4 May 2013

Blog Every Day in May: Five Fave Blogs

today's blog every day in may task challenges me to choose some of my favourite blogs to 'share the love' and introduce them to my lovely readers. this however, has actually been quite a challenge for me which is one of the reasons why I'm posting it rather late in the day. I do read blogs regularly but there are not that many I read on a daily basis as there are just so many lovely blogs out there and a lot of the time I stumble across them every now and then but there's only a few who I always check on my reading list so I've got most of them together in this post for you. there's obviously many other's I love though and maybe I'll do a follow up post at some point.

also I just wanted to say that these are not in any particular order at all.


Foot-ography - play and shoot
a photography blog and so much more. a football blog and so much more.
this guy can take amazing pictures of food but even better ones of the world behind the pitch and the tv screen. his blog is a must if you enjoy good photography and his writing skills are equally as enjoyable. no need to be a football fan either just take a look and you'll see the beautiful game in a complete different way.
(on a side note, his latest post is featuring my home team sk sturm graz and I'm slightly proud)

Heart of Cake
a lovely lady making lovely food. she hasn't been blogging for long but she's certainly been into cooking for a while before judging by her creations. after telling her about a hundred times to finally get her recipes online she started heart of cake and joined the food blogging community. I'm not taking any credit though but I'm just glad I can look at her food whenever she has a new post up. definitely go take a look.

Faye's Fix
I've discovered faye through youtube and started reading her beauty blog after watching pretty much all of her lovely videos. she seems like such a nice person and it's just so much fun to watch her videos and read her blog. I know a lot of you probably know her already (and if not go take a read and a watch) but I just wanted to mention her as she's a student too and all her recommendations are by no means overpriced and I can relate to many things she says.


this lovely girl is someone I've met on twitter and I have to say I am incredibly happy I did. but not only is she incredibly nice, her blog is also definitely worth a read (and many more). she blogs about beauty and her life and every post is a pleasure to read. I especially love seeing pictures of her adorable pug otis on there (I secretly wish she'd just include him in every single post. tilly? please?)

the last but surely not least of the bunch is leah, another lovely (I overuse this adjective I know, charming?) lady who's blog I most certainly enjoy reading. leah blogs about a lot of beauty (she's my most trusted source for MUA swatches) and her life and dealing with diseases. she's a wonderful and really inspirational person as in her posts she never seems in a bad mood despite the challenges she has to face. definitely go take a look.

I hope you like my selection and I hope you give some of them a little click.
tilly and leah are both also doing the BEDM challenge so if you're interested definitely go over to their blogs.



Magdalena.


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this post is part of the Blog Every Day in May series.

3 May 2013

Blog Every Day in May: Day in the Life

as I am currently a student as well as a student to be I don't really have a daily routine. I am in uni four times a week usually but not always at the same times and all that. I do however try and get up the same time and when I don't have to be in uni early I try and use the time for things like blogging, studying or planning things as well as a lovely breakfast. 

so for this post I'd like to take you on a picture heavy tour throughout one of my days (thursday) which also happens to be one of my favourite days as it's my favourite class in uni. also as this is still a food blog I will include two recipes of two meals I had and yeah. let's get started.

Thursday, 2.5.2013

morning 9 am - 12 pm

I never used to be a morning person because I always went to bed ridiculously late when I was in school (no idea why even) but now I'm in uni I started going to bed earlier which means getting up in the morning is a lot more enjoyable. 
I usually get up, take a shower and grab myself some breakfast. also something I didn't use to do but I really enjoy breakfast now.


as you can probably tell I like to have tea, not even mainly in the morning but yesterday I went for my harrods mango tea (they're all amazing). I usually have a muesli in the morning consisting of yogurt, oatmeal and banana. however, yesterday I had banana porridge in the morning which was delicious.

I then went on to scribbling down some ideas/things I need to do for my blog in my lovely manchester united notebook and worked on yesterday's blog post.


dinner time 12 pm - 1 pm

my mum brought home some salmon which she kindly offered to make for dinner as I was still busy blogging. most of the time I cook for myself or for the both of us just because I enjoy it more than her but her salmon is delicious. and she agreed to let me use her recipe so I could share it with you all.

