Blog - Munchies and Munchkins

The Week That Was…

May 2, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

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:

Watching Izzy cuddle a rather unresponsive Chloe:

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

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

Seriously savouring Chloe’s afternoon nap:

Finding these beauties for a bargainous 99p:

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:

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:

Making Dark Chocolate Baileys Fudge:

And Blondies..

As well as the afore mentioned Baileys Cream Pie:

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:

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

April 30, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 49 Comments

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

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.

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

April 29, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

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.

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.

Loaded Potato Skins

April 22, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 4 Comments

My eldest daughter has been going through a stage of not wanting potatoes. She will of course eat wedges and chips but not actual potato as in mash or boiled potatoes. It’s a bit of a pain as we are already making huge adjustments to the food we eat due to my youngest daughters allergies and potatoes are one of our basic diet staples.

So I need to make potatoes interesting again. Think potato dauphinoise, pizza pies ( jacket potatoes sliced in half and topped with tomatoes and cheese ) and I’m starting to convince her that yes she does like them really. This has led to me making more potato based dishes than normal and eventually got me to these loaded skins.

They were pretty easy to make and tasted incredible.

You will need:

4 large potatoes
1 spring onion ( diced )
1 handful of chives ( diced)
3 slices of cooked ham diced
100g of grated cheese
25g of butter
1/4 tsp of crushed black peppercorns
1/4 tsp of sea salt
1 tbsp of olive oil

Firstly bake your potatoes or zap them in they microwave – I put all four in together for 20 minutes. Once out slice in half and scoop out the flesh ( be careful here as you want the skin to remain intact)

Place the hollowed out skins in a baking tray and sprinkle with the salt, pepper and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Bake in a hot oven for approximately 15-20 minutes until they are crispy.

Mix together your scooped out potato with butter, chives, spring onion and diced ham in a bowl then fill each potato skin. Top with grated cheddar.

Place under a hot grill until golden brown.

Serve with a large leafy salad and some sour cream and sweet chilli dips. These are incredibly moreish I warn you!

These could be easily adapted to be vegetarian by removing the ham.

Bogs Footwear Review

April 22, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

With items like footwear I like to give them a good thorough testing before writing a review and I can tell you that these shoes have certainly been tested!

We were sent a pair each for Izzy and Chloe and they have been worn over and over again. They have been splashed in many puddles, plodded through muddy fields and even had a trip or two in the washing machine.

The pair we chose were these beautiful Bogs Kids in Flower Stripe Cranberry.

Priced at £35.00 they are brilliant value for money in my opinion. They must have been worn more than 60 times each ..probably a lot more and show very little wear and tear.

They are also:

100% waterproof
Made from 3mm Neo-Tech™ insulation with a cozy, plush lining
Machine washable

Another massive perk to these boots in my opinion is that they are so easy to put on. I’m sure we have all been there in that struggle to get wellies on and off but these are so simple that my 18 month old can do hers by herself which makes my life easier.

Some photos of the boots in action:

And these are the boots 5 months later ..they are due a machine wash as the insides are a bit grubby but don’t they still look fabulous. I wish I had a pair for myself!

I can’t recommend Bogs Kids enough. Worth every penny.

* We were gifted these boots for the purpose of a gift guide and I have chosen to review them also.

Slow Cooker BBQ Style Sticky Chicken Thighs

April 21, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 9 Comments

I love chicken thighs. I cook them at least once a week. To me they are by far the tastiest part of a chicken..also normally cheaper than breasts. They stay moist and full of flavour whichever way you cook them. I have cooked them in the oven, on the hob, on the BBQ and in the Sous Vide but today I chose to cook them in the slow cooker. I make this exact same recipe for my oven baked thighs I just add a little olive oil.

You will need:

6 chicken thighs
1 heaped tablespoon of sweet smokey paprika
1/2 tbsp of garlic granules
4 tbsp of soft dark brown sugar or molasses
1/2 tsp of crushed peppercorns ( I used Sichuan )

Place your thighs in the slow cooker, sprinkle first with the paprika then the garlic and pepper then finally the sugar.

Try to get an even distribution them cook on high for 2 hours and low for 2 hours. I used a temperature probe to check the thighs got to the correct temp.

Remove the thighs and leave to rest before serving.

You can tip the sauce/juice into a pan, add some more sugar and reduce to make a sauce to cover or to use in a different dish but the thighs are juicy and full off flavour as they are.

They were succulent and so tasty. I think they may even be better than my oven version. If you do want a crispy skin pop these in a very hot oven for 10-15 minutes.

I served mine with a leafy green salad and these loaded potato skins:

– recipe for these to follow soon.

My Appliances Multi Function Fan Oven Review

April 21, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 3 Comments

I was offered to review a product from My Appliances the week that my oven died. It had been slowly failing for over a year and I’d been ignoring the fact that it took an hour to preheat or an extra hour to cook just about anything. I obviously opted for an oven and it was delivered within a few days ( standard service – not just for blog reviewers ). The oven I chose was this ART28709 60CM true fan oven.

It was simple to install – considering my other half had never attempted anything like this before.

I didn’t wait long before I was cooking up a storm with about five batches of cakes and bread flying out of my oven over the space of two days.

