You guys know how much I love my festive seasons, and Easter is definitely one of them! We grew up celebrating Easter with the whole fam bam, we’d go to my aunty’s house and do a big easter egg hunt, followed by the most amazing big breakfast you’ve ever had. And then the rest of the day would be spent eating the chocolate haul from the hunt. Honestly some of my earliest and favourite memories revolve around Easter.

Jasper LOVES food, and he will literally eat anything, including chocolate. But I really wanted to give him a little treat that was a bit healthier, so that, as we binge on our chocolate eggs, he can binge on his little own treats too. Who say’s Easter can’t be healthy, right?! So I made these deliciously healthy, yoghurt covered strawberry “Easter Eggs”  And my favourite part, is how easy they are too make! Not to mention how cute they turned out! (Big thanks to Nomster Chef for the Inspo, and Aldi Australia for the ingredients!)

————————————————————————————————-

INGREDIENTS

Strawberries (how ever many you want, I used 2 punnets)
1 large tub of greek yoghurt (if you want them to be a bit sweeter, go for a honey greek yoghurt)
Food colouring drops
Sprinkles

————————————————————————————————-

STEP 1

Give your strawberries a good wash

STEP 2

Line a baking tray with some wax paper

STEP 3

Seperate your greek yoghurt into smaller bowls, I  used 5 because I made five colours (purple, green, yellow, blue, orange) and add food colouring drops to your yogurt to mix the colours that you’d like

STEP 4

Dip the strawberries in the yoghurt to coat them, and place them on the wax paper

STEP 5

Pop in the freezer for 30 minutes

STEP 6

Dip the strawberries in the yoghurt a second time, so that the coat is extra thick and freeze for another 30 minutes.

If you are using sprinkles, now is the time to add them to some (or all) of the strawberries so that they can set.

STEP 7

Using a toothpick, or any other tool you have, decorate the strawberries using the leftover greek yoghurt.

you can eat straight away, or pop them pack in the freezer to set again.

Jasper absolutely ADORED them!! I can’t wait to make them again for Easter Sunday so he can sit on the grass with his “eggs” and make a big ol’ mess enjoying himself!

Healthy Yoghurt Dipped Strawberry "Easter Eggs"

Print This

Serves: 4 Prep Time: 30 Minutes Cooking Time: 1 Hour

Ingredients

• Strawberries
• 1 large tub of greek yoghurt
• Food colouring drops 
• Sprinkles 

Instructions

1. Wash Strawberries
2. Line baking tray with wax paper
3. Seperate greek yoghurt into as many bowls as the colours you’d like to make (eg purple, orange, green, blue, yellow)
4. Drop food colouring into each bowl, until you get the desired colour
5. Dip strawberries into yoghurt, and place on baking sheet
6. Pop in freezer for 30 minutes
7. Re-dip strawberries into yoghurt, to make the coating nice and thick
8. Add Sprinkles
9. Put back in freezer for 30 minutes
10. Use toothpick to make Easter Egg designs, freeze again to set, or serve straight away.

The post Healthy Easter Treat for Kids: Yoghurt Dipped Strawberry “Easter Eggs” appeared first on Megzie.

Do you guys remember my no bake Birthday cheat cake from earlier this year? Well I decided to get in the Christmas Spirit and make a christmassy version of it. Seriously, this cake is so easy and quick. I made it all while Jasper was having his afternoon nap.

To make it more christmassy, instead of a plain buttercream, I used this recipe to make a ginger and cinnamon buttercream. And I just kept it simple with a white chocolate ganache.

I found some ready made gingerbread trees as well as a cute green tree that I used for the toppings – and voila done!

