Books I’m going to read this year.

I love books.
You knew that already though, right?
Since I started university in 2009, I have had barely any time to read books of my own choice; they have all been for my course.  As my graduation looms closer and closer, I am getting excited about all the books I can read because I want to, not because I have to.  However, I am glad that this course has pushed me to read books I would probably have never even considered picking up.  It can only be a good thing.
There are some books I have been wanting to read for ages, and I am hoping that by the end of 2012 I can add them to my book list (see the tab at the top of this page).

1.  One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

I’ve seen a fantastic production of this novel at The Curve theatre in Leicester.  I’ve owned the book for about a year now; I bought it in a charity shop in Leeds, just haven’t had the time to read it yet.

2.  1984

This is one of those books I feel I should definitely have already read by now, but alas, I’ve never got around to it.

3.  The Help

I’ve had this book on my Kindle for months now, but again, uni reading has taken over.  I really look forward to this one, as I have heard great things.  I’ve not seen the film, as I hate to watch the movie before reading the book.  Sometimes I don’t stick to this rule (read on…)

4.  We Need To Talk About Kevin

Once again, I already own this book, but it’s gathering dust on my shelf.  I have seen the movie adaptation, and thought it was brilliant.  People who read the book first weren’t too impressed with the film though, so perhaps after reading the book I will feel differently.

 
5.  Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

I am very, very excited to read this book.  I’ve never read anything by Jonathan Safran Foer, but I have heard he is a brilliant author.  I really do not want to see the movie until I’ve read this book, so maybe it will get bumped up to number one on my list.

What books are you planning to read in 2012?

All photos from Google.co.uk

Easy healthy pizza [Recipe]

Hello hello.
I will start by once again apologising for my infrequent posting of late.  Last week my laptop took a turn for the worse, and by Tuesday evening the screen wasn’t working at all.  It is now with the lovely people at Apple, who are fixing it up for me (free of charge, woohoo!  Say what you want about Apple and their products, but I believe you truly get what you pay for, and their customer service is second to none).  It will probably be a week until I get it back, so don’t expect much from me in the near future.
[Edit: five minutes after I posted this, I got a call from the Apple store to say my computer is ready for pick up.  I only left it in yesterday and they said they'd have to order parts in.  I am impressed!]

I am borrowing Jay’s computer to post this quick little recipe.  It’s really easy, tasty, and it’s healthy.  Perfect!

Warburtons Square Wraps are so good to use as a pizza base; they are a generous size and don’t fall through even with loads of toppings.
Spread a tablespoon of tomato puree on top of a wrap, then add whatever toppings you like.  Here’s what I had:

To keep it low fat, I grilled a chicken breast, and used half-fat cheddar.

Place it on a baking tray and bake it in a moderate oven for about fifteen minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

It was so good, and really filling.
I had mine with home made chips:

To make these I cut up two small potatoes into chips, soaked in a bowl of water to get the starch out, then drained and dried them using a tea towel.  Then I placed them on a baking tray, sprayed with low fat cooking spray and cooked in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

Yum yum!

Snow.

After the disappointment of a no-snow Christmas, we finally got some.  Quite a lot actually.  About six weeks late.

Boots and furry hat on; time to go outside. Tori was obviously too excited, and forgot to put on a coat.

The river was frozen over (you can just see it behind the bridge railings).  It looked amazing, but I felt sorry for the swans and ducks.  Turns out they were happy enough; when I walked over the bridge the next morning they were sitting on top of the ice.

It was so nice to see people out in the park.  In the summer, this park is hiving with students lying on blankets and playing music.

 

This photo reminded me of one I took in Chicago three years ago (below).  Immediately I realise there is no comparison, haha…

 

I have no idea why Jay is sitting in the middle of the road.

Apologies for all the photos being grainy and dark; by the time I woke up the next day it wasn’t nearly as nice looking.
And now, another 24 hours later, it is mostly grey slush :(

How to warm up.

