Eat Aesthetics: Hail to the Kale

It's the super, super food that's got healthy foodies going wild. My first encounter with the curly lettuce was in a whole foods smoothie, bright green in colour and surprisingly reallly tasty (especially if blended with kiwi, apple and broccoli!). 

However, with all the above benefits, it also comes with a price tag if you buy it in premade smoothies or meals. Instead I buy kale raw, at just £1.50 for an extremely large bag. 

Here are two ideas to introduce the plant into your day to day diet...cheaply (with out really noticing too!).

KALE CHIPS

Simply wash the leaves and if needed, remove stems. Place on a baking sheet with a dash of olive oil, salt and place in the oven at 160• for 5-10 minutes. 

Once removed from the oven, kale chips are the perfect crunchy snack! 

For a bit more flavour, I also added chilli flakes and chipotle salt.

SMOOTHIE BOOSTERS

Add kale to any homemade smoothie recipe (see previous post). I've added it to a super berry blend and my blood orange recipe. 

Have you tried kale before? I'd love to hear of more uses for it, I think I'm addicted! 

Hackett: #hackettrisingstars

Last week I was lucky enough to be selected as one of #hackettrisingstars. A competition held with LCF to highlight some of us budding visuals before being launched into the industry in the near future!

The brief was titled Art College and we were each asked to submit a moodboard  following a criteria based around their current collection and customer base. 

After submission, we were then selected and informed of which stores we would be featured in! I was given Sloane street(one of Hackett's two flagships!) and Jermyn street.

The first store my mannequin was launched at was Sloane Street on an over night shift. After picking our outfits and essembling our props (mine was simplistic, using inks poured over the mannequins head to symbolise an artist's paints) our mannequins went through a little photo shoot, before finally being placed in the store's window.

The next store was Jermyn Street, here we each had to create our own backdrop before dressing our models. 

The experience was priceless and I really enjoyed myself working with the brand. This project got myself really excited for what the future will hold after university! 

Seasonal vitamin booster smoothie

Winter is far from over, however here is a delicious smoothie to put a spring back in your step. It's packed with lots of nutrients and vitamins. I have used blood oranges as the base, not only because this is the prefect season for the citrus fruit, but also as they contain 40% more vitamin C than naval oranges, an essential for beating common colds/flu.  By adding Bananas and Spinach into the mix too, this recipe has high levels of vitamin b and potassium. 

Ingredients

1 blood orange 

1/2-1 banana 

4 strawberries

1 handful of raspberries

1 handful of spinach

1/4 cup of water (or almond milk)

Method

Roughly chop the orange, banana (no skin, obviously), strawberries and raspberries and place in jug/blender (I use a hand blender)with the water.  

Blend the fruit together so that they are combined. 

Next add the spinach and continue to blend until you achieve the constancy desired.

Pour out into a glass and enjoy!

Currently battling a cold myself, I am aiming to make one of these each morning until I feel better. 

Dancing in the rain: Hackett, London

I have currently been working towards my Final Major Project to complete my BA. I have been looking into how immersive technology can be quite effective within a retail environment. One way I thought that would make an interesting experience would be to use the Rain Room technology as seen at the Barbican Museum last year, as well as at Topman's Men's collection this January. By creating these elements within a store a memorable experience is achieved.

Harlequin Design, the people behind Hackett's windows obviously felt the same (or have simply just been inspired by the horrendous amounts of rain the country has experienced this winter) by installing a fake rain scene in to the Regent Street window, where water drops are constantly falling over the styled mannequin.

With the present weather, the window can really reflect a more than familiar scene to passers by, however a cheerful twist is added through the vinyl text "Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness, has never danced in the rain".

A healthy happy start

To coincide with #100happydays, I have also been looking into what I eat, hoping that if I feel good on the inside it will only boost my feelings on the outside! 

As a self-confessed chocoholic, eating a healthy clean and lean lifestyle will never be easy, that is unless you live near a Whole Foods Market (luckily for me there is one by my uni), where useful guilt free and natural ingredients are their speciality, my favourites are coconut oil (actually now available at most health stores and large supermarkets), raw coco powder and cacao nibs. There is also lots of yummy naturally gluten and diary free alternatives too. 

It was at Whole Foods where I was able to buy all the ingredients for this totally natural guilt free treat:

Cocoa nib cookies

130g almond-mil (or ground almonds)

2.5 tbs of melted coconut oil

2.5 tbs of rice syrup(or maple)

0.25 tsp of baking powder

0.25 tsp of sea salt (not too fine)

1 tsp high quality vanilla extract

30g cacao nibs

Sprinkling of raw coco powder (optional) 

After setting the oven to 170c, combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. 

Take a little less than a tablespoon amount for each cookie and place on a lined baking tray.

Place in the oven for 20 minutes and then enjoy! 

Please note: you may not need the total amount of coconut oil, it's best to add it last and stop pouring if the mixture starts to turn greasy. 

#100happydays

With the start of the year as dull as ever, I have decided to take part in 100 happy days, by uploading an image everyday of something that has beought a smile to my face, I've found that it's helped me to appreciate the little things and conquer the January blues! 

I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now, for full sized images visit my Instagram @jadelydia 

Let's start this again. 2014, I'm ready.

NEW YEAR.

It's here and with it the annual flow of promises on how we can all better ourselves over the next 365 days.

It's no surprise that this post is written as I embrace the first of my resolutions list. Restart the Blog. I want to blame third year for the lack of posts and unsuccessful start up, but I know that if I really want to I can find the time to share my opinions, images and hauls!

Other resolutions include: act my age (I often worry that my grandmother and I lead far too similar lifestyles) and preen myself to a higher standard (I am not saying that I have let myself go, it's just that there is a fine line between natural beauty and looking like a yeti - eyebrows, I'm looking at you)

I also decided that my new year would start today, otherwise known as BLUE MONDAY. The most depressing day of the year. I was hoping that my fresh outlook and kickstart would make today more hopeful than blue.

2014 is going to hopefully be a landmark year in my life, as it brings the end of my studies at LCF and the year I am to be launched into the "real" world. Eeek!