Recipe: Grilled Steak Ratatouille & Saffron Rice (Jamie Oliver 15 Minute Meals)

 (Sorry that this pic isn't great, the food was so steamy so the pic doesn't sow the colours very well. I was to hungry to wait :o) )

 Like loads of other people at the moment I have been watching Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals. There are so many of his meals that I want to try, they all just look sooooo good!! This one was one of my favourites when watching the programmes so decided to give this a go and see how it turned out. Now as you can get, 15 minute meals as a title is a little deserving. Jamie Oliver can do this as he is Chef and feels fully comfortable with everything in the kitchen and is a whizz!! However I am not, so this took me about 30 minutes in total. I still think that's great timing for a really nice filling meal, it looks so good as well as its really bright and colourful. The ingredients below will feed 3/4 depending on how big you like your portion sizes. I will just add that I have changed the instructions around a little bit compared to Jamie Oliver's website, just because I found it a little easier to do in this order. Also I left out lemon from the recipe as my boyfriend hates it!

Ingredients:

1 Courgette

1 Aubergine

2 Mixed Colour Peppers (I used red and yellow)

1 Red Onion

1 heaped tsp Harissa Paste

2 Anchovy Fillets

3 cloves of Garlic

700g Passata

1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 bunch fresh Basil

1 mug Basmatti Rice

1 pinch Saffron

2 Sirloin Steaks

1sp Paprika

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

Olive Oil

Instructions:

1) Halve the courgette length ways, slice the aubergine 1cm thick and place both onto a hot griddle pan, turning when charred

2) Tear the seeds and stalks out of the peppers. Roughly chop the peppers and the red onion.

3) Put into casserole pan on a medium the harissa, anchovies and 1 teaspoon of the anchovy oil , as well as the peppers and onions. 

4) Squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher and stir regularly

5)  Put 1 mug of rice, 2 mugs of boiling water, the saffron and a pinch of salt into the small pan, cover and cook until fluffy, stirring occasionally (about 12 minutes)

6) Remove the charred courgette and aubergine from the griddle pan, leaving it on the heat, and roughly chop them on a board 

7) Add them to the casserole pan along with the passata and balsamic vinegar, and boil with the lid on 

8) Remove the fat from the steak, rub them with salt, the paprika and 1 teaspoon of olive oil and place on the hot griddle pan, turning every minute until cooked to your liking

9) On a chopping board put the Dijon mustard and 1tbsp olive oil, season with salt and pepper and then mix together and spread over the board 

10) When the steaks are done, transfer them to the board, turn in the dressing until covered and then slice

11) Tear the top leafy half of the basil into the ratatouille, season to taste, 

12) Now plate up!! 

Hope you have enjoyed this post and give this recipe a try!!

xox

Review: fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment - BirchBox

I received this tinted lip treatment in my January BirchBox in a sample size of 2.2g/0.08 oz, which isn't too shabby! The casing for this lip treatment is lovely and rather expensive looking. It has an matte aluminium tube in a light pink which feels sturdy and perfect for quickly putting in your make up bag. It has a twist off lid (which I found a bit strange) and a twist telescoping dispenser. I personally prefer a simple pull of lid for ease but it doesn't make a massive difference. The bullet itself is a nice dark pink colour and as you can see from the picture you get quite a lot of product. When applied it goes on smoothly and you instantly feel the moisture to your lips. I know this says that it is tinted but I didn't really find it to be, it was pretty neutral on my lips. I would think that it would depend on the natural colour of your lips as to how much of a tint this gives. The main thing I liked about this product is the smell. It has a really sweet sugary smell too it, a bit like the smell of strawberry hubbabubba chewing gum. It makes it hard not to want to eat the balm :o). An added bonus to this is that it has an SPF 15 in it, so the lips are moisturised and protected from the sun. You can get the full size (4.3g/0.15ox) tube of this from Amazon for a whopping £28.78. Would I repurchase this?? Certainly not at this price, it is a really nice lip treatment that gives the lips what it needs and smells amazing but I think this price is ridiculously high. I would never pay nearly £30 for a lip treatment when you can get ones that are just as good for a couple of pounds at Boots or Superdrug. Sorry fresh!!

What do you think of this lip treatment? Would you pay this much for it? 

xox

Haul: New Things.....

I picked up a few new things recently and thought I would do a quick post to show you all what I got. 

First off I picked up this Cream Lace Pattern Oversize T-Shirt from New Look for £6.99, what a bargain right?? Its a really nice light material so perfect for summer (I'm thinking in advance). Whilst I was in New Look I also picked up these Gold Open Cross Drop Earrings for £1.99 and a Gold Cross Necklace for £4.99 (I can't find this one on there website unfortunately). Like most people I am loving crosses at the moment and I needed to get a few more gold coloured accessories so these two were perfect.

