|
|
||||
|
To celebrate the release of Disney’s The Muppets, Cravendale has launched an entire collection of Muppet stickers to upcycle your milk bottles and make fun decorations for your breakfast table, not to mention keeping the kids amused for a while. My two adore working on a project and sticking comes high up on their list, this was the perfect solution and kept them amused during and afterwards when they used their jugs to feed their dollies their evening meal The Disney Muppets film is in the cinemas from February 10th and if you’d like to join in the fun all you have to do is visit Milk Matters and download the stickers to get sticking We’ve entered a competition to win a year’s supply of Cravendale milk over at Brit Mums Blog fingers crossed!
I know it’s amazing isn’t it? Your favourite muffins with only 129 calories and only 3.5% fat per serving. A perfect breakfast option or an afternoon snack they went down extremely well in this house. I saw a Tweet a few weeks back now from @BakingMadUK looking for bloggers who wanted to have a go at one of their fabulous recipes, I was sent a whole list of low calorie recipes to choose from (you really must check it out) and then they sent me through the ingredients, all I had to provide were the fresh bits (margarine, blueberries etc) as they don’t travel so well This was a really quick and easy recipe to prepare and I would definitely repeat it only I have my eye on the Low Calorie Banoffe Layer first. Find Baking Mad on Facebook too for daily inspiration Don’t forget it’s Foodie Friday, I shall be inviting bloggers across the internet to link up with a recipe to get your tastebuds going and give you some inspiration over the weekend – Happy Cooking and check back later or have a look at last weeks Foodie Friday, there were some excellent ideas.
Low Calorie Blueberry Muffins
Method
Sigh
Calling all foodies! Please link up with a favourite recipe for the readers to mull over and be inspired this weekend, have a great weekend all
Once upon a time the world, well Britain, stopped for Elevenses. A daily ritual where people up and down the country would take a five minute break and enjoy a cup of tea with something to nibble on. It could be a biscuit, a piece of cake or any number of special small treats. Anchor Butter is on a mission to Bring Elevenses back! We’re all so stressed these days running from one task to the next, stopping off half way to do a school run and then back indoors, the ironing, the dinner, the shopping, the cleaning we’re constantly on the go. What used to be an enjoyable daily ritual got put to one side in favour of…what? Taking the dog for a walk? Cleaning the bathroom? Cleaning the oven? Heaven forbid! Anchor want us to be able to have a little sit down with a munch on something delicious that makes all that hard work worthwhile. Maybe a moment to phone your mum or read a magazine or just enjoy a simple sit down to recharge the batteries. They’ve asked bloggers to blog a recipe to inspire an Elevenses break and they’re giving away TWO of these fabulous Anchor 125th Memorabilia sets including oven gloves, apron, cake stand, mug, tin and more. Give your kitchen a retro makeover!
All you have to do to win a set is write in the comment box below what you would choose to eat at Elevenses, simple! And now for my recipe. This one was my favourite as a child, I could eat a whole tray of it and I can confirm that my girls both feel the same way although I stop at just one or two pieces these days Chocolate Custard CookiesIngredients for 18 cookies 1st Layer 100g Anchor butter 40g caster sugar 3 level tbsps cocoa 1 beaten egg 1 tsp vanilla essence 125g crushed digestive biscuits 50g walnuts (optional)2nd layer 200g icing sugar 2 level tbsps custard powder 50g soft margarine 3 tbsps hot water3rd layer 75g plain chocolate 40g butter 40g icing sugarMethod 1. Grease a 25 x 12 cm swiss roll tin For 1st layer – Melt the butter, sugar and cocoa in a small saucepan. Add the beaten egg and essence and stir for 1 minute without boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the crushed biscuits and finely chopped walnuts if using. Spread mixture into tin, level and chill
For 2nd layer – Sift the icing sugar and custard powder into a bowl, beat in the margarine and add enough hot water to bind. (note in my photo my cookies are sliding a little bit – probably a tad too much water). Spread over the biscuit layer and chill.