Mum's Salmon

salmon fillet
olive oil
parsley
lemon
salt

rice

if you're having it with rice then you'll want to start by preparing that.

for the salmon you'll marinate it with a bit of lemon juice just before
you heat the pan. heat a bit of olive oil in a pan (not too hot)
and add the salmon. 

be careful with it as it can break easily (as you can see above)
which doesn't affect the taste just depends what you want
it to look like really. it'll need about 3-5 minutes each side.

chop up some parsley and mix it with olive oil and a bit of lemon
juice to go on top of the salmon after it's done.

serve up the rice and arrange the salmon with some of the
parsley sauce to go on top. add a bit more lemon juice if you like.



afternoon 1 pm - 4:30 pm

being productive in the morning I felt like I could justify a bit of relaxing in the afternoon. so after doing the laundry (really not worth taking a picture of) I sat down to watch some house. I am absolutely in love with this tv series and I've watched it from the start so many times and recently I introduced it to my boyfriend who now started watching it again and made me watch it from the start again. what a great excuse.


I watched a few episodes of house but then I had to get ready to leave because my lecture started at 5 pm. 


the walk to uni 4:30 pm - 5 pm

we've had about two weeks of warm weather now and yesterday was the first time it was actually raining I think. weirdly enough it happend the day I blogged about spring but that's just how things work isn't it. however, I was actually happy about the rain. don't get me wrong I enjoy warm weather and sunshine as much as most people do but sometimes it can get a bit too much and I really love rain so I start missing it. so I happily grabbed an umbrella for my way to uni.


I walk to uni as it only takes about 20 minutes and I really enjoy walking also it saves me a lot of money I'd spent on the bus. I thought the rain would be refreshing but really it was still very warm and the rain just added a lot of humidity too it which didn't exactly make it nicer so as I arrived at uni I was extremely warm. also wearing my owl loafer shoe things (from new look) was probably not the best idea as they got a little wet on the way. but I love them so much.


I did make it to uni in time (surprisingly) as I left a bit late and took pictures on the way which didn't exactly make me get there faster. but I managed and as usually arrived before most people. it seems at uni you can be there as late as you want, you'll never be the last person to arrive.


uni time 5 pm - 7 pm

so this lecture is actually my favourite one which is probably or well definitely because it's the only one that is in english and I actually learn a lot about english there because the professor is just amazing. 


for those of you who don't know I study molecular biology at the university of graz at the moment and I am doing some english classes in my spare time but still at uni to prepare for when I go to the UK to study in september. and as my english is mostly school/talking/blogging english, a bit of academic writing is exactly what I needed.
it's small class with about 24 people and we do some great exercises. but don't let me bore you with all that. I bet you can guess my favourite colour from the picture above.


after class I thought I'd walk around uni a bit and take a few pictures of the actual main building as it's quite impressive. I didn't get to go to the building where most of my lectures are but I took a picture of the campus map for you zooming in on the 'centre of molecular biosciences' which is where I spent a lot of my time when I'm at uni.


the walk back 7 pm - 7:20 pm

walking back home it had cooled down a little bit so it was a little more enjoyable. plus for some reason I walk back a different way which is nicer too. also I met this lovely little thing only a few minutes away from my house. there were actually a lot of snails out because of the wet weather so I saw loads by the park close to my house. also you can see a bit of the church which is close to where I live.


I was a little tired after uni but mainly because of the warm/humid weather not because I'd spend 1 1/2 half hours in class that would just be sad. also excuse my incredibly frizzy hair which is also due to the weather.



evening/night 7:30 pm - 11 pm

when I got home me and the boyfriend watched another episode of house simultaneously (me on my tv here and him over in the UK) which is actually a lot of fun. just a bit of trouble getting it to start at the same time, but we have our methods which work more or less. after one episode of house it was almost football time (aka europa league semi final) and I went to the kitchen to get myself some food.

Panino with Mozzarela and Tomato

Panino (any kind of roll/bun/bap, ideally italian)
1/2 mozzarella
3 small tomatoes (I used yellow, green and red)
lettuce/rocket
4 leaves of fresh basil
pesto

slice the panino and spread some pesto over both halves. 
on the bottom half start with lettuce/rocket, then mozzarella
slices, tomatoes, a bit of salt and the chopped basil leaves.
cover with the top half and enjoy.


