Tag: Greens

September 2020 Bullet Journal Set-Up

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Summer is coming to a close and it’s already SEPTEMBER. This year is going by so fast. I’m excited for fall though because I get to do a bunch of warm, cinnamony apple and pumpkin recipes, and also curl up with a good book, and do some cool bullet journal themes:) I was racking my brain for some awesome doodles I could do for September, and then I was like, how is it possible that I HAVEN’T DONE AN OWL THEME YET?!!?? Owls are my absolute favourite animal, and make for the perfect September theme. I didn’t want to draw any cutesy, adorable owls though. I found some great inspiration on Pinterest (I’ll show a pic below) for a geometric owl design that’s stunning. I coloured it in with olive green, navy, and gold, and I know I’ve used green and gold a lot this year already but I felt that these colours worked really well together and were sort of autumn-ish. It’s funny to see how far I’ve come because I was looking through my first ever journal from 2018 and literally all my weekly spreads were the same each month lol. Even last year I feel like I would’ve freaked the heck out if I used the same colour twice. Now I kind of just go with the flow and do whatever I want and it turns out way prettier:))

Back to my September spreads. They’re pretty simple, and I’m doing a lot of quotes and deep, meaningful stuff this month because I feel like I need a boost with going back to school and activities and all that. I really like the way it turned out and I think I can do some pretty cool weeklies in the future. This is random but I’m typing this on my computer and I really want to use emojis and I can’t:) But if I had to come up with an emoji to summarize this spread I think it would be the fire one. Scroll down and check it out!

Here was my inspo BTW:

I mostly used the kind of neon-y owl on the bottom left, as you can see in my cover page:) It took me a little while to draw, and then I realized it was perfectly centred on the page and I should’ve drawn it slightly up more so that I could write September underneath and it wouldn’t look so cramped at the bottom. But I didn’t feel like re-drawing it so I just left it and it was fine. I did more of a bouncy cursive font this month, with some of the letters a bit smaller than others, which creates more interest. On the opposite page I have a nice, inspiring quote, surrounded by some geometric triangles in the corners. I love this title page because it’s simple and sophisticated and so pretty!!:))

I was debating whether I should do a full calendar layout this month since I’ll be busier, or stick with the half page ones I’ve been doing, and I went with the half page. I’ll have more room to write down events and school stuff this way, so we’ll see how it works out. I might end up putting little dots in the calendar boxes, with the colour corresponding to the bigger boxes on the right page, because I won’t have a lot of room to write in the actual calendar. Like if I have an event I’ll do a green dot, and school stuff will be navy dots. That’s confusing but hopefully it kind of makes sense:) These pages are nice and simple as well; I drew a smaller owl over the calendar, and another quote on the right page. Oh I also ended up using my white gel pen to write over the navy, because it shows up better than black and just looks nicer.

My trackers are on point this month! I still love the chart/graph layout; it’s just so easy to use and look at. I find when I use different colours to define my mood I pick ones that are too similar and they all just blend together, but here I can just see everything without to many legends and stuff. This month I’m tracking my habits (I track 12 habits which may seems like a lot but idk I just like to see what I’m doing), mood, productivity and workouts. Then on the side I drew another owl and wrote words that are often associated with them. Love how this spread turned out:)

I decided to include a spot to write down my thoughts each day next to my gratitude log; sort of like a “line a day” thing. I wrote another quote at the bottom of that page, and then did a blog planner, because I think I’ll need it this month. I just have to get better at sitting down each week and filling it out. I made use of those mosaic-y triangles when doing these pages.

Then my first weekly spread:) On the left I have a big quote page. I’ve been into these really long quotes lately, and I like the look of all that writing on a page. Again I was kind of mad about the placement of the owl, because I thought I’d write the quote underneath it but it turned out to be too long. So I wrote it all around the owl, which I feel should’ve been centred but no way was I drawing it again lol. But it turned out nice in the end. Then I have a super simple weekly with lots of space to write down events and stuff that are coming up.

There you go my friends! After this there’s only 3 months left to go in this journal:( I’m so sad because I love this colour, and my very very slight OCD isn’t quite ready to allow me to get the same coloured bujo 2 years in a row. But I’m going to make these last 3 themes awesome so don’t worry:)) Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

2 Summer Smoothie Bowls

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Smoothie bowls are my ABSOLUTE favourite breakfast! They’re so refreshing, and make me feel like I’m having a treat on vacation somewhere. You can pack a bunch of veggies in there without even noticing, and the topping combos are endless. ENDLESS!

