Easy Chicken, Chorizo and Bean Rice - A Perfect Midweek Meal

This last week I have realised how hard it is to juggle home life and working full time. I have found that when I get home in the evening all I have wanted to do it relax. But when you come home to a family, relaxing is way down on the list. So to make life a little easier I have been looking for ways to make meal time not only stress free but also tasty. I quickly realised that the freezer was going to become my best friend. I do not normally have many frozen foods in but this week they have been life savers. Having pre prepared frozen vegetables, in particular, has saved me no end of time and this recipe shows you how versatile and full of goodness they are.

We all love the chicken and chorizo combination. Chorizo add such a fantastic depth of flavour, you really do not need to worry about extra herbs or spices. When cooking easy midweek meals, the least washing up the better, so I have made this a chore saving one pot meal. Tasty, easy and not a lot of pots, what more could you wish for?

This is what I did...

Easy School Holiday Meals with Birds Eye

When Birds Eye got in touch with me and asked me if I would like to try out some of their spring recipes I knew that the school holidays would be the ideal time to try one out. During the school holidays we all want to have meals that are quick and easy. When you have days out or have just had a busy day at home you want to be able to prepare a meal that is both nutritious and tasty.

Birds Eye do a great range of frozen fish, chicken, vegetables, potato products, pie, ready meals and even breakfast sweet treats. I decided to use some of their delicious fish products in a recipe. The Birds Eye Inspirations range allow you to feast on fish that is full of flavour and that has been paired with perfect extra ingredients. As you know I am following the Slimming World eating plan and will admit that it did play a part in what I decided to get. When I was looking at the syn value in the fish I was delighted to find that the Salmon in Lemon and Dill Sauce was syn free it went straight into my trolley!

I decided to make a meal based on the serving suggestion on the front of the box. The picture shows the salmon on a bed of pasta and peas.

This is what I did...

Pizza Express with Iceland and the Power of Frozen

It is nearly the weekend and time to think about some time to relax with the family and enjoy some good food. We all love pizza but we cannot always afford to be able to go out so when I saw that Iceland had launched a new range in collaboration with Pizza Express I was curious to see what they had done!

The new Pizza Express Artisana range is exclusive to Iceland and has been freshly frozen to retain the quality that you expect when eating at a Pizza Express restaurant.

What is different about the Artisana range is that it goes so much further than just pizza. Along with the pizzas they have also brought out a selection of Italian dishes as well as Italian gelato. Thanks to this range you can enjoy the full Pizza Express dining experience for a fraction of the price, without travelling, in the comfort of your home. So whether you decide to have a family feast or want to wait until the kids are in bed to enjoy a romantic meal together as a couple, with Pizza Express Artisana from Iceland you can.

 

Back to School Lunch Box Meal with #PowerofFrozen

Now that we are coming to the end of the long summer holidays it is time to start thinking about the children returning to school. The return to school also brings the return of preparing packed lunches. I don't know about you but making packed lunches always seems like a chore, it is always done at the end of the day and I often get stuck for ideas. So when Iceland challenged me to devise an easy recipe for a healthy packed lunch I knew that it would need to be a lunch that will not take long but that would also be full of healthy foods that the kids would love. The one way I find that my children tuck into a salad is if it is fun, colourful and with mayonnaise.

The beauty of this recipe is that the majority of the ingredients are frozen so there are no worries about whether you have the fresh ingredients to prepare. Even the bread rolls are frozen! One of my packed lunch fails has to be not having enough bread or forgetting to defrost some fresh bread. When I defrost bread that I have frozen it never tastes as good, so when I saw that Iceland stocked bread rolls that could be baked from frozen I knew that they would be a must have! I was not disappointed the rolls came out of the oven just like freshly made bread rolls do.

For my back to school recipe I decided to make a rice salad. Rice is full of carbohydrates so acts as a fuel for the children's bodies. The return to school can be tiring for them so they need all of the energy they can get to keep their bodies and brains going! The addition of an egg provides them with protein to help keep their energy level up. The tuna provides them with healthy omega 3 fatty acids while the vegetables give them their much needed vitamin goodness! When using frozen foods you are guaranteed to have a high amount of vitamins as the vegetables are frozen at the optimum time after picking to preserve all of the goodness that wears off as they ripen.

Today's recipe is colourful, fun and full of goodness. This is what I did...

