Organic foods - are they worth the premium?

This post has been brewing in my head for a while. I'm probably going to upset someone by posting it but I always try to be honest on this blog. It's about organic food.

I used to buy organic. I still do occasionally but only when it fits into my pocket. The simple truth is I can't afford it these days and so I've had to be pragmatic.Occasionally, organic is the same price or cheaper than non-organic products so it's a no-brainer.

My pragmatism has altered over time into a faint cynicism. The aims of the organic movement are laudable but the fact is, getting certified organic is expensive for small independent producers. I'm guessing there are a lot who follow organic principles but can't sell it as such.

This came about because Waitrose asked me to provide some recipes for their Organic Month in September and sent me a giftcard to go shopping for organic products. Unfortunately, my shopping trip was a bit of a disaster. But that is not relevant to the thrust of my post. And I do want to say that I LOVE Waitrose - I shop there a lot, although mostly for particular things I can't get elsewhere and top up shops.

What shocked me most was the variation in price - some things, like yogurt, were only a little more but milk was double the price for the same size bottle. Ostensibly, they are very similar products. Why?

The organic food industry is huge and we are sold the benefits of it. Meat production has better welfare standards.Everyone goes on about fewer pesticides. I used to be convinced that carrots tasted better, but what I bought was grown locally and delivered fresh to me by the grower. I fully accept now that it might not be the fact it was organic that made them taste better.

The health benefits are to me, not clear. I'm a big fan of Ben Goldacre of Bad Science fame (I heard him speak recently, he was great) and he's written a whole post on organic food and the FSA's findings that there are no measurable health benefits which you can find here. This echoes = and has informed - my own feelings on the subject.

One of the items I did buy on my shopping trip was an organic lamb joint as it was on special offer. When I cooked it, its texture was lovely but in terms of the taste, we didn't feel it tasted any better, but then it had been a few weeks since we last had roast lamb. Maybe that's the thing - the premium tricks us into thinking because it cost more, it tasted better.

If you are going to buy organic, I would recommend saving it for key ingredients like meat, poultry and eggs as they are a more ethical choice. Some things will never be organic - think seafood, think fish that is not farmed, think foraged items - so there is no point in looking for them. No-one will ever be able to eat 100% organically unless they restrict their diet. Waitrose has one of the most extensive ranges of organic items in a UK supermarket. A quick search of their online shop suggests they have over 800 items (including cat food?!) but that is still a drop in the ocean; supermarkets stock thousands of products.

The conclusion I have come to is this - organic food is a lifestyle choice and it makes money, a lot of money. If you want to buy organic, and you can afford it, by all means go for it. But if you can't afford it, then you will be fine and nothing bad will happen. It's more important to be able to feed your family.

(This post was inspired by an approach by Waitrose, who have a big range of organic products. They sent me a giftcard to buy organic ingredients. They also sent me a box of some organic products.)

Quark cooking sauces - a light touch and a saving grace!

You know that feeling when you get home from a holiday and all you have in the house is bread, milk and butter? When you've nearly lived on sandwiches and other bread-based foods for a week, bread is NOT appealing. That was me last weekend when we arrived from Devon.

As I drove for the last few miles, my mind tried to figure out what Saturday tea was going to be. It could be Chinese take away from the reopened one around the corner. It could be pizza. Or it could be a supermarket dash to get ... er, something.

Then we got home and I found a missed delivery card through the door, and I realised that a parcel had been left round the back. I sent Monkey to get it but he said it was too big for him to pick up. Husband was dispatched to get it whilst I emptied bags and checked post.

What came in was a massive hamper containing Lake District Dairy Quark cooking sauces and the ingredients to make a number of dishes. It was like someone knew! I had no idea it was coming and I hadn't seen any emails about it. Lucky we were coming home that day.

The cooking sauces are designed to be lower in fat and higher in protein than other sauces but a great way to make a meal quickly. The recipes I received with it were nice and simple and tea was ready within about 15-20 mins.

First, I made baked gnocchi in the tomato and basil sauce. After initial moans from the children, they decided it smelt nice cooking and it delivered on the taste front too.

The following day, we had spaghetti "quarkonara" with a garlic and herb sauce. I added mushrooms to this so there was a bit more cooking but it was a case of cook spaghetti, drain, add sauce and ham. I found the recipe to be quite dry and kept adding leftover cooking water. I certainly didn't enjoy it as much as a regular carbonara - it was too garlicky for that. The kids loved it but they love pasta, full stop. I think I prefer the egg yolks to be honest. They compared to making it with cream cheese but I have never made a carbonara with cream cheese! I didn't get a photo of this, it went too quickly!

We did however all really enjoy the chicken tikka and quark rice. The children are scarred by me overspicing Indian dishes so were dubious but they needn't have worried - the sauce was not too hot but flavoursome. The dish was more a biryani style - I was sent pre-prepared rice but I think they should have sent uncooked rice so I added some myself, otherwise it wouldn't have been enough. Adding the raisins and the almonds added a nice contrast to the dish. I did get sent some coriander but the day before I made this, my fridge went into overdrive and froze some of the contents, which destroyed it! Monkey doesn't really like it on his food anyway.

The quarkonara aside, I liked these sauces. I would definitely make the chicken tikka again and I think the gnocchi would also work well with the garlic and herb sauce. I often forget gnocchi as an option for a meal and they are all even quicker to cook than pasta so it was a timely reminder to build them into more recipes particularly when time is short of an evening and I want to cook a fairly healthy option.

Pizza night with Panebello

Does every family turn TV events into mini parties? We do. Whether it's the final of the few reality TV programmes, a special sports event or a royal wedding, we're there with food.

Usually, I've planned it. But sometimes, treat nights mean a night off for me too. And for that reason, frozen pizza sometimes just has to be done. Yes, I make my own. No, it's not that hard. But sometimes, I just don't want to! Frozen pizzas are great to have around for emergencies and keep forever. And as pizza is one of the children's favourite things to eat, it is perfect treat food.

If anyone offers us to try pizza, I know in my heart of hearts that I would get into trouble if I said no and they found out. Strangely, we don't get offered it very often, but Dr Oetker asked if we'd like to try their new Panebello pizzas. So I had to say yes. To be honest, I wasn't all that keen as they were deep pan ones and I got over that phase a good 15 years ago. I prefer the tomato, the cheese and toppings. But duty calls and all that. Panebello means "beautiful bread" - I wondered just how beautiful it could be!

We tried both varieties in the new range - Pepperoni Speciale (Special Pepperoni) & Pomodoro Mozzarella (Tomato Cheese). This was good as neither Monkey nor I are huge pepperoni fans but Missy Woo and her dad are. And two pizzas are just about enough for four people, especially pizza lovers.

The only problem with the pepperoni pizza for Missy Woo is that they had red onion and peppers on it and she doesn't really like either but would just pick them off. Usually, I would like some extra topping with my cheese and tomato, but decided we would try the product as sold. Usually, I would add at least ham and possibly mushrooms or sweetcorn for any pizza Monkey is eating.

