As a result of my blog post last week,  containing

If you are looking for a more exciting use for your overripe bananas then I can’t recommend these highly enough. And I have a sneaky suspicion that they might prove popular with any small people in your house too!

Chewy, squidgy, sweet, moist, crunchy, unctuous – just some of the words I could use to describe these absolutely gorgeous cakes! But let’s face it – anything that contains butter, sugar, white chocolate and caramel is going to get the thumbs up from me!

Ingredients
250g golden caster sugar
100g butter
100g caramel , from a jar or tin (Nestlé Carnation Caramel works well) plus 2 tbsp for the top
100g white chocolate
2 eggs
200g self-raising flour
2 ripe bananas , sliced

• Heat the oven 180C/fan 170C/gas 4.
• Melt the sugar, butter, caramel and chocolate together until smooth.
• Cool a little, then add the eggs and fold in the flour and banana.
• Pour into a lined 20cm square tin and add a few blobs of caramel to the top
• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until risen and set.

I only hope my photo does them justice and you can see  the dollops of caramel and the gooey banana middle. And even if you don’t eat them, they are worth making just for the delicious smell that comes from your oven!!

If you do go away and try them, please come back and leave a comment afterwards – would love to know what you think!

Working for yourself is certainly one way in which to take control of your working hours, be more flexible with childcare arrangements and, more importantly, spend more time with your children when they need you. However, nothing in life is for free: everything has a cost attached. So what is the cost for work at home mums?

The house, the husband/partner/significant other and the children all continue to need you, and make demands on your time, but there is also a ‘New Kid on The Block’ – your business. For that to survive and be successful it also needs as much care & attention as a new-born baby. So when all these demands have been squeezed into a day….well there aren’t many minutes left.

On a personal level, being able to do the school run is a very important and key reason for choosing to work for myself. However, the pay off for that is a shortened working day, which results in working evenings and weekends. This in turn impacts on my relaxation time and time with my husband. So how do you counteract this?

Time management is one of the hottest topics around as we seem to be under pressure to cram more and more into each day. Mums generally are very adept at both multi-tasking and fitting 48hours worth of tasks and activities into a day. Where the problem may lie is in delegation and prioritising, especially when it comes to ensuring we still have time for ourselves and our partners.

If you start with 24 hours and all the things that have to be fitted in, you will quickly come to the conclusion that ‘cut backs’ need to be made. The trick is to ensure that every ‘department’ should take a part in these cutbacks. So rather than the ‘me time’ and ‘us time’ sections being all but eroded, why not look to all areas. Highest on my own list for a cutback is housework, and it doesn’t take me a lot of encouragement to miss the dusting for a week or leave the ironing pile for another day.  Likewise, much as I love cooking, there are times when the usual ‘home cooked from scratch meal’ is replaced by a take away or conveniance food, and – surprise surprise - the world doesn’t end!

The majority of mums take the decision to work for themselves because of their children. However if this enables you take and collect your children from school and be with them in the holidays, then  you shouldn’t feel guilty if Daddy does bedtime or you spend 3 hours working at the weekend; they will benefit more from the key times you are there compared to paid employment.  Equally it is good to have your partner onside who can help understand that your attention and energy is being drawn in a new direction, but will support you and understands that in the long term this is a solution which will benefit you all.

Most important of all is ‘you’ time. This in my experience is the first to go when working for yourself and takes real strength of character to maintain; you have never ending to-do list, the housework is falling behind and the family are missing your undivided attention.  How do you justify time for you, let alone actually find it?  Firstly you need to re-train yourself; not an easy job if delegation is not one of your strengths or you are used to being’ mistress’ of the home.  Secondly you need to gradually retrain the rest of the family that mummy doesn’t do everything, and accept that their way isn’t the wrong way.

And finally, convincing yourself that you deserve that time; you work hard all 7 days of the week for the benefit of the family……..so even if you only manage a half hour’s peace with a G & T in the bath, you truly need and deserve it. Without you, neither the  business nor the family would be so successful. Cheers!

