Saturday in the Charity Shop

Volunteering

On Saturdays I volunteer in the Cudeca Charity Shop on Plaza de la Merced here in Malaga.

Today there was the most beautiful vintage Barbie for sale in the window. Last week there was a different two (see my blog here) but I have to say I really liked this one. It would look perfect at the top of most Christmas trees - yes, that's what I like to do with Barbie dolls!

This is the "Starlight Waltz Barbie". She is absolutely fabulous! I love the sparkly hair accessory and her earrings and amazing full skirt. What a stunner!

She didn't sell today so if you are interested, get down to Cudeca early on Monday morning.

Mannequin makeover

So I did a yellow on yellow clothes display. However, it looked like a bit too much yellow so I switched it up and added a blue scarf and a hat with a blue decorated band. 

Not too sure which one I prefer. Let me know what you think!

In other news, we had a keto friendly dessert of strawberries and cream last night - with more cream than strawberries as you can see!

It was so good and lovely to have after dinner.  We are having it again tonight!

PIGSY Press

 Irish Abroad: PIGSY in the Irish Times

Very exciting to wake up to an article in the Irish Times about PIGSY's art and our life here in Malaga on our "year out" otherwise known as a career break.

Click here to read the full article

Busy Art Day

With the article up online, I spent the morning promoting it on social media and updating the PIGSY website with the details on the Press and Media section. It was quite incredible the amount of traffic it sent to his website and all day he was receiving texts about the article along with emails and of course lots of instagram messages too. A fun busy day for sure!

Discount Code

For a limited time - get 10% discount on a PIGSY face mask using coupon code "IRISHTIMES10"

Click here to go to the PIGSY store

Helvetik - a newly opened café in Malaga

Helvetik in Malaga

Great to see a new café open here in Malaga. It's Helvetik and is located on Calle San Juan (in what I think was formerly an ice cream shop). I look forward to trying their coffee!

Almond Coconut Chocolate Keto Bark (with sugar free Valor Chocolate)

So for the first time ever I made Chocolate Bark! 

I had seen this sugar free very dark chocolate by Valor in my local Carrefour and wondered what it was like and what I could make from it. Valor is a famous brand of Spanish chocolate and when I looked closer at the packaging I saw that it was made with Stevia in place of sugar. I'm intrigued by Stevia and wondered what it would be like in the chocolate.......oh and I also love dark chocolate!

In order to make the bark, I melted two bars of the chocolate (it broke up so beautifully with an excellent chocolate "snap" sound) and then added roasted and salted almonds along with a small bit of shredded coconut. I then sprinkled the top with a bit of salt for more flavour.

Here is how it turned out

This is the packaging of the sugar-free chocolate - look out for it in your local store, or you can probably buy it online

Here's the nutritional info for the chocolate (per 100g)

Energy - 568 kcal

Fat - 49g (31g of which saturates)

Carbohydrate - 19g (o.5g of which sugars)

Protein - 11g

Little Treat

It tasted absolutely delicious - we had a little bit after our OMAD dinner yesterday evening. A really nice treat and there is a big stack in the freezer now so we can have a little bit every time we want a little treat.

Check this out!

I like the look of these Peanut Bars.  Peanut flour is a new one on me. Have YOU heard of it?!

Stats!

 Blogger Stats

So I like to track things - and I get a kick out of looking at stats, particularly for my blog on the Blogger website and also on PIGSY's squarespace website, which I maintain.

So, for those who are interested, here's some stats about this blog

My stats, after blogging for close to 10 years, are that I am averaging about 50-60 hits a day. LAst month there were 1493 views of the blog while this month there has already been over 1600 views with 7 days to go.

Social Media Shares

I should note that when I share my posts on Social Media I get increased views. However, I don't share all of my posts due to their content, for various reasons.

In total, I have had 1494559 all time views on the blog. That's quite a number!!

CLIC Malaga

In non-stat related news, Ciaran and I were interviewed by CLIC here in Malaga - you can click here to read part 1 of the interview and part 2 here and part 3

Keto Supplies

Saturday in the City

On Saturday I took a little trek around the city to pick up a few Keto supplies. I have only found Almond Flour in Corte Ingles and Mercadona. I know it also for sale in El Hombre del Saco (it's one of those plastic free bring your own container places) but that is closed on Saturday afternoons so I will visit it some other day.

