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I’ve been feeling super festive this weekend, I can’t wait for the rest of the week to come! My weekend started with a bowl of Clemintine and Cranberry Porridge.

I used 1/2 cup of powder porridge, some oat bran, soy milk, water and the juice of two clemintines all cooked up on the stove. I added some dried cranberries, 1 clemintine broken into segments and some flaked almonds, delish!

I did a big grocery shop as soon as the shops opened. We haven’t had the bad snow here yet, but my motto for the next few weeks is going to be prepare for the worst. I don’t want to find myself snowed in on Christmas eve with no ingredients to make mulled wine. Yes, that is how I organise my priorities! ;-)

Since I had some time and some new magazines to read I decided to pop to the gym for a relaxed hour of cardio on the cross trainer, step machine and bike.

Lunch was a bowl of very tasty soup that I had made last week to use up some veggies from my organic box and others that were on their way out. I made up a big pan then froze in portions:

Spiced Leek, Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup (makes 4 servings)

• Olive oil for frying
• 4 small leeks – chopped and sliced
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, chopped into small squares, skin on
• Hot veg stock
• 2 green chillies, seeds removed and finely chopped (or more or less to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 200mls of reduced fat coconut milk

Begin by heating the oil in a large pan on a medium heat. Fry the leeks until tender then add the chopped sweet potatoes and cover with veg stock. Simmer until the sweet potato is tender. Take off the heat then blend the soup until creamy using a hand blender. Add the chillies, ground coriander and coconut milk then blend again. Serve immediately or portion up and freeze for quick and tasty lunches!

I love how seemingly random combos of veggies that need to be used up can create something really special, this was truly inspired! This soup has a great spicy kick to it which is perfect for this weather. Delicious, creamy and healthy.

I had a mine topped with some seeds and a side of chopped apples.

Mid afternoon I had a decaf Butterscotch Latte with a couple of small apples. I had a lovely time wrapping gifts while watching Elf! I also needed to use up a couple of ripe avocados and there’s only one thing I wanted to make with those:

Chocolate avocado cups! I froze these babies for yummy deserts come January when I’m detoxing but still need a chocolate hit – I used raw cacao powder instead of regular cocoa powder for that purpose.

For dinner I roasted up my lovely Kabocha squash and made a version of my Butternut and Quinoa Risotto minus the peas, spinach and greek yoghurt and using soy milk instead. This was lovely and creamy and so full of flavour. I had a side of steamed cavolo nero with shoyu too.

Desert was some Rachel’s Organic low fat Strawberry yoghurt along with some defrosted frozen cherries and some flaked almonds.

I was very impressed with the yoghurt, considering that its low fat it was surprisingly creamy. The hubby really liked this too, he ate the rest of the pot and has asked me to start buying it on a regular basis!

This morning I was up bright and early to head to the gym. I ate a pack of nakd lemon raisins and then did and hour and a half of cardio: 30 minutes on the treadmill running between 6 – 7mph then 20 minutes on the step machine, cross trainer and bike. I was in need of a big breakfast after all of that so I made a pumped up green monster. I blended cavolo nero, spinach, 1 frozen banana, soy milk, several ice cubes, water, frozen mango, 2 very large tablespoons of smooth peanut butter, cinnamon, maca, ground flax, agave and xanthan and guar gums. This smoothie was huge!

I topped it with some rude health granola, goji berries and flaked almonds. Yum.

Mid morning I made a very tasty but super healthy cake! More on that tomorrow…

Lunch was some roast tomato, red pepper and chilli soup plus three clemintines:

Dinner was a tofu stir fry made with a mushroom stir fry veggie mix plus added cavolo nero and carrot noodles. I added lots of soy sauce and fresh ginger too:

Desert was two small sliced apples and some Rachel’s Organic Coconut Greek Style yoghurt:

This yoghurt tasted amazing, so creamy with a lovely coconut flavour. It also has pieces of coconut in the yoghurt which gives it a nice texture.

I’m so excited about the rest of the week, I may be at work for a few days but its nice and relaxed as the office is officially shut. I also have lots of cooking and baking to look forward to, Christmas movies to watch and fingers crossed if this snow doesn’t get too bad I’ll be out to the shops, getting my organic veg box delivery and then out on Christmas Eve, love it! Do you still get excited for Christmas?

Before I go I’ll leave you with a few amazing images from the blog What Katie Ate. After looking through her e-zine of Christmas recipes and photos I’m completely in love. If your a fan of lifestyle and food photography or graphic design you must check this out. I have gained lots of festive food inspiration from this blog. Where have you gained some food inspiration from recently? I want to go out and spend ££££ on a decent camera just so I can attempt to create images like these. Enjoy :-)

:-)