7 quick and easy lunch ideas: leftovers

Hi Lovers,

Sometimes we get stuck in a rut or lazy and just eat the same meals again and again.

I wanted to share a few quick leftover lunch dishes that are tasty, pretty healthy, well priced and varied. They are great for work as many can be made and stocked in the fridge.

Making a nice alternative to spending lots at lunch time each day. ( we spend thousands each year apparently)!

I have tried to make it varied so there is something for my vegetarians too. All can be adapted for your specific tastes/needs.

1. Homemade vegetable spring rolls with tenderstem broccoli salad.

Rolls include: bean sprouts, ginger, red pepper,  garlic and spring onion. You can make them any size I used my finger length as a guide and made them a little longer. 

Salad includes: tender stem broccoli,  samphire (I love this stuff), garlic, onion, seasoning, mustard, red peppers and squeeze of orange juice.

2. Fried plantain, black eyed peas, avocado and a fried egg.

Shallow fry 2 ripe plantains (1 1/2 shown in picture)

Soak peas over night and boil - these are nice with Nori seaweed

Half a medium Avocado

Fry a free range medium egg and season

Sprinkle some dried chives (l put them on everything) ummhmm

3. Rye bread crisps, cucumber salad scrambled eggs and coleslaw.

There were actually 3 rye crisps but yeah lol. 

I am a little obsessed with the Ikea KNÄCKEBRÖD RÅG rye crisp.

Add coleslaw on top of rye bread

Scramble and season 2 x medium free range eggs

Salad:

Chop 5 x large sun dried tomatoes 

Chop 1/3 of a organic cucumber

Drizzle some olive oil, mustard and lemon juice

4. Beetroot salad with gammon and leftovers.

Grate 1 x medium beetroot

Grate 1 x medium carrot

Add handful of spinach

chop half x large gammon fillet

Chop x half an organic cucumber

Toast x 15 cashews

Add and halve 3 baby roasted potatoes

Add left over 1/2 x plantain from dish above

5. Mixed vegetables barley (get colourful, get creative)

Fry x 1 large onion and 2 large garlic

Add one packet of barley

Add 1 x litre chicken stock - fresh if possible

Top up with water until the barley is covered about 1-2 cms above barley

simmer on low to medium heat

Boil sweetcorn and peas

Sauté portobello, oyster and button mushroom

Dice 2 red bell peppers

Add 1 medium avocado

Drizzle Caesar dressing 

Mix it all together and season to taste

6.  Chipotle sweet potatoes, Harissa chicken with chickpea salad and stew/ sauce

I am not the biggest fan of sweet potato. So I like to mellow the sweetness by making them spicy.

Boil your sweet potatoes and slice (1 used above but I ate half lol)

Once cooled lightly fry the slices for colour and texture

Fry one small chicken breast seasoned with Harissa seasoning

Salad:

1 x handful of chickpeas

1 x handful of samphire lightly fried

3 x large sundried tomatoes chopped

Add lime, remaining chicken sauce, mustard and olive oil to dress

7. Quinoa and Bulgar wheat salad

1/2 x packet of Quinoa

1/2 x Bulgar wheat

2 x large chopped garlic

1/2 x large diced onion

1/2 x red pepper

Tender stem broccoli

cherry tomatoes

Boil Quinoa and Bulgar wheat with half a cube of veggie stock cube.

Fry onion and garlic, then add to Quinoa and Bulgar wheat.

Lightly sauté tender stem and add to the finished dish.

So those are my ideas for a delicious and pretty healthy lunch, that will beat the hunger pangs and keep your bank balance in check!

Let me know if you try out a recipe and what your fav leftover lunch is.

Until next time......

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays  

7 things I want you to know #2

Hi guys this is the second instalment in my series.
I really enjoyed creating my last one so lets get into it.

Check out my first 7 things I want you to know here

1. Cecile Emeke- Cecile is a brilliant director and writer who I have followed for a quite a while. Her series strolling/Flâner is particularly poignant and really encapsulates what it is be young and black in modern society/Europe. It is an open space for the global black diaspora to share their thoughts and discuss important issues that are overlooked elsewhere. It is also an environment that inspires learning for the black diaspora and others. It is a real and unflinching snapshot of real people and a million miles away from the nonsensical stereotypes that are shown by the media. I would highly recommend you checking her projects out!

