Berry Anti-oxidant week

Hi everyone. I haven't blogged about my weekly routine and food for about 3 weeks. I've been so busy with my dissertation. I've been travelling around London to conduct interviews. The furthest I've travelled so far is to Heathrow airport.

And because I've been so busy I haven't been to my exercise classes either. To make up for it I've been gym with my boyfriend at the body building gym. He trained me hard for 3 consecutive days. I will call that a 3 day bootcamp training. He made me go a little heavier than I usually do and got me doing higher reps. He made me do 2 sets of 40 reps, usually I do about 2 sets of 20 reps. Also on one of that days, he made me do 1 set of 60 reps- that was a killer! He taught me a couple of new exercises, well new to me, squatting and lunging whilst holding a bar behind my shoulders. And oh my gosh, I can finally do ONE pull up without assistant. Yeh, only one lol. I've set myself a goal, I need to be able to do at least 10 pulls ups after 2 months. Not sure how realistic that is lol. We did quite a lot of upper body workout, and my arms and shoulders were in pain for about 4 days. However, I can see the result on my arms, they are more defined. =) I haven't worked out this week because of my busy schedule again. I need to make time!

In the past couple of weeks I've been making a lot of smoothies with berries; strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. I've also been adding my new favourite baobab fruit powder to them. Plenty of anti-oxidant for my body.

Instead of just making smoothies with berries, banana and milk, I added a bit of peanut butter.

I made this with; 1 banana, 3 frozen strawberries (I only had 3 left), 1 cup of milk, 3 table spoons of whole natural peanut butter, 2 tablespoons of manuka honey and 1 teaspoon of baobab powder.

The photo below has a lot of berries. A smoothie with blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, baobab powder and almond milk. And because I couldn't have enough of berries, I had more on the side to go with the waffles lol.

 I even tried something quirky. Fried an egg inside a red pepper ring. It was pretty cool lol

I tried Ellie's recipe for Bulgogi, it was pretty easy to do. One of the ingredients was kiwi, I would have never thought of marinating with kiwi. As instructed, I blended 3 kiwis, some garlic, onions, honey soy sauce and sesame seed oil together. 

Marinated strips of beef in the sauce for about an hour. I didn't take a picture of the end result because I was too hungry. Lol. My poor boyfriend was waiting patiently for the dinner, we didn't eat until 11 pm because I started cooking at 9pm. Lol. The end result was ok. I think I added too much kiwi, it still had that prickly feel to it, maybe I should have added 2 not 3 kiwis which is what Ellie has suggested. However, my boyfriend liked it. =)

What do you add in your smoothies? Any quirky suggestions?

{Recipe} Nutty protein snack- peanut and sesame seed candy. No Bake

Hi everyone, my dad and I made some Chinese sweet snack; peanut and sesame seed maltose candy. Actually I should say my dad was teaching me how to make it. I call it protein snack because peanuts contains protein. Lol. Anyways, its not complicated at all. No need to bake, just a lot of mixing and stirring. 

The following amount of ingredients is up to you really, but I tell you how much we used. 

Recipe for Chinese peanut candy aka nutty protein snack.

You will need:

• 1.5kg of peanuts.  (We used raw peanuts but you can use roasted to save time)
• 350g of black sesame seeds
• 500g of maltose
• 3 cups of desiccated coconut 
• 2 tablespoons of butter

Method:

1. Maltose is very thick so you will need to place the whole thing into hot water to soften the maltose, like below. If you're wondering what is it, it's made of rice, water and malt. Apparently it has the effect of stimulating energy and appetizing. 

2. Whilst the maltose is being softened. Toast or roast the peanuts if you've bought raw ones. This is to get them slightly brown and get the aroma out. We toasted half in the wok and roasted the other half in the oven because we wanted to see which method was better. 

3. Once it got crunchy, I placed the peanuts into a cloth and used a rolling pin to break the nuts. But felt it was hard work, so just got a knife to cut them . I cut them a few times.  This step is optional though, I just wanted them a bit smaller. 

. 

4. Then toast the sesame seeds until slightly crunchy and has a good aroma.

5. Add the peanuts in with the sesame seeds. At this stage, I only added half of the peanuts and half of the black sesame seed. Stir a few times to mix well. You can leave it over low heat, to keep the wok/ pan hot, this will be useful for the next step.

6. Turn the heat off. The maltose should be soft now or runny. Pour the maltose into the mixture and mix well until all peanuts and sesame seed are all clustered together.

Should look something like below. Even if  some are not clustered together its fine, because you will press it together after.

