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Well I can’t believe another Sunday has almost been and gone, I’ve had a lovely weekend and another productive one, love crossing things off my to do lists!

The weather yesterday was amazing!

I started my weekend on Friday night with a lovely meal of apricot and ginger glazed kabocha squash, adzuki beans and millet with parsley and some steamed greens:

I also tried some of the Coyo yoghurt for dessert:

This was the mixed berries variety with some Kashi Crunch cereal, it was lovely, very much like the home made coconut yoghurt I’ve been making recently. I also had some for breakfast yesterday with two chopped pears, oats and dried cherries:

Yum! Yesterday I made a big bowl of kelp noodles with spiralised courgette and an avocado and lime sauce topped with nutritional yeast:

Unfortunately this just wasn’t that good! Luckily, most of my meals are tasty and satisfying but this was just meh. Half of it went in the bin. Instead I had a bowl of grapes, chopped apple and more Kashi Crunch:

Followed by a gorgeous mint chocolate protein shake:

This was just one scoop of chocolate sun warrior blended with ice, stevia and peppermint extract. It was amazing and made up for the meh lunch!

Last night I made a quick chickpea and spinach curry using garlic, ginger and garam masala fried in coconut oil with the chickpeas in a tomato sauce (just some plain passata) and spinach:

I had it with some steamed broccoli and more of the glazed kabocha on the side. That curry took 5 minutes to make and tasted so good! For dessert I had what is probably the best thing I’ve eaten in a long time:

Pretzels with strawberries and peanut dip! I made the dip with peanut flour, maple syrup and water. The pretzels dipped in the peanut sauce = absolute heaven! Unfortunately as lovely as that was it didn’t satisfy my snackies last night and I ended up having a late night party with several bowls of oats, dark chocolate buttons and Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter while watching Confessions of a Shopaholic. Oops! I just can’t seem to get past these weekend snack fests but I’m trying not to beat myself up about it.

At least I was well fuelled this morning for a 5k treadmill run, 20 minutes random on the bike and my kettlebell class – which was a killer, have any of you done kettlebell star jumps? I thought I was going to die!

After that I had a raw protein buckwheat bowl with vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca, ground flax, chopped apple and cinnamon:

Then lunch was a nice healthy salad with little gem lettuce, carrot, red cabbage, edamame, roast edamame and a sweet miso and apple cider dressing:

As I’m looking to try and maintain my albeit heavier weight, I’m still trying to balance out those snack fests by just getting back to eating good healthy food the next day, not restricting and not feeling guilty.

Yesterday after visiting my Mam for Mothers Day, I had a lovely time with my best friend and her little girl including a nice walk in the sunshine and eating one of the peanut butter cookies her little girl had made:

I doubt these were vegan and were made with white flour and refined sugar but I gladly enjoyed one (these are the ones I brought home for James). It got me thinking about where I draw my lines when it comes to healthy eating and of course veganism. As long as I’m living healthfully, ethically and right by my body most of the time I’m not going to turn down a one off cookie home made with love and eaten over a cuppa with my best friend. So where do I draw the line then? I’m one that never says never but I can’t imagine any scenario when I would eat meat again. I only eat eggs and diary when they are tiny trace ingredients in some things like dark chocolate and would only consider eating them whole again if my body was really craving them and if so I would always go for organic / free range. I choose not to eat refined carbs like white flour, refined sugar or processed foods on a regular basis because I don’t see them as healthy and they don’t make me feel at my best. However as demonstrated above, sometimes I’ll say screw all that under special circumstances because life is too short not to eat a cookie made with love! I’m not one for labels and I firmly believe that everyone is different so I’m not making judgements here on how others eat, but I’m interested in your thoughts…

When it comes to healthy living, where do you draw your lines?

Hello, hope you’ve all had a good week and are eagerly awaiting the weekend!

For research from the Library, I’m such a nutrition geek!

I’ve had some very tasty food despite the fact that I’m in the process of eating out my freezer and cupboards to try and save cash! I used up some Linda McCartney vegan sausages to make this delicious Buddha bowl:

Linda McCartney sausages with red onion, mushrooms and barley in a tomato sauce with basil on top of fresh spinach

I’ve also been enjoying the lentil soup I made at the weekend with some home made raw crackers:

This is just the best and most simple lentil soup ever! Its delicious and so filling. I’ve also been eating the roast aubergine hummus I made at the weekend with veggies for snacks and alongside more of those raw crackers for lunch:

I had picked the aubergine up from the reduced bin at the green grocers for just 50p and had roasted it whole before blending the flesh with chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and tahini, it tasted lovely!

Unusual but delicious breakfasts have also been enjoyed:

This was some popped amaranth (you just pop the grains as you would popcorn kernels) with a ‘cream’ made some raw coconut flour and frozen blueberries topped with pecans and maple syrup.

I also made an amazing raw banana split (yes there is a banana under there!) This included raw cacao granola, goji berries, chocolate protein sauce (made from chocolate sun warrior mixed with hemp milk) and a chia pudding made with a couple of tbsp of chia seeds combined with some home made mint choc rooibos hemp milk and left overnight to thicken:

Amazing! That hemp milk was pretty awesome too. I just blended 3 tbsp of hemp seeds that had been soaked for 15 minutes with 3 cups of filtered water and a few tsp of loose leaf mint choc rooibos tea and some sunflower lecithin. It created a wonderful tasty creamy milk. I had some with frozen raspberries and chopped apple as a dessert:

Of course a few green smoothies have been consumed as well:

Spring greens, frozen banana, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice topped with Kashi Go Lean Crunch and bee pollen

Spinach, frozen cherries, chocolate hemp protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice topped with We are bear Coco Cherry Pie Granola

I’ve also continued my love affair with kelp noodles:

I made this as a treat for lunch yesterday when I knew I’d be working late. It also included some raw diakon noodles and a fantastic sauce made with raw almond butter, sweet white miso, soy sauce and a dash of agave plus parsley sprinkles on top. Soooo good!

