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Hello everyone, thank goodness its Friday! I’ve had what feels like a crazy week with two late night meetings and lots going on at work. I had to get a bit creative with my workouts to be able to fit them in around the extra working hours:

• Monday – AM gym – 5k on treadmill running 0.25 mile intervals, 30 minutes of cardio intervals (total time) on cross trainer, bike and step machine, abs and core
• Tuesday – AM Davina Super Sculpt DVD with extra legs section plus Yoga for Runners
• Wednesday AM – 7 mile hill run in 1hr 03 minutes, abs and core – this was a tough run as my legs felt like lead, I felt like I was a lot slower than I actually ended up being (9.07 pace)
• Thursday AM – Davina Super Sculpt DVD with extra arms section plus MTV Yoga (I so needed that yoga!)
• Friday AM – gym – 40 minutes cardio intervals (total time) on cross trainer, step machine, bike and rowing machine followed by abs and core

It was weird to be doing DVD’s again as I only really need to do them when I’m working late on a Tuesday or Thursday which thankfully hasn’t been in a while! Eats wise, I’ve been craving raw foods and surprisingly, considering the general lack of time, I’ve been quite creative.

I’ve gone with lots of my usual green smoothies and salads, I won’t bore you with loads of photos of them but these have been my faves!

My current favourite green smoothie combo: spinach, frozen banana, 2 scoops of vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca powder, barley grass, spirulina, ground flax, msm crystals, xanthan and guar gums for thickness, water and ice topped with a sauce made from raw brazil cacao bliss, crumbled raw granola and goji berries. Delicious!

Salad bowl containing romaine lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red onion, red pepper, roast beets, raw sunflower flax crackers and raw green goddess dressing.

Another big salad bowl containing cos lettuce, green pepper, cucumber, sugar snaps, carrots, tahini miso dressing and a Clearspring roasted soya nut and pumpkin seed snack pack.

I find green smoothies a great late night meal for me as they are quite easy to digest. I’ve also had the usual tofu topped salads, I tried some olive tofu and it was yummy.

As I said I’ve been getting a bit creative with things, first up I took a shot at a semi raw hummus:

I made this with 2 courgettes, lemon juice, tahini, hemp oil and garlic. It was ok but I think it needed more tahini! I ate this with piles of chopped veggies. I’ve also been eating raw kale chips, lots of fruit and this great little chocolate chia seed pudding in a jar:

2 tbsp of chia seeds, water, 1 tbsp of raw cacao and stevia in a near empty raw brazil nut bliss jar. This was fab – so thick and creamy! It made the perfect take to work snack. I think I’ll be making these more often!

I also tried this Blueberry Pure bar from my NYC stash:

It was very tasty, and had much more blueberry flavour than the cherry cashew version I had tried which wasn’t that cherry flavoured!

Along side the green smoothies I’ve enjoyed some amazing raw breakfasts:

Chocolate protein chia seed pudding (2 tbsp of chia seeds, 1 scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder, hemp milk) with strawberries and blackberries. This was so tasty and amazingly filling, it kept me going for hours!

Utterly wonderful banana split breakfast inspired by Jess, this included one large banana, crumbled raw granola, strawberries and vanilla almond protein sauce (1 tbsp of raw almond butter mixed 1 scoop of vanilla sun warrior protein powder and water). That was the first time I’ve tried a nut butter protein sauce and it was the bomb! I can’t wait to try it over cereal.

When I have been at home for dinner I’ve gone for a good old Buddha bowl meal:

Kidney beans, quinoa, raw courgette, basil and parsley with spinach, roast beets and roast acorn squash plus the last of my green goddess dressing mixed with more tahini and sweet white miso. I have to say I’m not a huge fan of the acorn squash, not enough sweetness or flavour compared to butternut or kabocha :-(

Today I’ve been able to work from home so decided to get creative with my lunch:

Raw courgette noodles with a raw sauce made from cherry tomatoes, red pepper, garlic granules, onion powder and italian seasoning topped with nutritional yeast. Enjoyed with some tasty raw crackers. I still can’t get over how satisfying this is!

For this evenings dinner I thought I would try out the tempeh I bought a few weeks ago. I baked it in some Clearspring teriyaki sauce and served with a baked sweet potato with coconut butter and some veg box fresh steamed chard and broccoli with ginger and shoyu:

The tempeh turned out lovely, its definitely growing on me. I also loved the coconut butter on the sweet potato, might try almond butter next time!

I’ve also had some tasty desserts:

Pink lady apple with Artisana Cacao bliss. This stuff is heavenly! I also went back to my nut butter box (yes, I have a box full of nut butters, don’t judge me) and had a couple of spoonful's of Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter and my god that stuff is amazing!

Slice of raw banana sesame goji and dried cherry cake from the freezer. The last time I posted this I got loads of requests for the recipe, basically its just 1 cup of sesame seeds soaked and blended with a small banana then mixed with gojis and dried cherries pressed into a lunch box, frozen and sliced up! Nom!

Just to add to the general rawness of my week, this morning I received this great selection of products from RAW Health to review:

I have some of their newest products to try: agave nectar, raw kalamata olives, lemon chia energy balls and cacao truffles, plus some of my old favourites: raw crackers and raw chocolate. Looking forward to enjoying these!

In even more raw news I ordered a dehydrator today! I decided that I would use my birthday money (coming up in August) to buy a dehydrator. I’ve gone for the best model I can afford, the Excalibur and I can not wait to start experimenting! I don’t think I’m about to turn into a total raw foodist, but I have really been enjoying how eating more raw food makes me feel :-)

After that busy week I could have done with a quiet weekend but no such luck! I’ll be off to town to see Harry Potter, visiting friends and family, fitting in a long run, studying and buying some camping gear ready for next weekend’s Kendal Calling Festival where I’ll be blogging with Alpro Soya! I can’t wait.

Have you ever experimented with raw foods? How did they make you feel? Any must try dehydrator recipes I should take a look at?

Oh, and a quick question for you: how do you guys feel about the Intense Debate commenting system? I always try and reply to my comments but I realise that a lot of people probably don’t come back and check. At least with that system I can reply to specific comments which will notify you with an email but I don’t want to install it if it puts you off commenting! Let me know what you think!