Homemade Nakd Bars

This weekend I made some of these beauties for snack time at work.

 I keep reaching for the chocolate now I have a readily available vending machine and it has to stop. So apart from not taking money to work with me I had a go at making my own Nakd bars.

You would not believe how easy they were, I checked a few different recipes on line and it seems that providing you use equal amount dried fruit (mainly dates and sultanas) and nuts, you won't go far wrong. Chuck everything in a blender for a few minutes until everything is chopped up small and combined. Tip out and mould into whatever shape takes your fancy. Individually seal in cling film for freshness and you are done. Yum

So the yellow one is a version of pecan pie, the green one is choco mint, I used a mint options to flavour these, and choco orange with cocoa powder and the rind of an orange.

They all taste great, I might even go so far as to say they are tastier than Nakd bars, I guess because they are a little fresher?

Next time I might experiment with some flavours, maybe cocoa and cinnamon, ginger and lemon or even coffee I'll let you know how it goes.

Week Off

Last week I took a week off work, with the best intentions of getting some wedding to do boxes ticked, and other general household bit's and pieces done.

Well I did some stuff but I'll have to admit I wasn't overly productive.

I made these...

Home made lemon curd, Italian meringue and waffles, from the Meringue Girls cookbook, seriously scrummy.

Played with fire (BBQ at a friends house), had a couple of sessions with my personal trainer, and went to the cinema to see X-Men Days of Future Past, which I loved. Did some wedding crafts,

more on those later.

Knitting,

yoga mat bag that I may have ruined with bad wool, damn me trying to be thrifty with left overs...

And enjoyed a happy hour with my fella.

So I guess I did do stuff, just not the stuff I wanted to do, oh well no point fretting, I had fun at the time.

Surely I'm not the only one that unintentionally wastes time on things not on my lists? Am I?

Lunch on the Bus

Lucky for me the company I work for has just relocated, and we just happen to be next door to this beauty. 

Bacon sarnie, mine didn't last long enough to take a pic, this is half of the take away I got Adam. The bus in the car park of an industrial bakers, and the bread is awe-some. 

They also make a pretty mean custard danish. (Other cakey goods are available)

North at Easter

I think this picture says it all.

We spent the Easter weekend in Stoke saying with a friend, it was just nice not to be at home. We didn't really do much, but we did eat, a lot. But my favourite meal of the whole weekend was this Steak and Stilton Pie with chips peas and gravy. Mmm Mm it was good, I don't think anything I could say would do it justice.

It was really nice to do nothing for a weekend, but I am looking forward to the coming bank holiday, to crack on with a much needed spring clean in the flat. Although if anyone could recommend a cleaner....

Chinese Cooking

    

        

I have been on a bit of a Chinese kick of late* and with the help of Ken Hom I've had a go at some of the old favourites myself.

As you can see from my terrible pictures I had a go at sweet and sour ribs and won tons with a pork and prawn filling.

The ribs were not really to my taste to be honest, the sweet element mostly comes from the lychees and I'm not a big fan of lychees, so I think it was a bit of wishful thinking that I'd enjoy them. I'm not sure if it's the taste as such, I just think they look like eyeballs and it puts me off. Adam liked them though, so half a win.
It was quite a long process too, which I didn't really mind because it was something new, but I don't think I'll be trying them again.

        

The won tons on the other hand were crazy delicious, a little on the salty side but I just have to make a mental note not to add so much in the seasoning if I try them again, which I probably will. The recipe did make a 'ton' of them though, so next time I'll wait till we have friends round and share the love.
I managed to get the skins from a local Chinese supermarket, they come frozen and are really easy to use. They even taste good the day after, we had loads left, the bunch on the plate below was probably about half of them.

It was nice to try something out of my comfort zone, and discover that it's actually not that difficult.



*My Chinese kick was actually a few weeks ago, but I kinda hit a bit of a hobby wall. With the wedding and other projects I had stupidly decided to start, before finishing the last I was feeling a little overwhelmed. So I decided to stop it all including blogging for a while and just focus on 1 project (knitting a jumper) until the feeling passed. Happily I think I have managed to get back some control of my crazy brain, and I'm ready to crack on.  

Food Diary Despair

This is getting desperate, wedding just over 6 months away and I am finding it nigh on impossible to shift these unwanted lbs. For the past month or so I have been exercising for about 1 hour 5 days a week, either running, yoga or a workout with my personal trainer, and nothing is happening. To say I'm disheartened is an understatement!!

So after a particularly gruelling session with my personal trainer and only 1 lb shifted, since last months weigh in, she suggested I keep a food diary. I'm not very good at this sort of thing, I have tried in the past and always manage to miss off snacks, meals, then whole days. So I am really going to have to make the effort to make this work this time. 

I don't think I've been eating terribly, well not during the week anyway. There has been the odd relapse of a weekend but you can't live like a saint all the time right?? Well maybe that's where I've been going wrong, I just don't want everything I do to be affected by what I can or cannot eat. I also don't want to sacrifice even more of my free time to exercise. I admire those who enjoy, and look forward to their hours of exercise each week, but apart from yoga, I am not one of them.

