Spring Bento Lunchbox
Spring is such an exciting time of year for nurturing the creative spark and capturing children's imaginations. With Easter approaching, signs of Spring are emerging with in my garden with fuchsia buds and clematis shoots, and we even managed to find a few ladybirds and bumblebees on the weekend! I can't think of a better starting point to make lunchboxes more enticing.
Spring Bento Lunchbox
A Garden Makeover
Pegging the washing on the line for the first time this year, I glanced around the garden and was shocked. Shocked to see how in disrepair various bits of fencing were, how the shed needed a wood treatment, the amount of weeds that had swamped the flowerbeds over the Autumn and Winter. The bench seats need sanding and varnishing, the hanging baskets need replacing, the bushes need trimming, the bamboo needs hacking down to allow new growth.
I love the promise of Spring, the promise of outdoor play, sunshine and laughter, picnics and barbecues. However with all of that brings the realisation of how much work is needed in a garden to make it look a wonderful haven for a family to play and relax in. [Read more…]
Days 139-145 of Project 365
139. Mr. Bloom (Helping mummy in the garden, desperately trying to get the garden tidy for his party in a few weeks.)
140. Polygons (I opened up a packet of coloured lolly-sticks with the purpose of making a craft picture, but The Boy had other ideas.)
141. Look into my eyes! (Nana bought both of her grandsons a new pair of glasses, The Boy thought they were hilarious.)
142. Listen! (I came in from work to find The Boy and Nana playing beautifully in the garden, he was standing there listening out for me, and this is the pose he pulled when listening to see if daddy was coming home.)
143. Sumpmarine (The Boy made another shape using his maxi Hama beads set, this is supposed to be a steam boat, but he's convinced that if he removes the funnel then he can make it into a sump-marine.)
144. Pea-popper! We'd bought some peas in the pod on Tuesday at the garden centre, and The Boy helped me prepare them for dinner yesterday. He loved popping them out, even if it did take eleventy billion hours!)
145. Jump (We ventured out in the Chevrolet Orlando which I have been sent to review for the next week or so, and headed over to north Cardiff to a wonderful park called Cefn Onn. A narrow and long park running up through a small valley on Caerphilly Mountain, there is a wonderful woodland planted with a plethora of rhodendrum bushes, and alongside the abundance of fallen trees, it's a wonderland for a little boy!)
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The One Where Everyone Went To Roath Park (Country Kids)
When it's sunny, there are three places which the entirety of south Wales flocks to; St. Fagan's, Barry Island and Roath Park. Yesterday, we joined the eleventy billion people also heading to Roath Park, to meet up with my brother and his family. (They weren't going to meet up with him by the way.)
There's a really good reason why it's so popular in the sunshine, the above panorama is just one of them. The boating lake was laden with swans sailing along with open wings, students valiantly attempting the row boats, and mums and dads navigating the flailing oars in the more sensible pedalloes. It's a beautiful sight to behold.
We didn't venture on to the lake, but we did fight for our turns on the swings and slides, scoot around the crowds of urban folk getting their weekly allowance of fresh air dressed rather bravely in Summer dresses or shorts (The Boy only fell of his scooter seven times with one graze to the forehead, and yes he did have his helmet on), and climb some magnificent trees. Has anyone else ever had to queue to climb a tree?!
The Boy loves spending time with his cousins, and she was so good with him as she let him win at scooting, stood her ground against bigger children in the playground, and showed him where to put his feet when tree climbing!
Hurrah for the Spring!
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Days 104-110 of Project 365
104. Two Years On (I'm a little bit of an Instagram addict and follow the actual Instagram's feed with interest. Every weekend they have a challenge called the Weekend Hashtag Project and last weekend's emulated the photography style of the blog Dear Photograph. As we were heading to Porthcawl anyway for the Chris & Pui Show, I dug out a photo of The Boy on the beach there from Father's Day 2010. A very windy day made it tricky to get an exact line up but I'm really chuffed with this photograph.)
105. Bubble Monster (Monday was absolutely beautiful and we played out in the garden for nearly three hours, most of that without a coat on. The Boy filled the garden with bubbles from his bubble blower that we'd bought him in Butlin's.)
