Friday Night Meal Out

On Friday, Liam and I went for a rare meal out. I'm not sure how it happened really, but we somehow ended up with an agreement from Liam's Mum to babysit, but no real plans of where we going!

Luckily when we wandered into town, the restaurant we fancied had one table for two left. This restaurant can be a bit hit-and-miss as, since the new owners have taken it over, they only offer one vegetarian option on the menu. Last time we went it was a creamy pastry concoction which was a bit too rich, but we looked at the menu in the window before going in on Friday and were pleased to see that the menu had changed.

We decided to skip starters to make sure we had room for dessert, but did enjoy the bread and olives that were brought to the table. Well, I don't like olives so left them for Liam, but the sundried tomato bread roll was yummy.

For my main, I had a grilled vegetable stack with goats cheese. As it was the only option on the menu for me, I didn't think to ask what the vegetables were. My heart sank a little when I saw it consisted of mainly tomatoes and aubergine - neither of which I'm keen on. I left the tomato slices but luckily the aubergine was pretty good - I think it is the texture I normally don't like, but this wasn't at all mushy.

This also came with a nice salad which was a tasty way to end the course...

I was quite full after this, so for dessert I tried to persuade Liam to share the trio of desserts with me (mini versions of all the desserts on the menu). He, however, had his heart set on a full-sized version of the chocolate tarte...

I, therefore, also "had" to order a full-sized dessert - lemon mousse in my case:

This was delicious - the mousse was really tangy and citrussy, which complemented the sweet shortbread perfectly.

We had planned to go out for cocktails after dinner, but we were both so full after our food that we went home instead - we were home by 9.30pm!

It was still nice to get out for a few hours though, and we enjoyed catching up and eating nice food without the cooking/washing up that is usually involved.

What are your favourite things to do on a night out? Meal/drinks/cinema etc? I think next time we will try to go to the cinema. The only problem is that the nearest decent cinema (ie more than one screen and shows films quicker than several weeks after they come out!) is about half an hour drive away so finding a film that fits in between our babysitting times (our parents don't usually arrive til about 7pm and like to be home in bed by 10pm!) is quite tricky. The big tub of Ben & Jerry's with hot caramel sauce in it does, in Liam's mind at least, make the effort worth it though!!

A Sunny Saturday + Thai Meal Out

Morning Everyone! I hope you're all having lovely weekends. We've having a great time here - making the most of the sunshine :)

Yesterday afternoon we headed outside for some fresh air. Izzy wants me to show you what she had for lunch first though (!)...

A snack plate of leftovers from the night before - baked tortilla triangles, guacamole, spicy cheese sauce + brie and cucumber. And then we were off! Toby is in a seriously hating pushchair mode at the moment. Liam didn't believe what I've been having to deal with during the week until he saw it for himself yesterday - screaming, standing up, climbing out etc - so I had the job of pushing the pushchair whilst the others walked on ahead...

We first strolled through the local woodland area, with plenty of stops for tired little legs...

and then after a bit of shopping (muffin cases and a sugar thermometer...the important things in life) it was time for ice cream! The ice cream shop makes its own ice cream on the premises, and I'm guessing it had been surprised by the hot October weekend and run out as our ice cream seemed very freshly made and, well, drippy...

This was bakewell tart flavour which I hadn't tried before. It was delicious, with pieces of sweet pastry running through it. An appropriate last ice cream of the season perhaps?

We then went for a stroll along the seafront. It was so nice not to have any real plans for once, we could just take our time and enjoy the scenes. (Although I was slightly jealous of my Mum and Sister swimming in the sea...oh to have the freedom of not having young children clinging to you!!) We still had fun though, it was such a hot day - a better summer in October than our actual summer was!

Of course, no trip out would be complete without a visit to the play park on the way home. Izzy made friends with a girl a couple of years older than her, so she had a great time being all grown up and going on things herself...

Luckily Toby still needs our help - I'm not ready for both our babies to be all grown-up quite yet!!

After this we headed back home and enjoyed some of these...

Love Veggies and Yoga's Caramel Apple Bars! I also used Averie's recipe for Dark Rum Caramel Sauce (without the rum) to top the bars. I halved the recipe but still have some caramel sauce left, as you can see in the background...no complaints here! These bars are delicious, very sweet but with a lovely apple flavour too. Like caramel apple flapjacks. I've been keeping the bars in the fridge as they go very gooey at room temperature, but I'm planning to store any that are left by the end of today in the freezer - they will make a great treat for another time!

I made sure not to eat too many bars yesterday, as Liam and I were going for a rare meal out. We went to a Thai restaurant which we had been to once before. All the food was really great. For my starter I had crispy noodles with a pineapple sweet and sour sauce. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this, and was a bit worried about how I would eat it, but it was fantastic.

