Pressure King Pro - Review

I love getting kitchen gadgets. The unboxing, using it for the first time and getting creative with meals is one of my favourite things to do. So when I was asked if I would like to review the Pressure King Pro I jumped at the chance! Only a couple of days earlier I was telling the hubby that I needed a new slow cooker as my other one had broken so after having a look at the Pressure King Pro online I was definitely excited for it to arrive. I have never used a pressure cooker, but I do have memories of my mum using one when I was a child. Of course they have all updated since then and are even digital! Before the Pressure King Pro arrived I really was not sure what to expect but I could not wait to find out more.

Thanks to the speedy delivery from ao.com it arrived in no time. The first thing that I was surprised at was the size of the Pressure King Pro, it was bigger than I was expecting which is fantastic when you are preparing meals for a family of five. The Pressure King Pro comes with everything that you need to prepare delicious meals in even less time!

Before you can use the Pressure King Pro for the first time you need to give it a steam clean. This is to ensure that all parts are thoroughly clean before you add any food.

To really jump in at the deep end I decided that my first meal using the Pressure King Pro would be a joint of beef in a ragu sauce.

This is what I did...

My Day at Unilever Kitchen

When I received an invitation from Unilever Kitchen asking me to attend a foodie day I knew that I had to go. I do not get chance to attend many blogger events but my lovely hubby took the day off work to look after the children so that I could go. To say I was excited was an understatement!

We decided it would be easier for me to travel down on the Sunday and stay over night in Leatherhead. I treated myself to first class seats there and back and made the most of a little freedom. The hotel was quiet but it was a rare treat to have a bit of me time.

I was collected, along with 11 other bloggers, from the train station and we were taken to the Unilever offices which look like an amazing place to work from. They were lovely, bright offices with huge windows all the way round. In the entrance area was a salon (perfect hair all the time!), a Ben and Jerry's ice cream bar (ice cream for lunch?) and even a shop!

I was astounded by the number of brands that Unilever cover. So many well known, household names.

Once we were settled, breakfast was served. We were treated to delicious pastries and fresh ground coffee. This along with great company and getting to know other bloggers was the perfect start.

I was delighted to meet Amy She Cooks, She Eats, Lucy Supergolden Bakes, Rosie Freycob, Agata Bark Time, Leyla Motherhood Diaries and Dominic Belleau Kitchen. One of the great things about blogger events is meeting other bloggers in person and not just through the internet.

We had a talk about PG Tips and tasted a lot of tea. The lady that did the talk knew just about everything that there is to know about tea, where it is from, different varieties, different tastes, the history, you could ask her anything and she would know! We were even allowed to taste some secret teas that are coming soon. At the moment that is all I can say but next year I will be telling you a lot more!

After all that tea, the session of the day that we had all been waiting for arrived. We spent the next session with the awe inspiring Marco Pierre White!

I will admit to being a Marco Pierre White fan. I have his cook books, I have watched him on television and I have admired him for years. He was so much more down to earth than I was expecting. He had such a presence. When he spoke everyone was silent, taking in what he had to say. I found him mesmerising! Marco cooked some fillet steak to demonstrate how much better steak cooked with Knorr is compared to cooked with salt. The one cooked in salt tasted good, as all fillet steak does. But, wow, the fillet steak cooked using Knorr just melted in the mouth! It was so juicy and full of flavour. It was so good! He then went on to show us how to make a pepper sauce using Knorr Pepper Pot. This sauce was amazing and I will definitely be making it at home and will write a post about it!

 

After Marco had finished it was our turn to cook. We were all in partners and my partner was the lovely Agata. We got started making a mushroom risotto. As everyone was cooking Marco was going round and tasting their food. When he came to taste what we were doing as I was stirring I was so nervous, but hopefully I didn't show it. He had a taste, then told me to have a taste and asked me what I thought. I told him that I thought that it was missing some flavours, needed some more mushrooms and a little pepper. I was astounded when he agreed with me! Marco Pierre White agreed with what I was saying! I did admit to him that I struggle to follow recipes to the letter and he told me that it is the best way to cook. Have a taste if you want to add something, add it. Cook and use your pallet and not just the recipe! As you can probably tell by my writing I was in total awe of him and I feel extremely lucky to have the time that we had with him.

After we all sat down and enjoyed our lunch and a glass of wine we were treated to a dessert courtesy of Ben and Jerry!

 

In the afternoon we did some baking with Stork. As you know I love baking so when I saw all of the ingredients I couldn't wait to get going. I decided to bake Lime and Dark Chocolate cupcakes. You can see my recipe here.

As you can imagine it was such a fantastic day. All of the staff at Clarion and Unilever Kitchen did an amazing job and I feel truly grateful for being invited along, thank you!

