Bank Holiday chores

 I was up early this morning to start on a big chore - cleaning my oven....which had not been done, let's say "in awhile".

I started the cleaning at about 7am by applying "Oven Mate" to all of the surfaces in the oven that had baked on grime. This was pretty much all of the sides and the door on the mini oven that we use the most and just the bottom of the regular size oven that we generally only use at Christmas time or when we have friends over for dinner.  Along with the two ovens, there is also the built in microwave but I cleaned that the other day. 

I bought Oven Mate in Supervalu and looking online it got lots of good reviews, so I was interested to see if it would work.  If it didn't work, I was going to go with Plan B which was to get a professional oven cleaner in to do the job.

After I applied the gel, I had to leave it for a few hours (or it can be left overnight if it is really bad) so I headed off to my parents house for a visit. I drove over to their house after booking a "Go Car". This was my first time to use a Go Car and my first time to drive in since about 2020!!  

When I returned home after a few hours, I started on the removal of the Oven Mate gel which had turned to a disgusting brown gunge.

Here's the oven before I cleaned off the gel:

And the results speak for themselves, here's the after!

It was a dirty messy job and it took ages (and a lot of paper towels). But I was very pleased with the results and I highly recommend this product for the job.

Next time I won't leave it so long!!

When life gives you lemons....

Got a cute new wreath for my front door and I adore it!

I had a browse in TK Maxx for a Spring or Easter wreath and among all the ones with eggs and bunnies on them, I found this unique one with lemons on it. To me it looks more Spring like and less Easter like which is exactly the look I was going for. I added the yellow ribbon in order to tie it to the front door and it is all set. So cheery and uplifting.

And speaking of when life gives you lemons....

Ciaran had a slip and injured his knee. Currently awaiting MRI report to see what the diagnosis is. Fingers crossed it is not as bad as it currently seems, given that he can't put any weight on his leg.

Hopefully we will know more early next week, but for the moment he is icing it and taking medications as prescribed. Watch this space....

Cheese O's delivery!

 I haven't had Cheese O's in ages but I saw some being delivered to Super Valu the other day as I was walking through the car park so it prompted me to put in an order for delivery.

Since the last time I ordered some, I saw that some of the flavours have oils or other ingredients that I don't want to consume. However, I think the Cheddar and Salt & Vinegar flavour are clean enough and contain only ingredients that I am comfortable eating.

Cheese O's are shipped from Fermoy, County Cork and with my order made on Sunday, they arrived to my door on Tuesday morning. So convenient and all nicely packed up (see pic below).

They certainly ship to Ireland and the UK, but beyond that I am not sure. Maybe they are available through Amazon to other desinations?  Not sure about this - let me know if you have ordered from far afield and I can edit my blog.

They are seriously tasty - particularly the Salt & Vinegar flavour and the Cheddar flavour is very cheesy too. A really nice keto snack!

There are some carbs in Cheese O's but the full ingredients and macros are listed on the website so you can check all of this out before you decide to order. The Cheddar ones are probably the cleanest and are literally made of Cheddar cheese with no added flavourings. 

What I like about them is that they contain a fair bit of protein and I'm currently working on increasing my protein intake. So they work for me!

Do let me know if you have tasted Cheese O's or if you prefer to eat other low carb/keto snacks. Drop me a line in the comments below.....

PIGSY Art is in a Group Show in Ranelagh

 

"Sound & Vision" is the latest exhibition to open in Ranelagh Arts. Curated by Dino Notaro of Slow Lane Gallery it opens this Friday and runs for the whole of March 2024.

PIGSY is one of the participating artists in this group show.

See you at the opening if you plan on dropping in!

And in the meanwhile you can also watch a short film about PIGSY's last exhibition in Ranelagh Arts below

Sardines for days!

 Have you heard about the Sardine Challenge?!

While looking up the macros of Sardines (which I love) I happened on a video by Dr Annette Bosworth, otherwise known as "Dr Boz", all about sardines and fasting.

As I said, I love sardines, both their taste and their convenience. 

So what do you think I am doing this week?! Yes a sardine fast!

With a variety of tins of sardines available in Tesco, including John West, King Oscars (spratts) and Shines which is an Irish brand of spratts / sardines, I picked up a few cans today.  And then for dinner I had sardines along with some cauliflower cheese left over from yesterday. Really delicious and really easy! 

What do you think?  Will you give the Sardine Challenge a go?!

Out and about in Dublin

Last Thursday myself and Alice met up to go to the theatre!

We had met about two weeks previously and Alice had suggested we go to John B Keane's "Sive" which was showing in The Gaiety.

It was a marvellous performance and a thought provoking tale. A really enjoyable evening out and great to see the very well known actress Fionnula Flanagan in the role of Sive's grandmother.

Then on Friday, it was off to the cinema with Ciaran to watch "The Iron Claw". It was great! A movie about the Von Erich wrestling family and starred the always underrated, in my opinion, Zac Ephron. We saw this film in Cineworld on Parnell Street and then went for wings afterwards in All Bar Chicken on Capel Street. 

I had to work on Saturday but it was up and early on Sunday where I meal prepped for the week and made amongst other things Meatloaf and Keto Bread. 

And then later on in the day, I went to a 5pm Hot Yoga class (Bikram) in the gorgeous Yoga Yard Studio in Irishtown. It was a nice cycle to the studo with no traffic due to road closures around the Aviva stadium because Ireland were playing rugby in the 6 Nations.  Coming home was a different story because it started raining just I started unlocking my bike.

It was a great class and probably even better because I was fasting all day and was wondering if I could manage the class in a fasted state having not eaten since probably about 8pm the day before.  I did manage the class buy was well ready for dinner when I get home. I was glad I had meal prepped and had food ready literally as I walked in the door!!

The Source in Rathmines

After work this evening I walked to Rathmines to buy some items in "The Source".

The Source is a shop where you bring your own container or use a shop supplied bag to buy whatever weight of an item that you require.

It's so clever really and a good way of cutting out food waste and also extra costs.

For example, I wanted to buy a cup or two of Coconut Flour rather than a big bag as I only plan on using it to make a loaf or two of Keto bread. And I only need this small amount.

I also plan on making Chicken Shawarma and so I was able to buy just what I needed, which is a few teaspoons of gound cardamon.

It's a fun little shop, and I enjoyed browsing everything and measuring out what I planned on buying.

One interesting thing that I saw is that they sell protein powders which again you can weigh out in a small volume rather than buy those big expensive containers of protein powders. I bought 100g of Hazelnut Chocolate protein powder that I plan to add to a Keto Cheesecake that I will make this weekend.

There is lots to buy in this shop (they even sell freshly made nut butters) so I plan to go again soon for another browse.

Let me know if you have ever bought from a shop like this before - how did you find it?!