This was really tasty, and Liam commented that the texture was like eating crisps. It wasn't difficult to eat though, a nice light starter.

For my main, I had broccoli with peanut sauce (on the right obviously, Liam had prawn Thai curry)...

and as my main course was on the lighter side, I chose to have pineapple rice to go with it, which also had peppers, carrots and spring onions in it...

All the food was really delicious. The peanut sauce especially was amazing - I could have quite happily have just eaten two or three portions of broccoli with peanut sauce, but the rest of the food was good too! No desserts as we were both full - we should have shared a rice really, a bit too much food but not as much wastage as some of the other tables at least. I'm glad I didn't force myself to finish my rice though - normally I "must eat everything on my plate" and that leaves me feeling very uncomfortable, whereas instead last night I felt pleasantly full but not in pain...success!

What have you all been doing this weekend? Is it sunny where you are? I think the weather is meant to get worse again in the next day or so, boo. Time to go back outside and make the most of it while it lasts! We're off to see my sister and her boyfriend this afternoon. Apparently there's a really nice child-friendly pub near where they live with a nice garden so we'll probably spend some time in the sun there. Unfortunately the children don't seem to be co-operating with our plans by having naps this morning...I hope they're not too grumpy later!!

Date Night - Dinner and Cocktails

Last night, Liam and I went out on a "date". We're not a couple that normally does "date night". Indeed, with the children, we rarely get to go out together in the evenings. However, my Dad was visiting and had agreed to babysit, good times! :)

I wanted to be able to enjoy the evening without feeling bloated, so I decided to keep my food during the day fairly light. However, I know if I skimp on meals I'll end up snacking loads, so the aim was to eat decent meals to keep me going without needing to snack. It kind of worked. I started the day with a decent breakfast - pumpkin porridge topped with blueberries, coconut sugar and desiccated coconut:

This tasted great, and kept me going until about 1pm when I had lunch. A slightly random mix, but delicious nonetheless - red and white quinoa with bulgar wheat (a mix I picked up in Waitrose the other day) with a roasted pepper, peas and sesame smoked tofu, topped with a little Thai peanut sauce  that I found in Lidl...

This was really tasty but, despite being "healthy", there was too much of it. I felt uncomfortably bloated for an hour or so after this - I really must learn that I don't always need to clear my plate!

The munchies did attack late afternoon though - I had a few spoonfuls of Dark Chocolate Dreams...

and then I had a cinnamon soy latte in Costa while Izzy had her ballet lesson (no point going home between dropping her off and picking her up as the lesson is only 30 minutes).

This was at 5pm and I didn't eat again until our dinner reservation at 8pm - I wanted to make sure I was hungry :)

Dad arrived once Toby was in bed (he reluctantly agreed to put Izzy to bed but not Toby, haha, bad decision - Izzy didn't end up going to sleep til about 9pm!!), took a quick photo of us...

and then we headed into Exeter. For our meal, we went to Strada. I'd already looked at the menu online and decided what I thought I wanted - Liam thinks this is strange, but it makes me look forward to the meal even more! We both stuck to tap water during the meal, and shared a starter of mushroom risotto balls with a melting mozzarella centre, breaded and fried...

Mmm, these were delicious. They fell apart a bit too easily, but the flavour was great. Liam loved them too, although he kept forgetting what it was that he was eating!!

For my main course, I decided to have a selection of sides as I fancied those more than any of the pizza, pasta etc dishes. The waitress was really accommodating and arranged for them all to be presented on the same plate (luckily, as the table was rather small!). I chose courgette fries, butternut squash with sage butter and pine nuts, and broccoli with chilli butter...

I loved all of this course! The courgette fries were delicious - much better than my homemade attempt - they were quite clearly fried, as you would expect in a restaurant, rather than baked as mine were - and the coating was fantastic. The butternut squash was my favourite part of the meal - cooked to perfection and with a really subtle flavour from the sage butter, allowing the natural sweetness of the squash to shine through. The broccoli was cooked well, but the chilli was a bit too much for me - my lips were stinging!

Luckily, Liam and I both had room for dessert after our mains. (He had salmon with lentils and green beans for his main course - which he said was nice, but I think he missed having stodgy carbs!) Liam stuck to his usual favourite and had a chocolate fondant...

I chose the figs cooked in red wine and cinnamon with marscapone vanilla cream...

This was nice, but didn't quite live up to my expectations. I'd been expecting fresh figs (not sure why, as that would've probably been too mushy) so these were a bit chewy in comparison. The flavour was fantastic though, and the marscapone worked really well. I managed to finish it anyway, so a successful meal in my book!! :)

After our meal, Liam and I walked over to a cocktail bar - Coolings. I was saying on the way over that I felt great - not bloated, not too full, just pleasantly satisfied. I thinking having sides for my main course worked really well, as I often find the pasta or pizza dishes are too large, yet I still end up eating all of it. Plus this way I got to try out several different things which helped with my indecisiveness!

