cacti chicken paprika rice

so tonight i made an awesome meal.
if i do say so myself.

im not one for measurements so i will put down what went in and you can go from there!

firstly i used a big flat bottomed with medium sides pan thing with a lid. its usually good for cooking soups in, its really heavy.

in went RAPESEED OIL, not much. then some AGAVE SYRUP, to replace honey i would have used, but the hubster is diabetic. then then went in some SKINLESS AND BONELESS CHOPPED UP CHICKEN THIGHS, and i put the heat on low under it. some more AGAVE on top and a pinch of sea salt flakes and then some SMOKED PAPRIKA called la chinata i think and then some Schwartz regular PAPRIKA. gave it a stir and on went the lid. alot of water comes off chicken so this is good for almost steaming it cooked. i threw in some SESAME SEEDS and about a heaped teaspoon of GARLIC PUREE and left it on low and went to watch tv for a few. i was nipping in and out a bit while i was making this as hubby put Castle on tv. i microwaved a peeled SWEET POTATO till it was softened and cubed it and threw it in the mix with a little added heat. the agave and chicken water was still quite plentiful and the chicken cooking, i turned the heat up a little and prepped the salad on our plates (bistro mix from M&S and sweet pickled gherkins, avocado and those cute mini oval tomatoes for me, and tomatoes and pickled beets for the hubster) and put some UNCLE BENS 2 min WHOLEGRAIN RICE in the microwave for... 2 mins!!! Lid off the chicken mix, starting to loose its liquid now and the sesame and agave mix are starting to go sticky, pour in the rice and stir till its all covered and lovely and mixed and NOM!!!

next time i make this im going to have to make a little more because we could have eaten this twice we loved it so much!!
i basically just threw it together, knowing i wanted paprika and honey chicken, but wanting to do it a little different as i had thighs to use and not breasts, that i would have usually coated and then fried or roasted. but this ones going in the recipe book!
gluten and dairy free!

Long time

hey guys, i have been rubbish at blog posting this 2012, I've had problems at work, I'm exhausted and I'm still not pregnant, but obviously that's not stopping everyone else around me being? ALOT of customers at work, and people in the street and now a colleague at works wife has fallen pregnant.
I know how Addison felt in Grey's Anatomy when she said she felt she was being stalked by pregnant women. and I'm not an obstetrician. but i do feel like they're stalking me.

is it too much to ask that, after 3 years, 10 months and 2 weeks of trying, i could possibly just get pregnant?

the hubsters sperm results should have arrived in the post last week. needless to say they haven't. which is why I'm with private healthcare. we'd have them back in a couple of days. and whats more, I'm going to have to go see an nhs doctor to be able to be referred to a specialist that does both nhs and private. private would cost too much so we have to go down the other route. I've not seen an nhs gp for over 20 years. mum transferred me out after our family gp refused to take out my tonsils. turns out i was majorly ill and when mum took me to see dads work private gp, he had them out within a week. lets see if times have changed.

my husband does not want to adopt. and id rather have his sperm than someone Else's, and i don't much think that he would be happy with someone Else's sperm and id really really love to be pregnant. just once. hopefully more times. i really want to be a mother. i don't know where we go from here.

hopefully blogging will become easier tho, as i finally, after 2 years of dealing with a broken laptop, have a brand spanking new desktop, and its awesome. and has windows 7 and is ultra fast compared to my laptop. which has seen better days, but i somehow still need to get all my shit off!

I'm off to Nice in France in a couple of weeks with Izzy and Fran. that should be interesting. I'm going to freak out. i don't work well in a 3 as I'm usually the odd one out.
we're self catering and the lady that has the apartment speaks not a word of English.
in a European City. a really really popular European City. how that's possible in this day and age is a mystery. i don't even know how to ask her for towels.
and eating is going to be a challenge. no lactose, no dairy, no gluten, wheat, rye, barley, oats, kiwi, mushrooms, lamb, aubergine... the list is endless...

its also proved pretty impossible to get to southern France. why? well no one flies there, so we three are going to be spending just short of 6 hours in Zurich Aeroport. lets hope its a damn fine airport and i can get some good grub and have some decent shopping!

in other news, despite eating the same, if not healthier, I'm gaining weight and my facial skin is disgusting. I'm covered in nasty acne. the time that makes you not want to look at the persons face. i do not feel attractive right now. and i went swimming with RedRiv and not have magenta hair roots for an inch or so, then orange/light blonde/pale pink for the rest with dirty blonde roots. it was very faded before but... oops?

