Ella’s Kitchen Cereals Range And Kids’ Snacks Range Review

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

My son loves Ella’s Kitchen so much that his little legs start kicking when we pass that section in the supermarket. When I heard about the new cereals range I got very excited indeed. So did the little one. He has been a happy little tester. Here is what we thought:

The cereals have a range of textures for the weaning journey and are all organic.

Multigrain Baby Rice

Super smooth and deliciously scrummy, these two taste-tingling multigrain baby rice products offer bags of flavour + can be enjoyed any time of day. Suitable for tiny tums 4 months+, the carrot multigrain baby rice is a great way to teach little ones to love veggie tastes, right from the start of their weaning journey! The little one loved these. We don’t give him too much rice so it was a new experience for him. Both samples ended up with a clean plate.

Porridge

This berry good breakfast will help introduce little ones to more exciting flavours + is jam-packed with delicious strawberries + raspberries! Textured with yummy crispy bits and not too lumpy, the consistency is perfect for tiny tots from 7 months+. The LO loves porridge. This one did not go down as well as I thought it would. Babies are fickle. Strawberry porridge was his favourite but I think he has gone off it now. He still eats it though.

Muesli

Made to help little ones learn to chew, this new cereal for 10 months+ is the perfect next step on their weaning journey. With a chunkier + lumpier texture, this yummy muesli is full of scrum my banana + cinnamon to tickle tiny tastebuds. This was LO’s favourite. His mouth was wide open every time. No matter how big the portion was, he wolfed it down.

Easy-Peasy

The cereals range comes in great packaging which allows you to easily reseal the pack. It is also easy to pour, making it mess-free. I love the range and the little one did too. Thumbs up.

The Ella’s Kitchen’s cereals range is available in-store now with a RRP of £2.30 for Multigrain Baby Rice (125g), £2.50 for porridge (175g) and £2.70 for muesli 175g).

Also new from Ella’s Kitchen.

Look out! Our super tasty + super cool Kids’ Snacks range has landed – yippeee! Created especially for big kids from three to five years, these delicious snacks are not only super tasty, they’re super fun too!

Featuring two scrummy products and seven BIG taste combos, the 100% organic range provides bigger kids with snacks that are lower in sugar and introduce exciting veggie flavours to encourage healthier appetites.

Smooshy Snacks

Representing one of your five a day, these four taste-tingling smoothie combos feature a mighty VEG ingredient to show big kids just how cool veggies can be!

– mango + pumpkin

– orange + carrot

– strawberry + beetroot

– apple + cucumber

These are a great addition to the Ella’s Kitchen pouch range. The flavours are interesting and work well together. The little testers were fans.

Fruity Bars

With three exciting taste combos on offer, new Fruity Bars are completely unique and

includes tasty additions such as crisped rice, oats, flaxseeds and coconut.

– briiilliant banana + raisin

– pow powww pineapple + coconut

– rrrocketing raspberry + mango

The fun doesn’t stop there though! Featuring super cool comic strips on pack, kids will meet an entire cast of superhero characters, including a cheeky rabbit causing mischief with a crew of fellow superhero animals. To join in the superhero fun, simply use our pull-out superhero masks + collectible pop-out finger puppets. Snacking has never been so cool!

These are a brilliant idea. The packaging is fun and gets kids interested while the snack itself is yummy and nutritious. Super cool indeed.

How to find us

Ella’s Kitchen’s Kids’ Snacks range is available in Sainsbury’s and at sainsburys.co.uk with a RRP of £3.49 for Smooshy Snacks (4 x 100g) and £2.50 for Fruity Bars (5 x 20g).

The Mother by Yvvette Edwards Reviewed by Frances Colville

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Margaret Graham

The Mother is Yvvette Edwards’ second novel. Her first, A Cupboard Full of Coats, was longlisted for the Man Booker prize and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize. So I began reading The Mother with high expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The story opens on the first day of the trial of Ryan’s alleged killer and is told through the eyes of Marcia, mother of Ryan who, aged 16, was stabbed to death. How would you feel if you had failed to keep your beloved and only child safe? How could you ever come to terms with the knowledge that you would never see him again, and that he had missed out on a full, long and happy life? And how do you deal with the guilt? In fact, as Marcia says – “as a parent of a child who has been violently killed, is it possible, ever, to completely absolve yourself of blame?”

Yvvette Edwards writes so compellingly and so fluently that it’s hard to put this book down. And it’s the sort of book which will stick in your mind long after you have finished it, especially if you are a parent.

The Mother is published by Mantle in hardback and eBook

The life of a Second Wife by Margaret Graham

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Frost is so pleased to see Elizabeth Buchan’s novel, The Second Wife picked out by Daisy Goodwin in her feature in the Daily Mail: Second Marriages – key novels to help you through the trickier times in life.

