Little Man Gets Busy In The Kitchen

If you read the blog you will know that since little man has been attending his new special school, we have discovered his got rather good skills in the kitchen.

That’s right, his becoming a bit of a master chef and whats more he enjoys the activity of cooking and baking.

A few weeks back we were contacted by someone involved in the cooking with kids campaign creates by ‘The great british chefs‘ in conjunction with Tesco. The campaign is all about encouraging parents to cook with their children as a way of encouraging not only healthy eating but also food education. It provides the perfect bonding activity (unless you’re child’s like little man, not allowing you a single look in)!

There is a whole web page of child friendly recipes to create from yummy dinners to delightful desserts and cakes.

I suggested to the Little guy that we give it a go and as expected he was up for challenge.

Only instead of selecting a recipe requiring lots of ingredients, we opted for one of the more simplistic options available… so much so there was no cooking or even baking involved whatsoever! It wasn’t because we just wanted to speedily put together something simple… the recipe we chose was one that not only looked delicious within the imaging displayed on the Great British Chefs website, but something we hadn’t ever thought about trying before.

This was a recipe for strawberry sundaes, only slightly different from the norm, as these were created with yogurt and oats (Granola) instead of that of ice cream which we would always normally use when pulling together a sundae.

The sundae recipe has been created by Gavin Brothers especially for the campaign which is running in conjunction with Tescos. The recipe introduction reads, “This strawberry sundae recipe is a fantastic breakfast treat, as instead of ice cream, there’s yoghurt and granola. Quick to prepare, even for little hands, they make a nice, healthy mid-day snack for children. Feel free to experiment with other seasonal berries and fruits”

So here’s the few ingredients needed to create this relatively healthy alternative to the traditional strawberry ice cream sundae…

160g of granola
250g of low fat strawberry yoghurt
150g of strawberries
20g of icing sugar

This is said to feed a family of 4 (sundaes served in a tall glass)

We however used our sundae glasses which look much taller than the ones used for this recipe, so we had to increase our ingredients slightly.

Here’s what you do …

Remove the tops from the strawberries and place in a bowl with the icing sugar

LIGHTEN IT UP
Feel free to reduce the sugar used in this step

2. Use a fork to lightly crush the strawberries

3. Place some granola in the bottom of each glass, followed by some strawberry yoghurt. Top with the crushed fresh strawberries and serve

We also sprinkled a little icing sugar on top of our finished sundaes for decoration purposes.

Little man seriously took over (I swear he would make a great head chef… His bossy and likes to take charge). Although this recipe was really simple, he really enjoyed putting the sundaes together.

As for the taste, we all loved them! Just check out the toddler getting stuck in!

The kids have now suggested having the yogurt sundaes more often. Alice even had one for breakfast this morning.

There are loads of recipes on the campaign page. But be warned… You may suddenly find that you feel the need to munch following browsing.

So why not select a recipe and get cooking with the kids!

You can access the Cooking With Kids Campaign page on the Great British Chefs Website by Clicking Here

Disclaimer: Please Note This is not a sponsored post! I Wasn’t paid to write this and didn’t receive anything for doing so. We joined in because we wanted to. Its a campaign we believe in and a great way to teach children skills in preparation for independence (especially those on the autism spectrum like little man).

Casdon toy reviews and competition

8

DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS

Woo-hoo… were now in single figures & to celebrate I have two fantastic Casdon products to add to the Little Helpers Wish List, as-well as two Casdon Self Service Checkout’s to give to two very lucky ‘A boy with Asperger’s readers’!

 First up we have the ‘Little Helpers Dyson Ball Upright Vacuum‘

Housework… Yes, I’m training them young, especially the Littlest tot, Harley! At the grand old age of 2 this little dude really is a dab hand with the vacuum cleaner as you can see from this super sweet image below.

Seriously, I’m not punishing my tribe with child labour, “What do you take me for?” 😉 This perfectly formed Little Dyson happens to be nothing other than a perfectly formed toy! Please, don’t pretend like you already knew, you really did think the two-year old was doing the chores, didn’t you!

 Casdon are the guys responsible for this fantastic lifelike gadget known as the Dyson ball upright which forms part of it’s Little Helper range of toys. It’s so brilliant that it really does actually have some degree of working suction and cyclone action for understanding cause and effect as-well as providing much amazement from mum!

 This little toy Dyson ball upright is a great addition to any little tots toy box with it’s bright colours providing plenty of visual stimulation. Not only does it help develop your child’s all important gross motor skills with its great manoeuvrability but it also helps your child to explore the world of make-believe while training them up for the real deal (well, one day)!

