Food | Meat Free Monday #1 {Veggie Frittata}

Does anyone else love a Meat-Free Monday?! I was a former Veggie for quite a while but there's something deeply satisfying about raiding the Fridge for those leftovers and making them into a meal.

Last Monday I whipped up an oldie but a goodie, Veggie Frittata with a Sweet Potato and Halloumi Salad. This recipe fed Dan and I with a good third left, so it makes enough for four if you're feeling good or three if you're super hungry (we were)!


I used the following, but just use whatever Veg you like (or what's lurking in the fridge/cupboard).

- 6 Eggs
- Handful of freshly grated Parmesan
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 Leek (sliced)
- 8 Mushrooms (sliced)
- 5-6 stalks of Long Stem Broccoli (chopped)
- Olive oil

For the Salad:

- Baby Spinach Leaves
- Cherry Tomatoes
- A large Sweet Potato
- 1/2 block of Halloumi
- Small Sweetfire Beetroot (from Tesco)

For the Dressing:

In a jar I shook up, 1 teaspoon of Whole Grain Mustard, a squeeze of Agave Nectar, a good splash of Balsamic Vinegar and an even bigger splash of Extra Virgin Oil to taste (start with a little amount and keep adding until your dressing tastes how you like it). Simples.

And here's how it's done.

Pop the oven on at about 175 degrees.

Put a teaspoon of coconut oil in a baking tray/sheet, and stick in the oven for a minute or two to melt (liquify).

Whilst that's going on, chop your Sweet Potato into wedges.

Toss them in the Coconut Oil and some seasoning and bake them in the oven for about 25 mins.

Next up, prep those Veggies!

Put a teaspoon of olive oil in a small frying pan (20 cm), and on a medium heat cook your Veg for about 5 minutes.

I did mine in two batches.

Action shot...

Whisk up your eggs in a bowl with some seasoning and a handful of (freshly) grated parmesan.

Put all your veggies back in the pan with a splash more olive oil, and still on a medium to low heat, add your egg mixture.

Give it about 4-5 minutes to get some colour on the base and then put it on a low shelf in the oven to cook through the rest of the Frittata.

While that's cooking, grill your Halloumi and chop your Salad Ingredients.

After about 8-10 minutes take your Frittata out of the oven and check it's cooked through. If it's not pop it back in for a couple of minutes.

When it's done, turn it out of the pan, slice it up and chow down!

LOVE Meat-Free Monday! x

Food | Gluten Free Chicken and Mushrooms in a Garlic White Wine Sauce

It's been a while since I posted a food based blog; I thought I'd bored you all to tears with the 21 days of non-stop food-talk, but apparently not!

I've had quite a few people ask me how I'm doing post-detox, and what my diet looks like these days.

Whilst I'm not going to subject you to an hour-by-hour account of my daily food intake, I like getting creative in the kitchen and a lot of what I make is pretty healthy too, so I thought I could share a few ideas with you. Sound good?

With all the rubbish weather we've been having in the UK lately my body has been craving comfort food. Something warm and tasty was top of the bill last week, so I made an adapted version of this recipe.

Mine is wheat and gluten free so it's good if you're cooking for anyone with food intolerances, and will go a little easier on the tummy even if you aren't!

For mine you will need:

- 4 Chicken Breasts sliced into strips (use the best quality you can afford)
- 1 tablespoon Doves Farm Gluten Free Flour
- 1 x Kallo Organic Chicken Stock Cube (made into 500ml chicken stock)
- 3 cloves of Garlic (crushed/minced)
- 250g Mushrooms (sliced). I used Portabellini but I think Chestnut Mushrooms would be yummy too.
- 1/2 a glass of white wine (about 125ml)
- 2 dessertspoons of creme fraiche
- A handful of chopped fresh parsley

You also need some vegetables to steam and serve alongside. I had Pak Choi and Long-Stem Broccoli to hand. If the idea of having just veggies is too weird for you, a small amount (a couple of heaped spoons) of brown rice won't do you any harm.

