Happy Wednesday everyone, hope your week is going very well!

I’ve decided to show you my eats from last Friday as I remembered to take pics of almost everything, plus my eats fitted in nicely with this months WIAW theme of greens! I started the day with a mug of warm water and the juice from half a lemon plus an orange as a pre gym snack:

I headed to the gym and did a 5 minute warm up on the cross trainer followed by a Base phase workout from Female Body Breakthrough and 20 minutes of HIIT on the step machine and bike. I came home and got ready for work then made some breakfast. I’d been feeling a bit tired the last few days and wanted to make sure I was eating plenty of iron so I made an ‘iron bomb’ smoothie:

This contained kale, 2 nectarines, a scoop of vanilla sun warrior, 1 tbsp of black strap molasses (for added iron), maca powder, ground flax, water and ice then topped with a chopped dried fig (for more iron), hemp seeds and goji berries (goji berries are high in vitamin C which supports iron absorption). I had that bowl plus another half a bowl full! I also made a cup of Bi Luo Chun green tea, kindly sent to me from my sponsors Teavivre:

This has a lovely deep almost smokey taste and its the most beautiful loose leaf tea that looks almost like moss! I know that tea and coffee can hinder the absorption of iron but I’m never sure if that’s the same with green tea – will have to check that one out!

We had decided to set a day aside at work to have a good spring clean of the office which meant that we could all come in our scruffs. I wore my boyfriend jeans and fave Converse!

For lunch I had a big salad of romaine, green pepper, red cabbage and carrot topped with some of my leftover Magic Mix crumbled on top:

I got 6 meals out of that recipe and it kept very well in the fridge all week! Mid afternoon I stopped for a snack of roast salted soya nuts and a pink lady apple:

Once the office was all organised and the bags of rubbish and recycling sorted out I headed into town to stock up on fruit and veggies for the weekend. I went to my favourite green grocers, they have a brilliant selection of fruit and vegetables for excellent prices:

I actually didn’t get those blueberries in the end but got a box of strawberries for 99p instead! Here’s my haul:

All of this for £12! It included:

• bananas
• 6 pink lady apples
• 4 coxes apples
• a huge piece of fresh ginger root
• bunch of beetroot
• cauliflower
• box of strawberries
• broccoli
• celery
• cucumber
• a head of kale
• spring greens
• romaine
• large bunch of parsley
• big savoy cabbage

Of course my haul included a lot of greens! I decided to make use of the kale in my dinner, I ate it raw and just massaged it with a dressing made from sweet white miso and hemp oil. To go with it I roasted some butternut squash, cooked some millet and rescued some chickpeas from the freezer mixed them all together and added some dried cranberries and parsley to the mix:

It tasted wonderful! For dessert I had two sliced persimmon, a chopped apple and half a bar of conscious orange raw chocolate:

I also snacked on several un pictured apples while watching New Girl and reading my book!

I ended up eating kale twice that day which is fine by me as I love it so much! As someone that eats a mostly vegan diet I like to have at least one serving of leafy greens a day to ensure I’m getting plenty of calcium and iron. My favourite way to eat my greens are:

• Green smoothies of course!
• Steamed and sprinkled with soy sauce
• Juiced up with lemon and ginger
• Raw with some kind of nut or seed based dressing like tahini
• Stir fried – my current favourite being stir fried and then simmered in full fat coconut milk with ginger and spices

As someone who needs a lot of volume in what they eat to feel satisfied, greens are perfect for adding to meals for additional fibre and satiety for not too many calories. I just can’t get enough of my greens!

What’s your favourite green veggie?

Thanks for all your great comments on my last post, you’ve all made me feel much better! It was quite strange getting up this morning and not going out for my run, I really enjoyed having an hour to relax. I’m really looking forward to tomorrows run, I’m not going to put any pressure on achieving any time, I just want to enjoy the run and make the distance.

