Let's Cook - Cauliflower Pizza.

Hi there Folks,

I love pizza. Love love love! But, I'm trying so hard to watch what I eat and let's be honest, pizza is not the healthiest of foods! Which is a shame because it tastes so good. Now, I'd see some recipes for cauliflower pizza floating around Pinterest so I decided that I would give it a little go. I won't lie, I was sceptical, I don't mind cauliflower, especially when it's smothered in cheese sauce, but it's not my favourite vegetable. The recipe I used as my inspirations and guide is this one from Eating Bird Food. So here's how I did it...

It really is as simple as chopping up a cauliflower, blitzing it in the food processor, cooking it in the microwave (no need to add anything) for 8 minutes, mix it with some cheese, an egg, salt, pepper and herbs and form into a pizza base. It then needs baking in the oven at about 180°c for about 15 minutes or until it's golden. Then you just need to add your toppings, we had chicken, onions, peppers and spinach, and pop it back in the oven for 5-10 minutes to melt the cheese a bit. But just a note, your toppings need to be cooked before adding them seeing as it only gets cooked briefly.

And there you have it, it really is that easy. No hours of rising and kneading and knocking back...simple! The most important question though, does it taste good? The answer to that is YES! Ok, it's not a Domino's pizza but it is delicious and so much better for you. I imagine it'd be a great way to sneak veggies in for kiddies too...I asked my boyfriend to guess what it was made from and he literally had no idea it was cauliflower.

Have any of you tried making cauliflower pizza? Or do you know of any other healthier choice pizza variations that are out there? I'd love to hear!

Ciao for now,

JB.

Instagramming #1.

Littlest niece is growing fast, the wonders of modern physiotherapy, a smattering of snow,  banana bread, roadtripping, working out,  Lincoln, cheeky treat, 15 minute meals beef stroganoff, veggie soup, healthier Sunday roast, night time essentials, cauliflower pizza, Flight, Topshop - Junkyard, choccy choccy, new sneaks, radioactive porridge, two of my favourites, safe place, collaborating, go hard or go home, cheeky Frankie & Benny's, pretty candle

Let's Cook - Super Simple Vegetable Soup.

Hi there Folks,

Last Sunday I had the biggest craving for vegetable soup...I know, weird right?! Craving veg soup over chocolate is not like me at all!! I wanted it so bad that I ended up going to Tesco to pick up the bits I didn't have so I could make it. It was such a success, super simple to make, done inside 30 minutes, really tasty and super healthy. I'm pretty sure you could eat an entire humongous pan of this and it would only be like 200 calories, but you wouldn't need to because it's nice and filling! Plus I'm pretty sure there's a decent chunk of your 5 a day in one bowlful, I'd guesstimate it's at least 2/3!

So as you can see the soup consisted of red onion, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, courgette and spinach. The reason it's super simple is because I literally chopped the veggies up into smallish chunks, added them one by one to the pan, added 2 litres of vegetable stock and then let it simmer for around 15 minutes. Then I added the spinach just to wilt it a bit and I gave it a tiny little blitz with a hand blender. See, super simple. The whole thing takes maybe 25 minutes to make. In fact I cooked up another batch the other morning whilst making and eating breakfast. 

Ok, so the final product isn't the prettiest soup ever, it's very...green. But it's tasty and full of goodness so I think we can forgive it, yes?

please excuse my chipped bowl and the slightly dodgy photo!

Do you guys have any other lovely super simple soup recipes? I'd love to share some!

Ciao for now,

JB

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Bargain Beauties #3.

Hi there Folks,

Today I'm going to share with you some of the bargain beauties that I've acquired over the last couple of months. I should probably stop buying make up because I already have more than I need but I just can't resist when it's £1!!

L-R: Chit Chat pink glitter polish in ???, Rimmel Exaggerate liquid eyeliner in 007 (does this make me a Bond girl when I wear it?!), Covergirl Shine lipstick in 470 Nude Shine, Covergirl Shine Lipstick in 465 Peach Shine, Revlon Just Bitten lip stain in Lust. 

Swatches L-R: Covergirl Shine lipstick in 465 Peach Shine, Covergirl Shine Lipstick in 470 Nude Shine, Revlon Just Bitten lip stain in Lust.

I've really been loving the eyeliner actually, its a beautiful navy blue. Seeing as I tend to keep my make up quite basic during the day I think its really good for adding a little pop of colour to my everyday make up without being too loud.

And here's a final shot of the lip stain in action. I actually really like the colour, I have naturally quite pinky red lips, so I think it works nicely with my natural pigmentation to make a more berry, plum colour. The two Covergirl lipsticks are very sheer, so you can't really see the colour very well on my lips and my lips are in no fit state to be concealed out to show off the colour. But they feel nice and smooth on the lips and they just add a nice subtle hint of colour and shine.