Let me break it down for you:

————————————————————————————————-

WHAT YOU NEED

For the Cake:

4 x Double Unfilled Sponge Cake (comes in packs of 2, so you have 4 total cakes)

For the Cake Toppings:

(can be literally ANYTHING you like) I had:

Gingerbread Trees
Green Decor Tree
White Chocolate
Edible Glitter
Icing sugar
Wooden Star

For the Buttercream Icing:

250g butter, softened
430g  icing sugar mixture
3 tbs milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp lemon zest

For the Drip Cake Ganache:

100ml cream
300g white baking chocolate
————————————————————————————————-

[1] Step One

The first thing you want to do is make the buttercream icing. In your mixer, add the butter and whisk until it’s creamy.
Reduce the speed, and gradually add half of the icing sugar to the butter and mix until it’s incorporated.

Then you’ll want to add the milk, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger and lemon and mix until it’s incorporated.

Add the rest of the icing sugar and mix until it’s creamy and fluffy.

[2] Step Two

Now you’ll be layering your cakes. Start with your first sponge cake, and put it on a round cake plate. Cover the top of it in the buttercream icing.

Then add your next cake and repeat the icing until all four cakes are layered on-top of each other. Use four kebab sticks to hold your cake in place (so it doesn’t fall over)

Then you want to ice the outside of the cake. I just went nuts, adding icing and scraping it all over the place. This can get messy, but if you have the right consistency of buttercream, it will hold in place. Once you’re happy with how the cake looks, pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Pop the leftover buttercream in the fridge because you’ll need it for later.

[3] Step Three

While the cake is in the fridge. You can make your ganache. Pour the cream into the white chocolate. Microwave for 1 minute. Stir well to help chocolate melt into cream. If you have chocolate that isn’t melted, pop it back into the microwave for another 30 seconds at a time until it’s all melted.

Drip Cake Ganache Tip:

You want the ganache to be quite runny, but not overly runny.

Using a squeezy tube, cover the top surface of the cake and the ganache should naturally drip over. if it doesn’t, you can use the squeezy tube to drip the sides

Pop it back in the fridge for another 20/30 minutes or until the ganache has set.

[4] Step Four

Now comes the fun part – the decorating. This is really up to you how nuts you want to go. I used the remaining buttercream to act as the glue for the decorations (I put it into an icing tube to get prettier shapes)

I am SOOOOOO happy with how this cake turned out you guys. Serioulsy! I think this might be my new thing – cheat cakes. Gets me excited for Jaspers first birthday (which is just around the corner now – HOWWWWWW!!!!!!)

Here are some more festive snaps of the cake, because, I went nuts.

No Bake Magical Christmas Cake

Print This

Ingredients

• For the Cake:

• 4 x Double Unfilled Sponge Cake (comes in packs of 2, so you have 4 total cakes)

• For the Cake Toppings:

• Gingerbread Trees
• Green Decor Tree
• Edible Glitter
• Icing sugar
• Wooden Star

• For the Buttercream Icing:

• 250g butter, softened
• 430g  icing sugar mixture
• 3 tbs milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest

• For the Drip Cake Ganache:

• 100ml cream
• 300g white baking chocolate

Instructions

Make the Buttercream

1. Add butter to mixer and beat until it’s creamy
2. Reduce speed and gradually add half of the icing sugar to the butter and mix until it’s combined
3. Add milk, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger and lemon and mix until it’s incorporated
4. Add the rest of the icing sugar and mix until it’s creamy and fluffy

Layer the cake 

1. Place your first spongecake on a cake tray and top with icing
2. Then add your next cake and repeat the icing until all four cakes are layered on-top of each other. Use four kebab sticks to hold your cake in place (so it doesn’t fall over)
3. Ice the outside of the cake
4. Pop cake in the fridge

Make the Ganache

1. Pour the cream into the white chocolate. Microwave for 1 minute.
2. Stir well to help chocolate melt into cream. If you have chocolate that isn’t melted, pop it back into the microwave for another 30 seconds at a time until it’s all melted.

Pour Ganache Drip

1. Using a squeezy tube, cover the top surface of the cake and the ganache should naturally drip over. if it doesn’t, you can use the squeezy tube to drip the sides

Decorate Cake

This is really up to you how nuts you want to go. I used the remaining buttercream to act as the glue for the gingerbread tree decorations (I put it into an icing tube to get prettier shapes).

