Ikea 09/05/09

I went to Ikea on the 9th of May with T, to hunt for some cabinets for the office.
I wore a dress, (yes, so what?)and I felt very uncomfortable with the glances I was getting from T...

Anyway we bought a few things, and of course we stopped to eat something at the restaurant. There were strawberry cakes, prawn salads, and of course the famous meatballs, which we ate. The problem was the sauce tasted like milk, yuck, so next time it is tomato sauce for me. T had some cranberrie sauce in it, which was very
tasty.




Unfortunately, due to my hunger I forgot to make a picture of my meatballs :-(
I only have one picture of the price board!!


After we finished shopping, we stopped again, T had a hot dog with coke and I had a coffe with 2 chocolate donughts, mmm, delicious carbs. And back to the office again. I love going to Ikea, but I hate assembling the bloody things I buy. Men seem to enjoy doing it, but for me it is a nightmare. I have a look at the pictures and I wonder, which way I have to put the parts in, I start to assemble only to find out that it was the other way around. And everyone knows what happens to Ikea stuff, once you assemble it, pray you don't have to undo it, because it won't last 2 assembly attempts, SIGH!


Anyway, the highlight of that day was not the satisfaction of having a marvellous office, it was an invitation from J to have an steak with him, OH YES, mm, I ran home, my stomach growling in anticipation, thinking of the delicious rare meat awaiting, it's juices flowing towards the veg...



Oh, yes, after all it turned out to be a memorable day!!

I cheated today

I have cheated, as I haven't cooked anything today, only my breakfast, which surprise, surprise, was the same as yesterday. Went to work and I managed to look semi-awake for nearly the whole day (I think), despite the 2 painkillers that I took.

For lunch Tom bought me a tuna sweetcorn salad, baked crisps and a Jaffa muffin (very nice!!!) and for dinner I am ashamed to say I had a double cheese burger and a coffee at McDonald's, company was good though.

So to indulge on my voyeuristic food thing, I asked my sister through MSN what she had today for dinner. And how dare she have a Chinese takeaway!!! Not only that was cheating as well, she did not take any pictures of it.

Oh well, at least I managed to have a look at Tom's sandwich today, and I have a leaflet of Morrison's cafe meal deals, which strangely enough are similar to the Weatherspoons ones...

Tuesday 05.05.09

Woke up feeling much better, not taking pain killers today, see if I can focus, can't go to work all doped, lol.


My breakfast was very nice, not very healthy, but I needed a carbo-hydrate fix.
And at the moment it seemed to me that nothing in this world would make me happier than to scoff down a nutella and banana warm pancake, it was an absolute heaven!!!

For lunch I had the soup leftovers from yesterday, which tasted even better. It is funny, but I think soups and stews taste much better the following day, do you agree? Then I experimented filling a pancake with turkey breast, cucumber and cheese. Bad move there... I didn't heat the pancake (was ready made, I blush while I confess), so when I rolled it over, it broke down in several places... No my finest culinary moment but what the hell, it was tasty enough for me.

Told my sister about my cooking efforts and she laughed. She gave me a picture of her lunch though, which was turkey breast with 'piquillo' peppers and garlic, VERY nice, I wish I was in Spain having lunch with her. She is an excellent cook.



It is amazing, I have become a bit of a food voyeur. I can't stop asking people what they eat, and I can't stop looking at their food either. It is a weird fascination, but I don't like to see them eating, just what they have to eat before they eat it. I find myself peering at their lunches on the tube, watching from outside restaurant windows. I could be in a supermarket for hours standing over the succulent pictures of ready meals, or immersed on the vegetable section daydreaming countless variations of soup... or in a nirvana of my own over the pictures of famous chef recipes at the book section.


For my late dinner I attempted to make a beef stew. I say attempted because it didn't come out as good as it normally does, taste was ok though, presentation was crap, lol, got distracted with Holby City... So learnt my lesson, watching TV and cooking do not mix well.
So this was the outcome of me becoming distracted into today's Holby City plot, which by the way was not that good... If I was the script writer I could think of a lot of shenanigans for the uber cool Connie to be up to, a moral crisis for the Sanctimonious Rick, and where are all the tasty doctors??? And I want to see Mark suffer more, I can't stand the sugary thing he has with Daisha..., and it would be good for Linden to get laid or do something sinful for a change.


