Happy International Woman's Day! | Banana smoothies

Outside our apartment this morning, the flags were flying high! Because it's international woman's day. I never felt so powerful as a woman until I got pregnant. It was then I realized just how amazing the woman's body is! How it adapts to prepare and then grows another human being.
Anyways, hope you're all having a great Tuesday. I have been spending my day revising, cleaning and shopping some food ready for the week ahead. This week I have work experience as a nurse and I start tomorrow. Nervous? Yes. Excited? Oh yeah!

The past few weeks I have been drinking so many homemade banana smoothies. I defo think bananas is a pregnancy craving of mine! This recipe is something I came up with, just playing around with different things in my kitchen. It is delicious and certainly helps a sweet-tooth like me who could drink pop and sweet things all day. When I'm home, I drink a smoothie at about 11 - 12 o'clockish to also keep me from drinking too many cups of tea & coffee a day (which they recommend you not to do during pregnancy) and then it keeps me going until lunch.

Ingredients: Bananas (1 banana per glass), milk (you can also use choco.milk if you want your smoothie to be extra sweet!), honey, cinnamon.

Just break up the bananas and pop them in the blender, add the milk so it only JUST covers the bananas, add as much honey as you like depending on how sweet you like it, and add a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Let me know some of your favourite smoothie recipes - I am obsessed with them at the moment!


Enjoy the rest of your day everybody.

Lots of love,
IMOGEN GRACE 
x

OOTD - quick blog update.

Hello everyone !

Hope you're all having a lovely week. Mine has been quite busy to be honest - a lot of school work and preparing our new apartment. We live in a one bedroom apartment in the middle of our town but there's a flight of stairs coming up to our apartment (that are rather steep & dangerous) and lead right out onto quite a busy road ... not really ideal for a pram! So, we have found a new place to put us on for the first year with our munchkin. Still one bedroom but in the country and closer to my parents place which will be perfect for my mum to be a babysitter when P's at work and I need to go into school for a class. So we have been busy painting, cleaning and packing up our bits in the old place. We think we should be moved in by the end of the month, or at least that's the goal. 
One thing I will certainly miss about this place is that it is a 2minute walk to the BEST chinese restaurant around! Every Tues & Thurs they have a buffe and serve delicious food and sushi! I actually grabbed some lunch there today with Patrik's sister. She had to rush off to work but it was so nice to go and get some lunch with her and have a chat. 
Thought I would show you all my outfit of the day, anyway. As some of you may know, I'm 20 weeks pregnant (not really showing all that much atm). My mum gave me a shirt which she didn't really like but I love it. It's flowy and not too tight on the little bump. I wear it with plain black leggings and some ankle boots from Primark. The shirt is from a Swedísh store called Kappahl - www.kappahl.se
This week, I also got my hair done. Ashey blonde hairlights and a bob haircut and I love it!

Here you can see my little bump!

 

 

Anyway, the little munchkin has taken all my energy for today, so I think I am going to go and have a lie-down in the sofa and watch some TV ... pretty good Thursday, right? Next week I start my work experience as a nurse and I will be doing it for 1 month. I'm excited and anxious, but it will be interesting to get some practice and learn more about everything I have been revising about. 

Have a great afternoon everybody!

Love,
IMOGEN GRACE
x

 

Swedish Kanelbullar Recipe (Cinnamon Buns)

Happy Thursday everybody! 

As some of you may know, I live in southern Sweden with my boyfriend and have lived here for 6 years now. I almost feel part-Swedish, to be honest! 
Food and cakewise, I don't tend to make so much Swedish-styled food or bake their cakes. But today, I asked my mum (who is a baking goddess, I must say!) for a bit of help making the famous Swedish "kanelbullar" which translated mean CINNAMON BUNS! I love all things cinnamon so these have def' been my favourite little cakes while living in Sweden.
You can do this cakes as some bun-like-rolls, or as a loaf. Whichever you prefer! 

40 buns:

Ingredients: (I included the Swedish names of the ingredients so you can see from the picture below)
Vetemjöl - flour - 800g
Strösocker - white caster sugar or white syrup - 1dl
Kron Jäst - yeast - 50g (1 packet)
Smör - butter or margarine - 150g (room temp.)
Kardemumma - cardamom - 2 teaspoons
Milk - 5dl
Half a teaspoon of salt
Stora Bullformar - large buncases

The filling:

Butter or margarine - 150g (room temp.)
White caster sugar - 1dl
Cinnamon - 2 tablespoons 

To brush on at the end:

1 egg
Pärlsocker - large sugar bits

In Sweden, "kanelbullar" are so popular, they even print the recipe of the flour bag.

1. Put on oven to 200-250deg. Warm the milk so it's warm to the touch.

2. Crumble up the yeast in a bowl and pour over the milk. Stir. Add the butter/marg. in cubes, the sugar/syrup, salt and finally the cardamom.

3. Add the flour but save some for the rolling-out of the dough later on.

4. Work the dough (5mins with a mixer, 10mins by hand) until it feels "smooth". 

LEAVE FOR 30 MINUTES COVERED WITH A TEA TOWEL IN A WARM PLACE FOR THE YEAST TO RISE.

When the dough looks like this, it's ready!

5. Knead the dough and divide into 4 parts.

6. Roll the dough to about 5mm thick.

7. Stir the sugar, cinnamon and butter/marg. for the filling in the buns. Add evenly on top of the rolled-out dough.

8. Roll into a long "sausage", get a knife and slice the into smaller rolls. (Each section rolled should create about 10 smaller rolls). If you wish to make a loaf instead, just put the "sausage" into a loaf-tin on top of some baking paper.  

9. Put each small roll faced-down in bun cases on a tray (or the loaf). Cover up with a tea towel & leave for 40 mins. 

10. Whisk the egg and brush on top of the buns/loaf, & add the sugar bits. Put in oven to bake for 5-10 minutes, depending on how well-done you would like them to be.

11. Leave to cool. 

Anyway everyone! I really hope this recipe works for you! It was not easy translating and explaining a Swedish recipe but I hope (with help from the pictures) you can make some for yourself! 
LOVE,

IMOGEN GRACE

x