Posts by jo

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25/08/201327/01/2014 by jo

Birthday Cookies

H had her fourth birthday party yesterday, and one thing I had in mind to make was birthday cookies.

Birthday cookies are easy to make, you can bake tons of them and share them with the parents (parents are often overlooked when it comes to party food) and depending on allergies could be adapted for children who have nut allergies pretty easily by avoiding ready made icing.

Here’s the recipe.

Birthday Cookies.

1 cup icing sugar

2 cups plain flour

300g unsalted butter

For the icing:

Two Sainsburys roll-it-out coloured icing blocks. Yes, I cheated.

For the decoration :

Sainsburys icing pens (various colours) and some blue sugar decoration crystals (they’re nice and sparkly like monster snot).

To make the cookies :

Soften the butter, add the icing sugar and stick in the food processor until blended. Add the flour. You’ll have your dough. Leave in the fridge for 20 minutes.

After that, on a floured board roll out the dough and using a cookie cutter cut your shapes. We used a number 4 from my 101 Cookie Cutters set (they didn’t have any monsters) and made approximately 60 cookies.

Bake in the oven at around 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes (we have a fan-assisted oven) – keep checking them and turn your tray around. I found the best cookies were made on the bottom shelf as they looked a nice golden shade.

Once out of the oven leave to cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes (just enough time for the next batch to be added).

Once your batch are cooled, get your icing. I went for ready-made as it saved me time, I used icing sugar to dust the boards and rolled them out cutting 4 shapes again, and sticking them to the cookie with water.

Once they’d dried I used more water on top and added various decorations. As it was a monster themed party I figured it could be fairly messy so broke up some chocolate buttons and added them on top, as well as writing with the icing pens.

The best thing? Almost everyone ate them so it meant we didn’t bring much home at all. There were plenty for everyone too (18 children and a few more adults).

H loved them as they were proper birthday cookies with her age on as well, and I quite enjoyed making them as it kept me calm and stopped me flapping.

I think we all win there.

This post contains an affiliate link, and the recipe was put together using several recipes online for inspiration. I wanted to avoid too much sugar and also eggs.

23/08/201320/04/2017 by jo

Lego Table Ideas – Ikea Hacks

It’s H’s birthday and one of the things she wants is a Lego table.

A Lego table does not come cheap, this we have found. I don’t want her to have the plastic ones as they’re already quite small for her. We wanted something which would suit a tall girl and grow with her. I spotted an absolutely gorgeous wooden one you can buy for £100 which is a bit too much.

So I googled around. There are plenty of Lego table options to make out there, but this one stood out – so we stole a few ideas then added some of our own.

After shopping around, the Lego boards we need to go on the top can be bought via Amazon for £5 each, so four were ordered. After that all you need is the table and containers which worked out really reasonable and cheap.

H decided she wanted a turquoise Lack table from Ikea. We spotted some Bygel plastic hanging containers which fit on a Bygel rail, coming in at a very reasonable £1.50 for the rail and 60p for each container. After that we went for the Grundtal magnetic knife holder at £11 (it’s really strong) and three Grundtal magnetic pots at £5 – which were slightly more expensive but will be a nice touch to the table.

After that it’s just a case of drilling them on – so it looks like this!

The final touch to the Lego table is the four lego boards. As said in the link above, you can’t place them close to each other so need to use lego to space them out properly. Something like on this picture (use Lego to make sure they’ll fit). Glue-wise we used ‘No More Nails’ and left it overnight – the night before H’s birthday in fact.

And that’s it. Rather than spend loads of money we spent a fraction of the cost. The Lack table has really good height on it and Ikea do a small chair which fits perfectly.

EDIT – this also works with Duplo. If your child isn’t quite ready for Lego but is likely to move up then this would be ideal! It doesn’t work with other brands we’ve tried like MegaBloks unfortunately!

