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A Gift Guide For Fathers Day

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Its getting to that time of year when we celebrate the men in our lives for the fathers they have been or will be. We tell them how wonderful they are and shower them with love but we should do that far more than just once a year. The men in my life ( Andrew, My Dad and Andrews Dad ) know they are appreciated. I try to make sure they know this.

It is however nice to buy them a token gift or a gesture on this special day and in today’s guide I’ve drummed up a few of my ideas for all kinds of Dads from traditional gifts to quirky ones.

Male Grooming:

These type of gifts are traditional and I remember buying my Dad these kinds of things from when I was just a teen. It’s also a way of giving your partner a gentle nudge to tidy up his beard or hair via the method of a gift from the children 😉

Braun have a great wet & dry razor in this Series 3, 380S-4 it’s tough on beards but smooth on skin. One charge powers it for a week and it comes with a protective pouch for travel. The Braun Series 3 range is available in the UK at Boots, Amazon, Argos, larger supermarkets & other good electrical retailers.RRP £149.99.

Braun men razor

Braun series 3 razor

Gillette have the Fusion ProGlide with NEW FlexBall Technology at an rrp of £12 (manual) and £15 (power). The new razor is specifically designed to respond to the contours of a man’s face, allowing for maximum contact on the curves. The result is a completely upgraded shaving experience that is kinder and gentler to every man’s face.

The Real Shaving Company are an award winning range with up to eight wet grooming products, allowing men to tailor their shaving regime. Products range in price from £1.99 upwards.

The real shaving co

Wilkinson Sword have a few options for well groomed Dads, I like this Hydro 5 Groomer, the only 4-in-1 styling tool with patented technology that trims, shaves, edges and hydrates with every shave. On one end, an adjustable power trimmer and on the other, a convenient all-in-one tool removing the need of multiple attachments filling up the bathroom cabinet. RRP £14.99.

Wilkinson sword hydro 5 groomer

Has your Dad got a sweet tooth?

Choc On Choc have a vast array of handmade chocolates to suit all tastes. We tried this selection box which is £12.99 and absolutely delicious. The salted caramel truffles are amazing.

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More of an outdoorsy type:

Zippo have a great selection of gifts including this starter puck for your fire, emergency fire starter and flex neck lighter for ease of firing up your barbecue or camping oven.

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Foodies:

The Tefal Cook4Me comes with 50 pre-programmed recipes and guides you step by step to cook tasty meals for up to 6 people. Great for men who want to become more confident in the kitchen, I love the pressure cooking feature as it means super speedy meals.
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Oxo have a great range of products including this Bladed Meat Tenderiser. The easy-to-use OXO Good Grips Bladed Meat Tenderizer improves the taste and tenderness of meat, reducing cooking time in the process. When marinating, small holes created by its 50 sharp blades serve as pockets for flavorful juices to fully absorb into meat or poultry in less time – no need for overnight marinating. RRP £16.00.

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Joseph Joseph who make some of THE most beautiful kitchen products have a few different gadgets which would make great gifts including these peelers and this flavouriser which is a bit of a multi tasking product and can tenderise, flatten, grind and juice.

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Maybe a drink or two?:

Lindeman’s have a wine to suit every Dad and they have had a revamp. Each bottle from the Bin Range has been spruced up with the new Lindeman’s logo, focusing on the brand’s Australian background. The phrase ‘In Life Happiness’, which appears on the bottle in Latin, reflects Dr. Henry Lindeman’s words ‘the one purpose of wine is to bring happiness’. This motto truly underpins the Lindeman’s brand, bringing delight in each sip and 1,000 hours of sunshine in every drop. I love both the Chardonnay and the rose but Andrew prefers the red.

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If he’s not into wine then why not a super smooth Cucumber Martini from Marks & Spencer. Make him feel like James Bond:

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Gadgets:

Whilst we are on the James Bond theme, what man doesn’t love a new gadget and this could just make him swoon a bit. This phone from Kazam, the Tornado 348 is the world’s slimmest smartphone at just 5.15mm thin. It’s stylish, yet has a robust aluminium design and is great value for a smartphone at £179.

