Salad recipe

nom

 

 

I have just eaten this salad. it was delicious. very fresh.

Very like tabboulleh, which i can't have.

 

2 small ripe avocadoes, chopped small

1 large firm tomato (mine was vine ripened for extra nom) not the seeds, just the flesh, chopped finely

a hella handfull of fresh flat leaf parsley chopped little

nigella seeds

sesame seeds

sea salt flakes (to taste- brings out tomato)

ground black pepper (to taste)

2 finger sized gherkins/ cornichons/ pickles (whatever the f* you call them where ever you are!)

3 inches of cucumber, no skin, chopped small

a glug or two of lovely green olive oil. has to be olive. be it italian, greek, spanish, joardanian (my fave, cant get it here)

 

I randomly just ate it with a kabanos and some gluten free corn chips. nothing like mixing national foods!

 



Cacti Chicken Paprika Rice take 2!

Here are 2 shots of my recipe, one finished and one with just the chicken, agave, oil and salt in so far!

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.

last night i made my own little version of pizzas...

i got a big baking tray, put olive oil on it, sprinkled fresh dried rosemary over the oil and laid turkey steaks over it.

then i rubbed sun dried tomato paste over them all, the sprinkled them with chopped scallions, then pine nuts, then paprika, cinnamon and oregano. and some canned sweetcorn kernels.

then placed them in the oven til they were cooked

and they were gorgeous. had i had and bacon or pancetta or anything, id have thrown some of that on too. and next time i might also try pineapple chunks


the reason for the pizza was that fran and izzy and matt came over and brought pizza with them and we played on the wii all night. it was fantastic and i dont think i stopped laughing at any point (apart from when fran was altering my wii mii)

i have invented a special sandwich. it rocks

tescos finest caramalised onion relish
sainsburys taste the difference garlic mayonnaise
sainsburys be good to yourself turkey pastrami
pitta breads, toasted
chopped up dill pickles

smother one pitta in mayo, smother the other in relish, sprinkle the pickles on the mayo, make a layer of pastrami on each pitta, add lettuce and join into a sandwich and eat.


its messy but its GOOOOOOD

You can get a free BBQ from any of the following stores.

* ASDA
* Morrisons
* Costco
* Kwik Save
* Somerfield
* Aldi
* Sainsbury
* Tesco
* Iceland
* Netto

All BBQs come with a higher shelf which can be used for keeping things warm!

PLEASE NOTE: Some stores may charge a £1 administration fee.

heheh

http://www.aclu.org/pizza/

and also this...

ive always loved this...

1. Chop cabbage into large bowl.
2. Look for green peppers.
3. Drive to store.
4. Choose green peppers.
5. Carry them to cashier.
6. Drive home.
7. Find wallet.
8. Drive to store.
9. Buy green peppers.
10. Drive home.
11. Chop green peppers into bowl.
12. Look for mayonnaise.
13. Drive to store.
14. Buy mayonnaise.
15. Drive home.
16. Mix mayonnaise into bowl.
17. Look for raisins.
18. Drive to store.
19. Buy stupid raisins.
20. Ignore stupid cashier's snickering.
21. Drive home.
22. Mix raisins into bowl.
23. Look for miserable lousy stupid carrots.
24. Drive to stupid lousy store.
25. Buy miserable stupid lousy carrots.
26. Call stupid miserable snickering cashier a Nazi.
27. Crawl to car.
28. Drive home.
29. Chop stupid damned miserable lousy carrots into damned stupid lousy miserable bowl.
30. Look for finger.
31. Look harder for finger.
32. Look everywhere for finger.
33. See cat scurrying away.
34. Follow cat into new neighbor's house, surprising him in middle of drug deal.
35. Dive over sofa to escape gunfire, landing on cat's tail, causing cat to screech and jump up into new neighbor's face and claw his eyes as he's bending over the sofa about to shoot you, enabling you to grab the gun from his hand, enabling you to hold the gun on him until the cops arrive, who then arrest him and drive you and the cat to the hospital where the cat's stomach is pumped and your finger is found and sewn back on good as new.
36. Collect reward of half of neighbor's property from drug auction, then just buy all the delicious cole slaw you want from a nice deli.