Here are the pizzas before they went in the oven. The cheese and tomato one was generously topped. I hate buying pizzas that have so little cheese on them that you want more. This was definitely NOT the case. There was less cheese on the pepperoni pizza but the other toppings were generous and cut to a chunky size. Because they are thicker pizzas, they take a bit longer to cook than most frozen pizzas - 20 minutes from frozen. That is quicker than waiting for a pizza delivery. And cheaper.

My oven is small so had to cram in both pizzas on the same shelf. The cheese pizza ended up at the back, hence looks a little overdone but that didn't affect the flavour. I also know that my oven cooks cool so I turned it up 10 degrees higher than the instructions. And I didn't realise I moved when I took the shot of the pepperoni pizza cooked. I am not an expert photographer anyway, sorry!

What was the verdict on eating? Very nice. The pizzas were both demolished in minutes, and the children were disappointed there wasn't more. The pepperoni fans declared their pizza "tasty" and the cheesy tomato pizza was just as flavoursome with flavour from basil as well as the tomato and the cheese. What did surprise me was the base. Yes, it was thick. But the crust was crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. It was surprisingly light, not doughy and heavy at all as I had expected. I still prefer thin based pizzas but these really are a great alternative if you like a light, crispy texture to your pizza base.

I am not going to pretend these are the healthiest of options. But pizza night once in a while isn't going to hurt, nor is keeping a couple in the freezer for emergency meals. They cost about £3 but special offers mean they are often much less, meaning they are also a budget treat. Beautiful bread indeed.

(Dr Oetker kindly sent us vouchers to try Panebello pizzas for free. I received no further compensation for this post). 

Getting Up and about

I always like things that help you learn more about yourself so when I was asked if I'd like to try some fitness equipment I fell up the Jawbone Up tracking wristband and I was intrigued. Not only did it track your activity, but it also tracked your sleep, your food, even your mood. So I thought I'd give it a go.

I've had it for just over two weeks now and it's quickly become a part of my life. The band is slightly big for my wrist but doesn't get in the way. I can wear it in the shower (but not in a swimming pool) so you can add your efforts to get clean to your daily movement. After a while, you do honestly forget you're wearing it. Because it's on your wrist, you won't lose it easily so it's almost a case of fit and forget.

The idea of it is it's like a pedometer that senses movement. You set yourself goals for a number of steps per day, hours of sleep and it measures movement like an accelerometer on a phone. If you are active, but don't necessarily do running or walking for your exercise, you can time an exercise or you can add it afterwards. This is good for me as classes like Body Pump don't need much horizontal movement. Even interval training using bodyweight exercises may not register in the same way as a step.

At night time, when you go to bed, you set it into sleep mode by pressing the end of the band until it buzzes. Then it picks up the movement of your arm to assess what level of sleep you are in - awake, light or deep sleep. As an extra, I've set alarms so that it wakes me within 20 minutes of a target time, the theory being that it wakes you when you are sleeping lightly and therefore wake more easily. It wakes you by vibrating on your wrist which is gentler than a loud alarm. However, I find I'm nearly always already awake, such is my body clock. I find looking at my sleep cycles fascinating although I seem to have developed a habit of longer night time wakings which might be related or entirely coincidental.

In order to look at your data, there are accompanying free iOS and Android apps. I have used both, since I have an Android phone and an iPad. They work pretty much the same way and are very easy to set up. You sync your band by plugging it into the microphone socket and it's updated in seconds. I have a slight preference for the iOS app, purely because it gives you an overview of what you've just uploaded since last sync. I find it easier to mess around and view things too but I am conscious I am using a bigger screen. It's easy to look back at your data and you've always got a running total for the day in terms of sleep and steps moved. At the top of my "feed" every day are interesting snippets called Insights that are interesting topics related to fitness or your data in general.

There are many things I love about it. It is easy to use, and the battery genuinely does last for days and then only takes an hour or so to charge back up (which you do via a USB adaptor). It's simple and it's really effective at making you consider how active you are even by just adding a few steps here and there, they all add up.. In particular, understanding about your sleep is really interesting and it does genuinely make me try to get to bed at a reasonable time most nights. I still have not reached my sleep target though!

There are some things that I do not like. I set idle alerts to remind me to move if I've not moved in 30 minutes during the day but if I'm standing and moving gently (like cooking and doing stuff in the kitchen), it doesn't seem to register and the alert will buzz on my wrist whilst I'm standing up. Annoying. And I tried to log food intake with it and found it horribly complicated - although you can add as much detail as you like. I've stopped using it because it should be intuitive and easy; I found it to be neither. I also think they missed a trick not to have added some way of tracing your heart rate or pulse so you can get more information about how hard you are working or have worked when working out. Steps are not everything and adding an activity isn't a perfect solution.

Something I haven't got around to is adding friends as the community is relatively limited in size so far. You can also connect Up to various health and fitness related apps like MapMyFitness but I don't use those. It does link to MyFitnessPal but I've gone off that a bit recently.

On the whole, I do love the Up band and I think the more you use it, the more you will get out of in terms of understanding your lifestyle and improving your overall health and fitness levels. This could be a great Christmas present for a special someone who is planning a serious January health kick but wants to build a genuinely active lifestyle. It's not uber cheap at £99.99, but I think it's good value.

This post is in association with Argos. I have not been paid a fee to write this post and all opinions are my own. 

Superfoods for super kids?

The media goes on about superfoods a lot. I'm not sure they really exist but they are big business these days.

There is one "superfood" that has been a regular in our household though and that's something called CherryActive. We first discovered it when following the exploits of Run Geordie Run running across the USA. They were one of his sponsors and he used it daily to help him with his recovery from running long distances every day. (Side note - he's currently doing it again, across Australia in 70 days for charity, please give generously, he's mad).

The husband, gadget man that he is, decided he had to try it. In fairness to him, he was training for marathons and then for an Ironman triathlon and was swayed by the prospect of fewer aches and pains. Since then, he's taken it religiously when training.

CherryActive was started by John Carrey in the USA when he discovered that Montmorency cherries helped his gout pain. The concentrate has nothing added to it - sugar, colourings or flavourings - and can be used neat or mixed with water or yogurt. The only problem is that they are sour cherries so it's quite hard to give to children. There are capsules if you don't like the taste but again, not very child friendly.

Beyond its benefits in aiding sports recovery, it is meant to help sustain proper joint function and can also improve your sleep. The level of antioxidants is also meant to help protect against diseases and all sorts of conditions associated with ageing.

