Hi everyone, hope your having a wonderful Sunday. I’ve had the best weekend!

I enjoyed this lovely soya latte with raspberry syrup at one of my favourite cafes Intermezzo in Newcastle

I started the weekend with a quick run, as usual I just went out and ran with no idea of distance or pace, I think I probably did about 3.5 miles. When I came home I made a smoothie:

This contained spinach, cantaloupe melon, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca, ground flax, water and ice then topped with some Kashi crunch. I hadn’t been planning on starting my green smoothie challenge until today but I couldn’t help myself!

Then I got ready for my day out!

OOTD: floral jacket: Warehouse, striped dress: Tu @ Sainsbury’s, belt: Dorothy Perkins, black quilted bag: Topshop, tights: M&S, ankle boots: New Look

I was also excited to show everyone my finished tattoo!

I’m so happy with it, I know tattoo’s aren’t for everyone but I love them and this one means a lot to me. I’ll explain the meaning behind it soon! I think its pretty tasteful and delicate and I love the colours.

Once we got to town we went to Olive and Bean for a bit of brunch:

I had granary toast with peanut butter and jam and a large soy latte and James had the continental platter. You can’t beat good old peanut butter on toast sometimes!

After that we had a look round the shops and went to see The Hunger Games at the Tyneside Cinema. I think I’ve posted a pic of their screen before but I just love its old fashioned style so much:

I really enjoyed the movie and thought they did a pretty good adaptation of the book. I also indulged in a little budget friendly shopping, I got a neutral coloured blazer and a bright pink sleeveless top from H&M and a fab pair of boot cut jeans from a charity shop for £4! After that James got the train home and I went to my parents. Its my wonderful friend Kate’s 30th Birthday today so me and my other best friend decided to surprise her. I fancied a drink so thought I would stay at my parents which is closer. My friend Claire bought Kate this epic cake:

Oh and yes, I did enjoy one of those cupcakes and a large slice of the cake (of course it wasn’t vegan but I’m enjoying my more flexible approach to that right now) plus a few glasses of Cava, Southern Comfort and lots and lots of crisps and chocolate. We had a great time! I’ve been friends with those two for over 17 years and they are the best friends ever, we had such a laugh just chatting and catching up. This morning I paid for both the alcohol and the sugar with a nasty hangover, but nothing a green smoothie can’t fix!

That was a very cleansing green smoothie with spinach, chinese pear, celery, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ginger, maca, ground flax, water and ice. Along with a pot of kuricha green tea it sorted me out a treat!

It was lovely that both my friends commented on how much better they thought I looked with a bit more weight on and they were happier that I seemed to be more relaxed about eating ‘unhealthy’ foods and enjoying myself :-) At the end of the day I have to keep reminding myself that I eat healthily 90% of the time and a few drinks and sugary foods enjoyed with my friends is one of life's pleasures!

Today I’ve just been enjoying chilling out. I made myself a lovely big salad for lunch with romaine, cucumber, red pepper, sprouts, basil tofu, olives and home of my green goddess dressing:

I just love that tofu!

So I have started my green smoothie challenge – one green smoothie a day for at least 7 days. As I was saying on Friday I just feel the need for them at the moment and after recent indulgences I think my body will appreciate it. Like I said if you’d like to join in the challenge let me know and I can link back to your posts. Here’s some green smoothie recipes for you and my ultimate green smoothie recipe. I’m also feeling very attracted to salads and simple Buddha bowls right now while at the same time really wanting to do some baking! I think I’ll be enjoying the baking next weekend :-)

Have you had a good weekend so far? Do you have a favourite cinema or cafe? What kind of foods are you attracted to at the moment?

As I mentioned at the weekend, I had my 30th Birthday last Friday. I blogged about the day itself but on Saturday night we had the big party! I always knew that I wanted to do something special to mark the occasion and as it is also my Mam’s 50th Birthday 10 days after mine, we thought it would be a good idea to have a joint celebration.

I have a pretty big family, and in the past we did have a tradition of having fancy dress parties at birthdays and Christmas. We felt we were long overdue another one!

