Eat Clean Dinner Ideas

So I've sort of half heartedly jumped on the 'Eat Clean' bandwagon I mean as a health professional my self I strongly believe the only 'diet' that truly works is the good old healthy eating....not cutting out any foods.... everything in moderation diet... but I do sort of see the benefits of eating 'clean' so to speak. In my clean eating research I came across an ingredient called 'Quinoa' (pronounced keen-wa) and it intrigued me. A wholegrain carbohydrate food similar to cous cous but much more healthier in terms of it contains less calories, more protein and counts as a serving of wholegrain. Because my husband is a gym junkie too and conscious about his dietary protein intake I thought it would be a good staple ingredient to introduce to my household but the next question was what did I do with it!?

I decided to use mine to make 'Turkey and Quinoa Burgers' and although they were a bit tricky to make for those of us that don't have the patience to cook something intricate!

 The ingredients are as follows

• 100g quinoa
• 400g lean turkey mince (or lamb mince)
• 2tsp harissa paste
• 1tbsp tomato paste
• 25g pine nuts
• 1tbsp rapeseed oil

Firstly, you cook the quinoa in a pan of boiling water (like you would cook pasta) for about 20 minutes, meanwhile you combine all the other ingredients, when the quinoa is finished add that into the mixture, mould into burger shaped patties and cook by frying with a little oil until cooked throughout.

I served mine with a green salad and green veggies with some balsamic vinegar.

But for those of you that need a bit more carbs with your meal my hubby had his with pitta bread and rice!

BotN xx

5-A-DAY obsession

One thing I am pretty obsessed with at the minute is making sure me and my family get our recommended 5-A-Day intake of fruit and veggies, boring i know but it comes from the fact that I can see the massive impact these foods can have on our bodies and appearance. Sometimes when I'm standing in the kitchen prepping dinner at night I'll gasp with horror and realisation that I haven’t eaten any fruit or vegetables that day and not only does the guilt make me feel horrible but the lack of vitamins and minerals inside me makes my whole body from the inside out feel dull and sluggish. When it’s that time of the week / month when we're due to do a food shop I naturally run low of fruit and veggies, as any one will know these foods do not keep long and need replenished often, and frankly if you don't have endless amounts of money or time to keep running to your local Sainsbury’s it can fall off my radar to go buy more. A few weeks ago we had a few days where we had no fresh fruit in the house (middle class problem I know!) and I cannot explain the effect this had on me, every time I was applying makeup or moisturiser my skin literally looked so grey, dull and life-less. I felt unhealthy on the inside which automatically put me in a foul mood for these few days and I did not want to get dressed up or go out anywhere as I just felt, well, awful.

So after vouching to never feel like that again I have been on a rampage to spend more money on fruit and veggies, replenish them every week and keep a note of how may portions I'm eating in a day. 
When I ask people 'how many of your 5-a-day do you eat on a daily basis' and the answer is 'none / zero / nil' quite frankly a little bit of me dies inside because it's actually SO easy it is to meet you 5-a-day target! One portion of F&V is defined as being 80g so we only need to eat 80g of the stuff to be able to say we've had one of our 5-a-day! If I was to ask you how many strawberries you would need from a punnet in order to have 'one portion' of fruit the answers would range from the whole punnet, half the punnet  or maybe even two punnets. So this morning I had a little experiment exactly how many strawberries do I eat to eat for one portion, the answer.........THREE! 

Three. Little. Strawberries and I had consumed one portion of my 5 -a- day! Just goes to show how little fruit we actually have to consume to meet this target! So no more excuses join me in trying to increase our F&V consumption today!! Horrrrahhh! 

 BotN xx

Seasonal Nails

I don't know about you but with the change the seasons everyone seems to talk about the change of fashion "Spring / Summer Collections" or "Autumn Winter 2014" are phrases that are battered around the high street like they are going out of fashion! And whilst I always appreciate a seasonal wardrobe change I find that the biggest seasonal change happens on my nails! I absolutely adore this polish from Nails Inc in the colour "St James Park" when I wear it I instantly feel so summery and ready for my holidays. There is just no way I could wear this colour at any other time of year than summer! It is the perfect bright pinky coral colour, (but not so bright that it looks like you have painted your nails with a highlighter pen!) it goes on flawlessly and two coats of this as well as a top coat gives the perfect finish and the ideal accessory to any S/S wardrobe! 

