'Ave an Avocado... Oil

Lunch at MKOP

• Tandoori Chicken Breast with Banana in toasted Panini
• Wedges with Sour Cream
• Movenpick Vanilla Brownie Ice-cream in Waffle Cone

Dinner

• Nandos Chicken Thigh
• 0.5 x serve Potato Salad
• 0.5 x serve Bean Salad
• 1 x serve Fries
• 1 x serve Coleslaw

Dessert

• 1 x single serve Passionfruit Cheesecake

Nibbles

• Chunks of Tiger Bread for dunking in Avocado & Garlic Oil

Calories = 2,553

Water = 8 Glasses = 2.0L

The last time I went to MKOP in Mission Bay, I ended up having a fantastic day, but a sour event in the evening made me grumpy and unwilling to post about the experience. But on this day I certainly didn't have any overwhelmingly upsetting experience to stop me from posting about how the day went... other tham somehow consuming 900 calories of bread and avocado oil in the space of half an hour; ack!

My Mum and I encountered MKOP (long hand, "My Kind of Place") by chance last time, and absolutely loved its food. Since then, my Mum has taken several overseas visitors to this place, each one coming back and and ranting about the affordable and delicious cuisine. The only people left to experience this place was my Dad and brother. We knew that my Dad would be fine with the fusion of western and middle eastern foods, but my Mum was concerned about my brother and was considering abandoning going there altogether. If my brother had his way we would have all ended up at Burger King nursing a BK Chicken, Chips and Coke and feeling like complete ass afterwards (and I don't even want to think about the calories).

Fortunately for us, I dragged my brother outside the restaurant and demanded that he read the menu and see if there was anything he liked. Within seconds he knew that there was stuff there that he could eat. In fact, for probably the first time my brother was under pressure to decide what to eat. He had several options, and was a bit spoilt for choice. None of us were used to it!

Last time I ordered a Lamb Seekh Kebab Wrap, and last time my Mum ordered a Tandoori Chicken and Banana Panini - this time we ordered the other way around (only my Mum didn't replace the chips for a salad like I did. I win!)

My family get very embarassed when I take photos of my food, so I didn't this time. But I do have a photo from last time of the same thing.

Yummeh! And the Movenpick Vanilla Brownie Ice-cream we had afterwards are a great way to finish the meal off.

In the afternoon my Dad had this weird urge to take me around places deep in the Waitakere Ranges. For those of you outside Auckland, you'll have no idea what the heck I'm talking about, so I suggest that you just go and look at the photos. All you need to know is that these photos are in the same city, about 30 minutes drive from my house. For a comparison, the Central Business District (and my University) are 20 minutes drive from my house at best.

• Laingholm Bay
• Dam (I couldn't remember the name of it)
  
• Cornwallis Beach
• Cornwallis Wharf
  

By the time we had come back from our drive we were hungry, and my Dad wanted to treat me to ice-cream at several of the shops in the area, but I declined him. Rather than that, we instead brought in some Nandos takeaway for dinner, along with some salads from the supermarket.

My Mum was out at a fashion show, and for some reason she doesn't like the Nandos chicken (but she likes the Nandos burgers, so don't ask me how that works), so my dad, brother and myself all happily tucked into our food.

I had a feeling at this point that I would be over my calorie intake for today. Still, I took out the single servings of Crofters Cheesecake and gave one each to my brother, my Dad and myself.

This would have been an appropriate time for me to stop eating. But no. My Dad invited my Aunt and Uncle around to watch the rugby, which came accompanied with chunks of bread dunked into very delicious avocado and garlic oil. Soooooo good. So the amount of oil I had with the bread is the reason why the fat percentage is so high today. Even the ice-cream, cheesecake and the potato chips & wedges didn't put me up that high because of the quantities of them - but the oil is rich in fat (good fats, but fat) and really hoiked up the calories.

The weird thing is, I think I needed a day like this? The past few days I've been at the upper end/going over my calories but I haven't enjoyed the food I ate and have been wanting to eat more and more. I hope this day has helped me to get over that, since I'd like to be on track from here on in.