JJ's Reasons to be Cheerful (week 44, year 3)

Early each week I start to think about what might be the basis of my #R2BC post for that Thursday. Whilst lots of lovely things have been happening, nothing sprung straight to mind this week, so I asked my 10 year old JJ what was making him cheerful right now.

*  Instant answer 'doh Mum, it's half term'.  Oh yes of course, great reason to be cheerful, no getting up at 7am to stress before heading off to school at 8.20am. Some lazy days, visiting Nanny & Granddad, Daddy off later in the week, a trip to London for a Guinness World Records event - yep a good week ahead.

*  'What else?' I say. His second instant answer made me smile a lot too. 'The internet, I love it that I can play Minecraft again'. Yes I can agree on this one too, we had our own internet set up last Wednesday and what a blessing to again be able to watch something on iPlayer, It is still slow and it cuts out occasionally but it is a massive improvement on what we did have.

*  'Go on, keep going' I urge him and that is it, he is off on a roll and starts to throw reasons at me. We are visiting Nanny and that means I get to walk Archie, yesterday we had a great meal with some friends from Daddy's work, we are going to see Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 at the weekend, we live in a great place now, I got a trick hand buzzer today and that is so cool etc etc

It seems that my 10 year old is a pretty cheery chap and he can manage to find 101 reasons to be cheerful. How wonderful, just what I want to hear.

So now you know what is making JJ cheerful this week, go on and share what has cheered you up. Are you feeling particularly grateful?

It could be something massive or it might just be the everyday simple things that happen. If you are new to Reasons to be Cheerful then take a look at the background to this linky and my rational for starting it 3 years ago.

Write a post and link it up, no rules, just as long as you have written about something which is adding a smile to your face or rocking your world then I’m happy. Then link up the post, add in the blog hop code to your post if you fancy and then people can go from post to post nice and easily. Don't forget that linkys only work if you go and visit some other bloggers who have linked up, even if you only comment on 1 or 2 it makes a difference. Tweet with #R2BC and I'll give you an RT too.

Wishing you a fabulous week ahead, Mich x

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Getting active without even realising it!

For us moving to the countryside three months ago has made a massive impact on our family activity level but I realise it is a bit radical for all families to move to the countryside to be able to get moving more and having fun as a family. So here are some simple ideas for you to do as a family and they don't even have to cost any money and it is half-term most places, so how perfect -

1)   Visit your local park, they are everywhere and don't just have to be for the kids. These big swings that are popping up everywhere are perfect for adults too.

2)   Go for a walk along the beach - stones or sand they are both great and give you a workout as you struggle to walk along them. Stop to enjoy the view and skim some stones too.

3)   Giant hula hooping, OK it is a bit different but so much fun and none of us had any idea we would be able to do it. Far easier than the girls small hoops!

4)   Local free exercise equipment at parks. We love all this exercise equipment and there are some really great examples around. Poole Park in Dorset is great and has loads of stopping stations all round the lake. We have found a great park in Hailsham, East Sussex near our home too.

5)   Scooting. One of the favourite things my kids get up to is scooting, they do it everywhere but long paths are most definitely their favourite, so things like promenades and parks are great. Then dh and I have to jog along at the side to keep up with them.

Just a few ways that we like to have some fun being active as a family. How does your family like to get active together?

Have you had a good week, how have you managed to get active this week?

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Dear so and so, a grrr post!

I used to join in with a linky called Dear So and So hosted over on 3 Bedroom bungalow and I have no idea if it is still going, so I must head over and see. OK I'm back Kat seems to be having quite a long blog break so it is not running there right now but the logic was that you could compile letters to anyone you fancied and get things off your chest.  It was fab and I loved it and today I felt a dear so and so post brewing! Here goes....

Dear Twitter peeps,

You are driving me a bit crazy, I'm hating the #UKstorm hashtag. OK I get it you feel as if the media and the met office overreacted to the storm news and now you keep taking the piss by showing pictures of blown over patio chairs but for goodness sake just shut up. There are two people already confirmed dead because of the storm, hundreds of trees are down, thousands of homes lost power and people have substantial damage to their properties.

So it didn't affect the area you are in, good news. Be grateful and keep quiet!

Disgruntled in 'not affected Surrey'!

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Dear Miss E,

What is it with you child? Why do you feel the need to constantly whine? I'm sorry your brother and sister are pests and wind you up but if you just ignored them they would stop! Right, now the wind has gone down lets get out and regain some sanity!

