Review: Zoobles!

I was sent a new toy for me and Missy Woo to review. They're a new collectable aimed at girls called Zoobles. Curled up into little balls, they open up when placed on their "happitat" to become little character to play with. There are apparently over 150 of these to collect.

When I first received this, Missy Woo said she'd never heard of them, despite my having seen a Zoobles advert on the channel they were watching a day or two before. She soon remembered as she started talking about the happitat without my mentioning it, and also she could knew what you had to do to make them come alive. She was keen to get it out to play with it. When you place the Zooble on top of the happitat (it's magnetised), it sprang open and had wiggly ears. If you place it inside the happitat, the Zooble could go to sleep. The Zooble is quite small - which is both a blessing and a curse; small enough for little hands to hold easily but also, easily lost.

The Zoobles are grouped such that they come from different lands. Ours came from Petagonia. If you visit the Zoobles website, you can explore these lands as well as update your collection of Zoobles as you buy them.

Given that there are 150 to collect - and of course, some of them are rare - I think they are quite expensive at £5.99 for a single Zooble, although you can buy two for £9.99 and playsets for £19.99. At those prices, it's like those partwork magazines; when you add up the total cost, your mind is totally blown. They're even a bit expensive for pocket money treats, unless I'm a scrooge. They are aimed squarely at girls over 4 - although Monkey was interested in them too - but I can't see us building up anything other than a small collection thanks to the cost. For me, that is the biggest issue - although that is not a concern for Missy Woo.

But then it wouldn't be, would it?

(I was provided with a Zooble toy to review and have received no other compensation. The opinions stated are my own and not affected by the aforementioned compensation.)

Silent Sunday: More than a club

Review: Copella Wedges

Monkey and Missy Woo both love "proper" fruit juice. None of us particularly like the stuff from concentrate. This is particularly true of that horrible brown stuff they call apple juice from concentrate. I like the cloudy stuff that looks like it's just been squeezed out of apples. Bit expensive tho, so it's a rare treat.

When I was asked if I'd like to review Copella Wedges, I didn't hesitate to say yes. They are small wedge-shaped cartons of apple juice so you can put them in lunchboxes or take them on trips out and still have freshly squeezed juice. Each carton can count towards one of your 5 a day too.

When I received them, I realised we'd been sent Apple & Elderflower - the other flavour being English Apple. I have to admit, I was a bit dubious as I thought the children might not appreciate it. However, they were keen to give it a try, so I opened one to let them both have a sip and they liked the taste. I had a taste myself and the elderflower taste was not overpowering and a really pleasant addition to the apple flavour.

Needless to say, our tester box did not last long. The only negative thing about them was that the straw seemed a bit fiddly to put in. Neither Monkey nor Missy Woo could insert the straw by themselves and I had to wrestle with it a bit to get the straw in.

My other quibble is with the price. At £2.49 for a box of only 4 wedges, they come with a hefty price tag. Personally, I think that's too expensive for most families and puts it in the category of occasional treat rather than regular purchase. Still, they were nice and I'd have them again. They just won't make my trolley every week. They'd be gone within 5 minutes of the children finding them.

Copella Wedges in English Apple or Apple and Elderflower are now available in all supermarkets. 

(I was sent a box of Copella Wedges to try and have received no other compensation. The opinions stated are my own and I have not been influenced by the aforementioned compensation.)

Fill in the blanks

A couple of lovely bloggers tagged me in this meme called Fill in the Blanks. All you do is.... fill in the blanks. Doh! Sounds easy, doesn't it? Then I read their posts in detail. First was Clare at A Slice of Life who wrote an immensely brave and candid post about some of the struggles she has faced. Then, my dear friend Garry from Blog Up North wrote an honest and analytical post about how he sees himself and his character. Gulp. Realising this is more introspective than it looks, I'd been giving some thought to this for a while so here goes...

Photo credit: Ale Paiva

I am ..... a kaleidoscope. I gave this a lot of thought and realised I am or I have been many, many things. I was the career woman, now I am mother, blogger, housewife, volunteer and governor (elect, I haven't done anything yet). A kaleidoscope describes me because even in my working life, I had to adapt pretty quickly, having being dropped in the deep end a lot and it mostly turned out well. So, like a kaleidoscope, turn me and I'll change, the pieces will shift around and fall into a new pattern, hopefully as good as the last one.

