Ice cream for the festive season

Judes ice cream toddy pecan

Two new flavours from Judes

Christmas is just a few weeks away and you need something to go with all those mince pies and Christmas puddings. If you like ice-cream then Judes have a couple of new offerings that are ideal for the festivities.

Brown Butter Pecan (£3.00 for 500g) is full of swirls of caramel, lovely buttery flavours and chunks of real caramelised nuts. It is absolutely delicious and is made with stacks of fresh milk and natural ingredients.

If you like the flavour of whisky, the firm also has a Hot Toddy ice cream (£4.79 for 500g), made with cinnamon and Laphroaig single malt whisky. Again, it is just the sort of thing to serve in depths of winter, preferably in front of a blazing fire or – if you can’t manage that – a warm radiator.

The Quick And Easy Way To Make The Perfect Hot Chocolate

When it comes to cooking I can be pretty lazy. I am always looking for shortcuts in the kitchen. So I was pretty pleased when I came up with a method for making the perfect hot chocolate without using a saucepan and going through the bother of warming up milk. Ready? Here it is: just boil the kettle, take a mug, add 2-3 heaped spoonfuls of hot chocolate. Add milk to the mug and stir. Then when the kettle boils, add water. If you fill the mug up half milk and half boiled water then you have the perfect hot chocolate without the faff. The key to perfection here is the ratio of boiled water to milk. It may be different for you so experiment. Too little milk ruins the taste, too little water means it is too cold. But when you get it right it is divine. Extra points for adding marshmallows. Yum.

theperfectwaytomakehotchocolate

37⁰ Thermoband Maguari Review | New Children’s Safety Product

thermobandreview

The  37°Thermoband is a new handy gadget that takes the guessing out of milk temperature. Whether you bottle feed or express your breast milk. This is a clever flexible silicon band which will let you know when your baby’s bottle is the perfect temperature for feeding. It changes colour when the safe temperature is reached. very handy indeed.

It fits most glass and plastic bottles and the band can be personalised using a ball point pen. You could put your child’s name and any health or allergy information.  Information can be removed during cleaning, or made permanent by simply placing the band in boiling water for five minutes. Smart technology indeed. We were impressed. A time-saving gadget that makes a parents life a little bit easier.

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Dishwasher, microwave and steriliser safe, 37° Thermobands are BPA free, FDA approved and EN tested.

 

RRP of £13.00 from maguari.com or jojomamanbebe.co.uk

 

 

Why Mothers Stop Breastfeeding

GentleIt’s not your imagination– all babies go through a difficult period around the same age. Research by Dr. Frans Plooij Ph.D. and Dr. Hetty van de Rijt Ph.D., authors of The Wonder Weeks: How to Stimulate Your Baby’s Mental Development and Help Him Turn His 10 Predictable, Great, Fussy Phases Into Magical, has shown that babies make 10 major, predictable, age-linked changes – or leaps – during their first 20 months of their lives taking place around weeks 5, 8, 12, 19, 26, 37, 46, 55, 64 and 75. During this time, they will learn more than in any other time. With each leap comes a drastic change in your baby’s mental development, which not only affects his mood, his health, sleeping patterns and the “three C’s” (crying, clinging and crankiness) but also… babies drinking and comfort seeking habits. Unfortunately these Wonder Weeks are often a reason for moms who do not know about these wonder weeks, to stop breast-feeding their child.

With every new wonder week a baby gets a totally new perception of the world. Every Wonder Week is like waking up on a strange planet. A baby did not ask for this, did not see it coming, but suddenly this whole new world was there. What would you do? You would retreat to a well-known and safe place. For a baby that is mom. How would you do that? By literally clinging to your mom. Being one with her, holding on tight and the best way to do that would be via literally sucking yourself to your mom. This is where breast-feeding and Wonder Weeks meet. Whilst on the one hand Wonder weeks are in fact something good and signal progress in development, on the other hand, when the Wonder Weeks are misunderstood, they are often the reason moms give up breastfeeding.

