Wow, it seriously has been a fabulous year for blogging and we're still 2 months to go! With that in mind, I wanted to take the time out and say a massive thank you to all of you. I seriously couldn't do this without you. I wouldn't be able to run this blog, make amazing new friends and share the things I learn along the way! It really is the best part of it all, knowing that my own personal experience has helped you guys. .

You guys know the lovely Zeiss invited me their event in September? Well, while I was there they gifted me with an incredible Exo lens PRO. And I'm going to gift it to one of you! It's gorgeous, the design is super sleek and the image it captures is crisp and gives full resolution of even distant objects - it's just ridiculous. If you've not heard of the Exo lens series before, it's an iPhone camera attachment that allows you to create stunning, professional images and videos. The PRO is the highest spec they do with a professional lens system (using Zeiss lenses of course) 2.0x aspheric (optoms ;) ) Telephoto lens. So now you can capture your memories in HD or who knows, even start blogging!

I've literally been so excited about this for weeks!

1. Follow @spinachandspecs and @zeissvision on instagram
2. Comment on the Zeiss instagram video (it's on my profile!) and tag your favourite photographer. That person you know will always take a great candid!

🎉🎉 It’s competition time! 🎉🎉 Finally it’s here! I’m holding a giveaway with Zeiss as a thank you to all of you. Thank you for reading my blog, supporting my online presence and just generally being awesome! Without you guys I wouldn’t be able to have these stories to share. 👍 We’re giving away an amazing Exo Pro lens! It’s a high quality lens that gives super crisp images, with a wide field of view using the best Zeiss lenses 😍 It attaches to your iPhone with the slick and fitted Exo mount. Seriously, so beautiful. The blogging experience is amazing and having a good camera is helps tell your story! So if you’ve ever been curious about blogging, film making or just love taking photos - this is the one ☝️ To enter: 1) Follow @spinachandspecs and @zeissvision on Insta 📷 2) Comment on this post and tag your go to photographer. The one that knows how take a great candid. [🤔☺️] The competition will run until the 7th of Dec 🎄 Good luck!! 🎉🎉 Ts & Cs - You must follow both accounts. The total value of the prize is £240 and is not redeemable as cash alternative. The lens is compatible with the iPhone 6/6Plus.

A post shared by Erica Lam (@spinachandspecs) on Nov 16, 2017 at 4:14am PST

I love keeping it simple. My biggest asset is time and anything that can save me some, will form part of my daily routine. For some people cooking is a pleasure and they can't wait to try new things. For others it's a bit of a chore or uncharted territory. Making your meals doesn't have to take hours. And yes, it can be healthy and delicious at the same time.

Okay, so the first one!
Super, super simple. Literally you don't even have to cook. Got a microwave? Sorted.
For this, I just used bags of veg, washed and then cut them up. Some vacuum packed salmon from Lidl, cooked and ready to go, with grilled aubergine!

Cooked and ready to go fillets, it's easy to cook your own too - but these are super quick.

Mr aubergine.
- Watch video on YouTube
- Wash and cut in half.
- Cross hatch, slice diagonals one way. Same again in the opposite direction.
- Season with a table spoon of soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil. Sprinkle of pepper.
- Grill in oven or microwave for 10 minutes, flip and again for another 5/6 minutes.
-Serve it up!

















1. Choose which ever veggies you like. 
It's best to get a good mix of things. This will help with your nutrition in keeping your vitamins and minerals in balance. Depending on whatever flavours you're feeling, choose a rainbow of colours. It's not only more appealing to eat, but also a variety of colours means a variety of different nutrients. Seriously, so simple. Of course, it has the added value of being instagramable.















2. Get that protein
Again, it's good to mix it up from day to day. I was waiting for my chicken to defrost, so I went with fish instead. Salmon and mackerel are oily fish, so I'll usually omit adding extra oils or fats to the dish in that case. If your unsure what your food is made up of, just give it a google. For tracking my nutrients I'm using this awesome app, my fitness pal. It works out my macros (carbs, proteins and fats) for me. So I can just up or down regulate as I go through the day.
^^ This is mackerel in a tomato sauce, given wont suit all taste buds but give it a go - it's actually pretty tasty! It's super cheap, like 57p a tin in lidl? I just transfer it into a box and it's done. Protein is the one that is going to keep you feeling fuller for longer. (There are veggie & vegan alternatives)















3. Carbs, carbs, carbs
I feel for carbs, I really do. They get such a bad rep and you know what, most of your food is made from carbs. They're the main building blocks of energy! Hahaha. If your using a lot of energy in the day, like you have an active job or enjoy regular exercise - then you need good carbs. Yesterday was a rest day for me, so I didn't plan to consume too many. I do however always have a banana a day, 

















4. Fat, good or bad?
Fats are another food group that have gotten a bad rep over the last few years. Until recently I was super confused as to whether I should be eating them or avoiding them?! I've experimented and dabbled with few different 'diets' over the last few years and honestly fats are good.
I can't go without them, if I do I really notice it and my mood completely changes. My body is just not happy. There's something in the creamy, rich and comforting texture of fats that just boosts my mood and perks up my body. It literally puts a spring in my step. If you prefer eating fats, boost these up and tone down your carbs. It's a ratio game!
(Just for the record, avo is good fat!)


