Annabel Karmel Quick and Easy Toddler Meals - Book Review

In a move to make mealtimes more manageable for busy mums and dads, the UK’s number one parenting author and expert on baby and child nutrition Annabel Karmel MBE launches the first in her ‘Quick and Easy’ series: Quick and Easy Toddler Recipes.

With mealtime meltdown a daily occurrence across thousands of busy UK households, Annabel has cooked up a 144 page full colour recipe book to help hard-working families feed their children a healthy, balanced diet – in quick time!

With recent research deeming British toddlers to be the fussiest in Europe and with 42% of parents admitting to a repertoire of just seven meals they cook for their children, it’s no surprise that parents regularly become locked in a battle of wills.

But mealtimes are about to get tastier for tiny tums – and easier for mums – with over 100 delicious and nutritious time-saving recipes packed full of natural flavour. And it’s not just little ones who will love them; combining everyday kitchen ingredients with simple-to-follow instructions, Annabel’s recipes can be whipped up for the whole family too.

What did we think?

We have road-tested the book and the kids have enjoyed what we've made so far. We have two very fussy and headstrong kids and they have a very small repertoire of meals that they will eat without considerable badgering from us. First up I made Meatballs in Goulash Sauce. We served these with pasta, not rice. I know I should have gone with the rice but I wanted to avoid any aggro that night and I felt that rice would make the kids not eat any of it. They loved the meatballs and so did me and the OH - proof that although the book is aimed at cooking for toddlers it works for the entire family. Next time I make it I will man-up and serve with rice, after all the more times kids are served a food, they will become familiar with it, and become more likely to try it. 

Next up we tried Quick Chicken Nuggets. These were delicious. The coating was crushed up cornflakes and it was Isla's job to smash them all up - she enjoyed doing that! I much prefer chicken nuggets that are freshly made but it is easy to fall into that trap thinking it's more convenient to buy them but these are so easy to make and you know what chicken you're eating. Look at them, they look so golden and crispy. Yum.

And our final road test was a bit of a disaster (at first) as while I was trying to concentrate on the recipe (Isla was helping me again) I had Noah having the most EPIC tantrum in the kitchen, demanding to be picked up. I started off making Tomato and Basil Risotto but I ended up with a bit of a cross breed of that and the recipe on the opposite page! I got so distracted that I put Creme Fraiche in the Risotto, which wasn't part of the plan, but actually ended up being a fortunate accident as it was really tasty. Again, Isla helped me to make dinner and I think it gave her a sense of pride and I also believe prompted her to eat more of it than she would have otherwise. 

So there you have it, 3 very successful dishes and a desire to make more from this lovely little book. We give this book a big thumbs up and would recommend it to any time poor, frazzled mum of fussy eaters. 

Quick and Easy Toddler Recipes (RRP £9.99) is published by Ebury Press on 20^th June and will be available from all good book shops and Amazon.

We were sent the book free of charge but all opinions in the review are honest and my own.

Toddler Talk - A Few Recent Funnies

Now that Noah is approaching 2 (yes, where has the time gone!!!??) there are some very funny conversations going on in our house and the other morning I was lucky enough to overhear the first real conversation between Noah and Isla and they didn't realise I was earwigging - well it was 6.30am - I was trying to keep a low profile and get a bit more time in bed!
 

Noah: You're being naughty

Isla: no you're being naughty!

Noah: No Daddy naughty

Noah: I'm not a monster (I've got to disagree!)

Then Noah goes through the entire family "Grandpa naughty, Nanny naughty, Aunty Kirsty naughty, Cousin M naughty etc etc"

Noah: I like Mummy best

Isla: I like Mummy best in the whole world wide 

*I like this part of the conversation!*

Noah: I like Daddy

Isla: You are a rude person

Noah: No I not rude. I'm not naughty.

Isla: I see you in the chair in the night being naughty (this is reference to the fact that Noah STILL WAKES EVERY FRIGGIN' NIGHT and I sit with him in the chair!) I'll give you a star if you stop being naughty (I love that she is going to start her own star chart system with him...!)

Noah: I want Poppy Cat and Daisy Doo

Isla: You are naughty, I'm going now and taking my sheep (at this point she comes in to me and I'm laughing my head off)

And finally a great one from yesterday: 

Me: Are you going to be a good boy today Noah?

Noah: No, I not be good boy, ever, never.

Pause.

Noah: I be silly and billy.

Me: *sigh*

Willy, Poo, Bum....and Other Toddler Speak

As recently as the last month Isla has started to be a bit more cheeky and is using some words that I know she deems to be naughty as when she says them she's laughing but I know she's also testing out whether she's allowed to say them. We've had bum head, poo head and maybe even a combination of willy, poo, bum head. Inside I'm laughing my head off as I do remember doing all this with my little sister (pig bum I seem to remember as being one of my favourites...) but I'm also hoping that not too many people outside of our house get called these names. I've obviously told her that it's rude and she shouldn't say it but I guess it is par for the course. 

