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Hi everyone, hope you’ve been having a good weekend. I woke up with a horrible hangover this morning, I really can’t handle my drink! Last night I made a stir fry for dinner with chicken, savoy cabbage, mushrooms, cauliflower, red pepper, carrot and soya beans with a ginger, chilli, lime and soy sauce dressing.

It was delicious! I also made myself a bowl of strawberry and chocolate ‘ice cream’ by blending fresh strawberries with ice cubes, a little bit of yoghurt, some cocoa powder, agave and xanthan gum. I topped my bowl with a sliced strawberry and some chocolate chips.

This was gorgeous but it gave me a taste for chocolate so when we opened the bottle of red wine I ended up getting a bar of german extra dark chocolate from my stash. I ate this half and then the other half!

After this glass of wine I also had two margaritas, then two bowls of cereal and a bowl of muesli. Yes, I went into full binge mode. Not good! I woke up this morning feeling terrible, me and alcohol really don’t mix. Not that I drink very often anyway, but I’m seriously considering going tee total!

This morning I made a detoxifying green monster for breakfast. I blended half a frozen banana and some mixed berries with spinach and soy milk plus some maca powder, matcha green tea powder and some wheat germ. I topped it with goji berries and flaked almonds.

Just what I needed! I also ate two small un pictured cookies I had made as a tester batch for my cookie exchange. They were delicious, I really can’t wait to share the recipe!

For lunch I made myself and the hubby a beef stew.

Beef Stew with Red Wine

• Approx 500g of stewing steak
• 1 tablespoon of plain wholemeal flour
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 chopped yellow onion
• 1 chopped carrot
• 1 chopped parsnip
• 1 glass of red wine
• Vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon of mixed herbs (I just used some dried oregano)
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Begin by adding the beef and flour to a plastic bag and coating the beef with the flour. Heat the oil in a large pan and gently fry off the onion until transparent. Add the beef and fry for a few minutes until lightly browned. Add the carrot and parsnip followed by the red wine, enough stock to cover the vegetables, tomato puree and herbs. Leave to simmer on the stove on the lowest heat (you could also make this in a slow cooker or in the oven) for two hours. After the two hours is up check the beef – it should be lovely and tender. If the sauce needs to be thicker, mix the corn flour with a little water until it forms a smooth paste. Add this to the pan and turn the heat up until the sauce thickens. Serve with additional vegetables or potatoes.

This was a great recipe, nice and simple which I like and it tasted really good. The beef was tender and the veggies went all soft. I served mine with some steamed broccoli.

The food co op box I got on Friday contained several parsnips. They seemed a bit old so I wanted to get at least a couple of them used this weekend. I came up with this recipe based on the one for my Date, Carrot and Walnut Loaf Cake.

Spiced Parsnip and Apple Bread

• 100g of plain wholemeal flour
• 100g of spelt flour
• 40g of light muscovado sugar
• 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of mixed spice
• 1 large grated parsnip
• 2 small grated cox’s apples (you could use other apples, but a sharp variety like cox’s will work best)
• To top the loaf: 1/2 small chopped apple, tablespoon of chopped walnuts, 1 teaspoon of brown sugar

Pre heat the oven to 180. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl then pour into the loaf tin. Top the bread with the apple, walnuts and sugar and bake in the oven for 40 minutes. The top should be lovely and browned so cover it with some foil to prevent over browning. Return to the oven for a further 30 – 40 minutes. As this is a very moist cake a skewer will still come out with a few crumbs on, but it shouldn’t still be doughy. Allow to cool slightly then remove from tin and slice to enjoy warm.

I had a slice of this warm with butter and an apple for my desert. It tasted wonderful. This recipe works so well, the bread is lovely and moist. I’ve frozen the other slices to enjoy for breakfast and snacks as it will be lovely with a bit of nut butter or even maple syrup drizzled on top. Mmm, tastes like autumn on a plate!

For dinner I made a simple salad with spinach, red onion, cucumber, olives, sundried tomatoes and tuna with a little oil from the olive jar as dressing.

I also had some pineapple with fresh chopped basil (sounds weird, tastes great, I got the idea from the Leon cookbook)

More Saturday Shopping

As a mentioned in yesterday’s post I had a little mini spree yesterday! I had been inspired by these images from Sweaty Betty’s Autumn / Winter look book.   As I was after some new workout gear I decided to try TK Maxx as I have found some good things here in the past. I got this blue hoody and blue vest top: Two pairs of leggings – these plain full length ones and another pair exactly the same but cropped.

