Info all Articles

I’ve been feeling exceptionally spring like this week, we have been enjoying some amazing weather. All of a sudden I’ve started craving things like crisp green apples, refreshing smoothies (well I kind of always crave those), strawberries and asparagus. I can’t wait for the spring to really kick in!

Pretty sunrise!

This has been a good workout week:

• Sunday – AM outdoor run approx 3.5 – 4.5 miles, 30 minute power yoga flow
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – AM free style yoga, PM 20 min HIIT, Body Pump
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – PM Yoga class
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

My yoga class last night was really good, we did some tougher poses that really challenged me and left me feeling really stretched! Food wise I’ve been using up that magic mixture all week, firstly spread inside a herbed socca served with lettuce and alfalfa sprouts:

I also had some spread on home made raw juice pulp crackers with a pile of veggies for lunch:

I’ve also been using up some tins of Amy’s soup I’d been sent ages ago for review:

This was the vegetable and barley soup topped with sprouts and alongside some Lydia’s raw crackers. I also had a tin of the lentil and vegetable soup with blue corn chips on the side for dinner last night:

Both were pretty good for a tinned soup! Of course no week of mine would be complete without a green smoothie or two! I had a massive craving for one yesterday morning so made a light one in a glass to accompany my raw granola and coffee:

The smoothie contained spinach, alfalfa sprouts, a pear and a nectarine blended with water and a few drops of vanilla stevia. I had it along with a bowl of Living Intentions raw cacao granola and some home made almond milk. I also had a green smoothie post workout, a chocolate pear and ginger one made with the amazing new stevia sweetened Chocolate Hemp protein powder from Good Hemp, spinach, sprouts, pear, fresh ginger and topped with dried pear, buckwheaties and bee pollen:

Snacks wise I’ve been enjoying apple and carrot with raw tahini for dipping…

…nectarine and frozen raspberries with home made almond milk…

…and persimmons with raw matcha green tea cookies and a glass of almond milk:

The best raw milk and cookies ever!

Oh and I have to give a special mention to this amazing Gourmet Raw brownie I tried:

This is the Carob Hazelnut and it is amazing, tastes like Nutella in a bar!

On my weekend send off Love List this week…

Popchips! I loved these when I visited NYC and they are now available here in the UK. I was very kindly sent these to review and can’t wait to try all the varieties. They are available from these retailers. Also…

March arriving – and seeing the light at the end of winter // Pinterest – I’ve become even more obsessed this week! //Having a spring clean in my work office and feeling organised!

What have you been loving this week? Are you feeling full of the joys of spring yet?

Hi folks, hope your enjoying a blissful weekend! So far mine has been a good one indeed. There has been coffee…

…and an outdoor run and get this, with James! He decided to come out with me this morning and run a couple of loops around the block. Why is it that some one that doesn’t do a lot of exercise other than walking can run way faster than me? Damn those long legs of his ;-) He’s definitely a born sprinter. He hasn’t ran with me in the past as he has problems with his knees but we are thinking if he builds up slowly he might be ok. I continued on after that and did perhaps 3.5 – 4.5 miles – not sure what time as I was sans Garmin but it was just good to be running outside! Afterwards I came home and did this 30 minute yoga power flow from You Tube, so many chaturangas!

I have to say I feel like I’ve out done myself this weekend with the eats, I’ve made some delicious stuff! It all started on Friday evening when I made a Thai Green Soya Bean Noodle Bowl. I’ve made this a couple of times over the last few months and it is quickly becoming my favourite meal! I though it was about time I shared the recipe properly:

Thai Green Soya Bean Noodle Bowl (vegan, serves 1 hungry person or 2 normal people ;-)

• 2 tbsp Thai green curry paste (I use Thai Taste which is vegan)
• 1 inch piece fresh ginger, grated
• Approx 150ml coconut milk – I used full fat but light would be fine too
• Clearspring Soya Sauce Ramen Noodles – 1 pack of noodles and soya sauce pack (or use pre cooked or other noodles of choice and soy sauce)
• 1/2 cup frozen soya beans, thawed
• 1 cup roast squash (I use Kabocha but butternut would be equally as good)
• 1 heaping cup shredded spring greens

