The Sweetest Thing

The other night we were having a fair bit of trouble getting Alex to eat his dinner, but he wasn't say "I dunt larrk it" as he normally would when being difficult at the dinner table. So I asked him "Why? Baby. Why don't you want to eat your dinner?" and he replies "I dunt wanna be big I wanna be liddle!!!" Ohhhh how my heart melted (which was most probably his intention, cheeky boy!) So we gave him cuddles and told him he will always be our baby. It is a shame that when he is a teenager and saying horrible things only Chris and I will remember how he wanted to be our baby forever. Although I know it is a cliche, Alex will ALWAYS be my baby! I agree with everyone who has ever said it! I must keep reminding myself, that I have to treasure each moment (sometimes a very challenging thing to do) because he will be grown in the blink of an eye!

Summer Time!

I know it is a bit late, but..... Merry Christmas AND Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe festice season.
What have been your favourite summer time activities this year?
We have had an amazing and amazingly busy festive season this year. And with my sons Birthday party all sorted this past weekend it seems to be winding down now. Which is a releif as we can now settle back into our routine, and I am sure all you mums out there would be feeling the same. No more late nights for the little ones, no more unnescessarily early mornings, not having to pack 10 million just in case items when you go out with friends. Everyone is back at work and school so there are set times and dates for social things, which means planning is a breeze!! Any adult social events for the next 3, maybe even 4 months, will see Alex having a sleep over at his Nanny's house!! I love him to pieces but it is difficult to socialise with half your brain worrying that your kid/s are destroying your DINK's (Double Income No Kids) friends ornamental garden, or if they are continually re-dipping their fingers in the dip, or telling adults to SHUT UP or just having a tanty. Of course when you are keeping an eye on them and not participating in the conversation properly (you know what, I mean your friend will be having a serious conversation about mortgage/sick friend/mother in law and you give an innapropriate & non-commital response like 'oh wonderful' or 'no surprise there') the child is an angel. But the moment you go inside to pee, refill your drink or just turn your back ,you hear 'tsk tsk' from the other side of the room or a blood curdling scream and turn red in the face as you know it is your kid using a celery stick to throw dip at the freakishly clean windows, or beating up another kid with a stick!!
All in all though, aside from a few moments where I have been mortified, Alex was quite well behaved at most social gatherings. I think it may have something to do with our amazingly patient and considerate child friendly friends. Who have entertained, amused and understood. It is amazing how good these friends can be and if you dont have any I recommend you find some now, for the sake of your sanity! One thing I would like you to remember though, as you shuffle out of your friends house with a screaming kid under on arm and a broken lamp in the other, with promises of fixing it like new or finding one 'just like it' on your lips..... YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Every parent will experience this, or something like it, at least once. If they say they have'nt then they are lying! Or their kid has'nt developed to that stage yet. Either way it will happen to them too.

So, our busy Christmas/New Year has left me with many opportunities to be a 'proper mum' to Alex, and I think we have both enjoyed it. I am back at school again soon, where as other mums are sending their hubby's off to work and starting the 'how do I entertain you today' dilemma all over again.....Well, here are some ideas for you to entertain your little ones now that you have them all to yourselves again.

Silicon mold crayons! All you do is gather up all the old stubby crayons, unpeel them (if yours have any of the paper wrapping left on), break them into medium sized pieces and chuck into a silicon mold. The kids love this as they are 'cooking' their own crayons. We used a $5 dinosaur mold from K-mart, but you can do anything from ginger bread people to bugs. When the molds are quite full chuck the mold in the micowave and microwave on high for 2mins at a time till the crayons have melted. Leave in the microwave till they have set a little then place in the fridge for a quick set. Then all you have to do is simply pop them out and draw!! You can colour co-ordinate, use different molds, give them gifts to party guests or create a whole set. Be careful. The wax is very hot when melted. If you spill any try and wipe it up while its still hot, or leave until it is completely set and scrape it up with a butter knife.

Decorate cookies! Buy a packet cookie mix for $2-$5 and keep it in the cupboard for those quiet afternoons. Mix it up and let the little ones grab lumps of mixture and shape it and decorate it. We used chocolate drops, blue, green, orange, and special dinosaur sprinkles and even used pink food colouring to make PINK cookies!!

