Review: Organix, Toddler's Mighty Meals

We received an email from Sarah at Organix asking if we'd like to try their new toddler's dinner range, 'Mighty Meals'. She described the fives different types to us and i was very pleased to see that two of them are gluten and wheat free, being Coeliac its just what my household has to eat!

Its great to see the variety of something for everyone with the four main meats and a veggie option. Meals like these are often not free from for allergy sufferers so this was very exciting for us!

We received the Pork Meatballs and the Spinach Falafel dinners. Both looked great straight away, a great picture on the front which makes them look homemade and yummy! I love the little fork symbol at the top with the suggested age range, 1-3.

I think the portion size (200g) is just right for the age range, giving the older child other things to eat if needed. My 17mth old Lydia would eat all of this and want a yoghurt afterwards, she loves her pud!

Saying that Lydia was not interested in eating these on the two days i tried :( She's been teething and has been rather funny with anything besides yoghurt!

First we tried the Pork Meatball's in a tomatoey chickpea & sweet potato sauce

Lydia usually loves things that have a bit of pork in, with this she was happy to nibble on a meatball but didn't like the chickpeas in the sauce, once she had bitten one of them she refused to eat anymore of any of it! That was only on meatball one :(

If she wasn't in such a tetchy mood with her teething I'm sure she would've allowed me to pick out the meatballs for her to eat separately. But she was being fussy so me and daddy shared it! It was really tasty, she missed out! lol

I did find the sauce was quite dry, which is probley what she didn't like. Its the dryness of the chickpeas, so maybe a bit more tomato sauce is needed? Or you could swap the chickpeas for a more softer bean? (baked beans maybe? yummy!)

Next it was the Spinach Falafel in beany sweet red pepper sauce

Another gorgeous meal for my fussy not wanting to eat toddler to try. This time she dove in to the sauce first, chewed a bean and spat it out :( Then refused to have anything more to do with it. Again i think it was the dryness of the beans, but that's my toddler's fussiness and not the foods fault! Just have a drink with you.

This meal is the vegetarian option in the 'Mighty Meals' range, and i think it is gorgeous! I love falafel, so to try a spinach falafel was great. I'd be happy to buy this for myself as lunch!

Lovely bite-size balls for adults to eat (like the pork meatballs) but i feel they need cutting in half for the younger of the eaters out their.

A very well rounded meal with delicious flavours. And Lydia will be trying these two again once she's feeling better from teething :(

However Lydia did love playing robots with the cardboard sleeve packaging....

... funny child of mine!

So if your now hungry or fancy trying these for your toddlers then here's where you can get them!

They're on offer in Boots from the 6th May for 6wks they will have 20% off, along with other Organix goodies to try. Or buy them directly from Organix online shop for £1.99 each.

Also from June/July time they will be available from big supermarkets like Sainsburry's, ASDA and Waitrose.

Review: Unbelievabowl set 9mths+

Everyone with a baby know how much fun it is to get a bowl to stay on the highchair when its meal time!
Tracey from Vital Baby wanted to help make this an easier time for me. We were sent an Unbelievabowl to review.

The Unbelievabowl is a regular child's bowl with a difference! It has a suction pad that you fit to the underneath, with a 'double click' lock you know its safe and that your baby won't be able to pick it up and throw it away. This needs to be used on a completely flat surface with a smooth texture (plastic highchair trays are ideal) Rough surfaces will affect the suction.

The Unbelievabowl comes is completely BPA & latex free, suitable for 9mths+, it won the bronze in practical parenting awards 09/10 , its available in three beautiful bright colours and you can buy spare bowls.

Its packaging is also recyclable :)
You can freeze it, microwave it, and its safe in the dishwasher also! Its Unbelievabowl!!!

With interchangeable bowls its really easy to use it constantly without having to faff about re-doing the suction pad between courses at meal time. Finished your main? Change the bowl for pud! Easy :)
Packs of spare bowls are available to buy in the three colours and come in packs of two for extra value.

The suction pad is so strong that when i tried to pull the bowl off, the whole food tray came off with the bowl still attached to it! With much twisting and pushing down (as the instructions say to do so) I managed to get the bowl off, but the suction pad had came off with it. Luckily no food was in the bowl at the time. And now i can't re-attach the suction pad as its stuck inside the bowl, and won't budge? I think you defiantly need 'mussels from brussels' to operate it! :) This only happened once, so i don't think its a major problem.


I was amazed at the strength of the suction and the lock on the bowl.
Lydia was not happy that she couldn't grab it and throw it around, she resorted to trying to bite it off instead!

 

We tried it with some snacks first. Lydia loved picking them out one by one then putting them back. She was looking under and around the bowl, trying to figure out why it wouldn't move! So funny to watch.

