Author: Scottish Mum

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Review: The Nutribox

Nutribox offered to send a wee box of delicious nutritious snacks to try.  The snacks come boxed and straight to our doors.   They have a healthy eating approach to living and they only want to have snacks that are both nutritious and tasty to send out to their customers.

Nutri Box3

All the snacks are gluten free and suitable for vegetarians which means they are suitable for most of us.   There are two options when ordering, ie to have a full box or a mini box to try some of the snacks, or to give as a gift.

We tried the mini nutri box but not the vegan one.

There were mixed reactions from the kids as to the taste of some of the snacks, but the red chilli cashews and the brownie were very popular indeed.

Nutri Box Chilli Cashews

Nutri Box Brownie

I like a piece of chocolate, but I’d have to say I’d give the chocolate bar a miss as it just wasn’t to my taste.

Nutri Box2

All boxes come with a mix of energy boosting dried fruit and nut mixes, energy bars and raw ingredients.  At first when I looked at the price of the boxes, my thoughts went to how expensive they seemed to be, but when I priced some similar items in supermarkets and online stores, the price seemed to make much much more sense as the retail price of raw ingredients and snacks like these seems to be very high.

We all enjoyed some of the snacks, but I’d have to seriously think twice about signing up for an online monthly box.  The easy cancellation option makes it a good option for a gift and I may send one to a friend later in the year as I think this would be perfect as a present.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a Nutribox Mini for Review

 

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Fillet Steak, Bag Roasted in Red Wine

Using roasting bags is a relatively new find to me. I’ve usually roasted in tin foil, but have found that roasting in a bag actually gives me a much better texture and taste.

Fillet Steak 7

It actually doesn’t look like much on a plate, but it tasted absolutely heavenly. I’m not quite sure how else I would ever cook a fillet again, as this has spoiled me rotten. Our fillet steak came from Andrew Gordon Butchery and Fine Foods as does most of the meat on this blog nowadays. It’s always easier to have a successful meal when we start with great ingredients.

The addition of red wine made me a little nervous when I was making it, but I needn’t have worried. I’d love to try it in stout another day. The piece of fillet was gorgeous, and I think that’s what made me nervous about cooking such a great piece of meat this way, but for us, it was amazing.

Fillet Steak

Lesley Smith

Fillet Steak, Bag Roasted in Red Wine

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings: 5 - 6
Course: Mains
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 800 g Fillet Steak
  • 5 Large Carrots Cut into batons.
  • 3 Large Onions Sliced in strips.
  • 100 ml Red Wine
  • 500 g Tomato Passata
  • 1 teaspoon Rainbow Peppercorns
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 Clove Garlic

Method
 

  1. This is so easy to do. Simply rub the pepper and salt evenly into the fillet steak.
  2. Put the passata and wine into the roasting bag first, and then add the other ingredients one by one. Gently hold the neck of the bag and allow the contents to mix and coat the vegetables.
  3. Add the fillet steak to the bag and gently move the ingredients around until the fillet steak is fully covered by the ingredients.
  4. Pop in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees c for approximately an hour. If you like your meat well done, leave it for 1.5 hours and check on it. If you wish to thicken your gravy, pop it in a pan and reduce or thicken it for a few minutes until it reaches the texture you prefer.
  5. Serve with mash, bread, rice or salad.

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The Tweeny Teen Effect with Social Media

Teens are infuriating, and tweens and teens who don’t follow house rules are even more infuriating.

angry kitten

There are times when I wonder if I was hit with a forgetting stick the day that I decided having kids would be a good idea.  In among all the good and the not so good comes the infinitely worse growing up stage where they assert their growing limbs with the determination of a dog with a bone.

Arriving home late every night doesn’t stop them deciding that parents came from outer space with ten heads, geeky glasses and the uncool stick strapped to their heads as babies.  They never remember that we were once kids ourselves, and know EXACTLY what it’s like to have peer pressure, little crushes and huge anxieties.

Watching eldests Facebook is how I keep tabs on what he is doing.  Yes, I allowed Facebook because the alternative was to say no, and have him set one up at a friend’s house that I had no knowledge of at all.

I’ve mentioned this before, and have been pilloried for allowing my child to be on Facebook at all, yet, I look at his friends list and see very few kids who don’t have an account.  Even children whose parents have told me their kids aren’t allowed Facebook are there in all their self taken seductively photographed glory.

What worries me most is watching how some scenarios play out.  I delete inappropriate things and I can talk him through some of the things that happen, and I think we’re doing quite well with it.  Kids seem to be going online earlier and earlier and I’ve seen some very young children online.

