What I Eat In A Day

If you don’t know already, one thing I’m very passionate about is maintaining a healthy lifestyle. So yes, I do like to eat “clean” and I love to get inspiration from various bloggers and vloggers. Given how often I spend my time watching ‘What I Eat In A Day’ videos, I thought I’d create one myself, especially since I’ve gotten into making videos this summer.

If you want to check out the video, click on the image below.

Breakfast:

Oatmeal:

1. Cook your oats according to the instructions on the packaging (easiest way is to microwave it in a bowl with water/milk for 2-3 minutes).
2. Top your oats with anything you like. I used raspberries (berries are an ideal topping for oatmeal), banana and honey. Yogurt would also be a great addition to this.

 

Lunch: (Serves 2)

Pasta Salad:

Ingredients:

• 300g meat (cut up into small pieces) – You can use legumes or tofu if you are a vegetarian.
• 250g pasta
• 2 carrots (cut up into small pieces)
• 3 bunches of kale (cut up into small pieces) – Any leafy greens will work.
• Salt and pepper
• Dried oregano

Method:

1. Pour the pasta into a pot of boiling water.
2. While the pasta is cooking, pour some oil into a pan.
3. Once the oil has spread, place the meat, carrots and kale into the pan, and mix frequently until cooked.
4. When the pasta is cooked, drain the water so that you are just left with the pasta.
5. Add the meat, carrots, kale and pasta together and mix. Season with salt, pepper and a teaspoon of dried oregano.

 

Dinner: (Serves 4)

Rice With Beef and Veges: 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked rice (I used brown rice)
• 500g beef
• Honey and Soy Marinade
• 3 cups frozen veges
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chinese five spice

Method:

1. Cook the rice according to the directions on the packet – I used the boiling method (takes around 35 minutes for brown rice).
2. While the rice is cooking, heat a pan with oil and add the beef. Ideally, you should marinate the beef with the honey and soy marinade for at least 20 minutes before cooking. However, if you’re a bit last minute like I was, just add it to the pan while cooking the beef. I added roughly one tablespoon.
3. When the beef is almost cooked, add your frozen veges to the pan.
4. Once the rice is cooked, add it to the pan of beef and veges.
5. Season with salt, pepper and Chinese five spice.

Those were the recipes I used. Let me know if you want a vegetarian ‘What I Eat In A Day’!

Enjoy!

Love,

Jess

ADVENT CALENDARS

Given that we’re heading into December tomorrow, the countdown to Christmas is on! If you ask me, there’s no better way to countdown to Christmas than an advent calendar. However, much to people’s dismay, I’m not that big on chocolate so as you can guess, me getting a chocolate advent calendar does not exactly float my boat. Instead, I’ve been browsing for advent calendar’s that aren’t chocolate ones, and are reasonably affordable. Even though the beauty ones are incredible and any girl’s dream, they are so expensive! So since I’ve kinda done my research, I thought I’d share 5 non-chocolate advent calendars that appeal to me.

kikki.K Eraser Advent Calendar

Anyone who knows me will know that I am such a sucker for kikki.K and will literally purchase anything from there without any hesitation. Given how much I love both Christmas and kikki.K, I screamed of excitement when I found out that kikki.K was releasing an advent calendar! This advent calendar includes 25 different erasers.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking… Who on earth needs 25 erasers??? I thought that too but the erasers are so cute, and it’s also Christmas so I told myself it was acceptable haha.

Tanya Burr Advent Calendar 

Tanya Burr is one of my favourite YouTubers so naturally, I would love everything she brings out. From what I’ve seen, this is definitely one of the more affordable advent calendars, despite only being a 12 day one. I guess that means the treat is super worth it if you open the doors every second day, or it’s ok to get it a bit later given that you can start on the 13th of December! The packaging is so pretty and cute, which appeals to me further. I also love all of the names of the products, and there are so many glitter products, because let’s be real, what is Christmas without glitter and sparkles!?!?

The Body Shop Advent Calendar

This advent calendar by The Body Shop is more on the pricey side, but I do love The Body Shop so much so I couldn’t not include this! Besides, if you got every product individually, it would cost so much more, especially since The Body Shop’s products are kinda expensive. If you feel like treating yourself or a friend a wee bit more, they also have a deluxe calendar, which I love even more (totally not because it’s pink or anything)!

