Get fresh for Fresh Week

So as I was saying a few days ago (I was - were you not listening?), I am one of 12 bloggers selected to form the Tefal Innovation Panel. 

The panel has been set up in conjunction with Mumsnet Bloggers and I attended a launch event in Windsor on 18th April where a number of Tefal products were demonstrated, we ate a jolly fine lunch and had some good chat.

During the course of the day, the idea of Fresh Week was introduced to us.

Fresh Week is a rather splendid idea from Tefal to encourage people to take a pledge (no, not THAT pledge - you can still drink gin) to cast aside processed food and cook fresh, unprocessed food for your family, for a week, from Monday 13th May until Sunday 19th May. And eat it.

If you read this regularly, you will know that I pretty much cook from scratch everyday (bar the odd fish finger, the puff pastry, the custard powder and - well, you know what I mean), and it's something that I feel pretty passionate about. Is making this pledge really such a challenge?

Well, perhaps not - but I am aware that there is a (mis)-conception that cooking from scratch takes too much time, so I am going to concentrate on what we as a family eat day to day for a week, rather than cake or the 'special' food. And I promise to include all the groans as well as any cheers that I get from my kids (and the Husband), and probably some of my own virtual swearing when things go wrong in the process. Time is tight for me at the moment - there's a lot going on in the RJ household - so I hope that I can convince you that fresh is just as easy - and defintiely tastier - than processed food, even when the (homemade) chips are down.

In order to help me on my way, I have been provided with a Fresh Express Max and a box of organic fruit and veg from Riverford Organics, which is all rather exciting. For those of you who haven't come across it before, the Fresh Express Max is a worktop electric chopper/grater.

You too can sign up to take this pledge and be in with a chance of winning your own Tefal Fresh Express and a Riverford Organic Farms basket.

So - I have taken the pledge - you can join me, for a chance to win your own Fresh Express (and Riverford box) by signing up here and let me know how you're getting on.

You can also see how my fellow panellists are doing with their own Fresh Week challenges: Madame Gourmand, Boo Roo and Tigger Too, Mother Geek, Jacintaz3, Emmy's Mummy, Red Rose Mummy, Romanian Mum, Seasider in the City, Crazy with Twins, Attachment Mummy and The Mad House .

Right. Where are those vegetables...