My new toy

I was going to post at the end of the day when I’m finished with all my eats but I love me new toy so much that I’m going to post about it now 🙂

This is my birthday/mothers day present. My birthday is 26th March and Mothers Day in the UK is 3rd April this year so it made sense to request one big present – which of course I just had to have early. I don’t like waiting for things.

My new toy 😀 a blender from http://www.lakeland.co.uk

The toddler wants to help make the first smoothie. Banana, vanilla soya milk, spinach

The Toddler wanted to take the lid off during blending = bad move! Luckily I managed to stop him in time!

Watching the smoothie blend!

The finished product - I've finally achieved that lovely green colour thanks to the new blender! See the blender int he picture, it's just that good I needed another photo of it 😉

More green goodness 🙂 yum.

This is the first green smoothie that The Toddler has tried. He wasn’t exactly raving about it but he seemed to like it well enough. I tried to get a picture of his green moustache but he kept wiping it away before I could. The Toddler is very keen to “help” in the kitchen these days. As soon as he hears me banging around in there, he runs through, grabs a kitchen chair and shoves it against the counter so he can take part. The trouble is at 22 months there isn’t all that much he can do.  Sometimes he mixes dry ingredients for me or pushes the buttons on the processor/blender but on the whole I find it best to give him the mixing bowl with a wooden spoon and some dried herbs – that keeps him quiet while I cook.

Oh and the calories for the above green smoothie = 225 with fat = 4.1g and according to my calorie counter that I use online it is 32% of my five a day.

Welsh Cakes

My mum has this story she likes to bring out now and then to embarrass me, as mums do. When I was young girl I was heard to say something along the lines of “When I grow up I’m not going to stay home and bake welsh cakes all day like you!” Quite why I got in to my head that mum spent her days baking welsh cakes is beyond me, she didn’t actually make them that often. Anyway, what did I do today? Yes – stayed home and made welsh cakes. It’s ok though because I also went and got my self some nice new boots and started the prep for making an Irish Whiskey Cake, I’m hoping that turns out well so I can take some for my parents when I visit on Saturday. So – here are the welsh cakes. They taste better than they look, promise.

Welsh Cake - like a scone but cooked in a pan rather than in the oven. If you are serving it with jam and/or cream you are being very English! Stop!

For the last few mornings I have been having toast for breakfast but to be honest, it’s not very satisfying, I always want to eat more of it and it never lasts me through to lunchtime not matter how close to lunch I happen to eat it. So today it was back to…..

In the mix: vanilla yoghurt, satsuma, museli and some fruit and seed mix

How it looks once I start eating

Lunch was a falafel wrap while we were out shopping in town – I didn’t have my camera with me but it was good. The side salad was pretty blegh however.

Spinach and Feta Couscous

Dinner, yes it was served in a Christmas themed bowl, it is never the wrong time of year for a Christmas themed bowl! This is spinach and feta couscous and is the first ever meal that I have cooked without really following a recipe. All the boys in my house (I’m outnumbered 3:1) really like it and it was very quick to make. In the mix: couscous cooked with some veggie stock for flavour, red onions, red pepper, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, baby leaf spinach and topped with feta cheese. I didn’t eat all of the feta you see here, I’ve never had it before and although a little was fine I found the taste quite strong and almost musty. I definitely didn’t need nearly as much as you can see here so I left about half the feta. My 20 month old son could not get enough of this meal and he cleaned his plate. It’s nice to see him eat a dish so full of veggies 😀 what a good boy.

On a kitchen note – we have a new fridge coming on the weekend. I got it off ebay for £15. It says it has signs of wear and tear but the only thing I care about is that it works. For £15 if it works it’s all good with me. Currently we have a little under the counter fridge and an under counter freezer. We really don’t need all that freezer space as we barely keep anything in there. What we do need is a much bigger fridge to hold all our yummy fresh produce and to stop it going off so quickly. This fridge is double the size of our current one. I never thought I’d be so excited to get a household appliance.