Rained off!

My July hasn’t really started off with the “BANG” that I was expecting.  I was looking forward to running my Race for Life today and going to the Godiva Festival.  I received an email on Friday afternoon saying that it has been postponed because of the heavy rain that we had on Thursday and the Godiva festival was also cancelled.

I was really disappointed to say the least as that was all of my plans for Sunday ruined.  However to make up for it Alfie has just taken me out for a lovely meal at our favourite restaurant The Saxon Mill and we are off to see the Olympic torch later.

Lunch date OOTD: vest top: H&M, t-shirt: H&M, skinny jeans: Diesel, gladiator sandals: Office, scarf: H&M, bracelets: various.

To perk me up after my ruined weekend I ate lots of delicious food.  I kicked started my weekend with a delicious strawberry and peanut butter green smoothie in a bowl on Saturday morning.

This included fresh strawberries, a banana, smooth peanut butter, strawberry Fit Shake hemp protein powder, spinach, ice and almond milk.  I topped it with some dark chocolate covered seeds and some goji berries.  I loved this!

By lunch time I was craving a plate full of veggies so in comes another salad mountain:

The said mountain consisted of purple lettuce leaves, grated carrots, sweet corn, tomatoes, pepper and green beans and I topped it with a huge serving of Sabra hummus.  I still have know idea how they make their hummus so creamy smooth as my homemade hummus is never anything close to it- a totally mystery!

In the afternoon I snacked on a lovely selection of grapes, prunes and cherries:

The perfect afternoon pick me up!

There so many pizza posts on blogs this weekend that I knew that I had to have one for my Saturday night dinner.  Last week I picked up some of the Warbuton’s wholemeal square wraps.  I am so happy that they finally bought out a wholemeal version so I can actually eat them.   They taste amazing and make perfect pizza bases as you will see…

This pizza was epic!  I had roasted off some aubergine, onions and mushrooms in with some salt and rapeseed oil.  Once they were cooked I added a shop bought tomato sauce to the wrap, topped with the veggies plus some spinach and baked it for a further 5 minutes.   Then I grated on some vegan cheese for Tesco’s that I had seen on Laura’s and Jess’s blogs and dived right in.

The cheese was a great surprise as I was worried that it was going to be like plastic, but is really is wonderful and melts so well.

Later I went on a snack frenzy with chopped pink lady apples, salted pretzels and dark chocolate peanut butter cups and watched a movie.

Amazingly good!

This morning I had another lovely breakfast of cinnamon socca topped with almond butter, strawberries, a banana, soy yoghurt and honey.

Needless to say this was crazy good!

My workouts have been pretty great this week too:

Monday: Strength workout A and 20 minutes of HIITS on the bike and cross trainer

Tuesday: 4.5 mile run

Wednesday:  Strength workout B and a 3 mile run outdoors

Thursday: REST

Friday: my new all over body workout which I will share soon

Saturday: REST

Sunday: yoga podcasts

I decided to scrap my run today as I just didn’t feel like it.  Like I said in my last post I am all about being kind to my body and wanting to do the best for my body, despite what people may think.  Shorter workouts that I enjoy are far more better for me right now rather than spending hours on end in the gym like before.  The yoga session over the run was definitely the best decision for me today. 

I can so relate to Laura’s post right now as I am very much in the same place where reducing my wotkouts are concerned and just wanting to be happy and healthy.  And, Laura lovely we are not failures or copping out, we are doing right by ourselves for wanting better, happier and healthier lives!  

Even though my plans went all wrong for the weekend because of the weather we still managed to have  a great time.  My Race for Life has been shifted to a few weeks time so I can still take part.  I cannot wait to see the Olympic torch later, it should be fun!

How do you deal with ruined plans?  Have your alternative plans ever been better than your original plans?

What did you get up to this weekend?

Reader Request: Ingredient Stockists

A lovely reader emailed the other day asking where I bought some of the more bizarre and non-everyday ingredients that I use quite regularly and post about on the blog.

I thought I would share some of the products with you in a blog post as well as where I buy them from and how I like to use them.

Acai Berry Juice

The acai berry are derived from palm fruit from Brazil and believe it or not these tiny berries contain the most nutritional value of any fruit. They are a natural source of anti-oxidants, essential fatty acids and multiple vitamins and minerals.   This particular variety of acai juice also contains red grape juice which is also known to various health benefits due to their dark skin.

