Little Dish Favourites Cookbook and Top Enders meal plan

Did you know that Little Dish has a cook book? Its called the Little Dish Favourites Cookbook and I knew because they sent me one. Top Ender has spent her time pouring through it looking at the various dishes, pondering on what ones she would request that I cook for the family. Baby Boy didn't quite understand that a cook book was full of recipes and wasn't something you were meant to eat and took a bite out of some of the pages!

Top Ender found a section called Meal Matchers towards the back of the book that recommends what dishes you can make that go nicely with another dish and she was busy copying out the names so that she could play restaurants with Baby Boy and I. It gave me an idea though, if she was smart enough to work this out, what would happen if I asked her to work out a meal plan for the week?

I gave Top Ender some simple instructions. Don't choose anything that nobody will eat, make sure that we get at least one portion of fish in the week, see if we can use the same ingredients in more than one dish, and we like to have a Roast on Sundays. Top Ender spent half an hour looking through making notes in her little notebook and finally was ready to sit down with me to update our spreadsheet.

Her list was as follows;

Meatloaf with Ratatouille
Sausage and Lentil Casserole with boiled potatoes
Spanish Tortilla
Shepperd's Pie
Easy fish in foil with Broccoli and Cauliflower Cheese
Burgers with Wedges
Simple Roast Chicken with trimmings

I was impressed. She had chosen meals that she knew everyone would eat and more importantly that I could confidently cook! All of the dishes apart from Meatloaf were dishes that I cook and know how to cook, but I followed the recipes as stated and found that although the dishes didn't taste too different to how I cook them normally that Top Ender ate everything we gave her... traitor.

All of us (apart from Baby Boy) loved the Meatloaf recipe, so much so that everyone had seconds. I don't ever remember us all having seconds. Baby Boy was keen on the leftovers in a sandwich the next day, so it was a good job there was a lot leftover, as I had to make another sandwich for me! The Meatloaf recipe was such a success that I wrote to Little Dish and asked if I could share it with you and they agreed. So for your delight (and consumption) here it is;

Ingredients

1/2 Small Onion, peeled and diced
1 Large Carrot, peeled and diced
2 eggs, beaten
60ml (2 fl oz) whole milk
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
100g (3 1/2 oz) fresh breadcrumbs (2 1/2 slices of brown bread)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (optional)
500g (1lb) lean minced beef
500g (1lb) lean minced pork

Method

Preheat the oven to 190oC/375oF/Gas 5

Line a baking tray with foil. Lightly oil the foil.

Combine all the ingredients, apart from the meat, in a large bowl and mix together thoroughly. Using your hands, add the minced beef and pork and make sure it is well mixed in and evenly distributed.

Shape your ingredients into a loaf and place on the baking tray. The loaf should not touch the sides of the tray but sit nicely in the middle. Bake for 45-50 minutes, then let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

This should serve 8 children or a family of 6 with leftovers according to the book. It served us as a family of 4 with seconds and leftovers and I was generous with the portion sizes. I found that I had to cook mine for 70 minutes as after 50 minutes the centre was still pink, and I also think that next time I would cook the carrots a little before adding them as we found them a little hard and if they were softer I think that it would have just made it a little better. Mind you I probably should of diced it smaller!

The only problem that we have now is that Baby Boy wants to make a meal plan...

The Little Dish Favourites Cookbook is available from WH Smith, Waterstones, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s, or online at Amazon.co.uk (and other places if you Google it) and its RRP is £14.99.

Wordless Wednesday - Tacos for Tea!

Little Dish Purees Review

As you may remember once a month we have a cheat night for dinner, which normally involves a walk round one of the local Supermarkets and us picking up a prepacked meal. Top Ender and Baby Boy are quite fond of the Little Dish meals and will chose a favourite meal out of the range (see The Little Dish Review if you want to know about them) and everyone will be quite happy.

The other week though I noticed a new addition to the range, a puree in a pouch and I thought that it must be aimed at the weaning market. A smart idea in my opinion because the purees are the sort of thing that I made for Top Ender and Baby Boy when they were both learning to eat solid food, and because they are fresh they are a good alternative when you realise that you have run out of ice cubes of mashed butternut squash or potato and parsnip which my two were very fond of.

