Summertime and livin's easy

We’re having an Indian summer over here in London- whaaat whaaat! (hands are up in the air) :-) 

Don’t ask me why but “summertime and livin’s easy” Sublime song just came up in my head. I love that song! I just took our dog outside this morning and it is REALLY nice outside and it’s only 10 a.m. I would have expected the weather to turn on us already but it hasn’t. This makes me extremely happy!

Now if only I could shift to externally display this happiness. It’s hard to be happy when you just feel tired all day.

Yesterday was no exception. Even though T had gotten 3 hours of sleep, he stepped out and got lunch for us.  A few of our favorite things.

beef Jamaican patty- it was somewhat dry

Everything tasted just okay. We might have been spoiled by all the wonderful Jamaican food we had at Notting Hill's Carnival this past August. This just doesn't compare..

I'm not sure of the name of the place but it was some place further down Caledonian road from our flat. Based on what we ate, I don't think we'll be making another visit :(

The flavor of the Jerk chicken was there but the meat was dry and that didn't really help bring out the spices.

The curried goat had the same problem, everything just tasted dried out and not as fresh. I did enjoy the rice and peas tho!

we also had some spicy chicken wings on the plate. Talk about a healthy lunch!! ;)

After lunch, I took a long nap and rehearsed some moves for my Zumba class I taught later that night. 

Dinner was just some reheated leftovers from lunch and chinese the other night. I also sauteed some mushrooms for the veggie portion of the meal.

mushrooms sauted in: evoo, fresh minced garlic, salt, pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, and siracha= yum!!

I got part of my amazon shipment yesterday, wee hoo! I've recently discovered how convenient and cheap things can be when ordered through Amazon.... uh oh.. this could get veerry dangerous real quick!

breakfast this morning: scrambled eggs w. ketchup and 1/2 of the butt end of whole wheat toast. Does anyone like eating the butt end of bread? I guess I don't particularly mind that much, but I think most people just toss them.

I later made myself a smoothie because I thought I was still hungry (aka my stomach was making noise). But it's still gurgling! Oops- I think I may have mistaken dehydration for hunger.. argh!!

at least the smoothie was peanut buttery delicious. And check out that awesome color!

In the VITAmix:

• soy milk
• frozen blueberries
• frozen banana
• heaping scoop of smooth, no sugar added peanut butter
• generous squeeze of agave nectar
• toppings: a little muesli and dark chocolate chips

Fun workout to do: Tone it Up's Rush workout. I'll be saving this for another day because I'm going to PUNCH today! Can't wait to get some of those exercise endorphins running through my body later.
http://toneitup.com/blog.php?RUSH-WORKOUT-5188

Sushi couch date

Last night was quite uneventful. Sushi. Couch. Me. Date :) Excuse the crappy Iphone pictures!

I ordered delivery from My Sushi Club, and got an assortment of schtuff: California temaki, spider temaki, eel and avocado temaki, egg nigiri, and eel nigiri.

nom.. nom.. nom..

veggie deluxe: avocado, asparagus, and cucumber..

spicy mayo to dip

my babes wanted part of the eating action.

ob-sessed!

I forgot to post pics from dinner that we had last Wednesday at Addis restaurant, one of three (maybe even more!) Ethiopian restaurants on Caledonian road. I love that we are so close to all of them because Ethopian food is after my own heart, it’s spicy and super tasty.

http://www.addisrestaurant.co.uk/

 

hommous and fried aubergine to start. The aubergine didn't feel fried at all because it was smothered in a smoky gravy that was really good.

Injera bread to Africans is like chopsticks to Asians; you eat everything with this sour bread and your fingers. The bread was darker than most we've had, but I swear it was tastier!

On top: awaze tibs- lamb, doro wot-chicken, yetesom beyaynetu- vegetarian dish with cabbage, carrots, chickpeas, and potatoes

I liked Addis more than Merkato and Marathon because I thought the flavours were a lot cleaner and it felt looked and tasted less oily. Yummy!!

Breakfast this morning: Since the hubby is in bed, I didn't really feel like making a big production over breakfast so I made myself a protein smoothie. Poor T, he came to bed at 7:30 a.m. this morning! All work and no play :(

in the mix:

• unsweetened soy milk
• frozen banana
• frozen berries
• scoop of chocolate powder
• spinach
• agave nectar
• toppings: cranberry and maple muesli, almonds, goji berries, pumpkin seeds

Coulda Woulda Shoulda

Today was my course introduction at London Met, and if I learned one thing, it’s that it’s going to be a very long year.

I seriously would be more excited about it if I didn't miss 1/2 of my introduction. I thought my intro started at 11. That was what my welcome print out told me!  Apparently, that time can change from the day you print it out to the day you have to show up! Can someone please tell me how that happens without any sort of notification?? I was not a happy camper! The building is very complicated to navigate through and if it hadn't have been for the one (the first one told me to follow the wrong group that was leaving the building!!) helpful London Met guide, I would be travelling in circles fo sho!

I'm trying to stay positive here but it's sort of hard with no friends, and being surrounded by kids much much younger than I am!! Patience Hanna. PATIENCE! 

Well at least my morning started off on a good note with a lovely bowl of blueberry oats. For anyone that has a hard time getting in their 5 a day of fruits and veggies, I recommend sneaking in fruit whenever possible- for me, it has always been in smoothies and oats!

His and Her's oats. I topped mine with almond butter and topped his with speculoos crunchy!

I needed the extra protein in mine to get through my workout and to hussle straight afterwards to my course meeting.

in the mix:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup water
• frozen blueberries (dethawed while cooking on stove)
• maple syrup
• dash of salt

In the gym: 3 sets, 8-10 reps, 3 minute quick warm up on treadmill

• lat pulldown (25kg)
• hammer curls (5kg)
• seated row (20 kg)
• bicep dumbbell curls (5kg)
• barbell row (15kg)
• barbell bicep curl (10kg)
• Stretch

I was starving by the time I got home from the meeting and it was only 12:30! I quickly made another Tiger Tiger noodle lunch.

veggies- red peppers, red onions, spinach, garlic

all combined in schezuan sauce and a squeeze of siracha

a delicious vegetarian AND GF lunch :)

Last night was a better representation of a good day. I got to see Crazy, Stupid, Love **Ryan Gosling- heart SWOON!!!** and play catch up with some lovely ladies. It's nice to be social every once and a while ;). The movie was super cute but dinner was L-A-M-E. We went to the Banana Tree that serves pan Asian cuisine. Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda known a restaurant that’s trying to do too many things wouldn't be that great! I got the Pho and with the exception of me being super hungry, it was pretty lackluster in taste and quality. At least we tried!

Agenda: Hmm.. I got nothin!

turkey balls to the wall

I was inspired last night to make another recipe from ELR's website. I'm still steam rolling through recipes! Could be that I really have nothing better to do this weekend since T is working and I have no friends!! :-) It's alright, I'll always have the Noms.

http://www.eatliverun.com/let-me-feed-you-a-meatball/

meatballs n sauce served on top of whole wheat pasta.

 

It was pretty tasty. I think the only thing I would tweak next time is that I'll use panko bread crumbs because I used regular bread crumbs and I wasn't a huge fan. Maybe using panko will make all the different.

On to dessert! I made Katie's Chocolate Rice Krispie treats that are SUPER easy and quick to make. They literally took 10 minutes to prep and were ready to eat after popping them in the freezer for 30 minutes. Love it!

mixture of peanut butter, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, salt, and agave syrup

poured over 3 cups of rice krispie cereal and combined

per Katie's instructions, I pressed down VERY VERY firmly.

after 30 minutes, these puppies were cut into squares and placed in the fridge for storage. I snuck in a big piece of course :)  YUM!!! Chocolate + peanut butter= perfection!

After dinner and dessert, I called it a night on the couch with:

Chili and Football

It's time for some FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! maybe...

blergh.. I mean chili... honestly; I need to find someone who wants to go watch a game with me pronto. Seriously, this season is going to pass me by and I'm not going to know anything that's going on!!!!! Sigh. Ah, the daily struggles I go through ;-)

Here's the chili I made last night at 11p.m. after watching the first episode of Season 3's Glee. I'm not really digging the episode, but I'm really digging this spicy chili.

http://www.eatliverun.com/turkey-and-bean-chili/

I added in a couple different ingredients because #1 I live in the UK and some peppers are hard to find in stores #2 it wouldn't be me if I didn't screw something up or something tasted a bit funky from the original recipe

• 1 serrano chili pepper, minced---instead of a serrano pepper, I used a non spicy piquillo red pepper and added in more jalapeno, and cayenne pepper.
  
• tablespoon of honey and tablespoon of brown sugar-- I added this in because the chili tasted a bit sour and adding these two ingredients fixed that problem up real quick!

the recipe was super easy and fun to make!

The reason why I made this so late at night was because I was waiting on my groceries to be delivered between 9-10 p.m. from Ocado (our online delivery) and the guy was 20 minutes late with my schtuff!! No one was going to stop me from making my chili last night :-). To make things slightly easier, I measured out and combined all the dry spices in a bowl that was ready to go when the groceries arrived. 

I've discovered my secret to not getting frustrated with cooking and the mess that often comes with working int he kitchen. I often prep things in advanced. I'll put on some music, chop, combine the veggies, measure, and mix the dry ingredients, etc. I divide the recipe into sections so it doesn't seem as daunting. Now this might seem straightforward to you but to someone who isn't so skilled in the kitchen, I approach everything with a different set of eyes.

topped with some light sour cream, cheese, and scallions= YUM!!!

The chili was borderline dangerously spicy but O' SO GOOD! 

Did I mention we already ate dinner prior to me making chili? :-)

Hanguk umshik from Ceena.
http://www.ceena.co/ceena/index.asp

yukejang spicy soup- clear glass noodles, beef, mondu combined with a spicy, delicious broth

bbq chicken on top of not so good fried rice. The rice was hard and seemed undercooked.

beef bibimbap with spicy sauce

Rewind back to lunch:

leftover fish pie with broccolini spears

I've never tried broccolini spears before, and I think I'll try them again but next time make sure to cook them all the way through. These were a bit on the raw side.

My chocolate pie turned out pretty damn good! Excuse the poor picture that doesn't do the taste of the pie justice; it was the perfect size to satisfy my chocolate craving.

Agenda on this lovely Saturday morning (it's not really lovely since I have a minor headache but I'm trying to will it to be a good day!!): Enrollment at London Met, maybe get a workout in (BIG maybe), relax