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Happy Friday! Have we all had a good week? Mine has been excellent…

Last week I had mentioned that I was looking forward to an event at work. The project that I manage was funded for a set period of time and it is finishing at the end of March (I work for a charity). Luckily I still have a job after this time, at least for a few months, but we wanted to hold an event to celebrate the project and decided to put on an afternoon tea with a bit of a 1940’s theme. We hired in lots of vintage cake stands, tea pots and tea cups, decked the hall out with red, white and blue bunting, had spring flowers on the tables and even had some entertainment from a lady singing old music hall songs by Judy Garland and Vera Lynn! It was a fantastic event…

I was a bit let down on the catering, I had been told they were going to make me some special vegan cookies but they hadn’t. I was still happy though as I got some hummus salad sandwiches and soya cream filled brandy snaps (I had those times at least 10!) Plus I shared a couple of pots of green tea with my colleague. Of course as it was 1940’s themed we all decided to dress up:

OOTD: vintage dress: Beyond Retro, black peep toe shoes: Office

I tried to do my hair in a 1940’s style with a ‘victory roll’ at the front, not sure how well I managed it but I was happy with how it looked considering I just did it myself in 15 minutes! It was just a fab event and everyone that attended said they had enjoyed themselves!

Other tastiness from this week includes:

Vanilla Cookie Dough Green Smoothie (spinach, scoop of vanilla sun warrior, scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough spiru-tein protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice) topped with walnuts, figs and bee pollen

Chocolate Cherry Green smoothie (kale, frozen cherries, chocolate hemp protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice) topped with peanut flour sauce and cacao nibs

 Honey and hemp muffin, pear, plain Coyo, honey

Seitan Sausage (made with Italian herbs and sundried tomatoes) with brown rice and broccoli

Stir fried veggies with edamame, ginger, soy and sweet chilli sauce

My veggie chilli with added soy mince and steamed greens

Strawberries and plain Coyo yoghurt (tasted like strawberries and cream, so decadent!)

So lots of amazing eats!

Workouts have just been my usual:

• Sunday – AM treadmill run 5k, 20 minute bike, kettlebell class
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – Yoga class
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – Yoga class
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I feel like I’m getting into a really good routine now :-)

On my weekend send off love list this week…

Getting ready to be inked!

Yesterday I got my tattoo finished off. Its still a little red so I’m waiting until its better healed before I post a picture but lets just say it looks fantastic and I’m very happy with it! Also…

 The Little Paris Kitchen, not the most vegan friendly cooking show but I love the whole style of everything in it! // Becoming a member of the Diary Free Dream Team – please check it out, I’ll be writing regular articles! // yoga, I’ve enjoyed my classes so much this week

Before I go, next week I’m planning on doing another green smoothie challenge for at least 7 days. I did one about the same time last year and really enjoyed it! This lovely fresh spring weather is making me crave them and I’m feeling the need to get back to basics with some of my eats, to me there’s no better way to start that than with a daily dose of green. If your up for it feel free to join in and let me know if you’d like me to link to any of your posts. I’ll be starting on Sunday I think!

What have you been loving this week?

My weekend starts today and I’m so pleased – I really feel like I need and extra couple of days off this week!

I started my Wednesday at the gym with an awesome treadmill workout. I’ve gradually been increasing my speeds each week so it now looks like this:

• 5 min – 6.0mph (warm up)
• 5 min – 6.6 mph
• 5 min – 7.1 mph
• 5 min – 6.8 mph
• 5 min – 7.3 mph
• 5 min – 30 second intervals 6.8/7.8mph

I was a sweaty mess after this! I then did 30 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core – I’m still rocking that 2 minute plank!

Breakfast was wonderful! I made a delicious porridge with 1/4 cup of oat bran, 1/4 cup of viva pure raw chia super food porridge mix, 1 cup of home made sesame milk, 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of blueberries then topped it with 2 tablespoons of cashew butter and a few fresh sliced strawberries:

This was so good, I loved the creamy texture of the porridge and the flavours from the super food mix tasted amazing.

Lunch was a bowl of my Pea, Broccoli and Pesto soup, a RAW Italian cracker, a pear and an orange:

Mid afternoon snackies were some hummus and carrot and cucumber for dipping. Dinner was last nights Tomato Pearl Barley Seitan Buddha bowl with spinach, raw carrot and basil:

Loving this Buddha bowl meal!

