Author: Caroline

Healthy food choice for the little people

This post is brought to you in collaboration with Heinz Australia.

There can be so much confusion over when to introduce solids and what are suitable types of solid food for babies. What ARE healthy baby solid foods?

All babies will be different, but when Miss A turned 6 months we decided that it was time to slowly introduce her into the amazing world of solid foods. Well truth be told, she decided she wanted to eat solid foods, grabbing food off my plate or out of our hands. We started on purees of vegetables. Sweet potato was an instant hit, other vegies, not so much. Fruit was another success. One thing that we found great was the Heinz pouches designed for 6 months +. Easy to use and full of yummy fruits, vegies and meats – Miss A loved them. Great to keep in the cupboard and grab and go (especially when paired with the Heinz soft twist top spoon tips). Downside of the pouches – no awesome little jars to keep things in – seriously baby food jars are awesome storage for crafty bits or nails/screws/bolts etc. Bonus tip there for you all 😉

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So why do we personally pick Heinz over other brands the majority of the time? For us it’s not just about price, it’s about knowing what goes into the product. Something that is nutritious and something that is good for my infant. For example, did you know Heinz source their apples, pears and peaches from Goulburn Valley, and pumpkins from country Victoria? Ingredients are delivered to the Heinz baby food facility in Echuca, where they are lovingly prepared.

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Creating a diet for our kids that has low to no nasty numbers is also a big thing for me. We have a few different allergies in our families and I’ve seen how numbers can effect behaviours. Heinz infant meals are steamed cooked and after cooking, all of the Heinz infant jars, cans, and pouches are heat sealed, locking in all the delicious flavours and preventing the need for preservatives! No nasty numbers or preservatives. Heinz infant meals have no artificial colours, no artificial flavours, and no preservatives.

I totally love that Heinz infant meals grow with your baby too, providing meal options and snacks from babies from 4 months (if you decide to start introducing solids from this age) through to 12 months +. Miss K (who is 5) still loves snacking on the Heinz Little Kidsfruit bars and sharing the Heinz Nutrios with her sister. AND who can go past the good old Teething Rusks, they were a teething staple when I was young and we’ve used them for both our girls.

TheGoodStuff

Relaxing

We’ve spent the last few days away, relaxing. Spending time together as a family. Spending time with my parents. Going out for a meal. Going to the beach. Spending time inside when it rained. Checking out Wings Wildlife Park (which if you are ever in Tasmania I can totally recommend – we’ll be going back). Limited net access. Playing with new Legos. Reading. Colouring in. Doing creative stuff. Going for walks. Did I mention relaxing. I was awesome. Much needed. Especially after 2 kiddos had been sick with head colds.
Anywho, some photos for your viewing pleasure 🙂

Colouring 01 Colouring 02 Colouring 03

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Back to normal soon 🙂

The Life:Captured Project – June 2015

01 Describe a moment from today that you want to remember always.
Having tea with mum & dad. They had been at a funeral so we went out there and cooked tea for them – lemon ginger chicken & rice then steamed sticky date puddings

02 What sort of outdoor activities do you enjoy?
Walking, bike riding, going to the beach, photography, watching sport

03 Write down some of your favourite memories with a grandparent.
Spending time at the beach. French toast. Catching up with soapies with my Grandma when sick. Fishing.

04 What are your hopes for your children?
That they grow up to be happy and loved. 

05 What are your biggest fears for your children?
That people will take advantage of them.

06 Find out five things about a distant relative of yours.
I’ll have to work on this one

07 Describe your family’s morning routine right now.
Get up, breakfast, shower, check emails

08 Describe your family’s afternoon routine right now.
Kids watch some kids tv. Dinner prep.

09 Describe your family’s evening routine right now.
Dinner. Kids bath. Skype with my mum. Story time. Bedtime for the kids