106. Plopping (After dropping my car off to the garage to work out where a slightly alarming oil leak was coming from, we walked up to town for our second breakfast, then through the park and down to the beach. A quick scoot along the pier and the beach front, then down the lifeboat ramp to plop some pebbles into the sea, before walking home through the tree-lined Victorian avenues where The Boy promptly fell asleep. I collapsed on the sofa for half an hour having just completed a six mile round walk, before having to walk two miles back to the garage to pick my car up.)
107. Snuggle Down, Sleepyhead (It's a Wednesday – work day – and therefore it's a bed photo!)
108. Masterchef 2013 (On Thursdays I get home earlier from work and so we have time to play. I gave The Boy various ingredients and he decided to 'bake' us a ginger cake with his 'cooker'.)
109. Through The Kitchen Window (When we bought this house and did all the work on it, we had the kitchen window made bigger. I dreamed about the day that I'd see my child/ren playing in the garden while I cooked their dinner, etc. Today that came true, and I just stood and watched him for ten minutes as he repeatedly rolled his hoops down the slide, retrieved them, climbed up the side of the slide and started again. I love him.)
110. Reflections (We met up with my brother and his family in Roath Park today on a very sunny afternoon. One of his favourite places is the hothouse and so we spent a pleasantly sticky forty-five minutes watching the koi carp and terrapins in the pool before sauntering around the lake and feeding the swans. Life doesn't get much better!)
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Days 62-68 of Project 365
62. Shoot! (These are the seeds we planted a week ago in our gardening play table. They've really shot up, which means that I now have to find somewhere to move them to so they can acclimatise to the outside temperature. However, look to the back, the middle seed label was written by The Boy.)
63. The Sands of Time (We went for a long walk and cycle along Cardiff Bay Barrage today and played in the pirate play park there. We were the only people in the park for quite some time, which meant that The Boy had free rein over the sandy, sunken, pirate ship.)
64. Lick! (The first ice-cream of the year down the beach! The Boy had an eye-test today and he was meant to have eyedrops to test for a stigmatism, however because he held so still and was compliant during the test, he didn't need the drops which I was very relieved about. As a result it meant we were able to nip down to the beach and enjoy an ice-cream on the pier with nana.)
65. Bed Fellows (The Boy looked so peaceful when I went to check on him at midnight, so calm and serene. Oliver Monkey is never far away, and the week wouldn't be complete without a sleeping photo!)
66. Bubbles at Bathtime! (We had an extra long bathtime tonight where we had the bubble machine out, a pot of bubbles and the underwater light – all to remember a special little girl who loved bubbles.)
67. Catch The Pigeon! (Remember the Wacky Races song? Our weekly cycle ride along the pier was just like a scene from that today. The pier was deserted aside from a few elderly couples having their 'daily constitutional' and one or two brave pigeons. I say brave because once The Boy saw them he was determined to scare them away, something that made the grannies and grandads chuckle at!)
68.Splat! (We've been to Nymans for a National Trust event today as we are helping to promote the 50 Things To Do Before You're 11 and ¾ campaign. More to follow on this, and I've had to add this photo in at the last minute so please forgive any editing errors in this post!)
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Tuesday 1st May 2012 – 'Contentment' (122/366)
I had it all sorted for today's 366. When the rain halted briefly at 11.30 this morning, I sent The Boy out onto the patio to splash around in the giant puddle that had accumulated. I took some fabulous shots on my dSLR of the water droplets flying up everywhere and I knew that my 366 would be one of those.
Then it turned out that the rain didn't start up again, and by 2pm the sun was blazing down turning all the water droplets on the plants into diamonds and helping the giant puddle to evaporate. By the time Mr. TBaM came in, it was glorious and the first bit of sunshine we'd had in well over a week and a half. I sent the boys outside to play while I prepared tea, watched them having fun and smiled to myself. I'd waited for this time of year to reappear for so many months and even if it only here for today, we were going to enjoy it. We ate our tea on the patio: me on the backstep, The Boy at his picnic table and Mr. TBaM sitting on the only dry grown-up seat. Both of them were splashing their welly-booted feet in the now rapidly-drying giant puddle.
