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Well I’m now on to day three of my crazy work week and so far I am coping well. I had a late meeting last night but I had plenty of tasty eats throughout the day to see me through it! As I wouldn’t be able to make my body pump class in the evening I squeezed in a Davina DVD (Davina Super body Super Pump Workout) followed by a Yoga for Runners podcast. Breakfast was fantastic! I made up an overnight breakfast pudding using 2 tbsp of chia seeds, 3 tbsp of vanilla hemp protein powder, 1/4 cup of quinoa flakes, 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder (regular cocoa powder would also work) 1 tbsp of agave syrup, 1/2 cup of rice milk and about 1/2 – 1 cup of water all mixed together and left in the fridge overnight. In the morning I layered it up in a bowl with lots of fresh blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries then topped with a little coconut:

So good! I love the taste of raw cacao – so deep and bitter, just delicious!

Lunch was leftover wheat grains, lentils, carrot and asparagus with some spinach dressed with braggs and gomasio plus a couple of bashed up pears:

Mid afternoon I snacked on 2 pumpkin oat ryvita with squash dip and assorted veggies:

I also ate a nectarine before my meeting. When I eventually got home I knew exactly what I wanted – my perfect comfort food as part of my 7 days 7 green smoothies challenge!

Carrot Cake Green Smoothie (makes one large serving)

• 3 cups of spring greens with thick stem removed
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 large shredded carrot (I shredded mine in the blender before adding the other ingredients or you could grate it first)
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (I used sun warrior)
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 tsp of maca (optional but good for my stress levels at the moment!)
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1 tsp of spirulina (optional)
• Water or milk to desired consistency
• Xanthan and guar gums (optional but adds thickness)

Toppings:

• Coconut flour paste cream ‘cheese’ icing
• Walnuts
• Raisins
• Cinnamon

Blend all ingredients and serve with toppings. So so good! I also inhaled a couple of jazz apples :-)

Today I was up and at the gym first thing for more speed work on the treadmill (30 minutes) and intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike (30 minutes total) followed by abs and core. Then it was time for green smoothie no 2!

Nutty Berry Not So Green Smoothie (makes one large serving):

• 1 head of romaine lettuce
• 1 1/2 cups of frozen mixed berries
• 1 scoop of nutty berry spiru-tein powder (optional or add protein powder of choice)
• 2 tbsp of smooth slightly salted peanut butter (I realised the other day that I prefer slightly salted pb in my smoothies as sometimes the taste of unsalted pb gets lost in the other flavours)
• 1 tsp of maca powder (optional)
• 1 tsp of mesquite (optional)
• Water to desired thickness
• Xanthan and guar gums (optional but add thickness)

Toppings:

• Peanut flour sauce
• Goji berries
• Flaked almonds

This was gorgeous, I love the combination of berries and peanut butter! Lunch was another veggie and tofu packed salad with braggs and two persimmons that I picked up from the reduced section:

Holy yum! It was the first time I’d eaten a persimmon and my god they are lush! I think I’ll be eating these all the time, so sweet and delicious. I also snacked on a couple of cookie dough balls mid afternoon.

For dinner I had some steamed spring greens with shoyu, a small baked sweet potato and a mix of black beans, red pepper, courgette, avocado and lime juice:

Dessert was some ‘The Nutty One’ Conscious raw chocolate and two chopped jazz apples:

Thanks for all your comments on my last post – especially on the topic of labels. It seems that most of you agree that labels aren’t helpful and that we should be able to live our lives in a flexible manner without the pressure of living up to a particular set of rules. I think I will be calling myself vegan when I’m in the position of having to describe my dietary requirements to others – i.e. when attending conferences or at restaurants. Its a lot easier than giving them the long version!