I purchase the Optima Healthcare – Acai Juice from Holland and Barrett.   For me it is great mixed in berry smoothies and ocassionally drink it straight up.  I originally bought this when I was doing a bit of a detox after Christmas and really liked it.

Maca Powder

Maca powder is made from the root of the tubular maca plant which lives 40000 metres above sea level in Peru.   For centuries the Pervuvians have used the maca root for medicinal purposes due to it’s high nutritional content.  It is an amazing source of magnesium, calcium and iron as well as lots of B vitamins like and vitamin C which all have wonderful benefits for the body.

I like to use maca powder in my green smoothies, sprinkled on cereal or in my oats and on top of chopped apples with cinnamon.  The nutritional benefits of maca powder are now widely acknowledge and as a result it is now readily available from many different brands from Holland and Barrett, Goodness Directand independent health food stores.

Unusual seed and nut butters

Cacao Brazilnut Bliss available from some online stores such as Raw Health, Planet Organic, Red 23and it is also available from Wholefoods.

Apricot Kernel Butter, which I bought on a whim whilst in Wholefoods a little while back just to try out.  It is also available from Carley’s of Cornwall and Planet Organic some independent health stores may also stock it.

Sunbutter is the most amazing sunflower seed spread.  I used to buy the Monki sunfoweer seed butter from my local independent health food store and loved it, but when I got Sunbutter in the States I was hooked.  It’s far more richer and creamier than any other sunflower seed butter I have tried.  I have run out completely now, but was so happy when I saw that iHerbnow stock it.

Spiru-tien Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl

Now this I was desperate to try after seeing it on Laura’s blog. This really needs no explanation as to how delicious it is- chocolate and peanut butter together, hell yes!

I like to use this in my Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie and to make Protein Ice Cream.  It is also be used as a baking ingredient too, check out my Vegan Chocolate and Peanut Butter Brownies recipe.

You can pick this up and a range of other Spiru-tein protein powders from Wholefoods, iHerb, Nirvana Health Food and the Nutri Centre.   Check out your local health food shop too as I have seen it in a few in other towns.

Kelp Noodles

These things seem really weird at first, but they are seriously delicious. They are made from seaweed, very low in calories and contain virtually no starch.  It’s best to soak them in some water before eating as it’s like chewing on elastic bands otherwise.  I love to use them with my stir fries or by themselves in a creamy peanut butter sauce.

They are available from iHerb and Vivapure.

Gram flour

I use gram four a lot, primarily to make socca pizzas and socca wraps and pancakes.  Got to love socca!

Gram flour is available in Holland and Barrett and practically every supermarket.

This list really could go on and on so I think I will stop for now, but I will do another post like this with other products later on.  I hope you found this post useful.

Have you used any of the products in this post? How do you like to use them?

*All original sources are hyperlinked to the pictures accordingly

Bad things turn good

So I decided to call to scrap calling my Sunday posts “Sunday Catch Up:” just because I love doing my weekly review of my goings on Friday in my “Week that was..” posts and I just thought it was getting a little bit repetitive.

This mornings breakfast was potentially a disaster.  My morning run got rained off so I decided to take my time over breakfast before going to Church.  I have been crazy over socca this past week I thought I would have one for breakfast. 

I had visions of cinnamon and vanilla socca wrap loaded with banana, fresh apricots, with a dusting of coconut and dried cherries sitting pretty on my plate waiting patiently for me to inhale it.

Instead I got a collapsed socca fail that crumpled when I tried to flip it.  I don’t know why, but whenever I try to add anything but fresh herbs to my socca they always fail…hmph!

It did taste pretty darn good though!  The house smelt of cinnamon and vanilla too, which I imagined the house would smell like if I had just made French toast, which is on my bucket list of things to make.

Yesterday morning’s breakfast was a a great success from the off…

I made this smoothie for breakfast on Friday and just had to have it again yesterday before work.  It’s made using a huge banana, chocolate and peanut butter swirl protein powder, smooth peanut butter and and almond milk, really creamy and delicious!

For yesterday I packed a wholemeal bagel filled with vegan spread, buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil with some carrot sticks.  This time last year I was getting really excited about going to Florence, so thought I would bring a bit of Italy to my lunch time break and it was fab!

