This day I love.......: food

I can remember as a kid always wanting a Mr Frosty for Christmas. In fact it has become a bit of a joke now that I never got one but my sister did. My youngest daughter has also started asking for a Mr Frosty, so who knows for Christmas one year she might have one [secretly for me but don't tell her!]. As well as the Mr Frosty I can remember from my childhood there is now a Mr Frosty Choc Ice maker, this indeed sounded a lot of fun so I was rather pleased to be sent one to review.

The Mr Frosty Choc Ice maker comes with everything you need to create your own choc Ice, with the exception of the food. Here is the great part, your imagination can take over. The moulds are filled with any flavour yogurt you want. You can even use diary free and any flavour to suit your taste. The moulds are then placed flat in the freezer for at least 3 hours, we left ours over night. There is nothing stopping you from adding things into your yogurt, for example fruit pieces or sweets if you wanted to create something extra special.

The igloo is used in the microwave to melt chocolate. Again the great thing is you can choose whatever chocolate you like, we went for a mix of dark and milk. Pop the yogurt moulds from the tray and dip into the melted chocolate to coat. If you don't want to cover in chocolate you don't have to and instead could use the moulds to make an ice lolly or frozen yogurt lolly. Whilst the chocolate is still sticky add sprinkles and other decorations. The top of the igloo can be used to stand the lolly in whilst it dries, which doesn't take long!

This was not only really easy to make it was also a lot of fun too, both girls really enjoyed themselves. I like that the choice of what to include is up to you. It makes it perfect for those with dietary requirements or allergies as you really are in control of what you use. I can see us using the Mr Frosty Choc Ice maker quite a few times. I am tempted to blend vanilla yogurt, peanut butter and banana together to see if that creates a nice middle before dipping in dark chocolate? The possibilities are endless

We were sent the choc ice maker for review, all words are my own opinion.

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This year I have been trying to make more of a conscious effort to shop more ethically, or at the very least be more ethically aware. Making little swaps, like buying vegetables not wrapped in plastic, to slightly bigger swaps, using quorn or meat substitutes at home instead of meat. In addition we are trying to reduce waste, by using our compost bin more and grow some of our own vegetables. We have partnered with Suttons, online gardening retailers and advocates of grow your own vegetables, to look at some of the other trends in food and drink this year

Guilt-free alcohol

Alcohol often crops up now and then in our diets, for some more than others. However, we are becoming more health conscious and calorie counting doesn’t go well with a taste for liquor…

But, not to worry, guilt-free drinking is on its way. This new trend allows us to drink and be sociable without consuming extra calories. The low-calorie option amongst alcoholic drinks has been a rising segment for many years and will continue to grow as we increasingly monitor what we eat and drink.

It's already popping up here and there. You might have seen low-calorie beer on the shelves for example. Now, 78% of bars offer cocktails which is up 12% on 2016 — driven by social media and people’s willingness to post photos of their fancy drinks. Zach Sasser, a head bartender, predicts that ingredients such as beetroot juice, kale and pureed carrots will be popular. “Going into this health-conscious age that we live in, I believe integration is inevitable,” he says.

We might see healthier additions included in our cocktails too. In one survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association, 700 chefs were surveyed on what they think the latest culinary trends may be. They said that the relationship between the bar and the kitchen is to become stronger. Can we expect vegetable-infused cocktails in 2018?

Make room for more mushrooms

Scientists have discovered that mushrooms are better for us than we once thought, and it’s down to our ‘adaptogenic’ compounds. These compounds have anti-stress and anti-cancer properties. In fact, Food Navigator found that year-on-year sales of food products that include medicinal mushrooms have risen between an outstanding 200-800%, depending on the variety.

Experts are predicting that the mushroom market will be worth over £37 million in six years. Making its way into the food and drink sector through mushroom-infused coffees and mushroom smoothies, many cafes and retailers are already profiting from the trend.

The use of the mushroom is not limited to foodstuffs either. We can expect to see the ingredient on the labels of our hair and beauty products too. Different species of mushrooms are chosen for their varying properties — for example shiitake mushrooms are known for their richness in antioxidants and high vitamin D content, and the reishi mushroom is selected for its anti-inflammatory properties.

