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How we all doing this fine Tuesday? I’m having a good week so far!

On Monday morning I had my first taste of hemp milk!

I had it with a big bowl of my home mixed muesli with a chopped apple and blueberries:

I was very pleasantly surprised with the hemp milk, it tasted a lot nicer and creamer than I had been expecting and reminded me of soy milk. A definite regular non dairy milk for me now – as long as Tesco continue to stock it!

Today I had a bowl of Dorset Cereal Low Fat Flakes with chopped plums, pecans, raw unsweetened coconut shreds and hemp milk:

I learned the last time I ate these that a bowl with milk and fruit just wouldn’t see my through to lunch so I added the pecans and coconut for more staying power!

I also tried a raw kale salad for lunch. I have had raw kale salads before but they’d mostly turned out to be a fail. I had a lot of kale to use up so I thought I’d give another one a go. I massaged the kale with 1/2 avocado mashed with lemon juice until it wilted down a bit then added carrot, red pepper, sugar snaps, alfalfa sprouts and some roasted soya nuts for protein and crunch plus some braggs:

This pic doesn’t really do it justice, finally a kale salad that tasted good! I think adding the avocado is the trick with this, it would have also been lovely with spicy roast chickpeas, yum!

Today I scored some more tasty reduced persimmons from Asda – these are so good I’m now addicted to them!

Dinner over the last couple of days has been Italian Leek and Bean Stew:

I served it up with some pearl barley (my favourite grain at the moment) plus some steamed green veggies and shoyu. I love this stew, comforting but not too heavy for this time of year.

I’ve also been doing my usual workouts, intervals on cross trainer and step machine, spin class and abs and core on Monday, we had a new spin instructor and he was excellent, the workout was way tougher than usual, I really got my sweat on! Then today I did Yoga for Runners this morning and Body Pump this evening. Body Pump was the new release and it was awesome – my muscles were trembling at the end! To help my muscles recover after Body Pump I had a lovely Peanut Butter Swirl Spiru-tein protein shake (with ice, hemp milk and xanthan gum) with peanut flour sauce and grape nuts cereal as my dessert:

I love my Spiru-tein shakes, the flavours are fab!

I don’t know what’s been up with me over the past few days but my appetite has been completely random. Usually I know when I’m going to start feeling hungry but over the last few days I have had either no appetite or I’ve been ravenous (please note that what I’ve posted above is not everything I’ve eaten – I’m just posting the tastiest stuff!) I have been eating even when not hungry (after I’ve waited a couple of hours for hunger to kick in and it hasn’t) as I know that I need to be getting food in me to fuel my workouts and especially after I burned 900 calories on Sunday with my run! I also hate to waste food. Then on the other hand when I do start eating its hard to stop! I’m hoping my appetite will get back to normal as I find it very odd. Anyone else have a random appetite?

I also just wanted to share this random little snippet I came across on Crazy Sexy Life today:

‘What makes up the quality of your life is your daily existence, not only the peak experiences or significant epiphanies’

For some reason this really struck a cord with me – I used to really struggle with living in the ‘present’ - my mind would always be miles ahead thinking about how life would be different when I moved house, started a family, got a new job etc. Recently I have found a greater level of contentment and happiness in just living in the now and enjoying the amazing things I have been blessed with :-) I still think of the good things to come in the future but I feel I have a better balance now.

Do you feel that you ‘live in the now’ or do you focus on things to come in the future?

Hi guys, how has your weekend been? I’ve had a really lovely one, after having a bit of a ‘me’ day on Friday I had a lovely lie in on Saturday morning and awoke to a big comforting bowl of muesli with a chopped apple and kara coconut milk alongside an Indian Chai tea with coconut milk and stevia:

So good to enjoy a big bowl of wonderful muesli! Lunch was a salad with black kale massaged with with lemon juice and mashed avocado, romaine, carrot, red and yellow pepper, olives, more avocado, hemp seeds, nutritional yeast and braggs:

I spent most of the day pottering about in the kitchen getting ready for my little Bonfire night get together. Unfortunately my Sister and my Bro in Law couldn’t get a baby sitter for my 9 month old nephew but my Mam and Dad brought my older nephew Harry with them and my best friend Charlie brought her little girl Hannah. We had so much fun!