Another conversation that I was hit with last week was about willies. I really couldn't contain myself on this one and did end up howling with laughter:

The scene, in the bathroom, bathing Isla:

Isla: I haven’t got a willy mummy.

Me: no you haven’t

Isla: have you got a willy?

Me: no, boys have willies

Isla: does Noah have a willy?

Me: yes

Isla: does he have a big willy or a little willy?

Me: a little willy

Isla: does daddy have a willy?

Me: yes

Isla: Does daddy have a big willy or a  little willy

*lots of stifled laughs from me*

Me: I would say its medium sized……

Sorry to my OH but I *had* to share this as it is a classic! She is fascinated by our bodies and all the different bits, so I guess we've probably got a bit more of this kind of thing to come in the future!

My Boy Turns 1

It's safe to say that this has been the fastest, and I'm going to admit the most tiring year of my life. How has my baby boy gone from being  a newborn to a toddler so quickly? I thought life with one child was fast moving, but with two it's like travelling at the speed of light. It has been a wonderful year, seeing my baby grow and change and also watching his relationships develop - with his Sister, his Daddy and his Grandparents. I think it must be very hard for him as he has a gregarious older sister who LOVES the limelight and I feel like sometimes he is a little bit of an enigma - no one sees the side of him that I see all the time, the cheeky grins, the wicked sense of humour (no I'm not mad, he really does already have a sense of humour at 1) and the determination to keep reaching milestones.

I can't say I could imagine a year ago what my life would be like now, it's certainly a hard year when you have another older child only 2 years older, they almost NEVER sleep at the same time, they never wake up at the same time and now Noah is older they're already tussling with each other over toys and demanding the same things. He's already walking which I can safely say is a great relief as he WEIGHS A TONNE!! Anyone I meet in the street or at soft play cannot believe that he is only 1 - he looks about 18 months - I'm sure this will go against him as he gets older and people might expect more from him on first meeting him.

He is the making of our family and we love him to bits. It's rather weird now that his birthday is over and knowing how different Isla was between 1 and 2 years of age - it's such a cliche but I almost don't want him to grow up - and then my rational brain says - "of course you do! you want sleep and to reclaim some of your life back!". The other thing that is weird is having all these boys toys around the house! Up till a few days ago we pretty much had either girls or unisex baby toys for him and now we're full to the brim with trains, diggers and cars! I've got to learn a whole new way of playing.

My toddler this week #2

Potty in the background, nice! Proudly showing her clever puzzle skills!

So this week I'm noticing all the things that Isla has been saying. I notice that sometimes when I've said something to her she stops and looks at me really seriously. This is when she is thinking about something I've said, mulling it over and trying to make sense of it. One of my favourites recently has been this:

Me: You're such a clever old stick!
About a minutes silence
Isla: I'm not a clever old stick, I'm Isla!

See, very clever!

My other favourite is this one:

Me: What's the magic word
Isla: Abra....
Me: No, not that magic word
Isla: Oh, thank you!

I loved that one, she has a magic wand and is so into changing us into frogs or rabbits at the moment.

Another one that I have no idea where it came from is her saying "Bravo!" when we've achieved something! Not something I've ever really said, so I'm assuming this is a nursery thing.

We've also had a lot of references to 'best friends' this week. Just to show how fickle toddlers are, here are two examples, the first one happened when I was laid up in bed with a bad back this week. I can hear Isla downstairs harassing the Other Half to come upstairs and see me..

Isla: I want to see mummy, mummy is my best fwwwweind

On the flip side of this, the following morning when I was trying to get her dressed, (me still having the bad back) I got cross as she was escaping my clutches! So this time:

Isla: You're not my best fwwwweind anymore

The final two Isla quotes can be solely attributed to Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly:

"Sit down your majesty" and "Ahoy there me hearties"

The first one I'm trying to get her to say to my Dad, just because I think this would be funny. I'm loving Isla's chit chat most of the time and I'm going to keep trying to record her 'Islaisms' so we can look back on them and have a good giggle!

A Lot's Happened in 7 Weeks!

I can’t believe it’s been 7 weeks already that Noah has been in the world! It’s gone so quickly. He arrived 12 days late and after a failed sweep I had my waters broken and then he made a storming entrance in about 5 and a half hours! Nice and quick for mummy and he was a whopper at 9lb 14oz.

So what has happened in that time?

4 days after his arrival was his big sister Isla’s birthday and boy does she like birthdays! She’s not stopped singing ‘Happy Birthday’ ever since! I have to admit to spoiling her. Partly it was to do with the guilt at turning her world upside down and partly it was that I kept buying things in the run up to her birthday, putting them away and then when it came to the day I was actually astounded by how many things we’d bought that I’d forgotten about. Whoops! She had a fab day though and it was also a good opportunity for us to show off Noah.

