Putta Socca In It

Oh dear.

My flies on my favourite jeans died! It didn’t stop me wearing them though – I just had to be creative with longer tops 🙂

—-

I bet you’re sick of either seeing socca ALL OVER the blog world right now, or seeing crappy titles that incorporate the word ‘socca’ into them..right? 🙂 Wellll, if that’s the case – what’s one more right?

I’ve seen socca about loads, and kept thinking ‘I’ll do that tomorrow’ – then I realised that ACTUALLY, I had socca a few months back, before it was cool :p Remember my chickpea flour pancakes? Well, that’s just socca izntit! Anyway, so the intense desire to make socca hit again last night, so this morning, I made sure that MAKE SOCCA IS WHAT I DID.

Socca FAIL.

I used 50g/1/2c. chickpea flour mixed with salt, Italian herbs, baking powder:

And 1/2 c. my own blood:*

*that’s actually water and tomato puree, but blood sounds more interesting.

Mix mix mix, bang into the oven at 160 for 45mins. Hmm...I didn’t grease the dish, and I don’t think my socca liked it, not one bit. In fact, when it first came out, I almost threw it away (even though FREYA DOESN”T SHARE FOOD [except replace ‘share’ with ‘waste’, and you have a) a crap Friends reference, and b) a joke gone terribly wrong). I was gonna take the socca into uni for lunch, thinking I could slice it like a pizza and I’d look really cool, but after scraping it out of the dish, it looked like this:

Mangled mess, much?

I was miffed at Attempt #1, so I decided to do Attempt #2, except stick to what I knew would work – frying. This time, I did the same weight + liquid ratio, but put in agave, cinnamon and vanilla 🙂

Uuumm….success?

They sure didn’t look like that last time I made them…but at this point, I was starvinmarvin for breakfast, was running late & needed to leave, and so didn’t give a toot anymore. To make it more appealing, I got out my leftover *curry* flavour soya mince, and stuck some inside, rolled and ready:

Taaa DAAA!

I wrapped it up when it was still a little warm, and when I ate it at uni, I was kinda dreading what I’d find…but you know what? It was DELICIOUS! Very moist (sorry, to all you moist-word haters out there) and cakey-pancakey-wrap-y-yummy. I’m really not sure how it worked, or how it tasted nice, but it really truly did 🙂 and now I badly want to make more socca, wrap some hummus or peanut butter up in it, and eat it like that 🙂 New uni quick [non-bar] lunch – sorted!

In all that socca-madness though, I barely got time to enjoy my bowl of chocolate pudding oats:

Sick of seeing pictures of that same bowl yet? I hope not, cos I’m not sick of eating it 😀

The cookie on top? Why, it’s a COOKIE BUTTON!

Gifted to me by Jess t’other week! They are SO delicious, and SO addictive – I can tell I’ll be eating them the same way I ate the Snackimals (which are all gone now :'() – every time I walk by them, I eat one. ‘aaah it’s only one, they’ll last for ages….’ or not.

Moving on:

As soon as I got home today, I was on a banana shaped mission! I’ve been saving these babies up for well over a week now –

Don’t we all love banana shots? Can I get a YES WE DO!

– cos my mum had a baking request and I had my eye on a recipe – Angela’s rustic chocolate chip banana oat cake with a peanut butter banana glaze!! Try saying THAT fast three times over with a mouthful of cookie buttons 😛 The banarmaramas were so darn ripe they were furry on the inside – I would’ve given my right eye to have frozen them for some Green Monsters 😥 I’m so generous to have sacraficed them.

To cut a long baking story short, the cake was made:

The glaze was packed:

And my mum, stepdad, and their friends will be very happy campers tomorrow when they get to eat it 🙂

Oh, and World’s Best Smoothie was consumed too, aka….

Banana Peanut Nutmeg Smoothie

1 frozen banana

a few leaves of light green cabbage

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2+ tsp vanilla

1/4-1/2 tsp nutmeg

15g peanut flour

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp agave/maple/etc

1/2 c. milk of choice

Blend thoroughly and enjoy the thick, nutmeggy goodness 😀

If there was natural light out/I had a lightbox/my kitchen didn’t have such yellow lighting/I could use my camera better, you’d have a far more glorious picture. But as it is, none of that stuff came true, I still suck – for the most part – at phototoggleraffy, so that’s the only photos youz is gonna get! Sorry :p

Question – have you ever made socca?

What was your last kitchen fail?

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What’s green and blue and sounds like panda? And the ACCENT VLOG!

VLOG COMING UP!!

Hmm that title makes little sense til you’ve read the post! Baaah well, you better keep a’ readin’ then!

See, I was feeling slightly inspired today…inspired to get some greeny goodness into my (poor, oh-so tired & battered) body. I really do need those darn nutrients – I was up til 2am last night trying to sleep, woke up this morning feeling like DEATH and therefore decided nutrients were in order!

If you read Ashely’s blog or Gena’s, you might have seen the raw green breakfast wraps floating about?

Well I didn’t make one (sorry to disappoint) BUT I did do a non-raw cabbage wrap at lunch! See, creative juices flowing already, just at the mere thought of a future detox! Hurrah.

I started wiiith…chopped veggies – butternut, parsnip, red pepper, and cooked aubergine (note – that is a small plate, not a giant amount of raw veg):

I layered the sticks in a raw cabbage leaf (stem removed) along with some salt, dried mixed herbs, tomato puree and chickpeas:

So far so good! They were then rolled and wrapped:

Cute huh!? I’m steamed them both for about..10mins or so? Til everything was soft and cooked anyways. The result:

Hehe!

They were…kinda tasty. Awkward to eat, and a bit blah. I ended up just eating the insides separate and rolling up the leaves on their own :p I actually preferred my side dish, was the rest of the 1/2 can of chickpeas, stir fried with soy sauce and parsnip/squash/aubergine 🙂 Oh, and dessert – the end of a pot of soya yogurt.