~My Bonfire Night Menu~

Vegetable Broth

Cumberland Sausage Sandwiches (Linda McCartney vegan rosemary and red onion sausages for me) with ketchup and fried onions

Caramelised Red Onion with Blueberry Balsamic Vinegar

Roasted brussel sprouts and leeks in a maple dijon dressing (hemp oil, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard)

Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Bread (my old recipe but with 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips added and unrefined soft brown sugar instead of the xylitol)

Hot Chocolate (made with cococardio) with coconut milk and a shot of amaretto liqueur

      

I had such a lovely evening, I adore those kiddies :-) We ended up watching the fireworks from the top of a hill just two minutes from our flat instead of paying £3 each to go into the actual park. A lot of people had gathered there and the atmosphere was wonderful, I wish I had bought some sparklers, not for the kids but for me!

The food I’d put on went down really well too, that Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Bread was utterly wonderful even James, who rarely gets excited by food, said it was the best thing I’ve ever baked, and in his words it was ‘f***ing lush’. Not bad for something vegan eh?

This morning I enjoyed another lie in so my run wasn’t in the dark for a change! I was really looking forward to getting out, the weather was perfect, bright but very crisp and I adore the smell after bonfire night. I’ve really been enjoying changing up my running routes recently and today was no exception. I did a route with a good few hills that took me though parts of Durham so I could enjoy the views and all the colourful trees. I did 6.7 miles in 58.13 average pace 8.41. I would have rounded it up to 7 miles but I forgot my mittens to go on top of my gloves and my hands where throbbing with pain by the end!

Breakie was a bit of a tutti fruity smoothie containing spinach, rainbow chard, 1/2 frozen banana, frozen peaches, frozen mixed berries, frozen strawberries, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca powder, spirulina, water, vanilla stevia, gums and topped with raw cashew butter, freeze dried berries and bee pollen:

I made myself a delicious raw lunch of raw aubergine bacon and avocado open faced sandwiches on some raw flat breads along with some chopped veggies:

I had the mid afternoon munchies after I’d downed my usual green juice so made up a bowl of cold roast kabocha squash with some peanut flour sauce (1/4 cup peanut flour with stevia and sea salt) plus a sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of honey:

This was the bomb! Such a great snack, and along with an apple it sorted my rumbling tummy out a treat!

For dinner I had a little bit of leftover roasted greens from last night with some roasted broccoli and a herbed socca wrap filled with roast kabocha squash:

The roast broccoli tasted so good and the sprouts and leeks were wonderful as leftovers often are!

Those of you in the UK – did you do anything special for Bonfire night? Is there any food you always associate with the 5th November? I always remember my Nana’s broth!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Well what a week it has been! I feel like I’ve made some big decisions and had some major changes of perspective this week.

source I like this quote, to me it translates that you have to invest something to get something back :-)

I have honestly not felt happier, like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders and that the future is full of so many exciting things. On Monday I officially signed up with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition to study to become a holistic health coach. It’s scary putting my hopes and dreams on the line, but incredibly exciting too!

This weeks workouts:

• Saturday – 3.5 mile run
• Sunday – REST
• Monday – Gym – this strength and HIIT workout but I increased all the upper body weights by 1kg same as last week and went a bit easier on the HIIT
• Tuesday – Body Pump class
• Wednesday – Hot Yoga class
• Thursday – Yoga class
• Friday – Gym – 10 min treadmill, 10 min bike, 10 min cross trainer, body weight circuit: incline push ups, tricep dips, squats, full sit ups x 20 reps each x 3 sets

This week I have been starting to relax my workouts. I have to say, not feeling like I ‘have to’ run is so freeing. Hot yoga was just brilliant again as this week I was joined by the lovely Nicky! We both did really well and managed head stands, which although we assisted each other in them, I think is a big achievement, especially for Nicky with it being her first ever class! I’ve actually had a fear of being in any position where my head is under my body since I was little – I think something might have happened when I was doing a forward roll? Anyway, even just trying it was a big deal for me, then last night in yoga I also almost managed plough pose, I’m on a roll! This mornings work out was nice and easy and fun, I just wanted to move my body so the cardio was very relaxed and the strength moves performed with body weight.

