Eat » The Best Nest

We have a winner! random.org picked the first commenter, who was Treena-Marie! Thanks so much for entering everyone, and sorry again for the stingy prize – everyone at home is watching me like a hawk to make sure I don’t throw away any other valuable items!

This summer was l o n g. And HOT, and many of you basked in the sun and the heat and wished it would never end. I however, am huge and pregnant and we are on tank water. I don’t begrudge you all your bikinis, and your paddling pools, your slip n slides and cute outfits. I had my Tropical Fruity’s - think pineapple, orange and passionfruit – so found solace in those {{{do you hear the tiny violins?}}}.

True story.

We all love these ice blocks and they became a regular in our freezer for the duration of the Summer-That-Wouldn’t-Quit, these aren’t a soft drink based flavour (think Lemonade, Cola, Orange) they are 99% real fruit juice with no added sugar, colours or flavours. I really, genuinely love this product so was delighted to be asked to review them and give some multipacks away to you guys.

Therein lies the problem; see, my baby brain recycled the vouchers. Gone. You can rest assured they did not go to landfill, I removed two for the grocery store, used one, put the remaining vouchers back in the envelope they came in and put them out for recycling. I know because I have done this before, with cheques and gift vouchers usually belonging to Dave. What a terrible Mummy Blogger I am, sullying our good name and reputation!

So, I have ONE precious voucher for a Multipack of Popsicle Tropical Fruitys up for grabs. We will do this quickly (so I don’t lose this voucher!), just make sure you Like The Best Nest on Facebook , leave a comment below and I will do a random draw tomorrow evening. If you miss out you can pick up a multi-pack in supermarkets for RRP$5.99 (though I have got them at Pak n Save for $4.99).

I have grown us a bounty of tomatoes this season, and despite our best efforts we are accumulating a bit of a back-log. Time for chutney.

Ingredients

1.25kg green or firm tomatoes chopped (I used some red ones also)
3 chopped onions
2 chopped apples
1/3 to 1/2 head of cauliflower florets broken into small pieces
2 cups of brown sugar
2 cups malt vinegar
1.5 tblsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
A good squirt of hot sauce eg Tabasco or a hot chilli chopped
2 tsp mustard powder

I took some liberties with the traditional Edmonds Tomato Chutney recipe as I love both Piccalilli and chutney, so I did what any off the cuff chef does and picked the bits I liked out of each recipe and combined the two!
Amaze.
This is one recipe I’m quite proud of and love seeing my family enjoy. It’s damn good and easy.

Method

Combine all ingredients into a preserving pan and bring to the boil stirring. Boil steadily, stirring frequently for maybe 1.5hrs until mixture is thick and jammy – until it doesn’t fall off a spoon, or a cracker!

Squeezing in 5 days in Mangawhai at the end of the holidays was a perfect summer treat for our family, finding a chocolatier in town was a sweet surprise this pregnant lady could not resist!
My Aunt, who is a local, insisted we stop by Bennett’s, unfortunately we left it to Monday and the cafe was closed, so sampling ‘the best hot chocolate ever’ would have to wait for a future visit.
The custom built building is stunning, housing the cafe, chocolate showroom and chocolate factory. You could easily lose the best part of an hour in the showroom alone, poring over the beautiful displays of perfect, glossy chocolates and trying to select which ones to take home. Luckily I spotted a sampler box so I didn’t have to make too many difficult decisions – until I got up to the register and had to decide which flavour chocolate block was coming home too ; )

Definitely schedule a visit to Bennett’s on your next trip to Magical Mangawhai or visit them online at http://www.bennettsofmangawhai.com/

Bennetts_Chocolate_sampler_box

I found this recipe on another NZ blog Monkey Makes Three and it was perfect for a 9pm chocolate craving. Lonely nights with Dave away just make me want to eat arggghhh. And cook. I think about cooking all the time.

Any way, back to the recipe. I realise I may be a bit late to the party with mug cakes but how cool is a mug cake party any way? Mum reckons it comes out like a steamed pudding, can’t say I’ve eaten too many of those but it’s a good quick fix for those lacking in chocolate supplies!

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS
4 tbsp plain flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp oil
3-4 tbsp dark chocolate chips
dash of vanilla

- Mix the dry ingredients together.

- Mix in the egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate chips.

- Evenly distribute mixture between 2 cups.

- Cook in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. Tip into a bowl and eat.

Oh we pretty much ate our way around America and it was mah-vellous! We couldn’t get enough mexican food and even brought Taco Bell seasoning home with us. Dave and E kicked off the Festival of Eating in Sydney – I guess their motto at this point was “Mama’s not here we can eat what we want!” {who am I kidding – I was just dying to join the party!}.

The night I arrived in Chicago my flight got in at midnight and we kicked things off good and proper with an impromptu trip to White Castle – the northern equivalent of Krystal Burger, little steamed buns I love you! White_Castle

We had one day to shop in Chicago; so, so sad, but Ethan and Mum managed to eat $15 worth of Frozen Yogurt themselves!

Then it was wedding time, and we ate our way around that banging party like champs! KFC on the wedding party limo on the way TO the reception? Yes please! Then there were the four trestle sized tables of dessert;

Breakfast burritos were on the menu as we headed south. I can’t tell you how many dreams of Juanita’s breakfast burritos I have had since leaving San Diego – so sad : (

Onwards but not necessarily upwards to Chilis. We love you two-for-one margaritas ALL DAY! Chicken fajitas and loaded fries

We were in fantasy land after all so let’s eat dessert all day long! Frozen bananas at Disney World and Dippin’ Dots at Sea World

We were in the south so we HAD to eat waffle fries at Chik Fil A who don’t like the gays!

You can get some kick ass FRESH seafood in Florida/Georgia and we made sure to order pretty much everything on the menu when we took Dave’s little sister Sara out for lunch. I had the crab cake sandwich and Dave had everything.

This little restaurant on the St Mary’s river also had amaze cocktails. I enjoyed these very much;

Our trip almost over we had one last Mexican feast in Santa Monica, E plowed some Taquitos, Dave had fish tacos and I devoured a chicken burrito. The 40 oz margaritas were a bit of a struggle but we managed ; )

I am a HUGE fan of instant oats so was very happy to sample some new flavors from Uncle Toby’s. I like to keep a pack in the kitchen at work for breakfast or a warm lunch and my 7.5 yo son will eat oats any day of the week for brekkie. So, we had 4 taste testers and we all love the Berry and the Apple Cinnamon flavors. I was disappointed in the Apple Raspberry, I really wanted to love it but it was quite bland. Aside from that, very happy with the range of flavors in the box. Pam’s Instant Oats have been a longstanding favorite in our house because of the Berry flavor, so am so glad to see Uncle Toby’s branch out from the solely sweet flavors. Would LOVE to see apricot back, this disappeared off the shelves a few years ago and hasn’t returned.

The sachets look awesome, the perforations are slightly better but we still tore another pack when trying to separate them. The exterior box could use a bit of a re-design, it’s looking a bit dated. LOVE the addition of the measuring line for milk on the sachets, saves the guess work and extra dishes!

★★★★★★