Honeyed oatmeal biscuits(or yummy flapjacks as i call them!!)

Honeyed oatmeal biscuits:

Makes about 24

Rachel’s quote:  ‘ These oatmeal biscuits couldn’t be faster to prepare, with everything simply melted then mixed together before being baked.  I have used Kerrygold Honey Spread to give them a delicious honey flavour.  I have used Kerrygold Honey Spread as a convenient cheat for adding both honey and butter.’

Ingredients:

·   175g (6oz) Kerrygold Honey Spread

·   110g (4oz) caster sugar

·   250g (9oz) oats

·   1 tbsp golden syrup

·   1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1.       Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°f/Gas mark 4.

2.       Place a saucepan on a medium-low heat; add the Kerrygold Honey Spread, golden syrup and vanilla extract.  Melt and stir together, then stir in the caster sugar and oats and mix well.

3.       Spread onto a Swiss roll tin and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until golden.

4.       Cut in to squares while still warm, then place on a wire rack to cool.

What we think.
I will be totally honest here, i was really dubious about making these biscuits. My only memories of honey are my nan having vast amounts in her porridge and tea(yes honey in tea instead of sugar) and even the smell is completely unappealing to me.
But hey, i love a challenge, so upon being asked to try out some "honey" recipes from the new Rachel Allen community cookbook, using the new Kerrygold honey spread, i was more then willing to give it a go. There is a selection of recipes i will be sharing with you, some savoury, some sweet.
So this morning when Eva asked to make biscuits(nothing new there) i said ok we'll try these. I didn't think she would be overly impressed as her favourite part of making biscuits is the rolling and cutting shapes out of the dough.
But she proved me wrong, she loved making these.
She measured out the honey butter, golden syrup and vanilla essence into a bowl, and then i put a pan of water on to boil. While waiting for the water to heat up to melt the butter mix, we weighed out the oats and sugar. She then mixed them together while, i stirred the melting butter.
I then turned off the boiling water, and put the bowl on a towel. I told Eva to be very careful as the bowl was hot. She then spooned the dry mix into the wet mix and we mixed it together. She then spooned it into the greased baking tin and i put it into the preheated oven.

When cooking they smelled so strongly of honey, i was still convinced i wouldn't like them.
So after 30 minutes i took them out of the oven, cut into squares(i cut them into large squares, so didn't get 24, but then did cut them smaller) and put on a wire rack to cool.

Then came the taste test, i took a tiny nibble...Mmm that's ok, so a larger bite. YUM!!!!
They taste delicious. Jack on seeing me eating one was then round my ankles for a piece. And his verdict...a resounding yum. He gobbled it up, and i'm sure he would of had more if i'd let him.
It took us around 10-15 minutes to make these, but if you were making them alone, without a child helping it would take you less then 5.
Go on, give them a try, and let us know what you think.
Loren x

For more information on the Kerrygold, delicious recipes and to be in with a chance to have your recipe featured in the Kerrygold Community Cookbook alongside Rachel Allen’s please visit www.facebook.com/KerrygoldUK

Organic Baby food from Baby Zilli-Review

I was thrilled when we were asked to review some Baby Zilli Baby Food, as even though Jack usually eats what we eat now(he's 15 months) sometimes that just isnt practical, and i also like the peace of mind of keeping a pouch of food in the changing bag if were going out for the day. We were sent 4 products to review, Pasta Pomodoro, Cock-a-Leekie, Fruit Medley Pud and Fruit Berry Crumble.



Aldo Zilli comments "All the Baby Zilli dishes are completely organic, free from artificial flavours with absolutely no additives. Its all natural, good stuff that your baby will love."

Each Baby Zilli recipe has no added salt or sugar, no bulking agents, no E-numbers, no preservatives, no artificial additives, no GM foods. They are just 100% organic goodness.

So does this matter?

As a mother of 2, all this does matter. When it came to weaning Eva 3 years ago, there was nothing like this on the market, all the baby foods were processed jars. After looking around i decided i was going to make all her food myself, for 2 reasons, firstly the majority of jarred foods contain additives or preservatives of some kind. And secondly, the bland taste...and the fact that they all tasted the same. I wouldn't eat it, so why should i be feeding it to my baby.(this is/was just my personal opinion).

On having Jack i found a similar product to the Zilli range, which was great, i still cooked as much home cooked as i could, but when we were out and about or going to someones house i could take a pouch of food, that was nearly as good as homemade and feel happy in the knowledge Jack was enjoying the food, but that it was also good for him.

I was a bit dubious how Jack would react to a bowl of "baby food" as he eats what we eat, but was so pleased to how much he enjoyed it, that i will definately be stocking up and recommending Baby Zilli to as many people as will listen.

