Before you read this letter, I know there are some people who are going to LOVE what they are about to read and not even in a nice way. You're in my past for a reason and you are welcome to take whatever joy you want from this but I am in so much of a better place than I have been in years, and with that enjoy this letter.

Dear Adele,

I’ll be honest from the beginning, this is hard for me to write. 

To put it remotely nicely, grow a pair. Seriously grow up, stop stressing out all the time because you are missing out on sleep which is why you are crying all the time.

Get your priorities right too. Drowning your sorrows, which aren’t all that bad, is not a good idea, and change your University course for goodness sake, Maths is hard and you are so much better at business.

You most definitely do not need a guy to make you happy. You know that one you think is so great? He’s a prick, always has been and always will be, no matter what anyone says. Forget about him now because he is so not worth your tears.

Oh and all that comfort eating, it is so not worth the pain in the end. It causes you way too many problems. You eat shit and feel like it too.

All else I have to say is that it can only get better from here.

See you in a few years,

21 year old Adele

My favourite dish to make…

Chicken Pie, I love making this and it has to be one of my favourite dishes to make for everyone. While I’m sat writing this I’m making it for all my housemates for when they get home from work (I’m great aren’t I). I always pack it full with carrots (and onions) to get more vegetables in, and they help you see in the dark right?

I’ll give you the recipe of course:

Ingredients:

1 Onion, chopped

2 or 3 Carrots, chopped

3 Chicken Breasts, chopped into chunks

A splash or two of olive oil

1 Stock Cube

1 tbsp Gravy Granules

Salt and Pepper

Puff Pastry

I added a bit of oregano today, and also I served it with loads of cabbage and then my housemates had chips as well!

Method:

1. First put a splash of oil in a pan and heat it up a little. Add the onion and soften it then add the carrots and cook for roughly 5 minutes or until they are all softened. Season with salt and pepper.
   
   
   
2. Next add the chicken and cook for roughly 8 to 10 minutes, check that its cooked thoroughly first before carrying on. Season with salt and pepper.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Make up the gravy and stock in one jug, fill it with boiling water and mix it all together. Then add it to the chicken and vegetables and let it simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.
   
   
   
4. Take it off the heat and spoon it in to a ceramic dish (mine is floral and pink obviously), so that there is a good layer along the bottom. It’s best not to fill it to the top as it can overflow and the flavours blend together better if there’s a smaller amount of mixture.
   
   
   
5. Put a layer of puff pastry over the dish. I always let it fall over the sides so it puffs up nicely and we get extra pastry with the pie!
   
   
   
6. Cook it in the oven at 180C for 40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and you can hear the gravy bubbling inside.
   
   
   
7. Serve with chips or mashed potato or even more vegetables and most importantly, enjoy!
   

Spicy Chicken Rice

This is my take on spicy rice. If you've ever had it at nandos, it is possibly the best thing since sliced bread. It is the ultimate comfort food but without any guilt. Everyone should try this, you won't regret it.

Ingredients (per person):

2 oz of brown rice

½ a pepper

½ an onion

Chilli powder

1 crushed clove of garlic

1 egg

1 chicken breast

Olive oil

Soy Sauce

Butter

Method:

Start by weighing out your rice, you don't want more than this otherwise you will lose all the other ingredients and basically just eat rice. Cook the rice according to the packet instructions. Also cook the chicken breast with a bit of seasoning in the oven for 25 minutes on 180C.

Melt the butter in a pan. Then turn down the heat and crack the egg in the pan, then scramble it. Cook it for about 4 minutes or until it is to your liking.

 Chop up the onion and pepper and crush a garlic clove in with the onion.

Put some olive oil in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Let it cook on a medium heat for about 5  minutes so the onion softens. Make sure you keep stirring so that it doesn't catch.

Add the pepper and cook for a further 2 minutes, then add in the rice and soy sauce (as much to your taste) and chilli powder (again to your taste, depending on how much spice you want). Mix it all together and cook for about 3 minutes, make sure you keep stirring so you don't burn the rice.

Shred the cooked chicken so it is in smaller pieces. 

Add the egg and chicken and mix in with the rice mixture and cook for a bit 3 minutes to heat it all through.

