My top 10 time management rules.

1) 80% of your results come from 20% of your activities. Which means 80% of the time... you are wasting time. Observe yourself.

2) Start your morning the night before: clothes (especially for girls!), socks (for guys!), shoes, whether the mobile needs charging, food (my priority), any charts, spreadsheets, people profiles to be looked at - being organised in general.

3) Learn how to say NO. How many times I have kindly accepted requests that wasted hours, even days of my time. What for?

4) To get more done in less time, we have to make choices. It's your life.

5) When it comes to 'perfecting tasks', second best in operation is better than first best on the to-do list.

6) Keep reading materials handy. "I'll just pop to the bank for 5 minutes to check something. 45 minutes later..." - for that type of situations.

7) Get your sleep. When you're rested you can do one thing after the other - bam, bam, bam! Just like that! When you're tired, you're just pretending to be productive and make more mistakes.

8) Don't worry. It's natural, but you can shorten the time between when you start worrying and when you begin doing something about it.

9) To get your point across, limit your sentences to 15 words. And remember the 5 second rule when in person.

10) Separate major things from minors. "A lot of people don't do well simply because they major in minor things" - Jim Rohn.

Bodybuilding protein pancakes.

I have finally got the recipe! I have always got cottage cheese at home and end up bored of it, mainly because of its lack of taste. Those days are over... Say hello to the cottage cheese-protein pancakes my friend.

These pancakes are easy to make, keep their shape, do not stick to the pan and taste good.

You need:
1 egg
30g [rolled] oats
30g Protein Isolate
30g ground almonds (or other nuts)
150g Low Fat Cottage Cheese (if full fat, do not use oil)
1 teaspoon of oil + 1 for cooking the first batch
Cinnamon/sugar/honey optional (I used a teaspoon of honey)

Simply mix all of the ingredients together, use a bit of oil to grease the pan, then fry in small batches on medium heat. Consistency should be thick so adjust ingredients if needed.

This makes about 6 pancakes, with around 100 calories per pancake, totaling to 60+ grams of protein.  Eat big to get big!

Sweet potato burgers at home

Sweet potato. Why are they so good? Pretty much anything with sweet potatoes tastes amazing. Unless it's just a boiled sweet potato on its own. You have to use the oven though, never boil them!

It's funny how our friends don't ask "what we're up to tonight" anymore, now they ask "what are you making tonight". Learning how to make good-quality, restaurant-style food for a fraction of a price you would pay at a restaurant. AND, we live in a beautiful apartment, so eating at home feels like a night out!

 

These burgers taste absolutely delicious and all my meat-eating guests loved them. I made loads of these to keep in the fridge, but for 6 burgers you would need:

For the burgers:
1 small onion, garlic clove and carrot, all chopped/grated
1 small can of red kidney beans
2 sweet potatoes, cubed
Salt, pepper, oil
1 can of sweetcorn
Handful of chopped coriander
100g ground hazelnuts (brasil/pumpkin seeds are fine too)
50 g flour (or more ground nuts instead)

1) Roast the potato cubes with salt, pepper and oil in a 180 C oven for 20-30 minutes;
2) Fry the onion, garlic and carrot in a bit of oil until soft;
3) In a bowl smash the beans with a fork
4) In the same bowl add: roasted sweet potato cubes, the fried onion mass, sweetcorn, coriander and ground nuts and the flour;
5) Grill your halved bread buns, apply sauce of your choice (mustard, mayo, etc), salad, and enjoy.

For the chips:
1 sweet potato, cut into 2-3 mm sticks
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp potato starch (corn starch)
Salt, pepper

1) Put the starch into a bag, add potatoes and shake them until they coat in starch.
2) Season and drizzle potatoes with oil, then bake in 220 C oven for 15 min.

While having this simple yet mouthwatering meal we were discussing that it looks and tastes just as good as in a restaurant. Maybe better that in a restaurant, depends where you go. Then we realised that we had two big bags of salad to go with our meal - you don't get that in a restaurant!
 

Espresso and oat truffles. No sugar, no butter, no flour.

