Hi Everyone, hope your having a great weekend! I’ve had a busy day so far, I was at Tescos to do a giant shop at 7.30 this morning and I haven’t stopped since!

Yesterday I got my hair cut for the first time in almost a year. Here’s a before and after:

Before:

After:

Much better I think! I’m really happy that I’ve gone for a dramatic change. I always had shorter hair growing up and it wasn’t until the last couple of years that I decided to grow it. This style feels much more ‘me’.

Last night me and my sister in law Katy went out for dinner. We decided to head to a Chinese buffet restaurant. I didn’t get any pics but I was quite proud of myself, especially for avoiding meat. I had a couple of plates of crispy fried greens, spring rolls, noodles, stir fried veg and garlic potatoes then followed it with an apple, melon and a chocolate mousse. So tasty! The staff kept on offering me lamb kebabs and crispy duck, I didn’t explain until the end of the meal that I was veggie – they said I should have mentioned and they would have made me a dish! Bless them, I shall definitely be returning there.

My organic veg box also arrived:

It contained:

I swapped the celery for red peppers and the box came with cherry tomatoes in place of the broccoli. I also got a free bag of apples and pears as a new customer.

This morning I did a mega shop to re stock my cupboards. I got lots of tins of organic beans including kidney, chickpeas, cannellini, adzuki, black eyed peas and haricot – I plan on doing lots of experimenting! I also stocked up on non dairy milks including vanilla rice milk, hazelnut and almond rice milk, almond milk (to try out although I’ll probably try making my own) and kara coconut milk. I got some red and brown lentils, pine nuts, sesame seeds, barley malt sweetener, organic feta cheese and pure spread. I also headed to my new favourite green grocer in Durham and got more veg for the week. I love having full cupboards! This also meant spending 3 hours this morning sorting and re organising all my kitchen storage.

Jars on display for easy use:

My space giving kitchen storage unit:

Tea and coffee basket and bits and bobs basket: Goodie drawers:

Protein powders box and nuts, nut butters, dried fruit and granola box:

Storage box 1 non dairy milks etc:

Storage box 2 grains, pastas, noodles:

Cupboards – Everything else!:

Very full fridge and freezer:

Now that I’ve really stocked up I shouldn’t need to buy much each week apart from fruit, vegetables and eggs plus regular milk for the hubby. I can’t wait to get really creative with this stuff!

Today’s eats so far have been very tasty. I just snacked on a couple of chopped organic apples with cinnamon before going shopping:

When I got back I made myself an amazing bowl of Orange, cranberry and macadamia nut creamy porridge. I used 1/2 cup of scottish oats, 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, 1/2 cup of rice milk then cooked it on the stove adding 2 tablespoons of 2% greek yoghurt and some chopped dried cranberries and macadamia nuts. I topped my bowl with more cranberry and macadamias plus a little granola.

If you haven’t tried cooking your oats with a little fruit juice give it a try!

For lunch I made some soup by roasting the cherry tomatoes, red peppers and some shallots from the veg box along with a few cloves of garlic then blending with some hot veg stock to make some Roast Tomato and Red Pepper Soup. I added a little fresh basil:

Really tasty, perfect for a cold autumn day! I also had 2 chopped plums and a satsuma:

I’m planning on making a tasty lentil and swede mash ‘cottage’ pie for dinner (and a traditional version for the hubby).

So excited about Halloween! I wish we got more into it here in the UK like they do in the states. I think I may have to open a can of libby’s pumpkin in celebration! Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend :-)

Wow, this is going to be a packed post tonight, I feel like I have loads of stuff to tell you about, but first things first...

Started the day off with Davina and my DVD strength workout, I just stuck to my usual 'medium' sized dumbbells today as I realised that I have scheduled two strength workouts on consecutive days since changing up my training plan (I have a strength based gym workout planned for tomorrow morning). I didn't want to really work any muscles extra hard - rather save that for tomorrow!

Breakfast was a bowl of natural yoghurt mixed with a scoop of vanilla whey, topped with two chopped peaches, a teaspoon of ground flax and some home mixed muesli. All served in one of my new bowls!

I decided to get these quite plain bowls so that they wouldn't clash with the few plain white plates and bowls we are keeping, plus these were the only set in stock that came with lovely deep bowls like this. I don't know what it is but I find deep bowls so comforting! I also had a mug of Tea Pigs Mao Feng Green Tea.

Lunch was a bowl of Potato, Sweet Potato and Leek soup which I'd defrosted from my frozen stash, followed by a big bunch of red grapes.

Mid afternoon I snacked on more hummus with carrots and cucumber for dipping. No pic or you'll all be sick of the sight of them!

I stayed back at work to get a few things finished up then headed for a mid week grocery shop were I picked up Junes edition of Health and Fitness Magazine. Guess who's reader of the month!

I'm still kind of in shock! I get a lovely pressie as well - some beauty products! My favorite things after food ;-)

Dinner was an extra special salad. I had been inspired after seeing this recipe on Liberty London Girls blog, so much so that I bought the whole cookbook from which she'd taken the recipe! More on that in a mo, but first heres the recipe.

