15 kilometres later...but still hungry

I survived my 15k run and raised just under £400 for FareShare (and still counting, hopefully...), hooray! Thanks to those who donated and supported me :-)

It was very hot even though it was during the morning but I was taking minimal sips of water along the way, for fear of needing the toilet! I really didn't want to stop and managed to run the whole way. Well, apart from stopping to walk as I backtracked up a hill onto the right path after getting lost a couple of times, oops.

You probably won't be surprised to hear that I planned to go for a big celebratory meal in the evening and the thought popped into my head every now and again as I was running - it really did keep me going during those tough moments!

Unfortunately though, that plan didn't quite pan out as my boyfriend injured himself whilst doing the 40k march and could barely walk afterwards, oh dear! As you can probably imagine, I was pretty disappointed, as I had been looking forward to it for weeks...

Despite Matt's obvious pain, I had a bit of a grumble and sulk about it that evening - lesson: do NOT deprive me of my food! I got over it eventually though and managed to make a simple carb feast of roast potatoes and smiley faces. Of course, it wasn't quite the Nag's Head banquet that I had planned, but it actually looked really cute with the smiley faces beaming up at me. I didn't have my camera to take a picture though.

I will have my carvery feast sometime soon, my race triumph will not be complete until I do... Continue reading this post..

Fuel for my run

So this is it, I'm getting an early night and will hopefully wake up in the morning feeling ready and fueled up for my 15k run...I'm feeling quite nervous actually! I really want to be able to run the whole distance without stopping but have only done up to 10k in training. I don't know what other runners are like but I actually find it more difficult to start running again after stopping to walk for a while...

I ate quite a lot today. Not really intentionally - I was just feeling hungry all day! But my intentional feast of spag bol was the one dish I planned to make the night before my race. And so I did:

I'm planning to go for a big meal in the evening at the Nag's Head where they do a really good carvery, so that thought alone will push me during those last few miles.

Wish me luck, I'll let you know how it goes... Continue reading this post..

Long live the Opal Fruits!

After weeks of waiting for an opportunity, I seized the chance yesterday to go to Asda. Hm, nothing much exciting there. There are no Asda stores within cycle distance so I never get the chance to go. So what?

Well, since the 10th May, I've had one reason to go to an Asda store. And yesterday I was able to fulfil my own wish:

I can't believe it has been TEN YEARS since Opal Fruits were cruelly hijacked and replaced with shabby Starbursts. Sure, Starbursts taste nice enough and everything but it just isn't the same. On our family day trips to London, my dad would stop on the way to the motorway to fill up on petrol and would usually come back to the car with a packet of Opal Fruits for me and fruit Polos for my sister. (And a bag of crisps each too! Ah, the memories. My mum always had Roast Chicken flavour.)

Then suddenly, they were gone! I know these brands are just trying to recreate themselves to create more sales and get new interest in their products but why, oh why, kill the Opal Fruits?

I always felt sorry for the lemon flavour - no-one seemed to like that one. My favourite is the strawberry. And lime actually. Did you ever bite the corners off first to pretend that it was a star? No, not a Starburst! Sometimes I used to make the wrappers into little boats:

Cool, huh?

I love that they are reintroducing these old brands. It was a long tedious hunt for a Wispa bar last year. Of course, it didn't occur to me to just find out where they were being sold as I just assumed that every shop with confectionery would stock them - well, why wouldn't they? They're great! Finally found them in a Blockbuster's store. It was a bit sneaky that they charged a whopping 60p for it and that the bar was smaller than the original. I forgot to take a picture of it actually, I just scoffed it!

However, I'm being more careful with the Opal Fruits. I bought a couple of bags (my housemate bought the third one) but I'm not looking forward to the moment that they will eventually run out. They don't go out of date until next April though so there's plenty of time to cherish these delightful sweets!

Long live the Opal Fruits!

Continue reading this post..

Hunger - Locked Up 'Til Lunch? Not quite.

