Hello my lovely friends, happy Friday! Its so nice to have reached the end of the week isn’t it?

I’ve taken the day off work today to be able to get myself sorted ready for our weekend at Kendal Calling with Alpro Soya! Check out my Tumblr for my festival style inspiration!

I’ve had some awesome runs over the last couple of days. Wednesday morning I did a 6.5 mile run with a few sprints thrown in the middle in 55.14 average pace 8.29 (awesome!) and today I did my long run due to being away at the weekend, and did 11 miles in 1.37 with an average pace of 8.48. Considering that I’ve had no rest days between that and the great 10 miler I did last weekend I think that’s pretty good!

I also got in a a quick yoga podcast and a great strength workout last night at the gym based on my amended New Rules of Lifting for Women routine, it was hard core, well at least for me!

I’ve been loving the green smoothie action as usual, in fact these and big salads are all I seem to be craving at the moment:

Post run Wednesday: Spinach, mixed frozen berries, strawberry hemp (can’t wait to review this, I love it!), maca powder, barley grass, ground flax, msm crystals, water, ice, stevia, xanthan and guar gums. Topped with Alara Goji muesli and some amazing drippy sunflower seed butter, nom!

Post run today:

Kale, frozen banana, 3 kiwi’s, 1 scoop of vanilla sun warrior, maca, mesquite, spirulina, msm crystals, ground flax, water, ice, gums, stevia. Topped with raw rain forest nut butter sauce, goji berries and freeze dried berries.

It was quite warm after my late meeting on Wednesday and I just wanted something quick, easy and satisfying so I made up another smoothie for dinner, although I resisted the urge to make it a green one!

This was pretty awesome! Apple and Watermelon Smoothie (apple, frozen watermelon, rice milk, agave, xanthan gum) topped with a lot of treacle granola and some PB&Co Mighty Maple PB. This was a wonderful combo! I made sure I added a lot of granola to satisfy me as well as going back to the kitchen and adding more plus some maple syrup!

Considering that yesterday’s breakfast was a bit random and mostly liberated from the freezer it was wonderful:

Frozen blueberries, rhubarb and orange compote, crumbled banana sunshine muffin and some Coconut Vanilla ‘Yoghurt’: 2 tbsp of coconut flour mixed with 1/2 scoop of vanilla sun warrior protein powder, dash of agave and water. The coconut vanilla yoghurt was a revelation, I’ll be knocking that up when I’m looking for a yoghurt like fix but don’t have any handy! It would have tasted even better made up a little in advance and then chilled.

I’ve been digging the salads again for lunch:

Cos lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red and yellow pepper, sugar snaps, crumbled RAW Health Intensely Italian crackers with some home made pesto dressing – I will be sharing this recipe soon, it is amazing!

Last night I raided the freezer for an easy option:

My simple dahl with wholegrain rice (from a quick cook pack) and steamed broccoli and spring greens topped with a sprinkle of mixed seeds.

Followed by a bowl of double chocolate protein ice cream topped with candy covered sun flower seeds:

1 scoop of chocolate sun warrior, 1 tbsp of raw cacao, water, ice, agave, stevia, xanthan and guar gums.

So I think I am just about set for the festival, we have our tent, sleeping bags, wellies, sunscreen (here’s hoping) toilet roll and baby wipes! I’ve also got a stash of fruit, veggies and snack bars along with these awesome little oatmeal jars inspired by Yack Attack and re blogged over on my Tumblr:

Each jar is filled with half a cup of oats, raisins, cinnamon, chia seeds and a pack of stevia powder. All I need to do is add some water before I go to bed and in the morning I should have some tasty overnight oats! Genius idea eh? Obviously I’ll also be hitting up the Alpro stand and filling up on their goodies. I’m really looking forward to my first ever festival!

Oh, and just to be fully transparent: I have been invited to the festival as a guest of Alpro Soya to blog and tweet about the event in general, I’m not being sponsored or paid in any way and all my opinions are my own (of course). I’ve always enjoyed and appreciated Alpro products so feel that linking with them is in line with my personal ethics :-)

As I said when I first got the invite I had been thinking about trying to find a smaller festival to attend this summer. I’m especially looking forward to seeing Blondie, The Cribs, Frank Turner, The Charlatans, Young Knives and local band Smoove and Turrell. James is really into his music (and has even started his own blog!) so I’m sure we are both going to have a fab time!

Have you been to a festival before? Any survival tips for me?

Hope you all have a great weekend and don’t forget to follow my Twitter and Tumblr for festival updates!

Hello everyone! How’s your weekend been? I’ve had a lovely one, despite a having a slight domestic emergency today!

Yesterday I did my usual weekend long run. I did 10 miles in 1.24 average pace 8.25, another pb for me over that distance according to my tracking on Daily Mile!

