It finally happened!!

I bet by now you were thinking this face/butt/boob lift for the blog would never happen right? Well, how wrong you were, cos it has!!

The dot wordpress has been dropped (thank goodness) and I’m now all lovely and self hosted – plus, recipes have been updated, the About page has been updated, and there will soon be QUESTIONS answered in the FAQ page! Expect a post about that soon, so if you have anything you wanna ask, write it down now or forever hold your peace 🙂

Sooo anyway, update your google readers, blogrolls, cross out the ‘.wordpress’ on all the Post-Its you have stuck round your house reminding you of my blog, and for my single fan who has http://www.britchickruns.wordpress.com tattooed on himself? Well…you’re beyond help.

I also have to give a MASSIVE shout out to my beloved Jess, who has helped me SO much with this – I can’t thank her enough! (cue Oscars-speech worthy crying)

—–

Onwards and upwards 🙂 (and excuse the mega length of this post – it’s been 2days, what’s a blogger to do!?)

Oh gawsdshshdhs! Was it really only Thursday when I last blogged?? Judging by the amount of photos on my camera, you’d think whole lifetimes had passed. Instead, there’s just been many, many bowls of oatmeal:

Ok, two.

Two is enough.

Cinnamon overripe pear though – you can never have enough of them!

Did you know I eat the core and all? The ONLY bit I don’t eat is the stick at the top 🙂

—

Ok, now let’s take a journey back in time; you may recall my socca FAIL on…Thursday? Well, I am not one to be beaten by bad food, oh no. I will fight back, fight hard, and fight dirty. In the case of the aforementioned socca, it did NOT get thrown away. Instead, I mixed it with the remains of my curry soya mince….

Served alongside….what else, roasted veggies!!

HA! The socca was TASTY! Take THAT, world!! I think the flavah-flaves infused overnight or something, cos it really was faboosh 🙂 In fact, I decided to make yet more socca today for lunch 🙂 This time, I loosely followed Ashley’s socca recipe, although I adjusted the measurements cos there’s only one o’ me. Oh, the life of a singleton ay?

You know what that is? GREASE. Yes, I GREASED my pan today. Non-greased pan = one messed up messy load of mess (shan’t be making that mistake again).

Ummmm…did it work?

I baked that early in the day, and then just let it sit and hang around for a while whilst I did other things (*cough-play007JamesBond on the Wii like a little boy – cough*). Theeen I served it, with a brussels sprouts/shallots/garlic stir fry (using the same spices + tomato puree, thrown in for good measure)

I got a bit carried away taking pictures 😛

It WORKED! It

was

delicious

🙂

I really can’t describe the texture – kinda like seitan, but…more dough-y, less chew-y….honestly, I think the best thing would be if you just made the darn stuff. It’s so easy! Chickpea flour is pretty common (it’s called gram flour too) – Waitrose have it, I’m preeetty sure Tesco have it, and loads of independent shops/probzably ethnic stores have it. Make it your Sunday mission! My Sunday mission will be to make more of it, fo sho – I think it’d make a hotdiggity quick nutritious lunch to eat at uni (I normally only have a 10-minute midway lecture break to eat lunch). Sooooortttiiiiddddd.

—

Twas an odd start this morning. I rented a film last night (The Switch – I LOVE Jennifer Aniston, she be my girl crush, but the film…? Hmm…not so much. It was ok, but the ending bugged the hell outta me. Plus I think the lead bloke had an annoying face. Heh.) so I drove into town quickly this mornin’ to return it. When I got up though, the appetite had vamooshed, so I forwent (forgoed?) breakfast (:O that NEVER happens!) and instead treated myself to a lovely cappuccino 🙂

By the time I’d got home, I was ready for oats!

*insert picture of oats here*

I also did hay-unloading, which I think made my injured ankle very angry; it felt faaairly OK this morning, but after lugging big old hay bales about, it’s felt much more sore all day 😦 It’s been a week since I did it!! Gah. I am SO fed up with being injured, #stoopidcrankybody. I NEED it to be healed by Weds-ish, so I can go for a short run to report back to Mr FF (Mr Fit Physio, in case you forgot) about how my legs are feeling – we have another date (fine, APPOINTMENT) on Friday yee see…

Oh well.

I’m a firm believer that good food can heal.

So I made some more 🙂

Roasted celeriac, parsnip and butternut, with a 1/2 serving of peanut flour, mixed with cocoa powder and agave nectar…

…for the dippeh-dippeh, obvs.

5 stars 🙂

(FYI – chocolate peanut blob stuff goes REALLY well with curry socca!! – and that’s for realz yo!)

Now, this afternoon, I was craving oats in a jar. Problemo = no empty jars. So, I decided to bake my mum some peanut buttery bars, purely so I’d have an empty jar ready and waiting 😀

Bars:

Jar:

Mission: accomplished.

