The Pastel Pirate wedding blog!: July 2012

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

What I've been cooking this week!

I enjoyed this spinach and cheese strata from Annie’s eats. I didn't use the onion in the recipe and I used some lovely tiger bread instead of French or Italian like suggested. I also added some smoked ham that I had in the fridge. It was nice and very filling but I found the custard wasn’t all absorbed, I think if I did this again I wouldn't put as much milk in.

This was amazing! This channel 4 food recipe for prawn pasta was so incredibly simple. It was about 650 calories a portion although I used macaroni instead of whole-wheat shells. It was very filling (we had 100g dry macaroni each) and it was so yummy, even the boy was impressed!

These sausage balls from Plain chicken were really great, I served them with noodles. I used normal sausage meat and I don't think we have bisquick in the UK so I made a substitution from normal flour, baking powder, salt and butter. From half a block of sausage meat I made 12 balls and it was about 58 calories a ball! I thought they were really nice, better than actual sausages! I think these would be such a great party food idea.

I followed this Abel and Cole recipe for a cheese, egg and broccoli rice bake. I used no onion and I used quorn mince instead of beef. I also substituted eggs for egg whites and I found it was about 500 calories a serving. It was tasty and filling but I think I would leave out the milk in the future, like the strata it didn’t fully absorb.

This recipe from food.com for spanakopita burgers sounded really good but I adapted it so that instead of a burger I just made a wrap. Basically instead of ground chicken I just used a chicken breast, it was a lovely dinner.

I was inspired by this breakfast frittata recipe from Channel 4 to make my own frittata. First I cooked the whole-wheat pasta (about 90g a serving) and also fried up some black pudding and quorn sausage in garlic and oil. I drained the pasta once cooked and added it to the big saucepan which the meat was in. I then beat together 5 egg whites, some milk and herbs and poured it into the mixture. I heat it on the hob and finished it off in the grill. It was really nice, very filling; I think I prefer the recipe with some meat in it rather than the original vegetable option. It worked out about 600 calories a serving.

Monday, 30 July 2012

The Monday song: Gypsy Kings- Bamboleo

When I was a little girl I thought I was Spanish. You know how when you're little everyone makes up those lies for the playground, some people were related to royalty, some people were going to drama school, I said I was Spanish. This came from my Nan always telling me I looked Spanish, I was quite dark in my looks and even from a child I’ve always had a big bum on a petite frame. It sounded pretty exotic so I quite liked playing up to it. This included changing my name to Maria haha and constantly dancing to Gypsy Kings!

Sunday, 29 July 2012

Sunday catch up!

Lovely walk around the lake

Hello there!

The cakes my friend Stacey made!

When I left you last week I had taken my bridesmaid Beth down to my hometown of Milton Keynes for a little break, it was great and we ended it off with a walk around the lake next to my house and then a beer garden with a few of my friends. It was my friends Rima's birthday and my other friend Stacey made the cutest cupcakes for her!

I have been pretty exhausted this week. I have worked about 80 hours this week including some 17 hour days! In fact this post was written Saturday night because today I’m actually working 7am-10.30pm! I had a bit of a sleep deprived tantrum yesterday but the boy picked me up with chocolate ice cream, I’m seriously just like a toddler! Despite the fact I really needed my sleep for a 6am start on Saturday I did stay up to watch the Olympic opening ceremony and I’m so glad I did! It was great! I think the only thing that could have made it more perfect would be a reliant robin featured somewhere haha.

Yesterday, despite the early start, I was finished by 3pm so the boy and I had a date night. It was much needed as we've hardly seen each other all week! We went out for dinner at Grinch in Manchester and afterwards headed to MEN arena where we saw Morrissey! Grinch was lovely; I didn't think I was that hungry so I had a starter which was stuffed bread with mozzarella and prosciutto, SO good! We saw the dessert menu and so then of course I had to have the brownie sundae with the Toblerone fondue and pistachio ice cream and I also had a few cocktails, I left so stuffed! Morrissey was just AMAZING! He's such a showman and he really put on a show, I so enjoyed it.

Anyway I’m basically falling asleep now so I’ll leave you all, until next week!

xxxxx

Friday, 27 July 2012

Etsy shop of the week: Milk and Honey Luxuries

I so adore Milk and Honey Luxuries, exactly the type of 'one of a kind' items that we would choose for a wedding gift list if we were going for the traditional option. I think you'd want a few things early though; some of these items would look divine on a cake table!

Thursday, 26 July 2012

DIY DIVA!

I adore this fringed backdrop from Ruffled. Backdrops can be used in all kinds of contexts from photobooths to dessert tables and this seems reasonably easy as well.

And speaking of fringing i love this fringed garland from Green wedding shoes. I think it looks so great, really modern!

If i was a guest i would love these herb favours from the Sweetest Occasion. Herbs are quite a resiltiant plant so achievable for even those not so green fingered.