House full of blokes

Ingredients 2 cups plain flour 4 tablespoons sugar 4 teaspoons baking powder 2 eggs 2 cups milk 25g butter Method Sift dry ingredients in a large bowl Beat eggs and milk together lightly Make a well in dry ingredients Gradually add eggs and milk beating to incorporate.  Beat until smooth Leave to stand Heat a pan over a medium heat. Melt the butter and coat the base of the pan with it. Pour the remaining butter into the mixture and stir to mix.  Cook ladles of batter in the pan. Turn over once bubbles pop on the surface of the pancake. Serve with syrup. 

Ingredients 1 onion finely chopped 1 red or green pepper - deseeded and roughly chopped 2 cloves garlic - chopped or crushed 1 litre chicken stock 2 cups rice (spanish rice if you can get it or substitute with medium grain or arborio rice) Olive oil 3 or 4 large ripe tomatoes roughly chopped Fresh parsley - chopped 1 or 2 fillets firm white fleshed fish of your choice cut into cubes 1kg mussels - cleaned and steamed open 500g raw prawns (either peeled with tails on or in the shell) 1-2 tablespoons paella seasoning - if you can get it or mix smoked paprika, turmeric, salt and pepper 1/2 cup frozen peas Lemon wedges for serving Method Heat a paella pan or large shallow fry pan over a medium heat Add the olive oil, red pepper, onion and garlic and fry until the onion is soft and opaque Add the rice and stir to coat in the oil, fry for 1-2 minutes Add spices, chicken stock and tomatoes - stir to mix in Bring to an even simmer and cook stirring occasionally until th...

Looking for items that you have lost usually takes more effort and thought than standing at the door of your very messy bedroom and hoping to spot it, this technique for finding things along with holding the fridge or pantry doors wide open is very limited and often unsuccessful. Mums don't have any special 'finding things super powers' - even though they often appear to possess them.  In fact we rely on looking for things in systematic ways to find lost items.  Here are some of the tricks we use - you might like to try them for yourself sometime! Stop and think about the last time you had the item, where you were and what you did when you got home or after you last remember having or using it. Check the logical places i.e. the pockets of the clothing you were wearing, the scary drawer that everyone's missing stuff gets chucked in, your jacket, your school bag If you have no luck with that start looking in places where lost things often turn up i.e. under th...

This can be a really hard one with the demands of school, sport, social life and work. Getting enough sleep to have energy to get through the day can be a problem.  Teenagers need about 9 hours sleep each night (by adulthood most of us need between 6 and 8 hours a night) - but this is a challenge when trying to enforce a bedtime is a futile exercise and sleeping through to lunchtime is seen as a preferable option.  Unfortunately the sleeping to lunchtime is a holidays and weekend luxury and even then it doesn't always work like that if you have work or sport commitments. 11 ways to improve your sleeping habits Sleep tips for teenagers There are some pretty major consequences to not getting enough sleep: You could be irritable, grumpy, quick tempered, argumentative and generally not nice to be around - this is the one that affects your family the most. You might be unable to perform at your best whether it is at work, school or sport. Lack of sleep limits your abil...

In fact clean clothes are a good idea in general.  Remember you also need to pick up the dirty clothes from your bedroom floor, wash them, dry them, fold them and put them away!  You don't want to be 'sniff testing' clothing from the floor because you missed some of those steps.  For expert advice on doing the laundry click the link below - don't arrive at Mum's with a big bag of dirty washing - not cool! Some expert tips for washing your clothes

No girl will ever want to kiss you unless you brush your teeth.  That means often, not just every now and then - everyday twice a day.  Girls are funny about that sort of stuff!