Hang Over

I've had a bit of a "low" spell recently, as I think I may have mentioned in my post on quitting sugar. This week has been a terrible week for trying to get over said low spell, involving various different people in various different areas of my life getting ill or stressy or whatever. I've been tossing and turning all night and it's been difficult to drag any kind of motivation out of the depths of my...motivational storing device. Whatever/wherever that is.

Still, despite feeling so blue and lacking in motivation, I've managed to lose 8 pounds since I decided to give up sugar. 8 pounds! That kind of weight only ever comes off me after long and arduous ammounts of dieting and workouts. Yet here I am, just over a week of no sugar and 8 pounds lighter! Perhaps there's something to be said about the effects of sugar on women with PCOS.

Still, I'm a little dubious as to whether I'll be able to record such a loss come official weigh in on Monday. My lovely doctor and a psychiatrist from the crisis team have had a head to head with the lovely therapists I'm going to see in 3 months time (or however long the waiting list is...) and the crazy people nurse I saw and decided to change up my meds. I can't tell you how excited I was about this, I've been told it can be a great starting point when you hit a brick wall. Mirtazapine was prescribed and went skipping away happy. Almost.

I read the long list of side effects. Drowsiness...increased appetite and with it weight gain...dizzyness...to be brutally honest with you, nothing unusual from an anti depressant. I can officially say, however, that after one pill (taken over 24 hours ago) I'm only just starting to feel hung over. After a relatively restless (but better than normal) sleep last night I've spent the entire day feeling....to tell you the truth....as if I've just smoked a big, fat, juicy spliff. Complete with the munchies. Oh the munchies.

I've decimated our supply of snack a jacks, demolished a weeks worth of cream cheese, shovelled down a chinese takeout (normally, I cannot finish them) polished off the ryvita, and then I made Ben take me to Bargain Booze (or rather, I was going  and he couldn't stop me but he didn't want me going on my own in case I passed out in the street) for pepsi, chocolate and wine gums (I must have looked like a stoner on a munchies run, but that's ok, I pretty much blended in to the local populace). At one point I even tried to eat a coconut, which I got in the shopping to try out later this week as part of my sugar free food experiment, and ended up losing the half I was trying to prepare after my mum called. I still haven't found it. I hope I don't stumble upon a half rotten half a coconut later this week...

I've decided not to take any more Mirtazapine. I think a combination of some wierd reaction and sugar starvation turned me into some kind of crazy stoned munchy beast. That aside, I was so out of it I couldn't go on my scheduled run, start my 30 day shred or go to a party I was really looking forward to (and since, hunting trip for choccy aside I spent most of the evening passed out accross Ben's lap, that was probably for the best) which has bummed me out and pissed me off severely, however funny the effects might be if seen from a certain angle. I'm only just feeling like I'm "coming round" and it feels like a hangover. I'll discuss what's gone on with the doctor when I see her on Thursday. Until then, I really hope I haven't scuppered my efforts too much, and back to sugar free as of....now!

Pleasantly surprised

In the past, whenever I've opted for a Ryvita based lunch, I've not done so well. I get hungry, I get cravings, I get bored.

Whether or not it's to do with the being sugar free over the weekend (presumably I've had no huge spikes in my blood sugar levels) or just clicking onto an amount and type of food that suits me, who knows, but I've not been a hungry hungry hippo.

Yesterday I ate my usual spiced porridge for breakfast, ryvita with full fat cream cheese and cucumber, a large portion of veggie full pasta bolognaise and I snacked through the day on the activated chilli nuts I made at the weekend, some snack a jacks, and fresh fruit (boy is it going to be hard to pass up the fruit when the time comes!). Over the past few weeks I've found it difficult to stay within my calorific allowance, but yesterday was no problem at all and I was really fulfilled. I cannot remember the last time I felt fulfilled with this kind of food.

Today I'm dining on veggie and cream cheese omelette for lunch, half an avocado for after my run later on, and tofu (yes, you heard me right, I convinced Ben to allow tofu into our house) stir fry, with the same portion of nuts and fruits as yesterday for snackage through the day. I shall certainly let you know how that particular recipe goes.

Sugar free day 4

So today is day 4 sans sugar. I'm taking it in baby steps so I haven't had desserts or sweets or candy or (shock horror) chocolate (a huge deal for me, truth be told) since Thursday. I've skipped the sugar in my tea and started mixing my porridge with cinnamon, a little stevia and some extra milk instead of Nutella.

Three days without added sugar in the form of sweeties and the such isn't such a huge deal, even to me, but I'm proud of myself anyhow as I've chosen a killer time to start this (that is, my husbands birthday weekend). But in a way it's good that I started at such a difficult time, because I'll know it'll make it easier later on. I had to sit through mister Ben eating one of my favourite desserts (Pizza Hut cookie dough with ice cream...gosh!) and I resisted! And then the same day my best friend ordered another of my favourite desserts...chocolate fudge cake and ice cream. And the best thing is I was mildly tipsy at this point too, usually the time when all of my resolve goes flying out of the window and I say "oh hell whatever, pass the cake, she loves the cake!"

