The Christie's Angel Delight Memories

If you had have asked me 1 year ago what Angel Delight meant to me? Instantly I would have said my childhood, and the seventies. I have fond memories of my Mum whipping up Angel Delight for a quick after dinner pudding, my Brothers and I loved it.

 Angel Delight always felt like a real treat at a time when it wasn’t normal to have ready made chocolate mouse in the fridge. Yet these magical packets turned into the most delicious mousse as if by magic, we loved it.

I found the video below on youtube, It brings back such lovely childhood memories. Its weird how certain things take you back to certain moments in time is it? Angel delight is one of those triggers for me, its weird, I can see my old lounge, even the detail of the brown velvet flock wallpaper when I watch this video, it is so reminiscent of my childhood.

To be honest Angel Delight then slipped out of my radar for many years and became a pleasant childhood memory, just like Mr. Frosty and Twister. 

Then a year ago the Boys Grandma bought them some chocolate Angel Delight and made chocolate milk shakes with them, they loved it. I must say I giggled to myself when they came home and excitedly told Chris and I about this great new invention; Angel Delight, that made the best ever American style milk shakes.

Belvita Morning Victories and the Christie Family Morning Failures

When I got the opportunity to write about Morning successes I must say I did giggle to myself. You see the first day of term this year was an epic fail. I wasn't ever going to share this. But I am finally getting over the trauma somewhat, and now and feel ready to talk about it.

So I take you back to Friday the 5th of September at 8.20am, I must say, at 8.15 I was feeling pretty smug. Jack had gone off on the School bus on time, the house was tidy, lunches were made and we were ready to leave. We were just waiting for Emily to arrive (our neighbour who I drive to college)

I was pottering in the kitchen when Joe appeared in the doorway hunched over making an odd noise, I quickly realised he was choking; I ran to him and patted his back. Fortunately he stopped after a couple of seconds, but what felt much more like minutes.

He looked up at me panic in his eyes and said "Mummy I have swallowed it," he was a bit of a grey colour. "Swallowed what I said". It seems he had swallowed a pound coin, but now felt it was stuck in his throat; he said he could feel it lodged there. I gave him water but he still claimed it was there.

Tea Time Routine with the After School Chefs Challenge

When I got the opportunity to write about my tea time routines with Brit Mums and Birds Eye #afterschoolchefs @http://bit.ly/afterschoolchefs I decided to take the challenge, mainly as I was struggling getting back into a routine after a wonderful long summer.

                                                

I am so lucky to have a job where I am off with the Boys during holiday time. I watch my friends trying to organise childcare and holidays around their families, and thank my lucky stars I do not have to worry about childcare throughout the summer.

However long summer days completely ruin our routine, we are naturally a family that eats later, we like to sit together and chat about our day.  The other issue I have is the boys are quite fussy, and both have completely different tastes in food. So yes I am one of those Mums that cooks different meals for us all. The boys don't like many dishes with sauce on, they like plain food. When Jack was younger we used to insist he ate what we put in front of him, every mealtime was like a war zone. It became so stressful that I used to dread mealtimes.

Real Mums All-Bran 5-Day Challenge

I recently signed up for the All-Bran 5 day challenge, with the lovely people from All-Bran and Brit Mums. I received 3 boxes of All-Bran to try out for 5 days and write about the effects it has on my tummy and digestion. I thought I would give it a try as it fits perfectly with my Calf Diet. I have recently changed my whole way of eating in a bid to loose weight. I thought I ate healthy, until I started reading boxes and packets of the foods I was eating, and quickly released I had been getting it so wrong. That was 11 pounds ago. As a result I am feeling so much healthier. 

One observation I have made through the years, is my digestive system definitely has a huge impact on my weight gain/loss. I can tell when I am starting to put on weight. Apart from obvious signs, and getting on the scales; because my digestive system cant seem to cope with unhealthy food, and becomes sluggish. However eating healthy definitely has an impact on this. The All-Bran couldn't have come at a better time, as they arrived on the day I put 2 pounds on, I had PMT and felt bloated and yes my digestive system felt sluggish. 

Calf Diet Week 11, Phew 2lb Off

After putting on 1lb. last week you can imagine my relief when I stepped on the scales yesterday morning and had lost 2lb. Thank goodness I had lost this week.   So what did I do differently to last week? 

