Horse Racing, Olly Murs, my own mini hen dinner & cooking...just a typical weekend

The weekend just gone has been a ball - I went to Ladies Day at Newbury Racecourse on Saturday with early evening entertainment provided by Olly Murs. I visited the reception venue for my wedding party, I had a great catch up with some friends and ate some delicious food. I also started my recipe book challenge this week. I'm looking forward to trying some more this week as Its really given me that passion to jazz up my food.

If you've never been to the races, get yourself booked to go to a race meet. I haven't a clue when it comes to betting, but as there was a group of us there for my best friend's hen do, we went premier! We took our own picnic and fizz into the racecourse & our prime location seating spot was in the middle of the racecourse. We could watch the horses coming round the track whilst scoffing our nibbles and sipping our fizz. I had a flutter, the horse was called Towie & lost me £10. After the last race, we mooched to the stage to watch the lovely Olly perform his latest hits as well as some old classics. A perfect entertainer, he came across as a likeable & humble guy. I would definitely go to watch him again. Saturday was a really fun day, I met up with my oldest school friends & some of her friends who I have met over the years we have known each other. Newbury is only a 90 minute drive for me too so I have no excuse to not go again.

Sunday was a very relaxed day. I'm training for my next event  The Kenilworth Half Marathon which takes place on Sunday 3rd September, so Dan & I took ourselves off around Milton Keynes to complete a 10 mile training run. It was hard work, so we rewarded ourselves by visiting our wedding reception venue - The Forest Centre in Marston Moretaine  with Megan, Baxter & my Mum. Although Dan & I are getting married in 7 weeks time, we're holding a party a month later to celebrate with friends & family as our wedding is quite intimate. A sandwich & a quick stretch of our legs helped us have a very chilled out afternoon. To top off a great weekend, I met up with my NCT friends for dinner at Loch Fyne. We all met in January 2015 when we were heavily pregnant & attended the classes provided to give you birthing tips...all the things that you quickly forget about once you're in labour. Fast forward 2 & a half years later, there's an additional 2 babies, with 3 more on the way to add to the original 6 & it was my turn to be humbled from the effort that they had made. There was a sash, a garter, a mini helium balloon, a Congratulations banner, wedding cake bubbles, champagne glasses & home made shortbread biscuits. it ended a really lovely weekend perfectly.

I have started my recipe book challenge. This week, I made three meals from the Slimming World Free Food Feasts Cookbook - Easy Sausage Cassoulet, Pesto Stuffed Chicken & Curried Beef Skewers. I thoroughly enjoyed the preparing & cooking and my favourite by far was the Curried Beef Skewers. Marinating sirloin beef in cumin, coriander, cinnamon, mint, lime & fat free yogurt made it taste heavenly. I've learnt that leaving meat for longer in a marinade, the better it tastes.
For the sausage cassoulet, I used Joe's Sausages - Cumberland variety - rather amazing tasting low fat sausages. Apparently, they are good if you are following Slimming World or Weight Watchers https://www.joessausages.co.uk However, cooking a hearty dish like this in the middle of August took the edge off my enjoyment - I must remember to do something like this in November. The Pesto Stuffed Chicken was the least favourite of the dishes that we tried, it was nice, but really didn't blow our socks off & didn't make me think, wow, I really want to make this dish again. It's been a great start to my challenge & cannot wait to try some more recipes over the next week.