17th Birthday Celebrations 2016 - Simple ways to Celebrate

 If you have been following me on Instagram (which you can do here), it was my birthday last month and I have finally had time to get this post up.

 

I had a great week (because if your anything like me you would take advantage of the fact that your birthday only happens once a year and celebrate it for the whole week because you can) - which mostly consisted of cake, food and chocolate!

 

Sometimes I am lost for ideas on how to celebrate birthdays but I've learnt that sometimes keeping it simple it the best option.

 

So what are the ways  that you can celebrate turning 17?

 

- Go out with friends for a cheeking Nandos - I recommend you going for the Churrasco Thigh Burger which is a chicken burger with cheddar cheese, coleslaw (I thought it was weird but it taste pretty good) and salad. I added extra avocado and I can tell you now it was the most satisfying meal with a portion of Piri Piri salted chips

 

- Celebrate with Wilton's Cake - In my area Wilton's is a baker renowned for its cakes and sweet treats. I got the half milk, half white chocolate cake which was very rich, amazing quality and perfect for all you sweet toothed girls and boys out there

 

- Take your first driving lesson - If you haven't started driving yet you really ought to. My family booked me a 2 hr lesson as a surprise on my birthday, I was a little nervous but it was so lovely to have a drive around on a sunny Sunday morning.

 

- See friends you haven't seen in a while because you realise how much you miss them and it makes your day a  whole lot better

 

- Dance - You heard me, just shut your self in your room, put on your earphones and let it all out if your not having a party ( there are so many birthday songs to choose from and they are all made for your special day)

 

- Watch a  comedy / your favourite movie - It is great to have a laugh around the television with your family in the evening

 

- Be grateful - An amazing day can pass just like that but if your grateful for every minute of it, you will remember and cherish your birthday with all the great people around you more than if you just let it pass and complain that you have not been doing anything exciting

 

Let me know what special things that you like to do on your birthday. Does your mum have a special recipes she likes to bang out for everyone or have you had any surprises that have particularly blown your mind?

 

Priyanka xx

Boroline Antiseptic Cream

 Scars, Dry Skin, Lips, Cuts, Grazes? Is your usual cream just not doing the job? Then you definitely haven't heard about Boroline.

 

Trust me, my family use this cream for pretty much everything skin related because it actually works!

We usually bring lots of tubes back from India when we go because its cheaper and UK stores don't sell it (but fortunately amazon do).

 

Boroline is an antiseptic white cream and has a slight perfumed smell to it which I don't mind. I really believe that it does what it says; it kills of bacteria and dries up the skin to allow it to heal faster.

 

I like to use a small amount all over my face as a night cream because I have acne scars and spots which means that Boroline hopefully should fight off the bacteria from spots and help the scars heal better.

 

Also, it is a great moisturiser for your skin, elbows, lips and knees and perfect for cuts and grazes.

 

I haven't tried or heard of any other product in the UK that could replace this cream but if you know of any, please let me know. Otherwise, I would recommend that you tried a tube from Amazon because it is SO handy to keep in your house as you will never know when you might need it!

 

Let me know if you liked the cream if you did buy it and any other uses you have found for it.

 

Priyanka xx

Mango, Banana Oatmeal ft The Wild Peanut Chocolatey

THE WILD PEANUT CHOCOLATEY IS THE BAE.

 

Just saying to y'all who haven't tried this peanut butter you have been missing out on life. You know that whole in your heart, well it's this that you have been missing your whole life.

 

And the best way I could ever breakfast is by putting all my favourite sweet goods together into one bowl... and dear ones, here I will show you exactly how to do it Priyanka-style 'fist pumps with a massive grin on her face'.

 

 

My question to you is do you like peanut butter, bananas, chocolate, mangos, breakfast, sunshine, pretty food photos that make you happy?

