Tuesday, 28 October 2014

Homemade Berry Smoothie

So I am now back at University for my final year and trying my hardest to live healthily. I have been to many a gym class and wake up every morning aching.Last night we did Kick Ass followed by Legs Bums and Tums - wow that was intense! 

This morning I made myself a delicious berry smoothie. I have never made my own smoothie as never had the equipment to do so, so I just had to share it with you.

You basically put what every you want into a smoothie maker/blender. Its fabulous, quick and easy.



As I am a student its all about saving money, so all the ingredients are from my new favourite supermarket - Aldi. The food is so cheap but the fruit and veg does not last very long so you have to use it quickly! 

I used, 1 banana, just under half a punnet of raspberries, a selection of fruit from the frozen berry selection, a glug of apple and raspberry juice and about 3tbsp of low fat greek yoghurt.






I put it all into a blender, whizzed it up until a smoothie consistency and hey presto a healthy smoothie! 

Now I wonder how many of my 5 a day is in that!? xoxo




Saturday, 25 October 2014

Easy but delicious Weekend Meal

Last weekend I cooked for my family, for some reason (don't ask!!) my family absolutely love chorizo. So when I came across a recipe for Chicken and Chorizo pie I just had to make it.

The recipe is very simple, but soo delicious. It also looks great so is perfect to serve at a dinner party.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
10 chicken thighs, skin and bone removed
2 onions, chopped
200g chiroiza, skin removed and slices into discs
50g plain flour, plus a little for dusting
100ml dry sherry, or white wine
600ml chicken stock
150ml single cream
large pack parsley, chopped
500g pack puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Method:

1 - Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish. Brown the chicken thighs until golden, then transfer to a place.
2 - Add the onions to the dish and cook for 5 mins until soft, then add the chorizo and cook for 2 mins until the orangey oils are released into the pan.
3 - Stir in the flour for 1 min, then add the alcohol and bubble for 2 mins until most has evaporated.
4 - Return the chicken to the pan, add the stock, cover with a lid and simmer for 40 mins, or until tender.
5 - Using a slotted spoon, scoop the chicken pieces out of the pan and transfer to a place. Use two forks to shred the meat into chunk bite-sized pieces.
6 - Meanwhile, add the cream to the pan, increase the heat and bubble for 10-15 mins until the liquid has reduced to a white sauce consistence.
7 - Add seasoning and return the chicken to the pan along with the parsley.
8 - Transfer to a pie dish (roughly 20cm x25cm) and place a pie funnel in the centre.
9 - Set this aside to cool whilst you prepare the pastry
10 - Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of a £1 coin.
11 - Brush a little beaten egg around the rim of the pie dish, then using your rolling pin to help lift the pastry over the dish.
12 - Trim away and excess pastry, then pinch the edges with your forefingers and thumb to crimp.
13 - Brush with a thin layer of beaten egg, and use the left over pastry to decorate.
14 - Bake for 45 mins or until golden brown and the filling is piping hot.





For dessert I make the easiest ever shortbread!

Ingredients:
Plain flour, 200g
Butter, 200g
Golden caster sugar, 50g plus extra for dusting

Method:

1 - Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4
2 - Whizz the flour ad butter in a food processor
3 - Add the suagr and whizz until the mixture is crumbly
4 - Press the mixture into a buttered fluted 22cm round tart tin with the back of the spoon
5 - Bake for 30-35 min until golden brown
6 - While still warm, cut into wedges, prick with a fork and dust with caster sugar
7 - Leave to cool completely in the tin




Enjoy baking both of these at the weekend, especially on a cold winters day! I often serve the shortbread with a mousse, such as lemon posset or passionfruit mousse.




*both recipes from BBC Good Food

Saturday, 18 October 2014

Rachel Reviews: Müller de luxe Corner - Vanille d'or

Müller have brought out a new deluxe range and this particular one caught my attention as the description sounded simply divine, and of course because it was on offer for £1 (for two!) in Sainsburys.


The yoghurt comes with shortcake caramel biscuit balls which are coloured gold. The yoghurt has a smooth toffee layer at the bottom of it.




This yoghurt definitely lived up to the description and exceeded my expectations! The yoghurt and toffee www smooth and creamy and the caramel shortcake balls complimented the yoghurt perfectly.

I sometimes find with these yoghurts that there is not enough of the 'corner' be it fruit pieces, chocolate or fruit. However I found there was ample biscuit pieces and was not short of biscuit balls.

I am glad I randomly picked these off the shelf. I am obviously impressed with them as I did my second 'Rachel Reviews' post of them!

I would recommend these to any sweet toothed yoghurt lover like myself!

What have you tried new recently? xoxo

Sunday, 5 October 2014

A weekend in the Peak District

I go to University in Sheffield, and am fortunate to be so close to the Peak District. Literally keep driving up the Eccy Road and bam you're into the lovely countryside!

My parents came up to Sheffield last weekend to bring the remaining of my University bits, such as furniture as it didn't all fit in my little Fiat 500!

As we live in London, they always stay for the weekend as its too much to drive to and from Sheffield in a day, 6 hours of driving is not fun!

On the Saturday we went on a beautiful walk around Froggatt and Calver. The walk ended on Fraggatt Edge, which was beautiful and gave stunning views of the peaks. You could even see Chatsworth House. We have done a couple of walks around Chatsworth, and there is a gorgeous tea room too. I hadn't started my blog then, but I am sure I will be back so can do a post then!!

The walk around Froggatt was about 4 miles and took about 4 hours, we were exhausted!!




In the evening we went for dinner in Sheffield near where I live to a restaurant called Graze Inn on the Eccy Road (Ecclesall Road!!). The Eccy Road has so many lovely restaurants to visit and I am very lucky to live in such a good area.

We were seated in a booth at the back of the restaurant, which was good as the main bar area was absolutely heaving!

I had a lovely frozen mango daiquiri to drink and then half a chicken and 3 sides. The chicken is such good value, half a chicken with three sides for £12. I went for, garlic mash, sweet potatoe fries and peas & carrots. The mash was out of this world, so creamy and garlic and amazing!



My brother went for the pepper and chorizo risotto and it was delicious! My dad had the chicken also like myself and my mum had the signature ribs, she said they were yummy! I have been to Graze Inn a number of times and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is visiting the area. The Sunday Roasts are pretty amazing, as are their desserts. Or even just to pop by for cocktail for Happy Hour in the bar area.


On the Sunday, I met my family at their hotel and we all enjoyed a large breakfast. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day and I made the most of the buffet breakfast!

We then headed back into the peaks and hired bikes. You can hire bikes at either end of the Monsal Trail. The trail is on a old disused railway line, so is completely flat and easy to ride, but will stunning views as you are so high up.


We hired bikes from Blackwell Mill Cycle Hire, which are £5 cheaper per bike than from this place.


We cycled all the way to Hassop Station and went to the cafe there. The cafe was heaving with people also biking along the trail. I had a hot chocolate and rocky road, mmm!



We headed back to the start of the trail, cycling roughly 15 miles in total!

What a lovely weekend in the Peak District, cannot wait til the next one after the Christmas break :) xoxo

Saturday, 4 October 2014

MasterChef Restaurant & Bar

Unfortunately my first foodie post on returning from America, is not a positive one!


I bought my mum for her birthday tickets to the MasterChef Restaurant & Bar. Tickets flew like hot cakes for this, and they even extended the restaurant for a week due to popular demand. I was only able to get Brunch tickets as they lunch and dinner ones were gone!


I was excited to visit the restaurant, which is advertised as 'MasterChef champions and finalists from the last ten years will lead the kitchen and be appearing in front of your eyes'. Additionally the website states that 'you are invited to meet the champions, eat their dishes and experience MasterChef first hand' 

However this was not the case. The chef's were not present, we could not meet them, and they didn't even cook our food. 

The menu
Leading swiftly onto the food itself, which was a complete let down. We were served yoghurt and granola. Well I can't imagine the chefs made the yoghurt by hand. We were also served a bowl of fruit. Cannot imagine the chefs sliced the fruit either.

