I'm now over on my new blog Pink Chilli Vintage- please come and say hello

I'm now over on my new blog Pink Chilli Vintage- please come and say hello

Just a reminder

 I'm now over on my new blog Pink Chilli Vintage- please come and say hello

I've moved!

Hi guys- I'm now over on my new blog Pink Chilli Vintage- please come and say hello

Thanks to everyone who has joined me here. It means a lot.

Jess

xxx

Recipe post- Healthier Spring Rolls

Sorry I've been MIA guys. Usual story- cupcakes, day job, business admin etc etc

Hope everyone is ok. The weather is getting depressing now! I just want some sunshine. At least we are going into March when it should perk up a bit and keeping my fingers crossed we may even get a BBQ day in April like we did last year! Here's hoping.

I'm in the middle of setting up another blog. Mainly because I want a blog for my crafts, cupcakes eating, recipes, general life chit chat in one place. I'll keep you posted on what the new bloggy is.

At the moment i'm doing patchworks for the house- doing a cushion, a table cloth and I want to do a nice new patchwork quilt for our bed. I've got some great inspiration from my new favourite blog Cherry Menlove

Whipped up a batch of my Lemon and Poppy seed muffins tonight. I'm taking them to work (good thing about being a good baker= more friends). However I think I'm going to have one as a treat with a nice cuppa before bedtime.

Anyway here is a little Spring roll recipe for you. N.B frylite is a low cal spray oil.

Healthier Spring rolls- Serves 4

For filling use frylite to fry strips of 100g carrot, 100g cabbage, 1 small red pepper, 100g beansprouts with 100g fresh peeled prawns, 2 tbsp dark soy sauce and 1/4 tsp chinese 5 spice powder. Stir fry for 2 mins then remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Cut sheets of filo pastry to size, spray with cooking spray and spoon some filling onto one end. Roll up pastry tucking edges in as you go to form sausage shape. Place spring rolls on baking sheet (line with non stick baking parchment) and cook in oven preheated to Gas mark 5/190 for 10 minutes. I spray mine with frylite before cooking so they crisp up a bit.

Jess xx

TGI Friday!

Hi guys, This week has gone so quick! I've been doing cakes most evenings after finishing work so it's nice to have the whole weekend off of no cakes or classes to do. As much as I love it there are some things I want to do like: meal plans, find some more health blogs, sewing and craft blogs, cleaning, hot bath, hair and face pack, make a list of cake supplies I need to upcoming weddings. And I also want to spend some nice time with Phil.

Meal plans is a big thing for me, I need to get some healthy recipes together again as so far January has been a bit unhealthy and my portion sizes have crept back up again. I'd welcome any recipe/meal ideas from peeps :-)

I also want to do some more research on cake classes for big wedding cakes as I want to start doing them this year at some point. I have ordered a couple of books from amazon for inspiration. My Maisie Fantaisie one is fab so I've ordered her 2nd one.

Tomorrow i'm looking forward to a lay in with Phil, have breakfast together and then decide what we want to do for the day. I'm liking the idea of staying at home and chillaxing :-)

Right i'm off to read a magazine, pop on a face pack and then read some of Ian Marber's The Food Doctor Diet.

As i've not got any pics to put up here's one of me and Phil at my best friends wedding.

Jess

xx

Busy bee

Sorry for not posting, with starting the new job and having millions of Cupcake orders I haven't had much time.

Trouble was as before I knew I had a job I rammed my diary for January with cake orders but at least now I can plan my weeks better.

Here is a couple of pics of cakes I did last week for a wedding.

I'm focusing at the moment at looking at our finances again as i have a job, so updating our monthly budgets and re-reading Martin Lewis' "Money Diet" and try and get ourselves back on track.

I've been eating better but still not great, it's a work in progress. I think now I'm not as manic with cake orders and work I can plan meals a bit better.

I'm loving my new job, it's so much less stressful than my previous ones. Thank god!!

Anyway it's a short post today as it's bedtime and I want to read a bit before bed.

Jess xx

Recipe post- Spanish chicken with Chorizo and potatoes

I promised i'd put this recipe up as it's amazing. We have this a good few times a month as it's super easy, using one pan and is cheap. This is from Nigella's "Kitchen". I use less ingredients as it's for 2 of us and i've also used lemon zest if I haven't got an orange and it still works great.

INGREDIENTS

2 x 15ml tablespoons regular olive oil

12 chicken thighs (bone in, with skin)

750g chorizo sausages, whole if baby ones, or cut into 4cm chunks if regular-sized

1kg new potatoes, halved

2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 teaspoons dried oregano grated

zest 1 orange

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7. Put the oil in the bottom of 2 shallow roasting tins, 1 tablespoon in each. Rub the skin of the chicken in the oil, then turn skin-side up, 6 pieces in each tin.

