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Making A House A Home

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When does a building become more than a building and more like a home? I think it’s time spent there and changes you make to the house itself. We have had many discussions about looking to buy a bigger house and have even looked at how much of a mortgage we would be able to get using various mortgage calculators but for now we are staying put at least until the girls are a little older.

This means we have started making some home improvements.
Our house is a little small – at least upstairs as there is an extension and wooden conservatory downstairs so my OH is making built in wardrobes in the bedrooms to save on space. Considering the fact that he has no carpentry training and is squeezing the build into a very short space of free time he is doing an incredible job.

He also built me this pantry which has freed up some much needed cupboard space:

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And yes it’s in desperate need of a good sort out!

Our next project is utilising more of the space in our rather shabby wooden conservatory. I really want to make more storage spaces whilst prettying the place up a little. Pinterest is my friend here and I love this idea found on www.forrent.com

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And also this one from www.bhg.com which could house a few of my cookery books!

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We have already created our storage bench with an ottoman lid to store toys and one corner of the room is now my photography studio for food blog pics.. Which you should hopefully have seen have improved a little! I was spoilt with special lights and props for Christmas.

Do you have any tips or advice for storage ideas which also look good? I will keep you updated with pics of our progress as we finish each project!

*this post is in collaboration with Santander.

Love Soup

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There are lots of variations of Love Soup floating about online or in recipe books. The Jack Monroe version is one of my favourites. This is my version of Love Soup ready for Valentines Day next month. It’s warming, delicious and EASY. I make mine in a Vitamix but other blenders would work too I imagine. The Vitamix just takes all the work out of it and also heats it which is a bonus.

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There are two ways to make this – you can use all raw vegetables or you can use baked sweet potatoes which I actually prefer for the extra flavour.

You will need:

2 carrots
2 sweet potatoes ( preferably baked with flesh scooped out and skins discarded)
1 shallot
1/2 clove of garlic
1/2 red pepper
1 mug of vegetable stock
1 handful of fresh coriander
A pinch of crushed black pepper

If you are using a Vitamix, place all ingredients in and blend on the highest setting ( increasing gradually ) for approximately 4-5 minutes until steaming hot. Serve immediately or chill and refrigerate. If you are making this using a pan and hand blender you should dice your veg and herbs and cook until soft with the stock before blending with a hand blender (carefully) until smooth.

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This is delicious and full of flavour. My girls love it as do I. It’s also great served with pasta as it’s fairly thick and tastes almost creamy – add sautéed chorizo for a special treat.

I’m linking this to Extra Veg run by Michelle and Helen.

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6 Things You Can Do When You Are Child Number Two

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When you are the second child you can get away with doing lots of things that your older sibling would certainly not have been allowed to do. Whether it’s the fact that with experience comes the knowledge that a little dirt won’t hurt or the more likely fact that we just haven’t got eyes in the back of our head.
Also when your big sis is diving off large items of furniture we may sometimes be distracted… And ahem maybe sometimes we just want an easier life.

So Chloe here are a list of things that you can do just because you are child number two:

Take control of the TV remote. The actual one. It doesn’t matter how many toy ones we buy you. You. Only.Want.The.Real.One. And you delight in pressing pause continuously as you realise it makes a noise. To be honest on certain days I may pass it to you for five minutes of quiet and to stop you climbing on and off my lap every ten seconds.

Eat food off the floor – By this I do just mean in our home, typically the lounge carpet. Child one had squeakly clean food, sterilised utensils and we even used bibs. Now I’m just happy if we get some food into your belly. Well..until I used a carpet washer today and saw the colour of the water it sucked up out of the carpet. Maybe not so germ free.

Walk around in your pjs…all day long – by the time we get you up and fed it’s not far off time for your nap so is there any actual point in getting you out of them? Yes with baby 1 we may have delighted in the many hours of look at how cute her outfit is but now I spend most of my days jealous that you can roam around carefree in your onesie and nobody thinks it’s a bad thing. Heck we can even take you to the supermarket in it. You are still a baby after all.. Kinda.

