Strawberry Milkshake with Organic Free Range Milk from Arla

As babies milk is our first and only source of food, whether it comes from the bottle or breast. Some of us go on to love a glass of milk morning, noon and night, whilst others may only have a little,  in a bowl of cereal or cuppa. I'm the latter, along with my teen girl, but my boys can't get enough of the stuff, particularly my youngest, who still loves a mug of milk at every bedtime.

We all want what's best for our children, and when it comes to milk Arla Organic Free Range milk is right up there. The free range milk is provided by cows that graze outside whenever possible, and for over 200 days of the year, on grass and clover that's grown without the use of artificial weed killers or fertilisers. In addition to the high standards already met by being free range, additional standards are met on animal welfare, quality and sustainability required for the milk to be classed as organic. Arla is also farmer owned, meaning that when you buy an Arla product you know that you're helping to support their farmers and their families.

You're probably now thinking 'but does it taste any good'? The best person to answer that would be our family milk expert, 8 year old Jack.

Before I let Jack try the milk I asked him what he thought organic and free range milk was, and whether he thought it would taste better than the non organic/free range milk that he's used to.

He didn't really know much about organic, and despite hearing the term 'free range' he didn't really know what that meant either. I gave him a quick run down about the cows being happier if they were allowed room to wander around outside and eat nice fresh grass that hadn't had any nasty sprays on, and that if the cows were happier they would produce better quality milk. After thinking about it he concluded that he thought that happy cows that ate good food would probably produce nice milk.

Was he right?

I think we'll take that as a yes. Thumbs up for Arla Organic Free Range milk & Mum's strawberry milkshake, on a roasting hot day.

Strawberry Milkshake - serves 2

handful of fresh strawberries

500ml Arla Organic Free Range milk

scoop of vanilla ice cream

• Add all the ingredients to a blender & blend until smooth
• Serve immediately in a tall glass with a straw & a sprig of mint

In collaboration with Arla Foods

Dairy Free Chocolate Freakshake {using Rice Dream}

New year, new me. Blah Blah Blah. 

We all do it, but this year I mean it. I haven't actually said it out loud because I hate the term, but there is nothing like a new year to start a new diet. Or a Monday, or indeed a Tuesday, like today, on which I have jumped aboard the Slimming World bandwagon. Dieting is not easy when your work revolves around delicious food, but I will be zipping my mouth firmly shut and handing over full taste testing responsibility to my 3 stooges. 

First test on the agenda has been for DREAM, who specialise in Diary free alternatives to milk and ice cream. I received some of their Rice Dream drink to test their claim that it offers tea lovers a dairy free solution to the perfect cup of tea. I admit that I am a little fussy when it comes to tea, and can only drink it with skimmed milk in. For coffee I'm a little more flexible, but if there's tea on offer then it has to be skimmed milk, or I drink it black. 

I was a little skeptical at this claim but was pleasantly surprised that my tea tasted no different to usual, despite being a little darker in colour due to the consistency of the milk.

None of the kids are tea drinkers so they weren't in the slightest bit interested in these claims, but they were more than happy to put Rice Dream through their own taste test in a Freakshake.

Freakshakes are a huge trend sweeping the country. Bars and cafés are adding them to their menus, and Facebook is often awash with photos of huge shakes that have enough calories in to see a grown man through a few days! What to do if you're following a dairy free diet though? How about this dairy free freakshake, which is still loaded with all the yumminess and calories, but without the dairy. Most supermarkets stock dairy free products that can be used in this, and although I used a dairy free chocolate ice cream that I found in my local supermarket, DREAM make a salted caramel and a mint chocolate version which is available in Waitrose, and would be a delicious alternative.

Dairy Free Chocolate Freakshake - makes 1

tbsp smooth peanut butter
sprinkles
25g dairy free chocolate
250ml Rice DREAM
1 tbsp cocoa powder
4 scoops dairy free ice cream
2 large cookies (there's a great recipe here for cookies using coconut oil)
handful of sweet & salty popcorn
coconut cream
dairy free brownies (this recipe can be adapted with dairy free spread and chocolate)

