Meatloaf and Muffins

I made meatloaf today, for our lunches in the week ahead.  It doesn’t slice that well because I didn’t use a food processor to mince the onions and other ingredients as fine as they should have been done.  It still tastes pretty good though, especially when eaten with the red onion and tomato relish that I made to go with it.  The relish is very tangy and flavourful, I really like it.

This morning for breakfast I made cinnamon apple muffins using essentially the same recipe as the blueberry muffins I made last week, only using apples rather than blueberries.  I was going to make more blueberry muffins but to my dismay my blueberries had gone mouldy! =(  So sad.

GM says he likes the apple muffins better than the blueberry ones!  What!  I personally prefer the blueberry ones a lot more because the juices from the blueberries made it so much more moist.

But all in all, the apple muffins were a success; the cakey bit was very fluffy and light and the apple chunks which I had prepared with sugar and cinnamon were cooked but with a good firm-ish bite still.  Next time I’d probably put in more apple chunks though.

I’m really enjoying muffin making!  I like them a lot better than cupcakes because whilst cupcakes are prettier, I find the frosting is really only good for just that, making it pretty.  Most of the time I scrape the frosting off because it’s just way too sweet, even if I’ve practically halved the amount of sugar required in the recipes.

I need some muffin flavour ideas.  Give me some please =)  (Not chocolate btw, I don’t like chocolate muffins, thanks)

A Week In My Life: Day 7 – Busy Day

This photo sums up my day perfectly: everything went by in a blur.  I was really busy today, which was nice in a way because the day passed really quickly but I did stress just a tiny bit.  Well I didn’t stress, but I was in my “busy, can’t talk” mode and getting tetchy when other members of my team with time on their hands tried to talk to me.  Oh dear.

Anyway, last day of the meme! =)

I’m never too busy to have lunch!  Remember the shopping complex I showed you yesterday?  This is a grassy area on the level above the shops where one can sit and have lunch.  Not that many people seem to know about it because it’s not crowded at all, not even at lunchtime when you’d expect it to be chockablock.

I had another lunch date today and my colleague and I had a grand old time bitching about the people at work hahaha.

Left side of grassy area with hedges and all.

My lunch for today.  I had the tuna and cucumber roll again.  I love that roll.  The bread’s really soft and the cucumber slices are so fresh.  The tuna isn’t pungent nor fishy and mainly acts as texture.  Yum.  I wanted chocolate milk but it was sold out!  Swines.  So I had to have a smoothie instead.  I don’t like smoothies because they taste nothing like their ingredients.  This one tasted like smoothie and not at all like vanilla and maple syrup……… see what I mean?

We passed by the Victoria Palace Theatre where Billy Elliot is showing.

As well as the Apollo Victoria Theatre where Wicked is showing.  It’s nice to have theatre at my doorstep but I’ve already seen both shows so I guess I can’t really make use of the close proximity to have a convenient night out at the theatre.

Victoria Station from the outside.

GM was let off early today so we took the train home together =)  That was nice.  I was knackered and wanted some comfort food so we had bangers and mash.  Only in this instance we really had chipolatas and mash with little tomatoes (they’re not cherry tomatoes, I don’t know the variety but they’re REALLY good) and gherkins that’d gone soft.

After dinner I had a nap!  That’s after eating a shitload of dessert and crisps.  Hehe.

I had to get up after an hour or so to pick GM’s mum up from Heathrow Terminal 3.

The area where GM’s parents live, a place where all the houses look alike.

Oh good, I’ve finally finished writing this post, yay.  Not that it took me that long but it’s 2.40am and I still have emails to write!

A Week In My Life: Day 6 – Lunchtime Tourist

You’ve been seeing lots of photos of the train station so I think it’s time to show you what the interior of the train I take every morning looks like.  This is an older model of train I think but I prefer it because the more modern ones smell funny.

I bet none of you knew that my workplace is actually very near the Queen’s residence!  It’s only around 5 to 10 minutes’ walk down the road and today GM and I took a little stroll there during lunchtime.  It’s quite a pleasant stroll, if one can avoid the hordes of tourists.

Buckingham Palace from the front.

A bunch of Korean tourists in front of the Victoria Memorial.

Black cab going up The Mall.

On the way back we walked past some official palace souvenir shops.

More chinaware.

After our little walk, we went to a shopping complex next to my work to buy a bit of lunch.  These are offices on top of all the shops.

The shops.  This shopping complex is new and quite posh.

