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Hi everyone, happy Friday! Hope your all ready to enjoy the weekend. Loved reading your comments to my Green Smoothie post, if anyone would like to join in with the 7 days, 7 smoothies challenge please feel free!

I’ve had a great couple of days off which have been spent doing my favourite pass times: shopping, cooking, eating, reading and exercising!

I started Thursday morning with a home workout. I decided that I wanted to get my workout completed early and as my gym doesn’t open until 9am on a Thursday I checked out my DVD collection and went with Davina Fit: Top Fit and MTV Yoga which gave me a total 1hr 15 min workout. I was starving after this but luckily I had prepared breakfast in advance:

My Vanilla Chia Wheat Germ Breakfast Pudding with two chopped white nectarines, yum!

I spent the morning getting all the grocery shopping done which included a trip to the farm shop, green grocer, Tesco and Sainbury’s – yep, there’s some stuff that Tesco do cheaper than sainsbos and some stuff I just prefer from sainsbos so I did both!

Lunch was some raw wraps made with spring green leaves, sunflower seed butter, carrot, pink lady apple and basil. I also had 4 clearspring sesame tamari rice cakes on the side:

I love these wraps they are amazingly tasty and filling!

Mid afternoon I fancied a big green juice so I juiced up 1 pear, 3 romaine leaves, celery, cucumber, broccoli, spinach and lemon, it was delicious!

Dinner was an awesome Buddha bowl. I combined roast kabocha squash, edamame, quinoa and chopped parsley with a lemon juice, braggs seasoning and cool oil dressing and served it up on top of some steamed broccoli and purple sprouting broccoli with shoyu. I also added some viva pure spicy pumpkin seeds:

This was so so good, I adore kabocha, nothing else comes close to the sweetness and texture of it, delicious!

Dessert was two raw vegan brownie bites topped with coconut flour ‘icing’:

Delish! I also had two unpictured fiji apples.

This morning I was up and off to the gym. I did 1 hour of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine, bike and rowing machine. Oh, and that’s 1 hour total, not one hour on each! I think the way I write that can be misleading sometimes, I do 15 minutes on each machine for a total 1 hour workout. I finished off with my abs and core exercises.

Breakfast was the first green smoothie of my Green Smoothie Challenge:

Apple Pie Green Smoothie (makes one large serving):

• 5 large kale stems (with thick stems removed) – or greens of choice
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 pink lady apple, chopped
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (I used sun warrior)
• 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1/2 cup of rice milk
• 1 tsp of maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of spirulina (optional)
• 1 tsp of ground flax (optional)
• water to desired thickness
• 1/2 – 1 tsp of xanthan gum (optional but adds thickness)

Topping

• 1 tbsp of almond butter
• 1 tbsp of granola (I used viva pure raw apple granola)
• cinnamon

Add ingredients to blender in order listed above, blend. Top with the almond butter and granola and a dusting of cinnamon, devour!

This really did taste like apple pie, so lush! I loved the drippy almond butter on top.

James had the day off too so we headed to Newcastle – I got the most gorgeous ultra skinny jeans and coat from H&M, pics to come over the weekend! I also got stocked up on my favourite yogi teas and soya beans from the health food shop. We were going to have lunch in town but ran out of parking time so when I got home I threw together a tasty salad containing lots of mixed green leaves (spinach, romaine, lambs lettuce and parsley) carrot, red pepper, cucumber, sugar snaps, spring onion and spicy roasted chickpeas and a peanut lime dressing (1 tbsp of peanut flour, lime juice, water and shoyu):

I also had an orange. Later in the afternoon I had another green juice. Dinner was leftovers of last nights Buddha bowl with spring greens instead of broccoli.

Last week I said that I had came up with a recipe using the leftover pulp from making my sesame milk – and here it is!

Raw Chocolate Sesame Tart (makes 4)

• 1 cup of leftover sesame pulp (from making milk)
• 2 tbsp of raw cacao powder
• 1 tbsp of agave syrup
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil, melted

Combine all ingredients and divide mixture between 4 tart cases with removal bottoms. Store in the freezer until needed then remove from tart case 10 minutes before eating, enjoy!

I served mine with some fresh strawberries and figs, it tasted fab!

