TODAY...

THE SUN CAME OUT!!!!! After weeks of nothing but rain & miserable skies, finally we got the vitamin D boost we had all been waiting for. We were out of the house by 10am - on a Saturday (yeah, in your FACE laziness) and we were determined to soak up the sun. We went for a lesuirely stroll about town, brought some books, drank some coffee & listened to some awesome buskers. Our rumbling tummies then pointed us in the direction of we our favourite picnic spot where we ate, drank & chilled the hell out! It was bliss. 100% bliss. Dex & Flo played hide & seek & ran about like mad things whilst Indi pointed and beamed at everything she saw. Cute on a plate! There were climbing frames, bouncy castles, swings & ice-creams a plenty -hurrah to the sun! What a difference it makes to wake up to a sunny day. I've put an order in for more of the same tomorrow, so here's hoping it wasn't a one off as I'm too damn scared to check my weather app!

Here's some pics - enjoy x

#7

1. I want to be organised. I really do, just like Dottie!
2. I would LOVE to go to Pellegrini's! Who the heck wouldn't?!
3. How cute is this shade? I miss you Habitat.
4. Dexy & Flo loved reading The girl with the birds nest hair this week!
5. I'd love these little french vintage bowls. J'adore!
6. Why aren't you making this NOW? Yumminess.
7. Well Hello there new favourite blog! I'll be spending a lot of time here, i can tell.
8. Ooo, i'd forgot all about this place! I really want to take my kiddos there!
9. This is going to come in so handy this summer!
10. I am 100% going to order this print for my dining room. Fact!

Happy weekending everyone x

WHAT WE ARE EATING: King prawns with herby lentils

If you're on the prowl for something that tastes fresh, zingy and wholesome, then this is for you! I am a massive fan of Puy Lentils, and would eat them a lot more if the rest of the family shared my passion. So when I discovered this recipe I was thrilled, as I also had another excuse for eating way too many prawns, which is always a good thing, right?
This is delicious & good for you & the flavour combinations are so so good. Do your tastebuds a favour & treat them to a little fun time. They'll thank you for it.

So here's what you'll need for two people as a main:
-recipe from Jamies 20 min meals iphone app-

- 300g raw, peeled king prawns
- 2 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
- 200g baby spinach
- 1/2 medium red onion - finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 small bunch of fresh basil - leaves chopped
- 1 small bunch of fresh miny - leaves chopped
- 1 x 400g tin of Puy lentils
- 125g cherry tomatoes - halved
- 1 lemon
- olive oil
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper

And you will need to do this:

1. Place a large saucepan on the a high heat. When hot, add your spinach leaves, with a splash of water, and cook with the lid on for 30 seconds.
2. Take the lid off & use tongs to move the spinach about a bit until it's all wilted. Then tip into a colander to drain. Set aside.
3. Place a new saucepan on a medium heat & add a small splash of olive oil. When warmed, add your chopped red onion & cumin. Season with your salt & pepper, then cook until soft & golden, stirring occasionally.
4. Whilst your onion mix is cooking, squeeze any excess water out of your spinach and chop roughly.
5. When your onion is golden, add your spinach to the pan.
6. Drain your lentils, rinse, and add them to the pan. Cook for 10 minutes, over a low heat.

7. Place a large griddle (or frying) pan on a medium heat with a splash of olive oil. When hot, add your prawns, turning the heat up to high and fry for a minute or two until browned on one side.
8. Turn your prawns over and add your garlic. Fry for another minute or so, until the prawns are cooked through & your garlic smells amazing!

9. Add your halved cherry tomatoes to the prawn mix and season well with salt & pepper. Stir together until everything is well combined, then turn off the heat. Cover with a lid (or foil).

10. Check your lentils & when they are warmed through, stir in the chopped herbs, the juice from half of your lemon & a good drizzle of olive oil. Stir through well to combine, then take off the heat.

11. Time to serve up! Spoon your lentils mix onto a plate, then spoon over your garlicky prawn & tomato mix. Serve with a lemon wedge for squeezing over...... Mm. Mm. Mm.

