Splashy Saturday!

Happy Saturday! Are you all having fun? Ours has been...splashy?!!

Splash #1 occurred early in the morning - I went swimming as soon as the pool opened at 8am. I was meant to be going with Mum but she cancelled at the last minute so I went on my own. Not my best workout to be honest - I only did 30 lengths (of a 25m pool) instead of my usual 40. I normally alternate between breaststroke and front crawl but my sciatica is really bad today, and was worse when doing breaststroke so I did almost all front crawl, but then that made my left ankle play up. Gah! I really hope the podiatrist can do sometime to help the pain when I see her on Friday! Still, 30 lengths in 23 minutes...better than nothing I suppose.

I got through the last few lengths by promising myself a trip to Costa afterwards. Skinny latte with sugar-free hazelnut syrup for the walk home:

The sugar-free syrup wasn't as nice as my normal choice of sugary gingerbread syrup, but better than no sugar at all. I can't decide which is best - it seems such a waste of calories to have the sugary syrup, but then I don't really like the idea of artificial sweeteners. Meh. Either way the coffee is good!

After I got back from swimming, Liam took Izzy to gym club and I had breakfast. Mashed banana porridge with homemade cinnamon raisin peanut butter...

I haven't told you about the peanut butter yet have I? I made it on Thursday but with the minor stress of yesterday, I forgot to take any daylight photos until today.

Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter

• 500g unsalted raw peanuts (I used redskin ones but I don't think it really matters)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 30g brown sugar, to taste (I used half each of demerara and soft brown sugar but next time I would just use soft as, whilst the demerara does mimic PB&Co's grittiness, I don't actually like that texture!)
• 100g raisins
• 2 tsp oil (if needed)

1. First, dry roast the peanuts at 160C for 20 minutes, stirring approximately every 5 minutes.

I used a second tray to roast the rest of the peanuts to keep them in a flat layer

2. Once the peanuts are roasted, put them in a food processor and process for 15-20 minutes until they reach a drippy peanut butter stage. Mine started going peanut butter-like at about 15 minutes so I processed for another few minutes to get nice and drippy. Stir as needed whilst processing to break up the clumps.

3. Now it's time to add your mix-ins. A little salt, cinnamon, sugar and half of the raisins (50g). This is where, for me, things got a bit clumpy so I also had to add 2 tsp of oil to get it to the right consistency. You may or may not need this.

Not as pretty but still really tasty!

4. Finally, add in the remaining 50g raisins and just pulse to combine so that they remain whole within the nut butter. Decant into a jar and store in a cool dry place.

So good! I love making my own nut butters, I enjoy the process as well as (obviously!) enjoying the finished product. This isn't as sweet as the PB&Co version, but I like that as you can really taste the peanuts rather than it being more like a sweet spread.

Anyway, back to this morning. As soon as Izzy and Liam got back from gym club, we all headed out to the hairdressers. Toby had his haircut, which requires me and Liam to be there - he sits on Liam's lap while I distract him!

Before:

After:

It's so short now! He looks all grown up :( Toby really likes it though, I think he was getting a bit fed up with constantly having hair in his eyes!

After Toby had finished having his hair cut, Liam took the children into town (to buy me a Mother's Day present I think, yey, Izzy was so excited to go shopping!!) and I had my hair cut. Not a huge difference really, mainly just a trim/re-shape. It was a different hairdresser to usual and I think she's put more layers in than I usually have, although it's hard to tell until I straighten it.

Before (post-swimming so I look a bit of a mess!!):

After:

Bad photo - blame Liam!

Like I say, not how I would normally style it, but I'm glad to have some shape back in my hair.

After a quick lunch - baguette with lots of different cheeses - we went for a walk to meet my Mum and Colin, and Colin's grandson. They didn't stay long though as Colin's daughter was coming back to pick up her baby soon, and no cuddles as the baby stayed fast asleep the whole time! After they'd left we had some fun down by the river...