Okay, so this post turned out to be more about the breakdowns of different foods, but I guess it's a good place to start in showing you how I build my meals. Over the series of these foodie blogs, I'm going to show you how I lost weight, what I eat on the regs and the work outs I do. If you have any specific requests, please drop me a line or comment below! Hope you enjoyed this.

I've been craving these you know. This is a personal recipe from a few years ago, when I used to bake on the regular. I miss baking, do you guys find the time to make cakes often? I can't remember when I first discovered s'mores, but as soon as I did I was obsessed. They're just so gooey and delicious. Everything you want is there. The crumbly biscuit base, the moist cake layer, with an oozing Nutella centre - all topped of course with a generous dollop of light, fluffy marshmallow.

I was going to bake these this weekend, take some sexy new photos and share with you guys. It got rather hectic though and I've not had a chance. But I can't let my schedule deny you of this sweet, chocolaty goodness. Seriously, you have to make these. They get devoured so quickly and will leave you wanting to bake more!




This is from my old blog, which I may or may not link in an upcoming post because - ish is hilarious. Oh man, there's some great chubby buddy pics on there. Maybe I should do a reaction video to my blog? We'll see. Anyway, back to the bake.

If you don't know what they are, s'more are usually a camp fire treat where you squish a toasted marshmallow in between two biscuits and some chocolate. Oh lawd! This is my take on the cupcake s'more! You might want to renew a gym membership if you bout to make these bad boys.


Recipe:


Buttery biscuit base

• 100g biscuit crumbs
• 2.5 tablespoons butter (melted)
• 1 tablespoon white sugar

1. Mix all together until evenly coated. 
2. Press down into cupcake cases and bake at 170 degrees for 7 minutes.

Sponge:

1. I used a simple chocolate cake recipe (you can use any you like)
2. Before I scooped each serving into it's case, I topped the buttery biscuit base with a spoon of goey Nutella.
3. (I'm not judging how much you put in, that's between you and your base ;) )

Marshmallow:

• 2 egg whites
• 100g white sugar

1. Using a bain marie, whisk egg whites and sugar until the mixture is warm to the touch and the sugar has dissolved completely. This should take ~ 4 minutes on a medium heat.
2. Take off the heat and transfer to a cold mixing bowl. Again using an electric mixer, beat for a further 5-8 minutes until stiff peaks form.
3. Pipe over cakes (Usually you should wait for them to cool, but I didn't bother) I used a simple open circle piping tip.
4. You can either use a cooks blowtorch for a few seconds or chuck it under the grill (very quickly!) you'll need to watch them carefully as they can burn easily. Or the paper case will just go up in flames. (Disclosure, Spinach and Specs takes no responsibility for damages caused through following this recipe.)
5. Dribble some melted Nutella or chocolate onto one side, sprinkle biscuit crumbs and a chuck on chocolate to decorate.

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IT WAS AWESOME. Oh man, if you're ever questioning whether you need to experience something like this. The answer is definitely yes. My cousin was in town for a few weeks and we were so pumped to try a new experience. These escape rooms have started popping up all over Cardiff and given the chance, we opted for the highest difficulty - The Heist, at Escape Reality.

Arriving into the venue, we were ushered to our lock in location for the games to begin. For real, this had all the intensity of the hunger games without the stark consequences of death - phew. We entered a dimly lit room, with paintings adoring the walls (and I really can't give away too much, or it would just completely spoil it for you - just know it looked pretty cool.) They asked us if we wanted to hear the backstory first, ch'ya of course!!


-  'In the heart of the most famous Art Gallery in Europe, lies the most expensive art collection the world has to offer. An anonymous request through the black market has placed a high reward offered to anyone who can safely retrieve the painting. You have broken into the gallery with one aim - to take the reward.'


Ahh yeah, I'm super into gaming and have dabbled with a few RPGs, so this was right up my street. We totally got into it and were equipped with an iPad (for clues if and when necessary, we were banking on not using these - there's a 5 minute penalty for each clue used!), a kit bag which supplied our torches and a map - the timer began. We were so hot on the first clue, we quickly scrambled all the pieces together and just before we fit the last one, we abandoned it. 'It couldn't be that simple, surely' After wasting precious time, we realised we were right all along! Argh, the frustration! Quickkk, that eureka moment was priceless. You know how good it feels when you have something burning on your mind and then you finally figuire it out?! Well that was it, we were hooked. It ignited the fire and we blazed through task after task.

Once we knew what the room was asking from us, we darted around matching clues to random objects in the room. Have you ever seen the Crystal maze? I've always wanted to go on that show and this felt just like that. If only I was allowed to vlog inside, I would have basically been Richard Ayoade - life complete. It was so thrilling racing against time and to play the bad guy, 'Where was this painting at though? Are we close yet?!'. The rooms are so cleverly designed, it was such an immersive experience, that as we got closer to the final and time began teetering on seconds, we  literally started running.

Bombing it up and down the length of the final room (yeah it's pretty awesome, you actually move through more than one room!) we were sooooo close. Literally, if we had committed to that first clue, we would have robbed that painting right in the nick of time! Thus, the addiction began. I really want to go back and try all the other rooms. Then all the other escape room companies I can find across the UK. Seriously, it was that much fun. The mix of intuition, natural instinct, the pressure and collaboration required was just insane.


Verdict?
Highly recommend 👍👍👍👍👍

Don't worry - not giving anything away, this is reception!

P.s - There are literally no photos, because they weren't allowed. You'll thank me once you get the full, unhampered experience. *This was a sponsored post*