I really enjoyed my big grocery shop. I was due one as the last time I really properly stocked my cupboards was October. I like to do a huge shop to stock up then I just work my way through everything. As well as the store cupboard type stuff I also got a fantastic haul of fresh produce from the farm shop and green grocers:

 

Yep, this filled my kitchen!

I’m looking forward to some delicious meals using this stuff for the coming week. I was also pretty good and stuck to my list apart from buying two new items:

Hemp milk:

Carob flakes:

Both spotted on Jessica’s blog. I had a taste of the carob flakes and oh my word they are so good! Have you tried hemp milk or carob flakes before? What did you think?

Do you do a monster grocery shop every so often or do you just get things in each week? I love having fully stocked cupboards then just picking up a few fresh items when needed.

Any exciting plans for the weekend? I’m out for one of my best friends birthday’s on Saturday night along with the usual family visits and my long run. I’m not looking forward to the clocks going forward, it always messes with by bio clock!

Hope you have all had a great week and enjoy your weekend!

My weekend starts today and I’m so pleased – I really feel like I need and extra couple of days off this week!

I started my Wednesday at the gym with an awesome treadmill workout. I’ve gradually been increasing my speeds each week so it now looks like this:

• 5 min – 6.0mph (warm up)
• 5 min – 6.6 mph
• 5 min – 7.1 mph
• 5 min – 6.8 mph
• 5 min – 7.3 mph
• 5 min – 30 second intervals 6.8/7.8mph

I was a sweaty mess after this! I then did 30 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core – I’m still rocking that 2 minute plank!

Breakfast was wonderful! I made a delicious porridge with 1/4 cup of oat bran, 1/4 cup of viva pure raw chia super food porridge mix, 1 cup of home made sesame milk, 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of blueberries then topped it with 2 tablespoons of cashew butter and a few fresh sliced strawberries:

This was so good, I loved the creamy texture of the porridge and the flavours from the super food mix tasted amazing.

Lunch was a bowl of my Pea, Broccoli and Pesto soup, a RAW Italian cracker, a pear and an orange:

Mid afternoon snackies were some hummus and carrot and cucumber for dipping. Dinner was last nights Tomato Pearl Barley Seitan Buddha bowl with spinach, raw carrot and basil:

Loving this Buddha bowl meal!

Dessert was two frozen chocolate peanut butter avocado cups and 2 chopped apples:

I added a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter to the usual avocado, agave, raw cacao mix and these tasted divine!

I plan on enjoying my extra couple of days off this week getting caught up on a few things around the flat, doing a monster grocery shop, a big cook up and spending some time just relaxing and reading. I have quite a few books at the moment from the Library:

The China Study:

I’ve always wanted to read this as its been referred to on so many vegan blogs. I’ve started reading some of it and its so interesting. It basically discusses a large body of research that shows how eating a mainly plant based diet can help to prevent a range of illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Babycakes:

I’m in love with this book already! So many fantastic recipes for vegan baked goodies: cupcakes and brownies here I come!

The Everyday Vegan:

I love Dreena Burton’s Eat Drink and Be Vegan cookbook so fancied checking this out as well.

I also have a book on Vegetarian Sports Nutrition from the lovely Alison to read – I’ve had a quick flick through and know I’m going to find it very useful. I also have some reading to do for the next assignment for my course.

For some reason I tend to enjoy reading cookbooks and more factual books at the moment, I must get back into reading some good fiction!

What’s the last book you read? Have you read any of the books above? What did you think?

Hello, hope you’ve all had a good week and are eagerly awaiting the weekend!

For research from the Library, I’m such a nutrition geek!

I’ve had some very tasty food despite the fact that I’m in the process of eating out my freezer and cupboards to try and save cash! I used up some Linda McCartney vegan sausages to make this delicious Buddha bowl:

Linda McCartney sausages with red onion, mushrooms and barley in a tomato sauce with basil on top of fresh spinach

I’ve also been enjoying the lentil soup I made at the weekend with some home made raw crackers:

This is just the best and most simple lentil soup ever! Its delicious and so filling. I’ve also been eating the roast aubergine hummus I made at the weekend with veggies for snacks and alongside more of those raw crackers for lunch:

I had picked the aubergine up from the reduced bin at the green grocers for just 50p and had roasted it whole before blending the flesh with chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and tahini, it tasted lovely!

