Wedding invite HQ

…or should that be wedding invite madness?!

We have been extremely busy and getting crafty in order to get our wedding invitations posted out tomorrow.  Ribbon, adhesive stickers, printing envelopes, ticking people off our guest list pretty much sums up our weekend.

Despite all of the hard work that was involved we are very pleased with the end results.  We are totally in love with our invitations and they are definitely the epitome of vintage glamour. We ordered them from Strawberry Sorbet and not only do they make beautiful letterpress invitations but their customer service is impeccable too.

Of course there was lots of delicious food consumed whilst sealing lots of envelopes, and by the way why does the gum paste on envelopes taste so gross, yuck!

Tomato, spinach, onion and cheese omelet with a toasted wholemeal bagel with vegan spread.

Rice cakes topped with Justin’s peanut butter with honey.

Super refreshing honey dew melon slices and green tea for a light breakfast.

Salad beast of romaine lettuce, rocket, tomatoes, butternut squash, cucumber, celery and a green pesto dressing.

Using my boyfriend’s words, today’s breakfast was an epic kind of beautiful!  A vanilla and cinnamon wholemeal pancake topped with super sweet strawberries, blueberries and a raw chocolate sauce.

Steamed broccoli with ordered in aromatic tofu and tao woo tord tofu (I don’t know what it means but it tasted darn good!)

Barabara’s Bakery vanilla snack animals.

Surprisingly I haven’t had a smoothies this weekend, shock horror!  I think it was down to being lazy and not wanting to clean out the blender.  After all of the work that the invitations have involved I did everything that I could to keep the washing up as minimal as possible.

I just had some of the leftover tofu for dinner with more steamed veggies, yum!  Now I think I can hear my Raw Chocolate and Salted Caramel Hearts calling me from  the freezer.

What have you been up to this weekend? Are you into arts and crafts? Do you like to do a lot of DIY craft projects?

Quality time

Hey guys! I hope you have all enjoyed your weekends and the sunshine. Did anyone see the Olympic opening ceremony- Danny Boyle is a genius.

This weeks workouts:

Monday: REST

Tuesday: Variation of strength workout A 20 minutes of gentle cardio on the cross machine and bike

Wednesday: Jillian Micheal’s Yoga Meltdown Level 1

Thurday: Body balance

Friday: extended version of strength workout B and minutes of gentle cardio on the cross machine and bike

Saturday: 3 mile run and yoga stretches including sun salutations, pigeon pose and the plough.

Sunday: REST

I’ve really enjoyed this weeks workouts.  Yesterday’s run was lovely in the morning sunshine and body balance was wonderful as always.  The Jillian Micheal’s Yoga Meltdown Level 1 was intense, I was so worn out afterwards!

Well, I’ve had a fab couple of days. I had yesterday off work, so Alfie and me decided to make the most of the sunshine and spend some quality time together. It feels like forever ago that we spent some time together properly as are working schedules are different most of the time and he works away during the week.

We decided to take off to Stratford-upon- Avon (Shakespeare’s birthplace, for anyone interested!) and have a little picnic and enjoy the sun. I thought I would go bear legged with my favourite pair of shorts:

OTTD: blue floral top: Newlook, utility shorts: Warehouse, sandals: Evisu, hear vintage earrings: Forever 21, pink bow necklace: Forever 21.

Before heading out I made a lovely breakfast of basic green smoothie made using ice, hazelnut milk, kale and a banana with cherries and a chopped pink lady apple on the side with some white chocolate wonderful for dipping.

I love simple breakfasts like this, the hazelnut milk made the smoothie extra creamy too, yum!

Picnic munchies:

A wholemeal bagel stuffed with loads of hummus, watercress, and cherry tomatoes- definitely a fab combination!

I also had some Thai sweet chilli crisps on the side, which was a bit different from my normal foods, but they tasted oh so good!

Chopped strawberries, doughnut peaches and blueberries made a really great picnic dessert.

We sunbathed by the river for a while before taking a walk around the town:

Stratford really is a beautiful town full of so many interesting and historical buildings. I love cultural towns like this and it was just seeping out of every crevice here.

During are little exploration we found a quaint little chocolatier that also sold organic farm fresh ice cream, so of course we couldn’t resist and both had some.

I had a scoop of the honey comb and a scoop of the lemon meringue ice creams. This the most creamiest ice cream EVER, my favourite being the lemon meringue. It reminded me of lemon sherbets that I used to eat a lot when I was younger.

