Hello everyone, hope your enjoying your weekend! I don’t know where last weeks sunshine has gone, its been a bit bleak and grey these last two days. Anyway, I have had plenty of lovely things to keep me cheerful, this mornings pancakes being number one:

Vegan chocolate protein pancakes with strawberries, cashew butter and maple syrup. Absolutely delicious!

Number two would be this bowl of oats with pears topped with Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter and buckwheaties for crunch:

That finished off my jar of crack for now, must reorder some from iHerb!

I’ve also enjoyed this gorgeous Butternut Cherry Bomb smoothie inspired by Laura from Sprint 2 the Table:

This was spinach, roast butternut, frozen cherries, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, cinnamon, ground flax, maca, water and ice topped with lemon salted roast almonds, dried cherries and raw granola. It was fantastic and the toppings really worked well together too, I’ll be having the almonds and dried cherries together again soon!

Last night I had a craving for some British style comfort food so I made my version of a ‘Sunday Dinner’ with stuffed seitan roll, cauliflower mash, roast broccoli and gravy:

It hit the spot! For dessert I had a big bowl of frozen blueberries, a chopped pear, peanut sauce made from peanut flour and maple syrup plus cacao nibs:

I also ended up devouring a couple of bowls of millet puffs and chopped apple with extra maple peanut sauce too because it was so good as well as a couple of these home made raw chocolates:

I’d bought some cacao butter ages ago and finally got round to making my own raw chocolate! I used this recipe but halved it and added some lucuma powder, chopped pecans and sea salt. This made 6 little chocolates that taste absolutely heavenly!

For lunch today I’ve just had this gorgeous Warm Butternut, Lentil and Fig Salad:

I left off the pine nuts and added some simple tahini miso dressing instead. So so good, perfect salad for this time of year!

Something lovely happened at the gym this morning. I’d just done my gym workout (30 minute treadmill run, 15 minutes cross trainer) and was waiting for my kettlebell class to start when I bumped into a friend that I hadn’t spoken to in a while. She commented on how good I was looking since I’d gained some weight and that she was actually worried about me when I’d been thinner. It meant so much to me to hear her say that. I am trying to deal with this weight gain thing and its not easy but every time some one says something like that it makes me feel a million times better. At the moment I’m just trying to relax into things to see where my weight naturally stabilises eating and exercising as I am now although I am expecting that I’ll continue to gain for a while. I’ve started to think that experiencing both ends of the spectrum – being overweight and then underweight (for my own body) are just things that I’ve had to go through in order for me to grow as a person and hopefully help others in my future :-) 

I also went to the tattooist yesterday and managed to get booked in for a 2 hour session on Wednesday if I can get the time off work! So incredibly excited, as well as being a little nervous of the pain but I know it will be worth it. Looking forward to sharing the tattoo with you once it’s done!

What lovely things have you enjoyed this weekend?

This weekend has been such a good one!

Loving my new floral top plus a side of Twinnings Earl Grey and Green tea blend

After what had been an odd week for me, I came home on Friday, treated myself to a hot bath and then made a simple but gorgeous dinner:

I made a quick omelette with two farm eggs and filled it with almond butter and black cherry jam alongside a baked sweet potato with more almond butter and some roasted broccoli. The omelette with the sweet jam was especially good. For dessert I had a huge bowl of fresh strawberries topped with some of my home made strawberry coconut ice cream:

I was up very early yesterday as me and my best friend were off to the Spa! I’ll be blogging a full review of that very soon as it was courtesy of Groupon but I have to say it was fabulous. Before I set off I had a light breakfast of papaya, soy yoghurt and Kashi Go Lean Crunch:

After our Spa experience we decided to walk across the river into town for an early lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day and the view of the Bridges across the Tyne was stunning:

We went to The Settle Down Cafe in Newcastle, I hadn’t been in ages but it didn’t disappoint!

I love it’s relaxed atmosphere and it always has some vegan options, they even had a vegan cake on the menu! We both had a falafel, salsa and rocket toasted sandwich on seeded bread and I had a side bowl of the different salads including a slaw, broccoli, spinach and sesame and chickpea:

I keep forgetting how good falafel is with salsa! After that we had a look around town and a then walked back to the car over the river. It was so good to spend time with Claire, I love her to bits!

For dinner just fancied something light and tasty and what I made turned out extremely well, I even surprised myself with this one! I wasn’t planning on it being a recipe but its too good not too!

Roasted Vegetable and Lentil Salad with Tahini Dressing (makes 1 serving, vegan)

• 3 small beetroot
• 1 red onion
• 1/2 medium butternut squash
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup of dry green lentils (or half a tin of ready cooked green lentils)
• 1/4 cup of fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

For the tahini dressing (this will make 4 servings):

• 1/4 cup of tahini
• 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp of tamari or soy sauce
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• Water to thin

Pre heat the oven to 200c. Cut the beetroot into bite size pieces, chop the red onion into wedges and peel and chop the butternut squash. Add all veg to a baking pan along with the cloves of garlic left whole. Toss in a little oil and salt and bake for 30 – 40 minutes until tender. While the veg is roasting cook the lentils in boiling water until tender (if using dry lentils). To make the tahini dressing combine all ingredients in a food processor, adding water until it reaches the consistency of single cream. Once the veg is roasted remove the garlic and squeeze the flesh out of the skin and into the lentils. Add the roasted veg and parsley (reserving some for garnish) and mix well. Serve drizzled with the tahini dressing:

The colours in this dish are beautiful! I served mine with some steamed asparagus. So simple, so healthy and tastes amazing. It would also work well with goats cheese and balsamic vinegar instead of the tahini if your not a fan.

