Foodie Friday - What I Ate In September

Your not going to think it from this post but by and large in September I've ate pretty healthily. The majority of things that I'm going to show you though probably aren't that healthy -  but everything in moderation as the saying goes.

The month started with a big event, Mummy Lou's birthday :) Since we were both saving for our hols instead of going out for a meal, I made one instead - 3 courses plus appetisers :)

We started the meal with the Mediterranean Appetiser Selection from Asda. We really enjoyed this, you got several different types of olives, sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella pearls, and habas fritas. Wow the habas fritas were amazing, they are basically fried, salted broad beans - these were gorgeous.If anyone knows where I can buy these on their own or how to make them please let me know :)

For our starter I toasted some slices gluten free white baguette, and topped them with a mixture of baby button mushrooms cooked gently in butter, chopped garlic and just a dash of cream :)

The main course was my Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni with a twist - you can see the recipe I used here x

After an hours rest :) we had some homemade raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake, which was incredible.

I was a bit of a naughty girl and I also had some of my mums birthday cake, I paid the price for it but I love birthday cake - this one was an Asda Celebration cake :)

The rest of my foodie adventures this month have been all about comfort food, and I cooked a couple of my favourite recipes that I've shown you in the past, including this Hot Potato And Quorn Saute.

My veggie chilli x

Broccoli and Stilton soup,

and my Roasted Tomato And Basil Soup x

and I pimped up the leftover soup and added some gluten free spaghetti.

I also made my version of this recipe - Walnut And Broccoli Pasta from the fabulous Wonky Monkey xx

and I tried the phenomenon of the crustless quiche on more than one occasion x

Finally a real comfort meal for me - veggie sausages, veggie onion gravy, and creamy mashed potato - heaven !

Next Friday I will be on holidays but don't despair, I have a scheduled recipe post ready to go up next week for you x Have you eaten anything interesting this month x let me know x

Are You Going For Gold ? - A Review And Giveaway x

Please excuse the attempt at relieving my youth, but I hadn't heard this song for ages :) What on earth has a piece of indie / Brit pop got to do with this post? well this post is all about the MUA Make Up Academy Going For Gold Eyeshadow Palette.

As you know I'm a huge fan of MUA as a brand and I absolutely love their eyeshadow palettes. I could quite easily buy every single one but lately I've tried to reign it in a bit. One of the last ones that I bought though was Going For Gold.

Released in 2012, there is no doubt that the theme of this palette was the Olympics.The palette features 10 shades and each one is in a shade of gold, silver or bronze.

Like the rest of the palettes from MUA that I've tried, the pigmentation is amazing! All of the shadows feel super smooth and silky, and the pay off is superb. All bar two of the shadows contain heaps of shimmer, and even the two that aren't (2 and 6) aren't completely matte, and certainly aren't lacking in pigmentation.

Despite the similarity in some of the shades this palette is actually extremely versatile, you can create everything from a subtle neutral eye to something bright and vibrant or the classic smokey

This look was based on the mini masterclass on the back of the palette and features shade 7 used all over the lid, shade 9 blended across the outer third of the lid and shade 5 a super bright yellow gold blended into the socket line, and along the lower lash line x

 

This is another bright look that I created using the light yellow gold colour, shade 7, and the 2 brighter yellow gold, almost mustard shades, 5, and 8.

If yellow gold isn't your bag, using shade 9 all over the lid gives a really stunning bright copper look, which I really think looks gorgeous with my green eyes :)

This palette isn't all about the brights, it has a couple of shades that you can also use to produce a really neutral brown taupe look - this subtle look was created with shades 1 and 3.

So we've covered the bronze and the gold, what about the silver? Well this palette contains 4 shades which are at the cooler end of the colour spectrum - first up this shimmery smokey eye look using shade 4 a beautiful almost liquid silver colour and shade 10, a gorgeous metallic charcoal grey.

If full on shimmer and metallic lustre isn't for you, you can also create a more subtle (haha) smokey eye, with shades 2 and 6, which have more of a satin finish and a lot less shimmer.

When I first looked at the palette I thought it was a bit samey. It seemed as though there were too many colours that were similar. I bought it though and I'm pleased that I did, it's actually a lot more versatile than I'd envisaged. The bright yellow gold have been dug out when I've worn one of my favourite skirts - a bright mustard number, and the neutral tones and smokes have been great for everyday and of course for a dramatic evening look.

If you don't like metallics and shimmers and your more of a matte girl as I said this palette isn't for you. The two more matte shades still have a tiny bit of shimmer and a more satin finish. As well as looking gorgeous shimmer does usually equal a bit of fallout and this palette is no exception as you can probably see from a few of these pictures but this is something that I can live with, just grab a fan brush or a small brush dipped in a bit of face powder and the shimmery bits will be gone. For just £4 I think this palette is great value for money, it's great if these that you love but at the same time the price means that you can experiment a bit.

If you don't fancy shelling out £4 though ;) I have a brand new Going For Gold palette to giveaway. Not only that but you can also win this little guy :)

Yes it's an official London 2012 Olympic keyring featuring one of the official mascots Wenlock :)  I was a bit of a bad blogger and I bought this to giveaway last year but I completely forgot about him - I mean how could I do that !

So yeah one lucky winner will win both items. All you have to do is fill in the entry form below. You've got a little while to enter this one, because I'm going on holiday so this giveaway will end on the 14th October x and it's open worldwide x

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thanks for reading and following and good luck xx

What's In My Bag 2013 Edition x

Hi Guys x This has been one of my most requested videos on You Tube lately so I thought I'd do it and share it with you here.



