Cheap BPA Free Waterbottle (also free of bullsh*t)

Buy BPA free water bottles for ten bucks from the supermarket

Some things are way more expensive than they need to be. I was in the city looking for a BPA free water bottle. Most of them were around $50. I almost bought a glass one. There were also ones with a filter and a fancy drinking straw thing. I'm glad I held off buying that day because I went to the supermarket a few days later and found this BPA free drink bottle for only ten bucks. It has the only fancy gadget I care about: a lid, so that you don't drink from something with dust or lint on it! It's also waaay lighter than the glass one, and I didn't break a nail trying to open the lid, as happened with one of the fancier models from the city.

Lesson being, don't get fooled by fanciness-- assess what you really need, and have a look around, because some places might sell it cheaper. 

Recipe: Vegetarian Sausage Rolls

After this, you'll never look at those bakery spinach and feta rolls again. My dad's vegetarian rolls are so flavoursome and moist that you don't even need sauce.

Dad recommends using 5 root vegetables. All you do is mash them up, cook them over the stove, then roll them up in pastry and bung 'em in the oven for 20 minutes.

You can vary the vegetables and flavours, but the one I made today was perfectly balanced, so I'll show you what I did:

It didn't matter that the parsnips were getting a bit soft; it's all the same in the end. 

Veggies:

• 3 carrots
• 2 parsnips
• 1 beetroot (it's better fresh)
• 4 potatoes
• 1 large sweet potato

Flavouring:

• Worcester sauce
• Stock powder
• 2 tsp of shredded ginger
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• A pinch or two of chilli flakes
• 1 tbspn oregano
• 1 tbspn basil

For the pastry:

• 3 sheets puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten

Steps:

1. Wash and peel your veggies.
2. The best thing to do next is put them all in a food processor. If you don't have one, have fun grating and mincing!
3. Drizzle vegetable oil into a wok or a big saucepan over moderate/high heat. Add in all the flavours stir them around for 30 seconds. This helps to bring out the flavours.
4. Chuck in your shredded veggies and stir. Get comfortable because you'll have to stand there stirring it for about twenty minutes. By now you should notice the beetroot juice doing its work:



The beetroot colours the whole dish 

5. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (fan forced). Stir the veggie mixture for five minutes.
6. Get out your frozen puff pastry sheets. The pastry thaws quickly; too long, and it gets floppy and too hard to use.
7. After another five minutes or so, the veggies should be cooked. Taste it as you go. When it's cooked, set aside to cool.
8. Line one baking tray with baking paper.
9. Spoon a line of veggie mix along the pastry lengthwise, then roll it up and brush with the beaten egg (if you don't have a cooking brush, just use paper towel. It works fine). It should now look like this:



You can seal the edges by pushing down with a fork. 

10. Add air vents by slicing around the middle. This prevents "air bubbles" inside. Pastries need to breathe, too!
11. Serve alone or with salad. Share with friends and family.

It's fine cold the next day, or is easily reheated in the oven or on the grill, if you have one.

Recipe: Easy Stir Fry

I could never understand how some people swore that all they could cook was something like egg on toast. It's really not hard to toss together a healthy meal, as I will prove to you in my Traveler's Cookbook series, beginning with this recipe.

The broccoli in my fridge was reaching its dying days. Stir fry is a simple way to add some colour back into the vegetable and bring out the flavour.

Stir Fry Vegies
1.       Drizzle a fry pan with 1-2 tablespoons of peanut oil.
2.       Add chopped garlic, sesame seeds, and a pinch of dried chilli.
3.       Add in chopped broccoli and cashews. Fry for 5-10 minutes. 


Broccoli and cashew stir fry. There was more but I ate it. 

That’s it! There’s millions of variations. Feel free to add a different oil, or other flavours like ginger, soy sauce, or those squeezy tubs of pre-mixed herbs—apple cider vinegar also adds a nice flavour.

Great basics to have on hand. The packaged ones in the back last for ages,
and you only need a small amount each time.

Other vegies that are good in Asian-style are zucchini, squash, cauliflower, carrot, beans, corn, and onion (carrot will take longer to cook and beans and corn take only 1-2 minutes; you want it a bit crunchy).

I added the cashews for extra protein. You could also use almonds, tofu, lentils or chickpeas (the last two are more Mediterranean style, but anything goes).

If you're wanting a full meal, this is great with rice or noodles. You can get dried rice noodles from the Asian section of the supermarket.


Rice noodles are only a few bucks and cook in a few minutes.



