Fun Times - AnnaTheApple

October 22, 2012

Pumpkins, Pilates and Cinderella

And it’s Monday again! One week closer to Christmas…

This weekend was great. We didn’t really ‘do’ anything but we got a lot done, if that makes sense. Basically, we had no plans to go anywhere but we had a lot of chores to get on with. Mundane things like getting the car washed, then cleaning and vacuuming the inside, putting things up the loft, taking clothes to the Army and Navy… Yep, exciting stuff. I’m a married lady now, this is my life now! And I love it! It’s just nice to get all those niggling jobs done that have been driving me mad. I’m a bit of an obsessive cleaner so I’m in my element.

I saw my sister, brother-in-law and their little girl, Ellie. We gave her her present from Disney World (a Barbie Cinderella) and she was over the moon. Though I ended up having to speak for the Barbie in a ‘princess voice’ for longer than comfortable period of time. Though I think I got off lightly, Ben was her human climbing frame haha.

I also went to a local farm shop to buy a pumpkin. I could have bought so much veg but I refrained as I’m pretty sure Ben would get fed up eating squashes every night…

So I just bought a large pumpkin, a mini pumpkin (a munchkin!) and a corn on the cob. All for under a fiver. Bargain!

How cute is that little thing?? I just had to buy it. For 30p you can hardly not, right? I made a delicious soup with that little guy – which I will share for WIAW soon.

Last week we decided to have a bit of a different meal for Friday night. We tend to have more exciting meals on Friday and Saturday just because it’s the weekend. So I bought some chunky pork ribs from the butchers and a jar of BBQ sauce (I was feeling lazy – I know I could have easily made one myself…next time). So Friday morning I marinated the ribs in the sauce and put it in the fridge. I wasn’t too sure how to cook ribs to be honest so I Googled it as work. FIVE HOURS they said to cook it. Well, that isn’t going to happen for sure! So I found a ‘quick’ recipe for an hour and a half. OK, fair enough, ribs are probably better slow roasted but I’m a busy hungry girl and I really wanted them Friday night. You know when you just really fancy something? Anyway, that evening after roasting them for a ridiculously long time in the oven (almost 2 hours) they were done (or if they weren’t, I didn’t care by this point. It was either uncooked ribs or my own arm that I would have eaten at this point).

They were pretty yummy I have to say. We had one and a half ribs each. I had some veg on the side while Ben had some garlic bread. Thumbs up.

On a food-related side-tangent…I’ve been really enjoying my salads as of late as well. I tend to throw in whatever really, and usually a bit of fruit. Recently it’s plums or mainly figs but I’ve just bought a mango so I’m really looking forward to that.

Salads left-to-right: flaked tinned salmon, goat’s cheese with fig, fried egg, more figs and mozzarella, & homemade paprika hummus and two hard-boiled eggs.

On Saturday I went to my first Pilates class. It was a one-on-one so I get the basics before actually starting a class. It was brilliant. The instructor was very good. Really good at giving direction and clearly knew her stuff! We used the reformer machine [see below picture] as well, which I was so excited about.

My legs were in the air and everything. It was crazy. The hour whizzed by. I’m going again next Saturday and I’m so excited. I wanted a less intense exercise to strengthen and stretch my muscles, and this was perfect. The only tricky part was how technical it all was. Imprinting your spine, inhaling here, exhaling there, neutral position…a lot of technical jargon that I need to master. But it’ll come I guess.

So that was pretty much it! Here’s what I’m wearing.

Blazer and belt from New Look, top from Warehouse, jeans from Top Shop.

I’m loving the blazer look – stylish while warm! The best kind of outfits in my opinion.

What did you get up to over the weekend?

Have you done Pilates before?

October 19, 2012October 19, 2012

Honeymoon–Part 2 (Colorado)

Hi guys! If you missed the first part of my recent honeymoon, please go have a read. It was a great week in Orlando Now to carry on to part two…

After Orlando, we caught a flight to Houston (random I know) and then to Colorado Springs. We spent enough time in Houston airport to need to grab some lunch. We went to Cat Cora’s Kitchen. It was very good – sweet potato fries, where have you been all my life?

[Beetroot and rocket salad with goat’s cheese on bread & fish burger with salsa and sweet potato fries]

And after checking out every single damn shop in Houston airport while we waited (for FOUR hours) we caught our fight to Colorado Springs.

