Zoingo Boingo: The Flexible Fun Pogo Toy That Tempted Smix Away From His IPad & Out to the Garden!

This week we received the new Zoingo Boingo pogo toy from Flair toys, a spin on the traditional pogo stick with a bouncing ball base and bungee cord handle which allows for more movement and the ability to do more tricks than before. With the weather finally picking up it was the perfect time to tempt Smix outside and off his iPad to learn the skill to 'boinging'.

The Zoingo Boingo is suitable for age 8 and up, so Smix is exactly the target range. The toy comes boxed, and you have a guide to inflate the ball base to prepare it for use. This is where we had a little trouble. Initially we inflated it as much as it could be inflated, which made the ball base quite hard and with no give. This was our mistake! Do not over inflate the ball, it doesn't need to be like a football, allow some give in it and it's a LOT easier to get the hang of pogoing on the Zoingo Boingo. Allow for it to be a little 'squidgy'.

One side of the footplate has a lip, put your foot on this side to start

Around the ball base is the foot plate, and you'll see one side has a little lip. This is the side you put your first foot on, then tip, balance and bounce. Smix got the hang of it very quickly (now we had fixed the over inflated base problem) and within the first session he could do 17 bounces in a row.

The Zoingo works best on grass or pavement, and as you'd imagine isn't suitable for indoors on carpet. I'm just happy to get Smix outside at last and off his iPad! The Zoingo Boingo will be on sale  via Smyths Toys for £24.99 or you can purchase now on Amazon.

Here are the M&S 2016 Easter Egg Wonders, to save you Hunting. Cosmic Eggs, Giant Bunnies & a Disney's Frozen Castle Shaped Egg You'll Want for Yourself!

A good proportion of my hits this week come from people searching for  Marks and Spencer's Easter products and finding last year's blog post. So I'm rushing in this blog post with this year's Food Hall bits and bobs so it's up to date. 

There are kids' eggs, fancy pants grown up eggs, even dairy free eggs and hide & seek hunt kits. Let take a look at everything from my visit to the Sprucefield store during the week. 

The fancy eggs, with the crowning glory, the limited edition, £40, purple and gold, regal  chocolate Cosmic Egg. 

I chose the coffee egg for my Dad. Even when I was a child I remember him often buying these little mocha bars of chocolate from M&S, when the only Food Hall was in the city centre M&S in the 80s. 

The passion fruit ganache eggs are out of this world. Slightly bigger than a Creme Egg, but with a scrumptious filling of tropical creaminess. 

Families with allergies to consider can pick up these dairy free eggs alongside the traditional chocolate ones. 

The kids' eggs I chose to bring home were the apple shaped Colin egg, and the chocolate orange Flavour carrot. I'm not always keen on M&S's plain milk chocolate, but the Orange zested version is delicious. 

I also picked the Egg Hunt kit which is on offer right now, half price at £5. 

Here are the other kids' eggs in store. 

There are plenty of egg sets for planning a garden Easter egg hunt. 

Also various sizes of chocolate bunnies to chose from. 

I spotted many Easter items amongst the biscuits and buns. M&S always have a wonderful selection of fancy hot cross buns each year. The fudge ones are a must buy, and the addition of mini mocha hot cross buns this year is a stroke of genius. The offer is two for £2.50 and you can mix and match flavours within that.

Personally I haven't gotten into the way of sending Easter cards, but if you do, M&S have a bright and breezy range to choose from. 

Some more biscuits to choose from. I also imagine there will be Easter themed cakes closer to the actual Easter Sunday. 

Finally, the M&S website also has some non-food gift ideas for the celebrations.

Taste The Streets of Tokyo- Unveiling Yo Sushi's 100 Piece New Menu

Our favourite restaurant has a brand new menu sampling the tastes of Tokyo. The 100 piece menu has new favourites to find, as well as hot and cold delights to investigate. The menu comes in the form of a zine, with underground arts of the city highlighted.

The menu launched throughout the UK yesterday, and we called to our Belfast store to try the new dishes. 

Smix eats pickled ginger by the handful! 

Here are some of the dishes they served for us. 

Clam

Seabass

Ama Ebi

Jewel-like raw tuna

Okonomiyaki

Dynamite roll

Finally here is a round up of all the new items to browse for yourselves. 

Smix Brix's Minecraft Yo Sushi 3.0

My son's favourite restaurant is Yo Sushi! He's aged 8 and loves cucumber maki and prawn nigiri. When I was 8 I didn't know sushi existed, never mind being better with a pair of chopsticks than my parents. In fact the first time I had sushi was 2007, in Dublin, when I was pregnant with Smix; maybe that's why he loves it? 

