Top 3 places to eat at Lunchtime in Newcastle

In December my workplace moved our office to Newcastle City Centre (Civic Centre). As everyone knows Newcastle's city centre is full of places to eat and I won't lie I'm a sucker for eating at restaurants and cafes. With this I thought I would list my top 3 places to eat on my lunch each restaurant/cafe has it own reasons for being on this list and I'll explain them along the way. 

1. Meet and Treat

Meet and Treats Interior 

Meet and Treat Fish Bowl and Beef Flank Noodles.

Meet and Treat has only recently been put on my radar. If you follow the #Neblogger hashtag on twitter and Instagram then I'm sure you would have seen lots of photos of this place including it's incredible floor (blogger heaven). Meet and treat is at the end of China Town and is for me is somewhere that is just within walking distance from my office which makes it great if you are looking to get away from all the shopper. The thing I love most about Meet and Treat is that the atmosphere is calm and the staff are lovely.

I've been 3 times now and every time I've tried something different. I've tried the the Deep Fried Vegetable Dumplings Japanese Style, Fish Ball Noodles, Malaysian Style King Prawn Noodles and finally the Teriyaki Chicken Bao. 

Everything I've tried I've loved. If you fancy checking Meet and Treat out then here is the menu and there Facebook.

2. Tyneside Cinema Cafe

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Tyneside Cinema Cafe has always been one of my favourite places to go and relax. When I was at college and I got sick of sitting in the library tyneside cinema cafe was my place to go. With free wifi and sometimes a film on in the cafe I found it was my go to place to get away from the stress and that hasn't changed since moving into my current job that sometimes can be stressful. 

With the tyneside cinema cafe being located on pilgrim Street which is about 5 minutes work from my office. It's one of them places I go when I might not actually have that much time but I don't want to be stuck in the office. 

My favourite thing to have at the tyneside cinema cafe is normally the soup of the day or the Tyneside Hot Dog and Chips. The service is normally quite quick which is essential when you want something quick but I've also used tyneside for meetings and it can be quite quiet through the day. 

You can check out the menu for Tyneside Cinema Cafe here it has the brunch menu and the evening menu just incase you fancy going after work. 

3. Fat Hippo Pop Up

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The Fat Hippo at the moment is definitely a highlight of my week, so every Thursday around 12noon Fat Hippo set up their pop up Burger Bar at The Quad within the ground of Northumbria University. I remember seeing this on my twitter feed and jumping around the office in excitement. The Fat Hippo has always been one of my favourite places for food but I love them more when they are at pop u including Wylam or The Cumberland Arms for there Beer and Ale Festivals. 

My favourite burger that is always on the menu is the The Little Hippo (I wish I had a photo to show you) which is a single 4oz patty, topped with chorizo, cheese and Fat Hippo sauce which I won't lie is my favourite part. Another item on the menu that is a must is the signature cajun fries. 

You can see when the burger bar is coming close to your workplace by checking out there events page to see where there heading next. 

Well that is my top 3 places to eat at Lunchtime in Newcastle. I hope you have enjoyed it and like seeing a little bit of a restaurant review. I'm hoping to do a few more of this type of post. 

Why don't you tell me below where you favourite places to eat at lunchtime? 

Newcastle NE1 Restaurant Week Recommendations

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As Newcastle's NE1 Resturant Week is fast approaching and I bet link me you have a list as long as your arms of restaurants that you want to try. I wanted to give you some of my recommendations of restaurants I think you should try out. Each restaurant has a link to their full page so you can see the full menu and the offers. I thought it would be nice to tell you what my favorite items are on each individual restaurant's menu to give you idea of what I like. I've also linked a small number of restaurant that I really want to try out myself this time round.

As you like it 

2 course for £10pp / 3 courses for £15pp

My favorite things on the menu:

The Biggest Fish the Boat could Safely Lane - Proper Chips, mushy peas, tartare sauce

Warm Dark Chocolate Brownie - served with a choice of Beckleberry vanilla bean ice cream or fresh pouring cream

El Coto 

3 Tapas £10

My favorite things on the menu:

Papas bravas (V) - Potato chips with a hot & spicy tomato sauce.

Gambas al ajillo - King prawns fried in olive oil with chillies & garlic.

Albóndigas en salsa española - Homemade lamb meatballs in a Spanish sauce.

Georges Great British Kitchen 

2 course for £10 / 3 courses for £15

My favorite things on the menu:

Inka Grilled Cod - Delicious white fillet of cod, cooked in a charcoal grill, served with sweet potato mash, confit button mushrooms and a tomato and herb salsa.