 

 

The post No Bake Magical Christmas Cake appeared first on Megzie.

Well this year, I decided to bake some sugar cookies. I remember baking them previously for a valentines one year, and I remember thinking that they were pretty easy.

I found a new recipe online and modified the butter part of it, and also halved it (thank god) – cus it made QUITE A FEW! The actual baking of the cookies part was quick and easy, but the icing – my god. I definitely forgot how long it takes to ice cookies. I think it’s mainly because I don’t have the right tools for it, so instead of being able to whip up four batches of icing (2 white and 2 black, one for piping and the other for flooding) I had to do each batch individually. So it was a lot of mixing required. But I’m rambling. It was still fun, I still felt festive AF and I really enjoyed myself.

I’m going to individually wrap these in some cellophane bags and gift them to family members at our chriismass dinner. Can’t wait.

Pretty simple recipe (scroll to the bottom for the printable version):

————————————————————————————————-

INGREDIENTS

250g unsalted butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups flour

————————————————————————————————-

STEP 1

Preheat over to 180C or 350F.

Add the butter and sugar to your mixer. Cream together until completely mixed. Do not over-mix. You want the batter to turn white

STEP 2

Add the vanilla and eggs to the mixture and mix until the dough is light and fluffy

STEP 3

Add the Baking powder and mix

STEP 4

Then mix in the 3 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time.

The flour should be completely mixed through and the dough should be firm but not dry or crumbly.

If dry: add a tiny bit of vanilla or milk and mix again

You don’t need to chill this dough before cutting the cookies, they come out best if the dough hasn’t been chilled! (Also, yay less time to wait!)

STEP 5

Roll a handful of the dough out on a clean, well floured surface until at the desired thickness

STEP 6

Cut out shapes with cookie cutters

STEP 7

Bake at 180C or 350F for 6-8 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. Make sure you don’t over-bake them. You don’t want them to start browning at the edges – this causes them to seem dry.

STEP 8

Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack and then you can frost them.

I used this Royal Icing recipe as it’s easy to colour and tastes super yummy on the cookies.

Enjoy!!

Christmas Sugar Cookie

Print This

Serves: 24 Cookies

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter (softened)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups flour

Instructions

1. Add butter and sugar to your mixer.  Cream the butter and sugar until it is completely mixed.  Do not over-mix.
2. Add vanilla and eggs and mix until completely incorporated.
3. Add Baking Powder and mix.
4. Mix in the flour two cups at a time.
5. Do not chill the dough, the cookies will bake better if the dough is at room temperature.
6. Roll a handful of the dough out on a prepared surface and cut out shapes with a cookie cutter.
7. Bake at 180C / 350F for 6-8 minutes depending on the size of the cookie.  Do not over-bake.
8. Frost with Royal Icing Recipe

The post Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe appeared first on Megzie.

So if you know me personally, you’ll know that I absolutely fricking adore Christmas! It is really and truly my most wonderful favourite time of the year! I also get serious FOMO because I live in Australia, and it’s hot here. And I get borderline depressed when I see all the snowy, cozy, wintery Christmas pictures that pop up on Instagram this time of the year.

NEVERMIND, I STILL CONTINUE ON. And this Christmas is extra special for me, because it’s my first Christmas as a mama bear, which means it’s my little humans FIRST CHRISTMAS EVER. Can I get a woot woot!!

And I am going to do my absolute BEST to make his first Christmas one to remember – even though he won’t remember it at all amiright!!.

I may or may not be the person that gets excited for Christmas as soon as November rolls around. But this year, we were travelling all of November, so I wasn’t home to put up my tree, or do any decorating. I literally had to wait until December 1st.

So there is SO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON.

BUT. I feel like I’m already behind.. So I thought I’d write a lil blog post for anyone out there who is looking for a quick and easy Christmas spirit pick me up.

