'Meet the baby that has never eaten a carb'

The title should be 'Meet the baby who has never eaten rubbish in her life.'

Today in the Daily Mail I came across this story http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3353702/Shan-Cooper-s-baby-girl-Grace-paleo-diet.html

The title is 'Meet the baby that has never eaten a carb'

Very misleading and very untrue.

The story is about Brisbane mother Shan Cooper and her baby daughter Grace who both follow the paleo diet.

This is a definition of the diet which I found online:

Paleo diet/ˈpalɪəʊ dʌɪət/


noun
a diet based on the types of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans, consisting chiefly of meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit and excluding dairy or cereal products and processed food.


So, this mother is encouraging her daughter to eat a pretty healthy diet, shame on her for not feeding her daughter orange crap out of a jar.

When I had Scarlett, her insides must have been completely orange because of the the packet and jar foods I gave her, I didn't have time and I couldn't be bothered to prepare things for when we went out. Good on this woman for making her childs diet as healthy as she can.

Basically this is a story to entice people to have a go at this woman for allowing her baby to follow a 'diet' however it is not really a diet, it is a lifestyle for them.

Since when was it a bad thing to feed your child a healthy diet instead of shoving chicken nuggets and chips down their throats?

'Grace enjoys eating stemmed broccoli and potatoes' oh, hello carbs.

Grace is not fed processed bread (carbs), and for her birthday cake her mother made her a strawberry panacotta with coconut cream.

Ms Cooper said: 'If she eats a piece of bread, I'm not going to have a conniption.

'She's going to go to kids' parties and eat what's there.

'I'm never going to go to Grace, "you can't eat anything at this party- but I packed you some kale, here you go.'

In my eyes, all this mother is trying to do is educate her daughter to make healthy decisions by giving her the best diet she can, and when her child is old enough she will let her make her own choices about food.

What a shame that a paper has to write such a negative take on something that can really only be a positive thing.

Read the story and let me know what you think.

My very own dirty banana

Ever since I went to St Lucia a couple of years ago, I have dreamed about recreating the dirty banana cocktail that I spent my days drinking while lounging in the bar pool.

Ahh, the memories...

But I think I have re-created it!

I looked at the two sad bananas in the fruit bowl this morning and was reaching in the fridge to throw the coconut milk away that was on the turn when I just thought, why not chuck them together?

I am so sick of eating at the moment. Being in a new relationship means that we have been taking eating to a new level. Take last night for example when we ate hunters chicken with extra cheese, with fries with melted cheese and barbeque sauce on and then mixed the two together with a melt in the middle cheesecake for dessert. I feel sick again just thinking about it.

So I threw the bananas into the blender along with 400ml of coconut milk, a couple of ice cubes, a pinch of brown sugar and ta-dah!

My own dirty banana!

I will add that the one in St Lucia had chocolate syrup and rum, but it has just gone 10am so I will wait for at least an hour before I hunt down the Malibu.

Zesty balls

Balls, glorious balls

This recipe is from 'Get the Glow' by Madeleine Shaw who I am kind of obsessed with at the moment in my aim to be a bit healthier. (don't tell her that I ate five digestive biscuits while making these.) I have posted this recipe before but this time I played around with it a little bit.

The standard recipe is for raw chocolate balls:

Ingredients

100g hazelnuts
100g desiccated coconut
100g fresh dates
50g raw cocao
3tbsp coconut oil and
pinch of salt

With the balls I made, I grated the zest of one orange and squeeze the juice into the mix to make chocolate orange balls, which were delicious.

Then I saw that I had loads of raisins in my cupboard and decided to make another batch of balls replacing the dates with raisins which actually worked, just. The mixture took a bit longer coming together but they tasted just a good. I split the batch in half and to one half added the zest and juice of one lemon.

I call them....zesty balls

I will play around with the balls again, I'm thinking about making them with the standard recipe and then coating them in melted chocolate, orange zest and flakes of gold.

My very own golden balls. Mmmmmmmm.

'Shhuuut uuuppp!'

This morning when I went to wake Scarlett up, I did my usual cheery 'Wakey, Wakey! Time to get up.' Turned the bedroom light on and she pulled the duvet over her head and told me in no uncertain terms to 'shut up.'

My reaction was to try not to laugh as it was so unexpected and how I would feel if I had just woken up and someone shouted 'wakey, wakey' in my face.

On reflection though I wondered of I should have told her off.

If I had been six year old and told my parents to shut up, I would have got the third degree about how I was not brought up to say things like that to them.

Parents should be respected (apparently), have times changed so much from when we were growing up and we have become our children's friends rather than their parents?

Is it ever acceptable for a child to tell their parents to shut up? I would expect if from a teenager-which still wouldn't be right, but not from a sweet little girl.

Is it my fault she said it?