I didn't think much more of it, even when my sister mentioned that she had seen them and that they do fruit flavours too.

The Little Dish asked if we would like to try some. Even though Top Ender and Baby Boy are well past weaning it was suggested that these would be good as a snack or a dessert because the pouches make them easily transportable and they can be out of the fridge for up to four hours.

When the package arrived I was just about to go on the school run, so I quickly signed for the package ran up to school and let Top Ender open it when we got back.

They sent them to me in a lovely little cooler backpack which Baby Boy has obtained from Top Ender!

Top Ender having a check of what it contains

Theres more!

She pulled out six pouches;

• Butternut Squash, Carrots and Apples,
• Sweet Potatoes, Parsnip and Leek,
• Peas, Pears and Apples
• Strawberries and Apples
• Blueberries and Apples
• Mangos and Bananas

I could of been an artistic director, look at how I arranged these!

The three savory pouches were passed over and she and Baby Boy tucked into the three fruit pouches. Baby Boy was expecting something less thick I think, but he was very pleased with the taste and kept telling me it tasted of Strawberry (he had the strawberry one!) and Top Ender really liked the Blueberries and Apple one. I was left with the Mango and Bananas one (which was fine by me as I like both fruits) and it was very strong so probably not a good one for my two to taste.

I didn't want to waste the savoury pouches and so I passed them to a friend who is a few weeks into weaning her little one. She let her little one try all three and there wasn't a drop left if the bowl that she squeezed them into! They of course passed the Mummy taste test too, with my friend commenting that if she got hungry later in the evening she might end up just sucking on one of the pouches herself!

The three fruit pouches are something that I would consider buying again for snacks when we are on our adventures, as the packets are quite robust and the price (£1.19 for one or two for £2) is reasonable for a healthy on the go snack of this sort and style.

Yummy yummy yummy, food for my tummy!

So if you want to try these head for your nearest chilled foods aisle in your nearest Tesco's!

Baby Boy Giggles - A Big Tease

Every morning Baby Boy and Top Ender have fruit after breakfast. Today for some unknown reason Top Ender took less time to eat hers than Baby Boy.

Baby Boy noticed that Top Enders bowl was empty and passed a piece of his melon to Top Ender.

"Here Top Ender, Fruit!" said Baby Boy exuberantly
"Thanks Baby Boy!" said Top Ender gratefully

A few minutes later and Baby Boy was offering again

"Juice Top Ender?" asked Baby Boy
"Oh yes please Baby Boy!"
"Joke!" teased Baby Boy snatching away his juice

New Dinner Ideas for under £1 per person

Some of the most common search terms for my blog is to do with food, new dinner ideas, frugal meals etc. Well instead of people coming here and being disappointed I decided to post some new dinner ideas that come in at under £1 per person. It's also good timing as this coming month I have told Daddy that we are going to be eating cheaply... very cheaply.

First things first if you want to (or need to) cut your food budget there are several things that you can do that will save you a small amount each week depending on what you shopping budget was to start with!

1. Eat meat free one or two nights a week. Even if someone in your family feels that a meal isn't complete with out meat and two veg, if they know that the food budget needs to be cut they should understand. There are some meals that they might not even notice the lack of meat in listed below!
2. Portion control. Think about how much you serve everyone at meal times, it might be too much. Try reducing everything slightly and this should help.
3. Reduced produce. If you can buy the food at a reduced price then it will reflect in the budget!
4. Plan your meals. If you know that Wednesday nights is always really busy then plan something that is quick and easy for dinner, or something that can be cooked in the slow cooker.
5. Stop Eating out. Stop having takeaways or going to restaurants, if you do number 4, then you won't have to anyway.
6. Take lunch to work, don't wait for the Sandwich van to come round. Take some with you and save a fortune!
7. Save your leftovers. Buy some plastic pots (Tupperware!) and either freeze the leftover meal or save it for lunch the next day. If you do freeze the leftovers make sure you label the meal AND list it on a freezer inventory!
   
