Hi everyone, hope you are all having a great week! Here’s a quick recap of my exercise and eats over the last couple of days:

I started my Tuesday with a Yoga for Runners 20 minute podcast – great way to get the blood pumping and get focused before work! Breakfast was another big smoothie containing kale, strawberries, frozen peaches, vanilla rice milk, vanilla hemp protein powder, spirulina, matcha, mesquite and ground flax. I topped it with some bear coco cherry pie granola and gojis:

Yummy! Although my smoothies have been turning out a pretty yukky sludge colour recently, just goes to show you shouldn’t judge on appearances!

Lunch was a mug of miso soup followed by a big sun dried tomato high protein hummus topped salad containing lettuce, spinach, carrot, alfalfa sprouts, beetroot and sugar snaps. I also had two big apples:

I watered the hummus down a bit and then mixed it all in like a thick salad dressing, yum!

Before I went to Body Pump I ate a mixed berry Trek bar. Body Pump was awesome again, I love doing the clean and press, I feel proper bad ass with those big weights!

Dinner was not pancakes, I just wasn’t in the mood for them despite it being pancake day. The way I look at it is I can have pancakes when ever I like, I think pancake day used to be more special when I never ate pancakes!

Instead I had peanut soba noodles with edamade and veggies. I cooked some soba noodles and made veggie noodles using two small courgettes and my spiraliser. I quickly stir fried some shredded bok choy and sugar snaps then added the soba noodles and veggie noodles and some frozen edamade. I made a lovely sauce using peanut butter, lime juice, fresh ginger and soy sauce:

This was delicious, the peanut sauce was really good!

Dessert was a rainbow Fruit-ein protein shake made with vanilla rice milk, ice cubes and xanthan and guar gums for thickness. I topped it with a few flaked almonds:

My stomach was a bottomless pit last night so I also snacked on a few of my favourite pink lady apples.

This morning I decided to start work a little later and get a gym workout in first thing. I did 30 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill and managed to slightly increase my usual speed :-)

I also did 30 minutes total HIITs on the step machine, cross trainer and bike and then did my abs and core. I managed to hold another 2 minute plank, I had been worried that when I achieved this time on Monday it had been some kind of fluke so I was extra chuffed!

Breakfast was one of my gorgeous Almond Quinoa Muffins with a chopped pear, Total blueberry split pot yoghurt and pumpkin and sunflower seeds:

I love this combo! The split pot was also pretty tasty but I think the blueberry compote was a little bit artificial tasting for me.

Lunch was some Pea, Broccoli and Pesto Soup with some cherries:

Mid afternoon I just snacked on some of my high protein sun dried tomato hummus with cucumber and sugar snaps for dipping. Dinner was a lovely combo of quinoa with kidney beans, courgette, red pepper and parsley served on top of steamed swiss chard and kale with shoyu and ume vinegar:

This was so so satisfying and utterly delish! I made a big portion so I have tasty leftovers for tomorrow too.

To make dessert I wanted to try out a little experiment:

Instant Coconut Milk (makes 4 cups)

• 4 cups of water (I used bottled)
• 3 tablespoons of coconut flour (I used Tiara available from Goodness Direct)

Add both ingredients to a blender and blitz! This amount of flour produces a texture similar to kara coconut milk (although not quite as smooth). You could add an extra tablespoon if you prefer it more coconuty and creamy or you could also strain this through some muslin cloth if you wanted a smoother result. Adding some cocoa powder or raw cacao powder and agave would give you chocolate coconut milk! This could be a serious money saver!

I used some of my coconut milk with frozen raspberries for a quick dessert:

Simple and lovely!

I’ve had a real craving recently for simple meals like my quinoa, kidney bean and veggie dinner. Kris Carr from Crazy Sexy Life calls them Buddha Bowls, Carrie from Moves and Munchies recently described similar meals as Luscious Bowls and Matt from No Meat Athlete describes them as a Green, a Bean and Grain. 

The formula I like to keep in mind is:

• Whole grain or healthy carb - millet, brown rice, quinoa, buck wheat, couscous, barley etc or starchy veggie like sweet potato
• Protein - beans, lentils, tofu, or non vegan protein
• Veggies – raw or cooked, possibilities are endless, but I always try and include a leafy green!
• Healthy fat – could be in the form of a sauce or dressing like a coconut curry sauce or green goddess dressing or just some plain oil, avocado, nuts or seeds
• Seasonings - soy / shoyu, vinegar, braggs, nutritional yeast, herbamare, fresh or dried herbs, garlic, chilli, ginger etc

Actually so many good meals can be broken down into this formula!