He love love loves Yo Sushi! Belfast and one day decided to build the Belfast store in Minecraft. In Autumn he built version 2.0 which I blogged about.

When he heard Yo Sushi! Belfast had emailed me inviting us both along to try out their new Tokyo menu experience, he decided he would make Minecraft Yo Sushi! 3.0 to show them on the night. 

The third generation Minecraft restaurant now has lights you can switch on and off, and switches to halt the sushi train (minecart) beside your booth. You can see the minecart swooshing alone round the track in the photo below. Inside the cart is a little chest you can open to reveal your dish. Pretty cool!

So tomorrow night is our rendezvous with Yo Sushi! Belfast and we both can't wait. I'll be sharing all the juicy details of the new Tokyo menu, what's hot and if any are not. 

A Quick & Simple Blog about a Quick & Simple Product: Technic Lashitude Mascara.

Technic Makeup range is a cheap & cheerful and should be an option to experiment with even for those of you are are premium beauty addicts. Their price points allow for a buyer to purchase something they might only use once, like glitter for a Christmas party, OR a product in a colour they aren't sure would suit them.

For example say you've seen a trend for a very smokey, dark eye, but you aren't convinced it would suit you, or if you could have the skill to apply it in their set place. Instead of spending £20 on your favourite premium makeup brand's smokey eye set, you can trial the effect with a little £4 Technic palette. Who knows? It might turn out you like the Technic product more than the £20 premium palette you've been using, because the price may be low, but he pigmentation and quality of the makeup is great.

Another thing Technic's pricing allows, it means they are the patron saint of forgetful travellers! If you've packed for a weekend city break and you've forgotten to bring your blusher or your eyeliner, then head straight for a Technic stockist and paint that bare face for less. 

Technic kindly sent me their Lashitude Mascara to try out. It promises three things- volume, length and definition.

The wand is spot on the type of wand I like for mascara. A soft plastic end with bendy bristles that don't soak up and clog with mascara product.

It goes on well, makes a considerable difference and doesn't clump too much. 

With Lashitude mascara : without Lashitude mascara

I used it for a week and it did the job, but personally I'll go back to my Boots' No.7 mascara for daily wear, and maybe keep it as my cheap and cheerful or handbag mascara.  

Should you want to buy it and try it too  this website has Lashitude for £1.65, a saving of £3.99 off RRP.

Tip Top of the Kid-friendly Restaurant Chains, Pizza Express Is a Firm Family Favourite

Pizza Express is a firm favourite of our's to visit on the weekend. When our family comprised of three we would often be found chowing down of a Saturday afternoon in their Lisburn Road branch restaurant. 

You won't need your iPad- colour & puzzle while you wait

Bedford St refurb

Since November 2014 it's just been myself & Smix, and we find ourselves more often in Yo Sushi! these days, but  Pizza Express Bedford Street invited us both along to investigate their swanky refurb, and try out their seasonal menu, and we weren't about to turn down an offer like that!

Quiet when we arrived at 445pm

- bustling by the time we left

The city centre located branch now seats 185 and can be used for groups and parties. I tend to think of this restaurant as less full-on family packed than the Lisburn Road one, but you'll still find the full kids' menu, high chairs available and of course fun colouring in menu and stickers for every mini guest. Smix was particularly impressed that they supply Crayola twisty crayons- apparently they are big news in school right now, and very much vital to my report to you guys!

Open kitchen with chefs bustling away

Smix always gets the same thing each visit. Dough Balls to start, with butter dip and veg. Pepperoni pizza as a main course, with tonnes of parmesan cheese on top. Chocolate brownie for dessert with bambinoccino (looks like an espresso, really is frothed milk, a very cool novelty to sip just like mum or dad).

The three courses are £6.45 altogether, but note this doesn't include a drink, but like most places tap water is free anyway. There are also pasta dishes if your children aren't in the mood for pizza. 

Its also worth bookmarking  Pizza Express's offers page and checking once in a while to see if there is an offer that suits your party size.

Kids' starter, the famous dough balls

Another handy hint is to  have a nosy at the Pizza Express online menu. If you haven't eaten at one of their restaurants before, then unlike the physical menu you get there, the online version has photos of each dish, so you've a better idea of what you are ordering. Great if you're really fussy about meals, and even better for family's with food allergy considerations, as every item is explained.

