no thank you grilled cheeses

Dinner yesterday was delivery from Empire Chinese restaurant- no excuses for my laziness streak but I really haven't felt like cooking lately.

yikes for the crappy picture-- special chow mein noodles

sliced beef with green peppers in a black bean sauce- this was the yummiest out of all the dishes!!

special fried rice

chicken chop suey- I clearly wasn't in the mood to take any pictures as all of them are pretty shittaay!!
The food was aaiight.. nothing to write home to mom about.

Breakfast this morning: Grilled cheese sandwiches sounded like a good idea at the time but by mid morning I was feeling really nauseous and lethargic.. won't be doing that again!!

grilled cheese w. spring onions

The idea of grilled cheeses came about because we didn't have any eggs and I wasn't in the mood for oatmeal.. note to self: always keep eggs in supply!!

new reading material straight from the U.S of A!!

So I went back to Sports Direct this morning because my trainers for lifting/cardio turned out to be for flat footed people so I went and exchanged them for these cute pink ones :)

came back from SD to make myself a quick protein smoothie before hitting the gym for a powerplate class. Creamy, cold, and delicious smoothie deets:

• milk
• frozen banana
• scoop of chocolate protein powder
• 3/4 cup blueberries
• agave nectar

I think the frozen banana made all the difference to the texture of the smoothie. It was the first good one I've made in a while!!

huge plate of leftovers for lunch!

Today was just one of those days that I couldn't really motivate myself to do much more than the powerplate class. My legs felt like jello and I kept trying to push myself to run but my body stopped after 10 minutes. FAIL!!! Oh well.. I'll just have to make up for it when I teach tonight. Today's the start of my first Tuesday's teaching Zumba in Finsbury Park.. Yippee!!!

Song of the day: Gavin DeGraw "Not over you"

I love Nike products

I'm such a sucker for fried foods. Thankfully, I didn't inhale the whole container--- I had T to help :-)

 

more kabobs for dinner from our local takeaway spot. We had some chicken and lamb.

a cup of strawberry cheesecake haagen dazs for dessert!

Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs w. smoked salmon and wholegrain toast.

I needed something to tide me over for my commute to Wimbledon and to sub my second zumba class. The second class was more of a success than the first aka there was more than 1 woman.. maybe 7 this time around?

apple and spoonful of chunky peanut butter for an afternoon snack

I settled on purple even though my heart was secretly leaning towards PINK!

Uhm... I might have an abnormal obsession for Nike products. I'm in lurrrve!! I needed a new pair of running shoes since its been over 6 months since my last purchase and TRUST they were looong overdue!

http://reviews.nike.com/9191/415257/nike-free-xt-quick-fit-womens-training-shoe-reviews/reviews.htm

and a pair of shoes I can lift weights and do zumba in (Nike Free XT Quick Fit). :-) Hot diggity dawg! I'm sure the people at Sports Direct http://www.sportsdirect.com/ weren't too happy with me trying on a bazillion pairs but does anyone know how many Nike shoe products are out there? I swear I could spend all day trying on shoes if I had a million dollars.

Sigh.. shopping for gym gear makes me a happy girl :)

The Big Feastival

T made sushi yesterday with his new sashimi knife and all I have to say is WOWZA! Everything was really fresh and tasted sososososo delicious!

http://www.urbanpath.com/london/fishmongers/steve-hatt.htm

We went to Steve Hatt- the fish monger for fresh salmon, sea bream, mackeral, and scallop. I love Steve Hatt because his fish quality never disappoints!

breakfast this morning was a simple 2 egg omelette with some mature cheddar cheese

We went to Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival because we had won tickets. We had decided previously not to go because we had already been to the Taste of London but we figured why not since these tickets were free. We still had to pay for the food though as the tickets were just for free entry and music. The food vouchers were pretty expensive at £5 a pop and you didn't really get that much food!

http://www.jamieoliver.com/thebigfeastival/

We were a bit disappointed with the lack of organization at this festival. There were tons of people waiting in line for food(there should have been a better serving system or more workers) and people were just sitting in the middle of the grass where a path should have been for people needing to stand in line for food.