Overwrought Mummy!

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People who don't read their emails,

Grr you are making me mad! I need answers as I have other people to get back to. Come on and do us a favour, read and respond, it is really quite simple!

Cheers, Mich

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Fellow bloggers,

It is not good form to nick bits of peoples post and then to add the words to you own blog posts on the same subject.  Use your imagination and write your own content please.

Thanks for this basic courtesy, Michelle

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Dear Mummy from the Heart readers,

Sorry I am being an old grump today, you know sometimes when you just need to get it off your chest? Normal service will be resumed very soon.

Mich xx

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Making our playroom beautiful

We moved into our new house about 3 months ago and whilst most of it is now decorated and all set up how we like it, the girls playroom still had a big blank wall in it. I'd always had the vision that the playroom should be full of colour and would look great with a rainbow theme but it was low on my list of priorities to get sorted.

When Tiny Me asked me if I might like to undertake a review for them it only took me moments to look on their website and see the wall stickers to know that they were perfect and just what we needed to jazz up the playroom. We were sent the Springtime 'Spring is in the air' wall sticker set. This retails for £80 and my initial reaction was that it is a lot of money.

It is superb quality though, instead of it just being cheap plastic like most wall stickers I have seen before, it is a coated vinyl weave fabric. It adheres to practically everything and was exceptionally easy to put up.  I was a bit worried when I first saw that it didn't just come on a roll, it was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle but the whole exercise only took me about 40 minutes and I was happy with that. 

I was thankful there was directions to tell me which piece of trunk went where but then I had a blank when it came to the leaves, birds and flowers as these were just left to my imagination. Upon drawing a blank, I had a peek at the image on the website and took inspiration from there.  I think it might be nice to receive an image of the completed tree for people to copy if they so wish.

It was also good that when I stuck a piece slightly wrong, I could easily pull it back up and reposition it, but not easily enough that I think young kids would be able to pick it off. I think it will stand the tests of time.

I've had lots of comments already from people who like our new playroom decor and I'm a bit in love with it, as is Miss E, just look -

I think the wall stickers from Tiny Me are beautiful, I would happily recommend them. You can totally customise them to the colours you want and there are a range of styles and prices from £20 through to about £175 and they are not just for kids. there are stunning Christmas wall stickers and beautiful quotes and ones for the kitchen too, go on take a peek - http://www.tinyme.co.uk/wall-decor/wall-stickers.

My whole experience with Tiny Me was very good, ordering online was easy, I then received good email communication to let me know what was happening with the delivery, the stickers arrived in a nice sturdy package and the delivery was only about a week for a customised product (I choose the colours I wanted). I'd happily buy again.

Disclosure: I received these wall stickers free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

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Wet woodland walk

Last Sunday after Church our family decided we would get out together and take a trip to the beach, nothing fancy just a nice walk together, chatting, catching up on our week, a bit of stone skimming and I expect some shell and stone collecting, Miss E can't seem help herself. Sadly just as we went to leave the house the rain came and boy did it come. Enough so that my boys did not want to go out any more. Not to be deterred by some water, the girls and I decided we would head out for a wet woodland walk round our lake and see what we could find.

The girls are still at that age when jumping in puddles is great fun and who am I to say no?

It really was pouring down and by the time we got home just over an hour later we had to strip to our underwear in the hall as we were truly saturated but we got some exercise and we had fun, that's most important.  The clothes can just be washed and dried!

We had some excellent finds on our trip out - conkers, sweet chestnuts, a marvellous toadstool, a whole load of mushrooms and even the most enormous shell from a freshwater mussel that a Heron must have fished out of the lake.

Take a peek at how happy my girls are collecting their conkers -



I'm really thankful to Mark Warner holidays who have challenged me get out with my family for all of October and be active together. It would have been so easy to have just stayed indoors but we would have missed out on the fun.

Have you had a good week, how have you managed to get active this week?

I'm also linking up this post to Fiona's Country Kids - click on the badge to head over and see what others have got up to in their Country Kids exploits.

 


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Shoeboxes are making me super cheerful (week 43, year 3)

I love this picture, this isn't the one I'll include in the shoe boxes but it sums up my kids so well!

This week my involvement in Operation Christmas Child has given me a lot to smile about and I have certainly seen God working.

