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Hello everyone! How’s your week going? Mine has been a strange one as I’ve been working from home / at meetings so my routine has been completely thrown out of sync!

I started yesterday with a fantastic run, unfortunately I set off and forgot to hit the start button on my Garmin. I was gutted as I had a really wonderful run which felt very fast, especially as I managed to include a few intervals in the middle. As its a usual route I know I covered about 6.4 miles. My last mile (once I glanced down and realised I hadn’t started the Garmin I started it up) was 8.41 so if that’s anything to go by I could have set a new pb for my 10k!

This morning I was up early and did some free style yoga for 15 minutes and tonight I’ve been to the gym for my usual Thursday 3,2,1 workout which was fun but hard work, it was so hot in the gym! I’m not complaining about this lovely weather we’ve had today though :-)

I’ve had a couple of doubled up meals these last two days, but as always I like variety in my breakfasts!

Post run green smoothie containing spinach, mixed frozen summer berries, half and avocado, coconut water, scoop of chocolate amazing grass powder, spirulina, mesquite, maca, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums for thickness then topped with the most delicious cashew butter sauce and Alara Goji Muesli:

This was just so good, it was almost like eating thick chocolately fruit sorbet, the cashew butter sauce was gorgeous as well.

This morning I had two slices of toasted quinoa and amaranth bread toasted and topped with a sachet of Justin’s Maple Almond butter and sliced strawberries plus the remaining strawberries on the side and a vanilla decaf with rice milk and stevia:

Loved that maple almond butter! Lunches have been the same salad beast with romaine, lambs lettuce, carrot, cucumber, radish, basil tofu, olives and braggs liquid aminos plus an organic pear:

For my dinners I decided to try and recreate one of my favourite high street supermarket lunches:

Source

The Marks and Spencer Wholefood Shaker Salad! I kept the label the last time I had one and created this recipe based on some of the ingredients:

I can’t believe its not M&S Whole Food Salad (makes 2 servings, vegan)

• 1/4 cup of cooked rice (the M&S version uses wild rice but I didn’t have any so used a red and wild rice mix)
• 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup of cooked green lentils
• 1/2 cup of edamame / soya beans defrosted
• 1.5 cups of cubed and roast butternut squash
• 2 tbsp of pumpkin / mixed seeds

For the lemon and herb dressing:

• 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (I used my cool oil)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• Handful of fresh basil, finely chopped

Combine the salad ingredients in a large lunch box or bowl with a lid. In a separate bowl combine the dressing ingredients then pour over the salad, pop the lid on and shake then serve:

I served mine with some spinach, steamed broccoli and asparagus. I loved this! It really did taste like the M&S version even though this had a much simpler ingredients list. I just used the ratio of rice / lentils / quinoa and edamame that was easy for me to put together (lentils leftover from another meal etc) but any combo of these ingredients in whatever amount would do the trick. I love mixed grain and bean / legume salads – I think that’s why I enjoy the salad bars at Whole Foods so much! 

Dessert last night was 6 squares of Green and Blacks Dark Chocolate with Peppermint filling:

Nom! Tonight I made a big bowl of Spiru-tein Peanut Butter Swirl Protein ice cream:

Topped with some peanut flour sauce and cacao nibs, fabulous!

I’m very happy this evening as I am now finished work for the week – I decided to book in a day off so I can have a ‘me’ day. I have a few nice things planned including a trip to town, fruit and veg and clothes shopping, perhaps some cooking and watching a couple of old movies. If you had a ‘me’ day planned what would it include?

I really enjoyed my I can’t believe its not M&S salad!' Do you have a favourite shop bought lunch or dinner option? Have you ever tried to recreate something you’ve bought at a shop?

Happy Tuesday everyone, I’m kind of counting today as my ‘hump’ day as I only have a four day week and after my meetings today I have a pretty much easy week ahead! Friday we are going to the hubby’s cousins wedding. I love a good wedding so I’m looking forward to it.
I started the day with Davina Top Fit as per usual to give my upper body a good workout. I’m thinking of totally changing up my training plan for August and having a break from the DVD’s – I’m still figuring out how I might do this though!
Breakfast was a bowl of porridge made with scottish oats, quinoa flakes, water and a scoop of vanilla whey. I topped it with a sliced juicy nectarine, a spoonful of organic apple and banana puree and some flaked almonds.


Delicious!

Lunch was more of my tasty Whole Food Salad, just sooo good!



Followed by strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.



