Thats funny feeling weird, not funny ha ha! I'm glad this Monday is nearly over, its just been one of those funny days. I had a lovely breakfast this morning, porridge made with water with a chopped apple mixed in topped with cinnamon and almond butter, it was just what I needed to start my Monday!

I had a strange morning at work, just didn't seem to be able to get much done as I had two back to back meetings. In between them I snacked on a pot of greek yoghurt.

For lunch I had some of my delicious courgette and watercress soup and an orange.

I had another afternoon long meeting which just drained me, so I really enjoyed having two of my cherry bakewell babies as gym fuel!

I hit the gym for my cardio interval workout, found it hard going but managed a full hour made up of 15 mins of intervals on the cross trainer, treadmill, bike and step machine at my usual levels and speeds. I then finished off with 3 sets of my abs exercises. I was just a big sweaty mess after that!

After the gym I had a little bit of time to call in to my newly refurbished Sainsbury's to pick up a couple of things. They've made the store much bigger, I ended up buying two t shirts without really thinking about it!

Dinner was an awesome feta, spinach and red onion omlette made with two eggs and one egg white and a big side salad. I had to take an extra photo of it in the pan it just looked so pretty!

I followed that with some chocolate mint protein goo, yum!

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, regular tea

I'll be having another feta salad for my dinner tomorrow, mostly because its lush, but also due to the fact that whenever I buy some food that only I like (I'm working on the hubby expanding his palate) I end up having to eat it in some way, shape or form for a few days on end so that nothings wasted. So apologies when things get a bit repetative! Does this happen to anyone else? Sometimes I wish that the supermarkets would sell things in smaller individual portions, but then again I can use the freezer to store a lot of things by individual portion. Hope everyones Monday's been good!

Thanks for all your comments on my new blog design! Seems that everyone is liking it which is great. I definitely feel its more ‘me’.

This morning I went out for a very tough run. Before I left I ate a chocolate chip Clif Bar.

I had bought this from Whole Foods on my trip to London and it tasted gorgeous!

After the first couple of miles I started to have problems with my right leg, it felt really achy and tight. After my knee injury a few months ago I didn’t want to push it and end up injured again. I considered turning back a few times but I kept going at a pretty slow pace. It was really windy as well which didn’t help! Here’s my splits:

I did 10.2 miles in 1.43. I stopped at mile 6 to eat 4 dates and stretch my leg. I also drank half a bottle of orange Powerade diluted with water in my bottle while I was out. You can see I really just wanted to get home – I ran a pretty fast last full mile!

I refueled with a chocolate and banana smoothie (1 frozen banana, 1 scoop of chocolate whey, oat milk) to which I also added this sachet of this Green Lightening Wholefood powder (kindly sent to me by Sarah a few months ago). I topped it with some raw cacao nibs, goji berries and flaked almonds.

I was still hungry after I’d ate this so I decided to have a small bowl of muesli (Dorsets Cereals Roasted and Toasted mixed with jumbo oats and oat milk) alongside my morning cup of green tea.

After chilling out for a while I started on my day of cooking and baking. First up are some amazing muffins! Thanks to Jo for the recipe for these – see here for the original recipe which I’ve adapted slightly. I’ve also added in the cup conversions from grams as I know I tend to post recipes with cups as this is what I personally find easier:

Banana and Walnut Muffins (makes approximately 15 regular sized muffins)

• 220g / 1 cup wholemeal self raising flour
• 150g / 2/3rds of a cup brown sugar
• teaspoon of baking powder
• teaspoon of baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 120mls / 1/2 cup of veg oil
• 120mls/ 1/2 cup of full fat Greek yoghurt
• teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 3 mashed bananas (I used 2 large extra ripe ones)
• 100g / half a cup of walnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180c. Combine all the dry ingredients apart from the walnuts in a bowl and then all the wet ingredients apart from the mashed bananas. Mix the wet into the dry and then fold in the mashed bananas followed by the walnuts (reserving some to top each muffin). Spoon the mixture into muffin cases, filling each case 2 / 3rds full. Top each muffin with some of the chopped walnut. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown.

These turned out beautifully! You could possibly reduce the amount of oil as I think the full fat yoghurt adds enough fat. You could also add some chopped dates in addition to, or to replace some of the sugar. I ended up with 12 regular sized muffins and 5 smaller ones. I had a muffin with a cup of tea mid morning and it was just delicious! My parents, friends and their kiddies have all tried them today and loved them, the kids were begging for more! Excellent recipe for a healthier muffin without sacrificing any of the taste.

For lunch I had a bowl of freshly made Courgette and Watercress soup.

My two best friends and their kiddies came round for a few hours, it was great to catch up with them. We drank tea and they ate muffins while the kids played. I was exhausted after a few hours with them, I don’t know how people with young children do it!

