Maltesers chocolate pancakes

By the time you read this, I may be in a pancake induced coma (the best kind!). I love the fact that there is actually one day of the calendar year specially designated to pancakes. Granted it's part of a wider reasoning (Lent), nevertheless I love how everyone of all religious beliefs and backgrounds have embraced it. How tonight is the night to have milk, eggs and flour (if you're not vegan / gluten free!) in your home lest all hell break loose. I discovered yesterday that I'd ran out of flour and it was panic stations R US. Should I have been quite so panicked about the whole situation? Probably not. Have I been a last minute Nelly with getting said flour? Oh yes. It's been added to my online shop which hopefully Mr Tesco will swing by with tonight. However if my Instagram is empty of pancake porn later then you can be sure of two things:

1. Tesco ran out of flour due to surplus demand
2. me possibly crying into a bowl of cereal wondering where the pancakes at

I am especially on tenterhooks about the whole flour delivery situation as I have already purchased this wickedly naughty but insanely delicious looking jar:

Maltesers chocolate spread - currently reduced to just £1.50!

If the flour fails to materialise later then screw the cereal... I'll probably be spooning this directly into my mouth from the jar. Classy. And if Maltesers don't float your boat, there are plenty of other varieties to choose from. I'm talking: Cadbury Caramel, Twix, Bounty and Crunchie, to name a few.

Wish me luck! (and hope your pancake eve is better organised than mine!)

Charity // living on £2 a day with Zamcog & Voucherbox

Recently Voucherbox reached out to me, wanting to spread awareness of how much food we waste and the amount we spend in doing so. Did you know that it costs £2 a day to feed, clothe and educate a child in Zambia? Voucherbox has teamed up with Zamcog to present the £2 challenge.

The #2poundchallenge is all about encouraging bloggers to try living off of just £2 a day and for each blogger that takes part and writes a post on their experiences, Voucherbox will donate £50 to Zamcog. Which is amazingly generous. Working in the city of London, I am only too aware that a typical lunch can cost me £5 or more. And that's just lunch.

For the challenge myself and M. would need to live on just £4 a day (£2 each). The £4 would go towards three meals for two people and some form of snack. To save as much as possible, I made lunch and dinner in bulk so the below takes into account the costs of both of our portions for just one day.

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BREAKFAST

Toast & jam 

x4 slices of toast each - 16p

Butter - 13p 

Jam- 9p

TOTAL = 39p

I bought a loaf of supermarket own brand wholemeal bread which equated to 4p a slice. A very frugal lunch meant that I could stretch to jam as well as butter (albeit in small quantities!)

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LUNCH

Parsnip soup

Parsnips - 30p

Rosemary - free!

Veg stock - 12p

Onion - 6p

Milk  - 16p

Butter - 6p

 TOTAL = 70p

The rosemary was scavenged from the garden which was a good way of being resourceful and thrifty. Being a relatively simple soup with one vegetable and no meat stock, I did worry that it may be fairly bland, but the rosemary was great at counteracting this. This was in fact one my favourite soups I've ever made!

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DINNER

Gnocchi bake

Gnocchi - 38p

Cheese - 24p

Peppers - 39p

x1 tin chopped tomatoes - 31p

Garlic clove - 5p

Tomato puree - 5p

Spinach - 50p

Smoked paprika - 5p

TOTAL = £1.97

Who knew that a £1.97 dinner with the most basic of ingredients could be so full of flavour?! I picked up a value pack of gnocchi for just 75p from the supermarket and I only used half of it as gnocchi is brilliant for being really filling - so you don't need a whole lot of the stuff. Rather than being just a plain and boring stodge, cheese and tomato combo, the veg gave it some extra colour, texture and flavour. I shopped the 'farms' range of supermarket veg which is sourced from local farms and is considerably cheaper. I usually shop this range anyway as it's just as good quality as anything else. Not the prettiest dish to plate up, but that crispy cheese on top was the real MVP!

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SNACKS

Bourbon biscuits

x4 biscuits each = 2p per biscuit

TOTAL = 16p

In an ideal world I would have been snacking on fruit but have you seen how expensive fruit is these days?! Why spend 40p on an apple when you can spend 30p on a pack of 22 biscuits? Chocolate is a lot tastier than fruit anyway. This worked out at 2p per biscuit which were perfect for late morning nibbles and the afternoon slump!