I did say in my last post that I had some exciting news, and yes I am a very lucky girl indeed - my husband James has WON A TRIP TO NYC! He entered a competition to see and meet the band Rise Against at Terminal 5 in NYC this May. We went to New York for our honey moon and I am absolutely buzzing that we will be going back! I’m sure you all know what I’m thinking – Whole Foods and Trader Joes haul! We are only there for a couple of days but I’m hoping to hit Babycakes and Peanut Butter Co at the very least, as well as getting my hands on some US brands and products I’ve seen in the blog world including Lara Bars, Vega and Amazing Grass Powders, Artisana nut butters, Justin’s Nut Butter to name but a few! I just hope I’ll be able to carry it all back!

What are your favourite US products you think I should be on the look out for on my visit?

I am so unbelievably excited!!!!

Hi guys, happy Friday! Hope you’ve had a fantastic week. I’m flying high as a kite right now as I got this fab delivery of vegan cakes!

Some of you might remember me mentioning that at last weeks tea party the caterers had promised vegan cakes but had let us down. This lunchtime the manager called into our office with this box of vegan treats to say sorry. How sweet is that? They included oatmeal cookies, orange mini cup cakes, almond viennese swirls and a slice of sticky toffee pudding (I’m saving that for later). I shared them with my colleagues and they tasted amazing! What a great treat for a Friday afternoon :-)

I’ve really been enjoying my green smoothie challenge and healthy feasting this week and feel miles better for giving myself a little break from caffeine and refined sugar, at least until those cakes showed up! There have been some delicious salads:

Chickpea and quinoa with veggies and green goddess dressing

Baked tempeh with veggies and tahini dressing

Last night I made a big pan of roasted courgette, pepper and red onion and had that with some of the baked tempeh and tahini dressing:

This was seriously good for such a simple meal! I’ve also been snacking on lots of fresh fruit and nuts as well as coconut butter and tahini to keep those fat levels up. For a snack I made a fab chocolate chia pudding with strawberries for more healthy fat action:

This was 2 tbsp of chia seeds, 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder, water and agave. So good!

I won’t list all of this weeks workouts but its been the usual apart from Tuesday as I was working late and couldn’t make Body Pump I did level 3 of the 30 Day Shred and this challenging 30 minute vinyasa flow which was great!

As I said I’ve been loving the Green Smoothie Challenge. I’m going to save pics for a wrap up in Sunday’s post – I’ve got recipes for Chocolate Ginger Pear, Chocolate Cherry Almond and Strawberry and Peanut Butter smoothies coming up for you, and they are amazing! If anyone has any posts they’d like me to link too leave me a comment or email me :-)

March wrap up

I can’t quite believe that another month is almost over but it really has been a good one. I love doing these little monthly reviews and goal setting as I find it very motivational to focus on what I have achieved and to set my intent for the coming month. In March I have:

• Had my tattoo done
• Enjoyed more yoga at home including trying out some different you tube videos
• Progressed some work towards getting my community business off the ground including scheduling some important meetings.
• Gained a several lbs! 
• Stuck to my new strict grocery budget
• Have given the flat a good de clutter and spring clean (although I’ll be doing more of that this weekend)
• Started doing planks again as part of my workouts and improved my push ups
• Became a member of the Diary Free Dream Team!
• As of today, became the owner of a brand spanking new iPad 3!

My tattoo was the first very early 30th birthday gift to myself, and now I’ve got my iPad! I’ve wanted one forever and had enough saved up already so thought I’d get one now. Makes saving that money on groceries and clothes all worthwhile!

