My Kitchen Story - what my kitchen means to me

The kitchen is often referred to as the heart of the home.  Others see it as the room that you are always found in at parties. For some it is the place to sit and natter with friends over a cup of tea.  But for me, my kitchen is the place where I do my best to keep my family healthy through the meals I cook. It's practical rather than cosy, and functional rather than being somewhere to socialise.  I may not enjoy too many evenings spent sipping G&T's at the breakfast bar and putting the world to rights, but I've done a whole lot of cooking in my kitchen!

We have been vegetarian as a family since the year 2000.  My eyes were opened to the old idiom 'you are what you eat' after researching the food industry for health reasons.  I discovered lots of things that I disagreed with from a compassionate, a spiritual and a biological point of view.  I was inspired to make changes, not just to myself, but to my whole family.  So we embarked on a new eating adventure together with open eyes, where our new mantra became 'if it's got a face we ain't eating it!'

With meat, poultry and fish off the menu, I started to find recipes using lentils, pulses, tofu, Quorn, soya and vegetables. I discovered a whole world of delicious ingredients and enjoyed experimenting with them to come up with my own family meals.

As the years went by, my interest in food and healthy eating increased.  We cut back on dairy products, increased the amount of wholefoods in our diet and reduced the amount of refined sugar we consumed. Don't get me wrong, we still enjoy a cheeky Indian takeaway or a big, veggie topped pizza and we love a good home made cake, but on a balance we do the best we can to eat as well as we can. It's not restricting to eat this way. In fact it's been liberating to discover new foods and experiment with wholesome ingredients and bold flavours.

My slow cooker, food processor and spiralizer have become essential kitchen appliances that I use all the time to make food. I love a good gadget and kitchen gadgets are my absolute favourite things. I even have a fondness for my squeezy egg separator that sucks the yolk clean out of the white. I could spend all day browsing the internet for the latest time saving device or humorously shaped silicone cake pan!

These days my cupboards are stocked with red and green lentils, coconut oil, Chia seeds, nuts, dried pulses, buckwheat flour and nutritional yeast flakes.  They are unrecognisable from my shelves of yesteryear,  filled with HobNobs, Pringles and KitKat Chunkies.

There are still some days when I just feel utterly unmotivated to do anything and these are the days when I am grateful for my American style fridge-freezer which I keep stocked with Quorn nuggets, veggie sausages and bean burgers. A bit of convenience food comes in handy from time to time!  Throw in some potato waffles and a can of beans and the kids are fed for the night.

If I ever won the lottery (I can dream!!) I would love a house with a huge, modern kitchen with an island in the middle where the family could sit and chat and where I could spread myself out while preparing food.  I'd have cupboards filled with fancy kitchen gadgets, novelty bakeware and gorgeous crockery. I'd spend many an hour cooking and baking and would serve up plenty of good meals and yummy treats for my family. Of course I would also love the convenience of having a huge and super efficient new dishwasher to clean up all the pots and pans, with Fairy Platinum dishwasher tablets effortlessly keeping everything sparkling clean.  (Failing that, my Ian is an excellent and very accommodating pot wash!)

In the meantime, until my six numbers come up on a Saturday night, I will continue to enjoy my kitchen exactly as it is, and continue to do my best when it comes to feeding my veggie family!

“This post is an entry for the “My Kitchen Story” Linky Challenge, sponsored by Fairy Platinum.”

Do You Believe in Fairies? - Meet the Flying Fairy by Flutterbye

This Christmas, the Argos Gift Guide has an exciting new feature; BlippAR technology to showcase some of its top products such as the Flutterbye Flying Fairy and Furby.  For the first time, it contains blipp-able images, which are brought to life using the BlippAR app on your smartphone.  Simply by viewing the page through your phone, you can see some of this year's most wanted gift ideas in all their glory, using augmented reality, so you can find out more about the things you want before you commit to buy.  You can watch demos, get a moveable 3D image or buy direct through the app.  Plus there is a competition, games and other fun interactive activities accessed through the BlippAR app.  Pick up a copy of their gift guide in store, download the free app and join in the festive fun!

One of this year's predicted top toys for Christmas, and one that is showcased using the BlippAR app, is the Flying Fairy from Flutterbye.  We were sent a Flying Fairy from Argos for Kizzy to try out.  The pretty fairy comes with a charging station (which takes 6 AA batteries) and is charged up via a small cable ready for launching.  

When the button on the front is pressed, the Flying Fairy's skirt and wings spin round causing her to take off and fly.  It is very impressive to see her flying around the room.  You can bring her in to land by pressing the button on the charger and catching her by the legs.  

Controlling your fairy does take a little getting used to.  She can sometimes be a little erratic and you may find yourself chasing her around trying to get your hand underneath her to guide her.  She is a little noisy when she flies, as her skirt whirrs around at great speed.  She may even crash now and then if you don't catch her mid-flight.  But, she is massively entertaining and a whole lot of fun.  The novelty value of having a fairy toy that genuinely flies is huge and playing with her is quite addictive...even for the grown-ups!  