“My daughter was crying so much that I was afraid something was terribly wrong. She wanted to breastfeed constantly. I took her to see the pediatrician, but he couldn’t find anything wrong with her. He said he just needed to get used to my milk and that many infants went through a similar crying phase at 5 weeks. I thought that is was a strange thing to say, because she hadn’t had any problems with my milk until then. Her cousin, who was the same age, kept crying, too, but he was being bottle-fed. When I told the doctor that, he pretended he hadn’t heard, I didn’t push the subject though. I found out about wonder weeks later on, but I keep on wondering why nobody told me about these wonder weeks earlier.” – Julitte’s mom, 5th week

Wonder Weeks and the milk doubting moms:

Wonder Weeks: One of the reasons mothers stop breastfeeding? As the baby gets more Clingy, Cries more and is more Cranky during a wonder week, many mothers start doubting themselves. Are they doing something wrong? If a baby wants to drink so often, does this mean they do not have enough milk? Or is their milk not good enough? Moms who know their baby is in a wonder week, don’t doubt themselves or their milk.

“Around the third wonder week my daughter suddenly started nursing less. After 5 minutes, she would start playing around with my nipple. After that had gone on for two weeks, I decided to start supplementing my milk with formula, but she wouldn’t have any of that either. This phase lasted 4 weeks. During that time I worried she would suffer from some kind of nutrition deficiency, especially when I saw my milk supply starting to diminish. But now she is drinking like she used to again, and my milk supply is as plentiful as ever. Now I know this is normal behavior during a wonder week. I never doubted my milk again since I know when these wonder weeks are.”
– Hannah’s mom, 19 th week.

Wonder Weeks and the exhausted moms:
Even the moms not doubting their milk sometimes give up breastfeeding. Simply because the impact of the leap on the behavior of their child is wearing them out. The moms that know about Wonder Weeks tend to be less exhausted as they know what is happening and that Wonder Weeks are actually a good thing.

Wonder Weeks and the mom of a six month old:
One of the most difficult leaps is the one of relationships, around six months after due date. The exact same time breast milk alone is not enough anymore and most parents start to give solid food as well. Mom is exhausted from the leap, doesn’t sleep or sleeps very poorly, while at the same time her child needs food. Just days after giving the first ‘meals’, the baby is in a much better mood. Often moms explain this whole sequence of events wrongly and seem to think their child was in need of other milk than theirs. While in fact the child just went through another leap and finished the leap when he turned six months.

Wonder Weeks and nipple cracks or abrasions:
Pain is, logically, one of the reasons moms want to stop feeding their child. When a child is in a Wonder Week he wants to drink many times more often than is normally the case. As this is one of the only times a baby is quiet, a mom doesn’t really pay as much attention to the feeding process as she normally would. Often resulting in wrong feeding positions, resulting in i.e. cracked nipples.

Making parents aware of Wonder weeks will enable parents to understand their baby’s behavior much better and will help many moms to continue feeding their child and to make sure these Wonder Weeks are not a reason to give up.

Dr. Frans Plooij Ph.D. and Dr. Hetty van de Rijt Ph.D. discovered the leap phenomenon while studying chimpanzee mother infant relationships in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania, East-Africa together with Jane Goodall. They are the authors of the book The Wonder Weeks: How to Stimulate Your Baby’s Mental Development and Help Him Turn His 10 Predictable, Great, Fussy Phases Into Magical

Dr. Frans Plooij Ph.D. is always willing to educate professionals about these Wonder weeks, or answer questions via Skype or email. He regularly has Skype sessions with moms around the world.

 

 

Beech’s Fine Chocolates Bar Review

 Beech’s Fine Chocolates bars

Having previously reviewed Beech’s Fine Chocolates Creams we were pretty excited when these came through the post. An array of delicious chocolate bars in various, unique flavours.

Lime & Chilli Dark Chocolate

Delicious with a spicy kick. The lime is perfectly judged, not overbearing.

Dark chocolate

A high-quality, luxurious dark chocolate.

White Chocolate

Sweet tasting but not sickly: a delicious white chocolate.

Milk Chocolate Anglesey Sea Salt bar

This was unique and wonderful. The sweet and savoury work well together.

Dark Chocolate Ginger bar

A particular favourite. The ginger gives the right amount of kick without being too spicy.

Beech’s only use the finest, natural ingredients and it shows.

£1.50 for 60g from Amazon UK.

 

Montezuma’s Christmas Chocolate

Montezuma’s Christmas chocolate range just tastes like heaven. The little chocolate balls are amazing. Montezuma Orange & Geranium Christmas Chocolate Balls are as original and delicious as I have come to expect Montezuma’s chocolate to be.

