This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been...

HAPPY NEW YEAR to our favourite people in the whole wide world...

After the most indulgent Christmas, in every sense of the word, we're BACK! Suitably rested and revitalised for 2016...well we were but with two working week under our belt, we're just about ready for another break!!

When we haven't been resisting the urge to pour a glass of champagne at midday or nibble on a late night cheese board...the mice have mostly been...

Tricking ourselves into getting up at the crack of dawn to fit in an early morning gym visit...as you can imagine it isn't going too well! With our body clocks accustomed to lay ins, afternoon naps and generally being super duper lazy - we're struggling to say the least!

Each day I convince myself 'tomorrow I'll be good and give myself no option'....the very next day there is absolutely nothing that will pull me from my cosy duvet cocoon any earlier than is required, especially not in the pitch black and squeezed into Lycra!

Something has to give, otherwise we'll officially have to change the name of the blog to 2 bad mice and 1 chubby kid...and that's clearly not catchy enough!!

So my plan of action...purchase brand new gym get up as motivation...anything as an excuse to shop! Plus with sales coming to an end, there's some serious bargains to be had...so far I've snapped up... 

And the most comfortable running trainers in the world...

And now I have my eye on these little beauties... 

Reliving every moment of the amazingly scrumptious Hoppers. If you've never made it to Gymkhana (shame - you should as it's simply awesome in every way!) then here's your chance to experience creations from it's new slightly more attainable sister!

The Sethi siblings have struck again with this gem, located in the heart of Soho on Frith Street with a concept based around Sri Lankan street food.

You'll have to grin and bare the 'no reservations' policy yet again - however once your name is down you can keep track of your table progress via a link on Qudini. Fear not you can very easily pass your wait time just around the corner at Chotto Matte who do a mean Pisco Sour...the perfect solution to sup away whilst timing your cocktail rounds according to your table countdown!

Once you're in, the wood panelling, yellow patterned floor tiles and soft lighting creates an upbeat and inviting vibe, perfect for a Friday night meal with friends to kick off the weekend! 

Now onto more important matters...the menu! 

We went for a handful of short eats which are perfect to share - our favourites were the mutton rolls, hot butter devilled shrimps and bone marrow varuval with the most delicious pillowy rotis to soak up the rich buttery sauce!

Then for the main event you order meat or fish with either a hopper or dosa! I went for a hopper (which I was obsessed with when we visited Sri Lanka a few years ago) and of course opted for the egg version! For those of you who don't know, hoppers are bowl shaped pancakes made from fermented rice batter and coconut milk (with an optional fried egg at the bottom) and a dosa is a crepe made from rice batter and black lentils. 

Following our lovely waitress' recommendation, I opted for the black pork with the trio of chutneys - tender pork in a deep sticky marinade - if I could have licked my plate I definitely would have!!!

And just because we're piglets we also ordered the renowned buffalo buriani to share - make sure you save room as definitely one not to be missed! A show stopping huge portion of buffalo shank and rice served with duck egg curry, yogurt and aubergine pickle...YUM!!!!

Once our banquet was complete there was no chance of fitting in dessert, however we of course said yes to a cocktail or 2! Which once again they excelled at and notched up another A* - their talents are endless! I'm now officially in love with the Hopper G&T, a mix of lemongrass infused Sipsmith gin, lemongrass and tonic...delish and oh so easy to slurp away!  

And the final bonus, your bill arrives and there's not a wince in sight!! Get yourself down there ASAP and make sure you starve yourself all day in preparation! 

Before I convince myself to return for another sitting, I better shimmy into my lycra and burn some buriani!!!

  

This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been...

Current mood...

We may be back at our desks after a few weeks of holidaying and total relaxation but hey, it's Friday and that means the weekend's within sipping distance... So, to help hurry along the last couple of office-bound hours, we'll whizz you through the week's goings on and then we'll set you on your merry way in search of your very own Champagne-soaked Johnny Depp... Until then, this week, the Mice have mostly been...

