Recipe Time with Simply Cook

I love a variety when it comes to food and can't eat the same things week in week out but oh my days it gets hard trying to think up different meal plans! Yes spaghetti bolognese makes it onto my recipe list fairly often as does a good old chilli but I love the new era of food delivery boxes or recipe help. So after trying a few expensive food delivery boxes and not being able to afford to keep them up I heard about Simply Cook so had to give them a try.

After browsing though their lovely list of recipes you pick your favourite 4 and will receive a little box of recipe cards along with base ingredients to make your meal happen. All you need to do is shop the big essentials e.g. chicken, rice, veg. etc and they can even email you the ingredient list so you don't forget. I know, I did think £8.99 for the herbs and spices however you get really condensed pots of product and it's great quality plus the meals so far have all been SO TASTY as well as healthy and no more expensive then my normal shop. 

Here's my favourite meal from last week and how you can give it a go (I've added in a guess of the herbs and spices plus an extra pepper so you can make it however it won't be quite as good as Simply Cook's version!) 

Spicy Cajun Chicken Quinoa 

What you'll need:

2 chicken breasts

70g dried quinoa

70g dried apricots, cut in half

100g ready to use puy lentils

1red onion, sliced

100g frozen peas

Garlic Paste (buy or make from 3 cloves of garlic, pinch of tumeric & a little water)

Cajun spice (buy or make from salt, garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, thyme, and red pepper flakes until evenly blended)

Chicken Stock

 Tzatziki (optional)

Coriander (optional)

Heat the oven to 200C/180C  and toss the chicken breasts in the Cajun Seasoning and place them on a lined baking tray. If you can marinade earlier in the day or overnight it'll be even tastier. When the oven is hot bake the chicken breasts for 20 mins.

Bring 400ml of water to the boil in a saucepan. When boiling, stir in the Chicken Stock. Add the quinoa to the stock. Give it a quick stir then reduce the heat to medium and cover with a lid. Let it simmer for 10 mins. If you want to be really lazy (I definitely was!), try the microwaveable quionoa from Sainsburys - already flavoured and so tasty! 

If you're doing the quinoa the proper way once it's simmered, add the apricots and lentils and cook through for 5 mins more.

Heat 2 tbsps oil in a frying pan over high heat and add the sliced onion and peppers and stir-fry for 1 min. Add the garlic paste and stir-fry for 1 min and then add the frozen peas and stir-fry for 2 mins more.

Remove the chicken from the oven and set aside. When the quinoa is fully cooked add it to the frying pan with the onion, peppers and peas and mix together thoroughly on a medium-high heat for 1 min.

Divide the quinoa between 2 plates and top with the cajun chicken and some yoghurt on the side with coriander sprinkled over if you have some.

If you want to try a box for £1 (if you don't like them you can cancel after your £1 box but I'm sure you'll LOVE it). then click here Remember you can choose to have a new delivery weekly or monthly so if you're like me have a week off meal planning per month. 

Let me know what you think! 

Where have I been?

I'm here to take my own advice! Canvas from Primark Home £3

So yes...hi, it's been a good old while hasn't it! I'm back, rather sheepishly after too much time off due to a) wondering why I was writing this blog in the first black b) not having the time to write anything half decent and c) comparing myself to other incredible blogs and feeling a bit, well, pants.

I work in the social media world 9-5.30 and teach singing at the weekends and this year I've really felt the struggle to juggle my time and give myself space to think creatively to really dedicate the time needed to nurture my little corner of the internet. 

BUT I can't deny it, I love writing, I love documenting fun little activities or amazing food and lets not get started on my love of clothes, make up and a good old bargain. So I'm back, and have vowed to post at least once a week, to really get involved in this community and to just enjoy it. I love reading blogs and still regularly sit on my lunch and read my faves along with a few vlogs. but it's hard not to compare, or wonder how they find the time to post so much content or how I don't have the latest must have camera or lighting. But I should just be me and put silly self doubt and just get on with it!

So there you have it. Tiny violin is back in it's case and I've already got my next couple of posts almost ready to go! So you'll see a new post every Friday morning with the first coming on the 8th April.

Hope you're having a lovely week

I've got braces

Happy Valentine's Day! A random post for today you might think but hey, I'm working from home and multi-tasking during lunch so what better time to update you.

So yes...I now have braces, C-Fast braces to be precise. I've always had minor issues with my teeth since a teen where I had a retainer. I have a wonky front tooth and lets not even go there with my bottom teeth but thankfully they're pretty well hidden! As a teen I was offered fixed braces top and bottom for 2 years as well as two teeth out. I politely declined at because just weren't cool back then, hardly anyone I knew had them.

WHY DID I SAY NO?! If I could go back I would tell my 14 year old self to get them done, I'd be thankful when I'm older and I wasn't cool anyway so no one would have cared. But hey ho, here I am years later paying to get them sorted. Now I know, they aren't horrendous and don't affect my life but they were getting worse and making me feel quite self conscious so after almost 5 years of umming and ahhhing about getting them done I took the plunge!

