What I Ate Wednesday (7.5.14)

I'm sorry that these seem to be the only posts I'm posting right now, but I've been so busy lately! Got a holiday haul video coming up soon though so stay tuned :) 

Breakfast was once again berries with some porridge :) I have Quaker Oats original mixed in with cinnamon and almond milk, just to make it a bit more flavourful. I'm really missing red currants though..

Was at work today, so lunch was this wholewheat pasta and chicken salad from Asda. Actually, it was surprisingly nice for a pre-made lunch! Not enough chicken, but there never is in these things. I've been instructed to eat no bread by my trainer so my new favourite cheese and chorizo baguette from my local coffee shop is out of the window!

 I also had a natural brazil, almond and sultana snack bar.

Dinner was my all time favourite spice packs; the Nandos Lemon and Herb rub! I definitely recommend baking these, do not fry them, the seasoning burns off onto the pan and it ends up tasting really plain. I had it with sweet potato mash and veg. I made a huge portion of veg so I could half it with tomorrow's lunch (which is chicken cous cous and veg!) 

Despite the fact I am on a very healthy diet for the next month (as well as Grenade capsules which I'll be reviewing after a few weeks) I need my chocolate fix. To be fair this is a banana pancake made with three quarters of a banana and an egg, so it's pretty healthy, all but the small handful of chocolate chips I added for flavour. We all need our chocolate though! 

What did you eat today? Leave yours below! 

xo. 

What I Ate Wednesday

Ahh another Wednesday, another food blog! 

I must say, although I love fashion and beauty to the ends of the earth, I do love writing these food blogs! I spend so long perusing the internet for recipes and pictures of food on Pinterest.. I think I may have a problem. Now before you think I was on a huge fruit craze today, I ate nothing but sweets and burgers and chips yesterday so I kinda had to be good! Anyways here's my food for today :)

Breakfast was, despite the misleading photograph, porridge! I have the original quaker oats wholegrain porridge which I add cinnamon too. I then had a few handfuls of berries, some nuts and a pinch from my seed mix. It's so so yummy! I actually weirdly now look most forward to breakfast, which come 2 years ago I never even used to eat, let alone class it as my favourite meal of the day!

Lunch was a tuna salad wrap, I did mix this with a tiny bit of mayo, but I've come to the conclusion I'm just really not a fan of it anymore! I also had a bowl of fruit as you can see. I have a very very weird obsession with bananas. I like crave them constantly, and I have no idea why! (Before any of my friends suggest, no I'm definitely not pregnant again! I used to crave things I hated while I was pregnant with Tayla, like pickle sandwiches.) Either way, I suppose it's better than me craving so much chocolate. Damn my sweet tooth.

For a little pre-gym snack I had some earl grey tea (of course) and a tiny bit of my chocolate heart I got for Mother's day. I've recently decided I need to get back into reading more often, I'm a huge geek so I read quite a lot but I tend to leave big breaks in between reading books so I've started this new series! Which I aim to finish before I go on holiday in June. It's only 3 (biggish) books, I can do it :).

 Dinner was old faithful, my lovely stir fry. Today's was beef with Chinese Bbq sauce, which I must say is definitely my favourite, I could have eaten this twice quite easily. 

Dessert today was supposed to be a crumble.. I layered some peach slices at the bottom of the ramekin and then added some raspberries and strawberries then a bit of granola mixed with golden syrup. It um, yeah wasn't cooked completely when I took it out of the oven after 7 minutes.. in my defence, my oven usually cooks things at warp speed. Even though it was just warmed through, was pretty tasty for a failed dessert! 

I'm also probably going to have one of those Ritz chocolate's when I go upstairs, they were on offer in Tesco so it would have been rude not to!

What did you eat today? Feel free to leave your links below!

xo.

What I ate Wednesday.. On Thursday

Ah my damn memory, I forgot to photograph anything yesterday so thought I'd give you last weeks WIAW considering I couldn't post due to computer issues and add it to a What I ate Thursday!

 

Last week's breakfast was pancakes with greek yoghurt, red currants, blueberries and strawberries with some syrup. I adore these banana pancakes, and literally could eat them everyday, but you apparently shouldn't have too many eggs in a week and considering these are two eggs per recipe, probably best to leave it at just a few times a week. Either way it was lovely!