Getting into the festive spirit by snuggling up with a kindleful of Christmassy short stories in the form of Rachel Joyce's A Snow Garden.

This collection of seven interconnected short stories are each set at Christmas spanning from a Boxing Day Ball in the sixties through to a modern day nativity scene on Christmas Day at the airport. Each story gives a bittersweet snapshot into complicated family relationships and manages to be heartwarming without cloying cliche. Perfect pre-Christmas cheer. 

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving - an excuse to eat roast turkey, heaps of potatoes and calorific sweet treats a whole month early. We figure that in the name of multiculturalism, we should give the American holidays just as much calendarspace as our own, so last night saw feasting in epic proportions.     

Because Brussel Sprouts have momentarily replaced avocados as our current food obsession, we thought a Thanksgiving banquet was the perfect opportunity to concoct a new dish of sprout-tactic deliciousness. 

Say hello to Brussel Sprouts  with crispy prosciutto, sage and brown butter...

You will need:

• a couple of handfuls of sprouts (bottoms cut off, outer leaves removed and sliced in half) 
• a couple of shallots (peeled and quartered)
• a small bunch of fresh sage
• a good glug of olive oil
• a couple of slices of prosciutto (snipped into slithers)
• a generous knob of butter
• salt & pepper

Preheat your oven to 180 C while you prep your sprouts and chop your shallots. Whack the sprouts and shallots in a roasting tin, drizzle with the olive oil and add a generous few grinds of salt and pepper. Pop in the oven to roast for 12-15 minutes (we did ours a little too long but they were still scrumptious!). While your sprouty-shalloty mixture browns away pull a dozen or so leaves from your sage bunch and snip up the prosciutto. Add a chunk of butter to a frying pan and fry the sage leafs and prosciutto slithers in the pan until the butter turns pale biscuit coloured and starts to smell nutty. Pull the Brussels out of the oven, spoon onto your plates, sprinkle over the crispy sage and ham and finish off with a drizzle of buttery goodness.

And ta-dah - the best damn bowl of sprouts you've ever eaten...

Digging out our best boho festival looks and gearing up for a weekend of Clockenflap. Yup, Hong Kong's ridiculously named arts and music festival has rolled around again and we plan on spending the whole weekend chain-drinking cider while listening to set after awesome set. If you're headed over to West Kowloon Cultural District this weekend too, here's what's topping our line-up: 

Clean Bandit - Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne)

Broods - Bridges

Rocky A$AP - Everyday (ft. Rod Stewart, Miguel, Mark Ronson)

And, that's that for another week! Have a great one!

x

The Mice

This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been...

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

YUP not only do you have the beauties that are Saturday and Sunday ahead of you, but there are precisely ten more Fridays until Christmas!!! 

Despite my opening picture I think we all need to get over the lack of summer experienced in 2015 and instead embrace that winter is coming and we can count the weeks on our hands until good old Father Christmas makes the rounds! 

So pack away your bikinis and denim cut offs and dig out that cashmere and hot water bottle...it's time! 

When we haven't been planning our hibernation, this week the mice have mostly been....

Whipping up a culinary storm but of course still trying to keep clean with the ultimate goal of being lean! 

Despite my upcoming hibernation I need to attempt to steer clear of comfort food and keep on the straight and narrow, but day dreams of cheese ozzing lasagne and crusty garlic bread keeps haunting me! However with the likes of Punch Foods popping up on my instagram with amazing health inspired food posts, i'm hoping I can steer clear of cheating!

Another source of constant healthy inspiration is the amazing Madeleine Shaw, a nutritional health coach who basically loves to make healthy food delicious! At London Towers middle mouse and I love to cook good food but being so busy with work easily fall into the habit of cooking the same things over and over. So we decided to take a leaf out of Madeleine's book (literally) and try one of her creations. We opted for salmon fishcakes with cabbage slaw - easy, quick and super tasty!   

