Hi everyone, hope your having a good week! Mine got off to a great start when I went and collected my new little car last night, I’m still buzzing!

Eats have been very tasty as usual. Breakfast on Monday was fresh strawberries, blackberries and blueberries with some Dorset Cereal Tasty Toasted Spelt Muesli and rice milk. I also had a delicious raspberry coffee with sweet freedom and rice milk:

Breakfast this morning was a Butternut Smoothie (roast butternut, frozen banana, ice cubes, vanilla sun warrior, cinnamon, ginger, rice milk, water, xanthan gum) topped with half a bag of Bear Apple Crumble Granola Nibbles:

I haven’t had a squash smoothie in ages and this was divine!

Lunch both days has been a fab salad of romaine, red and yellow pepper, cucumber, sugar snap peas, red onion and spicy roasted chickpeas with Kristen’s Raw 4 ingredient dressing (cashew butter, water, apple cider vinegar and shoyu):

The dressing was delicious! I also had some fruit – an orange and kiwis.

Snackage and pre gym fuel was a lemon kissed cashew hemp bar on Monday:

…and one of my almond cookies and a pink lady apple today:

The lemon bar was gorgeous, I love lemon flavoured stuff and with the sweetness of the dates and the crunchiness of the hemp seeds this hit the spot. It also fuelled me very well for the gym – I had an excellent workout!

Dinner both days has been a Japanese inspired stir fry containing soba noodles, carrot, diakon, Japanese spinach, tender stem broccoli and some Clearspring organic tofu marinated in sesame oil and mirin and fried in coconut oil. I also added some gomasio and shoyu:

This was so so tasty! I was a little disappointed with the Clearspring tofu to begin with, I had been expecting something more like the Cauldron firm tofu, it was certainly described that it could be used that way. This had a more similar texture to mori nu silken tofu. It didn’t absorb the marinade very well but it did fry up excellently – crispy on the outside and soft and silken on the inside!

Dessert last night was two chopped apples and some Plamils Orange and Cranberry dairy free chocolate:

The chocolate was good but very sweet! Its flavour really reminded me of Terry’s chocolate orange.

Dessert this evening was some cookies and cream Spiru-tein protein ice cream (with vanilla rice milk, ice cubes and xanthan and guar gums) topped with cacao nibs:

Yummy!

My workouts so far this week have been excellent - my usual Monday evening spin class was cancelled as the instructor was ill so I did 1 hour of HIITs on the step machine, cross trainer, bike and rowing machine. I usually don’t use the rowing machine – I think I just preferred the other equipment, but I loved it in this workout! I did 1 minute intervals: 1 minute at about 6 on my ‘perceived rate of exertion’ then basically balls to the wall for the other minute and repeated for 15 minutes, I was beat by the end! I then did my usual abs and core.

This morning I did a quick Yoga for Runners podcast for 20 minutes then this evening I was back at Body Pump. Before the class I managed to fit in another 10 minute rowing machine HIIT session, loving it!

Do you have a favourite piece of gym equipment? Why is it your favourite? I love the step machine and cross trainer as I feel like I get a really good workout on them but I can certainly see me making more use of the rowing machine in future!

I’ve also been doing something that I don’t do very often – eating the same thing two days in a row. Usually I don’t like doing this as I like variety but I’m finding it a real time and money saver - Hence why I’m just posting an ‘eats’ type post every two days and starting to move away from posting every single thing I eat as I don’t want things to get boring!

Are you happy to eat the same meals day after day or do you prefer more variety? My hubby eats plain porridge for breakfast every single day and as much as I love porridge that would drive me crazy! However, one thing that I can’t get enough of at the moment is green smoothies – I like that you can make them different with all the various ingredients and toppings available.

What’s the one thing you could eat day after day and never tire of?

Hi everyone, hope your week has been good. I’m happy its the weekend after the crazy week I’ve had!

