Our Family at Halloween

Since the children were born, Halloween has always been a fun event that the children really look forward to.  Once the boy’s birthday is over mid October we start visiting local Halloween attractions.  We particularly love the National Trust trails, with one of our favourite being at Saltram House, our nearest, although others nearby that we would recommend are at Buckland Abbey and Cotehele which also offers pumpkin carving and is set by a river estuary with beautiful gardens.  All of them though are stunning on a sunny day and never let you down with the amazing plants throughout the gardens and always provide a peaceful, calm experience that is enjoyed by all the family!

The view above is of our walk around Saltram House gardens whilst doing the pumpkin trail.  I love the colour of the Autumn leaves and seeing them fallen to the ground across the lawn, the house is the perfect backdrop for this.

The trails at Saltram always keep the kids occupied whether they are inside or out.  The pumpkin trail was through the gardens and consisted of looking for letters of the alphabet in areas where there were pumpkins and then solving the anagram of letters to find a word.  The newly 8yr old Mister B exceeded in his word knowledge as usual and came up with the answer a mere 5 letters into the 8 letter word!!

One thing I love about National Trust properties is the appeal to both young and old.  Although my children don’t notice certain elements, I really appreciate things like this gorgeous Autumn wreath abundant with golden colours upon one of their doors.

As it gets closer to Halloween the children are keen to carve pumpkins so we always go pumpkin shopping together.  This year we’ve been particularly busy so ended up at our local supermarket and picked out some large pumpkins (this did require Miss M climbing over several giant boxes of them to uncover the best looking/shaped ones!).

Here are Mister B’s, Mummy’s and Miss M’s designs:

And in the dark:

Waste not want not!

As we carve our pumpkins we firstly scoop out the pulp which is filled with the seeds.  If you run this under cold water over a colander you’ll find the seeds separate really easily away from the pulp which is great if you wish to toast them.  After discarding the pulp, give the seeds a shake, allow them to dry for a while then lay them out on a baking tray.  Give them a good slug of olive oil, a generous sprinkle of salt and roast in the oven for half an hour or so until golden brown.  These make a delicious snack or a great addition to a bowl of soup.

Once the pulp and seeds are gone, we use an ice cream scoop to scrape out some of the flesh from around the edge.  We find quite a lot comes out and by making the pumpkin wall a little thinner it is easier to carve.  I then add the flesh to some fried onions, garlic and a few vegetable stock cubes and boil up in my extra large cooking pot until softened.  Then I use my hand blender to smooth into a thick, easy to eat, hearty soup. Serve with a good grinding of black pepper and a sprinkle of toasted pumpkin seeds.

Once our tummies are filled with a warming bowl of soup it’s time to get out in the neighbourhood trick or treating.  Mister B doesn’t like the scary look so opted for the cute skeleton dress up this year whilst Miss M preferred a Dracula style image.

Despite several heavy downpours, nothing deterred these two from their Trick or Treating.  With a bag in hand to carry any treats they received, I have to say they did pretty well.  As well as a mega haul of sweets, they came back with a chocolate doughnut, a plastic spider and a freshly made spider cake (although this got devoured on the way round!).

What did your family get up to for Halloween?  Did your kids go Trick or Treating?

Sweet Snacks and Treats – Reviews

Following on from the fantastic bloggers night in at the end of last year, I did a round up of all our savoury snacks and here is a look at the great selection of sweet treats we had the opportunity to try out.

Bloggers night SoreenSoreen very kindly sent us each a goody bag packed full of the Soreen range to try.  I took this home to my family who couldn’t wait to get stuck in.  The Chocolate Soreen stood our for us and is a firm favourite with all of us – it didn’t last long, with a husband and two children devouring it at every opportunity!  The fruity Soreen was perfect for the husbands pack lunch box and the sliced loaf made perfect snacks for the children at home.  The banana lunchbox loaves are a favourite of three year old Mister B, being individually wrapped I keep them for out of the house or in his nursery lunch box.  Overall I have to say as a family we are very impressed with Soreen and think they have made some wonderful additions to their range recently.  We are definitely fans and Soreen is always on our shopping list!

 

Bloggers night Green and blacksGreen & Blacks, a name we all know well in the world chocolate,  kindly gave us a bar of their organic dark chocolate to taste.  Personally I’m not a fan of dark chocolate but the husband is, so I let him try it for his opinion.  He said it was “rich and smooth”, a taste he could savour and enjoy and only needing a few squares at a time meaning it lasting him several nights.  A great quality chocolate he enjoyed.

