Leaving it all behind

Hello lovelies

I just wanted to let you know that I won't be blogging over here anymore - I've given dual blogging a try but I've just found it too difficult.... the minute I've tried to properly focus on one blog, the other suffers.

Hence I'll now be integrating my cooking, sewing and photography rambles into Sparkle and Shade - I hope to see some of you over there and I apologies that this blog isn't really going to happen in the way I'd hoped xx

Snackelicious

Hello my lovelies!

I just saw this post over on Becky's blog and it reminded me of my favourite snack that I've not had for a little while...

[Chocolate soya milk]

[Apple Pie Nakd Bar]

The reasons I love this snack is that it's absolutely jam packed with protein and good things! It was a frequent post-run pick me up when I was training for a 10k last year and I found that it reduced any post-run fatigue and that my muscles never seemed to ache the next day either.

If you haven't tried Nakd bars, I'd definitely recommend them - they're completely raw (i.e. not cooked at all) and wheat free as well (they also do some which are completely gluten free!) They're packed full of good things like nuts and fruit as well so you can satisfy your sugar craving without loading yourself with processed naughtyness!

I get my Nakd bars from Holland and Barrett (and my chocolate soya milk!) but you can get them from the Nakd website as well

What's your favourite snack?

These are a few of my favourite things

Hello my lovelies :) Today I thought I'd share with you some of the things that inspire me or generally make me happy...

[cycling in the sunshine]

[beautiful graffiti art]

[reading children's books in the park]

[old ruins]

[pretty flowers]

[lighthouses]

[waterfalls]

All photography is my own btw :)

What inspires you and makes you happy? xx

Recipe - Winter Warmer Stew

Hello lovelies! Today I thought I'd share mine and Peter's favourite winter stew - we have a veg box delivered every week hence we get a heck of a lot of root veg and this stew is a lovely way of using them all up. It's very loosely based on a recipe from Leah Leneman's Vegan Cooking for One . Also I don't really measure things out so my measurements are all approximate :D

The Stew (serves 2):

Roughly chop a small - medium onion, a largish parsnip, a large carrot (or 2 medium ones) and 2-3 medium potatoes.

In a fairly large crock pot, gentle soft the onion in a little oil over a low-medium heat.

Add some Quorn Chicken Style pieces (or tofu if you want to make this vegan - I'll include adaption ideas at the bottom of the post) and your herbs/spices and continue to gentle fry.

The herbs and spices you use can vary depending on what you have in/what you like but I tend to add around 1/2 tsp paprika, a small sprinkle of cayenne (and I mean small!), a pinch of Za'tar, a few splashes of Soy Sauce, a few splashes of vegen Worcester Sauce, a couple of splashes of lemon juice (to give it a little lift), around 1/2 tsp of basil and 1/2 tsp of herbs d'prov. This is just what we happened to have in on the say - on other occasions I've also added rosemary, marjoram, oregano, chilli flakes.... get creative!

Now you need to add your stock (about 1/2 pint - maybe a little more if you're using gluten free flour for the dumplings) and 1 tsp of marmite. Also add a good amount of salt and pepper - nobody wants bland stew for tea!

Mmmm marmitey, peppery goodness! I use Marigold Swiss Vetable Bouillon power in the Reduced Salt Vegan variety - I've tried quite a few Marigold Bouillon's and this is by far my favourite. You'll normally find it in the free from aisle at most supermarkets.

Bet you've been wondering if I've forgotten about those other veggies haven't you? I haven't - add them now! Give it all a good stir :)

The dumplings:

This is bit basically taken from Vegan Cooking for One, although I do make a couple of adaptions. For those of you who are Gluten Free, I recommend using Dove's Farm Organic Fluten Free Flour Blend - the rest of you can use normal flour. Weigh out 4oz (about 110g) flour and add to this 1oz (30g) butter/marg/dairyfree spread. Then add 2 tsp baking powder and a little salt and pepper (maybe add a few herbs and a little cheese too if you fancy getting posh).

Now for the fun bit - using a gentle touch, rub the butter and the flour together until it reaches a breadcrumby consistancy! Next, add a little (soya) milk - just a splash at a time, using a knife to combine at first and them using your fingers when it starts to stick together a little more. You should end up with a ball that looks a little like this:

Now you need to break your dumplings up into 8 golf ball sized balls. Before you pop them on top of your lovely stew, give the stew a good stir because it's the last one it's gonna get! Done that? Excellent, now you can put the dumpling balls on.