Update on ‘lady problems’

Pinterest, I love you but you but I’ve accepted I ain’t ever going to look like that (source)

I haven’t seen any major improvement in that area but I really feel like the reduction of long periods of intense exercise (running over 4 miles) and my weight gain (I currently weigh over 21lbs more than I did in August last year!) has me on the right track. I know some of you will have noticed that I’ve become much more relaxed around my eating than I used to be. The fear of gaining weight and ballooning up is slowly subsiding as I have started to accept that I’m never going to have that skinny, muscular physique or bikini body and be healthy at the same time.  Some women can look great that way and be perfectly healthy but that just isn’t natural or sustainable for my body. Positive comments from James, my friends and family and you amazing people have really helped me too. It hasn’t been easy though and there has been the weekend evening snackies / overeating stuff to deal with as well as a few tears as I got rid of a lot of clothes now too small for me. However I’m more determined now than ever to try and forget what society dictates is healthy in terms of weight, size and appearance and instead honour my body as best I can. Now that my BMI is over 23 its a case of playing a waiting game hoping that my body will trust me enough to start functioning again as it should. I’m planning some more posts on this as well as how to gain weight in a healthy way as I’ve had some emails requesting them and I think its a really important topic to highlight so stay tuned!

Goals for April

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• Enjoy some baking, cooking new recipes and try my hand at making proper bread with yeast
• Spend lots of time with my family and friends over Easter
• Maintain my current weight
• Get booked on to / do my food hygiene training
• Arrange my first healthy eating workshop with a community group (eeek!)
• Have fun with my iPad!
• Start extending my weekend runs to 10k in anticipation of Great North Run training

This weekend is going to be a baking, cooking and general domestic goddess weekend! I really want to try my hand at baking some bread so fingers crossed it will turn out ok! I’ll also be doing some experimental cooking for Easter that will hopefully result in a couple of new recipes here on the blog. Of course I’d like to maintain my weight while still enjoying a more relaxed attitude to eating. I also need to update my food hygiene training before I can start delivering my healthy eating workshops so I’d love to get that done, and hopefully as a result of linking with some of my contacts I’d like to have my first ever workshop booked in! The final goal is to gradually increase my mileage on my weekend runs. Despite those lady problems I’m registered to do the Great North Run for the third time this year and its something I’d still like to achieve. However I will be taking a much more relaxed approach to training and the race itself, enjoying myself will come before trying to get another PB!

Now on to the weekend send of love list…

Reiki stones in my water bottle!

My manager at work is a Reiki Master and has charged some red jasper stones with healing energy for me. She suggested putting them in my water bottle. I’m not sure if I’m 100% sold on reiki but it won’t do me any harm! I have to say its pretty awesome to have a Reiki Master as your boss, she gave me a guided meditation this afternoon too, love my job! Also…

This fab new blog discovery Messy Nessy Chic // The weather!!! Its been incredible this week // wearing my new pink sleeveless top from H&M // getting the summer sandals out of the cupboard

What have you been loving this week? How has March been for you? Do you have any goals for April?

A few weeks ago I was sent a some products to review from Viva Pure:

Viva Pure are a web based company that sell an excellent range of products including raw foods and ‘super foods’. I absolutely love the ethos of this company – their mission statement can be found here, but basically they believe that good nutrition should also mean good taste, a sentiment I can certainly relate to!

I was sent three products to try out:

Some like it spicy pumpkin seeds:

These are completely raw having been sprouted and dehydrated at a low temperature to improve their taste and nutritional value. I swear that these taste exactly like cheesy doritos! They contain garlic and onion powder, cumin, chipotle pepper and himalayan crystal salt. 85g costs £3.95 so not cheap but they are really tasty. You could probably get a similar product else where or just use plain pumpkin seeds for a lower cost, but with this product you are getting better nutritional value and taste – especially if you crave doritos and need a healthy fix! I can’t say I would be able to justify spending so much on these when other cheaper alternatives are available but they are very good.

Raw Chia Superfood Porridge Mix:

This semi powdered mix contains a range of ‘super foods’ including chia seeds, goji berries, raw cacao and maca. You can use it in a variety of ways – to keep it raw you can mix it cold with almond milk or, as I did mix it with regular oats for a warm porridge. It would also make a fantastic topping for smoothies or mixed with yoghurt. I really like this mix, it has a great deep cinnamon chocolate flavour and the ingredients list is just amazing. Again, this isn’t cheap at £5.25 for 184g but it is full of the finest quality raw super food ingredients and it is a pretty versatile product. I would happily treat myself to this when I had the spare cash available. The porridge shown above was made with the mix and oat bran and tasted amazing!