Unusual but delicious breakfasts have also been enjoyed:

This was some popped amaranth (you just pop the grains as you would popcorn kernels) with a ‘cream’ made some raw coconut flour and frozen blueberries topped with pecans and maple syrup.

I also made an amazing raw banana split (yes there is a banana under there!) This included raw cacao granola, goji berries, chocolate protein sauce (made from chocolate sun warrior mixed with hemp milk) and a chia pudding made with a couple of tbsp of chia seeds combined with some home made mint choc rooibos hemp milk and left overnight to thicken:

Amazing! That hemp milk was pretty awesome too. I just blended 3 tbsp of hemp seeds that had been soaked for 15 minutes with 3 cups of filtered water and a few tsp of loose leaf mint choc rooibos tea and some sunflower lecithin. It created a wonderful tasty creamy milk. I had some with frozen raspberries and chopped apple as a dessert:

Of course a few green smoothies have been consumed as well:

Spring greens, frozen banana, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice topped with Kashi Go Lean Crunch and bee pollen

Spinach, frozen cherries, chocolate hemp protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice topped with We are bear Coco Cherry Pie Granola

I’ve also continued my love affair with kelp noodles:

I made this as a treat for lunch yesterday when I knew I’d be working late. It also included some raw diakon noodles and a fantastic sauce made with raw almond butter, sweet white miso, soy sauce and a dash of agave plus parsley sprinkles on top. Soooo good!

Earlier this week I received my parcel as part of Jemma’s blog swap! Here’s what I got:

Such a brilliant selection of goodies from the lovely Liz. I love being able to try different products from the US! Her home made vegan mocha muffins were amazing and I’m also looking forward to trying those almond butter cups!

Workouts have been extra fantastic this week…

• Sunday – AM relaxed run without Garmin, about 3-4 miles
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – AM free style yoga 15 minutes, PM 10 min rowing machine, 10 min treadmill run, 10 min bike, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – AM – This 1 hour power flow yoga workout from You Tube
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I had a brilliant run on Sunday and then started a new phase of Female Body Breakthrough and my god could I feel it the next day, I had some serious DOMS! The reps have gone from the 12 – 14 range down to 8 so I’m using heavier weights when I can. I also managed to increase my squat weight in Body Pump to 40lbs – that’s probably not much compared to some but for me its great! As I was working on Thursday evening and couldn’t make my usual yoga class I did a brilliant yoga flow from You Tube before before work instead. It was awesome to do some sweaty yoga again!

On my weekend send off love list this week…

Coyo coconut yoghurt in plain and mixed berry varieties

This morning I received these coconut yoghurts from sponsor Coyo to try out, they both look really good and I can’t wait to try them! Also…

Chickpea magazine – an awesome vegan e mag full of fantastic articles, recipes and beautiful photography // making plans for my 30th birthday party in August // thanks to a very kind voucher, booking a spa day deal with Groupon for me and my best friend as part of celebrations for said birthday // looking forward to next weeks vintage themed project celebration at work – I’ll be dressing up 1940’s style!

What are you loving this week?

Not long left to enter my Chocolate Good Hemp Shake GIVEAWAY – check it out if you haven’t already!

Hope you have an amazing weekend!

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a great week! Here’s a quick recap of my exercise and eats over the last couple of days:

I started my Tuesday with a Yoga for Runners 20 minute podcast – great way to get the blood pumping and get focused before work! Breakfast was another big smoothie containing kale, strawberries, frozen peaches, vanilla rice milk, vanilla hemp protein powder, spirulina, matcha, mesquite and ground flax. I topped it with some bear coco cherry pie granola and gojis:

Yummy! Although my smoothies have been turning out a pretty yukky sludge colour recently, just goes to show you shouldn’t judge on appearances!

Lunch was a mug of miso soup followed by a big sun dried tomato high protein hummus topped salad containing lettuce, spinach, carrot, alfalfa sprouts, beetroot and sugar snaps. I also had two big apples:

I watered the hummus down a bit and then mixed it all in like a thick salad dressing, yum!

Before I went to Body Pump I ate a mixed berry Trek bar. Body Pump was awesome again, I love doing the clean and press, I feel proper bad ass with those big weights!

Dinner was not pancakes, I just wasn’t in the mood for them despite it being pancake day. The way I look at it is I can have pancakes when ever I like, I think pancake day used to be more special when I never ate pancakes!

