Domestic Quest – Little Man’s very own alphabet!

We have been working on setting up Little Man with his very own play area, the downstairs of our house isn’t very crawling baby safe or free flowing so we have had to section off the front room, but I wanted somewhere safe to pop LM while I hoover or cook, somewhere where he can play without me worrying about what he is up to. I will be posting more on this soon as we are nearly done. But one idea I had was that I wanted to block off the bottom of the radiator, when LM first started crawling he’d roll near it and almost hit his head on the underside, we had some MDF left over from his tree, so Hubs quickly cut it down to size and I hatched a plan to make LM his very own alphabet full of geekery. Much of the credit for how this turned out goes to Hubs, without his drawing skills, this would have just been a great idea very poorly executed!

First we decided on what each letter would stand for, then I painted the wood with a few coats of primer and some white silk paint, and then I got designing LM’s letters on Photoshop, using free fonts from DaFont to create letters that were similar in style to their theme.

We then printed the images onto paper and cut them out. Hubs then traced around the letters and freehand copied the detail, sometimes with incredible attention to detail!

We then began to paint each letter with acrylic paint:

 

When each letter was completed we outlined the detail with permanent marker.

We still need to seal the finished alphabet with some acrylic paint sealant to keep it wipe able to stop little hands getting it grubby, but we are so happy with how it has turned out, and LM loves it.

My favourites are P, F and Y!

          

Little Man’s Alphabet:

A is for Avengers

B is for Batman

C is for Cat in the Hat

D is for Disney

E is for Elephant

F is for Fish (One, Two, Red & Blue!)

G is for Gruffalo

H is for Harry Potter

I is for Isaac

J is for Jedi

K is for King

L is for Love

M is for Mickey Mouse

N is for Nemo

O is for Octopus

P is for Pooh Bear

Q is for Queen

R is for Rainbow

S is for Superman

T is for Tiger

U is for Umbrella (Yellow of course *HIMYM*)

V is for Very Hungry Caterpillar

W is for Where the Wild Things Are

X is for X-Men

Y is for Yoda

Z is for Zebra

 

Domestic Quest – Immunity Boosting Vegetable Muffins

Little Man has come down with his very first proper miserable cold, he’s had the sniffles before but not like this, he’s sleeping lots but understandably groggy and upset when he’s awake, so I wanted to make him some food to help bump his immune system so he can get back to playing and being his usual cheeky self soon.

I used a recipe from the amazing free PDF I have mentioned pinning in previous posts as a starting point and adapted it to include lots of Iron and Vitamin C containing veggies.

We are still keeping clear of eggs as we’ve not had a chance to see if he reacts again on a day when Hubs is home in case he does have a reaction, I’ve had mixed results with using flax seed as a substitute so today I decided to try using one of the Ella’s Kitchen purée pouches I have lying around. I’ve seen many recipes citing applesauce as an egg substitute so thought I’d give this a go.

Cheesy Super Vegetable Muffins – Makes 12 Muffins

3-4 Broccoli Florets
4 handfuls of Baby Spinach
6 Cherry Tomatoes (deseeded and chopped)
225g Self Raising Flour
100g Grated Mild Cheddar
175ml Whole Milk
55ml Olive Oil
1/2 Pouch of Ella’s Kitchen Spinach, Apple & Swede Purée (or 1 egg or applesauce)

Method
First preheat your oven to 200•c/180•c Fan, then:
1. Steam Broccoli and wilt spinach, then chop.
2. Mix chopped vegetables with flour and cheese.
3. Add in milk, oil and purée (or egg) and mix well until you have a lumpy thickish batter, adding a splash more milk and purée if you feel the mixture is too thick.
4. Separate into a lightly greased muffin tin and bake for 20-25mins.

The result is a lovely light and fluffy muffin packed full of goodness, the puree seemed to help it all hold together well. I think next time I will add in some spices and perhaps leave out the broccoli, add some courgette and use feta cheese, the recipe I started with really is a great base muffin recipe to experiment with.