I’m glad I at least tried to be imaginative though – breakfast was the same old oats & fruit:

(frozen grapes! I love thee)

Cereal crummage, the best bit 🙂

It was super creamy and wonderful today 🙂 and perfect after a somewhat chilleh walk with my mamma and the dawg. I had it super late though – I had a mahoosive apple pre-workout (Jillian level 3 30Day Shred & a 3mile run) and then was really not feeling the hunger AT all, so whilst my oats set, my mum – who had a random morning off from work – went for a wonder 🙂

Ah, talking of my mum! She helped me sample something lovely today!!

Panda Liquorice!

Now, before y’all recoil in horror at the thought of liquorice, hear me out:

I hate liquorice. My mum hates liquorice. I have terrible memories of eating the stuff and having to spit it out after when I was little, it was that foul. But when the Panda folk contacted me with a NEW flavour – BLUEBERRY – I was feeling curious. On top of that, Panda liquorice isn’t like other liquorice brands:

– it has ‘no nasties’

– no fat

– no refined sugar

– made from natural ingredients

True story:

Curiosity intensified!

I broke into the packet, expecting to see dark, nasty smelling chewey stuff..but I was greeted with:

Nice smelling brown stuff! (my descriptive skills are off the hook today aren’t they!?? It’s the tiredness, I blame the tiredness!)

My mum and I both tried a chunk, feeling apprehensive about the taste – but let me tall ya, it was GOOD!!!

(My mum’s ‘oh my, wasn’t expecting that’ face. I had to persuade her to try some at the start, but by the end… :p)

We both went back for more! And I can now officially say I like Panda blueberry liquorice 🙂 seriously, if you haven’t tried it before, give Panda a go. I haven’t had any other of their products, but if they’re as good as the blueberry stuff (which yes, did taste of blueberry) then you’re sure to love it 🙂

I washed down the liquorice with a frothy coffee, but not just any frothy coffee..oh no, one made with my mumma’s Aerolatte thing I got her at Christmas!

120ml/ .5cup soya milk became almost 400ml!

WOW does that thing froth! And so quickly too – impressive. I actually had to break out the man-size mug to fit all the drink in :p

Other eats included random vegetable crisps, an apple which I bit into, then had to cut up due to nasty mouth ulcer I have –

And dinner and chocolate for dessert 🙂

NoW – VLOG TIME!!!!!

I really hope this works – if it doesn’t, just follow the youtube link and you’ll see it 🙂 But first – no makeup, very tired, look rough – don’t judge! :p If you want to follow along (Disney sing-a-long style!), the words & questions are below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgGuLTrKnD4

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

• What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
• What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
• What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
• What do you call gym shoes?
• What do you say to address a group of people?
• What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped
• body and extremely long legs?
• What do you call your grandparents?
• What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry
• groceries at the supermarket?
• What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
• What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

The changed font? Cos I copied and pasted from Jess‘ blog :p

So there you have it! That’s me in all my glory 😛 What you were expecting!?

Your turn – I want every blogger to do an accent vlog now 😀

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Fill Me Up

Seriously, legs? SERIOUSLY!?

You know I said yesteryear that the pain in the old shins seemed a little less? Well, have I got a tale for you!

Actually, I don’t, I just like that phrase 🙂 but anyway – when i went to bed last night, a NEW PAIN arose! This time, if I flex my left foot up or down, there’s a slight weird niggly odd feeling in the [tendon?] verticle to about my 3rd toe. Gah. It doesn’t feel like it’s ohemgee-need-an-operation serious (though saying that, it’ll probably turn out to be gangrene, and this time next week I won’t even have a left foot to moan about), but I sure am thankful I’ve got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow! Finger’s crossed Mr Doc can solve my woes 🙂

In the meantime, I’ll settle on other, less scary ways to make me smile:

MM…more oats in a jar.…(and I still have another empty jar waiting! Hooray!)

Howevz, the problem with these tiny 227g jars is that they hardly fit a darn thing in them! Hence why the overflow was served up with a side of melon:

Overflow:

Melon:

Yes.

I tried to be different today, and mixed in some carob powder and maple syrup – a combination I normally love – but it did NADA today! I could barely taste it! Alas, I still did a sweet as job of cleaning the jar:

hehe! My thumbnail looks so neat and tidy in that pic! If ONLY you could see the state my nails are really in 😛 I try and grow them and file them and make them look preddy, but horses + cold weather + haynets + rug buckles = skanky nails. BOO HISS.

—

So, at the weekend, my stepdad made something using chopped tomatoes (hear me out). Since that day (Satdee), the half empty can – NO! Scrap that! The half FULL can (positivity folks!) has been sitting in the fridge, looking sad and lonely. Every day, i’ve said to my mamma, those tomatoes need using up…but nothing happened. So, today, i TOOK. CHARGE. I had beets on my mind, cocoa, and tomatoes – which called for only one thing; a beet cocoa tomato sauce!

Before you go getting those knickers in a twist over my sheer genius at the combination, I can’t take credit for it 😥 In fact, it was a recipe over at (Never)Home Maker that created it. Howevverrr, when I stopped by there today, i could find no trace of said recipe. OH! So here’s what went in the mix:

1/2 can chopped tomaddoes

2 tsps cocoa powder

salt to taste

a squeeze or so of agave (to taste)

a lorra dried mixed herbs

a scrunch of pepper (yep, to taste)

a lorra mixed spice

1 giant and 1 small cooked beet (aka 2 medium beets!)

I shoved it all in Vincent:

Made him do that blendy thing he does oh-so well, and voila!

One gloriously rich tasting sweet lovely sauce!

I had a load of it mixed with chickpeas, alongside perfect roast veggies and stir fried cabbage with soy sauce and garlic:

I can’t decide…..

Very scrumptious! My mum finished off the other half of the sauce with some pasta this evening 🙂

Talking of this evening – mine was finished off with a healthy dose of textbook and chocolate:

NOW – moving on.

I’ve received a few comments recently about – yet again – portion size (some more politely put than others! :() and I feel I need to address the issue. It’s something which has been brought up on other blogs before (see Emily’s post, and Katie’s brief referral at the end of her post) and I have actually talked about it on here before, but I shall do again.