I’m loving my berries at the moment!

Mid afternoon I snacked on some cottage cheese with raisins and walnuts, plus a little apple and this green tea drink that was kindly given to me by a lovely lady I met at a work meeting. I had asked her where she got it from and she offered me a bottle to try, how nice of her!




The green tea drink was very tasty, unfortunately it contains sugar so its probably not something I would regularly buy.

I had an evening meeting to attend so I got home a bit later than usual. I made myself a little tuna salad with spinach, carrot, green pepper, cucumber, sugar snap peas and some balsamic dressing.



I’ve also just had a chopped apple with cinnamon and maca.



And I’m still bloody hungry! – and I’ve just went and eaten another apple, oh well!

I’m going to make this a bit of a quickie post as I’m clamming for a cuppa (hoping it might suppress my appetite!) – I fancy more of my current favourite Chai Green Tea. What’s your favourite tea? I have a huge collection and love my teas. Do you just stick to regular tea or do you experiment with others?
I enjoyed my green tea drink today and was disappointed it contains added sugar. Do you buy bottled ‘health’ drinks? I’ve seen the Vitamin Water on a couple of blogs now. What do you buy and would you recommend them?

Hope your all having a good day, catch you tomorrow! x

Hi Everyone, hope your Mondays have been good! Mine hasn’t been too bad but it was so difficult to get up for work this morning! Even though I didn’t really sleep in much over my hols 6am felt way too early. I had a nice near empty jar of smooth peanut butter so breakie was Oats in a Jar. I filled it with porridge made with Scottish oats, chia seeds, a mashed banana and water. I topped it off with a few cacao nibs.



So amazing and so filling! I left my morning snack of fromage frais with blueberries and honey till later as I wasn’t hungry and that never happens!



Lunch was a bowl of Pea, Broccoli and Mint Soup.



Followed by a couple of peaches.



I also had an un-pictured little clemintine left from a work buffet. Before I left work to head to the gym I snacked on a small apple and a Raspberry We Are Bear Fruit YoYo.



The raspberry is probably my favourite flavour YoYo so far, these taste far too much like sweets to be healthy!

I had a tough gym workout. I warmed up for 5 minutes on the recumbent bike and then did a total of 60 minutes of high intensity intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike. I also did 3 sets of abs exercises including 3 x 40 second planks that were so hard my arms were shaking!

For dinner I made a really amazing salad inspired by the Marks and Spencer Whole Food Salad Shaker I’d ate last week (readers in the UK might have seen it on the new M&S advert):

Laura’s Whole Food Salad (makes two servings)

• Approximately half a cup of cooked quinoa (I cook mine in veg stock)
• Approximately half a cup of cooked brown rice
• A selection of roasted veggies – I used a small head of broccoli, 1 yellow pepper, half a courgette, a small carrot and a red onion
• 2 cups of spinach
• 2 tablespoons of sunflower and pumpkin seeds

For the lemon, garlic, tahini dressing:

• 1 tablespoon of garlic infused olive oil (or olive oil and a minced clove of garlic)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 heaped teaspoon of tahini

Mix the quinoa, brown rice, roasted veggies and seeds together and divide into two portions. Make up the dressing my adding the dressing ingredients to an empty screw top jar and shake together. Pour out equal amounts of dressing for each portion and mix with the quinoa, rice and veggies. Serve this mix on top of a bed of spinach and top with a few more seeds. Enjoy!



This tasted so good and is so good for you! I love this mix of healthy grains, veggies, seeds and healthy fats from the dressing, perfect. I added a handful of chopped sugar snap peas to the salad as I have some in the fridge plus a few slices of cucumber. I made my salad up yesterday and kept it in the fridge so I ate mine cold but I think this would taste good warm too.

For desert I made myself a creamy protein shake with a scoop of cookies and cream spiru-tein, soy milk and a couple of ice cubes. I also had an apple.



Ok now I’m officially stuffed!

Today I came across another great post on (never home)maker about living a budget friendly life. Lots of good budgeting tips for my Big Budget Challenge! I think that even though my spending during my holiday was ‘allowed’ as part of the challenge I need to step things up a bit, luckily I have loads of ideas, especially around making things for the flat which should be fun to do as well!

Well I’m still sitting here thinking about how good that salad tasted! Have you ever been inspired by something you’ve eaten at a restaurant or from a supermarket and tried to make your own version? What was it, and was it as nice as the original? I often try and recreate things I’ve had before but with my own spin on it!