I’ve spoken to parents recently who think their kids don’t have any social media accounts, but the reality is that if we don’t allow them, the parents of other kids will make those decisions for us and allow them to use it there.

I’ve heard too many parents say they don’t understand it all, or totally blast social media without the slightest idea of what it’s all about.  By law of averages, anyone reading my blog is likely to be reasonably technically aware and responsible, but how sad that so many don’t take an interest in their kids online activities.

Do you allow your children to use social media?  If you don’t, how do you know they don’t have accounts that you don’t know about?  Do you approve of social media for kids?  These are questions that all parents who are able to need to tackle.

I think our schools should be teaching our kids about the Internet from a much earlier age than they do.  We can’t stop our kids accessing inappropriate content, but we can help them to deal with it when they come across it.  The Internet and it’s good and bad points is not going to go away.  We all have a responsibility to all our kids to help them cope with it.  We tell them not to talk to strangers on one hand, but many of us let them talk to anyone they want to online.

From an early age our kids can negotiate parental controls, history deletion and sneaking on with smartphones on friends wi-fi systems.

Isn’t it time that parents who don’t use social media, or don’t approve of the Internet got with the programme and actually learned what it’s all about so they can help their kids with it instead of burying their heads in the sand and thinking it will all go away.

pocolo

 

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A Trip Down Memory Lane. It’s Messy.

My boys are fine for pictures of the early days of their adoption going online.  I don’t mind as they are completely unrecognisable now and they love to look through some of them.  I will always regret not having a decent camera when they were little and always being so busy that I rarely found time to take any pictures.

The kids arrived and we just got on with it.  They were foster children as a last minute favour placement while we looked for our own family children and we thought they would be moving on.  They settled in really quickly and just took over.   When social services and the courts decided they were to go up for adoption, it just didn’t seem right to ask them to move on.

It took the dog a while to adjust and I love the picture of her sizing up the noisy thing in front of her.  They used to cuddle up with the little one fast asleep in her stomach and I so wish I had managed to get some pictures of that.

Kids 1

There’s not much difference here is there?  How much effort does it take to use the spare room for a cat before the kids arrived, and then sleep anywhere you drop once the kids arrive.

Kids 2

Those were the days that the animals were young, fit and healthy.

Animals

And the last time that mum was a fit healthy gym bunny with plenty time on her hands that evaporated with the arrival of the boys.  I have no photos of me at the moment and I hate meeting people who knew me a few years ago.  I look nothing like this now, but you won’t see a pic of me online 🙂

Lesley

The early days when we had a party with sweet treats, before the days we knew they were laden with bad stuff that send you bananas.  Yes, I know that colour is well out of date, those walls are almost white now and the wrecked table and chairs saw the skip long ago.

Kids Chocolate

What that sugar rush led to.

Kids Mess

 

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Review: How Cool Are Your Trainers

Trainers 3

I don’t know about everyone else, but when my boys get their feet in a pair of trainers, they really don’t last for terribly long.   The hardwearing ground they pound daily – along with endless hard leather ball kicking takes its toll on cheap trainers, and they tend to last less than a fortnight.

Along with tree climbing, scooter ground trailing and plain old kick your heels off the chair trauma, it’s no wonder that we tend to through loads of pairs of the things.

I was the typical bad mum at the start of winter.  After buying a fresh pair of supermarket trainers for one of my boys, I put his foot clothing out of my mind, only to be faced with a tough nut of a friends mother phoning me a few days later and giving me a hard time over the state of his trainers that had come apart from the sole to the heel and flapped as he walked.

Mortified, I went to pick him up and found him with trainers so badly used that they looked like they were more than 6 years old, let alone the 6 days old that they actually were.  I don’t know who those trainers were made for, but it wasn’t for active kids.

I try, whenever I can to get a pair that I know are going to last the test of time.  Our local Clarks store in the Mothercare branch stop at size 2, so I’d got out of the habit of looking for Clarks shoes, although I think my kids lived in them until they outgrew the sizes in our local shop.

Being offered a pair of Clarks to try for my eldest was a lovely chance to try the old kind of shoes we used to buy for the kids.   He chose the In-Play Blue Combi Sports Shoes and he seemed tickled pink to get trainers like he used to wear as a wee tootie.

They arrived really quickly, and somehow I have managed to lose the PR’s e-mail address so I am sorry for not being able to thank her in person.

Clarks Trainers2

Eldest is chuffed to bits as they have strong toes which are perfect for playing footie with.

Clarks Trainers

He’s tickled pink as the shoes are really very trendy and the bright colours sit well with him.

