Baby Foot, the perfect treatment for soft feet

Firstly, if you really don't like feet, stop reading now. No, honestly. If however, you want a treatment to make your trotters softer and something you'd happily let out where other people may see them, then read on.  I read about Baby Foot on Twitter when someone described how amazing but disgusting it was. After some research I decided I had to give it a try and ordered it from Amazon.

Here it is!

The before shot, a bit dry and cracked, in desperate need of some TLC

The box contains some very attractive footwear, containing pads in the booties soaked with the active ingredients. You but the booties on, tape them to your legs and then wait for an hour. The advice is to put socks on over the top, you can walk around with them on, but I'd not advise it, it's all a bit skiddy underfoot. After an hour you take the booties off and wash the product off.

Attractive, huh?!

Initially I thought it might not have worked, my feet felt a bit odd, but that was all. The treatment can take two or three weeks to work, but my feet started peeling after four days, initially on the tops of my feet. After another day things were looking much worse. For the good of my carpets I wore socks 24 hours a day to avoid shedding skin everywhere. I left the skin to peel by itself, I thought if I picked at it to encourage it, it would make it sore. The worst bit was feeling the rolls of skin in my socks as I walked. Luckily, the peeling finished after about a week, helped by a bit of exfoliation.

Not my best look

The end result wasn't perfect, one of my feet still had dry spots, but some exfoliation and moisturiser seems to have solved that. All in all, it was well worth doing, I'll probably do it again when my feet are feeling beyond help again. My only tip would be not to do it in the summer, honestly it needs to be done when your feet are well under wraps for a week or two!

After treatment

If you've tried this yourself, I'd love to hear how you got on.

The real meaning of love

Love's not about giving or receiving the biggest bunch of flowers on Valentine's Day, posting about how much you love your partner on Facebook or being the one to receive gifts at work much to your colleagues' envy. It's not about going out for the flashiest meal or having the biggest white wedding. It's about being there for each other through thick and thin. When things are crappy and the only thing that makes things right is a cuddle, you just know you can get through anything together.  Six weeks on from New Year when I was spending ten hours a day at the hospital, things are on the mend and we're as strong as ever.  

Happy Valentine's Day, Andrew. xx

The perfect comfort food, chicken lasagne

On a hideous rainy day like yesterday, when the rain is horizontal and wind howling outside, there's nothing better than a plate of warm, comforting food. One of my favorites is homemade chicken lasagne, such a favorite that I thought I'd share it. It takes about half an hour to prepare and a further half hour in the oven, but I promise it's worth it.  

The first bit is the boring bit, all the chopping. I chopped up two small onions, two large chicken breasts and about 400g of mushrooms. We normally add a few garlic cloves but had run out, unfortunately. They then need frying up until the chicken had browned and the onion softened. We normally do the mushrooms separately initially as they give off so much liquid and add them over they've shrunk down.  

Next, add a can of chopped tomatoes, a couple of tablespoons of tomato puree and about 150ml of chicken stock. Let it bubble away gently for about five minutes.  

Whilst the pan is bubbling away you need to make the cheese sauce. I leave this bit to Andrew as I am destined to only make lumpy sauces. He melts some butter in a pan and mixes in some flour, warming them until they combine. He then adds a couple of pints of milk gradually, cooking all the time. Once it thickens, add about 100g of Cheddar and stir through.  

You can then start to assemble the lasagne. Pour a little of the sauce into the bottom of the dish to stop the lasagne sheets from sticking. 

Place lasagne sheets on top to cover the surface area. 

Pour half of the meaty sauce onto the lasagne sheets and spread it evenly. 

Repeat the process, add another layer of lasagne sheets and the other half of the meaty sauce. 

Finally, add another layer of lasagne sheets and the rest of the cheese sauce. Top with around 100g of Cheddar. 

Pop it in the oven for about half an hour at 200C until the cheese is golden. 

Ta daa! This feeds two of us for two nights, it's so nice not having to do anything other than pop it in the oven on the second night to warm through. The way we make it, it's about 800 calories a portion, so a great meal after a long frosty walk.

If you give it a try, let me know what you think of it.