Later I snacked on some fresh fruit at my desk…

…and could resist a slice of banana loaf that my work colleague had bought in, yum!

For dinner I made stir fried some kale, mushrooms, broccoli and some baby sweet peppers with some soft boiled eggs and a super soft plantain which meant that it was really sweet. I adore plantain!

I had to pop out to Sainsbury’s to get some supplies for the office and whilst I was there I picked up some goodies for myself…

These made for a perfect dessert as I settled in for the night with some nibbles of pretzels, a chopped persimmon and some Lindt Coconut Intense dark chocolate with a chai almond milk latte and a movie.

I just had to have a try of the bar of caramel and sea salt bar too!

After church I wondered around town for a little while and checked out the sales and stocked up on some wardrobe basics like tank tops, tights and leggings.

When I got home I made a salad of little gem lettuce, raddishes, tomatoes, courgettes, carrots, cannellini beans and a red pesto dressing.

I even got to go out for my run in the end as the rain finally cleared.  It was a leisurely 10k run that I really enjoyed and another example of bad things turning good this weekend.

Monday: evening Yoga session

Tuesday: 3.5 mile run and ab and core work

Wednesday: REST

Thursday: Body Pump class, which was freaking awesome!

Friday:  a mix of strength workout A and B with 20 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer and bike.

Saturday: REST

At the moment I have a little something something baking in the oven.  I will blog the recipe if they turn out well as it’s a little bit experimental and will post a pic on my Instagram feed later too.

I have a vlog coming up for you this week and a recipe so look out for those.

Has anything that was bad at the beginning turned out good in the end for you recently?

My socca fail looked awful but tasted amazing in the end and I was so disappointed that it was raining this morning for my run, but at least I got to go out there in the afternoon instead.

What did you get up to this weekend?

WIAW…Surprise!

Happy WIAW sweeties!! I hope your are having a fantastic WIAW and enjoying the party. 🙂

Yesterday for breakfast I made a simple bowl of banana oats for breakfast made using 1/4 cup of oats, water, homemade almond milk and a banana. Ok! So the oats sound pretty standard, but I sure made up for that in the toppings department.

I think the toppings were a meal in themselves. On top went fresh figs, blueberries, buck wheaties (my fave!), cacao nibs, cashew nuts and a vanilla Alpro dessert that I snagged from the Summer Sundae Weekender. You can probably understand that this tasted more like dessert and took my standard banana oats to a whole new level.

For breakfast today I made a delicious post run smoothie with some toasted sunflower seed rye bread topped with raw macadamia butter and raspberry jam.

This morning’s run was quite a surprise as it was my fastest to date. Considering I had major DOMS from last nights Body Pump class I ran a shorter distance of 5 miles in 46 minutes and 25 seconds. This meant that I managed to run at a pace of 9.15. I was totally surprised and so happy! 🙂

Lunches on both days have been a tasty salad including romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, sprouted black eyed beans and leftover spouted grains from my Fruity Mixed Whole Grain Salad.

Actually it was quite a surprise to find that my leftover quinoa and yellow and green split peas had sprouted. I cooked and drained them in advance and just left them in the fridge to use as and when I needed them during the week. My purpose wasn’t to sprout them at all, but it made a nice surprise all the same. They tasted fantastic especially when topped with a sweet chilli and tahini dressing. I love tahini in salad dressings…yum!

Dinner last night was so comforting and just what I needed after a killer Body Pump class. It had been two weeks since my last class people. It hurrrrt!!! Ok! Whining over. Back to dinner.

*Socca Pizza*

It’s been a while since I’ve had one of my favourite veggie mountain topped pizza’s. So I totally got stuck into this one. Piled high was stir fried butternut squash, mushrooms, onion, green pepper (so not my fave pepper eughhh!), aubergine and basil on top of a passata sauce and plain socca crust.

I’ve also been enjoying the most delicious Blueberry Muffin Larabar…

…how so much deliciousness can fit into such a small bar, I have no idea. Explanations below please.

Have a lovely evening everyone and don’t party too hard ok! 🙂

Have you had any amazing surprises happen to you recently?

What is your favourite tasting pepper? Cos’ I’m definitely not a green pepper fan- red all the way for me!

What is the best thing that you have eaten at this WIAW party?

