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Happy Friday everyone! I’ve had a great day as I decided to take today off work for a ‘me day’. Last year I visited the November Farmers Market in Newcastle and really enjoyed it. I thought it would be great to go again and I wasn’t disappointed! I bagged (all organic) several kabocha squash, black kale, curly kale, rainbow chard and broccoli.

Photo from last years haul of beautiful veg

I also met up with the lovely Nicky for a coffee – we put the world to rights and talked all things squash over a Starbucks ;-) I have been spoilt this last week with two blogger meet ups (I met the wonderful Jess last week) and it has just reminded me how grateful I am for the friendships and support I have via blogging.

This weeks workouts have continued to be excellent. I’m finishing week 5 of my 6 week plan and I’ve increased my weights in my strength workouts again this week – I love the progress I’m making :-)

• Monday – AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on treadmill
• Tuesday – AM Detox Challenge Flow Yoga Download 15 minutes, PM gym workout 20 minutes HIITs on cardio machines, Body Pump
• Wednesday – AM gym workout, 5k speed intervals treadmill, 30 minutes HIITs cardio machines, 2.30 minute plank
• Thursday – Anything goes workout! AM – 30 Day Shred levels 1&3 back to back followed by a bit of random yoga for 10 minutes
• Friday - AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on bike

I’ve had some majorly tasty eats this week, and yes, I enjoy thinking up fun names for my smoothies ;-):

Banana Chocolate Beetroot Cake Smoothie, containing spinach, beet greens, raw beetroot, 1/2 frozen banana, chocolate hemp protein powder, water, ice, gums and muesli on top

Squash courgette banana bread smoothie containing kale, 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 cup of roasted kabocha squash, 1 courgette, vanilla sun warrior, maca powder, spirulina, vanilla stevia, cinnamon, ginger, black strap molasses, ice, water, gums topped with almond butter, goji's and buckwheaties

My current favourite smoothie, eaten on Halloween and many times since – Creamy Pumpkin Squash Pie Smoothie. This bowl of utter awesomeness contained frozen pumpkin puree, roast kabocha squash, soy milk, ice, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla stevia, gums topped with maple syrup, buckwheaties, cinnamon, salty shoyu roasted squash seeds.

Yummy breakfast – Kashi Go Lean, frozen mixed berries, soy milk

 Chopped salad with tofu feta – courgette, carrot, red onion, beetroot, cooked pearl barley, tofu feta, parsley

Buddha bowl – steamed greens with shoyu, roast kabocha squash, edamame, wholegrain couscous, black sesame seeds

Delicious dessert – fresh organic pineapple, coconut flour sauce, freeze dried berries

Booja Booja Rum Sozzled Sultana Chocolate Truffles – heavenly!

The Creamy Pumpkin Squash Pie Smoothie, Tofu Feta and Booja Booja truffles in particular were gorgeous. I enjoyed the tofu feta, however it actually reminded me a bit more of cottage cheese so I’m now on a mission to create a tofu cottage cheese – I really fancy some with cherry jam and almond butter mixed in!

Booja Booja Mini Review

The Booja Booja truffles I’d been sent to review, and I was actually quite surprised at how much I liked them. I’m never sure when it comes to ‘alcoholic’ choccies – but these had the perfect balance of rum flavour and the most smooth truffle centre with chewy sultanas surrounded by a crisp shell. Booja Booja chocolates are all vegan, and they also do some raw chocolates as well. They are in my opinion the very best vegan chocolates I’ve ever came across – if your wanting to get a special Christmas gift for a vegan or someone with intolerances or allergies you seriously can not go wrong with these. The packaging is beautiful, and veganism aside, I would choose these over a box of Thorntons any day!

Have you tried any Booja Booja products? Their ice cream is on my must try list! Any plans for the weekend? If your in the UK do you have any Bonfire Night plans? I’m hoping to have a few people round for eats before heading to our local bonfire and fireworks display, I can’t wait!

Right, I am off to go roast some squash, have a great one!

Hello everyone, Happy Friday! I am sooo ready for the weekend :-)

My week hasn’t actually been too bad, I just think the darker days are taking some getting used to. This has been the last week in my training plan so I’ve been giving it my all, especially in my strength workouts.