I did begin to feel a bit bloated after my first drink though - I drank it rather quickly I think! Liam had his beloved mojito, and I have an 'Exotic Passion' - vodka, passion fruit liqueur, lemon juice and cranberry juice...

This was really tasty - so fruity and way too easy to drink!

For my second drink, I had a French Martini - I love this glass with the twisty stem!

Delicious, but quite strong! I used to work in a cocktail bar and drink all the cocktails on the menu (not all at once...usually) with no problem - the children are making me get old too quickly!!

After the second round, we decided to head home. It was really nice to get out the house for a few hours and enjoy some time together. We got home to find that Izzy had been up to mischief though - apparently dad had put her to bed at 7.45pm, but then at 8.30pm he heard noises so went to investigate. She was sitting on the kitchen step, with the jar of coconut oil and a knife in her hand! I think he got there just in time, before she tried to eat any though - on quizzing her this morning, it turns out she thought she had the Dark Chocolate Dreams in her hand (both have blue lids) so she'd have been in for an unpleasant surprise!!

Well, that was my evening. I hope everyone else is having a good weekend. We've had a relaxed day today - the children had naps 10am-1.30pm - they were obviously both very tired!! Then this afternoon, Liam took Izzy swimming and I took Toby for a walk in the local park. Toby hates swimming at the moment so I am going to start taking him alone whilst Izzy's at school to get him used to it - at the moment it's frustrating taking them both together as Toby only last 5 minutes in the pool, if that. Hopefully he'll get more used to the water soon!

When you go out to a restaurant, do you look at the menu in advance or do you wait until you get there to decide what you want to have? I always like to have a look at the menu in advance, but I don't always decide exactly what I'll eat. With the Strada menu though, those sides really stood out to me, and a good decision it was! :)

Before I go, don't forget to check out Rachel's giveaway. She is walking a half marathon overnight through London on 1st October, to raise money for Cancer Research UK, and has organised a fantastic International giveaway to help raise more money. Such a great idea. Good luck Rachel! :)

Two Similar Days

The last two days have been pretty similar - smoothie for breakfast, lunch out (in fact the exact same meal!) and easy dinner. Here are the details...

Yesterday morning I felt the need for a bright green smoothie after all the bready foods of the previous day. This lived up to expectations...

Banana, spinach, fresh pineapple, coconut flour, milk and xanthan gum, topped with desiccated coconut...

This was really tasty. The coconut flour probably wasn't necessary as you couldn't really taste it, but the smoothie as a whole was delicious.

This morning's smoothie wasn't so green (and horrible photo as Liam gave back the DSLR this morning, sob!)...

This was a blueberry version of the Cocoa-Raspberry "Pudding" Smoothie, exactly the same but with 75g frozen blueberries instead of 75g frozen raspberries. I need to buy some more raspberries! This was nice, but my favourite is definitely raspberry, then cherry and then this blueberry version.

Both today and yesterday we went out for lunch at the same place - the only restaurant/pub in our town with a large outside space to make the most of the sunshine! Yesterday I went with Liam, daughter and baby to make the most of her last day before back to school, and today I went with Liam (after he got back from handing in his dissertation, yey!), baby, my friend and her boyfriend who were down here on holiday. I ended up eating the same thing both days as it was so delicious yesterday and the menu can be a bit hit-and-miss with limited vegetarian options, so I didn't want to risk a negative experience today (and didn't fancy vegetable pizza which was the only other meat-free option I spotted!) Twice baked Cornish Yarg souffle with deep-fried polenta chips and slow roasted beetroot...

This was so good, the polenta chips were gorgeously crispy, and the twice baked souffle (consistency of a Yorkshire pudding) had lots of yummy melted cheese on it! :)

the beetroot was also great, although there was a bit too much of it yesterday and not enough today. Weirdly the presentation was completely different today...I didn't take any photos, but the polenta chips were just in a pile on the side and there was way less melted cheese :( still really good, but presumably two different chefs!

Both days I also had a glass of Pimms...

Pimms = summer to me! :) Yesterday I also had a bottle of mixed berry Kopparberg cider...

this was nice but made me feel super bloated and groggy - I think the combo of all the bubbles + extra alcohol + no water + sunshine at the beach after made me super dehydrated, not good! Today I just stuck to the one glass of Pimms and felt much better.

Both lunchtimes ended with a walk and then a trip to the ice cream shop. Yesterday I shared a tub of Turkish delight ice cream with baby...

this was ok, but the Turkish delight chunks were super hard (frozen, duh) plus I realised they probably had gelatine in them which grossed me out a bit.

