With the amount of free-time I've had, I try to keep myself relatively busy - without spending much money. I have found a few of my new favourite things that I would like to share with "yous" (as they say here in Australia.)
FRENCH VANILLA COFFEE CREAMER
The coffee game isn't the same as it is in Canada. Brewed coffee? What is that. There certainly aren't any "Double Double's." As a matter of fact, people don't even use cream in their coffee. The closest thing you can get to a North American coffee is an Americano at the Starbucks down the way or opt for a "Long Black" at any other nearby cafe. In Melbourne, coffee is taken very seriously and perhaps that is why it is named the coffee capital of Australia and maybe even world. I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised.
As of lately, I've been skipping the coffee shops as I have paid for WiFi on my at home modem. Therefore, I really have no excuse to go out for a coffee so I have been making the coffee myself. Of course, it's not that great as I just have Woolies Brand (similar to "No Name") instant coffee. With that being said, I needed something to make it a little more tasty. As I said earlier, coffee cream is unheard of here so as a DIY-er I set out to make my own. The recipe is rather simple and the outcome is delicious! All you need is a can of sweetened condensed milk, 14 oz of milk and some vanilla flavour. That's it! Easy, right? The funny thing is I had no container to hold my new French Vanilla Coffee Creamer so I had to empty the carton of milk into bowls to mix it and keep it in the carton. Ha Ha!
SMOOTHIE MAKING
Smoothies are my new addiction. They are 100% my favourite-est thing EVER! On Boxing Day a friend of mine, who was getting ready to travel and then return back to Canada, gave me her blender because she simply did not need it any longer. Was I ever excited! This is where my addiction was born! Smoothies are great because they are light, filling, and amazingly delicious! I enjoy coming up with new recipes after just throwing heaps of fruit and vegetables into the blender. As I type this I am enjoying a mixture I just threw together including Passion Fruit, Peaches, Strawberries, Raspberries and of course, Almond Milk. MMMM mmmm!
As always, Sundays are market days where I can pick up some relatively cheap fruits and vegetables. I then spend the better half of the day creating "smoothie packages" to keep in the freezer or fridge so that I can throw a quick smoothie together in the morning. I love bananas in my smoothies and the BEST deal I got was last week, when I got about 15 bananas for $1.05 (normally they are $4/kg!!) Oh, I was so happy!
PANCAKES, PANCAKES, PANCAKES!
I love pancakes so much. Pancakes for breakfast, pancakes for lunch! The blender has also helped me out in the pancake department. It makes it too easy to just toss my ingredients in and blend it up quick. Now that I'm an adult, I can make whatever I want for dinner. And what's better than breakfast for dinner? Especially when steamy, delicious flapjacks are on the menu!
These babies aren't just any pancakes, no. They are healthy, two ingredient pancakes! WHAT?! Yes. A banana and two eggs are all you need for these bad boys. They are beyond delicious, but I sometimes like to spruce things up by adding in a swirl of my Coconut & Peanut spread OR by blending some rolled oats into the mixture. Easy, delicious and healthy. Could you ask for much more! YUM!
DOODLING
Like I said, at the moment teaching days are few and far in between but that isn't an excuse for not getting up in the morning. Part of the job means you need to be ready to go at a moments notice. So, after waking up shortly after 5am to get ready, making a smoothie for brekky, and waiting around for a phone call that just might come, I sit with a cuppa coffee (with homemade French Vanilla Creamer), turn up the tunes and doodle away. Before I know it, the time has passed and it's nearly 9am - where the chances of getting a call are slim.
AWESOME TABS HOMEPAGE
I'm not sure what the heck I was doing yesterday, but I somehow, stumbled across this extension for Google Chrome! I was pretty excited because since iGoogle homepage was no more, I didn't have a homepage - besides the Google page. And that was boring. It's called Awesome New Tab Page which I have to be honest is a pretty lame name for this extension. But, I've been enjoying customizing it and adding all the buttons to pages I visit daily. I like it for a homepage because everything I need is just a click away and I can do a Google search by just hovering over the Google icon. I liked being able to completely customize it, so I added the chalkboard like background and made my images transparent.
Well, that about sums up most of my current favourite things. During the last few weeks, I haven't been able to go to the beach on my days off (bummer!) because the weather hasn't been great. A few weeks ago it was between 40*C-45*C every day. Which brought on bush fires. Which made a thick smoke haze that didn't allow the sun to shine. Which is basically no fun. Melbourne was looking like a sad, sad city for a while. Luckily we've had some rain and the skies have cleared but we are down to 23*C weather now.
If you have some favourite things, please share them in the comments. With work this slow, I'll need to be trying new things in my future days off!
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