For our first day we decided to go horse riding in Garden of the Gods. We felt very cowboy-esque. My horse was super speedy, while Ben’s took his sweet time.

It was an amazing day! And baking hot! I thought it’d be cold but it was so warm. It was so much fun horse riding through this beautiful scenery. Such a difference from Orlando!

We also went mountain biking twice as well. The first time it was still so hot. I got badly sunburnt (whoops). We cycled some crazy routes through the Red Rock Canyon for about 2.5 hours. We were shattered.

Check out my cool helmet!

It was quite scary at times but definitely exhilarating. We had to get off the bikes at times and walk because it got a bit precarious. I could just hear my mother’s voice in my ear telling me to go back to safety…

And the second day of biking it was freezing. It was crazy hot one day and then the temperature dropped so quickly.

[Ben was clearly too cool to wear his helmet. Safety first!]

We cycled to keep warm! We saw an elk as we were cycling along as well which was really cool. We were one with nature…careening through the wilderness.

We were intending on driving up Pikes Peaks (the main peak in Colorado) but it would have taken two hours apparently to drive it and so this is why we decided to do the biking again as we enjoyed it so much

And we did lots of walking. It was just so beautiful. Towards the end of our time there it just got so cold it was unbelievable. Really biting wind.

[That’s my ‘hurry up and take the damn photo I’m cold’ face]

We made a road trip out to the Royal Gorge Bridge as well one day. Absolute fantastic views. Though pretty much everything was closed – apparently out of season. No white-water rafting for us! We were sad but it was so cold we were quite relieved.

Food-wise was a culinary delight in Colorado. IHOP for breakfast every day, yes please!

I’d like to point out that the left-hand side are mine and the right are Ben. Don’t get me wrong, pancakes and sweet things like that are yummy for breakfast but all that cream and sauce…my stomach just turns.

The meals in Colorado were really good. For lunch one day we went to a Black-Eyed Pea for something a bit more relaxed and ‘lunchy’. I got a turkey meal with two added vegetable sides (my kinda sides!)

It looks like a crazy roast dinner! And a little portion of cranberry sauce on the side. I think the bready thing in the corner was cornbread. It didn’t taste very healthy but it was very good!

For dinner one night we went to a Mexican restaurant and, unsurprisingly, the meal was HUGE, but very yummy.

Spiced pork with pineapple, rice, black beans, guacamole, sour green, salsa and a rolled tortilla in the foil. I just don’t understand how someone can eat all of that?? I gave it my best effort.

[Thought I’d do a little before and after!]

I didn’t even make a stab at the tortilla. Poor effort maybe, but I think I did pretty well!

I’ve shown quite a few of the meals I’ve had on the honeymoon and most of them probably weren’t that healthy (hello, turkey leg). But I think it’s important to relax a bit on holiday and try things you might not have normally. We were fairly active and we didn’t go absolutely mad so I think the ‘damage’ is fairly minimal. My jeans still fit and that’s all that matters! I can’t be one of those people who goes on holiday and worries and frets and not enjoy myself. I know I eat healthily at home and I exercise so I knew when I got home things would balance out. That’s not to say that if Pinkberry became available in Southampton I wouldn’t have it every ~~day~~ week…

Other than lots more sight-seeing, walking, eating and just having fun, that’s pretty much it! And the perfect end to the holiday was on the flight home:

I slept well on that flight

So that’s my recap! We had an amazing time. We really had fun together, a little adventure if you like. And we’re so excited about the future and our life together (sorry, a bit sappy).

I hope you enjoyed it! Has anyone else been to Colorado?

October 17, 2012January 5, 2017

Holiday best eats

Happy Wednesday! Are we there already? I don’t know why but I feel in quite a happy place.

I like being back in my routine as well. Sad I know but that’s me I guess!

So for this WIAW I thought I’d do a What I ate Wednesday on our holiday that I really enjoyed (and mourn over not being able to have any more). [Check out Jenn’s blog for more info on WIAW!]

Breakfast: Though I love my porridge, IHOP breakfasts in Colorado were amazing. We went there every day for breakfast. The staff were so friendly and lovely. After the first day of us saying we were on our honeymoon they remembered us and asked each day what we were up to and divulged some inside tips.

