Banana Choc-Chip Muffins Recipe


So I've been doing some creating in the kitchen again, this time it's banana choc-chip muffins. Delicious, if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:

* 1/2 Cup of Butter or Margarine
* 1/4 Cup of Sugar
* 1 Egg
* 3 Medium Bananas
* 1 3/4 Cups of Self-Raising Flour
* 1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
* 1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
* As many choc-chips as you can stand!

#1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Mash the bananas into a bowl.The older and browner the bananas the easier they will be to mash, and old/brown-ness doesn't affect the taste of the muffins


#2. Mix the butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Then add the egg and the banana and blend again.
#3. Add the nutmeg and the baking soda. If you don't have baking soda but you do have baking powder, that's okay, just double the amount. So that would be 1/2 Tsp of baking soda.

#4. Add the SR-Flour to in batches, you don't really need an electric beater for this bit, in fact I prefer to use a fork because the mixture is quite thick, which means that it's really hard to clean the beater afterwards. And using a fork is just as effective.
#5. This recipe calls for choc-chips but they are 100% optional. The muffins are still delicious without them, but most people prefer to add the chocolate. If you don't have choc-chips that's okay, you could use choc melts or a chocolate block, or any kind of chocolate and just chop them up into bits, as displayed below :)



#6. Scoop the mixture into patty pans. The great thing about patty pans is they make wash up so much easier, because the tray is clean, plus I think it makes eating the muffins a whole bunch easier. I use two dessert spoons to scoop because they generally collect the perfect amount of mixture. But as a general rule, I wouldn't fill the patty pans much higher than level, don't dome the mixture in the pans, they will rise on their own.
#7. Put in the oven to cook for 20-25 minutes. 

BEFORE
 AFTER

So there it is, banana choc-chip muffins, happy cooking my friends xx



Insurgent Review: (no spoilers, I promise)




Some friends and I recently went to the movies to watch the new movie ‘Insurgent’, the second movie of three based on the trilogy ‘Divergent’ by Veronica Roth.
To be perfectly honest, I hated the first movie (Divergent). Although it followed the storyline well, I thought the actors did a poor job of portraying their characters. It felt like the actors hadn't even read the book. I mean, Four (one of the two main characters) in the book was absolutely terrified of heights (I'm talking paralyzing fear here guys), and Four in the movie was supposedly afraid of heights, but when he came to be on a rail, high above the city, he seemed to have no trouble dealing with the situation and crossing to the adjacent building, no worries. I found this more than mildly irritating, to say the least.


However the second movie (Insurgent) I absolutely loved!! This time the movie followed the storyline more loosely but I felt the actors did a much better job of reflecting the characters in the book! They had a great main cast in Shailene Woodley and Theo James.



Shailene Woodley did an amazing playing Tris. I felt like her connection to the character deepened in this movie compared to the last one. Her passion and intensity were definitely amplified. There were so many moments during the movie where I felt connected to her, and her story. BRILLIANT!!




The ever-gorgeous Theo James was also excellent. I was particularly bothered by his portrayal of Four in the last movie, but in this one I thought he was much improved. I felt like he didn't do quite as good a job as Shailene, just because she was so amazing in this movie! Don't get me wrong, he played his character incredibly well. But Four is more of a reserved, stoic, stand-off ish kind of character, so his acting required less obvious emotions.




I thought the story was well written, although it didn’t follow the book exactly, it covered all the important parts while still including new twists and exciting drama. All in all a MUST SEE movie. But as always you should definitely read the books first. An excellent trilogy, I personally struggled with the ending, but that’s another story for another time.

Pikelets Recipe


This recipe is perfect for an afternoon snack! They're delicious, easy to prepare, they're light, they're fluffy and they don't require a lot of ingredients. I, unfortunately, cannot take credit for this recipe, my friend Danyelle created it. She and I made them for a late-night mid-movie snack. We were watching 'Pride', a movie that I highly recommend to anyone.

