My home-grown red onions.

This year I decided to do a spot of gardening. I'm not known for being that good at gardening - I struggle to keep ANY plants alive in my house.. And I have also never grown my own vegetables before. But after receiving some free red onion seeds in the post, I thought I'd give it a go.

Firstly, I planted my seeds into little trays and left them in the greenhouse to grow into seedlings. It was strange because I checked daily with no progress, but then suddenly - like over night - all of them popped up! I felt so proud that I actually managed to successfully grow something from scratch!

Then, once all the seedlings had popped up, they were ready for re-potting. I came up with the issue that I had no land that I could dig up to plant my seeds in... If I dug up a patch in my garden, they'd get dug straight back up again by my rascal of a dog. But I found some old plastic storage boxes, so decided to get to work on those. I got a wireless drill and drilled lots of little holes all over the bottoms of the boxes to allow water to drain out the bottom. I then filled them all up with compost. I watered the compost to make it moist. I then started pulling apart and untangling the seedlings. I placed them evenly spread out into the boxes. Then I had to play the waiting game.

Waiting for any onion-like things to start growing felt like forever. But once the first one appeared, again, it felt like they all followed suit, and soon enough I had 3 whole boxes full of little red onions! I was so proud of myself for not killing them all, which is what I expected would eventually happen.

Personally, I think home-grown red onions are much tastier than shop bought ones! Especially the ones I grow. ;) I made everyone try them and the verdict was pretty much the same. The countless amounts of times going up the garden to water them and waiting for them to grow was well worth it! I'd recommend anyone to give growing their own vegetables a go. I found it strangely relaxing and it helps clear your head, and also gives you something to look forward to. I definitely want to grow some more in the future, maybe something different... potatoes maybe? Not sure yet. :)

Race For Life 2013 - 5km.

This year, July 14th, I took part in my local 5km Race For Life, to raise money for Cancer Research UK. As always, it was a great turn out and Hudson's Field was a sea of pink! I was number 436. The message on my back was "I race for life for everyone affected by cancer. (Laura's Aunty Barb & Aunty Val)". I offered to add my friend, Laura's, Aunties on my sign as she was unable to run the RFL herself this year.

I was really hoping to beat my personal best time that I achieved last year (32 minutes, 29 seconds), but I didn't quite manage it. I arrived a couple of minutes late and slightly hungover (went to a birthday party the night before) so it was hard to keep an eye on my start time. But my overall time was around 37ish minutes, I think. Of course I'm a little disappointed, but I guess it's not too bad considering I ran/jogged alone this year and the weather was beyond scorching! I had little heat blisters all over my shoulders and almost collapsed in a heap of exhaustion after I crossed the finish line. I could hardly stand up! I didn't manage to run/jog the whole thing without stopping this year, but I was kind of expecting that with the heat.

Although I didn't beat my personal best time for completing the RFL, I beat my personal best on how much sponsorship I've ever raised. Most years I only manage to raise about £20-30, but this year I raised a total of £65! Makes me happy that I've raised that much money for such a great, well known charity.

Well done to everybody who took part in the Race For Life this year! Same again next year? ;)

Trip to Bake Farm & smoothie recipe!

Last Monday, my best friend, Emily, and I went fruit picking together at Bake Farm. I had never heard of this little place before, but Emily goes quite regularly and I asked if she'd come with me one day. The weather was perfect - nice and hot. It's such a beautiful, peaceful place, tucked away from busy main roads and houses. There are rows upon rows of strawberry plants and sooo many different varieties of strawberries to pick from! There's also gooseberries and raspberries to pick too (there's a couple other plants too, blueberries and runner beans I think, but they weren't ready for picking quite yet). It is surprisingly cheap. Coming to the till, I was expecting the fruit I picked to cost at least £10 or more... I picked a whole punnet of strawberries (mixed varieties) and about half a punnet each of raspberries and gooseberries for under £8! I will definitely be getting all of my strawberries and raspberries from here in the future - they are just too delicious to go anywhere else for them now! I have made mini lunchbox fruit salads and smoothies from the strawberries and raspberries (plus a few other ingredients from elsewhere), and I'll hopefully be making either some jam or maybe a tart with the gooseberries, if I get time to do it.

