Gluten-Free Watermelon Granita with Lime Recipe

A fruit-filled icy treat that's gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan friendly!  Tastes like summer!

Yield: 2 liters
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 4 hours

Watermelon Granita with Lime

Granitas are snowcones for adults.That's not meant to be a knock against granitas--I love a good snowcone, but they give the impression of being rather, tricycles and teddy bears. Granitas are snowcones all grown up. And, you could even add a shot or two of your favorite spirit for proper grown up granitas. But the ones I'm sharing with you today are alcohol free. They're also free of gluten and dairy and are suitable for vegans and vegetarians alike.

OXO Shake & Flavour Oven Fried Chicken, Gluten Free Coriander Griddled Corn and Gluten Free Hasselback Sweet Potatoes

Bake the crispiest, juiciest oven fried chicken with OXO's new flavour shake granules!

Yield 4 servings

OXO Shake & Flavour Oven Fried Chicken 

This chicken is amazing! You won't even realize it's not been properly deep fried--you get all of the crunchiness and juiciness of proper deep fried chicken without the excess grease and general unhealthiness. That's a big plus. This chicken was accidental in that I hadn't planned on making it. I was getting food ready for a barbecue picnic when the skies turned gray and big clouds rolled in.

Living in the UK, you become quite adept at having a stream of rainy day back plans to hand, especially when it comes to barbecues and picnics! We were planning two barbecues, to take advantage of a short stint of glorious weather; the first barbecue went off without a hitch. The second, not so much. With gray clouds threatening to burst at any moment, we needed a back up plan and quick.

I received a box of OXO's new Shake& Flavour Seasoning Granules for the purpose of whipping up a quick spread and it was my intention to use some of the seasoning in the box for a barbecue. Not wanting to abandon the granules and still excited to try them, I brainstormed an easy way to use the granules and the handy recipe sheets included in the package! (Nice one, OXO!)

This post is part of a BritMums project with OXO Shake & Flavour. Shake & Flavour seasoning granules can be sprinkled into food during cooking or before serving. Find out more about the Shake & Flavour varieties.

#GetHimFed 36

How Bloggers Maintain Relationships with Brands Part 3 of 3

For bloggers, developing and maintaining relationships with brands is vital for success. Master these five techniques and get big brands in your corner.

So far we've looked at attracting brands and developing a relationship with brands. In the final installment today, I want to focus on maintaining the relationship you've established. 

As with any relationship, it needs cultivation and care. You can't just let it sit in a corner and do nothing. 

Brand and blogger relationships, while different from most relationships, still need an element of TLC. But how you dish up the lovin' to the brands that agree to work with you is going to be different from how you treat your family and friends.

You'll want to focus on your end of the bargain, consistency and thoroughness. In every dealing you have with brands, strive for this. Don't try to be something other than who you are. At the end of the end of the day, it doesn't matter too much how many followers you have or how much clout your blog carries. Brands are run by people. People want to work with people. And no one likes unreasonable, hard to pin down, disorganized people.

Anyonita's Virtural Bake Sale #CurrysBakeSale

Most of the opportunities I get pitched are usually ones that will benefit just me, which is nice,but it's not exactly the safest sitch to be in terms of karma. I try to help people as much as I can, although my volunteering and acts of kindness these days are usually reserved for blogging tutorials and coding help (it can be really difficult to turn up at a charity with a stroppy two year old and try to volunteer!).

#tastytuesdays no. 61 & 9 summer thirst quenchers

STOP! Please read the welcome message as there has been ONE VERY BIG CHANGE!!! I want to make sure that I provide the very best party for you, giving you the best chances of having your content repinned and traffic to your blog increased. To do this, I've made one final, very big change to #tastytuesdays I hope you all like it!

Gluten Free & Vegetarian Strawberry Breakfast Quinoa

Quinoa served warm with fresh fruit is a delicious, gluten free alternative to traditional oatmeal!

Written by: Anyonita Green

Every day thousands of new blogs are created. And each day, thousands of blogs are abandoned. The world of blogging can be as sweet and rewarding as winning the lottery or as bitter as lemons. While anyone can start a blog, running and maintaining a successful blog takes determination, preparation and organization.

There's more to blogging than just sitting down and rehashing your day--that's journaling; all blogs aren't journals. Blogging requires the precision of a well-executed uppercut in a boxing ring and the poised grace of a swan on a clear, still lake. Bloggers need to be as calculated as the heavyweight who studied his opponent for months before the big fight; who knows everything about him: from his demeanor when he's exhausted to his tell before he throws his signature punch.

Bloggers need to be as hardworking as those gliding swans--skimming across the surface effortlessly, but aware of the legs beneath the water pumping like pistons to keep the bird afloat and everything in place.

5 Overlooked Details to Consider when Starting a Blog

I wanted to share five details that newbie bloggers or wannabe bloggers overlook when planning their blog. Don't get caught without considering these key areas; the difference it'll make to your first few months blogging is priceless:

1. Choose a Blog Name Wisely
It doesn't have to be a pun. It doesn't have to be your name. It could be any manner of word or phrase that resonates with you or that reflects you and your personality. It's always a good idea for the title of your blog to at least give some inclination as to what readers can expect when they delve into your content, but that's not always the case.