Yesterday I had my second late night meeting of the week so I was back to working out at home in the morning again. I did levels 2 and 3 of the 30 Day Shred back to back followed by the yoga stretch section of the Davina Fit DVD.

Breakfast was a wonderful Blueberry Cookie Smoothie inspired by HEAB’s cookie dough smoothie and the various other variations around the blog world:

To make this I soaked 1/3 cup of oats and 1 tbsp of chia seeds in 1.5 cups of water overnight in the fridge then blended it with a scoop of cookies and cream spiru-tein protein powder, a dash of vanilla extract and ice. I then poured this over half a punnet of blueberries, using the other half on top along with a crumbled Almond Oatmeal cookie (from my freezer stash). I don’t need to tell you how good this tasted!

Yesterday’s lunch was leftover Quinoa and Edamame Citrus Salad with watercress, red lettuce and braggs liquid aminos plus an un pictured braeburn apple:

This was so tasty, really love that salad – and it did taste better after the flavours had melded overnight! I also snacked on the last of my Cheesy basil and white bean dip with ryvita pumpkin oat crackers and a huge pile of chopped carrot, sugar snaps and red pepper.

After my evening meeting it was time for smoothie No 2. This included romaine, red lettuce, frozen cherries, frozen strawberries, carob powder, coconut flour, vanilla hemp protein powder, ice, water, xanthan gum, guar gum and stevia. I topped it with some peanut flour sauce, carob chips and coconut shreds:

I had totally forgotten about my carob powder and flakes – they tasted so good in this smoothie!

Today has been another crazy one as we have had a big event on at work. I was up early and made a lovely breakfast of strawberries, plain soy yoghurt, crumbled sunshine muffin and PB & Co white chocolate wonderful peanut butter:

This was really delicious and so filling!

I struck vegan buffet gold at our event – I enjoyed several big portions of fruity spiced couscous, rice and beans, fruity salsa, salad and veggies:

These dishes were absolutely wonderful! I hadn’t been expecting they would have anything suitable for me so I was pleasantly surprised. The fruity spiced couscous was full of grapes and dried fruit, just so tasty! I happily loaded up on this as it will fuel me well for my planned 12 mile run tomorrow.

After work I hit the gym and did a 3,2,1 workout for an hour. It felt good to be back in the gym after this weeks home workouts! I went easy on my legs for the strength component so I didn’t max them out for tomorrows run.

Dinner was Hippy Beans from the freezer with steamed kale and broccoli for a quick and tasty meal:

For dessert I made a huge bowl of double chocolate orange protein ice cream:

One scoop of chocolate sun warrior, 2 tbsp of Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp of orange extract, 1.5 cups of ice, water, stevia, xanthan and guar gums topped with a few candy covered sunflower seeds. This hit the spot!

Grocery shopping

It seems that most of you are interested in me posting details of grocery shops, glad I’m not the only noisy one ;-) I really need to get a handle on my grocery shopping as I’ve been getting into the habit of buying things I don’t need – particularly fresh produce. What can I say, I just love my fruits and veggies! They all look so beautiful but I end up getting too much then struggling to find ways of using it up before it goes bad.

My plan for the next few weeks is to:

• Do 1- 2 smallish shops and 1 larger shop a week – as my diet is so full of fresh veggies this seems to be the best way to ensure things don’t go bad before I get to eat them. I just need to be careful I don’t get sucked in by special offers and buy things I don’t need.
• I already meal plan but I need to start considering James meals a lot more in order to save money.
• Obviously I love my speciality healthy foods and it seems the more stuff I buy the more unusual (i.e. expensive and difficult to get hold of) stuff adds on to my ‘staples’ list. Recent additions include stevia drops, teeccino and peanut flour. I know that none of these are really essentials but they add so much to my enjoyment of food I do want to continue to buy them, I just need to do so in the cheapest way possible! I’ve started getting things on iHerb via the cheaper airmail option instead of DHL and I have an excellent deal going with one of my new sponsors for June – Goodness Direct which I’m very excited to share soon!
• Eat through my cupboards and freezer. I have so much stuff that needs to be used before it goes out of date and I have no more room in my freezer for extra portions of recipes anyway so I need to start getting creative with what I have before I buy anything new.