The recipes used are ones Aldo created for his own children, so you can rest assured your baby is eating the best.

The packaging states "Good enough for Mamma and Papa to eat" but i couldn't tell you if thats true or not, as i didn't get chance to taste it, Jack wolfed it down.

The Range and Prices

Brekkie and Stage 1-89p consists of

• Zilli Greens(spinach, peas and pear)
• Tutti Frutti Mix(peach, banana and apricot)
• Blueberry Blast(blueberry, banana and apple)
• Aldo's Fruity Punch(pear, apple and banana)
• Tasty Veggie Blend(sweet potato, butternut squash and broccoli)

• Aldo's Fruit Brekkie(rice, pear, peach and milk)
• Banana Cereal(rice, banana, apple and peach)

Stage 2-£1.29 consists of

• Potato and Lamb Stew(winter vegetable and mint)
• Chicken and Parsnip(potato, onion, and tarragon)
• Zilli Fishy Dishy(salmon, mashed potato and peas)
• Fruit and Veg Puree(broccoli, carrot, sweet potato, and pear)

Stage 3-£1.69 consists of

• Cock-a-Leekie(chicken, lentils, and leeks)
• Pasta Pomodoro(pasta, tomatoe and vegetables)

Pud-£1.29 consists of

• Red Berry Crumble(strawberry, banana and blueberry)
• Fruit Medley Pud(apple, banana and plums)

Juice-89p consists of

• Organic Apple
• Organic Summer Fruits
• Organic Orange, Mango and Apple
• Organic Tropical

You can purchase the Zilli range from Waitrose, Tesco, Ocado, Budgens, amazon.com, and several other online outlets.

To see the full list of stockists and more on the Zilli range go to http://www.zillibaby.co.uk/

Definately check it out as they have got an online club and if you register before 2nd september 2011 you can be in with a chance to win a months supply of Baby Zilli food, aswel as a fantastic "latest news section"which is full of helpful tips.

Our Zilli Experience:

Our Zilli Food arrived today(16/8/11), so after eating 3 boiled eggs with Eva, i thought i would open the Pasta Pomodoro(as you can see the pouch is empty in the picture at the top of this post) and give Jack half, being as he's just eaten eggs, so i did, popped it in the microwave for a few seconds and gave it a good stir to make sure there was no hotspots(please note, Baby Zilli say to heat up by popping the pouch, or bowl of food into a bowl of warm water). Gave it to Jack to feed himself, turned round to carry on cooking mine and Daz's tea, and it had been eaten, and Jack was telling me in his own way he wanted more.

So i put the remaining half into his bowl, another few seconds in the microwave, another stir and he polished off the lot.

So then i gave him the Fruit Berry Crumble for pudding, and again he was delighted with it.

(isn't he gorgeous)
And again he ate the lot, and has gone to bed a nice full tummy, a very contented boy.

So just to say again, i am so impressed, Well Done Aldo Zilli and Dean Dunham for creating this fantastic range.
5/5 for us.

Loren x

Kerrygold and Rachel Allen Launch Community Cookbook

I am delighted to have been given the chance to try out some of the recipes going to be featured in this book, some of which i will share with you over the coming weeks.

Are you a budding Chef? Have you got a certain dish that is always a huge hit? Well now you can be in with a chance of getting one of your recipes in the cookbook.

Kerrygold, the Irish butter brand, has teamed up with top Irish Chef, Rachel Allen, to produce the very first Kerrygold Community Cookbook. Kerrygold is inviting cooking enthusiasts across the UK to be part of it by submitting their best-loved recipes, be they old family favourites or original flashes of culinary inspiration, to their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/KerrygoldUK or by emailing submitmyrecipe@kerrygold.co.uk.

Rachel will be personally selecting her favourite entries to be included alongside a collection of her own recipes exclusively developed for Kerrygold, and the recip-e-book will be available to download for free online.

Rachel Allen comments; “I can’t wait to see all the wonderful recipes submitted by Kerrygold fans up and down country and put forward the best to feature in the Kerrygold Community Cookbook.

“It will be really hard to pick the winners, but I’ll have loads of fun trying out what will no doubt be a delicious array of food.  If you’d like your recipe to be in the running, don’t forget to submit it to the Kerrygold UK Facebook page!”

Recipes must be submitted before Sunday 28^th August, 2011 to be considered for the Kerrygold Community Cookbook. Recipes submitted after this date will not be considered or included.

The list of entrants whose recipes have been selected will be displayed on the Kerrygold Facebook page no later than 35 days from the closing date.

For Terms and Conditions of the competition please visit www.facebook.com/KerrygoldUK.

This is a clip of Rachel talking about the cookbook.

 

So why not enter, you've got to be in it to win it, as they say.

Loren x

Yummy biscuit recipe!!!