The Best Way to Share Photos?

I will be adding my pictures of abroad to some sort of site, and I want your opinion on how best to share them. I was thinking a Facebook page might be easy to add bulk photos, and to add comments, but Facebook isn't great for downloading photos. There is Pinterest, but as far as I can tell you have to add photos one by one, and I'm NOT doing that! Then there's Flickr and Tumblr and various others.

I'm still deciding how public I'll make these photos. Maybe a closed group.

Your thoughts?

This is a camera, in case you were confused.

Still figuring things out

Fuuuck, I post things waaay too quickly. Still figuring things out, sorry guys. I've decided I'm going to follow the advice Ben Law gave us once in a QUT lecture: once you've finished your article (or assignment), give yourself three days, so that you can mull it over a bit, and also look at it with fresh eyes.

At a Young Adult short course, the presenter mentioned an author friend who has a habit of writing a first draft, then burning it and starting again. This is an extreme example, but I can see the benefit. Often the first time you write something, you're still figuring what you're trying to say. The next time, you can speak more succinctly, and more clearly see what sections are excess, or what sections could be elaborated on.

The art of revision

One of the most satisfying things about uni this semester has been working on one or two projects and refining them until they are polished pieces of works that you are proud to send to competitions or to show people.

So here we go. Sorry for those of you who got the full slog of my thoughts on this one. Here is my next, more succinct version of Making Friends With Someone Who Drives You Nuts.

Also, this is a blog, Soph. People don't read novels on blogs ;)

PS Technically this draft hasn't reached the three day mark, but I'm also kind of over it by now; I've got other things to do. Whatever, I can be flexible.

Thanks for bearing with me, fellow writers.

PPS I almost wrote "bare with me" instead of "bear with me". When I looked it up, it said, "if you want someone to be patient with you, use 'bear'. If you are talking to a fellow nudist, use 'bare'." Classic.

A nudist bear

Top 5 Tips from Richard Carlson

Tonight I had the fortune to look through Richard Carlson's Don't Sweat The Small Stuff (the original. The men's version is the same but contains too many references to golf and cars). This is the most useful book I've ever read. Carlson has had decades of experience as a stress consultant, author, and lecturer, but more than that, he gives relatable advice that sounds sincere, non-preachy, and is enjoyable to read. These are the top 5 lessons I've learned from him:

1. Live in the moment
2. Don't judge or criticise others. It takes too much energy
3. Be satisfied with what you have, and be content with the fact that there will always be things that you want
4. Do yoga. You don't have time not to (DVDs make it super convenient)
5. Be grateful and loving every single day

You, too, could be this zenned out

To read the wonderful anecdotes which justify these lessons, I would highly recommend that you buy it. You can get it for about 14 bucks on Book Depository, and they also have a teenage version if you wanted. It will change your life and open your heart. 

And screw you if that sounds soft; it's true.

You be like, 'No one tells me what to do!'

Living with Less

I think I'm physically incapable of keeping my room tidy for more than five minutes.Currently I can barely see the floor, and every single cupboard or desk drawer is open. I will take up the challenge to "live with less and see what you learn from the experiment."

A little while ago I watched this program with young homeless people moving into a shelter. This one guy was showing the camerman his room. The room was small, and only had a single bed and a bedside table with a lamp. "That's all you really need," I remember he said.
It was moving, how satisfied he was with having what most of us take for granted every day. It was one of the most touching things I had seen in ages, and I still remember it years later.

Something like this, but perhaps I'll add bed sheets, seeing as England is so cold!

I'm sure it was Richard Carlson who said it, though I can't find the reference, but he said that he used to live in a house that was cluttered with stuff that they kept "just in case". Then one day the family moved, but to begin with, they could only take a single bag each to their new house. After living with their bare essentials for about a month, they began to realise that they didn't need the other stuff, as they thought they did--indeed, they could barely remember what it was!

I am so happy that I'll be able to experiment with this notion. There are tons of things in my room that are taking up space but that I feel I need to keep, such as half a cupboard full of notebooks, crafty paper, and books (80% of which I'll probably never read again). Finally I can leave it all behind, knowing that I can come back to it in a few months.

Currently, my room looks a little something like this...

And my mum's facial expression is similar to mama bear's

But by tomorrow...maybe Friday at the latest... it will have only a fraction of the stuff in it. Anything I can't take with me to England, haven't used in ages, or is simply taking up space, I will throw out or donate. I'll see how many garbage bags I can fill and get back to you.