Quinoa is a great wheat-free alternative to starchy grains. Quinoa provides 5 times more grams of fiber and double the protein than rice- Making this fried quinoa a healthier alternative to fried rice. Pineapples give the fried quinoa a sweet and sticky taste almost like a sweet-and- sour thai dish. I decided to add pineapple because they are at their peak in March. Enjoy xx
Month: March 2018
Nee – Mums that rock – uk
what is the best advice you have been given on parenting?
Always trust your instincts- mummy knows best!
what are your kids’ favourite foods?
My eldest loves prawns, whether it be prawn spaghetti or prawn curry but generally he loves food full stop. Although my youngest will tell you he loves sausage, mash and beans – sometimes you can’t beat the old classics!
what is your favourite meal to cook for the family?
Probably my boys favourite prawn spaghetti dinner but I love making it with courgetti- it’s a speedy dinner to make, it’s packed with goodness and most importantly tastes delicious and fresh. Although I love cooking one pot meals – anything that makes a hectic life a little easier!
what are the kids’ favourite toys?
My boys love Lego and what’s lovely is they also play with their dad’s Lego that was saved by his mum for the grandkids – that’s a mum who rocks!!
what three items do you always have in your bag when out with your kids?
Water, tissues and colouring books and pens (is that four!?!)
What is a good family day out in London on a budget?
We love a trip to the Southbank – the boys love to watch the skate boarders and entertainers. Just to run along the riverside gives them a sense of freedom and fun.
what have you found to be the hardest part of your motherhood journey?
Letting go of guilt and not worrying too much about what other people think.
what is the best part of motherhood?
I love being a mum! Seeing the smiles on my boys faces and hearing their laughter fills me with so much warmth I feel I could burst. They bring so much joy, that for me, nothing compares. I feel proud of them everyday as somehow they always surprise me – my little lovely people.
Andii – Mums that rock – UK
Meet Andii Mama Jackson (3 years)
Best advice given is “Don’t worry it all gets slightly easier!”
Favourite foods are pasta, chicken and rice, lasagna, avocado, all fruit, sweet potato, couscous, peas and carrots.
Favourite food to cook for the family is broccoli blended into pesto served with pasta. Gets that broccoli into that tummy!
Favourite toys are any toy trains, cars, buses, spaceships, trucks, Lego Duplo.
I always carry the following three things when out with Jackson: His ‘comfort’ (a piece of material he finds comforting to chew on!) Wipes/nappy and his cup with water.
A good family day out on a budget is take a bus, go upstairs so he can look out the window to see everything then head to a museum (love the London Transport Museum) as you buy a ticket once to gain entry and it is valid for one year so you can go back as many times as you like!
The hardest part of motherhood is to suddenly adjust your lifestyle from what you may have been accustomed to before without having to think or juggle also potentially being the most physically, mentally, tiring and challenging experiences!
The best part of motherhood is seeing your little bundle of joy growing and when they make you feel proud.
Georgina Wintersgill – Mums that rock – UK
Meet Georgina Wintersgill, 42, is mum to Eliza, 8, and Jemima, 5 health and parenting journalist and acting deputy editor of Prima Baby magazine.
what is the best advice you have been given on parenting? Don’t stress about things too much, because (almost) everything is a phase, and you’ll barely remember it in a year or two.
what are your kids’ favourite foods? The 5yo loves a roast dinner and has done ever since she was 6 months old, when she decided she wasn’t going to bother with purees and ate an entire roast dinner chopped up. I have never seen anyone eat Yorkshire puddings so fast. The 8yo loves pizza and pasta. She is not hugely keen on meat and I suspect will take after me and become vegetarian at some point.
what is your favourite meal to cook for the family? Happily for me, my husband is the chef in our family – I am more of a heater-upper than a cook. Our favourite family meal is home-made pizza, which we often have at the weekend. We have perfected this over the years: OH makes pizza dough in the bread maker and uses a pizza stone, which helps the base to cook properly. He does different things on each quarter: pepperoni for the kids, veggie for me and some kind of deli meat for him.
