Mixed berry, frozen, no bake cheesecake - no butter, biscuits or cream cheese!

I LOVE cheesecake. without a shadow of a doubt, it is by far my top choice of dessert. But whilst I love it, it’s not something I eat too often as its fatty and caloric thanks to the delicious buttery biscuit base and cream cheese filling.

However, last weekend I made an amazing frozen style cheesecake that requires NO butter, NO biscuits and NO cream cheese, yet still tasted utterly delicious!

homemade nutty chocolate protein balls (5 min recipe)

I always have a batch of protein balls sitting in my fridge for those times when I need a small, protein filled, quick-release energy snack before I work up a sweat. Or alternatively when I need something sweet but not too bad for my insides!

This recipe for nutty chocolate protein balls fits the bill on both cases.

They taste utterly delicious and each small ball packs just over 4g of protein!!!

chocolatey and good for you! 

All you need is...

2 scoops of chocolate protein powder

½ cup of ground almonds

1 tbsp of almond butter

6 dried figs

1 tbsp of honey or agave nectar

2 tbsp of raisins (optional)

Makes 12 small balls


It is so simple to make these balls of protein fantasticness too!

packed full of protein, these are so filling!

Safari, Shamwari, South Africa (part 2) - "don't pretend you are an animal in the dark"

As you  know, I have recently  returned from a trip of a lifetime to South Africa which included three amazing nights at safari. It was such an blockbuster of a trip, for just those three nights, 
I  have had to split the blog into two parts. 
Here is part two, but read part one -  "Don't base your expectations on the Lion King" here

….To really get into the thick of it (as if being in a jeep 2 meters away weren’t close enough )we went on a ‘bush walk’… in a nutshell, we stalked some lionesses and cubs on foot. Seeing them without the safety of a huge vehicle is amazing (although he did have two guides and two shotguns).

look closely and you'll see giraffe in the back ground

When on a walk, you really wake up to what’s around you, becoming more alert to sounds and movements in the bushes. You’re pretty safe to be honest as the lions warn you with their gruff roar that you’re getting uncomfortably close into their territory!!! The worse thing that happened to me, was picking up a giant earth worm and it pooing on me (it is ok, I was wearing the Boy's coat, so just wiped my hands on that). 

the greenery of the scenery 

We had three nights on the Shamwari reserve, about an hour or so drive from Port Elizabeth, but to be honest, I don' really know as I was doing my best at being a navigator and was asleep for most of the journey. Anyway, Shamwari is a 25,000 hector area of land which helps protect, preserve, and rehabilitate the endangered safari animals, so as  well as seeing these beasts at their finest, you are also doing your bit to help conserve them!!!

How to tell if an egg is safe to eat?

Eggs are a great source of healthy protein and an integral ingredient in recipes from cakes to omelettes, they are a cupboard must have. But if you can’t get through a pack a week, how can you tell if an egg is safe to eat after you’ve bought the pack a while ago???

I had this question when returning from the honeymoon. I had a pack of eggs that had been sitting there for three weeks, with no obvious use by date, so no idea whether they are ,safe to eat.

how to tell if these eggs are safe to eat???

After a quick google, it’s actually very very easy to tell whether an egg is safe to consume or not. All you need is a bowl of water!!!

Place your culprit egg into a large bowl of cold water, with the water level about two times higher than the egg’s length...

Spicy, crunchy chickpea snacks!!!

Back in April I blogged about my tips on how to survive a long haul flight, and top tip #4 was to take your own snacks! One of the snacks that I took with me were my spicy and crunchy chickpea snacks! 

the travel snack I took to South Africa, inc these chickpeas

This has to be one of the most easiest snacks to make, plus chickpeas are dam good for you – low in fat, high in protein, plus a source of fibre AND one serving (half a can) counts as one of your five a day!

Safari, Shamwari, South Africa (part one) - "don't base your expectations on The Lion King"

The main reason for holidaying in South Africa has to be to come on safari! It was totally the Boy’s choice, and in all honesty, I am not even the biggest animal fan, but the whole trip to South Africa was a travel adventure not to be missed so I was keen to have this as our honeymoon destination.

So, to finish off South Africa, we had three days of safari time, which means 6 game drives.

seriously close to this beautiful beast

blending in with the wildlife! 

