Remember, remember the 5th of November…

….gunpowder, treason and plot.  I see no reason why gunpowder, treason should ever be forgot….

I actually almost forgot!!! The evening of the 5th of November to us English folk means  bonfire night or as it’s more formally known as ‘Guy Fawkes Night’.  Guy Fawkes’ plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament was foiled and so every year we celebrate this by making a scarecrow type figure which represents Guy Fawkes, putting him on top of a huge fire and setting him alight. Like so….

Ironically, although we celebrate the foiled attempt of Guy Fawkes anti-social behaviour, there is talk in the UK that they are attempting to ban this celebration because of the bad and criminal behaviour of some of the youngsters!!!

Anyhoo, this day makes me think of home and I wanted to share it with you all.

xxx

Trying Out New Recipes…

This week we have been trying new recipes.  We did a huge shop in Wholefoods on Sunday, cost us a small fortune so thank goodness we don’t shop there together every week!  It’s when we go shopping together we seem to spend a fortune.  Wholefoods has such amazing food we just get carried away.

For dinner on Monday night I made some pan seared scallops with a cayenne pepper crust.  I literally seared them for a couple of minutes on each side until they turned a light brown colour.  Before I put them in the pan I put them in some milk, dusted them with some flour and sprinkled some cayenne pepper.  To go with the scallops I made some crunchy kale and mashed potato.  Delicious!!

On Tuesday night it was Robbie’s turn to make dinner using the Tilapia fish we’d picked up on sale in Wholefoods.  He baked the fish in the oven with some garlic, lemon, olive oil, onions, red pepper and herbs and served it with some quinoa and spinach salad!  Another fabulous meal.

My camera battery died just as we were taking the photo so this was taken with Robbie’s iPhone.

Last night I made a tomato, sausage and spaghetti dish.  I don’t like sausage so this was made just for Rob and I had a black bean burger! Yum!!

Tinker also wanted to get in on the action!

It’s nearly the weekend!!

xxx

Honesty Heals!

I was watching Ugly Betty yesterday (yes another guilty pleasure) and I felt inspired when watching one of the scenes.  The characters were talking about being honest with yourself as honesty heals and it really got me thinking.

Are you honest with yourself and others?

I try to be honest with myself as much as possible.  Sometimes it can be harder to be honest with yourself but in the long run it really does heal you.  I also try to be as honest as I can with people by choosing my words carefully.  I believe you can still be truthful without coming across as nasty or harsh.

Being honest with yourself is where it should all begin.  If you can’t be honest with yourself and your feelings how can you be honest with everyone else.  Can you truly be happy if you are not honest with yourself?

I found this all very thought provoking and wanted to share it with you guys.

Hope you’re having a good Tuesday.

xxx

Depression link to processed food!

Morning… Can you believe it’s November already!?  I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween.  Rob and I had fun getting dressed up.  We met up with some friends and went to a party for charity.

Robbie was an amazing Charlie Chaplin…

and I was a circus ring master!

This morning I wanted to share an interesting article with you.  One of the main recommendations I give to clients when they make the decision to start eating healthier is to completely cut out any processed, chemicalized, artificial junk food… and here are more reasons why it’s a good idea to remove these from your diet.

Depression link to processed food!

I started the day today with a delicious bowl of oats.  I’ve managed to catch a bit of a cold so wanted to dose up on vitamin C so I added a huge handful of blueberries to my bowl as well as the usual half banana, flaxseeds, Agave and almond butter.  I recently tried adding a bit of yogurt to my oats at the end and it was DELICIOUS!! I thought it would have tasted gross but was pleasantly surprised!

Enjoy the rest of your day.

xxx

5 Healthy idea’s for you & your children.

Happy humpday to everyone.  I hope the weather is a bit nicer wherever you are in the world.  It’s gray and rainy in New York today.  Thank goodness for my new ‘Hunter’ boots!!

My favourite colour!!

I wanted to share something with you guys that a nutritionist recently shared with me.  Some great idea’s for healthy snacks and lunches for your children.  They can even be enjoyed by us adults too.  Why make it difficult for yourself by making everyone different meals.  Feed your children what you would feed yourself.  Start them off on the right foot at a young age!

1. Pick n Mix your own trail mix.  Buy in bulk your favourite and your children’s favourite nuts, seeds, whole grain cereals and dried fruit.  Take a handful of each and and toss them into a snack size baggie.  Get the children to make their own.  Getting them more involved in the process encourages them to eat more of what they are making.  Each bag will be packed with fiber, vitamins, and Omega-3 fatty acids.
2. We all know that schools are a breeding ground for germs.  So make sure to build strong bodies.  You can do this by choosing probiotic yogurts.  They taste great, are quick to eat and contain calcuim, vitamin D, protein and friendly bacteria which are beneficial to our health.  Buy the yogurt in large cartons and put them in reusable containers.  It’s more cost effective this way and you can add frozen fruit to it.  This adds nutrients and helps keep it at a safe temperature.
3. As I’ve mentioned before keeping your body hydrated is important for mental and physical performance.  Check out my article ‘Are you getting enough water?’.  My favourite bottled water to drink is smartwater because they use electrolyte’s to enhance the water.  You can really taste the difference in the water, it tastes so pure and clean!  To encourage your children to drink more water try adding a squeeze of lemon or lime or what I love to do is add some cucumber which gives it a fabulous refreshing taste.  Also give them a straw to drink out of… drinking water always seems more fun when drunk through a straw!  Don’t you agree???
4. Plan ahead.  Use leftover meat from dinner the night before to use in their sandwiches.  What I love to do is roast a chicken on a Sunday and then use any leftover in sandwiches for a couple of days.
5. To jazz things up use pita’s or tortilla’s.  You can put anything in them!  Try filling a whole wheat tortilla with their favourite nut butter and sliced banana or using some of that leftover meat with some cold cut veggies and cheese.