12. Eat up & marvel in the lovliness! Enjoy x

I HEART LONDON

I have a real love affair with London. Even though I only lived there for 10 years, it is the place I most consider 'home'. I'd spent so long as a child dreaming of one day living there, that when I moved there for University age 18, i felt instantly that this was where I was meant to be. I loved everything about it. I loved the diversity, I loved the anonymity, I loved riding the tube, hopping on & off the old route masters. I loved spending my skint student days in Ealing & Waterloo (less said about those days the better, my kids will read this one day!) and then later, my working days in Soho. London was where I fell in love, where I set up my first home & where I had two babies - all very special and important things. Yes! I love it VERY much, so this past Bank Holiday, we took the kiddos to London to visit their grandparents.
This visit was long overdue as far as we were concerned, so we thought we'd take advantage of the extra-long weekend & get on it. As always, London was lovely & this visit we took some time to show the kiddos some special places like where they were born, the various houses we lived in, the places we used to work & where we'd often visit. It was lovely to reminisce & show them their roots if you like.
Whilst we were there, we took the kiddos to The Natural History Museum for the first time. HOW BUSY is this place?! I don't remember this hysteria before, but then that was pre-kiddos so i probably didn't notice, but wow! It's a good job we're British & love a good que. They had so much fun & especially loved dressing up as little explorers - they looked soooo cute! It was the first time they'd seen crazy mirrors too and oh my goodness, they laughed & laughed & laughed! They were hilarious and I could have watched them perform for hours - plus i loved the ones that made my hair long and my legs skinny, in fact, i think i may get one of those babies for home!
We took a Sunday stroll along the embankment, one of my favourite things to do there & we visited one of my loveliest friends Soraya, who cooked us an awesome lunch & let the kids wreck her house (sorry Soz!) India took a particular liking to Phooey the cat, so much so that Phooey the cat decided it was safer to hide out under a chair outside in the peeing down rain (sorry Phooey!) & the kiddos discovered Tin-Tin thanks to a little story time with Aunty Soraya. Sweet!
We took in some parks and generally just relaxed. London is really gearing up for this summers Jubilee & what with the Olympics too, it's going to be a pretty exciting time! Mental note to self- visit more often, maybe then you'll stop missing it as much!

Here's a few pics from our visit. Enjoy x

(When Flo met Flo!)

#6

1. I learnt all about Sumac, thanks to Tracy from Shutterbean. It's a loooovely citrusy spice & if you make this salad, you'll agree!
2. I love this nursery! Hendrix is one lucky dude!
3. I really should do this. Lovely work space too!
4. An entire blog about breakfasts! Awesome!
5. I wished we had the space to have our own family of chickens.
6. I will certainly be making myself this salad for lunch next week sometime!
7. I love Lauren Luke.
8. I'm a little behind the times but I only discovered this video this week. My heart melted!
9.  Wow. Wow. Wow. Thanks to Victoria for posting this amazing sneek peek into Isabelle Tuchban's home. GORGEOUS!
10. My kiddos adore the books of Oliver Jeffers almost as much as their mama does!

Have a good weekend y'all! We're off to the big smoke for some museum fun.... Enjoy x

TACO NIGHT!

My name is Lia & I am a mexican food addict. Phew- just had to get that out there!
Seriously though, you've caught me right in the middle of a another food obsession. I get these ALL the time, but this one has gone on and on, and to be honest, it shows no sign of waning, and thank goodness for that as I don't want it to. Ever!
I think it all started when I watched Sir Jamie of Oliver make this on TV one night. I went out & got the Jamie's America book the very next day & I got shredding! To say it blew my socks off is an understatement - i fell in LOVE!

From that moment, my mexican obsession snowballed. Fajita's, natchos, burritos, tostadas, salads, beans, salsa's - you name it, i wanted it! But then the best thing happened - I discovered taco's - proper taco's. I say proper taco's because in the past i'd always been put off them in the past because of those disgusting unappetising pictures on those mexican kit boxes you get in the supermarkets. They look like a giant curved dorrito. It looked like it would snap into a million pieces whenever i took a bite & i'd be left with a mouth full of crisps when i was trying to eat a meal. Urgh, no thanks, i'm not up for that!
Anyway, whilst reading my fave foodie blog Shutterbean, I found this taco night party & found that it was easy to make your own shell's using some good quality tortilla wraps. Score! So, it was that discovery, along with this awesome Pico de Gallo recipe, that sealed my fate, and my new favourite meal was born. That night we feasted on shrimp taco's with pico de gallo & black beans. It was awesome & now we have a taco night at least once a week as a RULE! Is that weird? Maybe, but I couldn't give a flying tortilla as it is just so so good.
This week we had fish taco's using cod loins. They were good, but i'm not going to lie to you - king prawns work 100 times better.