7. Get a big dish, and line it with some butter so once the mixture is cooled down you will be able to get it out easier. Some people actually add knobs of butter into the mixture but my dad didn't want it to be greasy/ fatty. 

8. Pour the mixture into the dish and use a spatula to flatten the mixture down.

9. Just leave it to cool down for about 1 hour or once the mixture is cooled down. Then cut into small blocks.

10. Then spread the desiccated coconut on top. Skip this if you don't like coconut, adding desiccated coconut will make the presentation look better and of course adding more flavour.

11. Cut and pull the blocks out and roll them in coconut 

12. You should get something like below, blocks of nutty candy. You can now eat and share with your friends and family!

Hope you liked this recipe, please share if you do =). Leave any comments if you have any questions.

What protein snacks do you make that doesn't require any baking? 

Aduna- Baobab Love

Hiya everyone! Hope you all had a good week. I did. Have any of you heard of Aduna or baobab fruit? If you've read my two previous post (Here & Here), then you should have. I have to say its one of my favourites. I've been adding the baobab fruit powder to my smoothies and breakfast.

That's 100% wheat bran, with semi-skimmed milk, blueberries, manuka honey and baobab powder.

I know the presentation of this one isn't very good lol. That's wheat bran served with a fig, blueberry smoothie, manuka honey and baobab powder. The smoothie was made with blueberries, Greek yoghurt and semi-skimmed milk. 

This is again wheat bran (I've been having wheat bran quite a lot in the last couple of weeks), semi-skimmed milk, banana and baobab powder.

Frozen strawberries and banana, blended with semi-skimmed milk, milled linseed and other seeds and baobab powder. The banana turned black over night in the freezer and weird thing was the skin was frozen but the pulp was mushy. lol

This is made with frozen blackberries, banana, and strawberries, shelled hemp seed, baobab powder and a cup of water.

How does it taste like?

Aduna described the taste as a combination of pear, grapefruit, caramel and vanilla. Sounds very yummy right? I would agree it taste a bit like grapefruit because it has that soury, citrusy taste. But I don't think it taste like caramel or pear maybe a bit of vanilla. Nevertheless I like it. 

What are the benefits?

Seems like it has almost everything our body needs, the perfect fruit. The leaflet also indicates that baobab supports energy metabolism, immune system, reduction of tiredness and fatigue, promotes good digestive health and good skin health as it is in high in antioxidants.

Aduna's Baobab Fruit powder is 100% organic, no preservatives, no additives, suitable for vegetarian and vegan and good for children. This is just perfect!

Glossybox June

Hello beauties.
I didn't blog about the May Glossybox as I got lazy lol. In fact, I'm thinking of cancelling my subscription because I want to go organic and natural (well... trying to as my skin is quite sensitive) and most of the products aren't natural or organic. But then I love the surprises I get every month. Hmmm... dilemma dilemma.

 Anyways, here's the June one.

Nuxe- Huile Prodigieuse OR

I received a Nuxe Oil a couple of months ago but haven't got round to using it. This one is different it has some shimmering golden particles. It contains 6 precious plant oils and vitamin E. 

Full size: 100ml for £34.00

Helen é cosmetics- shimmer eye powder

This look really pretty, but I have been thinking about changing my make up products to natural ones. I'll still give this a try anyway I guess.

Full size: 1.5g for £5

Figs & Rouge Coco Rose

About a year ago, I also received a Figs & Rouge Lip balm from GlossyBox. I absolutely loved it and the best thing about Figs & Rouge is that it is 100% natural. It does not contain petroleum. You can get Figs & Rouge products in Planet Organic so should be guaranteed it is natural. I am looking forward to use this! It says it can also be used on cuticles, elbows and knees. 

Full Size: 12.5 ml for£5.00

Monu Professional Skincare Hydrating Moisturiser SPF 15

Full Size: 50ml for £29.95

Mememe Cosmetics Long Lasting Nail Gloss.

I absolutely love this. It gives my nail a really nice healthy and glossy look. 

£5.00

That's it for this month. I'm thinking of subscribing to Nutribox and cancel Glossybox. Hmmmmg

Day at the Free From & Allergy Show and V Delicious Show

Hello lovelies, as mentioned in my previous post (Organic and Natural Beauty show) I was going to a Free From and Allergy show and V delicious show this weekend just went. And I did. Basically there's two events in the same venue, half of the venue was companies selling natural/ organic products and allergy products and the other half was vegetarian and vegan food and drinks. I used to feel sorry for those who were allergic to gluten because it meant that there are lot they can't have but after going to this show I changed my perspective as there were so many gluten free products.

