Every day ice-cream (fruit smuggling at its finest)

December 6, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Sweets & treats, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged , , , , ,

Nothing bad, the all-fruit ice-cream

Nothing bad, the all-fruit ice-cream

When I put this dessert down in front of my kids last night, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Post-dinner treats at VSHQ consist of fruit and yoghurt (they get ice-cream at nanny & pa’s house) so they didn’t know WHAT they had done to deserve this magnificent creation.

Little did they know that there was some serious fruit smuggling taking place and there wasn’t a single unhealthy thing before them.

You see if you blitz up a frozen banana, you magically get the consistency of ice-cream. You can leave it as a magic one-ingredient dessert if you like, or you can add in some honey or other fruit. In this case I’ve used a couple of mango cheeks, then drizzled over some pomegranate seeds and ‘sprinkles’ of toasted coconut.

Best thing about this recipe is that it’s totally flexible to suit your family. You could replace the mango with berries and experiment with other toppings like pistachios and toasted almonds. I suspect frozen kiwifruit would work too, although I’ve not tried it. Maybe you can all do some experimenting and let me know what variation works at your place.


Magic fruit ice cream

1 mango
2 bananas (ripe but not over-ripe)
Pomegranate & toasted coconut to serve (optional).

Cut the flesh away from the mango skin (if you’re not sure how, watch this video). Pop into a plastic bag and freeze along with the whole bananas. When solid, peel the bananas (totally do-able – the skin comes away in chunks).

Place the bananas into the bowl of a food processor (a mini one will be fine for this quantity) and blitz until smooth.

Add in the mango and again, blitz until smooth. Pop this back into the freezer to harden up again (blitzing may have softened it all a little). Spoon into pretty bowls and serve to your astonished and amazed children.

Serves 4 kids, or 2 kids and 2 non-greedy adults

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No, really, my daughter is MUCH better than yours…

December 4, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News · Tagged , , , ,

I'll take the parenting win.

I’ll take the parenting win (I’ve had enough fails along the way).

Excessive bragging in parents is ugly, isn’t it? Managing parental pride so that you don’t become socially obnoxious can be tricky. I try to be self-effacing about my kids, which happens to be fairly easy since they’re pretty regular kids, with pretty regular talents. Both of them can swim without drowning (just) and both of them look acceptably cute when dressed well (which isn’t often). They find school pretty easy but I’ve never had the urge to get them tested by MENSA. They’ve neither too many nor too few friends and they seem to be generally taking life in their strides.

Despite their normal-ness, there have still been many awards in their lives. These days they’re unavoidable. Miss F received a medal at the end of netball season despite the team’s 12-match losing streak. Both have come home with myriad assembly awards for nondescript achievements such as ‘very good comprehension’ and ‘excellent class participation’. And Miss F did get a ballet trophy for turning up to 10 classes in a row.

So both my kids have been feted and awarded, and I have pondered in the past about whether all these awards are actually rendering achievement a little meaningless.

Our new school, however, still takes the end of year awards much more seriously and there’s none of this everyone-gets-a-prize mentality. There are four awards per class and this morning Miss F was the proud recipient of one. Not just any, but the ‘academic achievement’ award. Which I’m proud to brag about. She didn’t know beforehand and the surprise and delight and PRIDE on her face were so beautiful that I got all teary in quite an embarrassing way. It turns out, that some awards ARE a bit special, after all.

At school pickup Mr M&P had a sob because there was no award for him. We had a chat about how awesome it is to be proud of those we love, about the importance of being pleased for others. Miss F helped talk him down off his emotional cliff by pointing out that she’s made it to Year 2 without an award and he’s got a lot of opportunities in his future. I think the award caused them both to learn a bit about the complexities of winning, losing and life in general.

And now Mr M&P is really keen to apply himself and see what he can achieve next year. He’s fairly tenacious, so he might just be able to do it. Besides, he won’t have to push hard to reach his sister’s dizzying heights. Apparently after the presentation ceremony, Miss F trotted up to her teacher to ask what ‘academic’ meant. Which puts it all back into perspective nicely.

