Cooking is not my strongest skill and so isn’t baking. It’s not that I can’t do it but I just don’t have the patience for it if it takes too long for example. Everything I cook or bake is coming in a form of a recipe or a sachet where you just need to get the ingredients and mix them. If I find a good recipe, I do have a little peak to see if I can find anything nice that I can cook but won’t take that long.
When Bright Horizons got in touch about their new family recipe book, I couldn’t simply say no. Especially when it’s a family cook book. It means I can cook a meal for the whole family without a worry. With the cook book, I also received a cool doodle kids apron. It came with fabric pens.You can draw on the apron, wash it and start again. Matthew loved that part. He wanted to colour in loads, draw shapes etc.
Bright Horizons have many different nurseries across the UK with one nursery in Wilmslow. They cater for children from the age of 3 months up to the age of 5 years. This would be important to me as a full-time working mum. My two kids both went to nursery when they were only 5/6 months old. They are still there now at 20 months and four years. As well as that the food what they get is important to me, too. I don’t want them eating junk.
The cook book has main meals, as well as smoothies and desserts to offer. We tried making two recipes from it. This won’t be the end of it though. We will be definitely making all of them until we have the book finished. What I like most about it is that they are all easy ingredients which you would normally have in your fridge or cupboard anyway. The instructions on how to cook/bake, is easily laid out.
The first main meal I tried out was the Chicken Paella. Chloe loves peas and rice and Matthew loves peppers, peas and rice. Everyone. I made this as a family meal at the weekend and there was plenty left to have for lunch as a left over for the next day or even a lunch meal at work.
Sunday I like getting treats or if I am in the mood me and Matthew start baking something. He loves doing banana bread. Both kids are obsessed with bananas. What kid doesn’t like bananas? But also both of them love blueberries and raspberries. So I decided to make some Summer Fruit Muffins. My little helper stirred the mixture of course.
I have to admit they didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to be. It could be because I dropped in too much baking soda as it didn’t tell me how much I should put in it. For someone who doesn’t bake that often I am clueless about that kind of stuff. The muffins didn’t taste that fruity anyway. But Matthew had fun making them and that’s the main thing.
Disclaimer: I was sent the cook book and apron for the purpose of the review. As always this is my honest opinion and own photos.