Dinner last night was equally as good:

Baked salmon with garlic, red chilli, ginger, lime juice, mirin, soy sauce with stir fried veggies in a char sui sauce, delish! I baked the salmon in a make-shift foil bag so it would steam and take on the flavours of the ingredients and boy it did!

To finish our day we chilled out on the sofa and watched a movie and of course snacks are mandatory where movies are concerned:

Said snack- grapes, dried mulberries and raw chocolate covered goji berries.

Other food highlights from this weekend include:

Overnight oats in almond milk with blueberries, banana, honey, cinnamon and almond butter.

Salad beast of watercress, salad leaves, avocado, courgette, red pepper and chick peas.

It has been so great spending some quality time with my hubby to be.  I guess be busy all of the time with our own stuff makes the time we spend to together that extra special. 

How do you like to spend quality time with your loved ones?

Do you find that absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Just call me Gok Wan!

Hey folks!  I hope you have all been enjoying the weekend and all of the beautiful sunshine that we have been having in the UK, maybe summer is here at last?

Thank you for all of your wonderful comments on my last post– I will get round to replying to them all soon, promise! You guys are so supportive and amazing and I adore you all!  Becoming more relaxed with my eating and exercise is something that has progressed over the last 6 months, but I just wanted to put my thoughts on this all in one post.  Like some of you said the current revolution in the blogging community seems to be slowing things down and generally being more kinder to ourselves and I think it is great that I’m not alone in this endeavor.

I really enjoyed my workouts this week, they went a little bit like this:

Monday: Yoga Class

Tuesday: a variation of strength workout A and 20 minutes of HIITS on the bike and cross trainer

Wednesday: REST

Thursday: Body Balance

Friday: 30 minutes of gentle cardio on the treadmill, cross trainer and step machine followed by 3 x 12 reps of chest press ups, lunges, squats, tricep dips and the plank.

Saturday: REST

Sunday: 3 mile run and yoga stretches

This week I decided to just do whatever I felt like where my workouts were concerned and found it so much fun.  This morning I was supposed to go to the gym, but it was so beautiful outside I just couldn’t waste the sunshine so I went on a short 3 mile run.  I had a great playlist on my iPhone which made the run really enjoyable.

On Saturday I had a bit of a girly shopping day in Birmingham with my mum with a mission of finding her Mother of the Bride outfit.  I made the most of the sun with my outfit and decided to put on my favourite maxi dress and gladiator sandals.

OOTD: stripy maxi dress: Bank, grey basic t-shirt: H&M, gladiator sandals: Office, necklace: French Connection, orange cuff: Forever 21, bracelet: Topshop.

I just loved the navy stripes and the orange accessories together!

After trying on about a zillion dresses, jackets and fascinator combos my mum finally settled on a dress that she felt comfortable in.  We grabbed a whole heap of dresses of different shapes, colours and cuts and the one that my mum picked really compliments her figure and complexion.  She looks fabulous in it and after starting out not feeling confident she would find anything she would find anything, she really happy with the dress I helped her find.  Well, what can I say, just call me of Gok Wan!

I also picked up some treats for myself and something for Alfie too:

Basic vest tops (£2.50 each!), skinny jeans (£8.75),  moccasins, scarf, pink jewelled bow necklace, selection of earrings, scarf: Forever 21, body cream from Jo Malone, Chanel lipstick, Tom Ford perfume for men.

Forever 21 is one of my favourite shops and it is always good for a bargain.  Obviously the more expensive items are for my wedding day.  Alfie and I really love our fragrances and wanted something different for our wedding day.  So, I went to Jo Malone and already have bought the perfume but wanted a body cream to wear underneath it to make the perfume smell even more unique.  Alfie fell in love with a pure perfume Tom Ford fragrance and it smells extremely spicy and sexy!

This weekend food has been particularly fantastic!

A wholemeal bagel stuffed with plain hummus, Tesco’s vegan cheese and cucumber!  One of the best bagel combos ever!

All of this sun has made my strawberries change colour so quickly.  I pick some one day and there are more red ones the next day- I can’t keep up!  They have been the focus of many meals:

Stove cooked oats using almond milk, water, Tesco’s soya yoghurt, nectarines, raspberries, blackberries and my strawberries.

Strawberries, blackberries, soya yoghurt, dark chocolate dreams and salted pretzels.

Fresh pineapple, strawberries, blackberries, soya yoghurt and a Cherry and Oat Breakfast Muffin.