End of bragging for me. But what about you, what have your kids achieved this year? I won’t think you’re showing off.
______________________

Possibly Miss F’s favourite meals have made her the mental powerhouse that she is today. Perhaps your kids might like them too…

Tuna pasta bake recipe hiding corn, zucchini, carrot and capsicum

Tuna pasta bake

vegie smugglers frittata recipe

Mini Frittatas

Nachos. Her latest favourite.

Nachos. Her latest favourite.

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Just because

November 27, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Fish, Vegetarian · Tagged , , , , ,

Miss F and Mr M&P were outside on the weekend, setting the ground rules for an imaginative play game. Being a Virgo, Miss F likes to have the back-story fully told, with characters thoroughly fleshed out before the playing begins. Usually she will transform herself and her brother into animals, so the species, colour, familial relationships, full names, colour preferences and purpose of journey/adventure will all be established before she get into character (and the dirt) ready to play.

Mr M&P is a less complicated fellow but happily goes along with it all. He was nodding away, agreeing to all the details and finally added his own, “and all their last names will be ‘Doodle’”. Smirk smirk snigger.
“Why?” demanded Miss F, more than a bit annoyed by his flippancy.
“Just because” said Mr M&P with such a sense of finality that I was impressed.

I loved evesdropping on perfect a moment of childhood. Just because. There is no reason. Just because doodle is a funny word and it makes him (and me) laugh.

I realised that I don’t do much ‘just because’. There doesn’t seem to be much room for ‘just because’ when you’re an adult. Everything seems to need a reason, a justification for why I’m spending energy on it. Things can be fun, but they are usually with purpose.

Perhaps this is why I love summer so much. There’s a whole lot more opportunity for ‘just because’. Sure you have a swim for the valid reason that you need to cool down, but while you’re under water it’s nice to have a glide about and pretend you’re a mermaid (if only for a few seconds). Just because it’s good for your soul to have a bit of silly fun from time to time. And I’m thinking that the pursuit of ‘just because’ might be one of my new goals for 2013.

Before that though, we’ve got the Christmas season to get through. The barrage of upcoming events is likely to cause havoc to your usual routines, which is why I’m proposing a pasta salad this week. Make a batch of it and you’ll have instant dinners and lunches ready to go whenever you need them. Should give you more ‘just because’ time.

Basic balsamic salad dressing
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
¼ cup lemon juice
¾ cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine all of these ingredients and mix well. Keeps for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

pasta salad

Ready, delicious and waiting (in the fridge)


Tuna pasta salad

500g pasta (I like orecchiette)
½ quantity basic balsamic dressing (if you like really glossy salads, you may want to use more)
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
5 spring onions, finely sliced
400g can tuna in spring water (drained) – Omit this ingredient for a vegetarian salad!
1 large carrot, peeled, grated
½ red capsicum, finely diced
400g can corn kernels, drained
Olives
Basil
Pepper

(other yum ingredients include fennel, cannelini beans, red onion, artichoke hearts, green beans and banana chillis)

Cook the pasta according to packet directions. Drain quickly and return to the hot pan. Pour over the salad dressing and toss through the tomatoes and spring onions (the residual heat of the pasta cooks them slightly).

Mix through the rest of the ingredients. Season well with pepper. Serve warm or pop straight into the fridge and enjoy later on, cold.

Serves a family of four for dinner, then enough for lunches the next day too.

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Naughty and 40

November 18, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News, Sweets & treats · Tagged , , ,

Have you ever had that experience of waking up, looking in the mirror and being a bit shocked by what you see? I had that moment over the weekend when I looked and welcomed another significant wrinkle. Not content with adding to my collection of laugh lines, this one actually crosses over the laugh lines forming a nice mesh, reminiscent of fishnets but far less alluring.

Apparently the phrase ‘aging overnight’ is based on fact, not fiction. It’s true, people don’t age gradually, but in ‘clunks’ and after the age of 35 we’re in aging freefall.

Having a second non-sleeping baby at 34½ apparently gave me a double whammy of aging. My ‘overnight’ seemed to stretch for one blurry four-year period and then when my focus cleared enough to look in the mirror, I was 38 and not the youthful flower I had been seven years earlier when I breathlessly announced my first pregnancy. (Incidentally, women feel at their most beautiful at age 32).

