Fab freebies of the week 30/3

Things have been pretty full on for the last few weeks, so I'm very pleased to see that March is done and dusted and there's only one week left at school before the holidays. Phew ! Let's start this weekend off in style with a roundup of the week's best freebies - enjoy !

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It's the end of the month, which means it's time for a new Debenhams freebie ... make sure you sign up if you're not a member yet, it's all free and you get a great freebie every month ! Here's this month's offer : 

Discover No5 through a fresher filter with your exclusive sample of No5 L’EAU, and make a new lip statement with the brand-new ROUGE COCO FLASH collection. Collect your samples from Friday 29th March 2019: simply present your Beauty Club card at your nearest Debenhams store. These exclusive samples will be given out on a first come, first served basis so visit your local Debenhams early to make sure you don’t miss out!

Coca Cola have a great giveaway running with thousands of instant win prizes 

Claim Your £55 Worth of Baby Freebies here !

See for yourself just how comprehensive NutriShield Premium vitamins is by ordering a FREE sample, containing all 6 caplets and capsules.

Lands End are giving away 50 of otheir personalised Easter totes in a free prize draw

One Stop are giving away 2,000 Cadbury Mini Egg Bags 80G, 100 Smarties Medium Easter Eggs and one Apple 9.7inch 32GB iPad for the big prize.

50 READERS TO WIN A BETTERYOU ‘GOOD NIGHT’S START HERE’ SLEEP BUNDLE WORTH OVER £30

You could be one of 100 winners of a Mirenesse Original 24hr Mascara.

This way, to join the Dr Hauschka review panel

There's also a Purity Natural Beauty review panel to sign up for.

GET A FREE PERSONALISED KEYRING when you subscribe to the Dust & Things email list

@echologika

We're offering UK households the chance to sign up for a free sample of our plastic free alternatives to bins and liners. http://www.echologika.com

@EsteeLauderUK

Visit us at your nearest Estée Lauder counter and claim your FREE 10-day sample of the UK's No.1 foundation now*. Over 60 Shades. All skin tones: https://bit.ly/2Ub5zg0 #DoubleWear

You can see previous weeks' freebie roundups by clicking here but be warned, many of the offers are only valid for a short time. Let me know if any have expired and I'll remove them from the roundup.

You may also like to enter my current giveaways :

Giveaway #714 : Win Ultimate Minecraft Master Builder book - closing 4/4

Asmodee UK Board Game Club review : Who Did It?

It's the end of the month, which means it's time to share another review with you that features a family-friendly game from the Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club. Once again, they've introduced us to a game that we'd never heard of before : Who Did It? "Who did what?", I hear you cry. Well, basically ... who pooped ?! Yes, this was more than enough to have the Madhouse kids in fits of giggles before we'd even worked out how to play !

Inside the unassuming cardboard box, slightly bigger than a pack of playing cards, you get six "families" of cards representing different animals : fish, parrots, hamsters, cats, rabbits and tortoises. ("Where are the dogs?", cried Juliette - well, there aren't any in this game, I'm afraid to say !) It's actually very simple to play. Each player takes the six animals in their colour and the youngest player begins, laying down the card of their choice and saying "it wasn't my ... that pooped in the living room, but I think it was someone's ...". Each player then scrambles to be the first to lay down (and clear of blame) this latest animal, naming another new creature in its place. Play continues until someone loses, either because they are the last player with cards or because they have named an animal that everyone has already got rid of.

The loser of each round has to take a poop token - this caused much general hilarity ! - and play continues until one player has three tokens. Whoever has the fewest tokens is then declared the winner. It's a simple game to pick up and play, reminding us of Old Maid type games. The only thing that gets a slight negative mention from us is the huge set of instructions in SEVEN different languages. This is a big waste of paper so surely they could create different versions for each country or just add a link to a website for alternative languages. 

It's a fun game that the Madhouse kids haven't tired of playing yet. To add some extra levels of enjoyment and infectious giggles, the instructions suggest alternative versions to try : who stole the roast? who trashed the trash? and, our favourite, who farted in the car?. It totally appeals to our naughty sense of humour !

