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Hello everyone, I can’t believe it is Wednesday already! Hope you are having a good week, mine has been pretty busy…

As I was working late on Tuesday evening I needed to fit my usual workout in before work and at home (as my gym doesn’t open till 9am on a Tuesday). I decided to dust off the old 30 Day Shred DVD and did Levels 1 and 2 back to back followed by my usual Yoga for Runners podcast. I totally forgot how tough that DVD is! This morning I was up for an early morning run. I decided to do some hills so I did 3 laps of my ‘hilly’ route for a 7 mile run in 1.04 with a 9.11 average pace. Considering the hills and the fact that the last time I did these laps my average pace was 9.24 I was very happy! When I got home I did my abs and core exercises too.

As I’ve been trying to balance things with time at work and home, eats have been easy and speedy, but always tasty of course! Yesterday mornings breakfast was lovely:

Toasted quinoa and amaranth bread with MaraNatha Almond Butter, a vanilla blueberry smoothie (1 scoop of vanilla Sun Warrior Protein Powder with frozen blueberries and water) topped with some treacle granola plus a mug of black vanilla decaf sweetened with vanilla stevia. I’m really enjoying the toast, nut butter and smoothie combo at the moment!

I just did the leftovers thing for lunch – so easy to just throw leftovers on top of a big salad! I also enjoyed more cheesy basil white bean dip with crackers and veggies for snackage.

Last nights ‘dinner’ after my late meeting was a delicious smoothie made with spring greens, romaine, frozen strawberries, 2 nectarines, coconut flour, water, vanilla stevia, maca, mesquite, xanthan and guar gum then topped with softened coconut butter swirl, cacao nibs and freeze dried berries:

The coconut butter hardened into a lovely shell which I cracked with my spoon like the top of a crème brulee!

This mornings post run smoothie contained more spring greens and romaine, small frozen banana, frozen peaches, one scoop of spirutein fruitein powder, maca, mesquite, water, xanthan and guar gums then topped with some treacle granola and Trader Joes apple and watermelon fruity flakes (from my trip to NYC):

These apple and watermelon flakes are so good, they taste like sweeties, will be gutted when I’ve eaten them all!

Today’s lunch was Pea, Broccoli and Mint Soup with Clearspring tamari sesame rice cakes and un pictured cantaloupe melon. I ate the melon half an hour before the soup and rice cakes as I read that melon is so quickly digested its best eaten on its own!

I also had a Cinnamon Roll Larabar:

I was so looking forward to having another of these from my NYC stash, really loving them! I may try and recreate these at home as they have such a simple ingredients list.

For dinner I wanted to make something super quick and easy but still healthy and filling. Enter my version of fast food! I picked this pouch of Merchant Gourmet Red and White Quinoa at the supermarket ages ago:

It was quite pricey, but for busy evenings like this these pre cooked microwavable pouches of grains can be so handy. This doesn’t contain any hidden nasties either. I often use rice and couscous packs when I’m making meals for James.

Edamame and Quinoa Citrus Salad (makes 2 servings, vegan)

• 1 cup of defrosted frozen edamame (soya beans)
• 1 cup of cooked quinoa (I used the Merchant Gourmet Red and White quick cook quinoa pack)
• Approx 1 cup of chopped sugar snap peas (or your choice of veggie: spring onions, roast squash, carrot, courgette etc would all taste wonderful)
• Finely grated zest of an orange
• Juice from half an orange 
• 2 tablespoons of oil – olive, hemp, flax etc. I used Cool Oil blend
• 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
• Large handful of chopped parsley

This is so easy! Just combine the edamame, quinoa and sugar snaps / veggies then mix the orange zest, juice, oil and vinegar together with the parsley. Pour over the quinoa and edamame, mix and serve!

I served this slightly warm but it will also taste amazing cold (I’ll be having the second portion for lunch tomorrow!) This was so good! I really enjoyed this, the orange dressing is sweet but with a great punch from the vinegar. Quinoa and edamame has to be one of my favourite combinations of ingredients – for a more Asian twist you could add some ginger and chilli and swap the oil to sesame oil for the dressing too. I served it with a big pile of lightly steamed kale and broccoli:

Really filling and satisfying. I can’t believe this only took 10 minutes to make! For a sweet end to my day I enjoyed some Conscious raw chocolate:

After my review yesterday I was craving some of this. It may be expensive, but damn, its good!

Do you ever use the quick cook packs of grains? What’s your thoughts on these kind of ‘convenience’ foods? I don’t put these in the same category as ready meals and what not, and would much rather cook from scratch, but sometimes, just like tinned beans, they make life a little easier!

On a slightly random note, I was just wondering what readers thought about me posting details of my grocery shops? I’m really trying to get a handle on my grocery spending and meal planning and posting about it will help me to focus! Is it something you’d find interesting?