Foodie Friday: Checking out Box Noodle, Cork

four walls rainy days box noodle cork foodie friday

The diet is still on, don’t worry, but some times you have to have a bit of a cheat meal. Lately in Cork, everywhere you look there have been springing up “Asian Street Food” restaurants and takeaways. As someone who quite likes her food asian but isn’t a fan of MSG, seeing that the two combined in one of these establishments was definitely a call for me to try it out. I apologise for the pictures; food blogger I am not, but having tried it for dinner one date night, I decided to try it for lunch with a friend the other day and review it on the blog.  Read More

Foodie Friday: Sweet Potato Cottage Pie

Brownies

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I’ve made the trek back to Weight Watchers to kickstart weight loss all over again. I’m not going to say it has been easy – I can hear the chocolate singing to me – but there are definitely workarounds to most of the foods I really enjoy on the Simple Start plan, which is what I’m on at the moment. I also have to keep in mind that what I eat should be suitable for E (and himself as well) the vast majority of the time, as E has lately re-discovered food and especially food off Mammy’s plate. He’s definitely making up for lost time! One of my recent recipe discoveries has been a slight twist on a recipe from the “Cooking the Weight Watchers Way”, which I bought from my group leader first time around – a Sweet Potato Cottage Pie.  Read More

Motivational Monday : Back to Weight Watchers

motivational monday

Last year, to get rid of the baby weight, I joined Weight Watchers. I went from a size 16 to a size 12, losing a stone and a half in the process, between July and November. I was thrilled.

And then I got bored, and lazy, and started making excuses. The baby wasn’t sleeping, work was making it difficult to get time to exercise and make proper dinners, the chocolate was calling me and I was sick of the sight of low calorie brown bread. So I stopped going, told myself I’d go back in the New Year, and that surely the habits I’d learned would keep me on the straight and narrow. I had a way to go on my weight loss journey but I said I’d get back to it. Read More

Banana Pancakes; a break from Hunger Striking

BANANA PANCAKES

So lately, as well as a sleep issue, we’ve been dealing with the fact that E, previously a decent eater, has decided to go on hunger strike. He won’t be spoon fed, and most food has a bite taken out of it and is flung on the floor. I’d take it as an insult to my cooking if the same wasn’t applied to carrot sticks and raisins – which have become somewhat of a staple diet. He’s 13 months old, and on the lower side of the normal weight scale, so obviously this has caused a bit of panic. I’ve been reassured by the doctor that his appetite is normal, that he’ll start eating in his own time, that I should stop worrying – but as a parent, I’m not sure we can ever turn that switch off. Read More

Cooking up a Netflix Storm

I like food programmes, despite being a crappy cook. I aspire to have the talent of those onscreen, but forget to turn off the oven on time. Nonetheless, my watching them convinces me that one day, I too will be able to make incredible creations, or at least feed my family healthy food and have to resort to processed take-away goodness less.

Lately, I’ve found myself watching a lot of Foodie Documentaries on Netflix (following on from my interest piquing with Super Size Me) , particularly when I’m cooking dinner, I like sticking a show on the laptop and watching it as I’m prepping dinner, and try to remember to pay attention to my timings while watching. There’s been a lot thats caught my interest lately. Read More

Glenisk Vanilla Banana Bread Muffins – A healthy snacktime treat!

Feeding a toddler is definitely not as easy as it could be. Instead of flavour of the month, his likes and dislikes change by the hour. The only thing consistent is his love of apples, and just because I’ve said that he’s bound to hate them by tomorrow morning. This means I’m constantly on the hunt for new ways to get nutritious, tasty food into the boy; a feat that is harder than I thought it would be. Read More

New Year, New Me?

IMG_3002.JPGI’ve written before about my relationship with food, weight and body image. After my pregnancy with E, I was left at the biggest I’ve ever been and felt like absolute crap. Jeans shopping was more traumatic than normal and my new shape made me want to cry when I looked in the mirror. I looked at other mothers walking around with their buggies (some of them jogging) and wondered how they did it, how they attained their gorgeous figures with tiny babies, how they found time to exercise and cook clearly healthier meals than I was. I listened to person after person tell me how breastfeeding was the key to the super weight loss and felt even worse about my failure as a watering hole for my son. In hindsight I realize that the onset of post natal depression did play a lot into the hands of this. I felt horrible, ugly, like my son would be ashamed of me, that my partner would clearly want someone better, thinner, less whale-like. It wasn’t a good time.  Read More