Young's Seafood event

"Ahh comment on va se régaler! La bouffe française est la meilleure! Quel festin!"

*"Oh we're going to eat so well, french food is the best! what a feast!"

These phrases are often uttered by my Frenchman when awaiting a trip to the homeland. I don't appreciate his blindness to my wonderful home cooked meals but understand where he's coming from. They just know how to mix things together to create a delicious platter. On our recent trip to Bretagne we were certainly spoilt by our hosts by dining Coquilles St Jacques one night, and a massive seafood platter filled with Oysters, Spider Crab, Langoustines, Bigornot, Palourde... yum! We sometimes buy fresh prawns, and fish (mackerel in foil with veg chucked in or steamed salmon and broccoli à la Jamie Oliver) but not enough! According to the Department of Health we're meant to eat two portions of fish a week and the Mixed Up household currently goes by one if anything! Oh dear.

With a hope to improve my seafood cuisine and find out more about fish I was delighted be invited by Young's Seafood to L'Atelier de Chefs cookery school in Wigmore Street to perfect my culinary skills and know more about Fish.

Bring it on little fishies!

Two a week
Young's Nutrition Director Clare Leonard shared the nutritional benefits of fish with us; Crammed full of Vitamins A, D, Omega 3, sea minerals and protein, Fish is so GOOD for you! And not very fattening. So make sure you're eating the 2 portions a week including one portion of Oily fish.
Oily fish can be forage fishe e.g. sardine, herring and anchovy or pelagic fish e.g. salmon, trout, herring, fresh tune and mackerel (my staple choice as it's rather cheap!)
White fish include cod (but leave them alone for now!), haddock, whiting and sole.
Oh, and 1 portion = 140g, 1 fillet or 4 fishfingers!

Did you know that:

• Fish and the Sun give us Vitamin D allowing us to absorb calcium and strengthen teeth and bones, but we're not getting enough of the latter - not because of the lack of sun in the UK, but because we need to get out more. Fish is our biggest dietary source of Vitamin D, so by eating more fish you can stay inside and watch TV! No seriously, get outside more - isn't it awful we're spending so much time indoors that our Vitamin D levels have depleted...?

• The Omega 3  keeps your heart healthy and is essential for your child's developing brain -  but our bodies can't produce it so our diet needs to include plenty of it so oily fish is a fantastic supplier of omega 3.

• 1 portion of fish  provides half your daily Protein requirement - which is great for growing kids as it builds muscles, bones and repairs bumps and bruises (Leon's toddling about ensures a constant supply of these!) However you need to vary with other types of proteins (pulses lentils, beans, quinoa, tofu...) 

Easy and healthy

White fish is low in fat and is so easy to prepare with the simplest ingredients. Onions, tomatoes, spinach, leeks, pancetta, cheddar, mozzarella, butter - all of which I usually have in the fridge or an alternative, will make you three delicious platters that can be ready in 15 mins. Top chef Serge Nollent demonstrated how to easily prepare three fishy dishes and then two teams of mummy bloggers had a go!

Team Cod cooked up a delicious Roast Cod with cider braised leeks, peas and pancetta and Team Haddock successfully produced this fantastically easy and mouth-watering Smoked Haddock, Cheese and Tomato Bake 

Serves 4

4 fillets / portions 100g to 120g each of smoked haddock skin off

8 medium size ripe tomatoes cut into quarters

2 slice red onions

2 crushed garlic cloves

2 sprigs of rosemary

80 g grated mild cheddar

1 ball of mozzarella

Extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt &ground black pepper

• Preheat oven gas mark 6 / 200c

• Sauté the tomato, red onion & garlic in olive oil on medium heat for up to 4 minutes, season slightly (remember the smoked haddock is already salted).

• Put into oven proof dish, place fillets on top, sprinkle cheddar & tear up mozzarella, place rosemary sprig between fillets, season with ground black pepper, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
• Cook in oven, top shelf for 15 minutes. Serve.