I do have big portions! And I’m not ashamed to admit it! I can look at some blogs and envy the tiny delicate neat plates..but that’s not me. I just don’t feel satisfied without a good load of food in my stomach 😀 In an ideal world, I would like to eat smaller portions cos yes, sometimes I do feel uncomfortably full after a meal. But as Katie said in her post – sometimes it’s worth it! I LOVE roast veggies (like, seriously) and I LOVE taking my time over meals, savouring every bite. Ergo, i tend to make a lot of my favourite foods, and spend ages enjoying them 🙂 Tis how I roll! At some point, I would like to reduce my portion sizes (we’re talking about veg here) just so my vision of what is ‘normal’ doesn’t get TOTALLY skewed, but for now – I like eating lots of veg, and that’s what I’m gonna keep on doing.

At least until my supply of parsnips and/or squash runs out – they’re the only veg worth really pulling the boat out for 😛

Question: How do you judge portion size? Do you like large portions, or small portions?

—–

Lighten the mood a bit, shall we?

Blog searches (everyone seems to be doing these atm!)

– old cereal

– foods that take 2days (2 days to what, I say??)

– wonder woman photoshop

– swap your wife.com (my post entitled ‘I’d swap my wife for peanut butter hummus’ or something, written about 10months ago, is still haunting me then….)

– eat live run green monster (eerrr wrong blog – I think you either want here or here)

– kate moss smoking (x 2 – why does that phrase get me so many hits!?)

And my personal favourite:

– fully nakd girles (whoever searched that clearly needs to check his/her spelling, if they want to get what they’re REALLY looking for!)

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Clubbin it

Yawwwww, you guys are the bestest!! Thank you all SO much for every single comment left on my last post. Seriously! I’m sorry I haven’t been able to reply to them all, but I did (and always do) read every single one. It was really interesting to read everyones’ opinions on the matter, and it has helped me make a decision – I’ll post about it another day though, cos I want to show y’all some tasty food eats from the past few days 😀

I really love just posting pictures of my food – it is SO useful to look back on when I’m having inner turmoil and confusion over what to eat for dinner or lunch or breakfast :p There’s still a definite theme going on though….

– oats [in a jar x 2, + multiple times randomly for dinner. I don’t do oats for breakfast anymore, it’s ALL about the dinner]:

– Oats (Irish steel cut, cooked with salt and Nooch) with pumpkin chickpeas, and roast puff parsnips:

Snow! Snow! Snow! In the background! Crikey, it was like, -a billion degrees today. SO COLD.

Served with a side of soy sauce stir fried cabbage and brussels, sprinkled with Nooch:

Bro, yo, it was sik.

– Green Monsters that are super duper thick:

With or without the green 🙂

That grape-one one was made with cereal, soya milk, banana, pumpkin, (ohemgee my favourite J.Lo/ LL Cool J song just came on the radio!! Ha), cinnamon, vanilla and it was freakin GROOVY.

I’ve also been making lots of roast veggies, OBVS:

The day I do a food post without roasted veg featuring is the day that Brad and Jen get back together/Arnold circa 1990 comes and marries me.

Check out this Brussels sprout:

That’s a whole one! How adorable!! I just couldn’t resist taking a picture, which I now realise probs make me a liiiiittle bit of a loser…but oh well.

The other day though, wowzer, I did this really cool mix – roast aubergine (roasted til it turns to that gross mushy goo), scraped out of the skin [note: I did still eat the skin; I LOVE roast aubergine skin!!]

Then mashed with maple syrup, cinnamon and PUMPKIN, then spread on a toasted English muffin:

Ohhhhh yeah. That’s where it’s at my lovestuds!!

Talking of amazingly delicious foods – try coating roast veg in a mix of sweetener (honey, agave, maple, whatever you like), with dried thyme, a tsp+ of wholegrain mustard, and a tiny tiny tiny bit of stock, like so:

Then bake it all in the oven – I normally do 10mins in the super hot bit of the aga, then another 10 in the slightly-less-hot bit of the aga (I realise that is SUPER unhelpful). It gives the veg a lovely puffy sweet inside, with a slightly crispy inside, epsec parsnips. Best thing ever!

In other tasty news – I broke out the soya mince t’other lunchtime. I know it’s pretty naughty stuff, but once in a blue moon, I like it 🙂 To jazz it up, I fried a mini onion with a tomato and balsamic and dried thyme, with a splash of stock, then mixed it all with the soya mince. Served on a slice of toast (which went mushy, and I loooooved the mushy toast the moast <-see what I did? A typo that I decided to keep 😛)

It was rather yummy, and verrrry comforting for a hungry cold ladyface 🙂

More tasty news – I mastered the art of a delicious pumpkin cappuccino:

1/2 cup soya milk, 1/2 c. hot water, 1 tsp coffee, a tiny tiny tiny BABY size pinch of sugar, a shake of cinnamon, approx. 2tbsp pumpkin, blend blend blend.

Thick, creamy and deeeeeelicious!

OH! More news – I joined a running club!! I went to my first run Tuesday last, and although it took them HALF AN HOUR to get started (I got v cold, it was pitch black and 7pm) it was good 🙂 No-one my age…I ran with a middle aged woman (x3) and a retired GP – but still fun! When I got home, I made the tastiest chickpea red lentil pumpkin curry:

So warming after such a cold evening 🙂 (YES Matt (above) won X Factor!!!! I voted abooout 13 times. It makes up for the fact that Rhydian didn’t win, nor Olly, in previous years)

But here’s the biggest news – ever since I saw my step brother eat a bowl of milk, with floaty bits of cereal, when I was about 8years old, I have hated cereal and milk. The idea, the look, the smell, the texture: it made me gag. A few months ago though, after realising that I LIKED soy milk as is, I tried a splash of it on my cereal. It was ok….since That Day, I have repeated the process. Today, I went one step further – I had a proper bowl of cereal, with a sliced banana, cinnamon, and a full up 1/2 cup soya milk!!!

