Having recently returned from our family holiday in the Canary Islands, as much as I took home a good sun tan, great memories and an increased waist line (mainly thanks to all inclusive), I was also shocked too.
Firstly
- The children’s ages – with D still only two (now 3), eating out continues to be a struggle dependant on her attitude and whether she wants to eat, meaning any meal may need to be thrown down our throats at heartburn speed in order to pay up and get out of there as soon as possible in order not to cause a scene 😉
- It meant that throughout the day, the children could have continual fluids and snacks in order to keep them well hydrated and happy.
That was the theory anyway… as it turns out, the one thing that struck me was that both children are food snobs… Now, don’t get me wrong, I agree there are some salubrious foods / combinations on offer (even at decent hotels) however come the end of the holiday, they (mainly H) were developing a massive sense of food anxiety against ANY food and this really caused us concern.
On our way home, Mrs F and I talked about the need to ensure moving forward we really need to encourage both Children to try various foods and expand on their food pallets as we’d probably both admit to assuming they wouldn’t like certain food groups in the past and in feeling the pressure to ensure they at least both ate properly, we’d cook tried and tasted meals instead of trying out anything new. Salter call this #PlatePressure
Salter, the UK’s number 1 brand for weighing scales, have conducted market research across parents and found some astonishing facts such as;
- 43% of parents resort to convenience foods, such as a takeaways, every week because they’ve run out of meal time inspiration
- A third of parents think it is important that their children experience a wide variety of food but struggle to make this happen, and
- 89% of mums feel the pressure to provide a variety of healthy meals for their children.
With this in mind Salter have not only developed two pretty cool bluetooth enabled cooking tools to help in the form of digital weighing scales and oven/food temperature probes, but they have also released an amazing smartphone / tablet app “Salter Cook” which not only talks to the aforementioned buy cheap zithromax cheap cooking appliances but also acts as a built in cook book that allows users to browse the internet and capture / download online recipes from well-known sites including BBC Good Food, Food Network and All Recipes and save them to use.
The app is incredibly intuitive and simple to use, we even imported a favourite breakfast recipe from Slimming World. Once imported, you can then use the app to easily follow and cross off ingredients as well as instructions whilst also accurately measuring, timing and cooking your recipes to perfection using a combination of the bluetooth tools as well as App features.
#PlatePressure needs be no more as you can add to your cook book as much as you like, edit it to suit your specific requirements and once saved, will also work out proportions should you decided you need to cook for 2 instead of 4 or increase due to friends coming round for dinner.
Whilst the Salter Cook Pro Bluetooth Recipe Scales come in at around £79.99 and the thermometer probes at £49.99, (check out the link below for a special combined offer) the Salter Cook App on both iOS and Android platforms is completely FREE and can also be used independently from the appliances although the integration of these is pretty impressive and certainly ties things together nicely making the complete cooking experience a lot easier.
I would say the temperature probes are a little tricky to install in the oven however do provide shocking results. By this I mean my oven is in need of replacing given the temperature is around 15-20 degrees less than what I expected it to be. The weighing scales are really simple to use as well as being able to switch to a variety of measurements in both metric and imperial. For more information on booth products, including a special offer of £99 when you buy both the scales and thermometer bundle together, check out www.salterhousewares.co.uk now
I’ve been busy adding some quick and easy recipes to my Salter Cook App and will be ensuring I make a commitment to introduce both children to not only new flavours but also well balanced meals moving forward.
Until next time
Jim x
NB: We were provided with the Salter Cook Pro Bluetooth Recipe Scales and the Salter Cook Bluetooth Thermometer in exchange for a post around #PlatePressure and the research found by Salter Cook. All opinions on the Salter Cook App and the appliances remain our own.