Day 37 - Tree Time

Once again I failed to cook anything this evening and I'm worried it's becoming a little bit of a habit due to this working marlarky. I shall need to get back on things next week!

Instead, Gerry and I opted to eat out and after a tour around our local restaurants we hit an old faithful in Banana Tree. It always has a great buzzy atmosphere because it's so busy but this did mean we ended up sharing a table with another couple. I was slightly annoyed by this fact but once I'd had my first sip of white wine such thoughts ebbed away and we looked at the menu that I should probably know by heart by now. 

We ordered a starter to share of chicken satay with peanut sauce which is always a good shout. They give you a good plentiful portion, with chunks of cucumber and whole peanuts and the chicken is crispy and succulent. We polished this off quickly!

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

For our main courses, I went for something a little different to normal and chose a Thai salad with tilapia fish. They mistakenly served me a starter version of the salad,  which I obviously questioned and I ended up with the main course version for the price of  the starter - result! After the starter, I was starting to regret ordering something so healthy, fearing it would not be filling enough, especially since everyone around me had delicious looking stir fries and curries but I needn't have worried. The salad was actually really nice, plenty of fresh herbs, vegetables and chilli's with a light lemony dressing. The tilapia was lightly dusted in flour and spices and then fried and complemented the salad perfectly. I think I shall order it again! Gerry chose a noodle soup with chicken, which she said had a pretty tidy kick to it!

Thai Salad with Tilapia 

We had a good meal, I can't fault the food and my only gripe about tonight was again a slightly poor service. I understand it was busy but the lady serving us didn't even check that our food was ok and we had to flag down another waiter to change my salad for the correct size. Also, we weren't offered drink refills and honestly they could have got at least 2 more glasses of wine out of me, so their loss I suppose but my wallet's gain. It was a shame because now twice in a week I've had a meal out that was slightly marred by sloppy service. Can anyone recommend somewhere with the best service they ever received in London? I'm open to all suggestions!

Day 24 - Super Fit Sunday

Today I have been overly energetic and weirdly not as hungry as I supposed I should be.  I skipped breakfast to fit in my Wii Active session before I was due to head up to the gym with my little sis.  It would be our first session!  Well this was the plan, it was all going fine up until my little sis had car troubles which set us back an hour or so.  However, she got here in the end and we walked to the gym.  We only joined today so it was impressive that we were able to go immediately - big up to The Gym Group. We did a good little workout of 45mins cardio on the running machine, cross trainer and rowing machine and 30mins on the various weight and toning machines before laughing at our attempt to do sit-ups with a medicine ball.  It works the stomach I can tell you!  It was a good session to ease ourselves into the whole process and one of many to come I hope!  It's very good to spend a little time with family and I love the fact that A lives so close at the moment.

Gym over I headed home as the stomach was getting fairly famished since it was now around 3pm.  I stopped for a sushi hit from the supermarket.  I know it's not good sushi in any respect but a little guilty pleasure of mine that I indulge in from time to time. Especially if it is adorned by a little yellow sticker...

Anyway, real food was needed but sweet potatoes were done and dusted so I had a little left over veggie moussaka and small baked potato with salad. It hit the spot but not the sweet tooth so I followed it with a scoop of Carte D'Or ice cream and Leibniz chocolate biscuit.  This little concoction comes in at only 100 calories so it's great for my frequent after-dinner sweet craving.

I then settled in to watching 20 episodes of a show I'm interviewing for on Tuesday.  I made copious notes and a little excel spreadsheet and at 8pm I was very thankful to be finished.  A little more brushing up and collating everything tomorrow and I should be fully prepared.  However, because of all this work I've not thought about dinner.  Actually that's a bit of a fib I have thought about it but at the moment a Pea Risotto with Bacon isn't exciting me.  Not sure what to do. Gerry is back from work in around 30mins and may well have eaten already so it seems it might just be a bacon sandwich or something.  Not the satisfying food I normally have on a Sunday I know and I do feel slightly disappointed by the lack of something to look forward to...

Gerry arrived home, not fed, so I threw some noodles, veg and chicken in a pan for a 'street-food' style Thai stir fry, my version of Kway Teow Mae.  I threw in some sliced red bird's eye chilli, chicken,  few prawns, crushed garlic, some beansprouts, flat noodles and some soy sauce.  I fried this all up in a wok with a little groundnut oil, garnished it with a lime and Bob's your uncle all done. Quick, easy and delicious.

Thai Noodles

Day 18 - Monday Blues

It's Monday and the start of a brand new week.  This only means one thing, a whole week of job finding... this does not inspire.  The day started as it normally does with a Wii Active session - only 5 more sessions to complete the 30 day challenge but I'm not sure what I will have achieved by the end of it as I'm not sure I feel fitter.  Hmm.

