I'm Back On YouTube & A Few Changes...

As you can probably tell from the title, I'm going to be filming YouTube videos again!

I'm really excited about filming again and even more so as me and Simon will be doing a lot more videos together. It's been two years since I last filmed for YouTube and I only stopped because the Movie Maker software I had available to me at the time to edit and upload my videos (on my little net-book), was so slow and it took so long to edit and upload videos, as well as failing every now and then, that I was getting frustrated and it wasn't as enjoyable any more. That is the main reason I started my blog, as it's a lot easier to write, double check everything and then publish a blog post than it is to go through all the steps of uploading a video. I take my hat off to those that film and publish videos every day. I'm sure they all have lives as well, which is why I find that I can't film a video to upload or write a blog post to publish every single day and sometimes not every single week, it just depends on what I'm doing and whether I have anything to write or film about. I don't like to blog or film just for the sake of it.

I'm going to be re-branding my main YouTube channel a little. My main YouTube channel is Gemsi2011 and I used to just upload beauty and fashion videos to this channel. I have a second channel called GemLivesLovesLaughs and that used to be where I uploaded cooking videos and vlogs. What I want to do is just have one main channel, that covers a range of subjects, like my blog. So I want to try and still film beauty and fashion videos, but there will also be travel, life, cooking and gaming videos on my one and only channel. These are all subjects that either I or both me and Simon have a passion for and so it will be nice to introduce a few new subjects to my channel. I am going to try and change my YouTube name and URL so that you recognise my channel as Gemsi - Gem. Simon is also going to be setting up his own channel, which will mainly consist of gaming videos and his will be called Gemsi - Si. This is something we've talked about and so it'll be nice to have our own little branded channels if we can. We are currently working together on the re-branding, so bare with us on this :).

You might be wondering what is going to happen to my second channel. My main channel has the most subscribers and so more of an audience to produce videos for. My second channel doesn't have that many subscribers or videos, as I only managed to upload a few before I stopped filming. However, they are still videos that I enjoyed making and that took time to make and upload, so I don't want to just delete them. The videos on my second channel are from two and three years ago, so they are some time ago but I am going to try and download them to my laptop and upload them to my main channel as a #throwbackthursday kind of thing. I will upload them one by one, either every Thursday or every other Thursday and they will probably be uploaded randomly with the title and description edited slightly so that people are aware, as well as us when we look back, that the videos are from two and three years ago.

I will probably also try to change my Google+ name and URL to match what I've said above, but I am not yet sure whether I will be doing the same for my email, blog, Twitter and Instagram. It would be lovely for everything to have the same name and URL but I'm not sure whether it might be a bit more of a disruption to my email, blog, Twitter and Instagram as they have all been active and current and I probably have links everywhere for them, whereas it's different with my YT channel, as I haven't filmed anything for over two years and my Google+ account is quite new, so I'd just update the links for those on my email signature, blog, Twitter and Instagram and I don't feel like it would have such a detrimental effect. We will see though, I'll keep you all updated along the way on anything I do change or update, keep an eye on my Twitter as I'll probably be mentioning things on there.

We uploaded a new travel vlog a few days ago, which you can check out below. We hope you like it! Please feel free to like, comment and subscribe if you do. It would mean the world to us :).

Thank you, as always, for your continued support! We are both looking forward to filming again and we hope you like what we or I produce :).

Thanks so much for reading!
Gem XxOo
Image courtesy of Day To Be You.

Tesco Finest: Two Dine For £10 Meal Deal...

I was recently given the opportunity to sample Tesco's Finest meal deal, where two dine for £10. They actually have two meal deals on at the moment and you might have seen the one that has been advertised the most on TV, promoted for Valentine's Day where two can dine for £20. I did primarily go into my local Tesco to get the items for this £20 meal deal to sample and review for you. However, my local Tesco is a Tesco Express and I was told by a lady working there that the bigger stores have the £20 deal and the smaller stores have the £10 deal, hence why it's the £10 deal that I'm featuring today.

Me and Si are actually booked in at a local independent restaurant tonight, which I'm really looking forward to, but there have been times in the past where we haven't actually been able to get out on Valentine's Day night and something like this is a great alternative. Whether you have a partner or not, there may be many reasons why it's not convenient for you to go out on Valentine's Day, whether it's because you can't get a babysitter, you and your partner both have busy lifestyles and just want some time in alone at home or you don't fancy going out on that specific evening where everywhere is likely to be busy. The Tesco Finest £10 meal deal is running until the 3rd of March, so there is plenty of time to try it out. You could even share it with your mom, sister, best friend or flat mate, it doesn't have to be just for couples.

