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I’ve had a great time working from home today. I can be so much more productive when I’m out of the office for some reason. I decided to get a few things out of the way first thing so I hit the gym for a quick run. I did my 5k on the treadmill doing intervals and sprints then jogged to take me up to 30 minutes total time. I also did a couple of sets of abs and core exercises which were especially tough considering the DOMS I have been experiencing from Shredding yesterday morning!

After the gym I went and did a mini grocery shop and then came home for breakfast. I defrosted a slice of my spiced parsnip and apple bread, warmed it through and topped it with almond butter. I then topped it with 2 little chopped apples mixed with 2 tablespoons of 2% greek yoghurt and cinnamon and topped it all off with some honeycomb. I also enjoyed a cup of cinnamon and hazelnut coffee.

 

Such a fab breakfast, that parsnip and apple bread was perfect, so moist and slightly sweet.

For lunch I had some leek, potato and bean soup with a generous amount of smoked paprika and chilli pepper.

I also had three sliced plums with a tablespoon of greek yoghurt and a little cinnamon.

The plums were such a beautiful colour, a gorgeous purple red it was almost a shame to eat them!

Mid afternoon I made myself a matcha latte with soy milk and a little agave syrup.

Love these, I’m going to start making more tea lattes, the tea pigs creme caramel should be great too!

Dinner was a turkey steak with a balsamic glaze (balsamic vinegar, minced garlic, tomato puree, splash of water) and some steamed broccoli and savoy cabbage.

For desert I had something bloody lush:

Warm pears and chocolate ginger sauce (Serves 1)

• 1 pear, cored and sliced
• 1tsp corn flour
• 1 heaped tsp zylitol or other sweetener of choice
• 1 heaped tsp ground almonds
• 100 ml water
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp of cocoa powder
• 1 tsp of dark chocolate chips (optional)

Begin by adding the ground almonds, zytoil and cornflour to a small pan over a medium heat. Add a little water to the mix until a thick paste forms, then add the cocoa powder and ginger. Continue to add a little water as you go until all the water is added and you are left with a thick sauce. Add chocolate chips if using and stir until they melt. Warm the pears in a microwave for a few seconds if desired and then add to a bowl. Top the pears with the sauce and a sprinkle of cinnamon and serve.

This was amazingly good! The chocolate and ginger flavour was delicious and went really well with the pears. I’ll be making this again for sure! You could add all sorts of different flavour combos such as adding mint essence, a bit of peanut butter etc. Yum!

Less of and more of

Today I came across this little piece from Ms Bitchcakes (fab blog check it out!) She was looking at some less of and more of:

1. Less alcohol, more tea.
2. Less meat, more vegetable.
3. Less salt, more vinegar.
4. Less sugar, more fruit.
5. Less eating, more chewing.
6. Less words, more action.
7. Less greed, more giving.
8. Less worry, more sleep.
9. Less driving, more walking.
10. Less anger, more laughter

I really liked these and they made me think about what my less of and more of would be. I came up with these:

• Less worry, more relaxation
• Less spending, more saving
• Less TV, more books
• Less frustration, more acceptance
• Less ready packaged, more making my own

What are your less of and more of?

As I mentioned in my last post I had myself a bit of a soup making day yesterday. I said I post the recipe for this lovely soup:

Leek Potato and Bean Soup (based on a recipe in the Holford Low GL Diet Cookbook) makes 4 servings

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil or butter
• 3 leeks washed, trimmed and sliced
• 8 new potatoes, scrubbed and chopped
• 1 tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• Enough hot vegetable stock to cover the veggies

Sauté the leeks in the oil or butter on a medium heat until they have softened. Add the potatoes and veg stock and simmer until the potatoes have softened. Add the beans and simmer for another few minutes. Blend and serve.

I used new potatoes and white beans in this soup in place of regular potatoes to reduce the amount of carbs as regular potatoes never seem to fill me up. This was so lovely for dinner on a cold and windy day!

Desert was a sliced peach and pear topped with some Almond Custard made with another recipe from The Holford Low GL Diet Cookbook.

This worked wonderfully – so easy to make and very tasty! I also tried out a new to me ingredient – Xylitol. Its a naturally derived sugar alternative which like agave syrup doesn’t raise your blood sugar levels as much as regular sugar. It comes in granulated form. Has anyone used it before? What did you think?

I’m going to do a full post on the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load really soon. This cookbook is full of some fantastic recipes and as they are all designed to balance sugar and carbs they are right up my street. They are also really simple and straightforward. My kind of cooking! The book itself is kind of laid out as a diet plan but I ignored that bit and just looked at the recipes ;-)

On to today’s eats! I made a lovely bowl of porridge using 1/2 cup Rude Health’s Fruity Date Porridge Mix made with 1/2 cup of soy milk and 1/2 cup of water. I topped it with some of my Pecan Plum Crunch Topping (2 chopped plums, 1 tablespoon of grape nuts cereal, 1 tablespoon of chopped pecans, cinnamon and agave syrup to taste)

This was delicious and tasted very seasonal!

