Recipe: Low Carb Mini Frittatas

I've decided, this week, that I'm going to cut carbs from my diet because my new medication has changed my metabolism, and I've begun to put on a little weight.

I was a bit lost about what to have for breakfast so I've come up with this quick recipe that you can prepare in advance and keep in the fridge or freezer for other days. In this recipe I've used ham and red pepper, but you can use whatever meat/vegetable you like.

Recipe makes 18

Ingredients

8 medium sized eggs

1 red pepper diced

100g roughly diced ham

100ml semi skimmed milk

Salt and pepper to season

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °c (fan assisted). Lightly grease a Yorkshire pudding tray, making sure everything is covered otherwise they will stick! I use olive oil but vegetable or sunflower oils are fine.

2. Crack all of the eggs into a large bowl, add the milk then season to taste. Lightly beat the mixture. Once that's done add your choice of ingredients and mix into the egg until spread evenly.

3. Pour your mixture into each small pod on the tray, being careful not to spill too much over the sides.

4. Pop the tray into the oven for 15-20 minutes. Carefully remove the tray from the oven and you're done.

I'm going to freeze some of mine and take them out as and when I need them for breakfast.

Enjoy.

Tay Tay :-)

Chester/Chester Zoo

On Monday my boyfriend and I went to stay in Chester for a night at a gorgeous hotel. We had been given a complimentary night due to a complaint we had made on a previous visit.

Chester is one of my most favourite places in England. There are lots of lovely little shops to walk around and there is lots of Roman history to see too. You've got the Roman amphitheatre, which is the largest know military amphitheatre in Britain. There's also plenty of Roman artefacts to look at inside the Grosvenor museum.

The best part about Chester is that it's home to Chester Zoo! (Another one of my most favourite places).
It's quite large and is home to over 8,000 animals, from 400 different species.
My favourite animal there is the giraffe. They're so beautiful and graceful, kinda like a friendly giant.


Anyway, I've added some pictures from our visit.


Tay Tay :-)

My handsome/silly boyfriend

Olanzapine

So I've been taking Olanzapine for nearly three weeks now, they are fucking amazing!

Okay, so maybe that's slightly over the top, but my mood swings have improved a great deal. I've not had any huge highs or lows since I've started taking them and when I have felt my mood change I've been able to control it a lot easier.
My friends have commented that I seem more stable and my partner has said I'm more like my old self.

Things are looking up and I would definitely recommend them to anyone else in my position. I have noticed some weight gain though which isn't too bad, but I'll need to keep an eye on it.

I'll keep you posted as always.

TayTay :-)

Coming out

Today I've been thinking about coming out and how long it took for me to realise I was gay. Most people I know say that they knew they were gay as they were entering their teenage years, but for me it was different.

My first gay experience was something I was desperate to forget. I was 17 and had been invited, by a female friend of mine, to a singles party at a her boss's home in the woods. His house was HUGE! All on one level, it boasted it's own dance room complete with bar and DJ decks, it's own 8 person jacuzzi and it's own sauna. It was the first time I'd ever been to a place quite like it. Anyway, the party went on and the alcohol was flowing (free). It got to about midnight and everybody headed to either the jacuzzi or the sauna. To be honest, I was quite nervous. Majority of the people around me were all in their mid to late twenties but that didn't stop me stripping off and jumping into the jacuzzi with some of the others. Someone brought some bottles of Champagne and Malibu to the jacuzzi so the alcohol continued to flow. After some time, people moved into the sauna or back into the house to get themselves dry. I decided to stay and swim around in the jacuzzi, and one of the guys I'd met decided to stay too. He was short with light coloured hair, in his late twenties/early thirties. We chatted for a little as I swam around, mainly him asking me questions about my personal life and if I had a girlfriend. After about 20 minutes of this he asked me if I wanted to go back to his. I'm not sure what made me say yes, more than likely it was the ridiculous amount of booze, but I did.
I had to find the friend I'd arrived with and ask her for my wallet. She'd kept it in her bag as I didn't need it. Naturally she asked what I wanted it for so I lied and told her some new 'special' drinks had arrived at the bar which you needed to pay for. As foolish as that sounds now, she bought it and gave me my wallet.
The guy I'm leaving with calls us a cab and off I go into the night, back to his place.

Everything after that is a blank.

The next morning I wake up at about 6am with an extremely sore bum, empty condom packets around me (thank God) and a naked man next to me! 'What have I done?!' I'm thinking. Mortified, I search for whatever clothing of mine I can find, call a taxi and go home. Not only was I disgusted with myself for staying with a man, I was doubly annoyed as I should have been leaving for the airport at 7:30am to go on holiday for a week. When I got home my Gran, who I was living with at the time, was not impressed. I'd gone home with no top, no underwear and only one shoe. She couldn't have been any less impressed with the situation than I was though.

After this I went on holiday for a week and tried my best to forget about it.
When I got back home though there was no forgetting about it. I hadn't known that the guy I'd gone back with was a colleague of the friend who'd taken me to the party. She wasn't going to let it rest! She had a gay Uncle so this wasn't new to her. She'd also already told her Mum who was also a friend of the family. Great. I'd have to come clean. Having spoken to her Mum, I promised it was just a one off and that I really wasn't interested in being gay. How naive I was.

Later that week, a different friend asked if I wanted to go to a club called Martha's. At the time I had no idea it was a gay club so I agreed. When we got there I was hostile towards everyone. This was the last place I wanted to be after my experience before my holiday but, after a few drinks, I was up on the stage dancing with everyone like there was no tomorrow. I really enjoyed myself. I chatted with other gay guys and began to feel really comfortable. Now it was definitely time to come out!

