Breakfast Week: Our Mystery Day Out with Nestlé Cereals

Rather excitingly Sunday marked the start of Breakfast Week 2016 (24th-30th January) and I am finally able to spill the beans (or in this case, Cheerios) about what we’ve been up to with Nestlé Cereals.

Last weekend we were told to be up and raring to go by 9am, a courier would arrive with a box and some instructions and we just needed to go with the flow. We were all excited and a little nervous about what Nestlé had planned for us, I’m not very good with secrets so this was a little out of my comfort zone, but if you’d like to see what we got up to please watch our vlog below…

As you can see from the vlog we had a fantastic time at Pottery Corner in Chorlton. We loved the surprise and we all enjoyed painting our new breakfast bowls and getting our handprints done. It was nice to sit down with a cuppa and chat amongst ourselves. We’ve never been to Pottery Corner before and it was so warm and welcoming, we’ll definitely be back to complete our dinner set.

breakfast week

nestle 1

breakfast week

And then we had our family hand-prints done as a lovely reminder of the day.

breakfast week

nestle 2

During Breakfast Week Nestlé Cereals are inviting everyone to Shake Up Your Wake Up and try something new. Cereals are a great way to start your day, fortified with vitamins and minerals, and each bowl contains one of your recommended 3-5 portions of whole grain a day. I know that sending my son off to school having had a good breakfast means he will start the day the right way.

There are so many different Nestlé Cereals to choose from; from much-loved favourites such as Shredded Wheat and Shreddies, kids favourites like Cheerios and modern classics like Oats & More, Cookie Crisp, the delicious Curiously Cinnamon as well as Nestlé Gluten Free Cornflakes. During the next week I’ll be giving my boys a new breakfast every day, so please follow me on Instagram to keep tabs on what the boys are breakfasting on this week!

Will you be doing things differently this breakfast week?

= In collaboration with Nestlé Cereals =

My Sunday Photo 24.1.16

Has spring sprung? The daffodils have been tricked by Mother Nature and some have had their showy yellow heads out since before Christmas, the topsy-turvy weather has made for a confusing time for spring bulbs.

This weekend we went for a long walk in the park and whilst the skies were blue and the sun was shining, there was a distinct nip in the air. I spied the tiniest of snowdrops, traditionally the first sign for me of a little bit of hope that winter is turning into spring, but they were competing with crocus, daffodils and primroses. If you look carefully around the park the beds are littered with tiny colourful buds of hope.

Hope has perhaps sprung too early this year, but aren’t we all guilty of a bit of misplaced hope sometimes. I can’t help but feel that we’re in for an unusual year weather-wise. Maybe an unusual year full stop, who knows.

spring

Shake Up Your Wake Up! During Breakfast Week 2016

This January we will be celebrating Breakfast Week (24th-30th January) and Nestlé Cereals have challenged us to Shake Up Our Wake Up! It’s so easy to wander sleepily into the kitchen and just pour some cereal or milk into a bowl and have that, but during Breakfast Week we’ll be daring to be different, mixing things up a bit and making our standard bowl of cereal sing!

I am excited to announce that during Breakfast Week we will be in partnership with Nestlé Cereals who have a surprise planned for us (more news on that as it happens) and I’ll be making a vlog of our mysterious trip out (subscribe to my YouTube channel here).

breakfast week

There are so many different Nestlé Cereals to choose from; from traditional favourites such as Shredded Wheat and Shreddies, kids favourites like Cheerios and modern classics like Oats & More, Cookie Crisp, the delicious Curiously Cinnamon as well as Nestlé Gluten Free Cornflakes.

Nestlé Cereals contain essential whole grains and are fortified with vitamins and minerals designed to help get you off to a good and nutritious start each day. The classic Nestlé Cereal, Shredded Wheat is made from 100% whole grain. Whole grain provides a range of vitamins, minerals, fibre, starch and other nutrients and it is recommended that we eat 3-5 portions of whole grain each day. Breakfast cereal is a great way to help get your day off to a flying start. Look out for the green tick on Nestlé Cereals, this tells you that your bowl of breakfast cereal contains a minimum of 8g of whole grains per serving.

