I am a big fan of breakfast. You know those annoying people who get to something ridiculous like three o’clock in the afternoon and then say ‘Oh silly me, I totally forgot to have anything to eat yet!’?

Well, I am not one of them. In fact, I love breakfast so much that my favourite bit about staying in hotels isn’t the comfy beds or spa facilities, it’s always the all-you-can-eat pastries and adorably tiny mini jars of jam.

Breakfast is important too – it sets you up for the day, gives your body a kick-start and gives you a reason to get out of bed, which is very important when you work at home and have a tendency to prefer to lie under a duvet reading Sherlock Holmes mysteries rather than sit upright in a chair and do something productive. Are you a breakfast person? What’s your favourite breakfasty treat?

This week’s Weight Watchers challenge then, to eat breakfast every day, wasn’t very much of a challenge for me at all. Hoorah!

Weight Watchers #StepIntoSummer challenge

Sticking to a Weight Watchers diet at the same time wasn’t even terribly difficult as there is so much flexibility. No kidding, you can genuinely eat everything in that picture and it counts as ‘diet food.’ I am a particular fan of the ‘healthy and filling’ food list that you use in the first few weeks of the Weight Watchers plan, as you are allowed to eat as much as you like from the list – no restrictions – which means you can have beans, crumpets, bacon, eggs, and all sorts of other yumminess and still have that smug ‘I’m on a healthy eating plan’ glow about you. Toasted crumpets topped with baked beans is one of my favourites, plus a side of scrambled eggs if I’m feeling extra excitable.

This morning though I shunned the crumpet feast in favour of something altogether more exotic – a tropical fruit fool. The recipe is at the end of this post but as you can see it looks amazing and brings a nice summer holiday vibe to your kitchen. I added the lime garnish to half convince myself it was as much fun as a mojito, which to be honest it almost was, expect without the hangover.

Weight Watchers mango fool

Weight Watchers mango fool recipe

Competition time!

If my deliciously tropical breakfast treat has got you fancying your own breakfast feast, then now is your chance to win this fabulous fancy toaster – perfect for toasting your crumpets.

Weight Watchers #stepintosummer competition

The competition is running across all the Weight Watchers social channels, so entering is easy peasy – all you have to do is take a picture of your breakfast and share it on Twitter with the #StepIntoSummer hashtag. You can also share it on Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest, just don’t forget to tag Weight Watchers and mention #StepIntoSummer.

Feeling fruity? Here’s how to make four very generous servings of tropical fruit fool…

Tropical fruit fool recipe

Peel the mangoes and slice the cheeks off. Cut one cheek into small dice and set aside. Put the remaining mango flesh into a liquidiser, and blend to a puree. Transfer to a bowl and stir through the seeds from 2 of the passion fruit. Add lime juice to taste.

Put the yoghurt into another bowl and and beat gently to soften. Gently fold through the passion fruit and mango mixture plus about half of the diced mango, leaving it rippled.

Divide the mixture between 4 glasses, and top with the remaining diced mango. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

To serve, scoop the seeds from the remaining passion fruit and drizzle over the top of the fools then sprinkle over a little lime zest. Serve immediately.

Disclosure: I am being compensated by Weight Watchers as one of their #stepintosummer challenge bloggers but all words and opinions are my own.

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Great news – today is competition day! I’ve teamed up with Upbeat to bring you all sorts of giveaway fun.

A competition hey? Sounds good! What do I win?

I thought you’d be pleased! In this lovely little competition from Upbeat you can win an Upbeat goodie bag which includes a bobble bottle, tote bag, notepad, iPhone amplifier, Upbeat hoodie and loads more! Plus you’ll get a whole case of Upbeat, the yummy protein drink.

Upbeat protein drink

A protein drink? Aren’t they just for body builders?

No way! Protein is a really important part of everyone’s diet, and the makers of Upbeat have used their years of dairy expertise to find a way to turn whey protein into a fresh, delicious, creamy drink. It’s a family run business, and you can hear from the creators of Upbeat themselves here: View Post

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Is there a word that applies to baking that is the equivalent of good gardeners having green fingers? Sponge-fingered maybe??

Whatever it is, I am not it.

I have never quite mastered the art of cake-making, my key weakness being an inability to make my sponges rise to anything other than the height of a Frisbee, no matter how high I sieve my flour from. My most infamous attempt at making one of my children a birthday cake resulted in me having to make two cakes – four whole layers of Victoria sandwich – just to make the cake normal height. I could have probably sliced it up and marketed it as one of those calorie-dense foods they send to countries experiencing famine.

