Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday

What a lovely Easter Sunday I've had. Mum and Dad joined Al and I for church which was incredibly busy. I was fortunate to be offered a seat on account of bump - handy, but poor Al was abandoned at the back of the church standing for Mass. Mum and Dad got a seat too as much to their chargrin they are beginning to be offered seats these days. Mum happily accepts, but Dad tends to do 'oh, don't be silly, I'm fine' shenanigens until someone insists he takes a seat! Poor Pops!

We then all came home and I prepared a lovely roast for a later lunch:

Lemon and Paprika Chicken - serves 4

1.5kg Chicken
2 Lemons
Paprika
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
I clove garlic

Squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken and stuff the squezzed lemons in the cavity,
Crush the garlic and rub onto skin
Rub the Olive oil onto the skin
Sprinkle the Paprika all over the chicken
Season the skin with salt and pepper.
Whack in the oven (Fan 200 0C) for about an hour (until juices run clear).

Spring veg Meddley - serves 4

Lettuce
2 Leeks,
250g green beans
125g Peas
Lettuce
1 clove garlic
Margerine (dairy free for me)
Mint
Chives
Coriander
150ml stock

Melt margerine
Sautee garlic and leeeks
sautee green beans until softening
Sautee Peas
Add herbs - I had to use dried mint and chives but they worked well enough, but fresh would be lovely. I used about 1 tablespoon chives, 2 tablespoons mint and a good handful of coriander
Add stock - I added extra stock and then drained it off later and used as a gravy.
Simmer until veg all soft.

Served with new potatoes + Carrot + neep mix.

I must say it was delicious! - the chicken was so moist and flavoursome, but had a light spring flavour because of the lemon.

The spring veg was delicious too - love mint!

The recipes say they serve 4, but we were 4 and there was loads of veg, (spring and carrot/neep) left and enough Chicken left for a picking tea plus boiling up tomorrow for soup.

Love cooking!

We then all 4 flopped on the sofa (Al, mum and dad had had a glass of wine or 2 so mum and dad had a wee snooze!) They left about 6pm and to be honest I was still too full to do Pilates and so now at 9pm have abandoned any hope of it. I don't really care as I've had done all my other workouts this week despite it being the last week of term and being cream creackered!

Thursday 50 mins Pilates.
This was a struggle to start, but I said to myself - 'I'll just do 30 mins' and then I got into it and did my full workout. I was def tired though as usually I'm into it after the first 5 mins of starting, but it took until I had finished the core section (20 mins in) before I was feeling that enjoyment.

Friday: 6 Mile Hike
Al was off and we had arranged to view a cradle and a hiking baby carrier in the morning. The backpack thing was great and we paid £40 for it. I was really chuffed as although it is a couple of seasons old it was pretty much the same as the ones I have been eyeing up in Tisos for £100+. The cradle is lovely too (free). We couldn't take it yet as Julie couldn't find the bolts, but it will be lovely. It swings so I will be able to lean out of bed and hopefully rock wee one back to sleep - that's the hope anyway.

It was such a beautiful morning and Al and I fancied celebrating that we were on hol so we went for mid morning coffee rather than head straight home. While we were having coffee, I said to Al that I was too tired for a run, but I'd love to get out for a hike. He was happy to do that so in the afternoon (after a wee snooze) we headed up to Comrie and had a lovely 6 mile (atleast) hilly hike (2hours and 15mins). We got back to the car at 6pm - gotta love the summer time clock change.

Here are some Photos from our hike:




Gotta love where we live.

Saturday: 1 hour run - about 5 miles I think.

Today was the inaugural Strathearn Harriers' Egg stravaganza. We woke up to p#*ing rain, but amazingly it stopped by the time we were meeting and the sun even came out during the running and for our picnic!

There were 3 events - 1 for wee kids in the park; 1 for older kids, still in the park, but harder and 1 for the adults.

The adult course had various checkpoints around the locale and you had to decide which ones to head for. Closer points were worth less points, while those further away were worth more. We had 70 minutes to collect as many checkpoints (had a code to write down) and get back to the park. There were time faults for being over the allowed time. There were 5 teams of 2 and 5 individuals. Al and I plotted the points we thought we could get to in the time and then headed off. Pesky pregnant bladder required me to make a pitstop which ate into our time and we made a rookie map reading mistake on the first point but got our 2nd checkpoint really quickly. We then had to choose between an easier point with less points or a harder point but more points. We went for broke and tried to get the bigger points but boy did I overestimate my ability to get to that location and back in the correct time (it was uphill the whole way to the point - fine in fit form, but not preggers). By the time we realised this we were over half way to the point. We gave one last push to try and get it but had to turn around at our self imposed time to get back to the park. We did at least get back to the park with 30 secs to spare and so didn't lose any of our 60 points. It was funny coz I was getting dead frustrated as we headed up the hill as I couldn't go any faster and competitive Kaz was coming out and then I started laughing and thought - this is great - I'm in trimester 3 and I'm out, still running and doing a fun comp with my hubby in the sun with great views!

Everybody really enjoyed it and got a great run in too as they said they found themselves going as fast as poss between points. Some folk overcooked the time and lost points that way so didn't win even though the had collected more points. It was great fun and I can only imagine it would be a great workout at full speed. Al got some sprint intervals in too as when we neared a point I would tell him to sprint on to search for it while I plodded on and caught up as he searched!

I wish I had photos of it, but we were too busy running!

Everyone had brought home -baking for the picnic so it was dead yummy. I made date, walnut and cinnamon muffins with rice flour and sheep's yoghurt. They were delicious and as I made a few extras I still have some left for the coming week.

When we got home I was really tired and ended up having to have 1.5 hour sleep. I hadn't realised how tired I was, but as soon as I put my head down out was out like a light and the next thing I knew Al was waking me so that I could be tired enough to sleep that night.

So... despite not getting my 2nd Pilates workout I've had a good week.

The next 2 weeks should be easier for exercise as we are both off, so we should be able to fit it around operation decorate Nursery!

1 comment:

  1. sounds like a lovely easter and hike! I am definitely like your dad and would react the same way to being offered a seat. You are doing great!

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