An Innocent lunch and a recipe

When the lovely team from Innocent asked if I’d like to join their panel, and receive some goodies for Kieran, I could hardly refuse. You see Kieran has been a big fan of Innocent products from an early age, before he could properly say Innocent even…

Mummy can I have another Guinness Smoothie when we get home?

Cringe!

Anyhow, a lovely chilled delivery arrived packed with his favourites, the juices, the smoothies and the yogurt sticks (that’s what we call them anyway?!) and a new lunch box, with lovely stickers and shapes to decorate it with. Excited wasn’t the word! (Kieran was pretty chuffed too). Smoothie in one hand and stickers in the other he decorated his new box which he carries proudly to school (it’s a big boy box!).

Lunch as chosen by Kieran

What gets eaten for lunch in my house varies. Kieran chooses his own lunch with guidance which I believe is important, promotes independence and can be fun!

Here we have:

  • No-pastry veg quiche (which he loves! Recipe below)
  • Tomatoes – we are going through an experimenting stage at the moment and tomatoes are a must!
  • Grapes-These usually get popped in frozen, it keeps them lovely, fresh and cool.
  • Fruit buttons – Sometimes these are raisins or another dried fruit but this is what Kieran chose on this day.
  • Juice (usually a smoothie but we ran out before this lunchtime, so back to Tesco to stock up!)
  • And fresh from the freezer, a smoothie/yogurt tube. I freeze these which keeps them cool and defrosts slowly ready for being eaten, still cold at lunch. No spoon (which always gets lost) required!
What goes in depends entirely on his mood, I don’t interfere unless I really need to but he is pretty sensible and even at 5yrs understands about healthy food. We don’t have “Good” or “Bad” foods because I believe everything in moderation is just fine.
Other things that Kieran has enjoyed recently have included pasta salads or many varieties (great for left overs!), marbled hard-boiled egg, filled pitta breads, 101 different types of fruit and veg, quiches, chopped cheese (we explore the deli for different types to try) and cold meats.
We love Innocent, great taste, convenient, and I am reassured that Kieran is eating/drinking wholesome, no rubbish included foods/drinks and that his minimum of 5-a-day easily achieved.
No pastry quiche.
Basic ingredients
3 Eggs
Chopped onion,
Grated cheese.
Additional ingredients (you can add basically anything!)
Grated carrot, courgette, mushroom, sweetcorn,
Cooked meats, tuna
Beat your eggs and add to the chopped onion, grated cheese and any other ingredients you fancy. (carrot & courgette is our favourite at the moment). Mix and put into a small quiche dish. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees until firm.
And that’s it.
*Top tip. The quiche slices better if left to cool and then chilled overnight. If you prefer a firmer quiche, after the oven, prick the quiche and give it an extra 6-7 minutes in the microwave.
Thank you Innocent! Don’t forget you can catch up with Innocent on Twitter and keep up with all the latest news and offers.

Children dying through a lack of Healthworkers

Yesterday a group of Bloggers and Vloggers went to London for a conference at the London headquarters of Save The Children. Save The Children is a charity close to my heart and one I support keenly. Many of you will remember being asked earlier in the year to click and sign (a two minute job) the No Child Is Born To Die petition, aimed at ensuring the right funding was given to ensure children in less fortunate countries were able to be given life-saving vaccinations. AND WE DID IT! Not closing the browser, signing and passing on, made the difference in saving millions of lives.

Now I’m asking for your help again.

A huge problem in Africa is the chronic lack of healthworkers, trained professionals who can help families and children on a daily basis, educating, caring and saving lives. Our own keen campaigner Christine Mosler (@ChristineMosler) and Liz Scarff from Save the Children will be attending the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and they need help to pressure David Cameron to play his part in solving the health worker crisis.

They need 60,000 signatures to take with them, the total already received is £40k+ – they need your help!

Please take just two minutes to visit and sign and do your bit in ensuring that what is a completely avoidable loss of life doesn’t continue. If you don’t blog, you can help by signing, passing the link or this post on to your friends and contacts. If you do blog, see below for how YOU can make a difference.

The key to a campaign like this is awareness and the lovely Michelle from Mummy From The Heart has asked bloggers and vloggers to spread the news using their readership. A damn find idea. If you blog here is how you can help.

  1. Sign the petition!
  2. Why not take part in the challenge set by HelloItsGemma and Michelle ? They want (need) to see 100 posts of 100 words linked up here by Tuesday. If 100 bloggers write a post and encourage more signatures it will go a long way to obtaining those much needed remaining 20,000 signatures!
  3. Write your 100 words about a great health professional you have encountered in your life. Add a link to the petition and either link or add in some information from Save the Children about the #Healthworkers campaign.
  4. Link to bloggers and vloggers you know and encourage them to take part
  5. Spread the news on Facebook, Twitter, any way you can.
My 100 words:
I want to tell you about Noel. When pregnant with Taylor I developed Gestational Diabetes, unpleasant but also quite dangerous for some. My blood sugar levels were all over the place and several times I came close to spiralling into a hypo. Noel was the diabetic nurse who cared for me. He phoned every 3 days to check my levels and ensure the insulin dosage was correct. He calmed my fears and helped advise the maternity ward on how to manage my insulin during the CSection.  Without such help, things may have turned out very differently for Taylor and I.
The lovely bloggers I’d love to see take part are:
The funny and wise Pippa from AMothersRamblings
The clever and cool Kat from 3bedroombungalow
The extremely lovely Liz from MeandMyShadow
The adventurous and wonderful Carolin from MummyAlarm
and last but not least
The ever fun and fiesty Kate from TheFiveFsBlog!
PLEASE take 2 minutes and SIGN!