Hi everyone, happy Friday! Hope your all ready to enjoy the weekend. Loved reading your comments to my Green Smoothie post, if anyone would like to join in with the 7 days, 7 smoothies challenge please feel free!

I’ve had a great couple of days off which have been spent doing my favourite pass times: shopping, cooking, eating, reading and exercising!

I started Thursday morning with a home workout. I decided that I wanted to get my workout completed early and as my gym doesn’t open until 9am on a Thursday I checked out my DVD collection and went with Davina Fit: Top Fit and MTV Yoga which gave me a total 1hr 15 min workout. I was starving after this but luckily I had prepared breakfast in advance:

My Vanilla Chia Wheat Germ Breakfast Pudding with two chopped white nectarines, yum!

I spent the morning getting all the grocery shopping done which included a trip to the farm shop, green grocer, Tesco and Sainbury’s – yep, there’s some stuff that Tesco do cheaper than sainsbos and some stuff I just prefer from sainsbos so I did both!

Lunch was some raw wraps made with spring green leaves, sunflower seed butter, carrot, pink lady apple and basil. I also had 4 clearspring sesame tamari rice cakes on the side:

I love these wraps they are amazingly tasty and filling!

Mid afternoon I fancied a big green juice so I juiced up 1 pear, 3 romaine leaves, celery, cucumber, broccoli, spinach and lemon, it was delicious!

Dinner was an awesome Buddha bowl. I combined roast kabocha squash, edamame, quinoa and chopped parsley with a lemon juice, braggs seasoning and cool oil dressing and served it up on top of some steamed broccoli and purple sprouting broccoli with shoyu. I also added some viva pure spicy pumpkin seeds:

This was so so good, I adore kabocha, nothing else comes close to the sweetness and texture of it, delicious!

Dessert was two raw vegan brownie bites topped with coconut flour ‘icing’:

Delish! I also had two unpictured fiji apples.

This morning I was up and off to the gym. I did 1 hour of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine, bike and rowing machine. Oh, and that’s 1 hour total, not one hour on each! I think the way I write that can be misleading sometimes, I do 15 minutes on each machine for a total 1 hour workout. I finished off with my abs and core exercises.

Breakfast was the first green smoothie of my Green Smoothie Challenge:

Apple Pie Green Smoothie (makes one large serving):

• 5 large kale stems (with thick stems removed) – or greens of choice
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 pink lady apple, chopped
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (I used sun warrior)
• 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1/2 cup of rice milk
• 1 tsp of maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of spirulina (optional)
• 1 tsp of ground flax (optional)
• water to desired thickness
• 1/2 – 1 tsp of xanthan gum (optional but adds thickness)

Topping

• 1 tbsp of almond butter
• 1 tbsp of granola (I used viva pure raw apple granola)
• cinnamon

Add ingredients to blender in order listed above, blend. Top with the almond butter and granola and a dusting of cinnamon, devour!

This really did taste like apple pie, so lush! I loved the drippy almond butter on top.

James had the day off too so we headed to Newcastle – I got the most gorgeous ultra skinny jeans and coat from H&M, pics to come over the weekend! I also got stocked up on my favourite yogi teas and soya beans from the health food shop. We were going to have lunch in town but ran out of parking time so when I got home I threw together a tasty salad containing lots of mixed green leaves (spinach, romaine, lambs lettuce and parsley) carrot, red pepper, cucumber, sugar snaps, spring onion and spicy roasted chickpeas and a peanut lime dressing (1 tbsp of peanut flour, lime juice, water and shoyu):

I also had an orange. Later in the afternoon I had another green juice. Dinner was leftovers of last nights Buddha bowl with spring greens instead of broccoli.

Last week I said that I had came up with a recipe using the leftover pulp from making my sesame milk – and here it is!

Raw Chocolate Sesame Tart (makes 4)

• 1 cup of leftover sesame pulp (from making milk)
• 2 tbsp of raw cacao powder
• 1 tbsp of agave syrup
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil, melted

Combine all ingredients and divide mixture between 4 tart cases with removal bottoms. Store in the freezer until needed then remove from tart case 10 minutes before eating, enjoy!

I served mine with some fresh strawberries and figs, it tasted fab!

I really enjoyed my big grocery shop. I was due one as the last time I really properly stocked my cupboards was October. I like to do a huge shop to stock up then I just work my way through everything. As well as the store cupboard type stuff I also got a fantastic haul of fresh produce from the farm shop and green grocers:

 

Yep, this filled my kitchen!

I’m looking forward to some delicious meals using this stuff for the coming week. I was also pretty good and stuck to my list apart from buying two new items:

Hemp milk:

Carob flakes:

Both spotted on Jessica’s blog. I had a taste of the carob flakes and oh my word they are so good! Have you tried hemp milk or carob flakes before? What did you think?

Do you do a monster grocery shop every so often or do you just get things in each week? I love having fully stocked cupboards then just picking up a few fresh items when needed.

Any exciting plans for the weekend? I’m out for one of my best friends birthday’s on Saturday night along with the usual family visits and my long run. I’m not looking forward to the clocks going forward, it always messes with by bio clock!

