Making a summer memory jar

Soft and Fluffy Summer Moments

Roberts Bakery have come up with a lovely idea for preserving our memories of the summer. They have sent me a lovely big Kilner jar into which we will be popping souvenirs from days out, diary pages and photos to create a summer memory jar. When summer is over and we are thrust back into the humdrum routine of school runs and daily drudgery, looking back through our memory jar will help brighten even the greyest day.

What I love about the memory jar idea is that even Freddy can contribute. He still hates having to sit down and write anything longer than a few words, so the prospect of a full blown holiday diary or scrapbook was met with horror. Pages of blank paper needing to be filled with words was way too daunting for my boy. However, writing down a couple of words on a slip of paper or drawing a quick sketch to be added to the jar along with leaflets, photos, shells found on the beach and tickets from attractions, was a much more enticing prospect. He could see the jar filling up and actively wanted to be a part of the project.

A memory jar is such a simple idea. By adding a memory for each memorable day, you will create a wonderful collection of magical moments that can be revisited again and again. The jar can be decorated using stickers or Sharpie markers to personalise it.

This summer so far has been filled with wonderful moments: Freddy's family Minecraft birthday party, our holiday in Yorkshire, visits to Alton Towers, the Dungeons and SeaLife. We've been to the cinema and have had days out and in with family and friends. Spending quality times with loved ones is what summer is all about to us. That and impromptu lunchtime picnics in the garden using Roberts Bakery Soft & Fluffy White bread!

You can visit the Roberts Bakery Facebook Page for the chance to win £100 in their Soft & Fluffy Moment Competition. Simply vote for your favourite Soft & Fluffy moment in their poll and add your email address to be entered. It's easy. (Open to UK residents aged 13 and over. Winner announced on September 7th 2015.)

Thank you to Roberts Bakery for inspiring us to make our own memory jar - it's such a lovely way to preserve our happy, soft and fluffy summer memories.

Last Minute Father's Day Gift Ideas - Roberts Bakery, Wilkinson Sword and Beech's Fine Chocolates

If you are yet to buy a present for your dad this Father's Day don't panic! Here are some ideas for some last minute gifts that won't cost too much, but will be gratefully received.

Breakfast in Bed

Why not show him how much you care and treat dad to breakfast in bed for Father's Day? Perhaps you could make him a voucher (or print out the one below) and present dad with it so he can redeem it whenever he fancies an indulgent lie in with his choice of breakfast served to him in bed.

For Ian's Father Day Breakfast, we'll be making him a Quorn Bacon Butty using Roberts Bakery Soft and Fluffy Thick White Bread and tomato sauce. Served with a mug of black coffee, this is the perfect brekkie for dad!

Keep an eye on the Roberts Bakery Facebook page for their ultimate Father's Day Bacon Butty Guide!

Wilkinson Sword

Practical gifts can be much appreciated, which is why toiletries are always a good idea for dad. You can buy them in supermarkets so can be picked up easily wherever you are. They are a great idea for the dad who has everything.

Wilkinson Sword's Hydro 5 razor gives dad a revolutionary shave care system with its five ultra glide blades, hydrating gel reservoir and flip trimmer. It gives a high performance shave with the benefit of added skin care.

How about the new Wilkinson Sword travel kit, which includes a Hydro 5 Razor, travel cap and mini can of Protect shaving foam? It's a great idea with the summer holidays and festival season approaching. This kit is a Tesco exclusive, but Hydro 5 can be found nationwide. Wilkinson Sword products are currently included in an up to half price special offer with the Hydro 5 Groomer at £7.49 and the Razor at £4.19. Pair them with dad's favourite aftershave for a brilliant gift idea.

Find out the latest new on the Wilkinson Sword Men UK Facebook page.

Beech's Chocolate

If your dad has a sweet tooth or is a bit of a chocoholic, then you can treat him to some quality chocolates. Both Ian and my dad enjoy darker, richer blends of chocolate, savouring a few squares a night.

Beech's Fine Chocolates have a range of delicious, top quality 60g bars that are perfect for Father's Day. They are grown up chocolates for the more discerning palate with their range of interesting varieties.

The range includes:

White Chocolate

Milk Chocolate

Dark Chocolate

Dark Chocolate with Natural Ginger

Dark Chocolate with Lime and Chilli

Milk Chocolate with Anglesey Sea Salt

The Dark Chocolate with Natural Ginger is 55% cocoa solids. It is smooth and dark with a subtle hit of gingery warmth. It is delicious.  The 55% Dark Chocolate with Lime and Chilli is a really inventive flavour, with a citrus tang and a hit of heat. Ian really liked this one...it's a proper manly flavour! The chocolates are delicious on their own or would be excellent ingredinets in a recipe. (Watch this space for a recipe in the near future using a sample of Beech's Fine Chocolates that I was sent to try!)

Beech's have been making fine British chocolates since 1920 using the finest, natural ingredients. The packaging is really attractive, bearing the Beech's crest. The dark chocolate varieties are suitable for vegans, while the rest are vegetarian friendly. Beech's have an extensive and impressive range of vegan friendly chocolate creams, chocolate Brazils and chocolate thins

Beech's currently have a competition online where you can win a holiday or a hamper of chocolate simply by signing up to their newsletter. Just by entering you receive a 10% discount code to use against your first order.