So far I've found that having put up the "sweeties and desserts and added sugar are absoloutely not allowed!" rule has made it much easier to resist temptation. I still drink diet pop, and this does mean I get a sweet taste. Perhaps one day I'll give this up too, but for now, when I'm doing so well, I think it's more of a help than a hinderence!

Things will not be all plain sailing though. As of tomorrow I give up refined carbs (in other words, anything not wholegrain) which I usually only eat occasionally anyhow. It will make eating out interesting, but it should also encourage the eating of more wholesome foods at lunch time.

I would normally bulk lunch out to be more healthy on fresh fruit but in a couple of weeks time, fruit is also disallowed (I know, shock horror, but it's not permanent, it's just to try and get all the sugar out of the system, it's only for a few weeks). So I'm really scratching my head about this. I've settle on rye bread topped with cream cheese and veggies, and a boiled egg thrown in for good measure. I even found a little lunch box with a tub in it so I can plop in my portion of cream cheese before I go to work and not worry about eating too much. I hope that the protein and fats in the egg and cream cheese will help to fill me up, and it'll be great to increase my veggie consumption - I know we're told by the powers that be to get most of our five a day from veggies rather than fruits (because of the sugar issue).

And if this isn't filling enough I've stumbled accross a little invention called the activated nut. We're always encouraged to eat raw nuts because they're full of healthy oils and packed with minerals. But, frankly, raw nuts just make me go "meh" in the mouth. They've a bitter after taste. I think it's the Phytic acid in them. Obviously I can't really eat them sugar or chocolate coated.

I read about fellow sugar quitters snacking on activated nuts, in which nuts are soaked to begin the germination process (thus breaking down the phytic acid) and then dehydrated in a very low temperature oven ready for consumption. I've no idea why activated nuts are particularly good for the sugar quitters, or if sugar quitters are into health food trends and have just latched onto them (it is thought the phytic acid prevents the absorption of many of the great minerals in the nuts). But anyhow, one thing that everyone agreed upon was that they taste so much nicer than raw nuts, so I decided to give them a go and found a great recipe for them on Scandi Foodie.

Or rather, I saw that and put my own twist and just soaked a bag of mixed nuts (including peanuts, though I've never seen anyone talk of activating peanuts so I hope I haven't poisoned myself) and tossed them in a bucket load of paprika, some hot chilli poweder and a little salt. Next time I think more chilli powder is required, but on the whole they are delicious, warming, and not at all bitter. I have a new favourite home made snack!

Till next time folks,

Win a Kenwood Smoothie Maker to Go

I'm coming up to my first blogoversary. Indeed, I do believe it is the 24th January.

Before I started my epic blogging adventure, I never really read blogs, and as well you know I started this one as a bit of a me and mine only. Alas, the world of blogging is a vast and many splendid thing, and in this seemingly ridiculously short year I've been dragged into many a challenge, community, whatever. Some I've passed with flying colours, and some I've failed miserably. Remember that photo challenge I signed up for at the beginning of the month? Hardy har!

But right up until now I've never signed up to a giveaway. It's one of my 101 in 1001 blogging goals to host one, so I thought I'd better see how it is to be on the other end first ;) But I'm not one for entering any old carp (glub glub). This is no flimsy little gift from a blog who wishes only for self promotion. Nay lads and lassies. This is a smoothie maker.

A smoothie maker to go.

Indeed, it is a kenwood smoothie maker to go.

Why am I so thrilled about this? You've all seen the piccies from my kitchen in the summer when I did my big clean out. It is tiny. It occupies the slightest little corner of my living room. If you have not seen them, then here is one;

You see that thing that looks like a microwave with hobs and knobs in the background? That's my oven. It's a brilliant little thing, don't get me wrong, we made Christmas dinner in it and it was a damn fine Christmas dinner at that! But my point is...I have no room for real, full sized kitchen utensils. My space is limited, and it's frustrating because I can only achieve so much with what I've got to hand.

This may well be just me, but if I had my hands on one of those there smoothie makers, it would become like many things in this here little flat of mine; multi functional. Smoothies, yes, delicious as they are, would grace my smoothie maker, sweetned with honey and thickened with the most delectable of 0% fat greek yoghurts. I'm drooling already. But also soups, purees and juices, all would I spin out of this pint sized wonder. What is a happy little gym gadget for some would mean a whole new lease of life in the kitchen to me.

So here's the deal. Check out Rebecca at Weight Wars and see what you think. And enter your little self on in there. Men and women of tiny little kitchens, take heed, and dream yourself up the wonders you could create with such an awesome little gadget.

And Rebecca, I know it's all randomised and everything....but please please please please please pick me!