Dessert was two frozen chocolate peanut butter avocado cups and 2 chopped apples:

I added a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter to the usual avocado, agave, raw cacao mix and these tasted divine!

I plan on enjoying my extra couple of days off this week getting caught up on a few things around the flat, doing a monster grocery shop, a big cook up and spending some time just relaxing and reading. I have quite a few books at the moment from the Library:

The China Study:

I’ve always wanted to read this as its been referred to on so many vegan blogs. I’ve started reading some of it and its so interesting. It basically discusses a large body of research that shows how eating a mainly plant based diet can help to prevent a range of illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Babycakes:

I’m in love with this book already! So many fantastic recipes for vegan baked goodies: cupcakes and brownies here I come!

The Everyday Vegan:

I love Dreena Burton’s Eat Drink and Be Vegan cookbook so fancied checking this out as well.

I also have a book on Vegetarian Sports Nutrition from the lovely Alison to read – I’ve had a quick flick through and know I’m going to find it very useful. I also have some reading to do for the next assignment for my course.

For some reason I tend to enjoy reading cookbooks and more factual books at the moment, I must get back into reading some good fiction!

What’s the last book you read? Have you read any of the books above? What did you think?

What a great week its been so far, I’m just loving this spring weather :-)

Breakfast on Monday was a big bowl of fresh mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries) with a huge portion of my home mixed muesli and sesame milk:

This muesli is awesome. I basically mixed together lots of random nuts, seeds and dried fruits that needed to be used up with some jumbo oats. This included: dried figs, dried apricots, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, raisins, dried pineapple, dried cherries, dried strawberries, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, goji berries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds and chia seeds. I have a massive jar of this which should last me for a while I hope! The sesame milk is also particularly good, will definitely become a new staple in my diet along with almond milk.

Monday’s lunch was a hummus topped salad containing romaine lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red pepper and yellow pepper then some watered down home made chickpea hummus (I mixed it all in as a dressing) topped with some viva pure spicy pumpkin seeds. I also had two sweet white nectarines:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a lemon cashew hemp bar before hitting the gym. I did my usual 30 minute HIIT session on the cross trainer and step machine plus abs and core and 30 minute spin class.

Dinner was two veggie loaf stuffed baked mushrooms with swede and parsnip mash, raw carrot and steamed savoy cabbage with shoyu:

I still love these stuffed mushrooms, so tasty! Dessert was some healthy heart conscious raw chocolate and two chopped apples:

This chocolate contains maca, vanilla and blue-green algae – I wasn’t sure what to expect taste wise but it was gorgeous as always.

This morning I was up at sun rise to fit in a quick Yoga for Runners podcast. Its so worth getting up a few minutes early to be able to fit this into my day! Breakfast was similar to yesterdays – mixed fresh berries with 2 packs of Bear coco cherry pie granola and sesame milk:

Lunch featured hummus again – this time I made some courgette and carrot veggie noodles plus sliced red and yellow pepper with a hummus and nutritional yeast sauce (hummus, nutritional yeast and water) on top of some spinach:

I also had another two juicy white nectarines.

Mid afternoon I snacked on a Peppermint Stick Luna Bar then hit the gym for Body Pump. I was a little early for my class so I snuck in a quick 10 minute interval session on the cross trainer and 10 minutes steady state on the cross trainer. The class was excellent as usual and left my muscles quivering!

Dinner was inspired by my Sausage and Tomato Rice recipe but morphed into more of a Buddha Bowl: chopped baked seitan sausage with pearl barley in a tomato sauce with onions, garlic, peas, steamed broccoli and fresh basil:

That seitan recipe is so good, this had been defrosted from frozen and still tasted great. It is especially good in recipes like this as it softens and absorbs the liquid, delicious!

Dessert was some protein ice cream made with Fruitein powder, rice milk, ice cubes and xanthan and guar gums topped with goji berries:

Now I’m officially stuffed!

I got some great news yesterday when I received the email to tell me I’d passed my first assignment on my Diet and Nutrition Advisor course. I was chuffed to bits! I’m also really looking forward to my two days off at the end of the week – and pay day! My fridge and cupboards are looking pretty empty, at least by my standards ;-)

I’m still thinking of how tasty my home mixed muesli was. Are you a fan of muesli? I love it so much – it was always my go to ‘binge’ food – I would happily eat three large bowls of it then still go back and eat it straight from the box! Now I have a little more constraint but I still love a full to the brim bowlful! If you could make your own muesli mix what would it include?

