Smokin' Bar & Kitchen, Leeds

I was very kindly invited by the guys from Smokin' Bar & Kitchen in Leeds to review their new tapas menu and with me being a slave to my stomach I happily took them up on the chance.

Now real talk, I have actually been to this bar before, on new years eve, absolutely  blind drunk on their delicious cocktails!

"But where is the the Smokin' Bar and Kitchen", I hear you beg! 

Well if you hush your gums for just a seconds I will enlighten ye. 

The Smokin' Bar & Kitchen is on Parkrow, just up from the train station and if you don't do street names then right next to the Bierkiller will give you the best chance of finding them.

When I arrived, sober this time I might add I was really taken a back by how impressive the decor is, seemingly taking inspiration from the Great Gatsby with a subtle industrial look with exposed beams and lots of brass.

We were warmly welcomed by the bar staff member, Kelly and directed to a table.

Me and my companion for the evening settled in one of the funky pods and salivated over the cocktail menu, with me ordering a delicious strawberry and cream cocktail and my friend ordering a flaming zombie while we turned our attention to the main event, the tapas menu!

On the menu you are given the option to order 3 dishes for £15, 5 dishes for £20 and 7 dishes for £25 from a choice of 9 dishes in total.

We choice the following  5 dishes between us.

  Gambas pil pil 

 I am not the biggest fan of prawns but they tasted good, well as good as prawns can to someone who doesn't tend to eat them, I could taste the garlic but nothing from the chilli so if you are a prawn lover but worried about  the heat blasting your bits off don't worry your pretty little head about it.

Chroritzo Bravas

I absolutely adored the honey glazed potatoes and if given the option I would of had five bowls of them, that's not to say I didn't enjoy the other dishes these just really tickled my pickle. 

As the chrotizo it was there and you get a generous portion but in my eyes were completely over shadowed by the potatoes.

Creamy Mushrooms:

This is essentially a fancy mushroom sandwich and what a sandwich it is!

Served on a ciabatta the mushrooms and sauce were on another level from anything I have that is vegetarian, I would actually forgo a meat for the night if I had to chose, incredibly filling.

Filet Steak

Thankfully I didn't have to chose and I was able to enjoy this ever so tender, medium raw steak. Visually not great as the shallot sauce is an unfortunate colour but I can't not the quality of the meat, flavour or taste.

Parmesan Tacos

Another of the vegetarian options and really under welling for, with the promise of Parmesan and roast potatoes I could of possibly built this dish up more in my head than what could of been delivered. I can't say I really tasted much of the cheese. It was alright but definitely my least favourite on the menu.

Aside from the Tapas menu, Smokin' Bar have a great range of cocktails, which I may or may not of indulged in while I was sampling the menu, SPOILER ALERT, I most certainly did!

I enjoyed a Strawberries  and Cream cocktail which immediately transported me to Wimbledon, well into my living room in front of the TV with Wimbledon on anyway and for dessert I opted for the White Chocolate, served in a milk bottle and they even throw in a Kinder Beanu just to be extra.


Shout out to the staff that attended to me all night, Kelly and Heather, both absolute stars and I wish them all the best.

I wholly enjoy my night at Smokin' Bar Leeds and give it a big stomping seal of approval and can't wait to get the rest of the menu down my gullet.

  If you want a perv at the menu then click here and get yourself booked in

Graze snack box

Ok, well I am admittedly late to game with this one!

I think most people heard of the legendary Graze box, a magical figure appears once a week and deliveries a box of amazing snack foods and treats for your gluttonous pleasure.

First things first, I'm the realest and you get your first Graze box for free or at least discounted.

 This first hit from the Graze box lets you know that there are two kinds of people in the world, those who get a Graze box and those who don't and I know how I wish to continue my life.

I almost compare a Graze box to people with Sky TV when I was growing up, if someone had Sky they had pretty much made it in life in my eyes and the same goes to those regular Grazers.

If you decide to subscribe and a more opulent existence then you can decide on which box you would like, variety, light or protein how often your box of joy arrives, weekly or fortnightly.

I went for the variety box and a fortnightly delivery, yes I know I should of gone for protein box with this being a health and fitness blog but I have needs and feeling that protein alone just won't satiate.

If you have any dietary requirements or are just a plain, annoying picky eater you can opt out of certain ingredients like nuts or even spicy foods and highlight your favourites so you are more likely to receive them.

I received an alert to let me know they the box had been dispatched and the next day it was here, the box is designed to fit through your letter box which you don't need any form of direct human interact to get your mitts on your goodies.

Each snack comes with a little card with all the nutritious information and ingredients on it in case you wanted to see exactly what makes up each snack.

With the cost a Graze box being only £3.99 they are well worth the money and i you are going on holiday you can pause them until you get back and cancelling your box is just a quick click as well.

