I can’t believe its Friday already! They say time flies when your having fun and this week has flown over, it doesn’t seem like we’ve actually done a lot, but we have relaxed and re charged our batteries which was top of the list! I also can’t believe we are almost into October!

On my list for this week has been some baking. I made those delicious Super Charge Me Cookies on Tuesday and on Wednesday I made some bread using a bottle of fruit cider which I enjoyed with almond butter, apple and pear spread and plums:

I’ll be blogging this recipe soon as it is ultra quick and easy and has delicious results! I also made another batch of my simple seitan to stash in the freezer. I did use some for dinner in a pilaf type dish with onion, carrot, courgette, peas and millet:

I served on top of some steamed greens with shoyu, delicious!

The other day I also enjoyed a yummy raw sandwich with the aubergine bacon I made at the weekend:

This was so good! I used 4 raw juice pulp flatbreads with mashed avocado and nutritional yeast and the ‘bacon’. I had the sandwiches with loads of chopped veggies for a lovely lunch.

Big Budget Challenge

I have to admit this week has been a struggle, with us being on holiday it feels like we have spent a fortune although we have had to buy a few more expensive items like washing powder. We also decided to pay £3.50 for a giant 3kg bulk bag of pasta for James, really good value!

I did actually get a few things done this week such as getting a load of things up on eBay. I returned a pair of trousers I bought ages ago and hadn’t worn and exchanged them for a beautiful dress and cardigan that I know I’ll get plenty of ware out of! The trousers were also a snug fitting size 8 and now that I’m committed to gaining a little weight I didn’t want them hanging about my wardrobe making me feel bad! I also spent some of my monthly budget on a necklace and bracelet to wear on Saturday night for my cousins wedding celebration – looking forward to showing you my OOTD!

Other bloggers taking part in the challenge so far:

Sarah @ Every Day’s a Picnic

True Penny @ Cool Beans

Jemma @ Celery and Cupcakes

Don’t forget you can also join in any time too! See this post for more details.

Healthy Feast Plan

Yesterday I started my ‘Healthy Feast’ and it has been wonderful! I kicked off with some MTV Power Yoga. It was my first run through of this DVD even though I’ve had it for ages. It was so tough, I was sweating buckets by the end of it!

I’ve had some lovely eats so far and have really been enjoying keeping things simple. This green smoothie was delicious:

This was just spinach, half a ripe frozen mango, coconut water, 2 dates and ice topped with home made raw macadamia butter and gojis. I was really worried that I would miss the stevia and the thickness from my usual xanthan and guar gums but I really didn’t! The ripe mango and dates where perfectly sweet. Today I had another smoothie for lunch. This contained beet greens, spinach, 1/2 avocado, mixed frozen berries, 2 dates, ice and coconut water topped with raw almond butter, goj'i’s and bee pollen:

Again, this was sweet and thick, without the need for stevia or the gums!

I made a big batch of green goddess dressing and I’ve been using it on huge salads:

This one contained romaine, finely sliced spring greens, home grown alfalfa sprouts, beetroot, carrot, orange pepper, red onion and hemp seeds. That dressing is so good I could eat it with a spoon!

I’ve also been eating lots of simple fruit plates with melon and apple etc and this morning I made a batch of agave sweetened pumpkin seed milk which I drank straight up, it tasted amazing! I’ve also made a couple of tasty fruit and nut smoothies:

Fig and almond smoothie (2 fresh figs, handful of soaked almonds, 2 pitted dates, water, ice)

Plum, walnut, raisin smoothie (3 plums, handful of soaked walnuts, 2 tbsp of raisins, water, ice)

Lots of green juice has also been consumed:

I do genuinely love this stuff! This contained 1 large cucumber, 1 large head of celery, 5 romaine leaves, 1 bunch of spinach, 1 handful of parsley, half a lemon and a knob of ginger. That makes about 1 1/2 litres or 6 cups of green goodness, Today I drank 4 cups early on then the other 2 cups mid morning followed by the pumpkin seed milk and fruit.

I also made this fab bowl of courgette ‘spaghetti’ with a luscious avocado basil cheesy sauce based on my dreamy creamy dressing recipe and topped off with some cheesy pumpkin seeds:

I followed it with my current favourite snack: banana split with home made raw salted cashew almond butter, honey and bee pollen:

So good!