And here's what you do. It's super quick and very easy!

1. Get ready! Slice up your mushrooms and crush those garlic cloves. Finely chop a handful of flat leaf parsley. Clear off your board and slice the chicken breasts into strips.

2. Heat a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter in a pan.

3. Coat your chicken strips with a tablespoon of gluten free flour and some salt & pepper.

4. Brown off the chicken strips in the pan until you can't see any pink meat and put to one side.

5. Add a little more olive oil to your pan and pop in your garlic......

6. And mushrooms. Stir for a minute and then add your white wine.

7. Next add 250ml of chicken stock and your creme fraiche.

8. Give it a stir and add your chicken breast back in with most of the chopped parsley.

9. Let it gently simmer for 10 minutes. If you think it needs more stock, add more until the sauce reaches your desired consistency.

10. Eat!!!

Hope you like it! x

Life - Friday Favourites

Happy Valentines Day!

I can't believe Friday has rolled around again so quickly, not that I'm complaining!

Here's what made me smile this week.

1. My February Birchbox arrived (thanks JP!), and it looks like a good one. I can't wait to start trying everything!

2. I've missed baking since my recent health-kick but these Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies from SkinnyTaste look the business. I'm going to try and squeeze in some baking time this weekend.

Photo Source: www.skinnytaste.com

3. I painted my nails a bright, red colour in honour of Valentines Day. Love! Although by Saturday they will look like this. The shade is 325 Hot Gossip by Rimmel.

4. The Winter Olympics! These athletes literally blow my mind; they make everything look so easy when in fact, it's soooo freakin difficult. The BBC Sport Coverage has been fab....I can't get enough!

5. All week Fearne Cotton has had Brit Award Nominee's in the Radio Live Lounge which has been so good! On Wednesday one of my favourite bands London Grammar covered Pure Shores and it was ah-mazing! I can't get enough of Hannah's voice...... #girlcrush

What do you guys think?

What are guys up to for Valentines day? I'll leave you with this.....whether you're in a relationship or not, love starts with you x

Photo Source: www.pinterest.com

Home | For the love of Lamp Room Gray

So after sharing my Kitchen Candy with you last week I set about making that transformation happen this weekend.

I'm not going to lie, it did take me all weekend, but the end result is so worth it. It feels like a new kitchen!

Before we get to the after photo's I thought I'd run through how I got there.

1. Take all the cupboards and drawers off.
2. Remove existing handles.
3. Fill the holes left by handles with wood filler.
4. Sand back said holes, and repeat.
5. Time to prime! I used Zinsser 1-2-3 Primer and Sealer after reading lots of good things about it's staying power online. Give everything a good even coat of primer, let dry.
6. I used Farrow and Ball Estate Eggshell Paint in Lamp Room Gray. Now you might be thinking that doesn't sound very budget but I felt like splashing the extra cash on good quality paint was worth it, I only want to paint the kitchen once, and it's going to get a lot of use.
7. Apply two even coats of the F&B, leaving 2-4 hours drying time between each coat.
8. When you're sure your paint is absolutely cured you can start drilling the holes for your new hardware. I bought mine from Ikea as I liked the contrasting white handles with the grey paint.
9. Re-attach the cupboards and drawers to the units.
10. Do your happy dance!

Here's a Budget Breakdown for this part of the kitchen update:

£15.94 Primer
£20.99 F&B Paint
£25 New Handles and Knobs from Ikea

£61.93 Total

So here's what we started with....

And here's where we are now. With grey base cabinets, oak work tops and a new white ceramic sink (I put those up on Facebook last weekend so most of you will already have seen them). Oh and the flooring is new too.

There's still a crazy amount to do on this Kitchen Update on a Budget. It's very much a work-in-progress but I can't wait to share more photo's with you next week!

Life | Friday Favourites

It's been a long old while since I wrote one of these posts!

I still think it's a great way to celebrate Friday though, so here goes....

1. I miss this little guy and his brother so much! Move-in day for the house is getting closer and that means they can live with us again soon.....woop!

