So when we were offered the chance to try Dinner Sorted, I jumped at the chance.

The Melbourne-based business, run by mums Anna and Karin, delivers a bag of fresh and healthy ingredients and the corresponding recipes to make four dinners.

The recipes are inspiring, well-planned and easy to follow – and importantly they taste great. Everything comes pre-portioned (you can order a bag for two or four people) so there’s no waste and all menus offer the variety of meat, fish, poultry and vegetarian meals.

Dinner Sorted bags await delivery. PIC: Dinner Sorted Instagram

The bag was delivered chock-a-block with fresh ingredients. It was so good being able to pack all the produce for the week into my fridge, without wandering aimlessly through the supermarket (with a toddler!) and still coming home with no better idea for dinner than a toasted sandwich.

We ordered the Classic Meals ($89 for two people, including delivery) and the portions were generous. Most days I fed Millie from the menu too, there was more than enough to go around.

Fresh ingredients star in the Dinner Sorted meals. PIC: Dinner Sorted Instagram

Our menu included red chicken curry with coconut rice, salmon tacos with red cabbage slaw, easy meatloaf with mashed potatoes and tortellini with mushrooms and tomatoes. The dinners had a big vegetable component and the variety was great, each meal was completely different to the last.

Our salmon tacos with red cabbage slaw was healthy and super tasty

We really enjoyed making our meals and loved eating them even more. The best part for me was that I had one less thing to worry about for the week and we had a tasty, nutritious meal to look forward to after a long day.

The ingredients are delivered the same day they’re sourced from Melbourne markets. When somebody else is planning the meals, doing the shopping and bringing it to your door, you can enjoy the cooking (the fun part!).

I’m convinced it would be the perfect gift for a new mum for those early weeks when the family is home from the hospital and are keen to eat fresh and healthy meals that are easy to prepare.

Dinner Sorted offers a low-carb bag for the health conscious and delivers within a 20 km radius of the Melbourne CBD.

Visit dinnersorted.com.au for menus and dinner bag options

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I didn’t stop the ‘milk before bed’ ritual entirely when I stopped feeding, the little man has a big appetite and a love for dairy so it was simple to get him to have a cup of milk. I think his determined ‘I can do it myself’ nature made it an easy transition, he likes to be in charge so holding his own cup of milk makes him proud as punch.

Finn’s new bedtime routine includes his own cup of milk and a picture book

But I was definitely left wondering if he was missing out of something by going from breastmilk to cow’s milk. Should he have something with more nutrients? I was regularly assured by health nurses that cow’s milk is more than fine for a child of Finn’s age.

It wasn’t until I realised how much of a piggy Finn was with his milk (it was hard to know how much he drank when breastfed) that I worried about putting him straight to bed after a huge cup full. I’d always make sure he could get up a big burp, but he was a bit squirmy in the cot after I’d put him down.

We were sent a tin of Bubs Goat Toddler Milk and with its promise to be gentler on little tummies, we gave it a try.

Finn was not as keen on the taste in the beginning, but after a couple of days he soon guzzled it like he did with regular milk.

I have noticed he doesn’t seem to be as unsettled once we put him to bed. Bubs Australia says goat milk has a unique fat and protein composition making it naturally easy for the body to break down and its softer curds can pass through the digestive system and be absorbed more gently.

Bath, milk and book before bed

The milk contains essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, omega-3 DHAs and prebiotics.

Bubs Australia has increased the amount of goat whey protein in its milk recently so it has more calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium and vitamins A, B3 and B6 along with higher amounts of vitamins B1, B2, B12, C and D.

Bubs Australia is an Australian owned and operated company and the milk is made in Victoria.

Finn will be two in May. He is eating a bigger amount at mealtimes now (fuel for all that running!) and having less milk before bed. But I’m happy to continue giving him the goat milk while he has the thirst for it and love that my rapidly growing boy gets all those extra vitamins and nutrients after a busy day.

Finn, the little milk man

*This is a sponsored post for Bubs Goat Toddler Milk. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

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The Terrible Twos are not really all that bad. It’s the unpredictability of mealtimes that frustrates me – Finn is a pretty good eater and will often surprise me by eating everything on his dinner plate. Peas are his favourite. Happy days. But sometimes, usually in a stretch of days on end, he will not touch the food in front of him. He’s a growing boy and must eat to get that goodness that growing boys need to go about their busy little lives – and its days like this that send any well-meaning parent into a tizz.

Finn has always loved his milk

Thankfully, Finn loves his milk. Babyccinos, smoothies, lots of milk on his cereal and warm milk before bed. Breastfed until 14 months old, he easily transitioned to toddler milk drinks and will guzzle from his sippy cups without hesitation.

