Lots & Lots of Food!!

Evening! Hope you've all been enjoying Easter Sunday! I have eaten soooo much food today! After a big breakfast at the beach hut this morning, we went to Mum's house for a buffet lunch. We were trying out food that we had originally thought we'd have at the wedding, and in that respect the buffet wasn't successful - the portion sizes were not enough for the money, the vegetarian option wasn't impressive enough etc - so we will have to go back to the drawing board with regards to wedding food, eek! However the food itself was really delicious. I had decided that, despite not having eaten meat or fish since a meal out two months ago, I would try a little bit of the salmon...

there was also coronation chicken and ham which I didn't eat, as well as a rather ugly looking, but delicious tasting butternut squash "terrine"...

this was really tasty - it had butternut squash, lentils and other stuff (!) in it (I can't remember!!) and was great spread on bread. However it doesn't really look good enough to be the vegetarian option compared to poached salmon, ham, coronation chicken etc - I'd be a bit insulted if I was only given salads and a hunk of pate to eat! Will have to re-think. Some of Mum's friends have offered to make quiches so may go down that route, we'll see.

The above food was all from M&S, then we supplemented it with some salads from Waitrose...

some kind of bean salad (I avoided), roast veg couscous, coleslaw & pasta salad, plus lettuce, tomatoes, bread etc. All together...

and this was my plate (I gave the prawn to daughter as she loves them way more than I do!)...

I went back for seconds of the butternut squash pate, bread, coleslaw and couscous, yum.

Of course, the thing I was most looking forward to was the cakes...

I'd made the lemon poppy seed muffins with a lemon glaze between breakfast and lunch today...

again from the Muffins Fast and Fantastic book by Susan Reimer that I linked to yesterday. The creme egg cupcakes were an idea from My Baking Addiction and turned out really well - my icing normally lets my cakes down but I was quite impressed with these so excuse the excessive amount of photos!!

the moment of truth though came when I cut one open at Mum's...

and I'm pleased to report they were a success - the mini creme egg was still whole inside - freezing them before cooking worked!! :)

Yum, these tasted delicious too! I'm not normally a huge fan of chocolate cakes as they can be a bit dry, but between the creme egg inside and the huge amount of icing on top, these were really good!

I also ate a lemon poppy seed muffin...

these were good too, the muffins themselves weren't actually that lemony but the fresh lemon juice icing more than made up for that!

I have felt so full since lunch! I have managed to squeeze a couple of things in though - a mini chocolate flake...

and a Total Greek yoghurt pot with honey...

bizarre though, when I ate one of these 6 weeks ago, the honey was set (I even went back to an old blog post to check the photo here!!) but this time the honey was clear. I preferred the set one :( so think I'll be sticking to adding my own honey into plain Greek yoghurt in future!

I really should have something else to eat otherwise I'll be hungry in the middle of the night, but at the moment I still feel so full and bloated...way too many bread/cake products have been consumed by me today! Worth it as a one-off day, but definitely looking forward to having a smoothie for breakfast tomorrow! :) Hope everyone else has enjoyed the day too, I also managed to fit in a bit of sitting in my Mum's back garden after lunch - loving this sunshine!

A Week's Worth of Food

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted! My daughter being off school has completely thrown off my routine! She is better now (temperature back to normal, tummy pain gone etc) but has developed a swollen neck on one side. I took her to the doctor on Monday and apparently it is torticollis...she also saw a physio on Monday who gave her a few exercises and said it should go away on its own, but in the meantime it is very sore! She did go back to school yesterday, but they phoned me about 2pm to pick her up as "her neck was swollen and she looked grey" !! So today she only went in for morning + lunch, and tomorrow she is staying home as the whole school is going on a trip to the zoo and, understandably, her teacher doesn't want to take her in case she droops part way through the day. Poor little girl, we'll have to do something fun tomorrow to make up for her missing the zoo trip! I'm also a bit worried as her 2 week ballet show (only happens every 2 years so quite a big deal) starts on Monday, with on-stage rehearsals on Friday and Saturday...I hope she's well enough to take part!

Anyway, enough of me spilling my thoughts onto the page...lets talk about food! Now that the weather has been warmer, I have been loving having yoghurt for breakfast. In fact I haven't had oats once in the last week, shock, no wonder I was craving porridge today...will have to fix that tomorrow morning I think! I have been enjoying Total 0% Greek yoghurt (I love how thick and creamy it is!) with strawberries and honey...

with fresh mango, desiccated coconut and agave nectar...

and with 2 chopped nectarines and honey...