Watch TV for extended periods of time – so when I was pregnant with Izzy I had all these grand ideas about how my child would only ever watch 20 minutes of television a week BUT then I had a second child. And the loss of my pregnant bump disappeared about the same time as my sanity and Iggle Piggle makes you far happier than I do. Typically you are far less interested in the TV than your big sis was but I’m willing to help try to change that 😉

Sleep in our bed – HAHAHAHA. With Izzy I was quite firm in always returning her to her cot and then bed because I didn’t want it to become a habit. With Chloe I would lie on a bed of brambles if it meant she would lie on my chest and just SLEEP. The girl doesn’t sleep. If she would sleep in our bed I would let her sleep there forever. Or anywhere really. In the car. On my head. Anywhere. If you are reading this in years to come Chloe I really hope you mastered sleeping … It’s a good thing you are so cute.

Steal food off our plates – I HATED when Izzy stole food off our plates and always tried to stop her but these days I’m half asleep in my plate anyway and constantly worried that she isn’t eating enough so if she wants to sneak a bit of my chicken I’m just glad she’s eating.

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What about you? Do you find your parenting ways have changed somewhat with the arrival of baby two?

A Fruity Chicken Curry

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My eldest Izzy has always been great with food, will normally try anything and has never been scared of a little spice. Lately however she has been going through a bit of a fussy stage. She will say before a LOT of meals that she doesn’t like this or that. Most of the time she will still eat it but she does like a good moan first.

To try to stop her getting any fussier I have been trying to offer even more variety to our diet. A little spice, different fruits or veggies and one of the dishes I came up with was this fruity chicken curry. The peaches make it slightly sweet and juicy but there is still protein in the form of the chicken and veggies – sometimes it’s just peas and onions but quite often I throw in frozen spinach, carrots or whatever I need to use up. I should say the inspiration for this recipe and the idea of using peaches in a curry came from the rather fabulous recipe book written by Jack Monroe and her recipe for chickpea and peach curry.

Fruity Chicken Curry

For this recipe, you will need:

1 tin of peaches, drained and diced into small chunks
Reserved juice from tin
1 shallot/small onion diced
1 garlic clove, crushed or diced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 raw chicken breasts diced or you can use leftover cooked chicken
1 cube of frozen spinach
50g of frozen peas
1 chicken stock cube
100ml of water
1 tbsp of Olive oil

Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat, add your oil, onions, garlic and spices. Wait for the onion to soften but do not allow to burn. Add your chicken (if using raw) and diced pepper. Brown your chicken and then add your peaches, peas and spinach. Pour over your tin of tomatoes, juice, water and your stock cube and cook on a low heat for 20 minutes until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the sauce has thickened.

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Serve with rice, chips or naan breads.

*If you want extra heat you could add a diced chilli or tsp of chilli flakes.

**To make this a veggie dish just replace the chicken with chickpeas and the stock cube with a vegetable one.

This makes enough for 2 adults and 2 small children.

This dish went down very well with the entire family, my youngest particularly liked the peach chunks. Its full of flavour but not too spicy and is sweet and tasty.

Win Tickets To Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom Live 2015 Tour

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The hugely popular Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom theatre production takes to the road again for a second UK & Ireland tour this year. A BAFTA award-winning TV animation, Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom comes from the makers of Peppa Pig and was produced for the stage by top children’s theatre producers Fiery Light Productions whose growing stable of work – which includes the stage adaptions of Peppa Pig and Octonauts – has now been seen by millions of children across the UK over recent years. This stage version toured 2012 – 2013 and now returns for a 45-theatre engagement, opening at The Orchard Theatre, Dartford on 26 March.

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Izzy has become a real fan of Ben & Holly over the past few months and it’s nice to have a bit of a change from some of her old favourites. The stage show looks amazing so we are really excited to go and see it when it comes to our local town and I have a fabulous competition for you to win a family tickets to go and see it when it arrives in your area.

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To enter just use the simple rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Are You Getting Enough?

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Fruit and Veg that is. Most of us have had it instilled in us over the years that we should be having our five a day but did you know some countries recommend seven a day, ten a day? Japan even recommend thirteen!

Unfortunately a LOT of us aren’t getting anywhere near that.

I was invited to an event recently by Tropicana and the stats were eye opening and definitely made me think.

I asked a question on social media last week about whether people thought they were getting their 5 a day. A high percentage of people admitted to difficulty in getting their little ones to eat the right amount of varied fruit and vegetables – even more admitted to ensuring their little ones had their quota but they themselves knew they weren’t actually eating enough. I can understand this – I know I worry a lot about what my children eat but some days as a busy mum I grab something quick and easy and not a lot of thought goes into what I’m eating.

