A couple of days ago I received this box of Fruity Date Porridge from Rude Health to sample and review.

Love the style of the packaging! I thought this would make a great pre workout breakfast so I made up a bowl with half a cup of the porridge mix and 1 cup of oat milk.

The texture was lovely and creamy – much nicer than the usual standard scottish porridge oats I use. I topped it with some strawberries, blackberries and a couple of tablespoons of full fat greek yoghurt.

I was really impressed with the taste of the porridge, the addition of the dried fruit is lovely and adds some sweet chewiness. I’ll be eating my way through this box and then doing a full review. I have also been given some boxes to GIVEAWAY to some lucky blog readers – so watch this space!

Before I went to the gym this morning I thought that I would try my new Yerba Mate tea that I ordered from Tea pigs last week. I was quite apprehensive to try this as apparently you will either love or hate its smokey flavour which some compare to tobacco! Here’s some information on Yerba Mate tea and its benefits:

‘Yerba Mate (pronounced yerba mah-tey) is native to South America, where it is drunk as a natural stimulant to increase focus and alertness while helping with detoxing and weight loss.’

When I took my first sip I thought it was ok, but by the end of the mug I had really enjoyed it! I did feel quite alert afterwards but I can’t really say if that was all due to the tea.

I headed to the gym, and as my muscles in my right leg are still pretty tight I decided to give the HIITs a miss and just do some constant rate cardio instead. I did 1hr15 on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by 2 sets of abs exercises including full sit ups, bicycle crunches, side reaches, plank etc.

When I came home I decided to get experimental and try out my new Matcha Green Tea powder which I’d also ordered from Tea pigs last week. As a huge lover of green tea, its flavour and nutritional benefits I have been dying to try this. Its not cheap, and you only get a tiny box but its very potent stuff, each serving is only 1/4 teaspoon.

 

Here’s some information on Matcha Green Tea and its nutritional benefits:

Matcha is 100% top quality organic ground green tea leaves

• 70 times the antioxidants of orange juice
• 90 times the beta carotene of spinach
• vitamins A, B and C

Drinking matcha can:

Boost metabolism between 30-40%

Raise energy

Elevate mood

Lower cholesterol

Be anti-ageing

Help prevent heart disease

The powder can be mixed with a small amount of water, milk or juice as a ‘matcha shot’ or can be added to smoothies and even in baking and cooking. I decided to try it out in a protein smoothie:

Vanilla Matcha Protein Smoothie (makes 1 serving)

• 1 serving of matcha green tea powder
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (I used vanilla whey)
• Milk – I used oat milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of Xanthan gum (to add thickness)
• 3 ice cubes.

Add all ingredients to a blender, wizz then serve.

 

This was so good! It was also the first time I’ve used xanthan gum powder and it is amazing stuff. This turned out so thick and creamy and so satisfying. I think I’m going to really enjoy using the matcha powder. A little later I also had half a cantaloupe melon.

We were invited to my parents for a barbeque this afternoon. I was very happy as I haven’t been to a single barbeque this summer! We were luckily as the weather was good. We were also joined by my sister, my brother in law and little nephew.

My naughty little hunger monster was out in full force, I was pretty hungry as it was late afternoon before we got to eat. I started with a plate of salad, some roast vegetable couscous and a small beef burger (which my Mam had made with lean minced beef) topped with some ketchup and fried onions.

I then had more salad and couscous, a chicken breast and red pepper skewer and a little caramelised hummus…

…then another plate with more salad, another chicken and pepper skewer, a little coleslaw and more hummus.

I had a difficult decision to make, as there was some gorgeous looking chocolate mousse cake and some fruit salad left that I really fancied. I made the decision to indulge in a very large slice of the chocolate mousse cake and a couple of bowls of the fruit salad, but on the condition that I wouldn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day. 

The chocolate mousse cake was so worth it! I did feel like a bit of a glutton after all that food, but when I look back at the pics (a great benefit of food blogging) I realised that most of my plates were full of veggies, salad and lean chicken. In any case, the rest of the evening I’ll be sticking to green and herbal teas.