We didn’t have a theme so it was anything goes, and my word did we have a good variety of costumes! In the end I decided on this:

I thought a vintage style sailor girl pin up would be fun :-) James kind of matched my look as an American style GI Solider:

My Mam and Dad:

Zorro and 1920’s style flapper – my Mam made that dress! ‘Watch my cape' as he got in the car was a sentence I never thought I’d hear my Dad say :-) Some of the others…

Dad, my two uncles and James

My cousin, Auntie, me and Mam

Me and my gorgeous Sister as an Airhostess

Aunt and Uncle – Zena Warrior Princess and Spartacus

My friend from work and her partner – school girl and 1970’s

Friends – Claire who was dressed up as ‘Vicky Pollard’ from Little Britain was absolutely hilarious!

My cousin, her hubby and kids as the cutest pirates ever, parents neighbours as 80’s rocker, Norman Wisdom and a Mime artist

Mam’s work mates – loved the Geisha costume!

My cousin, his wife and son. I still get a bit freaked out by that little Incredible Hulk!

Cruella Deville and her Dalmatian – she walked in with him on a lead and I cried with laughter! We awarded them best costume of the night!

We put on a nice big spread and I tried my best to sneak in some ‘Laura’ food:

That’s my nephew Harry dressed at Batman sneaking some food before everyone else ;-) My Mam made the amazing cake and cupcakes, she is so talented at cake decorating! I made a roast vegetable and whole wheat couscous salad, hummus, veggies and wholemeal pitta breads, raw date, almond and coconut balls, fruit kebabs with grapes, pineapple and melon and chocolate covered strawberries. We also had the usual pies and quiches, open sandwiches, gateaux etc.

I know those photo’s aren’t the best quality but admittedly I was too focused on enjoying myself than taking better pics! I am disappointed I didn’t get a better picture of the room as we had decorated it very nicely with purple and while balloons, dollies on the tables, vintage tea cups filled with sweets and also some tea lights.

After the party we all came back to my parents house and stayed up till the early hours of the morning. Best. party. ever. I feel so blessed to have such fantastic family and friends. The whole weekend was made even better as one of my best friends gave birth to her baby girl on the Thursday and my close cousin Catherine gave birth to her little boy just after midnight on the Sunday morning! Oh and can I just say, my Mam is so completely awesome, talk about 50 and fabulous, she rocks! Obviously I indulged in rather a lot of not the healthiest foods and alcohol over the weekend and yet again I’m paying the price but there are no regrets here whatsoever, I enjoyed every mouthful! Living a healthy life is about having a good balance and I am right back to my usual healthy habits again this week.

If you were going to a costume party what would you dress up as?

• Simple but delicious birthday breakfast of strawberries with almond butter and a vanilla bean green smoothie
• Waiting for the train to Newcastle – OOTD: denim jacket: New Look, cream vest: H&M, emerald green vintage style skirt: Urban Outfitters, gold necklace: Warehouse, trainers: Converse, cocktail ring: Topshop, tan bag: Mango
• Lunch at Las Iguanas: free birthday Mojito which came with a candle in it! incredible Coconut Squash Taco for starter, Superfood salad for main
• ‘Dessert’ – Venti Mocha Frappe with soy from Starbucks
• Cocktails at Popolo…
• Then more cocktails at No 28 chilling out on the day bed
• Remainder of my fabulous raw birthday cake after dinner at my parents with my aunt, uncles, cousin and grandma. Base made with dates, almonds and coconut oil, cacao avocado coconut oil agave mousse topping and strawberries, so so good!
• Presents! I really was so spoilt, my Aunt and Uncle from Brighton bought me a huge haul of goodies from Infinity Foods, Cath Kidson Mugs, Liberty Print notebooks, Pimms, Philosophy shower gel and Montezuma chocolate covered coffee beans from my amazing Sister, perfume and Hotel Chocolat goodies from my parents, things I bought with birthday spending money – Lindt chocolate, Regina Spektor album, Topshop ballet pumps (£5 on sale), H&M metallic pumps (£7 on sale) and necklace (£1)

Hi everyone, hope you are having a brilliant Sunday, I thought I’d quickly do a post to share with you some of the things I did on Friday for my 30th Birthday! Thank you so much for the lovely comments and tweets! I had an amazing day, in fact the whole weekend has been awesome. Without a doubt the best Birthday ever :-) Last night was the big party and it was better than I could have ever imagined, needless to say I’m feeling a bit worse for wear this morning! Right now I just feel so lucky to have such amazing friends and family, I’ll have to sort out a post on the party in the next couple of days, the costumes were great and we put on a delicious buffet too!

After I’ve pulled myself round today its back through to my parents for round three, can’t wait! How has your weekend been? What was your favourite birthday and why?