Clarks Trainers 4

Now I know it’s easy enough to order from their website, I can see there will be some more Clarks coming back into our house.

I’ve actually missed them this last couple of years as they lasted so well when my kids were little, so I really would like to hug the PR, but unfortunately, I can’t get back in touch.  If you know her, could you point her in my direction so I can say thanks.

Disclaimer:  We were sent Clarks In Play Blue Combi Leather Sports Shoes to Review

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Featured: House Renovations on a Budget

It’s the easiest thing in the world to ignore things in our homes when they begin to start looking a little tired and drab. Our homes should be places that we can relax, unwind and simply get ourselves back into the right frame of mind to move on with the next days, weeks and months of our lives.

It would be fantastic if we could sit in the middle of luxurious surroundings and gorgeously sumptuous carpets to sink our toes into, but we can’t all have those privileges. As lucky as we are to have a nice house and a family to fill it, there are things that I would like to change about it. I can’t see it happening until the kids leave home, and that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

I love my kitchen, which I did on a budget by buying all the pieces separately on the Internet and getting them sent to me. It already needs a freshen up and a repaint and I regret not getting my granite backsplash higher up the wall, but I’m stuck with it now. I have two of these blinds in my kitchen and they were £28 each from B&Q. They look much more expensive.

kitchen

I know I am lucky to have a decent kitchen to make food for my family with, and shopping around was the only way we could afford to do it. As usual, labour costs tend to make things very expensive, but it’s also worth shopping around for those too.

Our homes are the biggest expense that we are ever likely to make, and doing the maintenance is important to get them to increase in value, or even just maintain its value, depending on where we live.

In reality, there is always something to change, fix, repair or replace as our tastes change and develop and home improvements can cost a bomb. To keep home maintenance to a premium, so many of us forget to keep things like our gutters cleaned out or drains clear and they are always worth doing to stop future problems further down the line.

There are ways we can look for savings to help us with our renovation needs, whether we need to call in professionals or not. I did my front lounge on a budget last year and was so pleased how it came out. I just have to move onto some more rooms one by one.

Competitions

There are lots of them. Some brands carry them and entering is usually quite easy.

Home and Garden Exhibitions

If one comes to your area, it’s worth going. Some brands might carry giveaways or have some good tips to help change your home on a budget.

Internet Searches

When I got my granite worktops, I had mine priced by kitchen and DIY companies locally, then went on and got them for less than half that price from a company in England who came up and fitted them bespoke. It was well worth it.

New Year Sales

If I plan to buy any furniture, I always plan to buy just after New Year. It’s amazing the savings and offers that come up on the 1st of January. When we bought the suite in our family room, it fluctuated between £1600 – £1800 the four times we went to look at it, but on the 1st January, we got the same thing which was a corner suite with two reclining chairs, an extra TV unit and an extra chair for £1200. The wait was well worth it.

DIY

There are things you can do on a budget. I rarely have anyone come in to do any painting for us. Maybe that’s why the whole house is now in need of a refresh from top to bottom, but I will get there in the end. I’m a bit of an all thumbs person when it comes to making things for soft furnishings like curtains, blinds and cushions, but some people find they have the equivalent of green fingers once they start. If you don’t try, you’ll never know.

This is a featured post.

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Sticky BBQ Chicken, Cherry Tomatoes & Cucumber

Sticky BBQ Chicken 570

Much easier than it looked, I think I’m now hooked on cooking in the bag. This time round, I bought Maggi So Juicy to try it, but after seeing it is a Nestle product and knowing the boycott around them for the advertising campaigns at mothers in third world countries to get them to buy baby formula, I doubt I’ll buy it again. My next attempt will just be a roasting bag with herbs and spices in it.

I didn’t see anything to worry me on the ingredients list, although I’d have preferred to do without the Maltodextrin if it was at all possible.

All there is to it, is to open the top, take out the bag and pop your chicken into it. Then shake the seasoning into the bag, tie the end with the clip provided and turn the bag over and over until all the seasoning coats the chicken.

I used chicken breasts from my favourite online butcher. I forgot to pierce the 4 small holes in the top of the bag, but it didn’t seem to do any damage. I added 5 whole chicken breasts to the pack and there was plenty of room for them to cook despite being huge.

The bag expands a fair bit so make sure you put it in the lower to middle of your oven, otherwise, you could end up like me with the top of the bag sticking to the upper rack and having to peel it off.

Thankfully the bag stood up to a fair bit of punishment all in all, and I did spend longer cooking it than was recommended on the pack. I cooked for an hour, whereas the recipe said 30 – 40 minutes for drumsticks. I reasoned that the big chicken breasts would take longer to cook and they came out just perfectly.