Awww look at them - all happy and ready to be steamed :D Now you need to pop the lid on your crock pot and pop it in a pre-heated over at 180C

Yum! This is probably going to need around 15 or 20 minutes in the oven so why don't you go have a nice cup of tea and a sit down? Done that? Okey doke, it's time to lift the lid....

Hurrah - all cooked and ready to go. You should have a nice thick gravy like liquid to spoon over... all that's left to do is plate up (you've got 4 dumplings each remember) and enjoy!

Adaptions:

• This can easily be made entirely gluten free - just use Dove's Farm Flour for your dumplings and the following tofu idea instead of Quorn (although I am technically wheat free, I do cheat ever now and again)
• If you don't have an oven, you can just as easily make this on the hob! Just use a large saucepan and a lid (preferably one that doesn't have a hole to let out steam.
• If you're vegan, the dumplings can be made dairy free by using a dairy free spread and you can replace the Quorn with the following adaptation:

Chop half a block of tofu into cubes and freeze overnight. Before you chop your veggies, defrost your tofu with boiling water - squeeze out any excess. Marinate your tofu in a mixture of 2tbs soya sauce, 1/2tbs vegan worcester sauce, 2 tsp cider vinegar or lemon juice and a few herbs and spices for around 10-15 minutes and then follow the instructions as they've written for the Quorn :)

Hope you enjoyed my first recipe and do let me know if you make this! And remember - recipes are not law.... I encourage you to have as much fun playing around with this as you possibly can!!

Project 365 - Week One

Hello lovelies!

I hope you're all having a nice week. I've decided that instead of uploading my Project 365 photos every day (something I'll never be able to actually do), I'm going to bring you a weekly round up each Saturday of the previous week's photos. So without further ado, here's the week that was!

[day one]

[day two]

[day three]

[day four]

[day five]

[day six]

[day seven]

Are you of you lovelies Project 365ing? If so, please feel free to link me to your blog posts. Also, if you want to me explain a little more about any of the pictures, just drop me a comment and I'll be more than happy to explain or tell you a little more about them :) xx

Tutorial - Fleecy Headband/ear warmer

Hello lovelies! Hope you've having a fantastic week so far. Today I'm going to teach you how to make a quick and easy fleecy headband you keep your ears warm this winter. I wear mine under my helmet when I'm cycling or under my hat when it's really really cold! I'm a novice sewer and this took me about 25 minutes from start to finish! Easy peasy :D

You're going to need:

• A piece of fleecy fabric 4.5 inches wide and about 24 inches long (measure your head and then add a couple of inches)
• A piece of patterned (or plain) cotton fabric of the same dimensions
• Sewing bits (sewing machine, thread, pins, scissors, tape measure etc)

To start, lay out your fleecey fabric and cut the right size piece. I used an old blanket that we no longer use.

Next, cut out your cotton fabric. I was ultra lazy and pinned my fleece to my material and then cut around it. If you're less lazy than me, measure and mark it out properly (you'll end up with much straigheter lines than I did!)

If you haven't already, pin your fabric together with the right sides facing each other.

Tadaaaaa! Excellent, now we're ready to start sewing. Thread your machine and then sew down each of the long sides in turn (be sure to use a reverse stitch at the end to stop your stiching from coming undone mid-cycle) and then sew long one of the shorter sides. When you're sewing, you want to be about 1.5cm in from the edge

Next, sew half way along the remaining shorter sides but don't sew it up completely! 

We're going to turn it the right way out in a minute, but first you need to trim the seams down a little to make it less bulky when we turn it (If you're a better sewer than me, you can probably start off sewing a little closer to the edge and then skip this step!)

Now comes the exciting part - turn your headband the right way round by turning it in on itself using the hole that you left before!

You should be left with something that looks like this. If you're really good, I'd advise ironing it now but err... yeah I'm lazy! You'll need to sew up the hole using a slip stitch.

Now it's time to make this big long strip into a headband. I chose to doe this by zigzagging the two ends together - however you could also pop in a buttonhole and a nice button or maybe a wee bit of velcro. And Hey Presto - no more cold ears for you :D

Hope you've enjoyed it - let me know what you think! This is my first tutorial though so do be kind! Let me know if you make one yourself xx

Seamstar January Sale!

Hello lovelies :)

Just thought I'd give you a quick heads up on the Seamstar January sale - there's some gorgeous fabrics reduced to £1.99 - £2.19 for a 1/4 metre. Here are some of my favourite designs from the sale:

What do you think? Will you be buying any pretty fabrics in the sale? Which ones does you like most? xxx