What's In My Bag videos are one of the easiest to do as you have a prop to use. The contents of my bag isn't that interesting but I hope you enjoy anyways x If your reading this post on a phone and you can't see the video, you can see it here via You Tube xx Thanks for reading and watching xx

Thinking Slimmer - Slim Pod - Week 18

Another maintain for me this week, but I'm not disappointed, in fact I'm feeling pretty good. Last week I had a hospital appointment and my consultant was super happy with my weight loss so far. She knows how hard it is for me to lose weight and the fact that she was pleased with, and surprised by my progress gave me a real confidence boost.

My hormones have ruled the roost over the last week or so, so a maintain wasn't that unexpected - it is quite frankly ridiculous how much water I seem to retain at the time of the month, so I'm hoping a little bit more might disappear before my holidays. Never mind if I'm still at the same weight when I get on the plane on Sunday I'll be a fairly happy Lou x

My plan for the rest of the week is to eat as well as possible, try and eat plenty of fruit and veg, and basically chill. I'm still going to be listening to my Slim Pod every night  this week for a little boost before I go away so hopefully I can at least maintain by my next weigh in.

Obviously I won't be here next Monday - I'll be flaunting my beach body ;) so the next Thinking Slimmer update will be live on Sunday x

Any questions please leave me a comment xx

(The Thinking Slimmer Slim Pod "Create That Summer Beach Body" Was Provided For Review / Promotional Purposes)

Wild Things - Nails Of The Day And Changing Your Nail Polish x

With less that a week to go I'm trying to get into the holiday spirit. Today's warm sunny weather has certainly helped, and so has this bright nail polish that I wore last week.

Avon's not to catchily names Color Trend Wild Things Colour Me Shiny Nail Enamel in Roaring Blue, is a beautiful, bright sky blue shade, just looking at it makes you think of a summer sky :) Application wasn't too bad but wear unfortunately wasn't amazing and my first chip came after less than 24 hours booo.

It's such a shame because this is such a pretty colour, so to hide the chips, I had a little play with some nails art, and applied these cute black star stickers which were also from Avon to create some accent nails :) 

Stickers are probably the easiest thing to do nail art wise, you just need some tweezers or an orange stick and a steady hand.

What do you think of this colour? and are you a fan of nail art stickers ? let me know in the comments x

Foodie Friday - Roasted Tomato And Basil Soup

Brrrr it's a bit chilly out there at the moment isn't it? Fear not the weather is supposed to perk up a little bit of the weekend but for how long! Nothing makes me feel better when I'm cold than a nice bowl of homemade soup. As you've probably gathered from my Foodie Friday posts I'm a huge soup fan. Soup is so easy and cheap to make in fact I don't understand why people buy it! The only soup that we regularly buy is cream of tomato for me , the taste, smell and texture just takes me right back to my childhood, and cream of chicken for Mummy Lou. I've never managed to replicate the taste of tinned tomato soup but I do often make my own tomato based soup. Unlike cream of tomato this soup is super fresh and filled with the flavours of the Mediterranean. Again it's super easy and quick to make, and it's a perfect winter warmer. The majority of the tomatoes that I've used here are home grown (there is nothing better believe me!) as is the basil but even the supermarket value ones will work just fine

Roasted Tomato And Basil Soup

2lbs Fresh Tomatoes

Drizzle Olive Oil

2-4 Garlic Cloves - Halved

Drizzle Olive Oil

Sprinkle Of Chilli Flakes (Optional)
About 1 Litre Of Vegetable Stock

Small Bunch Fresh Basil

Salt, Pepper And Sugar To Taste

1. Preheat your oven to about 200° C. Chop your tomatoes in half, if they are small cherry ones you can leave them whole.

2. Put the tomatoes into a roasting tray, the garlic and drizzle over the olive oil, and if you like add a sprinkle of chilli flakes. Pop the tray into the oven for 20 - 30 minutes.

3. In the meantime make up a litre of vegetable stock and pop it into a large pan - I'm using my trusty pressure cooker pan here but any large pan or stock pot will work

4. After about 30 or so minutes your tomatoes should be soft and slightly blackened and blistered - which means they are done x

add the tomatoes, garlic and all the juices from the roasting dish to the pan x

5. Then chop up your basil - I use the chiffonade method, lol a posh term for rolling up the basil and cutting it in to long thin strips :)

6. Add the basil to the pan and cook the soup for about 10-15 minutes for the basil to wilt and for the flavours come out.

7. Then blend x An immersion blender is best but I still haven't got round to buying a new one, so I carefully pour mine into a free standing blender. Then zap, you can make it as chunky as you like, I like it pretty smooth but Mummy Lou likes it chunky so I always leave a few chunks in it for her :) If your using a free standing blender like me you can add a little bit of milk or water to rinse out the blender and make sure you get every last bit of loveliness out.

8. Return the soup to the pan and check the seasoning, adding a bit of salt, pepper or sugar as needed, personally I normally don't add anything and heat again for about 5-10 minutes.

9. Then serve, you could pop a little bit of cream on the top if you wanted to be decadent or a little bit of pesto but I've just sprinkled mine with a little bit of extra basil :) This recipe made about 5 large bowlfuls, and it freezes well.

I love my soups and this is a super easy and adaptable recipe. It's pretty healthy as it is, but you can add what you have, and you could always add some rice, pasta, potato, lentils, red pepper, or any other vegetables to bulk it up a bit. You could also add a bit of cream or pesto sauce to make it richer and of course more calorific :) If you love your soup stick around :) next Friday's food post will be my review of the month, but by the miracle of scheduled posting the week after's will be another soup recipe :) Happy Eating xx