My Nan drummed it into me that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that time should be set aside each morning to sit down and eat breakfast and mentally prepare yourself for the day ahead. I find that taking ten minutes out first thing to collect my thoughts, jot down my to do list, have a coffee and a bit of breakfast can make a big difference to my productivity that day.

During Breakfast Week I’ll be doing my bit to Shake Up My Wake Up by trying a different breakfast each day, and discovering some new ways to eat my Nestlé Cereals.

Learning: Writing letters and numbers

Over Christmas a few developmental things seemed to fall into place for the small boy and he couldn’t get enough of activity books, specifically practicing writing letters and numbers. Not one to discourage this, I spent a small fortune on activity books, we were going through one book every other day over the Christmas holidays and he was thoroughly enjoying it. But there had to be a cheaper way.

I mentioned this to Karen from That Lancashire Lass and she suggested I have a look at Twinkl. Twinkl is a brilliant website full of fun educational resources for parents, teachers, childminders and home educators. It’s full of more resources than you could ever wish for, and whatever their flavour of the month is (it’s usually fire engines and dinosaurs here) there are loads of easily downloadable activities available.

We thought we’d start off simple and just print off a number formation workbook and letter formation worksheets. Because we’re fancy, I got my OH to print them and bind them into workbooks (it is here when being married to a printer finally comes into its own), but they’d be fine loose or just stapled together.

Writing letters and numbers

The boy loves them. He’s had them about a week now and he comes home from school every day and wants to do a few pages with us, which is so great, we’ve not wanted to push him to do things too much so it’s a delight that he’s genuinely interested and excited to do things. We had an inset day on Monday so we spent some time doing crafts and working through some pages of his new workbooks.

Writing letters and numbers

Although he’s been able to write his name for well over a year now, I’ve found that since he’s been doing some writing practice every day that his letters are much clearer and smaller, he’s even grown in confidence enough to write Benjamin instead of Ben, it’s a big name for a little boy! As you can see from the above picture he’s totally nailed writing the number 12 too.

What we chose to start our Twinkl journey with were fairly straightforward activity sheets. I’m already planning for a few themed rainy afternoons using some of the downloaded Twinkl resources, so I’ll be blogging them at a later date.

If you need a bespoke resource they have a new tool to create your own resources – twinkl create. I think Twinkl is a cracking website for anyone who likes doing activities at home with their kids, as well as for teachers needing some inspiration; I’m looking forward to doing some lovely learning with my boy.

Review: Scruffs Workwear for Men

When it comes to fashion my lovely husband is a creature of habit. His work clothes (he runs his own printing business in Didsbury) generally consists of sturdy boots, jeans and a black t-shirt or jumper. Despite considerable modernisation in the printing industry, it can still be a pretty dirty and physical job, so he wears clothes which are quite forgiving if splashed with ink or chemicals, as well as boots which will protect his feet from heavy machine parts and such like.

He needs decent, hard-wearing clothes which can stand a bit of rough and tumble as well as being smart enough for him to do business in. He goes out and about a lot to meet clients, so a smart but practical coat is always a priority. He was asked by workwear brand Scruffs to put their Expedition Tech Jacket to the test.

scruffs

The Expedition Tech Jacket is a black jacket with orange detail and an orange camo lining. The jacket is designed to withstand extreme weather conditions and has taped seams and a waterproof membrane to provide high levels of protection from the rain when working outdoors.

The orange camo lining is made with 3M Thinsulate which makes it extra cosy, but still thin enough for you to be able to move about in it easily. The Expedition Tech Jacket has lots of pockets of varying sizes and includes a defender array torch, a super bright LED torch which is made from tough aircraft grade aluminium. This would be handy if you ever need to inspect something in low light, or in his case, fumble in the dark putting the key in the door.

scruffs

The jacket has been well thought out and has been carefully designed to meet the needs of people who work outside a lot. Plus it’s smart enough to be worn ordinarily too. The jacket also has adjustable cuffs, hem and hood which help it to be a snug and weatherproof fit.

