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Well thank god its Friday, with the bank holiday and having Tuesday off work for the blogger meet up its been a great but strange week! I am really looking forward to the weekend.

I have had a pretty quiet few days, the calm before the storm, as now that we are into September things at work get crazy again!

I’ve fitted in my usual workouts and even got in another treadmill run – I did 3.5 miles in 28 minutes almost pain free on Wednesday morning followed by some extra cardio on the machines and some abs and core. Yesterday I started the day with some free style yoga and popped to the gym after work for a sweaty hour on the step machine, cross trainer, bike and rowing machine followed by abs and core. This morning I did my NRoL workout – doing 3 sets of all the moves again, however my knee was not happy during the very slow 5 minute treadmill warm up!

Food wise I’ve been craving the usual green smoothies and salads:

Wednesday’s green smoothie containing kale, spinach, frozen strawberries, strawberry hemp, msm, maca powder, barley grass powder, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gum topped with bee pollen, peanut flour sauce and some freeze dried berries.

This morning I wanted to try out another fruit free green smoothie. This contained spinach, cos lettuce, 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder, maca, spirulina, msm, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums topped with goji berries and raw almond butter sauce:

This was so creamy and mildly sweet! Delicious :-)

I enjoyed another fabulous hummus topper salad containing some of my very own home grown alfalfa sprouts!

I bought some seeds last weekend and have had them sprouting, I only used a quarter cup of seeds and ended up with 2 large jars full! This will save me a lot of cash on buying them from the shop – they usually cost £1.30 for a tiny pack!

I’ve also been loving these ‘cheesy’ salads:

Cos lettuce, pea shoots, alfalfa sprouts, pepper, carrot, cucumber, red onion, raw cheesy crumbles and some raw cheesy spicy pumpkin seeds plus a bit of Braggs liquid aminos.

I welcomed in September by eating some seasonal spaghetti squash!

Stir fried veggies including spring greens, carrot, mushrooms and broccoli with edamame on top of spaghetti squash ‘noodles’ with a spicy lime peanut sauce (peanut flour, lime juice, red chilli, ginger, shoyu). These stir fries have been hitting the spot!

Tonight I really wanted something fresh tasting so made my favourite raw courgette spaghetti with raw pasta sauce topped with nutritional yeast, olives and basil:

I can’t tell you how much I love this, light but filling! I’ve also been craving cereal too:

Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise Cereal, rice milk and strawberries.

I’ve been snacking on a lot of these too:

Home made cheesy raw kale chips! These taste utterly wonderful. I made a cheesy coating with cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic and onion powder and dehydrated them, they are so good!

Tasty sweet treats have included this ‘frappe’ made with Mint Chocolate Teecino, rice milk, stevia and crushed ice:

I treated myself to this Starbucks cup at the weekend, I just can’t help myself! I also tried out a sachet of Cherries Jubilee Spiru-tein powder to make some protein ice cream:

This was the bomb, even James commented on how good it was. I’ve had this flavour before a long time ago - I think I may have to indulge in a full tub!

So I have to admit I’m getting a bit more worried about my knee. I’ve booked in for a sports massage so I’m hoping that will help to loosen up my IT Band. In the meantime I’m continuing to stretch, foam roll and occasionally ice it. I’m planning on trying out a 6 mile treadmill run at the weekend – I think it hurt so bad this morning because I didn’t wear my knee support. Fingers crossed I’ll be ok!

As for the rest of the weekend I have a lovely one planned, tomorrow should be pretty relaxed with a bit of grocery and bedroom accessory shopping, seeing my Mam and Dad, kitchen pottering and chilling out! On Sunday it will mark 7 years since me and James met (I was chief bridesmaid and he was best man at my sisters wedding – cheesy I know!) Hope you all have a great weekend planned too!

Have you had a sports massage before? Did it help you? Any tips for me in terms of what to wear and what to expect?

Hello everyone, Happy Friday! I am sooo ready for the weekend :-)

My week hasn’t actually been too bad, I just think the darker days are taking some getting used to. This has been the last week in my training plan so I’ve been giving it my all, especially in my strength workouts.

• Sunday – Outdoor run – 6.7 miles in 58.13
• Monday – AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on treadmill
• Tuesday – AM Yoga for Runners Yoga Download 15 minutes, PM gym workout 20 minutes HIITs on cardio machines, Body Pump
• Wednesday – AM gym workout, 5k speed intervals treadmill, 30 minutes HIITs cardio machines
• Thursday – Anything goes workout! AM – 10 minutes of random yoga, PM gym workout – 30 min random bike, 20 minutes cross trainer based on this workout by Emma, 10 min cool down on recumbent bike while reading Elle Magazine, 2.40 plank hold
• Friday - AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on bike

I really got my sweat on this Wednesday morning:

I do like a good sweaty workout for feeling like I’ve really worked hard but I don’t think grey probably is the best colour to wear! It was the first time I’ve tried doing Tabata intervals as part of my anything goes workout on Thursday and I loved them, will definitely be incorporating them on a more regular basis.

