restaurant - AnnaTheApple

May 22, 2013

What I Ate at the Weekend

Hi lovely people! Thanks for your nice comments regarding my last post. I really do worry too much about the most stupid things, don’t I? In the great scheme of things, it just doesn’t matter!

And it’s WIAW already. Unbelievable. Check out Jenn’s blog Peas and Crayons to get involved or just for a nosey about.

Here’s some bits and pieces of what I ate over the weekend.

Breakfast (*sighs* fat lot of good that did me on Saturday…) was my standard oatmeal and almond milk:

I had this both Saturday morning and Sunday.

Saturday and Sunday lunch were exactly the same as for some reason we had an overload of eggs in the house. I personally blame the husband for he did the food shop…

Saturday, I made kind of a frittata/omelette.

I used tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, onions and three eggs and then big blobs of cream cheese. With this I had Brussels, a bit of lettuce and beets.

On Sunday Ben and me had to rush back after our 10k race and eat lunch super fast to go out and meet our friends. So this happened:

Not nearly as pretty. It sort of failed – flopped if you will. But the taste was absolutely fine. That’s all that matters…right??

We had a great afternoon then hanging out with my friends at a local country park where there was a farm you could look around.

We had a lovely time waking round looking at all the animals. And we saw a sheep being sheered as well. The sheep was seriously not happy. To be fair, nor would I be. It’s not that warm at the moment…And it looked naked afterwards!

And we saw some ducklings and chicks. One of them we named the Smurf Chick because it was blue!! Apparently its dye marking had run a bit. Awww.

We even got to try milking a cow! The farmer said we could try our hands at milking Buttercup the cow, who I must say was very accommodating. Then they got the machine and showed us how they machine milk a cow.

Buttercup can produce 40 pints a day. Jeeze. The farm can’t sell the milk as it hasn’t been pasteurised (so it’s raw milk) and you need a special licence. The staff there can drink it and use it themselves but they can’t let anyone else try it or have any. The farm try and use as much as they can with making cheese, cream and lots of puddings during their lunch and dinner breaks and also feeding other animals but unfortunately a lot has to be wasted. Such a shame.

Dinner on Saturday night was two tortilla pizzas:

Times by two

Lots of veggies, chicken and BBQ sauce and a bit of goat’s cheese. Perfect. I’m all about the toppings for pizza. We were going to buy some make-your-pizzas from Sainsbury’s (as is our post-race standard dinner) but we were so busy we never got to the shop so we had to make do with a proper DIY version. Still good in my book!

Dinner on Sunday was a meal out with the friends after the farm visit. We went to our local Harvester. Though the Harvester chain isn’t going to win any awards any time soon for inventive cooking or fine dining, it was pretty good for an inexpensive relaxed meal.

And an all you can eat salad bar?? Amazing. And when I ordered a Diet Coke the barmaid then pointed to the refill machine and I, embarrassingly, got overly excited by this prospect – free refills?? It’s been a while…I was significantly caffeined up that evening

As soon as I saw BBQ ribs on the menu I was set.

And alongside this there was a corn on the cob. Yum!! We had such a laugh with our friends it was a great end to the weekend.

Ben and I were shattered when we got home. Such a busy weekend of running, fun times and good food. Just the way I like it!

For me weekends are all about enjoying good food. I quite like going out for dinner or lunch one day (though we don’t always manage it). I also like to spend the time on a Saturday night making a good recipe that I wouldn’t get the chance to make during the busy week because it takes a bit longer. Weekends are also about enjoying some less healthy snacks, like slices of cake, a good pudding or ice cream. Don’t get me wrong, these things can appear during the week but it’s not always possible and it’s nice to really appreciate it when watching a good film or spending some fun times with your friends.

Do you eat differently at the weekend?

Raw milk: would you ever try it? I was disappointed we didn’t get to try it but understood the reasoning behind. From what the man said to us, it sounded like it was quite heavy and creamy.

What’s your favourite meal? I think BBQ ribs are definitely one of my favourites.

What’s your favourite way to eat eggs? I do like fried eggs but as a meal I like omelettes or scrambled egg with loads of added extras. I’m all about variety!

May 13, 2013

Marwell Zoo 10k race recap

Hello! How was your weekend? Mine went crazily slow (Saturday) and then crazily fast (Sunday). We survived our 10k Marwell Zoo race, hurray!

Saturday Ben and me did an easy ‘shake-out’ run in the morning to loosen us up ready for the race the next day. I know some people like to leave a couple of days before a race and not run at all but I’m in the boat of tapering down during the week but always doing a really easy 2-3mile run the day before. Maybe it’s psychological, but I find it helps.

