6 natural ways to soothe a sore throat

Last week I was suffering with a sore throat that I had caught from my daughter. A tickly cough kept me awake at night and it felt like it would never go. As it is that time of year when coughs and colds are rife, and now that I am better, I thought I would post 6 natural ways to soothe a sore throat, things to try if you get struck down by one!

1. Fluids. In general, it is good to drink plenty for a sore throat. The liquid keeps your throat moist and hot drinks can help soothe inflamation. Frequent sips of water are always recommended.
2. Sage tea. This is actually a really nice tea, as well as being effective. You can add a little honey if you like. Simply put a pinch of dry sage in your teapot, add boiling water and leave to steep for 5 mins. It should be noted that pregnant women are advised to avoid sage tea.
3. Salt water. If you can bear it, gargling with salt water several times during the day can ease  discomfort.
4. Honey and lemon. Always a nice soothing drink and if you believe in the benefits of Manuka honey, use that with the lemon. The lemon helps with eliminating mucus.
5. Garlic and honey. We keep a jar of this in our fridge. Add a whole head of garlic, finely crushed to a jar of honey and combine well. Spread some on a slice of toast and it is not too unappetising! Garlic contains something called allicin, which helps kill bacteria to fight infections.
6. Ginger. You could make ginger tea or add some to your honey and lemon drink to benefit from the medicinal qualities of ginger. As with sage, not always advised if you are pregnant.

Do you use any of the above when you get a sore throat? Any other natural remedies you swear by?
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Do your children get enough daily exercise?

I received a letter from school yesterday explaining that children will be measured and weighed at school in the next month or so and if we have any objections, to let them know. There was a leaflet enclosed on healthy eating and exercise and I was reminded that my son, as a soon-to-be 5 year old, should be getting 60 minutes of exercise a day. It made me stop and think about whether he indeed gets that amount of exercise in a typical day....

According to NHS guidelines, the sixty minutes should comprise of both moderate-intensity activities and vigorous-intensity activities, so things that make your child break a sweat and also that raise their heart rate. (For children under-5, the guidelines are outlined here). There's a useful page listing examples of activities that fall into the two groups. Having a read through, I confess my son probably does not do enough vigorous-intensity activities, definitely not in the winter when our time outside is restricted by bad weather.

The sixty minutes are completely manageable. The moderate-intensity exercise is taken care of with our walks or scooter rides to and from school and my son's time playing outside in the playground, doing PE etc. The vigorous-intensity exercise takes a bit more thought and planning however. If your child does a sport or dance class, that would take care of it. However, on the days they don't, it means trying to incorporate something out and about or at home.

I realise, as a parent, I am much more focused on the healthy eating side to bringing up children with a healthy lifestyle. We walk everywhere (we don't own a car), we like to spend time playing outside in the garden or at parks / in the woods but I admit I probably don't make enough effort to encourage daily vigorous-intensity activities. Something for me to work on!

Do you think your child gets the recommended amount and types of exercise each day? Do you rely on after-school sports and such like for vigorous-intensity exercise?
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What do you cook for other people's children?

Now my son is at school, we have entered a new kind of play date. We only have after school as a time to go to friends' houses or have friends over and as late afternoon rolls into early children's dinnertime, dinner is usually part of the play date. Today we are off to a new schoolmate's home and his mother is cooking spaghetti bolognese for the children (always a winner). I am loving the fact that I don't have to plan and prepare dinner as I do usually when my son is at school. Even though I will cook for my husband and I, it will be quicker and easier throwing something together for two non-fussy adult eaters.

Next week we have been invited to another friend's home and children's dinner again offered, this time homemade pizza was the suggestion. We have a friend of my son's coming to our house at the end of this week and I'm planning on doing some kind of pasta dish.

All this makes me reflect on the options when cooking dinner for other people's children. I can't help but think that pizza, pasta and fish fingers are the main options because they cater to most fussy palates and don't have to include any / too many veggies. As a vegetarian who doesn't cook meat for the non-vegetarians in the family, I feel that leaves me with just two options - pizza and pasta. I am seriously contemplating keeping in some fish fingers in the freezer as back-up children's dinner fodder!

It also makes me realise what good eaters I have in my own two children. They are not great with green vegetables but they are always open to trying new foods and will eat most things. Like every other child, they love pasta and pizza but they also really enjoy most of the vegetable dominated meals I prepare for the family and generally eat a good varied diet.

I would loved to proved wrong and for you to tell me there are more dinner options that are popular with most children. What do you cook when you have other people's children over for dinner? What do you suggest I add to my repertoire?
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This week: planning packed lunches

For the first two weeks of school my son has been there just for the mornings. This week, they stay a bit longer, having lunch there and the following week he will begin full days. We have the option of packed lunches or school dinners. I asked my son which he would prefer and he said he would like to have packed lunches. I was secretly pleased, as I feel that way I will at least know what he is eating and can ensure he has healthy, tasty lunches. The school dinners in fairness look pretty good and varied. My main issue is the puddings...I would never give him such rich, sweet desserts on a daily basis!

