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!

Happy Friday everyone! Have you had a good week? The best thing about my week has without a doubt getting my tattoo started! Here’s a sneak preview:

I’m back for another 2 hour session in two weeks time to add more colour and to extend the design down my arm and shoulder. When its finished I’ll explain more about the design, its meaning and why I’ve chosen to have it done. The tattoo itself really didn’t hurt that much thankfully. I already have 3 tattoos so I knew what to expect but it wasn’t half as bad as I remember it! I absolutely adore it :-)

In addition to that awesomeness I’ve enjoyed some lovely food this week. I’ve had lots of salads:

1. Cos lettuce, red cabbage, carrots, red onion, raw beet, pinto beans, crumbled blue corn chips, dressing of hemp oil, lemon juice and hot chilli powder 2. Romaine, lentils, peppers, parsley and home made balsamic dressing (blueberry balsamic vinegar, agave, Dijon mustard, hemp oil, garlic powder, water) 3. Romaine, raw beetroot, avocado, chopped salted almonds, dried cherries and balsamic dressing. 4. Romaine, carrot, red cabbage, cucumber, crumbled Raw Health Italian cracker and balsamic dressing

I’ve also had the usual green smoothies, here’s a couple of my faves from this week:

Chocolate Cherry Beet (spring greens, beet greens, beetroot, frozen cherries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, ground flax, maca powder, water, ice) topped with more cherries, buckwheaties and peanut flour sauce

Chocolate Ginger Pear (spinach, pear, chocolate hemp protein powder, small piece of fresh ginger, maca, ground flax, chlorella tablets, water, ice) topped with raw cacao granola and pumpkin seeds

On Monday we had a planning day at work which meant lunch was at Oldfields again. I had the usual butterbean hummus with epic amounts of fresh warm bread to start and then this wonderful dish with spinach, mushrooms and fennel in a tomato sauce:

It really was so good, I have to try recreating this as fennel is something I’ve never tried much before. I also had lemon sorbet for dessert.

The last couple of evenings I was on raid the freezer mode so used up some soya mince mixed with mushrooms and frozen peas in a tomato sauce (passata, garlic powder, dried oregano and fresh basil), firstly with some courgette ‘spaghetti’:

Then with a baked sweet potato and tons of spinach and nutritional yeast:

Various snackies have also been had…

dried apricots, almond butter and dark chocolate turtles

Raw coconut flour mixed with water, chopped apple and raisins with some agave syrup

Trail mix (inspired by Jemma): roast lemon salted almonds, dried mango, dried cherries and pumpkin seeds (for iron!)

Yesterday I had a fabulous breakfast of a slice of my Banana Coconut Bread made with chocolate chips (slice taken from the freezer) and topped with maple peanut butter (made from peanut flour) and two chopped pears plus coffee of course:

That bread is awesome, I swear it is the best banana bread ever!

Workouts this week have just been the usual:

• Sunday – AM gym – 30 minute relaxed treadmill run (3.25 miles ish) 15 minutes cross trainer, kettle bell class
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – PM Yoga Class 
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – PM Yoga class
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

The yoga has been fun again, in last nights class we were doing poses that all had to be done against the wall. I have to admit I used to think that using blocks and straps were only for people who weren’t very flexible but now I realise that they actually help you to get deeper into the pose and stretch more.

On my weekend send off Love List this week…

Teavivre dragon jasmine green tea pearls

I am obsessed with this tea! I go through tea ‘phases’ sometimes its chai, then peppermint or perhaps liquorice (regular green tea is a daily staple for me though – at least 4 cups a day!). Right now it’s this fragrant and beautiful tea that transforms in your mug. Love it! Also…

The tattoo obviously ;-) // 8 Tracks (James music obsessed that he is, has introduced me to this check it out for a wealth of unique mixes to suit your every mood) // managing to do 14 push ups for the first time ever this morning!

What are you loving this week?

