I couldn’t believe how gorgeous the weather was when I woke up on Saturday morning, I literally bounced out of bed! I made a very tasty breakfast of apple and berry porridge (1/2 cup of rude health fruity date oats, 1/2 cup of rice milk, 1 cup of water, 1tbsp of chia seeds, 1 chopped apple and frozen berries cooked on stove top) topped with 2 tablespoons of peanut flour and 1 spoonful of smooth peanut butter mixed with water. I also had a raspberry coffee with agave and rice milk:

I got the raspberry coffee from Square Orange Foods in case anyone’s interested, its just delicious!

We headed over to Newcastle and as the weather was so nice I decided to wear shorts!

Black blazer: Oasis, Breton stripe top: Warehouse, khaki shorts: Florence and Fred, tights: M&S, bag: H&M, flats: Dorothy Perkins

I did some grocery shopping in Newcastle that included picking up two giant kabocha squash from Waitrose and a load of veggies from the market. I was using the last of my grocery money until payday but luckily I managed to stay in budget.

After visiting the family we came home for lunch. I had some delicious Clearspring shoyu soya ramen noodles with carrot, sugar snaps and cherries:

My best friend and her little girl came round for the afternoon, we spent half the time in the kitchen going through my cupboards and drawers explaining what half of the strange jars and packets of powders are! I sent her home with some Conscious raw chocolate to try :-)

Late afternoon I drank a big green juice containing 2 kiwis, broccoli, japanese spinach, celery, cucumber and lemon.

This weeks organic veg box included a lovely cauliflower. While deciding what to make with it I was thinking about a wonderful nutty rice side dish that my favourite Indian restaurant used to serve and I came up with this:

Sweet and nutty cauliflower ‘rice’ and lentils (makes 2 large servings)

• 1 tbsp of coconut oil (or other oil for frying)
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp of garam masala
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 tin of green lentils, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp of ground almonds
• 2tbsp of desiccated coconut
• 2 tbsp raisins
• Toasted flaked almonds for garnish

Begin by making the cauliflower ‘rice’. Break the cauliflower into florets and finely chop in a food processor until the mix resembles rice. Put to one side. In a large pan fry the onion in the coconut oil on a medium heat until softened. Add the spices and continue to fry for another minute or so. Add the lentils, cauliflower rice and salt. Continue to stir fry the mixture for a couple of minutes until warmed through. Add the ground almonds, desiccated coconut and raisins. Fry for a further two minutes until all the ingredients are well combined and the raisins have become plump. Serve:

I served this with my favourite steamed greens with ginger and shoyu. This is seriously good! I feel extra chuffed when something that I’ve came up with completely by myself (as suppose to being adapted or based on another recipe) actually tastes so good, my confidence in the kitchen is really increasing. It really is sweet, nutty and delicious! You could of course make this with proper rice in place of the cauliflower. I didn’t add any extra carbs into this meal as it was super filling as it was and I had a really big portion!

Dessert was a small bowl of Freedom chocolate ‘ice cream’ with a little granola on top:

This morning I was up nice and early for my run. I had my usual orange and 3 big juicy medjool dates for fuel then headed out. I did 8 miles in 1hr 15 minutes with an average pace of 9.25. It was an awesome run! I was a bit cold throughout as I had thought that after yesterdays warmer weather it would be nicer than it actually was so I just wore a thinner top and left my woollen mittens at home. It was in fact quite windy and cold so the fact that I managed such an improvement on last weeks 9.58 pace was fantastic (although last weeks route was very hilly). I really love it when you have those runs and you just feel like your flying :-)

When I got home I stretched, showered and made myself an awesome smoothie. This contained romaine lettuce, frozen banana, 2 nectarines, 2 ice cubes, a sachet of spiru-tein greens powder, mesquite, ground flax, last of my matcha green tea (sob), 2 large spoonfuls of crunchy peanut butter, water, xanthan gum and guar gum. I topped it with some peanut flour sauce, goji berries, hemp seeds and cacao nibs:

This smoothie rocked my face off! It was utter awesomeness. I has this bowl plus the now usual overflow. I also enjoyed a big pot of Japanese sencha cherry green tea.

Lunch was a slice of toasted quinoa and amaranth bread with cheesy avocado mash, carrot sticks, sugar snaps and plums:

I had another big green juice mid afternoon, same as yesterdays but with a pear in place of the kiwi’s. I had done all my jobs for the day so decided to relax and sip it from a wine glass:

What can I say I’m just classy like that ;-)

Dinner was the second serving of my Sweet and Nutty Cauliflower and Lentils. Dessert was two chopped apples and some Plain Dark Plamils Chocolate:

This chocolate is delicious, really dark just how I like it!