One thing that has been good about having a toddler as well is that you really cannot hibernate indoors second time around, Noah has been out and about to a few birthday parties, Isla’s sports day, a trip to London for Lollibop, a saunter round a National Trust garden (well a big snooze actually!) and has even sampled the delights of Croydon (thankfully also stayed asleep for that too!). We get 2 days a week to spend quality time together when Isla goes to nursery and so far she has been really good at drop off and we haven’t had any resistance to going there.

However there has been increased ‘terrible two’ behaviour that I feel sure has been brought on by Noah’s arrival. Me and the OH are trying to be patient with her but it is very hard when some of the tantrums are over silly things (one over baked beans!) and her behaviour is completely irrational. Worst example was when she refused to get in the buggy home from the park. My other half literally could not get her in the buggy for love nor money, she was screaming/ throwing herself around etc, so he had to walk home and the walk which would take 20 minutes for us adults with long legs took them nearly 2 hours at little leg pace! Glad I wasn’t involved in that one, but I’ve had my fair share too.

She has also now gone into her big bed in preparation for Noah moving from the Moses basket to the cot. Getting her to stay in bed some evenings is a bit of a challenge but I love to see her in bed asleep.....

Noah’s arrival has also coincided with Isla’s increased interest in the potty which is a good and slightly tricky thing all at once. It is certainly fab that she’s trying to become more independent but it’s also giving us even more to deal with. The potty has become really appealing when it comes to bedtime, a nice stalling tactic we think but obviously we can’t get cross about it!

I had my 6 week check and have a clean bill of health, so there is no reason why I can’t start to get fitter and lose some baby weight. I’m not breast feeding anymore so I really cannot justify eating lots of cakes and biscuits any longer!

Unfortunately in Noah’s short spell on Earth he has now already experienced an overnight stay in the children’s hospital. While he lies in his moses basket snoring I sit here in the darkness typing. He has a rash on his tummy and although the blood tests have come back showing nothing conclusive he is in for observation. While here we’ve also addressed the reflux problem that he seems to have, so fingers crossed there will be less puking! *

The next thing we have to look forward to is a family holiday to Coombe Mill in Cornwall in 2 weeks time - we're so looking forward to it, more to come on that! So that's it really, and although we're sleep deprived and fit to drop every evening, we're a very happy family!

*Noah was fine after 1 night in the hospital, unexplained rash was put down to a virus. The staff at Queen Mary's (St Helier) really are fab, I cannot speak highly enough of the staff in that hospital.

New Obsession - Annie the Musical

While I was laid up in bed with tonsillitis the weekend before Christmas, my husband had the pleasure of looking after our 18 month old for 2 days on his own while I felt like I was dying. I felt really sorry for myself and I couldn't do anything, not even speak. The two of them spent the whole time keeping away from Mummy and when they did venture upstairs they would pop their heads around the door, Isla would come to the side of the bed and look very quizzically at me as if to say, 'what are you doing, why are you laying in bed instead of playing with us?' Hubbie would then usher them out so they didn't catch the bugs and Isla would wave at me and say 'bye, bye'. I felt miserable as I could hear all the laughter and usual hub bub of our family going on downstairs except without me!

On the second day of my confinement I noticed in the afternoon that things had gone very quiet downstairs, apart from the sound of 'Annie the musical'. I was intrigued! A bit later on I could hear Isla seemingly getting a bit worried and the Hubbie telling her not to worry Annie would be alright! I wasn't all that familiar with Annie at the time so didn't know the plot. Little did I know that I would become so familiar with the plot that I could now be Miss Hannigan's understudy (I'm sure I could pull off acting like an old lush and looking like a trannie!) and that I would also come to think that Albert Finny's 'Daddy Warbucks' was actually quite fanciable!!

Since that fateful day Isla has become obsessed with Annie and I don't use that term loosely (Annie seems to be as addictive as 'Gummeeeee' - see previous blog post!). From the first viewing she loved the song 'Tomorrow', her own version being 'Moro, Moro'. She does this from the minute she comes downstairs in the morning to the minute she goes to bed pointing at the TV and demanding 'Moro, Moro'. From the point in the film that my Hubbie realised that she was really into it he pressed record on Sky, this meant we only had it from about 25 minutes in and also had all the ad breaks to fast forward - and we have to do that as quickly as possible or we get 'moro, moro, moro, moro', chanted repeatedly until it comes back on. I find it so strange that at such a young age (18 months) she can love a film so much, I wouldn't have believed that a toddler would have the attention span to sit for long and believe me, she is as much of a live wire as any toddler, running rings round me and shrieking most of the time!

It has been known on any one day for Annie to have been on twice. I'd just like to make clear now that I'm not a parent that shoves their child in front of the TV and so we try our best to distract her into playing games or doing other activities but she truly loves it and so I've given in and bought the DVD, so that we can (a) watch it from the start and (b) not have ad breaks to fast forward! The DVD is a double bill with Oliver, so I'm hoping we might be able to transfer her affections to something different just for a change. Wish me luck.....