The baby is napping, hooray! For the first time since March began I’ve found a few minutes and a mini reserve of energy to commit words to a blog. Despite the shortest month being the busiest for us, I somehow managed to create an enormous amount of new ideas, new content and new memories for the littles (you can see our little time capsule of the month here). Perhaps no surprise then, that with the arrival of spring comes a proper stonking head-cold and exhaustion. A reminder to step back, stay true to my plan to ‘simplify’ in 2018, and focus just on the things that are most important – namely health and our tiny tribe.

With Easter approaching, 4-year-old A (who is now getting too lanky to be cute – where is that gorgeous round belly?!) has been hankering for a ‘Kinder Egg’. The mountains of chocolate in shops no longer escape her attention, and it’s a special kind of torture for a little one with allergies, now acutely aware if she’s missing out on something. She actually has no idea what a Kinder Egg is – it might blow her mind if she knew there was a *toy* inside the chocolate!

I had every intention of making my own dairy free version. But instead I decided to keep it simple. These little smoothie pops aren’t so much a recipe as an idea for you – a nice way to use the egg mould that might be gathering dust at the back of the cupboard, with a little more nutritional value than chocolate – but nonetheless delightful for littles. (Or not-so-littles who are finally allowed to have their nails painted because mamadoo ran out of excuses).I found the equivalent to my 6-hole egg mould on Amazon (search ‘Silicone Egg Mould’) if you don’t have one. To fill I blended together:

• 1 chopped banana
• A handful of frozen raspberries
• A small pot of  banana flavoured (soya) yogurt
• A splash of dairy free milk to help the blender along

Then filled the holes with the smoothie. You need the mixture to be thick enough to prop up a lolly stick or straw before freezing, so don’t go overboard on the milk. Then just poke your sticks in at an angle making sure they are covered by the smoothie before freezing.

I bloomin’ love Easter – much more than even Christmas. I think it’s the freshness and promise of new foods, and new colour! Here are a few things from around the web you may enjoy:

• Our easter meal and celebration ideas from last year- how about a toy rabbit hunt, colour walk, bunny-shaped napkins or an ‘egg mobile’?
• If you do still have a Kinder-hankering I found these lovely little allergy-friendly chocolate/toy treats via Instagram. It’s not quite an egg, but they are rather gorgeous.
• I may yet use my mould for chocolatey ends too. This dairy & egg free Creme Egg alternative by Glutarama has caught my eye!

Do let us know if you try any of these out 🙂