I try and only have one big meal a day which was the salmon this time. also this gives me an excuse to have lovely sandwiches like this. I know they're not the most healthy alternative but spring is just perfect for lovely italian treats like this one and making them myself I know I use fresh ingredients. the worst thing about them is that after one I always fancy another one. luckily there was no more bread left yesterday.


of course a day in the life of magdalena is not complete without watching some football and luckily for this post there was actually some on yesterday. it was the europa leage semi final second leg chelsea against basel and well I wanted basel to win but that didn't work out. I'm not hugely bothered anyway though, will still be watching the final.

after the football (let's be honest I didn't watch it to the very end as chelsea were already 3-1 up) me and mr pies decided to do another simul-watch but this time of the new modern family episode. modern family is one of the most amazing series I've seen, it's funny and oh-so-cliché but in the best way ever. give it a watch if you haven't yet.

and of course no day would be complete without a bit of skyping with the mr which is always a good way to finish off a day. he always manages to cheer me up.


so that was a day in the life of magdalena and a very long post (apologies). I'm just glad I did it yesterday as today I'm properly boring and not doing much other than blogging, writing lists and watching even more house and of course some cooking.
looking forward to read everyone else's posts for today.


Magdalena.


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this post is part of the Blog Every Day in May series.

2 May 2013

Blog Every Day in May: Spring is Here


spring has always been my favourite season which surely isn't the most surprising thing as many people love it. I don't like winter at all because I think snow is pointless and it's just grey and cold all the time. I love it when everything is green again and you can go to the market and buy fresh things everywhere. spring is the perfect season for cooking as you can practically do everything. there's those chilly evenings when you'll still need something to warm you up a little bit and then there's those hot days when all you want is a lovely fresh salad and a piece of baguette to keep you going. it's also the time when you can have a mug of warming tea in the morning and a glass of iced tea (recipe) in the afternoon. and I surely like every excuse to have more tea (already had two as I'm writing this).

in this post I want to share with you some of my favourite (more or less) food related things about spring as well as what I'm planning to do in spring (also food related).

I am planning to
make a lot of meals using local and seasonal products
go to the market more often to buy fruit and vegetables
also I'll prepare for my move to the UK and do a lot of filling out forms stuff 


spring meals
as mentioned before I love how spring offers you loads of fresh ingredients to cook with. I eat salads all year around but in spring I do so even more because it's lovely and refreshing and surely good for my body too. of course I can not say spring meals without sharing a little recipe with you.


 
Greek Salad (recipe here)


Mediterranean Spring Vegetables with Creamy Polenta
for two
gluten free!

1 courgette
1/2  pepper (I chose green, yellow or red whatever you like)
4 strips of streaky bacon (optional, I had them lying around in the fridge)
2 cloves of garlic
3 small/1 normal tomato
thyme

100 g polenta
water (double the amount of polenta, use a mug to measure)
1 tbsp butter
100 ml milk

chop all the veg and the bacon. heat a pan with the bacon and only need
more fat/oil if needed (the bacon already has a lot)
then add the veg and the garlic and fry for about 5 minutes.
add some fresh leaves of thyme and a pinch of salt.

to cook the polenta, heat up the water in a pan and bring to a boil.
carefully stir in the polenta and keep stirring it (careful! protect your
arms and hands from lava-like polenta!) until soft. doesn't take long.
lower the heat and add the butter and milk, keep stirring then add
salt and set aside.

serve it all up and enjoy and feel like you're somewhere in the 
mediterranean (optional)



fresh herbs on the balcony
I grew up always having fresh herbs and things around me and using them for cooking. we had a huge garden when I was little and now we have a balcony full of herbs. I know now that no matter where I'll be living I'll always have to have fresh herbs around me. food and cooking just isn't the same without them. and they look lovely too.


Mr Thyme is exploring the world

doesn't he make a lovely centerpiece?


spring music
I know music technically doesn't change when seasons change but for me there are certain artists that always give me that spring/summer feeling. so I thought I'd share one of my favourites with you. hope it will make you feel just as happy and spring-y.




Magdalena.


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this post is part of the Blog Every Day in May series.

1 May 2013

Blog Every Day in May: 5 Lines

having been a little lazy blogging-wise lately I was really inspired when the lovely Tilly mentioned the Blog Every Day in May tag on twitter. it has been created by Rosalilium.
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I chose this as the picture I am proud of because I am extremely proud of the person who took it. 
and it has food and me in it so I thought it would be perfect for this post.
(credit to Geraint Photography)


I am Magdalena, a food and football lover currently on my way to move to the UK to study. 

I run this blog to share my love for all things delicious & the recipes I love.

my perfect day would be spent cooking & watching football with mr pies and listening to the nature podcast/reading nature magazine before bed.

& I'm a science nerd, a manchester united supporter, a lover of all meals that feature rice & a music lover.


Magdalena.


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this post is part of the Blog Every Day in May series.