11AM: Sometimes you just feel like you need a decent meal to see you through the day. When you know you’re going to be working until 9PM almost every night this week (yep, that’s right…) that sort of pushes you to feel like it’s one of those times. Because of that, I’ve opted to have my main meal of the day right now – a fry up. YUM. Meal of champions.
4:25PM: This wrap is gross. I don’t think that’s a sentence I’ve ever said before… 😦 To be fair, it wasn’t the delicious wholemeal tortilla’s fault – it’s because I tried to use up what was leftover in the fridge before it went off, and turns out that’s too much processed meat for one day. For me, anyways.
FOOD DIARY
Breakfast
🥓 Cup of green tea
Pre-work meal
🥓 An (almost full) English breakfast – two slices of bacon (fat cut off), two pork and apple sausages, one fried egg, baked beans and wholemeal toast
Lunch
🥓 Sausage, bacon and salad wholemeal wrap (not good, got thrown away)
🥓 Walkers Honey BBQ Sunbites
🥓 Fibre One brownie bite
🥓 Bottle of Diet Coke
🥓 850ml water
🥓 Dairy Milk bar
1:30PM: I’m not really a big fan of honey 🍯 – my body is probably so used to processed sugar it gets all confused when something naturally sweet rears its head – but I’ve started eating this combo of fat-free Greek yogurt and mixed chopped fruit with just a drizzle of honey over the top, and it’s SO GOOD. Honestly, yum.
2:40PM:I HEARD RUSTLING IN THE FLAT, THE DAMN MOUSE IS STILL HERE SOMEWHERE. Oh God help me.
5:30PM: I brought home my very first car today, and now I’ve got a cute little car all of my own. This has nothing to do with food or anything but it’s still a pretty big deal so I thought you all should know.
6:45PM: Chilli is, like, the best meal. It doesn’t even need the meat, it’s just as good with Quorn mince – as long as you make it spicy, of course.
FOOD DIARY
Breakfast 👏 2 cups of green tea 👏 850ml water
Lunch 👏 2 slices wholemeal toast with Sour Cream Pringles (we had a few crumbs left in the bottom of the tube from the weekend and that’s one of my favourite weird food combos, don’t judge me) 👏 Greek yogurt, mixed fruit and a drizzle of honey
Dinner 👏 Home-made, oven-cooked spiced potato wedges topped with Quorn chilli “con carne” and a sprinkling of low-fat cheese
Snacks 👏 A couple of cubes of Dairy Milk chocolate and a cup of tea – well, it is Great British Bake Off night after all!
5:25PM: We’ve both had a rubbish day, we’re both tired, and we both have no willpower. So when I call the boyfriend after work and ask what he wants for dinner, and he says Chinese takeaway, there was really only one way this was going to go…
7PM: Okay. The food is here. I’m now faced with a dilemma – sink my teeth into my half and hoover up the lot, or take things a spoonful at a time and see how I get on. Hmm…
8PM: I did it! I mean, I’m not saying I deserve a pat on the back or anything because, let’s face it, I’m still full of Chinese food. Oops. BUT, I did take it slowly; I just dished up a little bit at a time for myself, and I didn’t scoff all of it. In fact, I couldn’t quite finish my half and some of it got thrown away (which absolutely sucks btw, wasting food is NOT cool!) So even though today has been quite pants, it’s not all bad.
10:30PM:THERE’S A MOTHERFUCKING MOUSE IN THE FLAT! 🐭
11PM: It ran under the sofa and we can’t find it. I’m now going to bed tonight with a rogue mouse somewhere in my home. What a day.
FOOD DIARY
Breakfast 🎀 Cup of green tea
Lunch 🎀 Boots Meal Deal – Shapers BBQ Chicken Wrap, Walkers Baked Cheese and Onion crisps, small chocolate bar, Diet Coke 🎀 850ml water
Dinner 🎀 Chinese takeaway (no, this is not a personal highlight.) 🎀 Diet Pepsi (I am drinking way too many fizzy drinks right now…) 🎀 Cup of green tea
11:30AM: I’m up early on a Sunday when I’m not working – why, you ask? Well, because I’m off out to stand in a cold, damp field and watch football. Supportive girlfriend points, please 💁
4:30PM: For the first time in our two year relationship, I am the one on the soft drinks 🍼It’s a birthday party, it’s in a pub, and I’m tentatively sipping on two white wine spritzers and what feels like gallons of Diet Coke because for the first time – not only in our relationship but, in fact, my LIFE – I’m the one driving us home. I’m proud of myself, but also a little unsure. Like, is this really worth it? Can’t we just get an Uber home? My cousin is here and she’s not drinking either, but she’s almost six months pregnant which feels like a much more worthwhile excuse…
Anyway, we filled up on a little mini buffet my mum laid out for us before we left in her valiant, but ultimately failed, attempt to stop everyone getting too drunk – except me, of course.
FOOD DIARY
Breakfast
Greek yogurt with mixed fruit and a drizzle of honey
Lunch
Roasted chicken, vegetable cous cous, roast potato chunks, slice of French stick, handful of black pepper crisps, salad
Drinks
2 white wine spritzers with lemonade
Several glasses of Diet Coke – oh the newfound perks of being designated driver!
Serves: 2 How much does it cost? This cost me less than £1 per person What are the benefits? This recipe is low in carbs, low in sugar and mounts up to 2 portions of your 5 a day
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really been a big salad person. I suppose it really depends on what else you put in with it, because I can’t imagine anyone loving just a few limp lettuce leaves!
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So I’ve created one that’s brilliant for me and works with the things I love to eat, as well as still being quite healthy – who knows, it could be perfect for you too!
It’s a great low-carb lunch option, if that’s what you’re after. Not to mention, it also contributes to your five a day, and avocado is full of healthy fats to help keep you full all day long.
INGREDIENTS 4 Slices of Back Bacon, Chopped 1 Avocado, Peeled, Stone Removed and Chopped 1/2 Red Bell Pepper, Sliced Half a Bag of Pre-Prepared Salad
SEASONING There wasn’t too much seasoning involved in this one, just some black pepperand garlic added to the frying pan last-minute. You don’t even need salt as the bacon does that for you, but you could add some salad dressing for extra flavour if you wish.
So, this is how I did it…
1. Firstly, spray a frying pan with cooking spray or a small drop of oil and allowed it to heat up before chucking in the chopped bacon and cooking for roughly 10 minutes, until the bacon is all lovely and crispy.
2. Add the peppers to the pan after about 5 minutes of cooking the bacon, just enough so they aren’t raw but still have a crunch, and cook for about 5 minutes.
3. The chunks of avocado go into the pan for the last minute or so of cooking – this is optional, but I prefer my avocado to be warm here, so I cooked it for just enough time to simply warm it through. At this point, also add some black pepper and dried garlic to the pan for flavour.
4. Take the ingredients from the pan and add to a bowl of salad, stir it all through and you’re done!
Tips & Tricks
You know what else would go great with this? Halloumi, of course. It’s great with everything, and could turn this into a veggie-friendly salad.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you don’t have to buy a pre-packaged salad – that’s just laziness on my part! Make your own up and create the absolutely perfect dish for you.
It makes a great lunch, but you could also shrink this down to a small side salad or bulk it up for a full dinner meal. The choice is yours!
Like a decent cuppa, #ThisGirlEats has been brewing for a long time. As it became less an idea and more a reality, my passion exploded and it was suddenly super important to me. It was like a new lease of life (is a mid-20s crisis a thing? It really should be) and I wanted to make it work.
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If you’re sitting at home, perhaps feeling defeated, perhaps finding comfort in a bag of Kettle chips and a bottle of wine (no judgement here), wondering how a foodie blog that probably only my family and some very nice friends will ever read lifted me out of a similar funk, let me tell you…
I don’t like my job – I know; newsflash, I’m not the only one, bla bla bla. I mean, it’s not toooooo bad (‘cept rude customers, late nights and the absolute nightmare of Christmas retail, obviously), it’s just not my passion. And when you slog away day in, day out, at something you don’t feel any passion towards, it can get kinda depressing.
I’m SO guilty of letting my day job knock me back – I can’t count how many times I’ve come home feeling utterly rubbish. Still working at what I imagined to be a temporary stop-gap (HA HA HA) and not exactly making waves with my degree – or the £30,000 of debt I spent getting it! – led to endless hours punishing myself. I’d often turn a completely fine day into a living hell because I’d make myself feel so down about it.
But then I came up with this blog. Something to focus on, to aim for, to work on. Something exciting, motivating. It was a new adventure, the start of something. Once I realised that, everything else, including changing my negative mindset, just seemed to fall into place.
What was I criticising myself for? For being fortunate enough to have a job? For earning money, which allows me to have my own creative space, a decent laptop, and food to cook and experiment with? Is that really so awful? Isn’t that actually something to be proud of? Everyone who is successful, who I admire, has been in my shoes at some point. I’m a work in progress.
I thought having an “ordinary” retail job instead of being an award-winning journalist, music mogul or internet sensation of the blog-o-sphere made me unambitious, uncreative, underachieving. But did I look at my colleagues, doing the exact same job as me, that way? No. I saw them as funny, independent, interesting, creative, etc.. So why did I find it so hard to look at myself the same way?
We need to stop thinking that if we aren’t creating, organising, housekeeping, social media-ing, exercising, seeing friends and finding time to chill, all in one day, that it’s not a successful day. Productivity doesn’t have a time limit. The clock doesn’t refresh and start all over again after 24 hours. There’s no shame in working hard for bloody ages to get what you want. Fuck shame – take shame, disappointment and frustration into your own hands and mould it into inspiration, motivation, work ethic, passion, hunger.
Starting this blog gave me a bigger picture. It made me see my day job as a stepping stone rather than an obstacle. We are all a work in progress, and that’s okay.
For me, smoothies are the answer to everything. Don’t have time for breakfast? Make a smoothie. Need more fruit in your diet but can’t be bothered to actually sit and eat it? Drink a smoothie. Kinda peckish but don’t want to give in to junk food temptation? Have another bloody smoothie.
I use a Blend Active Pro to make my smoothies – they’re simple, easy to clean, come with their own bottles and you can get them for around £20 online.
These are just three of my own favourite smoothie recipes, all of which take about 30 seconds in the smoothie maker. Couldn’t be simpler!
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Berry Burst & Banana High in antioxidants and potassium, great for your immune system!
YouTube, to me, has always seemed something of a nightmare. Like an internet jungle full of egos, instant fame and incredibly beautiful people with incredibly interesting things to say, it’s a place I definitely never saw myself going.
It’s fucking terrifying a little daunting. But, having dabbled in music, blogging and media for a few years now, I’m obviously aware of how instrumental YouTube has become in getting your work out there and, with the start of a new food blog and a new venture, it seemed like now was as good a time as any to strap on a pair and maybe just dip my toe into the murky waters of vlogging.
Anyone who knows me knows that in front of a video camera is the very last place I want to be. It’s a million miles from my comfort zone. I’d be lying if I said hearing the sound of my own voice played back in the editing process didn’t make me cringe and I won’t pretend I didn’t scrutinise every inch of my appearance until I starting going cross-eyed.
But I decided it was time to open myself up to my own vulnerabilities. I really want #ThisGirlEats to do well because it’s something I’m really passionate about and if that means putting my most self-conscious side out there for all the world to see, then so be it.
So I’ve really pushed myself and, ignoring the fact that I had no idea how to edit, present, read a script, frame a shot, promote myself as a vlogger or make myself look “YouTube beautiful”, I created my very first vlog for #ThisGirlEats.
Please check it out below! If you want to subscribe, comment or just have a little nose at the YouTube channel, you can find it all here.
Serves: 4 How much does it cost? This cost me less than 50p per person What are the benefits? You get at least 3 of your 5 a day, it’s vegetarian friendly and makes a great takeaway alternative
I’m a thief. I’ve nicked the idea for this from two different recipes; one a cheap student affair and one a low-fat chicken curry.
I’ve shamelessly pinched my favourite bits from both to make this yummy mid-week meal. It’s fairly straightforward, low in cost, full of nutrition and incredibly versatile, as you can use any vegetables in the house for a delicious outcome.
The tortilla “naans” (which are not naan breads at all, but are an alternative side to this curry dish) were an idea born from a combination of having leftover tortillas dangerously close to going off and forgetting to buy actual naan breads in the week. They turned amazing!
It’s a lower carb option than fluffy naans and, being chock-full of veggies, it’s much lower in fat than the usual creamy carnivorous curries we get. Butter chicken and onion bajhis may have my heart, but this is a pretty second choice!
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INGREDIENTS
1 Medium Potato, Chopped 1 Carrot, Sliced 1 Onion, Chopped 1 Bell Pepper, Sliced 4 Mushrooms, Sliced 1 Tomato, Chopped 1 Apple, Chopped 400g Tin Chopped Tomatoes 400ml Coconut Milk (reduced fat if you can) 2 tbsp Curry Paste 1 tsp Tomato Puree 1 Vegetable Stock Cube
SEASONING
Each part of this recipe kinda lives and dies with the seasoning. For the curry, you want to add some dried garlic, dried coriander leaf, salt, pepper and chilli flakes to the pan. If, like me, you find rice quite bland, add some salt, pepper, thyme and coriander leafas the rice cooks just to give it a pop. And, finally, before you put the tortillas in the oven, you want to cover them with a sprinkling of garlic flakes, coriander leafand cracked black pepper.
