How was your weekend?

Mine was jam packed.

We woke up to lots of rain on Saturday morning and thought we'd have to cancel our trip to the markets, but it quickly cleared up, so off we went - just me and my sister J and H. Mr B stayed at home with Miss L. Thanks hon!

I wore this:

Stripes and florals! I kept the colours similar so it wasn't too clashy.
Top: Sportsgirl
Skirt: Vintage

My sisters bought Mum and I a plant each for Christmas. I scored this little maidenhair fern which I think will be so sweet in a ceramic pot in the spare room/study.

We got big coffees from the Columbian coffee man. I bought my MIL some nice coffee for her birthday and I also got some Mexican Chilli Hot Chocolate mix as well. Mmmmmm. We also stocked up on fresh fruit and veg, and some yummy sourdough bread. Delish!

Saturday arvo was spent busily tidying up the house before MIL descended upon us. It was a flying visit from her as she jet-setted off to Cairns to visit her family up north before Christmas. Saturday night we ordered Earth n' Sea pizzas and started watching Sherlock Holmes (with Downey-Jnr and Law) but we all started dozing off around 8:30pm so didn't get to finish it!

Sunday was a day around the house. We dropped MIL at the airport, and then had to make a second dash to the airport in the arvo for Mr B's cousin who stayed with us the night.

We have had lots of visitors in the B household!

Today Mum, J, H, Miss L and I headed off to 1888 Pizzeria at The Barracks for lunch. So yummy! We then hot footed it to Garden City for a spot of Christmas shopping before coming home and wrapping some pressies. J and H are staying with Mum for a few nights, so we've got the house to ourselves. As much as I love having visitors, its also nice just to have the three of us in the house.

I made some faux chicken pies for dinner tonight - they are quick and delicious but super bad for you because of all the puff pastry! Why does pastry taste so good?

About to go into the oven. A spare one for Mr B's lunch tomorrow!

I just cooked up some chopped chicken and seasoned it with chilli flakes, all purpose season and lemon pepper, added some peas, sweet potato (to mine only, Mr B does not like sweet potato) and some grated cheese - I twisted up the puff pastry and sprinkled them with sesame seeds and left over grated cheese and popped them in a very hot oven for 10 minutes. And there you have it. An easy and tasty dinner.

I served mine with lashings of sweet chilli sauce

And, I think I found my inspiration for starting on the weight loss train... A photo. A photo of me from behind. A photo that I am too ashamed to post on here because its THAT BAD. My big fat butt in all its glory. Oh, the shame.

My sister J took the photo before we headed off on an arvo walk on Friday. The very day I whinged about how fat and yuck I felt. Uggh. I'm going to introduce a morning walk tomorrow. It means our little morning routine will change, but change is good, right?

C xo

Cupcake vs Muffin

My husband and I have had the cupcake vs muffin argument for years. Which is better? He argues that cupcakes are better because they have all the yummy stuff on top, and I (although I do love cupcakes) argue that muffins are just as good because they have all the yummy stuff throughout the cake.

Either way, you can't go wrong. They are both good in my opinion.

I made these blueberry muffins to take to a friends house last week. They went down a treat!

Recipe:

2 cups self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
100g butter melted
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup blueberries (or any other berries or 1/2 cup choc chips or apple or nuts or cinnamon or whatever you please!)

Heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Line a 12 cup capacity muffin tin with muffin papers (or just grease the tin if you don't want to use papers)
Mix all of the dry ingredients (and berries or choc chips or apple and mixed spice etc) in a large bowl
Whisk together the butter, egg and milk in a separate bowl and then add to dry ingredients
Stir until just combined
Spoon evenly between the 12 cups and bake in oven for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown on top
Cool in pan for 5 minutes

C xo