Veggie-Terror!

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No, this is not a post about how The Boy won't eat his greens; far from it in fact!

We received a lovely orange box the other day wrapped in a hand-tied bow. Inside was a lovely selection of fruit and vegetables and a note from Innocent asking us if we could create a veggie-monster. The Boy had a good old look at the selection inside and was very intrigued with the kiwi! Wouldn't try it though!

Using the toothpicks which they provided, and spelling out the name with the special innocent glow-in-the-dark magnets (a full set; I almost jumped for joy!), we came up with this lovely lady:

Her name is Ms. Hel O Wyn and she was rather pleased to be visiting our house for the day!

However, she's now sat in a pot on the stove making a stew for tea tonight.

Innocent have a rather fabulous campaign on at the moment to celebrate Halloween and their new glow in the dark magnets. They want children across the land to get creating their very own weird and wonderful fruity freak or veg monster. It's very simple, just do the following:

  1. Cut, carve and create your fruity freak or vegetable monster from the weirdest looking fruit or veg you can find.
  2. Give it a name and spell it out in innocent magnets (how about 'Terry Able' or 'Aaaaaaaaaalan'.)
  3. Then take a picture of your spooky creation, post it in their scary halloween flickr gallery.
  4. When you've done that, email them ([email protected]) with your flickr name and a postal address (important so we know which picture is yours, in case you're one of the first thousand people).
  5. The first 1,000 entries win a very special set of limited edition halloween 0-9 number magnets which ALL glow in the dark (the perfect addition to your alphabet ones)

The competition runs until 7th November 2011.

And because we love food and hate waste, afterwards, why not use any leftover veg to make a stew like us?

We were sent a box of fruit & vegetables (& magnets, hurrah!) to take part in this campaign and help spread the word.

ShowOff ShowCase: The Scary & Spooky One

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You know the usual format for ShowOff ShowCase by now; link up a post either along a theme, or The One That Should Have Done Better.

This weekend, it's the turn of a theme. So in recognition of all the ghoulish and ghastly posts out there highlighting craft activities or cookery or party games, I've decided that the theme is:

The Scary & Spooky One

Link up as many Hallowe'en posts as you want, let's use it as a resource bank of activities!

ShowOff ShowCase

Chocolat Heaven

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About six months ago, I received a present from a Fairy HobFather which made me fall in love with Hotel Chocolat. Their chocolates are the most exquisite I have ever tasted and I've been lucky to enjoy some for my birthday, and in the Easter sale.

The other day, I arrived home to find a familiar brown box through the letterbox (I love that their boxes are designed to fit through) and I literally squealed with delight!

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Hands-Up!

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I'm ever so excited!

I have a few favourite fellows in my life: The Boy, Mr. The BoyandMe and a certain chap from CBeebies. No, not Alex (although we do like him lots), but Justin Fletcher. Every parent should realise the magic of his talent. He seems to be able to weave wonders with children; engaging them, teaching them and giving us parents just twenty minutes of sanity once a day! We've got several DVDs of his and pages and pages of 'Something Special' on our Sky+ planner.

So the reason that I'm ever so excited is because we've been sent his new CD to review, eeek!

It's available to pre-order here for £8.99.

I'll be reviewing it properly in a few weeks time, once we've had a chance to listen and enjoy this new CD. In the meantime, you can keep up to date with all Justin's news on Facebook and twitter.

Hungry Hallowe'en

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This year, probably due to The Boy being that much older, I'm really feeling Hallowe'en. Not the ghosts and ghoulies (steady on) you understand, but the whole party, dressing up malarky. It's helped by the planning that I'm doing for my toddler group's party this weekend, and so I've been going to town on costumes, decorations and food. As it's obviously a party for under-five year olds, the food we're preparing has to be quick and easy to cook, transfer and eat. However, there are some other meals that will be featuring on the menu at home this weekend.

Scary Soup

  1. Heat 1tbsp of olive oil in a large pan, add one chopped leek and a handful of sliced mushrooms. Sweat for a few minutes to soften.
  2. Add the chopped flesh of one butternut squash (or pumpkin), two diced carrots and two peeled and diced sweet potatoes and cook for a couple of minutes. Then add 1½ pints of stock. Season with salt and ground black pepper, cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 25 mins until the squash, carrot and sweet potato are really tender.
  3. Stir 200ml of Alpro soya milk* into the soup, whiz everything together in blender or processor in batches until smooth. Return to the pan, gently warm through to serve. Pour into bowls and finish with a swirl of Alpro soya alternative to cream*.
  4. Serve with crusty, warmed baguette or tiger bread.

Alpro Soya is a tasty alternative to dairy for those who are lactose intolerant.

 Devil's Cakes

Who doesn't love a little bit of Gothic coloured sponge cake? Black oozing red, sticky substance anyone? The full recipe for these, can be found here.

Mudpots

I've always wanted to have a go at making my own jelly-type pudding but obviously being vegetarian, it's a bit tricky! I recently discovered a vegetarian gelatine and had a go at using the powder. I mixed one sachet with 1 pint of Alpro Soya 'milk'* and stirred it until it had dissolved. Bringing it to just under the boil, I stirred in one pot of Alpro Soya chocolate dessert* and mixed it through with a balloon whisk. To flavour even further, I added 40g of chocolate orange drinking chocolate (if this is intended as a dairy-free pudding, check the drinking chocolate is lactose-free) and whisked this in thoroughly. Pour the mixture into serving dishes and allow to cool. After half an hour, the pudding should be thick enough to allow a segment of satsuma (hoorah, Christmas is coming) to rest on the top, sprinkle with chocolate flakes.