CherryActive have now come up with a child friendly alternative, BlueberryActive. Blueberries are believed to have powerful antioxidant properties, but now also it's believed that it can boost brain performance and help protect against neurodegeneration. That should mean it's great for kids to improve concentration at school. Its major benefit is it tastes just like blueberries and a much less sour taste than the cherries. How do I know? Well, CherryActive kindly sent me some to try along with some BeetActive and some of the original CherryActive to try, along with some fancy glasses where you can measure out the right amount of your chosen drink and top it up with yogurt for a smoothie or just plain water. BlueberryActive is actually really nice diluted with sparkling water. I do find the cherry one too sour and beetroot is not my favourite (although perhaps I could use it in a cake...) as it tastes too earthy for me. The children, predictably, loved blueberry so our little bottle went far too quickly.

The only problem is the price. A small bottle of BlueberryActive works out at about £11 for 7 servings. You can buy CherryActive in larger bottles so it can work out cheaper. Still, both work out cheaper than buying smoothies in the shops. And if you want to try it for a bit less, you can buy anything from the CherryActive website and get 10% off if you enter the code KATE10 until the end of October.

(Thanks to CherryActive for sending me some samples to try and 3 of their drinking glasses for us to try.)

A battle worth fighting: me against the children and their teeth

I knew something was up. I think Monkey knew because, for a change, he was not keen to go. My worst fears were confirmed. "He needs a filling," said the dentist. He started to cry when the dentist gave him a talk about looking after his teeth. Before we knew it, we were downstairs booking an appointment when the receptionist asked if we could do it now. Eek. I decided we would, for lots of reasons. He calmed down and actually did brilliantly - although our fab dentist seems to do fillings without any horror shows, as it was the easiest filling I've ever seen.

We did have another chat with Monkey, about brushing his teeth. Bear in mind that Missy Woo gets the same things as he does and her teeth are fantastic and the dentist always praises her. Quite simply, she brushes her teeth properly. I've lost count of the number of times I've sent Monkey back to the bathroom to brush his teeth again after he's disappeared for all of 15 seconds then said he's done his teeth. That must mean there are plenty more times when I didn't.

If nothing else, the filling was a wake up call to him. Whilst it wasn't as traumatic as he thought it would be (mainly driven by his friend telling him how much a filling had hurt - I told you we had a fab dentist!), he realised that not brushing your teeth properly has consequences (especially after breakfast when he often has raisins on his cereal; they are so difficult to unstick from little teeth.) Mind you, there are signs of a bit of slippage and once again, I'm sending him back upstairs after his sister snitched on him a few times.

The problem is, two minutes is a bit long when you are 8. Or 7 but Missy Woo is way more patient.

Thankfully, Colgate sent me a bag of goodies including a fab toothy two minute timer to help them know exactly how long two minutes is. I mean, when Monkey first had a filling, I sat upstairs watching the clock to time them. They sent it for their Oral Health Month in September so let's gloss over the fact that it's now October. Bad Kate. Still, there's never a bad time to discuss dental health for kids.

Colgate shared with me an infographic that I personally found quite interesting, and shocking. I'd share it with you but Blogger won't let me upload the file so I'll give you the edited highlights. Only 50% of children go to see their dentist twice a year. That is down in part to some parents not realising that milk teeth are as important as adult teeth. Another factor is parents' fear of dentists and also because the children are afraid. Generally, I don't fear the dentist which I'm glad about, and my kids have been going to the dentist so long they shouldn't really fear them because they haven't learnt that from me. I'm hoping the filling doesn't scare Monkey in any way.

We are so lucky that we do have a dentist that we can visit regularly - I know that not everyone is so fortunate. And I know that it's really super hard not to give into demands for sweets and chocolate all the time, particularly when you have smart persuasive children. I spend my life saying no to my kids, and I don't always win. But I do think it's a battle worth fighting and winning as much as I can. Having healthy teeth is more important than most of us think - it can affect your overall health, as well as your confidence. So the fight will go on and I'll try to keep them on the right track.

(Thanks to Colgate for sending a bag of goodies for us to try.)

Pebbles - of chocolate?

As you may or may not know, one of my unwritten rules for my blog is "never turn down chocolate". Not for me necessarily, but everyone else in the house adores chocolate and I quite like it too. Anyway, Cadbury's offered to send me some Dairy Milk Pebbles to try, so I couldn't say no.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, if you are Cadbury's) they didn't last long. They did, however, last long enough for me to take a couple of snaps. (Badly, of course!)

Pebbles fill the void left by Mini Eggs when it's not Easter. They're a little bigger, pebble shaped (strangely!) but still covered with that crispy shell. Well, I say bigger - perhaps they're just flatter. And I think I can safely say they are moreish; I had to ration them with the children on the first afternoon they arrived. I was away the next night and by the time I came back, they were all gone! Hmm, maybe that wasn't just the kids; I think I hid the remainder.They come in handy bags for sharing, but if you're sneaky, I'm sure you could easily polish off a whole bag yourself. 

The chocolate is Dairy Milk - standard Cadbury's fare - so perfect unless you don't like milk chocolate. I've been told the RRP £2.03 (which is an odd number!) but looking at the supermarkets, some are selling them for £2 and others £1.50. It's similarly priced to the other sharing bags of chocolate on offer. 

I'd definitely recommend you buy these if you love your Mini Eggs; it will be like Easter every day without having the depressing thought that it's Easter straight after Christmas etc. Anyone would enjoy them though - I like getting through the crispy shell to find the chocolate underneath. Your only problem is going to be stopping eating them. I dare you. 

(Cadbury's sent me a couple of bags of Pebbles to try. They also kindly sent me a free family ticket for admission to Cadbury World.)

A safari trip with Jungle Dogs

A trip to a safari park during the school holidays sounds a great idea, doesn't it? Jungle Dogs invited us to Knowsley Safari Park to an event to learn a little about their product and to go on safari. The last time we went round Knowsley, I drove somebody else's car - at least in mine, it would be a little less stressful!

Jungle Dogs are a new chilled hotdog product and they were keen for us to try their products. So much so that they prepared it in a number of different ways for us to try whilst the children did some colouring. Unfortunately, Missy Woo put her fussy head on that day and tried hardly anything because they dared to use a lot of soft cheese! And the wraps had green stuff in it. How very dare they?

I also ended up talking about school holidays with Tina O'Brien off Coronation Street which was also a bit bizarre. I may have asked someone what her name was - although in my defence, I was sure she was called Tina something. (Can you tell I have my finger on the pulse of popular culture?) The children had no clue either - I had to tell them later that she was on the telly!

Anyway, the children were very taken with their goody bags containing pencils, colouring books and finger puppets and even more exciting to be giving an animal onesie to take away; they have slept dressed as a kangaroo and a kitten ever since!

Ever since I had told the children where we were going, Monkey had been very anxious. The local radio station had been running adverts mentioning the baboon bus which he decided was going to be a bad idea. In fact, the ad came on the radio as we pulled up to the safari park. Having promised him we wouldn't go on the Baboon Bus (or in the enclosure) it meant we had to skip the guided tour and so I drove them around. This is why some of the photographs above are a bit wonky - the children took it in turns to take photographs; and believe me, those are the good ones, tightly edited! Our favourite animals were the lions (sleeping) and the baboons from the safe vantage point of the car friendly route that passes outside the compound. The children were laughing at the baboon showing his very red bottom whilst seemingly asleep on the bonnet of a moving car!

