The Albion

 

It was a papa johns kind of Saturday afternoon. The thin crust hawaiian wasn't as tasty as I remembered but miraculously, only TWO pieces were left in the end. Who dun eat it!?

Dinner last night was @ The Albion. Please tell me why I've never been there before, its the cutest place AND it has an outside beer garden. Perfection :)

http://www.the-albion.co.uk/

We had the beet root salad to start. It was fresh and really delicious!

We also had the shellfish cocktail with bread and butter. Yuuuuuuuuuum.. It was the perfect balance of prawns, crawfish, lettuce, and a mayo dressing.

Can I please have another!?!

We had to get the cheeseburger since everyone seemed to be ordering them around us. I'm glad we did because it was juicy and ammaaazeballs!!

sauteed spinach (it was supposed to be buttered spinach but it defintiely didn't taste that way!)

as if the first burger picture wasn't good enough. We split this so we could also share the rib-eye

the rib-eye with a side of mashed potaters. We thought the steak could have been more tender and the mash a bit more buttery but all in all, it was still delicious! I would recommend going to the Albion for drinks, outside patio, and then for a later dinner. It was fantastic!

We warmed up a premade sticky toffee pudding for dessert

with some strawberry cheesecake ice cream on top. Mmm mmmm!!

whole wheat w. quail eggs, and shrimp on top of japanese mayo

T made a wonderful breakfast this morning with some quail eggs he bought from Steve Hatt. Quail eggs are so tiny but the flavor of the eggs are really delicious and SUPER cute, eh!?

 

I also watched a chick flick this afternoon because I was loooong way overdue for one. I've read the book and I thought the movie was just as cute!

Charlie Bigham

Recent eats!

I added some additional spinach for more veggies!

gee.. I can't even be bothered to cook my own rice. This is great for quick and easy microwavable brown rice.

 

Breton chix w. a glass of red :)

Keepin it hot!

There was a time I thought I didn't know how to make fluffy eggs. Seriously! It was hard.. but all it takes is a bit of practice and viola! Fluffy egg heaven :)

bananers and peanut butta

Bigham's mac and cheese w. some bok choy sauteed in soy sauce and siracha

http://www.bighams.com/

I'm loving on Charlie Bigham right now..It's perfect for the lazy chef in me.:-)

Amor Amor Amor

more dates and almond butter= perfect fuel prior to subbing another zumba class. I'm still trying to find a balance of teaching zumba, practicing for it, AND working out on my own. Right now I feel like I might be pushing myself too hard but I can't seem to shake this incessant need to learn more choreography. My body won't stop moving even if I tried to tell it to stop!! :) Tis a hard knock life, hehehe...

Lunch: Bigham's chicken and mushroom pie with a side of soy sauced bok choy.

 

the lazy streak continues w. another ready made meal!! Hey at least I didn't stop by Pret this time...

chocolate cake for dessert w. a glass of milk. I polished off the milk but only had a few bites of the cake--it looks amazing but it didn't really taste that great. I felt like they failed at an attempt to make an oreo themed cake.

sigh.. and it had so much potential!

dinner was spinach cannelloni for deux..I like Bigham's addition of seeds for some more yummy texture

and a Margherita pizza express pizza for ME! I swear I'm not eating for two.. I just think I burned enough calories last night to deserve more FOOD!!

T made breakfast this morning as I was still trying to wake up. Yawwwwnnn............

spiced eggs for breakfast w. whole wheat toast

Gym: Back and Chest

• seated low pulley row
• machine chest press
• straight arm pulldown
• incline dumbbell press
• Rest 1 minute and repeat 2 more times
• Lat Pulldown
• incline dumbbell fly
• barbell upright row
• dumbbell front raise
• Rest 1 minute and repeat 2 more times
• STRETCH!!

after the gym, I had some roasted cauliflower and broccoli with another ready made pizza express pizza. This time it was a ham, olive, and mushroom one. I took off most of the ham but left a few salty pieces.

I almost burned both the pizza and the veggies. BAH! I guess I still haven't figured out our oven temperature settings...

Song of the day: Kema- No me dejas solo (damn I wish I understood more Spanish!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QIioRGPBvY

Iberia restaurant

I can't ever seem to take a picture of anything white on my camera. It just ends up being either really bright or kind of blurry. Blergh. After teaching Zumba last night, I was staaarving and wanted something healthy to tide me over until our late dinner.

 

I dug out some about to be expired cottage cheese and topped it with a few macademia nuts. I almost forgot I had some CC in the fridge. Cottage cheese is a great source of protein and its low in fat. It's also really good to eat with fruit like pineapples

http://www.iberiarestaurant.co.uk/index.php

After a small debate over whether to have Ethiopian or Georgian food for dinner, we decided on Iberia.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=iberia+restaurant+london&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=iberia+restaurant&hnear=0x47d8a00baf21de75:0x52963a5addd52a99,Westminster,+London&cid=13563291452518969188&ei=ICMUTrWjN8G3hQeC7fTYDQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ4gkwAA.
We've passed by this restaurant a few times and have always remarked about how we should try it but we've never gone in. Last night seemed as good a night as any to try something different. 

Sparkling water from the mountains in Georgia.

Cold mezza platter for two- roast aubergine in walnut sauce and Georgian spices with pomegranate seeds, spinach steamed with walnuts and Georgian spices, red beans with walnuts and Georgian spices, and marinade red pepper in walnut sauce and Georgian spices with pomegranate seed. Everything was SOOO delicious but the red pepper was especially good!

Hot mezza platter for two- mushrooms stuffed with cheese, green beans with eggs, onions and herbs, spring rolls filled with beef and pork, and red beans steamed with Georgian spices. Yuuum.. Just looking at these pictures makes me want to go back.. like now!!

Flat fried baby chicken in spicy hot sauce served with baby potatoes. The sauce they used for this chicken was out of this world. I literally wanted to eat the entire chicken, bones and all so I could get more of that finger licking sauce. Mmm Mmmm!!!

traditional Georgian dumplings filled with beef and pork. The dumplings were recommended by the owner of the restaurant. The dumplings held the juices of the meat so that when you broke into one, it tasted like eating dumpling soup. I was pretty pleased with the recommendation.

 

The owner of the restaurant also graciously offered to fry up our last two dumplings because he said they didn't taste as good cold. I was super full so I didn't try them but T seemed to enjoy the last two :). I would definitely recommend going to Iberia, especially for their food AND amazing service. The food is perfect comfort food for a rainy or cold day. 

Breakfast this morning was an attempt to make an onion, garlic, and mature cheddar cheese omelet but it ended up having the texture of a fritatta! 

I love the Tone it Up girls!

http://toneitup.com/blog.php?How-to-bounce-back-5119

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"