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Hello everyone, hope your having a fantastic week! Mine got off to a bit of a wobbly start but I’m back on track today :-)

Yesterday I hit the gym for a quick 50 minute workout, I would usually have done a bit of a longer one but I had to get home and dressed so I could make the start of a training course I was on. For breakfast I downed the most disgusting looking green smoothie – luckily it actually tasted pretty good! It contained beet greens, spinach, frozen peaches, strawberry hemp, maca powder, spirulina, msm, ground flax, stevia, water and ice.

I was well impressed at the training – they had bowls of grapes, strawberries, roasted mixed nuts and raisins out to nibble on throughout the day. For my vegan lunch I got a lovely Indian salad platter with onion bhaji and mixed vegetable samosas:

This was delicious! After snacking on a huge amount of fruit and nuts all day long all I fancied for dinner was a simple salad:

This included cos lettuce, carrot, cucumber, yellow pepper, beetroot and a tahini miso dressing. For a little dessert I had two chopped apples and a couple of squares of Lindt 90% dark:

I adore that chocolate! Unfortunately a little later I ended up munching my way through the kitchen again eating bowls of granola, popcorn, chocolate chips and oat cake nut butter sandwiches resulting in going to bed with yet another food baby. I do feel like I’ve turned a corner today though (although I had thought that on Friday!) – I’m feeling much more at peace with the whole thing – I have a lot of thoughts on this but all for another post!

I wasn’t best pleased when I woke up at 3am with the wind banging the neighbours gas and electric meter cupboard door against the wall but when I couldn’t get back to sleep I spent several hours pondering my current situation and a few other things in my life that need some attention. When it was time to get up I did a bit of free style yoga (down dog, pigeon pose, seated twists and foam rolling for my IT bands) then spent 5 minutes writing some stuff down in my note book. It really helped me to re focus! Tonight I’ve been back at the gym for 30 minutes of cardio intervals followed by yet another awesome Body Pump class!

Breakfast was a wonderful bowl of stove top cooked oats sweetened with a little stevia, mixed with fresh strawberries and topped with some peanut butter with flax nut butter sauce:

I haven’t had porridge in ages and this was fab!

After my early morning pondering I’ve decided that I need to take some direct action with regards to my finances and spending. September is shaping up to be a very expensive month with having to redecorate the bedroom, get my car serviced and MOT and my cousins wedding party (need a new dress!) so I’m going to bring back the Big Budget Challenge!

For any of you who weren’t reading last year I set myself a Big Budget Challenge for three months. It went quite well so I’m going to set myself a new challenge for October and November, and this one is going to be even stricter! I’ll do a full post about it at the end of the month but this is going to be pretty hard core, at least for me! I’m really going to be focusing on reducing my grocery spending and eating a bit more simply – so lots of dried beans and grains!

I’ve kind of started my challenge a little early by trying to make home made versions of some of the expensive stuff I love. Example no 1 – these home made ‘Lara bars’!

Raw ‘chocolate chip cookie dough’ energy bars (makes 6 large bars, raw, vegan)

• 1 cup of almonds (or could use cashews or a mix of cashews and almonds)
• 1 cup of pitted medjool dates (I used fresh Iranian dates)
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 2 tbsp of cacao nibs or dark chocolate chips (not raw)

Using a food processor, process the nuts until they are well chopped. I still like a few chunkier pieces in there. Add the dates and salt to the food processor and combine with the nuts until the mixture begins to clump together slightly. Add the cacao nibs and pulse to combine. Line a 9x9 square tin (or use a lunch box or whatever you have available – you could also roll into balls) with cling film and press the cookie dough mixture into the bottom of the tin. Add another layer of cling film and press down until flat. Pop in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up then cut into 6 bars (or could make 9 smaller squares). Wrap in foil for handy snacks!

These should keep well in the fridge for a week and much longer in the freezer. You can add allsorts of flavourings to this basic recipe by changing the nuts and using different types of dried fruits, but I just love this simple mix!

Have you ever tried to make a cheaper home made version of something you love? Anyone else feeling the pinch at the moment?

Don’t forget you can still Ask Me Anything! Just leave a comment below, anonymous if you wish – as long as its nice ;-) or email me at laura@keepinghealthygettingstylish.com I’ve had some great emails from you so far, looking forward to doing the post soon!