While the Tea pigs products I’ve talked about today were all purchased myself, I was also sent some samples a little while ago to review and include in a GIVEAWAY. As I have been sent quite a few goodies recently I’m thinking of having one large GIVEAWAY with a couple of runner up prizes. This will be up and running before the end of September so please keep visiting the blog to make sure you don’t miss out!

I can’t believe we are only a day away from September. We had to turn our central heating on today as this morning it was a bit chilly. Now that I’ve satisfied my barbeque craving I’m more than happy to welcome the autumn with open arms.

I am off to brew up a big pot of lemon and ginger tea to drink while I sort out my autumn / winter handbag! I have so much junk in my current handbag and purse its going to take me ages to clean out. Do you use the same bag everyday or do you change it up? I have to carry a large bag for work but then I prefer to use a smaller bag at the weekend. I’ll post some pics of my bag and its contents in tomorrows post as I always find the little things that people carry round with them everyday so interesting.

If you’ve been off for the bank holiday in the UK hope you’ve had a great one, if you’ve been working hope you’ve had a good day too!

At the start of the year I was contacted by the guys at Teapigs to see if I would be interested in taking part in the Teapigs Matcha Challenge and I jumped at the chance!

For the sake of any new readers, I'll quickly give you a bit of an update on my lifestyle. I'm active, working out 6 times a week, mostly vegan and would consider myself pretty healthy. Over Christmas I had ate quite well but had certainly indulged in a lot of richer foods and lots and lots of caffeine! For January I decided to try and eat a mostly unprocessed vegan diet and avoid coffee. I am also a big green tea fan in general. I have used matcha before and had been really impressed with its nutritional stats which are described here, so I was looking forward to re introducing it again.

How did I enjoy it?

Over the last three weeks I've had a 1/4 teaspoon serving a day in various guises:

Matcha Shot (well kind of shot, just matcha whisked up with hot water in a small glass)

Matcha smoothie - this included frozen mango and coconut water, it was delicious!

As a hot tea (I sometimes added some manuka honey for sweetness and when I was feeling like I might be coming down with a cold)

Matcha lattes: I adore these! This was made with kara coconut milk

I even made some raw matcha cookies!

To make these I combined some soaked almonds, coconut, ground flax and agave syrup in a food processor then formed cookies and dehydrated until dried. You could easily make matcha cookies or even cakes by adding some matcha to an existing recipe - I would love to try adding some matcha to a vanilla cupcake recipe!

I actually like the taste and flavour of green tea so really enjoyed the hot teas and lattes - it also goes well in porridge which I tried the last time I had some matcha but never got round to trying it this time. I also regularly added matcha to my usual green smoothies. There are more ways that you can enjoy matcha listed in these lovely recipes.

When did I take it and what effect did it have?

I tended to have my matcha when I felt like I needed a boost, especially while I was off the coffee. I had it with breakfast or mid afternoon which is when I usually find myself needing a pick me up. I'm not sure if its a bit psychological but I tended to sense more of an increase in energy when I drank it as a shot or hot tea rather than in a latte or smoothie - perhaps it gets into your blood stream quicker that way? It was especially good pre workout for giving me a little kick! I also found that I had very minimal coffee or caffeine cravings. I wasn't a massive coffee drinker anyway, but I think the matcha just helped take the edge off my tiredness sometimes as well as giving me a 'ritual' to replace the coffee making on a morning.

I can't say if matcha has helped me with regards to weight loss as that has not been my goal. What it has helped me with is making me generally feel healthier and lighter. Again, this could be psychological, but drinking something that beautiful green just makes you feel like your putting something good into your body!

Overall verdict?

I just love matcha! For me that's to do with the taste and how it makes me feel - healthy and energised. It was voted as slimming product of the year by Your Healthy Living readers, I'm not sure if taking this on its own would make a lot of difference but I think that just including it in your diet makes you more likely to make wider diet and lifestyle changes which would result in weight loss if that was your goal.

