Valentine's Banquet

Usually we don't celebrate Valentine's Day. I have nothing against it but I just don't pay much attention to it. Anyway, this year our church decided to have a banquet in honour of Valentine's Day for married couples and couples in committed relationships at the Kampala Serena Hotel. So we decided to go and have some fun.

We sent Mwagala off to her grandparents' house and got all dolled up for the event. It was awesome! The food was good, the music was fantastic and my date was so much fun :) The photos were taken with my phone so they are not the best - sorry :(

The venue

The 5 course menu - yum!

Me & my handsome date :)

The centrepieces

We had a great time. It was nice to have a date night. It's so easy for us to focus on Mwagala and forget to have time for just us.

And I had to get my hair done before the dinner so I drove to the salon and back all by myself in a manual car! I was super proud of myself. No more excuses :)

No more excuses

I don’t  like to take risks or do things that make my stomach knot up. Trying new things is difficult for me most of the time so I usually come up with excuses. I usually find a way to get out of something if I’m not sure that I will be good at it. So I have made a resolution this year (Sure I know it’s a little late to be making new year’s resolutions but better late than never, right?). I have resolved to not make any excuses this year. I’m going to put myself out there. I’m going to do what I’ve been afraid to do. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. And boy, do I love my comfort zone! So predictable and safe! But oh well. Time to grow up!

So here are some of the thing I will be pushing myself to do:

•  Drive a manual car often especially in the city centre. I already did this one weekend and goodness me it was nerve wrecking! But I made it through so yay for me. No more excuses on this one. I'm going to keep doing it.
• Add more colour and style to my wardrobe. I realized I have no colour in my wardrobe. I’m a safe-colour kind of girl so I have greys, blacks and whites mostly. My excuse was I always wanted to be able to match without thinking about it too much but apparently matching is soooo out the window so I’m learning to be bold. (Hopefully, I will be bold enough to post some photos of my progress? *fingers crossed*)My other excuse was buying new stuff is so expensive and blah blah. Well, I’m going to find a way to afford the nice things I want. (I’m liking this new me already J )
• Start collecting ideas for our dream home. We have the plan and the land but I hadn't really gotten into the spirit of planning for the interior of the house because I didn't know when we would start. Well, I’m going to believe that it will be very very soon and start planning for it.( I’m excited about this one.)

Those are just a few of the things that will be changing this year. It’s a big step for me but I need it big time. Life is too short to be making excuses. So 2013, here I come. No more excuses! 

It's been a while...

I'm sorry I've not been updating my blog for the last few weeks. I had some laptop trouble and I'm still struggling but I will try to keep the posts coming. I missed out on the Lovelace Files' Challenge and I feel terrible but I will finish the challenge and update you as soon as I'm done.

Well it's Christmas Eve and I'm excited. It's Mwagala's first Christmas and she turns 9 months tomorrow too. Boy, has she grown! And for now let me leave you with some photos.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Meal Planning Challenge - Week 1

The challenge has begun! And what an exciting week it has been. This week we focused on meal planning and boy did I need to get organised. Each day I have to figure out what we're going to cook and I had thought of putting together a weekly meal plan but I hadn't gotten around to it but this week I did!

Recipes
The first day was dedicated to organising recipes. I had never really printed out the recipes that I get on the internet so this week I did and put them in a binder. Plus I found a new recipe website www.pikachakula.com It's amazing. I like it because the recipes are not too complicated and I can get most of the ingredients easily. Kathy suggested putting the recipes in sheet protectors so that you don't get spills on them while you cook which I thought was absolutely brilliant. I divided the recipes into 6 categories:

• Appetizers
• Main dishes
• Side dishes
• Desserts
• Drinks
• Breakfast

I used one binder because I wanted to save on space. And also because I haven't really got that many recipes yet - most of them are in recipe books. 

I can't wait to try out the new recipes!

Meal Plan
I also got to plan our weekly meals using a meal plan from here. We cook one meal a day because I'm home at lunch alone and I really don't mind eating the same thing for lunch and dinner so I chose this meal plan.

Food prep
I usually shop meats for a whole month. So I buy meats in bulk and split them up into one-meal portions  then freeze. This helps ration the food and also cuts out some prep time.

So far I'm loving the challenge :)

Next week we tackle cleaning schedules.

Fish & chips - with a twist

We were surprised with a public holiday last week. So I gave our house-help a day off and went into the kitchen to have a little fun. Thankfully, Mwagala behaved herself and I was able to get lunch ready quicker than usual.

My dear hubby recently had a tooth extracted and had been taking a lot of soup so I decided to make his 'first' meal a special one. I made grilled fish and chips. With a bit of a twist on the chips. So I'll let you in on the recipe. (I forgot to measure but I will estimate.)

Ingredients for fish (Serves 2)

• Fish fillet (4)
• Unsalted Butter/ Olive oil 
• White pepper
• Garlic powder
• Salt 

Pre-heat the oven grill to 210C

With Butter 
Melt butter in pan and add salt, garlic powder and white pepper to taste. 

With Olive Oil
Pour olive oil in a pan and add salt, garlic powder and white pepper to taste. 

Rub the oil/ butter mixture on both sides of the fish fillet and place on baking tray.
Place in the oven grill for about 20 minutes on one side and then turn to the other side. 
Reduce the heat and leave to cook through. You could cover with foil to allow them to cook through without drying out. 

Fish fillet in the oven. I forgot to take a before or during photo :( 

Ingredients for chips (Serves 2)

• 6 large potatoes
• 4 large onions
• 2 large green pepper
• Salt
• White Pepper 
• Sunflower oil/ vegetable oil

Peel, wash and chop the potatoes into chips/ fries. 
Slice the onions into rings and the green pepper longitudinally.
Pour about 2 tablespoons of oil into the frying pan and place on high heat. 
Add two handfuls of potatoes.

Add salt to taste.
Fry potatoes until they begin to brown. (Do not stir them too much as this will make them break up.)
When slightly brown, add some onions and green pepper. 
Add salt and white pepper to taste. (Easy on the salt since you already put some in the beginning.)

Add salt and white pepper to taste. 
Fry for about 2 more minutes and place on a kitchen towel to drain out the oil. 
Serve hot.

So yummy :)

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did :)