My sister in Spain made soy soup, which looks much better than my humble dinner. Not very keen on soy myself, but I am sure it was absolutely delicious. My sister and I chat everyday on MSN, thank you Mr Gates for bringing us closer despite the distance!!

Asian Veg Soup & Cheese for dinner

This was my dinner today , it didn't take long to dice the veg and cook them. I just made the recipe up, I called it Asian because it has curry on it, but I could have called it Moroccan because it has Moroccan spices on it. Anyway, I think I should have gone easier on the Olive Oil, but I think the soup tasted better than the ready made ones, and at least I know what is in it.



The mixed cheese was lovely too, shipped directly from Spain.





Does anybody understand the nutritional values and the recommended daily amounts on the packaging of the ready meals? Now there are products which display if the salt content for example is high, medium or high; surely all the supermarkets should take that into account and never go past the medium content? If they know what is so good for us, why their ready meals don't reflect that?

I know what is good for me and what is not, the nutritional contents information sometimes helps me to make healthier choices, but at the end of the day not every day we have the time to cook a meal from scratch. I can do it now because I am on sick leave, still sore, taking antibiotics and painkillers, can't sit down for long periods of time. I should be back to work on Wednesday with a bit of luck, and then will I go back to ready meals and pub dinners or try to cook something nice and keep taking pictures with the hope of outdoing my kitchen goddess sister? Hmmm, a tough one :-)

7 Beauty Tips to Beat Credit Crunch

1. Use hair conditioner as shaving cream, the razor just sails through and your legs end up so much smoother. Clean razor well so you can re-use it again.

2. Cucumbers are not only for salads, you know? They are the best and cheapest DIY Eye Pads after a tiring day at work.

3. If you shower everyday, only shampoo once. Invest in Dark & Lovely moisture seal 3in one conditioning shampoo if you can, it works wonders for colour-treated, heat traumatized hair and dry curls.

4. The Free samples you get on magazines are good, use them!!, don't let them waste away on your drawers...

5. Don't go crazy into the whole clothes fashion thing, rather than buy the new outrageous outfit, buy timeless items you can wear for more than one season, and accessorize according to current trends. When you accessorize remember less is more, especially on jewellery.

6. Before trying yet again another overpriced cellulite cream, remember to exercise, have a balanced diet and drink loads of water. (yes it is a cliche, but IT DOES WORK) Not even the more expensive cream in the market can have lasting results if you don't look after yourself. If exercising at home is a no for you, consider jogging / power walking at the park, swimming, dancing, walk some of the way to work...

7. Use your eye make up remover as a face make up remover. You don't need to buy a different product to do basically the same thing.

The New Healthy Me

Ok, I have tried to be healthy several times, and they have always go down the pan, so let's see how long can I keep this up this time. So this is my first 1 of 5 a day: strawberries with Spanish Lavender Honey, mmm, delicious breaksfast.

And for lunch, an American fried chicken sandwich with Light Leerdammer cheese, tomato and romaine lettuce.



It is annoying to see J counting calories that much, I am not bothered by that at all...I am just surprised at how much do I enjoy my food lately, when before I just couldn't be bothered. I was painfully thin before, but now Morrison's scales have assured me I am on my perfect weight, so to all these magazines sporting stick thin celebrities I say, SOD IT, I am happy the way I am, and I am not trying celebrity diets, and don't really care how much they weight... Mind you, seeing cellulite on celebrity upper classes still DOES make my day.

What did I do for lunch?

Not bad!!

J brought it alive, couldn't bring myself to eat it or boil it. My efforts are after it was dead. Our first rule, everything in my kitchen has to be dead beforehand, because I will refuse to slaughter it. Those are the times when I think I should become a vegetarian.

Picture courtesy of my new Sony Ericsson phone and my unsteady hands (nothing new there), specially after the pill cocktel I am having to neck down. I hope I get well soon, there is only so much day TV I can put up with... I want to go back to work, HELP!!