And here's the delicious final dish! I could eat it all over again, it was that good. I could give nandos a run for their money :) 

Next time I would probably add carrots but we didn't have any in the house at the time. And maybe a bit more chilli powder!

The Sad Reality

I’m not sure if many of you know but over the summer I’ve been working in a local convenience shop (which I cant name or I’ll be in trouble!). So while I’ve been working there, I’ve really noticed the eating habits of some of our customers.

Now I will just add in here that I know it is quite hypocritical what I am saying and that I shouldn’t be so judgemental when I know that I have also been out and spent £5 or even more at a time on junk food. However, saying that the whole point of my blog is that I am on a journey to a better life, and by the time I have children I will have figured out a good balanced diet for them! I certainly don’t want them having sweets every night…

I mostly work evenings, which obviously doesn’t always paint a very good picture as the customers are normally there for the chocolate or alcohol.

But this is honestly not the most shocking part. The amount of sweets that parents buy for their children is incredible, incredibly awful that is. We often have our regular customers come in on a daily basis and since I work 4 or 5 days a week I do pick up on what they buy quite a lot.

Cringey I know but with obesity in the news headlines more and more frequently, it’s interesting to observe families to see what they’re like! And who doesn’t love a good bit of people watching.

Anyway there’s one particular family that comes to mind as I’m writing this. As far as I’m aware I have only met the two sisters and their mum.

The sisters argue like crazy, even in the shop, I even get embarrassed serving them – it’s that bad!

Every day that I work, they come in a buy so much junk food, it makes me feel sick even thinking about it. Obviously the shop has a small chilled section and we have steak slices or chicken and bacon or chicken tikka, you name it! The girls also buy these because they are normally on offer…they have got to be the most awful looking things ever!  Plus the thought of all the calories, fat, carbs and processed meat that goes in them makes me feel quite nauseous!

I’m going a little bit off topic here. So out of the two sisters, one must be about 14 who is a pretty average size (surprisingly because of what she eats) and the other is about 15 but she is without a doubt overweight, obviously at no surprise to any of us. I think its really sad that this has happened to her but whenever they come in with their mum, it’s not like she does anything about it and still lets them buy it.

No their mum is a different case, the complete opposite to myself, where she doesn’t eat enough…and it’s pretty obvious.

I think its pretty bad that we live in a society where eating disorders are so common nowadays. Yes, the NHS say that they are addressing it but they clearly aren’t or obesity cases wouldn’t be rising so rapidly and unfortunately it’s something I see everyday. I’m only one person out of thousands who are obese but I am slowly getting there and one day I hope to be able to influence and help people on their own journey to a better life.

Also, if you actually read this, please let me know! I have no idea who really reads it so it would be nice to actually thank whoever you are. (sorry family, you don’t count because I give you no choice but to read it!)

'Healthy' Double Chocolate Chip 'Cupcake' Muffins

These are just way too good, like you wouldn't believe. Make them, right now, and eat them. Trust me, it is so worth it and obviously the more chocolate chips the better, I definitely put in more than I should have.
And my housemates love them so much they polished the lot off, there's only two of them!

Ingredients:
200g Wholemeal Flour
75g Plain Flour
50g Chocolate Chips
25g Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 Egg
2 Egg Whites
200ml Semi-Skimmed Milk
100g Low-Fat Natural Yogurt
50ml Maple Syrup
50ml Sunflower Oil

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C, ready to put the muffin tray on the middle shelf. Line a muffin tray with paper cases.
Place the flours, chocolate chips, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. 

Beat the egg and egg whites briefly in a large jug, and then beat in the milk, yogurt, maple syrup and oil until smooth and well combined. Mix this wet mixture into the dry ingredients with as few stirs as possible to give a wet, sloppy mixture.

Pouring the mixture using two spoons, divide the mixture among the 12 cases. Pop the tray in the oven to cook for about 20 minutes (mine took a bit longer than this) and the cupcakes feel spongy to touch.
Remove from the oven and once cool enough to handle, transfer them out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Though I must say they are amazing warm!

Eggs

Now you may wonder why I’m writing about such a simple food that most people eat in their everyday lives. However, for the first 19 years of my life, unless eggs were hidden within a cake or other such foods,, I wouldn’t eat it!

