After months of counting down, it’s finally departure day! And perfect timing, the Aussie dollar is at an all time high against the Euro which is just another excuse for excessive shopping.

So where am I off to? Glad you asked.

First stop is the Greek Islands for a sailing trip. Last year I did the Cyclades Islands, starting and finishing from Santorini. This year I go further east, starting at Kos and winding our way back over to Santorini.

It’s 8 days on the boat, island hopping and stopping for relief from the hot,  hot sun in the blue, blue sea. It’s the most relaxing thing I’ve ever done – basically all morning there’s nothing else to do but sunbake and read and by the time you reach land you’re ready to jump off and explore. And eat. A lot.

There’s really only one bad thing about the trip and it was the plank. I fear my own uncoordination but considering I didn’t manage to drop my belongings or myself in last time hopefully I’ll view it with less disdain this time.

So heading back to my favourite place in the world but that’s just the start!

Then I have a few days in London town to catch up with friends before taking another tour (this time on the less glamorous bus) starting in Paris followed by stops in the Loire Valley, Bordeaux, Carcassonne, Andorra and finally a few days in Barcelona. I haven’t been to any of these places so I’m really looking forward to it. And the food. Oh dear god the food.

Finally I get 5 days in London during the throes of the Olympics to catch up with mates, hopefully pop back up to Stratford upon Avon to see more mates, and finally a few days in the Mindshare London office before the long trip home.

Trip of a lifetime? That’s what I thought last year. Certainly will be difficult to top next time the travel bug starts biting!

Last year I think (ok, I know!) I drove everyone mad with updates on Twitter, Facebook, G+ (yeah I was using that!) and Instagram. I’m hoping to switch off a little better this year and my NYE camping trip out of phone reception seemed to prepare me for this. But I felt less inclined to share photos of my tent than the gorgeous sights of Europe. So don’t worry, hopefully I won’t be rubbing it in as much for those of you left back in the cold. Although I completely reserve the right to change my mind and gloat through the magic of imagery once I set foot on Kos.

Please accept my apologies in advance.

Where am I? Check it out below!

For such a straight forward product, there’s always a new variation out claiming results so unbelievable they’ll be assumed to be fake. I hit the Benefit counter to stock up on foundation and got given a slick of They’re Real which became the easiest sale in the world. Holy shit! I was already wearing mascara and could still see a huge difference. What wizardry was this? No wonder you apply with a wand!

Seriously though, how much money goes into mascara innovation and why am I supporting it?

Ingredients:

1kg pumpkin (I used Jarrahdale, as a pumpkin newb I really don’t know what works best for soup and Mr Google wasn’t much help)

1 leek

1 onion

1 sweet potato

1 clove of garlic

1L of vegetable stock

1/2 cup Over The Moon jersey cream (North Sydney Produce Markets sell this and their milk – it’s so good)

1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander

1 teaspoon of ground cumin

Method:

Chop what needs chopping. Pour what needs pouring. Whack it in the Soup & Co on P1 and busy yourself for 25 minutes.

It was a little runnier than anticipated, perhaps 800mL of stock would have been enough. Very, very tasty though.

Thanks to Woolies this couldn’t be easier. I got a celery based soup starter kit and substituted the potato for sweet potato.

Ingredients:

Soup starter kit (includes celery, carrot, onion, parsnip, turnip and potato)

1 x small sweet potato

2 x chorizos, sliced up

800mls of chicken stock

Garlic

Method:

Chop up onion, garlic and chorizo and cook in a pan.

Chop up vegies.

Put everything into Soup & Co and press P2.

Return 35 minutes later to delicious soup.

How freaking easy is that?

I don’t like it. 

I feel bloated, sluggish, fuzzy, heavy, slow, tired and pretty angry with myself. Easter was only two weeks ago and I’d come so far. Now I feel like I’ve undone it all in just a few days. 

I guess this is great motivation to get back on track as soon as I stop feeling sorry for myself!

/pityparty. 

Photo credit: Cooking Light

Thanks to the Australian Pear’s exhibition booth at Taste of Sydney I have a new favourite accompaniment for cheese. The humble pear.

Photo credit: gastrogirl

Serving it up is easy. Slice up some pear, grab your favourite cheese (the stinkier the better) and serve together.

Delicious!

photo credit: The Food Network

First up is the star of the show and it’s the Aeroplane Jelly range of low calorie, low sugar jelly called Jelly Lite.