I think a lot of the meals I’ve enjoyed this week seem to fit quite well with the theme of comfort food – well at least my interpretation of it. I’ve enjoyed the usual smoothies which rank very highly as comfort food for me!

Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut Smoothie containing spinach, 3 plums, mixed frozen berries, Vega Choc-o-lot protein powder (has quite a milk chocolate taste I think!), maca powder, spirulina (the last of it!), water, ice, stevia, almond extract, gums topped with raisins, flaked almonds and cashews:

Another Creamy Pumpkin Squash Pie smoothie but without the pumpkin and just lots of kabocha squash instead:

I also had my first ever try of the Natures Path Maple Sunrise Cereal and my word I now see what Nicky and Jess mean when they say it is delicious! I had a big comforting bowl with some chopped plums, coconut milk and some peanut flour sauce on top for some added protein and sticking power!

Although they are not typical comfort food for most, I love my giant salads, especially this one that included kale massaged with a maple Dijon dressing!

It also contained romaine, rainbow chard, carrot, red pepper, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds and a crumbled RAW Italian cracker. That maple dressing is amazing, I’ve been using maple syrup in so much I’ve used almost a full bottle in less than a month!

I also indulged in a big bowl of raw courgette pasta with my raw pasta sauce and lots of nutritional yeast and basil:

I think I’ve said before how surprised I was that a raw dish like this satisfied my comfort food craving but it does!

Saying that, I’ve also had more traditional comfort food. Leftover broth from the weekend with some seitan sausage cooked in and steamed greens topped with nutritional yeast and shoyu roasted squash seeds:

I have a bit of a thing about sausages and broth / lentil type dishes together so expect to see this kind of combo a lot more!

For lunch one cold day I made myself some Clearspring Soya Sauce Ramen Noodle Soup with some edamame served with raw kale chips and a chopped carrot:

Noodles are very high up my comfort food list, as are chips:

I got a few massive parsnips in my veg box today and I couldn’t resist making them into chips to enjoy with ketchup!

I also did some experimenting this week in attempting to make a tofu cottage cheese. It was ok but the recipe isn’t blog worthy just yet. I ate it for breakfast mixed with vanilla sun warrior protein powder, chopped plums and cinnamon:

I’ve also ate some as snacks with Clearspring cherry jam and sunflower seed butter:

This was very yummy and filling due to the protein!

I’ve had a lovely week full of parcels too. I won a giveaway the lovely Maria was running and received these goodies:

Marias home made pumpkin spice cakes and seed stacked bars

Teapigs mug and English Breakfast and Peppermint teas

Thanks Maria! I also got this lovely hand cream to review:

It came in the most lovely packaging! This is from a local Newcastle based company called Yes Nurse. The hand cream is full of natural ingredients – and its not just for nurses! I’ll be giving a try for a month and then doing a review.

I’m really excited about this weekend as its my best friends 80’s themed 30th Birthday party! I’ll be helping her get set up and then Sunday will probably be spent nursing a hangover! Have you got any exciting plans this weekend? Have you been eating more ‘comfort foods’ recently? What does comfort food mean to you?

Quick reminder – UK bloggers, you only have until 12pm tomorrow to register for Secret Santa if you’d like to take part! Check it out here.

Hello everyone, hope you’ve all enjoyed a lovely weekend! I’ve had a pretty busy one, but its all been good :-)

On Saturday morning we got up bright and early to get over to Newcastle before the shops got too busy. I had a quick but tasty breakfast of Natures Path Maple Sunrise cereal with chopped plums, hemp milk and some hemp seeds sprinkled on top:

Once we got to town we made a bee line for Starbucks - I decided to go with a Soy Gingerbread Latte and it was delicious! Then I proceeded to well and truly shop till I dropped. My Mam and Dad gave me some Christmas spending money, I got two coats, boots, scarves, a dress, a jumper and several necklaces – all great bargains too! I’ll be sharing them in my outfit of the day soon. I also made a good dint in my Christmas present shopping as well. I felt so Christmassy, I even treated myself to some roasted chestnuts from the continental market! I also fitted in a trip to the health food shop for a few bits and pieces:

Cacao nibs, che mate ginger tea, sauerkraut, Starbucks VIA Christmas blend, soy whip and apple juice sweetened sweet mince meat

I can not wait to make some festive porridge with the sweet mincemeat and I’m saving the soy whip for desserts over Christmas. I also got a couple of red kabocha squash and some basil tofu from Waitrose. We also called into the new oriental supermarket which is huge! I didn’t have much time for a proper look around but I can not wait to hit it again. I got some interesting looking peanut mochi and some frozen shredded Thai young coconut:

Thai young coconut is an ingredient in a lot of raw food recipes so I’m looking forward to trying this out!

We had been planning on staying in Newcastle for lunch but James was feeling a bit worse for wear after being out on Friday night so I swung by a new deli / cafe on the way back to the car. I ended up getting some couscous, marinated Mediterranean veggies and some hummus. I ate it all once we called in at my parents on top of some spinach:

It was delicious and the hummus was some of the best I’d ever tasted! I had a huge portion of it, so good!

Other tastiness from the weekend include my fave raw spiralised courgette with my raw pasta sauce and nutritional yeast:

A big salad with black kale, lettuce, carrot, ramiro pepper, raw beetroot, black beans and braggs:

Baked tofu with parsnip and broccoli stem chips, steamed broccoli and ketchup:

The baked tofu was delicious, I pressed it and marinaded it in shoyu, mirin and ume vinegar then baked it with plenty of coconut oil till it went super crispy. I can’t believe some people say they don’t like tofu!

A couple of green smoothies:

 kale, frozen cherries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, raw cacao powder, berries powder, ice, water, gums and topped with cacao nibs and gojis

Kale, spring greens, courgette, 1/2 avocado, a sachet of spirutein greens powder, 1/2 scoop vanilla sun warrior protein powder, midori greens, berries powder, ice, water, gums, vanilla stevia and topped with cashew butter, popped amaranth and bee pollen

I popped the amaranth myself while I was making some popcorn on Friday night, its really nice and I much prefer it this way than cooked traditionally.

Today I did my run but it was so windy I decided to run to the gym, do a few miles on the treadmill and then run home. I ran the long way to the gym (1.6 miles) 3.5 miles on the treadmill switching up speed and incline and then I ran straight home (1 mile) for a total 6.1 miles.

I’ve had a very busy weekend of cooking, I kicked off my first Christmas baking project with gingerbread cookies! I made these last year using Mama Peas recipe and I said back then I could see them becoming a Christmas tradition and I was right:

I’m having a couple for dessert later, taking a few to work and freezing the rest for porridge and smoothie toppings! I’ve also made up a big batch of Thai Sweet Potato and Leek Soup, a Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chilli and some red pepper, cashew and mesquite raw dip – recipes to come!

I also had an unexpected knock on the door this morning from the Chairman of the allotment association – I now have an allotment! Here it is:

I can’t believe I have my own little plot! Its pretty big and needs a lot of clearing. To be honest I’m feeling a bit over whelmed by the work I’m going to have to spend on it but the thought of growing my own kale and the amount of money I’m going to save is strengthening my resolve!

If anyone out there with an allotment has any tips for me let me know! Are you starting to feel Christmassy yet? Shopping and making those cookies has put me right in the mood! One one week left for all you Secret Santa’s to get your gifts posted, so excited to see what everyone gets!

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend!

Hello everyone! How’s your weekend been? I’ve had a lovely one, despite a having a slight domestic emergency today!

Yesterday I did my usual weekend long run. I did 10 miles in 1.24 average pace 8.25, another pb for me over that distance according to my tracking on Daily Mile!

We’ve had a mostly very relaxing weekend but at the same time I feel like I’ve been super productive! We decided to make the most of the break in the rain yesterday morning so had a little trip into town. OOTD:

  Denim jacket: New Look, grey hoody: H&M, dress: Forever 21, tights: M&S, ballet pumps: Next, quilted chain bag: Topshop

When we got there we discovered a little vintage market being held inside one of the shopping malls. I bought two of these fab vintage patterned plates for just 50p!

I also picked up another bargain from Dorothy Perkins sale:

This skirt was only £7 and although its a size too big for me I loved it that much I decided to get it and just cinch it in with the black woven belt that came with it.

Eats have been really good this weekend too! I spent exactly one hour this morning taking my own advice from my organisation post and prepping some tasty treats for the day and week ahead. In just one hour I cooked up a pot of rice, lentils, soaked some wheat berries for sprouting, made some of Gena’s Almondaise (but using cashews to make it a cashew mayo) and made a raw bread mix and popped in the dehydrator. I also made a wonderful pate, inspired by one of Gena’s recipes yet again!

