Hi everyone, hope your all having a wonderful relaxing Sunday! I’m busy trying to get organised ready for our week away! I said in my post on Friday I was looking forward to doing something I’ve been wanting to do for ages…

I dyed my hair red! I’ve been trying all weekend to get a picture that actually shows the colour properly but this is the best I’ve managed. I dyed it a reddish brown a few months ago but decided to buy a bright red colour this time. I had my hair bright red when I was younger and had been thinking of going back to that colour for ages. This is probably about as bright as it will go without lightening my natural colour first. I love it though, its great for a change!

Other than that its been a pretty quiet one, I spent most of yesterday just enjoying watching the snow! There have been several good meals to be had though. On the way home from work on Friday I stopped in town to go to the green grocers and while I was there I had a look in one of the Asian supermarkets. I got a bag of goji berries, millet, dried mango and this unusual sesame peanut butter:

Considering that I adore both peanut butter and tahini (sesame paste) this tastes incredible, its like peanut butter and tahini got together and made a beautiful tasty baby! Half the jar is already gone! I mixed it with some sweet white miso and water to make a dressing for this Buddha bowl meal:

This was stir fried kale, courgette, brown rice, roast butternut squash, chickpeas and the sauce, it was fantastic. I also used some of the sesame peanut butter in this protein pudding snack:

I had a bit of a protein craving so mixed a scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder with water and added a swirl of the sesame peanut butter then topped with raw cacao granola, yum!

Yesterday morning I enjoyed a lovely lie in, my first in such a long time! I decided to treat myself to breakfast in bed and made a big bowl of Kashi Go Lean with chopped apple and kara coconut milk topped with a few pumpkin seeds:

I had a couple a mugs full of coffee with this, perfect Saturday morning! For lunch I made a big salad:

This included romaine lettuce, cucumber, raw beetroot, avocado, hemp seeds and some of my home made rosemary and almond juice pulp crackers. For dinner I decided to raid the freezer and found some of my stuffed seitan roll. I had it with swede chips, roast brussel sprouts, steamed purple sprouting broccoli and ketchup:

That seitan roll tasted just as good as when it had been freshly made. Delicious!

As I’ve come to realise that I get extra snacky on a Friday and Saturday evening I’ve decided that instead of fighting it I’m going to just go with it so I’ve started making bigger snack plates that I can pick on over the evening:

This one included a fresh fig with some of the leftover sesame peanut miso sauce, grapes, russet apple, yellow plum, dried mango and mixed dried berries. I did end up eating more of the dried fruit but this is good for me to nibble on while I’m watching TV.

Are you a weekend nibbler?

Right I am off to get myself sorted out! I’m glad that we didn’t decide to travel this morning with all the snow we’ve had, I’m hoping it will all be melted by tomorrow. Have a great one!

Happy Friday everyone! This Friday comes with an extra bit of happiness for me as I am now on holiday for a week, bring it on! I am pretty ready for the weekend after being ill mid week. Luckily I’m feeling much better but poor James also caught whatever it was so he’s been ill too. Here’s a look at my workouts for the week:

• Sunday – 30 minute treadmill run, 15 minute bike, Kettle bell Class
• Monday – Yoga class 1 hour 30
• Tuesday – Unexpected rest day – ill :-(
• Wednesday – AM gym workout – 5 min warm up cross trainer, strength from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ phase, 20 min HIITs on bike
• Thursday – AM – Yoga for Runners podcast, PM Gym – 321 workout
• Friday - AM gym workout – 5 min warm up cross trainer, strength from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ phase, 20 min HIITs on step machine

Thanks for all your comments about the yoga class. I’ve been looking at what other yoga is being offered in my area and it all seems to be Hatha style yoga which I understand to be pretty slow paced. I don’t mind doing one class like that a week but I couldn’t do two! With that in mind I’m probably going to experiment with a couple of different classes at the gym and some DVD’s and podcasts and then re jig my workout week.

Luckily I’m back to my normal self now but mid week I had very little appetite due to that mystery illness, however chocolate and peanut butter makes everything better:

This was one of the only things I managed to eat on Tuesday, it contained spring greens, banana, lots and lots of peanut butter, water and ice then topped with peanut flour sauce and dark chocolate chips. Also accompanied by several spoons of peanut butter straight up with dark chocolate chips stuck on. Speaking of nut butter and spoons…

My order of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter arrived from iHerb! I did just about manage to eat some of this ;-)

I’ve also continued to enjoy my current favourite snack of almonds and raisins:

These were some extra special almonds that I’d soaked overnight then coated in shoyu and ‘roasted’ in the dehydrator to make raw salted almonds. They are gorgeous, I can’t get enough of the sweet and salty combo! I just had to add some on top of a butternut squash smoothie too:

I decided to get one of these in while I still craved it. This was roast butternut, kara coconut milk, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ginger, cinnamon and ice topped with maple syrup and those almonds all chopped up. Heaven!

