Hi Everyone! Hows your Wednesday treating you?

Thanks for your comments on the last post, its really interesting that a couple of you were vegetarian for a while and then came back to meat again. I did have a brief period of being a veggie when I was a teenager but it wasn't long lived! It also sounds like some of you have much worse weather than I have, although I think its on its way down to us in North East England.

I had a fab breakie this morning - Nectarine Yoghurt Mess made with grape nuts, brown rice puffs, quinoa flakes, ground flax and flaked almonds mixed with greek yoghurt and topped with a chopped juicy nectarine and a little bit of agave. It tasted great: chewy, crunchy and sweet.

Mid morning I grabbed a quick apple while getting down to work.

We were having to meet some people for a working lunch so we ended up going to a local pub. I was in a bit of a panic to be honest (especially after the last time I ate out with work - giant pizza alert!) but I made the decision that I was going to choose a healthy option, no matter what everyone else was ordering. I ended up going for a sweet chilli beef tortilla wrap with a side salad. It was quite nice but I thought it had too much sugary sauce in it. Everyone else ordered huge toasted sandwiches with chips so I was very glad to have gone for a healthier option. I didn't take a photo as we were with other people so didn't want to have to explain the whole blog thing to them! I also had a couple of cups of coffee and a little dark mint after dinner type chocolate. I was glad that I didn't have a really large meal as I hate that sleepy afternoon thing you get when you eat loads of carbs at lunch!

Before I left work for the gym I had a little cherry bakewell baby as a bit of pre workout fuel.

When I was eating this I was trying to think how I could get the cherry flavour in there without using the cocktail cherries and the associated sugar and artifical nasties. Then I remembered about Nakd Cherry Raisins! I haven't had these in a while, they are raisins infused with a natural cherry flavour, they would work so well in these babies! I'll give them ago the next time I make these and will report back!

I hit the gym for my normal cardio interval workout, I did 15 mins each on the treadmill, cross trainer, bike and step machine followed by 3 sets of my usual abs exercises. I don't know what was with me today but the workout felt really hard going. I'm going to have to get my energy back for next week as I am due to increase my resistance levels and speeds in line with my refreshed April training plan!

When I got home I was absolutely starving but since I had a bigger lunch than usual I opted for more of my delicious Courgette and Watercress soup.

Followed by a fruit salad of two very ripe nectarines and a kiwi fruit.

Followed by a bowl of chocolate orange protein goo! I felt like I needed to make sure I got some protein in my system to help my muscles recover after my workout. I really love this, I make a bowl of it last for ages while I watch TV and the natural orange flavouring I add reminds me of orange smarties!

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, soda water / sparkling mineral water, coffee

I've just remembered that tomorrow is my last day at work before the Easter break, yey! I can not wait for the long weekend, I feel like I really need the break at the moment. Well I'm off to crash in my bedroom with the laptop to read a few bloggies and generally chill with the Hubby! Hope everyones week is going well, and fingers crossed this horrible weather we're having in the U.K. will sort itself out ready for the weekend!

And just to let you know - I have added a recipes page to the top of the blog if anyones interested. I'm just linking back to some old posts when I have given a more detailed recipe for something. It has a few links on there already but I'll be adding more to it as I go along. Hope you find it useful. I know I will, I always forget what I put into recipes and then can't remember how to recreate things! Enjoy x

Hi everyone, happy Friday! Chuffed to bits its the weekend! My weekend started a bit early this week as today we were all out of the office on a team building day. More on that in a mo, first yesterdays eats.

I did 30 minutes of Davina top fit before tucking into a tasty breakfast of my last slice of soda bread spread with vegan pure cream ‘cheese’ and dark cherry jam, 2 oranges and a mug of Starbucks VIA.

Loved the cream cheese and jam combo.

Lunch was some of my Veggie Chilli on top of some steamed spring greens and two small pears.