Searching the web on all things aging, I was thrilled to discover ‘Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome’ which is the sudden aging of soap characters. Like when Bridget Forrester suddenly got old enough to be in a love triangle with her mother and Deacon. And I’m wondering if all those university hours spent watching ‘The Bold & The Beautiful’ was detrimental to my health and somehow it twiddled with my gene structure to leave me stuck with that syndrome. You see, in my mind, I’m still 25. Which is weird, because my daughter turns 9 next birthday and she’s nearly as tall as me.

Actually the truth is that I’m pondering all these things because I’m turning 40 this week. And no matter how I try to deny it, people keep doing things like giving me birthday cards with ’40 and naughty’ on the front and cheery messages like “you’re another year more wonderful”. The sentiment is sweet, but I can’t help but think of people saying, “gee you must be lucky” when a bird craps on your jacket. They’re trying to make you feel better, but really, it’s all a little bit bullshit.

So sticking with sweet, it seems right to do a chocolate slice recipe this week. And when you bite in, think of me, huddled in the old lady corner, lamenting the loss of my youth.

Happy birthday to me, I live in a tree…

Chocolate slice

1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup oat bran
40g butter, melted and cooled
140g tub apple purée
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs, lightly whisked

Icing
1 1/4 cups icing sugar mixture
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2-3 tbsp water
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 180c. Line a lamington/slice tin with baking paper (leave some to hang over the two long sides).

Sift the flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl. Add in the sugar, coconut and oat bran. Mix lightly.

In a separate bowl or jug combine the butter, purée, eggs and vanilla.

Pour the wet into the dry and fold until totally combined. Spoon the mixture into your tin and patiently spread with a spatula until even. Bake for 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tray.

Sift the icing sugar mixture and cocoa into a bowl. Add in the water and mix well then pour over the slice and leave it to harden in the tin.

Use the sides of the paper to lift out and slice into 20 pieces.

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So hot back then – nachos from the nineties

November 14, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Red meat · Tagged , , , ,

I don’t know about you, but back in 1991, nothing said ‘mature’ quite as much as popping out to the new Belaroma Café for a ‘cup of chino’ and a bagel. It was a 15-minute drive away, but cafes were a bit few and far between back then. Sure, there was the Grace Brothers cafeteria, where you pushed your tray along the metal shelf and ogled cling wrapped bits of black forest gateau but nothing competed with the Belaroma in terms of sophistication.

I seem to recall being there ALL THE TIME once I got my drivers license and could meet up with friends at the shocking hour of 9pm on a Tuesday! The freedom was delicious.

But perhaps we overdid it a little. I don’t think I’ve eaten a piece of carrot cake since 1993 and I can’t even say the word ‘nachos’ without a touch of scorn, so cemented is it to 1992 in my memories. But determined to be open minded in my quest for new family food, last week I whipped up a version of the tex-mex classic. Lo and behold, it was a MASSIVE hit, with the light-eating Miss F getting through two whole plates of it. I guess there was a reason why it became so popular, after all.

And it’s another recipe that can be made ahead and then assembled whenever you need.

Enjoy it; I’m off to dig through carrot cake recipes…

Corn chip lures, with all the healthy bits melted on top.



Nachos

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
500g lean beef mince
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
3-4 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1×2 tbsp tomato paste sachet
1 carrot, peeled, grated
½ green capsicum, finely diced
400g borlotti beans, rinsed, drained
400g can chopped tomatoes
½ cup water

To serve
Corn chips (buy the ones from the health food isle)
Avocado
Tomato
Grated cheese

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Saute the onion until golden, stirring frequently. Add in the mince and use the spoon to break up any lumps until it is all browned.

Add in the garlic, cumin, oregano, sweet chilli and tomato paste. Mix in the carrot, capsicum and beans and combine well.

Pour over the tomatoes and use the half-cup of water to swish out the remnants of the can. Bring to a simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Taste and season if need be.

Set aside, ready to use whenever you need it.

To compile the nachos, either…

Add a few chips to a plate (don’t give them too many!). Spread over a layer of mince, scatter the tomato and avocado, sprinkle with cheese and microwave until it is hot and the cheese just melted.

