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This weekend has been spot on! I’ve done so many enjoyable things it’s been awesome, starting on Friday morning with the farmers market and massive grocery shop, getting caught up on my IIN studies and then on Friday night me and James went out to a gig.

Before the place filled up!

We went to see Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six at the Cumberland Arms in Byker just out of Newcastle. We saw them when we were at Kendal Calling and they are just mental! Not quite the kind of music I usually listen to, but absolutely the kind of music I love to watch live. The support act were pretty good as well and I loved the quirky, tiny venue. Imagine someone’s front room with an open fire, a bar and a group of guys playing the fiddle in the corner. Awesome :-)

Yesterday I started my cookathon and over the course of the weekend I have made:

• Raw cheesy spicy kale chips
• Leek, Greens and White Bean Soup
• Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chilli
• A large pot of cannellini beans
• A large pot of chickpeas
• A large pot of brown rice
• Raw juice pulp crackers
• Roasted beets
• Roasted squash
• Green Goddess Dressing
• Raw protein brownies

I also invented a new recipe, which I will be sharing soon:

All I can say is yum!

I’ve visited my parents who were looking after my nephews, my amazing Grandma and my fantastic best friend. It was so good to see my best friend Charlie, she has a 4 year old little girl and a new baby and I very much enjoyed baby cuddles. It was just so good to be able to have a proper catch up with her, I’m so lucky to have her in my life, we are more like family than friends :-) Plus she had baked a chocolate cake and I got to have a slice!

As well as that chocolate cake I’ve had some more healthier fare, including green juices made with farmers market organic cucumber, celery, parsley, ginger and lemon:

This delicious bowl of porridge:

Vanilla chai spiced oats with pear and raw cacao brazilnut bliss – I just cooked the oats in some vanilla chai tea! Speaking of chai, I’ve been loving this Black Masala Chai tea with unsweetened almond milk:

I’ve been digging more figs with goats cheese again:

With lettuce, cavolo nero kale and balsamic vinegar. I’ve had a Buddha bowl too:

Steamed broccoli with roasted butternut, beetroot and chickpeas topped with green goddess dressing.

This morning, after Kettlecise at the gym, I made a really good smoothie in a bowl:

I blended beet greens, chard, a pear, Life’s Basics Unsweetened Vanilla Protein Powder, unsweetened almond milk, a little bit of ice, vanilla stevia and some water then topped with bee pollen and cacao nibs. It was divine!

The weather has been of my favourite kind this weekend – bright but with that autumnal chill. We went on a nice walk to enjoy it:

Army style jacket: c/o Next, denim shift dress: Mango, scarf: Dorothy Perkins

This morning I also did my first nutrition exam and passed! After all of that I’m feeling pretty well prepared for the week ahead, my fridge, freezer and cupboards are filled with healthy choices that are grab and go, and I’ve dented my to do list considerably.

Do you ever have a cookathon like that?

Is your live music taste different from your listening music taste? We have just bought tickets for the Great Escape Festival in Brighton next year, oh and congrats to all that managed to get Glasto tickets today!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week ahead!

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great Easter!

James got me this Lindt dark chocolate bunny and then also surprised me with a Green & Blacks Dark Chocolate egg!

I've had a super Easter break spent doing many of my favourite things - spending time with friends and family, cooking, baking and of course eating ;-) I've also had some time to chill with James which has been great, I feel like my batteries have been well and truly recharged! On Friday I baked my hot cross buns, saw my best friends and ate this delicious Thai red butternut and chickpea curry:

It was extremely good for something that was so easy to make!

Saturday started with a 5 mile outdoor run. I'm still going garminless so 5 miles is an estimate and it was probably pretty slow but it felt good to be outside! I got home from my run and changed straight back into my pjs which I wore for most of the day while we watched TV (more Dexter) it was bliss! 

