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Hi Everyone, this is a bit of a monster post so please bear with me! Hope you’ve all had a great weekend so far. Saturday morning I was up bright and early for my first run since last weeks Great North Run. I have to admit when I looked out the window and saw the howling wind I very nearly decided to just leave it and go to the gym instead. I stuck at it, fuelled up with some orange nakd raisins and went out and did 6.66 miles in 1hr03.

It was so cold my fingers were actually really sore and aching. It was not the most pleasant run but I’m glad I didn’t let the weather stop me! I think I’m going to continue running shorter distances (4 – 9 miles) and doing speed work on the treadmill at the gym over the winter to keep my fitness level up. I came home and did 15 minutes of yoga stretch (from a Davina DVD) then made breakfast. I had some delicious protein pancakes made with egg whites, cookies and cream spiru-tein, baking powder, soy milk and apple and berry fruit puree. These didn’t cook properly for some reason but I covered them with hot berries and almond butter sauce and they still tasted great!

Lunch was a salad with cos lettuce, spinach, cucumber, red onion, carrot, green pepper, 2 goats cheese babybel and some balsamic dressing. I also had a 2 small chopped apples and a sliced pear with cinnamon.

I had an afternoon of catching up with the family then hit the town for some shopping. I picked up some goodies from Waitrose:

I was chuffed that I managed to find some of the 2% Total Greek Yoghurt to try and some of the Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt (more on that in a mo). I also got some organic brown pitta breads to pop in the freezer and two packs each of basil tofu, sesame almond tofu and some tofu sausages that I fancied trying out. I also picked up some natural almond flavouring.

I stopped by Holland and Barrat for some nuts and nut butter:

Walnuts, brazil nuts, raisins, ground almonds, cashew butter, almond butter and some sprouted wheat bread that I’ve been dying to try. Its high in protein and only has one single ingredient – spouted wheat, sounds good!

I looked about for other items from my wish list but just couldn’t seem to find anything. I ended up in Peacocks and was very surprised to find these:

Grey flat studded ankle boots, charcoal grey skinny trousers and some soft and oh so comfy hareem style belted pants that I’ll be wearing round the house with big jumpers, so cosy! I just wanted some cheap boots and skinny trousers that I can sling on when its raining outside (hate wet trouser bottoms!) and that will do for work too, these seemed to fit the bill.

I also picked up my new blender!

Isn’t it pretty? I know its no Vita Mix but hopefully it should do me for a while.

After meeting up with the hubby and snacking on some dried apricots to keep me going, we came home and I made my first ever curry without using a pre made curry paste. I was very proud of myself :-)

Chickpea and Vegetable Curry (makes 4 portions)

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 finely chopped cloves of garlic
• 1 inch piece of ginger root peeled and grated
• 1 tsp of garam masala
• 1 tsp of hot chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp of ground coriander
• 1/2 an aubergine
• 1 small sweet potato
• 4 runner beans, chopped
• 1 tin of chickpeas
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of light coconut milk

Start by chopping the aubergine into bite size pieces and lightly stir frying in some olive oil for a few minutes until browned. Set to one side. To speed things up I also cheated a bit by microwaving the sweet potato for 3 minutes so that it was semi cooked. Chop the sweet potato into bite size pieces and set to one side with the aubergine. In a heavy bottomed pan (or frying pan – I actually just used my big wok) heat the oil over a medium heat. Fry the onions for a few minutes until translucent, then add the garlic and ginger, followed by the spices. Fry together for a few minutes taking care not to let them burn. Add the aubergine, sweet potatoes and chopped beans and fry for a minutes before adding the drained and rinsed chickpeas followed by the chopped tomatoes and coconut milk. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes then serve.

I served mine with some cauliflower ‘rice’ (cauliflower put through the food processor and them steamed) and a drizzle of soy sauce. It was delicious and so good for you! The beauty of this is that you could add any veggies you have hanging about in place of the aubergine, beans and sweet potato.

For desert I had some of my strawberry frozen yoghurt topped with agave syrup and flaked almonds.