This weekends kitchen projects have included making up a batch of sesame milk, plain hummus, pearl barley for my grain of the week and in an effort to sort out my nuts and dried fruit box (yes, I have a box in my kitchen dedicated to my nuts and dried fruit collection!) a giant jar of home mixed muesli. I can not wait to eat a big bowl of it with the sesame milk for breakfast in the morning – it is jam packed with some of my favourite nuts, seeds and dried fruits! I’ve also made something amazing with the leftover sesame mush from making the milk which I can’t wait to share with you, I just have my fingers crossed that my randomly put together recipe has worked!

I’m still buzzing from my fab run this morning and the fact I completed my first assignment for my course and that I have a fairly relaxed and short week ahead at work is making me smile this evening!

What’s making you smile today?

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend :-)

Hi everyone, hope you’ve been having a great weekend! Mine has been a good but strange one, I’ve been all over the place seeing family and friends looking at cars, catching up with work and study!

Breakfast on Saturday was a huge bowl full of strawberries with Dorset Cereal High Fibre Muesli and rice milk:

I also had a gingerbread coffee with sweet freedom and rice milk.

Saturday I was out at my parents and friends and looking at cars (haven’t bought one yet!) most of the day so I just snacked on a 9 Bar and some apples I had in my bag. When I did get home I had some miso soup followed by a big green juice:

This contained cucumber, broccoli, celery, lettuce, pear and ginger.

Dinner both yesterday and this evening featured some of my new home made seitan! Seitan is a vegan protein source made from vital wheat gluten flour. A little while ago I bought some vital wheat gluten from iHerb (can also be purchased in the UK from The Flour Bin) and when I saw this recipe I knew it was time to try it out:

Baked Seitan ‘Sausage’ (makes 3 – 4 servings)

• 1 1/4 cups of vital wheat gluten
• 1/4 cup of gram flour
• 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp of vegan vegetable bouillon powder
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of braggs

Pre heat oven to 160. Combine dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls then add wet to dry. Mix together to combine and kneed for a couple of minutes. Place dough into some foil and roll up into a large sausage shape. Bake in the oven for an hour until golden:

To store wrap tightly in foil and keep in fridge. I’ve tried freezing some too but I won’t know how well this works until I come to defrost it!

Last night I used some finely sliced seitan in cabbage wraps also containing sun dried tomato high protein hummus, alfalfa sprouts, carrot, yellow pepper and fresh basil alongside some parsnip chips seasoned with herbamare and braggs:

These were awesome! The seitan was quite firm and chewy which I really liked. All the wrap ingredients went together so well, these were just super tasty!

Dessert was a bowl of Freedom chocolate ice ‘cream’:

On Sunday I was up nice and early for my run. I fuelled up with my usual orange and dates and set off. I did just over 7 miles in 1hr 08 minutes with an average pace of 9.38. That’s a big improvement on last weeks 9.45 average pace and considering that I ran a more hilly route today, plus it was freezing and windy I’m absolutely over the moon! :-)

Post run breakfast was another wonderful smoothie containing lots of kale, romaine, frozen cherries, 2 pears, rice milk, maca, matcha green tea powder, spirulina, raw cacao and almond butter topped with flaked almonds and half a bag of bear cocoa cherry pie granola:

Today I decided to use up some of my veggies by making a big pan of my favourite lentil and spinach soup. I had a big bowl for lunch followed by some fresh blackberries:

I also had another green juice, same as Saturdays but with apple instead of pear and lemon instead of ginger. It was so good, I heart green juice!

Tonight I made a seitan, veggie and millet pilaf. This contained the seitan, 1/2 cup of cooked millet, onion, swiss chard, carrot, yellow pepper and courgette plus some veg stock, dried basil, shoyu and mixed seeds:

This was such a delicious, healthy and filling meal! Dessert was some raw 75% cacao ginger chocolate and 2 sliced organic pink lady apples:

I bought the chocolate when I was in York last month, I love ginger chocolate!

Have you tried seitan before? What did you think? Obviously its no good if you have any kind of gluten intolerance. I was really impressed with the ease of this recipe, it could be amended to add new flavours and textures. I would love to try and make some spicy seitan sausage! Seitan can also be cooked in a flavoured broth instead of baked, so many ways to try it!

Today I also decided to sign up for the Bupa Great North 10k! Its being held in Gateshead where I was born, and isn’t very far from Durham at all. Its in July and should be great preparation for the Great North Run Half Marathon in September. I’m absolutely buzzing about it! Are you signed up for any races this year? The only race I’ve ever ran was the Great North Run last year (and I’m signed up again for this year, running for Cancer Research UK again too) so I’m really looking forward to running a race with a shorter distance.

