A few weeks ago a company called Prep Kitchen contacted me.  They asked if they could send out a week's meals in exchange for an honest review.  I accepted and not knowing exactly what kind of meals I was about to be sent I was a little scared of receiving ten portions of pre-prepared mush because you know, it's a rare thing indeed when a ready meal actually looks like it does in the ads.

Prep Kitchen is a British company and they believe in healthy ready meals, they offer several options from fat loss to muscle gain to performance meals for the serious pro's out there.  They sent me 10 separate meals and as soon as they arrived and I opened them I noticed that there was nothing I immediately didn't like and for me, that's actually a miracle as I can be a little fussy.

Each meal is freshly prepared, comes ready to store in the fridge and cooks at 200c in the oven for 15 minutes so again, for me who never knows what to cook myself, someone who lives like a student when Looby isn't here, the concept is brilliant.

But get this...

The food is blooming lovely, during my week of trialling the ready meals, there wasn't anything I didn't like and not only that, I also gave them to Harriet on one occasion and Looby twice after she'd come home from the stables (I gave her the high protein muscle gain ones perfect for her sporty self), now it's fair to say that Harriet will eat most things without complaint but Looby is fussier than me and she loved the meals she tried.

The price of each meal is between £5.75 and £7.75 depending on which plan you're going for and I guess, that's quite expensive in some respects but if I'm eating just that for 5 days a week I guess £57.50 isn't too bad.

For ready meals, it's quite hard usually to make them look attractive once cooked, and sometimes uncooked but these meals actually look good and that's part of the fun of eating isn't it.  There are lots of choices too from tasty things like Persian Chicken with middle eastern giant couscous and harissa spiced aubergine to Fresh herb chicken with Gnocchi and ratatouille.

They offer veggie options and the ones I tried in the selection were all great too.  Prep Kitchen also sent some of their snacks which you can use for breakfast or just when you need a lift but I honestly wasn't too fussed on them.

Honestly, I thought it was great, so great that I actually want to subscribe to the fat loss plan to see if it does work, I've felt I wanted to do something for a while but didn't want to go back to Slimming World and I just need a helping hand so doing this for 6 or so weeks until I had a good loss and didn't feel the need to cook my own things (with just a little extra this or a portion of yummy that).

To wrap up, yes, I would definitely use them, I absolutely recommend them if you need a meal plan which caters to your health needs and lead a busy life where you just want to shove something quick in the oven or microwave.  I do think the cost is high but for fresh ingredients being prepared well, I can't imagine that these meals would be cheap if you had to go and eat out.

Quick and Healthy Lasagne Recipes

I love Lasagne, it's literally one of my favourite dishes to eat and to cook, the problem is that my waistline has rather extended over the winter and so bechamel sauce is not exactly a friend I want to have for dinner.

The lovely people at Dolmio got in touch recently and challenged me to come up some recipes using their sauce which by the way is so healthy now, it contains exactly what you see in this photo and is even included in your five a day!!

Ther best thing is that my children will eat this, they hate tomatoes if there's even a hint of something lumpy and tomato like so I've managed to bamboozle them with the joys of Dolmio, I should also say that the chicken lasagne recipe is also just as good with Quorn if like me you have a veggie child or two!

So it's basically the same recipe using either chicken or mince but I have only got photos of the mince version, the first time I cooked for all of my friends, the light was awful by the time we ate and food should never be photographed under artificial kitchen lights, luckily by the second time of cooking the clocks had gone forward and it was ready in daylight hours!

So here without further ado is my recipe for a healthy, quick lasagne and can I just say that with chicken it's amazing!

So use either 400g of chicken breasts (chopped) or a 400g pack of mince (or quorn etc) and then brown that off.

add a jar of Dolmio and then cook down so you have a lovely thick sauce

meanwhile, layer your dish with lasagne sheets (or butternut squash lasagne sheets if you want to be super healthy).

