28/12/201226/03/2018 by jo

Smart Gift Ideas From Morphy Richards

Christmas may be over, and we’re heading into a new year, and already I know it’s one I’m going cooking much more – and when the weather is dreary then what better to do than a spot of cooking?

Morphy Richards have loads of smart gift ideas (and a new app so you can let others know what you fancy too). If I could choose just three things, my list would be this:

The Intellisteam Food Steamer – this sounds great – two compartments to steam your veg, with different settings so you can have several vegetables on the go at the same time – plus it looks easy to clean and is dishwasher safe – and isn’t too big to store either. I need more gadgets where you can add food and leave them to cook so I can spend more time with H in the evening – and this sounds ideal – plus it means I’d be saving on washing up pots and pans which are possibly the most boring things to wash by hand. Oh, and it’s also quite good for pasta and rice dishes, so that is a huge thumbs up from me – anything that means I get a bit of time with my daughter is a good thing.

I really like the Yellow Hand Blender set – I had to buy a food processor over Christmas as smoke came out of my hand blender when I was making some biscuits (this is when I realised I was doing it wrong and needed something bigger). I’ve not dared switch on the little old one yet, but I fear its days are numbered… and besides, I love a kitchen that doesn’t match, this colour yellow is nice and bright and adds some colour to the room. So I’d add this to the wishlist as it isn’t expensive – and looks bright and retro. Also: a whisk! I could make meringues and pavlovas!!

Morphy Richards Soup Maker

Finally, I’d add a Soup Maker to my wishlist. I have one already (as I’ve already gushed about a gazillion times on here), but I’d gift it to a friend who was envious of mine but hasn’t get one. I won’t say who.. but I know she’d use it as much as I use mine – and I’d be happy to pass it on.

So yes, my wishlist there. I’ll be working on more recipes this year, and hopefully H might help me…

(and disclaimer – I’d have added a kettle and toaster as our old ones were on their last legs, but they both blew before Christmas so we’ve already bought new ones!)

27/12/201220/10/2014 by jo

Smith & Western Restaurant Boxhill

We often pop to Box Hill for a drive – the views are great and as National Trust members we can park for free. After a walk around we’re hungry, more often than not, and often head to the Smith & Western Bar and Grill up the road – it’s literally one minute from where we park. Every time I’ve been they’ve been busy – they seat 150 people in total – it’s a popular place (although granted some of those times have been Mothers or Fathers Day).

Today we ventured out after Christmas, and got in straight away! We were led to our seats and straight away I was impressed at how our server picked out a magazine-type thing and some crayons for H – I often have to ask, even in places like Pizza Express. There were plenty of puzzles (she’s enjoying lots of Spot The Difference at the moment) and colouring in, as well as things for older kids too. We were given a small bucket of Nachos while we waited – I love it when restaurants do that (it’s the little things, okay?).

Smith & Western Box Hill

The magazine-type thing also doubles up as the children’s menu which had a decent choice of food, from meaty dishes to pizza options. When H’s food arrived it was a decent sized portion too – actually, all the food was – though vegetable options were a bit sparse (her choice though, she didn’t want celery and carrot or corn on the cob). Anyway, this wasn’t a huge problem as we eat a lot of fruit and veg at home.

As far as choosing for vegetarian food, there was only one option burger-wise and that was a mushroom. I hate mushrooms, and had already decided against salad so ordered a vegetable fajita dish – which came with five small wraps and plenty of veg – as well as some guacamole, salsa, cheese and cream on the side. There were a few other veggie options available (a bean burger option would be nice if anyone from Smith & Western ever reads this!)

Shaun went for a burger and chose chips as his side – and it was quite a generous portion size too. We were both pretty stuffed, although did notice H’s meal really was just a sausage in a bun – she’s not (yet) a fan of sauces on her food and prefers to dip it, so had a dry bread roll with no sausage (as she picked it out and ate it and dipped it on its own.. sigh, 3 year olds…).

Someone on the next table had ordered a ‘Filling Station’ – basically around 8 pints-worth of beer in a sort of blender shaped holder which keeps the beer just right – it looked good too! We looked on in envy… You just serve yourself from the table.

H chose ice cream with banana and strawberry for dessert but was too full to finish it, so we helped her.

