Chicken and Apricot Curry – a family favourite

We are having the craziest Spring weather here in Scotland. We’ve had snow and hail and bright blue skies all in one day over the past week and we’re on a weather warning tonight! My poor baby plants are now snuggled up inside my kitchen sheltering from the frost. We are also feeling the cold so we’re trying to keep ultra healthy by eating really well. Now if you follow me on instagram you’ll realise that it’s no secret that I love Daylesford Organics so it’s a given I was going to love their cookbook, A Love for Food. One of our favourite recipes from the book is the chicken and apricot curry which we eat so regularly that even my youngest knows what we need to make it and is always willing to offer a helping hand in the kitchen to help prepare it.

It is so nutritious and it smells so good as it cooks slowly on the stove. It’s filled with real goodness; with the apricots and the squash giving a lovely sweetness and the tumeric is keeping any nasty colds at bay. We eat ours with wild rice and it’s just so yummy.

Chicken and Apricot Curry

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1.2kg chicken meat, cut into bite-size pieces
• about 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2.5cm piece of root ginger, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon chilli powder
• 1 tablespoon ground tumeric
• 2 large ripe red tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 150g squash, peeled and chopped
• 1 large baking potato, chopped
• ½ a medium leek, sliced
• 100g apricots, roughly chopped
• 500ml good chicken stock
• 100ml coconut milk

Season the chicken. Heat 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil in a large casserole dish and brown the chicken. Lower the heat and add the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli, together with a little more oil if needed, and cook gently until the onion is softened and golden. Stir in the cumin seeds, curry powder, chilli powder and tumeric and cook for a further 5 minutes, to release the flavour of the spices. Add the tomatoes, squash, potato, leek and apricots and combine thoroughly. Add the stock and the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook through until the vegetables are tender. Taste and season as necessary

* We don’t always add the chilli or the chilli powder as it adds quite alot of spiciness for young children and it’s just a tasty without it.

A Love for Food is available from Daylesford or Amazon (UK) and (US).

Enjoy!
Vanessa x

from kid games toys http://ift.tt/1YAVB3n via kid games toys
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1OGIKwd

‘Where is the Green Sheep?’ by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek

After my recent post about Australian author Mem Fox in which I shared some of our new favourites written by her, I received the sweetest direct message on Instagram from an Australian mum, Steph Donohue, telling me she had an extra copy of Mem Fox’s ‘Where is the Green Sheep?‘ and that she would love to send it to us. She explained that it was her daughter’s favourite book and she just knew Marlow would love it. So I responded ‘yes please!’,  and two days later a little package arrived on our doorstep from Steph along with the nicest little note.

Steph was right. Marlow LOVES it! Where is the Green Sheep? is the sweetest rhyming book with a simple plot: there are red sheep and blue sheep, wind sheep and wave sheep, car sheep and train sheep… but where is the green sheep?! It’s a perfect bedtime story. Another Mem Fox book to add to your collection!

Courtney x

p.s. The rainbow silk in the photos above is from Brimful. Lovely Annie sent it for Marlow and she hasn’t let go of it since it arrived. It’s the perfect travel dress-up – it can be a cape, a skirt, a wrap, an ocean, a blanket….. ! And the cute pink playsuit is from Mabo.

from kid games toys http://ift.tt/200htFJ via kid games toys
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1XjdDbz

Milk & Biscuits

I discovered Milk and Biscuits a couple of years ago at Playtime in Paris. The collection looks so different from a lot of the other brands – bright bold prints, original fun designs and beautiful fabrics made the clothes stand out. So I got chatting to Kate, the designer, who was just launching her line — needless to say it has been going from strength to strength ever since!

Kate is based in Shanghai and this year she collaborated with a local illustrator Rick Wang who designed the cool leaf prints.

Kate was kind enough to send over some items of her latest collections and my girls loved it! The clothes are so easy to wear and there is something fun and relaxed in the clothes. We had them with us on a recent trip to Sicily and so I managed to snap a couple of pictures!

In these photos Coco (the bigger one) is wearing the Orange Stripey Dress and Vivi the Tropical Leaf Print skirt and Frilly Sleeve top. The clothes are so easy to wear but have something cool about them. We especially liked the blue metallic detailing and the little frilly sleeves!

Milk and Biscuits having been collaborating with the talented illustrator Saar Manche and together they have created some beautiful limited edition prints. They are giving away a poster with any purchase over 50 £!

Emilie

from kid games toys http://ift.tt/1sgSNxB via kid games toys
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1sjl32K

Super sun catchers

We’ve been trapped….

…inside for the past week as a wave of fevers swept the household. Luckily, they were pretty much symptom free, but the fact that they struck all six of us at once made parenting pretty much a lost cause.

The silver lining is that it was less of relay race – lasting weeks and weeks to get to the end – and more of an intense, sweat inducing, sprint (without the adrenaline burst at the end).

The good news is that the week prior to infection, we created some smiley little sun catchers that helped bring the outdoors in as we lay pig piled among dirty tissues, sticky baby tylenol syringes , and untouched smoothies (I tried). And they did help brighten our spirits, just a little bit.

Now that we’re healthy again, they continue to delight as they hang on our windows. The kids insist on moving them from room to room depending on where they are – or where the sun is shining.

As usual, this craft is very simple and can be done in stages for those of you juggling the stuff we all juggle as moms. All you need is some basic supplies and a little bit of light – not even sunlight (for those of you in drearier climates, I promise I’m not trying to rub in our California sunshine!) any cloud ridden daylight will suffice!

