Salmon in minutes?

As you might have read in earlier posts I am a Panasonic Intelligent Living mum and recently we were whisked back to their HQ to learn more about their combi-microwave ovens and we were lucky enough to be given one too! We haven’t had a microwave in our house now for over a year after the last one exploded after I tried to melt butter which also included trying to melt the wrapper with metal in….. You'll be glad to know the latest microwave as a special plate so you can pop metal in your microwave now and umm not blow it up! I’ll tell you more about the one we've got later but I just had to share a couple of recipes with you as I honestly didn’t realise how quickly you can cook in the microwave! 

See how juicy does this look?!

Quick & Simple Salmon

Simple wash off your piece of Salmon and lay it on some baking parchment.

Ensure you have enough to fold the top and edges over. Then season with salt and pepper and squeeze a lemon over the top of the salmon and leave a good chunk on top. Then fold over the parchment and fold over the edges. Pop into microwave for between 3-6 mins and you have perfect flaky salmon teamed with salad or why try the recipe below if you have any leftover Brussels? It is scrummy to try!

And for the veg from the lovely Martha Stewart how about this to use up the last of your sprouts?

Yummy Sprouts

12 ounces Brussels sprouts, halved lengthwise, or quartered if large

Coarse salt and ground pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, plus lemon wedges, for serving

Directions

In a skillet, combine sprouts and 1/2 cup water; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cover; cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the water has evaporated and sprouts are crisp-tender, 5 to 8 minutes (add 1/4 cup more water if skillet becomes dry before sprouts are done).

Increase heat to medium-high; add oil to skillet. Continue to cook, uncovered, without stirring, until sprouts are golden brown on underside, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice; season with salt and pepper. Serve with lemon wedges.

Babybeau Competition

As you know I adore luxury (who doesn’t) but when I had my eldest I noticed that while you could have luxury baby clothes, luxury mama clothes too there was nothing in the baby bag range that could be practical and stylish. Where were the glamorous luxury chic bags that held all? They didn’t exist!

 Then I noticed a new trend started when I had my second. Sienna Miller and American actress Tia Mowry started being proud owners of gorgeous leather Babybeau bags! They turned out to be changing bags and the conception of the rather amazing Rebecca Gono. Rebecca knew what she wanted from a bag but noticed there weren’t any on the market and it proved to be a mission impossible to find something stylish and yet practical so she created her own!

 “Becoming a parent throws you into a completely new arena. Many parents find themselves juggling different lifestyles: as a parent, in business, and a wife/husband or partner.  Through BabyBeau, I’ve designed a collection of bags that adapt to these various lifestyles without surrendering fashion for practicality, enabling parents to have it all.” 

 

Sophisticated, elegant, chic & lovely are the names she has used to describe the bags she has individually hand designed herself. After all what better than a mum to create a bag for what we’re after. I fell in love her designs and bags before I had realised they were even changing bags and don’t think these names even begin to describe these sumptuous creations. After all do these appear to be changing bags to you? They’re fashion statements! Leather, delectable and gracefully feminine they are beautifully designed to endure through babyhood and beyond. Who wouldn’t take this dusky rose leather bag for a night out or perhaps even a weekend in Paris? It wouldn’t look out of place! If that wasn’t enough they come with removable baby organiser, leatherette changing mat, leatherette insulated bottle holder and cosmetic pouch. I think Rebecca’s managed to think of everything!

Arent they divine? I don’t think I could ever choose just one of these beautifully delectable bags! So with that in mind I have two rather fabulous pieces of good news! One they are having a sale starting on boxing day! Click here to whisk over there now. Two they’ve very kindly said I can run a competition to win a £30 voucher to spend on their site!  So enter via Rafflecopter below and a winner will be chosen Saturday 2nd February!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Is it a Train?!

Is it a train?! A Rocker?! A suitcase?! A toy box?! A Scooter?! Well kinda in fact it’s a Trunki! Which means it’s all of them! The most amazing fun but practical toy the trunki 4 in 1 is a great ride on, a toy box,  a rocker for those toys at bedtime, a ride on suitcase and when you have more than one to clip to a train!

My youngest took one look at it and went “Great! Just what I needed to scoot up and down the hall” It’s fabulous! So much so that after being sent this one for review we’re planning on getting the eldest one to! I’m amazed really but how many toys and how much lego you can fit in! We’re off to cornwall next week on hols and already we’ve packed it full with far more toys than we were planning on taking and incredibly it some how takes up less room that a box or bags shoved in!

 Ours has been put under a great deal of strain with daddy whisking the boys up and down the and hallway on it filled up with toys needing to be taken on a train journey!  But it has also with stood my weight when I needed to sit down and there were no free chairs and also my husbands when he wanted to try a scoot after the tinies bedtime (unfortunately no cameras around!)

At £15.00 I always debated whether to get one and can assure any of you its definitely worth the money! I didn’t realise just how much fun you could have from a storage box on wheels!

ToyBox features

·         Stackable storage

·         Ride around toy

·         Rubber tongue to make a ToyBox train

·         Tidy up cart mode

·         Rock tired toys to sleep

·         Carry handle

·         Fits in car foot well

·         25 litre capacity

P   PS the boys would keep still with it out for a photo! All blurry! Will try and take some on holiday!

Verismo review

We had a very exciting package arrive by courier today! A Verismo coffee machine. I have to say I’m a huge addict of coffee and go through about 12 a day (at least) so you can imagine the excitement when it arrived! The Verismo is designed gorgeously to sit snuggly on your worktop and to keep buttons and hot water safely out of the smaller members of the households reach.  Another huge bonus is that from box to first latte it was a matter of minutes, under 3! Needless to say my husband’s eyeing it up to take one out while he de-ices the car in the morning! (the Verismo is incredibly silent!)

We tend to stick with lattes when we go out for coffee so I’m rather glad it’s been sent with a fair few.  It also provides all the coffees Starbucks are well known for americanos, espressos etc. The only down side I can see is that you can’t as yet get hot chocolate from them but they have a fabulous page on their site with recipes to tell you exactly how to get that caramel macchiato!

 Right down to the serious stuff now. I do like the style of the verismo. It’s a lot slimmer than its rivals and fits on a work top far neater than others. It also has its buttons at the top well out of reach of little ones. The coffee tastes…..smooth and rich. Pretty much the same as a Starbucks from the shop (without the paper cups) the only problem is there’s not enough! The cup size is perfectly that, a cup, however you can add extra hot water, at just the right temperature of course, but I worry that might water my coffee down..? And of course it doesn’t make their smashing hot chocolates nor do you get a smiley barrister in your kitchen to press the buttons for you!

At £139 the verismo is a tad bit more than its rival but the latte like for like is better, the taste is smoother and of course its instant! No waiting round in queues, your coffee fits in a flask neatly so you can start your caffeine fix before your commute starts (great for cold mornings on station platforms) A fabulous present for an executive, lazy student, general coffee addict or a person in the morning who just needs a helping hand start the day! I have to say I don’t think I particularly want to give it back! So much so that tomorrow while I do my shopping I won’t be popping in for a cuppa but more to but some extra pods and to sip my latte with my feet up at home watching a film!

(ps I had some lovely photos I took but blogger keeps turning them the wrong way! I'll replace these when I can figure out why!)

Available exclusively through Selfridges from 2nd October until 22nd October, the Verismo^TM  System by Starbucks will then be available to purchase at Harrods and House of Fraser from 22^nd October, before being available in 200 Starbucks stores across the UK from the 2^nd November onwards.