I'll be honest, Easter to me is a rare luxury of 4 days off on the trot but little more. As I neither worship God nor chocolate there is just a treasured four day weekend with Chris and Lincoln to look forward to.

The weather has been a bit of a mixed bag but I mustn't really complain, hardly any rain and a few hours of sunshine with mild temperature although more of a breeze than preferable. We've not been overly busy yet at the same time I've found myself with plenty to share with you (coming soon, if I can ever get round to preparing posts!).

It's been a greedy weekend of course; a reckless purchase of two four-packs of hot cross buns was just asking for trouble, especially as Chris wont even eat them. Toasted is best in my opinion, with plenty of butter (ok, light spread shhhh).

Lazy; snuggles with my little possum Lincoln.

Munchy; steak sarnie, beef hash and funky bacon beans plus roast lamb. Snacks galore, don't even ask!

Lengthy dog walks for Lincoln (and me in the sun)

Pub dinner and a few drinks although it was extremely quiet on Thursday considering most people would surely have the Friday off. Some drunk woman stopped me to compliment my dress but later appeared to be taking the mick, c'est la vie. I had a lollypop to keep me happy after the most succulent burger I've ever eaten. Mmmm.

Cooked breakfasts – food fit for a queen

Best discovery ever goes to a Poundland purchase of these peanut butter flavour malteasers. Chris was so miffed I ate most of these, I'm just hoping I can stock up again.

Things have been getting rather exciting lately, topping 300 Bloglovin' followers and 10k comments on the blog (woah!). I have quite a few posts coming up that I'm feeling really good about including a super – exciting giveaway coming this week that you will not want to miss FOR SURE! Thank you to all the old faithfuls that have stuck around for years – ever supportive (you know who you are) and any newbies who have recently found me. I really can't express how grateful I am that you've dropped by.

Ok, so I did eat two little bars of chocolate. Shhh.

Sophie

Not often is it that I find myself deliberately wearing the colours of the season but I found myself doing just that on a day trip to Wells-Next-The-Sea a few weeks ago. I know it's usually quite breezy along the coast so I knew tights would be essential but I didn't want to bulk up with a massive jumper so I went for a lighter knit and my trusty leather jacket. This cute little bag is such a lovely pink, bright and cheerful but not overly girly for my liking and seems to work particularly well with the dazzling blue jumper and made for a bold yet simple colour combination. This pleated polka dot skirt can be relied upon oh-so-often these days; it's long enough to be appropriate for every occasion, loose enough to eat a good meal and monochrome which is something of a rareity I my wardrobe. White tights! I have never worn these before and I'm not massively sure they suit me but for the outfit in question they were my favourite choice, worn of course with my Yull Chelsea boots which are always topping my list of practical footwear for every day.

Jumper, bag, necklace – charity shops, jacket – Ebay, boots – Yull, tights – Primark, sunglasses – QD

Have a lovely weekend!

Sophie

I've been thinking of how to create simple, healthy and quick budget friendly meals lately and instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I've been going back to basics. Our Tefal Optigrill has really come into it's own recently for grilling meat on the quick; we've used it for all the bacon and in fact I'm eating more bacon as it's far easier than getting the oven grill going, foiling up the tray, watching it..... turning my back just for a second and letting it burn.

My problem with meat has always been the timing – I can never figure out how long anything will need or being able to identify when it's cooked right. The Optigrill system of timing the cooking with the colour changing light is perfect for me! I waxed lyrical about the wonderful features before in my mini review of the Optigrill so I will try keeping this post brief.

So what have we used it for so far?

Steak! You will notice that the steak is served with celeriac mash and steamed vegetables with a dash of gravy. Don't get me wrong, steak and chips is my favourite but a few portions of vegetables is a far healthier choice and of course the steak is pretty lean as the fat that drips off is channelled away during cooking.

Burgers (not pictured as I got carried away and ate them before my camera got a look in, sorry!). The really noticeable benefit was that the burgers stayed perfectly in one piece as they weren't balancing on a grill rack nor having to be flipped over multiple times. By far the best way to cook burgers is from frozen – fact. Chris was most impressed with the speedy cooking time and accuracy of the heating; he used our digital thermometer to double check they were done when the Optigrill said they were ready.

We sourced some local skin-on chicken breasts and liberally sprinkled on fajita spicing then popped them in the Optigrill. It turns out the spicing was really hot but the chicken skin was beyond delicious, this shall be reserved for a treat and next time we'll be using the skinned fillets as usual. The chicken stayed moist unlike every other time and way we've cooked it before so once again we'll be sticking with the Optigrill for cooking chicken. Obviously you cannot cook anything with bones on this grill as the timing sensor wont take bones into account so timings will be incorrect but I think that's just logical anyway.

The Optigrill has been sat on the worktop since it arrived as we use it so often that it's not worth hiding it away in between uses. It's sleek design and compact size mean that it hasn't got in the way but equally would be easy to pop into a cupboard to free up more worktop space. We keep it right by the extractor fan as some meats do produce a fair bit of steam depending on water content (bacon is the worst) but near a window would be fine. The plates are a doddle to remove, clean and reattach (dishwasher friendly too).

