This is a traditional Greek recipe, which my family fell in love with when we visited Athens last month. I used beef in my recipe instead of lamb but you could use any minced meat that you have available. I made it in the same way as a lasagne with a couple of layers whereas it is traditionally made with one.

Ingredients:

A batch of white sauce

A batch of bolognaise sauce

4 medium potatoes

1 aubergine

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method:

1. First of all make up your batches of white sauce and bolognaise sauce.
2. Peel your potatoes and chop them up into slices. Boil them for about 8 minutes; tip them into a colander and blast with cold water to cool them down.
3. Next chop the aubergine into slices, put them in a colander with some salt for 10 minutes. Then put them into a saucepan with some olive oil and cook on each side for 5 minutes, do this for all of the slices. Put them onto some kitchen towel to soak up all of the oil that isn’t required.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Assemble the moussaka. Put a layer of bolognaise sauce, then a layer of aubergine, followed by a layer of potatoes and then the white sauce over it all. As mentioned before I repeated this again but you could just do one layer of all of them but use all of the mixture for each layer.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Place in the oven for 45 minutes at 180C. I served this by itself and my sister said it was really good! I will take that from her!!

Athens - Part 3

The end of the holiday really revolved around where we were going to sit by the pool. It was quite an eventful few days doing all the sightseeing so we just wanted to relax. I definitely did anyway!

I spent the days doing some revision and writing (as per usual) as it just lets me get out what I need to, even if no one sees it.

We went back to the sky lounge restaurant that was on the rooftop of our hotel, but the highlight of that meal had to be the bread and olive tapenade...the salmon I had was overcooked and really dry, which was a shame.

We did go back to our favourite restaurants, Dionysos and Strofi, again. In Dionysos I had the chicken with bulgar and a bit of sauce and I had a cheeky chocolate soufflé too. I mean look at it!

Then in Strofi I had the exact same meal as last time! Although I did try Moussaka for the first time and it was spectacular there.

We couldn't leave without writing in their guest book

I actually continued writing on but I wrote it all before I even left the hotel to get on the plane and I was so pleased with the flight that I needed to come back and add it in. As you would have read in Athens part 1, I was convinced that all plane food was terrible and I would never have a good meal on a flight but boy was I so wrong. There were two options for our meal, either pork and potatoes or chicken tortellini, I don't eat pork so I went for the chicken option. I was convinced it would be horrible and I could just eat whatever came with it, but it was delicious (for plane food that is, I wasn't exactly thrilled by it). It came with a Greek salad and bread and my brother had the kids meal so I got to eat the fruit off of that, so really it was a pretty good meal!

I know it's really cringe and cliche but I really feel as if I've come quite far over the past week. I've realised where I've been going wrong and what I need to do to change this. Personally, that's quite an achievement as I would normally deny there was a problem whatsoever and just carry on. But as I return home, I have planned out realistically what I can and hopefully in 4 weeks I will have progress to show for it!

All your words of encouragement mean so much, so keep them coming! And I truly hope that whoever reads this is taking at least a little bit of good from it!

Review. Arizona Green Tea

If you have been reading my blog for some time then you will know that I love a bit of green tea! While I've been on holiday, I've tried a few different flavours of Arizona Green Tea and I thought I would write about them for anyone who is interested. They're imported from the US and come in the prettiest bottles. As far as I know you can't ge them many places in the UK unlike here where you can get them in every other shop.

First up, Green Tea and Honey:

Personally, I found this way too sweet compared to the fruity ones. It tasted like I was basically drinking sugar and water. Not something I'll be trying again! It was over 30 degrees or so everyday on holiday so I would rather have had something slightly more refreshing.

Pomegranate Green Tea:

To sum it up in one word: delicious! (My favourite word at the moment). It was only a little bit sweet but it was quite fruity and so freshening which is just what I needed. It was almost gone after 2 minute! If it didn't contain so much sugar I would want to drink it more often.

Blueberry White Tea:

This was quite similar to the pomegranate green tea but was more like water with a hint of blueberry juice. Unfortunately, this was the third and last one I tried (the hotel didn't have any more flavours), and it was also the only time I read the label (a lesson to be learned here). 

That sweetness I tasted in all of them? Yeah, that would be because the second ingredient, after water, was sugar. It explains everything! 

Although there was just under 150 cal in the whole drink which considering the ingredients, I thought was quite good.

The quote on the bottle says "here's to your health" but with carbohydrates at 7g per 100ml, I'm not seeing how it is beneficial to my health in any way.

My point is, that despite the pretty bottles and false advertising, you are probably better off choosing a different drink!

I liked this quote so I thought I would share it ❤️

Athens - part 1

Now where to start? At the beginning of course. At the time of writing this it was actually only 5 hours after we left the house (at a ridiculous 4am). Luckily we made it through security relatively quickly so by 6 am my parents and I were drinking strong vodka and orange juices (thanks dad!) in the BA club lounge. Possibly one of the strangest experiences of my life! But hey, it's never too early to start drinking so on the plane we washed down our breakfast with mini bottles of champagne, and yes I am certain that regardless of which class you fly in,  the food will always be awful! I enjoyed the fruit though...all 5 pieces of it.

So we arrived at the hotel and headed straight to the rooftop pool which had the most amazing views and had "frozen" cocktails, which in 32 degree heat melted straight away and were more like normal cocktails.

So it would seem I am going to live off of Greek salads for the whole week which is absolutely fine by me. For the first time in a few years, I wore shorts to dinner and I must say I felt pretty great and comfortable in what I was wearing, it was a miracle! And the views from the rooftop looked even more incredible at night, all lit up!

The Acropolis.

While I am here, I am planning to write out a meal plan and a shopping list, and also a gym regime to stick to as I finally feel like I am ready to get back to it and I have the motivation I had lost.