So, this is how a Taco night for two goes in my kitchen...


1. For lazy black beans:
- empty a can of black beans into a saucepan (that's the lazy part)
- add 2 crushed garlic cloves
- add 4 corriander stalks
- simmer for about 15-20 minutes. (or long enough so they are not watery)

2. Marinate:
- take either 500g of raw king prawns, or 2 fillets of chunky white fish
- in a bowl add a sprinkle of sea salt
- add the juice of a lime
- add a few shakes of a hot sauce of your choice
- set aside

3. Next up, make your Pico De Gallo:
You will need:
- 12 cherry tomatoes - quartered
- 2 tablespoons of corriander leaves
- 3 tablespoons of finely diced white onion
- 1 fresh red chilli - deseeded & chopped
- fresh sea salt
- juice of 1/2 - 1 lime

Simply combine your toms, corriander, onion & chilli. Then sprinkle with your salt & dress with your lime. How easy is that? C'mon!

4. Make your shells:
You will need 8 flour tortilla's
- heat a large frying pan on your hottest hob. Get it REAL hot!
- when it's hot place one tortilla on, and using tongs keep peaking underneath until you see it starting to crisp & have a few brown spots.
- turn over & repeat for the other side.
- once ready, take off the heat & fold in half. I use the end of a wooden spoon to create the shell shape.

5. Grill your fillings:

6. Gather your sides! Hot sauce is a MUST! Cholula is my fave.

7. Load up your shell!

Flake your fish (or scatter your prawns) & fill!

That's the happiest little taco i've ever seen. Look! It's smiling :)

So there you have it, perfection on a plate! Enjoy x

RAIN? NO BIGGIE!

What's that saying? The one about when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade? Well, we did that today, kind of. Replace the word lemons with the word 'rain' and replace the word lemonade with the words 'the beach' and you'll see where we're going. Yes, apparently we are mad, although i like to think of it as merely 'temporarily losing our senses' and today, on the windiest, rainiest, coldest day of Spring we hot footed it to..... Weston-super-night mare.
But of course, the kiddos had a blast! YAY! They loved every single minute of it & i bet if you asked them right now if it was rainy or sunny today, they would not have a clue! Don't do that by the way, it's 9pm!
They played tons of games, they ate fish & chips, they zoomed about on bumper cars, they had fresh donuts - heck, they even had their first slush puppie! Now that's a memory right there! Flo & I even attempted the helter skelter..... although, it was kind of a major fail for a number or reasons;
1) We forgot to collect our mats at the bottom before we hiked up SIXTY NINE steps.
2) We got half way up the SIXTY NINE steps & mama's legs morphed into some sort of jelly.
3) We got to the top & looked at the slide. Flo's face went green. I looked like as if i'd just stared death in the eye.
4) I said "FLO, I AM TERRIFIED"
5) She said "MUMMY, I THINK I AM TWERFIDIIEDDFIIIIED TOO"
6) We went back down SIXTY NINE FREAKIN' STEPS, holding the handrail for all of our worth.
7) We finally get our feet back on level ground.
Phew! Humiliation over! No? No? NO! Because the whole world & his wife were able to enjoy our helter skelter freak out in all it's glory due to the CCTV cameras that they so kindly plant at the top. These are apparently positioned there so that people can entertain themselves watching their loved ones climb SIXTY NINE steps, whilst they get their cameras ready to capture the glorious faces of glee portrayed by said loved ones as they zoom down. Hmmm, yeah, thanks for that Grand Pier! As if having to crawl under (Flo) or pole vault (me) the one-way barrier at the bottom of the SIXTY NINE stairs isn't punishment enough for being a wimp. No, seriously, THANKS.
Anyway, having put that to rest, here's some pics. I only took my phone, so with the combination of dark & movement, they are not that great, but we like them :)

That's a fake smile. Look how tight she's holding on!! This 'ride' was abandoned after 45 seconds!

PARKLIFE

It's cold.
It's wet.
It's pretty damn miserable.
Is it too much to ask for some warmth or even a break in the relentless rain? I mean c'mon, it is flippin' May next week.
So, we went to the park in the freezing cold drizzle...

Photographic evidence that this has been the coldest & wettest April in the history of the world. Fact.