Here's the recipe for one of the smoothies I've made using the fruit I picked. I've called it 'Bake Farm Smoothie':

This recipe makes 1 smoothie (roughly a pint glass worth) at approx. 250 kcal.

Ingredients:

- 200ml almond milk

- 1 banana

- 80g strawberries

- 35g raspberries

- 25g porridge oats

- handful of icecubes

Method:

1. Put the almond milk, banana, strawberries, raspberries and porridge oats into the blender. Blend until smooth.

2. Now put all of the icecubes in and blend again until smooth. Pour into a glass, serve immediately and enjoy!

I made another smoothie, very similar to this one, using more of the strawberries and raspberries I picked from Bake Farm. I used the same recipe as above, but I removed all of the porridge oats and added in 1 small avocado. It was delicious, very smooth and creamy! Just in case you want to give this a go, this smoothie serves 1 (roughly a pint glass worth) and is approx. 300 kcal.

Sunny Magaluf, June 2013!

Last month (5th June - 13th June), my boyfriend, Jago, and I went to sunny Magaluf together. We booked it only three weeks before we left for the holiday (very last minute for us)! We booked a week, self-catering, in the Mallorca Rocks Hotel. I hadn't read any reviews on it, but out of curiousity, two days before leaving, I decided it'd be a great idea to read the reviews about the hotel on TripAdvisor... Seriously bad move! I then got myself in the biggest panic as every other review seemed to be extremely negative and talked about getting their rooms broken into, getting their money/passports/etc. stolen, being mugged on the way home, prostitutes hanging around the front of the hotel, etc. etc. I wish I never read them! I get pretty nervous when leaving home without my Mum anyway, so having this to worry about too felt awful.. Having come back now though, I'm not too sure why I got so worked up, as I had an amazing time!

Whilst rather intoxicated at the 2wenties welcome meeting (hard to turn down free, unlimited jugs of cocktails) we bought a package deal. The package included a foam party, a carwash party, tickets to the Pirates Reloaded show (which was AMAZING to watch!), tickets to BCM, a pub crawl and a booze cruise. This made us really start to get in the mood and excited for the week ahead! Also as we were staying at Mallorca Rocks Hotel, we had access to their gigs and W.A.R. nights. We saw Baauer, Rizzle Kicks, Ms Dynamite, Mistajam, etc. live, which were all pretty good! All things we booked with the package were epic and so much fun! I have never drank so much alcohol in such a short space of time. 8 days in a row I was drinking... I blame the free bars for this (after midnight, until 6am)! Outside of the package deal, we went down to the beach, went on a banana boat, dipped in the hotel pool, spent hours and hours sunbathing, went for meals together, went on the bungee ball ride thing (not sure what it's called), went on a 'bucking bronco' ride (which I was totally awesome at) and went to Western Water Park. The water park didn't have many slides, but the ones that were there were a tad crazy! One was terrifyingly high, but I managed to push myself to do it (after having a panic about how high we were half way up the stairs to the top). I'm proud that I did it, but I doubt I'd ever do it again!

Being a pescitarian, I did not have much choice in what food I had to eat. Most days we just bought food from the Spar shop to eat at lunch times, and then we ate out for tea. For lunch, every single day, I had brown bread sandwiches filled with tinned tuna and sweetcorn, mixed up with mayonnaise and slices of cheese. By the end of the week, I was sick of the sight of tuna! Meals out had a bit more to pick from, but nothing that exciting... The majority of most menus were meat dishes. I tried calamari, which I'd never tried before, but that was about it. Everything else was things that I could easily find in England. There was so many takeaway places! We had a takeaway most nights (bad, I know.. But I mainly blame the alcohol for this).

