Postcards from Birmingham

Earlier this year my best friend Jay and I decided we needed a weekend away together bonding. Actually it was probably me that needed it the most as I have a tendency to become a bit needy at times... A weekend full of too many cocktails, endless eating and the chance to put the world to rights. The August bank holiday was the perfect situation. We wasn't bothered on where we went, we just wanted somewhere within two hours drive from home. I got on the case with the Travelodge website and stumbled across a hotel in Birmingham which was offering a two night stay for under £25 each. Sorted!

I had never been to Birmingham before but as a keen, obsessive Peaky Blinder's fan it was going to crop up on my radar eventually. We just so happened to be in the city the weekend the first episode of the fifth series aired. What a twist of fate!

We got up early and left Essex fuelled with a Macdonald's breakfast with the mission to finally tick off a trip to Cadbury's World at the grand age of 30. We were the only two adults visiting who didn't have an army of kids with them so it was a bit chaotic. But it was really good and worth a visit, not least because they kept handing out free bars of chocolate as you made your way round.

After we'd arrived in Birmingham we checked in and heading straight out for some burgers which pretty much set the precedent for the rest of the weekend. We didn't stop eating. Who knew Birmingham had such a great food scene? We headed to the main strip of Broad Street which reminded us far too much of our nights out in Magaluf. We wasn't drunk enough for that so we headed back to the canal which was much more civilised and found a cracking pub offering tune after tune on the dance floor.

I'm not sure I'll head back to Birmingham any time soon. It seemed pretty empty and whilst some parts were buzzing, others were completely dead which was a weird experience considering it's a city. But it's a great place to visit for a weekend if you're a keen foodie, Digbeth especially was pretty cool and reminded me as a scuffier version of Shoreditch. Kinda how Shoreditch used to be before the bankers started zoning in on it...

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Restaurant review: Gunpowder, Tower Bridge, London

I am so out of the loop with restaurants in London at the moment. I seem to have really cut down on going into town at the weekends to try out all the new places. But I'm keen to rectify this and start eating out a bit more! A good few weeks ago I finally did try someone new with Hannah and Sarah before we saw the incredible Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge Theatre.

Labelling themselves as a home-style Indian kitchen, the branch overlooking Tower Bridge is Gunpowder's second location after Spitalfields in east London. We decided to opt for the weekend brunch menu and what a great shout on our part. Brunch is my favourite meals and Indian food is my favourite cuisine so I had high hopes for it. Those high hopes were thankfully met. I'm a sucker for any type of baked eggs dish so went for the South Indian style eggs served with sourdough toast and salli. They were delightedly spicy, enough to put hairs on your chest and give you a runny nose! The portion was a great size and went down a treat.  We also opted for a portion of okra fries which were extremely addictive and bhuna aubergine and roast cheese salad which was the star of the show. So much more delicious that I ever expected. The aubergine was A*. I stole a couple of slices of Hannah's chutney cheese sandwich which was so nostalgic, updated with a spicy kick. Made with what tasted like Hovis' basic white bread from my childhood years and endless cheese oozing out, it was amazing and I could have eaten another portion immediately after.

I'm looking forward to going back and trying the evening menu. It isn't a cheap place to eat and prices will add up if you start getting eyes bigger than you belly with the ordering of small plates. But the food was delicious that I have a feeling it will be 100% worth it. Set out over two floors with some swoon-worthy interiors, it's a great option if you find yourself in the area.

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Why I've become a mid-week vegetarian - and how I'm finding it

I made the decision back in January to try and be a vegetarian at home Monday to Friday. Part of the reason was because I was becoming more conscious on what we are doing to the world but the biggest part if I'm honest was to try and save some money on our shopping bill. Connor and I love to travel and do things but we don't have an endless pot of money to do that. So I'm always looking at ways to keep our bills down so we have more money to have a social life. I chose to sacrifice food.

We've always shopped in Aldi ever since we moved out so our food bill is never really too high. But since we've been going veggie our food bill has gotten even lower. I do buy a Abel & Cole British veg box every fortnight which works out about £6.50 a week. Our weekly shop at Aldi usually comes in around £30 so we spend £36.50 on a non-meat weekly shop. That includes dinners and lunches because I always cook for four in the evening so we can have leftovers. Not too shabby!

I do like eating meat but I think I was just buying it out of habit. I grew up in a meat eating household  and eating meat was just the done thing.  At the weekend we sometimes treat ourselves to a nice piece of meat from the butchers but now we even go without it at the weekend too. I find eating a mostly vegetarian diet at home really pushes me in the kitchen. I'm on a mission to help my boyfriend forget about meat! I'm much more adventurous in my cooking as it's so easy to just serve meat with some veg every evening. My favourite cuisines are probably Indian and Persian which are quite vegetarian heavy anyway. We eat a hell of a lot of curries now!

I'm becoming more and more aware of what we're all doing to the environment and trying to make little changes to help cut down on my carbon footprint. I invested in some bamboo make ups remover pads, bamboo cotton wool buds, washable freezer bags and a bamboo toothbrush. Eating more vegetables and staying away from meat is yet another way I'm trying to do my bit. If all of us make even the littlest of changes then it all makes a difference.

A few weeks ago I ended up eating meat every single day for a week because we had a BBQ at our house and had some leftover meat. By the end of the seven days I felt awful, I was so sluggish, gelt a bit gross and my skin really flared up. It really shocked me how much of an impact it had on me. I couldn't wait to get back to eating a vegetarian diet again. At the moment I do tend to go for meat dishes when I go out for dinner but over the next few months I'm going to try and ween myself off that and only opt for vegetarian dishes. I'm finding if I do it slowly then it's a lot easier for me to make the change. I'm not sure I'll become a full time veggie any time soon but I'm definitely looking to keep up being 80% veggie forever!

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