Meat Free Monday - Sausage Casserole

Hi guys. First of all apologies for being a bit MIA from the blogging world, but im back with posts written up for this week and ready to reply to comments etc.

I thought i would ease myself back in gently and do this Vegetarian sausage casserole for #MeatFreeMonday.

Ingredients

2 medium carrots

1 medium big onion

1 courgette

1 tin chopped tomato

1 tin baked beans

1 tin kidney beans

4 vegetarian sausages 

Serves 3-4 people

Start by softening the onions, carrots and courgettes for about 4minutes. While your doing this cook the vegetarian sausages according to the instructions on the pack.

Once they are soft without being brown and mushy add the kidney beans, stir in and leave for another minute.

Next add the tinned tomatoes, baked beans, a sprinkle of mixed herbs and give it all a good stir and leave to simmer gently until the sausages are done.

Once the sausages are done cut them up and add, stir in and serve :)

Mummys day biscuits

With mothers day fast approaching I thought I would share these cute mummys day biscuits that I made with the kiddies today :) They are really quick to make and lets face it, what mummy wouldn't swoon over some handmade biscuits from their little ones :)

Ingredients

100g (4oz) butter

50g (2oz) sugar

vanilla extract to taste

175g (6oz) plain flour

bottle top/1 teaspoon of milk

The good thing about this recipe is that it is very basic so you can add whatever flavourings you wish to them

Beat the butter and sugar together until you have a smooth yellow liquid.

Mix in the vanilla extra and flour and bring together, at the last minute add the milk to help bind and then leave in the fridge for 10 minutes

I then used a heart shape cutter for the little hearts and I got the boys to put their hands onto the biscuit dough whilst i cut out the shapes of their hands.

These are the biscuits after being baked in the over for approx 25mins.

I mixed some pink food colouring with some icing sugar and got the boys to decorate their biscuits

A biscuit wouldnt be complete without some chocolate sprinkles right? lol

These turnt out super cute and once dried can be popped into a clear bag with some ribbon tied around the top as a cute mothers day gift.

Our visit to the London Aquarium

I work as a nanny and the theme of the week for one of the little boys I look after was 'Sea Creatures". I was super excited when I found out and immediately planned a trip to the London aquarium. Ive been tons of times as im lucky enough to just live down the road from there and the children always love it. I find it quite therapeutic to.

Although I find the aquarium quite pricey I do thing it is a really nice day out for the kids. We went mid week so it was nice and quiet, weekends are a nightmare with ques to get in and then tons of people in a confined space (anxiety sufferers back away now). 

I took this snap of a shoal of fish as we got in there and it pretty much sets the scene for the rest of the trip. Tons of beautiful fish almost posing for pictures lol

Jellyfish are my favorite things to see at the aquarium. They just seem so elegant when they move and the colours are gorgeous. The change of colours really captured the childrens attention to.

Now I remember a time when I use to go to the aquarium as a youngster and was allowed if not encouraged to stroke the sting rays as the swam past in the open tank. But of course since that poor old ozzie incident, touching of the rays is strictly forbidden.

Freddie enjoyed pretending to be a sailor turning the big wheel and singing the pirate song lol

Who could resist getting some snaps of nemo and dory ai lol? Ok granted I probably was more excited than most of the children when we approached the nemo tank but hey ho :)

If you get the chance to go to the London aquarium I would really recommend it, you can spend hours in there, its peaceful (if you try and go midweek that is lol). The children really enjoyed themselves and have been speaking about the creatures they saw and what they enjoyed about their visit. There was a point when a fish almost looked like it was dancing for us in the tank and all of the kiddies couldnt stop chuckling it was a favorite part for one of the kiddies. Hope you enjoyed this post, if youve been let me know what you thought :)

We're going on a bear hunt ...

we're going to catch a big one, what a beautiful day...

Freddie is a big fan of the story 'We're going on a bear hunt' by Micheal Rosen & Helen Oxenbury. Its such a popular story among children & adults alike and I would highly recommend it. We woke up and decided to go on an adventure. Dean found us a new park to explore & we headed off to Coram Fields, which is about a 4 minute walk from Russel Square tube station (London). 

The park is amazing and we have decided we are going to try out a new park every week in London and shortlist our favorites for using in the summer lol. I might do a separate post on the park itself, it was such a good find and a lovely way to spend a rain free winters afternoon. 

Below are snippets from the story and our own take on the bear hunt classic

"Grass, long wavy grass! We can't go over it. We can't go under it! OH NO! We've got to go threw it! Swissy Swashy, Swishy Swashy"

   

"Mud, Thick oozy mud, We can't go over it. We can't go under it. OH NO! We've got to go threw it! Squelch Squerch, Squelch Squerch"

"A river, a deep cold river, We can't go over it. We can't go under it. OH NO! We've got to go threw it! Splish Splosh, Splish Splosh"

A forest, A big dark forest. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. OH NO! We've got to go threw it. Stumble trip, Stumble trip"

"A cave, a narrow gloomy, we can't go over it, we can't go under it. OH NO! We've got to go threw it. Tiptoe Tiptoe"

"WHAT'S THAT??!!"

One shiny wet nose, Two big furry ears, Two big goggly eyes.

ITS A BEAR!! 

Freddie really enjoyed doing the bear hunt, especially squelching threw all of the mud, and when he got to the bear he said

"The bears fast asleep, wake up bear"

A really cute spontaneous activity that ca be adapted in so many ways. If any of you other lovelies have done something similar please link it below in the comments section id love to see it x

Family day trip :)

A mouse took a stroll threw the deep dark wood ..

Freddie is Grufffalo crazy he absolutely loves it and has done from a very early age. So when I found out that it was on in the theatre in London I had to book tickets straight away! We have not long been back from the performance & it was so good, a must see for all Gruffalo fans big or small. The catchy songs were really cute and Freddies favorite character was the dancing mouse lol. Deans was the same but for me I had to go with the cockney Fox, come on now who wouldn't love a cockney fox lol.

Its a different take on the original with lots of singing and dancing but keeping to the original script and story line to, which is important I feel especially for the little ones following the story. The whole thing is performed by 3 actors all of which are amazing and play their roles really well. There were nice parts of audience participation and as the show lasts for an hour I found it perfect timing for my little one not to get to restless and fidgety.

Obviously we weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the performance but im going to share some pictures of our morning below :)

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After The Gruffalo we thought it would be nice to grab some lunch out and about and spotted the Rainforest Cafe across the road from the theatre. Ive heard lots of good things about it but also that the prices can be a bit steep, but with a discount ticket we got from the performance we went over anyway. Now i thought that it was amazing and we were very impressed with it. The staff were really friendly and the layout was amazing, the smells, sounds and decor shout realistic rainforest (of course as realistic as you can get in a London restaurant lol). Freddie enjoyed the way the animals move around at timed intervals and loved looking at the big fish tank, he wasn't to sure about the timed thunder storm enactments but soon got used to them.

Over all I thought it was a lovely experience and would defiantly revisit. I would recommend it for a nice different dining experience for families :)