Merlin Annual Pass launches its BIG January sale

For the last two years we have been proud owners of a Merlin Annual Pass. So whenever the mood takes us we can jump in the car for the day and head out for some family fun. We’re not alone in this; research by Merlin Annual Pass suggests that many families have made a New Year resolution to spend time making memories together.

The great news is, for those families who want to spend some thrill-seeking time together, the Merlin Annual Pass sale is now on! A Merlin Annual Pass opens the door to 32 magical worlds across the UK. Wherever you live, you’re guaranteed to have the ultimate passport to fun! You’ve got until midnight on 12th February to pick up a Merlin Annual Pass, giving you 52 weeks of family fun. Passes are priced from just £109 per person in the spectacular New Year sale!

2018 looks set to be a bumper year for Merlin as they welcome some exciting new additions. Alton Towers will launch its brand new wooden roller coaster experience. The first wooden roller coaster to be built in the UK for more than 20 years will be revealed this spring; with a globally unique twist and a fantastic theme, which will make Alton Towers a must visit attraction in 2018.

Family favourite, Chessington World of Adventures Resort, will be opening its new, multi-million pound Land of the Tiger. This features an innovative enclosure and Europe’s first overhead big cat trails; all set to welcome a family of four endangered Amur Tigers this spring. As the foursome roam with a cat’s-eye view of the Land, guests will be able to wander underneath the tigers, before making a splash at Tiger Rock – the exhilarating log flume.

Merlin Annual Pass launches its BIG January sale

Birmingham LEGOLAND Discovery Centre opens its doors this summer. Featuring a 4D cinema, Kingdom Quest laser ride and Merlin’s Apprentice; plus the chance to see all of Birmingham’s top attractions made from LEGO in their MINILAND display. Keen LEGO builders can learn building tips from their Master Model Builder Workshops – sounds fantastic!

The BIG New Year Sale in now on and ends at midnight on 12^thFebruary. So don’t delay, grab your Merlin Annual Pass and start your 12 months of fun today!

For more information please visit www.merlinannualpass.co.uk.

I’m a Merlin Annual Pass Blogger Ambassador. I was not paid to write this post.

Merlin Annual Pass

Meal Planning Monday: New Year, New Menu?

Christmas Day 2017 was a really lovely day. We all got nice presents and we all had a really good Christmas dinner. I’d cooked enough so there would be leftovers aplenty for the next few lazy days and I was feeling quite content with myself. Then I got flu and spent the next 10 days in bed. I’m still a bit wobbly and woozy; but worse still, my fridge is festering with the Christmas leftovers we didn’t get to eat. My job later this morning is to clear out the fridge and prepare it to be filled with normal food once again.

Tomorrow morning our first food shop of the year will be delivered and I can’t wait. I feel like I’ve had too long away from the kitchen and I’m ready to start cooking nice things for my family again. Admittedly I’m still not feeling 100%, so what I do cook will hopefully be a balance between really quick and easy and something tasty but full of good healthy stuff to build us all up again.

Here’s what is on our menu this week…

Meal Planning Monday: New Year, New Menu?

I’m so excited about getting back in the kitchen, I dread to think what the boys have been feeding themselves on while I’ve been in my sick-bed.

I’m a big fan of meal planning, having a menu can save me so much time and money. There’s something really comforting about knowing what our evening meals will be for the week and that I’ve done all the shopping I need to do to prepare those meals. If I’m thinking ahead I’ll try to make extra to eat another day, or for lunch the next day or maybe even freeze for a rainy day in the future.

One thing I have done which has really helped me is to create a list of 55 family meals my family will always eat. If you’re meal planning and you need some inspiration, it’s definitely worth having a look through my list. Each time I sit down to meal plan my list is always close to hand.

What’s on your menu this week?