If you do move house make sure you do change your address, as my friends  benefited from the previous tenant not changing their details and feasted on Grazes for months as well as Sky Tv,

If you are some how reading this Natalie Reed, my friends thank you for your forgetful nature!

I completely, 100%, absolutely recommend  Graze boxes to anyone and everyone, it's like having someone send a gift each week, even though you are paying for it.

If you want to see how I got on with another box superscription service then check out the review I did for Muscle Crate, a gym supplement box, by clicking here

I actually got some codes sent with my box for a free box!

Promo code: PLK2CDWFB

Click the link here to hit up their website.

I am not sure how many people it will work for but it's worth a go for a taste of how the other half live.

Tabata Training: 4 minutes in hell

Hate cardio? Want to hate it even more?

Welcome to the wonderful world of tabata training, a type of High Intensity Interval Training that last only a mere 4 minutes but will give you the results you are yearning for much more effectively then you mincing about on the treadmill for an hour at a time.

Tabata training hails from Japan, discovered and named after, well you probably guess Dr Tabata!

Dr Tabata did a study on 2 groups of participants, one group doing moderate intensity exercise vs the second group who did high intensity training and the results spoke for themselves.

The first group showed an improvement in there aerobic performance, which benefits your cardio vascular system,  but nothing in their anaerobic, which benefits your muscles as you work without taking in enough oxygen to break down your lactic acid etc

The second group improved in both, with an impressive 28% in their anaerobic performance and a greater increase in aerobic performance than the first group. 

The fun doesn't stop there, you fat burning is going to be vastly increased  and your body will enter EPOC or Excess Post - Exercise Oxygen Consumption where your body goes wild trying to return you back to how you were before you decided to abuse yourself with some Tabata training.

This means calories expenditure, repairing muscles and replenishing energy doesn't just happen, calories are needed to sort your life out, with some cases doubling your metabolic rate and potentially lasting up 36 hours this is nothing to be sniffed at.

The average tabata training burns about 13.5 kcals a minute so with my quick maths that would be 54kcals from each 4 minute session.

 This might sound tiny but when you burn about 300 kcals in an hour on a treadmill and you are going to get greater results from 4 minutes of Tabata training overall while also boosting your testosterone much more and helping to build muscle rather than losing it 

Hopefully I have sold you on Tabata training now but I should probably actually tell you how to do it!

You go all out for 20 seconds and rest for the 10 seconds, rinse and repeat 8 times which should add up to 4 minutes in total including your rest periods.

You should also include a good warm up of all the muscles that you be using and a cool down.

I recommend going for exercise that hit a lot of muscles to maximise work like squats, press ups, mountain climbers, kettlebell training and my favourite, the rowing machine! 

Due to the intensity it is not recommended to attempt this on a treadmill as you would have to get off and on it as a high speed which as funny as it is to see someone shoot off a treadmill it is dangerous and should be avoided.

You will probably start off thinking that this is easy but by the end you will agree that Tabata training is 4 minutes of pure hell and if you don't then you are not working hard enough!

Lindahis Kvarg, Lactose Free Drink

I was trotting though my local Asda and came across a mysterious product, covered in an even more mysterious language.

It was labelled  simply as Lindahis Kvarg Drink and had some coloured silhouettes of some active looking people and at only a pound a bottle I thought it might be worth my time and energy.

With two flavours on offer I went wild and grabbed one of each, Himbeere and Vanille ( Raspberry and Vanilla ) and Pfirsich and Passionsfrucht (Peach and Passion fruit)

I better clear up the packaging first.

On one side you have all the details about the drink Swedish.
 I had to google this as my own mastery of the Swedish language is a little rusty, and on the other side you have the English translation for us numb skulls out there!

The drinks are made by Nestle and have introduced Lindahis Kvarg into the UK to meet our need for healthy option and with them being the Sweden's number one Quark product they very well could be onto a winner.

The selling point of Lindahis Kvarg is that it is a Quark based, high protein, low fat,  dairy based drink that is lactose free, perfect for those that are  intolerant to diary but still wanting to make some sweet, sweet gains!

Taste and texture wise it is essentially a yogurt drink.
 I can't say i was blown away by either of them of them, hey if you like yogurt drinks you are going to like these , I myself like my milk shaken not churned

Protein wise they do pack quite the punch at 23g per bottle which would be like downing two and a half eggs I know which I would chose if given the choice.

There actual yogurts in the range as well but my feeble local Asda does not currently stock them so you will have to make do with these for now.

Flavour wise I would go for the Raspberry and Vanilla, neither were unpleasant just didn't tickle my pickle!

If you have love these then you may very well love Skyr yogurts so check them out and boost my view count.