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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!

I couldn’t believe how gorgeous the weather was when I woke up on Saturday morning, I literally bounced out of bed! I made a very tasty breakfast of apple and berry porridge (1/2 cup of rude health fruity date oats, 1/2 cup of rice milk, 1 cup of water, 1tbsp of chia seeds, 1 chopped apple and frozen berries cooked on stove top) topped with 2 tablespoons of peanut flour and 1 spoonful of smooth peanut butter mixed with water. I also had a raspberry coffee with agave and rice milk:

I got the raspberry coffee from Square Orange Foods in case anyone’s interested, its just delicious!

We headed over to Newcastle and as the weather was so nice I decided to wear shorts!

Black blazer: Oasis, Breton stripe top: Warehouse, khaki shorts: Florence and Fred, tights: M&S, bag: H&M, flats: Dorothy Perkins

I did some grocery shopping in Newcastle that included picking up two giant kabocha squash from Waitrose and a load of veggies from the market. I was using the last of my grocery money until payday but luckily I managed to stay in budget.

After visiting the family we came home for lunch. I had some delicious Clearspring shoyu soya ramen noodles with carrot, sugar snaps and cherries:

My best friend and her little girl came round for the afternoon, we spent half the time in the kitchen going through my cupboards and drawers explaining what half of the strange jars and packets of powders are! I sent her home with some Conscious raw chocolate to try :-)

Late afternoon I drank a big green juice containing 2 kiwis, broccoli, japanese spinach, celery, cucumber and lemon.

This weeks organic veg box included a lovely cauliflower. While deciding what to make with it I was thinking about a wonderful nutty rice side dish that my favourite Indian restaurant used to serve and I came up with this:

Sweet and nutty cauliflower ‘rice’ and lentils (makes 2 large servings)

• 1 tbsp of coconut oil (or other oil for frying)
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp of garam masala
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 tin of green lentils, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp of ground almonds
• 2tbsp of desiccated coconut
• 2 tbsp raisins
• Toasted flaked almonds for garnish

Begin by making the cauliflower ‘rice’. Break the cauliflower into florets and finely chop in a food processor until the mix resembles rice. Put to one side. In a large pan fry the onion in the coconut oil on a medium heat until softened. Add the spices and continue to fry for another minute or so. Add the lentils, cauliflower rice and salt. Continue to stir fry the mixture for a couple of minutes until warmed through. Add the ground almonds, desiccated coconut and raisins. Fry for a further two minutes until all the ingredients are well combined and the raisins have become plump. Serve:

I served this with my favourite steamed greens with ginger and shoyu. This is seriously good! I feel extra chuffed when something that I’ve came up with completely by myself (as suppose to being adapted or based on another recipe) actually tastes so good, my confidence in the kitchen is really increasing. It really is sweet, nutty and delicious! You could of course make this with proper rice in place of the cauliflower. I didn’t add any extra carbs into this meal as it was super filling as it was and I had a really big portion!

Dessert was a small bowl of Freedom chocolate ‘ice cream’ with a little granola on top:

This morning I was up nice and early for my run. I had my usual orange and 3 big juicy medjool dates for fuel then headed out. I did 8 miles in 1hr 15 minutes with an average pace of 9.25. It was an awesome run! I was a bit cold throughout as I had thought that after yesterdays warmer weather it would be nicer than it actually was so I just wore a thinner top and left my woollen mittens at home. It was in fact quite windy and cold so the fact that I managed such an improvement on last weeks 9.58 pace was fantastic (although last weeks route was very hilly). I really love it when you have those runs and you just feel like your flying :-)

When I got home I stretched, showered and made myself an awesome smoothie. This contained romaine lettuce, frozen banana, 2 nectarines, 2 ice cubes, a sachet of spiru-tein greens powder, mesquite, ground flax, last of my matcha green tea (sob), 2 large spoonfuls of crunchy peanut butter, water, xanthan gum and guar gum. I topped it with some peanut flour sauce, goji berries, hemp seeds and cacao nibs:

This smoothie rocked my face off! It was utter awesomeness. I has this bowl plus the now usual overflow. I also enjoyed a big pot of Japanese sencha cherry green tea.