   
8. Stretch your meals. Rubber chicken for example is a favourite in our house (although it was Rubber duck last week!) and it is so cheap!
9. Make double and freeze it. Sometimes it is cheaper to make more than you need. No really. A good example of this is Curry. I like to buy premixed curry spices from eBay and then make a huge batch of curry which I then freeze in family sized portions.
10. Shift down a brand. If you normally buy named brands then go down to Store brand, if you don't like something then don't buy it again. Just don't buy the cheapest of the cheap or value brands for some items unless you read the ingredients first!

And now for the list of dinner ideas, if you need recipes feel free to ask but most of them are things that should be in any good cookery book or search engine!

Beans on toast (with an egg on top)
Casserole
Cauliflower cheese
Cheesy Bean pie
Cheesy mash and beans
Cheesy pasta (have pasta add cheese)
Chilli
Chilli Pasta
Corned beef hash
Corned Beef Hotpot
Cottage pie
Cowboy Casserole
Egg and Chips
Eggy Bready and beans
Fishfingers in tomato sauce
Fish pie
Fishfinger pie
Home Made fish cakes
Home Made Pizza
Jacket Potato and a whole variety of toppings!
Lamb Stew
Lasagne
Lentil Soup
Liver and onions (although not for pregnant women)
Meatloaf
Omlette (with or without additional items)
Pasta Bake
Pasta in Tomato sauce
Pasta with Bacon
Poor Mans Pasta (pasta with no additions other than butter)
Potato and Bacon Hotpot
Potato and Cheese Bake
Quiche or flans
Risotto
Sausages and mash
Scrambled egg, beans and bacon
Sheppard's pie
Spaghetti Bolognese
Spanish Omlette
Spicy Wedges and coleslaw
Toad in the hole
Toasted Sandwiches
Tuna and Pasta (with a little mayo)
Tuna rice salad
Veggie Stir Fry
Vegetable Rice Salad

I am thinking of doing a post next week about what to do with Leftovers, so let me know if you are interested!

And one last tried and tested idea, try to get invited to other peoples houses for dinner as often as possible!

Top Ender Giggles - Ultimate in bad service

Going past this sign (yes I did make Daddy drive that way the next day so I could take a photo!) Top Ender was practising her reading skills and stated that the new McDonalds in the area wasn't very good.

"Whys that Top Ender?" we asked

"They only serve two meals every 24 hours" explained Top Ender

Top Ender Giggles - And Goldilocks ate it all up!

Daddy looked in the cupboard and decided that breakfast for Top Ender and Baby Boy would be porridge seeing as the snow was still quite thick on the ground.

He was helping Baby Boy to eat his when;

"This doesn't taste right Daddy" said Top Ender
"What do you mean?" answered Daddy
"Mummy makes it with flavour" said Top Ender

Daddy did tell me, but grudgingly so.

Mummy Giggles - New Dinner Ideas

Late one night I was sitting on the sofa and Daddy was on the PC. I was making a meal plan for the next month and called over various choices to Daddy to veto

"Would you eat" I started "ahh poo!" I exclaimed as my neck suddenly clicked in an arkward position
"No, I don't think I would want to eat our poo" answered Daddy

Top Ender Giggles - A Bit of Roughage?

"Muuuuum! Baby Boy has licked one of my cakes with Sandpaper on the bottom and I don't want it now!" said Top Ender.

After stopping laughing I let Top Ender go and get a new Brownie with rice paper on the bottom from the pot in the Kitchen.

Christmas Celebrations Kick Off!

This weekend is going to be a busy one for us, as it really kicks off our Christmas celebrations.

Daddy is at work, but Top Ender, Baby Boy and I will be going to Top Enders Christmas fair this afternoon (its seems to be a tradition that Daddy is at work the day of the fair!) and then Top Ender is going to stay at Granny's for the night as she hasn't had a sleep over for some time!

Whilst Top Ender is at Granny's St Nicholas should come and leave sweets unless she has been naughty of course, in which case a tree branch is all that she will get. Of course if Baby Boy, Daddy and I have been good enough he will stop here too!

Sunday morning Top Ender is coming back over with Granny, Auntie, Cousin and Baby Cousin as we are all going to the Dobbies Christmas Breakfast with Santa. We went to the Easter breakfast with the Easter Bunny earlier this year and enjoyed ourselves so much we thought we should go to see Santa too.