Divide the chorizo sausages and the new potatoes between the 2 tins. Sprinkle the onion and the oregano over, then grate the orange zest over the contents of the 2 tins.

Cook for 1 hour, but after 30 minutes, swap the top tray with the bottom tray in the oven and baste the contents with the orange-coloured juices.

Serves: 6

Happy Hump day!

Hi guys,

Well i've done 3 days in my new job and I'm loving it. It's a bit of getting used to in terms of being at work in the day but it much less stressful than my project management jobs and being 5 mins down the road is soooo nice! Everyone is lovely at work as well. I've only worked for massive corporates before where I was just a number, here it's a much smaller business and you feel you matter.

Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs with smoked salmon as I had some in the freezer I needed to use, and it's one of my favourite breakfasts :-)

Lunch and snacks throughout the day: Chocolate rice milk, fruit and nuts, homemade peanut and choc chip granola bar with flax seeds, carrot sticks, activia yoghurt and a ham sandwich on wholegrain bread.

Our boiler has broke as we run out of oil as the letting agent told us how to read the tank wrong so no heating an hot water and as it's winter here it's not good! Plus we are having to go to mum and dad's after work for showers. Nightmare. As we got back late from showers etc we were naughty and got fish and chips. Bad I know.

Before going to mum and dad's I did a 15 minute meditation. I'm try to do it as much as poss and with yoga to calm my mind. I'm really not sleeping well at the moment. I have a sleep meditation which I had on the ipod when i went to sleep last night and it worked so think i'm going to do that for a while.

I'm looking at ways to improve my fertility as lately i'm been having major worries that when we decide to have kids we won't be able to. So even though we aren't planning to have any yet i'm putting things in place now to try and help- if anyone has any good resources they know of let me know.

Anyway bed time for me.

Jess xx

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Excited

Guys, I'm so excited about my new job, cannot wait to get into the swing of things.

Today I had mornflake muesli with almond milk- yum. Then my mum popped round for a bit so we just chatted and watched a bit of morning TV.

For lunch I had left over stew from last night with a slice of bread. Heaven.

Then I went into town to exchange a few things and got 2 pairs of shoes for £13 but only paid £3 as I was exchanging something for £10 BARGIN.

Back home I did some housey stuff and had a couple of prawn sui mai as a snack. I did some more work on my inspiration board and read for a bit.

Dinner tonight was spanish chicken with potatoes, red onion and chorizo. I'll put the recipe up as it's crazy amazing.

Anyway I need some sleep!

Bye for now

Jess xx
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Fantastic News!

Hello Bloggies, guess who has a job?! Yes me!!!! Finally after 6 months I have a job. As you know i've been in a rut while being out of work, it's impacted every part of my life, my mind, eating habits, exercise and obviously money but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm so happy and excited to start which I think will be Monday. It's making me motivated again in everything and I can't wait for a routine. The fact that it is down the road is so nice after years of nearly 2 hour drives to work. So expect normal blogging of exercise and food pics to be back on soon.

Today for breakfast I had organic puffed brown rice then did the food shop in Sainsburys. After I went to see my friend Ellie and to see the gorgeous twins who are about 2 months old. So that cheered me up.

Then a late lunch of prawns with rice noodles and did some cleaning around the house and watched some trashy TV.

Dinner was beef in red wine stew which is one of the best stews ever. Totally awesome. Will post the recipe soon. Not the healthiest I know but yummy and warming.

I've started my inspiration board which has been really motivating in itself, i'll post some pics when it's finished.

Plans tomorrow are to go to town and return some clothing, I could really do with a pair of black trousers for my new job :-) and a few other bits. Then I think mum is popping round for a catch up. I want to try and get some exercise in but i've not been well the past few days so i'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow.

Anyway off to read some blogs before bed.

Jess xx

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year guys. I'm using the New Year to wake myself up and get back on the health wagon. It's been a tough 6 months being out of work and being out of a routine means my health, fitness etc has gone a bit awol.

I have a 2nd interview tomorrow and I'm really hoping it will give me a fresh start. It's a lot less money than I've been on but being out of work since July means we've had nothing coming in apart from Phil's salary and some from the Cupcake business. Plus I want a less stressful job, get out of the corporate world that took over my life so i can still continue to focus on the business. The great things about this job are: 1. It's the type of job you can leave at work, my previous ones have pretty taken over my life so this is a great plus. 2. It's literally a 3 minute drive (or half hour walk) before i was driving about 3.5 hours a day. 3. The people seem friendly and my friend Kirsty works there and if i get the job and pass 6 month probation we get £1000 to share!