The small size of the box means that it's the perfect game for packing in your handbag when travelling - I'll definitely be taking it with us when we go to America this summer and have hours waiting around on the planes and in the airports. I hope we don't get arrested for manically laughing in public !

Disclosure : We received the product from the Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club in order to share our honest review.

#MeatMatters recipe : Beef Fajitas with Sweetcorn Salsa

Fajitas are always popular here at the Madhouse, because they are great fun to make, great fun to eat - it's pointless trying to eat them with a knife and fork, so just roll them up and stuff them in your mouth ! - and they invariably end up tempting the kids to eat far more veggies than if I'd been serving them up and "forcing" them to eat them ! I just cook up the meat with some peppers and onions, then put all the other veggie options in bowls on the table for everyone to dip into ... which they do surprisingly frequently. We usually make them with minced beef, but, having been invited to  join in with the #MeatMatters Challenge with BritMums, I had a look at the SimplyBeefAndLamb.co.uk website and was inspired by their Beef Fajitas with Sweetcorn Salsa dish.

Beef is a source of iron, which helps reduce tiredness and fatigue, as well as providing eight essential vitamins and minerals (Niacin, vitamins B6 and B12, riboflavin, plus iron, zinc, potassium and phosphorus) that support good health and well-being. As we're getting towards the end of term, we are all in desperate need of some extra energy, so that sounded good to me. Pierre said we could call them Feel Fitters instead of Fajitas - I'm not sure it'll catch on though !

Beef Fajitas with Sweetcorn Salsa

ingredients :

450g thin cut beef steaks, cut into strips

½ each red, yellow and green pepper, deseeded, cored and cut into thin strips (I used 1/2 a red pepper)

1 small onion, peeled and sliced

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped or 5ml/1tsp garlic purée

30ml/2tbsp Fajitas seasoning

Juice of 1 lime

10ml/2tsp olive oil

For the Sweetcorn Salsa:

1 can sweetcorn, drained

2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 red chilli, deseeded and diced, optional

2 spring onions, finely chopped

Juice of ½ lime

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

To serve:

4 corn or plain tortilla wraps

Soured cream

Grated cheese

Tomato salsa

Guacamole

Shredded Lettuce

Rice

Time to get chopping ! Thinly slice the onions, garlic, peppers and steak into strips. This is also when you need to prepare any of the side dishes, like the guacamole and sweetcorn salsa, and put the rice on to cook, if serving it as a side dish. (If making the sweetcorn salsa, just throw all the ingredients listed above together in a bowl and mix.)

Heat the oil in a large frying pan then toss in the meat and vegetables. Add the lime juice and fajitas seasoning and cook, stirring frequently, for about  4 minutes or until the beef and vegetables caramelise.

Warm the tortilla wraps in the microwave, as you lay everything out on the table, along with spoons, forks and plates. Serve a tortilla wrap to each person, then everyone can add their own fillings. I started off with sweetcorn salsa and guacamole, then layered on some beef and veg, along with some tomato salsa, and finally scattered over a little grated mozzarella.

As a top tip, when rolling up your fajita, start by folding up the bottom edge of the tortilla, before folding each edge to the middle. This prevents al the filling from falling out when you pick it up to eat !

Disclosure : This post is an entry for the #MeatMatters Challenge, sponsored by Simply Beef and Lamb. Learn more about the benefits of cooking and eating beef and lamb along with recipe ideas and inspiration here!

Book review : The Expired - B.P. Smythe

I've just finished reading The Expired by B.P. Smythe, having read another of his books, Then There Were None, last year (click through for that review), and if there is one thing that I have to say about the author, it's that he has a very vivid imagination !

The Expired has a lot going on, but let's take the toxic father-son relationship between politician Sir Geoffrey and his son Frances as the starting point. Frances is gay and dating a black man - both good enough reasons for his, frankly despicable, father to hate him. Unbeknownst to his father, he is also a transsexual preying on men, and has a damaged personality from his years of abuse in the form of Roxanne. Both men commit despicable acts but it is easier to feel sorry for Frances, as Geoffrey is morally corrupt and frankly unappealing.