New goals for August

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I hope your having a great week so far.  Mine has been pretty good so far.  Alfie started his new job today! 🙂 Yup!  He’s been let loose on real patients.  I think if I was in his shoes I would be freaking out and always second guessing my diagnosis’s, but he seems to be coping well in his new role.

On Sunday we spent the day cycling around Rutland Water Nature Reserve near Oakham.  We had a great time taking in the sights on what was a beautiful sunny day.  I hadn’t rode a bike for years and had forgotten how great it felt.  The scenery was simply breathtaking…

Source

Over the past few days I have eaten some pretty tasty eats.  I’ve been craving green smoothies again like mad…

Blackberries, black currants, blueberries, a banana, spinach, rice milk, water, lucuma powder, mesquite, maca powder, double fudge crunch powder, xanthan gum, guar gum topped with raw macadamia butter, buck wheaties, dried cranberries and artisana cacao bliss.

Half a mango, a nectarine, a banana, spinach, water, rice milk, lucuma powder, mesquite, hemp protein, xanthan gum and guar gum with shredded coconut, cacao nibs, pecan and treacle granola and white chocolate wonderful.

Butternut squash, a banana, spinach, maple syrup, maca powder, mesquite, xanthan gum, guar gum topped with a raw breakfast biscuit, shredded coconut, dried cranberries and Hershey’s chocolate syrup.

All were delicious as always! 🙂

Yesterday I made some quinoa oats- it had been way too long…

I mixed up quinoa flakes with carob powder, rice milk, water, agave nectar and topped it fresh blueberries and strawberries and some of alpro soya’s caramel pudding.  Ok, I may have lied…I poured on the whole pot, but who wouldn’t!  This tasted a-meh-zing!!!! It’s definitely one of my favourite flavours out of all of the puddings that I have tried so far.

I ran out of time to make lunch to take to work with me on Saturday so I popped into a lovely sandwich place called Croques that makes an amazing array of fresh food.  I enjoyed a falafel wrap outside in their garden.

I think I might start making running out of time to make lunch a regular thing as this was just crazy good!

Of course a salad had to make an appearance of lunch and this one included curly lettuce, red kidney beans, pompadino tomatoes (so sweet!), avocado, olives, alfalfa spouts, red pepper and roasted edamame beans.

On Friday night I was in the mood for take-away food, of the pizza variety.  My trusty socca pizza friend came to the rescue.  This plate   of heaven consisted of a socca basil pizza crust topped with sautéed butternut squash, aubergine, red peppers, red onion, olives and spinach in a passata sauce…yum!

Dinners the past two night have been a variation of the same stir fry.  On Monday night I cooked pak choi, red peppers, courgettes, aubergine, smoked tofu, oyster mushrooms and made a yummy PB sauce using peanut butter, soya sauce, water and rice vinegar.  Last night I had exactly the same mix of veggies but in a sweet chilli sauce.  I love stir fries for quick and easy meals.

I’ve also been eating bucket loads of melon…

…so refreshing!

Last month I pretty much accomplished all of my goals that I had set out to do.  Although I didn’t manage to draw the figures for the results section of my thesis or run 11 miles.  I totally agree with Laura that although we all try and fit everything in sometimes it’s simply not possible.  We are only human after all and no one is going to judge you if you didn’t meet all of your goals.  In fact instead of thinking negatively about it I’m going to celebrate the achievements that I have made last month as I have progressed in some areas that I never thought I would.   With this in mind I can go ahead an build on what I have achieved to make for a more successful me in the future.  I find a great comfort and excitement at looking forward at what is ahead rather than dwelling on the past.

My new goals for August:

• Continue to work on my running and reach 11 miles

• Approach the hardest of tasks as I would the easiest of tasks- impossible is no longer in my vocabulary!

• experiment more with raw foods

• continue to de-clutter my house

• make more time for me and my family and friends– I get so caught up in my busy lifestyle that sometimes I forget to make time for myself and loved ones

• read more books- I adore reading, but never find the time so this goal links perfectly with the one above about trying to find some relaxation time for myself.

Before I love you and leave you I want to welcome Rice Dream as my new blog sponsors for August and thank Pulsin’ for their continuing support!  I have an awesome blog sponsor giveaway lined up so keep your eyes peeled for that.

What are your goals for August?

Did you achieve all of your goals for July?

Do you feel guilty/disheartened when you don’t achieve the goals that you set yourself?