Quick and Easy Nutella Brownies

Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures because I was too busy eating it, so I'd gotten one from the internet.

So last week Tuesday I posted the mug cak recipe and apparently quite a few people really liked it, so I decided to post another quick and easy recipe : Nutella brownies

This recipe is super easy and requires only three ingredients. I came across this recipe a while back on Instagram and it came at the perfect timing because I had two bottles of unopened Nutella both nearing their expiry date (It was on special, okay?!). I was quite happy when it was all over because well, to put it bluntly I probably looked liked this, trying to eat the leftover Nutella that was "stuck to the bottle" :

Isn't she just the cutest?

Anyway, here you go!

RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Nutella
• 8 tbsp. flour
• 2 eggs
• a handful of chopped pecan nuts (optional)

Instructions:

• Mix above ingredients together thoroughly.
• Add pecan nuts
• Pour into a WELL GREASED (I have made this mistake one too many times) pan.
• Bake at 150 degrees Celsius for 12-15 minutes.

NOTES:
You can garnish it however you like.

I usually spread Nutella or melted chocolate and sprinkle some crushed pecans ALTERNATIVELY, if you're not in a mood for too much chocolate, sprinkle some icing snow.

How to Spring Clean Your Phone

I haven't made a blogpost for the past two days and I've got a pretty valid reason for that. I have an insurmountable amount of completely useless apps on my phone (yes, Piggly 2.0, I'm looking at you) and as a result that all too annoying familiar message pops up on the screen - I swear to god if you say 'Not Enough Storage' one more time while I'm taking a picture, I will throw you... Across the Atlantic ocean!!

Now naturally this wouldn't bother me but unfortunately I don't have the funds to buy a professional camera so I use my phone to take pictures for my blog, the one million failed selfies (what do you mean we all don't have them?) and not to mention my 100 happy days challenge.

So I decided it was time to spring clean my phone and that was the precious moment this blogpost was born.

1. STEP ONE : Pictures

You may not know this but your pictures can sometimes be the greatest contributing factor as to why your memory could be full. For example, my phone has a total storage of 13.55 GB and my pictures take up 5.7 GB (roughly 9 000 pictures) of storage. Don't even ask me what pictures because I'm ashamed to say I don't know, but regardless I could never delete them all.

My advice though, is to invest in an external hard drive. This is super convenient if you're like me, because you can keep all your pictures and still save a lot of space on your phone.

2. STEP TWO : Music

Music can also be a huge contributing factor to less space on your device.

My advice here is to get rid of them. Now I'm not saying that you should have zero songs on your phone (because that's just depressing), all I'm saying is that you don't need 4 remixes of Uptown Funk on your phone... Here it really helps if you have an iPod, mp3 player or (again) an external hard drive.

Store most of your songs on these and keep only your most played playlist on your phone.

3. STEP THREE : Delete ALL unnecessary apps

This is probably the most important step. An unnecessary amount of unnecessary apps can cause your phone to lag and take up a lot of space. It's also quite possibly the most annoying step. You probably think you're pretty good at procrastinating, well let me tell you... 95% of my life is probably made up of procrastination... Probably.

BUT seriously, this is important guys. Sort through your apps, observe which ones you use the most and get rid of the ones that you don't use. DO NOT look at an app and convince yourself that you will use it more, because YOU WON'T, I speak the truth from personal experience and regret.


These are the apps that I spend  all  most of my time on. I see a brief description of my favourites coming in the near future... :)

I suppose I should get rid of those notifications too... (they're all from my mum)

A Little More About Me

This is me. My name is Malaikah (ten bucks if you can pronounce it properly). I am proudly South African and I am a teenager. I am part of a family of 11 (this includes stepsisters and stepbrothers, mums, and brother-in-laws and little ones on the way.. yeesh, that's a lot of birthdays to remember).

I like to think I'm quite creative, in fact I think the creative arts are one of my biggest passions. I'm always making something, drawing something, painting something or everything in-between. I absolutely love colours and shapes and the way you can recycle quite literally everything around you.