Lunch was a slice of toasted quinoa and amaranth bread with cheesy avocado mash, carrot sticks, sugar snaps and plums:

I had another big green juice mid afternoon, same as yesterdays but with a pear in place of the kiwi’s. I had done all my jobs for the day so decided to relax and sip it from a wine glass:

What can I say I’m just classy like that ;-)

Dinner was the second serving of my Sweet and Nutty Cauliflower and Lentils. Dessert was two chopped apples and some Plain Dark Plamils Chocolate:

This chocolate is delicious, really dark just how I like it!

This weekends kitchen projects have included making up a batch of sesame milk, plain hummus, pearl barley for my grain of the week and in an effort to sort out my nuts and dried fruit box (yes, I have a box in my kitchen dedicated to my nuts and dried fruit collection!) a giant jar of home mixed muesli. I can not wait to eat a big bowl of it with the sesame milk for breakfast in the morning – it is jam packed with some of my favourite nuts, seeds and dried fruits! I’ve also made something amazing with the leftover sesame mush from making the milk which I can’t wait to share with you, I just have my fingers crossed that my randomly put together recipe has worked!

I’m still buzzing from my fab run this morning and the fact I completed my first assignment for my course and that I have a fairly relaxed and short week ahead at work is making me smile this evening!

What’s making you smile today?

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend :-)

What a beautiful day it has been! The sun has been shining and I’m feeling full of the joys of spring :-)

I was at the gym first thing for a speedy 45 minute workout – 10 minutes of HIITs on the bike, rowing machine and step machine followed by 15 minutes of abs and core exercises.

Breakfast was a fabulous green smoothie containing a whole 200g bag of spinach mix, frozen banana, 2 kiwis, frozen peach slices, vanilla sun warrior, hemp seeds, desiccated coconut, spirulina, maca, ground flax, water and the gums. I topped it with a coconut flour sauce swirl, rude health granola and more desiccated coconut and hemp seeds:

 

I had this bowl plus about another quarter bowl full it was that big! Really enjoying the hemp seeds – they add a lovely crunch and are so nutritious. This also kept me way fuller than yesterday’s cereal bowl. I’ve learned my lesson ;-)

Lunch was a bowl of barley miso and ginger soup, 6 nori wraps with cheesy avocado (1 small avocado mashed + juice of half a lemon + nutritional yeast flakes) carrot and cucumber, leftover carrot and cucumber, 2 delicious Clearspring sesame and tamari rice cakes and two plums:

Love nori wraps, especially with that easy cheesy filling!

Mid afternoon I snacked on last nights leftover tofu yoghurt with pomegranate seeds:

Dinner was some of my Thai Green Soya Bean Curry with mung bean noodles and steamed kale with ginger and shoyu:

I love mixing in noodles with Thai Green Curry, makes a nice change from rice!

Dessert was some Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt:

Still probably the best chocolate ever!

I really feel like Spring is beginning to kick in now. I love this time of year hearing the birds singing again, seeing the plants growing and the days getting longer. I like to freshen up things around the flat, not so much a spring clean, more of a de clutter – putting thick winter clothes away, changing cushions and things to be more spring like and sorting through my kitchen cupboards to see what’s past its best, what needs to be chucked out or used up and so on.

I have a couple of days off at the end of next week that I have put to one side to get everything done. I had been planning a trip to the Vitality Show with my best friend but we are both a little tight on funds so decided to give it a miss :-(

I can’t wait to make some budget friendly changes around the flat to bring the spring indoors. I plan on finding some new floral and patterned cushion covers for my living room. I saw these designs in Tesco of all places and love them:

Tesco Appliqué floral cushion, £10

Tesco Birds Appliqué cushion £9

I also want to change the patterned paper I have in my screen in the living room (this hides my gym equipment):

I’ve seen these beautiful papers in Paperchase (I snapped a pic of these on my phone) which will look fab:

I also want to change the pictures we have in these frames with something new, perhaps with some photographs I have taken myself:

I’m loving this new plant I bought last week for my bathroom and want to buy another one for my living room. Nothing says spring like yellow daffodils:

I also need to do a re stock of my kitchen cupboards with more tinned beans and nuts and other store cupboard items that have ran out. I think this time of year is good for checking the use buy dates on baking powders and flours and other store cupboard type ingredients. Nothing worse than getting the urge to bake and seeing that your flour is out of date!