Back to the packed lunches! I've been giving them some thought. There are some great blogs and websites out there devoted to the packed lunch and ideas aplenty. My son loves his sandwiches but I want to try to give some variety and I am sure some things will go down better than others. The school specifies we are not to give any sweets, crisps, cake and there is a no-nut policy. My plan for now is to mix and match from the following basic ideas:

Main item
Sandwich
Savoury muffins, flapjacks
Thick tortilla-like omelette/frittata
Quiche
Savoury pancakes / fritters (sweetcorn/potato/courgette)
Pasta/rice/quinoa salad
Mini pie (need to think of options that taste good cold, such as cheese and potato)

Savoury extras
Cheese
Houmous
Crackers/breadsticks
Carrot/cucumber sticks/pepper/sugar snap peas/cherry tomatoes etc
Cheese scone

Dessert / pudding
Fruit
Yoghurt
Homemade cereal/granola bar
Fruit scone
Dropped scones / mini pancakes (plain/blueberry/banana etc)

The above is by no means an exhaustive list but some ideas I have to get started. I have bought some small cool/ice packs and will pop one in my son's lunchbox. This was a suggestion from some other mums who said that the classrooms are kept so warm (during the winter especially) that it's a good idea to have one for keeping cheese/yoghurt etc fresher. I intend on preparing the lunches the night before as much as possible to cut down on added stress in the mornings and to give me plenty of time for getting it ready.

Do you make packed lunches for your children or have you in the past? Any tips you can share or additional ideas of lunchbox favourites?
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Autumn round-up

It's that time of year again, the temperatures have started to drop, the days are starting to get shorter and I'm starting to think about Halloween and my daughter's birthday coming up in October - I think it's officially autumn! I have read a couple of nice autumn-themed posts I thought I would share with you and here are some previous autumn posts of my own you might want to re-read:

3 easy autumn crafts for toddlers
10 indoor activities for toddlers
Embracing the seasons

Karen on her blog, Twinlifeonine has come up with 20 ideas for autumn activities. I like the sound of doing some fireworks pictures and crafts with pinecones. There's a very pretty autumn bucket list over at Catch a single thought that would be nice to do with younger children. If you want to start on some Halloween crafts with your children, have a look at 20 Halloween Crafts from Red Ted Art - there are some great paper lanterns and very cute cork spiders I think we might try this year. Over on The imagination tree, a post from a couple of years ago I've kept bookmarked provides 40 autumn activities for kids, including some great ideas of things to do with apples.

These posts have given me lots of inspiration and excitement for the pleasure of the autumn season! Have you come across any other good ones recently? Do you have any particular plans or activities in mind for autumn this year?
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Green tomatoes!

It's amazing to look back at our tiny little green shoots that sprouted from our tomato seeds and to see how much they've grown since. The photo of my four-year old son in front of them gives you an idea of how big they grew. We've watched flowers grow then tomatoes slowly appearing and growing in size. It's been quite exciting for my son and I to track their progress and we've definitely enjoyed the experience of growing tomatoes and will try again next year. 

The tomatoes are of the San Marzano variety and a plum shape and some of them quite large. I've counted at least 30 tomatoes growing, not tons but a good yield for our very first time at growing tomatoes from seed. There's just one small problem. They are remaining a green colour and we've yet to have any turn red and ripe to enjoy. Now the weather has begun deteriotating and the hours of sunlight have decreased significantly, I'm not too confident of their chances now.

 

I know you can make green tomato chutney so I am starting to look around for recipes that I might try. I'll give them a bit longer and we'll see if there's any change. 

If you've grown tomatoes this year, have you had any issues with them not turning red? Do you have any tips for avoiding this happening again another year? Have you ever made anything with green tomatoes? Any recipes you can recommend?

Disclosure: We were sent a crate detailed in this previous post. If we blog our progress Heinz will send us a hamper full of Heinz goodies as a reward.  Head over to the Heinz Tomato Ketchup UK Facebook page for more information about Heinz Tomato Ketchup

This week: Barszcz recipe

Barszcz is the Polish version of the beetroot soup, you may know better by the name of Borscht. We went for dinner at friends a couple of weeks ago and we had this for our starter. My friend had told me she was thinking about making it and said that even though she doesn't like beetroot, she likes this soup. I too, don't like beetroot and usually end up making it into some form of cake but I was definitely up for trying the soup and really liked it. The children both ate it all up too.

I asked my friend for the recipe and as we got some beetroot in our veg box this week, I plan on making some. Soups are suddenly very appealing again now we're getting cooler temperatures. Whether you are a beetroot lover, or not, I'd recommend you trying the soup. The sweetness from the carrot and tomatoes compliment and almost mask the beetroot flavour, making it a tasty bowl of soup! The recipe is vegetarian and can easily be vegan by substituting the small bit of butter for oil of your choice.

Barszcz
Serves 4
Total time required Total time: 1 hr 45 mins
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 1 hr 30 mins

Ingredients

• 2 beetroot, large
• 1 onion1 carrot
• 1 celery stick
• 45g butter
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1.7 litres vegetable stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cloves
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground

Method

• Roughly grate the beetroot, onion, carrot, and celery stick.
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the vegetables and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until just softened.
• Add the tomatoes and crushed garlic, and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring frequently, then stir in the stock.
• Add the bay leaves and cloves to the pan. Bring the soup to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour 20 minutes.
• Discard the bay leaves and cloves. Stir in the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Have you tasted this soup before, or another version of it? How do you tend to cook beetroot or do you eat it raw in a salad?
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