Tidy the Toys

I've had a real bee in my bonnet lately about clutter. Like most parents of small children we are facing Plasticgeddon; the slow obliteration of our living spaces by the garish plastic army of giant melody (if you can call it that) making toys my children are accumulating. I mean, I know they should have toys to play with but why the hell do they have to be so bright and so big and why oh why do people - Grandparents especially - think it so hilarious to bring over yet another oversized plastic monstrosity to displace your own, carefully and aesthetically chosen furniture?

For example, it was with great excitement last year that I began planning and designing my little girl's bedroom. Having been in a neutral nursery since birth (as we hadn't found out the gender of our baby before arrival) and because she had to make way for the new addition, it was time to embark upon the creation of a our little girl's Utopia. When it was finished, I was thrilled. The vintage bed we had bought in France had been restored and painted with the finest Farrow and Ball had to offer, heart shaped lavender bags in pink hung from door knobs and a wooden dolls house took pride of place. It was Pintrest eat your heart out, no joke, until the plastic pink castle went in and the pink plastic baby bath and the pink kitchen and the giant Peppa Pig teddy bear and the Baby doll pram and so on and on and on...

Don't get me wrong, I don't want her to be deprived of the things that make her happy but I am now literally running out of space in her room to put any more toys and, well, Christmas is coming and we all know what that means...more toys. So I'm trying, kind of, to fight back without blowing the budget on some suitable ways to contain the plastic. Here are a couple of things I've found recently to help:

Red fabric storage boxes from IKEA:

These were a bargain at £2.50 and they are a decent size. I was quite sceptical upon purchase that they would look any good, especially because they are so cheap, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was also quite impressed with how many toys they held and the fact that they were quite robust and easy for the kids to pull out so that they could get to their games. They are certainly an improvement on just piles of toys.



White Cube Shelves from Amazon:

I needed somewhere in my little one's room to store some of her books and other ornaments and wanted something that looked quite cool. These were a more expensive storage solution, coming in at around £33 but I was really pleased at how good they looked once up and might invest in some more.


So, although my home doesn't resemble a show home (how I wish) I guess it resembles most normal houses, you know, the ones where people actually live and, if I am able late at night to have somewhere to pack the toys away that provides me with a few minutes of calm, personal space, then that's great.

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Mini Egg Frittatas

Well it's over a year now since bundle of joy number two arrived and despite frequent attempts to start exercising properly, eat more healthily and regain a more streamlined figure, I am yet to succeed. Of course I have many excuses. The biggest being my perceived lack of time to get things done, like cook healthy meals in the evening rather than reaching for something quick and processed from the freezer, or eating crisps and sweets at lunchtime rather than preparing a more nutritious packed lunch. However I recently stumbled across a recipe for these little gems, which can be batch cooked and provide a low carb, protein high snack for lunch or breakfast.

Mini Egg Frittatas

Ingredients:

2 tsps wholegrain mustard
6 eggs
Pinch of salt and pepper
4oz mature cheddar cheese
4oz chopped ham or pancetta
1 tomato finely chopped
2oz finely chopped onion










Method:

• Preheat your oven to gas mark 5 and lightly grease a 12 hole baking tray
• Whisk your eggs, mustard and seasoning and set aside
• In a large bowl mix together your cheese, onion, ham and tomato before dividing equally between the twelve holes in your baking tray
• Now equally divide the egg mixture between the twelve holes before baking in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until slightly golden brown on top
• Leave to cool slightly before popping out of your baking tray - delicious hot or cold!

Why not change the filling ingredients, feta cheese and spinach is another favourite in our house.

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Extra Tasty Yorkshire Puddings

There's nothing more satisfying than serving up a hearty roast dinner for your family on a Sunday (or any other day of the week for that matter) and I've been experimenting recently on that old classic - the Yorkshire Pudding. Here's my herby take on this little beauty...

Ingredients:

• 4oz plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 6 fluid ounces of milk
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• Half a tablespoon of very finely chopped rosemary or thyme

Method:

1. Place a little olive oil into the bottom of a 12 hole baking tray and place into a preheated oven (gas mark 7)
2. Create a well in your flour and crack your eggs into the middle
3. Add a little milk and mix into a smooth paste
4. Add the rest of the milk and beat to make light and frothy
5. Mix in your seasoning and herbs before dividing the mixture evenly between the 12 holes in your preheated baking tray
6. Place back into your  hot oven and cook for 15 - 20 minutes until fully risen and golden brown
7. Serve hot with your Sunday roast

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My Unedited Life

Last night (at about 2.30am whilst on an early morning play date with one of my children) I made the decision to tell the truth.

For me, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter et al have become the doyennes of a sanitised and edited version of everyday life. Perfect pictures of perfect bodies, perfect families, perfect homes and perfect holidays fill up our news feeds and I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling the constant pressure to make sure that my life emulates these idyllic lives lived by my 'friends.'

Well it doesn't.

Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty too. I weed out the best pictures, crop them, tint them and post them. Look at me and mine - aren't we great? Well we are, to me, but we're also normal.

I spend most of my time these days unbelievably tired with bags under my eyes so big and so dark you can barely see my eyes. I have a child that doesn't sleep and one that wakes up at the merest hint of a cry from her baby brother. By the time they are both tucked back up into bed, fast asleep at 5.30am, it's almost time to get up and go to work.