Resipe: Chorizo and Chickpea Tagine

We had this last night, and can I just say...both me and Ben absolutely wolfed it down! The chorizo means it's not exactly amazingly healthy, but you could substitute it for paprika marinated chicken for something healthier. Also, we served it with couscous again (The third time this week I've eaten couscous...I've not eaten it since the first time I tried it when I was 13 and decided I didn't like it!) but it would go amazingly in a pitta bread. I'm considering making it one night and saving it for work the next day, but I don't think it'd last long enough! Oh, and I think I've figured the secret of using the tagine...cook my chickpeas first, and it survives wonderfully under a higher heat than I used the first time!

Chorizo and Chickpea Tagine

Serves 2

200g tinned Chickpeas
1 desert spoon of olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 pepper, finely chopped
1 Chorizo sausage, cut into rounds
1 tsp hot chili powder
1 tsp dried sage
2 tsp dried thyme

1. Cook your chickpeas however it is you like to cook them (saucepan, microwave, however it is you like to do it)
2. Heat the oil in your tagine or heavy bottomed caserole dish 
3. Saute the onion, garlic and peppers till soft 
4. Add the chorizo and cook until it begins to brown
5. Add your chickpeas, chili powder, sage and thyme, stir in well, and cover and cook for about 15 minutes 
6. Enjoy the delicious yummyness!

Recipe: Carrot and Chickpea Tagine

My mum got me a Tagine cooking pot for Christmas, and I thought that it might be a great idea to make use of the recipe book that she got me to go with it and put the pot to its intended purpose (as opposed to using it as a pretty Moroccan style piece of decor.)

Being that we're trying to get back on track with the healthy eating (though, to be honest, not necessarily succeeding so far!) I took the chance to make a mini resolution of trying to have at least one vegetarian day a week, as there are some lovely sounding vegetarian recipes. I cooked this last night, changing the original recipe here and there to make it more healthy. I've still got to get used to cooking with the Tagine pot - it's meant to be used to cook tagine stews slowly on a low heat, and will apparently sustain damage if used on a direct, high heat...as such the carrots were a bit tough and the chickpeas a little undercooked...but the flavour was good, very earthy and wholesome. I served it with couscous and a salad of finely chopped onion, pepper, chili, cucumber, garlic mint and parsley, and dressed in freshly squeezed lemon juice.

If you don't have a Tagine cooking pot you can use a heavy bottomed, lidded caserole pot, or other pan you would use for making stews on a hob. I used a low heat throughout but I probably should have gone up to medium or increased cooking time.

Serves 2:

1 Onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 large carrots, cut into rounds
1 tin (410g) chickpeas, drained
1 desert spoon of olive oil
1 desert spoon of clear honey
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp hot chili powder
Fresh coriander, roughly chopped/torn

1. Heat oil in the pot, and sautee the finely chopped onions and garlic till soft
2. Add the carrots, honey and spices (except the fresh coriander) and mix in well
3. Add enough water just to cover the bottom of the pot, cover and leave to cook for 15 minutes (I actually left mine on for about 30 mins on a low heat, so stick a knife in there and test your carrots to see if they are cooked to your standards!)
4. Add the chickpeas, top up water if neccesary, and cover and cook for another 15 minutes (I did leave it for that long, and as said, my chickpeas were cooked but not particularly soft)
5. When it's cooked, stir in the fresh coriander, and serve

Later this week I'm doing another one, but made with Chorizo and chickpeas. I'm really looking forward to it as I love chorizo, but am not a huge fan of pulses (hence why I'm trying to make these chickpea tagines, to  introduce them more to my palate and get myself used to them...same with the couscous...I did it with pasta so I can do it with these!) so I hope the one will cancel out the eww factor from the other! I will let you know how it goes!

Breakfast

Photo number two...breakfast!

Mmm...appetising...can you guess what it is?

Does anybody want some free healthy snacks?

My supervisor at ChildLine gave me a voucher code for a free box from Graze so I went and got me one, and whatdya know I got a voucher code of my own to give out :) There's a limited time on it, though it looks like it can be used unlimited times (once per person though) so if you're in the UK and you fancy giving it a go drop me a comment and I'll put the code up for you all. The food is pretty scrumptious and you have the option of selecting especially healthy snacks should that be your wish. I can't wait till I get my next one, but a bit bummed I have to wait till after Xmas :(

Grazing aside, today I've been a busy little bunny today. I ordered a fabulous new dress and matching shoes to see me looking gorgeous throughout the Xmas season, all in a festive shade of red. Unfortunately I didn't have any jewellery to wear with it so I dusted off my pliers (seriously haven't crafted anything since I started work!) and gave pearl knotting a try.

I love pearls, and most of the jewellery I wear or make incorporates them. The first piece of jewellery I ever made was a pearl and swarovski crystal necklace for my wedding, as I couldn't find anything affordable or to my taste in the shops. It was lovely, though a little on the long side to what I'd initially imagined. However, thanks to my being a complete novice at the time I strung the lot on Beadalon 49 (I think it was 49...) and eventually the sharp edges of the crystals wore through the wire and all the pearls and crystals scattered all over my living room floor.

