Chicken in Piri Piri Sauce

On Sunday, me and the boy had a quiet night in with a film and this lovely dinner we made out of Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals Book.

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

2-3 chicken breasts sliced length ways

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

Fresh thyme

Piri Piri Sauce:

1 medium red onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp paprika

1 red chili

Method:

Slice the peppers into large chunks and season the chicken breasts.

Griddle or pan fry the chicken breasts and peppers until the chicken is golden and the peppers are soft.

Blitz all the sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Pour the sauce into an oven proof dish and lay the peppers, chicken and thyme over the top.

Pop the dish in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the sauce is hot and bubbling.

Serve!

We ate ours with roast potatoes and a side salad. I think I over-lemoned the piri piri sauce but it was still a very tasty and filling dinner!

What have you cooked recently? What's your favourite recipe?

Sunday Nails - Deluxe Chocolate

Avon Nailwear Pro Nail Enamel in Deluxe Chocolate 12ml £5

Quite simply the best nail polish I have worn for a long time! It's a very different colour to what I would usually wear and I can't stop looking at my nails!

The photo's don't do it enough justice; it's a lovely dark glossy chocolate colour with a very subtle hint of golden specks which are noticeable when my nails catch the light.

I've been wearing it for three days now without a topcoat and so far it hasn't chipped and I can see only the barest amount of tip wear. I just think it looks so luxurious and classy!

What do you think of this colour? Do you use Avon nail polishes?

getting fit [fast]

Three weeks ago I bought this book:

Three weeks, 46573 lunges, 75752 squats and 346564 minutes on the treadmill later, I can honestly say I love it!

Before this book came into my life, my gym sessions had no structure. I may have made the effort to go three or four times a week but I had very little variety and unless I was feeling the body pump class once a week I did little to no weight training.

Oh how things change!

This book pushes me to include a mixture of cardio, resistance and ab training into almost every session and ensures I work out five times a week.

Some days are harder than others - 50 minutes on the cross trainer last night near enough killed me, but I persevered through to a slightly less hardcore 15 minutes cross trainer and 15 minutes cycle tonight followed by strength training.

Phew!

You are encouraged to eat more good food.

There is a set meal plan but I decided to mostly stick to my own plan as I'm not keen on all of the recipes - and really, I don't have time to make a stack of pancakes on a work morning, much as I'd like to!

I may only have been a follower for three weeks but I've noticed changes. I'm eating more nuts and seeds for energy and less sugar; I find I'm turning to fruit for a sweet snack and, due to the meals I'm eating I'm losing the urge to snack between meals.

Ultimately my goal over the remaining nine weeks is to tone tone tone! If I lose weight along the way then great! But really I could do with a bit more muscle tone and definition especially with summer (hopefully!) just around the corner.

Well, my tum says it's dinner time!

Have a lovely Friday night!

Snapshots

"Everyone has days when they take rubbish pictures and you can't give up just because of a few bad sessions! If everyone did that nothing or no one would be successful."

Wise words indeed from the boy.

Everything's Peachy Keen

Collection 2000 Volume Sensation Lipstick in Peachy Keen £2.99

Has anyone seen the film Jawbreaker? As soon as I saw the name of this lipstick it reminded me of Rose McGowan's character and after seeing what a lovely colour it is I quickly snapped it up! I've been buying a lot of pink lipsticks recently so this is a nice change. 

It's a lovely nude/peach colour which I find very wearable for the daytime. This lipstick is supposed to contain "up to 40% volumising ingredients to pump your pout in a flash!"

There is a definite tingling sensation when you apply this lipstick but I can't say I noticed any plumping action; I didn't really expect any to be honest, it wasn't my reason for buying it.



Overall this is a gorgeous, affordable lipstick with a very creamy and moisturising application.

What do you think of Collection 2000 lipsticks?

Rock 'n' Rose Tea And Cake Ring

I've had my eye on this amazingly cute ring for weeks and last week I finally bought it from rocknrose.co.uk. I'm a cake baking/eating fiend so this seemed like the perfect piece of jewellery for me!

I ordered on Thursday and it was dispatched the same day and arrived on Friday - excellent service! I've been wearing it somewhat tentatively ever since; I'm a bit worried about catching it on something and snapping the cake off!

This was originally £12 but I got it in the sale for £8 - you can get one here.

Sunday Nail - Last One On The Crackle Bandwagon

On Wednesday I treated myself to Barry M Nail Effects in Black. I know I must be the very last person to get on board with this trend so I won't bore you will a big explanation of the polish but just leave you with the photos.

I layered the crackle polish over GOSH Nail Lacquer in Neon Baby, which I think is now the brightest, most vibrant pink in my nail polish collection. If you don't own it, you need it!

