Hi everyone, hope your having a very lovely Sunday afternoon! I’ve had a great weekend because I’ve been super productive. Yesterday morning I started by sorting through all the household paper work filing things away and filling a bag of documents to shred. I also sorted out my shelves on the book case putting away DVD’s, CD’s and books and today I’m planning on sorting through my clothes and bags (of which there are many!) into piles for the charity shop and eBay. I’ve also been busy in the kitchen making a big batch of lentil soup, a peanut lime sauce, roasted aubergine hummus, brown rice and barley and some raw crackers. I’m exhausted now!

Getting the base for my lentil soup going!

I also had a walk into town and back yesterday to meet up with the lovely Jess for a Starbucks fix. It was great to see her, she received a lovely complement from a stranger too, gotta love those communal coffee shop tables!

This morning I enjoyed a glorious run in the sunshine. I went out without the Garmin again and just ran for the enjoyment of running. No idea how far or how fast, I think I was out for about 40 minutes or so? When I came back I made a tasty Courgette Banana Bread Green Smoothie:

I made this with spinach, courgette, frozen banana, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca, ground flax, water and ice and topped it with dried cherries and lemon salted roast almonds, yum!

Yesterday mornings breakfast was delicious, Vanilla Chai Pear Oatmeal with Tofu Yoghurt and Walnuts!

I cooked the oats in some Pukka Vanilla Chai tea, added a chopped pear and vanilla stevia then topped with some tofu yoghurt, chopped oats and cinnamon.

For lunch I made use of some kelp noodles I’d won in a competition on the Viva Pure Facebook page – I rinsed then soaked them in filtered water and lime juice then drained them and added some carrot ribbons and a sauce made from 3 tbsp of raw dark tahini, sweet white miso and water. I also added a good amount of fresh parsley:

So good, I love my kelp noodles!

Last night I had an amazing macrobiotic inspired meal. I was chopping up a kabocha squash and thought it looked a bit pale and watery so I decided to try out a recipe from Blissful Bites for pumpkin with apricot and ginger glaze. As it turned out the kabocha was fine and that glaze was utterly amazing! I didn’t think much other than nut butter could make kabocha taste any better but this did. I served it with some steamed greens and quinoa mixed with edamame and parsley. I also added a drizzle of peanut lime sauce:

I’d picked up some limes from the reduced bin at the green grocers (4 for 50p) so decided to make a peanut and lime dressing. I mixed 1/4 cup peanut flour with one tbsp of sesame peanut butter (because I’m all out of regular pb) the juice from one lime, soy sauce and water. I also used it on today’s salad with more of the glazed kabocha, cos lettuce and some finely sliced mange tout:

I also used the lime juice instead of my usual lemon juice in my fave green juice blend:

This was cucumber, celery, parsley, ginger and lime juice, love my weekend juices!

For a snack this afternoon I’ve just had an apple followed by this chocolate berry smoothie using mixed frozen berries, 2 big spring green leaves, a scoop of chocolate amazing grass powder and a tbsp of raw cacao powder blended with water and ice drank out of a pretty mug of course:

So refreshing on a warm afternoon!

I really do love ticking things off the old to do list. I’m currently reading The Happiness Project, and one thing that I’ve taken from it so far is how tackling nagging tasks supports your overall happiness. I certainly feel better for getting those things done! I also know how much easier, cheaper and tastier, next week will be now that I’ve prepped a couple of dishes – I do love my Sunday cook up sessions!

Have you had a good weekend so far? Do you keep a to do list? How do you approach keeping on top of nagging tasks?

Happy Friday everyone! How has your week been? With working from home and getting the carpet and bed sorted my week has been a strange one, but its all good. Especially now I have a proper bed to sleep in!

Yesterday I had the best nights sleep so I woke up bright eyed yesterday and ready for a quick bit of yoga. I did the usual Yoga for Runners followed by some foam rolling on my IT bands. Breakfast was so good but it was dark and rainy outside and I had to use the flash on my camera!

This was delicious: tofu yoghurt (its been too long), banana sunshine muffin, damson compote and a sliced peach, yum!