The bravest thing I’ve ever done… is a toughie. I don't think of anything I've done is particularly brave. I once helped "save" a woman who had taken an overdose along with my ex but she flagged us to stop as we were driving through the New Forest but that's not particularly brave, we just took her to a police station. I've never been a great flyer and yet, I still get on planes because I know I have to do it if I want to see the world, and I am a lot better now at flying. People thought I was "brave" when I had a massive post-partum haemorrhage after Missy Woo was born but to be honest, I did nothing (except bleed, of course) and it was dealt with pretty calmly and professionally by the midwives and doctors. I never really felt any ill-effects nor did I need a blood transfusion - although the midwives failed to believe me and kept testing my iron levels. I've yet to do anything truly brave.

Photo credit: geri jean

I feel prettiest when... I feel confident in my own appearance. Wearing certain clothes always make me feel good about how I look (although I'm not sure the word you could use about me is "pretty") and losing weight to be the size I want to be certainly helps. I do like a good compliment too. Knowing someone else thinks I look good makes a huge difference to how I feel myself. Yes, I'm easily pleased. And I still don't like most photographs taken of me. I'm rarely happy with them. 

Something that keeps me awake at night is… not a lot these days. Insomnia can sometimes keep me awake but only if I go to bed before I feel tired. Generally, I go to bed only when I'm tired and this can be very late into the night, but it does mean I fall asleep quickly. Just occasionally, my head will be buzzing with things I've been doing and plans I'm making which will keep me from falling asleep. But not often.

My favourite meal is... whatever I'm eating today. I love food so choosing one favourite would be really hard. I've eaten some fantastic meals - like half a chicken with half a lobster and rice at the "roof top" restaurant at El Corte Inglés in the middle of Barcelona. Another that sticks in my mind is the first time we had patatas bravas in Valencia. (We'd had them before, just not in Valencia). It had garlic mayonnaise on top of the crispy fried potatoes and was topped with serrano ham. I was in food heaven. And then, there was the 10 course tasting menu I had for my birthday in January. Or the fantastic lunch we had at Parkers Arms on Valentine's Day where I had - amongst other things - a dark chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake, which was utterly divine. Oh, and the Thai Coconut Chicken I have every time I meet my friend for lunch at Moka in Preston. I could have all of those things again. But ask me to choose a total favourite? No way! (I may have gone off on one just then... good job no-one noticed.)

The way to my heart is... by making me laugh, making me feel good about myself and showing me that you care. I guess laughter is linked to feeling good as well, but I am fairly self-critical and don't rate myself highly at many things so having people that make me feel good and who care about me is quite important. Give me those three things with an added dash of respect, throw in the hugs for good measure, and I'll put up with most things.

I would like to be... good at everything I do, and always trying my best. I would like to be more confident, a better mother, a better blogger, slimmer, fitter; you name it, I'd like it. I'd also like to have some of my old life back and be earning more regularly so that I can stop worrying about money and give the children occasional treats without thinking too hard or scraping everything together. Is that too much to ask? 

And now, it's my turn to tag a few bloggers to carry this on and have their own bash at filling in the blanks. 

They are:

Northern Heckler

Nickie at Typecast

Grumpyish Mum

Cass at Surfacing

Sharron at Chocolate is Therapy

If you're not tagged, feel free to tag yourself and link back in the comments. 

My Fitness Story... - Welsh Mum

This week, I have a post by fellow blogger, Welsh Mum. Her story will be one familiar to many of you - she struggled with almost constant dieting throughout her adult life until she found the one diet that worked for her following the birth of her children. So, I'll now hand over to her to tell her story, which she has entitled:

Dieting, the good, the bad and the ugly

Dieting or fitness regimes, whatever you want to call them - I have tried them all! For me, the one thing that has lead me along this path has always been weight loss and to generally feel better about myself.

Photo credit: lockstockb

I was actually quite young when I first started watching my weight, probably 13 or 14 years old, when your height stabilises and you start to realise that you can no longer eat anything you want. My first venture into losing weight was via counting calories and although I always lost weight, I would practically starve myself and ended up living on vegetables. Without fail, the boredom would eventually kick in as I would begin to get tired of eating the same things. You get to know the exact calorie content of familiar foods and the fear of moving onto other unknown foods is too great. This causes a complete veer from the path and you end up back where you started!