I served with Potato fritters, cherry tomatoes and cucumber.

My next job is to try it without the ready made herbs and spices.

Sticky BBQ Chicken 2

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Children And The Music Machines

Who really stops and thinks when they’re passwording their Internet and thinking they’re being clever by saying their kids can’t get access to anything untoward in our homes?  I remember duly locking down my kids Facebook, our browsers and the Apple gadgets, only to be faced with an afternoon of gyrating by way of our TV music channels.

The idea amongst our Film and Music video producers seems to be focussed on selling sex to our minors as a way of enticing them to spend money and time on their music.   Watching the videos and children gyrating in time to the beat in discos and kids parties is sometimes enough to make me gag and feel like throwing up my dinner.

The artists demean themselves by promoting junk while they pretend their music is not for anyone under a certain age.  Why then, can I turn on the music channel any time of day and be confronted by scantily clad women and men pouting and birling to the tune of suggestive content?  Most of these artists made their name from the kids who they now profess not to be singing for, and wouldn’t be far short of being thrown off the top shelf in a newsagents.

In 2011, the Guardian reported that music videos faced a “crackdown over sexualised content with a Government report into sexualisation of childhood set to propose tougher regulations on retail, advertising and video industry.”   Rhianna was reported to allegedly be “unrepentant for filming a music video in which she shoots someone who raped her.”

How on earth do you explain the likes of her S&M Video to kids who have no idea that grown ups even have a sex life?  I remember a friend running from my kitchen to the family room like a demented banshee when she heard the opening bars to Sexy and I Know It coming on to the TV early on a Sunday afternoon.  It’s not one of the worst videos I’ve seen, but no parent should have to feel like that when it was the kids who bought that music in their droves.

While there may be some inroads into the regulations and ratings for music videos, I’m not fully aware of how far these have gone, and I still feel uncomfortable watching the world of usually female artists plying their wares and looking for sales on the back of the sexualised content of their videos.

As a child, I don’t remember any of this type of thing, and music channels and videos were usually restricted to Top of the Pops and not much else.

Turn on music channels now and we’re likely to be faced with as much content that would have gone on behind closed doors and been tagged as adult content a few years ago.  How do we explain the coverage of 50 Shades of Grey and what S&M is to our kids when they’re not that long out of nappies?

It’s not like kids even have a choice.  They might like a tune, and they might want to listen to an artist without having sex rammed down their throats.  Do artists and their publicists not realise that kids shouldn’t be exposed to pornographic content over their marshmallows and cake pops?

It’s all for money, but our artists really are selling themselves short.   In a fad for Rhianna and Eminem, the explicit versions were downloaded by more than a handful of kids at my boys schools, yet these are the same kids that keep their wallets fat and their platinum albums spinning on their precarious tops.

It’s done deliberately.  Why else would Madonna still be gyrating to music and wearing clothes fit for teens, while she’s old enough to be the grandmother of most of the people buying her music?

I don’t let my kids buy anything with explicit content, but their friends will let them see it anyway.

Aren’t we meant to be the adults?

Aren’t the adults meant to be the ones protecting our young and keeping them safe, comfortable and protected?

If we stop buying the music from artists who seem to be promoting gratuitous porn, maybe our kids will be more protected with videos that are more suitable for both granny and child to watch in comfort.  I want to choose what my kids watch, and not have it rammed down their throats by the music industry, whichever dentist surgery has MTV on while my kids sit in their chair, or the shop in town bumping out the tunes to show how great the clarity of the new HD TV’s are.

Our music industry certainly seems chained to values that are designed to maximise profit, but is it too much to ask for our kids to just be kids, and for parents to know that our kids aren’t watching things they shouldn’t at young ages?

 

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Mango, Orange, Pineapple, Apple & Passion Fruit Smoothie

So refreshing and even tempts my little one to drink some goodness in a glass.  He likes it to come out a bit like how Costco smoothies do, and I think McDonalds do a fruit smoothie with mango and one with strawberry and banana that seems to be getting more popular with kids nowadays.

Mango, Orange & Pineable Smoothie 4

Lesley Smith

Orange, Mango, Pineapple and Passion Fruit Smootie

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings: 4
Course: Smoothies
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 3 Oranges
  • 2 Mango
  • 4 Passion Fruits
  • 500 g Pineapple
  • 500 g Crushed ice

Method
 

  1. Peel and chop the fruit roughy.
  2. Put all the fruit and crushed ice into a blender until smooth.
  3. Add some ice into a glass and pour the smootie on top to keep it extra cold.