Do you know what a portion size is?

We should be eating 5 x 80g of varied fruit and vegetables each day. A minimum of 400g per day.

Did you know one of your 5 a day could be achieved by simply drinking a glass of orange juice?

Five surprising ways to get your 5 A Day from Independent Nutritionist Fiona Hunter

1. Use 100% fruit juice to make jelly or salad dressings– just 150mls of 100% fruit juice will count as one of your 5 A Day. If you’re following a dairy free diet, make your own muesli and soak it in juice to give your breakfast some zing in the morning!

2. Try adding chunks of apple, mango, pineapple or slices of pear to a green salad or add dried fruits like ready-to-eat apricot or raisins to rice, pasta or couscous salad.

3. Serve roast pumpkin or celeriac instead of roast potatoes. Slice pumpkin or
butternut squash or celeriac into large chunks and place in a roasting tin, drizzle over a little olive oil. Season to taste and bake at 400C/gas mark 6 for 30- 40minutes.

4. Serve meat or fish with a spicy salsa – mix finely chopped red onion, chilli and tomato with avocado. For a fruity salsa, mix onion, chilli mango and cucumber.

5. Mix cooked pureed spinach, carrot or shredded cabbage and thinly sliced spring onion into mashed potatoes.

I’ve started to make a concerted effort to increase our intake of fruit and veggies as a family. Fruit isn’t usually a problem for us as we all enjoy it but I’m aware that we don’t always get the right amount each day and there isn’t always enough variation in what we eat!

On her way home from school we typically give Izzy a banana to munch on – she is always incredibly hungry but I’d rather not give her a chocolate bar or bag of sweets unless it’s an occasional treat.
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On some days she has a Tropicana kids carton too which is a blend of orange juice and water – another one of her 5 a day. Done.

Because we eat dinner as a family around 5.30 – 6pm I give the girls a plate of veggies/fruit to munch on at about 4pm. Sometimes with a peanut butter dipping pot which they LOVE.

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It tides them over until our main meal, gets extra goodness in them and also keeps them quiet for 15 minutes! Always a bonus.

When I make our meals I try to find ways to add extra fruit and vegetables into them. Like this chicken curry to which I added peaches and frozen peas as well as frozen spinach. The peaches made it slightly sweet and well frozen spinach and peas are the simplest ways to add greens to your meal.

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Recipe to follow soon!

Do you want to find out more about how juice can help you achieve your 5 a day? Visit the Tropicana website for more info.

Warm Spinach, Kale & Bacon Salad

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After all the indulgences and heavy meals we have had this winter something it’s nice to enjoy a lighter meal and when I saw the spinach,bacon and pine nut salad from the Jamie Oliver Comfort Book I thought it was perfect. Unfortunately I was missing half of the ingredients so I kind of adapted it and it was so good I’m sharing it on here:

Warm Spinach, Kale and Bacon salad

You will need:

6 rashers of smoked,streaky bacon diced or lardons
1 red pepper sliced
6 pickling onions – diced finely
2 tbsp of pickling liquid from the jar.
2 tsps of wholegrain mustard
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves
2 handfuls of kale
1 handful of rocket
6 slices of ciabatta

Steam or boil your kale and set aside.

Slice bacon into lardons and fry with the red pepper over a medium heat with a glug of olive oil. Fry until golden, then scoop out with a slotted spoon onto a plate leaving the bacon fat behind in the pan. Toast the bread in the fat on both side and set aside before tossing your drained kale in the pan for a minute or two to warm and flavour.

In a large bowl mix the onion liquid, mustard, black pepper and olive oil. Pile your spinach, kale and rocket on top, add the bacon, pepper and onions. Lightly toss together, gently picking up the salad and sprinkling down from a height to evenly dress. Add the giant croutons/crispy bread and serve immediately.

Warm kale and bacon salad

We served this with some crispy potatoes and a roast chicken. It was the best salad we have had in ages and definitely opened my eyes to the beauty of a warm salad.

I’m adding this to the Extra Veg linky run by Michelle and Helen.

