Christmas without spuds?! Fear not, there’s no need to do an Oliver Cromwell and cancel the whole affair, with a few tips and tricks you can easily overcome the festive famine.

Put the thought of simply cooking up extra turkey and Yorkshires to fill the plates firmly out of your head because this is the perfect opportunity to fill your baking tray to the brim with alternatives to sprouts, spuds and swede. Plenty of lesser-known and great tasting vegetables await you and your guests, should you not be able to get hold of the traditional trimmings this December.

Sprouts you may be glad to see the back of, but spuds are indispensable right? Not at all! Sweet potatoes are a perfect replacement root vegetable. If cooked right they will have a crunchy skin but be light and fluffy inside just like the real deal! A little coarse salt will compliment the sweet taste, and there you have it – a perfect and healthy alternative. Conveniently, you can still say ‘pass the spuds please’ maintaining a sense of familiarity.

As for carrots, sprouts, broccoli, cabbages and cauliflower, you could simply swap all of them for a huge dish of Mediterranean vegetables – aubergines, courgettes, peppers and red onion roasted to perfection and then tossed in garlic, oil and herbs. It may not be for everyone, but there is no denying they are delicious! Leave the vegetables whole or in big chunks to give a rustic look.

However, suppose you are worried that such a contemporary take on Christmas might upset the folks? We thought about this and have accordingly assembled an alternate vegetable tray that aims to be traditional – not temperate!

The turnip is an often forgotten classic English vegetable. It is known as a tough one to cook but don’t let this put you off. Remember, they can take an hour or more to become completely tender. Need something to nestle alongside them in the tray? We wager that big chunks of beetroot, leeks and fennel fit the bill here. In the event of not being able to get your hands on the usual suspects, cook these up for a bonafide Christmas lunch that will keep everyone happy.

Be sure to season the lot with some thyme and rosemary. Garden peas don’t appear on the supermarkets shortage list – so steam or boil those up and serve as well!

Our advice at Nim’s is don’t be shy! Use the great veg shortage of Christmas 2012 as the perfect excuse to cook something different and delicious! Be inventive.

As smells go, fresh bread has got to be up there with spring mornings, your favorite dish cooking away when you are really hungry, and the scent of a crackling fire place. Soft, hot, fresh bread simply smells delicious. If the prices of properties above bakeries don’t reflect this in the asking price, then maybe it’s time they did!

However, we doubt that many of us have given much thought to the affect of freshly baked bread on our day. Most would assume that quite simply, it smells nice and that is all there is to it. However, Scientists from the University of Southern Brittany in France have been doing exactly what scientists tend to do – look deeper into the matter.

They recruited eight volunteers and asked half to stand outside a bakery and half to stand outside a clothes shop. The participants rummaged in their bags, before dropping a glove, handkerchief or packet of tissues in front of a stranger. The researchers, observing from around 60ft away, found that 77 per cent stopped to help recover the lost items where the smell of fresh bread was strong, while only 52 per cent did so outside the clothes shop.

Now, taking a simplistic approach you could just argue that the smell of fresh bread is pleasant and that strangers helped people out just as an excuse to hang around it for a few seconds longer. Is this the case? Or is there something deeper going on here to do with our subconscious – is it possible that certain smells can evoke a change in character without us even knowing it?

Our sense of smell has traditionally been regarded as being in decline throughout our evolution, as we no longer need to smell out danger and food. However, this research would suggest that it might have other important purposes.

Of course aromatherapy is an extremely popular holistic approach to wellbeing and healing, jasmine for example is said to be a powerful relaxant and can help us get a great nights sleep.

If the way we act towards each other is affected on a subconscious level by our sense of smell then we need to give our noses a lot more credit for what they do! As for the reasons why certain smells affect our mood and behaviour we hope that our French scientist friends will find that out as their research continues.

A 25% increase in altruistic behavior is quite a large margin, and shows this research is not to be sniffed at!