Oh. My. Days. It was actually tasty! I LIKED the taste. The cereal went soggy, and I LIKED it. It was AMAZING. A momentous day, a day I will think back on with fond memories. And you know what? This happened:

And it was the BEST BIT! I’m a changed woman! What’s become of me!!??

Tell me – do you like soggy cereal? (I do) Mushy food? (I do)

Are you a member of any clubs?

———-

Totally random – but my mum went to her work Christmas do today – look how lovely she looked!!

Isn’t she beautiful!? I hope I look that good when I turn 26 🙂

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Desert Island Questions And TWO recipes!

YO!

My New York based tall blonde American friend Gabriela tagged me in that quiz that’s been going round – so here goes!

1. What is your biggest fear? (It can be silly or real) Dying alone, fire, drowning, my horse/mum/sister getting hurt or injured, spiders, the end of my garden when it’s dark.

2. If you were onstage at a karaoke bar, what would you sing and why? Oh heck…probably that song that Bridget Jones sings [really badly] in the film, so I could re-live the moment :p

3. Do you write in print or cursive? In all honesty, I don’t know what that means :p is it like, do I write in capitals!? If that’s the question, then no.

4. Have you ever been fired from a job? Nope 🙂

5. If you could go to the Olympics for any sport, which would you choose? Dressage, or gymnastics, cos it would AWESOME to be that bendy!

6. How many cell phones have you owned? Hmm…my first one, a tiny Nokia, a pink flip phone, another phone, my current phone. You count.

7. What’s your sign (wink wink)? Gemini 🙂 And if you’re Chinese, I’m also a dragon! Or a horse…I can’t remember which….

I now tag the first seven commenters to answer the same questions 🙂

————

Bah, I have TWO recipes today! TWO! TWO!

But I’ll get to them later.

Firstly, I want to make y’all go to this link, cos it’s funny 🙂 and it reminded me of a) being boyfriend-less (running is better than a bf – read the link and the world’ll make sense :)) and then it made me remember b) why I should be GLAD I am lonely and single – I can cook whatever I like, I can turn the light on in my room when i get up early, as opposed to worrying I’ll wake up Mr Boyfriend with the light, I can choose to travel round the world [if the desire strikes…], I can see chick flicks in the cinema without moaning, I can use my passenger seat in my car to seat my bag (aka junk and rubbish) instead of a lump of human. And above all – I can have a Huskey dog named Princess PuffleBomp*, and no-one will complain 🙂

*it goes well with my alter ego, don’t you think? ‘Princes Freya the Third, PhD’ <- as I’m known by Amazon :D)

How about you? Are you a single lady, or did someone put a ring on it?

Moving on – Recipe time!

Chocolate lentil and chickpea stew:

Chocolatey, nutritious, and ever-so comforting 🙂 (makes one serving, although the more veg you add, the bigger the meal…)

– 100g cooked chickpeas (I got mine from a can)

– 25g uncooked red lentils

– approx. 1tbsp cocoa powder

– 1/3 ish of a stock cube

– 1-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

– approx. 1tbsp tomato puree

– 1 tsp maple syrup (or agave, or whatever)

– 1-2tsps dried thyme or mixed herbs (I can’t actually remember what I used…!!)

– 1-2 tsps molasses (optional)

– veg! As much or as little as you want. I used a mix of butternut squash, carrot, parsnip, leek and broccoli, all cut into small-ish, even sized chunks.

Also, do note that I don’t measure spice/flavouring ingredients, I just wing it, so measurement are approximate 🙂

1) Chop all the veggies:

Ugly parsnip optional:

And gather stuff together:

2) Throw everything into a saucepan:

3) Put it on a medium-high heat (I used the ‘less hot’ of the 2 Aga hot plates), mix it all around and cook it for a few mins, stirring lots and lots so it doesn’t catch.

When it’s all fragrant (it should be fragrant – alternatively, just give it a few mins then move on :p), add in enough water to aaaaalmost cover, but not quite:

4) Put a lid on it (maybe leave a little crack open for steam escape purposes), have it on a medium ish heat (you want it simmering) and let it do its’ thaaaang for about 40mins, or until the lentils are cooked and the veg is very soft, almost mushy! Keep stirring it during that time every now and then, so everything gets cooked evenly, and if it runs out of water, add more. After all, a little too much water is better, because you can always put it onto a high heat and steam the water away.

5) Serve!

Yes, it is an ugly dish, and probably not something you’d want to cook for a crowd to impress them with your incredible culinary skills – purely cos they’ll think you just sicked up on a plate and called it dinner. BUT, it IS delicious! So much so, I made it the next day too 🙂

I used aubergine and brussels sprouts instead of leek and carrot and broccoli, which was fine – but I did forget the garlic, and it wasn’t quite as nice without it. Remember those cloves, folks!

Recipe Two time 🙂

Spicy Pumpkin, Red Lentil and Chickpea Smush:

Is it a soup? Is it mush? I’m not sure. It’s yum though! I wanted something lentil-y for lunch, and I also had *40g* of chickpeas from my can left over (from yesterday), so I made this 🙂

– 50g red lentils

– 40g cooked chickpeas (ie the rest of the can, if you made the previous recipe twice :p)

– 1/3 ish crumbled stock cube

– a large 1/2 tsp mild curry powder

– 1/2tsp – 1 tsp cinnamon

– 1/2 tsp ish garam masala

– 1 garlic clove, minced or finely chopped

– 100g canned pumpkin (English people – go to WAITROSE for your pumpkin!)