Last night I was just about to make a cuppa and for some reason I thought I would get out the old tea pot and make a full pot of tea so I could just keep topping myself up during the evening. I got it out again this morning for breakfast and made a big pot of Chai Green tea to accompany my bowl of chopped apple, raspberries and some of my new Mornflake Date, Apple and Fig Muesli (bought for £1 on special offer) with hazelnut and almond rice milk and cinnamon.




I really like this muesli, its so tasty! I definitely think the tea pot has earned its place on my kitchen counter now, I just need a retro tea cosy like this one from Etsy:



Ha ha! Reminds me of my nana! While I was looking at the tea cosy’s I also saw these for take out coffee, how cute!



I did all my cleaning and tidying then headed into town to have a look in some vintage shops and get some grocery shopping done in the market. Nothing interesting in the one vintage shop that was actually open, but loads of groceries, check out this haul!



I got all this Fruit and Veg (leek, cabbage, 10 little nectarines, 4 large peaches, 2 punnets of strawberries, 2 punnets of raspberries, 1 punnet of blueberries, bananas, giant cucumber, carrots, beetroot, 3 fuji apples, garden peas, 2 little gems, bag of spinach, 3 peppers, courgette) for just £15! Considering that fruit and vegetables make up the bulk of my diet that’s great value. I also stopped by Holland and Barratt and couldn’t help myself with the tea! I got some Yogi Rose tea and some Qi Green Tea with berries. I also got some dried blueberries and a pack of omega seed sprinkle for breakfasts, soups and salads.



I stopped by an oriental shop and picked up some goji berries and more green tea (yes, I clearly have a problem!) for £3. Before heading home I stopped by mmm which is a fabulous foodie shop in the market (thanks to blog reader Joolz for telling me about this place!) I scored the last of the local Jesmond Dene blossom honeycomb as well as some wheat germ to try and this Slow Puck snack disc which I had with a cuppa at my parents.
 

I also had to drop by the supermarket to get some milk, eggs, freedom food chicken breasts, Powerade to try on my run tomorrow and other stuff I couldn’t carry from the market. 



I love having a full cupboard, fridge and freezer!

For lunch I made myself a salad beast. It contained cos lettuce, spinach, cucumber, grated carrot, freshly shelled peas, yellow pepper, beetroot, roasted soya nuts and a goats cheese mini babybel with a dressing made from juice of half a lemon, teaspoon of garlic olive oil and a little dried oregano.



This was immensely good! I then had some strawberries, raspberries and a chopped apple which I couldn’t resist topping with a thin slither of honey comb.



So amazing!

This afternoon I made these Apple, Blueberry and Cinnamon Protein Muffins. I based my recipe on this one.
Apple, Blueberry and Cinnamon Protein Muffins (makes 10 small muffins)

• 1 cup of spelt flour
• 2 scoops of nutty berry spiru-tein powder (any neutral or vanilla flavour protein powder should work, although I have read that spiru-tein is better in baking).
• 1/2 cup of chunky apple sauce
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tablespoons of dried blueberries

Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Spoon into muffin cases and bake at 180 for 10 – 15 minutes.

 

I used my new silicone muffin cases which worked really well. I tried one of these as an afternoon snack spread with a little almond butter and it was delicious and had a really good texture. I’ve popped these in the freezer to keep, and to stop me eating them all at once!

For dinner I defrosted a portion of my Thai Red Tofu Curry and had it with some brown rice and steamed savoy cabbage with soy and ginger.



For desert I wanted to use some of my new honeycomb. I’ve never had honeycomb before so I did a little bit of research. The actual structure of honeycomb is made from beeswax which holds the honey in. As it comes like this in its most natural state it has not been treated in any way. Some people believe it has great health benefits, particularly in treating hayfever. I chopped a peach in half and popped it under a hot grill for 5 minutes then served it with some fromage frais, some of the honeycomb and some flaked almonds.



Heavenly!

Big Budget Challenge Update

This week I have:

• Made a home made head band for the wedding I attended
• Put several items on EBay for the first time ever!
• Did my grocery shopping at Lidl and the market to save money
• Scored some free 9 Bars to review on the blog
• Instead of buying magazines I’ve been flicking through some old ones and getting week old copies of Grazia from my Sis

I’m getting there slowly but surely!