For 3rd layer – Melt the chocolate with the butter in a small basin over a saucepan of hot water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove form the ehat, beat in the icing sugar and spread over the custard layer. Chill until firm cut into 18 squares
Perfect for a special treat, dessert buffet and once you’ve tried them you won’t be able to stop yourself going back for another
Terms and Conditions
All this waking on every turn to re-plump a flat pillow takes its toll and I was getting more and more fed up with it. So when an email cropped up – would you like to try a pair of memory foam pillows for us? I jumped at it, Anything was better than my broken nights and I might find a solution too. The memory foam pillows arrived by courier rolled up and vacuum packed. They were very heavy and did not resemble anything close to comfortable. Mmmm, We’ll have to see about these I thought, I ripped open the packaging expecting them to grow fat in front of my eyes and they didn’t. Still heavy and still flatter than flat I put them on the bed and left them to do what ever it is memory foam pillows do. It took a while, it seemed ages, as maybe I was expecting an immediate spring into life once they were released from their plastic prison, but eventually they were BIG. In my excitement I changed the whole bed and placed my new mega plump pillows in pole position ready for that night’s sleep. In fact my pillow cases were quite tight on them. Cue brilliant excuse to buy brand new bed linen! That was about a week ago and my goodness have I been sleeping well since then! No more frantic plumping, beating and thumping my pillow back into a comfy shape, oh no, I just roll over when I need to change position and my pillow does all the rest, it nestles around me and is just the most comfy pillow I have ever tried and trust me in a hotel in Dublin once I had a pillow menu in my bedroom (which I obviously tried extensively during my stay – well you would wouldn’t you?) and these pillows are just as comfy as any I tried on the posh hotel’s menu. Here’s some info from the web site Memory Foam Pillow provides the shape and comfort of a standard pillow with all the advantages of the heat sensitive visco elastic memory foam.Constructed of the highest quality foams, the memory foam clusters which form the core of the pillow comform to your sleeping position providing great comfort and adjustability. All the support of memory foam with the comfort of a standard pillow shape. Another nice touch is they’re made in the UK! Hooray for home made products and may we start making many more to get our economy back where it should be! Disclosure – I was sent two pillows to trial courtesy of Bedstar but all the opinions expressed are my very own  I swear I haven't touched a bit all week Another week has gone by and I haven’t missed my Slimpod one day which I’m really pleased about, the signs are cropping up on a daily basis when I look back over the day and realise I didn’t succumb once to the biscuit barrel, the chocolate cupboard (I have an opened packet of Cadbury Caramel in the cupboard which hasn’t been touched in a week and that for me is impossible – or was! See photographic evidence) or the tin of Roses of an evening. My Other Half couldn’t believe it when I stopped after TWO chocolates! Where I’d normally have about 8. The fact you have a motivational email land in your inbox every day also helps to keep you on track and remind you of the good work you are doing. You really should try it! I’m not gasping for a glass of wine come 7 o’clock now and even on the days I do allow myself a drink I’ll stop after two glasses instead of helping myself to any more. Thanks to the Slimpod again. For breakfast I’m making myself porridge and adding a teaspoon of Acacia honey it’s delicious. I’ve started drinking Green Tea in the afternoon which apparently is full of anti oxidants and I’m serving myself smaller portions for my main meals. I also have a very exciting trial coming up over the next two weeks which you shall be hearing about very soon.
The Mutu System has been a ‘half success’ this week, I’ve been rushed off my feet on a major catch up and it seems my 15 minute daily workout is the one thing that takes the brunt of my busy days but on the other hand I have walked the girls to school more frequently, walked round Bluewater (that must count as exercise surely?) and yesterday I spent the day walking round the Toy Fair in London and came home exhausted but with loads of news for you on upcoming toys I weighed myself and I’ve lost 2 pounds but this only takes me back to my pre-Christmas starting point so although I’ve done well I still feel I haven’t got anywhere. 10st 5 lbs now but I want to lose at least 5 lbs before I feel I’ve achieved anything, ideally I’d like to see a 9 in front. Again I was going to prepare you my video to watch but this week I have an exclusive Davina video for you that hasn’t yet been seen by the General Public! #yousawitherefirst so here’s what the lady herself has to say on the Keep Fit 2012 campaign… So as I was saying all in all a pretty mediocre week on the keep fit front, I need to work harder next week, I seem to have peaks and troughs and this week is decidely trough, no fear, I’ll be back on the case once I get all this work out of the way. It’s not easy trying to get back to where you once were, it takes a lot more effort losing it all than putting it all on. Here are more Davina tips for you to have a look at and be inspired by
Have a great week and try some of her home tips out – you have to start somewhere xxx I have another competition for you this week, this time it’s a £50 voucher to use on Experience Days You must visit their website to find out more but there’s a bit of everything on there, from pamper spa days to flying a four seater aeroplane lesson. You could try your hand at indoor skydiving or Segway Rally even a Full Day Stunt School if you fancy yourself a bit of a James Bond character?