 

Then a) keep reading... and b) you and I have way to much in common not to be friends

Ingredients:

 

- 1/4 Cup Oats

- 1 tsp. Chia Seeds/ Hemp Seeds

- Water / Soya Milk to cook the oats (or other Non-Diary Milk)

-Cinnamon 

 

 Toppings :

 

- 1/2 coined Banana

- 1 tbsp. of The Wild Peanut Chocolaty

- 1/4 Chopped Mango and pulp  (if unavailable use tinned mangos but these unfortunately usually  have added sugars) 

- Few blueberries

- Desiccated Coconuts

- 3-4 almonds 

 

Method:

 

- Cook your oats as you would, I usually add hemp seeds/ chia seeds, a sprinkle of cinnamon and use soya milk to cook the oats in the microwave for 2 minutes (a minute at a time adding more milk if needed).  Feel free to cook more oats but I thought that the toppings made this a filling breakfast.

 

-When your oatmeal if cooked, chop 1/2 a banana into coins and place on the side of the bowl on top of the oatmeal. Alternatively you can fry bananas with honey in a small frying pan and add this to your oatmeal instead.

 

-Mix up The Wild Peanut Chocolaty with a spoon as the honey, natural oil and peanut usually separate

 

- Add I tsp. of the nut butter and place on the centre of the bowl (remember to lick the spoon of course!)

 

-  Add the mango, almonds, blueberries and coconuts beautifully on top .

 

-Take a snap of your breakfast and tweet it to me/ tag me in your Instagram photo because I would honestly LOVE to see it! 

 

Take a spoon and enjoy the bliss.

 

Now that feels like freedom right?

 

I really hope that you enjoy this recipe and try it out. The one thing that is killing me at the moment is the fact that I can't find anywhere that sells The Wild Peanut near me. Asda used to but for some crazy reason they stopped.... I think they wanted to act in my best interest to kill my addiction because it was getting pretty unhealthy anyways...

 

Let me know how you like your chocolate peanut butter and any of your favourite breakfast recipes would be appreciated in the comments below!

Priyanka xx

Nutella Rocky Road Croissant Recipe

Ingredients:

- 1 Large Croissant (I recommend Costco, they seriously have the best!)

- Nutella (as much or as little as your heart desires)

-Mini marshmallows

- Cookies

- 1/2 Banana

 

Method:

-Preheat your oven on low, the croissants will become crispy easily so high heat may cause it to burn.

- Cut your croissant side ways so it forms a 'pocket'

- Spread Nutella on the bottom half of the croissant, making sure you get all  the edges covered

- Crumble 1 - 2 cookies and place on top of the Nutella

- Sprinkle marshmallows over the cookies and close the 'pocket' shut (BEWARE: This can be messy!)

- Place the Croissant on tin foil on a baking tray and place in the oven.

- Leave the croissant for 6 minutes and keep checking to see how crisp you would like it

- Optional: Chop the banana into coined pieces and stuff into the croissant near the top after you have taken it out of the oven to stop them from 'melting' in any way

 

-Serve immediately on a plate and enjoy with ice cream!

 

Dessert is intentionally made easy, trust me when cravings hit, they hit hard and chocolate is all that you heart desires...

 

Hope you liked this recipe and make sure you check out my post here on a great savoury use of you croissants. What are your favourite uses of Nutella? Let me know below!

 

Priyanka xx

Transition into Year 12 and New School: Top 10 Do's and Dont's

 

 

 1) DO be yourself: Be exactly who you are and say thing that you actually believe. If you don't agree with something, voice your own opinion. There is nothing worse than loosing who you really are for something that you want to be because in the end it is you who is going to be miserable and you who won't be expressing you shine to others; this means that everyone looses out.

 

2) DON'T follow the crow. You are unique and you were put in the situation you are now for a reason. You might not think it but other people need your energy, enthusiasm and your own personality in order to boost them up and for them to also make new friends (that they will be able to count on both in the classroom and in your leisure  time).

 

3)DO be independent. If you need to bust out some work during lunch, break or in your free periods don't be afraid to leave your friends for the library. This is great because it makes you independent and helps you focus on your work so that you can complete more work faster. Also, you will enjoy being around your friends more because you value the time you spend with them given that you don't spend ALL your time alone because then you wont be able to build on realtionships.

