Blimey October has come and gone quickly and November is roaring by. I mean in some respect for me October felt like the longest month because of going to Chicago and Toronto but in other ways it’s flown by.
So onto some cool stuff I’ve been trying and loving lately.
I was recently sent a Vietnamese cooking set from Sous Chef.
It’s part of their Christmas gift sets that they have at the moment. I love cooking so I was really excited about this.
And let me tell you, they fully deliver on the ingredients and items in the package! The items included are:
- The Food Of Vietnam cookbook
- Potato Flour
- Chaokoh Coconut Milk
- Vietnamese Rice Paper
- Vietnamese Shrimp Paste
- Rice Vermicelli Noodles
- Vietnamese Fish Sauce
- Hanoi Rice Vinegar
- Tamarind Pulp
- Sous Chef Drawstring Bag
The cookbook is massive (seriously huge!) and contains so many recipes from Luke Nguyen, a renowned Vietnamese chef in Australia. The ingredients are exactly what you need to create an authentic meal and are of fantastic quality.
My dad loves cooking and loves Asian food so this is something I would have certainly considered buying him for Christmas. As it was, I got to do lots of cooking with him using this set. We’ve always enjoyed cooking together since before I went to university when he taught me how to cook and so we LOVED this.
It’s a great idea because a lot of the time when you want to cook a different cuisine you need to source and buy so many of the ingredients. And sometimes that can be tricky if the ingredients aren’t the usual ones we’d find in our supermarkets, whereas with this you have them all ready to go and a host of recipes that need them.
We loved the Crisp silken tofu crusted in lemongrass (mmm so lemony) and the Quy Nhon fish cakes so far!
I’ve also been trying some cool protein powder from REGENATIVE from Whey Forward Health Industries. It’s aimed at protecting cells and tissues from oxidative damage and the general poundings that running and endurance sports can cause.
When you exercise your body produces an increased amount of free radicals, and antioxidants can help clear this up and prevent oxidative stress to your body (causing inflammation, damages muscles and potentially lead to injury). Due to its “bioavailable” form of amino acids within the protein, it also helps with building muscles. And it’s Informed-Sport Certified, which means it has been rigorously batch-tested for banned substances. So no worries about doping, eh! 😉
You can buy it as a monthly delivery pack which gives you:
- 28 individual sachets (Dark Chocolate & Himalayan Salt flavour or unflavoured)
- A cool bamboo storage case
- REGENATIVE® Starter Guide
- REGENATIVE Rechargeable Vortex Mixer
I quite liked having the unflavoured versions as I’m a big fan of plain porridge anyway. You can also add it to soups and things like that as well without compromising the taste. I love protein powder and always put it in my porridge in the morning just to help keep me fuller for longer and get an easy amount of protein early doors.
I also LOVE the Vortex Mixer. Mixing protein powder can be a nightmare but this is incredible. So easy and works fantastically!
Actually, I have recently given it to Kyle as he’s been wanting to up his protein and found trying to mix protein powder with water to drink using a shaker is dreadful as it’s still so lumpy. But with this it mixes in SECONDS and zero lumps. He keeps telling people about it in the office so I think he’s happy haha!
Also, I’m a bit late to the party but I’m loving my Goodr sunglasses that I bought before Chicago.
I mean I haven’t technically had that much of a chance to wear them for running due to my injuries (though I did wear them during the marathon), I love them. They fit perfectly.
It’s nice as well as Kyle got them in a different colour and as they’re one size only we can swap with each other if we fancy a different colour.
And I can’t not mention something sweet and tasty… We’ve recently just finished our office bake off competition. So no more weekly bakes in the office, which is devastating! But we had some truly amazing bakes which made a Monday morning far more enjoyable 😉
These were the overall winner: chocolate lava cakes. Heated up in the microwave for 15 seconds and eaten with a spoon, divine! When that chocolate lava seeps out it’s honestly heavenly.
Do you wear sunglasses to run in?
Do you like Asian cuisine?
Do you think you get enough protein from your diet?
**Full disclaimer: I was sent the Vietnamese food bundle and the protein shake bundle for free in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own honest ones.**
Not only did we go to the cinema last week but we also went out for dinner and then saw Jurassic Park in Concert. Basically this is a showing of Jurassic Park on the big screen with a live orchestra on the stage below the screen playing the soundtrack as the film played. It was INCREDIBLE.
The orchestra were amazing. Like you could forget that they were’t actually part of the film. It was fascinating to watch them play as the film went on (though I imagine they’re so sick of Jurassic Park now having toured around the country doing this!). They were perfectly in sync and it was just so all-encompassing. 
Dinner was pretty good as well. Before the showing, we went to 7Bone Burger. I had the Triple-D burger (which comes with blue cheese sauce and bacon) and halloumi fries…
And a cheeky side of chicken wings. Kyle had a fried chicken burger with halloumi fries and a chocolate milkshake. It was goooood. The milkshake (as I did help Kyle out a bit with it…*cough*) was SUPER thick. Personally I’m not a huge milkshake fan but if I were to have one myself it would be a thick one. It was delicious.
Podcasts: I listen to a number of podcasts every week: BBC Five Live Film Review, Marathon Talk, Empire Film Review, TED Radio Hour, My Dad Wrote a Porno – and dip in and out of other ones that take my interest. But I’ve recently been finding myself running out of them (I listen to them in the car, walking Alfie or when I’m doing boring chores around the house). My lovely friend, 
I listened to the Gary Barlow one first and found it really interesting. It’s amazing how celebrities who are so famous, earning so much money and seemingly living their “best life” can be taken down by depression or body image issues. I’ve since listened to the interview with Mel C and Stephen Fry and both were just as good. Heartily recommend.
I add a couple of cups (as you can see above – the cup doesn’t come with the salts FYI) in the bath and just relax and enjoy. I’ve found it can really decrease how much I’ll ache the next day. I don’t know about injury prevention but it definitely makes me feel better anyway.
Oh my god they were good. There were M&M ones, Hershey’s Cookies and Cream ones and another type that I think were Kinder Bueno that were awesome.
There’s something about blondies that I so love. I mean I do prefer brownies I think but blondies are a nice change now and again.
He’s very much a “I’d rather sleep than do anything else” kind of dog. Well, actually he’d rather eat than do anything else but sleep is a close second. I mean, let’s be honest, I think we all have a little Dylan inside of us all.