A taste of the world cup!

Although the football didn’t come home, that doesn’t mean we can’t bring some flavours of the world cup home. Today I wanted to share with you a Brazilian recipe I made. I love trying out new things and mixing different food flavours and what a better time than the world cup.

This video is in collaboration with Co Op and you can watch the video and head to the supermarket with me, get your ingredients and cook a long with me. I hope you enjoy it and share it with your friends.

Link to recipe: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/1045/brazilian-black-bean-stew.aspx

Have a good week!

Amira

There couldn't be a better time to celebrate

Fast forward 3 years and I have finished university. Doesn’t 3 years sound like a hell of a long time? Well I tell you what, it really just flew by. I moved out with all of the first years and thought wow, you really have a whole adventure right in front of you to look forward to and now I’m moving on to different things.

Now that I have finished, it has been a really great time to reflect on everything that I have done, achieved, accomplished, the friends I have made, the things I have done but also to celebrate.

This month with Co-op, I a going to share with you how I celebrated with their various party food and snack options. I got together with a few of my friends, and my cat as you will see, and we just had a chilled day in the garden with lots of different foods to pick at and just great chats.

Always remember that the hard work you do is never for nothing and it will pay off. Some things in life aren’t instant but it will pay off.

Please watch the video below to see the spread that I created and my top picks for a chill out day with the friends. And also, go have some fun. You earned that break after all the hard work.

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!

The 24hr digital detox

To be honest, the fact that the term digital detox even exists makes me feel odd because it really just sums up the kind of society we live in at the moment. But the other day, I randomly decided that I was going to do it. No social media, no youtube, no emails, no phone for 24hrs. I used it for my alarm and then I switched it off an put it in the draw.

Why? – I always thought I wasn’t as attached to my phone compared to the average smartphone user but recently, I was endlessly scrolling and even when people were talking to me about important things, I would just half listen and just scroll the endless nothingness on my phone. And I was actually just disgusted in myself that I was doing that. So, I decided just for one day, we can do without it.

At first, I was really aware of the fact that I didn’t have my phone on me and I was constantly looking for it and having to remind myself that today was a no phone day. Luckily, I had work that day so it kind of made this a little easier throughout the day. But there were points throughout the day where I found myself in opportunities to film something to show my friends or scroll and see what the world was up to. I also was constantly thinking what if someone was trying to get a hold of me? (spoiler alert, no one was)

When I got home, I had nothing to do with my evening. I did allow myself to watch tv otherwise I feel like I would have been really bored, but I switched up my Spotify playlist to a chill one to have as background noise whilst I did work. I woke up the next morning and grabbed my phone.

Final thoughts. For some reason I thought this would have a lasting effect on me and it would just drastically change how much I use my phone. I don’t think it has but I am not giving up hope on that. Throughout the day before I had a major case of FOMO and I realised, I missed absolutely nothing. I don’t know why that shocked me the most but it did. The world doesn’t stop if you don’t go on social media and its so healthy for the mind to just take a breather from streams and streams of information. If you have yet to have a digital detox, start now. There is nothing holding you back from deleting your apps or turning off your phone for some peace.

I hope you are all having a great start to your week.

Stay woke x

Chicken or Choc | Lime & Honey chicken stir fry recipe

As I have more and more deadlines creeping up on me and working on uni and personal projects, I really just don’t have the time for fussy, lengthy cooking recipes but I love trying out new things. So here is a recipe to keeping it simple but having great tasty food.

Today I am going to be sharing with you my lime and honey chicken stir fry recipe. I love this recipe because of the combination of something so sweet and something so tangy as well as all of the ingredients being on the cheaper end and highly accessible.

You will need:

1 breast of chicken

2 limes

Honey

Sharwood noodles

1 bell pepper

1 carrot

For the marinade

Salt

Pepper

Sesame seeds

Olive oil

You can start by boiling the water to prep for you noodles to go in. whilst that is boiling, we can prep for the other ingredients.

Start by cutting your chicken into cubes and placing it in a bowl with some olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika. Then, place it in the fridge to set.

For the marinade, juice your two limes into a bowl. Then add some olive oil, salt, pepper, 1 tablespoon and a half of honey and some sesame seeds. These are optional. Then whisk those all together and put that in the fridge to set.

You can also cut up your pepper and shred your carrot at this point.

Add your noodles to the boiling water then strain and leave to one side.

Back in the same pot, add a bit of oil with some onions and garlic. Once all of that has softened, add your chicken and cook and until 95% done.

You can then add your noodles back in with the pepper and carrots and mix until everything is evenly spread around.

Then add the marinade half at time and again, make sure to mix that all in thoroughly. Once you have heated that through you can serve and enjoy!

I made this for a lunch with my favourite girls and I get a thumbs up approval from all of them. What’s great about this recipe is again it is really customisable, and I also made a vegan version too.

As always, if you want to follow along in video format, check out the video below so you can watch me make it too.

I hope you guys enjoy this and have a great weekend!

*this post and video was created in collaboration with coop. i am currently a brand ambassador for them. for more details, check my pr/disclaimer page.

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