#PowerofFrozen and Kids in the Kitchen - Chocolate Eclair Ice Cream Sundae

Now that it is coming to the end of the summer holidays, the kids are starting to get bored and us parents need new ways to keep them occupied. If there is one thing that all three of the kids love it is spending time in the kitchen either helping to prepare their lunches or baking.

When Iceland challenged me to come up with a recipe that the children can help with I knew that a dessert would go down a treat with them all. I don't know about you, but our plans often change depending on the weather, if I have work to be done and what the kids want to do on that day. So having fresh foods can often lead to waste if we get busy doing something else. But when buying frozen foods you know that if you need a last minute activity for the kids or they simply come and say they want to make something you know you have got the ingredients in.

J and I went shopping to our local Iceland to pick up some supplies. As we have had some gloriously warm days we decided to make an ice cream dessert. There are so many different ice creams to choose from. Iceland stock their original ice creams in vanilla, Neapolitan and raspberry ripple. They also have some delicious Italian gelato ice cream in cherry ripple, vanilla and caramel swirls. To go with the ice creams there was a wide choice of toppings and additions!

We decided to go for their Bellissima Chocolate Italian Gelato. This ice cream comes with three irresistible flavours in one, white chocolate flavoured ice cream with white chocolate flavoured ripple, chocolate and cocoa flavoured ice cream with chocolate flavoured ripple and lastly hazelnut and chocolate flavour ice cream with hazelnut and chocolate flavour ripple.

In the end we decided to get the following ingredients...

Today we are going to show you a super easy, delicious sweet treat that not only the kids will love but is perfect for the whole family to enjoy. As much as we all love a good old hot pudding and custard it just won't do in the summer, plus I wanted this to be a safe and easy recipe for the kids to be fully hands on without the worry of the oven. Plus my kids are not very good at waiting for things to bake, like most children when they want something they want to be able to enjoy it as soon as they can. What is even better is that this recipe requires no preparation. You simply need to defrost the eclairs for 30 minutes and then let them go!

This is what we did...

#PowerofFrozen Beef and Bean Cabbage Parcels

Back in March I wrote my first post about Iceland and their #PowerofFrozen campaign. Today I am back with another recipe using products from Iceland. Today's recipe is all about convenience. I don't know about you but I often forget to take meat out of the freezer in time to cook. When this happens everything gets turned upside down. As you probably know I write a weekly meal plan, I like to have the organisation at meal time and have it all pre planned. 

Having products in the freezer that can be cooked from frozen really are a necessity in our busy lives. As organised as we can be, there are times when life simply takes over and things get forgotten. Today's recipe is perfect for both a mid week meal or to impress some dinner guests. Today's meal is made using British butchers quality minced beef that can actually be cooked from frozen! I have paired it with frozen vegetables that can also be cooked from frozen. How convenient is that!

Not only is this a convenient meal but it is also a great money saving meal. After I have told you how to make this delicious dish I will tell you the costings!

This is what I did...

Iceland #PowerofFrozen - Honey and Mustard Red Snapper Recipe

As long as I can remember there has always been an Iceland on the high street. But I will admit to not shopping there a great deal. That is until now!

In 2015 Iceland kicked off their #PowerofFrozen campaign working with Holly Bell, Great British Bake Off finalist and blogger at Recipes from a Normal Mum. They created a PowerofFrozen cookbook containing 45 recipes to celebrate 45 years of business. Since then they have worked with bloggers such as Emily Leary from A Mummy Too and Vicki Psarias from Honest Mum. So when they contacted me and asked me to write them a recipe, I could not wait to get started!

It has been a few years since I have shopped in Iceland so I really was not too sure what to expect. I knew that I was guaranteed of finding family favourites such as fish fingers and potato waffles but I was surprised to find them alongside superfoods, rare meats and Slimming World meals. I was amazed by the wide variety and choice they had to offer. When choosing frozen food from Iceland you know that you are going to be buying food that has been carefully selected from around the world. Modern freezing techniques ensure that the nutrients are locked in the product, unlike fresh products that loose nutrients as the edge closer to their best before stage. Thanks to these new techniques you can be guaranteed to have the same taste and quality of fresh food, but with the valuable nutrients kept inside. Selecting frozen food also inevitably reduces food waste. I feel guilty every time I throw vegetables that are past their best into the compost pile. Using frozen produce allows you to use exactly the amount that you require, leaving what is left in the freezer for another meal.

When it came to selecting what food I would like to show you from Iceland, I really was spoilt for choice. They had the usual fish that I was expecting to see like cod, haddock and tuna. But alongside it I was surprised to see red snapper, squid tubes and whole sea bass.