10/02/201326/01/2014 by jo

Bramley Apple and Parsnip Soup

Well, there are many things I miss, but we got in just in time for Bramley Apple Week which ended yesterday. I know, there’s so many weeks, days, months for everything, someone somewhere has a ridiculously full calendar which is ready to explode. Lucky for us it was our local Farmer’s Market in Wallington, and the people behind it, Eco Local had a recipe to hand.

The recipe in question is a Hairy Bikers one. I’ve never watched the programme, but am seeing a lot of people talking about them at the moment. As we’re following Weight Watchers parts of the recipe had to be omitted (and partly too because we started cooking at 6pm and that bit takes about fifteen minutes in their version and we don’t have the time), and of course it was in the trusty soup maker anyway.

The original recipe serves six, there’s only three of us and one is a mere quarter of me so we halved the total amount and left out some bits (like gently frying at the start)

2 medium red onions (these are best in the soup maker for flavour)
300g parsnips
2 garlic cloves (we did the full amount there)
300g Bramley Apples
Stock
Milk

The onions need chopping, the parsnips cubing, as do the bramley apples. Everything was put into the soup maker with the water added, and bouillon on top (to make the stock while it’s in there). Shaun added the milk then as well (though the recipe says to do that at the very end).

The soup maker was set to blend, and when it was finished it was really sweet – we were advised to cut back on the apples a bit, and I think slightly more parsnip and less apples would work better. Shaun felt like it was a bit like a thick apple juice whereas I liked it and it was our first time trying a soup with fruit in it.

I spotted this recipe for spiced carrot, cardamom and orange soup earlier this year so may well try it out next weekend…

09/02/201326/03/2018 by jo

Weight Watchers Updates and Challenges

I’ve fallen behind a bit on updating, we’ve had a sickly child and not much sleep, but let’s cut to the good news – I am now no longer overweight! I’ve finally after I-have-no-idea-how-long (possibly since being a teenager) hit the point of being a normal healthy weight again. Given my health issues I’m giving myself a HUGE pat on the back, as this helps considerably lower my chances of getting diabetes again, as well as issues with cholesterol. BUT. The journey doesn’t stop here – this is an entire lifestyle change, I’m not about to relax and think I know what I’m doing, as I don’t. I’ve still got 6lb left to lose as I want to be comfortably in the ‘healthy weight’ zone. To help me celebrate this, WW have given me one less propoint, sob! So now I’m down to 27 a day.

To celebrate I’ve spent a bit of money at H&M and Uniqlo getting some clothes that fit me – including for the first time in years, ladies jeans! It’s all really good and quite weird. I still feel quite self-conscious, but I also have more confidence overall, and I’m hiding a little bit less.

So, we’ve some occasions coming up in the next week. I’d firstly like to say we don’t celebrate Valentines Day as I find it a terrible waste of money and a silly pressure to come up with something on a day which means nothing to me – I’d rather celebrate a birthday or anniversary (like my brother-in-law’s). BUT! Pancake day is coming, and I do like to celebrate that. I’ve found a WeightWatchers recipe (which looks the same as a regular pancake recipe, though less fat) and each pancake comes in at 1 point. Tuesday is also the day I do pilates, so I’ll earn a few activity points in the process, so may well treat myself to a chocolate filling.

I guess that’s what I’ve worked out since last September with Weight Watchers – you CAN eat your regular foods (unless you eat a Domino’s Pizza every day, of course), you just do it all in appropriate portion sizes. If you want to eat more, or foods with higher points, increase your activity. If you have a few days like we have where you’re stuck at home and not doing a lot activity-wise then keep to low point foods (we’ve had soups and stews). I was chatting with someone who did Weight Watchers before the Pro Points came in, who talked about having ‘Sin’ foods – and that (to me) is a bad way of putting it – yes, there are foods that aren’t great to eat, but with the Pro Points system you choose and if you happen to want to work things in, then there is a way. (Not every day, mind) Saying food is a ‘sin’ would probably make me want to eat it more.

