'Fun Food For Children' Pinterest Collaborative Board

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A little over a year ago I sent a desperate plea out on twitter for some assistance in trying to get The Boy to eat his food. He was messing around at mealtimes and doing as much as possible to avoid eating. I soon discovered that it was a control issue as well as partly boredom. Time to start getting creative with his meals!

Steam Train children's meal

Since then I've had to use this technique every so often to engage him in his meals and get him eating properly. It helps and if I'm honest it's quite fun trying to come up with new ideas.

However as I'm not very inventive with 'food art', I've started a collaborative Pinterest board where members can 'pin' fun and engaging presentational ideas to entice our children to eat.

Fun Food for Children Pinterest board

If you'd like to follow the Pinterest board, you can find the link here. If you'd like to join the board and help create a catalogue of presentational ideas on 'Fun Food for Children', let me know in the comments below and I'll add you. The ideas don't need to come from your own blog, they can be pins from other sites or repins internally.

Let's get those children eating!

Flashback Friday

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When we visited a local park last week, and I saw my confident young man climbing trees, traversing cargo nets and swinging independently, my mind flashed back to one of the first times I'd taken him to that park.

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To me it's such a short period of time, for him the time lapse is monumental!
—
Linking up to Flashback Friday over at Mummy Mishaps and The Real Housewife of Suffolk County.

Weekend Breakfast Ideas

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The depths of Winter make us hanker for warmth. We turn up the heating, cover ourselves in thick layers of clothing, subject our sensible self to the likes of slankets, etc., all in a bid to keep warm.

And yet the one thing that so many people neglect to do is eat regularly and properly; keeping enough fuel in our bodies to stoke the internal fires. We all have our own personal central heating system, why do we neglect it so readily by not bothering to eat breakfast? Breakfast is one meal that is missed by too many people; favouring an extra ten minutes in bed to eating after a twelve hour fast is not a good option. There's a reason why it's called 'break'-'fast' you know? Eating a really good breakfast can set up the digestive system, and metabolism, for the rest of the day and prevent gorging later on.

I've been lucky enough to have been sent two beautiful hampers of breakfast goodies recently; one from the National Breakfast Week campaign and one from Warburtons. Both contained a plethora of breakfast ideas from granola, fresh fruit, porridge pots, crumpets, a range of bread and breakfast buns, and crumpets. There was certainly something to suit everyone!

breakfast ideas

It got me thinking of ideas for breakfast; ways to engage adults and children in eating what I consider to be the most important meal of the day. I always eat it (I'm one of those that needs to eat within half an hour of waking up or I feel ill), but on weekends I have more time to be creative. So here follows some weekend breakfast ideas.

Basic Pancake Recipe

  • 110g/4oz of plain flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 200ml/7 fl oz of milk
  • sweet pancakes: 1tsp vanilla bean paste, 1tsp of cinnamon and 1tsp of nutmeg (all optional)
  • savoury pancakes: black pepper and parmesan (both optional)

There are plenty of convoluted methods of whisking this and that first, but I tend to find that as long as the eggs are done first, then all the other ingredients can just be thrown in and whisked together. Melt a knob of butter (oil is disgusting when cooking pancakes) in a hot frying pan and keep the pan hot with a high gas to cook the pancakes quickly. For savoury pancakes I add black pepper and parmesan, occasionally spinach or pesto, and then use fillings like goat's cheese, stir-fried pepper, ham slices (or Quorn if veggie like me). My favourite sweet filling is cherry sauce and chocolate drops, with Lyle's Golden Syrup drizzled over the top (just don't tell my Jenny Craig consultant).

pancakes

 Breakfast Sundae

  • fat-free vanilla yoghurt
  • granola
  • fruit (I choose cherries and a banana)

Layer the granola, fruit and yoghurt in a sundae dish with multiple layers of each. Finish with a sprinkling of granola and fruit.

breakfast ideas

Breakfast Cups

  • a slice of wholemeal bread (one for each cup)
  • 1 egg
  • sausage
  • bacon (or Quorn)
  • black pepper

(I first saw this recipe on Domestic Goddesque's blog and adapted it to suit our tastes)

Cut out a circle from a slice of Warburtons' wholemeal bread and roll this flat using a rolling pin. Press into a muffin tin and fill with slices of sausage and bacon. Whisk an egg and pour over the top to below the surface of the cup. Sprinkle some black pepper on and cook on 180°C for 15-20 minutes.

breakfast ideas

Children's Cooked Breakfast

  • slice of bread with a hole cut out the middle (perfect if making the breakfast cups!)
  • 1 egg
  • sausage
  • grated courgette
  • baked beans
  • knob of butter for frying

Cut out a circle from a slice of wholemeal bread and place in a hot frying pan. Place the grated courgette at the top of the space, lay two sausage slices as eyes, and half a sausage cut sidewards as the smile. Carefully and gradually, pour the whisked egg in to fill the gaps, taking care it doesn't run outside the hole. Cook lightly through, carefully flip to cook the other side. Serve with warm baked beans.

breakfast ideas

—

Warburtons have conducted a study into the chaos of breakfast faced by multi-tasking mums. As a result of their findings they would like to combat the weekday stress and are asking you to share your tips on Facebook to help create a Breakfast Rush Hour book.

I was sent two hampers of products to help promote National Breakfast Week and the Warburtons Campaign. I was also sent some golden syrup for pancake day but missed the boat! My opinions and ideas are my own.

