Beautifully Spiced Haddock With Chickpea And Broccoli Mash

It's been 3 days since we returned from Spain and the realisation that we can't pop down to the all inclusive buffet is just hitting us now .

Ingredients 

• 2 pieces haddock 
• 3 tbsp Soured cream or natural yogurt 
• 2 tsp garam masala
• Good pinch salt
• 1 tbsp other mixed herbs 
• For the mash:
• 10g Butter or low fat spread / mixed with the garlic 
• 1tsp lemon juice
• Black pepper to taste
• 400g can chickpeas, drained 
• I bunch of broccoli 
• 1 tbsp of soured cream or natural 

You will need to mix  the soured  and garam masala together with the salt & combined herbs .  You can either place the haddock onto a plate and coat completely with the sour cream / yogurt mixture, leave to marinade for 10-15 mins. You could heat a grill to a moderate to high heat and cook the fish for 4-5 mins until cooked . Or as I did a pan poach the fish in the sour cream / yogurt mixture for 5-7 minutes . 

While the fish was cooking I boiled the broccoli , drained and set it aside . I heated up a can of chickpeas next I drained them and added the broccoli . I mashed them up adding in the tablespoon of soured cream or natural yogurt and spread / butter with garlic . Not forgetting the squeeze of lemon juice and grind of black pepper .

Educational Quizzes To Aid Your Child

I have lost count in previous years of how much I spent on educational books to aid my child with his studies all the way from when he was in KS1 right up to KS3. Technology and websites even Apps have all come to the forefront in education and children seem to find these more fun , once at dinner last year I thought my son was just messing round with his phone at dinner when he was actually studying a GCSE app !

There are times in your child lives when you want to give them a boast perhaps in transition from EYFS ( nursery /reception) to KS1 , when they take their SATS as this can be a fraught time . Particularly in Year 6 I remember my son getting very stressed with the SATs so much so they made SATS monsters , and in the end he didn't do them as there was a strike.

I personally like with the website how it is split in the subject areas so your child and yourself can study at your leisure. The primary objective of the website is to help children be successful at school , study of the schools curriculum's is made easy and enjoyable with suites of KS1,KS2, 11-Plus, KS3 and GCSE quizzes.


All the quizzes are written by teachers.


The Education Quizzes subscriptions are £9.95 a month and you can subscribe for as long as you like with no catches , I think the quizzes are excellent especially as i work in a school with KS1 ( I work with year 1 )


You don't have to spending hours quizzes with your child , I think little and often is the best policy as children have already had a full day of learning at school .

One of the subject areas I struggled with myself at school was numeracy so I wish I had access to a resource like this , it would have made learning my Times Tables so much easier ! and in return opened a smoother gateway to learning  further within numeracy.


I love that with the GCSE section on English Literature that everything is broken down into bitesize chunks making what the child has to learn slightly less daunting ! And again not only is this an aid to the childs learning but to the parents as well as education can be very confusing at times but the right tools it doesn't have to be.











Disclosure : This is a sponsored post all thoughts words and opinions are my own.

What Sort OF Character Has Your Cat Got ?

What sort of character has your cat got ?

Rollie has quite a calculating side to him and he is a very sleek male, he lives on his nerves , he is very much like his owner =me except for the sleek bit ( something wrong there ) 

Rollie is sulking this week for some unknown reason and is refusing to sleep in the bottom basket of his bunk beds, yes I am the owner that has bunk beds for their cats. Believe me we have gone through all sorts of sleeping arrangements for Rollie as he is very fickle . ( I have to admit I am very fickle over my pillows which always seem to die on me ! why is that ? )

Tabby cats are very distinct and Rollie is a Silver Tabby , he doesn't have the posh pets papers but we don't tell him that ! He won't do anything unless he has to and that includes meowing to get out of a door. Rollie won't set on my lap but will sit on my husbands this could be as my husband has the cats treats ..

Rollie has got a wild personality and is free spirited and will do what he likes when he likes with a side order of kindness thrown in. HE won't commit to a decision unless he really has to , * this is really sounding a lot like me.

The unknown scares me and he won't venture far especially in winter ( I mean you aren't like to see him on a flight to Barbados )

Rollie has a habit of destroying my sons homework by throwing up on it / biting holes in it.

Awwwh Rollie you rebel we love you . 

Holidays Tips

Remember the summer holidays? Despite the fact we’re only a few weeks into the school term, it feels like a long time ago already! But, one thing that does stand out as clear as day is the fact that plenty of children struggle to get back into the rhythm of learning when they’ve been off for so many weeks.

It doesn’t matter what a child’s ability level is or what their additional needs might be: ‘brain drain’ (where everything you’ve taught them seemingly flew off out the window when the holidays began!) affects them all. But really, it’s not surprising, is it? After all, you’d be pretty rusty too if you didn’t do your job for six weeks!

So, with that in mind, it can be useful for parents, teachers and teaching assistants to have a few tricks up their sleeves to help childrens’ minds stay sharp when they’re not in a formal learning environment. The tips below (suggested by Hope Education) are just as good for the school half term or Christmas holidays as they are for a summer break, so see if anything below strikes your fancy… and give it a go when it’s time for the next school holiday! 

This is a collaborative post 

Preparing Your Child For University

I think training your child for university goes something like this 

"Mum I've got the ice cream out "

Silent pause 

"Mum can I have Ice cream please "

See I've just got to cut out the middle wo(man) so I said to my son 

"Why don't you after you've got ice cream out , why not scoop it yourself ?"

"No"

There you have GCSE cookery and won't scoop out his own ice cream ...

But if you think about it , really hard and deeply it is clinging onto that last bit of helicopter parenting before they head off to university next year. I've never been a real helicopter parent I mean I was the one who unceremoniously dumped them at Beavers whilst they were crying and said to my husband 

"Let's leg it "

I think that style of parenting is called cave wo(man) parenting where the child battles for their survival .... 

And my son he's survived ~ he turns 18 next week so I've done good :D

But he'll be bringing his washing home from university as its £2.00 a wash £1.00 to dry ! that's if he's more local !

Any how's preparing your child for university starts at the welcome talk ~ they can be underwhelming and you would be fogiven for thinking at times you're at a 1980s wedding venue !

All it needed was for Kevin Bacon to leap up and start dancing !!

" Everyone cut Footloose "

But 1980s underwhelming type venues give way to departmental talks and you know they've made the right choice in their subject. And that's the important part knowing they've made the right choice and helping them analyse it all .

And when my son goes next year to university , I'll still be ready to scoop his ice cream . It's his way of saying I think 

" You're my mum , forever my mum"

Excuse me I've something in my eye .