» Listings for March 2015

1. I Love Avocados

   Posted on 2:25pm Monday 30th Mar 2015

   I Love Avocados

   Avocados seem to be similar to Marmite. People tend to love or hate them. Well, I absolutely love them!  They come across as a rather exotic and luxurious fruit to me. Surprisingly, they are a fruit and what looks like a giant stone in the middle is its seed.
   
   These are a staple product in my fruit bowl.  I like to keep them amongst other fruits where they ripen just perfectly.  I eat around four normalish sized ones every week. They are super versatile as they can be eaten as they are (scooped out of the skin with a spoon), spread, blended (into a green smoothie for example), chopped into a salad or added as a side dish.  

   

   My favourite thing to do is spread them onto a wrap once they are super soft. They make a healthy nutritious spread all by themselves and save me reaching for the mayo or something equally as naughty.  I often make wraps using overripe avocado as the spread, with a heap of fresh grated carrot on top and salad for a quick tasty lunch. 

   Amazingly they can also be used to create desserts.  I've only tried once and it was far from successful. I found a recipe for chocolate avocado mousse. Mine turned out just awful. It tasted so bad, the whole lot went straight in the bin! The idea of using it for a pudding still intrigues me so I'll have to try another sweet recipe soon. 
   
   Avocados are full of fat, but this is good fat! They contain heart healthy monounsaturated fatty acids which can reduce inflammation, help to reduce risk of heart attack and stroke, reduce the risk of some cancers & reduce belly fat.
   
   Avocados also contain more potassium than bananas.  Potassium is needed for muscle strength, heart health, brain function and so much more. It's a crucial part of our everyday diets and a deficiency can result in painful muscle cramps, tiredness and depression. 

   When pregnant I suffered from the most excruciating muscle cramps in my legs. They'd always happen in the middle of the night and I'd wake up yelping in agony. Ben even thought I was going into labour one night when he heard me cry out in pain from downstairs! I made sure I ate bananas everyday and lots of avocados weekly to help this. It may have all been a coincidence, but I'm certain the cramps only came the days I forgot to eat any.
   
   Avocados are one of my most favourite foods, which is lucky as they are packed full of nutrients.

   Do you love avocados or hate them?

   

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2. Baby Home Decor: Reuben's First Bedroom

   Posted on 8:37pm Thursday 26th Mar 2015

   Baby Home Decor: Reuben's First Bedroom

   For Bella, in our old house, we fully decorated a nursery whilst I was pregnant. It had the full size cot made up along with a toy box, toy and book filled shelves and a clothes rail filled with sweet outfits on display.  It was ready for Bella to move straight into from her Moses basket. 
   
   Ben ended up sleeping on the sofa quite a lot last time. As I exclusively breast fed, and Ben is up at 6am every morning for work, it seemed silly for us both to be woken up every couple of hours and so both be super tired. This also gives me much more persuasion power in the evenings if I'd like him to cook dinner or help out a bit more. After all, he should have way more energy than me with a full night's sleep!

   

   This time we've done things a little differently.  Reuben's bedroom is currently furnished more practically for sleeping arrangements rather than as a nursery.  This is so I can sleep in there for the sleepless night stage and Ben can stay in our bed rather than being banished to the sofa.

   
   
   I figured we'd need a single bed eventually for Reuben, so I could use it for now and then we'll store it in the attic once the full size baby cot is needed in a few months.  To be extra prepared and not have to buy twice, we purchased a couple of sets of boy friendly duvet covers. This striped blue set and a robot themed set.  

    

   The bed is also home to some fab cushions. The bear one was a steal in a Tesco sale for only £3 and was the first thing I bought for Reuben when I found out we were having a boy. The larger cushions are a newborn gift from Reuben's Oma (german for gran). She has handmade them from some amazing material we picked out together. There are yellow and blue dinosaur materials along with some funky yellow ducks! 
   