10 Write down five funny things that your child(ren) or your partner has said recently.
My armbow hurts (Miss K), Why is it called a beanie bear when it doesn’t wear a beanie? (Miss K)

11 How are you going with your goals for this year?
Pretty good so far. I’ve posted an update for my 100 things list.

12 What are your favourite items of clothing to wear when it’s really cold?
Big thick woollen jackets & cardigans. Scarves in either black, blue or silver

13 What are your favourite soups to drink in winter?
Tomato, carrot, pumpkin, Chinese chicken & sweet corn or leek & potato

14 Write down the recipe (no matter how simple) for your go-to comfort food.
Icing sugar. cocoa (or YIAH chocolate powder). melted butter. dash of milk. Yup chocolate icing. my favourite comfort food

15 How do you feel about speaking in public?
Hate it, with a passion. Which is odd considering a few of my jobs include speaking to groups of people.

16 When was the last time you did something risky? Write about it.
Over 10 years ago. Kissed someone while in a relationship with someone else. The person I was in the relationship was home.

17 What normally happens on a Tuesday?
Swimming lessons in the morning for both girls. Time in town with mum. Afternoon at home.

18 What were the best and hardest parts about growing up?
Best – Having an awesome family and friends. Hardest – the time of teenage rebellion

19 What was your father’s childhood like?
Grew up in Scotland. Moved to Australia when 9.

20 What do you usually snack on throughout the day?
Chocolate. Whatever baking I’ve done. Toast. Nutella

21 Describe your dream garden.
Front – roses Back – veggies, chickens, bees, play area for the kids

22 What does it mean to be brave?
To be able to deal with whatever life throws at you and keep going.

23 If you could have an entire day at home alone, how would you spend it?
Scrapbooking

24 Is there an aunty or uncle you have a particularly close relationship with?
Not really. I’m pretty close with most of my relatives.

25 What are the five things you love the most about your partner or spouse?

  1.      we like so many of the same things
  2.      he knows how to cheer me up when I’m down
  3.      he makes a great dad to our daughters
  4.      he puts up with my quirky
  5.      he’s just him

26 Is there anything that scares you about growing old?
Getting dementia & loosing my memory. Not having my parents around.

27 What are three things from this past month that have made you cry?
My littliest being sick. Being so tired and emotional. watching silly videos on YouTube

28 What are three things from this past month that have made you laugh?
Watching silly videos on YouTube. My girls playing together. Silly jokes on Facebook

29 How are you feeling today?
A little tired. Miss A has a head cold and was awake on and off all night last night resulting in not much sleep for everyone.

30 What is your favourite thing about winter/summer right now?
Hot chocolate with marshmallows. Warming soups with crusty bread. Wood fire.

Our very hungry caterpillar turns 1

Miss A turns one in August and I thought it was high time I got to work on organising her birthday party. After many hours on Pinterest I decided on either a pink & gold theme or A Very Hungry Caterpillar. I showed a heap of pictures to Miss K to help me choose and finally we decided on A Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some ideas for invites, decorations, food and cake then after the party I’ll share our actual event.

Invitations can be a simple or as complex as you want. From bought invitations like these……

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to handmade creations like these ……

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we (read me) ended up making ours. Thank goodness for my Silhouette Cameo because I would have hated doing this by hand.
Hungry-Caterpillar-invite
The first circle reads:

We can hardly believe a year has passed
Our little caterpillar has grown so fast
Join us for some afternoon tea & fun
Anastasia is turning ONE

The second circle has the date, time and location while the third has the RSVP details. I’ll include a recent photo of Miss A to the final circle.

In the Den Kitchen – Mars Bar Slice

You can now find previous In the Den Kitchen posts here or on Pinterest. Clicking Recipes in the menu above will also take you to my In the Den Kitchen Pinterest board. I’m slowly reworking some older posts so they will show up there too.
Links to any Your Inspiration at Home (YIAH) products will take you to my YIAH page. You can shop in Australia, New Zealand, USA & Canada from my page. If you are interested in learning about YIAH jump over to my Facebook page.