Mid morning I snacked on some hummus with carrot and raw cauliflower for dipping.

Who knew raw cauliflower would taste so good?

Lunch was a bowl of Chilli Bean Soup I also made yesterday:

Chilli Bean Soup

• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 chopped white onion
• 2 chopped cloves of garlic
• 1 chopped carrot
• 1 chopped pepper (I used half a green pepper and a full yellow pepper)
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of kidney beans drained and rinsed
• 1 teaspoon of hot chilli powder (or to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
• 2 vegetable stock cubes (I use two teaspoons of vegetable bouillon powder)
• Hot water

Begin by frying the onion and garlic in the oil over a medium heat. Once softened add the carrots and pepper. Continue to fry the veggies for a few minutes then add the beans followed by the chopped tomatoes. Keep the empty tin from the tomatoes and fill up with hot water (be careful not to burn yourself like I did!) and add two tinfuls to the pan. Add your veggie stock cubes, spices and tomato puree. Let the soup simmer for ten minutes or until the veggies have softened then serve.

I also had a couple of juicy pears with my soup.

Before leaving work for the gym I drank a Beet It Shot. Tonight was my first spinning class in about two years! I started in the gym and did 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer and step machine followed by some abs exercises then I went into the class. I really enjoyed it! It was a great workout and I think having the variety of a class as part of my routine is going to be great. I’m all booked in ready for next week!

For my dinner I mixed roast veggies from yesterday with some basil tofu and warmed it up in the microwave then served it on top of some spinach and cos lettuce.

Desert was defrosted mixed berries with half a tub of cottage cheese, agave syrup and cinnamon.

I can’t believe how dark and cold it has been today. I think I’ll be eating a lot of soup over the colder months! Now that I have my new blender I’m going to try and make some vegetable and fruit juices so that I’m still getting plenty of raw food in my diet. Over the summer I was eating lots of raw fruit and vegetables in salads and I feel great for it, I want to be able to keep it up as much as possible!

Do you make an effort to eat raw fruits and vegetables? What do you do in the winter to keep this up when salads don’t seem so appealing?

Thanks for your comments on yesterdays post about the Secret Santa. Its great that so many of you are up for it. I’ll leave it until November then I’ll do a full post with all the details. I’m excited about it already!

This mornings breakfast:

1/2 cup of Dorset Cereal Tasty Toasted Spelt Muesli, 1/4 cup of jumbo oats, 1/4 cup of quinoa flakes, chopped pear, cinnamon and soy milk.

Mid morning I snacked on some vanilla silken tofu (mori nu silken tofu blended with agave and vanilla extract) and some apple, raspberry, goji berry and cinnamon compote that I whipped up last night.

I had a few apples that were past their best and it only took me 5 minutes to make these. I followed my usual recipe but used raspberries instead of frozen mixed berries and added a few gojis for an extra hit of vitamin C. I’m taking all the vitamin C I can get at the moment, everyone at work is coughing and sneezing and I do not fancy coming down with a cold!

Lunch was a bowl of Leek, potato and white bean soup followed by an orange.

 

I finished a work meeting early so popped to the shops for a few groceries and then decided to do my usual Wednesday night treadmill run outdoors instead. I had a beet it shot for a little fuel then ran my 3.8 miles in 35.52, I took a route with a couple of hills to act like higher intensity intervals. I followed my run with some abs exercises.

For dinner I made some tomato pasta sauce with quorn mince, garlic, mushrooms and basil and served it with courgette ‘pasta’ on top of some spinach.

Twas delish! Desert was a few chunky squares of Ritter Hazelnut Dark Chocolate and a sliced russet apple.

I saw the russet apples at the supermarket and had to buy some. They were my Nana’s favourite apple and really remind me of her. I love how food can connect us with people like that.

Today I made another trip to the Library. I had ordered in this book:

‘The Kind Diet’ by Alicia Silverstone. I’ve been dying to read this for a while. Although I’m far from vegan I’m trying to reduce my consumption of meat and really enjoy eating vegan foods so I’m hoping I will find some great recipes in here. Have you read this book? What did you think?

I also picked up these other books:

I just love reading through nutrition and cookbooks for meal ideas. I also have Nigella Kitchen on order at the Library, I can’t wait until that comes in. If its good (which I suspect it is) it will be going on my Christmas wish list! With all of these government funding cuts I really hope the Libraries can survive, since doing my Big Budget Challenge I’ve really grown to love mine.

Another little highlight of my day was scoring some packs of Oreo cookies from work. They were delivered free with a stationary order. I love Oreo’s, I know they are very processed but as an occasional treat crumbled on top of yoghurt or protein ice cream they will be delicious!

Hope your all having a great week, so happy that we are over half way to the weekend already!