Info all Articles

Hello everyone, hope your all having an amazing weekend! I can’t believe its just a week until Christmas I’m so excited!

On Friday night I got all dolled up for my work Christmas Party:

I used my Urban Decay Naked Palate for my eye make up going for a black and silver combo along with my Girl’s Aloud Nicola false eyelashes!

 Black sparkly wool dress: Primark (only £15!), statement necklace: Topshop, earrings: Swarovski, gunmetal metallic clutch bag: Accessorize, watch: Nixon, Costume ring: Warehouse black peep toe shoes: Office   

I don’t dress up like this very often with my nails done and false eyelashes on! It was wonderful, I actually felt really great and confident in myself :-) We went to a nearby hotel that was doing a dinner / disco type deal. It was such good fun! The food was nice: tomato and basil soup, tomato garlic mushroom dish with rice and a fruit salad plus after dinner dark choc mints and several large glasses of red wine!

Hence to say I did feel a little delicate yesterday morning but it was nothing a green smoothie and a gingerbread latte from Starbucks couldn’t fix! While I was in town I had a look round the shops, I managed to resist Topshop, however I could not resist these ankle boots from New Look:

I utterly adore them! I don’t wear heels for every day wear very often and I fancied a change. At £20 I think these are fantastic! I’m a huge fan of New Look foot ware, I have several items from them and they’ve all lasted very well. I also got a nice top I’m planning on wearing on Christmas Eve :-)

I did have a walk down to the allotment but there was snow on the ground and it was freezing cold. I really don’t think there’s a lot I can do down there until the New Year now. I also finished wrapping my Christmas pressies while watching Nigella Christmas on TV. Lets just say I have some inspired foodie ideas for over the festive period although if I were to attempt them all I’d probably be drunk before lunch ;-)

This morning I did my weekend run at the gym on the treadmill due to the frost (10k in 53 minutes) then came home and made a fab smoothie:

This was frozen blackberries, chocolate amazing grass powder, soy milk and ridiculous amounts of almond butter topped with some flaked almonds and a couple of dark chocolate chips. A little later I decided to treat myself to a scrumptious slice of my Banana Coconut Choc Chip Bread (this recipe with 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips added):

I had a slice fresh and warm from the oven topped with a smear of smooth peanut butter and accompanied by a large mug of Tea Pigs Chocolate Flake Tea:

Absolute heaven! The peanut butter melted on the warm bread, it was delicious :-) and of course James very much enjoyed several slices of his favourite baked treat!

For lunches I was craving veggies so made a big salad topped with some of my creamy dreamy avocado dressing (with basil instead of parsley), pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds:

Yesterday I decided to make my Veggie Loaf. I have to say I think this is one of my best ever recipes (along with the banana bread above), it is gorgeous. If you like sage and onion stuffing and sausage type flavours you will love this! I under cooked it slightly but I actually love it all moist like that. I served it with a mound of swede chips and ketchup and maple pecan brussel sprouts:

I toasted a few pecans then shredded my sprouts and stir fried in a little coconut oil until they started to brown, then added some maple syrup and a dash of shoyu sauce. Cooking them this way is my current favourite way to eat them as its quick and you still get that nutty flavour you get from roasting them, so good! For a cheeky dessert I had some frozen cherries layered up with some peanut flour ‘fluff’ (1/4 cup peanut flour, 1/2 cup ice, 1/2 cup water, pinch of salt and stevia and gums all blended up) topped with dark chocolate chips:

Yum, cherries + peanut butter + chocolate and you can’t go wrong really!

If any of you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you will probably already have heard my exciting news about being featured in Healthy Magazine!

A little while ago a blog reader had tweeted me about the Healthy Hero competition and had encouraged me to enter. I can’t believe that I was chosen as a healthy hero and its quite scary and surreal to see pictures of me in a magazine like that! I know they are still seeking more entries for Healthy Heroes so if you think yourself or someone you know should be nominated you can see the details here (I nearly died when I went to that web page and saw that huge pic of me – eeek!) or the magazine is on sale in branches of Holland and Barrat. I guess this post is a good example of my healthy living philosophy – a bit of exercise, lots of fruit and veggies and healthier foods balanced with dark chocolate, coffee and the odd glass (or three) of red!

Are you all ready for Christmas? I now have my presents wrapped and all that’s left to do is some cooking, baking and enjoying myself! I’m working until Wednesday but I’m doing shorter days and flexible hours. I’m hoping to still be able to fit in some regular workouts this week despite the gyms shorter opening hours too. What are your plans for the week leading up to Christmas?