As women and mums our children come first. We make time for ourselves, our own health and a little TLC when we can. One thing that medical professionals tell us after we have our babies is to look after our core body and pelvic floor muscles. However that piece of advice is normally one we forget pretty quickly, concentrating more on the parts of us that we can see.

It’s easy to worry about how flat our tummies are, what size clothes we fit into and what we look like - all of that matters and makes a difference – but the muscles that we can’t see are hugely important too and the effects of weak muscles are horrendous. The pelvic floor and core body muscles are among the most important in our body. They control a wide variety of functions including our posture, how we move, how much we enjoy sex and also providing bladder control. Two in three women in the UK have weak pelvic floor muscles, while one in three of us has such weak muscles that we have embarrassing leaks or lower back pain which at the most extreme can lead to a prolapse.

There are exercises you can do to keep yourself in good shape, devices which are designed to help, drugs which can reduce some of the symptoms but generally have side effects or you can have surgery to correct the more extreme conditions. However there are also new alternative treatments which tones these vital muscles and, for the first time, give you feedback on how well you’re doing.

Jeanette Haslam, internationally recognised specialist in women’s physiotherapy, says, “Most pelvic floor conditions are avoidable or even curable but women do not know about options. Pelvic floor training techniques are something that all women need to know about.”

These treatments are available from Tonicity, the first specialised women’s health and beauty centre in the UK. All our treatments are designed to show and improve the condition of your pelvic floor or core body muscles. Tonicity is run by women including a number of highly trained women’s health professionals. All ourr staff are from a nursing or specialist physiotherapy background and have many years experience in helping women get back on their feet and feeling great again.

For more details of the treatments on offer please visit www.tonicity.eu, Tel: 0845 269 2603 or Email: info@tonicitygroup.com

Today, 8th March 2010, is a wonderful day to be a woman. Because today is 

The United Nations theme for 2010 is Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all which ties in with our 2010 Charity Challenge to raise enough money to train 52 businesswomen in developing countries.

Today we are hosting a local event, with delegates attending presentations on developing inner confidence/leadership skills and dressing for confidence. I can’t think of a better way to spend the day – in the company of 30 enterprising women. I love the warmth of support and collaboration I always feel, when I spend time with my peers. I love the passion, the optimism and the creative thinking, all tempered with the desire to help and do good. 

IWD is now an official holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother’s Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

Until such time as IWD becomes a national holiday in the UK, we would like to wish you a very happy International Women’s Day, however you spend it and whoever you spend it with.

One thing you can guarantee about kids is that they are contrary. One week they love something, the next they won’t touch it with a barge-pole. Such is the case, in our house, with bananas. My girls always used to enjoy a banana or two, but now they are met with scorn and disdain. Trouble is, I keep buying them on autopilot, so every week or so I find myself lumbered with squishy, overripe bananas and a lack of ideas for what to do with them.

A few weeks ago I put out a cry for help on Twitter for recipe ideas for my surplus bananas and half an hour later I had a long list of suggestions. At the time I joked that “I could feel a blog post coming on”. So, as promised, here it is - my 10 Uses for Squishy Bananas.

One of my favourite websites for leftover ideas is Love Food Hate Waste. They have a recipe section which is split into different pages for each main ingredient. Their Banana section is full of ideas, my favourite of which is Banana & Peanut Milkshake.  They also have a lovely recipe for Banana & Walnut Loaf, with added vanilla and cinnamon, which can be adapted to make mini muffins.

Another favourite online cookery website of mine is the BBC Good Food site. The site contains over 5,000 recipes so is always a great resource if you are lacking in culinary inspiration. And their recipe for Caramel Banana Blondies has got to be work a try!