Summer here has not been summer, its gone right from Spring to Autumn with some epic Winter thrown in every couple of weeks. i mean, really, wtf.

our holiday in bulletpoints!

• we went a day late due to the boyf having food poisoning
• we had a cabin at 15 Lake Beck and our back door opened into the forest
• it was at Winfell forest nr. Penrith
• Starbucks rocks
• we had a great photoshoot and the photos will be available soon!
• i packed WAY too many clothes. we needed half! (tho the weather was unpredictable so thats my excuse and im sticking to it!)
• the boyf is better at archery than me! i got a bullseye on my first shot and got progressively worse!
• i spent over £100 on clothes in Spirit in the centre
• the boyf bought me a union jack doggy doorstop (i already have a house full of them!)
• we took too much food
• my spa session was amaze-balls! i had a mud-wrap flotation thingy, which meant she scrubbed me down, covered me in mud, wrapped me in foil, dropped me into a floatation tank and gave me a head massage! 
• i got told off in the spa. apparently to go into the actual communal spa area you have to book the day. this is not what it tells you online!
• i bumped into one of the women that owns the hairdressers i frequent! she was there with her family and sister and her family! freaky!
• we went on a 'hawk walk' with Bob the harris hawk, theyre not native to this country and he was a 'teen' (very unruly, quite ignorant) that was a real highlight of the holiday
• the boyf, ive learned, does not like any activities, ever, unless you force him to do them and he ends up having fun. 
• i had a trike. ive not been on a bike since before i was a teen and came off in an accident. and even then it had taken dad YEARS to teach me to ridet. he had a blast this time round! the only drawback was that that trike weighed a tonne and when i had to go up hills... fail....!
• the boyf is a fish. he should have flippers and gills.
• he taught me to swim on my back!
• i went down my first ever waterslide! and then went on it again straight away!
• i also went on a really big flume-slide, which, tho i banged my elbow pretty badly, ROCKED! youre gonna have a problem keeping me off them!
• the rapids were glorious, had so much fun on them!
• the boyf wants to keep up with the swimming now we're back!
• Hucks diner sucked. tho they were very accomodating with my gluten and dairy intolerances
• after we left CP we went to Penrith for a few hours, then to a castle just outside
• on the drive home we pulled off at Kendal cos the weather was monsoon style torrential and the car kept floating due to it being a sudden downpour.
• in Kendal we popped in to see Kristiana at her new job! she was homesick that day, but it was really good to see her!
• i bought many many things. besides the clothes, i got 2 cushions for the lounge, some presents, some hanging things, some GF and DF choc coated biscuits that ive already been thru two packs of...
• i beat the boyf at scrabble by over 100 points
• we never watched the box sets i took
• there was a channel on the tv just set up for a badger-cam, watching a sett, on the night before we left, we finally saw a badger!
• Winfell forest is a conservation area for the red squirrel, which the grey squirrels kill with diseases and such. so its a really important place, we saw many! i was so pleased! we also saw pheasants, other game birds, and lots and lots and lots of birds, a few bunnies and random bugs :)

i got my hair dyed today :) its ginger and curly now :)

izzy is here now and we're slagging off eurovision and shes going into vague anaphylaxis right now...

we're also going thru wedding things, well.... supposed to be...

highs and lows

just had a massive sobfest in the kitchen over the fact i cant have a cheeseburger. and have no will to make any because i dont know what i want, i feel a but sick and just pathetic after being all hysterically on the fiance. the poor thing.

have just been up to my aunties house to drop off seasons greetings, their house is covered in all their gorgeous decorations, their tree in christmas decs that theyve picked up when theyve been with relatives in well, america. stunning little things, a washboard, not 3 inches high caught my eye.

how i long to go to the US again...

i have a Vanilla Cupcake Yankee Candle lit in my fireplace and my tree is twinkling beside me while Glyn and i are watching Generations (first TNG Star TRek Movie)