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If this post at any points starts to drift off into a ramble or complete randomness please forgive me, it is simply the cabin fever that I have developed over the last week of being pretty much stuck indoors. I’m going a bit stir crazy!

Yesterday I decided to walk into town and get the bus to work, it took me several hours and about 4 miles of walking in heavy snowfall but it was worth it just to get out of the house. I picked up some additional work so I could continue to work from home for the rest of the week.

At least I’ve had some tasty eats! Breakfasts:

 Toasted organic sprouted wheat bread with cashew butter and dark cherry fruit sweetened jam, 2 small sliced pears and a sliced pink lady apple, gingerbread coffee.

Dorset Cereal’s Cranberry, Cherry and Almond Muesli with Rachel’s Organic Greek style yoghurt, a grated red gala apple and local honey comb, earl grey tea

This was my first time trying the sprouted wheat bread and Rachel’s yoghurt. I really like the bread, only one ingredient (sprouted wheat) dense, chewy and filling. I picked up the yoghurt as have been trying to stick with organic dairy products when possible and unfortunately my favourite Total Greek isn’t organic, also this was slightly cheaper. I was very impressed with this, it tasted wonderfully creamy and had that perfect greek yoghurt texture.

I’ve been eating my main, heavier meal of the day at lunchtime rather than in the evenings with me being at home:

Shredded brussel sprouts, pearl barley, carrot and smoked sesame almond tofu with toasted seeds and mustard, maple, balsamic dressing.

 More smoked sesame almond tofu with roasted brussel sprouts, swede chips (so gorgeous!) and ketchup

Snackies:

 Rachel’s organic greek yoghurt with luxury fruit and nut mix and honey

 Pumpkin spice cake bar and butterscotch decaf coffee

I’ve also ate lots of fruit – oranges and apples in particular!

Last night I just made myself a mug of miso and ginger soup followed by two frozen chocolate avocado cups and a sliced apple:

Tonight I had some warming french onion soup with a chopped raw carrot followed by 2 chopped plums and a chopped apple with a tablespoon of granola and oat milk:

This morning I ventured out to the shops to try and get a big grocery shop in. I have an extreme fear of having an empty fridge, especially running out of fresh veggies! I actually have a bit of a raw veggie craving at the moment, not very appropriate for this weather!

Fitting in workouts has been a bit of a nightmare too. I got quite a good bit of exercise with my walk yesterday but I also did Davina’s Super Fit DVD plus abs for an additional 40 minutes of cardio. Today I did the Super Sculpt section of the DVD with additional upper body work. I also did an hour of Yogalates. My gym doesn’t appear to be open either which is a bummer. I’m going to have to get creative with my workouts me thinks! I actually quite enjoy walking in the snow so a long walk may be in order.

Speaking of being creative, I put up a few little Christmas decorations. We don’t really have the space for a full sized tree anymore so while we wait until we find a small tree I’ve compromised with this:

‘Snow’ covered twigs in a vase with jewelled bird decorations and home made baubles (from recycled Christmas cards)

Fairy lights strung over our screen (which hides our little rowing machine, yoga mat, free weights and foam roller)

Table centre piece – candles with string of gold beads, purple baubles on a red plate. Hopefully I will be able to find some holly and mistletoe sprigs with some cinnamon sticks to replace these, although this still looks very pretty.

I also bought a lovely Christmas scented candle, a poinsettia (always reminds me of my nana) and gorgeous advent calendar.

Just enough to add a bit of festive cheer to our living room until we can find a little tree!

I’m just about to head off and pick the hubby up from the train station, just hope my little car makes it! If you have snow how are you managing?

Oh, and if anyone has any ideas or links to challenging cardio workouts I can do at home please do share!

I started the day with just under an hour of squats, lunges, bicep curls and star jumps courtesy of my bottom and top fit DVD workouts from Davina. I’m actually starting to enjoy the bottom fit workout after three weeks of doing it, I still get DOMS after it too!

Breakfast was a bowl of this Power Porridge (another item I’ve been sent to review on behalf of the lovely Neen while she’s in full wedding mode)

I used half a cup of this mix which along with oats contains various other grains and seeds, with 1 cup of water and cooked it on the stove top adding frozen blueberries, vanilla sun warrior protein powder and a splash of kara coconut milk. For toppings I went with mixed seeds, goji berries and some coconut.

Such a delicious mix! The porridge tasted good too, without all the add ins it would definitely have required some sweetening up though.

Lunch was a really super salad. I had downloaded a random app for my phone the other day called Vegan 21 Day Kickstart that include a recipe for a Confetti Quinoa Salad and knew I had to come up with a similar version!

