Celebration Cupcake

It was my neighbour’s birthday yesterday.  She didn’t know that I knew because she didn’t tell me, I found out from Facebook.

I wanted to help her celebrate even if it was in some small way so after dinner last night I bought her some cupcakes from M&S and brought three over to her (one each for her and her small family) with a lit candle in one.   She was really surprised and said we made her day =)  That’s nice =)

Anyway I had one cupcake left over as I’d bought a pack of four so I had it for dinner today!  To tell the truth, I didn’t enjoy it that much.  I think I make better cupcakes than that!

Food Diary

Breakfast – One banana

Lunch – Salade de Merguez which is a warm salad of spicy Merguez sausage (kind of like a North African version of chorizo), red onion, peppers and tomatoes with a balsamic dressing on mixed leaves with risolée potatoes and garlic croutons.  The garlic croutons were actually big slices of toast.  Obviously I didn’t bring this salad from home, I went out with a colleague for lunch.

Snack – Two satsumas

Snack – One chocolate biscuit.  My workmate brought a pack in to share.

Dinner – One strawberry and vanilla cupcake

Snack – One little mango

Drinks – Peppermint tea, English tea and water

Exercise

A few sit-ups and leg lifts

Posh Curry

I had quite a foodie day today.  As in, I ate out during both lunch and dinner and I don’t mean a sandwich eaten outdoors.  I don’t think I could have eaten outdoors even if I wanted to; it was far too windy and that wind was cold!

We finally went out for dinner with GM’s relatives as planned.  Unfortunately the “50% off food” offer for the Italian restaurant we’d wanted to go to on Tuesday has expired so we had to find somewhere else to go.  In these times of recession we don’t normally go anywhere that hasn’t got some sort of deal on anymore – why do that when there are so many discounts to be had!

We ended up going for posh Indian food in Covent Garden.  My curry is the one in front in the picture above.  It was vegetable dumplings simmered in saffron yoghurt sauce.  The sauce was great, really fiery and fragrant but the dumplings were a bit weird, they were really mushy and I couldn’t identify any individual vegetable.  I quite liked the dish though, I like soft foods that don’t require much effort haha.

In the middle pot was the lamb curry.  That was not bad too, the lamb was in tender chunks and the sauce, whilst not as good nor spicy as mine, was tasty enough.  In the pot right at the top was seafood curry.  I didn’t like this.  I had a squid ring and it was soft and mushy, no bite at all and the sauce was coconut milk based and very very mild.  No kick whatsoever to it.

I have to show you their complimentary salad.  It’s that big brown board in the middle with all the veg in it.  They bring the board over with the vegetables whole and tell you how to eat it, i.e. cut up the vegetables yourself, sprinkle the spices in the pestle and mortar over them and squeeze some lemon juice on top for good measure.  We had to cut up the vegetables ourselves!  I found that quite bizarre.  Not that I’m so lazy I can’t do it but I don’t see how that added to the experience or taste of the salad?  Was it supposed to provide some sort of thrill?  But I chop up vegetables at home on a regular basis!  It’s hardly bungee jumping.  Like I said, bizarre.

Food Diary

Lunch – Rigatoni (big tube pasta) with torn chicken breast and mushrooms in a tomato sauce

Dinner – Naan bread with a selection of curries, some potatoes and salad.  It was an okay meal, I enjoyed it enough but not so much that I’d make an effort to ever go back again.

Dessert – An ice-cream on a stick.  I think it was some kind of milk flavoured lolly since it tasted like frozen condensed milk.  I liked it.  Almost ate the bit that GM couldn’t finish!

After dinner snack – Muesli with skimmed milk.  I’d prepared this last night before I left for the gym since we weren’t sure whether or not we were going to GM’s aunt’s for dinner.  Since we eventually ended up going I didn’t get a chance to eat it and had to have it when I got home tonight otherwise it would have been wasted.  Normally when we have muesli the raisins are really chewy like wine gums but this muesli had been soaking for so long that the raisins had even turned soft!

Drinks – Peppermint tea, water

Exercise

None!