These ideas are probably so generic and basic that I’m sure everyone does them. But hey, why not document it for my online friends to read anyway – I mean, it’s Christmas right?

So without further-ado, I bring to you – five simple ways to instantly get into the Christmas spirit!

[1] PLAY CHRISTMAS CAROLS LIKE THERES NO TOMORROW

You know what I’m talking about, Mariah, Michael we’re looking to you. All I want for Christmas is to play carols all December long without any judgement!!! Blast them during the day, while you’re driving, while you’re making dinner. I promise you, as soon as you hear that Christmas jam, you’ll instantly feel like Christmas has arrived!! I may or may not be listening to xmas carols right now as I type this cheesy blog post. mwahahah.

[2] WATCH A XMAS MOVIE WITH SOME TREATS

Like, gingerbread treats, or hot chocolate treats. Yes I know I just mentioned that its basically the middle of bloody summer here in Australia. But you know what, I”m going to crank up my aircon so that it’s basically freezing in my house. Put on my winter xmas jammies (because does anyone even sell summer Christmas jammies?) roll up my xmas socks, make a hot chocolate, with extra marshmallows and watch all the cheesy Christmas movies I can. Sorry husband.

Netflix just launched the cheesiest one yet – the princess switch. I freaking loved it. Takes me back to The Parent Trap days, or Lizzie McGuire Movie, but, like, christmassy. So good .

[3] GET CRAFTY

Make some Christmas gift tags, or your own wrapping paper. There are heaps of cool Pinterest DIY ideas.  I wanted to get to some of these myself, but I honestly haven’t found the time (yet, hopefully). So I’ll just leave all these super cool ones that I found for you to peruse instead. I wish I was more organised – but I’m gonna let Jasper take the fall for that one this year. Thanks kid, you’re really great at sucking up all my time (I actually really love it and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world).

1. DIY Christmas Cracker
2. Monochrome gift tags
3. Christmas Wreath
4. Gingerbread Truffles
5. Scandinavian Wall Hanging

[4] GO TO A CHRISTMAS TREE FARM OR A CHRISTMAS MARKET

This time last year, I saw a flood of instagram pictures of people dressed up in coats and beanies walking on white grounds as they chose out their perfect Christmas tree and I thought to myself – ONE DAY!!! But this year, is not that one day unfortunately. Firstly, have you met my husband, there is no way I could convince him to let me buy a real Christmas tree – all the LOLS. MAYBE, one day, when we are living in Canada and celebrating our first real winter Christmas I’ll just maybe convince him that we can have a real tree. But not this year. I am tempted to still go to the farm and check them out, maybe throw on a beanie in this boiling hot weather and snap a pic for the gram? stay tuned people, stay tuned.

I’ve heard that there are a bunch of cool Christmas markets popping up these days; I am definitely keen to go and check one out. Could be fun. Sounds like the perfect way to get into the festive spirit if you ask me.

Have I done either of the above? No. But you know what, they sound super christmassy, so they made the cut for this blog post. Keep an eye on my gram, I think i’m going to try and get to at least one of these this year.

[5] TREAT YO SELF TO A CHRISTMAS CANDLE

if all else fails, go to the shops, and buy yourself the most christmassy sounding/smelling candle you can find.. Heck, buy some for your friends and family, get home, crank up the Christmas carols, pop a flick on the TV, change into your comfy jammies, get out your wrapping paper, and start wrapping gifts. That will instantly get you into the spirit. If wrapping gifts is your thing – apparently some people don’t love it like me, weird.

And you know what, if all else fails, just eat all the Christmas food you can find. Mince pies (I only tried these for the first time last year, but OHMYGOD) I have been missing out all these years.

Ok guys, but seriously, what do you do to get in the mood for Christmas? I’d love to hear in the comments below!!

The post 5 Ways to Instantly get into the Festive Spirit appeared first on Megzie.