Sunshine Recipes: Traditional Greek Salad & Tzatziki

Last month I shared my recipe for Cretan Style Lamb Burger with Feta, it’s a really tasty and easy burger recipe for the summer months, and perfect for new season spring lamb. Alongside my lamb burger (and many, many other recipes) I often serve a traditional Greek Salad and a side of Tzatziki.

I tend to cook a lot of Mediterranean style food, it’s delicious, fairly healthy and my husband is half Armenian, so it’s good to recreate some of his favourites too. Greek salad is so easy to throw together and it’s one of our favourite salads, plus it tends to keep quite well – no wilted leftovers the next day!

Sunshine Recipes: Traditional Greek Salad & Tzatziki

These recipes are family favourites, created from memory every time. I’ve long since forgotten where the recipes originally game from but I know I’ve changed them slightly over time to match our taste buds.

Greek Salad Recipe

Ingredients (serves 4 as a side)
12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1/2 cucumber, halved and finely sliced
12 black olives, pitted
200g feta cheese, cubed
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt & pepper

Method:
The best thing you can do for this salad is find the ripest tomatoes. I have used cherry tomatoes, but if the ripest are something else, use the best tomatoes you can find.

Quarter your tomatoes, slice your cucumber and onion and cube your feta, put all of your ingredients into a serving dish, add the red wine vinegar, olive oil and seasoning and toss together before serving.

Taste and add more seasoning, herbs or vinegar if you feel it needs it.

Sunshine Recipes: Traditional Greek Salad & Tzatziki

Tzatziki Recipe

Ingredients:
250g Greek yoghurt (I use fat free)
1/2 cucumber, grated
1 clove of garlic, finely grated
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon of sugar
Salt & pepper

Method:
Traditionally the skin and the seeds of the cucumber are removed for tzatziki, but I like the texture of it so I keep it in.

Grate your cucumber onto a clean tea-towel and sprinkle with some salt, leave it for ten minutes and then squeeze the excess water out.

Tip your cucumber into a bowl with your finely grated garlic, Greek yoghurt, olive oil and red wine vinegar and mix thoroughly. Taste the tzatziki and then add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.

It’s not usual to add sugar to tzatziki, but I think a little pinch gives it a slightly nicer flavour, but leave it out if you prefer.

Any leftovers of this Greek salad make a great lunch with some toasted pizza bread.

Sunshine Recipes: Traditional Greek Salad & Tzatziki

55 ideas for family meals your kids will actually eat

If you’re looking to save money and eat well for less, the key really is meal planning. Sitting down each week, planning a menu of tasty family meals and only buying what you need can save your family an awful lot of time and money. I try where I can to meal plan, setting out a fortnightly menu and then doing a big online shop for everything I need. This saves me so much time and money, plus knowing what I’m cooking on whichever night takes the thinking out of it.

It’s easy for me to say the meal planning is the key to success, but I can guarantee that when I sit down with my blank piece of paper to plan out the next 14 family meals, I cannot think of one single family meal. Over the last few months I’ve been putting together a list of the meals I’ve made, so when meal planning day arrives I just have a quick look through my list for inspiration and then get down to work.

Family meals: Rich and Creamy Fennel & Potato Gratin

If you’re stuck for ideas for family meals your family will actually eat, below you will find a list of 55 family meals that we cook on a fairly regular basis, where there is a recipe for that dish on my blog I have included a link to it.