It took me a while to get the perfect smoothie bowl thickness, but I think I’ve finally cracked the code. You want to have the ingredients as cold as possible, and limit the amount of watery fruits that you put in your smoothie. The base of all of my smoothies is a frozen banana, because that’s what makes them thick and creamy. If you don’t like banana you can try using mango, because I’ve found it has a similar effect. The ingredients might take a little while to come together in the blender, but eventually they’ll form a mixture that’s almost like soft serve in texture. Using a tamper is critical here, because you can continually push the ingredients towards the blender blades.

In this post, I’ve included two different recipes for summer smoothie bowls, because I couldn’t decide which one to pick! One has banana, berries, and spinach, and the other has banana, spinach, kale, and watermelon. Yum! My watermelon didn’t get completely frozen, and so the result was a slightly more watery smoothie bowl. Make sure that you leave it in the freezer at least overnight! These recipes are definitely some of my favourites though, because they TASTE LIKE SUMMER and allow you to get some greens in!

Lets talk toppings. Really anything goes when you’re topping your smoothie bowl, but some ideas are more fruit, granola, dates, nut, seeds, and nut butters. I like a few different toppings on my bowl because it keeps things interesting. Some granola recipes that go GREAT on smoothie bowls are my Nutty Granola and Chocolate Coconut Granola. I’ve also been known to top my bowls with a Seedy Energy Square or two….. it’s so good!

I hope that these recipes get you hooked on smoothie bowls!

Berry and Spinach Smoothie Bowl

Serves: 1

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Bowl:

  • 1 frozen banana (sliced)
  • 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
  • 3/4 cup spinach (not packed)
  • 2 tbsp water

For the Toppings:

Directions:

  1. Add all of the smoothie ingredients to a powerful blender and blend on low, using the tamper to push the ingredients down.
  2. Once the ingredients are starting to come together, turn the speed to medium and continue using the tamper. It may seem like you need to add more water, but continue until a thick, soft-serve like mixture forms. This can take a few minutes.
  3. Scoop the smoothie into a bowl and top with the strawberries, granola, and peanut butter.
  4. Enjoy!

Greens and Watermelon Smoothie Bowl

Serves: 1

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Bowl:

  • 1 frozen banana (sliced)
  • 3/4 cup frozen water melon chunks
  • 1/2 cup kale leaves (loosely packed)
  • 1/2 cup spinach (loosely packed)
  • 1 tbsp water

For the Toppings:

Directions:

  1. Add all of the smoothie ingredients to a powerful blender and blend on low, using the tamper to push the ingredients down.
  2. Once the ingredients are starting to come together, turn the speed to medium and continue using the tamper. It may seem like you need to add more water, but continue until a thick, soft-serve like mixture forms. This can take a few minutes.
  3. Scoop the smoothie into a bowl and top with the chopped dates, granola, and peanut butter.
  4. Enjoy!

I know I’ll be enjoying these bowls all summer long! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you Wednesday:))

Yours Truly,

Olivia

Simple Bok Choy Noodles

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Hello there;) Today’s recipe is super simple and quick to make. I usually don’t work with bok choy a whole lot, but it’s a really delicious vegetable and is super versatile. It works great in soups, in stir frys and even just steamed as a side dish. This noodle dish allows the bok choy to shine by only using garlic and soy sauce to flavour it. It’s great for a quick weekend lunch or light dinner. Hope you enjoy!

Simple Bok Choy Noodles

Serves: 1

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 serving of cooked lentil or whole wheat spaghetti noodles
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 stalks of bok choy (regular sized, not baby)
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 1 tbs soy sauce
  • Chopped peanuts, for serving (optional)

Directions:

  1. Remove the leaves from the bok choy stems and chop them into strips. Next, chop the bok choy stems like you would a celery stalk, into about a centimetre wide chunks.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add in the bok choy stems and cook for about 6 minutes, until slightly browned and softened.
  3. Add in the garlic and leaves, cooking for an additional two minutes, until the leaves are wilted.
  4. Place the cooked noodles into the pan and stir in the soy sauce, removing from the heat. Serve in a bowl with chopped peanuts.

So simple yet so good! Have a great week everyone.

Yours Truly,

MyDayIsBooked