After we have spent the morning with Santa we are going to come home for Hot Chocolate (with Whipped cream and marshmallows!) and some lunch before we head off to our Drive-Thru movie in the afternoon. I have brought a new Christmas CD to listen to in the car on our way to the Drive-Thru, and so there will be a lot of Carol Singing and classic Christmas songs!

We are going to have sandwiches, popcorn and chocolate and other snacks instead of a "proper" dinner whilst we are at the movies. I shall make up a big picnic for us all and make sure that I include lots of Christmas type foods and drinks. We are also going to set up a little playpen in the boot of the car for Baby Boy to play in, as we can fold one of the seats down so if he gets bored of the film he can have a play in the boot!

If we are then very lucky we should be going for a drive through London to see the Christmas Lights, but as it will be late we won't be going to the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park... we need to save something for another day!

So I wish everyone here a good weekend and hope you have as much fun as we plan to!

Eating out with Kids... cheaply!

Top Ender and Baby Boy love to go out to eat. It doesn't matter if it is a Sandwich in the park, a picnic at the lake, dinner in a restaurant or a snack in a cafe. Anywhere that isn't home makes the food taste magically better and I know it isn't because of my cooking skills or my lack of culinary art!

It is because of their love of eating out that I have a list of places that we can go to where we can grab something to eat, not break the bank and not have to resort to McDonalds... although plenty of that is eaten at times! Here is the low down on where you will find me and family when we can't be bothered to cook!

Costco's restaurant is a marvellous thing. Pizza, Jacket Potato's, Salads, etc are sold at a fraction of the cost that you could get them at other restaurants and the portion sizes are bigger too. This does mean that a slice of pizza and a bit of Mummy and Daddy's Jacket potato or salad will feed both Top Ender and Baby Boy!

You can refill your fizzy drinks if you wish and the food is cooked so that you can see it being prepared as they have large glass windows down one side of the Kitchen. Of course if you don't want to eat in you can take the food away which is sometimes a plus as the small seating area gets very crowded!

The only issue that we have is it is Fizzy Drinks. Top Ender refuses to drink anything remotely fizzy and Baby Boy pulls a funny face if he steals a sip of Daddys drink! Mind you seeing as it is Costco's you could just go and pick up a family pack of squash or water from one of the aisles!

Ikea has not one but two places to eat, the restaurant and the Bistro. At the Bistro you can buy hot dogs, meatballs and chips as well as puddings and they will offer meal deals so buying a combination will work out cheaper too. Of course there are no chairs. just circular tables that are chest height to either lean or put your food on, with a ring further down the table leg for children to put their food on. Just don't get me started about the Ice Cream Machine...



The restaurant is Top Enders favourite (and mine for a cheap full English breakfast!) and she will often beg to be taken there. They serve a kids menu and a main menu as well as having plenty of Swedish snack foods too. The Kids menu is comprised of pasta with sauce or a choice of fish (Haddock) or meatballs and you can choose if you want potatoes or chips with the latter two and with the fish you normally get a vegetable serving too. It is even better value on a Wednesday because it is half price for Meatballs! The Main menu is basically the same as the Kids menu but bigger portions and you can also choose a starter if you want such as Gravalax and occasionally the chef will add other seasonal Swedish food items to the menu.

And of course if you want to recreate it at home you can always stop by at the Swedish shop and buy Swedish foods. Not that I have done that ever... okay so several times including Top Enders 4th Birthday.



Marks and Spencers cafe is at the upper part of our budget, but we do like it there as they always have gluten free and wheat free cakes out. This makes eating with Daddy a lot easier as if we just want to have a drink and snack it is nice to be able to have a choice rather than a packet of crisps. They tend to sell mostly Sandwiches, Jacket Potato's and Soup but they have been known in the past to sell other things!

The good thing about the M&S cafe's is that it gives me a chance to sit there in my best velvet voice saying things like;

"This isn't just any cafe table... this is an M&S cafe table."
or
"This isn't just any fork...this is an M&S fork."

I could go on for hours like that.

Little Chef use to be a favourite of ours, we would often take Top Ender to one of the local restaurants for an ice cream or a meal. It is also great fun to go to Little Chef as I find the colouring pages particularly fun to do and you get a free lolly when you pay! Well maybe the kids do, but if I smile nicely I get one too.