Almond Flour

Anyone it was off to Mercadona with me for almond flour (which are really just ground almonds) as it is cheaper than Corte Ingles. That was stop no. 1

Coconut Oil

My next stop off was in Aldi where I got some Coconut Oil from their organic section. I haven't seen this for sale anywhere so I was glad to get the last jar on the shelf!!

Coconut Flour

And then it was on to Corte Ingles where I bought a bag of Coconut Flour. In most supermarkets there are a variety of flours for sale but not generally Coconut Flour. This bag was just over €4 which compares well to the cost of Coconut Flour that I bought in Ireland.

Coconut Flour Bread

It was cold and rainy here in Malaga so it was the perfect day to get down to a little baking with the supplies that I bought yesterday. As I mentioned I made Keto Bread the other day with the almond flour but found it to be a bit eggy so the Coconut Flour bread is a better option. It turned out perfectly and slices beautifully - I put some in the freezer for over the next few days.

Roasted Almonds

I also roasted some almonds on coconut oil along with salt and pepper. Incredible!!

This was the first time I roasted almonds and I am seriously impressed how they taste. They actually taste too good - so good that you can't stop!

Dr Perter Brukner talks low carb

And if you want to know more about Keto have a look at this video and head off down the rabbit hole on Youtube....then let me know, what you think about it, in the comment box below

Glorious vintage!!!

Vintage Barbies and Juan Fernandiz

Special Edition Barbie Dolls

As I've mentioned before, I volunteer in a charity shop here in Malaga on Saturdays. Today when I arrived in to work I found the most wonderful things on display in the window - vintage and special edition Barbie dolls! I adore vintage Barbies (I put one at the top of my Christmas tree every year( but my twin sister more so - see her blog here about her Barbie collection.

The two special edition Barbies sold within an hour or two of the shop opening, while another Barbie (one with amazing real-like eyelashes) sold soon after. I am glad I got pictures of them before they sold. The Barbie in the blue dress is actually a special edition "Barbie Benefit Ball" featuring cosmetics company Benefit.

Juan Ferrándiz Vintage Books

Other donations for sale included these amazing vintage Juan Ferrándiz children's books. I'm not sure if you can see in the photos but the books include extra plastic items on the books. Look at the book about the tailor - you can see a plastic scissors hanging off the book. They are seriously cute and I would have loved to buy one or two - but I held back as I am only temporarily here in Spain so I don't want to have to buy things that I then have to lug back to Ireland. You can read more about the writer illustrator Juan Ferrándiz here 

Here's a batch of pics that I took of these cute little books. They were only put in to the window just before the store closed. But I imagine they will sell quickly on Monday morning when it reopens. If you are interested in them, get down to Cudeca in Plaza de Merced on Monday at 10am!

I love this cat with his little 3D bell around his neck - if I was buying one of these books, this is the one that I would probably buy

I think the first book is about a Traffic Police Officer - he has a little plastic whistle. As I mentioned the tailor has the little scissor and the character on the right of the pic has a bunch of keys while the Flamenco dancer doesn't seem to have any extras.

Look at the car driver in the centre - she has little plastic shades on her head!

And then the motor cyclist also has a pair of shades.  This book featuring two people on a Vespa was another of my favourites.

Look you can see the whistle here. They are a really cute collection of books with some of them having a more retro look (probably the cat and vespa are most retro looking and this is why I like those ones the best)

And here is the little character with his scissor while the lady on the right has her bunch of keys.  

Let me know in the comment box below if you were aware of the illustrator Juan Ferrándiz - this was my first encounter with his work.

A wrap up of the week here in Malaga

Wrap up of the week

Spanish Class

So here's a little bit of what I've been getting up to during the week.