In a big wok or frying pan, gently fry off the ginger and curry paste in a little oil (I used coconut oil) over a medium heat. Once the paste has become fragrant (about 2 minutes) add the coconut milk and stir to combine. Add your noodles to the pan (if your using the ramen noodles or other dried noodles) and add some hot water from the kettle – just enough to cover the noodles, and simmer until the noodles are cooked. Add the sachet of soya sauce from the ramen noodle pack (or add a tbsp of soy sauce) and stir before adding the soya beans. Add your squash (and noodles if using pre cooked ones) and then pile the shredded greens on top. Allow the greens to wilt a bit in the heat then stir them into the broth which should be fairly thick. Once the greens are tender serve in a large bowl or ladle out into two regular size bowls:

Seriously this is so so good, in fact it could be a contender for my favourite meal ever especially when made with the full fat coconut milk. Its also very quick to make if you have the squash roasted and ready to go and you could probably just add the beans frozen straight into the pan and just simmer a little longer. Absolutely delish!

For breakfast yesterday I decided to make use of the coconut milk leftover from the noodle bowl by following this method for making acai cultured coconut yoghurt! I had a sample of acai powder from an iHerb order so thought I would give it ago after making my own very simple coconut yoghurt a couple of weeks ago (just by refrigerating full fat coconut milk). I had some with blueberries, buckwheaties, pecans and maple syrup:

It was wonderful! I think if I made this again I would leave it out of the fridge somewhere warm overnight so it would ferment a bit more to develop more yoghurt like tang.

Lunch yesterday was a simple but really nice salad with spinach, romaine, red pepper, roast kabocha a sprinkle of fresh parsley and some tahini dressing:

I made the dressing really quickly in a jar by mixing tahini with lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, garlic, sweet white miso and water so I have enough for a few meals. I added some to another special meal I made this weekend, raw curried cauliflower with herbed socca and roast purple sprouting broccoli:

I’d been wanting to try the raw cauliflower ever since I saw this recipe on Some Like It Raw and it didn’t disappoint! I made a few amendments adding some coconut and a few chopped dried unsulphured apricots to the mix instead of the honey. For the spices I used turmeric, garam masala and cumin. It was well nice, and the socca turned out brilliantly too, especially dipped in that tahini dressing :-)

Other snackies include:

Raw snack plate with persimmons, apples, raw chocolate covered raisins and raw granola pieces

Blueberries, apple, peanut flour sauce, chopped dark chocolate buttons

Veggies, blue corn chips and sunflower butter and miso dipping sauce (the chips dipped in the sauce, so good!)

Of course there has also been green juices and green smoothies consumed too! Yesterday we took a quick trip into town to pick up a couple of things:

Feeling the pink, OOTD (haha caught a bit off guard!) leather look hooded jacket: Topshop, pink jersey wrap around scarf: Topshop, floral blouse: Oasis, coral Cambridge style satchel: H&M, gold chunky ring: Topshop, skinny ‘Baxter’ jeans: Topshop, biker style boots: Oasis

After town I called into a tattooist to discuss my ideas for my tattoo! Getting a half sleeve tattoo is on my wish list for 2012 and I want to make sure I have it done well before the summer as I want to show it off! I have another appointment to go in next weekend and finalise my design and arrange a date for my first sitting. Excited would be an understatement! Other than that I’ve been cooking up stuff again (including a great recipe I’ll share tomorrow), watching Family Guy Star Wars, painting my toe nails pink and reading Eat Pray Love. Good times!

How has your weekend been? What would you say is your current favourite meal? My favourite foods tend to change depending on the season and that Thai Green Curry is just everything I want in a meal right now!

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope your all having a great day, Sunday’s are the best aren’t they :-) I’ve had a really great weekend just so chilled out and relaxed. This morning I got in a great workout at the gym. I hadn’t been looking forward to running on the treadmill (and although it was bright, it was freezing outside!) so I made up a really simple relaxed treadmill workout:

5k treadmill workout

• 0.25 miles: 6.2mph
• 0.25 miles: 6.7mph
• 0.25 miles: 7.2mph
• 0.25 miles: 7.7mph repeat x 3 (to reach 3 miles)
• 0.1 mile sprint: 8.2mph (to reach 5k)

This was a great little run getting in 5k in just under 27 minutes. The regular speed changes stopped me getting bored and the speeds I used challenged me a bit, but left more than enough energy for my 15 min bike and 45 min Kettlebell class afterwards.

Yesterday I didn’t quite end up getting my intended lie in but I did have my lazy breakfast! Usually I know what I’m going to have for breakfast before I get up, but yesterday I decided to just see what I fancied. I really wanted something a bit bready that I could smother in nut butter but we don’t buy bread very often. Instead I decided to make a fat socca bread! I mixed half a cup of gram flour with half a cup of water, cinnamon, vanilla extract and a touch of stevia then fried the batter in coconut oil in my small frying pan. When it was cooked on both sides I topped it with with cashew butter, fresh blueberries and lots of maple syrup:

Perfection! This was just what I had been craving and was absolutely delicious. I decided to stick with the breakfast theme later in the day and made some oats in a jar for a snack after returning home from seeing friends and family:

I needed warming up as we’d been out for a walk and I couldn’t think of anything better than oats! I filled a near empty sunflower seed butter jar with oats cooked with water in the microwave and a heaping tbsp of Clearspring naturally sweetened blueberry jam.

This mornings post workout breakfast was a raw protein buckwheat bowl with vanilla sun warrior, chopped apples, raisins and cinnamon:

Yum! I enjoyed this with an Indian Chai tea with coconut milk, delish!

Other tasty bits and pieces this weekend include my usual weekend green juices, however as I was going out I didn’t think just juice would hold me over so taking inspiration from what I’ve been reading in Crazy Sexy Juices and Smoothies I made a smoothie with cucumber, celery, parsley, basil and orange blended with water, ice, maca powder and a little stevia to sweetened it up, all drank in a pretty mug of course:

This tasted very refreshing and nourishing!

Last night’s dinner was based on my Roast Broccoli, Brussels and Chickpea and Cranberry Couscous recipe – I roasted some broccoli, and for the first time some savoy cabbage (delish by the way) in coconut oil and then topped with the chickpea and cranberries but made with quinoa instead of couscous:

For dessert I tried one of my new chocolate almond puddings on top of frozen cherries with some peanut flour sauce swirled on top:

Heaven in my mouth!

This afternoon I’ve been having a party in my kitchen, I’ve had the radio blasting while I’ve been cooking and doing the laundry and I’ve even had a bit of a dance ;-) I’ve cooked up some brown rice for the week, made a special dish (which if it works will be incredible – will blog the recipe) and a giant pan of Lentil soup – based loosely on this recipe but I added some celery and left out the spinach because I didn’t have any. I had a huge bowl with some organic blue corn chips on the side for lunch:

Proper lush, I dipped the chips in the soup for extra noms :-)

Please don’t tell me I’m the only one that dances in my kitchen? Hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend and have a great week ahead!

Firstly, thanks for all the comments to my last post. I’ve taken on board what some of you have said regarding my weight loss and I’m in the process of writing up a post with all my thoughts and feelings on the topic of weight maintenance and the problems I’ve been having, so hopefully it will make for an interesting read!

Today we popped over to Newcastle, but first I’ll update on yesterday.

Although I’m off I still wanted to get a workout in, and I don’t like to go to far from my usual routine anyway, so I was at the gym early. I did HIITs on the cross trainer and step machine for 20 minutes each separated by 15 minutes x 2 of HIITs on the bike for a really good cardio workout. I then did my usual abs and core exercises, my plank is now up to 1 minute 20 sec!

Breakfast was a bowl of porridge made with quinoa flakes, Rude Health Fruity Date oat mix, oat bran, kara coconut milk and water. I topped it with some blueberries and pomegranate seeds:

I also had another green juice, I am just loving these at the mo!

This one contained 2 apples, cos lettuce, cucumber, celery, kale, lemon, ginger.

I was a bit stuck for what to make for lunch so I consulted my ‘recipes to try’ list (I get inspired so often I keep a list of things that take my fancy!) For ages I have wanted to try making Socca. I’ve seen it come up again recently on a couple of blogs so I thought I’d give it ago:

Simple Socca – makes one large or two small socca

• 1/2 cup of chickpea / gram flour
• 1/2 cup of water
• Any spices, herbs etc (I added a little cumin)
• Oil for frying (I used coconut oil)

Mix the flour and water together and fry in the oil on a medium high heat like a pancake. Flip when bubbles begin to show and cook the other side.

I served my socca with stir fried kale, mushrooms, courgette and a tahini sauce made with tahini, lemon juice, soy sauce and water:

This was fab! I can see myself making these again and again – it would be great with hummus and roast veggies (although I think a non chickpea hummus would be nice to avoid chickpea overload, although personally I love my chickpeas!), nut butter and fruit or even made up like a pizza with a tomato sauce and veggies. Have you tried Socca before? For more info on socca see the Pure 2 Raw twins Socca 101 post.

I also had an orange with some pomegranate seeds:

Mid afternoon I tried out another tasty recipe: Mama Peas Cookie Dough Balls. I followed the recipe exactly but used cacao nibs instead of chocolate chips:

Oh my word these are wonderful! I had two with a cuppa for my mid afternoon snack and popped the rest in the freezer.

Dinner was a quick super salad with lettuce, cucumber, carrot, green pepper, sprouts, sprouted beans and a sweet miso dressing (sweet miso, apple cider vinegar, cool oil):

I love these big salads! Dessert was 2 fresh figs, blueberries and Conscious Goji and Coconut raw chocolate:

Today I started with my Tuesday resistance workout (with the reps up to 17). It actually felt reasonably easy today so I think its time to change it up to be a little more challenging. As I’m working with my fixed weight dumbbell sets I can’t do much with the weight, and the reps are already high, so I’m thinking of changing the exercises to a more challenging version, for example my half push up to a travelling half push up and lunge to a lunge with rotation.

Breakfast was a chocolate cherry green monster containing kale, frozen cherries, chocolate sun warrior, kara coconut milk, spirulina, matcha green tea powder, maca powder and xanthan and guar gums for a little added thickness. I topped it with some Bear Coco Cherry Pie granola and flaked almonds:

As soon as we got into town we made a bee line for Starbucks! I had a gorgeous Grande Soy Gingerbread Latte and it was divine:

My first coffee in a month and it was oh so good!

After coffee I headed to Newcastle’s independent health food store Almonds and Raisins. I haven’t been in for a while and it has really seemed to up its game, the stock range was fantastic, in fact a lot of the stuff I thought I would have to order via Goodness Direct they stock. I was over the moon and couldn’t resist a little splurge:

 Vegetable and brown rice pasta, tofu fillets, sheese cheddar style vegan cheese, organic barley miso paste, Dr Organic body lotion, black rice noodles, organic wild rice mix, clear spot plain organic tofu, gomasio (a Japanese condiment made from sesame seeds and salt)

For lunch we visited a wonderful little cafe called scrumpy willow and the singing kettle. They serve lots of organic and locally sourced food with plenty of well marked vegan and vegetarian options alongside dishes with meat. It has a really charming interior:

The food options were excellent and I had difficultly deciding what to get. I decided to go for one of the specials: quinoa and red grape salad with toasted nuts and beetroot:

This was gorgeous, it also contained plenty of parsley, red cabbage, spring onion and a lovely mustard dressing. I think I may try recreating this at home! I also had the karma kooler juice which contained apple, ginger and mint:

It was so sweet I actually asked the owner if he had added sugar which he hadn’t. So delicious! James was happy too as he had a cheese and ham omelette, but he said it wasn’t as good as the ones I make bless him! I was grateful that he was happy to eat here as I don’t often get the opportunity to eat out at more vegan friendly places, I need a vegan dining partner! I really loved this little place and can see that it will become a favourite of mine.

For a mid afternoon snack I had a Ryvita pumpkin and oat cracker with sunflower seed butter and a chopped apple:

Dinner was some buckwheat noodles that I had bought from an oriental store ages ago plus stir fried kale, courgette, carrot, green pepper, mushrooms and edamade with some shoyu, fresh ginger and a sprinkling of the gomasio I bought earlier:

I love a good stir fry and the noodles and gomasio made this extra tasty. Dessert was 2 chocolate avocado cups from the freezer with a nectarine and an apple:

I’ve had such a brilliant couple of days so far on my week off and I’m still feeling great – I just seem to have loads of energy and positivity (despite the issues I touched on yesterday) at the moment!

Tomorrow we are off down to York for a couple of days and I can’t wait for the little break! I love taking short breaks just to get away from it all for a while, do you take mini breaks? Where’s your favourite short break destination?