Now, you're going to layer up your dish with the sauce and then instead of adding the bechamel sauce layer you simply substitute that with Quark, yes Quark, that slimming world staple, when it's raw I hate the stuff but when you cook it in lasagne or cauliflower cheese it's amazing, so cheesy, so tasty and so healthy.  I used 2 standard sized tubs for this recipe.

On the top you can sprinkle grated cheese, low fat, a mix of cheddar and parmesan or whatever cheese you want and then, I like a sprinkle of ground black pepper, a grind of Himalayan pink salt and some freshly ground nutmeg, nutmeg and melted cheese go together so well!

After that, all you have to do is bake it in the oven at gas mark 5 until it's cooked and then it's yours to eat as quickly as you can before other people try to pinch it because it's so good!!

This post is an entry for the #Dolmio #ThankGoodness Challenge, sponsored by Dolmio. www.dolmio.co.uk/thankgoodness

Have you got plans for pancake day?

February has hit and I've already noticed my energy levels rising again, the days are visibly longer and when my alarm goes off in the morning I don't feel quite so exhausted although I am still hitting the snooze button.  Yesterday Holly and I had a huge stomp through the countryside with my lovely friend Harriet, it was a lovely Sunday off and the sunshine certainly warmed my soul!

Today was like a breath of spring air, whilst the rest of the country was hit by storm Imogen up in the north east it's been a pretty good day, I didn't quite achieve a long walk because Mondays are mostly manic but it gives me hope that later in the week I might be able to wander in the nearby woodlands noticing winters grip being beaten by the warmth of the coming spring.  Yes I know in reality we still have a way to go yet before the bunnies emerge and the chicks start to cheep their chirpy song but I can't bear to think that it's still likely to snow sometime soon.

Single parenting, winter, self employment, they're all a bit of a bumpy road and definitely not for the faint of heart, whilst I adore my job, I do sometimes think it might be nice to get paid in regular amounts on a monthly basis, luckily I also realise that me trapped behind a desk would be a pathway to my own madness, probably quite literally if I'm honest.  

I have so many plans for this year, I have the dreaded 3rd floor I want to decorate, I want Looby to have her wild flower meadow bedroom and I want every Monday to be open house, it's sort of come to pass that people just end up at my house on a Monday night for dinner and you know what, I love it, I cook simple healthy food that tastes good but contains lots of smart carbs and no refined sugar and everyone goes home happy.  I love having a houseful, I don't even mind the washing up (though I think the time has come to put a dishwasher on the top of my want list), I don't even mind that my children never like the same food and I have to cook at least 2 different meals.  I just love having a table full of chatter and laughter, food unites, it's where friendships are built and strengthened.

Tomorrow, I'm reminded is pancake day, I have a plan for this, 1 sitting of normal fat pancakes for my children (just don't tell them I'm using wholemeal flour) and after slimming world, 1 sitting of some healthier buckwheat protein pancakes with a ricotta and cheese filling for savoury and a strawberries and cream filling for pudding (well we all need a little treat). Happy kids and happy friends I hope.

I'm very excited about this week to come, my article in Cruise International will finally be published on Friday, yes in the shops, a real hold it in your hands magazine.  I've been published before, lots of times actually, my scrapbooking design team days lead to lots of publications but this will be photography and travel writing, something I've been working so hard towards, trying not to get too over excited but to keep having the passion to put myself out there.

This month marks my 10th year of blogging, I am someone who gets excited about a lot of things but sticking with them, well that's another thing indeed so to have before me 10 years of my life, it definitely deserves to be celebrated.  I want to do something special but I'm still not sure what, my lovely friend Laura from Sharpe Recruitment suggested that I should give away afternoon tea with me and you could ask me anything, now I'm not exactly Richard Branson but I guess I've picked up a lot of valuable stuff in 10 years so maybe, just maybe it's not the worst thing you could ever win.  I'd love to know what you think?  How would you mark 10 years of blogging?