Then we pretty much did nothing but get all the chores done, walk Alfie on a lovely sunny walk (an hour later it tipped it down) and watched Grey’s Anatomy (series 8). On a side not, we finished House of Cards. So. Good. Watch it immediately.

For lunch Ben and I don’t usually have the same thing at the weekend (though for dinner we do). This is because Ben loves having either a corned beef sandwich or an egg mayo sandwich. Neither of which I like. I mean seriously, why ruin perfectly good egg with mayo?? He’s stopped eating corned beef though after the horse meat scandal. Gross.

I was umming and arr-ing and really didn’t know what I fancied. I knew we had mozzarella that needed using up and as I’m currently addicted to BBQ sauce I thought I’d just have BBQ chicken with mozzarella all mixed together.

Excellent random meal if I do say so myself! Really simple: chopped chicken breast, random veg (zucchini, mushrooms, onion), BBQ sauce (any would work but I love Heinz) and then a whole ball of low-fat mozzarella chopped into chunks. Fry the onion, then add the veg, then the chicken and some spices (I used a random chicken mix), big squirt in the BBQ sauce and then add the mozzarella.

For dinner I had my favourite (and now standard pre-race night tradition) make-your-own pizza (chicken, veg, no cheese).

And then we had an early night, bless our old-married-couple cotton socks.

In the morning we woke up naturally bright and early before our alarms (which felt really nice actually) and took Alfie on a quick walk and then proceeded to spend the morning being nervous.

Does anyone else get stupidly nervous before a race? I just had butterflies in my stomach the whole morning (which was longer than planned as we had woken up earlier than expected – we had time to ruminate haha). We had breakfast and then Ben’s mum and my parent’s arrived and off we went in convoy to get there. It wasn’t far away at all so we were there in no time.

The race starts in the zoo and we had free entry because we were running but the parents would have had to pay to see us start (which was quite expensive per person). Bit cheeky really but I hey ho. So they waited outside with other spectators to wait until we ran out of the zoo (only the first mile was actually in the zoo).

It was quite busy and we were both still very nervous. After being delayed for 20 mins, we finally said goodbye and stood by our respective pace markers. We weren’t going to run together as we have different paces, but both of us had a time in mind to finish.

I saw someone I knew at the start which was quite nice so chatted away to them before beginning. I was a bit worried as we weren’t allowed to wear headphones as the roads wouldn’t be closed. I don’t usually run with nothing.

And then we were off! The first mile was uphill and through the zoo, which was quite fun as we got to see some animals. Though I only actually remember seeing ostriches (and then that Family Guy quote came into my head “why are there so many ostriches??” and made me laugh).

The first mile was TOUGH. I had a game plan of each mile pace I wanted to stick to to get my time. I stupidly went faster than I should. My first mile should have been 7.30mins but I did it in just under 7mins. Whoops.

Coming out of the zoo seeing my parents and Ben’s mum, blissfully unaware of the pain to come

And by mile 2 we were still hitting the hills. I couldn’t believe how tough I was finding it. So I brought my pace back down (who am I kidding, the hills brought it down!)

Mile 3 to 4 are a blur of pain and mental determination. I had heard the course was “undulating” but seriously it was killing me. I remember thinking how much I enjoyed the Reading Half-Marathon and was able to zone out. There was zero enjoyment in this run. ZERO zoning out. It was pure psychological concentration and determination to Just. Keep. Running.

The sun was shining and I was hot. I even grabbed water from the water stations TWICE which I never do. Though I only really manage to throw it over myself. How the hell do you run and drink from a plastic cup?? Mile 4 also welcomed the beginnings of a stitch which followed me to the end.

Mile 5 I remember there being less hills. More down hills. Thank God.

I also saw my parents and mother-in-law again and they cheered me on. This was much needed at this point.

They were able to take a photo

And then we were back in the zoo for the last dregs and finished!

Overall, yes it was hugely tough. I remember looking at my watch quite a bit and wishing the miles away. I remember not looking up at hills and looking at the ground because I knew it would knock my confidence if I saw for how long the incline went.

However, I also remember the exhilaration of finishing. I remember being cheered on by random spectators and my running club members. I remember being amazed at how I could maintain my pace despite the hills.