I didn’t actually have OIAJ this eve tho – I had YIA1/2C for a snack instead!

You didn’t think I’d let my peanut buttery measuring cup used for the PB bars go to waste did you!!??

That’s be yogurt in a 1/2 cup, for you lay folk :p

Noowww – I feel this post is approaching the heck-I-don’t-wanna’read-anymore stage (if it hasn’t already), so I’ll leave you with two other fabulous eats 😀

Item One: A beautiful Green Monster (kale, soya milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, banana)

Item Two: Blackened tofu (marinated in cocoa balsamic, ketchup, mirin, soy sauce)

Highlights of my weekend 🙂

Tell me, my lovelies – who do you have a crush on? I have a BIG crush on my physio, but other than him – Channing Tatum, Josh Hartnett (circa Pearl Harbour & Lucky Number Slevin) annnd…..hmm….one more…that’s a toughie. OH! R-Patz!! I am very Team Edward, he has stolen my heart 🙂

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No Gaga, No.

I’m really not feeling the new Lady Gaga song. Like, really, reaaally not feeling it. In my own nasty little way, I’m highly relieved she isn’t number one today. But seriously – does anyone else find that she annoys the heck out of them, or is that just me!!?? Heh.

——- AAANNNYYWWAAY ———–

My Heidi-Montag-esque makeover shoooould be coming tomorrow, I’m hoping – but we shall see 🙂 In the meantime, I’ll do a normal, pre-surgery post 🙂 And let me tell youz – there’s a lorra food photos I want to show y’all! I know that can be boring sometimes, but och ay, there’s been some scrummy stuff 😛 Let’s start from the beginning shall we? Walk with me….

(Now I totally have images of Hugh Hefner, walking through his Perv Mansion smoking a bubble pipe and wearing a dressing gown. Oh my mind is bleary, late on a Sunday eve!)

Friday

Bah, mucho stresso came on Fritag. I originally thought I was going to have a lovely relaxing day, going into town, getting a cappuccino, looking in the charity bookshops…til I got a phonecall which changed my life forever. Well, it changed my Friday plans at least. To cut a long story short, I ended up standing around the PC World carpark for a half hour, holding a laptop to give to my dissertation partner. Not fun times.

Breakfast was ace though! I tried out some new oatmeal that my delightful friend Jess sent me!

Maple Apricot Walnut oatmeal, to be precise! Full of chunks of walnut and a maple-y flavour and bits of plump dried fruit – it was the BOMB!

9g protein per serving too 🙂

That milkyish blob in the middle? Why, it was maple cream of course! Fresh from a cardboard box which was fresh from the hills of Vermont – tedious link, I know 😀

One word – ohmygod.

A pear was also consumed –

– why you need to see a picture of a half eaten pear is beyond me.

Equally so for a picture of tofu:

My only explanation is that the glaze on it (tomato puree, balsamic, maple syrup, cinnamon, soy sauce, and apple cider vinegar) was out of this WORLD!

Green Monster:

Craving: satisfied.

Saturday now 🙂

Well, the Holly’s Oatmeal oats yesterday kept me full for hours and hours and hoooouuurrrsss. Normal oatmeal on Sat – I was a Starvin’ Marvin’ after about 1.5hrs!

What’s with that!?

Despite the addition of melted banana with Mighty Maple PB & Co. And a Snackimal, for good measure :p

Oh well, the stomach gods demanded food, the stomach gods received food – in the mighty fine and dandy form of KALE CRISPINS and BLACK BEAN BROWNIES!!!

It was my fourth time making these, and I seriously love them more and more each time 😀 I even cut the sugar down on this version – 1/4c., not a 1/3rd (or maybe that was the agave I cut down..I forget) and they still turned out SO moist (errh), gooey and rich and delicious!

I’ve already had three 🙂

Now, here’s something else I made:

Wtf right? It iiissss:

Kabocha Squash and Peanut Banana Soft Serve!

Quite the moutful, to say and to eat, but ohholywozer was it iiiiiinncredible.

• roasted kabocha squash – 1/2 c. maybe? I left the skins on :p
• 1 frozen banana
• approx. 1/4 – 1/3 c. frozen melon
• 1/2 serving (15g) peanut flour
• a dash of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2-4tbsp water (maybe more – it depends on your blender and how thick you like it)

Put everything in the blender, starting with the liquid at the bottom and the hardest thing on top, and BLEND.

Simple but oh so good! I wish my pictures could do it justice – I took a whole bunch, but the nasty yellow lighting in the kitchen + yellow food made for bright orange pics 😥

See? Bah.

