Bake with me!

June 24, 2020 trulyraisa3 Comments

Hello everyone! I’m a little excited for today’s post because it’s been a while since I wrote a post like this! Today’s post

I’m going to be sharing some things I’ve been baking during the lockdown!

Brownies

The first thing I baked was brownies! I liked brownies before, but because we baked them two or three times I started to dislike them. 😦 The recipe is actually very easy, but with this recipe I would recommend that you add something else to give it more flavour, some things I would recommend would be adding some walnuts or orange zest to it. It’s quite plain by itself. This is the recipe that I use to make these brownies Chocolate Brownies recipe.

Cinnamon Rolls

I also attempted to make Cinnamon Rolls! I have to be honest and tell you that they looked delicious but I must have done something wrong because they did not taste good at all. I also didn’t make the icing but it is also included in this recipe. But the first try doesn’t always have to be successful! This is the recipe I used Cinnamon Rolls recipe.

Oat Bars

This was probably the most easiest thing I’ve baked! It was a really simple recipe to follow through and when I had made them I didn’t add any of the seeds and instead of berries I used raisins but they still turned out delicious! This is the recipe I used Granola bars.

Chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are probably a very straightforward thing to bake but when I baked them for the first time they didn’t turn out as I had hoped. But when I tried them for a second they were just perfect! The recipe is quite easy to make so you can try this at home too!

Shortbread

Shortbread is something I bake often because it’s the easiest thing in the world to make. It doesn’t require too many ingredients or even much effort and they taste delicious anyway! The recipe I use is Shortbread recipe

That’s all I have for today! I hope you will try and enjoy some of these recipes and be sure to leave a comment or tag me in your photos on Instagram!

Life of an ex-university student.

June 16, 2020June 16, 2020 trulyraisaLeave a comment

So I unofficially finished university back in May and since then, things haven’t been the same! So I thought I would write a blog post about it! Shall we begin?

The Coronavirus was probably a shock to the whole world. It changed life as it was and because of it I wasn’t able to cherish my last semester at university. All my classes had moved online (I’m guilty for not attending them!) and I was knee deep in a pile of assignments!:( However, I managed to complete all of them and unofficially complete my semester!

But because of the Coronavirus it meant that I wasn’t able to graduate or even meet any of my friends to celebrate the end of the last ever semester. 😦

Since March the country has been on lockdown and things are finally starting to reopen again but nothing has changed for me because I don’t have a full-time job yet or a school to go to. It’s been weird not to have a daily routine or anything to look forward and honestly speaking it’s starting to become depressing. But I’ve been actively trying to look for a job and hopefully soon I’m sure something will come along. I’ve also been trying to keep busy by cooking and baking things and posting them on Instagram and trying to write more blog posts! I’m aiming to at least try to write one blog post a week, but there are no promises!

I’m curious to know how other graduates around the world are dealing with this situation, because I know we’re all facing the same problem so it would be interesting to know!

But for now, I will have to work harder at producing more content and trying to find a job. I have a fun blog post coming up where I share everything I’ve been baking so far and linking the recipes too!

That’s all I have for today, if you’re also a graduate comment how you’ve been getting on as an ex-student!

For the love of food…

June 1, 2020 trulyraisaLeave a comment

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my space 🙂 Today I’m going to be talking about the most common problems or situations I have surrounding food and nutrition and “keeping healthy” So, shall we begin?

I wasn’t always interested in nutrition. In fact I didn’t know that there were courses on nutrition and until I came across it while doing some research on what university to go to. But I was a big foodie (I still am now!) and I think that’s what got me to think “I really want to learn more about food”. I was originally a media student but it wasn’t a practical career field I saw myself in.

Adapting from being a media student in the Arts to doing Nutrition in Applied Sciences was a huge change. I swear the first few lectures were gibberish and the first year I would wait until I was home to properly take notes and understand the lectures!

Apart from learning about nutrition I tried to pay more attention to what I ate and I had a lot of struggles. Some of them maybe some of you will be able to relate to. Something that I had struggled with in the past is snacking. In my opinion I think snacking is a bad habit and for us who should be eating three meals a day, that should be more than enough to satisfy our energy and caloric intake during the day. In the past, I used to snack a lot and it often lead to binge-eating. So recently, I have tried not to eat anything in between my three meals and occasionally I still snack on something (unhealthy, usually!) but I am working on it more.