Have any of you scored any bargain beauties recently? I have more to share too so stay tuned!

Ciao for now,

JB.

Let's Cook - Rice Fakesagne.

Hi there Folks,

You may or may not have seen the post I did on Leek Lasagne a little while ago, where I replaced the lasagne sheets with cooked leeks for a lower carb option. Now I love lasagne, it's beautiful, but its just so calorie heavy, what with the pasta and the mince and the sauce and the cheese. So I wanted to try and make a lasagne with fewer calories so I can eat more chocolate...haha!

Our idea was to make a lasagne, but replace the pasta sheets with compacted rice. Now technically it's not lasagne at all, but I'm going to keep on calling it that because I can!

Here's how I did it...

First you need to make your basic bolognese, this can be with any meat of your choosing or of course veggie if you wanted. I used lean mince beef in ours. I also like to pack my bolognese with lots of veggies as this bulks it out without adding loads of calories so I added onion, pepper, mushrooms, grated carrot and the customary chopped tomatoes and passata...mmmm!

Once you have your bolognese, it;s just a case of layering it up with your rice and squidging it down. I also added a little bit of grated cheese between the layers seeing as I didn't use a bechamel sauce as I would normally do with lasagne. Then you just pop it under the grill to crisp up and Bob's your Uncle.

I must say it was realllllly tasty! And super filling too, to be honest, if we weren't greedy we could have easily eaten half of one each with a nice salad on the side, maybe I'll do that next time.

Does anyone have any other yummy fakesagne ideas they would like to share? Please do!

Ciao for now,

JB

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Cinema Round Up #1.

Hi there Folks,

I've decided that instead of doing a weekly film review style post, I'm just going to do a round up at the end of each month of the ones I've seen and what I thought etc.

January has been a flipping good film month, there has been so many that I've wanted to watch and I feel sad that I've not been able to see some of the ones I wanted. We've even been tempted to go twice each Wednesday as I have orange mobile and we also have orange broadband so we can get two codes...but we just don't have the time these days! :[

1. Seven Psychopaths

Now I wasn't really sure what this film was about before watching it, apart from that it's about seven psychopaths, but I did enjoy it. It was funny and witty and I think that Sam Rockwell (Wild Bill in Green Mile) plays a very convincing psychopath. I was excited also that two of the actors from Boardwalk Empire were in it as that's one of my favourite shows but that was short lived as their part was teeny tiny. I thought overall that it was interesting, with a funny, slightly quirky storyline, but just fyi, it's a bit gruesome!

Image from here

2. Pitch Perfect

This was such a feel good film! I love singing and dancing and musicals and I really really enjoyed this, it just made me feel happy and now I really want to join an acapella group! I think Anna Kendricks is beautiful, I really liked her in End of Watch (even though she only has a smallish part) and she has a smokin' hot voice too...what a winner! Also, Rebel Wilson is hilarious! So yes, although it's not going to win any awards, for me this was jolly, funny and overall an enjoyable film!

Image from here

3. Les Miserables

Holy freaking cow I am beyond obsessed with this film. I'd say it's almost verging on weird! I'd never seen Les Mis before and I didn't even really know what the overall storyline was about. But I LOVED IT!! In my opinion Hugh Jackman is incredible, I obviously have no other Jean Valjean to compare him to, but he was brilliant and what a cracking voice he has too! Ooh those high notes! As I just mentioned, I love a bit of singing and I really wish I'd got involved in the musicals my school put on when I was younger (one of which was Les Mis) and after watching this I really want to run away and join the west end. I think I would love to be Eponine, On My Own is such a beautiful and heartbreaking song and I can't believe I've missed out on all this until now! Even my boyfriend (who doesn't generally watch musicals ever!) really enjoyed it. I have had the soundtrack on repeat for the last two weeks now...love love love. I highly recommend a watch!!

Image from here

3. Django Unchained

Going into this film I'd literally not seen a single trailer, because it's an 18 it obviously wasn't shown before any other the other films we'd seen recently, so I literally had no idea what it was about at all. As with all Quentin Tarantino films, it's pretty gruesome, there's lots of blood and violence, so if you're not so keen on those kind of films I'd steer clear. The characters are brilliant, I particularly loved Django (Jamie Foxx) and Dr. Schultz (Christopher Waltz), they were a witty and entertaining pair. I think the film was very well written and felt really empowering and being the lover of chick flicks that I am I really enjoyed the little hint of romance thrown in there as well.