If you follow me on Instagram (and watched my recent stories) you would have seen that the hubs, Jasper and I spent the last three weeks travelling to Melbourne and New Zealand. We had an awesome time, but I am very glad to be home. We also travelled to Bali early last month, just for a few days, so I thought I’d write a lil blog post on a few things that I have learnt travelling with a baby. It’s so much fun, but oh so different to travelling before we became parents.

[1] PLANNING IS EVERYTHING

Firstly, babies require A LOT of things, food, water, milk, toys, nappies, wipes, change of clothes, pain killers or medicine, teething toys, pram, portacots etc etc etc!!!!! It’s crazy how many things such a small human needs. Before you even leave for your holiday, I’d recommend that you start writing down things that you use regularly for you bubba, to make sure you don’t need it.

Then when you arrive at your holiday, everything you do revolves around your baby and their routine (or mood that day!). Jasper is in an awesome routine, so it was pretty easy for us to plan our days around him. After he sleeps, he’ll have some milk and then he’s awake for a good 3-3.5 hours, so we would try to go out during that time. Not super far, because when he gets tired, he is C.R.A.N.K.Y!!! But we did wonder out, and get to see heaps of cool things.

I say planning, because you have such a small window that you can actually go and do things, so if you’re organised, you can pack your diaper/nappy bag before baby goes to sleep, heck even load everything you need in the car (RENT A CAR GUYS, IT’S AMAZING AND SO MUCH EASIER!!) and that way, when baby wakes, you can feed them, and just hop in the car and go where you need to go.

Also, aside from planning everything you need to do for baby, it’s good to plan what you want to do while you’re away before you go. Seen a cool cafe on Instagram that you want to check out? Know the top touristy spots that you wanna get a pic at? Write it all down! Save the locations in Google Maps. How far is it from where you are staying? Is there parking there? What food are you going to eat? The more you can plan in advance, the easier your trip will be. Leave some room to be spontaneous, sure, but I found that with a baby, it’s a heck of a lot harder to be spontaneous.

[2] GO SLOW

This is something that we learnt on the road. Before Jasper came along, we road-tripped around the U.S and Europe, and we were driving 9-12 hour days, cramming in as many sights as possible! We wanted to see it all!!! And we love driving. But now that Jasper is here, we found that everything just takes longer. You have to stop to feed him, change him, you have to allow for his naps, he gets bored easily, so we needed to make sure we allocated time for him where we could play and give him attention. Everything just took longer, and we were okay with that – we got to see what we wanted to, it was just at a slower pace.

When we were in Bali, we literally did the bare minimum. We stayed at our hotel, we ordered room service, we went for mini walks, but everything was centred around going slow and just being present with Jasper. He enjoyed just swimming and playing and we enjoyed not trying to cram everything into the trip. Going slow is a way more enjoyable and less stressful way to travel. If you still want to see a bunch of things, I’d recommend that you make a list of your top 5/10 things you want to do, have a look at where they are and plan around them (see point one again!) you can still see and do everything you want to, as long as you plan accordingly and don’t try to cram it all int a short time.

[3] NAPS ARE THE KEY TO ROADTRIPS

We managed to drive around 2,000km in New Zealand, and the reason we were able to go so far is that we planned to do the majority of our driving during Japers naps. He sleeps for a good 90 minutes, sometimes longer in the car, so this allowed us to hit the road. We planned all of our driving around his sleeping schedule and we got pretty far! We were stoked with how much we got to see. there were times where he would wake up early out of a nap, and we would have to pull over to feed him and give him some time outside the car. If we still had some driving to do, one of us would get in the backseat with Jasper and play with him and talk to him. We’re not the biggest fan of iPads (he’s only 8 months old) so we try to entertain him ourselves, and he was pretty happy for the most part. If he did get grumpy, we’d follow his lead and pull over, eat something, have a play and a walk and then hop back in the car.

