Irie Recipe: Chicken Pesto Meatballs with Pumpkin Brown Rice

Posted by IrieDiva on in Health | 3 comments

Yum yum! My dinner was so good that I had to share. I’ve been purchasing chicken mince in the supermarket for a couple of months now because sometimes it’s much more convenient to pan-fry quickly for a mid-week meal and sometimes it works even better than chicken breast cubes, like for my pasta dishes. I also started to buy farm fresh pesto from Food Basket recently and decided that since I was also buying some of the same herbs they’re putting in the pesto, maybe I should just make my own! So I made a basil pesto over the weekend. Really simple, it was just basil, olive oil, salt, pepper and walnuts in my food processor. But pesto is something new to me, I only ever knew it used as a pasta sauce so I started to wonder what else I could use it to do, especially since I’m trying to give pasta a rest to work on this tummy. Enter, tonight’s dinner.

Chicken Pesto Meatballs:

Jamaican Fashion News: The 2013 Season has opened!

Posted by IrieDiva on in Fashion, Jamaica | Comments Off

Normally around this time I’d be uber excited because it meant Caribbean Fashion Week and Style Week were around the corner. But…I haven’t heard anything about StyleWeek from Saints, see nothing on their Facebook page!

Well since writing this post, I asked them when Style Week will be and they responded May 22-26. That’s less than a month away and no promo yet. What’s going on Saints? Waiting with baited breath! Meanwhile, Caribbean fashion Week had their launch over the weekend which teased lines from four designers that will show. Caribbean Fashion Week is the biggest and most coveted fashion event in all the Caribbean with designers from over a dozen countries showing. I look forward to this spectacle every year and you can see past posts on the fabulousness here and here. I’m not sure how much coverage I will be able to provide this year however as I was denied accreditation last year.

Sean Lyn and Kibwe McGann, Team Intuit

Moving on, Miss Universe Jamaica  is now managed by Intuit Concepts, the team that brings you Wedding Spectacular and Kingston Bridal Week and their vision for the show is indeed all pomp and pageantry! It is amazing to me that it takes two guys to bring us such fabulous events geared towards a mainly-female audience. They want to do away with having the pageant held at a hotel with a ticket price and bring it instead to Emancipation Park as a free, weekend-long event! I absolutely love Emancipation Park and some events work fabulously there, outdoor movie night? YES! Miss Jamaica Universe in my high fashion dress and stiletto heels? Make it work guys! Make it work! If anyone can pull this off, the Intuit team can and I’m excited for all the details to emerge. The prizes sound amazing, I hope all the ladies are working on their MUJ bodies!

Fun Fact: Ever turn on BET’s Centric early on a Saturday morning and see a program called Splash? Set in the Caribbean? Intuit Concepts produces that show! I really am looking forward to their take on MUJ. Here’s a Splash clip if you’ve never seen the program before. This is a clip from the Jamaican Fashion’s Night Out with Novia McDonald and Vivica Fox.

Finally, I went to the Tami Chynn show over the weekend and she was so cute with her little 6 month belly! I am a huge fan of hers as she has the sweetest personality and she kept her audience laughing between beautiful songs last night sharing song inspirations and a peek into her family life. She well jokify fi tru!

Here she is wearing Lubica for her show. She killed it all night in them wedges, go Tami!

Pictures from her Facebook page. Speaking of pregnant bellies, congrats are in order for Romae Gordon, former Pulse Supermodel and now general manager who was seen toting around a little lovebump of her own! Move over Halle Berry, Romae is our own mature hot mamma!

Are you excited for fashion season? Looking forward to Style Week and CFW? Let me hear your thoughts! Oh, before I go, have you seen this article??? “Jamaicans To Vie For Live Beyoncé Experience – A Part Of Pepsi’s Live For Now Campaign” Details, Pepsi, details!!! NOW!!!!! I’m so excited OMG!

Swimwear Trends 2013

Posted by IrieDiva on in Fashion | 7 comments

Summer is coming up! We need new swimsuits! Jamaica doesn’t have any seasons per se but we do have many pool/beach parties all summer long so we need to refresh our selection as often as anybody else. Here’s a quick run down of current swimwear trends and swimsuits I’m loving.

Mission Catwalk Season Three Premieres

Posted by IrieDiva on in Jamaican Designers | 1 comment

I’m not very good at keeping up with TV shows unless of curse it’s #Scandal but I decided to tune in to Mission Catwalk and will be trying to follow it this season. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’ve always wanted to do fashion design on some level so having a Jamaican television show about exactly that always allows me to play out my dreams in my head. This time around, the show goes further into the Caribbean, welcoming 15 designers from 9 different Caribbean countries.

If you’ve ever watched Project Runway then you’ll get a serious case of the deja vus here but we’re gonna skip right over that and get into the show. On the first episode, designers were asked to create a piece that reflected the Caribbean. These were my favourites:

Where to go in Jamaica: Winnifred Beach

Posted by IrieDiva on in Jamaica | 4 comments

So as much exploring as I do in Portland, Jamaica, I keep realizing that I haven’t even scratched the surface as yet. This weekend when I was invited to Winnifred Beach, it dawned on me that I had never been. Well, no time like the present.

The view when you get to Winnifred Beach. You want to click the picture to view the larger size. I promise. This beach is on Jamaica’s coveted north coast, but not the north coast that all the tourists know. This is the eastern end of the island, the most beautiful parish in all of Jamaica according to many. It’s the home of Frenchman’s Cove and arguably the best jerk chicken and pork on the island. My mother was born here yet I have very few memories of being on this side of the island as a child. I’ve been on a mission to remedy that. Every time I go, I discover that there’s more, and more! The last time I went, we discovered Reach Falls and now this beach. Next time, Trident Castle. But let’s get back to Winnifred Beach. 

Bacchanal Jamaica Carnival 2013

Posted by IrieDiva on in Jamaica | 1 comment

So I did not one, not two, but three posts on my epic trip to Trinidad for Carnival so I couldn’t leave out my Jamaican experience. Again, I didn’t suit up in costume but I’ve been going to the fetes and I went out in full straggler gear to experience the road march. I’ve done the road march in costume three times before so I wasn’t pressed to get a costume this year at all. I’m saving for what promises to be an epic summer!

#ManicureMonday: Ombre Nails

Posted by IrieDiva on in Hair and Beauty | Comments Off

If you were following my Instagram posts over the weekend, you would have seen me battle with an ombre nail application. It’s so easy to do that I wanted to slap myself when I failed miserably on the first attempt and then decided to go refresh my memory on youtube. SMH.