Laura's Superfood Salad -

Two tablespoons of lentil and bean sprouted beans
Steamed brocolli (I used about a third of a large head of brocolli)
A handful of spinach
Half a red onion chopped
Feta Cheese
3 tablespoons of cooked quinoa
Quarter of a cucumber chopped
Mint leaves
Juice of half a lemon
Half a tablespoon of pumpkin and sunflower seeds

Mix together the sprouted beans, steamed brocolli, spinach, red onion, cucumber and quinoa and crumble over the feta cheese. Chop a few mint leaves and sprinkle over followed by the seeds and then the lemon juice. Enjoy!

This was amazing, so many flavours and textures and so so good for you!

Desert was some chia seed pudding made with hazelnut and almond rice milk and a chopped apple.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, decaf coffee

Heres a pic of my fab new kitchen trolley!

I am way to excited about this, but I now have a place to store all 'my stuff' including my giant tubs of protein powder -

Tea collection -

Superfoods and rice milk -

Spice drawer -

Cook books and Wine! -

Nuts, seeds and dried fruit stash -

Goodie drawer! -

This has freed up a lot of room in my cupboards so no more having to pull everything out to get to the stuff at the back, or having to stand on a stool to get to my nuts and seeds from the top shelf, just wonderful!

I also spent some time last night having a flick through my new cookbook - Leon - Ingredients and Recipes. Leon is a London based restuarant chain that specialises in healthy fast food. I was inspired by the recipe above and then after looking at their website and their menu I knew I wanted to get the cookbook!

The book is wonderful! I love the way its designed to be bright and colourful, every page is like a work of art. The book is split into two sections - Ingredients, which looks at different foods, superfoods, what to buy in season, what to look out for when buying etc, and Recipes, which has a large selection of recipes for everything from breakfasts, smoothie ideas to cocktails!

I know I'll be using this book for loads of inspiration in the coming weeks, and of course I'll be posting all the details!

Wow, this has been a bit of a super post! Hope you get the chance to read the little piece in Health and Fitness, I'm still dead chuffed about it, never thought I'd ever be in a magazine! Don't forget that theres only one day left to enter my GIVEAWAY of nakd bars and pampering goodies. Don't forget to look at the rest of the comments which have loads of really brilliant beauty tips!

Only one day left till the weekend! I'm so looking forward to it. Well I'm off to pick the Hubby up from work. Hope you are all having a good one! x

When I woke up this morning all I could think about was eating my lovely breakfast of a green monster with a slice of my date, carrot and walnut loaf cake. I made up a standard green monster with loads of spinach, frozen banana, hazelnut and almond rice milk and a teaspoon of maca then decided to add some frozen mixed berries which turned it this awful colour. Never mind, it still tasted yummy! I added a thick layer of cashew butter to the loaf cake as well.

Mid morning I snacked on some carrot and cucumber with hummus. I just can't get enough of hummus at the moment, I'll probably be eating it again next week too!

For lunch I had what can only be described as a Salad Beast (lending that term from the Fitnessista!). It contained left overs from last nights dinner - feta, quinoa, kidney beans, chopped red pepper, beetroot, cucumber, red onion, mixed salad leaves and spinach.

I this was mega filling but so delicious I still ate the lot! I also had an apple.

Before I left work for the gym I had a mug of Earl Grey tea with a splash of milk for something a bit different and one of my home made fuel bars

I had a great session at the gym today, I did my usual intervals on the treadmill, step machine, cross trainer and bike for 15 mins each but I started to increase the time in my hard interval by an extra 10 seconds. I even blasted off two full minutes at 7.2 mph at the end of my session on the treadmill. I also did 3 sets of my abs exercises, the v ups nearly killed me but I managed them!

Dinner was another salad beast (I had a big bag of mixed salad leaves to use up as well as numerous veggies) I started by stir frying a sliced chicken breast in minced garlic and tomato puree then added some balsamic vingear to the pan and allowed it to reduce and coat the chicken in a lovely sweet sticky sauce. I then served it on some mixed salad leaves, spinach, cucumber, grated carrot, red onion and red pepper.

For desert I just had to make up another protein cake as I've been craving another one of these all week! I added a couple of drops of natural orange flavouring to it as well, totally lush!

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, decaf coffee, Earl Grey

After those salads and all those raw veggies my body should be brimming with vitamins and antioxidants!

I was very excited this evening as me and the hubby took a trip to Argos to pick up a few bits and pieces we've been thinking of buying for a while. The hubby has been getting more into his health and fitness recently (yey!) and wanted to buy a rowing machine. He has very bad knees so can't run and we don't have the space to store a bike, so a rowing machine seemed like a good option. We found a fold away rowing machine which also doubles up as a gym and thought that could be ideal, plus I can use it too! I also got my wish with a new wooden kitchen trolley! We don't have loads of storage in our kitchen and this trolley will go nicely under one of our work tops to give us more space, I can't wait to sort all of my cupboards out now! We also picked up a new crockery set as all of our plates and bowls are chipped and starting to crack, plus a new iron. Luckily we have some spare cash in our joint account and decided that we would get these things with some money we've saved up. I'll post some pics once we have stuff set up, I'm just so excited for my kitchen trolley and new plates and bowls!

Thanks for all the comments to the GIVEAWAY post (don't forget you can still enter!), so many wonderful beauty tips, I'll definitely be making use of them! Its also been lovely to hear from some readers who haven't commented before too.

Well I'm off to go and play with my new toys! I also recieved a new cook book in the post that I'm dying to have a flick through. I'll report back tomorrow! Hope your all having a good one x