Hi everyone, we are almost at the weekend thank goodness! I’ve had a bit of a crazy work week so I’m looking forward to the break.

I kicked off Wednesday with an early morning gym workout. I did 30 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill. I say speed intervals, I don’t follow a proper plan – I just start with a 5 minute warm up (6mph) then 5 minute intervals at different speeds: 6.5mph, 7mph, 6.7mph, 7.2mph then finish with 5 minutes of 30 second intervals at 6.7mph / 7.7mph. Today I actually discovered how to change the display to show the pace as well as the speed so that could help when doing tempo runs in the future! Laura recommended that I read Run Less Run Faster to help get my head around all that so I have ordered it in at the library. I then did 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core.

Breakfast was unsurprisingly a smoothie! This one contained romaine, some spinach / kale / cabbage mix that I’d picked up from the reduced section, frozen ‘forest fruits’ mix, vanilla hemp protein powder, peanut flour, maca, spirulina, matcha green tea, ground flax, vanilla rice milk, water and xanthan gum. Toppings were Bear apple crumble granola and some mixed seeds:

I also had another raspberry coffee – so in love with that stuff right now!

Today started with a quick 15 minute full body toning yoga flow from Slim, Calm Sexy Yoga then a big bowl of Dorset Cereals Low fat Tasty Flakes with 2 chopped plums, vanilla rice milk and a maple and walnut coffee sweetened with agave:

This was the last of the bag of cereal so I got all the little crumbs, which I love!

Wednesday’s lunch was courgette and carrot noodles with some of my cheesy butternut sauce and an orange:

This was so moreish, the butternut sauce is just so good you have to try it! Today’s lunch was some Lentil and Spinach soup with two sliced kiwis and several pink lady apples:

Before lunch I had started to feel a bit faint and shaky so I ate a little satsuma at work then on the way to the Library I popped to the shops and got a pack of pink lady apples. I ended up munching all 4 of them, they are just so sweet and crunchy!

Wednesday’s snack was a pumpkin seed ryvita with hazelnut butter plus some sugar snap peas and cucumber slices:

Today I snacked on one of my raw vegan brownie bites. I hadn’t actually tried one of these yet even though I’d made them last week and oh my god it was so good, the texture was just heavenly! Very glad I have several more stashed in the freezer!

I also fitted in a quick gym session after work. I did my upper body free weights routine and followed it with 10 minutes of HIITs on the step machine and 15 minutes of HIITs on the bike.

Dinner both evenings has been a new recipe. I picked up an aubergine at the green grocers last week and wasn’t sure what to make with it so I consulted my Evernote account and saw I’d book marked the Leon recipe for Hippy Beans. It sounded delicious so here’s my slightly amended version:

Hippy Beans with Rice and Greens (inspired by recipe in Leon Ingredients and Recipes, makes 4 large servings):

• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 2 fat garlic cloves, minced
• 2 peppers – I used one red and one yellow, roughly chopped
• 1 aubergine, roughly chopped
• 1 bunch of runner beans, roughly chopped
• 1 tin of mixed beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tin of kidney beans (could add whatever beans you fancy)
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of water from a recently boiled kettle
• 3 tablespoons of sweet chilli jam / sweet chilli sauce
• 2 handfuls of spinach
• Rice and steamed spring greens / kale / cabbage to serve

In a large pan fry the onion and garlic in a little oil over a medium heat until softened. Add the aubergine, peppers and runner beans and continue to fry for a few minutes until the aubergine is lightly browned. Add the drained beans and chopped tomatoes. Add the hot water and the chilli jam. Cover the pan and allow to simmer for 15 minutes until the peppers and aubergine are tender and the sauce has gone syrupy. Add in the spinach and stir until it wilts down. Serve with the rice and greens and a sprinkle of mixed seeds:

This is just proper lush! The sweet chilli sauce adds a delicious syrupy sweetness and a touch of heat, so good :-) Tonight I had it with steamed kale, broccoli and cauliflower.

Wednesday’s dessert was some Conscious Cherry raw chocolate with chopped apples:

This was nice but I think I prefer the Conscious chocolate that is flavoured like the mint or orange rather than just containing dried fruits.

Tonight I whipped up a quick batch of tofu yoghurt (1 pack of mori nu silken tofu with 1 little jar of baby food fruit puree and vanilla extract, blended in food processor) topped with some pomegranate seeds:

So creamy, I really love this simple tofu yoghurt.

