Post-Holiday Routine...Or Not

You know those times when I don't post for a few days and then have loads of random bits & pieces to post about? Yeah, this is gonna be one of those posts.

I last posted about Friday - our last day in Barcelona - so I guess I better start where I left off, with breakfast on Saturday morning. Luckily our flight wasn't until lunchtime so we had time to have our last relaxed breakfast at the hotel. After only managing a small breakfast on Friday, I was relieved to be back to my usual two plates! Plate #1 - 2 bread rolls, one with cheese, one with plum jam...

Plate #2 - sadly there was no chocolate cake or apple custard muffins, but I made up for it with a glazed doughnut, a chocolate covered & filled croissant, a mini choc chip muffin (which had choc custard inside!) and some melon... we all know that fruit cancels out the cake right?!! :-D

Yum. I also had lots of fresh orange juice, so good! Bizarrely I was still off the coffee, but I'm pleased to report that my taste buds still like the lattes I make at home, phew!!

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport. Our flight was at 2pm so we ate lunch in the airport cafe once we'd checked our bags, gone through security etc. The cafe didn't have the greatest selection - lots of meat but not much for me to eat! Luckily there was one option other than cheese, a baguette with tortilla in. I was commenting on Friday that I hadn't eaten any Spanish omelette all week, so this was actually pretty nice to have. Plus some Cacolat - we used to buy this brand of chocolate milk all the time during childhood holidays in France, so I was excited to see it!!

Could've done with some ketchup, but luckily the omelette was soft & fresh tasting so it was all good! :)

Then it was time for our flight - and lots of water drinking to combat the sunburn and general travelling dehydration. Once we landed in Bristol, my Dad drove us back home and it was time to see the go home and see the children! No photos in the general excitement, but they were very pleased to see us! Daughter really enjoyed her week with the Grandparents - she's old enough to understand that we were coming back I guess - whereas baby has been super clingy since we returned - a combination of him worrying we're going to go away again, plus the fact that he's absolutely covered in chicken pox spots! He's dealing with the pox really well, but we could tell today that he's getting more itchy - he keeps rubbing his back against the sofa, us, the carpet etc! Poor little guy!!

As there was no fresh food in the house, Saturday dinner was a little bland. Liam's Mum had fed the children before we got home, so Liam ate a pizza from the freezer and I used an avocado and some goat's cheese that my Mum had given to me to make pasta - mashed avocado, melted goat's cheese and some nutritional yeast with brown rice pasta...

This was ok, but a little bland... it could've done with some of the yummy sauce I made tonight to liven it up!!

I didn't get the chance to go food shopping until Sunday afternoon, so yesterday's breakfast and lunch were also 'scrounge from the cupboard' meals. Breakfast was actually really great - a smoothie made with the other half of the avocado, frozen pineapple, milk and coconut extract...

So simple, but so tasty. Baby really enjoyed this too - the cold must've helped to soothe his throat - he's been coughing and spluttering lots today!!

Sunday lunch was another pasta dish - with pesto, more goat's cheese that needed eating up, and frozen sweetcorn (we were even all out of frozen peas, boo!)...

This was yummy, but I was glad to head to Waitrose after lunch!

As I touched on whilst I was in Barcelona, I have decided not to avoid gluten so much anymore. I had a hospital appointment a couple of days before the wedding, and my consultant (and indeed from what I've noticed during my month eating gluten-free) doesn't think avoiding gluten will particularly help my problems - I've got another appointment on Friday and will probably have a few more lined up to, but hopefully it'll be sorted before too long. Anyway, whilst in Barcelona I did eat gluten (it would have been hard not to!) and didn't notice any negative side effects, with the exception of the first couple of days when it was a bit of a shock to the system. Obviously I still have lots of gluten free foods in the cupboards, so for now I will still be eating gf pasta, oats etc, but I'll be adding gluten back in to see how it goes.

One of the foods I really missed while avoiding gluten was tortilla wraps, so that was one of the first things I picked up in Waitrose! Dinner was quesadillas - tuna & sweetcorn for the others, mozzarella and red pepper pesto for me, with a couple of slices of garlic bread to bulk the meal out...

Mmm, I have missed quesadillas being in my life!!

I also had an afternoon snack that you might be interested in - so if you have been skim-reading this post stop here for a minute please! I will post the details of our wedding once we get the professional photos back, but one of the many things I loved about the wedding was our cake - a tower of cupcakes with a small top tier victoria sponge. The cupcakes came in 2 flavours - lemon and coffee - and the coffee especially was absolutely divine! My Mum brought round the final cupcake yesterday for me to enjoy...

Even a week later, this still tasted so good!

If anyone lives in the South-West of England, I highly recommend Olivers Bakery in Crediton, such a good find!!

The cupcake was eaten before dinner, so after dinner I was still craving something sweet. Liam and I opened up a box of chocolates we'd been given at the wedding...

and managed to finish them all off! Well, except the two hazelnut pralines - neither of us like those so we saved them for daughter!!

