Tasty Thai Turkey Burger Recipe

I cooked these tasty Thai turkey burgers tonight and they were a winner! It had been a drizzly rainy day but these burgers brought a little bit of sunshine into our house at dinner time as they were packed with flavour. Here's how you make them and they take no time at all - bonus!

Ingredients (makes 5 burgers)

500g turkey mince
1 red chili chopped finely
1 handful of chopped coriander
1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger
4 spring onions, chopped finely
1 egg yolk
salt and pepper
olive oil

To serve:
Ciabatta
Lime and Chilli Mayonnaise (mix a couple of tablespoons of Mayo with a couple of teaspoons of lime juice and a tiny bit of lazy chili)
Salad Leaf

Method

- Mix all ingredients together and make into 5 patties

- Heat olive oil in a frying pan
- Fry burgers - approx 5 - 6 minutes each side 

- Place in your ciabatta with some delicious lime and chili mayonnaise and a bit of salad

I love Thai food, so these are a bit of a western take on typical Thai flavours. The ginger and the chili make the turkey taste more robust. I think if I were to do them again I would probably do them accompanied with a satay mayo. They would also be brilliant on the barbecue, so when summer decides to pop back to Surrey then I'll be ready to unleash these!

I'd love to know if you try this recipe and what you think of it and if you want any other ideas on what to do with turkey then try the Lean on Turkey site! Turkey is a really versatile and easily affordable meaty option, try it and see what you think. If you fancy trying another of my turkey recipes look at my Turkey Enchiladas.

This post is an entry for BritMums’ Summer Turkey Recipe Challenge.

Virgin Money and WWF in Partnership with Young Savers Account

On a recent trip to London Zoo the kids got to see some amazing animals up close and it got me thinking about how many species won't actually exist in the wild when they are my age. It makes me feel really sad that some of these beautiful creatures will no longer be roaming the planet and that is largely down to the human race. I'm always trying to encourage the children to be interested in animals and now Virgin Money are also helping to encourage childrens' interest in conservation and the protection of endangered animals by partnering with the WWF. With every Virgin Money Young Savers Account opened from the end of April this year a 12 month WWF animal adoption pack will be given to the child. There are 11,000 packs available and they will be given away on a first come first served basis.

Isla already has a Virgin Money Young Savers Account, so we would have missed out of this fabulous adoption pack which includes: a cuddly toy, a certificate of adoption, stickers, bookmarks and a fact book and a quarterly update. Luckily we are being sent one, so now we need to think about which animal we want to support! Which would you choose from the Tiger, Hawksbill turtle, Adelie Penguin, Mountain Gorilla, Borneo Orang-utan, Bottlenose Dolphin, Amur Leopard, Giant Panda, Snow Leopard, Polar Bear, Black Rhino, Asian Elephant? I'm not sure which animal the kids will choose, I have a sneaky suspicion it might be the Giant Panda, in view of their love of King Fu Panda! Sadly official figures say that there are less than 1600 Giant Pandas in the wild, now that really is heartbreaking.

I'm as keen for Isla and Noah to learn about money and looking after it for their futures as I am for them to learn about looking after the world around them, it's never too early to be educated on these kinds of things. I want her to grow up in a world where all these animals still exist, not one where the only place we can see them is in the zoo. 

This is a sponsored post.

How to Make a Quick Model Rocket for Children

One recent Saturday morning we were a bit stumped for things to do as it was peeing down with rain outside, so I noticed we had two juice bottles in our recycling and I thought surely we could make something out of these? We’d been watching an episode of Ben and Holly when they go into space so I thought why not make model rockets from them? It seemed like a fairly easy idea in my head and actually in practice it was too. The kids had a lot of fun helping with this as it really is very simple. So here’s our crafty instructions on how to make a rocket…..


Materials:

1 Bottle – we made a small rocket from a small lunchbox drink bottle Silver Foil 
1 toilet roll 
Black card squares 
Stickers to decorate your rocket 
Bright orange/ yellow/ red tissue paper to make the flames 
Sticky tape 


1 – Take your bottle and cover the entire thing in silver foil – ensure you make a point at the top for a real aerodynamic look

2 – Take your toilet roll and cut in to 3 pieces and also cover them in tin foil

3 – Stick the 3 covered toilet roll pieces to the bottom of your covered bottle using sticky tape– these are your rocket exhausts! 