You can’t get much closer to a real Dyson ball if you tried, this groovy little replica is so realistic you’ll have to look twice.

 Honestly would you believe it, this awesome toy has already created some fantastic parent/child interaction, it’s cute but funny watching my little fella grab ahold of his vacuum and walking beside me as I engage myself in the real task of housework.

This is the perfect size for the little guy and he can work the on and of function with ease, what with it’s nice fat chunky red button located right below the handle. Once started the Little balls in the cylinder fly about madly and once you get going with the chore of vacuuming you can really hear it becoming more & more powerful making it sound like a real life vacuum.

However, one word of advice… Do reframe from vacuuming your pets, cats especially!

It’s clear to see the 2 year loved it (however, note this is recommended for the slightly older tot of 3-8). Me… I like to train them that little bit earlier and as you can see, Little Harley will make a fine husband one day (though I don’t really want to think about such a prospect)!

 Parental Perspective

 What can I say? This looks great, it’s made well, in my opinion its good value for money and it trains your little people for the days of reversed roles, you know, the ones where you sit on your back-sides watching the box and they do some housework.

 Note this is a Battery operated product which requires type C batteries.

5 stars 

 This funky Little gadget for funky little people can be picked up from around £19.99

Prices do vary according to retailers… Here’s one or two…

Tesco direct & Amazon,

 For those of you that didn’t know already, this mum is happily playing the part of Mrs Santa, giving you my lovely followers the chance to win one of two ‘Casdon’s Little Helpers Dyson Ball uprights’

 The Competition is currently already running and will close on December the 22nd 2011

Click Here to be taken directly to the giveaway

for my next competition just continue on…

Next up it’s the Casdon Self Service Checkout

Harley went from cleaner to shop worker in a minute when I presented him with the Casdon Self Service Checkout, however being just two he didn’t really do much role play here, rather just made a mess of his freshly vacuumed living room. Nonetheless, it didn’t matter because as soon as my daughter dropped her school bag at the door, this little self checkout somehow made it’s way into her bedroom.

 As many may know, Little man (my eldest with Aspergers Syndrome) was never good at make-believe, he just wasn’t interested. Then Little sister came along and required a friend to play with, so… over time she taught him games such as school’s and yep, you guessed it, “Shops” even though his not very imaginative when engaging in such activities (tends to play the same way every time) he still enjoys it, and the fact that this was a “Self Service Checkout” made his day, given he loves the real deal at our local supermarket! Once home, Little man joined his sister and they went missing for some time. In this respect it’s my opinion this one isn’t  just loved by little monsters, as my daughter is 8 and will very soon become 9 and Little man is 11 though his just catching up on all that play he missed out on! 🙂

 The Casdon Self Service Checkout has some pretty neat features!

Spoken instructions for understanding and cause of effect; realistic features with lights and sounds for visual and aural stimulation plus pretend play food and money (great for the development of counting skills, as well-as social & life skills).

 Prenatal Perspective

 It’s a good toy with lots of accessories supplied therefore providing lots of playability. I’ll be honest, I was surprised, yet overjoyed at how it appealed to the older two children. The fact that it helped to develop some great interaction between the two was fabulous given these days you are more than  likely to find them fighting (and I mean full on punch ups)! I can most definitely see this one appealing to the slightly older child 3-4 which is what it actually recommends, though Harley is only 2 years old, he does still continue to gain lots of enjoyment from this toy, Ok… he doesn’t actually play shop keeper (which at 2 I wouldn’t expect) but his enjoying himself all the same! The two older children loved the Casdon Self Service Checkout and have tried their hardest to claim it as their own. Therefore it’s fair to say that it was a definite hit with them (they gave it a full 5 stars) However as a parent I’m going to give it a 3 and a half stars as I think it should be a tad lower in price though I still would recommend this, as it’s a great toy providing hours of fun .

 The Casdon Self Service Checkout is priced at around £19.99 though prices may vary from retailer to retailer

Amazon currently have it in-stock and are selling it at £19.03

Big Countdown to Christmas Competition 

 win one of two 

Casdon Self Service Checkouts

That’s right I have two of these babies to give away! So do you want to win one for your little shopper? Here’s how!

You must follow the complusory actions, those who don’t will not go into the final draw.

Complusory Actions

Comment & share your thoughts on another review out of the options below

Mookie Street Cruz

KidCam

Olly the Little white Van

Jack & Holly’s Cosmic Stories

Come back here and leave a comment telling me which review you commented on!

You must leave a contact either twitter or email please

Additional Enteries

For every additional entry you must leave an additional comment again leaving a contact. You can enter as many additional entries as you please.

