Toddler food and snack ideas - energy balls and fake pizza

Morning everyone,

Hope you are not too cold today! We are using up one large lamb roast and eating nourishing food / plenty of protein in cold weather has inspired me to make more protein snack balls for AJ (daddy sometimes steals them too).

I just had to share these with you as they are incredibly easy to make and so good you might have to make yourself some:

ENERGY BALLS (click for original site)
1/4 cup finely grated carrots
1/4 cup rolled oats or Granola*
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 Tablespoon honey
3 Tablespoons peanut butter

Mix and roll into balls. Easy carrots in the tummy! 
*Granola makes these Energy Balls more tasty and adds a nice crunch!

They freeze very well and I then take 2 or 3 out in the morning for him to have during that day.

Personally I always like to add grated banana or apple too, plus any dried fruit lying around etc. I also coat them with flaked coconut, wheatgerm or even the odd one in powdered chocolate as a special treat.
AJ loves, loves these and as soon as he sees them stretches his hands out and grabs 2 at a time... I may experiment with courgettes, sweet potato etc as they have natural sweetness and would be a great way to get more veggies in.

Fake Pizza

For my fake pizza you simply take 2 slices of bread. Grill one side. and part grill the other side. Butter the part grilled side, and spread tomato paste on it. Add ham,finely sliced green and red peppers, pineapple, sliced cherry tomatoes and some grated cheese. Grill for around 5 minutes keeping an eye on it until golden. Cut into triangles for the full pizza effect! Cheap, colourful and cheerful and most importantly, quick!  A good way to sneak veggies in too...

We are off to playgroup later and Ive also got to put together a presentation for work tomorrow, hopefully a nice long nap after lunch, and that'd be lovely for me too ha ha...  but next on my list this morning is to check the Approved Foods website for deals and also to start a Shepherds Pie for dinner with our lamb leftovers. AJ is also clamouring for breakfast, so we've got the raspberry porridge from yesterday yum yum.

Spring has sprung!

Hi everyone sorry for the delay in keeping in touch. I have family emmigrating, work has been busy, and works starting on our home so things have been very hectic.

However, we have managed to start planting - so far we have some lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, chilli, potatoes, onions and sunflower seeds. This year though I really want the lettuce and carrots to survive - hopefully I will do it right this time! The sunflowers have already started to peek through so the first 2 leaves are showing now... Then we also got some Jasmine, which I need to figure out how to take care of as it is delicate, but I do love them so much.

The main thing I have learned this month is that a) budgeting has gone out the window, my finance management skills need severely reigning in, b) car insurance quotes are a nightmare and all seem to have differing standards and c) don't beleive it when cans of paint say 'one coat'! I have learned that primer is almost always needed when repainting - I will share a photo on here soon so you can see what I have been up to in the kitchen.

The other thing I have done is joined a site called FreebieGB, who give you a free prize if you register, select a prize, then refer a few people (amount of referrals depends on the prize you choose). It may not be for everyone, but it sounds to me that if you club together with friends and family to sign up, you will get an item you can all share. For our family we will be doing the TomTom Satnav and I have followed the sign up procedure with FreebieGB. Then all of us can use the TomTom amongst us and it saves everyone some cash. Anyone with any feedback on these guys feel free to share, but it looks good so far.

I will add some photos here soon of both the seedlings and plants, DIY work so far and also some lovely finds we have come across second hand, to maybe inspire folks who are looking to change decor or buy items cheaply. I love the idea of recycling items and giving them a second lease of life, plus furnishing a house with mostly second hand items.

Enjoy and do drop in any comments on what you are up to now the sun is out!

Dandelions Revenge... and eating healthier!

Hi everyone and I hope you are well!

My thoughts so far in May have been that usually, Summer costs us more than Winter. This mainly in terms of going out, holidays, foods etc. However, Winter also brings higher fuel bills, Christmas and all those new Winter clothes to keep us warm…

So now I find that food will be more expensive because I love salads and fresh fruit and veg in Summer, as our appetites are smaller.

Do you have any fresh Summer recipes that are not too expensive?

What I have started to do is buy dried aduki beans (one of the SuperFoods), soak overnight and batch cook them to freeze in normal ‘tin’ portions. I have made:

- Tuna, Spinach and Aduki salad with dressing
- Salmon, aduki beans with cucumber and some dressing
- Chick pea, aduki beans, feta cheese and tomato salad with dressing
- Healthier Lasagne with aduki beans and lentils in, together with thin sliced courgette/aubergine etc. This can be frozen in those aluminium tins you get at the £1 stores, and go from freezer straight to the oven

Those are just some ideas for aduki beans – very healthy and cheap too! I love them for lunches too. You can throw on some sunflower and pumpkin seeds to make it even healthier!