Most mornings I’d have whole-wheat toast, scrambled egg, turkey bacon and fruit. Obviously with the amazingness that is sugar-free syrup.

But then on a day when I knew we wouldn’t be having lunch until a lot later, I went for something a bit more extravagant.

Waffles with blueberries!! Oh these were so good. I want a waffle-maker now. I don’t care that we don’t have the space in our teeny tiny kitchen. I want one.

So breakfast was pretty damn tasty. And refills on coffee. Heaven. Now, I think it’s only right that I share what Ben ate as well…purely for comparison purposes…

Yep, both those plates are his. He loved it. Apparently the crêpes were his pudding.

For lunch one day we went to a great Mediterranean restaurant (also in Colorado) called Café Caspian. Normally once a day we’d have a big meal where we’d have a starter and a main and usually that was dinner, but when we checked the menu out we knew we just had to have the sharing meze platter to start.

[Sorry for the bad photo. The lighting wasn’t the best!]

Honestly, this was epic. Hummus, sundried tomatoes, vine leaves stuffed with some crazily yummy rice concoction, olives, falafels… The only problem was that it was huge and I still had a main course to go. So we had to be selective and couldn’t possibly eat it all. So good though.

Then for main I’d gone for a salad (which after that beast of a starter I was quite relieved).

But still it was a monster! Avocado, chicken, feta, almonds, olives…all my protein in one meal basically. Honestly, I wish I could eat this every day.

Dinner: But the absolute best place we ate was in Orlando – so good we went there twice. Seasons 52.

When they seated us they asked us where we were from because of our accents and if it was a special occasion. We said it was our honeymoon. Then the waiter brought us champagne!!

So lovely (notice how quickly Ben’s disappeared haha). And the menu was fantastic. I literally could have had anything off of it. The specials change every week due to the changing seasons (hence the name), which is brilliant! For starter I had a chicken skewer with apple slaw:

It was huge though – honestly, is that a starter?? I was full when I’d finished that (too good to leave any).

For main I’d chosen a vegetarian selection platter:

How amazing does that look? There were roasted sprouts, a stuffed pepper, marinated tofu, roasted butternut squash, a wholemeal tortilla with black beans and guacamole…etc. Presentation alone ranks this high up on my list of amazing dinners. I almost (almost) regretted having a starter. I tried to eat as much of everything as I could but I’m sad to say I couldn’t eat it all – honestly, I’d give a prize to anyone who could eat both that starter and the main with no issues!

And how can you say no to pudding when the waiter brings out a selection tray to show you, despite saying “Oh no I’m waaay too full”??

And they’re only ever so tiny… This delectable delight was pumpkin pie with a ginger snap crust. Perfectly in season, wouldn’t you agree?

Needless to say I was STUFFED. Alongside my meal I’d decided to treat myself to a cocktail (because I had all that spare space to fill, you know). I went for a Superfruit Martini (Veev Açai Spirit, Pom pomegranate-blueberry juice with organic agave nectar). Seriously, that sounds like an Anna drink.

The waiter even left the cocktail shaker for me to top it up with the ‘left-overs’. I was so excited. I took a sip and almost died. I have literally never tasted anything worse in my life. It was like nail polish remover. I tried to get Ben to drink it but even he wouldn’t have it. I started to panic. The waiter had made such a song and dance about it and I had acted so excited. I just couldn’t drink it though. I thought about pouring it inconspicuously into my water but Ben forbade me (yep, forbade). So after panicking and faffing I thought I’d just tell the waiter it wasn’t my thing and apologise (I know this sounds ridiculous but the waiter had just been so lovely the whole night and was so pleased with my selection). Anyway while I was faffing, the waiter popped over quickly and said “How’s the cocktail?” and I just automatically said “Oh yes it’s lovely, thank you.” Ben just stared at me as if I’d gone mad. “Well there goes your plan”. Damn.

Well in the end I decided just to leave it and SAY NOTHING. I’m such a numpty! Looking back it’s funny now how much I panicked. The waiter probably wouldn’t have cared. But I didn’t want to look like an idiot and also have the risk of him saying he’d take it off the bill and get in trouble or something. It was my foolish mistake for choosing a martini. It’s not like it was going to taste like a smoothie, duh Anna.

So as you can see, the honeymoon was filled with massive amounts of food so many yummy foods. It’s definitely given me some inspiration to make some crazy recipes. Also made me realise I have irrational urge to eat waffles. All. The. Time. That’s normal right?

