The Vegetarian Experience

Sainsburys Heart Kitchenware Collection

2012-03-02T14:39:00.002Z

I like to think of myself as quite a simple soul. I have no need for designer coats or handbags. I don't buy expensive jewellery, invariably because I end up losing it or breaking it. I am not a massive fan of clothes or accessory shopping and generally have the restraint to go into a shop without feeling the compulsion to buy anything. Over the last few years however, I have discovered a shopping habit which I find hard to keep under control. Somehow as I have married and had kids, I seem to have developed a penchant for kitchenalia and cookware. Yes, whenever we enter a supermarket or department store, I generally make a bee line straight for the kitchenware section. I think it stems from when we created our wedding list and spent hours in the kitchenware section of our local department store. It was there that I discovered my love of dinner sets and quirky cookware!

This week, I ventured into our local Sainsbury's and came across their new "Heart" Easter kitchen range. In the range was this beautiful pink heart shaped ovenproof dish. I fell in love with it straight away, it is a really beautiful dish and was a bargain at around £6 ish. I am a big lover of quiches and flans, and so I have already started to plan what delicious vegetarian treats I can cook up with this little beauty in my collection. I intend to try and pick up a different piece of the collection every time I shop in Sainsbury's in the next few weeks. Now I just need a bigger kitchen to put everything in!

I've showed you mine, so what's is your favourite piece of kitchenware?

Asparagus, Onion, Chickpea and Cashew Rice

2012-03-01T09:00:00.004Z

Last week, eldest spotted some asparagus on special offer in the supermarket and asked if we could buy it. As I am partial to a dish with asparagus, and despite it being Mexican rather than British asparagus, I granted her request and made a mental note to cook with it at some point. After a few days of not using our asparagus, I decided that I had better find a dish to use it up. I found this recipe online and decided to adapt it to suit the ingredients I had. Coincidentally, I had been chatting with a vegetarian friend about not using enough beans, lentils and pulses in my cooking, and so I decided to use some canned chickpeas for added protein. The onion and garlic add flavour to the dish, and the cashews add a delicious crunchy texture, compared to the soft texture of the rest of the dish. The dressing adds some extra zing to the other flavours, although go easy on the salt!

My kids won't eat rice with "funny" dressing on, so for them, I left the dressing off and grated some cheese over the top of the dish. A dash of tomato ketchup also helped the dish to go down a little more easily with the kids. This dish is a great balanced meal for vegetarian kids. The rice provides carbohydrates, the asparagus and onions provide the vegetables, cheese provides the dairy, and the chickpeas and nuts provide the protein. (This dish is made even healthier if its brown rice - although mine won't eat it!).

We ate this dish warm and it was really delicious. I think that this would make a fantastic summer salad, served cold as part of a buffet, or as a main meal. You could also use tahini instead of soy sauce in the dressing and make the dish with or without the dressing.

Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

Asparagus, Onion, Chickpea & Cashew Rice

Ingredients
500g Long Grain Rice
350g Asparagus Spears, washed & chopped into chunks

2 medium Onions, chopped

400g Canned Chickpeas, drained

150g Cashew Nuts

2 Cloves Garlic, crushed

Olive Oil for cooking

Knob of Butter for cooking

For The Dressing:

1 Garlic Clove, crushed and chopped

50ml Vegetarian Soy Sauce

50ml Lemon Juice

Zest from one Lemon

2 tablespoons extra-virgin Olive Oil

2 tablespoons Hot Water

Salt for seasoning

Optional Alternatives

Grated Cheddar

Tomato Ketchup

Method

Rinse the rice in cold water, transfer it to a saucepan, cover with hot water and cook as per the instructions on the packet.
Meanwhile, make the dressing by adding the olive oil, soy sauce, garlic, lemon zest and juice to a bowl and whisking it together. Add the hot water to the mixture, followed by the salt and then set aside for later.
Add a decent amount of olive oil to a pan on a medium heat. Place the drained chickpeas and some salt in a pan and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the onion and garlic to the pan, and fry on a medium heat until they turn golden, stirring the ingredients to prevent burning.
Next, add the asparagus to the pan and stir to distribute the mixture evenly. Cover the pan with a lid and allow the asparagus to steam for a couple of minutes - until it starts to soften.
Meanwhile in a separate pan, melt the butter and add the cashews to the pan (reserve a few for decoration). Coat the cashews in the butter and roast for a couple of minutes over a high heat, stirring regularly.
Once the rice is cooked, drain and add to the pan, along with the cashew nuts. Stir to combine, so that all of the ingredients are distributed evenly throughout the dish.
Garnish with the reserved cashews, serve in a large bowl and allow each person to help themselves.
(You could add the dressing before serving, or allow people to help themselves to suit their own tastes. Alternatively, if you are not a fan of the dressing, serve plain, or with some grated cheddar cheese, or with a dressing of your choice).

Sticky Sweet Vegetarian Sausage Stew

2012-02-27T09:00:00.001Z

Hello all! I haven't posted a vegetarian post for a week - we have had intermittent internet access at home and so I haven't been able to blog this recipe which I have been hanging on to for a week or so. Isn't it funny that we rely on the internet so much these days - I have been getting withdrawal symptoms from not being able to post!

So to start the week, I am featuring a Sticky, Sweet Vegetarian Sausage Stew. When I cooked this recipe, the weather was cold and snowy, and it was a real winter warmer. However as the weather is slowly starting to improve, this hearty dish is still a fabulous meal to place on the table for the family to eat together. I love one pot or one dish cooking which the family can share out together, and this recipe certainly hits the spot.

I cooked my Sticky Sweet Vegetarian Sausage Stew twice - once on the hob and once in the slow cooker. Although the dish tasted delicious cooked on the hob, I much preferred the ingredients cooked in the slow cooker. The flavours fused together so well and the fact that they had so long to cook really bought out the sweetness of the dish, which I absolutely love, juxtaposed with the savoury ingredients in the recipe. The name - Sticky Sweet Vegetarian Sausage Stew may sound a bit too sugary if you don't have a sweet tooth, but the rest of the flavours give a really good balance to the dish. I recommend giving the recipe a go and then let me know what you think!

Sticky Sweet Vegetarian Sausage Stew

Ingredients

2 tbsp Olive Oil

2 medium Onions, chopped

8 Quorn Vegetarian Sausages

2 Carrots, chopped

2 Parsnips, chopped

2 eating Apples, peeled, cored and chopped

1 x 400g tin Chopped Tomatoes

1 Vegetable Stock Cube, crumbled

200ml Hot Water

2 tbsp Tomato Puree

2 tbsp Honey

1tsp Chilli Powder

1tsp Paprika

1tsp Mustard Seeds

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

Brush the vegetarian sausages with oil and cook them under the grill for about 15 minutes or until browned, turning as required.
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion over a low heat until it is transparent (around 5-6 minutes).
Add the carrots and parsnips to the pan and continue to cook for a further 5-10 minutes, or until the vegetables have begun to soften.
Add the apples and the honey to the mixture and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes over a medium heat.
Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, vegetable stock, hot water, chilli powder, paprika, mustard seeds, salt and pepper to the pan.
Combine the ingredients together well, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.
By this point the sausages should be cooked. Chop them into chunks and add the sausages to the pan.
Cover and cook the mixture for a further 20 minutes, stirring regularly. (You can add extra hot water if the mixture is getting too thick).
After 20 minutes, the vegetables should have softened and the flavours should have fused well together. If not, cook in 5 minute increments until this has happened.
Once ready, remove the mixture from the heat, allow to cool slightly and serve immediately.

We served ours with Cheese and Chive Bread.

You can also cook this recipe in the slow cooker:

Slow Cooked Version

Brush the vegetarian sausages with oil and cook them under the grill for about 15 minutes or until browned, turning as required.
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion over a low heat until it is transparent (around 5-6 minutes).
Add the carrots and parsnips to the pan and continue to cook for a further 5-10 minutes, or until the vegetables have begun to soften.
Add the apples and the honey to the mixture and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes over a medium heat.
Next, remove the pan from the heat and add the ingredients to the slow cooker. Slice the sausages into chunks and place them in the slow cooker also.
Place all of the other ingredients in the slow cooker, and add an extra tablespoon or two of honey to the mixture to bring out the flavour in the slow cooker. You may also need to add extra hot water, so that all of the ingredients are covered by liquid. Cook either on low for 6 to 8 hours plus, or high for 4 to 5 hours.
Allow to cool slightly and serve.

You can also freeze this once cooked.

I am entering this recipe into Family Friendly Friday's, over at Fabulicious Food

Silent Sunday

2012-02-26T11:15:00.001Z

Absolute Indian Cookery School, St Albans - Review

2012-02-15T15:25:00.001Z

A few weeks ago, I was lucky to be offered a cookery lesson by Sheba Promod, who runs Absolute Indian Cookery School in St Albans. Sheba, who is originally from Kerela, South India, gained her love of authentic Indian cuisine growing up watching her mother cook and prepare food for the family. Kerela plays a key role in the spice trade and has done since the Greek and Roman times. Spices and ingredients growing locally, such as Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Vanilla & Coconut, influence the flavours and appearance of Kerelan Cuisine. Sheba's cookery features mainly Kerelan cuisine, and incorporates delicious authentic Indian dishes generally not found in an Indian takeaway in the UK.

Powdered Spices

During our lesson, Sheba showed me how to make some Vegetarian dishes, and told me about the different kinds of dishes which would make up a Vegetarian meal in South India.

Sheba, who also runs her own Spice Boutique, started by giving me a run down of the kind of spices generally used in Indian Cooking and explained how different spices can influence the flavour of different dishes. Spices in Indian Cookery include Turmeric, Paprika, Ginger, Cloves and Cumin. People often say that they don't like "spicy" food, and so avoid cooking with any spices, however, many times, it will actually be that people don't like "hot" spicy foods, rather than any spicy foods. We tried each spice individually, to get a sense of how they tasted individually and what kind of dish they would complement.

Whole Spices

We then moved on to cooking, and started by making Avial - A South Indian Vegetable Curry. Avial is typically made with a combination of vegetables, coconut and curry leaves, and served with rice. Avial is considered an essential part of a "Sadya" or Vegetarian banquet in Kerela. Sheba used carrots, cucumber, potato, drumstick, and small purple aubergines to create Avial. Drumstick is a vegetable native to India. This, and many of the other ingredients used in Kerelan cooking are available from shops specialising in Asian foods in the UK. There is one locally in St Albans where many ingredients can be sourced from.

Cooking Avial

Next, we made a Brinjal Bhaji, also known as Aubergine Bhaji. In this country, we typically recognise Bhaji's as being coated and fried, and looking like a patty, but this Aubergine Bhaji is actually a mixed vegetable side dish coated in spices. Sheba recommends that small purple Aubergines are best for this dish and for the Avial, rather than large regular aubergines, and the small aubergines go well with the other colours of the food in the dish.We started by frying the aubergines in some oil, then removing them. Next we added the spices to the oil and fried the tomatoes in them, before adding the rest of the ingredients to finish. I really enjoyed making and eating the Aubergine Bhaji, and it is a great bright, colourful and aesthetically pleasing dish to bring to the table.

Coating the tomatoes in spices

Brinji Bhaji Side Dish

To finish off, Sheba showed me how to make Dal Palak (Lentils with Spinach). Dal is great for adding protein to your diet, especially if you follow a vegetarian diet. Sheba described Dal as the Indian equivalent of Chicken Soup! Dal is quite a plain, filling dish, so it is great if you just fancy something quite plain to eat on it's own, or as part of a larger meal. Sheba used a pressure cooker to make this dish, but you could try it in the slow cooker, or in a regular saucepan. The important thing is that the lentils have had enough time to soak, and you have added enough water to the pan.

Dal Palak

We ran out of time to make Chapati's to accompany the rest of the food we made, but Sheba gave me a recipe to try at home. Sheba stock's a wonderful Chapati rolling pin in her Webshop, perfect for rolling out Chapatis or other breads

I would definitely recommend booking an Absolute Indian Cookery Course if you are local to the area. Visit the website to find out more about the different kinds of courses available. Thanks to Sheba for showing me some authentic Indian Cooking and inspiring me with her home made Ghee. I will definitely be trying out some of the dishes and techniques that I learned. My husband was very pleased when I arrived home with Indian takeaway dishes full of delicious, home made Indian Cusine!

Disclousure: Cookery Lesson offered in consideration of review

Hot Chocolate or Hot Schnocolate!!

2012-02-11T17:48:00.001Z

Oh the weather outside is frightful,

but the fire is so delightful,

and since we've no place to go,

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Yes, half term is well and truly upon us, and so as we have nowhere to officially "be" for the next week, we are happy to have the luxury to stay at home and have fun, whilst the world revolves around us.

The food and drink we consume at home is largely guided by the seasons and so since the snow has been falling and temperatures have been plummeting over the last week, we are having lots of hearty food and hot drinks to keep warm. There is one hot drink in particular that my kids love more than any other, and which is guaranteed to warm them up and bring a smile to their faces. This is of course Hot Chocolate! or as they like to call it when they drink it in the snow, Hot Schnocolate!

Last night when we arrived home from school, eldest asked if we could make some Hot Schnocolate as she had been out in the snow at school and needed warming up. We prefer to make our Hot Chocolate from scratch rather than making it from the packet. It tastes better, and you can also decide how much chocolate or sugar you would like to add, so you can make it slightly healthier for the kids by adding less chocolate and sugar.

Here is eldest enjoying hers in the snow and the recipe for our Hot Schnocolate is below!

Hot Schnocolate

Ingredients
750ml Full Fat Milk
150g Dark Chocolate or Dark Chocolate Chips
2tsp Cinnamon
4tsp Sugar

For Decorating
150ml Cream - whipping or double
(or)
UHT Aerosol Cream
Crushed Candy Canes
Chocolate Chips

Method

If you are using fresh cream, whip the cream together with a whisk and then place to the side.
In a saucepan, heat the chocolate and the milk over a low heat until the chocolate has melted.
Once the chocolate has melted, stir in the cinnamon and continue to heat for a couple of minutes.
Next, stir in the sugar and bring to the boiling point, but do not let the mixture boil.
Whilst the mixture is heating, remove a couple of candy canes from their packaging and place them into a ziploc bag. Bash them into splinters with a rolling pin and then remove from the bag.
Once the mixture is ready, pour it into four mugs and top the chocolate with the whipped or aerosol cream.
Sprinkle some chocolate chips and crushed candy canes over the top of the cream and your hot Schnocolate is ready to drink. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Top 5 Wedding Cake Tips

2012-02-10T05:00:00.005Z

Picking out your wedding cake should be a joyful experience, but it can easily turn into a nightmare for brides and grooms who are being pulled in different directions by their family and friends, or who might choose a baker who doesn't deliver their dream cake. So to avoid the anxiety, here are some tips to help brides to be choose the right wedding cakes for their wedding.