Daisy Goodwin discusses Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, Before She Met Me by John Barnes, and Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author, and patron of Words for the Wounded, Elizabeth Buchan, and her novel The Second Wife.

The Second Wife explores the world of the mistress who becomes the wife – overtones of Sir James Goldsmith who did just that, and thereby created a vacancy. Ouch.
According to Buchan the second marriage is a world that can be less than appealing, full of pitfalls and of course, baggage. Elizabeth Buchan, who spoke recently at the Words for the Wounded LitFest at Downley, High Wycombe, (Frost’s editor, Catherine Balavage spoke later in the day) examines Minty’s experiences of a second marriage sympathetically, but with her usual incisive wit and elegance. It is a compelling and heart-warming novel, as are her others, the most recent being the thought provoking and excellent I Can’t Begin to Tell You set in Denmark during the 2nd World War.

It’s great to see The Second Wife having another outing. Go on, give yourself a treat – it is very well worth reading.

Elizabeth Buchan’s latest book The New Mrs Clifton will be out in August 1016. Frost is looking forward to reviewing it.

The Second Wife                 published by Penguin
I Can’t Begin to Tell you        published by Penguin
The New Mrs Clifton             published by Penguin August 2016

Caprera: New Online Artisan Food and Beverages Marketplace Brings The Goods

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

Frost are foodies. Anyone who has ever come across this magazine will know that. So when we got sent some Meg’s Cottage homemade fudge via Caprera, a new online artisan food and beverages marketplace, we decided to check it out. Frankly, our bellies rumbled and our mouth was watering. Take a look for yourself. The fudge they sent was delicious.

The website features high-end products made in small batches by independent producers. Customers will be able to order from an assortment of over 200 artisan products from around the UK.

Caprera aims to let people reconnect with nature, remember their roots and the origins of food by enhancing interactions between artisan food lovers and small independent producers.

At present, 15 artisan producers have joined this growing marketplace. The company expects rapid growth as the platform develops toward its official launch later this year.

Solving the logistics challenge of food delivery has been famously difficult. Other companies attempting to create a marketplace for producers have struggled to consolidate delivery or work with small batch producers. Caprera fixes this by creating a complete end-to-end ordering experience, where customers can shop from any of the listed producers and receive their order in a single delivery in the following week.

“This could be a game changer for food lovers everywhere. Broadening access to craft foods made by artisan producers across the country means we don’t have to settle for second best anymore.” – Jeremy Hibbert-Garibaldi, Co-Founder

Caprera espouses full transparency in the supply chain and strongly highlights the story behind each product and producer. They have produced several mini-documentaries of producers sharing how they make great food.

Caprera has also published an online food lifestyle magazine with original content about artisan food culture.

Spare me the Truth by C J Carver Reviewed by Margaret Graham

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Simon Kernick says of this novel ‘it is right up there with the best.’ So is it?

I have become a picky reader. I become impatient at any hint of sloppiness by an author, my attention is on the whole, increasingly hard to hold. So is Simon right?

Yep, I couldn’t put Spare me the Truth down. I read until too late at night, which made me grumpy, but I picked it up again as soon as I could.

Spare me the Truth is clever. As an author myself I could imagine the intricacies of the plotting as Dan Forrester is approached in a supermarket by a woman to tells him everything he remembers about his life – and his son – is a lie. We are in Dan’s point of view, his body, and are rocked as he is by this news. We know nothing more than Dan. Is this a lunatic? Or is there something nudging at his memory.

We are led into the point of view of Stella Reavey who has so unsettled Dan, and begin to see that there is indeed something strange about Dan, some other life. What on earth has he done? Is he good or bad? And what about his wife? Is she who she seems?

We are as lost as Dan, but such is the writing that rather than feel confused and irritated, the reader totally buys into the mystery.

Then enter another character enters – stage left. , Grace Reavey who is Stella’s daughter, a doctor who has plans for her life, plans which are superseded by this tangled web that wraps itself around her, when her mother dies. Who is good, who is bad we ask again, and the what hell is going on?

A policewoman becomes involved, Lucy Davies – such a fascinating and complex character who shoves the book along.

This is a confident thriller, one that is written by an author who has a unique voice, a magical plotting ability, and a clarity of presentation that keeps us fully on track. I felt there was room for a series here. I do hope that is planned.

Brilliant. Read it, and lose yourself, and be glad you live in a simpler world.

Spare me the Truth Published by Zaffre, established in 2014 by Quercus founder Mark Smith. Available in paperback £7.99

ISABEL UPs & DOWNs | Down Syndrome Artist Uses Art To Cope, Brother Gets Her In Galleries

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

Sibling love is a beautiful thing. Isabel, a 33-year-old talented artist with Down Syndrome, has had her work displayed in galleries thanks to her brother Ryan. Isabel has used art to cope with her condition. Here is her story in the words of her brother.