• Last Thursday evening we had a virtual packing twitter party (#OCCParty) and it went well. It was not about numbers but about engaging interested people and sharing tips and successes and we did that.
• A couple of weeks ago I discovered that one of the volunteers here had received an OCC shoebox when she was young. It was such a blessing to hear her talk about her box, what it contained and how much it meant to her. You could just see her face light up as she recalled the moment in time.
• On Sunday at Church I did the sermon/ talk for World Mission Sunday and it was about evangelism and my blogger trips to Ethiopia and Belarus last year. I felt it went well and I received lots of good feedback and it was also a real blessing to be given £50 from people to buy more bits to make up some more shoe boxes.
• After speaking to the staff and volunteers here a couple of weeks back to see if they wanted to be involved with OCC this year, I was really pleased to be approached by a few of the international volunteers to tell me that they would like to help me put together some boxes as they normally do it in their home countries.
• My children made their boxes this weekend. I'll show you the contents of one of them, Miss E made this box for a 10-14 year girl. They all did boxes for the older age group this year as sometimes OCC do not receive as many of those and it was also great this year to have bought some Go boxes from OCC, they have made my life so much easier, a few quick folds and the box is done!

As always I tried to pack this box full of great items (and love) but for the best price possible. Here is what I spent -

Mickey flannel - 50p (half price, Primark last Jan sales)
Soap - 17p ( part of a 6 pack from the £1 shop)
2 coloured bead necklaces 34p (part of a 6 pack from Claires in the sale, £1)
Tennis ball 33p (part if a 3 pack from £1 shop)
Toothbrush & paste £1.17 (£1 toothpaste & brush from a £1 6 pack)
Paper pad 25p (part of a 4 pack from £1 shop)
Teddy free (came with an Easter gift but not used)
Hat 99p (99p store)
Pack of mint humbugs - 75p (Tesco)
Stickers 35p (25p for 1 pack &10p for other, both bought last Jan in sales)
Comb 20p (part of a 5 pack from Asda for £1)
Lipgloss, fan, post-it stickies, cat mask - all free, things given to us and not used
Hairband 20p (part of a 5 pack from £1 shop)
Pencil case & pencils etc £1 (I'm guessing a £1, bascically the pencil case was 19p in Tesco sale & I buy £1 multipacks of pens & pencils to share out so the cost is minimal, rubbers & sharpeners we get given in sets get kept for boxes as we have enough)
Coloured pencils 39p (Morrisons)
Christmas card and photo - no real cost as the cards are left from last year and I print the photo
Box total - £6.64 plus the £3 transportation cost, making £9.64 in total,

If you want to know more about joining in with Operation Christmas Child then take a peek at my original how to pack a box post, see all my posts from my journey to Belarus last year and look on the OCC website.

What has made you cheerful or grateful this week?

It could be something massive or it might just be the everyday simple things that happen. If you are new to Reasons to be Cheerful then take a look at the background to this linky and my rational for starting it 3 years ago. 

Write a post and link it up, no rules, just as long as you have written about something which is adding a smile to your face or rocking your world then I’m happy. Then link up the post, add in the blog hop code to your post if you fancy and then people can go from post to post nice and easily. Don't forget that linkys only work if you go and visit some other bloggers who have linked up, even 1 or 2 makes a difference.

Wishing you a fabulous week ahead, Mich x



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It's more than just a job, it's a hope for a new future

Image Credit:s Karen Walrond

Last October I had the privilege to travel to Ethiopia with the ONE Campaign. During this stay we visited numerous wonderful businesses that had been set up to allow the Ethiopian people to become sustainable and to be able to help themselves. One of the very first visits we made was to FashionABLE.

All of us women were blown away by our visit to this amazing organisation, you can check out the full story on the FashionABLE site or have a look at my post from last year but in a nut shell FashionABLE offer former sex workers a way to learn a trade and be ABLE (see that word there) to feed their children, build a new life, have dignity, have peace in their life, be a leader and so much more.

This awe-inspiring business grew from one man and his wife living in Ethiopia and observing many women being pushed into poor choices to make enough money to live or feed their children. When they asked these women what they really wanted in life, they were told that they want the chance to earn their own fair wage, they didn't want charity. So that is what Barrett and his wife Rachel set about realising, a way for women to be rehabilitated back into regular life and feeling a sense of pride, community and dignity again. Take a look at this video it sums it up wonderfully in just under 2 minutes and is incredibly touching -



3rd birthday, 30% discount for 3 days!