Lush 12 Days of Christmas

Similarly to The Body Shop, I love Lush, especially since their products are animal cruelty free and they smell incredible. Not gonna lie, I could literally stay in Lush all day smelling their products (definitely not weird at all…). Furthermore, I love how they let you see how the bath bombs explode in store so you can actually decide if you want it or not! In this advent calendar, there is a range of bath bombs so although it’s not the most practical one for me living on campus, it’s still such a good one to have! Like Tanya’s, it’s a 12 day one so you can get it later in December and it’s all good!

Bluebird Tea Advent Calendar

I love drinking tea, so how appropriate is a tea advent calendar!? If you’re someone who buys one box of tea and likes to finish it before buying a new box, then maybe having the same tea everyday can get a little boring? Therefore having this advent calendar would be right up your alley because you get a different tea flavour each day! It also means that you can try a range of different flavours, and later invest in the ones you like!

I hope this helped anyone who was looking for non-chocolate advent calendars. Do enjoy counting down to Christmas because if you’re anything like me, it’s the best time of the year!

Love,

Jess

CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST

It’s almost a month until Christmas, which means the festive celebrations can officially begin!! (Although let’s be honest, I feel like you can start celebrating Christmas as soon as Halloween is over.)

What better way to start the festive celebrations than listening to some Christmassy songs, so I thought I’d compile a little playlist of my favourite Christmas carols sung by my favourite artists!

Snoopy’s Christmas – The Royal Guardsmen

This is probably the only song on here which is by the original artist, but I love this song so much. Not only is it my favourite Christmas carol, but it’s also my dad’s (like father, like daughter)! I remember we use to ALWAYS sing this song at primary school, so listening to this song definitely reminds me of happy childhood memories!

 

Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid

I feel like this is such an iconic Christmas song, especially how there’s so many different versions of it – I literally have a Christmas album compiled of different versions of this song so there you go! I also love how this song is always used for a good cause. It just shows how many people are willing to come together for those in need, especially since giving is essentially what Christmas is about!

 

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Miley Cyrus

Anyone who knows me will know that when I was young, I was quite possibly the biggest Disney fan, in particular Hannah Montana. So as you can guess, I can’t not put Miley in my ultimate Christmas playlist! Again, this song reminds me of primary school because at the end of the year, we would always have a little Christmas show and people would tap to this song with gimmicky Christmas outfits – I loved it! It’s also so upbeat, which puts you in the best mood, especially given that Christmas is the happiest time of the year!

 

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Again, this is another classic Christmas song for kids! We always sang this at primary school and I just love the little echo parts of the song during the chorus! This song is also so upbeat and always gets me in the Christmas spirit!

 

Must Be Santa – Bob Dylan

Every year at home, I would always go to Christmas in The Park (Christmas festival in the middle of December), and this song would typically be the first song sung. So I suppose listening to this song this year is a bit bittersweet given that I’m not going home for Christmas, and I won’t be going to Christmas in the Park this year (literally the first time in 5 years rip). But at the same time, at least I can remember the good times of going and how much fun it was!

 

Last Christmas – Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen’s songs always get me in a good mood so when I found out that she covered a Christmas song, let alone one that I love so much (although that’s not very hard to achieve because I love all Christmas carols!), I got so excited! This song was also one that I heard very often when I was young, and I actually forgot about it until Carly Rae Jepsen’s version of it came out!

 

Drummer Boy – Justin Bieber ft. Busta Rhymes

If I’m being honest, my family’s Christmas album collection at home could be a little bigger. However, the one album that was very frequently played was Neil Diamond’s Christmas album. My favourite track from that was always ‘Drummer Boy,’ so when I heard that Justin Bieber (and yes, I was a crazy Belieber when I was 12) was making a Christmas album and had ‘Drummer Boy’ on it, I literally screamed of excitement!

 

Sleigh Ride – Fun. 

This is probably the newest Christmas song on my playlist in terms of when I first came across it. I do really like Fun., so when I found out that they were part of a Christmas compilation, I was very intrigued to see which song they would cover. I had heard ‘Sleigh Ride’ at Christmas in the Park and loved it, but didn’t actually know the title of it until I heard Fun.’s version. It’s safe to say that it’s not become one of my favourite Christmas songs.

 

Merry Christmas Everyone – Shakin’ Stevens

Like ‘Sleigh Ride,’ this is a very recent addition to my Christmas playlist, but it’s definitely one I could have on repeat forever (but let’s be honest, I’d probably say that about all Christmas songs). Funnily enough, I first came across this song watching Zoe’s vlogs from vlogmas as she constantly kept talking about how this was one of her favourite Christmas songs and would always sing it. After hearing it, I can definitely understand why!

