Good Food and good times with PnP Fresh Living

I was very privileged to be invited to the Pick n Pay Fresh Living reader event at the Good Food Studio.

Let me just say that I am not eating again for at least a week. O.M.G I am stuffed! I had to pop open the button on my jeans when I got into the car.  The food was magnificent!!!!

Anka Roux and Caroline Gardener, food editors for Fresh Living magazine and Nic van Wyk, an award winning chef from Simonsburg, gave fabulous demonstrations on putting together parts of an amazing three course meal.

After the cooking demos we sat down to a cheese (Simonsberg) and wine (in house PnP brand) tasting that was so delicious.  I could have had that for lunch and been totally happy 🙂  I heart cheese!

After the delicious cheese and wine we moved on to starters.

Stuffed bread bites with feta cheese…

and quince and blue cheese pies with salad…

Followed by the main course of slow-roasted shoulder of lamb with salsa verde and lemon and parmesan risotto…

This was followed by a scrumptious dessert of chocolate truffles and lemon tart…

I was very lucky to attend the event with a few other bloggers/tweeters…

Angel, Kerry, Jessica and Dale

I had an absolute blast this morning and cant wait to attend another event at the Good Food Studio, perhaps a hands on cooking lesson or two 🙂

Thank you so much for inviting me PnP!!!

 

Pick n Pay Real Baby – A Review on nappies

So our little bundle was 3 weeks old last Sunday.  Here are some updates.

  • She is growing.
  • She no longer fits into most of her newborn clothing.
  • She is now wearing mostly 1-3m clothes.
  • She barely fits into #1 nappies.
  • That means it was time to try out our Pick n Pay Real Baby #2 nappies!

I was very impressed with the quality of the nappy.  Although I thought it was a bit stiff and cardboardy between the legs, Faith didn’t seem to mind at all.  We only had one leak and I think it was because mommy was half asleep when I put the nappy on and I didn’t fit it properly.  My only real complaint is that the tabs are not stretchy and I have come to expect nappies to have stretchy tabs.

All in all we love our Pick n Pay nappies and will definitely be buying more soon!

Pick n Pay Real Baby – A Review

As I said before I wanted to keep most of the Pick n Pay products I received to review for when our baby was born, this happened a little sooner than expected and we have been using the products for just over a week now.

My overall impression is that these are great quality products at a reasonable price.

But lets break it down shall we…

 

Junior #5 nappies

We started using these for Aaron at night mostly as he still isn’t fully potty trained.  The quality of the nappy and the materials used rival any of the big brands on the market.  I found the fit of the nappy very good and the retention (liquids and solids) excellent.  I did notice a bit of a rash that has formed around the waist band area, we are treating it with rash cream and hopefully it is unrelated to the nappy itself.

 

Cotton Wool Pleats

I like the idea of the cotton wool pleats.  They are easy to tear off but I found that the size of each pleat is too big for our needs and halving one pleat makes it too small.  I also didn’t like that at each tear section the cotton wool has a hard edge.  In terms of what cotton wool is supposed to do, I have no complaints.

 

Wipes

I LOVE the wipes.  The smell is subtle and pleasant.  They were easy to remove one at a time.  They have just the right moisture content that I like.  We usually use Pigeon brand wipes and the Pick n Pay wipes are the closest I have come to that quality.

 

Cotton Buds for Baby

I have never used a cotton bud for a babies ears but I found that these buds were just perfect for dipping into surgical spirits and cleaning Faith’s umbilical stump.

 

Nappy Cream

Personally I did not like the nappy cream.  Its a perfectly serviceable cream but I found it no different from a body or hand cream.  For me a bum cream needs to be more of a paste, a barrier cream between baby’s bum and the wet in her nappy.  I found that this cream absorbed almost immediately and that Faith started to get a small rash on her bum so I stopped using it and went back to our usual Fissan Paste.

 

Baby Lotion

I adore the baby lotion.  Again, it smells lovely and it absorbs beautifully.  Faith particularly likes it when I use it after her bath for a massage.

 

Body Wash

I love the body wash.  A little goes a long way with this product and we have used it every single bath Faith has had.  In fact I like it so much Im tempted to use it for my own bath tonight.  I also used this to wash her hair and so far it has left her hair silky and smelling beautiful.

 

So far those are the products we have used.  As we use the other products we will let you know what we think.

And just because I can and I know you will all go awwwwwww, here is a pic that the very talented Jenty took of our beautiful girl 🙂

Pick n Pay Real Baby

A little while ago Pick n Pay asked me if I would like to review their new range of baby products.

With an active 3 year old and a new baby on the way I jumped at the chance.

This is what arrived for us last week:

  • 1 x pack Junior #5 nappies (46) – R119.99
  • 1x pack Mini #2 nappies (44) – R82.99
  • Cotton Wool Pleats (100g) – R13.99
  • Cotton Puffs (50g) – R13.99
  • Wipes (72) – R27.99
  • Cotton Buds for Baby (50) – R10.99
  • Aqueous Cream (250ml) – R12.99
  • Petroleum Jelly (250ml) – R13.59
  • Baby Soap (100g) – R5.29
  • Nappy Cream (75ml) – R15.99
  • Baby Lotion (200ml) – R18.99
  • Body Wash (400ml) – R23.99
  • Baby Oil (200ml) – R17.29
  • Baby Powder (300g) – R17.69
  • Hygiene Liquid (500ml) – R24.99

*prices taken from the Pick n Pay Online Store.

I was totally blown away by the package that arrived for us.  The best part is that these are not sample sizes but the actual sizes you will find in store.

The eye catching yellow, white and grey packaging is great, and Aaron was all over the bottles and tubs naming the cute animal drawings on each product.  I was excited to see that all the creams, lotions and powders have chamomile extract in them, this soothing extract is wonderful to help put niggly babies at ease (and its smells great too).

I must admit we haven’t tried any of the products yet.  The reason being that we had just opened a new pack of nappies for Aaron and we are waiting to finish those before opening the Pick n Pay ones.  As for the other products, poor Aaron is missing out, Im being selfish and hanging onto those for theSQL.  She should be here in the next 3 weeks and I am so grateful I dont need to buy any toiletries for her now.

I did open almost all the bottles and tubs and they smell divine, the chamomile extract is delish and Im sure its going to be very soothing for the baby.

Watch this space for our review of the Junior nappies in the next few days…