The Heat-Wave To Do List

Last week the UK was hit with blistering temperatures – completely and utterly out of the ordinary. It’s funny as we Brits tend to complain when it’s cold and we also complain when it’s too hot! Thing is we don’t know how to deal with it here!

Therefore, I wanted to come up with a to-do list that you could do without spending a lot of money or travelling a great distance, these ideas work for all warm weather and some especially appeal to hot, hot, hot! So…

#1 – Paddling Pool

My niece loves her paddling pool and so does her Auntie! The paddling pool is quite a big one in the sense that I can stretch my legs out in it and cool down. You can spend many enjoyable hours in your garden relaxing in the sun and the shade, reading a good book and cooling off in the paddling pool. Paddling pools also come with the idea of having a water fight! And who doesn’t love one of those!

#2 BBQ

Everyone loves a good BBQ, whilst there are a lot of foods on a normal BBQ that I cannot eat there are always alternatives. You can cook almost anything on a BBQ and two things I love is BBQ chicken & Fish, both taste so good when done on the BBQ. Though, be warned it may be a little bit smelly if you are cooking fish! Invite friends and family round to enjoy their company in the sun.

#3 Picnic in the Park

One of my favourite things to do during summer is to picnic in a park. Taking your own food with you reduces the cost; we have a little picnic hamper that we like to take with us. The little plates inside make picnicking much more enjoyable when in miniature. Take a ball, a cricket set, a book and spend the day in the park. Make sure to take suncream with you though!

#4 Beach Day

Who doesn’t like a beach day? I love them, there is something about the seaside during the summer that just makes it so enjoyable. Everyone seems happy and bubbly. We like to take a little tent for my niece when it gets too hot, but honestly we all seem to camp out in it when it gets a little bit too hot for us. Don’t forget that suncream, the wind can get you too!

What is your favourite thing to do during the summer? I’d love to know?

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Gluten Free Stuffed Mushrooms

Around two months ago I was told I was allergic to Gluten, this meant my entire food lifestyle had to be turned on its head. My mum also has a gluten intolerance and therefore we decided to find healthy and tasty meals that we could cook together and enjoy. It also meant we were able to spend our mummy-daughter time together which I love.

A lot of people have asked me over the past two months if being gluten free is hard. My only response has been, no. I have found it very easy to convert over due to the amount of choice now in supermarkets. M&S do an amazing range of gluten free products, as do Tesco. But I am getting ahead of myself here.

Over the next couple of months I want to be able to give you all a taster of some of the meals we have been having!

First up is our main meal for ‘meat free Monday.’ Each week we aim to have a day where we don’t eat any meat – I really look forward to these days as we have some extremely tasty foods!

My favourite is our ‘Stuffed Mushrooms with Vegetable Quinoa & an Olive Salad.’ It’s a very simple meal that is easy to make and tastes delicious.

We break up a piece of gluten free bread into crumbs and combine it with goats cheese, both soft and normal – (another intolerance I have is milk, but that’s a story for another time) to stuff the giant mushrooms with.

The salad is so simple, baby lamb leaves with cucumber, tomatoes and chilli olives. The mushrooms sit on a bed of quinoa which has been combined with fried onions and peppers. The final part of baking the mushrooms is to add extra grated goats cheese and cook until this is melted. Then volia! You have a simple, delicious meal ready and waiting. 

What you will need:

Serves 2

4 stuffed mushrooms

1 slice of gluten free bread

Soft Goats Cheese

Regular Mild Goats Cheese

Quinoa

Red Onion

Red Pepper

Lambs Lettuce

Cherry Tomatoes

Cucumber

Olives

What’s your favourite meal to make? I'd love to know! 

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The Birmingham Fashion Haul

As I mentioned in my previously blog post I would be splitting my Birmingham Haul into two, yesterday's post saw us talking about all things beauty and visiting the Selfridges store. In today's blog post we are going to be discussing all things fashion! As I previously said I didn't manage to get much in terms of clothing which I was quite disappointed in as I had hoped to find more things. What I did get I love!

Forever 21

I was excited to go into Forever 21 and browse the selection of clothing, however I was thoroughly disappointed as there was hardly anything I liked. I felt that a lot of the clothing was more pointed towards festival clothing – which isn’t good for me as I am not attending any festivals this year. The shirt I picked up however I love and think will be perfect for nights out. It has bell sleeves, quite a deep v and then a black neck tie that I like to make into a choker.

Topshop

I was also disappointed in the Topshop as I was only able to find one top that I liked. I love it though, a theme with the majority of tops I bought was that it has a cold shoulder detail. It is a beautiful pinky/nude colour that fits perfectly with a flattering neck lie. 

Primark

The final top I picked up was from Primark in Selfridges (which firstly I couldn’t believe they had!) This top is actually super similar to the Topshop one, the differences are of course the price and the materials used to make each. This one is thinner and better for the day where the Topshop one I would be happy to use for evenings out and dinners out.

That’s everything I got from Birmingham, as I said I had anticipated to get so much more which is a shame, so I will save up for my next shopping trip! I apologise that the items were very similar as I have been on a hunt for more pretty tops to wear with jeans, skirts and shorts this summer! 

What is your favourite store to shop in? I'd love to know! 

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