I also purchased a few bits from Boots. I got La Roche Posay Effaclair A.I Targeted Breakout Corrector for £9.19, I am really hoping that this helps with my breakouts. I also got Rimmel Traffic Stopping Eyeshadow in shade No Parking for £6.49 as well as an EcoTools Bamboo Angled Eyeliner Brush for £5.49. I am building up my eyeshadow  collection at the moment and really like lilacs and purples so thought I could create a nice look with these Rimmel eyeshadows. I got the EcoTools brush to use for my eyebrows as well as eyeliner. I recently go the Elf Studio Eyebrow kit, the brush that comes with it isn't great so am going to try the EcoTools one instead, I have read great reviews on it so am hoping its good.

The last thing that arrived this weekend was my Urban Outfitters Sparkle & Fade Studded Leather Biker Jacket (its sold out now so not showing up on Urban Outfitters website otherwise I would have linked it). This was a late Christmas present from my mum, as the  coat she got me for Christmas didn't fit. I am really glad in the end though because I absolutely LOVE this leather jacket. We got it for a massive bargain, its was originally £225 but we paid £80 :o). I ordered it online last Wednesday afternoon, it was free delivery and arrived on Saturday. Which I think its really good as the delivery says 3-5 working days. 

I have wanted a leather jacket for such a long time but could never afford to buy one myself. This can be worn with so many different things so I know that I will get lots and lots of use out of it.

Hope you enjoyed this post?!? Let me know in the comments box if you have brought any nice new things recently, would love links!! 

xox

A Normal Girls Journey to Losing Weight and Getting Fit

I apologise for the rambling in this post in advance :o) This post is going to be about my journey with losing a little weight and getting fit. I will hopefully post once a month to show what I have been up to, whats worked for me and what hasn't and how I am feeling about it all along the way. Hopefully it will help motivate some of you and help with what may or may not work for you when it comes to being a little healthier. I promise future posts wont be quite so long as this one :o)

Like most people this year one of my resolutions was to lose weight, the same resolution I've had for the past few years. Last year I set out with the same resolution and I lost 1st 4lbs in 6 weeks. I done this just by cutting down what I ate. I used the My Fitness Pal website and logged everything I ate and kept my intake down to around 1300 calories. Amazingly I didn't do any exercise what so ever to lose the weight!! However by September/October last year, I had put most of the weight back on :-(.

So when the 1st of Jan came about this year I thought that I would try and do the same thing and use the My Fitness Pal website. Unfortunately it just hasn't really worked for me this time. I am a lot busier with Uni this year than last and with working full time I found that I didn't really have time to enter everything I was eating or weigh my food in order to figure out the calories. So instead of being healthy, by the end of the month I had done nothing but eat takeaways because I had just thought "well if you cant do it properly don't bother at all".

I have now come to the  conclusion that the whole "diet" thing is not going to work for me. I would like to get my weight down a bit and maintain it, as well as get fitter and healthier. And I don't think this is going to work by constantly monitoring my calories! My plan now is to not deny myself any of the foods that I want because then I just end up eating loads of it at the end of the week once my self control has run out! I just have to eat in moderation (something all the experts have been telling us to do forever) and have a little of the naughty stuff.

I love to cook, so when it comes to meals I will try and make all my meals from scratch and make my portion sizes a little smaller. As at the moment I eat portion sizes that should be for 2 people! I will eat a healthy breakfast, a healthy lunch and then a nice dinner. At the weekends I will let myself eat whatever dinner I want and even had a dessert. I will try and get in my 5 fruit/veg per day, although I always find this hard as I am allergic to most fruit and who wants to eat 5 portions of veg per day???

As for exercise. I will try and go to the gym 3/4 times a week. I enjoy running and since quitting smoking 5 months ago I am finding that I can run for a little longer each time. At the moment I can only run constantly for about 15 minutes (when I smoked I could only do about 2 minutes at a time), so I am going to push myself each time and try to get to 30 minutes straight by the end of February. I am also going to buy myself a kettle bell. Its really important to not only do cardio training but also do some form of muscle work. The kettle bell is supposed to be really good for just about all the muscles in the body, it helps burn fat and help build strong lean muscles. The one below costs just £9.99 from Sports Direct so they are not very expensive to purchase.

In addition to this I am going to sign up to The Perfect Bum website/app. This was recommend by Victoria over at In The Frow as its something she uses herself and it only costs £10 for a 10 week guide. I am hoping this will help me shape up my bum, I am a typical pear shape so hold most of my weight in this area. I will also be using the www.fitnessblender.com exercise regimes to help build up my stamina and endurance.

My overall goal over the next 3-6 months is to lose 1 1/2 stone, to be a little more toned and to get fitter!

I hope I haven't bored you too much with this post and that some of you will be able to empathise with me! I will post in a few weeks to let you know how I have been getting on..

xox

January in Instagram Pictures: Capturing Moments

ASOS Tip Rings / Herb Crusted Cod with Creamy Leek Sauce / Healthy Granola Breakfast / Chili Flaked Salmon Stir Fry / MUA Nail Constellation Beads / MATIS Paris Face Cream / Red Nails & MUA Nail Beads / Gossip and a Cuppa / 1st Day back at Gym / Tayto's / January GlossyBox / Cuppa & Company Magazine / My Snowy Garden / Better Day at the Gym / Gorgonzola Lasagne / Boiled Bacon Ribs / ModelsOwn Smash Up Nails / January BirchBox / Naughty Subway Lunch / TAAJ Paris Hand Cream

This is my month on Instagram. From this I would say that I have a slight obsession with food and nails :). I put the pics in order from the beginning of the month to the end and as you can see the healthy eating at the beginning of the month certainly didn't last till the end lol!! The Tayto's for those of you that don't know are Irish crisps, much better than Walkers crisps. Not sure where you can buy them from though, I get these when in an Irish pub near where I live. I think that my fav pic in this bunch is my garden the day after it snowed, it looked so pretty and perfect. That was before all the cats from the other houses ran all across the grass!! Some people may ask what the boiled bacon ribs are, again these were from the Irish pub I go to. They are brought out every Sunday for the customers to eat. To me they don't smell great and they certainly don't look great but I finally found the courage to try them and they are actually pretty tasty. They taste a bit like gammon!

Hope you enjoyed my pics!! What have you been photographing this month?

xox

My January Empties

So this time of the month is already here and if like me you check out your blog reading list everyday then you will have seen all the "January Empties" posts. I'm still not bored of these posts at all, I love to see what everyone else is using! If you saw my December Empties post then you may remember that I didn't have much on the list, partly due to my lovely boyfriend putting stuff in the bin before I could get to them. Well this months not to much better, although the main reason for this is that I keep forgetting to take pictures of things before I put them in the bin :-(. Oh well, maybe next month ill get a bit better at it.

1) Original Source Daily Cranberry and Honey Scrub: As with all Original Source products, this smelled amazing!! It also foamed up really well, which I liked because most scrubs don't. It made my skin very soft and smooth :).

2) Sanex Dermo Extra Control: Not much to say about a deodorant, except that its a good one!!

3) Protect Facial Wash: I keep saying in my posts how bad my breakouts are. I am literally willing to try anything, this was a really cheap face wash but it said that it helps fight bad skin so I gave it a go. It was disappointing though!

4) Vichy NormaDerm Cleanser: I got this in my January Glossybox and have used it up already. I really liked it but wont say to much as will be doing a review on it this month :o)

5) TRESemme Keratin Smooth Mask: If you have already seen my review on this you will know how much I like it, if not then you should know that I absolutely love it! 

6) The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom Bath & Shower Gel: I recently done a little review of this. It was a part of a Christmas gift that came with a hand cream. This is now one of my favourite body washes but I do not think its available at The Body Shop anymore :o(.

7) Tesco Soft & Smooth Body Lotion: This is a cheaper version of coco butter (not as good obviously), it has a slight coconut smell and its a pretty good consistency. Its doesn't last great though, I had to moisturise twice a day.

8) Sanctuary Spa Body Butter: This was an OK body butter but I wouldn't say it was great. Its not something that I would buy (it came as part of a gift set) but I don't like to throw things in the bin so used it up.

I did have a lot more things that I used up this month but they were mostly at the beginning of the month so cant really remember what they were, mostly face creams I think!! 

xox

Review: Taaj Crème Mains Delhicates Hand Cream from BirchBox

This lovely little hand cream came in my January BirchBox. I have quite a lot of hand creams but am always happy to try out a new one, especially as the weather at this time of the year really dries my hands out. TAAJ Paris is a French brand whose products are developed in India, I found it a little hard to find any info on the company as their website is obviously in French. The small amount of information I found was on the BirchBox website. I was pleasantly surprised by this cream. It has a medium consistency and is not greasy at all, it sinks into the skin really easily and left my hands feeling incredibly soft. It also lasts a long time as well, I didn't need to reapply this for a few hours. The BirchBox website says that this cream has a cinnamon scent to it, I couldn't really smell that in it at first. When I first squeezed the cream out and smelled it, I found it had a bit of a medicinal smell. But once I had rubbed it in the smell changed completely. To me it smells spicy, but its a really light spice smell. Its not overpowering at all and you can only really smell it when you hold your hands up to your face. The tube I received was a 30ml tube and because you only need a little bit at a time this will last me for ages. The full size tube is 75ml and costs £10.00.

Have you used this cream?

xox