This is something I tend to make quite frequently, with differing amounts of fruit, to change the taste. I’ll add others as I get time to. I quite often forget to take pictures, which I should get better at. It’s fab for adding protein, especially where it’s missing in anyone’s diet. I can’t persuade my mother to eat meat now, unless it’s cold, and I’m hoping to find a version of this that she’ll eat, but I’m not there yet. #fussyelder
Two of my boys love this style of dessert, especially if I add a few sprinkles on the top, like this one, or some chocolate shavings, or mix a little fresh cream through it before serving. This recipe could easily be split into two, as it’s rather a large serving. I often have something like this for breakfast or lunch.
Cut the carbs by using berries.
High Protein Frozen Mango Yoghurt
Lesley Smith
My preference is for Skyr, because of the silkier taste but today, I had Fage, Total 0% in the fridge, which has similar properties in the plain, with slightly different protein amounts from Skyr.
Take one or two chunks of your mango and keep it to one side. Add the rest to a blender, with the yoghurt, and blend until it reaches a consistency you like. I prefer mine not to be completely smooth, but we all have different preferences.
Add the mixture to an ice cream maker if you have one (and use it) or if you're like me today, I popped it into a freezer proof plastic tub and let it chill for an hour, then took it out and stirred it before putting it back.
I like to leave mine for around 4 hours, then stir briskly, before it's totally set. I like that consistency. If I make for the kids, I'd add a touch of cream at this stage and mix it in well, then pop it back for another hour. The larger portion you make, the longer it will need to be in the freezer for.
Use the mango set aside to decorate the top, and add sprinkles for some lovely colour, or to make the dessert look impressive on the table.
Sponsored Guest Post, by Michael Todt of Lending Works
It’s the subject of hot debate at the moment – should parents be allowed to take their children on holiday during term time? Given the prohibitive costs of travel and accommodation, there will no doubt be many families weighing up the cost of the £60 statutory fine against the premium of going away during school holidays, which can sometimes be as much as 115 per cent. It can thus be a big money-saver, depending on the itinerary, destination and length of the trip – which is why tens of thousands of families willingly absorb the penalty.
Of course, the goal posts have now shifted completely with the recent High Court ruling which went in favour of a father who refused to pay his fine. The man, who lives on the Isle of Wight, was a former law student, and argued that even with the six days his daughter missed, she still had sufficient or ‘regular’ attendance to meet the minimum requirement implied by the Education Act.
A game changer?
Some have hailed it as a breakthrough and a precedent for other parents to exploit. However, it’s important to note that judges who cleared him of his fine still haven’t laid out a clear definition or minimum of what ‘regular attendance’ actually is, so it would be wrong to assume that holidaying during term time won’t result in a fine in a general sense.
It’s a thorny issue, and people argue strongly on both sides. Certainly, I’m a big believer in the importance of school attendance, but it’s easy to understand the other side of the argument whereby certain families simply can’t afford to go away during school holidays, or even get leave from work during that time.
The value of family holidays
What is certain is the very importance of holidays themselves, and it’s good to see that there is at least some sort of fightback against the rising costs families are facing. I found it shocking that nearly 1.5 million families in the UK can’t even afford a single day out together, let alone a holiday which involved putting heads on different pillows in terms of accommodation elsewhere.
There are specific organisations and charities like the Family Holiday Association which help struggling families out by organising day trips and holidays. For the rest of us, an increasingly popular option is taking out a loan. Given that interest rates are now pretty low on personal loans, and they are pretty quick and easy to get, it’s not a great surprise that more than 1 in 5 Brits use some kind of finance to fund their holidays.
Of course, the important thing to establish before going down this route is whether the repayments are affordable, and that they aren’t going to apply ever-more pressure onto your household finances – otherwise the whole idea of going on holiday could prove to be self-defeating in terms of R&R!
