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Hi everyone, hope you’ve been having a great weekend!

I was up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to get my weekend run out of the way. I decided to go for a slightly shorter distance than I’ve ran the last couple of weeks as I needed to be home, washed and dressed to meet up with my Mam. I thought it would be good to run 10k and see what kind of pace I could manage. I did it in 55 minutes! I was over the moon, for the first time ever my average pace was below 9 min miles – I got it down to 8.54 (last week was 9.25!) I was extremely happy with that :-)

The rest of the weekend has been quite relaxed which is just what I’ve needed. I’ve enjoyed two delicious green smoothies for breakfast each day as part of my 7 days 7 smoothies challenge:

Tropical Green Smoothie (makes one large serving):

• 3 cups of spinach
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 cup of frozen mango
• 2 tbsp of vanilla hemp protein powder
• 1 tbsp of mesquite (optional)
• 1 tbsp of desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp of maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of spirulina (optional)
• 1/2 cup of rice milk – coconut milk or coconut water would be better!
• water – to desired thickness
• 1/2 tsp of xanthan and guar gum (optional, adds thickness)

Toppings:

• Coconut flour sauce (made with 1 heaped tsp of coconut flour and water)
• Hemp seeds
• Goji berries

This was yummy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Green Smoothie (makes one very large serving):

• 3 – 4 cups of kale, romaine and lambs lettuce (I just used what greens needed using up)
• 1 frozen banana
• 2 nectarines
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder (I used sun warrior) 
• 2 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
• 1 tbsp of cocoa powder or raw cacao powder
• 1 tsp maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of ground flax (optional)
• water – to desired thickness
• 1 tsp xanthan and guar gum (optional but adds thickness)

Toppings:

• Peanut flour sauce
• Chocolate peanut flour sauce (PB2+cacao powder + agave+water)
• Cacao nibs
• grape nuts cereal

This was seriously one delicious smoothie! As usual I ended up with a bowl and a half worth – so filling, tasty and nutritious! I find that nectarines / peaches give green smoothies a nice neutral tasting sweetness and bulk that won’t over powder the other ingredients.

I’ve also been drinking fresh green juices each afternoon for the last four days, my favourite green juice combo is pear, celery, cucumber, spinach / romaine, broccoli and lemon / ginger. It tastes delicious!

Other foodie highlights this weekend include this eggless veggie omelette:

I made up some standard socca batter and added two tablespoons of nutritional yeast and a pinch of salt. I then fried some red onion until it caramelised, yellow pepper and courgette and poured the cheesy socca batter on top of the veggies and fried up as usual. I served it up with a side salad and more nutritional yeast on top. This worked really well! I used to eat vegetable and cheese omelettes all the time before I decided to eat mostly vegan, I can see me making these regularly! 

Dinner both evenings has been a lovely combo of stir fried asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and spring onion with millet and adzuki beans served with some of my squash dip and steamed greens / kale with shoyu:

This tasted really good, the squash dip on the side just made it all the yummier! I’ve really been enjoying making up one big dish with planned leftovers for the next day, its been saving me so much time in the kitchen!

Last night I satisfied my sweet tooth with strawberries, figs and Lindt 85% dark chocolate:

Loved the extra dark chocolate, I still want to try the 99% version!

I’ve also been buying a couple of spring wardrobe updates. On Friday I spotted this lovely  blush coloured simple coat and ultra skinny jeans in H&M:

I adore the jeans – they have a zip fastening up the back, they aren’t stretchy like jeggings but they fit like a glove. The coat is perfect for this time of year: warm but in a nice pale spring like colour. I’ve also been checking out eBay in search of second hand bargains. As I’m trying to save cash and wanting to try and be more environmentally friendly I thought I’d see what I could pick up second hand. I got this great floral print skirt for just £3.50 including postage:

I had seen a floral print skirt in New Look for £22 but I like this even better! It will look great paired with a simple t-shirt. Do you buy clothes from eBay? Its been a bit hit and miss for me in the past but I think I’ve developed a better skill for noticing items that will work for me.

