Life Unexpected's Top Kitchen Gadgets

Courgette Pizza and Polenta Fries 

It's been a busy few months around here, and the biggest change has seen me working for myself over going out to a conventional form of employment like I am used to. Before this change came around, I was at a point where I was starting to think about moving back out of the family home again, to give Leo and I some space just for ourselves. 

This is still something that I am pondering right now, as I often feel like I am sat around waiting for my life to start, and right now I feel like grabbing it with both hands. 

My biggest aspiration about getting back into my own place again is the kitchen. Oh how I long for my very own kitchen again. As many of you know I am really into my home cooking, I get quite experimental in the kitchen and I am always trying new and wonderful creations...Maybe you remember my courgette pizza? 

The thing about making a lot of these unique and wonderful creations is the equipment that you need in order to get you the finished product. I have the majority of the tools available, I have my own Vitamix blender, my own Nutribullet and all the little bits and pieces, but I cannot realistically leave them out while I am still at home. They take up a lot of work surface space, and for me being the only one really using them, they tend to just get in everybody else's way. 

Of course once I am out, in my own home with my own kitchen, I can set everything up in the exact way that I would like, It is going to make my culinary life so much easier, and I am a little bit excited about all of my kitchen gadgets coming out to play! 

Life Unexpected's Top Kitchen Gadgets

- The Nutribullet

- Russel Hobbs Food Processor 

- The Vitamix 

- The Sage Adjusta Grill 

- Spiralizer 

- Vegetable Peeler

- Nut Chopper

Once you start to get a little bit creative in the kitchen and cook up dishes that are a little outside the box, you soon begin to realise all of their unique uses. I once thought that because I had the Vitamix that I wouldn't need a food processor at all, but boy was I wrong. They both have their strengths but, I most definitely need the food processor in conjunction (Casts mind back to that time I made the Nutribullet smoke....)

Along with the equipment that I need in my kitchen, I also swear by a number of rather wonderful ingredients. Over the course of the 16 months that I have turned my lifestyle on it's head, my shopping list has completely changed. What I stock in my cupboards has transitioned beyond recognition. I have swapped up ingredients, dropped none essential items and even bought weird and wonderful additions that once upon a time I hadn't even heard of (and couldn't even begin to pronounce for that matter!).

Staple items in my cupboards:

- Quinoa 

- Coconut Oil

- Coconut Flour

- Porridge Oats

- Honey

- Cacao

- Coconut Milk

- Almond Milk

- Almond Butter

- Peanut Butter

 - Fresh fruit and vegetables

- Wholemeal Rice

- Wholemeal Pasta

- Meat 

(A lot of Chicken and Steak)

How do you have your kitchen set up? 

Do you have a top kitchen gadget that you just couldn't be without? 

My top kitchen gadget has to be the Nutribullet, I love how compact it is in comparison to the Vitamix, but I have to admit I am looking forward to getting it back out when I do find my new place, and get the kitchen exactly the way that I want it.

Leo's First Car

Leo has always loved anything with wheels.

Pushchairs, cars, steering wheels. 

Anything really that he can roll through his fingers. He has even been known to tip his pushchair on it’s side just so he can roll the wheels round.

As Leo has got older and come into his own, we have discovered Leo’s love for cars.

Big cars, little cars, toy cars, sit and ride cars…Just cars in general really. 

While we are out and about he points at each and every car we see.

He tells me that it’s a ‘car’.

He even makes a ‘brum, brum’ noise to accompany his statement. 

Cars are Leo’s favourite thing in this big wide world full of new things.

Trips to our local Tesco can end in disaster if he spy’s the Little Tikes car that is distractingly fitted to one trolley. 

If Leo so much as sees another child riding in HIS car trolley then he will shout ‘car’ at them until he is blue in the face. He looks at me with his big glass eyes like the world has committed the biggest injustice against him. 

They have stolen his car.

I have to admit that I avoid this trolley at all costs. It is heavy to push even without the stacks of shopping I need to fill it with. So more often than not I have to distract Leo while loading him into a ‘normal’ trolley so that we can get away before he see’s it.

Of course even if we get past the trolley bay and into the super market, the chances are we will come face to face with another child in Leo’s favourite trolley. 