Being sensible we opted for diet coke which was unlimited refills (we only needed the one), H’s fruit juice was also unlimited. The kids meal was a set price which was reasonable and included drink, main and dessert. I did notice you could only have one milkshake if you chose that option, however.

We spent a short while looking for deals on our phones thinking it would come in quite expensive, and failed – but were pleasantly surprised when we saw the bill – everything came in at around £35. We were also given a couple of discount vouchers for a trip back in the new year, which we may well use – I wouldn’t mind trying out their Caesar Salad (though it doesn’t look too WW friendly!) – then again a good walk afterwards will help.

Anyway, in a nutshell, how child-friendly was it? Very! There was enough space, the toilets were spacious too which is always good when you’re having to go with your little one. The overall cost was surprisingly good, and the food was tasty (a bit oily), and very filling. I didn’t see if there was buggy storage anywhere, there was decent parking so I’ll assume most people have got there by car anyway. There were loads of kids around, which is always a good sign anyway. The menu for kids had enough activities it kept H entertained, and the people serving our table were quick – food came quickly and we were out within an hour (I do hate waiting!).

We’ll definitely be back.

(note, if you do go, take the A217 route via Headley Wood as it’s much easier!)

26/12/201202/02/2014 by jo

Easy Nachos

I’m doing Weight Watchers in case you’d forgotten (there’s a little badge half way down to remind you) – and I’m pleased over Christmas I’ve only gained 2lb – although we’ve not really had much chocolate so there hasn’t been too much temptation.

Anyway, it was a rainy Boxing Day and we were bored, we didn’t want to go out, but we wanted something simple and savoury. After looking around, it’s pretty easy to make Nachos, so I adapted it a bit to be Weight Watchers friendly. I have no idea points-wise how much they’ll be, as a lot depends on how many you eat, but certainly not as much as regular crisps!

1. get some Weight Watchers tortilla wraps (4 points each). I always seem to have them and they’re often close to their use-by date – Poundland also stock them which makes these quite cheap.

2. cut them in half, and in half again, and then cut those in half again, so you’ve got a rough tortilla chip sized piece, 8 per round tortilla.

3. lightly spray them using your Weight Watchers Oil Spray – it doesn’t need very much at all, two or three mists.

4. sprinkle them with some paprika.

5. stick them in the oven – we have a fan assisted oven and had it on at 180c – I used one of those pizza trays with the holes in the bottom which helps make the underneath crisp.

After ten minutes check how hard they are (you might like them crispy, you might like them soft) and remove from the heat to let them cool down. I added a tiny bit of salt and some spices, then left them to stand and harden up a bit.

We had a sachet for some home made salsa which only needed some tomato adding (we used Passata – 0 points), and leave for an hour or so in the fridge until it’s properly spicy (we also added some coriander from our Gourmet Garden selection of fresh spices). I also bought some guacamole the other day so we added that.

Sit yourselves down, stick a film on and munch away for a good half hour or so.

Fab! Points-wise I’d say you’re looking at 4-5 per tortilla, extra for dips so adapt where necessary (the salsa may well have been 0 points)

Weight Watchers Friendly Nachos

24/12/201220/10/2014 by jo

Merry Christmas!

A big thank you from us all here for all your support and comments on Mum Friendly in the last year! We’ve had a brilliant year and long may it continue into next year – we’ve lots of features to come in the New Year, including Shaun’s Couch to 5K writeup (yep, I’ve persuaded him to write more!) – all manner of things. But most importantly for now, have a brillant, fantastic Christmas – and thank you again!

21/12/201220/10/2014 by jo

App Time – The Snowman and the Snowdog

I have my Christmas Radio Times, so I am more than aware about The Snowman and the Snowdog (Channel 4, 8pm Christmas Eve 2012 as well as a few repeats) – and somehow I stumbled across The Snowman and The Snowdog in iTunes – it’s free, so I figured it’s worth a download.

It’s a really charming app! It features all of Raymond Briggs’ artwork from the Snowman book – the Snowman flies over various places (including some London landmarks – at The London Eye I pointed out Shaun’s work, and H exclaimed “Why is Daddy’s work on the iPad?!”) – you collect snowflakes to earn more time (I’m not sure how much per snowflake but there’s lots – I’ve managed to do two and a half circuits of the game on them) and you have to pick up objects on your journey to get bonuses and badges.