I went for a lovely walk this morning to enjoy this gorgeous Indian Summer weather and took a few lovely photos:

 

Is it warm where you are? I’m enjoying it while it lasts but will be happy when it gets a little cooler and feels more like autumn again!

We have a nice relaxed weekend ahead, I’ll be continuing my healthy feast, so lots of yoga, green juice and fruit and veggies to come! We also have my cousins wedding celebration on Saturday night which will be lovely. Any exciting plans for the weekend?

Hope whatever your up to you have a good one!

…is receiving packages in the mail! Some lovely companies have asked me to review some goodies and I received a few of them today:

Linda McCartney limited edition Rosemary and Red Onion Sausages and mini snack sausages (both vegan) plus some Booja Booja Rum Truffles and some Sakata Plain Rice Crackers. I’m really looking forward to trying all of these out and sharing my review with you soon. 

I’ve had yet another great week of workouts. I increased almost all of my weights for my strength training workouts and still managed 12 reps so I’m going to look to increase some of them again next week. I was just fancying another sweat fest for my anything goes Thursday so hit the gym and did a 3,2,1 workout. Over the week I’ve stuck to my plan and did:

• Monday – AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on treadmill
• Tuesday – AM freestyle yoga and foam rolling for 15 minutes, PM gym workout 20 minutes HIITs on cardio machines, Body Pump
• Wednesday – AM gym workout, 5k speed intervals treadmill, 30 minutes HIITs cardio machines.
• Thursday – Anything goes workout! AM – Yoga for Runners 20 minutes, PM gym – 3,2,1 workout
• Friday - AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on bike

I was a bad blogger and totally forgot to take a pic of yesterdays breakfast which was such a shame as it was awesome – a chocolate coconut courgette smoothie! I know it sounds a bit gross but it was lush. Just a courgette blended up with hemp seeds, ground flax, raw cacao, water, ice, gums and stevia and topped with a lot of coconut. I’ll be making it again soon!

This morning after the gym I had a chocolate pear green smoothie:

Still my favourite combo right now – kale, 1 large ripe pear, chocolate hemp protein powder, mesquite, spirulina, water, ice, gums and topped with raw chocolate hazelnut butter sauce, hazelnuts and bee pollen.

For dinners I have been making best use of what’s stashed in the freezer:

Lentil and Root Veg Stew that I made last week and froze in portions with steamed savoy cabbage and millet.

Tonight I had some seitan from the freezer and made a pilaf type thing using a load of veggies from the fridge including garlic, leeks, courgette, carrot, asparagus and red cabbage along with some cooked millet all topped off with shoyu and nutritional yeast:

This was delicious!

I’ve had some nice lunches including the usual big salads:

Romaine, red cabbage, cucumber, carrot, olives, alfalfa sprouts, raw curried crackers, spicy roasted chickpeas and braggs: hits the spot! Plus warming soups:

Spinach, white bean and barley soup topped with sprouted seeds.

Simple veggie broth topped with raw aubergine bacon:

The salty cheesy aubergine tasted so good with this!

I’ve also been enjoying more figs and tahini…

…obsessed!

I’m very much ready for the weekend, how about you guys? I’m going to be catching a coffee with the lovely Jess, seeing friends and family and taking advantage of the zero insertion fees on eBay by getting more clothes up to sell. I’m also looking forward to Halloween on Monday which I will mostly be celebrating all weekend by eating my body weight in pumpkin – I have two of them to roast up and I plan on making a nice curry with at least one of them!

Don’t forget – last chance to enter my giveaway for Kara Diary Free Coconut Milk and Clearspring Miso Soups – check it out!

I’ve had such a wonderful weekend, its been one of those when I haven’t had anything major planned but everything has just ended up being great :-) I caught up with my Mam and Dad as they have been on holiday for two weeks, spent some time with my wonderful two best friends including playing Zumba on the Wii (so much fun!), had a great relaxed run in perfect autumn weather (10k in 54.05), lots of pottering in the kitchen and dyed my hair red! I’m going to wait till next week for the big reveal but I love the change!

