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

Girls night, Xbox games, big breakfasts - my weekend!

Happy Sunday everybody! Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. 

Woke up this morning to sunny/cloudy weather. We have had a lot of snow here for the past few days but today there's no white in sight! Patrik and I live in the center of a small town so it's never an issue when it snows here - the roads are always cleared pretty fast. But still, I'm glad the snow's gone... feels a lot closer to summer this way.
Me and P have had our morning coffee and watched some tele. And now, I'm going to try to get some studying done. I like to do all my work in good time, so I don't get so easily stressed. I usually do a couple hours every day. I find that way I really take in all the information. ( A little study tip to anyone who has a hard time concentrating like me! )

Anyway, my weekend..

FRIDAY

Friday night I drove into the city and had dinner with one of my best friends, Mollie. We ate at a Sports Bar & restaurant called O'Learys. The food there is delicious and there's always a lovely atmosphere. They have big TV screens all of the place with ice-hockey or football matches playing, huge sofas and even a bowling area. Because I'm pregnant (and was driving) I obviously didn't have anything to drink, but a girl's night was just what I needed. 

I ate a cheeseburger with chips and a side of onion rings.

Mollie had ribs and chips.

The dessert was probably the best part of the meal. Mollie and I shared a banana split. This was the best banana split I have ever tasted! Three different ice cream flavours, whipped cream and lots of fruit...

Delicious!

My beautiful bestie, Mollie.

After dinner, Mollie and I went to a really young and cool cafe, Cafe Nosh. It is always open until early hours of the morning. So we took a little walk and ended it with a hot chocolate there. They had great music playing and the place was full of other young people.

I got home a little after 11pm. P had his friend over and they were playing on the Xbox. I made us all some coffee and homemade mini pizza rolls (hoping to soak up some of the beers they drank!) Then I played some TV games with them...and was surprisingly good at it if I do say so myself. P and I didn't roll into bed until 5am!! Which is NOT like me - since I've been pregnant, I've been in bed by 10pm.

SATURDAY

Saturday morning, Patrik and I ate brunch at my parent's house. Eggs, bacon, sausages, freshly baked bread, baked beans, muffins, coffee and juice. We were there for a few hours .. shattered from Friday's activites! So my mum lit a fire, put on some TV and we all just had a chill out day. Then P and I came home and continued the chilling out! We went to the shops and bought some alcohol-free champagne, strawberries, sweets, ice cream & carrots and cucumbers to dip, we put on a film (a brilliant film actually called Backtrack. If you enjoy scary films with a twist then you would love it!) and had a lovely, cosy evenin on the sofa.

SUNDAY

And what's on the agenda for today - studying and cleaning! Getting ready for the new week tomorrow and going into pregnancy week 19! Almost half way there now. 

What did you do this weekend?

IMOGEN GRACE 
x 

Update - & I'm pregnant!

Long time no blogging! I took a break from a lot of social media for a year - cleaned out my Instagram of followers who I didn't know (or some of which I just didn't like!), deleted my Facebook account and didn't blog. I just really wanted a break from the world to be honest.

What's new with me? Still living in southern Sweden. I am together with a really wonderful guy, Patrik. He's eight years older than me, but honestly, I've never felt closer to anybody before my whole life. I am studying to become a nurse, and am focusing on pysichiatry and want to eventually get a job in the hospital in our town. What else?
And, oh! I'm 18 weeks pregnant with a beautiful little girl!  Bit of a shock, right? Patrik and I got to see her for the first time at the scan on Monday. Honestly, she was amazing. She has long legs just like her mama and was kicking them the whole time! She opened her eyes and even put her hand by her face and wiggled her fingers to make it look like she was waving. Needless to say, Patrik and I are in love... in a way which both of us thought was impossible. I never understood the "maternal" feelings women would get. I always loved children and worked with them a lot in schools, but I have never experienced this feeling before. She is in my tummy and yet, since seeing her on the ultrasound, I MISS her! I miss looking at her and seeing what she's up to in there! Well, in 2 weeks we are half way there, I suppose. She's due in the middle of July - a little summer baby!

I have been trying so hard not to buy her anthing just yet! In April, P and I are going to England to visit my family and we are saving some money and will buy her clothes and extra bits there. If you're wondering why, it's because baby clothes (and lots of other items) are quite pricey here in Sweden, so we found that we would get a lot more for our money if we bought some bits from Asda or Marks and Spencers for example.
But I bought a little dress for her the day after the ultrasound - I just couldn't help myself! And also a babynest! I found this lady on Instagram who makes the babynests by hand. They are beautiful and look really comfortable! A lot of babynests I see are so thin, and I just wanted something a bit more "cushiony" for our baby girl.

This adorable little dress is from a Swedish store - Kappahl. They have a clothing line there for babies called "newbie" and sell the most adorable baby clothes! I payed about £8 for this little dress in the sale.

This is the babynest I bought for £60. The lady who makes them can make them by order and has lots of different patterns. her name on Instragram is: "babynests"