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Hello everyone! How’s your week going? Mine has been a strange one as I’ve been working from home / at meetings so my routine has been completely thrown out of sync!

I started yesterday with a fantastic run, unfortunately I set off and forgot to hit the start button on my Garmin. I was gutted as I had a really wonderful run which felt very fast, especially as I managed to include a few intervals in the middle. As its a usual route I know I covered about 6.4 miles. My last mile (once I glanced down and realised I hadn’t started the Garmin I started it up) was 8.41 so if that’s anything to go by I could have set a new pb for my 10k!

This morning I was up early and did some free style yoga for 15 minutes and tonight I’ve been to the gym for my usual Thursday 3,2,1 workout which was fun but hard work, it was so hot in the gym! I’m not complaining about this lovely weather we’ve had today though :-)

I’ve had a couple of doubled up meals these last two days, but as always I like variety in my breakfasts!

Post run green smoothie containing spinach, mixed frozen summer berries, half and avocado, coconut water, scoop of chocolate amazing grass powder, spirulina, mesquite, maca, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums for thickness then topped with the most delicious cashew butter sauce and Alara Goji Muesli:

This was just so good, it was almost like eating thick chocolately fruit sorbet, the cashew butter sauce was gorgeous as well.

This morning I had two slices of toasted quinoa and amaranth bread toasted and topped with a sachet of Justin’s Maple Almond butter and sliced strawberries plus the remaining strawberries on the side and a vanilla decaf with rice milk and stevia:

Loved that maple almond butter! Lunches have been the same salad beast with romaine, lambs lettuce, carrot, cucumber, radish, basil tofu, olives and braggs liquid aminos plus an organic pear:

For my dinners I decided to try and recreate one of my favourite high street supermarket lunches:

Source

The Marks and Spencer Wholefood Shaker Salad! I kept the label the last time I had one and created this recipe based on some of the ingredients:

I can’t believe its not M&S Whole Food Salad (makes 2 servings, vegan)

• 1/4 cup of cooked rice (the M&S version uses wild rice but I didn’t have any so used a red and wild rice mix)
• 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup of cooked green lentils
• 1/2 cup of edamame / soya beans defrosted
• 1.5 cups of cubed and roast butternut squash
• 2 tbsp of pumpkin / mixed seeds

For the lemon and herb dressing:

• 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (I used my cool oil)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• Handful of fresh basil, finely chopped

Combine the salad ingredients in a large lunch box or bowl with a lid. In a separate bowl combine the dressing ingredients then pour over the salad, pop the lid on and shake then serve:

I served mine with some spinach, steamed broccoli and asparagus. I loved this! It really did taste like the M&S version even though this had a much simpler ingredients list. I just used the ratio of rice / lentils / quinoa and edamame that was easy for me to put together (lentils leftover from another meal etc) but any combo of these ingredients in whatever amount would do the trick. I love mixed grain and bean / legume salads – I think that’s why I enjoy the salad bars at Whole Foods so much! 

Dessert last night was 6 squares of Green and Blacks Dark Chocolate with Peppermint filling:

Nom! Tonight I made a big bowl of Spiru-tein Peanut Butter Swirl Protein ice cream:

Topped with some peanut flour sauce and cacao nibs, fabulous!

I’m very happy this evening as I am now finished work for the week – I decided to book in a day off so I can have a ‘me’ day. I have a few nice things planned including a trip to town, fruit and veg and clothes shopping, perhaps some cooking and watching a couple of old movies. If you had a ‘me’ day planned what would it include?

I really enjoyed my I can’t believe its not M&S salad!' Do you have a favourite shop bought lunch or dinner option? Have you ever tried to recreate something you’ve bought at a shop?

Hi everyone, happy weekend! I’m so glad it has finally arrived. Here’s a bit of a catch up on yesterday’s eats:

After doing my usual DVD workout I was extremely excited about making myself a giant chocolate cherry green monster. I really can’t go more than a couple of weeks without one of these in my life they just taste so good! It contained the usual spinach, frozen cherries, chocolate whey, soy milk, matcha green tea powder and maca powder. I topped it with half a bag of we are bear coca cherry pie granola.