I’ve had some tasty meals this week too. Last Sunday I made a lush salad inspired by the Triple Berry Kale salad from How Sweet It Is:

I hadn’t had a raw kale salad in forever and this was divine! I made up more of the dressing from my cherry and brown rice salad and massaged the kale with it then left it to soften. Then I added freshly cooked chickpeas, beetroot, cherries and roast salted almonds. I used more of the dressing in a lentil salad for a nice simple work lunch:

For a nice quick dinner I nuked a sweet potato and served with spinach, hummus and half a large avocado:

Hummus and avocado is definitely on my favourites list at the moment, I’ve also been having it as a salad.

For breakfasts I’ve been enjoying the same green smoothie combo: spinach, 2 fresh peaches, 1/4 cup peanut flour, ice, water and stevia – it has a fantastic peanutty flavour. I’ve had it with strawberries, persimmon, soy yoghurt and granola…

…and alongside a slice of sticky sweet courgette pecan date bread:

I’ll be sharing that recipe soon, it is fabulous! Snacks wise I’ve enjoyed lots of fruit with nuts such as sliced persimmon and some of my raw ‘roasted’ almonds:

To make those almonds I just soak them for 4 hours, rinse and drain then mix them with some shoyu sauce and dehydrate until dried and crunchy. Love them! I’ve also been loving the roasted vanilla sunflower seed and cashew butter with sea salt I made at the weekend, here on top of a couple of squares of Lindt 90%:

It doesn’t get much better than that!

On the Love List this week…

The most comfortable pair of gym pants ever!

Last week I was sent a couple of pieces from Lovestretch to review, including these amazing Wellicous 3/4 exercise pants. I am in love! I will be doing a full review soon but I couldn’t wait to share how amazing these feel when they are on, I think they are almost too good for the gym! Oh and please excuse my stomach in that pic, I was just wanting to show the waist band detail. I almost cropped it out but you know what, I have no reason to, I’m proud of my body! I may not have visible abs but I’m happy with what I’ve got :-) Also…

Laura Bailey’s Topshop Edit – love pretty much everything in this collection! // being off work today to just chill // having a fridge full of fresh fruit and veg ready for the weekend // this brilliant way of making a to do list // watching Wimbledon // listening to the fundamental lectures with IIN and feeling inspired // the incredible support of my amazing blog readers :-)

In case you missed it:

• I posted a very honest blog about some of my health troubles and changes to my lifestyle
• I talked about June, my July goals and posted my June faves vlog
• I showed you how I make my perfect tofu

I also posted on the My Dairy Free Team blog – check out my post on making dairy free frappes and iced coffee!

What’s on your love list this week? Any exciting plans for the weekend?

Hi guys, hope you’ve had a good weekend! I have to say I’ve been on top form, I’ve been making some well tasty eats!

We popped out yesterday morning for a quick grocery shop before we got settled in for the rest of the weekend, OOTD:

I was feeling the autumnal colours yesterday: Double breasted jacket: H&M, stripy scarf: vintage, aubergine lace effect top with black vest underneath: New Look, gold heart chain: Dorothy Perkins, tan cross body bag: Mango, skinny ankle length jeans: Old Navy, tan brogues: Topshop

So on to the eats! Thinking back to Friday evening, I wanted to use up all that kale I got so I made kamut pasta with raw lemony kale and edamame pesto (very bad light so pic courtesy of Instagram):

I made up some edamame pesto based loosely on the recipe in Appetite for Reduction. I used 1/2 cup of defrosted edamame, about 1/2 cup of fresh basil, 1 small clove of garlic, 1 tsp sweet white miso, 2 tbsp nutritional yeast and 1 tsp of vegetable bouillon powder blended with a bit water. I massaged the kale with hemp oil and lemon juice and mixed it all together with the warm pasta and pesto, yum!