My next idea, which I will experiment with soon, is to eat some Dandelions… we have lots of weeds in the patio, and I have discovered not only are they edible, they’re good for you! I hope to take my revenge on those pesky things by eating them… only the newest leaves to start though, as the flavours are more delicate:

Dandelion Recipe


You can then even make infusions from the dandelion heads, thus using the whole flower for body and mind! I do hope this inspires you to think of Summer salads and eating for less…

Shabby Chic - Make your own pretty things!

Hi everyone, hope you have been enjoying the sunshine whilst it lasts!

Today my post will mainly be pictures of what I have been up to at home, mostly gardening and kitchen stuff. Before Easter I attempted to make some jelly eggs for my nieces but failed miserably (how DO the Americans do it!?), then on Easter Sunday I made some muffins, what I call Breakfast muffins as they're made with carrot and apple, with honey and cranberries for natural sweetness. I also sprinkle them with sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds for added goodness. See left for a pic of one next to my Bonne Mamman customised jars... I used normal white address labels and just added a nice font in Word, then inserted an image I liked from Google and print... far less than what the stores would charge you for jam jar labels, and, you can afford to make mistakes or change your mind!



These are my customised coffee jars as they keep things so fresh. Just be careful not to put the lids in the dishwasher as after a while they absorb moisture and there goes your airtight lid!



I have also been planting - the tall ones you can see in the pic are green beans (wow do they grow super fast - it was like Day Of The Triffids!) - also we have basil, small carrots and tomatoes growing. Let's see what happens! Have tried lettuce but failed - must try harder as they're supposed to be super easy! We want to be able to have our own edibles this Summer, and so far have not really spend much on them - as you can see lots of the pots are yogurt pots! Whilst I am experimenting, I'd rather do that, then spend more later when I know what's what...

I love all things Shabby Chic - the gingham print on the jam jar lids, aged French furniture, you name it, it's how I'd love my home to be. Of you like that style too, do join us on MSE on this thread packed with lovely ideas!

Shabby Chic Thread

The Strawberry emerges!

Ok so it's not the most exciting thing to anyone else, but the one strawberry we have is starting to blush and resemble a fruit, instead of a green nobbly thing... so here you go - for us it's a major moment!

Also the dill is coming along nicely as you can see, so although it will take some time, I imagine some nice Winter dishes will be complemented with this hopeful batch... and we simply placed the seeds in a strawberry plastic container from the supermarket, so there was no need to spend cash on the pot.


I have had a busy weekend so am very tired, but my husband made some fresh bread this afternoon, which technically cost us nothing this week, seeing as we bought the main ingredients from last weeks budget. With the price of bread going up and up, I think he's enjoying making it himself and producing something almost for nothing. It's cooling as I type and only our second ever loaf, so this shows anyone can make it!

We're following Delia's recipe, as we found that the recipe on the back of the Somerfield 'strong' white flour pack didn't work as well (it was too yeasty, they suggested 2 tablespoons of dry yeast, Delia uses 1 teaspoon and also lets it sit and bubble with warm water up prior to starting the recipe).



As you can see, it's just cooling on our grater as we don't have a wire rack, but this works just as well and saves on buying anything fancy. I am looking forward to trying some of it in a while, perfect as a little snack before we have tuna gumbo - this is a delicious and easy dish:





'TUNA GUMBO'

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped, then cooked
1 chopped white or red onion
1 clove chopped garlic
2 tomatoes, chopped
Small bowl of sweetcorn (frozen is cheapest but small tin would work)
Handful of peas
1 tin of tuna
Handful of green beans, topped and tailed, cooked/steamed
Some black olived, de-pipped!

Fry onion and garlic then tomatoes, when done place in a big bowl. Heat sweetcorn & peas (just pouring boiling water over them does the trick) and drain the cooked sweet potato. Then pour these into the bowl with the cooked green beans. Mix all the ingredients together, add olive oil and seasoning (oregano and paprika work very well). Add a couple of tablespoons light mayo and the olives, serve with mixed leaf salad. Delicious!

Homegrown veggies - for first timers!

We're not gardeners. We kill plants, with too much or too little love. However, with the price of food rising by the week, we're starting to reassess whether we couldn't learn to plant a few seeds. We only have a small patio garden, it has enough room for a few pots though so we thought it would be worth a try.

So, last Wednesday, we took a trip to the local B&Q and got some compost, some seed trays, seeds for Kos lettuce, small carrots and herbs. We also got some Chilli, but unfortunately it's soo late to plant those now.

Our carrot has taken longer but started to sprout too:

And here is a picture of the dill - still not sure what to cook with it but it will be nice to have it available when we need some:

We also bought a ready-grown pepper plant for £10.50 at a local flower shop, which has around 14 peppers on it, so this should save quite a bit when they have start to hit fully grown size.

We bought a strawberry plant which so far shows one perky strawberry, here's to hoping the next one will come up soon or it will be a short lived fruit salad!

Sadly we missed the correct time for planting tomatoes, but my next stage will be to try and plant potatoes, which by all accounts just needs a deep box with holes for the water to drain, and plenty of soil!

All in all, we probably spent £27 on everything.