I’m glad I’ve been able to have a relaxed weekend as I have a crazy busy week at work ahead including two late night meetings. I think I’ll be making up lots of ‘planned leftovers’ type meals to see me through – along with my green smoothies to keep my energy levels up of course! I’ll be sneaking in workouts when I can manage them too.

I’m also waiting to see how I react to the clocks going forward – I was really enjoying waking up to daylight but I guess I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for the sun to rise at 6am again! At least we get nice bright evenings instead :-) Does the clocks going forward affect you?

As always, I couldn’t visit Brighton and not do some serious shopping! I like to try and save up some cash just so I can have a splurge while I’m there. As well as all the usual high street shops I love browsing the various independent shops in the Lanes and North Laines and of course I always make a visit to Infinity Foods and Taj as well as Wholefoods while I was in London. Here’s what I got!

Chocolate! Moo Free Caramelised Hazelnuts Milk Chocolate, Mr Popple’s 88% Strong Raw Dark Chocolate, The Raw Chocolate Company Dark Raw Chocolate with Mint, Montezuma’s dark chocolate turtles, 75% dark chocolate buttons and 54% dark chocolate buttons

The Raw Chocolate Company raw chocolate covered raisins, mulberries and goji berries, raw cacao powder and coconut palm sugar

Cashew butter, Raw Health Cacao Brazilnut Bliss, Carley’s raw almond butter and raw dark tahini

Spiru-tein protein powders in chocolate chip cookie dough and cookies and cream flavours, chocolate almond puddings

Raw Health crisp breads in Intensely Italian and Provençale varieties, Living Food Kitchen raw apple and cinnamon granola, InSpiral Loveberry raw granola

Taj spicy roast chickpeas, organic blue corn chips, green chia tea and sweet chilli tea

Goji berries, cacao nibs, dried mango and lemon salted almonds

Kabocha Squash!

I was chuffed that I found some kabocha squash in Taj to bring home with me, its been far too long! I actually got a few boxes of those teas as they were on offer and several bags of the cacao nibs as I’m snacking on them all the time at the moment. I’m very happy with the things I picked up, pretty much everything is something I’ve had before and know I’ll enjoy eating. The only experimental things I got was the coconut palm sugar which I’ve never tried before but have heard lots about, and the chocolate almond puddings which sounded nice!

Fashion wise I was looking forward to getting a few things in a bigger size (see this post as to why I’m trying to gain some weight) to reinvigorate my wardrobe. I also needed some make up as it is quite frankly embarrassing how long I’ve had some things in my make up bag!

Accessories – star bracelet: Silverado, heart pendant, statement collar necklace and pink jersey infinity scarf all Topshop

1940’s style floral vintage dress: Beyond Retro

Simple floral dress: H&M

Blue polka dot dress: H&M

Floral patterned blouse: Oasis

Slouchy pink jumper: Topshop (sale)

Purple slouchy vest top: Topshop

Black mid calf length boots: Oasis (sale), coral satchel: H&M, Bobble water bottle (on the recommendation of Tam): England at Home, Benetint cheek and lip stain, ‘they’re real’ mascara and brow powder and wax all Benefit, Tisserand deodorant roll on, Lush ‘angels on bare skin’ scrub

I also got some plain black slim leg pants from Zara and a sports bra and workout top from Sweaty Betty. I was so happy with the things I bought, that vintage dress is amazing! I usually never find anything vintage that suits me but the dress is perfect – the length is spot on and it has the best little lace up detail on each side of the waist which cinches it in to give a more hour glass figure. I was also chuffed to find that H&M had some knock off Cambridge style satchels – I had been eying up the genuine articles of these brightly coloured bags at a much higher price so to find one at £15 was great!

Suffice to say I will not be clothes or health foods shopping for a long time while my finances recover, but it was so worth it! Do you ever treat yourself to shopping sprees? What was the last treat you bought for yourself?