55 ideas for family meals your family will actually eat

Baked butternut squash
Baked fish and vegetables
Battered or breaded fish and chips
Beef or mushroom stroganoff
Beef stew
Burgers
Cauliflower cheese
Chicken casserole served with potato gratin
Chicken Kievs
Chilli con carne
Cottage pie
Curry and rice
Dahl
Egg and chips
Fajitas
Fish pie
Fish wraps
Fishcakes
Fishfingers chips and beans
Full English
Galette (a bit like a pie)
Gnocchi
Homemade Chicken nuggets or goujons
Homemade soup
Hot dogs or these pizza hot dogs
Imam Bayildi (Baked aubergines)
Jacket potatoes
Jacket sweet potatoes with sour cream and spring onions
Jamie Oliver’s Butternut Squash Penne Pasta
Lancashire Hotpot
Lasagne
Lentil cottage pie
Macaroni cheese
Macaroni peas
Omelette
Pasta bake
Pesto pasta
Pie and mash
Pizza – shop bought or homemade
Quiche
Risotto
Roast dinner
Sausages and mash
Sausage casserole
Sausage ragu
Shepherds pie
Spaghetti and meatballs
Spaghetti Bolognese
Spanish style sausages in bravas sauce
Spinach and ricotta cannelloni
Stir fry
Sweet and sour pork or chicken
Thai style curry
Toad in the Hole
Tuna and Sweetcorn Pasta Bake

55 family meal suggestions – that’s not a bad place to start from is it? I hope you’ve found some inspiration. I’ll be adding to this list as time goes on, so expect it to grow and grow.

What are your favourite family meals? Have I missed anything essential off my list?

55 ideas for family meals your family will actually eat

Review: Storm Bloc Socks – specialist sports socks

Storm Bloc socks are designed for strenuous outdoor and sporting activities. Whether you’re walking, running or down the gym, these socks have been designed to be comfortable and hard-wearing. My husband has recently taken up running and he’s out walking the dog several times a day; so he put these Storm Bloc Socks to the test to see if they were as good as they say they are.

Review: Storm Bloc Socks - specialist walking socks

These Storm Bloc socks have been made with BlueGuard – an industry-beating anti-abrasion yarn that has been scientifically shown to last 46 times as long as a standard branded sports socks. Sold by the Sock Shop, they are so confident that these socks will last the distance, that they offer a lifetime guarantee on Storm Bloc socks. The socks are perfect for sports, running, walks, hikes and camping.

The cotton rich Storm Bloc with BlueGuard Sports Crew Socks are terry cushioned for comfort. They’re designed to help absorb impacts and reduce fatigue. They have ribbed, elastic legs, reinforced toe seams, extended heel areas and a built-in arch support. Breathable woven panels are positioned help regulate moisture and heat during activity.

What did my husband think? They were certainly comfortable and well cushioned. He liked the ribbing and the seams which helped stop the socks from slipping and “walking off” his feet when he walked and ran. He said it was hard to say if they did absorb much of the shock of running, but he did feel they added a little bit of bounce.

Review: Storm Bloc Socks - specialist sports socks

They certainly look the part. They are warm and comfortable for walking and running without being too hot, sweaty and synthetic. The socks do wash well and haven’t gone baggy or anything after the few wears and washes they’ve had.

They cost £13.99 for two pairs from the Sock Shop, but they do come with a lifetime guarantee.

See the full range of Storm Bloc Socks on The Sock Shop website.

Note: We were sent these Storm Bloc socks for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

How to keep track of your Social Media Followers

Last year I made it my New Year Resolution to keep track of my social media followers. This was so I could (hopefully) see how my numbers have grown over the year. The tracking was really helpful. I used a spreadsheet which I shared on my blog for people to download and use too. I know lots of people found it helpful, so I’ve decided to re-work it and share it again.

In 2017, across all of my social media accounts I’ve managed to grow my following by a total of 5000. To me this is a really good number and I’m delighted. If I can do the same in 2018 I will be thrilled. Growing your numbers can be really hard work, keeping them engaged is probably harder though, but that’s a whole other blog post. We all already know that the key to social media success is the SOCIAL bit. But the best way to grow your numbers on social media is to always to engage and be engaging with your followers. It’s as simple and as hard work as that.

It would be easy to just change the date on my old spreadsheet and just re-share it, but as the year has gone on I’ve added a few elements and made it more fit for purpose. It’s still quite simple to use and I’ve included all the social media channels I use and can think of. If there’s one on there you don’t use, you can either delete that row or just put a zero in that box and it will ignore it. If I’ve missed any, please message me or leave a comment and I’ll update the spreadsheet.

I’ve set the spreadsheet up so that it will add up your numbers and give you a total number of followers. This will also appear in the chart below. I like seeing my numbers rising on a chart. I’m a very visual person, so a rising graph always pleases me.

Download my Social Media Tracking spreadsheet HERE.

One of the features I’ve added is a “To Go” column. This is entirely optional. This will show you how many more followers you need for each social network each month against your yearly target. You will need to change the code each month to make sure the sum is correct. If you’re not confident doing this then you can leave it out.

If you look at the spreadsheet you’ll see I’ve added an example number and target. The code =SUM(N4-B4) in the To Go column does the maths and tells us that with 50 followers and a target of 100 followers, you have 50 more followers to go. In February you’ll need to change the code in that box to =SUM(N4-C4) and so on each month. I added that column because I found it useful to see where I needed to have a bit of a social push in order to meet my target for the year.

I have also added an extra section underneath, which helps me keep track of the three things I was most interested in keeping a note of in 2017. For me these were my Domain Authority (DA), my total YouTube views and my Tots100 chart position. Obviously you can either delete that section or rename the rows so you can monitor whatever metrics you’re most interested in.

You might like to set yourself a target for the year. See how many followers you’ve got on New Years Day and then give yourself a target to work for. It could be an across the board total figure you’re working towards, or maybe you want to get to 10k followers on YouTube in 2018. Whatever your social media followers target for 2018, tracking your progress is the first step to success.

Let me know how you get on! Happy tracking!

8 ideas for what to do on Christmas Eve

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and the flurry of shopping for presents and food is all but over for another year. It’s a day we try to pause the chaos a little and spend some time together as a family. We will have some preparation and thing to do, but being together is a priority for us. If you’re wondering what to do on Christmas Eve, then here are our suggestions.

Family Things To Do

We put together a Christmas Eve box which arrives on Christmas Eve. It’s packed full of lovely things including new PJs, a Christmas DVD, some Christmas books and nice nibbles. We curl up on the sofa for an hour or two and watch the DVD and just chill out. It’s lovely and a great way to change gear on the Christmas chaos and just wind down.

Crosby Beach

Go for a nice long walk. On Christmas Day we are mostly busy busy and stuck in the house. If the weather is reasonable, a good long walk on Christmas Eve is a great way to tire the kids out. It’s good to get some fresh air and burn off a few calories in anticipation of the feast to come.

More organised people will have bought tickets to a panto or a Christmas show. Going to a show together can be a really special way to spend Christmas Eve as a family.

Christmas Eve is a time for singing carols and feeling festive. Every Christmas Eve we trot off to our local church to take part in the Christingle Service. The service is so popular at our local church that they now have three services to accommodate the hundreds of children and families to come along on Christmas Eve.

What to do on Christmas Eve

For older children and adults, the Midnight Mass service is a beautiful way to start off the Christmas celebrations. It’s a little moment of stillness and calm, and the perfect place to belt out some Christmas carols. I love it.

You can find information on services local to you here.

Christmas Wrapping

Sensible people will have done this days ago, but *waves* I still have piles of unwrapped presents taunting me from the wardrobe. I know this will be done in dribs and drabs throughout the day but SODS LAW dictates that I will either run out of wrapping paper or sellotape. This has happened before, mostly because my husband always insists we’ve got too much wrapping paper already and then it turns out we have none. This is always discovered at 4pm on Christmas Eve. This will not happen to me this year. I have bulk bought both of these items, so much so that we may well never need to buy them ever again.

Preparation Preparation Preparation

I know some people cook their whole Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve; plate it up and just re-heat it on the day. There’s a lot of sense in that, but Christmas Day wouldn’t be the same to me without juggling for space in the oven, carving the turkey at the table and steaming the pudding.

