munchiesandmunchkins, Author at Munchies and Munchkins

Another week..another worry

September 3, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 3 Comments

The last few days have again been difficult. My little monkey of a baby has decided to give me severe back pain, contractions and various other issues meaning I had to be admitted to hospital and have been given a steroid injection with one more to follow tomorrow to prepare her lungs in case she makes an early exit. Please don’t little girl, you are so small and just a few more weeks will make things so much easier for you when you arrive.

After a positive growth scan last week I did feel that maybe things were improving and that she would settle down a bit but it looks like the last trimester will be just as difficult as the first two. Hey ho I guess now it really is the final run and I just have to concentrate on staying relaxed, positive and heathy for my girl. I also really need to finish up on preparations for her arrival.

Spending nights in hospital when you have a toddler is so hard, I missed her, my OH and ..my pregnancy pillow more than I could tell you. Hopefully that will be the last stay until baby 2 arrives.

I still have no mattress for the Moses basket,no car seat and did I mention that we still don’t have ANY ideas for names ..as in any at all. Oops.

It will figure itself out.

I just wanted to say a quick thank you for all of your support both on here and on twitter – it means so much to me and really cheers me up so thanks very very much.

And as I know you all love a foodie pic.. Here is what I dined on last night:

Silent Sunday

September 1, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 3 Comments

Return of the nap

August 30, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 1 Comment

According to my dating scan I am 29 weeks today, according to my dates I’m more like 30 but either way I am into my third trimester and don’t I know it.

The daytime nap that I haven’t really had since the first trimester has had to return. I’m pretty useless at napping, I find it hard to sleep during the day but the last few days I have had to have some 10 minute snoozes here and there or I can’t function. Typically nighttime sleep is getting a lot more difficult with the cramps, discomfort and running for a wee in the early hours. I am so thankful for my maternity pillow from Theraline which I’ve been reviewing for a few months – I actually don’t know how I managed without it last time.

Ankle swelling, heartburn, pelvic pressure and general aches are in abundance but manageable.
Earlier in the week we had a growth scan which showed that the baby is doing well at the moment so yay for some good news.

I seem to have a lot on my mind at all times right now, not surprisingly I guess.

I worry that we aren’t fully prepared for the baby arriving, we haven’t bought a tandem buggy or a car seat yet but all her clothes are washed and ironed ( priorities right?)

I want to cook a lot of meals ready to freeze but I’m just too tired.

I think I’m going to really miss the one on one time with Izzy when the baby comes but then I feel guilty for feeling that way after all we want this baby so much obviously. It’s just that we are so close at the moment and I worry she will resent the time away from her that the baby will demand – any tips on dealing with this gratefully accepted.

Nesting has kicked in and I really HATE my house being untidy. With a toddler this is hard but as long as it clean and tidy when I go to bed I feel a bit better about things. There are at least 3 big jobs that need to be done before the baby comes: the kitchen needs to be repainted, the bathroom needs a complete overhaul 🙁 and the chimney needs to be removed and our bedroom repainted due to a leak. If these things get done I will be more relaxed.

The countdown is on, the final 10 weeks ( or 7ish if we go by the fact that Izzy was early).

One thing I really don’t worry about is actually giving birth, although I distinctly remember just how painful it was last time this time it marks the end of pregnancy for me so I can’t wait for it. I do however worry about getting to the hospital in time for my Strep B antibiotics to kick in – they need 4 hours in my system to prevent it being passed onto the baby so I imagine my local labour ward may hear from me a lot in the last few weeks with every twinge being a possible labour warning!

All the worries aside we really can’t wait to meet our girl. I will be much happier when she is here so I can check on her and know all is really ok.

Me and my girls:

Coming up soon ..preparing the hospital bag! What did you put in yours?

Mighty Lights – Review

August 26, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

If there is one thing better than crisps ..it’s receiving FREE crisps delivered to your doorstep.

Oh yes.

Last week I received not 1, not 2 but 3 multipacks of the new range of crisps from Walkers. Here is a little info about the new range:

NEW Walkers Mighty Lights ridged crisps are tasty yet light with 30% less fat*. Made from real potato with no artificial colours or preservatives and no MSG, they’re perfect for little lunches.