What's your favourite summer colour? 

BotN xxx

My Summer 2014 Wish List

Summer 2014 is offically upon us and although its still a long 6 months to Christmas there is some make up products already on my shopping 'wish list' to get ASAP!

 1 - Tom Ford Shade & Illuminate

This absolutely gorgeous product comes with a hefty price tag (£56) which is one the reasons I'm put off from buying it. I've watched a few tutorials using this stuff and although it looks scary on first application after vigourous blending the results look stunning! Is it worth the money or would a normal bronzer and highlight combination do the same? No matter what its on my wish list as I have a major soft spot for bronzer and highlighters in general and when they are combined in one product and look as good as this I can't resist but to crave it in my make up bag!

2 - Urban Decay Naked Flushed Palette

When I heard this was the cheek product of choice for Kim Kardashian on her wedding day it immediately got added to my wish list. Combining my two favourite products bronzer and highlighter (there seems to be a theme here!) aswell as a gorgeous pink blusher I'm hoping this will be in my make up collection sooner rather than later! At only £22 from Debenhams I think this is very reasonably priced for essentially three products!

3- St Tropez Self Tan Express Tan Bronzing Mousse

Although I still currently love my Garnier Summerbody Mositurising Lotion Gradual Tan something inside me is tell me to change from an affordable high street tan to a more luxurious high end tan. I think this urge comes from my overall love of fake tan. Anyone that knows me will know that I am renowned for my love of the biscuit smelling brown stuff and for something that is such a big part of my life I should give it a little extra TLC. This product seems perfect for me an express gradual tan that you keep on for a number of hours depending on your desired colour, so no more having to lather up on fake tan before bed and another major plus is that for last minute plans no more instant sun shimmer that gets rain speckles with the smallest bit of drizzle outside. This product seems to only be exclusive to boots and at £33 it is quite expensive but something I am going to give a try this summer!

BotN xxx

Haircare Fail!

If you have thick hair (like I do) I'm sure you will have already tried out many leave in conditioners, conditioning treatments and detangling sprays as there is no greater chore than washing and drying your hair when its massively thick and tangly. I've tried out many 'good products' in my time but none have made jump with joy and so my search for the perfect conditioning treatment continues...

Just before Christmas I bought the TONI & GUY Rapid Response Leave in Conditioner, I would consider Toni & Guy as a high end, luxury hair salon and would therefore give their products the same label but I was sadly mistaken and regrettably I don't have one good thing to say about this product!

One pump of this product disperses such a small amount of product that for it to have any effect in my hair (or so I thought) I needed about 5 or 6 pumps of the stuff! The texture of the product is very very heavy and sticky, so much so that I left a pump on my hand for about 20 minutes while I blow dried my hair and that pump of product did not move the entire time, it did not run, it did not drip, NOTHING - and I had just put this in my hair  - eugh!!

It did not make my hair easier to comb through, in fact quite the opposite it made it more tangly and the texture of my hair once it was blow dried was very frizzy, matted and there was no shine in it whatsoever! Moral of the story I will not be repurchasing this stuff, I wouldn't even use it again if I got given a bucket load for free! Back to the hair care isle I go....

BotN xx

Goodbye Glitter

The festive season is over, the christmas decorations are coming down this weekend and that also means it's time to say goodbye to glitter nail polishes (for now anyway!). During the festive season I love to decorate my finger tips with a bit of glitter polish and I always go to one counter to get my glitter fix....dun dun dun....Barry M!

In my opinion you can't beat Barry M for their glitter polish collection (or glitter anything for that matter - their pigments are also amazing!) Their glitter polishes come in a range of colours and are available all year round you can wear then over an opague colour or build them up and wear them on their own like a big glitterly disco ball! The two glitter polishes I was loving this Christmas were both from Barry M...

Pink Fever Glitter (337) and Copper (335) are absolutely stunning colours. I wore the pink one ontop of a pale pink opaque polish (Nicole by OPI KIM-PLETELY IN LOVE) and I layered copper up and wore it on it's own with a shiny topcoat. Both apply beautifully, come off like a dream (unlike other glitter polishes) and look beautiful on the nails what more could you want?! Oh a low price tag? They have that too...YAY!

BotN x

Instagram

Hi Guys,

Just to let you all know I've now set up an Instagram account, give me a follow,

be warned I am a bit snap happy!

beauty_north

BotN xx