Back to the Jungle Dogs. They gave us some samples to take away - some packs containing 6 hot dogs which is enough for 2 or 3 children. Now, the whole point of these hot dogs is that they are meant to be a guilt free option. They are higher in meat than other hot dog brands (around 85%) with no mechanically recovered meat and no artificial colours or flavours. It's also sold as meeting the FSA target for salt. Sounds great, doesn't it?

I did however look a bit deeper. One of the things that always scares me about hotdogs is the amount of fat in them and it's hidden fat, because it's not obvious when you use or cook them that they contain a lot of fat because it doesn't render during heating. I looked at one of the packets of Jungle Dogs we've been given and was shocked to discover that each 30g hotdog contains on average 8.1g fat, and 2.9g of those are saturated fats! In other words, that's just under 30% fat and over 75% of the calories come from fat. If a child has all 3 hotdogs, they'll eat a whopping 8.7g saturated fat. Now, I can't find information on recommended amounts for children but an adult woman is meant to have 20g saturated fat maximum. Assuming a child's recommended amount is around a half to two thirds of this figure, you can see that 8.7g is a very large proportion of a child's daily allowance. If they were to label them the way the FSA wants food labelled, they would get red for their saturated fat content. In other words, guilt free? I don't think so.

Yes, they taste nice. Yes, the children liked them. Yes, we had a great day out, and we thank Jungle Dogs for that. But would I give them to my children regularly as a "guilt-free" option? No. I wouldn't ban them either but I will not be feeding them to my children too often. Sorry, Jungle Dogs. The facts don't stack up for me.

Planning for back to school with Aldi Specialbuys

Yes, yes, I know. Don't start on the Back to School stuff now, the kids have only just finished - unless you are one of the unlucky ones who hasn't quite reached that days. But still - I always have my uniform bought as early as possible. I don't know if it's just me, or my children, but whenever I go to look for their sizes, the choice is either limited or non-existent so I tend to snap it up as I see it.

I also try to pay as little as possible, given that my two manage to destroy uniform at an alarming rate. I have a bagful of stuff that is no longer good enough - polo shirts get covered in all sorts from food to paint to mud to grass stains, as do dresses, skirts, trousers. Consequently, I refuse to pay top dollar for uniform that will get trashed in a few weeks. This year seems particularly bad  as I've already binned some disgusting looking polo shirts.

This year, I have a saviour in Aldi. Starting from this Thursday 25th July, they have uniform on special buy in their stores. They sent me some uniform to try on the children and really, I am pretty impressed. The polo shirts (Why did our school choose white?) look fairly sturdy, ready to accept paint and food stains come September. For Monkey, they sent a pair of trousers that just fit him so will be perfect once he's had 6 weeks of rest and growing time. And for Missy, a lovely pleated skirt that's long enough to reach her knees. To give you an idea, they both have 8-9 year sizes - my little Missy is tall and catching her brother!

Best of all, Aldi also sent us two fab winter padded jackets which will be ace when - perish the thought - it gets cold all over again. The children thought I was a bit odd making them try them on in this heat because they ARE cosy. Missy has a lovely comfy fur trimmed hood and Monkey's has a hood - you wouldn't believe how many winter coats don't have hoods on them. This is Lancashire, you know. There is rain.

What I like most, however, is the price. A two pack of polo shirts are £1.25. The skirt and the trousers are both £1.50. You can get a multibuy deal of a pack of polo shirts, a round neck sweater - which we don't use as school have crested ones - and a skirt or trousers - for £4. That's amazing. The quality looks good and I noticed that it's all easy to wash, and tumble dry and has Teflon coating to repel stains. Obviously, they do have other colours available if you need them; we just have the basics of white and grey.

Both jackets cost £9.99 which I think is excellent for the quality. There are lots of other items available too - PE kit, socks, vests, pants, plimsolls, even ballet kit! I may have to get down there myself tomorrow to finish off my uniform buying!

These uniform Specialbuys are available from tomorrow - 25th July - in Aldi stores, and will only remain available whilst stocks last so get yourself down there. And sorry if this is too early to be talking about going back to school but in a few weeks, you'll be praying for that day!

(Aldi sent me the items shown to try out for free. All opinions are my own.)

What to eat when it's too hot to cook

I don't know about you but I get bored with plain salads when I don't want to cook because turning the cooker on will raise the temperature in my kitchen from kitchen to kiln. Add to that the fact that husband doesn't really like barbeques. I know! We don't own one, so our children are of course deprived - they've only been to barbeques at other people's houses.

Options are limited - sandwiches? Repetitive. Stir fries? Too faffy. And salads aren't the children's favourite.

I say that, but I have found one or two main course salad type recipes that the children wolf down. We like this spicy salmon tabbouleh which takes a few minutes cooking, I microwave the salmon and just pour hot  water on the bulgar. This smoked mackerel and potato salad needs the potatoes cooking and so do they in this bean, ham and egg salad but it's just one ring on the hob.

I'm afraid that if I want options, I do resort to some bought things at this time of year, that I can just take out of a fridge, pop on a plate and add salad leaves, tomatoes, and some cucumber - hey presto, dinner! Which also means I have more time to do other things too.

Recently, the people from Higgidy Pies gave me the chance to try out some of their pies. Being the time of year, I'm not really in the mood for pies in this weather so we've been trying out the quiches instead. First, we tried the Balsamic Onion and Mature Cheddar quiche which went so quickly I didn't get chance to take a  photo. At the top is the usual cheesy egg filling topped with a cheese and onion crumb but underneath, just above the pastry base is a balsamic onion chutney. The children eyed it suspiciously because they complain about "too much onion" (even though they eat it in most things without realising) but they ate it and actually liked it.I liked the combination of flavours and the nice touch of seeds in the pastry.

Then, we tried out their Crustless Smoked Bacon and Mature Cheddar quiche. Now, I struggle with crustless quiches. I make my own which is fab but as I said, I'm not baking in this heat if I can avoid it! But then, I started seeing them in the shops - but they do have pastry. If you don't believe me, have a look at the ingredients page on the Higgidy website. It's 18% pastry. Normal quiches are 23-24% pastry. Why is that crustless? The pastry is identical to the regular quiches, there's just a bit less of it. Odd. I don't really get why they do this, or indeed call it crustless. As you can see from the photo above, the crust is noticeably thinner.

Anyway, apart from this, we also enjoyed this. The custard was similar to the balsamic onion quiche but it was topped with bacon lardons and a crumb nicely flavoured with a bit of parsley. Again, it didn't last long (but long enough for me to grab a quick snap) and we ate it with some salad leaves and some coleslaw. Yes, I bought that too!