Deciding what to do
Every family’s individual circumstances and viewpoints are different, and deciding the best course of action is very much down to personal choice. Some are starting to favour ‘staycations’ as a means of avoiding the wallet-draining costs of going abroad altogether.
Either way, as far as possible, do what you can to ensure there is at least some sort of getaway in the pipeline for the family. Holidays shouldn’t be seen as some sort of elite privilege. In the busy lives we lead, they’re a vital way of maintaining sanity, and, more importantly, a way to build lifelong memories that can mould families together. So make some plans and give yourselves something to look forward to – you all deserve it!
Disclaimer: The Scottish Mum Blog is in no way affiliated with or to Lending Works. Any agreement you make is between yourself and Lending Works. The Scottish Mum Blog and authors are not responsible for any outcome, legal or otherwise, as a result of an agreement you make with Lending Works, in any form.
For however it happens, sweet potatoes don’t send my blood sugar as high a regular potatoes. It’s a real shame, as we grow potatoes on our plot and have some to use year round. We do eat a lot of potatoes though, and many go into soups. Sweet potatoes aren’t an easy grow, especially this far North of the border, where there isn’t much sunlight in a year, although I really do wish we could grow them.
Anyway, this is a nice and simple slow cooker recipe, although remember that my amounts are fairly large, and you might be better cutting them down for a smaller slow cooker or smaller family batches.
I’ve used round steak from my local butcher, the lean butcher in Chattan Place, Aberdeen. He delivers across the UK, so it fits in well for me. I dislike having to actually go shopping terribly often. I find the round steak is perfect for us, but slow cooking does well with tougher cuts of meat too.
500gMixed Sweet Potatoes. Mine are white and orange.
2Dessertspoons Cornflour.
Seasoning or Stock.I used chicken seasoning, and put in 3 teaspoons.
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Water.
Instructions
When you're vegetables are all chopped, add them to your slow cooker, with the meat. At times, I will lightly fry the meat and onions, but for slow cooking, the method of cooking seems to be more than enough for us to miss out this step at times.
Stir the cornflour into a little water in a cup, until it forms a smooth paste or is dissolved completely. It should look a little like milk. Add to the slow cooker.
Add seasoning and or stock cubes etc.
Stir the ingredients around well.
Add enough hot water to cover around half way up the ingredients. Be careful not to scald yourself.
Pop on the lid and cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low, for a high wattage slow cooker. Adjust the cooking time based on your knowledge of your own machine. The vegetables are likely to take the longest to cook, especially the carrots and white sweet potatoes.
If your gravy looks too thin close to the end of cooking, mix up a little more cornflour and water, and add to the slow cooker, stirring the ingredients, and let cook for a further half hour.
Well, what can I say…. I’m pretty rubbish at this running thing. I’m doing it, but almost everyone else I see, seems to have got it licked, whereas I just plod along, step after step until I’ve had it.
The treadmill, I can do, but I’m struggling getting above 5 + k outside. I get to around the 5k mark and I seem to have this mental block for actually continuing to run terribly much further without stopping for a good walking break.
I went out with a friend this week, for her first day of couch to 5k. I really actually enjoyed redoing the walk 2.5 minutes and run for 1 minutes spells. She struggled, as I did when I started, and I found it quite strange to not even get the slightest bit of change to my breathing while she struggled… BUT, I was there a few short months ago…..
I’d love to be able to run the whole 10k, I really would, but with only 4 weeks to go, I’m nowhere near ready to manage that distance. I’m not young, and I’m about a stone away from where I’d like to be. I tell myself that running will be a whole lot easier when I’m carrying around that 14lb less, but I know that’s only fooling my brain while I’m reaching the end of a run… 🙂
I’m still self conscious outside. Actually, I find it excruciatingly embarrassing to plod along, as people tend to look up. I know they don’t give a fig, but hey, we’re only human, and it’s tough to ignore people looking when you’re very self conscious. I’m ignoring it as much as I can, and persuading myself not to care, although I’m still only very rarely running in our village.