But that is not all - far from it ! The novel also reveals a secret governmental campaign, used by MI5, to brainwash certain individuals to be sleeper cells, willing to carry out horrific acts before killing themselves, once they have been activated by key words in a telephone call. This seemingly unbelievable storyline is apparently based on Manchurian Candidates (or sleepers) used during the Korean War and the East West Cold War. I have no idea if this is true or not but the version depicted in the novel is pretty hard to imagine.

The whole novel reads a bit like an overactive Boys' Own comic book, with enough fast action, sex and bad language - both in swear words and also unedited errors - to keep everyone interested, even if they're not usually keen on reading. I was unimpressed by the lack of detail given about people and places - when key characters were killed off, I didn't feel anything because they had not been sufficiently described and built up in my mind, which I thought was a shame. The huge amount of spelling, grammar and editing errors were also a big black mark over this book, and would be easy enough to sort out.

star rating : 3/5

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: BookPublishingWorld (10 Sept. 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1911412728
• ISBN-13: 978-1911412724

Disclosure : I received a copy of the book in order to share my honest review.

What's Cooking at The Madhouse? menu plan 2019 week #13

Last week was the week that wasn't ! When my menu plan post didn't go live on Monday, I should have seen that as a sign, especially when Pierre came down with a tummy bug and kept being sick from Monday night onwards. After my day off on Wednesday, I was ready to go back to work, then I came down with it and somehow managed to sleep for 36 hours straight, waking up every hour to prove I was still alive ! I'm writing off last week's menu plan - the girls (particularly Sophie) did a great job of stepping in and keeping plates and tummies filled with pasta, chicken and frozen pizza (although I didn't eat anything for two days - oops). Well done ! I didn't feel up to going shopping so I'm working with what we have in the freezer this week.

Monday 

dinner - chicken shepherd's pie (I have some milk to use up which can go in the mash)

Tuesday 

dinner - pork enchiladas (after an after school meeting)

Wednesday 

lunch - beefburgers and chips with coleslaw

dinner - Spanish omelette

Thursday 

dinner - spaghetti bolognese (after an after school meeting)

Friday  

 dinner - chicken casserole with green beans and potatoes

Saturday

lunch - McDonald's

dinner - sandwiches/fridge clearout

Sunday

lunch - roast chicken, roast spuds & veg

dinner - sandwiches or leftovers

***Click on my Menu Plans tag to see all my other weekly menu plan blogposts.***

Fab freebies of the week 23/3

It's the weekend ... and it's sunny ... and the flowers are springing into bloom. That all sounds like great news to me. Hope things are just as bright wherever you are. Here's this week's fab freebie roundup to start off the weekend in a good mood !

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Complete the form below to get your free T-shirt and learn what’s important in technology and innovation, delivered right to your inbox. Pick out the one you want, and Mouser will send it straight to your bench.

Apply to be one of 650 lucky hosts to get their hands on a HUGE haul of goodies from SPAR, including food, drink and a license to grill! Every host's SPARbecue Kit will include £150 worth of food and drink, plus fun games and chances to win BIG prizes. Chosen hosts will need to pick up their SPARbecue Kit from a local SPAR store.

Become an Infantino Test & Tell Reviewer

Caboodle are giving 100 Caboodlers the chance to read Melanie Golding's riveting and addictive Little Darlings, before it's out in May.

Take the Tempur challenge and receive a free Tempur Comfort Travel Pillow, available at participating Tempur stores.

Request a sample of Suu Balm itch-relieving moisturiser

Join Nick Jr's Fan Club today and you could grab yourself one of 1,000 welcome packs just for signing up.

Grab some True Nopal Cactus Fruit Water and McCain Home Chips Lighter on Shopmium

PREFUNC is a herbal tea shot that lets you function like normal the day after a big night out.

Love the sound of PREFUNC but want to try it out to make sure it works for you? No problem. Buy our trial pack – a convenient pack of 2 bottles which will cover you for one night. Just take 1 shot at the beginning of your night, and a 2nd after 4 hours or before the end of your night.

Great night. Better tomorrow. (Use code "500FREE" for free product with free delivery.)