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 :)

centerparcs

er, wtf do i take

the list in my head so far is as follows

food
washing up stuff
bath and kitchen towels
cooking stuff (pans/ trays/sharp knives)
toilet paper
cleaning products
kitchen paper


swimming stuff (goggles, shorts, costumes, underwater cameras)
walking boots, trainers, sandals


stuff for the photography sesh (black shirts and cords for the boyf, black dress for me)

hair straighteners, hair dryer, cameras,

bathroom products inc. make up

everyday clothes for all weathers

books for both of us (probs a car full but should be 3 each, the boyf will probs smuggle more, he claims his coursework for his law course, i say its a holiday, fuck off)

box sets!! (private practice season 1, greys anatomy season 5, house seasons 1 onwards)

board games and uno




what else?!

and no isobel, im not smuggling you in

yknow the Oreo advert where there are two little boys and their milk and Oreo's? i want a little boy like the littlest boy! hes so so so adorable!

today

all i want to do is cry.

my assistant manageress has been a nightmare

it was kristiana's last day

i ache

ive had a splitting headache

and the boyf was in a horrific mood at work and snapped at me more than once, so i snapped back.

and i dont want anyone to talk i just want to ignore the world

and to go to argento's steakhouse

caaaake

i just made a bloody amazing cake :D

polenta, ground almond and rice flour based with 5 eggs, with ground cinnamon and orange and vanilla essences (and m&s dairy free spread)

i just tried a slice and its gorgeous!


p.s. it had sugar in too, but not much as the almonds make it sweet

cucumber

dear cucumber


i hate you


that is all


disenchanted

cucumber

dear cucumber


i hate you


that is all


disenchanted

soup

sweet potato

frozen spinach

red onion

beef stock

cinnamon

nutmeg

hot and regular paprika

thyme

smoked sea salt

black pepper

mild olive oil

onion, salt and oil, fry a little til soft, added stock, then spinach, let simmer til spinach starts to melt apart, meanwhile microwave the sweet potatoes for a few mins to soften, chop, add, simmer til they go properly soft, add herbs and spices, simmer til all mushy, blitz, eat :)

today

im on my 3rd debbie macomber book since saturday :)

im making soup

my car is having its seat fixed and is in the garage

i booked the boyf physio for tonight but he refuses to go

im going instead

work soon

mmm salad

i just made a fit salad to go with out turkey steaks to go with tea. i admit its mostly store cupboard stuff tho!

1 can pineapple, drained, chopped up into chunks
1 can of sweetcorn, drained
1 packet Uncle Bens Basmati rice
1 packet Uncle Bens Wild rice
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp sesame seeds
1-2 tsp dried cilantro/corriander
a handful of tomberries (ickle tiny tomatoes)
2 handfuls of cashews
1 small chopped red onion

mix, eat (not as nice hot)

hello

i am just chatting with my lovely friend Felicia and have literally just finished watching Julie & Julia- which i LOVED, it wasnt an up and down movie, no rollercoaster ride here, but it was warm and you felt for both the women involved and it was sweet and the food looked v.yummy! i also have a pile of magazines sat on my lap to go thru before i go to bed! i keep buying them as i used to, well actually less so, but i never have the time to go thru them anymore...

my hair looks so nice when i DO it, but i can never be arsed to DO it. so it looks a bit crap. so no photos. i might do it tomorrow. i think we're going to our fave restaurant. my treat. we havent been in months.
im no further along with the wedding. not really, ive seen som jimmy choos i like but i dont think i can warrant spending the £325 on a pair of shoes just cos im getting married. like really, that could buy the cake tower no matter what we make it out of!