Avoid Very Bright Frosting
Having a cake iced in a fluorescent colour may seem like a good idea, but the dye used to colour the icing is likely to stain everyone's lips and teeth as well as their clothing. It is better to use brightly coloured ribbon or flowers to add colour to the cake.

Choose Several Flavours
There is no way to choose every guest's favourite wedding cake flavour, but it is good to have several cake options available. Vanilla buttercream and fruit are the more traditional wedding cake flavours, although chocolate or lemon are becoming increasingly popular, along with carrot cake. Many brides and grooms buy layered cakes so that each layer is a different flavour and guests are offered more choice. If you want to make sure that your cake is completely vegetarian or vegan, consider finding a baker who specialises in these areas of baking.

Don't Let a Friend Make Your Cake
Some couples allow a friend to make their cake to save money, but unless your friend makes cakes for a living, buying the cake from a professional baker is usually worth the investment. Wedding cakes may not look difficult to make, but it is essential that the finished cake looks great, and it would be terrible to lose a friend because your visions of the perfect cake are not the same.

Have the Cake Delivered and Set Up Professionally
Picking up the cake may seem like a good way to save money, but layered cakes can be difficult to assemble and it would be a tragedy to leave the bakery with a beautiful cake, only to have it be ruined whilst being transported to the reception or during assembly.

Don't Listen to Everyone's Opinions
When it comes to choosing wedding cake toppers or decorations, most people won't be shy about sharing their opinions. It is a good idea for the bride and groom to sit down together and choose a cake design they love, regardless of everyone else's feelings,. It is also important to choose something which is personal to you both and which fits in with the theme of the wedding.

Disclosure: This is a Featured Post which I have been compensated for.

Hotel Chocolat Valentines Gift Review

2012-02-07T14:37:00.001Z

The last taste of sweets, is sweetest last, Writ in remembrance more than things long past.”

--William Shakespeare

Yes Valentines will soon be upon us, and what better to say "I love you" than with chocolate?

The tree that chocolate comes from is called the "theobroma cacao", which in Greek means "food for the gods" and I would definitely concur that's what good, quality chocolate is! Chocolate is an aphrodisiac which is said to symbolize luxury, love, passion and affection. It is the most chosen valentines gift by lovers from generations way back into ancient times.

So if you decide to follow the path of history and buy Chocolate for your loved ones this Valentines, then make sure that you buy some decent chocolates rather than rushing to the petrol station the night before! To score even more brownie points, I am sure that almost anyone would appreciate a chosen gift from Hotel Chocolat. Hotel Chocolat has a whole host of wonderful valentines gifts on their Valentines Gifts Page this year, perfect for that special someone in your life.

To give us a taste of their Valentines range, Hotel Chocolat kindly sent me their Sleekster Love Selection to sample. The Sleekster Love Selection is really reasonably priced at £22 and features a range of delicious flavours including Bison Grass Vodka, Praline Oyster, Champagne Truffle, Bucks Fizz and the classic Caramel and Chilli Sweetheart Heart shaped Chocolates. The packaging and presentation of the chocolates is amazing. They look so beautiful and my heart skipped a tiny beat when I opened the box! If I were to receive these chocolates on Valentines day I would certainly be one happy lady.

You can view the full Hotel Chocolat Valentines range here. I would definitely recommend going over and having a look.

Happy Valentines Day for the 14th February!!

Disclaimer: Product offered in Consideration for Review

Twenty-First Century Cheese and Chive Bread

2012-02-06T09:00:00.000Z

There is nothing like the smell and taste of fresh bread when the weather is cold, and so today I am featuring a super quick tasty recipe for a chilly day! Lorraine Pascale's "Twenty-First Century Bread" recipe is featured in her book, Home Cooking Made Easy. This is a great recipe as it can be made and cooked in just about an hour. There is no yeast involved in this bread recipe, and you don't have to stick it in the airing cupboard to wait for it to rise. You can just make the bread, cook it, and enjoy the fruits of your labour immediately! Lorraine created a Ham, Cheese and Chive recipe to make her bread, but I decided to omit the Ham in my version to make the bread meat-free.

If you have never made bread before, or have always been a bit apprehensive about making it, then this is the ideal recipe to try as it is so easy and tastes delicious. Here is my recipe for Cheese and Chive bread.

Twenty-First Century Cheese & Chive Bread

Ingredients
425g Self-Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
150g Mature Cheddar Cheese, grated, plus an extra 10g Cheese for sprinkling
1/2 bunch of Fresh Chives, finely chopped
Few twists of Black Pepper
1tsp Paprika
1tsp Mustard Powder (I used Mustard Seeds)
200-225ml Water

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsisus.
Place all of the ingredients, aside from the water and 10g of cheese in a bowl and mix the ingredients together well.
Add some of the water to the bowl - enough to make a soft but not sticky dough. (This would generally be about 200ml). Then bring the dough together with your hands and add more water if necessary to bring all of the dough together.
Once this has been done, remove the dough from the bowl and roll the dough into a ball. Flatten the ball, to help it cook more quickly and then place on a baking tray. Make three scores of the bread with a knife and then sprinkle the grated cheese over the top of the bread.
Spray some watrer into the oven to create a steamy atmosphere (around 8-10 squirts), then place the dough on a baking tray and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the bread has turned golden brown and smells cooked.
Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool a little bit before serving.

Kids Pizza Making Party At Pizza Express

2012-02-05T09:00:00.001Z

This week it was eldest's birthday. She invited her friends along to a pizza making party at our local Pizza Express. I was a bit apprehensive about how it was going to go, but eldest and her friends absolutely loved it. They had the best time.

All of the kids got to make their own pizza from scratch. They pressed out the dough and put the toppings on themselves and had great fun deciding what they would adorn their pizza's with. Once the pizza was cooked, the kids tucked into their own creations and then later washed them down with lashings of chocolate cake and ice cream. This was followed by birthday cake and a rendition of Happy Birthday for eldest. We also took along a pass the parcel game and other things to keep the kids occupied during courses and they just had so much fun!. The staff at our local Pizza Express were so attentive and our waiter especially was fantastic. I would definitely recommend a Pizza Express party for kids of any age. Here are some pics from eldest's party.

Waiting for everyone to arrive

Getting ready to make pizza!

Pressing out the dough

Adding the sauce

Pizza's ready to go in the oven

Eldest and her best friend

Eating the fruits of her labour

Birthday Cake!

As with all other photos, these pictures are copyrighted, so please do not attempt to reproduce them as I do check!!

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post in any way, eldest just had a really fab time and so I wanted to share!

Tomato Couscous Bake

2012-02-02T09:00:00.001Z

Following on from my post about our visit from La Cuisine Imaginaire cookery school, today I am attempting to recreate a version of the dish which Roselyne showed us how to make. The dish is a Tomato Couscous bake. I have never been very good at cooking with couscous, mainly because I am not amazingly good at coming up with ideas of what to make with it. However, it is a super ingredient to use if you are a vegetarian as it is full of protein, fibre and B vitamins. It also adds bulk to dishes to help them to fill you up and go further. This Couscous bake was really easy to make, quick to assemble and was also really delicious. I will definitely be making it again! I think it would be especially great to eat in the summer.

For the tomato base, I used onion, pepper, tomatoes and cougettes, but you could use any vegetables you would like. Mushrooms and sweetcorn might be a good addition, or you could maybe use some root vegetables for a really hearty meal in the cold winter months.

Tomato Couscous Bake

Ingredients
1 Onion, peeled and sliced
1 Red Pepper, chopped and sliced
1 Yellow Pepper, chopped and sliced
2 Courgettes, chopped and sliced
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
Olive Oil for frying
1 x 400ml tin of Tomatoes
1tsp Oregano
1tsp Mixed Herbs
2 tbsp Tomato Puree
100g Cherry Tomatoes
8 oz Couscous
14oz Hot Water
150g Cheddar Cheese plus 50g to decorate
500g Greek Yoghurt
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

Chop the onion, pepper and courgettes into small pieces and crush the garlic.
Gently fry the onion and crushed garlic in olive oil for around 5 minutes, or until the onion starts to turn golden.
Add the courgettes and peppers to the pan and continue to fry for a further 5 minutes
Once the vegetables have started to soften, add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, cherry tomatoes, oregano and mixed herbs to the pan and continue to cook on a low heat for a further 10 to 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil the kettle and measure out the couscous.
Once the kettle has boiled, place the couscous in a large heatproof bowl and add the hot water. The hot water should cover the couscous. If it does not then add a little more water so that it is covered to start off with but will be eventually absorbed. Cover the bowl with a large dinner plate and leave for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the greek yoghurt and cheese together and season with salt and pepper.
Once the tomato mixture is cooked, Take an oven proof casserole dish and place the mixture in the bottom. Smooth over the top.
Once the couscous is cooked, layer the couscous over the tomato mixture, covering completely.
Finally, layer the yoghurt and cheese mixture over the top of the couscous and top with the reserved cheese.
Cook in the oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. Serve Immediately,

I am entering this into the Family Friendly Friday Link Up over at Fabulicious Food

La Cuisine Imaginaire Vegetarian Cookery School, St Albans – Another visit!

2012-01-28T08:50:00.000Z

For our first meeting of 2012, St Albans Ladies Circle (of which I am a member) were treated to a visit from Vegetarian Chef Roselyne Masselin. Roselyne is the author of the BBC Vegetarian Cookery Book 'Cuisine Imaginaire' and creator of La Cuisine Imaginaire Cookery School based in St Albans. Roselyne runs lots of different courses including Vegetarian Dinner Party, Indian, Italian, Dairy Free and Seasonal Cookery and the popular 'Me, My Knife and My Chopping Board' which teaches chopping techniques whilst cooking delicious food at the same time.

Having attended a course by Roselyne before, I was looking forward to seeing what Roselyne had in store for us during this demonstration.

The night was kindly hosted by Sarah and so wine and snacks in hand, we settled into her kitchen, eager to learn some tips from our Chef. Roselyne started by sharing some tips on eating a balanced healthy vegetarian diet which I found really interesting. Meanwhile, she started preparing her first dish – a Cous Cous Bake consisting of a tomato base, couscous layer and a yoghurt and cheese topping.

Roselyne then moved on to make some delicious Vegetarian Burgers.

It was really interesting to watch Roselyne making delicious vegetarian food. Both dishes tasted fantastic and would make great meals for feeding the family. I had a really lovely night and I am quite certain that everyone else did too.

Thanks to Sarah for hosting and Roselyne for coming and sharing an evening of Vegetarian Cookery with us.

Watch out for my version of the Cous Cous Bake recipe to follow on the blog.

Song for a Fifth Child: A Poem For All Mothers

2012-01-27T09:00:00.002Z

Someone recently reminded me of this poem on our Antenatal Teacher's email group. It is a really lovely poem and I think relevant for all children... not just fifth ones!! Whenever you are having a down day, or worrying about being a good mother, just have a read of this to brighten your day.

Song For a Fifth Child, by Ruth Hamilton. 1958

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing and butter the bread,

Sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(lullaby, rock-a-bye, Lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek-peek-a-boo).

The shopping is not done and there's nothing for stew

And out in the yard there is a hullabaloo.

But I'm playing "Kanga" and this is my "Roo."

Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(lullaby, rock-a-bye, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

for children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

(Alternative Verse) I hope that my children look back on today

and remember a mother who had time to play

There's plenty of time for cleaning and cooking

and children grow up when you're not looking

So the cobwebs can wait and dust go to sleep

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep

Cadburys Joyville Chocolate Fountain

2012-01-26T08:50:00.001Z

Last Saturday, eldest and I were transported to Joyville, a magical place where Joy is created through Chocolate. Joyville was bought to us in the form of a nine metre high Chocolate Fountain situated in the Westfield Shopping Centre. Whilst I must admit that Westfield Shopping Centre is most definitely not my idea of 'Joyville', a 9 metre high Chocolate Fountain is a pretty impressive sight to see and eldest was quite bowled over at the sight of so much chocolate.

We met up with Ren over at Fabulicious Food and her son, and we all donned purple cloaks to go on a tour of the fountain, which was essentially a walk around the fountain, led by one of the workers from Joyville, and a chance to sample the delicious chocolate at the end.

To find out more about Joyville click Here and you can find out more about the Chocolate Fountain Here. The Joyville Chocolate Fountain will be coming to various other towns in the UK within the coming weeks.

Disclosure: We were invited to this event and received a goody bag as a thanks for attending.

Pizza Express Launch New Leggera Pizza Range

2012-01-25T03:14:00.000Z

Last week I was fortunate to be invited to Pizza Express in Islington to find out about the new Pizza Express Leggera Range.

Leggera means 'light' in Italian and so to create the new Leggera range, Pizza Express have taken their five most popular pizzas and transformed them into 500 calorie versions of their former selves. How have they done this? I hear you cry..... Well the Leggera range is inspired by a classic fresella bread from Naples – an Italian bread with a hole in the middle. By stretching the dough more, less dough is used and you end up with a lighter, more crispy base, and reduced calories. Additionally, the dough at the centre of the pizza has been replaced by a fresh salad of rocket and ricotta salata cheese which removes even more calories. Pizza Express are marketing their Leggera pizza range as containing 'more toppings, less bottom' and this is indeed they are.

There are two vegetarian pizzas included in the range, the Padana and the Pomodoro Pesto. I would suggest checking whether the pesto used is actually a vegetarian pesto as generally pesto is not truly vegetarian as it contains paremesan which is made from animal rennet, but from the perspective that they both do not contain meat, they would be classed as vegetarian pizza's

The original Padana Pizza contains 883 calories and the orginal Pomodoro Pesto Pizza contains 862 calories. There are just 500 calories in both of the Leggera versions, so you can see that you are eating over 300 calories less by choosing a Leggera range pizza over the original.