Eva has been asking all weekend if we can do baking...ok so mainly shes been asking to make a wedding cake(note to me and daz, don't talk about weddings in front of 3 year old) but we didn't have time. So this morning when Jack went down for his nap, she wanted to make biscuits, which was good as we didn't have any eggs so couldn't of made cake.
I'm constantly searching for, and changing biscuit recipes and have never found "the perfect biscuit" recipe...until today...one i made up myself.
Ingredients:
100g sugar(granulated, or caster)
10g brown sugar(or just add another 10g of granulated or caster sugar)
120g butter
120g plain flour
50g coco or corn flour

Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl, then add the flour and the coco.
Then you can either put it all on a greased baking tray and spread it out with the back of a spoon(to be cut into fingers when cooked), or roll it out and cut out shapes, like we did.
Then bake on gas mark 4/180 degrees for 12-15 mins.
For a softer biscuit i would say take out after 10 mins, and for a crunchier biscuit leave in for 15 mins.
I would add a picture, but we kind of ate them all before i got chance. Half were gone before they were even cool.
Definately worth trying! I'm supposed to be trying to diet...not going to go well now i've discovered the heavenly taste of these.
Oh and if by chance you don't eat them all in one go, keep in an air tight container.
Loren x

Review of Graco Symbio

When our Graco Symbio RRP £357- arrived I couldn’t wait to get it out. We got it out and first impressions were “wow”. It looked so stylish, yet practical, and I immediately fell in love with the colour scheme of black and red.

In the box you get the chassis, the seat unit (6 months +), rain cover, and the car seat adapter.

Separately you can buy the Graco Logico S car seat, and also the Symbio carrycot, which all together make a fantastic travel system, which can be used from birth.

Other accessories include a bag and foot muff, also available to buy separately.

The Symbio has a handle that can flip over changing the pushchair from parent facing to forward facing in a couple of seconds, but what makes this so clever is that this is done whilst the child is in the pushchair. You can also put the seat unit on parent facing or forward facing, making the pushchair really versatile.

The seat unit is padded, making it really comfy, with a completely removable bumper bar at the front. It also has a hood, which has a lift up part at the back, with a breathable mesh fabric underneath, perfect for really hot days.
It has 3 postions, upright, slightly laid back, or completely laid back. To do this there is a handle at the back of the seat at the top, which you pull up, then lie the pushchair back or sit it up.
I am so impressed with the seat, it is very well built, and a good size, my 3 year old can sit comfortably in it. Even better that is comes with a removable seat liner, great for if it gets a bit dirty or mucky, as you can just whip it off and wash it. The 5 point harness comes with shoulder pads and a crotch pad, all of which are really padded. Another huge plus is the straps are adjustable, and are a really decent length, as myself and others have had problems with other pushchairs before with the top straps not being long enough as the child gets older.

The “front” of the pushchair has swivel wheels, that can be fixed, and the “back” has larger pneumatic tyres, which are fixed. Graco says “Swivel wheels in front are better for great maneuverability, whilst pneumatic tyres in front provide more comfort for outdoor use in the park or the forest for example”

Graco states “When using the handle in reversed position you should lock the swivel wheels for a better manoeuvrability” which I found fine when walking over grass, but on the pavement this was not an option at all for us. When locking the swivel wheels(which is very simple to do, just a case of clicking the locking bit up on each wheel) when using the pneumatic tyres at the front, the swivel wheels seemed like they couldn’t take the weight, and seemed to push inwards and drag as opposed to roll. So when I have used the pushchair with the pneumatic wheels at the front I have left the back wheels on swivel. The back of the pushchair does glide side to side a bit, and it’s quite hard to turn the front, but for the majority of the time we have the swivel wheels at the front anyway. The brake is a clever little lever on the handle, that you pull up to put the brakes on, and push the button and push it back down to take the brake off. I was dubious about this at first, but after using it I can say is a fantastic feature.

We have not yet used the rain cover, but I did try it on the pushchair and it is simple to put on. Although I would like to see it come with a little carry bag that you could hang on the handle/chassis, as there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to keep it whilst it’s not in use, and this way you could always have it with you in case it did start to rain, especially with how unpredictable British weather can be.

Overall we are so impressed with our Symbio, and definitely would recommend it.

Jack seems so comfortable when in it, and he loves the fact he can face me. Eva loves helping to push, and that she can talk to and play games with Jack whilst we are walking. It is so lightweight and easy to push, and very nifty going round corners. Also with it having one handle I find it really easy to push one handed, which is really handy (excuse the pun) when holding Eva’s (age 3) hand whilst we’re out.