This morning I actually had something completely different! I'm not usually a fan of porridge to be honest, but I added some cinnamon, a handful of mixed unsalted nuts and raisins and some red currants and blueberries and it was pretty great! So filling as well. 

Last week's lunch was homemade leek and potato soup with sweet chilli crackers a handful of grapes and an apple. I literally am addicted to making my own soups. Yesterday's soup was swede carrot and leek with thyme and coriander. They're so filling and so healthy! Makes me feel less guilty if I skip out on my run on a Wednesday.

Thursday is gym day with my personal trainer, so I always have something chicken related. Usually it's chicken with rice but seriously there's only so much chicken and rice one person can eat. This is with a vinaigrette dressing. 

One of my favourite meals lately is Nandos rubbed chicken with cous cous and salad. This is the lemon and herb Nandos spice packet with Aromatic Thai style cous cous. It's so filling and oh so healthy too! I realise it must look like I eat healthy like literally all the time, but trust me I don't, I tend to eat healthy meals and then snack.. everyone deserves a little binge day once in a while! 

As if to prove my theory above right, I had chicken and bacon pasta with garlic bread for dinner. Yeah it was like way over however many calories I usually have for dinner, but I'm 20, can't deny myself a nice carby dinner once in a while! Actually this was the first time in about 3 or 4 weeks I've not had pasta so it was deserving, especially after going up another 10kg on my squats and going up to a 105kg on the leg press! I always make my own creamy sauces, this one was done with light philidelphia, a little milk some garlic and chives and parsley added in.

I had pudding today and considering I'm out of my ski mousse's I had some strawberry blubbery and red currants with natural yoghurt and a little maple syrup (like a teeny bit I promise this looks like more than it is!)

Last week's snack was my homemade oatmeal cookies a few fruit buttons and a cup of Earl Grey (of course!). I'm addicted to these little oatmeal cookies and the chocolate ones tastes like a brownie! 

Anyways there's my WIAW's (sort of) I hope you enjoyed reading them! Feel free to post yours below, even if it's now nearly Friday I'd still like to read!
xo.

Wednesday Recipe - Corn Chowder soup!

Instead of the old WIAW where I eat pretty much the same thing I did last week, I thought I'd show you all a recipe for what I'm having for lunch; Corn Chowder soup!

I found the recipe somewhere online, but changed it quite a bit so I suppose it's pretty much my own now. I'm always annoyed that recipes are for loads of people, so I've tailored this recipe to one serving to make it easier, although obviously you can just double it up for 2 people.

Ingredients

- Anchor light spreadable 7g

- Red pepper - 30g diced

- White onion - 10g diced

- Turkey bacon (or pancetta whichever you fancy) - 2 rashers cut into strips

- OXO chicken stock cube made up to about 250ml

- Sweetcorn - 75g

- Potato - 70g cut into cubes

- Onken Fat free natural yoghurt - 30g

- Parsley

- Cumin

1. Melt the butter off in a saucepan and then add the onion, pepper and turkey bacon. Fry off gently until softened.
2. Add the stock and bring to the boil, this is where I added a dash of cumin as I wanted my soup to have a bit of spice to it, this is completely optional. 
3. Leave to simmer for a few minutes and then taste to see if any salt or pepper is needed. Then add the potato and bring back to the boil.
4. Add the sweetcorn and leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the potato is cooked.
5. After the potato is cooked, transfer to a blender and blend until pretty much smooth. It will still be a tad thick and a tiny bit lumpy, but that's normal and I mean come on, nobody like a watery soup.
6. Put back into the pan and add the yoghurt, cooking gently on a low heat. Then add the parsley and a few cubes of crispy pancetta on top if you want and you're done! 

If you want to made this soup a few days ahead, just make up to stage 5 and put in a sealed container in the fridge. Just heat back up then add the yoghurt and simmer for a few minutes on the day you want to eat it! I had mine with a few crackers but you can serve it with bread or anything you like really. It's a really filling lunch and only 259 calories with only 7 calories from fat. Perfect for these chilly winter days.

Hope you have a great Wednesday and as always, feel free to post your WIAW's and comments below!

xo.

What I Ate Wednesday x2!

So I've been a bit M.I.A lately I actually did take all the photos for a WIAW last week and then ended up too busy to actually write/post it so I thought I'd give you guys a bit of a double whammy tonight!

