Fun things to do with Toddlers - Playing with Lentils

Some time ago I accidentally spilt a pack of lentils on the kitchen floor, Boris came in and had a wonderful time playing in them.  He picked them up and dropped them, swished them around and even "swam" in them!!  He loved it and we only had to end the activity because he started scooping up lentils into his mouth.  They aren't poisonous like some uncooked legumes but I couldn't imagine it being great for his little tummy.
So a few days ago when Boris was really restless and couldn't find anything to really hold his interest, I spread out the mat and poured some lentils into a bowl.  I got some metal measuring cups out and let Boris go wild.
He really enjoyed them again, scooping the lentils from one cup to another, spreading them around, running his fingers through them, stirring them, pouring them, sprinkling them through his fingers, throwing them about.  I didn't mind that the lentils went EVERYWHERE because he was so engaged with the activity.  It came to an end when he took a scoop full of lentils outside and....started eating them.

We played together with the lentils for a good 20 minutes and Boris even had a bit of fun banging to cups together and watching himself do it in the mirror.  It did take a long time to clear them up after, and there was substantially less in the pack after I had to hoover a load up that had breached the perimeter of the mat!  They got everywhere, stuck to my feet and I even found one sitting on my fat pregnant tummy when I was undressing for bed! Made me chuckle to myself.  But it was definitely worth it because he had a great time and the activity somehow really soothed him; enough for him to be able to entertain himself for some time afterwards. A highly recommended activity which I think has further potential as Boris gets older, in terms of weighing and measuring, and in craft activities.

Shopping and Meal Planning

Up until about a year ago I had no system for buying food and planning meals and I often lamented how difficult it was to stick to a budget and to decide what to buy in the supermarket.  I would often come out of the store with several bags full of shopping and a much lighter purse and I would look through my bags and think "what on earth can we have for dinner". 
That was until I had a conversation with one of my friends.  She complained about how annoying it can be to get stuck behind someone in the supermarket who is just browsing, not knowing what to buy and going from one end of the supermarket to the other. And I thought "oh, that's me".  She explained to me how she planned her meals for a week and made a shopping list of what she needed.  The shop took a lot less time and it helped her stick to a budget.  Can you believe this idea have never occurred to me before?!
So I started writing a meal plan for the week and a shopping list of things to buy and it has made things so much easier.  It also means we eat a wider variety of meals and are much less likely to run out of things mid week and need to do top-up shops. I don't always stick to our budget but I am pretty sure we spend less than we did before making a list. 

I thought I would share our weekly meal plan for this week, it includes lunches and dinners.  For breakfast I switch between porridge which I make with rice milk and have with golden syrup and a glass of orange juice (most days), cereal, normally some variety of granola with soya milk (when I am out of porridge or rice milk) and drop scone pancakes once a week, usually on a Saturday).

So why am I sharing this with you?  Well writing a meal plan and shopping list every week is one of the few things I do as a matter of routine which I really think help to make our lives simpler, help us stick to a budget and reduce our stress, so surely it can't be a bad thing it someone reads this and takes it up and makes their life simpler and less stressful? I am certainly not saying "look how great I am, everyone should be like me"  I am openly "imperfect" after all, I really just want to share the things in my life that seem to work.  This one ritual really keeps me grounded and, like cleaning the bathroom is a ritual that keeps me centered throuhgout the peaks and flows of certainty and uncertainty that come and go throughout the week.  It is nice to know that this one thing will almost always be there to ground me, ready for whatever the week may bring.

I do my weekly shop on a Wednesday so the week runs Wednesday to Tuesday, here is this weeks meal plan:

Wednesday:
Lunch - Cheese and tomato sandwiches on wholemeal bread,
Dinner - Jacket potatoes with bakes beans and grated cheese with homemade coleslaw.

Thursday:
Lunch - Home made leek and potato soup with wholemeal toast,
Dinner - Quorn mince with homemade veg and tomato sauce in wraps with salad and grated cheese.

Friday:
Lunch - Omega 3 Pollock fish finger sandwiches on wholemeal bread,
Dinner - Takeaway.

Saturday:
Lunch - Egg mayonnaise and tomato sandwiches,
Dinner - Sausage with mashed potato, broccoli, carrots, peas and gravy.

Sunday:
Lunch - Home made pea and ham soup,
Dinner - Pasta with homemade tomato sauce and bacon with grated cheese.

Monday:
Lunch - Ham salad sandwiches on wholemeal bread,
Dinner - Home made pizza with ham and mushroom.

Tuesday:
Lunch - Eggy bread with grated cheese, chutney and home made coleslaw,
Dinner - Home made salmon fish cakes with potato wedges, homemade coleslaw and salad.

When I make my shopping list I divide the items I need into categories to make going round the supermarket easier, I don't have to dash from one end of the shop to the other.  My categories are typically: Fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, bread and other.  I won't bore you with the shopping list, if you want to use this meal plan you can probably work out what you need, and besides, I already had some of the things I needed in the house so it wouldn't be a complete list anyway.

So there we have it, I hope it is useful.  I plan on sharing more of my weekly meal plans because I hope that making it public will help me to take responsibility for what we are eating a bit more, it might make me make more healthy, seasonal choices if I know others are potentially judging what I am buying, eek!!

So do you write a shopping list each week?  How do you make sure you stick to a budget? What are some of your favourite meals?  I would love to know.

What I am currently (re) reading - Remotely Controlled by Aric Sigman

I think this might be the third of forth time I have read this book.  The book is about how watching TV could be, no, IS damaging our health and our lives.  I am reading it again because I often find myself slipping back into old habits of coming home and immediately putting the TV on as a default form of entertainment.  When I read through the facts, research and studies on the effects of television on the body and mind it makes me re-address what I am doing and work harder at resisting the temptation to put the TV on yet again.
Another reason I am re-reading this book is because of Boris, (not his real name) my one-and-a-half year old son.  This is the first time I have read the book since he was born and I had been putting the TV on during breakfast, lunch and dinner as a habit.  Remembering how damaging this can be has helped me get us eating at the dinner table and interacting more, rather than sitting in silence staring at a box.  And more importantly resisting the urge to use TV as an cheap and easy babysitter when there are things that I want to do for myself.

 

If you like being outraged then this is definitely a book for you, there are lots of shocking statistics and information to make you angry about television producers, advertisers and the government, and what makes it a really good read is that you can feel empowered at the end of it because all you have to do in protest is turn off the TV! 

Here are a few of the shocking facts that Sigman includes:

 We spend on average four hours a day doing nothing but watching television - that's more than one full 24-hour day a week.  By the age of 75, most of us will have spent more than 12-and-a-half years of 24 hour days doing nothing but watching pure television.

Children who watch television at ages one and three have a significantly increased risk of developing such attentional problems [ADHD] by the time they are seven.  For every hour of television a child watches per day, there is a nine per cent increase in attentional damage. 

The more TV children view, the more likely they are to be overweight.  Reduction in TV viewing constitutes the single most effective way for children to lose weight. 

A study on suicidal behaviour and "self-harm" at the Warneford Hospital, Oxford recently found that children learn about the act of suicide and form concepts surrounding it following exposure to television.

I could go on for ages because there are so many fascinating facts that simply blow the "everything in moderation" view out of the water.  I highly recommend this book if you want to get more free time for yourself and your children and be a healthier, happier person!  What have you got to lose? Actually you don't need to read the book, just turn off the TV!

What are you reading right now?  Have you read "Remotely Controlled"? What did you think of it?