23/08/201327/01/2014 by jo

Warburtons Krazy Kitchen – The End Is Near

Warburtons Krazy Kitchen is coming to an end – after three weeks of competing between two families – the McDermott’s and the Griffiths, the final instalment of their gameshow goes live today!

Warburtons Krazy Kitchen has been a gameshow, a sandwich-off between two families, and it comes to an end this week. We’ve had mum vs mum, dad vs dad and child vs child so far with the final part today, Friday.

Yes, that is my child with a mask on and her glasses on top.

To help celebrate, Warburtons sent us a hamper of food to help create some of the recipes they’ve featured. I’m vegetarian so have adapted the Tuna Trawlermen sandwich (using Warburtons white sandwich pitta breads) and the Chicken Supreme (using Warburtons Sandwich Thins) – Shaun and H had the tuna and chicken as they eat animal products.

With it being H’s fourth birthday today and all the party preparation that comes with it, a quick filling sandwich is ideal for us – there’s so much to get ready – there’s no need for any craziness in our kitchen, it’s pretty manic at the moment anyway!

The Tuna Trawlermen sandwich was quick to make, however we found the pittas difficult to hold together – not the end of the world but I do like a pitta to hold its contents! We put low-fat spread in each half, added cheese and salad and added tuna and sweetcorn (or quorn in my case) and a bit of red onion. I liked that the pittas are broken into two and come in a circular shape

The Chicken supreme was a much more straightforward sandwich, really nice and soft and it was the right size to hold the contents in – hand-sized. For this one I spread some low-fat spread onto the bread, added some cucumber and red onion and some salad. After that I added a little bit of mayonnaise and added the quorn. Shaun and H had chicken. The bread is quite soft and moist which meant we didn’t need to use much so it didn’t feel dry which was good.

Warburtons Krazy Kitchen Quorn

H liked that she could make her own sandwiches with whatever she wanted! So we had a bit of a Warburtons Krazy Kitchen going on in our house!

We generally make our own bread, but I feel like we’d definitely buy the sandwich thins, they were interesting and filling and quick to prepare. I also likes the packages were resealable which is handy when you don’t use them all at the same time.

You can see the final instalment of the Warburtons Krazy Kitchen here today (as well as all the previous ones) – who will win?

The first three episodes can be watched here.

We received payment and a hamper to feature this video. All opinions are our own and honest.

21/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Healthier Crisp Sandwiches With Walkers Mighty Lights

Today we had a go at an old family favourite, and something which disgusts Shaun at how unhealthy it sounds – some crisp sandwiches.

Crisp sandwiches always happen on a Tuesday in my family, some kind of tradition my Grannie had. I have to say I haven’t kept it going but do often quite fancy one, but the majority of crisps these days are pretty fatty – and when you’re looking after your waistline you want a good tasting crisp which isn’t going to have a high fat content.

Step forward new Walkers Mighty Lights, ridged crisps available in three flavours, all of them vegetarian. There’s Roast Chicken, Cheese and Onion and Lightly Salted. All contain 30% less fat compared to other crisps as well as no MSG, artificial colours or preservatives and they’re also a source of fibre.

So, back to the crisp sandwiches. Shaun refused to let me make them, but fortunately I had some salad leaves handy. I got some hummous to use instead of butter, and some cheese slices. The bread was freshly made that morning, so I sliced it (badly, seriously, can anyone tell me the secret of slicing soft bread?), spread on the hummous, added some salad leaves and cheese and served it – alongside a bowl of each flavour.

So, a taste test was next. H was asked the flavour of her crisp. She confidently told me hers was vanilla. Hmmm… It was the lightly salted, but she did agree she was tricking me so we’ll let her off. The three flavours work well – way back in time Seabrooks did some low-fat crisps which had such a high sugar content that they tasted disgusting – and I’m happy to say these Walkers crisps don’t – which is reassuring, as often a lot of low-fat foods tend to do this.