Fitness-wise…it’s been tough, I’m not gonna lie. 5.30am is not an Anna-friendly time to get up and run after being on a break for two weeks – though I haven’t slacked. But I have some plans on jazzing things up a bit so stay-tuned for a post coming up where I go into a bit more detail (including my up and coming half-marathon training plan).

Hope you enjoyed my holiday eats – I sure did!

October 14, 2012January 5, 2017

Holiday –part 1 (Orlando)

Hi guys! Well, I’m back to 100% Anna now. Back into the groove of work. It’s quite nice to have nothing to worry about or stress about. No more mad planning and just free weekends! It’s novel. I can get back on track with things that slid to one side this year. Like sprucing up our little home a bit as since we moved in last November we didn’t majorly deck it out with any sort of decorations. I’d like to buy some pictures and things like that to make things a bit more homey. Oh and Alfie is in a definite need of a haircut! He’s a mess.

So, I thought I’d do a recap of our holiday adventures. We spent six days in Orlando and then four days in Colorado Springs. So, here’s how Orlando went:

The taxi picked us up at 4.45am. We were half asleep as you can imagine. But by the time we got to the airport it was breakfast time (5am was breakfast time my tummy was telling me, but I waited). We treated ourselves to a Jamie Oliver breakfast:

Check that bad boy out. Not my usual porridge – but it’s Jamie’s so what can I say! I don’t eat sausage though (worst food in any form) so Ben gladly traded it for his black pudding. Yum.

Anyway, after a very very long flight we arrived in Orlando. Groggy and tired we basically just went to bed (in our amazing three bedroom villa!) It worked out nicely because we’d gone to bed so early (Orlando time) we woke up the next day at like 5.30am and so got started straight away. To save money and time, we decided to buy a load of food from the supermarket and eat breakfast at home before dashing to a theme park (also I’m a bit sad and get very excited with foreign supermarkets so it was a win-win situation).

Obviously I had porridge. American style! (Actually not that different from UK…) And Ben had a crazy array of cereals each day:

Each day we zoomed off to the parks. We went to Universal Studios and Island of Adventures first.

It was brilliant. It was fairly quiet so we got on rides very quickly. We were like kids running around with big smiles on our faces. Obviously we had to go to Jurassic Park (my all-time favourite movie – despite being terrified of velociraptors for the majority of my childhood).

And Harry Potter world as well…

Where we shared a BUTTERBEER!!! Pretty much heaven in a drink. I dare not to think of how bad it is for you but seriously, I need this in my life on a weekly basis:

Divine.

Do you know what else was amazing? The sheer amount of sweets.

Hello candy-coated apples! Of simply every variety. Cue Ben holding Anna back before she spends all their money on teeth-rotting goodies. The chocolate/marshmallow/caramel/peanut butter coated apples are healthy though, right? There’s fruit in there somewhere…

For lunch we decided that it was just too hot to buy something from a vendor and sit outside eating. We went to a great restaurant (twice) on the City Walk: Emeril’s Restaurant.

[Anticlockwise: Rotisserie chicken and Andouille gumbo, BBQ prawns, Salmon with stewed beans and smashed avocado, & roasted trout with artichokes and rocket]

After two days of Universal, we then went to Disney. In complete juxtaposition to Universal it was so busy! We were surprised as it’s supposed to be the quiet season right? But maybe there is no quiet time for Disney…

We went to Hollywood Studios in the morning and then headed to Magical Kingdom for the afternoon. We got there around lunchtime and it was packed. We decided to try finding a restaurant to eat (=cooler). Epic fail.

Now, withhold your judgement please… Throughout the parks I’d been seeing people eat HUGE turkey legs. Now I’m not a massive meat eater but I had begun craving one of these bad boys to an irrational level. I just had to have one.

I’ll spare you the pictures because, people, it wasn’t pretty (good ol’ husband snapping away while I tried not to look like a savage). Despite lacking a lot of feminine grace while gnawing away on the beast, it tasted AMAZING. Out of idle curiosity I later Googled it. 1,200 CALORIES. I was aghast. Ben laughed. But what can you do? No wonder it tasted so damn good.

