Clean it…..

Training: Swim Squad 1.8km

The last few days have included some of these...

   

And these...

And some yummy Portuguese cuisine...

It sure is 'party time'.

Tonight Mr BBB and I had our last 'free' night before our houseguests (all 5 of them) arrive. So we set about cleaning the house and preparing the guest room.

I also prepared some rocky road (for Saturday's party).

And a baked vanilla cheesecake for my mum's birthday dinner tomorrow night.

  

Grrrr I tried to cool it slowly so that it wouldn't crack – but apparently it didn’t work >:( I am hoping it looks better once it is out of the pan and dressed with some berries and mixed spice :)

Overall it was a tiring evening. We did, however, stop for a quick dinner of toasted sandwiches … I know….such a good wife ;)

(Ham, tomato, avocado and cheese on spelt bread.)

Well I am off to bed as I have an early start tomorrow.  I am heading out to to the markets nice and early to get all the salad ingredients for the party, then picking up my mum and brother from the airport at lunchtime. I can’t wait! I didn’t get to see them at Christmas time so I am so excited :)

So much to do, so little time…

Happy baking :)

PS – Workouts have been terrible this week :(  At least I got a few swims in….better than nothing right?!

Happy birthday

Wishing Mr BBB-  my husband, my friend and my partner in adventure - a wonderful birthday. Hope it is filled with lots of love and surprises xx

Happy baking :)

Happy Australia Day

Today is “Australia Day”, which is the official national day of Australia and celebrated every year on 26 January.

The day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788, the hoisting of the British flag there, and the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia.

Australia Day is an official public holiday in every state and territory of Australia, and is marked by the Order of Australia and the Australian of the Year awards.

But what does the average Australian do on Australia Day??? Why have a BBQ of course!

So that’s exactly what we did! Sporting my best national pride t-shirt of course…..

Today we were invited to our friends’ place for a bbq, where I was tasked with bringing dessert. In the spirit of the day, I chose a (controversially) Australian dish – pavlova.

(Pavlova is named after the Russian ballet dancer –Anna Pavlova- and is believed to have been created to honour her after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. Where it was created and the nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between Australia and New Zealand for many years, but I say it is Australian – or at least now ingrained into the Australian cuisine.)

I topped the pavlova with cream, and a heap of fresh fruits including strawberries, blueberries, kiwi fruit, apricots and nectarines.

And added some passionfruit syrup as the finishing touch.

Voila!

Such an easy dish – but certainly not one that you would have all the time given the high sugar content.

We had a wonderful bbq lunch, and were spoiled for choice.

Starting with garlic prawns.

Followed by a full spread of sausages, steak, zucchini, mushrooms, eggs, garlic bread, pineapple, beetroot and salad.

    

The full spread laid out.

  

I had a little of most things, except the bread and potato bake.

Delicious :)

Overall it was a wonderful afternoon, with great food and great company. A perfect Australia Day.

Happy baking :)

Make mine a salad…

Training: Rest

(from Monday)

As tomorrow is a public holiday, I took today off work. It was a great chance to keep tackling my to do list, which now looks something like this…

Scan and print photos for Mr BBB's party

Race in Enticer Triathlon

10k run

Drinks on Sunday arvo with triathlon club

CLEAN the house

Prepare the guest room and study for guests

Laundry

Make dessert for Sunday dinner

Organise music for party

Pick up Mr BBB's birthday present

Finalise and order catering for party

So aside from cleaning, and organising the music, it looks like we are all sorted for Saturday!

Last night it was HOT so I figured that a salad would be a good option.

I found a recipe for a poached chicken salad, which I ‘vegified’ with the addition of choy sum and carrots,and ‘spiced’ up with the addition of chillies.

The chicken was poached in light coconut milk,chicken stock, small amount of brown sugar and some lime juice.

Then shredded and stirred through prepared rice vermicelli noodles, the vegies and a big handful of fresh coriander.

    

Simple yet tasty. A good dish to serve on a hot night too!

Happy baking :)

Run and flan

Training (Sunday): 10km run

Yesterday morning I competed as a team member in an Olympic Distance triathlon. I agreed to do the 10km run leg.

Our team met at the race compound at 7.00am, and were pleasantly surprised to see that it had cooled down overnight, and was not the 30+ degrees like it was yesterday.

    

Our swimmer hit the water, and completed the 1.5km swim in a little over 30 minutes – so impressive!!!

    Next up, our cyclist hit the road to complete 4 laps of a 10km course.

   

I saw our cyclist go past twice, but when waiting for him to come past the third time, he tapped me on the shoulder! It seems his bike spoke broke meaning that he was unable to finish the bike leg.

So, whilst our team was technically out of the race, I decided to complete the run leg anyway!

I had to do 2 laps of a 5km course which involved quite a few hills. Luckily the cloud cover remained, making for a quite pleasant run.

I finished in 56 minutes exactly – a personal best for me!

(PS – it was nice to race and not have to wear a lycra body suit for once!)

I was asked to bring a dessert to a family dinner last night, so after the race and lunch, I set about making something.

I was a little short for time, so I decided to make individual  custard and fruit flans. I topped the flans with apricot, nectarine, kiwi fruit and strawberries.     And glazed the surface with warmed apricot preserve.

A simple summer dessert!

Happy baking :)

Reminiscing and racing…

(updated with pics)

Yesterday was a long day!

I spent most of the morning doing laundry and running around arranging things for Mr BBB’s birthday party (which is next weekend).

I scanned and copied a couple hundred (?!) photos – then had an ‘arts and crafts’ session making some photo boards.

 
Some of the photos were just too cute…

Adorable :)

It was not long until the clock said 2pm, and the mercury said 36 degrees celcius, and it was time to head to the race.

I was enrolled in the Enticer Race, which involved a 300m swim, 10km ride and 2km run.

Rather than starting the swim in waves, it was decided that all females would start the swim at one time. All 80 of us that is.

Aside from the expected mayhem of 80 people swimming in close proximity the swim went rather smoothly.

It was not long before I was headed out on the bike course – which was 2 laps of a relatively flat road.

I made up a little time on the bike, then hit the run course. I was quite surprised to come across some hills along the course – which, in the heat, were energy zappers.

I was relieved when the finish line came into sight – and headed straight to the water station. Racing in heat takes it out of you.

      

Results:
Swim – 6:57 (slow), 22nd female, 6th in age group
Bike – 11:08, 21st female, 5th in age group
Run – 11:00, 24th female, 7th in age group
Overall – 40:58, 16th female, 4th in age group

I am pleased with these results. It seems my runs in Sydney this week really helped out.

(I have some photos to include but they are on my sis-in-law’s camera. I will update this post with pics hopefully tonight).

It was not close to 6.30pm and I was HUNGRY. So, I did something that I rarely do, and ORDERED pizza.
  
I ordered a vegetable pizza with spinach added on a GF Base.
 
I had 4 of these slices, I MUST have been hungry :)

It was carb-alicious – and just what I was craving, but I suspect my homemade pizza is a lot better nutrition-wise. Oh well, all in moderation I suppose.

Well it is now 6.23am and time to get ready to head back down to the race compound.

The full Olympic distance events are on today, and I have agreed to run the 10km in a team. I prefer that to having to do the 1.5km swim leg that’s for sure!!!!

Happy baking :)