Day Two of Healthy Packed lunches

Well, I survived my lunch yesterday, and today once again managed to wow the world with my culinary prowess. The story behind this lunch is pretty complicated, mostly due to my total inability to wake up in the mornings, or at least, wake to a stage that means my brain functions. However, the lunch itself is super simple, and I definitely recommend it. It's a smoothie milkshake thing (technical term) with some pasta salad. 

The pasta salad is whole wheat pasta, roast peppers and roast courgette, with balsamic vinegar. It's actually really nice, even completely cold, under sceptical glances from snooty friends. This lunch was actually my mums idea, and was therefore much nicer than anything I could have produced myself. The whole wheat thing is probably better for you - look it up if you want details. I am many things (good things), but an encyclopaedia isn't one of them.

Aww, look. There's my lunch with an apple. Bless.

Day One of Healthy Packed Lunches

                                  

Today begins my epic journey into the odd culinary corners that are all things healthy. As some famous bloke or blokette once said "But the Modern Utopia must not be static but kinetic, must shape not as a permanent state but as a hopeful stage, leading to a long ascent of stages. Nowadays we do not resist and overcome the great stream of things, but rather float upon it. We build now not citadels, but ships of state.”  No, I don't know what that means either, but courage readers, because no man must be thwarted by higher vocabulary. It's an inspiring quote, or at least that's what it said on goodreads, and we all know that goodreads is older and wiser than any one can ever hope to be. (Well, I just googled it, and it turns out goodreads is only 8 years old, but that's old in modern terms. Motzart was composing age five, and compared to that, goodreads is ancient.)

Anyway, goodreads aside, I had my first ultra healthy lunch™ , and it wasn't half bad (which means it was good, for those who are a little slower than others). My delectable creation was made up of:

• Whole meal pancakes, filled with roasted peppers and cooked bananas (not in the same pancake, muppet)  

http://aminorityofonelunacy.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/whole-meal-pancakes.html

• Not one, but two pieces of fruit (!)

• A walnut scone filled with cream cheese, which I highly recommend

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/walnut-scones

• Two oat and banana cookies (I'll post about these soon, I promise)

• A green smoothie. Now, this sounds disgusting, but actually it's not too darn bad. Just don't leave it out in a warm kitchen over night, that's my advice

http://simplegreensmoothies.com/green-smoothie-recipes/pre-workout-green-smoothie

My lunch was actually a lot better than I expected, even if my doubting father scoffed at me. I showed them. I showed them all 

Whole meal pancakes

These are both tasty and healthy, which is a rarity, and I managed to cook them successfully, which is even rarer:

Ingredients:

• 125g wholemeal flour
• 1 medium egg
• 300ml semi skimmed milk

Method:

Place the flour in a large bowl, mix in the egg and gradually whisk in the milk to give a smooth batter.

Heat a little oil in a small frying pan and add a little of the batter to cover the base thinly. 

Cook the pancake for 1 min until golden, turn and cook for 30 seconds. 

Repeat to make eight pancakes

Hurrah! You're finished, and if you greased the pan and didn't burn the pancakes (not that I'd know anything about either of those mistakes, obviously) then you can fill them! I did some savoury, filled with roasted peppers, and some sweet, filled with cooked banana. They were yummy, and I think I might make them again this week. Good luck!http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/137986/Wholemeal-pancakes#

The Vault

                                           

If you've ever imagined or read about London (and if you live there, just bear with me) you'll probably go for the buses, the tourist sites, Big Ben and statues of important people on horses. And then there's the bits that you read about in books, the bits that the cool people and the hipsters go to, the whole culture that exists if you can only find it. I'm here to tell you that it does exist, if only in the form of the vault. It's amazing, in a word.

 I wouldn't normally know about things like this, because I don't live in London, but we somehow ended up going there to watch a performance of Macbeth, and it was like nothing else I've ever seen. To start with, we came straight out of the station, and literally down a hole, into the pavement. Under the street is a whole load of abandoned underground tunnels, and every inch is covered with graffiti. I was pretty happy to just stand and stare for a while (they even change it every day!) surrounded by cigarette smoke, but it was pretty cold, so we managed to find the entrance to the actual place (which was sign posted by the graffiti, which was cool). Inside was just wow. Enough to make me perform grammatical acts of atrocity.

