21st Birthweek | My Trip To Dublin

Hello my loves,

So as you may or may not have known, I turned 21 on Wednesday (3rd Feb) and to celebrate I went to Dublin for 4 days as part of my birthweek, and let me tell you now, it is the most beautiful, relaxed city I have ever been to. I took quite a few pictures so I thought it would be nice to share with you what I got up to whilst I was there and maybe even give you a few ideas if you ever decide to go.

Day 1:

Our journey began very early on Monday morning so we could travel to Bristol Airport and everything ran smoothly and we got there with plenty time to spare. Little did we know we spoke too soon. Basically because our good friend Hurricane Henry was in the midst of blowing all over Dublin our flight was delayed. What a nightmare, I just wanted to get there. BUT he must have known it was my birthday as we were only delayed by half a hour. FINALLY WE'RE IN DUBLIN. Yeah .. that was short-lived excitement when we got lost and ended up roaming the streets of Dublin trying to find our back alley hotel! It doesn't help being in a different country with no data so we had to find Wifi to figure out exactly where we were every 10 minutes. But eventually after 12 hours of travelling we were in our hotel finally able to relax. Just down the road we had a giant Spar shop, which to be honest I don't really rate in the UK but it seems Dublin corner shops are slightly different. They serve hot food, have seats to eat in, they have a deli counter and a coffee shop as well as convenience items, this was our go-to place all week! Amazing.

Day 2:

Our first full day in Dublin, we planned to go to on a City Tour of Dublin but first of course, food! In our trusty Spar shop we purchased a breakfast roll, something the Irish highly recommend. It's basically boiled egg, hashbrown, sausage, black/white pudding, bacon and whatever else you might want to add and it's just 3 Euro! Bargain and it filled us up most of the day! We then went onto O'Connell Street to find the City Tour bus. There are 3 Hop On-Hop Off buses to choose from; Red, Green and Yellow. Some can be pricey but the Yellow bus CityScape is currently on offer for 10 Euro each for a 2 hour and 35 minute tour and I highly recommend it!! The journey is enjoyable and the commentator is warm and friendly and very Irish, and luckily the sun decided to make an appearance along the way! Also with a CityScape ticket you can get discount off other attractions including the Guinness Storehouse and you also get offers such as 2 for 1 Meals and a free glass of Guinness in a pub.

Guinness StoreHouse

Dublin's smallest pub. Capacity: 25 

Oscar Wilde statue

Ha'penney Bridge

Kilmainham Jail

The Spire or "Stiffy By The Liffey"

Aviva Stadium

Also, we came across the amusing trend of heels on electrical wires!

The city is surrounded by beautiful Georgian buildings and parks it is definitely worth a tour to see everything!

We ended the day with some Retail Therapy and a few drinks to bring in my birthday!

Day 3:

It's our last day in Dublin, (boohoo!!) but it's my birthday, 21 to be exact yaaaay! Yesterday we were informed that every first Wednesday of each month access to Dublin Castle and Kilmainham Jail is completely free saving at least 20 Euro so it is well worth knowing about so obviously today we took advantage of it and went to Dublin Castle which was right down the road from us. I recommend having a Guided Tour as apposed to a Self-Guided because you also get access to the remains of the Gun Powder Tower, the Records Tower and the chapel which is pretty amazing to see. Then you see the inside of the castle with the multiple rooms, absolutely majestic.

We then came back to my hotel and there was a bottle of Presecco delivered to my room, how cute of them! But we decided to save it until after we went to dinner with my two Irish friends Soph and Megan who I haven't seen in almost 5 years. It was so lovely to have a catch-up and eat Eddie Rockets (Irish version of Ed's Easy Diner) and boy it was goooood! Then we went for a wander to Grafton Street and Stephen's Green Shopping Centre which looks incredible.

I can't do a post without mentioning Twitter so I'd like to thank everyone for their birthday messages and my favourite part is the balloons that come up on my profile, so adorable!