Doughnuts - fresh homemade doughnuts with a chocolate dipping sauce, raspberry dipping sauce, and candyfloss on the side.

Las Iguanas

2 Courses and a Drink £10

My favorite things on the menu:

Quesadilla - Tortilla, filled, folded, pan-toasted & served with tomato salsa. Choose: garlicky mushroom, chilli, thyme & cheese or spicy chicken, peppers, onion & cheese.

Blazing Bird - Spicy chicken marinated with fiery sauce, served with slaw & fries or salad. Sauced-up with: Honey peri-peri / Spicy bbq jerk / Vivo; flaming hot habanero.

Pizza Storm 

Any Pizza + Any Side + Any Refill Drink =£10 / 2X Any Pizza + 1 Any Side + 2X Any Refill drink = £15

My favorite things on the menu:

Craft your own pizza

Coleslaw shot

The Botanist 

2 Courses for £10 / 3 Courses for £15

My favorite things on the menu:

Garlic Mushrooms

Chicken Kebab

Baked Cookie Dough

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Central

2 courses for £10pp / 2 courses and a spritz cocktail for £15pp

Turtle Bay

3 courses for £15pp

Osaka 

4 Courses for £15pp

That is my list of recommendations for restaurant week. Hopefully, it gives you some ideas of where to go. Have you already booked some places? Got anywhere you really fancy going?

Quick and Simple Stir Fry

I thought I would do a quick recipe post as I haven’t done one in a while. This is a quick throw together kind of recipes. It’s the week before pay day and these were things that were left either in my kitchen cupboard or freezer. It’s a simple recipe and all you need is 

Half an onion

Peppers

Chicken breasts (I used frozen)

Peas and sweetcorn (I used tinned)

Ginger

Soy Sauce

Bag of noodles

First cook the chicken till fully cooked, then add in onions, peppers, peas and sweetcorn. Once that is all cooked add in your noodles and soy sauce. I let them cook all together while stirring it all together. Then it's time to plate up and eat. The meal is around 350 calories so it good if your looking for something that is low in calories this meal is good for you.

 Like I said this is a simple recipe you can add stuff in or take things out it’s up to you stir fries are simple meals to adapt to your taste. 

Tell me if you would add an item or take an item out of the simple meal?

Love Yourself, It's Important

Photos by Nicole Marshall

Everyone has those days, where they feel rubbish about themselves and the way they look. That feeling always happens to me in January.  January has always been a hard month for me, I think it’s because it’s the month that I’m out and about, helping other people reach their goals and not focusing much on myself and my goals. I generally work late nights meaning I don’t see much sunlight, as I’ll be in the office for the full day. Don’t get me wrong, I love helping people reach their goals as I get this sense of achievement and proudness when someone I work with reaches their goal. After January, I always start to focus more on myself and start to look at what I can change in my life, to help me fall in love with myself and my life again.

I thought I would list a few things that I changed towards the end of January or will be changing in February to help motivate myself.

 Join a gym and have a program.

If you read my January favourites – you will know that I joined Pure Gym in Newcastle. At first, I found it hard to fit in the sessions but now I have set times, I go and I plan my classes and what I’m going to on a Monday morning ready for the week ahead. The gym is my ‘me time’ it makes me feel better about myself. I’ve always been one of those people that when I’m exercising I feel more motivated about what is happening around me, I find the gym relaxes me and makes me focus on me – not the things I have no control over.

Focus on my skin

I have always been lucky that my skin has never been really bad but I recently decided that I need to make more of an effort with my skin. My sister got me a lot of Estee Lauder skin care for Christmas which meant that I didn’t have to go out and buy a full range. I started using the range, but I didn’t pay massive attention but now I’m really focusing on looking after my skin. I’m still not great at taking my make up off but I’m working on that.

Look into what I’m eating

I will say that I don’t eat terribly as my mam makes a lot of my meals and I would say 80% of them meals are healthy. I started at the end of January taking a lot of meals to work so I’m not snacking as much but I still do snack but it’s mainly on breakfast cereal bars which aren’t too bad. I bought Lean in 15 by Joe Wicks, at the end of January to try out some new recipes. I’ve always been bad with breakfast but because of an app I downloaded called Fabulous which is about making small changes to your day and making them become new habits. This has helped me drink slightly more water – as I’m terrible at doing this and I’ve started eating breakfast more often.

 Try and spend more time with family, friends and boyfriend.