I picked them up and stored them away for use at a later date, and have been surreptitiously adding them to pieces of jewellery made as gifts for close friends and family. Call me a wierdo but I can't help but believe that those pearls absorbed some of the magic of that day.

Anyway, moving swiftly on. I've learned a lot about making jewellery in the years since, and discovered not long after my little accident that traditional pearl necklaces are strung on silk threads with knots between each bead. For a long while I presumed that this was some kind of dark mysterious art, especially as you can buy tools specifically designed for the job, but actually I've found it to be a relatively simple (by comparison to, say, wire wrapping) technique and I'm rather chuffed with the result (and secure in the knowlege that should my thread decide to snap, I won't be picking pearls and garnets off the floor for a month!). I used most of the rest of my wedding pearls and interspaced them with lovely Indian Garnets. The earrings I made with pearl, garnet, some of the clear swarovski crystals I used on my wedding necklace, and a generic big red glass bead at the end.

Sadly I ran out of garnets before I reached my desired length, indeed the pearls alone aren't long enough to fit round my lovely tree trunk of a neck...so instead of snipping through all the knots individually and starting from scratch with a different design I just added an extension chain to the end. It's not quite as classy as a pure string of pearls but it does mean that as I loose weight I can take links off of the chain until my neck is slim enough for the pearls alone to fit around, and I won't just be left with a necklace that gets longer and longer and longer when it's meant to be short.

Am rather pleased with myself, and can't wait to wear it all together with my lovely new dress. It's been lovely to put my hands to something wonderful too. Now all I have to do is hope my dress arrives ^_^;;

That was a long day....

I'm tired because I never really got much sleep last night. I'm not sure why. We went to bed quite late anyhow, and then I tossed and turned all night. I dreamt that I was working a job in which I had to scrub dead, mutilated fish which were as long as my arm span and with killer needle teeth. It was my only job, and I was being threatened with the sack; a blessing and a curse, really, given my dream selfs situation.

We were awoken by our intercom going off. At first, as it jolted me from my disturbed sleep, I thought it was the courrier bringing the lovely new clothes I ordered on Tuesday, but as I stumbled sleepy eyed down the hallway to answer I caught a glimpse of the clock in the living room and realised it was only quarter to seven in the morning. I picked up the reciever, but no one answered my greeting, so I went to look out of the living room window to see if I could catch our cold caller.

Right outside of the flat was parked a police car, but not just parked up at the side of the pavement; it was right accross the road, blocking it off from oncoming traffic. A police officer was walking down the street, away from our flat, scribbling in her little notebook. I wondered if there had been a "domestic" as they are not infrequent around here, but as I took in the sights from down the road I saw more police cars cordoning off the other end of our block.

Ben had joined me and this point, and suggested we go back to bed for now, we'd soon find out what was what, and if it was an emergency they'd surely be more persistant at our door. This time I fell straight into a deep and blessedly dreamless sleep, to be woken again at half nine by Ben coming through to give me the news about what was going on in our street. According to the local radio, a fifty year old man had been beaten about the head with an iron bar in a brutal assault in the early hours of the morning, litterally a few metres away from our flat. He was alive (and I've heard no news since to the contrary) but in hospital. I got up and started my morning routine. It didn't take long before the police were back to ask if we'd heard anything. We hadn't of course, our bedroom is on the other side of the building.

When we finally got out we were two hours later than planned thanks to our prolonged lie in. We knew we'd be out and about in town today, going for a meal and going to see Conan the Barbarian at the cinema. We also needed to sort some things out at the bank. As it turned out, the bank took much longer than we initially expected, however we did what we needed to do and then went to investigate the times for the cinema.

Given our lateness (you can ask my friends, I'm only ever punctual for work!) we weren't going to be able to enjoy our meal in a relaxed fashion and get to the cinema on time too, so we decided to opt for Apollo 18 instead, which we'd both read about and were very much interested. Plans reshuffled, we headed for Jamies Italian for a much looked forward to feast.

We'd been before, back in February, and thoroughly enjoyed it. However we'd not had any starters, and so this time we decided to go the whole damn hog. We went for a meat plank to start, though I have to say that as delicious as it was, it was a little dissapointing on the size department for the money we paid...there was one sample of each thing (one Lombardi chilli, one piece of prosciutto, one piece of salami etc) so we carefully divided each bit up. Then, because I'm now on Weight Watchers properly and counting all my points properly (as opposed to last week when I signed up then got distracted by familial meals out again...) I ordered a Prosciutto and Pear Salad...which was most definitely not tiny and was absoloutely divine.

Sadly the dessert didn't live up to expectations. Knowing I was trying to stick to being good I'd checked out the menu beforehand and decided to go for a sorbet. However, I noticed they had a dish that involved super thin slices of pineapple with mint chilli and blood orange sorbet, and remembered that fruit is all free to gorge upon on Weight Watchers, so I decided to try it. It was...unusual. I suppose the mint chilli should have been a clue. Anyway, it just wasn't to my taste, I kinda wish I'd just gone for regular old sorbet...however, since I had been very good all day I decided to be a little naughty and leave half of it then get a Ben and Jerry's at the cinema later (which was most definitely to my liking!)

