A Mexican Meal Out

Yesterday was Liam's brother's 21st birthday, and also Liam's Auntie's birthday...so we all went out for a meal out to celebrate! As I haven't written about food in ages though (well it feels like that to me anyway!) I'm going to first show you the rest of my food yesterday.

My eating recently has been out of control, so I decided yesterday to try to eat a bit less, eat a bit more consciously and eat a bit healthier. It started with a yummy breakfast of Total Greek yoghurt, a chopped nectarine, Sweet Freedom and a little desiccated coconut...

This was really tasty, and surprisingly filling. I love having smoothies or porridge for breakfast, but when I then load them with toppings they don't exactly make the best option when I'm trying to lose a bit of weight. Lighter breakfasts like this yoghurt bowl are great for days when I'm not exercising (that'd be pretty much every day at the moment then!!) and especially when I know I'm going out for a meal in the evening.

Mid-morning, Izzy wanted a snack and I would usually join her. Instead, yesterday I decided to have a mug of tea. I got out all the tea bags Maria had sent me...

I decided to try the Dragonfly Tea Rooibos Chai...

I had this with milk and a little Sweet Freedom and it was lovely :) It felt like a real treat so I didn't feel the need to have a snack in the morning. I loved it so much in fact that I had the second of the same teabags yesterday afternoon...I think I'll have to buy some of these myself soon! :)

Lunch was one of my favourites for when Liam's coming home on his lunch breaks - sweet potatoes. I stick them in the oven an hour before he's due home and it makes for an easy meal that is ready to eat as soon as he walks in the door...aren't I a good wife??!! :-p (as opposed to Wednesday, when we had quesadillas on his lunch break, and he didn't end up sitting down to eat until 10 minutes before he was due back, oops!). I had my sweet potato with goats cheese, cinnamon and sweetcorn...

Delicious! We hadn't had sweet potatoes in a while so this was particularly appreciated!

As I mentioned, on Wednesday Liam came home from work with reduced flowers and a reduced cupcake for me. Well, on Thursday he came home with something even better (!!), reduced medjool dates!

5 packs of medjool dates reduced to 10p each on staff shopping! I gave one pack to my Mum, but I still have a lot to get through. Liam doesn't like them, but luckily Izzy does! We each had a couple stuffed with peanut butter for our afternoon snack yesterday...

Admittedly I hadn't planned to eat this snack - I just made myself some whilst making Izzy's without really thinking about it. It was good though, as we usually eat dinner 6-6.30pm, and last night the restaurant wasn't booked until 8.30pm, so by the time everyone had ordered, we didn't start eating til 9pm!

I'd originally decided to only have a main course at the Mexican restaurant. My willpower, however, was not feeling that strong! So for starter I had deep-fried breaded brie...

I had read the menu. But when this arrived, the sauce looked like cranberry, so I scooped up a lot of it with my first mouthful...forgetting that it was actually sweet chilli jam! My poor throat!! It was really tasty though, I love cooked cheese :)

For my main course, I chose a roasted vegetable burrito, which also came with vegetable rice...

This was huge! I ate most of the burrito, but had to leave a lot of the rice. After this, I was completely full and my stomach was really hurting. I wasn't even tempted to order dessert (despite there being a yummy looking Key Lime Pie on the menu!) but then everyone was brought around chocolate birthday cake and I found myself eating it...

This was quite nice, but completely unnecessary...I felt so uncomfortable afterwards!

Woohoo, a whole post with just food photos! I'll spoil it by adding in a photo of me last night though - Liam took this when he was sat right next to me, so a bit too close for comfort, but I quite like the top I was wearing...

I'm desperately in need of a haircut though!!

Today I'm going to a friend's hen do. She's getting married next Saturday, I can't wait for her wedding! :-D We lived next door to each other in halls in the first year of uni, and then we shared a house in our 2nd year (when I was pregnant with Izzy). She's been with her now-fiance all that time, so it's really exciting that they're getting married so soon! Speaking of which, I better get on! I have to leave to catch a train in an hour, and I have biscuits to ice before then!

Have a great Saturday everyone! :)

Top Ten Tips For Health

When Rachel tagged me to write my top 10 tips for health/nutrition, I started thinking. I'm perhaps not you're stereotypical example of a healthy person - I don't exercise all that much, I sometimes eat the "wrong" foods etc, but I try my best and sometimes that's all that you can ask for! You've probably seen some other Top Ten Tips posts recently - they're part of Total Greek Yoghurts summer campaign I believe. You can read more about it on their Fit 4 Summer website.