All the food and stupid amounts of alcohol throughout the week made me gain a total of 5 and a half lbs! I was a bit upset by this, but wasn't expecting much else really, considering the amount I drank each night. I have now lost all of this weight since coming home, so all is good again, and I am back on track! Last year, after returning from our holiday to Turkey, it took me a seriously long time to get back on any kind of track... I didn't manage to get back to the weight I was before leaving for Turkey at all. But this year it's going a lot better. I also came back from Magaluf with the worst chest infection (I think I may have caught it on the plane as their were a lot of sick/coughing people on the plane back). It's pretty much gone now though, thank God!

Overall it was a really fun, fantastic holiday. The mega-hangover I suffered when I got back was well worth it. We made some really great friends whilst out there too, which is a bonus! Only tiny downside is that the tan I got is rather pathetic compared to tans I've had from previous holidays, despite frazzling in the sun for hours on end.. Oh well. I would definitely love to go somewhere like this again! I really don't know what I was worrying for. Note to self: Next time, don't judge holidays by just focusing on solely the negative reviews on TripAdvisor - go experience it for yourself and make your own opinion on it!

I'm Pie Magazine's "Recipe Guru".

I'm not sure if many of you are aware, but since March 2013, I have been writing once a month for a great young people's e-magazine called Pie Magazine. I went to school with the founder of Pie Magazine, Benjamin Franks. He is an extremely talented writer and very creative and I am honoured that he has given me this opportunity to write regularly for Pie. I remember buying the first ever issue of Pie back in school (originally a paper copy). I loved reading it, and never imagined that I would one day be a part of it.

I am Pie's "Senior Recipe Writer/Guru" and I write recipes which are mainly naughty, calorific baking recipes. I decided to write these types of recipes because I really enjoy baking and sharing them with family and friends and then receiving their feedback on what I've made. I used to bake very often, but since dieting/calorie counting, I haven't been able to do it as often as I use to as it seems to really effect my waistline. So being able to do it once a month, for a good purpose, is great fun! So I keep my naughtier recipes for Pie and my healthier recipes for my blog. So far I have written 4 recipes for Pie which are online and ready to read (click on the thumbnails below to check them out). I have also submitted a savoury recipe for Pie's upcoming annual for 2013, but what I've made will remain a secret until it's published. I was shocked but ecstatic to discover that my Classic Shortbread recipe was the most read article of April 2013. It feels great knowing that people are actually reading what I've created. So if you want to have a peek at what I write, besides what is on my blog, feel free! And remember, there's a new recipe every month, so keep checking back regularly for more! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy making/writing it. :)

My recipes for Pie:

There's also many other topics to read about on Pie too besides my recipes, including poetry, short stories, news, travel, games, music, films, books, reviews, etc. all well written by Pie's very talented writers. So if you have a few spare minutes take a look!

Race For Life 2013. I've signed up, have you?

Today I signed myself up for this years local 5km Race For Life (Sunday July 14th 2013)! I normally leave it pretty last minute to sign up, but I decided to do it well in advance this year so I can try and get the most sponsors I possibly can. I've only set myself a small target of raising £30.00 to begin with. I know it's quite low, but I know from previous years that not many people seem to sponsor me. I've decided this year to sign up earlier and try starting off with a lower target. I'll aim for that target and then gradually increase it. Hopefully, if this new tactic works, I will smash the first £30.00 target by the time the event actually arrives.

Please sponsor me on my JustGiving page: http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/JessicaRobertson.

Sponsoring me through JustGiving means the money gets donated straight to Cancer Research UK. If you're a UK taxpayer, don't forget to tick the "Gift Aid" box, which will increase your donation by 25% at no extra cost to you!

I participated in the Race For Life last year too (click here for the blog post) and I did better than any other years I've done it! I jogged the whole thing non-stop last year - even the really horrible hill near the very end (hopefully they'll purposely miss that bit out this year, as it was an absolute killer). I am not a runner nor a jogger, so it was a pretty big confidence boost for myself completing it non-stop. I finished it in 32 minutes and 29 seconds, so I will hopefully beat that this year!