Then the trouble begins…

That is what gave me the idea to get Leo his very own Cosy Coupe. And that is why Leo pushed aside his morning cuddles with Mummy in order to go and sit in his shiny new police car.

That is why after Leo’s bath he wouldn’t let me dry him off….and instead went and sat butt naked in his very own car.

I suddenly had visions to the future of Leo passing his driving test. I just hope that he manages to get dressed through all of his excitement before he goes out driving, otherwise he really will be in a world of trouble!

So this is Leo’s very first car. 

A car that he spends all day getting in and out of, banging the door shut each and every time. It’s where he spins the steering wheel round and toots the horn while waving bye to his Mummy as Daddy pushes him away quickly. 

I have a feeling he is going to continue to love his cars, and this is probably the first of MANY more cars….

Way Back, When

A year ago to this very day on Sunday the 26th June 2011, the sun was shining so very bright in the sky and I was 38 weeks plus 6 days pregnant. The weather was lovely for everyone else but I was not in a position to be able to enjoy it. In fact the sun was no friend of mine, nor my very swollen ankles and blooming, ready to pop at any moment bump.

Looking out of the window I could see that it was a lovely day, and had it been any other day I would have been out there enjoying it too. 

However this was not just any other day.

I had been having twinges way down low in my tummy since Friday, but I put it down to a dodgy tummy and  not for one moment did I even consider I could be in the early stages of labour. That never crossed my mind for a moment. Not even when I had a show. I kept calm and did not worry and my first instinct was to Google what a show actually was and was soon sure that is what I had experienced.

I decided to call the maternity triage who told me 'It sounds to me like you are in the early stages of labour, but don't worry you will probably have days ahead of you yet. Stay at home as long as possible and hopefully we will see you soon'.

Having been told I was in the early stages of labour, I beamed from ear to ear and hoped that when bean finally did decide to grace us with his presents...My ankles would reduce back to their pre-pregnancy state and I would be able to once again shower myself in sunshine.

Until that moment though, I was adamant that I was staying put in the comfort of my room. I drew the curtains hiding away from the rays that made me feel so uncomfortable, and that was how I planned to spend the rest of the day until the sun finally relented and said goodnight. 

Luke of course had other plans...

He came in and turned my plans on their head. He turned off the DVD that I was just settling down to watch and marched me out to the car, where he announced that we were off to have a walk around a derelict cinema that was under refurbishment, before I even had chance to tell him that I was in the early stages of labour.

Even when I did manage to tell him exactly what the triage had said, he did not believe me...Nope he did not believe a word. So I was marched up and down steep stair cases and even paraded around Tesco where my only objective was to purchase a mass array of ice lollies. 

After our little adventure all over town, Luke returned me to the confinement of home and even left me while he went over to his Mother's for the afternoon, and then well on into the evening. This was the extent of him not believing I was actually starting to go into labour. Luke always thought I would go over due, so all of this happening one whole week early... Seemed to make Luke very sceptical.

I spent the evening out in the garden with my family, I could not sit down and I was pacing around the garden when Luke finally arrived home. I was not aware that I was having contractions but this uncomfortable wave in my tummy kept returning. It was only when my Mum told me she was pretty sure that I was experiencing contractions that it even occurred to me.

Around 11pm everyone else retreated into the house, but I just wanted to stay outside in the cool breeze that was brushing all over me. I did attempt sleep that night and try I did, but sleep never did come because I could not lie down. The only comfortable places I could find, were standing on my feet and sitting on the loo. 

I spent the whole night combining my Two comfortable places while Luke slept like a baby. After a long night pacing the halls and wishing time to go faster so morning would come sooner, and Luke would be awake again. 

Morning finally arrived and it was a new day... 

It was June 27th 2011 and I had gone through the night on paracetamol and ice lollies, but today was the day that my little man and I would meet for the very first time.

A year makes so much difference, and today instead of scorching heat we had Grey cloud and instead of preparing for labour, I am making the final preparations for my beautiful boy's very first Birthday.

Surprise In The Shopping...

You can imagine my surprise on a recent shopping trip, to see they had Leo on special offer!

Of course we snapped him up pronto...

My little munchkin having a little ride in the trolley. He was not a happy chappy when I took him back out. Apparently it is too much fun!

Laura

xx