Happy Friday guys! What a week it has been, I’ve definitely finished my twenties on a positive, today is my 30th birthday! I thought I’d schedule this post to go live this morning so I could focus on opening my birthday cards ;-) As I write this I’m feeling so strange, I’ve been reflecting on the past and thinking about the future. I feel like I have the opportunity to leave a lot of things behind me and go into my thirties with a fresh slate. So exciting! Yesterday I spent some time in the kitchen making these babies:

Gooey peanut butter brownies!

I under baked these so they were a slight fail, however they have firmed up a bit in the fridge and are still very edible! I based them on this lovely recipe of Michelle’s but exchanged 1/2 cup of flour for cocoa powder, added 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips and topped them with spoonful's of peanut butter swirled about. I totally ate the middle one which was pretty much pure warm brownie batter, absolute heaven! I have also made myself a raw birthday cake but you’ll have to wait till my next post to see that one!

This weeks workouts:

• Saturday – REST
• Sunday – 30 minutes light cardio on machines in gym, Kettle bell class
• Monday – Totally random strength and HIIT routine including single leg deadlifts, single leg squats, chest flyes, push ups etc and followed with 20 minute HIIT on bike and step machine – total workout time 55 mins
• Tuesday – 20 minutes cardio on machines in gym, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – Level 2 Vinyasa yoga class from Yogaglo
• Thursday - Gym – super quick workout – deadlifts, shoulder presses, rows, chest presses, lunges etc, 10 minutes hard HIIT on the bike
• Friday – Birthday!!! I might do a little yoga, perhaps 30 sun salutations for fun?

My fave outfit from this week:

Floral jacket: Warehouse, white tee: H&M, gold necklace: H&M, khaki trousers: Topshop, gold sandals: Next 

Last weekend I’d bought a big bunch of fresh parsley and on Sunday evening realised that I wasn’t going to use it all up. I decided to make it in to a couple of things, firstly my green goddess dressing and then some experimental pesto type thing blending the parsley with almond butter, nutritional yeast, garlic and olive oil:

I’ve sealed the top of the jar of pesto with some oil so it will stay fresh in the fridge but I’ve been digging into the green goddess, its my favourite dressing ever! I had some on this big salad:

It just makes everything taste even fresher :-) I also ended the weekend with lots of celery to use up so made a very simple red lentil stew with onion, celery, carrot and chopped tomatoes. I chopped up and mixed in a pre baked sweet potato and had alongside steamed broccoli:

This week I decided to try some more eggs and I’d also bought some organic goats cheese so an omelette it was!

I used 2 whole eggs and some red onion topped with the goats cheese and grilled. It was incredible, I’d forgotten how much I loved goats cheese! I have a recipe featuring it coming up soon :-) I also had a spare egg scrambled it in coconut oil for breakfast with half an avocado, blueberries, an orange and the most fantastic iced coffee:

This was one of my favourite breakfasts in a long time! The coffee was so good because it was blended with full fat coconut milk and some vanilla bean paste then poured over ice. You have got to try it!

Breakfast yesterday was a slice of Courgette, date and pecan bread topped with sunflower seed butter, a chopped apple and a plum:

Then after the gym I treated myself to a cherry, banana and peanut butter milkshake:

Made with a ripe banana, frozen cherries, peanut flour, almond milk, ice, maca powder and a tiny pinch of salt to bring out the nuttiness :-)

On the Love List this week…

While I was out at the gym yesterday morning my Mam snuck in my flat and decorated it with 30th Birthday balloons and banners! How lovely is that? I was so chuffed and it was completely unexpected! Also…

My best friend giving birth to her second daughter! // registering my company and domain names for the big business stuff / setting the gears in motion for setting up my charity! / re colouring my hair – it feels so good to have it freshened up // chocolate covered coffee beans // dominating my to do lists

This week has seen some huge leaps and bounds around the health coaching business / charity type stuff. I’ve had some very productive meetings and things are really starting to get moving, hopefully I’ll be able to share more details with you guys soon. The time just feels so right!

In case you missed it:

• Recipe for Chilled Summer Pea, Avocado and Mint Soup
• Review of Lovestretch clothing

I’m going to be a bit MIA from the blog world this weekend so apologies if I’m unable to keep up with my usual comments on others blogs, but I unfortunately I will be out enjoying myself ;-) Today me and James have a special day planned followed by a birthday dinner at my parents and then tomorrow night its the big fancy dress party. I can not wait to show you my costume! As usual I’ll probably be tweeting and Instagraming everything like a crazy lady so check those out if you’d like.