The best flavours for this cheat sweet treat depends on your choice of mixer – either a can of coconut milk or cream or a tub of extra light Philadelphia cream cheese.

Here’s what you do:

• Mix the jelly crystals in 100ml of hot water and mix til they dissolve
• Add 150mls of cold water

For the coconut milk version, wait til the jelly mix has cooled then pour in a can of coconut milk or cream to make 500mls of mixture. Pour into a tub or jelly moulds and it’s into the fridge to set.

For the Philly cream cheese version, pour a softened tub of the cream cheese into a bowl and set your electric mixer to it. Then gradually add the jelly liquid and continue mixing. Pour into a tub or jelly moulds and in the fridge it goes.

Recommended combos:

Mango passionfruit and coconut milk

Vanilla berry and cream cheese

Lime and coconut milk

Strawberry and cream cheese

Peach and apricot and coconut cream (as pictured below)

Ok well I think there’s supposed to be a better filling to crush ratio and I’m still waiting til it firms up properly before a real taste test but I’m impressed so far. The crust is a tasty mix of pistachios, coconut and almond meal and the filling isn’t too sweet which would be a bit of an overload now that I’m weaning myself off sugar.

I’ve copy-pasta’d the recipe for you below. Hope it works for you too!

Ingredients

• 100g of dessicated coconut
• 110g of shelled pistachios
• 150g of almond meal
• 4 “generous” tbls of butter…which is to say, keep adding more butter till you get a nice gooby consistency
• Then the filling:
  • 2-3 boxes (250g each) of Philadelphia cream cheese
  • one egg
  • a dash of natural vanilla essence or vanilla powder
  • 2 tbls of natural yogurt
  • 1/4 cup coconut cream
  • 1/2 cup-ish of rice syrup (or add more/less to your individual taste)

Preheat the oven to about 160 C. Stab-mix or blend pistachios until they are semi-fine chunks, add to a mixing bowl with the coconut, almond meal, and room temperature butter and rub until the mixture is an even, thick consistency. Then press into a baking paper lined spring form pan. cover the base and sides with your mixture to an even thickness – you may need more or less of the mixture depending on the size of your pan. Try to keep it an even thickness – about 1/2-1cm.

Place in oven for 8 minutes or until slightly firm. Don’t wait for the base to brown as it will continue to cook once the filling is in.

In a large bowl add the cream cheese (room temp), egg, vanilla, coconut cream and rice syrup and yogurt. Mix until it’s an even, thick consistency. Don’t over mix and try and keep aeration to a minimum while stirring – it will make the thing puff up, then collapse. Add your mixture to the base and return to the slow oven for 20-30 mins or until the mixture is puffy on the edges and the centre slightly soft and custard-like – (don’t overcook). Put in the fridge until it’s firm.

But not this time. Oh no. I’m ready for you Melbourne.

This time I’m coming down armed with snacks for every situation. I have nuts and seeds for the plane ride down so I can avoid those “morning snacks” served up on the flight. I’ve also tagged myself as gluten free in my frequent flyer profile so hopefully if I do get snack it’ll be a better option than usual.

I’m packing a new jar of coconut oil to leave in the office – if I’m really struggling through an afternoon up here in Sydney I find a glass of milk with some coconut oil stirred through will do the trick. So now I’ll have that down there.

And in case the going gets really tough I’ve got an emergency kit of sugar free chocolate. 2 tabs are considered a serve (ahem) and I have no idea what it tastes like. Hopefully I won’t need to resort to it at all!

And this time I’m going to avoid the temptation of dumplings. I swear.

Media publishers like to tempt my media buying buddies with everything from long lunches, nights on the lash, surprise ice cream vans, post event hangover breakfasts and other threats to the average dieter.

As a slight tangent, have you heard of Leap? It’s a new app that gets you to set challenges and use photos as a way of documenting the challenge. I think it has the potential to be huge. I’ve set up two challenges already, one to snap photos of the Sydney sky so I can see how bad our weather really is over a month and one that brings me back to my original topic – Just Say No.

I’m going to take a photo of every treat served up in the office. Every cake for a birthday, every media publisher perk, every major social opportunity to indulge in something naughty. Some days I feel the temptation to give in is too great and I want to prove that my willpower has to work extra hard!

Day one was off to a great start. A delivery of Lindt chocolate balls from Marie Claire and a banana cake from the West Australian.

Lead me not into temptation!

OK so this one was my fault, I may have made the jelly shots