They're more obvious in real life but this due to lighting!

So here they are! I originally wanted Invisalign because they're almost invisible and can be taken out to eat and the results are really fast however I was quoted almost double the cost of my C-Fast and these beauties only take up to 6 months! They are clear however they're in no way invisible. I've had them in for a month now and I'm used to them but it took a good week to get past the discomfort and the fact the braces felt huge. Tip for anyone else considering braces - when they tell you the things you can and can't eat...follow it! I ate a curry a week after having them fitted and stained them which still hasn't totally gone. Ha!

I'll be sure to update you but I can already see some movement and am having the wires changed tomorrow so it's all looking positive! I've decided to get them whitened as well once the process is over, another thing I've always wanted but couldn't justify the cost but I thought I may as well since I'm going through with the braces.  

I've loved hearing people's brace stories so if you've had them or are considering them let me know!

Zara feather bag - Product of the Month

Happy weekend! What a week it's been, I've had a lot of work on with a showcase event for lots of lovely journalists and bloggers in my normal 9-5. I don't usually talk about my job too much on here but it was an amazing event and went really well so the late nights were well worth it! 

So onto my item of the month - how gorgeous is this bag from Zara?! My lovely auntie got me a voucher for Christmas and after putting about £300 worth of product in my basket (does anyone else always do that??), I remembered I was on a tight budget and stuck to the price of my voucher. 

This little beauty is £29.99 from Zara and I LOVE IT.  I don't have lots of bags, just a select few and my trusty black going out back (also from Zara) which I've had for a few years, has certainly seen better days.

This bag is faux suede with silver feather detail, silver chain and a sturdy boxy body. It'll go with so many outfits and is a really great size. Hope you like this little suggestion and have a lovely week! 

2016 is well & truly here

Well I'm very late with this but Happy New Year! 

I had an amazing 2 whole weeks off work over Christmas and really switched off. I went back home to Manchester and spent quality time with my friends and family and had so.much.fun. I'm starting to really miss home, what an almost 2yr old nephew and 3 pregnant friends it's been a tug on the heart strings to come back to London but more about that in another blog post! 

I didn't check the blogging world at all but it's been REALLY hard to get back into my usual work routine but now I've made a list of blog posts for the next month I'm ready to start enjoying my blog again and have some goals for 2016. 

So New Year, it's a funny old time. I've always liked NYE, you get to get dressed up, party with friends or family, toast to a new year and make lots of resolutions you probably won't keep. But, as I've got older, it's not the big deal I thought it once was. London is expensive, the fireworks are amazing but once you've been stuck in the middle of crowds at 2am trying to get on a tube/train you'll never want to attempt it again. Everyone lives so far away - gone are the days of a house party unless you fancy a jaunt to zone 6 where your friend lives and maybe/definitely sleeping on the floor. 

Since I've moved to London with Adam, we've never had NYE together as he used to work in a pub and always ended up working  (all about the dollar), so this year we decided to keep it casual and go to the local pub. Only I hadn't thought ahead, even 3 weeks before the night everywhere was booked up. Thankfully we managed to get one of the last tables at a nice pub in Blackheath, we'd eat, drink and get home in time for the fireworks. 

But....I ended up winning tickets to the Sky Garden thanks to View London! Thank goodness I checked my work emails from home, there was the email saying I'd won a competition and to just rock up at 9.30pm. A live band, free champagne and view of the fireworks, YES PLEASE! I rarely win things but have had a lucky streak recently (shame I didn't win that huge lotto jackpot this weekend!).Huge huge thank you to View London for this amazing NYE and also ASOS for the most gorgeous dress I've ever worn!  

It was so beautiful, the cocktails were incredible, staff were lovely, the view amazing, and the band really made the night. At £150 a ticket I'd never splash out for New Years Eve but it was really special and something I won't forget. If you're in London I'd recommend a visit, they are open all day so you can grab a bite to eat and see London in style. 

Hope you had a fabulous new year whatever you got up to! 

Winter Skin Saviour

You wouldn't know it was December today with the spring-like temperatures but boy does the up and down of hot to cold play havoc with my skin this time of year. Thankfully the lovely people at Nutricentre got in touch to ask if I'd like to review one of their beauty items. Nutiricentre specialise in American imports of health items you can't always get elsewhere in the UK alongside staples for a healthier lifestyle and practitioner advice. I plucked for their Jason Natural Vitamin E Oil from Nutricentre.com £9.89

 I won't lie, I don't really know what the numbers and letters stand for but I presume it's the concentration of the oil in the same way you can get stronger vitamin tablets! Vitamin E is well known to help combat anything from sun damage to dryness and the great thing with this oil is it can be mixed into your daily moisturiser and used on your body & face.

I've been using this for a good two weeks now mixed into my usual body lotion and face moisturiser and it's so lovely and light but I've really noticed my skin has felt moisturised for longer. I'm prone to small patches of eczema in the winter and popping on some concentrated oil and massaging in has really helped to ease it.

If you have any magic winter skin tips let me know as it can't be 15 degrees in December forever!