Hi everyone, hope you are all as excited as me for the long weekend ahead! It feels like I’m back at school and today was the last day of term. Next week is just three days then I’m off for almost 2 weeks including our trip to NYC!

Wednesday I had a late meeting at work so it was easy to fit in my usual early morning gym workout. I did the same speed intervals on the treadmill as I did in this post two weeks ago – I can not believe how much easier they felt this time round! I also did some intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core for a total 1 hour 15 min workout.

Before I left for the gym I had decided I fancied porridge for breakfast so I left 1/2 cup of Rude Health Fruity Date porridge mix with 1 tbsp of chia seeds soaking in 1 cup of water. When I came back I added 1/2 cup of hazelnut and almond rice milk and another 1/2 cup of water plus some chopped plums and a tbsp of this new find:

Hemp Protein powder! I have tried hemp protein powder before and I saw this on sale in Holland and Barrat. The brand is Naturya and they also stock maca powder, acai powder, barley grass etc – very good to see these products on sale on the high street rather than just available on line! I also added some hazelnut butter sauce (1 spoonful of nut butter mixed with hot water for extra drippiness):

This was lovely, so so filling! I think soaking the oats and chia seeds beforehand then adding extra liquid made all the difference. I don’t think I’ll be adding hemp to porridge again though as it tasted a little ‘grassy’. Definitely one to save for the smoothies!

I just had leftover Buddha bowl with romaine for lunch and lots of fruit, veggies, crackers and hummus for snacks so when I eventually got home I had a big craving for a green smoothie:

This included spinach, mixed berries, a chopped pear, hazelnut and almond rice milk, maca and mesquite. I topped it with peanut flour sauce, goji berries and some hemp seeds for crunch!

This morning I was up early for a quick bit of yoga. I found an old Apple Yoga programme I’d sky + from the Body in Balance channel so I did 15 minutes of that which included a fast paced warm up, some seated twists and some very challenging hip openers!

Breakfast was more wonderful tofu yoghurt layered up with a full punnet of blueberries and a slice of my banana coconut bread crumbled:

I must make more of this banana bread it is just that amazing!

Tonight I was back at the gym for 30 minutes of upper body strength using the dumbbells followed by 30 minutes of intervals on the bike, rowing machine and step machine (total 1 hour workout).

For a quick dinner I baked a sweet potato and chopped it up, threw it on top of some spinach, cucumber, red onion and braggs seasoning then added some steamed broccoli, humnut sauce (high protein hummus, nutritional yeast and water) and a few mixed seeds:

Heaven :-) This was seriously delicious! I’m really enjoying eating more sweet potatoes they are just so delicious and make the perfect fast food.

I really fancied some protein ice cream for dessert so I blended 1 scoop of chocolate sun warrior, 1/2 cup of hazelnut and almond rice milk, crushed ice, water, cocoa powder, agave, xanthan and guar gums and topped with some viva pure chia super food porridge mix:

Yum!

Taking of hemp – I found more hemp milk in Tesco so decided to stock up:

Does anyone else have the habit of buying their favourite things in bulk whenever you see them? I really need to stop this habit as there’s only so much I can fit in my kitchen, but I tend to have a fear of things either being out of stock or discontinued! I do love this hemp milk though and hemp in general. I also eat hemp oil as it is an ingredient in my favourite Cool Oil. It really is a great source of nutrition, especially for us veggies and vegans as it contains an excellent balance of omega fatty acids as well as being a fantastic source of protein. Have you tried hemp powder, seeds, oil or milk? Do you like hemp products?

