Sweet Potato, Butternut Squash, Apple and Sage Muffins Recipe

My mother's day was spent playing scrabble and baking with my beautiful momma. For my mums birthday I bought her the Lorraine Pascale's 'A Lighter Way To Bake' which is packed with a load of lovely recipes which aren't too naughty for you - the brownies are like 50 Kcals less than the average recipe. Personally I didn't like the sound of these muffins and was very dubious about trying them however I actually really enjoyed them and they are only 155 Kcals!

What you will need:
- 12 Hole muffin tin
- Muffin cases
- 200g ready-prepared sweet potato and butternut squash mix, chopped finely
- 300g wholemeal flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 eggs (1 egg and 2 egg whites)
- 250ml semi-skimmed milk
- 100g low fat natural yoghurt
- 50ml sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 3 tsp finely chopped sage leaves (we actually didn't us sage in ours as we didn't have any)
- Pinch of salt
- 1 eating apple - peeled cored and roughly grated

Method:
- Pre heat the oven to 200'C, Fan 180'C, Gas Mark 6. Line the muffin tin with 12 paper cases
- Steam the sweet potato and butternut squash for 5 minutes until tender
- In  large bowl, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder
- Beat the egg and egg whites in a large jug
- Beat the milk, yoghurt, oil and maple syrup until smooth and well combined and add the egg mix
- Mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture with as few stirs as possible
- Add the butternut squash and sweet potato along with the sage and salt and fold in
- Spread the mixture between the 12 cases
- Scatter the grated apple over the cases

Pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The centre may be damp from the moisture of the vegetables but the cakey part shouldn't look raw.

Send me your links if you have baked the same recipe, I want to know your thoughts! I really enjoyed them!

My brother sent me this while away at uni of my mum with her Lauren Pascale Carrot and Apple Cake, the cutie hahaha!

Thanks for putting up with me and being the best friend and mum I could ask for. Love you forever mumsy!

Recipe from Lorraine Pascale 'A Lighter Way to Bake'

Cool Things #5

Hope you've had a fabulous and loving day with your mothers and families. I've been home for the weekend to see David (since valentines day I've only seen him for 5 full days, which sucks ass) and today I've spent the day baking with my Momma. Last night I made her a card however I bloody forgot her present.

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ahhhhhh! This is so so cute! ahhhh, my heart melted watching this. This is Misa Minnie at 22 weeks old, showing how clever and obedient she is. She is so ennie weenie, if you check out her facebook to watch her grow. 

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This was trending on facebook yesterday, as the BBC posted the incredible video of this woman hearing for the first time in her life. So overwhelming, I got goosebumps. It's so incredible that we have the technology today to help people with horrible diseases, like this woman!


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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have released this official photograph of them with Prince George and their dog yesterday. They have released this ahead of their tour around Australia and New Zealand.
I love the composition and pale hues of this photograph, Prince George looks adorable and handsome already and I love how he is staring at Lupo. I do love the Royal Family.

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Oh, I do love Tom Fletcher and his adorable videos, I hope you all saw the time lapse video of their 9 month pregnancy - from Bump to Buzz. My friend posted the link for this video on my wall yesterday and I can't believe I haven't seen it sooner. It's just sooo good, and I love how fluffy his ginger cat is too.

Sun & Moon Boutique: UPDATE

Last night, well, this morning, we went out at the fine hour of 1am to shoot some photographs for our Sun & Moon Boutique website. Which, will hopefully be launching next week! 2 hours later, after lots of outfit changes and mid shoot squatting, Hayley had turned into an ice cube. Today the plan is to fit in editing and uploading more garments on the the website around uni work and Hayley is planning an editorial/advertisement shoot to be shot in the next couple of days. In the mean time check out our new twitter page