But what did he think of the jacket? He is a man of few words but he said it was very warm and cosy, he tested it on a very cold, damp and snowy weekend in Manchester and he was the only one of us who wasn’t red nosed and shivering, so I believe him. He also liked the array of pockets and thought the torch was a nice touch and handy to have especially during these darker winter nights.

scruffs

He ordered the large size and although he’s packing a little extra post-Christmas timber, it fits him well. The material has been designed to be hard-wearing and it is, it seems robust and I think this jacket will last him for a few winters at least. I think it’s pretty smart looking and looks great with jeans.

He wore it while shopping in the village, he wore it on a night out, he wore it when he took the small boy sledging and he now wears it to work every day. He looks very smart in it and I know that he’s warm and comfortable too.

Note: We were sent the Scruffs Expedition Tech Jacket for review purposes. All Images and opinions are our own.

Recipe: Delicious slow cooked Beef in Red Wine

One of the boy’s favourite winter meals is a hearty beef in red wine stew, it’s something I’ve been cooking for years now, and since I got a slow cooker (or crock-pot) last year it’s been a regular in our weekly menus, something I can pretty quickly throw together the night before, or first thing in the morning and leave to gently bubble away in the slow cooker for the day. There is nothing better than coming home from a hard days work to find a hot and hearty meal ready to be served.

My recipe for beef in red wine is really flexible and pretty quick to put together. I usually use shin of beef or braising steak, these are both good for really long, slow cooking and are very tender once cooked, and so delicious my five year old makes short work of it.

beef in red wine

Slow cooked beef in red wine

Serves 6
A delicious and hearty beef stew, cooked slowly until the beef is tender. A perfect winter warmer!

Ingredients
1 bottle of red wine, I used Eisberg alcohol free wine
1400g Braising steak, in chunks
3 large carrots
3 parsnips
2 sticks of celery
8 shallots
1 stock cube
2 bay leaves
1 dessert spoon of tomato puree
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of plain flour
1 tablespoon of rapeseed oil (or similar)
Salt & pepper

Instructions
Add salt and pepper to the flour and toss the beef chunks in the seasoned flour and fry the beef in the oil (in batches) until browned. Set aside.

While the beef is cooking switch on the slow cooker and put it on high, add the bottle of red wine (less one glass) to the pot.

Chop the carrots, celery and parsnips into bitesize pieces and put into the slow cooker. Peel the shallots and add those to the slow cooker.

Once all the beef is browned put it in the slow cooker with the bay leaves, sugar, tomato puree, stock cube and some more seasoning.

Deglaze the pan with the glass of red wine and add that to the slow cooker too.

Leave the slow cooker on high for two hours, or until you need to leave the house; then turn it down to low. The stew can be eaten after 5 or 6 hours, but if you can cook it for a bit longer then that’s always going to be better.

Towards the end of the cooking I spoon out some of the liquid and mix it with any of the remaining seasoned flour and add that paste back into the pot, this helps to thicken the gravy.

When you’re nearly ready to eat, taste and check the seasoning, adding more if you think it needs it. Serve with buttery mash and vegetables.

Notes
You can easily change what vegetables you use, root vegetables are always lovely in this, it’s great with swede if you have some or even new potatoes. You could use large chunks of onion instead of shallot if you’d like. It’s very forgiving and very flexible.

This recipe for beef in red wine would work beautifully with my rich and creamy Fennel & Potato Gratin.

beef in red wine

Made with alcohol free Eisberg, this really helps to cut the calories down in this hearty stew. At just 36 calories a (125ml) glass (compared to an average of 158 calories for standard red wine). This wine is a great option for people counting their calories.

Recipe: Delicious slow cooked Beef in Red Wine

My Sunday Photo 17.1.16

This weeks photo is a little teaser. We are very excited to be working with Nestle Cereals for Breakfast Week, but I’m not actually allowed to say anything about what we’ve been doing until it is actually Breakfast Week (24th – 30th January). Suffice to say it’s been a very exciting weekend here and we have so much news to share with you…. just not quite yet. Sorry!