For basic, child-friendly dinners and recipes to cook with your children you can’t beat Netmums. Most of the recipes have been submitted by mums, or tested by them, and they have a great receipe for Banana Flapjack which is perfect for school lunchboxes. They also have a great page of Smoothie Ideas, all of which contain bananas.

Think a Banana Split is just a banana cut in half, a scoop of ice cream and a smattering of chocolate sauce, then think again! Food Network has a whole collection of banana split recipes so you need never get bored, including a Banana Split Brownie Pizza!

If I’m after a recipe that’s a bit special I normally reach for my Nigella cookbooks and as squishy banana recipes go, her Banana & Butterscotch Muffins are a little posher than your average muffin! You can use the same recipe but substitute the butterscotch for chocolate chips or cranberries – so 3 for the price of 1 with that recipe! And as an idea for a dessert, or breakfast with a difference, how about trying Nigella’s recipe for Banana Pancakes – yum.

Now you can’t think of bananas without thinking of Banoffee Pie (well I can’t!). There are lots of recipes out there but one very simple one that I have tried is Cheats Chocolate Banoffee Pie using Carnation Caramel, and it is delicious.

And finally, if none of my suggestions have whetted your appetite, then you need to visit  www.bananarecipes.net – a website dedicated solely to all things banana. If you can’t find something on their site to transform your squishy bananas, then quite frankly, you must be a lost cause!!

If you have any other great banana recipes then please do share and leave us a comment.

Stuck on what to get your Mum for Mother’s day? Then why not try your luck at this amazing competition. Henri Lloyd have teamed up with the fabulous Marco Pierre White to bring you a fantastic meal for 4 at his Steak & Alehouse restaurant in London.  If that wasn’t enough Henri Lloyd are going to throw in an outfit worth £145!

To be in with a chance of winning this amazing prize all you have to do is answer the following question:

How old was Marco Pierre White when he arrived in London?
a. 16
b. 21
c. 23

Answers must be emailed to competitions@henrilloyd.co.uk and you must be a FAN of Henri Lloyd on Facebook

P.S. Answer can be found on www.marcopierrewhite.org

Good Luck!!

Henri Lloyd Terms and Conditions: 1. Entries must be received by midday Wednesday 10th March 2010. 1 winner will be chosen on this day. 2. The prize includes a dinner for 4 at Marco Pierre Whites Steak & Alehouse restaurant, to the value of £150. Please note anything over this would be payable by the winner and their reservation will be subject to availability at the restaurant end. Winners will also receive a Henri Lloyd outfit, which includes Giani Cardi and Christina Stripe dress (Belt not included) 3. Accommodation and travel is not included. 4. A cash alternative or vouchers are not available. 5. Open to all UK and Eire residents excluding employees of Henri Lloyd and Marco Pierre White. 6. The winner’s name will be announced on the Henri Lloyd Facebook page and through Marco Pierre White. 7. By entering this competition you are agreeing to occasional contact via email from Marco Pierre White and Henri Lloyd. You can unsubscribe from these services at any time and your data will not be shared with any other third parties.

Where the Bright Women Are is a project with a simple aim – to find all of those bright, cool women we all used to know in our teens, 20s and 30s and discover more about the paths they’d taken, and the choices that they’d made.

Fiona, one of the project founders, says “With backgrounds in research and journalism, and having worked in the communications industry for years, it constantly baffles us that so many women have ‘gone missing’. We know they’re somewhere – we just don’t know where, because they aren’t, generally, sitting on the boards of FTSE100 companies, but nor are they all sitting in coffee shops living off their husbands.”

With so many conversations abounding about women in the boardroom, stay-at-home mums and how maternity rights are affecting women’s careers, the founders think that it often seems as if the only people who don’t share their opinions are the women themselves.

So, what are all the bright women doing? In order to find out, they have created a blogsite and a survey. Fiona adds, “Our emerging hypothesis is that many, many bright women want to work. It’s just that the conventions around traditional corporate environments no longer work for them – whether or not they have children. We believe that the future for many women will be in an environment they create for themselves – a business, a partnership, or volunteering. So we are particularly interested in understanding more about women who are taking the plunge, and doing things for themselves.”

