Meatball Recipe

Hey everyone! So for anyone who follows my tumblr, knows me in person or watches my snapchat stories, you will have noticed that I enjoy cooking quite a lot. 

The small backstory is that every week I meal prep for my boyfriend (cooking a total of 25 meals- not 25 different meals lol) but it has given me a chance to explore my cooking skills and create new recipes as I go when he requests a meal (e.g. I want lasagne- I make up my own recipe to suit that). So with this I thought I would share recipes I create just in case anyone else out there wants to try!

Meatball Recipe

Ingredients:

- 500g lean mince

- 2 cloves garlic: crushed

- 2 eggs

- 1 medium sized onion finely diced

- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

- 1/2 teaspoon crushed chilli (or one small red chilli chopped finely)

- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

- 1 jar pasta sauce (I use the brand 'Raguletto' flavoured red wine with garlic)

The ingredients for meatballs (minus the mince because I already used it and forgot to include it in the photo!)

Method:

1. Preheat fan forced oven to 180 degrees Celsius and lightly oil a baking dish

2. Place all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl

3. Mix all ingredients together. This works the best if you use your hands because you can mix everything in together easier and break down the mince. If you don't want to use your hands I would recommend using a large wooden spoon. But my advice- hands work best!

4. Once all the ingredients are well combined, use hands to roll meatballs and place in baking dish. You want to try and roll the meatballs to roughly the size of a golf ball, squashing the mince together so it has less of a chance of falling apart (the egg is the best ingredient that will keep the mince 'sticky' so it will stick together easier).

Meatballs at step 4 after being rolled and placed in the tray

5. Cover the meatballs completely with the sauce of your choosing 

6. Cook in oven for about 40-50 minutes

To serve I like to use mashed potatoes and sprinkle fresh parsley and a tad of parmesan cheese on top. However they also go well with penne pasta.

Final product! They smell really good and will serve about 4 

There is my recipe! I really like making these posts so I will continue to share them along with my regular posts.

Thanks for reading,

Stelle xx

Kieran's birthday!

I would like to wish my boyfriend Kieran a very happy 19th birthday (from Saturday)!

I want to say a few things about him (yes on my blog and yes hi Kieran I know you will read this eventually).

I organised the weekend and we ended up at Manly Beach on Saturday for a day in the sun, swimming and a cafe lunch. In the night we went to the city (about 10 guys and 2 girls, nice ratio) and partied all night and it was so much fun. Sunday was mostly spent sleeping off the hangovers from Saturday night and watching How to Get Away with Murder (OMG it can not end that way) and then we had a family dinner in the evening. It was an amazing weekend, here are some pictures from it and I'm writing a little something about Kieran below.

View of Manly Beach from the walk between Manly/Shelley Beach

Amazing lunch- chicken burger and salad for me and a beef burger for him

Quick picture form the train ride into the city

Now about Kieran. I wish everyone saw Kieran the way I do. He is funny, attractive and smart. He knows so much about everything and when he talks about something he is passionate about he can go on for hours. He is loving and kind and would do anything for anyone who needs his help. He knows how to make you laugh even when you're so angry you want to throw something. 

He can make you smile when you're sad and in no time you'll forget why you're even sad in the first place. He will cuddle you and cook you food when you're sick and upset and then he will apologise that he can't cook as well as you, but just settle for buying something you love. 

He will get addicted to the TV shows you love and demand you wait to watch the new episodes with him so he isn't left out and you will do it because he took the time to like something you like. 

He will buy your movie ticket and dinner when you go out, despite your arguments that you can pay for yourself. He is a lot of things, but mostly he is just amazing. I do wish everyone saw him the way I do, but then again it wouldn't be the same. 

Happy birthday again Kieran (now you're old like me!!)

Thanks for reading,

Stelle xx

O WEEK

So my favourite part of the Uni year has officially finished! And that ladies and gentlemen, is O WEEK! For those of you who don't know what ' O week' is, it stands for Orientation week and is basically just a week where you attend lectures only (unless you're unlucky and a tutorial is running), sign up for clubs at uni, attend back to uni parties sand get to collect a lot of free stuff #heaven.