Inside is, obviously, more tunnels, but the kind of foyer bit is red brick, with iron doors leading into different spaces. My two favourite bits were the bar area and the gallery bit. The bar area is incredible, and exactly what I imagined in all the books I love. It's quite dark, with odd patches of flashing lights, and drapes over rickety wooden tables. There're crazy art installations, umbrellas hanging from ceilings and loads of indie people lounging on battered arm chairs. In the gallery there are chairs made out of hanging bathtubs, and tables made of huge cotton reels. A piano with no case is covered with posters for upcoming performances, and it slumps in the corner, next to a display of tea and cakes.

The Macbeth performance (I didn't take this, sadly)

Basically, if you ever get a chance to go, definitely do. It's still around for a few weeks, I think, and I couldn't recommend it more. It kind of feels like I've found a grungy fairyland, that only a few can see. (And yes, I'm extremely smug about it.)

Healthy Packed Lunch Ideas

I don't know about you, but at my school there is a huge range of options for lunch. You can have grease on its own, greasy cardboard, greasy rubber and occasionally a few limp peas just for the health. However, sometimes you have to have something different. Here some options, if that's what you feel like. I'm going to post when I've done these, and show the results.

Walnut scones:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/walnut-scones

Bean and Cheese Salad
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/family-meals/slideshow/25-quick-and-easy-school-lunches-to-pack-for-your-kids/?slide=13

White Bean and avocado sandwiches:
http://www.culinarycolleen.com/smashed-white-bean-and-avocado-sandwich/

Sun-dried Tomato Pasta
http://www.popsugar.com/food/Sun-Dried-Tomato-Pasta-Salad-4588604

Things baked in cupcake moulds:
http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Baked-Macaroni-and-Cheese-Cupcakes-Food-Network-279753
I really want to try these, although I don't think I said - my parents have kind of banned me from internet recipes. No idea why - there have been successes in the past. Well, a success. Probably.

Chickpea Salad Sandwich:
http://thesimpleveganista.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/chickpea-salad.html

Breakfast cups:
http://breakfast.food.com/recipe/sunshine-breakfast-cups-146160

And bam, you join in the casual boasting on how healthy your lunch is, except instead of giving pointed stares at your half carrot sick feast, you can smugly tuck in to a tasty meal, and mention in passing how it has under 200 calories. Oh yes.

Indoor scavenger hunt

I, being both mature and sensible (that wasn't a joke, don't laugh) , do some babysitting occasionally. Admittedly, it is primarily for my brother and sister, but it's still pretty miraculous that my parents trust me with them. On the up side, I do work for my money, so last time I baby sat them I made an indoor treasure hunt. Okay, so I stole their teddies for motivation, but they still had (slightly terrifying- I was posing as 'the mysterious bandersnatch') fun. These are the clues that I used in case you want to be as adored as moi, and I've included the answers in case you don't have the same brain power as my seven year old sister.

Keep it clean and keep it dry.

Can you guess? Come on, just try!

Washing machine

Flour and sugar and coffee and tea,
I keep these handy but hard to see.

Pots, which store these.

Without me you'd have no fresh food.
So come chill with me - don't be rude!

Fridge 

I never get angry but I do get hot.
I'm the perfect place for a pan or a pot.

The top of an oven or stove

I'm hungry! I'm hungry! Please feed me a slice.
I'll spit it back out all brown and nice.

A toaster (This one's my favourite)

I'm mostly filled with things that rarely bring you glee
like bills, and junk, and other stuff you'd rather never see. 

A letter box

Communicate with family, research, shop, and play games.
Since we spread around the globe, your lives have really changed. 

A computer

Be the first back to the room where this hunt did begin
If you're the first you'll hear the words, "Congrats, to you... YOU WIN!" 

