Healthy Sashimi

4 days to go and counting

Breakfast: Oats so Simple Golden Syrup porridge pot

Lunch: Wagamama chicken ramen

Dinner: Cucumber sushi, salmon and beef sashimi, cooked prawns and egged sushi rice.

Snacks: No snacks today

Today was the last Monday I’ll ever spend in the office and so far, I’m not feeling any sadness at all. Once again, I’ve not had any work to do and as my Boss was sat next to me, I managed to find ‘stuff’ to do, which made it look like I wasn’t browsing random forums for most of the day. Whilst I have now concluded that I am, ‘officially bored of porridge’, I still have 5 pots of the stuff to use up, so had a pot for breakfast whilst talking to my lovely work colleague.

Last night, lovely work colleague and I went to the Cinema to watched ‘Ted 2’ – It was OK, a couple of funny ‘Heh’ moments in it, however I wouldn’t say it was an Oscar winning film by any standards. Lovely work colleague was telling me about a festival she went to and how she kissed her tattooist :-) Apparently it’s not going to go anywhere, but she seemed happy enough, so good for her, if you’re single, why not?

I don’t know if I’m unusual, however if my period is late, I always find that it’s heavier in general and sadly this month it looks like one of the SAW Horror films down there. Whilst I’m pretty un-phased about this, having had periods since I was 9 (If I have any daughters, it would be nice if they could start puberty later, I think starting so early was rather rubbish) the constant stomach ache has been rather unpleasant. 

In the ‘before time’, I’d usually console myself with chocolate or ‘treat’ myself to a takeaway as I was feeling a bit down in the dumps, however I’m still trying not to use food as an emotional crutch, so when I went to Wagamamas with my lovely work colleague and another work colleague (who is lovely, but we’re not as close) I stuck to ordering and eating my usual – the Chicken ramen dish which is one of the healthiest main dishes you can order.

After lunch, I took a quick detour so that I could grab a couple of things at Tescos, as I had another friend coming over after work and wanted to cook her some ‘Japanese awesomeness’ and with Japanese dishes, the fresher = the better. The rest of the afternoon was rather dull, so I made the time go faster by researching what my Boyfriend and I could do this weekend as we’re going away for a night…. Not that he knows where, as it’s still a secret :-) I found a Bee Farm nearby to where we’re staying and some really nice National Trust properties – so noted down the postcodes for Saturday and Sunday.

I left work at 4:30 as 'Why not?' and as soon as I got home, I started making the sushi rice as you need to let it stand for a minimum of 45 minutes before you can work with it. As my friend is also trying to eat healthy I thought I make her a sushi / sashimi dish with some extra rice and egg on the side. I kind of made it up as I went along, however I think it looks pretty awesome.

Tomorrow I'm working from home, so I plan to have a long lie in and then see how productive I can be tomorrow. As I'm officially still working, I'm mostly bound to my house and if any emails come in, I will of course, answer them.. However apart from that? Hrm.. I might try and sort out my kitchen cupboard which is rather crowded at the moment... Rock and Roll!

I'm famous!!!!

So in the grand scheme of things, I'm saying 'famous', however I guess it's all about context :-)

I buy two magazines a month and have been buying the same magazines for over 3 years. I've got my BBC Good Food Magazine which is great for telling me when the latest food festivals are, what interesting food is out there to try and giving me some really interesting new recipes to try - However, the magazine doesn't focus on healthy food. There may be an article or a few pages devoted to low fat / low calorie / low carb recipes / gluten free recipes etc, however it's not a regular thing and whilst all recipes give you the calorie content, fat content and all the other usual contents, if you're trying to eat healthy, it's not the best magazine to support your goals.

I also get the 'Healthy Good Food Magazine'- half the size of the BBC Good Food magazine and not as much content, however it's purely focussed on eating healthy so every recipe you read about, is good for you and not laden in fat or calories. I like both magazines and tend to rip out any that I want to try and put them in my 'owl folder' - a massive lever-arch binder that has a picture of an owl on it (Classy, I know). Last month, when my magazines were delivered, I tweeted 'My new Healthy Good Food Guide has arrived!' - This month, when my magazine was delivered, I started reading it and... I'm in print! Wow! Check it out! :-) Form an orderly queue for autographs.....

