Busaba Eathai opens in Manchester

I went to see the Book of Mormon back in August (if you haven't seen it yet get it on your to-do list!), and afterwards James and I needed food. We happened to stumble across Busaba Eathai in Leicester Square - with bi-fold style doors spilling out onto the pavement, our open window seat was perfect and the food was delicious...

I had no idea it was a chain until they got in touch and asked if I wanted to come to the preview of the Manchester restaurant launch, and naturally I was all over it.

I've spoken before about my favourite Thai dishes so I was looking forward to checking Busaba out again, as well as enjoying a good cocktail or two.

We kicked off with a Thai taste session with Busaba's executive chef, Jude Sangsida. He talked us through the three dominant flavours found in Thai food (sweet, salty and spicy), offering round various sauces and things to dip in so we could choose our favourite. Mine was spicy, quelle surprise. He also made us Som Tam salad - an amazingly light, zingy papaya salad sprinkled with nuts and chilli.

It was then onto cocktails. Before we had our cocktail masterclass, we had a round of drinks to limber up - I went for the Thai Martini and my god it was amazing:

Gin, basil, lemongrass & elderflower served in a basil-sugar rimmed glass.

Then it was our turn to mix the drinks - we each made a Coconut Collins (described to us as a more mature pina colada).  Jamaican coconut rum, crushed ginger and lemongrass, pineapple juice and lime juice, ice.

Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum...

Delicious, but I definitely preferred the Martini.

Now on to foooooood. Naturally, I went for my faves - chicken satay starter and pad thai for the main. James went for calamari followed by, hands down, one of the best red Thai curries I've ever had (the Songkhla red curry). Maybe even the best. The beef was so tender and soft, falling apart in your mouth it had been cooked that long, and mixed with a creamy, spicy sauce and coconut rice, it was safe to say I had food envy. The calamari was great and had a popcorny taste to it (which sounds odd, I know, but just worked). I'm annoyed because I didn't take a picture of the red beef curry!! But take my word, it was the absolute dogs b.

The satay didn't disappoint; the sauce was spicy and rich, and I loved the way the chicken was cooked, barbecued with a definite smoky taste.

My classic pad thai (first picture) was everything I could've asked for; rice noodles, chicken, tofu, peanuts, dried shrimp, egg, beansprout and lime. Great portion size too.

We didn't notice at the time, but both our mains were gluten free which is handy to note for all you GF's.

After *another* Thai Martini (that sugared basil rim though) and chatting to some lovely, likeminded (read, tipsy) people, we headed home. But we'll be back! It's an absolute winner in my eyes.

Busaba Eathai is open from Monday 18th January and can be found in the Printworks. 

Salted Caramel Nicecream

If you're anything like me then having something sweet after a meal is mandatory (regardless of how full I am) - I just crave it! This salted caramel banana icecream is a beauty - sweet, salty, soft icecream peppered with cacao nibs.

It takes minutes to make (provided you've got frozen banana) so it's perfect for a quick weeknight sweet tooth fix.

For one person, you'll need:

1 - 2 frozen bananas (chopped)
2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
1 tablespoon maple syrup (I use Buckwud)
1 tablespoon cacao nibs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Place the banana, almond milk, vanilla extract, maple syrup and sea salt in the blender and mix for a couple of minutes until a smooth, icecream like consistency has formed. Scoop out into a bowl and top with cacao nibs.

ENJOY, it's bloody delicious.

The beauty with this is how easy it is to swap flavours in and out - I did another 'nicecream' blog post here, about a year ago..

Current Favourite HIIT Workouts

Over Christmas, like many I didn't have access to a gym, but still wanted to keep fairly active over the festive period - mainly to offset the barrage of wine and Stilton I planned on enjoying!

To get the smugness out of the way quickly, I impressed myself by getting a few 7 / 8 mile runs, a couple of 10ks and a cheeky Parkrun in, and it was really nice to be able to get out so much. Normally in Winter I'm restricted to running on weekends, so it was good to have the freedom during the day to pound about.

Running 10k over the holidays

In true British style, the rain over Christmas was sometimes too much to bear, so I used HIIT training to mix things up.

I'm a massive fan of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), and incorporate it into my regime at least three times a week. More on the benefits of HIIT here and here.

I thought I'd note down a few of my fave workouts at the moment, in case you fancied some inspiration over the coming weeks. The workouts below include both home and gym based workouts. Obvs, I'm not a PT, I'm just sharing what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. If you're not already, get on and follow the bloody gorgeous Joe Wicks on Insta etc, as all his HIIT workouts are great. He got me into it in the first place, especially the first workout..

Workout 1
Equipment: treadmill
This is my absolute go-to for a 'killa' workout if you're pushed for time.

Naturally, you'll need to adapt the sprint speed to suit you, I usually set this to between 17 - 18kph (18 being really challenging for me).

