Visit Free Sample Heaven This Weekend- Tesco Taste Festival, Custom House Sq, Belfast #TescoTasteFestival

When I was a little girl one of my favourite outings of the year was the Ideal Homes Exhibition in the Kings Hall. I loved the little free samples, and have vivid memories of the sample Cookstown sausages tasting better than any sausage ever tasted. 

If you haven't been before, then let me tell you, the Tesco Taste Festival is a free sample heaven. 

This is the 9th year of Tesco's food festival, which runs this weekend Saturday 10am-6pm & Sunday 11am-5pm. It's also open tonight until 8pm if you catch this post on time. It's in a huge tent in Custom House Square, and inside there are dozens of stalls with local producers with all their wares. There's even a Tayto Castle!

Favourites like Mash Direct are there, but I was actually surprised at just how many local brands Tesco stock. There are a good 40-50 different companies on display, all with tasting samples, and products to buy should you like what you taste!

There is also cookery demonstrations throughout the day, using local produce. 

So if you fancy taking a taste tour round the counties of Northern Ireland, why not stop by the tent this weekend. Entry is free and it's enclosed, so weather won't stop play. 

You'll be surprised how many brands you didn't know were from Northern Ireland there are, and you'll have fun tasting samples along the discovery way. 

Spar Launches Meal Inspirations, Helping Us Enjoy Freshly Cooked Meals, That Are Quick & Easy For Tea Time

It's estimated a whopping 87% of 16-34 year olds are no longer cooking their meals from scratch, and it's a figure I believe, as personally I favour the easiest ways of cooking available. 

The same study found that young adults and families aren't resorting to fully prepared ready meals, but are more likely to partake in component cooking. This means buying products like meat already prepared in a sauce that can be put in the oven, or vegetables that can be microwaved as a side dish. So whilst we are opting for ease and speed, we aren't going for full on American style TV Dinners.

This insight has helped Henderson Group, which comprises of Spar, Eurospar & Vivo, to develop Meal Inspirations, aiding shoppers who are short on time to still manage to cook a fresh, locally sourced meal.

75% of their fresh food is sourced from Ireland, including brands like Mash Direct and Willowbrook Farm. 

Those ranges, as well as Spar's own enjoy local and The Kitchen are part of the Meal Inspirations initiative, suggested as ways families can eat fresh, but without huge preparation times.

enjoy local includes prepared meats sourced locally, that simply need oven cooked, with fresh sauces included. The Kitchen is a Range you often see me singing the praises of on Twitter, I'm a massive fan of their meals and would use at least one product a week.

The Kitchen includes meals for one, almost like microwave meals, in fact you do microwave them, but the ingredients are fresh, not frozen. My absolute favourite The Kitchen product is the chicken curry. I would choose that curry over takeaway any day. There are huge chunks of chicken breast, button mushrooms, peas and onions, all fresh, all delicious. I'm probably going to have that for tea tonight now!

The Kitchen Range also has a line of desserts, that can be shared between two or three.

As part of Meal Inspirations you can also pick up this handy little mini recipe book, with quick and easy meals you can whip up using products from Spar, EuroSpar & Vivo.

You can also check out their  Instagram where they will be posting Tea Times Tables in the coming weeks  to further help shoppers decide their Meal Inspirations.

London Eastend Food Tour, Spitalfields' & Brick Lane's Finest Foodie Treats

Brick Lane

As part of the M&S Christmas launch last week, after the show they took us on a walking food tour in East London.

Our first stop was in Spitalfields Market, at Taberna do Mercado. Quite possibly the fanciest little food stall in a market in existence. Michelin star Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes' serves up amazing steak sandwiches. I've never tasted anything like it. Absolutely beautiful.

Next we visited one of the market's many food trucks, Crosstown Doughnuts. Their handmade doughnuts come in a selection of unusual flavours. Yuzu & passionfruit, matcha tea, peanut butter and jelly, and beetroot lemon-thyme, which I tried.

They also have specific days when they serve completely vegan doughnuts. 

Peanut butter and jelly doughnut

We passed another of the many food trucks, The Duck Truck, London's first and only full duck menu restaurant!

Then it was onwards towards the very trendy Brick Lane. The storm clouds were gathering, and at one point the heavens opened on us and we had to take shelter under a railway bridge. 

Along Brick Lane was the next stop on the food tour, Dark Sugars. Just the scent of the shop was amazing. The aroma of cocoa and sugar was delicious.

We tried their handmade products that came with a tiny pipette of fruit flavouring, which you squeezed into your chocolate before eating. 

Also on Brick Lane is the Cereal Killer Cafe, the infamous breakfast only joint that made headlines when it opened. The owners are Northern Irish, and they've been very successful with their venture. There is even a Cereal Killer Cafe in Dubai.

Our final stop was the 24 hour bagel takeaway Beigel Bake, which was exciting for me as I remember it being in The Apprentice!

Video Tour of the M&S Christmas 2017 Food, Drinks & Gifts Launch Event

Over the next week I'm going to share various posts about this fantastic event M&S brought me over to London for. There's a lot to get through, so I'm going to break it down into starters & savoury snacks, main meal items, desserts and sweets, drinks, and finally gifts. 

 Until then here is a little video tour of the event, and a quick look at some of the products I'll be featuring in the coming week. 