To tempt us to try the range, Pizza Express invited some local food and lifestyle bloggers to make their own Leggera pizza, so that we could see what it was like to make the range and test for ourselves whether a 500 calorie pizza had as much taste as its calorific cousin.

To start off our evening, we were treated to a demonstration of how to make a Padana Leggera Pizza by one of the Pizzaiolo's.

After he had demonstrated, it was then our turn to don aprons and hats and make our own Leggera pizza. I chose to make the Padano pizza, a romano base with red onion, caramelised onions and goats cheese. Before adding any toppings, we had to first prepare our base. We pressed, rolled and threw until the pizza dough was large enough to fit the pan.

We then cut a circle out of the middle using a cutter and then placed the toppings onto our pizza.

I added the tomato paste, goats cheese and red onion to my pizza,along with some herbs to add flavour.

Here I am with @Jhowse @cazroz and @mediocremum displaying the pizzas we made

This was my pizza after it came out of the oven

Here is the finished result, with the rocket, ricotta cheese and balsamic dressing added.

It was really fun and interesting making our pizzas and it was lovely to see how the range is made. After eating our Leggera pizzas, we all agreed that we felt full and felt like there had been enough on our plates. The addition of the salad really complimented the rest of the flavours in the pizza and made for a very filling meal. I cannot believe that there was only 500 calories in my pizza, I certainly did not feel short changed in any way. The Leggera range definitely makes a great alternative if you are counting calories or just want to have a lighter lunch. All in all it was a lovely night and also lovely to meet up with fellow bloggers again and chat.

Stay tuned as I will soon be going out on the town to test how the Leggera range we sampled during the launch evening compares to the Leggera range in one of our local pizza Express restaurants!

Blueberry and Oatmeal Muffins

2012-01-22T00:02:00.003Z

Weekday mornings are always a stressful time in our house. The morning routine of getting the little ones up, dressed, breakfasted and ready for school is a constant race against the clock. No matter what time we wake up, we still seem to rush every morning to get to school, especially if we have been up in the night with our nocturnal two year old.

Often in the mornings, hubby and I are so focused on getting the kids fed, that we forget to feed ourselves and so end up rushing out of the door without any time to eat breakfast. I had been trying to figure out how we could make sure that we got something to eat in the mornings also. So when I came across these muffins in Commonsense Vegetarian, (one of my new cookbooks), I thought that they would make a great occasional breakfast on the run. The original recipe featured is Oatmeal and Raspberry Muffins, but as raspberries were quite pricey at the supermarket I went to, and I found blueberries on offer, I decided to use blueberries instead.

Making the muffins was a fab activity for youngest and I to do together. She loved stirring in the ingredients and of course licking the bowl afterwards!!

The Muffins we made tasted really great and they do make a great substitute breakfast when we are in a hurry. Here is the recipe:

Blueberry and Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients
125g Oatmeal
375ml Fresh Milk
250g Plain Flour
1 tbsp Baking Powder
115g Soft Brown Sugar
1 Egg, lightly beaten
90g Honey
60g Unsalted Butter, melted
150g Blueberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and grease a 12 hole muffin tin.
Place the Oatmeal in a bowl, add the milk, stir and put to the side for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, sift the flour and baking powder in a large bowl and then stir in the brown sugar. Make a well in the centre.
In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, egg and honey and mix well. Pour the wet mixture and the oatmeal mixture into the well in the flour and mix well but do not over mix.
Gradually fold the blueberries into the mixture.
Spoon the batter into the muffin holes and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving or transferring to an airtight tin.

Sun-dried Tomato and Chive Palmiers

2012-01-17T15:00:00.000Z

Today I am featuring an adapted recipe from Baking Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale. I received this recipe book for Christmas and have finally found some time to have a good look through it. This is not a book to cook from if you are dieting as the main categories for the book are:
Breads
Cakes
Savoury Baking
Desserts & Patisserie
Dinner Party
Sweet Treats

There are however, lots of great recipes in the book - a very high percentage of which are vegetarian, or could be adapted to be vegetarian.

When I came across these Palmiers, I thought that they looked really easy to make and would also taste delicious. I am happy to report that I was right. I used fresh chives rather than fresh thyme to make them and I also used pre-bought store puff pastry which is always handy to have in the house. Rather than cutting the sun dried tomatoes and chives with a knife, I used some kitchen scissors to chop them up which I always think is much quicker and easier.

These Palmiers make a great after school snack, and also make great Canapes too for the grown-ups. I will be cooking more recipes from Baking Made Easy and will report back to let you know how I got on!

Sun-dried Tomato & Chive Palmiers

Ingredients

1 Roll of ready to roll Puff Pastry

1 x 280g Jar of Sun Dried Tomatoes

Between 5g and 10g of Fresh Chives

1 Egg, lightly beaten

Method

Roll out the ready made Puff Pastry and lightly brush with the beaten egg.
Cut the sun dried tomatoes up into small pieces and place them evenly over the puff pastry.
Cut the chives and sprinkle them evenly over the sun dried tomatoes.

Now it is time to roll up the pastry. Take the two longest ends of the pastry and gently roll them towards each other to meet in the middle. Stick the two halves together by brushing some beaten egg down the middle of the pastry.
Put the pastry onto a baking tray and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the pastry to harden a little.
Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
After 30 minutes remove the roll from the fridge and slice into 1cm thick pieces.
Lay the pieces on a baking tray and brush with some more beaten egg.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the pastry is crisp and golden.
Remove the Palmiers from the oven and leave to cool on a baking tray.

Costa Concordia Runs Aground off Tuscan Coast

2012-01-14T03:48:00.025Z

I have been following this story on Twitter tonight. Around 4200 passengers and crew are reported to have evacuated the Costa Concordia after it ran aground off the coast of Giglio, Tuscany. As a big fan of cruising holidays, hearing this makes me really sad. I have had so many lovely cruises during the last few years and even though you rarely think this will happen, for me it is always something to think about when you are cruising. That's why I always make sure we pay attention to safety notices and drills etc when we are on board just in case we ever need to use them. Watching the ship gradually going lower and lower into the water has been awful. My thoughts go out to everyone involved and I hope that as many people as possible get off safely.

07.50 GMT Third person located inside the Cruise ship

Sunday 07.18 GMT 2 rescued and more sounds from Deck 3 of the ship

18:53 GMT Sky News reports that Captain of the Costa Concordia and the First Officer are to be detained on charges of Manslaughter and Abadoning Ship. Dozens are still missing

15.40 GMT 25 British passengers and 12 British Crew. All Accounted for. Via Sky News

15.03 GMT Updated reports are 3 fatalities, around 60 missing.Source
Updated from the Daily Mail

photos via Twitter

06.19 GMT New pic as the sun rises via Giglio News

http://www.giglionews.com/isoladelgiglio_porto.jpg

06.10 GMT First Light Look at the Costa Concordia via @Simontravels. So capsized but not fully submerged..

06.04 GMT Sky News confirms that 'a number of British nationals are believed to have been on board the ship'.

05.45 GMT Wave 3.com Witness interview in English

05.31 GMT Reports from Crusiers Connect that the Costa Concordia is now submerged under the water.

04.41 GMT Giglio Harbour Webcam shows that Cruise ship lights visible earlier are no longer visible

04.38 GMT Latest Costa Statement

04.07 GMT BBC reports there were still 200 people on board the ship

3.56 GMT Via @cruiseshipcrew

3.54 GMT Link to news story

3.46 GMT reports ship has rolled over...

Via @patrickmcclorey

Latest reports 3.43 GMT

Ship Evacuated but last contingency of disabled and other passengers still trapped on board
8 Fatalities
People seen falling or jumping into the water as ship evacuated.
People still missing in the water
Local schools, churches, halls taking in the evacuated passengers

More pictures of the stricken ship here. Via producer Matthew on Twitter
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3022776696787.155454.1483816924&type=3

Via Twitter

Via Twitter

Sky news reports earlier tonight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_8EFPmSZUs

Via www. INSA.it

Vegetarian Chicken Supper in a Flash (Based on a Quorn Kitchen Recipe )

2012-01-11T09:00:00.009Z

Do you ever have one of those days where dinner just doesn't go to plan? I do and I must say that recently it has been happening to me quite a bit more often than I would like. It all starts out so well.. you decide what you are going to eat... you start preparing and cooking your dish..... and then you find that actually the main ingredient that you thought was in the fridge/freezer/cupboard is no where to be found!

Well that's what happened to me when I start to cook what was supposed to be Vegetarian Bolognese with Jacket Potato. I started cooking the veg, only to discover that what I thought had been Vegetarian Mince, was in fact Vegetarian Chicken pieces. So I had to improvise a little....

I turned to my Quorn Kitchen cookbook and came up with a version of their "Steak Supper in a Flash" which included Vegetarian Chicken pieces and could incorporate the ingredients I was already part of the way through cooking. The original recipe includes 175g of cooked, halved New Potatoes, but as I already had Jacket Potatoes in the oven, I decided to omit them and use the rest of the ingredients as an accompaniment to my Jackets. If you were cooking the dish with the correct ingredients, you could use Quorn Steak Strips rather than Chicken and New Potatoes rather than Jackets. I used Onion and Carrot in the recipe, but the original calls for red Onion, so you could cook it with either. Anyway, here is my modified, saving dinner version:

Vegetarian Chicken Supper in a Flash

Ingredients
175g Vegetarian Chicken Pieces
2 Onions, peeled and chopped

1 Carrot, peeled and chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Mild Chilli Powder
100g Cherry Tomatoes, halved
300ml Hot Vegetable Stock
1tbsp Vegetarian Worcestershire Sauce

Salt & Pepper for Seasoning
Olive Oil for frying

Method

Chop the onion and carrot into small pieces and fry them with the garlic over a medium heat in some oil for 3 to 4 minutes or until the onion starts to soften.

Add the vegetarian chicken pieces with the chilli powder and cayenne pepper and fry for a further 2 to 3 minutes or until the chicken pieces begin to brown.
Add the tomatoes (and new potatoes if using) and fry for 2 minutes.
Stir the mixture well and then add the vegetable stock and vegetarian worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and pepper if required.
Cook for a further 3 to 4 minutes, until all of the ingredients and flavours are combined well together and then serve immediately with jacket potato or crunchy bread.

How to make Bubble and Squeak

2012-01-09T09:00:00.000Z

I am starting off this year by ticking a dish off my list which I have never made before, as I promised myself I would in my Blog Bucket List. So today I am featuring Bubble and Squeak.

Yes, I am quite ashamed to say that I have never ever made Bubble and Squeak, which is the easiest of classic Vegetarian recipes and great for using up left over potatoes and veg from your Sunday roast or celebration dinner.

I used up the left over mashed potato, cauliflower, carrots, and sprouts we had from our Sunday meal. I added an onion, a pepper and crushed garlic to the vegetables to give the bubble and squeak some more flavour, texture and colour, but you could just cook the potatoes and vegetables or additionally add anything you want to the mix. I served my Bubble and Squeak Cakes with Quorn sausages and a Rocket salad. This made a delicious meal and was a great way to use up the left overs.

If you are cooking Bubble and Squeak for the first time, these are my tips:

Tips

Ensure that the mixture isn't too wet so that the bubble and squeak does not break up.
When making the cakes, compact the mixture tightly together to prevent break up
Make sure that the oil is as hot as possible to enable the bubble and squeak to cook well
Fry for a couple of minutes on each side and then place in the oven to cook, as the mixture starts to break up if left in the oil for too long.

Bubble and Squeak

Ingredients
Left over Vegetables. I used Cauliflower, Carrots and Sprouts
Left over mashed Potato. You could use boiled, mashed or roast Potato

1 Onion, chopped
1 Red Pepper, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
Plain Flour for coating

Salt & Pepper for Seasoning
Olive Oil for frying

Method

Chop the onion and peppers into small pieces and place them into a bowl.

Mash up the left over potato and vegetables, or cut them into very small pieces and place them in the bowl with the onion and peppers.
Crush the Garlic and add to the bowl, along with the salt and pepper to taste.
Stir the mixture well so that all of the ingredients combine together.
Once all of the ingredients are combined, take some of the mixture, compact it tightly together and make into a ball. Place onto a tray and press it down into a cake shape.
Repeat with the rest of the mixture until you have a tray full of bubble and squeak cakes
Once you are ready to start cooking the bubble and squeak, heat the oil in a pan over a high heat until the oil is very hot.
Take the first cakes of bubble and squeak and press them together more with your hands to get rid of excess mositure. Coat them completely in flour and add to the pan. Repeat with as many as you have room in the pan for (generally 2 or 3 depending on the pan size).
Cook the cakes on one side for a couple of minutes or until light brown and then turn over and cook on the other side.
Remove from the frying pan, allow the fat to drain and then place on a baking tray. Repeat with the rest of the bubble and squeak mixture.
Once all of the cakes are browned, bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the bubble and squeak is firm.
Remove from the oven and serve.

Cheese & Vegetable Tortilla - Another Quick and Easy Tea

2012-01-05T10:25:00.005Z

Yesterday was eldest's first day back at school, so naturally when she arrived home she was "Absolutely Starving", despite having school dinner with Jam Tart & Custard for pudding only a few hours earlier!

To satisfy her rumbling tummy I whipped up a batch of these cheese and vegetable tortillas. They are really easy to make and cook really quickly too, so they make a great meal when you don't have much time on your hands.

The main base for these tortillas is cheese and then you can add pretty much whatever else you like to the mix. Sometimes I will cook them with just cheese, or with cheese and tomato puree in the middle - like a tortilla pizza. I have added vegetables to the tortillas I am featuring today. If I was cooking them for myself then I would have also added some chopped mushrooms and fresh herbs but as I have mentioned previously, my kids will not eat them if they are obvious in a dish.

Cheese & Vegetable Tortillas

Makes 4 Tortillas

Ingredients

8 Flour Tortillas

1 Onion, chopped
1 Red Pepper, chopped
1 Yellow Pepper, chopped
1 x 325g tin of Sweetcorn, drained

3 tbsp Soft Cream Cheese

150g Cheddar Cheese (100g & 50g reserved)

Salt & Pepper for Seasoning

Method

Chop the onion and peppers into small pieces and place them in a bowl.

