Quick & easy tortilla recipe
This dish comes together in under 30 minutes, start to finish, and turned out to be surprisingly tasty. I say surprisingly because I just set out to make a quick and easy dinner (almost like healthy fast-food), not specifically something that tasted awesome. I don't even have any step by step photos to show you like I usually do, because I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was (i.e. blog-worthy), haha.
For 3 servings, you'll need:
- 6 flour tortillas
- 1 can (13.5oz) kidney beans
- 1 small can (5oz) corn kernels
- 1 can (13.5oz) chopped tomatoes in juice
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 avocado
- 3oz grated cheese (cheddar, gouda, anything that has a fairly sharp taste and melts nicely)
- 1-2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp paprika powder
- 2 cloves fresh garlic or about 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 pinch curry powder
- 1 pinch dried oregano
- salt, black pepper, chilli pepper to taste
Start by dicing the seeded red pepper and mincing the garlic, if using fresh cloves. Add the tomatoes plus juice, drained beans and corn, red pepper and half the garlic to a pot over medium-high heat. Add the paprika, curry powder, oregano, and ground black and chilli pepper to taste. Cook for about five minutes.
In the meantime, mash up the avocado. Add the other half of the garlic, salt, and black pepper to taste. Depending on how ripe your avocado was, you might want to add a few drops of water as well. You want a paste that's easily spreadable, but not runny.
Add enough cornstarch to your pot to thicken the veggie juices into a sauce. Cook for another 3-5 minutes. Meanwhile, spread your avocado paste onto the tortillas.
Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F. Spread 1/8 of the veggie sauce onto the bottom of an oven dish. Also add 1/8 of the sauce to the centre of each tortilla. Wrap them and place them next to each other in the oven dish. Spread the remaining sauce on top of them. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top.
Bake for about 10 minutes, or until cheese has melted and tortillas are starting to firm up. Serve and enjoy!
Nutritional info: 530 kcal; 24.5g protein, 46.5g carbs and 26.6g fat per serving (mostly healthy unsaturated fats from the avocado). Suitable for vegetarians, and can easily be made vegan by replacing the cheese with a non-dairy version.
Umm, I guess this tastes better than it looks. :P Also, this is obviously from before it went into the oven, as evidenced by the non-melted cheese.
11 in 2011 results
Remember how I did an "11 in 2011" New Year's resolutions type post, way back on 1/1/2011? Well, I guess I barely remembered this, because at some point fairly early on in the year, I completely stopped tracking my progress on any of these goals. So, I've been meaning to write a results post ever since 2012 started, but the main reason I've been putting it off is that half these "results" will be total guesstimates. Oh well. :P
Reduce weight to 62kg or less
Well, there we go. Just the first one on the list and it's already a total fail. Rather than losing about 15lbs like I intended to, I actually managed to gain some 10 pounds since the start of 2011. I now fit into even fewer of my clothes, instead of being able to use my entire wardrobe again, as per the goal. Whoops.
Try at least 12 new recipes
See, this is one of the goals where it would have been rather helpful if I'd actually kept track of it throughout the year. I do still have the document that I intended to use for tracking my goals, but it only has a single check mark for this one, and I know I've occasionally tried out a new recipe since, you know, February. :P Not that many, though. I would guess maybe 4 or 5 in total throughout the year?
Prepare at least 25 vegan dinners
Again, since I stopped counting after only a month or two, I'm going to have to guess... I'm pretty sure I didn't quite make it to 25, as that would mean cooking fully vegan at least once every other week, but I'm thinking probably 15 to 20 times? I did learn that a vegan lifestyle is just not really my thing; I probably could do all-vegan dinners, all the time, if I had to, but I love my bread too much to eat salads, soups etc. for breakfast and lunches all too often. Combined with the fact that I'm not a huge fan of sweet rather than savoury bread toppings (jams, etc) that leaves quite little choice in that department, instead of having a variety of meats, cheeses, eggs etc. to choose from.
For this same reason I can't even see myself going completely vegetarian; I would definitely miss the option of having sandwiches with ham, salami, bacon and all the other various deli meats. Again, dinner is a different matter, and I did actually cut back quite a bit on the amount of meat I use there. Over the past couple of months I've switched from using "whatever cheap kind of meat's available" to only buying certified organic meat. Yes, it's easily 2-3 times as expensive, but I'm simply using 2-3 times less in response, and find that my meals still taste fine. And occasionally, I've even left out the meat in my dinners completely, or added a bit of goat's cheese instead, etc.
Be able to run 5km or more
Yeahhhh. I think I've just fallen out of the running groove completely, or something. I didn't work out nearly as much as I wanted, in general, but then even when I did, it was P90X or yoga or Bodyrock or really just anything that wasn't running. Right now, out of those 5km, I'm probably able to run, like, 300m or something. Haha.
Do an ab workout at least 100 times
Umm. Out of all the goals, this is probably the toughest one to guesstimate if you haven't actually been keeping track. The goal is such a large number, and my workouts have been completely irregular, so it's not as if I can say "well, I did abs twice a week, for probably x weeks out of the year" or anything. It's more like I've had short periods where I worked out like 3-5 times per week, followed by weeks or months of doing nothing, so. Um. Maybe 40 times? But I guess it could just as easily have been 25 or 60. Definitely not the full 100, though.