I also made a pretty awesome dinner that I had a couple of nights in a row – baked tempeh with stir fried purple sprouting broccoli and greens in a ginger coconut sauce:

I marinaded the tempeh in a mix of shoyu, honey, ground ginger and garlic powder then baked. For the veggies I just stir fried them in a little coconut oil then once they were tender I added about 3/4 cup of full fat coconut milk, fresh minced ginger, shoyu sauce and 1/2 tbsp of coconut flour (to add thickness) then cooked off for a couple of minutes to thicken up even more before serving. I haven’t had full fat coconut milk in ages and it was so good. I was even more surprised when the leftover milk that had been left in the fridge turned into a very thick cream. I had a sudden moment of inspiration and decided to use it to top a gooey baked sweet potato for my lunch today:

I also added some peanut flour sauce for a bit of protein. You can’t tell me that doesn’t look amazing right? I’m a full fat convert now!

Other meals that have helped me get my appetite back include:

Big salad with romaine, red onion, yellow pepper, cucumber, black beans and avocado

Green smoothie with spinach, persimmons x 3, 1/2 banana, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, water, ice, maca powder, ground flax topped with Dorset Cereal’s fabulous ‘Simply’ muesli and more sliced persimmon

My obsession continues… four fresh figs topped with tahini (watered down a bit for more pourability), black strap molasses and thyme honey. Can not get enough!

I’ve been loving my fats this week. I used to always go for the low fat versions of everything such as hummus, light coconut milk and yoghurt (when I was eating that). I know that when you are seeking to lose weight reducing fat can be a good strategy, however fats are essential in our diets for so many things including the absorption of some fat soluble vitamins and good skin, hair and nails. I know there are ‘good’ fats (poly unsaturated and mono unsaturated fats) and ‘bad’ fats (saturated and trans fats) but for me I don’t worry too much about that and enjoy plant sources of fats even though coconut milk, butter and oil contains some saturated fat. There is some evidence that the medium chain fatty acids (MCFA’s) present in coconut milk are processed by the body in a different way to saturated fat from other sources and that they can provide energy and help to maintain weight by increasing satiety. As long as its not the nasty trans fats, and that the fat in whatever form is coming from whole unprocessed foods, I’m happy! Are you a low fat or full fat person? I definitely think there’s a balance to be had between the two.

Have you got anything exciting planned for the weekend? Tonight I’m doing something I’ve wanted to do for ages, if it works out ok I’ll share on Sunday! Other than that I think its going to be a pretty chilled weekend just catching up with friends and family, a bit of gym time and of course getting set to travel down to Brighton next week. Hope whatever your up to you have fun, and manage to stay warm!

Today I’ve been working from home which has been great. As I’ve said many times before, my focus is ten times better when I’m at home and I’m happy to say I managed to get all of my to do list completed.

I started the day with the 30 Day Shred levels 1 and 2 – it was so tough! Breakfast was a yummy Butternut Smoothie topped with some muesli:

One of the great things about working from home is being able to enjoy a more elaborate lunch. I decided to make a cauliflower risotto inspired by this recipe. I just popped half a head of cauliflower in the food processor and chopped till fine, then in a pan added some hot vegetable stock, nutritional yeast, soy sauce and some chopped fresh basil. I served it with some sesame almond tofu on top.

This was delicious and really filling considering its just cauliflower! I finished my meal with two sliced jazz apples.

Mid afternoon I made myself one of Mama Peas Pumpkin Spice Lattes:

Wowsa, this tasted amazing! I used decaf coffee and rice milk which worked perfectly.

For dinner I decided to use the beans I had left over from yesterday’s meal and make them into a bean burger. I popped them in the food processor along with some red onion, carrot, fresh coriander and some hot chilli powder plus a little bit of egg white to help it bind. This formed two burgers so I popped one in the freezer and then oven baked the other. I served it crumbled in one of my high protein wraps filled with spinach and hummus. I also made some parsnip chips and roast broccoli with chipotle ketchup for dipping.

