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Well thank god its Friday, with the bank holiday and having Tuesday off work for the blogger meet up its been a great but strange week! I am really looking forward to the weekend.

I have had a pretty quiet few days, the calm before the storm, as now that we are into September things at work get crazy again!

I’ve fitted in my usual workouts and even got in another treadmill run – I did 3.5 miles in 28 minutes almost pain free on Wednesday morning followed by some extra cardio on the machines and some abs and core. Yesterday I started the day with some free style yoga and popped to the gym after work for a sweaty hour on the step machine, cross trainer, bike and rowing machine followed by abs and core. This morning I did my NRoL workout – doing 3 sets of all the moves again, however my knee was not happy during the very slow 5 minute treadmill warm up!

Food wise I’ve been craving the usual green smoothies and salads:

Wednesday’s green smoothie containing kale, spinach, frozen strawberries, strawberry hemp, msm, maca powder, barley grass powder, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gum topped with bee pollen, peanut flour sauce and some freeze dried berries.

This morning I wanted to try out another fruit free green smoothie. This contained spinach, cos lettuce, 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder, maca, spirulina, msm, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums topped with goji berries and raw almond butter sauce:

This was so creamy and mildly sweet! Delicious :-)

I enjoyed another fabulous hummus topper salad containing some of my very own home grown alfalfa sprouts!

I bought some seeds last weekend and have had them sprouting, I only used a quarter cup of seeds and ended up with 2 large jars full! This will save me a lot of cash on buying them from the shop – they usually cost £1.30 for a tiny pack!

I’ve also been loving these ‘cheesy’ salads:

Cos lettuce, pea shoots, alfalfa sprouts, pepper, carrot, cucumber, red onion, raw cheesy crumbles and some raw cheesy spicy pumpkin seeds plus a bit of Braggs liquid aminos.

I welcomed in September by eating some seasonal spaghetti squash!

Stir fried veggies including spring greens, carrot, mushrooms and broccoli with edamame on top of spaghetti squash ‘noodles’ with a spicy lime peanut sauce (peanut flour, lime juice, red chilli, ginger, shoyu). These stir fries have been hitting the spot!

Tonight I really wanted something fresh tasting so made my favourite raw courgette spaghetti with raw pasta sauce topped with nutritional yeast, olives and basil:

I can’t tell you how much I love this, light but filling! I’ve also been craving cereal too:

Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise Cereal, rice milk and strawberries.

I’ve been snacking on a lot of these too:

Home made cheesy raw kale chips! These taste utterly wonderful. I made a cheesy coating with cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic and onion powder and dehydrated them, they are so good!

Tasty sweet treats have included this ‘frappe’ made with Mint Chocolate Teecino, rice milk, stevia and crushed ice:

I treated myself to this Starbucks cup at the weekend, I just can’t help myself! I also tried out a sachet of Cherries Jubilee Spiru-tein powder to make some protein ice cream:

This was the bomb, even James commented on how good it was. I’ve had this flavour before a long time ago - I think I may have to indulge in a full tub!

So I have to admit I’m getting a bit more worried about my knee. I’ve booked in for a sports massage so I’m hoping that will help to loosen up my IT Band. In the meantime I’m continuing to stretch, foam roll and occasionally ice it. I’m planning on trying out a 6 mile treadmill run at the weekend – I think it hurt so bad this morning because I didn’t wear my knee support. Fingers crossed I’ll be ok!

As for the rest of the weekend I have a lovely one planned, tomorrow should be pretty relaxed with a bit of grocery and bedroom accessory shopping, seeing my Mam and Dad, kitchen pottering and chilling out! On Sunday it will mark 7 years since me and James met (I was chief bridesmaid and he was best man at my sisters wedding – cheesy I know!) Hope you all have a great weekend planned too!

Have you had a sports massage before? Did it help you? Any tips for me in terms of what to wear and what to expect?