Wednesday's Wishlist

It's been pretty quiet on here for a couple of days! I've been really busy with work, the gym is taking up more of my time, I fainted on Monday and I'm very low on funds until pay day to name a few reasons! 

During my day off on Monday I was (of course) browsing the web and lusting over things I just can't afford at the moment so I thought I'd make a little wish list as my birthday is coming up next month. 

I was a bit naughty today and bought myself a few little treats though as I've been feeling not so great so I will get around to doing some new posts soon!

Here's what I could currently do with in my life...

1. Urban Decay Naked Palette; 2. Clinique Chubbystick in Whooping Watermelon; 3. Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser; 

4. Topshop Blush in Flush; 5. Benefit Instant Brow Pencil; 6. Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara; 7. Daniel Sandler Watercolour Blush in Gentle or Cherub; 8. OCC Lip Tar in Trollop, Divine, Grandma, Tone and/or Interlace

Phew! I'll more than likely buy myself some of this when I next get paid but I'll still be making hints at some of it come the birthday!

Sunday Nails - Feeling Blue? Look At A Rainbow!

Most of these have already featured in a Sunday Nails post but I wanted to do something different!

 Thumb - Barry M Navy; Index - Models Own Matt Blue; Middle - Collection 2000 Blue Hawaii; Ring - Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream; Little - Collection 2000 Button Moon

Thumb - Barry M Bright Red; Index - Avon Viva Pink; Middle - Avon Coral; Ring - George Sunset Orange; Little - George Buttercup Shine

Weekend Purchases

At the weekend me and the boy took a trip over to Worcester town, mainly so he could see about getting a new tattoo, but he very kindly dropped me off at the shops so I could have a browse. A browse quickly turned into a shop as the Worcester branches of Boots and Superdrug have soooo much more choice than my local branches!

Sleek True Colour Lipstick in Barely There £3.99

&

Sleek True Colour Lipstick in Pink Freeze £3.99

I bought these lipsticks in the 2 for £6 offer. I stood for ages swatching all the colours before finally settling on these two beauties.

Pink Freeze is a gorgeous matte, pink. It's fairly bright but still wearable. Soft lips are a must for this as it will show up any dry patches!

Barely There is a sheen finish and is a lovely nude, subtle colour. This is actually my first nude lipstick - I usually prefer to wear pink, but this is perfect when you want a little something extra without drawing lots of attention, or without looking like you've had a makeup overload.

GOSH Blush in Electric Pink £6.49

I'm on a blush mission at the moment! This little beauty looked too pretty not to buy and I'm really impressed with it. It's called Electric Pink but don't let that put you off! It's more of a soft pink that gives a really subtle flush of colour. I thought I would need a light hand to apply this but I can actually load my brush right up for a nice healthy glow.

Models Own Pro in Matte Blue £8.00

My first Models Own nail polish and I love it! So much so that I'm going to save the painted nails photo for my Sunday nails post, keep a look out for it! For £8 you get a mammoth 15ml of product so you don't feel as if you've wasted any money. I deliberated for aaaages over their colour and finally settled on this one.

Benefit Brow-zings in Light £22.50

I decided I needed a new eyebrow pencil as my current No7 pencil is ever so slightly the wrong shade but it's been bugging me. I ventured over to the Benefit counter and was promptly offered pink lemonade, a cupcake and a Thornton's chocolate!

I explained to the assistant I needed something for brows and she picked out the Brow-zings kit, sat me on the stool and gave me a demo while I munched on my yummy goodies. She also used High Brow on my brow bone and Speed Brow to set my brows but I declined on buying these for now.

I know it looks like I've been using this for ages, but I think I accidentally bashed the bag against something because I managed to knock all the top layer of powder off; I'm so clumsy!

Please excuse my no makeup eyes!

What are your newest makeup purchases?

Sunday Nails & Saturday Night Face

Collection 2000 Hot Looks in Mint Mojo

 I had high hopes for this nail polish but I was a little bit disappointed with it. The colour is gorgeous, but it took four coats and you can see the streaks on my nails in this photo.

Last night, the boy and I went over the local for a few drinks - needless to say, I ended up drinking far too much wine, woke up at 6am still fully clothed, with half a face full of makeup and a banging headache. Cue changing into my pj's and sleeping till noon, shameful! This was the makeup I went out in - I apologise for all the stray hair across my face!

Face:

17 Photo Flawless Skin Primer

Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation in Opal

17 Shine Control Translucent Loose Powder

Bourjois Bronzing Powder

GOSH Blush in Electric Pink

Benefit High Beam

Eyes:

Bourjois Felt Tip Eyeliner in Noir

No7 Exquisite Curl Mascara in Black

Benefit Bad Gal Eye Pencil

Benefit Brow-zings in Light

 

Lips:

Sleek True Colour Lipstick in Pink Freeze