With this meal deal you get a main, a side, a dessert and a drink for £10. The meal deal is for two, so portions are based on two dining. There are meat and vegetarian options for the main meal, ranging from meatballs, fish cakes, pie, lasagne, chicken and paella. For sides you have a selection of vegetables, rice and potato options. For dessert you can choose from tarts, cheesecakes, profiteroles, a crumble and melt in the middle puddings. Lastly, for the drinks you can choose from several alcoholic wines, freshly squeezed lemonade or Coca Cola (in glass bottles!). They also had Bottle Green drinks as a choice in my local Tesco, but that doesn't seem to be on the website. You can buy any of these items individually if you wish. If you want to read more about the products in this meal deal, you can do so on the Tesco website.

So, onto what we chose...

For our main dish, we chose the Chicken In A White Wine Sauce With Leeks. This main meal consisted of two tender chicken breasts topped with fresh slices of leeks, finished with a creamy white wine sauce, with bacon and a hint of mustard. We fancied something with a bit of sauce, so this was an easy option for us. The chicken was really tender and a pleasure to eat. The sauce thickened slightly when cooked, so there wasn't a lot when it came to dividing the meal between the two of us, you can see this from the image below of the food plated up. It would have been nice to have a bit more sauce so it covered the chicken and so there would have been enough for dipping our potato wedges in. That's just our preference though. Also, when the chicken was being cooked, you could really smell the bacon, however, it was just bits of bacon within the sauce. Si doesn't really like bacon but there wasn't enough of it that it was a problem and he was easily able to push the bacon bits to one side. I thought I'd mention this as if you aren't a fan of bacon but like the sound of the dish aside from that, it is possible to avoid eating the bacon bits. It was only when finishing the meal that we both said that we didn't notice the leeks within the dish. On the front of the packaging, it seems that the leeks are a main part of the sauce, but like I said we didn't even notice eating any. I don't know what happened there as you can clearly see the green leeks in the image below :/. The overall taste of the dish was lovely though and I was pleased that the chicken wasn't dry and was tender, as it said on the packaging. The sauce was flavoursome but not too rich. I would definitely eat something like this again, it would just be nice for there to be more sauce and more leeks.

For our side option we fancied a potato dish, so we went for Sea Salt & Black Pepper Wedges. The wedges are baked in extra virgin olive oil until they're soft and fluffy in the middle, with deliciously crisp skins. The wedges were seasoned perfectly, they didn't need anything extra. I did notice that the skins were lovely and crisp, exactly as described, which I love! The crispier the skin the better in my opinion. There were definitely enough wedges to share between two people.

It doesn't look a lot when dished up, but if you add a side of veg it makes the meal more substantial. Plus, the dessert finishes it all off nicely.

The dessert option was another easy one for us as we are big lovers of cheesecake. We opted for the Madagascan Vanilla Cheesecake Slices. The cheesecake is made with creamy soft cheese and vanilla seeds, with a digestive biscuit base. These slices were huge! Vanilla might sound quite boring but it's actually one of my favourite cheesecake flavours, especially when vanilla seeds are used, rather than just flavouring. The cheesecake was very creamy and light, it wasn't heavy or sickly at all, so was a lovely end to our meal.

Note: the strawberries do not come with the cheesecakes. Si added a few to our plates, trying to rectify the bad with good probably, ha ha!

I'm not drinking alcohol at the moment as me and Si are trying for a baby, so we opted for a soft drink option. Si loves Coca Cola full stop but he prefers drinking it from the glass bottles when he can. They had a pack of Coca Cola Regular 6 x 330ml Bottles as part of the deal, so we chose those. I'm sure you all know what Coca Cola tastes like, but I thought it was a great option, especially because there were six glass bottles in the pack, which we knew would last beyond the meal.

If we would have bought all of these items separately it would have cost us £15.79. The meal deal was £10, so we saved £5.79. Not too shabby and always a bonus when you're saving money. I cook from scratch at home a lot, but we always keep our eye out for deals like this now and again. I pop into M&S to look at their meal deals now and again, but our local one never has any of the main meals left :/. It's funny though because the day before we went and picked up this meal deal, Si had been in town and he saw it in Tesco and came back quite excited that the glass Coca Cola bottles were in the deal, so we probably would have picked up this meal deal regardless.

