A few recent happenings and findings

I've been perched on my bed for absolute hours and am cursing the fact that I don't have all these deadly Sky channels that I can see have tons of cool movies and stuff on and not Tori Spelling discussing her baby weight.
I've been getting a few deadly things lately in these fab sales that are on, or in my frequent charity shop trips. I'm off tomorrow, so very well could be down in Bray going through them whilst continuing the cycle and giving them some of my stuff I want to get rid of.
These gorgeous shoes? €30 in a|wear with student discount. That's because IADT never put an expiry date on my card, so I plan to use it whenever possible...

Best bit- they didn't need to be broken in, so they were dolled straight away when Luke took me to Le Bon Crubeen! I'm a bit anxious about them getting dirty, but they're holding well!

Then Griffin and I went to Urban Outfitters and I got a wonderful purse for €11 to go with my new bag from Philadelphia.
Have you seen it yet?
No?!


Bam. What a duo.

Recently Luke and I paid yet another trip to Queen of Tarts, they of delectable cakes and crockery. I opted for the baked raspberry cheesecake and Luke, a nibble.
As always, it was a lovely trip had.



I found a deadly wine holder in the Virginia charity shop that I gave Ceri and Griffin as a little house warming gift with a bottle of red and a rose. Sadly, I forgot to take a pic of it, but I'll get one off Griff and add it in here.
Cos it's seriously cool.

What I'm mostly excited about these days is planning things to write for bananareel.ie, picking photos to enter into the Virginia Show again and looking up things for my adventure in Spetember with Luke. Gumtree is visited every evening.
Plenty to keep the mind going.
But now it's time for some tunes to lull me to sleep before a seaside trip tomorrow. Better clear up the camera's memory card!

Sweetest of dreams to you.
L x

One Mean Risotto!

This meal is my soup to Sarah Maria Griffin. It is ridiculously yum and easy and I've made it two days in a row.
Again, I nipped to Tesco around 5 o'clock and got super cheap veg. You can pretty much throw anything into this dish, which is what Luke and I did.
So here it goes, it serves 3 hearty portions.
Prepare to be wowed.

Ingredients!
2 chicken breasts
4 rashers
punnet of mushrooms
1 onion
1 carrot
1/2 tin of kidney beans
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 a small bag of peas
2 cups/ 470ml veg stock
250g arborio risotto rice
handful of baby spinach
sprigs of basil
parmesan
salt & pepper


*Heat olive oil in a frying pan and grate in the carrot and garlic.
*Chop the onion and add it in. Fry these slowly and chop up the chicken and bacon.
*Add these to the pan and fry until just cooked.
*Add in the peas, beans and mushrooms and fry up gently again. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
*Throw in the rice and stir until it begins to absorb the oil in the pan. Once it starts to take a translucent shade, add the veg stock.
*Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring regularly to stop the rice sticking. Add a dash of hot water if needed.


*When the rice is cooked, take the pan off the heat. Tear up the basil and spinach and stir in.
*Serve up with a sprinkle of Parmesan and tuck in!


Luke and I absolutely loved this, so let me know what you think! The second time I made it, we didn't add any of the meat and it was still as delicious, so it can be a vegetarian dish too.

On a foodie note, my first recipe has been posted on bananareel.ie's website , check it out!:)
I'm going to be a food contributor, writing easy and healthy recipes for students! Woo! I'm so excited as it's come about from this blog and Louise Tierney knowing how much I'd love to do it.
So there is a batch of baked goodies on the way to her xx

L x

Improvised Lasagne!

Mmm. You really can't go wrong with a yummy lasagne.
So, here's the meaty version! I like adding loads of veg to dishes, it helps bulk it up and it doesn't make the dish as heavy to eat if it calls for a lot of meat. I don't know about you, but I find a lot of beef hard to eat, anyway.
So, I made this with things that were already in the house. I had some ingredients left over from the vegetarian lasagne like the pasta sheets and asparagus, so that was handy!

300g fresh lasagne sheets
1 carrot
5 garlic cloves
1 onion
200g asparagus
1/2 tin of kidney beans
1/2 bag of peas
2 red chillies
tomato puree
tin of tomatoes
block of white cheddar cheese
parmesan cheese
oregano
fresh basil
small pack of mince beef

*Heat the oven to 200C.
*Slice up the asparagus, onions and chillies and add to the hot oiled pan. Grate in the carrot.
*Fry up for 2-3 minutes.

*Add in the mince and brown.
*Add in the kidney beans and peas and simmer for a couple of minutes.
*Toss in the tin of tomatoes and about 2 tablespoons of the puree.

*Tear in the basil leaves and take off the heat.
*Cover the bottom of the lasagne dish with the pasta sheets and scoop in some of the mix. Sprinkle on some parmesan and grate a good helping of the cheddar on top, then cover with lasagne sheets.
*Keep repeating this until you run out, leaving the top layer as the meat mix with cheddar cheese covering it.

*Hop in the oven to bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and looks delicious.

You can have this with whatever you fancy. A lot of people like coleslaw with lasagne, so maybe have some of that, or some oven chips, or a nice salad!
Again, this did 4 portions. And tasted nicer for lunch the next day with Luke with salad his Dad is growing.
Delish.

Enjoy, lovelies!:)
L xx

Le Bon Crubeen visit

Last week Luke brought me out for dinner, and on recommendation of one Louise Tierney, we went to Le Bon Crubeen on Talbot Street.
To say we enjoyed ourselves is a gross understatement. When we arrived in, dripping wet with our jackets and umbrella, we were greeted by a very lovely waiter who offered to take our things to the cloakroom. This has never happened to me before (maybe this is indicative of how often we go out) so I happily handed over our stuff and we were shown our seat.
Maybe it's because I'm waitressing at the moment, but I can be super judgemental of how I'm served when I go to other places.
But these people were golden.
Absolutely. We had main courses with a glass of wine each, then tea & coffee at the end, with me deciding I had to go with dessert too...
Luke had the Confit Duck Leg with Lyonnaise Potatoes, Pesto Green Beans and Syrah Jus and I had the 8oz Irish Sirloin Steak (medium rare) with Green Peppercorn Jus, Fries and Rocket Salad. (I don't have amazing memory, I copy and pasted from their menu )
We were both silent for a couple of minutes while we tucked in and relished the parties in our mouths. Luke's duck fell off the bone it was that tender. My steak was beautifully juicy and the salad and chips topped it off wonderfully; nothing too fancy, but presentation was good.

Our waiters were delightful to say the absolute least. I adored them for leaving us until I finished my meal. Due to a lot of talking and just being a slow eater, it took me way longer than Luke, and they didn't touch our table until I was completely finished. They asked did we want to see the dessert menu... I said yes.
The bread and butter pudding was amaaaaazing. Holy smokes. Now, the waiter we had for dessert was fabulous. Even though Luke didn't want dessert, he brought us two spoons, incase Luke changed his mind. He did.

Overall, we had a great time there and were floored by the food and service. The cost is phenomenal considering the meals. We each had a main course, glass of wine, a pint, then tea, coffee & one dessert which all came to under €60.

You really can't go wrong there. Top marks.
Le Bon Crubeen's website

My Mom is amazing.

Yes, she is.
Cos I went home to Cavan last week with Luke and she gave me THESE...







She crocheted me a bag and a cover for my netbook!!
Aren't they fab?!
The netbook cover fits perfectly and my bag is having its first day out when we go visit Griffin & Ceri tomorrow.

Bam.
My Mom's great.

L x