Grab a sample of Only The Brave Street fragrance

From McDonald's : Enter for a chance to win 1 of 150 Fun Football Training Packs, each Fun Football Training Pack comprised of 2 x size 3 Footballs & 1 x set of 10 cones.

Looking to try a free sample of Underdog coffee? Just leave your contact details below and let us know if you want ground or whole beans and we’ll send it out to you.

GET A FREE PERSONALISED KEYRING when you subscribe to our email list! (Wait for the pop-up when you go to enter their giveaway)

You can see previous weeks' freebie roundups by clicking here but be warned, many of the offers are only valid for a short time. Let me know if any have expired and I'll remove them from the roundup.

You may also like to enter my current giveaways :

Giveaway #714 : Win Ultimate Minecraft Master Builder book - closing 4/4

Book review : Love's Long Road - G.D. Harper

Last month, I reviewed A Friend In Deed by G.D. Harper, which is the second book in a three-part series, but which works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel. The author kindly offered to send me a copy of the first book, Love's Long Road, so I've recently been catching up on what went before.

While the second novel - A Friend In Deed - is set in the near future, Love's Long Road takes place in the 1970's, mainly in Scotland and partly in London. The key character in this novel, Bobbie Sinclair, pops up in the second episode, and the main character in the second part, Duncan Jones, is Bobbie's friend in this opening tome. The two novels are very different though and Duncan has evolved a lot.

The story opens with young Bobbie at her boyfriend's funeral, following his suicide after she broke things off with him. Bobby blames herself and her way of dealing with things is to throw herself into a string of meaningless sex encounters. This is the 1970's after all ! She soon crosses paths with the charismatic Michael Mitchell and embarks on a relationship with him. She gets some fun, a job, a few doors opened ... then the shock of her life when she realises that he is a gangster and she is in way too deep. Her dreams of being an actress are thrown away as she runs away and starts a new life, desperate to keep him and everything he stands for at bay.

Bobbie is basically a decent human being with a good heart, but many of her life choices had me rolling my eyes at her. Whether in terms of sex, drugs or other rock 'n' roll style choices, we do have to remember, though, that the novel is set in the 1970's, a time when women, in particular, were getting lots more opportunities both in the workplace and also for having fun. The novel shows the tragic and far-reaching negative consequences that can spiral out of a few dodgy decisions, but Bobbie eventually sets out to make things right.

I loved the 1970's backdrop and found that Bobbie was an interesting character to follow. I'm looking forward to the third part now, which will presumably feature Michael and his crime lord lifestyle.

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £9.99

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Matador; UK ed. edition (28 April 2016)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1785890948
• ISBN-13: 978-1785890949

Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.

Giveaway #714 : Win Ultimate Minecraft Master Builder book - closed - winner Michelle O' Neill

If you are a parent of a tween-aged child, I think it's a pretty safe bet that you'll have heard of the Minecraft game. If your child is a fan, they'll love the Ultimate Minecraft Master Builder book from Carlton Kids, which offers top tips and step-by-step guides to completing 30 awesome builds within the game.

Each project is rated a Quick, Intermediate or Master Build and a list of materials is provided for each construction, along with guidance on how long each build will take.

You can find tutorials on all sorts of builds, including forest camp, palace, underwater base, rollercoaster, castle, treehouse, sky fortress, mountain village, ice hotel, aircraft carrier, diner, mushroom house, igloo, beach hut and more !

The book is also full of fascinating Minecraft facts, figures and trivia, as well as hints and tips on how to master the game, plus inspirational profiles of the game's most amazing construction masterpieces. Get ready to stretch your imagination to the limit !

RRP : £14.99

Paperback

320 pages

229 x 153mm

Published Mar 2019

ISBN 9781783124398

for more information : https://www.carltonbooks.co.uk/ultimate-minecraft-master-builder-pb.html

Fancy getting your hands on a copy? Carlton Kids have kindly offered to send a copy of the book to one lucky Madhouse Family Reviews reader. Fill in your entries in the rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

UK only. Closing date : 4/4/19

T & C's : Entries close at midnight on the closing date. Winners will be selected with a random number generator and announced on facebook and in the giveaway post subject line. Please note, you will be contacted by email and/or twitter and if I haven't heard from you after 28 days, I'll have to pick another winner. Prizes will be sent out by the companies or their PR directly to winners. Madhouse Family Reviews cannot be held responsible for any prizes that go astray. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. The winners' personal contact information will be passed on to the PR / Brand responsible and used only for delivery of their prize.

