Sweet Potato Chilli Recipe

Chilli is one of my all time favourite meals, I could have it every week and never get bored but I do like to change things up a bit so when I saw this idea a few weeks ago, I knew it was one I had to make and blog about! I very rarely buy Sweet Potato, it's okay but given the choice between that or normal mash/roasties/chips, I'd choose the latter anyday. I do know it's really good for you though and I thought this would be an easy way to incorporate it into my meal without really noticing as I make really spicy chilli. I also want to start having more meat free meals aswell so this seemed like a perfect start to that!

Ingredients: (to serve 2)

1 onion, diced

1 pepper, chopped

2 sweet potatoes 

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tin of kidney beans

1 beef stock cube and 400ml of water

Italian herbs

Chilli Powder 

Cumin powder

Salt & Pepper

Rice

Method:

1. Chop sweet potato into chunks and put into a baking tray with salt, pepper and a tsp of chilli powder

2. Bake in a 200 degree oven for around 40-45 minutes

3. While sweet potato is cooking, add the chopped onion and pepper to a frying pan

4. Soften before adding in a tsp of chilli powder and cumin

5. When onion and pepper is soft, add in chopped tomatoes, kidney beans and 400ml of beef stock

6. Give it a good stir, add in salt, pepper, italian herbs and however much cumin and chilli powder you like, depends on how spicy you want it to be

7. Leave to simmer for around 30 minutes the add in the cooked sweet potato

8. Stir in the sweet potato and then serve, I always do chilli with plain rice but you can serve with whatever you like

I ended up making this a bit too spicy so next time I think all I would do different is add less chilli powder! The sweet potato went really well though and I'll definitely be making this again soon.

Let me know if you give this recipe a try!

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5 West End Shows I Would Like To See*

When I went to see my first west end show in November 2016, which was Wicked, I felt such a buzz afterwards. I completely fell in love with the feeling it gave me and the atmosphere was amazing. Now I've been to see one show, it's made me want to go and see so many more! There are 5 I would really like to see so I thought I would write about them and hopefully get some opinions from others on what else I should see. I would love to know if you've seen anything on the west end and what you recommend!

The Curious Case Of The Dog In The Nighttime 

Last year we were trying to decide on what the first show would be that we would see in London and I was really keen on this one. We went with Wicked in the end which I don't regret at all but I would still really like to see this one day. It's about a boy who finds a dead dog at night and how he tries to work out who did it. He is brilliant at maths but doesn't do very well with day to day things and doesn't trust many people so it's all about his journey to figure out who the murderer is and it ends up turning his life upside down. The story is definitely out there and so different from anything else on the West End but I love things like that are unique and this has had brilliant reviews. I think this ends in Summer so it's unlikely I'll see it before then but hopefully one day.

Les Miserables 

I don't really know anything about this show and I haven't seen the film either but it's always been on my list and one I've always thought would be a must see. 'Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Les Miserables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption - a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit.' I just think it sounds so interesting and probably quite emotional. I've heard a few of the songs and I just think they'd be amazing to hear live.

School of Rock 

This is one of those films that I always go ages without watching, and it's definitely not one of my favourite ever but I do always enjoy it and I think it's one that would be brilliant to see on stage. I remember first watching the film when I was younger so I would love to see it sort of come to life on stage. It's still quite new to the west end and it's had really good reviews so this is one I would love to see soon.

Mamma Mia 

After watching the film again last week, it's made me want to go and see the show so much! This is one of the classic musicals thats been popular for a long time now and I would love to go and see it one day. You don't have to be the biggest fan of Abba for this but you can still enjoy all the songs and the story of it all. This is quite high on my list.

Beautiful the Carole King Musical 

This is one I only heard of about a month ago and it seems quite different to the others but one I would really like to see. It's about Carole King, a music legend who sold her first hit as a teenager. By the time she was 20, she was writing songs for loads of people like Aretha Franklin and the Monkees, though she always wanted to be in the spotlight and find her own voice. When I watched the trailer for this, I was surprised at how many of the songs I actually recognised and I'm sure most people would be. This isn't one of those musicals I've seen advertised a lot or really knew anything about but I think the story sounds really interesting and I'd love to see how it all plays out.