Et voilà! One mouth-watering smoked haddock, cheese & tomato bake

Team Haddock with Serge Nollent and our final dish

Cooking up a storm I'm looking forward to trying these out again - with a lot of confidence after tasting the superb dishes that we successfully duplicated (pretty much!). Prepping up by chopping onions etc will definitely help and although following recipes is useful, once you know the basics of a recipe, you can replace with a different ingredients: parmesan instead of cheddar, low fat yoghurt instead of creme fraiche, wine instead of cider and you could live off fish forever!!  

No Fishy Fishing

All Young's seafood comes from sustainable sources and are accredited by the MSC. Their purchasing decisions are made with keeping in mind the capacity of the environment to support the fishing practices involved and supplying seafood for over 200 years definitely know their stuff when it comes to fish. Young's have developed positive steps to fish sustainability through Fish for Life - their award winning approach to sustainable fishing, by funding research and engaging with the fish industry and lobbying governments to implement better legislation. Young's understand their ethical obligation to do so, if future generations are to enjoy the delicious fish we do today! Additionally, frozen fish reduces food waste as it'll keep for months!

Young's Fish Expert Duncan Lucas demonstrating his filleting skills

Young's fish expert Duncan Lucas shared his filleting skills with us and we discovered what it takes to produce a top quality fillet that any chef would be thrilled to receive. From slicing, snipping, flipping, cutting and plucking out the bones, we learned the importance of a well filleted fish and I was pleased to know that at Young's they are hot on minimising fish waste. Duncan explained how fish heads are send to Malaysia where they are eaten as a delicacy and fish cheeks and tongues are highly sought after luxuries in Norway! We were lucky enough to have a taste of these fishy facial parts and I indeed say that they were deliciously tender and lighter than the main fish.

I was very happy to have tasted a range of Young's products especially the breaded chip shop Mackerel and King Prawns that were absolutely delicious. It was certainly inspiring to taste how the accompaniments can totally liven up a dish and change it from a weekday evening meal to a lighter lunch. We tasted the breaded fish alongside a sublimely healthy basil salad and the king prawns in a pomegranate and mango salad - divine!! It's so easy to include fish in your diet and there are plenty more recipes and Serge's podcasts on the Young's website. I'm definitely going to delight my husband with showing off my new culinary skills with these beautiful seafood dishes.

It was also a pleasure meeting some other mummy bloggers so please take a look at their blogs if you haven't yet : The heavily preggers http://i-heart-motherhood.blogspot.com/, mum of toddler and poster of beautiful photos http://www.methemanandthebaby.com/, another mexicana married to a frenchman http://londonmumsmagazine.com/, yet another femme de français and foodie blogger http://melikeyuk.blogspot.com/, first to review Young's event http://mummymanda17.blogspot.com/ and super reviewer http://thescrummymummy.co.uk

Greener Living - saving the planet (and some cash)

Through a current work project I've been delving into the depths of eco-living and how you can save energy and money while saving the planet. Since discovering that I am more Green Dreamer than Eco saint, according to the Tesco Greener Living Interactive Quiz, I have taken a step back to look at how my life is impacting our world. I thought I was greener than the average Brit; I recycle pretty much everything, always wash at 30C, limit my purchases - but in taking this test and looking at the Starbucks takeaway capuccino guiltily sitting on my desk - I realise there are a few tweaks I need to make to ensure I am truly an Eco Saint.   

So what do I need to do to become an Eco saint? Granted, as we rent our flat we cannot change the light fittings to take energy saving lightbulbs, double glaze our windows, or install solar panels - but there's a lot I CAN do and I'm going to attempt to change my ways:

Draft Proofing: Living in a building a few hundred years old is very charming, but when winter sets in, the cold, damp air can tempt me to switch on the heating here and there. My mum suggested placing cling film over the windows, which I found rather odd - but apparently it helps. I need to make a few sausage dog draft proofers out of old tights and newspaper, and potentially replace the curtains with a heavier one in the bedroom. Leon often throws off his covers in the night and I always try and cover him back up - so maybe it's now time to invest in a baby grow-bag thing? I just don't like the idea of his movements being restricted at night by being in a 'bag'.

