Food Review - Whittards Hot Chocolates

The nights are drawing in, the temperatures are dropping and the leaves are turning colour. We wake in the morning to find our cars wet with condensation. Autumn is well on the way and winter won't be far behind.

Long walks with the dog; returning home to the warmth of the family and a centrally heated house.  Remove those outdoor clothes and shoes, slide your feet in your slippers and pop on the kettle. Grab yourself a mug, a spoon, some milk and a tub of a Whittards Luxury Hot Chocolate. Add a few marshmallows to the top of your drink, curl up on the sofa, cuddle your mug to warm your hands up and enjoy!

For that added luxury treat, why not heat up your milk and mix that with the hot chocolate powder in place of boiling water.

In recognition of Chocolate Week, Whittards recently sent me some tubs of their Hot Chocolates in variations of Luxury White, Mint and Chilli flavours along with a tub of mini marshmallows to sprinkle on the top.  My favourite is the Mint, but for an added warmth the Chilli is certainly the way to go. My daughter's favourite is by far the white chocolate variation. 

I was sent the tubs of Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows free of charge from Whittards. I was under no obligation to write a blog post as part of receiving these.

Chicken a la King

An old recipe I copied down from a magazine in the late 1980's when I first got married was for the very 'exotic' Chicken a la King.  We thought we were so sophisticated when we sat down to our meal in our first house and it's something we've enjoyed eating every so often since then.  My apologies for not being able to give credit to the original recipe writer, but it's been with me for over 25 years on a scrappy piece of paper.  I've changed it slightly as I really don't like mushrooms, so they're no longer in my own version of this recipe, but please feel free to 'add the fungus' if you so wish!

4 Chicken breasts, skinned
40g Butter
10ml Oil
1 Onion, diced
100g Mushroom, sliced (not on my plate!)
2tbs Cornflour
60ml cold Water
20ml Tomato purée
Black Pepper to taste
250ml Chicken stock
1tsp dried Basil
2 Tomatoes, skinned & sliced
150ml Single cream
1/2 Green Pepper, sliced
1/2 Red Pepper, sliced

1. Heat the oven to 180C.
2. Heat the butter & oil in a frying pan.
3. Fry the chicken on both sides until golden.
4. Remove the chicken breasts to a casserole dish and set to one side.
5. Fry the onions and mushrooms (if using) until softened, but not coloured.
6. Mix the cornflour and water together until smooth.
7. To the pan, add the tomato purée, black pepper, stock and cornflour/water and bring to the boil, continuously stirring until thickened, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
8. Add the basil, sliced tomatoes, cream and sliced peppers and stir through.
9. Pour the sauce over the chicken breasts and cover with the lid.

10. Place your casserole dish in the oven and cook for 30 minutes.

Serve with roasted potato and sweet potato wedges with broccoli and cauliflower.

I'm entering this 'old favourite' in to the Community Cooks Competition with the Central Co-Op.

I received a gift voucher from the Central Co-Op with which to purchase ingredients for my competition entry.