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Hi everyone, hope you’ve had a great weekend! I’ve had a lovely relaxing one. Breakfast on Saturday was a full punnet of blueberries with 2 sliced peaches topped with cashew cream (I used half cashews and half macadamias for this batch) plus a tablespoon of Rude Health Granola and a black Cosy English Breakfast tea:

Before heading out for the day I made up a dip for snacks next week using leftover kabocha squash, I’ll share the recipe next week but oh my god it tastes awesome! Mid morning we had a lovely walk into town. While we were there I picked up these Adidas running gloves to keep me going for a while:

Thanks for all your recommendations on Fridays post – I’m going to check them all out and then invest in a better quality set eventually – I just wanted to get these to keep me going for a while!

I also got way over excited when I noticed that Shakeaway do a vegan shake! I had a regular size soya milkshake with coconut cream:

This was heavenly, so creamy! I was impressed as they have very clear labelling of what options are vegan and gluten free and use separate utensils for making the soya shakes. I will be making some return visits here!

We did stop at a pub for lunch but when I asked for my menu choices (either soup or falafel) they didn’t have them available so we ended up getting provisions from a deli and coming home instead. I had thought that the soya shake was keeping me full so mid afternoon I just had a miso and ginger soup with two sliced apples:

However not long after this the hunger monster kicked in and I snacked on another two apples. After that I decided to bring dinner time forward and made myself this wonderful salad beast:

Wild rocket, cos lettuce, red cabbage, carrot, green pepper, cucumber and lots and lots of hummus and olives from the deli. This was a full size carton of hummus and olives, I felt like a bit of a pig after eating all of this but it did taste really good!

As I was in such a snacky mood I decided to make up a big batch of plain popcorn:

The last time I attempted this I melted a plastic bowl in the microwave! This time I popped them in a dry pan on the stove and they turned out great. I sprayed the popcorn with some spray oil and sprinkled with some mesquite and cinnamon for a touch of sweetness. At only 30 odd calories a cup and with lots of fibre this made a great healthy snack! The cinnamon and mesquite did a great job of rebalancing my hunger levels too. Next time I make this I may try a cheesy version with nutritional yeast, or protein version ala Averie.

I also made myself a big pot of camomile cosy tea:

This is probably my favourite variety of this tea, its flavour reminds me of cream soda! A little later we cracked open a bottle of red wine to celebrate James birthday – I had one large glass:

…and then promptly fell asleep!

This morning I was up bright and early for another run. I fueled up with a blood orange and pack of nakd raisins then added out with my new gloves on, I wore my wooly mittens on top for extra insulation.

It was freezing and quite windy but I had a great run. I just did a few loops of an old favourite route which includes a couple of killer hills. I ran for just over an hour. I mapped out my route afterwards and I did almost 6.5 miles so I was hitting about a 10 min mile pace which considering the hills and wind I’m really happy with. After that I popped to the gym and did some steady state cardio on the step machine, cross trainer and bike whilst catching up with some magazines.

Breakfast was my current favourite green monster combo: kale, frozen banana, 2 nectarines, coconut water, vanilla hemp protein powder, peanut butter, spirulina, matcha, ground flax and ice cubes. I then topped it with a big puddle of coconut flour sauce, cacao nibs and gojis:

Perfection!

Lunch was some parsnip and white bean soup I’d made to use up some old parsnips (leeks, parsnips, veg stock, cannellini beans) – it was way too sweet for me so I added a big tablespoon of sweet white miso and some nutritional yeast flakes to try and savoury things up a bit. I also had a chopped peach:

Mid afternoon I was in the mood for a big green juice:

This one contained apples, cos lettuce, cucumber, celery, ginger and lemon

For dinner I decided more socca was in order. I made a quesadilla style socca filled with mashed kabocha squash, some balsamic caramelised red onions and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast which I then refried on each side. I served it with some roasted broccoli, asparagus and more caramelised onion:

This was very tasty! The socca fell apart a little but it still tasted good. Its great that so many other bloggers are showing the love for socca right now! Its just so versatile and easy to make, I loved my breakfast version with jam and nut butter and will be trying a pizza style version very soon too!

Dessert was four fresh figs with a drizzle of honey and flaked almonds:

I adore fresh figs and this was just gorgeous!

I’m so happy that I’m getting back into running outdoors again. To be honest I was really worried that I would go back outdoors and not enjoy my runs at all as my last few outdoor runs before I moved on to the treadmill were awful, I had a really slow for me pace and they just felt exhausting. I’m really glad that getting back to outdoors running has just reaffirmed that I do love it. Bring on the Great North Run!

Oh, and is anyone else a total light weight with alcohol? When I was younger I was out every weekend drinking far to much and apart from a hangover I could handle quite a lot. Since I’ve lost weight and cleaned up my diet one glass of vino and I’m gone! To be honest I very rarely drink now, I don’t need to get drunk to have a good time. When I do drink its for the enjoyment of it – I love a glass of really good red wine, a tasty beer or a lovely cocktail made with good spirits, you can’t beat a good mojito!

Next week I have a couple of nice recipes for you: chocolate amaretto mousse and squash dip plus some exciting products for review. Hope you have a great week ahead!