Day Sixty Six : Good Post Day!

Date : Friday 7th March 2014

Time : 18.14

Location : Millennium Apartments, Birmingham

Good Post Day! 

The postman was pretty kind to me on Friday. It's a shame the book I ordered didn't come the day before, being that Thursday was National Book Day! 

I was especially excited to get my gym ball, as it means I can continue with my new and improved gym programme! My friend / trainer (friend first) drafted me up a new programme which I'm really excited to start - it's important to enjoy something, and have short term goals in mind! 

My other piece of post was from the 'For Dummies' range of books - which, when you think of it, is a little bit patronising! 

My problem with this book in particular - as you know, I am learning the ukulele - is that I can't read sheet music, and all the chords are written in actual music form! 

I may have something else to learn before I can get cracking! 

On Friday I also confirmed my Milan trip, which is FULLY on! I tried to get Chris Stark from Radio 1 to come with me, I sent him a Tweet enticing him to follow me so I could direct message him ... I was surprised when he actually did! I told him all about the trip, and he said he was busy so couldn't come! That would have been funny though! 

Chris, you're still a top man! I'll send you some pictures! 

Lesson of the day - FRIDAY. This month is going to FLY by!! So much to look forward to! 

Note. That wasn't much of a lesson, more of an extended note! 

Day Sixty Five ; Quinoa Salad Recipe!

Date : Thursday 6th March 2014

Time : 19.27

Location : Millennium Apartments, Birmingham

Quinoa Salad - Delicious!

I've been told by a number of people, that quinoa is REALLY good for you, and I need to start eating it!

On Wednesday I actually went to Tesco to ask where quinoa was - because I had a vague idea what it was, but no idea where to find it. 

For anyone who doesn't know, quinoa (pronounce keen-wah) is a type of grain which is FULL of protein! 

After consulting a colleague at work, I was told to look down the 'whole foods' section, which I did, and low and behold, there it was! 

So last night I made the above salad. Wow. It was amazing. Here is the recipe. 

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150g x Quinoa

4 x Spring Onions

1 x Green Pepper

Cucumber

Baby Sweetcorn

Sugarsnap Peas

Avocado

Chicken breast chunks

Olive Oil

Paprika (and other various spices)

So the quinoa takes about 30 minutes to cook, you need to boil about 400ml of water, and let the quinoa simmer until it all the water is absorbs. It's great, you can just let it do it's own thing! 

Whilst this is going on, I prepped my veg by chopping my cucumber, green peppers and avocado into small chunks, and throwing it into a mixing bowl with the sugarsnap peas and baby sweetcorn. I like to get my hands dirty, so I just mixed everything together with some oil and a pinch of salt / pepper.

I then began frying my chicken, which takes about 15 minutes(ish), so after about 8 minutes I started to grill my vegetables. I grilled the spring onions whole, then chopped them afterwards ... not sure why, that's just what the recipe said to do! 

Once all my quinoa had absorbed the water, my chicken was cooked and my vegetables were grilled, I threw it all in a mixing bowl, tossed it all together and dug in! 

It was so good. I threw some paprika on just for a bit of extra flavour but it didn't really need it. The quinoa has quite a nutty taste, but it just went really well with all the veg and chicken. 

I would definitely recommend this to everyone, it only took about 30 minutes to prepare, and I had plenty leftover for lunch on Friday! 

So good and SO healthy! 

Something else VERY exciting that happened today was that I won a trip to Milan. So next weekend me and a friend are jetting off on Saturday, going to have a look round the city, then on Sunday we're going to an AC Milan game then flying home. Very exciting! I can't wait! 

March is a good month! 

Lesson of the day - Quinoa is the ONE!!