More non-meat eaters

More people are removing meat from their diet in a bid to help the environment. In fact, the number of vegans in the UK has risen by 350% in the past decade — predominantly driven by the younger market, with half of those opting for this diet falling between the ages of 15 and 34. At home we have been adopting a flexitarian diet — primarily vegetarian with meat and fish occasionally.

It’s possible that more plant-based ‘meats’ will be available to us. An example of this is an innovation called Beyond Meat. This could come in the form of burgers or fried food. Expect to see other indulgent food too, such as extravagant vegan desserts.

Smoothies and plant-based workout fuel

Smoothies were big in 2017, you might’ve noticed an abundance of them on social media. Finely ground tea leaves, matcha and powdered super vegetables such as kale, spirulina and spinach have been popular too — their texture making it easy to add to soups, smoothies and salads. Registered dietician, Abbey Sharpe, explains their popularity: “I think people love a quick way to get in their healthy-eating fix, and powdered substances are seen as an easy way to pack in the nutrition.”

As part of the new craze, it’s likely that we’ll see more plant-based proteins. One of the newest forms of this is pea protein which has many benefits including its neutral taste — making it favourable for regular consumption.

Taking to the gardens

One prediction for this year’s food trends is more people growing their own produce. Brexit is already changing our views on food shopping. In April 2017, one in five said that they were more likely to buy British food after leaving the EU to support the economy. However, this was dependent on pricing, and if prices rise, many will go for cheaper alternatives.

In 2016, we witnessed first-hand the implications of relying on imports. Vegetable prices rose by 6.6% and this was explained by climate problems in Europe which led to shortages in some items. Can we risk facing these soaring prices again? Many think not. Instead, keen and amateur gardeners are heading to their back yards to plant their own vegetable plants and seeds and it’s expected that this trend will continue.

What are your predictions for healthy food trends in 2018?

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We are a family of peanut butter lovers. Not just peanut butter any type of nut butter. A particular favourite is almond butter. I use peanut butter as a main source of fuel for my long distance runs. I find a peanut butter wrap really helped me for the ultra I ran a few weeks ago. I also love peanut butter and honey in porridge as fuel for breakfast before I even start my run.

In fact I found out a few facts about peanut butter

- Nut butters are high in protein and packed with vitamin E, magnesium and vitamin B6.

- It takes roughly 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of the luscious peanut butter.

- Peanut butter contains no saturated fat and can help lower bad cholesterol.

- Peanut butter is rich in antioxidants.

It is perhaps no wonder it works so well for long distance running!

Given the amount of peanut and nut butters we use a peanut butter maker is the ideal tool in our kitchen. Retailing at £36.99 from find me a gift, we were eager to put one to the test.

First thing to note is there is very minimal assembly and it is very straightforward to follow the instructions to assemble. We could not wait to begin making butter. You can choose whatever oil you like and you fill the orange dropper with oil. Nuts must have no shell in order to work, and the smaller you chop the nut the easier and quicker the process is. Also the process is quieter if you chop them small. Chopped nuts are placed into the container and you simply switch on. Around every 10minutes you stir the nut guide and that's all there is to it.

Not the best picture in the world but you get the idea.

I actually found the whole process really quick and simple. The machine can be quite loud if you don't chop the nuts small enough, but you would expect that with any 'blender/grinder' type machine.

What I do really like is that it is small for storage so doesn't take up loads of cupboard space, or even work top space and it does look rather stylish too!

It is great that we can now make our own butter, this gives us much more control over what is added to them. Should we wish to add honey or anything to them we can do and we know the ingredients. This makes it much healthier and also less wasteful too!

This has to be the must have gadget for any peanut butter or nut butter enthusiast out there. We certainly love ours!

This item was sent for review, all words are my own opinion

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In just over a weeks time I am going to be taking on the Yorkshire marathon, again. It is fair to say the first time I did this things did not go according to plan. Still, an achievement completing a marathon and even more so pregnant, but this time that course and I have history. A history so deep that I am now having mini panic attacks about it, I am not sleeping right and my head is playing the route over and over. I have worked hard this time, train hard and am fuelling better than I was before. I would say right, but I still love cake.

