Melt In The Middle Meatballs & Our Bank Holiday Weekend - #MorrisonsMum

Armed with my Bank Holiday Slimming World Menu Plan, I headed off to the big Morrisons at Cribs Causeway. I could have gone to my more local one but as its a little on the small side I decided to treat myself & go a bit further so I could take a look at their home range etc.. That ended up backfiring on me, as I was so busy choosing what food to buy I ran out of time to have a good look at the extras!

On arriving at the store The first thing I noticed was lots of 'I'm Cheaper' banners & signs letting me know how much they had reduced over 1000, products by. Many of these are products that i would buy on a weekly basis & it brings Morrisons pricing more in-line with the budget supermarkets, whilst still offering the wide range & great service. I was impressed with their 3 for £1.50 veg & 3 for £10 meat deals. I did however find a couple of products I didn't buy as I know I can get them cheaper elsewhere; these were Pepsi Max & own brand fruit & fibre.

This was after I'd put away the chilled & frozen bits!

I bought lots of superfree foods to see me through the weeked & found some great new Highlights flavours! I also managed to buy everything I needed for my menu plan, except Warburtons Squarish Wraps, which I substituted for Warburtons Pitta Halves (only 75p).

On Saturday he boys had great fun decorating their own mini pizzas (50p each), they used veg & ham to make a face, adding some extra cheese on top. I made one for Daddy (smart price cheese & tom £1), and my own using a Warburtons Pitta (8 syns for both halfs + HEA of cheese on top). They were delicious!

On Sunday I made:

Melt In The Middle Meatballs - Slimming World Friendly

Ingrediants:

400g Extra Lean Minced Beef (3 for £10)
1 Medium Onion
2 Garlic Cloves
1 tbsp Dried Italian Herbs
1 Large Egg White
65g Of Reduced Fat Mozzarella (1/2 a ball)  cut in to cubes
200ml Passata
400g Chopped Tomatoes
3 tbsp Tomato Puree
1 tbsp Sweetener (Granulated)
1 Pepper
100g Mushrooms
2 Beef OXO cubes
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Directions:

Blend or finely chop 1/2 of onion & 1 garlic clove. Add to a bowl with mince, 1 tsp herbs, & beaten egg white. Mix well, I find using my fingers works best & often use latex gloves when doing so. Form in to approximately 12-14 balls each one around a piece of mozzarella. They can be chilled at this stage if you would like to finish cooking them later. Spray a frying pan with frylight & seal 5-6 meatballs at a time on all sides.

For the sauce, chop the onion & garlic. Fry in a pan using frylight, once softened add, sliced mushrooms & pepper for another 2-3 mins. Add remaining ingredients, bring to the boil, & turn down to medium putting the meatballs on top of the sauce. Cook for around 10 minutes, then turn over & cook for a further 10 mins.

Serve with spaghetti or pasta.

This made enough for all 4 of us and cost £7.02p for the meal which works out at £1.75 each, bargain!Its great to prove that eating healthy/dieting doesn't have to cost the earth.

This went down well with everyone after we'd spent the afternoon at Ashton Court Miniature Railway, having lots of fun & fresh air!

On Monday we had a roast chicken (3 for £10), with lots of veg, including roast parsnips (daddy's favourites). All cooked using fry light so my only syns were for gravy & a Yorkshire pudding (Morrisons MSavers 2syns each).

 I also decided to treat myself & make a slimming world cheese cake for dessert, Its the first time I've tried a low syn option  (5.5 syns a slice) it was nice however I want 100% happy with the base so I will tweak it & try it again. Once happy I will share the recipe!

I've loved being a #MorrisonsMum & will be doing my shopping there more often. We had a lovely bank holiday weekend, with thanks to Brit Mums & Morrisons. I was given £80 of shopping vouchers so I could write this post however all opinions are my own.

x Jo x

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Bank Holiday Slimming World Menu Plan - #MorrisonsMum

Even though I'm at target with Slimming World I'm currently trying to loose the 6lb I put on over Easter! I find sticking to plan harder at the weekends, when everyone is home, so a Bank Holiday weekend is even worse.
I'm so excited to be chosen as a #MorrisonsMum this weekend. So while planning what I would buy, it occurred to me that the best way to stay on plan would be to make a full meal plan. I've planned dinners before (not as often as I should) but not every meal. So here is what I have come up with for the weekend, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for 3 days on Slimming Worlds extra easy plan.