Something else I fancy doing is ramping up the amount of raw foods I eat. I’m getting lots of cravings for green smoothies, big salads, raw wraps and so on. The benefits of eating more raw food are well described here. I never imagined in a million years I would actually crave greens! If I do eat more raw I will make a conscious effort to make sure that I’m getting the calories I need – no more apple binges! In fact today I feel like I’ve eaten really well, I feel satisfied in every way. That green smoothie really did set me up for the rest of the day!

So glad the weekend is here - I have a lovely relaxed one planned – off to town with James in the morning, then to visit to my parents and sis, I also have my best friend coming over and of course my weekend run and cooking session. Have you got plans for the weekend?

Do you have a spring clean? Do you mark the new season in any way? I love to bring the spring indoors with little plants and bright accessories!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Hi everyone, hope your having a good week! Mine got off to a great start when I went and collected my new little car last night, I’m still buzzing!

Eats have been very tasty as usual. Breakfast on Monday was fresh strawberries, blackberries and blueberries with some Dorset Cereal Tasty Toasted Spelt Muesli and rice milk. I also had a delicious raspberry coffee with sweet freedom and rice milk:

Breakfast this morning was a Butternut Smoothie (roast butternut, frozen banana, ice cubes, vanilla sun warrior, cinnamon, ginger, rice milk, water, xanthan gum) topped with half a bag of Bear Apple Crumble Granola Nibbles:

I haven’t had a squash smoothie in ages and this was divine!

Lunch both days has been a fab salad of romaine, red and yellow pepper, cucumber, sugar snap peas, red onion and spicy roasted chickpeas with Kristen’s Raw 4 ingredient dressing (cashew butter, water, apple cider vinegar and shoyu):

The dressing was delicious! I also had some fruit – an orange and kiwis.

Snackage and pre gym fuel was a lemon kissed cashew hemp bar on Monday:

…and one of my almond cookies and a pink lady apple today:

The lemon bar was gorgeous, I love lemon flavoured stuff and with the sweetness of the dates and the crunchiness of the hemp seeds this hit the spot. It also fuelled me very well for the gym – I had an excellent workout!

Dinner both days has been a Japanese inspired stir fry containing soba noodles, carrot, diakon, Japanese spinach, tender stem broccoli and some Clearspring organic tofu marinated in sesame oil and mirin and fried in coconut oil. I also added some gomasio and shoyu:

This was so so tasty! I was a little disappointed with the Clearspring tofu to begin with, I had been expecting something more like the Cauldron firm tofu, it was certainly described that it could be used that way. This had a more similar texture to mori nu silken tofu. It didn’t absorb the marinade very well but it did fry up excellently – crispy on the outside and soft and silken on the inside!

Dessert last night was two chopped apples and some Plamils Orange and Cranberry dairy free chocolate:

The chocolate was good but very sweet! Its flavour really reminded me of Terry’s chocolate orange.

Dessert this evening was some cookies and cream Spiru-tein protein ice cream (with vanilla rice milk, ice cubes and xanthan and guar gums) topped with cacao nibs:

Yummy!

My workouts so far this week have been excellent - my usual Monday evening spin class was cancelled as the instructor was ill so I did 1 hour of HIITs on the step machine, cross trainer, bike and rowing machine. I usually don’t use the rowing machine – I think I just preferred the other equipment, but I loved it in this workout! I did 1 minute intervals: 1 minute at about 6 on my ‘perceived rate of exertion’ then basically balls to the wall for the other minute and repeated for 15 minutes, I was beat by the end! I then did my usual abs and core.

This morning I did a quick Yoga for Runners podcast for 20 minutes then this evening I was back at Body Pump. Before the class I managed to fit in another 10 minute rowing machine HIIT session, loving it!

Do you have a favourite piece of gym equipment? Why is it your favourite? I love the step machine and cross trainer as I feel like I get a really good workout on them but I can certainly see me making more use of the rowing machine in future!