Apple Honey Crunchy Granola:

I absolutely love this granola! I have to say it may be the best I’ve ever tasted (although I can’t say I’m any kind of granola expert!) This is raw as the ingredients have been dehydrated to preserve all the enzymes and nutritional benefits. It contains organic pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds, apple, cinnamon, agave and so on. I just loved this – really crunchy and chunky with the most delicious apple cinnamon flavour. I’ve been using it as a topping for smoothies but of course this could be eaten with fruit and almond milk to keep it raw or with yoghurt or just as a snack. Its £5.98 for 212g – pricey but I have found that I use granola quite sparingly as a topping and therefore that would probably last me a while. Like the chia super food porridge mix I can say that I would purchase this product as a treat when I could afford it, yum!

Along with these products I also purchased some of their maca powder, raw cacao powder and chia seeds, all of which I have found to be excellent. I have also been particularly impressed with their website as it contains quite a lot of useful information on raw food, why dehydrating is good, what the deal is with sprouting etc as well as several recipes.

Overall this is a great company and website to look at if your interested in raw foods and ‘super foods’. I know that ‘super foods’ aren’t for everyone, they are certainly more of a luxury but I enjoy incorporating them into my diet. If you are interested in finding out more about super foods take a look at Lana’s blog Being That Change – she has done some excellent posts on super foods.

*As with all my reviews I was given these products for review purposes – all comments are honest and my genuine opinion and assessment of the product*

Have you purchased anything from Viva Pure or been on their website? What’s your thoughts on raw and ‘super foods’?

Last week I gave you Healthy Eating part 1, and now I have even more tips for you! I seem to have picked up a lot of these things when I’ve been on my big budget challenges and just generally trying to save money. As I said last week a lot of people think its extremely expensive to eat healthily but as long as you shop smart there’s no reason why it has to be.

I honestly believe that healthy eating begins with what you put in your trolley. If you don’t buy crap your not going to eat crap!

Look in the reduced sections

I always check out the reduced sections to see what’s on offer. The ASDA near where I work always has some great things in their fruit and veg reduced section, most of the stuff still has a good few day’s left in them as well. I’ve also started checking out the reduced bin at my green grocers which has lots of bags of older or bruised fruit and veggies in bags for 50p or 20p. These are fab for using in smoothies, juices or soups. You can also often pick up some good deals on reduced organic meat and fish which you can then freeze. Some supermarkets only reduce things after a certain time, so it might be worth shopping later at night if your looking for bargains.

Use keep fresh bags

Lakeland and probably other shops as well, sell green ‘keep fresh’ bags. These are bags that you can store your fruit and veggies in the fridge and they stay fresher for longer. I’ve been using these successfully for a few months and they are handy if you can only shop for fresh stuff once or twice a week. They work very well with greens and fresh herbs. I rinse out and reuse the bags a couple of times too.

Eat seasonally

I’m such a big fan of eating as seasonally as possible, I tend to feel so much more in tune everything that way. It is a bit difficult when so much produce is air freighted in, but generally when you are buying seasonally you are getting the cheapest stuff. I would love to buy more locally but often what is on offer is the stuff that has been shipped in and I think you need to weight up the pro’s and con’s for yourself on that one.

Look for cheap swaps

Some recipes can require expensive ingredients but many of these can be swapped for something cheaper and still taste great. For example:

• Kale, usually £1 for a 200g bag where I shop can be swapped for spring greens, usually £1 or less for a 500g bag
• Raisins tend to be cheaper than dates
• Peanut butter cheaper than almond butter
• Sunflower seeds cheaper than a lot of other nuts but can be used in a similar way depending on the recipe (they make a great ‘nut’ milk instead of almonds)

Think outside the box and you can still make more expensive recipes on a leaner budget.

