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Hi guys, happy Wednesday! I’m having such a great week, last night I did my healthy eating workshop with the young people and it was very successful! I’ll tell you more about it later in the week but its such a relief that it all went well :-)

Of course today its all about the WIAW party! These are my eats and goings on from Monday. I got up after pressing the snooze button a couple of times and then had the usual warm water and lemon before hitting the gym:

It was nice and quiet first thing which I love! I did 5 minutes warm up on the cross trainer, 25 minutes of strength training from Female Body Breakthrough then 10 minutes of HIIT on the step machine and then on the bike.

I was working from home so I could get my End of Project report completed which gave me a bit of flexibility with my day. James has just started working late shifts so I decided to have an easy morning and get most of my work done in the PM. After a quick shower I made breakfast – a green smoothie with spring greens, three kiwi’s, a scoop of vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, vanilla stevia, ice and water:

I topped the smoothie with some goji berries and a few of my raw tamari ‘roasted’ almonds which are utterly delicious. There was also the usual smoothie over flow and extra toppings of course. Then it was time for coffee:

I’ve started to develop a habit of getting the big coffee press out and drinking 3 cups instead of the usual 1 cup! I’m going to have to try and curb that as it left me with a bit too much of a caffeine buzz! This was some vanilla coffee that I drank strong and black.

I spent the rest of the morning simultaneously catching up on TV shows with James while I answered work emails, planned my healthy eating workshops and did some blog work. For lunch I made a big pan of my favourite lentil soup. I thought I would blog the recipe as although I have my similar lentil and spinach soup recipe this is the one I’m making all the time now. I just love all of the celery in this version:

Laura’s favourite lentil soup (vegan, makes 4 servings)

• 1 large onion, finely chopped (I love onions so I use 2)
• 1 large clove of garlic, minced
• large pinch of salt
• 3-4 carrots, chopped
• 1 head of celery, chopped
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup of red lentils
• 2 tsp of vegetable bouillon powder (I used Marigold vegan bouillon or you could use veg stock cubes)

In a big pan, fry the onions and garlic in a small amount of oil over a medium heat with the pinch of salt (this should stop the onions burning). When the onions have softened add the carrots and celery and continue to fry for 3 – 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and the red lentils and mix well then add the vegetable bouillon and enough hot water to cover everything. Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes until the vegetables have softened and the lentils are cooked. You can either keep this chunky or blend until smooth. I prefer part blended and part chunky so I just use a hand blender and pulse it a few times until it reaches a texture I like.

 

I just love this soup! I’m a bit funny with celery, I hate it raw but love it juiced and really love it cooked. It adds a great flavour to this simple and cheap soup. I had mine with some of my raw juice and nut pulp crackers. I’d made the crackers at the weekend and had added a lot of dried oregano and thyme, they tasted great!

James headed off to work after lunch and I got my head down to work on my report. During the day I drank lots of tea, I made up a big pot in the morning with a green tea bag and a Cosy blueberry tea bag, then again in the afternoon with chai green tea:

Definitely one of the perks of working from home!

Mid afternoon I took a break and had a snack:

Earlier in the day I’d prepared this chocolate chia pudding made with 2 tbsp of chia seeds, 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder, stevia and water. I had it with a bowl of frozen blueberries and some more goji berries for a tasty afternoon treat!

After that I hit publish on my raw protein brownie recipe post and got ready to pop out for an appointment. I thought I’d better change out of the yoga pants I’d been in all day so chucked on a dress with some leggings and my boots to look at least semi presentable:

OOTD: cardigan: Topshop, floral dress: H&M, owl necklace: H&M, black leggings: H&M, black knee high boots: M&S (from about 4 years ago!)

After my appointment I came home and did some more editing of my work report again before making dinner. I had a lovely combo of home made sundried tomato seitan (based on this recipe) with onions, brown rice and a bit of Zest pesto on top of a pile of steamed greens:

For dessert I had a chopped pink lady apple with a cup of my raw almond and sunflower seed milk and half a bag of We are bear cherry coco granola:

Then it was back to work for the rest of the night while drinking more tea, this time some caffeine free sweet chilli. I picked James up from work late and promptly crashed straight into bed exhausted!

Not a bad day of eats, plenty of veggies as per usual! I was also happy that I ate ‘meals’ rather than just eating little bits constantly as I sometimes do when I’m at home for most of the day. I never seem to feel satisfied when I ‘graze’ like that, having 5-6 meals suits me better!

I think I must have been working on and off for about 10 hours but I quite like being able to work in a flexible way like that, I seem to be more productive especially when doing ‘chunky’ pieces of work like report or funding bid writing. It does require some self discipline not to waste the day on Pinterest though ;-) I am lucky to have the option of working in flexibly as my job requires some evening working for meetings so its handy that I can structure my work week in the most productive way. However, as much as I enjoying working from home, sometimes I prefer the structure and interaction I have when I go into the office.

Do you have a preferred work style? Do you like flexibility or prefer more structure?