Geometric Vinyl Heaven & the Most Splendid Photographic Floor Murals, Custom Made for Your Rooms, From Atrafloor

One of my favourite 1970s' interior design trends was photographic wall murals. Huge, feature walls decorated with mountain scenes, or a wooden glen, or even an exotic beach. I'm going to blog about them soon, as it's another one of my childhood memories that's inspired my taste today. 

Whilst photographic walls haven't yet made a comeback, one trend that is flourishing is photo realistic flooring design. Advances in printing technology has allowed high quality images to be blown up and printed on vinyl to be used on floors.

The leading brand using this technology is Atrafloor. They offer custom made vinyl flooring, cut exactly to your measurements, and easy to install. They have dozens upon dozens of prints to choose from. The photographic floor murals are joined by a selection of beautiful geometric patterns, kids' rooms designs and more. 

Atrafloor sent us two samples, to feel the quality for ourselves. The initial impression I had was of how thick the vinyl was. This isn't some flimsy plastic, it's great quality, thick flooring. 

The colours are vivid and the print is sharp. The town print flooring would even be excellent to purchase as a play mat for a nursery to protect your carpeting from toys. All designs are £59 a metre. 

Here are some of my top picks of prints from the Atrafloor online store, but this is only a small selection, so click on through to browse the entire catalogue. You can also draw inspiration from the Atrafloor Instagram account.

The George at Asda Christmas 2017 Duvet Covers Are In! With Over a Dozen Designs to Choose From.

Asda's Christmas bedding is now legendary, with so many designs each year to choose from, and fun designs in single, double and king size. This year is even better, I want the vintage Santa caravan, retro kitties AND the snow globe offerings. How on earth will I choose? Luckily prices start at £10, with cushions at £5 and £6 so maybe I can narrow it down to two purchases! 

New Mum? Student? Or Spoonie, like me? Reasons Why an IceQ Mini Fridge is a Handy Little Investment For All Year Round.

When I was expecting my son, oh goodness, ten years ago now, I was buying all sorts of stuff in preparation and excitement about becoming a new mum. One of the things I bought which isn't an obvious item at the top of most expectant mothers' lists, is a mini fridge.

Why on earth, you might wonder. A baby isn't going to be desiring an ice cold Red Bull on hand in the nursery, even if us mums might yearn for one the fifth time we are up during the night.

Well, here's the thing. Those cute little mini fridges don't just make things cold. Nope, they also have a switch that turns the unit into a box that keeps things warm. I was planning on bottle feeding, and realised I could keep bottles warm in between close feeds, but there's another feature of these mini fridges that you might not be aware of that's even handier for new parents.

IceQ fridges from  www.minifridge.co.uk come with three adaptors, one of which is your standard home plug, but another one is an adaptor to plug your fridge into the car's socket lighter. This meant I could make a bottle before leaving on a journey, keep it warm in the car and not have to try to find somewhere later on to wrangle with powder and water and bottles. Later on you can use the fridge to keep your sprouting toddler's water or juice, or even snacks cool, just switch to the cooling feature. 

That was many moons ago, and my old mini fridge got misplaced on one of the two house moves in the last ten years. So I was delighted to receive this gloriously fuchsia IceQ model to see me through the next ten years, and most likely beyond. 

Obviously I'm no longer a new mum, but there's a personal reason why I now need a mini fridge, again, it's probably not one very obvious to most people. I suffer from M.E. which leaves me exhausted daily just dealing with single parenting. It's a known fact I blog from my bed on my iPad Pro. So I'm what is known on the internet as a 'Spoonie', someone who has a chronic illness which has an aspect of very limited energy.

Where does a mini fridge fit into this? Well three years ago I moved from a bungalow to a two storey house, and boy do I feel the difference some days.  

Having a mini fridge in my bedroom means I can bring drinks, snacks etc. upstairs in one run, rather than having to go up and down stairs a few times during the day or evening. This may seem like a small issue, but for other chronic fatigue sufferers you may be having an 'a-ha!' moment, and deciding which colour of mini fridge you want to buy for your own bedroom!

Mini fridges are also excellent if you have certain medications that need stored at a certain temperature. If you've an elderly relative who might struggle to get up and down stairs, again they might benefit from a bedroom fridge unit. The IceQ fridges also are asethically pleasing to have sitting in your bedroom, with many different designs and sizes on www.minifridge.co.uk

If you are a student, or a parent of a new student heading away this autumn, who might have to share a kitchen, a mini fridge to store their stuff they definitely don't want to share with everyone else in halls, would be an excellent and actually useful going away present. 

Ditto if you are in a big office and people keep 'sharing'  your lunch or snacks. They are also a great idea for taxi drivers, or for on boats, should you be so lucky to have one, and remember, the unit can keep food or drink warm for you also, not just keep things chilled.

Lastly, okay, admittedly having a mini fridge is also pretty darn cool. Snazzy for your computer work station, home bar, or a Christmas presents for a teenager's bedroom.

 www.minifridge.co.uk has a sale right now, with it being the end of the summer, and free next day shipping. I've also an exclusive voucher code for you- 'save5' to take £5 off orders over £50

Sneaky Peek at the M&S Xmas 2017 Range- at the launch in London this morning #mandsxmas17

I'm in London this morning at the M&S Christmas 2017 launch. Lots of blog posts ahead in the different food ranges, gifts, decorations, but for now a couple of snaps to get you in the festive mood. It's never too early for me!