Kris's Blog

What is your favourite kitchen tool? You will never guess what mine is...

2016-02-28T12:11:00.001+00:00

Hey Bloggers,

Hope you are well?

I have a question i want to ask food bloggers online.

With sooo many kitchen tools/appliances out there. Some to make life a lot easier and some to make things go quicker.

So what is my favourite?

The Humble Kettle! Yes that is my favourite. WHY you ask?

It all comes down to two different things. Tea & Coffee. I drink a lot of Coffee mainly and with the simple kettle you can boil it a lot quicker than a pan on the hob.

Out of all the appliances that can cost thousands of pounds the kettle (most probably the cheapest option) is the best invention ever for the kitchen IMO.

Home baking & Cooking also sometimes requires hot water (Melt chocolate etc). So once again it is a great way to use a kettle.

I know this post may sound useless however it would be great if you could share your best appliance.

Thanks for reading.

Kris

Lets brake bread?

2016-02-28T01:09:00.000+00:00

Hey Bloggers, Becca made some amazing bread tonight. In The UK we have a number of large named sugar companies, Whitworths, Silver Spoon and other great brands, however i am quite fussy when it comes to sugar companies and tend to stick to one as much as i can (Obviously when you are out you have use other brands). Silver Spoon is my all time favourite Sugar company. The only issue i have is Sugar is VERY high in calories so sweeteners would be better right? Well some people say yes, some people say no. I say YES. Lower calories are better. ANY WAY! that is another post all together (I will make a post about the pro/cons of sugar another time). So Getting back to the bread. What is sooo amazing about this bread? Let me show you an image: That! Yes it tastes EXACTLY like the Granulated sugar and tonight Becca made bread (1st time we have EVER had home made bread). Here is the Result:

The Cost of Eating Better, Financially & Mentally

2016-02-28T01:02:00.000+00:00

Hey Bloggies,

I would just like to talk today about eating better & healthier.

Eating well everyone knows make you feel better, happier and more content. You always hear somewhere that this food is a superfood or this food is high in... You know what i mean, KALE at the moment is the superfood to juice on. There are many foods that can help by using more calories to burn than eat. My favourite is cucumber (Personal Preference).

With all the good advice about food WHY do people still eat processed foods such as Chicken Nuggets (for example). It all comes down to one word. Convenience! Yes it is easy to put the oven/fryer then stick in the nuggets. Wait for around 7 Minutes to be cooked. Place it on a plate then eat.

Yes they taste nice (totaly agree with that). However taking a step back and thinking could you have made them yourself within the amount of time that it took you to cook these Chicken Nuggets. The answer is simply NO! these things to cook can take around 20 minutes to prepare, make and cook.

Another thing is, you can get 24 Nuggets for just £1.99 in the UK, where as a fresh chicken or chicken breast will cost almost DOUBLE that amount to pay at the checkout.

So why bother using fresh ingredients when it is ready to cook straight from the freezer?

Well my thoughts are, if you make it, cook it and enjoy it then you will appreciate food a lot more. All you need to make the Chicken Nuggets are the following:

500g chicken breast (or fish fillets)
4 tbsp plain flour
2 eggs, beaten
300g breadcrumbs
olive oil

THAT IS IT. If you look at a packet of precooked foods you will see this ingredient and sometimes fancy long names Sucrose is simply SUGAR Yes rather than using names that we all use on a daily bases the chemical name is used. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE NAME

If you have some chicken nuggets in your freezer today look and tell me how many ingredients are in your food. Let me know on Twitter or Google Plus.

So OVERALL i believe that spending more time prepairing food and eating fresh cooked foods is really good for you. Do you agree?

Thanks for reading.

Saucy

2016-02-28T00:52:00.001+00:00

Yes People.Hold the press! Becca made an absolute gorgeous curry Sauce tonight. Some photo’s are Below.

We will make a video about how to do it etc another time. However for now you will have to take my word. It had some amazing flavours. Have a great evening. Best Regards Kris

How To Make Richens Mama Sauce?

2016-02-27T23:11:00.002+00:00

Yup Mama Richens Makes a mean Sauce!

405 Calories (101 Calories per serving based on 4 sharing) 700ml

What do i need to make Mama Richens Sauce?

1/2 Cucumber
3 Mushrooms
1 Carrot
1 Red Onion
Fresh Stock (Can Use a cube instead)
1 Tin of Peeled Plum Tomatoes
Fresh Garlic
1 Tsp of Butter
Basil (loose handful)
1 Cal Spray

How Do i make the sauce?

