simplymariana

Hello! Thank you for visiting Simply Mariana. As a blogger and photographer, I love to spend time surrounded by nature, and using photography to document all of my adventures is one of my favourite things to do. Writing has been a passion of mine for a very long time, and even though I can't put a label on it; whether this is a lifestyle and photography blog, or something else unique, I plan to share my journey with you. In essence, this blog is about my life. So...do you fancy a good read? Join me on this journey.

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Sunset, coffee and dinner on the balcony

4/26/2018 8:25 PM HomeMy lifePhotographyDinnerSalads

The last few weeks have been an absolute nightmare when it comes to organising and tidying everything up in the new house. We've just moved into a new house and we're very excited to be now called homeowners! The house is nowhere near ready for a full tour, especially since there's still piles of boxes everywhere. Moving into a new house is definitely a 'work in progress'. With jobs, gym, shopping, cooking, exploring, photography, etc. there's barely any time to unpack boxes, which in all fairness should be my priority right now. But you know I can't help it...Still, and one at the time, we should have the house ready for a full tour soon.

In the meantime, I'd like to share with you some pretty yummy recipes I've recently made. On Thursday night, after the gym, I've decided to make a quick dinner just so I could have the luxury of eating outside on the balcony. I opted for a vegetable stir fry, some couscous and a side salad. Once I got home and back from the gym, I started cooking immediately so I could still enjoy the sunset. I love the fact that the days are getting so much longer...I do love my snow in the winter, but there's nothing quite like those extra hours of sun during the summer months. At the moment, the sun sets at around 8:30 pm each day, which is absolutely amazing!

To begin my dinner-making process, I poured a little bit of olive oil at the bottom of the frying pan and emptied the box of veggies on top. As for seasoning, I added a little bit of cumin and black pepper. I know it sounds super boring, but sometimes, and especially when it comes to cooking, less is more! I then let the vegetables cook for about 3 or 4 minutes on a high temperature, before reducing the heat and cooking them for a further 60 seconds, until those broccoli heads were soft. Broccoli is always the one thing that takes the longer to cook in a stir fry! Argh!

While the veggies were cooling down, I started preparing the couscous and my side salad. I don't know why, and you can call me weird, but there's something so refreshing about pouring fresh raspberries or blueberries on top of salads...Is it just me? Not only do they add some sweetness, they are also so fresh and juicy...yum! I can never have enough of berries, especially in the summer months. Since the sun is setting later than ever, I thought it was a good enough reason to pretend it's summer and celebrate with some raspberries.

Keeping it simple, I poured the raspberries on a bed of letucce and seasoned with nothing but a drizzle of olive oil and a little bit of black pepper. Then, it was time to go outside and enjoy the sunset on the balcony of the new home!

With the sun going down, the weather outside started to get a little chilly, so I grabbed a cosy jumper before sitting on the chair outside, watching the sun set and listening to the birds sing.

The food was yummy, but being able to eat outside felt even better! Even though it was somewhat cold, it still felt amazing. Sunsets make me happy.

I finished it all off with a coffee and two biscoff cookies, as I waved farewell to my diet and gym efforts made so far, this week!

I hope you're having a wonderful Thursday, and if not, remember that the weekend is almost here, so hang in there...I'll see you soon.

Simply,

Mariana

Day off, workouts, cheat-day

4/23/2016 11:30 PM BreakfastMy workoutsDinner

I´ve been working a lot of hours lately. Every week I´ve been doing around 45 hours at the restaurant. And because of that I have to say I am very proud of myself on how I´ve managed my time so far. The main thing I´ve been trying to focus on daily is time management. I´m trying my best not to let myself get lazy and stop doing the things I love because ´there´s no time´ to do them. There´s always time. It´s important to do the things we love, so if you ever feel like you don´t have ´time´ to do them, then it´s probably because your time management isn´t the best.

This takes me to last Thursday. I woke up super early, took a shower, got dressed and left the house. I was on a 12-9 shift, which was great, considering I´ve been doing 10-12h shifts lately and I hate how time goes by so slowly. I´m not used to working that many hours in a row every day. I decided to go out for breakfast and treat myself. My body was aching all over (probably from the run on Wednesday evening), but there´s was something more than that going on. I felt weak.

I´d been dying to try a specific café since I first noticed it on my first shift at the restaurant. Olivia´s place.

I love the shape of the bar, to start with. For weeks I had been wondering what it would look like on the inside, but I was always scared to go in and find out it was way too pricey…(how do you get yourself out of that one once already inside the café?)

So,on Thursday I finally decided to go in and see for myself. I was not disappointed at all! The staff was super friendly, and the food was delicious. I had a really relaxed breakfast, which was just what I needed before my long and never-ending shift. And, of course, coffee was definitely on the menu! Even though things were pricey as I had predicted, the quality of the food and coffee was really above my expectations.

The detail of the wooden spoons on each table with a number was too cute! I just had to take a picture of that. My body was feeling particularly ill and weak this morning, don´t ask me why, so I decided to treat myself to a not-so-healthy breakfast, and made this be my cheat day. I ordered a cappuccino and a toasted teacake. The teacake came with butter and jam.