Milk moustache

Finn has been drinking NAN A2 Stage 3 toddler milk for weeks now. It’s a premium milk drink designed for toddlers from the age of one, providing them with a combination of high quality ingredients and important essential nutrients, such as iron and zinc. The milk supports his growth and development, giving him the extra nourishment he can do with at this age (especially when he’s had a bad day at the dinner table).

NAN A2 Stage 3 toddler milk is packed with 16 vitamins and minerals for growing bodies

NAN A2 Stage 3 contains 16 vitamins and minerals, A2 β-casein protein* (a blend of whey and casein, where the A2 β-casein protein comes from milk of special cows, selected to exclusively contain the A2 βcasein protein), and Probiotic Bifidus Bι, a probiotic similar to those found in the digestive system of breastfed babies. NAN A2 Stage 3 shouldn’t replace a varied diet. It’s specially formulated for toddlers that may not be getting all the energy and nutrients they need from their food.

I had previously considered giving Finn a daily probiotic supplement, so I love that it’s already included in his cup of milk each day. I sometimes blend his NAN A2 Stage 3 milk drink with a banana – he thinks it’s a very special treat and I’m just thankful he’s getting all that goodness.

NAN A2 Stage 3 is available from Coles Supermarkets and the new Nestlé e-commerce website. 

*Proteins, including A2 β Casein protein, helps support growth and development in young children. 

*This is a sponsored post for NAN A2 Stage 3 premium milk

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I think Millie’s first toothy peg has popped through. There’s a white dot on her bottom gums that I’m almost sure is a tooth just about to rise up.

Tooth or not, she is a frantic munchie girl at the moment and those dribble bibs are getting a good workout.

I’ll start with our little French squeaker, Sophie. The pale natural rubber giraffe is clutched by just about every baby once they learn to hold things.

Sophie the Giraffe is chewed by babies all over the world

I like Sophie, and most importantly, Millie does too. Sophie’s shape means she can find a part that gets to her tender spots and she holds her legs and whacks it against things to make it squeak, then smiles. A smiling baby makes for a happy mumma.

Sophie is available at most shops and baby boutiques these days as well as a multitude of online stores.

What has been a winner lately is my Harper and Hudson necklace. I wear it, so not only do I look funky, but Millie is always grabbing at it, providing a great distraction when we are out and about. I’m not sure why but babies always seem to go for things they know are not their toys – keys, remote controls, watches, paper – so that’s why this necklace works so well. Millie knows it’s mine and so can’t get enough! They are made from 100% non-toxic silicone and are safe for bub to chew and suck. There’s heaps of different styles and colours and a selection is available online at Savvy Bambino.

Millie munching on a Harper and Hudson necklace

There are other brands that sell teething jewellery with different shapes, including Tiny & I. This brand has square penne bead and fruit loop bead necklaces and are designed in Melbourne.

A necklace from Tiny & I

Millie has a little necklace of her own, a Baltic amber bead necklace. It’s from Bambeado and is said to release an oil containing succinic acid when worn against the skin. The acid is supposed to ease teething pain. Some mothers swear by the benefits. I’m skeptical. How can a necklace make a difference? But it’s a natural pain reliever so I’ve been willing to give it a go. With the necklace on or off, I don’t notice a difference in Millie’s irritability (or lack of it). Maybe she is ok because she has the necklace on? Maybe she’s a lucky baby and isn’t too bothered by teething anyway? How are we to know?

Bambeado amber beads

I have a teething toy mushroom I just bought at Naughts & Crosses in Elwood, it was an instant fave for Millie. The irregular shape holds her interest and it’s a soft natural rubber like Sophie.

I buy the Rafferty’s Garden Banana Milk Rusks too, these ones would taste a bit nicer than plain rusks because of the banana. She will hold it and munch away happily for ages with one of these and it’s good for relieving sore gums.

She also quite likes the Nuby IcyBite keys, these have different surfaces and are filled with a special gel that stays cooler for longer after refrigeration. The keys are about $10 from most chemists.

IcyBite keys

Similarly, I’ve found feeding her some stewed fruit straight from the fridge offers a nice cooling sensation on her sore gums.

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Name & business: Alecia Whitelaw from Gourmet Juniors: Real Food For Kids.

Alecia Whitelaw and her daughter. Pic: My Mini Edition

Where are you based? We are proud to be a local Bayside business. Our commercial kitchen is in Cheltenham and office in Port Melbourne.

Do you have children? Yes – one and one on the way! Our Miss Two was the inspiration for Gourmet Juniors actually!

Gourmet Juniors uses organic produce in all its meals. Pic: My Mini Edition

What did you do before you started Gourmet Juniors? I had a great job in marketing and events. It was a fabulous role and I worked with some incredibly inspirational people but the hours weren’t very family friendly! Its also been a dream of mine to have my own small business again (I ran a nannying agency in a past life!!).