If one thing put me off the whole thing, it was our waiter. Don't get me wrong, he was indeed a lovely guy, but he was so....involved...to start with, I asked for what was essentially a sweet sherry to drink. I knew they provided table water, and I generally only have one drink with a meal (I'm a very slow drinker, in fact I probably don't get enough fluid in general because of this). He twisted his face however;

"Really? You know, that's really supposed to be a dessert wine...."

"Oh, I know," I replied, "but I love this, and I really really just fancy it"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I love it!"

"Well....if you're absoloutely sure....are you sure?"

At this point I kind of lost my temper a little bit. I don't drink a lot of alcohol. I tend to have a drink with my meal if we're out and about, and if we arrange to have a few hours in the pub every couple of months with our friends then sure I'll have more than just one....and then there's the once a year or so when I go a bit bonkers on a night out...but seriously, when I drink I'm drinking because I want to drink something specific. I wasn't in the mood for 'actual' wine. His face was a picture when I turned around and said;

"Oh ok then, just get me a diet coke then".

Not the response he was looking for I feel.

He felt similarily involved with our starter. After explaining what every individual piece of garnishing was he finally left us to it, however when he returned to find everything gone but the mega olive (neither me nor Ben like olives) he pointed at it like my mum would if she'd found I hadn't eaten all my meal. After arguing with me over it I eventually picked it up and took a bite out of it.

"There, you see?" he said.

"Mmm...it's really not to my taste".

I'm going to stop reviewing our meal time now before I burst into an even more violent rant about it.

After lunch, we still had an hour or so to go before the film, so we decided to go to Waterstones and browse the books.

I had in mind a book I wanted to get after having stumbling accross it on this blog belonging to one of Ben's old University mates, called "The Ultimate PCOS Handbook". Having read her overview of it, it appealed to me; like Nicki, I've been poo pooed off by various doctors who don't seem to appreciate the difficulties it causes, and when sent to see a dietician about it, she just infuriated me (as I've previously discussed) with her inane suggestions and no talk of how best to treat my condition. Anyhow, I've never actually read a book about the condition, and all my knowlege is based around the symptoms, supposed causes, and "if you loose weight it goes away, but the condition makes loosing weight a shitter" so I decided hmm, can't hurt. Plus it'll keep my mind focussed on the reason I want to loose weight; to make babies.

After our impromptu shopping trip to Waterstones we perused HMV then made our way to the cinema where, to our joyous suprise, we ran into Becky and her lovely lover Steve. They'd come from work as an impromptu thing so I convinced them to join us for Apollo 18 thinking it'd be great. I now feel nothing but horrifying guilt.

Dont get me wrong, Ben absoloutely loved it. And it consisted of a lot of the things I love in a good horror; great tension, bare little glimpses of what it is that is terrorising the victims, great jump spots...and I loved Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield...but this just didn't do it for me. Once you realised what was happening (which didn't take long) the mystery had vanished and all you were left with was some tension built on the promise of having a jump. It really didn't deliver it well, however.

It was filmed to look and sound like grainy old footage from the early seventies, and this kinda helped to give it suspense because you couldn't really see what was happening...sadly this method made for such a distorted hour and a half of visual and audio that by the end I had a splitting headache and was dizzy for at least an hour afterwards, as well as motion sickness (and as I said, I loved Para and Clover, so it's not like this has happened before with this kind of "amateur footage" film). I also found the "monsters" behind it all to be pretty mediocre. I mean, the film is marketed on the basis of "this is why we never went back to the moon" but all it really says is "we never went back to the moon because the moon has crabs" - or should I say rocks that turn into crabs. I know there's nothing much on the moon other than rocks, but really...crabs? Your evil alien overlords that burry into your body and drive you slowly insane are crabs?

I really didn't enjoy it, and I could feel from her body language that Becky wasn't enjoying it either. I feel kind of bad for dragging them into it now, especially since we had to go to do the shopping pretty much straight afterwards...but never mind. You win some and you loose some. Like I said, Ben thought it was great so perhaps you will too.

Anyhow, that pretty much sums up our day...we did the grocery shopping, then when we got home my mum called and we had a nice long natter. Me and Charlotte are going to see The Queen of Spades in Leeds at the end of October so I was explaining some of the arrangements to mum since we'll have to stay there overnight (Charlie and I did consider just hopping a late coach back to Liverpool after, but the show ends half an hour before the last coach and we didn't want to risk it.) I'm really looking forward to it, and of course I'll be able to scratch off "go to see another Opera" from my day zero list!

Appologies for being so verbose with not even a single picture! I just had such a lovely day, and now I have to head bedwards as it's a work day tomorrow. Till later everyone!