Ikea Snacks

2. Ikea chocolate and snacks - I live very close to Ikea and went through  a very long faze of loathing it. A few reasons being a redesign that made no logical sense to me, it being stuffy and traffic being murder as non locals act like maniacs on the roads leading to Ikea.

I have since rekindled my love with Ikea, in particular the food market! After going up the stairs to go down and sweatily hefting boxes on to your trolley. Maybe painstakingly inching around other shoppers who stop mid isle and queueing for an age. There is nothing better than emerging triumphantly from the check out and going into the food market. My two current favs are the CHOKLAD LJUS

Milk chocolate bar and oddly the POTATISCHIPS SALTADE

Salted potato crisps but that maybe because the Sourcream and onion crisps wasn't there. Ikea food always tastes a bit different doesn't it?

salad

3. Cucumber and sun-dried tomato salad- I am obsessed with this simple salad. I have been adding this to a dish at least 4 times a week. It is so summery and with this weather just seems fitting. it is very versatile and makes a great base if you want to beef up the salad. toss in some toasted cashews, romaine, rocket or spinach and drizzle with a aged balsamic, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, chilli and Dijon mustard dressing- LIFE itself!

4. Lion babe- I really like this duos sound. its very retro futuristic and saddles so many genres. I have been listening to treat me like fire for over a year and there is nothing like walking around London listening to this!

 check out wonder woman for your BBQ and park chills too.

My mad fat diary

5. My  Mad Fat Diary -book and tv show. I flipping love Rae Earl! I have never met her lol but the love is real. I really resonated with her indomitable spirit, when reading the book and watching the tv show. I have no mental health issues so I can't relate on that front but she is funny, sharp, witty, darkly humorous, deeply layered and who hasn't been a hormonal teenager finding themselves and navigating the world?

I read My mad fat diary in 2008 was done in an hour. Who needed to read uni books? Not I good sir!!

When the TV show came out, It stirred my memory and I went out and bought the book to re-read it (in this digital age yup) and found that, although set in the 90's  the show was just as good and stayed true to the essence of the book. It was educational, emotional and real. Can I also just say Sharon Rooney killed as Rae (accent and all) and everybody was really well cast.

 I am really sad it's over but it was fitting and ended in a good place.

Shopping my stash b. pure

6. B. Pure Micellar Water: I think it is really important to shop your stash and not hoard too much. As bloggers we can easily become very materialistic and just go off the deep end when it comes to consumerism for the sake of the blog. It is so easy to spend money on loads of products and not use them and hoard because we are onto the next hyped product. I  rediscovered this cleanser in my beauty stash and wanted to reincorporate it into my routine again. I bought this a long while ago after a whizz around superdrug and with their awesome sales who could resist? I am making a big effort to double cleanse consistently. I haven't worn full face makeup in a long time so I did fall to only cleansing once. Although I am not wearing a full face now it is so essential to really get the day off and remove the residue left from pollution/ sweat/uk muggy heat etc. I usually would have used this with a cotton pad but as I ran out for a few days,  I used my hands to massage the solution onto my face and enjoyed the process more. I noticed the liquid thickened and gave me great slip when massaging it over my face. Good stuff.

I am looking forward to trying the B. Clean Melting Gel Cleanser.

left : Charlotte, Right: Eugenie. Images : Refinery29

7. MAC and Giambattista Valli - Charlotte and Eugenie lipsticks! 

These colours are literally talking to me! Eugenie especially. How beautiful are these? The colour, the packaging yesssss, I just can't. so pretty!

So that's the 7 things I wanted you to know.
Until next time...........

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays  

Wishlist: Summer 2015

 Hi Lovers,

So the British summer is very unpredictable as we know lol and I find my wishlists really reflect that. They are an eclectic mix as I never know what I waking up to in a week.

Here's what I am after.....

