Life 2.0

Hey Guys,

Well now, I find myself here yet again, and this time its 18 months after my last Life post. In the last 18 months I have done quite a bit with my life I've moved house twice, Moved up quite a bit in my job and I have been to Europe and back for a 3 week holiday to meet family members I have never met before in my life so in some aspects I have moved forward but in other aspects of my life I haven't gotten very far. 

In my last 'Life' post I wrote about how people who are studying are always complaining about having to study and do assessments and how I hated all of that and that I am a much more hands on learner.. Well guess what, in the last 4 months I have found myself back at it, studying Events Management... now at the time I thought it would be a great idea (well it was the only idea I had and I thought I should see how it goes) and now just over a term in I'm starting to regret starting the course, not because of the teachers or how its taught but what they are actually teaching.
I have been fortunate enough to be working in hospitality at a Major Stadium in Melbourne for the past 2 years and its been a fantastic experience, what the job has taught me and the situations it has exposed me to, some have been life changing and thats where I'm stuck with this course, what they are teaching me in the classroom on a piece of paper I have learnt in the last 2 years at my job, now don't get me wrong I understand they have to teach this content as some of the people in my class have never been exposed to any of these kinds of situations but for me I have already been through majority of them..

So this is where I'm currently at, do a stay doing the course which is costing me quite a lot of money to learn a few new skills or do I step away from it and learn through life experience..?
That gets me to my next point of this post..

All my life I have wanted to travel & explore the world which I have been fortunate enough to do on a few occasions already in my life, and at this point in time it seems that travel is just filling up almost every part of my thoughts for the last month or so. I'm 23 years old and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up so I think while I'm young I should see as much of the world as I can before I settle down to a 'normal life' but I don't think my life will ever be fully normal, what is normal anyway?
So that is yet another reason why I want to leave my course so I can work as much as possible to fund my travel desires. One thing that has sparked the travel bug in me apart from going to Europe last year and meeting all my family over there and the fact that every man and his dog has gone on a holiday this year is this little gem of a video that was uploaded to youtube just over 2 weeks ago taken by a guy named Logan that took his GoPro with him and decided to capture the European summer in a pretty funky way.

This video has made me just want to go an book a holiday tomorrow the only thing stopping me is my lack of funding the old bank account, but I am planning on booking a big trip once I have saved and hopefully I can think of a creative way like this to capture my whole experience on my GoPro, and if the GoPro idea fails lucky for me and all of you reading this I have pretty good photography skills (well you would hope I did after studying it for 2 years) so I'm sure I would be able to share a quality snap or two with you all.

Until the next post my friends.

Healthy Veggie Soup.

Ohhh HELLO!

I have made this soup a few times now and not only is it really healthy but it's bloody delicious and everyone loves it. 

It's really easy to make and its great because you can make it with what ever you like so you know what goodness you are getting. 

I made a large batch because I was feeding myself and 4 men (who eat like horses) and there was still plenty left over which I divided up into containers and put in the freezer to have one day for lunch or one night when I don't feel like cooking. 

I went a little improv with the recipe but thats the great thing about it, you can make as much or as little as you like with what ever vegetables you please. What I used:

~ 2 x Medium Heads of Broccoli

~ 1 x Large-ish Cauliflower 

~ 4 x Carrots

~ 1 x Medium Sweet Potato

~ 2L x Stock Chicken or Vegetable (I used Chicken)

~ 300mL x Thickened Cream (For a healthier soup you don't need to add this)

~ Salt and Pepper to taste

~ Any other flavours or spices you would like to add e.g.Garlic, Curry Powder etc.

To Make the soup all you have to do is combine all the ingredients in to a large pot 

Bring the pot to the boil and boil the vegetables for at least an hour or until the vegetables are falling apart and some of the stock has been reduced. Depending on how thick you like your soup boil it for longer and reduce the stock down more of just don't add as much stock at the beginning. You can also add 1-2 potatoes which will help thicken the soup because of the starch in it.

Once you have reduced it down if you have an electric mixer/blender like a vitamix then you can blitz it up but if you don't, not a worry, just use a potato masher, thats what I used. Mash it until most of the vegetables have broken down and there aren't many lumps (even if there are a few lumps they will be that soft they will just break up when you eat them).

Once you are happy with the consistency this is when you add the cream if you want, If you don't want to add cream then its ready to eat straight away.

This soup is so delicious and so easy, its great for winter time because its hearty and healthy. I served it up with some homemade sausage rolls for the boys, but you can have it by itself as a sufficient meal. 

If you have any questions about the recipe or make it yourself please let me know or post a photo of your wonderful creation. 

x.

New Recipe Attempt #1: Breakfast Coconut Chia Pudding!

Hello There,

Yes so as the title suggests I had a go at making Coconut Chia puddings for breakfast because I have seen, heard and read a number of people rave about Chia seeds and how good they are for your health. I have wanted to try then of quite a while but I never knew what to do with them, well let me tell you, you can put them in pretty much anything, they don't really have a taste and the health benefits from them are amazing! 

I follow a number of health bloggers on Instagram and they are constantly using Chia seeds in almost everything they cook/create/eat so I thought I would give them a go in the form of Chia pudding and I will definitely be making it again! It was absolutely delicious and knowing that I am eating something so delicious but its so good for me is also a bonus! :) 

I brought my Chia seeds at a Woolworths Supermarket here in Melbourne, and they were around $9 something, I purchased the White Chia seeds but from what I have read there isn't really any difference between the White and Black Chia seed varieties besides the appearance, everything else with them is the same.

The recipe I followed was this one from the lovely blog I follow called Julia & Libby (Check out their other stuff while you are over there because they have some great stuff) I followed their recipe but halved the ingredients because this recipe makes enough for about 4 servings, so I had enough for 2 breakfasts, I also didn't have any Lucuma or Coconut sugar so I just didn't put those two ingredients in, but it still tasted wonderful with out them. I served mine with Banana and Apple because they were the fruits I had at home but these puddings would go with a number of different fruits. 

If you are thinking about trying Chia seeds then you defiantly should, with the amount of health benefits and diverse ways of using them they are defiantly something I will be buying from now on. 

If you guys try this recipe out, let me know, and if you have any other recipes you want me to try out then comment or link them below and I will give them a go! :)

Have a wonderful day!

x.