Why start a ready-made meals business? When I returned to work after having my daughter I quickly realised my desperate need for a convenient, but highly nutritious mealtime solution.
Time was tight between daycare pick-up and dinnertime and I wished I was able to go to our local grocer, pick up a ready-made meal filled with all of the goodness that I would cook at home (if I had the time) and have it on the table in a jiffy. Unable to do so I set out to fill this need and here we are today.

The Gourmet Juniors Coconut Chicken Curry

The mini meals contain organic ingredients and free-range meat. Why do you think this the better choice? Growing little bodies and minds need the best nutrition possible, so our meals are handmade using local free-range meats & seasonal organic produce. We believe that a chemical-free wholesome diet filled with real foods provides the best start to life and best nourishes the child. We choose organic vegetables to avoid exposing children to nasty pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. And we also think they taste better, therefore developing the child’s appreciation for real food!

We use free range, antibiotic and hormone free meats for the same reason. Our meats are ethically produced too.

There’s loads of hidden vegies in the Gourmet Juniors Chicken Nuggets

When can children start to enjoy Gourmet Juniors meals? Our meals are designed for little people from around 9 months. They are a perfect next step after purees when tastes have matured a little. Our mini-meals as are made to be chopped or pureed to your child’s desired consistency.

What dish are you most proud of? The Apricot Lamb Tagine is my favourite as it includes the superfood quinoa which is packed full of nutrients and protein. There are also loads of Vitamin C-filled vegetables which makes it a perfect dish at this time of year!

Where are the meals made? All Gourmet Juniors mini-meals are made in a HACCP certified commercial kitchen (the highest level of sanitation) in Cheltenham.

There are 6 meals on the menu, what’s in the pipeline for Gourmet Juniors? We plan to continue to increasing our menu to further entice and develop our little customers’ palettes. We are close to launching our new winter special, Beef Stew.
There will be seasonal additions to the menu but we always welcome suggestions from our loyal customers.

Slow Cooked Lamb Stew by Gourmet Juniors

Where can Melbourne parents find Gourmet Juniors? We select our stocksists very carefully and will always be found in small, local grocers and food stores that share our values of supporting local food producers.
We are therefore proud to be on the shelves of The Leaf Store in Elwood, Organica Café in Hawksburn Village and in Frederick’s of Richmond. We also offer a home delivery service.

And lastly, what’s YOUR favourite adult meal? That’s a hard one! As I spend a lot of time in the kitchen I really relish being served anything at a restaurant! However, if I could pick one thing I am craving at the moment (maybe this is my pregnant craving) it would be deliciously fresh sushi and sashimi!

Find Gourmet Juniors on Facebook and Instagram

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Recycle, recycle we’re going to recycle! Tin cans, bottles, newspapers…

But how about the fruit pouches and their plastic lids? Snack wrappers? In this household we’d go through at least a couple of pouches every day (both kids love them). I dread throwing out the packaging. We try so hard to recycle all we can but because kerbside recycling collections don’t accept them, it all ends up in the rubbish bin. Not anymore.

TerraCycle specialises in recycling and upcycling hard-to-recycle waste, such as beauty and cosmetic products, coffee pods and food packaging. Working with organic food brand Whole Kids, TerraCycle is helping parents and customers recycle this packaging and divert more rubbish from landfill.

Through the Kids Pouch & Snack Recycling Program, Whole Kids is doing its bit for the environment with your help. For each piece of waste recycled, participants can raise money to donate to their chosen school and/or non-profit organisation. The program accepts Whole Kids food pouches, Whole Kids food pouch caps and Whole Kids snack wrappers for recycling.

Mum, dads, schools and playgroups can sign up for free on the TerraCycle website and can post the wrappers and pouches to TerraCycle for free. There is also a growing network of public drop-off locations around Australia, giving everyone the opportunity to drop off their waste for recycling.

Once collected, the food pouches and snack wrappers are cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remoulded to make something new.

VIsit MillieMummyMelbourne on Instagram to win a pack of Whole Kids products for your family.

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To be able to prepare a tasty family dinner I would have to decide what to cook (I really don’t have the time to leisurely flick through recipe books), head to the supermarket with two energetic children (um, no), hope the supermarket has all the ingredients I need (it won’t), hope the fresh ingredients I find are, in fact, fresh (as much as I want to visit the fruit & veg shop, I will not drag my energetic children through there as well) and then hope the family will eat what I come up with. Sometimes they do not.

When I was offered a Dinner Sorted dinner box to try, I was in the middle of a food rut. Spaghetti bolognaise, rice paper rolls, stir fries and tacos are on regular rotation here and while there’s nothing wrong with the meals, they are the same week in, week out. They are simple, but boring. They are quick to prepare but lack variety. And variety is the spice of life.

Dinner Sorted creates the menus and recipes, sources the local ingredients and delivers to your door. All you have to do is enjoy the cooking. Bingo.