And that's about it. I know this is a bit lengthy so thank you for sticking through this post, and thank you for taking the time to read all my posts. So happy. Here's to the rest of my 2016!! 

Love you lots

Katie x

Road To Fitness; Day 1 to 5

Hello, loves.

So this is a little different post I know but I wanted to test this out to see if this type of thing would be popular and fun to write. I'm in no way fit or even entertaining but a little daily diary account of my progession might help boost me slightly. 

Day 1
Good morning, I've been up since 7am. It's my day off am i crazy?  People say exercising early, keeps you energised for the rest of the day and also it's out of the way without thinking about it. So, today is my first attempt at Charlotte Crosby's 3 Minute Belly Blitz and to cut out the crap, wish me luck!

Wow .. I underestimated how tough this was going to be, out of breath at the warm-up and heavily sweating after 2 or 3 rounds. Man, my stamina is dreadful! It's high intensity training so 12 rounds of 3 minute workouts but let me tell you, something is working, I feel every muscle tensing with every move. Something tells me I'm going to be in paaaain tomorrow! But I did enjoy it far more than expected, because it's different you're not stuck learning a routine for 3 hours. I'll definitely be continuing!

Food Of The Day:
Breakfast: Weetabix, milk and an orange.
Lunch: M&S Prawn Layer Salad, Count On Us Salt and Malt Vinegar and a banana.
Dinner: Sausage, Mash and Beans.
Snacks: 2x Oatcakes, 4x Ginger Snaps.

Day 2
So, I have the pleasure of my mother watching me workout today and I'm not sure if it encouraged me or not. However, it did almost inspire her to join in, obviously from the comfort of her own sofa, but working out together surely will boost my motivation right?
I had a break at the beginning today, to be fair my leg and stomach muscles were aching and I've discovered how weak my ankles really are when doing the more difficult moves but I hope this means it's working.

Food Of The Day:
Breakfast: Scrambled Egg On Toast
Lunch: M&S Tuna sweetcorn Pasta Salad, Banana
Snack: Galaxy Ripple {come on I needed a chocolate fix to get through my shift}

Day 3
I am suffering, like seriously bad. My legs and stomach and arms are achy, are like jelly and I'm very annoyed with myself that I couldn't do the workout as well. I was stopping and starting, I did it half-hearted ugh. I'm feeling cheat day to recover. 

On the bright side I got my Euros for my trip to Dublin today aaah only 5 Days!!

Food Of The Day:
Breakfast: Weetabix with milk
Lunch: Iceland Chicken and Bacon Pasta
Dinner: Fish and Chips

Day 4
I'm up and thankfully so much more energised and ready for this workout. I got warm so quickly today but other than water breaks whilst explaining each round I didn't stop! I battled through it all. My ankles are still super weak but I felt so chuffed with myself like my stamina is improving so it must be working and I even tried the dreaded surf press-up. (If you have this dvd you know what I mean) I can't wait to do it again tomorrow, I'm on such a high. I sound so silly wow.

Food Of The Day:
Breakfast: Weetabix with milk
Lunch: M&S Prawn Layer Salad, Count On Us Salt and Vinegar Crisp, Count On Us Chocolate Mousse
Snacks: 4 x Oatcakes, 2 x mini flapjack bites 

Day 5
I am feeling tired. I think it may all be catching up with me but this is my final day of workout until after my birthday and I wanted to do well. I got shattered quite quickly but then afterwards I was okay, I wasn't 100% like yesterday but I am starting to feel better about myself and that's what this is all about for me and it's worth the exhaustion and achyness! It's really bothering me that my ankles are the main thing hindering me though else I'd be able to keep up perfectly I think. So I need to find a solution to this.

Breakfast: Weetabix with milk
Lunch: Iceland Chicken and Bacon Pasta
Dinner/Supper: Chicken and Spiced Potatoes

Snacks: Banana, Count On Us Chocolate Mousse.