I enjoyed my little apple binge today (pink lady apples are my absolute fave) but I do know that in the past my excessive apple snackies have been a sign that I haven’t been eating enough and clearly that was the case today – especially when I started to feel shaky. I have to admit I’m still struggling with the balance of eating the right amount – I don’t calorie count at all and never have, but I’m finding myself drawn to the idea if only to give me some reassurance. I’ve tried to stop weighing myself all the time too and I’m going to wait until the end of the month and see what the scales say then. I really am trying to remember the healthy over skinny mantra as much as possible and eat when I feel hungry without feeling guilty afterwards. It may sound a little silly but changing the blog name from keeping slim to keeping healthy has made a huge difference to my mind set! I know I’ll get there eventually.

As for my running I know I’m going to have to get my head around a half marathon training plan soon if I want to improve my speed. When I trained for the Great North Run last year I just winged it but this year I’d like to try something a little more structured. To all you runners out there, do you do speed work / intervals / tempo runs? How do you approach your running training?

Hope your all having a great week, bring on the weekend!

I bought a new car this weekend!

This isn’t the exact one but the same model and colour, I pick mine up tomorrow night. I got a great deal and I’m really excited! Its super economical and environmentally friendly and drives very well too :-)

Saturday morning I got up and decided that I wanted to get my run out of the way and done for the weekend instead of waiting until Sunday as I usually do. I fuelled up with an orange and 2 amazing medjool dates. I did 3 ‘laps’ of my hilly route for a total 7.02 miles in 1hr 9 minutes so a much slower pace than last week, but to be honest with those hills I was happy to have kept it under 10 min miles.

Post run breakfast was a good one – my tutti fruity smoothie with added romaine lettuce, spirulina, matcha green tea, maca and xanthan gum plus a tbsp of PB2 then topped with another tbsp of PB2 made into a sauce, goji berries and viva pure raw granola:

 

I had this bowl plus another half a bowl (the lettuce gives so much volume) and it was amazing. The PB2 is just divine, I’m thinking of ordering another couple of jars as I know the one I have will not last long! I’m also in love with the raw granola.

After car shopping I came home and had some miso and ginger soup, two rice cakes with tahini, a large chopped carrot, several chopped apples and a bowl of blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. A little later I made a wonderful green juice:

This contained pear, broccoli, cucumber, celery, Japanese spinach and lemon, I really can’t get enough green juice at the moment!

Dinner was the other half of my spelt and veggie pizza with some raw radicchio and romaine. Then we decided to open a lovely bottle of red. I had a large glass of this wine and my final two booja booja truffles:

This morning I decided to make use of two of the three near empty nut butter jars I’ve been saving with berry oats in a jar. I made some porridge on the stove top with 1/2 cup of rude health fruity date mix and 1 1/2 cups of water. I added some mixed frozen berries and brown rice syrup and poured into my nut butter jars then topped with a fresh strawberry:

Check out the peanut butter on the side of that jar – nom! I also opened some raspberry coffee I got at Christmas and oh my god it was just amazing!

Lunch was some raw cabbage wraps with pink lady apple, carrot, fresh basil and sunflower seed butter plus some mixed fresh berries:

These were delicious! I’m enjoying eating more raw foods after reading about the benefits in Crazy Sexy Diet – raw wraps are such an easy way to do that. I also think I finally got the hang of wrapping them up so they don’t fall apart! During the afternoon I snacked on a few more pink lady apples and made myself another tasty green juice with apple, romaine, Japanese spinach, celery, ginger and lemon.

Dinner was a blogger inspired creation - I had seen this recipe for butternut squash cheesy sauce on Oh She Glows and knew I needed to try and make my own version:

Cheesy Butternut Sauce (makes two to four servings) Inspired by Oh She Glows

• 1/2 small butternut squash, peeled and roasted until tender
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons of sweet white miso
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast powder (or if using flakes increase to 2)
• Milk – enough to reach desired consistency – I used 1 1/4 cups of plain rice milk, soy milk would also be lovely
• pinch of salt

Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and blend into a sauce. Add more milk for a thinner consistency (this thickens up in the fridge so bear that in mind) or more nutritional yeast for a more cheesy taste. This sauce could easily be used as either a pasta sauce, salad dressing or if left thicker, then a tasty dip.

I served mine with some brown rice and vegetable penne, courgette, steamed tender stem broccoli and radicchio plus nutritional yeast flakes and fresh basil on top:

 

This is sweet, cheesy and garlicky and oh so good for you! I think I might try it on some raw veggie noodles too. Utterly delicious!

That’s not all I’ve been busy making in the kitchen! Friday I used some of the delicious medjool dates I picked up from my favourite green grocer to make two great recipes. No 1. was Choosing Raw Lemon Kissed Cashew Hemp Bars:

I used half the quantities in the recipe to give me 4 large bars. Can’t wait to eat these as pre gym snacks! I also made some Raw Vegan Chocolate Brownie Bars:

  To make these I blended 1/2 heaping cup of dates with 1/2 cup of mixed walnuts and brazil nuts, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tbsp of raw cacao powder in my food processor then pressed the mixture into the bottom of a lunch box and froze until firm then sliced into squares. Holy yum!