Then there are the Supermarkets Cafes that you can find in most Tesco's, Asda's, Sainsburys and Morrisons. All have their charms and serve what you would expect from a Supermarket cafe and round here all of them are staffed with helpful staff members who will carry my tray to my table if I have Baby Boy and Top Ender on my own and the ladies in Tesco even came and cleared up for me when Baby Boy was a few weeks old and I was sat in the corner breastfeeding whilst Top Ender ate her sandwich!

So if you are ever in one of my local haunts pretend you don't know me, you will be safer that way!

Frugal Christmas Food

Food at Christmas is a huge thing, it is all part of the celebration that we feel we need to have nuts and other snacks as well as the traditional Turkey and trimmings and that is just on Christmas day! On top of Christmas Day and New Years Eve there are the snacks at parties, during special seasonal events, when friends or relatives drop round and if you are like Daddy and me in the run up to Christmas too!

One way that I like to try to keep the cost down is by making most of my treats. Over the last few weeks I have been making biscuit and cookie dough and freezing them uncooked either in sausage shapes or in special cut shapes. All I need to do is to defrost the sausage shaped ones in the fridge over night and cut and cook the next day. The cut shapes I just cook from frozen!

I also like to make my own mince pies, you can keep them in the freezer until needed and either defrost them in the oven or microwave as you are about to eat them or again freeze them uncooked. The added benefit of mince pies is that you get a really lovely smell in you home as they cook or you defrost them too!

You don't need to buy everything fresh, despite what people say. Frozen Vegetables, frozen Turkey, frozen puddings are all acceptable if that is what you want. I have used a mix of frozen and fresh vegetables over the last eight years and I have never had a fresh Turkey, but have always brought a frozen one!



The benefit of frozen food for me is that I can buy food in advance of a big event that I know that we will want or will use when I see it reduced or on special offer. I can then put this item into the freezer and everything is fine when I then get it out for the meal and it cost less than I was budgeting for.



Christmas cakes aren't that expensive anymore, you can easily buy a good quality decorated cake (or if you prefer an undecorated cake that you can then decorate yourself). When you take into consideration the cost of the ingredients of making a cake from scratch it does normally work out a lot cheaper... unfortunatley with Daddy being a celiac and me not touching food with alcohol in it buying a Christmas cake suitable for us both is very expensive even with my thrifty searching the cheapest I have found is £15! This is why I am making a Christmas cake using value ingredients. I will also make a second small sponge cake for Top Ender as she isn't one for fruit cake. If your family is the same a sponge cake works out a lot cheaper than a fruit cake and you can still ice it in the same way!

Of course if you don't like Christmas Cake you can always make a mincemeat cake;

Grease and line an 8in round cake tin. Preheat oven to160 C.

Mix together 8oz self raising flour, 12oz sweet mincemeat, 3oz dried fruit mix, 3 eggs, 5oz soft margarine and 5oz soft brown sugar. Beat until well blended. Spoon into tin and sprinkle some brown sugar on top.

Bake for 1hr 15 minutes until well risen and firm to touch. Cool in tin for 5 minutes and then turn out on to rack.

Then you can ice it as you would a Christmas cake or just leave it. It tastes lovely and as you can use up the last of your mincemeat from the Mince pies it is being frugal too!

A shopping list of everything food wise that you need over the Christmas period, will save you a fortune. If you can make a meal plan of the food that you are going to eat you will know what you need to buy, and won't be worried that the shops are closed for a whole 24 hours and you don't have enough food. It also means that you can buy one or two items a week in the run up to Christmas and spread the cost.

I like to make a menu for Christmas Day with several choices for breakfast, starters and puddings. Then a week before Christmas I start to ask what everyone would like from the choices I have given. I can then add the missed choices into my menu plan for the rest of the Christmas Week. It means that I can make things work in my favour even if everyone does want a different breakfast on Christmas Morning!

The other benefit of a menu plan is you can pre-think what you are going to do with your leftovers. You might have bubble and squeak for tea on Christmas Day (or breakfast the next day!), you might have turkey and stuffing sandwiches for lunch on Boxing day or Turkey Curry on the 27th, but what ever you decide you can make sure you use up all that you have brought!



