 |
| Credit Do I need to say anything else? If you want something you've got to go out and get it. The best way to get something done is to start working towards it. Whatever goal it is you've got whether in your work life or personal life, start by making steps towards it and eventually, before you know it you'll be there. |
Monday, 8 February 2016
Thought of the week #4
Friday, 5 February 2016
Currently | January 16
First week into February and I'm going to take my Friday post this week to look back on my current loves from January. January was a good month, starting a new job, finally getting all our belongings arrive from Australia and generally a good start to the year. January saw a few new things enter into my favourite things - a new newsletter, a TV show re-visit and some good recipes.
Watching&Listening
Watching&Listening
 |
| Credit |
Yep, Call the Midwife. I'm a massive fan and for two years I've been out of the loop. I haven't caught up on what I've missed yet but I couldn't not delve back in when the new series started a couple of weeks ago. Who else just watches as wishes they could be as glam as Trixie and be living in 1960's East End and be a midwife? Every weekend I watch it and think I'm going to have a career path change. Well I'll just live vicariously through my Sunday night obsession.
Reading
Reading
 |
| Credit |
You've probably heard of the goddess that is Deliciously Ella aka Ella Woodward after every blogger under the sun is raving about her cookbook which I can't wait to get my hands on. However I've signed up to her newsletter from her website and I love it. The recipes you get are so good, absolutely delicious but also super healthy and nutritious. My favorite so far is the banana and peanut butter smoothie. Yum!
Eating&Drinking
I acquired a magic bullet blender over the Christmas period so as you can imagine I've been rustling up a few smoothies in that which has been great for my healthy eating campaign. I'll tell one thing for sure having a simple, easy to clean blender makes smoothie making and consuming a lot earlier and a lot more likely. But a recipe of mine I've been loving is my simple greens and red pesto pasta which I've been having for lunch a lot. I make a bulk lot of this at the beginning of the week and see's me through easily and is super filling so great for lunch on busy days. It's also full of goodness - fibre, iron, calcium all good stuff. So here it is:
Ingredients
500g wholewheat pasta
190g red pesto
1 broccoli
100g kale
8 spring onions
Method
Bring a liter of water to the boil.
Add the 500g of pasta and cook for 15-20 minutes.
While the pasta is cooking chop the spring onions and broccoli.
Once the pasta is cooked drain it and put it in a bowl.
Put the broccoli in the pan and cover with water, bring to the boil and cook for about 10 minutes or until soft.
Whilst the broccoli is cooking add the kale and spring onions to the bowl with the pasta.
Stir it all together so the kale softens.
Once the broccoli is cooked drain the water away and bash it around in the pan to break it up a bit.
Stir the broccoli in with the pasta before adding the pesto and stirring that through the ingredients as well.
And there we have it a super simple recipe to see you through the week to save you getting up early to make a lunch or spending your hard earned money on a not so nutritious sandwich.
What have you been loving this past month? Let me know in the comments.
Until next time,
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
TBR20
This blog has always had quite a heavy feature of books. I love reading and always have, however, with having been travelling for two years reading feel on the back burner a bit and although I read a few books I didn't read as many as I wanted to. It also means I've got a lot of books on my shelves and kindle that have gone un-read for a long period of time.
This year I'm trying something, a bit of a project. And we all know how much I love a project.
It's called TBR 20 and to make it even more of a project I made some paper stars too.
So what's the concept? Read 20 books you already own before purchasing, coming into the possession of, borrowing any more books. So basically no new books until you've read what you've got.
Sounds simple and it is simple. The idea is that you motivate yourself by knowing you can buy a book after you've put down number 20 so you race through all 20 books to get to the book shop ASAP. The difficult part is having the will power not to pick up a book on your lunch break because you left the book you've been reading at home.
I decided to make it even more of a project and a bit more fun that will possibly help me see the project through. If you fancy making some paper stars for this project or another one check out The Readables tutorial. They're really easy and good fun.
So why not try TBR 20 yourself and let me know how it goes?
Until next time,
Tuesday, 2 February 2016
Hello February
I like February. February is a good month. You're back in routine, resolutions are well underway and there's that little hint of sunshine popping it's head around the curtain of cloud.
January was a relatively good month for me aside from the odd hiccup here and there the month was successful. Hopefully February will be the same.
I haven't made any resolutions so far this year and I don't think I want to. Last year was such a good year and so far this one has been pretty good to. I think I'm just going to carry on as I have been and go with the flow.
There is a couple of things I really want to do this month though. I really want to get on with putting some of our photos from Australia into a physical album. I really don't want our Australia photos to be one of those cases where they sit on a memory stick and never get looked at.
I also want to try and plan our first adventure of the year. Find somewhere to trek off to and explore. The tent has now arrived back in the UK so we're ready to take our Aussie adventure experiences and mold them for the cold.
So here's to February, it's going to be a good one.