Today has been pretty awesome. Firstly, My boyfriend and I went to an antiques auction which unfortunately meant we needed to get up at 7:00am - This was quite painful for me as I haven't been sleeping well recently, however the prospect of adding to my already crowded house was impetus enough to get up, have a shower and reacquaint myself with another kipper for breakfast. Mr Kipper shared the plate with some scrambled egg (made from the last egg I had left in the box) Whilst small, it was enough to keep me going for a while, healthy and also made a change from the last 5 days worth of porridge.

After we got to the auction and had a look round, I was rather disappointed. Nothing stood out and shouted 'Buy me! it doesn't matter that you've already got 5 Oak coffers in your two bedroom house, you *need* me as well'. That being said, I did find a golden mirror that looks pretty gothic and a small camphor wood chest which I thought might make friends with the two camphor wood chests I've already got in my house, so I did an absent bid and we headed off to another auction house before gong back home to grab some lunch.

In my vegetable box this week, Riverford had kindly given me broad beans. I haven't eaten broad beans in years and don't think I've ever cooked them before. When I first saw them, I was flummoxed as to what I could use them in, however Riverford had thoughtfully provided a few suggestions on a recipe card - One of them being 'broad bean dip'. I decided this was a good idea as it seemed like a different type of houmous and as we know.... I love houmous :-) It was really easy to make as well:

1. Grab loads of broad beans.

2. Shell aforesaid bean into a saucepan

3. Boil for approx 4 minutes.

4. Stick in colander and cool with cold water.

5. They'll look all wrinkly, so it's easy to pop them out of their harder, lighter green shell.

6. Once you've shelled them all. Place into blender.

7. Add a squirt of lemon juice, some cumin, some salt and one clove of garlic

8. Add some half fat creme fraiche to make it taste a bit richer and blend!

Done :-) 

I have to say, I thought I did rather well for a first attempt. After eating the lot of it, my mouth did taste quite strongly of garlic, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as I wasn't planning on going clubbing and kissing anyone! 

We headed off to Malborough for yet more antiques shops and after we'd wandered round them, we headed back home, at which point, I get an email from the auction house telling me that I'd won everything I'd bin on! Hurrah - God knows where I'm going to put things, however I'm sure I'll find a space and when I've got them back to my house, I'll take photos and proudly display them on my blog :-) 

Once we got home, we watched an episode of 'Kevin McCloud's escape to the wild' or as my Boyfriend likes to call him 'K-Dog' (If you've never read about the Grand Designs drinking game, you should Google it, it's really amusing) A bit of 'chill time' was really welcome before we embarked on the mammoth task of dinner - I say 'mammoth task', my dinner was incredibly easy to make as I'd decided I'd make sashimi.

If you have a COSTCO near you and like salmon - Go and investigate! My boyfriend found a 1Kg salmon for under £13 and the quality was stunning. I grabbed some from one end and cut it into strips, whilst frying a small top side steak I found reduced from Marks and Sepencers. I love my steak blue, so it took me approximately 3 minutes of effort to cook. Most effort came with making the sushi rice, which to be fair, just needed to be boiled for 12 minutes and then left with the lid on for 45 minutes and hey presto... Dinner was ready.

As it's been such a beautiful day, I suggested we eat dinner in my garden, sitting on a blanket. My boyfriend had cooked the rest of the salmon and as he's doing his Atkin-esque diet, decided to just eat that on its own with some salad cream. It looked nice, but for me, that type of eating wouldn't be sustainable and therefore we were very happy to help each other in the kitchen, but stick to our own meal plans.

It's been a lovely, lovely day and we're now going to head out for a quiet drink at a lovely pub and enjoy the nice weather. 

Happy Saturday everyone!