Meal Plan, but be flexible

I’ve blogged before about how much I love meal planning. I find it the best way to cut down on food waste and be generally organised as well as ensuring I’m getting the nutrients I need. More recently though, I have been trying to take a more flexible approach to meal planning which allows me to take advantage of buying that last minute reduced fruit or on offer packet of veggies. Most meals can be tweeked if you need to change up the veggies last minute and fruit can often be changed with something else depending on the recipe. I find that this allows me to have the benefits of meal planning but still be able to take advantage of the last minute deals that help you save money.

Do it yourself

Doing it yourself when it comes to certain things can save you a fortune! I’ll admit I have some expensive tastes when it comes to things like nut butters, snack bars, raw crackers, salad dressings etc. However most of these can be made at home if you have a food processor. Even my cheap £30 model can make amazing raw nut butters like the ‘rawtella’ pictured above for a fraction of the price you would pay in the shops or online. This also extends to things like making your own baked goods and soups – almost always cheaper with the added benefit that you know exactly what’s in them, no nasty preservatives!

Eat less meat

I’m not just saying this cause I’m a veggie but good quality meat is pricey! Even before I became veggie I was cutting down on my meat because it was so expensive. What I’ve found with some of James meals is that I now replace the meat with Quorn. You can also try experimenting with cheaper cuts of meat or using beans or tofu instead of meat in some of your meals. Try frozen edamame in a stir fry instead of chicken for example. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing if you don’t want it to be.

Buy in bulk

Going back to a tip from part 1, when you know what your grocery staples are it makes it easier to know when its worth buying in bulk. When I see something like my favourite non dairy milks on offer I always buy a few cartons because I know that they will get used up. I always buy the huge 3kg bags of pasta because James eats a ton of the stuff. It really does help you save, as well as cutting down how much you have to purchase on a more regular basis.

Use discounts effectively

As well as supermarket discount and points schemes, a lot of online health food retailers have discount codes knocking about (see my sponsor section to the right for just a few!). It is well worth using these strategically. I’ll try and hold off buying ‘health foods’ for a while and then place a big Goodness Direct order so I can get the discount off and get £35 of goods for £25. I also save all of my loyalty card points during the year to spend on a big Christmas shop!

Whole foods first

Finally, I think the most important thing to remember when it comes to healthy eating on the cheap is not to get too hung up on special ‘health foods’. Yes they are fun to experiment with and can give you that extra sparkle but whole foods are where its at! You are far better spending money on good quality whole foods like fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes and good quality diary, fish and meat (if you eat them) than spending a fortune on special health foods. Get the foundations right with an every day whole foods diet first and then, if you can afford it, try out the special health foods like protein powders, super food powders etc.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these healthy eating on the cheap posts! Part 1 can be found here along with On the cheap: Exercise and On the cheap: Beauty.

What are your healthy eating on the cheap top tips?

Today has just been one of those days! I returned to work to find a huge pile of documents on my desk and what seemed like a zillion emails to be dealt with. I could feel the stress starting to rise but instead of letting it get to me I’ve managed to just breathe through it and figure out a plan of action to deal with it. In the past I’ve really allowed stress to get to me but I’m just not going to let that happen any more. I’ve cancelled some meetings, arranged to work from home and now feel much more in control. Do you suffer from stress? How does it affect you? How do you deal with it?

At least my day did get off to a good start with another green smoothie!

Chocolate Cherry Beet Green Smoothie (makes 1 large serving)

• 3 cups of kale and spring greens with the tough stems removed
• 1 cup of frozen cherries
• 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder / cocoa powder (I used sun warrior)
• 1 beet it shot / cooked beetroot / beetroot juice - I used a beet it shot
• 1 tsp of maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of ground flax (optional)
• Water (to desired thickness)
• Xanthan and guar gum to add thickness (optional)

Toppings:

• Fresh berries
• Rude Health Granola
• Carob flakes (nom!) 