I am freezing, and as I’m a student putting the heating on constantly is just not an option.
So here is my alternative method – looking at photos from the day I got ridiculously sunburned last August on Bon Island in Thailand.

We took a longboat ride from the mainland in Rawai, Phuket, out to the island.  It was amazing (except for my inability to gracefully board and alight the boat…)

I sat and looked out at this for hours.

Taking a break to drink a pina colada from a coconut.

Perfection.

Heat pack [DIY]

I have a very quick and easy tutorial for you today.
Since making one of these, and realising how simple it is to make them, I am kicking myself for ever spending money on buying one.  I believe I spent nearly £20 on one of these for someone a few months ago.  This cost me about £2 to make.

1.  Start by deciding what size you’d like to make it.  Mine is far too big (64cm by 20cm), so next time I make one it will be considerably smaller.  This size is fine for laying across your abdomen, but if I needed it for a sore neck it wouldn’t sit very comfortably.  Cut two pieces to your desired size.

2. Sew right sides together, leaving an opening on one of the short sides.

3. Clip your corners, trim any excess, and then turn it out the right way through the gap.

4.  Fill about half way with rice (or lentils).

5.  Next you need to sew three separations to stop the rice from staying at one end of the heat pack.  So, decide where the middle is, and split the rice evenly on either side.  Then sew a line straight across.  You may want to repeat this twice again so you have four even compartments.

All done.  See, I told you it was easy.
To heat it up, stick it in the microwave for about three minutes.  Placing half a mug of water in the microwave can help heat it up (I learned that from the instructions with the £20 heat pack), but I’m not sure how that would work with the rice.  Last thing you want is a cooked and mushy heat pack.  Apparently these are also great for headaches if you keep them in the freezer.  I’m yet to try that one, as my freezer is full of sorbet and most of Asda’s reduced price section.

Weekend in Leeds.

Hi :)  I am still here, but as you can see, I’m drowning in reading.  However, I spent a lovely weekend in Leeds with Jay, her dad and little sister.

We walked down by the canal to the nature reserve.  It was cold, very cold.  But beautiful.

Jay’s dad (Darren) broke the ice on the pond.

That’s Lily in action.

Lily took that one.

It was really bright, which is why my eyes are shut, and my face is all screwed up, haha.

The water was so still; isn’t the reflection amazing?

 

Hope you had a great weekend.  How can it nearly be Monday again?!

Christmas 2011.

I’m back!  How was your Christmas?  Mine was great, although we had no snow.  None at all.  It was weird, and in that sense it didn’t feel like Christmas.  In every other way we definitely had the festive spirit though.

Christmassy socks :)

The last puppy (I named her Pudding). She licked her lips so fast that you can just see the ghost of her tongue in this shot.

We became quite attached.  Then someone called, paid for her, and took her away :(

Opening presents on Christmas morning.

Dad gave Mum a telescope.

My lovely Bridgewater mug from Granny.

 

We went for a walk in Glenarm Forest.

Mum and Jay.

 

My name-place from the Murder Mystery dinner. So fun!

 

Ballintoy Harbour.  It’s amazing in stormy weather.

Love this photo of Suzie and Mum.

It was extremely cold.

Rainbow :)

Photos cannot even begin to do justice to how amazing it was.

It was so hard to keep taking photos because the constant sea spray was fogging up my lens. And also I was battling not to fall over in the crazy winds.

My beautiful mama.

 

That’s all I’ve got.  Not many actual Christmas photos, but sure :)

Packing.

Today I have been packing to head home for Christmas.  As you may, or may not, know, my parents live in an Internet-deprived area (hey government, what happened to that pledge to make sure all rural areas had access to the Internet?), which means no blogging from me for a couple of weeks.

This is what I’ll be reading over Christmas, it’s for one of my modules at university.  I’ve not heard great things about it, but I’m yet to start it so I’ll keep an open mind… for now.

I refilled this coffee mug many times.