 

One Little Christmas Tree – John Farnham

Not gonna lie, the reason I came across this song is because Rebecca Breeds, one of my favourite actresses, covered it at Carols in the Domain. I may have been a little biased when I heard it because she did perform it, however, I do genuinely like it! I also thought it was less well known compared to the big ones which is why I’ve added it to my playlist.

So these are 10 of my favourite songs on my Christmas playlist this year. I thought I’d just put the ones in that are a wee bit less popular, because there would be no point for me to share the typical generic Christmas songs that everyone knows and loves! Although I will mention one thing. When I was younger, “12 Days of Christmas” was my favourite Christmas carol because I love how there’s so many different versions of it, and we would always sing the Kiwi version at school! I hope you enjoy listening to these songs if you haven’t heard them before.

Love,

Jess

P.S. Sorry for not having written any new posts lately. I was busy with exams but now that that’s over, I’ll have much more time for blogging!

 

Royal Melbourne Show

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Royal Melbourne Show. Now, as someone who isn’t from Melbourne, I always hear all this hype about it and so I said to myself, “surely I have to go!” This was basically my first experience in Melbourne where I was like, “wow, the population of Melbourne is actually insane.” You could barely move as you came in. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’ve never had this experience in NZ, it’s just that there’s nowhere near as many people! But all was good when we moved ourselves away from the entrance!

As you walk through the Royal Melbourne Show, you see all the kids eagerly waiting to go on the rides. Now, I would be exactly the same if I wasn’t scared of heights!! So naturally, that meant that I was the designated bag holder, which I do prefer over going on a crazy rollercoaster! Not gonna lie, I did question the price of the rides. I mean, paying $10/$15 was alright, but some rides were $20 and I was kinda like ????? But I suppose it’s a good business strategy given that kids would want to go on the rides regardless.

There were also heaps of carnival games, and my friend won a massive soft toy through a scratchy-type game. Basically you paid $2 for a scratchy and had to see whether at least one of the numbers you had matched a number on the board. My friend won it on her first go, so lucky her!! It’s quite funny though because while we were walking through the game stalls and saw what prizes were available, I told her which toy freaked me out. Funnily enough, that’s the one she went with… What’s even more funny though, was the fact that we went out for dinner afterwards. So there she was, hauling her basically life-sized toy around on the bus and into restaurants. I could feel people staring but it was actually hilarious. And also, how often is one going to win a life sized toy in one try!?!? In saying this, I felt bad though cause our other friends tried to win prizes through the basketball games and scratchies so many times, but unfortunately had no luck.

Going to the Royal Melbourne Show also made me feel just at home. The amount of farm animals there reminded me of the places I’d usually go running at home, and it was really nice. Although I feel like because I am from NZ, I don’t understand the buzz of farm animal attractions. I suppose given that I see them everywhere (there’s 7 sheep from every human in NZ!), it’s not that exciting after all.

However, the most exciting thing was when we stumbled across the Masterchef building. Now if you know me, you know that I thoroughly enjoy cooking and baking, and I love watching Masterchef. We literally had no idea that the showgrounds was so close to the Masterchef building, and they were using the Masterchef building for food stalls! How appropriate hey! My friends were basically like “we’ve never seen you this excited before,” so yeah, it was quite the experience to see it in reality!

Going to the Royal Melbourne Show was so much fun, so I’d definitely recommend going if you’re around Melbourne in late September!

Love,

Jess

What do you want to be in the future?

So here I am, asking the age-old question, what do you want to be when you grow up? Everywhere I go, people are still telling me, “it’s ok to be unsure, you still have time.” And yes, that probably is true because I’m still at the end of my teens. However, it feels intimidating and uncomfortable when you feel like everyone around you knows what they want to do, or have some sort of plan for their future.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I literally have no idea. I’m at uni, so I suppose my chosen degree will dictate, to an extent, the field that I go down (unless of course I don’t end up using my degree in the future, which of course, happens in reality). In addition to that, I do have a few ideas of what I want to do. However, you’re always faced with the conflict, do I go down a field which can guarantee me good job opportunities and I have some degree of interest in it? Or do I go down a field where I am involved with things I thoroughly enjoy, but the job opportunities are average?

The other night, I went to a faculty industry night and basically their advice was, in order for you to advance well into a career, you must have the passion for what you are doing, and you must build relationships, i.e. networking. This turns me to a new question, where do you find your passion? I definitely do have my passions, but how can I find a job out of it? When people say that you should find a job you’re passionate about, it leads me to ask, do you just happen to come across such a passion? How are you actually supposed to find it or is it just pure luck?