There’s also been OIAJ action this weekend:

And more chocolate :p

Sunday now yah? (wow, I cannae believe how long it’s been since I last did a proper post..sheesh.)

Oh, today was a Bad Day. After the success of last Sunday’s 6mile run, and a random one in the week, I was feeling pretty pumped for today! I ate a huge massive apple, wehatgerm and a few other bites before I left, then set out on my merry way. Merry it was NOT.

The Angry Legs were back with a vengeance! Shin pain at times, calf pain at times, alternating the area and amount constantly. One minute my left shin hurt, then that would be ok and my right calf would hurt. It was nasty! There were a lot of tears on that run, a lot of tears…

By the time I got back, I was ready for some stir fried pear, yogurt and date syrup:

(that was really yummy!) And some good ol’ oats:

Whilst the oats were setting, my mum and I went on a 1mile cool down/stretch out walk, and do you know what she did? She offered to pay for a sports physio for me! I almost cried when she offered!!! So yes, this means that I have officially declared war on my blasted legs. Next week will be my 6th week of pain, and really – the joke is wearing thin. Tomorrow morning, I gather my ammo! (ie, make an appointment).

After breakfast, my mum and I decided to take the dawg for a walk in the forest. We thought we’d do about an hour/3miles.…but we got lost. Alone, we can navigate fine. Together? Not so much! We are masters of getting lost 😛 I’m surprised we don’t need a map to navigate our own kitchen sometimes.

So anyway – 5miles/1hr45mins later, we made it back to the car 🙂 We were both hangry for lunch when we got home!

I whipped up a pear-melon-vanilla-banana soft serve:

As well as other bits and bobs, but apparently that is the point where I forgot to photo anything else – abrupt finish, I know!! Other eats did include black bean brownies though, you can be sure of that 😛

Anyway – I have blog work, uni work and sleep work to do now 😀 so I be off. Fare yee well my loves 🙂

Question: Are you good at getting lost?

Best thing you ate this weekend? Mine was the kabocha peanut banana s-s, without a doubt :p orrrr the black bean brownies…..

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Curried Cauliflower Rice & Lentils

Recipe time! (plus other rambles – you didn’t think I would JUST write a recipe for a post did you?)

Curried Cauliflower Rice and Lentils:

Ingredients (for one big Freya-sized portion):

– 1/4 – 1/3 head of cauliflower

– 2 small shallots (or half an onion)

– 1 garlic clove

– leek (I used a chunk a bit bigger than my index finger…I think)

– cinnamon, mild curry powder (some like it hot), garam masala, tumeric – approx. 1/4-1/2 tsp each, but honestly, I don’t measure! Just go easy on the garam and the curry powder cos you don’t wanna burn yo’self :p

– salt, to taste

– 30g mix of lentils and millet (dry weight)

– lemon juice

Method:

1) Start by breaking your cauliflower into chunks, then putting it in a Vincent or a food processor:

Process til it looks like rice!

See? Genius. (I think I saw Ashley do this a few weeks back…? But I remember she said it was bland, which is where the spice came from in my recipe :p)

2) Put your lentils and millet on to cook – throw them in a saucepan together with some water (start by covering them with water, and add more as you go) and cook til tender/soft – normally about 20mins. Make sure all the water gets absorbed.

3) Chop up your onion, leek and garlic and fry with the spices in some non-stick spray/oil, til it’s all softened and fragrant:

Stay on a medium ish heat – you don’t want to burn the spices now do you?

4) Add a splash of lemon juice to the cauliflower rice, and a few more shakes of cinnamon, tumeric and garam:

Add the cooked lentils/millet to the pan (or add the veg to the saucepan – whatever is easier), along with the cauliflower rice, mix mix mix and allow to heat through (if desired), spoon onto a plate, add a few more splashes of lemon juice, and serve!

I had mine with roast parsnip and butternut and I can honestly say – although I put those 2 veggies with everything – that the sweetness from them really did compliment the curry spices. It was FAB!

The chewy millet/lentils really went with the cauliflower 🙂 Happy times!

———

Sooo….it was the weekend wasn’t it? Hot dang it was WINDY where I was! On my run this morning, I was actually running slower than I would walk at one point, cos the wind was SO strong and I was running right into it! GAH I am not a wind fan. OH no. At least it wasn’t raining (that would have brought my demon alter ego out to play) – in fact it was warm!! Too hot for a hat, but when I took it off, the wind gave me earache 😦 What’s a girl to do!!??

Talking of running – on Sat night, my ever-so kind hearted mammabear gave me a LEG MASSAGE! And you know what? I think it helped!!