It’s been remarkably easy to get used to and I love all of the different functions that it offers:

Light
Defrost
Lower Heat Element
Upper and Lower Heat Element
Convectional with Fan
Radiant Grilling
Double Grilling
Double Grilling with Fan
Convection

The lower heat element is great for pizzas. The upper and lower is great for meats and the convectional oven which gives a more controlled all round heat makes great cakes.
It’s also wider than my old oven which means I can fit more on one rack. Great for making smaller versions of meals to suit my allergic child.

These are some of the bakes I’ve made over the past month:

These loaded potato skins were browned beautifully using the grill:

And the most amazing chicken traybake:

I can definitely recommend this oven and with a fabulous £125 off at the moment now is the time to buy. You can buy the oven here.

One year later update:

I don’t typically update reviews but we have been so happy with our oven that I thought it was right to let you know how it is faring after a year of heavy use. We had one minor glitch where we thought there was an issue with our heating element and we called customer services who arranged for an engineer to come up within 48 hours..embarrassingly the problem rectified itself by the time he arrived and it seemed to have been caused by an (overly) extended period of slow cooking. Anyway since then we have had no problems, it’s an excellent oven which heats up quickly and has all the functions we need. The grill in particular gets to the perfect temperature in a minute or two which is just what I need it for – I use it typically to brown/burnish dishes that I’ve made on the stove top. I’ve used the defrost setting with no issues and find this also works well for when I want to dehydrate food such as Sundried tomatoes. The two button combination needed to turn it on means it’s safer around little ones and I love that it flashes at me to remind me to turn it off after use!

From the quality of the product and the excellent customer service I would recommend this oven and My Appliances on the whole.

* I was gifted this oven for the purpose of a review.

A Giveaway With First Great Western & Bristol Food Connections

April 20, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

From the 1st till the 9th of May 2015 Bristol will once again be taken over for the Bristol Food Connections festival. You can read about last years festival here.

“Food Connections aims to change how we think about food and how we eat by ‘Bringing people and good food together’ and by celebrating the people, the produce and the projects that are putting Bristol on the map as a sustainable food capital.

All over Bristol, dozens of individuals, groups, organisations and businesses – united by their passion for good food – will come together to stage a food event unlike any other.

The flagship food event for Bristol 2015, European Green Capital, Food Connections will comprise over 130 events all over the city divided into six themes: land and growing, wellbeing, feasting and festivities, get cooking, brain food and families.”

With markets, dining events, family events and BBC talks and seminars including free entry to theatre talks from chefs such as Rick Stein talking about his life in food. You can find out how to apply for tickets here

Find out more about the Sustainable Food Summit, The a Sourdough chain and The Food Trail. You could try foraging, honey tasting or even attend an awards ceremony where you get to try a sample of all of the products entered and see who wins the £100,000 prize. Sound exciting right?

Now how would you like to win two train tickets to the festival courtesy of First Great Western and tickets to the New Frontiers a Award Ceremony 2015? Just complete the rafflecopter form below but be quick as this competition only lasts a week.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bluestone In Pictures

April 20, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Whenever we review a holiday I like to post a photo diary before I write our full review. A little teaser … So here it is a selection of photos from our recent stay at Bluestone National Park Resort.

Free range fun…

Forest exploration…

We spent a lot of time at Camp Smokey…

Lots more to come in our full review in a few weeks.

*Our stay at Bluestone was complimentary for the purpose of a review.

Springtime Special Buys At Aldi

April 19, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Whenever we do a shop at Aldi, I end up getting all the food whilst my other half lingers around all of the special buys. They always manage to have something we absolutely definitely need ..ok want.

I read the weekly leaflet to find out if there is anything I fancy and then I try to get there on the first day of the promotion to make sure I get it.. Because the problem is that sometimes the deals are so good they fly out which can lead to huge disappointment.

In the last few months we have bought a carpet washer ( for approximately £30 less than we could have bought it elsewhere ) am ironing board with a built in extension plug ( a surprise bonus ) and I bought THE most comfortable pair of trainers just after New Years. I wore them for a 6 hour Danceathon and ahem nearly everybody around me was moaning about sore feet and I was all bouncy and comfy in my £14.99 shoes ( which scanned through at £9.99 ) woop. Plus they are bright pink and look rather cool. Oh and we bought a king size duvet..and their foodie special buys too. Ok we may buy their special buys a lot.

We have also been lucky enough to have been sent some of the more recently special buys to try out:

I loved the selection on offer for the Baking Special Buys:

The digital measuring jug is especially useful and I use it ALL the time:

We have also been reviewing some of the hiking products which are in store right now including these fab jackets priced at £29.99:

The Trekking Jacket is both warm and waterproof, thanks to its 3 layer fabric and membrane construction. In styles for both men and women and fit to fight off the strongest of storms, it has a fully adjustable hood and a storm flap. Not only is this jacket waterproof but windproof too. We have had such glorious weather lately that we haven’t had much of a chance to try them out, other than a brief wet and windy school run but we live in Wales so that will change soon I’m sure.

In store this week they have running gear, heart monitors as well as polarised sunglasses amongst all their usual goodies. Go check them out and find out more about the upcoming special buys here.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: