Aloha! Whilst I was in London last weekend, I was really craving some Mexican food, so on the recommendation of my cousin's girlfriend, we tried out Wahaca! 

Wahaca specialises in Mexican street food, where you order 2 or 3 different dishes each, much like tapas! It was co-founded by Thomasina Miers, a previous winner of Masterchef! The restaurants are dotted all over London and are quite trendy inside. The branch we visited was in Covent Garden which is the original one!

So here is what I had!

Steak Tacos £4.85 : Oh my, these were devine! My other half had pork tacos which came with the addition of a spicy marinade, which was also amazing! 

Chorizo & Potato Quesadillas £4.20 : These were definitely the best bit about the meal! There were 2 of them stacked on top of each other and they were just to die for!

Chicken Taquitos £4 : I've never tried a taquito before! It is basically a tortilla wrapped around the chicken filling then deep fried so it goes really crispy! They were really nice but I much preferred the other 2 dishes! 

Churros y Chocolate £3.95 : Oh m gee. These were amazing! Basically they are gooey doughnuts sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar which you dip into chocolate sauce! I could live off these! 

And to wash it all down, I had one of these blood orange margaritas! These were rather expensive at £7.95 but totally worth it, especially if you love tequila like me! 

Overall the bill came to about £20 a head which, for London, is rather good! If I ever find myself in London again, I will definitely be making another visit to Wahaca! 

xx

Amsterdam: Part 2

Hello Everyone! So here is the final part of my travel diary from my trip to Amsterdam!

On our second day, we wanted to go visit a museum as Amsterdam is famous for them. On the way we stopped in this awesome little cafe for a spot of lunch! They had a wonderful log fire burning away and served organic, fresh food. I had a lovely mozzarella and pesto panini! 

We then visited the Amsterdam Museum. It took you through the history of the city, right up to the present day. It was very interesting and well worth a visit. 

Afterwards, we spent a few hours just wandering about, popping into bars and taking in the city.

The last time we were in Amsterdam, we visited this amazing tapas restaurant. I spent ages online before we went trying to find out the name and eventually discovered it was called Pata Negra. It is such a quirky wee place. Lots of tiny tables crammed together, writing scratched into the walls and graffiti all over the walls outside but the food is just amazing. A word of warning if you decide to visit this place, the menu is in Spanish and no English menu is available so bring your A game! 

We went for manchego cheese with bread, patatas bravas (fried potato with a garlic and chilli mayo), fried chorizo, spanish omelette and deep fried cheese croquettes. A total fried feast but my god was it worth it. This is without a doubt our favourite restaurant and I'd return time and time again just so we can eat here!

After dinner we were stuffed so we went for a little wander before heading back to Freddy's Bar. The Amsterdam light festival was on during our visit so I decided to snap some pictures of some of the light displays!

Our flight back to Edinburgh wasn't until 9pm on our final day so we had plenty of time to kill after checking out of our hotel! Here you can see me inside a giant clog, and some police horses which were patrolling Dam Square (security was stepped up a lot after our first day as a result of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris). We did a little bit of shopping and had lunch in a burger restaurant. Then we headed to a huge cigar shop which my other half found so he could purchase some cigars and enjoy one in their smoking lounge. Once we had crammed all this into our day, it was time to head to the airport and fly back home :( 

Thanks to easy jet we also got an extra hour in Amsterdam airport :P 

So that was my trip to Amsterdam! We've said we would love to make it a yearly visit so fingers crossed this will be possible. It is one of my favourite places to go and I'm sure we will be back as soon as we can! 

xx

TheSundayPost

Hello Everyone! As usual, here is what I've been up to this week!

The majority of this week has been spent at work! This was my last week before classes start up again so I was working full time to make some pennies for Mexico. I got to wear my brand new coatigan which I featured in my Amsterdam Haul post!

On Monday, I started back on my diet! I started hot yoga on Monday which was an interesting experience. It is in a room heated to 40 degrees celcius so you sweat like a pig! It definitely made me feel a lot calmer so that's gotta be a good thing! I also cooked this amazing chicken and mushroom pie. You can find the recipe for it here

Friday ended up being a bit of a cheat day! I slept in for work so I had no time for breakfast which resulted in me buying a bacon roll from the canteen! Then the free krispy kreme doughnuts arrived with the stationary order just in time for my lunch hour! I then ended up munching a bag of these after work as well! It was worth it :P 

Yesterday was my little brother's 18th birthday! We headed out to Pizza Express for a lovely meal to celebrate as he was going out with his friends at night! Seems like it was just yesterday he was a little boy playing with his tool set! You know you are getting old when you start saying things like that haha! 

So that has been my week this week! Next week I am back to uni so no doubt it's going to be a rather stressful one! Have a great week.

xx

FoodieFriday: Chicken and Mushroom Pie!

Hello! This week I started my diet again after a long break from it! The other night I was really craving a nice hearty meal after a busy day at work, so I decided to make this delicious chicken and mushroom pie! With only 550 calories for half the pie, this is a great meal to make when you need a bit of extra fuel! 

Ingredients: 

1 leek, chopped thinly

150g button mushrooms, sliced 

75g peas (frozen is fine)

2 rashers smoked bacon, cut into small squares

2 roast chicken breasts, tear into medium sized pieces

500ml chicken stock

25g plain flour

2tbsp reduced fat creme fraiche

3 sheets filo pastry

Method:

-Pre heat your oven to 220 degrees celcius.