So they are being aimed at children however somehow it seems that myself and the OH have eaten most of them.

Firstly lets talk about the crunch. For me a crisp has to have a good crunch. These definitely tick this box. Lovely dipped in sour cream, perfect in a chicken salad sarnie and a great snack to grab on the go for yet another hospital visit ( I had a private room..thankfully *crunch crunch* ). I do love a ridged crisp.

The flavours we were sent were : Lightly salted, roast chicken and cheese and onion. My fave is the lightly salted, OH loves the chicken and Izzy likes the cheese and onion. Lucky huh?

I’ve shared these with my mum and dad too when they came over to visit, my mum is dieting so she was happy with the lower fat content and impressed with the flavour.

I also liked that the lightly salted actually is *lightly* salted – you don’t get that dehydrated,burnt tongue feeling after eating a pack of these. The Roast Chicken are very chickeny – yet still suitable for vegetarians and I am yet to try the Cheese and Onion as between Izzy and OH they somehow vanished but he assures me they are pretty good.

They are currently on offer in Asda at £1.00 for 6 packs which is a pretty good deal – less than 17p a bag. Bargain. We stocked up on our last shopping trip.

Whilst reading up about this new range I found out some interesting crispy bits of info, if you are a crisp geek like me:

* Walker was founded in 1948, butcher Henry Walker began making crisps in his Leicester Plant to keep his workers busy, as meat was scarce in post-war Britain.

* In 1926 Laura Clough Scudder came up with the idea of selling crisps in individual portions in sealed, waxed paper bags.

* Potato crisps were invented in 1853 by a chef called George Crum from Saratoga Springs, New York. Fed up with an awkward customer who kept sending his fried potatoes back for being ‘too thick and soggy’, Crum sliced the potatoes as thinly as he could and stir-fried them so they couldn’t be eaten with a fork and voila the crisp was born.

* Walkers produces 10m packs of crisps every day and more than 350,000 tonnes of potatoes a year.

So anyway to summarise. We liked these crisps. They are a fair bit healthier than normal crisps so you don’t have to feel quite so guilty when you much through a bag in 30 seconds.. Just me? Oops.

*As stated above we were sent these crisps for free in exchange for an honest review.

Charity Shop Treasures

August 26, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 2 Comments

I love my local charity shops. We visit them at least 2-3 times a month and I buy 90% of my books from them. One of my favourite shops sells ALL of their books for 10p each and although there is some trash in there ( think old Mills & Boon ) there are also some real treasures. On our last visit I may have bought 8 books.. OOPS but that was just 80p.

In my stash of books I had:

*The Good Housekeeping Cookery Compendium ( published in 1952 ) – this is amazing..so many old recipes and tips. Some absolutely brilliant adverts in there:

*Nigel Slater “Toast” – this book tells the story of Nigel Slaters childhood and his early food memories. As a big fan of Nigel Slater I found it really interesting and it definitely got me craving some old favourites like rice pudding and good old mash.

*The Diving bell and the butterfly – this is an incredible film and I’m looking forward to reading the book

I also bought a Jodi Picoult, a Danielle Steel and 3 others whose names escape me at the moment.

That was just on one recent trip. In the past few years I’ve bought numerous baby and toddler items, maternity clothes, a stroller, a Samsonite changing bag (for a bargain £3) retro luggage, Mary Berrys first cookery books and some really cool glass bottles and wooden ornaments for the house. I often get the look of scorn from friends when I say something they have admired has come from a charity shop but you know what I don’t care. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. We regularly donate to our local shops and encourage everyone we know to do so.

Anyway slightly random post I guess but I was thinking about it the other day and wondered if my readers also visit their local shops or donate to them? Have you had any amazing finds?

