Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Almost London time...
In 9 days we will be flying to London!! I have not been there since 2001 which seems like 100 years ago instead of 13! :) I was a single girl back then and was only in London for around 11 hours before starting a Contiki Tour through France, Spain & Italy. It was an amazing trip and I met some great people. I am so excited to be experiencing Europe again but this time in a bit more detail and with the 4 most important people in my life. We are also going to be going to a few places I have never been - like Ireland (which I think I am the most excited about), and of course Switzerland. :) Here are a few pics I just found of London that I love and they are making me SO excited!!!
Five Seed Bread
One of the easiest breads I have found, and absolutely delicious.
Ingredients
500g Bakers Flour
2 tsp dry Yeast
1 tsp Salt
50g Oats
30g Sesame Seeds
30g Linseeds
30g Sunflower Seeds
30g Pumpkin Seeds
30g Poppy Seeds
30g Honey
30g Olive Oil
500g lukewarm Water
Method
Pre-heat oven to 200ºC.
Place all ingredients into Bellini bowl. Set dial to closed lid position and knead for 2½ minutes on Speed 1.
Scrape into 20cm square, greased baking dish. Sprinkle top with mixture of above seeds.
Set aside in warm place to rise for 25-30 minutes. Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes.
Allow to cool in tin before unmoulding and slicing.
Ingredients
500g Bakers Flour
2 tsp dry Yeast
1 tsp Salt
50g Oats
30g Sesame Seeds
30g Linseeds
30g Sunflower Seeds
30g Pumpkin Seeds
30g Poppy Seeds
30g Honey
30g Olive Oil
500g lukewarm Water
Method
Pre-heat oven to 200ºC.
Place all ingredients into Bellini bowl. Set dial to closed lid position and knead for 2½ minutes on Speed 1.
Scrape into 20cm square, greased baking dish. Sprinkle top with mixture of above seeds.
Set aside in warm place to rise for 25-30 minutes. Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes.
Allow to cool in tin before unmoulding and slicing.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Monday morning short run
Leading up to Europe I have so much work to do and because I hate being disorganised I am trying to give myself an extra hour or so at work so I'm on top of everything.. but I also love my morning runs. :) So I have been going into work in my PT gear, logging on and checking that nothing is super urgent, and then ducking out for a quick run. I haven't done a longish run this week but will hopefully push out a 10-12km on Thursday, and then my long 35km run on Saturday or Sunday. Here is the recap of Monday's run. It was a little slow.. but all good!! With the amount of stuff I have going on at the moment I am just happy to keep my legs rolling over. :)
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Spinach & Egg Tarts
Ingredients:
6 bacon rashers
3 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry
500g spinach
1 x onion
12 eggs
1C grated cheese
Method
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Heat a medium frying pan over high heat. Add bacon, cook and stir for 5 minutes.
2. Cut each pastry sheet into 4 squares and line a 12 hole texas muffin pan with pastry. Using your hair squeeze the excess liquid from the spinach. Divide the spinach amongst the pastry cases. Sprinkle with bacon and onion. Crack an egg into each case and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 15 minutes or until egg is just cooked.
6 bacon rashers
3 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry
500g spinach
1 x onion
12 eggs
1C grated cheese
Method
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Heat a medium frying pan over high heat. Add bacon, cook and stir for 5 minutes.
2. Cut each pastry sheet into 4 squares and line a 12 hole texas muffin pan with pastry. Using your hair squeeze the excess liquid from the spinach. Divide the spinach amongst the pastry cases. Sprinkle with bacon and onion. Crack an egg into each case and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 15 minutes or until egg is just cooked.
Vanilla & Raspberry Cupcakes
Cupcake Ingredients
100g butter
2 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 C caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3 C milk
1 1/4 C SR Flour
Red Food Colouring
100g frozen raspberries
Mock Cream topping Ingredients
125g butter
3/4 C icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases.
3. Using an electric beater on low speed mix butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, milk and flour. Beat until pale. Tint with food colouring. Spoon mixture into prepared cases.
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer into the centre comes out clean. Stand in tray for 5 minute and then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Now to make the mock cream to pipe onto the cupcakes. Using an electric mixer beat butter and icing sugar until pale and creamy. Add essence. Gradually add 1/4 C warm water, 1 tsp at a time beating well between additions.
6. Pipe cream onto cupcakes and enjoy! I didn't pipe as I didn't have a piping bag.. but I am sure you get the idea!!
100g butter
2 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 C caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3 C milk
1 1/4 C SR Flour
Red Food Colouring
100g frozen raspberries
Mock Cream topping Ingredients
125g butter
3/4 C icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases.
3. Using an electric beater on low speed mix butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, milk and flour. Beat until pale. Tint with food colouring. Spoon mixture into prepared cases.
5. Now to make the mock cream to pipe onto the cupcakes. Using an electric mixer beat butter and icing sugar until pale and creamy. Add essence. Gradually add 1/4 C warm water, 1 tsp at a time beating well between additions.
6. Pipe cream onto cupcakes and enjoy! I didn't pipe as I didn't have a piping bag.. but I am sure you get the idea!!
Friends
I have been so blessed to meet some beautiful girls who have become close friends since I've been in Darwin. I have quite a few amazing friends who I have known for years and know they're always there for me (especially my amazing friends who are like my sisters Belinda & Leanne, who I have been best buddies with since we were 12! and who my children absolutely adore so much they call them Aunty Bea & Aunty Lea) - but unfortunately they don't live in Darwin! When we found out we were moving to Darwin I realised it was the first move where I didn't know a soul at the new location! So the fact that I have found these girls has been fantastic. I do have some other lovely friends up here too - a few who live near me, and a few who I originally met through the school, so all in all Darwin has been very kind to me.
So here are the lovely trio with me last weekend for Kate's Hens night. I am on the left in the black and white dress - in case I look different because other photos on the blog of me are usually sweaty post-run, then next to me is Kate, Kylie and Emma.
We are all Mums and have fantastic partners.. soon to all have husbands when Kate gets married in a week! She is doing a "destination wedding" so unfortunately we can't be there (we will be prepping for our holiday), but I know she'll have a blast. Emma is going along which is fantastic for her and her family to chill out in a tropical locale and attend a beautiful wedding. I am a bit of a romantic so I just love weddings.
So the point of this post is that today I went out for breakfast with Kate, Emma, Kylie and another beautiful friend of mine Cyn who I have known for quite a few years and who lives 3 hours from us, and at breakfast as well was everyones husbands/partners/children - so was quite a big affair (9 children all together). I so wish Cyn lived in Darwin too but unfortunately she doesn't. We are very lucky that we do see her a lot.. and this weekend was no different so we asked her and Adam along to join us for breakfast.
I was blown away when Kate, Emma & Kylie presented me with a gift to celebrate running my first marathon.... Such beautiful girls!! Here it is:
I can't wait to wear it when I am running from now on.... if I feel tired or sore or just over it I will channel it and think of my friends who have every confidence that I can do this!!! I adore the Eiffel Tour (which the girls know), so just love it.
If you are reading this, thanks lovelies! xo
So here are the lovely trio with me last weekend for Kate's Hens night. I am on the left in the black and white dress - in case I look different because other photos on the blog of me are usually sweaty post-run, then next to me is Kate, Kylie and Emma.
We are all Mums and have fantastic partners.. soon to all have husbands when Kate gets married in a week! She is doing a "destination wedding" so unfortunately we can't be there (we will be prepping for our holiday), but I know she'll have a blast. Emma is going along which is fantastic for her and her family to chill out in a tropical locale and attend a beautiful wedding. I am a bit of a romantic so I just love weddings.
So the point of this post is that today I went out for breakfast with Kate, Emma, Kylie and another beautiful friend of mine Cyn who I have known for quite a few years and who lives 3 hours from us, and at breakfast as well was everyones husbands/partners/children - so was quite a big affair (9 children all together). I so wish Cyn lived in Darwin too but unfortunately she doesn't. We are very lucky that we do see her a lot.. and this weekend was no different so we asked her and Adam along to join us for breakfast.
I was blown away when Kate, Emma & Kylie presented me with a gift to celebrate running my first marathon.... Such beautiful girls!! Here it is:
I can't wait to wear it when I am running from now on.... if I feel tired or sore or just over it I will channel it and think of my friends who have every confidence that I can do this!!! I adore the Eiffel Tour (which the girls know), so just love it.
If you are reading this, thanks lovelies! xo
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Saturday morning 19.23km
After last weeks 30km I wasn't sure what to do today for my LSR. So after doing a bit of reading and going over my marathon plan I decided to try for 20km. I parked a little further out than last week and tried to up the pace a bit. I am pretty happy with my results, and I feel fantastic. :) I am on track for well under 5 hours and am hoping to keep pushing it to try to reach my ultimate goal of under 4:30 (or close to!). :)
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