Meat & Veg

I've tried a new style of meat and veg. Grilled chicken with an egg frittata and carrot.

Egg frittata:

Ingredients

Eggs

Spinach

Broccoli stem

Chili

Instructions

Whisk the eggs

Mix in the spinach, broccoli and chili

Taste with pepper and salt

Cook in microwave on high for 2 minutes and stir

Cook again in the microwave until cooked through

Coq au Vin

Today Cameron made Coq au Vin in the slow cooker. Cameron started making this recipe when he became interested in all things French. This has been a good protein meal which we have now made a few times.

He used the recipe from taste.com, but the chicken was a bit dry in the slow cooker. We also have a Woman's Weekly cook book 'Slow Cooker' that has a fantastic Coq au Vin recipe which leaves the chicken moist & tender. Perhaps next time we will compare the two recipes.

Sugar: its a love hate relationship

I cannot shake the day dreams of desserts and sugar. I hope this is just a seasonal thing.

Work/Life Balance?

This fortnight I've been testing the negative effects of Work/Life in-Balance.

I have concluded that arriving home after 8:30pm leads to:

- an unhappy neglected husband

- increased sugar levels due to excessive consumption of junk food

- increased weight & overall feeling of lethargy due to lack of exercise

- increased errors due to lack of sleep (combined with feeling of lethargy)

- lack of satisfaction with my job due to all of the above

Next week I will try and reclaim some Balance. More exercise, quality time with Cam, socialising with friends. Hopefully this will motivate me to eat healthier as well. In turn I'll be more efficient and effective at work. Win-win.

GOMA - surrealism

Cam & I ventured out today to view the Surrealism exhibition at GOMA. We managed to find a free park near the exhibition and spent around 2 hours walking through the gallery. We took a break half way through to have some coffee and pommes at the Foyer Bistro. All very relaxing and enjoyable.

Cameron bought a 'this is not a mug' mug. I contemplated buying a stamp saying 'this is not a piece of art' to stamp to use on work-papers/ calculations that I am reviewing at work that are terribly wrong. I thought twice and decided it may be a bit demotivating to receive your job back stamped 'this is not a piece of art'...

Grub Street

After one 1/2 hours of marking exams, my friend and I relocated to Grub Street. This is my current favourite gluten-free friendly cafe. We enjoyed zucchini fritters and carrot pancakes followed by Evil Choc Brownies. All Gluten Free!

Type of food available: Modern Australian

Price Range $$

Overall food rating 5/5

Gluten Free Rating 5/5 (so many options!)

Service 4/5

Value 5/5

Overall impact on ability to exercise 5/5 (I could have exercised beforehand, but it was my own lazy self that decided to sleep in)

Perhaps I'm a little bias rating this restaurant because it is my current fav.

Retrospect of my week

My week can be summed up as a work overload leading to excessive support of the restaurant industry with the occasional attempt at moving about and labelling it 'exercise'.

Exercise: Monday I joined my fellow 1stTri-ers practising our running skills, Tuesday I jumped in the pool for another confusing set of laps (most of the time trying to figure out what I was meant to do rather than swimming), Friday I made up my own small set of hill sprints & circuits (1/2hr).

Work consisted of late nights Tuesday to Friday and an early morning on Thursday as well. Wednesday morning 7am was a training/networking event as well as Thursday night til 9pm. All day Saturday was marking practice exams. I think Cameron forgot he had a wife around Wednesday night when I wasn't able to come home for a dinner we were having at our place with a friend from Cameron's work. This can be the frustrating part of my job - not knowing if I'll have to work back to meet a deadline until that afternoon.

Menu plan (or should I say - last minute decisions to eat):

Monday: After going to a disappointing house inspection we had takeaway from Avanti (favourite italian restaurant - best gluten free garlic bread)

Tuesday: Reheated leftovers

Wednesday: Wonderful home cooked meal by Cameron - Chicken bocconcini parcels with polenta mash (best rated meal of the week)

Thursday: Networking event at the Marriott - steak with mushrooms and potato for mains with a jaffa cake for dessert.

Friday: Hanaici for sushi

As you can see I never sacrifice good food for working hard. It seems to be the exercise that tapers off more.

Slept in Saturday morning as I was pretty exhausted from the week gone by and the daunting task of marking practice exams.

Exercise Log: MB ride

Not much exercise this afternoon, but full of adrenaline and high heart rates. Cam & I went mountain bike riding out near the Jinker Track at Bunya.

I've not had very good experiences MB riding in the past. First time at Indooroopilly I ended up flying over the handle bars and walking home. Six years later when I went MB riding again in Germany Cameron ended up loosing a majority of 3 teeth. Last year when I returned again to the bike for my first (and only to-date) adventure race, I spent 4 hours navigating a course that should have taken about 1 hour to complete!

So in order to ensure a more positive MB experience we kept things simple and short. About 4km ride (Track # 2 - a 1.3km technical ride - probably novice level plus some fire trails). MB riding is definitely not my strong point and I was freaking out through the technical ride and a few steep decents. I've never looked forward to riding up hills so much in my life!

The plan is to increase my confidence in this area so I can enjoy the ride in my second adventure race.

Lunch: Satay Chicken Salad

Once again inspired by some spare time I cooked up something special for lunch. Chicken satay laid on a bed of salad. The salad was perfect for a light meal before our afternoon outing. We were quite hungry, so I also cooked some pasta and corn as accompaniments.

Cook olive oil in a pan.

Add some Chilli, Garlic, Ginger and brown.

Add chicken and cook until brown.

Add Peanut Paste, Honey and stir until mixed in.

I couldn't find any wine, so added some tequila to help scrape off the browned flavours stuck to the pan. Stir until liquid reduced.

Lay on a bed of salad (lettuce, tomato & avocado).