Like I said, I am such a big fan of matcha and green tea and have really enjoyed that extra daily dose of green goodness! If you'd like to try the benefits for yourself Teapigs are offering 20% off using code MATCHABLOG12 (offer valid until 12th Feb 2012), don't miss out!

Have you tried matcha? What did you think? What is your favourite way to enjoy Matcha?

A couple of weeks ago a blog reader Andrea emailed me asking if I could do a post on some of the more un usual ingredients I feature on the blog. I often forget that back when I started reading blogs I had no idea what chia seeds or nutritional yeast were or where to get them so I thought this would be a great idea for a post.

I’m going to start with a list of a few items which Andrea asked about, with why and how I use them and where to find them:

Item: Non Dairy Milks – soy, rice, oat, coconut (kara brand) and almond – some of these also come in various flavours such as vanilla, chocolate, hazelnut and almond and also sweetened / unsweetened.

Why and how – I use non dairy milks as I like the taste better than normal milk and feel that they add more variety to my diet. I also try to avoid consuming too much dairy as I have concerns over the levels of antibiotics in cows milk and the treatment of the cows as part of the dairy industry. I like to rotate the kinds of non dairy milk I drink for variety but also so I don’t end up consuming too many soy products.

Where to find it – soy milk is pretty widely available at supermarkets. I find that my local Tesco also stock vanilla rice milk and kara coconut milk. For almond milk (which is expensive – try making your own – its easy!) and hazelnut and almond rice milk (my fave) try Waitrose or Holland and Barrat.

Item: Natural unrefined sweeteners – including agave syrup, brown rice syrup, barley malt, sweet freedom, maple syrup, honey, xylitol

Why and how – I use natural sweeteners in place of sugar for most things as I find that regular refined sugar raises my blood sugar levels too much leading to sugar highs and lows which can cause me to eat more and have energy slumps. I sweeten my coffee with agave syrup, add brown rice syrup to porridge etc. Brown rice syrup has a mellower taste than agave syrup which is very sweet. Xylitol is a low GI sugar alternative that I have used instead of caster sugar in baking. A lot of healthier baking recipes often use agave or brown rice syrup instead of sugar too. Basically where you would add sugar there is usually an unrefined natural alternative!

Where to find it – My local Sainsbury stocks agave syrup and Xylitol next to their sugars (not with the honey as I had thought!) They also stock maple syrup with the ice cream sauces. Brown rice syrup is a little harder for find. You can purchase it from Goodness Direct. I bought mine as part of a big iHerb order (more on iHerb later) Holland and Barrat also stock Sweet Freedom which is delicious!

Item – Tofu – plain firm tofu, silken tofu, flavoured tofu, braised tofu.

Why and how – I use tofu because I love it! Even before I became a vegetarian I ate tofu because it is a truly versatile ingredient. I could probably write a full post on tofu! I like tofu in stir fries, baked in a marinade in the oven scrambled, in salads or blended into a dessert or smoothie. Tofu is an excellent source of protein for veggies and even if your not veggie – some recipes that use tofu are delicious and cheaper, and arguably more environmentally friendly than meat.

Where to find it – I get Cauldron Foods plain firm tofu from my local Sainsbury’s refrigerated section, it seems pretty widely available. I also get the small packs of mori nu silken tofu at my local supermarket too. The Taifun organic and non GMO basil, smoked tofu and tofu sausages that are my absolute favourites only seem to be stocked at Waitrose and can also be found at Goodness Direct (along with a wider range of flavours). Holland and Barrat stock small tins of marigold braised tofu which I’m yet to try, but again I have heard good reviews. I have seen blocks of firm tofu in oriental supermarkets but I’m dubious about buying them as they don’t say that they do not contain genetically modified soy which I try to avoid.

