The Book People Purchases and Review

I'd been considering placing an order on The Book People for a while, ever since my mum mentioned it to me over a year ago! I do however like to look at books or at least read review before purchasing, which is where Amazon and my local Waterstones came in handy.

This is what I decided to buy. Delivery is £2.95, or if you spend £25 or over it's free. So I decided to spend enough to get the free postage and packing.

I decided to pick up these First Fabulous Facts by Ladybird to give Ben as part of his Easter present. He is to old for the facts now, but I thought they would help in teaching him what things are within each book.

I remember the Alfie books from when I was little (or maybe my sister I can't quite remember) but I always wanted to get them for Ben. I'm going to keep these back and give them to Ben as part of his Christmas present.

Something else I really wanted to purchase was wipe clean books to help Ben to draw and write. So I added this set to my basket.

I was looking around for some books to help with teaching Ben more new words, maybe some unusual words, and also thinking about keeping Ben busy whilst traveling on holiday. I'd heard of the Richard Scarry books but never looked in them, so took a trip to Waterstones to have a look. I liked the look of them and so did Steve so I purchased the set of 10 as well as A Day at the Airport.

We received great service, and the books were dispatched really fast. They use the courier Hermes (or at least did with me), and my local Hermes drivers always seem pretty good. I believe I made an order on a Wednesday and they got delivered the following Monday.

Review - Kenwood Food processor and liquidiser

Last year my mum asked what Steve and I would like for our birthdays (they're both early September). I'd always wanted a Food Processor and Liquidiser - to make cooking easier! I spoke to Steve about, as it would be a joint present, and he said he wouldn't mind one.

So I got back to my mum, and she did a bit of research and ordered us a Kenwood one, she got it off amazon - but I can't seem to find the exact model, but there's plenty to choose from!

And it has made cooking much easier, and I can now do soups and smoothies as well.

Ours came with lots of parts, we got the usual knife blade, and dough tool, but also got a twin beater, maxi-blend canopy, thick slicing/coarse shredding disc, thin slicing/fine shredding disc, fine chipper disc, rasping disc and mini processor bowl.

I haven't had the need to use all the accessories yet, but I have used the slicing tool for onions (now means my eyes don't water like crazy!) and the knife tool for getting things chopped up, for curries or spaghetti bolognese. One of the reasons I didn't like to cook was the cutting up of everything.

We still only have 2 home cooked meals together as a family of 3, because of work, but we're actually got the week off from work this week, and I'm so excited to have fresh home cooked meals together every evening.

Review - Morphy Richards Slow Cooker

As part of my News Years Resolutions I wanted to start eating healthier and doing more meals from scratch. I'd always liked the idea of a slow cooker and seen loads of recipes online. I had some money sitting in my purse that was a birthday present from the year before last, I wanted to save it for something I really wanted for us as a family. So I used it the purchase a slow cooker and a couple of books.

After reading reviews on Amazon I went for the Morphy Richards 48715 6.5 Litre Slow Cooker. Although it says 6.5litre it is technically only 4.5litre, but that is plenty big enough for us 3. And is actually recommended to cook for 6-8 people. I chose the bigger size so I could do bigger portions and freeze them, and also be able to cook a whole chicken in it.

I've made a couple of soups and a few main meals, and they've all turned out really good! It's so much easier to use, just through everything in in the morning and forget about it. You also then have plenty of time to wash it all up through out the day. As I very rarely wash up after we've eaten, although I am trying to. I aim to do a slow cooker meal on a Tuesday, as Steve's at work till 6pm, therefore isn't home until 6:30-6:45. And Ben requires more attention in the evening than morning. So it saves him crying, because I have to leave him to cook tea. So now I may just have to pop on some pasta or rice, if anything.

The slow cooker seems well made, and the instructions are very clear even including some recipes to help get you started! It also has an on/off light, which is another reason I chose this over the crockpot. I'm so awful at forgetting to turn things off. The other night I'd left the hob on, and only discovered this hours later!

The ceramic dish is easy to clean, I tend to fill it with hot water and washing up liquid in it once we've eaten, and then drain and rinse it before I go to bed ready to wash up the following day. The instructions say not to soak the whole dish, which is why I don't leave it in the sink to soak.