What an amazing weekend I have had! For the last two days I have been getting attuned to Reiki and the experience has been quite amazing. I have to admit I’m not one of these new age hippy types, but luckily neither was the Reiki teacher. The workshop has been delivered in a really practical way with a no nonsense approach. In case you aren’t sure what Reiki is, it kind of operates along a similar basis as yoga, acupuncture and tai chi but where as yoga stretches the body to improve energy flow and acupuncture physically prods the body to improve energy flow, Reiki teaches you how to change the flow of energy yourself. I’ve basically spent most of the weekend in meditation, learning about the chakras and giving and receiving Reiki which has been fab!

• 2 egg omelette stuffed with almond butter and sugar free strawberry jam
• Butternut squash pancakes (just 2 eggs, mashed roast butternut, cinnamon, ginger) with strawberries, peanut butter and maple syrup
• Chocolate Cherry smoothie with beet greens topped with peanut flour sauce and cacao nibs
• Home made spicy cheesy kale chips fresh from the dehydrator
• Fresh green juice to start my day with cucumber, celery, lemon, ginger and cayenne
• Milky and clear quartz crystals from my Reiki attunement weekend
• Coffee blended with coconut milk and vanilla bean over ice
• Chilli dark chocolate truffles and a nectarine stuffed with raw cacao brazil nut bliss
• Mega salad with roast butternut, beets, red onion and garlic with green lentils, spinach and tahini sauce

Of course I’ve also been eating some delicious food – the butternut squash pancakes where incredible and I was over the moon when I saw some big whole leaves of kale for sale at the green grocers so I could make some decent kale chips. I made a coating for them with cashews, hemp seeds, cayenne, garlic and nutritional yeast. I did also get to see my parents and pop round to see my best friend for a good catch up over a cuppa as well. Good stuff!

Right now I’m feeling rather chilled and looking forward to the week ahead! How has your weekend been? I know Reiki probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I can’t deny what I’ve felt over the weekend and its actually been quite a profound experience for me. Have you ever heard of Reiki? What are your thoughts?

Woke up to our alarm this morning, had to admit we did snooze it a few times! Had a cup of warm water then got straight into Davinas Super Sculpt DVD. After I'd completed that I made myself a big smoothie with frozen blueberries, oats, ground flax, skimmed milk and a scoop of my new vanilla protein powder which tasted really good, it was like drinking a vanilla ice cream float!

After breakfast (and more lazy pottering!) we got ready and headed to my sisters to visit her and my nephew Harry who is 18 months old. He's gorgeous and has a right little personality! After this we headed to our local giant Tescos store for the big grocery shop now that I have been paid. Is it just me, or do other people get supermarket rage? I really think I need to start avoiding supermarkets when they are busy! The hubby wasn't too bad with the rubbish food, he did get a couple of bits and pieces like crisps and frozen chicken burgers but nothing that would tempt me. Heres the stuff we got (minus his crap!)

Salmon, chicken and turkey fillets, skimmed milk, edam cheese, savoy cabbage, courgette, kale, onions, potatoes, leeks, sweet potatoes, apples, peppers, grapes, pears, kidney beans, chopped tomatoes, tinned tuna in spring water, red lentils, wholewheat pasta, vanilla flavour rice milk, raisins, flaked almonds, lemon and ginger tea, Womens Health Magazine (US version).

I just love it when you can go to the cupboards and fridge and its full of lovely healthy stuff!

By the time we got back from shopping we were starving so I had a big bowl of leek and potato soup followed by an apple.
After lunch I sat and read my Womens Health magazine which I really enjoyed and was something a bit different from the U.K. health and fitness mags. My copy of In Defense of Food had also arrived along with The Female Body Breakthrough that I had ordered yesterday so I started having a flick through them, really looking forward to sitting down and having a good read of these! For a mid afternoon snack I had a couple of fudge babies and a cup of decaf tea (I only photographed one as the other one was in my mouth before I could even think about it!).
I then set about making some Kale Chips. These are another discovery I have made through reading blogs, I loved the idea of something that you could eat like crisps but that was much healthier. I washed a huge pile of kale and dried it with kitchen paper. I then put it into a roasting tin with a tablespoon of garlic flavoured olive oil and plenty of salt (I think I over did it on the salt so will have to remember to watch that next time). I roasted them in the oven at 200c for 30 mins, most of them were lovely and crispy but some were still a bit soggy (but still delicious!). When I make these again (which I definately will be!) I'll cook them for longer on a slightly lower heat. They tasted just like the crispy fried greens you get in chinese buffet restaurants, which are one of my favourites so I was very happy!
For desert I had my usual raspberries in hazelnut and almond rice milk

Hi everyone, happy Friday! Hope you’ve had a good week, I don’t know about you guys but I am ready for the weekend!