I was worried that if i filled it with baby food (mush!) that she'd constantly be sticking her hands in and out of it. Not something i want to happen where we live, her highchair is in the front room as we have no separate 'dining area'. I don't think daddy would be pleased if the TV ended up wearing her lunch? hehehe.

However if you have the space to allow for much mess then go for it! We will be using ours for snacks until we get a bigger place to live :)

Its priced at £4.99 for the set of one bowl and one suction pad. This did seem a little expensive for one bowl, but its much more than just a bowl. Your buying the suction pad. And once you have this you only need some spare bowls, and a pack of two for £3.99 is very good value. (£2 a bowl!!!!) So for under £10 you'd have 3 bowls that won't budge!!! 

If baby loves to fling their bowls around then i recommend the Unbelievabowl to you! These are available for purchase in many large supermarkets, Boots and online directly from Vital Baby. Many other great items can also be found in their online shop, have a little nosey....

Links to items from Vital Baby;

Unbelievabowl set £4.99

Spare Unbelievabowl 2pk £3.99

Toddler Kit Bundle £11.97

Review; Organix Goodies toddler snacks 12mths+

The lovely Sarah over at Organix sent us a box of goodies to review. The box contained lots of yummy 12mths+ snacks for my daughters 1st birthday party. There were between 10-15 children aged between 3mths-3yrs. But don't worry, only the 11mths+ children were eating the food :)
The items were from their Goodies range, which is aimed at 12mths+. The brightly coloured packaging was easily recognisable to the older children at the party.

The toddlers (18mths+) instantly saw the cereal bars, grabbed them and ran off. We had 1 of each flavour, (the cocoa & raisin being least popular, i was told it tasted like a very strong fig roll and it was spat out :( )

The bars were a favorite amongst the mums also. The no junk promise makes them very appealing as the kids think they're getting a treat, and the mums know its good for them. As they contain no additives, whole oats and are an excellent source of fibre :)

I would love to see a gluten-free version of these made, as i am a Coeliac and my daughter also has to follow my diet until she's been diagnosed.

These come in packs of 6x 30g bars at £2.25.

The favourite item had to of been the infamous mini gingerbread men! Great size to snugly fit into little hands. No sooner were these opened they were gone! A subtle hint of ginger, sweetened with grape juice, and no sugar. Another hit with the mums!

Again, i would like to see a gluten free alternative to these.

Available in 3 pack sizes ~ 135g for £1.99, 5packs of 25g for £1.99 or the limited edition tin pack containing 135g for £3.99.

The next exciting item were two Squeezy's! We had the blueberry, blackcurrant and pear flavour. These are super easy to use and so tasty (i had a sneaky sip of Lydia's!). The pouch and screw top lid makes them fantastic for on the go. And being 100% organic fruit there's no shame in giving them to your little ones as a quick and tasty treat :)

 Available in four different flavour variety's at a reasonable 89p each.

And to wash all of that down we had four fruit water's, 2 blackcurrant & apple, 2 apple/peach & apricot. Made with only water and real fruit juice (NOT from concentrate) these are a fantastic healthy juice-drink option for mums to go for, and kids love them! The traditional blackcurrant & apple flavour was a hit and the more unusual apple/peach & apricot was a new but loved flavour!

 Both yummy flavours are available to buy at 89p each, for 200ml.

You could re-use the bottles as they have a screw top lid and sports cap.

All of these items have the Organix 'No Junk Promise', which means no artificial colours,flavours or additives. Just nutritious, healthy and tasty products! And are aimed at 12mths+ supervised children. For more information on the Goodies range please visit the website. Where you can also meet the characters on the packaging :)

We love Organix food and will continue to. I hope to see lots more yummy products in the future, including more gluten-free items.

So if your having a toddler party, or simply just want your toddler to eat well, then these are some great ideas for food & drinks to keep them satisfied.

The Organix website has a fun & games section where you can get ideas for party games, recipes and more!

Don't forget to collect your barcodes and jar-codes!

Organix products can be brought direct from Organix online shop or from stores such as; Boots, Sainsburys, Health food shops. Until the end of February you can get free delivery at the online shop by quoting 'freedel2' at the checkout :)

Thankyou for reading, i hope you enjoy some tasty healthy Organix snacks soon :)

A mother's work is never done....but surely she deserves a tea break?

On Friday the 12th of Novemeber we went on our first family holiday!

We went to Bath to stay with Justin's dad and his wife, in their gorgeous bungalow.

