Happy Sunday everyone! Hope your all having a great day, Sunday’s are the best aren’t they :-) I’ve had a really great weekend just so chilled out and relaxed. This morning I got in a great workout at the gym. I hadn’t been looking forward to running on the treadmill (and although it was bright, it was freezing outside!) so I made up a really simple relaxed treadmill workout:

5k treadmill workout

• 0.25 miles: 6.2mph
• 0.25 miles: 6.7mph
• 0.25 miles: 7.2mph
• 0.25 miles: 7.7mph repeat x 3 (to reach 3 miles)
• 0.1 mile sprint: 8.2mph (to reach 5k)

This was a great little run getting in 5k in just under 27 minutes. The regular speed changes stopped me getting bored and the speeds I used challenged me a bit, but left more than enough energy for my 15 min bike and 45 min Kettlebell class afterwards.

Yesterday I didn’t quite end up getting my intended lie in but I did have my lazy breakfast! Usually I know what I’m going to have for breakfast before I get up, but yesterday I decided to just see what I fancied. I really wanted something a bit bready that I could smother in nut butter but we don’t buy bread very often. Instead I decided to make a fat socca bread! I mixed half a cup of gram flour with half a cup of water, cinnamon, vanilla extract and a touch of stevia then fried the batter in coconut oil in my small frying pan. When it was cooked on both sides I topped it with with cashew butter, fresh blueberries and lots of maple syrup:

Perfection! This was just what I had been craving and was absolutely delicious. I decided to stick with the breakfast theme later in the day and made some oats in a jar for a snack after returning home from seeing friends and family:

I needed warming up as we’d been out for a walk and I couldn’t think of anything better than oats! I filled a near empty sunflower seed butter jar with oats cooked with water in the microwave and a heaping tbsp of Clearspring naturally sweetened blueberry jam.

This mornings post workout breakfast was a raw protein buckwheat bowl with vanilla sun warrior, chopped apples, raisins and cinnamon:

Yum! I enjoyed this with an Indian Chai tea with coconut milk, delish!

Other tasty bits and pieces this weekend include my usual weekend green juices, however as I was going out I didn’t think just juice would hold me over so taking inspiration from what I’ve been reading in Crazy Sexy Juices and Smoothies I made a smoothie with cucumber, celery, parsley, basil and orange blended with water, ice, maca powder and a little stevia to sweetened it up, all drank in a pretty mug of course:

This tasted very refreshing and nourishing!

Last night’s dinner was based on my Roast Broccoli, Brussels and Chickpea and Cranberry Couscous recipe – I roasted some broccoli, and for the first time some savoy cabbage (delish by the way) in coconut oil and then topped with the chickpea and cranberries but made with quinoa instead of couscous:

For dessert I tried one of my new chocolate almond puddings on top of frozen cherries with some peanut flour sauce swirled on top:

Heaven in my mouth!

This afternoon I’ve been having a party in my kitchen, I’ve had the radio blasting while I’ve been cooking and doing the laundry and I’ve even had a bit of a dance ;-) I’ve cooked up some brown rice for the week, made a special dish (which if it works will be incredible – will blog the recipe) and a giant pan of Lentil soup – based loosely on this recipe but I added some celery and left out the spinach because I didn’t have any. I had a huge bowl with some organic blue corn chips on the side for lunch:

Proper lush, I dipped the chips in the soup for extra noms :-)

Please don’t tell me I’m the only one that dances in my kitchen? Hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend and have a great week ahead!

Hi everyone, hope you’ve all had a good weekend! Mine has mostly been very good…

Today I went out and attempted my first outdoor run in over a week but my knee was having none of it! I was planning on 6 miles but had to cut it short at 4.5 miles (38.07, average pace 8.37) It seems that running on any kind of incline sets it off. As I could run ok on the treadmill mid week I’m hoping that I may be able to get some mileage in that way. It has been very painful today though. I popped to the gym hoping for an hours workout but it was so sore I had to leave it after 30 minutes on the bike :-( I’m trying to stay as positive as possible though!

Apart from that I’ve had an awesome weekend! Breakfast on Saturday was a much anticipated giant Oats in a Jar:

I have been waiting to finish this big jar of peanut butter just to be able to make this! I cooked some voluminous oats with 1/4 cup scottish oats, 1/4 cup oat bran and 2.5 cups of water in the microwave and added some vanilla stevia, frozen berries and a chopped peach. Delish!