Flavour-wise I’d say the cheese and onion and roast chicken were pretty good – I can’t remember the last time I ate any flavour chicken crisps but I felt like they had a good taste, not at all meaty (at this point you need to bear in mind I’ve been vegetarian for 30 years please). They were so good they went perfectly into my sandwich, and made the perfect ‘healthy’ crisp sandwiches (ahem). The lightly salted isn’t too salty, it’s nice and subtle – just how I like it – I don’t want my tongue to feel bleached by salt.

Portion-size wise, it looked a little less than you’d usually get in a packet of crisps, but flavour-wise that made up for it. I got top crisp satisfaction while having had just enough.

Walkers Mighty Lights are targeted at kids, but actually I’d buy these as an option if I’m doing a Meal Deal; at the moment they’re only available in multipacks in supermarkets.

One really important thing I spotted – the crisps are made in a nut-free environment (all Walkers crisps are) – which means anyone with nut allergies should be fine eating these crisps, according to the FAQ on their site – None of our Walkers Mighty Lights flavours contain nuts or sesame seeds, and we do not handle either in our factory. I’ll be taking a pack with me this weekend for one of the children at H’s birthday party, as I had no idea Walkers were okay.

Ultimately, it all comes back to the crisp sandwiches though. Is it really truly a proper crisp sandwich if it has cheese and salad in there? Am I compromising my crisp sandwich needs for the sake of looking better on the blog? Should I have a secret Roast Chicken crisp sandwich tonight with just butter when everyone has gone to bed? Do you think they’re crisp sandwiches?

I think they’re massively underrated! They’re pretty yummy with the new Walkers Mighty Lights anyway, and definitely worth a try.

How do they compare? I’m comparing the Lightly Salted to the Ready Salted regular crisps, both by Walkers.

	Ready Salted	Lightly Salted
Energy [KJ]	549	477
Energy [Kcal]	132	114
Protein [g]	1.5	2.1
Carbohydrate [g]	12.9	15.2
– sugars [KJ]	0.1	0.2
Fat [g]	8	4.7
– saturates [g]	0.7	0.5
– mono-unsaturates	6.3	3.7
– poly-unsaturates	1.0	0.4
Fibre	1.1	1.2
Salt [g]	0.35	0.28

So as you can see, there are differences – higher carbs but lower sugars for one, as well as the lower fats.

The biggest question of all though, is what I made a crisp sandwich or not? You decide…

I have received payment to review these crisps, all opinions are my own and honest.

19/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Easy Bunting Craft With Tiger Stores

Tiger Stores is one of my favourite craft supply shops – everything is at a good price, so today I made some easy bunting which involved minimal effort from me and still looks good.

Easy bunting is something I’ve had in mind for H’s birthday – and Tiger Stores have some cool things in stock at the moment, but I hadn’t had the time to start it.

Today I was ill from work and needed something to occupy myself without it being too strenuous, something which involved minimal effort but decent results.

easy bunting from Tiger Stores

So here’s my Tiger Stores Easy Bunting Instructions :

Buy the Karton cardboard triangles which are bunting shaped. There are 50 in total, in ten different colours. £2.

If you’re anything like me you’ll always have a stash of the sticky back plastic drawer liners Tiger do – they have various colours at £4 a roll. I always keep any pieces I might do something with, as even the tiniest amount works. I have four different patterns at the moment.

Other than that I picked up some Snor purple string (£1 or £2) to use for hanging them.

easy bunting from Tiger Stores

Step 1

Work out the letters you need and using the handy guides on the back of the sticky paper make sure they’re the same size. Cut them out and look out for the letters which will come out the opposite way (like p) – don’t forget to do those backwards (I forgot).

Step 2.

Take each card piece of easy bunting and sort them into the colours you want. There are ten colours; green, dark green, blue, light blue, pink, cerise, yellow, orange, red and black.

Step 3.

Sort out which letters you want on which colour. Peel off the backing and stick them on.

Step 4.

You’ll probably have bits of plastic sticky stuff left – don’t throw it away, use it to fix the card to the string at the back – it’s strong sticky stuff so should do the job.

Step 5.