Image from here

4. Lincoln

I was looking forward to seeing this film after watching Django Unchained the week before, seeing as they both focus on similar topics - slavery. Although it was a tough choice between this and Zero Dark Thirty...that's next weeks pick I think. Anyway, I did enjoy this film, although I felt like the first hour of it dragged on forever, but after that I did get quite into it...Lincoln seems like a cool guy!

I also think that Lincoln and Django Unchained have been educational for me. I gave up history when I was in year 9 (age 14) and I'm pretty sure my school never taught us anything about slavery or American history so I literally know pretty much nothing on the topic, not even that Lincoln got assassinated ..how bad is that!

Image from here

What a great month of new films it has been! And there's still so many good ones to watch; Zero Dark Thirty, Gangster Squad, Flight, The Impossible and Movie 43 are still on my list of must sees. Be sure to check back next month to see which ones I managed to watch and what I thought!

Have you seen any good films recently? Please share your thoughts!

Ciao for now,

JB.

Favourites #1.

Hi there Folks,

I've decided that along with a monthly film round up I'm also going to share with you my favourite things of each month. I'm not going to limit my favourites to any categories, so expect to see a range of different goodies that I've really been enjoying. Let's get to it...

1. Actifry

We got our Actifry for Christmas and we haven't looked back since! We got the 1.2 kg one in black and it cost £109.99. So it is expensive, but I really think it was well worth the price, considering we have used it pretty much every day since we got it. You can eat chips everyday and not feel guilty...it's brilliant. And it doesn't just do chips, you can do egg fried rice, bolognese, risotto, stewed fruit...the list goes on! It comes with a little recipe book too that goes into the evidence behind it and has loads of different recipes in it. Winner!

This is the same as the one we have. Image from here

2. Les Miserables

Since watching Les Mis in the middle of January I haven't been able to get it out of my head. The songs just keep going round and round and round, but I guess it doesn't help that I have the soundtrack on repeat. I must say though, I'm highly disappointed that Who Am I isn't on the soundtrack as I love that song! Seeing Les Mis has also sparked a huge appreciation for Hugh Jackman...what a guy! I've linked a video of him at the Oscars a few years ago...if you've never seen it I highly recommend a watch, it's brilliant (and Anne Hathaway is in it too, she's also really good)!

3. Kindle

I got a Kindle for Christmas off my dad and step mum and I'm really enjoying getting into reading again. Although I've not had huge amounts of time to read as I've had assignments to write, but I've managed to get through a couple of books and I'm currently reading Jon Richardson's book It's Not Me, It's You! It's really amusing and talks about his obsessive compulsive personality disorder and how it impacts on his ability to find and keep a girlfriend. If you don't know who Jon Richardson is, he's a UK comedian who actually comes from the same town as me (woohoo!), he looks like a little elf and his comedy shows generally revolve around his obsessive compulsive habits and perfectionism. It's not the most well written book ever, but it's light hearted, amusing and has highlighted my own little obsessive quirks (having the toilet roll facing the right way, anyone?).

4. The Schuerman Show

My boyfriend thinks I'm really weird for watching day in the life vlogs, but I love them! I love watching YouTube videos anyway - it's totally my flow occupation! I like to say that I enjoy them so much because I'm almost an occupational therapist so I'm really interested in how people like to spend their time, but really I'm just nosy! Anyway, I digress, I've been watching Sam Schuerman's beauty channel for a little while now and I think she's brilliant, she's seems so happy and jolly and says some of the most hilarious things (holy crudmoly!) and when her and her beautiful little family started making daily vlogs again I knew I had to check them out. Firstly, her and her husband are just so ridiculously sweet and secondly she has the most beautiful children ever! And she seems like a wonderful mama and I like this! So yes, The Schuerman Show - check it out!!

5. Simple Moisture Boost Hydro Cream

This stuff is my skin saviour! The weather in the UK can't make it's mind up what it wants to do, so one minute it's freezing, the next it's snowing, the next it's wazzing it down, and then it's gale force winds. That's a lot for my poor, dry, sensitive skin to contend with. But thanks to this wonderful cream my skin has been so much happier. It's quite thick and I tend to use it at night after I've Sonicleansed my face (you can see my review here). It has really helped clear up my dry patches, particularly around my nose where it is chronically dry. Plus it's from Simple so it's not filled with as much junk as other creams and it's not too expensive either, around the £6 mark I think. Which is more expensive than other Simple moisturisers, but they just don't cut the mustard like this does.

Image from here

I think that is everything that I've been really enjoying for the month of January. I love seeing what other people are enjoying so feel free to link your posts and YouTube videos because I'd love to see them!

Ciao for now,

JB.