To start me off here’s my fortnightly organic veg box delivered today:

This includes salad greens, spring greens, asparagus, courgettes, cucumber, celery, bunched onions, pears, apples and bananas.This box cost £16.75 with Riverford Organics.

I’m going to be using up these beautiful fruits and veggies over the next few days in a variety of dishes. I know that organic produce certainly isn’t cheap, but I do believe in buying organic when I can. Getting these boxes once a fortnight is better value than the supermarket and forces me to be creative with its contents!

I did do a big budgeting challenge on the blog last year and I’ll be re visiting my tips for shopping on a budget to help me refocus!

Have you got much planned for the weekend? I’m so glad its a long bank holiday for us in the UK! I plan on doing my long run (12 miles, eek!) tomorrow morning and then we may have a trip into Newcastle and the usual catching up with friends and family.

Hopefully I won’t end up buying too much fresh produce at the market tomorrow – well at least stuff that I know I will be able to use! What’s your biggest issue when it comes to being frugal with your grocery shopping?

Hope you have a great weekend!

Tuesday morning started with my strength workout where I managed to increase all my reps. As next week will see us moving in to March (thank god!) I’ll be changing up my routine again so that I keep challenging my body in new ways – tonight I signed up for Body Pump at my gym, finally I’m getting on the Body Pump wagon!

Breakfast was a fab smoothie in a bowl containing kale, frozen cherries, soy milk, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, maca powder, spirulina, ground flax, matcha green tea powder, xanthan gum and some water. I topped it with cacao nibs, coconut and pistachios:

As I had my check up at the docs at lunch time I worked from home in the afternoon. I had leftover Italian Leek and Bean Stew with rocket:

followed by three plums:

A little later I did an hour of Yogalates followed by one of the new Total Greek yoghurt split pots as a snack:

This was the tropical fruit variety. It was lovely, although I found the fruity bit rather too sweet for me. Still pretty tasty though!

Dinner was 2 baked mushrooms stuffed with one of my Beetroot and Lentil burgers, swede chips, steamed spring greens and red cabbage with shoyu and tomato ketchup:

I truly love swede chips more than regular chips!

Dessert was two chopped apples with raw brazil cacao bliss for dipping:

This morning I had a bowl of 10 grain hot cereal made with chia seeds, water and coconut milk with cranberries, apple and almond butter plus an additional drizzle of coconut milk on top. I also made myself a carrot, beet, cucumber and ginger juice:

Such a pretty bowl of yumminess!

Lunch was some of my veggie chilli with wild rocket and blue corn chips:

I’m in love with those blue corn chips, they are perfect with the chilli! I also had an orange and a kiwi:

Mid afternoon I snacked on an almond and raisin cookie before the gym:

I did my usual 30 minute speed work run on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike. I also did my abs and core exercises. My workout was a total sweat fest tonight, recently the gym has been really cold and I’ve had to work out wearing my long sleeve top. Tonight it was actually warm for a change so I enjoyed getting my sweat on!

Dinner was some teriyaki baked tofu with stir fried carrot, courgette, red cabbage and spring greens plus some mung bean noodles, ginger, shoyu and gomasio:

This tofu was super tasty. Yesterday I pressed then marinated some plain tofu in a teriyaki sauce and baked in a hot oven then left to cool. Today I just sliced it up and added to the stir fry. I think this would work really well in salads too.

Dessert was a pear and some dark cherry RAW chocolate and some plain dark chocolate from The Raw Chocolate Company:

Honestly, that chocolate from The Raw Chocolate Company is utterly divine!