A lot of people I know have a traditional take away on Christmas Eve, we try to have one on New Years Eve. One thing that hardly anyone ever does is to ask for a discount on this, or at any time of the year to be honest! A lot of places offer a discount if you pick up your own meal or if you order over a certain amount of money... be cheeky and ask you'll never know until you ask!

The last thing I want to mention is not to be afraid to go into so called discount stores, or the Value Brands. Aldi, Lidl, Farmfoods, Netto and Poundland are all stores that I have been into buy food from and Tescos, Morrisons, Asda and Sainsburys all have good quality value ranges! Not one of them has ever failed me and this year Good House Keeping guide has done the hard work for you and have come up with a shopping list using value products for a full Christmas meal.



Well that is all that I can think of at the moment so I wish you a frugal Christmas and if you missed my previous frugal posts go take a look at my Christmas Gifts and the idea of being frugal post and whilst you are at it why not take a look at my Frugal Christmas Entertainment post whilst I wish you a frugal Christmas!

When is a Baby like a Cat?

Have you ever tried to get a cat to swallow a pill?

The easiest way would be to put it in food and let the cat unwittingly swallow the pill, but our cats seem to have a sixth sense about pills in food and tend eat round the tablet.

So instead we have to hold the cat, put the tablet in its mouth and then gently massage its throat until it has swallowed the pill and then give them some water to make sure everything is okay.


Have you ever tried to get a baby to swallow a pill?

The easiest way would be to put crush it in to food and let the baby unwittingly eat the food with the hidden pill, but pills always seem to taste bitter and after the first spoon or two the baby won't eat any more food and you are stuck with a baby who has only had half a dose of its medication.

Or at least that is what happened with the first tamiflu tablet Baby Boy had in a yogurt. Yesterday morning I gave Baby Boy sweetened porridge with a hidden pill and was on tender hooks until he had eaten it all. Which he did, because of my great impression of a fighter plane.

I needed something more easy on my nerves.

Yesterday evening I sat Baby Boy on my knee, explained to him what I was going to do and then lay him back put the pill in his mouth and quickly shoved a fruit shoot into his mouth. With a quick squirt the juice forced him to swallow the pill and the job was done.

Wait a minute? Did that really work? Apparently it did.

We'll try that one again then.

Top Ender is much easier to get to take pills. You just give her the pill dissolved in a little apple juice and she is away.

I just wish they were a little like Me. I've been taking pills since I was three as in the "olden days" they didn't make the medicines I had to take in any other form so I just knock 'em back like they are tic-tacs!

Top Ender Giggles - Real Food

Last night to stop Top Ender and I moping around the house, Daddy took a surprise night off and took us on a long stopped tradition of walking round the local shopping Centre on a Thursday night. Top Ender was starting to feel hungry and so we ventured to the food hall of Marks and Spencers

"As a treat, I'll buy you a Marks and Spencers meal for dinner" I told Top Ender

"But I don't want a Marks and Spencers meal!" whinged Top Ender

"I'll let you choose any meal you want, I won't only give you a few options!" I tried brightly

"But I want real food... like McDonalds!" slandered Top Ender

Just a quick edit, for all those who have no idea what M&S is about, this was a Christmas ad from them in 2006...

Altogether now; This isn't just food this is M&S food.

Wordless Wednesday - A Selection of Calorie Free Cakes!

Here are a selection of cakes that have been made over the years by me for various events! They are now all calorie free, so enjoy!


If you want to see more cakes that I have made then please have a look here at the ones that are on my Flickr account - http://budurl.com/rypd

Stop Playing with your food! I've already done that for you!

Since Top Ender weaned, there has been a fascination on my side of things in making food look fun (and I am sure that her fascination with Big Cook Little Cook was a contributing factor here), so that she would try new foods and because sometimes its nice to do something unexpected!

Then I was reading Alpha Mummy about the creator of some fantastic sandwiches and I read the comments that some have said about it being a waste and that the children only pick at things and I started to get a little angry.