On Monday we were back in No Piqui for our Spanish class with Speak and Learn. While the city was closed down for a little bit, the class went online but we didn't partake as we prefer to do face to face. It was good to get back to the class with teacher Clara and one other student (who happens to be Irish too!) and get down to speaking a bit of Spanish. There is only 4 in the class including the teacher as no more than four people can be at a table in a cafe or restaurant under Covid regulations. Along with this once a week Spanish class we do a couple of hours ourselves online every morning. It seems to all be working, although progress is slow and my frustration level is high!

Padel

I went to Padel class on Thursday and talk about frustration here too!!  It's a bit like the Spanish class, progress is slow at improving my padel too.  But in fairness, I like it A LOT!! It's great fun and it's good to meet Spanish people in such a relaxed setting. And it's also a good workout and makes me move for an hour along with the cycle to the courts and back (about 10 mins each way).

Keto doings

Following on from the other day's keto post, here's what I made tor us to eat and stay keto

Homemade mayonnaise - this isn't actually a keto recipe so you can just use any mayonnaise recipe. I just used a room temperature egg yolk and a spoonful of dijon mayonnaise with some lemon juice and salt. I then whisked this before slowly slowly slowly adding drips of olive oil while whisking. Did I mention that I added the oil slowly.

A nut and olive oil mix is probably best but I couldn't find any nut oils so just used all olive oil. I had two different olive oils in my kitchen so I tasted both and used the one that I preferred the taste of.

The other thing that I made was Almond Flour Keto Bread after searching all over for Almond Flour and finally finding it in Mercadona. The Keto Bread recipe that I used is this one here on Keto Connect.

Both the mayonnaise and bread taste so good, particularly the mayonnaise. I am thinking that the mayonnaise could be mixed with egg or chicken in order have a nice open sandwich on a slice of the keto bread. The keto bread is very eggy as mentioned in the recipe so I will probably make the other keto bread that I generally make with coconut flour. See here for this really easy recipe.

Another thing I made for the very first time was meatloaf!!  Wow what a revelation - why have I never tried this before?!  It's massively tasty and filling and I served it with brocolli along with a creamy sauce that I made with the meat juice from the meatloaf. Meatloaf is going to become a regular thing that I make, I reckon.  I made it using a combo of the recipes on this video - probably with more of the second recipe than the first.

As you can see from the pic below, I doubled up on the dish so we will be eating meatloaf two days in a row!

Plans for the weekend

It will be a weekend of quizzing. Tonight Ciaran is taking part in a Squash themed online quiz which I will give him a hand with - however, I think I will be a hindrance more than a help on this as to be honest I know practically zilch about squash.

Then on Saturday night (7.30pm Irish time) we will do our regular quiz ran by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Libraries. It's open to all so if you want to join in, just send an email to libraryquiz@dlrcoco.ie to sign up. This week's theme is "the 21st Century". We generally finish about mid table so let's see how we go this week.

On Saturday, I'll be back volunteering in Cudeca charity shop for the morning and in the afternoon I may suggest to Ciaran that we go out for a little glass of wine and a tapas. If we do go somewhere we will make sure we sit outside as this is definitely the safest thing to do......or on the other hand, we can stay on our balcony and crank up the bbq and make some tapas at home - angels on horseback (bacon wrapped dates are always delish....but unfortunately not keto).

Let me know how you are getting on in the comment box below, what's your plans for the weekend?

Back on the Keto train!

Back on Keto!

From reading my blog you probably know that I have been on and off eating low carb since about 2014 give or take. When I first arrived in Spain I found it really easy to be on keto.  I was eating lots of lovely spanish cheese, chorizo and meat. Unfortunately I began to eat all of the other lovely Spanish food including the carby Russian Salad and gorgeous rustic Malaga bread (kind of a cross between brown and white bread). Eating keto got away from me and suddenly everything was back on the menu - and I ate it all!

Sleep

However, I've been beginning to feel like I wanted a change and that I wanted to get back on to keto. I wasn't sleeping aswell as I used to which I put down to all of the sugar I was consuming late at night after dinner. I should clarify that for me sleeping badly is when I don't get my 8hrs of sleep. Eating late as night meant that I was going to bed later because I was buzzing and so probably only going to sleep after midnight which is way too late for me. I work best with about 8.5 or 9 hrs sleep.

