YouTube Obsession

I love YouTube. I'm subscribed to so many people on there and my 'watch later' playlist is always full!

 I started off just watching music videos on YouTube. Then I found a love for finding unsigned singers who recorded themselves singing covers or their own originals, and shared the videos on YouTube. It's amazing that this is how some singers have actually been discovered and signed and I remember watching some of these people before they were discovered (singers like Esmeé Denters, Mia Rose, Conor Maynard etc.) . Lately I haven't been doing this so much.

After that it was around the time that I really wanted to pursue a career of becoming a Midwife and was interested in pregnancy etc. So I started watching pregnancy vlogs where pregnant women would do weekly videos updating on and recording their pregnancies. It's great to follow these people as they put up their videos each week, and it really makes me realise how fast time flies when I think about when I started watching a certain person and they were say 4 months pregnant and now they've got a one and a half year old! I think my favourite channel to watch is GabeandJesss. I still do watch these videos but not so much now as I've not been finding new channels to follow and most of the ones I was watching have stopped putting videos up.

Now though, the videos I mostly watch are about make-up, skincare etc. by the 'beauty gurus' on YouTube. I think I started off mainly watching make-up tutorials, but now that I'm subscribed to many of them and follow their channels there's quite a variety of beauty orientated videos. I love watching videos on product reviews, monthly favourites, top 10's, what's in my make-up bag etc. mainly because I'm nosy and like to see what products other people are using! I like to see what people like/dislike, what a lot of people are using and would recommend as it influences what I choose and buy when it comes to make-up, skincare, hair etc. products. Plus I guess I'm quite girly in that way that I just like to watch people talking about beauty and it's something I love and am interested in. Some of the channels I love watching are: FleurDeForce, missglamorazzi, pixi2woo, meganheartsmakeup, AllThatGlitters21, to name (and link) just a few. Because I love watching these type of videos so much I thought maybe I could do a similar thing on my blog and do some product reviews/things I'm loving. Maybe monthly favourites posts on my blog but there wouldn't be many as I mainly stick to the same routine.

There's a few other types of videos I watch on YouTube. As I've been watching the same people for a long time you get to know them a little and so I also watch some of their vlog channels. These can be talking about book reviews, health tips, food, exercise, daily life, fashion etc. And I'm also subscribed to the Sorted cooking/recipe channel. This is the only cooking type channel I am subscribed to and I think all the recipes they do are amazing. Their cookbooks are also on my wishlist to buy!

Baking: Wholemeal Muffins

I was looking for something I could eat for breakfast when I get to college, that was fairly healthy and easy to eat. I've started making these recently and take one every morning to eat at college as I leave the house at 7 and don't have time to eat breakfast at home.

Recipe:

Makes 12
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
375g wholemeal self-raising flour
75g demerara sugar
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
75g of butter (melted)
315ml buttermilk*

* This is what was stated in the recipe I used but I use less than this as the buttermilk comes in a 284ml carton and so I use this amount.

1. Preheat the oven to 210°C (415°F/Gas 6-7). Lightly grease a 12 hole muffin tray.

 

 2. Add the flour and sugar to a mixing bowl.

3. Stir well, making a well in the center.

4. Melt the butter in a bowl. This can be done by putting it on the microwave for 1 min.

5. Add the buttermilk and mix together.

6. Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl.

7. Add the buttermilk, butter and eggs into the well in the mixing bowl.

8. Mix until all the ingredient are combined and it resembles a dough consistency. Don't worry of it looks lumpy.

9. Spoon the mixture into the muffin holes.

10. Bake in the oven for about 20 mins, or until starting to brown on top.

11. When cool enough to touch, lift the muffins out and put them on a cooling rack.

Ready to eat! You could also freeze these to keep for longer, and take them out when you need them. And although these look quite boring they do have a hint of sweetness to them so taste good!

Baking!

Recently I've started to enjoy cooking a lot more than I used to. Since I've been living on my own with my boyfriend I've been cooking pretty much all of our evening meals. I definitely prefer to cook a homemade meal but sometimes when I get in at 6pm from my day at college I just can't be bothered to do much in terms of preparing dinner, so I tend to go for meals which are either instant of a lot simpler on a weekday night. But I do enjoy putting in some more effort when I've got more time at the weekends. I like trying out new recipes, but more often than not stick to the ones I know best. Since cooking the dinner every night has become more of a chore I've started to bake more which I do enjoy. I also thought that baking my own snacks to take for lunch at college would be cheaper than buying them ready made. I've made a lot of things recently: mincemeat crumble bars, gingernut biscuits, carrot muffins, chocolate chip cookies, to name just a few. So had thought of putting a few photos and recipes on here too.

A Carrot cake I made a long time ago.

As well as cooking the food I enjoying buying it. I love wandering round shops and looking at all they have to offer. I like shopping around to see where's cheapest. I also love to buy locally produced food, so I shop in a local fruit and veg shop, buy milk sourced nearby and buy free-range local eggs. I would like to start buying my meat from a local butcher as well. We live on a fairly tight budget as I don't really earn any money being a full-time student so I've found that it is also a lot cheaper to buy this way.

I boiled an egg!

Something so simple, but something I had never done! Well I have now. Made a soft boiled and hard boiled egg and will make a lot more as egg sandwiches are soo good!