Blog Every Day in May: Pets

today's topic is to talk about our pets, past and/or present. unfortunately I don't have any pets at the moment which is sad and good at the same time, but more about that later.

little la luna having fun with our ducks august and augustine. they loved each other.

for many years when I was little we had a lovely bearded collie lady (or rather wild girl) called La Luna which translates as the moon in italian. she was a wild thing when we first got her when I was three and wouldn't accept me as being her big sister for a while and she thought she was stronger than me and we had some issues. but as I got older and she learned to be a little less naughty we got along really well and had so much fun together.

she was a very special dog and everyone loved her even when she was annoying. when she died after 12 years everyone was really sad and I still have moments when I can hear her walking around the house even though she's never actually lived at this place with us. I will always miss and remember her.

yes that's her and little me in the boot of our car.

I really miss having a dog and I would absolutely love to get one but I know that at the moment I am not in the right place in life. I am moving to a different country over the summer and starting university. there will be so many new things happening and I know I won't have enough time or money for a little puppy who needs all sorts of attention that I know. so for now I hope I will find some dogs I can spent time with every now and then but I'll keep myself from getting a furry companion for at least the first two years of uni. but I will keep looking at videos, photos and saying 'awww look at that dog' everytime I see one I find cute.

Magdalena.

P.S. if you want some more dog cuteness check out tilly's post here

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

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BEDM #6

A WEEK IN MEALS #6

I'm back with all the food I've eaten last week and as you might have noticed I'm a bit late this week. but some  36 hours don't make a huge difference I don't think. this week was quite busy in some ways, goodbyes were said I didn't want to say and I started a rather exciting blogging challenge and met some lovely friends for drinks. but here's my week in meals for you now.

monday was mr pies last full day in austria with me and we decided to make the most of it by taking a little walk through town which included sharing a lovely farmers burger at Brot & Spiele who have the loveliest burgers in graz. we then went on to pick up some things for a little buffet as we just wanted to chill and watch some films. we got sushi at Eat Asia and some macaroons at the supermarket. oh and we had some yorkshires left over from sunday so that was lovely too. I like a nice buffet and I certainly love sushi. 

a sad day which to be honest even a nice meal couldn't have made better but I have to admit this bbq platter was trying it's best.

wednesday things were kind of starting to look up a little at least I got into my breakfast routine again and made some banana porridge which was rather lovely. it was also a lovely day and I fancied something a little mediterranean and I wanted polenta so I made up this little meal with creamy polenta and mediterranean veg. 

another good thing about wednesday has to be that I started the blog every day in may challenge.

thursday I got myself to get up early (which is kind of a lie as I just woke up) and get some things done as well as start documenting my whole day for the 'a day in the life of' post for the blogging challenge. (read my whole post here). I started the day off with a lovely cup of tea and some more porridge. my mum made a nice salmon fillet which I absolutely loved (you can find the recipe for it here) and in the evening I treated myself to a mozzarella and tomato panini. food wise a very successful day.

friday started off equally as motivated as thursday as I really have some things to do for uni and future uni and you know, the usual things (blogging). so I got myself going with a little mozzarella and tomato sandwich (and a cup of tea). in the evening a friend asked me to go for some drinks which was good as it good me out of the house. but before I left I made myself some turkey medallions with summer veg.

for saturday my dad invited me over to his place for a greek style bbq (that's what I call it) as he loves to make souvlaki (kebabs) when the weather gets nicer. he is really good at it too. so we had a little get together and I helped him do the souvlaki which is a lot of fun. also as sweet as he is he made a soft boiled egg for me and himself as we were really hungry before the meal.

seems I somehow manage to get the same things in here too many times. first the mozzarella and tomato themed things and now a soft boiled egg. again. but I don't think anyone will disagree when I say it's a lovely sunday breakfast with some toast to dunk (and the cup of tea again). in the afternoon I made myself some pasta with ham, truffled olive paste and parsley (basically what I found in the fridge and on the balcony, also with a little help from my mum) which was just the right thing to chill and join the bloggers chat on twitter.

I hope you all had a lovely week full of lovely food too. as always let me know what you loved eating this past week and if you want to see any recipe posts about mine.

Magdalena.

Blog Every Day in May: Bank Holiday Fun

Bank Holiday Fun

today's topic for the blog every day in may challenge is bank holiday fun: my favourite ways of enjoying a long weekend off work. well as I am austria at the moment it was no bank holiday for me today. but it was the first day after easter break and being in the UK that I was back in uni in the morning. I enjoy getting up early and getting ready to go to uni as I know there'll be something interesting expecting me in my lectures as well as some lovely people.

after uni I met up with one of those lovely people for some tea and a long awaited talk about all sorts of things at a nice cafe near uni. afterwards I headed home for a little nap before going into town.

in town I met up with one of my oldest friends to celebrate her last written exam today. it was lovely seeing her again and I'm really proud of her as she's like my little sister. we had some drinks and then went somewhere else as we were all hungry and craving burgers for some reason. I had an italo burger which is a burger with parmesan cheese, tomato and rocket and absolutely delicious. 