How’s everyone’s weekend going? I’ve got another busy day tomorrow with my run and hopefully sorting out my EBay items that have been sold!

I’m going to have to try and keep my hands off that honeycomb, have you ever tried honeycomb before? If so what did you think? I really enjoyed mine tonight, luckily it will keep in the fridge for quite a few months so I can treat myself every so often. I think I might have to treat myself to some full fat greek yoghurt to have with it some time, that will be just delicious!

Well I’m off to make another big pot of tea for this evening, I just need to decide which tea to have now! Hope your all having a good one x

Hi everyone, hope your having a great weekend! I’ve had a pretty good weekend so far, starting on Friday evening with this delicious meal:

I made a Lentil and Sweet Potato Thai Red Curry, it was super easy to make and tasted so good! I just fried some curry paste with extra fresh minced ginger then added a little tomato passata followed by 1/4 cup of red lentils and some hot water. I simmer that until the lentils were tender then added a cubed baked sweet potato. I served it with some steamed kale, it was spot on!

While chilling out watching TV I enjoyed my fave snack again, pretzels with strawberries and some peanut dip made with peanut flour:

Love this combo, I have a ‘thing’ for pretzels right now!

On Saturday we decided to have a pay day treat of breakfast in town so I though I’d make a bit of an effort for a change:

OOTD: jersey scarf: Topshop, heart necklace: Topshop, striped tee: Topshop, pink satchel: H&M, pink belt: taken off a dress from Warehouse, floral skirt: Dorothy Perkins, black tights: M&S, zip ankle boots: New Look

Breakfast was our usual order from Olive and Bean:

I had granary toast with peanut butter, a 3 berry smoothie and a soya latte and James had the continental platter. Both fab as always! That tasty breakfast set me up for a morning of shopping! I went to Waitrose, the health food shop and the speciality food shop for this lot:

I also got some tempeh but that went straight in the freezer! Very chuffed to have some red kabocha and a huge bag of Popchips too! I also paid a visit to Lush for shower gel and toner water:

I treated myself to a couple of new things for my wardrobe too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 skinny belts from Primark for only £2! I also got a plain black maxi skirt from Primark as well. Then from H&M I bought this stripy t-shirt dress and a purple long sleeved top for yoga. I did get some denim shorts but when I got home and tried them on they were more like hot pants (!) so I’ll be returning those.

After town I was going to see my friends so I thought I’d pick up something for lunch:

A hummus salad wrap from Pret and some blueberries and satsumas from the market. I had sworn that the wrap had vegan on the label for it at the fridge but it turned out it had a yoghurt dressing. Vegan fail :-( I think I was just so weighed down with bags and in a hurry I didn’t look properly. I’m not strictly vegan so I’m not that upset by it, just miffed at my mistake. It did taste good though ;-) I shared my giant satsumas with my friends kids, juice went every where :-)

I had a great afternoon with my friends then made my way home. I made myself a fantastic green juice with cucumber, celery and fresh mint:

Great mix of flavours in this! For dinner I really craved a big veggie packed salad so I raided the fridge and filled a bowl with romaine, cucumber, red pepper, and red onion then topped it with some baked tofu which I’d marinated in soy sauce, ground ginger and garlic granules then some red pepper hummus watered down a bit and some olives:

This met my craving perfectly! A bit later I was in snack mode so a had a few bowls of millet puffs mixed with coconut sauce (coconut flour mixed with water) and strawberries:

Eaten in bed watching TV, yum!

Its been lovely to have been paid and be able to treat myself to a couple of goodies. Restocking my kitchen cupboard has been fun too, more on that later in the week!

Have you treated yourself to anything recently?

First off I would like to say a massive thank you to for all the supportive comments to my last post. I’m pretty overwhelmed to be honest! I was so nervous about pressing the publish button but I’m glad I’ve been able to share my feelings and plans for the future. Thank you all so much for your support! I’m feeling very positive about all of these changes right now.

