Toby's First Time At Creche

Hello! We've had a busy morning over here - I'm exhausted now!

I set my alarm for half an hour earlier than usual this morning so that I'd have plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast before the school run. An unpictured skimmed latte plus a bowl of granola, yoghurt and strawberries:

This bowl looks a lot smaller than it was - there was more granola & yoghurt hidden under the strawberries!

After we took Izzy to school, Toby and I picked up my sister, Sarah, and drove to a sports centre about half an hour away from us. Me driving in itself was a big deal as I don't drive very often and don't have a lot of confidence. Sarah parked for me when we got to the sports centre as the car park was really busy, but apart from that the drive went fine. More important than that though...when we got there Toby went for his first ever childcare session!!

The gym/swimming pool in the town I live in don't have a creche which is a shame, but this sports centre is also included in my gym membership and for only £1.20 for a 2 hour session, Toby can be looked after while I exercise. Brilliant! As soon as we arrived at the creche, Toby ran straight in and immediately started playing, so when he still hadn't looked my way once in the 10 minutes I spent filling in forms and chatting to the staff, I made the decision to leave without saying goodbye (sob!) so as not to upset him. I was definitely way more emotional about our "first proper separation" than he was!!!!

Happy that he was being well looked after and that they would put a call out for me if there were any problems, Sarah and I headed to the gym. I did 20 minutes on the cross trainer and then spent about 20 minutes on the different weight machines before finishing off with some ab exercises and stretching. We then headed over to the swimming pool and swam 30 lengths (half breast stroke, half front crawl) in just under 25 minutes. We had to cut our swim slightly short as it was time to go and pick up this little guy...

Trying to smile whilst actually munching on a piece of bread - he's not actually worried as he looks!

I was so pleased/relieved to hear that he'd had a great time. Lots of playing, no crying, apparently he'd asked "where's mama?" a few times but had been happy with the response that I was swimming. Asking where people are is his current "thing" anyway - I spend most of that day telling him where Izzy & Liam are! The creche seemed really nice - there were three other little boys there while Toby was there, and two staff members. My sister is off work again next week (before starting a new job the following week) so we are going to go over again one day next week and then after that I will have to drive over on my own (eek!). It is great for Toby to have a chance to spend some time away from me, and also nice for me to be able to exercise during the day - win win!

By the time I got home I was absolutely starving! I quickly gave Toby some lunch and put him down for a nap, and then I made myself a bagel with mashed (very ripe) avocado and Munchy seeds:

This was amazing! I inhaled the first half because I was so hungry, and then slowed down to appreciate the second half. Such a great combination. I love it when an avocado is perfectly ripe, and the fluffy bagel and savoury seeds went perfectly with it! Yum.

You'd think that a 530 calorie lunch would satisfy me, but I was still feeling a little hungry. I had some water and waited half an hour, and then had "dessert" of Total 0% Greek yoghurt mixed with cocoa powder and agave nectar:

Please excuse the messy mixed-in bowl!

I love this for a quick sweet treat - almost like eating a light version of chocolate frosting! I have such a sweet tooth that my mind often doesn't think a meal is complete until I've eaten something sweet, so things like this are a good solution.

And now there is only half an hour left until we need to go pick Izzy up from school. Toby is still fast asleep so I'm going to have to wake him in a bit - all that playing tired him out! Today has gone really quickly, but in a good way - it's been fun! :)

Those of you have children, can you remember when you first took them to childcare? Did you feel emotional?? Izzy went to nursery from when she was 6 weeks old, and then a childminder from when she was 2, before going to pre-school aged 3.5. I remember feeling a bit anxious/tearful each time, but I soon realised that she was happy and let her get on with it. She's always been used to being around lots of different people, so is very confident in that respect. Toby, on the other hand, hardly ever leaves my side! He was 2 back in January and I think the only time we've left him is for one night for our birthday last May, and then for our honeymoon last July. Both times were with family though so I was a bit worried how he was going to react being left with people he didn't know today. He did great though, and I now feeling much happier taking him there again. Phew! :)