Well as far as weeks go this one has been pretty exciting!

On Tuesday I travelled down to London for quite a fabulous little trip! Some of you might remember that back in December I was featured in Healthy Magazine as their first Healthy Hero. That was amazing enough, but then a little while ago the magazine got back in touch to invite me to come down to London for a proper photo shoot!

I got the train from a rainy Durham on Tuesday morning and arrived in London mid afternoon. I stayed near Liverpool Street Station so had a walk up to Spitalfields for dinner where I found a Leon Restaurant – I just had to have my favourite Super Food Salad! My gorgeous cousin Beatrice is studying in London so I arranged to meet her for drinks. I had a Salted Caramel Latte from Costa then we went to a bar called B@1 and got happy hour cocktails. On the way back to my hotel I stopped into Planet Organic and decided to treat myself to a mini tub of Booja Booja ice cream as I have always wanted to try it!

I was awake bright and early on Wednesday as I thought it would be nice to walk from my hotel to the studio enjoying some foodie delights for breakfast on the way. I had coffee in Starbucks then this chocolate croissant from a patisserie followed by a mini blueberry and honey porridge and fresh orange juice from Leon and another coffee at a cafe next to the studio – I’ve drank so much coffee!

The shoot was held at Curtain Road Studios and it was well posh! I really wasn’t sure what to expect but it was a full on fashion style shoot with sample clothes from different brands, loads of shoes and accessories and a stylist, her assistant, make up artists and photographer…

We can’t share any photographs of us all done up for the magazine, but here is a sneaky one of me afterwards with the glam make up, in fact the whole shoot has quite a glam theme!

I had Madonna's Vogue playing in my head the whole time ;-)

As if the photo shoot wasn’t exciting enough, it was made all the more brilliant because it also included a blogger meet up with the lovely Philippa from Skinny Latte Strikes Back! I’ve been reading Phil’s blog for ages and it was so good to meet her in person. She was also featured as a Healthy Hero and when we heard about the shoot we made arrangements to have a little blogger date :-)

Phil looked utterly stunning, as did the other healthy heroes – wait until you see the photographs! After the shoot Phil took me to The London Gin Club:

I have never been a big gin drinker, but that is no longer the case! The club has an extensive menu of gin all complete with different garnishes to complement the various flavours. I tried a gin with an orange and cardamom garnish and Phil tried a floral gin with a plum garnish then we decided to share a Hendricks gin with cucumber and rose petal garnish. Now that is my kind of drink!

After enjoying our gin we got the underground to West Kensington to seek out 222 Veggie Vegan Restaurant. It was just a tiny little place and was packed when we arrived but luckily we got a table. We shared a dips and pitta to start:

This featured a red pepper, hummus and avocado pesto dip. All of them tasted delicious and the pitta was warm and had a great texture. For our main meal we both ended up going for the same option – a Seitan Stroganoff with onions, herbs and peppers in a cashew cream sauce served with brown rice:

That was to die for! We both licked our plates clean because the sauce was so delicious! For dessert we had the raw chocolate torte to share:

Oh this was heaven! We think it must have included coconut oil and perhaps banana in there but I couldn’t figure out if it was avocado or cashew base, it was lush!

I had such a fantastic time with Philippa, she is a very inspirational woman. We had a lot in common with us both being around the same age and married and some similar life experiences – I wish I lived closer as I think we would see a lot more of each other if we did :-) I could have talked to her all night long about so many things, not just the ups and downs of blogging!

The photo shoot is going to be featured in the March edition of Healthy Magazine which is also going to be their 100th edition celebration. It will be available from Holland and Barrat stores so check it out! Big thanks to all the Healthy Magazine team, particularly Emily, Orouj and the editor Jane, it was a truly amazing experience that will stay with me forever!

The next day I had a few hours before my train left so I got up early again and jumped on the tube to Piccadilly to pounce on Wholefoods as soon as it opened. I was actually rather pleased that I didn’t end up spending a fortune in there or Planet Organic for that matter – just a couple of little things! Although I did treat myself to breakfast and something to eat on the train home:

I had an energizer smoothie with carrot and ginger then totally spoiled any virtuous healthiness by also getting a huge almond croissant and a tub of creamy yoghurt with berries and granola. That pastry was bloody lovely! For lunch it could only be a salad bar box complete with tofu and a pot of Coyo raw chocolate coconut yoghurt. Oh heavens that stuff is good – it actually tastes like the filling of a raw chocolate torte, absolutely incredible!