This is the best picture I could find which doesn’t give too much away (I hope).

breakfast week

Four fun ways with Mega Marshmallows

I love cooking and baking, but I have genuinely never laughed so much, nor had so much fun making anything as I have done today making and playing around with these Mega Marshmallows.

I was sent a couple of bags of Mega Marshmallows to try and I was dying to start experimenting with them. There’s something a bit silly and frivolous about marshmallows and you can’t help but smile when you eat them.

mega marshmallows

I’ve spent the morning in my kitchen experimenting with these huge marshmallows. They are 5cm tall, and are 84 calories each and contain 0% fat. I made three different things with just a few ingredients, I had SO MUCH FUN and I’m certain my son would (and will) enjoy recreating these recipes with me again.

Chocolate Marshmallow Teacakes

mega marshmallows

I love a Tunnocks Teacake and nothing on earth could ever come close to that level of chocolately perfection, but it’s still a lot of fun to try. To make six teacakes you will need…

6 chocolate digestive biscuits
3 Mega Marshmallows
1 bar of melted Chocolate

In a warm oven put your digestive biscuits on a tray, chocolate side up, watch carefully and remove once the chocolate has melted. Cut your Mega Marshmallow into two pieces and squash the cut side on top of the melted chocolate. Leave them somewhere cool to set and stick together.

Melt your chocolate and then carefully cover each marshmallow and biscuit with the chocolate, put on a rack and leave them to cool.

Chocolate Covered Marshmallows

mega marshmallows

I found I had some melted chocolate left over from making the teacakes, so never one to waste anything I dipped some marshmallows in the chocolate and put some sprinkles on top. They’re really cute and they look great. If I had some cake pop sticks they’d make pretty pops too.

Chocolate & Marshmallow Krispie Bites

mega marshmallows

I am not going to pretend that this is my recipe, I saw Nigella make these once and always wanted to try it. She used plain rice krispies, I used the chocolate covered ones. I think if you were keen to up your calorific intake you could add some chopped up chocolate digestive pieces too. This is a real sticky treat which was really fun to make.

Chocolate Digestive S’mores

mega marshmallows

I’ve never had a S’more but I know people rave about them. I have an understanding of the concept so I decided to put theory into practice, but with chocolate digestive biscuits.

Take two chocolate digestive biscuits and sandwich half of a Mega Marshmallow in between them and put them into a warm oven for a few minutes. Keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven once the chocolate has melted. The marshmallow will by this point be warmed through and gooey. Eat quickly and carefully, the marshmallow oozes out unctuously from between the biscuits.

Mega Marshmallows are probably the most fun ingredient I’ve ever used in my baking and I’ve enjoyed being a bit experimental and a bit silly with them. They cost £3 for a 700g pack (I made all of these things with one bag and still had a few left over to ~~scoff~~ taste test). They are currently available from Tesco, Sainsbury’s Ocado, Bargain Buys, B&M, Family Bargains, Poundworld and Farm Foods.

Go out and have some fun with them, you won’t regret it!

Four fun ways with Mega Marshmallows

Note: We were sent some Mega Marshmallows to try, all images and opinions are our own.

Gardening: How to encourage bees and butterflies

Now that the first of the spring bulbs have started to peep through, my thoughts have turned to planning what to do with the garden this year. We’ve worked hard over the last five years on our derelict garden and we’ve built raised beds, laid a lawn, tended neglected trees and planted it up almost from scratch. We’ve had a “let it grow” policy the last few years, waiting for some of the small shrubs we’ve planted to fill out so we could get a better feel for what we wanted, and what we want is more colour and to do more to attract bees and butterflies.

I know from our visits to a lavender farm in Devon that bees and butterflies can’t get enough of the purple stuff, I love it too especially when planted in lavender hedges it looks so effective. It does need a gentle pruning every year though. When it comes to garden design I’m no expert, but I think blocks of colour look great and I don’t like to see bare soil, it seems such a waste.