I definitely had a lovely and busy day even though it was just a normal day and no bank holiday. I hope you had a good day too.

Magdalena.

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

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Blog Every Day in May: Fit and Healthy

today's blog every day in may challenge is to write about being fit and healthy, give tips and advice or talk about your plans. when I read this I thought right, I can most certainly not give advice as for sure there are so many people out there who know so much more about this stuff. However, I do run a food blog and as we all know that food is an important factor when it comes to a healthy life and it's the one factor I know about as I actually did learn a few things about it in school and still am learning about it now.

but rather than telling you what to eat and what not to eat I just thought I'd chat a bit about the things that I know and that I try and think of when I cook and eat. there are some general things but a lot of things simply do not apply to every person as we are all biologically different individuals and have different needs in addition to the needs we all share (water, vitamins etc.). but let's not get too serious here. I'll just share some of my thoughts and some of the things I've learned over time as I think it's important to learn about this side of food as well as the just eating and preparing it side (a rather important one too). now that was the longest intro ever.

banana&kiwi müsli (yogurt, oatmeal, banana, kiwi)

the brain(y) food
there's this one side to eating healthy which I want to call the brainy side, the medical side of you will, the one where you have to know what you need your food to give you so that you can be healthy. for this it is important for you to know your body. firstly it is always a good idea to do a bit of research and find out some of the general things e.g. what are vitamins? what are minerals? what do I need all that stuff for?
also you are the only one who can tell when something isn't right with your body, if you feel exhausted all the time with no apparent reason or just something, trust your intuition on that, and then you can do something about it. for example I had been feeling really tired for a while without actually doing too much and a blood test showed that I have an iron deficiency. 
once you know all those things, the general and the personal ones, you can start your research about the food and where you can get the things you need from. 
also I find it really important to do some research into the things you are eating, if you know where they come from and what exactly is in them chances are it's not only good for the economy but also for your health.

roast beef sunday dinner (recipe coming soon)

the soul food
this is an aspect of eating healthy that I find just as important as the brainy side as food is not just about eating the right things and avoiding the wrong things because well, life is not about right's and wrong's (but who knows what life is about). good food is a combination of those two and to take good care of your mind as well as your body. yes your body needs many things and you should listen to what your body says but your body is pretty useless without a happy you and a happy me just needs something delicious.
mainly what I want to say is don't always say no to yourself just because you think 'oh this piece of meat has too much fat' or 'well I want one but I really can't eat a piece of chocolate now can I'. do we really need to make our life even more complicated by refusing ourselves things that might make us happier human beings? I think not. 

basically (and this is scientist and cooking-lover me speaking) eating healthy is a healthy combination of those two things. eat brainy means know what you need and know your body. feed your soul means eat the things that make you happy but in healthy amounts (that's where the brain kicks in again).

chicken salad (recipe coming soon)

what I do
so after all this sort-of advice (didn't I say I wouldn't give any? oops!) I just thought I'd share a bit how I put those things into practice. 
first of all I was really lucky with how I grew up and this is how our relationship to food and eating develops. we had a lovely big garden when I was younger and I loved all the fresh things growing there which means from an early age I knew what a strawberry was and how a tomato is supposed to taste. we even went to the farmer's to get fresh milk and butter, cool right? 
all of this lead to me loving fresh food and it never even occurred to me that there could be anything better out there and well, there isn't. 
I try and always buy local things and just eat a lot of fruit and veg and drink a lot of water (which I struggle with sometimes, but I'm getting better). I don't eat a lot of meat but when I fancy it I mainly stick to chicken. the only thing I probably eat too much of is rice but I tell myself that it's still better than eating loads of pasta.
I am horrible at doing exercise and quitting the gym was the best thing I could've done for my bank balance. the only thing I do is I basically walk everywhere as I can't drive, I'm afraid of bikes and I can't be bothered paying loads for public transport.

what I want to do
so as you can see what I desperately need to improve is exercise as it is practically non-existent in my life at the moment. and even though I wish it were so I can't deny that healthy eating is not the only thing you need to be healthy. so I want to start going swimming more often over the summer and I hope that when I'm in uni in september I can join a football team as it's probably the only sport I would enjoy.
the other thing is that I really want to keep up the healthy eating thing when I'm in uni as I'll be all by myself and needing to save money. but good food is not more expensive when you know where to get it from.


of course being healthy is a lot more than all those things but I can not talk about everything in one blog post and there are so many things I just don't know enough about. but I just wanted to share some final words with you because I think that's an important thing when it comes to talking about staying fit and healthy. don't see your body as something you need to fight against when you're not happy with it. we all have times when we're not happy with ourselves for whatever reasons but the first step is to see that you're your body and you have to work with it and not against it. if you give your body what it needs chances are it will give you what you need.

Magdalena.

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

BEDM #1

BEDM #2

BEDM #3

BEDM #4