All delicious... fresh fruit + yoghurt = the start of summer to me! :)

I've also enjoyed a couple of smoothies. Fresh mango and frozen tropical fruits smoothie topped with desiccated coconut...

and cocoa-banana-blueberry smoothie topped with lots of crunchy peanut butter...

Yum.

I've also had many snacks, most avoided the camera (a handful of nuts most times I enter the kitchen, a small pistachio ice cream shared with baby this afternoon, a couple of blender creations I will share in another post etc etc) plus lots of my new favourite snack - medjool dates filled with peanut butter...

so tasty and surprisingly filling!

I also opened my box of Booja Booja Ginger Wine truffles tonight...

whoops, so much for my aims for Lent...these had been sitting in my cupboard, patiently waiting until Easter, but then I happened to look at the back of them today, saw that they should've been stored in the fridge, panicked and decided I needed to eat them straight away to save throwing them away!!

these were all gone in about 20 minutes!! Nice, but as with the cognac banana truffles, these tasted more of alcohol than ginger.

I have also eaten many main meals. Lots of easy things like scrambled eggs on toast, but also some slightly more interesting food...

Sesame & almond smoked tofu, brown rice, peas and sweet chilli sauce - simple but tasty...

Mama Pea's quinoa stuffed peppers this has become one of our favourites...

Pasta frittata with orange pepper, broad beans and goat's cheese on top...

Pearl Barley Risotto - this time with smoked tofu added rather than ham hock...

Takeaway Indian when I was too tired to cook. This is the first time I'd had a takeaway since eating meat-free, I spent ages looking at the menu! In the end I decided on Gobi Bhaji (cauliflower, really nice), a side dish of Tarka Daal (lentils, a bit bland, I can make better!!!), Mushroom Fried Rice (tasty and a good way to bulk up the meal) plus some Naan Bread. Yellow but yummy...

Delicious roasted butternut squash with goat's cheese - I bought a pack of ready to roast wedges that were on offer for an easy lunch...

Roast Vegetable and Lentil Lasagne - I did have garlic this time, and topped it with a mix of mozzarella and cheddar - so yummy, seconds were eaten! :)

and finally tonight was a quick spinach & ricotta tortellini with tomato ketchup and grated cheddar - very easy and reminds me of my childhood - my Mum used to give us this a lot!

Phew, lots of food!! I'm hoping to find the energy to start blogging more regularly again so that all my photos don't build up! I've still been thinking of things I want to write about during the days, but by evening I've just been too tired to even open my laptop - I fell asleep at 8.30pm a couple of days ago, bizarre!! Hopefully tomorrow will be a fun, but relaxing, day...it's what my daughter needs, and so, it seems, do I!

Weekend Highlights

I've decided not to post photos of everything I've eaten the last few days - I've eaten lots of standard foods like egg mayo sandwiches, a repeat of basil tofu, brown rice & peas, plus many grabbed handfuls of almonds and Brazil nuts. I seem to have become unable to go into the kitchen without grabbing a handful from the bag of mixed nuts in the cupboard! Plus the post would just be too long if I posted every single thing I ate - I've become a real snacker recently!

Here are the more interesting things I've eaten though...

Friday:
After the gym I never fancy a heavy breakfast, usually opting for a smoothie. Friday morning I had the energy to make it a bit more visually creative. Smoothie made of a banana and frozen exotic fruit mix (mango, melon, papaya and pineapple), layered with Rachel's coconut yoghurt, topped with a sprinkle of desiccated coconut...

this tasted as good as it looked! I loved being able to taste the individual flavours of the fruit and the yoghurt, although it has made me want to buy a whole new collection of glassware!!

The rest of my meals on Friday were less interesting, but I had some fun snacks! Total split pot yoghurt with honey...

I loved this! I loved that the honey was set, and tasted really good quality...it immediately carted my mind back to when I was about 11, and we went over to Portugal to visit my Auntie and her (Portuguese) husband. They both worked in the hotel we stayed in, and I remember most mornings my Uncle would make my Auntie breakfast...usually toast and yoghurt with honey and jam. I remember watching with fascination as he first mixed the honey and jam before adding the yoghurt...to my child's mind it seemed so exotic! I of course tried it at the buffet breakfast the next morning and it was delicious. The thickness of the Total yoghurt with the yummy honey reminded me of that...I think I'll have to buy some decent honey to enjoy with yoghurt more often :)

My daughter was still off school on Friday. The thing she was most upset about? Missing the fruit salad that was meant to be part of her school lunch! I know I could've made some up for her, but it was a treat for her to buy some, and for £2 I think this was quite good...