I never go a day without breakfast, yet these days it seems pointless to have any because it seems to make me more hungry! I've tried different cereals, including Shreddies, bran flakes, bitesize shredded wheat - basically a bunch of all the wholegrain cereals which are meant to release energy slowly to keep you going for longer. Or something like that, because it doesn't seem to work for me!

The other day, I went for an early morning jog, came back at half 7 and had a bowl of cereal. After a long shower, I came down to make some porridge at 9 which I thought would last me til lunch (as we had planned to go to Pizza Express, mm). But no, at half 10, I was scouring the kitchen again for fruit to nibble on.

I've had big bowls of porridge, sometimes with banana or pear. Toast AND porridge. Boiled eggs with porridge or cereal. I've yet to try museli actually. But my latest experiment is fried rice. What? Yes, it might seem a little odd. But having egg fried rice in the morning is not uncommon for Chinese people. Not that I used to have it when I was growing up actually (that I recall), but my grandparents in Hong Kong always go for a big breakfast with rice in the mornings at a restaurant!

So anyway, this morning at about 8.15 I had egg fried rice with sweetcorn and ham and my stomach felt deliciously satisfied afterwards. Great! I thought. I'm finally full!

Went to work, got to about half 10 and I was getting hunger pangs already. Good thing someone's brought cakes in today. Oh dear. I'm just always Hungry Jenny. Continue reading this post..

Guest Photo: SAUSAGES!

Have you ever played the SAUSAGE game? I don't know if it is an actual game known by people in general. When I was 10 years old, I seem to recall raving about it to my friends who didn't know what I was on about. I think I read about it in a comic or something...

Basically, you have a conversation with someone but just insert the word 'sausage' at every opportunity. What are you eating? SAUSAGES. What are you having with it? SAUSAGES. Are you having SAUSAGES with that? Yes, SAUSAGES.

Yeh, I know, it's so mature isn't it? I don't think I had actually played it since I was 10 but it somehow comes up at my barbecues...SAUSAGES? I blame my friend Lucy for picking up on it! Last year, me and my housemates had a barbecue and for some reason, the SAUSAGES were taking ages to cook. Every few minutes, Lucy kept asking whether the SAUSAGES were ready and all I could say was SAUSAGES? No, the SAUSAGES were not ready. And now every time we happen to eat SAUSAGES, it's all we can say.

Maybe it's one of those things where you have to 'be there' to appreciate the humour of it. Reading back this post is making me laugh, but at the same time, making me feel slightly ashamed for being amused by something that actually quite stupid. It can happen with any word you repeat over and over after a while but for some reason, it's funnier with SAUSAGES. (Although, it also works with pie...)

Speaking of SAUSAGES, my sister recently sent me this photo which she took whilst on holiday in Prague:

There's only one word to sum this up really: SAUSAGES! Continue reading this post..

If I were a cartoon...

This is what my typical conversation would be like...




This is the brilliant Weebl and Bob! The version I've got here is the MTV2 version as I obviously can't get the original posted up but it's the same apart from the music.

I love these guys, I could talk to them all day.
Continue reading this post..

All is not lost!

The other day I dropped my external hard drive and from the horrific bang it made, I thought I had lost my precious food photos forever...

But it turns out that it simply needed some 'recovery' time from its fall! I'm so relieved and can't believe I nearly lost everything. (Do I sound dramatic? Well I had all my other photos on there too and that would have been really tragic)

The first thing I'm going to do this weekend is upload all my photos to Photobucket so that I have a backup somewhere! And will stick a massive blob of blu-tack onto my laptop to fix my hard drive down when I connect it. I've learnt my lesson now.

I've just been looking through all the photos again and feel much better now. I have been reacquainted with my food. It might not have been the end of the world to lose the food photos in particular as all I'd have to do is eat more to take replacement photos! But looking back through them, I've realised that they all contain stories to tell! Which I shall do in time :-)

In any case, this calls for celebration!

Cheers!

Continue reading this post..

Guest Photo: The Mother of All Puds...

In a couple of weeks, I'll be going to V Festival and then Creamfields two weeks after. Yes, it's festival season! I'm SO excited! Though I have not once bought any food at a gig, since paying 4 pounds for a really dry and chewy white baguette with plastic cheese during Green Day at MK Bowl in 2005. I was NOT impressed.

