Thursday 29 May 2014

warm corn and quorn salad



A weekend of eating cold sandwiches, raw carrots, and oat breakfast biscuits will leave you feeling distinctly hungry for good food. In my case that was anything warm, anything fresh and definitely something that involved a little bit of time in the kitchen.

I settled on a grilled corn and quorn salad with honey and mustard dressing, as that filled the fresh category. The corn and quorn “chicken” pieces keep it warm. I spent an hour dancing around the kitchen with the sister whipping this one up, a great chance to have a catch up while getting some delicious food.

You won’t need an hour to make this though – we were just being slow and enjoy the kitchen time.

First things first go grab your ingredients.

For the salad:

Baby leaves – spinach, lambs’ lettuce, red lettuce, red chard, and rocket
Small sweet peppers
Baby corn
Sugar snap peas
Quorn chicken pieces (obviously you can use regular chicken)
Chilli kidney beans

For the dressing:

Wholegrain mustard
Honey
Olive oil
Cider vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Sugar

First, start by making the dressing. Fill a small jar about a quarter full with the olive oil and vinegar. Add a spoonful of wholegrain mustard and the same of honey. Season with salt, pepper and add a pinch of sugar to help everything combine. Stick the lid on the jar and give it a good shake to mix.

For the salad, begin with the quorn. Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the quorn chicken pieces fry them lightly for around ten minutes. Next add half the jar of chilli kidney beans to the frying pan and leave to warm through.

Place the baby quorn and sugar snap peas under the grill on a low heat so as to just warm them through.

Next, chop the peppers into small pieces and we are ready to plate up.

Into a bowl add the baby leaves, followed by the quorn pieces with chilli beans. Next top with the peppers, grilled corn and sugar snap peas. Drizzle your dressing over the top and you are ready to go.



It’s simple and easy, but filling and just warming enough for a light lunch or summer meal. We couldn’t stop exclaiming about how healthy we were feeling the whole time we were eating – although that could be down to our normal diet of pizza and fajitas. I can see this easily becoming a go to meal when I’m in a rush for something nice and quick to eat this summer.

Have you got a go to summer meal? 


Wednesday 28 May 2014

Humpday Confessions

Its been a crazy past few weeks with trips away, more birthdays than a maternity ward and two of our biggest events at work last week. Spending the weekend working a fantastic festival was both a blessing and a curse. Who doesn't love good company, good music and good fun.. but then again after three weeks of hectic I was pleased to be crawling into bed Monday night knowing I had the best part of a week off. 

And like all sensible people, because clearly I am one of those? I am using this week to get back into my blogging groove and today I’m jumping on the hump day confessions band wagon and linking up with Kat over at Vodka and Soda. I’ve loved reading everyone’s confessions each week and, well; it felt like the right time for me to get my confess-on!

This is what my worlds been filled with lately - tubes, plans, screw drivers
and endless cups of tea

I confess… I’ve been struggling to stay on top of blogging the past few weeks; work is just too darn good at getting in the way of fun stuff.

I may have also accidentally blogged twice today… but only because I forgot to post until stupid o’clock last night. #bloggerfail.

I confess… That I’ve spent all day staring at a pile of very muddy washing and eating cake. I’m considering keeping it as a piece of modern art.

Camping - clearly not my strong suit.

I confess… That I spent an hour trying to put up that bright pink, flowery, 2 man tent this weekend. I failed.

A 12 year old girl put it up in 5 minutes. #suchshame.

I confess… there was a fair amount of mold in one corner. Apparently washing/drying tents is a thing people do. Oops!


I am gonna miss this puppy face oh so much!

I confess... I leave for America in 22 days and I’ve not even thought about packing. Or insurance. Or money. Or really any of those grown up stuff.

Oh and I am stumped on the swimwear for camp situation. I mean I understand what modest means, but WHERE ON MOTHER EARTH does one find modest swimwear, shorts, t-shirts that don’t make me look like I’m 900 years olds.

I confess… that this was totally short and sweet, but this girls got to get back to the cake.. and prodding my new artwork to check for spiders.


Vodka and Soda

Czeching it out - Nove Hrady Travel Journal

Wow. My adventures in the Czech Republic feel like a long time ago now. I'm aware that I returned a mere 2 weeks ago, but somehow the last 2 weeks feel more like months and I'm realizing if I don't hurry up and organise my photos and ramblings sometime soon it's going to become forgotten in a blur.

I read somewhere that our generations memory is getting worse and worse. It makes sense though, If we're not sure about something, we have our phones. No need to remember for ourselves.

Does that make my memory redundant? 

I enjoy having memories. Anyway, i'm rambling, speaking of memories. 