– approx. 1 tsp molasses

1) gather:

2) Fry the chickpeas and garlic in spray oil/oil for a few mins on a medium heat:

3) Then add the lentils and spices, and fry til fragrant. Then, add in the stock cube, dissolved in hot water. I don’t know how much water you add, but it needs to be enough for the lentils to cook in. They should cook for about 20-25mins or so, and the mix will look something like this:

4) Get yo’ pumpkin and molasses:

And stir them in:

Heat it up again, and serve it in a big old mug, a la me 🙂

I actually can’t believe how delicious that was!! Spicy, comforting, full of flavour – absolutely perfect for the minus–degree day! I was a sad, sad woman when I finished it 😦

———

I’ve been on a cooking kick actually 🙂 Tonight I made a majorly modified version of Mama Pea’s pumpkin tofu curry, which I’ll show y’all next time 🙂 I’ve also been making a ton of frothy cappuccinos, using good ol’ Vincent the Vita Mix! With this fabby coffee:

Er, yum.

They are incred 😀 who needs Starbucks right?

I also made THE most delicious pancakes the other night! i mean, really:

Heaven!

And to go with lunch today, I had soya yogurt with mushy pear (a baby ripe pear, cooked with vanilla essence, maple syrup and water, til it went soft and caramel like):

As well as ketchup roasted veg:

BUT the biggest event the past few days has been the SNOW! And lots of it!!

Ok, so fair play – if you live in the Arctic, or Canada, this is nothing. But to England it’s a Big Deal 😛 Heck, Chika’s whiskers were frozen the other morning!!

Hannah – no more complaining! That’s TIG rolling in the snow!

Snow pony!

Snow mummy!

Snow land 🙂

Below – standing – full weight – ON the water bucket, showing how thick the ice was!

Horse people – have you ever tried that trick of putting a ball or something floaty in water, to stop it freezing? Does it work?

Deep!

And to round off this epically long post – here are the usual cat pics 🙂 Until next time!

Bless 🙂

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A Linner Worth Blogging About

Happy Hump Day!

Oof, it’s been a while hasn’t it? I still have a post-marathon post in the works (it’s requiring a lorra thinking…), combined with some…homework…shall we say!? It’ll make sense when the time comes! But in the meantime, I have to do a quick foodie post and tell y’all about the best lunch/dinner (LINNER! Get it? Clever, I know.) I had the other day!

Preceding the yummy linner was a FABULOUS 5mile run – I felt GREAT. Like, the best I’ve felt in sooo long. I was fast! 5miles done and done in 42mins, averaging an 8.33 pace. Boy did it feel good..weirdly, I’d had lectures all morning and had hardly had a chance to eat much – a small bowl of cereal, an apple, and this:

A Pulsin’ energy bomb disc!

I’d been up since 6.30 and didn’t run til 1.45pm..but I just didn’t get hungry! (don’t worry, I made up for it later :p). But anyway – the Pulsin’ disc, I swear it was made of rocket fuel. I’ve never had one before a workout before, but obvs it works 😀 As does a pretty empty stomach for a workout. Yet more proof IMHO that my marathon-mistake of eating too much was my downfall….

ANYWAYZ. Before I went for the run, I’d prepped a nice veggie-butterbean stew, so it’d be all ready to eat when I got back:

Parsnip, sprouts, celeriac, cauliflower (honestly: does anyone actually LIKE cauliflower? I ate it cos it needed eating..but it really is the most dull veggie). The base of the stew involved tomatoes, molasses, marmite, tomato puree, vegan worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, other stuff I can’t remember…

Annoyingly, it was the last thing I wanted when I got back though After some ummm-ing and aahh-ing and kitchen rumaging (is that a word?), I decided on this…

A breakfast cookie, with a maple and vanilla pear sauce!

Cookie:

– 50g oats

– 1 medium ripe mashed banana

– 1/2 tbsp pea protein powder

– 1 spoon of cacao powder (you could use cocoa powder – but cocoa powder is less sweet, so you might want to add in some agave or maple syrup or something to compensate)

– tiny splash of soya milk

Mash mash mash.

I stuck it in the microwave for a minute or two before I topped it with the sauce, to heat through.

Pear and vanilla sauce:

– 1 tiny baby ripe pear, chopped up

– 1/4 cup soya milk (the milk I used – So Good – has quite a sweet, vanilla-ness to it, so if you make this, you might want to alter the amount of sweetness you use, and maybe add a 1/2tsp vanilla essence

– 1 tsp maple syrup

– a few chugs of salt

– cinnamon

I stuck it all in a non-stick pan, and let it simmer (with lots of stirring) over a medium-ish heat for..10mins maybe? Til it thickened anyway 🙂 Like the above photo!

Theeeeen, it was ready to top off the heated up cookie 🙂

Uh, talk about DELICIOUS heaven on a plate! Soooooooooooooo good 😀

Whilst we’re on the subject of delicious food……some other foodie happenings:

Mama Pea peanut butter cookies (except I used sunflower butter):

I got them out too early and when it came to lifting them off the tray, they broke…

…a few more minutes more cook and they were perrrfect 🙂

Sprinkled with salt and sugar – MADE the cookie!

I think I’m getting how to bake cookies now 😀

The most yummiest snack ever – oatbran, cooked with a spoon of chocolate Vega smoothie mix, with yogurt stirred in at the end:

Holy yum. I’ve had that twice!

Big old English muffin/tofu burger sandweeches:

Again with the holy yum. That burger was one juicy biatch!

Sharonfruit and cinnamon:

Holy yum x 3.

Pear, chickpea and soy sauce stir fry:

With kale crisps on the side:

And many, many bowls of oatmeal. And cereal:

And brussels sprouts 😛

But enough from me – it’s late and I badly need my bed!!! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get up my deeper and more meaningful post 😛 Stay tuned!

Question: Best thing you’ve eaten in the last week?

Have you ever seen 300 Days of Summer? I’m re-watching it atm…it’s like, my favourite film 🙂

(ps – do you follow me on Twitter? BritChickRuns!)

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Imagine this….

….or, as the case may be, don’t.

