Thinking of gift ideas for adults can be difficult especially when gifting to loved ones who have everything. Trying to think of a gift that would be welcome and not a waste of money can be tricky.
A great gift guide that is thoughtful and appreciated by all from the person who has everything to those who rarely treat themselves to foodies to family and friends who love to socialise to the person who despises traditional, uninspired gifts given just for the sake of gifting something, is a restaurant gift voucher.
Dubai, synonymous with luxury, is one of the world’s top 5-star glam holiday destinations. Renowned for its stunning beaches, glitz and riches, innovative architecture, premium hotels, and spectacular shopping, Dubai is a destination full of opulence and culture.
Dubai also boasts countless culinary delights and award-winning restaurants that delight taste buds. Enjoying authentic Emirati cuisine whilst visiting Dubai can help you experience the culture of Dubai. Emirati dishes usually showcase ingredients like fish, meat, and rice with dishes enhanced with spices, and traditional cuisines include Khuzi and Al Machboos.
Not only does Dubai offer an impressive range of restaurants and eateries that provide authentic Emirati cuisine, but it is a melting pot of a diverse range of cuisines and fusion foods from across the world. With such variety available, the restaurants and eateries of Dubai cater for all tastes and budgets, allowing visitors to enjoy food they know and love or delight in experiencing new culinary delicacies.
Over the past few years our family has adopted more of a plant-based and vegan diet. Thanks to an ever-expanding range of vegetarian, plant-based and vegan products available on the market today, eating well for our health and for the benefit of the planet is easier than ever.
Being a cheese lover, switching from dairy cheese to vegan cheese has been the most difficult change to my eating habits.
Much to my delight Violife has a range of tasty vegan cheese that has helped satisfy my cheese cravings. Over the past few days the family and I have been taste testing a range of Violife 100% vegan cheeses.
The Violife vegan cheese we have been tasting are Epic Mature Cheddar Flavoured Vegan Block, Original Flavour Vegan Grated Cheese, Original Flavour Vegan Cheese Slices, Smokey Cheddar Flavoured Vegan Cheese Slices and Le Rond Camembert Flavour Vegan Cheese.
Your gut is the
cornerstone of overall health and you cannot imagine being fit unless
it is in top shape. If your gut health seems out of balance, you
should address the problem sooner rather than later. Your goal should
be quick yet sustainable healing rather than a short-term fix. The
best way to do this is by using natural remedies because medicines
will only make the problem worse. If you want to heal your gut
naturally and make it stronger for the long haul, here are some easy
tips to follow.
Chocolate
is loved by many people across the nation. So much so that research
has highlighted that Britain consumes 660,900 tonnes of chocolate a
year! Broken down this staggering number calculates to 11kg per
person per year and equals three bars of chocolate each week. These
numbers showcase just how loved chocolate is, but do chocoholics know
where it comes from and the history of delicious chocolate?
Fair
trade chocolate
Fair
trade is a system designed to make trade fair which makes a
difference to the lives of people who grow the things we love. The
fair trade system currently works with more than 1.66 million farmers
across 73 different countries across the world to bring us many
delicious treats, including beloved chocolate.
With
the summer school holidays coming to an end and momentous times ahead
for both of our children with our eldest moving to a junior school
and our youngest starting infant school, we are going to end the
holidays on a high with a big celebratory BBQ.
We
love a BBQ with friends and family. Tasty food, great company and
garden games for the kids (big kids too) to enjoy in lovely summer
weather makes for a fantastic time for all. As we have been so busy
over the summer holidays it is also a great excuse to catch up with
our nearest and dearest before the back to school routine kicks in.
Over
the past few years I have been through a few parenting milestones,
one of which is weaning.
Weaning
both Jelly Bean and Bug was memorable and fun, with each experience
being unique to them. Both were weaned earlier than the recommended
age at the guidance of the health visitor. Bug took to food faster
than Jelly Bean with him being an enthusiastic, full meals eater who
loved to try new foods; whilst Jelly Bean was more of a slow eater
who took a while to take to new tastes and textures and preferred to
graze throughout the day eating little and often rather than a few
large meals in one go.
Renowned bakers Hovis® Wholemeal are celebrating the nation’s love of wholesome* food by
touring the UK with their mobile bakery.
With over 130 years of
baking expertise Hovis® bakers are master’s at making a great loaf
of tasty bread. Their classic, wholesome Wholemeal loaf is no
exception. Baked to perfection Hovis® Wholemeal provides the unique
taste of Hovis® heritage in every slice (medium or thick sliced
depending on your personal preference) along with hearty-goodness.*
Many agree that life
would be wonderful if we all had a remote control that could make bad
parts in our lives speed up and make the better parts slow down. One
of the important aspects that most of us would really like to fast
forward would be weight loss.