It's FashionABLE's 3rd birthday this week and I want to be able to see them celebrating their 30th and 300th birthdays so they need to keep selling their wares and the more sales they make the more women that can be employed and become part of this bright future. In the last 3 years the workforce has grown from 3 to 30 making the beautiful hand-woven scarves and just recently a new partnership has been set up making leather goods and that helps another 40 women.

I count myself extremely blessed that Barrett choose to send me a leather clutch bag last week. I look at it and think it is almost too beautiful to use and then I remember that I must use it, as it is the labour from a woman who has worked very hard to make it (both the bag and to this point in her life).

Whilst FashionABLE is primarily about creating new opportunities for women in Ethiopia please don't be fooled into thinking that their products are average, they are not. The business is also focused on only sending out the very best products. They make beautiful scarves, I have about six of them and I will be ordering more and especially as gifts for people for Christmas. At the moment I am eyeing up a Anchinalu scarf in Burgundy and peach for myself. It normally retails at $40, and during the 30% off sale it will be $28 and that means just £17. And yes whilst that might be more than I could pay in Next, I love to know I helped a vulnerable women in the process.

Why don't you take a look online and see what you might like to order? 

If we were all to place just one order think of the knock-on effect that could have in terms of more women being offered the chance of a bright and dignified future.

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Would you buy your meat online?

I was approached by the Great British Meat Company, an online butchers to see if I might like to try out their service and I have to say my first thought was 'are you nuts? Buying meat online, I've never heard of it'.  I then had a chat with my husband and he has been managing catering businesses for twenty odd years and he confirmed to me that yes you can get meat delivered to your door and it is perfectly OK to do so. It can come via a normal courier rather than a refrigerated one as long as the right packaging is used.

I set to work looking at the Great British Meat Company website and found it nice and easy to navigate and find what I wanted to order. You can search by meat type, cut or free type your relevant keyword. I particularly liked the special offers section and I see this week that you can buy 500g of minced beef for £3.50, that is cheaper than the supermarket and of course because you are buying this meat from a butcher the quality is far superior to what you get in your local supermarket.

It was reassuring to me to see that the people who run this site are third generation butchers and have a reputation for their shop dating back to 1953. This means they really know their craft and their values of honesty, quality and service excellence ensure that they only supply the very best meat products which have been cut by hand the day before they are delivered to you. The meat is all 100% British and they can trace the farms it came from, not many meat suppliers can easily say that.

Value for money

I was given £50 to spend on meat and this is what I got for my money -

Medium BBQ pack - (which includes 8 x 4oz beef burgers, 16 x cumberland sausages, 8 x chicken drumsticks and 8 x 4oz pork loin steaks)
1.5kg topside of beef joint - £15.75
5 chicken breast fillets - £10.25
1 pack of back bacon -  £4.30
Total £50.30

When you are choosing your meat and comparing it to what you normally buy in the supermarket, you need to be aware to look at the weight of the meat.  I normally buy a pack of chicken breasts which includes 3 or 4 (depending how large they are) and weighs about 460g and costs £4.50. It would be easy to think that the Great British Meat Company is more expensive at £2.05 per fillet but they are 227g each and thus you only need 2 of them to equal the weight of the supermarket pack and it works out cheaper at £4.10.

Enjoyable Meat

We have now eaten all the meat that was supplied to us and by far our favourite was the topside joint of roast beef, it was gorgeous (even though I had overcooked it a little).  We had friends over to share it with us and they thoroughly enjoyed it too.  The 1.5kg joint served 8 of us for dinner and I had enough left for a good portion of bubble & squeak the next day.

We had no grumbles with any of the other products either, the bacon was super large pieces and I have never cooked with chicken drumsticks before but our curry was really good.

Great customer service

I need to be honest and let you know that the first delivery we received was too warm, the meat products were between about 15-18 degrees and of course refrigerated products should be kept at 3-8 degrees in delivery.  The Great British Meat Company also advertise that their meat will be maintained at less than 4 degrees during preparation and delivery so something had gone a amiss. I was very impressed with the concern shown by the Great British Meat Company when I advised them. They conducted a full investigation of all aspects of preparation, packing and delivery and when my next delivery arrived a couple of weeks later the temperatures were perfect and we were very happy.

Delivery is free for orders over £50 and £4.95 for those under that threshold. You will receive your meat by courier on next day delivery after it is cut between Tuesday - Friday.  You can also pay a premium for Saturday delivery if you desire.

Overall I found our experience with the Great British Meat Company really good and I'd happily shop with them again.