I blame my mother of course. I don’t remember much from my childhood, but the pink fire engine she once made will stay with me forever.

If you’d like to learn how to be a little more sponge-fingered in the kitchen, then why not enter my competition to win a spot for you and a friend on the Vale House Kitchen’s Children’s birthday cake course with professional celebrity cake maker Sandra Monger? By the end of the day you’ll have created this amazing monster cake!

Vale House Kitchen monster cake

The course takes place on June 13th at Vale House Kitchen, near Bath. I’ve actually been on a course there already, and can vouch for its awesomeness. The Vale House Kitchen team are all lovely and the venue is gorgeous – even if you’re not that fussed about cakes it’s worth entering purely for a wonderful day out and a yummy lunch.

Vale House Kitchen

To enter, simply complete as many of the actions below as you can. The more you do the better your chances. The competition will close at midnight on May 19th. Full T&Cs apply.

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Disclosure: this is a sponsored post
Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

 

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Is Easter special for you? Webloyalty reveals how many of us will be celebrating this year…

How do you feel about Easter? Do you have a favourite Easter Egg or is it about something else for you? Webloyalty is conducting some Easter research and as part of it you could win ten Easter eggs to either share with family and friends or eat secretly in bed when no one is looking. Read on to find out how to win…

Easter egg competition

“Don’t get me an Easter egg this year,” Bee text me recently.

“Really?” I replied. “How come?”

“I’m trying not to eat sugar,” she replied. “Or dairy.”

OK. Well that definitely narrows it down a little bit.

Fortunately for Bee I don’t tend to buy my Easter eggs until about 5pm on the Saturday before Easter, so there is plenty of time for her to swing the other way and demand a two foot tall Lindt extravaganza. I won’t make the same mistake I made at Christmas, buying an array of expensive vegan chocolates in September only to have her give up veganism in favour of a diet of Burger King and Starbucks as soon as she got to university and had to buy and cook her own food.

When I was little I remember Easter, thanks to my Gran, who always got a little overexcited about gifts, being a very lucrative affair chocolate wise. It wasn’t uncommon for me to end up with a tower of ten eggs. Nowadays though it doesn’t really feel like so much of a thing – as a parent it’s tough to part with £4.99 for what you know is essentially about 27p worth of chocolate and a recycling bin full of cardboard.

I’m not alone. According to Webloyalty, 72.8% of consumers feel that Easter has become far too commercial, and cost is a big issue with almost two-thirds of consumers viewing Easter eggs as poor value for money. Interestingly though this is one area where we don’t appear to want to skimp, with 58% of us intending to buy mostly or solely branded Easter eggs. It seems that something may be lacking in the marketing of own-brand Easter eggs as just 33% of consumers agreed that own-brand eggs are the equal of branded ones. Nobody wants an Asda value egg do they?

The Importance of Easter - Webloyalty research - Slummy Single Mummy

Aside from the eggs, Easter will see lots of us heading off to B&Q or the local craft shop for some wholesome family fun, as well as cooking up a Sunday roast. Personally I prefer to save the space, skip the chicken and stuff myself with chocolate cornflake cakes and mini eggs, but each to his own.

What we are planning this Easter - Webloyalty research - Slummy Single Mummy

One tradition that does hold strong in our house is the Easter Bunny. Just like Father Christmas, I am a big fan of the Easter Bunny as he can do all of the hard work of buying and hiding the eggs, whilst I get all the glory as my children mistakenly believe that he isn’t real.

Seriously, do they think I have managed to get up ever year at dawn, often with a hangover, to hide dozens of tiny eggs in imaginative places? I don’t think so.

Webloyalty’s Easter Competition!

Webloyalty wants to know what your favourite chocolate Easter egg is! To be in with a chance to win the whole lot, just tell them your favourite out of this selection: The Webloyalty Easter Egg Competition. You’ve only got a few days left to enter, so hurry up and do it now!

Easter egg competition

You can follow Webloyalty on Twitter @WebloyaltyUK for more interesting research snippets and ongoing competitions, or take a look at other research on the Webloyalty Slideshare. More importantly, here you can find the Webloyalty Easter Retail Report in full – enjoy!

