Carrot & Coriander Soup

I had the girls round for lunch this afternoon and served this soup as a starter. It's pretty good as a light meal with some crusty bread too.

1/2 onion, chopped
2-3 shallots, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic
1T olive oil
ground coriander seeds (optional)
approx 500gm peeled, sliced carrots
1L stock (I used vege stock today, but chicken stock is yummy too if you're not catering for vegetarians)
bunch of fresh coriander
greek or natural yoghurt for serving

Chop onion, shallots and garlic in a food processor or chop finely with a knife.

Prepare carrots and set aside.

Heat oil in a big saucepan over med heat. Add onion, shallots and garlic and fry until they soften and the onion looks clear before adding dry coriander. Add carrots, fry for a few minutes and then pour stock over veges. Add hot water to cover if stock isn't enough. Stir and allow stock to simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. Cover with lid (or not, if you don't have one) and lower heat. Leave for another 15 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Turn off heat and allow to cool for about 20 mins before ladling into blender to puree. Add a handful of fresh coriander to blender jug before blending. Pulse until soup is pureed but still textured - it's not baby food!

Pour soup into a fresh saucepan to reheat to serving temperature. Serve with a dollop of greek or natural yoghurt and some chopped fresh coriander. Yum!

Supperclub Strange..

Out for dinner with The Gang last night. We went to this new place - Supperclub. Great concept and food wasn't too bad, but OH BOY it was spendy!! Bit of a giggle at the beginning too as they had been warned there was a pregnant lady in our group (surprise set menu, so they needed to know!) and when I ordered a lime and soda they immediately asked if I was "the pregnant one." My soda arrived in due course and I took a sip, thinking to myself, "this is a pretty tasty lime and soda" only for the waitress to come screeching back saying, "I hope you didn't drink that yet - we've made you a G&T by mistake!!!" Yikes!

The next lime and soda wasn't quite so tasty.

On the up side, The Bump seems to be more bumpy and noticeable this week so that was fun :)

2nd trimester at last!!!

Finally able to announce our "baby to be" on Facebook and later in a group email home to all our friends back home. Left me wondering what on earth people did before the internet ....? Or even how I communicated with people before I joined Facebook last year ... the mind boggles.

I'm still very tired a lot of the time (and having a good chunder most mornings) but am trying to make the most of being able to nap during the day. I'm also going to pre-natal yoga a couple of times a week which is really helping. I'm enjoying the classes a lot, it's just the getting there on the train that's a bit dicey :S

Mike and I went to see Dark Knight this weekend. Was pretty good although a bit long for me - particularly since it didn't start till after 9 and we had Gold Class seats .. very nice but a bit too easy to fall asleep when you have a La-Z-Boy and a blanket. I think I missed the ending .......

Snap!

Omigosh (yes, again) ... my friend Yoshie's Hens Night was this past weekend. Fantastic day at Spa Botanica followed by drinks at the marina and Japanese for dinner at Satsuma at the Gallery Hotel.


As we were all about to toast Yoshie and her "last night" as a single girl she said she had an announcement to make ... she's pregnant! LOL, yes a couple of weeks before their wedding. But here's the amazing part .. later in the night, when it was just Yoshie, Maz and I in a cab on the way to dinner, I broke the news to Yoshie that I too am preggo .. and guess what .. we are due within one day of each other. Wow. Very excited to have someone else to go through it all with and to be yummy mummies together next February ;)

I have to say, I was so so so impressed by Yoshie's effort on Saturday night. She'd never even been to a Hen's Night before and yet she was such a good sport - despite being on the waters all night.