So what do you do when you want something a little (hell who am I kidding – a LOT) sweet. Maybe something like Mars Bar Slice (YUMMO!) BUT, oh no, no Mars Bars in the house 🙁 and the shops are closed/you can’t be bothered going out 🙁 🙁 Well don’t despair! You can make Mars Bar Surprise Slice!!

This wonderful recipe I found one night while reading a great little book by the name of The $21 challenge. My whole family loves it and when my daughter asked me to make it for school the next day, just as she was going to bed I thought I’d see how well it converted to Thermo. So here it is – Thermo Mars Bar Surprise Slice (if you want the original non Thermomix recipe go here – page 6)

Mars-Bar-Surprise-Slice

[yumprint-recipe id=’21’]

Reviewing my things to do

Happy Winter Solstice. It’s time to look back over my list for the year and see how I’m traveling.

As with previous years bold is started, strike thru is finished & red isn’t done

  1. Increase my social media following (see 2-5)
  2. Get more Twitter followers (Jan 1 – 658   Dec 31 – )
  3. Get more Facebook followers (Jan 1 – 150   Dec 31 – )
  4. Get more Pinterest followers (Jan 1 – 569   Dec 31 – )
  5. Get more Instagram followers (Jan 1 – 227   Dec 31 – )
  6. Organise my Pinterest boards (try & reduce the number of boards)
  7. Learn a new recipe each month. Blog about it.
  8. Blog a recipe a week – one of mine or something I’ve tried (In the Den Kitchen)
  9. Create a back up of my blog monthly
  10. Try something I’ve pinned and blog about it.
  11. Start a new blog series
  12. Finish garden beds and start using them
  13. Get a garden shed
  14. Set up gazebo/outdoor area
  15. Do HabitHacker – Nest (when the site comes back up)
  16. Work on Declutter 365
  17. Finish custom recipe book
  18. Declutter recipe books I don’t use
  19. Paint laundry & put up laminate
  20. New door & window in lounge
  21. New curtains for the lounge
  22. Get kitchen blinds
  23. Get new cupboard in hallway
  24. Get floors polished
  25. Organise office so it can be used
  26. Organise garage
  27. Start a garden journal
  28. Work through (& complete) Creating your Goddess Haven e-course
  29. Tidy the pantry – make it more organised
  30. Sort linens and make less cluttered
  31. Have a candlelit dinner with hubby
  32. Family holiday to Melbourne
  33. Have parents & in-laws over for dinner
  34. Go to the Anzac Day dawn service
  35. Get a family photo of me, mum, dad & bro
  36. Get an updated family photo done
  37. Have a weekend away (all booked)
  38. Try and have a date night every month
  39. Put money into Christmas Club account
  40. Put money in the girls accounts
  41. Have a family movie night (complete with popcorn & choc tops)
  42. Spend a day at the beach
  43. Go on a picnic
  44. Go for a drive somewhere for no reason other than getting out
  45. Spend a rainy day in PJs watching TV/movies
  46. See more of Tassie
  47. Work on family tree
  48. Go to Tasmania Zoo
  49. Go to the Botanical Gardens
  50. Visit QVMAG
  51. Get BAS in on time
  52. Keep up to date with work accounts
  53. Work thru Business Goddess e-course
  54. Launch new work site
  55. Upgrade laptops (decided to keep these & upgrade hard drives)
  56. Make laptop & pc better organised – less double ups of files
  57. Work on better backups of important files
  58. Find an inspirational quote & make it into a piece of artwork
  59. Finish JYC 2012 & 2013 & 2014
  60. Scrapbook with mum more
  61. Finish wedding scrapbook
  62. Do #30Lists (March, September, December)
  63. Organise all my paper scrapbook supplies
  64. Scrapbook with others more
  65. Backup digital Project Life supplies
  66. Organise a scrapbook day
  67. Complete a cross stitch
  68. Work thru Creative Goddess ecourse
  69. Project life date one weekend a month
  70. Do some more classes & finish them
  71. Create a scrapping binder
  72. Apply for more design teams
  73. Get dt work done before it’s due
  74. Actually DO some of the things I’ve pinned
  75. Create more pages about me
  76. keep up to date with Project Life (see #69)
  77. Raise at least $2000 at Afternoon Teal
  78. Do Frocktober
  79. Watch sunrise & sunset in the same day 
  80. Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years
  81. Keep a gratitude journal every day for a month (0/30)
  82. Do Habit Hacker’s Create
  83. Get a massage
  84. Get a manicure
  85. Make a list of 30 books I want to read & then read those books (0/30) 
  86. Exercise every day for a month (0/30)
  87. Create a mini Goddess altar
  88. Meditate more
  89. Enjoy life
  90. Finish off front yard
  91. Redo herb gardens
  92. sort my bookmarks
  93. Burn to CD/DVD stuff I don’t need on my PC all the time
  94. Look at getting built in wardrobe in girls bedroom
  95. Do something special for our wedding anniversary
  96. Have a girls day out with mum
  97. Star Wars!
  98. Sort & cull movie folder
  99. Maybe go to 20 yr reunion for school
  100. Organise some play dates for the girls