So I set a date of returning to keto after Valentine's Day.

For a few days I've been watching keto videos on youtube to get psyched up for getting back on the wagon. I found a few new people on youtube that seem to be worth a watch - Dr Bosworth and Steve of Serious Keto  (check out this video series) along with my old favourites of Keto Connect and Dr Berg and also Flavacity.  Let me know if you watch any of them.

And so it was back to meal planning and organising things along with looking up some of the recipes that I love.

Yesterday I made my keto cauliflower mac and cheese replacement, which I named "Mock and Cheese". Lol!

Keto Cauliflower & Cheese aka "Mock & Cheese"

Here's the pics of it being made

The first thing I did, which I had never done before, was that I roasted the cauliflower in the oven before I added it to the cheese mix

To start the cheese mix I melted butter and added a bit of chicken stock (the chicken stock was also a new addition for this recipe - I had it in the fridge leftover from the Valentines Day fondant potatoes)

Here's some of the items that went in to the cheese mix - a lot of cheese including cheddar, emmental and cream cheese along with the above butter and also cooking cream. 

So the gist of how to make the "Mock and Cheese" is you make up a creamy cheesy fatty sauce and then add in the roasted cauliflower. I also added a little cayenne pepper on top just to pretty it up.

Served up with meatballs (to which I added grated cheese) this cheesy cauli dish is the best!

Lilly Pulitzer package!

What a lovely "Lilly" surprise!

What a nice package to receive in the post today - all the way from Florida to me here in Spain. 

My twin sister sent me these divine Lilly Pulitzer earrings!! I absolutely adore them and am already planning to wear them at the opening of Ciaran's solo art exhibition next March.

I love Lilly P. and am lucky to have a sister who has easy access to a Lilly Pulitzer store in Key West, Florida and she sends me the occasional little gift from time to time. The last thing she sent me was a gorgeous yellow Lilly dress back in November for my birthday. I haven't had the chance to wear it yet but am looking forward to wearing it now that the weather is getting better. Watch this space - I'll share pics on this blog.

Thank you so very much Amy for the fantastic gift!

A perfect Valentine's Day in Spain

Valentine's Day in Malaga

Malaga Alcazaba

We had a perfect day here in Malaga yesterday for Valentine's Day. Ciaran had suggested that we head up to the Alcazaba view point in the mornings time and so we set off there about 11am. It was just lovely up there at the top - click here to see pics on Ciaran's website.

After that we pretty much lay in the sun and listened to music for the day until 4pm when the Ireland-France rugby game was on. Disappointingly Ireland lost.

Valentine's Dinner

After the rugby game, we decided to put the dinner on to the BBQ earlier than usual in order to sit out on the balcony and have dinner before the sun went down. Dinner was a starter of cheese and chorizo along with membrillo (sort of like quince) and then steak with fondant potatoes that had been cooked in chicken stock - so delish! And then after for dessert we had these heart shaped mousses which were also delicious particularly with the nice bottle of wine that I had bought especially for the occasion.

All in all a great Sunday in Malaga.

And suddenly, just like that, we are back open....

Open Malaga 

On Thursday after my Padel class (which I wore a mask for), I heard that shops and restaurants were opening back up from Saturday here in Malaga.

And so on Saturday, I was back volunteering in the Cudeca Charity Shop and then afterwards we went out for a late lunch and glass of wine, well, just because we could.

It was pretty busy about town but there was a big police presence (look in the background of the pic of me) probably to ensure all of the bars were closed by 6pm - which they always are.  In fairness, they tend to start closing well before time and are always finished serving and shut up by closing time. It felt safe for us given that we ate outside.

A new restriction that has been introduced is that only wine or beer can be bought after 6pm. I had heard that there was going to be restrictions on buying alcohol and had anticipated that that would be for all alcohol. But the Spanish way seems to be a restriction on "hard liquor" and not vino y cervesas. 

There is still travel restrictions and people can only travel from one region to the next if they have a reason too.

Let's see what happens next, it is very different from the lockdown that is currently ongoing in Ireland and was extended from a March 5th finish date to sometime in April. Numbers are running at about 1,000 a day so still too high to open up.