I really wanted some plain black leggings as I prefer them for working out to sweat pants. I had been considering laying out £30 on some sweaty betty ones and I’m really glad I didn’t. These pairs were £9.99 each and feel really good quality. I hate wearing stuff covered in labels and brands so all this stuff is excellent. I also found a great yoga mat for only £7.99. My old one was leaving bits of purple foam all over my living room so I was glad to find this patterned one on the cheap!

Also pictured are some cheap gloves for running, some lovely pink hand warmers, thick black ribbed tights and a fab pair of black suede style knee length boots which were a complete impulse buy, but at £29.99 I couldn’t help myself! All of these were from H&M. I also got a soft jersey t shirt, a jersey dress and a soft v neck sweater also from H&M:

I think all the items I’ve bought will look great layered with other items I own. I love neutral colours at the moment like these mauves and khaki colours too.

What kind of clothes do you wear when your working out? Do you have a favourite style?

Don’t forget to check out my great GIVEAWAY post! Thanks to everyone who has entered so far. Hope you have all had a great weekend :-)

Hi everyone, hope you’ve had a great week! I’m exceptionally pleased its Friday, I have a pretty much empty weekend ahead to fill as I wish and I can’t wait!

As I blogged about at the weekend I’ve recently been finding that I’ve been eating way more than usual, particularly on an evening. The snack monster has been out in full force and what was once the occasional snack fest has recently turned in to almost nightly occurrences. The main things I’m going for is anything sugary, chocolate and nut butters. This wouldn’t be a problem, however it is happening all of the time now and quite frankly I am sick of going to bed with a food baby, waking up with heart burn and feeling knackered because my body is having to work over time to digest it all. What has been worrying is that I lack the will to control it, which is what has resulted in me eating even when I am very physically full. I do feel that some of this behaviour is as a result of feeling rather stressed recently.

Yes, I adore these but I’m going to have to have a break from them for a while!

Last night I decided enough was enough! I have moved the sugary nut butters (PB&Co) and sugary chocolates into a box at the top of one of my cupboards hoping that out of site will mean out of mind. I also did a bit of a kitchen clear out, I had loads of random stuff that was out of date and items that I haven’t touched in months which I decided to just chuck. My cupboards are so much more spacious now!

So starting today I am giving myself a fresh start! I’m not going to go down the route of restriction or detox right now as I know my head isn’t in the right place and what my body really needs is care and kindness. So I’m opting for lots of my favourite green smoothies, salads and Buddha bowls – lots of simple but tasty and nourishing foods with plenty of herbal and green teas and water. I am going to lay off the nut butters and anything with refined sugars in them for a couple of days too.

I kicked off Fresh Start Friday with a workout at the gym doing my amended NRoL workout (with warm up on cross trainer and 3 sets instead of 2 on each move) then came home and made a very cleansing green smoothie:

This contained spinach, spring greens, cucumber, frozen banana, kiwi, pomegranate and acai coconut water, spirulina, maca, msm, hemp protein, ice, xanthan and guar gums and topped with freeze dried berries and hemp seeds.

Today we had our AGM at work and due to a mix up with our office and the caterer there was zero vegan options available. Luckily I was still feeling pretty full from the smoothie and had an apple and peach in my bag to keep me going but by the time it finished at 4pm I was a hungry beast! I popped to our closest shop – Aldi - and ended up buying a tub of hummus, bag of carrots, blueberries and apples:

A bit of a random mix but it was just what I was craving and it kept me going for a while longer! I have to say I was very surprised by how delicious the hummus was, and only 65p a tub!

For dinner tonight I made a big salad with cos lettuce, pea shoots, mixed leaves, red pepper, carrot, cucumber, mange tout and some gorgeous Tahini Miso dressing (1 tbsp of tahini, 1/2 – 1 tbsp of sweet white miso, water to desired consistency):

I really do love that simple dressing, so delicious! Again, this was pretty light but was just what I fancied!

So all I have planned so far this weekend is a quick trip into town and an attempted run (wish me luck!) which is lovely for a change. I’m hoping to be able to get caught up with all sorts of stuff as well as being able to enjoy some relaxation which is much needed at the moment. What do you have planned for the weekend?

I’m feel slightly weird asking this as I don’t really think of myself as being that interesting(!), but recently I’ve received a few emails from readers with various questions which made me think it might be helpful to do an Ask Me Anything post? So if you have anything you’d like to ask me about just leave a comment below, I don’t mind anonymous comments if you’d prefer as long as they are respectful, or you can email me laura@keepinghealthygettingstylish.com :-)

Oh and don’t forget – my GOOD Hemp giveaway is ending tonight – check it out!