OR

Make one big family serve on an oven tray (lined with foil) and bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and golden.

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Yes, it’s that time of year again (and a FREE e-book for you)

November 11, 2012 · Filed under All recipes · Tagged , , , , ,

Plum pudding muffins! So easy, so yum. Just one of the recipes for you.

It’s usually around this time of year that I start to innocently pester my kids about what they’re going to hit up Santa for. I like to get them to start locking things in, which gives me enough time to sort my life out and get whatever they’re wanting at a good price with the minimum of panic.

It also gives me time to gradually knock any crazy suggestions on the head and introduce the idea of something more suitable. Like last year when Miss F started off wanting ‘a life-sized rocking horse’. I spent November working on that one, reminding her that Santa would probably think her room too small. But by December 1st, she was even more adamant that That. Was. What. She. Wanted.

Still I worked away, with reasons ranging from ‘I don’t think the elves make those’ (yes they do, she assured me), to ‘don’t you want something more grown up?’ (no, was the answer there). When we visited Santa mid-month, she sat on his knee and loudly and proudly asked for ‘a life-sized rocking horse’. Santa, bless him, raised his eyebrow, glanced at me in a mild panic and said “well, I can’t promise anything”. Which was a better response than the badly-briefed David Jones Santa who, the year before, when asked for a scooter (which I already had in the garage), asked “and what colour would you like?”
“Pink,” said Miss F.
“Done,” said Santa.
Bastard. The scooter in storage was plain silver. Luckily I was able to exchange it, but it was an element of pre-Christmas hassle that I didn’t need.

I know, I hear many of you exclaiming that I was crazy to care, but I do care. I remember asking Santa for a toy cash register and being ASTONISHED when it arrived under the tree. I like the magic of the big man. I like to advance his myth.

So what happened last year? Well, the rocking horse didn’t fit in the sleigh, but he did leave a lovely, detailed letter with a voucher for a horse riding lesson.

And what’s on the list for her this year? Well after watching Brave earlier this year, the ongoing yearning is for an adult’s archery set. Complete with arrows with real points. Joy.

To ease the pain of Christmas, I’ve done up a special Vegie Smugglers Christmas PDF, with some recipes, colouring in, gift tags and some cute gift ideas. You’ll receive a link to download your free copy once you become a subscriber of this blog (see, top right). If you’re already a subscriber, send me a message to vegiesmugglers@gmail.com. Just pop ‘book please’ in the subject and I’ll forward you a link too. (But please, make sure you’re already a subscriber before you email me.)

I used to always use Facebook to keep you peeps close. But my FB posts only reach a tiny portion of you now and I’d like to avoid sponsored posts, so this is my incentive to get you to cut out the middle man and deal with me direct. Subscribing just means that you’ll receive my recipes and posts straight to your inbox, ready to read whenever suits you.

All my PDF books are fantastic on the ipad!



PS: 10am Sunday… The lovely Em has just pointed out that there’s a missing ingredient on the turkey meatball recipe… ummmm… the turkey mince! I’ve fixed it now, but anyone who downloaded earlier today, remember to put 500g turkey mince into your mix. They’ll be pretty measley without it.

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You’re vegetarian, but the kids aren’t

November 5, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Ham/pork, Vegetarian · Tagged , , , , , ,

So you’ve been a vegetarian for years, happily sitting on the bacon sidelines and letting the world of steaks, mince and roasts pass you by. But then you have a baby, who after a delightful vegetarian life reaches the 8-9 month mark and is ready for a bit more protein. What do you do?

Perhaps your reasons are ethical, environmental or just plain taste-based, you now have a bit of a dilemma about how to feed your family and do the best thing for your kids’ health.

There is no reason why you can’t raise vegetarian children. It does mean that you need to pay special attention to their diet to keep it nutritionally balanced. There’s a good article here and resource here to help guide you.

Kids need much less protein than we often think. Here’s a link to just how much they require. Often you can fill their need for animal protein with milk, cheese and eggs. Ideally though, you should take a visit to a nutritionist or dietician to ensure there is no deficiencies anywhere in your eating plan.

