Sunday Funday in Dublin

Car free Capel Street

After spending some time picking up litter in Ranelagh in the morning, I then went in to Dublin City to meet up with my sister Katie. 

I normally have Ciaran picking litter with me but still managed to pick nearly 3 bags full on my own.

Katie and I met on the newly (newish) car free/pedestrianised Capel Street on the Northside of Dublin and meandered up Capel Street and then back down again, stopping off for coffee in Camerino Bakery.  There was lots of family friendly activities on the street with face painting for the kids, street performers and music which made for a great vibe.

For us we just enjoyed the car free ambiance as we strolled around and chatted, however, there are lots of quirky independent shops on Capel Street and I made 2 purchases buying a pair of warm gloves in Ramblers Way just off Capel Street and then I bought.......wait for it......chicken feet(!) in a Chinese supermarket that had a little restaurant to the back of it. When I lived in Spain I made bone broth with chicken feet (full of collagen!) but have not done so in Ireland because chicken feet are not something that are readily available in the local supermarket.  So when I saw them in the Chinese store I bought a bag which are now sitting in my freezer for when I am next making a batch of bone broth.

This is about my 4th time visiting Capel Street (I have always cycled) since it was made traffic tree and I have found it to be very pleasant each time - I look forward to visiting again!

"We will park your bike for you"

Vegfest!

It was a fun day today at Vegfest in Rathmines where I was volunteering with the Dublin Cycling Campaign. We were offering a bike valet service where we parked attendees bikes in a safe convenient space at the entrance.

It was a fabulous sunny September day (I came wrapped up in two jackets but that was probably overkill!) and there was a big crowd at the event.  We were kept busy parking bikes all morning and we also got to talk to people about the work of the Dublin Cycling Campaign too.

All in all a fun day out - check out a few pics below

Vegfest is open again tomorrow (Sunday 24th) so get on your bike and make a visit to it!

Collagen - Dose & Co Vanilla Creamer

Collagen powder

As you know I am a big fan of bone broth and all things collagen, so when I saw Dose & Co Collagen powder for sale in Holland & Barrett I decided to buy some to see what it was like.

There were different flavours to choose from but I selected vanilla as I thought it would work best for the way that I planned to take the collagen in food.

Many people mix it in to porridge, smoothies or coffee at breakfast but because I fast until dinner time I decided to mix it in to some greek yoghurt after dinner.

There is a dairy free variation available but I have no problem with dairy so this is the one I selected.

This is what the powder looks like - I put a heaped spoonful in yoghurt and gave it a good mix

It mixed in nicely and tasted delish - nice and sweet (but not too sweet) and a mild vanilla taste.

Seems like a very good way of getting collagen in to your body without going through the palaver of making bone broth (which I plan to do for the Winter time).

I'm not too sure what results to expect but am hoping that my hair will thicken up.  I'll give it 30 days and will see!

Keto Waffles made with Kerrygold Butter

What's the best thing about Keto?!

Butter and even better is if it is Kerrygold

So when I happened upon a receipe for Keto Waffles calling for butter as one of the ingredients, I was on board.

However as I usually do I kind of modified the recipe. You can find the original keto waffle recipe here, or you can use my recipe below.

For my recipe I did the following

Added 5 eggs to 250g of Mascarpone Cream Cheese and mixed together.  

To the above I added a cup of melted Kerrygold Butter along with a splash of double cream.

Then the final ingredient gets added - it's about a quarter cup of coconut flour *with optional Baking Powder)

Depending how wet or dry the batter is, you can add either more coconut flour if too dry or another egg if it is too dry. 

I added Baking Powder to the last batch that I made. But they seemed no different to any without the baking powder.......so it probably can be left out.

Check my batter!! Just perfect....

Stack of waffles - they can be reheated in the microwave

Oh and here's a tip, if you want more of a buttery taste, just lash on some more Kerrygold when the waffle are made

Take care with coconut flour, add it slowly as it absorbs liquid massively and it can dry out your batter very quickly. You can always add more if needed!

Enjoy your waffles and let me know what you thought they tasted like......and what did you eat them with?!