In the Kitchen | Turkey Lasagna


 [english]

Apparently most people gain weight during their time at uni. Common or not, it happened to me - read more about it here. That’s why I’ve been investing in a healthier lifestyle for the past few months, and that included buying a book that explains how to do that simply, with a lot of recipes and tips. I want to share some of my experiences with you, and the other day I tried the turkey lasagne. Curious?






You’ll need: 

1 Cabbage
1 onion
400g of tomato pulp
300g of turkey breast mince
 Salt
Parsley
1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese
200g of fresh cheese in little cubes

Note: I don’t use parsley because I’m not a fan. I also didn’t use any cheese.
The recipe mentions sliced cooked turkey, but I bought turkey mince and cooked it first.

How to do it:

Boil all the cabbage in water and salt.

Cut the onion in little pieces and cook with a little water, add the tomato pulp and let it cook for a little while. Add salt and parsley.

Get a tray suitable for oven cooking and start layering the contents – first the cabbage, then the turkey, followed by the fresh cheese and the tomato sauce, until you fill the container or until you ran out of the stuff.

Put a bit of Parmesan cheese on top and take to the oven to gratin (180ºC).

Simple, healthy and yummi! Let me know if you try it :)

Mariana x

  [portuguese]


Como já tinha dito neste post, a universidade não fez grandes coisas pela minha forma física. Nos últimos meses tenho me empenhado para dar a volta à situação, e por causa disso comprei o livro ‘A Dieta Simples’, da nutricionista Iara Rodrigues. No outro dia experimentei esta lasanha de peru, e deixo-vos aqui a receita e umas fotos do resultado. 





Vão experimentar?
 Umas notinhas: Não usei queijo, porque em Inglaterra não consigo encontrar queijo fresco. Em vez de peito de peru fatiado, comprei peito de peru picado e cozi-o um bocadinho. Também não usei salsa porque não gosto!

Beijinhos,
Mariana

How to... cut your own hair!

[english]


I was always sceptical about cutting my own hair. However, after watching this video made by Portuguese blogger Nádia from My Fashion Insider, I decided to give it a try. Everyone I told this to tried to talk me out of it, but I did it anyway.

First of all, I washed my hair, and combed it using the comb that came in the kit. After that, I divided my hair into two parts, left and right. Then, I matched equivalent pieces of hair from each side, and cut them at the same time, maintaining the same layers I already had.

After a nervous wait for my hair to dry, I examined it thoroughly. You’ll be glad to know – unless you like tragedies – that my hair looked normal, just slightly shorter. I am now completely converted to cutting my hair at home. It’s weird but I felt empowered doing it. Plus, it saves me money! Keep in mind that my hair is curly though, so even if I had made any major mistakes, it wouldn’t have been as noticeable as if I had straight hair. Not to talk you out of doing it, straight-haired girls, just be careful! Also, I decided to invest in a professional cutting scissors. Still, they cost £12, as opposed to the £20 I would pay for a haircut – every time.



  
 [portuguese]
 
Sempre fui céptica em relação a cortar o meu próprio cabelo, se calhar em grande parte porque gosto muito de cafonés, e ter alguém a lavar-me o cabelo sabe bem. Sobrevivi a três anos em Inglaterra com cortes nas férias em Portugal. mas como não cortava o cabelo desde Janeiro e fui de férias entretanto, vi me obrigada a ter que cortar as pontas antes de ir para casa.  No entanto, os preços aqui quase que me fizeram esperar. Foi então que me lembrei do post da Nádia, do My Fashion Insider, em que ela mostra como corta o seu próprio cabelo. Segui as instruções dela e resultou comigo. Não se esqueçam que eu tenho cabelo encaracolado, no qual não se nota muito se o cabelo está cortado direito, por isso tenham cuidado se tiverem cabelo liso. Dadas estas considerações, digo-vos que adorei a sensação de cortar o meu próprio cabelo, como se tivesse a dar mais um passo em direção a ser auto-suficiente.

Vão experimentar ou já o costumam fazer? 