Unfortunately due to the clocks going forward I had no lovely daylight to photograph this tasty treat and had to resort to the flash. Such a shame as it was so pretty!

Lunch was a big salad beast containing romaine, spinach, yellow pepper, red onion, carrot, sugar snaps, cucumber, basil tofu and some of my squash dip:

I watered the dip down a little then mixed it in like a dressing, yum! Honestly, I never thought a big bowl of vegetables would make me so happy! I also ate two nectarines. Mid afternoon I snacked on a cocoa orange nakd bar before heading to the gym. Exercise really is a great stress reliever! I did my usual interval session 15 minutes on the cross trainer then 15 minutes on the step machine followed by my abs and core and then my 30 minute spin class.

Dinner was a delicious mix of wheat grains, lentils, asparagus and carrot in a citrus dressing (clementine juice, cool oil, apple cider vinegar) served with steamed purple sprouting broccoli with a chilli, ginger and shoyu dressing:

Dessert was inspired by Marias cinnamon maple peanut butter – I made a quick version using 2 tbsp of peanut flour mixed with a little water, cinnamon and maple syrup until it formed a lovely sauce then poured over two chopped apples and a few strawberries:

This was so delicious!

I hope you don’t mind but I wanted to share a few random musings I’ve been having recently:

Veganism

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I think I may be ready to ‘go’ vegan. Apart from some feta cheese, the Total Greek yoghurt pots, vegetarian pesto and trace amounts of diary in dark chocolate I haven’t eaten any animal products since the start of the year and I really don’t miss them – I feel the best I have ever felt in terms of my health and the more I read on the ethical, environmental and health benefits of veganism the more I feel like its right for me (I don’t make any judgements on others dietary choices, its such a personal choice). I am a bit concerned about using the ‘vegan’ label. Although I’m in a place were I’m happy to not eat animal products I don’t think I’m at the point of avoiding all trace products – for example the small amount of dairy in Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt or some honey in a snack bar. I think I would gradually stop buying those products but can I still adopt the vegan label while I’m not being that strict? I also still wear leather but I am more aware of trying to seek out alternative materials when I’m buying new stuff although I’m not perfect here either. I guess there is no such thing as a perfect vegan in any case but for some reason I feel reluctant to adopt the label – what are your thoughts on dietary labels?

Calorie Counting

Over the past week I’ve been doing a little experiment in calorie counting. I’ve been logging my eats with Livestrong after the concerns I’ve been having that I am not eating enough. I’ve learned several things from this experiment:

• Calorie counting on a regular basis is not for me – I found it such a pain in the arse!
• I eat on average 1800 – 2200 calories a day
• My fibre intake is through the roof
• I’m having no problem meeting my protein requirements
• I may be a little low on sodium

This, coupled with a sneaky weigh in which has shown that I’m currently maintaining my weight, has given me a bit of reassurance that I’m at least on the right path. Although my fibre intake is high, my body seems to handle it very well and because I’m feeling good I don’t think that the fibre is having a detrimental affect on my absorption of nutrients.

Meditation and yoga

I’ve been continuing to include at least 5 minutes of yoga / meditation at the start of each day and it really is having a calming affect on me – I know my ability to deal with today’s stress has been helped by this.

Any random musings you’d like to share?

Hope your week has got off to a good start! I have some super exciting news that I can’t wait to share with you all soon! In the mean time its back to work for me, I have a late meeting tomorrow so I’m trying to be my most organised self! Catch you later x

Hi everyone, I know its suppose to be a bad thing to constantly blog about the weather but I’m sorry, its just been too gorgeous not to mention it!

Driving home in the sun!

I don’t think I could have planned a better week for my Green Smoothie Challenge, they have been the perfect refreshing breakfast for this warm weather! Today I am here for WIAW of course, these are my eats from Monday.