Laura’s Confetti Quinoa Salad (makes 2 large servings):

• 1 cup of quinoa, rinsed
• 2 cups of vegetable stock
• 1/2 red cabbage
• 6 spring onions
• 1 large carrot
• 1 red pepper
• fresh parsley
• 4 dried apricots (I used some un sulphured apricots)
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
• Lettuce leaves to serve (I used little gem)

Simmer the quinoa in the veg stock until all the stock has been absorbed and the quinoa is tender. Leave the quinoa to cool. Finely chop all the veggies, the parsley and the apricots and mix together with the cooled quinoa. To make the dressing mix the oil and vinegar together in a screw top jar, shake to combine, then pour over the quinoa and mix through. Serve the quinoa on top of some green leaves and enjoy!

 

This was a seriously good salad! Extra filling and really tasty – all of the ingredients go together so well and the addition of the apricots adds a hint of sweetness that is delicious. I also enjoyed a couple of un pictured satsumas.

Mid afternoon I snacked on a little tub of mixed dried fruit and nuts from the luxury fruit and nut bag I’d bought at Tesco a couple of weeks ago.

Last night I had decided to use up some tofu for tonight's dinner. I drained the tofu and wrapped it in kitchen roll then pressed it to remove some excess water. I then left it to marinade in a mix inspired by my Fresh Asian Salad and the following recipe was born!

Sweet Ginger Sesame Tofu Stir Fry (stated portions make 1 large serving)

• 1/2 block of firm tofu, drained and pressed

Tofu marinade:

• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce
• 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger minced (or 1 teaspoon of minced ginger from a tube)

For the stir fry:

Selection of veggies of your choice. I used:

• diakon / mooli root
• cauliflower
• leek
• mushroom
• savoy cabbage
• red cabbage

To serve:

• 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds, lightly toasted
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce
• 1/4 inch piece of minced ginger (or 1/2 teaspoon of the lazy kind)

Cube the tofu and marinade in the soy, sesame oil, sweet chilli and ginger for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. Begin by lightly toasting your sesame seeds in a dry pan until they are slightly browned. Set to one side. Then stir fry the tofu, reserving any marinade, on a high heat in a little oil (I used my favourite coconut oil). Once the tofu is nicely browned set to one side. Chop and shred the veggies as desired and stir fry until tender. Add the tofu back to the pan followed by any remaining marinade and the additional soy, sweet chilli and ginger. Transfer to a plate and top with the toasted sesame seeds. Enjoy!

 

Desert was two organic apples chopped, microwaved for a couple of minutes then topped with one of my pumpkin spice cake bars and some cinnamon.

Yum!

Today I emailed everyone taking part in Secret Santa so check your inboxes!

I’ve decided to keep the boots I got yesterday, I wore them for work today and I really like them, I enjoy the extra height, loving that wedge heel!

I also discovered the Forever 21 UK website today. The prices look pretty reasonable and I love some of the pieces especially these:

Wrap Dress (£24.80)

 

Polka Dot Dress (£21.80)

Cable Knit Sweater (£15.80)

I’m in need of a simple party dress as I like to add some of my vast collection of sparkly accessories to more simple clothing over for Christmas style. I’m also in serious need of some more knit wear. I’m really feeling the cold temperatures at the moment and need extra layers – a chunky knit would be perfect over some slim trousers with my new boots!

What clothes are you in need of (or want of!) at the moment? Has anyone bought anything from Forever 21?

I started the day off in a terrible mood. I felt really down about things – particularly feeling very disconnected from people. I’m lucky in that I’m usually a pretty cheerful person (at least I hope I am!) but when I get down I usually get quite low (there were tears involved) but then I pull myself round and feel better.

I’m putting today down to the dreaded PMT but to help me get back to my normal self I just tried to think about all of the things that I’m really grateful for: My husband, my health, my job and even being able to share my passions and interests through this blog!

I have noticed that I’m becoming more content to spend time alone doing the things that I enjoy that others in my life aren’t as fussed with, i.e. exercising and cooking. In many ways my blog is my outlet for all of the things that I love that I don’t hold in common with others in my life. Can anyone else relate to this?

Anyway, I’m feeling much more my usual self now, as is so often the way with hormonal mood swings. On to today's eats! For breakfast I sliced and chopped a jazz apple and micro waved it for a minute then topped with some pumpkin yoghurt and a crumbled banana walnut muffin.

It was heavenly, such a great combo!

Mid morning I snacked on some hummus with cauliflower and carrot for dipping. Lunch was some soup that I’d made up at the weekend. It wasn’t anything special so I didn’t bother to blog the recipe but it was basically a mix of leeks, cabbage and haricot beans. I also had two yummy pears.

Before heading off to the gym I enjoyed a slice of pumpkin spice cake with a cup of green tea.

