Tefal Soup & Co Review and Give Away!!

I've been eating store bought tubs of soup every day for about a month now, so when I was contacted and asked if I was at all interested in trying out the new Tefal Soup & Co, and having one for give away if I was impressed - I jumped at the shot.

I'm a pretty lazy person (that is well documented on this blog which does not take too much effort to run), so the thought of putting soup into a machine and it cooking without any stirring or effort required intrigued me slightly. 

Madeline had my Soup & Co sent me via courier over night but I had to wait until The Husband picked me up from work one night as I was not about to carry it on the tram, it's hard enough carrying my hand bag sometimes, so I had to wait a few nights to use it. 

My mum is staying over for a few nights, so we tackled the project together.

Sometimes it is good to have someone watching me in the kitchen. 

I mean really, washing the dishes once resulted in a trip to the emergency room for me. 

It took seconds to assemble, literally placing the stainless steel bowl on to the base, and putting the lid on. Done in seconds. 

Mum was incredibly suspicious that a machine would cook soup to perfect consistency in only 25 minutes, and being the traditional soup maker that she is, was ready to watch it fail.

She isn't in to lazy people cooking like I am. She enjoys slaving over a hot stove.

Mum obviously does not trust me with a sharp knife, so took it upon her self to chop the ingredients for the Lentil Soup recipe that we were using.

So, you do have to chop and prepare the ingredients your self. 

It's not like a blender in that nature, but it would be awesome if you could put carrots in whole and didn't have to chop, anyway, mum wanted me to make note that we had a professional chopper in the building after I suggested blending the veggies in my Kitchen Aid blender haha.

We decided to use a recipe from the recipe book that came with the Soup & Co:

Cream of Lentil with Bacon

Serves 4

150g green lentils

1 onion

1/2 carrot 

1/2 white of leek

60g smoked bacon (I did not use this, I already had a BLT today so had enough of bacon, but will include the bacon steps)

150ml single cream

salt 

1L water (we used 1L of vegetable stock instead)

- Soak the lentils in lukewarm water according to the directions on the packet.

Cooking is facilitated and the lentils will be more tender (once again, I am too lazy for this rubbish and just rinsed them and popped them in). 

- Peel the onion and carrot and cut them in cubes. Wash the white of leek and cut into rounds. Cut the smoked bacon into small cubes.

- Place the cubes of carrot, onion, leek, lentils, bacon and 1L water into the Soup & Co. 

- Press the P button to select programme P1. Confirm the programme by pressing the OK button. 

- Leave to cook for 25 minutes. When the soup is ready, the appliance beeps three times. 

- Add the single cream and a large pinch of salt. Blend for 30 seconds on maximum speed and serve immediately. 

For relevance, prices of ingredients purchased from Safeway:

1 carrot = 0.33c

1 brown onion = 0.56c

leek = $2.48

Green lentils = $2.09

Cream = $3.00

Stock = $4.00

TOTAL: $12.46 for 4 serves

There were not many ingredients used as you can see, and with minimum mess which is a good thing when cooking in a kitchen with as little space as mine, which will be the death of me.

We put the solid ingredients in first, followed by the stock (which was meant to be water).

Press one button, and it sets for 25 minutes with no need to touch it until it beeps three times informing you that it is done.

At this stage, Mum and I are standing around looking incredulous and doubtful, especially as it was virtually silent.  

When it got to one minute remaining it automatically started to pulsate, blending the ingredients, which in turn scared the bejesus out of Mum and I who not expecting it to make a noise all of a sudden and we may have stood back, but it didn't blow! 

We didn't exactly read the instruction manual, which apparently you should do, and I set it up underneath a cupboard which resulted in a bit of a steam build up on the cupboard, but nothing to really worry about.  The manual does say to not put it under a cupboard for this exact reason.

We added the cream and salt, and then set about blending it for another 30 seconds, but could not work out if there was a timer for this, so just estimated 30 seconds. I'm guessing that if I read the manual, it will have a timer feature for shizzle.

We were both seriously shocked at how amazing it was. The Soup & Co will also keep the soup heated for 40 minutes if you forget about it and do not empty it for awhile.

Mum is converted. She is already telling people about it on the phone! 

Words from The Mother:

Well , I was skeptical about The Soup &Co as I am an old school cook.

But from the first minute as the much loved aroma of home cooked soup started to permeate the kitchen , I started to think that perhaps this just might be ok. 

However it was such an amazing result , the flavor was fresh and the texture and consistency perfect. Imagine spending a few minutes throwing a few veggies into a vessel and producing a nourishing and yummy meal .

I am very impressed.

The soup was freaking delicious. So good. 

The Husband is not a massive soup fan, but too bad sucker because now that I have an easy meal, he will be eating it.  I have a feeling I will be freezing soup for months to come. 

We were going to double the quantity when making this, but stuck to the recipe in the book and were pleasantly surprised that it did indeed make 4 bowls full. 

It has a self cleaning mode, where you fill it with 1L water and a drop of detergent and switch it on, which dislodges all food from the blades but still needs a little bit of a wipe out with a sponge.

Okay, so mum is impressed.

I am impressed.

I think you should be impressed too. 

If this could chop the ingredients too, this would be perfection! 

Anyway, on to the even better point, that benefits you:

I have one up for give away!!! The Soup & Co is $299 in stores, and worth every shilling. 

To enter the give away, be a follower, leave a comment and let me know what your favorite soup is!!! 

This is only open to Australian readers, sorry.

I shall draw the competition next Sunday afternoon. 

Pedi-Sox Give Away - Perfect for those with Toe Fetishes.

