Bristol Shwopping Challenge with M&S

21st June 2014

Bristol ladies (and gents), get yourselves down to one of the city’s five Marks and Spencer stores to take part in the “Shwopping Challenge” as part of Bristol’s Green Week.

M&S is looking to collect 10,000 unwanted items of clothing, shoes or other garments for Oxfam over the course of Friday and Saturday – all of which will be donated to the charity to be sold in its shops, re-used or recycled to help raise vital funds for its poverty alleviation work.

Anyone that takes part in the Big Bristol Shwop in any of M&S’s five Bristol stores on Friday or Saturday (Broadmead, Cribbs, Longwell Green, Avonmead and Yate) will also be rewarded with a £5 voucher.

The photos are from the launch of the event which saw Bristol Mayor George Ferguson shwop a pair of his famous red trousers!

I always try to donate clothes I no longer want or wear so can really get behind this campaign. I’m hoping to find time to pop along to the Broadmead store later armed with a bag of goods to donate! Let me know if you pop along…what do you do with things you no longer have a use for?

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Summer of Flavour with M&S

12th June 2014

Ok, so there is clearly a theme to my posts this week…I love Summer and all the fresher, lighter foods around, even when the weather doesn’t match! As well as providing me with a free lunch, Marks and Spencer also invited me to take part in their Summer of Flavour by providing me with the ingredients to make one of their fabulous sounding recipes.

Summer of Flavour is all about celebrating flavour, and as well as enjoying what we know and love, putting a new twist on traditional dishes. I chose to make a dessert that involved folding blueberries and lemon curd in to lightly crushed meringues and whipped cream then freezing it. It sounded like heaven…and tasted like it too!

Ingredients:

8 meringue nests (Cook with M&S)

300ml double or whipping cream (although the Bristol store had neither so was subbed with pre-whipped cream and that worked just as well!)

325g jar Sicilian lemon curd

180g blueberries

1. Lightly crush the meringues and set aside.

2. In a bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks. Fold in the lemon curd and the blueberries.

3. Now fold in the crushed meringues. Spoon into a 900g/2lb loaf tin lined and over-hanging with cling film. Open-freeze until firm then fold the overhang of cling film over, wrap again and freeze until ready to serve.

4. Alternatively spoon into 8 ramekin dishes, cover tightly with cling film and freeze.

5. Transfer the frozen loaf to the fridge 30 minutes before slicing. Ramekins are best left to stand at room temperature 10 minutes or so before spooning into.

This was one of the easiest desserts I’ve ever made and tasted so fresh, despite being really quite naughty! The lemon curd complemented the blueberries perfectly and the meringue gave a crunchy, chewy texture. I imagine that you could substitute the blueberries quite happily with raspberries too…let me know if you give that a go, or if you follow this recipe to the letter.

What are your favourite flavour combinations?

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Lunching with M&S

10th June 2014

For some reason food from Marks and Spencer never lets me down. I think this comes from growing up with it as a luxury as to this day it’s always a treat rather than an every day occurrence. I’m sure this would change if I ever move somewhere that has an M&S nearby, but as it involves a bus ride in to town it’s a rare treat.

Marks and Spencer have recently added to their food on the move range and were lovely enough to arrange some samples for me to collect on a recent trip in to town, with the not so difficult task of reviewing it on the blog…honestly, sometimes blogging is such a chore!

I love sushi, so the M&S team’s selection for me was perfect! I am so rubbish at capturing photos of food (practice time for me!) but this looked so delicious…and I confirm it tastes amazing. I really loved the Futomaki selection with a honey, ginger and chilli dressing (£3.50 per pack) as you got a good variety of pieces to try and the dressing added an extra dimension to the flavour; I find shop bought sushi can be on the bland side. The Salmon and Prawn Nigri (£3.50) was also excellent, the best shop bought Nigri I’ve tried and perfectly accompanied by good old soy sauce. I sadly couldn’t try the Yakatori Chicken Skewers (£2.00) as they had nuts on them, my bad for not mentioning that allergy but Ben reaped the benefits and gave them the thumbs up!

The new range from Marks and Spencer focuses on fresh and flavour packed lunches. As well as the sushi there is also a range of American inspired delights such as pulled pork and crunchy slaw on a soft white roll (£3.30) and some fantastic looking Bento boxes.

I try not to buy my lunch too often, but usually treat myself once a week. I wish I lived closer to a M&S as I’d love to explore this range further, I always find a long day at work is made better by an luxurious (well, not home made) lunch!

What do you guys do for lunch? Any one else agree nobody does food quite like M&S? Pass me the Percy Pigs!

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M&S Introduce the Multi Way Dress

07th January 2014

It’s January, payday is still three weeks away, I’m broke already and yet I still want to shop.

My wardrobe is bursting at the seams (and yet I have nothing to wear). I want quality over quanity. I really can’t shop right now,

or can I?

The clever folks at Marks and Spencer know times are tougher and that people are moving away from fast fashion (I’m trying to)

They’ve just launched a brand new dress to the market. Part of their Collection range the Slinky Multi Way Dress costs £55 and can be worn in an impressive 5 different ways- cap sleeved, halter, strapless, asymmetric and cross over back.

Also available in gunmetal and black this is THE most hardoworking dress I’ve seen and would be perfect for taking you from office to bar.

Available exclusively online here

xxx

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Baby It’s Cold Outside

20th November 2013

Alternative title: A little more onesie love.

Maybe it’s the painkillers talking but I really am now feeling the need for more onesies in my life. The beauties I am about to share below are from the one and only Marks and Spencer and I’m think that perhaps with ten more days of sick leave (at least) ahead of me I need all three just to vary things up a little!