crazy!

I have just found out about this... it sounds like madness, but it sounds like madness I may have to try at some point!

a royal day out

Today we took a trip to Windsor, which we’ve been meaning to do for a while, and a sunny bank holiday seemed like the perfect opportunity.

We had a wander up to look at Eton college first (very Harry Potter-esque) then bought sandwiches which we sat and ate in the park (they were pretty huge though, I only managed half of my roasted veg baguette!)

After that, we went in to the castle, which was really beautiful. The ticket price included an audio guide, which was really useful, and very educational – normally I’m used to relying on Mum to tell me all the important bits of historical information at places like this! The moat garden looked gorgeous, but there was an extra charge to go around that, so we just looked over the wall at it! The chapel was fascinating, and I’m sure Mum would have been very pleased at the number of times the audio guide suggested we came on a sunday to share in their services! Queen Mary’s dolls house was very impressive, with its tiny version of the crown jewels, and real (but miniature) oil paintings. I also loved walking around the state apartments, personally I was imagining the Queen wandering round the rooms in her pyjamas, trying out all the fancy chairs and bouncing on the beds…! Eventually, after point 28 on the audio guide I was getting tired feet and needing a cup of tea, so after a photo with a guard, we left the castle. I was hoping to get a quick look in Lakeland, but it was already closed, so after our cup of tea we headed back home.

In the evening we decided to go Mexican, and make cornbread and chilli (vegetarian, with mixed beans, mushrooms and courgettes), which turned out pretty well – the chilli was quite spicy, but the sweet,  cakey-ness of the cornbread helped temper that. We had a nice chilled evening in, watching Footloose – which resulted in me wanting to go somewhere and dance to cheesy 80s music! One question though – does anyone really think Kevin Bacon is attractive?!

Ice cream… for breakfast?!

I am a huge fan of all things ice cream, and ice cream related, like frozen yogurt. I will pay to go to ice cream festivals, I will walk the streets of new york to hunt down as many branches of tasty d’lite as possible, and I will frequently forgo lunch in favour of a solero. So for a while now I’ve wanted to try out making banana soft serve, as seen on some of my favourite food blogs like eatliverun. All you do is take one frozen chopped up banana, stick it in the blender, and voila, you have ice cream! (with all the taste and none of the calories)

the end of an era

I’ve finally left TNS. It’s been a fantastic three years, I’ve  learnt a lot, met some fantastic people, and will be taking away some wonderful memories.

 

This week has been strange, but enjoyable, and the last two days particularly special. Yesterday I sat in the park for lunch with my colleague (and one of my best friends) Jen – she’s been such a support and encouragement whilst I’ve been at TNS, and a lovely person to know.

In the afternoon I had a very lovely leaving speech, in which I was praised for my commitment to my projects, my vast knowledge of random facts about supermarkets, my work for Unicef, my cake baking, my obsession with discounts, and also the fact that I was lucky enough to meet Mark through TNS!

I also received some really generous gifts, very well chosen by my line manager, April – who clearly knows me very well!

I got a silicone cupcake tray, some cute pink spatulas, some tea towels with magnetic blobs to stick to the fridge, and some le creuset – which is something I’ve always dreamed of owning! I received two individual ramekins which I can use to make little pies, and a small casserole dish. I suspect Mark will be expecting baked goods before too long!

  I then had leaving drinks, which were good fun, and I got to say goodbye to a lot of very special people – most of whom I hope to stay in touch with! By the end of the night it was just myself and Bruno, left putting the world to rights over plenty of wine!

Today was my last day, I had a lovely final salad from la  provence, with lots of spinach and beetroot and olives again, and sat with the group of graduates that I started with three years ago – they’ve been such a wonderful group, so much fun to be with, always reliable for gossip and office banter, and just brilliant friends. I’ll miss them a lot, but hopefully still see them a lot! (the picture is from when we all took a trip to Dubai in February for one of the group’s wedding, which was definitely an amazing experience!)

