JulieBhosaleAchive

I am on a little bit of a roll at the moment with creating healthy alternatives to my favourite chocolatey treats. This recipe required no baking at all, and uses Nairn's Chocolate Oat Biscuits to form a healthy base with significantly less sugar than other biscuits. Perfect for Christmas, or a special occasion or just a little something after dinner. Ingredients: Base 1 Box of Chocolate Nairns Oat Biscuits 100g of butter Filling 200g Dark chocolate 500g Cream Cheese 2 Heaped Tb of sour cream 1 tsp of vanilla essence Whipped cream to top (optional) Directions: 1. If you have not done so already take the cream cheese and butter out as these need to be at room temperature. 2. To make the base, add the Chocolate Nairns Oatcakes and butter into a food processor and pulse together. 3. Press into a cup cake tin - I find a flexi-bake works the best (you can use muffin size or even the mini-muffin size). Place in the fridge while preparing the filling. 4. To make the filling, first melt th...

Sleep..... Do you have a far off memory of what that was? Five years and counting and sleep still is not what is was like in LBC (life before children). However that first year when bubs arrives into this world hands down takes the cake when it comes to sleep deprivation. An area of sleep for little ones especially before their first birthday which is not often discussed is the relationship between sleep and food. Food of course for babies is in the form of milk (breastmilk or formula) but also the process of moving on to solid food. Now I do have a whole chapter on this relationship in my book The Nourished Baby AND if I am really honest I could write an entire book on the science of sleep - period - for babies (I just might be you know!). However as sleep deprivation is such a challenge for parents I hope the following tips will give you a few pointers and things to try straight away. Sleep is very much hormonally driven. There are a lot of hormonal processes which stimulate the body...

I love a good brownie....actually I love anything that comes in a 'chocolate' form....so I am always on a mission to create new healthy versions of my fav sweet treats. You just have to look through my dessert blog recipes to know this!. A healthy brownie recipe has been on my 'hit-list' and finally after a few attempts I nailed this on the weekend. I really wanted to create a brownie recipe that was dairy-free as many breastfeeding mums I know can end up cutting this out to help with reflux but in fact it turned out even more healthy than I thought...as this beauty is dairy-free, gluten-free, free of refined sugar (just some dates for sweetness) AND better yet is packed full of good fats, iron (in the nuts) with some anti-inflammatory properties from coconut and coconut oil! If you are unsure about coconut oil you can read my earlier blog on the low down on this here.  I think you will be really surprised by how easy this is - that is always my thing with recipes they ...

Learning to eat is messy business….for those that have not yet starting solids I am sorry but it is coming! Having navigated starting solids now with both of my two boys something that I had not yet found a solution for was a spoon to help  learn that crucial motor skill of hand to mouth action. When I look back on videos (I have a tone on you-tube for your viewing pleasure) with the tradition long spoons there was a lot of flicking action over the head, chair, floor….you get the picture! This year I found the solution I would have loved to have had with them – self feeding spoons from Kizsingo! These are simple but pure genius. These spoons feature a nice short handle for easy griping those wee hands adding stability as well, and the curve allows for a guided motion up to eager mouths. Babies can close their lips easily around the specially designed head of the spoon. It pretty much means babies can grab and go. Oh the concentration! (Note the double spoon approach too!) You will neve...