It goes a little like this:
See a car coming towards me, lift my head, speed up a bit till it’s passed, then slow down a bit to get breathing under control. See someone walking towards me, close my mouth and breathe through my nose till they go out of sight…….
But, it’s for a good cause, right? Without the race for life, I wouldn’t be outside at all really. I’d still be plodding on my treadmill, sweating buckets and thinking I was slower than a sleeping tortoise. At least I know my timings are faster outside now, even if I’ll still struggle to finish the 10k in the alloted time. I’m practicing speedwalking too, in the attempt to finish my 10k in the hour and a half, even if I have to walk half of it. I’ll be alone, so I hope to have a bit of a crowd somewhere I can get lost in. It’s a daunting first public distance outing. I’m half wishing I’d opted for the 5k. At least I know I could finish that, but then I wouldn’t be pushing myself, would I?
Perhaps doubting yourself is common for a new runner who found it tough to get this far. I love running, I really do, but seem to be taking much longer than other people to build up distance.
There’s no shame in walking though, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed there will be other walkers on the 10k, and they’re not all the local super speedies I see out and about 🙂 I know lots of people walk the 5k, and I wouldn’t mind having walkers on the 10K, but with only 456 people signed up to my local 10k so far this year, I’m starting to worry…..
In the meantime, I’m off out for another run, and intend to walk a 3k afterwards to build the distance to run and walk outside. Oh, and if anyone has any tips for how to stop myself going scarlet in the face while I’m out running, I’m all ears…….
Before I start my review, I have a confession to make. A miserable tale of electronic devilishness.
Like the annoying snapper at a wedding, I’d walked around the restaurant, pointed my lens at everything I thought looked amazing, and sat back in the knowledge I’d a lot of lovely images, including great ones of my kids enjoying a rare evening out with their parents. Cheerily I loaded my SD Card, looking forward to printing some off for the kids and for my review, to find nothing registering, nada….dead as the preverbial Dodo.
So, in short, all I can do is tell you how it went for us. Pictures usually say a thousand words, but in this case, the thousand words will have to do instead. I’ll try to make them easy reading, but I know that without those colourful additions, it’s really difficult to convey how good our experience was last week.
To make up for it, I’ve borrowed some images directly from Harvester, so thanks go to the PR team allowing me to do that.
This blurry picture is the only one I’ve got from my phone when we were about to leave the house. Not ideal, but I was looking forward to going out with my family.
Setting
The lovely offer of a meal at our local Harvester was welcome indeed. We had a very lovely meal, which was a really nice family evening, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Seeing my boys eat so much was nice too, although the fussy youngest went for a kids meal, which was no problem.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.ukImage Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Our Harvester, the Ghillies Lair, is set at the Bridge of Dee, and overlooks the Dee itself. The restaurant has a lovely extension with views over the River Dee, which would be a lovely sight on a nice evening.
The Bridge is old, very old, and dates from 1527. It’s used daily by all sorts of traffic, to leave or enter the City of Aberdeen. It’s built along a row ribbed arches, using granite and sandstone. I’ve known that bridge my whole life. Along with the old suspension bridge a bit further along, it’s steeped in history, and we’re lucky enough to still be using this one, although the suspension bridge was closed to traffic long ago.
The Ghillies Lair has an outdoor seating area, overlooking the river, for lovely summery days, and although we’re not there yet, but I’ve fond memories of sitting outside on a nice day for an ice-cream when I used to work at that end of town.
