I recently found a few new ingredients that I wanted to try out so I made this for my housemates on Sunday night and they can’t stop telling me how much they love it. If they keep telling me how much they love my food I might want to live with them forever!

Ingredients:

450g beef mince

1 tin of kidney beans

1 tin of Heinz vegetable chilli beans

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 chopped pepper

1 chopped onion

Chilli flakes

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Method:

Start by putting some olive oil in a saucepan then adding the onion. Cook for 3 minutes then add the pepper and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add the beef mince and brown off, cooking for roughly 10 minutes. Adding salt and pepper whilst it is cooking.

Add all of the beans and the chopped tomatoes and a teaspoon of chilli flakes and cook for another 5 minutes.

Leave the chilli con carne to simmer for 15 minutes.

I served mine with rice and an Old el Paso Stand N’ Stuff Soft Taco Kit and some salsa. It was so much better than any chilli I had had before and maybe that’s why my housemates loved it so much. Next I’ll be trying burritos!

London Eye September 2014

On Sunday I went on a tourist day into central London with Sarah. We hopped on the train to Waterloo and walked down to South Bank to get on the London Eye. First of all you get some photos taken in front of a green screen and they come out as if you are sitting on the London Eye. Pretty awesome! Then you see a 4D show which is a prelude to going on it and it lasted roughly 5 minutes. I thought it was great! You get to see what it is like during the day and night and you see it all from a bird’s point of view, I guess the point of going round the London Eye! Sarah really hates Ferris Wheels so she was quite nervous but wanted to conquer her fear, but this scared her!

We checked out our photos after then headed to get on the London Eye. We had fast track tickets straight away.

The pods are quite big and you can walk all around the edge and there is a bench in the middle. It took just under half an hour to go all the way around, it goes a lot quicker than you would think but you don’t feel it at all.

The views were great, you got to see up and down the Thames and see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. I was slightly disappointed, I thought you would have been able to see a lot more and more London landmarks, but the view of Big Ben is one I will never forget.

It was a truly great experience and I’m so glad that I was able to tick it off my bucket list.

Sarah also did it! I’m not sure if she loved it as much as I did but we’re both proud of her for actually doing it!

I definitely want to go on it again during the evening; I can imagine it being so pretty all lit up!

D… is for Dinner

This has to be my favourite meal of the day. I’ve always hated the idea of breakfast and it’s normally quite boring too. Lunch just fills you up during the day.

So dinner is my favourite, it is normally when I will cook that dish that I’ve wanted to make for a while. It’s also when I will eat with family or friends making it the most sociable meal as well!

Here's a few reminders of what I've previously made:

Heading to the corner shop?

I can't take 100% credit for all of this as it was originally taken from an article I found in Glamour magazine but I'm going to add in a few ideas of my own. 

This is mainly aimed at the students and the new graduates among my friends but take what you will from it.

We are all guilty of heading to the shop around the corner to get a late night snack of chocolate, crisps or even super noodles. I'm going to write this to give you ideas of what to get as a healthy alternative that you won't feel guilty about I'm the morning. A feeling I know you have all had!

Do you want something quick? Something you can get together in a few minutes?

Go for eggs, you can make them in so many ways that all only take a few minutes to make. Even though it seems like hours when you're cooking them! Scrambled, fried, poached - all good, filling and healthy (except fried obviously) options, just go for wholemeal bread if you're going to have them with toast!

Do you need something filling? Something to keep you going for a while?

There are actually a few options for this, some tinned fish can be put with pretty much anything you want, maybe with pasta? Pulses were also suggested by the article, as a way to bulk up salads and soups to make them go a bit further. I'd also like to add in soups as well, every corner shop has a pretty good variety and they are pretty filling as well, especially if you add those pulses. 

Did you do a bit too much day drinking? Go to the pub at the end of the day and drank more than you should have?

DO NOT get that kebab or those 5 pieces of chicken and chips and all the sides that you are convincing yourself is a really good idea at the time. You will still wake up feeling just as bad or even worse if you eat it. Pick a bowl of cereal instead, it will probably sober you up quicker and you definitely won't wake up with that feeling that there is grease everywhere! And it's definitely more nutritional, so if you have the willpower to resist the please do! You will thank me in the morning :)

Do you just need a snack?

There are plenty of options to go for such as popcorn, fruit bread, crumpets, nuts or seeds. To be honest, there are plenty of things you can grab. If your local corner shop is a chain such as co-op or one stop, you can actually pick up some really good deals and find some great products.

First take this to see if you really are hungry.

The next bit I think I'll take straight from the article as it's pretty good.

So 3 healthy snacks that you might be surprised by:

Cheese strings - yes, they are typically a kids lunch box snack...but they're really high in calcium.

Peanut butter - this contains protein, fibre and B vitamins. Try it on some apple slices.

Beef jerky - personally I think it's an acquired taste, which I don't have! But it's relatively high in protein and low in fat, perfect or what?!

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.