Doughnut French Toast.

It's been a while, but for good reason ... say hello to awesome images taken on my new DSLR! I couldn't upload until now as I didn't have a card reader. Don't these pics look amaze? Expect only the best from now on! 

Onto the food. This is Nigella's doughnut french toast, which is a heavenly Sunday brunch food, and pretty darn easy to make but slightly time consuming depending on how much you make! So sweet and delicious, it is a total indulgence!

Nacho Burger and Wedges.

A nacho burger. Such a brilliant and delicious idea! I've got to say I've been loving burgers lately, out at restaurants and at home and the best home burger recipes definitely come from The Londoner. Yes, she's done it again! I loved making each part of this recipe, it was easy to follow and adapt to my own tastes and a fairly quick but absolutely amazingly delicious dinner! I will definitely be making this again, and again, and again...

I just made some homemade potato wedges to go with this, I think they go best with burgers at home. 

Find the recipe here.

The Londoner's Rock Salt Roast Chicken

There's nothing I like better than a good Sunday Roast and this one from Rosie (The Londoner) is a corker! It was super easy and enjoyable to make and really freaking tasty. As a kid I used to love picking at the crispy skin while my Mum or Dad were carving up the chicken, so this recipe took me back but also reminded me of my love for crackling as the skin turns into a chicken version of crackling, and let me tell you it was such an indulgence! If I had my food processor here I would have stripped all the skin off and whizzed it up to make chicken salt to be used for all sorts! This chicken has lasted one meal on Sunday and 3 lunches for 2 people this week, which is really good for us students! 

Find the recipe and get cooking here!

DeliciouslyElla Recipe: Sweet Potato, Lentil and Coconut Curry.

I'm sorry, but these sorts of things are always hard to get attractive pictures of, I am a student and don't own fancy bowls, a fancy kitchen, hell, I don't even have a dining table so sorry it doesn't look too appetising on the plate! It's darn tasty though...

This week I'm doing something a bit different in my kitchen so I thought I'd share it on the blog. I've started being very good and planning my weeks meals in the hope that I would save money on my shopping and not end up eating delicious things like tempura prawns, home-made pizza and pork wellingtons monday-wednesday and then pasta with frozen peas thursday and friday because I've eaten all the nice ingredients :/

And let me tell you, it's working, like really working, we have been saving over a third on our food shop bill and have found we buy less but eat better and are able to buy things I would never normally think we could afford like a whole chicken and a bottle of wine (which I bought for a recipe, not just to drink! ...) 

So with this in mind I have planned my meals this week and they are all recipes from food blogs. I have some awesome cook books but lately I have also found some blogs with recipes that rock. So as a sort of 'series' here, I'm going to be recipe-testing what I find in the food blog world, and share my findings!  Here is one of them...

Sweet potato, lentil and coconut curry by DeliciouslyElla. If you like healthy food that tastes good, Ella is for you! Click through to find her recipe. I found this super easy to make and really tasty to eat. There are a load of really interesting looking recipes on Ella's blog that I can't wait to try out - healthy brownies that don't even need an oven being one of them! And do-it-yourself almond milk... 

Byron Burger.

For menu, info, prices etc check out their website: Byron

So the other day we went to Byron for a burger treat after some toil in the library. I had been wanting to go and try it out for some time, plus lately for some reason I've been craving burgers a lot (we'd actually also been to Atomic Burger a few nights before! Ssshh). 

One of the reasons I wanted to try it out was to sample their Craft Beers. As the president of my uni's real ale society I felt it was my duty... 

I went for what I think is a popular one at Byron (my research includes lots of instagram photos), the Brew Dog Dead Pony Club, which is a fruity pale ale and not too dissimilar to what we picked as Ale of the Year at the Oxford Beer Festival back in October. Charlie picked a stout, which would have been my choice also if picking for my own penchant and I obviously had a taste and thought it was ridiculously tasty. So the ale sampling was a success!

On to the burgers. Charlie went for the Byron, which looked incredible with double burger, bacon and cheese dripping off it *drools*. I went for the slightly more modest cheeseburger which was also delish. For sides we opted for skin-on chips and mac 'n' cheese to share. It was a really filling meal, so I didn't bother with dessert (plus I'm generally not bothered about dessert) but Charlie went for the cheesecake, and I did have a cheeky bite and it was incredible! 