It fuelled me so much I felt full of energy when I was done. The teacake was delicious. They cooked it just perfect. I used half of the butter and did not use the jam. The coffee was really tasty as well. It made me feel more awake and energized in general. I was ready for my shift! It´s always so hard for me to take the first sip knowing I will ruin the coffee art. I am crazy about coffee art. Sometimes I spend hours on instagram just watching videos on how to make certain shapes. It´s addictive! Unfortunately, I couldn´t stare for too long, and eventually, I had to drink my cappuccino. ´Sorry, coffee…´

Their menus were very organized and they also serve lunch and dinner. They always have fresh bread and pastries. I will definitely be coming back to try more things in the future.

After my shift at the restaurant I was absolutely tired. But like I said before, I´m trying really hard to push my limitations and boundaries every day, and I don´t want to settle. I want to keep working hard for what I want. So, once I got home on Thursday, I put on my gym clothes and I went for a run through the riverside walk next to my house. Once again, the timing was perfect and I ran with the sunset in the background – not without taking pictures first!

Like usual, the weather was gorgeous! I am crazy about sunsets. I could literally take pictures of every single sunset for a year and I would probably end up with a very good collection of pictures. Sunsets are so magical. It was so great to run in this weather with the sun going down. I wish I could always run at this very time and witness endless sunsets.

I did pretty well with my run too. It´s true the saying that the more you run, the faster you get, and this could literally happen from one day to another. I´ve seen it happen with myself. My running times used to be awful. But everyday I managed to run more miles, burn more calories and in less time, and run without ever stopping.

I went home after my run, took a shower, and cooked some dinner. I had some vegetables on my fridge and they were about to expire, so I decided to make a soup for dinner with the veggie´s leftover. I cooked them in water and a little bit of olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper, and then I blended everything together. I added some croutons for extra texture.

After dinner, I played with Ozzy and went straight to bed. This week has been very challenging and tiring, but also so much fun. Tomorrow is my day off, and I´m planning a lot of great things to do. I will keep you updated.

Simply,

MARIANA

Wine & home made sushi night

4/14/2016 2:11 PM Grocery shoppingDinnerPhotography

I´ve been craving a good home made sushi for a long time now. Every now and then I would mention it to Bruno, but we kept delaying it over and over again, because we have been too tired or not in the mood for all the cooking it implies. Also, buying all the ingredients, especially the fish isn´t cheap, so we´ve been postponing it for ages now. Yesterday I suggested it again, and as we were both off from work, we decided it would be a good day to buy all the groceries and just go home and cook sushi for dinner.

He also needed to take the car to the car wash - his car was incredibly dirty, especially on the inside. I kept mentioning it to him every time I got on that front seat full of breadcrumbs and dust. We left the house at around 12:00 and drove to the carwash. I was so upset with how long it took for the guys to clean everything. Bruno and I just stood there for nearly an hour waiting for the car to be ready. There wasn´t even any café around where we could just sit down and relax while the car was being taken care of.

As soon as the car was ready, we headed to ASDA to buy all the groceries we needed.

I was so upset when I realised they didn´t have anything we needed! No nori sheets, no rice for sushi…NOTHING! We ended up buying just a few things we assumed would be cheaper in ASDA than Tesco or Sainsbury´s. I really didn´t want to make the same mistake and go to another supermarket who would not have what we needed. Bruno was sure Tesco´s would have all the things we needed, as we´ve always bought them in Tesco´s. For a minute we actually considered postponing the whole thing one more time, but I preferred not to be lazy this time, and actually go and look for every ingredient we needed.

When we arrived at Tesco´s, we found every single ingredient we needed. I was also surprised with how expensive everything was. I keep thinking this is not London anymore, and assuming the groceries will be cheaper, but I also keep forgetting they are supermarkets after all. I guess the prices are the same all over the country.

Once we got home, we opened a bottle of Portuguese red wine, and started cooking! Portugal makes the best wines in the world. Honestly.

I don´t normally drink, and if I do, it will never be more than a small glass or two. I am also not entirely a fan of red wine. I can drink it and enjoy it (especially if it´sPortuguese), but to be honest I prefer sweeter drinks. I love ciders, champagne, and lambrusco. Rekorderlig´s are my favourite in the UK. I don´t think we have them in Portugal, but I am truly a fan! I love the strawberry/lemon ones.

We spread the ingredients all over the balcony and started cooking. We bought sushi rice, salmon, avocado, seafood sticks, wasabi, white vinegar and sushi nori.

We started by cooking the rice with the right amount of water and let it rest covered once cooked. We followed the instructions strictly, but for some reason the rice ended up being slightly undercooked. So if you ever buy sushi rice from this brand, I would advise you to let the rice rest for another 5 minutes added to the 10 minutes the instructions suggest.

While the rice was cooking, we started laying our nori sheets and cutting the salmon, avocado and seafood sticks.

After that, we opened the nori sheets, and put them on top of the bamboo roller we have. We filled them with the cooked rice, and then with anything we wanted for the inside. We made sushi rolls with nothing but seafood sticks, other with just salmon, and some with salmon and avocado.

Once the ingredients were added to the rice, we rolled up the nori sheets and cut them into individual sushi rolls.

Everything tasted really good. We served the sushi with soy sauce and enjoyed a glass of wine with the sushi. It was worth the wait!