To make these pikelets you will need:
* 1 Cup of Water
* 1 Cup of Self-Raising Flour
* 1 Cup of Sugar
* 1 Egg
This will make approximately 10 pikelets. This recipe does not use milk, which is what makes them light and not so dense. It also makes them dairy free, for those of you who are (like me) of the lactose intolerant variety.


In the above picture you'll notice I've doubled the recipe, which is really easy to do because there is the same amount of everything.

#1. Add all the ingredients into a bowl. Note: Cracking the eggs into a separate bowl will help avoid egg shells in your mixture. Also, if you scramble the eggs in that bowl with a fork it will make your next step easier.
#2. Mix all the ingredients together with a fork. You can use a blender if you like. but I find it's easier, quicker and cleaner if you mix them by hand. And don't worry if the mix has little clumps of flour in them, it won't affect the pikelets when they're being cooked.



#3. Cook the piklets. In order to get the right amount of mixture in one piklet, use a 1/2 cup measure to transfer the mixture into the saucepan. Don't have the saucepan on high heat, put it on low so that the piklets don't cook too quickly or burn. Don't walk away from the pan or your pikelets will almost certainly burn. I like to use lots of butter in my pan, (so does my pal Brianna.) not only does it give them a beautiful golden brown colour but it makes them taste extra delicious.

Taaaaah Daaaaah!! A fool proof piklet recipe. Enjoy xx

Travel planning tips




I absolutely LOVE planning, I like to be as organised as possible. I’m currently planning my Europe trip with my sister Kia. She’s more of a spontaneous kind of person (the kind of person who would dye their hair red on a whim, or take a random 2 week trip to Tobago in her school break!) So if you’re that kind of person and you’d like a bit of a planning guideline, or if you love organisation but you don’t know where to start… this post is for you!


#1. Budgeting – This should be your first stage of planning. It’s really important to keep track of your money and plan how much you’re going to spend and what you’re going to spend it on. Something I found really helpful was to give yourself a daily amount to spend on each cost. Split your money into categories. ‘In City Costs’ (ICC’s) and ‘Travel’ (Flights, Train tickets, bus tickets etc). Within your ICC’s make sure you include money for food, accommodation, public transport, attractions, and give yourself a certain amount of money each day for each cost. The cost may vary depending on the country/city.

#2. Research - Every country, every city is different and has it's own unique public transport, language, food, accommodation, music scene. Do as much research as you can about the places you're going to visit, so that you know what tourist attractions you want to go and see, what food you want to experience, what hotels are the most affordable, what bus you need to take to get there etc. I don't think there's any such thing as too much research.


#2. Write EVERYTHING down – Whether it’s electronically or in a notebook, make sure you write down all your ideas, goals, plans, budgets and thoughts. I have two planning notebooks that I literally take with me everywhere I go. Then you have a space in which you can explore ideas, and you have some sort of tangible plan. Which not only makes it feel more real and exciting but it also means you have something to look back on if you forget what hostel you decided to book in Paris or what restaurant you wanted to eat at in Rome. 


#3. Don’t be afraid to make changes – It’s good to have some level of spontaneity. Don’t have every minute of every day planned down to a T, allow for some flexibility. And re-budget as many times as you like. Budgeting is a realty important stage in the planning process and it should be your first point of call, but if you start with a certain amount of money to spend (or save up for) and things change (like hours at work getting cut or an opportunity to buy an affordable car comes up) don’t be afraid to cut your budget. And the same goes for increasing your budget if you can afford it. I’ve just completed my third big change to my Europe budget. And we’ve changed the list of cities we want to visit about 6 times. (At the moment it’s London, Paris, Venice, Rome and Monaco… but who knows how long that list will last)
This being said… it’s also really important to have some constancy. Give yourself a date on which you have to have a solid plan (the sooner the better, because booking accommodation and flights becomes more and more expensive the closer to your trip you book it.)



So there you go… just a few of my travel planning tips. I hope they’re useful to you :)