Subscribe to this blog (either by email, networkblogs, google rss, or wordpress follow {for wordpress users only} as far as I’m aware). Then leave a comment letting me know how you subscribed.

Tweet: I want to win a Casdon self-service checkout with @clairelouise82 adding the ULR to this post! Please then leave a comment telling me you did it and your twitter name.

Use the stumble or Digg buttons located in this post to share the competition, remember to let me know you did it in a comment leaving an email or twitter contact.

 Competition will close on the 30th December

T&C

You must follow all the required steps to be entered, your post may be deleted if you don’t. Competition is open to the UK only and will close at mid-night on the 30th December 2011, with winners being announced shortly after. There is no cash alternative for this prize and winners name will be published on this blog. Winner has 72hrs to respond to the winning notification.

Related articles

• Win a Toy Dyson Ball in Our Big Christmas Countdown (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)

Win Arm & Hammer MyWay Spinbrush’s

 10

 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS

 

With ten sleeps left till Christmas day, I’m feeling more festive than ever, and as promised this December is going to be packed with Christmas cheer and that means lots of Christmas inspiration and fabulous competitions.

Image via Wikipedia

 Arm & Hammer  have launched  a fantastic creative competition as a celebration of it’s all new MyWay Spinbrushs. These fab brushes launched in late July are battery operated children’s toothbrushes and  have been designed to make teeth brushing fun, they are the perfect addition to any child’s stocking this Christmas.

 Arm & Hammer have also donated two awesome Spinbrush’s (one in each colour) to our awesome Christmas Countdown, giving you lot the chance to win one!

 Firstly let me tell you about this awesome competition they are running over on the CartoonNetwork.com till the end of December. 

 This is a free interactive game that inspires creativity and a little healthy competition between boys and girls. Boys can compete against the girls to design the best looking virtual toothbrush and each week the top 5 designs are showcased in a specially designed gallery with each artist winning them self not a virtual but real MyWay Spinbrush that they can design at home.

 How it works

 Just like the real thing, Little ones can decorate a Spinbrush with the use of stickers, the difference is that this is a virtual brush and to create such a masterpiece children simply drag and drop their chosen stickers onto their virtual brush. With a choice of 141 decorative stickers the possibilities are endless and they can really unleash their creative flare.

 Stickers can be used to spell out names or any other words plus decorate with animals, rainbows, cars, instruments and so much more.

 Just visit the  CartoonNetwork.com  and let your child have fun displaying their creativity! Remember, this competition will close at the end of this Month (December) so you have to be quick.

 So would you like the chance to win one of two Spinbrushs?

 Let me help you decide!

 Arm & Hammers MyWay Spinbrush is a battery operated brush that comes in pink or blue. With each brush a range of stickers are supplied to allow your child to unleash their creativity and decorate their own brush. 

 This helps make brushing their teeth (what often feels like a chore to many children) a fun experience while helping parents to create a good bathroom routine for their children. 

 Being a parent of three and having a child of 11 with Aspergers Syndrome I know just how hard this can be! My son has sensory sensitivities and really finds this a difficult task to undertake. This may prove a good distraction and make a difficult experience more fun.

 The brushes can be brought for around £5.99 each from stores such as Boots and Tesco’s 

 So… Are you convinced?

 As part of our Big Christmas Countdown the lovely Arm & Hammer have donated one pink and one blue Spinbrush.

 I will therefore draw two winners at random, to enter just follow the instructions below.

Compulsory actions

 Share with me one fantastic parenting tip, it can be anything you like, just share it in a comment here.

 You must leave a contact (twitter or email) so I can reach you if you are lucky enough to win.

Additional Entries 

 For additional chances to win, just use the share buttons in this post. IT IS IMPORTANT TO LEAVE AN ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH ACTION TAKEN

IF YOU ONLY COMMENT ONCE YOU ARE ONLY ENTERED THE ONCE!

 Competition closes on the 3rd January 2012

T&C

 UK only, all rules must be abided in-order to be validated. The winner will be drawn at random on the 4rd January 2012 with the competition closing on the 3rd January 2012 at mid-night, no one will be entered after this time. Winner has 72 hours to respond once notified that they have won. Postal address will be passed to the appropriate representative in-order for the prize to be dispatched and their name will be published on this blog.

Disclaimer

 I didn’t receive anything for this post but was donated two MyWay Spinbrush’s as a competition prize for my readers.

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Brush-Baby Oral Hygiene For Little One’s

As many will already know, I recently bagged myself a Mad blog Award, which meant attending a lavish awards bash in Soho London and after a fabulous night with the “mummy bloggers” I was handed my Mads Goodie bag. 

 There was a host of fab items in that bag, from makeup to jewellery, there was just loads of it. 

 Brush-Baby were one the brands that put a few goodies in the bag, and so kindly sent me an email congratulating me on my win a few days after the awards. 

 After chatting some with the lovely guys at Brush-Baby, I agreed to do a review of some of their items.

 Those that follow the blog will know that Little man has a number of sensory processing difficulties, especially when it comes to the sensation of touch.

 This tends to be a difficulty that arises when it comes to teeth-brushing, it’s like a military operation trying to get the little guy to engage in such an activity every morning and evening. I therefore worry about his oral hygiene. 

 My daughter, thank goodness gives me no problems in this department, and so far so good with my 23 month old. 

 Nonetheless despite my youngest being keen to brush, I do worry “Mr independent” isn’t gaining the full benefits and he wont let me help, No way!

So my main focus was on the two boys. 

 After having a chat and expressing some of my concerns with the guys at brush baby, they sent me a bundle of stuff to try!

 Brush-Baby baby and toddler toothpaste

Brush baby Chewable toothbrush

Brush-Baby FlossBrush

Brush-Baby Children’s Toothpaste

Brush-Baby DentalWipes (finger sleeve type)

Brush-Baby Chewable toothbrush

 We were sent two of these one clear and one pink (the pink I gave to my niece 10 weeks younger than Harley)

The Chewable toothbrush is designed for little one’s between the age of 10 months to 3 years, and has been designed to not only help aid dental hygiene but also provide relief for the little one with sore gums.

 You can use the Chewable brush with or without toothpaste, it can be cooled in the fridge to help soothe teething gums and is dishwasher and steam steriliser safe.  

 This was awesome and fits perfectly into Harley mouth. Little H has most of his teeth at 23 months however the back ones are only just starting to push through and after chilling this in the fridge for a bit it proved a god-sent, Little Harley chomped away on it for ages. 

 It did seem a little strange applying toothpaste to the brush, nonetheless it works as the paste sits between the  actual bristles in a small ridge. 

 Brush-Baby DentalWipes 

 These are aimed at them first teeth and are recommended for babies up to 16 months, however I found them useful for both Harley (23 months) and even Little man (11 years) Ok, Little man wont get a full clean and will not benefit from them a great deal, but when you have a child who is highly sensitive and finds teeth brushing a huge task then why not try as the smallest of benefits is a benefit nonetheless! These prove great to use in between brushing, allowing both little man and baby H to keep on top of things. I highly recommend a pack of these when out and about, they are awesome!

 The Dental wipes are designed as a finger sleeve and are also good for cleaning around the month. Harley loves these and he forever has one stuck to his finger! I think they are brilliant and I’ve already been out and brought a couple more packs.

 Brush-Baby FlossBrush  

 This Flossbrush is aimed at children 3-6 years but as mentioned Little man age 11 is highly sensitive to tactile input and this goes for teeth brushing. I tried the brush on Little man and although his still not keen and it’s a huge struggle, he will now opt to use this brush! It’s quite soft and has short bristles to clean the tooth’s surface and slightly longer bristles to reach between the teeth and into the gum line. We liked the small brush head and easy grip handle making this difficult task that bit easier for the little man.

 Brush-Baby children’s toothpaste 

 Again this toothpaste is aimed at children between the ages of 3-6 but suited Little man to a T, although he is some 5 years over the recommended age! The way I see it is, Its got to be better than using nothing at all! This is honestly the first ever toothpaste I have found my son wanting to use. He will openly state that he loves the taste of this toothpaste but still cannot stand the after effects that come with teeth brushing, such as the sensation left in his month and how everything taste weird for the next half hour or so! However the fact he likes this is a great starting point. The toothpaste contains both ‘Xylitol’ (which prevents the build up of bacteria) and ‘Fluoride’ (which strengthens the tooth’s enamel). It’s SLS free and comes in an awesome ‘Tutti Frutti’ flavour which just swung it for the Little man. His sister quite likes this one two and has used it whenever big brother isn’t watching!

 Brush-Baby baby and toddler toothpaste

 This toothpaste is designed for both baby and toddlers up to the age of 3. It contains both ‘Xylitol’ and lower ‘Fluoride’ 

 I loved that this is a low foaming paste making it ideal for both baby and toddler, it’s SLS free and better still its safe to swallow which is reassuring as this tends to happen a lot for Harley. The gentle Apple-mint flavour also proved a huge hit with Little Harley and he uses it regularly with his new Chewable toothbrush. 

 I really like the Brush-Baby range of oral hygiene products. With the exception of the chewable brush and the FlossBrush, I have already brought more of the other products (both types of toothpaste and the dental wipes) Which I picked up from our local supermarket.