Here is one for all of those who:

a)      like socks

b)      like toeless socks

c)      like to paint their nails in winter, and not have cold feet

d)      have a foot fetish

e)     like free stuff

f)      all of the above

I got sent these cute Pedi-Sox to trial, and I have 5 pairs for Give Away!! Hoorah.

Sorry to open up with a gross photo of my feet. They really are not cute.
My third toe is thicker than my second toe. What is going on with that? My nails are also gross because I get ingrown toenails and have to hack them :( :( Too much information? Perhaps.


The nail polish I am wearing is China Glaze - Fly. 

The purpose of the pedi-sox is that after you moisturize, you pop them on to lock in the moisture and then your toes are left free to be painted and not smudged, keeping the rest of your foot warm!

I love random stuff like this, but if you read my blog you have probably noticed this by now.

As you can see, they come in all sorts of different patterns and even different fabrics. 

I put them on after my foot bath yesterday and didn’t take them off until it was bed time. 

They really are very comfortable, but having my toes free was just too irresistible for Husband who kept flicking them.

He told me “If your toes were covered, I wouldn’t be flicking them now would I?” 

Okay, so I actually like this product! Who would have thought.

Salons in Australia have started to stock them, but if your local doesn’t have them contact info@originalpedisox.com  or visit the website here as they do ship internationally and they should be able to ship you out some.

I am waiting on a stockist list as I type! 

I love anything cute and random. I used to wear toe socks, those were the days. Like gloves for my toes.

Anyway, I have 5 pairs for give away!

All you need to do is be a follower of some form and leave me a comment below. 
I will draw the winner out next Wednesday. 

The Makeup Box Shop - Giveaway!!!

This is like the mother of all giveaways.

You may have noticed the advertisement for The Makeup Box Shop on the right hand column, which will be there whilst this fantastic give away is up for offer. 

Katie from The Make Up Box Shop was so kind as to send me a large glamour box, to aid in the recovery of the hurricane that went through my make up collection. 

That hurricane was named Hurricane Mez. Every day it sweeps through, up earthing products and leaving debris all over the sink. 

I honestly did not actually realize how much make up and crap I actually have until I went through my cupboard and random bags to fill this little bad boy... I thought that as I don't wear much make up, I would not be able to fill it, but the cosmetics just kept on appearing, an t

But I am getting ahead of my self here. Let's start at the start, shall we?

I knew that the make up box was close to landing in my hot little hands when my email tracking showed it was in my area and I got a little bit too excited perhaps. 

What can I say though? I've wanted one of these for ages!! Excitement was to be expected. 

It arrived securely packaged in Styrofoam and plastic wrapping to keep everything in place, but let me tell you, that Styrofoam crap will be the death of me. I swear it flies.

I accidentally broke a few chunks in the fight to get the box out and the little white fluff crap went everywhere, and then when ever I would get close to it, with the intentions of wiping it up, it would fly far, far away. 

The wonder of Styrofoam when paired with the electrostatic charges from the acrylic box.

Who would have thought. Hours of frustration. 

Thanks Katie, you are a doll!

Hard to see its awesomeness due to the transparency of the acrylic nature, but it is far sturdier than expected.

I kind of expected it to be really light weight but it is actually really solid. 

The Glamour Box has the diamond shaped handles, opposed to the standard original box.  

Drawer 1:

I decided to put my more commonly used products in the top drawer for easy access, and it held everything that I need except for my large blush brush. 

The first four drawers are slim enough (3cm deep) that they don't fit the bulkier items, but everything else fits fine in them. 

Drawer 2:

Products that I don't use very often, but still good to have in easy reach. 

I feel like I need to do a slight make up cull. 

Drawer 3:

For somebody who only wears lip balm on a day to day basis, this is slightly concerning. 

It freaked me out that all of my lip glosses, lip sticks and lip liners fit perfectly without a struggle in the one drawer. Perfect fit, some might say. 

Drawer 4:

Basically, random products that only get used every blue moon, except for my Chanel compact which gets shown a good night on the town every so often. 

Drawer 5:

My trusty brushes, eyelash curler and brush shampoo are worthy of their own spacious drawer.

This drawer is 4.5cm deep, so my bronzer brush fits perfectly. 

Drawer 6:

By this stage, I was running out of stuff to store. Who would have thought.

Whilst the box does not look that big, it sure does fit a heck of a lot of crap. 

I thought that I would also take before and after photos of my medicine cabinet, as I took items out and added them to organizer, but I forgot to take photos of my dirty little make up bag. 

Don't worry though, you are not missing out on much.

This is the left hand side of my cabinet, in a split 'before and after' shot.

The right side of the cabinet in a split 'before and after' shot.

Much more organized, if you only look at the right photos! 

Awesome, right?! I don't have space in the bathroom for anything, so my box is sitting on my chest of drawers in our bedroom. It takes up no space at all and looks neat.

Now, for the best part about this post...

The Makeup Box Shop have been so generous as to offer a five drawer glamour box up for giveaway!! 

"With all the features of the Original Makeup Box plus great looking diamond handles, the Glamour Makeup Box is sure to impress.

This Cosmetic Organizer is perfect for organising all of your makeup so that you can find it easily and quickly.  The sleek modern design of our Glamour Boxes has five useful drawers is made from clear thick high quality acrylic.  

The bottom drawer measures 7cm and is perfect for storing your larger makeup pieces. Each of the top four drawers measure 3cm deep. The Glamour Box is the perfect gift for the girl who likes the fancy things in life."

Entire unit measures 21cm W x 24cm D x 22cm H

Click here to see more photos of the five drawer glamour box!

Conditions of Entry:

- Australian Entrants Only (sorry!!!)

- Must be a follower

- Leave me a comment. Anything. Please only leave one comment though! 

The give away will be drawn by random number generator on Wednesday 18 April, 2012. Stand by.