Hi everyone, hope you’ve been having a great weekend! Mine has been a good but strange one, I’ve been all over the place seeing family and friends looking at cars, catching up with work and study!

Breakfast on Saturday was a huge bowl full of strawberries with Dorset Cereal High Fibre Muesli and rice milk:

I also had a gingerbread coffee with sweet freedom and rice milk.

Saturday I was out at my parents and friends and looking at cars (haven’t bought one yet!) most of the day so I just snacked on a 9 Bar and some apples I had in my bag. When I did get home I had some miso soup followed by a big green juice:

This contained cucumber, broccoli, celery, lettuce, pear and ginger.

Dinner both yesterday and this evening featured some of my new home made seitan! Seitan is a vegan protein source made from vital wheat gluten flour. A little while ago I bought some vital wheat gluten from iHerb (can also be purchased in the UK from The Flour Bin) and when I saw this recipe I knew it was time to try it out:

Baked Seitan ‘Sausage’ (makes 3 – 4 servings)

• 1 1/4 cups of vital wheat gluten
• 1/4 cup of gram flour
• 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp of vegan vegetable bouillon powder
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of braggs

Pre heat oven to 160. Combine dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls then add wet to dry. Mix together to combine and kneed for a couple of minutes. Place dough into some foil and roll up into a large sausage shape. Bake in the oven for an hour until golden:

To store wrap tightly in foil and keep in fridge. I’ve tried freezing some too but I won’t know how well this works until I come to defrost it!

Last night I used some finely sliced seitan in cabbage wraps also containing sun dried tomato high protein hummus, alfalfa sprouts, carrot, yellow pepper and fresh basil alongside some parsnip chips seasoned with herbamare and braggs:

These were awesome! The seitan was quite firm and chewy which I really liked. All the wrap ingredients went together so well, these were just super tasty!

Dessert was a bowl of Freedom chocolate ice ‘cream’:

On Sunday I was up nice and early for my run. I fuelled up with my usual orange and dates and set off. I did just over 7 miles in 1hr 08 minutes with an average pace of 9.38. That’s a big improvement on last weeks 9.45 average pace and considering that I ran a more hilly route today, plus it was freezing and windy I’m absolutely over the moon! :-)

Post run breakfast was another wonderful smoothie containing lots of kale, romaine, frozen cherries, 2 pears, rice milk, maca, matcha green tea powder, spirulina, raw cacao and almond butter topped with flaked almonds and half a bag of bear cocoa cherry pie granola:

Today I decided to use up some of my veggies by making a big pan of my favourite lentil and spinach soup. I had a big bowl for lunch followed by some fresh blackberries:

I also had another green juice, same as Saturdays but with apple instead of pear and lemon instead of ginger. It was so good, I heart green juice!

Tonight I made a seitan, veggie and millet pilaf. This contained the seitan, 1/2 cup of cooked millet, onion, swiss chard, carrot, yellow pepper and courgette plus some veg stock, dried basil, shoyu and mixed seeds:

This was such a delicious, healthy and filling meal! Dessert was some raw 75% cacao ginger chocolate and 2 sliced organic pink lady apples:

I bought the chocolate when I was in York last month, I love ginger chocolate!

Have you tried seitan before? What did you think? Obviously its no good if you have any kind of gluten intolerance. I was really impressed with the ease of this recipe, it could be amended to add new flavours and textures. I would love to try and make some spicy seitan sausage! Seitan can also be cooked in a flavoured broth instead of baked, so many ways to try it!

Today I also decided to sign up for the Bupa Great North 10k! Its being held in Gateshead where I was born, and isn’t very far from Durham at all. Its in July and should be great preparation for the Great North Run Half Marathon in September. I’m absolutely buzzing about it! Are you signed up for any races this year? The only race I’ve ever ran was the Great North Run last year (and I’m signed up again for this year, running for Cancer Research UK again too) so I’m really looking forward to running a race with a shorter distance.

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend!

Hi guys, happy Wednesday! I’m having such a great week, last night I did my healthy eating workshop with the young people and it was very successful! I’ll tell you more about it later in the week but its such a relief that it all went well :-)

Of course today its all about the WIAW party! These are my eats and goings on from Monday. I got up after pressing the snooze button a couple of times and then had the usual warm water and lemon before hitting the gym:

It was nice and quiet first thing which I love! I did 5 minutes warm up on the cross trainer, 25 minutes of strength training from Female Body Breakthrough then 10 minutes of HIIT on the step machine and then on the bike.