Normally, I’m really good at imagining things – when I used to compete regularly in dressage, I’d imagine riding through my test (every single step, corner, transition) over and over. I’d imagine finishing it with a smile, getting a great score, and winning the class. It’s amazing what imagination can do! So many times, my imagined scenario would come off. The days I didn’t do it, I often did a much worse test. Correlation or causation? Causation, in my opinion 🙂

So, I thought I’d do some serious imagining re the marathon – I want to imagine myself reaching 10miles, 15miles, 20miles, NOT hitting a wall, hitting 23miles, 24miles, 26.0miles, 26.1miles, the finish…I want to imagine getting my medal, meeting my mum (and no doubt crying :p) and the sheer joy of having done it! But – I can’t!

I try and imagine all this, but my mind is blank. It’s not negative, it’s not positive- there’s simply nothing there to imagine!! It. Is. Infuriating. I think a lot of it is because the whole thing is SO different to anything I’ve ever done before. i’ve competed dressage thousands of times, ridden, done the whole shebang, but running a marathon? In America? Alone? With 35,000 people!? Heck, I’ve done 4 running races in my entire life, the biggest having had about 1000 entries!

I talked to my mumma about it the other day, and we agreed that by the time I’m IN DC, and I’ve picked up my packet and gone to the First Timers Evening, everything will fall into place, and my power of positive thought will take shape….here’s hoping! I don’t want to run it blind…

—-

Whilst we’re on the subject – I always used to imagine what it was like to buy canned pumpkin, and then to EAT said pumpkin. It was a distant dream. Until today! Yep, I broke into my first can of pumpkin this morning 🙂 OATS it was! (Perfect after a 26minute very very cold 3miler :))

– a large 1/2 c. oats/spelt flakes (spelt flakes give it a great chew!)

– 1/2 c. soya milk, 1/2 c. water

– a large 1/2 c. pumpkin

– a tiny weeny banana (and another half, cos it was so small :p)

– cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, almonds

Oh, I squealed with joy!

I was so excited! Til I started to cook it – then it looked SO watery! After a good 5mins of stirring on the hob, I put it in a bowl and shoved it in the Aga for 5mins whilst I unpacked the dishwasher. I then put it in the keep-warm oven, and by the time I got round to eating it, it had hardened up to my liking 🙂

SUPER! Extremely, extremely delicious!! OH pumpkin, where have you been all my life!!?? I didn’t want the bowl to end 😥

Obvs it did. Good things always come to an end (even my can of pumpkin – it’s been 1day and it’s almost finished….) But I had so much other yummy food to look forward to! In fact, I’ve had some GREAT things these past few days!

Pre-run fuel of an O bar:

Fab ingredients:

Love them! So dense and delicious, AND a portion of fruit 🙂

Peanut butter coated parsnip and brussels sprouts:

A very gooey peanut butter sammeech:

(I miss peanut butter – I never, ever think of doing it in a meal – probs cos the jar (x 6) are hidden in the cupboard. Out of sight, out of mind!)

Chocolate roasted chickpeas, with hummus and tempeh:

Actually one of my all time favourite meals 🙂

And today! Which I shall name The Day of Pumpkin! Pumpkin oats, and pumpkin on toast, with cinnamon:

Holy cow.

I worked out my favourite bit of the toast was the crappy burnt bit:

Oooobviously, I saved it til the end, with my other favourite bit :p

Yeah, it was goooood.

I also had a bowl of my favourite roasted veggies – onion squash (this one I’m on is INCRED!! It beats my last kabocha hands down!), parsnip, brussels, aubergine, kale:

Annnd just now, I snacked on a bowl of cereal with soya yogurt and…yep, PUMPKIN! It was to die for 🙂

Besides good food, what else have I been up to..being busy, that’s what! I sure do miss blogging regularly, but by GOSH I do not have any free time at the moment! I’ve got my lectures, commuting, and a dissertation to sort out, which is taking FOREVER (I have to go into schools and test children). I’m also doing some volunteering in a primary school (or will be – training first), teaching them about history. I’ve had lots of meetings about it, and it’s going to be so fun!!! I’m trying to ride as much as I can too, as well as sticking to my marathon plan. My final ‘long’ run tomorrow, 8miles….after that, I have a 3miles, a 4miles, and a 2miles, then – MARATHON!

I can’t believe how soon it is – my mum and I leave on Tuesday!!! Crazy crazy. I’m nervous!! Plus, I’m a bit miffed – the amount of lectures, meetings, work and organisational time I’m missing is ridiculous :s oh well!!

Annnyways – I better get my groove on and get movin’. Have a good evening!

Question: Do you believe in the power of the imagination, or positive thought? Has it ever worked for you?

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A Marriage of Bocolate/One Strange Combination

Happy Thursday guys! ‘m afraid this will probably just be a brief post from me – thee’s some stuff that I’m really really struggling with at the moment, and it kinda feels like it’s taken me over somewhat 😦 But i’ll put on my blog-happy face now 😀

Ooh! Dinner last night was one of my favourites….

Tofu, peanut butter, soy sauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper, nooch – all blended together and mixed with kamut tagliatelle, aubergine and parsnip, and a side of kabocha – all enjoyed whilst watching the World Equestrian Games dressage on Tv :D:

(note the nasty colours due to the poor night time lighting..is there a setting on a camera to overcome this!?)

I’ve got into the habit of having kabocha by itself on the side – it’s so squishy and delicate when it’s been roasted, and if it gets mixed with all the other junk on the plate, it gets squashed and disappears 😥 not what we want…anyway, the mild carbo load (does chocolate count as carbs? I had 2 squares later on too :p) was for the purpose of a 9mile run today!

Bah, it was a toughie. I had a Power Bar and 2 tsps wheat germ before I left, but – and I don’t know if it’s cos of my general mood, the hills, or the fact I didn’t have any extra fuel during the run – I totally wasn’t feeling it today. I felt like I was dragging my own corpse along the road!!! Seriously, it was really really hard work 😦 I finished in 1hr22 (I think..I forget now), which was a 9.12 min/mile pace. My slowest in a long while, not counting Sunday’s 18miler. Oh well…maybe tomorrow will be better.

When I got in, I had a scrummy breakfast waiting for me:

Overnight oats!