I’m not very good with planting seeds, so I prefer to buy small plug plants and pot them on into my little greenhouse and then plant them out. Not wanting to let the grass grow under my feet (excuse the pun) I’ve already ordered my plug plants for this year, focussing on what I think will look good and what should attract the bees and butterflies to my little patch. I have plans to order…

Spring flowering…
⇒ Primroses
⇒ Bluebells
⇒ Foxgloves

Summer flowering…
⇒ Lavender
⇒ Marigolds
⇒ Dahlias
⇒ Geraniums

Autumn flowering…
⇒ Asters
⇒ Sunflowers
⇒ Sedums

We already have some of these in the garden, I love sedums for autumn colour and the birds seem to like them too. We’ve always been cautious foxgloves given their poisonous reputation, but the boy is beyond the plant eating stage, we have no pets to worry about and they are very beautiful.

bees and butterflies

Given the struggles that bees are facing these days, I’m very happy to do what I can to help them survive and thrive and it’s always a pleasure to see butterflies fluttering into the garden and appreciating my planting scheme. What will you be planting this year to make your garden bee friendly?

= In collaboration with Homify =

Recipe: Sneaky Cauliflower Lasagne Sauce

Lasagne is one of those tried and tested family meals. It’s something everyone will happily tuck into and it’s perfect for sneaking a bit of extra veg into if you’ve got kids. I’ve taken things a step further; and for some think may be a step too far, but it’s just as delicious and a little bit healthier. Stick with me on this. I use blended cauliflower instead of béchamel sauce to make cauliflower lasagne sauce.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore béchamel sauce and find it to be incredibly easy to make and versatile. But, and here’s the big but. It’s just flour, butter, milk and seasoning and it doesn’t count as one of your five a day.

Over the weekend I made our current favourite lasagne. Generous portions of roasted butternut squash and parsnip, with handfuls of fresh baby spinach in a fresh tomato sauce, layered with lasagne sheets and topped with cauliflower sauce. It works, it really works and if you put enough cheese in it, it turns into an amazing lasagne-cauliflower cheese mash up.

Recipe: Sneaky Cauliflower Lasagne Sauce

Sneaky Cauliflower Lasagne Sauce

Sneak extra veg into your cooking with this delicious cauliflower lasagne sauce.

Ingredients
2 cauliflowers
400mls milk (I used semi skimmed)
200g mature cheddar cheese, grated
Salt & Pepper (chilli flakes & grated nutmeg optional)

Instructions
Chop up your heads of cauliflower, they don’t need to be in pretty florets as you’ll be blending them. Add as much stalk as you like, it’s full of flavour and very frugal. Boil or steam until cooked through.

Once cooked, drain and put into a blender (you may need to do this in batches). Season generously and add the milk, blend until smooth. If you want a smoother sauce you can pass it through a sieve at this point and/or add a little bit more milk.

Whilst the sauce is hot, stir through the cheese and taste. Add more seasoning if you feel it needs any. Layer the sauce into your lasagne as you would do with your normal white sauce.

Notes
You can add as much cheese to the sauce as you’d like. I haven’t added much at this point because I know I’ll be sprinkling more cheese on top of the lasagne when I cook it.
I sometimes add a spoon of soft cheese with garlic and herbs which give it a nice background flavour.
Try adding chilli flakes to add a bit of a kick, or a touch of grated nutmeg because it just works.

Recipe: Sneaky Cauliflower Lasagne Sauce

I think my cauliflower lasagne sauce has lots of potential. I can imagine it working really well in something like moussaka. It’s such a great way to sneak extra veg into your life.

This recipe could easily be adapted for vegans too. Just swap the milk for soy milk or similar and leave out the cheese.

Cauliflowers are incredibly cheap in the shops at the moment, so we’re cooking with them a lot. This would also work well with frozen cauliflower. But not broccoli, broccoli is a step too far!

Have you got any tips for sneaking veg into your family meals?

Recipe: Sneaky Cauliflower Lasagne Sauce