July 14 - Cooking Dinner

  A productive day and for a Saturday, I didn't do too bad keeping on track with my eating either.  I woke up and milled around a bit checking emails and whatnot then I was about to head to the shower when I thought.. No! I don't want to be exercising this evening, I have a nice dinner planned, I'll do it before I shower!  So bleary eyed and unfed I got on the cross trainer, did my 40 minutes and was done by 10:20am!

  While still puffing and panting (though believe me, it's already getting easier) I used my cool down time to prepare breakfast.  Luckily Captain Cupcake made me remember the berries last night while she casually mocked the level of detail I go into on my blog!  It is a very attractive breakfast I must say,  just look at those tart berries, creamy acidic yoghurt and juicy ripe passionfruit pulp. Well.. it's attractive at the pictured stage, right before I add the fibre toppers!

  After that it was shower, dress, grab recipe for Crumbed Duck Sausages and off to the shop to hunt down all the necessary ingredients!  I managed to find everything though I couldn't find Duck Marylands so I'm using Duck Breasts instead.  Also, the recipe says it serves 4 - 6 people so due to that and the price of duck ($37/kg!), I scaled the quantities down to suit 2 people.
  Home again, home again, and the kitchen was a mess.  I have not spent much time cleaning in there this week!  So chores-wise, dishes I needed to use tonight was the first priority, once those were on in my marvellous still new-ish dishwasher, with Bruno Mars' crooning in the background, there was time enough for a lunch break!

  Lunch was half a Khobz flatbread topped with half a tomato, half a 95g tin of Sole Mare Tuna in Olive Oil and a handful of baby spinach!  It was a little dry and I would normally use mayonnaise with tuna but I figured the olive oil would be sufficient.  I think the trick will be to drain off a little less of it next time.  Now, why don't I use Tuna in Springwater? Well, yes it is lower in fat, but it tastes like crap.  Sole Mare Tuna in Olive Oil is the only canned tuna I like, and I've tried quite a few.

  I finished lunch off with a Kiwi fruit with skin on and as the music switched from crooner to curvy boppy Dutch jazz goddess Caro Emerald, it was time to return to the fabulous drudgery of chores.  I have found that chores are vastly easier to do with something boppy on.  I also get more exercise because my bum tends to wiggle to the music with little to no say from my brain!
  Laundry, more dishes, a Tamarillo at snack time, cleaning the benches down.  The dishwasher drainage hose overflowed the U-bend a bit on the first load so I'll have to keep an eye on that!  And after all that, it was pretty much time to turn this:

Into this:

  I need a little bit more practice cooking sweet potato and coordinating the mash and sausages to be cooked together.  The sausages were on the more well done side of cooking but despite a little singeing they were tasty enough to warrant a second try.  I think if I made the full quantity and pre-made the mash and just re-heated it quickly in the microwave that might work a bit better.  Overall though I enjoyed the experience!
  After dinner Mr Smart and I enjoyed a few glasses each of Lipton Light Peach Ice Tea and watched What's Eating Gilbert Grape? which I had never seen before.
  Today was a good day :)
  Jess