• 1/2 c. oats
• 1/2 c. coconut milk
• 1/2 c. soya yogurt
• 1 heaping tbsp Vega chocolate smoothie mix
• add ins – an extremely ripe banana (literally, so ripe it was mush in the skin!), cocoa powder, and a Veganomicon baked banana muffin:

DEEEElightful! Especially the muffin! I can’t believe I waited 2 days before I tried one of those bad boys – they are some of the best muffins I’ve ever baked! In fact, 2 out of my top 3 muffins I’ve ever baked have been from either Veganomicon, or Vegan with a Vengeance <- both books by the same lady. She’s a genius!

Late morning, I was feeling super inspired to give Chika a good schooling session; Team GB just won 2 silver medals in dressage at the World Equestrian Games, so I was feeling inspired 🙂 Sadly, Chika was not. Actually, that’s harsh, and a lie; she was a very good girl! She just didn’t want to supple to the left very easily…but other than that, she tried her heart out for me, as always, so I was pleased 😀

Lunch came late, but was sooo worth the wait! I saw a post on Never(Home) Maker yesterday, which had a sauce recipe that caught my eye – Cocoa-tomato-beet sauce! It sounds weird, but it was amazingly delicious 🙂 I stuck to the recipe exactly, apart from omitting the parmesan cheese (a) I had none, b) it’s not vegan anyway), and using whole beets, which I blended:

Who would’ve thought – cocoa powder, tomatoes, beets, mixed herbs, cinnamon, agave, salt..it works so well! (This would be a the marriage my title refers to..beets and chocolate = bocolate 😀 I’m a genius right? :p)

I served it mixed with roasted chickpeas, roasted parsnip/broccoli/butternut, with a side of cereal:

Wow wow wow wow. One of the most delicious meals I’ve had in a long long time!! It was actually, properly SUPERB! If you like cocoa flavours, tomatoes, beets, red food, or pink food, or food in general, I recommend you make this sauce. Quick, easy and delicious 😀 Win!

Not a huge amount happened after lunch..I picked a proper big haul of blackberries (711g of blackberries, to be precise :p):

And caught up with various boring bills/letters/rap-that-has-to-be-sorted, and had a milky coffee:

(blackberry stained nails, not dirt, FYI!!)

And that’s about it 🙂

Question – when you find yourself really, really struggling – emotionally, mentally and so on – or feeling plagued by negativeness, how do you overcome it?

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Ideal Man?

Hugh Grant? No, he’s most definitely not my ideal man! But he did make an appearance in my dream last night; a man called/loosely based on Hugh Grant (King of 90s’ Rom Coms), but with slightly better different looks wined and dined me, and took me shopping for kitchen appliances!! THAT is my ideal man 😀

Yes, either Dream Man, or the other famous Hugh:

He’s my ideal man too 😀 Just look at those arms! Seesh!!

So yeah, I woke up yearning for a romantic man to take me kitchen shopping this morning..it was a disappointment to walk down to an empty house 😦 2 tsps wheat germ and half of a very skanky and soft apple, plus an hour’s walk in the sun, lifted my mood though! I’m a firm believer in the powers of endorphins 🙂

Breakfast was a kale/plum/hemp seed EGM:

I finally finished my bag of flax, so hemp seed was next on the menu! Isn’t hemp a drug…? Or am I confused?

 

I sure felt a happy rush after eating that monster, that much is true!

Then, it was time to drag my sorry ass to work 😦 I’d really liked having a week off from it, what with the bank holiday and the wedding – but alas, back to the grind stone I went

It was hardly a wild shift – hanging clothes, steaming clothes, topping up my carpark ticket, steaming some more….though I did buy a whole load of new ring binders and biros for uni! Does that kind of thing make anyone else mega excited!? Yes? No? Only me? Meh, I just love shiny new things!!

Lunch was highly dull, but just what I was craving – veggies and salt!

Roast cauliflower, courgette, celeriac (A LOT), parsnip (only a tiny amount – the celeriac was the star of the show today) and a few chunks of kabocha, all seasoned with rosemary and garlic:

Love love love.

The salt part came in the form of a roast corn/bean selection thing – before you ask, I didn’t roast them no, they were pre-bought. But the added ingredients were just oil and salt, so it shouldn’t be hard to recreate 😀

Lovely meal!

When I got home, I felt a little empty in the stomach apartment (metabolism rocking from yesterday’s 15miler maybe?), so I had some cereal and yogurt:

Nom nom! (does anyone actually know what ‘nom nom’ means!? I say it cos I believe it means ‘holycow, that was tasty’, but I’m not sure……)

I then randomly made some maple-y hummus:

Before getting started on dinner.

Dinner last night was obvs a treat-dinner! Tempeh, banana-cashew-maple sauce, durum/lentil/wholegrain mustard mix, cocoa veggies:

Followed an hour or so later by a Nana’s peanut butter cookie:

PERFECT!!!

Dinner tonight? A mic of spicy roasted chickpeas (I just mixed chickpeas with the seasonings I wanted and baked for 15mins or so), tofu baked with a peanut butter/soy sauce, and lots of spiced veggies:

A seeea of veggies!

Very yummy 😀 Well, I hope so. It’s sitting in the keep-warm oven atm, cos I’m yet to eat it. But WHEN I DOOO, it will be great 😀

Post dinner, the new issue of Glamour and I are gonna have a get together!

Yaaaaay!

Question: Who is your ideal man (or woman!)? I really really hope someone says their husband/wife/ladyfriend/manfriend….I love romance :p

What was the last dream you had?

Ps: Catching up on posts? I went to a wedding and ran 15miles 😀

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Join Up

OK! It’s Horsey Humpday! Noooow I’ve tried to add two videos to my post today –whether they’ll work is another question, cos..well, I have zero clue when it comes to stuff like this! So here’s hoping :p But more on that later – I’ll go through food first 😀

Dinner last night TOTALLY made up for my Foodie Fail that was the skanky lentil thing from the other night 😀 I had my favourite veggies, stir fried with tofu and soy sauce and chickpeas, and a sauce made from peanut butter, stock, cinnamon and soy sauce 😀

It was SO lovely!