So, this weeks challenge is about keeping track when you’re out and about. I’ve found that dining in restaurants that have free Wifi is my best option (I don’t have an iPhone, just an iPad and iPod) and I can work out what to eat that way – but not everywhere has that. I’m a creature of habit so tend to eat at Pizza Express, though I’m finding more restaurants are listing how many calories a dish has – so I then attempt to calculate it and ask Shaun (he’s the numbers man) – just divide your calories by 40 and there’s your Pro Points. You know what though? If I go slightly over my daily allowance I don’t stress about it – I just get off the bus to work a stop earlier and make sure I walk at lunchtime and it balances out (I’ve set up my points preferences to take my activity points first and use the 49 points everyone gets every week as a last resort – last week I used two of them).

The previous week’s challenge was about moving around more. I am the world’s worst at this. I start work at 8.30 and can quite often get to 12.30 and realise I’ve not moved for four hours. I do try to walk as much as possible when I can, and the new year has brought me meetings out of the office so I’ve done a bit of extra walking which has helped. I have no advice to make this better – don’t be like me! Or if you are, go for long walks at the weekend!!

I’ve been provided with six months of Weight Watchers Membership as a Blogger Ambassador, my opinions are just that, and are honest.

09/02/201304/02/2014 by jo

Bags We Love – Mia Tui

There’s a new bag from the lovely world of Mia Tui, and mine arrived this morning!

It’s their smallest bag at 23x23cm, the Lottie and is a good size for essentials particularly if you’ve moved away from carrying nappies and wipes around (also – you don’t have to be a parent to have a Mia Tui bag – it’s one that everyone will love). The bag fits my Mia Tui purse, my phone, keys (and there’s a handy key hook) and there’s still space for more – there’s a zip across the top, plus a zip pocket at the front – and both inner and outer are waterproof. I’m going to get some tiny reusable shopping bags and I think I’ll probably have everything I need. It’s also a great price at £15 – the strap is a fabric one, so different to the other bags. It’s made from ultra-soft faux leather too.

There’s currently an offer at Mia Tui for Lottie bags – head over to their Facebook Page for a fabulous discount code. There’s also some fine-looking bags for men being launched soon (I’m very tempted to get Shaun one) – so keep an eye out! Mia Tui will also be at The Baby Show in London in a few weeks, so make sure you pop by.

06/02/201326/01/2014 by jo

Easy Vegetable Stew – A Sickly Child Edition

H isn’t well at the moment – a high temperature that Calpol and Nurofen are barely containing – so I’ve been making sure she has plenty of good food to eat which is nice and tasty too. Tonight I asked her what she fancied for tea, she opted for a vegetable stew.

I get my weekly food delivery on a Tuesday, so by Wednesday anything that’s left from last week needs to be used – and this is a good recipe for doing just that; plus my trusty Morphy Richards Soup Maker means I can leave it to cook with minimal preparation beforehand.

So, I used… (Weight Watchers PPV in brackets)

3 sweet potatoes – diced (356g – 9 points)
one red onion (for flavour) (0 points)
frozen peas (1 point’s worth – I weighed until it went to 2, then took back each pea until it was at 1)
frozen sweetcorn (1 point’s worth – same as before)
one red pepper (0 points)
one teaspoon of Marmite Gold (I’d have used Aussiemite but we’ve almost run out – I think this would work too with the onion) (0.5 point)
one vegetable stock cube (we’ve run out of bouillon) (0 points)

Serves two adults – generous portions – plus one three-year old.

I chopped everything up into cubes and added to the soup maker. After that, water was added to the minimum line (I wanted to get plenty of onion in the juice as I knew H would pick those bits out) and I set it to the chunky setting, which takes a bit longer – 28 minutes.

While the soup is cooking I measured a good-sized portion of whole grain rice (250g – 7 points) and had that cooking (as it takes about 25 minutes). I hadn’t eaten a lot today being at home and H losing her appetite, so I needed filling up!

Once the rice was cooked I drained it and put it at the bottom of our bowls. When the stew was ready I added that on top, making sure the liquid came out first, then evenly putting the vegetables on top of each serving.