TV | Girls and The Mindy Project

[english]


I’ll be honest with you – British television is weird. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. In fact, you’d probably find Portuguese television weird, I already do when I go home for holidays because I’m away for so long. Television is, in a way, a reflection of society, and I have noticed that the British society is substantially different from the Portuguese society, and even others in mainland Europe. Not good different, not bad different - just different. I’m missing the point though. What I’m trying to say is that, because of this, I watch a lot of American TV shows. Most of my regular series broke up a while ago for the summer, precisely when I stopped being busy and started having loads of free time… how convenient. Anyway, the time has come to find replacements, and I leave you here two suggestions in case you're struggling too.

 
 I had watched the first episode of ‘Girls’ in September, but it didn’t convince me then. However, at a time of desperation for entertainment, ‘Girls’ started to seem the best show in a while. Someone described it as ‘Sex and the City’ in their 20’s… But the only resemblance might be the New York setting. The best word to describe ‘Girls’ is honesty. They don’t lie to you and say life in your twenties will be awesome. It’ll be horrible. The insecurity, the career mishaps, relationships… In Sex and the City we always saw Carrie spending enormous amounts of money on luxury fashionable items – which is, by the way, the root for 99% of her adoration – but with what money? There’s no way the salary of a columnist could pay for all that. Hannah, played by Lena Dunham, on the other hand, is cut off by her parents and forced to quit her non paid internship to get a real job. That’s reality nowadays, having to depend on your parents while you start your career.









But telling you about Girls wasn’t the aim of this post. After finishing its two (very short!) series, I resumed my search. It was hard – no series seemed worthwhile. I even gave up and started watching ‘Friends’, again!, for a while. And then I found it. The show I wanted to tell you about. The Mindy Project.





I knew about this show from seeing bits of it on TV adverts, but never paid much attention. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and my boredom led me to try it out. And guess what? I loved it! It’s about a doctor in her thirties who decides to change certain aspects of her life after hitting a new low – getting drunk and ruining her ex’s wedding. Mindy is definitely self-centred, selfish and sometimes annoying, but she’s also incredibly funny! Her work colleagues and/ or friends are also a peculiar bunch, but you can tell they have the best intentions. My particular favourite is British Dr Reed, because he’s always satirising all things British. The following particularly cracked me up – don’t judge!





It has been a while since I felt so content watching a show so, err, simple… Way too many words just to say that The Mindy Project is definitely worth your time. 


[portuguese]

A televisão inglesa é muito estranha. Não que a portuguesa seja melhor, mas pelo menos é familiar. Mas por causa de não gostar da televisão aqui, dedico mais tempo a ver séries americanas. Depois das minhas séries habituais acabarem mesmo quando eu acabei o curso e não tinha nada para fazer, tive que arranjar substitutos Aqui ficam duas sugestões:

Girls

Girls, a nova série da HBO - o mesmo canal que nos trouxe 'Sexo e a Cidade' - é uma lufada de ar fresco. A melhor palavra para a descrever é, sem dúvida, honestidade. Por exemplo, a personagem principal é obrigada a desistir do seu estágio não remunerado porque os seus pais recusam-se a sustentá-la. Quantos jovens hoje em dia não dependem dos pais se quiserem estagiar? 
The Mindy Project

Esta série retrata a vida de uma médica na casa dos trinta, que decide mudar a sua vida depois de estragar o casamento do ex namorado. Ela é hilariante e os seus amigos e ou colegas de trabalho também ajudam... 
Experimentem e depois digam-me se vos converti a alguma delas!

Mariana x

Holiday | Zadar, Croatia


[english]

And finally, here it is, the post about my holidays in Croatia. I’m sorry if I’m annoying anyone stuck in a northern European summer at the moment – I’m annoying myself looking at the pictures now I’m back in Manchester.

Croatia was a beautiful surprise. We went there randomly because Ryanair flies there, but we all fell in love with it. Blue oceans with mountains in the horizon, adorable towns with cute houses and oh so many butterflies! I swear I’ve never seen that many butterflies in my life, and I grew up in a small village in the north of Portugal.  


As I said in a previous post, we packed A LOT in to just fours days. Here’s our itinerary:

Monday– arrive in Zadar at 10am (we got up at 3.30 in the morning!). Find the hostel, which took an hour long walk under the midday sun, go to the beach in the afternoon to cool down and visit the Old Town in the evening for some yummi dinner.











Tuesday – Visit the amazing Plitvicka Jezera, the Lakes national park protected by UNESCO.