Do you prefer exercising in the daytime or the evening? Which do you do most often? I definitely prefer exercising in the daytime, but unfortunately this isn't usually possible. Our local gym and swimming pool don't open until 7am, and Liam leaves for work at 7.15am so that's no good. He then doesn't get home until 6.30pm so if I want to exercise it has to be in the cold, dark (!) evenings. I'm hoping it will be easier in the summer, but for now exercising once or twice a week - either at the weekends or by putting Toby in creche once a week - is a good compromise. Then I'll see if I can muster up extra motivation for an evening workout or two!

WIAW - Gingerbread Loving!

Good Morning! Happy What I Ate Wednesday! Wednesday seems to have come round so quickly this week!





Thanks as always to Jenn, it's so nice to be able to see what everyone is eating once a week - the link-up is such a great idea! :)

Today post is based on Monday as usual, for some reason I always seem to struggle with taking photos on Tuesdays - indeed, yesterday I only managed to take photos of two things!

I don't know about you, but I always struggle to get back into the weekday routine on Mondays. I'm lucky that I can come home after the school run, so I don't need to worry about eating breakfast before we rush out of the house. I did find time for a coffee though - a skinny latte with lots of white chocolate syrup:

Whittards were sold out of gingerbread syrup when I went in on Saturday. We don't have a shop particularly close to us so I bought a white chocolate syrup to keep me going, but it is (obviously) not the same. It just tastes sweet and confuses me as it hides the taste of the coffee and makes the drink more like a super sweet, not very chocolatey hot chocolate. Boo, I should have just bought vanilla syrup. I miss the sweet spiciness of gingerbread!

After I got home from dropping Izzy at school, I had planned to eat a proper breakfast. That didn't seem to happen though...instead, this did:

Liam bought me this big, 600g bag of lebkuchen from Lidl on Sunday (I checked - no gelatine - but thanks for the potential warning Maria!) and Izzy and I have already finished them! We ate loads on Sunday and she's been taking three in her lunchbox as her "treat", yum!

We like the white ones best, and the white stripey ones (of which there none left by Monday morning!) so when I saw a bag of just white and white stripey ones in Lidl yesterday morning, I had to buy them! I've managed not to open them yet though...only a matter of time!! I can't decide whether I prefer these or the dark chocolate covered, apricot jam filled ones. I love the crunchy icing on these, but then I love the other ones...a nice dilemma to have!! Last Christmas I only ate the chocolate apricot ones, so I'm glad I have branched out more this year! :)

Anyway, back to Monday! After "breakfast", I went in to the kitchen to make Liam some cheese and chive muffins (he takes two to work each morning for breakfast). It only takes five minutes max to make these, but when I came to check on Toby after putting them in the oven, I found this:

Awww! He carried on sleeping while I changed his nappy and put him into his cot, and then slept until 2pm!

The cheese muffins looked fantastic when they came out of the oven! I managed to resist having any on Monday, but did have one for lunch yesterday. Oops, I'll have to make some more muffins some time this week or Liam wont have enough come Monday morning - we always forget to make them on Sundays!

Lunch was therefore a late one. I'd forgotten to put sweet potatoes in the oven so I cooked up some fresh pasta instead. Ready in 2 minutes = my kind of meal. This was spinach and ricotta fresh tortellini, with ketchup and cheddar...just like my Mum used to do! :)

I love this, such a simple but tasty meal. My portion size was perhaps a bit too big though - the pack is meant to serve two and I was only sharing with a 23 month-old...he does love his pasta, but he didn't eat quite as much as me!!

*Newsflash of the post* - I went to the gym on Monday night! I reckon I hadn't been (or done any other exercise) for about 3 weeks, oops! I didn't work as hard as I could have done, but I reckon an hour at the gym, even only at moderate level, is better than an hour at home eating chocolate!

Chocolate was eaten when I got home though - mashed banana porridge with some dark chocolate salted caramels stirred through...

