Finger Licking Good

My housemates and I have an inside joke about me and chicken. It's partially racist seeing as I'm half black and they say - the elusive they, not my housemates - that black people loooooove chicken :) but we know it's a joke; especially as we ALL eat a lot of chicken up in here!

Anyway, the point of today's riveting post... yeah it's chicken. I'm currently cooking it and it inspired me to write. I never really stay true to a recipe, I just kind of throw a load of seasonings on top of food and hope for the best BUT I have this one down and I wanted to share it with you because it's delicious!

What you need:
Chicken legs, drumsticks or thighs (could work with a whole chicken but you'll need to revise timings)
100% Pure Coconut Oil - I use KTC 
All Purpose Seasoning - I use Dunn's River
Jerk Seasoning - I use Dunn's River
Grated Creamed Coconut - I use Dunn's River

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
Wash your chicken and trim off excess fat
Grate the creamed coconut

The Cooking:

Melt or warm a tablespoon of coconut oil in an oven dish.
Place your washed chicken into the dish.
Sprinkle a light layer of both the All Purpose and Jerk, followed by a generous coating of the grated coconut.
Pop it in the oven for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, remove from the oven.
Turn the chicken over and season the other side as described before.
Return it to the oven for another 15 minutes.
Once the chicken has cooked for a total of 30 minutes, reduce the heat slightly to just under 180 degrees and turn the chicken again. No extra seasoning is required.
Put the timer on for another 15 minutes.
When the timer is up, turn the chicken once more and return it to the oven for the final 15 minutes.

The sides:
Serve your chicken with sweet potato mash, buttered rice or cous cous, regular mash, basically whatever takes your fancy, and serve knowing your guests will leave satisfied - BOOM!

Mine never sits on the plate for too long.

Enjoy x

What happens at the Xmas party.... stays at the Xmas party

Monday morning!

First day back after the work's Xmas party and everyone is in high spirits trying recall, through the drunken haze and a weekend of recovery, whether anything juicy happened.

There was a lot of drinking, that's for sure, dad-dancing, a spot of apple knobbing, and not so secret snogging. The hog roast was finished before half the staff could eat so Domino's to the rescue!

Lost count of the number of glasses that were broken, someone was sick on the couch in reception and one of the waitresses tried to make off with 3 bottles of wine.

Everything gets hazy after about my 4th glass of wine, and that's after I'd had 3 glasses of prosecco on a practically empty stomach.

I just remember dancing like an absolute loon, walking half-way home crying because I was cold and probably far too drunk to be walking alone, snacking on a MASSIVE packet of wotsits, and then collapsing into bed - make-up still on, smudged down my cheek.

Saturday was not pretty - urgh, I'm too old for this nonsense.

ReEnergise

So in a months time I will be strutting down the streets of London Town in a skin tight Avatar costume - I promise to upload a picture (eek!)

But I spent this May Bank Holiday weekend drinking a lot of alcohol; this on top of a pretty bad diet for the last couple of months. However, in my head I can kind of turn this around in 21 days. How, you ask? How indeed! I'm freaking out over here.

What I will not do is starve myself or set out to commit to a ridiculously unrealistic exercise regime that I know I'm going to sack off after my first attempt.  

So I'm increasing the amount of healthy things I do already in an effort to not just make me look good in this outfit - and I will look Beyonce FIERCE come June 1st - but also make a long term improvement to my lifestyle.

I am hoping that because these are such simple changes I might be able to stick with them. So here's what I'm doing:

1) Drinking more water - I am terrible at this because I find water so boring, but I read that it also includes herbal teas. Sainsbury's will definitely see it's Peppermint sales go up this month.

My buff, intelligent PT of a boyfriend has also advised me that it's better to reuse glass bottles because plastic can house excess oestrogen, which apparently I retain and is the answer to why I've got a sneaky muffin top.

2) Get plenty of sleep - I love sleep and I have no problem sleeping in till late in the mornings but I tend to wake up in the night which disturbs the quality of the sleep I'm getting. How to resolve this? No liquid intake after 8pm and no TV/iPhone/iPad/Laptop an hour before bed.

3) Get those veggies in - upping the anti on the vegetable intake and reducing the simple carbs.

4) Do some friggin exercise! - I can't kick myself too much here because technically I walk to work every day, so that's 30 minutes of medium pace cardio 10 times a week but I need to incorporate a couple of high intensity cardio and resistance training sessions into my week to see further improvements.

That's all doable right? We'll see. I've been doing this for 2 days so far. Will update you on my progress next week, especially as my nan's just text me to say we're having Fish & Chips for dinner tonight! Whoops