Tesco mini fruit platter - kiwi, melon, grapes, mango and pineapple. The children ate most of this (with baby squeaking to make sure he got his fair share!!) but I was left with some pineapple and kiwi, yum.

Saturday:
Another great breakfast. Katie's Pumpkin "Boatmeal" or baked oats...delicious.

I followed her recipe except I used 2 tbsp date syrup to sweeten it, and I added 25g of crunchy peanut butter from her list of optional extras.

This was amazing. I really enjoyed Jess' Carrot Cake Breakfast Bake and Averie's Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cake, but Katie's Boatmeal tasted the most how I thought baked oats should taste...I'm looking forward to playing around with different variations of this!! :)

the texture of this was so good. Not as "cakey" as the breakfast bake, but not as chewy as the microwave cake...I don't really know how to describe it...just soft, yummy baked oats...divine.

Dinner was the other highlight of Saturday. Not even a pre-planned meal - just a way to use up the kale that was delivered in our veg box. Stir fry with onion, garlic, ginger, kale, peppers and frozen soy beans, served with noodles, soy sauce and sesame oil (plus prawns for the others)...

Sometimes a big plate of veggies is just what's needed :)

Sunday:
My gym plans changed today (my sister was only free to look after the children in the afternoon instead of the morning as I'd hoped) which meant my breakfast plans could change...I took the opportunity of being able to have a heavier breakfast to eat a variation on yesterday's boatmeal. Chocolate-banana = divine.

Choco-Banana Baked Oats

• 40g oats
• most of a banana, mashed
• 50ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp Sweet Freedom, to taste

Mix all the ingredients and cook in the oven at 190C for 20-25 minutes. Topped with Rachel's coconut yoghurt and the rest of the banana. This was so good...

I love the texture of this, even without the crunchy peanut butter that yesterday's had. A great start to the morning (especially alongside an unpictured maple walnut latte!)...

I plan to make many more of these in the future...thanks for the inspiration Katie! :)

Going to the gym straight after Liam's lunch break (the only time my family could look after the children) does not really work well with our routine. I didn't want to eat the pasta that everyone else was eating for lunch, so instead I had a small smoothie to keep me going. This was really tasty and so simple. Just 1 small banana, 100g tinned pumpkin puree, 1 tsp cinnamon, 25g Meridian peanut butter and 5g agave nectar all blitzed up in the blender. So smooth and sweet, and surprisingly filling too...

When I went to the gym, there was only one other person there, fab! (not particularly surprising as it was sunny and the rugby was due to start) Unfortunately I couldn't do a particularly long work-out as my sister wanted to watch the rugby child-free, but I managed to fit in 20mins on the cross trainer (changing levels up and down every 2 minutes, this worked me really hard!) plus free weights, leg weight machines and 10 minutes on the rowing machine.

When I got home, my appetite was all over the place! I wasn't hungry when I got back, but equally couldn't last until dinner. I ended up eating about 5pm - leftover passata veg pasta sauce that the others ate for lunch, with wholewheat penne and nutritional yeast flakes...

I hadn't had nutritional yeast in such large quantity before (and I can't believe this is only 1 level tbsp!) but it was great...and the protein for calories is so much better than cheddar, yet it doesn't feel like I'm missing out, ideal! :)

As well as my recent nut addiction, I have also been eating lots of yoghurts. Since I went shopping a week ago I have finished the entire big tub of Rachel's coconut yoghurt, plus all the Total split pots I bought. I ate the last one this evening - tropical fruits...

this was nice, I liked that the fruit compote had chunks in it, and of course I still love the thickness of the Greek yoghurt. My favourite still has to be the honey version, but I prefer this to the blueberry (I didn't buy the strawberry one as I find strawberry yoghurts boring!)

So that's my weekend. A quiet one, but a good one. I hope you've all had a nice time too!

Sweet Potato and Kidney Bean Burritos

Today has been a yummy day! :)

Starting with a delicious, unpictured, maple walnut latte and swiftly followed by Averie's Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cake...this is so easy to make! I followed the recipe, except I replaced the brown sugar for 2 tbsp of date syrup. I was having serious peanut butter cravings - can't remember when I last had some - so I put a blob on this...

Delicious! The peanut butter went all melty so I could spread it all over the oats...yum yum. Completely different to the baked oats I made earlier in the week - with the milk and flour those were very cakey, whereas this was dense and chewy, really good :)

My daughter was sent home from school yesterday with a sore tummy, and was off school again today, so the day was a little hectic! Poor little thing, one minute she seemed fine, next she was screaming in pain :(

Looking back on today's photos I can't believe that the only thing I ate between breakfast and dinner was this bowl of Bear tropical granola with Rachel's Greek style coconut yoghurt...

this was quite nice, but I think I prefer my granola paired with soggier things - porridge/milk - this was a little dry for me.

