Eats from the Street Pop-up Foodie Festival Nottingham plus Easy Chicken & Chorizo Paella Recipe

We love finding new foods and flavours in The Mummy Diary household, in fact we can often be found celebrating different traditional holidays from around the world, with local delicacies, tastes and flavours.

One of our favourite, super quick dinners is my easy-to-make Chicken and Chorizo Paella. Straight up, this recipe started as just a bit of this and that cobbled together, but for you guys and to celebrate the arrival of Eats from the Street in Nottingham this weekend I have written it down for my readers.

What I love about cooking and finding recipes to suit your family is that they become your own and something you can be proud of, so don’t be afraid to stray and add something else if you like that flavour.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

1 x Medium White Onion

2 x Garlic Cloves 

70g Chorizo

500g Chicken Breast 

1 x Cup of Basmati Rice

2 x Teaspoons Smoked Paprika

Few Stands of Saffron (optional)

2 x Tablespoons Tomato Puree

750ml Hot Chicken Stock

Salt & Pepper

1 x  Cup of Frozen Peas

1 x Lemon (optional)

Method:

1. Dice the onion, finely slice the garlic and roughly chop the chorizo and chicken into small cubes. 

2. Heat the oil in a deep sided frying pan and add the onion, fry on a low heat until see though, add the garlic and chorizo and cook until the chorizo has started to release its oils; add in the paprika and saffron (if using) and stir.

3. Add in the chicken and fry until golden and evenly cooked on all sides; once cooked add in the rice and stir for a few minutes until the rice is coated in the oils and spices 

4. Add in the chicken stock and give it a good stir, then add in the tomato puree and a good pinch of salt and pepper and stir again. Leave to simmer on low for about 15 minutes, keeping an eye on it and adding a bit more water if required.

5. After 15 minutes add the peas and leave to simmer for another 5 minutes, until the rice is cooked and the chicken is tender.

6. Best served with a wedge of lemon to squeeze all over the top however, I have two young children and they think this is disgusting so feel free not to ;)

This dish is an straightforward one pot recipe that can easily be whipped up with a few store cupboard ingredients; I know not everybody has saffron but it does add a bit of special flavour to the dish and you only use a few strands each time so a little goes a long way.

So what is your favourite dish from around the world?

On the 22nd to 23rd July 2017, Eats from the Street is coming to Giltbrook Retail Park with a variety of street food flavours from across the globe. A fab pop-up foodie festival with artisan vendors serving up a whole host of cuisines from around the world. Including loaded American hot dogs and burgers, traditional Vietnamese dishes and Wilma’s Cupcakery selling their signature cupcakes and cake-topped milkshakes.

The street food stalls will be serving between 11am and 6pm and unlike other food festivals, visitors will be able to sit and eat their food on a converted double-decker Routemaster bus, which has been transformed into a dining area.

We'll be popping along to this fab event as we not only love to try new foods but with so many shops to choose from it'll be the perfect opportunity to do a spot of shopping too.

This is a collaborative post, all words are my own.

A Great Sprout Alternative

I love sprouts, they are a wonderful source of vitamins and minerals and I could eat them with every roast. But my family are not so keen, my son will eat brussels but only one or two, so when I was asked to tryFlower Sprouts I was intrigued to see whether I could get the whole family to give them a go, by incorporating them into every day meals.

First of all what is a Flower Sprout? 

"The inspiration behind the idea for flower sprouts came from a desire to create a Brussels sprout with a more subtle flavourwhich was versatile and looked great. The result - a brand new vegetable which looks a little like a tiny cabbage with green frilly leaves and streaks of purple. Just 100g of Flower Sprouts® contain double the amount of vitamin B6 the vitamin that helps us use and store energy from the food we eat and twice the amount of vitamin C than standard Brussels sprouts."

Well we've tried them in many variations, steamed with a roast dinner, with meatballs and pasta which was one of the recipes from Flower Sprouts.

And probably one of my favourites was as a smoothie, this is a super way to get all the vitamins in one go, whizzed up with some coconut water, banana, a handful of spinach, some cacao, almond butter and a squeeze of agave syrup it is a suitably yummy way to enjoy flower sprouts.

For me, I really enjoyed eating the Flower Sprouts in every form, when cooked they have a wonderfully soft texture, a mix between kale and a sprout, they have a subtle taste and are easy to eat.

My son tried one and said it was excellent, my husband, the veggie hater, tried one raw and said he thought they were better that way than cooked and my daughter tried a bit of one and didn't want anymore. But she is four and still at a slightly fussy stage in her diet, she tried it though and we will persevere to get her to eat them.