This morning I hit the gym for my NRoL workout – still doing 3 sets instead of 2 on all the moves, and warmed up on the step machine instead of treadmill. After that I had a wonderful protein packed green smoothie:

This contained spinach, cucumber, 1 frozen banana, 2 scoops of vanilla sun warrior, spirulina, maca powder, msm crystals, water, stevia, ice, xanthan and guar gums and topped with roasted almond butter sauce and goji berries.

Lunches have been veggie packed and tasty:

Slice of raw bread made with veggie juice pulp and brazil nuts topped with some cheesy avocado mash (half an avocado with nutritional yeast and lemon juice) plus lots and lots of chopped veggies and and 2 apples. I love snacky plates like these!

Other snackage has included my last Lara bar:

Cherry Pie, so good, I must make some home made versions of these! I also snacked on a big almond coconut cookie and apples:

That cookie was so good, they freeze so well! The snacking hasn’t stopped there though. Last night I was ravenous and snacked on apples, dried fruity pieces, popcorn, chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, chocolate nut butters – hazelnut, almond and peanut (!) and some fantastic bowls of brown rice puffs mixed with peanut flour sauce and agave. I recognised that this was genuine hunger and not any kind of binge as I felt in control and despite it being quite a lot of food, I didn’t feel sick or ill afterwards :-) I think my body clearly needed the extra fuel.

Last night after work I also popped to the gym and put in a great sweaty 1 hour cardio workout followed by abs and core exercises. I felt like I needed a really intense sweaty workout and I felt great afterwards!

Last night I had more seitan stir fry for dinner but tonight I fancied something new. I made up a socca with some coriander and filled it with a mix of mashed black beans, roast peppers, fried onions, a slice of vegan cheese and spinach. On the side I had some roasted courgette and carrot ‘chips’:

This was wonderful, so filling and I really loved the ‘chips’ too!

Desserts have included raw cookies and cream cheesecake and tofu yoghurt with damson compote and a chopped apple:

The tangy sweet compote was so good with the creamy yoghurt, yum!

I’m really looking forward to the weekend ahead, especially as we have bank holiday Monday! Tomorrow we are planning a shopping trip to town and catching up with friends and family then hopefully we will have the rest of the long weekend to relax. I’m also hoping to try a short run, fingers crossed my knee will be ok!

Are you a big snacker? Usually I just have one or two snacks a day but very occasionally I have periods like last night when I just graze on all sorts for several hours! What’s your favourite snack? I really loved the odd little combo I discovered last night of brown rice puffs mixed with peanut flour sauce and agave, yum!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Yey its Friday! I am now all officially registered on my Diet and Nutrition Advisor course and my camera and Garmin have been delivered so I’m buzzing!

Thursday morning I did 5 minutes cardio (jumping jacks, bum kicks etc) followed by a 20 minute Yoga for Runners podcast then some core and abs work. Breakfast was fantastic! I made up some porridge using 1/4 cup of oats, 2 tablespoons of oat bran and 1 1/2 cups of water on the stove. I then added 1 heaped tablespoon of my Viva Pure Chia Super food porridge mix and another tablespoon of my vanilla hemp protein powder. I also added some sweet freedom sweetener. I topped it with fresh blueberries, some of my tofu yoghurt, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and goji berries. I also had a maple walnut coffee with kara coconut milk:

Such a good breakfast, I love oaty yoghurty layer ups! I was very impressed with the chia porridge super food mix. I actually think its designed to be made into a porridge in itself but I really liked the taste it added to my oaty porridge – plus it will last longer being used this way!

Lunch was a bowl of heaven, i.e. the yummiest soup I’ve made in a while:

Pea, Broccoli and Pesto Soup (inspired by Nigella Lawson recipe, makes 4 portions)

• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 large head of broccoli, chopped into florets
• Hot veg stock or bouillon powder and hot water (I use marigold vegan vegetable bouillon whenever I make soup)
• 450g of frozen peas
• Half a small jar of basil pesto (I used la sacla organic vegetarian pesto)

Begin by gently frying the onion in a little oil until transparent. Add the broccoli and cover with hot vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for 10 – 15 minutes or until the broccoli is tender. Add the peas and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and blend the soup until smooth using a hand blender or regular blender. Add the pesto and either blend again or stir well.

