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?

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!