Sunday evening I joined friends for dinner and I wore my other pair of new jeans. So comfy but they fit properly. It is nice to not keep tugging at my waist.

 
We were meeting up at the V and A Waterfront to send off our friend Caroline who is moving to the UK. I am rather annoyed that I never got a pic with her! She snapped this one of the distracted group.

  

We were lucky to get the ‘Sexy Table’ at Primi which is apparently so named because of the view. But the frisky Spanish maitre de winked when he told me this table fable. The view was pretty sexy however.

  
I love the food at Primi Piatti and as feared, I made a Banting boo boo. 

Or two.

Or so.

I had 2 frozen strawberry daiquiris. Strikes 1 and 2.

Also, I saw the pic on the menu of the Pescatore Pasta described as Patagonian calamari, shelled prawns & half-shelled mussels, pan-fried with olive oil, garlic, white wine, lemon & tomato with a hint of chilli at R135. I had to have it. 

So I did. Strike 3.

 

It was divine. Worth a bit of a stumble.

As if having pasta and 2 sugary strawberry dacquiries was not naughty enough, I ended off with a divine Kahlua Dom Pedro. YOLO bitches.

It was so delicious.

Strike 4.  

  
Oh well. I guess as long as I don’t fall off too often it’s all good. 

To keep me motivated after a night of sugary booze and pasta I created a “Before & After” photo of Norm and I. Christmas was the timing of the pic on the left and our diet started in January. So this is our 3 month progress.

  

I feel much better without the extra weight so I will keep being focussed on eating ‘clean’ as often as possible and trying to make better choices.

Sunday was a public holiday in South Africa. It was Human Rights Day. We were so lazy. I had such a busy, fun filled party weekend that I needed a day to slob about. 

Norm made us a delicious brunch of cheesy scrambled eggs, tomatoes and avocado and later that day we watched a film. In the afternoon I made a Banting lasagna for dinner that evening.

  
It was so yummy. I used zucchini ‘noodles’. To cut them I use my Carrol Boyes cheese slicer.

  
I slice one side to turn to the bottom to keep the courgette flat while I slice it. It works well. Funnily however I slice the mozzarella with a knife. More proof that we are more than our labels. 😉

On Tuesday there was a bomb attack in Belgium resulting in many deaths. Another terrorist attack. It seems nowhere is safe. Who are they punishing? Women, children, all sexes, ages, races, countries, no one is above their hatred.

Why is the world so full of anger and hate? Look at how many Americans support that poisonous, mysoginistic, bigoted, racist, hamster handed psycho Trump. When I see women supporting him I cannot fathom the level of self hatred these women must have to support someone who has no respect for their gender.

Please Universe let enough people vote for Hilary. Even Bernie. I know nothing about Bernie’s politics but I love the bird communing with him on the podium.

I’m a firm believer in birds being messengers from the spirit world. That silly event coupled with the type of friends who support him have gotten my attention.

On Wednesday evening we went with some of Norman’s work associates to Ragafellows.

One of our guests had the Chicken Roulade with mushroom sauce, mozzarella & vegetable stuffing. It looked nice and she ate every bite so it must have been good. It was R125.

  

  

Norm and I ordered the Noaksy burger.

  

It is a burger but adapted for banters. Instead of a bun it is topped with a chickpea and sweet corn fritter. It comes with bacon jam and cheese. Instead of potato it comes with butternut. 

They used to serve little trays of pickled veg which Norm loves and was sulky when the waiter said they didn’t have any. The burgers were very nice, It was a lovely relaxed night. 

Often one evening each week we have a meal of whatever is left from the weekly shop. On Thursday we had one of these. After Vanessa my manicurist left I was starving and so I just started cooking with no plan or direction. I had half a spicy chorizo and a packet of bacon so I chopped them up and fried in butter then I found 2 baby red cabbages and I chopped that in with it. I figured bacon and cabbage go well, so why not? I added balsamic which went nicely sticky.

I had some zucchini and so I sliced it up, with my Carrol Boyes cheese slicer to get as thin as possible, then put the slices in a bowl and drizzled with olive oil, Himalayan pink salt and then grated on some fresh Parmesan. Then spread them over baking paper which I laid onto a large oven tray. 

I discovered a bag of sweet potatoes and boiled them whole in their skins as once cooked it’s easy to scrape off the skin. Also boiled sweet potato are lower in carbs than baked. I put in the blender with a big block of butter and puréed.

I was worried that it was enough food and that the combination was going to be revolting, but it was really delicious! It went so nicely together.

How lucky! 

 

We watched telly and relaxed and relished that we were going to be sleeping in on Friday as it was Good Friday. 

Lily was off to George on Friday but Norm and I had a lazy morning. I made 3-cheese fritters without a recipe, it had sharp cheddar, emmenthal and Parmesan all grated in, 2 eggs, milk and almond flour. I seasoned with paprika and fried in a mix of butter and coconut oil. I was proud that they were so yummy! 

  

We put our eggs on top of them and they soak up the delicious yolks. I served with bacon, rosa tomatoes and avocado. 

Friday evening Norm took his visitors to the airport and stopped and got take aways from Spiro’s. It was a cool night, I sat on my balcony enjoying my gorgeous view.

  
We rented a film and had a quiet night in. 

On Saturday morning we were woken early by the activity and noise from The Two Oceans Marathon which is an Ultra Marathon as it’s further in distance. It is billed as the “World’s Most Beautiful Marathon” and as a resident I can see why.

  

We know when the runners hit our village as you can hear the shouting of the organizers on the megaphones and the sound of the choppers hovering above us. It’s cool to watch the footage on telly and recognize the landscape and surroundings. 

  
Photo credit.

I’m not enough of a fan to go stand by the road and encourage the runners for hours even though the course is so close to us that one of the local dogs from my neighborhood joined the race and ended up several suburbs away! 

  

Eventually it all settled down and Norm took our pups out before we headed out to meet his friends Mark and Fiona who are over from Belfast. As they are staying in Camps Bay we booked Paranga. Camps Bay is a gorgeous beach lined with bars and restaurants and is very popular with tourists.

  
To start Norm had the Patagonian Calamari and the rest of us had the tempura prawns. The prawns were R120. They were fresh and nicely cooked and the sauce had a lovely chili kick to it.  

For mains 3 of us had the fillet. I had mushroom sauce and vegetables with mine.

  
My steak was underdone and slightly sinewy. Half was soft and divine, the other not so much. The sauce was rich and thick and full of flavour, Really delicious. The veg was cooked perfectly, nicely al dente. 

The steak was approximately 200-250 grams I would guess. The steak was R190 with no sides or sauce. The sauce was an additional R35 and the steamed veg an additional R40. Therefore the main meal was R265. Incredibly expensive in comparison to other local restaurants. 

The wine we had is one of my faves the Professor Black Sauvingnon Blanc from the Warwick estate and we noticed it was R75 a bottle more than it had been at Peddlars & Co! At Paranga it was R275.

That’s the problem with the tourist areas, if you are earning local currency it’s very expensive. Lucky for us Norm’s friends treated us! The service was great, the food pretty good, but you can find the same at half the price.

It started raining early Saturday evening and we had to contend with that. I washed my hair but got the frizzes from the damp. But we had a nice chat and it was great for Norm to see friends he hasn’t seen in decades.

Today is Easter but Norm isn’t feeling so well. We were going shopping but we will see how he feels, other than that I suspect this is my first chocolate free Easter!

To those of you who are Christian enjoy your holiday and thanks for the day off!