Weight Watchers points for an adult serving come in at 14 points which sounds a lot, and I have gone over my daily allowance (but I had activity points stored up). Yesterday I had 8 points left, so while I can’t get them back, I figure going into my activity allowance isn’t the end of the world. A lower point version would be to switch sweet potato for butternut squash which I think would work really well too.

The taste verdict? It worked pretty well – the onion helped give it a bit of a kick without being too overpowering (and H picked them all out)! It feels quite wintery, some ginger would have worked as well although might be better in a smooth soup. Give it a try – let me know how you get on!

06/02/201304/02/2014 by jo

Finger Knitting Good!

As part of my technology-free Saturday I did some finger knitting with H (aged almost three and a half) – and considering she’s quite a patient little girl I was amazed how quickly she picked it up (as you do need to be really patient!). Currently we have two bracelets, and she has a sense of achieving something “a bit like mummy”. She needed help but knew what to do once we’d done it a few times.

Finger knitting is new to me; I’ve knitted since I was young, though only followed my first pattern late last year. It follows the same principle as a knitting doll bobbin.

Hold the wool with the thumb of the hand you’re going to be knitting on and wind the wool around each finger alternately until you’ve looped them over each finger two times – remember to keep hold of the end your thumb is holding!

finger knitting

Then all you do is pull the lower loop over the upper one. Start again winding the wool around each finger until you have two loops on each finger, and keep going, making sure you start from the same finger each time you pull the lower loop over the upper (we started from the little finger). Eventually it’ll look like this :

finger knitting result

At some point you’ll want to cast off. Cut your wool but leave a good length on it, and thread the end through the wool on each finger. Remove the wool from the fingers and pull tight – and voila – you’ll have something which looks a bit like a large knitted bracelet!

The best thing about this is the lack of mess, and it’s something you can do quickly and easily – and you don’t need a whole ball of wool either. I picked up a knitting doll bobbin from Tiger for £3 recently so think we may make a start on that with H, see how we get on…

06/02/201304/02/2014 by jo

Dining Out at Zizzi

Sunday we were in central London and had every intention of going to Pizza Express – though we hadn’t taken into account that the Victoria Station one had been knocked down, so did a quick rethink as we didn’t want to walk too far, H was tired too.

Fortunately we found Zizzi – I’ve never eaten there before so it was a new experience for us all. We were shown to our seats quickly and served straight away – H was presented with her menu and some colouring pencils so she got straight to work doing her colouring in. I checked the iPad and they offer free Wifi via The Cloud, so was able to find a 25% off our food deal at Zizzi Deals (valid until the 13th February) – I liked we were able to do this, as we rarely plan ahead so would never have known had it not been for the free internet – and I love a good deal.

Zizzi Menu

Their menu had a good choice, especially the vegetarian options. They also had a low-calorie section (a smaller wholemeal pizza with a generous salad which came in around 14 points) and I quite liked how there were large oils on the tables – chilli oil too – my favourite!

Shaun ordered a pizza with potato on it (which looked really yummy), and H ordered a cheese and tomato one from the Bambini menu (starter, pizza or pasta and a dessert). Shaun and I had diet coke to drink and H had a juice. We ordered some dough sticks for starters.

The food came quickly and we didn’t have to wait too long – considering the restaurant was quite full we were impressed with this.

We skipped on dessert, though helped H with her two scoops of strawberry ice cream which was delicious.

After the discount, our food came in at £30 which is comparable to Pizza Express – possibly cheaper which again impressed us as we often go to the former as we know roughly what it will cost us.

Even better, with my low-calorie option I felt full for the rest of the afternoon. We’ll definitely go back!

06/02/201304/02/2014 by jo

Polesden Lacey Volunteer Recruitment Coffee Morning!

Are you interested in being part of the Polesden Lacey team?

If so, come up to the Volunteer Recruitment Coffee Morning at Polesden on Saturday 9 February 2013 from 10am – 12pm to find out more. We would like to talk to anyone interested in either one-off activities, or a longer term commitment, whatever your stage in life. Roles available include room guides, mobility vehicle drivers and much more.

