Monthly Archives: October 2011

by | October 31, 2011

Scrummy Vegan Chocolate Birthday Cake

For the past two birthdays, Lil L has asked whether we can make a home-made vegan chocolate cake as his birthday treat, rather than one of those fancy shop-bought birthday cakes.

Three reasons why I’ve considered this to be great news…

1. It means he actually likes the cakes I make :)
2. It’s saved me a small fortune :)
3. It means I get to spend some quality time with him in the kitchen :)

This year, he got heavily involved in all stages of the cake-making process, including the sieving, the mixing and, of course, the bowl licking. No guessing which bit he enjoyed the most ;)

Last year, he chose to have a plastic Frankenstein stuck in the top of the cake.  This year, we went for something slightly more sophisticated… berry and cherry spread in the middle, raw chocolate fudge frosting on top and 8 candles :)

The chocolate and fruity filling flavours went really well together.  For me, the cake also had the perfect consistency (moist, not crumbly, easy to cut).  In summary, this cake was totally delish! And, most importantly, Lil’  L loved it! :)

 

 

10 Comments

Filed under Baking & Desserts

Tagged as , , , ,

by | October 26, 2011

WIAW – What I ate in Nottingham!

Happy Wednesday everybody!  Hope you’re all having a great week :)

It’s Lil’ L’s birthday today… he’s 8 already! Where did all that time go?  Scary!

Just  before we head out for his birthday trip, I thought that I’d show what we ate last Sunday for this week’s WIAW event, hosted by the gorgeous Jenn @ Peas & Crayons.  As we were in staying in Sherwood Forest for the weekend, we had totally different eats to my usual WIAW entries.  Apologies in advance for the poor quality of the evening shots.  The photos were taken on my phone (yes, I’ve now worked out how to take photos on the smartypants phone :) ) but the lighting was v. poor in the restaurant.  Anyway, here goes… WIAW on Sunday…

Breakfast
Since we’d forgotten to bring ANY food to our log cabin residence in Sherwood Forest, M nipped to Tesco and bought us each some breakfast treats.  For me, he got some Dorset Cereals Fruits, Nuts and Seeds Muesli, a carton of Innocent Fruit Smoothie, and some Clippers Nettle Tea (he knows me well ;) ).  This fuelled me up perfectly for our bike ride in Sherwood Forest :)

 

Snacks am
Half way round the Kitchener Trail, we stopped for a snack.  We each had a Nakd bar, which are made of raw fruit and nuts.  They’re pretty expensive, but on offer in Tesco at the moment, so we bought 4 bars.  This time round, I tried the Pecan Pie bar.  It was nice, but Cocoa Orange remains my favourite Nakd flavour ;) 

 

Lunch
By lunchtime, we were ravenous.  Our all-time favourite lunch when we’re out biking is baked beans on toast.  It fuels us up really quickly and seems to digest quickly (for me anyhow).  Normally when I eat, I have to wait 2 hours before I can exercise otherwise my stomach starts cramping.  However, after beans on toast, I can easily get back on my bike within 15 minutes :)

 

So, after the beans on toast, we got back on the bikes and did the Kitchener Trail all over again :)

Snacks pm
Giant pretzels and some dark chocolate :)

Dinner
For our evening meal, we travelled into Nottingham city centre.  I was hoping to have dinner at my favourite cafe in the UK… the uber cool Alley Cafe Bar.  Unfortunately, by the time we got into Nottingham on Sunday evening, it was closed :(  

If you’re ever in Nottingham, you must try this cafe.  It has the most amazing vegan cheesecake and milkshakes that I’ve ever tasted.  Just make sure you don’t turn up there on a Sunday night ;)  

 

Instead, we crossed the road and went into Las Iguanas.  Though this is a chain (there’s one in Bath too), the food is pretty good.  There was a good ambience in the Nottingham restaurant (great Latino music playing), plus the guy that served us was really helpful… especially when I asked if they could make me some vegan burritos as the veggie ones all had cheese in them.  So, here’s what we ate… apologies again for the dodgy photos.

Bread and olives, which we quickly devoured :)  

 

Then I had the Sopa de Calabaza (spiced up butternut squash and coconut milk soup).  Really yum, but very spicy.  My mouth was totally zinging after this.

 

For my main course, the kind chef made me a vegan enchilada, filled with spicy roasted butternut squash, peppers and other veggies, and topped with a spicy tomato sauce.  This came with lemon and coriander rice, and refried beans.  Totally delish! (the photo doesn’t do it justice).

 

Lil’ L had the veggie fajitas, which he quickly devoured.  For dessert, he didn’t choose the fresh fruit option, but instead opted for the other healthy dessert… chocolate brownie and ice cream ;)

We had a great night at Iguanas and it reminded me how long it’s been since I made fajitas and enchiladas at home.  We used to eat them all the time, stuffed with roasted butternut squash, sweet potato, peppers, mushrooms, spinach and refried beans.  I’ll definitely have to make some soon!