 All Brush-Baby product seem reasonable priced and can be brought from a number of well-known stores including Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Lloyds Pharmacy.

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Mummy burnt the cakes again!

Guess what me and the kiddies have been up too?

This non domestic goddess has been in the kitchen again and guess what? I didn’t burn it down 🙂 I long to be able to bake amazing home-made puddings, ones that don’t come already part prepared… You know boxed sponge mix, the type you just add an egg to! Not very exciting I know. I want to be able to get mega creative and make my children beautifully iced birthday cakes instead of paying a small fortune for them! I’ve discovered that actually what I want to do most is unleash my creativeness and decorate cakes perhaps that bit more than I actually want to prepare and bake them. Maybe that’s my problem, I’m always that bit to keen to get to the whole decorating part of things done, resulting in me wrecking the cake.

As mentioned in a post at the beginning of October, Little man has been doing cookery in school every Tuesday and honestly, his baking skills are way better than mine, his made some great progress within certain areas of his education since attending his independent special school, It’s lovely to see, though I am a bit jealous at the sons sudden skills in the kitchen, something he undoubtedly acquires from his father and the Italian within him. It’s not that I can’t cook, I really can, I’m just no dab-hand when it comes to knocking together a cake, tart or anything sweet for that matter! Would you be shocked if I told you that I even had issues getting a pack of ‘Postmen pat’ cakes to rise, which of course I blamed that “Useless oven of mine” 

So when the lovely lot at Renshaw said they would send me and the kids some products, we couldn’t wait.

WOW, I was mega impressed with the items we were sent

 1 x Cool coloured sugardough

2x Funky flavoured sugardough

1x Topical magic melting icing 

1x Raspberry magic melting icing

3x icing spreading knife things (yes baking virgin hasn’t got a clue what these gadgets are called)

 This sugardough was the business, I’m telling you now, if you have children who are sensory seekers this is the perfect thing for them.

I’ve mentioned the benefits of clay and play-dough for children with autism and sensory processing disorder more than onces on this blog! Now you can go ahead and add sugardough to the list it’s fantastic! 

 Extremely tactile, mould it, play with it, eat it! 

This stuff can be rolled flat to ice a cake, used to create birthday or even cupcake decorations, the possibilities are endless…

Sugardough comes in some really funky bright colours, providing loads of visual stimulation, the sensory seeker wont want to put it down and maybe disappointed if you actually ate it! 

That’s not all, its yummy too, the funky flavoured dough comes in a range of colours and is the perfect icing for those who have difficulty using piping bags and all that other stuff! Yes, anyone remember my attempt at icing cupcakes? The bag exploded and I ended up with a bright yellow face (so, wasn’t my best look)

Little man is tactile defensive, but loved the texture of the Sugardough! All three children, including my 23 month old toddler had hours of fun making Halloween cake topper’s (well, the toddler just bashed at it for a bit before demolishing it) I was busy making chocolate sponge cake and all seemed to be going pretty good, well… it was! You see I got a tad distracted, I confess, I got a tad carried away helping create some savaged fingers to add to the spooky chocolate cake, only there was no chocolate cake because I burnt it! I actually cremated the hell out of it! However, please take note… I didn’t start a fire which is a slight improvement from the last time I made cakes, which I would rather actually not go into thanks 🙂

 So, here is our spooky toppers, minus the cakes for them to top

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Magic melting icing

Lucky for the whole family daddy made cakes with the melting icing. It was magical but everything is when he gets in the kitchen and don’t he know it. The icing has to be heated slightly in the microwave (be careful not to over heat it or worse if your anything like me, be careful not to set fire to it). It can then be spread over cupcakes, cookies and anything else you fancy… Roast Chicken, bacon sandwiches (I’m kidding)! But if your good with a piping bag you can use it to create some pretty decorations like hearts or stars. 

Well, these were so lovely there was no time for taking pictures, if the truth be told, my diet went out the window again (get some willpower woman)! Yes, I ate them, well with the help of the kids of course. 

Ranshaw baking products can be brought from all major supermarkets. I actually brought some more of this stuff today which was on a 3 for 2 deal over at Tescos!

I highly recommend both products, however the Sugardough is fab, and I highly recommend for children with or without autism. It provides hours of fun, encourages creativity, gets your children in the kitchen helping mum and has a ton of sensory benefits. 

You can check out the “Renshaw My Bakes” website, where you will find the products above mentioned and a host more. Plus there are some amazing recipes to provide lots of inspiration as well as tips and advice which I know I need!

So… Fancy joining me? Then just Click HERE.

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