After the birth of my second child, I decided I wanted to lose weight as I had put on an incredible 2 stone, so after some gentle encouragement from my sister, I joined Slimming World. For 4 weeks, I lost absolutely nothing as my body started to get used to the new regime. If it wasn’t for my supportive sister, I would have given in and got even fatter. However this diet has changed my life; I reached my target weight about 2 years ago and I am now able to maintain it within a couple of pounds. I still follow the regime during the week and then just relax it a little at the weekends.

It has been successful for me because you can eat as much as you want of the right foods and are never left starving. For me, I know my weight is something that I will always have to monitor so as soon as I learnt to live with this fact, my life and my weight has been more constant – no more yo yo dieting for me! If you look around at all those that are slim, they don’t have this ‘magic metabolism’- they too still have to watch it!

The hardest, or should I say the saddest, thing for me is that even though I am a lot happier and I have managed to be more or less a constant weight for the last 2 years, with 2 small children I cannot afford to buy the lovely clothes that I know I could now fit into!

However, I am confident my time will come…

Thanks to Welsh Mum for sharing her story. I think it's really important to find what works for you. Personally, counting calories works for me but I accept it might not be for everyone. Another important point she makes is that slim people don't have a magic metabolism. They have to ensure they eat the right amount for their size too. That's why a longer term lifestyle change is more effective than a short sharp fad diet, after which the dieter goes back to their old habits and eating patterns, because if you start eating like you were when you were heavier again, you'll soon be that size all over again. 


Please share any experiences you have in the comments below. Alternatively, if you have a fitness story to tell, then get in touch with me on Twitter or via the email address on the About me page. I will link back to any blog you write if you wish, or you can remain either partly or fully anonymous. 

Simple Pleasures

There are many simple pleasures in life, and we all have different ones. As a mother, simple pleasures are often the things that keep you going when parenting - and your children - feel like it's getting on top of you. That can be as simple as a strong cup of tea, drunk hot for a change. Well, that's one of mine. I'm forever forgetting about my tea and reheated in the microwave never tastes the same. I get tutted at quite a bit for not finishing my brews. Naming no names as to who that is, but it's not my children.

I love being online but that's not a particularly simple pleasure, is it? Some of my simpler ones are:

• the smell of freshly brewed coffee
• the feel of clean bed linen
• waking up, looking at the clock and realising it's not time to get up
• the excitement and joy in Monkey or Missy Woo's faces when I pick them up from school
• the children laughing or giggling
• hugs (especially from, yes, my children)
• and that hot cup of tea... 

Trying to put some of those pleasures in photographic form for The Gallery was proving to be a challenge, especially as I have not had time to take some decent photos to depict any of them. Instead, I rummaged through my digital archives and found this little series of a baking session with Missy Woo that I took a couple of years ago, depicting one of her simple pleasures. One, I suspect, that will feature a few times in other posts this week. 

It is, of course, chocolate. 

Is Nutella the root of all evil?

Judging by the comments on this post, some people obviously think so. It was written after Nutella held a bloggers' event last summer and when they invited me to a more northerly version of the same thing at Stockley Farm Park in Cheshire, I decided to go along.

As I have previously discussed before on this blog, eating any breakfast is better for children than none at all - and that's probably true for adults. Some people think that giving your child Nutella at breakfast time automatically puts you in the "bad parent" category. I realise that some people will think that whatever information you present them. But is it necessarily the case?

A standard portion of Nutella is 15g. That's actually a generous portion. I did some experiments at home and even spreading it on thickly on a standard piece of toast came to 10g. Yes, I am that sad, before you ask. I also looked at some of the comparisons on the Nutella site and weighed my own versions out. So let's compare a few things you typically put on toast for breakfast:

Nutella (standard 15g portion)               80 calories, 8.3g sugar, 4.7g fat (1.5g saturated)
Nutella (my 10g portion)                        53 calories, 5.5g sugar, 3.1g, (1g saturated)
Jam and butter (standard 15g/10g)       114 calories, 7.2g sugar, 8.2g fat (5.2g saturated)
Jam (15g) and butter (my 15g/7g)         92 calories, 7.2g sugar, 5.5g fat (3.5g saturated)
Peanut butter (15g)                                90 calories, 1.5g sugar, 7.5g fat (1.7g saturated)

Out of those options, Nutella is not bad. It's not brilliant either but it's not the worsy and my option has the lowest calories and least fat. It does have a lot of sugar added (and vegetable oil), but it actually has a low GI of 33, lower in fact than the bread it's likely to be spread on.