“Isabel started painting as part of her therapy to battle depression and through this we noticed that she really has a talent for it. My family and I were concerned when she stopped painting, so I basically just shot my mouth off and promised her that’d I’d get her artworks seen in a gallery in London.

So, I started sending out emails with high res snaps of Isabel’s works and eventually she was selected for an exhibition at the Menier Gallery in London Bridge. Through this, two other galleries have offered exhibition space. Until a few years ago she was a bubbly, outgoing young woman Recently, her mental state has deteriorated substantially and she has been fighting a string of terrible behavioural patterns like obsessional washing, self-harming and now has a severe depression along with very low levels of self-esteem. My mother takes her to a psychiatrist once a week and painting forms a substantial part of the therapy. Through this we discovered Isabel’s passion and talent. Unfortunately, Isabel thinks that there is no point in her continuing to paint, since nobody will ever appreciate or look at the works of a Down syndrome person. I am determined not to let her talent go to waste and to show her that there is an audience out there. To motivate her to carry on, I promised that I’d find a way of getting her work seen in galleries and this has become a huge source of motivation and joy for her.”

Ryan has already succeeded in helping Isabel, who lives in Berlin. Why not give your support? Click on the links below to get involved.

facebook.com/isabelupsdowns

http://www.isabel-ups-downs.org/index.html

The Queens Award for Enterprise 2016 has been awarded to the fabulous charity Forces Support

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Margaret Graham

A charity much admired by Frost is Forces Support which supports families who have lost a loved one in Afghanistan. The brilliant news is that to coincide with The Queen’s Birthday, they have been awarded with the prestigious Queens Award for Enterprise 2016 in the Innovation Category, for their innovative approach to supporting bereaved military families.

Founded by father and son, Bill and Billy McCance, the charity has a national support team helping about 80 families a year, and is supported by 22 shops throughout Britain. It is such a simple idea, isn’t it, to provide families with Remembrance areas, children’s play areas, and playrooms, garden and household maintenance when they are reeling with grief. It is simple yes, but inspired. Just imagine hearing the news that your husband or father has been killed and you need to move from a quarter into a new house when you are bereft and feeling helpless. Or if it is your son… Where can you go for solace?

Forces Support helps to ease the way along the rocky path of grief and adjustment. It creates a peaceful area, or decorates a house so that is fit to live in.

The charity funds the support they give through the profits from their furniture shops, making the charity self-sufficient and sustainable, and support also comes from donations.

This award is utterly deserved, and Bill and Billy, and all the builders, maintenance personnel and apprentices who help the families of service personnel should feel enormously proud of their efforts. Wonderful thought the Award is, work, of course, will continue unabated, as they have a waiting list of 8 months and more will be added to this, with each passing day.

There is no rest for Forces Support, because the need continues.

www.forcessupport.org.uk

Paint By Pixie Lott Hair Hi-Light Pen Review

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

The fashion for pastel hair shows no sign of waning and now Pixie Lott has joined in the fun. Singer/ songwriter and style icon Pixie Lott has delved into the world of beauty with her first range of hair products – a fun, commitment-free range of wash out, head-turning hair colours, which include Hair Chalks, Metallic Sprays and Wash Out Hair Colours.

I tried out the Hair Hi-Light Pen (£2.99). It is available in pink and blue. The packaging is great and fun. The pens are easy to use and give a good colour. You can see how the pink looks on my dark hair. You can change the look: applying lots for pink streaks or applying lightly for highlights. The pens can be used on wet or dry hair and then set with hairspray. When you are bored of it, simply wash it out. Simple, fun AND it looks great. The pen has a fine tip with wind up action which allows accurate application. I’m sold.

Also available:

Wash Out Hair Colour (£5.99)

Soft, luscious colour giving subtle pastel hues allowing you to flirt with your new hair colour then simply wash it out! Available in Sorbet – the perfect pastel pink, Hawaii – an ice blue, Starlight – a chic, silvery grey and Violet – a subtle but stunning purple, these pastel wash out hair colours are easy to use and wash out after 2-10 washes. Wash Out Hair Colour also contains ‘Fade Out’ shampoo to control the shade in order to create your perfect look.

Hair Colour Chalks (£4.99 per pack)

Available in six different bright colours; dark blue, light blue, green, yellowand orange these hair colouring chalks allows easy application of colour and are a handy size for a variety of styling and shading. Ideal to switch up your look for a night out, girl’s holiday, festival or even if you’re just in need of a temporary reinvention.

Spray On Colour (£3.99)

This easy-to-use compressed glitter spray, available in Silver or Gold, will help you achieve party hair in one simple step and also washes out easily the next day.

Pixie Lott comments; “I love experimenting with my hair, so selected some colours I thought would be fun to try and would look brilliant at festivals, at a party or even just to mix it up a bit when you’re bored with your colour.”

Twitter/Instagram: @PixieLott / @PixieLottPaint
The Pixie Lott Paint range is available at Superdrug stores and Superdrug.com

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