How has your week been? What’s on your Love List this week? How do you celebrate your Birthday?

I started the day with a cashew cookie nakd bar and an apple. I chopped up the apple and nakd bar and ate them together, so yummy!

I'm very glad I bought the cashew cookie to try, its delicious.

I then hit the gym, it was so good to be able to work up a sweat! I did 30 mins on the cross trainer, 15 mins on the step machine and 15 mins on the bike. I warmed up slowly and then stayed at a moderate resistance level. My leg did get a bit achey but I had a really good stretch afterwards and it was fine. I also did a few quick abs exercises on the stability ball. After the gym I popped to the shops for some groceries, I think I bought enough fruit and veg to last me two weeks!

I then made myself a fab brunch -

Chocolate and Banana Protein Pancakes with greek yoghurt, mixed berries and agave syrup

For the pancakes:
3 egg whites
1/2 mashed banana
1 scoop of chocolate whey
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 pot of greek yoghurt
defrosted frozen mixed berries (or fresh)

Mix all ingredients together and cook on a frying pan on a medium high heat. Should make 3 medium sized pancakes. Spread each pancake with greek yoghurt, a drizzle of agave and some berries then add another layer and so on.

This was super delicious and super filling!

I then got myself ready and me and the hubby had a quick look around the shops. I picked up my last treat for my holidays - this gorgeous maxi dress. Seeing this photo has reminded me to up the fake tan, I look a little pale but I think thats more the lighting I hope!

After shopping we headed to my parents for my nephews 2nd birthday party. I snacked on a orange before the party started. My Mam made this wonderful hedgehog cake...

...and put on this amazing spread.

I started with a plate of roast chicken, salad, hummus, carrot sticks and a few kettle chips.

I went back and added more salad, hummus, a slice of quiche, two small new potatoes and some more kettle chips.

Earlier I had been thinking about cake, I didn't want to be the odd one out by not indulging in some birthday cake so I decided to make my own healthier and filling version to take along.

Chocolate brownie cake with peanut butter and strawberry topping

For the cake:
1 scoop of chocolate whey
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 mashed banana
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder

2 teaspoons of smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons of vanilla rice milk

Strawberries

Mix the cake ingredients together in a bowl and microwave on high for between 1 and 2 minutes (keep checking - the cake should be slightly firm and all the liquid should be absorbed). The cake will shrink a little once its out of the microwave. Leave to cool.

Make the peanut butter topping by microwaving the peanut butter and rice milk till warm and mixing together. Once the cake and peanut butter topping has cooled, 'ice' the cake with the peanut sauce...

...then top with strawberries.

This was quite a dense cake, but really chocolately and extremely filling! I also had a few huge bowls of strawberries and grapes.

This bowl x 3! Unsuprisingly I had a major food baby when I got home.

Harry seemed to enjoy himself though!

He's so cute isn't he? To finish the days eats I had a vanilla blueberry green monster (vanilla whey, frozen blueberries, spinach, vanilla rice milk) in a bowl.

Drinks - water, green tea, fresh lemon and ginger tea

That smoothie in a bowl was brilliant, I have a bit of a sore throat today and this was lovely and cooling. I've also had a couple of cups of hot water with fresh lemon and ginger to try and help. I hope I'm not coming down with anything :-(

I've had a very protein filled day today with three portions of whey powder. Its not going to do me any harm though, that extra protein should hopefully support any healing in my knee. I'm also going to up my protein intake over the next couple of weeks to support that healing and hopefully help me lose a couple of pounds!

Summer confidence challenge update - I've done ok this week, I've moisturised daily and I've exfloliated and deep conditioned my hair twice this week. I've bought some hair dye ready to do my hair at some point this week too. I've started every day with lemon juice in hot water and I've been drinking as much water as possible. I've had a couple of slips diet wise (not so healthy quiche last week and today, and a little too much sugar from lots of fruit) and obviously my training plan has been altered! Overall I'm feeling much better mainly as a result of my skin feeling improved and having a bit of a glow from the fake tan!

How has everyones weekend gone? Hope you have all had a good one. We are still waiting for a nice thunderstorm to clear the air, its so humid here at the moment. Hope everyone has a good week ahead x