I’ve also been doing something that I don’t do very often – eating the same thing two days in a row. Usually I don’t like doing this as I like variety but I’m finding it a real time and money saver - Hence why I’m just posting an ‘eats’ type post every two days and starting to move away from posting every single thing I eat as I don’t want things to get boring!

Are you happy to eat the same meals day after day or do you prefer more variety? My hubby eats plain porridge for breakfast every single day and as much as I love porridge that would drive me crazy! However, one thing that I can’t get enough of at the moment is green smoothies – I like that you can make them different with all the various ingredients and toppings available.

What’s the one thing you could eat day after day and never tire of?

Back in January I was sent this range of products to review from Clearspring:

I was already a fan of Clearspring but was looking forward to trying out some of their newer products including the ramen noodles, tofu and rice cakes.

Clearspring are a UK company that sell a wonderful range of traditional whole foods with a focus on non GMO and organic. As well as a very impressive Japanese range they also sell Italian pastas, jams, oils, syrups, fruit purees etc.

Ramen Noodles

I was sent a pack of the soya sauce and miso ginger ramen noodles to try:

 

I loved these! In fact I liked them so much I ordered a couple of packs from Goodness Direct. They are just such a useful product. I often had them as a quick and tasty lunch alongside some chopped veggies. These are really like a healthy Pot Noodle! You simply add hot water and microwave for a couple of minutes then add the sauce / miso. They are made with natural recognisable ingredients, which for a ‘convenience’ product like this is excellent. I even used them to make a super speedy stir fry with veggies and edamame:

Tamari and Black Sesame Rice Cakes

I adore these rice cakes, they have a lovely slightly salty savoury taste. My favourite way to enjoy them is with some tahini for the perfect snack:

Again, I was so impressed with this product that I’ve already ordered more!

Organic Tofu

I quite liked these packs of firm silken tofu. I have to admit that from the information I’d been sent I had been expecting something more like a standard block of firm tofu which could be stir fried. I did give that ago but the silken texture of this tofu didn’t absorb any marinade or fry up that well. Instead I made a great use of this making my tofu yoghurt:

Basically this is a very similar product to the mori nu silken tofu but in a smaller pack, non GMO and organic (which I don’t believe mori nu is). I also used this to make the coconut icing for my cupcakes which turned out extremely well, in fact all silken tofu recipes will work well using this product.

Apple and Blackberry Fruit Puree

I used this product for baking – I often see healthy recipes that require some kind of apple sauce to be used and these little packs are ideal. I used some to make my Veganised Sinless Brownies:

These turned out even more fudgey than usual!

The other products from Clearspring that I have tried (including some products I have bought myself) include the Sencha and Kuricha green teas, brown rice miso paste, sweet white miso paste (one of my all time favourite ingredients) and nori sheets. All products have been superb! You can purchase these products via Goodness Direct or I’ve noticed that Sainsbury’s, Holland and Barrat and local health food stores tend to stock a good range too.

I know I may sound like a bit of a Clearspring groupie, but I do genuinely think their products are of excellent quality. Of course, and as I usually have to report when reviewing such healthy products, they are a little more costly.

A lot of the Japanese products such as the miso pastes and ramen noodles are pretty unique products on the market. The packs of ramen noodles cost £2.79 (a pack contains two servings), the tofu packs cost £1.85 (mori nu costs £1 a pack in my local Sainsbury’s) the rice cakes are £1.19 for a pack which I actually don’t think is too bad. I do believe that the excellent quality of these products and the fact that they are organic and no GMO makes them worth spending a little extra on. As I have said, I have gone on to order a lot of these products with my own cash I have been so impressed. The rice cakes, ramen noodles, sweet white miso paste and kuricha tea are now store cupboard favourites for me! I don’t think I would order the tofu or the fruit puree again as I don’t think they offer enough gains over the alternative products such as the mori nu and the baby food I tend to use as a fruit puree which is also organic and considerable cheaper.

Overall I am a massive fan of this company and of their products!

Have you tried any Clearspring products? What did you think?

Please see my disclaimers and policies page for more info on my review ethics. As always this review is 100% my honest opinion.