2. This cake for Dan's Mum's Birthday was off-the-scale delicious. And no, that is not icing you see, it's white chocolate. Drooling yet? Mmmm, cake.

3. By mid-week the constant rain was just too depressing so I painted my nails a happy shade of pink to brighten things up a bit. This Gelly Nail Paint by Barry M totally did the trick. The shade is Grapefruit in case your keen, and I think it's perfect for Spring/Summer.

Excuse my hideous cuticles, a casualty of house renovation.

4. I've long been a fan of Almond Milk as a dairy alternative but then I came across this in Sainsbury's and thought I'd give it a whirl.

It's Coconut Milk but not as we know it in the UK (usually in a can/carton that you use for making Curries etc.)

I have it instead of milk in tea, porridge and with granola.

It tastes delicious, has a good consistency (you know I'm weird about food textures) and is slightly cheaper than Almond Milk too, love!

5. Which leads us nicely on to these!

The holy grail of Chai Tea, they are so freaking good, I'm addicted! Which is why after my trial pack of fifteen I ordered fifty of the little beauties.

They're not cheap but I don't drink coffee and rarely have time to sit in a cafe these days so they're my little at-home treat.

I have them with a splash of Almond/Coconut Milk and it's so yummy.

A little temple of Chai yummy-ness

What made you smile this week? Happy Friday everyone!

Home | Kitchen Candy

After a few days off from the Blogging Marathon that was the 21 Day Detox I'm excited to be back and talking about something completely different....our house!

Now if you guys have been reading along for a while you'll know that Dan and I bought a house back in September 2013. Aaaaannd, we still don't live there! I know, crazy.

It was previously rented out to students so was in a pretty bad state when we bought it. We knew there was some stuff that was out-of-date and needed to be done straightway like the plumbing, central heating and electrics but then there was one area I thought we could just live with.

I present to you la cucina, la cuisine.... the kitchen (and laundry/utility room).

We always knew we would tear out the laundry/utility but we thought that perhaps with just a little TLC (e.g. Damp Treatment) we could live with the kitchen for a couple of years and save up for "The One".

And then we realised the existing kitchen just wouldn't work for us. There is plenty of storage but no room for a Fridge/Freezer or Dishwasher (Princess Daniel doesn't wash up, but he does load and unload the Dishwasher very nicely, so for the sake of my sanity a Dishwasher is an Essential Appliance in our house).

So it was back to the drawing board. There was still no room in our budget to completely re-do the kitchen but we could scale down a couple of other areas and give the kitchen a £1500 allowance for a little face-lift.

And then the pinning/researching frenzy happened.

I love the look of a mix-match colour scheme, grey base cabinets and white uppers. I like open-shelving and clean, bright, white spaces. Our kitchen is North Facing and doesn't get a lot of natural light so some brightening treatment was a top priority.

Just so you can picture it all. This is my ultimate Kitchen Candy.

All Images Courtesy of Pinterest.

Got the gist?

So here's where we are with the big old kitchen re-vamp.

So far we have:

- Removed the upper cabinets and tall larder
- Steamed off the old lining paper
- Had the room re-skimmed
- Had new spotlights fitted
- Had new flooring fitted
- Bought and built an island
- Bought new worktops
- Bought new sink (we're using the existing tap)
- Had the plumbing adjusted to accommodate a dishwasher
- Primed the lower cabinets ready for their paint job
- Bought new handles for the cabinets
- Mist coated the new plaster work

There's still a big old to-do list to go. This weekend I'm painting those lower cabinets. The decision-making on the colour was extensive but we got there in the end!

I can't wait to come back with some before and after photo's.

In the meantime, a little house-tour will be going up on YouTube. I have lots of friends and family who don't live in Bristol so it's nice for them to see what's occupying all my free-time. It's a "warts and all" kind of tour, set your expectations low!

What are you guys up to this weekend? The sun is actually shining in Bristol today, it feels like it just rained for the whole of January, and I want to go out and hug those Vitamin D rays!