Last week I was all excited by Prague, a big, beautiful, bustling city that throws up something new and exciting around every corner. I was so grateful to get that weekend to explore the city, not only was it a total bonus as part of a conference I was attending but it provided the perfect contrast to my time in Nove Hrady the following week.

Nove Hrady, Czech for new castle, was the perfect host for the Newcastles of the World Conference 2014. The conference held every two years allows councillors, businessmen, young people and professionals from cities of Newcastle around the world to meet and share best practices on a range of issues from youth unemployment and opportunities, to culture and tourism.

So without further ado, lets start on Monday morning outside a hotel in the outskirts of Prague. Myself and the other UK delegates were picked up by a bus full of delegates from cities around the world and were driven the 3 hours to Nove Hrady, South Bohemia (one of two in Czech Republic).

We arrived in the quaint town to banners in the street and the most fabulous welcome gala, complete with classical concert, free mimosas, and a room full of new friends.


Tuesday morning was spent getting to know our work groups and the various Newcastles in attendance. We then had the opportunity to explore the town. I say town, we were told it was a town, but with less than 3000 people I found it hard to believe considering I live in a village of over 1000 people at home in England. 





The town is truly beautiful and our evening was spent at the old castle where we were treated to an amazing medieval evening, complete with band, reenactments and a performance tour of the exhibits by students from a local high school.

Sometimes when you're in a castle you just need to pose and pout!

Wednesday saw us getting down to some real work and discussing the issues most important in our areas. Of course we had to then take a few selfies before heading to the Austrian border and the iron curtain museum. Having studied the cold war from a primrily American perspective at college, getting the opportunity to hear about that period from people who grew up just miles from the border was fascinating and a highlight of my trip.






As Nove Hrady was practically walking distance from Austria we spent Thursday afternoon climbing Mandelstein hill. Given the beautiful sunshine we'd had the day before nobody worried too much about coats for the hike despite the day looking a little over cast. BIG MISTAKE - minutes after reaching the summit we were faced with torrential rain and halestones. 7 umbrellas between 80 people does not work well and pretty soon I'd decided to just suck it up and accept the wet walk back to the coach.


The rain kindly stuck around for Friday, but with a full day planned in Cesky Krumlov - a UNESCO world heritage site - I was not going to let it get me down. Despite the over cast sky the town lived up to its reputation as a page straight out of a fairytale. Gorgeous winding streets and a beautiful castle, surrounded by a softly flowing river and filled with hundreds of tiny toy stores selling hand crafted goods. 







On the final day we were taken to the Nove Hrady in Eastern Bohemia on our return to Prague. If I had found our host town for the week small, this village was tiny. Although perhaps, even more beautiful. The majority of the surrounding land belongs to the castle's owners and they aim to maintain it as a site of natural beauty.




And to top it off, the grounds of the castle had the largest bike museum in the Czech Republic. A random but true fact, so... lets leave it here with a few photos of me and some bikes. 



Wednesday 21 May 2014

That's so me..


The other day I was talking to a friend I’d not seen in a fair while and, as usual - Since it would seem you can’t speak to me for more than 10 minutes without it coming up - I was telling him with unabashed excitement about my summer plans. I ranted happily about how I would be working in a school all summer, and before I could even get onto the joy at having a month to travel the states at the end he jumped in and said with total certainty ‘That is SO you. You’ll love it.’


He was right. It is, and I will. Well I hope I will. But I found myself feeling just a little annoyed, how could one thing be quite so instantly recognizably me. Surely there were a thousand different things that could all be equally me and not me all at the same time. I am more excited than I’ve ever been for this summer to arrive, it does feel so me but equally it feels like someone nothing like me is doing, like a Molly from an alternate universe is really the one going to camp. Because, let’s be honest, I don’t feel in anyway together enough to be heading off for 3 months of work on another continent.

I’m 21 and it scares me that people can fit me into neat categories in their heads. I know that to certain people I’m one of many shapes, but still I fit that shape in their head. I’m frequently seen as the trainee teacher, the young carer, the volunteer, the youth worker, the daughter, the friend. They’re all true and correct, but on their own they each feel a little alien. Like it could almost be true, but the shoe doesn’t quite fit.

I’m beginning to realise that I’m more of a collection of pieces, a jigsaw if you will. I’m all those things that people perceive and many more that perhaps don’t shine so obviously in my day to day life. In fact, in my confusion and exploration of all those things people say are so me, and all those that feel very me to me, I began to list all those things that I could say truly were so me.

A traveller. And a home bird.

A girl who wants to learn, anything and everything.

An introvert. Yet still, a little of an extrovert.

A lover of spontaneity, yet a hater of changed plans.

A rule follower. Perhaps to a fault.

A seeker of experiences.

A friend to anyone in need.

A kid at heart. Sometimes just a kid in general.

An artist. On some level at least.

Someone looking to do right.