We made a dinosaur jigsaw cake. Alex had a lot of fun trying to put the pieces of cake together, he loves a good puzzle & nibbling on the cake pieces made it even better! We picked up the Wiltshire Jigsaw Cake Mold at Kitchen Witch for $13.95 but I know that Big W has similar ones , including a jigsaw butterfly cake mold, for $16.95. If you are super keen you can ice it, which is what I did for Alex's Birthday cake, but it is quite a challenge.

Play at the beach!! If you live close enough for a day trip GO! If you live quite close GO! And if you live inland perhaps a dam, river, or weir? The kids love it. Its such a cheap activity and way too many people I know over look it as an entertainment idea. Alex and I go to the beach a minimum of twice a week at 8am, (as it is still cool and the sun safe time to go) and try and squeeze in a few afternoon visits as well. Take anything your child likes, we take dinosaurs, and buckets and spades and our friend takes model motorbikes and cars.

Pasta paintings! I managed to find a packet of dinosaur shaped pasta, only $1 at Coles, and we have used the heck out of it!! Best $1 I have spent. We made a painting using the pasta as a stamp, we glued them on and painted them and we painted and then glued them on. We even coloured them in with textas strung them on some string and made a dinosaur bracelet.

Well I hope that these ideas help you a bit, they are a little obvious I guess but sometimes they're the ideas we miss. Alex has certainly enjoyed them and I hope your kids will too. If you have any ideas on expanding some of these activites, let me know!! I would be glad to hear from you!!

Christmas Crafts

Do you have any Christmas Craft ideas???

I always struggle with the entertaining activities area with Alex and the ones I think he will like most (e.g. making a mini herb garden) turn out to be the ones that frustrate him most. Ha-ha! I suppose we both just have different expectations, I expect to plant the herbs, he expects to eat them, I expect to dig holes to plant the plants and he expects to be able to throw dirt everywhere!! 

I think that this year I will stick with the classics

·         Cotton ball snow men,

·         Making our own crepe paper Christmas streamers

·         And the green-pompom's-glued-to-a-paper-cone Christmas tree.

Ha-ha! These are the old favourites from my childhood that I will be passing on to Alex, and they are relatively cheap and easy to organise. Requiring only paper, crepe paper or card (old cereal, tissue boxes), pompoms, cotton balls, textas and glue, most of which you already have around the house.

My friend the other day gave me an extremely early Christmas card that she and her son had made. It was his little foot print with paint, stamped onto a piece of card, cut out and made into a reindeer with little pipe cleaner reindeer ears and beady little eyes, the heel of his foot being the nose. It was quite the little work of art and such a creative idea. It means that people have a Christmas card, and a memento of him at this age, it really is precious.  

An Amazing Mash!!

I made an amazing  mash, the other night and it was eaten and enjoyed by all. It may seem strange to add a Zucchini to a mash but it was so yummy! And I do not like Zucchini.

1 large Zucchini

2 medium sized Potatoes

1 chunk of Sweet Potato

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

1. Chop the Sweet Potato into medium sized chunks, the Potato into small chunks and the Zucchini into large chunks (this will even out the cooking time) pop them all into a pot, cover with water and boil.

2. When they are all tender, strain but save some of the 'stock' (the water the vegetables were boiled in). Pop into a food processor or blender and add a little of the stock. 

3. Add a little olive oil, to taste, but no more than a teaspoon. Add the salt and pepper.

4. Blend/ puree to the texture you like, adding more stock for a thinner smoother puree and less for a thicker mash.

5. Serve!

How easy, although all mashes are, but super tasty. I made it quite smooth and used at as a sauce for Alex and he ate a fair amount, dipping his carrot and roast beef slices into it. It’s just an idea for you to give a go, simple and easy and if your little one likes it then woo! 3 veggies down!

Also adding olive oil instead of butter, margarine or cream is a good idea as it doesn't contain the cholesterol, salts, animal fats or preservatives that they do and you can add your own salt to taste. Thus making it a lighter calorie, lower sodium meal without affecting the flavour, this is a good technique for most things, to help your family's overall health and nutrition.