Until Izzy fell in...whoops...splash #2!!

Bless her. She was fine, but a bit shaken up (and cold!) so we headed home for a change of clothes and hot chocolate! Now Toby is having a nap and we are watching Aladdin DVD...a quiet afternoon after a busy morning! :)

How have you spent your Saturday? Ever fallen in a river?? Liam was trying to make Izzy feel better by telling her about a time when he (after lots of alcohol) fell backwards into the sea...mobile phone and all! Apparently the tide had crept in whilst he and his friends had been having a BBQ on the beach, and Liam hadn't realised so lent backwards!! I don't think I've ever had an experience as wet as Izzy's - a few times I've fallen into rivers/wet patches on the moors up to my knees, but Izzy was soaked all the way up to her chest...poor little thing! She's fine now though, snuggled up watching one of her favourite Disney films = happy Izzy!!

New Hair & Random Eats

This post might be a bit of a mish mash of things. My laptop broke on Monday night and, except for the WIAW post I wrote on Liam's laptop, I don't think I've blogged or uploaded photos since. So I've got a few things to share! If it looks like it's getting too long I'll leave some for another post - I need to do a Summer Holiday weekly re-cap post anyway - I forgot to do one last week!

I'll start though with a photo of my new hair cut - this was so overdue! I had my hair trimmed a couple of weeks before the wedding, but she wouldn't cut much off the length in case it made my wedding hair style more difficult. So I hadn't had a proper cut since the end of April - my hair was almost looking as bad as in that post! Now it looks like this...

So much better! When I'm having my hair cut, I always feel so much lighter once the bulk of it is cut off...I really shouldn't leave it so long between cuts!

Last night, the doctor that I took my daughter to on Tuesday left a message on my phone to call her back. Of course, at 6.45pm the doctor's surgery was shut so I couldn't phone back! Grrr, I don't really understand why she so phoned so late! I tried not to worry too much, and instead ate some Ben & Jerry's - a new to me flavour - Coconutterly Fair...

Not enough coconut caramel sauce for my liking, but lots of chocolate covered crunchy bits. Mmmm!

First thing this morning, I phoned the doctors back and booked Izzy in for a blood test. Not sure what's wrong with her - the lymph nodes in one side of her neck only have been enlarged for the last 2.5 weeks, the same side as where she had an abscess when she had to go into hospital before. Hopefully we'll get some answers tomorrow. Despite the fact that she had a horrific blood taking experience in hospital (Dr waking her up at 10.30pm, long after he was due and therefore long after the anaesthetic cream had worn off, to take blood!) she was so brave today. We applied lots of "magic cream" to her arms an hour before her appointment, and wrapped them up with clingfilm...

The nurses said I did a good job - Izzy chatted to one nurse while the other took blood and Izzy barely even noticed it being done, phew!

Before we went to the doctor's, I made time for breakfast - Oats In A Jar! I haven't had this for ages, but with the horrible weather today I really fancied porridge. I just did a simple mix - oats, milk, a tsp of peanut flour and half a chopped banana, with more banana layered through once cooked...

Plus loads of peanut butter - the jar wasn't so empty!!

I didn't end up having a proper lunch as I waited for Liam to finish work, but then ran out of time before my own doctor appointment! A Waitrose squashed fruit bar whilst walking down the road it was! I'd also had lots of yummy raspberries at my Mum's after Izzy's blood test - Mum usually buys her fresh produce from the local fruit & veg shop...it always tastes so much nicer than produce from the supermarket!

The usual family stuff went on this afternoon - Toby tried on Liam's shoes...

Izzy sang and danced to herself in the garden mirror (I sneakily took photos through the kitchen window!!)...

and I got lots of baby cuddles...

I also snacked on a delicious plum...

