Eat wise, Revise | Rice and lentil bowl

Hey guys, welcome back to the blog. Today I am bringing another recipe post and video in collaboration with Co-op. this month’s theme was ‘eat wise, revise’ and I had the perfect recipe in mind to share with you guys. One that I make all the time when I know I have lots of work going on and I just won’t have the time to think about lots of different meals to make. This is my rice and lentil bowl recipe

For this you will need:

Rice of your choice (I eat the uncle bens wholegrain and quinoa rice)

Lentils

Tin of chopped tomatoes

Sweet potato mash

Onions

1 or 2 eggs

To season:

Balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic salt, garlic granules, canola oil

You wanna start by heating your chopped tomatoes in a pot with a little bit of olive oil. To it, add some balsamic vinegar (1tbsp), brown sugar (2tsps), salt and pepper and that should take about 5 to 7mins to heat through. once done, add to a bowl that you can place in the fridge to go back to.

Then you can start on the onions. Heat those in a pan and add 2tsps of brown sugar at a time (4 in total) and caramelise the onions. Once that is done, you can add some in a bowl to eat now and some into tupperware for later

Then heat some of your sweet potato mash in the microwave and your rice and lentils whilst you prepare everything else

Now we can add our rice and lentils to that same pot and heat that through and season with canola oil, salt, pepper and paprika and make sure that is all mixed through. That should take about 5 to 7 mins.

Then add all the ingredients we have made so far into a plate and that creates the base of the bowl. 

For some added protein, I’m going to cook to egg whites in a pan, season with pepper and garlic salt and add over the top.

And that’s it, seems like a lot of steps at first but it all lasts about 3 to 4 meals and is super easy to just heat up and make and egg to go on the top. I am super swamped with uni work atm so these ingredients are already on my list to get again next week.

Let me know some of your favourite foods to get you through those busy weeks below 😊

As always, there is a video to accompany this so if you want to make it along with me, check it out below!

Things to do this week!

Sunday is always a toss up between lying in bed binging Netflix all day and getting myself ahead of the game for my week ahead. This week, I chose to get ahead and finally update my calendar. Along with that, I love to try new things so here are some things, approved by moi, that you can try out too.

Listen to…Call Me Loop. She popped up on my Instagram and I have to say, I am feeling her vibes. Some feel good music for the week that will keep your spirits high. My favourites are ‘Give and Take’ and ‘As If’

Cook this… I shared this on my Instagram recently but its chickpea, banana and Nutella cakes. Has a weird taste at first but you will end up eating all of them. Mash all three ingredients together with a little bit of baking powder and let the oven do the rest for about 35mins on 200 fan oven. I made this all up as I went along to adjust to how you see fit.

Watch this…The Bold Type. Looking for something to binge centering around the world of digital journalism? This one is for you. Watched the whole thing in a day. I know I have problems but trust me its worth it. Some really relatable dilemmas and characters and a great central focus on women in the industry and issues surrounding social media.

Organise this … a night in or out with your favourites. Whether that’s with friends, family, loved ones or yourself, just some plain old quality time. We can all get so caught up in the hustle and bustle that we forget to schedule in some quality. Its important. Sometimes life can wait, and we just need to press pause for a little.

Hope this changes your schedule a little for this week or the coming weeks.

Things i've learnt about myself

I am no stranger to those 20 things I’ve learnt in 20 years post but this one is definitely more focused on the last year to two years or so. I suppose once I finish uni, I will do a more in depth post about my experiences and a whole series on uni stuff but I really think this place has taught be a lot of valuable lessons about myself, ones that have completely changed my outlook on myself and life ahead of me.

1. University really isn’t for me – I feel like I have to explain myself on this because it’s not that I don’t love uni, the way my course is structured really doesn’t bode well with how I like to work. My deadlines fall at the end of the term so it means I do fuck all for like 3 months, do about 2 weeks of solid work and that’s it. As someone who loves to be busy, this, as you can imagine, leaves me many days to just sit in bed and watch the day pass by. Plus, the whole dynamic of university is odd. Think about it, living in a bubble of a bunch of same aged students and forced to make it work almost, life really isn’t like that and if uni is supposed to prepare you for real life, this couldn’t be further from the truth

2. I have a really good work ethic – I don’t know how much I have spoken about my internship in china but as the first 4 weeks of it showed me, if I am given a task, I will give it my all and I will work and work until no more can be done. That was also the case for my second internship and I was actually complimented on that in the end. I always feel that saying I have a good work ethic is something I write on my CV just to get hired, but its an actual fact, and I can prove that

3. Following on from that, I always deserve respect. Respect is a two-way street. You want respect, that has to be earned. You show me respect I will show you respect. Simple right. Funnily enough, people don’t seem to get that, and you should NEVER accept anything less that that. I got less that respect at my internship and it made me feel like shit and made me apologetic for absolutely nothing. Now that doesn’t me you go all cold hearted to get this entitled respect because if you deserve it, you will get it. Don’t force it. Always be kind and respectful and give everything your all.