I remember when I was 18 and was being driven into town by a friends mum. My friend openly swore at her mum and I was stunned into silence because I had never heard any one swear at their parents before and also because her mum didn't tell her off, she just carried on driving.

I have barely ever said a swear word in front of my parents, don't get me wrong, I can swear like a navvy if I'm on the wine and out with my mates, but generally I don't swear in front of them because I respect them and don't want them to hear me use language like that.

Though I should take this opportunity to apologise to them for the time I uttered approximately 1,000 swear words in under a minute when I was on the phone to my ex boyfriend- but that was necessary in that circumstance.

Though the moment has passed and there is no point in telling Scarlett off now, if she says it again should I tell her off?

These days we are taught to let our children express themselves, to let them show us their true character- there is a line, but where is it?

Five things I learned looking after 3 kids yesterday

Yesterday I decided to have a girlie day with my daughter and my boyfriend's two daughters.

In my head I had planned a lovely relaxing trip to the cinema, followed by a delicious and nutritious lunch at Mc Donald's rounded off with a bit of retail therapy.

Yep it all went totally to plan, and I did learn a thing or five.

1. I now know why I only had one child.

The majority of mothers have one child and then decide to have another. I started my motherhood dream with four children in mind, this went down to three after I had Scarlett and gradually as the months went by, so did my dream of more children.

Scarlett is six and an only child, some people may see this as selfish 'she shouldn't be on her own it's not fair.' Blah, blah.

I will tell you what is not fair, going grey at 19, not having enough money to buy anything decent (for her or me), the lack of holidays, and the fact that I will probably never own my own house until my parent die (sorry Mum and Dad).

Luckily for me I have found a boyfriend with two lovely daughters and a son, so while Scarlett is not on her 'own' they do not live with us full time. It would take a bit of getting used to if we did have all four kids with us at once, the reality of the situation at the moment is that we are a split family but if anything did change I would love to see all of them more- but I would have to stock up on multivitamins and go on a silent retreat at least once a year.

2. A 'cheap' cinema morning will not be 'cheap'.

I thought it was a bargain when I bought 3 children tickets and one adult for the cinema for under £12.00, that was until we got to the sweets.

I let the girls choose their own sweets, big mistake (Every savvy parent knows you should go to Tesco and stock up before hand), then I bought them all drinks (another error- see bracket before this one). When the young boy behind the counter told me he wanted nearly £20.00 I choked on the popcorn I was shovelling into my mouth (and was yet to pay for), and thanked him sarcastically as I mopped my brow and calmed my heart.

3. Mc Donald's is not the place to be at 1pm on a Saturday.

Another fabulous idea we have as parents have is a trip to Maccy D's on a Saturday lunch time. WHY?!

I knew it would be packed, a trip to the drive thru would have been easier and I would have been able to sit down.

I ate my happy meal (so that the could have an extra toy as I am nice like that), standing up squashed between tables looking around at the other parents doing the same thing.

I will never make this mistake again- the drive thru will win every time so I can sit in the drivers seat and enjoy my food without getting indigestion.

4. Buying something for one child is not possible.

I had to buy some new shoes and a coat for ONE of the girls. After measuring the feet of the child I intended to buy shoes for, I was hit by cries of 'I want new shoes!' and 'I want to measure my feet!' by the other girls.

Needless to say we left the shop without anything and I paid for them all to go on a merry-go-round, where they proceeded to throw their soft toys and moan at me to get them as they were flying through the air.

5. Children are a great way to avoid those charity fundraisers in town

Usually when I go through town and see a charity fundraiser trying to sign me up to give £3.00 a month for saving the trees or whatever cause they work for, I do what everyone else does and side step away from them as soon as I spot them. (I'm not being mean, I sponsor a dog and give to various charities throughout the year.) However, this time because I knew I looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights with three kids in tow, I practically walked into one of them without fear and said: 'I'm sorry I have three kids with me, I can't possibly stop.' The fundraiser looked at me sympathetically and told me to 'try and have a good day!'

For our next girlie day we are going swimming- ha just kidding, we will be having a movie duvet day with treats bought from Tesco and Pizza Hut on speed dial.

Raw chocolate avocado mousse

This is a recipe that I tried out from 'Get the glow' by Madeline Shaw.

This dessert apparently has 'satisfaction guaranteed' however, I will admit I was sceptical about the avocado.

It doesn't look very appetising at first sight with its odd shape and bumpy dark green skin, until today I had made it through 26 years of my life without touching one, but always one to try something different I gave this mousse a go, avocado and all.

The instructions are pretty straight forward and consist of shoving everything into a blender and...blending- not even I could mess that up.

Then came the tricky part, fitting two wine glasses into the freezer to chill them for half an hour.

After some re-arranging (and the sacrificing of some peas), I forced them in and shut the door praying that they tasted as good as they looked.