Service
What can I say! Our server was lovely and nothing was too much trouble. She was polite and friendly and they accommodated my wish for the BBQ Chicken Stack, without the BBQ sauce as I don’t often like it. She even posed, in good spirits, for an impromptu picture that’s gone belly up with my SD card. Perhaps she’ll be very pleased about that… I did spring it on her, without warning…. 🙂
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Menu
Three of us went for the set menu, we had one child dish and I chose from the regular menu. In our local Harvester, there’s an evening set menu, where from 5pm every evening, we have the choice of a main meal + either a starter or a dessert for £10.99, or add a third course for £2. There was lots to choose from and the menus are online, so it’s easy to take a cheeky peek before you go.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Drinks
It was nice to see the option of drinks that we can refill as often as we want ourselves, as with three kids, our drinks bills, even for soft drinks, often outprices the cost of meals. No worries here, with the ability to choose from several different options, and fill up with ice and fizzy drinks as much as we wanted. I know many people don’t like fizzy drinks for kids, but when we’re out, it’s a treat, and I’ve always been happy enough for my kids to choose what they want. Sometimes one of mine chooses a water or orange juice, but refillable drinks tick the boxes for me.
Sauces
A whole bar of them. Loads and loads to choose from. BBQ, tomato, relishes, mayonnaise, speciality glazes and lots of different sauces to choose from.
Salad Bar
What can I say. Lots of different choices, from coleslaw, beetroot, pickled onion, tomatoes, lettuce, carrot, and much much more. The trays were replenished throughout and I felt confident I was eating fresh food. It’s not a one visit fits all, so we could visit the salad bar as often as we liked. My eldest went up three times for a top up. There was plenty to go round for everyone.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Bread, butter, croutons, dressings, bacon bits and more, were also available. If someone goes in there and says there’s nothing to choose from, I’d think they were nuts… Wait, that’s exactly what my youngest said…… No problem. Kids menu and chicken in a southern fried coating with chips saved the day.
Main Courses
The man and middle child chose from the set menu, going for the Signature Fish and Chips, with Ice-Cream for afters. When their fish and chips arrived, the plates were brimming over with the large fish and enough chips to even keep middler happy. He’d already eaten four or five of the small bread rolls from the salad bar, and a bowl – brimming full of salad. Eldest went for the set menu burger, and I had the BBQ Chicken Stack. There’s a sauce station with lots of different sauce and glaze options, so I had plenty to choose from. Much more than I’ve ever seen in any restaurant I’ve been to in the past.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.ukImage Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Dessert
Spoiled for choice, we couldn’t decide. Three opted for the simple ice-cream, but I decided to throw my calorie budget to the wind and go for the Rocky Road – a sundae full of chocolate brownie deliciousness, topped with fresh cream, and including honeycomb and fudge pieces.
My youngest chose the Chocolate Fudge Cake with Belgian chocolate sauce and real dairy ice-cream, and the slice that came seemed huge. He did have a dilemma when he compared it with the Eton Mess Cheesecake, as the raspberries in sauce and fluffy cream were a definite screaming taste bud temptation.
His eyes popped when the cake was carried out. ‘I’m going to eat it all,” he announced to our waitress, with a smug grin…. She smiled knowingly.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
At the point he exhaled with exhausted happiness at eating as much as he could, eldest quickly slid the plate over and began to dig in. By the time he sat back and patted his full belly, there was even a little left over.
Information and Nutrition
This may not seem like much to some of you, but to some pernickety chiels, like me, and many others, allergens and nutritional content is important. I want to know where I sit with my calorie and nutrient budget for the week.
Working a weekly budget fits high calorie items into my life. I don’t do deprivation. As a diabetic, it’s essential for me. At many restaurants, I have to guess by plucking figures out of thin air and hoping for the best, but not with the Harvester – as they had all the information on their website.
They also have an allergen, gluten and milk guide, so meals or special diets can be planned in advance. I had two very high calorie dishes, but because the information was all there, it was easy to fit it all in, and be confident that I’d got it pretty right. And it was worth every last wicked calorie…
Overall
Between the five of us, we ate masses of food. Apart from the meal, how much else we eat, is up to us.