This pumpkin spice cake is so good, it has gone even stickier and sweeter as its been left, delicious! At the gym I took it a little easier, still doing half mile speed intervals but not pushing myself quite so hard after my rough day. I also did 10 minutes of intervals on the step machine and some abs exercises.

For dinner I defrosted a couple of my lentil and feta muffins and crumbled them into some tomato pasta sauce along with some shredded cabbage. I served this with two slices of olive and feta bread toasted and made into croutons and some fresh basil.

This was so tasty, just another reason why I’m not missing meat a single bit. Desert was two frozen chocolate peanut butter avocado cups with a couple of small sliced apples.

Oh my god these were amazing! After I eaten the apple I softened them in the microwave for a few seconds and they were like chocolate peanut butter puddings, just delicious!

Today I also got some goodies:

Jacc’s flavoured coffee:

I bought a decaffeinated Butterscotch flavour and a regular Gingerbread flavour. Huge thanks to Stella who blogged about Jacc’s. I can’t wait to try these out!

On my lunch break I had a scout around some charity shops and I found this stoneware casserole dish for £2 and in a kitchen store some round plastic tubs for less than £2:

Bargain! I thought the small tub would be good for taking yoghurt to work in, and the large tub for storing cooked grains like rice in the fridge. For some reason I prefer round containers instead of square, weird!

I also received my books from Amazon:

I joined The Kind Life website today and actually got a response from Alicia herself! I’m also looking forward to relaxing for the rest of the evening while flicking through La Dolce Vegan.

Hope your all having a good week, I hope you don’t mind my little ramble at the start of the post, just keeping it real! Have a great evening :-)

Hi everyone, hope your having a great week! Here’s a bit of a catch up of some of my eats:

Yesterdays breakfast:

Butternut Smoothie with Vanilla Sun Warrior and Rude Health Granola – oh so good!

Today’s breakfast:

10 grain hot cereal with vanilla rice milk, egg whites, brown rice syrup, cinnamon, two chopped plums and mixed fruit and nuts I’d picked up at Tesco – delicious!

Yesterdays lunch and snacks were just a big tofu salad plus plums and peanut butter hummus with cauliflower and carrot sticks. Last nights dinner was a random but tasty combo:

Egg fried rice with veggies: leftover brown rice with onion, mushrooms, carrot, kale, chard, egg whites, shoyu, mixed toasted seeds and parsley. Yummy big mess!

Today I snacked on some fruity tofu yoghurt I’d whipped up using silken tofu, vanilla extract, brown rice syrup, a pear and some frozen blueberries:

I also had another pumpkin spice cake bar:

I still can’t get over how tasty and moist these are, they’ve kept so well in the freezer.

Lunch was some of my smokey spicy black eye pea and greens soup followed by a couple of satsumas.

For dinner tonight I made myself a Butternut and Quinoa Risotto without the peas and with soymilk instead of the yoghurt (making this vegan) and shallots instead of the onion. I also mashed up some of the roast butternut to make it more creamy. I served it on top of some steamed kale and spring greens.

Absolutely gorgeous, the perfect comfort food for me!

Desert was a frozen chocolate avocado cup nuked for a few seconds until melty and spread on two wholegrain rice cakes along with a sliced organic apple.

I’ve also been keeping up with my training – yesterday I did my Davina Bottom Fit and Top Fit workouts.

Today I was scheduled a 5k run which I usually do on the treadmill including speed intervals. I have a bit of a confession to make – I’m really not feeling the running at the moment. My outdoor run on Sunday felt so slow and difficult. I don’t know why I seem to have lost so much speed since the Great North Run. Every run I do at the moment feels like a struggle. On the way home from work I decided give myself a kick up the arse and just do it. It was a lovely evening (although extremely cold!) so I ran to the gym then did 10 minutes of 30 second sprint intervals for 10 minutes (covering about 1.2 miles) on the tread mill, 10 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer and 10 minutes of intervals on the step machine followed by by abs and core exercises. I then ran home. I didn’t track my run for my times but I mapped it out and I covered 3 miles so in total I ended up running in excess of my 5k target, plus the additional cardio so it wasn’t all bad!

So I’m not sure what to do. For me, I want to enjoy exercise – I don’t think it should ever become a chore. I felt like I ran a lot quicker on the way home when I was really warmed up which makes me think this is a key issue. I wore an extra layer tonight and I already wear gloves (not the best quality) and a wide hand band that covers my ears plus running tights, vest, long sleeve top and hoody. My aims in terms of running at the moment is just to retain a base level of fitness – I’ve been running 15k a week – 5k during the week and a 10k on a weekend more and more of which has been done on the treadmill instead of outdoors. I’m also bored of my outdoor running routes so may need to think of changing them up.