Disney wasn’t as good as we thought to be honest. A lot of children. A lot of Disney-obsessed people. We enjoyed it, but it didn’t rock our world like Universal.

The next day was spent in Busch Gardens which was EMPTY. We went on everything and even got on the front of the roller coasters quite a lot. It was good fun. Lots of animals as well!

We grabbed lunch while watching some crazy dancing in one of the indoor canteens. On a similar carnivorous note to before I went for ribs with a side of veggies. Ribs are a bit of my devil food. I LOVE them but I try not to eat them too often as they’re usually always coated in that delicious BBQ sauce which probably has about 5 tbs of sugar in it. But hey, it’s holiday, and they were the speciality. Would be rude not to…

[Apologies if I’m offending any vegetarians/vegans – sometimes I just can’t control the beast within]

We did manage some slightly less rich food by eating in the villa (and saving us some money) and trying out some more local restaurants and enjoying their salads.

[Chicken, avocado, lots of fruit and seeds. Yum!]

And between parks and rollercoasters we enjoyed the pool.

Though it was verrrry chilly. But nice and refreshing after all the humidity and heat.

We spent one day away from the main tourist area and looked around Winter Park which is a very beautiful area with nice eating spots and coffee shops. It was nice to take a moment out!

All in all, Orlando was amazing. We went on every ride we wanted to (some twice) and really had a great time. Having the villa was brilliant as we could just come back and have something simple to eat at home or swim in our private pool! It definitely saved us some money as well.

So, part two will be on our adventures in Colorado. Horse riding, bike riding and lots of mountains!

October 12, 2012January 5, 2017

Hello Reality

Hello! I’m going to do a couple of recaps of the holiday as well but I need a bit more time as it requires sorting through hundreds of photos (yep, I got that holiday feeling of MUST TAKE A PHOTO OF EVERYTHING). So please stay tuned, I hope to have the first one rocked out by the weekend

As jet-lag goes, it didn’t affect me too bad. I fell asleep stupidly early Sunday and Monday night and now I’m back into the rhythm of UK bedtimes and mornings. Though it was a horrific shock of the alarm going off a 5.30am Wednesday to get me up for my first run post-holiday. Though we did get up relatively early during our holiday (I think the latest we stayed in bed was 8am) it was still horrible. No consolation of IHOP for breakfast or roller-coasters in a few hours. Nope, just the cold dark British weather and slug-dodging. Anyway, it was tough (to be expected I suppose). I like to think we didn’t massively indulge on the holiday and we kept fairly active. But it was still tough.

Just over 2 miles. Not my best time. But I congratulated myself on getting out there anyway. I also did some ab work afterwards which wasn’t so tough. I guess general fitness declines quicker than muscle.

I’m thoroughly enjoying our normal meals again though. Don’t get me wrong, eating in America was AMAZING. But the portion-sizes are quite hefty and I’m a starter and a main girl so it was heavy going. Oh, here’s a question for any Americans out there, why do the waiters/waitresses bring out the main meal when you’re still eating your starter?? We were quite baffled.

And the sweets….and FRO-YO. Seriously, Britain, get your act together. We don’t have enough fro-yo places around.

Yogilove…self-serve. Disaster. Eyes waaay to big for the stomach (toppings including). Not that I left any! Pinkberry was definitely the best though. So creamy.

You get that holiday feeling of “I’ll never get to eat this again!”. So as you can imagine, by the end of the holiday we had over-dosed a bit on food and eating out. I just wanted some normal Anna-friendly food. Also, I think I’ll definitely be holding back on Diet Coke for a bit – free refills!! Monster glasses. Heaven.

Anyway, so eating our normal meals (easy salads, chicken with roasted veg, omelettes) is great. Though one thing that I will try and continue that I picked up from America is drinking Bud Light. I’m not a beer drinker but I tried some of Ben’s and it was so refreshing! Definitely be on the look out for that.

So in the spirit of a new era (sort of), I’ve signed up to the Reading Half-Marathon! It’s in March so ages away to worry about just yet. But it’s something I can now work towards and dread look forward to. And I’ve signed up to Pilates on Saturday mornings! I get a one-to-one session to begin with (in a couple of weeks time) and then I get to join the ‘proper’ group. I’m so excited. Things are a-changing! Well, they’re mildly different.

Hope you’re having a good day! Bit of rambling post I’m afraid.

How do you recover from a holiday?