August: Meals, Miles, Books and Looks

Whilst July was a bit of an off month, I feel like I've been slowing gaining some momentum in August.  I started some spring cleaning and almost instantly felt better, with a clearer mind and sense of accomplishment.  I kept going and started to build on my morning and evening routines to keep the messiness away.  It is known that I hate to cook in a messy kitchen, but now it's always tidy and clean so I cook much more and we have home made lunches almost every day.

Meals

 

1. We started off the month with a delicious pancake breakfast.  Also this month the supermarket had maple syrup on special so I bought 4 more bottles and every time I go into my pantry I see them all lined up along the shelf :)

2. I made mulled wine.  Not technically a meal, but still delicious!

3. Baguette with mozzarella pearls, tomato, lettuce and balsamic vinegar.

4. Pizza baguette topped with home made pizza sauce, mushroom, red capsicum, corn, pineapple and cheese and served with hot chips and salad.

1. Nachos: Corn chips topped with cheese and chili beans, a salad in the middle topped with salsa and sour cream and then dressed with jalapenos.

2. Pizza! I cheated and bought the bases then topped with home made pizza sauce, mozzarella pearls and our favourite toppings of mushroom, corn, capsicum and pineapple.

3. After a trip to European store where we bought a packet of Knorr Fix Würstchen Gulasch, Kane made this delicious meal using quorn sausages.

4.  We've had a couple of these pasta bakes lately.  Its a jar of sauce, a jar of water, dried pasta and then in the oven for 25 minutes.  Top with cheese, return to the oven for 10 minutes and done.  It doesn't require any attention so I set a timer and get stuck into another project.



1. Ploughman's lunch: 2 different cheeses, 2 different types of pickle, pickled onions, egg, salad with balsamic vinegar and baguette.

2. Quorn fillets in BBQ sauce, corn cobs in a home made lime and chili butter served with peas.

3. Grilled cheese sandwich with an orange for lunch.

4. A cherry chocolate from the chocolatier.

Miles: 30.8 km

With a 6.3 km trail race coming up on Sunday this will push my monthly mileage up to it's highest since I started doing these posts last October.

Earlier this year my yoga studio joined up with the gym downstairs from it so I get a free gym membership with my studio membership which is great!  The way my schedule has been working it's easiest for me to go at lunchtime to either a yoga class or to use the treadmills.  However, sometimes I'm held up and end up missing a class or a run and this is frustrating because I definitely prefer structure, but I'm trying to be more easy going about it.

Books

So far this is shaping up to my second month in a row of no reading!  I started reading Mort(e) last month but then abandoned it when it got to a bit where a man was cruel to animals. 

I've currently got Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain that I saw recommended on Lisa Valinsky's blog and whilst I was in the library I picked up another of those cosy mysteries with a pun-tastic title. 

//Image from Google Search

Looks

As is usual, I don't have too many looks to share with you.  I should probably just come up with a different section for here.

Anyway, this month we met rugby star and All Black Jerome Kaino.  It was an evening event at St Kentigerns college in the style of a relaxed chat between rugby commentator and media personality Scotty Stevenson and Jerome Kaino with questions for Jerome from the audience that was made of mostly parents and children of the school.

We also attended the All Blacks v Australia game.  The atmosphere was outstanding, the game was amazing, seeing them win the Bledisloe cup was awesome and then watching the retiring players receiving awards was emotional.  My blurry picture is of the haka at the start of the game.

 

My only real "look" of the month was the outfit I wore out for drinks with my friend.  You can't see it in the picture but I'm wearing tan heels - yes, heels two months in a row!  I used to wear heels all the time and now I hardly ever wear them but I'm gradually changing that :)  I'm also wearing a silver brooch.  I tend to wear brooches more than any other jewellery and my favourite pieces are all vintage - this one is of the Maeshowe dragon and was gifted to me by mother-in-law which had been given to her by her father and I'm especially fond of it.

 

//Image from Ola Gorie Jewelley

And my final picture in the set is at the finish of my most recent race. The tights and gray long sleeved shirt has been racing uniform this year but now it's starting to warm up I'm going to switch to a running t-shirt (with optional rain jacket!), but I'll stick with the tights for now.

 

How has your month of August been?