Dinner was worth waiting for anyway - a while ago I'd seen a photo on Everyday Foodie's Blog which looked good - bean and sweet potato burritos. I had a quick Google and came across this recipe to base tonight's dinner on. I've been trying to introduce more beans into my diet, but as I'm not really a big fan of them, mashed is the way to go for now. The ingredients...

I didn't even bother to try to convert the amount of cups of kidney beans and sweet potatoes the recipe was calling for, but luckily 1 tin of kidney beans and 3 small baked sweet potatoes seemed to be enough for 4 burritos! :) Plus onion, garlic, ground cumin, chilli powder and soy sauce to add to the mashed kidney bean mix, and wraps obviously. Oh and cheese! Very important, but I forgot to include it in the photo!

I followed the steps in the recipe and then it was time to make the burritos. Fillings ready - mashed kidney bean mix, baked sweet potato filling, and grated cheddar...

I'd never had burritos before so the recipe stating "fold up tortillas burrito style" wasn't overly helpful, but I did my best! Kidney bean mash first...

then sweet potato...

then cheese...

and time to fold up...

and bake in the oven for 12 minutes...

These were soooo good! :) daughter wasn't hungry, but my Mum was on her way round to show us the bridesmaid dresses that had arrived (exciting!) so she had half a burrito too, and I had one & a half burritos instead of the one I'd planned to have, yum :)

I was a bit worried about them as there was about half the amount of sweet potato to kidney bean mix, but actually the sweet potato flavour was still prominent, it was all so tasty...

Yet another recipe that will be repeated :) Liam really enjoyed it too, although he ate his with lots of sweet chilli sauce too...so not needed!

*****

Yesterday was a much simpler day food-wise, I think after the delicious food overload that was Pancake Day, I was just craving basic foods!

I started the day with a Total 0% Greek yoghurt split pot with blueberry...

this was nice, the yoghurt was lovely & thick, and the blueberry compote not too sweet. A much lighter breakfast than usual...not something I'll be repeating often, don't worry!!

Wednesday mornings we usually go to toddler group, but baby was too tired - he was back asleep by 9.30am! I then got a call from school just after 11am, so had to wake him up to rush and pick poorly daughter up, bless her, she didn't seem like herself at all!

After sorting out and settling the children, lunch was just what I fancied - it may sound stereotypically "boring" - but tofu, brown rice and veggies was what I wanted. In this case basil tofu, brown rice and peas...

this was so easy - a one pot dish - I just cooked the rice as normal and added the frozen peas and cubed tofu a few minutes before the end of cooking. No need for a sauce either as the basil coating mixed with the remaining cooking water to make a pesto type sauce, delicious!



I also had a nice parcel in the post yesterday - after seeing a few reviews of Rawr chocolate around blog-land recently, I couldn't resist checking out the website. This chocolate was less expensive than some of the other raw chocolate I've seen/tried, so I decided to order some...

I think the packaging is great, definitely makes it stand out from other brands! After lunch I decided to try the Pecan Power...

it was already broken when I opened it, which made it perfect for having as a snack both after lunch and dinner! This was nice, I loved the taste, but texture-wise I prefer the Conscious chocolate I tried a while back. This was very soft - even the pecan had no crunch!  I put the second piece in the fridge and this improved the texture, it gave the pecans their crunch back although the chocolate was still more chewy than anything else... I'm looking forward to trying the other flavours to see what they're like.

For dinner, Liam made cottage pie for the others. I had a meat-free "chicken" fillet on top of sweet potato mash with lots of broccoli...

topped with a couple of portions of guacamole from the freezer...



this was great! I'm loving sweet potato even more than usual at the moment, and the sweet potato-guacamole-broccoli combo was really tasty :) the meat-free fillet didn't really taste of anything, but at least it provided substance I guess!

That's all from me for now, off to relax for a bit! Today has been really stressful trying to juggle both the children - daughter often screaming in pain and not wanting baby anywhere near her (not usual for her but I think she was worried he'd make her tummy worse), baby being worried about his big sister so trying to give her cuddles, me taking baby away so daughter wouldn't get even more distressed, then daughter crying because she wanted me (but not baby) near her at all times...gah...I was very glad when Liam arrived home...felt like I was being torn in two!!