Photo credit: Nomadic Lass                                                                        

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post

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I have to confess that until we visited Berkeley Castle last year I had never heard of it. It seems strange that you can live so near to somewhere and not know about it, but there you go, I can’t be expected to know everything.

If you read about our trip though, you’ll see that it was an excellent discovery and I’ve been recommending it to people ever since, if only for the butterflies and the yurt cafe. (I love yurts).

Today then, I am very pleased to have a family ticket to give away to visit the spectacular Berkeley Castle over the Easter weekend. There’s loads going on, including life-like dragons and a Chinese dragon parade on the Sunday and Monday. There’s also a dragon egg hunt around the Castle and grounds, and dragon themed arts and crafts activities on all weekend.

Berkeley castle Easter acitivties

Berkeley castle Easter acitivties

Berkeley castle Easter acitivties

Tickets will be valid for any of the Easter weekend days – Friday 18th – Monday 21st – and will be available for collection on the day, so you don’t need to worry about the post arriving in time. The competition will close on Wednesday 16th April at midnight. To enter, just use the widgety thing below.

Good luck!

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I was having a bit of a weird, grumpy day yesterday. Nothing really was wrong, and yet I was wracked with self-doubt and suffering a complete lack of motivation. Fortunately, I had half an Easter egg in the cupboard and eating the whole lot alongside a sneaky lunchtime episode of CSI made me feel much better.

That’s the wonderful power of sugar for you.

A complete addiction to chocolate is the reason that I went and entered the Webloyalty competition to win ten Easter eggs. If I win I plan to change into my pyjamas, lock myself into some sort of cupboard for a few days and devour them secretly, possibly at the same time as watching a Friends box set. Or I might give them as Easter gifts, I haven’t decided yet.

Whatever I do with them though, you have to admit that it’s a really fun prize. Just look at them all!

Easter egg competition

To enter it couldn’t be simpler, all you have to do is visit the Webloyalty blog, vote for your favourite Easter egg, and send a quick tweet, job done. Obviously if you win then you will have to send me one egg as my 10% commission for telling you about the competition in the first place. I will have the Ferrero Rocher one please.

Enter now for your chance to win 10 Easter eggs and live the pyjama cupboard dream.

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post. I need the cash to buy more eggs.

 

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By Annabel Middleton

There are many things that change with the dawn of parenthood; you start going to the toilet with an audience, you leave the house with an array of bodily fluids encrusted into your clothing and you wave goodbye to long weekends spent in a debauched haze at the myriad festivals on offer every summer.

This is one of the bits that my partner struggles with most.

He was very pleased then to discover that there may be a way to recapture some of the fun of festivals past, maybe with less debauchery but still music, food and the occasional beer – the glorious annual Wychwood festival.

Camping at Wychwood festival

Known for its super friendly atmosphere and nominated for ‘best family festival’ every year since it began, Wychwood festival is the top destination for those with children still wanting to sample some festival festivities. Celebrating their 10th birthday, their 2014 line-up will be the biggest and best yet.

There is much excitement in our household as come 30th May this year we will be finding out for ourselves and packing our backpacks, rolling our sleeping bags and stocking up on wet-wipes to make our way to Cheltenham Racecourse for a weekend of frolics. Fulfilling the cliché ‘something for everyone’ there will be over 100 bands over four stages partnered with many different and far-ranging workshops, performances and activities to entertain and excite all family members.

Have a go at mastering circus skills, sit back and enjoy a new and exciting mime show in the family theatre or take up a new skill such as harp playing.

(Doesn’t everyone secretly want to play the harp?)

“Mr Tumble is going to be there?!?!” says my son, barely able to contain his shock that cbeebies characters can escape from the television and make it out into the real world. We are flicking through the Wychwood festival line-up and he spies children’s favourite Justin Fletcher, who is going to be providing some of the younger audience’s entertainment perhaps with his red-nosed, freckled (slightly unnerving, in my opinion) alter-ego Mr Tumble making an appearance.

Mr Tumble Wychwood festival

As if that was not enough, Waterstones will be providing a children’s literature festival covering the whole weekend with favourite authors and illustrators. Roald Dahl stories will be brought to life by the performers from the Roald Dahl Museum; who will also be celebrating fifty years of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with crafts and interactive parades.