My official time was 43mins 34secs. 9th female, 64th overall out of 917. I’m very pleased I was aiming for 45mins and wasn’t even certain I’d get that with the hills. Here are my Garmin times:

Ben’s time was 57mins 15secs. A full 8 minutes faster than he had planned!! I was over the moon for him and he was very chuffed.

And do you know what topped off the race finish? They were giving out apples with the goodie bags. Seriously. They knew I was coming

So what comes after running? Food! Obviously Well actually, a quick hop back home to shower and then FOOD. Again in convoy with the parents.

Good food with the husband and parents. You just can’t beat it.

And Ben made it 8 weeks without drinking!! So he had his celebratory pint with the meal. He thoroughly enjoyed it obviously hehe.

I’m so proud of him!

For the first course…This is getting seriously predictable. But Ben and I shared a mezze board to start. I know, I know.

I just love them.

And for mains I went for BBQ chicken (oh God, I really am becoming a boring broken record) with avocado and bacon salad.

Heavenly. Ben got the same and asked me what the ‘green things’ were. That’s avocado, Ben…*sighs* I love him regardless though

Then we parted ways with the parents, got home and collapsed on the sofa. That’s where we pretty much stayed.

All in all, a perfect weekend I’d say!

I definitely think that 10k races are pushing my boundaries of what I prefer to run. I enjoyed running the half marathon far more than the 10k. I’m definitely more of a distance runner and 10k is just on that cusp I think. Saying that, I should be doing a 5k Parkrun this Saturday!! I just know it’s going to be painful…

What did you get up to this weekend?

What’s your perfect post-race meal?

What’s your favourite running distance? I think mine is a half-marathon (though 10 miles is my favourite running distance, but I’ve yet to run a 10mile race)

Hills – are they the bane of your running/cycling life? I hate hills. I hate wind as well. Wind and hills = Anna goes home.

May 6, 2013

Bank Holiday Weekend

Hi guys! If you live in Britain, I hope you’ve been enjoying the lovely weather (if you’ve been as fortunate as us in the South to have so much sunshine) and the Bank holiday weekend. I hope the weather is just as nice where you are!

Beautiful blossom tree on my walk with Alfie

This weekend has been a mixture of being busy and doing nothing. Perfect combination I’m sure you’ll agree!

Friday night Ben and me went over to my parents’ house to enjoy a sneaky Indian take-away. I much prefer the Indian take-away near their house than ours. They know us well which is rather embarrassing but makes it feel homey.

Since moving out (actually, since going to university) whenever I came home I’d always raid my parents’ cupboards for anything nice. I know it’s wrong. I don’t do it without them knowing (most of the time ). They just tend to buy stuff I’d never buy as it’s either too expensive or I don’t know if I’ll like it or not so won’t want to waste my money. So I ~~steal~~ borrow it from my loving parents. It’s a very similar situation with my mum’s nail varnish/handbag/shoe collection. She doesn’t mind…sort of.

Anyway, this time my mum seemed to have gone crazy with buying loads of different herbal and normal tea bags.

Sooo I did a bit of sampling to take home with me…as you do.

Only problem is when I got home I don’t know what is what. So it’s a bit of a tea adventure. Ben helped me sniff out the Chai ones as apparently he has a talent in identifying cinnamon. He’s a keeper!

I think I enjoyed a Sunshine Grey Saturday morning, but who knows!!

Anyway so Saturday morning I got up and ran my usual long run (9 miles) which was a) tough in the warmer weather and b) tough after a spicy Indian take-away the night before. Pre-run food it is not.

Then I got back and did the housework. Not much different to most Saturdays! I went on a little adventure to Waitrose to have a mosey around. Does anyone else do that? Just go for a little trip to the supermarket just to have a look? It’s a fun activity for me. I can’t believe I’ve just admitted that.

I literally walked up and down every aisle just browsing around. I don’t get to go to Waitrose that often as it’s quite far away and expensive. I managed to spend a fair bit of money on nothing that we needed. You know how it is…you see stuff you don’t necessarily need but want… In the end I came away with several tins of tinned pumpkin, Ambrosia rice pudding and tapioca, a jelly with sweets in it for Ben as a pressie and a new porridge bowl for me. It could have been a lot worse. I was quite refrained. It’s a good job it’s not closer!

Saturday night we went out with our couple friend (you know, friends who are a couple – is there a better way to say that?). We went to a Brazil all-you-can eat (‘rodizio’) restaurant. Oh. My. God. It was good.

You sit down, order drinks, fill your plate high with salad from the salad buffet (though actually more than just salad really – they had meatballs, fries, fried banana things – which Ben adored; he had six of them).

