Penny loves Pumpkin

Hi Guys!

This is just a random post but I'm feeling all type type type so here I am :) I've missed so many days with y'all! I can't believe I missed the whole of Summer and most of Autumn! Just going to update you on random bits of my amazingly boring life.

 I celebrated 100 days and 200 days at my 'new' job already.

My hair has grown out a bit (as you can see in the pic?). I'm on my way to missing two haircuts but that is due to a lack of time and not avoiding the hairdresser....not consciously anyway....I'm not too sure....

I am currently on Day 6 of Operation No Eyeliner. Which is me attempting to wear less eyeliner (because a naked eye isn't going to happen.) My mum says the amount I wear on a daily basis isn't 'appropriate'. It isn't the first time it's been mentioned but I decided to take it on board this time round. It makes getting ready in the morning quicker but I feel really exposed and fugly. Lets see how long I can keep this up for!

I'm conflicted over my eyebrow situation. I'm still growing them out but I'm bored.....I dunno.
 Brow routine post to come soon  ;)

As always, I'm loving A/W fashion. Breaking my coat/shoe ban last year has been an exhilarating experience. I think I might need to reinstate the ban in 2015. Penny Palace is not coping with the amount of stuff! I have also discovered jumpersh this year. I'll be sharing my Primark sweater season haul with you soon :)

I am in love with pumpkin.

I made my first ever pumpkin pie, inspired by my first ever pie at L's house many moons ago. Good stuff!

I had my first ever pumpkin spice late #psl from Starbucks with V and it was......ok. I prefer pie!

But then I discovered pumpkin spice frappucino with my mum and I love it. Sweetness and spice and all things nice mmmmmmmm

And that is it. Eyeliner, eyebrows, some clothes, coffee and some pie. My life!

xoxo

Xmas lunch at Las Iguanas

Hi Guys,

I went for a christmas lunch the other day at Las Iguanas in Westfield Stratford City.
I ate off the christmas menu - 2 courses for £15 (3 courses would have been £20). I had chicken wings to start, and duck for my main course.

I must say, I wouldn't go back. The service was pretty poor - very slow and non attentive. The food was ok - I definitely wouldn't eat there again out of choice, and wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.

I've eaten at Las Iguanas before and it was better - maybe it was because it was off the christmas menu? But that's no excuse. Really unimpressed. I feel so bad to be so negative - especially about a christmas lunch - but it was a waste of my money and over 2 hours of my time (waiting waiting waiting even though we pre ordered and there were no other customers argghhhh).

29th Birthday :)

Hi Guys!

It was my birthday the other week - I am now 29 years old.

As normal I took the week off work and I had a great time - thanks to my family and friends for making my birthday week a great week :)

Here are a few pics of what my week was like:

I went to Ping Pong with my mum, brother and Cee. Lazy sumday (all you can eat dim sum) is my favourite day.
We had over 40 kegs of dim sum. It was a good day. 

I'm learning to use all those photo editing/filtering apps. My fav dish of the day was the black prawn dim sum (top right). Traditionally I love Hau Gau. Prawn allergy? Kiss my arse!

Received a nail art book. I love it cos I love nails but also because it looks really nice displayed. Blogger problems.

Hmmmm This isn't a very appetising looking dish but it's a close up of dry beef ho fun - noodles for a long life. 

More birthday food. I love mixed grills.

Day 1 of my birthday advent calendar!!! Thank you V for my leopard print tangle teezer :) 

New shoes from NK - thank you :)

I ate much more and got some other lovely stuff but no more pics.

I cannot believe that I will be 30 years old next year. I still feel young. 

Pure Coconut Oil

Hello hello!

I've jumped onto the latest bandwagon and hooked myself up with some coconut oil.
The blogger world has fallen in love with this stuff, and I have too!

I got mine from my local hair and beauty shop, £2.50 for 500ml. You can buy better packaged coconut oil for a much higher price, but it's pure coconut oil so you're not paying for a better product (am I making sense?) You can buy pure coconut oil for £15 if that makes you feel safer.

