Lunchbox planning for the new school year

We have completed our first few weeks of the new school year and we're just about settling into a nice routine. This includes the daily job of making lunchboxes to keep Freddy fed and watered for the school day. There has been a lot of talk recently regarding the healthiness of kids' packed lunches from home, and a recent survey commissioned by Flora concluded that only 1.6% of packed lunches are meeting food based standards for UK school meals. Only 17% of lunchboxes contain any vegetables or salad and 60% contain too many processed sweet and savoury snacks.

In response to this, Flora are investing in an initiative to inspire parents by distributing thousands of Flora lunchboxes via retailers, containing healthy lunchbox recipe planners.  They have also launched an online guide with useful tips and recipes for parents. There are some some great recipes and ideas for lunches, including a five day vegan lunch plan using Flora Dairy Free.

It is all too easy to fall into the habit of making a quick cheese sandwich and throwing in a bag of crisps and a chocolate biscuit for a child's lunch. We often find ourselves in a lunchbox rut, but this school year I'm determined to do better. So being organised and planning ahead is really important to keep up the motivation to provide healthy lunches with kid appeal to keep Freddy happy.

Typically, Freddy has a sandwich, a wrap, a panini or something baked like a vegetarian sausage roll or a cheese twist. He also has a portion of fruit such as strawberries, grapes or an apple, and a portion of veggies, such as cucumber or carrot sticks. A carton of fruit juice or a bottle of water complete his lunch. I know fruit juice is high in naturally occurring sugars and acid, but I prefer him having that than a sugar-free, chemical laden drink. Like Flora, I am a big advocate of the 'Powered by Plants' ideology!

To change things up, we sometimes bake some Quorn Chicken Style Nuggets or Linda McCartney's sausages (we pop them in the oven the night before while cooking dinner) and serve them cold with a ketchup dip. It's fun and high in protein. Add some breadsticks, fruit and veggies to the lunchbox for a balanced meal.

For a special treat, I make some individual pots of vegetarian jelly in little lidded tubs. They are low in calories, refreshing and Freddy loves them!  Making them yourself is so much cheaper than buying supermarket versions, and you can easily add some chopped fruit as part of their five a day quota.

Investing in a little flask allows them to take soups to school. Coupled with a chunky slice of wholemeal bread spread with Flora Dairy Free, it makes a lovely meal, especially as the colder weather sets in.

I firmly believe that we are what we eat. Freddy is still a bit set in his ways when it comes to food, but with encouragement he is enjoying a wider range of foods and becoming more adventurous. I aim to keep his lunchboxes varied, balanced and appealing and hope that his appetite and enthusiasm for food continues to grow!

“This post is an entry for the #FloraLunchbox Linky Challenge, sponsored by Flora. Check out their lunch planner and recipe ideas here. ”

Come and See the Florasaurus - coming to Westfield and intu Trafford Centre this Easter

Flora’s new  “Powered by Plants”  campaign has seen the launch of a new dairy-free spread – Flora Freedom - which harnesses the natural goodness of plant based ingredients such as rapeseed, sunflower and linseed oils.  This healthy alternative to butter is perfect for those with allergies and for those who choose to eat Free From alternatives.

The campaign mascot Florasaurus, is a massive, green plant-eating dinosaur and it will be visiting Westfield Stratford City and intu Trafford Centre, Manchester over the Easter Holidays to help re-engage kids with where their food comes from. This campaign from Flora demonstrates how many of the world’s biggest and most magnificent creatures were powered by plants. As a vegetarian family, we love this message!

The free interactive experience will include photos opportunities with the Florasaurus, competitions and activities created in conjunction with the Eden Project. The display will be available during the shopping centres' opening hours giving families plenty of opportunity to come and enjoy the experience during the school holidays.

Florasurus will be at:

Westfield Stratford, London:

Friday 25th March 2016 – Monday 4th April 2016 (excluding Easter Sunday 27th March)

Trafford Centre, Manchester:

Thursday 7th April 2016 – Sunday 10th April 2016

Nutty Mushroom Crumble Recipe

Gold from Flora is the new blend of butter and Flora, with a rich, creamy taste.  It is a versatile product, perfect for spreading, topping vegetables and potatoes or as an ingredient in baking or cooking.  Flora challenged me to come up with a simple recipe for an everyday family meal using Gold plus up to ten other ingredients and a £10 budget.  So, I came up with a recipe for a Nutty Mushroom Crumble, a tasty vegetarian meal.