Last year, at Global Gathering, I was armed with goods from Asda that would last me the whole weekend without having to pay extortionate prices for mediocre food. It wasn't too bad - I survived quite well on croissants, pitta bread, scones and twiglets over the course of three days. A random mix but it was tasty.

However, I may now reconsider, as my festival junkie friend Philippa was raving to me about something she bought at Glasto recently. And yes, she took a picture of it for me!

Mother of God, it's the ultimate Yorkshire pud - now for £6, I think that's well worth it! Continue reading this post..

Chicken To(morrow) Night

I cooked two nice batches of chicken drumsticks last night and earlier this evening. No, I'm not storing up for the winter or anything - but it's in preparation of a little barbecue that my housemates and I are having tomorrow evening! It took a lot of thought and care as I wanted to marinate them overnight (in yummy char sui sauce) and make sure they were cooked properly to avoid any risk of food poisoning our guests! They were frozen drumsticks so this whole ordeal really started on Wednesday! It's all about the timing. This is not a job to try and rush through on the day.

I think that this particular recipe is the only one I have where I actually use an oven - pretty much everything else I cook is on the hob! So I've never baked a cook, made cottage pie or even tried to do a full Sunday roast. The idea terrifies me. I don't know what it is but there is something quite unnerving about cooking in an oven. I like to see what I'm cooking in front of me at all times. Maybe I've buried some traumatic memory deep inside my brain of a baking catastrophe or something. I think I have made a pizza by myself once and that was with supervision!

With every once in a blue moon occasion that I cook what ironically is one of my favourite dishes to make, I have to ask one of my housemates to show me how to turn the oven on! Yes, I am that stupid.

Well, you may laugh now but wait until you see the deliciousness of this:

Mmm, I can't wait to barbecue them up and eat them tomorrow night! I mean, offer to my guests, of course. Continue reading this post..

Guest Photo: Greetings from Malta!

Some of my work colleagues went to Malta for a week to attend a sales conference. The rest of the editorial team and the marketing guys were there whilst I manned the Capstone station with Grace (the content editor) back home.

A few days after they all returned, I was pleasantly surprised to receive this in the internal post:

One of my editors, Sarah, took a picture of her starter at the gala dinner on the last night of the sales conference. At first glance it looks like beef in the middle there (but that might just be my wishful eyes!), but it's a seafood platter type dish. Mm! I love trying seafood in restaurants as I never cook it at home.

As you can probably tell, this has taken pride of place on my bookshelf at work. I was very touched that Hungry Jenny was thought of in the presence of such lovely food! Continue reading this post..

Guest Photo: Roast Chicken dinner

Aw, my sister sent me a bunch of her food photos to me yesterday to cheer me up (yes, it runs in the family, this love of food). The best one is this:

It's one of my favourite 'English' meals made by my mum and this really made me smile.

Thanks Jemma! x Continue reading this post..

Well done Ching!

Wow, Ching’s new book is the number one bestseller on Amazon at the moment! That makes me happy :-)

I've got her first book (China Modern) which I admit, haven't used other than reading through the recipes and marvelling at their simplicity. Actually, I did have a go at making Chocolate Sesame Balls just after Chinese New Year earlier this year. I'm sure I took a picture of them as I remember having them all lined up neatly on the grill rack just after I finished. But alas, I cannot check for my photos are currently inaccessible...

Anyway, I do have leftover ingredients though (better check the best before dates first...) so it'd be fun to make them again!

Continue reading this post..

It's Not Over Until....

...Hungry Jenny stops eating....

I did something really stupid yesterday - I was about to do a post yesterday but decided to go and see if the kitchen was free to cook my dinner. As I stood up to put my laptop on the floor, my external hard drive fell smack down onto the ground. This has happened a few times before as I always forget that my hard drive hangs by a wire to my laptop but this time it seemed particularly bad.

Immediately I tried to see if it was working and all it kept saying was 'USB device not recognised'. I was absolutely mortified. The first thing I thought was: 'Oh my God, ALL my photos are on there...'