 

 

Choc Shot by Sweet Freedom is a Bloggers night choc shot revolutionary 100% natural liquid chocolate with only 14 calories per teaspoon. It can be used in multiple ways from hot chocolate, milkshakes to toppings for ice cream, porridge or fruit.  Choose your own way of using this multi functioning product.  When my children saw it they immediately wanted to make hot chocolate and it couldn’t be easier, no more powdery lumps, just stir into warm milk and there you have a cup of creamy hot chocolate.  My children loved it and it was great that they could make it themselves.  We also tried it on ice cream for dessert and this was a hit too.  The only thing that could be improved is perhaps an easier to squeeze bottle as once we were half way through the rest of the chocolate was a little difficult to get out – apart from that, what a fantastic product.  Being suitable for vegetarians, vegans, diabetic and GM, dairy and gluten free this really is a product that anyone can try – why not give it a go?

 

Bloggers night OrgranAnother brand we tried that caters for special dietary needs is Orgran, a top brand in the gluten free food market.  All Orgran products are Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Dairy Free, Egg free, Yeast Free, GMO Free and Vegan.  We were sent a selection of sweet treats to try including shortbread hearts, Amaretti biscotti and chocolate biscotti.  We did find the shortbread hearts a little hard and not quite the crumbly shortbread texture that we are used to but they did look pretty on the plate.  The biscotti were nice and I did like both of the flavours.  I took some samples home and found that they make the perfect accompaniment to Sweet Freedom’s Choc Shot.  I think for someone limited to certain dietary requirements, then these Orgran biscuits are the perfect treat.  They all look good and are perfect paired with a hot drink to dip in.  If you are following a gluten free diet then I’d definitely recommend checking out the Orgran website as they have a wide variety of food choices and even a great range aimed at children following a gluten free diet.

 

Bloggers night popcorn darling

 

Darling Spuds have brought out a sweet and salty popcorn.   They come in handy size snack packs and I left the pack I had for my children to try.  I did intend on trying one or two pieces myself but by the time I came back into the room they were gone!  I think that speaks for itself – they obviously taste good and were a hit with my two.  These are great as a snack and another that is gluten free along with being suitable for vegetarians and coeliacs.  But the best feature has to be there are just 39 calories per bag!!

 

 

 

Bloggers night swizzels matlowWhen I opened my bag and showed my children the Swizzels-Matlow goodies, their eyes popped out in excitement!  Can we have one now they asked?  With traditional favourites such as Love Hearts, Drumsticks and Fruity lollies my children were in sweetie heaven – oh but I did keep the  Parma Violets for my handbag though!

 

Last but not least I have saved you the best till last.  When I was offered my favourite ever chocolates to review how could I refuse.  Guylian, the Belgian chocolate seashells are made from 100% pure cocoa butter with a unique hazelnut praline filling that is utterly divine.

Bloggers night GuylianThe distinctive, glossy seashells and seahorse shapes are a sign of quality, a box of these is perfect as a gift for someone being affordable but luxury chocolates at the same time.  I highly recommend these!!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the products in order to write the reviews.

Nanobytes Space Themed Sweets – Review

Nanobytes are new Space themed sweets that are small, round and come in a choice of three flavours, Strawberry, BubbleGum and Cola.  They are packaged in shiny, eye catching metallic packets that are resealable should you want to save some for another time.

Nanobytes group shotThe sweets come in a small meteorite like shape and have a crunchy outside shell that breaks to reveal a chewy inside.  Each ball gives you quite a strong burst of realistic flavour that is enjoyable without being overbearing.

When Miss M came home from school I let her taste test each flavour.  Her reaction was “Mmmm, I like these”.  The small size was perfect for her to chew.  Once she had tried a few of each flavour, I asked her which one was her favourite, and although I thought she’d go for the cola, she replied “Strawberry is the best one but I like them all”.  So it’s a thumbs up from Miss M.

Nanobytes sweets

Nanobytes will be available not only in the larger resealable bags, but smaller treat sized packs ideal for children.  The sweets are all gluten-free, suitable for vegetarians and GMO free which is a bonus making them suitable for more dietary requirements than some sweets on the market. 

You can find out more about Nanobytes on the new website www.lotsoflittlesweets.com where special online games will be available as well as competition, downloads etc.

Also why not follow them on their Facebook page or Twitter feed.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.