There really is a fabulous choice of things to do and of course they make perfect gifts for hard-to-buy-for people in your life. Do you have a teen that would love a Fashion makeover and photo shoot? Or a youngster who’d love a 20 minute micro-lighting trial flight? There again wouldn’t a classic Thames lunch cruise for two be a perfect present for Valentine’s day? You see the more I dig the more I find and people keep popping into my mind who’d be the perfect recipient for each one. This year it is my Other Half’s 40th, that’s a pretty special landmark birthday and I shall be on the lookout for the perfect gift, an Experience Day would be an excellent option to go for.
So interested? Would you like to try and win a £50 voucher for an Experience Day? Here’s all you have to do, visit Experience Days and comment below which is the Experience you’d love to try. You could also
Good luck everyone Terms and Conditions
Guest post Have you ever thought about cleaning up your life? What about doing something special for a good cause? If so, donating your movies, music, and games can help you do a little bit of both. If you have a cluttered living area due to the number of CDs, DVDs, and video games you have compiled over the years, it’s time to clear them out. You may think that your 90s pop music and children’s DVDs have no more use, but they do. You can make space for new items in your home and help out nonprofit organisations at the same time by donating your discs. Children’s hospitals and other charity groups that rely on fundraising could benefit greatly from free music and movies. They can use this material not only to lift the spirits of charity beneficiaries but also to plan and execute fundraising events to keep their organisations going strong. However, if you also find yourself pressed for time, there is still a way for you to help organisations in need without even having to leave your house to do so. Music and DVD buyback services have become a popular way to sell DVDs online for cash and one such service, MusicMagpie, has gone the extra mile to set up a charity campaign that makes getting rid of CDs, DVDs, and video games convenient and worthwhile. The good thing about cleaning up your entertainment collection this way is that you don’t have to get rid of all the items that are taking up space, technically speaking. Especially when it comes to movies and music, it is easy to convert your items to a digital format so that you can store them on a computer or a cloud drive. In fact, you can find free services online such as DVD Shrink or HandBrake that make the process easy and intuitive. This will enable you to access your entertainment any time you want it without having to search through cumbersome and bulky disc cases. Once you have started to convert your music and movies, you may even discover that it is so easy that you’re ready to get rid of some discs that you were originally planning on keeping. Once you’re ready to begin your clear out, the rest of the process is simple. Music Magpie has an easy to use system that allows you to upload some simple information about your discs (such as the bar code located on each disc case) and then choose from one of seven charities, including Breast Cancer Care, The Children’s Society,the Terrence Higgins Trust, and the Teenage Cancer Trust, to donate your proceeds to. Once MusicMagpie has your information, they will send you a pre-labelled, prepaid package that you can use to send the discs to them, or they will arrange a courier service for a scheduled pickup at your home. The most important investment you can make is not money but effort. Even though giving away CDs and DVDs only takes a few minutes to do, the time that you take to do it is priceless. No matter which method you choose, you can start the new year knowing that you have taken steps to improve your own life as well as someone else’s.
During all of my pregnancies and after I have read book after book after book and in all honesty I can never get enough books, I love to read. Also when you’re expecting it’s a time of ‘I wonders’ and ‘What ifs?’ that a book can help to solve somewhat. It arrived swiftly and my first thoughts were – Nice! It’s a handy pocket sized book in purple and more importantly it’s well bounded because I flicked forward and backward stopping on pages haphazardly throughout the book and reading bits here and there I must admit I did put the book through a stiff road test. It’s one of those books you can keep referring back to, it’s filled with useful information, funny stuff and How To’s as well like How to Rid a Bedroom of Monsters, How to get hair out of chewing gum and How to swaddle a baby. It’s got tips on food, on tweens – Five things to do with your tween that you’ll BOTH actually enjoy and ideas for games and creative moments. Written by two American ladies Heather Gibbs Flett and Whitney Moss (hence the Mom!) I’d say this was a perfect present for a first time mum (or dad) or for an expectant mum on the run up to her big day…how to baby proof her home for example. I just wish if it said Mum and not Mom but I’m a fusspot , if you can get past that you’ll love it and certainly won’t regret spending your £6.99 to have it. It’s out in March
 |
 
    
        
 |
|||
|
Copyright © 2012 MarisWorld - All Rights Reserved |
||||