Guys and gals, this is sooo good! First time I made a small batch, perhaps 5 or 6 truffle balls, just to test them. Second time I made a hundred of them and brought them to work. They were all gone in a few hours, even the notice paper (photo below). Did they eat the paper?? 

Some comments I received:
"Thank you very much for the Birthday treats, very yummy.  Please may I have the recipe."

"Hi Vidmantis
Happy Birthday! Thanks for the lovely, sweet (sugar-free!) truffles.
Can I have the recipe, if it's not a guarded secret? I have some vegan friends coming for dinner next Saturday, and I always struggle to come up with a good pudding. These would be great!"

If you like chocolate, you MUST try them. They taste just like chocolate truffles, but there is no chocolate in them. Recipe at the bottom of the post.

Before making the 100 truffles I had a conversation with Auste:

-Me: “It’s gonna take me ages to make them...”
-Auste: "I'll help you".  
-I look at her after 2 seconds and guess what I see!

100 truffles later...

To make 15 truffles you need:

15 large medjool dates, pitted [or normal dried dates soaked in water]
4 tbsp rolled oats (not instant, quick-shmick oats)
2 tbsp dried shredded coconut, unsweetened
2 tbsp extra virgin coconut [olive] oil, room temperature
2 tbsp cacao powder
½ tsp vanilla extract or ground vanilla
½ tsp ground cardamom [nutmeg]
1 shot cold espresso

1) Mix all the ingredients in a food processor for about 1 minute or until it forms up like a ball. (I used a fork to mash the soaked dried dates and it worked OK)

2) Place the mixture in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

3) Form small round truffles with your hands.

4) Roll the truffles in cocoa powder, finely chopped almonds, shredded coconut or rolled oats.

5) Place in the fridge for 20 minutes before serving.

Coconut oil has more flavour than olive oil, and has a higher burning (smoking) point, but olive oil in this recipe worked fine. I didn’t have cardamom, therefore used a teeny tiny bit of nutmeg as its flavour is quite dominant.

If you haven't already, you need to start following 'Green Kitchen Stories'. Their family is beautiful, creative and inspiring, sharing the love for healthy vegetarian food. This recipe was posted by them a while ago, but as it is so good, it needs to come to light once more. I have **slightly** modified the recipe, but it was still delicious.

The English weather. And a chestnut and sage recipe.

So I'm going to talk about the weather now. If you're non-English in UK, you're getting used to little weather chats in awkward situations:

**Making a cup of tea in the staffroom. Another person waiting for the kettle**

- So... The weather's awful today, isn't it?

- Yeah... It is, isn't it?

- Yeah... See you later.

**Both leave at the same time in silence**

Apparently Wales and the south-west of the Kingdom have been smothered in storms, waves and floods for months now.

This year it has been very dry, warm and tranquil, which is unusual for English weather. Well, at least in Leeds. This means we were able to have a breath of fresh air and a glance at the sun. And maaan, I haven't seen the sun in a long time!

We live on the bank of River Aire and the area is relatively green and quiet. Whenever we go to the city centre, this is what we see:

This is the main hall of the newly-opened Trinity shopping centre. Talk about crowded... Every day. What can you possibly be buying?

Well, we were buying chestnuts.

The UK supermarkets still stock chestnuts at this time of year. They’re quite pricey, but you can get them for at least half the price at a local market. Both sellers probably get them from the same supplier overseas, China being one of the largest suppliers of chestnuts to the UK.

I didn’t know that once bought, you were supposed to keep them in the fridge. My lack of knowledge resulted in them accumulating mould inside their shell and eventually half of them ended up in the bin, which is a bit of a shame.

What you need:

A bag of chestnuts, around 200 grams

A cup of rice [to two cups water]

10 sage leaves

A knob of butter

What do I do with all these ingredients??

1) Roast the chestnuts for 15 - 20 mins in 180 C oven and peel once cool;

2) Cook the rice for 10+ mins with a little salt;

3) Fry sage in butter until crispy, remove carefully and leave aside;

4) Fry the peeled nuts in leftover butter with some salt, arrange everything on a plate and enjoy.

As you take a bite, you can taste the sweetness of the chestnuts. Follow that with the savoury rice and buttery, yet crunchy sage and you'll be amazed how such little ingredients can have so much character.