Whatever you do today and whoever you're with, happy Valentine's Day lovelies!

What are your experiences with supermarket meal deals?

Thanks so much for reading lovelies!

Gem XxOo

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BLOGMAS Day 22: Cooking With Gem: Garlic, Rosemary & Thyme Pork Loin...

I love to cook from scratch at home and one of mine and Si's fave things to eat is garlic, rosemary and thyme pork loin. I cooked it the other day and thought I'd share with you how I make it :). I can't remember when I first discovered a recipe for pork loin or the cut of meat in general, but it was some time ago now as I was making this dish back when we were living at mom's house. The main part of the meal is the pork loin. I always prepare and season this the same every time, as it's just too yummy not to. The sides that I serve it with tend to differ, but you will see what I chose to serve it with this time, below.

Before I start anything, I pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

This is the cut of pork loin after I've removed all the sinew. I'm really fussy with meat, so I like that there is no fat on a pork loin. The way I cook it ensures that it isn't dry either, so it's still really enjoyable. I cook the loin in a ceramic baking dish as I like to scrape off the bits at the bottom after cooking to create a lovely gravy (as you will see later on). Using this ceramic dish to do that means I won't scratch up a normal baking dish/tray.

Here I have massaged garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, a little salt and pepper into both sides of the loin. I add a drizzle of oil (I just use vegetable oil) to the loin to ensure all the seasoning sticks to the loin. I cook it for 50 minutes. When 50 minutes is up, I cut through the thickest part of the loin and if it isn't pink any more then I know it's done.

I peeled and cut up my potatoes for the mash and put them in a saucepan of water, with a little salt, on the hob ready to be boiled, along with the peas (in a separate saucepan of course). I don't put the heat on until there's about 20 minutes to go on the loin. I put them on a medium heat. Obviously when the potatoes are soft, they're done. I drain the potatoes and put them back into the saucepan, adding a little milk, a knob of butter, salt and pepper to taste and then I just mash them with a regular mashing utensil.

Above is the batter mix that I made for home-made Yorkshire puddings. I have a four hole large Yorkshire pudding tin, so wanted to make four. I looked online for the amount of ingredients I'd need. I used 70g of plain flour, 2 eggs, 100ml of milk, salt, pepper and some oil for cooking. I put the flour and eggs into a bowl and mixed them together, then I gradually added the milk until it looked like it does in the image above. I also added some salt and pepper to taste.

I wiped some vegetable oil around each hole in my tin to stop the Yorkshire puddings from sticking. I then popped the tin in the oven, so the oil heated up whilst I was making the mix. Leave the tin in the oven until you are ready to cook the Yorkshire puddings.

The Yorkshire puddings take about 20 minutes to cook, so I put the Yorkshire pudding mix into the holes in the tin and start cooking them five minutes before I start cooking the potatoes and peas. This will mean that the meat, potatoes and peas will be cooked at around the same time and the Yorkshire puddings will have a few more minutes whilst you're preparing the meat. They are fine to be cooked at the same temperature as the pork loin.

This was the first time I'd made Yorkshire puddings this big and by using my own ingredients, instead of a packet mix. They soon puffed up. I took them out at just the right time, when they were nice and browned on top. They look quite dark in the image, but they weren't burnt. They were the perfect size to fit all the other parts of the meal in.

When the pork loin is done, turn the heat for the potatoes and peas down to the minimum, whilst you're preparing the meat. The image above shows the pork loin when it's cooked, after 50 minutes. The bottom of the dish looks burnt but it's actually gooey, gorgeous flavour that makes for a flavoursome gravy!

I normally leave the pork loin to rest for a couple of minutes (with foil on the top) and then cut it up. I use a knife to hold the meat down and a fork to cut and pull away at the meat. It's so succulent and cuts really easily. I boiled the kettle with fresh water, sprinkled some gravy granules into the dish and poured a little boiled water on top. Add the water gradually until the gravy reaches your preferred consistency. You can then let the meat soak up some of the juices and scrape away at the bottom of the dish to add the extra flavour to the gravy. I love doing gravy this way, it's just so tasty! Whilst I'm preparing the mashed potatoes, I put the foil back on top of the pork, which keeps the heat in.

Mmmm! Succulent, gravy soaked pork loin!

This is how I served up our meal. The Yorkshire puddings are on the bottom, filled with mashed potatoes, peas and the gorgeous pork loin. I poured over any gravy left in the baking dish.