Today I wanted to at least try to have a healthier day. I'd weighed in on Sunday and seen a shockingly high number on the scales, so I was pleased to see quite a lot of that drop off overnight - water retention from the flight, sunburn etc no doubt - but I still managed to gain 3.5 lbs in a week which isn't great, especially as I never did get even close to my goal weight before the wedding!! Oh well, I'm not going to overly stress about it. I hate dieting, enjoy food etc, but mindlessly eating 10+ chocolates without even tasting them is neither good for me, or particularly enjoyable!

So whilst my breakfast may have been, on paper, slightly healthier, it did still add up to over 600 calories. They were all delicious though, so it's worth it in my book!! Before breakfast, I'd been reading Une Vie Saine's blog and spotted her cereal jar dinner which looked like a perfect breakfast to me! :) I ate mine in a not-so-empty White Chocolate Wonderful jar, filled with Eat Natural gluten-free muesli, sliced banana, and milk...

This was great - I love this cereal, filled with almonds and raisins as well as puffed rice cereal (I think). There was also loads of peanut butter left in the bottom of the jar, yum, can't believe I've got through that jar already!!

Things looked up even further after breakfast though - before the wedding I had placed an iHerb order, in the knowledge that I would probably appreciate a little pick-me up once I returned from honeymoon! I wasn't expecting it to arrive until mid-week, so I was super pleased to get it today! Coconut butter, peanut flour and vanilla stevia drops...

I've already tried the coconut butter, which is delish (unlike the "coconut butter" I bought in my local health store - which at double the price of the coconut oil I normally buy, and right next to it on the shelf, I assumed it would be the real deal...but no, grrr.) I was pleased to taste that this Artisana coconut butter tastes a lot like the homemade stuff I make by just blitzing desiccated coconut in the food processor...the jarred version is a bit smoother perhaps, but it is nice to know that I can get close enough for a fraction of the cost & without shipping from America!! I haven't tried the peanut flour or stevia yet, more pleasure still to come!! :)

Lunch today was bizarre. We have lots of mozzarella that needs eating by Wednesday, and I still had an avocado left that my Mum had given me. So I decided lunch would be a combination of the two...with Kettle crisps added for some crunch?!!

This was ok I guess, but again a little bland, which I guess contributed to my afternoon snacking...

First up, raw chocolate covered mulberries...

Really good, although I was bit disappointed that half the bag was full of mulberries less than a quarter of the size of the one pictured above :(

Later in the afternoon, more leftovers from my Mum - she's gone away sailing for the week so gave me all her perishable foods - goat's cheese and vegetable crisps...

Luckily I still had room for dinner! Unlike some of my recent meals, tonight's dinner was anything but bland! Any guesses for what this is??

Mama Pea's Mmm Sauce! I'd been meaning to make this for ages, and it definitely lived up to the hype! :) Weirdly I'd already decided what I was going to cook for dinner before looking up the recipe the sauce, and it turns out that I was already thinking along the same lines as Mama Pea had been! Grilled tofu (marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil & garlic granules), brown rice and grated raw courgette, all covering in the delicious mmm sauce (& plenty more added throughout the meal!)...

This was great! I knew the sauce would be a success, but I was a bit worried about how Liam would react to the raw courgette...he loved it though, thought it provided a nice crunch! The tofu was also my best ever - as I wasn't using the oven, I was able to cook it for 6 minutes on each side at high temperature (about 220C) so it was nice and crispy on the outside, firm on the inside. Liam thought it tasted a lot like chicken, which wasn't what I was aiming for, but if it gets him to love tofu then I guess it's not a bad thing! We all loved the sauce, and kept helping ourselves to more - luckily I made a double batch so there's still some left for tomorrow! :)

Right, that's me up to date! I haven't had an evening snack yet, but I think I'll probably be ok without one now - only an hour til bedtime! It's Liam's first day back at work post-wedding tomorrow, so I have to be organised in the morning to walk daughter to school. I'm a bit worried about taking baby into the school with his chicken pox, but I bumped into another school Mum at Waitrose yesterday, and apparently there are at least another 3 little ones with chicken pox at the moment who either go to the toddler group I go to and/or have older siblings at daughter's school. There parents have still been taking them in for school drop-off/pick-ups...I suppose there's not much else I can do really, I'll just have to drop daughter off as quickly as possible, and keep a firm grip on baby rather than letting him wander around the classroom like he usually does!

How long does it take you to get back into a "normal routine" after you've been away/on holiday? Yesterday I felt like I was in such a daze, even in Waitrose I really struggled to hold a conversation. Today has been a bit better - I've managed to sort out some of the paperwork that's piled up while we've been away - but I still feel super-tired and a bit out of it. And looking back over this post, my eating has been a bit repetitive with extra snacking. It's been great having Liam at home for an extra couple of days, but I'm hoping once he goes back to work tomorrow we'll be able to get back into some sort of routine. Although baby having chicken pox will make it a bit difficult - no toddler group for us this week, but at least I will hopefully have time to plan some tasty meals!!