Weekly Meal Plan - Week Commencing 13th January 2014

After Christmas and a huge car repairs bill we really are tightening our belts.

This means that I have not got as much as I usually have to spend on our weekly shopping.

I cook our meals from scratch so it is not too hard to cut back here and there.

One way that I have always found I can save money is by meal planning for the week.

I look at what I have in my freezer and work meals around what I have in and buy what I need as opposed to buying willy nilly. I also love looking on the reduced meat and fish section in the supermarket. Most, if not all, of the meat and fish that is on offer can be frozen so if they have any good offers I stock up my freezer for a cut of the regular price!
 

So here is my first weeks meal plan for 2014!
 

My meal plans will not be restricted to certain days. I will be listing 6 meals that I will be cooking over the week. I'll only be listing 6 as we go to my mum and dads for our Sunday dinner!

 

Week Commencing 13th January 2014

 

* Beef and Chunky Vegetable Pasta

I make this with steak mince, red onion, garlic, courgettes and peppers in a herby tomato sauce. I find that this is a really versatile meal so I always make more than I need so that I can make an easy alternative meal the following day!

* Italian Style Cottage Pie

With the left over beef and chunky vegetable sauce I will give it a twist and create a new, different tasting meal. I will use the sauce as I would a cottage pie and top with creamy mashed potatoes. I always give the top a generous sprinkling of grated cheese that go lovely and crispy under the grill!

* Creamy Chicken and Tarragon Pie

I love making a good, hearty pie during the winter months. I always find pies to be warming, comfort foods. I am also taking part in Keynko's 52 Cook Books so this is going to be this weeks recipe!

* Toad in the Hole

When I looked in my freezer I found that I still have sausages left from Christmas so I thought I'd make a family inner this week and do a toad in the hole with roasted carrots. I love to add not just sausages to my toad in the hole and will be adding some roasted carrots to the mix this week!

* Beef Stew

I also found in my freezer some lovely casserole steak. So one day I am going to put a stew in my slow cooker and leave it to tenderise for the day! Dumplings will be added to this dish of course!

* Tuna Couscous

This week I bought a bag of couscous for a change. This week I plan to make a tuna couscous dish with mushrooms, red onions, diced peppers and garlic. This will be my easy meal for the week. This one will be saved for a day when time has not been on my side!

I am linking up my weekly meal plan with At Home With Mrs M's Meal Planning Monday. Take at look at some other meal plan here...
http://athomewithmrsm.blogspot.co.uk/

 

A Delicious Meal When The Cupboards Are Bare

This evening I have had to put a bit of extra thought into our dinner.
Our weekly shopping isn't delivered until tomorrow and I am pleased to say, that for once, I have used up what I bought last week.
But that did leave me a bit stuck as to what to cook for tea. I took some mince beef out of the freezer this morning and hoped for the best!
We had no potatoes or rice. We had pasta, but I did pasta last night, so wasn't going to cook it again tonight.
After looking in the cupboard, for what seemed like an eternity, I had an idea!
I had minced beef, spices, an onion, yellow pepper, a tin of chopped tomatoes, plain flour, a little bit of rice and the end piece of a block of cheese..........
Mexican chilli beef wraps with a side portion of rice!!!
I cooked the chilli and made some tortilla dough.
Tortilla dough is so simple and quick. All I needed was:
250g of plain flour
5g salt
150ml water
I mixed it up and gave it a quick knead. Once the dough had come together I separated the dough into about 6 pieces and rolled them out. They only needed a couple of minutes on each side in a hot frying pan and they were done.
Easy and quick!
I feel so much more pride and satisfaction in a meal that I have really had to think about. This certainly was a delicious meal made from the odd bits that were left in my cupboard and fridge mixed with some of my cupboard essentials and some imagination. I am sure that this will be a meal that I will be cooking again!

Garden & Kitchen Time

This morning we spent some peaceful time in the garden. We cleaned out and fed the chickens and checked on our vegetables. I was over the moon with today harvest. With help from Joseph we got potatoes, courgettes, carrots and a swede.

I knew that we would get a delicious meal tonight with this! Next it was onto kitchen time. I have noticed that the twins are wanting to become more and more independent when it comes to meal times. So I have been thinking of new "finger foods" for them apart from the obvious sandwich. Today homemade pizza fingers were on the menu. Once my homemade dough was ready I topped the pizza with tomato, cheese, tuna, mushrooms and homegrown courgettes. This was a hit with not only the twins but also with Joseph and the hubby for his lunch tomorrow. For me one of the most satisfying feelings I get in the kitchen is when I mix up flour, salt, yeast, oil and water and after mixing, kneading, proving, kneading, proving again and baking, you get bread. I love the feeling of the dough coming together in my hands and find it really quite therapeutic. This morning I thoroughly enjoyed making the pizza base and enjoyed the time away from my worries.