• Place the peanut butter in a small bowl and heat for 10-20 seconds in the microwave until runny
• Dip the rim of your glass into the peanut butter to coat the rim approx 1-2cm deep before dipping in sprinkles
• Place in the fridge to firm up whilst making the shake
• Make a chocolate sauce by heating together a tsp of rice Dream with the dairy free chocolate, until melted and smooth
• Use some of the chocolate sauce to drizzle inside the glass
• Add the remaining rice Dream to a blender, along with the cocoa powder and 2 scoops of ice cream - whizz together until smooth
• Pour the shake into the glass and top with another scoop of ice cream
• Make an ice cream sandwich out of the 2 cookies and one scoop of ice cream - making a hole in the centre for the straws
• Top with coconut cream and stick popcorn and brownie pieces around the cream and ice cream
• Drizzle with the remaining chocolate sauce before serving

Rice DREAM certainly passed the taste test in these shakes, and the glasses were soon empty!

If you fancy trying Rice DREAM for yourself then it's available in Ocado, Tesco & Waitrose (rrp £1.49). There is currently a 'try me for free' promotion on certain packs, inviting shoppers to discover the great taste for themselves, or receive their money back if they don't enjoy it. What have you got to lose!

post commissioned for DREAM

Chocolate Cake Shake

We're well into the second week of the Easter holidays here and the kids have been enjoying spending a bit of time in the kitchen rustling up their own breakfast, which is usually followed by a milkshake of some kind whizzed up in the Nutribullet, and a big mess in the kitchen!

We get through a lot of milk in this house, with the boys eating endless bowls of cereal as well as their milkshakes. Whilst none of us suffer from any intolerance to milk, many people do. Believing that they are suffering from lactose intolerance they cut milk from their diets, however some of these sufferers have discovered that it's the A1 beta-casein protein in milk that they're intolerant to rather than the lactose. a2 milk is a natural milk which is free from the A1 protein, and if you're interested in finding out how they produce it, you can see a clip of the feature on last week's episode of Food Unwrapped here.

We've tried a2 milk before and Jack loves it, so I bought some more this week, along with some additional dairy free ingredients for the kids to make their own Chocolate Cake Shakes - perfect if you're a lover of cake and ice cream, even if you're intolerant to the A1 protein in milk.

Chocolate Cake Shake - makes 1

100ml a2 milk

large scoop of dairy free chocolate ice cream

1 slice of dairy free chocolate cake (or 1 small cake)

chocolate sprinkles

• add the milk & ice cream to a glass & smash the ice cream with a spoon
• crumble up the cake and stir most of it into the milk & ice cream (reserving some for the top)
• serve with crumbled cake & sprinkles on top

It really was as good as it looks - you might need a spoon as well as a straw though!

a2 milk - easier to digest

I found a2 milk in a Tesco Store close to us for £1.39 for 1 litre, however it's not available in all Tesco stores - you can find a full list of stockists here. Available in semi skimmed or whole.

this post has been commissioned by a2 milk

Lactofree Shakes #SayYestoSummer

The next in my #SayYestoSummer challenges with Lactofree was to create some summer shakes using Lactofree products. There is a shake for every taste, whether you like it full of berries or maybe even banana and peanut butter.

For my first shake I was inspired by one of my favourite cakes, the carrot cake. Carrot cake is full of so many flavours so why not bring these flavours into a milkshake - so simple yet so tasty.

I used a ready made slice of carrot cake but you might want to make your own to ensure that it's lactose free. It was topped with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting which makes it really indulgent and not for those counting their calories.

Carrot Cake Shake 

1 slice of carrot cake - approx 100g

200ml Lactofree milk

handful of ice cubes

75g Lactofree soft cheese

75ml Lactofree cream

1/2 tsp cinnamon

walnuts (optional)

• Place the carrot cake, milk and ice cubes in a blender & blend until smooth
• Whisk the soft cheese with the cream and cinnamon until it forms soft peaks
• Pour the carrot make milk into a glass and top with the cream cheese frosting
• Top with crumbled carrot cake and walnuts

The second shake was a little more on the healthy side, with less indulgence and more fruit. This one combines the summer fruits of strawberry and rhubarb along with vanilla.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Shake

1 stalk of rhubarb
1 vanilla pod
1 tbsp demerara sugar
handful of strawberries, hulled and halved

handful of ice cubes

200ml Lactofree milk
75ml Lactofree cream

• Cut the rhubarb into 2cm pieces and place in a small baking dish with the seeds from the vanilla pod and demerara sugar
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 10 minutes
• Add the strawberries and bake for an additional 10 minutes until the fruits are tender, allow to cool
• Once the fruit is cool add it to a blender with the ice cubes, milk and cream
• Blend until smooth and serve in a sundae glass

The final two involved less preparation and can be made in seconds.