OOTD (before colouring hair!):

Scarf: Dorothy Perkins, leather hooded jacket: Topshop, tan woven belt: taken off a Miss Selfridge dress, floral tea dress: Florence and Fred at Tesco, tan bag: Mango, Gold bangle: Dorothy Perkins, cocktail ring: Topshop, skinny jeans: Old Navy, tan leather brogues: Topshop

Yesterday morning I popped into Durham to go to my favourite green grocers. They have the best range of produce I’ve came across locally, and each week they have a ‘password’ on their website that gives you 10% off! I got this huge haul for just £10:

3 pomegranates, 6 plums, 1 melon, 2 purple carrots, 2 russet apples, 2 large heads of romaine, 2 cucumbers, 2 packs of celery, 4 massive bunches of spinach, 2 avocados. I use the cucumber, celery and some of the spinach for my green juices (and then my raw juice pulp crackers). Such beautiful produce! I also scored a bag of red lettuce from my best friends garden.

I’ve been putting this stuff to good use in some of the tastiest eats I’ve had in ages! First up I made this fab breakfast, Carrot, Coconut and Raisin Porridge:

This was so good! It contained 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup of scottish oats and 2 1/2 cups of water cooked on the stove top with 1 tbsp of coconut flour, 2 large grated carrots, 2 tbsp of raisins, cinnamon, ground ginger and vanilla stevia mixed in then topped with more raisins, coconut butter, desiccated coconut and more cinnamon. I enjoyed with a cup of Cinnamon and Hazelnut Coffee, perfect autumn breakie!

Post run this morning I made the most delicious green smoothie:

This contained spinach, fresh mango, vanilla sun warrior, maca, berries powder, barley grass powder, msm crystals, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums then topped with leftover mango, pistachios, goji’s and coconut. This was so creamy and sweet!

I’ve had some gorgeous salads too:

Romaine, carrot, purple carrot, green pepper, cucumber, braggs, hemp oil, hemp seeds, raw sun dried tomato crackers, cheesy pumpkin seeds and nutritional yeast.

On Friday picked up an aubergine from Lidl for 67p so decided to try making my own version of Ani Phyo’s raw eggplant ‘bacon’. I thinly sliced the aubergine using my mandolin, salted it for 10 minutes then squeezed to remove the excess liquid. I then added some braggs, olive oil and nutritional yeast and dehydrated the slices for 5 hours till crispy (you could also bake this in the oven too). I used the ‘bacon’ in a salad:

This was just utterly wonderful! The salad included red lettuce from my friends garden, cucumber, red pepper, purple carrot, lots of dreamy creamy avocado dressing without the herbs and with nutritional yeast instead, topped with the ‘bacon’. I can’t wait to make a big raw sandwich with the ‘bacon’ too!

I’ve been enjoying some serious snackage these last few days as well, here’s some of my favourites:

Home made raw salted cashew and almond butter stuffed dates

Honey crunch apple (£1.50 for 5 huge apples from Lidl, these give pink ladies a run for their money!) and Ghirardelli 100% cacao dark chocolate

Rice cakes with crunchy peanut butter, New Zealand honey and bee pollen

I have been sent this honey to review, this is where the ‘mostly’ in mostly vegan comes in, I do still enjoy honey and this combo was delicious!

I’ve also enjoyed finishing off my bag of miniature dark chocolate Reece’s Peanut Butter cups, lots of frozen grapes and this huge bowl of popcorn with peanut flour and a chopped russet apple on the side:

I’ve continued my ongoing squash obsession – I think the squash I’ve been getting from the green grocers (I bought this one last week) is a buttercup. It really is gorgeous, I roasted it up with coconut oil and made a Buddha bowl with quinoa, edamame, parsley and steamed greens with shoyu:

Then I used the rest of the squash tonight in a parsley filled socca wrap with tahini miso dressing and roasted broccoli and cauliflower on the side:

Squash is so amazing in a socca, especially with the tahini miso sauce!

I’ve also made some raw macadamia butter and I have some cheesy herb raw juice pulp crackers and flatbread in the dehydrator right now! I love productive weekends, especially in the kitchen! I’ve been really enjoying making the most of the seasonal cheap produce available and trying to save some money by making my own stuff. Big Budget Challenge post will be coming soon!

I’m also very happy this Sunday evening knowing that I have no work to go to tomorrow, bliss!

How has your weekend been? I know this question is usually reserved for What I Ate Wednesday’s but since I’ve eaten some well tasty stuff this weekend – what’s the tastiest thing you’ve eaten recently?

Don’t forget to enter my international giveaway for the vegan cookbook Blissful Bites – check it out!