...served in an almost empty Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter jar:

Mmm, this made dragging myself out in the cold to the gym worth it! I adored the Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter (may have to order another jar soon) and the salty caramels mixed with the sweet banana porridge was perfect! For some reason I haven't been eating that much porridge recently. Last winter I ate it every day, but I suppose it hasn't been quite so cold this year. Well, yet anyway, I'm sure I'll be eating porridge regularly soon enough!

As we're nearly in December (and past Thanksgiving for my American readers)...what are your favourite Christmassy treats? I'm not sure I'd even had lebkuchen before Christmas 2010, but it is fast becoming a favourite! I also love stollen, but my local Lidl have stopped selling the mini ones, much to my dismay, and I haven't got round to making it myself yet! Nearer to the big day I will also start eating lots of my Mum's homemade mince pies with lots of brandy butter, mmm! The shop-bought ones just don't live up to Mum's...maybe I should actually try making my own this year so I can have a constant supply! :-D Unfortunately Liam doesn't like any of the things I've just mentioned, which puts me off making them a bit. I've mentioned before that his family eat chocolate cake on Christmas Day instead of Christmas cake/pudding as a lot of them don't like dried fruit...I'm not sure I'll convert him on this one very easily!! ;-(

Making the most of the sunshine...

So, despite the sudocrem incident this morning, today has actually turned out to be a really great day! :) When baby woke up from his nap, I decided we needed to get out of the house and make the most of the lovely sunshine!

We went for a walk along by the river...

stopped off at the park for baby to stretch his legs and go on the swing and slide...



before heading on to the seafront...

it was so nice that I decided to buy some lunch to eat on one of the (many!) benches. I had a red pepper wrap filled with falafel, houmous and salad...

and baby had my leftovers plus some dried fruit!

The wrap was nice, but quite stodgy, I'm glad the guy remembered (at the last minute!) to ask me if I wanted any salad in it! It would've been nice with sliced peppers too, but they didn't have any.

I can't complain when I got to eat with this view though...

I'm loving the weather the last few days :) it's still cold, but so nice to see the sun a bit more often!

After lunch, we had a quick wander through town before heading home...

where baby immediately fell asleep...fresh air = tired baby!

Which meant I got to enjoy a coffee in peace, yey!

Not quite the coffee whilst sitting outside a seafront cafe that I would've loved (not a good idea with a bulky pushchair to manoeuvre and only me to carry drinks!), but a coffee in peace nonetheless...

Delish! :)

I also had a Geo Bar mid-afternoon to "fuel me" before the gym (any excuse to eat!!)...

I really like these, not the healthiest (full of sugar!) but nice and chewy...a good treat.

Later this afternoon I went to the gym with my Mum, it was nice & quiet when we got there but got so busy by the time we left! I did 50 minutes cardio, plus 10 minutes arm cycle and some leg weight machines...pretty standard except I didn't get a chance to do any free weights as the tiny weights area was so crowded, and I would've gone back on the cross trainer (12 minutes max when busy so couldn't do my usual 20 minutes) but they were both constantly busy too. Ah well, still a good work-out.

I got home to find that yes, Liam had bathed the children without being asked, but no, he hadn't put dinner on as he'd lost track of time! So a quick change of plan, dinner was rice fried with eggs and frozen veg...

topped with grated cheese...

a throw-back to my student days when I used to think that buying a tub of ready meal egg fried rice then grating some cheese on top was "cooking"!! This was really good though, nice and simple but by the time it was ready I didn't care - I was starving - the downside of cooking your own brown rice instead of using a ready meal is it takes so much longer!!

Today has been a really good day! Not what I was expecting after such a bad start - the treat bowl of cocoa porridge was obviously a good idea to turn the day around!! That and the sunshine definitely helps, makes me feel so much happier! :)

Re-vamped apricot & almond flapjacks, take 2

I started off today with a great gym workout. There were only 2 other people max in there at any time, woohoo. I did 45 minutes cardio (rowing, cross trainer, wave) and then some free weights arm exercises using 4kg weights (I usually use 2.5kg so this is good for me!) and some leg weight machines.