The Snowman and the Snowdog app

The app is run in conjunction with Channel 4, and there’s plenty of ‘Don’t forget to watch!’ type things on there which weren’t too obtrusive (but enough to remember!).

You can slow down the flying by swiping downwards and speed things up by swiping upwards (which didn’t seem to work for me) – worth knowing as we had no idea until it told us a few minutes in. You work your way through the map, so there’s Hastings, North London, the North Pole, back to South London, the countryside and right back to Hastings – although if you run out of time you’ll have to try again. When you complete all tasks in an area you’ll get three stars.

The Snowman and the Snowdog at the London Eye app

If you want a game you can sit and play with your (younger) child, this is the kind of thing – older children will enjoy it too and probably need less help. Personally, I love it – I can see us going back to this app several times due to the amount of things you need to do!

21/12/2012 by jo

Knitting a Tea Cosy

Every month us Hooky Knitters of Carshalton meet in our local pub and knit – and the pub set us a task. Make them a tea cosy or two for their warmed up Pimm’s Winter, which is to be served in teapots.

We found what they wanted and gulped. It looked like it was crocheted, and we’re dwindling in crocheters, though do have some. Fortunately Shaun’s mum came along with a brilliant knit for a simple tea cosy using two colours and just the one stitch.

Incredibly, I’ve finished it in just over two weeks (this is incredible as I’ve never followed a pattern before and I’ve never knitted with two colours before, and I’ve never finished a pattern or a project before).

So, what to do? You’ve two colours – we chose orange and white as they’re quite Pimm’s-y.

Cast on 72 stitches.
Knit 5 rows plain then knit 3 (colour one) and knit 3 (colour two).

Keep this going for as long as necessary – and remember at the end of each row to twist your two colours around so you don’t get gaps in the knit – it helps keep it tidy.

Remember which side you’re knitting from and where your unused wool goes, so that each colour change is neat at the back.

When you get to lid height start to decrease by knitting one then knit two together for each colour for four rows and when long enough cast off. Sew both sides up (and don’t forget to leave a space for the handle and spout!) Gather in the top and attach the pom-pom. You can also put some wool around the bottom to gather it in – I didn’t, but Karen did, so you get an idea of how it’ll look.

You’ll end up with something that looks like this :

Karen added a white knitted rectangle to the front of hers with a cross-stitched Pimm’s on there – I think it looks ACE!

20/12/201218/01/2015 by jo

Where To Buy Clothes?

Christmas is almost here, and I’ve hit a dilemma. I have clothes, just none that fit me any more – they’re all loose. I tried on some jeans today in Dorothy Perkins and found that I’ve dropped quite a few sizes – jeans which used to be a weird fit are now a good fit. I’ve not bought anything (yet!), as I was confused.

I know there’s a discrepancy with all the clothes stores and their sizings, and how on earth am I to know where to start?

THEN I remembered this website – What Size Am I?. It would appear that my size goes well with New Look – I can live with that! Oh, and if I wanted to shop in The Gap I’d probably be a Size 14. LORDY!

Anyway, just passing the link on, as maybe some of you reading may find you’re in a similar position – it’s a great resource!

19/12/201212/02/2015 by jo

Dressing Up Is Fun!

We were sent a costume from Jokers’ Masquerade to try – well, I was sent it for H to try. In the last year or so she’s really grown to love dressing up – she’s done it a lot in the past, but since last Christmas we’ve had costumes for her to try and play in (the Doctor one goes down very well), and of course it goes without saying that being a parent I’ve always looked out for the best-yet-slightly-ridiculous ones (she was a Christmas Pudding when she was four months) – so it needs to have a good sense of humour. Enter our Christmas Tree costume! (and indeed, last week she was a fabulous Christmas tree at the Nursery Christmas show)

This costume has all that – tinsel? Check. Tree shape? Indeed! Hat with star on the top? Of course. But the biggest test is what H thinks of it.

Actually, fortunately, once she got her costume on, she really didn’t want to take it off. We’ve had a few occasions where she’ll happily sit at the table wearing the hat (with crazy sunglasses), or indeed just lounge around as a tree. That, to me says it’s a good costume – she doesn’t want to take it off, it isn’t itchy anywhere, and most of all it’s fun! That and you can stand next to the Christmas tree and compare notes… The tree costume is 100% polyester, wipe clean only.

It is a very serious business being a tree.