For dinner I made recipe no 2!

Baked Falafel Bites with Tzatziki Sauce

For the Falafel (makes 8 mini bites)

• 1 tin of cooked chickpeas
• 1 small red onion
• Half a handful of spinach
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• Half a teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Pre heat oven to 180c. In a food processor mix all ingredients until well combined. Don’t over process – you still want the mixture to have some texture. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Divide the mixture into 8 small balls and press down to form a mini burger type shape. The mixture may seem a little wet, but don’t worry they turn out perfectly! Bake for approximately 25 – 30 minutes turning half way through using a fish slice (as at this point they will still seem a little ‘wet’).

Serve with the following tzatziki sauce:

Tzatziki Sauce – makes one large serving

• 2 tablespoons of full fat greek yoghurt
• 4 inch long chunk of cucumber with seeds removed and finely chopped
• 1 crushed clove of garlic
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/2 tablespoon of chopped fresh mint

Combine all ingredients in a little bowl and serve.

I served my baked falafel bites with a big plate of spinach, cos lettuce and red cabbage, the tzatziki sauce and a big tablespoon of caramelised onion hummus.

This tasted out of this world. I’m no falafel expert, but I know they are usually fried. These little baked bites cooked perfectly, are healthier than the fried version, and went so well with the tzatziki and the hummus. You could also serve these in a warm pitta or wrap.

For desert I made myself an epic fruit plate! I have lots of fresh fruit at the moment and something in my body was just craving this. My plate included cantaloupe melon, strawberries, a chopped fig, blackberries, blueberries and a sliced nectarine topped with a sprinkle of chopped mint.

My five a day on a single plate!

August Review and September Training Plan

This month I have been focusing on my running as the Great North Run is only a few weeks away!

Here’s what I have achieved this month:

• Increased my longest distance ran from 9.5 miles to 13.5 miles
• Lost 1 pound
• Surprisingly – lost an inch off my hips and waist and 1/2 an inch off my bust!
• Not missed a planned workout and started my speed work running

I love doing my monthly review as sometimes I forget what I have achieved. After all that worrying that I’m eating too much and gaining weight I’ve actually lost weight and inches!

This month its all about the Great North Run on 19th September (three weeks today!) So I’ll be focusing my training on this. The next few weeks I’m going to take a very flexible approach to my training, (which is a first for me since starting this blog!) I’m going to listen to my body and aim to put in my best possible performance at my first ever half marathon. I’ll be aiming to achieve at least 2 strength based workouts which are likely to be DVD’s – I’m thinking Davina Superbody, Super Sculpt Section. At least 2 HIIT cardio sessions of 30 minutes with core and abs work. At least two runs – a longer distance run and a shorter speed work run. I’ll be tapering these runs in the two weeks before the big race. I’ll also be aiming to do yoga for runners twice a week when possible as well as daily stretching and use of my foam roller to keep my legs loose. As my leg is still rather sore I think I’ll be giving the HIITs a miss tomorrow and just doing an hour of relaxed cardio to loosen it up a bit.

Here’s my starting stats for September:

• Weight: 10st
• Bust: 37 inches
• Waist: 28 1/2 inches
• Hips: 35 inches

Can’t believe that in 3 weeks time I’ll be sitting here blogging about the Great North Run!

What have you achieved in August?

I’m very happy that we have a bank holiday in the UK tomorrow. I love being able to relax on a Sunday evening without the thought of work the next day.  Tomorrow I’ll be gyming it and fingers crossed I’ll actually be going to my first barbeque of the summer if the weather holds out. Does anyone have any big plans for the last bank holiday of the year?

What a totally amazing chilled out day I've had!

I think the clocks going forward must have left me feeling a bit weird as I woke up at midnight and could not sleep. I ended up having to take some herbal sleeping tablets. They worked but when I woke up my head felt really fuzzy. I did something I haven't done in ages and had breakfast in bed while watching the Australian Grand Prix (go Button!). I had a mug of warm water then some home made muesli mix containing puffed brown rice, jumbo oats, quinoa flakes, ground flax and grape nuts with skimmed milk and some red grapes for sweetness.

I pottered about a bit then got on with my workout - 20 mins of Davina Body Kick Fit section followed by my weights routine as laid out in my March training plan. After I'd done that I had a serious craving for a green monster so I blended up a load of spinach with a frozen banana, vanilla rice milk, a scoop of vanilla whey, a spoonful of peanut butter and a bit of water. It was absolutely yummy!

I then started on my cooking. Firstly I made some Courgette and Watercress Soup, taken from Sophie Dahls cookbook, Miss Dahls Voluptuous Delights. 