Montezuma’s advent calender has organic milk and white chocolate for every day in the run up to Christmas. I was sadly lacking the willpower to keep it for that long and I have ate all mine. It is possible that you will love someone enough to give them some of this chocolate for Christmas – I have a few family members in mind-  but the willpower to hand it over may be lacking.

Full marks. Chocolate heaven.

Montezuma’s Christmas Mini me Bars

Milk: The Carbon Footprint Culprit

Milk poured down kitchen sinks every year creates a carbon footprint equivalent to thousands of car exhaust emissions, according to a new study.

Scientists say 360,000 tonnes of milk are wasted in the UK each year, creating greenhouse gas emissions amounting to 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The University of Edinburgh study said this is the same number emitted by about 20,000 cars annually.

Researchers looking into the environmental impact of food production said eating less meat and cutting down on food waste would save significant greenhouse gas emissions. They also suggest the food industry could reduce emissions by seeking more efficient ways to use fertilisers.

Dr David Reay, of the university’s School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: “Eating less meat and wasting less food can play a big part in helping to keep a lid on greenhouse gas emissions as the world’s population increases.”

Researchers also said halving the amount of chicken consumed in the UK and other developed countries to levels eaten in Japan could cut greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road.

The research team said figures show if average chicken consumption in developed countries fell from the current level of 26kg each every year to the Japanese average of about 12kg each by 2020, global emissions from poultry would fall below current levels, despite increased output from the developing world.

This would cut the predicted global output of nitrous oxide, a key greenhouse gas, from this source by almost 20%, based on current growth rates, they said.

The study, carried out in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen and partners in Europe and America, was published in Nature Climate Change.

The team arrived at their findings by examining data for global agricultural production of greenhouse gases together with consumption of food in various regions of the world.

 

Frost Loves…Modern Milk

Modern Milk is smooth, creamy and delicious. Very natural and healthy. It is exactly what the names says, it is a better version of milk

Modern Milk comes in four flavours Smooth Coffee with a hint of Vanilla, Milk Chocolate with a hint of golden Caramel, Lush Banana and Honey and Ripe Strawberry and Raspberry. My favourite is a toss up between the Milk Chocolate and the Ripe Strawberry and Raspberry.

The Milk Chocolate is great if you are trying to diet, you can just have one of these instead of a chocolate bar. It takes the edge of and it has a hint of caramel. It’s rich but not too rich.

None of the drinks have a horrible aftertaste and after drinking Modern Milk I felt a lot healthier. They are like a snack all in one. The ultimate in a health drink.

The design is really good, they all have a different cow cartoon on them, and they all have ‘think differently’ written on them backwards. The way they open is cool too.

Frost loves Modern Milk.

Modern Milk is a delicious low fat dairy drink that has been created to get people excited about drinking milk again and encourage them to include it in their weekly diet to keep them healthier.

Many adults are not drinking enough milk and this can have an effect on health issues such as osteoporosis, obesity and tooth decay. Modern Milk contains extra calcium, added vitamin D and fibre and with these added health benefits can help to show that what makes you feel good on the inside, can also help make you look good on the outside.

Research confirms that vitamin D makes our bodies to absorb calcium. Lack of calcium  makes our bodies to increase the production of
synthase, a fatty acid enzyme that coverts calories into fat. Consequently the higher levels of vitamin D in the blood, the easier it is to lose weight.

Milk is an important source of nutrients for many age groups and can help your body operate properly; calcium – for strong bones,
carbohydrates – for energy, protein – for growth and healing processes. When hunger pangs strike, Modern Milk can help fill you up for longer so that you don’t snack. The calcium can also have a positive effect on your nails, teeth and hair playing a part in your weekly beauty regime.
 
TV’s Dr Hilary Jones endorses Modern Milk as a great low-fat, after-workout drink. He says milk is the nearest thing you can find to a totally complete food containing, as it does, a perfect balance of protein, minerals, vitamins, essential fats and carbohydrates.

Modern Milk is currently sold in Tesco Extra for just 0.99p and comes in four delicious flavours – Smooth Coffee with a hint of Vanilla, Milk Chocolate with a hint of golden Caramel, Lush Banana and Honey and Ripe Strawberry and Raspberry.