Do you have any advice for me that will help relight my love of running? In terms of retaining fitness do you think that running a total distance over a week (i.e. 3 x 5k runs = 15k a week) or making one a longer run (i.e. 1 x 5k run + 1 x 10k run = 15k) is best? I think doing several shorter runs may make things easier for me but I don’t want to lose the endurance of running constantly for a longer period of time. Any advice would be very much appreciated! 

Just before I go – the lovely Leashieloo tagged me to answer these fun questions:

1) What was your favourite crayon colour as a kid? Orange!

2) What is your favourite TV show? I can’t possibly pick just one! I love Chuck, Fringe, CSI and any cookery shows :-)

3) Do you have any siblings? Yes, I have one younger sister who is pregnant with my second nephew :-)

4) Where do you hope to be in 5 years? In a bigger house with a kiddie running round, perhaps in a job related to health and fitness – but most importantly, happy!

5) What’s your favourite fruit? Apples

6) What’s your favourite scent? Perfume – Lola by Marc Jacobs or freshly cut grass, fresh roses, cinnamon and bonfires :-)

7) Who is your idol? My Nana

8 ) What is your favourite animal? Whales – I loved whales and dolphins when I was little

Catch you all later, have a great evening! :-)

Hi Everyone, hope you’ve all had a great weekend! Back to the grind now though, I have lots on at work at the moment and thankfully I’m able to work from home tomorrow to get caught up!

As the kids are off school this week the traffic situation isn’t as crazy as usual which meant I had time to enjoy a more leisurely breakfast including a cup of delicious cinnamon and hazelnut coffee which I drank black and sweetened with agave. I also had a bowl of Dorset Cereal High Fibre muesli with added jumbo oats, ground flax and nut mix, a grated apple and soy milk.

I love grated apple with muesli it makes it so juicy!

Mid morning I snacked on a big russet apple and one of my pumpkin spice cake bars.

Lunch was a big salad of spinach, carrot, red onion, cucumber and almond sesame smoked tofu with a little green tomato chutney followed by two plums.

Afternoon pre gym fuel was a bag of bear fruit nibbles – mango and pineapple.

I did my usual Monday evening gym session of 30 minutes HIITs followed by 30 minute spin class and abs and core exercises. My abs and core work is really paying off, I can feel some serious abs under my belly! My workout was really excellent again tonight, it just didn’t feel too hard. I think I’m ready to ramp it up next month so I feel the burn again!

For dinner I decided to make up one of my high protein egg white and spelt wraps (1 tablespoon of spelt flour mixed with 3 egg whites and fried up like a pancake) and filled it with some leftover mashed roast butternut squash, some kidney beans, red onion and a slice of cheese then fold over and griddle to make a Butternut and Bean Quesadilla. I served it with some roasted broccoli.

 

My word this was delicious! Everything went together so well and the egg white spelt wrap went really crispy and pancake like. You could make a vegan version of this using a wholegrain wrap and leaving out the cheese or add chicken or turkey if your not a veggie. Just so yummy!

Desert was a smoothie in a bowl made using a scoop of cookies and cream spiru-tein powder, rice milk and ice cubes. I topped it with a few cacao nibs.

I’ve also just eaten another russet apple, I have an apple problem at the moment, just can’t get enough!

I mentioned yesterday that I have ordered The Kind Diet and another vegan cookbook La Dolce Vegan, I’m just feeling so inspired by vegetarian and vegan recipes at the moment. I checked over the blog and I’ve eaten completely vegetarian for a week and I haven't missed meat one bit. I think I may actually be ready to go fully veggie rather than ‘only freedom food / organic meat’ as I had planned to. I still don’t want to label myself as following any kind of particular diet at this stage but that’s certainly the direction I feel myself heading.

In terms of the blog obviously that’s going to mean veggie and vegan food and recipes. I hope that everyone is ok with that and sticks with me! :-)

As I have previously said, I certainly don’t judge others for their dietary preferences, this is just what I feel is right for me. When I post recipes or meal ideas I’ll include what meat / fish options I think would work well then you can decide which way to make them.

Anyway, on to some hair care products! Yesterday I noticed these in Sainsbury’s and decided to pick them up as after reading this post from Sarah I switched to hair care without parabens or silicone which has really worked well for me. My hair is in pretty good condition considering how long it is.

Has anyone came across ‘Happy Hair Days’ products before? I got the pomegranate and ginger moisturising shampoo and conditioner at £3.50 a bottle. I have to admit the main thing that made me buy these as well as being paraben free is the smell. They smell divine, I tried all of the range that was on the shelf and they all smelled amazing!

Talking of hair, I have a hair cut booked for Friday and I really fancy a change. Before I got married over 2 years ago my hair had always been in a bob, this is the longest its ever been. After all of this growing I’m reluctant to cut it all off although my hair does grow extremely fast (which I put down to all the healthy food I eat!) Not sure what to do!

How often do you change your hair style?