3 Courgettes, chopped
Bag of watercress
1 large white onion, chopped
Veg Stock
Olive oil

I fried off the onion in a little olive oil on a meduim heat until translucent, then added the chopped courgette followed by the veg stock. I let it simmer for 10 mins then added the watercress and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. I let it cool, then used a hand blender to blend till smooth.

This is slightly different to the original recipe as that included cream which certainly isn't in my fridge! For something so simple, this tastes really lovely, like spring in a bowl! This recipe made 4 portions. I'm going to freeze two and have the other two during the week.

The second thing I made was some Veggie Burgers (more on that in a mo). After I'd cleaned up the kitchen I went and did 45mins of my Yogalates DVD, I had planned on doing the full hour but my mind was just drifting on to lunch. I made myself an amazing salad of spinach, little gem lettuce, cucumber, grated carrot, red onion, roast red pepper, beetroot, and feta cheese. It was quite possibly the best salad I've ever had!

I also had a couple of little chopped apples.

After chilling out in front of the TV some more, I got on to making some Cherry Bakewell Babies! I had some cocktail cherries to use up after I made my Chocolate Mousse with Cherry Compote a couple of weeks ago. I was inspired by both Chocolate Covered Katie's fudge babies and Averies Oat and Raisin raw cookies and I came up with this.

Cherry Bakewell Babies

1/2 cup of porridge oats
1/4 cup of dates
1/4 cup of whole almonds
1 tablespoon of raisins
6 Cocktail Cherries

I started by blending the oats in the food processor to a semi fine powder. I then added the dates, almonds and cherries and blended some more until the mixture started to clump together. I then added in the raisins and blended some more. I rolled the mixture into balls and popped into cupcake cases.

These are far too tasty! They taste just like cherry bakewells! I know that cocktail cherries aren't the healthiest ingredient, but theres not much of them in this and they give a wonderful flavour. I'm sure that dried cherries would also work well. I ate two of these with a cup of green tea as a mid afternoon snack (plus some of the mixture out of the food processor and another 6 cocktail cherries may have found their way into my mouth in the process!). I also had a bowl of red grapes.

For dinner I had one of the Veggie Burgers I'd made earlier using a recipe inspired by Angela at Oh She Glows. I used:

1 tin of chick peas
1 small red pepper, roughly chopped
1 small red onion, roughly chopped
1 small carrot, roughly chopped
a handful of spinach
3 garlic cloves crushed
1 teaspoon of hot chilli powder
Wholemeal spelt flour
1 tbsp of pumkin seeds
1 tbsp of sunflower seeds

I basically whacked all the ingredients, except the flour and seeds, in my food processor and blended till smooth. I then added the seeds and mixed in flour gradually until the mixture reached a thick consistency. I got 4 burgers out of this mix, I wrapped the rest in clingfilm and popped them in the freezer. I fried mine in a hot pan till browned and cooked through then served it with some steamed brocolli and brussel sprouts.

I followed that with an orange.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

The weekend has flown over again, I can't believe its back to work tomorrow. At least its a short week, I'm really looking forward to Easter this year. I'm expecting a bit of a blow out food wise next weekend so I think I'll be trying to be as healthy as possible this week in preparation! I think that I saw a Lindt Dark Chocolate Bunny at my Mam and Dads yesterday and I know that J has a secret stash of Cadbury's Creme Eggs somewhere. Whats your favourite Easter treat? Hope you have all had a lovely weekend x

I woke up with some serious DOMS in my arms this morning. I was a bit worried about doing my usual Davina 'Pump' DVD but I got on and did it, luckily most of the moves in the DVD didn't hurt the areas where I was sore. I don't mind a little bit of DOMS to make you feel like you've really worked your muscles!

Breakfast was a bowl of 'Bounty' porridge - banana, oats, chia seeds cooked with water with a scoop of chocolate whey and some dessicated coconut on the top.

Not quite like a Bounty bar but as close as I'll be getting any time soon!

I was famished by the time lunch came round and dug right into my salad which was the same as yesterday - mixed leaves, spinach, tuna, kidney beans, light mayo, spring onions, carrot, cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

Followed by a large portion of red grapes.

I was having to go to a late meeting so I made my afternoon snack a little bigger than usual with the addition of savory rice cakes to my usual babybel lights and apple.

By the time I got home I just wanted to make something quick and easy so I had a bowl of my favourite Courgette and Watercress Soup with another couple of savory rice cakes.

Followed by a large bowl of frozen raspberries in vanilla rice milk.

I think I'm going to have another nice apple later too.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

I got very excited today when my friend Charlie emailed me with the details of the EAT! NewcastleGateshead Food Festival. We have booked tickets for the launch event which includes loads of posh eats, local beers and cocktails! I can't wait, it sounds like so much fun and it will be lovely to have a posh night out with my best mate. Theres also loads of other little events going on that weekend including a fair trade market and a cupcake festival!

