What a perfect morning to wake up to.  The sun streamed through my windows and it was really warm, inside and out.  We spent an idyllic morning at home, relaxing, reading and  painting!

These flowers Marie sent me last week have opened up and are so pretty they are a real joy to look at.

You will never guess what I had for breakfast.  Actually, you probably already have – yes, another smoothie.  A blood orange smoothie.

I had a blood orange peeled in the freezer and also added a fresh one.

Blood orange smoothie: 2 blood oranges, 1 small banana, 100g Natural probiotic yogurt, 1 tsp chia seeds, 1 tsp flax seed oil and 200 ml coconut water.

It was runnier than I like so next time I will make this one with 100ml coconut water.  The flavour was wonderful – I really like citrus smoothies.

I used the new blender again for lunch and this time made soup.  Remember last Sunday I made a baked ham in the slow cooker but forgot to resoak it so the ham was too salty?  Well, today I used up the leftover ham and added it to the stock and lentils but by adding no seasoning, it ended up pretty good.

Baked Ham and Red Lentil Soup

Ingredients (serves 3)

• 1 tsp oil
• 2 medium onions. peeled and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 1 cup red lentils
• 200 g baked ham

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan and gently fry onions for about 5 minutes.
2. Add minced garlic and fry for another 2 minutes.
3. Pour the vegetable stock in to the slow cooker and add the onion and garlic.
4. Add the red lentils to the slow cooker.
5. Chop up the baked ham and add to the slow cooker.
6. Turn on high and cook for 5 – 6 hours.
7. When ready, blend until smooth (or leave coarse if you prefer).

Very easy and very tasty.

After lunch we went for a walk in the woods.  We loved that sunshine and the warmth and just went in shirt sleeves.  No coat required today 🙂

We spent the afternoon at Henry’s birthday party which Kath and Matt were also using as a chance to say good-bye to people as they leave in less than 2 weeks.  However, they have not got rid of us yet so I haven’t said good-bye!  Harvey had fun playing football with the boys and we enjoyed chatting to friends and eating cake.  Cups of tea flowed and most guests had brought homemade cakes so I ate loads of those.   For some reason, my scales this morning told me I had lost lots of weight so I thought I could relax the diet this afternoon.  I relaxed a bit too much 😦

Simple supper of a mushroom omelette.  I fried the oyster mushrooms in a little butter,

and added them to the egg as it cooked with some Halloumi cheese.  One of the Alpine cheeses, such as Gruyere would have complemented the mushrooms better but this was tasty.

Le voila, a cheese and mushroom omelette.

Looks like a large sun on my plate so my day started and ended with sun 🙂