And what's worse is that I moved all my files to the hard drive, deleting the ones on the laptop, because it wasn't big enough to hold everything. I had it drilled into my head that this external hard drive was my backup and this was completely fine to do. Then yesterday I realised that no, in order to have a backup, you need original files held somewhere else in the first place.

I'm trying to keep optimistic as I'm getting the drive tested to see if it can be fixed before facing any sort of realisation that I may have lost it all...

You won't believe how many photos of food I have on that drive, so much more to show you. But there is always that silver lining that I will simply just have to eat more to create new food picture moments...

Feel free to send in your food photos to cheer me up :-( Continue reading this post..

A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down...

I was in London last Friday for my day off and had arranged to meet my best mates after they finished work. During the day, I hadn't really planned to do much so decided to wander the streets of London. And so I wandered, quite literally. I eagerly await my bonus to come through in a couple of weeks, much of which I plan to spend on new clothes, so thought it would be a nice idea to window shop a while. Started in Marble Arch and managed to get all the way down to Oxford Street within a couple of hours! Yes, I realised that it's not actually that fun to shop without being able to buy anything.

So feeling rather bored, I stopped for a quick bite (nothing exciting, just a Fat Spud) and randomly decided to go to Camden to look around the market. Again, I lost my enthusiasm quite quickly!

I still had about 3 hours to go until I was meeting my friends. My head was beginning to pound (as it does when I'm in London - I've no idea why!) so thought it would be a good idea to find a nice big bookshop with a coffee shop and just relax for a while.

Now although I don't like coffee, I'm strangely rather particular about coffee shops. I tend to avoid Starbucks because I find the smell of coffee etc too overwhelming. (This could also be because I used to work there and the stench clung to me for days after even the shortest of four-hour shifts). Cafe Nero is far too loud for my liking with the clattering and banging around, with the music whacked on high. Then again, I've only been to a couple of different branches so I'm sure they're not all like this!

But I've always had a welcome experience with one particular coffee shop - so I became determined to settle only for Costa. Every corner I turned in central London was Starbucks, Starbucks, Starbucks. No! It was getting really silly because my head was really starting to hurt and the hustle and bustle of the street people was not helping matters. All I wanted was a nice cup of tea and a sit down. But it was drilled into my head that only Costa could provide this.

I was trudging down Shaftsbury Avenue, about to give up and slope into the next Starbucks, when I spotted a Costa sign a few doors down. I actually felt my eyes light up and my shoulders relax in relief!


Cup'o tea, linzer biscuit and a book - pure bliss :-) Continue reading this post..

Take Snack!

Is it an onion ring?

Is it a doughnut?

No, it's....

TRANSFORM-A-SNACK!

Continue reading this post..

Mamalicious

I've finally tried Wagamama's! I've wanted to try this place for ages but there isn't really one near me. And if it's an option, I'm with somebody who doesn't fancy it. On Thursday night, I met up with a couple of my friends in Camden and we just sort of wandered past it. We hadn't made plans about where to eat so I jumped at the chance and said "YES, LET'S GO HERE PLEASE!"

The tables are long benches and the kitchen is MASSIVE. I was meant to take a picture of the kitchen before I left but completely forgot, whoops. Would have been good to get an action shot of the chefs frying away. Then again, they probably wouldn't want somebody flashing their camera away at them!

I was quite surprised that a lot of the stuff on the menu was spicy. Eek, I'm a total wuss when it comes to spice, I really can't handle the slightest bit of spice at all. You know when you're trying to pour out tomato ketchup onto your meal and it suddenly comes out in one clump? Well if that happens to me with pepper, then that is too spicy for my mouth! So that's an idea of my spice tolerance levels.