Every parent knows that while we want to keep kids looking spic and span on the outside, looking after them from the inside is just as important. With childhood obesity and morbidity at an all time high, there’s never been a more important time to reinvent the packed lunch.

Remember the crisps, chocolates, cheesy biscuits and chewy sweets that were tossed into the lunch box, a symbol of our affection – lest the poor little soul be hungry during their schooling hours? – The fizzy cherry flavoured pop that would ignite their face with joy as they eagerly descend on their lunchbox at break time? Well, that’s becoming a thing of the past.

Sure, kids love their treats, and when we throw in the odd slice of brown bread or shiny red apple to absolve ourselves of the sour guilt that their lunchbox is perhaps not the best example of a balanced meal – are we really doing them a favour?

Clearly not, research shows that a staggering 99 out of every 100 lunchboxes packed last year were classed as “unhealthy”, according to nutrition experts.

According to market research group Mintel, 1.68 billion packed lunched were eaten last year. That’s a lot of lunches. So how are we meant to get it right?

Well, the word on the street is start swapping processed foods for healthy options. And this doesn’t mean sending your child to school on a rabbit food diet, or insist they nibble on a celery stick after P.E. It means making sensible decisions that will see them right through their school days, and set on them on the path to healthy eating for life. Exchange crisps for Nim’s Fruit Crisps, for example, or fizz for fresh fruit juice drinks.

Kids that eat breakfast and have a well balanced diet do better at school – and that’s a fact. Improving fruit and vitamin C intake is thought to boost their concentration and strengthen their immune system.

With winter – and winter bugs – just around the corner, the last thing you want is an unwell child, too sick to go to school, too sick to stay at home alone; you having to take time off work and then have the rest of the family coughing, sneezing and sniffling their way into Christmas. Hardly ideal.

Retailers can lend a helping hand too, and stock up on healthy options to make shopping easier for mums – why not position lunchbox specials together with other back to school essentials.

The point is if we took more care ensuring that our kids were eating the right foods, we would be doing both them and ourselves a pretty huge favour. And the packed lunch is as good a place to start as any.

Busy lifestyles lead people to reach for snacks – and there is a growing consensus that healthy snacks should be readily available to help consumers meet their nutritional needs.

As Britain’s love affair with snacking continues, traders are looking to stock healthy products that can help customers enjoy delicious, nutritionally balanced food that tastes as good for you as it actually is!

With a wealth of information now at consumers’ disposal, “green consumerism” is growing – and more people are making more health-conscious decisions to switch to natural and “free-from” alternatives than ever before.

Consumers are increasingly mindful of both environmental and health related issues when buying their food, and healthy fruit and veg is rapidly making headway in becoming customers’ first choice for healthy living.

Slimming the waistline without stretching the wallet is certainly a big plus, and many are waking up to a new dawn of hearty, wholesome and fresh food that is as affordable as it is beneficial!

The rise of green consumerism is being played out against the backdrop of a rapidly changing food industry; Food manufacturers have unanimously begun slashing the sugar, casting out the calories, fleshing out the fat and subtracting the salt – all to the tune of healthy living and nutritional benefit.

Nim’s Fruit Crisps contain no additives or preservatives and include one of your five a day. Snacking needn’t be a sin. In fact, nutritionists and dieticians agree that eating little and often is good for you!

Having healthy and well-balanced snacks to hand means consumers won’t miss out on valuable nutrition, yet will be able to satisfy hunger and dietary needs in a healthy and convenient way.

The process is as easy as one, two, three:

1. Buy a bag of Nim’s
2. Enter the barcode on our website
3. Claim your free session at a local participating provider

Take your pick of providers (they range from Fitness First to Tumble Tots) and the type of activity you want to participate in – test your moves at dancing sessions or try your hand at a squash session.  Then it’s really just a matter of getting involved and having fun!