Garden Pate (adapted from this recipe, vegan, raw, makes about 2 cups)

• 1/2 cup of sunflower seed, soaked for at least 2 hours
• 2 tbsp of hemp oil (or flax or olive oil)
• 2 tbsp of Braggs Liquid Aminos or soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp garam masala (or curry powder)
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 1 cup vegetable juice pulp (or you could use a packed cup of chopped veggies such as courgette and spinach)
• 4 carrots finely chopped or grated
• 1/2 white onion finely chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• Water as needed

Begin by blending the drained sunflower seeds with the oil, Braggs, spices and parsley in a food processor. Add the veggie pulp or chopped veggies along with the carrot and onion. Blend again, adding water as needed to reach your desired consistency. Add the remaining parsley and pulse to incorporate. Chill in the fridge and enjoy with your choice of veggies and crackers for dipping, or use as a wrap filling or sandwich spread:

I enjoyed some for lunch with lots of veggies, my raw juice pulp crackers and an experimental raw dehydrated tomato and red pepper wrap which tasted amazing! The pate is so delicious and very moreish, good job you get a couple of cups worth as it won’t last long!

I also enjoyed another tasty lunch in the form of a giant salad topped with sabra hummus:

I’ve missed my hummus topper salads! This was so good, I just adore that hummus :-)

Last night I also went for another favourite, more courgette spaghetti with raw pasta sauce, RAW Health olives, nutritional yeast and fresh basil:

The sauce is so simple to make and absolutely delicious:

Simple Raw Pasta Sauce (vegan, serves one hungry person)

• 3 medium size tomatoes (or 10 cherry tomatoes)
• 1 large red pepper, deseeded
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Onion powder, garlic granules and dried Italian seasoning to taste (I use about 1/2 tsp of each)

Wack everything in a food processor and blend until smooth! Serve with courgette spaghetti or ribbons or over regular pasta. So so yummy, I was amazed how good this was the first time I tasted it. Last night I added an extra sweet pointed red pepper into the mix. I used the small amount of sauce I had left to make the tomato and pepper wrap I used with my garden pate above. I just spread it on a teflex sheet and dehydrated for 8 hours or so. I will definitely be trying that again!

Last night we also cracked open a bottle of red while we watched DVD’s, it was bliss!

Tonight I made some wraps using Mountain Corn Bread wraps filled with mashed avocado and nutritional yeast, spinach, sweet red peppers, olives and a drizzle of cashew mayo. I served it up with some ‘roast’ broccoli (‘cooked’ in the dehydrator for a few hours):

These wraps were amazing! The broccoli also tasted great, they had that almost sweet roasted flavour but still had a lot of crunch.

Breakfasts have also been very good. This morning I made a big bowl of oats and 10 grain cereal with water on the stove, topped with fresh strawberries, some coconut vanilla ‘yoghurt’ (2 tbsp of coconut flour, 1/2 scoop of vanilla sun warrior, water) and pumpkin seeds:

Its been ages since I had a porridge yoghurt layer up and this was so good, I made the yoghurt up last night so it was cold from the fridge. I love the contrast of the hot oats and cold yoghurt!

The post run green smoothie I made was one of the tastiest I’ve had in a while!

This contained spinach, frozen banana, juicy fresh peach, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, spirulina, maca, msm, water, ice and gums topped with sunflower seed butter and cacao nibs. I just love the combo of banana, peach and spinach, so mild and sweet.

I have some romaine lettuce and beet greens to use up so I think I may treat myself to a chocolate cherry green smoothie this evening for dessert!

So we had a little domestic crisis when our bed broke! It appears that our mattress has also seen better days so we decided to chuck them both out and while we have the extra space we are going to re decorate the whole room. That means that for the next couple of weeks we’ll be sleeping on the living room floor! It is funny how things workout though, I’m actually looking forward to redecorating that room now, expect a few home interior posts!

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend! Do you enjoy vintage fairs? Have you had a major piece of furniture break on you? How did you manage without it?

Happy Friday guys! Are you all set for the weekend? How’s your week been?

