By allowing your children playtime you are helping them to learn valuable skills. Playing with a box of lego is developing dexterity and problem solving skills, cutting out paper shapes helps fine motor skills, playing with a football enhances gross motor skils, building a tower out of bricks develops problems solving abilities and helps with concentration span. Most importantly playing with other children helps to develop social skills, something that will be important when they get older. When I was little we used to play outside all the time with the other children on the street. These days children seem to stay indoors more and not socialise so any chance to play is a good thing.

Why not make some time and play with your child?

I make time 2 play by:

• setting some time aside to do baking together at the weekend
• going on a great adventure to the park together
• taking the dog on long walks and seeing what we can find on the way
• getting out the board games and seeing who wins
• creating a marvellous machine out of meccano
• creating a treasure hunt with lots of clues

What do you do with your child? There are loads of ideas on the Make Time 2 Play website

The post Make Time 2 Play appeared first on Dragons and Fairy Dust.

Halfway though I decided to chop them into pieces and make more of a stir fry type dish with them. My thinking was that I would like the marinade to cover more of the chicken. It turned out I could have just cooked the chicken breasts without chopping them as the flavour worked really well.  I served it with rice but if you grilled the chicken breasts it would be nice served with new potatoes and green beans. If the chicken breasts were left whole it would also work very nicely on a barbecue.

Honey and Soy Sauce Chicken

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 red onion
• 1 red pepper
• 4 mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons runny honey

Method

1. Mix the lime juice, lemon juice, soy sauce and runny honey together in a shallow dish.
2. Place the chicken breasts in the mixture and leave to marinade for at least four hours, but preferably overnight.
3. Chop the onion, mushrooms and pepper and the chicken into pieces.
4. Heat some oil in a pan and stir fry the chicken. When nearly done add the onions, mushrooms and pepper with the remaining marinade sauce and cook for a few minutes until it is cooked though.
5. Serve with rice or noodles.

The result was very nice and my son remarked it was delicious. I will definitely be trying this again.

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A good nights sleep is very important to me. If I do not get enough sleep I am grumpy the next day and find it hard to function. By mid afternoon I find my eyes getting heavy and it is really difficult to concentrate. With a good sleep I am ready to tackle anything. Recently one of the things that has been stopping me get to sleep is that I have been suffering with a really sore neck. I work on a computer all day at work and find this can cause the muscles in my neck to tense up. When I try to sleep I find it really difficult to get comfortable and have often woken up with my neck feeling worse than it did before. I was sent some Slumberdown Orthopaedic Pillows to try out and see if it would help.

Slumberdown orthopaedic pillows are designed to keep the head and neck supported, especially if you sleep on your side. They aim to align the spine perfectly whilst you sleep. The Slumberdown orthopaedic pillows contain a central core which is wrapped in soft Hollowfibre to provide cushioning and support whilst you sleep. The pillows are machine washable as well which is a big plus.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the packet was how big the pillow is. It is really fat and I had to really push it into the pillowcase.

It really makes my normal pillow look sad and squashed in comparison, it really is about twice the thickness.

I was a bit unsure about how well I would be able to sleep on a pillow this thick, but I was in for a lovely surprise. The pillow is incredibly comfortable. My head sunk into the cushioning  but it was not too soft. It held my head in a really supportive way. I found the pillow comfortable when sleeping on my back and on my side and it was also perfect for sitting up reading in bed.

After using the pillows for around a week I have found that my neck has stopped aching. I haven’t changed anything else so it must be down to these pillows doing something clever. I am very happy with them and wouldn’t change back to my old pillows now.

You can find Slumberdown Orthopaedic Pillows in Morrisons RRP £10 for a pair.

Disclosure: I was sent some Slumberdown Orthopaedic pillows to try in order to do an honest review.

The post Slumberdown Orthopaedic Pillow Review appeared first on Dragons and Fairy Dust.

Dementia is not something you get when you get old, younger people can suffer with it as well. Over one in three people over 65 will develop dementia and two thirds of people with dementia are women. These are scary statistics. It is a disease of the brain, not a symptom of age and there are several variants. The most well known is Alzheimer’s Disease.

I have vague memories of my Granddad being affected by dementia. I was too young at the time to realise what was really going on, but I remember my mum flying over to visit him and being really concerned that all he was eating was brown bread and flora. He had no family close by to look after him and it became a real worry. She did manage to get him into a home where he was well looked after and he had a few of his things around him.  I remember the few times we went to visit and he was never sure who we were. It was very upsetting that the Granddad we loved had changed so much. Thinking back now, it must have been so difficult for my mum to cope.

If you know anyone is affected by dementia, why not get involved in Dementia Awareness Week? You can join in the talk on twitter using the hashtag #talkdementia. The Alzheimer’s Society is a registered charity providing support, advice, guidance and resources to both people with dementia and their carers. You can find out more on their website: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk

The post Dementia Awareness Week appeared first on Dragons and Fairy Dust.

I am not sure why I do not cook with turkey more. It is easily available and tasty but it is also good for you. It is high in protein which our bodies use for growth and repair. Cooked turkey contains 34 g of protein per 100g which is ¾ of an adult’s recommended daily allowance. It also has lowest saturated fat level  when compared to other meats, at less than 1g per 100g (4oz) portion. I may have to start eating it more.

The idea is that the recipe has to be really quick and easy to prepare. It should take no more than 30 minutes in total. I decided to create a Warm Mexican Turkey Salad. It is the Summer so we should be eating more salad, but given the weather we have been having I thought a warm salad might be appreciated. This took me about 25 minutes to prepare, some of the time was used to take photographs though.

Warm Mexican Turkey Salad

Ingredients

• 500g (18 oz) turkey breasts or fillets
• ½ tsp hot chill powder
• 1 tbsp paprika
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 red onion
• 300g can cannellini beans
• 2 tomatoes
• 125g (4 oz) mixed baby salad leaves
• 4 oz tortilla chips
• 150 ml (¼ pint) sour cream

Method

1. Chop the red onion into small pieces. Chop the tomatoes into wedges. Mix with the cannellini beans, tomatoes and salad leaves in one big bowl.
2. Mix the chilli powder and paprika in a bowl.
3. Cut the turkey into strips and toss in the mixture of chilli and paprika
4. Warm the oil in a pan. Add the turkey to the pan and stir fry until golden, this takes about ten minutes.
5. Add the turkey and the tortilla chips to the salad and mix well. Serve on individual plates and add the sour cream to the top.

My son was very taken with this salad, when I gave it to him he was delighted that there were tortilla chips included. His plate was soon cleared!

Disclosure: This post is an entry for BritMums’ Summer Turkey Recipe Challenge, You can find more turkey recipes on the LeanOnTurkey website.

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