This was to die for, just the most delicious breakfast. I also enjoyed a cup of tea pigs yerba mate tea to give me a morning boost.

Lunch was one of my home made egg white and spelt wraps filled with turkey slices, lettuce, green pepper, cucumber, red onion and sweet chilli sauce. I also had a large chopped carrot and two little plums.

 

The sweet chilli sauce was amazing, I bought my first bottle a few days ago and I think it will be ending up in allsorts of dishes!

Mid afternoon I snacked on some 2% Greek Yoghurt with walnuts and goji berries.

I had another delightful late night at work so dinner was another quick lazy one: egg and veggie scramble with cheese. I fried up some red onion and red pepper then added some spinach followed by an egg an an egg white. I scrambled it all up then topped with two sliced babybel light.

Quick, easy and delicious.

Desert was two chopped apples and a big square of the wonderfulness that is Lindt Dark Chocolate with sea salt. I saw these in Sainsbury’s on Wednesday (ok, so I was hunting them down) and bought two more bars to add to already large chocolate stash.

On to today…

I fancied treating myself to a lazy breakfast so I made up another egg white and spelt wrap with added mixed seeds and filled it with crunchy peanut butter and a sliced apple. I also had a cup of hazelnut and cinnamon coffee.

Just the perfect breakfast, it kept be full from 7am till 12, not bad going!

Lunch was a salad containing turkey, cucumber, green pepper, red onion, romaine lettuce and a dressing made from two heaped tablespoons of beetroot chutney mixed with some red wine vinegar. I also had a apple, pear and two mini plums.

 

Before hitting the gym I had a Beet It Shot. I did 45 minutes of HITTs on the usual cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by 3 x 15 reps on the chest machine and lat machine and 3 x 20 sit ups on the stability ball.

Today I also got my fruit and vegetable boxes from the food co op. This week I went for the £5 fruit box and the £5 veg box:

 

Still excellent value, I’m so happy that I’m able to take advantage of this scheme. I had lots of fun writing a meal plan to use all this up!

For dinner I wanted to make use of the Butternut squash I got in last weeks box. As the hubby has his mates over on a Friday night I get to make myself a special meal for one (they eat pizza!)

Butternut Squash and Quinoa Risotto (serves 1)

• 1/2 cup of quinoa, rinsed
• 1/3 butternut squash cut into small pieces and roasted
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of frozen peas
• 1 handful of baby spinach
• 1 cup of vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon of greek yoghurt (I used 2%)
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutritional yeast (or parmesan)

Begin by frying off the onion and garlic in a little oil, once softened and transparent add the quinoa. Then add the vegetable stock and bring the pan to the boil. The quinoa will absorb all the stock after about 15 minutes, but don’t let it become too dry, it should go a nice creamy texture. Then add the peas, butternut squash and spinach. Allow the spinach to wilt down into the pan. In a separate bowl mix together the yoghurt and nutritional yeast / cheese. Lower the heat then gently stir the yoghurt into the quinoa. Serve.

This was bloody gorgeous! Definitely one of my best recipes to date. I’ll be making quinoa risotto all the time now using different veggies. You could double the quantities and make it for two, but I would keep the onion and garlic the same. I just don’t mind eating all that onion!

For desert I made a lovely big bowl of double chocolate protein ice cream with dark chocolate chips.

I also enjoyed 3 sneaky pieces of deliciousness that I had baked. I can’t blog about the recipe yet as it was a practice batch for a blogger cookie exchange I’m taking part in and I don’t want to spoil the surprise for the lovely Tamzin!

Over the last couple of days I have discovered some fantastic cookery blogs:

Stone Soup: has some wonderful and extremely simple recipes made with only 5 ingredients. They even have a free ecookbook which you can download.

Veggie Num Num: A great vegetarian cookery blog with amazing food photography

All Day I Dream About Food: I’ve found several great low carb simple recipes from this blog

Now all I need is more meals in the day when I can eat them!

