We're having a Jelly Easter with Hartley's Jelly

Forget the chocolate this Easter and enjoy a lighter way to satisfy your sweet tooth with Hartley's Jelly.  It's easy to make jelly in an Easter themed mould to create eggs and bunnies that the kids will enjoy.

It's easy to make jelly in the microwave - I just put in the block and cover with cold water and then microwave for about a minute until melted.  Then I top it up with cold water to just under a pint. (Using sparkling water makes a lovely fizzy jelly when set!)

Pop it in the fridge until set, then release from the mould. If the jelly sticks run some hot water over the mould.

I was pretty impressed with my jelly bunny.  Unfortunately my eggs were not quite as good, but Freddy enjoyed them nevertheless!

I hope you all enjoy a really Happy Easter!

Hartleys sent me some jelly and moulds for this post.

Toy Story 4Kids Fruit Pots

Crosse and Blackwell's Toy Story 4Kids Fruit Pots are the perfect addition to lunchboxes.  Individual pots contain real fruit juice jelly containing pieces of fruit and provide one of your five a day.  They are free from artificial colours and preservatives, and are also suitable for vegetarians. Each pot features a Toy Story character: Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Rex, Bullseye or the Alien.  They even come with their own little foldable spoon making a convenient anytime, anywhere snack.

Freddy and Kizzy both enjoyed the fruity pots of jelly (and I may have enjoyed a Mandarin Jelly myself!)  The only hurdle we came across were that they are a bit tough to get into, so a child may struggle without some grown-up help, if having one in their school lunchbox.  The foldable spoon is a very clever addition that the kids thought was great.  

Each pot is packed with fruit pieces so fruit lovers will enjoy them very much.  The flavour is quite natural and not too sweet or at all synthetic tasting, which we liked.  They are priced at 65p each.

They come in six fruity flavours:

Apple Pieces in Raspberry Jelly

Mandarin Segments in Mandarin Jelly

Mixed Fruit in Strawberry Jelly

Peach Pieces in Peach Jelly

Peach Pieces in Strawberry Jelly

Pineapple Pieces in Pineapple Jelly

Find out more at www.crosseandblackwell.co.uk/our-pantry/4kids/fruit-pots/

Gummy Bear Stars in his First Movie!

The Gummy Bear song is one of those catchy tunes that you can't get out of your head.  My 3 year old loves the song so when we received The Yummy Gummy Search for Santa DVD from Lionsgate, I anticipated that it would be a real winner (especially as we also received a super cool Jelly Mould with it which Freddy loved!)

This is the first time that internet sensation Gummy Bear has starred in a film and it is a non-stop dose of colourful, zany festive fun featuring plenty of laughs, music and dancing.

The story features Gummy Bear on a mission to find Santa and save Christmas for all the children in the world.  Assisted by his equally whacky and quirky friends Vam Piro, Kala and Harry, they head to the North Pole in a madcap search of Santa.  On their adventures they meet a strange dance-crazed alien which adds to their problems!  It's all a bit bonkers...Gummy is a Y-Front wearing, dummy sucking, green bear!  But this craziness held Freddy utterly captivated and he has watched it over and over. The film is filled with songs and dancing. Fred can now sing a lot of the songs (which are very Euro-pop influenced and are very catchy).  It makes him giggle (especially the bit with the alien on the dance mat!!)  and anything that makes the kids happy gets a thumbs up from me!

Music videos are included in the DVD extras so you can sing and dance to I am a Gummy Bear whenever the mood takes you!

Gummy Bear has also influenced us in a culinary way as we made our own lime green Gummy Bear jelly using the mould that we were sent.  Freddy loved making the jelly and filling the mould.  Unfortunately in his eagerness to see if the jelly was set, he dropped it upside down on the kitchen floor.  We scooped it up and put it back into the mould, but the slightly gritty, under set jelly was never quite the same again!!  But, much like this Gummy Bear film, it made us laugh!!

Gummy Bear's all singing and dancing film: The Yummy Gummy Search For Santa is currently on sale at Amazon for just £6.00.  It'll make a great stocking filler for young children and bring plenty of slightly crazy Christmas cheer to the festive season.