*Before we start at the end of this blog is a very lovely easy to enter competition.*

A month or so ago whilst Izzy was having one of those days (and nights) I entered a spurt of competitions online..mainly to kill time while she was napping as I knew she would be awake before I got the chance to actually do anything. Well it looks like I should thank my teething child as it has definitely paid off.

Two weeks ago I had an email telling me that I had won a competition with Plum Baby if you hadn’t heard of Plum and well if you aren’t a parent that could certainly be the case they produce an organic food range for babies and toddlers which is a bit different to the norm..definitely more adventurous that you would expect for little uns but in a good way. So the email informed me I had won an all expenses paid trip to Buckinghamshire staying at a hotel, two days at Plum cookery school with food expert Beverley Glock and one of my fave celeb chefs Rachel Allen ( check my earlier blogs for one of her awesome biscuit recipes) that’s pretty good yes but wait there is more.. They also threw in £500 to spend on Izzy and a video camera to continue filming the weaning journey. Woop I was more than excited.

Train travel was included in the prize so I ( very hesitantly ) climbed aboard a train from Swansea and made 4 changes including London underground at rush hour all by myself (and Izzy of course).
It was pretty scary but most people were amazingly helpful and I had an offer to lift the pram off at every stop.. I think my beautiful little girl made people all gooey.

The first day at the cookery school I met the other mums ( there were 5 winners in total) and their wonderful babies! This was easily one of my favourite parts of the whole experience.. Izzy loved spending time with babies of a similar age and I enjoyed chatting to some really lovely mums. We met Beverly and Rachel who were both really friendly and down to earth.

Rachel and Beverley showed us how to cook dishes such as stroganoff and sweet cape curry (to the same recipe as Plum use for their sweet cape taste adventures) as well as Muffins using a pouch of fruit purée as a substitute for a lot of the fat content of a usual muffin- definitely one to try.

To finish off we made chicken nuggets ( the healthy way) using chunks of chicken breast dipped in egg and covered in crushed up Plum baby crisps. These were so good you would never know they were covered in baby snacks.

I enjoyed all the recipes although I was ever so slightly disappointed that we weren’t more hands on with regards to the cooking as I do love to cook but I picked up a load of tips including : wash your eggs prior to use.. (If you are wondering why just think about it a little longer) using fruit puree to sweeten cakes etc. The only one I will admit that I won’t be trying at home is the cauliflower cheese made with formula milk to serve to the whole family- I tried it and it tasted fine but just not for me..sorry Beverley.

I’ll finish off with some more lovely photos and a bit of good news for my lovely readers I have not 1, not 2 but 3 sets of the new taste adventure range Plum baby food up for grabs and it couldn’t be more simple to enter, in fact I am giving you 3 entries each. 1. Comment underneath telling me why you would love some Plum goodies. 2. Tweet me @writingforfun telling me why 3. Post a pic of your baby on twitter with the hashtag #Iwantsomeplummunchies I will pick 3 winners from all entries made before 8pm on July 15th 2012.

*a quick thank you to all at Plum, Beverley Glock and Rachel Allen as well as Finn PR.