From the Den Kitchen–Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Slice

You can now find previous In the Den Kitchen posts here or on Pinterest. Clicking Recipes in the menu above will also take you to my In the Den Kitchen Pinterest board. I’m slowly reworking some older posts so they will show up there too.
Links to any Your Inspiration at Home (YIAH) products will take you to my YIAH page. You can shop in Australia, New Zealand, USA & Canada from my page. If you are interested in learning about YIAH jump over to my Facebook page.

This is a family favourite slice. I have fond memories of my Godmother or my Mum cooking it when we went away for family holidays.

From the Den Kitchen: Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake slice. Nightwolf's Den

[yumprint-recipe id=’20’]

Time for some bloggy housekeeping

Yup, it’s time for the Biannual Blogathon Bash again. I’m planning on a smaller list this time around as Miss K has soccer tomorrow & Miss A has been pretty unsettled the last week (4 teeth last weekend!) and wanting her mum all the time. Just realised I’ve been taking part in this since 2013.

So here is my June 2015 list…

  • take part in at least 1 Twitter party
  • do a couple of the mini challenges
  • tidy my blog emails
  • get reviews written & up
  • write and schedule some posts
  • check old posts for broken links & missing images

Mini challenges (will add as we go along)

  • Instagram prompts (1,2,3,4,5)

Binannual Blogathon Bash

Biannual Blogathon Bash

It’s nearly time for the Biannual Blogathon Bash again. It starts next Friday! This will be my fourth (or fifth?) time taking part and it’s a great way to get some blogging tasks you’ve been putting of done and learn some new things through the mini challenges.

You can read about what I’ve done in previous blogathons by checking out my posts.

What is the blogathon?

It’s a FREE online event held twice a year (January and June) giving bloggers a chance to “work on all their blogging to-dos and learn more about different aspects of blogging at the same time as many other bloggers. Basically a blogathon=blogging+marathon. Most participants dedicate a large chunk of time during the weekend event to work on their blogs but you can join in even if you can’t dedicate that much time.”

The blogathon is open to all bloggers – new/experienced, solo/group, for profit/not for profit, business bloggers, personal bloggers, those who have one blog, those who have multiple blogs, bloggers of ALL niches.

Sound interesting? Sign up here then join the Facebook group (make sure you have some mention of your blog in your facebook profile or PM Kathleen Garber letting her know you have requested to join the group and where you blog.

I’d love to see some more Aussies join up. Let me know if you do so I can come check out your blog/cheer you along during the blogathon 😀