My eyesight is quite horrendous, I can't see anything within a two feet radius, and I'm not even exaggerating... Okay maybe I am, but it's still terrible! I started wearing them from the young age of 7 and oddly enough no one made fun of me for it (besides my sister of course #FroggyFourEyes).

I am homeschooled and because of this a lot of people call me lazy, when really I just have too much work to come out the house (I still make time to blog though so yayy!). I was never always homeschooled, I went to regular school up until Grade 5 and I'm thankful I did because that's where I met my best friend, Umarah.

Left: Me, Right: Umarah

Umarah and I have been best friends for over five years and she can be described somewhat as a support structure, without her I WILL fall. I got the idea to start a blog from her as she has her own.

Yes, I did have a photoshoot in my backyard for this post...

I think that about covers the most important details... If you need to know anything else you can send me an email at tobefreespirited@gmail.com :)

P.S. You have no idea how long this took me. About twenty minutes down the line I was going to give up and accept I didn't know who I am #sendhelp.

Quick and Easy Mug Cake

I made a simple mug cake recipe I found on Bloglovin (I will post the recipe and a link to the blog where I had found it) and it is the third picture of my 100 Happy Days Challenge because I mean, who doesn't get happy when cocoa is around??

I love this recipe because it takes literally two minutes to create and it's super scrumptious. Also if you're a huge nutella fan - like me - you will simply love this recipe!

RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour 
• 2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. milk
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp. nutella (I used 2) 

Instructions:

• Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
• Whisk in the vegetable oil and milk until the batter has no clumps
• Pour half of the batter into a microwave safe mug and add your nutella 
• Pour the remaining batter over the nutella
•  Microwave mug cake for 70 seconds on high.
• Carefully remove from microwave and enjoy

NOTES:
Each microwave setting is different. I suggest you read the additional notes on this from the original link which I will post below to help you get a better understanding. 

Recipe and additional notes:www.tablefortwoblog.com/the-moistest-chocolate-mug-cake/#.UwtVqLT_5cU

100 Happy Days

So in my attempt to be more spiritual I have joined the one hundred happy days challenge. It's a great way to accomplish my goal of this blog (which I have mentioned in my previous post). The challenge is to find something everyday that makes you happy and to record it by taking a picture. These pictures can be posted on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or  by sending it to the 100 Happy Days team by email with the hastag #100happydays.

This is much easier than having a notebook and jotting down the happy little things of my day and picking out the good ones plus if I complete the challenge I get my hundred happy moments posted to me in the form of polaroid pictures - how cool is that?!

Sadly, though, Blogger isn't one of the platforms I am allowed to share my happiness, so I picked Instagram instead. I'm going to try and post the pictures of my challenge on here everyday but I will post a link to my Instagram down below along with the first picture of my challenge and the link to the 100 Happy Days official site so you guys can see what it's all about.

This was my first picture of the 100 Happy Days Challenge. This beautiful woman's name is Dineo. This year she will have been driving buses for 10 years! For me she has abolished the stereotype that woman shouldn't drive buses and she looks good doing it too. You go, Dineo!



Instagram Link : https://instagram.com/malaikah17/?modal=true
100 Happy Days official site :http://100happydays.com/

Yokubari Na Mainichi

After spending months deciding what my first post will be I finally settled on this - the reason for my blog and why it's so important to me. Assuming I set up my blog correctly you should see the meaning of the Japanese statement on your right.

If for some odd reason you can't, it means, putting it simply, "to appreciate the small things that make your day".

Recently I have been feeling at my absolute bluest. I'm pretty sure we've all been through that phase of 'oh my god, what is the reason for all of this? Why are we all here? There is literally no point in my existence! Urrghhh *gurgles for ten minutes and then proceeds to make the sound of the whale mating call*' and if you haven't, just hold on, you'll get there in a few years (maybe even days).

Some call it 'the existential crisis', 'the emo phase', well whatever it is, this blog is my way of relieving myself of it by trying to appreciate the smaller things in my everyday life.

My plan is to get a little book of some sort to note down good things that have happened to me that week day and make a blog post about the really good ones. If you're going through the same thing as me, you're most welcome to join me and we can conquer the king-of-bad-feelings.