Brown the Onions & Mushrooms (This is VERY Important) in a frying pan with some 1 Cal spray!
Chop Carrots (as chunky as you want)
Put the Carrots in the pan
Cover & Steam for 10/15 Mins (Medium heat)
Start on the Fresh Garlic & Basil (Grounded in a Pestal & Mortar if you can -NOT TOGETHER).
After steaming place the butter in a pan on low heat, place the Garlic & Basil in with the butter (First place the Basil and wait around 90 seconds) then place the crushed garlic in
Take off the butter then place in a food processor.
Open the tinned tomatoes and place them in the processor
Put all the other ingredients in the food processor (including the stock)
Blend the items together for around 60 seconds
Place back in a pan to reheat for around 4/5 minutes (Until hot)
Serve! Enjoy Mama's Sauce!

Working in a meat factory. What really goes on behind your M&S Steaks compared to your ASDA Steaks? (Part One - Downstairs)

2016-02-27T22:38:00.001+00:00

Hey Bloggers, This may come across as quite controversial However not many people know i started work in a Food Factory (I will remain anonymous to the name of it). First of all we all have a feeling that we know what goes on behind the scenes at a food factory. However i would love to go through all the facts and in's & outs of what really does.
Copyright - thegreatwideopendotnet[/caption] So here we go... I just turned 16 when i applied for a job (in between college & school), The job was not far from where i lived (great for a 16 year old). So i "Clocked in" at 6am not too sure what to expect. Sure enough there was a struggle to get a coat and white boots. By now i felt like a scientist. After getting "Suited Up" (Tech term). It was time to get my gloves on (You know the blue latex style). So lets get thing started right? WRONG! Now what to do today? There is always a scramble to get the "Best" jobs first. So what are the best jobs? Depending on what you like really, if you fancied standing for 12 hours straight packing then go and get ready on the assembly line. If you wanted to work in dispatch then head straight out the back. Turn on the machines, make sure a delivery lorry is near and get ready to work your ass off! Lifting for 12 hours (With a 30 min break 2 times a day then an hour for lunch). So lets start off on the assembly line... There are four opportunities you have here

If you are there early you can be the "Butcher" where you cut the excess fat trimmings off then send a mass amount of food down the line for people to pack. Be prepared though, although it sounds easy i can tell you it is not. You have around 2 minutes to empty a crate of food, trim and send down the line before the next lot of food comes.
You can become a "Packer" Yes that was a technical term. Here you get to stand around for 12 hours remembering the meat angles (Yes you have to remember that Asda packed meat was in a 66 position then M&S was 69 position - You can see which one had more fun). Don't worry though as there was never any "Real" food fights whilst working. Plus any meat that was dropped on the floor HAD to be discarded. However there were some people that did not share the same rules as others and believed they knew best. PS Please note: Anyone found to be picking up food off the floor by any boss would be fired imedietly. However a few times you did see it happen. #JustSaying. I worked in this factory for around 18/24 months
Then there is the Machine Operative... Yes someone at the end of the production line takes the trays with the fresh meat then "Carefully" places the tray in the machine (3X3 per 2 seconds). The food then gets the label printed and the nice people in dispatch place them in crates.
Next role is to wrap the crates in clingfilm after they have been stacked (Depending on the retailer to how many crates were packed for their lorries). Then the last step is to send off the wrapped crates on a manual forklift to the back of a lorry (Yes it sounds funny but true Your meat came off the back of a lorry :D ).

So there you have it 1 hours of manual food packing from a POV. Next lets talk about the other roles that are available downstairs Pre Butchering.. What is that? Let me tell you. Pre butcher was the people that do all the hard work BEFORE the assembly line get the food. This can be divided into THREE departments.

"Skinner's" Quite literally what it means. Here the operatives will remove the excess off the lamb cutlets where the excess marrow/tissue has been left on from the abattoir. This is an exclusive area as there are only a few chosen people who work in this department. Here the people who pack the meat for the retailers have their own dispatch area, their own knives etc (The people who work here normally think they are a "cut" above the rest ;) ). They know how the retailers want their foods packed and once again 66 or 69 cutlets are packed and shipped.
"Mincers" Quite a name for someone who puts the unused cuts of meat in a MASSIVE tin with wheels then places inside a cage and presses a button that makes the machine lift and drop the excess foods into a mince processing machine. Just like the one at home just around 8 foot tall with VERY thin but sharp blades. The people working here are really running around looking for cut ends of meat that are no longer needed. Just like Oliver Twist.
Label Personnel - Yes these people make sure the labels are correctly placed on the packets of meat. I cannot really tell you more about the Label Personnel as their role is simply to replace the labels when needed by going into a store room and pick some more...