Well, not very much but I did stick to my diet rigidly apart from Saturday night, when I enjoyed several glasses of wine. It was challenging in Sunday on the journey back from Essex, we stopped at the service station and there was so much unhealthy, but tasty food, but hardly any choice for healthy options. And to be honest all the healthy food looked awful, but I remained determined and bought a piece of chicken breast, and a pot of melon, it wasn't great but it was ok. However in reflection I am so glad I made that choice, rather than a burger and fries as it showed in the scales.

Brit Mums Live, Wow

This weekend I went to Brit Mums Live, an amazing blogging conference in London. I was so lucky that as I have set up an educational blog at work, my college supported me and paid for me to go the event. I was so excited, but very nervous about the event. Being a very new blogger I had no idea what to expect. Would all the bloggers all be as lovely as they seem on their blogs? Would I be totally out of my depth?

I need not have worried. I went with my friend and colleague Lisa and we were made to feel so welcome. It was like being a child in a sweet shop, lots of amazing seminars to suit every bloggers taste, expert experienced bloggers on hand to give tips and advice.

Brit Mums Live, Getting To Manchester

When we booked our train to London to visit Brit Mums, Lisa confided to me that she was slightly concerned about traveling around London. I reassured her that traveling in London was not an issue, having lived in Essex and worked in London I am more that competent at finding me way around. 

No what concerned me was getting to Manchester train station in one piece, she looked at me like I was stark raving mad. Yes I love Manchester City for shopping, and nights out but I never drive there!! I drive to Trafford Centre but not Manchester.

Support from Chris Hmmm, I wasn't driving the train.

My concerns were correct; in fact Lisa may never travel in a car with me again. I took the wrong turning from the motorway. Well it wasn't wrong, just not a way I knew, poor Lisa was furiously reading the map to keep us on track.

My Kitchen Story, the Centre of Family Life

 When I was offered the chance to write about my kitchen by the lovely Fairy Platinum and Brit Mums https://www.facebook.com/fairydish, and how it is the heart of my home. It got me thinking about what an integral part of our home our kitchen is. Some people’s kitchen is somewhere to cook and make a drink and really that is it. Our kitchen is the centre to our daily life, the hub of our home.

We inherited this kitchen when we moved into our home, it looks lovely when it is clean but trust me it is soooo high maintenance the black gloss cupboards must be cleaned 3 times a week to keep them looking shiny. Every finger print shows, and it seems not one of my family understands the concept of a door handle.

I like to keep it light and bright by adding a little bit of colour. I love cup cakes so I bought a cup cake canvas, which is so colourful.  I also like to buy fresh flowers; I love lilies, and always have an orchid on my windowsill to add a little extra colour.  


The little chicken egg is a real egg that Joe decorated last Easter. I dread to think what would happen if it broke, the smell would be horrific but I just can't bear to part with it, it is so cute.

The black and white pictures are photo's we have taken on our family travels, each one has a special family memory attached to it. A bit of a photographic diary of our travels.

We spend most of our time in the kitchen when we are at home, in fact we don't venture into the lounge until around 8pm at night or later. We tend to chill in the kitchen; the boys do their homework, research and listen to music. Joe will often sit and draw. It's a place we all congregate and chat, we always eat together in the kitchen, giving us time to catch up on each other’s day.

We all like cooking and baking often try out new recipes. The boys are much more likely to bake cakes than a healthy snack. Chris is an excellent cook and has always been the main cook, purely for the fact he is much better. 

I have developed a real passion for cooking over the last few years, and have really started experimenting with my cooking. I put it down to the fact that I love spending time in the kitchen, it's such a lovely room to be in, and well laid out, making it easy to cook in.

It's also a great party room and is the hub of our social life, we have built a network of friends with children, so tend to visit each others homes, rather than getting babysitters and leaving the children behind. It's great as our children enjoy being part of this; we often have visitors and have had some memorable evenings with lots of laughing with all our wonderful friends and family. And trust me after nights like these the fairy platinum really has it work cut out.  

So yes our kitchen is definitely at the heart of our family and social life, it's a family area, research and homework space, it's a great social area, and a chilled out haven after a long day at work. Probably the most important room in our family home. This post is an entry for "My Kitchen Story" linky challenge, sponsored by Fairy Platinum.