Hope you have all had a great week and enjoy your weekend!

Hello everyone, how are we doing on this fine (but utterly horrible and rainy) Sunday?

I’ve had a pretty brilliant day thanks to the Great North 10K this morning! I was a bit worried when I woke up and saw the horrible rainy weather and to be honest I was on a total downer on the way there and was just not feeling it, especially as I had told my Mam and Dad to just stay home due to the weather.

Perfect pre race breakfast: oats and 10 grain hot cereal mix cooked with water and home made hemp milk, one chopped banana, 2 crumbled raw chai almond energy balls and some agave syrup

Luckily the pre race excitement kicked in and made me feel so much better! The race has been set in Sunderland the last few years has moved to a new home, starting and finishing at Gateshead Stadium.

Gateshead is really my home town and I was especially looking forward to running along the Gateshead quayside past the Baltic Art Gallery (one of my favourite spots) and the Tyne Bridge. James was accompanying me and we parked a short walk from the Stadium. I made a beeline for the toilets as soon as we got there, finding an empty disabled loo to avoid the long lines. I have to say this aspect of race organisation was pretty poor, most of the toilets within the stadium were out of order! After that I made my way to my starting area, I was in the second wave, and unlike the Great North Run I managed to get there in plenty of time! It was chucking it down and quite cold at this point, James was able to wait with me on the other side of the barrier with an umbrella to keep me dry as long as possible!

Once the race got under way I thankfully warmed up and really got into my stride. The first 3k was spent fighting the urge for the toilet, but after that I was ok. I just focused on keeping a good strong steady pace. The rain also let off which made it a whole lot more enjoyable! Towards the end I saw that my pace was pretty good, and entering the stadium I could see that a sub 50 minute time was achievable (which I had never dreamed I could manage, all my times have been around the 54 minute mark). I absolutely sprinted as fast as I could across that line, finishing in 49.57!

James managed to catch a shot of me on my way to the finish line!

I actually felt ready to puke after that! When I looked at my Garmin and saw that I had managed it I was so completely elated :-) According to the Bupa Great Run site I came 66 in my age group and gender which I think is bloody brilliant!

So there we have it, my first successful 10K! I have to say that I really enjoy the 10K distance, obviously I loved the Great North Half Marathon but the 10K seems like the perfect distance to test speed and endurance, at least for me!

Since coming back from Brighton I have been craving raw foods, especially green smoothies, in fact I’ve had one each day! I have been craving less sugary foods so they have tended to include hemp protein or sun warrior and topped with raw nut butters rather than the more indulgent PB&Co nut butters and sweeter spiru-tein protein powders:

Spinach, frozen banana, 2 scoops of vanilla sun warrior, coconut water, barley grass powder, mesquite powder, ice, xanthan and guar gums and topped with raw nut butter sauce using 2 tbsp of raw almond butter mixed with water, goji berries and pistachios.

Today’s post run ‘green’ smoothie containing spinach, beet greens, 1 small raw beet, frozen cherries, home made hemp milk, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, raw cacao powder, barley grass powder, maca, ground flax, ice, xanthan and guar gums and topped with flaked almonds, freeze dried berries and raw brazil nut bliss sauce.

I’ve also been enjoying the usual big salads:

Salad containing romaine, carrot, red pepper, spring onions, sugar snap peas, cucumber, basil tofu and sauerkraut (which I am loving right now!)

Salad containing romaine, red onion, sugar snaps, peppers, carrots, cucumbers, raw crackers and green goddess dressing.

I’ve also been experimenting with some of the squash I brought back from Brighton, first up spaghetti squash!

Spiralised courgette, roast spaghetti squash, roasted tomato and red pepper sauce with lentils and yellow pepper, steamed broccoli and spring greens with shoyu all topped with fresh basil.

I really loved this squash! I don’t see how anyone could realistically use it as a spaghetti alternative, but in its own right I thought it was delicious. I also roasted up the glorious giant kabocha squash I found, so happy to have some to keep me going!

Lots and lots of roast kabocha with adzuki beans and millet, steamed broccoli and spring greens with shoyu and a delicious drizzle of green goddess dressing.

Even though my cravings have tended towards the green and leafy variety I’ve also enjoyed some lovely raw desserts:

Double decker raw tart: frozen sesame chocolate tart on the bottom and frozen chocolate avocado tart on the top, nom!

‘Super food’ pudding: frozen blueberries, home made hemp milk, raw cacao powder, purple corn powder, ice, xanthan and guar gums topped with cacao nibs.

I made the most amazing batch of raw hemp milk using Lana’s quick and easy method with new ingredient sunflower lecithin and sweetened with coconut nectar and it has been amazing!

I have a pretty crazy return to work next week with a couple of late nights and lots of meetings, I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of my day and make the most of being able to chill out!

If your a runner, what’s your favourite race distance? Have you tried spaghetti squash and if so what did you think?

Oh and before I forget, I have been lucky enough to have Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish featured on the Channel4 Food website! How cool is that?!

Hope your all having a great weekend :-)