Anyway, you can use this stuff to cook with, put it on your skin, pop it in your hair. At a certain temperature the oil is 'solid' and when melted it's...oil. I purchased this primarily to use on my hair but find myself also rubbing some on my elbows, knees, ankles and ears.

I use to use olive oil on my hair and i can't say which gives better results as I purchased the coconut oil after the bleaching but I do like this. I don't know if  it's a miracle product as some people are saying but it's doing me no harm.
I really like the way it goes on and feels in my hair. Olive oil was, no surprise, wet and oily. It was messy and hard to wash out. Coconut oil is less wet and I find that it washes out really well. I just scoop out a bit of the hard oil and melt it in my hands - literally 5 seconds - and then just comb it through the entire length of my hair. Any residue I run through my scalp. I like to do this over the weekend and wash it out Monday but I've read that after a certain time (30 mins? Couple of hours?) hair stops absorbing whatever goodness you've put n it, but to be honest the no washing is also part laziness so I'm not too bothered.

Have you used this? Love it? Hate it?

Feed me!!!

Hello!

So I've posted my face, clothes and goes for the past month so here's a post on the food!

Home made nando's with homemade potato and sweet potato chips; homemade giant burger, hotdogs, bacon, egg and cheese toastie and finally BBQ!

Things I've been loving in May

Hey Guys, Just wanted to share with you some stuff I've been liking in May. First up is this elf lipstick. It was £1.50 and is in the colour 'posh', it's a red colour and it is amazing. The consistency is smooth and the colour is true to the bullet. Staying power is good and it's not drying at all. Really impressed, especially for the price!

My favourite time of the year? Happy hour at starbucks! Once a year they do a week or so of 1/2 price frappucino's, what I like to call 'frappy hour'. I'm not a starbucks drinker, even when it's full price and snowing I stick to a chcolate cream frappuccino. This year I've been enjoying (too) many the new mocha cookie crumble and also had vanilla for the first time (holy cow my teeth were aching!). I love the name taking thing, in east london with the foreign staff and foreign customers it's fun seeing what they will re-name you. I am Heny.

I seem to be on a bit of a vanilla kick! But I'm loving vanilla candles. I've tried the generic vanilla candles and last time picked up m&m vanilla candles and now I've got vanilla cupcake and betty crocker's creamy vanilla. I've burn them in the bathroom and living room hoping that penny palace looks and smells like the inside of a cupcake - I can't smell anything but any smell must be better than the bins right!?

These are olive that I purchased at a stall set up in Stratford Mall. They were delicious but omg I got ripped off. Bowls and bowls and bowls of olives with no indication of price. So I point at the above and the guys packs up a clear container and demands £11 off me. £11?!?!?!?!?!?! I was too scared to say anything so i paid up and did my best to hold back tears. So angry with myself. I need to stay clear of unmarked goods.

Sorry for this nasty looking pic but don't worry it's only guacamole! I made it myself. This is the second time this month that I've been squishing avocados and I did much better this time round. i miss being at L's house; her salsa and guac are amazing. I always think of her when i see an avocado lol Mine wasn't as nice but still an enjoyable and refreshing snack (eaten with some really nasty tortilla chips).

Eat and be merry!

Hi Guys!

So I spent 2011 hibernating but in the last week of the year I became more social (it's like someone popped in some new batteries!), saying that, no pics of human people aka no pics of me cos I was sick, spotty, ashy grey, greasy, and probably smelly during these outings. Charming!

Went to Yo Sushi (Westfield Stratford City) for the first time with my mummy and it was a laugh. I wish this branch did the blue monday deals or the sumo sunday deals but unfortunately not :(

V came back to England for Christmas from Dubai so we went to Westfields for dinner and a catch up; another 2 new experiences for me, The Real Greek and Pinkberry.

The food in The Real Greek was yummy and price wise it was respectable; we had the 2 dine for £20 meal deal which including a drink each but the bill came to just under £25 cos I had to add some meat to my dinner - the meal deal does include meat options (the deal is 7 dishes shared between the 2 of you, picked from the 14 on offer btw) but cos V is a veggie we chose 7 veggie friendly options. Still a good deal though and the service and location was nice.

