Fess up… who consumed too many Easter eggs over the weekend? If you want a yummy nutrient boost after all of that chocolate over the weekend then give this green smoothie recipe a go.

A green smoothie is a blended combination of green leafy vegetables and fruit. It is an easy way to get in your daily dose of fruit and vegetables. Many kids also love gulping down delicious smoothies. It is ultra hydrating and full of healthy antioxidants, potassium, fibre, calcium, iron and vitamin C.

1 banana
1 cup blueberries
1 cup coconut water
1 tablespoon of natural, unsweetened yoghurt
1 large handful of spinach
1 tablespoon of chia seeds

Combine the banana and blueberries in a blender and process until ground. Add the spinach, coconut water and yoghurt and pulse until it is all combined. Pour into a tall glass and sprinkle with chia seeds.

Get all of your ingredients from Nosh and start your day with a delicious green smoothie!

To celebrate reaching 10,000 Facebook fans and Easter we have 4 Easter prize packs to giveaway. These yummy prize packs include 2 Easter chocolate treats and a $50 iTunes voucher.

All you have to do is tell us what your favourite Easter treat is.

Competition ends 5pm on April 1st, 2013. Good luck!

Congratulations to Trent Fisher, Heather Phillips, Charmaine Willis-Croft and Crystal Tata who are the lucky winners of our Easter competition. Please email us at info@lasoo.co.nz to claim your prize.

Terms & Conditions:
The winners will be four completely random people. The will be announced on April 2nd, 2013. The prize includes 2 x Easter chocolate products and 1x $50 iTunes voucher. We will require a copy of the winners ID and it must reflect their Facebook name. The Promotion is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with, Facebook. Any questions, comments or complaints about the Promotion should be directed to the Promoter (not Facebook) at the address given in clause 1 of these Terms and Conditions. The promotion adheres to the terms
and conditions set out in the Facebook promotion guidelines which can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

Easter is just around the corner which means lots of chocolate, a long weekend and spending time with your loved ones. If you really want to impress your family this Easter then make your own marshmallow eggs. It is cheap, simple and tastes delicious.

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon of gelatine
1 tsp of lemon juice
1 cup of sugar
½ a cup of hot water
¼ of a cup of cold water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
400g bag of chocolate buttons
Food colouring optional

Method
1. Make a bed of flour in a dish and push egg sized indents into the flour to make the moulds for the marshmellow.
2. Place cold water in a bowl, stir in gelatine and stand for 5 minutes.
3. Mix hot water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
4. Add gelatine and boil for 5 minutes.
5. Pour mixture into large bowl
6. Put a bit of cold water in the sink and place the bowl in the sink to cool it down quickly
7. Add lemon, vanilla and optional food colouring and beat until thick and creamy
8. Spoon into flour moulds
9. Refrigerate about an hour or until the marshmallow is chilled right through
10. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a boiling pot
11. Ice the marshmallow with the chocolate sticking two pieces of marshmallow together.
12. Refrigerate until chocolate hardens.
13. Once you the chocolate has hardened then you can decorate them however you want.

This will make you look like a whiz in the kitchen and your family will definitely appreciate it. Happy Easter everyone!

For me Easter is all about eating yourself into a sugar coma…..It’s the one day of the year when you are allowed. If you are ready for a bit of indulgence then we have fund some of our favourite eggs.

Pascall Pineapple Lumps Easter Egg – We can’t have a list of Easter Eggs without our own NZ Pineapple Lumps Easter egg. You crack the egg open and inside is lot of chocolate filled with pineapple-flavoured deliciousness. Great to send to New Zealanders overseas who are missing their pineapple lumps fix.

Cadbury Fairtrade Certified Hollow Egg – This egg has the same Cadbury Dairy Milk great taste, and allows Kiwis to directly help improve the lives of cocoa farmers and their families in developing countries. This is for chocolate lovers who also care about fair-trade.

3D T-Rex Chocolate Egg – Are you a bit of a chocolate addict? If so, then this is the Easter egg for you. Made with premium NZ chocolate, it is 600g of sugar goodness.

Sollys Marshmallow Easter eggs- They have been named the country’s best chocolate marshmallow eggs and I can definitely see why. The delicious smooth and sweet marshmallow coated with the most amazing chocolate is to die for. Give these a try if you are a marshmallow Easter egg fan.

Cadbury Dream Easter egg – If you are a white chocolate fan then this is the Easter Egg for you. With a delicious Cadbury dream hollow egg and three Dream chocolate treats, your white chocolate cravings will be satisfied.

Cadbury Creme Eggs - Cadbury crème eggs are one of my personal favourites. They consist of a thick milk chocolate shell with a white and yellow egg like fondant filling. Available in the traditional 40g serve and minis, they are small in size but big in taste.

Hop over to The Warehouse or Nosh to fill your basket with some of these delicious treats for Easter. What is your favourite Easter Egg?

