Friday Foody Round-Up #7

I've got to admit, I didn't think I'd be back here so soon with another Friday Foody Round-up but here I am! I am playing a serious game of catch-up at the moment but hopefully with the new school year, routine will start to come back in and I'll be able to tell my bottom from my elbow again.  

In the meantime, I've recently been sent some food products for review. 

Boursin

The nice people at Boursin sent me a selection of their products to try out, including Boursin Fig & Nuts, Boursin Pepper, Boursin Garlic and Herbs (in both normal size and individual portions), Boursin Sun-Ripened Tomato, Onion & Chive and my personal favourite, Boursin Mini's. I have been a Boursin fan for a very long time, it's an incredibly tasty product and also rather versatile.  I use Boursin (the garlic and herb variety) for coating chicken, wrapped in bacon or parma ham, as a pasta sauce, on jacket potatoes - and my favourite way of eating it is just slathering on top of a french baguette. Mmmm. I loved the individual portions as I've never spotted them before but have to say I'm alarmed at my own perception of a portion which would explain my ever-expanding waistline... I loved all these Boursin products and thought the Sun-Ripened Tomato variety was delicious on some crisp bread for lunch at work!  Now I may or may not be writing this whilst eating Boursin Mini's straight out of the tub...Shall I tell you a secret? I actually take these to the cinema as a snack - I bet people LOVE sitting next to me!

Happy Monkey

The day I was asked to try out some Happy Monkey smoothies, my children were already devouring them for breakfast! I've bought Happy Monkey smoothies for quite a while now as my children are smoothie fans and I've always found the Happy Monkey smoothies great value as I can often find them on offer at Waitrose! With that in mind, I wasn't going to turn down a few more samples.  The smoothies come in two flavours, orange & mango and strawberry & banana and my children love both equally. They're perfect for lunchboxes are whilst they taste lovely straight from the fridge, they keep fresh at room temperature for up to 12 hours and each 180ml carton is the equivalent to one portion of fruit, which is why I like giving them one with their breakfast as some days it can be so hard to get that fruit quota in! They're full of all the good stuff and none of the bad stuff and are readily available at most supermarkets in packs of 4 cartons.  

Heinz Five Beanz

I am a Heinz Beanz devotee so when they got in contact with me regarding their recent promotion for their new product Heinz Five Beanz I was won over. I had to do a quick quiz on their Facebook page to find out what kind of bean I was a red kidney bean apparently - and then they sent me my name engraved on a red kidney bean! Along with some of their new Beanz to try!   The new variety of Heinz Beanz contains five different types of Beanz - red kidney, haricot, borlotti and cannellini in the same usual Heinz tomato sauce. I used the normal baked beans in a few everyday-type meals so thought I would replace the usual can of baked beans in my chilli con carne with the new Heinz Five Beanz and I'm pleased to report they were a very tasty addition!  I also did the usual quality control taste-test that I normally conduct whilst cooking beans, by eating them cold out of the pot of course (just a glutton), and they passed, so I will definitely try serving these up on toast for my bean-loving husband and son.

That's it for now! If you've tried any of these products, especially the new beans, I'd love to hear your thoughts.