Banana and Raspberry Shake

1 banana
handful of frozen raspberries
200ml Lactofree milk

• Blend everything together & serve

Vanilla Iced Coffee

1 shot Espresso coffee
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
200ml Lactofree milk
handful of ice cubes

• Blend everything together and serve

You can find more Lactofree summer recipes here, and also check out the Lactofree Facebook page for giveaways and inspiration.

follow Lactofree on Twitter

I'm working together with Lactofree to provide inspiration and recipes over the summer. For this second challenge I was provided with a fabulous cool bag of products. 

Nutribullet Juices, Shakes and Ice Cream

I love kitchen gadgets and appliances and I'm always happy to receive a new one to try out. When Selfridges got in touch to see if I would like to try their Nutribullet I was more than happy to receive it. I've often looked at these and wondered if they were all they were cracked up to be, and here was my chance to find out.

The Nutribullet consists of a powerful 600 watt motor and blades that pulverise fruit and vegetables, including the skins where all the nutrients are. It comes with 2 extractor blades, 4 cups, lids, rim and a handle, making it easy to rustle up a juice and take it with you.

I've been using the Nutribullet for a couple of weeks but so far haven't varied my ingredients much, trying to stick to the green juices rather than consuming too much fruit.

My favourite combination by far could be called a healthy mojito really as it has strong flavours of mint and lime, spiced up with fresh ginger, although it doesn't contain any alcohol (maybe next time...)

It's perfect to start the day or for a quick and easy lunch. Add the ingredients to the cup, top up with water, place the blade on, place onto the base unit and press down with a slight twist, and without effort the ingredients are turned into a healthy juice.

Th Nutribullet comes with a user guide and recipe book as well as a hardback recipe book, with plenty of recipes to suit all tastes and needs - such as energy boosting, weight loss and mood improving (all of which I could do with at times!)

Of course you don't need to confine the use of your Nutribullet to healthy juices, I quickly rustled up some banana 'ice cream' using some over ripe bananas that I had in the freezer.

Hazelnut Banana Ice Cream

400g bananas, sliced and frozen
50g Hazelnut butter*
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp Almond milk

• Add all of the ingredients to the large cup and turn the machine on, shaking the ingredients down onto the blade if necessary

You will end up with a deliciously creamy (and healthy) dessert.

As I had quite a few strawberries that had seen better days I decided to make strawberry milkshake for the kids, by adding some milk and a scoop of ice cream.

Milkshake always tastes nicer when it's in a nice glass.

I'm looking forward to trying out, and sharing, many more juices over the coming weeks and months.

* Hazelnut butter   was provided by the ecogreenstore.co.uk 

Nutella Milkshake

When I was asked if I would like to review a whisk it was going to be a polite 'no thank you', but I thought I would take a look at the you tube video mentioned in the email anyway....

 

Once I'd seen the video I was sold, I loved the look of this new gadget, and a woman can never have too many gadgets right?

I received my Nova whisk in green and set it to work straight away on my morning cappuccino. I usually use my Kitchen Aid hand blender to froth my milk but it can be a bit of a faff to get out of the posh carry case every time I need it, however the Nova whisk is slim enough to keep in my utensil pot.

Just a few effortless presses on the whisk & the milk frothed up beautifully, ready to pour onto my freshly brewed coffee.

It's not just for frothing milk, and as can be seen in the video it has a number of uses - milkshakes, omelette batter, pancake batter, whisking cream and egg whites.

I decided to give the boys an after school treat and whisked them up a milkshake to share - it didn't froth up the cold milk as well as the hot but it was still lovely & frothy without any effort.

Nutella Milkshake - serves 1

2 heaped tsp Nutella
boiling water
1/2 pint Milk
scoop of ice cream
Squirty cream
chocolate chips

• Mix the Nutella with a little boiling water - enough to make a syrup, allow to cool slightly
• Whisk the milk and ice cream together until frothy
• Whisk the Nutella syrup into the milk, reserving a little for later
• Top with quirty cream, the remaining Nutella sauce and chocolate chips
• Serve immediately

I was provided with a Nova Whisk for the purpose of this review