Thanks for all your really supportive comments to my last post and my little ‘binge’. I think I needed a reality check to remind me that its ok to over eat a little at Christmas, especially when you eat healthily the rest of the year.

Today I woke up with a full blown cold. I’m trying not to let it get me down though! Breakfast was a big bowl of Dorset Cereal Cherry and Almond muesli with blueberries and vanilla soy milk.

This was a lovely big bowl and I really enjoyed it. I also had a mug of Christmas Coffee.

I pottered about and made this huge pan of ‘fridge’ soup:

This contained 2 onions, 3 garlic cloves, 1 small leek, 4 parsnips, 3 carrots, half a large swede, green beans and savoy cabbage plus vegetable stock. All organic vegetables and stock made with organic vegan bouillon. Just what the doctor ordered! Despite feeling under the weather I knew getting myself to the gym would do me good. I gave the treadmill a miss but did 1 hour of HIITs on the cross trainer, bike and step machine followed by my usual abs.

When I got home I ate two big bowls of my soup followed by a fruit salad containing 2 oranges, blueberries, pomegranate seeds and the scooped out insides of a passionfruit:

My appetite has been in full force again today but I have decided to just go with it. This afternoon I had a couple of sliced apples followed by a bowl of mixed fruit and nuts and a large mug of fresh lemon, ginger and honey.

For dinner I made one of my favourite meals – roasted vegetable and tomato pasta with parmesan cheese:

I roasted a red pepper, orange pepper, red onion and a courgette then mixed with some jarred tomato pasta sauce and some wholemeal penne. I used my vegetarian parmesan style cheese generously!

For dessert I made up a bowl of Chocolate Cherry ‘Ice Cream’ using frozen cherries, ice cubes, cocoa powder, soy milk, Rachel’s Organic Cherry Greek Yoghurt and some agave. This made a giant bowl which I topped with two small squares of Green and Blacks hazelnut and raisin chocolate:

Perfect for my sore throat! I’ll also probably have a glass of red wine before bed :-)

Yesterday I hit the sales and was very happy to pick up some fantastic bargains. I had a mental list of things I could do with including a new pair of boots:

I got these from Dune, reduced from £139 to £91 – they are really good quality leather in a classic design that should last me years.

I also got this coat from Monsoon:

It was reduced from £100 to £50. I really like its touch of military styling and it should go with lots of different outfits.

I also picked up a few random bits and bobs including this dress and top from Topshop:

The dress was reduced from £38 to £15, I thought it was really unusual and funky with its exposed zip at the back. I just loved the top and its draped design on the front, it was reduced from £40 to just £10! I also got a couple of basic vests for £3, a basic grey cardigan reduced from £19.99 to £10 and some leggings from H&M.

While I was out I thought I might was well get some toiletries I needed. I went for some natural and organic products for a change including this Naked shampoo, conditioner and deep conditioner.

I got some of my favourite Korres body wash and lotion in vanilla cinnamon – they smell divine!

I also picked up my favourite Bad Gal Lash mascara from Benefit and some pour minimising cream to try, plus some organic surge cream cleanser and some cream cleanser from Lush.

I like to use a cream cleanser to remove my make up at the end of the day rather than a wash so I thought I’d try these two out to see which is best. The last thing I picked up was this stability ball in Sainsbury’s which was reduced from £8 to £4.

I’m going to start using this in some home workouts.

So I had a very successful shopping trip! Have you been to the sales yet? Did you pick up any bargains?

Happy Friday everyone, so glad that the weekend is here!

I’ve been liberating my wardrobe again!

 Yellow cardigan: H&M, grey jersey dress: Villa, skinny tan leather belt: Topshop, black tights: M&S, brogues: Topshop

This is a bit of an autumnal look, but considering the weather right now I’m all ready to bust out the jumpers and knee high boots! I decided to keep the accessories minimal with this outfit. I love the combo of yellow and grey and though it looked good kept simple.

Yesterday morning I kicked off my day with a challenge detox yoga flow podcast from Yoga Download. Breakfast was some buckwheaties, strawberries and vanilla home made almond milk:

Such a delicious, and surprisingly filling raw breakfast!

Yesterday’s lunch was a blended salad soup with a slice of my raw sunflower seed and onion bread and a jazz apple:

The soup was leftover from Wednesday and after not being that impressed by it I decided to give it another try. It was ok, but I can’t see myself making it again!