Cleaners... I will make another post about the cleaners (as i once was one as well). Thanks for reading Kris Richens

Decisions...

2015-05-22T10:16:00.001+01:00

I have thought about this and decided to do a one day blog of EVERYTHING. This is to stop the feeds showing lots of updates

Need advice

2015-05-20T14:59:00.001+01:00

So Mrs R got some Kale today. Looks nice. However due to medical reasons i cannot eat it. However my question is what does Kale taste like? Neither me or Mrs R have tried it before.

Naughty

2015-05-20T14:56:00.001+01:00

Naughty us we went to Harvester for lunch as we had to go out.

Had chicken (Good source of Protien) with a Jacket Potato. Yummy it was

Breakfast

2015-05-20T07:08:00.001+01:00

Good morning Bloggies.

Whatcha up today?

Me i have to go for a blood test (BOOO) however i am eating a nice breakfast of 5 cream crackers and a peice of cheese. Yummy. How about you?

Gooood morning Bloggers

2015-05-18T11:40:00.001+01:00

I awoke this morning to find that Mrs R made me some breakffast. Cream crackers with butter. My thoughts YUMMY Your thoughts?

Tonights Meal

2015-05-17T16:51:00.001+01:00

Me & Mrs R are having a Tagliatelle con Porcini. Yummy. Mushrooms cheese sauce & pasta. Yummy. Will update more later on

Breakfast

2015-05-17T09:53:00.001+01:00

Heres me "Brekkie".

Good morning everyone. Just some cream crackers with butter for food this morning. Ooooh and a coffee... Yummy

Lunch

2015-05-16T13:15:00.001+01:00

This afternoon a lovely Weight Watchers Checken /& Mushroom Pie,

Cooked in the Oven for 25 mins. Yummy

What did you have today?

Breakfast

2015-05-16T10:34:00.001+01:00

Gooood morning Bloggies!

Oooh a wonderful saturday morning has come. So this morning i am going to have.... NOT BACON! thats right no bacon this morning... :( however i WILL be having it for Dinner tonight. With some Warburton Thins. Instead i had a few pieces of ... TOAST!

Yay! Alsi for my morning drink i did not have Coffee, however when making this choice i decided to have squash & still Lemonade.

Here is a pic.

That is Summer Fruits & Still Lemonade. YUMMY.

What did you have today? Let me know blelow

Black Coffee?

2015-05-15T21:59:00.001+01:00

I Love a black coffee. Do you? Sugar/no Sugar? Let me know

Tomorrows Breakfast

2015-05-15T21:05:00.001+01:00

Oooh so many choices... However i am going to have some of these. Yummy from Morrisons

Do you like them? They are like Medallions so no fat !

Brilliant news

Breville Bottle

2015-05-15T20:02:00.001+01:00

The bottle of the Breville is not as big as others. Do not detter from buying for this reason. The Breville bottles are really food and the blades are really sharp.

Be careful and safe.

Oooh tonight food. Where is it?

2015-05-15T18:42:00.001+01:00

Here it is :). Tonight me & Mrs R ( http://rebrichweightloss.blogspot.co.uk ) had a protien intake of lots of CHICKEN cooked in different ways. (No more than 500cals). Yummy. Nom Nom.

What did you have?

Opening Breville Blend Active

2015-05-15T17:08:00.001+01:00

I made a movie on Youtube showing the unboxing of the

Opening Breville Blend Active, I have & currently drinking a yogurt & still lemonade smoothie!

Overall YES Go Get One!

My Lunch

2015-05-15T13:01:00.001+01:00

Wow doesn't time fly?

Just ate my lunch. Here is a pic

Chopped Pork Char Sui wrappen in a Tortilla wrap. Yummy quick lunch.

Have you had yours yet? If so what did you have?

Oooh New Toy

2015-05-15T12:10:00.001+01:00

Today we went and got a Breville Blend Active. Never used this brand before. Any good? Let us know.

This Mornings Breakfast

2015-05-15T07:53:00.001+01:00

Who loves these? I sure do. High fibre and great taste. All i need to accompany this is a nice hot coffee. Yummy

Yesterdays lunch & dinner

2015-05-15T07:50:00.001+01:00

Please forgive me as i did not post yesterday as i had a Cheat/Treat day.

I had mostly carbs yesterday. With chicken (protien - chicken). However today is different.

Have a great day

Morning Update!

2015-05-14T11:22:00.001+01:00

Hey Bloggers.

Checking in this morning to let you all know i had toast with this morning (Yes BAD carbs) however i did the same yesterday and LOST 500 grams. Yahooo. How did you do this morning?