#CharlestonShooting and white privilege

I have been meaning to make a blog post about the recent events of a 21 year old terrorist who had murdered nine people in an historic African-American church in Charleston, California.

Roof had been welcomed by these people into their prayer, which is not their fault at all, it's just very upsetting. The media had covered the story very typically, without associating the word "terrorist" to him as he is, well, white. The problem with this is that it's very evident that an Arabian shooter is a "terrorist" and strangely, every single Muslim is also labelled as a terrorist. A black shooter is depicted as a "thug," along with every other black person out there, but a white person? Well, they are a "lone wolf" with a troubled past or has some sort of mental illness. This is a prime example of white privilege, they will depict any white murder as a "boy" who walked dogs or liked pizza, but an unarmed black person such as Trayvon Martin, who was 17 at the time he was killed, is a man? Not only that, they armed Roof with a bullet proof vest but do not hesitate to pull out a gun at a black child and aren't afraid to shoot?

For years the media has tried to find excuses for white crimes, even when Roof admitted he wanted to start a race war and for segregation to come back and yet, most people find an excuse for his actions? The American justice system is incredibly flawed and racist because of institutionalised racism. There needs to be a change, starting with us white people accepting the fact that we do in fact have white privilege, although it won't make us purely not-racist, as we highly benefit from institutionalised racism no matter how wrong we think it is, we just have to accept that and try to teach others as well as catching not only other people out but ourselves when we subconsciously think something racist.

First attempt at... Sushi!

Taken from my Instagram

My first attempt at sushi was fairly decent, I mean as a first try and all. The sushi vinegar really did give it the "actual sushi from a sushi place" taste, which is perfect as sushi restaurants usually add a load of sugar in their sushi, making you want more. These sushi rolls are salt and sugar free (although, the vinegar included some sugar and salt obviously). I found my sushi vinegar in a big supermarket (Tesco), do invest in sushi vinegar as it makes the rice sticky which is what you are looking for. Also, it's very beneficial to have a bamboo mat, again I got mine from Sainsbury's, but oriental shops will most likely sell them as well. The bamboo mat helps you out a lot as nori sheets are quite frail. 

Ingredients

To make five sushi pieces... 

• 1 tbsp of sushi rice vinegar
•  One sheet of sushi nori (seaweed)
• 32g of brown rice
• Two sticks of cucumber
• Two sticks of avocado

Method

Cook the brown rice for 25 minutes. When the rice is done, place it into a wooden bowl and add the table spoon of sushi rice vinegar. Stir the vinegar into the rice until the rice is cool and sticky, this should take up to 3-4 minutes. Lay out the bamboo mat and place the nori sheet with the shiny side facing down, now you have time to prepare the vegetables. Peel off the avocado skin and cut the avocado into strips, along with cutting a third off a cucumber then cutting it in half again, after that cut the cucumber into big chunks. Once the vegetables are prepared, place the rice onto the sushi mat. Make sure your hands are wet so that the rice doesn't stick onto your fingers, then spread evenly across the sheet leaving 1 cm from the top and end. Once the rice covered the sheet, place the cucumber and avocado 2 cm away from the edge of the sheet. Then you take one end of the bamboo mat and start rolling, you firstly roll over the cucumber, then you roll again. Once the sheet has completely covered the rice, take the roll off the bamboo mat and onto a chopping board, make sure that your cutting the sushi roll with a sharp knife to not tear the seaweed. Serve it with soy sauce to get more taste.

Enjoy! Klaud x 

Review of... Orange is the New Black

It's the return of the famous, for some reason known as, lesbian TV show. Although, it's not actually directly lesbian whatsoever. The show came back on Netflix on June the 12th and since then I have been non-stop watching episodes. There will be spoilers in this blog post so please, if you haven't watched the season, do not continue reading!!!! 

My overall response to the season would be annoyance. It wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't fantastic either. Although, I do think that the season wanted to cause that since most of the prisoners were annoyed with one another. 

Let's start with Piper and Alex. I know Piper is the protagonist and all, but her story is incredibly dull. The forced relationship between the two at the start was unnecessary. Along with the addition of Stella, what was the point in her?! In my opinion there was no need for her at all, the break-up between Piper and Alex would have done excellently without her. In a way, Piper and Alex's roles had been inverted this season, Piper becoming more menacing while Alex refrained from any activities that would make her seem bold, that is the only interesting part of the whole "Vauseman" story.

Even though the protagonist is very dull, I enjoy the stories of other inmates that the show does. For example, Chang's story was my favourite. She's not a very important character in the show, she's hardly shown really but the fact that we get a background story to her gives us a sense of closure on what she is really about.

The friendship between Doggett and Boo was very heart-warming. It's nice to see that despite Doggett's religious beliefs, she still really valued Boo. Boo's character is, well stereotypical, but her background story depicted the power Boo has as a "butch lesbian," and it isn't her masculine looks. It's the fact that she had fought to express herself throughout her life and she doesn't let anyone take that away from her. Back to their friendship, though, when Boo helped Doggett get even with her rapist, it was the best idea the show has ever come up with. There was finally a sense of justice in the show, which is very ironic as it is set in a prison.

 Even though there may be annoying protagonists in the show, the actual show is very revolutionary and addresses so many issues currently, even mental illness. That is why the show overall is really good, despite the season being slightly disappointing. 

First attempt at... Spring rolls!