As a snack before the gym I had a couple of these wonderful raw cookies:

I made these using this recipe and they turned out wonderfully. I took some into work and they went down very well, in fact I have none left now!

At the gym I did a simple workout of 10 minutes of high intensity intervals on the cross trainer, step machine, bike and rower followed by my usual abs and core exercises for nice 50 minute workout.

In more raw food experimentation dinners have included my first attempt at sprouting! I sprouted some quinoa and mixed it with edamame beans and chopped courgette. I served it Buddha bowl style with some roasted kabocha squash I’ve been saving in the freezer and some spinach and braggs liquid aminos:

Sprouting the quinoa was extremely simple and resulted in a more crunchy, nutty flavour. All I did was rinse and soak the quinoa for 4 hours then left in a sieve over a bowl to drain. I gave it a quick rinse every couple of hours and it sprouted really quickly, I love the little tails!

I have to say that I’ve been surprised by the simplicity of a lot of the raw food techniques I’ve experimented with recently, I had expected them to be a lot more complex than they have been. The cheesecakes from yesterday and this sprouted quinoa are great examples of simple recipes with great tasting results!

The process of sprouting makes the grain (or in the case of quinoa, seed) edible raw, but the process of germination also begins to convert some of the starches in the grain to simple sugars which are easier to digest. I’ll definitely be experimenting with sprouting a lot more from now on!

Dessert was some chocolate protein ice cream with freeze dried berries:

Last night I had a little bit of a overeating episode. I’m reluctant to call it a binge, but for me, that’s what it felt like. Basically I just couldn’t stop eating. I ate several dried apricots, handfuls of raisins, frozen grapes, roasted soy nuts, chocolate, handfuls of muesli and finally I hit the nut butters. I haven’t had an overeating episode like this for a while (although I have had similar ones recently when I was in Brighton, Kendal Calling and also when I hit the nut butters on my Birthday this Wednesday).

I’m certainly not wanting to be over dramatic but I did want to mention this as I think its important to share this stuff, I am not a perfect eater. I also know that we will all hit those bumps in the road of our healthy living journeys – and that’s exactly what they are, a journey rather than a destination. Although I know a few extra calories from what was all essentially healthy stuff isn’t going to do me any harm, the fact that I just couldn’t stop myself and that I woke up this morning feeling as sick as a dog, are signs that its not good for my body to let this kind of eating pattern continue.

source

I’ve tried very hard not to feel too guilty over it and to try and look at it objectively to see why I may have acted this way when for so long I’ve been fine. To be honest, I’m really not sure. I’m still finding my food satisfying and filling, I think it could have been a case of my mind just saying f**k it, and once I start then its a case of ‘well you might as well enjoy it now and get back on track tomorrow’. I’m going to just try and move on from it but monitor things as I don’t want to fall back into old patterns.

This morning I still went to the gym despite feeling ill! I did my amended NRoL workout and felt much better after it! Breakfast was a restorative green smoothie:

This looks a horrid colour but tasted good I promise! It included kale, cucumber, frozen berries, apple, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca, mesquite, purple corn powder, barley grass powder, ground flax, msm crystals, stevia for sweetness, water, ice and the gums for thickness with gojis and coconut on top.

I love that green smoothies can be made to be more cleansing like this one or indulgent like my birthday cake green smoothie!

I’ve drank lots of water and rooibos tea plus snacked on lots of fruit during the day to feel better too. Lunch was a slice of my raw sunflower and onion bread with sabra hummus and veggies and a peach:

I can not get enough of that raw bread and hummus combo right now, so good! The raw bread has also kept very well in the fridge for 5 days, I’m definitely going to be making it on a regular basis now!

Dinner was more of the sprouted quinoa Buddha bowl and as a sweet end to the day I made a big mug of mint chocolate teecino with almond milk and stevia:

I definitely feel a lot more ‘balanced’ after eating better today!

I am now thinking bring on the weekend! I actually have another quiet one planned, me and James are going to spend the whole weekend together as a late birthday thing. We are going to have a movie fest and I’m going to make us a tasty Italian meal and crack open a bottle of red! What do you have planned?

Before I go I’d like to welcome my second blogger sponsor this month, the delightful Sarah from Sweet Potato Sarah!

She’s a student on a healthy eating journey – check out her wonderful blog! If you have any festivals to attend this summer you must check out her festival survival guide, I found it very helpful when I went to Kendal Calling!

I hope you don’t mind me sharing my thoughts on my overeating episode. Have you ever struggled with overeating or binging episodes? How do you deal with them?