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Sentimental Gifts

Nothing beats a homemade card or breakfast in bed in my eyes but maybe you want something which captures the memories you have made together. In that case Photobox have got you covered. With so many options from photo mugs to photo books and canvas prints. I have ordered some treats for my Dad and for Andrew.

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Perhaps you think your other half deserves a relaxing treat for being a great Dad. I know that having a supportive partner in parenting is so important and I try to spoil Andrew on Fathers Day as well as my own Dad of course.

You could book a special stay at hotel such as The Vale Resort in South Wales.. Dinner, spa treatments and breakfast from just £99 per person.

* Some of the items in this guide were gifted to me for the purpose of review.

The Week That Was…2

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I quite enjoyed writing up a brief update of our week last weekend and you all seemed to enjoy it so I thought I would do the same this weekend.

On our plates:

This last week has seen me embrace a healthier diet – mainly because I want to feel a little better. I’ve been a bit indulgent lately and I can feel it. I haven’t really been concentrating on losing weight as such but I have actually lost 3lbs which is nice.

So I’ve been ignoring my naughty side who keeps insisting I should make another Baileys Cream Pie and instead enjoyed meals like this:

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I went out for pub grub earlier in the week and surprised myself by ordering a superfood salad instead of something with chips. It was really good, packed with bulgar wheat, soya beans and other goodness which left me feeling full and sated. I roasted cauliflower and broccoli with a little oil and seasalt and was so impressed with the taste! A great guilt free snack. I’ve also enjoyed some 10 calorie Jellies which I discovered in the local supermarket and lightest Philadelphia which is a really good alternative to butter/margarine on sandwiches at just 3% fat.

I haven’t restricted my diet completely – I know that when I do this I never manage to keep to it so on Friday we enjoyed Takeaway style Pizza as we were sent some vouchers from Chicago Town. We tried out the Stuffed Crust Four Cheese and Hawaiian Classic Crust and both were really tasty and very much like the kind of pizza taste you would get if you were to order one in. Thumbs up from us.

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The girls:

Izzy and Chloe have been getting over coughs and colds this week so we have all been a bit tired and worn out. Lots of time spent snuggled up on the sofa but we have still been out and about to the park and to vote of course. We have also been doing a little letter practise with Izzy :

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We have today started Chloe’s strict diet regime in preparation for her exploratory procedures on Monday. She is coping with it well so far even though her nappies have been explosive but tomorrow is liquid only so I imagine that will be more of a struggle for her. Myself and Andrew are both a little stressed and worried about the thought of her having to go under General Anaesthetic when she is still so small and I just can’t wait for it all to be over.

As a family we have had some really good news this week which you may have already seen on here and that is that we are going to be Official Bloggers for Camp Bestival again – this is really exciting news and we are looking forward to it.

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On the telly:

We have started watching the latest series of Game Of Thrones and as usual it has us gripped already just four episodes in. I’ve started watching series 11 of Greys Anatomy and already dreading what I know is coming – thanks to all the social media spoilers! I’ve also started Friends again from series 1 and I had totally forgotten how relaxing it can be to watch something you know so well. The fashion style in the early episodes and the haircuts are especially amusing and I recommend going back and re watching if you were a fan years ago.

In my hands:

Last week I read Reasons To Stay Live by Matt Haig and it’s an incredible book. I can’t recommend it enough. Really important read for anyone with any kind of depression or mental health issues and also for their family and friends. This week I’m re reading some old chick lit as my head is a bit of a muddle and I can’t concentrate very well. I’ve also treated myself to a Heston Blumenthal book called In Search Of Perfection which is so interesting for anyone who loves to know about the science of food and appreciates spending a day cooking one meal!

In the post:

Well we have had some great post this week.