Jokers’ Masquerade have LOADS of Christmas costumes – don’t leave it too late though, as the big event is approaching!

We were sent a Christmas Tree costume for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

18/12/201220/10/2014 by jo

I’m a WeightWatchers 2013 Blogger Ambassador

If you’ve been following the BritMums WeightWatchers Back2Best Challenge on here then you’ll already know I’ve been doing WeightWatchers for three or so months now – and I’m really pleased with the results so far.

I was really pleased to be asked to be a 2013 Blogger Ambassador – I’m still overweight and still planning on losing that last half a stone, maybe more. So – things will go quiet until January, but I’ll be back reporting on things and how it’s all going. Right now I’m waiting for a sale at The Gap so I can buy some new jeans… the ones I bought last Christmas are a bit too big.. (woo!)

One thing I’ll find out more about soon is my chances of having diabetes as well as high cholesterol. Those two reasons were my main ones for starting WeightWatchers – I need to be healthy – and as one side of the family do seem to have heart attacks, cholesterol is something I need to keep an eye on. Diabetes came with pregnancy, so I’m at risk of developing that in later life too.

Having said all that, I’ve been slack these last three weeks – I’ve got a new account, and once I’ve added all my recipes in time for next year, I’ll be right back on track. I’ve changed my weigh-in day to a Friday (it was a Sunday previously) and there’ll be regular updates. (and for the record, since the last update I’m maintaining my weight, not losing – which is good)

So stick around, there’s a tab at the top of the page where all my past and future updates are – and tell me any stories about your success with WeightWatchers too – I’ve lost a stone and know I can do that last little bit.

Most importantly of all, I’m NOT on a diet, I’m on a lifestyle change. I can still eat the food I like, I just know my portion sizes and when to stop.

I’ve been provided with six months of WeightWatchers membership – all opinions are my own.

18/12/2012 by jo

Planning to Travel?

It feels mad to think it, but only two years ago we were in Australia getting ready to celebrate Christmas – H was fifteen months and we’d had quite the journey from our house to Gatwick, to Forest Row and eventually back to Gatwick three days later due to the snow.

I did a post a while back with hints and things we found worked for us, and things I wish we had done (in a nutshell, had it not snowed heavily causing gridlocked cars, we’d have made our flight with plenty of time to spare. As it was, Shaun had to drive H and I to the station where we then waited even longer as he was stuck getting the car back home – we eventually got a train to Victoria to attempt the Gatwick Express, but all trains were at a standstill, and we missed our flight).

So my biggest bit of advice, especially now the weather is getting colder is to look for a good deal for a day room prior to flying! Get there hours before you need to and if your flight is still on schedule you’ll be ready – and most importantly of all, make sure you have insurance which covers any problems if there’s snow and you end up staying in a hotel for a few extra days!

Of course, there’s also those of us who plan way ahead. If we were planning on going to Australia next year, then you can usually get good deals online around now – though even if you’re planning on going away at short notice then most places have last minute deals.

Next year I would love to head over to the Netherlands for a trip to Utrecht and a few other cities, taking in the Dick Bruna museum – and I’ll be looking for some good deals so we can have a fun few days away – I would really like to try the Eurostar with H, as she’s fine on trains and it could be much less stress than flying!

My top tips for flying with a 15 month old are :

Introduce them to the tv a bit before going. Long haul flights are tough, you can’t always sleep when your child does, and if you get a bit of time to all wind down then the in-flight entertainment is a good place to start. There was plenty of choice and she was a little more interested in looking at the pictures than listening anyway.

Take sticker books – especially if they’re new ones your child doesn’t know. You can pick up sticker books in bargain book stores really cheaply. Alternatively, there’s magazines like the Cbeebies or Friends ones which always have loads of stickers, though I was always worried the chair would end up covered!

Know what your food options are. At 15 months we were offered baby food, mush in a jar. H has never eaten mush as we did Baby Led Weaning, but we did keep everything else (wipes, spoons and so on). We ordered her a child meal which was packed full of sugar, so quickly swapped it with our things.

Buy some new books. We’ve followed quite a few books in series – so Topsy & Tim went down well, as did stories about airports (I can still recite ‘Busy Airport’ off the top of my head several years later).

Finally if all else fails, you can guarantee the remote control will be fun to press all the buttons on. Just make sure you watch what they press so they’re not summoning the stewardess every ten seconds!