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Hi everyone, hope your week has got off to a good start. Here's a bit of a catch up of my last couple of days.
Sunday morning I woke up and had a strange craving for a green monster, so of course I indulged it! I used 2 big handfuls of spinach, 1 large frozen banana, kara coconut milk and a teaspoon of maca powder. I topped it with some chopped strawberries, flaked almonds and grape nuts.


This was gorgeous, check out how green this is! I think my spinach from the market must be super spinach, this tasted so healthy! Mid morning I snacked on a crispy granny smith apple.


We were invited to my parents for an alternative Sunday lunch - Indian! I had some brown rice with chicken korma which had been made with Sharwoods Korma Sauce. This sauce is really tasty, and as far as jarred sauces go isn't too full of artifical nasties.


Instead of the usual triffle that was on offer I managed to keep my halo in place and opted for a fruit bowl instead.


Strawberries, clementines, red and green grapes.

Mid afternoon, while watching Alice in Wonderland (which I enjoyed, anything with Johny Depp does it for me, no matter how mental he might look!) I had more fruit - a juicy nectarine with blackberries, pecans, brazils and goji berries and cup of Tea Pigs Chilli Chai.


Unfortunately some of the blackberries tasted a little mouldy so I decided to leave them. I went for another big apple to satisfy me instead!


Dinner was a bowl of Courgette and Watercress Soup


Desert was a smoothie, inspired by a recipe in the River Cottage Everyday Cookbook

Strawberry and Mint Smoothie

About 2 cups of frozen strawberries
1 teaspoon of chopped mint leaves
2 tablespoons of low fat fromage frais
175ml of pressed apple juice

Blend and serve.


This came out lovely and thick and therefore qualified for smoothie in a bowl status! It was like eating a bowl of refreshing strawberry sorbet.

On to today - I so did not fancy getting up for work this morning, I just wanted to have a lazy morning sipping tea and pottering about, but fat chance of that happening! I did have a delicious breakfast in mind to get me out of bed though. I defrosted a slice of my Date, Carrot and Walnut Loaf Cake and served it with a few tablespoons of low fat fromage frais, fresh blackberries and a little bit of agave.


Just wonderful. Mid morning I snacked on some spicy lentil dip with a few sugar snap peas and orange pepper sticks.


The sugar snap peas tasted so sweet and amazing, and I love the spicy lentil dip!

Lunch was a bowl of Beetroot Soup, served with a swirl of lemony fromage frais.


I sometimes find soups made with lots of root veggies a little too rich for me so I decided to try mixing a tablespoon of fromage frais with the juice of half a lemon and swirling that in to try and cut through some of that richness. I followed the soup with some strawberries.


Before I left work for the gym I snacked on one of my home made fuel bars.


I had a great gym workout, just my usual interval session with abs. I came home and did some foam rolling on my legs, its made such a huge difference to my knee, I think having a tight IT band (the muscle than runs down the outside of the leg) must be contributing to the pain and using the foam roller is relaxing it.

I had something special planned for dinner tonight inspired by a Nigella Lawson recipe from her iPhone App.

Griddled Aubergine, Courgette and Pepper with Feta, Chilli and Mint.
Serves two

1 Aubergine
1 Courgette
1 pepper
100g of feta cheese
Juice of a lemon
1 teaspoon of chopped red chilli
1 teaspoon of chopped mint

Just thinly slice the veggies and griddle then top with crumbled feta mixed with the lemon juice, chopped mint and chopped chilli.


This was lush! Oh so tasty and delicious, I love feta! As the hubby doesn't like feta I just made a large portion for myself with half the ingredients quantities listed. Desert was a chocolate orange protein cake followed by an apple.


So did everyone have a good weekend? In case you missed them I did a post on reviewing my summer wardrobe and a post on protein powders. Thanks to those that commented on them, your comments have been really interesting and useful! Well I'm off to relax for the rest of the evening, I have another long day tomorrow at work! x

I just remembered when I started to write this post that I hadn't mentioned my weigh in yesterday. I lost a pound which puts me back to 10st 1 as I was at the begining of the month. Very happy that I seem to be maintaining a more constant weight at the moment.

I was up far too early for a Saturday this morning, but since the hubby was up for work and woke me up I thought I might as well get up and get in a run nice and early. I had a mixed berry Trek bar and a cup of green tea to fuel up for my run.