Right, that’s me done!  When Lil’ L’s in bed tonight, I’ll pop along to the WIAW party and see what y’all eating!

Happy WIAW everyone! xx

16 Comments

Filed under Biking, Breakfast & Elevenses, Dinners

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | October 25, 2011

A Wonderful Trip to Sherwood Forest

As soon as school was out on Friday, we packed the car, hoisted the bikes onto the roof, and set off for a mini break to one of my favourite places in the UK, Sherwood Forest.  This forest is most well-known for its links with the legend of Robin Hood.  We’re not sure whether Robin Hood really did exist but, regardless, I find Sherwood to be a truly magical place :)

 

M and I lived in Nottingham back in the 1990s, so we know the area pretty well.  Nowadays, we try and visit once a year, normally during the October half term when the forest is full of the colours of Autumn/Fall. 

 This year, for the first time, we chose to stay in a log cabin in the forest. 

 I loved the lounge area inside the cabin, with its little wood burning stove.  So cosy!  

Lil’ L had his first archery lesson… and turned out to be pretty handy with the bow and arrow :)

 We also went to visit Major Oak.  No trip to Sherwood would be complete without visiting this ancient tree where (as the legend goes) Robin, Marion and the band of Merry Men hid out.  This incredible tree is over 1,150 years old!

 However, the main reason for our trip to the forest was to ride the trails at Sherwood Pines.  The Kitchener’s Trail is absolutely awesome and currently my favourite trail in the UK!  

We rode it three times over the weekend.  Lil L’s verdict… “sweet!”.

 

The trail has lots of twists and turns, which makes it very exciting.  I love this sort of trail as it requires single pointed concentration… if your mind wanders… you’re likely to hit a tree trunk or stump.  I fell off once, which was more of a technical hitch where I skidded on sand into a ditch, rather than a mind wobble/fear moment (or a “mind slide” as me & M have started calling them ;) ).  Luckily, I was wearing the new knee pads that M bought, so I didn’t feel a thing :)

There’s lots of variety on the trail, including the options of a fast downhill section and dirt jump area for the real adrenalin junkies.

I loved all the different sections we rode through, which included pine forests and ancient woodland filled with chestnut trees.

There was even a super spooky section, which you had to wind your way through.

Here’s a couple of action shots.

 

From the back, it looks like I was dressed appropriately for biking… but I so wasn’t!  Under the jacket and knee pads, I was wearing jeggings and a sparkly top.  The Essex girl in me still loves a bit of sparkle ;)

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, filled with sunshine, lots of fresh air, exercise and a large dose of myth and magic ;)

9 Comments

Filed under Biking, Vacations

Tagged as ,

by | October 21, 2011

My Little Saviours

Okay, time to reveal the source of the ’challenges and opportunities’ (known to others as ‘frustration’ ;) ) that I encountered Tuesday night and Wednesday morning…

Here it is…

It looks so innocent doesn’t it?  Some might even call it ‘beautiful’.  Before it arrived in the post, I was even referring to it as the ‘Sexy Salsa’.  Now I just call it the ‘smartypants’ phone :-/

I thought it was about time that I embraced the new technologies of the 21st century and get myself an ‘android smartphone’ (I don’t have a clue what that means!)  This upgrade (£13.50 p/m) is actually cheaper than my old phone deal, so I should add it to yesterday’s ‘Big Budget Challenge’ post ;)  

Well, it turns out that the ‘smartphone’ is way too smart for me.  I didn’t have a CLUE how to use the thing.  I was chuffed when I finally worked out how to turn it on after 5 minutes of fiddling… but it all went downhill from that point onwards :(   

The phone had automatically ‘synced’ with Facebook and my phone contacts list was then filled with the phone numbers of Facebook ‘friends’, rather than my regular friends.  I pressed the first name that appeared at the top of the screen to see if I could edit it.  To my horror, the phone started calling the person… Esther in Canada!!!  It took me ages to work out how to end the call (because I’m so thick when it comes to new technology).  THEN, I accidentally rested my finger on the phone… and it started ringing Esther in Canada again!!! aarrghhhh! 

I gave up and decided to have another try in the morning.

M asked me if I’d read the manual.  I checked the manual and no, it doesn’t mention how to make a phone call or send a text as it ASSUMES that everyone already knows how to do this.  The manual just talks about ‘Facebook Chat’, ‘Snap, tag and share’ and other things that I have NO clue about. 

I finally worked out how to send a text, but my fat fingers seem to press about 5 letters at once.  A 2 sentence text took me about 5 minutes because I had to delete every other letter.  I can’t wait to let my mum have a go (mind you, she can’t do worse than me lol!)