This morning I was up bright and early for my weekend run. I did 7 miles in 1hr 9 so pretty slow (for me) but I keep on reminding myself I don’t have to be Speedy Gonzales and I still have plenty of time to improve before the Great North Run in September. When I got home I made a Butternut Cherry Bomb smoothie using beet greens instead of spinach and topped it with a few frozen cherries, roasted almonds, dried mango and maple syrup:

One of my fave smoothie combos for sure! Today I’ve also enjoyed a wonderful hydrating Vita Coco Coconut water and Berry slushie:

I just blended up a small carton of coconut water, a handful of mixed frozen berries, some crushed ice and a couple of drops of stevia. So yum! For lunch I had a giant salad with romaine, cucumber, carrot, sauerkraut and basil tofu…

…and for snacks the usual green juice (with cucumber, celery, lemon and parsley) and two fresh figs with soy yoghurt, tahini and thyme honey:

I will never get sick of figs, tahini and honey! Oh and I’ve also been indulging in one of my favourite treats:

Montezuma’s Dark Chocolate Buttons and pretzels, I’m actually planning a special recipe based on this combo very soon!

Have you had a good weekend so far? I had such a great time enjoying my home town of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Technically I was born in Gateshead and now live in Durham but for some reason Newcastle is where my heart is :-) I have worked and did live in Newcastle for a short time and just wished I’d appreciated it more back then, although it has changed a lot over the last few years and become a more modern city. I love the market, the shops, bars, cafe’s and places like the Tyneside Cinema. I have so many good memories! Do you live in or near your home town and do you like it? If you do, what is it about your home town that you love so much?

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great Easter!

James got me this Lindt dark chocolate bunny and then also surprised me with a Green & Blacks Dark Chocolate egg!

I've had a super Easter break spent doing many of my favourite things - spending time with friends and family, cooking, baking and of course eating ;-) I've also had some time to chill with James which has been great, I feel like my batteries have been well and truly recharged! On Friday I baked my hot cross buns, saw my best friends and ate this delicious Thai red butternut and chickpea curry:

It was extremely good for something that was so easy to make!

Saturday started with a 5 mile outdoor run. I'm still going garminless so 5 miles is an estimate and it was probably pretty slow but it felt good to be outside! I got home from my run and changed straight back into my pjs which I wore for most of the day while we watched TV (more Dexter) it was bliss! 

My post run breakfast was a butternut cherry bomb green smoothie topped with roasted soya nuts, dried cherries and pistachios: 

I love how sweet this smoothie is! I also ate more hot cross buns and random snacks of millet puffs with coconut flour sauce / peanut flour sauce and blueberries, chocolate almond butter cups and tahini with jam on spelt crackers etc, it was just that kind of a day! I also had my usual green juices to balance it out and did fit in one half decent meal, a big salad with romaine, red pepper, carrots, red onion, olives, chickpeas and balsamic, dijon and hemp oil dressing:

After that I finally got dressed and we headed off for a night out! I think I've mentioned before that James is really into his music, we thought we go and see a singer / songwriter called Juan Zelada at The Cluny in Newcastle. We really enjoyed the gig, James has posted a review over on his blog. Before the gig started we had a drink at the bar and I couldn't resist this:

Organic vegan cherry beer! It tasted gorgeous, I've had the strawberry beer from the same brewery and that was delicious too. 

Yesterday I thought I'd treat myself to a tasty breakfast - two of my hot cross buns toasted, first with Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter and then another with vegan spread:

Both accompanied by some strawberries and lots of coffee:

I used up the soy milk leftover from my baking to make some frothy vanilla coffees, yum!

It was after breakfast and once I'd iced my cupcakes and baked my tart that the fun started. Due to a computer fault, half of Durham had no water supply! I hadn't even had a shower so wasn't best pleased. I had been planning on a lovely Easter outfit OOTD but no such luck! We were going to my parents anyway so we went early so I could get washed. Luckily the water came back on later in the day, what a relief! Lunch was fab though: 

I had some of my lazy courgette and pesto tart with salad and some bulgar carrot salad and a roast veg and couscous salad my Mam had picked up from M&S. I had a couple of plates like this plus two of my tasty cupcakes and mountains of fresh fruit. I felt totally stuffed but still found room to eat most of my dark chocolate bunny! To help feel a bit rebalanced after all of that I made a green smoothie:

This was spinach, courgette, vanilla sun warrior, cinnamon, water and ice. I followed it up with a big pot of kuricha tea and spend the rest of the day in my pjs lying on the couch:

What a weekend! Today I’m just trying to get myself pulled together for going back to work tomorrow and back to reality!

How did you spend your Easter break?