My only reservation about them is the price. At £3.99, they would be only an occasional treat. Up against own brand versions, some like Waitrose are similarly priced but others are less than half the price. I know there would be a quality difference but it is a huge price gap. I think I'll be waiting for them to be on special offer.

Higgidy are running a competition at the moment aimed at new parents in honour of the imminent arrival of the royal baby.  They have three boxes of Higgidy pies and quiches to give away and one of the pies will be personalised with the name of their baby. If you don't have a baby, you can enter for someone who does, and the competition is open until a week after the royal baby arrives. To enter, all you need to do is go here and enter your name and email. It's that simple.

(Higgidy Pies sent me some vouchers to try their range for free. I have not been paid further for this post.)

Seeing red (and a cherry mess)

Red. Back in the eighties (because, yes, I am that old), I was big on red in my kitchen and bought everything in red. Somewhere along the line, it became untrendy and I stopped buying red things for my kitchen.

My current kitchen is white so anything can go with it and it can be a bit dull so over the last few years, bits of red things have been creeping back into my kitchen. I've started buying more red clothes too. Not everything is bright pillar box red - it started with a hand mixer that I won which I chose in Raspberry and then I acquired the stand mixer too (as you do). Then there was the knife block.

Now I have this.

Food not included

This is the chop2pot from a site for people like me, called Red Candy - everything is red or has some red in it. Heaven! I've lusted after something like this for a while - a chopping board that helps you transfer stuff to your pot, pan, or dish without spilling it everywhere. It's brilliant. It's easy to use and importantly for me, dishwasher safe. I think the larger one would be better for families but if like me, you are chopping things as you cook, it shouldn't be an issue. The only thing I haven't liked about it so far is that it got quite a few knife marks on it after a few uses so I will be interested to see how it fares after some hefty use from me. But other than that, I love it and the site - well, I'm going to have to be strong and resist going mad with the credit card. And red overkill is bad - perhaps that is where I went wrong in the eighties!

Really rubbish photo of a yummy dessert - it's nice, honest

Whilst we are on the red theme, Princes sent me some fruit fillings to try. Although it can be seen as a "lazy option", they are handy to have around if you want to make some fast puds. One of the fillings they sent to me was red cherry so I thought I'd make some cherry mess - a version of the traditional Eton mess but made with a can of red cherry filling. It's uber simple although if you want to be a true domestic goddess, you could make some meringues yourself first.

Cherry mess
Serves 4

Ingredients 
About 16 mini meringues (I used a tub of mini meringue shells from Asda)
300ml whipping or double cream
410g tin Princes Red Cherry fruit filling

1. Break up the meringues into a large bowl- don't break them up too small or they won't provide the crunch.

2. In another bowl, whip the cream until it has reached the soft peaks stage.

3. Open the tin of fruit filling and carefully spoon the cherries into the bowl of meringues leaving most of the juices behind in the tin.

4. Fold the cream into the meringue mixture carefully. Then fold all but a couple of tablespoons of the juice from the tin.

5. Finally, drizzle the last couple of tablespoons of the juice on top. Serve, trying not to drool.

The kids thought it wasn't sweet enough but I thought it was fine. If it's not sweet enough for you or you know you have a really sweet tooth, try adding a tablespoon of icing sugar to the cream.

(Red Candy kindly sent me the Chop2PotPlus and Princes some tins of their fruit fillings to try. I have not been paid further for writing this post and all opinions are mine.) 

Walkers Hoops and Crosses - what the XOXO are they?

This post is sponsored. 

A box arrived in the post the other day. The contents didn't last long - in fact, I didn't even get a chance to get a photograph of the box before things got grabbed.  This is all I have left to show you (child not included):

The other thing was a pack of a new snack from Walkers called Hoops and Crosses. These are wholegrain corn snacks, that are baked not fried, and therefore meant to be a healthier version of a potato type snack, because it has 30% less fat and helps towards your wholegrain intake, which is lacking in most people, especially children.

A pack of Hoops and Crosses contains only 85 calories, but they are lighter than most packets of crisps in that they contain 18g instead of 25g or 28g. They are far from a low fat product but an average serving only contains 3.8g fat.

Tastewise, we were sent the Roast Beef flavour, mysteriously in a yellow packet (I get confused by variations in colour coding of crisp flavours!). Tastewise, they tasted just like Monster Munch to me, which is not my favourite thing but not unpalatable. They also come in Prawn Cocktail - Missy Woo's favourite flavour - and Salt and Vinegar. A packet lasted approximately 4.9 seconds but that was everyone getting a look in. I suspect they wouldn't last in a lunchbox for too long and I wonder just how filling the wholegrains make it as a snack. The children enjoyed them and keep asking for them in the supermarket.

Personally, I'd prefer Cheese and Onion but that's my favourite flavour.

Obviously, they are shaped like noughts and crosses but I suspect your games would get eaten quickly if you tried to play the game with them!

(This is a sponsored review as I have been paid a fee to cover my time to review this product. I was sent a packet to try along with the cuddly toy to keep. All opinions are my own and genuinely held.)

Fajitas, enchiladas and fish fingers

So. Husband's birthday earlier this week. A midweek birthday is always a tough one to work out what to do - when the children were younger, we'd have arranged a babysitter and just gone out for the evening, but they are much more aware these days. God love 'em - they even managed to keep a secret so well, they didn't even tell him we went to pick up a present from one of his favourite shops.

The children are not for being left out any more. A family meal out it had to be, so it was more than lucky that Chiquito Mexican Restaurant offered us a voucher to give them a try. When I lived down south, I'd been to quite a few of their restaurants but when I first moved here, there were none. In the last couple of years, we have made one or two trips to the newer local branches in the area. In the meantime, we've been to newer chains like Las Iguanas which offered greater variety of food options.

Monkey staring aimlessly at the Reebok

We went to the restaurant near Bolton Wanderers' stadium, which impressed Monkey as our table had a panoramic view of the ground . Wednesday early evening was never going to be a busy time and sure enough, it was half empty when we arrived so the service was very attentive. The guy that showed us to our table had some good banter going with the children.

Checking out the menu, I liked that they had two children's menus - Monkey has a voracious appetite whereas Missy Woo is not as hungry. The "young adults" menu was also more adventurous than the kids menu, again reflecting their respective food personalities. Whilst we demolished a couple of bowls of what I think was sour cream and chive flavoured popcorn, Monkey chose fajitas with chicken in tomato sauce, which is one of his favourite things to eat, and Missy Woo? She went for fish fingers! As it was that or their standard choice of pasta, I wasn't going to fight a battle. They both chose a milkshake as their drink, which cost a little extra than those that are part of their meal deal. The adult menu was huge - far wider than I remember it and I struggled to choose because it was like reading a book!

We skipped starters on this occasion and went straight to mains. It meant, along with the fact that it was quiet, that our food arrived pretty quickly after we'd ordered. Like Monkey, I'd gone for fajitas and we both received substantial portions, so I was glad I'd skipped starters. Husband chose enchiladas which he demolished fairly quickly and actually had some of my fajitas. Mine was pulled pork which was  gorgeous - the barbeque sauce was a great mix of sweet and sour. My only minor criticisms of the fajitas were that I had no plate so no place to lay out a tortilla, fill it and roll it and that my tortillas were rolled so tightly that they had all torn in the middle. That did not detract from the enjoyment of the food. Monkey enjoyed his fajitas although he didn't touch the salsa. Missy Woo enjoyed her fish fingers but they were fish fingers and chips, nothing fancy.

My fajita filling - pulled pork and veg

Knowing that there was chocolate orange cake at home, we were going to skip dessert too. However, the children's meals both included a dessert so husband cracked and ordered one too. Missy chose strawberry sundae and Monkey went adventurous again, choosing churros that he has never had before.  Both of them got substantial portions so although I hadn't ordered anything, I got to snaffle a fair bit and very nice they were too.

All throughout our visit, the service was friendly and attentive. If I were to have a criticism, it would be that because it was quiet, it was a little too attentive at times, and they did that thing where they asked us if our meals were OK almost seconds after we got them as we were served by a number of people. Apart from that, it was good and we were certainly made to feel welcome and there was no pressure to finish our food quickly so it was nice and relaxed. Being a fairly new unit, the layout is good so you're not on top of all the tables and the children love the light fitting made from beer bottles.

We left, carrying birthday balloons with full tummies and smiles on our faces. We had a great time and with the increased variety on the Chiquito menu, we will definitely be back soon.

(Chiquito kindly sent us a £50 voucher to use in one of their restaurants and were aware in advance of the approximate time and location of our visit. We were also asked to tell the staff on arrival that we had a voucher. All pictures and opinions are our own.) 

Ice Tea?

 Not really the drink for the time of year (well, the weather at the moment at least), but I'm not actually talking about the drink. No, no, no. We were invited to a tea party by the people from Ice and it seemed like a good idea for a trip out during the school holidays. I mean, cake is something my children never turn down so free cake is even better, right?

The venue for the tea party was Farmer Copley's in West Yorkshire, a farm shop who is a member of the Ice scheme, more of which in a moment. They have a fab cafe which produces huge slabs of yummy cakes, a farm shop and lots of fun activities at weekends, although sadly, the weather had put paid to a lot of their outdoor Easter activities.

Still, there were baby chicks to hold. Missy was surprisingly keen to hold them - the chick pecking her hand made her laugh.

I was there, with some other lovely bloggers, to learn about the Ice loyalty scheme. It's a loyalty card, just like the supermarkets have, but one with a difference. Ice aims to be different. They want their loyalty scheme to be beneficial to the environment. Most of its retailers are farm shops, offering mostly locally grown or made produce. Others are public transport operators, as well as some larger national brands like John Lewis and Marks and Spencer. All of them have good environmental credentials - something they must have for Ice to allow them into the scheme.

Points can be earned and spent at the farm shops or by visiting the retailer's sites via the Ice website. Points can be redeemed as total or part payment for purchases, rather than having to cover the total cost like some insist. If you forget to redeem your points - you get 3 years to redeem them - the money is put towards projects that benefit the environment. In terms of the environment, it's a win all round. As a shopper, you're getting to do your bit and perhaps get something back too. It's particularly great to have local farm shops as part of the scheme as it will encourage people to buy local produce, perhaps over buying everything from the supermarket. There aren't too many farm shops across the country at the moment, but hopefully, more will continue to sign up. There are a couple in the North West, including one about half an hour from me which I've been meaning to visit and has a great reputation so I'll be making tracks up there soon.

The kids got to enjoy some Easter fun, doing an egg hunt and quiz around the farm, which gave them the opportunity to see some more animals, and then to meet Jasper the Easter bunny. I think Monkey and Missy Woo cleaned them out of eggs and chocolate bunnies, judging by the amount of chocolate that ended up in my bag.

Ice were kind enough to give us a card already loaded with points, so we had a mooch around the farm shop before we went, taking home some lovely treats, including pork and black pudding sausages and smoked bacon for brunch. It was the best bacon we'd ever tasted, that cooked without leaking all that horrible white liquid all over the pan that cheap stuff does.

If you don't usually shop at a farm shop, it's really worth trying to find a good one in your area. If they're members of Ice, you can register here and start to earn points. And if they're not, suggest they sign up to the scheme so that everyone can start to benefit.

Thanks to Tots 100 and Ice for inviting us, and to Farmer Copleys for being fantastic hosts and providing fantastic cakes. Ice gave me a reward card loaded with some points to spend as I choose. 

Big fun with little trains - halfterm fun at the NRM

For the start of the half term, we took a little holiday. We went to Yorkshire to revisit two museums we have visited before. As we were going on consecutive days, we took the opportunity to stay over in Yorkshire - actually in Bradford, the location of our second museum.

On Saturday, however, we returned to a place we have been to several times, the National Railway Museum in York. This time, we had been invited back to their "Big fun for little trains" event they are running over half term.

As usual, entry is free with some activities attracting a small charge - although fewer activities than usual seemed to cost. The children now know the place well and have favourite things we have to go and visit - the pinball game in the Flying Scotsman section, the viewing platform to see the "real trains" arriving at and leaving York station, the bullet train. Everything has to fit around those things and this time there was certainly a lot to see and do - a garden railway display, a miniature diesel ride and a model tramway too. There was also a Chuggington play area and a StackTrack challenge but Monkey now believes he is too old for Chuggington, although it doesn't stop him playing with the diecast models when he feels like it!

Monkey's favourite activities was the Scalextric racing (although he now wants a 6 car track for his birthday!), and the Lego workshop where children build a 4 wheeled Lego vehicle to try and make it go down a slope. He loves Lego so he was in his element. Missy found all the pink Lego bricks and joined in. Strangely, he wouldn't for some reason go near the Meccano workshop - I think he views it as too difficult for him still. But the unexpected hit with him was the pedal train - he pulled a face like it was all too babyish for him, until he suddenly joined the queue, grabbed the next available vehicle and pedalled round madly with a broad grin on his face for a few minutes. He's definitely still a little boy at heart.

We certainly picked a lovely day to go, with the sun shining and the temperature rising to a surprisingly pleasant level. This made the outdoor activities surprisingly pleasant for the time of year - we took a ride on both miniature and full sized steam trains and the children had a quick go in the park, although again, Monkey is just reaching that stage where he is a little too big for the play area.

As usual, we ran out of time and energy to do all the activities on offer so if you are after a day out and your children love trains (Monkey still wants to be a train driver when he grows up), this would be perfect. Most people are fascinated by trains anyway and little ones in particular are enthralled. Even if you've been recently, there's always something new to see as they move the stock around a lot, and you always find something that's a bit different. We never manage to cram it all in so you definitely will fill a whole day and if you like to take your time, maybe two.