Anyway, I managed to find a dish that turned out to be really yum:

Yaki Soba

The orange bits on the top are slices of pickled ginger. I found this out when I picked one up and nibbled it to see what it was! It added a lovely crunch (and pickledness) once I mixed it in though. I love things with loads of ingredients in, with all the different flavours. I never know what to put together at home (i.e. what goes with what), so I tend to just add anything to what I'm cooking. And it's always a delicious surprise! This dish really was rather tasty as it had egg, chicken, shrimps, onions, red pepper, green pepper, beansprouts, spring onions and sesame seeds all mixed together :-)

Continue reading this post..

Sub of the Day is back!

Hurrah!

No more of this 'flavour of the month' nonsense! I was extremely pleased that it was BMT day too :-)

x

Continue reading this post..

"Forget 5-a-day, try 7-a day!"

I watched a great cooking show last night. It's called 'Chinese Cooking Made Easy'. When I sat down and realised it was Ching from 'Ching's Kitchen', I was absolutely thrilled! I have only seen her in a couple of episodes on the food channel (which was at least a year ago too), but remember feeling captivated by her passion for Chinese cooking. She reminds me of myself because she gets excited over every aspect of food!

What really made me laugh was when Ching shows somebody how to make a salad using ALOT of ingredients, "This is my 7-a-day, forget 5-a-day!" And thinking about it, I always use at least 2 vegetables to accompany my meals as I think it's quite bland otherwise to just have one. And a little sad too that it's all alone... I do love the combined taste that you get with all the various flavours and textures. Mm. One of my favourite dishes to cook is egg fried rice with as many different vegetables as possible actually!

This programme is actually a fantastic excuse to try new ways to experiment with Chinese dishes. Although I have a rice dish practically every day at home, I tend to eat the same meats, use the same sauces, and the same vegetables that I find easy to cook. As well as convenience, this is also due to me wanting to keep my general food costs down. But it's made me realise that with practically the same amount of money that I spend weekly, monthly, or whatever on the same foods, I could actually buy something different, have fun with cooking a new dish, and not feel strapped for cash. (Well, no more than usual anyway!)

For example, I was amazed at how simple it is to make your own sweet and sour sauce which is what Ching demonstrated yesterday. Although I don't really like to, I usually buy those ready-to-cook sauces. However, I'm always feel conscious of what is actually in the pot despite getting the 'light' versions. I buy them because it seems like the quick and easy option, but to be honest, it's because I've never bothered to look up the recipe!

Thanks Ching, this is going to be compulsive viewing.... Continue reading this post..

Mm..steak

Have you seen that Domino's advert where it goes...ooh steak...pizza...steak...pizza...steak...oh yes, we've done it! (A steak pizza)

Well I would choose steak EVERY time. I bet the steak on that pizza is not proper steak anyway. Yik, Domino's.

Anyway, I had a lovely steak at Frankie and Benny's on Friday. Have you seen their website?! I tell you, I was on there for quite some time the other day when I was deciding which restaurant to go to. Yes, restaurant choice requires full research on my part. There is nothing worse than going somewhere and being rather disappointed by either the menu choice, or the realisation that it wasn't quite the cuisine that you were in the mood for.

They have images of every single thing on their menu and even though I had looked at every single one (yes, really) and had taken in their descriptions, it still took me a while to decide what to have when I was actually at the restaurant. Cos I started thinking, hey, I almost always choose steak when I eat out if it's an option. But then I was really in the mood for some beefage so went for this:

F&B 8oz New York Strip Sirloin

Apart from the two onion rings which were way too spicy for my sensitive palate, it was most delicious! And forgive my greedy eyes but every time a steak arrives infront of me, I always think, hm, that looks quite small. I feel slightly ashamed with this as it proves that I really am a greedy bugger!

...Obviously it's not small at all because it's always the weight given on the menu but this is just my immediate greed reaction. I think in this particular case, it was probably the fact that two thirds of my plate was covered in chips that made the steak look small!

It was very filling and so it satisfied my stomach just right :-) Continue reading this post..

FareShare

OK, it took me a while to decide on a charity to raise money for when I do my run. I've never really done anything for charity before to be honest, other than donating my old clothes and things to charity shops. I do volunteer proofreading but it's not for a particular cause or anything.