This has kept so well in the freezer, such a great alternative to regular ice cream. I also couldn’t resist trying a square of the Lindt Sea Salt Chocolate.

Oh. my. god. This is the best chocolate I have ever tasted. I was divine. It took all my will powder not to eat the whole bar there and then. I love the sweet and salty combo and this is a perfect example of that. Yum! I’ll be stock piling bars of this every time I’m at Waitrose.

This morning I had a bowl of Dorset Cereal Fruit and Fibre style cereal with a chopped apple and some soy milk.

Was nice to have some cereal for a change, very tasty!

Mid morning I was just itching to try out my blender so I made a strawberry and mint smoothie using frozen strawberries, skimmed milk and a few fresh mint leaves.

The blender worked really well and the smoothie was delicious and refreshing.

I roasted a huge tin of veggies (broccoli, sweet potato, red pepper, red onion, aubergine, runner beans) to last me for a couple of days. For lunch I made a spelt wrap and filled it with hummus and some of the roast veggies.

I love roast veggies and hummus in wrap, perhaps my favourite filling! I also ended up making myself a big bowl of vanilla and matcha green tea protein ice cream topped with coconut and agave syrup.

I wanted to be sure the blender could handle the ice cubes and I’m very pleased to say that this bowl was perfect – no lumpy bits at all!

I’ve had a bit of a soup making day, I have a big pan of low carb Leek, Potato and Bean Soup on the stove right now. I’ll post the recipe up tomorrow or this will end up being the longest post ever!

Have you had a good weekend? What’s your favourite soup? I’ll be a soup making machine this autumn and winter – it makes the perfect healthy lunch when the weather is cold! I like to add beans to my soups to make them more filling too.

Oh, and in case you missed it yesterday I posted Part 1 of what I learned doing my Big Budget Challenge. Check it out!

Hi Everyone! Hope your all having a great weekend :-)

I started Saturday with my usual run. I was extra proud of myself for going out at 7.15am in the dark and cold, however I wrapped up warm with my pink waterproof jacket and new gloves and I was fine. I think I may have conquered my aversion to running in bad weather! I did 6.2 miles in 1hr, running a pretty hilly route which was fun for a change. I always feel set up for the weekend after getting a run in first thing on a Saturday.

Eats have been really tasty, breakfast yesterday:

Amazing vanilla protein pancakes (3 egg whites, scoop of vanilla whey, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder) with 2 sliced plums, almond butter and maple syrup sauce (1 heaped teaspoon of almond butter, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, splash of milk, warmed in microwave and combined till smooth) then topped with a teaspoon of Rude Health Granola. These were just so delicious, I love my weekend pancake treat!

Breakfast today:

Spelt and egg white seeded wrap with crunchy peanut butter and sliced apple. I love these wraps, honestly I think I could eat them everyday!

I’ve also made a couple of very ‘traditional’ style dinners, as the hubby loves this kind of thing. Yesterday was bangers and mash:

2 tofu sausages (97% pork sausages for the hubby), white bean mash (low GL recipe, 1/2 can of cannellini beans mashed with soy milk and 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable bouillon powder), steamed broccoli and kale with red onion gravy. This was just spot on!

Today I made a beef mince dinner:

Lean beef mince with onion and gravy and steamed broccoli, kale and carrots (plus mashed potatoes for the hubby and sis in law).

Fruity deserts have included blueberry and pear smoothie in a bowl (1 sliced pear, frozen blueberries, soy milk, ice cubes, topped with granola)

Fruit plate with orange, plums and figs.

How I love fresh figs! Last nights pud:

Cherry amaretto desert, just gorgeous!

Yesterdays lunch (and what will be tonight’s dinner) a big salad of lettuce, spinach, cucumber, red onion, tomato, tuna and olives with balsamic dressing.

De-lish! I’m really hooked on olives at the moment.

I also plan to have the last portion of my strawberry frozen yoghurt for desert.