Wednesday – Get the ferry to Silba, a pedestrian island. Find the lady whose house we were renting and then find a beach! This time it was sandy and the island was so quiet it felt like heaven. Watch sunset from the island.








Thursday  - Spend the day in Silba and head back to Zadar at 5.40pm. Watch sunset on the ferry. Get a drink at the bar next to the hostel because it’s our last night!





Friday – head home, sadly.

So, was my tiredness legitimate or not?

Hope you liked the pictures! 

Love, 
Mariana x


[portuguese]


I had a lot more to say about Zadar but the post was getting too long. I decided to do another one soon for anyone interested in visiting this beautiful city.


E finalmente – desculpem o atraso – o post sobre as minhas férias na Croácia. Peço desculpa a quem esteja ainda a estudar ou a trabalhar e não posso aproveitar o solinho, se o tiverem – eu própria estou na chuvosa cidade de Manchester.

Como disse num post anterior, escolhemos a Croácia simplesmente porque os voos estavam bastante baratos e achámos que seria um destino  relativamente barato, comparado com outras cidades europeias, já que Zadar nem é o destino mais popular. Acabou por ser um surpresa maravilhosa: o mar é azul transparente e há sempre montanhas no horizonte por causa das mil e uma ilhas. É bastante parecido com Portugal (por isso é que bonito :p) mas uma coisa que reparei é que há imensas borboletas, nunca vi tantas na minha vida!

Em apenas quatro dias conseguimos fazer bastantes coisa. Ora vejam lá:

Segunda – chegamos a Zadar por volta das 10 e tentámos encontrar o hostel, a pé, o que demorou uma hora e deu para escaldar um bocadinho... De tarde fomos à praia e à noite visitámos a cidade.

Terça – Visitámos o Parque Nacional de Lagos, que é protegido pela Unesco – faz lembrar um bocadinho o Parque Nacional da Peneda Gerês, para quem já visitou.

Quarta – Fomos para a ilha pedestre Silba, aproveitámos a praia e vimos o pôr-do-sol. A ilha é incrível, super calma porque não há carros nem muito turismo.

Quinta – Passámos o dia na praia e fomos embora por volta das 6 da tarde. Ainda deu tempo de ir a um barzinho ao pé do hostel já em Zadar, para a despedida.

Sexta – Vir embora, com muita pena nossa.

Tenho mais coisas a dizer sobre Zadar, por isso resolvi fazer outro post brevemente sobre isso exclusivamente.

Espero que gostem das fotos!

Beijinhos

Holiday | #inlovewithcroatia

Get ready to hear all about the beautiful Croatia.

See you later!
 Taken by me -  at Plitvice Lakes National Park

Preparem-se para verem as maravilhas da Croácia mais logo.

Até já!

I'm baack!



  [english]


It may seem like I’m back to my old ways of being a sloppy blogger… but I’m actually not, I swear! Last week I was in Croatia and after arriving on Friday, I spent the weekend relaxing. You may now be thinking: why the heck do you need to relax after a holiday? First off, I’m one of the laziest persons ever! But my friends and I actually packed a lot in to just 4 days, as we left Friday morning. You’ll read and see all about my trip on the next post, and then you can decide for yourself!

Relaxing included some shopping this weekend, mainly because every store was on sale. It was just TOO tempting! I ended up with a new maxi skirt, a cute blouse, but most importantly… two new pairs of shoes!! Love them or hate them? Can’t wait to wear them but I might need to go home (PORTUGAAAAL!) to do so, as the weather in Manchester is awful – as usual.

 Mango

 Zara

 [portuguese]


Pode parecer que voltei a ser um blogger desnaturada… mas não se deixem enganar! Fui de férias para a Croácia e depois de ter voltado na Sexta, passei o fim-de-semana a ser muito preguiçosa! Precisava de relaxar um bocado, o que  pode parece estranho depois de umas férias, mas eu e as minhas amigas andamos sempre de um lado para o outro!  No meu próximo post vou mostrar tudo sobre esta mini viagem, e depois vocês vêm se eu não merecia um descansozinho...

No fim de semana fui aos saldos e comprei estes dois pares de sapatos, o que acham? Estou ansiosa para os usar mas acho que vou ter que esperar até chegar a Portugal porque aqui em Manchester praticamente não há Verão. :(