I'm going on hiatus from this workout and from blogging as I'm going to Dublin on Monday to celebrate my 21st (it's on Wednesday!) but when I'm back I hope to do a post all about my trip, I'm so so excited! Then of course back to the workout and healthy eating.

Love you loads.

Katie x

Day 10 of #Blogmas | Marshmallow Cornflake Christmas Mess

So here it is, the second Christmas calorie ridden yummy treat on my blog!

 

It was originally meant to be a Rice Krispies, round, Christmas Pudding but instead I used cornflakes and way too many marshmallows so it's a sticky (yet tasty) mess!

Hey, I'm not perfect! ;)

This is definitely such a good recipe to make with younger members of your family who love to get their hands mucky without the need to bake or cook.

Make them yourself here;

Ingredients:
200g of Milk Chocolate
50g of Butter
180g of MarshMallows
100g of Cornflakes (or Rice Krispies!)
50g-100g of White Chocolate


Break your chocolate into squares and melt your Milk Chocolate and Butter together in the Microwave or on a saucepan of boiling water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water.

Once melted, add in your marshmellows and allow them to melt into the mixture too.

Sprinkle in your cereal of choice into the gooey mixture and mix it in. I suggest doing half and half so you don't use as much elbow grease!

Leave this to cool for a few minutes before spooning out the mixture onto a tray or plate into little balls (this is where it failed for me!)

Place into the fridge to cool for 15 minutes and prepare your topping. Melt your white chocolate depending how covered you want your sticky mess.

Take your dish out of the fridge and either use a spoon to pour the white chocolate on top or make a piping bag if you want to make it more precise.

Allow the chocolate to set on top for 5-10 minutes.

Finish with a holly decoration or icing and enjoy!

Day 3 of #Blogmas | Christmas Chocolate Explosion.

Hello, Hello, Hello.

Have you ever scrolled through Facebook and past the depressing statuses, spam pages that you don't remember following and the odd friendship tag you find absolute Food Porn??

Well this is what happened here and usually I think how on earth am I supposed to make that (??) but this is super easy and straight forward without the need of cooking or baking and I'm going to show you exactly how to make it.

Here's what you need:

1 x Terry's Chocolate Orange

2 x Malteasers Treat Bag 

1 x Milk Chocolate

1 x White Chocolate

Red and Green icing

Step 1: 

Unwrap your Terry's Chocolate Orange and rest it in a glass. This will keep it steady so it won't be rolling around all over the place.

Step 2:

Break off half of your milk chocolate into single squares and melt it either in the microwave or on the stove. This will be used as the glue to stick on your Malteasers to the Chocolate Orange.

Step 3:

Take one Malteaser at a time and dip it into the melted chocolate and carefully stick to the Chocolate Orange. Repeat this step until you cover the top half.

Step 4: 

If your Malteasers are being a nuisance and not staying in place, stick it in the fridge for 30 seconds. Once you have finished the top half pop it back in the fridge for a couple of minutes to allow the chocolate to harden slightly.

Step 5:

Take the chocolate back out and turn it upside down, rest it in the glass again and repeat Step 3 until your Orange is completely covered and it's looking something like this. (this is where I failed originally and had to run up the shop for more Malteasers!)

Step 6:

Pop it back in the fridge for it to set and start on your topping. This is where you can decide how much white chocolate you want on top. I personally melted half a bar but I think the whole bar might have been more effective in appearance but either way, melt your white chocolate exactly the same as you did the milk.

Step 7:

Once completely melted, take your chocolate orange malteaser ball out of the fridge and pour the white chocolate all over the top. Then leave it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.

Step 8:

This is where you can get creative which is an area that I very much lack in, so this was my failed attempt at a holly. But you can do whatever you like but the red and green icing are a must, festive colours rule yaaay!

And that's it!! Easy as pie and choc-tastic! An amazing alternative if Christmas Pudding isn't your thing!

Happy making!

Katie x