Tag Archives: Jamie Oliver

Apr 17 2013

Wednesday April 17, 2013: Mishmash

Posted on by

Finally the perfect weather on Sunday: 21 C (69 degrees). That meant flip flops, t-shirt instead of longsleeve and this:

 

@Shelley: the butter cake we ate as pastry with coffee. No fruits, cream or ice cream is added. Come on over and I’ll make it for you and anyone else who wants to try it.

Next Friday evening we are going to the theatre to see and listen to Boudewijn de Groot. He’s a Dutch singer/songwriter and has made beautiful songs over the years. This will be his last tour and our last opportunity to see him live.

Going to watch the interview tonight with our King and Queen to be: Willem-Alexander and Maxima. Our block in the street is ready for the abdication/Queen’s Day. R. put up flags and lights with our neighbours last night. The lights are on at night which gives a nice view.

 

Workouts:

Strength Monday

Insanity Cardio Recovery. First time I did this workout and I thought it would be a cardio workout but it turned out to be a strength/stretch workout which was perfect although the squads and lunges were felt later in the day. Total time: 32 minutes.

Tempo Tuesday

The tempo run that wasn’t. Shaun T. kicked my legs on Monday’s workout and I was extremely sore, it’s been a long time since that happened. Instead of the planned 30 minutes, I only ran 17 because my legs couldn’t move forward. I took a rest day today because I have another run planned tomorrow and running is my priority the next 6 months.

Stats:

Distance: 2.5 K / 1.5 miles
Time: 00:17:13

Speed per km: 8.71 km/hour (5.4 miles/hour)

Time per km: 06:53
Weather: dry, little bit of wind, 9C (48 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Glee Cast – Run Joey Run

Meals:

Monday

 New recipe: steak tartare spice with sea salt and chili pepper and rolled through pistache nuts. After the steak was finished I added some ginger and garlic and put in some mango to heat up. It was delicious. We had baked potatoes and a salad with it.

Tuesday

Chili con carne with a topping of tortilla chips and cheese.

 

Wednesday

 

 New recipe by Jamie: spicy Cajun chicken with mashed sweet potatoes with sweet chili sauce. Side dish was a salsa of corn, spring onions, tomatoes and coriander. Jum jum!

Movies I’ve seen lately

The Descendants

This movie has been on my recorder for a while now and I finally watched it. I liked it, no action just a good story. It does help that I love George Clooney and almost every movie he is in.

Apr 14 2013

Sunday April 14, 2013: I’m still here

Posted on by

Lori asked if I got a nice raise with all the extra activities I’m doing at work right now. The answer is no. First my salary is at the top of the salary scale I’m in so I haven’t got a big raise in years. Besides that there is a salary stop in our company. Our country is in a recession and construction and DIY are the businesses that are hit the hardest. There are already some people that have lost their job at our company and I’m just happy to have a job. Besides that I have no complains about my salary, it’s good.

I started working for the manager Communication last Wednesday and Thursday he brought me flowers because he is so happy I am going to help him out. These little things make your day.

 

You know I have a cook book addiction. My favorites are Jamie Oliver, Tana Ramsey (yes the wife of), Ainsley Harriott, Annabel Langbein, Bill Granger and Nigella Lawson.

We have a TV show called College Tour. Every week they have a different guest and the audience exists of students that can ask questions. Last Friday Nigella was the guest.

I love Nigella because she’s a lot like me: she likes to cook but she gains weight easily too. She recently lost weight and they asked how she did it because she loves to cook and eat and her recipes aren’t diet proof. She lost a little weight by eating a little bit less but overall she hasn’t lost that much weight she said. She exercised a lot and her body got stronger and more toned so it looked she lost a lot. This sounded like music to my ears because it’s my way to lose weight right now too.

She also said that being a good cook doesn’t make you a better person. Her experience is that some people think they do and that being a good cook defines you. Cooking is for pleasure and it’s allright if something doesn’t taste as good as you expect, it happens to her too.

Overall I loved the show because I learned about her childhood, things I didn’t know and how she became a writer of cook books.

Workouts:

Cardio Monday

A Turbofire workout: Fire 45. Three rounds of cardio/boxing/plyometric exercises of which I skipped the last one and 3 HITT sessions inbetween. Total time: 33 minutes.

Long run Sunday

Long run is a big word for my run today. My cold did last longer than I expected. I tried running twice last week but had to stop after 5 minutes because I had no lung capacity. I decided to try again today and take it really slow. Goal was to run 5K and finish, time didn’t matter. I took a walk break after 2K and at 3 and 4K. It was hard but I also knew after I finished that I’m almost recovered from my cold.

Positive note: I wear my Summer running outfit for the first time this year!

Stats:
Distance: 5 K / 3.1 miles
Time: 00:36:13

Speed per km: 8.28 km/hour (5.1 miles/hour)

Time per km: 07:15
Weather: drizzling rain, cloudy, little bit of wind, 13C (55 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Lady Gaga – Born this way

Meals:

Sunday

 

New recipe from a Jamie Oliver book: lamb chops with honey and balsamico and a lasagnette with green asparagus and cherry tomatoes. Very tasty, a keeper.

 

I have been cooking some new recipes the rest of the week but the photo’s didn’t turn out very well.

Yesterday I baked “boterkoek”, the main ingredient is butter. It’s not diet proof or very healthy and I don’t make it very often but it’s so delicious. Both R. and I love it.

Nov 9 2012

Friday November 9, 2012: Kitchen edition

Posted on by

Daily stuff:
Yesterday I had a workshop with the secretaries and other ladies in support functions at my work. It was held in a hotel in the next town. I have mixed feelings about it. The subjects would be “Effective influence” and “Quality of the communication at work”. But both subjects weren’t discussed. I also missed the interaction with my colleagues. It was more a one woman show by the lady who gave the workshop. She was talking almost the entire day and mostly about the differences between man and woman. We did laugh a lot however, she had a lot of anecdotes to tell but I think the workshop totally missed what it was supposed to be about. I haven’t learned anything.

In 2 weeks we have another one, this is just the afternoon and only for the 5 management assistants at our company. Subject should be “how close is our team” but I have doubts if we will talk about that after yesterday.

The cook book addict has got herself a new toy: the new Jamie Oliver cookbook “Jamie’s 15 minute meals”. And another one is on the way: the new cook book by Nigella Lawson.

Shelley asked if I could give a tour through my kitchen. Well your wish is my command. Our kitchen isn’t very big but I’m very proud and happy with it. We renovated it, I think, about 10 years ago but I’m still happy with it every day. My favorite things in it are my stove and our espresso machine.

View from outside (Shelley, noticed that Bella is copying Paco’s behaviour by wanting to get in the picture)

View from the living room (R. placed the en suite doors himself):

 

In the corner we have a kitchen table and on the right is the fridge. The “painting” on the wall is a cross-stitch I made myself.

 

Stove and espresso machine on the right:

 

Middle of the kitchen:

 

Outfits:
Yesterday: black pants, black/beige blouse, black jacket and black suede boots.

 

Workouts:

 

Yesterday morning I did the hardcore workout. An entire workout focussed on the core. Pretty hard but enough variation in the exercises.
Total time: 53 minutes.