His, his and hers

I used to struggle with lunch ideas but now the boys are older and eating what I eat, I like to sit and enjoy a proper meal with them, not just a quick sarnie. More so since trying to include more superfoods in my diet, as I mentioned in this post.

So today we had one of our storecupboard staples, roasted veg cous cous with lime and mint. I added some rye bread, cheese and grapes for the boys and accompanied mine with a big leafy watercress salad.

Serves 4, you will need:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, cut into wedges
1 courgette, thinly sliced
Tin chickpeas
100g cous cous
200ml veg stock
Handful cherry tomatoes, sliced
Juice of 2 limes
handful fresh mint leaves, very finely chopped

1. Drizzle the veg with oil and roast for 20-30 mins until starting to brown
2. Put the cous cous in a bowl, add the stock, cover until all the water is absorbed then fluff up with a for
3. Add the chickpeas, veg and tomatoes to the cous cous
4. Mix the mint into the lime juice, pour over the cous cous, stir well and serve

This is also lovely with feta or goats cheese and you can add whatever veg you have in. Red peppers and aubergine also work well. You can use quinoa instead of cous cous for an extra protein hit.

Making room

When I was first pregnant with Finn, Andy and I were determined that our house wouldn't get filled with toys, baby paraphernalia and general plastic, loud stuff. We didn't want our kids to have loads of unnecessary toys and would try as much as possible to stick to traditional, educational toys. Then 4 Christmases and 6 combined birthdays came and went (via our generous family and friends) and we find ourselves left with this

Our conservatory, ladies and gentlemen. The conservatory was here when we moved in and we have never really liked it. It's freezing in the winter and doesn't get the sun in the summer. Original plans were (and still are, one day) to take it off and create an extra, proper room in its place that's warm and stuff.

But since having the boys it's been lovely to have a space just for them. It means the rest of the house is free from toys and we maintain our grown-up space. However, this is what I'm left with at the end of a day at home. Carnage.

They don't play with lots of the toys and have outgrown many of them so today we decided it was time for an overhaul, a reclamation of play space and a good old-fashioned clear out. It took about 3 hours, thanks to my 'helpers' taking out the toys just as soon as I'd pack them away (annoying, much?) but we got there in the end and now have only toys they play with (but seriously, do they still need this many?) Here is the end result

The train set lasted the best part of an hour before Max decided it was better on the floor

Thrifty vintage desks. £4.50 on eBay.

I gave Finn the letters to his name to see if he can spell it out. This is what he came up with. He's now known by his Norwegian name, Fiehln.

Crazy blanket lady

...Strikes again.

I fed my ongoing blanket obsession today after a visit to my local fabric shop (which, if you live in Bristol and you sew you should go to by the way, it's a gem). I picked up some of this gorgeous Kumari Gardens fabric by Dena Designs. I have previously used this for a patchwork quilt and love love love it.

I've been wanting to make a fleece baby blanket fo a while so I got some lovely soft fleece and put it to good use, all finished off lovely with a turquoise satin ribbon trim.

What do you think? I love it, I just need a baby now to wrap in it (I'll borrow one).

Bertie

We have a colourful history with camping trips. In the 10 years Andy and I have been together, we've not once had a camping trip which hasn't seen some kind of drama. We've had floods, breakdowns on the way home (resulting in us sleeping in the car), flat car batteries (resulting in us sleeping in the car on a racecourse. Yes, really) snowstorms, God awful campsites, illness, stir-crazy toddlers. You name it, it's probably happened to us.

So, we thought we'd make our lives a bit easier, and more comfortable, and buy a campervan. We sold our second car and used the proceeds to buy Bertie, a 1982 Bedford camper. After a few more disastrous trips under our belt, the final straw came at Easter when we found ourselves on a campsite (read: in the middle of a field) with no working showers, filthy toilets and no facilities bar the aforementioned 'amenities'. Smelly grown-ups, bored kids. On the day we were due to come home the county saw the worst snow it had in a number of years. Stranded, unable to leave with no food or clean clothes I'd fallen out of love with camping and was set to sell Bertie.



Except I wasn't quite ready to give up that easily so a few weeks back we booked one final make-or-break trip. The rules: I book the campsite, We don't travel too far and it must have facilities for the children. So I found a gem of a site in Devon and off we went.

It was fabulous. The sun (remember that?) shining helped and the campsite was superb. I was just at the end of my illness and Max was still not 100% so we decided on a weekend of Doing Nothing. No day trips, no sightseeing (my Dad lives in Devon so we have plenty of chances for that) just spending time together and relaxing. In the broadest sense of the word, with 2 pre-schoolers around.