Instead I had peanut soba noodles with edamade and veggies. I cooked some soba noodles and made veggie noodles using two small courgettes and my spiraliser. I quickly stir fried some shredded bok choy and sugar snaps then added the soba noodles and veggie noodles and some frozen edamade. I made a lovely sauce using peanut butter, lime juice, fresh ginger and soy sauce:

This was delicious, the peanut sauce was really good!

Dessert was a rainbow Fruit-ein protein shake made with vanilla rice milk, ice cubes and xanthan and guar gums for thickness. I topped it with a few flaked almonds:

My stomach was a bottomless pit last night so I also snacked on a few of my favourite pink lady apples.

This morning I decided to start work a little later and get a gym workout in first thing. I did 30 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill and managed to slightly increase my usual speed :-)

I also did 30 minutes total HIITs on the step machine, cross trainer and bike and then did my abs and core. I managed to hold another 2 minute plank, I had been worried that when I achieved this time on Monday it had been some kind of fluke so I was extra chuffed!

Breakfast was one of my gorgeous Almond Quinoa Muffins with a chopped pear, Total blueberry split pot yoghurt and pumpkin and sunflower seeds:

I love this combo! The split pot was also pretty tasty but I think the blueberry compote was a little bit artificial tasting for me.

Lunch was some Pea, Broccoli and Pesto Soup with some cherries:

Mid afternoon I just snacked on some of my high protein sun dried tomato hummus with cucumber and sugar snaps for dipping. Dinner was a lovely combo of quinoa with kidney beans, courgette, red pepper and parsley served on top of steamed swiss chard and kale with shoyu and ume vinegar:

This was so so satisfying and utterly delish! I made a big portion so I have tasty leftovers for tomorrow too.

To make dessert I wanted to try out a little experiment:

Instant Coconut Milk (makes 4 cups)

• 4 cups of water (I used bottled)
• 3 tablespoons of coconut flour (I used Tiara available from Goodness Direct)

Add both ingredients to a blender and blitz! This amount of flour produces a texture similar to kara coconut milk (although not quite as smooth). You could add an extra tablespoon if you prefer it more coconuty and creamy or you could also strain this through some muslin cloth if you wanted a smoother result. Adding some cocoa powder or raw cacao powder and agave would give you chocolate coconut milk! This could be a serious money saver!

I used some of my coconut milk with frozen raspberries for a quick dessert:

Simple and lovely!

I’ve had a real craving recently for simple meals like my quinoa, kidney bean and veggie dinner. Kris Carr from Crazy Sexy Life calls them Buddha Bowls, Carrie from Moves and Munchies recently described similar meals as Luscious Bowls and Matt from No Meat Athlete describes them as a Green, a Bean and Grain. 

The formula I like to keep in mind is:

• Whole grain or healthy carb - millet, brown rice, quinoa, buck wheat, couscous, barley etc or starchy veggie like sweet potato
• Protein - beans, lentils, tofu, or non vegan protein
• Veggies – raw or cooked, possibilities are endless, but I always try and include a leafy green!
• Healthy fat – could be in the form of a sauce or dressing like a coconut curry sauce or green goddess dressing or just some plain oil, avocado, nuts or seeds
• Seasonings - soy / shoyu, vinegar, braggs, nutritional yeast, herbamare, fresh or dried herbs, garlic, chilli, ginger etc

Actually so many good meals can be broken down into this formula!

Whatever you call them (I quite like the Buddha Bowl name myself) I think they are great: cheap to make, provide almost endless variety and are so healthy. I’ll definitely be playing about with this kind of meal more often especially while I’m trying to keep my grocery budget in check!

Do you eat ‘Buddha Bowl’ type meals? What’s your formula for a perfect meal?

Hi everyone, hope your all having a wonderful relaxing Sunday! I’m busy trying to get organised ready for our week away! I said in my post on Friday I was looking forward to doing something I’ve been wanting to do for ages…

I dyed my hair red! I’ve been trying all weekend to get a picture that actually shows the colour properly but this is the best I’ve managed. I dyed it a reddish brown a few months ago but decided to buy a bright red colour this time. I had my hair bright red when I was younger and had been thinking of going back to that colour for ages. This is probably about as bright as it will go without lightening my natural colour first. I love it though, its great for a change!

