Breakfast Eggs with Basil and Avocado

Back home after a fantastic 5 weeks walking the Thames Path in southern Britain and I'm happy to be able to share some amazing photos, ideas and new recipes over the coming months. 

It was lovely to wake up in my own bed, listen to the sounds of the cockatoos and smell the eucalyptus! Home!

Although walking was the main reason my friend Stephanie and I went to the UK, we teemed this with eating; sampling delicacies from Spain and India, vegetables from the Middle East and delicious cheeses from France; croissants, bread, nuts and salads and anything and everything that looked interesting. Plus a whole lot of summer fruit, grown in the heart of England. 

We've eaten in some pretty interesting restaurants too, Rick Stein and River Cottage Canteen  (more about these later) and tried a great mixture of wines, beers and ciders, hic!



Enjoying some of the best food that Britain has to offer comes with one drawback - extra kilos! And while the main purpose of this trip was to WALK, we had to keep the body fuelled and herein lies the problem!

To be able to get into a pair of bathers over summer, without looking like a beached whale, my eating habits have to change and now! Hopefully with some great low calorie recipes, fasting on 2 days a week, reducing portion sizes and increasing exercise I may stand a chance. I need will power!!!!

I'm looking forward to experiencing appetising salads and vegetable dishes and sharing them here, and where possible I will include the calorie count. (If you are in the northern hemisphere - think of this as preparing yourself for next summer)

Some of my worst experiences in England centred around breakfast. Feeding large numbers of people in pubs/hotels must be a bit of a nightmare, but day after day of being offered the same food became tedious.

Eggs, bacon, beans, sausage; a range of pastries, toast and packet cereals. In Winchester, the hotel had tried to make a bit of an effort by  adding a 'smoothie' but the combination of flavours was uninspiring and after one mouthful I left it alone.

I love breakfasts, its a great way to fuel up your body for the day ahead and it's in our best interest to find recipes we can keep going back to; low calorie, easy to make, but damn delicious. 

What's your favourite breakfast food? I hanker after porridge, fruit and yoghurt and now I have bought a Ninja Pro, some great combinations of smoothies.

But wait - I'm beginning to sound really boring - here's something new to start with! Its a quick easy recipe that will have you bursting with energy and your friends green with envy!

 Avocado Eggs with Pesto and Spinach

Ingredients

This recipe is for one person

2 free range eggs

2 tablespoons pesto, home made or shop bought

1/2 avocado, peeled and sliced thinly

Turkish bread

50g baby spinach

1/2 bunch of asparagus sliced vertically

knob of butter

1 teaspoon olive oil

salt and pepper


I buy Turkish bread and slice it into 4 or 5 piece and freeze it, then I'm not tempted to eat too much.
You have to multi task and get all of these elements going at the same time so everything is ready to eat as soon as it is assembled

• Take an average slice of Turkish bread and cut into 2 and toast it
• Take a large pan and fill with boiling water for poaching eggs
• In a non stick fry pan heat a very small knob of butter and olive oil and
• Saute the asparagus for a few minutes and set aside. Now add the spinach and cook until it is wilted
• Crack eggs into the boiling water and cook for around 3 minutes
• Place the wilted spinach on top of the toasted bread,  add slices of avocado 
• Remove the poached eggs from the water with a slotted spoon and put on top of the avocado
• Give a good helping of salt and pepper
• Place a tablespoon of pesto on top of each egg then finish the whole dish off with asparagus spears
• Check seasoning and eat!

This is the yummiest breakfast I have eaten for a very long time.

On Holiday! Collecting Recipes!

It has been a very busy few weeks and I am sorry I haven't posted many recipes. Basically although I have been trying to get myself ready for my walking trip, I have also been trying to shake off a really bad cold which has laid me low for the last few weeks and I think it will be another week before I start to feel a whole lot better.

This isn't good news because tomorrow I am heading out to Singapore on my first stop to UK. I can't wait to feel the warmth and humidity in Singapore, because I think that's what my body needs right now to help it heal quickly.

I will not be posting for 5 weeks or so, but I wanted you to know that I will be collecting a whole of of new food ideas while I am away and hope to be able to share when I return.

So wish me luck on my 350 km walk! and  hope the legs holds out.

I am leaving you with some pics of UK I took last year. See you soon!

Walking Wounded

Walking distances has had a big impact on my life and I find the more I walk the  more I want to walk and I am constantly considering where, when and how to walk over the next few years.

But at the moment I am walking wounded. After a recent arthroscopy on my left knee, I am unable to walk even short distances. My surgeon's appraisal of 6 - 8 weeks recovery time computed to 6 -8 days in my head and I started with 3 kms, 3 days after surgery! Bad move. Since then I have been holed up waiting for the swelling to go down, which means I really should stop being an idiot and wait for a few weeks before I try again. My latest check up has given me an all systems go, but SLOWLY.

I keep checking the calendar and realise I only have 4 months left to get my fitness right for walking a lot of kilometres. If you take into consideration that I have to wait another 6 weeks or so before I can actually start to pick up the pace again, we are then only 3 months away. My walking schedule is going to have to be pretty rigorous from the end of May.

Let's talk about the walk  along the Thames Path so you get an idea of where we are headed in September.

The Thames is a very long river that runs through the capital London. It starts at a small village called Keswick in the Cotswolds. That is in the SW part of England. The path follows the river and all its bends and ends up at the other side of London. It passes through Cirencester, the City of Oxford, the Chilterns and into London. With places like Fiddler's Island, Neigh Bridge, Henley, Windsor and the Great Tower of London. Amazing countryside, thatched cottages and to die for gardens. 