Hang up and admire your easy bunting then have a long lie down afterwards.

Gulp. I’ve just read they’ve opened a BIG store on Oxford Street. Dangerous. For my bank balance, that is…

18/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Box Hill Natural Play Trail

Box Hill is one of our local National Trust sites – a little more than twelve miles from our house so one we go to frequently.

Box Hill is an area of so many things to discover – and quite recently The National Trust set up some new walkways there, one of which we stumbled across today when we went for a visit – the Natural Play Trail.

The walk is around two miles long, suitable for kids of all ages and buggies, and throughout the walk there are lots of things to do.

We discovered lots of huts – handy for a bear hunt or searching for Gruffalo’s – as well as various play areas made from wood and rope – a swing, a rope swing, some tree trunks to balance on and lots to see and spot.

We kept it simple and kept to balancing on logs. H is pretty good though unsteady (like her mum) so we started holding hands until by the end she was doing it on her own which was good – and there are a lot of logs to practice on.

There were play areas around the walk – one area had a rope to balance or climb on, a swing tied into it (H had a go and enjoyed hanging upside down the most), and a rope swing which we need to work on with H! They were great and suitable for H’s age with supervision. There were older kids but they were respectful of H and her younger age and let her play too which was nice.

All around the woods were dens built from sticks and branches, one of our favourite things when we go for walks like this – an estimate would be twenty or thirty easily and they were all easy to climb into. As well as this were play and balance areas using smaller logs which you could climb on, some with a twisty maze around them and others just enclosed by them.

At the end of the first one was a doorway carved into a tree which H loved!

Box Hill also now have some cute paints on the roadway, from Amazing Views to Tea and Cake – as well as signs welcoming you there.

There are other walks at the site – if next weekend, post Birthday Party is all too much I know we’ll be back again – it’s good for clearing the head! Plus I had no idea the concrete thing we stand on is actually a fort (which is obvious really when you think about it)

Head here to see the other walks on offer.

We have National Trust membership which is paid for by ourselves.

18/08/201327/01/2014 by jo

Hello Kitty Top Trumps Cards

Hello Kitty Top Trumps Cards exist! I have a very pleased almost four-year old…

Top Trumps had a stand at Lollibop which we had to visit, where we bought a pack of the Hello Kitty cards. Up to now we’ve only had Top Trumps cards for London Landmarks and Tottenham players so they’re new to us – and H is a bit obsessed with Hello Kitty (and monsters).

I think they’re great, they’ve been going for many years now and they’re a good way of getting your child to identify numbers as well as learn a little bit from the cards.

The simple rules for Top Trumps – you have five categories, one person places down a card and names which number they think will be the greatest. The other players have to place a card with a higher number to then claim the cards. The winner is the player who collects the most cards.

In a nutshell, in this game if it’s your turn and you have The Moon, you’ll win on distance. The miles are from London (so if you have The Moon vs London on distance, you’re a winner. If you have The Moon vs London on style then London will win), as well as Fashion Factor, Things To Do, Natural Beauty and Glamour. If you have The Moon vs Paris on the latter, then Paris will obviously win!

There are various cities or countries around the world with a little fact about each one. You can even learn how to say hello in the language (or dialect) of the country.

Right now as H isn’t really reading we played with her helping Shaun (they’re very competitive) – and I’ve found it’s a great way at reading bigger numbers – she can count and identify numbers to 100 easily but struggles a bit with larger numbers.

The pictures are as you’d expect for something Hello Kitty related, and even though the game ended in tears (H stole my Moon card) I know it’s one we’ll come back to many times as she did enjoy playing it. I’m thinking about playing it alongside our world so we can show her where the countries are as well to add to the educational element.

So far the game has proved a hit – even with the tears. The Top Trumps were a bargain buy from Lollibop from their stand for £3 and you can buy from Amazon for £3.19. Each pack has 30 cards.

This post contains an affiliate link.

16/08/201327/03/2018 by jo

Lollibop 2013 – Our Review

Lollibop 2013 started today, the first day of a three-day festival for kids.