Item – Maca powder

Why and how – I use maca powder in smoothies or sprinkle the powder on to sliced apples with cinnamon to add extra nutrition due to its benefits which include supporting the adrenal gland and helping the body to cope with stress, balancing hormones and providing energy – find out more here. It has a pleasant malty taste.

Where to find it – It is available online from UK sources including Detox your world and Viva Pure. It could be that your local independent health food shop sells it, I haven’t seen it in Holland and Barrat however.

Item – Chia Seeds

Why and how – I use chia seeds in porridge, smoothies, pancakes and to make a tasty chia seed pudding. Chia seeds are a great source of essential fatty acids, they absorb liquid so can help to make you feel fuller and add volume to foods. They also contain an impressive amount of protein, calcium and iron – find out more here. I like the texture and bulk they add to porridge as they absorb water and become an almost jelly like substance, hence why they make a nice pudding if soaked in a flavoured non dairy milk.

Where to find it – I bought mine from iHerb but it is also available from UK sources such as Viva Pure and Red 23 like the maca powder this could also be available at your local independent health food shop.

Item – Matcha Green Tea Powder

Why and how – I’m a huge fan of green tea in any of its guises but matcha green tea powder has to be the best. Its the ground up green tea leaves so your getting 100% of the actual tea leaf. It is full of antioxidants and some research has been done to show that it can support metabolism and weight loss. I love adding it to smoothies, juices or making a matcha latte with soy milk and agave.

Where to find it – I have bought my matcha from Teapigs. You can also purchase it from Vita Life

Item - Nutritional Yeast

Why and how – Nutritional yeast is a non active yeast product that has a cheesy taste and is high in protein and B vitamins. It is therefore used by veggies and vegans to add a cheesy taste to many recipes.

Where to find it – I bought my nutritional yeast as a powder from iHerb but in the future I would be looking to purchase the Engevita nutritional yeast in flake form from Goodness Direct.

So there’s a quick run down of a few of the more unusual ingredients I talk about here on the blog. Are there any other ingredients that you’ve seen me use or mention on the blog that you’d like to find out more about? Leave me a comment and I will make sure I cover them in Part 2!

I also thought it would be useful to give you a few links to some of the websites that I have came across that stock some of these kinds of ingredients:

• iHerb – a US based site which is excellent for sourcing a lot of the goodies you see on US blogs including Bob’s Red Mills products, Spirutein Protein Powder, Luna Bars, Clif Bars etc. The main downside with iHerb is the scary delivery charges and the tax that you have to pay once you receive the goods, I usually look at what I can get here in the UK, convert the cost from dollars to pounds and compare the whole price of the goods plus delivery to workout what provides best value. If you use code AGA105 you’ll receive a discount off your first order.
• Goodness Direct – Excellent UK based site with a wealth of healthy living foods and ingredients. They also stock some refrigerated items so they’re great for sourcing some of the vegan cheese alternatives and tofu etc.
• Viva Pure – I haven’t ordered from this site yet (but I have a wish list ready!) They seem to have a great range of mainly raw products.
• Detox Your World – Another site that I haven’t yet ordered from but seem to have a good stock of raw superfoods.
• Red 23 Organic Food – A fantastic range of specialist products including my beloved Sun Warrior protein powder!

Do you have any favourite online sources for more unusual ingredients and products that you’d also like to share?

Hey everyone, hope your weekends are going well! I feel like I’ve hardly stopped – this has been a very busy weekend! It all started on Friday night when I decided to have a massive clear out of my wardrobe. I’d been thinking for a while that I really needed to be quite ruthless. I had so much stuff that either no longer fitted me or suited my style. I filled two huge bags:

Before I started I decided to have a think about what I usually tend to wear. I identified that my favourite items are:

• basic cotton t shirts and vests
• stripy t shirts and vests
• floral dresses
• statement necklaces
• brightly coloured scarves and belts
• brightly coloured cardigans
• black slim leg trousers
• slim leg dark denim jeans

As well as classic things like my cream blazer, ballet pumps, denim jacket, converse trainers, leather boots, leather jacket etc.

