The Mark Addy Surprise: Life's Random Moments!

So it's one of those rainy days here and I'm busy reminiscing on summer days. I can't believe I forgot to tell you guys about this particularly awesome day! It was nice and sunny and a couple of friends and I decided to take a stroll around town and since my favourite photographer was around I decided to take my camera out with me and have a couple of impromptu lessons! First up we had flowers! The first couple of pictures came out a bit like this:

Not great at all right?? I know, I kind of suck(ed) but after a couple of trys it got a lot better!

I learnt a lot of technical jargon about aperture, shutter speed, ISO and when to use flash, which apparently is never! Lol. Next I got to do building and bridges whilst we strolled towards Salford, I love photographing interesting buildings, I find it so much more interesting that photographing people. Which you might think is a little weird but hey! It is what it is.

I really liked the colours in this picture, that burnt rustic orange that's so typical of Manchester buildings. 

Whilst I was busy taking pictures of bridges Tomi and Nnamdi were arguing about whether Salford is a city or a part of Manchester and since I had refused to join in their argument (I just wanted to google it) they decided to ask a random stranger! Well turns out that Salford IS in fact a city and apparently the only city within a city in the world and the random stranger was not just a Salford native but the owner of the lovely pub Mark Addy that Tomi had been trying to make us go to! He told us to head in there if we fancied a drink or two and then disappeared somewhere.

Doesn't it look so unassuming in the background over there? Don't be fooled, it's pretty massive! P.S. Check Tomi out, looking all cute and shit! Lol

We got inside and settled down to order our drinks and browse the food menu when we saw the owner again. He was such a friendly down-to-earth guy and came over to have a little chat with us about Salford and why he chose the name Mark Addy and then bought our first round of drinks! There's nothing more awesome than free drinks, trust me! Seeing as we were pretty hungry and just got some free drinks, I decided to ditch the diet and fill up on a sandwich and fries. This wasn't just any ordinary sandwich though, it was full of flavour and much much better than the cold stuff you get at Sainsbury's or Boots!

Tomi and Nnamdi went for the fish and chips which was quite yummy as well and Nnamdi managed to bag the very last plate of chocolate eclairs. 

Much to his chagrin I'm sure he ended up sharing this with us as soon as we smelt it! By far the best part of the meal!

We got another round of drinks, paid our bill and headed off after saying bye to our new friend (at this point he was behind the bar helping his staff pour a couple of beers, see what I mean about being down-to-earth?). It's funny how life treats you with these random little surprises from time to time you know. Who would have thought that little old me would have ever met the owner of such a popular pub and get free drinks from it! Seriously if you are ever in the area and fancy a drink definitely head there, it cost us all less than a tenner each as well! We strolled back home extremely content!

On that note, enjoy your Sunday evening guys, in a few hours the madness will start again! And don't forget to appreciate life's little moments this week.

Reni x

Food, Glorious Food!

So truly, after exams I've been such a massive foodie/fattie that it's a tad ridiculous, but it's fine. It just means extra time at the gym and I've got the situation handled, Olivia Pope style! (gosh I miss that show) anyways, moving on to the topic of this post... FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD! Is it weird that I actually sometimes sing that in my head when a plate of indescribable  delicious looking food appears before me? You will see what I mean later on.

Anyways, on the evening of my final exam of life, ever I met up with a couple of girlfriends of mine that were all doing the same undergraduate course as me in Manchester, the perfect plan would have been to go out and get smashed like the 20-somethings that we are but instead we decided to have a nice grown up dinner since most of them are working now and it was a weeknight, boringgg. Haha, I kid. I don't really like getting smashed.

After much hassle, we settled on Smoak Bar & Grill for our catch up, it's the restaurant that's in the Malmaison hotel right by the train station and can I just say that this was the best decision anyone could have ever made? We started off with some Cosmos and Mojitos to get everyone feeling relaxed and chilled out and then had some chicken lollipops for starters. I really didn't expect to actually have my chicken on lollipop sticks.. It was quite an odd experience actually and it makes sharing a little difficult, sadly I don't remember the different types of chicken they had on there but there was definitely some Satay and Teriyaki in that mix.