Drinking during pregnancy

August 26, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 6 Comments

This post originally began as a list of drinks that I had/have enjoyed in pregnancy as an alternative to wine and Pimms. In both pregnancies I’ve been shocked at how much I have wanted alcohol. I haven’t been a big drinker in years, I rarely drink at home and in the last 5 years I can probably count on two hands the amount of heavy nights out I have had. However when I’m pregnant I WANT (NEED) the booze. I always crave Pimms or wine and this time around even beer which I don’t even like! I always manage to stop myself. As much as I want it I figure pregnancy is a relatively short time (although it doesn’t seem like it) and for me if there is ANY chance of it causing a problem for my baby it’s just not worth it. Maybe it doesn’t do any harm at all but I know how I’ve felt the morning after a few glasses of wine and something tells me it’s not going to do any good so why bother ..after all I’d never have more than one so why have one?

This is just my view. Not a judgment on others. Not a lesson or advice for anyone just my view. Plain and simple. I was however interested to know your views so I asked on Twitter and well there were so many different opinions so I thought I would share some..anonymously of course so here are the tweets from some of my twitter followers. I can’t post them all..too many! :

*The only drink I had was half a glass of wine with my christmas dinner would never drink more than that.

*I didn’t as I wasn’t really drinking anyway. I’d probably not though unless special occasion, then might have a small tipple

*I wouldn’t drink at all when I was pregnant, but also didn’t fancy it or miss it. Ex’s sister was an alcoholic + drank to excess – as in rolling, falling down drunk – daily, both her daughters have FAS.

*I didn’t drink a drop when pregnant. I didn’t want to. I do know people who do and have though. It’s up to them I suppose.

*Nothing at all…haven’t drank since pregnant with first girl as breastfed since. I’m neurotic. Nothing since 2010!

*Omg I got back to sleep and just woke from a dream where I drank two bottles of wine!! The guilt. and it was in a dream.On a real life note though, I just have no desire to. Had 1 sip of champagne and it tasted vile!! No need to, so why bother x

*I have spoken at fas/fasd conferences. Not worth it to me. There are no studies on how little is ok bc that would be unethical to conduct.

*Had a glass of wine spritzer or half of cider after 16 weeks VERY occasionally.

*I didn’t have a drop as I think we dont know enough about how it effects the foetus. Only a short 9months too 😉

*I’ve never really drank at home and don’t go out so it’s pretty much a no-brainer x

* I had a glass of wine on my wedding day to toast with, nothing this time round. Xx

*I had a glass of wine with Christmas dinner both pregnancies. I’m not a big drinker generally though.

*I didn’t drink anything at all. I think abstaining from alcohol for 9 months is the least a pregnant woman can do.

*My mum craved stout and Guinness! She had a few during pregnancy with me!

*I had one drink at Christmas when I was 7.5 months pregnant and it was a small glass of bubbly to toast the year that was it.

So a few different views but the general opinion seemed to be that people would rather not risk it.

A post which has raised a lot of discussion this week written by Sarah Cawood can be found here

In the post she talks about her relaxed approach to wine and cheese in pregnancy including occasionally exceeding the recommended alcohol intake. Her post is both honest and at times refreshing but I did interact with her on twitter explaining that I think it’s a personal decision but that I wasn’t able to agree with her opinions on alcohol although I wasn’t judging her for making a different choice. To be fair she replied saying: It’s definitely a very personal journey and I’d be lying if I said I never worried. If I’ve had quite a social week then I make sure I have a very good one after..and I do the mental arithmetic on my units…. Def keep tabs on myself! It’s ovaltine all bank holiday;) so it was nice that she understood my opinion as I had hers.

Anyway as the original idea behind the post was to share my favourite alcohol free drinks with you without further ado here they are:

1.Sodastream mocktails – I was given a Sodastream machine to review at a perfect time. I was getting so frustrated with my lack of drink choices at barbecues etc and then suddenly I had some beautiful fresh mocktails to drink. I highly recommend the mojito and cosmopolitan syrups! You can read my full review of Sodastream here.

2.Schweppes Summer Punch – you may remember reading how I stocked up on this after discovering it tasted SO much like Pimms. I still think it does but I’ve completely gone off it for the time being – pregnancy food/drink aversions suck.

3.Vitamix Smoothies and Slushes – I was extremely lucky to win a Vitamix machine at the Britmums live conference. I make healthy smoothies at least 3/4times a week, chocolate milk shakes occasionally and my new favourite – slushies.. I have a bit of an ice craving at the mo.