A couple of today’s grocery shop highlights – cans of coconut milk from the Oriental store at £1 each, purple potatoes (can’t wait to try these!) bags of dried mixed berries and dried apple pieces just 45p each!

Following on from things I’ve been treating this week as a kind of ‘transition’ week in my workouts. I haven’t started my new yoga classes yet and I’ve still done a couple of runs because I don’t want to stress my body out any more by throwing big changes of routine at it:

• Sunday – 5 mile treadmill run at steady comfortable pace, Kettlebell class
• Monday – Gym, 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength A from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ Phase, 20 min HIIT on bike
• Tuesday – 20 min Yoga for Detox, 10 min HIIT cross trainer and step machine, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – 5k treadmill run at a steady pace, 10 mins HIITs on cross trainer, step machine and bike
• Thursday – Zumba Exhilarate ‘Ripped’ DVD, planks, sit ups, push ups
• Friday -  Gym, 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength B from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ Phase, 20 min HIIT on step machine

I’ve enjoyed some lovely eats this week. I had a couple of late nights at work so I went with my trusty green smoothies when I got home:

Spinach, 2 frozen bananas, hemp milk, vanilla stevia, pinch of gums, water, ice, topped with dried figs, tahini and bee pollen. (I also put in a lot of add ins – maca, ground flax, chlorella tablets, pro biotic tablet)

Black kale, frozen cherries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, tbsp of peanut butter, water, ice topped with a sauce made from peanut flour and cacao nibs plus the add ins above.

After Body Pump on Tuesday night I made an amazing chocolate peanut butter cup recovery smoothie:

This was 2 tbsp of Vega choc-o-lot powder, 2 tbsp of peanut flour, 1 heaping tbsp of crunchy peanut butter, water, ice, gums topped with cacao nibs. Yum!

I also busted out a Gourmet Raw brownie for dessert one night:

This was the Cacao Mint and it was delish! This tasted much more like a regular brownie than other raw brownies I’ve tried before, it had a lovely fudgy texture.

I’ve also had some super breakfasts:

 Vanilla protein chia seed pudding with banana, apricots, goji berries and honey plus a vanilla nut teeccino with hemp milk

Large bowl of Dorset Cereals muesli with apples and hemp milk plus a teapigs matcha green tea with manuka honey

Vanilla courgette bread oats (1/2 cup oats and oatmeal cooked stove top with water, grated courgette and vanilla sun warrior) topped with pecans, cranberries and maple syrup

For lunches and dinners I’ve had salads:

This was based on my Confetti Quinoa Salad – quinoa with red onion, cucumber, carrot, parsley, dried apricots, hemp oil, apple cider vinegar plus romaine lettuce and home grown sprouts. I had been hoping to add avocado but they didn’t ripen in time!

Today’s lunch! Spicy almond kelp noodles – raw green tea kelp noodles with carrot and courgette in a spicy sauce made from loads of home made raw almond butter, toasted sesame oil, coconut aminos (you could just use soy sauce), red chilli, ginger and sweet white miso topped off with a few goji berries, amazing!

My veggie loaf with some wonderful cauliflower mash and steamed purple sprouting broccoli, such a tasty meal!

In addition to those I’ve been snacking my little heart out all week. On Monday I bought a 200g bag of almonds and a 400g bag of raisins to snack on at work and they are almost all gone! I’ve also been eating carrots with lots of nut butter and home made raw kale chips.

Now I am feeling so ready for the weekend! Its my lovely Dad’s Birthday today (Happy Birthday Dad!) and my Sister’s tomorrow so we are going out for a bar meal to celebrate. I’m also going to finish up my ‘clean eating’ January tomorrow as I’ll be out for said meal, plus I need some coffee back in my life!

Tonight I’m going to relax by making a big pan of chilli (perfect for the cold night expected), roasting up those purple potatoes and watching movies on Netflix with a bowl of popcorn. Bliss! What do you have planned for your weekend? Hope whatever you are up to you have a good one!