In our Shopping Basket: Some Favourite Buys
Morrisons have created the NuMe (pronounced new me) range of prepared foods. Chilled, frozen and store cupboard products all offer lots of health benefits. With 300 lines to choose from and new ones being added all the time they are great for those following a low fat and calorie controlled diet and anyone wanting to know the ingredient content.
We tried the Beetroot yogurt and mint dip – very tasty – great to eat on crispbread or add to a plain salad £1.19/70g.
The Pea and Mint cuppa soup was surprisingly tasty – we added a few frozen peas to give us something to chew on! 69p – four portions.
Sea Bass with Spinach and Parmesan Risotto £4.99 – 2 portions, married with Italian Bean Stew £1.75/400 g was delicious.
The whole range is innovative – the ones we have tried very tasty and reasonably priced – highly recommended – look out for them when next you visit Morrisons. We’ll be writing about their Christmas range of foods soon – well worth waiting for!
BerryWhite – an innovative organic range of flavoured teas – we tried Pomegranate and Blueberry with White Tea – a still fruit drink with white tea – which we liked very much. Why white tea? It is the least processed form of tea, made from the youngest silver buds which are gently steam, then dried and thereby contains more nutrients than other teas. Launched this year by Andrew Jennings there are several more drinks to try, see their website for details and where to buy.
Owen Potts has been an inventor of inspired recipes for over 15 years. He has developed recipes for supermarkets, household brands, farm shops over the years and in 2010 alone he developed over 1,000 recipes!
We love the Owen Potts’ range and recently tried the Maple Chipotle Barbecue and Grilling Sauce … Yum, great for indoor and outdoor additions to food. Try it on sausages, meat, anything actually – the older kids loved its spicyness mixed in with familiar flavours! 
Available in most supermarkets – see the website for specific stockists.
And finally, Weightwatchers. Such a range, but we were specially taken with their biscuits. We tried the pack of 5 Chocolate Biscuits – amazingly good! We will definitely be putting these in our trolley on our next visit to the supermarket. Coated with thick Belgian milk chocolate, 89 calories, 4.2g fat, wrapped separately – excellent we won’t be tempted to eat the whole packet.
We also tried the Fruit Crumble biscuits – apple, blueberry and raspberry – crumbly biscuit base, topped with crunchy flakes. A very definite thumbs up from our tasters who all said they would buy them. Again separately wrapped, 89 calories, 2.4g fat.
Dare we tell you about the new Milk Chocolate Digestives? Have a look on their website to see the other 12 varieties!
As you would expect with such a popular range of foods, they are available in all the major supermarkets.
Kate Campbell, Contributing author
Five Best Skincare Product Ranges
We always search out skincare products that don’t put unnatural chemicals on our skin and hair. Everything we write about here are our favourites, the ones we would always buy.
Now you might think there are rather a lot, but we often give some a break and then go back at a later date. This seems to work especially well with shampoo.
Tisserand have such a wonderful a range – you can see them on their website – that choosing is hard. However here are our absolute favourites:
- Intensive Hand and Nail Cream – wonderful aroma, good feel, organic and ethically harvested (As at 25 August they were offering this at a much reduced price)
- Anti-Blemish Stick – this works well on reducing redness, it’s not a cream but a tea tree oil mix easy to apply with a little stick we always have one in our bag
- De-Stress Bath Soak – this has a lavender base … need we say more!
- They also have a range of remedy roller balls, Head Clear that cools and relieves, Energise that boosts and revitalises, Focus that stimulates and invigorates, De-Stress that comforts and rebalances
- There are frequently offers – you might like to keep in touch via their newsletter.
Melvita offer a wonderful range of good quality organic, natural cosmetics not tested on animals. We love the Argan oil and use it on our face and hands in the daytime. At the moment the website is offering free samples … worth a look if you are really interested in top quality products. We notice they have added three new hydration products that soften and plump up your skin. Must try the narcissi fragrance! They also have a newsletter you can subscribe to.
Living Nature have a fabulously scented night oil containing rose and rosehip oil together with calendula to aid the regeneration process. This together with their firming flax serum, which we absolutely love, make a great combination to help reduce lines and wrinkles. Uniquely New Zealand the range is available on their website. To find your nearest stockist go to their website
It’s not easy finding a paraben and aluminium free deodorant and after a bit of a search we found Bionsen, a roll-on product, containing no alcohol – another ingredient some skins object to. Made with Japanese spa minerals it’s widely available, look out for it in Boots, Sainsburys, Tesco for instance, or even buy from their own website.
Nelson’s Arnicare bath and massage balm worked wonders for us when we had a remedial massage recently. Pleasantly scented it melted into our skin and relieved our aches and pains. We’ve used it since on different occasions and were pleased with the results. With an intriguing list of ingredients, free from parabens, lanolin, mineral oil, SLS’s and PEGs, we think it will please those looking to relieve their aches and pains, try it in the bath … wonderful!
More information about Arnicare. 
Available in Boots, Holland & Barrett and online.
Val Reynolds Brown, Editor
In Balance 