4.Alcoholic free ciders – I love the Kopparberg versions although they taste more like pop than cider.

5.Shandy – I like the very cheap shandy you can buy in shops (the kind that children can drink) as an alternative to beer.

6.Juice – I drink a lot of Orange and Apple Juice.

7.Mumkind water our way – I use a drop of this liven up my water.

8.Diet coke with cherry – I keep to one small can or bottle a day and I don’t drink any other caffeinated drinks but sometimes I feel like I NEED this.

9.Isotonic drinks – I’m pretty sick of these but I drink them to avoid too many leg cramps. If I don’t drink them I suffer for it at night.

So that’s its for me.. What did you like to drink in pregnancy? What are your opinions on alcohol in pregnancy?

Silent Sunday

August 25, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 10 Comments

I love you, you know that right?

August 24, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 6 Comments

This poem doesn’t really rhyme or make an awful lot of sense but it made me feel better to write it!

I love you
You know that right?
To feel you kick
To feel you hiccup
To know you are there
Lately though
I’m finding it hard
Harder each day
Each hour
Each minute
I want you cocooned
Safely inside me
As long as can be
But my body is useless
Or so it would seem
The hours drag on
The day we will meet
Seems so far away
I don’t know how much more
I can take
I feel moany and grumpy
All day long
I groan and I whine
I bore even myself
I love you,
You know that right
I wonder if you can hear all
My moans
Sense all my stresses
Feel all my pain
I hope not
I hope your bubble is cosy
And warm
That you know you are wanted
And desperately adored
I don’t resent you, precious one
Someone asked me that
Of course not I said
It’s nobody’s fault
Or is it mine?
Did I do something wrong
Somewhere along the line
I eat the right food
I don’t drink any wine
But maybe I did something
At some point in time
It’s 1am and your daddy and sister
Are blissfully sleeping
I’m sitting downstairs
Silently weeping
Weeping for me feeling sorry
For myself
Weeping for you and praying for
Your good health
Don’t come too soon
But don’t wait too long
I really don’t think I’m quite that strong
I want you suckling at my breast
I want to watch you asleep, at rest
I won’t mind if you wake me
Or maybe I will
But I know I will be happier
Even if tired still.
I hope when you read this
At 8,12 or 20
You will know that if
You weren’t here part of me
Would be empty.
I love you,
You know that right?

The Great British Bake Off inspired bakes – Week 1 Chocolate Mint Cake

August 22, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 15 Comments

If you know me at all you will know I love baking. I love cakes. I love bread. Anything baking related.

I really LOVE The Great British Bake Off. I’ve watched it since the first series and become just a little more hooked each year.

The very lovely Helen from The Crazy Kitchen and Jenny from Mummy Mishaps have set up a new weekly linky called The Great Bloggers Bake Off and I am thrilled to be joining in. I may not join in every week depending on how my bump is behaving but I’m aiming to.

This week I decided to make a Chocolate show stopper cake after some serious inspiration from Tuesdays show.. Typically it ended up being less show stopping than I intended when my toddler took a BIG tumble and bashed her mouth but I was still happy with the end result. More than happy, in fact I will go as far as to say its the tastiest cake I’ve ever made.

I based the sponge recipe on my Ultimate Chocolate Cake and simply added 1/2 tsp of Peppermint extract and 1tsp of dried ground chocolate mint (you could use normal garden mint but I had an abundance of choc mint in my herb garden). For the mint buttercream filling I made a standard buttercream with 100g of icing sugar, 1 tsp of mint extract, 50g of butter and 1tbsp of choc mint infused warm milk – I also added a dot of green colouring from Hobbycraft to make it look minty! The cake was covered in milk chocolate icing which is an old favourite recipe from my trusty Bero book and is just 60g of melted butter blended with 1tbsp of cocoa powder and mixed with 250g of icing sugar and 3 tbsp of milk ( I used the mint infused milk for a subtle choc mint flavour ). The decorations were made by coating fresh Chocolate Mint leaves in white and dark choc and chilling in the fridge until set. Et voila.

The sponge is a really easy all in one method: