Fall Haul - oh it rhymes!

Hey everyone :)

I'm sooo tempted to start doing YouTube videos, I absolutely LOVE watching them and I think it would be a fun hobby. Anyway, I love watching people's hauls, and while I'm still undecided about whether to start videos or not, I thought it would be fun to start one on here and take some pictures.

So I've just picked up a few bits I've bought from random places really! I'll start off with my lovely candle that is burning now. It's an Air Wick Ribbons Scent - Touch of Luxury in the scent Rich Vanilla and Caramel swirl.

It's really pretty, and the smell is lush but not too strong. I was going to get the apple spice one, but that was quite strong, and although I would have LOVED it (I love Christmasy/Winter smells) I don't know if Kane would have appreciated it very much... I bought it at Sainsbury's because it was half price at £3.06.

Next is the December issue of 'Easy Living'. Yes I know, I'm only 22, but I cannot wait for the day when I have my own house and I can sit and make little crafty things for it. I must admit, it's my first ever copy of it, and I've yet to look through it, but the main reason I bought it was because it had one of my favourite people EVER on the front... Kirsty Allsopp. I adore her!

She looks so beautiful in the pictures, and like she has actually lost some weight (not that she ever needed too). But her holding Christmas decorations would definitely light up my day. It also has the caption 'The foodie guide to Christmas' which, of course, drew me in. I'll let you know whether I enjoyed the read or not. It was £3.70 :)

Next is a new cardigan from Matalan. I have it on in all of the pictures but tried to get a bit of a better shot... It's not the most flattering though so please be kind.

It's long (I'm 5 foot 4 and it comes down to over my bum - which is definitely a plus), It's majorly warm, It has little snowflake design on it and it comes with a tie around the waist, but my little loop that holds it broke, which I'm not too bothered about anyway because I just re-tied it at the back anyway. I love it, and because it's a bluey-grey colour I can wear it with a lot of different things. I'd always wanted a seasonal cardigan, and this is perfect! I think it was possibly £20, or something around that, I can't find it on the website and definitely can't remember :(

Next is a rubix cube. OK so I haven't bought it recently, In fact Kane got it for Christmas last year, but I found it and have ben carrying it everywhere with me. I'm reasonably good at maths and logic, but this thing just baffles me.

I can't even get one side to be the same colour, let alone anything else, but it's definitely fun to take up the time.

Next is an amazing stocking filler or Christmas present. I actually got my friend Becca one for her birthday, and because it was 2 for £8, I figured I would treat myself to one too!

It's a massive Vaseline tin!!! OK so when I realised it wasn't fully of vaseline, I was slightly disappointed, but it came with 4 tins of regular size vaseline. One was the regular, one was the rosy lips, one was with aloe vera and one was with coca butter. I now use it to store all my lip balms.

I do love it though, I'm such a tin collector. I love little boxes to put things in. I bought a tin of fudge from Norther Ireland just so I could have the tin (the fudge was the price I had to pay to have the tin, oh what a shame hehe) and now I keep all my paracetamol, travel sickness pills etc in it because it is pretty.

Next are some little bows from Primark. I absolutely love these, and have worn the cream ones loads already.

I love them so much because when I just scrape my hair back in to a bun and clip my fringe back (like today) it adds such a nice little decoration and makes it a bit prettier than just boring. There were 2 cream ones and 2 black ones, and they were £2!

A new big Sainsbury's opened not to far from us and not to long ago in Morecambe, it's where the old football ground used to be, so it's absolutely huge. Sadly enough Kane and I got rather excited when we saw it and couldn't wait to go visit.... Oh dear haha! First I bought these gorgeous earrings that I saw.

They're so pretty, so different to what I already have, and were only £2.50, so I had to have them!! I've not worn them yet, but I can't wait too!

I also bought this:

Its a 'refillabag' or something like that, a bag for life king of thing. I loved it because it had an elephant on it! And It's so strong and sturdy, and it can't be ripped like most other bags for life can be.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my first mini haul! I'm off to Primary a week tomorrow so hopefully I'm going to pick up a few bits then and will show you! I'm gonna do another fall fashion post too, one for larger ladies on a budget, because I love being fashionable, but when Christmas is looming I can't afford the more expensive stuff (well I never can, but especially at Christmas!!).
Lots of Love,
Fat Girl
xox

General Chat :)

Hi everyone!

So I went Slimming World yesterday, and I lost 2 pounds! Woohoo :) Very chuffed. Absolutely loving it!
I was very tempted not to go though as I wasn't feeling very well... On my way to school in the morning (I go do volunteering every Monday with Reception in case your wondering!) some woman crashed in to the back of my car. I was so shocked, she didn't even get out of her car to see if I was OK or anything! It really did shock me.
Apart from a cracked number plate and my boot being a bit awkward to open, my car is fine! I had a neck ache and back ache yesterday, and still got a bit of a back ache today, but I think that was more from the shock (and I'm possibly better today due to being in bed all day hehe). I was just stopped at a roundabout waiting for a gap to go and....................BOOM! Right in the back of me. Sort of threw me off for the day.
A song I'm totally in love with at the moment is Ed Sheeran - Lego House. I almost fell in love with it more because of the video! I absolutely love Rupert Grint, I've grown up with Harry Potter and the films, and I always had a soft spot for the character of Ron Weasley. Also, I think the video is soooo clever!! I just love it.

Anyway, I best go and do some work, as I've been having a well deserved duvet day today (after the little crash and doing so much work it was definitely needed!).
I've finally got the pictures from Halloween, so I'm going to check with my 2 friends it's OK to post them on here, and do a whole post on that!
Lots of Love, and a reminder to be careful on the roads!! Especially with it starting to become a bit frosty.
Fat Girl
xox
P.S. Picture is from here <3

Romantic Dinner at Frankie and Bennys

Hi everyone!

Yesterday was a Thursday, and because me and my boyfriend (Kane) are so busy all the time (mainly he's busy, and I've got lots of work to do) we decided that Thursday would be our 'date' night. It's sad that we've had the carve a time out of the week for us, but we both know that if we don't, we never spend proper time together. Although we live together, we're almost like two passing ships. I'm at school on Mondays, and he's out playing poker on a Monday night and I'm at Zumba (or starting next week anyway!), we're both at lectures on Tuesdays, and he's at pool practice at night, he's at work on a Wednesday then pool games at night, then Thursday is our day :) And on Friday he's at work, and then I have to go home and work on the weekends, and he works here in Lancaster :( So we found it was really important to do this for us! 

We decided to go to Frankie and Bennies, and I'm pretty sure they have these all over the country. They're an italian, and the food is always amazing! We also love the ambience in there, the music is fabulous and the service is great. Now, being on Slimming World, it's torture going out to eat, because I'm definitely like a kid in a candy shop when I see the menu. My boyfriend is a really good help though, and knuckles down on me, knowing I'll be heartbroken if I put weight on at a meeting.

It was two courses for £10.95, so we decided to have that! For starters he had the white onion and Magners soup (sounds gross, I know, but was delicious!), and I had the 'Southern blue mushrooms' which were described as: "Two flat mushrooms filled with mozzarella, garlic and breadcrumbs, oven baked and served with fresh rocket, Italian hard cheese and balsamic glaze." AMAZING right?! 

 My boyfriend eating his soup!!

 

 Me eating my mushrooms!

Oops! I was meant to take a photo for you, but they were gone before I could even turn my camera on ;)

Then, for main course, Kane had a Chicken Caesar Salad Pizza (Yes started off sounding healthy, but it was on a pizza ;) haha) which they described like this: Our delicious tomato base with mozzarella cheese and grilled chicken breast pieces topped with a fresh Caesar salad and Italian hard cheese. I had the New Yorker Pasta, and it was described like this: Chicken breast, chilli and penne tossed in our pepper cheese sauce topped with crispy bacon. That definitely does not do it justice, it was beautiful! It had jalapenos in though, so if your not in to spicy pasta, I would stay away!

 Kane's Caesar pizza! Yummy.

My AMAZING pasta! Soooooo good.

I definitely found it difficult to not have a pudding (an extra for only £1.95! How cheap is that!!) but I was desperate for these sticky toffee pancakes: Vanilla ice cream and chocolate covered honeycomb pieces sandwiched between two warm pancakes, drizzled with warm sticky toffee fudge sauce and sprinkled with toffee crumb. My mouth is watering just at the thought of it!!

I definitely had to keep reminding myself of those weighing scales on Monday, and I definitely went over my Syns for that day, but it was so nice to be out and being treated to a beautiful meal with a beautiful man! I've woken up today and really had to kick myself back in to gear, I'm not going to lose a stone by Christmas if I keep eating food like this! So today I've had a jacket potato, with 42g of half fat cheese, a tin of baked beans, a tablespoon of clover light, a dollop of reduced fat and salt tomato ketchup which has only equated to 3 1/2 syns, and I'm planning on having pasta with spinach and tomato for tea, yummmmyyy!

I just need to keep motivated, so any comments would be much appreciated! And if you know any friends who would like to read my blog, please spread the word, because I would love some new subscribers (although I'd carry on writing it for you guys anyway!).

Lots of Love,

Chin up,

Fat Girl 

xox 

P.S. Remember this....

Curry recipe :)

Hi everyone!

So last night I made a curry for my boyfriend's and mine tea. It was meant to be a tikka masala, but it was extremely different to those you would get from the take away haha! I've taken lots of photos, so I'll give you the recipe step by step! the only thing I would recommend is to buy the spices separately, as there was one spice in there (I think it's called cilantro) that tastes like soap! It's not too pleasant, so watch out for it.

I started off by chopping up 3/4 of an onion in to small chunks. The recipe said 1 whole onion, but my boyfriend's not the biggest fan of onion, and it was a rather large onion! I then heated up some oil in a curry pan with a copper base (this can be done in a wok or just a big pan)  and put the onions in for 4 or 5 mins, until they were softened. This is the oil I used:

And these are the onions in the pan:

Then I added in the packet of spices. It was a 'Schwartz flavourful Tikka Masala recipe mix with toasted spices' and the packet looked like this (sorry it's a bit fuzzy):

Then I mixed up the onions and the spices, leaving the spices to cook for 30 seconds to release the flavour:

Then I added the chopped tomatoes:

Then I added in 3 breasts of chicken (this was enough for just over 3 people - possibly 4 people.

I also added, as an extra, a tin of peeled new potatoes, and a tin of peas:

Then I boiled it for a couple of minutes, then turned it down to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

In the meantime, I boiled the rice! I did 153g of rice (was supposed to be 150g, but I wasn't taking 3g of rice out haha) Just until it was ready really, mine was a bit overcooked as the end part of the curry took longer than expected, so I would advise you to do the rice just before the next step of the curry:

Finally, I then put 300ml of semi-skimmed milk in the curry. It said to boil it for 5 minutes, but I found that it made the curry extremely runny so I boiled it for an awful lot longer, possibly another 10-15 minutes, and the consistency was still quite runny. 

And that is my final curry! It was extremely yummy (except the annoying soapy cilantro bits) so I definitely recommend it, also it was only 3 1/2 syns for the whole curry! How amazing is that! So obviously I didn't even have a 1/3 so was a whole, extremely filling meal, for around 2 syns (I always round up just incase!). Next time I'm going to buy my own spices to make it from :)

I hope you found this interesting, let me know! If it was full-on boring, let me know too!

Follow me on @CharlMathews on twitter, and subscribe if you enjoy :)

Lots of Love,

Fat Girl

xox

Recipes No.1 - Yum Yum!

Hey everyone!


So I've decided to do today a few recipes for you guys. If you have read any of my other blog posts, then you will know that I am just starting my 2nd week of Slimming World. I go to the meeting on Monday nights at 7.30pm at the Boot&Shoe, in the Faulkner Suite, and my leader  Lisa is absolutely lovely. I've already had about 4 emails from her checking up on me, when before I've found leaders are not bothered about you and just want to get you in and out the door, she is so caring!


Anyway, I joined the site on Facebook (or like it or whatever you call it nowadays) and she is absolutely amazing at posting recipes and ideas, so I just thought I'd share a few of my favourite with you, and if you like it then I'll post some more!


BAILEY'S IRISH CREAM
So my first is the recipe of the Slimming World version of Baileys (the alcoholic irish whiskey cream drink). I absolutely ADORE Baileys, but a 25ml glass of original Bailey's is  81.75 kcal (that's 8 Syns to us on Slimming World, and we're only allowed between 5 and 15 a day!! That doesn't even warrant 2 glasses!). So drinking the original one is a bit of a no-no, or just for a very occasional treat. Here is the Slimming World recipe for Baileys (Makes about 1 litre ):

Ingredients: 
1 tin light condensed Milk (397g size)
1 Pint Elmlea Cream
6 Medium eggs
1 tablespoon Camp Coffee Whiskey to tast (approx 200ml)

Instructions:
Whisk eggs in large bowl. Add condensed milk and whisk again. Add cream, coffee and whisk again. Add whisky and give a final whisk. Bottle and out in fridge - will keep for up to 6 weeks.




This equates to only 2 syns per 25ml, so that means you can four of these for the same syns as one of the original glasses! I haven't made this yet, and this is because I have a bit of a reservation about putting raw eggs in the drink. I can't decide whether to leave out the eggs, as normal Baileys does not even have any traces of egg in it, or whether to put them in and I won't be able to tell.... It's not the fact that it's 'raw egg', it's just the texture of it makes me want to throw up a little bit. Anyway, let me know if you make it, and if you include the egg, but this is about a quarter of the calories than the original, so around 20kcal!


SPICY SLOW COOKED PORK
My next recipe is spicy slow cooked pork. I'm always eating chicken, so it's nice to have a change with something like pork! This even sounds yummy, and for those of us at Slimming World, there are NO SYNS, yes I repeat this is a FREE MEAL. How exciting!