Food to be honest wasn't top of my priorities today but in an attempt to gee myself up I made plans to create a creamy bacon & pea risotto for dinner. However, when Gerry arrived home and asked if I wanted to go out. I'd said earlier in the month that I wanted to be more spontaneous and this seemed like a good place to start, even more so as it was her very welcome suggestion. We headed to Banana Tree, a small and very popular Thai restaurant near our house.  It was quick and flavoursome and being early birds we benefited from their Express Menu special deal. I opted for Thai fish cakes with a sweet chilli sauce followed by a chicken Pad Thai.  Being little dare devils we also had a Chang beer to wash it all down.

Then it was back home to feast on popcorn and watch The Girl Who Played with Fire. I loved the books and the film does it justice.  However, Gerry is not a particular fan of the actor, Michael Nyqvist, who plays one of the film's leads, Mikael Blomkvist. I actually think he is well cast, although when I read the books I envisaged him being a little better looking. We munched on one of Gerry's favourite corn snacks, popcorn and it's actually the only picture I have of food from the day so it is therefore shown below. It was lovely and buttery and I could feel it sticking to my hips immediately. A nice end to a day that didn't start nearly as promising and I was very much looking forward to our coastal adventure the next day.

Movie Snack held by tattoo adorned other half

Day 16 - Meat & the Movies

I woke late due to my 4am finish and with a major hunger. It was straight to poached egg and waffle which was lovely but really just an appetiser for what was coming next. Gerry went to work early so it was lunch for one again. I still had sweet potato left so I decided a quick and scrumptious meal would be baked sweet potato with bacon and avocado.  The whole thing would take around 10 minutes to create from start to finish so I set to work. I popped 2 slices of wiltshire-cured bacon under the grill and scrubbed a sweet potato.  This was wrapped in paper towel and went into the microwave for 4 minutes. Next I chopped up 1oz of avocado, a tsp of light mayonnaise and 1oz of red onion.  I put some baby leaf salad in a bowl and waited for the bacon to turn crispy.  Once it was done it was a case of cutting it into strips and mixing in the with the mayonnaise and avocado.  The sweet potato went into the bowl and the topping added. Quick and delicious.

Sweet Potato with Bacon & Avocado

I do feel like I wasted the rest of the day a little. I remained in my pyjamas and did very little except watch back to back movies on TV. I first watched Robert Altman's ensemble piece 'Short Cuts'.  At 180mins long it did seem a little epic but I found myself drawn into the lives of the LA residents and their struggle with death and infidelity. I can certainly see why Altman was nominated for Best Director at the 1994 Oscars. If you can stick with it then its certainly a film I recommend.  The way the lives seem to intermingle is especially satisfying.

I then watched something at perhaps the complete other end of the spectrum, Suburban Girl with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin. I had intentions of not liking it despite being a fan of both actors.  I wasn't too sure how the younger girl falling for the older man scenario would pan out without falling into a horrible cliche.  However, it was surprisingly refreshing.  The two leads had good chemistry together and it wasn't as predictable as I suspected it might be.  It also had a nice little turn from Maggie Grace, who I thought was discarded woefully early in Lost.  Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

Gerry informed me that she was being fed at work so the plans I had for a sizzling Korean beef dish for us both went on hold. I kicked back with a Chang beer and revised my plans. I had a piece of steak left over and a tummy to fill.  Once again I massaged the steak with 1tsp of groundnut oil, salt and pepper.  I then whisked together the following ingredients to create a dressing:

• 1 finely chopped garlic clove
• 1 tsp sugar
• A dash of maple syrup
• 1 stalk of lemongrass
• 1 finely chopped shallot
• The juice of one lime 

This I left for around 30 minutes or so while I prepped the other ingredients for the dish.  I rinsed and steamed 1oz of jasmine rice cut up around 2oz of cucumber cut into strips and half a green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped.  Again, same as yesterday, I heated a griddle pan for 5 minutes and then cooked the steak for around 2minutes on each side to give me a medium-rare result.  The steak was actually much better cooked than yesterday and I think because I used groundnut oil instead, which as I've said is better at high temperatures. This rested for around 10minutes or so while I plated up the rice with the cucumber and chilli mixed in. I thickly sliced the steak and put it on top of the bed of rice. I then drizzled the dressing along the top.  The result was a tangy thai beef style salad. The sweetness of the dressing perfectly complemented the richness of the steak and the slight heat of the chilli. This recipe is a keeper!

Thai Beef with Jasmine Rice