After half an hour I removed the mousses from the freezer and battled to find space for them in the fridge. The only thing I could sacrifice this time was some wine but that was no bad thing, apart from the fact that there was mousse in my only two wine glasses.

Mug of wine in hand, I dipped into my pudding. The taste was an unusual one. Not a bad one but, a different one.

I think my taste buds were shocked at the lack of sugar but after eating one mousse, the second quickly disappeared.

I will make these again, but I might have to add some crushed digestives on the top just to give it that extra crunch.

Ingredients:

1 ripe avocado, stoned and flesh scooped out
1 ripe banana, peeled
3 tbsp coconut oil
4 tbs raw cacao powder
pinch sea salt
100ml almond milk, coconut milk or rice mile plus extra if needed
1 handful frozen raspberries (I used a sprinkling of desiccated coconut and some dried goji berries

Instructions:

Put the avocado, banana, coconut oil, cacao powder and salt into the blender and blend. Slowly add the milk until the mixture becomes creamy and easily moves around the blender, add a little extra milk if needed.

Pour the mousse into two ramekins or cocktail glasses (or wine glasses), then put them in the freezer for 30 minutes before transferring to the fridge.

Crumble the raspberries/coconut/other berries/biscuits onto the top of the dessert and enjoy. Add a little honey for some added sweetness.

Flourless red velvet recipe

I found this recipe on www.weheartliving.com and I looked and sounded so different and delicious that I just had to give it a try.

With everyone becoming more and more health conscious, some so-called 'healthy' food can be a bit bland and boring, but this pudding packs a hearty beetroot punch that will leave you wanting more.

Ingredients (serves 12)

Sunflower or vegetable oil, for greasing

200g dark/ bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces

300g raw beetroot (about two medium-sized ones), washed and roughly chopped

6 eggs, separated

100g soft brown sugar

2tsp vanilla extract

75g ground almonds

125g Greek yogurt

1tbsp icing sugar or cocoa powder, for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Grease a 20cm/8in round loose-bottomed or spring clip cake pan with a little oil.

Melt the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not come into contact with the water. Alternatively gently melt on a low heat in the microwave. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted.

Put the beetroot in a food processor, add 80ml water, and blitz to a smooth purée, stopping and scraping down the sides when necessary.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg yolks with the sugar until thick and creamy. Stir in the beetroot purée, melted chocolate, vanilla extract, ground almonds and Greek yogurt, until completely mixed.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until thick and they hold a firm peak when the whisk is lifted. Gently fold into the chocolate mixture until all of the egg white is combined. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes until the centre is just firm. (To check, you can insert a skewer into the middle of the torte and if it comes out clean it is cooked). If not, continue to cook for a further five minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the torte in the oven for 10 minutes before removing.

Leave the torte to cool in the pan for about 30 minutes before serving warm, or leave to cool to room temperature.

Dust with icing sugar or cocoa powder and serve cut into wedges.

Any torte not eaten on the day of baking can be stored in the fridge for up to three days.

Recipe courtesy of Jo Wheatley and https://www.bbcgoodfoodshowwinter.com

Who is this elf?

I keep hearing about this 'Elf on the shelf'.

I had heard of it and thought it was a movie or something, but after being bugged by this little elf who keeps popping up all over the place I decided to do some light 'Googling' to find out more about the little blighter.

The following is from: http://www.elfontheshelf.com

The Elf on the Shelf®: A Christmas Tradition includes a special scout elf sent from the North Pole to help Santa Claus manage his naughty and nice lists. When a family adopts a scout elf and gives it a name, the scout elf receives its Christmas magic and can fly to the North Pole each night to tell Santa Claus about all of the day's adventures. Each morning, the scout elf returns to its family and perches in a different place to watch the fun. Children love to wake up and race around the house looking for their scout elf each morning.

There are two simple rules that every child knows when it comes to having a scout elf. First, a scout elf cannot be touched; Christmas magic is very fragile and if a scout elf is touched it may lose that magic and be unable to fly back to the North Pole. Second, a scout elf cannot speak or move while anyone in the house is awake! A scout elf's job is to watch and listen.

Scout elves typically appear in their families’ homes at the beginning of the holiday season. On Christmas Eve, the scout elves return to the North Pole with Santa Claus—until next year!

I have decided to do my own version as the actual Elf on the shelf freaks me out and I don't want to pay the ridiculous price of £29.95 on Tesco.com for the little creature. He looks too good for his own good, and too creepy to be sitting on a shelf.

Meet my version 'Nutty on the nob' (yes, I need to work on the name and tag line). 

He will magically appear in various places in the house everyday (preferably hanging from a nob, though I have noted that the elf is not always sat on a shelf, so I am guessing it is a flexible tagline.) Today he is not on a nob but on a handle as there are not very many nobs in this house. 

Look out for Nutty throughout the month, I have a feeling it will be an exciting month for him.