So juicy! I love summer fruit :)

For dinner, the others all ate meat (!) My Mum decided today that the reason Liam and Izzy's appetites have reduced recently is because they are bored of eating a vegetarian diet...so she gave them some meat-filled ready meals! I'm not really sure that what they ate tonight was in any way better than what I cook for them most nights, but meh, it gave me an excuse to eat a yummy salad...

Admittedly a bag of salad (lettuce, grated carrot and cabbage) with chopped apple, blue cheese and goats cheese. This was so refreshing, and did actually fill me up, albeit not all evening. For an evening snack I ate the last one of these...

Not quite as pretty as the ones I took to the hen do on Saturday, but still just as tasty!

How often do you get your hair cut? Do you change your style often or tend to stick to the same style? I'm often tempted to change my style and go shorter, but then I worry that I won't like it and will have to go through an in between growing out stage. So I end up going with the same style - lots of layers, shaping around my face etc...I like it though so that's the main thing! :)

Smoothie + Quesadillas + Much Needed Hair Cut

When I finished posting this morning, I went for a much needed nap. Liam took baby into town once he woke up, so I managed to have almost 2 hours uninterrupted sleep, bliss! Liam and baby also seemingly had fun playing with dinosaurs - I found this photo on the camera just now...

...baby was feeding the dinosaur shreddies and then cleaning his teeth...a future dentist perhaps?

When I did wake up, I wanted lunch, but still felt quite full from the pancakes I had for breakfast. A smoothie it was! I wanted to use my new smoothie glasses, but they are so tiny that it filled two!

Double Green Tropical Layered Smoothie

• 1 small avocado (about 90g)
• 40g spinach
• 150g pineapple, frozen
• 100ml milk
• 8g agave nectar

Toppings...

• 20g dessicated coconut
• 25g dried mango, chopped

I didn't have any bananas, hence the double green - the avocado is a good substitute to provide a creamy texture. As you can see I layered one glass with coconut and one glass with mango. They don't look perfect, but they tasted great!

the avocado makes it really thick and creamy, yum.

After my smoothie lunch, it was time to go for a much needed haircut - I hadn't had it cut since before Christmas at the earliest! Before photo (and the reason I usually tie it up!)...

and after - not straightened but still a big improvement I think!

Not as much as a difference as I might have gone for - for the summer I will probably have it cut a bit shorter than this, and I normally have more layers and shaping put in, but the hairdresser wanted to leave it alone as much as possible so we have more hair to play around with for the wedding do! Booked a practise run in a couple of week's time, exciting, all seems to be happening really quickly now!

Once home, I had a couple of spoonfuls of Dark Chocolate Dreams to keep me going...

This is soooo good. Much nicer, and nowhere near as sickly sweet, as Nutella, and I love the slightly crunchy peanut texture. New favourite, got to make it last though! I know I said I'd post this evening about the other things that came in the delivery, but I'm running a bit behind schedule as just after I started this post, my Mum turned up to discuss wedding stuff for a couple of hours, and I need to get to bed soon as shattered!

Luckily, dinner was quick to make tonight - quesadillas. The others had tuna and sweetcorn mayonnaise, but I tried a new-to-me combination - pesto, mozzarella and spinach...

This was delicious...

a fantastic combo - the mozzarella and pesto went so well together and the spinach provided a slight texture contrast. Definitely one to repeat! :)

This afternoon, Liam came home with a bag of chocolate brownies from the local shop...

most of them were thin and slightly crispy, but there was one fudgy one...

Amazingly, as I ate this two hours ago, this has kept me going all evening and I haven't eaten anything else all evening. Goes to show a small amount of something really good is better than lots of something not so satisfying. Except when I'm in an 'eat everything in sight' mood of course!!
Right, off to bed. Fingers crossed I manage more sleep than the 4 hours I got last night!

PS. was just about to hit post when realised I hadn't thought of a title...I'm tired and after staring blankly at the screen for 5 minutes, decided going to bed was more important than trying to be creative!!