Ahh it’s that time again when the bunnies come out and the kids go crazy from all the sugar…. EASTER! With the long weekend just around the corner we thought we would share some events to keep the kids busy.

Coca-Cola Easter Show – ASB Showgrounds, Auckland
5-9 April 2012
Adults: $35
Teens: $10
Kids 12 and under: Free
One of my favourite events to head along to as a kid was the Easter Show. The Easter show started 169 years ago. It is five fun filled days of entertainment and education. There is always something happening. The ASB showgrounds will be transformed into a massive full filled festival of entertainment for the whole family.

Giant Easter Egg Hunt – Karaka, Auckland
6-9 April 2012
Family (2 adults+ 2 children): $35
Adults: $12
Children: $8
Head along to the Amazing Maze ‘n Maize, to find the chocolate eggs that the Easter Bunny will be hiding. This will be lots of fun for the whole family.

Easter Family Festival – Mt Maunganui
8 April 2012
Free
Two huge slides, bouncy castles, face painting and a small disco, there will be lots of fun for the kids. There will also be street performers like Papa Cret and B Looney da Clown to provide hours of entertainment. Head along to keep the family entertained this Easter.

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter is fast approaching and it’s the one time of the year when we don’t have to feel guilty for devouring all that delicious chocolate that the eater bunny delivers us. It is a great time to catch up with family and friends. The tradition is that the night before Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny sneaks into homes and delivers yummy Easter eggs to all the children. I remember all those memories from my childhood of waking up throughout the night seeing if the Easter Bunny had delivered my chocolate egg. And if he had, I always had to sneak a piece and then go back to sleep. I love these traditions and even though Easter Bunny may not deliver to me anymore, I still love to see the excitement on children’s faces when they see their Easter Egg.

Where did Easter come from? Today Easter is commercialized. Many look forward to it because it means a holiday and lots of chocolate from the Easter Bunny. But where did Easter and the Easter Bunny come from? To some people Easter is derived from the word Eostre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon Goddess. She symbolized spring, the season of re-birth, and this was celebrated a long time before the religious meaning was associated with Easter. It celebrated the renewal of life and promoted fertility. According to Canonical gospels it marks the end of the fasting season of Lent on Easter Sunday and the death and resurrection of Jesus on Good Friday. Christians usually celebrate this on Easter Day or Easter Sunday. Many Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate Easter and link it to symbols such as the Easter Bunny, hot cross buns and Easter egg hunts. Easter is not a fixed date and occurs in and around the month of April.

Royal Easter Show: The Royal Easter Show has been a huge festival during the Easter weekend in New Zealand for 168 years. This year it is their 100th year at ASB Showgrounds. It is one of New Zealand’s biggest festivals with around 82,000 people going every year. It is a celebration of New Zealand and all the cultures and lifestyles that make us who we are. It has something for everyone! This year they are holding Hershey’s Royal Easter Show Classic Star Talent Quest with $15,000 in prize money. So if you have a talent that will blow the judges away, head to the Royal Easter Show. It is a great family event that is not to be missed.

New Zealand’s favourite Easter Eggs: Cadbury Easter eggs were first made in 1875. The first Cadbury chocolate eggs were made of dark chocolate and filled with sugared almonds. The launch of Cadburys dairy milk chocolate in 1905 increased the sales of Easter eggs. The Easter egg market reaches the little children right up to the grandparents. Shell eggs predominantly make up the market. Crème filled eggs also make up a large part of the market. They create the Easter eggs by putting them into moulds and rotating them to achieve even consistency. When the eggs are cooled two halves and molded together. The huge demand of Easter eggs means that they start production 8 months prior to Easter. Cadbury have also just released their first ever Fairtrade Easter egg.

Hot Cross Buns: Everyone knows the best thing about Easter is Hot Cross Buns with melted butter on a cold Winters morning. Bakeries around New Zealand are expecting huge demand over the Easter weekend with around 9000 hot cross buns expected to fly out each bakery door. There is also a chocolate variety which I am sure will be a big hit with the children. English folk have some superstitions around hot cross buns such as if they were baked on the good Friday they would never go moldy so they were hung in homes as good luck charms. There are so many delicious hot cross buns out there that it is hard to resist them when you are walking in the supermarket or past a bakery. In fact, thinking about all these hot cross buns have made me crave them more but instead of racing down to the bakery I am going to make yummy warm home made Hot Cross Buns.

Tip Top Easter Treat Loaf: This new loaf was created especially for Easter. They are yummy thick slices ready for the toaster and melted butter In Tip Tops 60 year baking history they have made over 54 million Easter Buns. That is a lot of Easter buns!

With all of these exciting things happening and yummy food available, you better get into the Easter spirit and celebrate with family and friends. I hope the Easter Bunny visits you all!