This soup is the bomb! So simple and easy to make and really full of flavour. You could make a vegan version using vegan pesto if desired. It also freezes very well too.

I also had a kiwi and nectarine:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a dried apricot, dried fig and some brazil nuts and pistachios:

Last night we went out to see KT Tunstall play a gig in Newcastle. Before we went I had a quick dinner of a herbed socca wrap (usual socca recipe but with added chopped fresh basil and parsley) filled with roasted beets, carrot and broccoli and some organic feta. I also had raw carrot, cucumber and an apple and pear:

The wrap was delish! I loved the herbs in there, so tasty.

The gig was brilliant, I have a huge girl crush on KT Tunstall! Here’s a quick OOTD hastily shot in the loos at Cafe Nero ;-)

Jacket: H&M, floral jacket: River Island, grey vest top: Topshop, scarf: Dorothy Perkins, jeans: Next, Bag: H&M, cocktail ring: Topshop

This morning I had a big bowl of Dorset Cereal Tasty Toasted Spelt Muesli with blackberries and kara coconut milk. I also had a butterscotch coffee with sweet freedom:

Lunch was some of my super tasty Spicy Black Eye Bean Soup followed by plums and kiwi:

Mid afternoon I decided to treat myself to a 9 bar:

I haven’t had one of these in ages, so good!

I then hit the gym for my strength and HIIT workout. It was a bit of a half arsed workout to be honest, I did do mostly all I’d planned to but I know I could have put more effort in! I did my usual 5 minute treadmill run warm up followed by my usual full body strength workout and 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike.

Dinner was inspired by the Rainbow and Super food salads recipes in Leon: Ingredients and Recipes:

I mixed roasted broccoli, carrot and beetroot with some red cabbage, quinoa, alfalfa sprouts and feta then added some fresh chopped parsley, viva pure spicy pumpkin seeds and a quick squeeze of lemon juice. This was so so good! I loved this salad, so full of goodness and taste.

Dessert was double chocolate coconut protein ice cream! I blended up a scoop of chocolate sun warrior, tablespoon of raw cacao, tablespoon of coconut flour, kara coconut milk, ice cubes and xanthan and guar gums then topped with coconut and cacao nibs:

Awesome!

I really enjoyed the gig last night. James is a huge music fan so we like going to see live music when we can. Are you a fan of live music? What was the last gig you went to?

So happy its the weekend! I have another fun one planned including a trip to town so I can stock up on fruit and veggies at the market, catch up with the family and my gorgeous nephews, play with my new camera and Garmin, finish reading Crazy, Sexy, Diet (which I just can’t put down) and a run!

I also may be making an attempt to change up the blog a bit and move over to a new domain so if you visit and things look a little funky please bear with me.

Hope you have all had a great week and have a fab weekend planned! I’m off to play with my new toys, catch you later x

Hi everyone, hope you are all as excited as me for the long weekend ahead! It feels like I’m back at school and today was the last day of term. Next week is just three days then I’m off for almost 2 weeks including our trip to NYC!

Wednesday I had a late meeting at work so it was easy to fit in my usual early morning gym workout. I did the same speed intervals on the treadmill as I did in this post two weeks ago – I can not believe how much easier they felt this time round! I also did some intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core for a total 1 hour 15 min workout.

Before I left for the gym I had decided I fancied porridge for breakfast so I left 1/2 cup of Rude Health Fruity Date porridge mix with 1 tbsp of chia seeds soaking in 1 cup of water. When I came back I added 1/2 cup of hazelnut and almond rice milk and another 1/2 cup of water plus some chopped plums and a tbsp of this new find:

Hemp Protein powder! I have tried hemp protein powder before and I saw this on sale in Holland and Barrat. The brand is Naturya and they also stock maca powder, acai powder, barley grass etc – very good to see these products on sale on the high street rather than just available on line! I also added some hazelnut butter sauce (1 spoonful of nut butter mixed with hot water for extra drippiness):

This was lovely, so so filling! I think soaking the oats and chia seeds beforehand then adding extra liquid made all the difference. I don’t think I’ll be adding hemp to porridge again though as it tasted a little ‘grassy’. Definitely one to save for the smoothies!