Doesn't the Cosmo look so angelic? haha

Now that everyone was suitably relaxed, we did what girls do best and had a nice old fashioned gossip sesh about any and everything under the sun, from boyfriends to ex-coursemates to holidays and parties and I heard some pretty juicy details! Wouldn't you want to know? Sure you would! Ha!

Have I mentioned the service at this place yet? It is amazing, quite literally the best I've ever experienced anywhere in Manchester, the staff were formal yet friendly, the meals were very well presented and we were never left wanting for anything. They were slightly slow in bringing the food but that was because a large party of about 10 had come in just before us, boo! Now the moment I'm sure you've all been waiting for... What did I have to eat.. 

Sing it with me now; FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD! I don't even know where to begin describing this burger! I remember looking at the menu and deciding that I would have some steak or a regular burger when the waitress came by our table to tell us about the specials that they had for the day. She started describing this burger called the Louisiana and she had me at hello! Something something beef, with such and such done to it, cheese and blah blah sauce and a hearty helping of PEANUT BUTTER! Yup, you read that right, and my goodness was it the most divine thing I have ever tasted! I use the word divine a lot right? No, this burger takes the cake, the ice cream and the cherry on top! It also came with sweet potato fries and onion rings. One of my friends had the steak with some peppercorn sauce and she said it was the best steak she had ever had in her entire life and she's as addicted to steak as I am to my burgers!

Sadly I didn't get pictures of anyone else's food, I didn't want to be 'that guy' at the table that wouldn't stop snapping away! But I did get a few shots of the girls afterwards and everyone looked nice and full and satisfied!

It was such a lovely evening with these lot and we were one of the last tables to leave because we just wouldn't stop talking! Sadly, there was no room for dessert this time, after all that food I was feeling tooo stuffed to care about any of their yummy treats! After taking a random stroll through the city centre I ended up at my friends house and spent the rest of the night getting chocolate wasted like you're supposed to after exams! Haha, the bliss!

Till next time guys!
Reni x

Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Smoak Bar and Grill, I just think they do amazing food! No one is paying me to write this but why keep this little gem all to myself? Sharing is caring after all and I do care about all of you my wonderful blog readers!

Skinny Shrimp Curry and Coconut Rice Recipe

So I got one of my favourite compliments of all time recently, the "Oh, I read your blog, I really like it" or other variation. Fellow bloggers out there will understand when I say that finding out that 'actual people' read your blog is one of the best feelings in the world, I feel like my little corner in the big big interweb is actually useful to someone and that gets me all smiley :) :) :)

The person made a comment about really liking the health/foodie posts and since I haven't done one in a little while I decided to do a recipe post, welcome to "Skinny Shrimp Curry" as done by The Londoner. (In case you haven't noticed, I'm slightly obsessed with her blog! She does post the most amazing "skinny" recipes alongside a couple of really yummy looking "not-so-skinny" ones. This particular recipe has calories only 300 calories in a big bowl! Sorry I can't come up with anything more concrete!

So let's get started with the ingredients, I've slightly modified her recipe to suit what I had in my cupboard at the time:

• Olive Oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• Piece of ginger the size of your thumb, grated
• 2-3 tbsps Hot Masala (depending on how hot you like your food)
• 2 tbsps of brown sugar
• 1 tin of plum tomatoes (blitzed quickly in the blender)
• 1 tbsp low fat greek yoghurt
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Aromat seasoning to taste (or you can use about 2 Maggi/Knorr cubes too)
• 250 g of prawns (mine were the kind that are already cooked)

• Chop the onions, grate the ginger and chop the garlic

• Heat the olive oil in a pan and then add in all the chopped ingredients, fry them in the oil until the garlic and ginger become fragrant and the onions soften and become translucent (3-5 minutes). Be careful not to let the garlic burn! Burnt garlic tastes foul!