With the unlimited salad, sauces, breads and fizz. I can’t imagine anyone ever leaving a Harvester, and still being hungry. And with a clean and fresh ladies room, everything I looked for ticked all the boxes. I don’t remember having such a lovely evening with my boys for quite a while. Having all the teens in one place and eating together gets harder and harder as they grow older.
Although we benefited from a welcome voucher towards our meal, we thoroughly enjoyed it, and will be back as full paying guests. We’ve been to Harvesters before, and always enjoyed the experience.
Ok, you know by now that I’m doing the Race for Life Aberdeen 2016, 10K. I’ll be walking some, but I’m going to run as much as I can. I have a slight knee injury, which means I’ve cut back on training this week to let it heal, but hopefully it doesn’t last for too long.
I’d like to raise £150 if at all possible, and if you want to sponsor me, feel free to use my widgets and badges to help you along.
My race for life Just Giving page is lesleysmith001 or click on the image below to take you to my fundraising page. Cancer Research UK funded my place for running, so I’ll also be donating the entry fee I saved to my account. If you do sponsor me, and you’re comfortable, leave a wee message so I know who did an awesome thing for me and the future of cancer research.
If you’re a text person, and want to sponsor me, even if it’s a pound, simply text in a donation if you’d like to. You can donate in numbers of £1, £2,£3, £5 or £10. It takes a little while to show up.
E.g. The number to text for Race for Life: 70700 SMBL55 £1
We all know exercise is good for us…..right… It should also be um fun…..right?????? Bwahahahaha. I couldn’t not share this quickly on the blog. I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved in the last year so far.
As if some of you hadn’t thought I was nuts enough to start running at my age, I accepted a challenge from Simply Health, to try out a new Fitbit Flex, and use it for activities locally. We all need more exercise, don’t we?
I worried a little about my hands as they’re weak, but I’m not going to let that stop me. Little did I know what I’d let myself in for. Numpy, yes me, that’s what I am, really and truly. Next time someone asks me to do something like this, bop me on the head, then tell me what a great thing it is to do. I’ll believe ya – honest. It’s good for me too.
The challenge they set, was to do the local Go Ape course at Crathes Castle, which is something I’ve never tried before, although I’ve watched my boys try out something smaller. They had a blast, and it looked like fun. I could do this……right? Ya bet I could. Maybe….
On what looked to be a really rubbish and drizzly, yucky day, we rocked up to start our safety briefing, in our recommended clothes, ready to get mucky and wet. With gloves on, my hair tied back, and sensible shoes on, I was ready to go with a couple of my boys. Thankfully the sun came out and it ended up as a pretty good day.
The experience of Go Ape, promises a tree top adventure, flying down zip wires, jumping off tarzan swings and high rope crossings in breathtaking woodland. It’s a lot to live up to. It also sounds painful for someone who wasn’t even a couple of flights of stairs fit not that long ago, but hey, even at my age, new things are worth trying. If I can do it, then almost anyone can. But….and you’ll have to read on……for where I needed a boost up…
Some others in the group in front of us were taking pictures of each other, very artfully, as they only had to hook themselves on and go, but as I’d two kids to supervise, and make sure they were hooked and unhooked on each time, I didn’t get time to take any shots at all, and had to make do with the ones from my other half’s phone. We went last, as I’d two kids to keep an eye on, and it was just as well, as we seemed to take ages.
At the top of this slide, I looked down, checked sideways, saw some people watching and pretended to be not scared at all. Not a jot. Who me? You’re kidding right!