Like I said, me and Si love this meal and I've been making it for some time now. Sometimes I leave the Yorkshire puddings out completely and sometimes I serve with boiled potatoes instead of mashed potatoes and wilted garlic spinach instead of peas. It just depends what we have in or what we fancy. Any of these combinations are lovely though!

If you have a go at making this meal, let me know in the comments section below or on Twitter @GemsGemz86 :). I'd love to see pictures too!

Don't forget to like, comment and follow to keep up to date with the rest of my Blogmas posts :).

Thanks for reading lovelies!

Gem XxOo

Healthy Living With Tesco...

Image courtesy of Tesco.

After Christmas and the beginning of the year is when the majority of people want to go on some sort of health kick, whether it be eating a bit better or starting to exercise and look after yourself a bit more. I felt the same at the start of the year and started exercising a bit more and in all honesty me and Si do eat quite healthily in general. I love cooking and cook from fresh a lot of the time at home and then we of course have our treat nights. When I saw Tesco were launching a 'healthy living' range, I thought it would be good to try out some products from the range and see exactly how 'healthy' they claim to be (as we all know some 'healthy' products actually aren't as healthy when you see the sugar content for example), how tasty they are and of course what the prices are like.

Now I will never convert to ready meals from cooking fresh at home because I love cooking and I love knowing what's going into my food and experimenting with different dishes, but I work from home so have the opportunity to do this as and when I want to. I know some people don't have this option and work away from home, some for a few hours a day and some for longer, then you may have some people who work and look after their children for example, so quick ready meals like this are good and convenient for those kind of people that don't have time or maybe even the energy after work or whatever their day involves, to be cooking from scratch at home and putting a lot of effort in. At the same time these people shouldn't have to compromise on taste and deserve the best when it comes to ready meals/quick meals, of course within their price range.

Tesco healthy living products have replaced Tesco Light Choices and the Tesco Eat Live Enjoy range. The range offers two choices to suit customers' needs. The first line of choices claim to be 'big on taste, lower in calories' and are for those looking to lose weight (but at the same time have a calorie controlled diet and an active lifestyle - so basically you won't lose weight eating these products and not doing exercise or if you eat anything else that you want for the rest of each day - but that's a given really). They contain 30% fewer calories than a comparison product (same meal from a normal/regular range). The second line of choices claim to be 'beautifully balanced' and are for those trying to maintain their weight or wanting to make healthier choices for themselves and their families. The products in the range have been created by Tesco expert nutritionists, especially for people who love great tasting food and want to control levels of sugar, salt, fat and saturates.

The nearest Tesco to me is an express Tesco and I was pleased to see they did have some products from the range but not all of them. Initially when I was sent the product list, a lot of the products that I liked the sound of, weren't sold in my nearest Tesco, which was disappointing but like I said it was an express, so the normal larger Tesco's should sell the whole range. The range has over 230 products and I chose a few products that we both generally tend to like, so I could get both of our views.

I chose the Sweet & Sour Chicken with Rice for me and the Sweet Chilli Chicken Noodles and the Sausage and Root Veg Mash for Si. The first thing I noticed was the packaging was of a good quality and it was bright and attractive, with the pictures of the food on the front looking quite appetising. On the front of the packaging the main ingredients that people want to look out for when going on a diet or wanting to generally eat healthier are stated. So the total calories, fat, saturates, sugars and salt content are stated in terms of grams and then as a percentage against your recommended daily allowance of each. I like these values being in your face and clear on the front of the packaging as it allows those that are working out what they are going to eat each day to properly work out their intake of such ingredients and balance them out accordingly with what else they are going to eat for the rest of the day. There is also a clear description of each dish on the front so you know exactly what you're getting and then of course the full list of ingredients is on the back. One thing that did stand out to me as being quite helpful is on the back of the packaging there is a little Weight Watchers Pro Points section where it tells you how many points the product is based on what you're allowed in your Weight Watchers diet :). I thought this was quite handy and those that are on that particular diet will agree I think.