Big fun with little trains event runs until Sunday 24 February. The NRM invited us to try out this event  and gave us vouchers to try some of the chargeable events for free and free parking. They also kindly provided lunch. 

Clandestine Cake Club: the book!

If you read this blog regularly, you'll know that I am a member of the Clandestine Cake Club. My local branch in South Lancashire meets regularly and whilst I don't make every session (less so now that husband works weekday evenings), I try to get to as many sessions as I can.

If you don't know what Clandestine Cake Club is, they are events all over the UK (and the world) that people sign up to and people bake cakes (big ones, not brownies, muffins and cupcakes) to a theme to bring along. The venue is kept secret until the last minute - the clandestine bit - and then you turn up, eat cake and chat with lovely cakey people, over coffee, tea or sometimes something stronger, depending on the venue.

What Clandestine Cake Club does for me is push me out of my baking comfort zone. For years, I continued to make my favourites that I know how to make. Having to bake to a theme has meant I have had to hunt for recipes or design my own and make something different. It's given me more confidence to try something different and it's improved my baking. It's been different and fun at the same time. Oh, and I've got to try some fantastic cakes made by some very talented bakers - and taken some of it home for the family!

There must have been thousands of cakes made for all the different cake club meetings. Now there is a cookbook featuring 120 of the best recipes that members have baked for meetings, written by Lynn Hill, the founder of the Clandestine Cake Club movement. I was kindly sent a copy to review, in advance of its publication today.

The best thing about the book is that I recognised so many names of bloggers I read and tweet with regularly who had all contributed fabulous recipes. Heck, I've even met some of them! Very exciting to know that I know proper published authors in real life. My second favourite thing was the "Cake Wrecks" section with advice on how to rescue your cake disasters - and everyone has them from time to time. The cakes are grouped into eight chapters and there is nothing standard or boring about any of the recipes. They all look fabulous, and range from the incredibly simple to the very involved.

Of course, the best way to try out any cookbook is to try a recipe so that is exactly what we did. Well, actually, Missy Woo did as she'd asked to bake with me. Despite there being an extensive chapter on chocolatey cakes, she chose one of her other favourite flavours and went for Lemony Lemonade Cake. Yes, that's right - lemonade. I think the picture of the cake with sweets stuck on top in the book was the clincher. It had nothing to do with the fact that she'd figured out that she'd get the rest of the sweets from the packet. Oh, no.

It was an easy cake to make and the recipe was easy to follow, although my icing came out thicker than it looked in the book. Ours was a soft spreading consistency whilst the book clearly shows the final result to be more of a pouring consistency. But it was lovely and despite some turf wars from the children over who had the pieces with the sweets and how many they'd each had, we enjoyed every single mouthful and it was gone in 24 hours. Good job I wasn't making it for a meeting!

I would definitely recommend this book if you enjoy baking cakes. Whether you're a Clandestine Cake Clubber or not, the recipes will add a new dimension to your baking and encourage you to try some things that are just that little bit different, and still taste yummy.

Aunt Bessie's - great timesaver or the cheat's way?

Aunt Bessie's recently sent me a whole host of things to try and I've gradually been working my way through them. Truth be told, I've got one or two things left to try, as they generously sent me so many different things.

These days, Aunt Bessie's have a massive range of frozen products. We have had quick toad in the holes with boat shaped Yorkshires filled with sausages I cooked separately, Yorkshires on their own with more sausages (the children like them *cough*), apple pie, stuffing balls, even casseroles.

Now, it got me thinking - what is your opinion on using frozen products like this? Are they a fantastic timesaver or are they just cheats which makes people lazy about cooking? I'm torn, I will admit. I use frozen veg all the time, particularly peas and sweetcorn. When I was trying everything, I particularly liked the Yorkshires because my own efforts to make them from scratch are hit and miss - and yes, I know all the rules, it just sometimes doesn't work. In addition, they took a few minutes whereas cooking my own take nearly half an hour. That means if you were doing a roast and space in your oven is at a premium - as it is in our house - you could pop them in whilst you were carving your joint. Stuffing balls, however, felt like a huge cheat - mixing up stuffing mix and rolling them into balls takes seconds and is hardly complicated or lengthy. In addition, when we tried them, husband and I felt they were a bit gloopy although the children loved them.

Then we tried the apple pie. Now, pastry is not my strong suit so I wouldn't think twice about buying shop bought pastry so as not to have to do the rubbing in, kneading, resting, rolling out, and so forth. I can live with that. If you wanted a weeknight pudding, the apple pie is great. But gravy? Hmm, not sure. Especially as I've just made my own gravy for Christmas Day and stuck it in the very same freezer. I guess it's not a massive step away from gravy granules.

Sadly, the one thing they didn't send me was some of their famous roasties. This was a shame because I can't get my head around the fact that frozen roast potatoes could make a better roastie than home made ones from fresh potatoes. It might just save on the peeling, I guess.

Another product I really liked was the homestyle casserole. Cheat, yes, but a massive timesaver. They are a bag of beef or chicken with chopped vegetables and seasonings - saving on all that chopping and prep is bound to be bonus. To cook them, you place the contents in a dish with some water and put in the oven. I cooked mine in a slow cooker and it took me literally seconds to get the dish on and cooking. It tasted nice but the downsides were that a) the pack only serves 2 so not as good for families and b) even then, the portions were a little light and I had to add some frozen veg near the end to bulk it out.

I think in the end, I came to this decision - a cheat's a cheat, but it's not always a bad thing. Most of Aunt Bessie's products are normally eaten alongside other things you've cooked yourself. It's there to make your life a bit easier and save you a bit of time. One man's meat is another man's poison - I bet there is someone reading this thinking, "I can't make roasties to save my life but I'm not sure about using frozen Yorkshires". If it saves you stress, especially when you are doing a roast (or Christmas dinner, keeping it topical), then surely, that has to be a good thing, yes?

Feel free to tell me your opinions.

(Aunt Bessie's sent me a range of their frozen products to try, for which our stomachs are truly grateful.)

Christmas cupcakes from Pryces

I may like making cake but I'm really rubbish at making them look fab. This is why I don't like making cupcakes that much. The children however love them. So, if we're offered cupcakes to try, I am not going to say no.

Pryces offered us just that. A husband and wife run business, they are very local to us, being just down the motorway at Walkden, and they only hand deliver cupcakes to Manchester (M), Bolton (BL), and Preston/Chorley (PR) postcodes. And when I mean hand deliver, Joanne turned up smiling on my doorstep one lunchtime with my little box of cakes. Lucky for her that she also lives in Chorley.

This is our box. It also comes with a handmade card, but that seems not to have made it into the picture. Oops.

Obviously, at this time of year, they had sent Christmas cupcakes to try. Here's a better picture of the cupcakes once the box was opened.

