Garlic Sweet Potato and Spinach Mash || Autumn Recipes

Last night I cooked up this nutritious alternative to traditional mashed potato and it went down a storm on Instagram and Facebook so I thought I would share the extremely simple recipe with you lovely lot.

Sweet potato is one of my favourite foods - it's so versatile. It can be chopped into wedges to make fries (my boyfriend's favourite), baked and served with a variety of fillings, or boiled/steamed and mashed to create the ultimate in comfort foods. Not only are these orange spuds packed full of fibre, Vitamin C and potassium, they also taste amazing - just as nice as their white counterparts if you ask me, and according to experts, regular potato will cause blood sugar to rise around 30% more than sweet potato!

This recipe also contains spinach which, at only 7 calories per cup, is an excellent way to get one of your five a day as well as loading up on various nutrients - there's a reason why Popeye swore by this stuff. 

So, for this recipe you will need: 

- 3 medium sweet potatoes

- 130g of spinach (washed and trimmed)

- 1 clove of garlic

- a tbsp of butter (you can miss this out if you're being extra healthy)

- a tbsp of oil 

- salt and pepper to taste

• First up, peel your sweet potatoes and chop them into small chunks (the smaller you cut them, the faster they will cook). Then pop them into a pan of salted boiling water and allow them to cook for around 30 mins. 
• Peel and finely chop the clove of garlic.
• When your sweet potatoes have around 5 mins left to cook (you'll know they're ready when they're nice and soft), add the tbsp of oil to a frying pan and cook the garlic for no longer than a minute - it will burn if you leave it cooking for too long on its own. After a minute, add in the spinach, making sure to coat it completely in the garlic oil. Your spinach should only take 1-2 minutes to cook.
• Drain the sweet potatoes and mash them with the tbsp of butter, and add your spinach. 
• Mash it all together and add salt and pepper to season.

Et voila!

I served the mash with some grilled cajun-spiced chicken and the two complimented each other perfectly! 

This recipe made enough mash for me and my sister, but we did have quite hearty portions so if you wanted to add a side of vegetables or salad and reduce the portions of mash, I'd say you could serve three or four people with this recipe. 

This is definitely the perfect Autumnal side dish, and will also be amazing comfort food on those cold Winter nights.

Would you like to see more of these kinds of posts on my blog?

Holly xo

Go For The Glow

One thing that I always want from my skincare and makeup, no matter what season it is, is a glowing radiant complexion. So here are my picks of some of the best products for brightening the skin and imparting that lusted-after healthy glow. 

A new addition to my skincare routine and one that I have been yearning for since its release is the Origins GinZing Energy-Boosting Moisturiser. This light gel-cream is enriched with panax ginzing, chestnut seeds and coffee beans and promises to add radiance and visibly wake up tired skin. This moisturiser definitely delivers, leaving my skin with a healthy glow, before any makeup has even been applied. This stuff also smells amazing, very fruity and citrusy with notes of orange (which happens to be my favourite scent).

For a radiant, lit-from-within base, the best foundation I have found is the Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation. I only picked this up a little over a week ago and I have completely fallen in love with it. This foundation gives my skin the most beautiful and natural glow without looking shiny. I already own the Healthy Mix Serum from Bourjois which I also really like, but this new lightweight formulation which contains various fruit extracts to deliver radiance, hydration, energy and antioxidant properties is a definite contender for my Holy Grail highstreet foundation.

When skin is looking a little lacklustre, or you've had your face on all day long and need a quick makeup pick-me-up, a quick spritz of the Caudalie Beauty Elixir does the job quickly and effectively. This can be used as a setting spray, a spray-on toner or as a final touch to makeup to give that longed-for dewy look. 

When you've achieved your desired base, your glow can be intensified using highlighting products like the Mac Mineralize Skin Finish in Soft and Gentle. This beautiful baked highlighting powder delivers a stunning golden/champagne-coloured glow. This is the perfect highlighter for Summer as it is packed with shimmer and its golden tones look stunning with a tan to create that glowing bronzed look.

For those who prefer a creamier option, the Topshop Glow highlighter in Polished has a very lightweight, mousse-like texture which imparts a subtle creamy champagne shimmer to areas you want to highlight. Swept across the cheekbones, under the brow bones, in the inner corners of the eye and a dab above the cupids bow, this highlighter blends easily to emphasise areas which would naturally catch the light. I also think this would work well as a cream eyeshadow.

Finally, a post about achieving glowing skin wouldn't be complete without including the cult highlighting pen, the YSL Touche Eclat. Translating to 'Radiant Touch', this award-winning pale pink/champagne coloured highlighter has more uses than most people realise. Use it to outline the lips to create the illusion of a fuller pout, draw a line down the centre of the nose for a slimming effect or apply to the centre of the forehead and the temples for an instant face lift. The Touche Eclat also works well to brighten under the eyes as well as the eyelids and inner corners.

Six products, multiple uses to achieve radiant, healthy-looking skin with a natural glow.

What are your top picks for a glowing complexion?

Holly xo