The Nutty Mushroom Crumble has a delicious saucy, mushroom base topped with a crumble made using nuts, seeds and oatmeal.  (I used all ten ingredients plus optional seasonings to taste.)  Here is a video showing how I made it.

                         

I received a £10 voucher to cover the cost of the ingredients.

Flora's Funspiration Activity Guide for Kids

We all sometimes need a bit of inspiration when it comes to coming up with new, fun ideas for things for the kids to do.  With the Easter holidays here and the prospect of at least a few rainy days, I know I'll be trying to come up with lots of activities to keep my little ones busy.  So I was delighted to find that Flora Buttery have produced their Funspiration Activity Guide filled with simple and fun ideas for keeping children entertained.

With fifteen activities, each needing no more than five things and taking fifteen minutes to prepare, it's an essential guide for busy parents.  Featuring ideas such as cupcake baking to holding a fashion show to launching a rocket, there is so much inspiration for activities that there will never be a dull moment this Easter!

Written by Tanith Carey, award winning journalist and parenting author, the guide is perfect for when you want to spend some quality time with the kids, trying something new. There are also things that the older kids can do independently to keep them busy. Activities can be adapted for doing indoors or outdoors, so if it brightens up you can take it outside. Everything can be adapted to the age and ability of the children.

Mumsnet have challenged me to try out one of the activities with Kizzy and Freddy.

We loved a lot of the activities, especially the recipes and crafts, but the idea of the Kids on the Catwalk challenge really caught their imagination. All you need is a selection of clothing, accessories, some music and a space for the kids to strut their stuff!

The kids decided on the theme of Summer Wear and Kizzy decided to try her hand at upcycling some old clothes, as suggested in the activity guide as something for older kids to try.  She had a pair of knee length denim shorts and a t-shirt that she she wanted to upcycle into something funky and fresh for the fashion show.

Take some old clothing that you want to upcycle.

Mark out where you want to cut down the item.

Carefully cut the clothing, saving the cut off pieces to use for scrunchies, wristbands etc.

Kizzy got creative and made a funky new outfit consisting of a tie-up crop top with denim sleeves, cut down shorts, hair scrunchies and wrist band! Adding a pair of shades, her outfit was complete.

Freddy enjoyed the accessories and posed in sunglasses and hats, harnessing his inner Romeo Beckham!! He loved delving into the pile of scarves, hats and glasses to change his look.

We set up a space to make a runway and put out chairs for the audience.  We played some summer tunes and the children paraded on the catwalk, with walks that they had choreographed themselves.

It was such a simple activity for the children to enjoy, extended to include the upcycling of the clothing, which Kizzy really enjoyed doing.  It's such a confidence boost for children to get up and perform.  Afterwards, we did a modelling session with me as the photographer snapping some lovely photos of Kizzy in her summer outfit.

We will definitely be trying out some more of the activities - next on the list is to 'Put on a Puppet Show' using odd socks to make the puppets.  I have loads of odd socks at the bottom of the airing basket that will lend themselves perfectly to becoming sock puppets!  I particularly enjoy the activities that incorporate a craft activity followed by a performance, because it keeps the kids busy, unleashes their creativity and I get to enjoy the show afterwards!

The Funspiration Activity Guide from Flora is completely free to download from the Mumsnet website:
http://www.mumsnet.com/pdf/flora-buttery-funspiration-guide.pdf


“I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Network Research Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity”.

Flora Cuisine...Let's Get Cooking

Flora Cuisine have just launched their Let's Get Cooking recipe book, created by mums for mums.  Featuring 30 recipes chosen by Jean-Christophe Novelli, the cookbook includes ideas for everyday recipes and includes a kid-friendly section for baking with the kids.

I have been sent a copy of the cookbook and the ingredients so I can  try out one of the recipes: Apple Cakes.  I'll be baking these soon and featuring the recipe right here on the blog.

Flora have also launched a weekly competition to win the cookbook and a week’s worth of delicious dinners for a family of four, until Monday 19^th November 2012.  Anyone can enter in one of two ways.

Simply take a look at the recipes on the Flora website where you can download a FREE COPY of the cook book and then either:

• Follow @OfficialFloraUK on Twitter and tweet a bite-size review with a link to the original recipe using the hashtag #CookbookComp
• Or, simply find the recipe you want to review on the website and login with your Facebook details to leave a comment. You will then need to send your details (name, address and contact number) to flora@tmw.co.uk so you can be contacted you if you are one of the lucky winners.