Smoothie Bowl Love

ALL THE LOVE FOR SMOOTHIE BOWLS
I've been really digging smoothie bowls recently. They're packed full of goodness, taste amazing and are great for getting those all important instagram likes, so I thought why not dedicate a blog post to them.

THE RECIPE
You can put basically anything in a smoothie bowl, but here is what I do most mornings to create mine...

• 1 banana
• 1 red apple, chopped (obvs, or it'll break your blender)
• Natural yoghurt, I usually put about tablespoon in, but I just pour it in until it looks about right
• Raspberries or blueberries, again just until you're happy with the amount

I chuck that all in my nutribullet, blend until smooth but still quite thick, and then it's ready.

THE TOPPING
My topping usually consists of a handful of granola, I have a super yummy one from Sainsburys that has raisins in which I love, and then whatever fruit I have leftover from the smoothie, which is normally just a few pieces of apple. I had some pieces of plum on top and in the smoothie once though and it was pretty damn delicious.

AVOCADO
I love avocados so much that I once stabbed myself in the hand cutting one and had to go to hospital to get my hand glued back together, and I was actually upset about the avocado going to waste. So obviously my love for avocados runs deep (you could say its in my blood... get it? Because I bled... okay, sorry) and because of that I want to try an avocado based smoothie bowl, but I don't really know where to start with that, like what else do I put in? If you know any yummy recipes, then let me know in the comments! Thank you <3

Thanks for reading, remember to follow me for weekly posts.

Have a rad day!

Love Chloe x

Dinner Time With Chloe

Chicken and Vegetable Stir-fry

THE FOOD
For dinner today I had a chicken and vegetable stir-fry. It was delicious and super healthy (I had a huge slice of Victoria Sponge in the afternoon, so y'know I was mostly just making up for that!) and I thought I'd share it with you because it was so easy to make.

YOU WILL NEED

• Chicken, cut into strips (totally optional, if you don't eat chicken then substitute it with something else, like more veggies, haha)
• Broccoli 
• Cauliflower 
• Baby corn
• Cherry tomatoes
• Half a can of chopped tomatoes 
• Olive oil
• (Obviously you can choose whatever vegetables you want, this is just want I had. And I'm probably never going to know if you use courgette instead of cauliflower, and even if I did I wouldn't care because courgette is delicious and would totally work here, so just do your thing.)

YO CHLOE, WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW?

Begin by heating up a little bit of olive oil in a frying pan, and then add your chicken. Fry for about 5 minutes (it might be quicker or slower than this depending on your hob/stove, it's hard to tell because the hob at university is incredibly bad). 

Once the chicken is cooked through and just starting to brown add your veggies. I added the broccoli and cauliflower first as they take a bit longer to soften.  

Once the vegetables are tender (after about 5 minutes), add your chopped tomatoes and stir so that everything is covered. Wait for the chopped tomatoes to warm up (this only takes about a minute).

Serve! 

YOU CAN ALSO...

If you wanted you could add noodles, rice or even pasta to this and it would taste amazing. I was originally planning on using noodles but I forgot to buy them, but it would be delicious with noodles too! 

Also a little drizzle of soy sauce added at the same time at the chopped tomatoes would also be really nice, but again I didn't have soy sauce. 

I'M GOING TO EAT NOW

And that's it. As I said, it's so easy to make and takes less than 20 minutes, woooo! So thanks for reading. In the comments tell me what your favourite food is :)

Love Chloe x

Mmmmmmm...

Coffee Cups With Chloe: Updates

HELLO

I've just sat down with my cup of coffee (in the cutest little hedgehog mug) and a breakfast bar (it's 4 o clock in the afternoon but breakfast bars are delicious at all times of the day, okay?) and I've decided to do a little blog writing. My goal for 2015 was to write more on here because I love writing and this blog was just sitting here sad and unused so I thought I'd give it some love. But this week I haven't been inspired to write about anything, blog wise anyway; I've actually done a ton of writing for other things, I'm on a creative writing course so that's not really shocking, but I'm also in the process of writing a book too. I've been writing it for two years but in February I realised just how close I am to finishing it, so I've been pushing myself to write a little bit everyday to try and get it done. Anyway, back to the point... I haven't been inspired to write anything for this blog this week. So I thought I'd just write. We've done this as a writing exercise at uni a few times and it's often produced some pretty great stuff, so here we go. Sorry in advance if this gets rambly!

MUSIC

I have a bad habit of listening to the same music on repeat until I get bored of it, and at the moment my repeated jams have been anything by Chet Faker. I listen to the Australian radio station triple j nearly every night (which is when their breakfast show is on) and so I've ended up listening to quite a lot of Australian artists. But Chet Faker is hands down my favourite discovery. I play his album Thinking In Textures on repeat and then there are loads of individual songs of his that are very likely to be on repeat too. I have really thin walls at university so I'm sure my next door neighbours really enjoy having the same hipster songs blasted every day! His music is kind of indie, crossed with a electronic, dance vibe. I'm really bad at describing music genres but hopefully you kind of get what I mean. It's the kind of music that you could expect to hear quietly playing in a coffee shop full of bearded men with man buns and girls in oversized jumpers and messy hair. It's super hipster and I adore it.

FOOD

I've been trying to eat healthier and snack less this week, and I think I've done pretty well! I actually planned out each dinner for the week and so when I went food shopping I brought what I needed and was less tempted to buy lots of bad food. Now I admit I have been snacking, I can't get through the day without eating something at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. But I made sure to stock up on fruit so that when I do get peckish in the afternoon I reach for the fruit bowl instead of the crisps (I don't even have crisps to reach for, as I said I planned out exactly what I wanted to buy). I can't say I've noticed any difference in my health yet, but it's only been a week. However, my meals have been much tastier and I'm staying fuller for longer so that's rad.

FASHION

This week I've also been trying to wear the clothes in my wardrobe that I haven't worn in a long time. I'm really bad at buying clothes, wearing them a couple of times and then never again, or constantly wearing the same outfits because they're easy and I like how they look (which would be fine if I didn't have so many other clothes going unworn). So this week I've been trying to wear some different pieces. If I was a professional blogger I'd put some photos in of my outfits this week but I haven't actually taken any... But I might do a post about these style of outfits at some point, so look out for that!

BOOKS

At the moment I'm reading City of Thieves by David Benioff, which the local bookshop Mr B's sent me. I'm really enjoying it so far, and I've only got a little bundle of chapters left to read. It's about two young men from Leningrad during the second world war, and they are arrested and then given the job of finding a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter to use in her birthday cake. But of course, that's not as easy as it sounds when you're in rationed, war time Russia. I was shocked to find out from the opening chapter that this is actually a true story, based on the life of the authors granddad! This book ties in really well with the last book I was reading, which was A Storm of Swords Part 1 by George R.R Martin. As I'm sure you know this series of books has been turned into the massive TV show Game of Thrones, and David Benioff is actually the co-creator of the show! It was a very odd coincidence when Emma from Mr B's informed me of this! :')

GOODBYE

I think that's probably enough of my life updates. I hope this was vaguely interesting to read, and if you only take one thing from this, then let be that you go and repeat Chet Faker songs for days. Thanks for reading. I hope you have a rad day.
Love Chloe x