My solution to 'over ripe' bananas

Banana Bread Recipe

  As I'm sure you can gather from the title, I didn't eat the banana's my mum bought me (whoops) and when I last looked at them they were brown and nasty. But this was just the precursor to my latest baking venture. You guessed it banana bread!
This recipe is not only yummy, super easy to make, adaptable, but is lower in fat than most other banana bread recipes.

Ingredients:
150g Caster Sugar
50g Softened Butter
2 Eggs
3 Mashed Bananas
200g Plain Flour
1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
1/4 of a Teaspoon Baking Powder  A handful of sultanas 

  1) Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius and line a loaf tin with grease-proof paper
2) Beat the sugar and butter together, this will not cream like a conventional cake but do not worry there is a lot of 'wet' ingredients to come
3) Add the eggs, mashed banana to the sugar-butter mixture and mix thoroughly
4) Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder, if the mixture looks too dry add water, at this stage I added a handful of sultanas, you can add/not add anything you want: dried fruit, nuts, chocolate drops ect
5) Add to the loaf tin and bake in the preheated over for 45 minutes
6) When 45 minutes has passed take the loaf out of the oven and spike a skewer into the middle, if any mixture has stuck, put back in and repeat until the skewer is clean
7) Cool in tin then take out, peel grease-proof paper off of the bottom and enjoy!


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Keeping that work life balance

As a full time student I feel as though there is never enough hours in a day, and days in a week. With readings to do for every seminar, think about assignments, come up with a dissertation idea and work for that one dreaded day a week. Especially as we approach December deadlines, then before you know it we will be in May exam period. And for a workaholic like me it seems like the term 'full time' is exactly that, every thought and second is consumed by my work. Leading to sleepless nights, only creating a vicious circle.

However, the equation has only possible answer, a burn out. This has happened this week, not ideal, my head has been in a constant state of panic. Thinking that I cannot complete this work and why did I even think I could do in the first. So I decided to take a step back at look at where this could possibly be going wrong, and this is when I got the best perspective of my life.

Something else I really struggle with is socialising and this is something I am really putting an effort into. Okay this has really made me sound like a reclusive hermit now, but, at times I get so consumed in my world of working, stress and anxiety that the last thing I want to do is go out there in the big world and spend time with people. This does not mean that once I am there I have a terrible time, its just half the time that big step to actually meeting people that is the hardest, something that I really need to do more often.

It is so important, even crucial, to make sure that a work life balance exists. I know this but I find it so hard, which is half the reason that I decided to write this post. (Caution clichés ahead) You really do only get one chance at life, and, although I am an avid believer that if you work hard enough you must get somewhere, you really must live it to the fullest.

I love nothing more than curling up with a good book, and I don't do that half as much as I do. This could take only about half an hour out of my life per day. Even simple things like sitting there and drinking a coffee with no internet right in front of me is so theraputic. Walking my dog, leaving the house in any capacity, even listening to music, like live lounge covers on youtube, is amazing for almost cleansing my brain. I feel this is the missing component in my life.

If I can translate any message to you reading this it would be take time out of your day, everyday, anywhere between half an hour to five hours to find yourself. Find what you like, who you are, even what you don't like. This way you will get more out of your life and limit work related stress.

All my love,

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Autumn goals

I see so many bloggers write these kind of posts every month and am so interested to see how they get along so I thought why not try something like this for myself, except I thought why not give myself not only one month to improve my life but three with monthly updates. So here are five goals I hope to achieve in the upcoming months.

1) Start looking at things more positively
This for me is something I am terrible at. Throughout of my life I have always looked at oppertunities and situations in the worst case scenario, however I am hoping this will become a thing of the past. It worries me to think of all the chances for bettering my life I have missed simply because fear has overwhelmed me.

2) Become more organised, in all aspects of my life
Ahh the eternal September goal for me. Every school year since I started school I have promised myself I will be more organised to help myself for goal four, this has never lasted more than a month. However I have already started using my diary religiously and writing out my entire month so I can see it all in front of me. Just the start I hope of becoming way more organised.

3) Two blog posts a week, every week
Yup, I'm committing (however not to certain days sorry :(). I love blogging so will ensure there is the minimum of two post a week.

4) Limit stress in my life and stop it ruling my life
As mentioned in goal one I am a worst case scenario kind of person which leads to stress. Over the past year I have realised stress is a useless thing that does not help get anything done therefore I am going to ensure that every part of my life, whether it be personal, work or education are not overwhelming me so I feel extreme levels of stress.

5) Try as many new experiences as humanly possible 
I'm twenty-one its time for me to leave my shell and say 'YES' to as many different things as possible. You are only young once right!

I will check in a month so watch this space, lets hope I actually achieve these, I do have a good feeling!

Do you have any goals this autumn, if so what are they? I am always looking for inspiration! 

Love you all soooo much!!

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Looking forward towards autumn

So in case you haven't heard a large proportion of the internet (okay bloggers) have declared that as of the first of September we can kiss summer goodbye as it is officially autumn. The weather clearly got this memo and has assured that summer is dead and gone. As I was reading everyone's posts about why they were excited for autumn I must admit I also felt excited, yes me the girl who feels the cold within a second and has on many occasion publicly announced that summer my season. However (as clique as this sounds) as the first of September arrived and me and Stephen had a day out in September I felt anew. I suppose this stems from the fact I have been in education for the past seventeen years of my life therefore every September did bring about change and this year is no exception. However, rather than the naive and short lived promises that I have made to myself every year about being more organised and motivated this autumn I honestly feel re-energised and ready to kick butt.

This attitude is by no means exclusively attached to my education, but also all other areas of my life and most importantly this blog. I love writing and taking photos for this blog and have completely neglected it. This is no longer acceptable to me and I am going to try my best to write at least two posts a week on any day that I feel like.

I have an amazing feeling about the upcoming months and am so excited for the autumn season that all you bloggers have described to me, (not so much the ice cold rain, dry chapped lips and mud). Are you excited for the upcoming months? or am I completely insane? I hope this post finds you well and here is to spreading the positivity I am currently feeling.

(Photos from my trip to Covent Garden September 1st)

Love

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