This week I have done all my workouts according to my plan but was working late on Tuesday so I swapped out my evening Body Pump class for the 30 Day Shred, levels 2&3 back to back followed by Davina Fit Yoga Stretch section before work. For yesterday’s anything goes workout I decided to hit the gym with missing it on Tuesday. I blogged my workout over on my Tumblr page, check it out it was fun! My strength training workouts have been awesome too, this week I increased my sets from 2 to 3 and next week I’m going to increase my reps from 10 to 12 :-)

I’ve had some very tasty eats this week too, so I apologise for all these pics but I just had to share!

Beautiful breakfasts:

 Raw chocolate courgette pudding (courgette, banana, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, pumpkin seed milk blended and mixed with 2 tbsp of chia seeds then topped with some Living Intentions raw cacao granola)

  Porridge made with half Scottish oats and half oat bran mixed with 1/4 cup of peanut flour, defrosted frozen berries and topped with a spoonful of peanut butter with flax

  Two slices of fruity cider bread, one with Clearspring Cherry spread and one with almond butter plus chopped banana

 Current fave green smoothie combo: kale, 2 pears, chocolate hemp protein powder, mesquite, barley grass, ice, water, gums and topped with my raw pear and ginger granola and some hazelnut butter

Lovely lunches:

Black bean veggie chilli with spinach and cold roast squash, yum! 

Courgette noodles and alfalfa sprouts with spicy peanut sauce (1/4 cup peanut flour, lime juice, ginger, chilli, shoyu) and roast squash (inspired by Gena’s spiralised zucchini with butternut squash and garlic sauce)

Super snacks:

Sunshine muffin with redwoods diary free plain yoghurt and a chopped pink lady apple

  Raw juice pulp crackers topped with garden pate and alfalfa sprouts, chopped carrots and apple

  This was so good – 100% cacao dark chocolate and un-sulphured dried apricots with blob of tahini – amazing tasting combo, plus its packed with calcium! 

Sliced apples with a dipping sauce made from home made raw macadamia butter, lucuma and water

Delicious dinners:

Slightly broken up Socca with parsley served quesadilla style with onion, roast squash and mashed white beans with roast brussels and swede chips on the side. Loving swede chips right now!

Vegan sausages with swede chips, roast brussels, roast beetroot and steamed cabbage with shoyu

This week has been a bit of a challenging one so I thought it would be nice to end this post with some Friday Faves to put a smile on my face!

Kale

As well as getting lots in my veg box, I went to my green grocers and since they had some in I decided to get all of this! The dehydrator is on making kale chips as I speak. I just love getting the proper big stems of kale, so much better than the machine chopped bags you get at the super market.

This hauntingly beautiful song and vintage inspired video

Having a Starbucks in Durham

Chai Soy Latte with cinnamon – prefer their usual big chunky mugs though!

I’ve been working from home today so had the flexibility to pop into town for an hour. James said he would treat me to a Starbucks as he knows I’m trying to be good for the Big Budget Challenge. It was lovely to have a little coffee date, and it reminded me that no matter how skint you are, its important to make time to do something together. We’ve decided that we are going to keep a little cash aside to be able to do things like this, or hire out movies for a ‘date night’ at home a couple of times a month.

Feeling balanced

I really feel like I’m finding my ‘sweet spot’ with regards to balancing my eats and exercise. I love that I’m eating quite mindfully at the moment and honouring my hunger and cravings without it getting out of control. I’m also really happy that I’m achieving a nice balance of my favourite raw foods alongside cooked foods, which I think all the pics above demonstrate.

What are your Friday Faves? Have you got a busy weekend planned? Hope whatever you are up to you enjoy yourself!