I can imagine this would be ideal for small families, single people and especially the elderly as you can cook so much on the Optigrill at worktop height, completely avoiding bending over to the grill or bottom oven with a hot or heavy pan. We're loving ours and are getting plenty of use out of it; I want to toast a bruscetta on it and also get some fish grilled on it at some point too.

Sophie

Thanks again to Tefal for sending me the Optigrill! All opinions and content are 100% my own as always.

There is something magical about a carpet of bluebells in woodland; the colour is so pretty and brings such a smile to my face. Somehow I've always managed to miss the brief bluebells of spring before but this year I wanted to make the most of these beautiful wild flowers.

Wayland Wood is a patch of ancient woodland just outside the small town of Watton, I've wandered round the woods a couple of times before. When I visited on Saturday the light was low, the breeze light and the ground firm. We hardly saw another soul about which made for a very peaceful hour, with just the wildlife for company.

Dress and jacket – ebay, boots – Yull, necklace – George at Asda, bangles – gifts

Being haircut day, I was given the traditional hair straightening which although is neat enough I feel really isn't my style any more. Give me some casual waves in my barnet any day please!

Sophie

No flowers were harmed, I was super careful not to damage any.

On Wednesday I went along to the preview evening of the Norfolk Boutique over at Coltishall near Norwich. As the little billy no-mates that I am, I went on my own to have a jolly good peruse in store and report back to you lovely readers.

The boutique was beautifully furnished and laid out; it was so pretty with plenty of room to wander round to take a look at the collections. My eyes spied the amazing LAMB bags, which are still playing on my mind, with this one being my favourite. Maybe one day...

The stairway (the store is at first floor level) - What I wore (I dressed in a hurry!) - My favourite piece, the Kara navy lace dress. Oh it was gorgeous!

Some fifties style dresses, halter necks and flared skirts. The red one was fabulous! - Skinny jeans

More of the beautiful store

A rail of party style dresses; embroidery, sparkles and wow factors – This is a hell of a dress (it was really heavy too but such a standout piece – A flowing maxi perfect for summer

Some very cute blouses with my favourite being red with polka dots – I adored the printed maxi dresses

The colours of this scarf grabbed my attention – You can follow @BoutiqueNorfolk

So what did I buy, well I bought arguably the least exciting thing in store but something I do need; a good quality black vest top which I've been meaning to buy for ages. Here's hoping that investing more wisely reaps rewards!

I was given a goodie bag as a thank you for coming to the preview; a mini bottle of prosecco, a Lindt bunny, a pretty heart decoration and a bottle of local goat's milk hand and body lotion (review to come when I've used it). Looks like I didn't get lucky with the gift voucher, shucks!

The Norfolk Boutique store is opening to the public on 12^th April where you can shop their designer clothes and accessories to your heart's content.  I know that I'll be dropping by to peruse all the stunning pieces whenever I'm nearby!

Sophie

As a former fish-hater I can fully understand how trying to cook use fresh fish is a major turn off for some people. FEAR NOT; there is hope for you. I want to trickle feed you my favourite ways to eat fish that I think could bring you round too. Pan fried thin fillets of fish are one of my favourites to eat; this butter basted sea bream is really tasty, not all that fishy at all. The most important thing is to serve the fish with something you really like the flavours of and lettuce peas and bacon is a true winner

This recipe is one I found after a good googling following the purchase of some sea bream, it's one from Nick Nairn but I've tweaked it a touch, the original can be found here.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Two large or four small fillets of sea bream. The most important thing is that they are fully prepped for you by your fishmonger so that you need only have minimal contact.

50 – 100g of smoked back bacon, chopped

A handful of shallots or small onions peeled and blanched

2 crushed cloves or garlic

2 little gem lettuce, washed and chopped

75 – 100g frozen peas

150ml chicken or vegetable stock

40ml double cream

salt pepper, olive oil, butter

Method:

Fry your bacon in a saute or non-stick frying pan until starting to go crispy then add the shallots and fry for 3 minutes before adding the garlic. Keep an eye on it and keep things moving for about 30 seconds before pouring in the chicken stock. Bring to the boil and reduce by half then add the double cream and reduce by a third.

Add the lettuce and peas and stir then pop on a low heat, checking it to ensure it doesn't burn. Add a splash more stock if it looks too thick.

To cook the fish: heat a large frying pan on a fairly hot heat with a splash of olive oil. Place the seasoned fish in skin side down for 2-4 minutes until the skin is crispy then add a knob of butter, turn the fish over for around another minute and then back on to the skin side all while basting. If the fillets are larger they may need another minute. Make sure the butter doesn't burn!

To serve, put the lettuce and pea mix on the dish then add the fish. I served ours with home grown purple sprouting broccoli.

I hope you enjoy this one, more coming soon.

Sophie