Exam Season Refresher

Actually it's already here (for some of my friends it's already over), and along with it comes an inordinate amount of stress. There is ample research on the effect of stress on the human body, and it can lead to high blood pressure, trouble sleeping, susceptibility to illness and infection, amongst other things.

This I know all too well - I unfortunately caught a sickness bug at the very beginning of my exam season and the stress no doubt exacerbated the situation to the point where I was so dehydrated I was hospitalized, missed work and struggled to concentrate on revision. I'm now about halfway through my exam period and I'm finding it a lot harder to stay focussed, and to remember to keep drinking water.

Because honestly, water is your best revision tool - yes, that energy drink might get you through late-night study sessions, but they can be so unhealthy and cause palpitations, stomach cramps, sluggishness and dizziness. Water boosts brain function, helps you focus and can even help with insomnia (a common side-effect of stress), but it can be hard to get into the habit of consuming the recommended 2 litres of water a day if you're used to juice or sodas, or miss the taste of something more. This is where infused water comes in.

Blueberry-Cucumber Infused Water

Time to make: Less than 5 minutes

Cost per portion: £0.25

Calories per portion: 0

Portions of your 5 a day: 1+

You will need:

• Water
• Cucumber Slices
• Blueberries
• Mint or Lemon Slices (Optional)

It really is simple - cut a few slices of cucumber, depending on how strong you want the flavour, and place them at the bottom of a glass. Make a small cut in each of the blueberries to release some of the flavour and mix with the cucumber. Fill the glass with water. The blueberries really help flush out some of the toxins in your body (particularly post-hangover) and the cucumber has anti-inflammatory properties, but you can add literally anything you want - adding mint helps with digestion, and lemon aids weight loss. If you really want the flavour to stand out, muddle the fruits at the bottom of the glass (this works particularly well with mint) or allow the fruit-infused water to stand for half an hour before drinking.

The best part about it is that if you make a glass in the morning, you can just keep refilling all day and it doesn't lose any of the flavour. It really encourages you to keep drinking water, and you'll notice such a difference in your concentration levels.

To anyone reading this who is just about to start, or is in the middle of exams, good luck! Keep calm, don't forget how amazing it will feel once it's all over, and remember to drink your 2 litres.

Boots Beauty Haul

I'm a sucker for a discount.

It's the student in me - we're always on the lookout for ways to cut costs, and when I saw on my Boots Advantage Card App a 10% off everything code I knew it was time to pay Brighton Boots a little visit. I needed a few bits like cotton pads and shampoo, so it couldn't be that bad?

..I mean, it could have been worse. My mistake was shopping while waiting for some photos to be developed, because suddenly I had an hour to wander around the store and then before I knew it I'd visited the BeneFit counter and the Clarins counter and I almost spent all of my (non-existent) money at the Clinique counter. Boots has a rather negative effect on my bank balance.

I wanted to write a quick post showing some of the things I picked up as I'm really getting more into beauty products, and a couple of the products I picked up are new to me; ones that I've seen or heard a lot about and wanted to try for myself.

First though, the tried and tested - I have purchased and repurchased the Rimmel Glam'Eyes Liquid Liner so many times since I was 16. I've tried other liners but nothing gives me the perfect cat eye flick like this does, and until I can get my hands on the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner I will continue to use this liner every single day.

I also picked up something I have, but in a different colour - the L'oreal Colour Riche Extraordinaire in the shade 500 Molto Mauve. It's kind of like a lip gloss, but thicker and certain shades are highly pigmented. I have the shade 401 Fuschia Drama which is a bright cool-toned pink but I wanted something more neutral for when I'm in a hurry and just want something quick and easy to apply. I've already worn this a couple of times and I love how smoothly it applies - they're also currently on offer at Boots, if you buy a bottle of Diet Coke these liquid lipsticks come down to £3.99!

I'll admit it, I got sucked in by all the hype. BeneFit recently launched their new Roller Lash Mascara and it has been the talk of the town on the blogosphere, This mascara is supposed to negate the need for curlers by giving you exaggerated curled lashes with their new plastic-tipped wand, and I'm really looking forward to trying this. I may end up doing a review/possibly a comparison post on this product sometime soon though because something I have noticed is how similar the mascara wand is to Rimmel's Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara (that's a mouthful!), and the Rimmel mascara is more than half the price. We shall see!

Onto haircare, and one of my favourite haircare brands currently is 1/3 off at Boots, so it really would have been rude not to grab something. I picked up the Toni & Guy Nourish Reconstruction Mask as, after my awful hair dye experience (long story short, I bleached my hair so much loads of it either died or fell out. I was left with bald patches, not a good look) I finally have non-damaged hair! So I am, of course, planning on dying it again. Nothing major, just a subtle ombré on the tips, but to keep my hair as healthy as possible it's always a good idea to have a very nourishing conditioner on hand.

As I had a little bit of time I also popped to the Clarins counter. Quite recently someone recommended that I invest in a good exfoliating toner just to help with some of my more stubborn spots and my acne scarring, and they actually originally recommended the Pixi Glow Tonic. Unfortunately with my super-sensitive skin I'm allergic to the witch hazel in their toner, so she recommended that instead I try out the Clarins Gentle Exfoliator Brightening Toner. Now £26 is an awful lot of money to blow on a product that I had no experience with, so the woman at the counter very kindly gave me a sample of it to try, so I'll be applying this twice a week to see if it makes a difference - it may possibly have to be a Boots points splurge. Just a word of advice to others with sensitive skin, having looked through the Clarins toner ingredients it does contain Parfum so if your skin is so sensitive it can't handle perfumed products this is definitely one to try before you buy.