Link up your recipe of the week

McVitie's Breakfast Porridge Oats Biscuits (Sponsored Post)

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If there is one meal of the day that I will always make time for, it is breakfast. I'm one of those people who can't wait around for an hour or two, nonchalantly getting on with a few chores before leisurely chowing down on a carefully crafted feast; I need to eat breakfast pretty soon after I've woken up or I feel grotty.

Therefore I've never really understood people who don't eat breakfast at all. "It's the most important meal of the day!" is the old adage, and while some people may roll their eyes at this, I do believe it to be the case. If the previous night's evening meal was consumed at 6.30pm (the case in most families) then it's more than likely to be twelve hours, possibly longer, since eating. Making the metabolism work in peaks and troughs is no good for the general workings of the body, something I've recently been learning a lot about.

However, modern day family living (where more often than not both parents are working) means that there's not a huge amount of time in the morning to prepare a breakfast, at the minimum to even eat cereal. With almost four billion breakfasts eaten on the go, McVitie's have recognised that time is of the essence in the morning and have created breakfast biscuits which provide a delicious and balanced meal on the go.

The new McVitie's Breakfast Biscuits come in three different flavours (Red Berries, Oat & Honey and Apple, Sultana & Cinnamon) and in each box there are six packets of four biscuits each. They are fortified with vitamins D, B, Iron and fibre, each pack (of the Red Berries, the flavour I tried) contains 229 calories and 1.9g of saturated fat. They are a great alternative to cereal and toast, and I've tried them one morning this week with a banana and a yoghurt; I was certainly full well into the morning, past mid-morning break in school. As filling as my conventional breakfast.

photo

For more information on McVitie's Breakfast Porride Oats biscuits, visit their Facebook page here, or follow them on twitter.

McVitie's Breakfast Biscuits

Sponsored Post

A Digital Postcard From Ghana

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Nope, I've not been on holiday. Looking out the window at the dreary and monotone world, it would be nice but unfortunately not. I'm also not convinced that Ghana would be a place that people would have at the top of their holiday list, but this weekend three intrepid bloggers (#TeamHonk) set off with the Comic Relief team (including Davina McCall and Jonathan Ross) for a trip to see the good work that has been done  as a result of the past twenty five years worth of donations to Red Nose Day.

#TeamHonk have been visiting four projects in Ghana on 4th and 5th February to see for themselves the difference Red Nose Day money has been making. Those projects are: Virtuous Women and Children International, African Outreach, Vaccination Clinic, and Basic Needs UK Trust.

To help raise awareness of the chosen projects, #TeamHonk have been sending 'digital postcards' out to show how the money has been sent. This is my postcard, fittingly of a school, sent from Penny at Alexander Residence.

Davina McCall

Here is Davina filming in the school in Agbogbloshie the largest slum community in Accra, Ghana, with 700,000 people. 200 children can now attend school thanks to money from Comic relief which extended a small shack for 20 students set up by an amazing women called Paulina. Wonder if this clip will be on Red Nose Day coverage, 15th March?

Love Penny

This is a digital postcard sent from TeamHonk (Mammasaurus, Alexander Residence, and Mummy Barrow) during their travels with Comic Relief in Ghana celebrating #goodwork.

For the past 25 years the money raised through Red Nose Day has been changing the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa. Let’s Keep Up the Good Work. Find out how at rednoseday.com.

For other digital postcards please do join up and check out the linky on www.teamhonk.org
GoodWork

Perfect Brussel Sprouts

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At Christmas time I have to have Brussel sprouts on my plate. However this year I was reluctant to boil them, they just taste like old socks that way! I'd seen some recipes for them roasted with pancetta, but as a vegetarian that wasn't much good. I adapted the recipe, served them and my 67 year old father declared them the best he'd ever had. And he's had a lot!

Ingredients:

  • Brussel sprouts
  • Unsalted butter
  • Parmesan cheese
  1. Chop the stumps off the Brussel sprouts, peel the outer layers, and cross the bottoms.
  2. Melt a sizeable knob of unsalted butter in a frying pan on a low heat. Toss in the Brussel sprouts and coat them with the butter.
  3. Transfer to a baking tray and sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top.
  4. Cook for 20 minutes on 200°C.

Brussel sprouts

The Perfect Hot Chocolate

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I recently saw mention of the perfect hot chocolate recipe and a quick Google returned a whole load of recipes to use. I've combined the basic ingredients to perfect my own mixture which has gone down a treat in this house.

You'll need:

  • whole milk (enough for each person)
  • drinking chocolate (I use Galaxy Bubbles which gives a frothy, bubbly finish)
  • 1/4 small bar of chocolate (either plain or milk; plain chocolate tastes richer, milk chocolate is creamier)
  • 1tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 1tsp cornflour
  • small marshmallows (my one hypocritical act as a vegetarian; can't find veggie marshmallows anywhere!)
  • squirty cream
  • saucepan
  • balloon whisk
  • grater
  1. Heat the milk slowly in a saucepan with 2tsp of drinking chocolate per 200ml of milk whisked in, continue to whisk as the milk heats through on the lowest setting.
  2. Grate in most of the chocolate and whisk it into the milk, slowly allowing it to melt in.
  3. Add the vanilla bean paste and stir it through.
  4. Mix the cornflour in a separate pot with a small dribble of milk until it forms a white liquid and add to the milk mixture, slowly whisking in.
  5. Pour into the mug, stopping an inch below the surface.
  6. Place a layer of marshmallows on top of the hot chocolate; this creates both a surface for the squirty cream to sit on, and the heat of the chocolate melts the marshmallows directly.
  7. Squirt cream over the top, decorate with marshmallows and grate a small amount of chocolate over the top for garnish.

hot chocolate

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