what are the kids’ favourite toys? The 5yo has a Baby Annabell doll called Doz Dare. I have no idea why she is called Doz – the 5yo named her when she was learning to speak. Her surname is Dare because she was always referred to as ‘Dat baby dare’. Doz Dare has the face of quite a wimpy baby but in fact she spends her time on incredibly daring missions. She is the James Bond of baby dolls. The 8yo has a brilliant black and white Jellycat cat called Ganglepuss (again, named when she was first learning to talk). Ganglepuss was a single dad to Ganglekitty (a tiny, identical, Jellycat cat) for a while, but at Christmas the 8yo asked for a girlfriend for Ganglepuss/ mummy for Ganglekitty, and now the three of them are a happy family unit.
what three items do you always have in your bag when out with your kids? Now my kids are 5 and 8 so sometimes, daringly, I go out without anything special. However this is usually a mistake. Things I usually have on a day out include (a) wipes – for cleaning hands before meals and wiping dirty/ snotty faces (OH’s usually); (b) spare clothes – happily my two don’t have accidents anymore (I’ll have jinxed that now, won’t I), but they are quite capable of sitting down in muddy puddles/ spilling milkshake down their front etc; and (c) activity or colouring books plus pencil case, to keep them happily occupied while waiting for food in cafes. ‘I Spy’ only works for so long, but we have never had a wait so long it couldn’t be successfully filled with a Frozen colouring book.
What is a good family day out in London on a budget? We live in Oxfordshire so trips to London are expensive by their very nature. Our last family trip to London was to the Science Museum, which was both awesome and free. We took packed lunches but bought ice creams. I vetoed the shop.
what have you found to be the hardest part of your motherhood journey? My youngest daughter was the most terrible sleeper until she was about 2. I was up more than I was down during the nights for most of that time: at her worst she was up about 25 times a night. It made me very bonkers – struggling to finish sentences etc – and also very bad-tempered. I am happy to report that now she is 5 she is a GREAT sleeper. I honestly never thought this day would come. *weeps*
what is the best part of motherhood? My favourite thing at present is going back to bed with the kids and a couple of books (obviously this is usually a weekend/ holiday thing but sometimes we do it after school too). I read a story to both of them (as the 5yo can’t read yet), then the 8yo reads to me, usually something from my library of childhood faves (CS Lewis, Noel Streatfeild etc). At the moment we are reading The Swish Of The Curtain by Pamela Brown, which is awesome. The 5yo isn’t that interested in this, so becomes a cafe owner, taking our order and coming back with various tea cups and plates loaded with play food and building bricks. The 8yo and I always order multiple courses of very elaborate things, and it is ALMOST as good as getting real breakfast in bed. (I’m hoping she’ll move onto that in a year or so.)
Kate Diaz – Mums that rock – UK
Meet Kate Diaz – principal of theatre school and mama to Nicolas 5 and Clara 1 Meet
what is the best advice you have been given on parenting?
To enjoy every single snuggle with baby number one. Time standing still, afternoon cheesy movie on tv smelling that gorgeous baby scent and inhaling that new born hair. Everyone told me I would never have time for this when baby number 2 came along and they were SO right!
what are your kids’ favourite foods?
Melon, Lorne Sausage ( a Scottish favourite ) Pasta- macaroni Cheese
what is your favourite meal to cook for the family? Jamie Olive Spag Bol- Cooked in the oven for 3 hours. It’s so rich and a great crowd pleaser!
what are the kids’ favourite toys?
The salad Spinner and several small toy washing machines ( my son) My daughter has a gorgeous Melissa and Doug tiny house which plays doorbell noises and you get to try keys in each door.
what three items do you always have in your bag when out with your kids?
Baby wipes, A snack and SOMETHING to do like wind up toys etc.
What is a good family day out in London on a budget?
The transport Museum. Once you pay entry you keep your ticket and you can keep returning all year for free.
what have you found to be the hardest part of your motherhood journey?
The unexpected. When my son was 18 months he was diagnosed with Autism. I’m a busy, pragmatic person and I just wanted to go somewhere thatwould tell me- ‘yup come to this class and that’s it’ ,magic wand, you will improve his symptoms. There is no magic wand. It’s a marathon not a race. Motherhood has been so joyful but filled with anxiety too.You want everything for your children and hope that you have done your best for them.
what is the best part of motherhood?
Having the most exclusive, tight knit and intimate – self created ‘members only’ club- Club Diaz! That’s us!
Seeing my children come on. Each day they change.