Aldi sent us a bundle of their summer drinks including the amazing Alska ciders and limoncello 🙂

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We had some great products from Graham & Brown to help us with our conservatory renovation:

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And an enormous shipment of tiles from British Ceramic Tiles to revamp our kitchen – lots to do but it’s all exciting. Andrew will be busy 😉

Finally today we received invites to a really exciting birthday party:

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Coming up:

This next week may be a bit haphazard due to hospital appointments but you do have a Chocolate Fudge Cookie recipe to look forward to as well as a Fathers Day Gift Guide and a Summer Drinks Special so look out for those.

I’m A Camp Bestival Blogger

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I have some exciting news to share with you this evening.

I’m an Official Blogger for Camp Bestival for the fourth year! I can’t tell you how this has made my day.

Camp Bestival has become a highlight of our summer and I can be found happily chatting about it quite often over on my social media channels and on this blog.

As always Camp Bestival has pulled out all the stops this year with a fantastic line up ahead of us. But I can talk to you about that in my next post.

For now here are some images from last years festival to whet your appetite a little:

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My next post will tell you all about the pros and cons of camping and festival life with babies and small children.

Any questions you have let me know and I will do my best to answer them.

Check out www.campbestival.net for more info and ticket options.

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Peanut Butter & Banana Bread – Free From Dairy, Eggs & Gluten

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As we get further into our journey of living with allergies I’m trying harder to make food that tastes good. Cake that tastes like cake for a start. Chloe has enough to go through without having to eat food that tastes like cardboard.

Today I baked with my girls because I was feeling especially grumpy and they were both a little fed up after having a chesty cold over the weekend. Baking makes us all a little happier so baking it was.

We made two batches of these muffins as I know that both girls like them and they freeze really well so I can pop them in bags of two and just pull them out each day. I made some adaptations to the original recipe which worked really well so I’m sure I’ll be posting that soon.

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We then tried making a Peanut Butter and Banana loaf which was just a bit of an experiment as I had made a batch of homemade Peanut Butter and I wanted to bake with it. This loaf is delicious, moist and actually on a par with my normal banana loaf recipe. I am yet to try any after freezing it so I will keep you posted on that.

Peanut Butter & Banana Loaf

You will need:

150g Gluten free Self Raising flour
100g dark soft brown sugar
7 tbsp of melted coconut oil
2 tbsp of peanut butter
1 medium mashed banana ( over ripe is always best )
1 tsp of vanilla paste/extract
75ml warm water

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4/180, grease and line a 1lb loaf tin.

Measure your flour and brown sugar into a large bowl and mix together. In a separate bowl mash your banana, then add your peanut butter, vanilla paste, coconut oil and warm water and combine thoroughly. Mix your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients until combined. Pour your mixture into a loaf tin and bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until a knife/skewer comes out cleanly. Leave to cool slightly before slicing..although it is delicious when warm spread with a dairy/soya free margarine or even a little more peanut butter.

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This loaf cake is dairy free, egg free, soya free and gluten free. It’s also vegan…and tasty.

Both my girls enjoyed this and so did I. I hope you do too!

I Was Jealous

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I must have seen about a hundred blog posts, articles and images about Kate and her newborn baby glow. I didn’t expect to be one of the ones writing about it because I’ll be honest I’m not really bothered about the royals. I’m not against them I’m just not interested.

Yet on Saturday when I called over to my parents house around 6pm and saw they had the TV left on a channel which was live streaming from outside of the hospital and I got a little sucked in ..to the drama of it all..the excitement of a new baby ..princess or not.

When they walked out of the door beaming and happy I felt a tear well up in the corner of my eye. I saw a healthy, beautiful little girl and a beaming….glowing mum.

I don’t care what or who she wore, how much make up she had on or how long it took to get those silken tresses just so. I saw the light in her eyes, the special warmth in her smile.

I felt jealous.

Not because I want another baby. No. If I’m honest with you as much as I love a newborn baby squeeze I really do not want another child nor do I think I could cope with another pregnancy.

I was jealous because I knew no matter how much make up I had on or if I had all the money in the world to buy a flattering dress that I still wouldn’t have had that glow in my eyes or that smile of pure happiness.