You Need:

2 x salmon fillets - skinned and cut into chunks
1 x haddock fillet
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
3 tablespoons of chopped fresh chives
2 spring onions finely chopped
1 tablespoon of capers
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 lemon - zested and juiced
1/2 cabbage
100g natural yogurt
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of chai seeds (optional)



Chop and prepare all your ingredients. Put the salmon, haddock, 1 teaspoon of mustard, chives, salt and pepper , spring onions, lemon zest and capers into the food processor and whizz up. Once combined roll into four burger shapes and place in the freezer for five minutes. 

Meanwhile chop up your cabbage...

Add the other teaspoon of mustard, lemon juice, pinch of salt and the yogurt, mix thoroughly. 

Remove the fishcakes from the freezer, melt your coconut oil in a pan and add. Cook for around 6 minutes, constantly turning so they are golden on all sides!

We decided to have some peas as well...you can't have fishcakes without peas can you?!

Ta-Dahhhhhhhh....

Avidly watching back to back episodes of the amazing Suits. 

Seriously what's not to like... Rachel and Donna's wardrobes are to die for, Harvey is the God of all Gods and Mike not so bad either, Louis Litt just simply makes me laugh out loud and they are all just so darn clever and powerful. I aspire to be them ALL!

If you haven't started you must immediately - the perfect one to watch with girls and boys, it's a all round people pleaser! You have five seasons and 70 episodes to devour and I'm oh so jealous!

Middle Middle and I also love all the songs played through out, so top tip is get your shazam at the ready!!

To give you an idea of what you're in for.... 

Now that I've delivered you some seasonal cheer, a delicious recipe for dinner and an awesome boxset, I feel my work here is done. You can use all the above to have a fabulous weekend and ensure the following also takes place....

The Mice x 

Nutrition Magician: Alice Mackintosh

Paleo, Atkins, the 5:2, Dukan... Every week there seems to be a new eating fad promising to melt away those pesky extra pounds. But sorting the gimmicky rubbish from the sound nutritional advice can be pretty tricky. Plus, even just looking at what works for one of us Mice but has limited effect on the others, proves that there's no one size fits all approach. 

In recent months I've become even more focused on my eating given that Bridezilla would definitely like to drop a dress size or two prior to her wedding this autumn... So, since the beginning of the year, I've been limiting my carbs, eating plenty of organic vegetables and have all but dropped processed, fatty foods from my diet. I've definitely seen results, but as I've started to become more focussed on food and begun reading around the Internet, I've been totally overwhelmed by the mass of conflicting advice out there. 

On another wedding-related note, I've been having issues with my skin for a couple of years now - breakouts to a level that I haven't seen since I was teenager. Not much fun and definitely something I want to try to get in check in time for the big day. Some of my recent nutrition web-trawling began to suggest that that tired old adage - you are what you eat - has definite relevance when it comes to your skin. So I decided that it was time to call the professionals in. 

I've known Alice Mackintosh for several years having first met her out in Hong Kong. Since then she's scored a first class honours degree in Nutritional Therapy, moved back to London and now practices as a nutritionist at the Food Doctor Clinic on Harley Street. Alice specialises in the impact of diet on health and wellness and when I emailed her to ask about setting up a consultation discovered that a particular area of her expertise is skin (her own glowy gorgeous complexion should really have given me a hint there...). 

I happened to be in London briefly over the summer and luckily Alice managed to squeeze me in for a consultation while I was back. The Food Doctor clinic is located a hop skip and a jump from Oxford Street so after a hard morning's shopping, I trotted round to Harley Street to try to see if we could get to the root of my skin woes.

Pre-appointment I'd filled out a set of questionnaires (including a three day food diary and detail on my general lifestyle and health) which meant that by the time I arrived at my appointment, Alice already had the low down on the basics and we could dive straight into the detail. Given that I've been fairly strict on the eating front recently, Alice was pleased with my general diet which consists of plenty of lean protein, leafy green vegetables and a little good fat courtesy of avocado, oily fish and nuts. She suggested that I continue eating as clean as possible, talked me through a set of supplements which would make sure I was getting all my vital nutrients and then moved on to walk me through some of the things that could be causing my skin issues.