Please click here if you would like to take part in the survey and add your views. And for more information about the project, please visit www.wherethebrightwomenare.com

I don’t think it is possible to have it all when you are a working mum especially when you are very passionate about the work you do and even more so when it is your own business.

Most women choose a job that fits in with the hours their children are at school or nursery. Me, I decided not to go down that route. I work when my children are asleep at night and at the weekend. Consequently I am nurturing my children most of the day and being the best mum I can be and then at night I become the ‘The Kids Coach’ – a life coach for children – who works with other people’s children helping them overcome their emotional and behavioural issues.

Thankfully despite being around children all day I am still very focused and charged up in my coaching sessions in the evening. I almost work best when tired. The bit that I find the toughest about being a working mum is fitting in the housework. Other mumpreneurs find it easy and just don’t do it. I have to. In my head being organised and having a tidy house means I am not distracted by dirty mugs in the sink or a pile of ironing.

Fitting both the ‘mum’ and ‘business’ elements  into my day is fairly demanding so I start my day at 6.30am by putting washing on and tidying the house so I have more time to work during the day and at night. After evening client sessions I can often be ironing, catching on any TV I cannot live without or writing.

I think my long days are a small compromise to pay in return for me having the chance to have a job that I am so passionate about. I can only work with my target audience, children, after school and at the weekends as they are at school the rest of the time, so my time when my own children are not with me is made up of writing articles for websites, writing blogs and articles, having meetings with organisations and contacts, running group sessions and do admin. My youngest is only 2 ½ so I get three hours child free a day to do this.

Once I pick him up from nursery my time is spent with him unless he falls asleep on the sofa which seems to be happening regularly now. My work then starts again properly once both my children are in bed at 7pm. I eat with my children at about 5pm so I don’t have to bother about cooking later and then I start seeing clients (children) from 7.15pm. I have to say it is pretty regimented and scheduled but if the children are not asleep when my first child arrives I am in trouble. Thank goodness it has not happened yet. On Sunday mornings my, luckily hands-on, husband will take our children for several hours so I can work privately – otherwise I would be turning away work and no business woman wants to do that. So it is really is a bit of a muddle and a juggle.

As a mum regardless of working or not, I have very little family support to help out with the children so when I want to go to a conference, or attend a meeting during the day I either have to plan this for a morning or ask my husband to take time off work for me to go. It is not ideal but the only way I can grow the business and know that the children are good hands when I am not around, oh and they love that extra daddy time. My children do not feel they are missing out of me working and my husband supports my work. We spend time together at the weekends, go out just the two of us for dinner and have late night chats to catch up on what everyone is doing. I see my friends around clients, a quick coffee when I need a break from work and at the weekends so I feel balanced with all aspects of my life.

I think because I am working I bring more into our relationship, my self-esteem is higher and I feel fulfilled therefore am happier.

I try and make myself accessible to parents and children who need help. It is hard given that there are very few coaches out there who work with children and coaching is so beneficial to this group. My working life will not change for the foreseeable future and as I get busier I may be working all day Sunday. My main priority at the moment are my children. I want them to have me at home when they come back from school and I want to put my energy and expertise into them so they grow into responsible well balanced children who can problem solve. That’s why I use no wrap around childcare. I like my work/life balance, albeit a little topsy turvy.

For more details of the work Naomi does with children please visit www.thekidscoach.org.uk

It’s that time again when we ask all you business mums to dig out your best business blog posts of the month.  The idea of the Business Mum’s Blog Carnival is to create traffic,  links and comments for our blogs as well as sharing expertise around the business mum community.

We’re looking for posts that add value in some way, so maybe they inspire, inform or make us smile. It’s OK to talk a little about what you do (we’re all in business after all) but a post that’s just a sales pitch isn’t going to be much of a read.