Ok so my New Years Resolutions:

1. Do more yoga- loving kundalini

2. Exercise at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes minimum

3. Choose healthier options for food

4. Find more inspiring blogs to follow

5. Continue to push the cupcake business and the china hire business

6. Start getting back on track financially when I have a job. Going to take a while but make a plan and do as much as we can.

7. Blog more, the fact the last 6 months I've been a bit meh means blogging has gone down, I love doing it and helps me keep on track so this is a big focus. Also my Jessica's Cupcakes Blog to drive more business.

8. Do more things with Phil- money being a major issue we haven't done a lot this year. So making more of an effort to get out and look at cheaper things to do together. Spending more quality time together rather than sat in front of the TV.

I've decided to do a new Inspiration board over this week. I enjoyed doing one last year but I want some fresh focus. The Fitnessita has just done a great post on Inspiration boards. Check it out.

Right I'm going to finish my Cherry choc smoothie and start on the inspiration board and get a session in on the cross trainer. It's been a long while so i don't know what to expect!

Jess xx

Snow trek...done!

Well as you know from my last post we are snowed in with no supplies so this morning, I went on a 6 mile snow trek to get supplies. Now 6 miles may not sound too far to walk but when you are more than knee high in snow it's hard work! I can really feel it in my legs now, but on the plus side it was exercise and I took some nice pictures.

Our Willow Tree

This is our drive

And our back garden! Wipeout

Anyway once i was back from the shops I made a brunch for me and phil, egg, sausage, beans. Naughty but was really appreciated.

Then this afternoon we had some tomato soup to warm up. Dinner was going to be a roast dinner but Phil is still poorly and it's not worth me doing one for just me. So i'll just throw soething together for myself with what I have here.

Our neighbour (farmer) said are going to try and clear the road tomorrow which would be ace so I can get to the supermarket and get some proper food in, plus I want to get most of the christmas stuff in so I don't have to worry about it.

Right i'm off for a hot batch and read my book. Then i'll be reading some blogs to get some more motivation and meal ideas.

xx

Snowed in!

Hi guys,

Sorry for the lack of posting, i'm still in my "slump" I'm hoping when New Year comes round i'll have fresh motivation and perspective. I'm hoping i'll be in a job then too! I think getting back into a routine will be good for me. I had an interview on Friday and they called me back a couple of hours after asking for me to go to a 2nd interview which I have Monday. Fingers crossed!!!!!!!

Well here in Kings Sutton the snow is insane. We live in the middle of no-where down a farm track. I tried to get out earlier but it wasn't happening. Because we have no food, not even bread or eggs! I attempted the trek across the fields 4 miles to the shop. It was a total wipeout, i couldn't see as the snow was coming down so thick and fast and I couldn't wade through all the snow. I'll see what it's like tomorrow and get supplies. I'm supposed to be doing a large cupcake order tomorrow but I don't have the stuff! Here is a pic outside my house

If we had supplies I love the idea of being snowed in but we were not prepared!

Food wise today has been random due to the no food situation- breakfast was cheerios, lunch was some pickled beetroot and some cheese and dinner is a sausage stew, that was all I could create with what i had!

Anyway I'm off to look after a poorly Phil, eat the dinner and then snuggle up meal planning.

Sorry for being a rubbish blogger at the moment guys. xx

TGI Friday!

Hi guys,

Hope everyone is ok. Frosting morning here in Oxfordshire. Ear muffs on today!

Breakfast this morning was a wholegrain bagel with lowfat soft cheese and smoked salmon, yummyness.

One of my best friends is coming down from up north to stay with us for the weekend so i need to go to town to get some things for cocktails! Cosmopolitan and Lychee martinis :-) Tonight for dinner is a warming cottage pie with veg. Not sure what lunch will be today. Depends if i'm home in town or out and about.

Also need to do some cleaning and get things in order before Niccie arrives. Hoovering and sorting out the living room as it's a bit cluttered!! We are having a night in tonight with a few drinks and playing Just Dance on the wii so at least that will be some exercise!

Then tomorrow night we are off out to an Urban night so will be dancing the night away. Still not got back into a workout routine. I think i need to set a weekly plan. Mixing the Biggest Loser workout, cross trainer and one of my other workout dvds. I just keep delaying it!

Today I also plan to do my meal plan next week. As we are on a really tight budget i'm going to try and do what I can with healthy meals. Including a lot of veg as we receive a veg box every wednesday night and always lots of goodies in there.

Sorry for lack of pics!

Here is a snuggly Daisy to cheer you up!

Looking for motivation

Hi guys,

As you've probably noticed i've been blogging less and well i've been eating rubbish and not exercising much. I really have seem to have lost my mojo and i'm really struggling to get it back.My body feels tired all them time and i'm fed up of being overweight and unhealthy. Anyone got any words of wisdom/tips etc to get me back on track? Would love to hear comments from peeps.