Drain the sweetcorn and add to the onion and peppers.

Add the cream cheese (I used a spoon, warmed in some hot water to make it easier to spoon the cheese into the bowl).

Stir the mixture well so that the cream cheese combines with the vegetables.

Add 100g of the cheddar cheese and stir once again to combine evenly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Next, start to fill the tortillas with the mixture. Take a whole tortilla and spread a bit of the mixture over the top, then sprinkle some of the reserved cheddar cheese over the mixture.

Cover the mixture with another tortilla and press down a little to stick together.

Repeat this process until the desired amount of tortillas have been made.

Place one tortilla on a grill pan and grill on a medium to high heat for around 3 minutes (or until the tortillla browns) on each side. Repeat for each tortilla.

Cut up, serve warm or cold with some sour cream, and enjoy!

2012 Bucket List Blog Hop Link-Up

2012-01-03T11:50:00.003Z

Earlier this week, I emailed Sally at the Tots 100 with my thoughts about inspiration for blog posts in 2012. I suggested that I would most like to see posts about Bucket Lists this year as I want to challenge people to realise their goals and achieve them.

This got me thinking about my real life general bucket list. There are lots of things that I would like to do during my life - so many that I could spend all day listing them. However, here are a few to start off with:

My Life Bucket List

Live in another Country.
Travel to as many Countries as possible.
Visit the Ice Hotel .
Make most of my Income Online. (wishful thinking)
Take my kids to a Music Festival.
Watch the Sun rise over the Pacific Ocean.
Go Whale and/or Dolphin Watching.
Dance on TV or in a Musical.
Live in a big mansion in the City I choose.
Tandem Skydive. (Need to get the courage up for that one)

So not quite my complete ultimate life Bucket List, but a good start for 2012.

This also got me thinking about my blog bucket list for 2012. I am trying to be a little more realistic with this one and think of things that I might feasibly be able to accomplish rather than world blog domination!! So here is my blog bucket list of things I would like to achieve in 2012:

My Blog Bucket List

Attend a Vegetarian Cookery Course & Utensil Skills Course.
Review the Vegetarian menu in Restaurants.
Go on a blogging travel trip related to Vegetarian food.
Interview a Vegetarian Chef/Celebrity.
Challenge myself to cook a new dish I have never cooked before every week & cook from my new recipe books. (See below)
Attend blogging conventions and meet more lovely bloggers.
Make it into the Tots or Foodies 100 just once. (more wishful thinking!!)
Improve my food photography skills (or buy a better camera)
Learn more HTML.
Perhaps through my blog earn an income, or get more copywriting/freelance writing/Fundraising or PR work so that I can feel less guilty about not having a full time high flying Career.

I have already started fulfilling one of these wishes as today I learnt HTML for how to insert borders around images and tables into blogger - a big achievement for me!!. I also created my own blog hop image and link - an even bigger achievement!

As listed in my 2012 Bucket List, I received some new recipe books for Christmas and so I am looking forward to cooking some dishes out of them and seeing which dishes I can adapt to turn Vegetarian!

Do you have any favourites from these recipe books you could recommend?

So that's me at the beginning of 2012! I will hopefully be blogging about how my bucket lists are going (or not) throughout the rest of the year.

I thought it would be fun to create a Blog Hop so that you could link your own 2012 Bucket List. However realistic or fantastical it is, I would love to read it. All you have to do is copy the badge to your post and then enter your details in the link.

Review of 2011 & Happy New Year!!

2011-12-31T10:00:00.004Z

So here we are at the end of another year, and although I blogged earlier this week about how this hasn't been the best year for me, in terms of my blog, it has been a fantastic year. I never dreamed that me blogging about Vegetarian food, my quest to find great Vegetarian food in restaurants and documenting the recipes that we eat in our family would lead to so many wonderful opportunities. I have really enjoyed meeting so many fellow bloggers at Cybermummy, Blog Camp, Tech N Taste and all of the other lovely events I have been invited to. I have been able to review some wonderful products and worked with some wonderful brands, including John Lewis which is still so fresh in my mind. I have given my first radio interview, improved (I hope!) my writing, design, technical and social media skills, and have also had lots of fun documenting the recipes I cook for my family and what we do in our lives.

So HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Thanks for reading my blog and for commenting. Thanks for turning this past year into something positive and I wish you all an absolutely brilliant 2012. See you all in the New Year!!.

I will be tweeting on New Years Eve under the hashtag #StayinginNYE11 if anyone wants to pop over and join me.

Peppermint Star Biscuits.... or Shrek Biscuits!!

2011-12-31T09:00:00.001Z

This week I agreed to look after my friend's children for the day as they were both at work. This meant that I found myself at home with four little girls under five, desperately wondering how I was going to keep them all entertained all day. I am not an Arts & Crafts kind of person, but I do like to think of myself as handy in the kitchen, and so I decided that it would be a good idea to make Peppermint Creams with them - a relatively easy fail safe recipe I thought.....

Unfortunately, the best laid plans do not always go as desired and rather than making Peppermint Creams, the excited girls were a little overzealous with their food colouring and peppermint flavouring, So rather than four bowls of green peppermint sugar dough, turning my head for a split second meant that we found ourselves with four bowls of green gloop, all of the icing sugar gone, and the essence and food colouring all over the floor, table and apron of the two year old who had knocked them over! However, the girls were desperate for something positive to come of their hard work and so in an attempt to salvage their efforts, I decided to bake some biscuits so that they could decorate them with their green gloopy icing.

This I did, and although they had to wait a while, the girls had great fun decorating their biscuits with Peppermint Icing and some Christmas decorations left over from our Cupcake Session. So all's well that ends well. The biscuits actually tasted really lovely and the peppermint complimented their texture. My friend's girls proudly went home with their biscuits and I therefore proclaimed my day of babysitting a success!!

Below is the recipe for our Peppermint Star Biscuits. I have themed ours for Christmas, but I also think they are perfect for the upcoming New Year Celebrations. The girls also called these "Shrek Biscuits" as the colour of the icing matched Shrek and Princess Fiona. They said that the Stars reminded them of Princess Fiona because they were green and sparkly (kids!) so you could also make "Shrek Biscuits" using the same biscuit and icing recipes below. I found these Shrek Cookie Cutters Online which you could use to cut out Shrek Shapes in the biscuit dough.

For the Biscuits:

Ingredients

225g Self Raising Flour

150g Butter

100g Caster Sugar

1 Beaten Egg to mix

Pinch of Salt

Method

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar and mix, then add the beaten egg and mix to a very stiff dough.
Bring the dough together with your fingers to form a ball, turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth.
Place the dough mixture into a ziploc bag and chill for 30 minutes.
Once ready, remove from the fridge and roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about the thickness of a one pound coin.
Take a cookie cutter and cut the dough into the desired shape (I used a star cutter and made about 24 biscuits).
Transfer to a pre-greased baking tray, prick the biscuits well with a fork and bake at 180 degrees celsius for around 12 to 15 minutes until the biscuits are a pale golden colour.
Once cooked, remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.
Once cooled, decorate with peppermint icing and decorations.

For the Peppermint Icing:

Ingredients

450g Icing Sugar

1 Egg White

A few drops of Peppermint Essence

A few drops of Green Food Colouring

Warm Water to mix to the desired consistency

Method

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl.
Whisk the egg white in a separate bowl until frothy
Add the egg to the icing sugar and combine. Gradually add the peppermint essence and mix together to form a thick paste.
Add a couple of drops of the food colouring until you have the desired colour
Mix to the desired consistency for icing by adding a teaspoon of warm water at a time
Ice the biscuits immediately and add decorations if desired, or cover and refrigerate for later use.

Christmas Rocky Road Cake

2011-12-29T15:04:00.001Z

A few years ago I received the Nigella Christmas recipe book for Christmas. This has since become my "Christmas Bible". I love the pictures and the recipes inside and although I suspect that Nigella may not be dressed in candy striped pyjamas smiling serenely whilst clutching her "Keep Calm and Carry On" mug come Christmas morning, I must admit that some of the recipes are pretty tasty - even if they are re-hashed workings of other recipes. In my opinion, it's nice to have all the recipes in one place and it's lovely to sit down at the start of December and have a read of this book - it really gets you in the mood for Christmas!

Over the festive period I always make this Christmas Rocky Road Cake which is featured in the book. We tend to substitute the brazil nuts for chopped nuts because the children are not big nut fans and so I sneak the nuts in to the dish and hope that they don't notice them! This does give the rocky road a different texture, but for me doesn't alter the taste too much.

This version of Rocky Road really does have Christmas all wrapped up - the amaretti biscuits, combined with the chocolate, cherries, marshmallows and nuts are just so delicious and will leave you wanting more. This is a great recipe to make at Christmas time and throughout the year!

Ingredients
250g Dark Chocolate
150g Milk Chocolate
175g Soft Butter
4 x 15ml Tbsp Golden Syrup
200g Amaretti Biscuits
150g Chopped Nuts
150g Glace Cherries
125g Mini Marshmallows (vegetarian versions are available)
1 x 15ml Icing Sugar

Method

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt over a gentle heat in a heavy-based pan, along with the butter and syrup.
Place the biscuits in a freezer bag (or keep in original packaging) and hit with a rolling pin to create different sized pieces.
Remove the pan from the heat, and add the crushed biscuits, nuts, cherries and mini marshmallows. Stir carefully to ensure that everything combines well with the chocolate.
Turn the mixture out into a pre-lined baking tin, or tin foil case. Smooth the top over as well as possible.
Place in the refrigerator and leave until the mixture is set and firm to touch (generally, this takes around two hours).
Remove from the foil tray or baking tin and cut into even pieces (Tip - I would cut the into smaller, bite sized pieces as they are extremely rich!).
Decorate with icing sugar or edible glitter if desired.

Reasons to be Cheerful - A Blog Hop Post

2011-12-29T14:31:00.002Z

This week, I have decided to join in the Reasons to be Cheerful Blog Hop over at Michelle's Blog, Mummy from the Heart.

Since losing my job last year, and having several other rubbish things happen to me, there has not really been much to be cheerful about this year. But as we draw to the close of the year, I can see that there have been things to be cheerful about, even in all of the rubbishness of not having a job and having to live in a place where we hate living.

So here they are...

1) My first reason to be cheerful is my family. Knowing that there are people in the world who are desperate to start a family and for a variety of reasons cannot. Knowing that there are men and women in the world who do not treat their partners or children well, and knowing that there are children in the world who are not experiencing a happy childhood, who don't know what it is to be fed, nurtured or cared for, are used as pawns in relationships and are often being so horribly abused, makes me so thankful to have been blessed with my Hubby and two girls and to just have a normal family life.

2) My second reason to be cheerful is for the lovely Christmas we have just had, after all the stress in the lead up to it. Daddy got to stay at home and spend time with the girls and they absolutely love having him around rather than just seeing him for a few minutes in the morning and at night. I have enjoyed having him around too as he has been able to help with the childcare, household duties etc & his not being at work means we have been able to stay up late together watching DVD's and playing on his new Kinect!. Here are some snaps from our Christmas together so far.

Off to the Abbey on Christmas Eve

Daddy & his girls before Carols at the Abbey Started

Presents at home

Presents on Boxing Day

3) My third reason to be cheerful is my blog. This year, writing my blog has kept me sane and given me something positive to focus on. Not having a job for the last year has been really rubbish. I have been for numerous job interviews, but because I can only work part time due to the children, it is harder to find a part time job than a full time. Writing my blog has kept me focused, kept my writing skills finely tunes and has also given me a sense of personal achievement and the feeling that I am more than just a "Stay At Home Mother or "Housewife/Homemaker" which is what the Government defines me as. Hopefully in 2012 I will be able to find some work...

4) My fourth reason to be cheerful would have to be that even though we hate where we are living and are desperate to move back to where we used to live, at least we still have a roof over our heads, food on the table, nice things and are not in mountains of debt. Even though to me, my house and my lot in life pales in comparison to some of my counterparts, when I think of people in this country and indeed in other countries who have so much less than I do, I know that I should count my blessings and be thankful for what I have.

So that's it - these are my reasons to be cheerful for the last year and the reasons I will be cheerful going into 2012!.

You can view other blogger's reasons to be cheerful by visiting Michelle's Blog, or by reading the #R2BC hash tag on Twitter.

Creating the magic of Christmas

2011-12-27T14:32:00.002Z

When I was a child, Christmas was always (mostly) a magical time. December would be filled with school plays, (where I was never Mary!), Candlelit Christmas services, trips to see family, a trip to Clements to see Father Christmas, the round table bringing Santa to us, and generally lots more lovely things to make the season magical. Christmas Eve would be filled with excitement and we would desperately try and stay awake to see Santa and his reindeer arrive - although he always bested us! Christmas Day would be filled with stockings and presents at home, then off to my grandparents house and more stockings and presents there too which were staged throughout the day. We would consume far too much Christmas dinner, with at least ten of us balanced around the table and the kids always seated on the emergency chairs. This followed an afternoon of board games and then a couple of hours later we would consume far too much for tea, followed by more! presents. Then content, we would be sent off home full of food, presents and memories of a wonderful day. Christmas was always just something that happened (mostly) flawlessly in our family and although I always subconsciously knew that I never saw my Mum and Nan sit down much on Christmas day, it never really registered until I was an adult that it was because they were busy running around "creating the magic".

Now as an adult, I still really love Christmas. December is still a magical time and we have made our own family traditions associated with the season to make it special. However, this year, fulfilling the family traditions has been a bit of a chore and the sparkle has been taken off the season slightly. I guess it could be because this Christmas season we have had to contend with two bouts of chicken pox and Hubby & I have had a very bad Flu virus. I also had to write an essay which turned into an eleven thousand word epic!. Typically, I am super organised for Christmas, but this year it has been a bit of a flying by the skin of my teeth, down to the wire adventure.

