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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 Friday! Does today feel like a Saturday to anyone else? I think my routines are going to be totally messed up this week now, not that I’m complaining I love that we get a 4 day weekend! I got my Easter break off to a good start with some baking:

Those would be home made vegan wholemeal apple, cinnamon, raisin hot cross buns! I’ll post the recipe soon. I had one warm from the oven with vegan spread and black cherry jam, it was delicious! I’ve taken some to my parents and my friends this afternoon and they’ve all gone down well there too :-)

I’ve had lots of other lovely meals this week including:

Breakfasts

Raw buckwheat (soaked overnight) with strawberries, dates, hemp milk and raw cacao granola

Leftover brown and red rice, chopped apple, raisins, hemp milk and sunflower seed butter with cinnamon and hazelnut coffee

Raw oats, soy milk, nectarine, frozen blueberries and Earl Grey tea with soy milk

Lunches and Dinners

Buddha bowl with brown and red rice, pinto beans, red onion, olives, avocado and steamed broccoli – this tasted amazing, avocado just makes anything taste extra special!

Baked tofu salad with balsamic dressing

Thai Curry Edamade Noodle bowl but made with Thai red curry paste and some miracle noodles I’d bought from iHerb to try

So much yumminess!

This week I also received my cookies as part of Tam’s fantastic cookie exchange! Cat sent me a wonderful package of vegan delights including peanut cookies, chocolate chip cookies and snicker doodles! They all taste incredible! I tried a few, froze the rest and used some of the snicker doodle crumbs as a topping for some raspberry and hemp milk ‘ice cream’ with peanut sauce and cacao nibs:

I’ve never had snicker doodles before and oh my god these are insanely good!

Workouts this week have been pretty much the usual:

• Sunday – AM gym – 4 miles relaxed treadmill run, 20 minutes cross trainer, kettle bell 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 – PM Body Pump class 
• 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 – AM 1 hour Power Yoga workout from You Tube
• 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’ve now finished 4 weeks of doing the Dial it in workouts from Female Body Breakthrough so I’m happy I’ll be moving on to the next phase and some fresh exercises next week!

On the weekend send off love list this week…

Baking supplies!

I’m planning on making some chocolate fudge cupcakes this weekend and thought these pretty pastel sugar butterflies would be perfect for decorating them! Also…

Enjoying a three day week! // getting used to my iPad and playing with new photo apps // watching Dexter season 3 // having fun with my nephews today :-)

How are you planning to spend the Easter weekend? What’s on your love list this week?

This weekend has been a no make up and yoga pants kind of a weekend, which after last week was just what the doctor ordered! Its probably been the most chilled weekend I’ve had in a long time, all I’ve done is pop to the shops and the gym. Other than that we did a bit of tidying up around the house and measured up the rooms we want re carpeted soon. I enjoyed flicking through a couple of my favourite interior design books for inspiration:

I love decorating so it was fun to start thinking how I want the rooms to look when we are done!

On Friday night after work I decided to roast up the kabocha squash I bought when I was in Brighton and make my Thai Green Curry Kabocha and Edamame Noodle Bowl:

I used chard instead of spring greens. Oh my this really is a contender for being a favourite meal, it was delicious!

That squash was pretty big so much to my pleasure I’ve been eating it all weekend. I had some for ‘dessert’ last night covered in peanut sauce:

Then this morning I made a wonderful smoothie by blending the kabocha squash with 2 scoops of vanilla sun warrior, ice, unsweetened almond milk, cinnamon, ginger, maca and a little stevia then topped with tahini, bee pollen and dried cranberries:

Heaven in a bowl! I could never get sick of these smoothies :-) I also ended up eating the remainder of the squash drizzled in more tahini.

Yesterday I made a fantastic salad for lunch with mixed greens, pear, organic goats cheese, walnuts, dried cranberries and balsamic vinegar:

I love salads like this!

For breakfast I made a socca fold over with cashew butter and apple:

Then last night I just fancied something simple so made a Buddha bowl with kale and chard sautéed in coconut oil topped with tricolour quinoa, cannellini beans and green goddess dressing:

That dressing is still going strong after a week in the fridge :-)

I’ve also had some tasty beverages:

Blended coffee with cacao butter, posh green juice (cucumber, celery, ginger, lemon) and a pumpkin spice smoothie.

This morning I had my kettlecise class with the usual cardio on the machines before the class started. I would usually do 10 minutes on the cross trainer, bike and step machine but the step machines were busy so I decided to try out a little treadmill run. Considering I haven’t ran in several months I was astonished by my fitness. I ran for over 10 minutes at about a 10 minute mile pace and found it really easy! I had honestly expected to struggle and need to walk after two minutes. I’m not about to start running properly again, but it was just good to know that all my fitness hasn’t deserted me!

How has your weekend been? Do you enjoy decorating? I’m not such a fan of the painting and what not but I love thinking about how to style a room – I think its just like fashion but you are dressing a room rather than yourself if that makes sense! Do you like interior design?