It was a good week for me. I went to classes, discovered I have some awesome new lecturers (one of them acted out the opening scene from How to Get Away With Murder- I think he is my favourite simply because of that), ate free food, collected freebies and signed up to a few random clubs. I also went to the official welcome back to uni party called "Summer Haze" and it was alright (apart from the fact I stood in line for an hour and had been at uni for the last 9 AND was starving).

I'm looking forward to this uni semester (ask me again in 2 weeks and I'll probably be eating my words) but I enjoy meeting new people and having new experiences and learning new things which is exactly what I plan to be doing this semester. 

I have lots to blog about and lots of things to share so I will update regularly and keep everyone posted! (because I know there are lots of people who read this and possibly some who even care what  I have to say haha).

Thanks for reading,

Stelle xx

Minion Cupcakes

So today I spent a few hours baking. Fun fact about me- I love to bake and cook! I find it relaxes me and well you do end up with some pretty good tasting food at the end!

I thought I would share my minion cupcake recipe with you all in case any of you wanted to try it out! *I made this recipe myself, I usually would throw a bunch of ingredients together until I got something that worked, and this is what I have figured out works*

Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon vanilla essence 

1 cup caster sugar

200g butter (soft)

chocolate chips

Decoration:

white mini marshmallows

500g box white fondant

yellow food colouring

chocolate chips

sugar/water paste (2 parts sugar, 1 part hot water)

black icing pen

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to about 180 degrees Celsius & line a tray with muffin papers

2. Combine butter, vanilla essence & sugar in a bowl. Mix with electric mixer until combined

3. Add eggs one at a time and then continue to mix

4. Add half the flour and half the milk and continue mixing. Then add the rest of the flour and milk and mix until a smooth consistency and all ingredients are combined. (The mixture should be thick, not runny). I add the chocolate chips here once it is all mixed together

Mixture combined (before adding chocolate chips)

 5. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cooked through (I usually check with a skewer in the middle cupcake on the tray to see if they are cooked the whole way through aka. the skewer comes out clean with no mixture on it. If it comes out with mixture, they cook for another 5 mins and then they should be ready)

Cooked cupcakes (if the surface is too uneven, cut the top off to flatten it)

6. Let the cupcakes cool down completely before decorating

7. Once cool, you will need to knead the fondant until it is smooth. You then add a few drops of yellow food colouring (to however dark/light you would like the yellow to be) and knead the colour through the fondant

8. Then you will roll out the fondant with a rolling pin and cut the appropriate size circle out to cover the top of the cupcakes (I used a glass that was roughly the same size as the cupcakes to cut my circles out)

9. Cover each cupcake with a thin layer of yellow fondant. I like to try and use the back of a spoon to smooth it over and get rid of finger bumps if I can

Fondant covered cupcakes (before being smoothed over with a spoon)

10. Make the sugar/water paste by mixing 2 parts sugar and 1 part hot water. This will act as your glue for the marshmallows and chic chips. 

11. "Glue" marshmallows for eyes, chocolate chips for eyeballs and then draw on a black line for the minion goggles and a mouth. 

12. You now have mini minion cupcakes!

My final product! They were a bit rushed so not perfect, but they taste amazing

There's my recipe and tips everyone! If I were to make these again I probably would have used regular sized marshmallows simply because I like bigger eyes. The cupcake recipe itself tastes amazing and the decoration is just for something fun. I made these for my boyfriends birthday (which  is tomorrow and he is 19 lol) so I hope he likes them!

Thanks for reading, 

Stelle xx

Kiama

I was so happy to get away. Get away to my (second) favourite place. Not quite home, but home enough that I didn't want to leave. 

A week ago I went on a 'get away from life and life's drama' trip down the South Coast to Kiama. I sipped alcohol, I floated in the pool, I explored the towns along the Coast. I took photos (lots and lots of photos). I got lost so many times and I watched my boyfriend get his nose pierced. I ate lots of food and watched the clouds float through the air. I cooked, I cleaned, I camped. I sang. I danced. I laughed and I cried. I kissed and loved and I felt loved. It was a weekend where I felt at ease. 

I'm not much of a writer and I don't know if anyone out there even enjoys reading my blog but I just want to let you all know that I enjoy writing these feelings and capturing these memories. My life isn't perfect but it's an adventure.