Check out that bad boy of a selection platter. We’ve got refried beans, fried mushrooms, Greek salad, battered mackerel, black eyed peas and tuna salad mix, meatballs, green beans, broccoli and salad. And no, that is not the only plateful I got.

Then you turn over your magic card to the green side and the waiters bring round meat to your table to carve for you to add to your plate.

Sirloin steak, rump steak, venison, pork, gammon, chicken drumsticks, roast turkey, king prawns, ribs, sausages, chicken wrapped in bacon, and chicken hearts. Yes chicken hearts.

I pretty much had everything but the steaks, sausages and drumsticks. I even tried a heart. Small and chewy. We literally all tried one at the same time. It was the culinary equivalent of a shot. Tasted like chicken.

And I even had myself a strawberry capirinha cocktail.

And maybe a few jugs of Sangria were shared…

Honestly, I was STUFFED. Like uncomfortably full stuffed. We all were. It was just really hard to not keep going. They kept coming round with more meat that we hadn’t tried and well…we just kept eating. But it was good fun.

Needless to say I was looking after a hefty food baby when I got home and had to ‘sit and chill’ for a bit before going to bed.

Sunday morning I was surprised that I was actually hungry in the morning. My body is a strange thing. Ben’s mum came over and helped with some gardening. Now gardening is neither my forté nor my favourite thing to do. So I did some cupboard organising while they worked away like troopers and then I helped a bit at the end…I know where my talents lie I am massively impressed at what they achieved and hugely grateful for my mother-in-law’s expertise and help.

This is what it looked like before.

But without the flowers. Basically we just had two main plants and then a barren wasteland of cracked soil because Ben and me are rubbish with anything that requires more than watering. One of those plants is a blueberry plant and honestly I have no idea how it survived. It’s a fighter.

And this is what it looks like now.

So much tidier and easier to deal with now. It looks rather posh, if I do say so myself!

My little blueberry plant is standing strong

And the cupboards are all nice and clean and organised as well

Monday I got up and ran an even warmer 6 miles. Really, really tough. My legs felt like lead.

Not fun. Enough said.

Then I enjoyed a bit of solo shopping. Don’t get me wrong, I love going with my mum or friends or Ben (if I fancy enduring his sighs and not-so-subtle moaning), but sometimes it’s nice to whizz round on a mission by yourself. I stopped for a take-away coffee with hazelnut syrup and then speeded on.

The only tough thing is trying to decide if something looks nice. Which involves a lot of photo taking and sending the pictures to Ben to ~~harass~~ ask him for his opinion.

Lots of dresses were purchased (even though I told myself to buy something other than dresses). And a pair of wedges, yay!

And a few tops. A very good haul!

Now I’m just relaxing. All in all an entirely fabulous Bank holiday weekend.

What have you gotten up to this weekend? Have you had the Monday off?

Have you been to an all-you-can eat restaurant before? They are my nemesis…I just can’t stop myself.

Do you enjoy gardening?

April 21, 2013

10 o’clock brownies

Hi guys, hope you all had a great weekend. I completely de-stressed myself after my busy week. And the sun came out which was just perfect.

Friday night I had planned to leave work at a reasonable time to get home and have a nice long evening with my two favourite Bens. My husband and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream Obviously though this meant leaving work an hour and a half after intended. *sighs* But the consolation of it being Friday was good enough to not dampen my mood.

We had steak again for dinner which was perfection.

With loads of salad and goat’s cheese. Oh this was heaven. Sticky, sweet goodness.

Then we had Ben and Jerry’s (Vermonster for Ben & chocolate brownie fro-yo for me) while we watched Savages.

It was really good. I was so surprised. There were a couple of scenes I had to run out of the room for (read: torture & nasty deaths) but otherwise really good. Salma Hayek was brilliant in it, though Blake Lively was pretty much Serena from Gossip Girl.

Saturday morning I went for my usual long run.

I took it nice and easy and just enjoyed it. The weather was great so I could wear my capris rather than my long leggings. It felt so refreshing to be out in the sun first thing. I really do love my long weekend run. Yeah OK sometimes it’s tough, but I just slow down a bit and take it easy. It’s not always about speed. This is a run where I try not to care what pace I do, I just love the distance.

The rest of Saturday was the usual chore-doing business and not one but two lovely walks with Alfie and Ben in the beautiful sunshine. We walked Alfie just before lunch and then in the afternoon I was just itching to get outside again and somehow managed to persuade Ben to join me again. Whenever it gets sunny I have this immense need to get out of the house and into the sun. I’m worried it won’t last! Get it while it’s ~~hot~~ shining!

