What I've been up to....

 Here's some of the things I've been up to since I last blogged....

The weather has been very good here in Ireland so we've got out and about to places we normally wouldn't go to. 

We hopped on a Dart to Malahide to visit the car free street in Malahide. First off when we arrived in Malahide (after a long wait for a train and then a longer than expected train ride) I thought the train station was so cute!  I guess it is in the arts & craftts style of architecture (not sure about this, correct me if I am wrong) and it is very quaint and charming.

From the station we made the short walk to New Street in Malahide.  We were in search of wings in Wishbone but discovered that the restaurant has closed - with no mention of this on their social media and website. But New Street itself is gorgeous and has a lovely ambiance. If you are in the area it is definitely worth visiting to experiencing the clean quiet calmness of the car free space.

As I mentioned the weather has been very good in Ireland - particularly over the June BH so because of this, we visited Herbert Park on Sunday as I knew there was a food market there. I forgot to take a pic of the market as a whole but it had a few nice stalls including a large vegetable stall, a fish seller and other stalls selling nice oils and farm fresh apple juice. Along with these stalls there was lots of food truck offerings. Ciaran went and queued for coffee while I went searching a low carb option with signs up for a Wicklow sausage of some sort.....but I never found the sausage so settled on chicken skewers which were so tasty and great to eat in the park in the sun.

And then yesterday evening I met my gal pal Alice in our usual spot of the "Canal Bank" - I love their wings! It's a casual spot and we love our casual meet up for food, wine and great chats.

Even though the restaurant is only around the corner from my house I ended up cycling the short way as I realised I would be late if I walked because I was setting off at 6.26pm in order to meet Alice there for a 6.30pm booking. In fairness it was cold when we were leaving so I was glad to cyce after I saw Alice on to the bus for her to get home across the city. Next time I must suggest that we meet closer to her home as we are on a bus route that literally goes door to door between our houses!

Today is another busy day with a lunch date planned in Dublin city with my mother and niece with the closing of the Ranelagh Arts Group Show after that. The finissage is on from 6-8pm and the weather promises to be pleasant so it should all work out very nicely. 

PIGSY's artwork "I like toast" is part of this show and  you can watch the video below of his recent solo exhibition in Ranelagh.

Midweek catch up

 It's Wednesday and I'm up at 6am!! 

I woke early this morning and couldn't get back asleep so I got up and tidied the kitchen. I start work at midday on Wednesdays so I generally like to get up early (maybe at about 8am) so Ciaran and I have time to fit in a walk to Ranelagh for coffee before I head off on my bike to work at about 11.30am.  A 6am wake up is a bit much though......but here we are.

Weekend plans

I saw a great video yesterday of plans for a redesigned pedestrianised street in Malahide. It got me thinking what I would like to do this weekend (weather is forecast to be good) so I reckon I might take a trip out on the Dart with my bike to Malahide to see what the pedestrianised street is like currently. I love pedestrianised streets so much they are so calm and peaceful and it is amazing to hear the birds and wildlife on them even for example on Capel Street which is in the centre of Dublin City!

What I'm reading

I happened upon this book "Breakfast is a Dangerous Meal" in the library the other day. It's by Terence Kealey who has a background in medicine and clinical biochemistry, and began to investigate breakfast and the concept of skipping it after he received a Diabetes type 2 diagnosis.

It's an interesting read for sure and it compounds a lot of how I feel currently while I am doing intermittent fasting. Personally I find that if I eat breakfast, it stimulates my appetite and I then end up snacking all day and consuming a lot more than if I just eat when I am hungry some time in the late afternoon or evening.

If, however, I was to eat breakfast I stay far away from breakfast cereals which are full of sugar and would try and eat some protein instead (eggs can't be beaten!) and in fact in recent times I've never eaten breakfast cereal in the morning but instead have eaten it in the evening when I wanted a treat (when I was not eating low carb). However, I always found it to be a slippery slope and could never stop at just one bowl, so I find for me that it works best to just stay away from it all together and instead just eat non-processed "real food".

What's going on with you? Drop me a line in the comments to let me know what you are reading, or what plans you have for the weekend!

Back cinema going!

After falling out of the habit of going to the movies due to covid lockdown, I can now say that we are back cinema going!

It started last Sunday, with a visit to the Stella in the Devlin Hotel to watch "Castro's Spies" which was screened as part of the Ranelagh Arts Festival. This was a very interesting documentary made by Irish film makers.

And then on Friday, on my day off work I went to the Omniplex in Rathmines to see the "Margaret Movie". Otherwise known as, "Are you there God? It's me Margaret" which was initially a book by Judy Blume. 

I had been anticipating this film for awhile as my twin sister had seen it a few weeks back when it opened in Florida and she really enjoyed it. I think mostly films open in the States and Europe at the same time these days so it was surprising to have to wait a few weeks for this one to open in Ireland.  But I have to say it was worth the wait and I really enjoyed it!

Sunday came around and we made another plan to go to the cinema. This time we went to the Dundrum Shopping Centre (I think perhaps my 3rd time to ever visit this place) to see the Nike "Air" movie. Again another great film and a nice trek out on the Luas to Dundrum, getting off at the Balally stop. Normally we go to the movies in Rathmines at the Omniplex but it felt like a real date going on the Luas to Dundrum. It was something different. However, when we just missed a Luas and had to then wait 15 minutes for the next one, we both agreed that the Omniplex was probably a better option as we could just walk there and back without having to wait for a tram. Either way a fun evening and we are back for sure as "cinema goers"

Low carb seed crackers

I borrowed "The Real Meal Revolution" from the library, which gave me a hankering for low carb seed crackers after I saw a recipe in the book.