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TOTAL SPEND = £3.22

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What I learnt from the experience is that living on just £2 a day is incredibly hard. Everything has a price and it was interesting seeing the monetary value of a splash of oil and a sprinkle of paprika, because everything adds up. It really made me re-think how much I spend on food and this is something I'm going to continue. This experience has proven that this is possible and that cheap food isn't tasteless or lacking. My shop was done in Tesco - so this proves it is possible in British supermarkets other than Aldi, Lidl or Iceland.

One of the conditions of the £2 challenge was to tag another blogger to continue on the good work. But I don't want to tag just one person - I invite you all to join and contribute towards this good cause. To date over £1000 has been raised which is an amazing achievement.  If you participate in the #2poundchallenge, please do leave links to your experiences in the comments below as I'd love to see other ideas for money saving meals!

Trying Polish food for the first time with Polish Village Bread

I must admit, but despite being a foodie, I haven't tried a whole lot of different cuisines. I'm as fond of an Italian, Chinese or Indian as the next person, but embarrassingly I haven't tried much else. I had my first taste of Columbian food last year but other than that, I haven't had much exposure to other types of food.

When Polish Village Bread got in touch inviting me to try Polish food for the first time, I was really excited to try something new. Because I genuinely had no idea what a typical Polish dish was or the sorts of things eaten.

A lovely member of the team came to my door and hand delivered a bulging tote bag of goodies. I am still over-whelmed with the team's generosity and the amount of food they provided. All of the savoury items they provided were already cooked and didn't take long to heat through by means of shallow frying, microwaving or booshing in the oven. Read on for my first experience of Polish cuisine!

Breaded chicken topped with mushrooms and cheese

Piers k Kurczaka w Pierzynce

This was very much like a pizza except with breaded chicken instead of a traditional dough. The crunch of the chicken contrasted really well with the texture of the vegetables and the melted cheese. It was super tasty and so easy to prepare after a long day at work - something I could easily eat every day!

PANCAKES

But not pancakes as you know them! These were more like croquettes with their crunchy exterior and a fluffy filled interior. I tried three different flavours which included:

Croquettes with spinach and cheese

Krokiety z Serem Typu Greckiego i Szpinakiem

These were my favourite of the three! The cheese in these ones tasted slightly different like they contained a garlic and herb soft cheese rather than a plain soft cheese. The middles were deliciously creamy and smooth to contrast against the crunch of the shell of the croquette.

Croquettes with mushrooms and cheese

Krokiety z Grzybami i Serem

Again, good flavours, generously filled and a good amount of crunch. To contrast, this was more of a saltier dish. I like things seasoned well so this didn't bother me one bit. The mushrooms tasted like they had been cooked in soy sauce - but don't quote me on this!

Spicy chicken and mixed veg pancake

Krokiety Mek Sykanskie

These were spiced, but not spicy (perfect for my palette as I can't tolerate spice!) These were the most generously filled krokiety and contained veg and pulses like kidney beans and sweetcorn. That combined with the spices, meant that it had a slight Mexican feel to it and were very colourful inside.

DUMPLINGS

My new favourite Polish word: pierogi. Before now I never knew what pierogi actually meant, I just liked saying it! Pierogi turns out to be plump pillowy little dumplings, beautifully crimped into little sun / flower shapes. I tried three flavours:

Dumplings with pork and onions

Pierogi z Miesem

I preferred this pork filling to the pork in the stuffed cabbage parcels (below). These were very well seasoned and tasty as.

Potato and cheese dumplings

Pierogi Ruskie

Not the easiest of things to photograph due to its samey colouring, but otherwise very smooth, soft and creamy which made for a very nice combination. One of my favourite pierogi. 

Sauerkraut and mushroom dumplings

Pierogi z Kapusta i Grzybami

As with the other dumplings, a good and very tasty dough, which was generously filled. This was my least favourite flavour of dumplings (but that's because I'm not a massive fan of sauerkraut!).

Cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and pork

Golabki

These had a very crumbly texture in the middle with the rice and pork mince mixture. The cabbage was my favourite part of this dish as it hadn't lost its crunch completely. My only critique of this one was that I cooked as per the instructions on the pack but it didn't get very hot. So my advice is that you would need to heat this one longer to get to perfect eating temperature.  

Fruit cake

I also received a cake which I was very excited about as I do love a good dessert! I only know "fruit cake" in the British sense of fruit cake and that's a cake I really do not like. The Polish take on fruit cake was much more up my street with none of the dried fruit nonsense. Instead it was more of a fluffy sponge with fruit on top. It felt massively guilt free because as well as having lots of lovely berries on top, it was also very light and low in sugar. I took the cake with me to work and everyone in the office said it was one of the loveliest cakes they have ever had!

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So now you can see what I mean when I said it was a very generous food parcel!
I was also sent a capacious tote bag, wooden spoon and jigsaw puzzle.

I would just like to say a massive Polish dziękuję (thank you is pronounced jen-KOO-yeh!) to the team for their generosity and for giving a chance to sample food that I haven't tried before. You can find a full list of the Polish Village Meals range here.

THE CHRISTMAS GIFT POST

This post has been sitting in my drafts a little while now and I have been debating whether to hit publish or not since posts like these are always a bit controversial. Personally I love seeing what people unwrap for Christmas as it introduces me to great products I didn't know about before, and gives me gift buying ideas for the year ahead. So here goes...

Estella Bartlett necklace -  I love anything to do with angels (big clue in my name... Lucy Angèle) and the iridescent packaging really appealed to my inner magpie. I spend 93% on Pinterest pinning inspirational quotes so I loved the fact that a quote was incorporated in the packaging. And this quote has been particularly apt of late (new job offer!)

Mug - my friend Alison also found this amazing mug. Sadly we don't get to see each other as much these days, but we have stayed incredibly close. She is my forever friend so this was very apt! I love the gold typography.

Ladybird book - knowing about Tia and Bailey she also bought me some cat related goodies including a calendar and this book. I love the "How it Works" series of Ladybird books and every cat owner needs this book.

Picture - a friend of my sister's is an illustrator, so my sister reached out to her some with some photos and she created this amazing design. She really captured the essence of my day in Hampstead when I wore my ASOS coat and Boohoo dress. She also drafted in Tia and Bailey last minute. I can't wait to get this hung up on the wall!

The White Company - those closest to me know how much I love The White Company - and more specifically their candles and reed diffusers! I had the winter candle for Christmas last year, but was especially excited to receive something from my favourite range - Orange Grove. This is the freshest smelling scent and perfect for all year round.

Whiskey - Christmas just isn't Christmas without whiskey! Jameson and ginger is the best

Yankee Candles - my friend Sof gave me the cutest kitchenware, a cat climbing tower for Tia and Bailey and one of these lovely candles. My sister bought me the other candle. Both are such lovely fresh scents which are perfect all year round.

Pinata cookies - I made pinata cupcakes for a charity event at work and when my mum saw this pinata cookie set she thought of me! I am so excited to try these out!

Sandwich toaster - the holy grail of kitchen appliances. The days in-between Christmas and NYE were full of sun-dried tomato, pesto and mozzarella sandwiches and it was GOOD

Gingerbread - I'm not sure anyone else gets as excited about gingerbread as I do. But that's ok.

Bake Off book - Bake Off will never be the same again. But at least I can hold onto the glory days with this book and try my hand at the bakes seen so far.

Gardening book - I asked for a gardening book this year. I am officially becoming old before my time. But in all seriousness... I have a garden now and I'm in no way green fingered. This book is the perfect idiot's guide to gardening. With colour photos of every plant, tree and shrub, I'm looking forward to choosing out a colour scheme, heading to my local nursery and making this garden my own.

CK One - CK One is one of my favourite perfumes as it's not too feminine. I have days where I'm girly, but there are other days I don't want to smell too sickly sweet. I also received the body lotion which I didn't know existed!

Zoella Beauty - I've never tried anything from the Zoella range before, but I love the fact these products are presented in crackers!

Alice in Wonderland cookies - my parents found this tin of cookies knowing only too well that Alice in Wonderland and cookies are two of my favourite things!

What did you unwrap over the holidays? I'd love to know!