I also used up the black kale I got in my veg box to make some lovely salads:

I massaged the kale with lemon and hemp oil again, and then added some mixed leaves, carrot, red ramiro pepper, beetroot, alfalfa sprouts, a crumbled RAW Italian cracker and some delicious tahini and parsley sauce. I can’t even remember exactly what I put in the dressing but along side the tahini I think I added lemon juice, garlic, coconut aminos, water and fresh parsley, tahini is so good!

I put the kale stems to good use by juicing them alongside my usual cucumber, celery and ginger, and to make sure that even the juice pulp didn’t get wasted, I added it to a huge pan of vegetable broth, nothing goes to waste in this house hold!

For a snack I cooked some russet apples (I got 10 for £1 from the green grocers!) with raisins, cinnamon and some hot water and topped with some wonderful almond custard:

Almond Custard (makes 1 serving, vegan, based on recipe in Low GL Diet Cook Book)

• 1 tbsp of corn flour
• 2 tbsp of water
• 1 heaped tbsp ground almonds
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup of water
• 7 drops of vanilla stevia or 1 tbsp of sweetener of choice

Mix the corn flour and water together into a paste then add to a small pan with the ground almonds. On a medium heat, while stirring continuously, slowly add water, the custard will thicken up as it warms. Add the stevia or sweetener and serve. This is such a lovely simple recipe, I made almond custard, and a chocolate version last year, and totally forgot about it! I can see this making a come back though, it would be amazing with fruit and granola for breakfast.

Yesterday, my sis, bro in law and one of my nephews came round so I thought it would be nice to make them some cookies! This recipe is basically a mash up of about 3 recipes I had on Evernote, they turned out great!

Oatmeal Pumpkin Choc Chip Cookies (makes 16 small cookies, vegan)

• 1 cup Scottish porridge oats
• 1/4 cup spelt flour
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dark choc chips
• 1/4 cup rapeseed oil
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Pre heat the oven to 180. Mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl then take heaped tablespoons of the dough, roll and press down on to a greased baking sheet. Cook for 18-20 minutes until firm to the touch. Leave to cool on a baking rack (they will firm up more as they cool). Devour! 

These are lovely chewy cookies that stay quite moist inside, just how I like them! I used up the remaining pumpkin puree by blending it with a pack of silken tofu, vanilla stevia and 1 tsp of ground mixed spice to make a pumpkin flavoured pudding. I ate some with chopped russet apples and home made raw candied cinnamon pumpkin seeds:

I love tofu puddings!

I also had time to try making something I’ve been dying to make for ages: Raw Nutella!

This is amazing! In the food processor I mixed up 1 cup of raw hazelnuts, 2 tbsp of raw cacao, 1 tbsp of raw agave, a few drops of vanilla stevia and enough rapeseed oil to get it all to blend up. The result is delicious! It’s not very runny but has a similar texture to Artisana Cacao Bliss. This couldn’t have cost me more than £2 to make, in the shops it would probably cost well over £5! This is so moreish, I think I’ve eaten half the jar already – if you make this don’t say I didn’t warn you!

This morning I headed out for my weekend run. I did 10k in 51.31, average pace 8.18 which I was pretty chuffed with! I refuelled after the run with a smoothie containing beet greens, frozen banana, 1 small raw beet, 2 tbsp of Vega choc-a-lot smoothie infusion, maca powder, barley grass powder, rice milk, water, ice and gums and topped with peanut butter sauce and raw cacao granola:

For breakfast yesterday I made up a mixed bowl of  2 chopped persimmons, Alara maca muesli, millet puffs, coconut, gojis, cacao nibs and rice milk. It was lovely!

Well I am going to head into the kitchen now and finish off my usual Sunday cook up session. Spending some prep time today really does make things easier when it comes to putting together tasty and nutritious meals during the week! I’ve definitely found my groove in putting things together, I may have to do a quick post on it sometime! 

How has your weekend been? What’s the tastiest thing you’ve cooked or baked recently? 