They went down very well and will make a great on the go option. Here’s hoping the veggies give my little man the energy boost he needs!

 

Domestic Quest – BLW Cheesy Veggie Nuggets & Frozen Bananas

I’m on a roll! Cooked for Little Man again whilst he had his afternoon nap and this time it was appreciated much more than Thursdays Chickpea Patties.

On the menu tonight were Veggie Nuggets and Frozen Bananas for pudding. As mentioned before we are avoiding egg after a potential reaction a few weeks ago so I was happy to come across this egg free finger food recipe. This recipe is adapted from one in this incredible PDF which is available for free online, it is full of 100 recipes perfect for BLW. I adapted it slightly to include more veg, adding parsnip (little mans new fave) and carrot.

CHEESY VEGETABLE NUGGETS

4oz Fresh Brocolli

1 Parsnip Grated

1 carrot grated

6oz Cheddar Grated

4oz Dry Breadcrumbs (I used Panko as I had some left in the cupboard)

2 1/2 tbsp Water

2 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

METHOD

1 – Preheat the oven to 190 deg C – 170 deg C (fan) – 375 deg F

2 – Steam Broccoli until cooked (about 5-7mins). Chop well.

3 – Combine Broccoli along with other ingredients and mix.

4 – Form into nugget or sausage shape (whatever your little one can hold easiest) and place onto greaseproof paper on a baking tray.

5 – Bake for 20-25 mins. Serve Warm.

They came out really well and held their shape in LM’s hand. The sweetness of the parsnip was a really nice compliment to the Broccoli and Cheese, I think these will also be great for lunchboxes and picnics cold.

I served LM’s with some Cous Cous, and after his negative reaction to stronger flavours the other day, I mixed it with some greek yoghurt and cumin to try and get him used to stronger flavours, he loved the nuggets, but did not like the Cous Cous, must have been a new texture as I gave him some minus the dressing and he reacted the same way! I think next time I will try serving them with a tomato based dip and some chicken. In my bad mummy move of the day I had used all of the veg cooking so there was none to accompany his dinner, but he’d had fruit for breakfast, veg with his lunch, and he had fruit for dessert! Speaking of dessert….

He has bananas so much that I wanted to mix things up for him a little, and in the aforementioned PDF there is a very straight forward recipe for Frozen Bananas, cover fingers of Banana in Natural Yoghurt (can you tell I had some Yoghurt to shift!?) and then roll them in Wheatgerm, whack them in the freezer and a little while later you have some healthy Bluth Bananas fit for your little one. He loved them and devoured four bits, his reaction to the coldness was priceless but he really enjoyed them.

 

Domestic Quest – Baby Sensory Play – Musical Treasure Basket

I have pinned so many sensory play ideas on Pinterest and have really only tried out a few, now he’s getting older I want to start doing more with Little Man, my aim is to do something with a sensory aspect to it every day and try at least one new sensory play activity a week. So far this week we have played with Bubbles and experimented with some simple water play (water in a baking tray with milk bottle lids, rubber ducks and coloured ice cubes)

This week I have finally finished his second treasure basket.

I have read and pinned a lot about creating Treasure Baskets for little ones, mostly on The Imagination Tree and Paint On the Ceiling and when LM started sitting well at around 4 and a half months I made him a fabric treasure basket to explore, he has it out every few weeks and has a rummage. It has fabric scraps, bits of ribbon, felt, some knitted and crocheted pieces and a silk scarf which he loves to play peek-a-boo with.

I have been meaning to make him a musical treasure basket ever since and finally finished it this week. This basket has lots of things for Little Man to shake and touch. It has some bells, a wooden maraca, a small plastic maraca, a wooden frog clacker and a shiny plastic egg filled with hama beads to add a visual element for him. This was a instant hit as he caught his reflection, anything he can see himself in is always a hit.