How would I sum up the safari….

…totally epic!!!

Bungee jumping off the world's highest bungee bridge! (you'll love these pictures)

Bungee jumping is one of those things that have always been on my bucket list (along with making my own jam, going to The Ritz for afternoon tea and learning the sax – it’s an eclectic list). Whilst I like the idea of the thrill of it, and plus the bragging rights, I am actually scared of heights. Ok, not so much heights but more have a fear of falling. Funnily enough, so does the Boy so I have no idea why we put it on our to do list for the honeymoon.

But it was on the list. And we have told people. So we had to go through with it!!!

the Boy, showing off and doing it like a pro

Waking up to a deep set cloud, so low we couldn’t see that far ahead of us, we weren’t even sure we were  going to be able to do it anyway. The weather was just so bad. We were meant to be jumping at 1pm but missed the fact that we were meant to get there an hour before so when we rocked up at 1pm, we were told we would have to wait for the 2pm slot.

Waiting around has to be the worst thing about the whole experience. 

Getting weighed (I put 2kg on in a week, damn good food) and getting kitted up took all of ten minutes so it was a long drawn out wait for our slot. It actually worked out well for us though, because by 2pm, the clouds had parted, revelling the valley and mountains before us. Although I am not sure if that is a good thing because now we could see how far up we were – and it was high. This is the world’s highest bridge bungee at over 200m!!!!

highest bungee jump from a bridge in the world!

Quinoa porridge - tasty breakfast option

I love a good breakfast or brunch, and no time have I made the most of this than whilst I was on my trip to the amazing South Africa. Pretty much most hotels we stayed in laid out a breakfast feast of cold meats, cheese, pastries, juices, savoury nibbles, breads plus all the cooked breakfasts you need from a fry up to eggs Benedict.

But now I am back home, the fun has to stop. Firstly I don’t have time to knock this up in the morning and secondly, I was eating so much, by the end of the three weeks, I had actually had enough of pancakes and pastries! Shock horror.

fresh quinoa porridge

So now I am back to cooking nutritious, fuelling yet tasty breakfasts for the morning rush! One great recipe I love for breakfast, is quinoa porridge.

Fat loss pills – do they really work? My month trial...

Why take them???

Prior to my honeymoon, I did my best to tone up. Although the holiday wasn't going to involve much beach or bikini time, as this is my honeymoon obviously I wanted to look as good as possible. Whilst I had been eating healthily (ok, there has been the odd treat but life would be boring otherwise!), I was lured in to the promise of losing the stubborn fat around my middle with some fat burning tablets, called garcinia cambogia …

With adverts promising to cut the flab and transforming my 'flat pack’ into a ‘six pack’, seeing results in as little as a month, I was sold!!!! Over the past few months, I kept seeing adverts online, in magazines and even pictures on Instagram of women that have used the tablets who wowed me with their transformations.

picture from http://garciniacambogiaextract.co.nz/

What made these “diet pills” even more tempting was that there always seemed to be a free trial on these! For just a fiver you would receive your 14 day free trial of these tablets. Seeing as the RRP is over £80, I thought ‘what the heck’ and I made the order for my free trial on line. 

St Francis Bay (and Jeffrey's Bay), South Africa

Being pretty much slap bang between Plettenberg Bay and Shamwari (our game reserve destination), we stopped off at St Francis Bay for two nights. On our first night, we didn’t arrive at our B&B “Sandals” until about 6pm, so we went straight to dinner. We ate on the recommendation of the guy who checked us in, going for seafood and sushi at “Christy’s Catch” a cute, down to earth, family run restaurant, two minutes walk from the B&B.

you can see our room's balcony top left

enjoying a kaluha 'don pedro' at Christy's Catch 
(ice cream and kaluha liquor)

Our hotel had a convenient location of being round the corner to the high street and main area, but when I say high street, this isn’t a hustlin’ and bustlin’ strip but a small collection of shops and eateries.

There is actually quite a bit to do around St Francis Bay, from boating activities, hiking, deep sea fishing and quad biking etc, a bit similar to Plettenberg Bay.

One of the reasons the Boy wanted to stop here though was for the surfing.