Pizza Express make traditional, Italian style pizzas. They are fresh, light & topped to perfection. I love this style of pizza, and I now can't remember the last time I even ate D*m*nos Pizza. Their heavy, doughy, thick based pizzas are hard on my stomach. Not to mention a waste as I can only eat two slices max. 

But back to the pizzas in question, or more specifically my starter.  

I had my eye on the Mac & Cheese, but then I noticed the calamari starter is back, so I had to get that. I had it years ago, but it went off the menu for a while. I'm glad it's back. The calamari is great quality, no chewy, elastic squid here. The batter is light and crunchy with no heavy greasiness. The Pizza Express House Sauce compliments this starter beautifully. If you haven't experienced Pizza Express's house sauce, then ask for a little pot even for dipping your pizza crusts. It's so tasty, and you can buy bottles of it from Tesco etc to give salads at home a bit of a kick.

If you want the full Pizza Express Experience however, then make sure at least one person in your party gets a starter of their famous dough balls. Again you can buy these in supermarkets to bake at home, but nothing beats the real thing. 

On to the main course. As well as their delicious thin based pizzas, there are calzone, salad and pasta options.

My usual main course choice was the Nicoise salad. Egg, anchovies, tuna, lots of fresh salad greens and tomatoes.

However with us being invited along to try something new, I thought it would be more apt to order a pizza.  

I chose the pollo leggera pizza. Leggera pizzas are a little bit of genius. It's a regular sized pizza, but they remove the centre and instead load it with lots of fresh salad. This means nutritionally each Leggera pizza comes in at under 525 calories. This makes Pizza Express even more family friendly- not only do you have kids' options, but you have just-as-delicious main course options for those dieting. It means even if you are on a diet, Pizza Express is somewhere you can chose to eat out at, without sabotaging your calorie counting.

Personally I'm not dieting as such at the moment, but Leggera pizzas fulfil a different angle for me.  

You see I just can't eat three courses of food in one go. I want a starter because otherwise I would be sitting wanting to steal Smix's dough balls, and I want a dessert, but if I've eaten an entire pizza then I won't have room.

With the Leggera option I can have a starter, the Leggera, and a dessert without feeling so full that I want to crawl under the table and nap afterwards. 

It also means I have a built in salad with my main, so I don't have to order a green salad as a side. 

In the spirit of trying something new, I did however order their house coleslaw, a crunchy creamy delight with red cabbage and horseradish, which makes a perfect partner for the thin based pizza. 

Smix was happy with his pepperoni main course pizza too. Gooey, yummy, stringy mozzarella with his own addition of Parmesan sprinkled on top. 

On to dessert! I liked the look of the  bombolini, but in the end I went for the seasonal treacle tart. 

When I do get a dessert at Pizza Express I always pick the mascarpone with it rather than fresh cream or icecream. It's a little Italian twist, and would be delicious with the classic British treacle tart. Sadly the restaurant didn't have any for my dessert last night, but it was lovely with fresh cream all the same.

Smix chose the chocolate brownie, which comes with a steamed milk drink to match mum and dad's coffee.

Another stroke of genius from Pizza Express is their selection of mini desserts with companion coffee. If you don't have room for a large dessert but you still want something sweet, you can pick one of them. And why not give your coffee a little Irish kick with a splash of Baileys or whisky?

So thank you for having us, Pizza Express. A great Mother's Day lunch plan for this weekend, and a menu with something for everyone. 

Say 'Aloha!' to Belfast's Freshest New Eating Experience & Try Something Different from the Kua 'Aina Lava Grill

Situationed on 2nd floor of Victoria Sq Belfast beside Nando's

I'll make you a wager: you'll have never tasted tuna any finer than the Lava Grilled tuna steaks on offer at Victoria Square's newest eaterie  Kua 'Aina. Belfast is usually the last place that restaurant chains open up in, but thanks to Kua 'Aina being owned by two homegrown Northern Irish folks, we are privileged to be only the third branch to open, with the other two being London based.

We went along for a meal and met Harry for a chat. He usually runs the Carnaby Street branch, and he also mans the Kua 'Aina festival van (more on that later).

Harry explained that Kua 'Aina is actually the only restaurant in the complex who cook completely from fresh. The Hawaiian menu is a fabulous breath of fresh air indeed. I had peeked at the menu online before our visit, and initially had pictured it as another burger bar, and whilst they do a great burger, that's only part of the picture.