This weekend I will be running, shopping, seeing friends, watching movies and baking. Sounds pretty perfect to me! What have you all got planned? Whatever your up to hope you have a great weekend! :-)

Hi everyone, hope your week has got off to a great start. I have to admit that the end of this week can’t come quick enough for me, I’m really looking forward to having next week off!

Monday started with an awesome workout. As part of refreshing my workout plan and with my races fast approaching, I decided to increase my usual Monday treadmill run. I went from my usual 20 minutes of 2.5 min intervals to a 3.1 mile / 5k run doing 2.5 mile intervals using the lap guide on the machine. It was really good fun! I started with a warm up then did my intervals covering 3.1 miles in 26.48. I then did some more cardio intervals on the cross trainer, bike and rowing machine for 30 minutes followed by my new abs and core plan – I managed to knock out an extra push up, up to a total of 5 now ;-)

Today I did the usual Yoga for Runners podcast this morning and Body Pump this evening after work. It was a bit frustrating as someone set up their step and weights so close to me I was worried I would hit them with my barbell!

I had an abundance of greens to use up from the weekend so made a big green smoothie for breakfast yesterday:

I went for my fave combo of strawberry and peanut butter, this included beet greens, spinach, frozen strawberries, home made almond milk, strawberry hemp protein powder, lots and lots of crunchy peanut butter, mesquite, maca, barley grass, ice and the usual gums to thicken. I topped with more pb, dried strawberries and freeze dried berries. I did go a little overboard with the pb, but this baby kept me full for hours! I was very impressed with the strawberry hemp protein powder too.

Today’s breakfast was just what I was craving – a giant cereal bowl with Dorset Cereals Low Fat Fruity Flakes, strawberries, almond milk and  Justin’s chocolate almond butter sauce:

Heaven in a bowl!

Other deliciousness these last couple of days include this simple but tasty Beetroot and Tahini dip / dressing:

 

I had it as a dip with veggies for a snack and slightly watered down as a dressing with a huge salad also containing chickpeas, romaine, red pepper, carrot, cucumber and radish. Its so simple I can barely call this a recipe!

Beetroot and Tahini Dip (makes approx 1.5 cups, vegan)

• 1 heaping cup of cooked beetroot
• 2 tbsp of tahini
• 1 tbsp of sweet white miso (could omit and add pinch of salt instead, but this does add creaminess)
• Juice from half a lemon (optional)

Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. I added a small amount of water to get my desired consistency. This is really tasty, slightly sweet but with a savoury nuttiness from the tahini. It went especially well with the sweet red pepper for dipping!

I’ve also enjoyed this wonderful pasta dish:

Wholemeal spaghetti with spiralised courgette in a cheesy white bean and basil sauce (this recipe just with more water added) served with steamed broccoli and asparagus doused in shoyu.

I’ve been having the usual bowls of protein ice cream too:

This was 2 scoops of Smore’s spiru-tein protein powder with ice, water, xanthan and guar gums topped with a simple chocolate sauce made from cocoa powder and agave. I really never tire of these!

I also tried a new flavour Luna Bar from my NYC stash:

 

This was the Nutz Over Chocolate and it tasted really nice, check out the lovely chocolate layer! I haven’t decided if I prefer it over the Peppermint Stick yet though.

I really can’t wait for my time off next week and my trip to Brighton, fingers crossed I’ll get some nice weather while I’m down there! I’m staying with my Aunt and Uncle, Brighton’s really a second home to me as I’ve been visiting every year since I was little. Do you have any summer breaks or holiday’s planned? Is there a place that you would call your second home?

Don’t forget to enter my Giveaway for the chance to win a months supply of Total Greek Yoghurt!

Thanks for all your comments to my 2010 review post! I loved hearing about how your year has been and look forward to reading about what you have achieved. I can’t believe we are now into the final few hours of 2010! This year has been such a good one but I’m eagerly awaiting the start of 2011.