It was dark when we arrived after a 4-5hr car journey. We only had to stop twice, once to feed Lydia and give her legs a stretch from the carseat and secondly so i could wee! (Very daintily alongside the motorway,glamourous or what!?!) I also sucessfully managed to breastfeed Lydia twice whilst Justin was driving! Totally safely and both strapped in, i just leant into her. Thankfully i have huge boobs! Lol

We had a white Skoda Fabia hire car, small but perfect size for the three of us. I was so shocked at how much luggage such a small person needed (Lydia, not me!) and i was amazed that i managed to tetris style fit it all in the boot!

The car was comfortable once we worked out how to lower the seats, but in need of a good wash!

I was greatly amused by its registration number;

FOOK! (hehehe)

Julia had prepared us a lovely meal of beef stew, the first stew i have ever eaten! And i hadn't eaten beef for several years, but it was gorgeous! Since being home i have re-created it, but our beef was not as tender as the Bathonian Jasper the cow!

We washed it down with some yummy cava, a few bottles to be accurate!

So here was my break, finally! Peter and Julia were so lovely and would'nt let me lift a finger! Everytime my glass had a sip missing it was topped up, if my plate was empty i was offered more. If i needed or wanted for anything i was told to ask for it. They were so attentive to Lydia's needs and tuned in to moving all the hazzardous items away from her grasp! It felt quite alien to not do much, but bloody fantastic at the same time! It was lovely to find out that Peter fully supports and understands me for still breastfeeding Lydia, after all she is a baby and needs it! (had a not so nice comment from another family member so i am a bit touchy on the subject! lol )

With Lydia getting lots of attention from Peter & Julia, Justin and i managed to have a bit of 'us' time.

I felt really happy and fell in love all over again! Holding hands walking through the streets of beautiful Bath together, so romantic! We can't wait to go back, hopefully next year for longer :)

Justin & I at 'the circus' cresent

On the saturday we headed into Bath town centre, about 11miles from where we were.

We had a coffee to perk us up then all walked around Bath centre, the royal crescent, back streets, a few shops,the weir and stopped for lunch at Garefunkils. The weir is a beautiful sight, i'd imagine it to be a perfect picnic location during the summer.

That evening we went to Glastonbury! Not the concert though, thats in Pilton :p

It was a carnival for a childrens charity that they run for a few weeks a year, every year around the surrounding area/towns/villages.

Walking to the carnival through the main street was manic! It was so packed (think Lewe's on bonfire night and times it by five!) We were meeting a few of Julia's friends at the other end of the street, so we had to battle it through the crowd. We found a gap in the fence to get through so i asked the people stood there if we could pass. the response was, well.... less than polite! Lets just say they ruined our night before it had even started! The carnival was nearly 2hrs late in starting and we were all friggin freezing standing around waiting for it to start. Full of drunken kids smoking weed, it got to 9pm and we had only seen about 3 floats, it started to rain and we decided it was time to go home to wine and nibbles!

Lydia & Daddy at the carnival

Then sunday arrived, going home day :(
Lydia was a bit unsettled in the night,but nothing to major. Didn't have to bring her in with us, she was happy in her travel cot on loan from Chelle & Fizz. (Thankyou :) )

We met up with Julia's parents and went to the local pub (for local people, hehe) for a sunday roast.

The staff were very good at helping with my dietry requirements and checked things for my safety. I had roast chicken and Julia had roast pork, everyone else went for the beef. The beef was quite tough yet rather red inside? Julia complained and they couldn't appologise enough, offering a new meal and free tea/coffee's all round. Excellent service that you don't get down here that much.

 

Before we left Peter showed us around the bungalow and garden (1/3 acre!)

He picked an apple fresh of the tree and gave it to me! I'd love to able to have that. They have a huge vegetable patch, green house and several fruiting trees/bushes. I was given a bag of pink fleshed apples to cook with. They looked scary but tasted gorgeous in the apple pie i made :) yummy!

Then we had to leave for home :(

We were very sad to leave as we'd had a brilliant time with fantastic company. But we left smiling, knowing we were welcome back, and for longer next time.

The journey was quicker coming home as it was a late and dark sunday, and Lydia slept the whole way!
We stopped off to get a take-away curry and some cava to finish off our holiday with a bang! (more of a pop really! lol)

We still had the hire car until tuesday morning so we decided to make the most of it by having a day trip on monday. We went to Eastbourne :)

I finally brought myself something! (it was only a pair of leggings, but its something!) And managed to get quite a few christmas presents, yey!

We drove home via seven sisters, what a beautiful view!

Tuesday arrived and it really felt quiet somber, the real end to our holiday :(

We handed the car back and wandered aimlessly around Brighton.

Lydia loved having her daddy all day everyday for two whole weeks, she had been super clingy to him the whole time. I knew i'd have my work cut out when he returned to work.

And boy was i right! This week she's been teething so badly, waking a few times each night. Being un-consoleable and grumpy.

My tea break is well and truely over.....COME BACK DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!