• Sunday – Outdoor run – 6.7 miles in 58.13
• Monday – AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on treadmill
• Tuesday – AM Yoga for Runners Yoga Download 15 minutes, PM gym workout 20 minutes HIITs on cardio machines, Body Pump
• Wednesday – AM gym workout, 5k speed intervals treadmill, 30 minutes HIITs cardio machines
• Thursday – Anything goes workout! AM – 10 minutes of random yoga, PM gym workout – 30 min random bike, 20 minutes cross trainer based on this workout by Emma, 10 min cool down on recumbent bike while reading Elle Magazine, 2.40 plank hold
• Friday - AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on bike

I really got my sweat on this Wednesday morning:

I do like a good sweaty workout for feeling like I’ve really worked hard but I don’t think grey probably is the best colour to wear! It was the first time I’ve tried doing Tabata intervals as part of my anything goes workout on Thursday and I loved them, will definitely be incorporating them on a more regular basis.

I think a lot of the meals I’ve enjoyed this week seem to fit quite well with the theme of comfort food – well at least my interpretation of it. I’ve enjoyed the usual smoothies which rank very highly as comfort food for me!

Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut Smoothie containing spinach, 3 plums, mixed frozen berries, Vega Choc-o-lot protein powder (has quite a milk chocolate taste I think!), maca powder, spirulina (the last of it!), water, ice, stevia, almond extract, gums topped with raisins, flaked almonds and cashews:

Another Creamy Pumpkin Squash Pie smoothie but without the pumpkin and just lots of kabocha squash instead:

I also had my first ever try of the Natures Path Maple Sunrise Cereal and my word I now see what Nicky and Jess mean when they say it is delicious! I had a big comforting bowl with some chopped plums, coconut milk and some peanut flour sauce on top for some added protein and sticking power!

Although they are not typical comfort food for most, I love my giant salads, especially this one that included kale massaged with a maple Dijon dressing!

It also contained romaine, rainbow chard, carrot, red pepper, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds and a crumbled RAW Italian cracker. That maple dressing is amazing, I’ve been using maple syrup in so much I’ve used almost a full bottle in less than a month!

I also indulged in a big bowl of raw courgette pasta with my raw pasta sauce and lots of nutritional yeast and basil:

I think I’ve said before how surprised I was that a raw dish like this satisfied my comfort food craving but it does!

Saying that, I’ve also had more traditional comfort food. Leftover broth from the weekend with some seitan sausage cooked in and steamed greens topped with nutritional yeast and shoyu roasted squash seeds:

I have a bit of a thing about sausages and broth / lentil type dishes together so expect to see this kind of combo a lot more!

For lunch one cold day I made myself some Clearspring Soya Sauce Ramen Noodle Soup with some edamame served with raw kale chips and a chopped carrot:

Noodles are very high up my comfort food list, as are chips:

I got a few massive parsnips in my veg box today and I couldn’t resist making them into chips to enjoy with ketchup!

I also did some experimenting this week in attempting to make a tofu cottage cheese. It was ok but the recipe isn’t blog worthy just yet. I ate it for breakfast mixed with vanilla sun warrior protein powder, chopped plums and cinnamon:

I’ve also ate some as snacks with Clearspring cherry jam and sunflower seed butter:

This was very yummy and filling due to the protein!

I’ve had a lovely week full of parcels too. I won a giveaway the lovely Maria was running and received these goodies:

Marias home made pumpkin spice cakes and seed stacked bars

Teapigs mug and English Breakfast and Peppermint teas

Thanks Maria! I also got this lovely hand cream to review:

It came in the most lovely packaging! This is from a local Newcastle based company called Yes Nurse. The hand cream is full of natural ingredients – and its not just for nurses! I’ll be giving a try for a month and then doing a review.

I’m really excited about this weekend as its my best friends 80’s themed 30th Birthday party! I’ll be helping her get set up and then Sunday will probably be spent nursing a hangover! Have you got any exciting plans this weekend? Have you been eating more ‘comfort foods’ recently? What does comfort food mean to you?

Quick reminder – UK bloggers, you only have until 12pm tomorrow to register for Secret Santa if you’d like to take part! Check it out here.