The Food Doctor Wholesome Pot

In a bid to maintain my blood sugar levels throughout the day, I've been having bits and bobs before and after lunch, usually some mandarin segments or fruit and nut mix or whatever I have to hand.  A bit concerned that I would be eating more than usual, a smaller lunch is something I'm trying out.

Today, I tested The Food Doctor's Bulgar Wheat & Quinoa Wholesome Pot.  The pot is a good size to pop into my bag in the mornings, although I was a bit concerned that the foil lid would be pieced by my handbag's lurking items.  Unscathed, at lunchtime, I flicked the kettle on at work and filled the water to the indicated "fill line" - this line is not obvious and it took some looking to find it (located on the outside of the pack).  You have to give it a good stir or else the power remains at the bottom, replace the foil lid then leave it for a good ten minutes.

Bulgar Wheat & Quinoa Wholesome Pot

At 303 calories per pot, it doesn't look overly sufficient for lunch, however, I had this with a cuppa and found this to be filling enough to last me til my afternoon titbit.  Although it is fairly tasty, it does become a bit monotonous and could perhaps do with having some extra vegetables to help with the texture and flavour control.  The pot states that it was tomato, black olive and basil flavour and although I could identify the olive and basil, it would have been better if it was a bit more tomatoey.  As can be the case with freeze dried goods, there was no unpleasant aftertaste so I think I'll give this the thumbs up and see if one of their alternative pots can excite my lunchtimes a bit more.

Philips Sonicare Airfloss

I once read somewhere that people who floss every day extend their lives by two years.  So with a couple of years of my life at steak, I'm always looking into ways to make this a more interesting task.

A few years back I started off by using the Waterpik Water Flosser, but found the force of the water to be a bit painful and not really suitable for my sensitive gums.  Not to mention that it meant that water would continuously flow from my mouth and into the sink - not a pretty site or something that appeals to me.

Recently, I walked past the Philips Sonicare Airfloss and it caught my attention as it mentioned "air" and not "water".  Having researched it a bit more (and knowing that I still needed a solution to help me extend my life!), I decided to try it out...

Philips Sonicare Airfloss

Really quick and simple to use; you put a small amount of water (it must be less than maybe about 15ml) into the well at the back and then switch it on.  There is a large mouse-like button on the top (where you finger naturally rests) and you use this to fire a puff between each of your teeth.  Each puff is mainly air but with a little spray of water - you can use mouthwash instead of water if you prefer.  I have only used this with water as I tend to run out of water during my flossing and have to refill the well at least once which would be just wasting mouthwash.

It is suggested that you use one puff between your teeth but I like to fire a few to make sure all is clean.  There is no water dribble so there's little mess and the thin head attachment lets me access the hard to reach areas at the back of my mouth.  I feel the Philips Airfloss has my teeth are a lot cleaner, encouraged me to floss daily and (perhaps!!) even enhanced my longevity!

First Coast - Vietnamese Night

First Coast is one of my favourite restaurants; the staff are friendly, the chef is fab and the place has a pretty relaxed atmosphere.  Unlike the name suggests, the frequently updated menu offers an equal number of meat and vegetarian dishes as well as fish/seafood.  It's always scrummy and they hold a themed night once a month, centered around a particular cuisine.  What makes this particularly exciting for me, in this post, is that the Vietnamese Night was the first themed night I was able to attend since their themed nights started Oct' 2010.  Here is a wee look at what we had....


Four sample dishes were served as the starter:

• Beef and betel leaf
• Our favourite -  the beef, encased inside the leaf, had a great combination of spices, tasted a little like Christmas and came with a cracking peanut salad.
• Cuttlefish and pineapple fried rice
• Joint second place - perfectly crunchy, smokey cuttlefish
• Crab salad
• Joint second place - lovely fresh, mint and thai-like flavours
• Tofu and noodle spring roll (v)
• Last place (only because the above were so good!)

Starters

We chose our mains; I had the chargrilled pork neck with noodles and Dave had the roasted baby chicken with kaffir lime leaf.  Definitely, Dave won the battle of the mains as the chicken had a sweet and spicy marinade and came with a hand bowl - so he was able to get stuck right in.  I also really liked that the chicken came with a side of salted chillies.  My pork was great, packed with a charred flavour, although a little bit on the tough side.

My pork main

Dave's chicken main - our fave!

Together, we shared a plate of side dishes; sticky coconut rice, sesame glazed pumpkin and aubergine salad.  These complimented both of our mains - unusually, the aubergine side tasted a bit like a smokey Edradour whisky!

The sides: sticky coconut rice, sesame glazed pumpkin and a (Edradour flavoured?!) aubergine salad

So now, pretty stuffed, we ploughed on and each accepted a plate of the three sample puddings:

• Lime tart
• With creamy custard centre and juicy pineapple topping - our favourite
• Tropical fruit with coconut cream
• Really liked that this came on a wee banana leaf square - 2nd place
• Silken tofu, ginger syrup and lychee sorbet
• I'm not a fan of lychees but this convinced me otherwise...not too sure about the tofu but all was made right by the warming chunks of ginger

The puddings: lime tart, tropical fruit and lychee/ginger/tofu

Bring on the next First Coast themed night!
http://www.first-coast.co.uk/

My first blog post!

Well, here it is....my first blog post.  Thought it was about time that I started to collate all of my random thoughts, ideas and findings in the one place and at least they'll now be searchable online in case I ever forget!