Sausage and Root Veg Mash (£2.75) - This product is 320 calories and has 5.7g of fat (8% of the recommended daily allowance), 3.2g of saturates (16% RDA), 6.0g of sugars (7% RDA) and 1.8g of salt (30% RDA). I thought the salt content was quite high on this one, compared to the other two dishes but I suppose if you balance that out with what you eat for the rest of the day it isn't too bad. The Weight Watchers Pro Points on this one is 8. The dish itself Simon said was tasty. He really likes sausage and mash in general so he was quite impressed with the flavour in general of the sausages and especially the mash as it's made from root veg. He isn't really a vegetable person but he said it was really creamy and full of flavour. He said the same about the sausages and said the gravy was rich. It's like trying to get blood out of a stone getting Si to describe how something is for me ha ha but yeah put it this way he soon demolished it up and said he would eat that again. The one thing he did say was that it didn't take long to eat and he didn't really feel full afterwards. He did say that for those on a diet, where they are having a controlled diet of food, snacks etc it would probably be sufficient as they would probably be having breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks. Sometimes we eat breakfast then won't eat until dinner, which is usually home-made and a good size (not over the top but a good enough size so it fills Si up). Other times we miss breakfast, have a small lunch and then a proper dinner, so we don't really have a controlled diet where we eat all three meals at a certain time each day.

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice (£2.75) - This product is 425 calories and has 4.5g of fat (6% RDA), 0.9g of saturates (5% RDA), 10.4g of sugars (12% RDA) and 1.7g of salt (28% RDA). So you can see the salt content is a little less with this dish but the sugars are a little higher, but again as long as it is balanced out with what else you eat during the day, it should be fine. Don't forget these ingredients have been controlled, so they aren't sky high as with some other ready meals you can get. Also you can get some of their products with these values being much lower so if you really have a highly controlled diet you can just look for the products with the lowest amounts that you still like the look/sound of. The Weight Watchers Pro Points for this dish is 11. I tried this dish and although I ate it all and enjoyed it, the sauce wasn't as strong as I tend to like. It was a very light dish which is obviously great for a healthy dish, but the sauce was thin rather than thick and didn't have as much flavour as I normally tend to like. This is a preferred taste though so for those of you who don't like a strong flavoured sauce, especially with sweet and sour, then this would be ideal. The rice was lovely and fluffy with egg and peas, I could have eaten more of that, but I love rice! It was the same in terms of how quickly the meal was gone and not exactly feeling full up after it, but again I'd say the same as I did above.

Sweet Chilli Chicken Noodles (£1.20) - This product is 271 calories so the lowest of the three we tried. It has 1.9g of fat (3% RDA), 0.6g of saturates (3% RDA), 16.2g of sugars (18% RDA) and 0.5g of salt (8% RDA). The Weight Watchers Pro Points value is 7. This was a frozen product, where as the other two were from the chilled section. Si tried this dish and at first he was saying it wasn't as nice as the same dish from downstairs (we live above a pub where he works). I said you have to just review it as it is as obviously most people won't know about the same dish from the pub downstairs which is more costly but surprisingly is in the lower calorie section of the pub menu at 480 calories. The brand of pub is Stonegate but that doesn't really help as some Stonegate pubs have the same menu but others don't. Anyway, with this Tesco one you are really controlling your calories at just 271 for this one meal. He did enjoy it and ate it all, it's just preference isn't it with some things, like me with the sauce in the dish above. Si thought the chicken was lovely and tender and there was enough of it in the dish, although the sauce wasn't that strong, but it does say 'mild' on the front of the packaging. I said it's probably because it's a healthy, light dish. The stronger the sauce, maybe the more calories are in the dish. Si had the same issue with the size of the dish and feeling full, but I think it's the same as I've mentioned above, these products are designed for people who are on a diet or generally trying to eat a calorie controlled diet, it's not going to be a really big portion. This will suit some people though as I've said above.

I think that if you are being so controlled as to check the salt, sugar, fat and saturates in each thing that you eat then you will be able to work with products like this, even if you have to choose the product with the lowest amount of everything every time. The values are plain and clear for you to see, so you can work out what to eat around these meals or choose these meals compared to what else you have already ate. I imagine if you are on a diet or just making healthy choices then you will probably prepare what you are going to eat at the start of each new week or every evening for the next day. I'm not going to lie I don't think these are the most flavoursome dishes, but we have only tried three of the over 230 that are available. It's a shame my local Tesco didn't have more options but like I said above it was an express Tesco. I don't think the prices are that bad but I suppose it depends how you buy the products. If you are buying enough for a whole week and especially if buying for more than one person then it will add up but healthy food/ingredients don't tend to be that cheap to be honest. It's sods law with the majority of junk food that it's cheaper than healthier alternatives.

The range doesn't just consist of main meals, they sell quite a large range, for example you can buy cooking sauces, desserts, cheese, snacks, side dishes, tinned and packet foods, salad dressings, sandwich fillings and lunches. Often they are sold as two for a certain amount or three for two which was the case when I got the products we tried. They also cater for vegetarians. You can see their range here.