There promises to be more chances to unleash younger artists with many craft workshops across the whole weekend, from withy weaving to local organisation ‘Squiggle ‘n’ Jiggle’ (I promise it is child-friendly) who make exciting things from ordinary recycling.

Wychwood festival

To top things off, there will be a Bubble Show from, what I think will become my personal favourite, Sam Sam the Bubble Man-the most famous bubbleologist in the world (if only I had known that was an option in careers guidance at school). Then to help tire them out so they sleep well in the tent, there are dance and movement sessions to burn off energy.

For the grown-ups there will be plenty of great bands, incorporating soul with The Real Thing, new wave Irish legends, The Boomtown Rats and acoustic mastery with Newton Falkner, plus so many, many more. There will also be more grown-up friendly workshops with crafts to nourish the mind, yoga to nourish the body and delicious food stuffs and satisfying real ales to nourish the stomach.

If you want to be part of the family event of the year then you could come join us! (Don’t worry, you don’t have to actually hang out with us).

To win family tickets (two adults and two children), worth £290, plus camping, simply tick off as many items on the Rafflecopter widget below as possible before midnight on 8th April.

Good luck! Hope to see you there!

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Wychwood Festival takes place on Cheltenham Racecourse from 30th May – 1st June 2014. Weekend Festival Tickets for Children/Adults/ Concessions are from £125.00, Under 5’s go free but must register for a ticket. Camping passes must be purchased
in addition to a festival ticket. Visit www.wychwoodfestival.com for further information and to purchase tickets.

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

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Today’s post is written by my very lovely and talented daughter Bee.

In my mind, when I think about the possibility of having children at some point in the next 5-10 years (god, is that all? *panics slightly* maybe I’ll wait till I’m 40,) I envision myself being the perfect parent. I’d have a freezer stocked full of pureed celeriac in heart shaped ice cube trays and a series of development enhancing, bespoke, organic wood toys that I could watch my children play on, supervised by their father Harry Styles, through the window of my beautiful office filled with matching antique furniture as I bang out my fifth award winning novel on my vintage typewriter.

Seems legit right?

This is obviously all very naïve of me, but I do feel like there is quite often a wrong and right when it comes to parenting decisions. Do I let them have Maltesers and a Fruit Shoot for lunch? No. Should I make them brush their teeth before they go to bed? Yes.

Maltesers cake

Note to self: this is not OK for breakfast

One area that I don’t have a strategic action plan for though is discipline. On one hand, I’m not taking any shite from a toddler who thinks they can do whatever they want. I birthed you and you will have the upmost respect for me at all times, young man.

However I don’t want to be mean, because they are probably going to be adorable. If I shouted at them I would feel like I just kicked a puppy and now it won’t look me in the eyes. I also really want my kids to like me, just like Marlin from Finding Nemo:

“What if they don’t like me?”

“Marlin, there are over 400 eggs. Odds are one of them is bound to like you”*

My own mother** will say that her disciplinary methods are wishy-washy and inconsistent but to be honest, I think she’s got it down. I wouldn’t consider myself to have been too much of a terrible child or a rebellious teen, but whenever I did do something wrong it was usually resolved, not with screaming and a meaningless punishment, but an adult conversation where we worked the issue out. Any punishment given would usually be related to the crime, enabling me to set right whatever I had done wrong. I think that because it was dealt with in this way, I usually felt genuinely sorry for my actions and not just like my Mum was over reacting or being a bitch.

I’ve never been grounded, simply because having a plausible excuse to not leave the house for an extended period of time would be a reward to me, not a punishment.

Have you got any discipline techniques that work every time? Are you still trying to work out your discipline style? The way you approach punishing your children obviously will vary with each individual child and will change with age.

The adorable children’s furniture site Room to Grow are looking for parents to give their views on disciplining their child by taking their new survey. You can submit your answers anonymously, but if you provide your details you can be in with the chance to win a £250 voucher to spend on the site! Fab, yes?

The purpose of this short survey is to gain an understanding of the different UK parental attitudes and practices towards child discipline, so your opinions will be really valued should you participate.

Take part in the survey now to be in with a chance to win £250 to spend at Room to Grow!

Good luck!

*I quoted that entirely from memory. I know all the words to Finding Nemo. The whole film. Every word.

 **Note from Editor – that’s me readers!

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post on behalf of Room to Grow. Photo credit – Eldriva.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Do you ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day? Do you wish you could squeeze more in?

I do.