Do a yoga workout at least 40 times
I didn't make this goal either, but I did come quite a bit closer than with the other workout goals. Probably around 30-35 times? Like I said before, I didn't work out nearly as often as I intended to... but when I did, it was some form of yoga more often than not. I like how it's more about flexibility and strength and balance than being some kind of fast-paced cardio workout, and I like how you all you need is a yoga mat and your own body weight and can workout in the comfort of your own home. (With the obvious risk that I'm doing all sorts of poses horribly wrong, I suppose, having never actually attended a real life yoga class. Shush.)
Publish at least 50 pages of RoA
Haha. HAHAHA. Do I even need to say anything else on this subject?
Write at least 25 blog posts
Oh my god it is a goal that I actually successfully completed. :O More than that, even; I wrote exactly 50 blog posts in 2011. Twice the target amount, and nearly one post per week on average. :)
Read at least 6 books (not counting school textbooks)
Which means we quickly need to move on to another utter failure, of course. Discounting all the stuff I've had to read for school, I finished a grand total of one book over the course of 2011. During the summer, I started reading The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King, but about halfway through, I left to go on holiday and forgot to take it with me. So while in Germany, I started on Heat Wave instead (yes, the tie-in novel to the Castle TV series), and read about half of that before we went back home... where I never actually finished either book.
I have to say I was slightly disappointed by Heat Wave; I liked it, but I did not love it as much as I expected. However, it's not like I deliberately quit halfway through because I was that unimpressed, or anything. And I quite liked The Drawing of the Three and want to know how it continues, I've just not actually bothered to read the rest of it. The one book I did finish, just before 2011 ended, was KanjerGuusje: mijn leven is van mij by Lowie van Gorp. I had already read the blog and was mostly buying its book form for the proceeds going to charity, if I'm completely honest, but then I ended up reading the entire book in two days straight when it arrived. I'm not even usually a fan of the "true story" genre, especially when you already know it's not going to have a happy ending, but there's just something really captivating about this one.
I do feel I should point out that while I may hardly have read any published novels at all, I did read an almost silly amount of fan fiction this year. I used to read a ton of fanfic as a teenager, but hadn't really read any for years. Over the course of 2011, however, I would guesstimate I've read at least a million words of fan fiction, which is actually about 3 to 8 novels' worth, depending on the size of the book. That might seem like a random and clearly overestimated amount, so let me explain. First, in January, I read Draco Veritas by Cassandra Claire, which is a roughly 500,000-word Harry Potter fanfic. Then, at some point, I got slightly obsessed with White Collar, which lead me to reading every piece of decent fanfic I could get my hands on over the summer holidays. I know that one author, whose entire archives I ended up reading, has written over 300,000 words of fanfic, and I must have read at least the same amount of fic by other authors combined. Hence my guesstimate of "a million words of fanfic", which I honestly suspect is actually on the low side. So, between school, work, the internet, and being a rabid fangirl, you can see how that leaves fairly little time for reading actual books. >.>
Travel outside of the country at least once
Reading tangent aside, let's move on to another goal that I managed to complete. I ended up going on three separate holidays this year! First a weekend in London in March, and then a week in Nuremberg and another week at the CCC camp near Berlin in August. I think I've already spent blog posts on each of these holidays, so I'll keep this one short and move on to the last goal.
Have a (professional) photo shoot done
Yeah. Well. As I already said when I originally wrote this, this one was heavily dependent on how well I'd do on the weight loss and workout goals. You know the results of those by now, so suffice to say this one never even crossed my mind during 2011. :P
Aaaand there you have it! A recap of all 11 goals, of which I managed to successfully complete... two. Well, unless you want to count the amount of fanfic read in book equivalents, in which case I guess I made three of them. Still not a great score. :P I suppose this ought to be the point where I tell you my 2012 goals... except I never actually made any! Maybe I will, maybe I won't. If I do, I'll be sure to let you know. :)
Models Own polish – Golden Green & Emerald Black
I really need to stop doing that thing where I promise to post something else (in this case, swatches of the other Beetlejuice polishes) "soon". This invariably leads to me neglecting said post for ages. Whoops. I actually swatched and photographed the polishes below within the next three days following my last post, but I didn't bother to write the accompanying blog post until, well, now. Apologies. So, without further ado, let's quickly move on to the photos:
First up is Emerald Black. This one showed the weakest duochrome effect in the bottle, and this effect (or lack thereof, rather) is even more apparent on the nails, sadly.
Under most circumstances, it just pretty much looks like a regular black polish with maybe some vague blue shimmer in it, but not a duochrome blue/black polish. The photo above shows the colour difference between the polish in the bottle and the polish as applied to the nail particularly well.
