A Long Overdue Catch Up!

I am sorry to say, that my life has really not been very exciting recently due to January exams therefore very little of a social life! My life is, as it often is, a case of university, cooking and the gym. Unfortunately my recipes have all come from books as well so posting them on here for you would be a bit naughty.

I tidied my room at the start of the new year before going back to uni (I took a couple of very large bags to the tip, tidy room, tidy mind!) and managed to find a £10 book token, with no expiry date wahoo! So I took myself off to Waterstone's and eyed up the recipe books, and have since cooked a couple of great dishes from The Higgidy Cookbook.

Haricots Verts

Pie!

Cheesy salmon gougère - salmon in a cheese sauce with a choux pastry edge, served with garlicky and chilli green beans (pretty simple really, just toss the cooked beans in to a pan with a few extras).
Then last night we cooked this beauty... chicken and chorizo with a smoked paprika crumble.

Fresh from the oven

Before we put the crumble lid on

I also threw together some falafel - one tin of chickpeas, an egg, a cooked clove of garlic and onion, cumin, coriander, paprika and salt & pepper to taste, bung it in a blender, shape and fry. Pretty simple!

I threw mine on top of couscous with some extra veg (and houmous!)

One Sunday I decided it was a scone day - thank you Delia! (with some extra baking powder to help them rise!)

Not my strong point, but they still tasted good!

My pride and joy this month: Millionaire Shortbread, from a very easy to follow recipe from Mums Know Best: The Hairy Bikers' Family Cookbook.

I have to ration myself daily so that I don't eat it all!

It rained... out came the Hunters!

A spot of tartan to celebrate Scottish roots on Burns Night

And then yesterday it snowed!

It didn't settle, I can't work out if I'm happy or not that it's not a winter wonderland.

We went out!! Cocktails in Coco Tang, a nice chance to get dressed up for a birthday.

Handbags and glad rags

I then needed a sugar blast the next day - first Starbucks in aaaaaages!

Strawberries & Cream, as always!

Hannah and I ventured out on a bike ride around Wollaton Hall & Deer Park. It was great to get out on a bike rather than in a disco spinning class and head around the lake.

Wollaton Hall aka Wayne Manor in the recent Batman film

The view from my bike!

We had a house outing, the charity Varsity Series between UoN and Trent has now begun. The ice hockey always kicks it off each year and we decided to get ourselves in gear and actually go. With some fabulous chanting across the two 'unis' (term used loosely, as it was quite derogatory towards Trent as a poly, but all fun and games and I have nothing against them really, honest!). And 'unay' won. Well done us!

Some action

Proof we were there, in the glowing white light of ice!

Uni victorious!

So actually, I haven't been quite as antisocial as I thought, but as I have written this I have at least ventured out a couple of times! Despite a couple of exams and coursework, I think I managed to avoid any January blues (apart from the offer on a YoSushi, it was Blue Mondays all day everyday for almost the whole month, so of course we went. Yum!).