Have you been to any food festivals? I seem to be hearing about a few of them recently. I'm still counting down the days till Friday this week, I have a day full of meetings tomorrow and Thursday which means I'll get nothing done, but at least I have Friday free to catch up as best as possible!

I’m still surviving in the lovely snow we have here in North East England, its so festive and is putting me right in the mood for Christmas!

Thanks for your comments to my Perfect Porridge and Rude Health Giveaway post – take a look if you would like to enter or if you just want to get some amazing ideas for porridge flavours and toppings! I’m going to do my best to try them all out!

Over the last couple of days I’ve had some thrown together but tasty eats. Yesterdays lunch was a salad made up with left over brown rice, carrots, cucumber, red onion and spinach with a big handful of roast spicy chickpeas thrown in plus some spicy peri peri dressing.

I love having roasted chickpeas handy as they are an easy and tasty way to add some protein to a salad without having to open a full tin of beans. I also had a couple of plums and an orange.

I picked up these Ryvita crackers at the supermarket the other day. I was impressed with their simple ingredients list, only wholegrain rye flour, pumpkin seeds, oats and salt. I had a couple of crackers topped with tasty marmite as a snack.

As decided not to try and make the journey from Durham to Newcastle for my yoga class I dusted off my old Yogalates DVD instead. I did the full hour workout and really enjoyed it! I think I’ll be using this DVD and Yoga Download workouts to try and maintain my flexibility until I start my level 2 course in the New Year. Earlier I had also done my usual Thursday morning workout DVD – Davina Top Fit!

For dinner I decided to just have a mug of miso soup with ginger followed by a huge green smoothie. This one contained spring greens, 1/2 frozen banana, frozen strawberries, ice cubes, vanilla rice milk, maca powder, ground flax and nut mix, agave and xanthan and guar gums. I topped it all off with some goji berries, coconut and cacao nibs.

This was lovely and filling, I actually crave green monsters now!

This morning I made a gorgeous breakfast of an apple and peanut butter spelt wrap plus a Vanilla and Chai Coffee.

Over the last week I’ve been experimenting with combining different teas, my favourite this week being green tea with lemon and ginger tea (I just chuck one tea bag of each in the tea pot). Today I decided to brew up some French vanilla coffee in my press then add a chai tea bag and some vanilla rice milk. It tasted so good – do you ever mix up your tea / coffee like that? If not give it ago!

That breakfast kept me full for hours. When I did get round to lunch I had a bowl of Courgette and Watercress soup with two organic pears.

Mid afternoon snack was a Cocoa Delight Nakd Bar. I then hit the gym for an hour workout – HIITs – 15 minutes on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by some abs and core work on the stability ball and some upper body free weights.

When I got home my organic veg box delivery had arrived so for dinner I roasted up a sweet potato, beetroots, parsnips and red onion then served on top of some sautéed spring greens and topped with feta, parsley, toasted seeds and a Dijon mustard, balsamic and olive oil dressing inspired by the warm winter salad recipe in Sophie Dahl's Voluptuous Delights Cook Book.

This was amazing – all organic and just so tasty on a cold winter night! I have lots of leftovers to eat over the weekend. I followed this with a big bowl of Double Chocolate Protein Ice Cream – the first bowl I’ve attempted with Sun Warrior (plus ice cubes, rice milk, cocoa powder, guar and xanthan gums). I crumbled a couple of my little chocolate sesame coconut cookies on the top.

This tasted fab, the Sun Warrior has a much richer chocolate flavour than my old whey protein powder – just so decadent tasting!

So I’m quite enjoying the snow at the moment, yesterday I decided to invest in a really good pair of wellington boots as this weather is likely to last, if not return over the next couple of months. I decided to get these cute polka dot ones:

Joules Dutch Blue Printed Wellingtons, £35 Amazon

I also made a bit of an impulsive Christmas gift purchase. I had been trying to decide if I preferred a bread maker or a juicer as a gift from my parents. As neither me or the hubby eat a great deal of bread, and since I’m a totally fruit and veg junky I went and ordered this juicer:

Philips Whole Fruit Juicer, £66 Amazon

It has great reviews and I’m really looking forward to making delicious fresh juices, especially in January when I’m planning a bit of a detox!

In other news, I signed up for the Great North Run 2011! I had the opportunity and thought f*** it! This way I don’t have the pressure of reaching a fundraising target and I also have guaranteed entry each year until 2013. I’m looking forward to it already!

Tomorrow I’m off to do some Christmas Shopping, catching up with friends and family and making lots of soups and stews. I can’t believe it will be December next week! Have you had snow where you are? Do you gravitate towards certain foods / exercise when the weather turns? I just have real cravings for soups and stews and I certainly don’t want to run outdoors, but I love to walk instead!