Simply Cook Review

I kept seeing ads and deals for Simply Cook everywhere, so as there was a special offer on at OhMyDosh! Rewards (£3 for the box and £3.50 cashback) I figured I had nothing to lose by giving it a try.

What Is It?

Recipe kits packed into boxes which fit through your letterbox. The usual price is £9.99 for a kit of 4, with each one serving 2-4 people depending on your serving sizes. All you need to do is buy the fresh ingredients required and follow the instructions.

Does It Work?

For me, as the person just eating it, it was awesome. Everything tasted great - the mushroom penne in particular was so good I went back for seconds - and I liked that the sauces weren't as rich as Anthony would usually make them.

For Anthony, who cooked them, they weren't as impressive. He complained that the food was bland and that it was actually quite a lot of faff, as Lidl didn't stock everything we needed which meant another trip out.

I think for reluctant cooks, like me, they're fab and take a lot of the stress out of it. For more experienced (or more set in their ways...) cooks it might not be as appealing. Either way, click on the image at the top of this post to try it out for yourself for just £1.

Penwizard Personalised Books Review

Before Christmas lots of bloggers were running competitions for Penwizard vouchers, a children's book company established in 2004 which specializes in personalised books. What sets them apart from their competitors is the ability to personalise the illustrations as well as the text. After checking out their website I was really impressed by this aspect, especially with the Christmas themed Raymond Briggs books.

I made it my mission to win one!

The overlords of comping luck, or whatever else it is determining the roll of the dice, smiled on me fairly quickly - only for me to get to the checkout and realise that the voucher wouldn't cover the book I wanted. (£19.99 for a large softback and £24.99 for a large hardback.) At the time I literally lacked two pennies to rub together so I went for 'Adventures in Birthday Land' instead at £12.49, fully covered by the voucher.

It's a really sweet little story and Marianna was suitably thrilled with it a couple of weeks ago. :)

Still, I kept thinking about The Snowman book - the animated short being one of my favourite things about Christmas - and when I saw another round of competitions I crossed my fingers and entered them all. This time I was lucky enough to win a £20 voucher and I went straight to the site to place my order.

The website is really easy to use, and it didn't take long at all to customise the child character's skin, hair and eye colour, as well as the length of the hair and a printed message at the beginning of the book. Turnaround time and delivery were super quick, and within days I was putting it away for Marianna's Christmas Eve box.



When the day came we told her it was a special gift from McGinty, our Elf on the Shelf, and Marianna was so excited when she realised she was in the story. Even once Christmas was over she wanted to read it again and again, and told anyone who would listen how she was the star of her very own book.

All in all I was extremely pleased with both books. The printing and binding is top notch, every bit as professionally done as the originals, and though they are a little on the pricey side it's worth it for the personalisation element. They're a great keepsake kids can still get plenty of use from in the here and now. A+.

Butternut Box Review

Never work with kids or animals... Hopefully a less blurry photo to follow!

I found a promo code last week for a completely free trial of Butternut Box - perfectly portioned, freshly cooked meals delivered direct to your door. For your dog! At that price I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it out.

How It Works

When you sign up to the site you're asked to fill in some details about your canine friend: their breed, age, weight, activity level, and so on, which enables them to work out how much food your dog needs. You can then choose between two plans - 50% of their daily intake if you want to mix it with other food, or 100% if you plan to switch entirely. 

After inputting your dog's special dietary preferences and / or requirements and picking a delivery date, you just have to sit back and wait for your box to arrive.

Delivery!

The meals are sent out frozen in insulated cardboard boxes, usually in large batches meant to cover two weeks or more. This does mean that you need to have a decent sized freezer to be able to store it but, on the flip side, it helps reduce the company's carbon footprint. 

In fact, their ethos and commitment to making everything they do eco-friendly is something I'm really impressed by. The only aspect of the delivery that is non-recyclable is the plastic food pouch itself, and Butternut say they are already close to rolling out a viable eco alternative.

I loved the cute design on the ice pack, and the nice touch of including a patterned bandana to welcome Bracken to the Butternutter club. Of course, the star of the show is the food itself. There are a range of meal flavours, all of excellent quality, and unlike some dog food we've tried it doesn't smell awful!

Conclusion

Bracken is by far the fussiest dog I've ever known. Even as I was ordering this I wasn't sure if she would actually eat any of it; we've tried the Tails.com trial in the past and she just turned her nose up at it. But, when we put the bowl down, Bracken went straight over and started eating. And kept eating. Every day so far she has demolished her dinner.

If Butternut can get her to clear her bowl, it deserves all the praise I can heap on it and more! :)

Mini Mart: PetiteGiteMiniatures

Supplier: PetiteGiteMiniatures
Website: Etsy Store.

Products: Newspapers, magazines, cards, takeaway menus and other paper ephemera available in 1/6, 1/12, 1/24 and 1/48 scales. Most items start at £2.44 for the smaller scales, then increase in price depending on whether or not you want opening pages in the magazines, for example.

The print quality is really nice, and even though the magazines aren't printed throughout they're still okay for leaving lying about a room. The menus are my favourite things - they're nicely done and not something you see in miniature all that often, at least not with that much detail.


Post and Packing: Shipping starts at £3.23 from Florida to the UK.

Morgan's Magic Moon

Our new favourite bedtime story this month is 'Morgan's Magic Moon' by Christopher Parry. It is the super cute story of a little girl who searches high and low for the missing moon, all with the help of her faithful dog Cwtch - a Welsh word for which there is no literal translation, but is basically a cuddly, snuggly kind of a hug.


I absolutely love the stylized illustrations and the bright colour palette used by Jordan Brown. I am notoriously picky about the artwork in children's books - quietly swapping out books for editions with subjectively better illustrations is practically a fulltime hobby these days! - so that's no faint praise.

Marianna tells me the pictures are beautiful because Morgan has red hair just like her. Who am I to argue? :)

The whole book is beautifully laid out, and the text is clear and easy for little fingers to follow.


What really makes this a firm favourite however is the story itself.

So many children's books fall down over awkward rhyme. Even some of the biggest names in the business have problems with sentences which don't quite flow, or inadvertent tongue twisters that have you stumbling over your words. No such problem here! It's a small thing, I know, but a nice even rhythm is an important thing when it comes to a bedtime story.

In conclusion: this is a sweet wholesome story that flows easily and really lends itself to young readers following along.