This blog was originally started to track our progress as we regenerated a derelict Victorian house in Dublin. We turned an old crumbling ruin in to our dream house! If you wish to read through the trials and tribulations of the house build it is best to start at the oldest blog post and read in date order. The blog then evolved in to being all about my life in Dublin, Ireland and then life in Malaga, Spain with artist "PIGSY" and now back in Dublin
I hope you enjoy reading it!
I decided I'd change up my Keto bread (see recipe here) and add lemon juice and poppy seeds to see if I could make it more of a cake instead of a bread.
Well it worked out beautifully and tastes great. Lovely, lemony and zesty!
Biomilanes
There is a little organic vegetable shop in Malaga that has a great selection of organic eco foods. I got both my lemon and also the essential poppy seeds in this store after not successfully finding poppy seeds anywhere else (but am sure I could probably find them in Corte Ingles).
This loaf was a hit and I'll definitely make it again......but for the moment it's going on my plate along with a few slices gone in to the freezer for another day.
The Picasso Museum here in Malaga is open until 5pm on Sundays with free entry in for the last 2 hours. Normally there would be a massive queue for this attraction during most of the year but with reduced tourists numbers in the city, due to Covid, we were able to rock up at 3pm and head straight in to the permanent Picasso exhibition and the newly opened Barceló exhibition.
Singapore - PIGSY Art!
In PIGSY art news, I can report that there are now PIGSY's in Singapore. See here for details of The Ireland Funds Singapore "A Sense of Ireland 2021" Festival.
PIGSY Solo Show in Spain
In addition to the above, we are working away on PIGSY's next solo show which is coming up at the end of March in La Casa Amarilla, Ciaran is finalising the art work selection and getting pieces framed and stretched. While I'm working on the promotion end of things, writing press releases and getting press packs together. All a lot of fun and very exciting for PIGSY to have an art exhibition here in Spain!
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!
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.
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!
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?!
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!!
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