Beautiful - something I should aspire to, but never quite achieve! Everything is handmade by their staff.

So, we had three flavours - the ones on the left are vanilla with vanilla frosting, in the middle are fruit cake cupcakes with a glace icing on top like little Christmas cakes, and on the right, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Well, it was a tough job but we tried them all. My favourite was the chocolate cupcakes but they were VERY chocolatey and rich. The children couldn't finish them (unusual for them!) so that's the only way I got a taste. The fruit cake cupcakes were Monkey's favourite and Missy Woo liked the vanilla ones best and not just for the glitter sprinkles on top. A box of six costs £9.99 (£1.66 each) which is really good value.

Having had a quick squizz at their site, I noticed they also sell other baked goods that can be sent further afield. Hampers, baked goods, cake accessories and cake decorations - even bake it yourself mixes -  are all available if you want to give them a go but if you're in the area, definitely try their gorgeous cupcakes.

(I was sent a box of six cupcakes to try. All opinions are my own. )

Do you get enough fibre in your diet?

Being around in the 1980s as I was, I remember the F-plan diet that was all the rage when I was a teenager. It extolled the virtues of adding more fibre to your diet and used it as part of a healthy eating plan that would help to keep you full for longer and therefore consume less calories.

I can't remember if I started eating wholemeal bread as a result of that book but I definitely didn't follow the diet. However, I did start to eat wholemeal bread in the eighties and discovered I liked it. In fact, I preferred it to white bread and still do by and large. We also eat beans and pulses fairly regularly, along with wholemeal pasta and brown rice.

This places us in a very small group of people because apparently, 90% of women don't regularly eat their GDA of fibre. I bet most of you don't even know what it is. It's 24g of fibre a day, which doesn't sound a lot, does it? We need fibre in our diets to promote a healthy digestive system and soluble fibre helps to keep your cholesterol levels down. And yes, it does help you to feel less hungry.

Recently, Warburtons asked me to take part in a three day analysis of our diets to see if we really do get enough fibre in our diet. Eek! I recorded a food diary for myself and Missy Woo for those three days and it was sent off to nutritionist Fiona Hunter to analyse. Her verdict was that we were both bang on target (The GDA for children aged 5 to 10 years is 15g by the way) and that my diet was a good balance of soluble fibre - in peas and oats - and insoluble fibre, mainly found in bread. That puts me in the 10% of women that does eat enough fibre. Nice to know that we are eating a fairly healthy diet in that respect - although I don't think we hit our target every single day but most of the time, which is good enough for me. I think we just got lucky that week.

Spicy bean burgers if you make them right!

Warburtons sent me out some products that help to boost the fibre in your diet, including Half and Half Toastie which the children like. They happily eat wholemeal but they like to eat white bread too - in fact, they stayed at their grandparents once and managed to convince them that they only ate white bread, so poor old Granddad had to go to the shop to buy some! Little monkeys. So a half and half bread - which looks white but has more fibre in it - is a good compromise. My favourite was the seeded batch but then I love seeds on my bread anyway.

They also sent me some fibre rich recipes, including one for spicy bean burgers which I royally messed up - I think I over-processed the beans and they went all gloopy. As I said though, I make dishes containing beans and pulses quite regularly - try this chilli, this soup or this dish from my own archives to help you boost your fibre intake without feeling like you're chewing on cardboard.

If you want to increase the fibre in your diet, Warburtons passed on some tips from Dr Hilary Jones about how to do it.

• increase fibre slowly, adding no more than 5g per day until you reach your GDA. Personally, I'd increase it by 5g for a few days, then increase it again if you need to. 
• drink more water as you increase your fibre intake. (Psst.. this helps prevent you getting "blocked" up!)
• eat whole fruit and vegetable, as the skin contains fibre - like potato skins, apple peel etc. It's also better to eat whole fruits than juices or smoothies.
• aim for 3 portions each day, so spread your fibre intake over three meals. How about healthy snacks like fruit, oatcakes, or some wholemeal toast? Eating wholemeal bread, pasta or rice would all increase your fibre intake without having to change your diet radically.

So, my question to you is - do you eat enough fibre and is eating enough of it a priority? Do you know how much you eat a day and does it meet the guideline amounts? Leave a comment below - and feel free to ask questions.

(Warburtons sent me a £20 voucher to try out some of their recipes and a selection of bread with higher fibre content. They also arranged for our food diary to be analysed by Fiona Hunter free of charge)

All aboard the Polar Express!

On Sunday, we took a little trip over the tops to Yorkshire to the National Media Museum in Bradford for a very special event. The children were excited but the person most excited of all was my husband. Because we were going to see The Polar Express. In 3D. In IMAX 3D.

The Polar Express is one of his Christmas traditions. He has two films he likes to watch every Christmas (the other being It's a Wonderful Life) and since the children were little, he's sat them down with hot chocolate on Christmas Eve and made them watch it. Luckily, they share his love of the film.

When we were first invited, we weren't sure if we would be able to make it. We worked out that there was only one date that we could all make to see the film before it finishes showing on 12th December. Luckily, at the very last minute, we were able to arrange to go to the screening after a little bit of juggling, although it meant getting there not long before the filming, leaving us very little time to look around the museum itself.

The only thing that really annoyed me about the day was the queueing system for the cinema - we queued up some stairs, went round up some stairs, long down some stairs and virtually back where we started. The queueing took so long that we didn't have a lot of time before the showing.  However, we found seats together although there is not a lot of legroom for adults, as the cinema is quite steep.

An IMAX screen is much bigger and has a higher resolution than a standard screen - it's about the size of five storeys. Making it 3D is the next step but of course that means you need to wear the sexy glasses which were handed out at the door. I couldn't answer for how different it looked because I'd never seen it all the way through before (I normally use it as an excuse to get some stuff done or have some peace!) but the 3D effects were great - so much so that Missy Woo kept putting her hand out to touch things.

If you don't know the story, a young boy is trying to stay awake on Christmas Eve to see Father Christmas. Instead, a steam train turns up to take him and other children to the North Pole to see the great man himself. The story is CGI animation fantasy and in 3D, it's just enchanting. Some of the angles had me closing my eyes, especially the part where they go down Glacier Gulch. My husband always tells the story of the time we went to the Hemisferic (a domed IMAX cinema) in Valencia whilst pregnant with Monkey and I actually felt sick during and after the film for about 20 minutes so I was trying to avoid the repetition. The effects are amazing although occasionally, the picture looked a bit blurry to me but that might have been the angle I was sat at. The story however really does come out of the screen! Even though everyone knew the story, we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

I somehow think that, despite the fact that we are getting a new telly (not 3D) for Christmas, that this year's Christmas Eve viewing of The Polar Express will not be quite the same!

(Thanks to the National Media Museum for giving us 4 tickets to see The Polar Express in their IMAX cinema. You can see The Polar Express there until 12th December.)