Forty-ish days of vegetarianism

For Lent this year I went vegetarian.

In some ways it wasn't too bad - I enjoy vegetarian food and it didn't push my boundaries too much to cook and eat vegetarian.

However, in other ways it was really difficult:
1) Getting the right "texture" in dishes - we avoided meat substitutes like Quorn, so instead used vegetables, cheese or pulses as the filler.
2) My cheese consumption went sky-high! Cheese became my main staple in far too many meals. The fridge was full of different types of cheese. At one point we had at least 11 cheeses in the house. Then I discovered that some cheeses (particularly Parmesan) aren't actually vegetarian. Oops.
3) Restaurants were awkward. I hadn't realised quite how few options a vegetarian has in most restaurants, even in vegetarian-friendly cuisines like Italian. We didn't do a lot of eating out!

I had a few real cooking successes:

Caramelised Red Onion and Goats Cheese Tart

Homemade Vegetable Spring Rolls

Roasted Romanesco (which was served with a cheesy sauce)

Vegetarian Moussaka

I also made a yummy vegetable lasagne, packed full of courgette, aubergine and mushrooms, and couple of rather nice curries, but I totally forgot to take photos (#badblogger!).

Lent for me is about making a sacrifice, and there have definitely been times over the last six weeks when the limits of being vegetarian were hard. I am very much looking forward to returning to my normal diet - the roasting joint is sat in the fridge, ready and waiting for Sunday!

The green addition to my shopping basket

Would you believe that I've never bought an avocado before? Crazy.

Mashed avocado, juice of half a lime, half a finely chopped chilli and a small amount of finely chopped red onion. Guacamole the healthier and yummier way :)

Yes, there really were nachos somewhere under the salsa, grated cheese, soured cream and guacamole!

Whistle-stop adventure

(Alternative title: France for 26 hours)

What a weekend! It's been ages since I've had a real adventure (apart from the wedding of course), and this was a good one.

Some friends were getting married in the South of France, very close to the Biarritz/Henday coast which is one of my most favourite places in the world. Our original plan was a slightly more leisurely two night stay, but timings of flights put paid to that. Up at 5:30am on Saturday. Train. Coach. Aeroplane. 

By the way, have I told you about my love of flying? I get so excited when we're waiting at the gate, again when we're taking off and again when we land. I'm like the little kid staring out of the window. There was a very cute little French girl sat in front of me on the flight who did exactly that. When we had landed and everyone was preparing to disembark, she started saying "au revoir avion" which was incredibly cute!

By 11:30am I stepped onto the Tarmac, into lovely sunshine. I was one happy bunny.

We managed a stroll by the beach and a spot of delightfully French lunch before changing into wedding gear and driving up into the hills.

Goats cheese salad and prawns cooked in something amazing - can't remember what it was but it was yummy!

It was a bilingual, bi-denominational ceremony with comedic French minister who went rather off-script - fabulously crazy and totally lovely service.

Champagne, bands, tons of amazing hor d'oeuvres and surrounded by French people (my circulating and new-friend making was rather hampered by my extremely poor French speaking!).

Dinner was multiple courses of beautiful food and we sat with one of the bands which was very entertaining!

Next morning we managed to meet up with our Hendaye-based friends for a breakfast of pastries on the cliff top before jumping back on a plane and making it home in time for dinner. I was thrilled to return to the British wind and rain...   :(

Two sets of friends (including a wedding) - pretty good going I think.

Yummy scrummy

Looking through my holiday snaps I couldn't avoid a food post!

I love food and have a special place in my heart for seafood, so travelling from coast to coast of France and Spain was pretty much perfect for me...

Warning - picture heavy post!

A genius dish of fish and seafood served with a baked potato, from my favourite French restaurant in St Jean de Luz.

Beautiful goats cheese salad in Hendaye.

Questionnaire-y type post

Whilst I was off on my jaunts (which I will be blogging about over the next few days), two of my blogging friends (Elle at eat run sail and Mrs DiscoBows at Disco & Bows) nominated me for a Liebster Award. It's not my normal type of post, but here goes...

Liebster is a German word that means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.

Rules for receiving this award:
1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Then answer the questions the tagger sent for them, plus create 11 questions for the people they’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
4. Notify the people you have tagged.
5. No tag backs.

