Blogger Awards – Thank You’s and ‘Nom’inations!

I’ve been very recipe focused recently, I havent had a rant about anything for a while or expressed too much opinion other than within my recipe posts and I’ve been thinking about why. I do have opinions and my own views on the food world of course, I have made my diet choices and I feel strongly about some aspects of the food industry, however what it really comes down to is the fact that my passion is simply food.

It’s new and exciting ingredients which get me thinking, its recipes and photos of food and random ideas which pop into my head which inspire me. I can spend hours reading a cook book or browsing recipes online, a fun day out is at a farmers market chatting to farmers about their produce and a relaxing weekend is spent from 8am-6pm in the kitchen seeing what I come up with.

I admire the people who take a stand and shout about their views and I’m always the first to chip in on the conversation but for me, this blog I am slowly building with love, is really just an online page screaming out about my love of good food! It makes me so happy when I see that people have enjoyed recipes I’ve created and I feel lucky that my passion has introduced me to the food blogging industry (unlike my uni degree which after 3-4 years in the fashion industry put me off forever) and I want to say a big thankyou to the bloggers who have recently nominated me for blogger awards I am sorry some are a little belated but I am really thankful for being noticed and appreciated. so THANKYOU!

Blogger Awards are a bit of fun and a great way of meeting new people and spreading the love of food. If I’ve nominated you and you don’t want to take part that’s absolutely fine, there is no pressure here

Each blog award comes with an instruction to tell some facts about yourself and to nominate new people for the award. To make everything a little simpler because I have bunched them into one post I will share 10 facts about myself and I will nominate 4 bloggers for each award. If I’ve nominated you then feel free to check out the actual rules for your award from the person who nominated me

Thank you so much to Vegan Blogger Live blissful for nominating me for three awards!  Very inspiring blog award, Reality Blog Award, Blog of the year 2012. I won’t pass on the 2012 blog award since its now 2013 but I wanted to say thanks

Inspiring Blogger Nominations -

1. The Road to Serendipity. I love your stories and your lifestyle! Truly inspiring
2. Fork n Beans. The most inspiring baker I have ever come across!
3. Vegan Sparkles. Puts a sprinkle of fun into everything she does inspires me to smile!
4. Veggie Diva’s Kitchen. A huge variety of cuisines and amazing veggie recipes!

Reality Blog Nominations -

1. My Food Religion. It was “Energizing” which made me think of Shannon with her great health and exercise tips
2. The Beach House Kitchen. Pure happiness in a food blog…definitely Yipeee!!
3. Turning Veganese. I’m addicted to their videos, especially the bunnies!!!
4. Vegan Monologue. Amazing photos and mouth-watering recipes!

The super creative blogger Alexander from “In Vegetables we Trust” nominated me for the Sunshine Blog Award! Thankyou! Everytime I get a new notification that he has posted I run straight over there because his food is inspiring and so so delicious!

Sunshine Award Nominations -

1. In My Bowl. A gorgeous collection of plant based recipes focusing on being healthy and delicious.
2. An Ode to Mung Beans. I literally want to try every recipe on Sammy’s blog, really exciting recipes!
3. For the Love of Taste. I love the wide variety of flavour combinations and the way Cornelia experiments with food (with success!)
4. Megg Salad. Really healthy (she is a health coach!) and really vibrant, yummy moreish recipes!

Poppy over at Bunny Kitchen recently nominated my rice pudding recipe for the Super Sweet Blogging Award I’ve got more into baking and puddings recently and I will try to continue this over the year to improve my skills!

Super Sweet Blogger Nominations -

1. Go lightly Gourmet. Great ethos on whole foods and how food is about nurture not just fuel!
2. Blisteringly Drunk. Firstly – love the name! haha also some great recipes from a group of friends who all obviously love food!
3. Better Bites. I feel like we have loads in common and I love the gf almond joy bars OMG!
4. Time for Tea, Room for Cake. A great mix of sweet and savoury recipes – the Blood Orange Cake caught my eye, cant wait to try it!

Ok and here are 10 facts about me which you may or may not know!

1. I’m really scared of ants. I know they are tiny but they come in the millions and if they were the size of dogs we would be extinct! I was once stood waiting for a friend and I was wearing flip flops when I felt a tickle on my toes, I looked down and I was stood in an ant’s nest and I had ants all over my feet and crawling up my legs. I’ve never screamed so loud in public in my whole life and I started jumping around trying to brush my feet whilst strangers looked at me in horror. I’m still scarred!