View of a church (I think it’s a church) from within the shopping complex.

I bought a tuna and cucumber roll from M&S for £1.75, bargain!  It was really nice because the cucumber slices were really cold and crunchy.

Behind it is my drinking mug which I wash out every morning.  I only either drink peppermint tea or water.  You even get to see my handcream (Atrixo) and my lip balm (Eve Lom)!

I thought I might as well show you my mousemat haha.  My colleague found it in his drawer and gave it to me because he said it suited me.  What?!??

Flowers in the garden.

English rose.  I like roses these days, if you look at them properly they’re actually quite beautiful.

We drove past the church near our house on the way out after work.

We also went past the park where we go jogging, IF we go jogging.

It’s quite pretty there.

A church along our jogging route.

The setting sun.

Okay I have to go to bed early tonight because I have a meeting at 9am tomorrow!  This means I have to be in at work by about 8.30am.  Aargh, I’m never going to be able to get up!  Who schedules meetings for earlier than 10am?  Swines.

A Week In My Life: Day 5 – Lazy Day

Doesn’t my station look rustic from this view?

This week hasn’t been good for GM and I in terms of getting up on time for work.  I think it’s partly because of the weather; it’s been cooler this week and greyer so it makes us want to sleep in.

Well, the good part about taking the late train is that not that many people take it!  Presumably because most people would be really late for work if they left that late in the morning.  Luckily I am allowed, and so is GM because he starts at 9.30am anyway.  Hehehe.

I had lunch in the park again.  It’s nice to get away from the office and sit amongst flowers and greenery and chat about rubbish.

In the afternoon I trotted through the station on my way to a meeting in another building (it’s easier to cut through the station rather than follow the road).  My organisation occupies quite a number of buildings around the area as well as all over the country.

I tried to take a picture showing the architecture of Victoria Station, unfortunately I didn’t get any good photos.  Perhaps because I was trying to be really quick about it as I felt like a prat standing in the middle of a busy station in a suit taking pics of apparently nothing in particular.

If any of you are wondering why I haven’t got any photos of my workplace or office, it’s because I’m not allowed to so you’ll have to be content with lots of pics of the train station hahaha.

Rather than going back to my office after the meeting I decided to go straight home =)  Hehe.  We bought a chicken over the weekend and I wanted to roast it!

Roast chicken.  I seasoned it liberally with quite a lot of salt to get a nice fragrant crispy skin.  Mmm.

Shredded roast chicken with cucumber, pickled peppers and olives on toast.  Really good.

I know some of you are Nando’s lovers so this is for you! =)

A Week In My Life: Day 4 – Back to Work

It’s actually quite hard remembering to take photos for this meme during a workday. I kept remembering too late, i.e. after I’d done something of note.

Anyway we couldn’t get up this morning. It was sooooo painful. In the end we took the late train in (8.50am train) and as usual I read the Metro (free newspaper given out at all train stations) and listened to music on my mobile.

We reached the station at 9.30am as you can see on the clock.

I went out for lunch with a colleague and we went down a quiet bit of Victoria. I love these houses, I wish I could afford one.

We’d both brought pack lunches in so we sat in this little square (Victoria Square) which GM had told me about after I went out for lunch last week with another friend and had to sit in a really grubby park on top of bird poo. Hahaha. This square is much nicer, very quiet and tranquil.

After work GM and I went to the gym nearby. I’d signed up for a 3 day free trial and GM has a free premium membership courtesy of his work.

I don’t think I’m going to join this gym because it’s really small and there were loads of people there so I felt a bit like I had to fight for machines. Anyway I think gyms in general just disagree with me because I can’t use those running machines; I am paranoid that I will fall off them because I’m such a klutz. As such, I have to hold on for dear life and it makes me feel like a moron because everyone else around me is running with wild abandon. Another thing is, I feel like smacking all the people in there with their so serious “Can’t you see I’m exercising??” faces. Not good.

We got out of the gym at 7pm, ran for the train and got home at half seven. On the train home our “must be healthy” resolve abandoned us and we bought terrible, sinful takeaway curry! *sob*

But it tasted GREAT. Never tasted so good in fact. So my conclusion is, exercise has another good use besides making one healthy, it also makes food taste loads better! =D

Whilst eating dinner I was already worrying about tomorrow’s meals and I had my chicken wings on at the same time for tomorrow’s lunch.

Okay I hope I remember to take photos tomorrow, this is actually more challenging than I thought!