The key suspects appear to be stress, hormones, gut health or a combination of the lot. Getting down to the nitty gritty on these topics can involve complicated sciency stuff, but one of the great things about seeing Alice is that she makes even complex explanations easy to understand for the less scientific among us and the whole consultation feels much more like a catch-up with a ridiculously well-informed friend than a lecture from a stern old doctor. After spending an hour talking in simple terms about the ways in which I could improve not only my nutrition but also my general lifestyle to try to tackle each of these underlying problems, Alice sent me off with a supplement shopping list and a whole heap of practical, easy, to implement advice. A couple of days later she followed this up with a very detailed email which recapped everything that we'd discussed and happily jogged my memory on a couple of points I'd forgotten.

Several weeks on, and I've tried to follow Alice's advice as much as possible. I now religiously take an impressive line-up of tablets every morning (including probiotics, fish oil and magnesium) and I'm learning to tolerate spirulina and the even more foul tasting Wholly Immune (a dazzlingly nutrient-packed powder that you add to water). On the stress-front, I try my best to get to bed earlier and have even given acupuncture a try. So far, I've noticed an increase in energy levels and haven't (touch wood) been floored by any nasty bugs (fairly rare for me). I've also seen a definite improvement in my skin. I'm unfortunately not completely break-out free just yet, but I feel as though we're finally moving in the right direction. 

Rather excitingly, I've also heard whispers that Alice has co-founded a supplement company with her business partner, Rosie Speight, and that the two will be creating a range of products specifically designed to support our bodies against the stresses and strains of crazy modern lives. I'll bring further news as soon as I hear more, but in the meantime hop over to www.equilondon.com to make sure that you hear about the launch first. 

I can't recommend Alice enough for practical, non-nonsense help with nutrition. Whether you're having skin troubles, digestion concerns or some other niggling health problem that no amount of trips to the doctors appears to be fixing, a tweak to your diet could prove to be the magic answer. For those of you based somewhere other than London, Alice also offers Skype consultations so you can get your diet in check without even leaving your sofa...

Check out her website for more details and have a browse through her blog while you're there for plenty of sage eating advice and this amazing choc-ice recipe! If you really are what you eat, we're definitely going to become a coconut sprinkled choc-ice inside the next week or so...

Granger & Co - Kings Cross....

Holiday over, and it's time to get back on the clean and lean wagon which let's face it, is one of the hardest things to do after three weeks of eating whatever you damn well like and drinking from 11am pretty much every day! It's too much to get straight back on it, especially whilst experiencing a serious case of holiday blues, so I decided I was allowed one last cheat before I got back to business!

I therefore kicked off the weekend with a long lazy lunch with one of my besties to catch up on all the gossip since our Ibiza trip!

We needed somewhere central and tasty and Kings Cross Granger and Co fitted the bill perfectly. It was pretty busy on the Saturday we ventured down around 2pm, unsurprisingly you can't make reservations but they found us a seat at the bar within minutes. It's located just outside Kings Cross St Pancras which does make it feel slightly random but if you're after a good feed in a convenient location then it does the trick! 

The space is open, bright and airy, hugely helped by the floor to ceiling glass windows - if it's sunny you can still see and enjoy it but if it's miserable you'll feel cosy and comforted by the pitter patter of rain...win win!

The menu's a dream, everything sounds delish especially breakfast - next time I'm definitely making it down before noon as I need some ricotta hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter in my life immediately! 

However, as we ventured dow a little later, we picked from the lunch menu which is also full of delights! We went for the courgette chips to start... 

Then I opted for the chicken fat rice - the ultimate cheat! 

And Charlotte couldn't resist the king prawn and spring onion spaghetti (slight food envy)... 

 All washed down by a nice crisp bottle of Sauvignon Blanc... 

With a full tummy and a taste for wine, we conveniently stumbled across to Vinoteca a matter of steps away, to carry on a boozy afternoon! 

A slightly blurry memento...!

And now it's Monday and time to get serious - there are just under seven weeks until I'll be in a bridesmaid dress so bye bye carbs, I'll see you in November...