Another struggle I had ever since I was a student was stress-eating. A-levels were a particularly hard time for me, even harder than university and because of my bad habit of snacking I used to stress eat a lot. I’m glad that with time I can now say that I’ve completely eliminated that struggle!

Finding time to exercise is a struggle I can say that there are some of you who can relate to this. The NHS guidelines for physical activity is 150 minutes of moderate activity. I really wanted to achieve that, but working a part time job while being a university student meant I had barely any time on my hands. I’m not really comfortable with completing exercise with others and it’s something I like to do on my own so I don’t go to a gym. We have a treadmill in our house so I usually go running 2 or 3 times a week. Occasionally I also find a YouTube video and follow a Yoga or Pilates routine! But any type of physical activity is great! Just getting your body moving and being active is all that’s required!

After three years of learning about food I can tell you it’s not just black and white. The constant pressure to eat healthy and stay active isn’t as simple as gaining weight or losing weight. That is not the only goal, yes it’s amazing if everyone can be a healthy weight but that’s not the only goal. Foods are so much more complex and believe it or not, what you eat can prevent you from having diseases and being ill in the future. Having a good diet and exercising often can improve your health so much, do you ever see some people that look in their early 40s and they’re actually so much older? The chance of that is because that person has a good diet and they are active. Food is amazing and there is so much more to it than what meets the eye.

That’s all I have for today, but if you have any questions then let me know in the comments below!

University is complete

May 22, 2020 trulyraisa2 Comments

Hello! Welcome back to my space! Now that my final assignments are complete, I have officially finished university! I decided to write a post about it! Shall we begin?

First year was the best! I went to university with the mindset that I would just put my head down and work and I didn’t really care for making any friends, I just wanted to do well. But nothing goes as planned, but in the first year I made some really cool friends and it was a really chill year for me! I did well in my assignments and I was just enjoying my time. The only thing I would say that I struggled with was with the lectures, because this was my first time studying nutrition and I didn’t have a science background so I had to really learn a lot.

The second year in the first semester began to get harder, only because I wasn’t doing too well with my assignments as I would have liked, I passed all of them but not with the grade I wanted so that only made me want to work harder. In the second semester I did pretty well then, I started going into university to complete my assignments rather than at home because I get distracted easily. In the second semester we had to pick our dissertation topics and I begun to get more excited just thinking about it! I actually wrote a blog post on what my dissertation was about here : Dissertation topic

I think the highlight of second year was picking my dissertation topic and also reconnecting with an old friend and becoming close again!

Third year I had never felt more stressed. The first semester wasn’t actually too bad, the modules we studies were interesting and we started planning testing for our dissertation project! The second semester the stress just started kicking in because we had a lot of testing to do for our dissertation project and in such a short time but we managed to get through it all. The worst thing was back in the end of March when our country went into lockdown because of the Coronavirus and working from home wasn’t the prettiest.

After just over a month, I managed to finally have my written dissertation ready and submitted, along with some other assignments and I felt a heavy burden being lifted off me. But I still had a few more assignments to go and finally (yesterday actually) I submitted my last ever assignment and now I’m a free woman!

But actually the real stress is beginning now, because finding a job amidst this pandemic is going to be really really hard. So wish me luck because I have no idea what I’m going to do! 😦

Help a girl out…

April 11, 2020 trulyraisa2 Comments

Dear readers…..

Welcome back to the Goodnite club! It was a long awaited day.

I’m afraid this post is going to be more for girls. Actually I was browsing the internet and was trying to look for some skincare products to use at night. Lately my skin has been breaking out (probably because of all the unhealthy foods I’ve been eating 🙂 ) and I don’t have any specific products that I use. What kind of products would you recommend?

That’s all I have for today, sorry for the short post! If you have anything else you would like to talk about then leave a comment below!

Tomorrow’s Sun…

April 10, 2020 trulyraisaLeave a comment

“Out of the universe, a million stars just passing by say that I’m nothing but I’m more than just a debris” – Suggi (Astroboy)

Dear readers of the Goodnite Club….

Welcome back. I hope you all had a good day, did you do anything special? Of course for everyone every day is looking the same but I think even if we weren’t in quarantine it would still look the same. It’s either work or school and then an evening at home. I guess there are a few people who can say their lives are extraordinary but it’s always how you make it.