I’ve also been loving my green smoothies with a passion:

Kale, a banana, vanilla stevia, ice and almond milk!

My favourite meal to whip up right now are Buddha bowls, I just cannot seem to get enough of them.  They are so tasty and so quick to make, what’s not to love?

Steamed broccoli and edamame beans with left over Curried Quinoa with Cashews and Sultanas with some plantain.

Steamed broccoli and kale, black eyed beans, baked sweet potato, yum!

Steamed broccoli and baked sweet potatoes seem to be an obsession of mine right now, I love them!  Sweet potatoes are great loaded with nut butters, with this in mind I made a mouthwatering evening snack on Friday night.

A baked sweet potato stuffed with peanut butter and raw chocolate covered raisins, oh yes! 

I really have had a fantastic weekend of shopping, eats and spending time with Alfie- it was so nice to treat him to that perfume.  Today I went out for my run, did the food shop, enjoyed the sunshine in my garden, reading my book and making the most of my Goodnessdirect delivery that arrived on Friday:

I made these oh so amazing Raw Chocolate and Salted Caramel Hearts earlier today and of course I had to test on for quality purposes.  No words can describe how good these babes are!

Such a fab weekend!  I hope you enjoy the rest of yours!

Have you ever had to play stylist Gok Wan style to anybody?  I found it quite fun once we had found the right dress.

What have you been up to this weekend?

Simply amazing!

Hi, lovely people! Hope you have all been enjoying your weekends. I have been working all this weekend, but have been taking delight in the knowledge that I have next weekend off and only working a 3 day week on the run up to it, life is good!

This amazing jar of deliciousness is my gorgeous Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie with strawberries with some large salted pretzels for dipping. The strawberries made the smoothie that little bit more extra special.

I adore this smoothie and pretzels so threw them both together for a wonderful Friday evening snack after work. If Reese’s PB cups and pretzels were to get together and have babies, they would taste just like this!

My workouts for last week looked a little bit like this:

Monday: 3.5 mile run followed by ab work

Tuesday: A variation of strength workout A, including weights and body weight moves, with 20 minutes of HIITS on the cross trainer and the bike

Wednesday: REST

Thursday: Body Balance…J’adore this class!

Friday: A variation of strength workout B with 20 minutes of HIITS on the step machine and the bike

Saturday: REST

Sunday: MTV Yoga DVD

Body Balance this week was another great class. I’m really enjoying the flow of the movements in this class and how well thought out the class is. I definitely feel so relaxed after this class, despite it being a kick ass work out. This morning I did my MTV Yoga DVD as I felt my muscles could do with a stretch, and stretched they were. For me I think it is important to get a good balance where my workouts are concerned with some gentle cardio, strength and yoga. My muscles get a little bit tight sometimes and the addition of yoga in my routine really helps to lengthen and stretch out my muscles.

I really feel like I have reached a happy medium where my workouts are concerned and I have a more in-depth post coming up about this soon!

Now on to the eats…

Yesterday morning I indulged my current obsession of huge bowls of summery fruits with some chopped nectarines, strawberries and raspberries topped with Tesco’s plain soy yoghurt, honey and salted cashew nuts. This was like summer in a bowl, simple but amazing at its best!

On the theme of simple food tasting very delicious, last night I made a huge Buddha bowl. It was nothing fancy, just made using some left over pearl barley, beetroot, avocado, kidney beans and steamed broccoli with my Honey and Mustard Lime Dressing poured on top. It was great being able to taste the flavours of each individual ingredient as they were not smothered in a sauce. I really enjoyed this!

Dessert last night was pretty epic. I was trying to watch Tinker, Sailor, Soldier, Spy but just couldn’t get into it. I eventually ended up falling asleep on the sofa instead, but the dessert beforehand made up for my disappointment over the movie.

I present my Cherry, Almond and Chocolate Protein Pudding. This was like heaven in a bowl and was so easy to make.

It included: ¼ cup of frozen cherries, 5 dates, 1 scoop of Good Hemp Fit Shake in Chocolate, 2 tsp of almond butter, a splash of almond milk and a pinch of xanthan gum.

I blitzed everything up in my blender and poured it into a small bowl and left in the freezer for 45 minutes to set.

I was left with a pool of rich chocolate yumminess! I had some fresh cherries on the side for dipping into the pudding when it started to melt.

After feeling all relaxed after my yoga session this morning a leisurely breakfast was definitely called for.