After dinner we had a wander around and then we went to pinkberry. I am a massiv fan of frozen yoghurt but typical me I went for chocolate and all chocolate toppings and a few raspberries to be healthy......cos that's how I roll!!!

And finally on the last day of work I went to another never-been-before-place with my work friends; we went to Balans in Westfield Stratford City (hey, it's 1 min away from work and about 7 mins from my house!). What can I say? Firstly, the night was great, never been on a work night out type thing before and it was a right laugh. Small group but lovely people. But Balans? Never again. Price was a total joke and the food was not good. I had a burger and chips, how can that go wrong? Well it was dry and tasteless (and a bit cold), McDonalds burger's are nicer. As soon as I finished my meal I threw it up. Sorry for the TMI. But yeah. Never ever going these again and wouldn't recommend it. There were 7 of us and only 1 person enjoyed their meal and that was the person who picked the place as he'd eaten there the night before.

Picture is of a banoffi sundae btw, I had a spoon but then had to rush to the loo. Nice!

Well here is wishing that 2012 keeps us all well fed and watered :)

Feeding time at the zoo!

My birthday also means December which equals a lot of eating.

Kicked off December with a lot of Chinese, seafood and chocolate courtesy of gifts and my Hello Kitty advent calendar :)

Tis the season to eat and be merry <3

Jamie Oliver is Crusty

Hi Guys!

Random post but I wanted to rave about this product.

Before I start though, just wanted to say, I love Jamie Oliver. And I do not think he is crusty!

Basically medium size pots of "crust" that you can use on chicken, fish, whatever you want! The red tub is piri piri crust and the yellow tub is a lemon herb crust.

I've used the piri piri curst on some chicken breast and it is really yummy and so easy! What I do (a few trial and errors) is get my chicken and season it with all purpose seasoning and pepper, and a tiny tiny bit of salt. I then pop it in the oven (covered in foil) for about 25 mins, I then take it out the oven, flip the chicken oven and pat the crust on and then put it back in the oven under the foil for 10 mins, and then take the foil off and finish it off in the oven for another 10 minutes. It's not the quickest way to cook chicken I know but this is a fail safe way for me. I'm not a great cook, but a bit of patience means I don't get food poisoning, and the chicken isn't nasty choke choke dry!

Wear it pink

Hello Everyone!

Hop you are all well and had a good week. I'm so thankful it's the weekend, totally knackered and grumpy. But anyway!

Yesterday was 'Wear it pink' day at work where we got to dress down (and wear pink if you wanted) to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. Only got the email on Wednesday so didn't have a chance to buy a proper pink outfit in honour of a charity close to my heart.

Face of the Day: Normal make up plus some nina ricci lippie. By 11:34am all traces were gone. I couldn't be bothered to reapply but most of my work colleagues appreciated my effort to add a bit of pink to my outfit I think.

Sorry about the mess in the background....my clothes rail collapsed (first time, it also fell on me whilst I was in bed :()

OOTD: I am wearing one of my bargains from Tesco. Technically I don't think it was pink, mabe a peach? But it was a good enough effort and just about passes for a very pale pink (chiffon, pussybow).

In honour of it being Friday and to help me get through the work day a bit less grumpy I had fish and chips for lunch. And a sausage in batter. Oink oink in pink! lol

Nom nom nom

Had the urge to cook (well actually, just had the urge to eat food that didn't come out of a packet and required heating in the microwave) so I did a bit of cooking.

Pictures are a bit washed out but I was too busy slaving over the stove then to take too many pics ;)

[Above]

For starters I made a thai beef salad.

Ingredients:

Steak (you could also use smoked sausage)

Red Onions, Onions, Shallots, Corriander, Lettuce, Gem Lettuce, Cucumber, Chilli

Fish sauce and lemon juice

[Below]

Main course was suppose to be dover sole but when the fish defrosted (couretesy of mum) it was a fish with a head and eyes and a tail, not filleted as I assumed so instead I made.....

