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Ikea Kalas Childrens Plate
by emmad5689
I have always liked Ikea but our nearest shop is about an hour away so we don't go there very often, last time we visited I bought these plates, cups and some bright childrens cutlery to match for my daughters. The plates cost under a pound as did the cups and cutlery set I seem to remember they were 85p but this was last summer so they ... have gone up a price a little by now but even if they have they would still be fantastic value.
The plates came in a cardboard wrapper very simply to hold the plates in a pack together and apart from the name and the size of the plates there was nothing else on it. The plates inside the wrapper are 16cm x 19cms and they come in 6 colours which is the same 6 colours as the cutlery so it all matches there is pink, green, turquoise, blue, yellow and orange. All the plates are very brightly coloured and attractive to children.
The plates are a sort of squared off oval shape, the sides taper very slightly up over so help keep things like nuts and raisins on the plate, around the edges there is a trim of little squares in the same colour but a more frosted texture than the plate itself. The plates are dishwasher and microwave safe which did surprise me for such cheap plates, I cannot vouch for the dishwasher
These plates have had loads of use in our house literally being used everyday, I have left a couple at my parents house too so being a 6 pack is really handy, being made of plastic they are great for picnics and they are really hardwearing. These plates are fantastic value and my eldest daughter likes to pick which colour she is going to use to match the cutlery and the cups also from Ikea. You simply cannot go wrong with these plates although my eldest daughter is getting to the stage that she eats more at a mealtime and will need a bigger plate soon but these will still be used for my younger daughter and for snacks.
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Kitchen Craft Colourworks 4 Measuring Cups
by Decanus
Admittedly, I am not the dabbest hand in the kitchen. I can turn my hand to a few bits of basic cooking and baking, but that's just about my level of expertise. I work from home these days, primarily so I can look after our two children, and filling up the hours each day can be tricky.
My daughter, who is 3, enjoys baking so I have ... found myself starting to branch out a little, making cakes, muffins, flapjacks, all various easy to make stuff. In the course of this, I have bought some kitchenware just for us, and have gone for brightly coloured, fun items that I know will appeal to my daughter.
As such, these 'Kitchen Craft Colourworks 4 Measuring Cups' are perfect. Fit right in with the red rolling pin, blue baking trays etc! As you can see from the picture, they come in four bright colours (blue, pink, yellow, purple) and in four sizes; 1/8 Cup, 1/4 Cup, 1/2 Cup and 1 Cup. The sizes are clearly written on the handle of the measuring cup's, and are easy to see straight away, perfect for a panic-baker like me! Handily, they also include the sizes in ml too. I tend to find new (easy!) cake/ cupcake/ muffin recipes online to print out, and measurements can be in volume or weight, so having the two written down clearly is perfect for me.
The measuring cups themselves are sturdy, but nice and lightweight, which for me is preferable than the heavier stainless steel ones I often see. They are made from melamine, which is stain resistant, are dishwasher safe, and are guaranteed for 5 years. At under £5, they were/ are a great buy. The bright colours are deliberate, as there is a whole range of Colourworks kitchenware which you can buy and coordinate (not really my thing, but I know the girls like to do that!). We also have the Colourworks 5 Measuring Spoons, which get a lot of use too.
So they look good, are nice and light, easy for kids to pick up and use, and are cheap, whats not to love?
Just one thing actually. Being rounded spoon shapes, you have to hold them up with one hand and fill them with the other; if they had flat bottoms they could be rested on the surface to do this, but with the rounded bottoms they just roll over. Not a problem when there is two of you, as my daughter holds them while I fill them, but slightly annoying for the solo baker.
We shall be investing in more Colourworks kitchen pieces as they are fun for kids to bake with, and do brighten up the kitchen. Thumbs up from dad.
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Plenty Kitchen Paper
by scooch12
Let me point out that I've never previously been loyal to any brand of kitchen roll. I always used to buy the cheapest supermarket one, after all, it's only used to wipe up mess. After being used for five seconds, it just ends up in the bin, never to be seen again. I don't buy many branded products on my supermarket shop in general, I ... mostly opt for supermarket own labels with a few exceptions (like cornflakes!).