Matt Silver Handheld / TO DO LIST Clutch

Superstar 80s City Series Shoes

Bright Deco Style Necklace

Afropunk NO HATE sweatshirt

Dashiki London Rouge dashiki

H & M Slides

ASOS ENLIGHTEN Fringe Leather Peep Toe Boots

La Moda overnight celebrity blue backpack

This is what I am after in the next few months.

How  is your summer wish list compilation going?

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays  

Naturally Thinking haul

My Haul

Hiya loves,

a few weeks back I ordered a few essentials I needed from Naturally Thinking  and wanted to share.

This is my second haul from them and I a really happy with my stuff . I first ordered last August I believe and I still have some of those products left. Delivery was pretty quick less than 9 days from placing the order to receiving the items.

I ordered last August I believe and I still have some of those products left. Delivery was pretty quick less than 9 days from placing the order to receiving the items.

Aloe vera juice £ 7

Aloe Vera juice is like gold in my house! It is one of those items that has sooo many uses. The mother now steals it from me lol.  I put a small amount in a spray bottle and use it to refresh and add moisture my hair before putting in a moisturiser and sealing with oil. It is very nourishing and does a ton of good things for hair health. It is a pretty much a god bargain at £7 per litre.

£6 each on sale normal price £8

I have really enjoyed using  these shampoo. I reordered the Super Organic All Hair Types Brazillian Andiroba Shampoo with Siberian Buckthorn 250ml and I find that it lasts a very long time. You don't need a lot of product for your hair to feel really nourished, It also doesn't lather up a lot but rest assured your hair is being cleansed. I haven't had that squeaky stripped feeling some shampoos give you. It leaves my hair feeling moisturised. I am not the biggest fan of Lavender but it isn't overwhelming and very subtle. It contains pretty simple ingredients such as natural glucosides, gums and oils so click the link above to have a look.

I also ordered a bottle of the  Super Organic Dry Hair African Savanna Baobab, Orange & Basil Intensive Hair Shampoo 250ml.

 I ordered this one as I foolishly ombred the ends of my hair with a dye that had a mild bleach in a while back. (I have dyed my hair in the past but never with bleach/ peroxide). So as you can imagine the ends were a bit dryer than the rest of my fro. I have cut a fair amount of the ombre out as I got bored of waiting for it to grow out then trim and repeat. This shampoo is specially formulated for dry, sun or chemically damaged hair and claims to revitalise/ rehydrate hair. I have used this once and you can see a difference in the ends of my hair. There isn't a drastic difference in my hair textures normally but I can feel it. 

Andiroba Seed oil £7 and Baobab seed oil £5

I purchased Andiroba oil last time and have maybe a third of a bottle left but wanted to stock up as my hair looooooves this stuff! A few of my friends use this in hair and body moisturisers so I wanted to try it and loved it. It does say it is good for afro hair so check it out if you have thick curly hair.

Baobab is now the new super fruit here in the UK that cures just about everything (slight exaggeration) but this has been a essential and well kept secret for most of Africa and Asia for centuries, so isn't that new to me. Really good Baobab oil is really expensive but this was really reasonable. I have also been using these and a blend of other oils I purchased in my first haul as a face oil and have seen really good results.

Peppermint £3.40,  Eucalyptus £2.30 and Tea tree £3.40 essential oils

This is my trio of essential oils. I use them in the bath, in moisturisers, spritz and hair masks. A little goes a long way. I enjoy the menthol feeling and they are priced well.

Conditioners £7 per bottle
bottle

Another of my favourite from Naturally Thinking are the Conditioners. I do add a few oils and or Shea butter to these and it makes the best hair masks! But back to the conditioners I find the blend and consistency really work for me. The Super Natural All Hair Type Brazilian Andiroba Conditioner with Siberian Buckthorn, Lavender and Geranium is an old faithful and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

The Super Natural Dry Hair Hydrating Argan Conditioner with Wild Carrot, Spanish Orange & Brazilian Rosewood is a new purchase that I bought in regards to the dry ends I spoke about earlier. I have used this once by itself and very much enjoyed the sedate smell as well as its moisturising and softening properties. I felt this conditioner defined my curls more and boosted hydration to another level.

That's it guys I am really happy and impressed with the quality of products and ingredients used. I will definitely be going back to purchase more products.

What are your natural hair and skincare holy grails?

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays