Look what i've won!

Mid July I was moaning  saying I hadn't won anything recently. Since then I have won 2 really cool prizes. First one came about 2 weeks ago just in time for the nice hot weather. It was a nerf gun super soaker and a book of boys things to do. Now this would have been great to put away for a Christmas present so I could tick something of my wishlist... but I couldn't help loading it up and soaking Dave when he came home from work. He got me back another day with it...

pretty cool eh?

Yesterday I received an email from a blog competition to say I have won a family pass to drayton Manor. How exciting is that. The boys are abit big for Thomas Land now but I've just checked the website out and there is plenty there for them to do. I'm actually rather excited myself! I just hope the tickets come during the summer holidays.

Have you had any wins lately?

Super Saturday BBQ

BBQing is quite a regular occurrence in our family, we all love a BBQ and when the sun is shining we are guaranteed to have at least one at the weekend. These usually happen at my parents house and my Dad has taken on the role of chief BBQer. He will BBQ in all weather conditions though, as there is no guarantee with the British weather and regularly changes mid way through BBQ, which it did this weekend. He has even been known to do a BBQ in the snow!! Nothing stops him!!

This week we had some super tasty taste the difference sausages from Sainsburys and some pork chops. I buy them when they are on offer then cling film them so we can just take out the amount we need.

Fresh egg salad always goes nicely with BBQs

Strawberries and ice-cream for dessert.

We usually just play around the garden bare foot but this week there were so many bees hanging around the grass we didn't dare!

It actually started raining shortly after this photo was taken luckily the sides come down on this gazebo so we were still able to stay outside as the shower passed .

Leon is a keen BBQer and is picking up tips from his grandad!

Toby watching the bees.

The rain comes down and the brollys go up!

Its really easy to have a BBQ for least than £50. Here's some of my top tips:

• Shop ahead, BBQ meat is often on offer, like the sausages I bought 3 packs for £5.
• The children are allowed fizzy at the weekend. Aldi do a whole bottle of lemonade for 19p, this easily lasts them 2 BBQs
• Buy a tub of vanilla ice cream and cones rather than buying ready made ones, its much cheaper and lasts longer, for the adults buy or make something to go with the ice cream, like we had strawberries. You could make cookies and chocolate cake really cheaply.
• You have GOT the have marshmallows- its the BBQing law. Sainsburys own brand are perfect, don't get the sugar free ones though.
• Sainsburys finger baps and burger baps are often 2 for £1 but go on the morning of your BBQ because they often sellout on sunny days.
• Buy salad at Aldi its SO much cheaper, although I don't  think its lasts quite as long but you don't need it to if its just for your BBQ.

This is my entry to the moneysupermarket Charcoal Challenge. 

HELP! I need my competition fix!

We are over half way through the year now and i can't quite believe how quick its gone. I feel like at the moment all I'm blogging is competition entries. I've not had a good win in quite a while and I'm getting twitchy and stroppy about it! So I thought I would write down and reflect on the past 6 months of my comping.

In January I wrote a wishlist of things that I thought I would really like to win. The list consisted of 10 things, I have won 2 things off the wishlist - food shopping vouchers  (£170 of them) and childrens clothes vouchers. I have won a voucher for a free pair of shoes and some PJ's.

My list has changed abit and I no longer want to win a sofa as we gave in and bought one. I don't really want to win DIY or garden vouchers as we have pretty much decorated everywhere now.

So I'm still looking out for 

• A Mulberry handbag
• A weekend break
• A years supply of anything useful (food, toiletries etc)
• A hamper

I'm not really to fussed about a new TV or laptop, my laptop is still going and I don't need a TV in my bedroom really.

But I would like to add

• A kitchen aid mixer
• Some nice shoes for me
• Toys I can put away for Christmas

Over the past 6 months I have won £2062 worth of prizes which is way more than last year. I've won over £1000 worth of cash which has been a fantastic help financially and the main reason we could afford our new sofa.

I have fits and starts with comping and sometimes I just find myself reading and looking about all the different wins and way over people have won rather than entering myself. Sometimes I feel like I hardly win anything compared to other people. I am going to try and concentrate on winning prizes off my wishlist, starting with the bag! I really need to feel that 'buzz' of winning very soon.

 I feel like an addict waiting for my fix! Do you ever get like that?

What's for dinner tonight?

This post is an entry for BritMums ‘What’s for Dinner Tonight?’ sponsored by Schwartz. Find out more about the new 2in1 mixes here.

Brit Mums have another super competition for bloggers. This time you need to sign up for you Schwartz samples and post a review on how you got on. If you want to join in sign up here and post on your blog before 12th July, you can actually enter without the samples.

Prizes are 4 x £200 John Lewis vouchers.

We were sent two samples:

• Mediterranean Chicken Pasta and Cheesy Crumb Topping: A blend of herbs and spices for chicken pasta with a cheesy topping

• Garlic & Thyme Roast Chicken + Crispy Roast Potatoes: Roast chicken seasoning, with garlic and thyme, accompanied by a special seasoning to create perfect Crispy Roast Potatoes

Ingredients

• 1 sachet Schwartz 2 in 1 Mediterranean Chicken Pasta and Cheesy Crumb Topping Recipe Mixes
• 1tbs oil
• 450g (1lb) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped
• 150ml (5fl oz) water
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 200g (7oz) pasta, cooked and drained
• 75g (3oz) Cheddar cheese, grated - I probably used way more because we love cheese!

