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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?

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?