I have a serious love of bean burgers in any form, I absolutely adore them and I’ve had a serious craving for a few days now. It tasted especially good with the hummus. This was also my first time making parsnip chips and they turned out really well although I couldn’t finish them all!

Desert was a bowl of pumpkin yoghurt:

Pumpkin Yoghurt:

• 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup of greek yoghurt (I used full fat)
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
• maple syrup or agave to taste

Combine all ingredients until smooth and serve.

I topped mine with some almond butter, granola and a little cinnamon.

All the cinnamon I’ve eaten today has really depleted my stores, I’m going to have to get to the shops asap to re stock, I think I’d have a panic attack without cinnamon in the kitchen! I love cinnamon, its full of antioxidants and it has been shown to help keep blood sugar staple and avoid cravings so its a wonderful food for me. Are you a cinnamon fan?

I got really excited today as I know what will be coming in my first organic vegetable box on Friday:

I’m going to see if I can swap out the celery for another veggie as I’m not a huge fan. I’m having lots of fun thinking about what meals I’m going to pull together with this lot :-)

Hope all of your weeks are going well, bring on hump day!

This weekend I have been eating a lot of these:

Yep, more specifically pumpkin and squash!

I’ve made my own pumpkin puree following Alison’s method:

This made a big tub of delicious pumpkin puree which I have used to make Pumpkin Porridge:

• 1/2 cup of rude health fruity date porridge
• 1/2 cup of soy milk
• 1/2 cup of water
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tbsp of ground flax
• 4 heaped tablespoons of pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp of mixed spice
• Agave syrup to taste
• desiccated coconut to decorate

I made this on the hob instead of the microwave, I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing stirring for a change! I cooked the porridge with soy milk and water till it had thickened then stirred the egg white in one at a time followed by the pumpkin and then the spices and agave. I then topped with some coconut, cinnamon and more syrup – yum!

I’ve also made some pumpkin spice cake bars which I based on this recipe:

Pumpkin spice cake bars (makes 12 squares)

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 1 cup of wholegrain spelt flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp each of cinnamon, ground ginger and mixed spice

Pre heat oven to 180c. Combine the eggs, pumpkin, sugar, oil and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices and mix till smooth. Pour into a large greased baking tray and bake for around 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

These babies turned out fantastically!

I even roasted the pumpkin seeds with soy sauce:

They probably could have done with longer in the oven but they taste great!

I’ve also been eating plenty of butternut squash. I made up a stew for last nights dinner and today’s lunch including roast butternut, roast parsnip, onion, veg stock, kale, dried mixed herbs and tofu sausages:

 

Last night I added some sweet chilli sauce to the mix and today I added some green tomato chutney that my best friend had made – this lifted the stew to a whole new level of yumminess!

Other tasty weekend eats have included some apple cider pound cake with warm berries and tofutti vanilla ice ‘cream’:

Chocolate and blueberry protein pancakes with maple syrup and granola:

Chocolate tasting plate: Lindt Dark with Sea Salt, Amaretto Chocolate from Majorca, Montezuma Chilli Dark Chocolate:

Yesterday I was browsing the iHerb store and I ended up making a huge order. I have some money saved up (plus I’m hoping to make some money on ebay) and at the end of the day making and eating healthy food and playing with new ingredients makes me happy so I indulged! I’ll post the details when I receive everything but I can’t wait to get my order!

I also decided to order my own copy of ‘The Kind Diet’. I’ve found myself going back and re reading sections and a lot of the recipes have grown on me too. I also ordered ‘La Dolce Vegan’ for more vegan meal ideas in line with my new diet direction.

Yesterday I also got in a great treadmill run at the gym. I did 10k in 56 minutes doing a mix of speed and hill intervals, I just felt really good for the whole workout like I was running on air :-) I also jumped on the bike afterwards for 15 minutes. Yesterday I got to take my new dress out for the day: Jumper dress: Miss Selfridge, Princess coat: Oasis, Tights: Accessorize, Boots: Peacocks, Scarf: Accessorize, Bag: H&M.

Today I have been out in search of kitchen storage solutions. Things are starting to get out of hand and with the iherb order on its way I need to do some serious re organising! I’m going to have to do a post on the contents of my kitchen, I can’t be the only one with a tea collection, nut butter collection, chocolate stash and drawer full of nakd bars, trek bars, 9 bars and other healthy but tasty goodies?

All in all I’ve had a great weekend! Hope you got to check out my guest post over at Salad and Sequins too :-)

Hi guys! How are you this lovely Sunday? Unfortunately I am suffering with a bit of a cold but I’m not letting it get me down!

