3 quick and healthy snacks

I'm still trying to eat well and although I've managed to lose 6lbs since Christmas, I'm still carrying 1lb of Christmas weight. Those burgers and cakes clearly aren't helping matters. I was very kindly sent a yummy selections of goodies - more coming later! - from Nairns to help me keep on track with my healthy eating. The brand may be known for their oatcakes but they've also got some wheat-free oat crackers in their repertoire too. Perfect if you're not too keen on oatcakes! I've got my three favourite toppings to talk about - it makes a great change from munching on a bag of crisps at your desk!

Cream cheese and smoked salmon
This is such a classic and very tasty. I find the tiny individual pots of Light Philadelphia are perfect to take in your pack lunch. Simply smear some on a cracker and then top with a piece of salmon. Not too much as you don't want to overpower the cream cheese. Plus smoked salmon is very salty!

Guacamole and sundried tomatoes
I could easily eat sundried tomatoes like sweets. They're a great supplier of vitamin C and A as well as offering your body much needed calcium and magnesium. This will help your blood pressure. They provide the perfect accompaniment to zesty lime of the guacamole. I think this one is my favourite - it will work well with avocados too. I just find they go off a lot quicker - I can never use them up in time!

Low fat Hummus and chutney
This may sound a bit odd but it really does work well together. The sweetness of the chutney pairs great with the grainy hummus. You can never have too much hummus in your life right? Make sure you get the low fat version - it tastes exactly the same but you can save important calories.

Do you have suggestions for toppings?

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Places to stay: Malmasion Oxford

Perhaps the reason why the boyfriend and I have been together eight years is because we both like slightly unusual things. Or he just amuses me by going along with slightly unusual things. One such unusual thing was booking me a nights stay in this amazing hotel as a birthday present. It is a converted prison in a medieval castle with a lot of the period features on show. The staff were extremely kind and helpful, they even tried to book us a table in town for dinner. But atlas, it was fully booked. We stayed in the superior suite - the lovely boy cheekily paid for an upgrade - and it consisted of three cells knocked together. It still has the cell down intact too. If you go down to the ground floor you can actually see a cell how it originally was.

I may have let out a little squeal when I spotted the roll top bath - filling it up to the brim on Sunday was pure heaven. We didn't touch the mini bar as we were too poor, but they had absolutely anything you could ever fancy. I loved the little touch of the bath robes and we kicked ourselves when we saw the DVD player. Games Of Thrones is crying out to be finished and we could totally have spent the entire evening in bed. The room was by far one of the best we've ever stayed in and we made that excuse when we trudged off after eating too many burgers to get into bed. At least we made full use of the room eh?!

Despite him remarking at least three times - 'The amount this cost me, we went to Berlin for the weekend' - it was certainly worth the money. The boyfriend has a very nice idea of taking me away for the birthday the kind soul he is. Sometimes in life you have throw caution to the wind and splash out. A little bit of luxury is what makes the world go round.

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Oxford City Guide

Christchurch College
If you're a Harry Potter fan, no trip is complete without a wander around this college's grounds. The building is absolutely beautiful! You'll certainly recognise some things! It's a £4.50 entrance fee and you can stroll around to your hearts content.

The Randolph
Like I mentioned in my pervious post, my boyfriend surprised me with afternoon tea. The Randolph is a gorgeous old-fashioned five star hotel in the heart of the city. It's very charming! It's a lovely place to go if you're celebrating a special occasion. We opted for the yummy full afternoon tea which consisted of a selection of sandwiches, fruit scones with clotted cream and jam alongside afternoon pastries. The bakewell tart was my favourite!

Malmasion Oxford
I love a quirky place to rest my head and this hotel ticked all the boxes. It's set in a converted prison in a medieval castle. It's so luxurious and definitely somewhere to book if you fancy a little treat. I won't say too much as I'm going to write a separate post on it later this week.

The Vaults and Garden Cafe
I found this on Trip Adviser when I was researching some places to stop for breakfast. It's set in the Church by All Souls College, not too far from the high street. You join a canteen style queue as you place your order on what homemade food you'd like to sample - get your partner to grab a table as it gets very busy! We opted for the full breakfast which consisted of organic eggs, air-cured bacon, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and giant butter beans in a tomato sauce. It was pricey at £7.95 but it tasted delicious. Sometimes it's worth splashing out!

St Johns College
Lily mentioned this was her favourite college so we set off to hunt it down. This college was free to enter and it has gorgeous grounds. If it was a little warmer, we would have spent a lot longer exploring.  It's so cool to think that people actually study and live here and the incredible history that the walls could talk about.

Cafe Loco Oxford
This was a recommendation from Hannah - when she mentioned it was Alice In Wonderland themed I was sold. It's again quite pricy - sense a theme? - but the portions were a good size. It's a great place to go for lunch after you've visited Christchurch. It offers table service which is great after you've been on your feet all day. I opted for a tasty pesto, mozzarella and roasted vegetable panini to help refuel before we headed off home. Make sure you get a cake from the takeaway section!

 

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin
I'm a sucker for a good view so I was very excited when I found out you could climb up the church tower for £4. After quite a lot of huffing and puffing, we finally reached the top and were rewarded with some stunning views. It was such a bright day and we could see for miles. It was well worth the dollar and provided some gorgeous pictures. Try not to lean on the wall as my boyfriend got pooped up on the cooing pigeons nesting there!

Oxford University Museum of Natural History
After spending a small fortune, we decided to venture to the museum after reading it was free. It's not too big but you can still whittle around an hour in there taking in all in. They had a good selection of dinosaurs - always a winner in my book - and some cool stuffed animals. There's a cafe upstairs too if you fancy some cake! It's set in a beautiful building.

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