When I set about making the crackers yesterday I found that my scales was not working so I instead made the Diet Doctor version of the recipe as it gave the measurements in cup sizes rather than grams. 

They were simple to make (but took longer than expected to bake fully) - see below for the finished product. Most of the ingredients are easily found but I needed to visit Horans health store in Dun Laoghaire in order to buy Psyllium Husk which was new to me. It's probably the ingredient that binds all the seeds together so I would imagine you can't make the cracker without it - however, I did add a little milled chia seeds as an extra, and maybe this helped bind the seeds together too. 

Diet Doctor refers to them as Keto Seed Crackers but I would probably say they are low carb rather than keto. And you would probably need to be careful and not eat too many if you are trying to keep carbs under a particular amount per day.

But they sure do hit the spot if you are looking for a crispy bite or something to put a bit of cheese on. I ate a few with mascarpone cheese and they were delish!

For storage I put them in these glass containers with plastic clip lids. Let's see how they last.

After visiting Nick's Coffee regularly over the past few years, I bought a bag of their coffee for the first time as a little gift for a coffee aficionado.  This is a 250g bag and they do a 1kg bag too,

I didn't get the beans ground as I know the giftee grinds their own, so I felt it was better to give the whole bean.

For today, I plan to go to an afternoon film in the Rathmines Omniplex. "Are you there God? It's me Margaret" finally opens in Ireland.

Read my twin sister's blog about this film here when she watched it a little while ago. I hope I enjoy it as much as she did!

Edit -

I found this video by Heavenly Fan of her recipe for seed crackers.  It's very similar to the Diet Doctor recipe that I followed.  I'll probably try this recipe next time

New to me: Avocado Oil

As you know I am back on a keto kick for the past while.  I decided to go back low carb after getting in to an awful habit of eating a massive pastry in Nick's, everytime I went for a coffee there (probably 4-5 times a week). There came a point where I realised that the only reason I was going to Nick's was for the pastry (they were pretty good!) and not the coffee that I decided I had to stop......and I needed to give up all other carbs too.

So it was back on to keto to get back in control.

One of the things that I do when I am on keto is to make homemade mayonaise. However, I generally make it with olive oil which can have such an overpowering taste. 

So as an alternative I tried to find some avocado oil for sale as I wanted to make mayo with it.

I found the avocado oil in Holland & Barrett......and guess what, it is delicious and it makes very tasty mayo. And it is especially nice drizzled over a potassium rich real avocado!

If you are interested in eating low carb, check out this lady. She wrote the book that I have on my shelf right now (I borrowed it from the library). I used to follow her on youtube years ago and her story is very inspirational as well as being a great keto cook!

And those great days just keep coming....

After a day in the office on Friday, I met PIGSY at the opening of the Ranelagh Arts Festival 2023. It was luanched by the Canadian Ambassador Nancy Smyth and there was a great crowd at the art exhibition launch. The sun was shining so everyone hung out on the street outside the gallery and chatted with the exhibitors.

And then Saturday was a day in the Ranelagh Arts Gallery where PIGSY was a guest invigilator. This was another fun day where we chatted to visitors all day about the art on show. But the day got really great when and offer came through at close to 5pm for a ticket to the Michael Bublé at 8pm in the 3 Arena. It really was all about Canada this weekend, eh!

After a fast turn around, leaving the gallery at 5.30pm, hopping in the shower and jumping on the bus and luas I got down to the Gibson Hotel for just after 7pm to meet my fellow concert goers.  

What an amazing concert. Michael Bublé is an incredible singer and performer and I love a big band!!

And then we really got lucky when Mr Bublé arrived to a "second stage" which was only 2 rows away from us and did a full Elvis medley of songs. Just incredible!!

This part was the highight of the show for me - and then he magically disappeared in a storm of ticker tape / paper confetti to reappear on the main stage.

All in all a great show!

And my great weekend is not over just yet. 

This morning we go to the Stella Theatre in the Devlin Hotel for the Ranelagh Arts Film Festival where we will watch the documentary "Castro's Spies". 

And then later in the day we will have a call with Amy and Patrick (another Canadian!) in Florida - 5pm our time, mid day there time. 

Hope your weekend is as good as mine - drop a line below to let me know what you got up to!

Cheese O's order!

As you saw from my previous post, my new favourite thing is "Cheese O's" which are tasty little puffed cheesy bites in a variety of flavours.

There was only regular cheese bites in Cheddar flavour and also Sweet Chilli flavour (we prefer the Sweet Chilli) in my local Supervalu so I decided to order a few of the other flavours directly from the supplier.

Well look at this - they have arrived!

I ordered 24 packets in total and they arrived all packed up in 2 boxes like this.....all the way from County CorK via the Tralee Post Office (I tracked it using the An Post number supplied by the company when they sent me confirmation of my order

The delivery arrived about 11am this morning just before I went to work so we only opened the boxes this evening. 

The first flavour we selected to taste was the Salt & Vinegar, which we both LOVED!

Unfortunately though I only bought 2 of this flavours........guess I will have to order again in the future!

If you are interested in tasting these delicions snacks you can order on their website here, or look out for them in your local Supervalu or other shops.

For me, they are a great low carb snack that fits in my keto lifestyle perfectly. There are not many keto friendly snacks available in my local shop so I am very happy to have found these, and I am looking forward to tasting the other flavours. 

You can check out the website below to see the nutritional info in order to see how this snack would fit in with your diet/lifestyle.

Well done to Dairy Concepts Irl on a great new Irish low carb product!

Edit - Tasted the Cheese & Pickeled Onion and they taste just like Monster Munch.