Tell you what, I'm booking all the campsites in future. Wi-fi, freshly baked bread, an indoor pool, adventure play for the kids and an OFF LICENCE. Amaze. We played, we swam, we ate, we read and, er, watched DVDs. The boys aren't ones for sitting colouring, crafting or reading (yet). To little, too much energy. The trick, we've discovered, is to go somewhere where there's plenty to keep them occupied. Happy kids = relaxed parents, yes? They spent the entire break running around, playing, making up games, pretending to be puppies and having a ball. I'm already looking forward to our next trip.

Lust List

The wedding dress edition.

No, not my wedding dress, silly. I'm not planning on doing that again. No, this is for by brother's wedding in July. He's getting married in Barcelona and I'm beside myself with excitement for many reasons. The first, and most obvious is that I get to see my big  brother marry a truly lovely girl who makes him very happy. Also, we get to have a holiday (yay!) if the darned passport comes through in time. Lets not talk about the passport.

But...I also get to buy a pretty new dress, something I don't get to do very often. They have an informal dress code and it's going to be very hot so I've been keeping my beady eye out for floaty, summery, colourful dresses and here's what I have so far...

Janet dress, Coast

Butterfly print Maxi dress, Oasis

Tahiti dress, French Connection

A diet overhaul

I've been doing loads of research recently on nutrition for an eBook I've written at work. I trained in nutrition as it played a big part in my previous job as a personal trainer but work aside, I've always taken care to eat well and ensure my diet is as good as it can be, even more so now I have children who eat the same meals as me.

I try to include as many nutrient-rich foods (often referred to as superfoods) as I can. This means a high nutrient to calorie ratio and re-thinking my approach to meals so I eat for health, not calories. This way, I optimise my diet so I know my body is getting all the micro-nutrients it needs as well as a healthy carb, protien and fat ratio to maintain a healthy weight.

Since making the shift and including more of these superfoods in my diet I've noticed my energy levels increase, I'm sleeping better and my anxiety levels have plummeted (I was experiencing frequent palpitations and dizzy spells which have stopped completely). I'm also spending less on my weekly shop, roughly £50 a week for a family of four.

So what do I eat? My basic rule is to try and eat food in it's natural state as much as possible. Lots of salads, brown rice, quinoa, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds and tons of fresh fruit and veg. It's unintentionally a largely vegan diet with beans, nuts, lentils and quinoa as my main protien sources. If I do have something processed like cake then I'll make it myself as that way I know there are no preservatives or other nasties in there. Same with bread. I've got a huge repertiore of recipes so as I've had a few requests recently for I'll start sharing them with you on here.

Tonight I made a smoky butter bean stew, adapted from a BBC Good Food recipe.

You will need:

250g kale, spring greens or swiss chard
Can butter beans
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Half tsp cumin seeds
Tsp smoked paprika
tin chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil

1. In a large pan, heat the oil and sweat the kale until wilted
2. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2-3 minutes
3. Tip in the butter beans
4. Add the paprika and cumin seeds and stir well
5. Tip in the tomatoes and simmer gently for 5 mins until warmed through

Serve with brown rice or quinoa. I had some sourdough to use up tonight so used it to top a couple of toasted slices. Quick, healthy, cheap and delish.

For loads more information on the nutrient-dense diet, including why it's important, the impact on our health, which foods to choose and more recipes, you can buy the eBook here (plug, plug) 

A little crochet inspiration

My creative juices have been somewhat repressed recently. Probably a combination of illness, having loads on at work and having no money making sure no inspiration makes its way to the forefront of my mind.

I read a great post by Charlotte last week about creativity and finding your mojo. It seems I'm not the only one finding this recently but, taking Charlotte's advice I clicked through to a few blogs. Current favourites are Attic24, Something I Made (as recommended by Charlotte), Oyster & Pearl , Tales from a Happy House and ohdeardrea.

And so I feel my mojo slowly returning. I have a huge stash of yarn left over from a granny blanket (unfinished, of course) I started months ago. I have always loved this knitted blanket from Mamas & Papas and now my babies are growing (sniff!) I've taken my inspiration from here and I'm making me a Mama-sized edition.

And so it starts. A simple treble-crochet stripe (after an enormous 200-strong foundation chain) interspersed with double crochet lines. I'm using my favourite colours from the stash and am fast running out but as the yarn I'm using is a bargainous £1.50 for 100g I shan't feel too guilty if I need a few more.

Lord knows how long this is going to take. I'm hoping to get it finished by the time I go away in July (don't know why, it's not like I'll need it in Spain at the height of summer. Hopefully).

It's very simple to do so I'll post a tutorial once I'm done. Hopefully this promise will also encourage me to actually finish a project for once.