Hi everyone, hope you’ve been having a lovely weekend! I’ve had a great one, today I was out for Sunday lunch to celebrate Mother’s day with my Mam and Grandma :-) I decided to rock my £3.50 eBay skirt:

Outfit of the day: drop crystal earrings: Oasis, blazer: Topshop, pink long sleeved top: Dorothy Perkins, bag: H&M, floral skirt: eBay, black tights: M&S, grey peep toe boots: Oasis.

It feels like I’ve been eating so many colourful foods this weekend! Looking back to Saturday, we had a lovely relaxed morning – I made a big pot of sencha green tea and just chilled out while eating breakfast. This was just delicious:

A slice of my coconut banana bread with strawberries, apple blackberry tofu yoghurt and passion fruit. I know I’ve said it before but I adore that tofu yoghurt and it tasted so good with the coconut banana bread. Just so I can link back to it here’s the super simple recipe that I use to make the yoghurt:

Simple tofu yoghurt (makes two servings)

• 1 package of mori nu silken tofu
• 1 small jar of fruit puree / 3 tbsp of pureed fruit (I’ve been using hip organic baby food!)
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Chill in the fridge before eating. I really love its plain creamy taste – dare I say it, almost as much as Greek yoghurt! It certainly makes a nice vegan alternative, at least for me!

Lunch was a beautiful ‘rainbow’ salad. I just loved all the colours in this!

It included cos lettuce, sweet pea shoots, alfalfa sprouts, carrot, yellow pepper, beetroot, sugar snaps and cucumber plus a load of mixed seeds for added protein and crunch. I made the simplest and tastiest dressing inspired by a recipe in Veganomicon using 1 tbsp of tahini, 1 tbsp of sweet white miso and water, it was utterly delicious.

I went for more posh green juice too:

Posh because I drink it from a wine glass ;-) This was my first green juice sans fruit – it contained celery, romaine, cucumber, broccoli, lemon and ginger and tasted surprisingly good without the added sweetness of the usual apple or pear. I’ve also had a few colourful fruit filled bowls:

Dinner was a a socca pizza type creation. I made up the usual socca and topped with a thick layer of my broccoli and olive high protein hummus, broccoli and brussel sprouts roasted in coconut oil, beetroot and alfalfa sprouts:

This was really good and very filling but I think would have tasted even better with regular hummus! I also had some 74% dark chocolate with mint from Plamils – it tasted amazing!

Sunday morning I was up for my run. I decided I to go for a nice relaxed 9 miles (the furthest I have ran this year) which I did in 1hr 25 minutes with an average pace of 9.32 which I was really happy with. It was a good run but it did feel slow and tough at times. It was nice to hit the 9 mile distance though and I felt really strong at the end, even managing a bit of a sprint finish! I was thinking back to last years training and how achy and tired I felt after some of my runs. So far this year I’ve had none of that, my recovery seems to have massively improved.

Breakfast was a delicious chocolate cherry beet green smoothie made with a big cooked beetroot and the usual maca, mesquite and ground flax then topped with peanut flour sauce, grape nuts cereal and cacao nibs:

So good!

I was a little nervous of visiting the restaurant for Sunday lunch as I didn’t want to have any problems finding something vegan to order. I shouldn’t have worried though as ended up with some penne in a lovely roast veggie and tomato sauce along with a big salad. My tummy wasn’t so happy with the white pasta – it always bloats me up now - but I had a few cups of green tea when I got home which made me feel better.

For dinner I made a huge pan of my favourite spring soup – Courgette and Watercress. For such a simple recipe this really tastes fab:

I had a couple of bowls full, just so nourishing and delicious. I also had more tofu yoghurt with strawberries, blueberries and a little bit of granola:

All in all a lovely weekend has been had!

I’ve also managed to be quite productive which is always good, I got another assignment completed for my diet and nutrition course and had a lovely Sunday cook up session so I have meals ready for the next couple of days, as well as an extremely well stocked freezer. I think next week will be eat out the freezer week!

Do you like to eat a rainbow of different coloured foods? I love to try and eat lots of different colours – mainly because they are so pretty but also because eating a range of colours ensures you get a full range of nutrients. I have Colleen Patrick – Goudreau’s Colour Me Vegan cookbook on my wish list – it has a range of recipes based on the colour of foods!

I would have to say that my favourite food colour is green – apples, kale, spring greens and cucumber are some of my favourite veggies!

What’s your favourite ‘food colour’?