Mum’s The Blog is delighted to be hosting the March Carnival and if you want to get involved all you have to do is email a link to your post to info (at) mumstheboss (dot) co.uk by 13th March and the carnival will be posted on the 15th March. And with events taking place all over the country in celebration of International Women’s Day on 8th March, we hope to be inundated with inspiring & celebratory posts!

And don’t forget to read other people’s posts and comments when the carnival is published. The more comments our blogs get, the more popular our blogs look to new readers!

A month ago, if you had asked me what my dream job would be, I would probably have replied with something flippant like Johnny Depp’s personal secretary or a chocolate taste tester. Well, my friends, be careful what you wish for, because sometimes dreams do come true!

Thanks to the magic of Twitter and the British Mummy Blogger community I heard that Green and Blacks were looking for blogging taste testers. Without hesitation I volunteered my services and several weeks later, quite unannounced, a large jiffy bag arrived in the post, bursting at the seams with scrumptious chocolate! Since then I have been on a culinary chocolate journey, using my Green & Blacks bars to nibble, suck, scoff, melt and bake.

My surprise parcel contained 11 bars of chocolate – 8 to eat, and 3 bars of cooking chocolate. First off I ate the ‘flavoured’ bars – Butterscotch, Cherry and Almond.  Now I am a firm fan of Milk Chocolate so found both the Butterscotch and the Almond bars quite divine – both creamy and sweet with the perfect amount of burnt toffee flavour crunch in the Butterscotch and whole almonds in the other. Last up I tried the Cherry bar. I normally find dark chocolate too bitter for my taste, but the bittersweet tang of the whole cherry pieces made this bar really enjoyable, and not harsh in the way I normally find dark chocolate – in fact it’s definitely a combination I could get used to!

Onto the plain bars – Milk, Cream Milk, White, Dark 70% and Dark 85%. Now I could have just eaten these – no problem – but I thought I’d be a bit more creative and use some to bake with (although I’m ashamed to say the Cream Milk did disappear in a single sitting!). The Dark 70% was lovingly turned into Valentines Molten Chocolate Pots (see right) by being melted down and mixed with butter, ground almonds, 1 egg, 1 yolk, caster sugar and Baileys liqueur. Once melted the 70% Dark was like pure, black silk and the resulting pudding was incredibly rich but not in a sickly sweet way. Needless to say, my ‘Valentine’ was very impressed!

The Dark 85% was both eaten and baked. I felt I had to try the 85% because I don’t think I have ever eaten chocolate with that high cocoa content before. However the 85% Dark is ’softened with Madagascen Vanilla’ which you could really taste and did take any bitter edge away from the chocolate. The rest of the bar, along with a bar of G&B cooking chocolate, was melted down and turned into Best Ever Brownies (see left). When I make Brownies I normally use cocoa powder so I needed a recipe that used real chocolate  – and boy could I tell the difference! When I got them out of the oven I was too impatient to wait for them to cool down completely so cut them up while they were still warm. The insides of the Brownies were still gooey but they cooled to an absolutely perfect velvety chocolate consistency which was met with lots of appreciative “ooohs” and “aahs” when I took them along to one of our Mum’s The Boss meetings for some of our members to sample. And to make them even better they also contained chunks of the Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate bars for good measure – chocolate cake heaven personified!!

Which just leaves me with 2 bars of cooking chocolate left. One of these is earmarked to make some chocolate cornflake cakes with the girls and the other will be used to make our signature cake at meetings, and the most popular search phrase that leads people to our blog – Chocolate Fridge Cake!

When I excitedly posted on Facebook that I would be taste testing for Green and Blacks one of my friends replied “What’s to review? It’s chocolate. ‘Nuff said!”  Turns out though, that there’s more to this chocolate lark than meets the eye - and I’m more than willing to learn!