I had a business meeting in Newcastle before I went to my yoga class so my eats for the rest of the day were pretty random and unpictured. I inhaled a little bag of mixed dried fruit and nuts before my meeting, plus two of the three apples I had with me. After the meeting I ate the other apple plus my nakd berry bar which I had been saving for post yoga. Still feeling like I could eat a horse I went to Waitrose and bought a small pack of sweet potato falafel with hummus and a bag of apples. I ate another 2 apples plus another 2 after yoga! That’s 7 apples! I guess there are plenty of worse things I could have ate in my hunger. Luckily I didn’t end up with tummy ache.

This morning I hit the gym for a HIIT session (10 minutes of intervals on cross trainer, step machine, bike and rower) followed by some abs and core on the stability ball and some upper body free weights. Breakfast was a delicious Chocolate Cherry Green Monster containing spring greens, black kale with stems removed, chocolate Sun Warrior protein powder, soy milk, last of my matcha green tea powder, maca powder, ground flax and nut mix and xanthan and guar gums. I topped it off with some dried strawberries and flaked almonds.

Just heavenly!

I think I may have mentioned before, but I work for a small charity in County Durham that works to support the voluntary / community sector in our area. We are only a small team and once a year or so we think its a great idea to have a team building day. We all met at Vennels Cafe in Durham for tea and cake. I had a slice of sultana tea cake with butter and a green tea with fresh lemon.

The cake was really gorgeous. We then went off for a long walk around Durham by the river. We must have covered about 4 – 5 miles in all, stopping for another cup of tea, and to take some photos on the way back into town:

Our beautiful Cathedral

We then went for lunch at Oldfields which is one of my all time favourite restaurants. They value themselves on using local produce. I started with some sunflower seed bread:

Then had some Onion Soup with a cheese toasted crouton:

My main was Pan Haggerty with mature cheddar and leeks (like a potato bake) accompanied by some roasted root vegetables and clap shot (mashed carrot and swede)

Desert was a beautiful Bramley and Stem Ginger Fool with Shortbread biscuit.

I also enjoyed a small glass of red wine. The whole meal was just fabulous and amazingly delicious, have I mentioned that I love my job? We spent the rest of the afternoon doing some personality profiling tests. Apparently I’m Spatial Visual, Intra Personal and a Theorist!

That meal really filled me up and left me a little bloated so I’ve just been drinking green tea, miso soup with fresh ginger and later I think I may snack on, yes you guessed it – apples!

My Riverford organic veg box arrived earlier too:

Carrots, beetroot, giant sweet potato, aubergine, savoy cabbage, peppers, mushrooms, apples, pears, kiwi.

All the produce looks amazing, I can’t wait to have a bit of a cook up over the weekend. I have several late night meetings over the coming weeks so I’m thinking big batches of soup and curries that can be frozen and defrosted when needed.

Yesterday I also ended up making another couple of unexpected purchases! After keeping my eyes open for more of my favourite cinnamon and hazelnut coffee which I’d found at TK Maxx I’d decided to order some off the website to put away for Christmas (as detailed in my gift guide). Low and behold I went into TK Maxx and saw loads of bloody bags of the stuff (all under half the price I paid on the website). Typical! I bought more cinnamon and hazelnut, french vanilla and chocolate. I can’t wait to try these out.

I also ended up succumbing to the lure of the 20% off deals in the shops and bought this dress from Warehouse.

To be honest this picture doesn’t do it justice. I’m thinking dressed up with some killer heels, bear legs and a clutch bag for going out, or dressed down with opaque tights, boots and a big chunky wool scarf for day. I bought it with the thought that I could just take it back if I changed my mind but I have fallen in love with it! I have another silk dress that I bought from Warehouse about 7 years ago (as worn in this post) and it has worn so well I think this could be a good long term wardrobe item. Does anyone else find their will power disappear when discounts are being offered?

Do you ever have team building days at work? What do you usually do? I had such a great day I feel very lucky to work for such a great organisation.

I have a crazy busy weekend ahead so I’m going to enjoy some chill time this evening and try and catch up on some blogs. Hope you all have a great weekend!