OOTD: Faux leather hooded jacket: Topshop, anchor diamante earrings: Accessorize, striped tee: Zara, black cross body bag: H&M, floral skirt: Dorothy Perkins off eBay, tights: M&S, black faux leather boots: M&S

After a monster shopping trip in Newcastle, I came home and made a truly wonderful salad:

This contained kale, cos lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red pepper, sugar snaps, RAW Health crackers, some of my raw cheesy crumbles and hemp seeds. I massaged the kale with a dressing made from hemp oil, braggs, coconut nectar, dijion mustard and vinegar. I think I have discovered that the packs of kale from Waitrose are much better than the packs from Sainsbury's as they contain a lot less stalk!

For dinner last night I made a fantastic Mexican Tofu and Black Bean Scramble served on garlic sautéed greens:

I love my scrambled tofu recipe and the curried version I created a couple of weeks ago and this was just as good! This was also very filling, no doubt because it was protein packed!

For dinner today I made some Spiced Orange Pan Fried Tofu inspired by this recipe and served with a millet and veggie pilaf containing onion, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli and finished with a sprinkle of parsley:

This was amazing, I’m going to have to try and remember what I included in the marinade so I can post it as a recipe! It almost tasted like sticky ginger infused marmalade, yum!

I’ve had a pretty busy weekend in the kitchen making raw cheesy kale chips that taste exactly like Brad’s, raw candied cinnamon pumpkin seeds and some raw cheesy pumpkin seeds all in the dehydrator and so much cheaper than if I’d bought them! I also made some roasted pepper hummus which I ate with a load of veggies and raw juice pulp crackers for lunch:

I just made some standard hummus with chickpeas, tahini and garlic then about 2/3 of a jar of roasted peppers. It tasted wonderful!

Of course no post of mine would be complete without a green smoothie! I had his one for breakfast containing cos lettuce, 2 pears, vanilla sun warrior, maca powder, spirulina, msm crystals, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums for thickness and topped with some Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter sauce and granola:

I got 8 pears for £1 at the market and they were on their way out so I’m drying some in the dehydrator and used a couple of them again to make a Chocolate Pear smoothie for dessert:

Two pears, raw cacao, ice, water, xanthan and guar gum and stevia topped with some of my raw candied cinnamon pumpkin seeds, delicious!  

As mentioned above I had an awesome shopping trip! I had some gift cards from my birthday to spend so I thought I’d get some clothes for the new season! First up, these gorgeous skinny burgundy trousers from Warehouse:

I’ve been lusting after some pants in this colour for ages! I also got lots of knit ware and a necklace from New Look:

I love my knits, I can’t wait to cosy up in that mustard yellow number! The necklace was actually free as I’d spent over £30 :-) I also picked up this dress in the Warehouse sale:

I love the colours in this and will layer it up with leggings / jeans, cardies and belts over the autumn. I also hit H&M and got this basic tee:

Plus a couple of basic cardies and black leggings. I also got some yoga pants for chilling round the house, a water bottle and some vanilla coffee from TK Maxx as well as stocking up with flavoured tofu, tempeh and other bits and bobs from the health food store. I also got three bags full of fruit and veggies from the market for just £11. I shopped till I dropped!

How has your weekend been? If your in the UK do you have any bank holiday plans? As the gym doesn’t open till 10, and as my knee is still very sore I’m thinking of doing a home based workout first thing and then chilling out for the rest of the day. I’m actually looking forward to doing my own thing at home and have downloaded the Gym Boss app for my phone so I can get some intervals in! Have you ever had to deal with an injury? I’m actually amazed at how calm I am about the whole thing, when I got injured last year there were a lot of tears and tandrums!

Have you bought anything for the new season yet? I’m all ready to embrace Autumn, its my favourite season, and I can’t wait to get the boots and cosy jumpers on! Hope you have a great Monday whatever your up to :-)

Hi Everyone, hope your Mondays have been good! Mine hasn’t been too bad but it was so difficult to get up for work this morning! Even though I didn’t really sleep in much over my hols 6am felt way too early. I had a nice near empty jar of smooth peanut butter so breakie was Oats in a Jar. I filled it with porridge made with Scottish oats, chia seeds, a mashed banana and water. I topped it off with a few cacao nibs.



So amazing and so filling! I left my morning snack of fromage frais with blueberries and honey till later as I wasn’t hungry and that never happens!



Lunch was a bowl of Pea, Broccoli and Mint Soup.



Followed by a couple of peaches.



I also had an un-pictured little clemintine left from a work buffet. Before I left work to head to the gym I snacked on a small apple and a Raspberry We Are Bear Fruit YoYo.



The raspberry is probably my favourite flavour YoYo so far, these taste far too much like sweets to be healthy!

I had a tough gym workout. I warmed up for 5 minutes on the recumbent bike and then did a total of 60 minutes of high intensity intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike. I also did 3 sets of abs exercises including 3 x 40 second planks that were so hard my arms were shaking!