 

4) DO stick with people instead of jumping around. For the first couple of weeks look around for people and keep out a sneaky ear on gossip. Who are your current potential friends? Who do you want to become friends with? What type of people do you like being around? What type of social life do you want? These are all important questions when trying to join a friendship group who may have already known each other for 5 years.

 

5) DON'T worry about being left out of friendship groups. They may have been friends for a long time and of course you are going to feel a little out of place - its natural. Just remember to always involve yourself in conversations and input value into a group of friends. This way they can begin to learn about you faster and know that you are a growing friend in the long run.

 

6) DON'T continuously make small talk. Hi, how are you? How was you weekend? How many siblings do you have? Yes, this is a starting point to having valuable conversations but sometimes people don't really care. You should instead try and open up conversations beginning with stories (say about you terrible weekend) and let this energy be something that they can bounce off from. If you ask a simple yes/no question the likely hood of you getting a dull answer back is much greater.

 

7) DO make friends with people from your classes. Think about girls/boys in your class  that you would like to be friends with and chat after class when walking back to the common room. This way you can sit with them at break or lunch and make friends with his/her friends. There you go, a little more people beginning to know who your are.

 

8) DO review all you work, all the time. Revising everything at one go isn't going to be efficient. Instead try and go over topics as you go along so at the end of the day you know more and can focus on practice papers and weaknesses you may have.

 

9) DO practice your time management skills. Do you have anything after school? Then you may need to finish your work in you free. Do you have long commutes to school everyday? Then try and go over your notes/finish your homework on the bus journey to you can do other things later on.

 

10) DON'T stress. Yes, easy to say but when it comes to it and need to keep you head ON. As in if you having difficulty with something and have been trying for ages, leave it and ask someone who knows such as a teacher. That's what they are there for, simply to remove mental 'blocks'. Try not to think to much about everything because really things may change and unexpected things might happen so instead be PRESENT (not in your head) and concentrate on your work from the beginning because its tough so your best of starting right now.

Breath, relax, keep calm and work hard. Remember A levels are NOT like GCSEs. People say it all the time but you don't really realise the extent of their comment until you ACTUALLY start doing the course...trust me on that one!

 

I hope you all the best of luck with starting new schools and A Levels. If you have any questions about anything regarding school I am more than happy to answer you questions/ write a post on it. Seriously, I have made so many mistakes that I have learnt from over the first term of school in September about friendship groups, being a newbie and stress that I am an expert in the field (almost anyways, because everyone always makes new mistakes). So, DONT be afraid to ask away!

 

Priyanka xx

Cheesy, Scrambled Egg Croissant

 If your family is anything like mine, and tend to always shop in Costco, you might have many (strangely large) croissants in the kitchen.

 

 Now, I have something quite special and exciting you can do with those guys...

 

Ingredients:

 

- 1 Large Croissant (I got mine from Costco which are freshly baked)

- 2 Eggs

- Milk

- Spinach

- 1/2 onion (optional)

- Cheese (I used Red Leicester Cheese)

- Olive  Oil (for cooking eggs)

 

- Sauces -Mayo, Ketchup (optional)

-Cucumber / salad for sides

-Spices of your choice (salt, pepper, chilly powder etc.)

 

Method:

 

-Preheat the oven to your standard temperature

- In a bowl whisk 2 eggs together with spices, finely chopped onions and a large splash of milk (this will help the scrambled eggs become fluffy)

-  In a medium frying pan heat olive oil and then begin to add small quantities of the egg mixture at a time whilst you keep scramblifying  (aka breaking up) the egg. Continue this until you have used all the egg mixture and your scrambled egg is fully cooked.

- Cut your croissant sideways to form a 'pocket'

- Carefully fill your pocket with your scrambled egg and sprinkle as much cheese as you like on top of the egg 

- When you have finished filling your croissant, press down and place in the oven for approximately 6-7 minutes. Keep checking your oven because you don't want anything to burn!

 

Hopefully after you have taken your croissant out of the oven it is crispy and the cheese has melted.

Serve hot on a plate with salad and sauce and enjoy!

Let me know if you enjoyed this recipe. How do you like to eat your croissants? Plain, with ham and cheese or sweet with Nutella bananas and marshmallows?

 

Priyanka xx