The menu offers traditional burgers, fish, veggie and chicken & turkey options. Then you choose whether you want it served as a burger, or hot sandwich, or bunless with salad. There are also very tempting 'Super Salads' , and the tuna & avocado caught my eye immediately. Sometimes when you are trying to diet especially at this time of year pre-summer, the salad option on the menu can feel like the booby prize. Your lettuce arrives and you longingly stare at everyone else's meal and decide you'll just buy a sarong for over that bikini and get something tasty next time. BUT- look at that salad!

Its an enviable rainbow of fresh, crunchy goodies. The ginger and soy dressing with the tuna and greens is to die for. The tuna fillet tastes like no tuna I've had before. I've had tuna at restaurants before which literally tasted of nothing, but the Kua 'Aina fillet it meaty, smoky and delicious.

Tuna & Avocado Super Salad includes a whole avocado! Hooray! 

All the 'proteins' in the meals are cooked on the special lava grill. I asked Harry what this actually meant. He explained it's a Hawaiian way of low fat, healthy cooking, and it's what the George Foreman grill is based on.

Mahi Mahi fish sandwich. 

Huli Huli chicken burger

The other food we went for was a Mahi Mahi & Monterey Jack sandwich, Spicy Huli Huli Chicken as a burger and a kid's meal of chicken strips and sweetcorn. If I did have a negative point about Kua 'Aina, it would be the kids' choices I'm afraid. The options aren't plentiful and the meal like a bit anemic beside our colourful offerings. I would love to see more Hawaiian options too, as kids are just as open as us to trying new things. I did totally love the glass Smix's apple juice came in however (top pic in this post) I want one myself!

When Kua 'Aina asked us along, they said I simply had to try the milkshake, so we had one each. Coconut and strawberry, in cute pint bottles. They are just as good as they tipped us off to, and they source the ice cream from Morellis locally. You can even make it dirty with spirits, and check the Kua 'Aina website for their signature cocktails and 2 for 1 offers on those. 

Sweet potato fries (portion is bigger than it appears here!)

We also picked a couple of sides, although saying that, the main meals were plenty. We had sweet potato fries which rivalled the kings of the sweet potato next door (N**dos!), very crispy and delicious. The onion rings are comically large and made for sharing. 

Onion rings

Chilli fries side would do as a main course £5.50

I couldn't resist the chilli fries, but a word of warning. They are HUGE. The portion could be a meal for one in itself. Fries with mince and cheese and jalapeños. I couldn't manage even a 1/4 but kindly they wrapped it up for me to take home. Incidentally you can order Kua 'Aina for delivery thanks to the Deliveroo service arriving in Belfast. Also while I mention it, the Kua 'Aina staff, I think we dealt with three local staff during our visit, are all really upbeat and friendly, which makes me think they must be nice to work for as well as eat in.

We adults were too full for dessert, but Smix used his special, child's 'dessert stomach' to fit in this freshly made, thick and fluffy American style pancake with maple syrup (icecream optional) .

So we had a lovely visit and most certainly shall be back. Sadly if you aren't in London or Belfast, it may be some time before you get a Kua 'Aina of your own. Why not petition them on their Facebook Page for a restaurant in your area?

As I mentioned earlier, they have a food truck that visits festivals. Not sure if this is last year's or this season coming's food truck calendar, but keep an eye out this summer!

I wonder what the secret is? 

Mother's Day 2016 This is Your One Week Warning! What's in Store at M&S?

Mother's Day this year is Sunday 6th March, which means you have a week to find a lovely present. Here's what's in store at M&S, Homeware and Food Hall gift ideas. 

The Mother's Day Food Hall gifts are all themed with this beautiful, Spring, floral design.  

There are various chocolate box selections, but if you fancy something sweet but different, why not buy your Mum this pistachio, hazelnut, honey & sour cherry nougat. 

Thank you chocs £9 : Handmade nougat £5

These are the chocolates in the Thank You box. A beautiful selection of dark, white and milk chocolates.

Biscuits £3 : Sweet treats £8

If your family all get together for Mother's Day, then this triple chocolate brownie cake would be a welcome sight. I'm a huge fan of M&S flavoured creams, they really top off a delicious dessert. 

brownie cake £5 : vanilla cream £1.50

And how about this amazing Mother's Day cake? And if you buy one thing I recommend from M&S, make it this pink champagne cream, it's unreal. 

cake £12

Cream £2

Finally, here are some of the cool cards on offer and you can check out more gift ideas on the M&S website.