birthday surprise

My boyfriend's the sweetest. He came and surprised me after work just to give me flowers (: Even though I told him he didn't need to get me anything else because he already got me a birthday present... And then he caught the bus with me all the way home even though he lives in the complete opposite direction. Ah, much love ♥

saturday lunchies

 

Salad of cucumber, mushroom, carrots, red onion and avocado, with sweet chilli sauce and lemon juice!

 In the process of making an omelette for my sister for lunch (:

breakfast frittata in toast

This morning, I was craving a delicious breakfast. I had a lot of leftover vegetable fillings from my dad's sandwich shop that I definitely wanted to use so I somehow wanted to combine them together and what better way to bind things together than making an omelette? But I didn't have an egg ring so I made do with the crust of some wholemeal bread!

I suppose it doesn't really count as an omelette anymore... More like a frittata haha. I beat an egg with a dash of milk and parmesan cheese, poured it into my crust ring, and added in red onion, carrots, cucumber, mushrooms, and some chicken. This was cooked on low heat until the base was brown the flipped over to cook the other side. The end result? Delicious ;) Didn't even need to add salt because all the vegetables had their own flavours!

And nothing is better than some hot lemon honey tea on a cold winter's morning!

pizza toast

Wholemeal toast with spaghetti bolognese (my dad makes this sauce so tasty! I might post up recipe soon haha) and topped with Devondale mozzarella cheese. Healthy makeshift pizza! I toasted the bread in a pan with no oil to create a crunchy base (:

mini coconut key lime pies

The other day, my dad came home from Flemington with a massive box of avocados and he said "I bought this whole box for $4! Alright guys, these are quite ripe so lets eat as much as we can over the next few days!" Of course, I've been trying to find different ways to eat them: on top of wholemeal toast with a poached egg and pepper, in sandwiches with ham, cheese and tomato, in salads... And I noticed that all the foods I used them in were savoury. So I thought, why can't I try use them in something sweet like a dessert? Upon looking through the internet, I found lots of vegan dessert recipes using avocados and this one in particular caught my eye. Though I changed the recipe a bit due to lots of things I could not be bothered doing... Haha lazy old me. And not to mention I am short on time (I have a presentation tomorrow eek! Yet I am still playing around with food...). The end result? I loved these! I thought it could definitely benefit from the coconut milk in the filling as I had gone without, but it wasn't too big of a deal. I thought the crust was much too sweet when I was making it and gave it a taste test, but the tartness of the lime balanced out the sweetness of the crust perfectly. My brother and sister said that the crust tasted like Kellog's Crunchy Nut haha. They were scrumptious but healthy and good for you ;) So to the dessert lovers, why not give these a go? I promise you they will be tasty.

Mini Coconut Key Lime Pies
Makes 3 muffin-sized pies

Crust
12 tablespoons unsweetened powdered coconut (or you could grind up some dessicated coconut)
2 tablespoons honey

Filling
1 medium avocado
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1 lime
Stevia extract to taste (I used about 2g which is equal to about 2 teaspoons of sugar if you'd rather use sugar)
1 teaspoon of dessicated coconut (OPTIONAL. I used some to mix in, some to sprinkle on top after. I'd recommend using the coconut milk instead to make a smoother mixture though if you decide not to, it still turns out fine! And saves some calories haha)

METHOD
Combine powdered coconut and honey in a bowl and mix until a dough forms (I found that a stabbing sort of motion combines the honey and coconut better). Line muffin tray with muffin cases and press in the dough so that you have three pie shells. Toast in the oven at 180 degrees Celcius for around 5-10 minutes or until lightly brown.

While the crust is baking, combine all the filling ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. After the crusts are done, spoon the filling into the crusts and chill in fridge until set. Take out of muffin cases and sprinkle with toasted coconut to serve.

Enjoy your healthy treat to satisfy your sweet cravings!

saturday munchies

Had quite an early lunch today - was feeling peckish and it wasn't even noon yet! The cold weather is really doing me in... I drank like four cups of tea this morning! Despite the winter weather, I really felt like something zesty today so just my luck we were out of lemons... So I decided to make do with oranges instead! Made a salad of cucumber, carrot, tomato and chicken, squeezed in a few slices of orange and topped it with sweet chilli sauce. Yum. Would've been better with lemon though! But the great part of using orange is that I can eat the leftover later as a snack :D I tend to snack a lot... So my meals are always quite small haha. Though I feel my eating is getting better - I feel much healthier and more upbeat! I still got to tone down on my sugar intake, especially chocolate (oh god, I love chocolate so much).

My weekend is going to be spend laying out all my drawings on panels out for a mock presentation on Monday. I have so much left to do but at the same time, I really am not in the mood to do anything or work on my structure because I'm really not liking my design... It looks like a rock-cave-thing lol.

Hope everyone else will have better weekends - happy Saturday!

one less thing

Today I handed in our group's Technologies final report. That's one assessment down, only 438%#3*213 left to go... I have a mock presentation due on Monday for our models and A1 panels due on Friday and then our assessed presentation the Monday after that... Eep, big weeks ahead of me so wish me luck!

I'm trying to cut down on my fat and sugar intake because I realised I eat way too much crap and it's really not good for my health. I consume so many empty calories in a day it's not even funny. Gotta get me some more nutrition! So I had a very healthy lunch today. But then it all went downhill after that where I had lots of Nutino and chocolates... Oops. Oh well, healthy lunch is a start right? I am aiming for a healthy living lifestyle!

Lettuce, tomato, avocado and grilled chicken with Italian dressing

Happy Tuesday!

lindt lindola

My grandaunt bought us chocolates! Yummm. My favourites would have to be:
Milk Pyramid milk chocolate enveloping a smooth milk praline filling with delicate wafer pieces
Stracciatella Dome gently roasted cocoa nibs blended in creamy vanilla and almond praline, enrobed in a dark chocolate with a crown of creamy white chocolate
Marzipan Buchette aromatic filling of dark chocolate and marzipan praline, enrobed in milk chocolate with a dark chocolate decor
Cresta Milk smooth hazelnut praline with nougat pieces, enveloped in an extra-fine milk chocolate
Caramel Fondant intensely flavoured dark chocolate square, layered with soft-melting caramel
Cuppuccino Delice fine milk and white chocolate with a smooth and aromatic coffee centre

Ah, I could eat chocolate all day if I could. Seriously, I had this box of chocolates next to me as I was drawing up plans and sections on Autocad (oh my god, massive assignment due this upcoming Wednesday so I'm stressed as... And such little time - I've got work from 8-5:30 tomorrow so it's going to be a long day) and I was sort of absentmindedly picking up chocolates and eating them and before I knew it, half the box was gone. Oopsie! And a large box it is... But it was ohsotasty.

Time to go back to annotating construction drawings and making new ones :(

tie me up

I would just like to say that I absolutely adore ankle boots. So when I first spotted the Siren Damsel heels, I fell in love. Despite looking like the Jeffrey Campbell Litas, I still wanted a pair of Sirens to call my own. However, selling at $169.95 at retail stores, I was a bit hesitant at buying them because I had just recently splurged $160 on my Litas and the Siren Damsels are quite similar in style though I would say more smart casual. Whereas the Litas would be a rebellious grunge girl, the Damsel would be her posh sister who likes to sip champagne. Fast forward a couple of months and I spotted these on sale at The Iconic for $118. Needless to say, I quickly nabbed myself the last pair left on the website on impulse at 2am in the morning because I had a voucher for $25 off! So at $93, it was a bargain compared to the original price.

Let me just have this chance to rave about how good the Iconic is! Not only did they have a sale for these shoes when absolutely no other stores do, shipping is free and I got these the next business day! I ordered on a Sunday and got them Tuesday morning. If that's not fast postage, I don't know what is. In response to these shoes, they look fantastic on! Though word of warning, these are a small make. Normally I fit a size 6 comfortably but these were quite tight. But I suppose they will stretch as it's leather so I'll just have to break these in.

I don't even know what's with me and high heels. I buy so many pairs and I don't have any occassions to wear these beauties! I keep telling myself I will wear them in the distant future haha. And now I have such a large collection of shoes that I'm actually finding it hard to have anywhere to store them! Well, as soon as I move out, I know I have to have a walk in wardrobe to fit everything in...

So tell me, are any of you guys shoeholics? ;)

the avengers

Before our reunion meet up to watch The Avengers, my boyfriend and I ate a quick dinner at Poporo in Market City.