I was happy, I was thrilled that my baby had been born safely. That she was ok. That we had somehow made it to the end of a pregnancy fraught with worry and the threat of something going wrong. Not just the end but two weeks overdue!

My eyes were swollen and bloodshot from 3 days of crying before I gave birth, my smile contained love but it contained sadness too. Sad because hours before during labour I was convinced something would be wrong with my baby, they contained fear because I was sure that I was going to die.

Immediately after giving birth, things weren’t so bad, I was in love with our baby and overjoyed ( even if you can’t see it ) that she was here and healthy.

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It was later that it got worse.

I was lonely because 4 hours after our baby arrived I was left alone, on an empty and dark ward. My partner wasn’t allowed to stay and nobody joined my ward until the following morning. I had a severe tear and pain which made it difficult to move and tend to my child. So I sat up and held her quietly in my arms and I cried.

At 4am that morning I wrote in the notes on my phone that it had been the most traumatic day of my life. I still thought it was normal to feel like this. I had just given birth after all. I had had a difficult pregnancy.

It wasn’t normal and what I was experiencing was a result of birth trauma.

One of those things you don’t really know much about until you experience it.

You can read more about birth trauma here and here.

18 months on.. I’m still dealing with it. It’s hard and even when I think I’m getting over it I have days like Saturday where I watch another person with a baby and there tucked away in my happiness for them I see a sliver of jealousy that they had their happy day and I didn’t.

I’m thrilled that the Princess is here and that from all we know the Duchess had a normal delivery. I wouldn’t wish birth trauma on anyone.

Forget what she wore or how she managed to stand in her heels. Let’s celebrate that she did what she did. That the princess is healthy and that from what we can see they are all happy. It’s more important that anything else that happened on that day.

Baileys Salted Caramel & Fudge Cream Pie

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When I was asked by Baileys to create a recipe for them I was immediately swamped with ideas. I’ve used the famous Irish Cream to cook and create with on numerous occasions.. I’ve made Baileys cheesecake, Baileys Fudge, After Eight Cocktails and Baileys Cupcakes. But what to do that I hadn’t done before..hmmm.

I finally came up with this Baileys Cream Pie. I’ve made a few pies of this type over the past year using what Americans would call a cookie crust. I know that in lots of stores in America you can buy ready made cookie crusts to fill and serve. There are also lots of recipes online for cookie crusts using graham crackers or Oreos. I use Bourbon Creams for mine ( typically whatever store brand I happen to be shopping in at the time ).

I knew I would want my salted caramel sauce in there somewhere..as it’s amazing and I thought it would be nice to have my favourite dark chocolate Baileys fudge in there too so after much indecision I ended up with a bourbon crust with a layer of Baileys dark chocolate fudge which was topped by a thick layer of whipped cream with salted caramel sauce mixed in and drizzled on top. The components individually were delicious but how did they work together?

It’s important to note that this recipe contains a moderate amount of alcohol so is not suitable for anyone under 18 or anyone who for any reason cannot tolerate alcohol. The amount of alcohol is just enough to flavour the pie without overpowering it.

Let’s start with making the crust as you need this to cool, cook and then cool again before adding your other layers.

The Crust:

You will need:

300g of Bourbon Creams
25g of Plain Flour
100g of Butter ( melted )

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Blitz your bourbons with your flour until you have a fine crumb, add your butter and press into a pie tin. I used a loose bottomed heart shaped tin because I HEART Baileys. You need to use your hands to flatten and push your crust slightly up the side of the tin – there is no way to do this without using your hands and it’s a messy job, sorry about that.

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Now cool in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Whilst it’s chilling you can move onto the next stage of making your salted caramel sauce.

For the Salted Caramel:

You will need:

75grams of soft brown sugar
30grams of caster sugar
55grams of golden syrup
80grams of butter
130ml of double or whipping cream
1tsp of good quality sea salt

Put your sugars, syrup and butter into a saucepan and melt together over a low heat.