There are some wonderful recipes on the Flower Sprouts website and I will be buying more to try with them, I buy normal sprouts even though the rest of the family aren't too keen. Usually if I have them on my plate they will give them another try.

Certainly with the festivities of Christmas these wonderful little veggies make the perfect and pretty alternative to Brussels sprouts. With them looking like flowers they are sure to be a hit with children who don't like the look of normal sprouts. There is certainly place for all types of sprouts on my dinner table though.

NB: This is a collaborative review post, all words and opinions are my own.

Marlenka Honey Cakes Review

Imagine a cake that you can buy and keep in your cupboard for a few months, that emergency pudding or cake for friends or family who pop over unannounced, well with Marlenka cakes you can do just that.

These cakes can keep for up to 90 days, I say can because as my son said to me 'we should have these more often' so I don't think they'd be in our cupboard long.

We were sent some of the honey cocoa nuggets, honey lemon nuggets, honey cake, honey cocoa cake and a couple of the snack bars, which are all great in their own way.

The nuggets were the perfect treat to have with a cup of tea, they were also ideal for me to pop into my Yumbox for work, in fact it was like they were made for the little pot I popped one in. I offered them to all my family that visited and they all thoroughly enjoyed them.

The nuggets themselves look a little like scotch eggs both on the outside and on the inside, they were the ideal bite sized treat and being made of all natural ingredients you are sure to be eating something that isn't too sweet.

The mini cakes are great for one hungry mouth or two not so hungry mouths, we split them into four pieces so we could each try a piece, they are really light though and so easy to eat and don't leave you feeling full. We enjoyed both but surprisingly, we all really liked the plain honey rather than the cocoa honey, no particular reason but considering we all like chocolate it was a bit of a shocker.

These cakes are really tasty, they contain NO Preservatives, Artificial or GM ingredients, Alcohol or Animal Fat, making them a wonderful treat for many people. You can buy them in some cafes around the country, if you fancy giving them a try in your own home then you can order them online. I have a special discount code for you, you can 10% off with code 'themummydiary'.

My only real issue with them is the cost, I think for most they will come in too expensive. If the price could come down a bit then I think these would be the perfect treat for people looking for a cake that isn't filled with preservatives, something a little bit different and more natural.

NB: I was sent these cakes to form a review, all opinions are my own.

Marquee Love Letters from One Stop Craft Shop

I was recently approached by the One Stop Craft Shop, to see if I would be interested in reviewing some of their new range of Marquee Love letters.

As we have just moved house, our new home is a blank canvas in most rooms. In the kitchen however, we are almost there, we have chosen colours and some new furniture and it is really starting to come together.

Firstly, I had to choose a word to have displayed in lights, EAT seemed very appropriate for the kitchen! So, with my word chosen I was sent some letters and coloured papers to get me started, craft is something I love doing but sometimes it's very difficult to find the time, so this was the perfect excuse and opportunity for me to get crafty.

The letters themselves are made from cardboard, they come with the lights and bulbs which slot onto the front, as well as a template to make it easy to cut the paper.

First of all you need to draw around the template and carefully cut it out, I found you need to cut exactly on the line otherwise it doesn't quite fit in into the letter.

Once you have cut out the shape you need to fit it into the letter and then using a pencil I poked the holes into the front to place the lights and bulbs onto the front.

With the paper being slightly thick, it meant the bulbs didn't slot into holes as easily as they could, I certainly had sore fingers at the end of it all. Be careful not too push too hard onto the cardboard and if need be, put a little pressure on the other side to stop it from putting any strain on the cardboard.

Once I had completed the first letter, the following ones were a breeze.

I absolutely love the finished look though, its fabulous and so effective,  they look perfect on top of my kitchen unit in both the day and at night.

I can't wait for evenings in the garden, to be able to put these on and see them through the window, they are really bright so perfect for an alternative to lamps. They are battery operated by two AAA batteries, so don't need to be need a plug either.

These fabulous letters mean that you can swap and change the colour scheme as much as you like, to suit your rooms, whether it be for children's rooms, kitchen or lounge or even parties and weddings. You can even get additional bulbs in blue and pink, the options are endless and if you hop on over to One Stop Craft Shop there is plenty more inspiration from their huge range of stock.

Plus if you feel like a change you can always swap the letters round....

So, what word would you create? Family, Love, Home???

The paper used in this project were, Mini Dots Gold Foiled Paper and Confetti Gold Foiled Paper.

NB: I was sent the letters and papers to create this post, all words and opinions are my own.