The Veg Risotto ALL Children Love

A while back I shared our secret pasta sauce recipe that guarantees even the most veg phobic child will eat their spinach, broccoli, cabbage etc.

This risotto recipe is another fave in which veg can be hidden whilst still being great for grown ups.

We don't make it as often as the pasta as - let's be honest - risotto is a tad fiddly.

But the peas, asparagus and broad beans finally appearing in the green grocers are crying out for a lovely, buttery risotto.

If you have a child like mine who will never knowingly eat a whole piece of vegetable and hates "bits" in her food this could present a problem, but this risotto is certified bit free for fussy eaters.

The recipe is basically a simple risotto adapted from one of my favourite cook's Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. It just takes a few extra minutes to make it "veg hater" friendly.

30 Easy Health Tips All New Mums Need

Those first few days - or rather weeks - were an exhausted blur.

Getting out of the house was a major achievement.

And that was before all the curved balls motherhood pitches at you, whether it's poor milk supply, colic, reflux or the baby blues ...

They hit you so quick and then you're back footed into desperate attempts - aided by Dr Google - to "fix" the problem.

The truth is, a lot of the health issues mum & baby face can be prevented & reduced by some simple lifestyle changes from before, or soon as, baby is born.

The Friday Baby Shower #14

Welcome to the Friday Baby Shower - the party for bumps and babies ...

As always you can link up recent posts plus old posts on the weekly theme which this week is if you don't laugh ...  ... for all these moments when humour is the only thing keeping you from tears!

PLUS this week we have an exciting new FAB FAVES link up ... which lets you add an affiliate link to a list of our favourite products ... the first topic is the one baby product I couldn't survive without ...

Remember you can link up on previous themes including breast feeding and birth stories at the Mommy Archive and if you haven't already add yourself to the baby blogger directory ...

Last Week's Faves

Thank you so much for all your contributions last week ... so fab as always!

These were just a few of my faves ...

• The challenges of autoimmune-neutropenia My Life of Travels & Adventures
• A heart felt post on separation from her new born daughter Really Rachel
• Tips for getting some sleep from A Mom in the Making
• Great tips on surviving motherhood from Sew Crafty Angel
• A lovely idea for a sensory tub from Seedlings Nursery

50 Wonderful Ways with Play Dough

My mum is old school about play dough.

Based on long years as a play group leader, her advice to me is always that whatever else you do to it, make lots of it.

And when she says lots of dough, she means a 3lb bag of flour's worth!

I do think she's on to something.

A 31b wodge of plain, no frills, no cook dough kept 3 three year olds entertained for ages on Sunday without any squabbling over who had most dough.

Whilst quantity is important there are also so many wonderful, wonderful ways to enjoy play dough ...

Brilliant Baking Bloggers

I grew up learning to bake from my mum's Be-Ro Home Recipes - a slender volume still going strong 70 odd years after first printed.

And if Be-Ro failed us there was always my Gran's fabulously named Radiation Cookbook.

Eventually, my mum added another classic - The Good Housekeeping Cookbook - to her repertoire, but we basically made lots of traditional English cakes. Meringues was about as fancy as we got.

Empty Your Archive #8

Welcome to Empty Your Archive - the link up where your fab old posts get to PARTY!

I've got something new this week that I think you will love! Keep reading to find out more ...

A Few Favourites ...

These are just a few of my faves from all of last week's wonderful posts ....

• A simple but effective kitchen make under from 1 Minute Bible Love Notes
• Yummy slow cooker chilli from Bear and Lion Mama
• Fab tips for feeding fussy toddlers from More Fun Mum
• Accidentally Kle shows you can have fun in the bath ... even without water
• A wonderful printable from Framed Frosting that really lifted my spirit..

Explore Really Big Numbers with an Abacus

1, 2, 3, 4 ... you can't help but be proud when your child first repeat the numbers 1 to 10.

And once they've got those, it's very tempting to "teach" them up to 20 and onward.

I think a great next step is really BIG numbers.

Not 21, 22, 23 but 30, 40, 50 to 100 and then 200, 300, 400 to 1,000. And once they've got those some really big multi-stage addition!