And I got my hair cut.

I wanted quite a bit taken off as it’s just got so long. It’s such a hassle to wash, comb, blow-dry and straighten in the morning. Seriously, I feel my life ebbing away with the amount of time I spend on it.

So I said to the lady to take about three inches off and make it a bit more interesting with some layers. Then as she just began blow-drying it the power went! I had to go home with wet hair, which was a bit of a bummer as I love going to the hairdressers as it’s nice someone else having to deal with my hair rather than just me! Ah well. I did get a discount.

Saturday evening we got dressed up to go out for dinner. OK my hair doesn’t look much different to before I know.

But to me it’s a HUGE change. So much lighter in weight and shorter. I also wore my favourite but most painful pumps. I love them, but they hurt so much But I thought I wouldn’t be doing much walking anyway so it didn’t matter.

We drove to the village where I used to live with my parents, about 20 minutes away, to a beautiful little pub on the seafront.

The pub is just there on the left, but look at that sunshine!!

We had a mezze board to start. I know, I’m so predictable. I just love mezze boards.

I also love my husband. He traded me the falafels for the pitta bread. A definite win in my eyes. And he doesn’t like olives.

For main I was torn beautiful butternut squash with feta cheese or BBQ chicken.

So I went with the BBQ chicken. Seriously I can’t get enough BBQ at the moment. And it came with huge chunky potato wedges. They were so crispy and dunking them in ketchup was just heaven.

We were then going to meet friends for a drink at the same pub but we finished earlier than we expected so we went for a walk along the seafront.

It was a little nippy, but so clear.

Beautiful! Though I massively regretted wearing those damn painful shoes.

Unfortunately, because this is the area I grew up in and went to school, I bumped into a bunch of boys who back in the day were the ‘popular’ guys. I politely said hello, as you do, and they said hello and then a couple of them burst out laughing in my face. Seriously I felt like I was 15 again. My group of friends and I were the ‘boffs’ and weren’t cool back in school. We did our homework and got good grades. We weren’t bullied or anything like that, but we weren’t part of the cool gang. It just felt terrible to feel that small at 24.

Anyway, when I met up with my friends we all laughed about it and thought what idiots they are. We are all quite happy in our careers, with partners or husbands, having moved out and making our way in life. They haven’t. They’re still living the dream that ended quite a few years ago.

It felt great to catch up my friends and a few of us ordered pudding at 10pm. Brownie with honeycomb hash ice cream (no photo I’m afraid, some things don’t last long enough for that sort of thing!).

Friends and brownie. Life’s medicine.

Now it’s Sunday. We had a lazy morning watching the London marathon – so inspiring! The 30 seconds of silence for Boston was really lovely. And wow seriously, those elite athletes were SUPER FAST. And I chuckled to see this picture on Twitter:

Love it!

So now I’m still enjoying a relaxing day of blissful sunshine, chicken with BBQ sauce, and cuddles with this guy:

No matter how many times he’ll spread his kibble over the newly washed kitchen floor, malt all over the just hoovered sofas, drip his wet beard all over the floor after drinking water, bark at every person who walks past our house, I will still love him. Just

What have you been up to this weekend?

Did you watch the London marathon?

Do you ever have moments where you’re brought right back to how it was in school?

April 15, 2013

Steak, chicken and peanut flour pancakes

Ah Monday. So we meet again.

Seems like just a few seconds ago it was Friday and I was leaving work. Ah well. And it seemed to rain from Friday until Saturday night.

This is the dismal view from the window by my desk at work. It looks like February. It felt like February.

Friday night I decided to whip up a different meal from usual. You might have seen that I eat a lot of chicken and not much other meat. I don’t mind pork and I don’t mind beef mince but I can’t stand lamb. Not sure why but there we go. Anyway, I saw a recipe and knew I needed to try it. Main ingredient? Steak.

Basically it’s steak with a honey marinade and goat’s cheese salad. I used THIS recipe but subbed the gorgonzola for goat’s cheese just because I love goat’s cheese. I also left out the walnuts and portabella mushroom as I thought I’d keep it simple.

The marinade was this:

pinch of sea salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
2 tbs. honey
1 tbs. soy sauce
good splash of Worcestershire sauce

I used thin steaks (as the recipe says) which I was glad for as I’m not that adventurous to try a big old thick steak. They took next to no time to fry. So a very simple meal all in all. And very tasty. The goat’s cheese and steak went perfectly together.