Loving on him from the lookout near Gerringong. Most beautiful sight (and a lovely bush/beach background too)

Again, I love this

Our typical selves. Not much else to say

Shoalhaven Heads. I love this picture I took of him

Kiama Lighthouse at night

The trip with my favourite person was great. Our padlock near the Blow Hole was still intact (if still very rusty). We ate ice-cream and snuggled up under trees in the park. Ate lunch in the RSL surrounded by old people where he told me "this will be us one day Stelle".

Thanks for reading everyone, not much to read but a single picture does tell a thousand words.

Stelle xx

50 Shades of Grey

Starting off I would like to say, yes I "read" the book. More specifically I read about 3/4 of the first book because I could not bare to finish reading it. I didn't have high hopes for the movie. I just wanted to see it pretty much so I could say that I saw it and see what all the hype was surrounding it the '50 Shades of Grey' fandom.

My reactions during this movie ranged from:

I'm hungry

LOL

For some reason this reminds me of Twilight

I don't get it

Why did she keep going back to him

She never actually signed that contract

Why did they even keep bringing the contract up if she wasn't signing it??

Is that abuse?

Yes I think so

How did this turn people on

Bad acting

What is sexy about someone basically abusing you

Why did all the characters except for Anna and Christian disappear halfway through the movie?

Why 

If I saw a 'Red Room of Pain' I would run

Run for the hills

Nothing sexy about that

Bad choice of words

Could've phrased that better to actually sound sexy

I know why I keep thinking of Twilight

Male character who wants dominance over smaller, weaker female character

Female character thinks being controlled is sexy

Feminists all over will be going crazy over this

This is weird

Why are these people in my cinema screaming about how sexy this is

I'd like a new car

Okay the tie thing is the only normal thing so far

Where is her independence

Why does she like this!!!!

Where did his tragic backstory go?

He just seems creepy

This is all very contradictory

If he has 'singular' tastes then why does he keep doing things not in his 'tastes'

This movie doesn't make sense

Okay it's ending

Wow, okay I know there's more books but bad ending

That movie went for a reaaaaaally long time

I still don't get why it's sexy

Aaaaand that's pretty much what I thought. Mainly I am gathering that I just don't think it's as sexy as it's meant to be. A lot of people I know really enjoyed the movie and book. Personally I 1. can't enjoy the book on the simple fact that it is written horribly and I have read so many amazing books it just doesn't compete. 2. The badly written book translates straight through to the big screen and I just don't think bad books will ever make good movies. Maybe I am too critical. I would love to hear what anyone else who saw the movie/read the book thinks.

Thanks for reading,

Stelle xxx

BBG Lifestyle

For a long time I have struggled with my body weight and self-image. When I was younger (13 years old and below), I was extremely skinny. I was in to all kinds of sports and I loved netball and athletics above everything else. I was fit and I was a young girl. I had muscular, yet skinny legs and I even had abs (looking at photos I still can't believe it lol).

10 year old me loved little athletics

 I kept with the sports through high school, but as I got older I became more and more self conscious about how I looked. I didn't really know how to handle it at times either.

During Year 11/12 2012

There were times when I got extremely skinny and I was underweight for a period of time (I won't post these photos). My first year out of high school was difficult for me. I went through a lot and I ended the year about 5-7kg heavier than I started. Out of shape. Unfit. Untoned. 

Then I decided it was time to purchase Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Training Guides. I purchased the Training Guide and the HELP Nutrition Guide. I am motivated to try and get back into shape. The workouts are amazing and I haven't been seeing much progress yet (then again, we are all our own biggest critics) but I can feel it in my body and I just feel more energetic and happier after I have worked out. 

I try and maintain a healthy balanced diet. It is hard at times and I try not to give myself a hard time when I eat something I shouldn't. I don't necessarily go out of my way to eat bad food (i.e. I have stopped eating McDonalds). Having a balanced diet is hard. But it's a lifestyle change for me so it is going to take time. 

I love looking at all of the transformation photos of other people, it gives me so much hope and makes me happy. I really am starting to feel better about myself and I can't wait until the day I can write my blog post and post my transformation photos. I am happy to say that I am enjoying the BBG Lifestyle.

Thanks for reading, 

Any tips + recipes + advice anyone has I would love! Feel free to email me at kristellemaytee@homail.com if you want to talk about your fitness journey with me !

Stelle xx