While it has been proven
that steady and slower weight loss usually translates into permanent
loss. Many of us are not prepared to wait around for this to happen
especially since the warm summer months are almost upon us. Well here
are 5 of the top foods you should be adding into your daily diet to
reach those weight loss goals a lot quicker. All of these foods have
been backed by scientific results and are suggested to burn fat in a
period of six weeks or even less.
Over the past year as we
have worked with HiPP Organic as part of their #weanteam, Jelly Bean
has gone from a little baby experiencing his first tastes to a busy
toddler who munches on family meals with ease. From a little one who had just started crawling to an active walking toddler who races around on little adventures.
Now that he has
graduated from the Wean Team (so disappointed that we couldn’t make
the awesome party) and mastered weaning, we are now concentrating on
how to feed a toddler so that he is fed healthy, nutritious food to
keep him happy and healthy with lots of energy for his busy
adventures.
With Bug broken up from school for the holidays it feels as if summer has finally arrived…..think someone needs to tell Mr Sun though as it looks like he has gone on his holidays too as we've not seen much of him so far since the holidays have started.
Along with beach trips, family days out and sunny adventures in the great outdoors; summer means lots of picnics and BBQs as we enjoy alfresco dining.
Even though Mr Sun has been a little shy we have squeezed in a few picnics with friends and family.
It feels as if Jelly Bean's time as a little baby passed in a blink of an eye. Even when he was a newborn he was strong and determined. He was holding his head up, pushing to stand up and rolling over from young. Those newborn days of a sleepy baby only kicking his legs about and waving his arms but not going anywhere were soon forgotten and he was on the move!
At 5 months he was commando crawling everywhere and traditional crawling soon followed suit, with him being able to cross a room very swiftly.
There’s no greater
British tradition than getting your friends and family round for a
BBQ the second the sun appears. Summertime can be short and sweet in
the UK so who can blame us for making the most of it with beers and
burgers in the back garden while we can?
This year, step it up a
notch and ensure any BBQ’s you host are ones to remember. Don’t
worry if you’re cooking skills are more microwave than gourmet –
these simple hacks don’t require you to learn to cook, instead you
can just pour a drink and whack on the factor 30 and enjoy the
heatwave.
Weaning with Jelly Bean is going amazing. He loves his food and our combining pureed HiPP Organic food with a baby led weaning approach has seen him master lumps and be happy to tackle all kinds of foods and textures.
For the most part now he eats fingers foods, eating the same foods as his big brother, however his love of HiPP Organic fruit purees and puddings is still strong and he loves them for after meal treats and snacks. HiPP Organic pouches and jars are also often enjoyed by Jelly Bean when out and about on our family days out and adventures as they are so convenient. He also loves to have them, favouring them over finger food, when he is teething.
As part of the HiPP Organic wean team we are privileged to try new HiPP Organic foods before they hit the shops. This month we were sent their new range of breakfast foods.
At 8 months old it has been a few months since we started weaning Jelly Bean, having started the journey into the world of food with him a little before the recommended 6 months following advice from our health visitor;.
The journey into the wonderful world of weaning and food has been a fun and memorable one.
Jelly Bean has taken to food brilliantly and embraces the wide range of foods that we introduce him to. We believe that it is very important that we introduce him to an expansive range of foods early in his weaning journey and provide a varied, healthy diet as it affects dietary intake when older. We also hope that by giving him a varied diet he will enjoy a world of varied foods from a young age and not be a fussy eater when older.
Whilst all children are different I believe introducing Bug to a varied diet and a wide range of foods at a young age when we weaned him about 4 and a half years ago is partly responsible for the fact that he is not a fussy eater, eats a varied and healthy diet, is an adventurous eater who happily tries new foods and has a experienced palate. We hope by introducing Jelly Bean to a similar weaning experience that he will follow his brother's love of all foods.
To give Jelly Bean a varied diet and taste of a range of foods we have been mindful not to just stick to foods we know he loves but also continue to offer new tastes and textures. Thankfully Jelly Bean is still more than happy to try new foods and has yet to reject any new tastes, but as I know there may come a time when he is wary of or declines new food I plan on offering such foods to him as many as 10 times as it can take that many times before little ones accept new foods. Hopefully a mixture of persevering with new foods and providing him with a varied and adventurous diet will mean he grows up with a love of all foods.
After he mastered purees and reached 6 months we started to mix using HiPP Organic jars and pouches with finger foods which is working very well for us. He loves feeding himself and I love seeing the glee in his eyes as he does so, but equally he also still loves devouring yummy purees and lumpy foods from the range of HiPP Organic jars and pouches. As well as giving him a broad range of textures from the beginning of Jelly Bean's weaning journey we have also made sure to provide him with both sweet and savoury foods equally.