Whatever you call them (I quite like the Buddha Bowl name myself) I think they are great: cheap to make, provide almost endless variety and are so healthy. I’ll definitely be playing about with this kind of meal more often especially while I’m trying to keep my grocery budget in check!

Do you eat ‘Buddha Bowl’ type meals? What’s your formula for a perfect meal?

Hi everyone, happy Friday! I’ve had a jam packed couple of days including some tasty eats and great workouts:

source

I kicked off Thursday with a yoga flow from Slim Calm Sexy Yoga. I did the full body toning flow. It only took me 15 minutes and was a great way to start the day. After work I hit the gym for my upper body workout / intervals. I started with a 5 minute warm up on the cross trainer then did the following routine:

• Dumbbell pullover on stability ball x 8 reps with 9kg db
• Chest flye on stability ball x 8 reps with 2 x 6kg db
• Lower back raise on stability ball x 10 reps

x 3 sets

• shoulder press – 6 reps with 2 x 6kg db
• bicep curl – 6 reps with 2 x 6kg db
• lateral raise – 8 reps with x 4kg db

x 3 sets

• tricep dip x 15reps bw
• bent over row – 8 reps with 2 x 8kg db
• upright row – 8 reps with 2 x 6kg db

x 3 sets

• push up on bench x 10 reps bw
• dumbbell wood chop – 10 reps each side with 8kg db

x 3 sets

I finished off with 20 minutes (2 x 10 mins) of HIITs on the step machine and bike. This morning I was back at the gym for a quick 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core exercises.

Thursdays breakfast was some porridge topped with fresh pineapple and coconut flour sauce. I used 1/2 cup of Rude Health Fruity Date Porridge with 1 teaspoon of chia seeds, water and rice milk:

I love how much coconut sauce you can make from just one teaspoon of coconut flour, it just eats up water!

This mornings breakie was a delicious smoothie containing romaine lettuce, frozen banana, frozen peaches, vanilla sun warrior, spirulina, matcha green tea, mesquite and a generous amount of peanut butter, topped with gojis and cacao nibs:

This was another monster smoothie! I love adding lots and lots of greens (I used almost a full head of lettuce in this) to give plenty of bulk so that I get really filled up. This was the nicest tasting smoothie I’ve had in a while too, got to love that peanut butter!

Lunch has been the same the last two days – a big salad beasty containing lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red and yellow pepper, red onion, mixed beans, braggs seasoning and some nutritional yeast flakes:

Yesterday I also had some grapes and a nectarine and today I enjoyed a juicy pear and an orange.

Snackies have included the last of my leftover cookies and an apple:

I also tried another Total split pot today, this time the honey variety:

The honey was set which I wasn’t expecting but it still tasted lovely.

Yesterdays dinner was a serving of my Moroccan Tagine with mixed rice and steamed spring greens with shoyu, ume vinegar and mixed seeds:

Loved this! So glad I remembered I had some stashed in the freezer. Last nights dessert was some of my pumpkin protein pudding with graham cracker crumbs and when that didn’t satisfy me I also snacked on a couple of apples and a pear.

Tonight I had a grilled wild garlic tofu fillet in a wholemeal pitta with some of my high protein sundried tomato hummus, lettuce and alfalfa sprouts plus some raw carrot and a side of steamed kale with shoyu:

This was so satisfying, like eating a big burger! I made the hummus using my original high protein hummus recipe but with an added 1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes in oil drained and with the 2 tbsp of oil left out – I ended up with a huge portion – I’ll be eating hummus for the rest of the week :-) Dessert was two chopped apples and half a bar of conscious raw chocolate:

This variety contained lucuma and yacon root. It tasted ok but not as nice as the other varieties I have tried so far.

As I’ve been working from home today I took advantage of the opportunity to be near the kitchen and baked some bread for James and made some baked Seitan sausage for me! I’ll share the Seitan recipe soon, but wow it looks so good! Seitan is a meat alternative made some gluten flour in case you were wondering - I had no idea what it was when I first heard about it!

I also got my organic veg box delivery today as well as a trip to the farm shop and the supermarket. I think I may have gone a little overboard with the fresh produce yet again:

Includes: swiss chard, kale, cos lettuce, round lettuce, celery, courgettes, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, spinach, spring greens, bananas, apples, pears, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, lemons, broccoli, carrots, beetroot, butternut squash, parsnips, avocado, sugar snap peas.

Its a good job I love my fruits and veggies! I have to say nothing makes me happier than a fridge full of fresh mostly organic produce, I’ll enjoy eating my way through all this over the next week.

I have a very busy weekend ahead, I have to study for my course, catch up with some work, see friends and family, fit in a run and go on the hunt for a new car!