Ingredients:

2 leeks, sliced 
170g/6oz button mushrooms 
250ml chicken stock 
1 carrot, peeled and sliced 
2 garlic cloves, chopped 
1 can chopped tomatoes 
1 tbsp paprika 
½ tbsp smoked paprika 
1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
Fry Light (or any 1kcal spray oil)
701g/1lb 9oz lean braising pork, cut into 2.5cm cubes/1in pieces

Instructions:1. Heat a frying pan and spray with a little Fry Light. Brown the pork in batches for about 5 minutes until golden all over. 
2. Place the leeks, carrot, mushrooms, garlic, chicken stock, tomatoes, paprika and chilli in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. 
3. Transfer into the slow-cooker and pour over the contents of the saucepan. Cover with the lid and cook on 'high' for 5-6 hours or until the pork is tender. 4. Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve with rice and vegetables. Yummmmmy!!  


Now that sounds delicious, but the only problem is not everyone has a slow cooker (I only have one when I'm at home, not at uni, and I'm a poor lowly student and can't afford anything like that!) So I'm going to try it at uni a different way, and if it is a success, I shall definitely let you know!


TOP TIP ALERT!
My last snippet of information is going to be a Top Tip! Now, I read this, and being a student teacher, I always find it difficult to have cold lunches, especially in the winter months, as when you look in your lunch box and have a little salad, or a cold mushed up sandwich (maybe just the mushed up bit just applies to me...) it doesn't fill you with joy, and although food shouldn't be your only joy, it is a big exciting thing for me, so if I'm going to eat healthy, I also want it to be exciting. 


The Top Tip! is to dust off those flasks! OK so I know many people don't have flasks, but they're so cheap. In fact when I last did a car boot, we were selling some massive flasks for around 50p, so they're really cheap and easy to pick up, but just remember to check that they do up properly, and don't have a dodgy cap, otherwise they're useless! There are so many things you can put in your flasks, and they keep warm for an interesting lunch:
Instant noodles
Savoury rice
Pasta ‘n’ sauce
Canned ravioli, baked beans and spaghetti hoops. As long as the chunky bits will go in and come out easily it’s perfect for a flask!
Homemade chilli con carne
Your favourite homemade stew
And of course, any soup, home made or tinned.


So I hope these recipes and tips helped you out! I know they've definitely given me some food for thought (hey did you like my little joke there?!)


Anyway, hope you had a lovely Halloween! And just read this poem next time you want to scoff down some food without even thinking about it:


I eat when I'm happy
I eat when I'm sad
I eat when I'm mellow
I eat when I'm mad
I eat when there's something good on TV
I eat when there's something bothering me.
I eat just to celebrate, eat to have fun
I eat when relaxing and eat on the run!
I eat when I am bored, or have lots to do
Any excuse and I'm eating for two!
But one thing I know that will help me feel great
Is eating the right thing to help me lose weight.


Lots of Love,
Fat Girl
xox

We Heart It!

Hi everyone!

I know I've already done a post today, but I really wanted to do a post on one of my favourite websites at the moment. It's called 'We Heart It' and it's a place where people post pictures of all different sorts.

I can literally sit on the site for hours upon end, and if you create an account (which is completely free and no hassle) then you can 'heart' pictures, and it saves them to your profile.

I've never posted any pictures up there myself, as I'm not really in to actually taking photographs - well I've never really tried - but I LOVE looking at them :) Anyway, I thought I'd post some of my favourite pictures on here in hope you like them, and hope you like the site!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these pictures, and get to take a look at the 'We Heart It' site.

Lots of Love,

Fat Girl

xox

Dun-dun-DUNNN!

AND THE RESULTS ARE IN!!

I lost..............  2.5 pounds :)

So yes, I am rather chuffed, considering I haven't had the best week, but I've got a feeling it's going to come back and bite me in the derrière next week, as my weight tends to be a bit slow (probably along with the rest of me really), so I'm expecting a small loss next week.

OK I know most people go to these weight groups and can lose around half a stone in their first week, but that's pretty much because their diet is so shockingly different (and they didn't drink lots of alcohol and have a few sneaky sausage rolls) to the one they've just started eating, so their body reacts. To be fair, I don't have the most rock'n'roll lifestyle when it comes to food, I do generally try and eat healthy, so my body hasn't had that massive shock.

I'm looking forward to getting in to it again this week though, as I have had the weekend where I couldn't fully commit, so I'm looking forward to baking and cooking up a storm!

Does anyone fancy me putting recipes and so on on here?
Any tips or suggestions? Would be amazing to hear!
Please subscribe if you can, feeling a bit lonely :(
Lots of love,
Fat Girl
xox
P.S. Picture is from here <3 Going to do another blog post today on this website, one of my favourites!