So two years ago my mum made me scramble eggs for breakfast and now I cant get enough.

The reason I’m writing about them now is partly because I’ve been craving them so much in the past few weeks and partly because they are so good for you.

Benefits to your health:

Now for the boring bit. Eggs are full of iron and vitamins B and D. iron isn’t as easy to come by as other nutrients and I know so many people who have had health problems because their iron levels have been too low. So eggs are a cheap way to get your fix.

The protein in the eggs helps to balance your mood and prevents your blood sugar from crashing so you can stay awake all day and not take your afternoon nap that I know many of you are guilty of (as am I).

Personally, I see eggs as something for breakfast, something to start the day right and keep you fuller for longer. After a bit of research I have seen a couple of recipes that I really want to try and they seem quite easy and cheap to do.

Cooking:

This is the good bit! Obviously the way you cook eggs could make them slightly unhealthier, such as a fried egg drenched in oil!

I’ve only ever had scrambled and fried eggs but I’m going to try poached eggs soon!

Fried eggs are more of a guilty pleasure that have a little bit of goodness in them if you look past the fat content. A once in a while treat!

I tend to put the egg on a bit of kitchen towel before putting it on the plate to soak up a bit of the oil I cooked it in.

My favourite breakfast at the moment!

Scrambled eggs have to be my favourite of the two with loads of ground pepper on top! I’m not a huge fan of creamy things and food with loads of milk in. so I make them with a little bit of butter! Check out pictures to see how I make it and when I’ve got round to trying other ways of cooking eggs, I will post an update.

Time To Be Honest

This is going to be the hardest blog post I've written so far and I'm still unsure of how people will react to it. To be honest, I'm disappointed in myself, the last month or so has been quite difficult on many levels and as you've probably noticed I haven't posted as regularly as I would have at the start. I love writing on here, getting supportive comments from friends and family so its been a shame I haven't been able to keep up.

However, I haven't been sticking to my diet or even going to the gym, yet I have noticed that my portion sizes have decreased and with all the stress I've put myself under over the past few weeks I haven't resorted to comfort eating as much as I would have before March. Yes, I'm upset that I haven't kept up with losing weight, but this isn't to say I have gained weight, I've actually lost 4 lbs in the last 3 weeks!! This has really helped me to know that the way that I see food has in fact changed and also having a more active job, where I stand on my feet for hours on end instead of sitting down all day, actually makes a difference and I've seen that my legs have gotten slightly more toned just from this!

I've got a few recipes lined up that I want to try out and I'll be doing so in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Other than that, I'm going to keep it short and sweet as this has been hard enough to admit to and I need to get on with revising! I promise that I'm going to make more of an effort to keep posting, and I'll be changing the name of my blog to something more appropriate (any ideas will be more than welcome). Much love.

Cauliflower Pizza

After I tried cauliflower rice yesterday (and loved it!), the next thing to try was obviously as a pizza, it didn’t turn out quite how I expected but I did follow the method exactly so obviously I will next time! It was still good, what I was able to rescue…anyway, this was way tastier than the rice as there was a bit more to it so definitely try this one.

Ingredients:

½ Cauliflower

A handful of mozzarella

1 egg

1 garlic clove, crushed

Pizza sauce/tinned tomatoes

Any toppings you like

Mozzarella for topping

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220c and put the baking tray in to let it get hot. Grate the cauliflower, or blitz in a food processor, so it resembles ‘rice’.  

Put in a microwave proof bowl, top with a plate and put in the microwave for 4 minutes.

Tip it out onto a clean towel when it’s done and allow it to cool down.

Put it back into the bowl with the mozzarella and garlic, stir it all together and then add the egg and mix it in well. 

Lay it on some greaseproof paper in a round pizza shape.

Put this onto the baking tray and pop back in the oven for 10 minutes. Take it out after it has bronzed a bit.

Put on the sauce, toppings and cheese and put back into the oven for roughly 6 – 8 minutes, or until it looks how you prefer your pizza.

Take it out and enjoy!

If anyone wants to give me any new recipes to try, I would love you forever!