I do however like to do some prep the day before. I will be roasting the potatoes and parsnips in advance, then on Christmas Day I can just put them on trays in the oven for half an hour and they crisp up beautifully.

This year I’m making stuffing from scratch (a departure for me as I’ve always been a packet stuffing kind of girl). I’ll also peel and prep the veg ready to be cooked on Christmas Day. There is lots to do; but if you’re methodical and you do as much as you can beforehand then it’s very doable!

Treats For Father Christmas

The last thing we do before bedtime is leave a mince pie, a small dram of whisky and a sprinkling of Magic Reindeer Food for Father Christmas and the reindeer. We make sure our stockings are hung up and we hurry upstairs to bed, hopefully for an early night.

What to do on Christmas Eve

It’s a busy day and a busy night, but spending time together is what Christmas is all about isn’t it. Merry Christmas to you and thank you for reading my blog.

What to do on Christmas Eve

Recipe: Bifteki – Cretan Style Lamb Burger with Feta

They say that a Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest ways of eating. It’s certainly a favourite of ours and in the summer months especially we love throwing together a salad, cranking up the barbecue and eating al fresco. The grey skies of Manchester are sadly no match for dining under the Cretan sun, but what is?

In Crete their burgers are known as bifteki. They can be made from beef, pork or lamb and they’re usually stuffed with cheese – juicy Lucy style! Here’s my take on the traditional bifteki burger. It’s made with lamb and stuffed with feta, served with a fresh Greek salad and a generous helping of tzatziki. It’s so good!

Recipe: Bifteki - Cretan Style Lamb Burger with Feta

Cretan Style Lamb Burger with Feta

Ingredients (makes 4 burgers)
500g lamb mince
2 cloves of garlic, crushed or grated
1/2 a red onion, grated
75g stale breadcrumbs
An egg
1 tablespoon of fresh oregano, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
2 tablespoons of parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
200g feta cheese
Salt & pepper
4 burger buns

Method
Slice your feta cheese into 8 pieces, they’ll need to be flat rather than chunky. Put them to one side.

In a bowl tip all of the remaining burger ingredients and knead together. A bifteki has a firmer texture than a normal style burger, so get your hands in and work the meat. Once it is all combined, cover and put the mixture in the fridge for half an hour.

Divide the lamb into four equal parts and taking a slice of the feta, mould the lamb around it so the cheese is encased. Do this with all of your four burgers. Grill your burgers on the barbecue until cooked through.

Alternatively if you are cooking them in the oven, pre-heat your oven to 200°c and cook for ten minutes, then flip your burgers and cook for a further ten minutes. You might want to put your remaining feta slices on top of the burgers during the last few minutes in the oven.

Serve your lamb burger on a burger bun smeared with tzatziki and a pile of Greek salad. Delicious!

Recipe: Bifteki - Cretan Style Lamb Burger with Feta Copyright Jane Arschavir HodgePodgeDays

Recipe: Bifteki - Cretan Style Lamb Burger with Feta

Crafts: Make Your Own Christmas STEM Toys

Christmas is a time for crafting and creating with the kids. We love doing Christmas crafts and we were excited when we heard that ex Blue Peter presenter and craft queen Konnie Huq, had partnered with the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) to create a selection of homemade STEM toys for Christmas.

Crafts: Make Your Own Christmas STEM Toys

Konnie Huq has put her Blue Peter powers to practice for a good cause, making Britain’s most popular Christmas toys at home for a fraction of the cost. The Christmas STEM toys she has created include –

Dissolving egg
Magnetic slime
Icosahedron bauble
Marble run
Balloon boat
Bouncy balls
Smartphone projector
Living gingerbread house
Kaleidoscope

Konnie has put together a set of free to download how-to instructions for all of the above crafts.

Konnie, who spent over ten years craft-making on Blue Peter, is supporting a campaign by the Institution of Engineering and Technology to inspire more children to consider careers in engineering. The toys are designed to make learning about science, tech, engineering and mathematics (STEM) more accessible and affordable. These handmade STEM toys – which include a dissolving egg, magnetic slime, a kaleidoscope and even a smartphone projector – are educational, as well as fun.