You can either live in the present and do something different everyday, or complete the same routine day in and day out. For the sake of money we throw away a lot. I want to be one of those people, who can say their life is extraordinary, I just hope I get there soon. There are people who love routine and love to live an ordinary life and that’s okay because for them, that’s extraordinary.

What about you? Would you say your life is extraordinary?

To the stars who listen….

April 9, 2020 trulyraisa3 Comments

“To the stars who listen and the dreams that are answered” – Sarah J Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury

Dear readers of the GoodNite club…..

Everyone, how was your day? Did you do anything special today?

Because of the virus, every day looks the same for me. I wake up and do the same thing that I did yesterday. Isn’t that the same for everyone recently?

Recently I don’t like to wake up in the mornings. A new day, another day closer to my deadlines. Another day to stress about university assignments and realise that I’m only one more day closer to my deadline. It’s frustrating and boring at the same time.

This is why I like the night time a lot. It’s free time for me to do whatever I want! I end up watching a TV show with my friend first and then I come here and then maybe watch something else after? But it’s fun and stress-free and so I like it!

And then I dread the morning that comes after. It’s the same endless cycle.

Everyone, what do you do at home these days to keep yourself entertained?

Leave a comment below and I wish you all a good night!

Tonight’s TMI….

April 8, 2020 trulyraisaLeave a comment

Dear readers….

Welcome back to the GoodNite club! I don’t think I explained properly why I chose the word “Good night”. I watched in a drama somewhere that if you can eat well and sleep well, then you have a good life. But even though those people can’t sleep don’t they deserve a good night too? Maybe they like to write or draw or read a book, just something in the peace and quiet of the night?

So that’s the kind of concept I thought of when I came up with the name…

So my dear readers….tonight’s TMI is … I looked out of my window today. You’re probably going to think I’m stupid and yes I’ve always had a window to look out at but I’ve never had the time. To just stop and look. It’s a nice thing to do when you’re stuck in your home all the time.

” I really want to go outside but I can’t so I’ll watch it from here.”

How is quarantine going for everyone?

That’s all I have for tonight, if there’s anything you want to talk about (it can be totally anonymous you don’t have to give any names) then write in the comment section below. I’ll be waiting…

Getting back into routine after the holidays!

January 28, 2020 trulyraisaLeave a comment

Hello everyone! I’m back with another post! As you all may know from my previous post I went on holiday for the month of December to Dubai and Pakistan and we all know getting back into routine after a holiday is the hardest thing to do. That’s what this week’s post is going to be about! Shall we begin?

As you all may know from my long hiatus and from my previous post I went on holiday for the month of December. If you missed the post you can click on this link and read that first Dubai 2019! . I missed all the days where I can just wake up and have no checklist or anything to do but do nothing.

Work and student life can get stressful sometimes and a break away from it all sounds amazing sometimes. So then the long-awaited holiday comes and you’re living your best life and it all passes by pretty quickly and the dreaded journey home finally comes. Dreading going back to work and back into studying can be the worst. I was absolutely dreading it when I had to come back and I only had 6 days to revise for my exam! I spent 6 days cramming revision in when I wanted nothing more than to be back on holiday again. After my exam had ended it was the biggest sigh of relief but I still hadn’t got back into any routine. My diet was a mess and I so badly wanted to go back to my regular exercises but was too lazy to do so.

I slowly went back to work but only once or twice in the week where the rest of my days were spent either at university preparing for my dissertation or at home being the lazy ass I was.

I spent about two weeks being lazy and watching too many dramas with take-away twice or skipping dinner altogether. One thing I am happy is that I am reunited with my laptop and my blog! There is nothing I wanted more than to write a post as I am now!

I started getting back into routine last week and started running after work and applying for some work experience and jobs. This is my latest struggle. I am studying Nutrition in university and want to build on my work experience but haven’t been able to find a placement. If there is anyone in London who is a fellow Nutrition student or even a Nutritionist and has any advice about where to look for work experience please comment some advice below and help a sister out! 😦

I also kind of lost most of my appetite since I’ve been back, I’ve been skipping breakfast and lunch when I’m not at home and I’m quite used to it because back in Pakistan I used to skip breakfast and lunch too and just eat dinner at weddings or something. Now before any of you say that it’s not good to skip meals I know it’s not, but I can’t force myself to eat when I’m not hungry because that can easily turn into binge-eating for me so I need to find a healthy balance soon.