I’m a total sucker for it. Take last week for instance. Thursday was a really busy day for me – I was delivering a half day Twitter workshop in Bristol in the morning, then whizzing over to London to run a social media workshop in the evening. In between I also had to squeeze in a couple of hours of other work. Of course what always happens when you have lots on? You get offered more work. And what do I always do? Say yes.

D’oh!

It seems that no matter how busy I am, I always want to lever in than little bit extra, just to tip me into the chocolate digestive zone.

chocolate digestive

The chocolate digestive zone

The chocolate digestive zone is a very dangerous place. It’s where I have so much to do that I panic and just eat biscuits instead. I feel like in order to get everything done, I need to constantly fuel myself with inappropriate snacks, just in case I get hungry and that means I can’t concentrate.

(I do have a bit of a worry about getting hungry, so tend to pre-empt it by always nibbling on something. I don’t know what I imagine will happen – that I’ll get stranded on a mountain top somewhere, my blood sugar levels will plummet, and that the only thing that will keep me going is the fact that I ate that emergency Rice Krispie square at the station an hour earlier?)

What I should do of course is prepare myself a range of wholesome salads and nutritious nibbles, but that always feels like such a lot of faff – much easier just to reach a sneaky hand out for something.

So…

All of this is why pairing up with Actimel to promote their fabulous Twitter competition felt like such a good fit for me. The giveaway is all about squeezing more into your family day as Actimel, like me, believe that squeezing a lot in is a good thing. In fact, they squeeze yogurt, live cultures, fruit puree, calcium and essentials vitamins B6 & D into every 100g bottle of Actimel. Their fruit flavours even have Vitamin C!

Because Actimel believe squeezing a lot in is a good thing, they are offering you the opportunity to be squeezed into once in a lifetime great events – in this case an amazing music concert at the O2 in London.

Tweet to win!

It’s dead easy to enter. All you have to do is follow @ActimelUK on Twitter and tweet them with the hashtag #squeezemorein to tell them how you are squeezing more into your day. Perhaps you’re juggling several jobs, running the kids from club to club and all at the same time as learning the play the trumpet. Maybe you’re training for a marathon and cooking a lasagne. Whatever you’re doing, Actimel want to hear about it.

The promotion ends at 23.59 on Thursday 6th March 2014 and you can read the full T&Cs on their Facebook page.

Good luck!

Actimel squeeze more in

This is a sponsored post.

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How was Christmas for you? If you are anything like me, (which I suspect you are, otherwise why else would you be here, reading my blog, trying to make yourself feel better about yourself), then it involved quite a lot of lying around.

I did do some exercise, but most of it was the ‘reaching for another piece of toffee’ kind, and I’m not sure that burns off an awful lot of calories. When I went back to netball recently then, for the first time in nearly three weeks, I was in for a bit of a surprise. It wasn’t so much that I wasn’t up to speed on the day, but the next day I found it quite difficult to get out of bed and walk up and down the stairs. Not a good sign.

Truth be told, we tend to let ourselves go a little over the Christmas period. Getting back into fitness can be an uncomfortable business and the other niggly aches and pains, which we tried to ignore as we lugged the Christmas decorations down from the attic and rushed desperately around John Lewis looking for last minute yet thoughtful looking gifts, rear their ugly heads again. View Post

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This Christmas, Virgin Pure is offering fans and followers the chance to win a fantastic water bar by asking them to spread their joy by sharing the things that make them feel good at Christmas! (Not sure what a WaterBar is? Find out more here.)

This might be taking time off work and relaxing at home, eating great food and watching TV, buying gifts for loved ones, catching up with old friends and family that you’ve not seen all year, decorating the Christmas tree, getting creative in the kitchen…

Whatever it is, Virgin Pure want hear about it. View Post

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I have been all about the competitions over the last month.

It seems there is something about Christmas that makes everybody just want to chuck presents at each other. (Not literally obviously. That wouldn’t be very festive. Although I did recently get a netball as a present – that would probably be OK to chuck if it was to someone looking in your direction.) My Win Christmas competition finally drew to a close on Saturday night and those gifts are now all wrapped and in my living room, waiting for me to post them off to the lucky winners.

It’s enough to make you want to refill your sherry glass and crack open another chocolate orange.

In this spirit of giving then, My Family Club are holding an advent giveaway. Every single day in the run up to Christmas you can click on the advent calendar to open up another competition. View Post

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