Recipe | Turkey burgers

I have been craving burgers for a while now, and I think Pinterest is probably to blame! So, instead of making someone, or going out and spending £10 on one, I decided to have a go at making some healthy ones myself. I’ve seen a bunch of recipes around the interweb for turkey burgers, so mine is a bit of a mishmash of all of those, I just sort of winged it based on what I’ve been pinning!

Turkey is also quite a cheap meat to buy, and very high in protein, meaning you get a lot of bang for your buck. 500g was £2.59, an onion is about 10p, and an egg is about 15p depending what you buy. That makes a total of £2.84, or 36p per burger. So yeh, a definite budget meal!

Makes 8.

Ingredients: 500g turkey mince//red onion//1.5 tsp garlic powder//1 tsp hot chilli powder//0.5 tsp black pepper//1 tsp Italian herbs//sprinkle of salt//egg

Chop up your onion finely and place in a bowl.

Break up your turkey mince and add it to the bowl. Then add your herbs and spices.

Break an egg into a cup and beat well.

Add the beaten egg to the turkey and spices, and combine well with your hands.

Form the mixture into eight burger shaped pieces and lay on a baking tray. Pop them in the fridge to firm up for about 30 mins.

Heat up a frying pan with a couple of sprays of oil, and cook your burgers in batches. I did four at a time. They need about 5 mins on each side, but the thicker/thinner you make them, the different your cooking time.

Serve up with your favourite side, maybe a bun, maybe a salad, or my personal favourite, sweet potato fries!

These also keep really well in the fridge, and a great for snacking on (oops), and also reheating. They could also be made into meatball shapes and put into tomato sauces for a sort of bolognese. Ooh the possibilities!

The nutritional stats on these are pretty good too:

Per burger: 146kcal//3 carbs//7 fat//20 protein//8 sodium//1 sugar

Any other good burger recipes out there for me?

2014 saving challenge

I know money and saving isn’t often talked about publically, unless you read some thrifty saving blogs, like I do, but I want this blog to cover all different aspects of my life, so I’m going to post about it. Hope that’s ok with you all?

Since moving into my new flat last July I’ve been really struggling to save some money, despite my best efforts. Now, thanks to a couple of different factors, I feel like I’m in a better position to save up some of my hard earned money, for emergencies, for my future, for fun, and holidays. My good buddy Megan introduced me to this challenge just before Christmas, and I think it’s really super, so I am going to share it with you today!

For each of the 52 weeks of the year of 2014 I will be saving some money, starting with £1 in week one (already been and gone, I’m a little late with this I know!), up to £52 in week 52 in December. If you continue upping your savings by £1 a week throughout the year the total you’ll save is an impressive £1,378. Pretty good huh?

If you’d like to start saving now we’re currently in week four, so the total you’ll need to put aside is £10, an easy amount to start on, don’t you think? By next week your little pot will go up to £15, which is great to see adding up!

I’m planning on swapping a few of the weeks around, so by the time it comes to December, which is already a busy month, I won’t be so strapped having to put aside just over £200, compared to what I would be in April for example.

On top of doing this challenge I’m also planning to transfer a monthly amount into my savings account, and regularly emptying my purse of all change and adding to my savings pot!

So, what I want to know is, what are your tips for saving money, and do you save regularly? Also, if you’d like to join in with the 52 week saving challenge, I’ll be posting regular updates about how I’m doing, but you can also read these helpful links!

Image source

Resolutions 2014

This year I didn’t publish any resolutions, so looking back on the year I can’t say how well I did or not. For 2014 I’ve got a few things I’d like to achieve, so by posting them here, I hope to make myself a bit more accountable, and have regular check-ins to see how I’m doing.

1. Complete London duathlon with a good time. I have all summer to train for this race, and with just two elements, I should be able to practice the full distance with transitions, to make myself feel fully prepared and confident when I cross the start line in September. I haven’t really given thought to a time yet, but I want to complete it in a time I’m proud of.

2. Continue racing. I love racing, because I love receiving medals. Racing is expensive, if you enter the big ones, but I’m hoping to enter smaller races and get some more medals for my display!

3. Sub 30 mins 5K, and sub 60 mins 10K. In 2013 I managed 5K in 30 mins, and I completed Brighton 10K in 63 minutes. I want to work on my speed a bit more, and try to crush those times.

4. Continue to juice regularly. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’ll know I’m new to the juicing world. However, I think it does work for me, and so I’ll be kicking off the New Year with another go at 5 in 5. I’d like to keep juicing at least one day a week, and to try new juice recipes, and make some up of my own.

5. Cut back on processed sugar. This is probably going to be the toughest one for me to do, because I’m a ginormous sugar addict. Hopefully with the help of regular juicing and a couple of juice detoxes I can cut back massively on how much processed sugar I have.

6. Complete my quilt. I started my quilt back in April/May last year, and have been working on it on and off since then. With the arrival of my new sewing machine, I hope to make some real progress on this, so that by next winter I’ll be able to use it.

7. Hit that number on the scale. We all have a number, I know what I’d like mine to be. I’m hoping that with regular exercise, and regular juicing, and cutting back on processed sugar, I’ll get closer to that number in 2014. It’s all about #teamhealth.