Now you can see my struggle of getting back into routine 😦 University will officially reopen next week and it will be back to the same old stresses about dissertations and assignments but, I plan to build a healthy routine and get a head start on my assignments soon so I won’t be stressing too much!

That’s all I had for this week! I’ll be back next week with another post, if you have any topics you want me to talk about let me know in the comments below!

-Yours Truly Raisa

How to diet when you’re not dieting + Holiday 2019!

January 14, 2020 trulyraisa2 Comments

Hello everyone! Although I literally say this all the time, but it really has been a long time since I have blogged and I’ve missed it a lot 😦 There is just a certain type of creativity here that somehow always brings me back to this space. Moving on, the reason for my unannounced hiatus was because I went on holiday! This week’s post is all about my time off and some advice about dieting. Shall we begin?

Dubai 2019!

The first part of the trip was our short stay in Dubai. We stayed there for 4 days and it honestly was amazing! It felt so good to step into hot weather after being in the cold London winter. On the first evening, we went out to this place called Global Village. Inside there were little marketplaces representing each country in the world and they sold famous things from that specific country. It was quite interesting to go into some of the marketplaces and see the specialities of different countries. I even tried Turkish ice-cream too! Unfortunately, I don’t have many pictures from the Global Village that I can share publicly 😦

The second day was actually my favourite. We left early in the morning and took a drive to Abu Dhabi to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and it was a sight to see. In all the mosques I have visited in my life so far this would have to be my favourite. It had this peaceful, serene vibe that made me not want to leave the place. Enjoy a few pictures of the mosque and it is a place that I recommend everyone to go to!

Later that night we went to the Dubai Mall and we saw the water fountain show near the Burj Khalifa which was pretty amazing, considering it is my first water fountain show. There was an animated show that played on the Burj Khalifa first and was beautiful seeing the Burj Khalifa light up in different colours! This is a picture I took from the water fountain show.

On the next morning, we took a yacht ride around Dubai and the views were breathtaking. with the sun shining on the blue water as it was sparkling. This is a picture of the view from the yacht.

In the afternoon, we went sight seeing to Jumeirah Beach to take pictures near the Burj Al Arab. We didn’t spend very long as we were all tired so we took pictures and we had to go to the Safari desert for dinner. The Safari dinner started off actually really well with a very jumpy ride on the safari desert and to top it off there was dinner and entertainment such as traditional dances and more. The sunset on the safari was something of a painting and although my phone’s camera wasn’t so good I hope I managed to capture a good picture.

On the last day we just had lunch and headed to the airport to go home to Pakistan. Pakistan was just really busy and there was literally no room to breathe because there were so many weddings! I won’t share in detail what happened as it was a personal holiday and there was so much that happened that I’ll literally be ending up writing an essay! So that’s all for my holiday for 2019, I hope you enjoyed it and all the pictures, there is more on my highlights on my Instagram! The link should be on the Contact page so you can find that there!

How to diet when you’re not on a diet.

Now, if you have read my previous post about diet culture you’ll probably be questioning why I’m writing this post. But, while I can rant about how disgusting the diet culture is I can only offer advice to the people that still choose to diet regardless. If you are a person who likes to diet or even doesn’t like to diet but still wants to have some control over what you eat then be free to read on. I won’t be asking you to follow any of those celebrity-endorsed diets that helps you lose weight but works only for a period of time before you gain weight again. Hopefully, these tips will help you gain healthy eating habits.

Cut down on portion sizes: The first step to any kind of diet you want to follow might be cutting down on portion sizes. If you have two slices of bread for breakfast and lunch maybe cutting it down to consuming bread only once in a day.
More physical activity: 1 hour of exercise a week may not be enough, maybe completing 2 and a half hours of any kind of physical activity including house chores.
More fruit and vegetables: Fruit and vegetable consumption is very low recently and more fruit and vegetables mean more nutrients and fibre in your diet.
Eat a balanced diet: Try to balance what’s on your plate between protein, vegetables and some carbohydrate. An example of this could be some rice and chicken with asparagus on the side.
Decrease snacking: One of the biggest culprits of gaining weight is snacking. Maybe trying to decrease the number of snacks consumed in a day or even to swap some unhealthy snacks with some healthy ones.

This is all the tips I have for now but starting off with these tips could really lead to a healthier diet.

This is all I had for this week but I hope you enjoyed my post and I can’t wait to see you guys next week!

-Yours Truly Raisa

Tag: student life