Hi everyone, hope your having a great weekend! We’ve had a fantastic time in Brighton this week. We had been planning on coming home yesterday but we decided to stay another day as we were having so much fun! I haven’t enjoyed the weather very much though, I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold as I have this week!

The Royal Pavilion

We travelled the 330 miles down to the south coast on Monday night so woke up Tuesday morning feeling refreshed and ready for our holiday!

Tuesday

Me and Tam and tasty food from Aloka

I met up with the gorgeous Tam who very kindly took me to my first ever Bikram Yoga class. I absolutely loved it! I’m so sad that no where in the North East does Bikram Yoga, I would definitely be a regular if I had the opportunity. After the class we went for lunch at the wonderful Aloka. I had a big plate full of the delicious dishes available, the red lentil, tempeh and cashew cheese lasagne was incredible! We couldn’t resist the raw desserts either, and I had a tasty raw cherry and pistachio macaroon. After that I met up with James again and we hit the shops – I made a beeline for Infinity Foods of course!

We finished Tuesday by going back into Brighton for a few drinks with some of James twitter pals which was a lot of fun!

Wednesday

Vegan scone and strawberry jam for breakfast, tasty treats from InSpiral cafe and Wholefoods

We decided to make the trip up to London on Wednesday so we got up early and I enjoyed a delicious vegan scone I’d bought from Infinity Foods the previous day, it tasted so good! We got the train to London and headed to Camden for a look around. It was so cold we didn’t do much looking around the market but thanks to a tweet from Emma I knew that InSpiral Cafe was close by. James warmed up with a latte but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get a Green Goddess juice and a slice of the amazing chocolate peanut butter pie! I had a look at both the Camden and Soho Wholefoods as well as some of the shops on Oxford Street before came home. I got a totally lush salad bar box from Wholefoods to eat on the train which I also enjoyed with a huge vegan and gluten free peanut butter chocolate brownie that was to die for! Once we got back to Brighton we went to Fat Leos for an Italian meal and more red wine!

Thursday

Me looking half decent for once after getting my make up one at Benefit, Vanilla spice latte, chocolate chilli sorbet and a delicious Indian meal

On Wednesday we had a walk back into Brighton and had a big shopping day! I wanted to get some make up from Benefit and the staff wanted to show me some of the new products so I basically ended up having my whole face made up! We also stopped by Starbucks for about the 8th time that week to get a Vanilla Spice Soya Latte to warm up between shops. For lunch we stopped by Aloka again so I could get a take away box for lunch, but not before heading to Boho Gelato (thanks to Christina for the tip!) for a vegan sorbet. I got the Chocolate Chilli and my god that stuff had a kick, but it was very tasty! For our evening meal we came back into town and tried an Indian buffet restaurant. I had rice, tarka dahl, saag aloo, onion bhaji and naan bread, it was yummy! We also had more red wine:

We had found a bottle that we really liked in The Mesmerist so decided to go back and enjoy!

Friday

Tasty simple breakfast, Falafel sandwich from Infinity Foods Cafe, apple and maple cake and coffee from Iydea and an early valentines day gift from James

We had a nice lie in and I had a simple breakfast of banana, apple and peanut butter before we made our last trip to town. We got some gifts to bring home as well as stopping at Iydea for the most gorgeous apple and maple cake and a almond soy latte. The icing on that cake was incredible! I’d had a huge craving for falafel so we stopped by Infinity Foods Cafe and I got the Falafel sandwich with chilli hummus, tahini and red onion with salad which was lush. While looking in Montezuma’s chocolate shop James bought me an early valentines day gift of some dark chocolate hearts with cacao nibs and dates which were so delicious! Later in the day we had a walk around Hove and got some flowers for my Auntie before getting in an early night ready for our 5am alarm this morning so we could drive back and beat the traffic!