I was so glad that I was able to have a good sweaty workout earlier, I often don’t feel like I’ve had a good workout unless I work up a good sweat. I know that some women don’t like to get sweaty, my gym has several giant fans to keep people cool – but they just leave me freezing cold! Do you like to get your sweat on?

I’m also so excited for trying out Body Pump! I know a lot of you guys are big fans, got any tips for me ready for my first class? What should I expect?

Going back to work this morning after a week off was tough, but at least I had coffee to help me ease back into it!

Breakfast of vanilla coffee with agave and almond milk, bowl of Dorset Cereal’s Cherry, Cranberry and Almond Muesli with small chopped apple, blueberries and almond milk. I made this batch of almond milk with some agave for a little sweetness and it tastes amazing!

Lunch was a big salad containing cos and romaine lettuce, spinach, carrot, red cabbage, red pepper and cucumber topped with some of my high protein hummus:

I also had some grapes and the most beautiful blood orange:

Mid afternoon I snacked on one of my almond oatmeal raisin cookies:

My afternoon meeting finished early so I got to the gym with plenty of time to spare before my spin class. I ended up doing 20 minutes of HIITs on the step machine, 20 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer and 15 minutes on the rowing machine at a medium intensity pace. I did my abs and core exercises – 1 minute 25 second plank (yey!), 20 full sit ups, 20 bicycle crunches, 20 crunches, 20 side reaches and 20 reverse curls x 2 sets then my 30 minute spin class. I was ravenous after this monster workout!

For dinner I made a great sausage and tomato rice dish. I wasn’t going to post this as a recipe but it was so damn good I decided I wanted to!

Sausage with tomato rice (vegan or meat option, makes 2 servings)

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup of frozen peas
• 1 cup of cooked brown rice (I used a brown and wild rice mix)
• 1/2 cup of tomato passata
• 4 sausages, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces (I used tofu sausages)

Fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil. Once softened add the peas and sausages and continue to fry until the peas are defrosted and the sausages are warmed through. Add the brown rice and tomato sauce and stir well until warmed through, serve:

I had mine with steamed purple kale, spring greens and shoyu. This was so so good! I made a version for James (more on that in a moment) with pork sausages and he really liked it.

Dessert was a nutty berry spiru-tein shake in a bowl made with almond milk, ice cubes and peanut butter for added staying power:

I’ve missed my Monday night spiru-tein smoothies!

When I returned to work this morning I was super excited to see that I had received a package from Cosy Tea full of several boxes to try out and review:

These are all organic, fair trade, vegetarian society and viva vegan approved. Obviously I am tea obsessed so I can’t wait to try all these out, the blueberry and green varieties in particular are calling my name!

My lovely hubby started his new job today! Its going to be all change for us as he’s going from working all hours in a job in retail to a week day 9-5 office based job. Its really going to have a huge impact on us, we will actually be able to do things together on weekends! One big difference is going to be eating more meals together. I have a fun post planned looking at how I’m going to tackle the task of feeding a carnivore fuss pot (him) and a vegetarian foodie (me), wish me luck!

Hope your week is off to a great start!

I have a bit of a jam packed post for you, so get comfy! I’ve honestly never stopped today, I’ve been cleaning, baking and cooking. I’ve cooked up rice and quinoa, made hummus, soup and cookies! This morning I decided that it has been far too long since I’ve had pancakes for breakfast, plus I wanted to try out my new coconut flour so I made some of Oh She Glows Spelt Pancakes for one (less all the add in’s and plus one tablespoon of coconut flour and two tablespoons of additional almond milk). I also made up a delicious creamy sauce by mixing one tablespoon of coconut flour with some water. I served mine with mango, blueberries and some desiccated coconut:

The coconut flour seems to be a great ingredient! Its full of fibre and when mixed with water turns into a paste (perhaps a little like peanut flour?) or the sauce shown above. It absorbs a lot of liquid so could be great for adding to smoothies for thickness and coconut flavour or even in porridge.

I also got my baking groove on with some fab cookies!