Disclosure: We received the above meat free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

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Foraging for beginners

Since moving to the countryside 8 weeks ago I've been initiated into the joys of foraging for food. This is not really something I've ever done before, I can recall blackberry picking as a kid and I've been to a couple of pick your own but that was about the extent of my experience.

Now you will often find me out and about seeking out what my family can enjoy next! I am of course super lucky to be living on a 220 acre country estate but I'm assured by a friend who lives in central London that you can find food to forage most anywhere. Check out your local parklands, hedgerows and disused areas like overgrown footpaths.

It is not only me who has been bitten with the foraging bug though, my kids are all keen for it too and what a marvellous thing that is.

There are so many benefits to children being involved -

1. Getting outside for exercise and lots of fresh air
2. Great learning opportunity for the children to learn where their food actually comes from and what it looks like both ripe and unripe
3. They develop confidence in their own abilities to pick and use the food we have foraged
4. It gives them an awareness of seasons and what grows when, it is so easy to lose this knowledge with things like strawberries now being available in the supermarkets all year round
5. Once the kids have picked their food they are keen to bake with it and thus there develops another passion
6. We have a blast as a family and really enjoying chatting as we go along

Don't forget to get kitted out when you are going out foraging and remember a few bits of etiquette:

1. Wear long legged and sleeved cloths as brambles and bites can hurt (we know this first hand!)
2. Use kids buckets for easy picking
3. Remember to just forage on public land or seek permission from the landowner if you are accessing private land
4. Take what you need and leave some for other people too (it's good to share)
5. Leave some for the birds and animals too
6. Give your foraged foods a good wash when you get home and let all those bugs creep out (yuck!)
7. Don't pick mushrooms unless you have an expert with you, it is all too easy to get fungi wrong and there can be serious repercussions
8. Only eat foraged foods if you are certain what they are. We have numerous berries here on the estate but until I take the gardener out with me to identify them I'll just stick to the blackberries

So what can you easily forage for in the UK?

There is so much it is unreal, some things seem to be easier than others. I'm really looking forward to the next couple of weeks once the sweet chestnuts are big enough and fall to the ground. It won't be difficult to collect them but it might be a bit prickly, so I have my gloves at the ready. Roasting those will be a real treat.

Wild garlic (Spring)

Blackberries (September time)

Hazelnuts (or cobnuts) (September time)

Elderberries (August/ September) and Elderflowers (June time)

Crab apples (September/ October onwards)

Rosehips (September time)

As you can see the early Autumn is a real feast of a time and I have just touched on all the things you can find if you are a bit more adventurous - what about nettles, dandelions, chickweed and seaweed? Oh and something like wild plums if you are very lucky!

I hope I might have inspired you to get our looking for some sweet chestnuts or to be aware of all the great finds you might have next year and make sure you get some apples as there are so much great cooking with apples recipes. Or why not check out Aly's how to make bramble jelly post.

Pin for Later

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Barn dancing the night away

Last week I posted that Mark Warner had set our family the challenge to spend four hours this month together being active and having fun. Quite coincidentally we had paid to go to our local barn dance and decided that we ought to use that time towards our four hour target.  This is probably the most active dh and I have been in a long time and we were very happy and having a good laugh as the sweat poured off us.

Sorry about the quality of the photos, we were too busy having fun to focus on my photography skills!

I could not get the kids to sit down for even one moment, they were having such a wonderful time. I would definitely advocate a barn dance as a way to have some family fun and get fit at the same time. It was hilarious to watch the children and see them grow in confidence as they got to know more of our neighbours. Miss E had vowed before we went that she would not dance with anyone she did not know and of course you can't say that at a barn dance as you change partners every 30 seconds. Miss M was tentative at first with her broken arm but after 20 minutes or so she was fully engaged and wooing all the older people. JJ was his normal self and policing that people were doing the dances right and changing partners in the correct direction etc.

I think the pictures speak for themselves, we had one of the best nights ever as a family and it was especially wonderful to my husband looking so very happy, young and relaxed.

You can even take a peek at Daddy, JJ and Miss E taking part in one of the dances -

 

Have you had a good week, how have you managed to get active this week?

I'm linking up this post to Fiona's Country Kids - click on the badge to head over and see what others have got up to in their Country Kids exploits.

 

Disclosure: For posting about the activities we get up to this month I will be entered into a competition to win a Mark Warner holiday, I am not receiving anything for writing this post and of course, as always my words are honest and my own.