Fruit and Granola 
We were then offered a choice of scrambled eggs and salmon on a toasted muffin, or buttermilk pancakes with maple bacon.

Pancakes with bacon and (lots of...!?!) maple syrup
I went for the pancakes. There was not enough maple syrup for the pancakes, and the bacon was too fatty. The quality of the ingredients was awful. My mum had the scrambled eggs and salmon and said that the salmon was awful.

Such a shame to be writing such a negative blog post about the MasterChef Pop-Up as I was so excited to go, and more importantly super excited to meet the chefs and watch them cook. However even if the chefs were actually cooking the 'open kitchen' wasn't even open at all,  merely a small window! 

I would have much preferred to have spent the money on a brunch elsewhere, where the experience and food would've been 10 times better and probably half the price. 

Trying to make a laugh of the awful situation!
So now I am home and to cheer myself up I think I will bake something tasty! Most probably a scrummy post to follow!

Chin up! xoxo

Bag - Kate Spade $368
Leggings - Miss Selfridge £25
Top - Abercombie Kids $12
Leather Jacket - Warehouse
Necklace - Topshop £12.50

Sunday, 21 September 2014

My American Adventures - I'm home!

So I am home after three months of my states side adventure.

I worked at Walt Disney World for 2 months in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. My highlight of the whole time working was when I picked up a shift at the Boutique inside Cinderella's Castle (my normal location was Downtown Disney). Working in the Castle was so magical and I loved every minute. I just wish I worked here more, or was placed here for the whole program. However I am glad I got to experience it!

Last shift at the boutique
Graduation

Graduation
FGIT Heidi and Rachel
I then left the programme on 15th August and headed to Miami for 3 days with the girls from Disney.

Miami Beach

Miami Beach

I then flew from Fort Lauderdale airport to Las Vegas. Vegas was unreal, and felt unreal and fake too!! It's such a cool place though, all the lights, casinos, nightclubs etc, I secretly loved it! And we managed to take a day trip to the Grand Canyon which was breathtaking - photos don't do it justice!

Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas Nevada

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

We then got a bus (after it broke down and we spend 3 hours on the side of the motorway!) to LA. LA was so cool, my favourite was Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive, it was so posh, I wanna live there one day! We also saw the famous Hollywood sign, but I think its overated - shhh don't tell anyone!

Beverly Hills 90210

Hollywood sign

Cycling the Yosemite Valley
Next we stayed in a tent in Yosemite. Californai is currently in the worst drough for 500 years. This meant there were not pretty lakes, and none of the famous waterfalls. Yosemite was a bit of a let down, and we left here early.

Yosemite National Park



San Francisco was our next destination. I loved it here, and was even able to go running in the mornings. And not just so I could escape the severly loud snoring in our dorm!! My favourite was cycling over the Golden Gate bridge, I loved it! We also visited Alcatraz which was super interesting.

Run along the beach to the Golden Gate

Golden Gate bridge

Smoothies on the roof of Macy's looking over Union Square

View of San Fran from Alcatraz

We ended our trip in New York, the city that never sleeps, where we did an awful lot of shopping - ooopsies! I also treated myself to a Kate Spade bag, blog to follow ASAP! We also went to Enrique and Pitbull concert and were fortunate enough to randomly get upgraded to the front row of the seating area!

Enrique

The famous NY skyline

What an amazing summer I had, you can see my full adventure on my blog that I set up just for summer here.


I am excited to get stuck back into this blog though!

More soon xoxo

Wednesday, 16 July 2014

Living the American dream

Sorry I have not posted in like months! It seems weird coming back to this blog, but also quite nice! I miss my random posts on here and writing about my little life and all my adventures.

I am in American for 2 months working at Walt Disney World in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, and have set up a separate blog for my friends and family to read so they can see what I'm getting up to! It's surprisingly had lots of views and is nearly overtaking the amount of views this blog has had! Although personally I think it's just my mum reading it over and over again cos she misses me ;)


However I will do a quick overview for y'all! :)


I'm working in the boutique in Downtown Disney, the boutique is located at the back of World of Disney which is the largest Disney store in the world! Princess's aged 3-12 come to the boutique to be made into beautiful Princesses! In the boutique there are two roles, the FGITs (Fairy Godmothers in Training) who do the hair and makeup and then the cash wraps who check the guests out at the registers and take the payment and also do the stock! This is my role as I am only here for 2 months and it takes at least 2 months I reckon to feel fully comfortable doing the hair and makeup! I did not really enjoy the job at the begining and it took me a while to settle in. However now I know what I am doing I am enjoying it much more, and making some friends in the boutique has also helped! I once got a ride home with a couple of the FGITs and we went to Chick-Fil-A (which was delicious!!). When I got home they had sent me a Facebook message telling me how lovely I was - it made my day! 


The beautiful thing about the job is seeing how happy the Princesses are when they look in the mirror for the first time after the transformation. The fairygodmotherintraining spins the chair around and the princess has her eyes shut and cannot open them until the FGIT says Bibbidi bobbidi boo! The majority of the time the princess either has a massive smile on their face or is completely speechless! I love seeing their reactions and it makes the whole job worthwhile! I love interacting with all the guests and princesses it's lotsa fun! Although it's not easy all the time and of course you get the odd difficult customer but that's working in retail for you! 

I am working 4/5 days a week and having either 2/3 days off, depending if I decide to give a shift away! We try and make the most of our days off and visit the parks (we get free entry!). I have now visited all the parks at least once! My favourite park is Animal Kingdom. I love animals and think the park is great! My favourite is going on safari and seeing all the animals roaming, we got so close to giraffes! 


Another favourite of mine is watching the parades at MK as the music is brill and you get to see the characters all together! It makes me wish I could dance still and join in the parade, although it must be super hot and sweaty!!!


Frozen has taken over Hollywood studios, there is a parade in the morning, a massive frozen shop, and ice rink, snow to build a snowman amd various singalong shows in the day followed by fireworks at night which are synced to all the songs from the movie! It really is frozen madness over here! The majority of the Princesses who come to the boutique want to be Anna or Elsa! 
Although I have treated myself to a cute Olaf teddy!! 




The food has been amazing also, of course it has it's America! On the first day we ate at Longhorn Steakhouse and it was unbelievable! The steak was insane and the pudding was out of this world!! The puddings were huge and we shared 2 between 4, one person would not manage a whole one to themselves!

The Ben and Jerrys milkshakes are delicious, the half baked one is my favourite - why don't they make these at home! Whenever we go food shipping to Publix we have to walk past the B&J shop so always get one - oopsies!



I have also been to a character breakfast at the Grand Floridian. The characters included Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter! The breakfast was delicious especially the Mickey Waffles! We are looking to go to another one already!




We also went to Sanaa at Disneys Animal Kingdom Lodge as cast members receive 40% off! The food was out of this world and made a welcome change to typical burgers and chips that we have been eating!! I enjoyed a selection of bread and dips for starter and then two curries and rice for main! All washed down with a cute Tinkerbell punch! 



Another food highlight has been the Mickey trouser sink which can be bought from Magic Kimgdom, I shared this with a friend and it was divine! 


The fireworks and evening shows in the parks are also superb! I have seen them all except the Frozen fireworks and Illumiations at Epcot! I am seeing the Frozen ones tonight and hopefully visiting Epcot next week after work one day! 
I loved Wishes at MK so much, the light show before on the castle is so cleverly done and the fireworks are like nothing I've seen before!
Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios is also really good, and was not what I was expecting!! 





We have also visited two resorts on our days off and spent the time being guests for the day and enjoying being on a sandy 'beach'. So far we have visited Caribbean Beach resort and The Polynesian, both are gorgeous! 


So far my time at Disney has been a mixture of emotions, I am glad I perserveed with the job as I am enjoying myself now and I am LOVING my days off!! 

More adventures to come!!!