So that’s it – my time at TNS is done… on to the next challenge now!

Super Tuesday

Breakfast was the same as yesterday, so I won't include a picture! I washed it down with a bottle of pepsi max as I need the fizzy caffeine hit! For lunch, I went to one of my favourite cafes, La Provence. They have a really fantastic salad bar, so I got a salad with lots of spinach, beetroot, red cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce, olives, carrots (boiled and raw grated) an egg white, and a little sweetcorn. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture, but I'm planning to go there on friday for my final lunch, seeing as I'll miss the place when I go, so I'll take a picture then! I sat in the park to eat lunch, with my good friend Andy, who works around the corner - we thought we better catch up once more before I'm no longer working in the area!
I snacked on a chocolate digestive in the afternoon to keep me going, although it did make me want more chocolate! I spent most of the afternoon profiling Russian beer drinkers - it's amazing how many beers are apparently suitable for the drinking occasion 'in the morning when you have a hangover'! The world of international market research can be fascinating sometimes!
I was also highly amused by the daily mail reader who complained about the picture on the Maoam sweet wrapper - some people take life a little too seriously!
When I got home, I did some baking - as it's my final week in the office, I've volunteered for 'doughnut thursday' - which means it's my responsibility to take in treats for the team. I made Nigella's quadruple chocolate loaf cake and a basic banana cake (not really from a recipe, just two mashed bananas, about 200g flour, 125g butter, 175g sugar, a tsp of bicarb and 1/2 tsp cinnamon) - they both seem ok, I'll take picures in the morning, if they're still looking good!

Then I had dinner, some mushrooms and courgettes fried in a little balsamic, served on top of some salad, with a poached egg on top (cooked in my poach pod which is a fantastic invention!) and a couple of pieces of Sainsbury's tomato and basil bread, which is really tasty!

Not quite finished being domestic, I decided to test out my new blender and make some houmous. I used a can of chickpeas, a good few glugs of olive oil, the juice of a lime (a lemon would have been preferable if I'd had one!) some salt and some paprika. The blender worked ok, although the mixture needed poking around a few times which wasn't ideal. But for £25 I can't complain, especially as I paid for half of it with amazon vouchers from filling in surveys!

Normally I'd want some bed time chocolate right about now, but I think the cake batter, combined with all the protein in my dinner from the egg and mushrooms, and I'm a little too full.

Off to sleep instead - early start tomorrow for the gym!

When the moon hits your eye...

We decided to go out for dinner last night, and ended up at a really great pizza place in Putney - Mascalzone They do great, authentic Italian style pizzas and are really good value. I had a side salad, followed by an aubergine and courgette pizza (I ate about 2/3 then had some help finishing it off!) Mark had an actual 'mascalzone' - half pepperoni, olive and mushroom pizza, half ham and cheese calzone - it was pretty impressive! The staff are lovely and friendly in there, and it's got a great really open layout, with a big window that opens out onto the high street. After our pizza we went home and starting organising more of our holiday to Croatia - only a week and a half to go - how exciting!

Monday Monday...

It's been a slow day - I'm gradually running out of things to do! For lunch I had some salad (lettuce and cucumber) with about 1/3 of a tin of mixed beans, and a tbsp of hummus. I also got a proper coffee as I haven't had one in ages and felt like a treat.

I got the munchies around 4pm, so had a leek & potato cup a soup and a yogurt - a satisfying and nutritionally balanced snack to tide me over till dinner!

Final Monday

It's my last Monday morning here in my current job, but it started in pretty much the same way as every other monday - getting to the gym at abour 7:15, a sweaty and invigorating 4 mile run and some weights, then heading into work for my usual breakfast of coffee and porridge.