At the source, the river can only be seen as a small puddle when it rains. I think you need to either be dead drunk or have a great imagination to see it. But the closer you get to London, the wider the river gets and by Gravesend it's 732 meters wide. The walk is about 185 miles long, that's 297 kilometres, if you just walk along the path. I think we should clock up closer to 350 kms by the end and I am hoping to feel pretty fit by the time we get to London. I have no doubt that we will complete the journey unless there are widespread floods, famines or pestilence.

Walking the Thames path guides you through some pretty spectacular countryside and in spring the wildflowers will be unbelievable. There will be lots of small village, pubs, cafes and I hope a little wildlife.

So onwards and upwards. Time to slowly get back to the gym and build up a few more muscles before that seed of doubt starts to creep into my psyche. Team this with a little diet tweeking and I might start to feel pretty happy about where I am heading.

Whose Idea Was This Anyway?**

I am not sure I am even qualified to be writing this. I am starting out - it's taken me 65 years to get here and I have no idea if I can do this.

It started with a mad rush to the head when I went walking to get a bit fitter and to find out how bad the arthritis was in my knees. I also have a back problem - lower discs pretty stuffed and I was spending a lot of time in physiotherapy  and feeling immensely fed up.

I was researching walking for fitness and I came upon this lovely website from the UK, written by a guy called George. (That was my dad's name. so I knew it would be good) It was filled with information about walking and everything you could possibly want to know about how to walk, where to walk, what to wear and what to carry.

So I emailed George and struck up a conversation about walking and I got quite enthusiastic. But the furthest I had ever walked in one go was about 3 - 4 kms and that seemed pretty exhausting .

Visiting Europe and UK in June/July, I found myself doing a lot of walking.  There were quite a few short hikes around Cumbria, Hadrian's Wall and of course a lot of mileage in and around London. There is so much to see and do and walking is the best way to see and do it.

Aira Force, Hadrian's Wall, Cows at Greater Strickland, Wass Water,
 Stone Circles, Castlerigg, Keswick, Cumbria

When I got back from UK, I overheard someone in my Pilates class talking about planning a long distance walk in the England and very quickly the seed was sown.

Initially I started to walk two or three times a week only 1 -2 kms just to get a little fitter. I added  Pilates classes twice a week, that really helped my back and I began to extend my walking distance. In August I clocked up 85 kilometres. The longest stretch being 8 kilometres and a lie down for a day after.

So here I am! It is October 2014 and I am planning to take a long distance walk in UK around September 2015 - There I have said it and it is out there. There is no changing my mind or not doing it!!!  All I need to do now is to get fitter and stronger while still protecting my back and knees and save some money.

This blog is a record of what I am doing to get fit enough to walk and highlights of the walk. I might post on a monthly basis or just when I feel I have achieved something worthwhile.  If there are any other crazy people of my age that get the idea that they would like to walk too,  this may be the motivational tool they need. You can all learn by mistakes too!

Please send me any hints and tips to keep me moving, nice things to make and eat on the trail and any other words of wisdom. A bit of encouragement will help too. Leave me a comment.

Energy Bars - These Boots were Made for Walking

I have taken up walking, seriously - I mean, I don't play sport and I'm not a bike rider and I really don't like hanging out at the gym, except for Yoga and Pilates, so this is the ideal recreational activity for me.

As a plant - aholic, it gives me time to check out every new bud, flower, leaf, petal, grass, nut and seed pod that I don't know (as my family will attest to!) as well as enjoying the landscape and taking time to use my camera.

I am building up my leg strength to tackle bigger walks but 5 - 10 kms at the moment is enough to let me know that I am really enjoying this exercise. Besides, take a small flask of coffee or tea, one of my 'Hiking Energy Bars' and you can imagine walking in the steps of Hannibal!

A while ago, I was given a list of ingredients to make a batch of something called  'Cocaine Bars'.  I made them up using very scant measurements but they were too sweet for my palate. So I have taken some of these ingredients and swapped them for something a bit healthier, nuttier and chewier and come up with this recipe. Still a tiny bit sweet, but that's the reward for getting your butt out on the track!

 

It makes about 16 bars. Once cold, I cover them in baking paper, put them in a sealed container and freeze them. Before I head out for a walk, I slip one into my back pack for a mid hike snack and that keeps me going.

Hiking Energy Bars

Ingredients

You can use a mixture of the following dried fruit - my combination was the following but you can mix this depending on what you have in the pantry.

50g dried cranberries
20g prunes, pitted
50g sultanas
100g dates, pitted
pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pine nuts - I found a bag of mixed and used 100g total
50g flaked almonds
20g macadamia nuts
2 tbls malt extract (not essential)
2 tbls honey
150 g apricot jam - or use your favourite jam
100g soft brown sugar
50g whole almonds
100g rolled oats
3 tbls cinnamon
2 tbls cocoa powder
1 tsp ground nutmeg
100g shredded coconut
220g unsalted butter.

1. Heat oven to 170 degrees fan forced.
2. Combine dried ingredients in a big bowl and then add them to  food processor and process until they are well combined. Don't over blitz them because you want some texture.
3. Melt butter in a pan, add honey, jam, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Add butter and spices to the mixed dried ingredients and mix thoroughly.
5. Grease and line a large baking tin with baking paper and tip in all the mixture. Lightly press down to level the top and bake in the oven for 20 -25 minutes until brown. Be careful not to over cook.
6. Cool in tin then cut into individual sizes that you prefer. Wrap in baking paper and place in a sealed container in the freezer.