You may also like to enter my other giveaways :

Giveaway #713 : Win The Story of the Second World War for Children - closing 21/3

What's Cooking at The Madhouse? menu plan 2019 week #12

As predicted, last week was a killer, but we made it ! This week and next have lots of after-school meetings, but the main bulk of the work is already done, so we're getting there - phew ! I'll need lots of easy meals for late nights home though, when the kids are already starving when I get home from work. 

Well, we're now Wednesday and I've just realised this post didn't go live on Monday morning. After school on Monday, I had a meeting that started at 4.30pm. It's the end of term meetings to fill in the reports together and usually lasts an hour. This one went on until 8.30pm ! Then all night, Pierre was being sick so I had to take a day off work to look after him. This week can only get better !

Monday 

dinner - chicken gyros (spiced chicken breast), already seasoned and chopped so it's nice and quick to cook ! ... served with rice and sweetcorn

Tuesday 

dinner - spaghetti carbonara (with extra leeks in the cream & bacon sauce - nobody will even notice !)

Wednesday 

lunch - sausage bake with mash and beans

dinner - chicken and/or prawn stir-fry with noodles and loads of veg

Thursday 

dinner - something with a pack of mince but not sure what yet ... could be chilli, spag bol or shepherd's pie (they all start out the same anyway !)

Friday  

 dinner - chicken & veg curry & rice ... it'll have to be something like a korma for the kids not to turn up their noses though

Saturday

lunch - McDonald's, I'm guessing ... although Sophie is off out with her friends so this might change

dinner - sandwiches/fridge clearout

Sunday

lunch - roast chicken, roast spuds & veg

dinner - sandwiches or leftovers

***Click on my Menu Plans tag to see all my other weekly menu plan blogposts.***

Fab freebies of the week 16/3

Well, this week has been hectic, to say the least. The Norwegian teachers have been and gone and now it's time for a weekend of quality time with the kids before all the after-school meetings kick off next week. Only three weeks and it's the holidays again - I feel like I need them right now ! To kick things off in style, here's another round-up of the week's freshest freebies. Have a great weekend, whatever you're up to !

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Enter Coca Cola's latest giveaway - hundreds of instant win prizes including 240 pairs of Premier League tickets plus £50 pp for travel, 640 official club shirts and 1280 Coca-Cola & Premier League branded footballs. Good luck ! (Daily entry until 21st April)

Claim your Free Sample Plus £1 OFF any pack of DryNites nappies

Grab some free Purina dog chews or free pork puffs on Shopmium

There are still a couple of weeks left to try to win a can of corned beef

Write at least one review on Psydro to be in with a chance of winning a voucher - 100 winners will be picked at random on Friday 29th March 2019 - the more reviews you leave, the greater your chance of winning!

TRY NORMADERM PHYTOSOLUTION DOUBLE CORRECTION DAILY CARE MOISTURISER. COMPLETE THE FULL FORM to request your free samples of Normaderm Phytosolution from Vichy.

Sign up to our email database, and as well as receiving amazing deals and discounts, you'll get a FREE SensatioNail Peel Off Polish worth £6.

Guess the twenty films/TV titles and go in the draw to win one of thousands of prizes with Hask Hair (Erm, I've only got four right so far ! lol)

Do you want to receive a complimentary edit of 111SKIN products? Simply fill in this quick questionnaire before the 31st March 2019 to be in with a chance. The first 1,000 people to complete the survey will be sent an envelope filled with travel-sized skincare luxuries.

Become a taste tester for Eat Natural bars

Select some free scent samples from Valentte

Sign up below and you could be 1 of 50 lucky entrants to receive a free sample of Eucerin Hyaluron-Filler Night Peeling & Serum.

If you wear waterproof footwear as part of your outdoor gear and would like to take part in a Nikwax product performance trial, please complete your details below by Thursday 28th March 2019. If you are selected you will be sent a trial pack. You will be required to trial the product between Monday 15th April and Monday 29th April 2019. Prizes up for grabs.