I was pretty ruthless at getting rid of almost everything that wasn’t one of the above and boy did it feel liberating! I do think that I finally ‘get’ what my style is now, and armed with this knowledge I hit the shops in search of a few new things:

Cream trench style coat: Warehouse (on sale), deep grey basic tee: H&M, bright jewel necklace: H&M, basic black dress with gold zip feature: H&M

Stripy vest: French Connection (on sale), white sheer blouse top: H&M, fine cream knit jumper: H&M

I also got a few more t shirts and vests that are similar to the ones above. I thought I’d invest in the coat from Warehouse while it was on sale as I think that style is so wearable. I also realised that my wardrobe was missing an LBD and the basic one from H&M can easily be styled up or down with the right accessories. I’m really happy with what I bought and the fact that I managed to stick within the budget I’d set myself – H&M is affordable and seems to be perfect for what I’m into right now. My wardrobe feels so much more organised!

Before the shopping started I enjoyed a trip to the hairdresser! I’ll be blogging more on that soon but you can kind of see my new style in my OOTD from yesterday:

Leather hooded jacket: Topshop, scarf: Urban Outfitters, coral vest top: H&M, slim leg jeans: Mango, brown boots: New Look, bird ring: Primark, arm candy: various bangles and bracelets including sparkly ones from River Island and Accessorize 

I’d also been thinking about getting some better quality products for my hair. I’ve been having a fair few bad hair days and all in the name of smartening myself up I took a trip to Aveda:

I love Aveda but as with most high end products they aren’t cheap, however they had 10% off the whole range yesterday :-) After a chat with the very helpful sales assistant I settled on these products which I feel will give me maximum impact for my money. I purchased the colour conserve shampoo and conditioner, the phomollient volumising styling foam and the madder root colour conditioner to use once a week to keep my red colour vibrant.

After getting my hair done and hitting the shops I was off to see my parents and best friends, by the time I got home I was exhausted! When I woke up this morning to go on my long run and when I saw that it was chucking it down, as well as having a painful blister on my toe, I decided to give myself some slack and do a shorter run than my planned 10 miles. I did 4 miles and plan to do my long run during the week. I’m glad I decided to be a bit kinder to myself for a change :-)

When I came home I probably would have been better off having something warm but all I fancied was the usual smoothie!

Romaine, frozen blueberries, chocolate amazing grass amazing meal powder, ground flax, maca powder, ice, water topped with roast almonds, goji berries and bee pollen

Other tastiness from the weekend has included:

Starbucks soy latte with vanilla syrup – perfection!

A full punnet of Scottish strawberries from the market topped with a delicious Alpro Dark Chocolate pudding

Chickpea and Aubergine Curry (but with the aubergine added in chunks instead of roasted), brown rice and broccoli

I’ve also been on a matcha green tea kick. I made some matcha overnight oats with chia seeds and soy milk layered with a chopped banana, some goji berries and a little agave nectar:

This morning I made myself a matcha latte with soy milk and stevia:

So happy to be getting my matcha fix again!

It seems that the ‘clear out’ mentality has been with me all weekend as this morning I decided to tackle my CD / DVD / book collection:

See what you can spot!

We have a vintage wooden chest in the living room where I store a lot of stuff – between me and James we have a few piles of things to get rid of. We decided that instead of trying to eBay it all we are going to give family and friends first dibs then donate what’s left to charity. I also tidied my kitchen cupboards and the ‘crap’ cupboard in our hall way. It feels fantastic to have so much less clutter, living in a one bed flat it makes a massive difference!

How has your weekend been? I’m glad I went easy on myself with my run this morning, usually I would feel awfully guilty for not completing a planned workout. My training for the Great North Run is going well so missing a long run isn’t the end of the world, and I need to remind myself that I still did get out and do something! When was the last time you didn’t complete a planned workout and how did you feel?

I’m also feeling so good about the clear out, like a big weight has been lifted! When was the last time you had a big clear out?

