Reasons to be Cheerful

The reins have been passed to Becky over at Lakes Single Mum for July.

This week's Reasons to be Cheerful:

• I'm starting this with a big one, and hoping saying it will help it keep going.
  I had a really hard morning at the therapy group, I'm not going into details, but it left me with a lot of self-destructive feelings. Right now, I'm trying to think & compile a list of coping strategies that are helpful, not destructive. Please feel free to add any you can think of in the comments.
• I have had some good days this week. On Friday I went to the Dino Jaws exhibition, it was interesting and fun.
• On Saturday, I went to a plant sale, yes, that is exciting in my world! Lol; to a deli market; had a walk; and spent some time with people I care about. 
• I have done some productive things this week, even though that was the last thing I wanted to do.
• Feeling crap this week has given me lots of time to think. I'm thinking of trying some things, but not sure I had the strength or ability, but some times just the thought is empowering. 

So over to you, what have you been up to this week?
What are your reasons to be cheerful? Do let me know.

Let's try baking pizza's

I've never baked or cooked with Kiki, but it seemed like a good idea to try.
Again, my OCD was making me grimace at the thought of the mess, but I did the black bags taped to the table thing, works so well. 

I decided to make pizza's for our lunch, but didn't have any yeast, so looked online for a yeast free recipe and found one at allrecipes.co.uk.

Ingredients 

Serves: 4 

• 225g self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 60g butter
• 150ml milk
• pizza toppings of your choice 

Method

Prep:10min  ›  Cook:20min  ›  Ready in:30min 

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C / Gas 5.
2. Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Pour the milk into the bowl and mix to a soft dough.
3. Knead the dough and roll out into a large circle about 1cm thick. Place on oiled/buttered baking tray.
4. Add whatever toppings you like.
5. Bake the pizza in the preheated oven until the crust is golden, about 20 minutes.

Tip

You can bake the dough in the oven for 2 minutes before adding the toppings and cooking it. This results in a softer more 'pan' type dough compared to thin and crispy.

Toppings

• Cheese - As Kiki is a bit picky about cheese, I pulled some cheese strings apart, that's a tedious job, in future I'd grate some mild cheddar or buy spaghetti cheese strings.
• Sliced hot dogs
• Sliced ham
• Sliced cherry tomatoes
• Red onions
• Tomato Puree

Kiki didn't quite understand the concept of tomato puree, much more fun to squeeze and eat, so I spread a thin layer on the dough, but she enjoyed scraping it off, so gave up!

I put the toppings in separate tubs and we got to work.

 The end result

Blogging Every Day in August: Guilty pleasure (Day 7)

Sarah at Yummy Mummy In Training has set herself a challenge of blogging every day in August and has listed her prompts. As my blogging is a bit hit and miss at the moment, I will be using her prompts to generate some ideas too.

Today's prompt is: Guilty Pleasure

My guilty pleasure is obvious! Food!
I have a difficult and emotional relationship with food.
It's there when I need joy, when I need comfort, when I need a reward.
As a celebration, an apology, as a way to bring friends together.

It is a relationship I know I will always struggle with, but one I want to deal with so Little Lady doesn't develop the same one.

Red Hot World Buffet left me cold

Well actually, more disappointed and disgusted!

I have been to Red Hot World Buffet at the Leeds Light numerous times. I like the option of being able to try different things, as at best I'm indecisive, with the pregnancy even more so.

As an 'all you can eat' buffet style restaurant, it was never going to win a Michelin star. But it is fast, (normally) good food.

On Sunday, we called in for dinner, expecting the usual good for value priced food.

We were seated quite quickly, it wasn't particularly busy. We were asked to vacate the table within an hour and half, not a problem, I didn't predict we'll be there that long.

We were seated and left alone. Normally Red Hot World Buffet Staff will appear to take drinks orders within seconds, but we ended up having to call a Manager over as nobody seemed to be free. We eventually got drinks and started to get dinner.

Fifteen minutes later, I called over one of the four staff stood around the till to request a refill. Order placed. Ten minutes later, another request. Twenty minutes later, a third and final request for the same drink...

Finally ten minutes later it arrived. An apology would have been nice but by that point I REALLY needed a drink!

Shortly after, whilst still eating, the bill arrived. We finished eating, feeling a bit rushed and irritated, and paid.

As I'm sure every woman who has been pregnant or knows someone that has realises if you can make it an hour without rushing to the toilet you are doing amazing! So I called on the way out. The second I opened the outer door to the corridor of the toilets, I was met with an overwhelming stench of urine. Unfortunately this made me feel sick, immediately. By the time I had rushed to the ladies' I was sick, trying to clean it up made it worse but I did, because it's even worse to clean up after someone else.

After quite some time, and possibly the entire content of the meal including the long waited for drink, I cleaned myself up and went to find a member of staff.

I managed to attract a young lady's attention and explained that the toilets, including the corridor, really smelled unpleasant and had made me sick. Her response was 'I'll take a look' and walked away.

After walking upstairs, I tried to speak to the front of house staff, but again, no real interest.

As I said I have visited the place several times as I know what I'm getting and what to expect. But I was really disappointed with the service. I have visited when it has been really busy and really quiet, and the staff usually seem to do a good job in what must be a very unrewarding role.

I was angry at the dismissive attitude of the staff. I actually tweeted RedHot (@RedHotWldBuffet) and received no response.