• Add the plum tomatoes and stir it in, adding the aromat(maggi/knorr), salt, black pepper, hot masala and black pepper. You don't have to add them in all together, i find it easier to do them one at a time, tasting in between to make sure nothing becomes too overpowering.
• You will need to cook the tomatoes for a while so they lose some of their water and have a less distinctive "tomato-y" flavour. Cover your pot and leave it on medium heat for approximately 15 minutes or till you have a thick sauce. Don't forget to check back frequently.

• Because they are already cooked the prawns can be added near the end to heat them up. Then add the tbsp of greek yoghurt. I must admit I was pretty nervous about this step but it turned out to be THE best thing about the recipe! It also gives it a nice orange colour which I really liked!

The Londoner suggested eating this yummy curry on its own or with some na'an bread but being the African I am, some rice seemed necessary to eat the "stew" with! So I opted for some coconut rice which is so simple to make it barely needs a recipe!

You wash your rice to remove some of the starch, put it in a pot, open a can of coconut milk and pour it into the pot, add a sprinkling of salt and cover. Once the coconut milk has dried up you can add some more water if the rice still isn't cooked but I prefer to 'steam' the rice to softness so it doesn't lose the coconut taste. To do this I turn the heat to the lowest to prevent burning add a tiny bit of water, cover the pot firmly and leave it for a few minutes and voila! 

Serve it up and enjoy your yummy skinny shrimp curry and coconut rice whilst it's still hot! 

Voila!

Reni x

Hair and Fitness Catch-Up Session and June Goals

So at the end of March, I wrote a post called April Goals and Bloglovin Love where I wrote a list of things I would like to have achieved by the end of April, then in typical me fashion, I completely forgot to come back with an update as to how things went, I just realised I never even gave a final Insanity update! Shocking behaviour really, thanks for not calling me out guys!

So let's start with the goals from April which carried all the way through till right now because honestly, life was a bit too hectic in May to think about setting any new goals! Begin with the successes shall we?

Drink at least one litre of water a day.

Yay to this one! It's weird, i now find myself actually wanting to drink water over many other things. You might not understand the severity of this because I didn't document the time i actively tried to convince one of my best friends that I was allergic to drinking water, oh dear, the silly things I've said! Overall though I find it so much easier to think of drinking 500ml two bottles of rather than half a 2 litre bottle. Weird huh?

I mean just look at how gigantic that bottle is! The 500ml is so miniature and cute in comparison!

I know I'm nowhere near the recommended daily intake but this is a massive achievement for me :)

Try a Tea Rinse/ Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse

Ouuu this was such fun, I must admit it felt extremely weird to pour tea over my hair and I was having one of those "You know you don't have to try everything you read" moments, but I'm glad I tried it because after dousing my hair in Twinnings Green Tea and doing my regular deep condition with ORS Replenishing Conditioner, my hair felt so nice and soft, yet strong and I hardly had any shedding at all! I was amazed actually, seeing as I was at least 7 weeks post by then!

Do Two Protein Treatments

This one I did and overdid and found myself face to face with the monster that is protein overload! Lord I could have cried, I'm even a bit too embarrassed to share what I did but I would anyways. So.. here goes... don't laugh! Basically, the long and short is that after I took my weave out, I washed my hair as normal then thought to go heavy on the protein because of breakage/shedding. So I mixed two types of protein treatments. Motions Protein Reconstructor and ORS Hair Mayonnaise and then deep condition. I then spray my usual leave-in by Motions as well which contains silk amino acids, read protein. By the time my hair was dry I was almost in tears from how hard/dry/crunchy it felt. After a couple of deep conditions later that week it was back to normal-ish but I'm never doing that again! Lesson learnt.

And now the not-so-fun parts, trust me I have an excuse for each one of them but I will just take them as fails for now and try harder next time!

Apply JCBO to my edges nightly and scalp every other day

I was clearly feeling extremely optimistic when I wrote this! But the real reason it didn't happen was because I got a weave.

Have a side of veggies with lunch every day

Even more optimism! Ha!

Finish Insanity by the 7th of April

Not completing this one really hurt me but my knee was starting to act up again! I got to day 57 and could never be bothered to do the last three days after I felt better :( Here's my update on how I was doing before the setback though Insanity Month 2: It's Not a Diet, It's a Lifestyle.