Difficult Eaters

Are you a mum who has run out of ideas? Is the constant struggle to come up with entertaining ideas for meal times and playtime wearing you down? Or perhaps you have just run out of ideas, or are simply looking for something fresh to do with the kids?

Look no further than “Mummy’s Little Helper.” Lots of creative ideas for craft and play, recipes for those fussy little eaters and advice from other mums to get you through those situations you had no idea you would end up in.

Nearly all kids will go through a stage where they decide they don’t like to eat (unless it’s chocolate or my son’s personal favourite popcorn). It can be very frustrating when you put so much effort into making the family meal and your little one won’t eat it. Don’t worry too much though as this is generally just a phase and they will grow out of it. Also as everyone will tell you they will eat if they are hungry, no kid will starve themselves. Sometimes this phase is your child asserting their independence, I believe this is the case with my son, Alex, as the more we encourage and cajole him the more he digs in his heels and insists that he ‘dint lik it’. I have found that one way to make him eat is to make food ‘fun’. This is sometimes difficult as our idea of fun food can be a nice steak with some roasted veggies and a lovely glass of wine, or in my case oysters and champagne!!

Kids’ ideas of fun foods are quite different from ours and can be as simple as making vegetable mash a bit thinner so instead of mash it is Dip!

Some simple ideas to help make food ‘fun’:

• Make mash thinner and call it dip, maybe put it in a little bowl or container on the side of the plate so that it really is dip. Making a coloured mixed mash can help this idea take off, so instead of a plain Potato mash make a Sweet Potato and Carrot mash or a Pumpkin and Potato mash or use a pea puree to turn the mash green. To make it thinner simply add a bit more milk or water than normal.
• Instead if chicken breast, serve chicken skewers. If these are still of no interest to you child (Alex hates ‘yuk’ big ones) make mini chicken skewers so that they are more appealing. This also applies to beef, firmer fleshed fish, and tofu.
• Don’t be afraid to try your child on foods that you might consider ‘inappropriate’. Teriyaki chicken sushi is a great, balanced meal. Calamari rings fun to dip and easy to cook, same goes for prawns. Salmon has a lovely pick flesh and canned or fresh can be used in a variety of kid friendly fun dishes. Give everything a go, who knows what they will like!
• Vegetables are difficult for kids to like, so try to make them more of a background ingredient. Tuna patties with a Carrot, a Zucchini and some Onion grated in, same with beef and salmon patties, whatever vegetable you have with do. Spaghetti Bolognese is a great ‘vessel’ for veggies, so are pancakes. Make a regular pancake mix and grate in a few veggies, spring onions, carrot and celery maybe, cook as a regular pancake and serve with your child’s favourite sauce.
• Try using different ideas to make veggies exciting, for example instead of steamed Carrots make a Carrot Soufflé. (It sounds difficult but is SOOOOO easy) It’s like a carrot cake but more savoury, the recipe is further down the page.

Carrot Soufflé Recipe

Ingredients

1kg of carrots, peeled, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds

Salt for salting cooking water

1 cup whole milk

1 cup Saltine cracker crumbs

3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 cup minced onion

1 tablespoon room temperature unsalted butter

Salt

Tiny pinch cayenne

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 large eggs

Method

1 Preheat oven to 180C, butter a 1.8lt capacity baking dish and set aside.

2 Place carrots in a saucepan and cover with an inch of water. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt to the water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Strain the carrots and puree in a food processor or with an immersion blender.

3 Place carrot puree in a large bowl. Slowly add in the milk, a little at a time, whisking after each addition so that the mixture stays smooth, not lumpy. Mix in the saltine cracker crumbs, the grated cheese, onion, butter, salt, cayenne, and black pepper.

4 In a separate bowl whip up the eggs until frothy. Then whisk them into the carrot puree mixture.

5 Transfer the mixture into the prepared baking dish & bake for 40-45 minutes, until puffed up a bit and lightly golden.

This recipe is great because it comes out of the oven looking like a cake, and smells delicious. As well as, at the end of each week we always have carrots, stale crackers and a few sprouting onions and they are pretty much all you need!!
If you like this then let me know, and if you discover any yummy variations I am definately keen!
I hope you liked my first bit of blogging,
Cheers Niquola!