the boyf got all excited and wanted to watch the battlestar galactica (furthermore called BSG) season one box set i bought months before xmas that mum packed and i found a few weeks back in a box... sooo season one, disc one, episode one... "previosuly on BSG..." what? huh? this is the first, how can there be this? wtf? so we watched 2 episodes and nothing, NOTHING made any sense. why? well because they did a mini series and didnt put it in the box set, so really this is season 2 isnt it? as they already did some episodes before, that would be season 1, or season 1 part 1, and the box set i have that starts with '33' would then be season 1 part 2. nothing on it says we should have watched 'the mini series' first. nothing. its made me angry, but its coming from amazon, to work for just £4 reduced from £12.99 (i should fucking hope so for 3 fucking hours for probable shite)

i bought another Ashley Jackson print (this one unframed- the lady in the shop was very miffed i didnt want her shit frame- she had to cut the back off it) Ashley was in his gallery when i went and showed me all the originals that he still has. theyre pretty good, i either love them or im not keen, i bought this one more for the boyf, he has a love of the sea, the beach, lakes, water, i do too but he really really warms at the sight of anything to do with them. so i bought a print of Ashleys Morcambe bay, you can see the mountains behind and the sky is dark and moody as it is. so its sat wrapped in cellophane and sat on my big white painted fireplace in my lounge (the mini print of the moors is sat over the boyf's sofa with the light on the settled water up the moors)

before work today i cleaned the master bathroom, im finding i have to do 'one job' a morning now to get stuff done. else nothing ever gets done, last week one day i did the kitchen, i mean, we clean it down in between, but this was a proper, get everything off, move everything, clean everything, minimalise, throw out etc. same with the bathroom today. in both rooms the only thing i didnt do was the floors, im not good with floors.

this morning i burst into tears. the oven did it again. it winds me up. it burns and destroys my food. I CAN COOK. i can, i make great food, i made amazing things when i lived at my mum and dads. cooking on their AGA. this gas range we have? its horrific. it never lights, it takes forever to warm up, it burns everthing, its not constant. the aga was constant. i miss the aga. so i burnt my amazing american bacon. and the second set of eggs i did over cooked. its a good job le beau was there else id have dragged it out onto the street and smashed it with a hammer. i would. i despise it. he calmed me down and cooked my food for me while i then played games on facefook (intentional 'f')

my cousin Sally and i took her daughter to Eureka which is an AMAZING childrens museum. i shall post some pics of Florence having the time of her life. afterwards i droves us to a cheap shop called B&M Bargains (i only go such places with my cousin Sally- she is a bargain hunter extrordinaire!) i got some duster mitts and some tealight lanterns and hit Florence on the head with a basket (she walked into it- just the right height) and then we went to ASDA which is where the SCUM OF THE EARTH do their weekly shop. i have a 3 door car and it had its first ever baby seat in (containing Florence) so we needed a parent and child space so we could get her out. it was sunday, ASDA was heaving. we drove round and i spotted a man loading his kids into his car. score, pulled in, indicated. then the guy 2/3 cars a head did the same and he put his reversing light on. i asked Sally if i should just drive in, she said yes, i did, then there was a smash on my window and an f-ing and blinding man screaming and shouting at me for stealing his space and how he'd been waiting for 'ten fucking minutes' and what the fuck did i think i was doing? i had to get out of his fucking space now and i was a fucking bitch- he ranted for 10 entire minutes all the time with 2 year old Florence and his 7 year old son (no need for a parent and child space) watching and listening. i mean. really- what. the. fuck. Sally i think is still fuming. and its Tuesday night. shes a police officer and couldnt do anything because she was wearing Fitflops and had Florence with her. we watching him drive round 3 or 4 times. i expected to come back to my car and have numerous horrific words carved into the metal work. tosser.

why why why havent they put Grey's Anatomy on box set for season 6? why why why, ive had season 5 forever. and we're nearly finished. i cant watch it online. the boyf wont do that. he'll get tetchy. arnt they on season 7 now?

anyway. this isnt getting my pile of magazines read and its 1am on Wednesday the 5th of May, for all those that read this and are still on tuesday time- May the 4th be with you! (happy Star Wars day)

xx