Info all Articles

Hi Everyone, this is a bit of a monster post so please bear with me! Hope you’ve all had a great weekend so far. Saturday morning I was up bright and early for my first run since last weeks Great North Run. I have to admit when I looked out the window and saw the howling wind I very nearly decided to just leave it and go to the gym instead. I stuck at it, fuelled up with some orange nakd raisins and went out and did 6.66 miles in 1hr03.

It was so cold my fingers were actually really sore and aching. It was not the most pleasant run but I’m glad I didn’t let the weather stop me! I think I’m going to continue running shorter distances (4 – 9 miles) and doing speed work on the treadmill at the gym over the winter to keep my fitness level up. I came home and did 15 minutes of yoga stretch (from a Davina DVD) then made breakfast. I had some delicious protein pancakes made with egg whites, cookies and cream spiru-tein, baking powder, soy milk and apple and berry fruit puree. These didn’t cook properly for some reason but I covered them with hot berries and almond butter sauce and they still tasted great!

Lunch was a salad with cos lettuce, spinach, cucumber, red onion, carrot, green pepper, 2 goats cheese babybel and some balsamic dressing. I also had a 2 small chopped apples and a sliced pear with cinnamon.

I had an afternoon of catching up with the family then hit the town for some shopping. I picked up some goodies from Waitrose:

I was chuffed that I managed to find some of the 2% Total Greek Yoghurt to try and some of the Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt (more on that in a mo). I also got some organic brown pitta breads to pop in the freezer and two packs each of basil tofu, sesame almond tofu and some tofu sausages that I fancied trying out. I also picked up some natural almond flavouring.

I stopped by Holland and Barrat for some nuts and nut butter:

Walnuts, brazil nuts, raisins, ground almonds, cashew butter, almond butter and some sprouted wheat bread that I’ve been dying to try. Its high in protein and only has one single ingredient – spouted wheat, sounds good!

I looked about for other items from my wish list but just couldn’t seem to find anything. I ended up in Peacocks and was very surprised to find these:

Grey flat studded ankle boots, charcoal grey skinny trousers and some soft and oh so comfy hareem style belted pants that I’ll be wearing round the house with big jumpers, so cosy! I just wanted some cheap boots and skinny trousers that I can sling on when its raining outside (hate wet trouser bottoms!) and that will do for work too, these seemed to fit the bill.

I also picked up my new blender!

Isn’t it pretty? I know its no Vita Mix but hopefully it should do me for a while.

After meeting up with the hubby and snacking on some dried apricots to keep me going, we came home and I made my first ever curry without using a pre made curry paste. I was very proud of myself :-)

Chickpea and Vegetable Curry (makes 4 portions)

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 finely chopped cloves of garlic
• 1 inch piece of ginger root peeled and grated
• 1 tsp of garam masala
• 1 tsp of hot chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp of ground coriander
• 1/2 an aubergine
• 1 small sweet potato
• 4 runner beans, chopped
• 1 tin of chickpeas
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of light coconut milk

Start by chopping the aubergine into bite size pieces and lightly stir frying in some olive oil for a few minutes until browned. Set to one side. To speed things up I also cheated a bit by microwaving the sweet potato for 3 minutes so that it was semi cooked. Chop the sweet potato into bite size pieces and set to one side with the aubergine. In a heavy bottomed pan (or frying pan – I actually just used my big wok) heat the oil over a medium heat. Fry the onions for a few minutes until translucent, then add the garlic and ginger, followed by the spices. Fry together for a few minutes taking care not to let them burn. Add the aubergine, sweet potatoes and chopped beans and fry for a minutes before adding the drained and rinsed chickpeas followed by the chopped tomatoes and coconut milk. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes then serve.

I served mine with some cauliflower ‘rice’ (cauliflower put through the food processor and them steamed) and a drizzle of soy sauce. It was delicious and so good for you! The beauty of this is that you could add any veggies you have hanging about in place of the aubergine, beans and sweet potato.

For desert I had some of my strawberry frozen yoghurt topped with agave syrup and flaked almonds.

This has kept so well in the freezer, such a great alternative to regular ice cream. I also couldn’t resist trying a square of the Lindt Sea Salt Chocolate.

Oh. my. god. This is the best chocolate I have ever tasted. I was divine. It took all my will powder not to eat the whole bar there and then. I love the sweet and salty combo and this is a perfect example of that. Yum! I’ll be stock piling bars of this every time I’m at Waitrose.

This morning I had a bowl of Dorset Cereal Fruit and Fibre style cereal with a chopped apple and some soy milk.

Was nice to have some cereal for a change, very tasty!

Mid morning I was just itching to try out my blender so I made a strawberry and mint smoothie using frozen strawberries, skimmed milk and a few fresh mint leaves.

The blender worked really well and the smoothie was delicious and refreshing.

I roasted a huge tin of veggies (broccoli, sweet potato, red pepper, red onion, aubergine, runner beans) to last me for a couple of days. For lunch I made a spelt wrap and filled it with hummus and some of the roast veggies.

I love roast veggies and hummus in wrap, perhaps my favourite filling! I also ended up making myself a big bowl of vanilla and matcha green tea protein ice cream topped with coconut and agave syrup.

I wanted to be sure the blender could handle the ice cubes and I’m very pleased to say that this bowl was perfect – no lumpy bits at all!

I’ve had a bit of a soup making day, I have a big pan of low carb Leek, Potato and Bean Soup on the stove right now. I’ll post the recipe up tomorrow or this will end up being the longest post ever!

Have you had a good weekend? What’s your favourite soup? I’ll be a soup making machine this autumn and winter – it makes the perfect healthy lunch when the weather is cold! I like to add beans to my soups to make them more filling too.

Oh, and in case you missed it yesterday I posted Part 1 of what I learned doing my Big Budget Challenge. Check it out!