My post run breakfast was a butternut cherry bomb green smoothie topped with roasted soya nuts, dried cherries and pistachios: 

I love how sweet this smoothie is! I also ate more hot cross buns and random snacks of millet puffs with coconut flour sauce / peanut flour sauce and blueberries, chocolate almond butter cups and tahini with jam on spelt crackers etc, it was just that kind of a day! I also had my usual green juices to balance it out and did fit in one half decent meal, a big salad with romaine, red pepper, carrots, red onion, olives, chickpeas and balsamic, dijon and hemp oil dressing:

After that I finally got dressed and we headed off for a night out! I think I've mentioned before that James is really into his music, we thought we go and see a singer / songwriter called Juan Zelada at The Cluny in Newcastle. We really enjoyed the gig, James has posted a review over on his blog. Before the gig started we had a drink at the bar and I couldn't resist this:

Organic vegan cherry beer! It tasted gorgeous, I've had the strawberry beer from the same brewery and that was delicious too. 

Yesterday I thought I'd treat myself to a tasty breakfast - two of my hot cross buns toasted, first with Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter and then another with vegan spread:

Both accompanied by some strawberries and lots of coffee:

I used up the soy milk leftover from my baking to make some frothy vanilla coffees, yum!

It was after breakfast and once I'd iced my cupcakes and baked my tart that the fun started. Due to a computer fault, half of Durham had no water supply! I hadn't even had a shower so wasn't best pleased. I had been planning on a lovely Easter outfit OOTD but no such luck! We were going to my parents anyway so we went early so I could get washed. Luckily the water came back on later in the day, what a relief! Lunch was fab though: 

I had some of my lazy courgette and pesto tart with salad and some bulgar carrot salad and a roast veg and couscous salad my Mam had picked up from M&S. I had a couple of plates like this plus two of my tasty cupcakes and mountains of fresh fruit. I felt totally stuffed but still found room to eat most of my dark chocolate bunny! To help feel a bit rebalanced after all of that I made a green smoothie:

This was spinach, courgette, vanilla sun warrior, cinnamon, water and ice. I followed it up with a big pot of kuricha tea and spend the rest of the day in my pjs lying on the couch:

What a weekend! Today I’m just trying to get myself pulled together for going back to work tomorrow and back to reality!

How did you spend your Easter break?

Well heres a quick recap of my adventures yesterday - I'm definitely fully recovered now, I was up nice and early to do my workout DVD, it felt good to lift a few (light) weights!

Breakfast was a yoghurty mess with natural yoghurt mixed with a scoop of vanilla whey, two chopped peaches and some of my home mixed muesli.


This hit the spot!

Work was really quiet in the morning, I had managed to get out of going to the event we were hosting as there wasn't much I would be gaining from it and I have a to do list a mile long. I was extra happy as my laptop has been returned, but it has been given a new hard drive so its likely that I'll have to sit and reload everything on to it at the weekend. All I have to do now is decide between the netbook and laptop for day to day blog reading, writing and general internet surfing. The laptop is bigger and has rubbish battery life but the netbook is much slower. Decisions decisions...

Lunch was 5 turkey, hummus and spinach roll ups with carrot and cucumber on the side followed by an orange.


I got a lovely big pot of caramelised onion hummus from Tesco which I have never tried before. I'm so happy to have hummus back in my life, I'm so addicted to this stuff! I also bought a hummus 'stack' with a few different varieties to try (also from Tesco, they have a much better range of reduced fat flavoured hummus than Sainsbury's).

Mid afternoon I snacked on an apple and two babybel light.


I had a quick change and freshen up at work before heading straight over to Newcastle to meet up with the hubby. We went to Subway and I had a 6 inch wheat bread with chicken teriyaki and sweet onion, a little cheese and plenty of veggies.


It was very tasty but not really that filling! I popped to Boots and bought a couple of snack packs - yoghurt coated raisins (which I ate so quick they never touched the sides) and some dried apricots which were delicious.


I also had a bottle of Bud before we went to the gig, I love a nice cold bottle of beer every now and again!


We headed up to the gig and when we got there they told us that one of the acts - Joanne Shaw Taylor had pulled out for some reason so I was a bit disapointed as out of all the acts it was her album I'd been listening to. Anyway, I was really pleasantly suprised with the gig, it was brilliant! The venue was tiny so it had a really intimate atmosphere. The first act were called Virgil and the Accelerators and were excellent, the lead singer / guitarist looked just like Robert Pattinson!


Oli Brown Band, the main act were awesome, especially when he came off stage with his guitar, walked up to me and started basically serenading me! I went bright red and they pointed the spot light on us, I just didn't know what to do! He's quite cute in a geeky way! I was hoping the hubby would have got a photo but I think he was just in awe.