Method

1. Pre-heat grill to a medium heat.
2. Heat oil and fry meat for 6-7 minutes, until browned.  Add yellow pepper and cook for a further 2 minutes
3. Mix Mediterranean Chicken Pasta Recipe Mix with water and add to the pan with the tomatoes.  Bring to a simmer then stir in the pasta and heat through for 1-2 mins
4. Transfer to a baking dish and sprinkle with the Garlic & herb Crumb Topping, then the cheese
5. Place under the grill for 4-5 minutes until golden - I had in under the grill for a bit longer, probably about 8 minutes.

The pictures are taken at each method. I admit the finished picture (bottom, middle) does look abit burnt but the camera shows it much darker than it was. From a Mums point of view it was really simple to make, quick and tasty. Here's what the children thought when asked "do you like it?"

Leon (age 7) "Mmmmm yeah, really tasty, especially the cheese"

Toby (age 4) "Its alishous (4 year old for delicious incase you didn't know) but can I have more peppers please"

Millie (age 2) " I want sauceeeeeee" (Yes, my two year old is obsessed with ketchup at the moment and feels she needs it with everything, even grapes. Grapes for goodness sake, I caught her dipping in her brothers plate when walked into the kitchen!)

I can't wait to try the Garlic and Thyme roast chicken at the weekend!

Whats in my handbag?

This is an entry to Moneysupermarket whats in your handbag competition. All you need to do is write a blog post about whats in your handbag, the over all winner, which is chosen at random will win a Mulberry Bayswater shoulder handbag, purse and phone case. Six runner-ups will receive a £25 ASOS voucher. Competition closes 1st July. 

I love handbags, I don't have a huge collection, although my husband may disagree. I certainly haven't bought one for a while. The last one I got was a gift for my birthday in October, which is the one I'm using today. Its from River Island and just the right size and style for my at the moment. 

Now I'm not carrying a changing bag around I tend to make the most of it and travel light. I don't have time to re apply my make-up throughout the day so I don't carry tons of make-up.

I think the bag was about £35 and is quite large. Here's a similar version but smaller from River Island.

And this is the contents of my bag. My Prada sunglasses that I bought with my £200 selfridges win about a year ago. My diary, I am so forgetful I can not function without looking in this every day. My phone and keys, a pen. I try and always have a spare hair grip for Millie as she is always losing or pulling out her hair bobbles, so this helps to keep in out of her face. I usually have my blackberry playbook, so I can check emails, work stuff etc. while on the go. And my purse, usually with pennies in!

I got this purse about 3 years ago I think. My son gave my this toy story sticker for my birthday! It has been on there ever since he decided I must have it!

This concealer really is the best ever! It is a tester I nicked it off my stand at work when they discontinued it! I'm not sure what I will do when this one runs out.

Moneysupermarket are trying to highlight just how much people carry around with them including the cost of your handbag, so here's a little breakdown of my costs:

Handbag £35

Purse £20

phone £150 (new price)

Playbook £150

concealer £10

Sunglasses £215

Keys £100 (to replace them?)

Total £680

So there you have it, I also had a load of receipts and sainsburys £5 off your first £60 spend vouchers, (you know what I mean, please don't tell me I am the only one who gets them every time I go shopping), but you don't really need to see them.

What do you have in your bag? Anything unusual or pretty much the same?

Little Birds Nest- #Hungry2Happy Challenge entry

This post is an entry for BritMums’ Hungry to Happy Challenge sponsored by Richmond Mini Meatballs” You can find details here. 

This is another competition from Brit Mums, this time you need to come up with something quick and fun for the children to eat using Richmonds new mini meatballs. Although I did this last week as usual I'm posting on the very last minute.I really need to be more organised with blogging!

Little birds nest made with mini meatballs, this is what you will need:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees
• Chop 1 large onion, 1 stick of celery and 2 cloves of garlic and heat in a pan for 2 minutes
• Add 500g of passata and half a teaspoon of mixed herbs and leave to simmer for 10 minutes
• While that is cooking put the meatballs in the oven and cook the spaghetti (or in my case if you send the husband shopping, linguine)
• After 8 minutes take the spaghetti and meatballs out. Put the spaghetti on the place in a circle to create the nest. Put a dollop of sauce in the middle. Pop a couple of slits in the meatballs and push raisins for eyes (or you can use olives -again hubby when shopping apparently they don't do olives in sainsburys!) and a small triangular piece of carrot for beak.
• Slide the celery behind the nest to create the branch.

This takes about 15 minutes to make and the kids absolutely loved it they ate it so quick and asked if they can have it the next night. They are really good eaters anyway and this is the first time we have got creative like this with food, we will definitely be making more fun things.

Yup- this is with mouthful!

I have a confession... I ate this myself! It was delish, I even put beaks on mine then though what the hell am I doing! I sat down to eat and the boys were going mad asking why my birds didn't have eyes!

#KidsGrowWild After school fun

This post is an entry for BritMums #KidsGrowWild Challenge.

Moneysupermarket.com are running another competition for bloggers - this time they want us to get out in the garden with the kids. Competition ends on the 23rd June so if you want to enter you will have to be super quick. 

We were all really impressed with the gardening kit which consisted of a green bag, nice blue gloves, watering can, lots of seeds, a trowel and a fork.

I bought some fun bright plant pots, we have just turfed our garden so these will look nice up against the fence.

They filled the pots deciding how much compost to put in...

The boys both wanted sunflowers and Millie (mainly because of the big pink flowers on the front) decided to grow pansies.

She also dropped quite a few seeds on the newly turfed. Ooops we are going to have a colourful patch!

 Best of all they liked watering! In the end the whole grass got watered.

Finally we put names in the pots so they can remember who's is who's!

We did this after school today and had a great afternoon they really enjoyed planting and talking about how big their flowers are going to grow. Although they had a pot each I think it encouraged team work aswell they helped each other and shared the tools nicely. It certainly made my job of 'photo taker' very easy!

Thank you Moneysupermarket!