Of course you don't put these in the places that they mean, you keep clue one, then put the second clue wherever the answer to the first is, and so on.  I gave out sweets at the end, because it's all part of my cunning plan to make my families teeth fall out, and then I can make my fortune selling them on ebay for uses in strange chinese medicines.

Anyway, this is great if it's raining outside or there's been an apocalypse and you can't go out or your face will be eaten off

Tardis Mason jar

What could be better than a mason jar? Sweet, nostalgic (for old people I guess) and cheap, the mason jar is a timeless classic etc. But now, introducing THE NEW AND IMPROVED....

TARDIS JAR!!!!!

Yes, folks. That is four exclamation marks you're looking at right there. Read it and weep. 

Some people may be wondering what is so special about this. Did I just take a jar and paint it mostly blue? Is it all a huge con? Well, yes I suppose so. But it's part of a fandom, so I still win. Also, it's all about inspiration, guys. You heard it here first.

 You will need:

• A mason jar
• Blue acrylic paint
• White acrylic paint
• Black acrylic paint
• A paint brush
• A pen or pencil
• A varnish, if you like 

First coat your entire jar in white paint. You could use a stupidly small brush for this, like me, if you like. I did two coats of paint, as well as painting the lid, but my paint is kind of awful.

Next, draw on the design in pencil. I found that it was easiest to divide up the pot into quarters first to make sure that the sides are (more or less) equal. I then divided up the side into four bits to show the panels of the tardis.

                                                    

When you've completed the design once you get to do it all over again - three times!! YAY!! (And yes, I know my drawing is unbelievably beautiful, but there we are. We can't all basically be architects.)

Next, paint blue around the markings, leaving the panels white. (You can colour them blue too if you want it to technicaly be correct, but then you can see them that well, so I left them) . Next, paint all the lines in black, using sharpies for the fine lines in the windows, if you like. For the Police Box sign I used Tipex, because as I said before, my white paint isn't up to much. After that, you're done! Ain't it gorgeous!?? (yes, it is.)

My 10 favourite things on the web this month

So I spend lots of time surfing the web while pretending I'm doing my homework. Don't judge me. (And I'm not just pretending to my parents - I usually have a few tabs open, and I kid myself that I'm only looking at things while stuff is loading). Here are a few of my favourite things on the web this month, in no particular order:

1. Starbucks cup sleeves:

This is terribly 'tumblr' , but it still appeals to me, particularly because of the Harry Potter illustrations. Despite my vendetta against Starbucks, I still wish I could do this.

    2. Diy gift ideas

Obviously I love Diy gifts, almost as much as free things (which is a lot). This is a really good compilation of a load of them, until I get round to doing my own. I love this site too; so basically what a boost!

                                           

   3. Fruit painted macaroons
These are just too cute to be true, although I would never be able to make them.

   4. Oh the burrrrrn.
This is really very funny, and will leave you wishing you could have been the first to some up with these, however mean they are. Again, this site is fabbbuuuuulllouuusss dahhling, but terribly distracting, as the name suggests.

  5.Suris Burn Book
 I have just fallen in love with this blog. Oh but it's terribly witty.

  6. Life changing little thoughts
These will make you stop and go woah. For example, every day someone in the world does todays biggest poo, and they will never know.

  7.Healthy meals
 For those healthy days. We all have them folks. Besides, these are just too cute.

  8. One pot aubergine pasta
Not only is this easy and healthy, it looks really yummy too. I'll keep you posted on that front, although bear in mind that I'm not a very good cook, so any dismal results are not necessarily the fault of the recipe.

  9. Woman marries herself
While this is not quite as controversial as it once was - I must have heard or seen this at least three times it is still pretty fun. It does leave you wondering what she'd do if she met someone else though. Can you divorce yourself? Or, you know, consciously uncouple yourself... From yourself...

  10.  A headmaster takes on Let It Go, in a brilliant parody
My schools headmaster is pretty cool, but this takes it to a whole new level. For once, this parody of Frozen is really very different.
                                  

Well, there you go folks. I'll probably do a new one of these next month, so I hope you enjoyed it.