So, this is how I did it…
1. First thing’s first, heat up the frying pan and add your chunkier vegetables – potatoes, carrots, anything that takes a little longer to soften up. Fry these off for about 5 minutes.
2. Then add the rest of your veggies, along with the chopped tomatoes, coconut milk, curry paste, tomato puree, crumbled stock cube and seasoning. Cook this for about 15-20 minutes, and just keep an eye on the liquid levels – if it starts to dry up, add a splash of water to tide it over.
3. Following the packet instructions, along with some seasoning, and cook the rice, either on the hob or in the microwave.
4. Place the tortillas on a baking tray, brushed with a teeny tiny amount of oil, sprinkled with seasoning and put them in the oven for about 5 minutes, until they crisp up.
Tips & Tricks
An excellent way to bulk this up even further (as if it doesn’t have enough going on already!) is to add lentils or chickpeas. They’re both really filling, are great for you, and are awesome ingredients for a curry.
If you’d like the sauce a little thicker, sprinkle in a small pinch of flour and stir. It’ll help thicken everything up (I’m not a fan of runny sauces).
Got a slow cooker? This recipe is wonderfully tasty and so incredibly easy in a slow cooker, just bung the ingredients into the crockpot and cook up the rice when you’ve got the chance.
Serves: 1 How much does it cost? This cost me less than 50p per person What are the benefits? The wholemeal tortillas are high in fibre, the fillings are low in sugar, and it’s a great takeaway alternative
Mexican food is the best, isn’t it?!
I’m a lover of enchiladas and, damn, in my eyes a world without guacamole isn’t worth living. My cooking hasn’t stretched too far into the cuisine yet (mostly because I can’t resist over-stuffing burritos to the point that they physically won’t wrap and it basically ends up as rice, chicken and salsa slopped on a tortilla plate…)
I did recently try making my own version of quesadillas which, as it turns out, is super easy! You can fill them with whatever you like which makes them hugely versatile and you can spend as much, or as little, as you want.
The whole thing honestly takes about five minutes (ten at a stretch!) which is perfect for when you can’t really be arsed to cook.
I’ve chosen fillings that I always tend to have at home but, of course, you can absolutely swap these for pretty much anything you like, so it’s convenient as well as being tasty, quick and easy. What more could you want?!
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INGREDIENTS 2 Wholemeal Tortilla Wraps 25g Grated Cheese (low fat if you can) 2 Mushrooms, Sliced 1/2 Medium Onion, Chopped
SEASONING
This really depends on what you put into the quesadilla. With mine, which was made with cheese, onion and mushroom, a touch of mixed herbs gave a nice extra touch, but feel free to play around with your options.
So, this is how I did it…
1. Heat up a large frying pan and placing one tortilla straight on there, no oil or cooking spray needed.
2. Sprinkle the grated cheese and the rest of your fillings across the entire surface of the tortilla, being careful not to overdo it with a mountain of toppings. If you’re a feeder like me then just watch out for that!
3. Once the cheese begins to melt, it’s probably about time to whack the second tortilla on top.
4. Then it’s just a simple (ha ha HA!) case of flipping the tortilla over with a spatula so it cooks on both sides. Yes, some of the filling will probably fall out. Yes, there’s a good chance it will get a little messy. But hey, practise makes perfect and it’s a great excuse to just keep making yummy quesadillas!
5. Give them a couple of minutes on each side, making sure the bottom of each tortilla doesn’t burn, and then slide it out of the pan with a spatula, slice into quarters and dig in!
Tips & Tricks
You don’t even really need two tortillas for this – use one, sprinkle the toppings over only half, and then fold it over. Ta-da! 👏
Obviously, a quesadilla would be bloomin’ marvellous dipped into some traditional dips to go alongside it. If you can make up some salsa, guacamole or sour cream (or buy some from the shops, who’d know the difference?) I promise you won’t regret it! 🥑
I know I’ve already said this, but this recipe truly is so versatile – so use your imagination! But make sure whatever you put into the quesadilla cooks thoroughly. Safety first, kids. ⚠
But then I came up with this blog. Something to focus on, to aim for, to work on. Something exciting, motivating. It was a new adventure, the start of something. Once I realised that, everything else, including changing my negative mindset, just seemed to fall into place.
#ThisGirlEats 