Lollibop 2013 moved venues to the Olympic Park this year, and although we haven’t been to previous ones, both Shaun and I are seasoned festival goers, a bit of rain wasn’t going to scare us, so we were ready!

Our journey wasn’t too painful, a train to London Bridge then just a few stops on the tube to Stratford with a fifteen minute walk to the park. We also got to walk past the Olympic Stadium, somewhere we never got to last year – it’s huge! (I am seriously struggling imagining West Ham having it as their home)

The Lollibop 2013 site was clearly marked – and helpers were starting to line up to guide everyone. I suspect people with buggies may struggle cutting across Westfield, so look into other ways there, but as we were on foot it wasn’t an issue.

We made it inside just in time for Poppy Cat who did some dance moves on the main stage – the sound cut out a bit but that didn’t spoil it for H. It was running late which was fortunate – H says Poppy Cat was probably her favourite thing about Lollibop 2013 (that and fifteen other things).

On the way in we got chatting to two boyfriends of the GoGoGo Show, and found them near us when they came on stage so insisted they join in with the dancing (they did). Shaun had no idea who they were then realised it was the band he sees every morning when he does his ironing – he knew the songs best of the three of us! H enjoyed it, and I like that one of them wears glasses so hopefully H can relate. We have never spoken about this.

There was no time to stop, as once they left the stage Rastamouse came on – and did a neat little set. The creator of Rastamouse came on too, as well as a lady and man who make the music – and it was perfect festival music, really enjoyable, plus everyone was handed Rastamouse flags. Somehow we caught Rastamouse three times over the day which was pleasant.

Shaun found free yoghurt courtesy of Chobani who were giving away full-sized tubs opposite the main stage, so we helped ourselves to one each and decided to have a wander around the site.

We found the Magic Belles stand, and got to chat for a long time to the lovely Maxine – H coloured in two postcards and posted them, it was such a sweet idea and good to stop. We love the Magic Belles and really you should be signing up for the Flutterbud Club – it’s free and it’s fab – every month we get a lovely picture and some fab goodies from them. H loves them too and they’re a really positive influence for little girls – their tent wasn’t just for girls though, it was for anyone who wanted to send a postcard to the fairies, boys of course are included.

Bear Nibbles were handing out free samples of their scrummy food, and next to them were some Barny edible teddy bear cake-y type things (which H loved). There was also a Haribo man making his way around the audience giving out free packets for those moments when it becomes too overwhelming for your little one and you need to give them sugar.

After that we headed back into the main area to get some food. Oh my, everyone else had arrived and the queues were long. Fortunately Dick and Dom were on stage, my Lollibop 2013 highlight, too funny, no ‘bogies’ but plenty of Dick Vs Dom and brilliantly funny. I think it opened up a new kind of comedy to H who wasn’t sure what to make of it. Definitely the best thing we saw – I could have cried laughing at times. H still finds it very strange someone would shout in a library ‘as you’re not meant to do that’ (oh, she’s so good).

Food queues were getting silly, so after a quick scoot around (Nando’s – too long, The Food Stop – too long) we decided on toasties. Reasonably priced Shaun queued while H and I had a little rest – we hadn’t sat down by this time (Hello Kitty had been cancelled on the main stage much to H’s disappointment and the Mr Men had finished which was our only stage clash) plus we were hungry.

The Toasties are quick, but the queue is slow – we got them after about 20-30 minutes in the end, and headed to the press area to sit down and eat them.

After that we felt a bit more refreshed and headed out to catch the end of the GoGoGo Show – we really liked the sets were repeated so at least we caught them at the start of the day when it was quiet and didn’t miss anything as Rastamouse started again. This time we wandered around the shops.

I saw this. I managed to hold myself back. Just.

There were loads of great stalls but we don’t have a lot of money to spend with H’s 4th birthday next week, so we were sensible – in the end I got her some Hello Kitty Top Trumps as I think she’ll like them. There was an entire Top Trumps stall, so that was good to see. I spotted some Moshi Monsters ones too but will wait for now.