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Double Chocolate Fudgy Brownies

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I think I’ve talked quite a few times about how I think baking is good for my soul. I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen over the past few months and I’ve missed it. I had a few hours to spare this morning which is a rarity these days and I spent it in my kitchen and I ended up with two loaves of bread, brownies, dairy free biscuits and more…

For a few hours I left my problems at the door and concentrated on the food and I think it has done me some good. Maybe I should open a bakery?

I didn’t use to like brownies, the ones I bought at markets and festivals were often dry or just not chocolatey enough but tried one a few years ago at The Big Feastival that changed my mind and I tried for a long time to recreate them. Now I think I prefer mine! There is something incredibly indulgent about a chocolate brownie. If you make it the right way they are fudgy and moist inside with a slight crunch outside. Having two different types of chocolate is my favourite way although I have also made them with three!

I must have made these twenty or thirty times and I always get a great result. They are my fail safe dessert recipe and I’ve also given them as gifts to friends who have had new babies – they are great for when you have the breastfeeding munchies or just when you have had (another) really long night.

Double Chocolate Brownies

You will need:

275g softened butter
350g caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla paste/or extract
75g cocoa powder
100g self raising flour
50g white chocolate chips ( I used chocolate buttons broken up)
75g dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to gas mark 4.

Cream your butter and sugar together then add all other ingredients apart from your chocolate and beat well – I tend to throw it in my stand mixer. When it’s all mixed add your chocolate and pour into a baking tray (approximately 12 x 6). Bake for 60 minutes or until there is no wobble left but it’s still a bit fudgy and gooey inside.

When they have cooled sieve a little icing sugar over the top to create a pretty effect or drizzle over some caramel sauce. YUM.

Double chocolate brownies

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Dairy Free Coconut Biscuits

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I haven’t really talked much on here about the problems we have been having with Chloe. I will write an update post sometime soon but right now she is dairy free so I have been trying out new recipes so that she can still have the occasional treat and also adapting older recipes that I use. Like this one for coconut biscuits. I won’t deny that when you make this recipe with butter it is delicious, melt in your mouth butteriness but when replaced with coconut oil they are still incredibly tasty and actually hold together better and are more biscuity.

Chloe LOVES them.

Here’s the recipe, let me know if you try them.

Coconut Biscuits

You will need:

225g Caster Sugar
150g Self Raising Flour
100g Shredded/Dessicated coconut
100g Coconut Oil
1 Beaten Egg

Makes between 30 – 40 depending on how generous you are with your mixture.

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4.

Melt your coconut oil and add to your other ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Using a teaspoon of the mix for each biscuit shape into balls and place well spread out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Bake for between 15 – 20 minutes until lightly golden. Remove carefully and leave to cool and harden on a wire rack.

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Making Time For Pastimes

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Before we had children we would easily watch 4 or 5 films a week.. I would also read a minimum of 3 books a week and I worked full time AND had a social life. Since we had children a lot of the hobbies we enjoyed seemed to vanish into the oblivion which also stole our sleep. Arrhhhh.

But. And this is a big BUT I’ve started to realise we really need those things which help us relax, to unwind ..to be someone other than mum or dad for an hour or two.

So I’m making time for it. When the children go to bed ( if they both happen to sleep at the same time ) I’m going to take a break. Maybe not every night but at least once a week and watch a film. I was a bit inspired by the Mummy Barrow film club too and I think we are going to follow with interest the films that are watched and maybe join in with one or two. Last night we watched Jack Reacher – not without a few interruptions of course.. Thanks Chloe. Quite a good film although can I admit I’m not really a Tom Cruise fan?

Next we are moving onto some Eighties Classics .. I asked on social media for some recommendations and we have some great films to look forward to. Can you believe I’ve never watched Working Girl? or Stand By Me?

As for books I’m currently reading If I Stay by Gayle Forman ..it’s too early for me to give a verdict as I’m only a few pages in but I’ll let you know when I’m done.

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I’ve actually managed to finish one book already this year – Postcard Killers by James Patterson. I find his books quick and easy to read as although they are thrillers and fairly chilling they tend to grip you so much that you want to finish it as quickly as possible and this one was no different. I enjoyed but it wasn’t one of his best in my opinion.

Last year I challenged myself to read a certain amount of books. It didn’t happen and I was annoyed so this year there is no figure just a promise to myself that I will make more time for these things I enjoy.

So a year of cooking..reading and watching films lies ahead. I suppose I better squeeze some exercise somewhere too 🙂