Category: Stuff I love!

 

Happy WIAW everyone and thanks Jenn! I was sad to miss it last week, but had already taken the photos, so I am a week behind. Plus this week I have mainly been eating hospital food which I would rather not think about. So this week I am looking at Wednesday from 2 weeks ago, which here in the UK was a strike day for a lot of public sector workers. I did not go on strike, so it was a weird day at work as not many classes were in. My lunchtime meeting had been cancelled weeks ago, as the one who runs them was on a course, so as Andy normally works from home that day we arranged to go out for lunch- how the other half live!

So- breakfast:

Porridge with cranberry and blueberry compote. Ahem. Tasty!

Snacks– unpictured Clif z bar for morning break, and an apple mid-afternoon.

Lunch:

We were going to go to the local Starbucks, but as it was such a beautiful day Andy improvised and by the time he picked me up he had been to get us sandwiches and hot drinks. We went to the park in St Albans. (Photos from my phone so not sure how well they will come out as it is a 2 year old normal phone!).

Andy got for me a falafel and hummus wrap and a soya chai latte! He helps to feed my addiction! It was so sunny but fairly cold so I kept my coat on!

It was so lovely to be sat outside in the sunshine and just having a chat instead of tidying, marking, setting up for the afternoon etc. I love the red cups too!

Andy took a photo of the Abbey for me too- it just looked wonderful in the sunshine. I wish I could go out for lunch every day- I just felt so relaxed and unstressed all day.

When I got home I went on a run.

Dinner:

Sweet potato fries, rocket, hummus and a leek tofu bake thing. Recipe to follow at some point.

Dessert:

A gingerbread pumpkin loaf thing (based on the vegan pumpkin spice cake recipe). Yum.

Do you ever have lunch out? Do you get a lunch break? Officially we do, but in reality it is crammed with things to get done that you can’t do whilst teaching!

I am not complaining though as I do enjoy the job, and it does have some big positive points. Some people look into online universities when they want to take culinary arts classes- sometimes I have a look at these (things like nutrition always interest me) as you could train while still working but I am never sure if I would have the time.

I placed an order from i-herb a while back, for some Luna bars and a few other bits. The delivery was fab and I love browsing the products- I can see me ordering regularly! I was super excited when my next order arrived the other week:

I ordered myself some peanut flour, pumpkin spice tea (how amazing does it sound- rooibos tea with spices and vanilla pods, plus it comes in a pretty tin), some free bits of cococardio (saw this on Laura’s blog) and also some free pea protein which they added in- looks a bit scary in the green packet! What I love is that you can search on the website by weight (as well as price etc)- I had a little bit of weight left so I also got some ginger peach tea- the pack is only 20 teabags so did not weigh much. Plus I got a free pen- I love pens! Result.

The pumpkin spice tea is so yummy. A bit like Teapigs rooibos creme caramel tea, or Waitrose rooibos and vanilla, but a little more spiced and a little less sweet. It has been keeping me warm this week as it is naturally caffeine free too.

The ginger peach tea is also amazing- I treated myself to a cup before we went to see Hard Fi (who were brilliant- but it was the night before I went to hospital so it seems a distant memory!)- I loved the ginger peach tea I had at Sweet Tomatoes in the summer and it was similar. But it is black tea which again I am off because of the caffeine not agreeing with me right now. Anyway I have a coupon for $5 off your first order  (code QOC914) if you fancy it.

It looks very dark in that photo but I don’t brew it for very long!

Before Hard Fi I popped to Dunelm Mill and picked up a few nice festive bits too:

The gingerbread boxes are ones you have to build, but they are going to be the hampers for our parents. They also did cake trays with boxes (perfect for giving away Christmas cakes in), and I got myself a nice non-stick rolling pin for icing. And that big Kilner jar was only £1.99. Looking good for almond milk. It is hard to see the size but it is a one litre one so pretty big- seemed much cheaper than I had seen them before so get yourself to Dunelm 🙂

I also treated myself to some Starbucks mugs when they were half price. Pretty!

I think they are festive, but not so Christmassy that I could not use them the rest of the year 🙂

Oh, and also, I got myself a starbucks card here. They are meant for gifts I suppose, and you have to pay postage, but it seemed easier than trying to find them in store. Plus you get some exciting benefits- free soya milk, free shots (? I think that means flavours?), free syrup, free tall drink if you buy a bag of coffee beans, free tall drink if you buy a 12 pack of the VIA coffee (I got some for Andy as an early Christmas present and he is a bit addicted!). It will make up the postage in no time.

Thanks again for all the wishes- today I went to see my GP and had more luck (and more fuss as the hospital said they would fax the scan results through but didn’t so the poor doctor could not tell me much and ended up phoning me later once she had got hold of it)- the short version is that I need an emergency outpatient appointment as the cyst is quite big. She said I should not fly because also it could burst- scary stuff and no-one told me that before. So this Friday we were due to fly to NYC ( to see some shows and the fab Rockefeller tree), then train it to Phili and Washington before flying down to Orlando (Disney Christmas) and then some time on the gulf coast. But we have started cancelling it. Perhaps we should not try to go away at Christmas any more? On the plus side with all this time I will be able to make a gingerbread house! 🙂

So be warned- there will be no running for a while (even walking seems to make the pain worse at the moment) so that means an increase in general ramblings and probably baking too! 🙂 Watch out!

PS Accredited online colleges have nutrition classes if you have a passion for living healthfully.

Hello everyone.

This is what was waiting for me when I got home last night! How exciting!

Rewind- First, thanks for the comments (a few of you noticed that I did not post/comment this week)- on Tuesday I ended up in hospital. Skip the next bit if you get queasy. I thought it was another UTI as it was the same pains, but after being taken in an ambulance to another hospital, having loads of exams, waiting for scans (got the final scan on Friday) it turns out I have a big cyst  (about the size of an orange) which will need to be removed. I actually signed myself out last night as I was getting rather stir crazy waiting around to see the doctor, as they said it would not be an emergency op but a routine one in the new year sometime. I am hoping that I can go on a plane as we are meant to be going on holiday on Friday night. No use worrying about that now. Anyway, I won’t go on about it- I will know more when I ring the hospital tomorrow. Seems like the UTI’s this year were perhaps this cyst instead.

Onto exciting things- I unwrapped the pretty presents and the lovely card, to find out they were from the lovely Jemma:

How nice does Gingerbread spice tea sound???? It was very exciting upwrapping all the presents- some chocolate munchy seeds (looking forward to trying these), some mini luna bars (I love mini things), some packets of Justin’s nut butter (we can’t get this in the UK which makes it even more exciting!), a yummy looking Clif Mojo bar (Jemma must have known my clif bar obsession!) and a delicious looking Kashi granola bar (which again I have not seen in the UK and am really looking forward to trying).

Thanks Jemma– these pressies were perfect- tea and snack bars must make up half my diet haha! 🙂 And you know how much I love gingerbread men too! Just need to find space in my tea cupboard!!

Anyway these gifts were perfect- thanks so much to Laura for organising the secret santa swap- it has been fun. I noticed that Jess posted about the bits I sent her- it was fun putting that package together too. I will be spending some time over the next few days catching up and seeing what other lovely gifts everyone sent/ received.

Bye for now.