I’ve decided that alongside the green smoothie challenge I’m having a bit of a healthy feasting week as I’m feeling completely caffeine and sugared out. I’m just sticking to simple foods, no coffee, no refined or processed sugars and I’m giving stevia a miss for a while so my taste buds can normalise again. I’m making sure that I’m eating plenty of nuts and fats as I’m not doing this to lose weight, just to try and re-steady my energy levels :-)

I got up, had the usual warm water and lemon and headed to the gym. I did 5 minute warm up on the cross trainer, strength training from Female Body Breakthrough and finished up with HIIT for 10 minutes on the step machine and then 10 minutes on the bike. For breakfast I had a not so green smoothie!

It contained spinach, celery, frozen berries, chocolate hemp protein powder, maca, ground flax, a couple of chlorella tablets, water, ice and then topped with goji berries and pistachios. I also had a green tea. It was like eating a bowl of chocolate berry ice cream! I had some celery in the fridge so decided to add a couple of stalks for extra goodness.

Lunch was a big salad with cos lettuce, red onion, cucumber, basil tofu, olives and lots of green goddess dressing:

I know I love my salads anyway but they’ve been even more enjoyable so far this week. That basil tofu is a real treat for me, its a little expensive to buy all the time so when I have it I really enjoy it!

Mid afternoon I snacked on a few chopped carrots with some mixed nuts and seeds that included sunflower seeds, walnuts and pecans:

I had also brought a nakd bar with me to work for a snack but I wasn’t hugely hungry so didn’t force myself to eat it. I decided to have the raw whole nuts as a change from the usual nut butters as I’m building up quite the stockpile and they need eating up!

For dinner I had some adzuki beans with quinoa and parsley alongside some roasted broccoli and cauliflower in tahini dressing:

I’d had this exact same meal on Sunday evening and enjoyed it so much I repeated it. I had some home cooked adzuki beans in the freezer so it was easy to throw together with the leftover quinoa. I also made a jar of tahini dressing up at the weekend which is delicious, I just blended some garlic, lemon and ume vinegar together with the tahini and it tasted great, it really made the roast veggies pop!

As it was so warm all I was craving after dinner was fresh fruit so I had a sliced Asian pear and two massive pink lady apples:

I also had a sleepytime tea and drank the usual gallons of water and green tea throughout the day.

Green smoothie challenge

How’s everyone coming along with their green smoothie challenge? I seem to be feeling more simple cleansing smoothies than I did the last time I did this – no chocolate peanut butter ones this time around! I’ve also been alerted to the fact that Katherine at the Real Food Runner and Jen at Peanut Butter Runner are also hosting a green smoothie challenge this week, talk about great minds! Check out those links for more great green smoothie recipes and ideas.

Here’s a couple of my green smoothie highlights so far:

Chocolate ginger pear topped with pumpkin seeds, flaked almonds and cacao nibs – I’m going to blog the recipe for this one soon as it has been a favourite of mine for a while now!

Spinach, frozen blueberries, scoop of chocolate amazing grass powder, celery, agave, water, ice topped with coconut and bee pollen

So far I know that Tam, Jemma and Sarah are joining in and have posted about the challenge. I’ll probably do a full round up on Sunday so let me know via comments or email if you’d like to include a link.

If your joining in the challenge, how’s it going?

What’s your favourite way to enjoy warm spring weather? When I still have to keep up my usual daily routine I love driving home from work with my sunnies on, good tunes on the radio and the windows down :-)

Hi everyone, hope you’ve been having a great weekend!