Stuffed chicken breast wrapped in parma ham

Ingredients:

Chicken breast, soft cream cheese, garlic, parma ham, salt and pepper

New potatoes, butter, asparagus

[Above]

Erm...this is suppose to be a cheat chocolate cheesecake but it so totally wasn't lol

But!! Even though it didn't look or even taste like what I was aiming for it was acutally all right :)

Ingredients:

Crushed ginger nut biscuits (for the base)

Chocolate custard and mascarpone cheese

That's it!

And as you can see from the pic I probably would have been better using a whisk but lumps just add character......just like me and my lumps/humps LOL

xoxo

Fun foods

Hi Guys!

This is just a really random post but the stuff makes me smile so thought I would share with you.

[ABOVE AND BELOW]

My lovely lovely friend at work brought me this for my desk. I like cute things, and I love post its. So my friend got me this post it apple!!!!! How cool is it!? (Available from Amazon, also comes in a pear theme).

[ABOVE PIC]

Another gift from my friend (he's my work neighbour) - it's a cadbury's SCREME EGG!!!!!!!! I dedicate this egg (in my tummy) to V, a fellow lover of the original creme egg.

[BELOW PIC]

*DISCLAIMER - I saw/got this online*

Spooning banana's. Nuff said!

[BELOW PIC - Skittles: Crazy Cores]

OMG Have you tried these!? Courtesy of SF I have tasted the new rainbow in town and I love. IMO much yummier than the original skittles (and the sour skittles make my face hurt). The shells and the inside have different flavours (for example: mango and peach, cherry and lemonade, and watermelon and strawberry).

If you don't know, GET TO KNOW!!!!

Welcome to Wahaca!

Hi Guys,

I ate dinner at Wahaca* for the first time the other day in Westfield Stratford City and thought I'd share with you:

(*Wahaca serves mexican street food. Kind of mexican tapas style where you order loads of bits and pieces. There was also 'big' stuff on the menu in case you don't like to share;) lol )

This is what I ate (with a friend). It was yummy. And actually price wise it wasn't too bad for my pocket (still a major treat for me though). The selection plus a wine and a diet coke was about £13 each including tip. And I feel better paying for food that I can't cook.

And the pork pibil was AMAZING!!!!

The food was great. And the atmosphere was buzzing. We got there at a great time and it was pretty quiet and plenty of seats but by 8pm people were queuing out the door. I would say this is a nice place for a second date type thing or a quick catch up with a friend - a casual but special atmosphere (a step up from nando's!!!) It was very noisy which is why I said second date and not first date (where you would want to be able to talk properly), likewise not a great place to eat to have an in-depth catch up with a good friend (unless you like shouting at each other).

The service....tbh it left a lot to be desire. I appreciate it was friday and really busy and as a new restaurant with new staff there's going to be some glitches but I did expect more. Service was inattentive, rushed, and the food came in dribs and drabs in a bad order. There was a lady on the table next to us waiting for someone to join her and she was there for about 10 minutes before she called over a waitress to order a drink since no one came to her. We had the opposite problem where our waitress asked what we wanted to drink within 30 seconds - er I don't know I've just sat down.

So drib drab food? What I mean is that, as you can see from the menu/photo's, we ordered a set selection of food. I either expect to be told that the food will arrive as and when, otherwise I expect the food to arrive together. Our meat dishes came first which were devoured, And then the bread, rice and veg stuff came last (and half way through I had to cancel a seperate order of coleslaw and I was challenged as to why "because we've eaten everything else" - why would I want to eat coleslaw by itself fool? Especially when I told the waitress at the beginning that I wanted the coleslaw asap.

Er......ok despite all that I enjoyed it though. I'm glad I went as an experience, but I am not sure if I would go again (or not too often anyway). And if I did go again I am just going to eat 10000 pork pibils!!

Oh! And the best thing about Wahaca was the decor. Really different from anywhere I've ever been and they're really into recycling/reusing; the 'walls' leading to the toilets were made from plastic water bottles. Cool or what?

I give my Wahaca experience 6.5/10