I just had leftover Buddha bowl with romaine for lunch and lots of fruit, veggies, crackers and hummus for snacks so when I eventually got home I had a big craving for a green smoothie:

This included spinach, mixed berries, a chopped pear, hazelnut and almond rice milk, maca and mesquite. I topped it with peanut flour sauce, goji berries and some hemp seeds for crunch!

This morning I was up early for a quick bit of yoga. I found an old Apple Yoga programme I’d sky + from the Body in Balance channel so I did 15 minutes of that which included a fast paced warm up, some seated twists and some very challenging hip openers!

Breakfast was more wonderful tofu yoghurt layered up with a full punnet of blueberries and a slice of my banana coconut bread crumbled:

I must make more of this banana bread it is just that amazing!

Tonight I was back at the gym for 30 minutes of upper body strength using the dumbbells followed by 30 minutes of intervals on the bike, rowing machine and step machine (total 1 hour workout).

For a quick dinner I baked a sweet potato and chopped it up, threw it on top of some spinach, cucumber, red onion and braggs seasoning then added some steamed broccoli, humnut sauce (high protein hummus, nutritional yeast and water) and a few mixed seeds:

Heaven :-) This was seriously delicious! I’m really enjoying eating more sweet potatoes they are just so delicious and make the perfect fast food.

I really fancied some protein ice cream for dessert so I blended 1 scoop of chocolate sun warrior, 1/2 cup of hazelnut and almond rice milk, crushed ice, water, cocoa powder, agave, xanthan and guar gums and topped with some viva pure chia super food porridge mix:

Yum!

Taking of hemp – I found more hemp milk in Tesco so decided to stock up:

Does anyone else have the habit of buying their favourite things in bulk whenever you see them? I really need to stop this habit as there’s only so much I can fit in my kitchen, but I tend to have a fear of things either being out of stock or discontinued! I do love this hemp milk though and hemp in general. I also eat hemp oil as it is an ingredient in my favourite Cool Oil. It really is a great source of nutrition, especially for us veggies and vegans as it contains an excellent balance of omega fatty acids as well as being a fantastic source of protein. Have you tried hemp powder, seeds, oil or milk? Do you like hemp products?

So happy its the long weekend! What do you have planned? I’ll be cleaning, gardening, cooking, baking, running, seeing the family and hopefully chilling out to! Hope that whatever you are up to you have a great Easter break planned :-)

Today I was excited to receive these:

 

Cookies! Or more specifically vegan spiral cookies that I had won as part of Chocolate Covered Katie's amazing vegan bake sale for Japan. Big thanks to Hannah who donated these I think they are brilliant!

Notable eats over the last couple of days have included Monday’s breakfast: I tried some of the Alara In the Garden muesli I had bought from Goodness Direct:

I had it with strawberries and hazelnut and almond rice milk. It was ok but I didn’t pack my bowl out as I usually do so I was a bit disappointed, next time I’ll be filling the bowl right up!

Today’s breakfast did make up for it though:

Tofu yoghurt with rhubarb and orange compote, strawberries and We are bear tropical crunch granola. Yes, still obsessed with my tofu yoghurt! The rhubarb compote is amazing too. I left big chunks of orange in it this time. I’m very glad that this freezes well as I’ll be making up a few batches while rhubarb is in season.

Today’s lunch was really good - I made up a batch of my high protein hummus and used it to fill some raw cabbage wraps with some china rose sprouts. I also had a sliced red pepper, carrot sticks and two perfect plums:

Last nights dinner was wonderful herbed socca made into a ‘sandwich’ containing mashed roast kabocha squash with miso tahini sauce plus lots of steamed kale and greens with more miso tahini sauce:

This was so delicious, I really can’t get enough of herbed socca! I find socca so useful as I don’t buy bread or wraps apart from rye bread and pittas that I keep in the freezer. Socca is the perfect vegan replacement for my much loved egg white and spelt wraps as I can just make these up when I need them – such a great versatile recipe!