I was up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to get my weekend run out of the way. I decided to go for a slightly shorter distance than I’ve ran the last couple of weeks as I needed to be home, washed and dressed to meet up with my Mam. I thought it would be good to run 10k and see what kind of pace I could manage. I did it in 55 minutes! I was over the moon, for the first time ever my average pace was below 9 min miles – I got it down to 8.54 (last week was 9.25!) I was extremely happy with that :-)

The rest of the weekend has been quite relaxed which is just what I’ve needed. I’ve enjoyed two delicious green smoothies for breakfast each day as part of my 7 days 7 smoothies challenge:

Tropical Green Smoothie (makes one large serving):

• 3 cups of spinach
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 cup of frozen mango
• 2 tbsp of vanilla hemp protein powder
• 1 tbsp of mesquite (optional)
• 1 tbsp of desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp of maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of spirulina (optional)
• 1/2 cup of rice milk – coconut milk or coconut water would be better!
• water – to desired thickness
• 1/2 tsp of xanthan and guar gum (optional, adds thickness)

Toppings:

• Coconut flour sauce (made with 1 heaped tsp of coconut flour and water)
• Hemp seeds
• Goji berries

This was yummy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Green Smoothie (makes one very large serving):

• 3 – 4 cups of kale, romaine and lambs lettuce (I just used what greens needed using up)
• 1 frozen banana
• 2 nectarines
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder (I used sun warrior) 
• 2 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
• 1 tbsp of cocoa powder or raw cacao powder
• 1 tsp maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of ground flax (optional)
• water – to desired thickness
• 1 tsp xanthan and guar gum (optional but adds thickness)

Toppings:

• Peanut flour sauce
• Chocolate peanut flour sauce (PB2+cacao powder + agave+water)
• Cacao nibs
• grape nuts cereal

This was seriously one delicious smoothie! As usual I ended up with a bowl and a half worth – so filling, tasty and nutritious! I find that nectarines / peaches give green smoothies a nice neutral tasting sweetness and bulk that won’t over powder the other ingredients.

I’ve also been drinking fresh green juices each afternoon for the last four days, my favourite green juice combo is pear, celery, cucumber, spinach / romaine, broccoli and lemon / ginger. It tastes delicious!

Other foodie highlights this weekend include this eggless veggie omelette:

I made up some standard socca batter and added two tablespoons of nutritional yeast and a pinch of salt. I then fried some red onion until it caramelised, yellow pepper and courgette and poured the cheesy socca batter on top of the veggies and fried up as usual. I served it up with a side salad and more nutritional yeast on top. This worked really well! I used to eat vegetable and cheese omelettes all the time before I decided to eat mostly vegan, I can see me making these regularly! 

Dinner both evenings has been a lovely combo of stir fried asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and spring onion with millet and adzuki beans served with some of my squash dip and steamed greens / kale with shoyu:

This tasted really good, the squash dip on the side just made it all the yummier! I’ve really been enjoying making up one big dish with planned leftovers for the next day, its been saving me so much time in the kitchen!

Last night I satisfied my sweet tooth with strawberries, figs and Lindt 85% dark chocolate:

Loved the extra dark chocolate, I still want to try the 99% version!

I’ve also been buying a couple of spring wardrobe updates. On Friday I spotted this lovely  blush coloured simple coat and ultra skinny jeans in H&M:

I adore the jeans – they have a zip fastening up the back, they aren’t stretchy like jeggings but they fit like a glove. The coat is perfect for this time of year: warm but in a nice pale spring like colour. I’ve also been checking out eBay in search of second hand bargains. As I’m trying to save cash and wanting to try and be more environmentally friendly I thought I’d see what I could pick up second hand. I got this great floral print skirt for just £3.50 including postage:

I had seen a floral print skirt in New Look for £22 but I like this even better! It will look great paired with a simple t-shirt. Do you buy clothes from eBay? Its been a bit hit and miss for me in the past but I think I’ve developed a better skill for noticing items that will work for me.

I’m glad I’ve been able to have a relaxed weekend as I have a crazy busy week at work ahead including two late night meetings. I think I’ll be making up lots of ‘planned leftovers’ type meals to see me through – along with my green smoothies to keep my energy levels up of course! I’ll be sneaking in workouts when I can manage them too.

I’m also waiting to see how I react to the clocks going forward – I was really enjoying waking up to daylight but I guess I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for the sun to rise at 6am again! At least we get nice bright evenings instead :-) Does the clocks going forward affect you?