Kitchen Wish List

So, since the kitchen has been sorted and is still just as sparkly and shiny as it was when I first finished thanks to the implementation of my cleaning rota (I feel so grown up haha) I shall be treating myself to a couple of bits and bobs come the end of the month. Of course I plan and scheme my shopping lists months in advance and I already know exactly what I'll be getting, but if money was no object, I'd be filling my kitchen with all kinds of pretties...

A good old fashined cake stand, specifically this one from Paper Chase. One of my day zero tasks is to hold a good old fashioned afternoon tea party, and it wouldn't be a good old fashioned tea party without a good old fashioned cake stand! I think cake stands in general are just ridiculously pretty, but this one just makes me go "squeeeee" with delight and want to fill it up with pretty little cupcakes just to look at it!

A food blender...not necissarily that one, but one of some description. I keep finding all kinds of wonderful tasty recipe's for juices, smoothies, sauces, home made salsas etc that requre one of these babies that I either have to pass up or take the painstaking time over doing it by hand. Not everything can be done by hand of course, and not everything that is done by hand is necissarily better than the version that is done by gadget. My mum used to say the way I make my cakes (by putting everything in the bowl and smashing it all together with an electric hand whisk!) is "cheating" (she creams everything by hand in stages) but I know whose cakes were fluffier ;). Anyhow, Ben has been saying for AGES now that we should get one of these so he can make fruit sorbet and I guess that when Mary over at A Small Loss mentioned that frozen bannana makes a dessert similar to soft scoop ice cream when whisked up in one of these babies, I have to admit, I started coming round to his way of thinking!

I know these are obviously meant for jam jars, but I love glass cannisters like this and fully intend on getting some for my tea, coffee and sugar at the end of the month. They're simple, classy, and work in just about any setting.

A gold fish bowl! Well, no...a rose bowl! I love the way that flowers look when presented in one of these babys. So simple yet so elegant. I can just picture one of these sat on the edge of my kitchen bench, bursting with a bouquet of fresh white and yellow Chrysanthemums.

I have 24 individual silicone cup cake cases. They're so easy to use, and are brilliant for reducing your household waste. I use them for cup cakes or yorkshire puddings. Admittedly it does produce more washing up than a traditional baking tray, but if you clean up your cases as soon as someone has had a cake then it's not too bad, and as the silicone is almost completely none stick its usually just a case of wiping off the crumbs. Anyways, this is the bigger version. I absoloutely hate cleaning big cake tins out, and I'd absoloutely love a big silicone tin that I can just peel straight off of the cake!

This is a confectioners thermometer. Ben likes fudge and butter tablet, and has on a number of occasions tried to make it. However, without a thermometer it's never really turned out fantastically...it won't set or it sets too hard or it has a nasty texture...anyway, I've always wanted to give jam making a go which also requires some precise measuring of the temperature, so it seems logical that if Ben is to enjoy his home made fudge and I am to make some yummy yummy jam, this is the way to go!

Recipe: Cheap and dirty home made Curry

This recipe was adapted from a Hairy Bikers recipe. I've always wanted to try making a curry from scratch, but the constraints on our budget this month meant that I couldn't go the whole hog and pay out for things such as cinnamon sticks. Still, all the other spices, fresh or dry, can be bought for mere pennies if you check out your supermarket own brand. The only thing on this list of ingredients that I payed more than £1 was the meat.

Servings: 2
Calories per serving: 551 (approximately, curry only, please make allowances for rice etc)
Cost per serving: £2.50 (approximately, I have no idea how much a teaspoon of any given spice is!)

Ingredients:

All the yummy ingredients...guess where I shop! Also, curse blogger for not displaying the picture correctly! Ah well...

• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 310g Lamb (I'm using boneless lamb leg steaks)
• 2 Onions
• 4 red chillies
• 4 cloves of garlic 
• Approximately 1tsp fresh root ginger
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 1tsp ground turmeric
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp garam masala
• Tin of chopped tomatoes (400g)
• 1 lime
• Salt and Pepper to season

Preparation before cooking

• Chop lamb into bitesized chunks
• Roughly chop onion
• Finely chop fresh spices (garlic, root ginger and chillies)
• Measure out dry spices 

All the measured out and chopped up dry and fresh spices. Note that I cannot "finely" chop chillies or garlic for toffee

 Method

• Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a big pan  to a medium high heat
• Once sufficiently heated, add your chopped up lamb and brown all over

I hear action shots make for great blog posts...

• Add another 1 tbsp olive oil along with the onions and fresh spices
• Once the onions are turning brown, add the dry spices and stir well for a minute or so
• Add the tomatoes, stir in well 

At this point, the concoction should look like this.

•  Reduce the heat to simmer for an hour. Remember to check back regularly and add a splash of water if the curry begins to dry out

Another action shot! Inside my square cauldron a feast is bubbling up...just in case you were wondering, our kitchen is tiny and we don't have room for an actual oven, so we have this massive electric pan which is the best thing in the world EVER and in the background there is a miniature countertop electric oven which is the second best thing ever because it gets hot enough to make a roast in and the hob gets hot enough to steam veggies on but not hot enough to make pancakes :(

•  Once cooked, squeeze in the fresh lime juice then serve

The final product before the side dish is added (in today's case that would be roast potatoes which may seem odd for going with curry, but savoury rice makes me ill). Oh dear I seem to have splashed some when serving :o so messy...

