British fashion, beauty and lifestyle blog.
I’m always on the look out for tasty places for coffee, breakfast and brunch and when I discovered Bold Street Coffee in Liverpool it fast became my favourite place in the city. Hands down! I mean, I loved Slim’s Pork Chop Express for our evening meal but Bold Street Coffee was so good we had breakfast there twice in two days. I just couldn’t get enough of those scrambled eggs and bacon.
It’s that time of year again, time to get cosy and comfortable with Mary Berry & Tom Kerridge at the BBC Good Food Show! Plus last year’s Bake Off winner, Nadiya Hussain will also be there baking up a storm I expect. Some of Britain’s most popular chefs will be demonstrating at the show so you can learn some top tips and check out their prized recipes straight from the mouths of the experts!
I’m very much a home bird usually but recently I’ve been a bit of a social butterfly with so much going on. It’s the festive season, there’s always a lot happening around this time of year! But, saying that, I do love a good night in with my nearest and dearest. Whether it’s the girls or just my partner in crime, an evening on the sofa is sometimes just what you need when you’ve had a busy week at work.
The idea of eating in order to lose weight is often thought of as a bit of a weird thought. After all, most ‘diets’ tell us that in order to shed the pounds, we need to limit our diet. In many cases, it certainly can be. After all, if you are already eating a poor diet full of saturated fats, and not exercising enough to burn off the calories, you are going to put on weight. With this in mind, many people continue to eat the same diet, but just less of it. When we restrict food from ourselves, our bodies realise we are hungry and can go into starvation mode. When this happens, our bodies survivalist instinct kicks in and it does all it can to hold on to the few calories it is receiving. Instead of processing certain fats through the body, our body tries to hold on to them to keep what it perceives as its diminishing fat stores afloat. It is for this reason that people on a very low-calorie diet actually stay the same weight as they were before.
Snuggling down for Bake Off in the winter is never the same without a sweet treat, is it? Sometimes a biscuit or a couple of squares of dark chocolate isn’t enough and I feel like I need a proper homemade feeling pudding. Step in my amazing new discovery of Dr Oetker Pud In A Mug Sponge Puds! You must know all about the ‘mug cake’ trend, right? Well, these are mug cakes without the faff of actual ingredients and with a surefire guarantee that it’ll work every time!
When I heard we were getting a Red Dog Saloon, right opposite Rub and just down the road from the epic Red’s True BBQ I did wonder how they’d manage to differentiate themselves from the smoky competition but after taking a trip last weekend I can safely say it definitely has a space in Nottingham’s meaty market.
With Christmas on the horizon, pennies are definitely tight for everyone. Even though we know it comes on the same day every year, it’s still a big expense! I think it’s impossible to properly budget for Christmas because you just don’t know what’s going to pop up and need paying for. That being said, DIY gifts are a great way to cut costs over the festive period. They’re also fun to make and will definitely make your friends and family smile.
The nights are closing in, it’s Bake Off season, we’re on the countdown to Christmas and summer is well and truly behind us. This means that the urge to bake (& eat) all kinds of desserts, puddings and cakes is well and truly heightened. Well, for me it is anyway!
I made these little granola-y almond, raisin, and cacao cookies the other day and they’ve turned out quite nicely so I wanted to share them. They’re fairly clean apart from the plain flour that I used but you can always replace this with almond or coconut flour for a cleaner bake but it doesn’t bother me too much. They come in at just over 100 calories each and won’t give you a sugar spike like any old supermarket biscuit will so they’re great if you’re trying to eat a little healthier but still love a sweet treat.
If you know me, you’ll know that I love a snack and I really enjoy finding something new from a fresh brand on the market. Recently, I’ve been trialling these treats from Nina’s Popcorn. These guys have developed an exciting range of naturally nutritious superfood popcorn which is packed with antioxidant and nutrient-rich ingredients. Nina’s is made using 100% plant-based ingredients and is gluten, wheat, dairy and refined sugar free.
People eat so much sugar these days, it’s in everything! While the sweet stuff isn’t all that bad in moderation, there has been a lot of talk about going sugar-free. Or at least cutting it down a fair bit. I tried clean-eating successfully for a full 8 weeks which includes basically nothing out of a packet. When you start to think about it it’s unreal how much extra stuff is in our food from the supermarkets that we don’t need. Which got me thinking about how you could do that while trying to sustain a normal life and not losing the will to love. I thought I would share with you a few tips!