I think it's mainly because i've been out of work since July ans still have nothing on the cards. So this means we barely scrape by every month and i'm having to buy really cheap food and i'm struggling to come up with healthy things on a budget and also been at home on my own most of the day, i'm feeling a bit of a hermit and a bit like a failure at the mo. Sorry to be such a depressing post!!!! Trying to remain positive. Wish the cupcake business would bring in enough pennies for us to live off!!

Anyway any helps is soo appreciated.

Jess xx

It's the weekend

Hi guys, hope you all have nice weekends planned.

I'm on route to Leicester to do a cupcake party for some lovely ladies. Should be fun! Phil's dad lives in the next village along so we are going there first and Phil will stay there while I do the party.

Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs onn toast. Not sure what I'm doing about lunch as I'll be doing the party. So brought one of the Mule bars with me to give me some energy in case I don't get anything. I'll let you know what it's like.

I've been busy planning the vintage china hire and tea party business. Planning to expand the cupcake business. Will hopefully be sometime next year once I have enough china bits and bobs.

Anyway not much to report on yet so I'll catch you later.

Here's a pic of some snuggly bunnies relaxing!
Jess xx
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Little bit of Vintage

I've been pretty slack on the blogging front this month. Been major busy with cupcakes, classes and trying to find a fulltime job. Hope you'll forgive me :-)

It's getting pretty cold here now and starting to feel like xmas!! I started putting christmas des up yesterday :-) I like to have them up as long as poss!!!

Breakfast today was a wholegrain bagel with cream cheese and salmon, lush! Lunch was sandwiches and cake at my cousins house. We had another tea party.

Dinner was a warming stew- sorry for no pics!!!

I got some more vintage china today for my collection. Here's some pics of my stuff. I'm collecting for 2 reasons, one for my wedding and also i want to set up a vintage china hire business. me and my nan are looking for some more things tomorrow at the antique cellar :-)

Here's a pic of some cuppies made in my cupcake class. I love teaching people :-)

Tomorrow I have a job interview so keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

When the weather outside is frightful...

Sooo sorry I haven't posted for over a week. I've been in a bit of a gloomy place. Mixture of dreary weather and not having a job. feeding ourselves is becoming quite difficult with no money. So meals haven't been fantastic, it's been operation use what's in the cupboards. So lots of pasta, potatoes, cous cous, random freezer stuff etc. I'm really hating it as I lurve cooking and love nothing better than looking for delish healthy recipes to cook.

I have a little money to get some food shopping today but not a lot. Things on the menu this week are mexican potatoes, healthy turkey lasagne, Veg risotto and spanish chicken thighs.

On a good note I have an interview tomorrow! Yay! It's for a care assistant in a nursing home. Totally different to what i've done (IT Project management) and about a £25,000 pay drop but I've always wanted to do a job that's worthwhile, helping people. I was scared before as I got caught up in the corporate world, getting promoted and a bigger pay rise that I couldn't possibly leave my high paid job for such a low salary. But now I have nothing so it's not as scary, i'll be getting something. I just want to know I have a certain amount of money coming in each month and I can try and make extra with the Cupcake business. Wish me luck for my interview!!

Today we have our letting agents coming for a house inspection and then I have a laday coming to sample cupcakes for her wedding. Then food shopping.

The weather here has changed so much, it's so cold and rainy. I love the winter but hate the rain that comes with it!!!

Right I'm off to eat some breakfast. Catch ya laters.

Jess

Happy Friday!

Hope everyone is having a good friday.

Mine started with a veggie cooked breakfast. I veggie sausage. Toast, chopped tomatoes, egg and beans and mushrooms. So good.

After that had gone down I did a workout on the biggest loser- very hard but felt great after. Had a coconut water to refuel after.

As I had a big breakfast I had a banana smoothie for lunch. I put in 1 banana, tablespoon of peanut butter, drizzle of honey a few oats and milk. Lush!

In the afternoon I went to see my nan and then popped to my sisters.

Then for dinner I decided to cook Phil I nice meal. I made pumpkin soup ( with the pumpkin I carved) with bake croutons and seeds and then cod fillet wrapped in serrano ham served with mash and roasted parsnips and carrots. Yum!

I don't have a cupcake class tomorrow now as the 2 ladies cancelled so plan on doing more unpacking as our spare room is a mess!

Then off for drinks and nibbles round Cat and Tylers.

I've been looking through one of my new cookbooks by Sally Bee and it's fab, I want to try all of the recipes. I hate getting a cookbook and only finding a handful that I like.

What is everyone doing this weekend? Love to hear from you.

Jess xx
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