A thought for the day..

Granny's cake.

Lazy rainy Saturday mornings. Sound familiar?

Waking up,
listen to the rain,
make tea
and flop down on the couch.
Surf the TV till Cake Boss comes on and sit mesmerised with how such magnificent cakes could be made!

That's what happened to me this Saturday. Which then inspired my baking. Funny how that happens, hey?
Well, I used the inspired opportunity to try my Granny Beryl's chocolate cake recipe for the first time. Leap of faith as I move away from box cakes towards real, from scratch cake baking.

It was fun and many childhood memories flooded back of my mother and I baking together when I was a little tot. I'll always miss that.

The cake turned out well according to my friends. "Best cake I've ever tasted" -I'll pretend it could remotely be true.
I feel like I could possibly share the recipe with the blogging world, but then again, why would I give away such genius? Maybe some time in the future, but for right now, thank you Granny for such amazing chocolate cake..
Mommy and I miss you.

Tasty salmon ish lunch

My first official "gap year" recipe.

Tasty, very filling, cheap-ish, healthy, quick, mission free, salmon lunch.
That's how I'd describe it...

It's very healthy (however, if you're looking at losing weight, you might need to substitute a few of the ingredients.)

YOU NEED: 
Low GI health roll.
Tin of skinless/boneless salmon
Nonfat smooth cottage cheese
Sliced Cucumber
Lettuce
Salt & Pepper
Diced cheddar
Balsamic Vinegar

Just incase it's not straight forward: 
Cut your roll in half. Put it on a plate. If you like butter, spread that babe on!
Get bowl.
Open tin of salmon.
Put salmon in bowl.
Mix two table spoons of cottage cheese with salmon.
Pour a bit of balsamic vinegar in to the salmon-cheese mix. (nom nom nom...)
Slice cucumber. (about 5 or 6 slices) then place on the roll.
Take a few little pieces of lettuce, place on top of cucumber & roll.
Dish the salmon-cheese mix on top of the roll/cucumber/lettuce.
Grinned & sprinkle the S&P on your food.
Dice up a little bit of cheddar. Sprinkle it on top.

And just like that. Open sandwich of goodness.
Many ingredients are substitutible. Go cray-cray kids! It's your food!
This might just be how I like it...

Bon appetit!

If you follow Jesus... Read this!

I love to read, however, I'm the person that can only read about 4 chapters a day MAX and then need to put the book down... 

And I'm sure you can all guess what I'm about to type next?

This "way of reading" cycle of mine broke with one, incredibly captivating book.
And by incredible, I mean WHAT-THE-FLIP-NUT-HECK-A-DOO-DILL! incredible.
I read the whole book in two hours.

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo... 

Official book description: Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.
Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.
Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

Above: Colton and his parents. 

 Now, while I was reading this book a thought often crossed my mind: "Yoh! this sounds ridiculous, what scam!" but the further I read, the more faith I began to have, not only in that what I was reading was true and real but that there is indeed a heaven, a gigantic God and a Jesus that loves his children. It was so refreshing to read and had an incredible way to renew the strength of my faith.

I've always aimed to have a "child-like-faith" which is this book exactly.
I do feel a lot of debate could happen around this book, so I'm not saying everyone should read it, but if you've lost loved ones, have faith that there's eternal life, then read this because you'll LOVE it!

My favorite part of the book, in short summary version:
Colton's mom sees the most exceptional rainbow, breath taking and calls her family to come outside and have a look. When Colton gets to his mother and sees the rainbow he casually just says, "Cool. I prayed for that yesterday." and walks away.
CHILD LIKE FAITH.

Ask. Believe it's yours. And it will be.

Our God is a loving father, why wouldn't he want to answer your prayers?!

Colton's Jesus. 

The aftermath of a student holiday.

Yesterday, I spent 7 hours in an airport, doing nothing, waiting for my flight, why you ask? I originally booked for an evening flight however departure day arrived and it was better to leave early, so in hopeful spirits I arrived at the airport after my farewells and I attempted to move my flight to an earlier one. FAILED. "Sorry Miss, all our flights today are fully booked."

Anyway. I made the most of my time. Read books, made short films, ate wimpy breakfasts and Mug & Bean cheese cake... and then the worst of it happened. I woke up this morning suffering the aftermath of a "student holiday". You see, cheap food is often the carb/sugar/fat option. So either you don't eat and buy pretty things, or eat and don't buy anything pretty. If you're travelling with just girls, the first option works perfectly. Girls don't need food as often as let's say, boys.. And I've spent the last 4 days with a boy, and when he ate cheap, I ate cheap, you can see how only today this became a problem for me.

SO the solution: DETOX DETOX DETOX! Keepin' the bod' healthy yo!

Lemon Green Tea + Cinnamon + Honey (optional)

Nom nom nom.