Anyways, I started with the V Delicious show. There were so many gluten free bread companies, and tried almost all of them. Yes, I was there mainly for the food lol.

There too many people that I couldn't even bothered to walk the whole venue. I wanted to look for natural fitness products but didn't seem to find much.

These are some pretty gluten free cupcakes!

My shoppings and freebies

I bought a pack of gluten free tagliatelle, they were selling it for £1. They also did a chick pea fusili but they were sold out :(

I immediately tried it when I got home. I liked it, it tasted much better than normal pasta and I loved the chewy texture. It's made with rice flour and corn.

If you're a regular reader of mine you will know I have Good's hemp protein fit shake and guess what? Good was there. There were selling hemp milk and hemp oil. I bought two carton's of milk for £2. It tastes a bit like vanilla and my mum doesn't like the taste. Weirdo! lol

Aduna was there too. In my previous post about my day at the Organic and Natural Beauty show, I mentioned that Aduna was my favourite company as they were different from the others. This time I did buy something, 170g of fruit pulp loose powder for £15, as a student that is not cheap at all but considering all the benefits it has for the body and skin its well worth it! Oh just a reminder, it is 100% natural baobab fruit pulp.

This is Dr. Bonner organic castile soap. I have been looking to buy castile soap because I have been looking to make my own shampoo. As you may know, shampoos contain a lot of harsh chemicals. I found out that castile soap can be used as a gentle shampoo. Castile soap don't contain any harsh chemicals, it is made with vegetable oil only. Castile soap has a lot of uses, can be used a shampoo, an alternative to toothpaste, laundry detergent, washing up liquid, used to wash vegetables and many more. I bought the green tea scented one. £10 for 1 litre, I felt it was worth it because its about £8.79 for 472ml in Holland & Barrett and Planet Organic.

I bought an organic self tan lotion from the brand Green People for £14. I sort of regret buying this now lol. This is in a cream form, but Tanorganic (the company that I saw in Organic & Natural beauty show) is oil based and I prefer that. 

 

The sachets were freebies from Green People. The little block thing is a handmade soap by another brand which I have forgotten the name lol.

Another freebie, cooking coconut oil.

And finally a free sachet of organic hemp seed

Did you go to any of those shows? Do you like organic and natural products? 

Graduate Ball

Hi everyone, hope you all made the most of the sunny week because it seems like the temperature is dropping and the sun is going again. But thank God it was nice on Friday, the day I went to a graduate ball.

Here's my outfit. 

Dress: Jane Norman

Clutch Box: Nine West

Jewelleries: Topshop and Ladies Street (Market in Hong Kong)

Stilettos: Office

This photo was taken the night before, I wanted to do a dress and hair rehearsal, lol. I was thinking of going to hairdressers and get my hair done but thought 'There's Youtube!' So I watched one of Makeupwearables' video, 'Formal Half-up Updo Twist with curls', to get some inspiration and of course learn the techniques. The hair she did was slightly different to mine.I created a mini beehive using my own hair (I was careful not to make it too high as I will end up looking like Amy Winehouse lol). My mum asked if I had a wig on or did I put anything underneath my hair to create the volume lol. I just did a lot of teasing on the crown of my head, then rolled the teased hair into a ball and covered it with the hair at the front of my head. Does that make sense? 

I got ready 4 hours before the event lol because the hair took over an hour and I wanted to take my time doing my make up. Initially I thinking of going to the make up counters in House of Fraser for a free make over. But thought it's a bit risky as most of them are not proper make up artist. I've had a bad experience with Benefit in the past; the "makeup" artist did a terrible job that I had to go home and wash it off.

The graduate ball took place at the Royal Horseguard Hotel.

The Menu for the night

I was quite disappointed to see the menu being so short. They tried to make it appear longer by adding the coffee at the end. I was expecting 4-5 courses lol. 

3 course meal

The portions were very small however I'm glad it was and glad there were only 3 courses because my dress was quite tight and if I ate loads my stomach would have popped out lol. The starter was the best, really liked the toasted rye bread and there were the right amount of smoked salmon but I didn't really enjoy the dessert though. 

There's me posing on the couch in the toilets! The toilets were amazing. There was a separate room with a few make up tables. 

After the dinner at around 10pm, we went to the hall next door to dance. In the photo above of the meal, you can see a "dollar" next to the plate of dessert. That was for the mini casino, I didn't play though I just danced. The night was £35, not bad at all and well worth the price. I had a great night and everyone looked amazing! 

Have you been to a graduate ball? How was it? Did you do your hair and makeup yourself?