Monday Blues

Nic had been organised enough to take bircher muesli into the office for breakfast today (blackberries, blueberries and mixed chopped nuts, delicious) - just as well as delays due to traffic jams delayed us.  Steve nipped out at lunchtime to pick up a couple of chicken salads for the two of us.

Busy day of meetings so dinner was a thrown-together invention of linguini with tuna, olives, basil chilli, lemon, garlic, shallots and cherry tomatoes. Fresh and zingy and very filling ...

Well, At Least One Of Us Does Not Have A Hangover

The day started rather sedately with Nic feeling the effects of the previous day's alcohol and quickly deciding she was going to stop drinking again. After calling her Mum & Dad to make sure they were still OK following the storms in Queensland Steve made scrambled eggs on toast (Northumbrian Miller's) to set them both up for the day.

Steve volunteered to take his Mam shopping on his own so that Nic could let the after effects wear off. Returning a couple of hours later with a mass of flours and seeds and other bread making ingredients he nipped out again to get a few things to knock together a Sunday favourite of quesedillas.

Late lunch out of the way it was back out to the shops for a third time for Steve with Nic also this time to shop for the evening meal and the rest of the week for Nic, as Steve is away again. On arriving home Nic made a goulash with the beef and baked it slowly in the oven for several hours to get the meat to the 'melty' stage. Goulash was accompanied by some of the focaccia Steve had made the previous day and we settled down to watch Dancing on Ice and a few more episodes of The Bridge.

Once again, we've failed to take photos. Must do better.

Saturday is Bread Making Day

As Steve needed to be out of the house around 09:00 to get the bus into Toon for his bread making course at Blackfriars Restaurant an earlier than usual Saturday breakfast of bacon muffins was consumed. Steve then headed off while Nic worked her way up to doing some ski-fit exercises - made all the more interesting by Steve calling about an hour later to find out what she wanted for her lunch when she joined him later in the day. Much huffing and puffing down the phone later we had an order taken down.

Steve had a great start to the bread making course with a real mix of people on the course and lots of relaxed banter helped by an enthusiastic teacher. When he broke up for lunch and headed off to join Nic in the restaurant a surprise was waiting - him Mam was in with her friends for lunch too. The bread making 'students' and accompanying friends thoroughly enjoyed the fare on offer with Nic having home smoked salmon with pickled cucumber & heirloom beetroot followed by Cumbrian chicken & ham pie with honey roast Chantenay carrots. Steve tucked into home-made black pudding with poached egg and mushroom ketchup followed by roast fillet of Scottish salmon with winter greens & hollandaise.

Suitably fed Steve headed back off to the bread making and Nic joined Tony & Shirley in the restaurant (yes they ended up there too) while they finished off their meal and then all three of them headed off to the Crows Nest for the afternoon. Steve completed his course before joining the party, making the following breads in the process:-

• Top left - Northumbrian Miller's loaf.
• Top right - Seeded and Malted bread.
• Bottom left - Seeded Rustic Soda bread.
• Bottom right - Focaccia.

Needless to say an evening or merriment followed with rather a lot of alcohol consumed by the four of us with Tony & Shirley heading off home around 21:30 while Steve & Nic headed down Northumberland Street to Dabbawal for a rather yummy meal. Feeling that we had not had enough to drink we consumer a further bottle of Sauvignon Blanc Vidal Estate Marlborough (New Zealand) and tucked into: -

• Popadoms & Pickles
• Kurkuri Lentil battered Okra
• Hara Chicken Parchey
• South Indian Lamb Pepper Fry
• Yellow lentils
• Plain Naan

Pizza Friday

With both Steve & Nic being in the office today it was a case of heading into the office via Greggs for the usual bacon roll after parking the car. Duly set up for the morning we went our separate ways for a morning (nay, full day) of meetings.

Steve offered to get something for Nic's lunch and duly brought back a pastrami and swiss cheese salad sandwich with pickle & mustard on a seeded roll settling for a chicken salad box himself.

The evening meal was the usual fare of freshly made pizza from Adsa (2 x 10" pizzas for £4) with added toppings when we got home. As we were going to be out with Tony & Shirley the next day for a few drinks we decided to stay off the alcohol for an extra day. Watch out tomorrow.