I work to live. The kids are packed off to nursery so that I can spend the day taking care of other people's children, making slightly more than I pay in childcare. I definitely enjoy the stimulation that comes with working alongside my peers - and school holidays are awesome, but it's a good job I look so scarily tired most days, as no pupil wants to tangle with a grumpy, unpredictable and tired teacher.

 At home, the domestic treadmill is relentless and I frequently fall off. The washing lies in unconquerable mountains in the spare room waiting to be ironed or, more likely, folded without ironing if I can get away with it. Cooking is an effort and I'm more Little chef than Master chef these days; if it's quick, vaguely edible - then who cares about nutritional content! Sometimes... and I say this in a whisper...I let my kids watch TV. It's a simple formula: TV+kids= quietforatleast10minutes= Imightgetthehooveringdone. This is life for most people. But we don't post pictures of that do we?

Well, I've had enough of feeling sub-standard and in an attempt to reclaim the beauty of normalcy I'm just going to post the truth. So here's my life - the unedited one.

Let's see how long I can keep it up!

My beautiful (normal) home and the never ending pile of ironing.

9am - curtains still drawn and dog has snuck upstairs for a nap, sometimes I think I'm fighting a losing battle!

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Devilishly Deliciously Deceitful

I'm a Mummy in a hurry these days. There is, quite simply, never enough time and I feel myself hurtling from one job to another in between looking after Bubs. The prospect of then entertaining fills me with dread, for I have realised that I am no longer the competent cook I once thought I was.

Some of my latest triumphs have included a roast dinner without roast potatoes (I forgot to cook them), a cremated Christmas turkey and a cake that didn't rise because I had forgotten to shut the oven door. In fact things have gotten so bad that when I last invited my in-laws over for Sunday lunch, they offered to take us out instead! They were clearly wiser than to rely on me to provide them with something edible and I was more than grateful to let someone else do the cooking.

The problem is that I'm always trying to hurry things and this is a recipe (pardon the pun) for disaster. A good meal takes time, attention, careful planning... well that's what I thought until I was sent a selection of Devilishly Delicious desserts to try.

The marvellous people at Devilishly Delicious (www.devilishlydelicious.co.uk) have come up with a superb range of restaurant quality desserts which give people, like me, the confidence to whip up a delicious and professional looking dessert in minutes (and by minutes, I mean minutes!). You simply heat up the dessert mixture until boiling, pour into moulds, ramekins or other suitable dessert dishes, chill for an hour and hey presto!

The other beaty about this range of desserts is that they are also incredibly versatile. If you have a couple of extra minutes (and by a couple of extra minutes, I mean a couple of extra minutes) you can 'pimp' your dessert by adding a shot of liquor, some toasted nuts, freshly whipped cream etc etc. So it's almost like not cheating at all...

And therein lies my devilish deceit. At the last dinner party I threw, although the meal itself was rather mediocre, 'my' little chocolate espresso pots with a shot of Tia Maria, and toasted hazelnuts was a complete success. I didn't let on I'd had a helping hand, although I rather guess I might have been rumbled now.

There are four desserts in the range: Sicilian Lemon Pot, Pot au Chocolate, Creme Brulee and Panna Cotta and not only are they genuinely really tasty (I've tried them all!), they are gluten free, free from artificial flavourings and colourings and they're suitable for vegetarians. There is also a range of fruit coulis available too - so that saves on the mess in the kitchen.

So if you too are pushed for time but looking for that wow factor when hosting a dinner party, I wouldn't fail to recommend Devilishly Delicious Desserts which are available at selected Waitrose stores, Lakeland, Ocado online, Booths, Dobbies Garden Centres and various other independent retailers.

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My Top 5 Free Money Saving Apps

I love a few treats and it's even better if you can get them at a discount. These days there seems to be an app to help you save money for all kinds of things and these are a few of my favourites:

App gratis
App Gratis is for anyone that loves getting the latest and best apps for free. Just download the App Gratis app to find out which app is being given away free for the day.








Groupon

Great for bargain getaways both in the UK and abroad plus huge savings on a range of different goods available locally to you.






O2 Moments
Fancy some free prosecco and dough sticks at Prezzo or a free packet of Percy Pigs at M&S? Well if you are on the O2 network, download their priority moments app and enjoy the rewards of being a loyal customer.






Top Cash Back
Use the Top Cash Back app to click through to the store you wish to buy from and start earning cash back on your purchases. Receive payment either in Amazon vouchers or in cold hard cash straight into your bank account. Works well but can take time to accumulate funds and get paid, so requires you to be quite disciplined about using the app when shopping online.

Skyscanner
Want to find the cheapest flights available to your destination? Use this site to input the relevant information and then let the computer do all the hard work. Saves time and money, what could be better?!

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Quick, Easy and Delicious Easter Biscuits

250g salted butter
100g caster sugar
250g plain flour
125g rice flour

Makes about 30 biscuits

1. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy
2. Sift in the flour bit by bit and mix until the mixture starts to come together
3. With lightly floured hands bring the mixture together and very lightly kneed until smooth
4. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until about 5mm thick and cut out
5. Place on a greased or lined baking tray and cook in the oven on gas mark 3 for about 15 minutes
6. When removed from the oven, dust with caster sugar
7. Leave to cool in the tray for 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool

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