Regardless of what we go to see next, I'll be booking way in advance! I always like to book early, get good seats and get the best deal possible. I booked a few months in advance both times I went to see Wicked, and both times we had excellent seats. There are so many websites now where you can book tickets for west end shows but one I want to mention is www.boxoffice.co.uk. They provide a secure online booking system for theatre tickets, theatre breaks, west end musicals, plays, ballet and opera. Anything you're interested in, you can find tickets for on there. You can get tickets for all of the shows I've mentioned in this post but there are so many others too like, The Lion King, Phantom Of The Opera, Wicked, Matilda and Billy Elliot just to name a few.

http://www.boxoffice.co.uk/

So that's the five shows I would really like to see on the west end at some point. Have you seen any of them? If you have, what did you think? I would love to hear what other peoples favourite shows are or just what they would like to see in the future!

*This post is in collaboration with www.boxoffice.co.uk. I only work with brands that are relevant to me and my blog

Similar Post - Wicked At The London Apollo Victoria Theatre Review.

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Lush Easter Which Came First Bath Bomb Review

As obsessed as I am with Lush I think I have only ever bought one of their Easter bath bombs and that was the Golden Egg, about 2 years ago. I was really hoping to get some this year as I recently ran out of my Christmas stash and I always need to have some Lush products in. I mentioned in this post that George got me a few presents a few weeks ago and one of them was a bath bomb! It's the Which Came First? bath bomb from the Easter range and it's one I probably wouldn't have picked up myself so I was so excited to use it!

First of all, how pretty is it?! I love how it looks. It's quite unusual and different to a lot of their other bath bombs and I'm sure I've never seen this one before. I love the pink and yellow, my two favourite colours and I knew that these two combined would be amazing. Like I mentioned in my Never Mind The Ballistics bath bomb review, these two colours just look so good in the water together.

This product splits into 3 which I think is brilliant as bath bombs can be quite expensive and you can only get one use out of them and sometimes it can feel like a bit of a waste. I love ones like this that you can split and spread it out over a few baths. Saying that though, I didn't choose to do that this time! I actually ended up dropping it on the floor that morning so I didn't really have a choice but to use it all in one go. I put all of the outer shell in the water first and let it do it's thing then I added in the yellow egg from the middle. Almost instantly so many patterns emerged from this and I just loved watching it fizz away.

Aswell as looking very pretty, in and out of the water, I have to talk about the smell of this. It has grapefruit oil in, and anything grapefruit scented is a favourite for me. I always think it's such a refreshing and uplifting scent and it's one I always like in shower gel form as it's a perfect one to wake me up in the morning. It also contains sicilian lemon oil which definitely came through and what I liked about this is that it wasn't over sweet. A lot of Lush bath bombs are really sweet, which I love but I didn't really find that with this one.

As with most Lush products, my skin felt amazing after my bath! So soft, so smooth and so clean. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did but I know it's one I'll repurchase now in the future.

Have you tried any of the Lush Easter range? What's your favourite Lush product?

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My 3 Must Have Baking Books

Baking is something I do as often as I can, usually at weekends as I think it's always nice to have a homemade cake or treats on a Friday night or a Saturday afternoon. Over time I've adapted recipes to make them my own and I finally feel like I can actually bake well enough to come up with my own but I still like to get some inspiration from a few of my favourites and use classic recipes that never let me down. I have a few baking books that I always go back to and I don't think I will ever stop using so I wanted to talk about them and maybe introduce you to a few bakers you didn't know about!

Jo Wheatley, A Passion For Baking & Home Baking 

I love love love Jo Wheatley and all of her recipes. She won the second series of the Great British Bake Off and I think she is my favourite out of all of them. Both of her books are full of classic recipes along with things like pizza, bread, sausage rolls and flatbreads aswell as ideas for breakfast and lunches. Every single thing I've tried has turned out perfectly. Her Malteaser cake is always a hit and something I make every so often or when there is a special occasion. Everytime I've made it, it's gone down so well and people have always commented on it. I couldn't choose between her two books but they're basically my baking bibles and I know I'll be using recipes from these for years and years and these will hopefully be passed onto my kids.

Bero Book 

This is just a classic baking book and one you need if you love to whip up a cake or biscuits. All the recipes are quite basic and so straight forward so perfect for people who don't bake very often but also for those who do it all the time and just want to make something simple. You can find recipes for things like pancakes, scones, classic Victoria sponges, chocolate cakes, fairy cakes, just everything you can imagine.

Big Baking Book 

I got this years ago and even though it isn't one I reach for every time I bake, it does have some brilliant recipes in, and the end results have always been delicious. I don't look anywhere else for a cupcake recipe because this book has the best one, they turn out so soft and moist and taste so good with simple icing sugar on top. I think just about every recipe I would ever need is in this book so I know it's one I'll always keep and go back too.

I have so many recipe books but these are the three that always give me brilliant results and never let me down.

Do you like to bake? What recipe books do you like to use?

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