Start a new workout regime including Hip Hop Abs and Swimming

This only counts as a fail because I dont actually have a regime but I have been working out loads and training for Race for Life! (more on that soon). I started the Hip Hop abs and can I just say that as an avid Shaun T fan, it sucks! Ugh, it's so boring and you do the same video everyday for 6 days or something crazy! As soon as I saw the schedule I was bored, I think I made it to day 5 or so. Some very good information about engaging your core on there though with the "Tilt, Tuck, Tighten" method, if you like relatively low impact exercise (because everything after insanity is low impact!) and want to work your abs definitely look into it though!

Random view of the pool at my gym, taken from my favourite stretch spot. There's just something so calming about water.

Whoosh! That was a pretty long review, but I guess a lot has happened since I last posted any thing mainly hair/fitness related.

Now that all this catching up is done and there's only a teeny bit left to do, I thought it'd be a good idea to make some new goals for June.

Hair

Nothing fancy here really as I'm currently 11 weeks post but my hair has been in braids for about 2 weeks now.

• Complete 16 week stretch.
• Wash hair at least once every 2 weeks.
• Moisturise every other day.

Food/Fitness

• Run 5k at least twice a week in preparation for Race for Life on the 14th of July.
• Complete the 30 Day Squat Challenge (Day 12 today, whoop!)
• Be able to plank for 90 seconds (I'm currently on a measly average of about 45).
• Pole!
• Try a new recipe or two.
• Drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day

Others

It's summer time and bar my dissertation I intend to have as much fun as possible!

• Become a 'yes' girl! Life is nothing but the experiences we make out of it!
• Use my proper camera more, it's so much better than the iPhone 5.
• Write a story or two to go on THAHW.
• Blog more after exams are over

What are some of your goals for the next 30 days?

P.S. My donation link for Race for Life is here, I'd do a separate post to give the details properly but just incase anyone already knows what is and all that and wants to donate :)

Reni x

Slightly Burger Crazy? Maybe.

So after I put up the picture of one of my cheat meals some time back in Insanity Month 2, I really started craving burgers but I wasn't allowed to eat any fast food as part of a week long exercise and clean eating challenge my friends and I put together, I shouldn't be eating fast food anyways but all those additives in the McDonalds are giving me severe withdrawal symptoms! So I decided to do something a little cheeky and make a burger, I tried as hard as possible to make it healthy without removing all the fun-ness (clearly not a word) from it! So here's how I did it, it's such a simple straight forward recipe! It looks a little long but really doesn't take that much effort! You will need:

• Lean beef mince meat (600 g makes about 6-8 burgers)
• 1 medium brown onion (chopped finely)
• Seasoning to taste(salt, ground black pepper, maggi etc.)
• 1 egg
• Burger buns (I got Kingsmill 50-50, healthy you see!)
• Veggies for the burger (I had lettuce and cucumbers, even more healthy!!)

And if you're feeling not-so-healthy add some bacon and cheese to that shopping list!

So what you do is, you put the mince, onion, egg and seasoning in a bowl and mix it all together with your hands, mashing it all up like you're playing with play-do (but you're not so be a little careful!) when it's all combined, divide them up into 6-8 patties and make them round and a little flat with your hands

Put them on a tray lined with foil (you can also use greaseproof paper), cover with cling film and put in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. This step allows the beef to 'rest' and avoids crumbly patties too making an overall more tender beef.

'Resting' Patties

Pre-heat the oven to about 200-225 degrees C and then pop your patties in. Leave them in there till the juices run clear and the meat is thoroughly cooked.

In the last 10 minutes of cooking the patties, put some bacon in the oven and allow it to grill till it's nice and a little crunchy.

Cut your burger bun open and pop in the oven for a  minute to heat it up, if you're being a bit cheeky layer the patties with cheese while they are in the oven and allow the cheese to melt all over the patty.

Bring out the buns and the cheesy patties. Lay your veggies on the bottom bun, followed by the patty and then the bacon and lastly the top half of the bun. Don't forget the ketchup!