Making your own slime is so popular right now, but we thought we would try something a little different. We really liked the idea of building our own living gingerbread house.

Crafts: Make Your Own Christmas STEM Toys

Make your own living gingerbread house

You will need:
A number of plain sponges
Scissors
Toothpicks
Small plate
Seeds
Spray bottle (clean)

How to make a living gingerbread house
Choose one or two sponges to be your base. Fix them together with a cocktail stick, remember these are sharp so be careful of your fingers.

Choose more sponges to be the walls. Cut one sponge in half across the longest
side (i.e. make two regular rectangles, not two long strips) and fix those onto the shorter sides of your base with cocktail sticks. Fix two sponges onto the longer sides of the base.

Crafts: Make Your Own Christmas STEM Toys

Take two sponges and cut them down their long side on an angle so that they fit together to form the apex of a roof. Fix them together with cocktail sticks, put on the top of your structure and fix into place with more cocktail sticks. You should now have a house shape made of sponges. Put your house onto a plate.

If your house is a bit wobbly, you can secure it using a glue gun or some craft glue. If you have used glue, allow time for the glue to dry and set before you move on to the next stage.

Next, you need to cover the house with seeds. You can use mustard or cress but
there are many fast sprouting seeds, so the choice is yours. We chose cress.

Crafts: Make Your Own Christmas STEM Toys

Dab some water onto the roof of your house and spread the seeds onto the roof.
Pour a little water onto the plate so the sponge base can soak it up. Check the
sponge is nice and moist. Then sprinkle the seeds onto the base.

Leave your house in a warm, bright spot for the seeds to germinate. Spray the house with water using a spray bottle each day, and pour a little water over the house if it feels dry. In a few days the seeds should start to sprout, in a week they should be thriving.

Crafts: Make Your Own Christmas STEM Toys

It’s so easy and lots of fun to make too!

Disclosure: We were sent a shopping voucher to buy the materials for this craft.

Christmas: Make your own Candy Cane Hearts

I love a bit of Christmas crafting and I’ve found a really simple, festive and delicious craft which will delight the whole family this Christmas. I’ve been making candy cane hearts to hang on my tree.

Christmas: Make your own Candy Cane Hearts

Candy canes have long been a symbol of Christmas. They were originally white sugar candy sticks made in Germany around 250 years ago. No one really knows how they ended up with a stripe and in the distinctive J shape, but some say they were shaped to look like a shepherd’s crook, to remind us of the shepherds that visited the baby Jesus on the first Christmas. Whatever the real story, all I know if they’re delicious and we always have a candy canes hanging from our Christmas tree.

You can get candy canes in all sizes, but I picked up a box of Swizzels Mini Candy Canes from B&M Stores for £1.99 and I knew exactly what I was going to make with them.

Make your own Candy Cane Hearts

You will need –
Candy canes
A baking sheet
Baking paper
Ribbon

Method –
Place your baking paper on your baking sheet and arrange the candy canes into heart shapes. The mini candy canes are the right size for this, but if you’re using larger ones you can trim them down if you need to.

Christmas: Make your own Candy Cane Hearts

Making sure the two candy canes in each heart are touching; put them into a warm oven and watch very carefully. It should take about 5 minutes for the candy canes to warm up and start melting a little at the ends. At this point remove them from the oven and carefully push the ends and the joins together on the heart. Remember this is hot sugar and you don’t want to burn yourself.

Once the joins have been pushed together, leave them to cool for 15 minutes. Once they are cool, tie ribbon around them and hang them on your tree.

They’re so simple to make and they do look super-cute on the tree. I think I’m going to make a batch for the table on Christmas Day too.

How would you use your candy cane hearts?

Christmas: Make your own Candy Cane Hearts