As well as all the Chicken Pox and Flu, since the beginning of December I have bought numerous presents for over thirty five people, dealt with "Christmas Fortnight" at school which involved two school plays, a pantomime, Christmas party, parents meal and various other things to remember and send in with the kids. I have attended two Christmas services at school and two at Church, been to see numerous Santa's, walked with Santa's float raising money in my local area, and created antics for the Christmas Elves on various nights during December, including a whole big Faux Elf visit on Christmas Eve involving fake snow, Sleigh bells and a big Christmas Eve present basket. I have been to the shops more times than I care to imagine, visited three supermarkets to get all of the shopping we need, prepared food for Christmas Eve and Boxing day (thank goodness that Christmas day was being held elsewhere this year), have done lots of Christmas baking and cooking and also completely tidied the house in preparation for Santa's arrival. Due to the lack of time, I left wrapping all of the presses until the last minute & was still wrapping down to the wire on Christmas Eve to get everything ready.

Come Christmas morning, all of my wrapping was ripped off within two minutes and the lounge was wrecked, but it was worth it, seeing the kids enjoying opening their toys and their excitement at seeing that Santa had visited us. Christmas Day was spent in a rush of presents, breakfast and then a trip to the In-Laws for dinner and then a visit to my family in the evening. During dinner, my Mother-In-Law rushed around preparing everything and we tried to help. In the evening my eighty two year old matriarchal Grandmother rushed around preparing tea for eighteen of us and we tried to help. When we got home, Hubby and I tidied the house and tried to make sense of the chaos in our lounge. Boxing day was spent trying to sort out the mountain of toys the kids had received and clearing out their bedrooms to make way for all of their new toys (despite having done this twice before). On Boxing day evening, I finally got to sit down and open all of my presents that I had not had a chance to open, as I had been so busy rushing around over the last two days. By this time, I was so utterly exhausted from running around for the last month that I was past caring whether I received presents or not and just wanted to sit down and sleep for a month - (although I loved everything I received).

When I was a child I thought of Christmas as a magical time where things just happened without much effort. This year especially, I have realised that Christmas doesn't happen with out the hard work & dedication of all (sorry men, but in our family, mostly) women, mothers & grandmothers who work so hard and rush around throughout December and the Christmas period to make Christmas special for everyone else.

So here is a special THANKYOU to all of the women who rush around making Christmas so special for everyone else. I hope that in the next week you will sit down with a glass of wine or cup of tea and know that it was all worthwhile. I know I will. Seeing my two year old running around the living room shouting "I'm happy!" and my eldest telling me as she went to sleep that Christmas Day had been the best day ever, just makes all of the rushing around and pandemonium worthwhile. It's also the reason why I will be doing it all again next year - although hopefully I will be a lot more prepared than I was this year!

PS - After preparing dinner on Christmas Eve, I also managed to knock myself unconscious as we were about to sit down and eat thanks to hitting my head on our Cupboard under the Stairs - but that's another story!!

Stuffed Pumpkin - A Vegan/Vegetarian Christmas Dinner Alternative

2011-12-22T20:45:00.001Z

Just in case you still 100% haven't decided on a Vegetarian or Vegan dish to cook over the holidays, I am featuring a delicious Stuffed Pumpkin recipe on the blog today. This dish as it stands is completely meat, fish and dairy free and so would suit a vegan as well as a vegetarian guest. I have also omitted nuts from the dish to make it nut-free. However, you could add some pine nuts and some vegetarian cheese if you fancy to add to the flavour and texture of the dish.

This recipe is really easy to make and you could make the filling in advance and refrigerate or freeze until required. Stuffed Pumpkins would taste great with the Roasties, Veg and Christmas trimmings and I will definitely be cooking this for my guests over the holidays!

Ingredients

2 Medium Golden Nugget Pumpkins
1 Carrot, peeled and chopped
1 Onion, chopped
1 Red Pepper, chopped
75g Mushrooms, chopped
1 Garlic Clove, crushed
2bsp Olive Oil
1tsp Mild Chilli
2tbsp Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper to season

Method

Cut the top off of the pumpkins, scoop out all of the seeds and discard.
Place the pumpkins in a medium tray, replace the tops, add some water and cover completely with Foil. Bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees. Remove the pumpkins from the oven once the time has elapsed, drain the water and brush the baking dish with oil or butter.
Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in some oil on a low heat for about 5 minutes or until the onion is softened.
Add the pepper, carrot and mushrooms, mix together and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Add the chilli, soy sauce, salt and pepper to the pan and mix well to combine with the other ingredients. Cook for a further 5 minutes until the vegetables have softened (the carrot may not be very soft at this point).
Add the cooked rice at this point and cook for another couple of minutes.
Once the pumpkins are cooked, spoon the vegetables and rice into the pumpkin cavities and top with the lids.
Return to the prepared dish and cover with foil.
Bake for a further 20 minutes until cooked and serve immediately.

John Lewis - Great for Christmas & All Year Round!

2011-12-20T10:36:00.001Z

Earlier on in the year I was invited to attend an Event by John Lewis called "Christmas In July" where John Lewis showcased all of their wonderful Christmas 2011 products. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend and therefore John Lewis kindly arranged for me to have a tour of my local store closer to Christmas.

So earlier this month I was invited to have a tour of the Watford store. I must admit that I am not a big lover of shopping - especially not Christmas shopping as traipsing around the shops with two children in tow is not my idea of fun. This is why I love department stores and John Lewis in particular. They are great for Christmas as you can get all of your gifts for everyone all in one place. There are so many different departments offering an array of different products and you are sure to find something for everyone in the family - even a difficult Aunt or Cousin!

Upon arrival I was met by the lovely Kate who has worked at John Lewis for the last ten years. I think talking to the staff will always tell you something about the company you are buying from. Kate has worked in many different departments over the last 10 years and was so passionate about working for John Lewis and had so much excellent knowledge. I was also introduced to various other members of staff from managers to the person collecting dirty cups in the restaurant and all were equally passionate about working for John Lewis. I also thought it was lovely that I saw staff on all levels conversing with each other and so there is obviously a good community spirit amongst many staff at the Watford store. This may be in part because John Lewis is a partnership and all staff are seen as "Partners". The vision of John Lewis' founder was to create a successful business based on principles where staff share the profits and the benefits of the Company and this was evident throughout the store. There are not many retail outlets based on this vision and as a shopper, I would rather shop somewhere where staff are treated ethically and the money is being put back into staff and the community.

Kate took me around the Christmas department first which was full of many different Christmas decorating schemes. Like many other stores, John Lewis is focusing on a Scandinavian Christmas theme this year. Check out this lovely Scandinavian themed table and tableware selection. I absolutely love it and ended up buying the Table Runner, Candy Canes and Noel sign to make my own Christmas display!

Next we moved on to the cooking and bakery section. I was in heaven in this section and could have stayed all day. As a keen cook, I loved everything in this section - especially their themed Christmas Crockery. Note to family - anything you see here would be appreciated on Christmas day! There were lots of wonderful products which are great for the festive season and throughout the year.

John Lewis also do a wonderful Le Creuset range with lots of different products available in the range. When talking to Kate about this range and the fact that they are only one of many different stockists on this range, I found that I must be the only John Lewis Customer who didn't know that John Lewis operates a "Never Knowingly Undersold" Policy. This means that John Lewis will price match with their high street competitors, including sale prices for up to 28 days! - so if you bought a product in their store, and then saw it cheaper on the high street within 28 days, John Lewis would refund you the price difference - a pretty amazing deal!

Next we moved on to the toy section - a great place to find toys for kids of all ages. A couple of things which caught my eye was this lovely Sylvanian Families John Lewis Department Store toy priced £79.95

and these Snuggimals priced just £7.97

After this we visited the food and gift section. I was pleased to see that they had a wide variety of foodie gifts including Champagne truffles, Prestat Chocolates, and gifts with Jams, Pates, Oils and lots of other fine fare.

I also loved this wonderful Keep Calm and Carry on range and their Cath Kidston range. I always struggle with what to buy Hubby for Christmas, but the men's gift section was full of gadgets and other stocking fillers I know he will be pleased with.

After a tour of the shop floor, we moved on to have a look at the John Lewis Catering Outlets. As a food blogger, I was excited to find out about the catering side of John Lewis and keen to see what vegetarian food they offered. John Lewis Watford has an Espresso Bar just outside of the store and a Place to Eat Restaurant on the second Floor of the Restaurant. Whenever I am out shopping in the shopping Centre, generally at some point I will need to get the kids fed and so the John Lewis Restaurant is always high on our list as they offer great food and kids facilities and also have a baby change and nursing room nearby.

During my visit, I was impressed to find out that John Lewis prepare 90% of the food served in the Restaurant and Espresso Bar FROM SCRATCH!. As a vegetarian and also as a mother who wants to provide fresh, healthy meals for her kids, I am always disheartened to go into some retail restaurant outlets to find that all of their food has been ordered in frozen and nuked in the microwave. As a Vegetarian, the amount of times I have ordered an Omelette, only to receive one cooked from frozen and nuked is unbelievable - how hard if it to make an Omelette?

That's why I was so impressed to find that the Watford John Lewis store has it's own highly trained Chefs and Pastry Chefs who prepare all of the food in store fresh each day. These staff are training in qualifications relevant to their expertise and so are not only being paid to work but also paid to train and enhance their skills and career development. I really value a company who provides quality food for their customers, and also one who puts time into providing training, skills and opportunities for their employees. This was evident when one staff member from the Espresso bar very proudly showed me her "Coffee Bean" brooch which she had recently earned for becoming a qualified Barista. If I may say also, this lady was in her 50's and so I was impressed that John Lewis put as much effort into training their older staff who are nearing the end of their work life as they do in training their younger staff.

Over coffee, Kate told me that John Lewis does lots of work in the Community. At the Watford store there are visits from Watford Footballers, local Panto stars and lots of other things happening in store throughout the year. Staff also choose local charities to donate a percentage of their profits too and they also engage in "work parties" where they go out into the community and carry out voluntary work for local charities. One recent project was redecorating the facilities at Herts Young Homeless group - a charity who John Lewis Watford are supporting for the next year.

John Lewis also offer a range of other wonderful services including a Nursery Advice Service which offers a free consultation, help choosing essential items, an optional Nursery list for family and friends to buy from and the option to return items within three months if they are not used - I wish I had known about this when I was pregnant!

Kate also told me about a wonderful lady at the Watford store who is a Personal Fashion Shopper. Recommending her service personally, Kate told me that this lady will pick out a range of outfits for you to try on and there is no obligation to buy - I may well be trying this out when I have a child free moment!

You can view a full range of Services offered by John Lewis and also here is a link to the John Lewis Online Magazine

There are still a few shopping days before Christmas, and so if you are still looking for gifts, I would recommend going and looking around John Lewis who have stocking fillers available from just a few pounds. In fact, even if you have finished your Christmas shopping, I would still recommend a trip there to soak up the festive atmosphere and have a hot drink and a mince pie!

Thanks so much to Laura and Sharon for organising and to Kate for showing me around the store. I had a truly lovely child-free morning talking to Kate about the John Lewis Partnership. I have never met someone so passionate and knowledgeable about their work and she actually left me wishing that I worked at John Lewis too!!

I will leave you, of course, with the advert which we are all loving this Christmas - It still leaves me with a lump in my throat every time I see it, even though it has been on so many times!!

Disclaimer: I was invited to tour the John Lewis Watford store and received a goody bag as a Thank You. All views are my own and it was my own decision to write this post.

Christmas Cupcakes

2011-12-19T07:51:00.001Z

As today is the first day of the school Christmas holidays, I thought that I would share some a recipe for Christmas Cupcakes which are great to make with the kids in preparation for Christmas. Eldest and I recently had great fun making these cakes and she really enjoyed decorating them - so not quite up to professional standards but fun to make and delicious all the same!

The recipe comes from the Primrose Bakery who have a lovely recipe book which I received for Christmas a couple of years ago.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:
110g unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
225g Golden Caster Sugar
2 large Eggs
150g Self-Raising Flour - Sifted
125g Plain Flour - sifted
120ml Semi-Skimmed Milk (at room temperature)
1tsp Vanilla Extract

Method:

Line a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake cases and pre-heat the oven to 160 (fan) or 180 degrees.
Using an electric hand mixer or alternative, cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl for around 3 to 5 minutes until the mixture is smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix for a few minutes after each one.
In a separate bowl, combine the two flours.
Place the milk and vanilla extract into a jug and stir together.
Add one third of the flour to the butter and sugar creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one third of the milk and beat again. Continue to repeat this until all of the flour and milk has been added.
Carefully spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and fill them to around two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until the cakes are slightly raised and golden brown.
Insert a skewer to check whether the cakes are cooked - this should come out clean.
Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool.
Once cooled, they are ready for icing.

For Decorating: Vanilla Buttercream Icing:

Ingredients:

110g unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

60ml semi-skimmed Milk (at room temperature)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

500g Icing Sugar, sifted

Christmas Decorations (ours were from Morrisons)

Method:

With an electric hand mixer or equivalent, beat together the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and beat together again until the buttercream is smooth and creamy.
Decorate with the Christmas decorations, leave to set and then serve.

Silent Sunday 18/12/11

2011-12-18T06:45:00.000Z

How to make a Christingle

2011-12-17T10:13:00.001Z

Eldest attends a Church of England school and so yesterday, to mark Christmas and the end of term, they held their Christingle service in the beautiful church dating from the 12th Century which is attached to the school. All of the children made Christingles and proudly took them into Church. They had great fun lighting them and stood throughout the church proudly holding their candles. It was really lovely to see all of the children singing "Away in a Manger" holding their Christingles and they couldn't wait to eat their sweets as soon as they were finished!

Eldest has gone over in great detail with me about the meaning of Christingles and how she made her Christingle, so I thought I would share it with you.

Christingle means "Christ's Light" and is a symbol of the Christian Faith. Many churches will hold Christingle services around Christmas, a tradition from the Moravian Church in Germany dating back to 1747. The Anglican Church of England introduced giving out lit candles or Christingles in 1968.

Different components make up a Christingle and each part had a different meaning. The orange represents the world, and the candle represents Jesus as the light of the world. The red ribbon or tape which goes around the orange represents the blood of Jesus and reminds Christians of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. There are four cocktail sticks which either represent the four corners or the four seasons of the world. The sweets or dried fruit symbolise God's goodness and gifts to us and also suggest that he "feeds" us physically and spiritually.

