Thanks as always to Jenn for hosting the party! I've been looking forward to writing my post this week. I decided to base it on yesterday - when I met up with another blogger for the first time.
First though, breakfast. I was going swimming yesterday morning so I made sure to eat a proper breakfast first. Porridge cooked with mashed banana and frozen blueberries and strawberry slices, topped with some chocolate orange spread:
I hate how the frozen blueberries make the porridge look grey, but the taste makes up for it! The chocolate orange spread made a change from peanut butter, really sweet, it tastes just like Terry's chocolate orange, mmm!
After breakfast, I did the school run and then came back home for about 20 minutes. Luckily during that time my first ever Riverford veg box arrived...
Everything looked so fresh and what I have tried so far has been fantastic. This week I received spring greens, purple sprouting broccoli, asparagus, big mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, onions and carrots. Yum! I quickly packed these all away and then headed out the door to take Toby to creche/go for a swim.
Rather than rush to fit in both the gym and swimming while Toby was at creche, I decided to just swim so that I had time to get ready after. Normally I have to leg it from the swimming pool to creche to pick Tobes up in time but I wanted to avoid going to the blogger meet-up with wet hair and big red goggle marks! After I'd swum 40 lengths, I bought myself a latte and sat down with my Kindle for 20 minutes...bliss!
Then it was time to pick up the boy. Toby had such fun at creche that he didn't want to leave, but luckily I was able to tempt him away with the promise of meeting another baby...
Amy from Amy Loves Food, with her cute baby boy Rowan! We realised a little while ago that we live quite close to each other, and this was the first time we met up.
We went to Boston Tea Party for a quick lunch. I had a vanilla latte...
and a wrap with roasted sweet potato, feta and pumpkin seeds, which also came with tortilla chips and dips...
The tortilla chips were a bit flavourless, but the wrap itself was really good. I've just been browsing the menu though and noticed that they do a homemade beetroot, carrot, courgette, pine nut and sunflower seed burger topped with halloumi, houmous and tzatziki and served with sweet potato chips...gutted...next time!
It was really nice to meet up with Amy and Rowan. Toby adored Rowan and loved playing with his tiny feet...
...and I really enjoyed chatting with Amy. It was so nice to be able to talk about blog stuff and recipes, as well as normal chat about children, where we live etc. I'm looking forward to meeting up for coffee again soon :)
Toby fell asleep on the way home (he was super tired yesterday!) so I stayed in the car reading my Kindle some more while he slept, and then went to pick up Izzy from school. An afternoon snack occurred when we got home - just 2 slices of banana malt loaf this time, spread with butter:
I love this, so delicious! I liked it with peanut butter as well, but it doesn't really need it, just a little butter (or even eating it as is) lets the natural banana flavour shine through better.
Dinner last night made use of some of the vegetables in the veg box. Even though all the separate components were really simple, this meal felt quite special, extra delicious! Good quality ingredients, cooked simply = win win!!
I stuffed the mushrooms with grilled pepper Philadelphia and baked them for 20 minutes, topping them with grated cheese for the last 10. The quinoa I cooked in water with a veg stock cube and the mushroom stalks finely chopped up, and I just stir fried the spring greens with a little oil, garlic powder and soy sauce. Yum. This was such a tasty meal, and after the previous couple of days I was definitely in the mood for some fresh veg!
I didn't take a photo of my evening snack, but I had a dark chocolate Alpro dessert with some desiccated coconut stirred in...got to end on a sweet note!
Have you ever met up with any other bloggers? Or do you talk to your friends/family about your blog? Amy was the first blogger that I've met up with, I don't know of any other bloggers that live near me so I was really excited when I recognised photos on her blog of the local area! I do talk to my family about the blog quite a lot, and a few of my friends know about it, but I don't tell everyone that I meet. I don't mind people reading it but equally it's nice to be able to tell people my news in person - I'll quite often talk to my sister about things (usually just boring things like what I ate for dinner the night before!) and she'll cut me off saying "yes, I saw that on your blog already", haha, I'm a bit known for forgetting that I've already told people things at the best of times, without them reading everything online first anyway!