The first person I wanted to tell was my Great Aunt. I'd go to her house regularly on a Wednesday and a Friday and we would always tell each other our problems. I was nervous, but I knew I had to do it. I'm not sure why I was so nervous. I guess I expected her to scream and shout at me although I don't know why, she'd always been extremely supportive of other things in the past.
To my surprise, there was no screaming or shouting. In fact, she was more upset with me because I expected her to scream and shout. I continued over time, at my own pace, to come out to other friends and family. I have two brothers that took the news fine. My Dad wasn't pleased about it at first, but since then he's completely changed his view and even has gay friends of his own so never be put off telling someone because of their point of view. Their point of view can be changed!

Since coming out my life has definitely changed for the better. Even though it was a shock for me at first to realise I am gay, it must have been lurking inside of me somewhere, I just hadn't had the opportunity to let it out. It was a big weight off my shoulders. Life's always much more comfortable when you can just be yourself.

Tay Tay :-)

Forgiving is not always forgetting...

Forgiveness has to be one of the hardest things to do. In short, to forgive someone, you have to relinquish any anger or resentment,without punishment, you may hold towards that person (or even yourself) as a result of an offence or mistake made by them.

Ten years ago my dad killed my mother in front of myself and my two brothers. Forgiving him for that has been one of the hardest things I've had to do. Sometimes I even question if I really have? It's certainly never forgotten about.
Some people, usually people that don't know me very well personally, often find it strange that I could forgive my dad for committing such a crime. The way I see it is this; I have two parents and one of them has been taken away from me. There are 1000's of children out there desperate just to have one parent so why don't I make the most of the one I have left? It also helps to tell you that my dad was classed as 'insane' at the time of the murder and has no memory of committing the crime. In fact, he's been very remorseful since it happened and has done everything any 'normal' working man could to try and bring his family (his sons) back together.
At first it was extremely hard, it was almost two years before I spoke to him after the crime and I'm not 100% sure why I'd changed my mind. Something just clicked in my head I guess. I had the choice to either go on living with the family I wasn't especially fond of, or do something about the one I loved and missed.

As years went on I saw more and more of my dad, and in more recent years I even took a job at his gardening/landscaping business. HELL! Things were back to how they'd always been. We argued, about trivial things, like cat and dog so needless to say that didn't last longer than 6 months.

We have a pretty decent relationship now. He lives no more than 90 minutes up the road and we see each other when we can. I still question myself sometimes though. Have I truly forgiven him for what he's done and if so, does he deserve forgiveness?


Tay Tay :-)

Recipe: Millionaires Cheesecake

You'll need a tin with a bottom that pops out so you can remove your cheesecake easily at the end. First thing I do is make the caramel. This gives it time to cool whilst I'm doing other things.

1.Put all of the ingredients for the caramel into a pan, heat until the butter and sugar have completely melted, then bring to the boil ensuring you stir constantly. If you don't the sugar will burn and the caramel will be left with a nasty, bitter taste. Once brought to the boil reduce to simmer for 3-5 minutes, just until the caramel has begun to thicken in the pan. Place in a bowl or jug and leave to cool.

2. Place the digestives in a clean carrier bag, or wrap in a tea towel and bash them with a rolling pin (or anything else heavy) until you have a fine, sand like texture. Heat 50g of butter in a pan, once melted add the biscuit. Stir until all is coated with butter, then use the mixture to create your base at the bottom of your cheese cake dish.

Ingredients

For the cheesecake:

3 x 200g Philadelphia Soft Cheese

1 Vanilla pod/Extract

Icing sugar (use to your own taste)

For the base:

300g Digestive Biscuits

50g Unsalted Butter

For the Caramel:

100g Light Muscovado Sugar

100g Unsalted Butter

1 x 400g Can of Condensed Milk

For the Chocolate Ganache:

100g of good quality Milk Chocolate

150ml of double cream

I usually use a large metal spoon to flatten the biscuit into a base. Once that's done, if the mixture isn't compact enough I'll heat a little more butter in a dish, then pour this over the top of the base and spread to ensure it sets. Place base in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

If you're using a vanilla pod then this is the time to open it up and scrape out the seeds into a large mixing bowl.

3. Add all of the soft cheese to the large mixing bowl and mix with your vanilla. Once that's mixed, add icing sugar and continue to do so until you're happy with the sweetness of your cheese. Because this cheesecake is very rich, I tend to use less sugar than usual.

4.Take your base from the fridge and add the cheese mixture evenly over the base. You may have some left over depending on the size of your dish. Once done, place back into the fridge and leave it 30 minutes-1 Hour. During this time you can make the chocolate ganache.

5.Break the milk chocolate up into small pieces and put into a bowl. Pour all of the cream into a saucepan and heat it until it begins to boil. Once it's boiling, pour straight over the chocolate. The temperature of the cream will melt the chocolate as you stir the two together. Once all the chocolate has melted, leave to cool, then pop in the fridge.

By this time your caramel should now be cooled. If not completely, put it in the fridge for a little while.

6.Spread as much or as little caramel over the top of your cheesecake. I love the caramel part the most so I use as much as I can. Afterwards, place back in the fridge for 20 minutes to allow it to firm up.

7.Again, spread as much or as little of the chocolate ganache over the top of the caramel and then return to the fridge.

Your cheesecake is done! To decorate I sprayed the top of mine with an edible gold spray (just to give it that 'millionaire' effect) and then drizzled with melted dark chocolate.