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

Amsterdam: Part 1

If you follow me on twitter, you may be aware that last week I took a little trip to Amsterdam! I booked it as a birthday present for my other half away back in June! Here is what we got up to on our trip!

We arrived in Amsterdam rather late on the Tuesday night thanks to Easyjet changing our flight time from 11am to 7pm! We were staying the NH Grand Krasnapolsky hotel right in Dam Square. It was a beautiful hotel. Our room was newly refurbished to a very high standard! The bed was so comfy I could have slept for the whole trip but that would have been a waste!

We arrived too late to go out for a meal so we got some famous dutch chips with mayonnaise to take out! 

The next morning we headed down to breakfast. The breakfast was served in the most beautiful room I've ever seen (see last photo). We enjoyed some eggs benedict followed by poffertjes (dutch pancakes)

After breakfast we decided to take a walk down to the zoo! 

The zoo had an amazing butterfly pavilion  where you could walk about whilst they fluttered around you. 

On the way home from the zoo we stopped in this quirky little bar for a drink, then grabbed a waffle at a bakery. 

After a quick change, we went to this awesome cocktail bar called tails & spirits. They did these amazing cocktails, including the Zombie which is so strong they only serve 2 per person! 

After a few drinks we headed on to an Italian restaurant called Vasso. We had researched the place and knew we wanted to try it. I had the Salmon Tagliatelle which was probably the best pasta dish I've ever had. It was so flavoursome! I then had lemon sorbet and strawberries for desert. The sorbet was creamier than your usual sorbet. It was devine!

We then headed off to Freddy's Bar. My other half collects and occasionally smokes cigars and he really wanted to try this bar which has an indoor smoking room. It was such a cool place to just relax with a glass of vino!

So that was day 1 in Amsterdam! Part 2 is coming up soon! 

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

Amsterdam Haul

Hello Everyone! I thought I'd show you a few of the purchases I made whilst in Amsterdam last week! 

Checked Cardigan - €29.99 from Bershka

I instantly fell in love with this as soon as I saw it! I wanted to buy an item of clothing from a brand which I cannot buy in Scotland so this was perfect! It will keep me nice and cosy at my desk!

Amber Romance and Mango Temptation Body Spray's - €14 each from Victoria's Secret

Love Spell Eau de Toilette - €14 from Victoria's Secret

Victoria's Secret is another brand I can't get my hand's on in Scotland! I've heard lots of good things about their beauty products so I took the plunge and grabbed these in duty free! They had a 3 for €30 deal on so these were a bargain! I also grabbed 2 pairs of undies whilst there!

Cat clothes hooks- €2 each from Flying Tiger (Dutch version of Tiger)

I've been looking for some hooks for my bathroom door so I can hang up my towels on the back of the door! When I spotted these I just had to have them! They are also the perfect colour for my bathroom! They came in lime green and red too! You might be able to pick these up in Tiger stores in the UK too!

So, along with a lot of cheese, these are my little presents to myself from Amsterdam! 

I have to say, the shopping in Amsterdam is pretty good! If I didn't only have hand luggage, I'm sure I would have come back with a lot more! 

xx

A little slice of December

This post is a little later than usual, but here is my roundup of December!

1- The start of the month saw lots of Uni deadlines! This meant I spent the majority of my time in the library! I was so happy when the Christmas Break came around. Unfortunately it is now over, and it's time to get back to it for my last semester ever! 

2- After all my deadlines, I went out to celebrate with a group of my close uni friends! It was a great night! 

3- Before I knew it, it was Christmas day! I was so lucky to receive lots of lovely gifts! You can find my post on what I got for Christmas HERE

4- Of course, the Christmas break meant lots of lazy days spent snuggled up with Smudge! Here he is hogging the covers! 

So that was December. I would say it is my favourite month, once the uni deadlines are out the way! It was such a quick month and before I knew it, we were into 2015! 

What did you get up to in December? 

xx

TheSundayPost

Hello Everyone! After a week or so off, I am back with a SundayPost! This week has been a good 'un! 

This week I had a week off work for our trip to Amsterdam! I booked it way back in June as a birthday present for my other half! I won't go into too much detail about the trip as I plan on writing a full post about it and the places we visited! 

This was the first night. We arrived rather late (thanks easyjet) so we grabbed some chips and mayo! These are famous in Holland and they are delicious! 

We also visited a little cocktail bar called Tails & Spirits. I'd go as far as saying it was the best cocktail bar I've visited!

Our final night! There was a light festival on whilst we were there so there were lots of pretty lights to be seen! 

We came home with lots of cheese! These are pesto cheese, old dutch gouda and smoked cheese. Very tasty!

This weekend was the final weekend before the diet starts! We decided to treat ourselves to a very lazy weekend and lots of good food! It was great! 

Now it's back to work tomorrow (not good after 12 days off), and the diet begins! I've got my homemade soup ready to go in the morning! 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! 

xx