With the obligatory tongue out....

4 – Stick some black squares on the side of your rocket for windows and then stick lots of shiny stickers all over your rocket to make it look really state of the art

5 – Finally tear some strips of bright orange/ yellow/ red tissue paper and stick to the rocket exhausts for flames - there you have a a really speedy to make rocket!


Making the rockets was a lot of fun and then playing with the rockets after was also a big hit!

We ♥ Christopher Nibble by Charlotte Middleton

I can't remember how this book turned up in our house for the life of me - I think it may have been given to Isla by someone at nursery, but it's proving quite popular at the moment as it's feeding into her current love of dandelion clocks. She loved the dandelions when they had bright yellow flowers and she loves them even more now they are big fluffy seed heads that she can blow or wave around!

Christopher Nibble is a guinea pig and he lives in Dandeville with all the other dandelion loving guinea pigs, unfortunately they love the dandelion leaves rather too much and they disappear from the town. It's down to Christopher Nibble to solve the dandelion crisis. We love this book, the illustrations are really cute, it has a bit of a Charlie and Lola feel to it with lots of patterns used. I have been encouraging the children to do lots of planting and looking after flowers recently so this story really fits in with that too as Christopher Nibble goes about growing the towns favourite food! I love the quirky feel and the unusual story. It sends out a gentle message about conservation too.

This really is a lovely book and I think we'll check out a few of the other Christopher Nibble titles, they're great for pre-school children!

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*

30 Choir Festival Guinness World Record Success!

As you may have read here over the Bank Holiday weekend at the start of the month of May the London Community Gospel Choir held a fabulous 30 Choir festival at the Southbank Centre in London. The weekend was a triumph as they broke the Guinness World record for the largest number of people singing in a gospel choir under concert conditions. And I am excited to say that I was part of that attempt. The sound of 'Oh Happy Day' rang through the entire of the Southbank, it was a real moment of joyousness and something I'm so happy to be part of. 

Rev Bazil Meade Accepts the Guinness World Record Certificate!

The day started off with a rehearsal and a run through of what was expected of us and ended with a stunning concert featuring some wonderful voices - voices that to my mind would give the likes of Mary J Blige and Emile Sande a run for their money! We were also lucky enough to see one of my all time favourite female Soul singers Jocelyn Brown and young talent Jahmene Douglas from the X Factor. He had the most amazing voice, something that needs to be witnessed in real life - listening on TV doesn't even come close.

My partners in crime for the day were Helen aka Actually Mummy, Liz aka Me and My Shadow and Mary, journalist from the Voice. Here we are before Helen sprayed us with the necessary gold glitter, which clearly set us up to perform to our best! 

Actually Mummy, Mary and I!

So on returning from this amazing day I hadn't realised that perhaps my constant droning of 'Oh Happy Day' had, had an effect on my son, and during lunch at my parents a week ago he started coming out with 'Oh Happy Day' and it was very cute. Perhaps I should have taken him to the record attempt too - he could have been the youngest member of the LCGC Choir! What do you think?

Photo credits: Louise Harris and Liz Burton

Bacon and Red Pepper Risotto Recipe

This evening we were a bit stumped on what to cook for dinner so I threw a few things together that I had in the fridge and store cupboard and came up with this Bacon and Red Pepper Risotto and it was delicious! Here goes:

Serves 2 very hungry parents!

Ingredients
200g Risotto Rice
1 red onion
1 red pepper
2 cloves or garlic
2 chicken stock cubes
1 litre of boiling water for the stock cubes
Good glug of white wine
Glug of Olive Oil
Knob of butter
Black pepper to season (we didn't need salt as the bacon was lovely and salty!)


Method
Fry the bacon, onion and red pepper in olive oil and butter for 5 minutes

Add the garlic to the pan and gently fry for a further 5 minutes until all nicely golden and soft

Add the risotto rice to the pan and make sure it gets coated in all the oily buttery loveliness and it should hiss for a bit.

Make the stock and then start adding the stock a ladle at a time and keep stirring the risotto and keep adding stock as it gets absorbed. Splash the glug of white wine in too. If you need more liquid just add a bit more water, but I found that was enough. I can't tell you how long this process took but I could see that the rice had swollen up nicely, I tasted it and it was cooked!

Serve with a nice fresh salad and Bob's Your Uncle, a delicious quick meal! Enjoy.