Mornings are perhaps the hardest to get breakfast right. It involves rushing around trying to feed three children and the dog. By the time I realise it is almost time for school and there is a mad dash to get dressed in time. Breakfast though is the one to get right. It is the one that sets you ready for the rest of the day. The girls go to school on a full stomach, they can concentrate more on their work and not sat thinking about when it is lunch time. They go to school with breakfast and they have more energy to concentrate and to play at play time. I notice a difference in me too, I snack less if I have had a good breakfast and I have more energy to fuel my runs too, allowing me to run better.

Quick breakfasts that are healthy and low in sugar are difficult to find. Ready Brek offers a solution that the whole family enjoy. Made from wholegrain oats, it is rich in Calcium, Vitamin D and high in oat fibre. It even has no added sugar or salt, given a bowl of Ready Brek is ready in under 90 seconds it is a quick and healthy breakfast.

The smooth texture of Ready Brek makes it perfect for the whole family, even Little Man at 18 months enjoys it. We can vary the taste of Ready Brek to suit our own individual preferences. My eldest loves hers with honey, my youngest loves strawberries in hers and Little Man loves cinnamon and raisins in his.

I have added Ready Brek into my banana and peanut smoothies to make it even more filling before I head out on my long runs. Ready Brek is also versatile as it can be used in cooking. It can be used in toppings for crumble, with melted butter for the base on a cheesecake or even in cookies to make Oatmeal and Raisin cookies.

See our Ready Brek morning here

This is a featured post, all words are my own opinion

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The cold wintry weather is making me long for sunnier climates. To feel the warmth of the sun on my back, watching my children play happily in either the pool or by the beach. I’ve teamed up with Thomson cruises to bring you my views on cruises and share the reasons why our family loves them. Going on a cruise allows us to explore and discover new places creating memories together and having lots of adventures.

A cruise holiday offers something different, something a little magical. Most mornings you wake up somewhere new. As you sleep the ship moves to a different port, giving you a new place to discover and explore every morning. A new experience and a new sunrise to watch. Not all cruises are the same however. Each company is slightly different and each ship within the fleet differs too, this means you can have a completely different experience with the same cruise company just on a different ship in their fleet. My desire for some sun has led me to look for a cruise for our summer holidays. We have a wishlist of places we want to visit and now I need to find a cruise to match them. I also need to make sure I book the right cruise for us, one which will meet our needs as a family.

Our last cruise took us around the Mediterranean. We took in some beautiful cities including Rome, Naples, Barcelona and Nice but for our next cruise we are thinking of discovering either the Caribbean or the Bahamas. The appeal of the turquoise water, and the culture are such an incredible pull that I am looking at different cruise companies and their ships to find one that would suit us. Of course the long haul flight with three young children is slightly less appealing, that I am also considering a cruise which sets sail from the UK as an alternative.

A cruise holiday is an amazing experience. We learnt so much from our last cruise, including needing a pirate outfit for pirate at sea day! Some cruise companies also have formal wear for evening and others have a very strict dress code. Some however are more relaxed and dependant on what you want from your cruise will depend which company will suit you best.

I cannot wait to set foot on board the ship and look out to sea. Watching the sunset over the ocean and waking up in a new place ready to create some wonderful memories.

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This time last year I has just had a growth scan and the girls got to see their new sibling in 3D. I remember that cold drive to the private clinic for the scan, excited to see my baby and the realisation that this was the year baby would arrive. Now a full year later I have a 10 month old and very soon a first birthday will be upon us. It also recently dawned on me that as Little Man was born right at the very start of March his birthday is sooner that we think as February is not a full month, well not really, so I might have to start planning very soon!

This past month has been documented daily on our YouTube channel as we undertook Vlogmas. It has been great watching Little Man grow each day in these videos, and whilst they may not be directly about him he still features in them. This month has seen Little Man gain a new tooth, so we now have 5 and by the looks of it another on its way. Little Man has had all the cold and flu bugs going so it has been a very snotty month too.