So happy its the long weekend! What do you have planned? I’ll be cleaning, gardening, cooking, baking, running, seeing the family and hopefully chilling out to! Hope that whatever you are up to you have a great Easter break planned :-)

Hi guys, how has your weekend been? I’ve had a really lovely one, after having a bit of a ‘me’ day on Friday I had a lovely lie in on Saturday morning and awoke to a big comforting bowl of muesli with a chopped apple and kara coconut milk alongside an Indian Chai tea with coconut milk and stevia:

So good to enjoy a big bowl of wonderful muesli! Lunch was a salad with black kale massaged with with lemon juice and mashed avocado, romaine, carrot, red and yellow pepper, olives, more avocado, hemp seeds, nutritional yeast and braggs:

I spent most of the day pottering about in the kitchen getting ready for my little Bonfire night get together. Unfortunately my Sister and my Bro in Law couldn’t get a baby sitter for my 9 month old nephew but my Mam and Dad brought my older nephew Harry with them and my best friend Charlie brought her little girl Hannah. We had so much fun!

~My Bonfire Night Menu~

Vegetable Broth

Cumberland Sausage Sandwiches (Linda McCartney vegan rosemary and red onion sausages for me) with ketchup and fried onions

Caramelised Red Onion with Blueberry Balsamic Vinegar

Roasted brussel sprouts and leeks in a maple dijon dressing (hemp oil, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard)

Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Bread (my old recipe but with 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips added and unrefined soft brown sugar instead of the xylitol)

Hot Chocolate (made with cococardio) with coconut milk and a shot of amaretto liqueur

      

I had such a lovely evening, I adore those kiddies :-) We ended up watching the fireworks from the top of a hill just two minutes from our flat instead of paying £3 each to go into the actual park. A lot of people had gathered there and the atmosphere was wonderful, I wish I had bought some sparklers, not for the kids but for me!

The food I’d put on went down really well too, that Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Bread was utterly wonderful even James, who rarely gets excited by food, said it was the best thing I’ve ever baked, and in his words it was ‘f***ing lush’. Not bad for something vegan eh?

This morning I enjoyed another lie in so my run wasn’t in the dark for a change! I was really looking forward to getting out, the weather was perfect, bright but very crisp and I adore the smell after bonfire night. I’ve really been enjoying changing up my running routes recently and today was no exception. I did a route with a good few hills that took me though parts of Durham so I could enjoy the views and all the colourful trees. I did 6.7 miles in 58.13 average pace 8.41. I would have rounded it up to 7 miles but I forgot my mittens to go on top of my gloves and my hands where throbbing with pain by the end!

Breakie was a bit of a tutti fruity smoothie containing spinach, rainbow chard, 1/2 frozen banana, frozen peaches, frozen mixed berries, frozen strawberries, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca powder, spirulina, water, vanilla stevia, gums and topped with raw cashew butter, freeze dried berries and bee pollen:

I made myself a delicious raw lunch of raw aubergine bacon and avocado open faced sandwiches on some raw flat breads along with some chopped veggies:

I had the mid afternoon munchies after I’d downed my usual green juice so made up a bowl of cold roast kabocha squash with some peanut flour sauce (1/4 cup peanut flour with stevia and sea salt) plus a sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of honey:

This was the bomb! Such a great snack, and along with an apple it sorted my rumbling tummy out a treat!

For dinner I had a little bit of leftover roasted greens from last night with some roasted broccoli and a herbed socca wrap filled with roast kabocha squash:

The roast broccoli tasted so good and the sprouts and leeks were wonderful as leftovers often are!

Those of you in the UK – did you do anything special for Bonfire night? Is there any food you always associate with the 5th November? I always remember my Nana’s broth!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Hi everyone, hope you’ve been having a lovely weekend! I’ve had a great one, today I was out for Sunday lunch to celebrate Mother’s day with my Mam and Grandma :-) I decided to rock my £3.50 eBay skirt:

Outfit of the day: drop crystal earrings: Oasis, blazer: Topshop, pink long sleeved top: Dorothy Perkins, bag: H&M, floral skirt: eBay, black tights: M&S, grey peep toe boots: Oasis.

