out of hibernation!

Hello everyone! It's been a while between drinks hasn't it?

How are you finding the winter (or summer, if you're in the southern hemisphere!)? I've just been recovering from a rather nasty chest infection. On the plus side, the blocked nose and constant coughing ensured my Christmas tummy was gone in two days! Huzzah for that :P On the minus side, my next half marathon is only eight weeks away, so I need to be stepping it up, not being a coughing, spluttering hermit! The good news is I'm well on the mend now and looking forward to getting back into it!

Unfortunately, just as the phlegm packed its bags and fled my lungs for another year, my workload at my job has increased about 500%. I also do freelance work, so lately it's been feeling like I get up, go to work, get home at an ungodly hour, then get on the computer and work again until I go to bed! Ugh!

Thankfully it's only because things are busy at the moment and it should slow down soon. With my next half marathon coming up, I'm thinking about trying to run to work in the mornings again, just to get some more miles under my belt. Currently I walk to work every morning, and home every night - it's about 45 minutes each way, and even though it's freezing I really rug up and it's definitely helping me to get fresh air while I've been working long hours! I know it can be hard when you're busy, but making it a part of your day makes everything so much easier - you really do have more energy to do the things you need to do. Having pink cheeks and a sparkle in your eyes helps too! :D

Anyway, how are all of you? How is 2010 panning out for you so far? Anything exciting happened?

While I've been keeping a low profile, I've been a busy bee, as I explained, and some rather exciting things have been happening. My little sister is coming to visit in a few weeks, so Tom and I have been very excited planning all the things we're going to do with her and her boyfriend while they're with us. We want them to see London in style!

I've also booked to go away on a writing course in April, which I'm very excited about! Will I finally finish my novel? Let's hope so!

This is usually what I look like when working on my novel!

Tom and I are also starting to think about our wedding, which makes me feel very giddy! There's a few immigration formalities to sort out first, as we expected, but we've done all the paperwork we need to do and sent everything off, so we're just playing the waiting game now. Hopefully it won't be too much longer and then we'll be able to start making some plans.

I've really been enjoying cooking over the winter - I love hearty, warming food, so I've been cooking up a storm to keep my tummy (and Tom's of course!) happy. When I had my chest infection, I noticed that if I had cheese or yoghurt the mucus got worse (sorry, TMI there!) so I decided to try and do the challenge Ali set me - if she could go vegetarian for a month (as I challenged her), I could go vegan!

Well, I lasted a week and a bit. Then I was getting a salad for lunch and realised as I was eating it, it was greek salad. With feta cheese in it. I didn't even think! What a dolt! And of course, as the rest of the day went on, I realised that cheese and I are just two things that should never be apart. I just love it too much. So, that's the end of that story! Ha ha! Sorry Ali. I suck!

But anyway, when I've not been being a cheese loving fiend, I've been enjoying some delicious winter food. And being the queen of food porn, of course I have some photos to show you! This is one of my favourite soups, red lentil and lemon:

Oh how I love this soup! I've modified the original recipe to include spinach or kale (I like to have greens in my food if I can) and I usually double the amount of carrots it calls for and put in a finely chopped red chilli (or a few spoonfuls of chilli jam) too. It's so good.

This little doozy is one of my new favourites:

This is the gingery paneer with spinach from Kathryn Eliott and Lucinda Dodds' collaboration An Honest Kitchen. It was just to die for. Click here to see the edition the recipe is in, and you'll find a bit more of an excerpt they've generously provided. It's definitely going to be a regular for us. Only thing is the second time I made it the coriander had gone a bit...sour! So let this be a lesson to you Phil, don't use the feral looking stuff in the fridge and think it will be ok :P

Winter is definitely the month for warming curries! I made this yellow Thai curry after finding the paste in Wholefoods a few weeks ago. My friend Brianna made me a delicious yellow curry when I visited her in Vancouver a few years ago, and I had longed to replicate it since. It was so delicious. I made it with Quorn pieces, sweet potato, eggplant and green beans. No coconut milk in it either, just stock.

My favourite drink on a chilly night has been whisky chai tea, made with soy milk and honey. It's so warming, and sweet enough to make me think I've had an exotic, spicy dessert!

Do you like my mug?! I love it! My favourite US store, Anthropologie, opened its first European store right here in London just before Christmas, and I couldn't resist going in and practically falling over myself weeping with how beautiful everything is in there. Sadly everything they sell is well beyond my price range! Except for these cute monogrammed mugs. I got one for Tom as well!

Fruit has been a bit absent from my diet of late - although I loaded up on the oranges while I was ill! I usually get my fresh fruit via breakfast smoothies, but it's been too darn cold to make them in the mornings. I managed to make on on the weekend with fresh orange juice, banana, kiwi fruit, passion fruit and a bit of flaxseed. It was so good I think it's worth being a bit cold for! I must say I am so jealous of all my Aussie blogger friends and all their delicious seasonal fruit they've been having. I want me a mango! :D

But in the absence of them, I've been giving pears some love - I think they are my favourite winter fruit. I enjoyed this one with Greek yoghurt and a sprinkle of cinnamon:

With my super busy work hours lately I've been trying to be organised with my meals, especially with taking lunch to work each day. Sometimes I like to buy lunch, but I like it to be a real treat. It's hardly a treat if you do it all the time, now is it? :D These are some tips that work for me:

Prepping the night before

It sounds like something only super organised people do, but it seriously takes only five minutes and you save SO much time in the morning, not to mention money when you realise it's lunchtime and you haven't brought anything from home!

If there's only enough of dinner's dish for one, Tom usually gets it, and I'll make a salad out of leftover brown rice, pasta, couscous, etc. For example, Tom got the ginger paneer leftovers, but there was still quite a bit of brown rice, so I made a salad out of it with rocket, chargrilled pepper, green olives, crumbled feta cheese, a handful of cooked chickpeas, and a squeeze of lime juice and black pepper. I didn't envy him at all!

Cooking up a big batch of food on Sunday afternoon (or whenever you're home for a stretch of time)

Again, sounds like the domain of the super organised, but it needn't be. If I'm home, I like to cook something a bit slower and something I can take a bit more care and time with, rather than just wanting dinner on the table within half an hour otherwise I'll start eating my own arm! I also like to double or even triple the quantities so that I can load up my freezer for "those nights". You can do loads of things - soups, stews, dhal or, my favourite, bolognese sauce!

What about you guys? Any tips on staying healthy and organised for those workaholics among us? :D

Hope you are all healthy, happy and staying well! More soon!