The cost of the 'value' kitchen roll just seemed to go up and up, until eventually it reached £1.25 for two rolls. That might still sound cheap, but I also thought it had become far worse in quality. I'll be frank, it went from being ok to being terrible - I started to need about ten sheets to mop up even the smallest mess properly, even more for bigger spillages and before I knew it the roll was gone. It seemed false economy to keep on buying it when it had become so poor. The advert for plenty had stuck in my mind - "one sheet does plenty". I saw that Tesco had a pack of two 'fat one' rolls of plenty on sale at a special offer price of £2, the same offer currently on in their stores at the moment. This seemed too good to miss and perfect opportunity to see if it was as good as it sounded. I'd been getting a bit more disgruntled with the value kitchen roll and if this lived up to it's statement then it surely would be much more economical for me to use. I can now say that it did live up to it - a value pack of kitchen roll has never ended up in my trolley again.
The plenty kitchen roll comes in many different forms - the one I always pick up is 'the fat one' as you get more sheets per roll. According to the packaging, you receive 50% more sheets per roll than on their standard plenty roll. There is an average of 75 sheets on each roll, together covering an area of over 7.8m2 (I haven't tried this out in the kitchen honestly, it says on the pack!). I find that one roll lasts us just under one week for a family of three (and a cat).
As soon as I ripped the first roll from the packaging and before I even took a sheet, I immediately noticed how much better quality it felt to touch. When I did take a sheet from the roll, I couldn't believe how much thicker it was than my previous one, it felt like it was worth far more than the 75p extra that I'd paid. It has a bumpy texture to touch which I assume aids with it's absorbency. The bumpy texture is slightly visible and forms almost a swirling pattern on the sheet. Each sheet measures 22.9cm x 22.8cm and are 2 ply. I just have a standard kitchen roll holder to hold mine and the chunky rolls of plenty fit very nicely on it so it's certainly not too thick to store. The pattern on the roll that I buy is of teapots with a 'plenty' word imprinted every so often. The pattern goes all the way across the top and the bottom of each sheet. This was a new thing for me, as the cheap value range is just plain white!
We have lots of spillages in our house - from drinks being knocked over, my baby being sick, the cat knocking his water over, the list is endless. While I'm not completely sold on the 'one sheet does plenty' statement that they have made - as I find I always still need 2 or 3 sheets - I definitely don't need half as many as I used to need previously. I find 2 to 3 sheets of plenty mops up a small to medium spillage. If a whole glass of water gets knocked over, it takes around 5 to mop it up completely - again, a lot less than needed with my previous kitchen roll. The sheets aren't so thick that they're not flexible - they can be folded very easily if desired.
Their claims on the packaging are 'mega absorbent', 'rinse and re-use' and 'ultra durable'. I can whole heartedly agree with the kitchen paper being mega absorbent. The absorbency is second to none. The towel still feels quite strong once it's been used across a spillage and absorbs all liquid up fast. I always used to find that the value roll just disintegrated into smaller pieces when mopping up any sort of spillage. I also agree that the towel is 'ultra durable'. With this kitchen roll, the whole sheet stays in tact, I can't think of any time that it's even shown signs of falling apart. This also makes it easier to pick back up once it's soaked up the mess to discard. I have other uses for it too, not just mopping up liquids. I often peel vegetables on top of the kitchen roll to make it easier to collect the peelings when I finish - the kitchen roll has always been strong and never collapsed as I've moved with the pile to remove them. I have no doubts that these two claims are fully deserved. But, the 'rinse and re-use' claim, although not something I have ever tried, is something I do doubt a little, even though I think it's fantastic quality overall and worth every penny it costs. I just don't see how this is possible with any kitchen roll after mopping up a major spillage in the home. I wouldn't purposely buy it for this quality, but I suppose it would be worth a go to see if it's true nonetheless.
I also use some sheets of plenty in the bathroom to mop up after a shower or round the sink to keep watermarks at bay. It should be noted however that the kitchen roll is too thick to be flushed down the toilet - it even shows a picture on the packaging to this effect. I just save mine until I've finished and throw in the bin as normal.
I have to rate the plenty kitchen roll 5 stars, it's a fantastic product available at a reasonable price and mops up all spillages with very minimal effort. Even at full price in Tesco, £2.99 I wouldn't hesitate to buy a pack. It's now one of very few brand names added to my shopping list. So long value kitchen roll!
Thanks for reading :o)
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