I then had an epic run! I took a different route today which is not quite as hilly as my usual route. I started off really well but then I started to get pains in my tummy which was basically wind (sorry if this is too much information!) It made me feel quite uncomfortable like I had a giant balloon in my stomach. I ran for just over 4 miles and then turned around and ran back a slightly different way. I had planned to stop at 7.5 miles and then walk the rest of the way back as a cool down but I had started to feel better so I kept going till I was 2 mins from home. I ended up running 8.33 miles in 1.21! I totally blasted my average pace and fastest mile times and ran most of my miles under 10 mins. Considering I ran most of the way with a belly bloated like a balloon I was very happy with my performance!


Here's a breakdown:

Mile 1 9.49
Mile 2 9.34
Mile 3 9.39
Mile 4 9.03
Mile 5 10.35
Mile 6 9.48
Mile 7 10.33
Mile 8 9.43

When I got home I did some stretching and jumped in the shower, making sure I covered my legs in freezing cold water for a few minutes. I then made myself a green smoothie in a bowl with peanut butter suprises! I blended spinach, frozen banana, frozen strawberries, scoop of chocolate whey, hazelnut and almond rice milk, tablespoon of oats and two tablespoons of smooth peanut butter together and poured into a bowl. I then added a few little drops of crunchy peanut butter into the bowl and gently mixed in and topped it all with some grape nuts for crunch.


I know this looks like a bowl of mud but it was very tasty. I got two big bowl fulls. The little balls of crunchy peanut butter were extra tasty as well. This completely refueled me after my run!

I spent the day just chilling out and cooking. I made some Carrot and Beetroot Soup for lunch:

Carrot and Beetroot Soup

3 carrots chopped
1 beetroot chopped
1 onion chopped
1 clove of garlic crushed
Enough hot vegetable stock to cover the vegetables

Fry off the onions for a couple of minutes then add the carrots and beetroot followed by the stock. Simmer until carrot and beetroot is tender then blend with a hand blender.


This was lovely and so filling!

After that I had a chopped apple and two chopped kiwi.


I also made a pan of Courgette and Watercress soup and then a Date, Carrot and Walnut Loaf cake inspired by a recipe in the 'You Are What You Eat' year planner cook book. This has no butter but uses sunflower oil instead and only has a little bit of unrefined sugar.

Date, Carrot and Walnut Loaf Cake

75g of walnuts
6 chopped medjool dates
175g wholemeal spelt flour
40g light muscavardo sugar
2 medium grated carrots
5 tbs of vegetable oil (or sunflower)
3 medium free range eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice

Pre heat the oven to 180 and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Mix all of the ingredients together in a big bowl, reserving a few nuts for the top of the cake. Pour into the tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour, covering the top of the loaf cake with foil 20 mins before the end to prevent over browning.


I had a slice as a mid afternoon snack spread with a little strawberry jam. It was delicious! I'm going to freeze the rest of the slices so that they keep for longer (I got about 9 slices out of the loaf).


I also had another apple, still loving these!


Before I had my afternoon snack I did some yoga for 30 mins using my Yoga Stretch application on the iPhone. I've been having difficulty feeling the yoga the last few weeks, it kind of feels like a chore to do it. I think I'm going to take the pressure off and just do yoga when I feel like it. Now that I know a few poses I think I will just do them as and when and do the poses that I feel like I need to do to stretch where needs stretching!

For dinner I made some Chinese Salmon Fish Cakes - my own recipe!

Chinese Salmon Fishcakes

Large tin of salmon, flaked
1 egg white
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
3 spring onions finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 teaspoon of minced ginger
Pinch of chinese 5 spice

Mix all of the ingredients together well then shape into patties and cover with plastic wrap. This recipe makes four patties.


Chill in the fridge for at least half an hour then fry in a little spray oil till browned and warmed through. These did dry up a little in the pan and split, I think the recipe needs a little more tweeking, perhaps more egg will do the trick. I served ours with some stir fried brocolli, red onion, carrot, mushrooms and red pepper with more of my favourite soy sauce and ginger. I have to say, these were really good, even thought they broke up a little. We also had a glass of red wine left over from last night.


Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, red wine.

I find cooking and baking so relaxing so today has just been fab. The weather has been gorgeous here as well so I've had all the windows wide open its been lovely. Tomorrow I need to do some grocery shopping, my strength workout and then I'm off out with my friend Kate to see a band called Ash that we both really loved when we were at school, they were big during the whole Brit Pop scene in the mid 90's.
How's all of your weekends going? Hope you've been getting some good weather wherever you are! x