It feels like I’ve been eating so many colourful foods this weekend! Looking back to Saturday, we had a lovely relaxed morning – I made a big pot of sencha green tea and just chilled out while eating breakfast. This was just delicious:

A slice of my coconut banana bread with strawberries, apple blackberry tofu yoghurt and passion fruit. I know I’ve said it before but I adore that tofu yoghurt and it tasted so good with the coconut banana bread. Just so I can link back to it here’s the super simple recipe that I use to make the yoghurt:

Simple tofu yoghurt (makes two servings)

• 1 package of mori nu silken tofu
• 1 small jar of fruit puree / 3 tbsp of pureed fruit (I’ve been using hip organic baby food!)
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Chill in the fridge before eating. I really love its plain creamy taste – dare I say it, almost as much as Greek yoghurt! It certainly makes a nice vegan alternative, at least for me!

Lunch was a beautiful ‘rainbow’ salad. I just loved all the colours in this!

It included cos lettuce, sweet pea shoots, alfalfa sprouts, carrot, yellow pepper, beetroot, sugar snaps and cucumber plus a load of mixed seeds for added protein and crunch. I made the simplest and tastiest dressing inspired by a recipe in Veganomicon using 1 tbsp of tahini, 1 tbsp of sweet white miso and water, it was utterly delicious.

I went for more posh green juice too:

Posh because I drink it from a wine glass ;-) This was my first green juice sans fruit – it contained celery, romaine, cucumber, broccoli, lemon and ginger and tasted surprisingly good without the added sweetness of the usual apple or pear. I’ve also had a few colourful fruit filled bowls:

Dinner was a a socca pizza type creation. I made up the usual socca and topped with a thick layer of my broccoli and olive high protein hummus, broccoli and brussel sprouts roasted in coconut oil, beetroot and alfalfa sprouts:

This was really good and very filling but I think would have tasted even better with regular hummus! I also had some 74% dark chocolate with mint from Plamils – it tasted amazing!

Sunday morning I was up for my run. I decided I to go for a nice relaxed 9 miles (the furthest I have ran this year) which I did in 1hr 25 minutes with an average pace of 9.32 which I was really happy with. It was a good run but it did feel slow and tough at times. It was nice to hit the 9 mile distance though and I felt really strong at the end, even managing a bit of a sprint finish! I was thinking back to last years training and how achy and tired I felt after some of my runs. So far this year I’ve had none of that, my recovery seems to have massively improved.

Breakfast was a delicious chocolate cherry beet green smoothie made with a big cooked beetroot and the usual maca, mesquite and ground flax then topped with peanut flour sauce, grape nuts cereal and cacao nibs:

So good!

I was a little nervous of visiting the restaurant for Sunday lunch as I didn’t want to have any problems finding something vegan to order. I shouldn’t have worried though as ended up with some penne in a lovely roast veggie and tomato sauce along with a big salad. My tummy wasn’t so happy with the white pasta – it always bloats me up now - but I had a few cups of green tea when I got home which made me feel better.

For dinner I made a huge pan of my favourite spring soup – Courgette and Watercress. For such a simple recipe this really tastes fab:

I had a couple of bowls full, just so nourishing and delicious. I also had more tofu yoghurt with strawberries, blueberries and a little bit of granola:

All in all a lovely weekend has been had!

I’ve also managed to be quite productive which is always good, I got another assignment completed for my diet and nutrition course and had a lovely Sunday cook up session so I have meals ready for the next couple of days, as well as an extremely well stocked freezer. I think next week will be eat out the freezer week!

Do you like to eat a rainbow of different coloured foods? I love to try and eat lots of different colours – mainly because they are so pretty but also because eating a range of colours ensures you get a full range of nutrients. I have Colleen Patrick – Goudreau’s Colour Me Vegan cookbook on my wish list – it has a range of recipes based on the colour of foods!

I would have to say that my favourite food colour is green – apples, kale, spring greens and cucumber are some of my favourite veggies!

What’s your favourite ‘food colour’?