I am a lot more active than I was last year, but I mainly lift weights at the gym nowadays. I don't do much cardio at all.. I guess I'll have to try and incorporate more cardio into my gym routine to prep myself for this! I will be gutted if I finish at a really bad time compared to last year. But even if I do, it's the raising money that counts. So please sponsor me! Every sponsor, no matter how big or small, will help this amazing cause and will be greatly appreciated!

If you are interested in joining in, go onto the Race For Life website to see if there are any events near you. There's a small fee to sign up, but it is all for Cancer Research - so a fantastic cause! Please don't be put off or embarrassed if you think you can't run/jog it. Just because it's called a "race", doesn't mean you're actually racing. You can walk the whole 5km if you want to! It's just a fun day out for all the family! Only women can participate though (which is a little unfair in my opinion, as men can get breast cancer too, but hey ho..), but feel free to bring your male family members, partner and friends to come cheer you on in the sidelines!

Spread the word about Race For Life 2013 and get all of your friends and family involved.

LETS SHOW CANCER WHO'S BOSS!

The beautiful city of Paris!

Well we're back from our short break in Paris. Other than feeling utterly exhausted every day (late nights and very early mornings) and having to sit on the floor of our last train home, I had a fantastic time! We saw so many beautiful sights. We went up the Eiffel Tower, went in the Notre Dame and went on an evening cruise down the river Seine. We also saw the Louvre, went shopping in the most amazing "mall" I've ever been in and visited a local art gallery. It was wonderful and I am so glad I went.

This was my first ever trip to Paris and I had never experienced a place like it. The traffic is manic - everyone drives like lunatics, as if they're all in some mad rush! They also drive on the opposite side of the road, which I kept forgetting, so I nearly got knocked over every 5 minutes! Even the cyclists ride crazily. We saw motorbikes mounting the pavements and swerving in and out of pedestrians and cars - always made my heart jump a bit, haha. Our hotel room wasn't that great (the double bed sunk in the middle and our toilet was boxed against a wall so we had to sit on it sideways, haha) but it was bearable.. We didn't spend much time in there anyway. The side alleys and the more unpopular places weren't that nice. There was a lot of tacky shops, mainly selling suits, and homeless people with their babies, cats and dogs were everywhere - it was very sad to see. There was also a lot of beggars and drunks shouting at everyone and waving wine bottles around. Not a pretty sight, but all of the landmarks were beautiful. I loved the Eiffel Tower at night - the twinkling lights looked so magical! My other favourite was the Notre Dame Cathedral. The architecture is incredible and so sophisticated. I loved the gargoyles all around the outside of the building - they reminded me a lot of a childhood film, 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'. The atmosphere inside was lovely too and I loved admiring the ceilings (I've always had a thing about pretty Church/Cathedral ceilings) and stain glass windows. I also really enjoyed the shopping! I bought a lovely black maxi dress, a Hard Rock Cafe shirt and a bright purple lipstick. I also bought a few little souvenirs back for my family.

I was a bit nervous about the French cuisine before arriving there, and I had a right to be. There was rarely a vegetarian option that wasn't a dessert. Thank God I eat fish, else I wouldn't be able to eat very much other than salads or brushetta. One waiter tried to persuade me that frog's legs were fish and not meat.. But I luckily didn't fall for it. I think I would have been slightly horrified to see them on my plate.  I took photos of all the foods I ate whilst there, so I could show you all! My favourite meal was probably the pastries we shared in the shopping mall. They were perfection - especially the pain au chocolate (they are my favourite, and I had one almost everyday for breakfast - as you can probably tell from the photos). I tried my first ever real, non-homemade macaroons too - they were lovely, especially the chocolate flavoured one. The price of drinks are absolutely crazy in Paris! A 45cl drink of diet coke (pictured below) cost us 6 Euros, so we rarely bought drinks, except water.

I was such a piglet whilst in Paris, and I managed to put on 2.5 lbs over the Paris trip and my birthday celebrations combined.. I'm surprised it's not more, to be honest.. But it's still bad. It's got me feeling a little down, but I am getting back on track now.