   

   

    

   

   
   As I totally love Bella's bedroom wardrobe, I just had to get Reuben one! They are child sized so will be perfect once they are older to reach and hang their own clothes.  To keep their rooms individual I decided to go for the wood finish one in Reuben's room (Bella has white furniture).  The wardrobes are handmade and delivered ready built by the company who makes them. They were the best value, nicest looking children's wardrobes I could find and I highly recommend the company Direct Pine, who can be found here.
   
   

   

   

   
   Reuben's room is pretty simple just now.  In a few months once he's into his larger cot and has a few more pictures, etc, the room will start to really become his.  So far we just have a blue Ikea star night light and crocodile height chart on the walls.  I've ordered a fine marker pen so I can mark Bella and Reuben's heights on the crocodile as they grow.  It will be a great item to keep and one day we can add our Grandchildren's heights to it too!

    

   

    

   

   
   In the window bay I have a very handy set of drawers. These are filled with nappies, wipes, muslins, sheets, blankets and similar often used baby items. It's so useful to have it all right there in the middle of the night ready for nappy changes and sick spills! Once we move out of the baby stage I'll change these for a toy storage unit. There's a four cube shaped one that will fit perfectly and I've been eyeing up some funky animal themed storage cubes.
   

   
   Reuben's room is very nearly complete for now. We have a wooden door to hang and a new blackout blind on its way with a baby blue polka dot pattern on the inside.  Then that's it for now until I move back out!

    

   This room was my worst enemy when we moved in last year. There was a big patch of paint missing on one of the walls so I had to literally scrape the rest of the paint off as it could easily be seen. I spent about 6 hours one afternoon painstakingly scraping paint off with a metal scraper, which refused to come off in sizes larger than around 2 inches long.

    

   I'd planned on painting and re flooring the whole room that day (with Ben of course), but ended up just stripping one wall! Eventually I got there and we painted the walls white, replaced the carpet with oak style laminate and fitted new wooden skirting.

    

   The most frustrating during ever:

   

    

   The finished result:

    

   

   
   I love the natural wood feel in this room and it's a nice cosy room for me to spend the next few months in with Reuben.  I'm also looking forward to putting his cot together when he's bigger and adding more decor as we find/make it.  I'll share Reuben's 'second' bedroom with you in the future!

    

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3. Quick and Easy Vegetarian Food: Feta Mushroom Salad

   Posted on 8:36am Wednesday 25th Mar 2015

   Quick and Easy Vegetarian Food: Feta Mushroom Salad

   I love being able to make quick and easy vegetarian meals, especially for lunch.  Working full time from home and taking care of little ones means I like convenient lunch meals that are healthy and tasty, but don’t require me to spend any longer in the kitchen than necessary.  I seem to spend a lot of time cleaning up and cooking in the kitchen throughout the day, so lunch time is a chance to make a quicker meal with minimal mess.  For this meal, tomato puree is your friend.  I always have a few tubes in the fridge and it’s surprising what you can add it too with a slab of cheese to make a really tasty meal.  In this meal it was a Portobello mushroom!

   This has been one of my favourite lunches to make since having my son Reuben just 20 days ago.  My first food shop after my pregnancy just had to include a slab of feta cheese!  I absolutely love cheese! After not being able to eat certain cheeses for 9 months, feta was one I missed the taste of most.  I love its crumbly texture and unusual tangy taste.  Though I'm trying my best to cut back on cheese, I do still have to regularly get my fix, albeit a much lesser quantity than I used to eat (which really was quite a lot)!

   

   This meal is super tasty if you are a fan of mushrooms, and very quick to make.  Pour a little olive oil over a ginormous mushroom, add a swirl of tomato purée, top with green pepper, feta, a sprinkle of cheddar and black pepper.  I popped this one in a preheated 200 degree fan oven for around ten minutes, with a few carrot slices thrown in the tray too. 

   Ben called this one my mushroom pizza! You can add anything else you fancy to it too, such as onion and garlic. I served this one on a bed of green lettuce, vine cherry tomatoes, slightly heated carrots and green pepper.

   Super simple, really satisfying and delicious!

   Why not try my Green Goodness Smoothie to wash it down?

   

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