I also picked up some more generic items, like cotton wool pads, lip balm and deodorant, but they're not really worth putting in a haul post. Also I couldn't fit them neatly on my bedside drawer to photograph. 

I'm really looking forward to trying some of these products, particularly as I seemed to have jumped on the Roller Lash bandwagon along with the rest of the blogging community. I'll update you soon on what I think!

Unbeleafable

As you might have guessed by my awfully punny title, this post is all about salad. Now up until about two years ago, my reaction to "we're having salad for lunch!" was this:

I just found them so bland and boring and would have much rather eaten something rich and/or cheesy.

I'm not entirely sure when my opinion on salad changed but definitely in the last year or so it's one of my favourite lunches, and occasionally as a guilt-free midnight snack - but I totally get why some people would still see them as plain.

I wanted to post an update just showing the real variety of salads you can make from just a basic tupperware box of lettuce leaves, and maybe to try and win over a few of my veggie-phobic friends. Salads don't have to be boring!

 

I almost always have a tupperware box of lettuce leaves on the go - this week I have a sweet salad mix, some spinach, and some rocket leaves. Spinach is a great source of iron, particularly in a vegetarian diet, and you can add rocket (or arugula) leaves to almost anything: pizza; pasta; jacket potatoes; inside a sandwich. It all works. I find keeping my lettuce leaves in an airtight container really helps prolong the shelf life, and I'll be eating salads well into next week.

 

At this point what you add to your salad is totally up to you. From the food above you genuinely could make so many different variations: with the cucumber and feta you've got a simple greek salad; add the pepper, quorn chicken and thai dressing and you've got sweet chilli chicken. Don't like sweetcorn? Have grated carrot instead, or make your own dressing with a small splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Something I really enjoyed last summer was a strawberry salad, with spinach and feta cheese, but you can add whatever you want.

One of my favourite salad staples is a twist on an English favourite: Nandos. I simply add any vegetables I can find in the kitchen (today it was peppers, cucumber and sweetcorn) to a bowlful of salad, top with Quorn roast chicken pieces and drizzle over some Nando's Peri Peri sauce. If I have some I add parmesan too, and a full bowl won't even top 100 calories. It's not the same as eating a Nandos, but it's far cheaper and healthier too. Depending on how many different vegetables you use you can find yourself easily getting your 5 a day in just one bowl.

 Salad doesn't have to be bland if you're willing to experiment, and it's far more filling than you'd think - go ahead and try my Nandos Salad and let me know in the comments what you think of it!

Lettuce Wrapped

Me and carbohydrates go way back. Some of my favourite foods growing up were carb-rich pasta dishes and all things potato, and I unsurprisingly gained a lot of weight.

One of my main nutrition goals for this year is to cut down on the amount of carbohydrates I eat - I steer clear of high-processed foods like white bread and white rice, but I do sometimes struggle to not overindulge, even on wholemeal products.

The other day when pondering what to have for dinner I was really craving something spicy, but I'd already decided to use some sweet potatoes for dinner and I really didn't want my plate to be about 75% carbohydrates. Something I've seen quite recently is the rise in using lettuce to replace bread (case in point, this Buzzfeed article) and I really wanted to try it for myself, so I thought 'why not': let's try fajita lettuce wraps.

Fajita Lettuce Wraps with Sweet Potato Fries

Time to make: 20 minutes

Calories per portion: 275

Cost per portion: £3.31

Portions of your 5 a day: 2-3

You will need:

• 1 Small sweet potato, cut into wedges
• 1/2 Onion, finely diced
• 1/2 Bell pepper, cut into strips
• 200g Kidney beans
• 200g Tinned tomatoes
• 1/2 pack Quorn fajita strips
• 2 tsp Chilli powder
• 1 tsp Cayenne pepper
• 2-3 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp Coriander
• 1 tsp Lime juice
• Salt/Pepper, to taste
• 2-3 Lettuce leaves

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. Place your sweet potato wedges evenly on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil before dusting with 1-2 teaspoons of paprika (you can of course cook them with salt or with rosemary, whatever you fancy!) and placing in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes before turning to prevent burning on one side, then place back in the oven.

 Heat the onion in a frying pan until lightly golden, before adding the bell peppers and half of your spices to lightly toast for 2-3 minutes (this is particularly key if you are adding cumin to your recipe, which I sometimes do, as it diminishes some of the bitterness in the seeds). Drain and add the kidney beans and tinned tomatoes, and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes before stirring in the fajita strips, coriander and the rest of the spices.

As your fajita mix begins to reduce, check on your sweet potato wedges - at this point it is totally up to your own personal preference as to when to take them out of the oven. I prefer my wedges soft to crunchy, so I removed mine almost as soon as I had stirred in the faijta strips and left them on the side to cool, but if you prefer yours a little bit more well-done then keep them in for longer. When your fajita mix is at the desired consistency (again, this is down to personal preference), take off the heat.

Arrange on a plate two to three lettuce leaves (I used romaine and sweet gem lettuce) in a bowl shape and dish up your fajita mix and sweet potato fries. Squeeze over some lime juice and some salsa if you'd like and you're ready to eat!

Despite normally having these in a tortilla wrap I found I really didn't miss the extra carbohydrates and the lettuce leaves kept everything together remarkably well - as a simple midweek meal this was just so quick to make and I had enough for lunch the next morning.