Makes and Bakes

Food: Easy Italian Family Friendly Dinner Party Menu

If you're having a dinner party, and trying to cater for children as well as adults, Italian is a great choice. These little antipasti relishes are perfect on tiny crostini or bruschetta as an appetiser.

  In our family we love to eat. Waiters never get the chance to offer the children’s menu, and always look nonplussed by our kids’ food choices. At the weekends we cook big roast dinners, complete with proper puddings, or attempt marinades for the barbeque. One of my biggest frustrations after we started a family was having to cook simple, plain foods for my children, and then start again with delicious dishes for myself and my husband. As soon as they were able to appreciate something more challenging I started to try and integrate them into our more grown-up meals, …

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Travel: Why I waited 40 years to love British camping

I snuggled down in my sleeping bag, and wriggled my ten-year-old toes. I was far too excited to sleep, my Dad’s torch flicking signals on the canvas, fearful shadows urging me to stay in the tent. Joanna lay next to me, but she wasn’t asleep either. Both of us were eagerly awaiting midnight, so we could eat our Blue Riband biscuits and declare that we had experienced a real-life midnight feast. In the event, we wore ourselves out giggling well before the appointed hour, and I set my purple-faced alarm clock so we wouldn’t miss it, as we dozed off. …

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Shaking up Mealtimes: HelloFresh Recipe Box Review

Our Hello Fresh recipe box had instructions for quick and easy dishes like this prawn and serrano ham linguine

I have bemoaned many times on the blog quite how dull I find cooking now that I have kids. Not because I don’t enjoy food, or the thrill of creating something tasty that everyone loves. But because that doesn’t always happen, and the process of putting meals on the table day after day becomes more of a chore than a joy. Anything that makes that task easier, and more successful will always get my vote. So I was excited to try the HelloFresh recipe box. We had eight recipes for four people over the course of two weeks. Ample for …

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Food: Zesty Strawberry Mojito Sorbet (recipe)

Combine mint, strawberries, lime and a magic ingredient to get the perfect dessert sorbet for summer

  A frozen strawberry dessert based on the classic cocktail After loving our Strawberry Mojito mocktails, I got a bit excited about what else I could do with the recipe. We may have been a bit over zealous at our local fruit farm this week, and had rather a glut of gorgeous strawberries beginning to soften in the fridge. So, never one to waste food, and bearing in mind that July is national ice cream month, I had the idea for a strawberry mojito sorbet. We have the Smart Scoop ice cream maker from Sage by Heston Blumenthal, and we’ve …

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Zesty Lemon Meringue Ice Cream (recipe)

A zingy, crunchy, refreshingly sweet lemon meringue ice cream recipe you can easily make at home

This lemon meringue ice cream is refreshing and zingy – perfect for a summer treat. Scroll down for the recipe, or watch the video. As if you needed an excuse now the hot weather is here, it’s ice cream month. It’s an actual thing – July is national Ice Cream Month. There, it has capitals, so it must be true. In 1984, Ronald Reagan signed ice cream month into US law, and it’s been celebrated in America ever since. Must have been the cold war…   Lemon Meringue Ice Cream Recipe Joking aside, there’s nothing nicer than a scoop of …

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Mindful Chef Review: Healthy Recipe Box Meals

Mindful Chef recipe box review: a box zingy with fresh vegetables and seasonings

Mindful Chef: the Healthy Recipe Box I don’t often post about food on this blog, but when I do, it’s because I’ve found something that really makes life a little bit better. I’ve talked before about how my love of cooking has diminished since having children. It’s something to do with the endless nature of feeding a family. No sooner is one meal consumed, than another has to be prepared, and the cycle of menu-planning, shopping, prepping, and cleaning up seems to go round too fast for me to ever feel like food is not on my mind. Add to …

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Easter Baking: Moroccan Spiced Hot Cross Buns Recipe

Easter baking: Moroccan spiced hot cross buns recipe

  Easter Baking Ideas We have a bit of time on our hands for once this Easter break. I’ve longed for a holiday where we’re at home, just to spend time with the kids, doing simple things. And one thing they never tire of is baking. Schwartz got in touch to ask if I would get the kids involved in some cooking using some of their spices. Never one to turn down a challenge, and always a lover of a twist, I decided that we’d start our Easter baking preparations with traditional hot cross buns. Recipes for hot cross buns …

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Perfect Low Carb Pizza Recipe

Low carb fathead pizza

A low carb pizza has been the holy grail of my Saturday night menu planning for a long time now. Takeaway pizza (and even the shop-bought variety) has a tendency to wreak havoc with blood glucose levels when you’re acting as your own pancreas and injecting insulin. (In fact, I have a strong suspicion that the insulin resistance of type 2 diabetes may have more to do with high fat, savoury junk food than with cans of Coke, but that’s a rant for another day). So our Saturday night fix in front of the TV has suffered since type 1 …

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3 Things to do with Kids at Half Term in London

As the half-term holidays loom, frazzled parents know that unless they keep children busy and having fun, a week off can easily turn into a struggle to get through till term starts again. But it doesn’t have to be like that, provided you have a few plans to keep them active and engaged. Here are our tips for things to do with kids at half term in London. Scroll down for a list of ideas from elsewhere around the UK. Things to do with Kids at Half Term Try a Freaky Rivet day out Freaky Rivet is an organisation dedicated to …

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Fennel and Bean Soup recipe with an added something!

This fennel and bean soup recipe will give you two of your five-a-day with an added extra special treat

I’m not always the healthiest eater. As a busy mum, who works, and whose nights are frequently interrupted, I’m prone to reaching for coffee and muffins in the mornings, followed up by a lunch of crumpets and cheese. And who doesn’t like that stuff? It’s a quick fix, it acts as comfort after an exhausting night, and an even longer day. And we all know what calls at five o’clock. But there comes a point when the body craves more than just comfort; it needs vitamins, fibre, good protein, and a little bit less of the quick fixes. I may …

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Guess the cost, and win my exclusive craft shopping haul with E.ON

GIVEAWAY NOW ENDED It’s easy to lose track of how much you’re spending when out shopping for things you love. Whether it’s a jacket you’ve been staring at in a shop window for the past few weeks or that impulse purchase on the way to the checkout, your tightly controlled budget can quickly be forgotten – and this doesn’t just happen on the high street. With months of darker, colder evenings ahead, it can become all too easy for energy bills to rise far beyond the expected – especially as there’s no price tag to keep you in check. So, I …

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Travel: Why food might your first priority at Beaches Resorts

Stewfish, at Beaches Resorts Negril, is the most stunning location for a meal

What do you go on holiday for? Relaxation? A change of scenery, time off from the usual mundane chores of life? Time with family and friends, a suntan, a chance to do something different? Chances are it’s all of those things, but shall I tell you what figures high on my list of reasons to leave home for a week or so? Food. As a mum, just not having to plan it, shop for it, cook it, and clear it all away three times a day is a holiday. Food is an essential part of travel for me. Which is …

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Salted Caramel Ice Cream recipe with a Twist – or a Twix!

Recipe: Salted Caramel ice-cream with Twix Mix is set to become a favourite

    The Best Salted Caramel ice-cream recipe I’m trying to think of a good reason not to make salted caramel ice cream. But I just can’t come up with one. I mean, who doesn’t love that sea-salty tang, followed by the deep burned sweetness of caramel? Mixed with creamy custard and scooped into a cone, it’s doubly compelling, so I try no longer. When we were sent the Smart Scoop ice-cream maker from Sage, we had all sorts of ice-cream recipes in mind to try. There’s my favourite Rhubarb Crumble ice-cream, low-carb Death by Chocolate ice-cream, and our new …

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Passion Fruit Ice Cream Recipe with White Chocolate Chunks

This passion fruit and white chocolate ice-cream was really easy to make in our Sage ice-cream maker

How good does that look? That, my friends, is passion fruit ice cream, made in our new Sage by Heston Blumenthal ice-cream maker. Stuff of dreams, right? Now, imagine if every bite had a small chunk of white chocolate to go with the tang of all that passion fruit. I can see you nodding, so here you go… If you love a good gadget read how our family pizza nights have become legendary since we got the brilliant Roccbox pizza oven Passion fruit and white chocolate ice cream We’re reviewing the Sage by Heston Blumenthal Smart Scoop ice-cream maker this summer. It …

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7 Easter Gift Ideas for Kids without the sugar fix

Genius backpack - the perfect alternative Easter gift

Hold the chocolate! I swear I saw a Creme Egg on sale at our local garage on New Year’s Day. Although I love chocolate as much as the next person, I hate how there is so much of it in my face every time I walk through a shop door. It creates a desire that wasn’t there to begin with, and when you have kids in tow, the compulsion to stuff themselves with sugar is a never-ending battle. Which is why, every Easter, alongside a small token from the Easter Bunny, my kids look forward to a different kind of …

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