Anyway, I was researching on the net and I was finding it quite difficult actually because I realised that I didn't have any strong feelings about any particular charity - that's quite bad isn't it! But I didn't want to raise money just for the sake of it. And it probably makes people less willing to donate if you've just gone for any old charity. Then I found FareShare, a charity that takes surplus and waste food and drink from food companies and gives it to disadvantaged people in the UK.

What a genius idea! The more I read about them, the more obvious it became that this should be the one I run for. I love food as you know and I certainly do not like food being wasted!

I used to work at Starbucks during my last year at uni and at the end of the day, all of the fresh muffins and cakes, and other packaged food that would be out of date the next day would simply be thrown away. I think it was because technically if you took the food away you could sell it on yourself. Well that's just silly. We weren't even allowed to take the leftover food home to eat! (Though we did find a way around this sometimes obviously...) I always felt really bad just chucking all of that perfectly edible food away. Perhaps Starbucks should think about talking to FareShare! Hm.

Continue reading this post..

To eat and run or to just run and eat?

I am SO hungry! For some reason, I thought it'd be a really good idea to go for a run as soon as I get back from work, and then have my dinner. This was to avoid having to wait an hour after eating my dinner and going for a run later in the evening and have less time to relax afterwards. Since it's not too sensible to eat heavily before running, I've stopped eating an hour before I finish work.

I've finished work but just wanted to quickly have a bloggen about this because I'm wondering if there's a different way around it! It's made me realise how much I actually eat during the day. I mean, it's mainly fruit and things that I snack on but I don't want to risk running on any form of a full stomach.

On the plus side, I have some lovely pork to cook this evening which I am most looking forward to :-) Continue reading this post..

Cookie Love!

Who is loving Kathreya from Big Brother this year?! I haven't watched much of it but every time she is in an episode I'm watching, she is shouting about cookies! I think I'd be like her about pies if I didn't have the control to hold myself back!

There's an episode of Sex and the City where Miranda is given a surprise box by her doctor boyfriend Robert. She opens it after he leaves and finds a huge cookie with chocolate drops spelling out 'I LOVE YOU'. Rather than being overjoyed at these wonderful words, Miranda looks shell-shocked and instinct overtakes her - she breaks the cookie up and munches the whole thing there and then.

I felt like doing just that when I saw this at a Millie's Cookies stand in London:

It doesn't seem right to buy such a huge cookie like this for yourself so I will have to hint at someone to get one for me as a gift one day. But if I happen to wander past another Millie's Cookies stand that holds one saying 'Eat Me Jenny', I will have no option but to get it! Continue reading this post..

It's all about the carbs

I've decided to take part in the Chichester Challenge at the end of July. No, it's not an eating contest! It's an event held every year where you can either march, walk, run or cycle a route through Chichester. I'm going for the 15km run and so I've started jogging more regularly to prepare for it. I don't even know how far I can run yet without stopping but am just increasing the distance each time and hope that I'll be ready by the time it comes to the challenge!

What's this got to do with me being Hungry Jenny? Well, I watched Run, Fat Boy, Run the other night (brilliant film, by the way!) which is about a guy Dennis who decides to run the marathon to better himself and win his love back. The night before the race, he is presented with a large and rather unappetising plate of spaghetti bolognese. Apparently, carbs are the way to go.

So naturally, I started to wonder if this was true and what's needed to further fuel my joggingness. Plus, because I'm jogging almost every day now, I don't want to waste away, as I tend to when I do an aerobic activity on a regular basis. I had a quick look on the net to see what I should be eating:

Bread
Pasta
Rice
Potatoes
Porridge
Cereals

...was all I kept seeing, so yes, Dennis' friend was right!

And there was me thinking about going on a bread ban because I felt like cutting down...! I stopped eating sliced bread recently because it was just getting ridiculous at home - if I buy a loaf of bread, I pretty much wolf it down in the space of two days. I don't call myself a bread junkie for nothing. I've worked around it by eating bread rolls instead which tend to last me longer - I don't eat them as fast because there is less in the packet.

Well anyway, I've reason enough to get back on the bread properly now, YEAH! Subways for everyone! Continue reading this post..