Hello everyone, hope your having a great week! I can’t believe its Wednesday already. I thought for WIAW this week I’d give you a different day for a change, so this is what I ate on Sunday.

My eating on a weekend does differ from my weekday eating as I feel like I have a little more time to prepare things (such as juicing), plus I tend to eat a bit more on a weekend – being home and in the kitchen I can’t help it! I love Sundays for being able to enjoy a nice lie in. I got up at 8am (yes, 8am is a lie in for me!) and had the usual mug of warm water with lemon juice and a banana:

I headed to the gym for it opening at 9am and did a little over 5 miles on the treadmill just running at a nice comfortable pace. Then I went into the Kettlebell class which I’m still really enjoying! I’m trying to balance out my breakfasts a bit so that I’m not having as many green smoothies so I made up something a bit different post workout:

Protein Buckwheat Bowl (vegan, serves 1)

• 1/2 cup of raw buckwheat soaked overnight then drained and rinsed
• 1 scoop of protein powder of choice (I used vanilla sun warrior)
• 1 tbsp of ground flax
• Water or non dairy milk (enough to create a creamy consistency)

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl, adding a slow stream of water until a creamy texture is reached. Serve with fruit, nut butter or whatever your heart desires. I also added some maca and mesquite powder to mine and topped with a generous serving of tahini and Clearspring blueberry jam. It was utterly delicious, the jam and tahini went so well together! Buckwheat is also a great source of protein so even if you left out the protein powder and just used non diary milk it would be very nutritious. I also had a mug of black vanilla nut teeccino:

A bit later I was ready for some lunch. Last week I had been spent some samples from Gourmet Raw to review including these raw crisps: 

I made up a snack plate with some home made raw cheesy kale chips, Gourmet Raw red pepper crisps, carrot, cucumber and basil, hemp and pine nut pesto for dipping. I also had a pink lady apple on the side:

Those crisps were fantastic! They reminded me of those ‘squares’ crisps you can get, but healthy and much, much more tasty. I think I have a new addiction! You can get 10% off your first order from Gourmet Raw with code GR001, check it out!

Late afternoon I made my usual weekend green juice:

This contained cucumber, celery, parsley, ginger and lemon. I also had a large bowl of grapes.

For dinner I decided to make use of some brussel sprouts. I know they won’t be in season for much longer and I love them so much so I want to make the most of them! I made them in my favourite way – stir fried with maple syrup, pecans and cranberries. In fact I love them like this so much I thought I’d note down the recipe!

Maple Pecan Stir Fried Brussel Sprouts (makes 1 – 2 servings)

• About 2 cups of brussel sprouts
• 1/2 tbsp of coconut oil (or oil of choice)
• 2 tbsp of pecans
• 2 tbsp of dried cranberries
• 2 tbsp of maple syrup
• 1 tbsp of shoyu or soy sauce

Toast your pecans if desired in a dry pan over a medium high heat, set aside. Chop the ends of the sprouts and finely shred them with a knife or food processor. Heat the coconut oil over a high heat in a large pan or wok. Add the sprouts and stir fry for about 10 minutes until they have softened and started to turn brown and crispy. Add the maple syrup and shoyu and toss to combine. Continue stir frying for a couple of minutes so the maple syrup caramelises. Chop the pecans and add to the pan with the cranberries then serve:

I had the brussel sprouts alongside some parsnip chips and some grilled basil tofu. This was delicious! Without a doubt my fave way to enjoy sprouts.

For dessert I had half a bar of RAW Health Very Cherry Chocolate and three fresh apricots:

I also enjoyed a mug of my new licorice and cinnamon tea:

Before bed I snacked on some of these salted chocolate kale chips as they came out of the dehydrator:

So delicious, I have a big bowl full for a snack at work later today!

Does your eating differ on a weekend to how you usually eat during the week? In what way? I definitely snack more on a Friday and Saturday evening than during the week!

I’m in love with that Protein Buckwheat bowl, I really prefer raw buckwheat to cooked buckwheat. Have you tried buckwheat before, what did you think?