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Once combined and smooth, take off the heat and add your double cream ( slowly ) and salt. Add your salt 1/2 a tsp at a time and check the flavour before adding the extra as you may like it less salty. I liked salted caramel to taste like SALTED caramel 🙂

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Pour into a jug and leave to cool and thicken in the fridge and then start to prepare your ingredients for your fudge below. Don’t make it just yet.

Remove your crust from the fridge and bake in a very hot oven for about 15-20 minutes. Keep a close eye on it as you want it to crisp around the edges but not burn. Remove from oven and leave to cool but do not remove from tin.

Now onto the fudge.

Dark Chocolate Baileys Fudge:

You will need:

190g condensed milk
260g of chocolate ( I used dark cooking chocolate – approx 58% cocoa)
30ml of Baileys Original Irish Cream

Slowly heat your condensed milk in a heavy based saucepan and add your chocolate ( broken into chunks) and stir occasionally until melted and combined. Remove from the heat and stir in your Baileys. Tip about half of this into a lined baking tray and chill – this is delicious eaten as chunks of fudge. Rich and indulgent. The other half ( about 200g ) will be used to cover your base as a fudge filling.

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Once your have fully covered your base with the fudge, place into the fridge to chill completely.

Now for the final step.

Salted Caramel and Baileys cream

You will need:

300ml of Double Cream
30ml of Baileys Irish Cream
60ml of salted caramel

Whip your double cream until forming soft peaks then very slowly add your Baileys and whip again, once fully combined you should start folding in your salted caramel. Remove your pie crust and add your cream using a spatula or knife to get an even coverage over the pie – use all the cream. Cover and chill in the fridge overnight.

Remove from fridge at least 30 minutes before you wish to eat it.

Just prior to serving drizzle the top with the remaining salted caramel sauce.

Baileys Cream pie

This is an extremely indulgent dessert and I recommend you serve it at a dinner party in small slices or as we did as a Sunday lunch dessert with some of our extended family ..otherwise it would be altogether too tempting to eat a little too much!

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And a little close up of the layers:

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The whole pie contains just over 2 units of alcohol.

You can find more Baileys recipes on their website and some great ideas from fellow food bloggers:

Baileys Chocolate Ice Cream
Baileys Baked Donuts
Baileys Pistachio & Cranberry Fudge

I’m off now to make some cookies with my leftover fudge 😀

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*I was provided with a bottle of Baileys to create this recipe and compensated for my time.

What To Do When Your Child Is Choking

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I had a bit of a scare tonight. Izzy choked on a piece of food. A rather harmless looking homemade chip but it got quite stuck and she became upset and I will fully admit that I just flat out panicked. Andrew gave her some back blows and after a long 15 seconds or so she was able to talk and breathe yet it was still lodged and eventually after what seemed like forever but was more like 2-3 minutes she threw up. She was teary and white as a sheet and I felt awful. Because it had struck me in that moment that I didn’t really know what to do.

Andrews was clearly worried too but he carried on and dealt with it in the right manner and maybe Izzy would have just cleared it out on her own but that what if I’d been alone thought lingered in my head.

Yes I keep up to date with all the usual info you get regarding what your child should or shouldn’t be eating.. What toy products are no longer safe and Izzy always wears a helmet whilst out on her bike yet what if by not knowing a simple piece of advice I was unknowingly putting my child’s life at risk?

I stopped what I was doing…which was eating my own food as it goes and read the NHS guidelines from start to finish. And then I read them again.

Now I’m going to briefly highlight what you are supposed to do for babies and young children but once you have read this I really do urge you to go to the NHS site or a similar website with safe advice and read it all. Memorise it because when these things happen you literally have seconds to act.

Don’t let yourself feel as guilty and panicked as I did today.

How to help a choking child:

If you can see the object, try to remove it but do not poke blindly with your fingers. You could be pushing the object in further.

If your child is coughing loudly, don’t do anything. Encourage them to carry on coughing and don’t leave them.

If your child’s coughing is silent or they can’t breathe in properly, shout for help immediately and decide whether they’re still conscious.