Volunteering is a great way of gaining new skills and experience and of sharing the skills you already have. You’ll meet new people and gain new challenges – all in the beautiful setting of this 1,400 estate in the stunning Surrey Hills. Why not drop in and talk to us about ways we can work together?

Polesden Lacey is in Great Bookham near Dorking – follow the brown signs from the M25 or A246. Nearest station is Boxhill & Westhumble (2 miles).

04/02/201316/10/2014 by jo

Hotel Transylvania at the National Geographic Store in London

Yesterday we went to the National Geographic store opposite Harrods to watch ‘Hotel Transyvania’, which was released on DVD and BluRay today (4th Feb).

On arrival, we were given an activity book – and each table had some pens and scissors to make a monster mask – had we been more creative (it was early, we needed coffee) I think we’d have done better than this – the mask came with the activity book. There wasn’t a huge amount for H as she can’t read, though we were able to adapt the games (spot the letter instead of a word search), so all was not lost!

H was so excited – she got to meet Mavis, Dracula’s 118 year old daughter

as well as Johnnystein, the monster who may well not be (you’ll have to watch the film to find out more – enter the giveaway!)

After that we all settled down in the back of the store, the kids on pebble shaped cushions, to watch the movie – which comes in at around an hour and a half. H is 3.5 and I’d read there were mildly scary bits (when Dracula gets angry) – but watching her reaction she was absolutely fine with it which was good to see!

The film has a simple plot – it’s Mavis’s coming of age – she’s 118, and Count Dracula needs to learn to let go and let her discover life (so she thinks). However, Dracula has other plans. There are a few funny moments for us adults, and watching the kids there were plenty for them – and funnily enough the loud fart (complete with green gas) got the loudest laugh from them. I’d say it’s a long film, though H was pretty good at sitting through it on her own without any fears – and she enjoyed it, which is what it’s all about!

She really enjoyed the film and loved meeting Mavis and Johnnystein – and we got lucky and won a DVD copy in the raffle too, so now she can watch it whenever she fancies!

Hotel Transylvania is out today on DVD and BluRay, thank you to the PR company for organising the event!

04/02/201306/01/2015 by jo

We Love Books – This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

H got ‘I Want My Hat Back’ by Jon Klassen last Christmas, and while she’s still a bit too young to get what happened and how the bear got his hat back (despite it being fairly blatant!), this time it really does spell it out!

Jon Klassen books

A small fish has stolen a hat from a big fish. The small fish brags about it, saying how the big fish probably won’t even notice. However, as with ‘I Want My Hat Back’, there’s no happy ending to be had – well, apart from for the big fish and his nice full tummy (probably).

I love these books! What I love the most is how they work on two levels – in the first book the bear says “I would not eat a rabbit. Don’t ask me any more questions.” (when he has quite obviously eaten the rabbit), and our 3-year-old doesn’t get that message at all – just that the bear has his hat back. This time we’re dealing with fish, and the big fish doesn’t say anything – so there’s a lot more describing what’s happened for this one! (and no gore, obviously – it’s a kids book)

The books are wonderfully illustrated by Jon Klassen and involve minimal words – there’s plenty to get your imagination going. If you haven’t come across either book, here’s the trailer for ‘I Want My Hat Back‘

and here’s the one for ‘This is Not My Hat‘

See? Lovely! Both are published by Walker Books and are available to buy now! We read both books to H – she’s almost 3.5 now, and was having them read to her at 2.5 if you had any concerns. The books aren’t obvious with what happened, and she still doesn’t realise what has actually happened to the hat-thieves.

04/02/201316/10/2014 by jo

Hey Hey Hey Have a Henry Hugglemonster Day!

We’ve already mentioned Henry Hugglemonster on here a couple of weeks ago – are you ready for some episodes? Did you catch the sneak peek a couple of weeks ago? Are you ready for some monster-y family fun?

We were invited into central London to meet Niamh Sharkey, the creator of the ‘I’m A Happy Hugglemonster’ book the show is based on, and learn how to draw Henry – something H really enjoyed doing.