Now when it comes to building relationships, I can understand the importance of having a good group of friends around you, and I’m very lucky to say that I do have such friends. However, how do you find a network in a related field? See for me, I hope that my next steps are to volunteer at places which are relevant to fields I am interested in, and I hope to build relationships with people there because after all, they all say, “it’s not about what you know but who you know.”

Love,

Jess

September Favourites 2016

Sorry this blog post is late! I’ve been a bit busy with uni work and all, but at least I can still share some favourites with you of the month!

First things first, music.

When I was young, I was literally the biggest Disney fan you’d ever come across. My lunchbox was Hannah Montana, I had Camp Rock duraseal for my school books, my wallet was Hannah Montana, I owned all the Camp Rock, High School Musical and Hannah Montana DVDs… The list was endless. I also use to be all about the mainstream music. However, nowadays, I can’t say I’m the same and I prefer more pop punk music. But when I heard that Nick Jonas released a new album, Last Year Was Complicated, I was literally like what!?!? So I knew I had to check it out, and basically since then, all I’ve been listening to is Nick Jonas, DNCE and Demi Lovato. It’s funny because I’d always loved Demi, but when Confident first came out, let’s just say I wasn’t the biggest fan. However, it’s really grown on me and reminds me of the powerful voice that Demi has!

The Body Shop – Strawberry Shower Gel

Now, I’ve always been a Lush person but there doesn’t seem to be that many Lush stores nearby. So when I needed some more shower gel, I turned to The Body Shop. I am a sucker for anything strawberry, so when I saw the strawberry shower gel, I knew I had to get it. And having such a big bottle is so good because I know it will last me ages!! Also, if you have sensitive skin, I highly recommend this because it doesn’t irritate my skin, unlike many other scented products.

 

Colette – Handbag

I’ve had this bag for about a month now and it is actually so good. I love how classy it looks, and it’s big enough to fit everything I need for uni, without looking big itself. See, I was looking for a bag which could fit my laptop for ages so that I wouldn’t have to keep using a backpack for uni. However, most bags look giant if they fit a laptop and I didn’t really want that. So when I found this, I knew I had to get it because it doesn’t look THAT big, but it fits my laptop, bottle (now I also have a massive bottle), gym clothes and packed lunch! So if that’s not a decent sized bag, then I don’t know what is!

Sorry this favourites was a bit short, but I hope you’ve had a good insight into what I’ve been loving this month.

 

Love,

Jess

Get Ready With Me – Ball 2016

Round 2 of ball is coming up, so this time, I thought I’d do a ‘Get Ready With Me’ type post!

Make Up:

Powder: Maybelline Fit Me! 235

Blusher: Covergirl Clean Glow

Eye Shadow: Maybelline Big Eyes by EyeStudio in Luminous Blue

Eyeliner: Revlon Luxurious Colour Pencil in Blackened Sapphire

Mascara: Maybelline Volume Express The Falsies

Lipgloss: Revlon Glossy Rose

Rings: Diamante Point Rings by Colette Hayman

Nails: Revlon Matte Pearl Glaze

Dress:

Shoes: Kardashian Kollection Jemma Heels

I also had my hair half up/half down.

The food was absolutely delicious! We had ravioli for the entree, chicken and veges for the main, and cheesecake (my favourite!!!) for dessert!

The music choice was also really good, we may have used more than our fair share of the photobooth, but it was so much fun!

Love,

Jess

Awkward Encounters

So I’ve spent a good half of the year moving to a new city on my own and settling in. Because so many things are different and new to me, I’ve both experienced and witnessed some very awkward encounters. I thought it’d be funny to share them with you, which will also help to keep my blog light-hearted.

1. My friends and I were getting a smoothie from Boost. As expected, the staff would greet us and ask how we were. Naturally as humans, we want to make a good impression when we first meet someone, and so a way to do this is to plan what you’re going to say in your head (even if they are just asking how you are). However, rather than saying “good, thanks” like most people would, my friend simply said “thanks.” The staff member was obviously thinking, “uhhhh…. what?” but out of politeness, she didn’t say anything. As soon as we finished ordering, we bolted out of the store and bursted out laughing hysterically. As you can guess, my friend will never live it down.