Scrummy!

Ghoulish Guzzlers

Vampire Broth: 3 parts diet cola* made using our new Sodastream* and 1 part vanilla ice-cream. Dust the rim of the glass with caster sugar, place the ice-cream inside and pour on the cola. Watch it froth up!

Magic Potion: 2 parts sparkling apple juice* and 2 parts cranberry and raspberry juice* (both sugar-free). Decorate the rim with red edible glitter for that extra touch of blood-curdling authenticity. If you've got any raspberries (we don't) crush them up and add them to the mix.

Chilling Chocolate: Dust the edge of a glass with cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate as it often contains dairy) and pour in some cool Alpro Soya chocolate milk*.

Can you come up with any more funky mocktails?

 I was sent the items marked with a * to review. However, all the cooking, images and text are my own, and honest.

ShowOff Showcase

Review: Brio My First Railway Set

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Ever since The Boy was born, both Mr. TheBoyandMe and I have been secretly waiting for the moment when he was old enough to play with a Brio train set. Well it seems that the time has come for our wishes to be met, as his imagination has suddenly jumped into gear.

We were recently sent this gorgeous My First Railway Set to review from the Wooden Toy Shop, and it is a beautifully crafted starter set for wooden railways.

The 15-piece set contains both straight and curved (double-sided) track pieces, a soft fabric station that is also a tunnel, two on-off ramps, a bright green engine and three freight wagons decorated with images of fruit: one banana, two apples and three pears (excellent for counting).

The Boy wasted no time in opening the box up, examining the instructions and doing the typical male thing of abandoning them in favour of figuring it out himself. The track pieces are very high-quality wood, each one embossed with the 'Brio' stamp. This Brio branding is also on the engine and each of the carriages; each wheel is stamped. A very nice little finishing touch.

The Boy absolutely adores this train set. His imagination has been ignited and he is beginning to role-play with these small-world toys, re-enacting events that happen in his life and making sense of them. He has combined the set with his cars and even the Peppa Pig playground has been incorporated, although George is not very good at holding onto the engine and keeps falling off. Suddenly The Boy is now living his name and the little baby is being replaced by a child who uses voices for the different carriages which talk to each other as they join up to the engine!

We've added several more sets of tracks, bridges and ramps to The Boy's Christmas list now as he seems to be completely engaged with this train set. It's been set up on the living room floor for several weeks now and is played with every single day, more than any other toy.

The Brio My First Railway Set is available from Wooden Toy Shop priced at £23.95

We were sent this item for the purpose of this review. Our opinions are honest and unbiased.

The C Word

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Eight years ago, I found a lump in my breast.

About the size of a pea, the hard lump was about an inch below my nipple and scared the hell out of me. I buried my head in the sand for a day, then told Mr. TheBoyandMe and my boss (who at the time was like a surrogate mum for me when I was living away from home) and went to the doctor's straight away. They referred me into the hospital to have it checked out and I saw a consultant within a week. I had an examination, a needle inserted into my breast to try and take a sample (which I won't lie, was painful), and a scan. By the time I had the scan, it transspired that it had only been a cyst and the needle had dispersed it.

Thinking back now, it was one of the scariest moments. Not only because I knew there was a history of breast cancer in my family, but for a young woman who wanted to start a family, finding a lump in my breast felt immobilising.

Breast cancer, like any cancer, is real and affects people all around us. I know this only too well from personal experiences. It cannot, just like any other cancer, be ignored.

Today is 'Wear it Pink' day and various people and organisations, both big and small, have got behind it. Vanish, the stain removal brand, is supporting Breast Cancer Campaign for this special awareness day. Together they are hoping to raise much needed funds for research into prevention, diagnosis and treatment for an illness which touches the lives of so many women in the UK.

You can help in a number of ways:

    • Simply “like” the page then place your donation token into the pot of your choice between Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment.
    • For every new 1,000 supporters, £1,000 will be donated to research (up to £10,000).

Please share the pink love and become an online Supporter for Breast Cancer Campaign with Vanish!

This isn't a sponsored post. I wasn't offered, nor would I have accepted any money to blog about this.

Competition: Bullying – A Parents' Guide

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As a teacher, I try to be vigilant for any tell-tale signs of bullying in school. Nowadays we have training on how to handle any situations that arise, and have a ledger to record any offenses. Bullying is taken very seriously in schools nowadays with whole lessons given over to it and assemblies regularly centred around why it's not ok. The difficulty arises when a child says something once as a mean, flippant comment, and a child grasps the 'B' word out of the air. Teaching children why bullying is wrong also involves teaching them what it is.

Bullying is intentional, directed and repeated behaviour. It is not ok!

Obviously for teachers, we get training on how to handle it and have a wealth of tools and procedures at our disposal to help our pupils. But for parents, it can be just as desperate time as for their children. They can feel just as trapped and helpless.

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