Earlier this week I received my parcel as part of Jemma’s blog swap! Here’s what I got:

Such a brilliant selection of goodies from the lovely Liz. I love being able to try different products from the US! Her home made vegan mocha muffins were amazing and I’m also looking forward to trying those almond butter cups!

Workouts have been extra fantastic this week…

• Sunday – AM relaxed run without Garmin, about 3-4 miles
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – AM free style yoga 15 minutes, PM 10 min rowing machine, 10 min treadmill run, 10 min bike, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – AM – This 1 hour power flow yoga workout from You Tube
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I had a brilliant run on Sunday and then started a new phase of Female Body Breakthrough and my god could I feel it the next day, I had some serious DOMS! The reps have gone from the 12 – 14 range down to 8 so I’m using heavier weights when I can. I also managed to increase my squat weight in Body Pump to 40lbs – that’s probably not much compared to some but for me its great! As I was working on Thursday evening and couldn’t make my usual yoga class I did a brilliant yoga flow from You Tube before before work instead. It was awesome to do some sweaty yoga again!

On my weekend send off love list this week…

Coyo coconut yoghurt in plain and mixed berry varieties

This morning I received these coconut yoghurts from sponsor Coyo to try out, they both look really good and I can’t wait to try them! Also…

Chickpea magazine – an awesome vegan e mag full of fantastic articles, recipes and beautiful photography // making plans for my 30th birthday party in August // thanks to a very kind voucher, booking a spa day deal with Groupon for me and my best friend as part of celebrations for said birthday // looking forward to next weeks vintage themed project celebration at work – I’ll be dressing up 1940’s style!

What are you loving this week?

Not long left to enter my Chocolate Good Hemp Shake GIVEAWAY – check it out if you haven’t already!

Hope you have an amazing weekend!

I was very excited when I found out via twitter that there was a company in the UK now producing coconut yoghurt. Coyo has been brought to the UK by a nutritionist who was looking to source alternatives to diary and soya for her clients. 

When I first thought of coconut yoghurt my mind went to the So Delicious brand of coconut products that are available in the US and which I'd been able to try when I visited NYC last year. However these Coyo yoghurts are completely different - much for the better as I discovered!

I was sent a tub of the plain and the mixed berries yoghurt to review, but there is also the pineapple variety available.

Plain Coyo with pears and a muffin

These are just gorgeous, they taste more like a rich cream rather than a yoghurt, with just a subtle yoghurty tang. The mixed berries had a gentle berry flavour and was not at all 'fake' tasting like some fruity yoghurts.

Mixed berries Coyo with overnight oats, pears and dried cherries

These yoghurts contain no preservatives or other chemicals, just tapioca starch and xylitol (a naturally derived low GI sweetener) along with the coconut milk and yoghurt cultures. This is how they really differ from the So Delicious yoghurts which contain added sugar and are far more processed. The Coyo products are full fat which does mean that they are relatively high in calories, but as I have been discovering recently, the fat in coconut products differs from other fats and could have potential health benefits.

Strawberries and Coyo plain yoghurt

Coconut benefits:

• High in lauric acid (which is present in human breast milk) which can be beneficial for the immune system
• Rich in medium chain fatty acids which some research suggests that the body processes differently from other saturated fats which can provide energy and help to maintain weight by increasing satiety.

I've been really enjoying incorporating more full fat coconut products into my diet recently. As I’m mostly vegan and therefore don’t eat any meat or diary, coconut milk has been a great source of additional dietary fat which I’m hoping will support my hormones (because oestrogen and progesterone are fat like and produced by cholesterol in the liver – source).

Coyo yoghurts are available in 125g, 250g and 400g tubs in plain, mixed berry and pineapple varieties from local health food suppliers and online via Goodness Direct. They aren’t cheap as is usual with most high quality health food products, but they are totally worth it for an occasional treat - nothing beats the silky smooth creaminess of these yoghurts. They don’t have a pronounced over powering coconut flavour either which means they can be paired with lots of other ingredients. My favourite way to eat these is definitely with strawberries for an indulgent diary free strawberries and cream dessert!

Coyo GIVEAWAY

As this months sponsors, Coyo are offering a case of 4 yoghurts as a giveaway prize for 1 lucky reader!

To enter (each of these counts as a single entry – please leave a separate comment for each one, I hate for you to miss out on additional entries!):

• Leave a comment to this post with why you would like to try the Coyo coconut yoghurt 
• ‘Like’ my Facebook page and leave a comment below stating that you have done so
• Follow me via Google Friend Connect (link under the ‘follow me’ section on the right) or follow me on Blog Lovin or Twitter and leave a comment below stating that you have done so
• Tweet about this giveaway: ‘check out @keephealthstyle GIVEAWAY’
• Sign up to receive blog updates via email using the link to the right and leave a comment below stating that you have done so 
• Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on your blog and leave a comment below stating that you have done so

Giveaway open to UK residents only (sorry international friends!) and closes at 12am GMT Sunday 15th April 2012, good luck!