I also had several ripe bananas to use up. I couldn’t decide if I should make some banana black bean brownies, muffins, cookies or banana bread. In the end, with help from twitter pals, I decided to go with the banana bread, and I’m sure glad I did! I made quite a few adaptations to a Veganomicon recipe and luckily they all worked very well:

Coconut Banana Bread (adapted from Veganomicon Lower Fat Banana Bread)

• Three small or two large very ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup of apple sauce or baby food fruit puree
• 1/4 cup of rapeseed oil
• 1/2 cup of xylitol (or natural caster sugar)
• 2 tbsp of barley malt syrup (or agave / maple syrup)
• 1 1/2 cups of wholegrain spelt flour
• 1/2 cup of coconut flour (or could just use more spelt flour)
• 1/3 cup of desiccated coconut
• 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pre heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180c and grease a standard size loaf tin. Mash the bananas well, then add the apple sauce, oil, xylitol and barley malt syrup and combine well. Add the spelt flour, coconut flour, desiccated coconut, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon and mix until just combined. Transfer to prepared tin and top with a good sprinkle of desiccated coconut. Bake for 45 – 50 minutes until golden brown (I checked mine at 45 minutes and it was over browning on the top but not cooked in the middle so I would advise covering the top with foil after 30 minutes). A knife should come out clean. Leave to cool and devour!

My parents and James had a few slices of this and it went down extremely well! I had a slice of for dessert and it was absolutely heavenly. Moist, bananary coconuty yumminess!

So I’ve had a pretty awesome weekend with getting sorted with my new car and all this cooking! Although I’ve had a good one I’ve been so saddened with what has happened in Japan, it reminds you of what’s important in life at the end of the day doesn’t it? My heart goes out to everyone that’s been affected.

What’s your favourite flavour loaf or bread? My coconut banana bread tasted amazing but I also love gingerbread and my Carrot, Date and Walnut Loaf.

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend and have a good week ahead!

Hi everyone, happy WIAW! Hope your having a good day :-)

My day kicked off with a brilliant run. I did my ‘hilly’ route – 7 miles in just over an hour, average pace 8.37, a huge improvement on the last time I ran that same route – and moaned about it – so I was very happy!

I refuelled with a delicious green smoothie:

This contained kale, spring greens, frozen banana, nectarine, scoop of fruitein protein powder, maca, spirulina, msm, coconut water, ice and xanthan and guar gums. I topped it with a drizzle of PB&Co Mighty Maple Peanut Butter and some gojis. Perfection! I also enjoyed a bug mug of Clippers Indian Chai tea.

For lunch and snacks I took this lot to work:

Three big cabbage wraps stuffed with garden pate and cashew mayo, chopped carrot, red pepper and beet, full punnet of strawberries, trail mix containing dried cranberries, cashews, brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds and pistachios and an organic pink lady apple.

I don’t know what it is right now but I have a major obsession with beets, specifically raw beet and beet greens, I just can’t get enough!

For dinner I raided the freezer and found a very old portion of my Cheesy Butternut Sauce so decided to cook up some kamut pasta with cannellini beans and raw courgette and served with a big rocket salad and topped with basil:

So good, I can’t believe I’ve left this in freezer for so long, very tasty!

Dessert was a mini Raw Cookies and Cream Cheesecake:

The perfect sized treat, this tasted just as good as it did last time :-)

At the moment I’m trying to use up as much food from my cupboards and freezer as possible. My grocery budget is taking a major beating and I really need to get back to some sensible budgeting as per last years Big Budget Challenge. Most of this month has been spent trying to make up meals using what I have and just buying in fresh fruit and vegetables along with bits and pieces for James. I have really enjoyed using the dehydrator to make very cheap tasty food out of veggie and almond pulp that would have otherwise been thrown out. I even have my eye on some wild damsons I noticed while I was out running this morning, I’m planning a late night fruit picking mission!

Today’s mini shop: cheap veggies from Aldi – little gem lettuce, rocket, spring onions, spinach and radishes. I got a few of these on the 39p deal!

With pay day now approaching I’m still wanting to be as frugal as possible with grocery spending but there are just some things I can not do without! Some times you also have to spend a little upfront to be able to save in the long run as well. I’m thinking of placing an order with Healthy Supplies for nuts and seeds which I’m now almost out of. I’m also dangerously low on green and rooibos tea, goji berries and peanut butter – I know I have lots of other nut butters but god forbid I run out of plain crunchy pb!

I also could do with more beans, tofu, tempeh, shoyu sauce – the list goes on and on!

Do you feel the grocery shopping pinch? With great sites like iHerb and Goodness Direct tempting us with their goodies, how do you prioritise your health food spending?