So it doesn't exactly look like the most appetising thing in the world, but imagine it served on top of a bed of rice or in one of those stainless steel curry dishes you get in restaurants, with a bit of fresh corriander sprucing it up like a little green hat and then it looks much nicer! Anyone who hasn't tried a curry before now (I know curry isn't quite as popular in the USA as it is here in the UK) don't be put off by the appearence of my meagre offering on a pitiful little dinner plate.

And how does it taste? Well to be honest, it was so spicy it burnt off my taste buds and I only managed to get a real taste in the first couple of bites. Next time I'm going to halve the ammount of fresh chillies I use as this seems to be the source of much of the heat. As for the flavour, it was quite aromatic and I'm proud to say not at all flat or two dimensional...if a flavour can be two dimensional lol. I hope you get what I mean! The first assault on the senses is the heat from the chillies, but then you bite into the lamb and you get the lovely earthy flavours (I always thought lamb had quite an earthy flavour). This is accompanied by the aromatic flavours of the spices, and then as you swallow it's all topped off with the fresh tang from the lime. Quite a flavoursome experience, and that really surprised me being that I cooked it with my own two hands.

But the curry king here abouts is Ben, he being the one who introduced me to curry as a regular dish in the first instance. What do you think Ben? Is this as success? One for the recipe journal?

If you look carefully, you can see smoke emerging from his mouth from where his taste buds are slowly being burnt off

I think that's a yes!

Six Word Saturday - Curry

Searching for Curry recipe's is dangerous

As part of my quest to expand the recipe journal I got from my baby bro and sister for my birthday, I'm undertaking to try more new meals. To start myself off, I'm simply going to make dishes that I know I like but that I'd otherwise reach for a jar to make. As Ben is a great lover of curry, and curry is one of those things that I always imagined tasted so much better when made from scratch, mixing the spices etc myself, and having been inspired by Saturday Cooks this morning, I have decided that next Saturday we shall dine upon a feast of Curry with a side of Naan bread and Bombay Potatoes (as I cannot stomach rice.).

The Naan bread and potatoes are not really an issue. I used to bake my own bread on a relatively frequent basis, and while Naan's have a slightly different recipe (in that it includes yoghurt and seasoning) the basic concept is the same...flour, yeast, knead it all up, leave it to rise, stick it in the oven. The potatoes, again, not so much a problem...prepare potatoes, spice and fry.

But trying to find a recipe for curry?

Curry is not one dish, it is almost a food group...it's like saying oh, I need a recipe for soup. There are hundreds of variations, some are hot, some are chilled, some are clear and some are thick and brothy. I expected no less for curry, and in my hunt for a nice recipe to try I've found some amazingly delicious sounding dishes. However, the recipe's seem to lie at either end of two extremes...either they are so simple I may as well just get my stuff from a jar, or they contain a million and one ingredients that I'd probably have to go to one of the international food stores to pick half of it up, which wouldn't be a problem except I'm looking to put these recipe's into my journal, and I want to know that wherever I go I will always be able to have access to these ingredients...so whilst Liverpool is great for its range of exotic food stores thanks to its wonderful multicultural community, if I were to want to cook this for my parents when I next visit, I would really struggle to get half of the ingredients required. Plus, you know, I'm on a tight budget and can't really afford to go running around Liverpool looking for these exotic items, and last time I looked, neither Asda nor my local green grocers weren't stocking Lemon Grass.

I've found a recipe that looks promising, however. It's called a "Lamb Curry" which in itself is a bit worrying...I mean, what kind of curry it is I couldn't tell you (it's obviously not a Korma, but that's all I know!) and the list of spices is pretty easy to come about at our local Asda. The only "exotic" thing I might struggle with is that it also contains Garam Masala, which I understand is actually a spice mix, and the exact contents of said mix apparently differs from cook to cook and dish to dish so where to start really! However, I shall endeavour to find a recipe for a good all rounder.

Either way, I expect that next Friday my spice rack is going to get much more interesting! I shall, of course, let you know how it goes!

Happy Valentines!

Well, I've had a lovely Valentines evening (since the hubby be at work all day) with yummy home made chinese food and chocolate cake, nothing could be more romantic lol. However it is now Valentines night ;) so for everyone out there, I hope you've enjoyed today. Even if you're single, no reason why you can't have enjoyed it too!

Regular broadcasting to resume tomorrow

<3

Caught with my pants down

Today was a beautiful day. It was crisp and cold but wonderful and sunshiney and all together the kind of day with a 'happy' vibe about it.