Our classic menu box arrived with all the ingredients for four, tasty, balanced and filling meals. Some of the ingredients used in tiny amounts  – olive oil, soy sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper etc – are listed so you can retrieve them from your own pantry but you will find everything else in the box.

An example of the fresh veg included in a typical Dinner Sorted delivery. Pork fillet with apple and greens – my hubby’s fave.

Our menu for the week included a Vietnamese chicken mince and rice noodle bowl, yaki salmon with stir fried veggies and rice, pork fillet with apple, patty pan squash and greens and a haloumi and warm basil couscous salad.

We all enjoyed the meals we made. My husband loved the pork dish and the yaki salmon was my favourite. Millie and Finn ate portions of each meal too, so I didn’t have to prepare separate meals for the kids.

Haloumi and warm basil and couscous salad, made by me! Millie has discovered haloumi is life.

Recipe cards with the ingredients and the method are included and these were easy to follow. The meals were a cinch to make – which is a priority when you have children shadowing your every move.

I loved that with Dinner Sorted’s help, about as much thought went into our meals as it does if I pull something out of the freezer – except it was fresh, healthy and far tastier. Every meal had a big vegetable component and the meals were very generous. We fed the kids as well while only making up the required dishes to feed two people.

One of the best parts is that there’s no food waste – you are given exactly what you need to make the week’s dinners and no more. There’s no throwing away half a bag of carrots, most of the bunches of herbs or leftover portions of cooked rice or pasta. I’m so particular about this and I love that you only get what you need. Watch ABC TV’s War on Waste and you’ll be keen to cut back too.

Dinner Sorted is based in Melbourne and is a family-operated business. The team sources all the fresh ingredients from Melbourne markets. Keeping food mileage low, most of the produce you receive is grown in Victoria, purchased direct from the farmer or at the market, then packed and delivered that day.

The classic menu dinner box includes combination of meat, chicken, seafood and vegetarian dishes served with potatoes, white or brown rice, pasta or grains. Meat and Chicken is always free range, grass fed and chemical free. A low carb dinner box is also available, where pasta and white rice is replaced with vegetable pasta, cauliflower rice, brown rice and other slow carb grains.

Dinner Sorted is offering $25 off the price of a dinner box by subscribing to the Dinner Sorted newsletter.

*MillieMummyMelbourne collab

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We can do better. I was approached to try cloth nappies on Finn and I’m feeling a lot better about being able to reduce the amount of rubbish we create. Since Millie arrived we’ve tossed out hundreds of nappies, contributing to the staggering amount of household waste that ends up in landfill.

But no more. We’ve made the switch to Real Nappies for Finn – affordable, eco-friendly and leak free!

I have wanted to try cloth nappies for a long time and even considered putting them on Millie from the beginning. But I didn’t really know where to find them or where to start, so disposables it was and disposables it stayed. I wish I did my research and found some cloth nappies back then, but better late than never, right?

For my first foray into cloth nappies, I was pleased Real Nappies made everything very easy. It was as simple as laying a cotton insert and liner on the inside of the nappy cover and putting it on the little man. Done.

We’ve been using the nappies for weeks now during the day and have not had a leak! They’re no bulky like I imagined cloth nappies to be and Finn hasn’t had any issues with redness since wearing them.

The covers – Snug Wraps – come in a range of cute, bright colours and are breathable, waterproof and stretchy. The Velcro tabs stay put and ensure a good fit around the waist and the elastic in the legs is soft.

The cotton inserts are free of chlorine bleach, plastics and chemicals and are very absorbent. Finn’s wet nappies never left wetness on his skin. Instructions are included to help you fold the inserts for the absorbency where it’s needed the most.

We used the flushable nappy liners on top of the inserts to catch the poo. It left less mess on the nappy inserts.

The biggest hesitation I had was with washing – we have a tiny laundry and I was worried about buckets of soaking nappies all over the place. Instead, I tried the recommended dry pailing method. It’s basically putting the nappies in a bucket with a lid and leaving them there until it’s time to throw them all in the wash. Where I could I’d dry the nappies on the line and in the sun. They’ve come up almost as good as new.

Real Nappies is a small, family-run business from Auckland, NZ and guarantee that the nappies will last through two babies. If your nappy covers or inserts fail, they’ll be replaced. What a deal.

We’re late to the cloth nappy party, but really, it’s never too late. I’m so pleased we gave them a try because it has been a very successful way to reduce our household waste and do something for the environment without really even trying. I now find Real Nappies as easy to use as disposables. Everyone’s happy – Finn, the Earth and I!

Like to give cloth nappies a try? We have a Real Nappies Top Up Pack to give away, so head on over to Instagram to enter.

*MillieMummyMelbourne was gifted some Real Nappies for the purposes of a review

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