[4] YOU CAN’T BRING ENOUGH WET WIPES

Can we talk about how amazing wet wipes are. I don’t know how we would have travelled without them. We used them for everything, after he ate we cleaned him, we cleaned dirty surfaces with them, heck we even used them ourselves to wipe our hands and clean up messes we made. Seriously, they are the best thing that has ever been invented. I only packed 2 packs with me, and we ended up having to buy like 4 more! Lucky they’re readily available.

We also purchased some anti-bacterial wipes for the planes. We flew on 5 airplanes, and we once saw a documentary on the amount of germs that live on planes. So we were those parents that wiped down everything from the window, tray table to arm rest. Jasper still got sick after the first plane trip which was a bummer, but you can’t control everything. I’d seriously recommend that you bring some anti-bacterial wipes with you too – seriously, planes are gross. Also, at restaurants the high chairs never get wiped down, and there are a crap tonne of germs on there too – kids are grubby! So we used the wipes to clean these as well.

[5] BE FLEXIBLE WITH YOUR ROUTINE

okay, so I’ve basically said that Jasper is in an awesome routine and we planned everything around that – but let me tell you something, travelling can mix up a little bubs routine like nothing else. I had to learn very quickly to be flexible and change things up, because you know what, his routine became a lot less predictable while we were travelling than it is when we’re at home. He dropped a whole nap while we were away and it threw me out of sorts! But I didn’t stress too much, because hey, we’re on holiday and we were having a great time. His routine could wait and I knew that when we got home, I’d be able to get him back into good habits and back to what he’s used to pretty quickly. I’m used to Jasper sleeping through the night, maybe he wakes up once but that’s about it. While we were away, he was waking up every 3-4 hours. I was NOT used to this AT ALL! But he got a new tooth, and he went through a huge developmental leap. Instead of trying to get him to sleep through the night, I followed his lead and was flexible. If he seemed tired, I let him nap during the day (although, he was more on the wanting to stay awake side of the spectrum!)

We are home now, and the last few nights he’s been amazing. He has woken up maybe once or twice, but his sleeping habits are pretty much back to normal. I think if we went a bit earlier than 8 months, I probably would have freaked that he was getting out of routine and that I was screwing it all up. But I feel a  lot more confident as a mama these days and I trust that I am doing right by Jasper, even if it means mixing things up because we’re on a holiday. Trust your gut and your instincts, you were given your baby for a reason, because you’re the best person to look after them.

Jasper had a great holiday, he was super happy chappy and loved meeting some of his second cousins. It was awesome watching him interact with extended family. I loved watching him take in new sights, he was particularly fascinated with the seagulls – it was hilarious. He wanted to chase them and watched them so intently.

While we were away, Jasper mastered crawling, he can pull himself up now, and he is just much stronger in general. He’s getting super chunky, and eating solids like a pro. I love watching him grow and develop even if it brings some challenges along with it.

Have you guys been travelling with babies? What have you learnt along the way? I’d love too hear in the comments below xx

The post 5 Thing I learnt While Travelling with a Baby appeared first on Megzie.

If you’re so embarrassed, why’d you start?

Good question! My main, number one reason, is I am already filming so much footage of me and little J, and I thought it would be a fun new creative outlet to actually edit it into a movie style video. BUT I mainly wanted to start vlogging so that I’d have something tangible that I could come back to if I ever wanted to relive a moment. I can imagine in a few years time that I will treasure these videos that I’ve made because they’ll take me right back to now. Time is going so fast, and I really want to capture how I’m feeling, what we’re doing and all of little J’s quirks. I think that video captures this way better than a photo.

How often will you vlog?

My goal is to try and upload a video once a week. But if I’m being honest, my life is not THAT interesting, so I’m not putting pressure on myself to commit to it every week! I also have a lot of projects and other stuff that I’m working on at the moment so finding time to edit at the moment may be tricky, BUT I WILL TRY! haha

Can I subscribe?

YES, you absolutely can, thank you! Click the red button below and you’re good to go (make sure you’re signed into YouTube first)

The post Weekly Vlog | Mothers group, park walks and a lunch date with sis appeared first on Megzie.