Almond Oatmeal Cookies adapted from Shutterbean (Vegan, makes approximately 16 small cookies)

• 1 cup of almonds (I used 1 cup of almond meal leftover from making almond milk)
• 2 cups of oats
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup of plain wholemeal flour
• 1/2 cup of grapeseed oil
• 1/2 cup of maple syrup
• Raisins or other dried fruit (optional)

Pre heat the oven to 175c and grease a baking sheet. If using the whole almonds chop them finely in a food processor, then put to one side. Add the oats and salt to the food processor and blend them until they resemble flour. Add the oats to the chopped almonds. Add 1/2 cup of flour, the oil, maple syrup and dried fruit if using and combine well. If the mixture seems a little too wet, add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and form into balls. Place on the baking sheet and press down to flatten slightly. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown:

I made some plain almond oatmeal cookies and some almond, oatmeal and raisin cookies. I had two of these mid morning with a cup of rooibos tea, they taste really good, sweet and nutty!

Lunch was a big bowl of kabocha squash soup with pumpkin seeds followed by 2 chopped apples:

Mid afternoon I made a big green juice: 2 small apples, 2 kiwis, cucumber, celery, lettuce, ginger:

Dinner was a slice of my veggie loaf with some cheesy leeks (sautéed leeks topped with vegan mozzarella and grilled), steamed purple kale, spring greens and carrot with shoyu:

This was so tasty, I love that veggie loaf and it went amazingly well with the cheesy leeks! Dessert was a couple of squares of RAW cherry dark chocolate and a mug of Japanese cherry sencha green tea:

Comfort versus style

Last week when I posted my outfit of the day I was interested in the comments that indicated that most of us prefer comfort over style. As the week has gone on and I have been out shopping I’ve been pondering that question myself. More recently I have definitely become more attracted to relaxed clothing, but I’d like to think that I can wear this stuff and still retain a bit of style! I seem to have a few basic items that I wear all the time, as soon as I get in from work or on a weekend I’m straight into my sweat / yoga pants, hoodies / zip up tops, leggings, cotton dresses, vest tops and baggy jeans.

It just goes to show how much I love those basics as look what I ended up buying this week!

Zip up top and black sweat pants from Peacocks:

I love these as the top has a few nice details like the roll over neck and roll up sleeves which make it look a little different than just a plain hoody. The sweat pants are sooo comfortable and I love the gathered bottoms of the legs. I could easily wear these with a smart top and ballet flats in the spring.

Denim dress from Mango on sale (£14):

Denim dresses seem to be everywhere on the high street in the new collections (and cost around £40 for a decent one), so when I saw this simple shift dress on sale I thought it was a great bargain. Will be fab with leggings and a little belt, and when the weather gets warmer bear legs and flip flops.

Cotton dress from H&M (£12.99):

So simple and comfortable to wear, will be great over tights, leggings, jeggings or skinny jeans.

My top tips to style up comfortable basics:

• Use accessories like a funky scarf or belt to dress things up a bit. I love wearing some long patterned or wooly socks just peeking over boots to add something different:

• Buy items that have an unusual styling detail like a roll over neck on a zip up top, a print or pattern, stitching or gathering detail.
• Use colour – I have a habit of going for neutral colours which can get a bit boring. I have loads of colourful vest tops which I wear under t-shirts and hoodies to add a bit of colour:

• Mix up smart and casual – my favourite thing to do is pair a hoody with a blazer – smart but oh so comfy and warm! You could even add a little belt around the waist too:

What are your favourite comfortable clothes? Do you think you can be comfortable and stylish at the same time?

Oh, and one more pic before I go, here’s some little postcards I picked up in York. I have the ‘keep calm and carry on’ in full size in my hallway but I loved the other sayings as well:

I’ll be sticking these up around the flat and at work. I especially love the ‘when in doubt brew up’! Speaking of which, a sleepy time tea is calling my name… hope you had a great weekend!