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Hello everyone, hope your all having an amazing weekend! I can’t believe its just a week until Christmas I’m so excited!

On Friday night I got all dolled up for my work Christmas Party:

I used my Urban Decay Naked Palate for my eye make up going for a black and silver combo along with my Girl’s Aloud Nicola false eyelashes!

 Black sparkly wool dress: Primark (only £15!), statement necklace: Topshop, earrings: Swarovski, gunmetal metallic clutch bag: Accessorize, watch: Nixon, Costume ring: Warehouse black peep toe shoes: Office   

I don’t dress up like this very often with my nails done and false eyelashes on! It was wonderful, I actually felt really great and confident in myself :-) We went to a nearby hotel that was doing a dinner / disco type deal. It was such good fun! The food was nice: tomato and basil soup, tomato garlic mushroom dish with rice and a fruit salad plus after dinner dark choc mints and several large glasses of red wine!

Hence to say I did feel a little delicate yesterday morning but it was nothing a green smoothie and a gingerbread latte from Starbucks couldn’t fix! While I was in town I had a look round the shops, I managed to resist Topshop, however I could not resist these ankle boots from New Look:

I utterly adore them! I don’t wear heels for every day wear very often and I fancied a change. At £20 I think these are fantastic! I’m a huge fan of New Look foot ware, I have several items from them and they’ve all lasted very well. I also got a nice top I’m planning on wearing on Christmas Eve :-)

I did have a walk down to the allotment but there was snow on the ground and it was freezing cold. I really don’t think there’s a lot I can do down there until the New Year now. I also finished wrapping my Christmas pressies while watching Nigella Christmas on TV. Lets just say I have some inspired foodie ideas for over the festive period although if I were to attempt them all I’d probably be drunk before lunch ;-)

This morning I did my weekend run at the gym on the treadmill due to the frost (10k in 53 minutes) then came home and made a fab smoothie:

This was frozen blackberries, chocolate amazing grass powder, soy milk and ridiculous amounts of almond butter topped with some flaked almonds and a couple of dark chocolate chips. A little later I decided to treat myself to a scrumptious slice of my Banana Coconut Choc Chip Bread (this recipe with 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips added):

I had a slice fresh and warm from the oven topped with a smear of smooth peanut butter and accompanied by a large mug of Tea Pigs Chocolate Flake Tea:

Absolute heaven! The peanut butter melted on the warm bread, it was delicious :-) and of course James very much enjoyed several slices of his favourite baked treat!

For lunches I was craving veggies so made a big salad topped with some of my creamy dreamy avocado dressing (with basil instead of parsley), pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds:

Yesterday I decided to make my Veggie Loaf. I have to say I think this is one of my best ever recipes (along with the banana bread above), it is gorgeous. If you like sage and onion stuffing and sausage type flavours you will love this! I under cooked it slightly but I actually love it all moist like that. I served it with a mound of swede chips and ketchup and maple pecan brussel sprouts:

I toasted a few pecans then shredded my sprouts and stir fried in a little coconut oil until they started to brown, then added some maple syrup and a dash of shoyu sauce. Cooking them this way is my current favourite way to eat them as its quick and you still get that nutty flavour you get from roasting them, so good! For a cheeky dessert I had some frozen cherries layered up with some peanut flour ‘fluff’ (1/4 cup peanut flour, 1/2 cup ice, 1/2 cup water, pinch of salt and stevia and gums all blended up) topped with dark chocolate chips:

Yum, cherries + peanut butter + chocolate and you can’t go wrong really!

If any of you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you will probably already have heard my exciting news about being featured in Healthy Magazine!

A little while ago a blog reader had tweeted me about the Healthy Hero competition and had encouraged me to enter. I can’t believe that I was chosen as a healthy hero and its quite scary and surreal to see pictures of me in a magazine like that! I know they are still seeking more entries for Healthy Heroes so if you think yourself or someone you know should be nominated you can see the details here (I nearly died when I went to that web page and saw that huge pic of me – eeek!) or the magazine is on sale in branches of Holland and Barrat. I guess this post is a good example of my healthy living philosophy – a bit of exercise, lots of fruit and veggies and healthier foods balanced with dark chocolate, coffee and the odd glass (or three) of red!

Are you all ready for Christmas? I now have my presents wrapped and all that’s left to do is some cooking, baking and enjoying myself! I’m working until Wednesday but I’m doing shorter days and flexible hours. I’m hoping to still be able to fit in some regular workouts this week despite the gyms shorter opening hours too. What are your plans for the week leading up to Christmas?