Saturday

B: Cooked breakfast, bacon (fat removed), WW sausages,  mushrooms, tomatoes, egg, beans, 1 piece toast (1 syn & 1/2 HEB)

L: Chicken Salad

D: Pizza- squarish wrap pizza for me, cheese & tomato for the boys & Daddy. Add extra toppings. (8 syns & HEA)

S: Alpen Light Bar (1/2 HEB) High Lights Hot Chocolate (2 syns) Muller Light & fruit.

Sunday

B: Wholemeal toast with Marmite (HEB & 2 syns)

L: Bachelors pasta & sauce with extra veg.

D: Melt in the middle meatballs & spaghetti (HEA)

S: 10 x Malteasers (5 syns) Alpen Light Bar (3 syns) Muller Light & fruit.

Monday

B: Omlette - Pepper, tomato, onion & cheese (HEA)

L: Ham salad sandwich, with ex-light mayo (HEB & 1/2 syn)

D: Roast - Potatos, veg, 1 x yorkshire (frozen) & gravy. (2 syns)

P: Slimming World friendly cheesecake (4 syns at a guess)

S: High Lights Hot Chocolate (2 syns) & fruit.

That should leave me with a few extra syns if I need them! I will of course be buying some extras for the boys and Daddy. Check back after the weekend to find out how I got on as a #MorrisonsMum, and whether I stuck to plan....

x Jo x

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Lego Junior - Review

The boys were thrilled when they found out that they had been selected to be Lego Junior product testers. When I say the boys I mean all 3 of them... Joseph (5), Daniel (3.5), & Daddy! We were sent the Police Station set (10675) to test out. It has an age range of 4-7, which is a little lower than most standard Lego sets, as its been designed to be easier to build.

Heroes Of The City App - Review & Competition

I was very excited when we were asked to review a children's app, as I'd just got a new android phone before Christmas & had yet to download any apps for the boys. Heroes of the city is an app aimed at children age 2-6 & is available for both android on the google play store & apple devices from the app store . It's free to download with additional content available at a cost. Other than the shop section to buy the extra games & movies there are no annoying adverts for kids to click on by mistake!

Both Joseph(5) & Daniel(3.5) love all the 9 games & have enjoyed getting to know the characters in the movie clips (3 games & one movie are free). They both love the train track puzzle game best & Joseph loves the fact that you get a trophy when completing each part & is working towards getting all of them!

So both boys were over the moon when we were sent a goodie pack to help us with our review. We received a book, DVD (which is asked for daily!) & 2 die cast character cars. Daniel's was Fiona The Fire Engine & Joseph's Harry Hot Rod. They are lovely little chunky cars which are cute & really different from those we already have. 

Would your children like to win a goodie pack of their own (contents will be similar but might vary from the ones we received & those in the picture below). Enter using the rafflecopter below, the giveaway is open worldwide (goodie pack is in English). The winner will be chosen through Rafflecopter,  I will then pass the winners details to the Heroes of the City creators. The goody pack will be sent directly to the winner from Heroes of the City team to the address specified.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!

x Jo x

P.s. we have another competition coming up soon... Now open click here to be in with the chance of winning some cool chrome letters.

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Marble Run Fun

Apologies for the lack of posts recently I've been so busy with 1/2 term & Josephs Birthday. He had a great Halloween party which I will post about soon. So I thought I would share this post that has been waiting in the wings for a while!

We picked up this fab ELC marble run at the car boot back in the spring. I'm really trying to encourage more open ended toys & this one is great I'm sure it will be used for many years to come. Both boys love building the towers & then testing them with the marbles. It really is a great toy for problem solving skills, trying to work out where the marble will go & what to change to make it go where they want. It's also great for fine motor skills when putting it together.

Daddy had lots of fun helping the boys build a really tall tower.

In the summer we even took it out-side to see how it would work with water. It kind of worked but only if you pour a small amount of water, pour to fast it it all spills over! It was still lots of fun though! We didn't use the light up battery section with water.

They are still enjoying this almost 6 months on, with it being brought out about once a week.

x Jo x

If you would like to buy your own marble run (it would make a great Christmas gift) Here are a few Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.

Early Learning Centre - Marble Madness Game -Almost the same as ours
Galt Super Marble Run- looks like a good set & Galt are normally good quality
Toyrific Marble Run Game -Looks like much better value, but reviews suggest that its smaller & won't work with normal marbles

Mighty Lights - Review

The nice people at Walkers sent us some new crisps to try head of the new school year. 