By the time I walked home, showered etc it was almost 11am, so I kept breakfast light. I picked up some kiwis on offer in Lidl the other day - they don't have a furry skin and they have golden flesh...

they look so vibrant! I will enjoy one whole soon, but these were chucked in the blender with half a banana and an apple...

plus a little leftover kale, some milk and a pinch of xanthan gum...

whilst this was blending, my daughter asked what colour it would be. She thought green, I thought yellow, we were both kinda wrong. This was a creamy colour with flecks, not really thick enough - very foamy!

despite the fact that the bowl was pretty full, I topped it with a packet of Bear tropical granola...

Those arms you can see in the background? That's my daughter, waiting not so patiently for me to finish. She likes me to save her the last few spoonfuls, making sure there's still some "crunchy" bits left...what can I say, the girl's got good taste! She's also never not hungry - she'd already had a me-sized bowl of banana porridge topped with almonds & golden syrup while I was at the gym, and she was already by this time asking what was for lunch & dinner. Ooops, not such a good habit of mine to pick up!

Lunch time soon came around though. I try to cook a slightly bigger lunch on Fridays as Liam has work in the afternoon/evening. Today I made a frittata using 6 eggs mixed with frozen broad beans and sweetcorn...

topped with baby spinach and goat's cheese (I'm loving this combo!)...

before grilling to finish it off...

Served with a blob of ketchup (and bread rolls for the others)...not the prettiest meal but delicious nonetheless...

I love having a warm lunch, so much more filling and interesting than a sandwich! (although some sandwiches can be delicious too of course!)

This afternoon I did some baking. First off, flapjacks. After making my Mum some healthier apricot & almond flapjacks a couple of weeks ago, she asked me to make her another batch with a few adjustments. This time I did x1.5 of the recipe to fill the pan, added some sultanas and substituted the molasses with honey, using slightly more honey and slightly less apricot fruit spread than the original version.

These turned out really good so I'll write down the recipe for me to follow again!

Apricot and Almond Flapjacks
(makes 12)

• 225g butter
• 120g apricot fruit spread
• 90g honey
• 275g porridge oats
• 100g apricots, chopped
• 30g sultanas
• 45g almonds, chopped

 Same method as before. For a more detailed step-by-step method see the original recipe post, but briefly - melt the butter, apricot spread and honey in the microwave/in a pan. Then stir in all the other ingredients, this time I had the help of a toddler to stir the mix...

this is what they looked like before going into the oven at 175C...

and 25 minutes later...

Mum let us keep one to try...

before taking the rest home with her...

Verdict: nicer than the molasses version (which had a slight tang/aftertaste) but still soft & crumbly rather than the soft & sticky I was after. Mum loved them though, she likes the subtle sweetness so I think a sticky version would probably be too sweet for her. Next time I think I'd add slightly more sultanas too.

Whilst the flapjacks were baking, I got the blender out again to whizz up some of Katie's cocoa fudge babies. I made about half the amount of her original recipe, and used cashews instead of walnuts as that's what I had in - these were not planned at all, I read a reference to them earlier which jogged my memory that I wanted to give them a try!

I'm so glad I made these!

A little sticky to roll out but absolutely delicious! The only downside is that they're too easy to eat! I've eaten 6 today already! My Mum had one (and added them to the list of things she wants me to make her!), daughter had one and I've put the remaining 4 in the freezer to hopefully keep them safe from me until tomorrow at least! So chocolatey, these reminded me almost exactly of the chewy chocolate oat cookies I've been making recently, although a lot healthier without all the added white sugar obviously!

Luckily I managed to stop myself eating any more babies before I completely ruined my appetite for dinner! Simple roast butternut squash and red pepper...

topped with a big blob of sweet potato houmous...

Yum. I love roasted butternut squash, so glad I rediscovered it! & the sweet potato houmous is still lovely, almost all gone now, time to get thinking of other variations!

Smoked Tofu...

... is divine! But more on that later.