I was working from home so I could get my End of Project report completed which gave me a bit of flexibility with my day. James has just started working late shifts so I decided to have an easy morning and get most of my work done in the PM. After a quick shower I made breakfast – a green smoothie with spring greens, three kiwi’s, a scoop of vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, vanilla stevia, ice and water:

I topped the smoothie with some goji berries and a few of my raw tamari ‘roasted’ almonds which are utterly delicious. There was also the usual smoothie over flow and extra toppings of course. Then it was time for coffee:

I’ve started to develop a habit of getting the big coffee press out and drinking 3 cups instead of the usual 1 cup! I’m going to have to try and curb that as it left me with a bit too much of a caffeine buzz! This was some vanilla coffee that I drank strong and black.

I spent the rest of the morning simultaneously catching up on TV shows with James while I answered work emails, planned my healthy eating workshops and did some blog work. For lunch I made a big pan of my favourite lentil soup. I thought I would blog the recipe as although I have my similar lentil and spinach soup recipe this is the one I’m making all the time now. I just love all of the celery in this version:

Laura’s favourite lentil soup (vegan, makes 4 servings)

• 1 large onion, finely chopped (I love onions so I use 2)
• 1 large clove of garlic, minced
• large pinch of salt
• 3-4 carrots, chopped
• 1 head of celery, chopped
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup of red lentils
• 2 tsp of vegetable bouillon powder (I used Marigold vegan bouillon or you could use veg stock cubes)

In a big pan, fry the onions and garlic in a small amount of oil over a medium heat with the pinch of salt (this should stop the onions burning). When the onions have softened add the carrots and celery and continue to fry for 3 – 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and the red lentils and mix well then add the vegetable bouillon and enough hot water to cover everything. Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes until the vegetables have softened and the lentils are cooked. You can either keep this chunky or blend until smooth. I prefer part blended and part chunky so I just use a hand blender and pulse it a few times until it reaches a texture I like.

 

I just love this soup! I’m a bit funny with celery, I hate it raw but love it juiced and really love it cooked. It adds a great flavour to this simple and cheap soup. I had mine with some of my raw juice and nut pulp crackers. I’d made the crackers at the weekend and had added a lot of dried oregano and thyme, they tasted great!

James headed off to work after lunch and I got my head down to work on my report. During the day I drank lots of tea, I made up a big pot in the morning with a green tea bag and a Cosy blueberry tea bag, then again in the afternoon with chai green tea:

Definitely one of the perks of working from home!

Mid afternoon I took a break and had a snack:

Earlier in the day I’d prepared this chocolate chia pudding made with 2 tbsp of chia seeds, 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder, stevia and water. I had it with a bowl of frozen blueberries and some more goji berries for a tasty afternoon treat!

After that I hit publish on my raw protein brownie recipe post and got ready to pop out for an appointment. I thought I’d better change out of the yoga pants I’d been in all day so chucked on a dress with some leggings and my boots to look at least semi presentable:

OOTD: cardigan: Topshop, floral dress: H&M, owl necklace: H&M, black leggings: H&M, black knee high boots: M&S (from about 4 years ago!)

After my appointment I came home and did some more editing of my work report again before making dinner. I had a lovely combo of home made sundried tomato seitan (based on this recipe) with onions, brown rice and a bit of Zest pesto on top of a pile of steamed greens:

For dessert I had a chopped pink lady apple with a cup of my raw almond and sunflower seed milk and half a bag of We are bear cherry coco granola:

Then it was back to work for the rest of the night while drinking more tea, this time some caffeine free sweet chilli. I picked James up from work late and promptly crashed straight into bed exhausted!

Not a bad day of eats, plenty of veggies as per usual! I was also happy that I ate ‘meals’ rather than just eating little bits constantly as I sometimes do when I’m at home for most of the day. I never seem to feel satisfied when I ‘graze’ like that, having 5-6 meals suits me better!

I think I must have been working on and off for about 10 hours but I quite like being able to work in a flexible way like that, I seem to be more productive especially when doing ‘chunky’ pieces of work like report or funding bid writing. It does require some self discipline not to waste the day on Pinterest though ;-) I am lucky to have the option of working in flexibly as my job requires some evening working for meetings so its handy that I can structure my work week in the most productive way. However, as much as I enjoying working from home, sometimes I prefer the structure and interaction I have when I go into the office.

Do you have a preferred work style? Do you like flexibility or prefer more structure?