To make a Christingle you will need:

1 medium to large Orange
1 small Candle
Red Tape or Ribbon - enough to go around the Orange
Tin Foil - a small piece to catch any dripping wax
4 Cocktail Sticks
Sweets & Raisins to decorate
Pencil - For making a whole in the Orange

Method

Take the red tape or ribbon and tie or stick it around the orange.
Cover the top of the orange with the foil. Take the pencil and push it through the foil and into the top of the orange to make a small hole for the candle. Carefully push the pencil into the top of the orange to make a small hole.
Stick the candle into the top of the orange and make sure it is secure and will not fall out.
Thread a few raisins and sweets onto each of the four cocktail sticks.
Take the cocktails sticks and push one into each corner of the orange so that they face upwards in opposite directions.
Take care when lighting your candle and ask a grown up for help if needs be.

Do not leave children unattended with the candle

Eldest used Dolly Mixtures to make her Christingle but she ate them all before I could take a pic, so we have used marshmallows instead!

Vegetarian Christmas Dinner Menu Ideas

2011-12-16T11:16:00.002Z

Cooking for vegetarians can be a minefield at Christmas unless you know the person you are cooking for very well. Vegetarians and Vegans have differing degrees of how vegetarian or vegan they are and what they will or won't eat. Some don't eat meat but eat fish, some don't eat meat or fish but will eat animal fats and rennet, some will eat animal bi-products and others are completely vegan and don't eat anything animal related. The best thing to do is to check with the person you are cooking for and ask them exactly what they will or will not eat and what their likes or dislikes are. If you are really stuck then perhaps you could ask if the person would be willing to bring their own main course so that they can guarantee they get something they like. I never mind taking my own main along as long as I have advance notice.

In this post I am listing a few ideas for Vegetarian starters and mains. Some of these are shop bought and can be cooked from fresh or frozen and others can be made from scratch. These are only a few ideas to scratch the surface. Googling "Vegetarian Christmas" will bring up a lot more ideas if you are still stuck.

Starters

Soup: Tomato, Butternut Squash, Pumpkin, Vegetable, Broccoli & Stilton, Carrot & Coriander etc

Melon: On it's own or served with berries or slices of orange twisted over the top

Breaded Mushrooms - These can be bought & served with Sour Cream & Chive,Onion & Garlic, BBQ or Tomato dip

Stuffed Mushrooms: Stuffed with cheese, vegetables, nuts or whatever takes your fancy!

Warm fresh Camembert or Brie: Served with lashings of Chutney and fresh Bread

Breaded Camembert or Brie: Served with Cranberry Sauce and fresh Bread

Mini Goats Cheese and Red Onion Tarts: Drizzled with a Balsamic Reduction

Goats Cheese, Pepper & Spinach Roulade: Served with fresh bread or crackers
Cheese Souffle
Cheese Fondue

Mains

For me as a vegetarian, the main thing to remember when serving Vegetarian alternatives to Christmas dinner is to choose something that complements the rest of the food. I still want to eat the roast potatoes, vegetables, stuffing and the rest of paraphernalia which comes with a Christmas dinner. So I want something which will taste delicious with the rest of the food, and not something like pasta or risotto which really does not go. I am also not a big fan of Nut Roast as I find it dry and unexciting, so I would not like to find that on my Christmas dinner plate. Some dishes which contain lashings of cheese or lots of cheddar cheese sauce don't really go with the gravy or other flavours in a Christmas dinner either. If you are serving a dish with cheese in, try and pick a cheese which will complement the rest of the food and make sure the cheese is vegetarian.

Here are some of my ideas for Vegetarian Christmas dinner:

Festive Strudel - My own original recipe

Festive Layered Loaf

Mushroom and Cranberry Wellington
Mushroom, Cranberry and Chestnut Loaf

Mini Pumpkins or Butternut Squash stuffed with vegetables

Quorn Roast
Quorn Chicken Fillets served in a white wine/red wine, or Stilton sauce
Quorn Cheese and Broccoli Escalopes

Quorn Chicken and Vegetable Pie - My own original recipe

Christmas spinach Filo Torte

Vegetable Gratin
Cheese & Vegetable Puff: This recipe could be adapted if you just used the ratatouille, spinach and nutmeg as the ingredients.

Things to remember when cooking for Vegetarians:

Many Vegetarians will not eat roast potatoes cooked in goose fat, so maybe consider doing a separate vegetarian batch.
Vegetarians will not eat poultry gravy so make separate vegetarian gravy also.
Vegetarians do not eat gelatine so trifles or mousses containing jelly or gelatine are not considered vegetarian.
Some Vegetarians will not eat food cooked in the same oven as the turkey.
Similarly, try not to use utensils which have touched the meat to serve the vegetables or vegetarian dishes.
Some Cheeses are not suitable for Vegetarians so do check before using. The Veg Society website has a good comprehensive list.
Do check the packaging of other products you use to check whether they are suitable for vegetarians.

There are some great meat free Christmas dinner ideas on the Veg Society website. The Guardian website also features some veggie ideas from celebrity chefs. I hope this has been helpful and am happy to answer any queries or questions or make recommendations about things you could cook for vegetarians for any meals of the year. Feel free to email or tweet me and I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season!

Keith Vaz & the Harmful Effects of Gaming (From Two Little Gamers)

2011-12-14T10:55:00.000Z

Recently, my hubby started a blog of his own called " Two Little Gamers", spurred on by my own enjoyment of writing my blog. Two Little Gamers refers to our two little girls who enjoy playing video games with their Daddy. Youngest (2) loves banging away on the drums to the Rock Band and Guitar Hero series. Eldest has really got into playing the DS and loves Nintendogs and Cooking Mama. She also likes to play puzzle games with Daddy and it's lovely to watch them working out the answers to the puzzles together. As well as blogging about the games the kids like to play, Hubby also reviews the games he is playing. I am not really into gaming and so most of his amazing in depth reviews of video games are really interesting but do pass me by a little.

However, yesterday he blogged and wrote an extremely interesting and thought provoking post about the harmful effects of video games and the responsibility that parents have to know what sort of content the games their children play really has. I found it really interesting and I thought you may too!

His post can be viewed here Keith Vaz & the Harmful Effects of Gaming. Please do pop over and have a read and may be comment if it strikes a chord with you!!

You can also follow him on Twitter @technoslash if you are into gaming.

RetarDEX Review (Vegetarian Society Approved Product)

2011-12-14T09:02:00.002Z

Sometimes as a Vegetarian it is hard to know which products are truly Vegetarian and which are not. I often refer to the Vegetarian Society website to see whether goods are Veg Society Approved or not. Veg Society Approved products mean that consumers can buy goods with the confidence that the product is truly vegetarian.

There are over 5000 Veg Society Approved products in the UK and today I am featuring one of them, the Retar DEX Oral Health Care Range.

The RetarDEX Oral Health Care range includes a Toothpaste, Spray and Mouthwash. All of the range contains an active ingredient which has been clinically proven to eliminate odour and bad breath, just one 30 second rinse with the mouthwash causes at least 8 hours protection. RetarDEX is free of sweeteners, sugars and sodium lauryl sulphate. The oral rinse is clear and the flavour is not unpleasant.

As well as offering protection and eliminating odours, RetarDEX products have been clinically proven to whiten teeth in just 14 days. They also strengthen enamel, freshen breath, and act as a preventative measure. RetarDEX mouthwash actively removes stains and kills bacteria which can cause tooth decay, gum problems and plaque.

Although I am not a big fan of the name, I have been using the products for around two weeks and I am very happy with what I have seen so far. My teeth do feel cleaner, and the products do feel like they are making a difference. I would need to keep using the products for longer to see whether they do make a marked difference but it's nice to find a product which does what it says on the tin and is also Vegetarian.

RetarDEX Oral Rinse is priced £5.10 (250ml) and £8.15 (500ml) and is available from Boots, Superdrug, selected Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, Booths, Superdrug, Ocado.com and all good pharmacies and dental surgeries.

RetarDEX Toothpaste is priced £6.15 (75ml) and is available from Boots and selected Waitrose, Tesco, Booths, Ocado.com and all good pharmacies and dental surgeries.

Disclaimer: Products offered in consideration for review.

Meat Free Monday Cookbook Review

2011-12-12T09:30:00.001Z

Recently I was fortunate to be sent a copy of the Meat Free Monday Cookbook. Being Vegetarian, I have followed the Meat Free Monday campaign for quite a while and have also blogged about it here and here before.

The Meat Free Monday campaign, fronted by the McCartney family and launched in 2009, aims to encourage people to go meat-free once a week in order to help slow climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing red meat and dairy with vegetables just one day a week could cut an individual's annual emissions by the equivalent of a 1160 mile car journey. In the current economic climate, eating meat free one day a week is great for your bank balance and also simple and easy to do.

If you are a meat eater, trying to think of meat free food ideas can often be slightly daunting and so the Meat Free Monday Cookbook is a fantastic resource. Sir Paul and a host of other celebrities have contributed recipes to the book, which features Meat Free ideas for each of the 52 weeks of the year. The book is split into seasons. Two main meal recipes, and four other meal recipes are offered for every Monday of the year, including breakfast, lunch, main and dessert ideas. An array of mouth watering photo's accompany the recipes and the food pictured does literally spring out of the page at you.

The recipes included feature mainly simple, everyday store cupboard and easy to acquire ingredients and although there are a few recipes which do require a little knowledge of cookery, most are pretty easy to make and the step by step instructions are easy to follow.

There is a good mix of family friendly recipes such as Macaroni Cheese, Spring Vegetable Stew, Pizza's and Risotto's and also more interesting grown up dishes such as Pina Colada and Huevos Rancheros, Linguine with Almonds and Caciocavallo and Potato and Gruyere Focaccia - delicious.

Cereal and Toast is generally the extent of our breakfast creativity and so my kids loved the breakfast ideas in the book. Recipes included Fried Bananas with Pecans & Maple Syrup, Breakfast Muffins, Baked Apples with Yoghurt, and Cinnamon Crepes. Due to the school run, I don't always have time to cook breakfast on Mondays, but I would definitely give these ideas a go for breakfast at the weekend or in school holidays.

Personally, I especially loved the lunch ideas as although I tend to be quite creative with our family meals, lunch for me generally consists of egg or cheese with various types of bread on rotation. So it was lovely to see an array of different soups and salads and more interesting sandwich ingredients such as the Asparagus, Egg and Cress Sandwich.

Wonderful dessert ideas are also featured each week, including Fearne Cotton's Courgette Cakes & Stella McCartney's delicious Carrot Cake. I also spied a Brownie recipe which look rather yummy too!

So as today is Meat Free Monday, I am featuring today's recipe ideas. According to the seasonal calendar, today is Week 12 of Autumn and so today's Menu is as follows

Breakfast: Onion and Walnut Muffins

Lunch: Parsnip Soup or Mushroom, Marscarpone and Polenta Bake

Snack: Honey Roasted Nuts & Seeds

Dinner: Baked Penne with Dolcelatte & Radicchio

Dessert: Rhubarb Apple & Oat Crumble

The Meat Free Monday Cookbook would make a fantastic Christmas present for anyone who is vegetarian, or even anyone who is interested in cooking in general. I honestly absolutely love this book. The best thing about it is that I can eat any and all of the recipes featured - something which is seldom possible with most cook books. I can therefore thoroughly recommend it to anyone from the beginner to the more seasoned cook.

I would definitely be very happy to find this in my stocking on Christmas day. Giving this recipe book as a gift would enable someone to enjoy lots of delicious food, meanwhile helping to preserve the planet for future generations - a win win situation!!!

Cookbook offered in consideration for review

Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen Radio Show: Vegetarian Christmas

2011-12-11T06:08:00.001Z

Yesterday I was lucky enough to feature as a guest on Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen show on BBC Three Counties Radio. I had been invited in to talk about Vegetarian Christmas and Veggie menu ideas for Christmas.

Having never been on the radio before I was slightly nervous, but was really looking forward to chatting to Nick and meeting my fellow guests. My fellow guests were Christine Fellini who runs an Italian Cookery Casa Fellini in Bedfordshire and Simon Taylor who runs Cheese Wine, a cheese and wine wholesaler in Biggleswade.

Nick's lovely producer Emma completely put all of us at ease when we arrived and we soon found ourselves in the studio, adorned with headphones and microphones and on air. Although I was very conscious of the fact that we were in a radio studio at first, I soon felt comfortable and it seemed like I was just at a dinner party, sharing food and chatting with friends. The two hours seemed to pass really quickly and there was so much food to get through!

First we sampled Christine's Carrot Veloute with a Goat's Cheese Cream which looked so pretty and was really light and creamy. This would definitely make a great starter on Christmas day.

After this we tried some of Simon's English Camembert. I am a big cheese lover and so was really excited to try some new varieties of cheese. I thought that the English Camembert would make a great introductory cheese to those who might be slightly hesitant to sample alternatives to cheddar as it was so creamy, and mild. According to Simon, Cheese should be eaten before a dessert during a meal, just as they do in France. We brits are accustomed to having our cheese at the end of the meal, but I always find that I am too full up from eating all of the other courses so I will definitely be giving the cheese before dessert idea a go.

Next it was time to try my Festive Strudel - my own vegetarian creation featuring lots of christmassy ingredients including cranberries, walnuts, mushrooms, nutmeg and soft blue cheese. Having never really cooked for anyone other than friend or family, I was slightly nervous as to how my vegetarian dish would go down with the meat eaters around me but I didn't have to worry as they all seemed to really enjoy the dish. Nick described it as "Christmas in a roll" and so as a big Christmas lover I was happy to take that as a compliment.

We then moved on to Christine's Salmon and Asparagus Pancakes. I did not try the Pancakes but did sample the Asparagus sauce which was full of flavour and colour.

It was then time for my Pineapple, Ginger and Cream Trifle. This is a very simple, cheap and easy dish to make as it is consists of just a tub of double cream, a tin of pineapple and a packet of ginger biscuits. It is also a great alternative to the more traditional berry trifles generally served on Christmas day. Everyone seemed to really enjoy my pudding also which I was obviously pleased about!

