“Mummy, what are your favourite mammaries?” said Belle, at 6.01 this morning. Through the fog, it took me a while to figure out we were discussing memories and not female anatomy.

A great relief, although I do wish she’d asked her dad. This all started over dinner the night before when we had indeed been talking about our favourite memories.

In a rush of maternal love (and possibly selective amnesia) I told the girls that mine were the memories of them being born.

They, like most children, absolutely love stories about themselves and couldn’t get enough of the details.

Obviously I glossed over the gory bits but they wanted to know all about the car ride and the nurses and what they looked like and did they cry, and, and, and!

So now, and probably for the next few days, Belle keeps asking me about my favourite memories. She then snuggles in and gets ready to hear the story all about her.

There’s no doubt about it, fun conversation at the table has revolutionised dinner in our house.

At the end of the day, when everyone is a bit frazzled, it’s easy for meal time to descend into domestic Armageddon.

Regular favourites can be rejected, hungry children can refuse to eat, nobody will try anything new (or if they do, they certainly won’t be ready to like it)…. and so follows the whining and the frustration that drives parents to the brink.

But for us, everything changed when we simply started talking more.

And not just asking questions, but the right kind of questions — giving our children the opportunity to share and use their imaginations.

Of course, dinner time chat can be really simple. A friend of mine uses “what was the best and worst part of your day?” to get her children going and it works like a charm.

This week, as the girls are obsessed with Christmas, we put lots of Christmas questions in a bowl, and at meal time everyone gets to pick one out.

It would be so easy to think of your own, but I actually used a cheat-sheet with some great ideas from www.creativekids.com.

It was a $3.99 download and includes ready-made slips with really fun questions like “what do you think Santa eats for breakfast?”, “What’s one naughty and one nice thing you have done this year?” and “What’s the best present you have ever given someone?”

The download also has daily slips you can add into advent calendars that give you craft ideas, suggestions for family time, or help your children think about others.

It’s simple stuff like “make paper snowflakes”, “bake a Christmas treat” or “take some pet treats to an animal shelter.”

If you do go with the baking option, whether it’s within this context or not, give this recipe a go!

I was told about Nigella’s Christmas Morning Muffins last year and they sounded so delicious I whipped up a gluten and dairy free version to accommodate the allergies in our house.

I absolutely love baking these because they really do make the house smell like Christmas.

I slide in some ground seeds to bump up the protein, fibre and good fats because I always have them around, but those are optional as they are a more costly ingredient.

If you do skip them, just use an extra ounce of one of the flours instead. I also use the Eden organic dried cranberries (Supermart, Marketplace) which are sweetened with apple juice rather than sugar, but you could use any brand.

You could also try fresh cranberries for a more bittersweet approach. If you do, let me know how it works out!

Christmas morning muffins (gluten and dairy free)

Ingredients (makes approximately 30 mini muffins):

5oz almond flour or ground almonds

3oz brown rice flour

1oz linwoods ground seed mix (from Miles — I used the ground sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, flax and goji mix)

2 ½ tsps baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

4oz Sucanet or brown sugar (plus extra for the topping)

4oz (weight) apple sauce (unsweetened)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

2 clementines/satsumas

Approx 350ml milk (I used Hemp, you could use any — obviously use dairy free if need be)

¼ cup melted coconut oil

2 eggs

4oz dried cranberries

Method:

1. Get the eggs and “milk” to room temperature. Melt the oil in a small pan over a very low heat if yours isn’t already liquid.

2. Preheat the oven to 390F. Line the pan with muffin liners and spray lightly with coconut (or other) oil.

3. Mix the flours, seed mix, baking powder, bicarb soda, sucanet, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl. Stir in the dried cranberries.

4. Zest the two satsumas over the flour mix, catching as much as you can.

5. In a large measuring jug, squeeze in the juice of the two satsumas. Now top this up with your milk until the 200ml mark. Whisk in the melted coconut oil, apple sauce and eggs. Make sure everything is at room temperature otherwise the coconut oil will harden. Whisk quickly!

6. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well but lightly.

7. Spoon into muffin cases and sprinkle the tops with a little sucanet.

8. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes (seems a long time but they will need it) or until the tops are firm but springy.

9. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then move to a rack to cool.

The advice given in this article is not intended to replace medical advice, but to complement it. Always consult your GP if you have any health concerns. Catherine Burns BA Hons, Dip ION is the Managing Director of Natural Ltd and a fully qualified Nutritional Therapist trained by the Institute for Optimum Nutrition in the UK. Please note that she is not a Registered Dietitian. For details, please go to www.natural.bm or call 236-7511. Join Catherine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/nutrifitandnaturalnutritionbermuda.