2. I currently have “raspberry” coloured hair with black streaks in it. I change my hair colour a few times a year but it mostly revolves around shades of red and purple. Last summer I tried having black hair with a sharp fringe which was fun but not something I could maintain! My fringe has grown out now phew, I really find them annoying!

3. I am still really into watching the WWE wrestling with the hubby Scott. My favourites are Randy Orton and Sheamus (If I’m judging as a girl who likes pretty men to look at – yes I think Sheamus is pretty) or triple H and Ryback if I’m judging from a wrestling point of view. I didn’t like the whole CM Punk Respect phase but now I am loving his feud with The Undertaker….21-0 YES!?

4. I’m really into Rock and Metal music (today I’m wearing my favourite Iron Maiden North America Tour T-shirt for “dress down friday” at work) and my favourite album at the moment is “Asylum” by Disturbd. They were one of my fave bands when I was younger and this new album reminded me of the good ole days! Also got to see them in 2011 at Download Festival and they literally blew my mind they were so good!

5. My favourite ingredient at the moment is kale. I can’t seem to get enough of it! I have it for breakfast with eggs, I add it to soups, salads and stirfries. I found a purple variety last week which I have used in a recipe coming up and it’s so pretty. It’s also really good for you!

6. I joined the Burlesque Society whilst at uni and helped organise a fund-raiser for my course which involved a lingerie catwalk show mixed with tasteful burlesque. I did a couple of shows myself which were so much fun but I mainly enjoyed the organising part. My degree was in lingerie design (which I havent used as I now work in finance and write this blog) so it was all relevant at the time.

7. I got married in Britain’s oldest Brewery in Faversham (Shepherds Neame) but I don’t like ale! Although we did have a mulled ale as our reception drink (it was in October so cold weather!) and I actually really liked that.

8. I used to do ballet and street dance and actually got really good (my dance teacher asked me if I wanted to train to teach dance) but then I just sort of stopped. Now I just dance in my house and sometimes on nights out if I’ve had some wine! I really miss dancing, maybe I’ll think about doing it again!

9. One of my favourite memories from uni was a night in with Scott when we had just got together. We bought some cheap wine and didn’t have any wine glasses so we drank it out of mugs and sat and played games on the play station and watched films. Looking back now (with a cupboard full of wine glasses) it reminds me that no matter how much money we may have or not have in our life as long as we have each other and are happy drinking wine from mis matched mugs we’ll be happy forever.

10. I have never made meringues before but I really want to give it a go. I will put some time aside at some point to try making meringues!

New year, New resolutions, New projects!

New Years resolutions…. Last year I set myself ongoing goals to be productive, enhance my cookery skills and look after myself both physically and mentally and I’ll definitely continue this on for the next year.

I set myself a goal to become qualified in my job which I didn’t complete but I did get a few exams closer which is a good start! The second goal I set was to start the painting I’ve been meaning to do and I’m gutted to say that I still haven’t achieved this either! Unfortunately life seems so busy that when I think I’ll put aside an afternoon to paint something happens or the phone rings or the pile of washing up screams at me! This year I want to at least start the painting!!

One goal I did achieve was to finally bake Scott a cake, fine I incorporated it into a blog project but still in fact I didn’t just bake one cake, I baked 8 cakes!!

In January 2012 I started my Friday challenge project to help me try new ingredients and branch out with my cooking and it’s been great! Next year I’m going to do something similar but instead of using new ingredients I am going to try new techniques. I no longer find myself always saying “ooh I’ve never tried that before” but I do find myself saying “ooh I’ve never tried cooking like that before”. If you get my gist!

I may call it something silly like “technique of the week” or “the technique geek” I will decide and surprise you all

I am starting with poaching…apparently that’s different from boiling! So I’m excited to see what on earth poached vegetables taste like! Only a true foodie could get excited by poached carrots!

I’m looking forward to 2013 and I hope it is as good if not better than 2012! Thank you everyone who reads and follows me. It’s been so exciting to meet new people, be inspired by new friends and to learn from all you amazing bloggers! once more (last time I promise) happy new year x

Kreativ Blogger Award!

I love writing my blog, especially now I have people reading it and one of the best things which I never expected was the encouragement and support from other bloggers! Everyone wants to compliment each others recipes, marvel at improvements and gush over mouth watering photography and I enjoy reading and commenting on other blogs as much as I love creating my own posts!

Jennifer over at Down Home South Journey was one of the first people to really move me with a comment. She said she loved my enthusiasm and that has stayed with me with every post! Enthusiasm is one thing I have buckets full of so when she passed over a Kreativ blogger award I was over the moon! It’s so nice to be thought of by other bloggers and I think the blogger awards are such a lovely way of building friendships and discovering new talent! So everyone please go check out Jennifer’s blog (click here), she writes about her home, local wines (she’s an expert!) and of course recipes and delicious food posts!

So rules of the award:

• Thank the nominating blogger and provide a link to that blog; (see above)
• Spread the love by nominating seven other bloggers, include their links here, and notify them; and
• Tell you seven interesting things about myself.

Well I have so many blogs I love, here are 7 of them

1. Fork n Beans – Cara recently did a guest post for me which you can see here. She is the epitome of creativity so this award is made for her! She focuses on gluten free, vegan cooking and baking and when you see me say “Raw Cream Egg” I know you will all run over there! Oh yes she’s a genius!

2. Turning VEGANese – Ah I love these guys! They are a group of friends who all post on the blog and what I love the most is you instantly know who you are reading because their styles are so unique. It brings a freshness to the blog, plus their recipes are great and the write up is always full of fun!

3. Lucy’s Friendly Foods – Have an allergy? Head over to Lucy’s blog and you’ll find advice and recipes for you! With a library full of allergy friendly recipes her ideas are original and inventive! There are lots of really yummy looking sweet recipes such as banana sundae cupcakes mmm!

4. Healthy Belly Ellie – If your after something delicious and super healthy then check out Ellie’s blog Bright colours, fresh flavours and plenty of personality! Lots of gluten free and vegan recipes too (something I am really interested in learning more about!)

5. Emmycooks – You can’t help but end up spending a good hour browsing through this blog, the photos are amazing and the recipes are so inspiring. AND you get a brand new recipe every day – I am literally in awe! – now that is passion.

6. The Silly Asparagus – What I love about Colette’s blog is that she is always sharing things she’s learnt about the world of vegetarians, research on the big animal production debates and plenty of background into the choices we all make! Theres just so much to read and explore within her posts so I definitely recommend you get a cup of tea and go soak in some knowledge

7. The Beach House Kitchen – When I first stumbled across this blog I was so excited by the idyllic photos, creative recipes and well just how inspiring they are! They are hugely passionate about the vegetarian lifestyle and it’s catching

OK well I also need to say 7 interesting things about myself… Heres a few possibly interesting facts about me – (by the way I just asked my husband what would he say was interesting about me and he said “You are vegetarian, you like animals, you have a fringe and you like collecting scarfs” hehe I love him but I feel a bit dull now xx)

1. I have a secret dream to own my own cafe with a herb garden and fresh produce and mint tea on the house…it used to be a dream about owning a cocktail bar but I may be my best customer haha! I also have a dream to live on an island and spend my days painting soo I imagine the dream will keep adapting as life moves on!

2. I am a rock music junkie! You know when music just hits a spot in your heart and you light up inside – well a heavy guitar riff and a mind blowing drum solo (Joey from Slipknot I mean you!) does that to me Ahh I’m seeing some amazing bands this year including Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, Metallica and Black Sabbath!

3. Ok I’m stealing one from the hubby – I do collect scarfs! I have hundreds in boxes around the house. They are just so pretty and you always look good in them even on a fat day. When we go to Spain there is a pashmina stall on the local market and they are 2 Euros and they are such good quality.

4. I am currently re watching the TV Show One Tree Hill from the beginning (havent seen the last series so don’t tell me!) and I’m addicted! I am a sucker for a story what can I say. My favourite character is Jamie! Seriously he is a dude!

5. I once ate salad cream on my cornflakes to prove a point…the point was that I loved salad cream…

6. I don’t enjoy housework…infact I spend a lot of time moving things around the house so it looks like its been cleaned and then I tell Scott to do jobs and I feel like its a team effort I do enjoy ironing now though as it gives me more time to watch One Tree hill

7. I’m not really into shoes…infact I hardly have any shoes but I don’t care. Some heels, black pumps, my favourite docs and some trainers – sorted!!

Thanks again Jennifer for the award and I hope you’re all enjoying my chocolate month I’m definitely learning I can cook puddings I’m just stubborn.