After this we had more Cheese and cheeky Sherry from Simon. I am definitely going to be going for a cheese board this Christmas!. Next up was Christine's Panforte - an Italian spiced fruit and nut cake which was so delicious and would be perfect with a big frothy Coffee drink or a lovely cup of tea!. I am definitely going to be making this to eat over Christmas!

I have to say that I had such an amazing time time and am really grateful to Nick for inviting me onto his show. Going into a radio studio, seeing how everything worked and watching Nick work in and out of all of the links and jingles was really exciting and also really interesting. I was so busy having a lovely time that I completely forgot to take any pictures of my experience. Anyhow, it was lovely to meet other people who were passionate about food and so thanks to Christine and Simon for also making the experience so enjoyable.

If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be writing a food blog and being invited onto a local radio show I would never have believed them. I started my blog as just a place to document my family recipes and as a positive creative outlet when I was made redundant. I never imagined that people would actually read it or that I would get such a positive reaction and so I feel really blessed to have had such lovely things happened to me and to have been lucky enough to be invited on my first radio show. I would definitely love to go back!

Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen show is available on BBC IPlayer, so you can listen again if you missed the show. The episode I featured on can be listened to here for the next week. You can also download the factsheet with all of the recipes from the show and I would definitely recommend that you do!

I will be featuring more Vegetarian Christmas menu ideas on my blog between now and Christmas so do check back. Also feel free to contact me if you are stuck for vegetarian Christmas ideas or want to know what to feed a Vegetarian or Vegan guest!

Pineapple, Ginger and Cream Trifle

2011-12-11T05:15:00.005Z

I know lots of people who aren't a big fan of berries and so this Pineapple, Ginger and Cream Trifle makes a great alternative to the more traditional Christmas Trifle. The flavours of this dish all merge really well together and compliment each other. The cream and juice from the pineapples softens the ginger snaps and gives them a really lovely, distinct texture. This dish is really cheap and easy to make as it is consists of just a tub of double cream, a tin of pineapple and a packet of ginger biscuits.

My Pineapple, Ginger and Cream Trifle was featured on Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen on Three Counties Radio on the 10th December 2011.

Notes: This dish can be made as a whole pudding or made in individual portions.

Timings
15 minutes preparation time
2 hours refrigeration time.

Ingredients
600g Pineapple pieces or rings in juice
1 Packet of Ginger Snap Biscuits
400ml Double Cream
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Caster Sugar
Cinnamon or grated Chocolate to decorate

Method

Whip the cream together with the vanilla extract and caster sugar until the cream forms soft peaks.
Put a layer of whipped cream into the bottom of a bowl or glass.
Add a layer of ginger snaps on top of the cream, and then add the sliced pineapple on top of the ginger snaps. You may want to add a couple of teaspoonfuls of juice over the top of the pineapple at this point.
Repeat the process by building up layers of cream, ginger biscuits and pineapple until the container is full or the ingredients are all used up.
Place the dessert in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.
Sprinkle with Cinnamon or grated Chocolate before serving.

Festive Christmas Strudel with Cranberry & Port Sauce

2011-12-11T05:15:00.004Z

If you are Vegetarian or have a vegetarian visiting for Christmas and are stuck for ideas of what to make, this Festive Strudel is a great meat-free Christmas dinner alternative. I will be featuring more meat-free Christmas dinner ideas during the run up to Christmas, but here is a really Christmassy Festive dish to get you started.

My Festive Strudel features lots of Christmassy ingredients including cranberries, walnuts, mushrooms, nutmeg and soft blue cheese. This dish was featured on Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen on Three Counties radio on the 10th December 2011 and was described as "Christmas in a roll" and it really is!

Festive Strudel served with Cranberry & Port Sauce (Makes Two Strudels)

Ingredients

8 Sheets Fresh or Frozen Filo Pastry, defrosted at room temp for 2 hours

3 tbsp Olive Oil

2 Onions, chopped

250g Chestnut Mushrooms, chopped

2 Garlic Cloves, peeled & crushed

200g Fresh Cranberries

150g finely chopped Walnuts

200g cooked Long Grain Rice

100g St Agur or Stilton Cheese

100ml Red Wine

1tsp Caster Sugar

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

2 tbsp Butter

Salt and Pepper to season

Method

Finely chop the onions and mushrooms. Rinse the rice, place in a saucepan, cover with water and cook on a medium heat for around ten minutes until soft ready.
In a separate pan, fry the garlic and onion in the olive oil on a medium heat for around 5 minutes or until golden. Add the mushrooms to the pan and fry for a further 8 minutes until soft.
In another pan, simmer the cranberries on a low heat in some water with 1 tsp of caster sugar until the cranberries start to pop (usually around 5 minutes) and then remove from the heat and drain.
Pour the wine into the pan with the mushrooms and onions. Stir well and simmer over a low heat until it has evaporated, stirring occasionally.
Add the cooked rice, walnuts, cranberries and nutmeg to the pan, season and stir well to combine.
Cook for a further two to three minutes on a medium heat, then remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Take a flat baking tray and cover with one sheet of the filo pastry. Melt the butter in a pan and then liberally brush the pastry with the butter. Cover with another 3 Sheets of pastry and brush each sheet with butter.
Take half of the mixture and spread it over the pastry right to the edges. Cut the St Agur or Stilton Cheese in small pieces (you may be able to crumble it) and place it over the top of the filling.
Roll the pastry up like a swiss roll and fold the ends under the seam side. Transfer the Strudel, seam side down onto a lightly greased baking tray. Brush the top of the strudel with more melted butter. You could add a couple of vent holes or a pattern on the pastry if you like.
Repeat the process with the other half of the pastry and filling.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden.

This strudel can be made and kept pre-baked in the fridge or freezer and cooked on the day of eating.

Variations:

You could use ready to roll Puff Pastry if you don’t like using Filo Pastry.
You can cook this dish with or without the Cheese if you are not a big Blue Cheese fan.
To make a Vegan alternative, cook the filling and omit the Cheese from the recipe. Use the filling to stuff a scooped out butternut squash or cooking pumpkin and bake.

Cranberry & Port Sauce

Ingredients

200g Fresh Cranberries

200ml Port

100g light Muscovado Sugar

Method

Place the sugar and port in a pan over a medium heat and cook until boiled.
Add the Cranberries and cook for around 5 minutes until they are soft but not mushy.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

This can be kept for a week in the fridge or 6 weeks in the freezer.

Mozzarella, Tomato & Basil Gnocchi

2011-12-08T09:30:00.001Z

Today I am featuring a wonderfully warming dish, perfect for a cold wintry day. The red, green and white colours also make it feel like a very Christmassy dish, perfect for the festive season.

This is a really quick and easy meal to prepare and is so hearty and delicious. The Gnocchi served two of us comfortably, but I would probably double the quantities for a family of 4. You could substitute the onion and pepper for whatever veg you have in available and also use a different cheese if you didn't have mozzarella in the fridge.

We thoroughly enjoyed eating our Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil Gnocchi which we ate with some Garlic Bread to bulk it out a little.

Ingredients
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Tomato Puree
1 Onion, chopped
1 red Pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
1 Garlic Clove, crushed
400g can chopped Tomatoes
500g pack Gnocchi
Handful Basil leaves, torn
125g Mozzarella, torn or cut into chunks

Method

In a large frying pan, heat the oil and softly fry an onion and pepper for about 5 mins. Add the garlic and fry for 1 minute.
Stir in the tomatoes and puree, then add the gnocchi and stir to combine once again. Let the mixture simmer and then allow to bubble for 10-15 mins, stirring occasionally, until the gnocchi has softened and the sauce has thickened.
Season the dish, then add the basil and stir through the dish. Turn the Grill on high.
Transfer to a large ovenproof dish.
Scatter the Gnocchi with the mozzarella, then grill on a high heat for 5-6 mins until the cheese has melted and is starting to turn golden.

Bite N Write 2011

2011-12-06T09:02:00.001Z

On Saturday 19th November I attended Bite N Write, a food blogging conference in Birmingham. As well as a great opportunity to meet up with fellow bloggers and put twitter and blog names to faces, it was also a day of great speakers and delicious food.

Being up so early on a Saturday morning meant that a Hot Chocolate en route to the train station was obligatory, before taking the train up to Birmingham. I never realised that Birmingham is actually a relatively easy train journey for me. After seeing the amount of markets, shops and restaurants there, I may have to consider another trip there soon.

Anyway, after arriving and finding the venue, I met up with Jackie from Tinned Tomatoes and Beth from Jam and Clotted Cream. It was great to meet them finally after tweeting for so long.

It was also lovely to meet Carol from Dormouse and The Teapot and Kerry from Kerry Cooks and Kate at Foxy Foods.

The first speaker was Craig Fraser from Fraser Shot who specialises in Food photography.

His tips included:

Use a nice piece of wallpaper to act as a backdrop to photographs.
When photographing bottles, cut out a white bottle shape and put it behind the bottle to stop light going through.
Create movement in the photo by sprinkling icing sugar, flour, oil, water etc.
Brushing oil on something gives it a good shine.
Use photoshop to improve photo's.
Natural light works best for improving light when photographing food.

This is only half of what Craig actually talked about as he talked about lots more in depth stuff like shutter speeds and exposure too which was really interesting but as I do not have a super flashy camera it went a little over my head. I really enjoyed listening to Craig speak and found his stories and experience really interesting.

Next up was Judith Lewis, an SEO Expert and Blogger who blogs over at Mostly about Chocolate.

Her comments included:

200 Factors contribute to rankings and Categories within search engines.
Optimise your blog by using key words, put them in the title and description coding of the blog.
Link internally to your own blog posts for more traffic.
Have separate Twitter identities for you and your blog.
Differentiate between how you received something, i.e. buying something, being given it to review or being paid for review.

After this we had some lunch and then straight after this there was a Chocolate Tasting by Artisan Du Chocolate. Artisan Du Chocolat opened in the UK in 2000 and aims to create luxury, memorable and exceptional chocolates crafted for pleasure.

We found out that Chocolate is grown 20 degrees north and south of the equator and is harvested twice a year.

We were then left to try lots of delicious Chocolate. My personal favourite was the passion fruit 'O' http://www.artisanduchocolat.com/disc-chocolate-collection.html

Also the mint chocolate, which tastes like eating http://www.artisanduchocolat.com/disc-chocolate-collection.html pure mint.

Next up was Jeanne from Cook Sister who is a freelance writer and food blogger.

Jeanne gave us a really interesting talk and I have tried to condense her talk into ten points.

Define your blog and know what your blogging goals are.
Find a Niche and add value. Work out whether you are a writer who likes to cook, or a cook, who likes to write.
Consider the reader's experience of your blog. Make a list of three things you find annoying about other blogs and 3 things that make you return to blogs that you read, and then think about how your readers view your blog.
Have a short blog name and a catchy strapline.
Use good, reader friendly colours and fonts. Avoid clutter and too many badges.
Content is king. Use text and photo's. Write clearly and succinctly. Write a lot and have a schedule. Find a posting schedule which works for you. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Stay on the right side of the law. A list of ingredients is not creative and so can be copied, but the description of how to cook a dish is creative and so is copyrighted. Have a copyright notice on your website. Watermark photos on your site. Disclose any freebies or paid content.
Your blog is your online living room so don't put up with comments on your blog that you wouldn't put up with in real life. Don't allow comments which are inflammatory to you or someone else.
Be Nice and play nice. If we are a blogging community then we should act like a community. Applaud the success of other bloggers. Comment and re tweet others posts, link to other people.
Blogging is like sex, people think about it at least every 7 minutes, some think of it all the time. You can do it for hours, or not at all. Blogging is like marriage, people get into it for the wrong reasons, but there is one reason for both blogging and marriage Because you love it.

After this, the lovely Charlotte from Go Free Foods steppedp to the plate.
She told us that:

45 percent of the UK's poplulation of children have food intolerance's.
It is useful to use different ingredients in recipes so that people can eat them
people with food intolerance's are more creative cooks who enjoy home cooking

Our last speaker was Ben Fraser, Great British Bake Off Contestant and Cupcake Artisan who told us about Video Blogs.

His tips included:

Decide what you love or hate about other video blogs.
Work out where you will video and what you need for the space you have.
Increase the lighting in your video space.
Use Lighting Gels or Daylight to get the lighting right.
Have a front view of everything and use one wide long shot.
Prep all of your ingredients.
Have ambient noise levels.
Have a script of key points, don't waffle.
If you mess up don't stop, have a 5 second break and carry on so you have continuity.
Use I movie.
Keep your video between 5 and 10 minutes long.

All in all, it was an interesting day and most of the speakers were fantastic, however, in the spirit of constructive feedback, there were a few housekeeping things that I would like to be different if I were to book to attend this conference again as I did not feel like the conference represented value for money in terms of time and travel.

Consider the temperature of the place. Sitting in a huge, cold draughty hall does not promote a comfortable environment.
Write bloggers Blog names and Twitter ID's on delegate badges. It was hard to know who anyone was.
Listen to your audience, if they ask to do something, i.e. Request to go around and find out who everyone if and where they are from quickly as you have not put it on their name tags, at least consider doing so. I did request to do this but due to timings this was not done and so nobody knew who anyone was and it was hard to chat to people.
We were sat down for literally the whole day. I know that it was an packed schedule but the whole schedule was very auditory. You only retain 10 percent of what you hear vs 90 percent of what you do and so a bit more interaction and moving around would have been appreciated.
A 45 minute presentation on Wordpress, when you use blogger and not wordpress is a waste of our time and money.
Consider a venue with some breakout areas or more than one room so that you could have different speakers speaking at the same time, as not all sessions will be relevant to all bloggers.
Have more breaks as breaks were missed to catch up and so there was not much of an opportunity to mingle.
Always ask for feedback.
Don't put promises on your website which don't materialise. Where were the stalls? and where was the cooking demo? This conference was advertised to a very different level to what it turned out to be.

I don't mean to end on a negative note because I did enjoy the conference, i would just like to see it improved if run again.

The conference was followed by nibbles at an Indian restaurant close by and a lovely meal at Jamie's Italian in Birmingham where there was then a chance to mingle and chat with my fellow food bloggers.

Babies Go Beatles - Review

2011-12-05T09:02:00.002Z

It's a popular misconception that babies have to be in a quiet room to sleep. In fact, babies hear noises inside their mother during pregnancy and so once born, actually settle better to sounds such as music or white noise.