Today I resisted the peer pressure to have an ice cream (my friend didn't want to be the only one having one, but actually she persuaded her boyfriend to have one in the end and Liam and baby of course had them too!) and instead had a 'Cappucino Cool' - coffee milkshake, yes please...

Both days I have had little energy to cook dinner - the heat plus staying up late whilst Liam worked on his dissertation has been draining!! Last night I quickly cooked up some egg fried rice - brown rice fried in a little oil, with frozen peas, sweetcorn and edamame beans and sesame oil added, plus eggs mixed through it. Topped with soy sauce and grated cheese...

simple but yummy! :) Today's dinner used even less effort - the others had fish fingers etc, and I had a couple of slices of seeded toast with some of the leftover butternut squash terrine/pate from Sunday...

Ugly but oh so tasty! :)

There have, of course, also been evening snacks. Last night I ate one of the final (sob!) creme egg cupcakes...

still amazing!

Tonight's snacks have not been photographed but Liam and I have shared a Cadbury's Easter egg and I'm now very tempted to have some vegetable crisps dipped in the last of the butternut squash pate...got the munchies!

Super Saturday

I'm currently waiting for a cake to come out of the oven (will share the details later if it's a success!) so it's the perfect time for a post about yesterday - a great day! It started off with a super green smoothie...

Tropical Green Smoothie

• 1 banana
• 1 pear
• 1/3 of a fresh pineapple
• 2 handfuls spinach
• 60ml vanilla rice milk
• xanthan gum

Topped with toasted coconut flakes...

I loved this! Will definitely be including more smoothies/green smoothies from now on - so refreshing and feels like a great start to the day :) I am however very envious of all of you with decent blenders that can make pure green smoothies - the best my food processor can manage is green with darker green flecks!

Lunch was a quick one as we were off to see her daughter in her dance show. I had wholewheat penne with some peas added for the last few minutes of cooking, served with a "sauce" of sun dried tomato houmous and nutritional yeast...

this was really tasty, and the houmous was such an easy way to make a sauce - I just stirred it and the nutritional yeast through the drained pasta whilst it was still on the hob to warm up, yum.

Then it was time to go to the dance show - daughter was so cute! She was in the second youngest group - the littlies always make the audience go "awww"! & her costume was a bright pink leotard and tiara with fairy wings and a crown, bless! She didn't know all the steps as she'd missed the rehearsals and first couple of performances, but she followed along a second or two behind everyone else...as she had a huge dressing on her neck I hope people wouldn't have thought badly, they all look so cute even if they don't know exactly what they're doing!! Daughter then joined us in the audience to watch Acts 2 + 3, which my sister was in. I was very good and just stuck to water in the intervals - daughter and Liam had ice cream in interval 1 and chocolate in interval 2!!

The reason I managed to resist anything was that Liam and I were going out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary :) We decided to go to a local restaurant we could walk to so we weren't so rushed. For my starter, I had lightly spiced butternut squash...

This was amazing, so thick and creamy, and the spice was delicate but not at all overpowering...I plan to recreate this very soon! :) I also had a mouthful of Liam's starter - roasted pepper and goat's cheese salad (what I would've chosen if the soup of the day hadn't been butternut squash!)...

this was tasty, although piggy that I am, I'd have wanted it to be double the size - my soup was definitely more filling!

For main, I didn't have a lot of choice! When we'd been to this restaurant before, there had been a large choice, with their menu including a pizza section, a salad section and a pasta section as well as more traditional mains. However it had been majorly cut down - to literally 6 items plus another 2 specials - 1 meat, 1 fish. There was only 1 vegetarian option so that's what I went for - artichokes, mushrooms and leeks in a creamy white wine sauce in a puff pastry case...

I hadn't ever had artichokes before and wasn't a fan (I think these were tinned ones which may not have helped?) but the rest of it was tasty, if a bit stodgy. I also had lots of broccoli and mangetout on the side. I was too full for pudding after this (and 2 Pimms & lemonades...summer's on its way!!) but Liam ordered one for himself and I ended up eating almost half of it!! Belgian waffle with fresh fruit and vanilla ice cream...

this was lovely, and lots more fresh fruit than I was expecting - raspberries, strawberries, half a passion fruit, star fruit and a physalis, delish :)

It was so nice to be able to go out for an evening and have conversation that didn't revolve around/get interrupted by the children for once!! And yummy food always helps :)

Today is the opposite - Liam is at work so I am spending time solely with the children - playing with baby, writing with daughter etc, and baking with daughter while baby sleeps...all good fun! :) Yummy smells are now coming from the oven so I better go investigate... have a great Sunday everyone!