Have fun creating new and healthy ideas!  I would love to hear any fun ideas you have… email them to me at sallyfulcher@hotmail.com and I’ll feature them on my blog.

xxx

Sweeteners V’s Sugar?!

I feel like this is such a hot topic!

This morning I received an email that really got me thinking about sugars V’s sweeteners.  I’ve always believed that eating or drinking the full fat product in moderation is better for you than drinking or eating anything that contains sweeteners.  The company who contacted me this morning had some interesting stories they wanted me to share and some new products they were interested in me reviewing.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a freebie who doesn’t but I would only want to review something that really appeals to me and unfortunately any drink that contains sweeteners does not, even if they claim to be made with natural sweeteners.  The natural sweeteners I know are things like brown rice syrup, agave or maple syrup.  I doubt you will find these on the labels of any diet or low calorie drinks.

Those who have been reading my blog for a while know that I’m a firm believer in everything in moderation. Yes I eat chocolate and enjoy a glass of wine or 2, I will even have a can of coke occasionally… when I say occasionally I mean once or twice a year but I would always choose the full fat version over the ‘diet’ or ‘low fat’ version any day.

I believe that by consuming artificial sweeteners or anything that has been chemically enhanced or processed we are actually poisoning our bodies.  We are already causing harm to our bodies by eating too much sugar and we think we are doing ourselves a favour by switching to diet when in fact we’re not.

The first sugar refinery was built in 1689 and within 10 years we were eating 4lbs of sugar per person, per year!  Now we are consuming a staggering 179lbs of refined sugar per person, per year.

Almost 39 of these… imagine that!  It’s no wonder there has been a huge increase in type 2 diabetes and obesity!

Another interesting fact: did you know that by law, ingredients must be listed in order of how much is in the product, which is why on a lot of products you will notice a long list of different sugars.  If all the sugars were lumped together it would undoubtedly be the very first thing on the list!! Have a look at some labels next time you’re in a supermarket.

I would love to hear your thoughts on sweeteners V’s sugar.

xxx

I’m Alive!

I’m still alive!!  Just taking a bit of time out for me…. I just checked my blog stats and was amazed that even though I haven’t written anything for a while there are still a few people checking my blog everyday!

I was talking to a fellow blogger the other day and we were both saying the same thing that we feel as though we are letting people down when we haven’t written anything in a while.  It’s true… at the back of my mind I keep thinking about my blog and thinking I should write something!!  So here I am, I’m alive and well… just taking some time for Robbie and I.  It’s been a crazy couple of months but it should slow down now so maybe I will be inspired to start writing again.

I’m not going to get myself stressed out about it.  What will be will be… We are working on something very exciting at the moment that is going to change our lives forever!

Hope everyone is well and good.

xxx

The Perfect Evening

This has been the perfect evening.  Quality time with my husband, fabulous food, delicious wine and Mad Men!!

I came home to find Robbie slaving over a hot stove making, hands down, the best spaghetti bolognaise he has ever made!!

While he was cooking I sat back and enjoyed a glass of  Côtes du Rhône while flicking through a trashy magazine that I’d picked up at work.

Another of my guilty pleasures… I just like to flick through the fashion pages.

Dinner was served…

Om nom nom nom!

I might have had a bite or 2 of Dairy Milk chocolate for dessert!

Back to enjoy the rest of my perfect evening.

See you tomorrow.

xxx

Season of Change!

I feel like I am in a bit of a food rut!  If you have been reading my blog for a while you will probably notice a lot of the same ol foods…. it is true, I do love oats and spinach and bananas and of course, almond butter, however  I want to make this blog more exciting for you guys to read and more exciting for me to write about.

There is no better time to mix things up than when the seasons are changing.  With all the delicious autumn foods out there…

I’m sure I can find some new and exciting things to cook.. with maybe a little help from a few cookbooks!

Please bear with me while I go through this blog-entity crisis!  A change is as good as a rest so they say!

If Anyone Can Canon Can!

For today’s lunch I went out and bought a salad.  Can’t argue with some fresh greens for $5.95!!

• spinach
• broccoli
• beets
• cherry tomatoes
• grilled chicken
• cranberries

I always think they put far too much dressing on the salads so I ask for it on the side.  Sesame & ginger dressing… mmmmmm!

I realised when I got back to the office that I’d forgotten my camera.. thank goodness for my new Blackberry!

It actually didn’t turn out too bad…. although nothing quite beats the photos taken with a Canon!!

Maybe I’ll get lucky at Christmas??? 

Anyhoo, back to work.  Rob is in charge of dinner this evening.  He is cooking his special spaghetti bolognaise! Can’t wait!!

xxx