Countdown Has Started

As usual on his last day away Steve had breakfast in the office canteen rather than the expensive hotel option. Although on leaving the hotel he mentioned that he had not slept well on the Tuesday night due to the raging wind outside managing to get inside and blowing through the air-con vent in the room - the hotel duly made a note to refund the cost of that nights stay in line with their guarantee of a good nights sleep - well done Premier Inn. Back in the office he settled for Special-K followed by an apple and a bottle of water (in an attempt to start drinking the recommended daily H2O intake). Steve managed an impressive 1.5 litres which is around 1.5 litres more than he would normally drink. Lunch was an omelette with salad (again) but as usual the healthiest option available.

Nic had toasted homemade granary with marmite for breakfast and leftover bún bò nam bô for lunch.

With Steve back home again it meant that Nic was not eating alone and the evening meal was an old favourite of Mexican bean burgers with lime yogurt and salsa in mini tortilla wraps with pink pickled onion. We also pushed the boat out and shared a bottle of alcohol free cider having not had any alcohol since 1st January and sticking to our dry January target. Things might be a little messy however on Saturday when we are having a stint out with friends in Toon - starting at The Hotspur.

Fit to Drop

Breakfast of Weetabix again for Nic and leftover lunch of yesterday's chicken.

Nic's evening meal was Bun Bo Nam Bo - a Vietnamese noodle dish that's easy to make and fresh, light and healthy and has featured before on this blog, so no heavy-duty detail here. More pickled carrots too - mmmm. And enough for tomorrow's lunch, perfect result. Nic also did a good stretch of Fit To Ski exercises, emerging purple and perspiring again and Fit To Drop. The pain that results over the next day or two is hopefully pain she won't be feeling on the slopes in a few weeks' time.

Meanwhile Steve started the day with Special-K then grilled mushrooms & scrambled egg with OJ and coffee - trying hard to keep the calories down. After a day of meetings it was back to the hotel for an evening meal of grilled chicken wings in a fiery sauce followed by mexican chicken salad - not brilliant but trying to work his way through some of the (apparently) healthier options on the menu. After dinner he checked his new toy - Fitbit One, to see if he had hit his daily targets only to find he was just over 800 steps short of his daily 5,000 step target. So back to his room to get his coat as the weather was foul and off into the night to get his step count up. Eventually back to his room and well happy with how the day finished off against his targets: 6,170 steps of target 5,000; 30 floors climbed of target 10; 2,444 calories burned of target 2,184.

Baby's on the road again

Steve's off on his travels again, all the snow's gone and it's blowing a hoolie outside.

Weetabix - with cold milk, naturally (hot milk on Weetabix is an abomination) - for Nic for breakfast, followed by a repeat of the stuffed peppers and tzatziki for lunch, as all the ingredients were in the fridge & larder and it's an easy dish to fit in around conference calls.  The delights of working from home. Steve settled for a cup of soup and a roll.

Nic's evening meal was adapted from an old Nigel Slater standard. This is so simple it's almost criminal, and tastes astonishingly good. Equal quantities of dijon mustard and red wine vinegar are used to marinade trimmed boneless chicken thighs. These are then grilled until just cooked through, still juicy and succulent within and with some of the (slightly curdled) marinade making a spoonful of sauce. Nigel adds equal quantities of olive oil to the marinade alongside the dijon & vinegar, but we're waist-watching ahead of skiing in a few weeks time. The chicken is served up with potatoes, beans and broccoli in this case, but it's equally lovely with crusty bread and a dressed salad. And there's some left for tomorrow's lunch - joy!

Snuggled up in front of the tv with Great British Menu, spicy fragrant chicken and the fire on, it's almost possible to ignore the wind and rain ripping up outside.

In the meantime Steve hit the restaurant in the hotel and tried to find a hooky website so he could stream the Newcastle match to his iPad and watch it with Malcolm while they ate their dinner. No luck so we had to settle for occasional updates to the Sky Sports Football app on Steve's iPhone and text messages Malcolm received from each of his sons. Football-less the dinner was no great shakes better consisting of calamari followed by grilled steak with potatoes and salad - the latter which failed to arrive and was eventually delivered after the attention of the waitress was caught halfway through the meal. The standard of service does seem to be slipping.