It’s lovely to be home but I am really going to miss Brighton! I feel like all I’ve done this week is drink coffee, eat vegan cake and guzzle red wine! Apart from the Bikram class I haven’t worked out at all, although we must have walked at least 4 miles a day just back and forth between Hove and Brighton! I did bring my running gear but it has been too cold to even attempt it. Overall I’ve really indulged myself this week, I’ve eaten delicious food with abandon, haven’t worried about exercise, and apart from a bit of twitter action I’ve been pretty unplugged from the internet too. I think its been just what I needed! Of course a lot of shopping has been done too, shopping haul post coming up soon! Now I’m just happy to start getting myself back into my routine again.

Hope you’ve all had a great week and are enjoying your weekend!

Well I wasn't very good after I posted last night, I had a major raid of the kitchen cupboards due to the hunger monster. I was just ravenous! I kind of binged, but not on anything unhealthy so I don't feel really bad about it, but I still feel I bit guilty. I started off with a small bowl of brown rice puffs and chocolate rice milk, then when I had finished them I went back for another bowl, and then another bowl which finished the packet of rice puffs. After I had them I decided to finish off the last few dates in the cupboard. Still hungry, so I went back and had a handful of raisins and goji berries, still bloody hungry! So I chopped up a carrot and sprinkled with cinnamon and ate that too. I took these pics to remind myself of what I had eaten as well as trying to make sure that I didn't blow things out of proportion when I would undoubtfully feel guilty the next day. Looking back at the pics it wasn't too bad but I was a total glutton with the rice milk and rice puffs.


Unsuprisingly I went to bed with a bit of a food baby in my tummy!

Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on it, I haven't had a little binge like that for quite a while so I think perhaps my body just needed it, or I just couldn't resist that chocolate rice milk!

This morning I was up nice and early and had a cup of green tea and a Trek Oat Crunch bar for pre run fuel.


This tasted really good, just like the Trek Cherry flap jack it has more sugary ingredients, however I think this just makes it perfect for pre workout. This was the last of my products from Natural Balance Foods, I'm gutted! I think I'm going to make a purchase from their website. A full review post and GIVEAWAY to follow in the next couple of days!

I then headed out for my run. It was really good, I can feel my confidence growing each time I run. I did 9 miles this morning in 1hr 27, I can't get my exact breakdown as I lost GPS signal around mile 3 and that just completetly knocked everything off. At least I know I'm still coming in under 10 min a mile, however I really want to improve this for the Great North Run.

When I got back I stretched, showered and then made breakfast, I was starving! I started off with a slice of toasted rye bread with crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam followed by my best green monster smoothie in a bowl to date, made with loads of spinach, chocolate rice milk, scoop of chocolate whey, frozen banana and a few mixed frozen berries. This blended really well but stayed thick and creamy. I felt like I was eating a fruity chocolate ice cream, yum!


I spent the rest of the morning trying to chill out a bit and started to go through my old magazines in preparation for my inspiration board. I didn't realise that I had so many old magazines to sort through, I usually go through them after a couple of months to tear out any bits of inspiration, but its been a while!

For lunch I had more turkey, hummus and lettuce wraps with carrot and cucumber followed by an apple and a little peach.


I popped to see my Mam and Dad and then my friends Claire and Kate before heading into town to meet up with the Hubby. I snacked on a banana bread nakd bar I had popped in my bag mid afternoon. I picked up a few bits and pieces at the shops including some cropped running tights, and anti blister socks, a beaded and embroidered top for my holidays, some hazelnut and almond rice milk, posh new teas to try out and some new bras for my much smaller boobs! (due to the weight loss)

For dinner I made some baked salmon with ginger, soy and a little maple syrup and served it with a load of stir fried veggies including brocolli, savoy cabbage, courgette, carrot, mushrooms and red onions.


For desert I had more of my chocolate tofu pudding which was utterly delicious!


I then thought I would try out one of my new teas. I bought a box of tea pigs chocolate flake tea, I had read about tea pigs stuff in a magazine then checked out their website and knew I would want to give this flavour a try.


It tasted lovely, just like regular tea with a slightly chocolately taste, yum!