I’m searching for a new car to replace my little 8 year old Ford Ka, I’m just looking for another small, economical and environmentally friendly run around. Do you drive? What kind of car do you own? Any favourite models? I quite like the Peugeot 107:

Fingers crossed I find something that doesn’t cost a bomb!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend planned! :-)

Happy Friday! How has your week been? Mine has been good although I’m really ready for the weekend now. I had a weird day yesterday where I ended up doing a lot of deep thinking about things. Do you ever have those day’s where your thoughts are just all over the place? Anyway it’s all good, I’ve had some big realisations and reached some major conclusions that have been a long time coming, onward and upward!

Here’s a recap of my workouts for the week:

• Sunday – 5k relaxed treadmill run, 15 min bike set at random, Kettlebell class
• Monday – 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – AM Yoga for Runners 20 min podcast, PM 10 min HIIT cross trainer, 10 min HIIT bike, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – New yoga class! (1hr 15 min)
• Friday - 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I tried out a new yoga class last night and as I suspected it was another slower paced Iyengar class. It actually wasn’t too bad and I did find some of the poses more challenging than I had expected, I certainly got an excellent stretch. I have another class to try on Tuesday and then I’ll probably make a decision about which of them I’ll continue with or if I’ll go for DVD’s and podcasts instead. I’ve also increased my strength workouts this week from two to three which has been great!

Its been a bit of a busy week where I’ve need to start work early so a couple of breakfasts have had to be eaten on the go. For this I’ve been making green smoothies and storing them in a jar in the fridge ready to drink as soon as I get back from the gym. This one contained kale, spring greens, frozen banana, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, midori greens, ice and water:

Luckily I did have time to enjoy one in my usual ‘in a bowl’ style. This contained kale, frozen blueberries and strawberries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, berries powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice topped with Dorset Cereals Simply Muesli and sunflower seed butter:

I’m doing well with not needing to add any additional sweeteners or gums to them at the moment, they are certainly turning out thick enough on their own! I also enjoyed another late breakfast nut butter plate of banana, apple, roast kabocha squash and raw almond butter:

This was eaten later in the morning at work after a green juice first thing. I have to say there’s nothing quite like starting your day with a green juice although I don’t think I’ll be making a regular habit of it, I like my breakfast foods too much!

For lunches I’ve been back on the salads, firstly topped with Gourmet Raw beetroot crisps…

…and then topped with home made high protein hummus:

I also remembered to sprout some alfalfa to add in, I just love hummus topped salads!

Today I made myself some raw wraps by wrapping a mix of grated carrot, raisins and raw tahini in spring green leaves:

So delicious, I haven’t made raw wraps in forever and these tasted wonderful, I’m crazy for the tahini and raisin combo! For dinner the last couple of nights I’ve had a massive portion of veggie chilli with a baked sweet potato and steamed greens:

This has been perfect warming meal, I love that chilli it really is such a simple recipe and so easy to throw together!

For desserts / evening snacks I’ve had big bowls of frozen berries with some home made sunflower seed milk. This bowl had frozen raspberries, apple and some almond butter:

I also treated myself to some sharon fruit the other day and enjoyed a few of them chopped up and accompanied by some raw chocolate covered raisins:

Those raisins are seriously addictive, it took a lot of will power not to eat the entire bag!

Well I’m sitting here feeling nice and relaxed ready to start the weekend. I’m going to make a big bowl of popcorn later as me and James are having a movie night and I can’t wait to enjoy a lie in tomorrow followed by a relaxed breakfast and a giant mug of coffee!

What have you got planned for the weekend? What are your favourite on the go breakfasts? I like smoothies as I can drink them while I’m getting ready, not sure what else I could have for breakfast that is quick to make and eat? I might start experimenting with just having a small snack and then something bigger once I’m at work. Any ideas would be much appreciated! Hope you all have a great weekend whatever your up to! :-)

Happy Sunday everyone, hope you are enjoying your weekend! Mine has been pretty bloody fantastic starting off with the most amazing run ever! Last week I thought I had ran my best ever run – but this week I blew that out of the water:

Yes, I did a sub 2 hour half marathon! 13.1 miles in 1.58.30 with an average pace of 9.02. I had been planning on doing 12 miles but I was in my groove and decided to continue to do the full 13.1. It was not an easy run, in fact I almost cut it short at several points as it was raining and I was worried about my Garmin getting wet and broken (anyone know if Garmin’s are rain proof?) but the weather improved and I stuck with it. I’m still in shock! The last half I ran was the Great North Run in September with a time of 2.07. A part of me never believed I would ever achieve a sub 2 hour half. This just means so much to me I can’t really put it into words!