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend!

After Wednesday’s shortened workout and hellish DOMS I was glad to wake up feeling refreshed and less achy on Thursday morning. I did my Thursday morning yoga and core workout with a few changes for progression:

• Warm up – jumping jacks, bum kicks, running on the spot, skipping (5 minutes)
• 20 minute Yoga for runners podcast
• plank (as I didn’t do my plank last night – 1 min 25 sec)
• side planks (40 sec hold each side)
• v – ups (20 reps)
• twisting windmills (20 reps)
• stability ball leg raises (20 reps)
• stability ball leg curl (20 reps)
• Side to side (20 reps each side)
• Donkey kicks (20 reps each side)

I could really feel my core and shoulder muscles after this! Breakfast was a massive green smoothie containing 1/2 frozen banana, spring greens, 2 nectarines, 2 ice cubes, 2 tbsp of vanilla hemp powder, 2 tbsp of peanut butter, spirulina, matcha, ground flax, mesquite, xanthan gum, soy milk and water:

It was a bowl of absolute awesomeness! I topped it with half a bag of Bear apple crumble granola.

Lunch was a second portion of Quinoa, grape and walnut salad with lettuce followed by 2 plums and a kiwi.

Mid afternoon snack was one of my Almond and Quinoa Muffins I’d rescued from the freezer:

I made these back in December and froze some – they still taste amazing!

I then needed to do my 30 minute run I’d ditched from my Wednesday evening workout. I spent all day pondering one big question: to run outdoors for the first time in almost three months or to just go back on the treadmill. It got to 4pm and the weather was beautiful outside, a bright clear crisp day. I knew what I had to do. I rushed home, got changed straight into my running tights, vest top, thermal top and hoody and set off. I decided not to use my Run keeper App and just go out and run for the love of running, and boy did I love it! I had been so worried about getting back outdoors after such a long break, I thought it would be unbelievably tough, that I wouldn’t be able to run all the way, that I’d collapse with exhaustion after half a mile. But I didn’t. I ran for 45 minutes without stopping and it was wonderful, it reminded me why I love running so much. I have no idea what kind of pace I did but it didn’t feel ridiculously slow. I was just so chuffed!

Dinner was some Lentil Dahl with a big pile of greens with shoyu and mixed seeds:

Dessert was a full punnet of blueberries, a chopped pink lady apple with unsweetened soy milk and the other half of the pack of Bear Apple Crumble granola:

This morning I was in the mood for socca! I had socca filled with almond butter and fruit sweetened black cherry jam plus a big green juice:

The socca tasted amazing – I love nut butter and jam in any form and this was lush! The juice contained 3 apples, 1 cucumber, big bunch of parsley, ginger and lemon.

Lunch was some spicy sweet potato and leek soup with parsley and a gorgeous blood orange and pink lady apple:

I then hit the gym for my second strength workout of the week. I did a very similar routine to my home workout I did on Tuesday but warmed up for 5 minutes on the treadmill, used the gyms heavier weights and dropped the reps. I even managed 1 full push up! I couldn’t do any more after that though so went back to doing them on an incline. I also did my lateral raises and squat as two separate exercises so that I wasn’t dropping my form with using the heavier weights. Then I did 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike. 

To refuel after my workout I had a vanilla chai protein shake made with vanilla spiru-tein, cooled vanilla chai tea, soy milk, xanthan gum and ice:

As spiru-tein contains spirulina it came out a greeny colour so I thought I might as well add some matcha green tea powder to the mix. I also topped this with cinnamon, yummy!

Dinner was roast kabocha squash and adzuki beans with a huge pile of steamed kale with ume vinegar, shoyu, mixed seeds and chopped parsley:

Dessert was some vanilla freedom iced dessert with a teaspoon of graham cracker crumbs:

This was just as good as the chocolate version, it has a lovely vanilla flavour and a great creamy but light texture, I’m officially hooked on this!

I think I’m still buzzing from my outdoor run. I do need to try and find some good gloves as I suffer from extremely painful hands when they get cold – that was one of the reasons I took my runs back indoors in the first place but thankfully the weather is getting warmer. Anyone have any running glove recommendations? Has the winter affected your running schedule? If you moved your runs onto the treadmill how do you make the move to outdoors running again? I think I’ll be trying a few more runs without tracking my mileage or pace until I’m fully back into it.

Tomorrow is the hubby’s birthday, he’s not really fussed on big celebrations so we will probably just have a nice relaxing day and head out for lunch somewhere. Hope you all have a good weekend!