The bars are £1.50 EACH or 3 for £4.00 or 12 for £12.00 with FREE DELIVERY on orders over £12.00.

Visit Beech's Fine Chocolates for more information.


We received these samples for the purpose of this review.

Breakfast in Bed for Mum this Mother's Day

If you are planning on treating your mum to a well deserved breakfast in bed this Mother's Day, then Roberts Bakery has some advice on making the perfect boiled egg, served with soft and fluffy toasted soldiers. A soft boiled egg with a dippy yolk and perfectly cut toasted soldiers with butter is such a classic breakfast choice.  

Roberts Bakery sent us a loaf of their Soft and Fluffy white bread along with some breakfast goodies so we could have a trial run for making our own breakfast in bed.  Freshly made toast in a rack, a deliciously soft boiled free range egg and a cup of tea (black no sugar for me!) would make a great start to the day.  It definitely makes a change to my usual breakfast choice, which is a green kale and spinach smoothie!

You can make a breakfast tray more inviting by popping on a vase containing a single bloom and don't forget to bring mum her Mother's Day cards and gifts so she can open them in bed.  Sunday promises to bring a relaxing lie-in for many lucky mums this weekend - I just hope I'm going to be one of them!

What better way of showing your mum how much you care this Sunday!

Valentine's Day Strawberry and Cream Sandwich Recipe

It's almost Valentine's Day, so why not treat your loved ones to a delicious Strawberry and Cream sandwich?  It's a romantically themed lunchtime treat that the kids will love too, perfect for a half term picnic.

Roberts Bakery sent me a loaf of  their thick sliced Soft and Fluffy White Bread and some heart shaped cutters so I could try out some for my family.

Ingredients

4 slices of Roberts Soft and Fluffy White Loaf

8-10 ripe strawberries

1 tub of cottage cheese, ricotta or cream cheese

Handful of rocket leaves

Ground black pepper

Method

Cut four big heart shapes from the sliced bread.

Cut two small hearts from the centre of two of the large hearts.

Lay out the two whole heart shaped and put some rocket on the.

Drain the cottage cheese and add a generous layer on top.

Slice the strawberries and arrange on top.

Season with black pepper.

Put the cut-out heart shaped bread slices on top to finish the sandwich.

Strawberries and black pepper is a very interesting combination - well worth a try!  For children you could use jam, cream cheese and strawberries to make a sweeter sandwich, using the same heart shaped cutters to make it look really pretty.

Here is a printable copy of the recipe card:

What does your toast say about you?

Duerr's Marmalade and Roberts Bakery have teamed up to evaluate how a person's morning toast preferences reflect their personality. They have come up with a fun quiz so you can discover what your toast says about you!

From the thickness of the bread to your opinion on double dipping the knife between the butter and the jam jar, your thoughts unlock your breakfast personality and check your compatibility with whoever you share your breakfast with in the morning.

With my love of lightly done, thick sliced, 50/50 bread toasted and topped with a medium spreading of no-bits jam and butter (no double dipping allowed!) and with a penchant for leaving my crusts,  I have been identified as a Peacekeeper, which is a surprisingly accurate reflection of my personality!

If you want to have a go simply visit marmaladeandtoast.co.uk and take part in this fun, and in my case, surprisingly accurate personality test!

50 Days of Summer - Our Holiday Round Up

This summer has been all about family and fun.  We have holidayed in a forest, been to the beach, sailed to the Isle of Wight, visited museums, learned new skills and the girls have even learned how to drive.  The children have seen all three sets of their grandparents in one week (this is the first time this has happened given that they have grandparents that are spread across Surrey, Wales and the Isle of Man) and enjoyed quality time with their cousin's baby, the gorgeous little Michael, who stayed with us for a week.  We've Skyped my nephew Tom and his beautiful new wife Ashley, following their wedding in Georgia.  Ella received her A'Level results getting an A, 2 Bs and a C (the Maths exam was a killer this year!) and is set to go to her first choice university in September. The girls went to V Festival (we bought them tickets for Ella's 18th birthday) and had the best day ever watching The Killers, Jason Derulo, Nile Rodgers, Rudimental and many more great acts. 

We've really enjoyed our time together this summer, nothing beats the time spent with my kids!

The weather has mostly been kind to us, and the sun has shone on the days that we wanted it to.  With just a couple more weeks before the kids return to school, we hope to make the most of the remaining days of freedom (even though the sunshine seems to have taken its leave!)

If you need any inspiration for keeping the family occupied, don't forget that you can get ideas for days out and things to do in the Robert's Bakery 50 Days of Summer guide.  You can download a free copy of the 50 Days of Summer guide here.

If you have any picnics on the agenda you can definitely make them more fun by making some creative sandwiches.  We made some amazing sandwich creations at the Blogger's Picnic earlier this year.