We’ve had a mostly very relaxing weekend but at the same time I feel like I’ve been super productive! We decided to make the most of the break in the rain yesterday morning so had a little trip into town. OOTD:

  Denim jacket: New Look, grey hoody: H&M, dress: Forever 21, tights: M&S, ballet pumps: Next, quilted chain bag: Topshop

When we got there we discovered a little vintage market being held inside one of the shopping malls. I bought two of these fab vintage patterned plates for just 50p!

I also picked up another bargain from Dorothy Perkins sale:

This skirt was only £7 and although its a size too big for me I loved it that much I decided to get it and just cinch it in with the black woven belt that came with it.

Eats have been really good this weekend too! I spent exactly one hour this morning taking my own advice from my organisation post and prepping some tasty treats for the day and week ahead. In just one hour I cooked up a pot of rice, lentils, soaked some wheat berries for sprouting, made some of Gena’s Almondaise (but using cashews to make it a cashew mayo) and made a raw bread mix and popped in the dehydrator. I also made a wonderful pate, inspired by one of Gena’s recipes yet again!

Garden Pate (adapted from this recipe, vegan, raw, makes about 2 cups)

• 1/2 cup of sunflower seed, soaked for at least 2 hours
• 2 tbsp of hemp oil (or flax or olive oil)
• 2 tbsp of Braggs Liquid Aminos or soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp garam masala (or curry powder)
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 1 cup vegetable juice pulp (or you could use a packed cup of chopped veggies such as courgette and spinach)
• 4 carrots finely chopped or grated
• 1/2 white onion finely chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• Water as needed

Begin by blending the drained sunflower seeds with the oil, Braggs, spices and parsley in a food processor. Add the veggie pulp or chopped veggies along with the carrot and onion. Blend again, adding water as needed to reach your desired consistency. Add the remaining parsley and pulse to incorporate. Chill in the fridge and enjoy with your choice of veggies and crackers for dipping, or use as a wrap filling or sandwich spread:

I enjoyed some for lunch with lots of veggies, my raw juice pulp crackers and an experimental raw dehydrated tomato and red pepper wrap which tasted amazing! The pate is so delicious and very moreish, good job you get a couple of cups worth as it won’t last long!

I also enjoyed another tasty lunch in the form of a giant salad topped with sabra hummus:

I’ve missed my hummus topper salads! This was so good, I just adore that hummus :-)

Last night I also went for another favourite, more courgette spaghetti with raw pasta sauce, RAW Health olives, nutritional yeast and fresh basil:

The sauce is so simple to make and absolutely delicious:

Simple Raw Pasta Sauce (vegan, serves one hungry person)

• 3 medium size tomatoes (or 10 cherry tomatoes)
• 1 large red pepper, deseeded
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Onion powder, garlic granules and dried Italian seasoning to taste (I use about 1/2 tsp of each)

Wack everything in a food processor and blend until smooth! Serve with courgette spaghetti or ribbons or over regular pasta. So so yummy, I was amazed how good this was the first time I tasted it. Last night I added an extra sweet pointed red pepper into the mix. I used the small amount of sauce I had left to make the tomato and pepper wrap I used with my garden pate above. I just spread it on a teflex sheet and dehydrated for 8 hours or so. I will definitely be trying that again!

Last night we also cracked open a bottle of red while we watched DVD’s, it was bliss!

Tonight I made some wraps using Mountain Corn Bread wraps filled with mashed avocado and nutritional yeast, spinach, sweet red peppers, olives and a drizzle of cashew mayo. I served it up with some ‘roast’ broccoli (‘cooked’ in the dehydrator for a few hours):

These wraps were amazing! The broccoli also tasted great, they had that almost sweet roasted flavour but still had a lot of crunch.

Breakfasts have also been very good. This morning I made a big bowl of oats and 10 grain cereal with water on the stove, topped with fresh strawberries, some coconut vanilla ‘yoghurt’ (2 tbsp of coconut flour, 1/2 scoop of vanilla sun warrior, water) and pumpkin seeds:

Its been ages since I had a porridge yoghurt layer up and this was so good, I made the yoghurt up last night so it was cold from the fridge. I love the contrast of the hot oats and cold yoghurt!

The post run green smoothie I made was one of the tastiest I’ve had in a while!

This contained spinach, frozen banana, juicy fresh peach, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, spirulina, maca, msm, water, ice and gums topped with sunflower seed butter and cacao nibs. I just love the combo of banana, peach and spinach, so mild and sweet.

I have some romaine lettuce and beet greens to use up so I think I may treat myself to a chocolate cherry green smoothie this evening for dessert!

So we had a little domestic crisis when our bed broke! It appears that our mattress has also seen better days so we decided to chuck them both out and while we have the extra space we are going to re decorate the whole room. That means that for the next couple of weeks we’ll be sleeping on the living room floor! It is funny how things workout though, I’m actually looking forward to redecorating that room now, expect a few home interior posts!

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend! Do you enjoy vintage fairs? Have you had a major piece of furniture break on you? How did you manage without it?