I’m happy to say that I’ve had another pretty productive week! I seem to have peaks and toughs with my productivity, but this week I have done a lot of thinking and planning – see my thoughts on writing a personal mission statement at the end of the post. A few things are starting to come together, at least in my head, and I think that’s half the battle sometimes.

A random lovely thing from this week has to include my new house plants:

I got these at the weekend to replace one that had died and another than was over growing. I love having plants around the house, I think a room feels lifeless without at least a bit of green or some pretty blooming flowers in it!

This week I’ve been loving my breakfasts! I generally love breakfast in any case, its certainly my favourite meal of the day, but this week they have been exceptionally lovely:

Slice of toasted sunflower and chia seed bread with almond butter and black cherry jam with a simple green smoothie on the side

Have seen a few Cinnamon vanilla socca on various blogs so gave it ago! Stuffed with almond butter and fresh peaches

Fresh peaches, strawberries and honey pear with a bowl of tofu cream and granola plus a spoonful of sunbutter for dipping

Plus coffee with all of those, there is always coffee ;-) I’ve just been craving sweet fresh fruit all week! Other meals have tended to be the usual stuff:

A very green ‘clean out the fridge’ salad with romaine, quinoa, cucumber, edamame and avocado

Lentil soup and home made raw crackers – glad I saved that for lunch yesterday seeing as the weather was so dreadful a warm bowl of soup was much needed!

Raw courgette noodles topped with roast kabocha squash and tahini miso sauce – always good!

Green smoothie snack – with romaine, courgette, chocolate chip cookie dough spiru-tein protein powder, water and ice topped with dried figs and tahini

Strawberries, pear, tofu cream and Dorset Cereals Strawberry and Redcurrant Granola

Last but not least, a rice cake slathered with Justin’s chocolate Hazelnut butter!

This weeks workouts:

• Saturday – REST
• Sunday – Just over 9.5 mile run
• Monday – Gym – this strength and HIIT workout
• Tuesday – Gym – 30 minutes cardio HIITs on the cross trainer, bike and rowing machine, Body Pump (new release!)
• Wednesday – Hot yoga class 
• Thursday – AM 3 mile run, PM yoga class
• Friday – Gym – 5 min warm up cross trainer, 15 min treadmill speed run, 25 minutes of random strength exercises focusing on upper body and abs, 5 min bike cool down

Its been a fun workout week indeed! Running though to my parents house on Sunday morning made a great change to the usual out and back or loop running routes. Tuesday’s new Body Pump class was awesome, I loved the new body weight squats and squat jumps, lots of fun! Then I went for another hot yoga class at Yogalilies – it was brilliant as usual, extra sweaty! We even attempted some head stands and side crow pose but I think I need to work on achieving those! In this mornings workout I stuck to upper body strength exercises to give my legs a bit of a break ready for this weekends long run.

On the Love List this week…

Matcha loving!

When I saw that Tea Pigs had a 20% off offer on their Matcha Green Tea I couldn’t resist! I can’t wait to make some iced almond milk lattes! Also…

This post from Gala Darling with 100 things to do instead of wasting time on the internet – I’m already planning a wardrobe edit! // writing my own personal mission statement // exciting developments with my business! // Summer Solstice – I may not have done the 108 sun salutations but it was a beautiful sunny day and finishing it off with Hot Yoga and a chocolate avocado smoothie when I got home was perfect // anticipating the great weekend ahead – hair and wardrobe makeover!

Have you ever considered writing a personal mission statement? Or do you already have one? I’m quite into personal development and I’m so glad that I got round to spending some time developing my mission statement. If you haven’t done it I strongly urge you to have a look, its really helped to clarify a lot of the stuff going on in my life and help me to focus! Ditto with inspiration boards, I’m also a big fan of those!

In case you missed it:

• Check out my Dorset Cereals GIVEAWAY for a chance to win some of their lovely muesli!
• I talked a bit about foam rolling
• I gave you some of my tips to avoid the dreaded hangover!

How has your week been? What’s on your love list?