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Time as a couple #R2BC (Week 42, year 3)

It has been yet another good week, I am so lucky to have a Mum and Dad who will come and look after our kids so that dh and I can go away and have some time together. My children adore their grandparents and they had a ball and did not miss us one bit - McDonalds, walks on the beach, playing with the dog and snuggles with grandparents means they had a super time.

Happy with their Grandparents in the summer

I think it is so important to make sure you have some quality time with your other half every so often. Dh and I have not been away together as a couple for at least 2 years and we needed this break. We are lucky to get some nights out and have even stayed local to my parents for an evening out but actually getting away and having 72 hours is a real treat.

So we set off Friday lunchtime and we got up to loads over the next three days - we went to the cinema in the afternoon, had a pub lunch, swam in a beautiful spa pool, snuggled on the bed, walked Richmond Park for hours, got charged at by a stag (I kid you not!), had a cream tea to calm ourselves, went out for three gorgeous dinners, ate three decadent English breakfasts, stayed at three different places, went to Church twice and we chatted and chatted and chatted until we had no more to chat about.

I loved it and I love you Adam. xx

What has made you cheerful or grateful this week?

It could be something massive or it might just be the everyday simple things that happen. If you are new to Reasons to be Cheerful then take a look at the background to this linky and my rational for starting it 3 years ago. 

Write a post and link it up, no rules, just as long as you have written about something which is adding a smile to your face or rocking your world then I’m happy. Then link up the post, add in the blog hop code to your post if you fancy and then people can go from post to post nice and easily. 

Wishing you a fabulous week ahead, Mich x




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My Diet Chef journey

I posted before that I have been trying out the products and plan from Diet Chef over the last couple of months. I have to be honest and say that I've not really had any long stretches following the plan completely. My life is so up in the air at the moment that dieting is one of the last things on my mind.  I know perhaps it should be higher up the list but things like getting my children settled in their new school, making sure my husband is happy in his new role and making friends here have taken priority.

I have enjoyed the Diet Chef products in the main and I'd love to be able to buy some of them individually and include them as part of a healthy eating plan in the future but at the moment that is not the way they are sold.

My personal food hit list -

• All of the breakfast cereals - especially the Luxury museli and Pink apple & cinnamon Granola
• Chicken mulligatawny soup (in fact most of the soups have been good and filling)
• Mild tikka masala, chicken curry and chicken korma
• Both the pork and beef meatballs
• Fruit oat biscuits and berry oat biscuits (especially with slices of cheese and apple on the side!)

How good do these pork meatballs look?

My personal food miss list -

• The lunchtime milkshakes (they weren't terrible but just not as nice as other meal replacement shakes I have had before)
• The salt and sweet popcorn (I expected to love this but the sugar is powdery and does not adhere to the popcorn, so sadly I did not)

Over the last three weeks I've lost about 1/2 stone and I'm pleased with that, it means I'm not losing weight too quickly and this hopefully means it will stay off for longer.

What I like about the Diet Chef Plan

• It does not try to sell itself as a quick fix, you still take in about 1200-1500 calories a day and weight loss is suggested at about 1-2lbs per week
• There is a great variety of meal items to choose from
• You still get to eat foods from all the foods groups every day and this allows you to develop habits which can be maintained for life
• Delivery of the products to your house is convenient and means that you need to do minimal shopping for your fresh items, like fruit, veg and diary
• It really helps you to see how big a portion should be and whilst eating portion controlled meals your stomach starts to shrink to expect that size

I was pleased to find though that I was having roughly the right amount of porridge though, it was quite an interesting exercise to weight out the food I would normally eat and compare it to the Diet Chef prepared meals and suggested portion sizes for things like pasta and rice.

My first post about Diet Chef was quite comprehensive, so if you want to know more about the plan and how it works then I'd suggest having a read of that.  As I mentioned in that post I won't be buying the Diet Chef monthly plan on an ongoing basis as I have the time to be preparing home-cooked meals but I do think it is good for perhaps a single working person who needs an easy, no fuss solution to help them lose weight.

I noticed that a blogger friend has also undertaken a month on the Diet Chef plan and you can check out her reviews and a video about her time on the plan over at Inside the Wendy House.

If you want to find out more about Diet Chef, you can –

Check out their webpages

If you find you are spurred on by reading others success stories then do have a look as they have loads and I do like looking at before and after photos.

Follow them on Twitter

Like them on Facebook

Disclosure: I was provided with 4 weeks of food for the purpose of this review. They have not instructed me what to write and I remain honest.

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