If your child is conscious but they’re either not coughing or their coughing is not effective, use back blows.

Back Blows for Babies ( under 12 months ):

Fully support the child in a head downwards position. Gravity can sometimes dislodge the object. To make this easier you can sit or kneel and support the child on your lap.

Don’t compress the soft tissues under the jaw as this will make the obstruction worse.

Give up to five sharp back blows with the heel of one hand in the middle of the back between the shoulder blades.

If this is not effective and your baby is still conscious you should carry out chest thrusts:

Support the baby on your arm, which is placed down (or across) your thigh as you sit or kneel.
Find the breastbone, and place two fingers in the middle.
Give five sharp chest thrusts (pushes), compressing the chest by about a third.

Back Blows for Children ( 1year plus ):

Try to ensure your child is positioned head down.
Put a small child across your lap as you would a baby.
If this isn’t possible, support your child in a forward-leaning position and give the back blows from behind.
Give up to five sharp back blows with the heel of one hand in the middle of the back between the shoulder blades.

If this is not effective but your child is still conscious then try abdominal thrusts:

Stand or kneel behind your child. Place your arms under the child’s arms and around their upper abdomen.
Clench your fist and place it between the navel and ribs.
Grasp this hand with your other hand and pull sharply inwards and upwards.
Repeat up to five times.
Make sure you don’t apply pressure to the lower ribcage as this may cause damage.

In either case of chest or abdominal thrusts if it has not dislodged the object call for help immediately and continue back blows/thrusts. Don’t leave your child.

If the object is dislodged during thrusts still obtain medical help as you may have hurt your child during the procedure.

An Unconscious Choking Child:

If a choking child becomes unconscious, put them on a firm, flat surface.

Call out loudly or send for help.

Don’t leave the child.

Open the child’s mouth. If the object is clearly visible and you can grasp it easily, then remove it. Again do not poke blindly.

Start CPR.

I haven’t listed all of the guidelines on how to perform CPR but I encourage you to read that also – it’s quite long but an essential read.

The Week That Was…

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This morning I was going to share a recipe with you.. For a Baileys Cream Pie. BUT we haven’t yet tasted it and although it looks incredibly good I can’t share it until I’m sure it tastes great too. So that will be up tomorrow. Today I’m just going to tell you about my week in food and family.

It’s been a difficult week. Andrew was away for four days and I underestimated just how much I would miss him being around. The girls were typically feeling a bit lost without him ( much like me ) and were whiny, clingy and generally hard work. Izzy had a meltdown in school and Chloe just would not sleep. Luckily I did have help from my family but I don’t want to repeat that anytime soon. It’s just ten days now until Chloe goes into hospital for some investigative procedures and if I’m honest I’m pretty worried about it. She seems to be in a great deal of pain nearly every night and it’s not pleasant to see. Hopefully something which can be easily fixed will show when investigated and she can start to be a normal, happy toddler again.

Despite this there were brief moments of pleasure and accomplishment, moments where I watched my girls and how close they have become and couldn’t help but smile. Listening to Chloe master new words ..and dance moves. Creating new dishes..including this incredibly simple one ingredient Peanut Butter:

Vitamix, peanut butter

Watching Izzy cuddle a rather unresponsive Chloe:

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And Izzy experimenting with new hair styles whilst playing over Nannas:

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Eating a pastry fresh out of the oven at our local coffee shop:

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Seriously savouring Chloe’s afternoon nap:

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Finding these beauties for a bargainous 99p:

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Totally encouraging Chloe’s Frozen obsession so that I could drink a hot drink whilst still hot and then having to go and give her a little squeeze because her face just lights up when the songs come on:

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Receiving some fantastic post including this box of goodies from Degustabox which included goodies from Kinder, Schwartz, Nandos, Cookies Bakery, IdrinQ, Barry’s Tea, Veetee, Cirio, Wonjo, Kingfisher and Scheckters..it was quite a box this month:

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Making Dark Chocolate Baileys Fudge:

Baileys fudge

And Blondies..