I got stuck at one bit. I took one look at the Tarzan Swing, across to a cargo net and even my eldest said he was “shi****g” himself… That didn’t make me feel any better, honestly… Especially after hearing someone screaming when they did it ten minutes before us…… Having weak hands meant that I struggled to pull myself up on the cargo net after the Tarzan Swing. My hands had almost had it, and pulling myself up to the platform was impossible, so one of the instructors had to give me a bit of a help up, which was fine. I still had to do it myself, but with a little help from a pulley to take the pain away from my hands. I am so glad I had gloves with leather palms on, or at this bit, I’d have struggled even more. There was the option for a slightly easier route, but with boys being boys, they wanted to go the hard way, and mum being mum, and supervising, had no option but to go the same way… Duhhh…
The zip slides were incredibly more fun than I expected, even though I bashed my head on the second one by lying too far back as I dug my heels in to stop. Just as well they have that soft bark on the bottom, or I’d have been spending the night in A&E. As it was, my head sort of bounced and it was fine, but taught me to keep my head up on the next two… Lesson learned…. Pretty quick…
The Go Ape experience, according to the internet, burns approximately 500 calories for a woman, so it’s a not too shabby way of getting some good exercise in there while also having some fun. My shoulders ached just a little afterwards, but nothing major, although my hands might take a day to recover, but if you don’t have a touch of arthritis or anything in your hands, you’ll be fine. I’m not sure that many other women my age would go swinging about like tarzan, but hey, we’re only as old as the things we do. I’m nowhere near ready for the pipe and slippers… Maybe when I’m 90!
Right, the Fitbit Flex. Thanks Simply Health, for the lovely gift.
This was easy to pair with my phone, and wearing it was quite simple, although it felt a bit strange being a little loose for the first couple of hours. I used it to do a 5K on my treadmill to try it out, and felt oddly gratified that it showed 6.5K, on a par with my Apple Watch, when my treadmill hit the 5K, at around the same time as it takes me to do outdoors. Bonus….I’m slow, but proving not to be as tortoise like as I thought I was on the treadmill. Still plodding slow though. I’m not kidding myself at all, uh uh…
This was my starting and end point today. 2062 steps before starting, and 5926 steps after it was finished, and I had food. I was starving afterwards. I could have eaten dry sawdust, I was that hungry. I was going to say I could have eaten a scabby horse, but wondered if someone might actually take me seriously. I wouldn’t eat horse, let alone a scabby one, and a scabby one, I’d be more likely to feed me to, as I’d feel so sorry for it.
Anyway..
The calories on this throws me a bit, as it states calories up to that point in the day, rather than for the whole day upfront. I ate 991 calores by 5.15 and it said I was 429 calories over for the day, which is deceiving at first. I quite like that it monitors sleep. I’ll need to get my youngest night own to wear it and see the quality of his sleep. He’s a dreadful night owl.
At first, I took one look at the active minutes, and went huhhhh…… Only 9 tiny minutes, heartsink…after three hours swinging about like Jane hanging from the rafters! Then I realised it only records spells where you’re active for more than 10 minutes at a time, and with spells in-between activities, it seems to have cut out for each one. Gutted…but makes sense.
I’m a gadget girl, so I was always going to like this anyway. I’m a sucker for electronics and I DO like the steps it counted for the treadmill. Not that I’ve already told you that of course.
So, the short story is, that getting more exercise can be fun. Give it a go, you won’t regret it. Even my eldest actually enjoyed it, and getting any 15 year old to enjoy a family activity isn’t as easy as making a custard pie…… Result all round..
Thanks to Simply Health for the Go Ape Experience and our Fitblit Flex
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Newest Comments:
I agree with you John ogroats is a dreary miserable lifeless place stuck in the 1940s full of greedy little…
Hi Made lot of rolls and bread. Try make 50/50 rolls and come out great.and used my bread machine.
For your dry potato, look for Kerrs Pink, September onwards.
Perhaps doubting yourself is common for a new runner who found it tough to get this far. I love running, I really do, but seem to be taking much longer than other people to build up distance.
Ok, you know by now that 
I agree with you John ogroats is a dreary miserable lifeless place stuck in the 1940s full of greedy little…
Hi Made lot of rolls and bread. Try make 50/50 rolls and come out great.and used my bread machine.
For your dry potato, look for Kerrs Pink, September onwards.