As I've explained above I love cooking at home from fresh and will always choose to do that over buying anything in as we prefer it. However, we all have the days when we don't feel like cooking or simply need something quickly to eat as we have somewhere to be. So don't get me wrong we do eat ready meals, but it's very rare. Si said he would have the Sausage and Root Veg Mash again but not the Sweet Chilli Chicken Noodles and to be honest I wouldn't have the Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice again because it wasn't strong enough in flavour for me. I wouldn't say no to trying some of the other products from the range though, especially if reduced.

Have you tried anything from this range? If so, what did you think?

What are your go to products for healthy living or do you prefer to cook from fresh too?

Thanks so much for reading! I look forward to your comments - I always reply :).

Gem XxOo

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Cathedral City Cheese Taste Test...

I was recently asked if I would like to carry out a Cathedral City cheese taste test. As a big lover of cheese I was thrilled to be able to take part. It wasn't so much a requirement, but I had the option to re-create a Cathedral City recipe aswell, from their website. I am also a huge fan of cooking from fresh at home, so I was also keen to do this.

                          Mature cheese.                                      Mature lighter cheese.

I was provided with a £10 voucher for Waitrose in which I was required to buy a mature cheese and a lighter cheese from the Cathedral City cheese range. I chose to get the mature...yet mellow cheddar and the mature...yet mellow lighter cheddar. I am a huge fan of mature cheese, the stronger the better in my eyes. In all honesty, I don't tend to buy mild or lighter cheeses just because of the assumption that it won't taste as strong and to me, mild cheese, that tastes like nothing, isn't worth eating. I kind of feel the same about lighter cheeses as there are definitely cheeses out there that I feel are great when they are mature but try the lighter version and the taste is significantly different.

                                    Mature cheese.                    Mature lighter cheese.

I was excited and interested in carrying out this taste test as I thought there would be a significant difference in the taste. Each pack was 200g, but I cut a bit from the slab of "mature" cheddar and picked out a pinch of the "mature lighter" cheddar. At the time of purchase the slab of "mature" cheddar cost £2.17 and the grated "mature lighter" cheddar cost £2.23. So, for a product with less fat in, it is a couple of pence more. Both cheeses are suitable for vegetarians and are made only with milk from British farms. The fat content in the "mature" cheddar is 34.9g and in the "mature lighter" cheddar it is 21.3g, which is 30% less fat than the "mature" cheddar for just a couple of pence more.

Here are the results of my taste test:

Cathedral City mature...yet mellow cheddar: The taste from this cheese is amazingly strong, just my cup of tea. The taste hits you straight away eating it straight from the packet. It really gets your taste buds! It has a really creamy taste and the cheese kind of melts in the mouth. I love this cheese. This is one we buy regularly in our household, I love it. It has such a deep flavour that will come through when you mix it with other ingredients in a meal. Although this is a mature...yet mellow variety, it sure doesn't lack in taste what-so-ever!

Cathedral City mature...yet mellow lighter cheddar: When tasting this cheese, I was pleasantly surprised because the matureness of the cheese still came through quite a lot! The flavour/taste didn't lack at all, so for 30% less fat, you aren't being deprived of flavour, which I was surprised but pleased about because this is something I can now look to buying regularly in the future. There is a subtle difference and I couldn't put my finger on it or the word to describe it. All I could think of was that it had a certain lightness to it, which is a pretty lame way to describe it as it's a "lighter" cheddar, ha! If you know how these cheeses taste or do a taste test yourself, you will know what I mean. It's probably to do with the ingredients, but it feels a lot lighter on the tongue and more airy. However, there is no major difference and for once with a food item, you won't be missing out on anything by getting the lighter version.

In all honesty I would probably promote the lighter version more for the simple fact that it is more healthier, but doesn't lack in flavour or taste. It is a few pennies more, but there are often deals and offers on these days in supermarkets and you never know, it might be cheaper than the full fat version at times. Bonus!

Like I said above, I carried out one of the recipes from the Cathedral City website. I made my own Cheese and Leek croquettes and you can see my video on how I made them below:

As stated above, I bought my cheese from Waitrose, but they are available at the majority of other supermarkets.

Have you ever tasted this brand of cheese? If so, what are your thoughts?

Do you find that there is often a difference between full fat and lighter food products?

Much Love,

Gem XxOo