The Simple & Risky Want List #2

Top | Jeans | Shoes | Watch

Risky, you say? Yes, I hate jeans and tops that are waist length... I'm a freak, I know. Confidence issues suck, but I love this outfit!
I'm loving River Island recently, I haven't been shopping in a couple weeks and I fell in love with everything in sight. There was so many different patterns, colours, styles, and this top caught my eye, it's so colourful! Paired with some simple black jeans, the ones I have picked are from Topshop, something of which has never been on my legs before. I just hate jeans, how tight they are (I say that, but I wear leggings all the time, which doesn't make sense) and uncomfortable and I don't like how they look on my legs - I'm yet to try how amazing Topshop jeans are. I want these shoes, I actually love ALL the shoes at Urban Outfitters right now, I just hate the price tag. I think they have similar shoes in Primark at the moment (I can hear them calling me) which most definitely won't be £80.
I'm also finally on the Michael Kors watch bandwagon, I want this watch so bad! I'm not a fan of the massive rose gold jewelled style but when David kindly sent me the link to the Amazon deals on Michael Kors watches and I actually saw a couple which I really liked. I can't believe the prices either, most of the watches are 'more affordable' than I thought they were. Dammit now I need to find a spare £140...

Sun & Moon Vintage Boutique

Sun & Moon Vintage, yes, it's coming...
Hayls and I have chipped in and finally got round to buying our first items for our new vintage/pre-owned/just as fabulous clothing business! Which we will soon be unleashing onto interweb for your perusal and purchasing cravings. Here's a sneak peak of our website and the photoshoot!

I will keep you updated when the site goes live, keep your eyes peeled!

Inspiration: Hindu Weddings & Holi Festival

 

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Happy Holi!

Today is the day spring festival of colour in the Hindu calendar. Holi is celebrated by throwing, playing and chasing each other with dry powder to resemble love and belonging with lots of dancing, music and singing involved. I would love to be in India right now!! Hopefully in August we are going to the Holi One Festival in Leeds, which is inspired by the Hindu festival.
Ever since I met Sonia at university I have fallen in love with the Indian culture; the festivals, the colours, the jewellery, their family ethics, the dancing, well just everything else. She showed me the video below of an amazing, magical wedding the other day and I can't get over how incredible it would have been to be there. Obviously, the family must be utterly minted, especially to jet their wedding guests off to Vegas! I'm just waiting for Sonia to get married now... She is actually bringing some henna back to Leeds with her, so if you follow me on Instagram, I will put some pictures up but in the mean time you must watch the whole video!!

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Cool Things #4

My 2014 goal has been broken, I haven't done this post each week - sorry! But I've had a busy couple of weeks. If you've not seen my previous post, I've managed to get myself a placement, signed a house for next year and worked a hell of a lot. Uni work is also piling up too, second year is getting harder, ahhhh. Hayls and I have also been brainstorming ideas for our plan to open a vintage re-working business - 'Sun & Moon'. Still early days but it's very promising. 

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This is creativity at its finest. I love this video by Pomplamoose, using just one projector, and a various selection of backgrounds and objects they have created a 3D video.

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These little fellas are Orchid Flowers, they all look like something else!
From top to bottom, left to right we have: Dracula simia (the monkey orchid), Orchis Italica (the naked man orchid), Habenaria radiata (the white egret orchid) and Caleana major (the flying duck orchid).

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Very sciency, but so cool. What will happen when you wring out a cloth in space? I totally didn't expect it to turn out the way it did. Incredible, I love how he is just floating with the microphone! You really don't think about the implications that life would be like without gravity!

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I really enjoyed this article in Huffington Post. Meet 'Mayhem', a 4 year old girl who loves to make dresses with her mum out of paper and cello-tape. The whole article is adorable, Angie (her mother) talks about how they sometime look up current trends and copy their dress, or just get creative and create whatever spring into mind. There is sooo many different dresses, apparently it's a 50/50 effort too, Angie wasn't home one day and made one without her! I assume we will be seeing her in the FROW in a couple (maybe more) years time!