A few weeks ago I was part of a lucky group of members who won a seat at a meet-and-greet lunch with Skinnymixers’ creator Nikalene Riddle and her Facebook group’s administration team. For those unaware, Skinnymixers is a Facebook group created by Nikalene (or ‘Nik’ as I often call her) which is a platform for cooks to share and discuss healthy thermal recipes. Since the group’s humble beginnings, Nik has created numerous recipes through her Skinnymixers blog, as well as produced two amazing cookbooks that are loved by all who come across them – A Little Taste of India and the newly released, A Little Taste of Asia (I’ll talk about this a bit more in a sec).

When organising a lunch for a group of foodies… well lets face it, food is going to matter. Perth-based admin member, Katie, did a fantastic job finding a restaurant to accommodate a group of 30 or so foodies, that wasn’t overly expensive yet served delicious food. The restaurant chosen was 150 East Riverside Bar Restaurant at Assured Ascot Quays, where for $40 guests were treated to a set menu of shared entrees, a choice of main and tea or coffee.

Here’s what we shared for entrée…

Grilled chorizo, feta, olives and sourdough

Pumpkin and feta arancini

Pork and veal sausage rolls

And here’s what we had for mains…

Half roasted baby chicken, Moroccan cous cous, minted yoghurt

Confit pork belly, prawns, tomato and white bean cassoulet, salsa verde

There was also a third main option, being an Asparagus, pea, leek and pecorino risotto however no one near me ordered this for me to take a photo 🙁

The main reason for the lunch was to meet Nik as well as some of her powerhouse admin team who run the Skinnymixers group, which currently has a whopping 50k+ members. In attendance too were fellow Skinnymixers group members who I enjoyed having a banter with online, as well as some other thermal bloggers who I will shamelessly admit, I was fan-girling super hard for; Bec from Thermobexta, Tanya from Aussie TM5 Thermomixer group, as well as Jean from Thermo-Envy just to name a few (check out my post here for these pics). I’ve had the privilege of forming a friendship with Nik outside the Facebook group that is based on our love of food blogging and food photography (in other words, food porn). She has also been a fantastic mentor and support for me as a blogger.

Karla of My LaLa Life (me) and Nikalene of Skinnymixers (her)

As I mentioned earlier, Nikalene recently released her latest cookbook, A Little Taste of Asia. Many Skinnymixers group members were counting down its release date and when it arrived, it was a roaring success! I believe (though personally not surprising) sales were unprecedented and beyond expectation! Between the release date and this lunch in Perth, Nik was able to get hold of a few cookbooks to personally sign for those that had ordered. It was a lovely surprise to be able to be some of the first people to flick through the print copy of her new cookbook.

Before attending this lunch I was a bit nervous but I’m so glad I overcame that to attend. I walked away making new friends, a deepened respect and appreciation for what Nikalene and her team do to run a hugely successful food group / page / website and cookbooks, as well as feel super keen to get creative and back on the blogging horse. Here are some snaps I took from the lunch…