Yesterday I woke up really pretty rotten and full of cold. I decided I would still do my usual DVD for a little strength workout as all my symptoms were above the neck. I made a well tasty breakfast of apple and sweet mincemeat oats topped with pecans and a drizzle of soy cream.

My last sweet mincemeat oats!

I started perking up a bit so I had a walk into town. While I was there I ended up having a splurge in Holland and Barrats on various bits and bobs that I intend to use as part of my January challenge as well as some other things:

I purchased:

• Vita Coco Coconut Water – I love this stuff, great for hydrating you. I’m going to try it blended in smoothies
• Dr Stuarts Detox Tea
• Cool Oil – this is a great source of omega fats that I’m going to use on salads
• Sweet Freedom sweetener – I’ve wanted to try this out for ages!
• Acai juice – this is full of antioxidants – I’m going to add a shot of juice to smoothies and juices
• Pure pear and apple spread – I’m going to add this to porridge and spread on top of sprouted wheat bread
• Spirulina Greens Powder – derived from algae this is chock full of vitamins and minerals, I’m going to add this to smoothies and juices
• Milk Thistle Tincture – milk thistle supports the liver and its role in the detoxing process, I’ll add a few drops to smoothies and juices
• Echinacea Tincture – this is believed to help against colds and support the immune system
• Vegan multi vits – as my plan for next month is vegan I thought it would be a good idea to take a multi vit to make sure I’m not missing anything
• Emergen-C sachets – these sachets contain a range of vitamins to support the immune system
• Bear fruit yoyos – love these!
• Pecan Pie nakd bar

I had a really tasty lunch – leftover roast veggies in a toasted wholemeal wrap with chilli cheese served with roasted broccoli:

This was so delicious! I had to use two wraps to hold it together as they had been in the freezer and had started breaking up. I also had 4 satsumas and some pomegranate seeds:

Mid afternoon I snacked on another serving of my Pumpkin, Rhubarb and Ginger mix topped with some Bear Apple Crumble Granola.

I also made myself a emergen-c drink with a few drops of Echinacea tincture to try and fight my cold:

Dinner was so so good! I saw a little bag of cubed butternut squash in M&S half price so I roasted it and made up a salad including a bag of mixed spinach, rocket and watercress, organic goats cheese, dried cranberries, chopped maple roasted nuts and a dressing made with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard.

This salad was seriously the bomb! For dessert I polished off the remainder of my violet creams.

I love these so much! Before bed I had a small glass of red wine.

This morning I woke up feeling miles better – those emergen-c sachets must be good! I had a lovely big bowl of Dorset Cereal Muesli Nutty muesli with a chopped apple and vanilla soy milk and a glass of fresh orange juice for an extra dose of vit C:

I also had a Christmas coffee with vanilla soy milk and agave. I did a bit of grocery shopping and picked up these magazines:

Yoga Magazine and Ultra Fit. I’ve never bought these magazines before and I picked them up on a whim hoping that they might give me a little added inspiration for next year – I have to say the Ultra Fit cover models body is amazing – I’d love more defined abs! I’ve only had a quick flick through them but I was very impressed. Have you read Yoga Magazine or Ultra Fit? If so what did you think?

Mid morning I headed to the gym for a 1 hour HIIT session on the treadmill, bike, step machine and cross trainer. I was really chuffed with the 20 minutes I spent on the treadmill, I increased my hard interval from 30 seconds to 1 minute for a few repeats and felt great for the whole workout. I finished off with some abs exercises.

Lunch was 6 oatcakes, 3 with garlic cheese and 3 with light cream cheese and chilli jam (nom!) plus some carrot sticks, marinated olives and 2 juicy plums:

I spent the afternoon clearing out my wardrobe of old clothes that no longer fit, sorting through my make up bag and washing my make up brushes. I had a bit of time so I thought I would have a run through of the Y Body Plan DVD which I had kindly been sent to review. I need to run through it a few more times before I do a full review but my first impressions were very good.