OWL Micro energy Reader

Another big main change is switching off appliances left on standby (I always worry this will mess up the settings on Sky etc. but switching off saves £37 a year according to Energy Saving Trust) and I want to get one of these OWL energy readers to see exactly how much energy each appliance uses. Whether it’s turning off at the plug rather than just using standby or simply turning off a light, the OWL Micro shows you how changing your behaviour can save you money and so help the environment. It is easy to install, easy to read and easy to use. Costs about £25

In the bathroom instead of buying a Hippo,  I'm going to put a brick or two in the Cistern and hope it still flushes. Secondly, Leon's bath uses up so much water and he's only in it for about 10 minutes. Hubby loves having a bath after and tops it up for himself - unless it's been pooped in (baths are very relaxing for babies you know!), but the plug isn't snug and lets a lot of water go. We need to fix that. So, I'd love to get a Babydam (rrp £27.50 but was reduced to £20 during Energy Saving Week- Boo just missed it!) and halve the amount of water used per bath. According to Babydam the average baby bath in a family sized bath is 20litres so this would make it 10litres. "If all parents in the UK used BabyDam for 2 and a half years when bathing their children (based on average of 700,000 births in the UK each year), we could save over six BILLION litres of water across the UK - that’s enough to fill 2,500 Olympic sized swimming pools!"

I feel that I'm rather green In the Kitchen : only heating up as much water as I need in the kettle, cautious with water usage when washing up and using that to wash the floors... I may moan about the council's non-action for picking up Kitchen scraps down my street (as it's a pretty commercial street so don't have recycling boxes either) and as we don't have a garden I can't chuck the scraps on a compost heap. It feels so wrong to throw them away. I missed telling LBRUT in the recent survey - but I will contact the councillor to suggest a communal compost heap for willing residents to contribute to if they have no green space themselves. It may come to contacting  York House Gardens or Orleans House Gallery gardens to see if they could do with some... 

I try to buy most my fruit/veg from the Grocers and now always take a canvas bag with me shopping. I try to plan my meals for the week but need more discipline with this and have started looking for inspiration. http://www.frugaliciousfood.com/ is a new initiative from Jen (TheMadHouse) and  Cass (The Diary of a Frugal Family) encouraging meal planning and show us theirs, Tesco do some personalised plans and make it easy to buy ingredients of course, and I found this one from the UK based Resourceful cook really helpful too and you can adapt to how many people it's for, how many nights a week etc. I'm tempted by their Winter warmer selection. Brilliant stuff and I hope to make enough for Leon too as he prefers the food I make for myself than for him... The best site for leftover ideas and help in preventing waste has got to be http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

I feel proud to have switched from cheapo washing up liquid to Ecover but have bought 3 bottles since and didn't know how to re-fill them. Thanks to reading http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com/ I know now to find the nearest retailer who do re-fills on the Ecover site (makes sense) and will plan my re-fills in advance to ensure I never run out and thus need to buy another plastic bottle.

On the commute : We don't own a car (as much as hubby would love to!) so I'm a public transport fanatic and know that I  should dig out that Thermos from my parents' kitchen and fill it with hot coffee before leaving for work! No more takeaway coffee cups!

Make do and mend : I've always tried... now I am conscious of mending more things be it toys or handbags. I rescued a tiny evening bag that I love, from ripping apart completely and it feels as good as new! Another particular bag has so many holes in the lining I am constantly searching the bottom for pens, tissues, notes, lipbalm etc. Now I've cleaned it, turned inside out and preparing to reinforce the lining with an old silk shirt I will never wear. Will feel like a new bag after that hopefully! Although I enjoy shopping, I need to go about it like a food shop and go out with items in mind instead of buying aimlessly and then finding out that it doesn't go with anything. Also, I've taken out the knitting needles and am attempting some wrist-warmers for myself and some little legwarmers for Leon!

My last challenge is trying to find a way for hubby not to take plastic carrier bags from Waitrose when he does the shoping. He goes straight from work so doesn't carry much in his pockets. I may need to find those reusable nylon bags and strategically place them on him without noticing...

Maria's Checklist to become an Eco Saint:

1. Draft Proofing
2. Switching off appliances at mains - getting an OWL monitor
3. Bricks in toilet cistern
4. Buying a BabyDam
5. Arranging communal compost heap! (Or leaving scraps in someone else's scrap bin)
6. Meal plans
7. Re-fill Ecover bottles when needed
8. Thermos for coffee
9. Convert hubby into an Eco saint too
10. any suggestions?

