It almost seems cheating to review Quorn because actually we eat it a lot. I've been a vegetarian for the last 29 years, and to start with it was really tricky to find foods that fit in with modern busy life, everything required hours of preparation and cooking. Quorn is one of the best vegetarian convenience foods around. High in protein, low in fat and calories, quick to cook and incredibly versatile, we tend to eat Quorn as a family around twice a week.

There are loads of recipes on the Quorn website, I chose to test the Quorn Lasagne recipe.

Tatton Park Volkswagen Show is an annual event organised by Volkswagen Northwest. It is a 1-day show which takes place in August, and is generally really blessed with good sunshine. There's no overnight camping except for traders, but our friends Dave and Kate trade there with their business Campertronic - and it's this time of year that Dave's parents go on holiday, so we take their place setting up and packing away, occasionally selling things and helping with childcare.

I've been going to Tatton Park VW show for the last 12 years. It's the only show that I haven't missed, whatever else has happened in my life. Last year it was our first trip out when my partner was still very much recovering from Meningitis, this year it was our first overnight camp of the year - mainly because our teenagers haven't stood still long enough for us to do anything....

A little while ago I helped LEGO DUPLO with their How Do You Play? Competition. As a thank you they've sent me some Batcave Adventure sets to give away to my readers. The Batcave Adventure comes complete with Batman and Catwoman, and a great Batwing with a cannon that really fires!

We review LEGO sets quite regularly, but this is something very different - a DUPLO review! My 2 youngest boys are at the upper age limit for DUPLO now, as they're 4 1/2 and almost 6, and when DUPLO asked if they could send me the Batcave Adventure set 10545 I wasn't going to say 'no'. They love Batman, and I knew we'd get a lot of play out of this set.

It's here - the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LEGO sets are out. Darker and more moody, they're completely different to those which came before. Based on the new movie due out in October this year, there's nothing 'cartoon' about these minifigures.

We all remember Rio - the lovely animated story about Blu, the Macaw who is captured by smugglers and taken to America. He's lucky and ends up in the hands of Linda, who loves him and cares for him, and eventually he meets Jewel, another rare Macaw, and his soulmate.


Rio 2 is out on DVD from next Monday August 4th. Rio 2 sees Blu happily living with Jewel and their 3 children - Carla, Bia and Tiago - when they discover the possibility of more rare Macaws in need of help, and set out to find them.

Dirty Bertie is a really different style of book for my 5 year old. It is on rough paper and has no colour images inside. When he saw it, he was instantly dismissive, which led to a discussion about why you need colour photo's in a book, and 'judging a book by it's cover'.

Blogging can give you some great experiences, and we've been really lucky - and busy - over the last couple of weeks having a look at some of the events running over Summer in the North West. One of the things we've really enjoyed is meeting the Moshi Monsters who have taken up residence at Manchester Trafford Centre Sea Life this Summer.

We've been out and about a lot in the past few days, and that's given us ample opportunity to try out some new jeans that House Of Fraser have sent my boys for their Genius Jeans promotion. Jeans and denim are brilliant, especially for youngsters - they can spend as much time as they want being children, and I can relax in the knowledge they won't wreck their clothes doing so!

We were sent 3 pairs to try from the huge range available at House Of Fraser, and we've been testing to see how great they are for playing....

They've been to the Chill Factore....

Britmums and All-Bran have challenged real parents to try the 5-Day Challenge and see if eating All-Bran for breakfast for 5 consecutive days helps us to feel more in love with our gut.
I'm quite attached to my gut anyway, I use it pretty much every day. I also have a long-standing hernia, so it's probably even easier for me to see the benefit from having regular fibre.