After my workout I snacked on half a tub of Rachel’s Organic Cherry Greek Yoghurt.

 

Dinner was fab - I had some spinach, rocket, watercress and carrot with Cauldron Moroccan Falafels, hummus and olives:

I love falafel and should really make it myself more often. For dessert I made up some extra indulgent cookies and cream protein ice cream with Spiru-tein cookies and cream protein powder, soy milk, lots of ice, 3 big scoops of tofutti vanilla ‘ice cream’, guar and xanthan gums then topped my bowl with my 2 of my fave oreo cookies:

Delish! I’m now happily stuffed :-)

I’m getting so excited for the New Year! What’s your plans for seeing in 2011? I’m meeting James when he finishes work and we are meeting some friends for drinks before going out for some food then coming home to watch movies with a bottle of wine.

I’m just so ready for the New Year to start – tomorrow I’m going to post all my goals for 2011, I can’t wait to get stuck in!

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great week! I was off work yesterday to enjoy a wonderful shopping day with my Mam, Auntie and Grandma. OOTD:

Yellow floral blouse: Zara, white vest: H&M, tan bag: Mango, heart necklace: Dorothy Perkins, wooden bangles: various, skinny jeans: Old Navy, gold sandals: Next.

We had a great time but I ended up spending a fortune. My purse will have to be under lock and key until my trip to Brighton next month! I did get some gorgeous stuff though:

Racer back vests: Miss Selfridge, Denim shorts: Dorothy Perkins, orange bag: Dorothy Perkins, silver flip flops: Accessorize, long line denim floral printed bar and pant set: Marks and Spencer, Ultra Bland Facial Cleanser: Lush, Hair clips: Accessorize, rose necklace: Topshop.

Coral dress with tan woven belt: Miss Selfridge

Stripy tee: Topshop

Navy wide leg linen trousers: Topshop (at least these were reduced!)

Oh, and yes, I am clearly having a thing for orange / coral colours right now!

Before we went shopping yesterday I got an early morning gym session in. I did a great 20 minute speed workout on the treadmill followed by 40 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer, bike, rowing machine and step machine followed by abs and core (still rocking a 2.15 plank!)

After that I had a lovely breakfast of two chopped pears, some of my rhubarb and orange compote from the freezer, soy yoghurt and mixed seeds. I also had a big mug of yerba mate tea:

After shopping I had some leftover Jewelled Couscous with a huge M&S carrot and beetroot salad bowl:

Plus a punnet of strawberries, so tasty. People are still surprised when I eat a huge salad like this! For dinner last night I went for the quick and easy option of Kabocha and Adzuki bean stew (from the freezer) with lots of chopped parsley, steamed kale and broccoli:

So delicious, I’ve been really missing kabocha recently! Dessert was two chopped apples with some Justin’s Chocolate Almond Butter for dipping:

Very nice but I still prefer Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter!

This morning, after I did my Yoga for Runners I made my fave smoothie and toast with nut butter combo:

Toasted quinoa and amaranth bread with Trader Joes Roasted Flax Peanut Butter (purchased on my trip to NYC) and a Strawberry and Rhubarb Smoothie. The peanut butter was lovely and drippy just how I like it!

This evening I was at the gym for my Body Pump class. I fit in a bit of cardio on the machines before the class started. It was so good to get back to it after a couple of weeks of missing the class. I just love how strong I feel when doing Body Pump!

Dinner was some rice penne pasta with garlic sautéed courgette, cannellini beans, vegan pesto and nutritional yeast with a spinach, watercress and rocket salad:

This was delicious – quick, easy and simple but so tasty! Dessert was an awesome bowl of cookies and cream protein ice cream with chocolate sauce made from cocoa powder, agave and water:

So yummy, I love my protein ice creams!

I really enjoyed my shopping day yesterday, it was just especially nice to spend that time with my lovely Mam, Aunt and Grandma! Do you ever have family shopping trips? When was your last shopping trip and what did you get? I’m just loving orange and coral colours at the moment! What colours are you into right now?