Here are a few of my favourite sites that I've discover along the way: 

http://thefurtheradventuresofathriftymrs.blogspot.com/

For inspiring me to improve my home-making skills

http://stylewillsaveus.com/

For making it fun to look for eco-friendly designers, products and ideas

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog

For actively doing something with unwanted t-shirts or lost gloves and lots of news

http://greenlashesandfashion.blogspot.com/

I like their home and Lifestyle section

http://www.fuoriborgo.com/

Pretty images of life in Italy - beautiful

Weaning and HIPP Organic food review

Leon LOVES food. He had his first tastes from about 4 months with purees and other finger foods and now at 10 months he's pretty much feeding himself with his hands and with a spoon! It's so exciting to watch him maneuvering the spoon into his mouth. As expected, it's messy - but in the space of a few days he's hitting the target much better and not getting as much on the walls thank goodness.

Since going to back to work part-time I've found it a bit of a struggle to organise myself properly in terms of making all his food - and remembering to take it out of the fridge in the morning. When he's being looked after by my parents or my childminder friend, I've pretty much given up on making his main meal and am content to pack him a jar/pot/tube of pre-made food along with a few steamed veg, pasta and a banana or pot of yoghurt for after.
 

I was sent a few tubs of  HIPP Organic wholesome meals to try out and they've gone down extremely well. Firstly, the size of the portions are large enough to satisfy his hunger even though they were stage 2 wholesome pots suitable from 7mths+ and I shall try the stage 3 for 10mths+ soon enough. To prepare I only needed to place in a little pan of hot water for a few minutes where I also added some cold pasta and frozen veg to complete his meal. You can of course just give the pot on its own - but I prefer to add those bits to vary the textures/tastes etc. Plus he can dip them into the HIPP food.

Secondly, the meal flavours were indeed scrumptious:  Sweet Red Pepper & Aubergine Penne; Tasty Sweetcorn, Tomato & Chicken Risotto and Scrumptious Cottage Pie with Herbs. (Full product range here) However I was a bit concerned that most of them contained a high percentage of tomatoes (usually 20% of the veg) and Leon hadn't reacted well to tomatoes a few months ago. But he didn't react to it and ate it all up so it was fine :) 

Last but not least, HIPP have made their new pots completely recyclable plus, it's easier to reuse than the glass pots as they can go in the freezer - perfect for storing batches of my own recipes ;) And they stack better than the glass pots too. It's also encouraging to know that "each of the ingredients can be traced back to the farm, field or animal they came from" and that all the ingredients are considered organic. Thumbs up all around!

HIPP organic pots approved by Leon

The main factor for me, as well as knowing that it's relatively free of nasties, is the convenience of chucking it into the baby bag for whoever's looking after him and knowing that it's easy to prepare to serve warm. Now, I'm looking forward to trying the other flavours, but will save them for childcare to use only as they are a tad pricey to be used every day. Plus I enjoy making food for him!

On the search for easy recipes for mum and baby

I feel like I need to diversify the daytime meals a bit better and be savvy with the ingredients while preparing communal meals for all three of us. Since, my darling belles-soeurs gave me a Beaba Babycook steamer/blender as a gift, I've loved using it to make Leon's lunch and Dinners- and it was brilliant for the purée stage. Adding some meats, fish and loads of steamed veg he loves to feed himself. Usually with his hands, but today he managed to stick the spoon in the bowl then into his mouth! Though sometimes I find myself eat from his plate and realise, we should be having lunch together at the table, not me sitting in front of him eating his food... then rushing to make myself something decent at the same time. Though I do enjoy our 1 hour long lunches...

I feel confident in what I've been chucking in together has worked out well - though sometimes it's been gross - so I'm pleased to have found the recipe site for the Babycook machine that shows you how to cook gnocchi and beef stroganoff. mmm tasty... http://webrecipemanager.com/babycook/
the colour of all their stock is as yummy as the potential meals.

Image from http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2009/11/04/homemade-baby-food-beaba-babycook/
my, that post is so inspiring to make delicious food! 

Planning on taking it with me to Paris for the weekend as it's been so convenient ;)