Here’s some Outfit of the day action for you:

I love layering at this time of year: boots: asos, skinny jeans: peacocks, silk tea dress: warehouse (from about 5 years ago!), cardigan: new look, belt: topshop, bag: mango, scarf: accessorize, bangles: oasis. This is one of my favourite floral dresses, its a little big for me now so its perfect for being belted in at the waist. I love the colours in the dress too.

I also got some goodies from my sister in law as a belated birthday gift:

Dior mini eye shadow palette, Clinique mirror, mini palette, face wash, dramatically different moisturiser, lip gloss, mascara and Paul Smith rose body lotion (love this!)

I love the colours of the eye shadows in the little Dior palette. As I can no longer afford the Urban Decay Naked palette I had on my wish list I’ll be making best use of these instead.

Are you a fan of the traditional British dinner? Every so often I get a bit of a craving for them and I do like to make them for the hubby every once in a while. Bangers and mash and beef mince with veggies always remind me of the dinners that my Nana and Grandma used to make. What’s your favourite traditional family dish?

I don’t know what it is but the last 24 hours I have been really enjoying my baking! I cooked up two batches of muffins based on my banana walnut muffin recipe. Last night I made some banana blueberry, then this morning I made up a batch of half plain banana (for fusspot hubby) and the other half I experimented with adding 1/4 cup of oats and a teaspoon of cinnamon with a pecan nut for decoration. I also reduced the amount of oil in this batch and they turned out perfectly.

After a quick trip to the supermarket I came home and made some amazing pancakes for breakfast.

Spelt Choc Chip Pancakes for one

• 1/2 cup of spelt flour
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup of total greek yoghurt
• 1/4 cup of soy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of dark chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients except the chocolate chips in a jug. Heat a frying pan to medium high and coat with spray oil and then pour a third of the mixture into the pan. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the batter add a few chocolate chips to the top then flip and cook the other side. Repeat until the batter is used up, keeping the other pancakes warm under the grill. Eat with maple or agave syrup and fresh fruit.

 

These were so good! I felt very naughty eating chocolate with breakfast but one tablespoon of dark chocolate won’t do any harm. I ate mine with two fresh dates and some strawberries.

I had a busy day out and about planned so I made up a packed lunch to take with me. I made up a big salad including romaine lettuce, spinach, carrot, yellow pepper, cucumber, sugar snap peas, spicy roasted chickpeas, soya beans and a little balsamic dressing. I also took a peach and two apples with me. I only ended up eating one of these apples as I was quite full!

I visited my parents, sister and friends. In the afternoon me and my best friend decided to have a walk up to an area which has a lot of ethnic shops. We had such a great time looking around them and at all the unusual ingredients. I gave myself a £5 budget and came away with this:

Assorted baclava sweet pastries, roasted spicy chickpeas, garam  masala powder and a couple of lemons. This only came to just under £4. Very happy to be able to stock up on spicy roasted chickpeas I love them!

I came home and made a lovely dinner of roasted and mashed butternut squash with a pork and leek sausage (kindly given to me from my manager at work – she got them from an award winning butcher in the Durham Dales) and steamed broccoli, kale and cauliflower. I also made some caramelised red onion gravy.

So completely delicious, I love sausage and mash! For desert I’m having some of this home made frozen yoghurt:

Strawberry Frozen Yoghurt

200g of Total Full Fat Greek Yoghurt

1 cup of fresh strawberries

1 tablespoon of agave syrup

Put the fresh strawberries in a bowl and mash with the back of a fork until you get a mushy consistency. Add the greek yoghurt and agave and mix well. Put into a suitable container (I used a small lunch box) and pop into the freezer. Every hour for 4 hours stir the yoghurt mixture to break up and distribute the ice crystals. Remove from the freezer at least 30 minutes before serving to allow to soften a little.

I’m going to have some of this along with a couple of my sweet baclava pastries, yum!

I’ve been enjoying my baking so much recently that my freezer is full with muffins, breads, soups, curries etc. I spent some time labelling all my freezer bags this morning:

Do you make good use of your freezer? I wish I had a much larger one to fit more goodies in!

Hope you’ve all had a good Saturday, we are going to watch the movie Kick Ass tonight and relax, I’m really looking forward to it. Catch you later! x