Request a 15ml sample of Aesop's In Two Minds Facial Hydrator

First 5,000 to enter - WIN A SURPRISE NAIL STRIP SET

You can see previous weeks' freebie roundups by clicking here but be warned, many of the offers are only valid for a short time. Let me know if any have expired and I'll remove them from the roundup.

You may also like to enter my current giveaways :

Giveaway #713 : Win The Story of the Second World War for Children - closing 21/3

Giveaway #712 : Win 2 x The Nutcracker and the Four Realms DVD - closing 20/3

Kids' book review : Captain Cat and the Treasure Map - Sue Mongredien

Captain Cat and the Treasure Map is the first book in a brand new series of highly illustrated piratical adventures that will delight newly confident readers and their families. The author, Sue Mongredien, has already had over a hundred children's books published, including the Oliver Moon and Secret Mermaid series for Usborne and the Prince Jake books for Orchard. She is also one of the authors behind the internationally best-selling Rainbow Magic series, Daisy Meadows. The illustrator Kate Pankhurst also has some great successes under her belt, including the Fantastically Great Women and Mariella Mystery Investigates series.

Captain Cat, also known as Patch, is a clever ship's cat who lives aboard The Golden Earring pirate ship, along with her friends Cutlass the parrot and Monty the monkey. She is frequently the one to get the pirate crew out of trouble, although they never actually realise the half of what she does to save their skins !

In this first adventure, the pirate crew discover a treasure map and set out to find what is waiting where X marks the spot. Little do they know, the treasure is cursed and it's up to Captain Cat to keep them out of trouble ! 

The texts are short enough for beginner readers to read and each page is illustrated with humorous drawings, to help break up the text into manageable sections. There are also lots of jokes, courtesy of Cutlass the parrot, which Pierre thought were very funny !

It's an enjoyable new series with lots going on on each page, which is a great way of motivating new or reluctant readers. The second book, Captain Cat and the Great Pirate Race, will be out in July.

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £5.99

Publishing 7th Feb 2019

Disclusure : We received the book in order to write an honest review.

Book review : Children of the Cave - Virve Sammalkorpi

Children of the Cave is the translation of a Finnish book, which won both the 2017 Savonia Literature Prize and the Kuvastaja Prize for the best Finnish Fantasy Novel. After reading the first few pages, I had to flick to the back and reread the blurb, to check that I wasn't actually reading a factual work presenting the findings of an olde-worlde research trip !

The book is set in 1819 and the writer of the research notes, Iax Agolasky, who is a young Russian assistant to a French scientific explorer, is employed to accompany a research trip to the isolated Russian wilderness. He is a young, educated man who finds it quite hard to fit in with and be respected by the rowdy, hard-drinking and frequently uncouth group of researchers.

When they stumble across a group of strange creatures living in a cave, they are unsure how to react. They resemble a strange cross-breed of children and animals, making it hard to know how to treat them. Is it OK to kill them and bottle up various specimens to experiment on or should they be respected and looked after? Tensions mount in the camp and Agolasky finds himself getting secretly closer to the children, in spite of the risks.

Despite the writing being recorded in a series of notes - frequently incomplete or weather-damaged, with pages missing, so you need to read between the lines and imagine what was going on and how things were developing in the camp - you get an intense and moving glimpse into the young man's thoughts and experiences. He is the only member of the team to respect the children and care about their safety, something which - in much vaster terms - makes you think about how we react when faced with our own "others", be that through different nationalities, religions or sexual orientations. With a very Neo-Victorian, Gothic feel, I was frequently reminded of the atmosphere of Frankenstein's Monster, with the ethics of science, faith and choosing where the limits of "right" and "wrong" are set constantly at the back of my mind.

It's a very interesting and thought-provoking read, with moments of real emotion. I could really feel for Agolasky, who seems to me to be the only morally-intact member of the research team, but maybe all the great scientific discoveries and cures for past illnesses would never have been found with such high moral standards. It would be a great title for a book club to discover, as there are so many different viewpoints that could be offered and argued over.