So anyway, my tips... I'm not sure I'll get to 10 but we'll see how it goes!

1. Start the day right - a good breakfast is so important. I love it so much that I ate breakfast foods twice yesterday!

Banana-Cinnamon Porridge with Justin's Maple Almond Butter

Berry-Banana Smoothie topped with Puffins & GF Muesli

I always find that my eating in general goes so much better if I start the day right. If I skip breakfast or have an unhealthy breakfast I get hungry within an hour and end up spending the whole day snacking.

2. Drink enough water. An oldie but a goodie. I use an app on my iPhone to make sure I'm drinking enough water throughout the day (geek alert!!). I usually drink my water either plain or with a little blackcurrant squash in at home, and with ice & a slice of lemon when out. Sadly my beloved coffees don't count as the dehydrating effects of the coffee counteract the water used (well, so says my iPhone app anyway!!)

3. Eat lots of fruit & veggies. One of the things I love about summer is all the gorgeous fruit that is in season - strawberries, raspberries, cherries...mmmm!

I also love experimenting with new-to-me vegetables with the help of inspiration from other blogs - I tried my first every kabocha squash the other week, and of course green smoothies containing spinach have become a staple for me.

4. Experiment with different exercises to find some you love. As you probably realise if you're a regular reader of my blog, I'm not that good at exercising regularly. I have however recently discovered a love of circuits, which at least guarantees me exercising once a week! I also love swimming and enjoy doing weights...I just need to motivate myself to do these things more often!!


5. Smile often. I'm lucky that my children constantly make me smile (we'll forget about the stressful 'getting ready for school' mornings and focus on the good times!) - I could watch them all day - it is so cute to see them discovering new things!

Daughter being a rabbit when we made carrot cake smoothies!

Baby with a smoothie moustache...we like smoothies in this house!

Other things that make me smile are trips to the beach, watching films, baking, chatting with Liam, my family etc...smiling is good!! :-D

6. Don't deny yourself treats, but make them healthier if possible. I usually find that if I try to deny myself I end up craving things more and go on a 'eating everything in sight' spree! I love making healthy treats that I can enjoy without guilt, such as Katie's chocolate chip blondies ...

So good! I've discovered that if I eat too much sugary processed food, I generally feel sluggish and bleugh. Treats like the blondies, and blended desserts such as Jemma's Choco PB Banana Pudding, are a good compromise!

7. Get enough sleep. I haven't been managing this and it makes life so much harder. When I know I'm lacking in sleep I tend to over-compensate with extra coffees, but yesterday I made a conscious effort to not have any coffees all day and I actually felt a bit better for it. But still, get more sleep!

(source)

8. Spend as much time outside as possible. I love being out in the fresh air. Unless it's pouring with rain (and sometimes even then if I have school-runs to do!) I make sure to take baby/the children out for a walk everyday. We usually go for a stroll along the seafront or to the nearby woodlands for a run around...

Getting some fresh air helps me relax, refreshes me mentally, and usually has the added bonus of some light exercise thrown in too.


9. Experiment in the kitchen to stop you getting bored of food. Not that I could ever get bored of food or eating (!!) but I do love trying new recipes. My favourite sources of inspiration are BBC Good Food website and Mama Pea's blog. Her quinoa stuffed peppers, quinoa pizza casserole and sloppy joesphines are my current favourites, but I must try some more of her recipes soon! Of course there are many other blogs that provide me with great recipes - I have a list on my iPhone of links to recipes I want to try, but Mama Pea is the one I go back to time and time again!

10. Find some time for you. This one can be hard for me with the children, but we are lucky that they are usually in bed by 7pm so Liam and I get the evenings to ourselves. Writing this blog is one of my forms of "me-time" (well, usually, I'm currently finishing off this post while baby runs around in his nappy finding lots of toys to mess up the house with!!). I also enjoy going swimming to have some time alone with my thoughts, when I can motivate myself to go that is anyway! And cooking...cooking provides great me-time...I can shut the kitchen door, have fun making new-to-me recipes, and have something yummy to eat at the end of it!!

Well there we go, I did manage to get to 10 tips after all! Probably in a bit of a random order, my thoughts are all over the place at the moment, but hopeful they will help to reinforce what you already know, or at least give you some insight into the world-of-me! What are your tips for a healthy happy lifestyle?? I'd love to hear them! :) Thanks again for tagging me, Rachel, writing this post was fun!