the day. Somehow, despite having had the worst night’s sleep ever, I’ve woken up with a happier head on and I though I’d write a list of all the things I have to be happy about.

1. Husband and Sausage, obviously. They’re my whole world, the reason I get up everyday and they make me laugh, dance, sing, generally rejoice on a day-to-day basis. Plus, today is my last day of working full-time hours, which means I have the next three days off with them and then back onto part-time next week.

2. As of 30th March, I have two weeks off of work and I’m going to do as much crafting, baking, day tripping and playing with my darling Sausage as we can possibly fit into that time. I cannot wait!

3. I’m part of an exciting new project that I can’t say anything about right now as it’s just at its seedling stage, but I get to do something with some people which is going to be amazing! Cryptic I know, but trust me, it’s going to be gooood.

4. I’ve just been invited to an event that has me so amped, I think I might wee myself with excitement.

5. This weekend, I get to see my Mum on Saturday and then my in-laws on Sunday who will be cooking us a chilli. My mother-in-law Lori is from Arkansas and makes the best damn chilli I’ve ever eaten. And no-bake cookies. And chicken taco casserole. And cornbread…needless to say, I’m a BIG fan of her cooking!

So there you have it, things that have turned me from an acerbic bitch back into the lovely, optimistic-but-mostly-cynical, happy person that I am *snort*.

Peace out.