My second ‘challenge’ on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was an attempt to move my blog to a new host.  My new hosting provider has a ’1 click install’ which is described as being so simple that even a 4 year old could do it.  I’m sure a 4 year old probably could do it… but I failed miserably :(   It’s still not sorted, but I’m hoping that my wonderful tecchie friend ‘E’ will be my saviour on this one ;)

So after a rubbish Wednesday morning (which I’m happy to say wasn’t a complete waste of time as it’s been a great source of amusement for my friends ;) ), it was a relief to leave the house, the phone, the computer, and go to teach my kids’ meditation classes.  :) :) :)

The kids were little stars as usual. Just watching them meditate filled me with such a sense of peace. :)   Apparently, Lil’ L and some of his friends had been meditating during playtime, before I’d even arrived at school.  It was a very chilled, rewarding afternoon.  This carried on after school too.  I sneakily took a picture of Lil’ L meditating in the garden…

 

And here’s a pic of another 2 of his classmates meditating Wednesday evening (emailed to me by their mum).

Don’t they look so peaceful?

And finally, here’s a beautiful picture that another one of Lil’ L’s friends drew on Wednesday afternoon.

 

What a beautiful way to end a crazy day! 

I’d love to upload these images onto my new smartypants phone but that’s one step too advanced for me.  Maybe I’ll ask a 4 year old ;)

Have a wonderful weekend everybody! xx

10 Comments

Filed under Buddhism & Meditation, General wittering

Tagged as , ,

by | October 20, 2011

The Big Budget Challenge – Week II

I’m  now in my second week of ‘The Big Budget Challenge’ hosted by the lovely Laura @ Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish.  I did okay in Week I, but Week 2 has been even better :)  

Here’s a run down of my top ’money saves’ this week:

1. Avoid waste. No food thrown away this week!  

See these sad-looking bananas….

I turned them into this:

It’s banana cinnamon ‘ice cream’.  It’s so creamy that you would think it was proper ice cream!  To make it, I simply cut the bananas into slices, froze them, then whizzed them in the blender on the ice setting until they were all chopped up.  I then transferred them to a bowl, added a dash of nondairy milk, lashings of cinnamon and a tablespoon of ground linseed.  I then pulsed them using a hand blender until they went white and creamy.  The bananas were so ripe that I didn’t need to add any sweetener.  Lil’ L loves this dessert and it makes a nice change from apples ;)

2. Shop around for cheapest deals.  I finally got round to trying out www.mysupermarket.co.uk that a friend recommended way back in the summer.  I was really impressed with it.  It’s so simple to use.  At a click of a button, it allows you to import your online shopping basket from your usual provider (mine’s Tesco). You can then easily edit the basket, deleting items you no longer need and adding new items. 

Then, it does something really useful…

  • It shows you how you can save money by swapping to cheaper items. If you agree with their ‘Swap & Save’ suggestions, you just click to swap.  I saved £6.36 by swapping some items.
  • It then compares the cost of your basket at four supermarkets.  If your shop would be cheaper elsewhere, you just click to swap.  I did a big grocery shop (83 items) and the total was £139 at Tesco.  In Asda, the same shop would have cost me £155; Sainsbury’s £166; and Ocado (Waitrose) a wopping £177. I’ve always done my big grocery shops at Tesco, so it was great to discover that it is actually the cheapest supermarket for me. :)  
     
    It’s interesting because the cheapest supermarket very much depends on the types of groceries you buy.  For my friend, Sainsbury’s came out £30 cheaper than Tesco!  Lately, I’ve been disorganised with my grocery shopping and have ended up buying bits and pieces on a weekly basis from the Waitrose in Bath.  By getting more organised and ordering a fortnightly Tesco home delivery, I should save a small fortune! :)  

3. Make use of home grown foods.  We’re eating tons of apples and there’s still hundreds left!  After watching Monty Don’s episode on how to ’over winter’ apples, I challenged M to make me a storage contraption using old scraps from the garage.  He rose to the challenge and made a great storage system…..

… but it took him the whole of Sunday.  He’s now banned me from watching Gardners’ World as he’s fed up with landing Monty Don’s ‘Jobs for the Weekend’. ;)

4. Go foraging!  No foraging this week as I’m still working out what to do with all the nuts we found last week! 

5. Make use of vouchers and deals. HUGE savings here! Last Friday, me and my good friend J went to London to meet up with our gorgeous friends N and H for lunch.  I converted my Tesco vouchers into tokens for redspottedhankie.com and managed to get both our travel tickets for FREE!  A total saving of £66!  This meant we had more cash to spend on gorgeous eats and drinks :)  

So, lots of savings this week.  Good thing too because next week is going to be v. v. expensive ;)  

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

10 Comments

Filed under Baking & Desserts, Being Frugal, Growing Fruit & Veggies

Tagged as , , , , , ,