Possibly the biggest battle you’ll face is the opinions of concerned grandparents and friends who really can’t fathom that your little lovelies can survive without the occasional chop. And perhaps they have a point. Unless you’re being really vigilant, then it might be a good idea for the kids to get a little dose of animal protein and iron a couple of times a week. If you’re ok with this, then here are a couple of ways to do it without you having to handle meat too often.

Big batch and freeze it

Make double batches of bolognaise, fajita mince or chilli and freeze them in small portions. These lamb sausage rolls are also good. That night the kids can have their meat fix and you can enjoy your Indian-style tempeh all by yourself.

Versatile dinners

Heaps of dinners can be made to a point, and then modified to suit the meat and non/meat-eating members of your household. Cheesy pots can be customised easily, as can rice paper rolls (cookbook 2) and pasta bake (just make individual ones).

This recipe for Chinese meatballs is perfect too. Make a double batch and freeze them. Then next time you whip up a stir-fry, add a few reheated meatballs on top of the kid’s serve.

Remember, if handling meat is a problem for you, maybe ask the concerned grandparent if they wouldn’t mind whipping up a meatball care parcel for you from time to time. I reckon they’ll be so relieved that they’ll be happy to help.

vegie smugglers plum sauce chinese-style meatballs

Serve meatballs on whatever vegies and noodles you like. Top with another dollop of plum sauce and some coriander.

Chinese-style plum sauce meatballs

Canola oil spray
1 slice bread (any flavour)
1 large clove garlic
½ tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
1 zucchini
500g veal/pork mince
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp plum sauce
Sprinkle white pepper (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line an oven tray with foil and spray with the oil spray.

Use a food processor (I like my mini-one) to blitz the bread up into breadcrumbs. Add in the garlic and 5-spice and blitz so that all the crumbs are a garlicky-aromatic source of yum. Add to a mixing bowl.

Pulse or grate the zucchini and add the bowl. Also add in the mince and all the flavourings.

Wear kitchen gloves and mix this all together well (or you can do all this in a large food processor if excessive handling of meat makes you queasy). Roll into bite-sized balls and place on the oven tray.

Spray meatballs with oil spray and bake for 15 minutes. Remove, use tongs to carefully turn over, spray again and bake for another 10 minutes until cooked through.

Makes 30ish.

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Pass me the berocca

October 30, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Chicken, News · Tagged , , ,

Gee I like holidays. Even with my kids I like them. And without my kids I liked them even more. Here’s how it went…

Wake up (at a time of my choosing). Swim. Coffee. Eat. Chat. Sun. Read. Swim. Chat. Eat. Rest. Drinkie. Chat. Snacks. Chat. Swim. Sunset. Chat. Eat. Perhaps a wee cocktail or three.

Now whilst I don’t condone excessive drinking, I must admit that I did toss back quite a few, which I blame entirely on the delirium we experienced being a bunch of women away from small children for the first time. Somehow the years slipped away and it felt more like schoolies week all over again. Except we’re pretty wrinkly now. And way beyond the acceptable age range for such shenanigans. We’re not schoolies. Not even toolies. Quite possibly we’re moulies – the mother version, who drink with gay abandon, delirious in their solo-ness and removal from menial tasks such as preparing vegetable purees.

Time though, for something far more healthful.

Easy to make and will get me back on track on no time.



Chicken & brown rice salad

5-6 cups cooked brown rice
600g poached chicken breast (see below for how to poach), sliced
1 carrot, peeled, grated
4 spring onions, finely sliced
Handful green beans, sliced
410g can corn kernels, drained
¾ cup raw cashews, roughly chopped
½ bunch parsley, roughly chopped
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1-2 tbsp maple syrup

Add all the salad ingredients into a large bowl. Whisk together the vinegar, oil, mustard and maple syrup. Drizzle over and stir through.

Serves 2 adults & 3 kids. NOTE kids might like to have theirs served before you mix in the parsley.

HOW TO POACH CHICKEN
I like to halve my chicken breasts horizontally, so they’re nice and thin. Fill a medium saucepan with water (add some vegie or chicken stock powder), 10 black pepper corns, a fresh bay leaf or two and any other herbs you have handy. Cover and bring to a vigorous boil. Remove from the heat, slip in the chicken, swish them about, cover quickly and leave for 15-20 minutes until cooked through.

