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Hi everyone and happy What I ate Wednesday!

I’ve had a great day today, I’m generally a pretty happy person but for some reason I’ve been feeling exceptionally positive today. I have so many brilliant things in my life to be grateful for and lots of things to look forward to :-)

Love this print from Not On The High Street! 

This morning I had a hilly 7 mile run on my training schedule. I was not best pleased when I woke up to a dull, dark, rainy day! I wouldn’t say I have a fear of running in the rain, more of an aversion, so it did take a bit of a push to get me out there. I ended up doing 7 miles in 1hr03 average pace 9.01. I was really happy with this, that’s a good pace for me on that route and a few seconds faster pace than the last time. Plus I actually quite liked the gentle rain, no more excuses for me in future!

For breakfast I decided to make a really nutritious smoothie full of ‘super’ foods. I blended spinach, beet greens, frozen banana, frozen peaches, plain coconut water, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca powder, mesquite, barley grass, spirulina, 1 tsp of black strap molasses (for the extra iron), a few drops of stevia sweetener, ice and xanthan and guar gum for thickness. I topped with sunflower seed butter, goji berries and a few chocolate covered sunflower seeds:

I also enjoyed a mug of organic black coffee sweetened with vanilla stevia. I loved the sunflower seed butter on this smoothie!

For lunch and snacks I took this lot to work:

Huge lunch box full of veggies including sugar snaps, cucumber, red pepper, carrots and radish along with some Food Doctor spelt crackers and a tub a Sabra hummus for dipping. This was my first try of the Sabra, I got the garden herbs variety on offer in Sainsbury’s and oh my word it was delicious! I do love my home made hummus but this was amazing! Its certainly going to become a regular treat food for me. 

I also had a couple of clemintines, an apple and a pot of Redwoods non dairy, soy free yoghurt. This yoghurt is made with pea protein and sweetened mainly with fruit juice and it actually tasted really good! The fact that they can be stored at room temperature and then just refrigerated prior to eating is useful. I did find this a little sweet for my tastes (it does contain dextrose which is basically corn sugar) but it made a great snack. I can imagine the flavoured versions of these tasting great too!

For dinner I made some Mexican millet with black beans, red onion, raw courgette, red pepper, lots of fresh coriander and hot chilli powder all served on top of a pile of steamed kale:

I love black beans and Mexican flavours just seem to be perfect for this time of year.

At the weekend I made a batch of almond milk, and as usual I was left wondering what to do with the pulp! I ended up making these cookies roughly based on my Almond Oatmeal Raisin Cookies:

‘Bounty’ (i.e chocolate and coconut) Cookies (makes 12 large cookies, vegan)

• 1 cup of almond pulp leftover from making almond milk (or could soak 1 cup of almonds for at least one hour then process until crumbly)
• 2 cups of scottish porridge oats
• 1/2 cup of wholemeal flour
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of grapeseed oil / canola oil (could also use coconut oil for more coconut flavour!)
• 1/2 cup of liquid sweetener (I used a mix of agave and brown rice syrup)
• 1 - 2 teaspoons of coconut extract (could sub with vanilla extract instead)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup of vegan dark chocolate chips (optional)

Pre heat the oven to 175c / F. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl (including the almond pulp). Add the liquid ingredients and combine well. Add the chocolate chips if using and fold into the mixture. Take handfuls of the dough and roll into a ball then place on a greased cookie sheet and press down slightly. Repeat with remaining mixture and bake for 25 – 30 minutes until golden brown. Leave for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack (they will harden as they cool). Eat before everyone else does…

Or do what I did and wrap in foil to stash in freezer. This recipe gave me just what I’m looking for in a cookie: wholesome, nutty, chocolately goodness! They also have a macaroon like chewiness, yum! I made half the batch without chocolate chips and half with chips. The chocolate ones are perfect for dessert with a giant jar of iced tea as I had this evening:

Bounty Cookie with iced vanilla rooibos tea. These cookies will also taste amazing warmed in the microwave and topped with coconut butter or almond butter! The plain ones will be perfect for breakfast (when I’m not always after a chocolate hit) for crumbling over porridge and smoothies and in yoghurt bowls :-)

Do you have any aversions to certain things? I’m so glad I pushed myself to run outside today as I discovered it was no where near as bad as I had thought it would be. What’s the last aversion you overcame? I recently used to hate the rowing machine, but now I really enjoy it!

Hope your having a great week! :-)