First up, exercise (I nearly forgot about this and jumped straight to breakfast!) Today I managed to get to the gym first thing (well, ok, after dropping daughter off at school at 9am...but before breakfast counts as first thing, right?!!) It was so much quieter than when I last went, only 3 other people in there, bliss! I warmed up with 10 minutes on the rowing machine, then did 20 minutes on the cross trainer, changing levels up and down every few minutes (is this like interval training or is that the wrong word?! I'm so clueless! Definitely made the work out harder though!) and then 10 minutes on the arm cycle machine before some free weights and stretches. Not the longest work out ever, but having not really eaten much since yesterday's big lunch. I was hungry!

So, home for breakfast. Porridge made with Kara coconut milk and frozen blueberries, topped with peanut butter and flaked coconut...

excuse the slightly grey colour...

this was really tasty! I didn't feel the need to add any extra sugar either which was a bonus considering my sweet tooth. Good start to the food-day :)

I didn't end up having lunch today. I'm not really sure why. A big dose of laziness really - because I went to the gym, I therefore had breakfast late, so wasn't hungry when Liam and baby had lunch, and then couldn't be bothered to make myself anything when I did get hungry later!

I had a huge latte mid-afternoon though, my new pear mug holds almost twice as much liquid as my normal mugs! One of the things we bought yesterday was some coffee syrups - caramel for Liam, cinnamon and gingerbread for me...

so I decided to try out the cinnamon one this afternoon...

when I smelt this syrup, it smelt way too strong, I can't remember what it reminded me of, but not overly pleasant! Weird because I love cinnamon. Luckily the taste was surprisingly mellow, providing sweetness more than anything, with just a hint of cinnamon. I like it :)

Having read about it on other blogs, I have been wanting to try smoked tofu for quite a while now, but the price has always put me off! Today was my lucky day though - my Mum asked me to make a couple of batches of cupcakes for guests she's got coming on Sunday, and as a thank you she bought me a pack of almond & sesame seed smoked tofu! :)

I did point her in the right direction, she's not psychic! Great present though - I get to enjoy it without the guilt of having spent yet more of the food budget on "my" foods!

I had half of it with tonight's dinner. Rice fried with egg, peas and sweetcorn, topped with the tofu that I had sliced and fried separately (mainly so I didn't have to share it!!)

This was gorgeous! I love egg fried rice as it is but the tofu made it extra special! A much firmer texture than the regular tofu I have bought previously that comes vacuum packed with liquid...this one, not surprisingly I suppose, was much firmer and less prone to falling apart! (that may just be my cooking with regular tofu though!) I love the nutty taste it had too, and no need to add extra sesame oil to the dish, bonus!

Do you like the new plate/bowl?? Another purchase yesterday, I also got small plates in purple and blue...yep, I've got to the stage of buying things based on the hope that they will look better in photos for my blog!! I always find white crockery catches the light really badly. Also, how long can I store the other half of the tofu for? It's currently in the fridge, still in its (now open) vacuum pack, and also in a sandwich bag to try to keep the air out...

To make up for my lack of lunch, I treated myself to a portion of Jemma's chocolate pudding again tonight...I love this! It was also great motivation as well - normally I just slump on the sofa/in the bath on Friday nights when Liam's at work, but tonight I put the children to bed, whizzed up the pudding in the blender then tidied and did the washing up while it chilled in the fridge for an hour. Then it was time for my "reward"...

Delicious! I think I liked it even better tonight than the first time I made it! Slight changes - last time I used smooth peanut butter, whereas this time I used Meridian crunchy peanut butter...my blender obviously wasn't given enough time to work it's magic as there was still the odd peanut bit in it, worked really well and gave a bit of variety to the texture! I also put it in the fridge with cling film on it this time (no idea why!) so it didn't set as hard as last time, still rich and fudgy but with a more gooey texture to it...a perfect healthy but delicious treat! :)

Right, off to read my Kindle now, I love the peace of Friday nights to myself! Hope you're all having a good evening! :)