Tonight I made a Buddha bowl using buckwheat (my first ever try) with roast kabocha, kidney beans and spring onions on top of a big pile of steamed greens with some Thai Taste yellow chilli and ginger sauce and parsley:

This was delicious, the chilli ginger sauce was wonderful and I really liked the buckwheat. Its so quick and easy to cook so I can see it being another staple wholegrain in my diet!

For dessert I made a giant bowl of protein ice cream using a sachet of strawberry spiru-tein, water, ice and xanthan gum then topped it with a crumbled spiral cookie:

The cookie tasted fab and I loved the big pillowy bowl of protein ice cream!

My workouts have been the usual – intervals, spin and abs and core last night, yoga this morning and Body Pump this evening – which was just awesome as always. I’m thinking of knocking the spin on the head for a while as I’d like to try bringing my Monday workouts to first thing in the morning as I really do prefer to workout at this time. I do like the spinning but I feel like I’ll get more out of working out on the gym equipment first thing before work. Do you change around your classes or do you stick to doing the same classes each week?

Hello everyone, how’s your week going? Not long till the weekend now!

Breakfasts these last couple of days have been so good, but lets face it, when is breakfast never good? After my run on Wednesday I made a big green smoothie:

This contained a lot of spinach, small frozen banana, pear, ice, vanilla hemp protein, water, maca, mesquite, stevia and xanthan and guar gums for thickness. I topped it with a few candy covered sunflower seeds and some peanut butter sauce (1 tbsp of smooth pb mixed with some warm water for drizzliness). Those chocolate covered sunflower seeds are amazing, loved them!

This mornings breakfast was toasted rye bread with Peanut Butter & Co Mighty Maple peanut butter and a Strawberry and Rhubarb smoothie made with hemp milk and my rhubarb and ginger compote:

This was just the most satisfying breakfast. The smoothie was amazing, and yes I actually had this one from a glass and not a bowl for a change, although I did end up chugging it down in 10 seconds flat! The peanut butter was heavenly too! I’m really going to enjoy working my way through my NYC nut butter stash!

Lunches have been the same salad beast:

Romaine, mixed leaves, cucumber, a whole red pepper (I have a weird craving for red peppers at the moment!) carrot, radish, cubed basil tofu and some courgette dressing, plus some un pictured fruit. I love that basil tofu, its just delicious!

Dinners have been an easy to throw together Buddha bowl:

Brown and wild rice, green lentils, onions cooked in coconut oil, lots of chopped basil and parsley with steamed kale and broccoli with shoyu plus a few mixed seeds and drizzle of Thai Taste ginger and yellow chilli sauce. Simple but oh so tasty!

Last night I had a couple of chopped braeburn apples with tofu yoghurt for dessert:

Tonight I made myself a giant bowl of double chocolate protein ice cream (1 scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder, 2 cups of ice, 1/2 cup of hemp milk, 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder, stevia, water and xanthan and guar gums:

Topped with dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, nom! :-)

Exercise has been good - I blogged about my Wednesday morning run in yesterdays Motivation post, this morning I did a 20 minute Yoga for Detox session – I’ve been back on Yoga Download for some new sessions to add to my usual Yoga for Runners. If you haven’t checked out Yoga Download you should take a look. The free 20 minute guides are perfect for me! Tonight I was at the gym for an hour long 3,2,1 workout which was awesome – I’m really enjoying doing these workouts, changing things up like this has made my workouts far more interesting and fun!

The last thing I need is another cookbook (I’m running out of space to store them!) but I was browsing on Amazon the other day and I couldn’t help ordering this:

Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskovitz. This is a vegan cookbook that focuses on healthy low calorie and fat recipes. Although I’m not looking to lose weight I still wanted to get this book as I knew it would be full of healthy and very tasty vegan food. I’m looking forward to trying out some of these recipes, especially the sauces and salad dressings – will keep you posted!

What’s the last cookbook you purchased?

P.S.You still have time to enter my GIVEAWAY if you haven’t already – it closes at 12am GMT tomorrow, check it out!