The Trips of a Lifetime

Earlier this year, I made the difficult decision to quit my full-time teaching job at a primary school in West London. It was a good job: lovely people, great location and pretty well-paid. But I just wasn’t happy anymore. I’d been teaching for twelve years by this point (11 years as a full-time teacher and some supply work when I went travelling for six months) and as much as I loved being in my classroom with my children, it just wasn’t the job that I’d started when I’d left university at 21, all fresh-faced and eager. “It must be such a nice job,” people always said to me. But the niceness was being squeezed out. When I had to choose doing a Maths assessment over making Christmas decorations in the week before the holidays, I knew something had to change for me. So, I quit.

Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake

Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake

This delicious cheesecake is dense and incredibly rich; a little goes a very long way! Despite the use of cherry chocolate, it doesn’t taste like cherries at all and I think it would be fab with the tang of fresh raspberries and served with single cream to make it lighter. Well, lighter in terms of taste that is. Certainly not in terms of calories! No doubt this dessert is a treat but surely a little of what you fancy does you good?!

Sweet Pepper and Tomato Soup

Sweet Pepper and Tomato Soup

This tasty soup packs a flavoursome punch. It is low fat (which could be reduced further by cooking the vegetables with cooking spray rather than oil), making it perfect for mealtimes in the run-up to your summer holiday (I for one am kind of struggling to get my body Beach-ready!!). I puréed half of the mixture so that I could have a smooth and a chunky soup. As I plan to be eating this for lunch for a week, I didn’t want to get bored too quickly! Personally, I preferred the chunky soup. ;)

Oh, and I'm sorry for the lack of pretty picture!

Turkey, Mushroom and Spinach Pasta Bake

This pasta dish is tasty and filling and low in fat but as the flavours are all quite subtle, it does require a decent amount of seasoning if you want it to pack any kind of punch!

Spicy Beef Enchiladas

These enchiladas are absolutely delicious. If you follow the recipe as is, they are in no way diet-friendly (although I have to say, they are definitely worth the indulgence!) but a couple of little tweaks, such as substituting Turkey mince instead of Beef and low-fat cooking spray instead of Olive Oil, would make them a little easier on the waistline.