Christmas Give Away

So I am planning my first give away for Christmas - as soon as I reach 200 follower I will announce the first prize :0)

Search for a winter coat - its cold! - Open to reviews

 

So its cold outside, first snow of Winter has fallen on the East side of the country and this is the time I start to think about getting a warm winter coat. 

So before I start , let me issue a statement to all the shops out there that believe that this years Winters plus sized trend is all about Padded and quilted coats. 



Wrong! errmmm no thanks it just makes bigger girls like moi, look like we're wearing our duvet and makes us look twice as big as well. I know some people like them but in my opinion its a big no.


I'm looking for a coat that is warm, preferably wool , non of this pretend wool stuff that I've seen a lot of online this morning. Also instead of designing a coat with straight lines , which by the way does nothing for us shapely girlies. Lets have elegant lines with some tailored fitting , designers we need you to have some vision and make the most of our curves, please do not hide us in a sack.

Also another of my pet hates!, believe you me, we are not afraid to be seen in color. We like other colors , so you dont need to stick to dark grey, navy and black, we are happy to wear for instance red or Turquoise or even bright pink, I know shocking , isnt it!. We will not run screaming into a cupboard and yell out unclean, unclean at the sight of a tailored colorful coat.
 
Looking at whats currently out there affordable coat wise , I really am losing the will to live. What I am looking for is a good warm , wool, tailored, colorful ie not black/navy coat that I feel good in. It also needs to be a reasonable price, I'm not rich and I know a lot of my readers are in the same boat, with regards finances. 

Answer's on a post card please, happy to review any coats sent in, get in touch via superbabe_666@hotmail.com


Designers if you;re up for the challenge, I'd be happy to hear from you, I'm a size 20/22 in most things  - here's my current measurements xx



Name: Janie Britton
Location:  North West Lancashire
Hair - Dark Brown shoulder length
Eyes - Hazel
Height 5:8
Shoe - Size 8 EE,
Bust Cup size C - 125cm
Waist 118 cms
Hips 124 cms
Dress size 20/22 dependent on retailer

 

 

   

Chicken ala Autum Veg test crash - in progress people - Recipe Number - 1

What could be better, than listening to  some Skyeladder music on our cd player, singing along and inventing a new recipe from scratch on a lovely Sunday evening.

Well you're seeing is as its being made ,  so here we go, your ingredients and approximate price list is at the bottom of this page - so lets let cook.


Preparation
 
First of all prepare the chicken,  you can get a couple of chicken breasts from your local butchers or supermarket.  Ensure that you cut off all the fat first as we want to make this as low fat as possible.
Cut the chicken into strips of around 3/4 of an inch.  If you're a bit squeamish most supermarkets will sell already prepared strips of chicken for you.

Chop up a small chilli  and add it to the chicken , ( your preference, you can leave the chillis out of the recipe if its too much heat for you or you can do what we do and remove the seeds to reduce the heat).

BTW an interesting fact for you  - according to a feature on the news last week , a bit of chilli each day promotes health/weight loss - I'm not guaranteeing this though until I've tested it :0
Oh and dont touch your face whilst touching chillies, because believe you me it flipping burns. 

Then pan fry the chicken and pepper, with a tiny amount of oil and light coating of cider or white wine
Once the chicken is cooked , put it to one side to cool.   (Very important -  ensure that the chicken is white inside, no pinkness or blood we don't want you all getting food poisoning. )

So lets get on preparing the rest of the meal. 

Next are the sprouts, we love them in our family so we are using a whole bag.

Peel the sprouts and then chop them into thin strips.  As you are chopping you'll find that some more leaves will come off , but dont worry about this as they will crisp up beautifully in the oven.

Next take a whole bulb of  garlic and grate it  ( if you're not a fan then just try a couple of cloves) .
The great thing about grating it is that the skin is left behind, so no more  having to struggle peeling the little devil !. 

Oh shall we do the ginger next, same principle, grate the ginger , you can buy fresh ginger from most grocers.
Again we love the stuff , so use a big chunk, but its entirely up to you guys as to how much you want to use.

Mix the garlic and ginger together. 

Next step is to Pop the sliced spouts into a baking tray and add the garlic and the ginger.

Add about a two desert spoon's of olive oil or if you haven't got it vegetable oil, stir ensuring that the sprouts get a good coating of the garlic/ginger mixture.

Next Chop up Carrots and one pepper and julienne them  - for anybody who doesn't know what julienne is , its a method of cutting an item into thin strips or in my case chunky.

Add the carrots and pepper to the spouts ( garlic and ginger mixture) , toss until coated and add to a pre-warmed oven Gas mark 6  for around 60 minutes.  Ensure you give the them a toss every 10 minutes to ensure they cook equally.

   

So whos for some celeriac chips then?
Take a Celeriac , you know the round hard thing you get from the grocers,.  Chop off the root, peel it and slice into chip sized portions.   ( a tip for you, if you are not using the celeriac chips straight away , pop them in a bowl of cold water with a plate on top to keep them nice and fresh) .

