Cooking with Kids :: Mango and Cardamom Smoothie

This weekend, Holly and I had a rare morning together with no Daddy and no Lara.  Holly was desperate to do some cooking in her big sister's absence but because it was 9.30 in the morning, it wasn't really time to set about creating feasts so instead we made ourselves a little morning boost - a smoothie.

Cuisinart sent me a Soup Maker Plus to use to create some new cookery inspiration in the Mellow kitchen and, while I know we will be whipping up some amazing soups, risottos and hot savoury dishes, I really wanted its first outing to be something very different so I got Holly to choose some ingredients from the fridge. Holly chose a mango and a banana - a perfect combination for a smoothie.

This Mango, Yoghurt and Cardamom smoothie is inspired by Indian desserts and would make a perfect, light accompaniment to a strongly-flavoured curry.  We felt it was a light, summery and refreshing pick-me up in the morning.  Cardamom is a very strong flavour for a little person like Holly who wasn't totally sure about it, but she is used to the taste in our home-made curries so she kept coming back for more sips of the smoothie.

INGREDIENTS - serves 2

1 mango peeled and stoned (the riper the better...ours was a bit useless)

1 banana peeled

200ml plain low-fat yoghurt

3 green cardamom pods

2 scoops of vanilla ice cream (optional)

Mint springs to serve.

METHOD

Roughly chop the banana and mango and place into the Soup Maker Plus, blender or food processor with the yoghurt.

Firmly bruise the cardamom pods with the base of your hand, or the side of a knife and take out all the seeds - add the seeds to the fruit and yoghurt.

If you like a bit of sweetness in your smoothie, add some good quality vanilla ice cream to make the smoothie extra rich and luxurious.

Blend for about 2 minutes until the mango is totally smooth.  Holly very much enjoyed watching this magic happen!

Enjoy with a sprig of fresh mint.

I will be blogging lots more soup maker plus recipes as we create them over the coming weeks - if you have a soup recipe or risotto recipe you'd like to share with me or recommend, please leave me a link in the comments below.

Under the Sea with Plasticine Softeez

I remember Plasticine as a kid - fun times! As an adult I'd previously steered away because we found it so firm and hard for little hands to get soft enough to model with but the great news is that Plasticine Softeez has been launched - a much softer modelling material which never dries out and this makes it much more appealing to me. We were sent some packs of Plasticine and a modelling set to create out own Under the Sea scene.

Our Under the Sea kit included a play mat (important if you don't have a wipe clean tablecloth because Plasticine has a slightly greasy residue which is great for keeping it soft, but which needs a good clean off the table and hands after playing). The mat features an under water scene and it is a great start for inspiration for modelling fish and underwater creatures. The kit includes a selection of different colours of Plasticine and a few shaped cutters including an octopus, a whale and a seahorse. My girls also enjoyed creating their own fish using multi-coloured blends of coloured Plasticine for the scales.

I'm really pleased with the levels of creativity that both girls have come up with, presented with the Plasticine - they seem to both have approached it in a much more grown-up way than just merging colours together. Lara was particularly taken with the simple packs of single-coloured plasticine that she thought carefully about in order to create her own turtle for the scene! My girls have enjoyed cutting, rolling, squishing, shaping and imagining.

Plasticine Softeez isn't exactly soft... it still needs a little bit of work to warm it up and get it really squishy but I think that's a good thing for slightly older children as it means their models stand a chance of staying in one piece.

Perhaps the thing I'm liking most about Plasticine is that it doesn't dry out. Holly is a particular minx for not putting toys away when she is finished and I've lost count of the number of pots of dough I've had to throw away in the past having discovered them completely dried out. Plasticine Softeez stays the same texture even if we leave it out overnight so it is a lot less wasteful!

We like the fact that you can get kits for inspiration such as the Under the Sea kit, or a mini starter tub but that once the Plasticine bug has gripped, you can top up with individual colours when needed. Plasticine Softeez is suitable from age 3 upwards.  Both my girls have very much enjoyed playing with it and I am sure they will continue creating masterpieces.  Lara was recently very inspired by some Plasticine dinosaurs some of the parents at school had made...she wants to create some as good as a grown-up could!

If you are looking for more Plasticine inspiration, join them on twitter or instagram as @PlasticineUK or follow them on Facebook.

Disney Princess Art Therapy Colouring Books

There are very few things in life quite as fine as finding the time to sit and doodle or colour in pictures.  Grown-up colouring has become very popular as a way of zoning out from the world and helping the mind settle.  Trust me, with the past few weeks I've had at work, I've needed a way of zoning out from the world!  Parragon books have just released two Disney Art Therapy books which I love and Lara loves (and even Holly will give them a try too).

Lara is a colouring machine.  When she goes to after school club, or holiday club, she comes home with mountains of colouring designs that she has filled in.  This week I'm sending her to holiday club with her Disney Princess Art Therapy book which features pages of beautiful Disney Princess inspired patterns to colour in.  You'd be mistaken to think that a Disney Princess colouring book would be filled with pictures of princesses and castles; these designs are far more grown up and really are "inspired by" rather than images from movies.  Each picture features a recognisable motif or small image from your favourite Disney movies including Tangled, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Cinderella and Snow White.

The Art Therapy books are designed for older children as well as adults.  The designs are striking and do require a lot of time and attention to colour in - Lara adores the books for this very reason.  On several pages you have to search hard for the Disney reference but all the designs are beautiful and Lara will very much enjoy filling in this colouring book.

 

Parragon also have an entire colouring book dedicated to designs inspired by the movie Frozen.  These pages feature symbols of love, ice and snowflakes as well as patterns that appear on dresses and clothing in the movie.  I think Holly was a little disappointed when she realised that the colouring book wasn't a series of pictures of Anna and Else and Olaf but for me the book is perfect.  Now all I need is a set of grown-up colouring pens and pencils to get my creative juices flowing.

You can follow Parragon Books on twitter and as @parragonbooks on instagram and pinterest to find out more about their new releases.