Easy Dairy Free Sweet Potato Curry

I've found a new food obsession lately in the form of sweet potatoes, not only are they tastier than normal potatoes, they contain a lot of vitamin A and are even classed as a vegetable!

This to me is perfect as I am currently trying to eat healthier foods and cut out dairy from my diet again (I'm lactose intolerant and I still over-indulge on the dairy products!)

Before I give you the ingredients to make this I will admit one sin - the sauce is package bought. I know blasphemy! It's the korma sauce from Sainsbury's free from range. I'm sure I could make this quite easily myself but the package bought one is insanely tasty, it also makes this a quick recipe to create after a long hard day at work.

My Week in Photos 3

Thought I would share with you all my photos of the week. Note most of it is my recent make up purchases and food.

Stuffed Sweet Potato Skins with a Chicken Concoction

If I had more time on my hands cooking is the one thing I think I would really enjoy! I love experimenting and trying different things especially food wise! If any of you follow my instagram it is mostly all pictures of food (and the occasional selfie.)

This evening I decided to be creative and attempt a somewhat healthy but reasonably quick meal.

This ended up being Sweet Potatoes stuffed with bacon and cheese with chicken, carrots and parsnips with tinned tomatoes.

I have to say I impressed myself with how everything turned out - I'm sure stuffed potatoes are an easy feat but having never cooked them before I was expecting some sort of kitchen disaster.

Restaurant Review: The Handmade Burger Co.

The other day while shopping in Birmingham me and my friend had lunch at the Handmade Burger Co. (In advance I apologise for the lack of quality in the pictures I currently have a stand in phone while my one is being fixed.)

Birmingham Trip: Grand Central

The weekend before last I went on a trip up to Birmingham to see the new ironically named Grand Central. (Why would you call it that?)

Name aside I was looking forward to going round all of the shops and having a look around the John Lewis as I had never been in one before. Naturally I took my camera with me and took a few pictures:

Broken Doll Costume and Halloween

Halloween is by far my favourite time of year I love thinking up costume ideas and getting dressed up!

My costume this year was a broken China doll.

To create this look you will need:

- White Face Paint
- Black Eyeliner
- False Eyelashes
- Red Lipstick
- An orangey eye shadow (I used Urban Decays Bitter)

First off you put your foundation on as a base then cover your face with the white face paint (this make take a fair few layers to build it up)

Then you use the black Eyeliner to draw on the cracks be as creative as you want with these.

I then put the Urban Decay Bitter eye-shadow in the crease of each eye, put on your false eyelashes with a bit of Mascara.

Finally add on your lipstick only in the middle of your lips.

Now for pictures from Halloween I went with my aunt to her friends we made cake, took Sweets and ate loads of food:

I had a lovely if not a tad tipsy evening and I highly enjoyed getting dressed up.

What did you all do for Halloween? What did you dress up as?

The Botanist Restaurant Review

While in Birmingham this weekend visiting the new 'Grand Central' part of the station I went with my friend to The Botanist restaurant.

The decor was stunning a mixture of chandeliers, wooden furnitur, lights put together with different coloured glasses and ornate windows.

Even the menu is laid out eloquently and on each table is a book with loads of different ales in. What a cute idea! The restaurant had alot of different drinks lined up behind the bar and had a menu full of cocktails. Had I not been driving I would have most definitely divulged!

Above are some selfies in the restaurant and a few pictures of the decor (I couldn't take too many pictures with my camera for fear of looking rather strange).

Now onto the important part the food! I ordered chicken and chorizo pie which came with chips, mushy peas and gravy. For a drink I got the 'watermelon dew'

Just look at the presentation so beautifully laid out. The chips were seasoned to perfection, there was nothing I could fault with the food and the drink was so refreshing!!

Next time you are in Birmingham whether it be for a night out or for food you should definitely check out The Botanist. I just could not fault it!!

My Week in Photos 3

Thought I'd do a my week in photo's blog- I know I don't do these every week and just whenever I feel like it I'm still counting these as week 3. It's definitely been a busy one since last wednesday!

Above is my drawing of a skeleton from this weeks 'Drawing For Beginners' class. I will blog about this shortly but in the meantime you can see last weeks blog here.

Halloween Inspired Ghost Cookies

Here it is my Halloween cookie blog. I had planned on shaping the cookies liked ghosts themselves but that didn't go to plan so I've opted to make the ghosts out of Icing.

First off the ingredients you will need are:

- 5oz Plain Flour

- 2oz Caster Sugar

- 4oz Butter

- a few drops of Vanilla Essence

- White Fondant

- Black Fondant

- Icing Sugar

Barbecue Pork with Vegetables, Potatoes and Onion Gravy

Another quick and simple meal to make: Barbecue pork, boiled vegetables and potatoes in onion gravy.

Ingredients:

2 Pork Loin Steaks

1 Diced Carrot

4 Diced Baby potatoes

Some Diced Courgette

Onion Gravy

Spices:

Basil

Barbecue Spice

First you pan fry the Pork Steaks for 5 to 10 minutes till cooked fully through. At the same time boil your vegetables and potatoes until softened.

Then add the basil and barbecue spices on top of the Pork then flip over and sear - add spices on the opposite side and repeat for a couple of minutes. 

Then boil your water and stir in the ready made gravy mix (I used onion gravy granules) then pour on top and voilà your meal is done!

A quick and simple meal to make and above all highly tasty!

Some of my favourite things

As I'm sat here on a Sunday evening just browsing on the internet aimlessly, half heartedly watching Desperate Housewives and stuffing my face with galaxy chocolate I decided to share with you some of my favourite things:

I'm going to start with the obvious I'm a massive fan of films and TV series. I'm the kind of person who can get through a series a day. Anything from Buffy the vampire slayer to Dawson's Creek.

A passion of mine is reading my nan used to take me to the library with her from a very young age. I used to read the point horror series when I was younger and have managed to collect practically all of them.

I'm also a massive tea addict! I think I would have withdrawal symptoms without it.

White chocolate is by far the best type of chocolate! In any shape or form an example being hot chocolate!

I'm a massive fan of food I think most of the photos on my phone are food related. I am a big fan of Chinese takeaways and could eat a whole one of those tubs to myself.

When I do have ice cream Ben and Jerry's is the only option (either Baked Alaska or Minter Wonderland).

I'm addicted to Yankee Candles at the moment especially the fresh smelling ones like baby powder. There's nothing more relaxing than sitting in with a cosy blanket a cup of tea and having a nice smelling candle lit.

I'm also addicted to eye shadows I have at least 4 palettes with the Elf cool edition being my favourite.

I'm a huge family person and feel that the holidays are always times for family no matter what!

Going out for meals and drinks is always better than clubbing!!

In the comments below share with me some of your favourite things or hobbies the more random the better!