I was invited along with Lil H and Baby G to Stockley Farm by Nutella during February half term - Nutella, Stockley Farm and Child Care during half term … you had me at Nutella!  The whet our appetites literally Nutella sent us us an amazing basket of breads and a jar of Nutella. 

We arrived and Lil H was off with his blogging posse from previous events enjoying a morning of party games and goat racing.  Mummies, daddies and the babies and toddlers settled down to discuss the challenges of feeding little people nutrious balanced diets.  Things we discussed:

• A love of eating Nutella with just a spoon
• A love of eating Nutella with just your finger (come on, I am not the only one that does this!)
• Nutella is NOT a chocolate spread
• Nutella is a HAZLENUT spread (the clue is in the name NUTella – I was shocked too!)
• Is Nutella bad for you
• Is Nutella good for you
• Ways of handling childrens eating challenges

My take on the session was that Nutella is better than some breakfast options, worse than others.  If it is a vehicle to get a child to eat wholemeal toast rather than white bread toast then that is a better dietary choice.  Kate over at The Five F’s Blog wrote a great and very thorough post about the nutritional content of Nutella definately worth a read.  Its not chocolate spread – that was news to me I’ll be honest, in fact there’s only a dash of cocoa in a 15g portion and its the hazlenuts which are the dominant flavour and give Nutella its colour.  Be honest didn’t you think it was chocolate spread?  I stand corrected! 

You can make loads of lovely things for breakfast with it not just spread it on toast.  We made smoothies, here is Lil H putting the PR and his very lovely “I have this because I don’t have children” suit through its paces!  Thanks for all your help Scott x

Here’s the receipe for Nutella Super Smoothie if you want to have a go yourself, it will serve 6-8 depending on glass size.

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp nutella
• 1 large pot (500g) low-fat vanilla yogurt
• 110ml skimmed milk
• 568ml/1 pint mixed fruit, frozen (tip into measuring jug)
• 1 large banana, cut into 2.5cm/1-inch pieces

Method

1. Put all ingredients in a blender or put into bowl if using hand held blender and purée for 2 minutes or until smooth.
2. Pour into glasses. Garnish with fresh berries.

Tip: experiment with different fruit such as an exotic mix or mixed berries

We also made very delicious nutella breakfast roll ups which are a tortilla wrap spread with nutella, rolled around a banana which is then cut into thick disks – yum!  Replacing the tortilla wrap with pancakes was how was ate ours on Shrove Tuesday – nom, nom nom!   My personal recommendation is to stir a teaspoon into a milky coffee for a hazlenut latte start to the morning. 

Then we were off out to meet the animals, enjoy the great adventure playground and enjoy a tractor ride to finish off our day down on the farm.

We were so lucky with the weather, it was seriously the best day of the year we’d had so far and we had a great day.  Thank you so much to Nutella for putting on a great event and Stockley Farm for hosting – we had a brilliant day.

We spent the day with familiar and new friends who blog.  You can read their posts about Nutella and the day on the links below:

Here’s my entry to week 50 of Tara’s The Gallery over at Sticky Fingers where the theme is trees.

Lil H and I took this on Monday afternoon on a rare just Mummy and H walk home from pre-school vis the playground where we got to loll in the swing hammock together and watch the clouds in glorious spring sunshine.  On the way how we photographed each other, daffodils, pansies and the first tree blossoms of Springtime on a bright blue sunny sky. 

This picture was taken on a Sony Ericsson X10 Mini pro phone which I have been sent to review, it has a 5 megapixel camera which takes a great quality picture don’t you think?

We’re putting our house on the market. It’s no doubt going to be a roller coaster, in most cases it is, but it has started well.

We’ve had the estate agents round, they’ve valued our home, a bit Goldilocks stylie one too high, one too low and one just right. It’s was a bit chaotic trying to show the agents round with Lil H and Baby G but they did really well entertaining themselves… or so I thought.

Lil H was busy playing “unsuitable” the game Mr added and I regularly uninstall and based on the discussions had between us H refers to it now as “unsuitable” *sigh* Baby G was mooching about watching a cat stalking birds in the garden … or so I thought.

Estate agent: … I’ll put everything in writing & we’ll speak next week
Me: great thank you, I’ll discuss with Mr L & be in touch
Estate agent: *turns & walks to car*
Me: *GASP*

My daughter had chalked all over the back of his black wool coat. I said nothing. Baby G had graffiti tagged most of the living room with chalk. It will brush off – right?

Mortified! Claire x

This arrived in my inbox from my best friend Carrie, here’s what you’re supposed to do, simply answer the questions, send it back and send it onwards. I did was just about to hit reply and I though “that would make a great meme” and so the “three by nine” meme is born!

Simply post your answers and tag your blogging buddies and learn a little something new about each other, so here you go:

Three names I go by:   Claire, Clara, Cheshire Claire
Three places I’ve lived:   Wilmslow, London, California
Three places I’ve worked:   Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Ogilvy, De Vere
Three things I love to watch:   My Children, my weight, my Twitterstream
Three places I have been & love:   Barbados, New York, Yosemite
Three people that email me regularly:   Sarah Walters, my mum, PR’s!
Three things I love to eat:   Chocolate, Twiglets, Shropshire Blue Cheese
Three people I think will respond:   Amy, Kate, Bec
Three things I am looking forward to:   Naming day, holiday in Cornwall & moving

I’d love to read a “three by nine” meme post by:
Kate, Bec, Amy, Sarah, Nova, Sian, Alan and anyone who would like to share.

It’s pancake day and across the UK frying pans will be heating, batter will be made, some will be ruined, others successfully tossed, fillings will be piled on and fun will be had.  But … they wouldn’t taste very nice without the egg would they?  They wouldn’t be pancakes, would they? 

I was going to post our favourite receipes for fillings and then last week I heard a radio interview with a mother talking about how she has to send her child to school with pancakes made of just flour and waterbecause she can’t afford the egg or milk.  This family doesn’t live in Africa, they live in Manchester.  Please just spare a moments thought for the 1.6 million children in the UK that live in severe poverty, getting by on less than £134 per week.  That made me want to dedicate this post to all those who eat pancakes because they are cheap not because its pancake day.  All those who eat pancakes made from just flour and water where ever they are in the world because they have no choice. 

Are we having pancakes?  Yes we are and yes we are putting an egg in the batter.  In fact we are filling them most probably with ham, cheese & spinach then nutella, banana & ice-cream pancakes for dessert.  I am also giving time to reminding others that there remains a severe child poverty issue here in the UK.  If you want to do the same with your pancake post that would be amazing too, feel free to use this content with my pleasure. 

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No child is born to die, but 8 million lose their lives needlessly every year. You can help at www.savethechildren.org.uk/bornto