8. Cook a new recipe at least once a fortnight. I’m setting myself a challenge to make more use of my extensive cook book collection, so I’m planning to cook one recipe from it each fortnight. I’ll do a separate post on this, as I’m planning to make it a regular feature on the blog.

9. Save, save, save. I need to budget better, save harder, and spend less in 2014 so I can get the things I want in life long term. This may mean some budget/thrifty posts, making do and using up cupboard basics, and exploring more free/cheap days out locally.

10. Have regular pamper evenings. I love nothing more on a Sunday evening that getting into clean, ironed bedsheets, and lighting a candle with a book. I’d like to expand on this, pampering myself more by painting my nails, and having regular face packs etc.

So there you have it, hopefully not too ambitious, but some challenges too! Have you set any resolutions or challenges this year? Did you set any last year, how did you do?

Image source: Oh so beautiful paper via Pinterest

Budget challenge | Week one

I drew out my £30 for the week on Friday, pay day! I was pretty excited about having money to spend, but also pretty worried about how far that £30 would stretch.

Friday at work I treated myself to a doughnut (60p), it was pay day afterall. In the evening I went to my friend’s house for dinner as she kindly cooked. The evening was cheap as we spent £5 on a bottle of wine and everything else was taken care of. Total spend = £5.60

Saturday I went to a wedding, by far the biggest challenge of the week. I stuck to soft drinks all day, at 90p each soda and lime was my tipple of choice. Not very exciting for a wedding, I know, but it meant that I was wide awake and happy and fun and dancing all night, without the fear of a hangover the next day. I also shared a taxi home with some friends, allowing me to split the cost and came in at £10.50. Total spend = £13.20

Sunday I had planned on a Sunday lunch, but with funds low and needing to last me the remainder of the week I suggested a picnic and walk to my friend. Stocked up with sandwiches, carrots and humous, crisps, apples, and a drink all for £4.26 we set off for a lovely 8.5 mile walk. Of course, no Sunday walk in the sunshine would be complete without a stop at the pub, and with some hesitation I opted for a cider, although I didn’t expect it to be as much as it was at nearly £5. Total spend = £8.76

Bank holiday Monday I knew needed to be a cheap one as nearly all my money had gone already!! I followed a 7 mile run with another 5 mile walk and managed to spend no money. My friend kindly treated me to a Koppaberg mid walk, although I did offer to pay. In the evening after doing all that exercise I was seriously tempted to go out for a Chinese with my friend, but keeping in mind my budget challenge and all the exercise I managed to do I decided not to undo all my hard work and stayed at home instead. Total spend = £0

Tuesday back to work and I managed to get the through the whole day without a trip to the sandwich lady, vending machine, or corner shop. A success in my eyes! In the evening I was desperate to go out for some chocolate, but made do with some frozen fruit in the cupboard as a snack instead. Maybe this challenge will be good for my waistline too? Total spend = £0

Wednesday I needed to get a couple of bits of fruit and veg plus milk to get me through a couple more days at work. I only had £2.44 left for the week so needed to be really careful what I spent. I don’t drink cow’s milk so I knew that would be expensive anyway, at £1.38 a carton. I ended up getting the milk plus some bananas at 69p and decided to leave the vegetables until next week as I still had a big bag of frozen peas in the freezer to use up. Total spend =£2.07

Thursday I did a lot of exercise and running about being active generally, so by the afternoon all I could think about was an ice cold drink. I spent my last 43p on a diet coke and it was glorious. Total spend = 43p

Total spend for the week = £30

Comments?

I actually found this week tough but interesting. It showed me where I normally spend a lot of my money getting little snacks etc throughout the week, so I really had to think in advance about what I needed to spend my money on. I spent nearly all my money in the first three days, so I need to try and improve on that for next week.

The £30 budget challenge

This summer has been an expensive one for me. Holidays and moving house all in a month has left me feeling the pinch. So in an effort to undo some of the damage I have made on my savings and credit card, I’m setting myself a challenge. To spend £30 a week. Don’t get me wrong I know £120 a month is a lot more than some people get to spend, but I also know when I’ve tried to do spending challenges before, I’ve failed.

I’ve worked out a tidy little budget for myself, and allowed myself to include a couple of things in there that I enjoy, before my £30 starts, such as my sports massage, running club fees, etc.

The £30 is to cover socialising, travel costs (within reason) and any food/toiletries I need to buy. I’m including food for the time being because I still have quite a lot of Jenny Craig food left, so I don’t envisage myself needing to spend money on anything other than milk and maybe some fruit and veg for the time being. I also won’t include petrol within my budget because I don’t travel much with my car and I know that filling up the tank will last me ages and ages.

I have lots of free things I can do, such as running, long walks, working on my quilt, reading and learning to crochet (yes, I’m an old lady at heart), so I’m hoping it won’t be too boring. Plus my friends are keen to watch the pennies too, so hopefully we can do cheap/free things together.

I’m planning on drawing out my £30 at the beginning of each week and keeping it separate in an envelope and writing down each time I spend some money, so I get a good idea of where it’s going. I also think it will make me more aware of what I actually spend my money on. If I have any money left over each week I’ll save it up in a jar to treat myself with something. The ultimate goal!!

I’m hoping to post a weekly update on how I’m doing so you can follow my progress. I started last Friday, so expect my first update at the weekend….