Children of the Cave sets the tone for the rest of the exciting 'There Be Monsters' series. If you need another reason to buy a copy, remember that 50p from each book sold goes to charity.

star rating : 4/5

Children of the Cave

172pp, paperback with flaps, £12

Published February 2019

ISBN 978-1-908670-50-2

for more information : https://www.peirenepress.com/

Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.

What's Cooking at The Madhouse? menu plan 2019 week #11

Well, the weekend was extremely busy but it's only going to get worse for the next couple of weeks - breathe deeply ! I picked up loads of meat that was reduced for quick sale in Lidl so it's been dumped in the freezer and will be used up throughout the week hopefully. Sophie will probably get dragged into cooking duties this week, if she's still up for it !

Monday 

dinner - chicken drumsticks baked with tomatoes and onions, served with rice

Tuesday 

dinner - pancakes, because I forgot to make them last week - oops ! Not sure what the filling will be - probably ham and egg, with optional cheese, but I'm open to whatever the kids want

Wednesday 

lunch - fricadelles (spicy sausages) with spaghetti & ratatouille

dinner - I'm off out for a meal with the Norwegian teachers, so either leftovers or frozen pizza for the kids

Thursday 

dinner - pork paupiettes (little balls of sausage meat wrapped in a thin pork fillet) with ebly and carrots

Friday  

 dinner - chicken casserole with boiled potatoes and green beans

Saturday

lunch - I think we're off to a concert by train, if I remember correctly, so something quick from the station probably !

dinner - McDonald's? Not sure what time we get back - if not, sandwiches/fridge clearout

Sunday

lunch - roast chicken, roast spuds & veg (and loads of gravy !) with the Madhouse grandparents :)

dinner - sandwiches

***Click on my Menu Plans tag to see all my other weekly menu plan blogposts.***

Fab freebies of the week 9/3

Here's this weekend's roundup of the best new UK freebies - enjoy :)

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Quick reminder : Know a child who loves Barbie? At Smyths Toys, they can be anything! Celebrate 60 years of Barbie with a FREE in-store 'You Can Be Anything' event on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th of March. We’ve got a dress up box of Barbie careers just waiting to be explored. Strike a pose for your photo in the Career Barbie Box and pick up an amazing Barbie goody bag.

Calling all Debenhams Beauty Club Members! Claim your FREE mascara & perfume from Carolina Herrera.

Fill in the form for a Vegan Protein Powder Free Sample

Soothing & Moisturizing All Natural COCONUT OIL for Face & Skin - Subscribe to get a free sample!

The Insiders are looking for 100 owners and their cats to try PURINA® PRO PLAN® with OPTISENSES™, a scientific and nutritious cat food.

A great offer from Sopost ... Discover M·A·C Powder Kiss: our Lipstick with a blotted, moisture-matte finish. Sign up below to claim your free swatch sample of ‘Devoted to Chili’ Powder Kiss Lipstick; a warm brick red. Sample size 0.05g. #MeetYourMatte

Anker have a great giveaway with 101 prizes up for grabs - Prizes:

1st Prize: Samsung Galaxy S10

2nd Prize: Anker Wireless Charger (40 Available)

3nd Prize: PowerLine II 3-in-1 Cable (60 Available)

Grab yourselves a voucher for a FREE glass of Jameson's whiskey, ginger & lime

For your chance to win a bottle of Zoflora EVERY DAY, try your luck at the Wheel of Paw-tune game (250 prizes up for grabs)

There are 2,000 free tickets to the National Homebuilding & Renovating Show at NEC, Birmingham

You can see previous weeks' freebie roundups by clicking here but be warned, many of the offers are only valid for a short time. Let me know if any have expired and I'll remove them from the roundup.

You may also like to enter my current giveaways :

Giveaway #713 : Win The Story of the Second World War for Children - closing 21/3

Giveaway #712 : Win 2 x The Nutcracker and the Four Realms DVD - closing 20/3

Book review : Into The River - Mark Brandi

I'm not sure who picked the cover picture for Mark Brandi's Into The River, but it's brilliant - fiery red and troubling, moody, dark skies, leading down to the intriguing, inviting, mesmerising waves that seem to want to drag you down to see what lies below ... or at least what lies beneath the cover !