Then we watched a whole lotta House of Cards (the new series we’ve gotten into as we signed up to Netflix). I love Kevin Spacey, there is something strangely attractive about him and his smooth talking. Am I alone in this?

Saturday morning I managed to dodge the rain and get out for a 9 mile run before it started again with a vengeance about 30 mins after I got back. I knew that the run would be tough because of Thursday’s super charged run. Honestly, even if I wanted to run faster I couldn’t have. My legs were so fatigued.

As soon as I started I knew it was going to be tough, so I kept the pace easy and just enjoyed being outside listening to my podcast. Sometimes it’s good to just let your mind wander and just relax into a nice pace.

And guess what I had for breakfast afterwards? You’ll be forgiven for guessing oatmeal, but I had something different. Yes. I know, shocking.

I was going to have some basic pancakes but realised I didn’t actually have any regular flour. Ages ago I bought some peanut flour but have never used it so I thought I might as well give it a whirl.

Peanut Flour Pancakes (Serves 1)

1/4 cup peanut flour
1 tbs. oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tbs. sugar/alternate preferred sweetener
2 egg whites/1 egg
1/4 cup almond milk (or regular milk)
pinch of salt

– Basically, mix all the ingredients together, then heat a tsp. oil in a frying pan and pour in the mixture in batches to make about 4-5 pancakes.

– Then add your favourite topping! I served mine with some mango that needed using up.

A random choice perhaps and not particularly beautiful but it tasted pretty good. To be honest, I couldn’t really taste the peanut flour. It tasted just like normal pancakes, but I guess the mango could have helped disguise any differences hehe.

Hurrah a different breakfast for once! Though I did miss my oatmeal…well, you can’t have everything

After getting ready we then had to take Alfie to the vets for his booster injection.

Bless him, he was all fine in the waiting room sniffing around but as soon as we got into the vet’s room he was not a happy bunny. And he really didn’t want his injection and tried as hard as he could to avoid it But in the end it was fine. Honestly he’s a big girl’s blouse. Also, check out the crazy dog hair products you can buy.

They were £9.99 for a spray to make your dog’s fur smell nice. I don’t even spend £10 on my own shampoo!! I think Alfie would be offended if we suddenly turned him into a pampered pooch. In his mind I’m sure he believes he’s a big scary Rottweiler (incidentally, one of my friends has a 2-1 shampoo and conditioner for her pug…).

Saturday evening we met up with Ben’s mum and went out for dinner at a local pub. Usually this pub is quite nice; we’ve been a fair few times. But it wasn’t amazing. Ben and me shared a mezze board for starters which was tasty but nothing spectacular (and we know our mezze boards!)

The falafels were nice, as was the hummus and obviously the sweet potato was good if not a bit huge for a starter. But three olives? Hmmm. And the square pastry things were tasteless.

The main I was really excited about, but the portion was quite small considering it was one of the more expensive things on the menu and this isn’t a fine dinning restaurant, it’s just a regular pub!

It was turbot steak with mango salsa and more sweet potato. The two bits of sweet potato at the top were actually from Ben as he had them with his meal and didn’t want them. They must have had a stupid amount of sweet potato in the that kitchen!!

It was tasty but just a bit small (I was grateful for Ben’s off casts – though I was feeling a bit sweet potato’ed out by this point). But the company was lovely and we had a good natter

Sunday (today) we enjoyed another roast chicken, this time a bit bigger and I left it to roast without adding anything to it as I wanted some plain meat for other meals in the week.

I love how the house smells when you’re cooking a roast! So warming.

I had a whole lot of chicken with veg and, er, yeah more sweet potato…I obviously wasn’t put off too much last night! Deliciously simple. I could have made gravy to go with it but we just fancied something really fresh and simple. And Ben wanted to drown his with lots of garlic mayo sauce. Lovely.

Speaking of Ben…he was keen for me to mention that he’s still going well with not drinking alcohol (he gave up four weeks ago in effort to get more healthy, run more and be ready for the 10k which is in 4 weeks time). Unfortunately his running has had to stop for a bit as he’s had some knee and back issues but hopefully, after seeing the physio a few times, he’ll be raring to go again. Though he is counting down the days until he can have a glass of wine again haha.

*** I’m still waiting to hear back from SlimKicker regarding the giveaway, I’ll post the winner as soon as I know***

What did you get up to this weekend?

What’s your favourite way to roast a chicken?

Do you have a dog? What’s his feelings on the vets?