Cino's Low Calorie Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love cooking, and I love baking too. However, my anorexia means that I'm very frightened about indulging in lovely treats from time to time and I tend to count everything I take into my body. I'm very health conscious: I basically don't ingest anything that isn't homemade, which means no microwave meals, juices, fizzy drinks, dipping sauces like tomato ketchup, oils, butter etc. Only fresh fruit and vegetables for me with quorn to try and build up some muscle so I can go to the gym in September. The only thing I do allow myself to have a day which isn't homemade is a snack a day and slices of bread. 

I've recently tried to break habits of avoiding such foods by swapping to low calorie/no fat versions like 'I can't believe it's not butter light' when baking and Truvia no calorie sweetener rather than sugar.

But I love cooking. I love cooking for people. to be honest I'd love to be a chef or own a patisserie (in my dreams) but I don't want to load people with unhealthy fats unnecessarily, but I still want people to enjoy what they get! 

Some recipes are very high calorie for desserts and treats. For example, a batch of 18 cookies, with a calorie content of each cookie equalling 285! It's unnecessary! 

But a few tweaks here and there and I made a batch of 24 cookies with a calorie content each of 107!

I didn't tell my friends they were healthier versions. I gave them out. What was the first reaction? "Wow, these are good! They're so sweet!"

Sweet and low calorie - that's not something you wouldn't have thought you'd hear.

And you know what? This calorie content is with real sugar. Not sweetner. Real.

If I were to replace the sugar with sweetener, the calorie content would be halved further!

I love experimenting with my recipes and trying to find healthy options. Though I'm no professional, and I've had no training, but I feel my booktuber reputation prevents me from diverging.

So this is just a hobby for now. But I'll keep you posted on anything else I create.

Bon appetite!

Jane Austen Character Quiz

You Scored as Elinor Dashwood As Marianne's older sister, Elinor lives at the other end of the emotional spectrum. She rarely reveals her intense feelings and is more concerned with being honest and loyal than having what she deserves. Even though her intentions are pure, she sets herself up for loss by constantly placing other people before her own needs. Overall, Elinor is gentle and rational but is just as capable of radical emotions (despite her withholding them) as her sister. Elinor Dashwood 97% Elizabeth Bennet 88% Jane Bennet 63% Charlotte Lucas 50% Emma Woodhouse 31% Marianne Dashwood 28% Lady Catherine 25%

Couldn't agree more personally (: If you want to take the quiz go here

The voice vlog

Book Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

How do you predict a good or bad day? Do you rely on the weather or do you rely on what underwear you’re wearing? Well, for Christopher, it’s the number of yellow or red cars he sees standing in a row.
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. He can’t understand emotions, he can’t understand what triggers his father’s anger, nor can he judge the genuine kindness of strangers. He can’t understand why his neighbour is screaming at him whilst he clutches her dead dog in his arms which has been stabbed with a pitchfork.

He doesn’t like seeing the dog dead. He likes dogs. But death isn’t something Christopher understands. He doesn’t understand grief. His mother recently died too. Though the dog’s death isn’t like his mother’s: this is murder. And Christopher wants to solve this mystery like Sherlock Holmes and writes a book documenting his evidence. However, this angers his father who hides his book away in his closet...but that’s not all his father is trying to hide from Christopher in the closet.

The novel is full of odd quirks from chapters being listed as prime numbers to scientific and mathematic diagrams within chapters. Haddon, in my opinion, did a fantastic job capturing an autistic mindset. There’s a level of frustration felt by the reader due to the fact the character is so naive to the facts presented in front of him. You crave for him to understand the facts faster, but that’s a wonderful effect of the novel as it’s so rare for a reader to be the omniscient persona in a novel rather than the narrator, who in this case is the innocently ignorant one. It’s a fast, easy read but wonderfully unusual and quirky, and if you’re interested in reading a novel with an alternative reader relationship with a narrator, I would definitely recommend this novel. ★★★★

My Jubilee Cake

So, it's officially the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend!
Well, actually we're already on day three of the four day weekend now, however Monday shall be the main day of fireworks (whilst the official date is, contradictory, Tuesday...)

However, because I love cooking and baking, I make any excuse to partake in my secret love, thus, I made this marzipan cake in her honour. & no, I didn't have a little queen shape cut out for the Queen's head, I just cut it roughly with a knife spontaneously (the only skill I have appears to be cutting out images in icing/marzipan)

Due to my eating disorder I sadly didn't taste any of it, but everyone else said it was delicious so looks like it was first time good luck with this cake! Anyone actually celebrating the Jubilee with a street party? I sadly shan't be as my mother really isn't interested haha, but I hope fellow Brits have a lovely day (:

xoxo

Louise Welsh's thoughts on writing