I recently was given more hours at my job meaning I’m working around 35 hours a week at my coaching job and then I have my part-time retail job at Fenwick Department store. As you can guess, I only get 1 day off which at the minute I spend with my boyfriend as I hardly spend any time with him so  the little time I do have I want to spend with him. I hardly get to see my friends or family and definitely don’t have any me time. After a few weeks of thinking I think I’ve decided to leave my retail job it’s not  100% yet but I think I will be leaving at the end of February as it’s not making me happy about my life and I feel like I’m missing out on so much that is happening because I work too much. I’m hoping having a full weekend off that I will get to see my friends, do day trips out and about and just enjoy my life a bit more with the people I love.

Start having me time.

This is something I started doing with small steps, I started with leaving my phone on my bed side table at 10pm I would love to do this earlier but I’m a bit of a social media lover and find put my phone down really hard. My main me time is while at the gym but I want to start doing it more at home. I’m starting to read more and turning my TV off at 10pm. It could earlier now that Celebrity Big Brother has finished (don’t hate my rubbish TV choice). I’ve learnt over the last few months that having some time by yourself is important, even if that just 30 minutes walking the dog.

 This is a list of things I've started to change or I will be starting to do in February. What do you do for me time? or have you recently got yourself a bit lost how did you change that?

What is a Proper Pre and Post Workout Nutrition Diet?

Hey Guys,

I received a lovely e-mail from Amy asking if she could guest post on my blog and I was really happy to do that as I want my blog to help other people. Amy is a literature and biology graduate from Melbourne and loves talking about health. She has written for a number of other lifestyle blogs and has a wide knowledge of nutrition and workouts. I hope you enjoy this post and would love to hear what you think of the post.

You really are what you eat. No matter how persistent and serious your are, and despite the exercise plan that you choose, nutrition plays a major role in the effectiveness of the workouts and in your performance. Pre and post workout nutrition diet makes a difference between reaching your goal and failing. So, while devising a workout plan, make sure to establish a proper dietary routine, as well, which will help you perform better, achieve more permanent results, and recover faster.

Read the following examples to get an insight into what you should and should not eat while trying to lose weight or build muscles.

1. Pre Workout

Pre workout nutrition determines whether you will have enough energy to complete the entire training session with maximum potential. It should include a proper meal and proper supplements that will increase your endurance and muscle strength and help your burn more calories. Depending on your metabolism, you should eat an easily digestible meal (digested within 15 to 20 minutes) 1 to 2 hours before the workout, to give the blood time to leave the stomach and go into muscles.

Always include a fruit (e.g. bananas, oranges, apples). Fruits decrease blood pressure, by dilating blood vessels, and thus reduce stress on the heart. Simple sugars contained in fruits will boost your energy, while vitamin C will prevent cramps. Combine bananas with a whole wheat toast and cinnamon to gear up. Effective pre-workout supplements should be taken on an empty stomach at least 20 minutes before the workout. Multivitamin supplement the vitamins and minerals your body needs to function properly. B-vitamin abundant multivitamins release energy while you are working out, improving your performance. Another great stimulant is caffeine, which also builds your energy. If you are looking to lose extra weight, ephedrine HCL is an excellent fat burner.

2. Post Workout

You might think that you are building muscles while you are training, but it actually happens in the post workout phase, during the recovery. Since your body uses proteins to build muscles, replenishing them is of an utmost importance if you want your workout to have any effect. Otherwise, lack of protein means less muscles that could have been gained, and even the loss of the existing muscle mass. To avoid this, have a protein drink straight after a strength-training session. You will not only fail to reach your goals in your last workout, but it will also have an impact on your performance in the next training session.

Foods rich in protein are any kind of low-fat meat, like chicken or turkey breasts, or lean beef, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and nuts (particularly almonds) that contain good fats. Hydration is crucial, especially after a cardio, to replenish lost electrolytes, so drink plenty of pure water. Glycogen is an essential part of re-hydration because it attracts water to your muscles. This being said, you also need to replenish glycogen stores to prevent muscle soreness. If you wish to avoid an insulin spike, eat low-GI carbohydrate foods that lead to a slow and gradual rise in insulin. These foods are: pasta, whole wheat breads (not the processed ones), sweet potatoes, brown rice, and vegetables.

As you can see, proper pre and post workout nutrition is an integral part of an effective workout plan. But it does not have to be complicated. It just requires a little bit of planning ahead and discipline. You can read more about pre and post workout nutrition at Killcliff blog.

Amy on her Facebook page and Twitter.

I hope to see you and thank you to Amy for guest posting