A Modern Mother

On making Buzzy Bees with Annabel Karmel

This is a sponsored post

So .... I went to this blogger event in London, put on by Cereal Partners UK for Nestle Wholegrain Cereals. Traffic was bad and I arrived about an hour late. As I walked up to the Georgian House, I reached into the caverns of my bag in search of a mint. Rummaging around I found, oh, what's that? A gumi bear? Ouch! What the blank is that? I pulled out the name badge from the last blogger event.

Thank God some nice person handed me a steaming cup of coffee as soon as I arrived. I was just getting my barrings (spotting fellow bloggers NixdMinx, Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy, Who's the Mummy, A Mother's Rambling and Suburban Mummy) when I turned round to stare straight down at a waif of a woman with a big smile and equally big blond tresses. She said hello. This woman looked way too finished to be a mum blogger. Then the light went off.

OMG, you're Annabel Karmel! I blurted out. I remembered something about her in the email from the PR agency, and wished I had actually read the brief. It must be her, she looked exactly like the little photo in the back of all those cook books. Only smaller. Tiny. Like Minnie Mouse, with blond hair. My mouth felt dry.

Eating dirt

Last year I made a huge effort to get the girls to eat "regular" food (as in not "kid food").  Though sausages and baked beans and fish fingers were popular and fairly easy to make, I knew it was time to make the switch. I was also tired of preparing two meals ... one for them and one for me and my husband. After lots or trial and error, it worked! Now I get really excited when I find a recipe that we all love. Especially one with a really cool name. Here's how the conversation at the Scott household went last night:

What's for dinner mum?

Dirty rice.

Giggles.

You mean we're eating DIRT?

More healthy meals the kids love...

Hubby gave me Jamie's America for Christmas, and I have spent a few evenings browsing his recipes on my quest to find more meals the whole family will enjoy...

To my delight I stumbled upon Southern Red Bean and Pork. This is real comfort food.  It's lovely and chunky and full of hidden veggies. You could even make it in a slow cooker. You'll need to buy the book for the official recipe, but here's my take on it:

When life gives you snow, make snow ice cream!

It DUMPED snow in the Thames Valley yesterday. I got stuck with the girls for THREE HOURS, and finally abandoned the car and walked two miles home.

So what do you do when life give you snow? Make snow ice cream of course!

Ingredients:

• 250 ml (1 cup) milk
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 - 7 cups snow! (clean and fluffy, not packed)

Continuing on the easy dinner theme...

This year I was on a mission to get my girls eating more than just chicken nuggets and sausage, beans and chips. Guess what? We did it!!

We now eat five out of seven meals together, and I only cook one dish. Who would have known?!

This is one of our favourites, and it's super easy to make. I wouldn't exactly call it low cal, but it is delish. You can get all the ingredients from the international section of Tesco.

Apologies in advance

My Jerusalem artichokes are ready. Apologies in advance to anyone who is near me in the next couple of days!