Putting off packing; suitcase not even been opened yet at this stage.  Getting it out from the cupboard under the stairs was hard enough.

Listening to ‘Love Love Love’ by Avalanche City quite a few times.  It’s a lovely song, I recommend you listen to it.  I also recommend that you ignore my dirty laptop screen.

I made a last-minute costume for the murder mystery dinner my mum is hosting next week.  So excited!

Finally got around to packing.
After all that procrastinating busyness, I treated myself to a glass of wine and Love Actually.  It was wonderful.
I hope you have a fantastic Christmas :)  I, for one, am looking forward to an open fire, dancing with my sisters in the kitchen to the radio, bruschetta on Christmas Eve, hot Rekorderlig, and dragging someone out to play in the snow.

Naomi x

Making teabags.

I saw this post quite a while ago, and it’s been on my DIY board on Pinterest ever since.  I’m not actually a tea-drinker myself, but I loved the idea of making my own teabags.  Then I decided to put together a little mini hamper for Jay’s mum for Christmas, and knew these would be perfect to include.
I part-followed Amanda’s tutorial, and did some things my own way, too.

1.  Cut up a coffee filter into whatever shape you think appropriate. I thought triangles would work well.  My filters were already doubled over; if yours aren’t then just cut two and place one of top of the other.

2.  Sew along two sides, the ‘V’ sides.

3.  Fill the little pouch with as much loose leaf tea as you like; I used about one and a half teaspoons.  Just make sure to not overfill, or the next step will be hard.

4. Sew along the top

5.  Using a long piece of coloured thread, doubled over twice (so folded four times), hand sew several strong stitches, and leave the end trailing out the top (wow, I am so eloquent at describing this).  Amanda’s tutorial says to staple the thread on, but I wasn’t too keen on the idea of a metal staple soaking in boiling water, and that water then being drunk.

6.  Cut up some scraps of card, craft paper or old book pages, to use as tags at the end of the thread.

7.  Glue the end of the thread between two tags

You’re done!
I made loads with different coloured threads, and packaged them in a glass jar.

So easy, and I think they look much nicer than shop-bought teabags :)

I also added some Green&Blacks chocolate to the basket, and changed the lid of the jar to a fabric cover :)

Chicken & broccoli bake [A recipe]

Chicken and broccoli bake is probably my favourite meal ever.  It is so good, and hearty, and filling, and all those other things that we like to have in a dish.
Here is what I have learned about taking photos for a recipe post: hot food makes my lens mist over, therefore getting a good photo means letting my food cool.  That’s just not going to happen, ever.  Food comes first, guys.  Let’s go.

1.  Start as usual: chop up an onion (pretty much everything I cook starts with an onion).  You also need to put some pasta on to boil, as well as some broccoli.

 

2. Cut a couple of chicken breasts into cubes and fry with the onion.

(This photo kind of creeps me out, think it’s the raw chicken. Sorry guys)

 

3.  Once the broccoli is cooked, drain it and pour it into an oven-proof casserole dish.

 

4. Next, layer over the chicken and onion.  I usually add some sweetcorn too, but I had none this time.

 

5. Drain the pasta and place it on top.

6. Pour a can of mushroom soup over the contents of the dish.  My mum uses condensed soup and mixes it with water, but as I was just making for myself, I used regular soup.

 

7.  Into a blender, put a slice or two of bread, a handful of grated cheese, and some crisps

A lot of people have issues with the crisps, but bear with me.  Whizz the blender…

 

8.  Sprinkle the contents of the blender over the casserole dish

 

9.  Add some more grated cheese

 

10.  Bake in the oven at a medium temperature for about half an hour.  While it’s in the oven you can wash up all your dishes.  I love getting this out of the way so I can enjoy my dinner without thinking about the dreaded dishes.

 

11.  Take the dish out of the oven and marvel at the cheesy goodness

 

12.  Plate up and enjoy

 

This is a great dish to make ahead of time, and then just popped in the oven for the final baking part.  It also freezes really well :)