Maybe we were just spoiled with Taste of London's festival but we both agreed that this festival didn't really compare. The food was good but it definitely wasn't worth £5 for each dish! Uhm..£5 for a brownie I could have made at home? No gracias!!

a delicious scotch egg

pulled pork with coleslaw

I love the taste of fresh pasta and the kid goat ragu was really delicious as well

I've been meaning to try Wahaca for the longest time but haven't been able to get out there. It's Mexican food that actually tastes like a local mom and pop joint in Chicago. So exciting!!

these pork tacos from Wahaca was by far my favorite eat of the festival. The line was ginormous most of the time we were there too. The meat was so tender and juicy and the flavors were spot on. I love cilantro ! Omg... my mouth is still salivating just thinking about this taco.

http://www.awana.co.uk/

chicken curry and roti from Awana. We've been to Awana twice in the past and its never failed to satisfy my hunger or my taste buds. Everything is always very delicious there!

the line was really long for this okonomi-yaki but it wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was going to be. I thought it could have used a bit more mayo and whatever sauce they top it with.

a triple chocolate brownie to end the Taste (LIES all Lies! it wasn't as chocolatey and in fact tasted like they used sugar substitute or something). After the festival we went to a local pub to watch Nadal lose to Djokovic.. so sad :( I was really pulling for Nadal. I guess my good luck vibes didn't work!! :)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/03/rafael-nadal-novak-djokovic-wimbledon-2011

Time for a bit of relaxation aka Keeping up with the Kardashians and Ice loves Coco- my newest guilty pleasure- hahaha!!

Fourth of July weekend

Protein smoothie after a total body workout at the gym!

• milk
• spinach
• blueberries 
• chocolate protein powder
• banana
• agave nectar
• toppings: choco cherry bear granola, dark chocolate chips, almonds, raisins

my smoothies aren't tasting so great anymore and I think its because I stopped using a mixture of different berries and instead use a single type of berry- this time it was blueberry.

I had leftover lamb biriyani and sauteed kale - a perfect lazy afternoon lunch!

After teaching Zumba, T and I went to see Ghost Stories. We had a couple drinks beforehand JUST in case it lived up to its scary hype.

I didn't really know what to expect but I did think I was going to be pretty creeped out..Unfortunately, it wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. Either I've developed a tougher skin by watching A LOT of scary movies or it just wasn't all that frightening! It was still an enjoyable night out though and I'm glad we got to see it before it ended its run later this month.

Afterwards we grabbed some dinner at ASSA restaurant in Soho

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?client=safari&rls=en&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=assa&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=assa&hnear=0x48761aec186b9a3d:0xa1185c8c9f04020,Camden+Town&cid=16499239970845492574&ei=CvQOTprMFZCIhQeX17jPDQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=photo-link&cd=1&resnum=1&ved=0CD0QnwIoADAA

a side of kimchi and I feel normal again.. sigh I'm happy!

hot stone bowl

T's bibimbap was really tasty with all the right flavor components. He just didn't like the fact they used ground beef.

the crispy and delicious pajun was missing its star ingredient- more seafood. Seems to be a familiar story of the meal..

my poor soondubuchigae didn't have much of anything in it! YIKES!! Donde esta los mariscos??  I definitely wasn't expecting that one. The flavor of the broth was still very delicious though!

Overall, the food was good but I wouldn't go back there unless we were in the area. I still think my favorite Korean spots are Ran restaurant and Arang.

I was still hungry by the end of the meal (don't ask me why!!) and was VERY VERY tempted to stop in McDonalds but I resisted the temptation and boy was I glad this morning! There's no worse feeling than takeout regret the next day..

We had a lovely buttermilk pancake breakfast to make up for going to bed hungry.

I made regular and dark chocolate chip pancakes.

with a side of grapes

and Vermont maple syrup... a little taste of the states :)

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!! I'm going to miss seeing the fireworks this year