Other than that its been a pretty quiet one, I spent most of yesterday just enjoying watching the snow! There have been several good meals to be had though. On the way home from work on Friday I stopped in town to go to the green grocers and while I was there I had a look in one of the Asian supermarkets. I got a bag of goji berries, millet, dried mango and this unusual sesame peanut butter:

Considering that I adore both peanut butter and tahini (sesame paste) this tastes incredible, its like peanut butter and tahini got together and made a beautiful tasty baby! Half the jar is already gone! I mixed it with some sweet white miso and water to make a dressing for this Buddha bowl meal:

This was stir fried kale, courgette, brown rice, roast butternut squash, chickpeas and the sauce, it was fantastic. I also used some of the sesame peanut butter in this protein pudding snack:

I had a bit of a protein craving so mixed a scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder with water and added a swirl of the sesame peanut butter then topped with raw cacao granola, yum!

Yesterday morning I enjoyed a lovely lie in, my first in such a long time! I decided to treat myself to breakfast in bed and made a big bowl of Kashi Go Lean with chopped apple and kara coconut milk topped with a few pumpkin seeds:

I had a couple a mugs full of coffee with this, perfect Saturday morning! For lunch I made a big salad:

This included romaine lettuce, cucumber, raw beetroot, avocado, hemp seeds and some of my home made rosemary and almond juice pulp crackers. For dinner I decided to raid the freezer and found some of my stuffed seitan roll. I had it with swede chips, roast brussel sprouts, steamed purple sprouting broccoli and ketchup:

That seitan roll tasted just as good as when it had been freshly made. Delicious!

As I’ve come to realise that I get extra snacky on a Friday and Saturday evening I’ve decided that instead of fighting it I’m going to just go with it so I’ve started making bigger snack plates that I can pick on over the evening:

This one included a fresh fig with some of the leftover sesame peanut miso sauce, grapes, russet apple, yellow plum, dried mango and mixed dried berries. I did end up eating more of the dried fruit but this is good for me to nibble on while I’m watching TV.

Are you a weekend nibbler?

Right I am off to get myself sorted out! I’m glad that we didn’t decide to travel this morning with all the snow we’ve had, I’m hoping it will all be melted by tomorrow. Have a great one!

Well I am almost all packed and ready for NYC! I’ve spent today tidying the flat and trying to pick out a capsule wardrobe that will allow me lots of room in my suitcase for bringing back goodies!

This morning I headed out for a run. I did 6.3 miles in 57 minutes with an average pace of 9.01. As I headed out to just do a relaxed 6 miles I was happy with that pace. It was also really cold this morning to the point that even wearing my gloves my hands and fingers ached when I got home, ouch! I also did my abs and core exercises.

Breakfast was a smoothie containing romaine, frozen raspberries, blueberries and peaches, vanilla sun warrior, mesquite, maca, water and xanthan and guar gums. I topped with gojis, almond butter sauce, grape nuts cereal and chia seeds:

I had this bowl plus another half bowl full, I love huge filling smoothies! I’m planning on having another one in the morning, I’m going to miss them so much while I’m away!

Lunch was a quick bowl of Leek, White Bean and Greens Soup along with two oranges:

For a mid afternoon snack I enjoyed two oat and pumpkin ryvita topped with cheesy avocado mash (1/2 avocado, lemon juice, nutritional yeast) plus a chopped carrot:

Every time I have avocado I remember how much I adore it! I made the rest of the avocados I had into frozen chocolate avocado cups :-)

For dinner I made a Buddha bowl with watercress, spinach and rocket salad topped with quinoa, lots of roasted kabocha squash, edamame, parsley and mixed seeds with a little shoyu sauce:

Dessert was a simple bowl of fresh strawberries and raspberries plus two unpictured apples:

The excitement is really starting to kick in now! While I’m away I have a couple of great guest posts lined up so keep checking back!

Before I go I’ll leave you with a few pics from our last visit to NYC – we went for our honeymoon in 2008. I came across these the other day, can’t believe how much I have changed in just under 3 years!

 

I can honestly say I feel like a whole new person now and will be visiting NYC this time round with a whole new outlook on life!

Enjoy the rest of your week and have a great weekend – see you when I get back!