BTW if you dont have a celeriac and have a swede or indeed a pumpkin as its nearly Halloween then , they'll will do just as well. 

 
Put the resulting chips into a baking trip, lightly drizzle and sprinkle some Garlic lovers grinder on  (you can get it from Tescos, but its basically dried Garlic and Pepper).

Again when you've completed the above, pop the celeriac chips into the oven Gas mark 6 for around 50 minutes.The chips will take around 5 minutes less than the sprouts/carrotts/pepper tray. Again same thing toll them every 10 minutes to ensure they cook equally.

Okay we're now had the sprouts in for 20 minutes and the celerac in for 15 minutes  - so its time for the 2nd tossing.  You should start to notice that the sprouts are taking on a slight browny color.

On with the mushrooms !,
Take a small tray of  mushrooms and roughly chop, the rougher the better :0) , add them to the sprout/carrot and pepper backing tray and pop back into the oven to continue their baking.

When you're about five minutes away add some Parmesan to taste to the sprouts/carrots mixture  ( dont use too much otherwise you;ll drown out the natural flavors).

Next add the chicken and chilli that you prepared earlier to the sprouts/carrots mixture and pop it back in the oven for another 10  minutes until the chicken is lovely and hot.





So  heres the finished article  , we've tried it and all I can say is yum , yum, yum.
Not bad for an experiment and super healthy :0), .





Ingredients to feed a family of four
2  x Chicken Breasts
1x small Chilli
1 x medium sized Pepper
1 bulb of Garlic
1 small bag of Sprouts
4 big Carrots
1 small tub of Mushrooms
Black Pepper to taste
Fresh Ginger to taste
1 whole medium sized Celeriac
Parmesan to taste
Veg or Olive Oil


Approximate Cost - £8.03
Chicken -  £2.60 ( Fresh for 3 breasts its £4.00 or you can go for frozen which is slightly cheaper)

Chilli - £0.10
Pepper - £0.80
Garlic - £0.12

Sprouts  - £0.90
Carrots -  £0.20 - ( $1.00 for a bag) 
Mushrooms  - £1.00 ( tescos sell packs for £2.00)
Black Pepper - £0.01
Ginger -  £0.10
Celeriac -£1.00
Parmesan -  £1.00
Veg/Olive Oil - £0.02

Exciting Friday phonecall :0)

So I've just had a very exciting phone call, I'll let you know more shortly :0)

Keep a watch on  -  http://www.matalan.co.uk/fcp/content/makes-fashion-sense/site-content

My lovely hubbie put me forward for a makeover :0)

Healthy Eating and moi Low Carb sort of

Hello all I'm Janie Britton , I'm 44  ( 45 on Christmas Eve, dont forget the pressies :0) ) .
I'm 5:8 and have been overweight , well since I was born I think.  I have high BP and Diabetes Type II and since hitting 40 I have been allergic to tons of stuff.

The reason I have embarked on this expedition I guess you could call it, is to improve my health.
 I'm not necessarily bothered what size I am , however if I manage to open a few more doors to some of the clothes shops out there , then so be it lol.

For years I have been fighting with my weight, ask my sister she will tell you .
I've always been volumtious , or as my mum used to say when she was alive  "you;re just big boned" or in everybody else's eyes Fat lol.

The amounts of times I've been on the latest fad diet were you  seem to loose weight then pile it back on again and some.  It seems that you starve your body of essential nutrients and then it hits you the next time around because it thinks your're in starvation mode and just stores more and more fat.Then it makes you feel even worse because you have lumps on your bumps and you eat more, oh its a vicious circle!.

The amount of money I have wasted joining gyms as part of my New Years resolutions and just let it slide, basically because I found it too darned boring .  Or I was basically intimidated by all the "Beautiful People".

Well at least and this sounds a bit cheesy hey, but I seem to have found a good balance in loosing weight and controling my blood sugar count  - result.
So over the next few weeks, I'm going to show you what I do for  exercise and also publish meal recipes that seem to suit me.

Remember these are things that work for me, you may need to tweak them to ensure they work for you.
I've tried to add prices to the recipes  so that you can see how cheap it is to make your own food and also added pictures and instructions.

I'm also going to take pictures of myself and tell you how much I weigh  - blimey I'm brave. 

Hope I can help some of you.

Remember this is not a diet , its a lifestyle change.

Disclaimer  -this is my healthy eating plan, its something that works for me, I hope it works for you as well but be aware that you probably need to tweak, depending on what suits you re your dietary requirements ( allergies , medication clashes) /your fitness and overall medical condition.  Same goes for exercise,  I saw my doctor first to ensure what I was doing suited me and didn't stress or create any additional issues, I recommend you do the same.

Melon-ic Parts and blushing

I was out with friends on Wednesday and we were talking about things and got around to swimming etc and I said I was too shy to be seen in a swimsuit.

 To which one of the chaps replied saying you;re not that shy as you;re wearing a see through top.

 At that point I covered my melon-ic parts and blushed very heavily.