I now have a climber on my hands, he can climb onto chairs and tables, climb up stairs and basically climb onto or over anything that stays still long enough. He is super speedy fast in his baby walker and loves whizzing around and opening cupboards! He does a fantastic three point turn in his walker and loves to chase the dogs and his sisters. Whilst he can crawl he prefers to walk with objects so will crawl to an item to pull himself to standing. This past month has been all about working out how to get back down again, and he has now mastered sitting back down after standing up. It has been so sweet watching him work this out.

Due to Little Man walking with furniture he now has his very own pair of shoes. This first pair in the photo we had to take back as he refused to walk in them, his current pair he prefers much more and will walk with them on!

As well as walking Little Man is a chatter box. He wakes up every morning and says 'Hiya' and then starts chatting away and a few days ago he said 'mama' and now I can't get him to stop! He also loves to blow raspberries and will often answer a question you ask him by doing so, which can be rather comical. He gains a very confused look when you roll your tongue or stick your tongue out at him, neither of which he can do yet but he is working it out.

Sleeping is not one of Little Mans strong points, but then his sisters don't sleep either. He does like a nap around 11ish and will nap for about 2 hours but then gets tired around 4/5 and if he does nap then he will not go to bed until around 11, and if he doesn't nap then he sleeps 6-8 ish and then is up until 11! Either way it makes for an interesting evening. He gets up at least twice a night and wakes up around 7.30 am every morning demanding breakfast. I am trying to get him to sleep in his cot but he simply refuses, and then wakes up his sisters who then also refuse to go back to sleep.

We do have a good routine with Little Man, which is something neither of the girls had. He eats and sleeps around the same time each day, and he adores his bed time routine refusing to sleep if he doesn't have a bath. Little Man has started with some patches of dry skin, which is how my eldest eczema started and so I have been using the new Aveeno baby range with him. I met the Aveeno team at Blogfest and they kindly gave me some samples to try. The Aveeno baby range has been specifically designed for a baby's skin. Not only does it help to moisturise the skin but it has been designed to cleanse, soothe and protect delicate baby skin too leaving it healthy and leaving Little Man comfortable. I put some in his bath and he loves making lots of bubbles with it. After his bath I massage the emollient cream into his skin before putting on his PJ. He loves this routine and it seems to help keep dry skin under control.

One of the issues I have with Little Man and his sleeping is he does not like his sleeping bag. He moves to much for a blanket and he gets himself tangled in his sleeping bag. He likes to move his legs and cannot do this so gets frustrated. Dry, itchy skin on top of this would mean a very unsettled night so I use the Aveeno cream to help combat this uncomfortable feeling.

Little Man has a huge obsession for water and can be found anywhere there is running water. He knows where the bathrooms are and will crawl/walk to them and try and open the door. He gets over excited when he pulls himself up to the bath and does lots of excited jumps, his little legs then try to climb the sides to get in. Even when the dog is in the bath he still wants to get in!

Little Man now wears size 9-12 month clothes and even some 12-18 months clothes. At our last health visitor appointment he had regained his birth line, and that is no surprise as Little Man adores his food. He is fussy that it has to be the same as what we are all eating but other than that he eats most things, including sprouts at Christmas dinner.

I still find it hard to believe that Little Man has blue eyes, they have changed slightly to a blue/green but given a family of brown eyes it is such an amazing change. He has such a happy and cheeky personality. He will spend ages focusing on one toy, rather than playing with multiple toys. He much prefers to figure out how one toy works before moving on to another. Little Man seems fascinated with screws and you often find him with his finger working out how to unscrew the screws. His other fascination is with posting things and he posts his toys down the backs of chairs on purpose. His pointer finger gets used the most, he likes to point at things, put the pointer finger into things and use the pincer grip whenever possible. I have a feeling I am going to have to watch him very carefully as he gets bigger!

I cannot wait to see how my beautiful blue eye boy develops over the next month!

To celebrate a new year and the countdown to a first birthday I am giving away a teething ring from Gumigem. The colour and style will be sent from Gumigem directly, to enter simply follow the details on the widget below.

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