Despite the swelling and pain from having my wisdom teeth extracted I’ve been able to maintain a pretty consistent workout schedule, mainly because working out has made me feel better! The only thing I’ve had to avoid has been running, I tried a 5 minute treadmill run on Wednesday and the high impact made my face giggle – which felt uncomfortable, but today I felt more like my normal self and did some speed intervals:

• Saturday – gym, 1 hour light cardio on bike, step machine, cross trainer
• Sunday – 45 min Kettlebell class
• Monday – gym, 5 min warm up cross trainer, new strength plan based on Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial it in’ phase, 20 min HIIT on bike
• Tuesday – 10 min light yoga stretching am, pm gym, 30 min HIIT on cross trainer, step machine and bike, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – gym – 5 min treadmill, 10 min rowing machine, 15 min HIIT on each: step machine, bike, cross trainer
• Thursday – am detox challenge yoga flow, pm – gym 30 min bike random, 10 min cross trainer HIITs, 10 min step machine HIIT, 10 min abs
• Friday – gym 5 min warm up cross trainer, new strength plan based on Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial it in’ phase, 15 min HIIT on treadmill

It felt so good to run again this morning, even just for 15 minutes!

My eats have continued along the blended theme this week, but I’ve actually really enjoyed some of these!

I decided to experiment with a couple of raw soups:

This was just based on my raw pasta sauce recipe but made in the blender with added hemp oil and fresh basil, it was really creamy and so good! I also made a Curried Carrot and Coconut Soup:

Carrot and Coconut Soup (makes 2 servings, almost raw, vegan)

• 500g of carrots, chopped
• 2 tbsp of grated ginger root
• 1 heaped tbsp of coconut oil
• 1/2 tbsp of toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbsp of shoyu or soy sauce
• 1 tsp of garam masala or to taste
• Water to desired consistency
• Desiccated coconut and sesame seeds to serve

I used my blender for this recipe, but its pretty tough so if yours isn’t you may want to grate the carrots first. Start by blending the carrots with a little water until they become pureed. Add the other ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy adding more water as needed. Serve topped with the coconut and sesame seeds.

This was really yummy, the ginger and spices give it a lovely earthy warmth. I served mine at room temperature rather than chilled, just delicious!

Of course, there has been more smoothie action:

Spring greens, frozen cherries, raw beetroot, chocolate hemp protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, berries powder, water, ice topped with bee pollen and coconut

Simple green smoothie with spinach, pineapple and kiwi

 Utterly lush raw chocolate coconut smoothie! Thai young coconut (from an Oriental supermarket, sold in a frozen bag) with raw cacao powder and water. Tasted ah-maz-ing!

Romaine lettuce, apples, vanilla sun warrior, vanilla stevia, water, ice

Greens, 2 small pears, chocolate hemp protein powder, ground flax, maca powder, midori greens, water, ice, bee pollen

I have to admit, after a week of smoothies I am starting to get a bit sick of them but they are the easiest thing for me to eat right now.

I have tried some other things though, including some raw chocolate avocado mousse:

Some of the avocado was going off I also added a banana to the mix and then froze the other half of the mousse in silicon cups with a blob of raw almond butter inside. Earlier in the week I had more delicious cauliflower mash (without the broccoli added that time) with some of my Lentil and Spinach Soup well blended and topped with a little parsley:

For dinner last night I felt like my teeth could handle a bit more chew so I combined some quinoa cooked in veg stock with a grated carrot and a grated courgette, home made hummus, nutritional yeast and a splash of shoyu:

It was really good and felt nice to be able to get my teeth into something! Snack wise I’ve been enjoying more raw blended apples with either chia seeds or like this with a blob of tahini and honey:

I’ve been eating a lot of tahini and honey these last few days, as well as protein pudding made with a scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder mixed with water and coconut flour cream (coconut flour mixed with water and stevia), in fact my stomach has been like a bottomless pit! The lack of bulky chewable foods has left me feeling unsatisfied, thankfully I seem to finally be improving fast. Today I’m enjoying the excuse to have breakfast for lunch – pumpkin spiced porridge with tofu cream!

A couple of quick bits of news:

• This week I’d like to thank the lovely people at NukuNuku for sponsoring the blog this month. I reviewed their Haramaki bands here, please check them out, especially if you feel the cold like me!
• Long term sponsor Viva Pure are offering a 7% discount on your first order using code VPFRIEND7. Have a browse of their site for a brilliant range of raw foods.
• One of my favourite brands Good Hemp have launched their Good Hemp Nutrition site for the sale of their hemp protein powders of which I’m a massive fan. They are offering 33% off your first purchase with the code GOOD11. Check it out!

Even though I’ve been off work for most of the week I’m still looking forward to the weekend and having some time to try and get back into a routine. I’ve been reading the Hunger Games books after several bloggers mentioned them and I love them. I’m hoping to finish Catching Fire over the weekend. I also have another Kettlebell class that I’m really looking forward to and hopefully another run!

Have you ever tried a raw soup? Have you read the Hunger Games books? Any big plans for the weekend? Hope whatever your up to you have a great one!

P.S – I just found out I passed my Diet and Nutrition Advisors Course with a Distinction! So happy and excited!