If it rains again tomorrow and for the rest of the week, I can cope because we've had a glimpse of Summer.
Halloumi Salad & Herby Yoghurt Dressing
I was recently sent some products from the Rachel's Organics range to try out some of their new Spring recipes. The Rachel's Organics website has some amazing and inventive recipes using their yoghurts, and there was me thinking that pouring it over banana in the morning was adventurous.
I've adapted the following recipe because I didn't have some of the ingredients, but the main ones are the same.
Halloumi Salad & Herby Yoghurt Dressing
For the salad:
- 1 bag of mixed salad leaves
- 1/2 cucumber, de-seeded
- 1 orange pepper, de-seeded and finely sliced
- 1 x 250g halloumi block, sliced thickly
- Virgin olive oil
For the dressing:
- 100g Rachel's Natural yogurt
- 1tbsp of dill (they recommend a handful of coriander)
- 1tbsp chopped mint
- (recommended 1/2 red onion finely chopped and a garlic clove chopped, but I didn't have any)
- Begin by making the dressing, mix all the ingredients together and reserve in a bowl until ready to dress your salad. If you like your salad dressing smooth use a food processor to blitz.
- Toss together the salad leaves and cucumber in your serving dish.
- Grill/fry the halloumi until golden and slightly squidgy to touch.
- Lightly stir fry the orange pepper. Lay the halloumi and orange pepper over the salad leaves.
- Drizzle over the salad dressing and serve immediately.
I was sent some Rachel's Organics yoghurts for the purpose of testing the recipes. I wasn't asked to blog about them, I chose to.
Slow Cooker Sunday: Spring Sausage Stew (Vegetarian)
I am not an expert at slow cookers, but I'm getting there. About six months ago, the enthusiasm of The Moiderer (who is a big fan of them) made me go and buy one; a good brand that was reduced to clear. I tried a vegetable stew in it. After seven hours of cooking on high, I had to transfer everything over to a saucepan and blast it for 30 minutes as the vegetables were still basically raw. I returned the slow cooker to the store, brandishing raw carrots and threatening the manager with it if I didn't have my money back. Luckily, he relented in the face of root vegetables and I gave up on them, declaring slow cookers stupid.
That was until I was recently sent on to review. My husband and mum, both had been subjected to the non-slow-cooked vegetable stew, wondered if I was off my trolley but I gave it a go as it was for review. I am a convert! This is mainly due to the fact that I now have a slow cooker which actually cooks the food, it's kind of a plus point. The first thing I cooked in it was gammon (bah!) for my dad and husband, it was a true success. Since then I've also cooked chicken, beef and risotto in it, not at the same time I hasten to add. I adore it and am very enthusiastic about it.
The rather fabulous Mediocre Mum is a bit of an expert when it comes to slow cookers, and she has a plethora of recipes on her blog which I am in awe at. She has realised that there is a bit of a fanbase for them and is therefore starting up a weekly linky for slow cooker recipes which I am joining in with, as eagerly as possible.
Spring Sausage Stew
This recipe has come about because I also take part in Meal Planning Monday and last week everyone seemed to have sausage stew on their planner. I thought I'd give it a go this week, I don't like to miss out on things!
- six mushrooms
- one leek
- one courgette
- three carrots
- four vegetarian sausages
- a big chunk of butter
- stock cube
- 200g of Rachel's Organic Greek-Style Natural yoghurt (obviously there are other brands available but I'm trialling this for cooking with)
- two tablespoons of parmesan cheese
- Chop the leek, courgette and mushrooms and place them with the butter and stock cube in the slow cooker pot directly on the gas (our slow cooker allows this, some don't). Sweat them down 'til the leek is translucent.
- Chop the carrots and sausages into chunks, add to the pot with 30ml of water and transfer the pot to the slow cooker base. Cook for two hours on high (or three on medium).
- Spoon in 200 g of natural yoghurt and two tablespoons of parmesan cheese, and leave to cook through for another thirty minutes on medium.
- Serve with herby potatoes (I bought a pack of these from Aldi the other day; 99p and three minutes in the microwave = perfect!)
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I'm linking this up to Slow Cooker Sunday at Mediocre Mum and to the recipe bank at The Moiderer