The reason I've been so busy is because I've recently started working for a wonderful Startup company called HypeBadger (click the link and sign up, like their Facebook and follow on Twitter, pretty please!) as a social media and content production intern. The site tracks all of your favourite shows, movies, games, books and more as well as notifying you of new upcoming projects and then notifies you of any news on release dates etc. It's a great site and I'm really enjoying working for them, it's just a tad time consuming when you have a 3 year old, gym to go to and uni as well so my blog seems to have taken a back seat lately, I've not forgotten about you I promise!

Anyways there's my little life update, still on the hunt for a paid position somewhere just nowhere seems to think I'm suitable, tis a pain! But now on with the food!

Breakfast 

This is last week's breakfast, yes it's my usual fruit granola with added fruit. They didn't have my red currants in Asda last week so I had to settle for raspberries which aren't my favourites but ah well. I also had my drinking yoghurt and tea of course.

Lunch

Okay so I've been told that if I want to have pasta to have it at lunch time (I don't remember if I've mentioned that..memory like a sieve) so I decided to have my spaghetti bolognese for lunch. Actually thinking about it, this first day is actually a What I ate Thursday, hence the pasta. I always tend to have something a bit more carby on a Tuesday or Thursday so that it doesn't matter as much as I work it off at the gym an hour or so later. 

Dinner

After the carb fuelled lunch, I had a pretty healthy stir fry (I can't help it, I'm addicted) which does actually have a tonne of veg in, the noodles just always end up on top. Also had a few prawn crackers as I'm one of those weird people who needs something salty and crunchy with a meal.

Snack/Dessert

Yes. I am still a child. I don't care how old I am, I will always love jelly and ice cream. Me and my friend were actually saying they should sell it in restaurants.. maybe one day!

Now for this weeks :) 

Breakfast

I do eat other things for breakfast! I decided that I fancied something a bit different and I remember my Aunt had posted a recipe on Facebook for her super healthy pancakes. These are made with 2 eggs and a mashed banana. Yep, that's all folks! I didn't believe it would work either but they were bloomin' lovely as she'd say! I also topped it with a handful of strawberries, blueberries and red currants as well as a little lemon juice and touch of syrup.

Lunch 

I've really got to try to stop buying subways for lunch on a Wednesday just because it's easier, so today I put a jacket potato in the oven for when I got back from taking Tayla to nursery. I'm not always a fan of jackets because sometimes the potatoes aren't the best, but this one was perfect! All crispy and fluffy. I topped it with some tuna mayo and served with a salad, apple and pear green tea and a yummy clementine

Snack

Umm.. I got hungry after picking Tayla up. Usually I can wait until dinner for food, but she was having one and it looked delicious so I had to have one too! I have my scones plain because that's just how I prefer them. I do like them warmed up,  but my microwave's broke at the moment, so cold had to do. 

I try and drink more water, but milk and fruit juice always seem so much more appetising.

Dinner

Looking back, my lunch should have been my dinner.. In my defence, I didn't know I was having this until about 6pm as I didn't have anything else to eat. It's chicken, mozzarella and smoked pancetta filled pasta with chicken. I know it looks really fattening and yes I am healthy 90% of the time but tis hard to have veg and that when my mum's bought this! I probably shouldn't have had it due to my cold giving me another stupid cold sore and you're not supposed to eat pasta when you have them but hey. I made my own sauce with WeightWatchers garlic onion and chive cream cheese and some milk, was lovely! 

I also had a glass of apple juice and a chocolate mousse, but didn't think to photograph them. 

What did you eat today?

Leave yours below and I'll happily read them :)

xo

Homemade Face mask

So considering I'm currently unattached (boohoo and all that) I spent my Valentines night in with the family. But to be fair a Chinese takeaway and then watching the Notebook with your girl friend (across the internet, weirdly enough) is just as good for me!

Due to the darn weather, my skins not been doing so well of late, so I was in dire need of some TLC and thought I'd try my hand at a homemade face mask. We can all get stressed sometimes and there's nothing I like more than having a nice long bath with some candles and a face mask. I've never made anything like this before so I was a bit skeptical. I researched quite a lot and came across the Lemon and honey sugar scrub. I've been ill quite a lot lately so I had an abundance of lemon and honey in the house.

