Food diary #01.

There is no other way to start this blog post without stating the obvious - I love food. Or more specifically, to cook food. I just love to plan meals, do the shopping and make food for my family. Some people see it as a chore but I really enjoy just taking time to pick out interesting and nutritious food. My Mum owns her own business and before that, she was often too tired when she got back from work to cook, so I just tried to help out where I could and now I just cook everyday without even thinking about it (my Dad shouldn't be allowed near the kitchen!)... I guess it's kind of odd for an 18 year old to do majority of the family cooking haha.

It can be tricky cooking for everyone; in my family, there are three gluten intolerant people (myself being one of them) so all of our meals need to be free from gluten and they also need to be healthy. As well as being gluten intolerant, I also suffer from an illness called M.E and a couple of years ago, after taking some steroid based tablets to help manage my symptoms, I gained a whopping 3-4st in a couple of months. So after writing my 19 Things Before I'm 19 post, I took it upon myself to refine my eating and try to improve my health. 

Phew, that was a lot of info - now for today's food diary!

I hate faffing around with complicated breakfasts so I usually keep it simple, for today I just had a couple of poached eggs on some brown Genius bread. After I make breakfast I usually prepare some fruit or crudites to nibble on throughout the day. For lunch I just reheated some homemade spicy butternut squash soup and then fancied some bacon (tut tut, Jess!) so I added one rasher. By dinnertime I was shattered from work so needed something quick - I chucked some turkey, more bacon (ha) and mixed peppers into a pan and cooked them with some Nando's BBQ Peri-Peri seasoning. I prepared more veg and some oven chips (a bit naughty but I really couldn't be bothered to make anything else) - hey presto, a slightly mismatched dinner haha!

I hope you guys liked this post, it's slightly different from the usual beauty/makeup related stuff so I wasn't sure whether to put it up or not :)!

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Baking for Fathers Day.

Fathers Day is upon us once again and this year, I was truly stumped with what to get my Dad. I settled on making him some tasty (hopefully) goodies which is always a winner in my household - food is the way to our hearts, especially my Dad's. We are all foodies, we just love to sit around the dinner table at the end of the day and chat over some yummy food.

I decided to make two of my Dad's favourite treats, Brownies and Cheesey scones. It's always a bit of a challenge, baking for my family - 3 of us our gluten free so it's usually either a complete disaster or a 'okay, I'll change *this* next time' type of situation. Gluten free baking is all about trial and error. Though, after 8 years of adapting recipes and learning some sneaky tricks, I seem to have a pretty good handle on the whole shebang.

The recipe which I ended up changing entirely... Oops.

The weather in the UK is so miserable right now! I thought it was meant to be Summer!?

The curse of gluten free baking - most things turn to crumbs! 

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful Dad, after we almost lost him a few years ago, I really cherish those little chats we have about music or those giggles about my Mum's quirky habits. Having him here and well means so much to me and I love spoiling him, on Fathers Day especially.  I hope you're all having a lovely Fathers Day or just a really relaxing Sunday! If anyone is interested in my gluten free brownie recipe then I will most certainly do a post on it.

What are your plans for today?

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