So far the recipes have all cooked in the time saying (some of the reviews on amazon said it was a fast cooker, but can't understand that).

If you're debating whether to buy one or not I would say go for it!

Review - Annabel Karmel's New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner

I'd always decided to make Ben's puree's myself, and Steve wanted me too as well. I'd seen Annabel Karmel's New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner (what a mouthful) in the Top 100 books on amazon many times, and it has good reviews too (currently 4 and a half stars out of 778 reviews). So I decided to purchase it a few weeks before I planned to start Ben on solids.

 As you can see from the contents page the book contains food right up to toddler age, which is great for if you're having something, like a take-away that you don't want your toddler to eat.

The book also contains loads of information for each age group, that you need to know. What they can and can't have, vitamins, allergies etc.

In each section (apart from toddler) there's a meal planner, which can be helpful. But I never used this.

I loved this book because it starts with instructions for the simplest of purees, when only using one fruit or vegetable. It tells you the timing for the cooking, although I think that does depend on how hot the water is, and I basically just cooked everything until it was super soft. It then goes on to multiple fruit and vegetable purees, great as I didn't really have a clue of what to mix with what. The book has a great range of recipes to give your baby a varied introduction to food. I think the earlier you introduce more foods the better, and they'll be less picky. I'm very picky - but don't know how that came about, haha! There's fish and meat recipes as well as just vegetarian options, and pasta sauces. Ben has always loved pasta (I bought the little baby shells from Boots to begin with), and the sauces are really easy to do. There's also some pudding recipes in there too,

Some recipes do require chicken stock, I just bought the Boots Baby stock cubes and used them as it was so much easier.

As each recipe makes more than one portion I would freeze the rest in little pots or ice cub trays. I used to do batch cooking, and do 4/5 a week, use that up and then do some more once I was running low. One of Ben's favourite recipes was the Butternut Squash Risotto and the Multicolored Casserole I recommend for helping with self feeding and for finger control.

Review - Liz Earle Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise

I've been using the Liz Earle cleansing routine for nearly 10 years now. My mum got me a set for a Christmas present one year, as she was using the products herself. It was my first proper skincare routine that I actually stuck to, although I only ever used it in the morning (lack of knowledge I put that down to).

The cleanser you use on dry skin, work it in all over, even the eye area, which I spend more time on to help with removal of mascara. Then you wet a muslin cloth in hand hot water and wipe off the cleanser along with any make-up, dirt and dead skin cells. I love the fact that the muslin works as a exfoliator as well. Then splash your face with cold water. Most cleanses just tell you to rinse them off with water - I always find this annoying as the water gets every where and your clothes get all wet! Where as you don't get that with this product. The cleanser comes in 2 formats, you can either have a squeezy tube like I have, or there's a pump version, when one pump will dispense enough for your whole face.

Next you use the toner, put a little on a cotton pad and sweep it all over. Or there's a spray bottle version that you can just spray straight on to your face. I find this totally refreshes my face and helps removes any traces of cleanser, make-up or dirt that you may have missed

They have one cleanser and one toner suitable for all skin types.

There's 3 different types of moisturiser. I used to use the Light version, which is aimed and more acne prone, oily skin as it's not very thick. I have had to move on to the normal/combination version, as I was getting a lot of dry patches on my skin, I needed something thicker, but I was still getting the odd break out as well (mostly hormone related). I think my skin changed after I gave birth to my son, I don't know whether that's normal or not? There's also a dry/sensitive version of moisturiser too. So it works great, just make sure you're using the correct one for your skin type. The moisturiser also comes in a variety of containers, there's a pump version or a pot version. My squeezy tube version came as part of a set on QVC.

The first thing I noticed when I started using this was I had less acne. When I was a teenager I used to have at least one spot at all times. Once I started using this cleansing routine I noticed a huge improvement in my skin as I was only getting the odd few spots, a gain mainly around that hormonal time of the month. I also noticed how my face felt smoother.

I think the fact that it's nearly 10 years later and I'm still using the same cleansing routine just shows how great I think it is. I also like that all the ingredients are natural.

You can purchase Liz Earle products from the Liz Earle website (there's also a couple of shops), QVC, John Lewis and some Boots stores.