So there you go, awesome burgers, puds AND good beer. What more can you ask for, really? Now, click below to see the burger foodporn goodness....

Itsu Miso Soup Review

Review. I got this instant miso soup in my January Birchbox and thought it was a cool idea to have an instant soup from a paste rather than a powder. It was super easy to make and did taste like miso soup, but was too salty. I don't think I'd ever buy this as it was around the same price as in a restaurant. Nice idea but instant soup isn't for me!

Tempura Battered King Prawns with a Hot Pepper Paste Sauce.

The Taste. I didn't really know what to call this as it was just something I threw together after feeling inspired! Whatever you want to call it, it's darn tasty! Fat, juicy tempura battered king prawns in a hot pepper paste-based sauce with some veggies and drizzled with sesame oil, which adds a distinctive flavour. It's a lighter but still filling meal, if you wanted to add to it just pop some noodles or rice into the mix! So how do we do it? Click below to keep reading!

RECIPE: WARM CHICKPEA, SPINACH & MUSHROOM SALAD

Lunch. This morning I have been perusing a new blog I came across via a friend on Facebook. This blog DeliciouslyElla is a plethora of healthy eating, I mean really healthy - no processed anything, no dairy, no meat. It might not sound great put like that but there are some lovely looking recipes on there and tips on eating healthily. Check out her 'About' section to find out why she lives this uber healthy lifestyle. 

So anyway, I was feeling inspired, especially since I have been wanting to eat more healthily after a couple of weeks of massive roast dinners, crisps, chocolates and other Christmassy treats. I confess I haven't followed one of Ella's recipes as I didn't have certain ingredients but inspiration is enough for me, I like to throw a few things together and see what I end up with sometimes and making a 'warm salad' was definitely an experiment for me! Find out how easy it is to make this tasty little lunch...

CROMWELLS, SHREWSBURY.

Dinner. There is nothing I love more than food, whether that is cooking it or going out for meals. This time it was the latter and it was a corker. Charlie and I were in my hometown, Shrewsbury for New Year and his birthday is also on New Year's day, so we decided to have a nice meal out. I haven't been in Shrewsbury much for the past couple of years so didn't really know where was good, but after a few recommendations and popping in for a nosey, Cromwells looked promising. 

Making Christmas Presents

This year we have gone slightly more creative, in a Pinterest kind of way, in the Christmas present department. 

Being students with not much money, we thought putting together little gift goody bags would be a cheap way to still give nice, thoughtful pressies! 

Hot Chocolate Jar

Get some good quality hot chocolate and mini marshmallows

SUNDAY LUNCH

HOW TO: MOCHA CAKE

HOW TO: CHOC CHIP COOKIE, OREO, CHOC FUDGE BROWNIE RECIPE

Hello! 

Yesterday I was on a baking mission to bake this 3-in-1 pud! It is a chocolate chip cookie, oreo and chocolate fudge brownie and yes it is a mouthful... (pun intended)

I found the recipe here but converted some of the measurements because I didn't have my measuring cups with me. The converted measurements can be found in the video of me making this below!

I really thought it was going to be the most sickly sweet thing ever and that I wouldn't actually be able to eat much of it, but I was wrong! It is actually not overpoweringly chocolately or sugary (to taste), instead it is just rather pleasant! I had a slice with some ice cream, which was very satisfactory. 

I wanted to make a video of how I made this for my YouTube channel because I like cooking and baking and usually the things I make turn out really well, as was the case for this little treat! 

Have a go at making this yourself, it is great for lots of people, perhaps a birthday or something! Let me know if you have tried this or made it and what you thought of it in the comments (:

REVIEW: ILUMI VEGETABLE & CHICKPEA JALFREZI

ILUMI vegetable and chickpea jalfrezi £2.25*

It's a foodie one today! I received this as a free sample in the post (weirdest thing I've ever had through the post? I think it might be!) and as a food lover, I was quite excited to try this out. It is microwavable but I don't have one so made it on the hob. The portion was quite small in my opinion, but I might just be greedy? I love jalfrezi but this did not resemble jalfrezi at all, there was no spiciness at all despite having chillies in it and even the flavour was just completely bland. I usually like if not spicy then really tasty curries and this was neither. I actually think the price is quite expensive for such a tasteless, measly portion and wouldn't buy it. Much better to make your own! So if you come across this I recommend it as much as I would recommend throwing your money out of the car window.