For dinner I made a really amazing salad inspired by the Marks and Spencer Whole Food Salad Shaker I’d ate last week (readers in the UK might have seen it on the new M&S advert):

Laura’s Whole Food Salad (makes two servings)

• Approximately half a cup of cooked quinoa (I cook mine in veg stock)
• Approximately half a cup of cooked brown rice
• A selection of roasted veggies – I used a small head of broccoli, 1 yellow pepper, half a courgette, a small carrot and a red onion
• 2 cups of spinach
• 2 tablespoons of sunflower and pumpkin seeds

For the lemon, garlic, tahini dressing:

• 1 tablespoon of garlic infused olive oil (or olive oil and a minced clove of garlic)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 heaped teaspoon of tahini

Mix the quinoa, brown rice, roasted veggies and seeds together and divide into two portions. Make up the dressing my adding the dressing ingredients to an empty screw top jar and shake together. Pour out equal amounts of dressing for each portion and mix with the quinoa, rice and veggies. Serve this mix on top of a bed of spinach and top with a few more seeds. Enjoy!



This tasted so good and is so good for you! I love this mix of healthy grains, veggies, seeds and healthy fats from the dressing, perfect. I added a handful of chopped sugar snap peas to the salad as I have some in the fridge plus a few slices of cucumber. I made my salad up yesterday and kept it in the fridge so I ate mine cold but I think this would taste good warm too.

For desert I made myself a creamy protein shake with a scoop of cookies and cream spiru-tein, soy milk and a couple of ice cubes. I also had an apple.



Ok now I’m officially stuffed!

Today I came across another great post on (never home)maker about living a budget friendly life. Lots of good budgeting tips for my Big Budget Challenge! I think that even though my spending during my holiday was ‘allowed’ as part of the challenge I need to step things up a bit, luckily I have loads of ideas, especially around making things for the flat which should be fun to do as well!

Well I’m still sitting here thinking about how good that salad tasted! Have you ever been inspired by something you’ve eaten at a restaurant or from a supermarket and tried to make your own version? What was it, and was it as nice as the original? I often try and recreate things I’ve had before but with my own spin on it!

Today I decided to have a very 'blogger' style breakfast - oats in a jar! I had a near empty jar of smooth peanut butter so I decided to make up some porridge with jumbo oats, half a tablespoon of chia seeds and water cooked in the microwave. I then added some chopped strawberries and filled that jar right up! I had a few strawberries on the side too.

This was very tasty! Its the first time I've mixed fresh strawberries right in there with the hot porridge and they kind of melted and went all jam like. Plus I managed to get all the little bits of peanut butter from the jar which had also gone all melty!

I got to work nice and early, the sun was still shining but it had become really humid, I think we need a good thunderstorm. I've got a couple of days at work with no meetings so I'm desk bound which I don't mind as I have loads of office based work to get on with.

Mid morning I snacked on half a pot of cottage cheese and some red grapes.

Lunch was more chicken salad with sweet pepper peri peri dressing from last night followed by an apple.

Before I left work for the gym I had one of my home made fuel bars.

The gym was tough today, I was really feeling the heat. I did 15 mins of intervals on the treadmill working up to a faster speed again and I did my usual 15 minutes of intervals on the step machine, cross trainer and bike, and in line with my training plan I've been increasing the length of my 'hard' interval so I now do 90 secs hard and 30 secs medium. It really knackered me and I was sweating buckets. I finished off with my usual abs exercises. When I got home I actually started feeling a bit sick and faint so I wanted something to eat quick!

As I was wanting something speedy for dinner I had one of my Chinese Salmon Fishcakes from the freezer with some steamed brocolli and green beans plus half a baked sweet potato.

I totally inhaled this! Desert was some of my chocolate protein goo (a scoop of chocolate whey mixed with a little skimmed milk) but for something different I decided to pour it over a couple of pears.

This was delicious!

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

Thanks for the comments to my post yesterday, the gig I'm off to on Thursday night is Oli Brown and Joanne Shaw Taylor, they're both Blues singers and guitarists. I do like a bit of Blues music but its mainly the hubbys thing although I'm still looking forward to it, I love most live music whatever genre!

I've also realised that when I said I loved Jillian Michaels yesterday I may have been ever so slightly misinformed, I had only scan read that article in US Womens Fitness (I'm more of a look at the pictures and highlights kind of reader!) and missed on some of her more scary comments about not wanting to have kids to save her body and wanting to take over from Oprah! I still like her 30 Day Shred DVD and I think that she is amazingly committed to her goals and for that I find her inspiring, but she did come across a bit full on in that article.