4. I know what it means to be happy – this is probably just me, but I have always wondered what it means to actually be happy like what does that feel like. Without even realising, I know what that it. I feel it in my gut; when something feels good and when something feels wrong. With this, it means I have complete power over making myself happy and that is one of the most liberating feelings ever

5. I am an ambivert – I don’t know why it took me until now to figure this out but an ambivert is who I am. I am very much an introverted person, more of a homebody than a let’s go out and get drinks but when I do go out, that’s when that part of me is unlocked and released. And that’s because I have a balance of introvert and extrovert features in my personality. Although I have this balance, I think its more like 60/40 or 70/30, more being introverted but this has just explained why I am the way I am on so many nights out, dinners, etc.

Items worn

Jacket – ASOS

Hoodie – H&M

Jeans – DON’T BUY THESE THEY SUCK!

Scarf – zara sale recently check in store

So those are some of the most important lessons I have learnt about myself recently. I think every day, we learn something new about ourselves. Sometimes I think it can take a little while longer in our heads but hey, its taken me nearly 21 years to figure this out, what will I figure out in the next 21?

 stay woke folks x

I took a week off from life | Amsterdam Diaries

Last week I packed my bags and went off to visit my friend who is studying in Amsterdam for the semester. Initially, I was only going to go for a long weekend as it was going to be her birthday. But as I toyed with the idea of staying for a whole week, I realised this was just what I needed. I have spoken about this before, but I really thrive on my own independence and being in new places and finding energy in new places. Sometimes we all need a break from life and this was mine, just before the real uni work was to begin.

As I was there for two days, I realised, this is exactly what I needed. Time away from everything, to figure out where I was heading, what I wanted to do with my final term and almost to come up with a strategy for my final months as a student. Alas, I took a week off but I didn’t stop checking my emails, searching for jobs etc. because lets be real, we cant completely stop everything for a week.

If you didn't know already, Amsterdam is fast becoming one of my favourites cities for a quick getaway. its very easy to get to, flights can be really cheap and its such a vibrant city; really multi cultural, great food, lots of quaint little places and great in the arts, culture and architecture department. Amsterdam also houses many historical and touristic spots such as the Anne Frank house, the van gogh museum, the Jewish quarters and the red light district. If you are looking for your next getaway, take a peek at Amsterdam. You wont be disappointed.

Places visited on all trips that i recommend: Anne Frank house, van gogh museum, red light districk, banksy exhibition, foam photography museum, jewish quarters, rijk museum, vondell park, a'dam lookout, foodhallen, flower market

Because I have been to Amsterdam twice before, I didn’t take as many pictures as this first two times but, I think this time I just used it as an opportunity to soak up every moment there. So here are a few pics from my trip and a video at the end. I hope you enjoy!

Stay woke folks x

There's something on your arm

The fact that I am writing a post of this description makes my stomach drop a little but yes, I got a tattoo. And no, I don’t regret it ... yet haha

In my defence, I thought I was going in for a lovely consultation but turns out I was getting it done right then and there. I was shitting myself and I was very close to walking out on multiple occasions. but hey, I did it, I am proud I did it, I love then end result. Thinking about it now, I would for sure do it again.

It might seem cliché at first but I promise I know what it means and says and all the other possible things it could be. I had it checked multiple times and in fact, these characters were given to me. When I started my Chinese lessons out here, this was the name that I was given and I know this is a trip I will treasure forever so I wanted to get it. And I wasn’t hesitant about it in the slightest.

Pain

Now, I can’t lie, this really bloody hurt. I would give it a solid 8/10 on the pain scale (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest). My friends said that it looked like it really hurt me but it really shouldn’t have but, I powered through.

Placement

As you can see I got it in a small to medium size on the outside of my arm but my friend got hers down the lower portion of her spine at about a similar size. My reasoning for it being here is because you would only know it was there if I had my arms a certain way or you noticed it out of the corner of your eye. Nothing too big or distasteful personally.

Now since writing this, I have had it recoloured and that really f*cking hurt (pardon my French) but that still hasn’t stopped me from planning the other ones I’ve wanted to get for years now and just getting there here whilst I have someone within close proximity that I can trust, is cheap, does a really good job and has the cutest cat – because that makes everything better.

There you have it, the first of many tattoos most likely haha!