Oh and don’t forget you have only a few hours to enter my international Madre Labs super food blends giveaway. Lovely sponsor Cat over at Knitting, Running, Eating is also hosting a great Pukka Tea giveaway too – head on over and check it out!

I started the day with another cup of warm warm and freshly squeezed lemon juice before doing my Davina DVD plus extra back and chest exercises. As usual the lunges and squats killed me and I was nice and sweaty by the finish!

For breakfast I made a smoothie containing frozen blueberries, scoop of vanilla whey, hazelnut and almond rice milk, a little water and a tablespoon of pumpkin and sunflower seeds for a hint of nuttiness. I topped the smoothie with a few seeds as well.


This was delicious but I found that I missed my spinach and the added bulk it gives to smoothies. Just shows how hooked I am on green monsters now!

I headed in towards work dropping my car off at the garage for its service and MOT, luckily it wasn't too bad but it still needs a few things looking at at some point in the next few months like brake pads and new tyres.

Mid morning we had a little get together at work for someone who is leaving. They had some supermarket bought scones thick with butter to dish out, and naturally I declined - if I'm going to have a treat I'll have something I really fancy. In fact I've come to find that stuff like that just doesn't do it for me anymore. Has anyone else found that too? Since I've started eating more 'clean', things like shop bought cakes, scones, crisps, cream cakes etc just don't bother me, I can take them or leave them. I think its cause I know they won't be doing me any favours or nourishing my body. However a homemade wholemeal scone with dates and walnuts warm and covered in butter and jam would have me very happy! I think I tend to crave better quality versions of the stuff that I used to gorge myself on, instead of gallons of some low fat cheapy vanilla ice cream I'd rather have a small portion of extra delicious Ben and Jerrys. Talk about having champagne taste on a lemonade budget!

For lunch I had a kale and chickpea salad. As I now know that kale in green monsters doesn't float my boat I was trying to think up another way to use it. I stir fried it off for a minute or so in some garlic olive oil then mixed it with some chick peas, cucumber, red onion and grated carrot followed by some sea salt.


This was really tasty, it was the first time that I've eaten chick peas raw as well and they were delicious so I'll be using them a lot more in the future. I followed my salad with my new addiction - chopped apple with maca and cinnamon, yum! I totally cover the apple with the maca and cinnamon mix, delicious!


Mid afternoon I had half a pot of cottage cheese with some nakd orange infused raisins. These were also lovely, totally loving all the nakd flavoured raisins!


I had a semi late one at work then headed home via the shops to pick up some groceries for the weekend. Why is it that my shopping list always goes out the window when I get to the shop? I ended up getting a random jar of apple sauce and some cashews - I can't help myself when I see stuff that takes my fancy.

I had a chicken breast defrosted in the fridge to be used up so for dinner I made a quick and tasty stir fry with Pak choy, brocolli, red pepper, carrot and red onion with soy and ginger.


For desert I had some chia seed pudding made with hazelnut and almond rice milk and a tablespoon of agave syrup topped with a strawberry. I like this better than the vanilla version I made earlier in the week. The hazelnut and almond rice milk goes so well with the chia seeds.


I'm probably going to have a couple of plums as well before bed. I've been snacking on these every night for the last couple of days after I've posted but I'm not stressing about any snackiness as long as its just little plums I'm going for.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Its my weigh in day tomorrow and I'm not sure what to expect, every four weeks I have a gain and then lose the week after which makes me think its connected to my monthly cycle. This should be my heavier week, so I'm expecting a gain. I'm not obessing over the weight thing, I just think it would be good for me to get a handle on how my body works for once! I've been looking back through the blog at what I've eaten the past week and how I've exercised and I have to say both have been very good. I'm out at the weekend so I won't be too worried if I end up hammering the red wine since I've been so healthy. I'll just have to make sure that it doesn't turn into an excuse to binge. I think that after my summer holiday in June I'm going to try and stop the weekly weigh in's and just weigh myself once a month as a check in to try and make me a bit more balanced in my approach.

Well I'm off to watch the politians fight it out in the UK's first ever live TV debate. Personally I think there all as useless as each other! Hope your all having a good week x