I can see the Flying Fairy providing a great deal of fun this Christmas.  We found that the fairy, once charged,  had a good amount of fly time and actually became easier to control with each flight.  (She is a bit frisky on her first, fully charged flight so be ready in case she shoots straight up to the ceiling!)  Younger children would benefit from some adult supervision as they get to grips with the toy.  It is important that the skirt and wings are aligned and that there is no draught which will affect the flight.  Controlling the flight is part of the fun, and if done properly is very impressive.  It is an enchanting toy that will be enjoyed and will bring a lot of fun to kids this Christmas.  It is a real novelty toy with the added bonus that it will look lovely displayed on a shelf when not in use, as the charger doubles up as an attractive stand for the doll.

Argos have the Flying Fairy toys for £29.99 (at the time of publishing this post): Flying Fairy at Argos!

Take a look at Kizzy's vlog including a demo of the BlippAR and a demo of how to use the Flying Fairy.

                              

Reading as part of the Bedtime Routine

Fairy Non-Bio, with the help of Timmy Time, have come together to discuss the importance of reading to your little ones at bed time to help them sleep.

According to new research commissioned by Fairy, 8 out of 10 mums read to their children every night at bedtime.  The survey of 1,000 UK mums (with children aged up to seven) took an in-depth look at bedtime routines.  Whilst dads are playing a much bigger role in parenting, this research uncovered that bedtime is still mostly the woman's domain. (Although in my house Daddy is solely in charge of bed times and gets Freddy off to bed every night.  He still enjoys sharing a book with him at bedtime though!)

Working Mums Make Bedtime Work

61% of working mums said that they have to rush through the routine in order to get their child into bed on time, but that bedtime reading remains a priority for them. In fact, 16% of mums would shorten bath time in order to have time to read with the average amount of time spent reading to their children being 11 minutes.

Reading clearly plays a key role in establishing successful bedtime routines and is helpful when settling down children for the night. Other reasons given for reading to kids at bedtime include aiding their development, encouraging an interest in books and bonding with children.

Bedtime Routine: Successful or Stressful?

35% of parents said that their child tends to settle down quickly and easily most nights, with a further 43% saying this is the case 3 or 4 nights of the week.  Unfortunately, bedtime isn't always easy and some parents struggle with the nightly routine. 1% of mums find this part of the day is stressful, and 2% admit to dreading bedtime.

Finding the right bedtime routine that works for both parent and child is important and incorporating reading is a great way of helping children to settle.  Snuggling up under a blanket and sharing a good book is a lovely, calming way to end the day.

Fairy's Timmy Time on pack promotion

Fairy knows how important reading is - it is an important step in a child’s development, boosting speech and vocabulary and teaching essential literacy skills.

To encourage parents to read to their children, Fairy has renewed the partnership with Timmy Time, which includes an on-pack promotion offering a free bedtime book with every purchase of Fairy Non Bio or Fabric Softener.  The colourful paperbacks featuring  Timmy's Bedtime Tales are perfect for reading together.

You and your little one can share the exciting adventures of Timmy, the little lamb with a lot to learn! 

For more information on Fairy visit www.softeningyourworld.com or for more information on Fairy partnership with Timmy Time please visit www.timmytime.tv/fairy

The Fairy range is proud to have been reviewed by Allergy UK and awarded their British Allergy Foundation Seal of Approval.

We have been sent some Fairy Gel and Timmy Time books from Fairy.

I Do Believe in Fairies!

My daughter loves fairies, and if they are pink and sparkly she likes them even more.  So when I was contacted by Fairies & Friends, the new site which indulges every little girls' love of  all things fairy related, pink and sparkly, Kizzy couldn't wait to take a look.

From fairy dresses to toys, games, tents, nightwear, party ware, stationery, dolls and playhouses, they sell everything to delight fairy fans.  Each piece is chosen to indulge children's natural enthusiasm for imaginative play, and captures the wonder and enchantment of the magical world of fairies.

The site itself is a pleasure to explore with so many lovely products arranged under headings such as Bedtime, Fairy Fashion and Party Supplies.  Items range form pocket money sticker sets to the most glorious, sumptuous Rose Pavillion playhouse.

Kizzy was over the moon to be sent a pair of  White Cotton Fairy Pyjamas to try.   They arrived really quickly, wrapped in pink tissue making them look very special indeed.  The pyjamas are made of white dotted Swiss cotton.  The body has gorgeous pink fairy embroidery and a lace edged handkerchief hemline.  The 3/4 length trousers have a cotton frill.  Kizzy fell in love with them. 

The quality is lovely and the attention to detail is fabulous.  I love the delicate fairy design and the hemline is just so girly!  We are off  on holiday for a few days and so we are saving it for Kizzy to wear then.  I'll post some photos when we get back!

They retail for £18 and are available in sizes from 18-24 months to 8-10 years.  Postage and Packing is free on orders over £40.

Check out this wonderful website at fairiesandfriends.co.uk.

Put some sparkle back into your life!!