Anyway, I was on cloud 9 after my run, I got ready and we headed into town for a celebratory Starbucks ;-) Outfit of the Day:

Trench coat: Debenhams, brown cross body bag: Mango, Floral tea dress: Forever 21, pink v-neck sweater: H&M, black tights: M&S, black chunky boots: New Look

Rubbish weather yet again so I went with my trench and had to dig out a jumper! I got lots of lovely fruit and veg from the market – but I’ll share that that in a separate grocery shopping post.

I have had some wonderful eats this weekend:

Kashi Go Lean Crunch, blueberries, kara coconut milk, chopped adora chocolate calcium disc:

Loved the added hit of chocolate from the adora!

Epic Tutti Fruity Smoothie with romaine lettuce, frozen banana, mango, blueberries and strawberries, vanilla sun warrior, peanut flour, acai and pomegranate coconut water, maca, mesquite, water, gums topped with crunchy peanut butter sauce and goji’s:

This was immensely good!

Vanilla decaf with stevia and coconut milk:

This was just delicious. I usually drink my coffee black but as I had a carton of kara coconut milk open I decided to make it a milky one!

Giant hummus topped salad: romaine, mixed leaves, olives, radish, red onion, cucumber, china rose sprouts, braggs and herbamare seasoning, high protein hummus:

More hummus but this time in nori wraps with china rose sprouts, olives, chopped carrots and a persimmon on the side:

Quickest and easiest stir fry noodle bowl: pak choy, broccoli, spring cabbage, asparagus, green onion, mushrooms, carrot, edamame, all stir fried in coconut oil with Clearspring brown rice shoyu ramen noodles plus the broth with added fresh ginger:

Herbed socca pizza with tomato sauce, roast peppers, asparagus, courgette and red onion topped with vegan mozzarella slices, olives and fresh basil. I had this with a big side salad of little gem lettuce and sprouted seeds:

This was delish! The socca just makes the best pizza crust and the vegan cheese was pretty good too. I love how colourful it is!

For a delicious dessert I had hot apple in near empty almond and sunflower seed butter jars topped with soy yoghurt:

This was fab, I just chopped up an apple then microwaved it in the jars (so the nut butter softens too) and then topped with the yoghurt. I have a small collection of almost empty nut butter jars to get through that are just too small for oats but perfect for yoghurt and fruit.

Plus I’ve been having my usual green juice and lots of fruit!

So glad we have an extra day off tomorrow. I decided to move my usual Monday workout to this morning so I could have my rest day tomorrow. I did 20 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill (between 6.5 – 8 MPH) followed by 4 x 10 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine, bike and rowing machine followed by abs and core.

Do you have any plans for the bank holiday tomorrow? I think I’ll be just relaxing at home, having a lie in I hope, and getting caught up on a few things. Hope you have a good one!

I’m still buzzing from my run yesterday. A few years ago I would have never imagined I would feel so healthy and fit, be able to cook like I can, lose so much weight, complete the Great North Run and now run a half marathon in under two hours! What have you achieved that you never thought possible?

I’ve had another busy day today – I feel like I’ve never stopped and work just flew over! Luckily I had a tasty breakfast to keep me going, half a pineapple, fresh organic blueberries topped with cashew cream and Rude Health Granola:

I’ve wanted to try out making the cashew cream for ages, I just soaked 1/2 cup of cashews in some water for a couple of hours then drained them and blended in the food processor adding a little water and agave until I got a creamy consistency.

Lunch was some nori wraps filled with some of my high protein hummus, carrots and alfalfa sprouts plus chopped carrot, cucumber and cherries:

I made the high protein hummus using soya beans. Soya beans contain 16 grams of protein per half a carton compared to 9 grams of protein in chickpeas. They only contain a few extra calories and also have a lower carb content too:

High Protein Soya Bean Hummus:

• 1 carton / tin of soya beans (I used a carton of Sainsbury’s brand organic soya beans)
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of tahini
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 small garlic cloves
• Pinch of salt

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor. Add water until the hummus reaches your desired consistency:

This tastes really good, in fact I would almost go as far as saying I prefer it to regular hummus!

Mid afternoon I snacked on an unpictured nakd berry bar before hitting the gym. I did 20 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, 20 minutes of HIITs on the step machine and 10 minutes on the rowing machine plus my usual abs (up to 1 minute and 15 seconds on my plank now!) I then did my 30 minute spin class.