As a Change4Life partner it is our duty to encourage healthier eating and increased activity in the people of Great Britain. It’s what we do and love, so in addition to the above we are also offering .25p off our Pineapple and Mango, and Orange and Melon flavours! All you have to do is enter the code 2012SOS when you are at the online checkout page on our website. We are only offering this on 200 packs so you’ll have to get in quick to take advantage of this special offer!

This is an interesting news story I read today in The Guardian about how farmers are getting creative and branching out in terms of what they grow, how they grow it, and where they source it from to beat the forces of nature. Have a read  via the link below and let me know what you think…

The Guardian – The Bristish Farmers Growing Exotic Crops

(Photograph: Rawdon Wyatt /Alamy, The Guardian)

While particular meals hit their peak of popularity during certain times of the year, so too does certain fruit. Eating in sync with the seasons not only means the fruit we consume is fresher and therefore tastier and more nutritious, but it’s also less of a strain on our wallets and the planet. I personally find I eat a lot more fresh fruit in the summer, and so always take care about what I buy and when.

While you’ll want to wait a little bit longer for blackberries, June is the month where the rest of the berries all start to come into season. Strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries and blueberries are becoming sweeter and cheaper by the day, and make oh-so-many mouth-watering dishes. They also make great healthy dessert alternative for kids, like including them to low-fat, plain yoghurt.

Strawberries in particular have long been a key ingredient in many traditional British summer recipes and we’re pretty chuffed to incorporate them in our product range. We recently went on a little excursion to a few strawberry farms and seeing the endless fields of these little beauties was a sight for sore eyes indeed. I took a snapshot to give you an idea of what I was looking at, and all I can say is that The Beatles song turned into a broken record in my head, it truly felt like Strawberry Fields Forever…and ever…and ever…!

For the past couple of weeks we’ve directed our efforts towards finding the highest quality pineapple. I’m a big fan of pineapple: there’s something regal about the leafy crown and golden i’ve-got-prickles-but-i’m-not-going-to-hurt-you exterior that I just can’t get enough of. And that’s not even starting on the taste that can be so luxuriously juicy it may as well be served right up in a glass.

Pineapples can be found in a few different countries and each brings with it a particular trait. For example, you’ve got the sunny-fleshed Smooth Cayenne pineapple with its high sugar and acid content, and the Red Spanish pineapple with its spicy flavour and white, fibrous flesh. While rare, the Sugar Loaf pineapple cannot be forgotten: its low acid content makes it thin, sweet and watery, and it often comes with an intense green exterior.

The pineapple plant is indigenous to South America but South East Asia and Costa Rica now dominates world production. It’s obviously not a commonly grown fruit in the UK because….well, let’s admit it – without an elaborate heating system the pineapple can’t put up much of a fight against the Brits when the sun decides to make an appearance. And therein lies the problem. Transporting pineapple isn’t easy – the two main things you’ve got to watch out for are deterioration and bruises, and seeing as we can’t select the fruit to send to ourselves we’ve got to be very careful about where and who we buy it from.

After a lot of research we’re pretty sure we’ve found a supplier in Costa Rica who knows how important quality is to us. We’ve got a few more questions to ask and a few more samples to be sent, but we’re quietly confident we’ve struck gold. Pineapple gold.

We’re going to keep you updated on this one and fill you in with the facts and photos as we get them. Why? Because we know if you’re eating our crisps then you care about the taste of our pineapples as much as we do. You’ll also care that after our search for the perfect pineapple is over we need to find its perfect mate. We’re thinking mango. Another solid household favourite.

Now where in the world can we find the best quality mangos…?

Change4Life’s ambition is to help people lead healthier lives. It’s about getting adults and families to alter their lifestyle and make fundamental changes to what they eat, how they eat, and the activities they’re involved in throughout the day.

We’re excited to become part of this movement and hope you’ll also get involved by taking a look at their website and see how you can play a part.