Anyway, I've been spending all day trying to avoid finding out what happened in Lost until I get round to watching it on the Sky player later (I've had to avoid some of the US blogs just in case someone writes a spoiler!) At the moment we are watching the England Mexico friendly, I'm quite looking forward to the World Cup, I can happily potter about watching the footy. Are you looking forward to the World Cup or are you dreading it? Hope all your weeks have got off to a good start! x

Thank goodness the weekend is here! I have to say this week has been intense for me, just work stuff and nothing serious, but enough to make me feel thoroughly ready for a break!

Relaxing with a cup of one of my new Yogi teas from iHerb has been my saviour this week!

I have been getting on with things as usual though, I find my workouts really help me de stress when other things are going on:

• Saturday – REST
• Sunday – 7 mile run
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Fine Tune phase of Female Body Breakthrough –light weight / high rep, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – PM Gym: 25 minutes cardio on machines, Body Pump
• Wednesday – 3.5 mile run 
• Thursday – PM yoga class 1hr 15 
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Fine Tune in phase of Female Body Breakthrough– medium weight / medium rep, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

As I’m taking a break from doing the healthy eating workshops I thought I’d enjoy a Body Pump class on Tuesday evening having missed it for a month. It was so good to do it again, I really do enjoy that class!

Eats' have been the pretty much the usual, not especially creative but tasty and satisfying none the less. There have been smoothies for breakfasts and evening snacks…

Frozen blueberries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, ice, water, stevia and a touch of xanthan gum topped with flaked almonds

Strawberry peanut butter green smoothie topped with Kashi Go Lean Crunch and peanut flour sauce

Spinach, avocado, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ice, water, ground flax, maca powder topped with roast edamame, dried berries and maple syrup

Lovely peanut butter pretzel smoothie with peanut butter swirl spiru-tein protein powder, water, ice, stevia and xanthan gum topped with peanut flour sauce and crumbled pretzels

I’ve also had the usual salads…

Spinach, romaine, cucumber, basil tofu, balsamic hemp oil dressing

Spinach, romaine, cucumber, courgette, red onion, raw beetroot, chickpeas, balsamic dressing

…quick but delicious dinners…

Herbed socca fold over filled with piri piri hummus, spinach, avocado and roast beetroot plus steamed asparagus on the side

Spiralised courgettes topped with a random mix of sautéed kale, home made seitan and a very old portion of roasted tomato sauce from the freezer, was lovely!

Post yoga quick dinner of steamed broccoli with soy sauce, baked sweet potato and 2 tbsp coconut butter

Plus some great snacks and treats…

Sanchi quinoa and tamari crackers with mashed avocado, sea salt and tahini

Frozen grapes and the last of my Green and Blacks Dark Chocolate Easter Egg

Fresh cherries (only 99p!) and pumpkin seeds

I saw the avocado and tahini combo in some ones WIAW and it is fabulous!

Special mention has to go to my Oats in a Jar and hot cross bun as well:

I made some oats with water on the stove top and added a pinch of sea salt and vanilla stevia – it was crazy good, that sweet and salty thing is fantastic. Topped off with black cherry jam and eaten alongside a blueberry vanilla smoothie it was wonderful. I also had the last of my Apple and Cinnamon Hot Cross Buns from the freezer toasted with vegan spread and an apple and peanut butter for dipping plus coffee of course. I loved being able to relax and enjoy those for breakfast!

On the weekend send off Love List this week…

This is the coffee I’ve been raving about and drinking all week, its got such a great strong deep taste, yum! I’ve also been loving my stripy dress from H&M, just wish it was warm enough to wear with bear legs and sandals, here’s hoping! Also…

Mathew Kenney’s Tumblr – un missable raw food porn! // booking in for my first hot yoga class in Newcastle next week // boxes of blueberries for 75p // designing my birthday party invitations // My Grandmas 83rd birthday (she’s so awesome!) // recording my first vlog! Coming soon

In case you missed it…

• I’m having a great giveaway to win a copy of the e book Superfoods for Women Only, check it out!
• I guest posted on the AXA PPP healthcare blog, take a look at my top tips for running a 5K
• I posted my review of Groupon and my wonderful spa experience

I seem to be really enjoying my sea salt at the moment, I don’t worry about my salt intake particularly because my blood pressure has always generally been on the low side and I don’t eat a lot of processed foods where salt tends to be higher. I just love how it enhances the flavour of foods and of course the sweet and salty combo will forever be a favourite of mine – the vanilla and sea salt oats where delicious! Are you a fan of salty foods? What kind of salt do you use? I have some Pink Himalayan Crystal salt that I need to try out soon.

How has your week been? Any big plans for the weekend? What are you loving right now?