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As well as the afore mentioned Baileys Cream Pie:

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And finally this morning seeing these two having sleepy morning snuggles on the giant bazaar bag we recently received from Beanbag Bazaar which is AWESOME:

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And so although we are all incredibly tired today, Izzy has a chest infection and her asthmatic wheeze is back with a vengeance which sucks and Chloe didn’t sleep AGAIN I am trying to look at the things which were good about this week and looking back there were definitely a few things.

How was your week?

Sweet Potato, Wild Garlic and Spinach Soup

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I love wild garlic. It smells incredible and at this time of year it’s so abundant and of course it’s FREEEEEEEE.

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We went foraging a few weeks ago and it was lots of fun. We came home with a bulging bagful of fragrant leaves and I’ve already made a wild garlic oil, a pesto and this soup:

You will need:

4 small sweet potatoes diced
1/2 large red onion diced
4 handfuls of wild garlic, roughly chopped ( I just used the leaves)
2 handfuls of baby leaf spinach
750ml of vegetable stock
1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
Pinch of sea salt
25g of butter

*50ml of double cream – optional.

Sauté your sweet potatoes and onions in butter in a large saucepan until softened and golden. Add your stock and bring to the boil before adding the wild garlic and simmering for 5 minutes. In the last minute add your spinach, black pepper and seasalt.

Now you have two choices, you can purée it thoroughly using a hand blender or you can blend mostly and leave some texture which is what I chose to do. I then added the cream for a little splash of indulgence but if you are watching the calories it would be perfectly good without it. Again the butter can be substituted for oil if needed.

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This soup was delicious and made about 4 large bowlfuls. It was even better the following day after the flavours had mingled. Yum.

Have you got a glut of wild garlic you want to use up?

Try these recipes from some of my fellow bloggers:

Wild Garlic Scones
Wild Garlic Pesto Pinwheels
Feta & Wild Garlic Muffins
Quinoa with Wild Garlic Sauce
Fennel and Wild Garlic Salad
Beetroot, Walnut, Wild Garlic and Goats Cheese Brunch Muffins

School Daze

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I wrote this post back in January and just realised it was still lingering in my drafts folder so here it is.. this week Izzy had a bit of trouble in school with a minor meltdown in class after a telling off from a teacher and I wanted to go back and have a look at what I wrote after her first few days:

Our big little girl Izzy started school last week. I know. SCHOOL. It seems crazy to think of her as being old enough to attend school and although she is probably the tallest in her class I still think she looks too small in her uniform which seems to swallow her up. So far all is rosy. She loves her new school and seems to be revelling in the fact that she is now a big girl we didn’t have any tears or tantrums on day 1 and she settled in with ease. I of course went home and felt teary for the rest of the day but she was fine.

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Every day we collect a very happy, very excitable girl from the yard who within an hour turns into a very tired and rather grumpy one. School is super tiring don’t you know? All that playing with sand and painting.. Oh and the songs of course.
I think it will take a while for her to get used to being there each day and hopefully her body will catch up soon enough. I hate seeing her so worn out.

On Friday we had our first batch of paintings back as they take a really really long time to dry as she reported each day when she got home. Along with a well done sticker proudly attached to her school sweater for answering correctly when her name was called.

Seeing the changes in her behaviour and already seeing what she is learning fills my heart with joy and love but I do wish I could keep her as a carefree child just a bit longer. Starting school seems such a huge milestone ..soon it will be homework.. Then exams.

For now we will delight in the days we have at home, hours spent at the park or on long walks. Time as a family.

One major thing we noticed this week is how much more interested Izzy has become in Chloe. She is excited to see her after school and I really think they miss each other. Cue lots of cuddles and kisses even if Chloe doesn’t want it.

And so…four months later. Izzy is still excited to go to school..still excited to see us and Chloe afterwards and still very tired! I’m glad she is still a year away from a full day as I just don’t think she would cope with that just yet. We have had her first parents evening where we came away smiling with pride and although she has had the odd occasion where her teacher has mentioned her being a bit grumpy after being told not to do something..mostly its all ok.