We headed towards the Lolli Kitchen where Katy Ashworth from I Can Cook was about to start, which coincided with Andy & Sid from Cbeebies on the Lollipalladium – both stages pretty much next to each other so you can easily get between the two. Actually, H wanted to stop at the Parentdish stand and colour in some bunting. Eventually we got to see both, and both were excellent. Katy was especially funny and got H giggling – a very talented lady – another Lollibop 2013 highlight. Sid and Andy were singing nursery rhymes by the time we got there and being ever so funny – H was getting tired though and by now was on Shaun’s shoulders.

After that we were a bit Lollibop-ed out, and decided to check the face painting queue – it was still long, but we spotted a Hello Kitty Meet and Greet, so joined that queue instead. They closed it when we were FIVE away from meeting Hello Kitty, cue lots of sad kids who just bombarded her with cuddles. That was enough for H, that and there was a Hello Kitty Twister on the hill too which was pretty awesome (and we got to sit and let her get on with it which was even better).

A quick wander back to the main area and the face painting queue had gone right down so we joined it, where the fabulous ladies from Kattoo were, giving out free tattoos to everyone – we already had ours and I got to have a chat with them. It’s a brilliant idea and perfect for events like Lollibop – keep an eye out for them! H had her face painted like Hello Kitty (see a theme here?) and we headed back towards the Magic Belles stand for one last colour in.

Kattoo Tattoos at Lollibop 2013

After that a quick stop at the Wow Toys stand, I’m kind of sad as we’re at the top end of their age range, their toys look excellent though and one I’ll consider for my new nephew when it comes to Christmas time. Duplo were next door so we had a quick play before it really was time to leave Lollibop 2013 and make a move back home.

All in all we spent the day from around 10.10 until 5.30 which is pretty good going. I was pleased how well H handled it, there was plenty of space to rest up, plenty of shelter from the rain and everything was reasonably priced. Lollibop 2013 was a fantastic day out and I really wish we’d got to the National Geographic Kids area as I would love to subscribe for H if it was age appropriate and they had a good deal on. We missed the science area too. I feel like you need an even longer day to do it all!

It was a wonderful day, we have no complaints and we’ll be back next year.

You can still buy tickets here!

We received free passes for our day at Lollibop 2013 – all opinions are our own and honest.

15/08/201327/01/2014 by jo

Easy No-Cook Brownies

Here’s our slightly modified easy no-cook brownies recipe!

To make these no-cook brownies you need the following :

1 cup of pecans

1 cup of dates

a third of a cup of cocoa powder

one small person for squishing (not literally, just for the mixture, honest).

I blasted the pecans in my processor until they looked like this.

pecan no-cook brownie

Add the dates and process them again.

Then finally added the cocoa powder.

The no-cook brownies mixture felt a bit dry so I added some honey to make it a bit stickier (a not too generous squeeze, enough to make it moist but not sticky).

After that it was a case of lining a tray with greaseproof paper, and getting H to squish the mixture so it was nice and flat.

Put the no-cook brownies in the fridge to set….

All you need to do after that is cut the brownies into pieces and try not to scoff it all at once. The no-cook brownies are really light, feel healthy, quite chocolatey (so if you want to reduce it, add less cocoa) and stick together well.

This recipe is adapted from here and here.

14/08/2013 by jo

A Sad Kind Of Post

Yesterday I was saddened to read about the death of Jon Brookes of The Charlatans. See, I’m not sure if you know, but the name Mum Friendly came about after a night sitting in the pub trying to think of a name as they played The Charlatans ‘Some Friendly’ album – and it happened I had been proof reading the artwork for a reissue at work too. It all kind of clicked into place.

So it feels appropriate to post something here. RIP Jon Brookes. A great drumming talent and a sad loss at such a young age too.

Mum Friendly

the things we do, the things we like

Author / jo