MATERIALS:
Tissue paper
Black paper / or this printable heart if you want to use the pattern I made
Scissors
Wax paper
Acrylic Matte Medium/ Mod Podge/ liquid starch
Shape punches (if you have them)
Clear shipping tape (if you have it)

PROCESS
1. Use scissors to cut out scraps of tissue paper. Double, triple, quadruple the paper up and go crazy. Let the kids practice their cutting skills and create piles of tissue “confetti”. If you have paper punches, these work great for shapes. Depending on how sharp they are, you may need to layer the tissue paper between regular printer paper to get a clean edge. Create at least four cups of “confetti”.

Ike and Ella loved this – especially making masks out of the scraps… I couldn’t bring myself to throw those away!

2. Cut a 12 x 24″/ 300 x 600cm piece of wax paper and secure the edges with tape.

3. Paint half of it with acrylic/ mod podge/ liquid starch. The wax paper will want to move around, so you will need to hold one side and have the kids paint away from that side. Cover half of the paper.

4. Lay down the tissue paper on the sticky surface. For us, this started with a lot of intention – one piece at a time – and quickly moved to more of a frantic sprinkling technique. Glue was drying and kids were getting antsy! Either way, cover the entire paper with tissue shapes.

5. Cover the other half of the paper with acrylic/ mod podge/ liquid starch. I squirted it on, the kids painted it around. Be sure to cover the whole thing!

6. Carefully fold the wet half over onto the tissue paper confetti and press down firmly. Try to smooth out any air bubbles.

At this point, my kids were getting a little skeptical. They heard “stained glass” and were looking at smushed paper. Though fun and tactile, the magic had yet to be delivered. Good news! At this point, even though the project is still “wet,” it’s contained, so you can tape it up to the window to dry and get a little immediate gratification in the meantime…

7. Cut out the black heart shape from the downloaded printable heart OR create any shape with your black paper. Keep it simple!

8. Use clear packing tape to tape the design over the “glass.” If you don’t have tape, just use more acrylic/ mod podge/ starch to glue the shape on top. My kids got excited about the shininess of the tape – just like real glass (it’s the little things, right?).

9. Cut around the outside of the heart/ shape.

And there you have it – simple and gorgeous in rain or shine! Another benefit for me: it distracts from our dirty windows

All the kids really got into this and the older two made some completely on their own later in the week! I’m going to experiment with different shapes so we can make a cool montage on our front door! I’ll keep you posted…

Maureen x

ps. Indy has become… totally demanding these days. She’s found her voice and is exerting her will (it was bound to happen! Give me grace this next 8 months!). Pretty much the whole time we worked on these, I had the distraction of the monkey below GLUED to my legs. If I can achieve sun catching under these circumstances, you can too!

from kid games toys http://ift.tt/1OqYyOf via kid games toys
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1WutoxC

Boys swim shorts from Beanie & Bear

I discovered the vibrant Beanie & Bear swimwear range at the Dot to Dot tradeshow last spring, and while I don’t normally go for bright neon colours, I immediately fell for these cute swim shorts for my boys. The tailored style and short cut makes them a cross between the tighter-fitting swimsuits they usually wear, and the looser-fitting shorts surfers tend to wear. I also like that they pass as regular shorts when worn off the beach.

The shorts have side and back pockets (for holding treasures) and an adjustable elastic waist. Both of my boys, though two years apart, wear the same size – the 9/10 – because the waist is adjustable. And I just saw that the shorts are now available in the bigger 11/12 size – perfect for tween boys.

Courtney x

The photos above were taken by Reagan Glazner on our favourite beach in Byron Bay last month. My three favourite surfer boys! ♥

from kid games toys http://ift.tt/23Joz2d via kid games toys
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/24SOR85

Shh! We have a plan by Chris Haughton

We are real fans of Chris Haughton’s books! To be honest it was a difficult choice to decide on which one to tell you about. Florence loves A Bit Lost so much and Helena loves to read our Dutch version of, Oh No George! But we finally decided on telling you about Shh! We have a Plan. In fact I can’t believe I haven’t written about it yet! Seriously, if there is one book you all need in your collection it’s this one. With it’s catchy story line, ridiculously fun characters and its good bout of healthy humour, we LOVE this book!

Set in the dark of the night this is the story of four friends who are out for a walk. They spot a beautiful bird perched high in a tree and must catch it. But wait, they have a plan. The story rhythmically continues with fun phrases like tip-toe slowly, tip-toe slowly, now stop, SHH which kindly invites young children to follow happily along.But by the end of the story their plan simply fails and the bird flies away.

Chris Haughton has truely written and illustrated a fabulous book. He’s managed to create a story which is exciting, mesmerising and fun. If you want to see just how Haughton manages to create such wonderful illustrations this is a great video showing you just that.

Shh! We have a Plan is available from Brimful in the US or in our Babyccino Bookstore on amazon (UK) (US).

Vanessa x

from kid games toys http://ift.tt/1rFA3bk via kid games toys
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1T5jD6k

Tuesday Tips: A genius swim trick!

Until this week, Marlow couldn’t swim. In fact, she was never really enthusiastic about getting in the water and when she did, she wore floaties to keep her afloat.

I was chatting to a friend in Australia last month, a mother of three, and she said, “You know the trick for teaching your kids to swim, right?” I stared at her blankly. “You put flippers on them and put them in the water and they will naturally just swim!” The trick seemed too easy to be true. But we bought Marlow-sized flippers just in case.

Earlier this week, we tried it… and what do you know? IT WORKS! Marlow started swimming like a fish (though she insists she’s a sea turtle)! : ) Within minutes she was swimming the length of the pool, under and over water, holding her breath for long periods of a time and becoming a strong, confident swimmer. When we take the flippers off, she’s not as strong or speedy, but she’s still able to swim confidently.

What a quick transition! A tip definitely worth sharing…

Courtney x

p.s. Obviously I only suggest trying this trick under total supervision.

from kid games toys http://ift.tt/1OdvU8v via kid games toys
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/23F67I4