 But one step at a time, I shall keep my evil all seeing food diary for one week, then next Tuesday, it will be picked to pieces by my personal trainer. Who will then make suggestions, and hopefully guide me to that ever distant light at the end of the tunnel.

Bookshop Thai

As part of our New Year goals we made a pact not to order take aways. So at the end of each month if we succeed we can treat ourselves to a night out. So we did it, and Saturday night the Bookshop Thai was our restaurant of choice.

It literally is a Thai restaurant in a bookshop, we love books so being surrounded by them while we ate really was a treat. We were seated in a little nook, quite early evening so it was nice and quiet too.  

I can't remember the names of all the dishes but they were all delicious, we will definitely revisit this little gem.

As you can see I made an attempt to use my camera a bit more, the quality still isn't great and I still have a long way to go, but I'm working on it :o)

Sugar Roses

I don't know if I've mentioned but I am planning to make my own wedding cake. They just seem so expensive and putting the word wedding in front of anything seems to bump up the price ten fold, so I though I would give it a bash. 

We had decided on a traditional fruit cake as this is on of our favourites, it can also be baked months in advance so that would take some of the pressure off. But I still wanted it to look a bit fancy so on Saturday I attended a cake decorating class with my mum and aunt to learn how to make sugar roses.

We started with a tear drop of icing and just started adding petals.

They shape up quite quick,

It can be fiddly and you have to remember to do things in the right order,

I was super pleased with how they came out, a little direction goes a long way.

Also had a quick bash at buttercream roses, they are crazy easy when you know how and have the right tools.

What do you think? Not bad for a first attempt.

We took the class at Dee's Creative Cakes she does do scheduled classed, but you can also book in for a private class if there is something specific you want to do, like we did.

Treat Day!

This is me and my man getting a little over excited about our treat day milkshakes.

Part of a pact we have made for 2014 to help get us into shape is to cut out the take aways and to treat ourselves to 1 treat day a week. Thankfully this weeks treat day fell on my besties birthday, so we headed out to the local American Diner, The Pelican for dinner. It's a lovely little restaurant filled with retro furniture, and American themed food, (They do the best breakfast pancakes). We both went for the deluxe burgers made with homemade patties, cheese and bacon. Accompanied with the above milkshakes and a side of rosemary fries, which are amazing. One of our group even wanted another bowl for afters they are that good.

After we had all had our fill, we headed off to the FILO pub (First in Last Out) for birthday drinks and festivities.

So far we are doing very well with our, 1 treat day and look forward all week to the feasts we plan for the Saturday, I know its only been a week but hopefully the promise of super tasty, naughty food at the end of the week will help us suffer through the healthy, vegtastic week days. Not that the healthy food is horrible, just that we both have a fairly sweet tooth and are quite week willed when it comes to a junk food binge.

I did however fail miserably on one of my other goals for this year, to take more pictures. I took our little camera out with us, and left it in my bag the whole night. Even the above was sent to me by a friend. So I really must try harder with this one and get over my hang ups of whipping out my camera in public. 

2014 Already?

I can't believe we are1 week into 2014 already! Time is just whizzing by.

I've got my new diary, and as always I am going to attempt to be more organised this year. I always have the best of intentions. I don't tend to make resolutions just little deals with myself and targets. This year I am more determined than ever when it come to fitness goals. I do not want to be a fat bride, and I am getting married this year!!

Last year I gave up smoking, I stopped in February and haven't touched one since, which is pretty cool I don't usually have that much resolve so I'm quite proud of myself. Especially as my other half is was a smoker. (He is attempting to give up)

This year I would like to give up take aways. We have been quite bad in the past and anytime we can't be bothered to cook we turn to Just Eat, which shamefully wasn't all that rare. So we have made a pact to resit and for each month we manage it we will treat ourselves to a fancy dinner out. 

I also need to focus on my fitness, start taking my half marathon training seriously and keep signing up to organised runs so I can stay focused. Hopefully combined with eating better this will have the desired results when it comes to slimming down.

I would like to set small yoga targets too like nailing a specific pose, working my way up to a headstand by the end of the year. I know that doesn't sound particularly spectacular but I am no where near at the moment so it would be quite an achievement for me.

Sewing is also on my list, it's something I've had an interest in for a couple of years but never really done anything about, so inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee I am going to give it a go this year, first project to be some pyjama bottoms for Adam. I'll let you know how I get on.

Do you make targets and fresh starts at the start of a new year?

Mince Pie Popcorn

The best thing about Christmas for me is over indulging in all the sweet treats I can possibly handle. 

Thanks to Kirsty Allsop, I decided to add mince pie popcorn to my list this year. 

It was super simple to make, just pop your corn, a couple of dollops of mince meat. Mix it up with your hands so all the popcorn gets covered. 

Then you put it in a tray in a 200 degree oven for about 10 minutes to dry it out and crisp up. That's it. 

So easy to make and even better to share. Enjoy.