A 21 year old still discovering what she wants. What she is. And what she could be.


I’m a patchwork of things, all of which could be so very very me, but that me changes daily and I find myself looking at all the other things I could be. Should I know now what is me? I don’t know how to begin to know what is me and what is the person I want to be. How much of what is perceived to be me is merely other people’s expectations? Or perhaps their expectations exist purely because I’m already on my way?


Wednesday 14 May 2014

Czeching it out - Prague Photo Essay

So last week I was over the moon to get to spend some time exploring the Czech Republic. I spent a weekend in Prague, eating in beautiful cafes, walking around the castle district and just taking in the beautiful scenery and architecture that is so typically Prague. I then spent a week in the quaint and gorgeous small town of Nove Hrady in South Bohemia just next to the Austrian Border. I doubt I would have ever really explored South Bohemia of my own accord and never would have found Nove Hrady, But I'm so glad I got the chance to.

My trip to the Czech Republic was all part of the Newcastles of the World conference 2014, and was a fantastic opportunity to spend time with old friends and new, as well as discuss issues effecting young people in towns across the world. Every time I've attended the conference I've found myself coming away amazed at the skills I have learnt and developed, and the ideas I've gained from such interesting people. It's definitely a week that makes me proud to not only be a Geordie, but to be part of the Newcastles' family.

I’ve got so much I want to tell you about the trip, both about the conference and the places I’ve visited that I’ve decided to split it between a few posts. Prague was just so beautiful, and I was lucky to visit with some rare April sunshine so here are a few of my favourite photos.


















Monday 5 May 2014

Monthly Magic Moments: May

So it's been over 2 month since my last magic moments post. Originally I planned on posting weekly giving myself 7 goals to induce 7 moments of happiness in the following week. Well life and computers and a little bit of plain old laziness got in the way and here we have it... Monthly Magic Moments, the May edition. (Can we all just forget about April, yeah.)

The aim is to use my mini magic moment goals to remind myself to stop and smile every once in a while. I've not managed to complete all of my challenges over the month but I've definitely got moments to be thankful for.

The magic moments gone by.



The past month I've really jumped back on the horse food wise. I'd gotten pretty lazy about cooking, never trying new dishes or putting any effort in. Hello pasta and freezer meals. But having challenged myself to try a brand new recipe I found myself loving being in the kitchen again. I started by making mini nutella muffins which I hadn't made since uni and then got inspired by all the spinach meals out there and made this spinach soup which was rather yummy even if I do say so myself.


Meeting up with two of my best friends, in London was definitely a highlight of the month. Taking a break from work, or uni in their cases and spending time just being our silly selves for 24 hours was oh so very refreshing. It reminded me that it with true friends it doesn't matter when or how often you see them, as long as when you do it feels like it always has. Our London adventure also allowed me try out a couple of brand new cafes I'd never been to before which was fantastic. I like nothing better than to pick something from an unknown menu and sit back and have a gossip in a brand new place. Sure, I have my old faithfuls that I love to go back to time and time again but if i'm on holiday you can guarantee I won't be going to the same place twice!  




As you might have gathered from my super excited Friday letters a couple of weeks back I've spent a week in Czech Republic attending the Newcastles of the World conference in Nove Hrady, South Bohemia. There's so much I want to say about the trip but I should probably save that for a future post! But it's safe to say this past week has definitely been magical. I've got to travel and explore, meet fantastic young people from all across the world, and debate issues facing young people working solidly towards solutions with support of adults from our cities. Sitting on the coach to the airport now I am feeling more empowered to go back and mark to make a change than I have felt in a very long time.

Magic moments mini goals:

- take a moment at least once a week to message new friends from Nove Hrady and other Newcastles. Not only will it strengthen and maintain international friendships but in doing so I can help to friends with their English studies.

- RUN! Like seriously, just put my trainers on and run for as little as two minutes. I've been saying that I would do this for months and since starting this blog I have managed just one run. 

- go shopping for supplies for Camp America, even if it's silly things like bobbles and hair grips, I am so excited for the summer and if I can prepare slowly and steadily over the next few weeks it will stop me having a mad panic the week before I leave.

- spend a day with family. I've been so busy lately that I've hardly seen my parents and I am massively craving some down time with the fam.

With that I'm gonna leave it there. Another short and sweet one I'm afraid but blogging from a bus is not the easiest and I'm so tired I only want to set myself sleep as a goal... Which I really don't need to be a goal as sleeping is all I plan on doing for a solid day when I get home!

I promise to get my blogging butt back in shape this week and let you know why I've been quite so MIA for a few weeks. I should be blogging more from now, but I'm finding it pretty hard to balance my blogging, work, and just plain health lately so give me time as I want to be back blogging on the reg as soon as possible!!

Much love, molls <3