These Mighty Lights come in three flavours, lightly salted, roast chicken & cheese and onion.

• 30% less fat*
• No artificial colours or preservatives
• No MSG
• Made from real potatoes
• A source of fibre
• Suitable for vegetarians

When the arrived we decided to give them a taste test. I put some of each flavour in a bowl for the boys to taste & guess which flavour they were. They both guessed right except for lightly salted which was guessed as 'crisp' flavour! When asked which was their favourite Joseph(4.5) decided straight away that it was the roast chicken, with Daniel(3) torn between the other two & eventually choosing cheese & onion. 

So they had the remaining crisps with their lunch that day. I was very naughty & decided to test some roast chicken mighty lights in a crisp sandwich, it was lush!

They contain 30% less fat than standard crisps & are therefore lower in calories, coming in at 114 kcal per 25g bag. I've mentioned before that I have lost weight following the slimming world plan & now I'm at target I have relaxed a little (ok a lot) but I still like to know the syn value of things so I know how naughty I'm being! These Mighty Lights come it at 5.5 syns, which is higher than baked crisps/snacks, but lower than standard crisps or other ridged crisps. They also taste (and crunch) as good as other ridged crisps.

Daddy has tried the lightly salted flavour & has confirmed them to be 'real crisps' (not those diet things) but would have loved a salt & vinegar flavour. I also had to test some of the lightly salted flavour with my favourite low syn salsa dip (1/2 syn per tablespoon) the ridges worked really well with the dip as did the flavour. I also like that the small bag stops me eating to much & putting the salsa away for another day!

Being lower in fat & calories Mighty Lights are the perfect treat for kids' lunchboxes. I still can't believe that its less than 2 weeks until Joseph starts school and I'm going to be back making lunch boxes, where has this summer gone? At lest with these & the Walkers Hoops & Crosses I'm sorted in the crisp department!

  All the flavours are suitable for vegetarians, and are available in shops nationwide. They come with a suggested selling price of £1.59 per 6 bag multi-pack, however as I write they are on offer in Tesco & Asda at £1 a pack.

For more info take a look at the website www.WalkersMightyLights.co.uk

x Jo x

^* 30% less fat than standard potato crisps on average

Disclosure: This was a sponsored post however all opinions are my own. 

Legoland

 

We took the boys to Legoland a couple of weeks ago, as they have been asking all winter & we promised we would take them when the weather was nicer (plus they close for winter). So we saved up our Tesco vouchers & swapped them for some Legoland tickets, this made it affordable for us otherwise it wouldn't have been. Its about a 2 hour drive away for us,if it was closer an annual pass would be great!  

They were so excited to see so many Lego creations  & it was great to be able to touch & even sit on some! As a family our favourite ride was Atlantis where you get to go in a submarine & see real fish, the boys really enjoyed the discovery centre on the way out especially getting to hold a sea urchin

We were also really lucky that the Duplo Valley splash park had just been opened, the boys really loved it however were ready to come out after 5 minutes as it was so cold that day! They did however love the Duplo playground which had super squashy astro-turf (would love it in our garden) my only complaint was that a couple of the play structures didn't have a very easy way for smaller kids to get down & could have done with a slide or steps.

The Boys had the best day ever, we were very glad we took the pushchair though as there is a lot of walking & quite a bit up hill! As we went on a cloudy term time Wednesday it was quite quite which meant little or no queue's , so got to go on all of the rides we wanted except for one which was closed as it wasn't busy enough to open it! We stuck to the rides with a 90cm (or less) height restriction. We will definitely be going back but maybe next year now as there will be lots of other rides Daniel can go on when he reaches 100cm tall.

x Jo x

Nuts & Bolts

On our way home from pre-school we like to pop in to a charity shop or 2! Joseph found this fab Quercetti Techno set:

It has nuts & bolts, different types of screws, flat plates, different screw drivers & a spanner. Best of all it even came with the instruction book, with ideas of how to make several pattens, models & even some scales. I'm not always overly keen on toys with lots of little bits, however as this packs up inside its self it tends to stay quite tidy.

It offers great fine motor skill practise & also helps with shape matching e.g. choosing the right screwdriver. The boys enjoy it now but they need help if they want to make anything specific, so think that they will get lots more use from it when they are older and able to follow the instructions themselves.

x Jo x