• 1 min walk warm up
• 2 mins run 11kph
• 45 secs sprint at desired speed level (17 - 18kph)
• 30 secs rest
• 45 secs sprint
• 30 secs rest

.. repeat until you hit 20 minutes. Trust me, it's an absolute beast. I love it.

If you've not done sprints before, or don't feel comfortable hopping on and off the treadmill edges, speak to someone in the gym - I did this when I first started because I wasn't confident with the speed, and getting someone to walk me through it really helped.


Workout 2 
It has two parts to it, A & B, and takes me around 40-45 mins.
Equipment: treadmill, weighted barbell, kettlebell, bench
I do these sprints with the treadmill turned off, to make it really tough. I grab the front handles of the treadmill, and push until the belt moves, then run as fast as I can (with my hands still gripped) for 20 seconds.

A)

• Treadmill (turned off) sprint for 20 secs
• Rest 30 secs
• Treadmill (turned off) sprint for 20 secs
• Rest 30 secs
• 10 barbell weighted squats (I'd probably use a 20kg barbell) - pulse up and down 5 times at end
• 10 Burpees

Repeat 5 times

B)

• 10 dips on a bench / chair
• 10 kettlebell swings
• 10 deadlifts (use the barbell for this, adjust the weights as necessary for you, I'll increase the weight here)
• Upper body get ups (sometimes called moving planks)

Repeat 5 times

Workout 3

This one's adapted from one of Joe's, it's a ladder workout and great to do at home as all exercises are bodyweight based. 

The method for this one is easy.

10 secs on, 10 secs off (each exercise).

20 secs on, 20 secs off,

30 secs on, 30 secs off,

40 secs on, 40 secs off,

30 secs on, 30 secs off,

20 secs on, 30 secs off,

10 secs on, 10 secs off.

You do as many of the below in the time available. Once you've completed all the exercises, you adjust the time. 

• Burpee tuck jumps
• Mountain climbers
• High knees
• Press ups
• Squat jumps
• Lunge jumps
• Plank

So, you'd do each of the above exercises for 10 seconds, resting for 10 seconds in between each exercise, then move on to 20 secs and so on. 

This one's sneaky; you're doing burpees for ten seconds thinking what the hell is all the fuss about, but just you wait until you're on 30 / 40 seconds. I had to remind myself not to get cocky!

If you have any favourite HIIT workouts, send 'em my way!

British Military Fitness Cookbook

It might not be an Amazon best seller, but I'm in a book! A recipe book, to be precise, crafted and made possible by British Military Fitness. They asked a handful of foodie, fitness and healthy lifestyle bloggers to share a recipe for either breakfast, lunch or tea as part of their #FitFoodBMF campaign.

I do circuits outdoors three times a week, and the bootcamp element to British Military Fitness classes has always (weirdly perhaps) appealed to me, so I was honoured to be asked to take part in this..

I chose to make a slow cooked lamb dish; to me it's something I look forward to tucking into after having battled with the elements (and kettlebells) at circuits, and it seemed a good fit given that we're in the middle of winter.

The recipe for this slow cooked paprika lamb with pomegranate quinoa can be found below, and if you want to download the e-book, the link is here!

You can't really make lamb stew look too pretty, so sorry about the picture...!

Slow cooked paprika lamb with pomegranate quinoa

Serves 4

400g lamb shoulder
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 can chopped tomatoes
2 celery sticks, chopped
4 carrots, diced
1 sprig fresh rosemary (or 1 tbsp dried)
2 tbsp hot paprika
1 tbsp cumin
3 garlic gloves, chopped
1 onion, diced
Salt and pepper to season

For the quinoa:

100g quinoa
Seeds from one large pomegranate

I served mine with Greek yoghurt and a couple of handfuls of spinach.

I always remove the majority of excess fat from the lamb before putting in the slow cooker. Once I've done this, I throw it all in the slow cooker and let it do its thing for around eight hours. If you don't have a slow cooker, you can do this in a large, deep pan, and keep things cooking on a really low heat - just make sure you keep your eye on it every hour or so.

As well as being one of my fave comfort meals, BMF also asked nutritionist Ben Coomber to look at each recipe from a nutritional perspective to sound them out. Ben reckons the dish is a great recovery option as it's full of proteins and carbs, which is good enough for me! Personally, I like using quinoa rather than rice in this - it's lighter and contains more protein. Plus, the dish as a whole is so easy to make - chuck everything in the slow cooker and voila. Freeze what you don't need and whip it out when you're stuck for making time to cook.

One of the best things about the campaign was discovering a load of new like-minded bloggers, as well as featuring along side my good pal Vicki :)

The variety of recipes everyone created in the book is diverse, and as well as sounding really tasty, none of them look too complicated to make! Each one has a nutritionally sound profile too so ideal if you're looking for a bit of healthy cuisine inspiration.

As a thank you, British Military Fitness have given me a free pass at one of their classes, so if I give it a whirl I'll be sure to let you know how it is..!