Pull inspiration from these suggestions when coming up with your blog name:
* use your first name and a verb that reflects the main subject of your blog
eg: a food blog named Anyonita Nibbles
* use the street you grew up on or currently live on
eg: I live on Oxford Road, so my blog name could be The Oxford Chronicles or The Oxford Circus or The Oxford or From Oxford Road or Down Oxford Road
* use a pun that reflects the main subject of your blog
eg: a food blog named Thyme & Again
a music blog named In One Ear & Out the Other
a knitting blog named Purls of Wisdom

2. Choose a Blog Platform that Works for You
There's a lot of debate between Blogger and Wordpress. If you've read my blog for any length of time, then you probably know that I'm a staunch Blogger girl and for me, combined with my limited knowledge of coding, Blogger provides all I need as a blogger. Their ties with Google and Google's influence in blogging make it a very natural decision.

For others, Wordpress feels more like home. There are some really big differences between the two platforms and they are worth exploring before making your decision. To make it a bit easier, a rough difference is that Blogger provides the space for you to have a more hands off approach in terms of updates and maintenance and Wordpress is a lot more demanding in this aspect. The best thing to do is to have a good look around both platforms and weigh up the pros and cons and research to find the best fit for you.

3. Choose a URL You Won't Hate in the Morning
Your URL is for life. Okay, not really, but it's best if you just assume it is from the start. You'll spend a lot of time sharing your URL and it's what search engines will use to refer to your blog and to give you various rankings. It's how your readers will find your blog and it's what you'll use to tell people about it.

And while we're on it, it makes a whole lot of sense for your blog name and your URL to be the same or as close to the same as you can get. It just cuts down on confusion and it makes your readers confident that they are on a legitimate site. Think about it, if you followed a URL called www.blueshoes.com and ended up at a website called Pamela's Punchy Puddings --how would you feel? Would you be a bit dubious? Exactly.

Oh and another thing about URLs, it's a good idea to go ahead and buy up all the popular variations of your domain as you can. Or at least two or three of them. So say you're writing a blog about Blue Shoes and your purchase the domain(URL) www.blueshoes.com . While you're at it, go ahead and purchase www.blueshoes.net, www.blueshoes.org, www.blueshoes.co.uk etc. If you don't and your blog becomes very popular and well known, URL poachers will purchase it for pennies and try to sell it back to you for more than its worth.

4. Choose a Web Host that's Reliable
If you're going to have a successful blog, you need a blog that's going to actually be online. That means that anyone in the world can access it at any time of day. This isn't down to you to make sure that this is possible, this is where your web hosting service comes into play. Make sure you choose a web host with a strong reputation and a high percentage of up time. You may want to start by checking out Web Hosting Hub*!

I've only just heard of them myself, but so far, I like what I see! And as always, I've done a bit of researching around & everyone has lovely things to say about them. Give them a go :)

5. Choosing to Organize and Stay Motivated
One of the biggest blogging casualties has to do with lack of motivation. A number of bloggers think that after they write their first post that they are going to be inundated with fans, readers and brand endorsement opportunities.Wouldn't that be nice?

Unfortunately, all of those things come after you've already established yourself as a blogger. The best and quickest way to get there is to keep blogging. Make a decision right now, even before you have your blog that you are going to be organized. Create a content schedule--it can be as detailed or as open-ended as you'd like. Just jot down when you want to post and a general idea of what you want those posts to be about. That way, when you're having a rough day or are rushed off your feet, you're not wasting valuable time trying to come up with what to write about; you'll already know where to start!

The classic flavors of eggs Benedict served on grilled portabello mushroom topped with smoked bacon, dressed with a silky blender Hollandaise and perfectly poached egg. An ideal weekend breakfast or brunch option without the gluten!

Yield 2 servings

Gluten Free Eggs Benedict with Easiest Blender Hollandaise Served on Grilled Portabello 

Earlier this week, I woke up craving a cooked breakfast. Manchester had been experiencing its usual weather: torrential rain and the idea of bundling up Callum and whisking him off during the downpour to go to our favorite weekend breakfast haunt was unappealing. Instead, I decided to revisit one of my favorite breakfasts. A few years ago I made Eggs Benedict with Prosciutto on Spinach English Muffins and that was seriously the most amazing and delicious dish to come out of my kitchen in a long time. With my Coeliac Disease diagnosis, I find myself still craving those types of dishes and I wanted to give myself (and others with Coeliac Disease or a gluten intolerance) an opportunity to enjoy some of those classic, gluten laced dishes. So the idea of redoing eggs Benedict and making it coeliac friendly and gluten free fueled the inspiration for this recipe.

How Bloggers Develop Relationships with Brands 2 of 3

Once you've gotten in the door with brands, as a blogger, you'll need to work hard to develop a proper working relationship. Use these five techniques to develop a relationship with brands you'll work with.

As with any good and stable relationship, there needs to be balance in the relationship between a blogger and a brand. Both parties need to be aware of each others capabilities and limitations for the partnership to be a success.

From the point of view of established brands, this is simple. The reputation of any established brand proceeds them and straight away we form opinions just by listing off their names. When it comes to most bloggers and smaller, niche brands that aren't as well known as the big guns of the industry, this can be a bit more challenging. This is when having a good, working relationship with brands is key.

A high percentage of my blogging works comes from repeat brands either through a brand's in-house marketing strategist or via a third party PR team. It doesn't really matter with whom you liaise, you should seek to create the most functional relationship possible. Functional relationships are free from drama, involve open communication, are displayed by both sides holding up their end of the bargain, are adult-level collaborative projects that end in results for all involved.Use these five techniques to aid you in developing relationships with the brands you work with and you'll start to see repeat assignments.