A few years ago, the ASA upheld a complaint against one of Nutella's adverts which claimed it could be considered part of a balanced breakfast. Nutella are no longer able to claim that and the phraseology used now is that it could be part of a "tasty breakfast". The issue is of course with the amounts of sugar and fat in it, but anything sweet is going to have sugar in it and no sugar is particularly good for you. Just ask the parents of children whose teeth have decayed because they ate lots of fruit or raisins. The sugar is there to make eating the toast more enjoyable but that's also true of jam (and some peanut butters have lots more added sugar than listed here).

I don't ban foods from my children's diet. I don't ban them from my own so how can I? One of the speakers at the event was Professor Karen Pine who said that the mother's diet was the single biggest influencing factor over whether a child was a good eater or not. (I suspect it would be the diet of the main carer if they had a bigger role in the child's care than the mother, if for example, she worked full time or she was absent for some reason). Mothers set their children an example by what they eat and what their children see them eating. If you've ever wondered why you cook your children lovely healthy meals and all they want is the chocolate biscuit or crisps you're eating, that's why!

I don't ban things because I learnt about something called the reticular activating system a few years ago. You know how you think about red cars and there suddenly seems to be red cars everywhere? That's your reticular activating system in your brain kicking into gear. If you ban things, it doesn't understand the "no" bit, it just thinks about the thing you've banned and you crave it even more! In other words, banning things is futile, it just makes an issue out of it - whether you're a child or an adult. Banning it makes you want it more. Lots of adults who had sweets and junk food banned by their parents during childhood grow up and faced with freedom of choice, opt for the banned food - and go totally the other way, having a worse diet overall. I want Monkey and Missy Woo to learn about moderation which they don't learn if certain foods are denied them. Instead, I try to control the frequency they have less healthy foods and just make sure that their overall diet is healthy.

We're all living reality. Mornings can be fraught in any household, let alone one with children in it. There may be time to make or prepare the perfect breakfast, but that's unlikely if you have a nursery or school run to do. If your children are reticent eaters, why not give them something like Nutella on toast? And even if they're not, what's wrong with that? I don't mean every day - when we have some in, the children will have some every few days and I don't rush to replace an empty jar. I wonder if we overthink this in the UK - French children seem to have Nutella for breakfast quite a lot and no-one seems to mind, nor does it seem to do the children much harm.

If the judicious use of Nutella makes me a bad parent, then I am guilty as charged. Just as often as they eat sweets, crisps or other things like Nutella, my children choose healthier options as well. At the Nutella event, Missy Woo (who had come along for the ride) was offered some breakfast. She said no thanks because she wasn't hungry and had eaten at home. One of the options was Nutella on toast, one of her favourite breakfasts.

Missy Woo with friend (Amy's 5yo) "helping" to make a smoothie

We had a great time at the briefing, which ended with bloggers and children doing a cookalong of some Nutella recipes with Alan Coxon, the TV chef. It was a lot of fun although Missy Woo called Nutella "chocolate spread" loudly, which caused a few eyebrows to raise. (It's actually about 7% cocoa and technically more a hazelnut spread. Oops.) After the briefing, we had a lovely trip around the farm and even had a tractor ride - hence my  Silent Sunday picture this week.

You might think this obliges me to write good things about Nutella. They haven't asked me to write anything about them. I probably wouldn't go to an event for a brand I really don't like. I went with an open mind. I still don't think that Nutella is a perfectly healthy and nutritional food - after all, it contains a lot of sugar and fat. But if the worst thing you do is allow your children to eat Nutella as part of their breakfast, I don't think you'll have much to worry about. I certainly won't be after you.

(I have not been paid to write this post. I attended this event with my daughter. Nutella gave us a goody bag to take away containing promotional items and samples, and sent some homemade bread and Nutella to my home beforehand. I have not received any further payment and the opinions stated here are my own.)

Thanks to Amy from And 1 more means four.... and 1 more for giving permission for me to publish the photograph of her daughter with Missy Woo.