HOORRAY! Oh, and did anyone else watch the Big Brother final? I’m SO glad the person who did, did! I don’t want to say who in case I give something away 😛

Today – 5k run was the first job of the day. Actually, eating was the real first job of the day, cos that’s how I roll 😛 An apple, wheatgerm and and two rice cakes later and I was revved up to run 😀 26minutes after that and the run was done and dusted – with some fabulous negative splits too!

8.44

8.42

8.05

oooh yes.

SHOCKINGLY I had an Epic Pink Monster for breakfast, made pink by the lovely watermelon added 😀

Watermelon and I are having a slight love affair at the moment 😛

It was gooooood.

Even better – whilst I  was getting my munch on, a bloke knocked on the door. Not just any old bloke – a DELIVERY bloke!!!

 

When I was at the HLS, during a run with Gabriela, we were chatting away, and decided to do a foodie swap – and today the package came! Look at all the glorious stuff she gave me:

 

LOVE that girl!! So generous! I am soo excited to try everything she sent me – and the addition of the Mighty Maple peanut butter means my collection is complete 😀 I really really hope I get to meet her again one day soon 🙂 (by the way – check out her blog – she is seriously awesome!)

After breakfast, I went blackberry picking for an hour and got quite a haul (of berries, and of nettle stings. My legs are tingling so bad right now….) –

Theeeen I rode the mareface – oh boy, she had her Mental Hat on today!! Ears jammed forwards, head right up, eyes on stalks…we didn’t step out of trot, cos i had a sneaky feeling that cantering would bring about some big spooks…..:p

But when she’s like that, it does mean I work up an appetite – just in time for a delicious lunch! One of my favourite meals: kamut tagliatelle, with brussels, squash and parsnip, and a tofu-peanut butter sauce:

Made simply by blending a serving of tofu with some water, a load of peanut butter (a tbsp maybe?), soy sauce, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Sooo good! As was the two squares of Rawr chocolate for dessert :p

(Random side fact – the past two nights I’ve started using avocado oil in my cooking <- I think not using oil in my own cooking was probably the ONE thing left over from my ED days – but NO MORE! I’m going to make a habit of it from now on, cos it’s not in the least bit scary anymore 😀 *pats back* SCREW YOU, LEFTOVER ED-ACTIONS!! :P)

Dinner is a weird one today – i don’t really have time to cook (keep reading and you’ll see why), so instead, I’ve blended up cereal, blackberries, strawberries, cocoa powder (yes, more cocoa powder), agave nectar and watermelon together for a quick meal later:

And i plan on eating some kind of dense, protein filled bar later on too (maybe a Clif builder’s bar….who knows!). 

RIGHT! I have to go and battle the crazy winter weather elements dash – I’m meeting two of my best friends at the cinema to a) GOSSIP (it’s been a LONG time since I’ve seen them (I’ll be getting my 2009 Christmas present too…..!!) and much has happened!!) and b) to see Grown Ups – anyone else seen it?

What was the last good film you saw?

Anyone else noticed that summer seems to be officially OVER!? I can’t wait for winter myself 😀

ps- don’t forget, it’s my sports nutritionist appointment tomorrow – should be interesting! So if you’re an sporty person, particularly a vegan one, do come back!

——

Horsey Humpday is upon us! –

Sunday – photos taken by my mama (who wasn’t wearing her glasses :p):

CHARRRRGE!

hehe :p

Tuesday activities now (post ride!)

Mmmkk! So on Sunday night, there was a programme on TV about horses, and it showed some footage of join up, with Monty Roberts <- he’s like..probably the most famous horse guy ever, like a behaviourist who pioneered all these techniques of ‘talking’ to horses – join up.

With join up, you basically ‘talk horse’, using your body language, eyes, stature, that kind of thing – all non-forceful and non-violent. Monty Roberts has used it to bond with and tame wild horses as well as an alternative method to the ways originally used to break in horses back in the 40s (cruel methods); but everyday people can use it too, just to strengthen your bond with your horse 🙂 It’s really cool!

You start by sending the horse away, ie flapping your arms, strong body language, looking them in the eye etc, which mimics the lead horse in a herd sending away a naughty foal (kind of) – effectively saying to the horse ‘I don’t need you because I’m an alpha’.I reckon this page explains it far better than me 😛

Normally you’d do it in a round pen, so the horse can’t get stuck in corners. I didn’t have a round pen though, just a rectangle 🙂 But here is me sending Chika away:

(Actually, that’s a lie :p I originally just wanted to film Chika being a spaz in the school for y’all, but she automatically joined up with me 😛 )

You keep the horse moving using just your body language (no force, no whips!), and wait for them to start to give you submissive-type signals. The signals include dropping their head down (Chika did that at the end of the first video), chewing with their mouths, keeping their inside ear fixed on you, looking towards you (Chika did that too) slowing down – that sorta thing. You can see Chika doing it in the video!

When they start giving those signals, you turn away from the horse and almost ‘droop’ – ie you go totally submissive too. If the horse has joined up, they turn towards you and walk up to you. Once they’re by you, they stick to you like glue and will follow you about everywhere! I tried to video Chika following me:

Yeah, shoddy as video…but it’s hard to run and film backwards! I don’t know how easy it is to tell..but she was basically following me about, trotting after me and so on (note the flappy bottom lip at the end of the video :p). It’s lovely!

I’ve done join up quite a few times with Chika in the past, though not for a few years. But the affects after are fab – you feel so much closer to the horse! When I came back outside today about 2hrs later, we had a little rally of ‘hello Chika’-whicker-‘hello!’-whicker-‘Yeess baby!’-whicker…like, 6 times over! It was awesome!

If you’re horsey, have you ever tried join up? Are you very into natural horsemanship? I actually don’t really use much natural horsemanship at all, but join up is something I like – cos I think it works!

Anyway, I really hope those videos loaded OK…and if they haven’t, I won’t be here to sort it out Eek :s

Have a good evening!

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