Serve with a side of fries/salad, on it's own or even deconstructed (no buns) and enjoy!

Yummy!

Definitely went in on the food! Plate is very nearly licked clean!

And if you feel bad when you're done be like me and have some fruit! LOL.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe, let me know if you try it or have any other ideas on how to make the burger even more delicious by dropping a comment in the box below.

See ya!

Reni x

Insanity Month 2: It's Not A Diet, It's a Lifestyle!

Hey beautiful people,

So I thought maybe it's time for another update on Insanity and how it's all going. Well I'd start by saying month 2 is whooping my ass! My goodness, in the first week my body was so sore, I could barely move! My calf muscles ached, my thighs were burning, everything you can imagine aching, was aching... So awful! But now I'm in the third week and even though the workout is still as intense it's not so bad anymore. Two of the workouts are about an hour long so waking up early enough to do them before lectures has been a task, I start at 9am most days so that would mean waking up at 6.45 to start working out so I can be in the shower by 7.45/8.00. Anyone that knows me knows that getting out of bed before 8 is such a problem, so I do them mostly when I get home just before bed instead.

Before I started month 2 I was complaining to my friend that I wasn't seeing any differences in my body and blah blah but finally that is changing slowly but surely, I feel so much better and more confident, clothes are fitting better and I even lost 3-4 kg as well! So yeah, Insanity is doing me justice finally! Also my fit test results have really been improving (except the suicide jumps/burpees I can't do them to save my life). Basically the fit test is where you do each of the moves below in one minute and see how many you can get while maintaining good form! I have only 1 more left, hopefully there will be even more improvement!

Move	Fit Test 1	Fit Test 2	Fit Test 3	Fit Test 4
1. Switch Kicks	52	94	100	102
2. Power Jacks	31	38	46	53
3. Power Knees	45	78	87	108
4. Power Jumps	7	17	28	43
5. Globe Jumps	5	6	7	8
6. Suicide Jumps	9	9	9	10
7. Push-Up Jacks	8	14	19	27
8. Low Plank Oblique	29	24	35	45

I've learnt so much about correct form with exercise and I've been modifying some moves so there's less impact on my knees. Anyways, enough with the bragging and trumpet blowing (but if I don't do it then who will?!) here's some stuff that I've found has helped me so far in my journey to a healthier body.

• Eating breakfast; usually people don't eat because they aren't hungry or there isn't enough time but the longer you take to eat after you wake up, the more likely it is that your body will go into starvation mode and start holding on to fat, obviously a big no-no. So I've been trying to get out of bed 10 minutes earlier so I have enough time to make a Quick Smoothie or have some cereal before uni.

• Eating 3-4 times a day; same sort of theory as before, it's better to keep your metabolism running through the day than have long periods of no/junk food then one massive meal to compensate. When I was being really good, which has been so much more difficult of late, I'd have a smoothie around 9, 'light lunch' at 12.30, lunch again at 3/4 and then dinner at 7, 8 at the very latest and try not to eat anything really carb heavy like rice/pasta after 4.

• Setting weekly/monthly goals; for me this is such a great motivator, just trying to reach the goals always motivates me to continue, and finding people; friends or otherwise, to hold you accountable when you slip up is always a good way to ensure you at least try and stay on track. I have a really good buddy system going on right now with two friends, we hold each other accountable for working out and also clean eating without being judgemental.

• Having a cheat day or two; nothing much to say on this one except we are human beings with weaknesses and sometimes we just want that little bit extra love to come from our food!

Just look at these bad boys from Home Sweet Home! "Sweet Carolina" burger with fully loaded fries on top and the massive Chilli Dog with sweet potato fries below! Amazing!

It's not a diet or a phase, it's a lifestyle! Trying to change your lifestyle and incorporate some form of clean eating/regular exercise into it now means not having to do it at 40! For some more tips look up the Anti Diet by the Londoner, she has some really good advice on there and even though I just found it I'm already addicted! It's charm is in the simplicity. Here's to conquering the last week and a half of Insanity! How are you guys doing with working out and eating good? Any other helpful tips for me? Let me know in the comments box.