It’s simple to fold and unfold, but does take up quite a bit of boot space in our Citroën Picasso, so can imagine it would completely fill a smaller boot. To fold there are 3 steps. First you have to take the seat unit off, which is a lot easier then I thought it would be. All you do is squeeze the release handles either side of the seat unit and it lifts straight off. Then squeeze the handle and flip it all the way over to the floor. Next there is a part labelled with 1 and 2 near to the basket on the chassis. Press button 1 down and pull up on lever 2 while pulling frame up. You then lay the frame flat, with the handle on top and clip it together, again the clip is near to the basket under the chassis.

The basket isn’t very big, so you would struggle trying to carry more then a few items in it, but if this was a problem you could always get clips for the handle to hang some bags off (although this is not recommended by most manufacturers).

At the back of the seat unit are 3 “hooks” that you can attach a Graco Symbio bag to, to either use as a changing bag, or for extra storage, although you have to buy this separately.

When choosing a changing bag for the Graco Symbio the best type would be either the Graco Symbio bag or one of the bags that has the smaller straps that fasten around the handle (usually in conjunction with a longer carry handle), as I think if you were to hang a long handled bag on it would keep slipping down the handle and drag on the floor.

The Symbio is a gorgeous looking pushchair, and wherever we go people are always looking and asking about it. Overall I would give the pushchair 9 out of 10, 9 as opposed to 10 purely for the fact of the problem with the wheels I mentioned earlier on. As I said before I would recommend this pushchair to anyone considering buying a pushchair, and would be fab for someone expecting a baby to buy the package deal and get the full use of the pushchair from birth to approx 3 years.

Bathroom lights on a sensor...

Ok, you might well be thinking what on earth is she on about, but this is something that has caused me sleepless nights.
As some of you know, we are currently completely renovating a house with the help of my fantastic mom and dad, ready for us to live in.
So when dealing with the electrician, who happens to be a friend of my dads, he said about having the bathroom lights on a sensor, so as you walk in the light comes on. After mentioning it to me, i told both my mom and dad i just wanted a good old pull string bathroom light.
So anyway a few weeks later....the wiring is all set and the sensor kit thing ordered and delivered...WHAT!!!!
Daz thinks its a fantastic idea, so do my mom and dad. Me, nope, can't see even one good point about it.
Not really sure if its got a sensor to only come on at certain levels of darkness, but what if you walk in in the day, and it comes on, waste of electric. You leave the bathroom and its still on, again waste of electric. In the winter, put the kids to bed, O i no i'll have a nice hot bath with a good book...get in the bath, lying there, just getting to a good bit in my book, and out goes the light, so i then have to get up and try and get into the sensor area to get it back on.
Usually if i go to the loo in the middle of the night, i don't turn the lights on, because if i do put the light on, it really wakes me up, finding it hard to get back to sleep, so i leave it off, have a wee half asleep, and stumble back to bed, straight back to sleep.
So i was thinking, is there any way this could be useful to me...would if be useful if i had broke both arms and couldn't turn the light on myself? No, because i would need someone with my too help me with my trousers etc, so they could just turn the light on for me.
Really, what is wrong with a normal pullstring light? I walk in the bathroom, and it's dark, so i pull the cord, light comes on, i do what i've got to do, then pull the light off and walk out.
Am i stuck in the dark ages here? Do you all think having sensors is a good or bad idea?
Loren x

Radox Hand Gel

I was lucky enough to be sent some Radox Hand Gel to review, which kills 99.9% of bacteria.
Being a mommy with children that are into everything, carrying this around with me gives me peace of mind.
Already being big fans of radox(we often have the bubble bath, and have the shower gel and soap) i knew i would be receiving a good quality product.
The morning the gel arrived we were just about to head off for our picnic in the park. Perfect timing.
So off we trundled to the park, loaded up with yummy food, and the all important hand gel.
After lots of fun, the swings, the roundabout, the climbing frame and the monkey bars(ok so being 1 and 3 i was holding them up, but still), we were all feeling rather hungry. So we sat down on the bench, and a squirt of handgel each, and we tucked in.
After touching everything in the park, and no where to wash our hands before eating, i loved the peace of mind that our hands felt cleaner, and that while we were eating no nasty germs were passing from our hands to our food, and in turn into our bodies.
The gel isnt sticky or gooey, and dries as soon as you've rubbed it in, which is always a huge bonus.

The Radox naturally antibacterial Hand Gel range consists of:
-Radox Clean and Protect with thyme and tea tree oil
-Radox Clean and Moisturise with chamomile and jojoba oil
-Radox Clean and Refresh with lime and coriander
(all of which mirror those in the Radox liquid soap range)
They are 50ml and retail for £1.29. They are the perfect size for popping in your handbag/changing bag, or in the glove box of your car. Definately a must have for any one thats on the go, and especially for parents.
Loren x