Ingredients - 1 and a half tbsp honey

1 and a half tbsp sugar (granulated)

1 tbsp lemon juice

You pretty much just mix it all together until it thickens slightly. I actually made mine a tad too runny and it ended up slipping off my face so I'd say you want as little lemon juice as possible, just add it bit by bit. Apply a small amount to your face and neck, leave it for 5 minutes and then rinse off with a warm flannel. It left my skin feeling quite tingly and very soft, so I recommend it highly! And it's so easy to do as well.

Have you ever tried to make your own face masks?

Hope you've had a great weekend!

xo

The Homemade Manicure

So last week I was feeling a little bored, a little down and thought I'd give myself a little pick me up by giving myself a mini manicure. Now I'm no professional at all, and it's not even really a proper manicure, but I always find it thoroughly relaxing and there's something about doing my nails that always makes me feel good.

Here's everything I used (excluding the sink!). 

1. First take off any remaining polish from your nails with any old nail polish. I like to use the cleansing ones as my nails can be a bit dry sometimes. Then go fill up the sink with warm water and soap and just soak your hands for a few minutes. I've heard not to clip your nails before, and just file them down but this always seems to make my nails break off so I clip a bit then file them so they're more rounded. It's much easier to do this after you've soaked your nails as they're softer :)

2. Paint them! Start with a base coat, I use Collection 2000's 2 in 1 nail strengthener (I find it stops chipping a lot better than normal base coats!). I wasn't originally a fan of the Elegance touch rapid dry spray, but it's done me well to just dry them off so I don't have to wait ages in between coats. Just a quick spray then you're onto the colour. I used Barry M 279 bright pink, trying to stop just going for reds over and over! I always use two coats of colour. 

3. Wait for them to dry, or use the spray, then use a top coat. Again I use the Collection 2000 one, it's just always done me well! Did my nails at the weekend and not a single chip yet!

4. If you're like me, and have tiny nails then inevitably, you're going to get some on your fingers. This is where the eyeliner brush comes in. Of course make sure it's not the same one you use for your eyes that could be pretty painful! Just dip it into the remover and brush it over the sides and anywhere you've accidentally painted. 

Then voila! You're all done.

As I said, I'm definitely not a professional and I know I haven't used any of the tools really used in any normal manicure. But if you're feeling down and want a little pampering but don't have the money to go out, give this a try and have a little 'me time'.

Have a great day!

xo

What I ate Wednesday #3

Love doing these posts, even if I do forget to photograph until I've eaten half of the meal sometimes!

Breakfast

I usually either have toast or Granola for breakfast, just not really a breakfast person if I'm honest! This is the Tesco's finest wholemeal with grains loaf, it's a tad different but still nice, and toasts better than my usual Kingsmill does! 

Lunch 

For lunch I once again had subway! I don't know why I just don't think about lunch when I'm doing a food shop so I never have anything in, plus I have to walk past Subway after dropping Tayla off, so I might as well go in. Today I was good and had the chicken tikka salad bowl with ranch sauce. I also had a big glass of orange juice, which you can see me propping up on my bed here. 

Snack

I never quite feel full for long after a subway so I had an afternoon snack before picking Tayla up from nursery. It's the graze Cherry fudge sundae which consists of almonds, dried cherries and cherry infused raisins with tiny chocolate fudge squares. It was really nice actually! I'm a big fan of Graze, it's one of the only times I can eat chocolate and that for snacks without feeling like I'm eating unhealthily!

Dinner

For dinner I had a homemade chicken curry with wholegrain rice. It's pretty easy to make the sauce actually, just fry off a clove of garlic with some onion and then add a teaspoon of curry powder, half a cup of passata, a dollop of natural yoghurt and a bit of chicken stock and voila! It was really nice, although I was starving by the time I ate it so I felt like I could do with two of them really!

Pudding

I made these mousse's the other day, when I was having a HUGE chocolate craving. It's really light and low fat as it's made with yoghurt instead of cream (yes I use natural yoghurt in loads of my cooking) I also chopped up some strawberries and threw in some blueberries at the bottom for a bit of my five-a-day.

Well that's my Wednesday, what did you have? 

xo.

Also, here's this months Crownbrush.co.uk discount for 10% off any order!

 FINAJ2014