Snacks and Standbys

Snacks and standbys - here is a review that could be expertly written by my 13 year old son, who is constantly hungry, and pretty independent when it comes to cooking. He makes about half the meals (all cooking from scratch) that we eat at home, and when he gets as far as university, he will never go hungry or be destined to spend 3 years of his life eating baked beans cold out of a tin, or 8p noodles..... Snacks and standbys for some people mean a cupboard full of crisps and bars of chocolates. In my house, the rule is that you can eat as much fruit and yoghurt as you want in between meals, but that if you "need" something proper, you have ...  Read the complete review

Thinking back to my childhood in Italy, I can remember there often being evenings when my mother was coming home late from work, my dad had quickly left to go work a second shift, and there was seemingly nothing to eat in the cupboards. Yet within a half hour my mother had appeared, and rustled up a meal for herself and four hungry kids. All of this without a call to the take-away, an artifical ready meal, nor a sniff of frozen chips, and definately no mention of a "chicken" nugget, or vile fish finger. Sadly, many of todays mothers across the developed world, have lost this skill, apparantly todays mothers work harder, feel more tired, and have ...  Read the complete review

I tend to be a constant grazer, at work I tend to graze on fruit or vegetable sticks (how exciting!!) and then by the time I get to work I just fancy something tasty and filling! I go through phases, for weeks and weeks I will snack on the same thing over and over, then I will suddenly go off it and won't eat it for months! At the moment I'm into chips and dip! Or pitta bread and dip! I've got to say I quite like the new range of dips which supermarkets are bringing out as they are improving the taste and bringing out new varieties. However my mother makes fantastic homemade dips, generally when she is holding a party. So I have stolen her recipe bible and now ...  Read the complete review

I have an illness which affects my stomach, my immune system, and (rather unfortunately as I love food) my appetite. Therefore, I often need reminding or encouraged to eat, or to eat a 'proper' amount of food, the right type of food, or indeed, any food at all that isn't yoghurt! For this reason, I often cook snacks or smaller meals for myself, or my lovely other half will make them for me, if I am too tired or having one of my bad days. I very seldom have the appetite to cope with a huge plateful of food, and find it off-putting to say the least. A small bowl of soup followed by a sandwich is my normal evening meal, sometimes just the soup is enough, and I ...  Read the complete review

The Credit Crunch has really helped me to learn a lot of basics of cooking, here are a few cheap and easy dips, i've learned how to make as I can't see the point in paying for them at the moment, all are easy to make and require a food processor just for speed and ease of use, obviously give it a good clean before using it again though!!! Hummus ------------ This is much easier to make than I ever imagined: Ingredients: 2 Cloves garlic, roughly chopped 1 400g tin of Chickpeas - Drained Juice of 1 lemon Black pepper - Just a good splash One third of a cup of Tahini (Available at the Deli section of any decent ...  Read the complete review