Dinner was a bit of a random mix – I had some veggies to use up after my epic grocery shop at the weekend so I made up a pilaf / risotto style one pan dish by frying an onion and some garlic in olive oil then adding tender stem broccoli, swiss chard, frozen peas and some cooked pearl barley. I then added some veg stock and nutritional yeast and served it on top of some rocket with a sprinkling of seeds:

So much green! This was actually really tasty for something so thrown together! Dessert was half a bar of this Broadberys raw rose flavoured chocolate plus 4 apples (two shown here but I went back for more!):

The chocolate was delicious!

I really am in love with my new hummus, I think it would also taste great with some roasted red peppers or olives added to the mix too. What’s your favourite flavour hummus? I also love the broccoli, courgette and olive hummus I made a couple of weeks ago, I love that you can make hummus out of so many different veggies and different beans!

Tomorrow I’ll be back with a special readers request post looking at unusual ingredients and where to find them. Hope your week is off to a great start!

Hello everyone, hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend! Mine has been really lovely and relaxed which is just how I like it :-)

I enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning breakfast:

Stove top porridge with apple, blackberries, cinnamon, pumpkin seeds and almond butter. I used 1/3 cup of scottish oats and 1/3 cup of oatmeal (I thought I was using my 1/4 cup scoop, until I realised it was in the sink, so this was super filling!) with water, 1 chopped apple, frozen blackberries, cinnamon and vanilla stevia topped with some of the apple, blackberries, raw candied cinnamon pumpkin seeds and some almond butter sauce, so lush!

We headed into Durham for my now routine trip to the green grocers, OOTD:

Gold swallow earrings: Topshop, knitted wrap around scarf: Dorothy Perkins, leather hooded jacket: Topshop, denim shift dress: Mango, tan cross body bag: Mango, large canvas shopper bag: Wholefoods, gold cocktail ring: Topshop, grey tights: Accessorize, brown brogues: Topshop

After a nice look around town – in which I managed to resist the temptation of the stalls at the food festival, Topshop and Starbucks, I came home and made a delicious Vanilla Chai Coconut Coffee:

To make this I brewed some vanilla coffee and some Clipper Indian chai tea and mixed it up with some instant coconut milk, cinnamon and vanilla stevia. It tasted fab! I had two large mugs of this and I was left with some serious caffeine jitters!

For lunch I had some raw courgette noodles with a creamy garlicy, avocado, basil and nutritional yeast sauce and some black olives:

So good!

I decided to make up some high protein hummus as I had a can of soya beans in the cupboard. I also had some cauliflower so ended up making a hybrid using my recipe and the lower fat hummus recipe from Veganomicon. To my usual recipe, I added the raw cauliflower, shoyu and fresh parsley. I spread some on a herbed socca wrap with mashed squash and served with some cauliflower roasted in coconut oil, parsnip chips and some amazing caramelised brussel sprouts based on this recipe but using coconut oil, maple syrup and toasted walnuts:

Best brussel sprouts ever! These are amazing, the maple syrup (got some from Asda for £2.99, £2 cheaper than Holland and Barrat  - thanks for the tip Maria!) just make these taste so good.

This morning I was up before sunrise for my weekend run. I haven’t ran in the dark for ages, and I got to enjoy a lovely pink sunrise. I did a different route to my usual ones, taking in a nice run past some ‘posh’ houses and tree lined roads with a few hills. I think all of those things combined made it my most enjoyable run for a long time. I did 10k in 54.15 average pace 8.45 which considering the hills and the bit of a breeze blowing, I was very happy with.

Post run breakie was as always a green smoothie containing spring greens, a persimmon, frozen peaches, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, lucuma powder, spirulina, water, ice, gums and stevia, topped with another chopped persimmon, some home made raw cashew butter sauce and goji berries:

The combination of the persimmons, cashew butter and gojis was delicious.

I spent the morning roasting more squash and cooking beans before we went and did the rounds seeing the family. Before we left I had time for a my current favourite snack:

Rice cakes with peanut butter, honey and bee pollen plus a chopped apple, mmm!

My Uncle and Cousin are visiting from Birmingham so my Mam laid on a little afternoon tea. I took along some of my hummus and had it with a huge plate full of salad, carrot and cucumber and some fruity Moroccan couscous:

I had this x 2, that couscous was gorgeous! I also ate my body weight in fresh pineapple, strawberries, raspberries and grapes.

I have to admit it did take a bit more will power than usual to get myself out for my run this morning, but I quite enjoyed running in the dark, and seeing the lovely sun rise. If your a runner do you continue to run outside in the dark when the days get shorter?

Oh, before I go, don’t forget to check out my Kara Diary Free Coconut Milk and Clearspring Miso Soup GIVEAWAY!

Hope you have a great week ahead!