I've been having Quaker Oats So Simple for the last week, as it seemed convenient to tide me over for my final fortnight here. It's ok, but not as chunky as regular porridge, and the golden syrup flavour's quite artificial. The portion sizing is pretty helpful though.

the end of a long but lovely weekend

I packed myself a nice little lunchbox to eat on the train, with salad, leftover roast chicken, and lots of crinkle cut Ikea gherkins - one of the tastiest things in the world! It was a fairly average and boring journey home, but I did at least get plenty of reading done - I'm about halfway through Kafka on the Shore and am really enjoying it - so far all of the Murakami books I've read have been good.

I got back to Clapham at about 10:30, and am curled up in bed with my new copy of Zest magazine and a night time snack, but I imagine I'll fall asleep fairly quickly!

Lazy Sunday

I love the routine of a Sunday morning at my parents' house. Being woken up with a cup of tea, mum flapping around getting ready for church, and there always being a fresh pot of coffee!
Church was really nice, and another great opportunity to catch up with friends I've not seen for a while.

After the service, we came home and I served up a roast chicken - it's always great to have an excuse to cook for people! I did it in my usual style - with wedges of lemon stuck throughout, and cooked upside down for the first half of the time to make it really juicy. Alongside we had steamed courgette, carrots, potatoes, and some schmaltzy onions I'd stuck around the edge of the chicken whilst it was roasting... yum! Here's my plate - I left my potato, but did go back for a few more onions.

This was followed by a very delicious treat - some ben & jerrys phish food frozen yogurt! It's so tasty, and only 200 calories a serving - who can argue with that?!

The rest of the day will pan out as per usual here - Dad will watch the Grand Prix, Mum will do the crossword in the paper, and both will fall asleep! I, on the other hand, will go for a run once my lunch has digested!

To Mr and Mrs Connolly

Nicola's wedding was wonderful - the bride and bridesmaids looked gorgeous, the sun was shining, and everyone had a wonderful time.

The service was really nice, and lots of members of the family contributed - and the orders of service looked very stylish in black and red and gold - you can tell Nic's a graphic designer!
They also had a lovely slideshow of pictures of the two of them throughout their relationship - this left me thinking two things - 1. They really are a beautiful couple, and 2. They must always have their camera with them!

The happy couple both looked pretty nervous, but both incredibly happy and in love. And they had a beautiful car to drive away in!

 

 

The reception was held a the nearby Bosworth Hall hotel, and after the obligatory half hour photo session, we went through for the meal. The tables were all named after places the couple have been together - I was sat at Hyde park, with a few of Nicola's other friends.

To eat, we had goats cheese as the starter (which looked lovely, but I'm not a fan of goats cheese so I just ate the salad garnish!) followed by chicken in a cream sauce with roast potatoes and vegetables - which was really nice, although I left my potato, and then the dessert was a Bailey's cheesecake (also something I'm not a fan of, so I tried a little but didn't eat much). All washed down with 3 small glasses of a very nice white wine.

 

There was a good bit of dancing at the reception, and a buffet meal in the evening, but I was still pretty stuffed from the lovely lunch and the wine (I had about 3 more glasses throughout the evening) so just stuck to mostly salad and olives, with one or two potato wedges! 

Overall, the day was a lovely opportunity to catch up with old friends, spend a bit of time with my parents, and just generally have a very nice time.

Day 1!

Good morning! This is day one of my new blog, which as the title suggests is likely to feature a number of salads, along with all the other things I eat day to day. I can't promise these things will always be interesting, but I hope that by posting them up here, I'll have a bit more motivation to try out more unusual and varied foods, as opposed to sticking to the same old things every day.


Today should be quite a good start, it's my very good friend Nicola's wedding, to her lovely fiance Fran. They're one of the sweetest, loveliest couples I know, and I'm sure it's going to be an amazing and wonderful day.


I started my day with a  run around the village where my parents live (Kirby Muxloe, in Leicestershire). It's beautiful weather out there, although I had forgotten how bad the village smells!