A leisurely breakfast calls for slow cooked stove top oats made with cinnamon, vanilla stevia, and unsweetened Almond Breeze and water. I added a blushing pear, more almond milk and cinnamon and had it with a mug of peppermint tea, yum!

For lunch today I made a really lovely calprese style salad with salad leaves, sweet baby peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, basil and buffalo mozzarella. 

This tasted amazing!  Again just simple ingredients to make a lovely meal! I could eat this all day if I could!

Well, it has been a pretty incredible weekend of delicious food.  I think my favourite kind of food involves very basic ingredients that are just out together to make an awesome meal. 

I’m off to make some dinner, I’m thinking about a ginormous veggie stir fry with some baked tofu, and for dessert…well who knows?  I’m sure it will be something just as tasty as my Cherry Almond and Chocolate Protein Pudding.

Do you prefer simple and refined dishes or more elaborate things to eat?

What have you been getting up to this weekend?

WIAW: Drenched!

Hi all!  I hope you are all having a great week so far!

Now I could easily be talking about the weather with the title for this post as I know I keep going on about how crappy the weather has been in the UK recently.  It was raining buckets yesterday!

-Alas!  What I am actually referring to is my conscious effort this week to drink more water.  I’m a big water drinker anyway, but I noticed last week that I haven’t been drinking as much as I should and I think that was down to the miserable weather- when the sun is shining I swim in the stuff!  Rather than lots of water I have been substituting it with lots of herbal tea, which I know still contains water but it’s no the same as the pure stuff, to me anyways.

For this weeks WIAW I‘m going to share my eats and goings on from Tuesday as on Monday I was busy running around John Lewis scanning lots of amazing items for our wedding gift list and forgot to take pictures of my meals.

My morning started off really early, dropping Alfie at the train station at 5.30 am so he could make his way back to work.  Once I got home I made a cup of chai tea, ate an apple and pottered about the house and waited for the gym to open.

Once the gym opened it’s doors I did my upper body strength workout with some new moves included and I increased the weights too.  I also did 20 minutes of HIITS on the cross trainer and bike and some ab work.

My stomach was rumbling when I got home, so after a quick shower I made a basic green smoothie out of a banana, soya milk, vanilla stevia and kale and had it with one of my Cherry and Oat Breakfast Muffins, recipe to come!

You can’t beat a classic green smoothie and the muffin was so yummy!

I didn’t really need my usual mid-morning snack as by the time I had finished breakfast it was 9 am!!!  So for lunch I was craving a mega salad, nothing new there then!

It included lettuce leaves, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, grated carrots and vegan cheese.  I made my current favourite dressing of honey, mustard, lime juice, a pinch of salt, apple cider vinegar and mixed herbs to go on top. 

Lunch was good!

Later in the afternoon I snacked on a bowl of chopped doughnut peaches topped with soy yoghurt, almonds and some Caramel Apple Puppy Chow made by the lovely Sarah, its so good! 

It was a pretty standard day to be honest, but a very productive one as far as editing my thesis goes.  By dinner time though I’d had enough so decided to call it a day and cook dinner instead.

Dinner was a basic socca wrap stuffed with lots of peanut butter with a side of stir fried broccoli, red peppers, more kale and mushrooms with some tempeh in soy sauce, mirin, sesame seed oil and lime juice.  I love simple dinners like this, it really hit the spot.

Later on I was still feeling peckish and I always make time for dessert- it’s a must!

I’ve been craving ice cream for a while now and decided to treat myself to some non-dairy vanilla ice cream last week.  Chopped apples, strawberries, non-dairy vanilla ice cream dusted with cinnamon and a fig biscuit which came in Sarah’s awesome package, was a very tasty dessert. 

A few extra scoops of ice cream and Caramel Apple Puppy Chow may have made it’s way passed my lips at some put later that evening too.

When I’m at home I always have a 2 litre bottle of filtered water in the fridge which I take out when I set up my “office” on the dining table to start work.  I pour it in to a glass as and when I need it and make sure that I drink the whole 2 litre bottle.  So with all that water and the amount of herbal tea I drink normally I think it’s easy to say that I’m well hydrated.  It’s been difficult to drink so much pure water with the weather being so grey and I have preferred my tea, especially last week, but I am definitely back to my normal water drinking levels now.

****Don’t forget to enter my Total Greek Yoghurt giveaway to win a months supply of yoghurt!***

Do you make a conscious effort to drink more water?

Do you find that you find it easier to drink more water in the summer months or does the weather not bother you?