Things about me:
1) I love the sea.
2) I love flying.
3) I'm very good at starting projects and not very good at finishing them. Hopefully, as I age I'm starting to buck this trend.
4) Gardening is a particular example of the above - I love gardening and always start with lots of good intentions and end up not giving the plants enough care and attention.
5) I'm much too worried about what other people think of me and I hate thinking that someone might be laughing at me.
6) If I could do everything I want to, I would need to be a superhero! My ideal weekly activities would be: 2-3 ballet lessons, karate lesson, homegroup, swimming, 1-2 runs, Spanish and/or French lessons, meeting with friends and one quiet night in.
7) I roller skated a LOT as a child (think artistic skating, like ice dancing). I was never great at it but got to the point of landing the odd double jump, which is pretty cool. I am, consequently, quite at home on eight wheels.
8) I have big feet (due to being tall). The other day, a shop assistant in a Spanish department store almost laughed when I asked for a shoe in my size (and it wasn't because of my awful Spanish pronunciation!).
9) I do both ends of the spectrum - tomboy-one-of-the-lads rigging (e.g. for fireworks) and lady-what-lunches (dressing up and enjoying dining out).
10) The fact that I've worked on about 30 fireworks shows does not dull my excitement when I see a show. Sometimes I even jump up and down when watching.
11) Pandas :)

Today in pictures (part two)

From lunch onwards...

Wonderful food

Do you take pictures of your food?

I don't know if it's the improvement in technology (my mobile phone is automatically a pretty decent camera), or a change in my way of thinking now that I'm blogging and attached to other social networks, but I seem to be doing it all the time...

post-cycling beef wellington this weekend

The salad streak continues

Disclaimer: I am not, in any way, shape or form claiming to eat particularly healthily :)

I don't know what's got into me, but I'm really enjoying eating salad with my dinners!

I've never been a big salad fan, and I don't really rate cold food much at all - if at all possible I will eat three hot meals a day. However, after the surviving the flu (I must have had man-flu as I'm still talking about it!) I started experimenting more. Part of my new-found enjoyment has come in the form of balsamic vinegar - what a genius salad dressing! Beyond that, I don't know where it's coming from but it makes me feel awfully healthy! I've even been trying out different ingredients such as finely chopped mange tout for a bit of crunch...

Yummy scrummy

Lunch at the weekend...

Less crochet, more running, work and salads

And that title pretty much sums up my first week post-flu!

I'm horribly behind with my running and desperately trying to up the frequency and distance of my runs. Being back to work is surprisingly nice, but draining. And I've actually been eating salads with my dinner, lovingly dressed with a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Healthy and yummy :)

Veg needed!

This evening, I desperately needed some proper food packed full of veg. Well, actually my brain was telling me that I needed chocolate and a large packet of crisps, but I overrode my initial impulses and decided I really should be eating vitamins :)

I emptied the fridge and found a selection that included: aubergine, sweet potato, button mushrooms and garlic.

That, plus some chicken, pasta and "pretend" double cream produced this yummy, unnamed dish:

Might still treat myself to a small bit of chocked ice cream later too... :)

Pie-tastic

Christmas has been very good to me this year. Well, more accurately, my friends and family have been very good to me.

Two pie books?! These people know me too well :) I love pastry and I really enjoy cooking and baking!

Yesterday's effort:

chicken and mushroom pie

And it was yummy! :)

Damp feet and ice cream (otherwise known as "sailing and sore muscles")

Another weekend, another road trip. This time to Chichester (South coast), to a newly refurbished ship at CYE. We arrived at night, so it was a bit of a surprise in the morning to find out it was green!

Our sailing group (known affectionately as Pteraductyls) meets twice a year for a weekend of sailing, relaxing and catching up. Most of the people I have known for more than ten years, so it's a bit like meeting up with family.

So, mostly, we sailed. Please excuse the quality of the pics as I was taking them whilst sailing! And I got the camera wet during a slightly accidental capsize...

A couple of days in paradise

We got away from cold, rainy October in the UK. Granted, it was only for two and a half days, but it was definitely worth it!

And what did we do in Alicante? Well, mostly, we ate...

I love Spanish food!

We also enjoyed the sea and sunshine:

I am officially relaxed! Long may it last...