You see this is what started it off. Top Ender wouldn't eat peas. She couldn't be convinced to have one pass her lips until I made this;

That's right its a mash potato and crumbed fish in the shape of a fish, swimming above a seabed of peas. Oh and little tiny pea air bubbles escaping from its mouth, and it has a pea eye and fin.

I remember that night clearly as she ate every single pea without complaint, and begged for Princess pea pie the next night (which I made but can't find a photo of), which she again ate every single bite of!

So of course the next time we asked her to try something she hasn't had before the answer was Not on your life. Until we presented it to her in a more appetising way.

To be honest, I didn't make this. We got this as a meal for Top Ender at Disney Land Paris. But we had been trying to get her to try Olives. She took one look at the Mickey Pizza and pulled an Olive off and started to chew. She then spat it back out and looked at us horrified, but she tried it!

Then just the other night I decided that Top Ender deserved a bit of fun. So I made her dinner that evening three of her favourite foods; Hash Browns, Sausages and Baked Beans. And whilst trying to come up with an idea of what to make it into I realised this could be a Butterfly very easily...

So as you can see that is what I did. When Top Ender came to collect her plate she was so amazed at her Butterfly, that I didn't even get any complaints that I had used "proper" sausages with herbs in. She just ate it without complaint.

Now I don't want you thinking that Baby Boy gets left out of all this, he gets his fair share too. In fact this was his breakfast this morning, Pear, Grapes and two small pancakes. It's not the Mona Lisa, but my kids know talent...

As he ate it he pointed to the various features on his face as he ate the ones on the plate. All the while saying "Yumm!", so breakfast was not only healthy but a learning experience too.

So stop telling children to stop playing with their food - do it for them!

Top Ender Giggles - Listen the first time!

"Top Ender, would you like beans and egg for dinner?" I called upstairs
"No!" answered Top Ender
"Okay, what would you like?" I asked
"Could I have beans and scrambled egg?" she queried
"Top Ender?"
"Yes, Mummy?"
"What did I just ask if you would like?"
"Beans and egg... I want scrambled egg though!"

Baby Boy Giggles - The nose of a Bloodhound!

Top Ender having finally finished her dinner was allowed two jaffa cakes as a pudding, which she only took one of. As we can't give anything to Top Ender without Baby Boy demanding some we also gave him one and the rest of the packet were hidden behind the computer screen, as I was Tweeting.

A few moments later Baby Boy tried climbing up on my knee.

"Up Mama!" he demanded
"Hiya Baby Boy!"
"Ta Mama!" he said waving in the general direction of the computer screen
"No, sorry Baby. They are all gone!" I said
"MAMA!" he screamed and buried his head in my chest

At this point Top Ender returned for her second cake and I quickly passed her the entire packet so that Baby Boy wouldn't see. It couldn't of been as fluid as I thought however as a few seconds later he climbed down off my knee and went in search of Top Ender and the Jaffa Cakes.

"Its okay Top Ender, let him have one." I called over

A few seconds later Baby Boy appeared with a Jaffa cake with a bite taken from it

"Look Mama! Ummmm Mama" he almost purred

I knew he didn't believe me when I told them they had all gone!

Wordless Wednesday - Compact lunch

Strictly not a Wordless Wednesday, but there needs to be a bit of back story here so you can see what is going on.

Top Ender is on School Holidays and we thought that it would be important to do one crazy or fun thing everyday and today we decided to have an indoor picnic complete with picnic mat!

Top Ender was taking her time to eat her lunch (something to do with the television being on) and Baby Boy had eaten his sandwich and strawberries and was trying to get Top Enders to no avail!

Baby Boy knew that he needed to do something to get them, but wasn't sure what. So he sat down to think about it. Problem was he sat down on Top Enders lunch...

Mind you it sped up her eating of it before he could do it again!

Top Ender Giggles - That isn't food!

Top Ender went to a party after school in the week. When we got home I made tea for Baby Boy, Daddy and I and let Top Ender play.

"When's dinner Mummy?" asked Top Ender expectantly
"You have had dinner!" I answered
Top Ender thought for a second face screwed up with concentration
"No I haven't!" she exclaimed
"Yes, at the Birthday party" I explained
"No, that was lunch as it was sandwiches and party food!"