Hotate Kinoko Spaghetti 1/2, $6.10

This pasta was cooked surprisingly well and worked quite well with the light creamy sauce. The mushrooms were fresh and tasty. Only complaint would be that the scallops were way too small and there really wasn't much of them at all.

Tonkatsu Doria 1/2, $7.60

This came out piping hot and was very tasty indeed with a thick cheesy sauce on top of tomato rice with a pork cutlet covered in a gooey, melted, stringy cheese. The hot cheese sauce did burn me as I was very keen to try this! Very heavy but oh so deliciously sinful.

This movie was as good as I thought it was going to be if not even better! I loved the characters - they were all hilarious especially Tony Stark (ah how I love Robert Downey Jr.). It was definitely nice to see everyone again even if it was for a short while.

marvellous creations?

Cadbury has some new chocolates released into the confectionery aisles of Coles and Woolworths everywhere - their Marvellous Creations range. They do also have a peanut toffee one, but it didn't come in the smaller bars and I wasn't in the mood to buy a massive block so I just have these two. I absolutely love the packaging though! The font is reminiscent of a circus, no? (:

Look at all the honeycomb bits in the Jelly & Crunchie Bits bar

I believe these will appeal to the inner child in all of us. They are both incredibly sweet as with all the chocolates in the Cadbury Dairy Milk range. The Jelly & Crunchie bits bar is full of chewy raspberry flavoured jellies and small honeycomb pieces. It's the same honeycomb they use in their Crunchie bars I would think. The Jelly, Popping Candy and Beanies is more interesting. The popping candy fizzles and pops in your mouth. However, I find the addition of smarties quite meaningless as smarties are just chocolate covered in a crispy shell? Perhaps to add more crunch and texture, but the popping candy is already crunches if you bite into it and also pops at the same time so the smarties seem redundant. It's a fun chocolate candy bar, and if you feel like having something with both lollies and chocolate in one, then why not? Probably not for the chocolate connoisseurs out there though haha.

Tommy's Beer Cafe, Glebe

Tommy's Beer Cafe is a small joint down Glebe Point Rd, more  further down from the busy end close to Parramatta Road. It was date night once again and my boyfriend was in the mood for some good beer. He was keen to try "German beer" as apparently it tastes better (I wouldn't know as I don't like beer... Maybe it's an acquired taste? Probably). But alas, Tommy's Beer Cafe is actually Eastern European and not German - well, he didn't really mind as long as he got his beer ;) There was some cute deco going on at the tables in the form of the pot plant.

Budejovicky Budvar Lager, $5 for 0.33L

My boyfriend had trouble trying to pronounce the name of this beer so the waitress just smiled and helped him out, replying fluently with a wonderfully thick accent to which he laughed and said "Yes, that one." This beer I actually didn't mind too much. Still not a big fan of beer though. I think I prefer the general aftertaste that lingers in my mouth as opposed to when you first drink it.

Buffalo cheek, $12.90

When this came to our table, I was in shock at the large serving portion as this was just an entree! I could probably eat this as a main by itself and be very satisfied and full. This slow braised buffalo cheek served on parsley mash with dark beer and rosehip jus was absolutely divine. The meat just fell apart with a prod of the fork from the long braising process and the sauce just tied everything together. The mash was creamy and smooth as a potato mash should be so I'm not even going to question how much cream and butter went into it! The pork crackling on top was deliciously crunchy and well seasoned so no complaints there.

Pork belly, $15.99 Thursday special

The pork belly was wonderfully juicy and succulent contrasting with the crispy crackling on top. I loved the combination of the pork with the apple chutney, the sweet and salty working very well together. This was the first time I've had sauerkraut and I quite liked its sourness! Too bad there were only two pieces of csabai sausage, but at least there was one for us both (:

The waitress was friendly, coming around asking if everything was fine. Of course it was - the food was delicious! It was early dining for us though as it was just a bit past 5 and we were the only ones there. As we were heading out at 5:30, some regulars began trickling in probably for a nice, cool, refreshing lager before heading off home.

I will definitely be back to try other things on the menu for sure! Of course, with help because of the large serving sizes. The potato pancakes, pork knuckle, and schnitzel are calling out my name ;)

Tommy's Beer Cafe
123 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe

Opening hours:
Monday-Thursday: 4pm-12am
Friday-Sunday: 12pm-12am