Into The River was first published in 2018 in the author's native Australia under the title Wimmera and this original title - the name of a region in the state of Victoria - gives an idea of the Australian setting. Think flour mills and grain storage silos, sheep and national parks ... err, that's about as good as it gets !

Ben and Fab, two childhood friends, spend their days playing cricket, fishing for yabbies (like lobsters), riding their BMX bikes and lusting after a pair of Nike Air Maxes. They're just typical eleven-year-old kids, drifting towards high school and their teenage years. They don't talk about Fab getting hit by his father or Ben being unnerved by his next door neighbour's sudden death. When a burly newcomer, Ronnie, arrives in town, the boys stake him out, convinced he's a secret agent, or at least some guy who's bigger than Fab's dad. He offers Ben his first job around his house ... and a whole lot more.

Time moves on and Ben moves away. Twenty years later, Fab picks up the narration. Two local boys spot a strange wheelie bin in the river and, pulling it out, discover that its lid has been painstakingly bolted shut. This will be the event that unlocks the truth about what went on in the past.

As a child of the same generation, I loved the portrayal of the boys back in the eighties. Modern readers, used to mobile phones, internet and endless child safety campaigns, probably won't really understand how kids could end up in these kinds of situations, but back then, it definitely happened. I can remember heading off for the day with my friends with no way that my parents could get in touch with me, unless I decided to call home from a phone box. I can also remember hearing the odd tale at school that would certainly raise a few shocked looks now, and much bigger stories involving famous people, such as Rolf Harris, Jimmy Saville and Michael Jackson, to name but a few, are finally making their way into the headlines.

I loved the way the story was told, with lots left to the reader's imagination. It's only a short book - about 240 pages - but certainly packs a punch.

Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.

Giveaway #713 : Win The Story of the Second World War for Children - closed - winner Melanie Jane Stirling

This year marks the eightieth anniversary of the start of the Second World War, a war which saw horrific numbers of casualties in the trenches but also at home, with families hiding away in air raid shelters when deadly bombers brought the danger straight into Britain itself. My grandad shared many stories of his time fighting in Europe and my grandmother on the other side of the family told us of life in wartime Britain, with women going out to work for the first time and struggling to find food to fill the family's tummies, but also the great sense of solidarity and looking out for each other in the neighbourhood.

The Story of the Second World War for Children is a great resource for explaining what the world was like at the time, giving details of the causes of the war, what it was like living through the war years themselves and finally the happiness and sheer relief when the end of the war was announced.

The texts are short but they are packed with detailed information and there are numerous illustrations and photographs to help break up the texts, making it an approachable book, even for reluctant readers. It's the perfect resource for school projects, but is also an enjoyable read for leisure.

There are oodles of pictures, with many photos, diagrams and reproductions of posters, which really help give you an idea of how things were at the time. There are also feature boxes, which develop a topic that is likely to be of particular interest to readers, such as life inside a U-boat or tips for being a great jungle fighter. You can also take a look at the inside of famous tanks, aircraft, U-boats and aircraft carriers.

While the book features some immensely sad and destructive moments, such as the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it also shows how the war brought about major advances in weaponry but also medicine and technology.

Paperback - 64 pages - 245 x 283mm

Published March 2019

ISBN 9781783124503

for more information : www.carltonbooks.co.uk/iwm-story-of-second-world-war-kids-pb.html 

I have a copy of the book to give away to a lucky Madhouse Family Reviews reader. Fill in your entries in the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

UK only. Closing date : 21/3/19

T & C's : Entries close at midnight on the closing date. Winners will be selected with a random number generator and announced on facebook and in the giveaway post subject line. Please note, you will be contacted by email and/or twitter and if I haven't heard from you after 28 days, I'll have to pick another winner. Prizes will be sent out by the companies or their PR directly to winners. Madhouse Family Reviews cannot be held responsible for any prizes that go astray. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. The winners' personal contact information will be passed on to the PR / Brand responsible and used only for delivery of their prize.

You may also like to enter my other giveaways :

Giveaway #712 : Win 2 x The Nutcracker and the Four Realms DVD - closing 20/3