Yesterday I headed to the gym for a monster treadmill workout. I designed a play list to take me through some intervals but it didn’t upload properly! I just had to wing it in the end but it was still a great workout. I split my run into four roughly 15 minute sections with a 5 minute session on the bike between each section. I started out with a 6mph pace then increased it by 0.2mph for each track on my playlist. The next section was speed intervals so I alternated a moderate to fast pace each track. Then for the third section I did hill intervals with a 2% and then 3% incline. The last section was the same as the first but starting at 6.5mph. I really enjoyed this workout, using the playlist and dividing the workout up kept it interesting. I must have covered about 6.5 miles in total. After my recent issues around running motivation I was really chuffed!

I had only eaten a bear fruit yoyo before going to the gym so I was starving when I got home! I made a lovely big bowl of 10 grain hot cereal with water and soymilk plus some wheat germ and brown rice syrup. I added some defrosted strawberries and a spoonful of cashew butter. I also enjoyed a pot of japanese sencha cherry green tea.

Delish!

For lunch I had 4 wholegrain rice cakes topped with vegan cream cheese  and some roasted peppers and olives from a jar. I also had a few carrot sticks and a couple of pears.

The hubby was at work all day so dinner was another solitary affair. I had a small butternut squash and decided to try and stuff it. You can easily double this recipe for two:

Stuffed Butternut Squash with beans and peppers (serves 1)

• 1/2 small butternut squash
• 1/2 tin of cannellini beans
• 2 small shallots or half an onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of roasted peppers from a jar
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutritional yeast / parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

Begin by pre heating the oven to 170c. Place the butternut (with the seeds scooped out) cut side up and rub with a little oil. Roast until the butternut is slightly tender. While the butternut is cooling down lightly mash the beans. Fry the shallots / onions until tender then add the peppers and beans and fry for a few minutes. Scoop the flesh from the squash leaving enough in the shell for it to hold its shape. Add the chopped squash to the pan with the beans and peppers. Add the nutritional yeast and balsamic vinegar and stir well. Stuff the squash shell with mixture. Return the squash to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes until warmed though. You could top the stuffed squash with cheese if desired.

I served mine with some sautéed black kale inspired by the Sicilian Greens recipe from The Kind Diet. I started by frying a finely chopped clove of garlic in a little olive oil then added the chopped kale and sautéed for a few minutes until lightly tender. I then added a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon of raisins and 1 tablespoon of toasted pine nuts.

Just a wonderful meal, both dishes tasted delicious!

I also had the last of my Chilli Dark chocolate and an unpictured apple.

God I love that chocolate! As I was feeling a bit grotty this morning I thought I’d cheer myself up with pancakes! I made up some of Angela’s vegan spelt pancakes for one. Yesterday I had used up two old apples to make some apple and cinnamon compote. I added a spoonful of compote between each pancake and then topped them all with more compote, chopped walnuts and maple syrup.

So amazingly good! I had thought that pancakes without egg and protein powder wouldn’t taste as good or fill me up but I was so wrong, these were lovely and fluffy too.

Today I decided to buy some wholegrain tortilla wraps. I haven’t had shop bought wraps in ages as the ingredients list usually put me off but the ones I got weren’t too bad. I used them to make a tasty lunch for me and the hubby. I filled mine with leftover butternut squash and cannellini beans fried with red onion and a little hot chilli powder then folded and fried to make a Butternut and Bean Quesadilla. I also had some roast broccoli, raw carrot sticks and ketchup.

Absolutely gorgeous and so tasty! I made two wraps for the hubby filled with ham, cheese and mushrooms, he really liked them so that’s one extra healthy thing we can enjoy together!

For desert we had the last two of my Sinless Chocolate Brownies with Tofutti Vanilla Ice Cream.

I love these brownies – and as the hubby likes them too I must make more!

I’m going to spend the rest of the day chilling out with my hubby, I have some old dresses to put on ebay and I’ve just placed a huge Christmas order with Tea Pigs and Goodness Direct (yey!) Its quite sad to sell these dresses as I’ve had many good times in them and they are beautiful but are now two or three sizes too big for me. If you’ve been bigger and lost weight what did you do with your old clothes? I like the idea that someone else will get to wear them and at least I can use the money to pay for new clothes!

I’m also going to be trying to get as many vitamin filled foods down my neck and lots of hot lemon and ginger to try and sort out this cold! What’s your favourite cold remedy?