29 Things That Make Me Happy: Summer and Autumn

Day 8...

The seasons of the year

Especially Summer and Autumn! For me, Winter is just too cold, I've spent most of my life in weather that permanently stays above 25 degrees C, there was just no getting used to anything less than about 12 degrees. And although Spring is lovely because all the flowers bloom again, it just doesn't hold the same magic for me as Autumn.

Summer is filled with days at the beach, on beautiful holiday resorts, skimpy clothing, cool sunglasses, sandals, laughter, cocktails (Can someone say "yes" to a nice glass of Pimms?) and just generally feeling sun-kissed and alive. Also don't you find that good weather really brings out the best in people? Everyone just seems happier and lighter and free!

And of course, as a September baby I was born in the beauty of the orange trees, I love watching the leaves change colour on the trees, you get such lovely shades of yellows, oranges, reds and browns and Autumn always comes just in time, when you're getting a little bit too tanned and are just starting to tire of mini dresses and short shorts. 

One of the most perfect Autumn trees ever, found in York when I went to visit my brother in mid-October.

After moving to Nigeria I think I'd miss the seasons a lot actually, we only have 2 here, rainy season which lasts from about April till October and dry season which takes up the rest of the year from November till March. I'm not yet sure which one I prefer because I haven't really experienced the dry season since I moved back so I'm in a neutral space right now.

What's your favourite season of the year?

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

Manicure Madness: Fails of the Month!

With my last exam merely days away one would think I would be a whole lot more focused and spending every spare moment at the books, getting ready to shoot the exam out of the water! And while I am indeed getting ready to go HAM in the exam, I get so frustrated/bored studying the same thing over and over again! Plus it's the weekend and I really just want summer to be here already! 

So I was busy listening to an audio-capture of one of my previous lectures when I realised that I could listen and paint my nails at the same time without being told off by anyone! Not that I've ever tried to do this in an actual lecture, but I can imagine the looks of utter disdain everyone else in the room will be casting me, after all, engineers dont care about those things... Ha, such lies! Or maybe I'm not a proper engineer. The long and short is that I care about my nails and decided to paint them a nice bright colour to get me out of the laziness funk I've been in.

I've been spending some time on pinterest and seeing all sorts of crazy nail art so I decided to give it a go myself. Before you scroll down can I just say that this was kind of an epic fail and I can't wait to have a proper manicure after exams are over!

So this was the beginning of my first attempt. It's called 'Fairy Cake' by 17. I love the colour because it's so pink and girly! Clearly I have a problem with holding the brush still but that's another story! 

This is how it turned out after I tried to add a different colour to it. This was initially meant to be pink and green but the green nail polish was too faint to go over the bold pink properly and since I had already started I decided to go all punk like and rock some black. The black in this picture is called 'Night Shade' also by 17.

This is the green nail polish I was talking about earlier 'Juicy' yet again by 17. Actually pretty much all of my nail polish is by 17! They are a nice budget brand seeing as most times I can't be bothered to do my nails I figured there's no point investing in OPI and the likes... yet. I also really like this colour! This is after two coats though and it's still a bit see through but never mind, its still a winner.

Look how crooked those lines are! Lol. Apparently I was meant to leave the tape on until the polish dried not hastily take it off and hope for magic to happen!

It is nice and straight on my thumb though. Unfortunately I dont remember what this red nail polish was called and I can't seem to find the bottle anywhere! I will update when I do though.

Unfortunately I was very disappointed with my 'watermelon' nails and I decided to just go over the green bits in red instead! I think I should just stick to one colour for a little while but I will definitely be giving these manicures a shot again soon!

P.S. This post has been edited so many times because when I first started writing it I hadn't even had my first exam yet! So I'm sorry if there are some mixed up tenses but I have proof-read it though. I cannot believe I am finally done with exams! All I can think is yipeeeeee! :) So much has happened since I finished on Tuesday, my poor blog can barely keep up with my now fast paced life!

Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine this weekend!

Ciao, Reni x