One other activity we are hoping to catch is the Playmobil 40th Annmiversary Tour where life sized Playmobil models will be making an appearance at the following venues:

Today: Fri 22nd Aug - Birmingham Cathedral

Sat 23rd Aug - Derby

Sun 24th Aug -Liverpool

Mon 25th Aug (Bank Holiday) - Manchester

Wed 27th Aug (Morning) - Newcastle

Wed 27th Aug (After school) -Glasgow

Thurs 28th Aug - Middlesbrough

Fri 29th Aug - Leeds

Sat 30th Aug - Nottingham

Sun 31st Aug - Leicester

To find out more details about when and where, keep an eye on the PLAYMOBIL UK Facebook page.

However you plan to spend the rest of the precious days of summer, have fun!!

Keep the Kids Entertained with 50 Days of Summer

If you are looking for some inspiration this summer, for ideas to keep boredom away during the long holidays, then Roberts Bakery has some ideas for you!  In their FREE downloadable pack, there are suggestions for affordable activities to do, places to visit (including many with free admission), fun things to make and picnic friendly recipes to create.

The 50 Days of Fun downloadable pack is filled with things that the kids will love to do. Click on the image below to go to the website:

There is an idea for every day from July 17th, but you can pick and choose ideas for things to do from the fifty days.  Day one suggests making a scrapbook and recording all the adventures you get up to over the summer.  This will be a wonderful souvenir, and I find that keeping a summer scrapbook keeps the kids practicing their reading and writing in a fun way!

I love some of the suggestions, such as the mess free, outdoor water painting which would be a great activity to keep little ones occupied on a sunny day...and if it descended into a water fight, then that would be even more fun!

There are some great picnic sandwich ideas, some of which I tested when I enjoyed the Roberts Bakery Bloggers' Picnic earlier this year.  The Cheezy Beans refried bean sandwich idea is new one I intend to try out.  It sounds yummy!  Or how about trying the Nutty 'Nanas sandwich that I made at the bloggers' picnic? We used the Roberts Bakery 50% White & 50% Wholemeal bread, which was really good.

You can download the two part pack at www.robertsbakery.co.uk/50-days-of-summer

It is a great resource whether you want to follow everyday or just dip into!

Roberts Bakery will be sharing the day’s top pick on facebook.com/RobertsBakeryUK and on twitter @roberts_bakery.

How to make picnic food more fun!

We had a lovely day out at Delamere Forest for the Robert's Bakery 50 Days of Summer Bloggers' Picnic.  Myself, Ian, Ella, Kizzy and Freddy really enjoyed making a fun picnic, with recipes demonstrated by the ladies from Roberts Bakery, which we later got to eat for lunch.  The recipe ideas were really inventive, elevating a humble sarnie into something way more exciting!  

We used the new Robert's Bakery White & Wholemeal bread which includes fortified white flour and high fibre wholemeal flour to bring together the best of both worlds.

Thank goodness the weather was kind to us, as the masterclass in sandwich making took place on benches outside.  Al fresco food preparation added an element of summertime fun to our lesson in picnic prep!

Here's what we made:

Sunshine Sandwich

These 'peep hole' sandwiches are filled with a mix of low fat grated cheese, grated carrot, sunflower seeds and raisins.  Bulking out the grated cheese with grated carrot gives a lower calorie filling and adds extra nutrients. Each hole is filled with one of the ingredients to make an impressive looking sandwich that little ones will love.  You could adapt this sandwich to make traffic lights, popping in tomato, sweetcorn and lettuce in the holes. 

S.L.T.

The vegetarian sausage, lettuce and tomato roll is a twist on the BLT.  The mayonnaise, Greek yogurt and black pepper dressing complemented it perfectly, and was lighter than using mayo alone.  Served in the new Roberts Bakery White and Wholemeal buns they made a tasty roll.

Peanut Butter and Banana Monkey

aka Nutty Nana

The fun monkey faces with peanut butter, banana and a little honey, were really effective.  Raisins added the details and made these sandwiches look really cool and perfect for feeding to my own little monkey Freddy.

Strawberry & Cream Hearts

Cream cheese, rocket, strawberries and black pepper make a really interesting and elegant sandwich filling. It's like having a cream tea on bread! The heart shaped sandwich with a cut out top is the ideal food to serve at a tea party.  They look so pretty and the strawberry goes so well with black pepper and rocket.

With our sandwiches and rolls packed into boxes, we headed to a tent where a storyteller was waiting to share some stories with us while we ate our lunch.  The children loved joining in with the storyteller's tales, and it was great to see Freddy getting involved.  He has come on such a long way from the shy little lad he once was!  The food went down well with everyone too, the veggie SLT being my favourite.

After our picnic, we had a lovely walk around Delamere Forest with Clearly Bex and her lovely children.  We enjoyed the fresh air, scenery and sunshine and had a great time.  It was fabulous to meet a fellow Shropshire blogger!!  Freddy got on so well with his new friend, it was so nice to see them both playing with sticks, jumping in puddles and exploring the forest together.  My girls loved looking after all the little ones, chasing after them and holding their hands as they clambered down banks to paddle in the streams.  After a rainy wash-out of a half term, it was such a blessing to enjoy a day outdoors. 

Thanks to Roberts Bakery for a fantastic day!