Island Fruit Salad?

So  3 days a week my little girl attends the most amazing preschool here in Upper Hutt, ('Children First' is what they're called, if you're looking to send your kids somewhere great!), and each month they have a different learning topic. This months focus topic is on countries of the world and other cultures, where they have discovered different foods other cultures enjoy etc.

Today is not a preschool day...today is a stay at home and hangout with Mum and Alexander day (AKA Mum gets nothing productive done day, due to Alia's constant need for entertainment and stimulation).

It was nearing lunch time, and she suddenly came out with "Mum! I want an Island fruit salad for lunch!"
I presume she meant tropical, or that she had learnt about exotic fruits which come from tropical islands while at preschool....or something...
So my brain twigged into overdrive, and thought, well I don't have any 'exotic' island fruits in the fruit bowl at the moment...just your standard fruit bowl....nana's, kiwifruit, mandarins, pears, apples...a few bags of frozen berries in the freezer...
I recalled seeing something on the internet ages ago of someone creating an island out of fruit, tried to find the picture again but failed, so I winged it and came out with this!

I don't think she was expecting me to take her literally and make an actual Island...but her eyes nearly popped out of her head with excitement! About 3 minutes later, there was nothing left but a bit of blueberry stained kiwifruit juice on the plate, and a berry blue faced *sorrrry bad pun!* little girl licking her lips in satisfaction!

Being that it is a rather miserable wet cold winters day, *and there is only so many episodes of 'My Little Pony" one person can bare to hear in the background!!!* I raided my craft cupboards and set Miss 4 up at the table with a bunch of paint, glitter glue, craft glue, bits of coloured paper ripped up for collage and I punched out a bunch of hearts with my paper shape hole punch thingy. (Gotta get more of those!)

Kept her busy for about 2 hours, made some cool art work, and I got to enjoy a coffee...while actually still hot for once!! woohoo!

 After a few practices at collage art on some paper, I let Alia have a go at making her own collage canvas for her bedroom. I gave her a wee hand with the 'pink sky' and the the glitter glue stripes coming out of her hearts (goodness knows what they're about, shooting heart stars perhaps?) But the rest she did herself, pretty impressed to be honest!! Got a great little artist in the making!

FYI empty egg cartons are a craft cupboards best friend...especially when you have littlies!
I use them for paint pots as well as sorting and holding all sorts of little bits and pieces, and my little miss can just help herself.

Righto, last on my list of things to share today is my renewed discovery and love of coconut cream!
Far far back in my blog I mentioned trying to track down the perfect coconut cream brand to make whipped coconut cream...and through many brand tries and fails, I have FINALLY landed my favourite brand.

Family Choice Coconut Cream.

No Preservatives          - Tick
No Artificial Flavouring - Tick
No Artificial Colouring  - Tick

This is my kinda product. 

This is the first brand I have found which separates the cream solids from the coconut water, WHILE REMAINING SILKY SMOOTH!
All the other brands I've tried, either don't separate, because they add things in to prevent it from splitting, or they do separate but the creamy solids are a bit gritty in texture and do not whip up into smooth creamy peaks...they're just...bleugh.
This stuff is amazing...I am pretty much addicted, as soon as I open a can, ive got a teaspoon out and just eating the solid cream right out of the tin...it's like coconut mousse!
Anyway...so normally when I have any whipped cream in the fridge, left over from scones or something I've made, I like to treat myself to a coffee topped with whipped cream and cinnamon. (This is a rare treat, but boy it's a good one!) and my newly whipped, perfect coconut cream was just sitting here going "Use me on something!!!!" 

So I thought...hmmm...I wonder...If this would behave like regular whipped cream in my coffee...and would the coconutty flavour be horrible with my coffee?
Obviously, there was no other way to find out the answers to these important questions,  I had to try it.

And just in case you were wondering...
YES! DO IT!

Its delicious! It behaves just like regular whipped cream, it melts into a foamy frothy top of goodness and mixed with the cinnamon is just delish! The coconutty flavour doesn't really come through into your coffee, mind you, I like to use so much cinnamon I cant really taste much other than that haha.

Give it a go!! Whether you're lactose intolerant, vegan or just wanna try something a bit different, this is a winner. Yummyness.

So for now get into some coconutty goodness, and stay beautiful x

Gettin Skinny Off Salad

So I am currently on a quest to drop one more dress size before I get married in January.
However it is now winter here in lil ol' NZ, annd quite frankly, the thought of yet another salad has been turning me right off.
I have had a lapse, a bit of a fall off the bandwagon if you will...
Last week we had, Kebabs, Pizza (It was home made... wholemeal base and all...if that counts for anything???? yes?? I'll take it anyway) AND a lovely wintery comfort food classic, home made steak and vegetable pie.
Ok ok, I know, my muffin top and pooch pants aren't going to dissapare when I'm eating that kind of food...but I was in a bit of a healthy food eating rut.
BORED BORED BORED.

After my weekly weigh in displayed the results of my bad eating week... (+1.5kg if you must know) I was quickly lerched back into weight loss reality and headed off to the supermarket hoping to find some new salad inspiration.
Grabbed a bunch of things I rarely buy and got stuck in.

To my sheer delight, I created, possibly the tastiest salad I've ever had the pleasure of filling my face with!

So here I am, blogging away, coffee in hand, dreaming of the divinity of that salad and thinking *Im putting that on my dinner menu at least once once a week, whether the fusspot man of mine and kid-faces like it or not*

So in case you're in a salad rut too, or just wanna try something a bit different, here is my recipe for the best salad ever.
Apologies about the not so flash picture, my camera decided to have a battery crisis and my phone camera had to make do...

Smoked Chicky Salad with Kale Toasted Nuts & Fennel

You will need:

- 5x Stalks of curly kale (de-stalked and curly leafy bits torn up)
- Half a fresh fennel bulb
- Olive oil
- Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1x breast of smoked chicken (smoked salmon might work well in here too, I'll try it sometime soon and let you know)
- 2 Tablespoons of raw walnuts
- 2 Tablespoons of raw sunflower seeds
- 2 Tablespoons raw hazelnuts **
- 25g Feta cheese
- Small handful of fresh Parmesan shavings (optional)

What to do:

1.Start by chucking the oven on to 200°C (Sorry if you're reading this from America, I haven't a clue what that is in °F but I'm sure google can help you :smile: )

2. Grab your kale stalks and shred the curly leafy bits off the stalks....discard the stalks (or better yet, go feed them to the chooks or chuck em in the compost pile). Now put your leafy bits in a bowl with a lug of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Get your hands in there and give them a good scrunch! This gets the olive oil, salt and pepper all over them properly, and also the scrunching reduces a bit of the bitterness you can get in kale.
Now divide your kale into 2 portions. One half you're going to leave raw, and nommy nommy, the other half you're going to toast up in the oven and make kale chips with.

3. Pop one half of your kale on a baking tray, spread it out so they crisp up. If there is room, spread out your seeds and nuts on the same baking tray.
However you wanna keep them within their groups...they will toast at varying speeds, so you will need to be able to take them off the tray at different times...if they're all muddled together, this will be tricky, if not downright annoying...don't say I didn't warn you!
Now drizzle them with a LITTLE BIT of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked black pepper and bung em in the oven on the top shelf.
KEEP AN EYE ON THEM!!!! They will turn quicker than your back does to flick the kettle on.

Keep checking them, as soon as any one of your groups has turned golden, bring the tray out, pull off whatever is done and throw in your bowl with the fresh kale, then place the tray back in the oven so the rest can finish up....repeat until theyre all golden brown and finished up.

4. Shred your chicken breast and add to your bowl of kale and nuts.

5.With a mandolin (or some mad knife skills) finely slice up your fennel bulb and place in ice water. (Or if you're lazy like me, throw it in the food processor on the fine slicing attachment)
The ice water? I saw it on a cooking show once, I forget why, I think it has something to do with shocking it into crispness...or something...I'm not sure, but I've always done it and will probably continue to do so. You of course don't have to or probably even need to!

5. Now chop up your feta into little diced chunks and shave some parmesan.(Did anyone else just get an image of a block of cheese shaving its hairy little legs?? No? Just me??....)

6. Ok, drain your fennel bulb of the ice water if you decided to bathe it, and throw it along with your Feta, into your salad bowl, squeeze your fresh lemon juice in, toss it all together, nuts and all, and pop your Parmesan shavings ontop.

BOOM

BEST. SALAD. EVER.


** The hazelnuts were a last moment thought, I saw a few left in my collection of nuts and seeds, and thought, what the heck I'll pop them in....SO GLAD I DID, the hazelnuts were actually my favourite element of this salad. A bit different and unexpected, which is what I was really looking for to get out of my salad rut.

So there you have it, something a bit different. Worth a go, I ate this for lunch and for dinner today it was so good!

Oh and for anyone wondering about the semolina pudding I posted about last week, YUM definitely give it a go. My one tip though, STIR, STIR, STIR! The second you stop stirring when the semolina is being added to your got milk mixture, you get giant lumps that you can't get rid of!
Enjoy!!

Right, I have a grumpy 10 month old adorable little man climbing up my leg who I need to go and feed!
So for now,

Make some salad, and stay beautiful! x

Trial Time!

Hello my lovelies!
Today is an exciting post for me, my first product review!

So I belong to this pretty sweet online parenting group " Kidspot.co.nz "
Fantastic place for all things parenting!!
Great place to chat with other parents, get advice, enter competitions, find easy family friendly recipes, and everything in between.

A couple of weeks ago on the Kidspot website they asked all mums who were interested to apply for the chance to be one of 20 Mums selected to review the new Maybelline Fit Me 2-In-One foundation stick.
Of course I jumped at this chance, not only is my current foundation down to the last few drops, but I loved the idea of a foundation stick over a bottle of liquid foundation, or even the mineral compact with brush.
It looked quick, easy and conveniently sized to pop into the handbag and take with you anywhere for touch up's on the go.
This is perfect for Mums with very little time to get ready in the morning!

So I signed up, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Low and behold, a mysterious package arrived at my doorstep on Friday morning...in all honesty I'd completely forgotten about the review, and being that only 20 Mums were being chosen to review, I didn't think my chances were all that high.
Having not done any online shopping or ordered anything online recently I was rather confused as to what could possibly be turning up from the courier for me??!!

Opened up the package curiously and, BOOM!

Lucky me! I was chosen! Yes it's the little things like this in life that get stay at home mums excited.
I work one day a week (Saturday's) at a florist shop in the city, so this gave me the perfect opportunity to try it out.

HELLO HANDYNESS!!!
It's quick and easy, silky smooth and nice coverage. Though maybe I should have asked for the next shade down when I applied for the review. This one was the Porcelain 110 shade, annnnd made me just a weeee bit pasty white. But not terribly so...
Now you have to promise you wont laugh at my before makeup photo! This is my skin all its blotchy makeupless glory, but hey its all part of the reviewer journey right??

After work I met my fella and our two kiddies at a big get together bbq with his work mates/their families. So pretty impressed with how well the makeup lasted through a whole day at work, and then an after work function as well. The foundation could have used a tiny touch up, but not desperately. My lippy and eye makeup and hair needed more attention than my foundation.

Over all, thumbs up from me, you should go try it!

I can hear my 10 month old waking up from his morning nap, so that's my cue to skedaddle out of my blogging world!

Stay beautiful x