Awake or asleep, most babies love music, mine certainly did and still do. The trouble is, it is often heard to find good music that either isn't nursery rhymes, or is suitable for children. So when I was recently asked to review a CD from the Babies Go range, I couldn't wait to have a listen. Babies Go CD's feature familiar popular songs recorded in a more soothing style for babies. I was spoilt for choice as to what to go for.... 'Babies Go Carpenters' in tribute to my Mum, a huge Carpenters fan, 'Babies Go Guns and Roses' in tribute to my younger grunge years, 'Babies Go Christmas' to celebrate the festive season or 'Babies go MJ' in tribute to the king of pop, plus many more titles.

In the end I went for Babies Go Beatles in an attempt to begin my children's education with a musical institution. This Beatles CD features classics from the Fab Four such as Hey Jude, Let it Be, Yesterday, Michelle, Yellow Submarine and Ob La Di,Ob La Da, and has been repackaged for a new younger generation. Rather than the swinging sounds of the sixties, the instrumental Beatles tracks are transformed into a more soothing tone by entirely using only musical instruments that have a calming and appealing feel to babies and toddlers. Whilst changing the sound of the song, it retains the musicality of the original recordings. These gentle lullabies and boppy tunes appeal on different levels to all kids. My toddler loves dancing along to the CD in the day and falling to sleep with it on at night. My 4 yr old loves using the CD as a backing track to the songs she has learnt. This CD is great to play at home, in the car, on a plane or anywhere in fact.

For sheer ingenuity, I am awarding the Babies Go Beatles CD 8 out of 10, marks deducted for not including more Beatles Classics such as I am the Walrus and other more popular hits.

To view or purchase the Babies Go CD collection, please click here.

Babies Go Beatles CD offered in Consideration for Review

Silent Sunday

2011-12-04T10:00:00.001Z

Preparing for Christmas & Freezer Week!

2011-12-02T11:10:00.002Z

Here we are at the start of December and as well as buying the gifts and food for Christmas, now is the perfect time to start preparing the house for the big day. I find that if my house isn't organised and tidy, then my head feels cluttered and unorganised too. I also don't want to put up the Christmas decorations and add more clutter to the house, so this week I have started preparing the house properly for Christmas.

Last month I blitzed the kids rooms and sorted out anything they hadn't used in a while to give to the charity shop. This week I am hoping to do a second sweep of their rooms to make some space for the things they will get at Christmas. Additionally, I have also decided to take one room at a time and sort out the cupboards so that I know that the house is sorted by the first couple of weeks of December. Then I can concentrate on doing all of the other things I need to achieve before the big day!

I am a big fan of the website Flylady.net which helps you keep your home and life organised. I found it a couple of years ago when I was trying to figure out how to keep on top of everything.

FlyLady does Holiday Cruising missions - basically something small every day to help prepare for the holidays. It can be things like buy sellotape, iron your Christmas linen or review your holiday budget. These have really helped me to prepare for the holidays. Their super holiday missions start on Monday, so do sign up if you would like to follow them.

The website also does a "Holiday Control Journal" which is not as scary as it sounds but helps to keep all of your holiday organising in one place. If you are not a big fan of the paper version, you could do an online version, either your own or buy writing on their downloadable PDF.

As part of my preparations, I have also started preparing the kitchen for Christmas, after all it is the most important part of the house on Christmas day. Last year I invested in an extra large and deep frost free fridge freezer, as I was sick of managing with the tiny fridge freezer we had. It arrived about two weeks before Christmas and it was so amazing, I was able to do lots of Christmas cooking and baking and freeze it all in advance of the big day.

This year I realised that our Freezer is full up to the max. An extra large fridge freezer means lots of pounds worth of food sat just waiting to be eaten and no room to put anything to keep for Christmas.

So as part of my Christmas preparations, I have declared this week FREEZER WEEK!. Basically, this week is the week that I make all of our meals out of what we have in the freezer and try and use up as much of it as possible. It will be still be accompanied by fresher ingredients like bread, and potatoes, but this way I can make some space in the freezer for Christmas and hopefully save some money on the weekly shop - and who doesn't like to save money at christmas? I am also aiming to use up the things we have in the cupboard to try and make a bit more room there too. It's really simple, just make a list of what you have in the freezer and the store cupboard and then work out what meals you can make with what you have.

I also started my Christmas shopping back in September, but do the bulk of it in December and so it's really important to keep an eye on what is being spent. I have started a spreadsheet to keep a track of what I am spending on food and gifts for Christmas. I have a lot of people to buy for, so it's also handy for checking I have bought something for everyone.

So that's a quick snapshot into my holiday preparations so far... how are yours going?

The Christmas Elves Arrive!

2011-12-01T09:30:00.002Z

Today, the 1st of December marks the arrival of our brand new Christmas Elves, one for each of the girls. I read about this tradition last year on Netmums, but decided to wait until the kids were a year older to introduce the Christmas Elf into our season traditions.

The Christmas Elf tradition adds extra fun and imagination to the holiday season. The idea is that Santa's Elf visits each year during the Christmas season to encourage a fun-filled, family Christmas. The Elf makes sure that the children are behaving and are on Santa's nice list. It also helps to create happy memories of Christmas for children and keep the magic of Santa alive.

Typically, Elves get up to all sorts of mischief during their time with their family and can be naughty or nice depending on their mood and also how well the children are behaving. They stay with a family until Christmas Eve when they are collected by Santa and taken home to the North Pole.

There are whole websites devoted to the Christmas Elf, with what they are about and ideas of what they can do. Elf Magic is one of the most popular as is Organised Christmas. On these websites, you can send a letter from Santa to let the children know that he will be sending an Elf to them to look after for the advent season. You can also print Elf passports and other fun things.

I wrote a poem to introduce the girls to their Christmas Elf.

IF YOU WISH TO REPRODUCE PLEASE CONTACT ME FIRST....

This year I’ve sent a special Elf,

To make sure you behave yourself,

She’ll stay with you until Christmas is here,

To fill your advent with festive cheer.

She’ll check if you’ve been naughty or nice,

And report back to me once or twice.

So please be nice to your Mummy and Daddy,

Or your presents may be shabby,

A lump of coal you’ll find instead

Of exciting presents by your bed.

A word of warning I’ll give to you,

Keep an eye on what she may do,

Angel Snowflake is her name,

Just watch out for her tricks and games.

On Christmas Eve she’ll say Adieu,

And leave something special to say thank you,

Off to the North Pole she will fly,

Whilst all snug in your bed you lie.

But don’t you worry, don’t you fear,

Angel will visit again next year.

When Christmas comes she will appear.

SANTA

There are lots of different things that your Elf can do... Here are some to get you started:

Elf arrives and goes to school for the day
Delivers a new book about the story of Christmas
Found having a snowball fight using cotton wool balls with the other teddy’s a toys
Found surrounded by chocolate wrappers having eaten them all. (Mummy gets to eat the chocolates!)
Elf could go to work with Mummy or Daddy
Found reading a Christmas story
Elf makes an Elf yourself video of the family
Elf is found hiding in the Fridge
Elf gives kids tickets to the Ballet or another treat
Elf leaves a chocolate Santa
Elf reads the paper and drops it everywhere
Elf decorates the Christmas tree with kids socks or underwear
Elf brings sporadic presents
Elf plays with the toys
Elf is caught abseiling up the curtains
Elf is found eating the cat food
Elf is caught hiding under the Christmas tree
Elf leave Toilet roll strewn around the house
Elf delivers Candy Canes
Brings a note telling them they have email video message from Santa portable North pole
The Elves hold an elf tea party
Elf is found diving head first into the cereal
Make a snow Angel in the kitchen using flour or icing sugar
Elf hides in the car
Elf hides under the table
Elf found hanging from the lampshade.
Elf has a movie night with his friends and drops popcorn everywhere
Leaves a Christmas hamper as a goodbye

You get the idea, there is an array of wonderful and wacky ideas on the Internet and lots to make up of your own!

Our Christmas Elves are going to have their own Facebook Page to record their antics, so please feel free to pop over and see what they are getting up to during December.

Are you having the Christmas Elves to visit this year? There is still time if you fancy it. I got these lovely ones from Tesco and there were still lots left if you want to get one. If you are having elves then we would love to see what your elves are getting up to!

Induction & Alternatives to Induction of Labour

2011-11-30T13:00:00.003Z

Recently a lady in my local area was looking for advice on Induction of Labour via our local parenting Egroup. As a student Antenatal teacher, I have spent a lot of time researching, gathering information about Induction and also in consultations at our local unit discussing Induction. After receiving some positive feedback to my response, I thought I would blog about it too.

Disclaimer: I am offering information to help women and partners make their own informed decisions about Induction, and so this information should not be seen as a substitute for medical advice.

Question

'I'm currently 40+5 and after a 2nd sweep it looks like I may be induced in the next week which I want to avoid if possible. What can I do to avoid being Induced?'

Answer
There are different things that you can do safely to avoid being induced if you do not wish to be. Being induced does have a big impact on your birth and means that you have to go to the Consultant Led Unit rather than birthing in a MLU or at home. Many hospitals and midwives are often keen to reduce their induction rates and so may be open to offering alternatives to induction. If you are faced with someone who is not, you may request a practitioner who can accommodate you.

Firstly, how sure are you of your dates? You may not actually be 42 weeks by your dates when you are 42 weeks by the hospital dates. Your EDD is estimated on an average pregnancy being 28 days or 4 weeks long from the first day of you LMP. It also assumes that you have a 28 day cycle and ovulated on day 14. So if your cycle or date is out, then the EDD is less likely to be precise, so you may have been booked for induction even though technically you may not be overdue by your own dates. Only 5% of babies arrive on their EDD, 5% come early and 80% of babies arrive within two weeks of their EDD. 10% would come later if they were not induced.

So is your date actually the hospital date or do these differ?

Things to consider doing before induction

You could request a sweep or multiple sweeps from your midwife to see if this will kick things off before induction.

Other things you can do to aid the start of natural labour:

Go for a long walk. (I walked twice around our local lake to kick off each of my labours).
Adopt Upright, Forward and Open positions. Sit forward on a birth ball, in a chair or on the floor to get the baby well engaged in the pelvis.
Using a birth ball can help aid natural labour and getting the baby into a good position. Bounce on a birth ball or roll your hips around and forward and back to get the baby well engaged in the pelvis.
Don't sit in a recumbent position on the couch as this can lead to the baby adopting a posterior position and may cause back labour.
When sleeping, lay on your left side to help get your baby into a good position. The ideal position for labour is LOA which means that the back of the baby's head is facing your left hip. By laying on the left side, gravity will aid it to naturally do this.
Clary sage can help to stimulate contractions. You can use it in a carrier oil for massage, burn it via an oil burner, or add a few drops to your bath. Always consult an Aromatherapist or midwife before using and definitely DO NOT USE BEFORE TERM.
Most importantly RELAX. Try to think about if there is anything that is mentally preventing labour from starting. If there is, try to think how you can resolve this block as sometimes labour can be subconsciously prevented from starting.

What to do if you reach the date of your Induction

If you do get to 40 plus 10, 12 or 14 (Check your local hospital guidelines), you do not have to automatically accept induction if you do not wish to. You could go to the antenatal clinic or ward and request monitoring to see how healthy the baby is. Staff would typically scan to check the position of the baby, check the blood flow to the placenta and also have a look at the amount of amniotic fluid
surrounding the baby to see whether they think every thing is still ok. A midwife or doctor would assess your overall health, check your BP, and Urine, check for swelling and have a look at how well you and baby are functioning.

Staff should be able to come up with an individualised plan of care at your request. You can request daily monitoring post term plus 12 or 14 and liaise with your health care providers to see how things are looking. If all is looking well and your baby is still ok, you are well within your rights to request waiting to go into labour naturally. However, if based on medical advice, all is not ok and you, the baby, or the body fluids are not looking good, then its a no-brainer to just go for the induction and get your baby out safely.

Some hospitals may offer an Induction of labour information session from 38 weeks plus which can cover the ins and outs of induction, the process, and induction choices in more detail. Contact your local unit to see if they offer this service if it's looking like induction is going to become an option for you.

Is my risk of stillbirth increased after 42 weeks?

There is little evidence of stillbirth rates past 42 weeks as so few women allow babies (that their risk of stillbirth "doubles after 42 weeks") comes from a 1958 study – a time when mortality rates were 10 times what they are now. Also, induction is hardly risk-free: it carries higher rates of Caesarean Birth, uterine rupture, foetal distress and maternal haemorrhage.

This is the official line from NICE = The National Institute for Clincial Excellence:

http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/12012/41255/41255.pdf

Although the risks of fetal compromise and stillbirth rise steeply after 42 weeks, this rise is from a low baseline. Consequently, only a comparatively small proportion of that population is at particular risk. Because there is no way to precisely identify those pregnancies, delivery currently has to be recommended to all such women. If there were better methods of predicting complications in an individual pregnancy, induction of labour could be more precisely directed towards those at particular risk. Research is needed into racial differences in the UK to identify the possible differences in the distribution of perinatal risk specific to gestational weeks and possible benefits of intervention before 41 weeks.

Average Stillbirth rates UK per 1000 pregnancies according to NICE based on 171,527 births

39 weeks 0.5
40 weeks 0.9
41 weeks 1.3
42 weeks 1.6
43 weeks 2.1

I hope that you have found this information helpful if Induction is something you are considering. Induction can be a positive process and is the right choice for some people. You can still have a straightforward labour if you are induced in many cases, although research has shown that Induction does lead to higher incidences of intervention and Caesarean births.

If you are induced, using the upright, forward and open positions that were discussed early can enable gravity to give you a helping hand. It can help to find a midwife in the CLU who is happy to support you in your birth plan of choice, especially if you were hoping not to have an epidural or lots of interventions. If you are being monitored, request 20 minutes of monitoring and then 20 minutes off to try and enable you to move around, or a monitor which will accommodate you being able to move around. You can still use breathing, visualisation and other techniques to assist labour whilst being induced.

Being induced does not mean that you are tied to staying on the bed and laying in a recumbent position. You can still achieve the birth that you were hoping for with induction in many cases, Induction just means that you have to take a slightly different path to achieve it.