Ben, being awesome as he is, recieved a performance bonus in the form of gift vouchers this month so as we had these to spare and as it is the first weekend after pay day we went for our customary "let's treat ourselves" weekend shopping trip. Do note that generally we only ever have one such trip as the crowds in Liverpool get a bit much for us small town folk :p

Ben treat himself to a steering wheel for his Xbox, which he is playing with as we speak (but he's had a few near misses since he keeps looking over to see what I'm writing about him)

Hey hey, my near misses are NOTHING to do with me seeing what you're writing about me and everything to do with me over steering this car!

My Ben is so dedicated and serious about these things ^_^

I on the other hand treat myself to many, many more things. However, I justify them because Ben wants some new cushions. Yup yup, I got all the bits and bobs in that I need for them today, all I need now is the sewing machine, which is coming down on Tuesday ^________________________^ Until then I shall be measuring and cutting and making tiny felt birds to applique onto them. I have decided that applique is my new favourite thing, because I learned how to do blanket stitch and I'm ever so proud of myself.

Being that I've never seriously sewn anything before (ok...lies...I did in secondary school but that was 10 years ago! And it was not good!) I also grabbed myself a new book, Home Sewing For Beginners, which I've already flicked through most of. It's not a very big book and to be honest some of the hand stitches aren't very well explained or illustrated, but since I already know how to do most of them it's not that big of an issue. My biggest issue with it is that it's made to be as a flip chart ie spiral bound and every pade printed landscape, with a large, bulky cover on which to stand it all.

In some ways it's a blessing, and a nifty little idea. I do beading and wire work and sometimes if you're trying to follow instructions from a book or magazine it can be annoying to keep said instructions up and open...but truth be told, I prefer to sit back and relax and read...well you can't really do that with this, it just doesn't sit comfortably, and you can only see one page at a time. It would be much better if projects were printed landscape and the rest was regular plain old portrait, but hey, it's a minor thing.

What I'm most dissapointed in though is that Waterstone's didn't have the book I'd been eyeing up last time I was in there, a little box of ten mini books called How To Sew so on that note, should anyone be stuck for what to get me for my birthday in April *wink wink nudge nudge*

Anyhow, after Waterstone's we went into John Lewis's to pick up zippers for the cushions (since I stupidly forgot to grab some from Aberkhan's with the rest of my fabric) and realised I needed some more pins. I was just taking said pins to the till when I spotted this

 

At first glance yes it is just a basic sewing kit. A very good one considering it was just a fiver. But look at it. It has a tomato pin cushion. A TOMATO PIN CUSHION >.<

Ok just bear with me, ok? I'm new to all this sewing stuff. Tomato based pin cushions are still cute cool and novel to me. I know, in a years time when I realise EVERY damned pin cushion is a tomato I will feel differently.

But yes. We moved on with our newly bought zippers and sewing kits to have lunch. After seeing the ridiculously humongous queue outside of Pizza Hut, Pizza Express, Gourmet Burger Bar, Cafe Rouge and Yee Rah we finally made our way down the row of restaurants at Liverpool One to Las Iguanas, a Latin American restaurant which can be found in many places, apparently, but no further nor th than Leeds (which sucks, as we will be moving much, much further north).

There was no queue here...but we were told by the very lovely door man that it'd be a 15 minute wait so we thought what the hell and ordered some drinks at the bar. About 5 minutes later we were ushered upstairs where someone was waiting to seat us. Everyone was very happy and smiley and geuninely lovely. The food didn't take too long either and was absoloutely delicious. I personally had the pulled pork Cuban Sandwich with curly fries, and I have to say they were the nicest damn curly fries I've ever tasted.

The whole experience was a bit ruined by the toilets though. And I mean, ok no one wants to talk about public toilets. Unless you are dining at a five star restaurant you don't usually expect much, and you can usually expect to find a cubicle or two with toilet paper strewn all over the floor. This was of course the case, which was a bit of a let down after the lovely food and service (if you can keep things running so nicely front of house you can bloody well keep your toilets clean).

However, as much or as little as you expect from a public loo, you normally expect a lock that works. Hell, even a stall without a lock...at least you know not to go in there, or if you're really desperate, to put your bag down infront of the door to stop it from opening. Sadly this particular door opened outwards and the lovely spacious stall was too long even for my legs to reach over and catch the door closed, but thankfully though the lock had been removed (leaving a gaping hole in the door arggh) there was a latch. Not a very well fitting latch, but it kept the door closed all the same. Satisfied that I'd be able to do my stuff in privacy I decided that the facilities would do after all.

Just as I got sat down, the lady who had been in the next stall left the room. As she left the room, the door automatically swang shut behind her, sending forth a gust of air. Which was enough to work that damned latch free and swing the door open wide.

Yeah sometimes I wish I was a man so I didn't have to think of these practicalities of using the public toilet.

In any case, no one saw (thank you sweet Jesus) and I got on with my day. Popped into Superdrug for a new mascarra (possibly the most important buy of the day) and then we came home. I am now looking forward to when my Ben makes me my cheesy chicken for tea tonight ^_^

You're a pain. Shit. Thanks dear, put me straight into the gravel there.

My Ben is funny when he's on the Xbox ^_^