Drinks - water, green tea, chocolate flake tea.

He's a quick goofy pic of me, I haven't put a recent pic of me on the blog since I first started it so I thought I should pop one on!


Sorry, this post seems to have ended up really long! Hope you are all having a really good weekend what ever your up to. I'm just chuffed that I still have another two days off, woo hoo! x

Hi everyone, hope your enjoying your Sunday evening and have had a lovely weekend! I feel like I’ve barely stopped but I have had a great time :-) Today I’ve been Christmas shopping with my Mam, we’ve had a wonderful day!

OOTD: knitted headband: Primark, black hooded leather jacket: Topshop, jumper: Primark, panther pendant necklace: Primark, black bag: H&M, skinny jeans: H&M, black suede effect boots: H&M

I got plenty of presents bought and picked out a couple of things for myself from my parents, I am an exceptionally lucky girl! I got to try the Starbucks Praline Mocha (with soy of course) and it was delicious. We also had lunch at the Chinese Buffet:

Spicy cucumber pickle, sesame carrot salad and some other kind of pickle! 

My favourite Mapo Tofu (check out those massive chunks of tofu!) crispy fried greens and wantons which unfortunately after biting into them I discovered contained cheese. I had this plate x 2 :-)

Fruit plate for dessert

I do like the Chinese buffet but I have a pretty laid back approach to my veganism, I think if you worry about cross contamination of your foods it would definitely not be for you. I had thought the wantons were vegan but I didn’t freak out when I tasted the cheese, I just know not to have them again! That tofu and those pickles are worth going back for though!

Yesterday I started the day at the gym. I had been hoping to run outside but it was wet and windy and quite frankly I couldn’t be arsed so I went to the gym to run on the treadmill. In typical fashion, as soon as I arrived at the gym the sun came out! I was actually happy that I managed to stay on the treadmill as long as I did. I did 10k in 52.20 doing 0.25 mile speed changes and sprints between 6.7 and 8.2 mph. I finished off with 10 minutes on the bike to cool down.

Last night we went to see a guitarist called Aynsley Lister play at The Cluny. We went early so we could have some dinner. I had the vegan chilli with a few chunky chips some salad I pinched off James plate:

It contained chickpeas, mushrooms, peppers and spinach and it was hot hot hot! Perfect for a blustery night! On the way out of the gig we bumped into Simon King from the Hairy Bikers at the bar! He is so tall, I really like the Hairy Bikers cookery shows, I wish I could have stopped and talked to him properly!

Other tasty eats from this weekend include:

Creamy orange, cranberry and macadamia porridge (made without the greek yoghurt or rice milk) – so gorgeous!

Millet bread with home made mixed roasted and salted nut butter (one with Clearspring Cherry jam and one with honey) carrots and pears

Teriyaki marinaded and baked tempeh with stir fried shredded brussel sprouts and broccoli in a sesame oil and chilli dressing, roast kabocha squash and roast beets

The leftover baked tempeh crumbled in a salad with cos lettuce, carrot and red cabbage with a dressing made from sesame oil, braggs, lazy chilli and agave

Yum yum! Well I am sitting here writing this listening to Christmas songs, I’m definitely well and truly into the Christmas spirit! I see that people are starting to receive their Secret Santa gifts – it is absolutely wonderful that I’ve been able to spread a little happiness! I have had a few emails from people who have had issues getting them out, so please don’t panic if you haven’t received yours yet! I’ll be trying to chase up all my emails this evening and will hopefully get caught up with responding to comments and my Google reader tonight and tomorrow. Busy weekends like this always leave me playing catch up!

Have you had a good weekend? Buffet restaurants, yey or nay? I was really pleased with myself as its the first time ever I’ve been to a buffet restaurant and a) haven’t hugely over eaten and b) haven’t felt guilty for what I did eat. Even though I had 4 plates of food I didn’t leave with a food baby, result!

Right, I’m off to try and get myself organised for the week ahead! Hope you have a great one!