- Heat a small amount of sunflower oil in a frying pan and add the bacon and mushrooms. Cook for 3-4 minutes. 

- Add the leaks and chicken, cook for a further 1 minute.

- Sprinkle the flour over the mixture then add the chicken stock slowly whilst stirring.

- Add the peas to the frying pan and simmer for 4 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the creme fraiche.

- Transfer the mixture to a medium sized pie dish.

- Roughly place the filo pastry sheets over the mixture (the more crinkles the better), making sure to oil each sheet with a pastry brush as you go.

- Put the pie in the oven and cook for 12-15 minutes until your pastry is golden and crispy!

Voila! Your pie is ready to serve and enjoy! 

This does make quite a large amount so feel free to make it for 4 people and have some sides!

Let me know if you decide to make it! I'd love to see your results!

xx

TheSundayPost

Aloha! It feels like this week has been never ending! As usual, this week has been full of Uni and Work with a little bit of Christmas shopping thrown in too! (Finally getting somewhere with it woohoo!) Here is my picture round-up of the week! 

Not actually from this week, but I took this photo from the train on my way back from Aberdeen last weekend! It is the sunset over the River Forth with the famous Forth Road Bridge! I was really proud of this, especially since it was taken on a train travelling at 40mph! haha!

I had a right giggle at this picture! My research proposal for my dissertation is due in on Friday, and as usual I haven't even started it! Fourth year is really proving to be a struggle! I just want my degree now! 

On Thursday we got the first of our marks back for this semester. For one of my modules I got a first for my presentation, and I was one mark off a first for the report that goes with it! I was pretty happy with this, so I got a bar of my favourite chocolate to celebrate! I am expecting the first marks for my other modules back on Wednesday this week! Hopefully they are also good! 

On Friday, I had an afternoon off work so I finally got around to clearing out my wardrobe! I was pretty ruthless and got rid of anything I haven't worn in the last 9 months! I am pretty proud of how tidy it is looking! Now I just have to keep it looking like this...

On Saturday my other half was watching the rugby. I'm not that interested in rugby so I decided to cook a Lemon Chicken for dinner! It was pretty tasty. I'll put the recipe for it up later this week! 

After cooking dinner, I settled down with my favourite cider to watch X Factor! 

And finally, today has been a rather quiet day. We slept till really late then headed to the local shopping centre. I've been trying to get a storm trooper dressing up costume for my little cousin but it's out of stock everywhere! Obviously I had to treat myself to a hot chocolate from Costa whilst we were out! :) 

So that's pretty much it for this week! Now I'm going to sit down and get some blog posts sorted for next week as I'm sure I'm going to be rather busy with this dissertation malarky! 

Have a great week everyone! xx

Graze Box: Healthy Snacking!

I know I'm a little late to the Graze Box Party, but last week we got our first box delivered! When you are trying to diet, you need some healthy snacks for those days where 3 meals just won't cut it! 

In our box we got:

1. Walnut & Vanilla Truffle (sunflower seeds, fudge pieces, walnuts & raisins). I quite enjoyed this one but the other half wasn't as keen. I don't really like walnuts so I picked round them. The rest was great though! 

2. My Thai (mini rice cakes and sweet chilli dip). This was my favourite one! The chilli dip was lovely and sticky and the rice cakes soooo tasty! I will definitely be getting more of this one!

3. Chilli and Lime Pistachios- I didn't really like this one but I don't like pistachios. The other half liked it so I let him eat them all! 

4. Jaffa Cake Flapjacks- mmm this one was also good! If only it was a little bit bigger haha! 

I'm sure I will be ordering more graze boxes. They are so handy for popping in your lunchbox! 

Have you tried Graze boxes? What other snacks would you recommend from their huge selection? 

xxx

MondayMunchies: Sweet Pepper Omelette

Hey Everyone! Today I have a tasty recipe for one of my favourite, easy meals! Monday nights are just the worst. You've hardly had any sleep the night before (is it just me who can't sleep on a Sunday night?!) and work has drained any energy you may have had! So this recipe will make your Monday much more relaxed, when you can't be bothered cooking! 

You will need:

3 Large Eggs, 

20g Cheddar (I use 1/2 fat cheddar) 

2 sweet peppers (or 1 normal pepper if you can't get your hands on the sweet ones) 

1tbsp of sunflower oil

Some salad as a side dish. 

Finely grate the cheddar, chop up your sweet peppers and whisk up your eggs (season with salt and pepper) 

Heat the oil in a frying pan, let the eggs cook for about 2-3 minutes, then add the cheese and peppers down one half of the pan (it makes it easier to fold I think)

I use a metal fish slice to get under one side of the omelette and fold over to make a semi circle! 

After letting it cook for another 2-3 minutes to let the cheese melt, serve with a yummy crispy salad! I like to drizzle some white wine vinegar and olive oil over mine to give it a little bit of flavour! I've found my favourite bagged salad is one from Asda called Italian style salad. It has a bit more flavour than your standard bagged salad! (I hate salad but I need to get my 5 a day somehow!)

So there you have it! Such an easy meal to make after a hard day at work! It can be made with almost anything as a filling too! Sometimes we have minted pea and feta cheese in ours too! 

Happy cooking!

xx