Until next time,
Friday, 29 January 2016
Jack's Jamie Burgers
Jack rustled up his take on a Jamie Oliver burger recipe a couple of weekends ago and it was delicious. We served it with some healthy sweet potato fries and a homemade coleslaw.
A perfect weekend feast, I think you'll agree. So I thought I'd share the recipe with you so you can rustle it up yourself this weekend.
For the burger:
600g minced beef
14 crackers
Handful of flat leaf parsley
1 large egg
1 heaped tablespoon of Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste
Either bash the crackers with a rolling pin or blitz them in a food processor until they make a fine crumb.
Finely chop the parsley.
Put the crumbs and parsley in a large bowl along with the mince, egg, mustard and salt and pepper.
With clean hands mix everything together until it is all well combined.
Form the mix into 5-6 round burgers and place them on a baking tray.
Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for as long as possible.
Tip. The longer you leave the burgers in the fridge the better they will hold together when you come to cook them.
Once they have been firming up for a while and your fries are more or less cooked and you've made the slaw drizzle some oil into a frying pan and let it get really hot.
Tip. To test if the plan is hot run your hand under cold water and flick the water residue into the pan from your hand. If it sizzles the pan is hot if it does nothing leave it longer.
Once your pan is nice and hot put the burgers into the pan and cook for about 3 minutes on each side, or until they're cooked to your liking.
Serve in a toasted bun with cheese, salad leaves, tomato and gherkin and a sauce of your choice.
For the sweet potato fries:
3 large sweet potatoes
Oil
Salt and Pepper
Skin the sweet potatoes before chopping them up into the shape of fries.
Put the fries into a sandwich bag.
Add the oil and salt and pepper and shake it all up until the fries are well covered.
Put the fries onto a baking tray and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes on 200C/392F/Gas Mark 6.
For the coleslaw:
Coleslaw mix (ready bagged)
If you can't find this at your supermarket or aren't as lazy as me good options for a coleslaw are red cabbage, white cabbage, carrot, onion, celery, and if you fancy a fruity twist some apple is good too)
6 tbsp natural yoghurt (or mayonnaise if you prefer)
1tsp lemon juice
2tsp dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste
If you haven't got the pre bagged mix just finely chop all the vegetables and put them in a big bowl.
Add all the dressing ingredients and mix until well combined.
And there we have it. Super easy, super yummy, supper for Saturday night TV.
Until next time,
|
Thursday, 28 January 2016
Oh so many excuses
We're here again, It's a blog post with an excuse attached as to why I've been away for a while. This time it's a valid excuse however I still hate not getting the posts up regularly. It really reminds me of the importance to schedule things to go up ahead of time so if you're caught up in something else it doesn't matter.
I had to have an eye operation last week. Yep an eye operation - told you it was a good excuse. My retina, at some point in the not so distant past, decided it didn't fancy being attached to my eye. I mean I get it 21 years attached to the same thing probably gets a little boring but when someones sight is dependent on you remaining attached you'd think you'd stick around.
I don't know how it happened or when although I've got a few guesses. Scuba diving, jumping of a rock and face planting the water are my main ones. But it got discovered at a general run of the mill opticians appointment. I knew something was wrong because she was spending far too long looking at my right eye. Anyway, after being seen by every optician in my local Specsavers I was referred to the hospital to be seen by a specialist.
A parking fine, two lots of eye drops and five hours later and it was confirmed. I was going to have to have an operation to reattach my retina to ensure I didn't go blind anytime soon.
And that was that. I had the operation and everything went fine despite my obvious worrying. The anesthetic scared me, the sewing my eye back together thing scared me, it all scared me. But it was all fine and I'm back at work with slightly blurry vision in one eye and a good black eye, but other than that all good.
I seem to be a bit of a medical mystery though. Normally a detached retina cause you to get spots in your vision, flashing lights or something like that. But I had nothing. No symptoms whatsoever and apparently it had been there a while.
It just goes to show kids, make sure you see the optician regularly. Seriously. Massive thanks to Specsavers for being so vigilant.
Just because having a wonky eye wouldn't be enough drama to start the year I've also got tonsillitis at the moment, which as you can imagine is just what the doctor didn't order. Apparently I got it caught before it's really kicked in so hopefully will be nothing more than a niggly throat for a couple of days.
Anyway, blog posts back to the regular this week starting with a great recipe for the weekend ahead tomorrow.
Until next time,
Monday, 18 January 2016
Thought of the week #3
 |
| Credit I can't. How often do you say to yourself I can't? I do it all the time, I can't go for a run I'm too tired, I can't do this job it's too hard, I can't say no people will think bad of me. Whatever it is trust me you can. If you tell yourself you can then you will and you'll be so much more positive. Telling yourself you can't only makes you feel down and negative about yourself and your ability. This week, and this year, tell yourself you can do it, whatever it is you want to do and then you will do it. Until next time, |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)