As well as trying to make sure he loves savoury tastes as much as - if not more than – sweet foods, we are also mindful not to give him foods that are processed or have extra sugars included. Thankfully we are reassured that the HiPP Organic pouches and jars we fed him are as healthy as possible as the organic fruits & vegetables used in them are grown on dedicated organic farms, where they are left to ripen naturally and harvested at their plumpest & sweetest before being gently steam cooked to preserve the nutrients and flavours without the need for extra sugars or processing. They also carefully control the amount of sugar in all their baby foods especially as it is important that savoury foods do not contain hidden sugars from fruit.
During Jelly Bean's weaning journey he has tried lots of different foods and along with lots of fun mess (love that part of weaning) we have seen lots of different faces and reactions to new tastes.
So far I cannot say that he has a preference to sweet or savoury, being equally fond of both. However he does love certain foods more than others with his favourites so far being HiPP Organic Banana & Rice Pudding, HiPP Organic Cheesy Spinach & Potato Bake, Cucumber, Ham sandwiches, and Apples.
What I have found interesting to watch is see Jelly Bean try finger foods of tastes he has enjoyed as pureed food. He loves bananas in the HiPP Organic jars but his reaction when he tasted a slice of fresh banana was amusing.
The moment we tried.....fresh banana.
Likewise he found it weird the first time he tried fresh blueberries after having enjoyed the taste previously in HiPP Organic purees, but has warmed to eating them fresh with lots of other fresh fruit.
The moment we tried.....fresh blueberries.
A new flavour Jelly Bean has recently tried is HiPP Organic Cocoa & Vanilla Dessert, and whilst I think his face says it all about what he thought of it I can say he loves it and it has now become a firm favourite.
The moment we tried......HiPP Organic Cocoa & Vanilla Dessert.
Another new taste that has been a hit with Jelly Bean is the HiPP Organic Cherry, Apple and Banana Breakfast pouch with cherry being a new taste sensation for him.
The moment we tried.....HiPP Organic Cherry, Apple and Banana Breakfast.
What I love most about weaning, especially the stage we are at where he loves all foods and is enjoying feeding himself is the joy in his face at self feeding and the fun mess he makes when doing so.
The moment we tried......mashed potato.
The moment we tried....bolognese and pasta shapes - what a proud boy feeding himself!
Take a look at the video below to see a few of the moments he first tried new foods in action -
We are loving weaning Jelly Bean and look forward to the rest of his weaning journey with excitement.
WIN
Are you weaning or about to wean your little one? Why not enter the giveaway below for the chance to win a HiPP Organic Sweet & Savoury bundle to help your little one through their weaning journey.
For extra points we would love it if you shared with us a picture capturing the moment your little one tried a new flavour to celebrate HiPP's 'The moment we tried....' campaign celebrating little ones trying new foods. To get the bonus points share the picture on twitter, tagging myself @rootsandwings1 and HiPP Organic @HiPPorganic using the hashtag #themomentwetried
Thanks to an innovative
design Snackeez is a drink cup with a container inside ideal for
storing small snacks. The brightly coloured snack and drink cup by
Character Options features a non-slip grip to make holding it easy
and perfect for helping little hands hold the cup which is rather
large for little ones.
As I watched
Jelly Bean excitedly devour fresh fruit and veg finger foods today my thoughts
turned to growing our own fruit and veg this year.
Whilst I
am far from being an expert at gardening, I would call myself green fingered
and enjoy being out in the garden and find gardening to be rather therapeutic.
Over the years my love of being in the garden and getting my hands dirty
sprucing up the garden, tending to plants and planting flowers, and growing
fruit, veg and salad has influenced Bug who loves to help me garden and sow
seeds.
We’ve Ella’s
Kitchen for a number of years now. As a parent I love the nutritional benefits
of their foods and snacks along with their ethos of being environmentally and
socially responsible. Bug loves them as they are super tasty and keep his
energy topped up for lots of fun adventures and play.
As Bug is a
very busy and boisterous boy, enjoying adventures galore, I like to make sure
he has a healthy diet that consists of nutritious and tasty snacks to keep his
energy levels topped up when playing and adventuring.
With Bug
being a busy little bug all of the time, particularly enjoying autumn adventures
of late, it was helpful that he was sent a gift pack of Kerry Foods goodies to
keep him refuelled. Along with renowned Cheesestrings Kerry Foods also sent us
their newer product Yollies, which Bug was particularly keen to try having
never tried them before.