He had a good look at all the items, gave them a shake, a gum and chew, put them back in the basket and tipped them out again and then spent a lot of time looking at and playing with the basket. He spent a good 15mins actively playing so I’ll take that! I will keep on the look out for more things to add to it and I’m now planning his next baskets!

 

What items do you put in you little ones treasure baskets?

 

 

 

 

Domestic Quest – BLW Chickpea Patties

So as mentioned a few posts ago, I am on a quest to become more domesticated and part of that is cooking at least two new meals a week to try as a family, Hubs is working late this week, so that gives me the perfect opportunity to try out some of the recipes I have pinned.

We are also battling a potential egg intolerance, Little Man had some omelette a few weeks ago, he’d had egg many times before and been fine, but this time after about 3 hours he was very sick for an hour and then a little groggy but fine, this has made us think it was potentially the egg, so we are steering clear for now, but most of the recipes I have pinned contain egg, we’ve tried flax seed as a replacement but not had great success. However this recipe for Chickpea Patties had no egg, minimal ingredients and seemed pretty straightforward, which is my kind of cooking!

I found the recipe over at Simple Bites and it was originally adapted from the BLW Cookbook, I didn’t include the garlic or the parsley as I didn’t have any.

 

They turned out great, I served them with Avocado (which went great with the lemon in the patties), Carrot and Cucumber, but Little Man wasn’t a big fan.

 

I think the onion, lemon and cumin were all new flavours and maybe a little overwhelming for him, but I will try again, maybe with slightly less lemon, as I really enjoyed them and they will make a great, low budget mid week meal with some cous cous and salad.

 

We finished the meal with Pear & Prune Fruit Preserve and Natural Yoghurt, he enjoyed that much more!

 

My Quest to become a Domesticated Mum!

The first word that people would use to describe me would definitely not be Domestic….creative maybe, lazy possibly, determined and prone to obsessing…definitely! So this is my quest…I am determined to become a better mother to my 7 month old little man and a better wife for my long suffering husband, using my current skills and trying to develop some more domesticated ones along the way.

I’ll be updating this blog mainly as a way to keep myself motivated, but also want to have some fun and discuss things that make us feel like we are doing a great job for our kids and also sometimes the things we wish we could be better at or even just little silly things that make you feel like you’ve had a rubbish day.

I think the bulk of my posts will be about the new food I’ve tried with LM, or the new sensory play that we have enjoyed and some of the more creative things that I do for my family, as even though these aren’t traditionally classed as motherly or parental duties, I think that creativity is so important and want LM to be super creative and imaginative growing up, plus it is the thing I enjoy most in the world and as a result I bring an enthusiasm to it that I just can’t apply to domesticity.

But nonetheless I am going to try hard to step out of my comfort zone both as a mother and a wife at least once a week, but hope for it to be more, some of the things may seem small, but so far each action has made me feel much better about my place in the parenting world, and after all that is what is important.

The quest I am setting myself is:

– To make at least two new meals a week and enjoy them with LM and Hubs. This is probably the biggest challenge for me as I really don’t enjoy cooking, baking I love, but cooking just stresses me out, I time things all wrong and get flustered, plus Hubs loves cooking so much that over time it has meant that he does most of the cooking in the house.

– To undertake play, particularly sensory play with LM every day and try at least one new activity a week. As an avid pinterester, I have pinned way more activities than I have tried, but now that Monkey is able to sit up so well I am eager to get stuck in.

– To acknowledge the things that I do that make me feel like I might actually be pulling this whole Mum thing off, rather than fixating on the things I feel I’ve done wrong, or on my negatives.

– To help any other mums out there who feel like what they are doing might not be enough, even though it is more than likely more than your little one could ever need or imagine, we are all doing things differently but we all need to stick together and support one another through the highs and lows of being a parent.

I’m also going to blog about things that make our lives easier as parents and I’m sure there will be a sprinkling of geekery along the way!

Right lets get cracking!