2. These days, it’s extremely common for staff members to ask for your name when you’re ordering food so that they can give you your order once it’s ready. Now, I have a friend whose name is somewhat uncommon, but is extremely simple to pronounce, i.e. she has a Western name, I live in Australia, and her name is basically pronounced the way it is spelt. However, when the staff member wrote her name, I think he may have just scribbled something random down. By the time her order was ready, the staff member shouted something completely different to what my friend’s name was, and despite knowing it was her order, we all questioned him and what he’d actually written as her name…

3. This next awkward encounter happens all the time and I never know how to get around it. Now, I am someone with an exceptionally bad memory. Although I know that I can NEVER remember names, I tend to think that I’m somewhat alright with remembering faces. However, it turns out that my lab partner this week was someone I had a class with last semester. When I introduced myself to him and asked him what his name was, he was basically like, “oh I know, we had a class together last sem”. That was honestly so awkward because he remembered me and I literally had no recognition of who he was…

I’m not gonna lie, I always get myself into awkward situations, but those are the ones that I remember the most vividly. I hope that at least one of these will relate to you, otherwise I’ll just conclude that my friends and I are very awkward people.

Love,

Jess

Cheesecake Recipe

Despite not having a sweet tooth, I am still a lover of desserts. Cheesecake is by far my favourite dessert, and so I thought I’d share with you my cheesecake recipe. It’s simple, easy and very tasty, so do give it a try!

Equipment List: 

• Food Processor
• Round cake tin

Ingredients: 

• 1 packet malt biscuits
• 85g butter
• 4 teaspoons hot water
• 2 teaspoons gelatin
• 400g can of pineapple (crushed)
• 250g cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 125ml cream

Method:

Base: 

1. Mix the biscuits and butter in a food processor until they clump together.
2. Press the mixture into the cake tin and refrigerate. 

Cake Mixture: 

1. Pour the hot water into a bowl.
2. Add the gelatin into the bowl and dissolve it in the water. Let it cool.
3. In the meantime, drain the juice from the pineapple can, and pour the pineapple into the food processor.
4. Add the cream cheese, lemon juice and cream to the food processor, then mix them together.
   
5. Add the gelatin to the food processor and mix.
6. Pour the cake mixture on top of the base.
7. Refrigerate overnight.
   

August Favourites 2016

As cheesy as it sounds, I can’t believe another month has gone by already! But if I’m being honest, I’m quite glad about this considering winter is over, spring is here, and summer is getting closer!! See the thing is, I’m really not cut out for winter…

Anyway, since it is the end of the month, it only seems appropriate to write another monthly favourites post.

Forever Ends Here – Imagine This

Some may say I’m a little eager putting this in this month’s monthly favourites considering that it only came out in the middle of the month. However, given that Forever Ends Here are my favourite band, and they announced their album release date a good month ago, it made sense to add the album into this month’s favourites! This is their debut album, and I know I’ve said this in previous posts, but I genuinely love every song on the album. At the moment, my favourite tracks are ‘Fine’ and ‘Search The Night’ (this is literally the most beautiful song you will ever hear), although they are all incredible (not gonna lie, I’ve changed this multiple times before publishing this post so by the time you read this, it’s probably changed by now)! Despite the band taking a bit of time off last year, they’ve come back better than ever so do purchase the album if you’re after some good new music to listen to! They also have awesome merch packs if you buy the physical CD/vinyl!

Heeled Boots

Boots are a must for every girl’s wardrobe, but being a short person means that I do like to make the most of heels to add that little inch to what’s missing from my height. I’ve had these boots for about a couple of months now and if I’m being honest, despite how much I love the look of them, I dreaded wearing them. This is because like all new shoes, they gave me blisters and I have pretty wide feet, thus it felt like my toes were being squished together. Let’s just say that isn’t exactly the most comfortable feeling…

However, after getting over this and realising how well they go with literally any outfit (i.e. it’s a great way to make a really casual outfit look a wee bit classy), I couldn’t stop wearing them.

Alphabet Drink Bottle

As much as I love drinking water (does that sound really weird?), I find it to be such a pain when I have to refill my bottle (and this is pretty often because I do drink quite a bit of water). So when I saw one of these, I was like, “I have to get it!” They’re nice and big (1L to be exact), and I love how they have letters on them (yes, I’m a really cheesy person).

It’s also really good because it’s got a clip on thing at the top which means you can easily hold it (I have pretty small hands so if I’m being honest, I do struggle to hold it but that’s the only downfall of this bottle).

Sorry this favourites post was a little short, but I hope you have a little insight into what I did enjoy this month and I’m sure they’ll be more things next month!

Love, Jess