Of course I did get a couple of treat purchases:

Raw honey (Wholefoods), burgundy wrap around scarf and leopard print flats (Topshop), gold cube necklace (Monki), Cocomaya New York Salted Pretzel Dark Chocolate (Liberty) and some Pukka Peppermint and Licorice tea (Planet Organic)

I absolutely loved London and I do think I’ll be figuring out how I can make more trips down there especially as I know a few more people in the city. As well as all of the London excitement I moved into my gorgeous new office at work on Monday, this has been a really incredible week! I guess its kind of clear what is on my Love List…

LONDON! // meeting amazing inspirational people // pastries // coffee // decorating my new office // missing James and feeling extra appreciated when I came home // roast kabocha dipped in tahini

I could go on and on! Right now I’m feeling a bit wiped out – I’m sipping on a huge green smoothie as I type, all of the coffee, pastries and gin has taken its toll but my god it was worth it!

How has your week been? What’s on your Love List this week? Have you ever done a photo shoot? It was really interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes at these things!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Wednesday everyone, hope you are having a great week! I’m into day three of a crazy work week, roll on the weekend!

Thanks again to Jenn for hosting the WIAW party! These are my eats from Monday.

Quick OOTD: gold bow necklace: Forever 21, jumper: New Look, tan woven belt: Miss Selfridge, floral midi skirt: Dorothy Perkins, black tights: M&S, brown brogues: Topshop

I started my day with a mug of warm water with lemon juice before hitting the gym at 7am. I did my first workout of my new plan – 5 minutes warm up on cross trainer, about 20 minutes of lifting doing just a couple of sets of my new plan based on Female Body Breakthrough followed by 15 minutes of intervals on the treadmill. I increased my speeds a little and was glad that I managed ok! For breakfast I made a big green smoothie:

This contained spring greens, a large persimmon, frozen peaches, vanilla sun warrior, midori greens powder, berries powder, gums, ice and water and topped with some of my honey and hemp granola and bee pollen. I also made myself a cup of green tea to drink in the car on the way to work.

We were holding a big event in which I had to give a couple of presentations and generally oversee everything. Luckily the event and my presentations went very well! We had a buffet lunch but the kitchen very kindly gave me some veggie soup as the vegan option:

This was really tasty! I also helped myself to lots of hummus, veggies, an apple and a couple of clemintines:

After we got back to the office I was straight into another meeting – it was just one of those none stop days! I managed to snack on one of my Honey and Hemp muffins along with another apple and clemintine I’d taken from the buffet earlier:

Those muffins are gorgeous, such a nice texture!

After a quick grocery shop I made a really tasty and quick dinner: Thai Green Coconut Kabocha and Edamame Noodle bowl!

This was seriously good, I enjoyed every single bite! I started by frying off some vegan Thai green curry paste and fresh ginger in a little coconut oil. Then I added some reduced fat coconut milk, a pack of Clearspring Ramen Noodles and some hot water. I simmered the noodles until cooked and added the sachet of soya sauce that came with them followed by some frozen edamame, shredded spring greens and roast kabocha squash. I adore Thai green curry and this was just perfect! 

For a little dessert I had some Green and Blacks 85% dark chocolate with two chopped apples:

Lovely sweet end to a busy day!

Yesterday I had another packed day and a late night meeting for work but my mood was improved no end by two very exciting bits of news!

I’ve been chosen to feature in Healthy Magazine as a Healthy Hero! A blog reader kindly suggested that I enter, and yesterday I got an email to say I’ve been chosen! It includes a trip to London, lunch, a make over and a photo shoot with a chance to appear in the magazine! The editors of the magazine are hoping that some other people will enter too – see here for the details if you’d like to enter yourself or someone you know and spread the word!

My other piece of amazing news is that one of my recipes has been chosen to be included in the amazing Kris Carr new e recipe book! Kris is a mega girl crush of mine and I’m a huge fan of her book Crazy Sexy Diet. Out of over 300 entries only 50 have been chosen and mine is one of them! I entered my Apple Pie Green Smoothie recipe and I could not be more chuffed that it has been chosen.

I’m just super duper excited about everything right now! I’ve also been having some mega bolts of inspiration recently, everything seems to be coming together in my head at least and these two pieces of news are the cherry on top of my healthy cake ;-)

What are you excited about right now?