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Five tricky vegies (and how to smuggle them)

October 22, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, The best way to smuggle..., Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged , ,

Chances are that if you sit the kids down and read out a list of the following vegies (and one legume), they will do all sorts of face contortions, with tongues out, shoulders up and arms flapping. They will quite possibly spend much energy and passion telling you just how much all of these things are GROSS. Which is a shame, because they are packed with a massive amount of nutrients that your kids really need to eat if they ever want to grow up to be astronauts or ballerinas.

So while I really like to spend a lot of time educating kids about how to eat well, at other times, I just like them to shut up and eat dinner. On some nights, with some ingredients, full scale smuggling is required.

I think these five ingredients are prime vegie smuggling candidates. Apparently disgusting on their own, with a bit of effort, you can transform them into delicious dinners that are down the hatch before the kids even have a chance to utter the phrase ‘I’ve been duped’.

Eggplant

shepherds pie

Shepherd’s Pie

Chickpeas

Cheeseburgers


Broccoli

a meal that smuggles all vegies

Cheesy pots

Tomatoes

Vegie Smugglers chilli with no chilli recipe

Chilli (with no chilli)

Zucchini

vegie smugglers spaghetti carbonara

Spaghetti carbonara

Toddler Recipes: What (and how) to feed fussy eaters

My latest e-book makes feeding your fussy kids a breeze. Visit the shop!

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You go girlfriend

October 19, 2012 · Filed under News · Tagged

Matching sunnies, polish and cossie and a kindle. All packed.

Keeping perspective in the midst of raising small children is a nearly impossible task. Any mother who can maintain mental balance whilst cleaning up smeared shit, sorting out tantrums, opened cupboard catastrophes and other misadventures deserves a medal. I have never been one of those women.

Parenting for me has been the most life altering, fantastic and horrific adventure. Full of the highest highs and the lowest lows. My children have shown me what life is truly all about. They have taught me what love means. They have made me understand my own mother better and forced open parts of my own personality that were previously ignored by self-interest and self-absorption. Because of them I am kinder, more patient, more empathetic and less uptight. They have been an enormous blessing. But still, most days, at some point, I generally want to kill one or the other of them as they manage to find mischief that leaves me slack-jawed.

I suspect that I’m similar to most people and found my world closed down a lot during my first few years of motherhood. Most of my girlfriends didn’t have kids yet, so we spoke less. Everyone is busy. And then the years go by.

A couple of years ago, it occurred to me that I’d lost all balance in my life. My whole world revolved around my husband and kids, with a trickle of time left over for myself. And I never spoke to my girlfriends anymore, who by this time were also knee deep in shit and nappies and love.

For the past couple of years, with my kids getting a bit bigger and life calming a little, I’ve made a definite effort to get back in touch with the women who I’ve known all my life, who have been through it all with me, who saw quite a few boyfriends, jobs and adventures come and go, who were at my wedding, came to visit my newborn then drifted off into their own adult lives.

With 50% of marriages ending in divorce, it is quite likely that it will be these women who are there at the end of my life. We will have watched (some of our) husbands come and go, our children mature and leave home. They’ll be there for the health scares, deaths and upheavals. Well hopefully they will be, but I guess it will only happen if we can consolidate our friendships throughout this middle, busy stage of life.

Which is why I’m so pleased that we’re all dumping our families and kids and heading away together next week. 5 nights! It’s taken 18 months of planning and all sorts of personal logistics to make it happen. We’ve vowed to leave the mummy guilt behind and go and do something for ourselves for five whole days. We’re all turning 40 you see, and it feels really important to celebrate it together, to celebrate who we are, without all the other bits of life that keep us so busy.

It’s a good feeling to have these women in my life. I treasure them.

Even if you’re reading this, with a toddler on your feet crying, or a baby who needs a feed or another load of washing that needs doing, I urge you to take the time and get in touch with that wonderful woman who has been in your life for years, who you haven’t seen much of lately. I reckon it’s an investment worth making.
________________

While I’m flitting around, e-book orders will continue to be delivered, but all orders for hard copy books placed from Tuesday will be filled from Monday Oct 29. Thanks for your understanding.

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