So, over the weekend I stopped by Wholefoods in Piccadilly (the best Wholefoods in London, fyi) in attempt to buy brown rice sushi. Sadly, they didn't have any, however, I stumbled upon rice pancakes!

I decided I would (attempt) make my first ever spring rolls. It was super exciting and I didn't follow any recipe, thus saying I will share my own original recipe with you all. 

Before I did anything with the rice pancakes, I got out the ingredients I needed and gave them a little wash. After, I pealed the carrots, cut the bell pepper in half and cut the cucumber in half before I began to slice them into thin little strips like this:

Once all of my ingredients were ready, I started soaking my rice pancakes. Now, in order to soak them correctly you have to get a bowl of hot water then get ALL of the pancake soaked, don't worry if you think you're breaking it, you're not. Once it has been soaked you should let it dry for 5 seconds. For the first wrap I decided to dry it out on a tea towel, which is what the back of the packet implied, I would not recommend this however, as the paper stuck to my pancake and it was VERY hard to peal off. 

Nevertheless, you place the filling in the middle and start wrapping! My mistake was that I put too many ingredients in, put less in so that its easier to maintain whilst eating. 

Once you wrap the spring rolls they should look like this, or probably a little bit better actually... But for my first attempt, they look pretty ok-ish! 

Ingredients:

• Rice pancakes
• One carrot
• Half a cucumber
• Half an avocado
• Half a bell pepper 
• Two handful of spinach 

Enjoy! Klaud x 

Chocolate nanaice cream

I'm pretty sure most people have heard of nice cream or nanaice cream, they have become quite popular amongst food bloggers. Now, if you're new to all this you're probably thinking "what the hell is nice cream?" That's where I come in!  

Taken from my IG klaudsplate

Nice cream is pretty much frozen fruit that has been blended with a splash of almond milk (or any nut milk of your choice). You must only ever add in a splash so that the nice cream has the same texture as actual ice cream, but if the fruit is too hard to blend you can add it three more splashes. The fruit can freeze overnight or two hours before using, depending on what you like personally. 

 Taken from my IG klaudsplate

You can top your nice cream with aaaaanything you like, from granola to coconut chips to even more fruit! They all work perfectly and add more deliciousness! 

Recipe for chocolate nanaice cream

Taken from my IG klaudsplate

Last night you may have seen me post chocolate nanaice cream, so here is the recipe and walk through on how to make this blissful nice cream! 

Recipe:

• Two frozen ripe bananas 
• 2 tsp of raw cacao powder (I used choc chick raw cacao)
• 2 splashes of almond milk
• Goji berries (optional)
• Pecan nuts (optional)
• Coconut shreds (optional)

Method: 

Simply place the bananas into a food processor or blender and add the almond milk then mix. After mixing for a little bit, add in the raw cacao powder and carry on mixing. When the texture becomes ice-cream-like, scoop the nice cream into a bowl then top with nuts/fruit/goji berries/coconut.

Enjoy! Klaud x   

Baked banana oats

Here is my recipe for what I've had for breakfast today: baked banana oats! Originally, I've taken the recipe from nad's healthy kitchen just made a few tweaks and made it my own.

It was a very gooey texture with the mashed bananas, the blueberries made it even sweeter. My baked oats always turn out burnt but that is only because my tray is always raised way too high. Nevertheless, here are the ingredients and method!

Ingredients:

• 1 banana 
• 3 tbsp of oats
• handful of blueberries (optional)
• one egg white
• 1 tsp of baking powder 
• splash of almond milk
• 7 chopped pecan nuts
• Shredded coconut as topping (optional)

Method:

You take the banana and mash it into a casserole dish, after that you add in the oats, egg white, baking powder, pecan nuts and almond milk and stir well. After that, you place the blueberries and shredded coconut on top of the mixture then place it into the oven for 20 minutes. After that time is up, viola! You have your deliciously sweet baked oats!

Enjoy! Klaud x 

A guide to... Macros!

Ah, macros. If you follow any fitness blogs on any social media platform you most definitely have come across this word, but what does it mean?

Macros (macronutrients) are simply tracking how many grams of protein, carbohydrates and fats you are indulging, along with counting your calories and hitting a calorie goal. Most people who use macros are usually looking at getting leaner for competitions, they are the masters of macronutrients. However, many people who are determined to lose weight do also track macros.

From personal experience, I had counted macros when I started loosing weight without even realising I was doing so. The only danger that occurred to me whilst counting calories was that I'd try my best to eat under my calorie goal. DO NOT DO THAT! Honestly, it will not benefit you at all. I would've eaten less and felt bad all day, it's not worth it. If you are scared of calories, set yourself a target of 1,220 calories a day, if you want to get lean around 1,700 for females is good and 2,000 for males is good.

I've started to count my macros again, but that is only because for the last week, thanks to my English Literature exam, I had been slowly slipping into old habits of binge eating, a post yet to come! Now, I am absolutely terrified of going back to the way I was a couple of years ago, which is why I do my best to eat as least as possible which isn't very good. I am hoping that my macros will help me 1) not binge eat as I will have to fit the macros 2) give me a purpose on tracking how many cals I've burnt at the gym and 3) improve how many grams of protein I am taking in order to lose more body fat to get leaner.

For anyone wondering, my macros are:

Cals: 1,563 a day
Protein: 177g
Carbohydrates: 177g
Fat: 43g

I calculated my macros on this website which works pretty well and the calculations are a lot more decent than any other websites I have visited.

Happy tracking! Klaud x