It's only at fairly extreme angles that the blue duochrome starts to come out. I have to admit this polish didn't quite live up to my expectations. Fortunately I was mostly buying the set for Pinky Brown and Golden Green anyway. ;)
To spice things up a little and get some actual duochrome action going, I decided to add a coat of Nfu Oh. While this adds nice duochrome flakies, it also has the effect of making the base polish truly appear like a solid black creme, now. ;)
Then I added a matte top coat for another fun effect. (Actually, the observant reader will notice the placement of the flakies has changed. In reality, I redid the above manicure, then added the matte top coat, a couple of days after I'd taken the original version off and already swatched Golden Green in between. :P) The matte top coat turns both the black base polish and the transparent glossy base of the Nfu Oh matte, while the flakes do retain their shine, being little flecks of, uh, metal? I guess? I just realised I've never even given this any thought. At any rate, it makes for a pretty interesting look.
This photo shows off how well the flakies retain their shine and duochrome effect, the sloppiness of my polish application, and a random orange. At this point, I don't remember if there was any actual point in using the orange (it does contrast kind of nicely with the flakes, I suppose) or if I just got tired of holding a nail polish bottle in every single swatch photo and wanted some variety. :P
On to Golden Green! This is a beautiful golden colour with dusky/mossy green undertones. The duochrome effect is actually a bit stronger in real life; remember the bottle photo from the previous post? The green shade is nearly as dark as it looked in the bottle, but my camera didn't want to capture that properly.
This is a really lovely and cheerful colour, don't you think? It reminds me of Spring, with the deep green and golden shades. :)
Well, and there you have it, the Models Own Beetlejuice swatches, only a month overdue! As a minor form of compensation, have a video of my cat trying to murder her plushie little brother. :D
Models Own Beetlejuice collection
This is a brand of nail polish I'd never even heard of until I saw promotional pictures for their newest collection pop up on a few other blogs. I immediately knew I had to have it; all of the polishes have a strong duochrome or even multichrome effect, and we all know how much I love my duochromes. Actually, while I own several shades of polish with duochrome flakies in them, as well as several holos, I didn't even have any overall duochrome polishes yet. All the more reason to want them.
The Beetlejuice collection has five different shades, which retail for £5 each, as well as coming in 3-for-£10 and 5-for-£20 sets. The sets, as well as half the separate colours, were already sold out at the Models Own web store by the time I went to buy them (and still are), but ASOS still offered the "Peacock" 3-for-£10 sets. (These are now sold out as well! Man, this polish is popular, apparently.) For some obscure reason, ASOS was unable to ship them to my country (I've ordered clothes and shoes from them several times without any issues, so that was a bit odd), but I've still managed to acquire them via Mari, who kindly offered to be my shipping proxy. :D
I'm sure what you're all really waiting for are the pictures, so let's get on with it!
Emerald Black, Pinky Brown, Golden Green
Pinky Brown, Golden Green, Emerald Black
Aren't they pretty? Keep in mind that it's completely overcast out here today, so on a sunny day the duochrome effect will be even stronger.
The first colour I decided to try was Pinky Brown. This is a deep, mostly warm-toned pink with coppery brown duochrome shimmer. Actually, I think it's a sheer black base, rather than pink, with pink-shifting-to-copper duochrome shimmer in it, if I'm exact. This went on quite sheer (pictured above is three coats) and when I'd only done the first coat, there was a definite black undertone to it. It looked pretty dirty, actually, a thin sheer layer of black over your natural nail colour, even with the pretty shimmer in it. With three coats, however, you have opaque duochrome shimmer coverage, and it's just gorgeous. It reminds me of autumn leaves, if maybe with a slightly more pink tone to them. Perfect for fall.
Stay tuned for the other two shades! (Sorry. I couldn't bear taking the pretty right back off, just so I could swatch all three shades in a row. :P)
Pumpkin soup
It's still that time of the year, pumpkins are still on sale, so you get another pumpkin recipe from me! Adapted from this one from the Food Network.
You'll need:
- 1 pumpkin
- 1 leek
- 1/2 lb diced beef (the kind for soups and stews)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 1 tsp dried rosemary/thyme mix
- 1.5-2 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 2 tsp honey
Cut the pumpkin in a few large chunks (unless you have a very large bowl and microwave, then you can just cut it in half ;)). Scoop out the seeds and the thready flesh holding the seeds, place your chunks in a microwave-safe bowl and add some water, and microwave on high for 5-10 minutes until the skin is soft and can be peeled off more easily.
Remove skin and cut pumpkin into 1/2" chunks.
Cut leek into 1/2" rounds. I had a relatively small pumpkin and a rather large leek, so I only ended up using about half of it.
Heat up the oil and butter in a pot and bake pumpkin, leek and beef chunks for about 10 minutes.
Add broth, wine, honey, herbs and spices and simmer for about half an hour. (Original recipe calls for thyme, parsley and sage only, but all I had was a rosemary & thyme mix, and come on, this is much awesomer anyway. Now my soup perfectly fits the Scarborough Fair song.) Remove beef chunks and bay leaves, and purée soup using an immersion blender. Discard bay leaves, and add beef chunks back into puréed soup. Simmer for another 10 to 20 minutes until beef is fully cooked.
Serve (cute bowls optional) with buttered wholegrain rolls.