This morning (Sunday) I went out on a 6mile run, and I think I actually RAn ran about 95% of it, the most in a loooong time, in the least amount of pain 😀 My muscles ached every now and then, but the shin pain was probably down 50% from last week, and in general was much, much less. I stopped 2-3 times a mile to just stretch, and I didn’t go fast (it took me an hour) but it was lovely to be out 🙂 Until I saw a beautiful Bambi deer, lying dead on the side of the road.

(source)

I thought it was a foal at first!! *sadface*. There’s a herd of 25 or so fallow deer that live round our house, so it was real sad to see one had been hit by a car 😦

Anyway – when I finished the run, I walked for 2miles to stretch out and cool off, and then had THE best lunch EVER.

You know I’ve been craving green monsters like a crazy person this week? Well, I finally had a good old classic Epic Green Monster today, for lunch! It was AMAZING.

– 1c. cereal

– 1/2 c. coconut milk

– 1tsp xanthan gum

– a small ripe banana

– a few ripe melon chunks

– 1 tsp cocoa powder

– cinnamon, vanilla, salt

– lots of kale + a cabbage leaf

Oh it was worth every last bit of whatever makes you wait for things. BLISS in a bowl, folks!

Sadly, the oats I made Saturday did not live up to their expectations 😦 I thought I’d do coconut-chocolate oatmeal – sounds good right? No. I used 1.5tsp carob powder, maple syrup, 1tsp coconut oil and coconut milk – as well as the usual oats + water + salt + my normal method – and the bowl ended up looking like this:

Topped with crack cereal and an almond nicked from my mammabear’s museli 😛

LOOKED good, but the chocolate taste was weak, and er…where was the coconut taste!!?? Did I not use enough coconut oil? Bah!

My snack was an old favourite though 🙂

Ever put yogurt on toast? Ever since I saw Allie do this a while back, i’ve been hooked! TRY IT!

Now, you know I mentioned my mum gave me a leg massage t’other evening? Well she also forgoed (forwent? Whatever past tense of ‘to forgo’ is :p) her Sunday morning lie in (til 8am – she’s wild like that) to help me out with a big favour this morning (more on that tomorrow), so as a mahoosive thank you, I baked her a [requested] cherry almond traybake 🙂

ROOKIE mistake, Ms Freya – I didn’t let my cherries dry after I washed them, so they aaaall sunk to the bottom. D’oh!

I spoil her so (& her place of work – they get the bulk of my baked goods). What are baking-mad daughters for though right?

Other than that, it’s been a pretty hon-happening weekend – Chika got her workout x a lot in the form of freaking out at Tig’s absence (she’s a tense bunny atm) and I tried a new variety of squash – co…something, I forget :p – which looked bang on like butternut, but had a weak and wet taste and texture. #fail.

Off to bed I go 🙂

What’s your favourite thing to snack on? I want new snack ideas plez 🙂

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The Good Daughter

Get it? A play on the title of that show, The Good Wife. No, I never watched it either :s Was it good? I just remember it cos it has that lady from ER in it 😀 and she got to kiss George Clooney, which is pretty cool! Though I think Channing Tatum is more up my street:

(source)

Don’t you reckon?

Anyway, pretty men wasn’t the subject of this post – me (my?) being a good daughter was the subject of this post!! I promised my mummabear yesterday or the day before I’d make a cherry and almond traybake for her work – but the past 2days, I just haven’t had the energy/time to make one (it takes ages cos you have to 1/4 and wash 300g of cherries and it is DULL, sticky and takes ages!). When I came home today, I wanted to bake – just, I was short on time…so I did for her what I always used to do, every week, for about 2years, to make up for the lack of bake-age:

Homemade museli!

She used to adore my homemade museli, but when I left for uni (my 2nd year) I stopped doing it cos I didn’t have time anymore. She sure was happy when she came home to see the mix being … mixed 😀

Toasty nuts:

And raw oats, crushed Oatbix, bran sticks, wheat flakes, chia seeds, hemp seeds, cinnamon, dried fruit (raisins, dates, apricots), toasted coconut flakes:

Pre-nut-mix above…

Nuts added below!

She luffs er’ muesli 😀

I then proceeded to cook her and my stepdad’s entire dinner (as I often do :p) cos she had a late client (sweet potato, red pepper, carrot, honey, seasonings, shallots – all cooked in the Actifry, and battered fish). See – GOOD DAUGHTER!

Now, I’m gonna be honest – I really don’t have much to say today! I could show you yet more pictures of oatmeal, cooked the same way….

….with a side of melon & frozen grapes:

(yep, still using the Christmas plate – Rudolph says HEY, and he’s enjoying his staycation :D)

Or the cereal & soya milk mess I ate upon entering the house after uni:

Or I could even show you a fascinating photo of a slab of tempeh (1/2 block, split again), marinating in freshly squeezed OJ, mixed spice, maple syrup, soy sawwwwce and apple balsamic vinegar (twas laying in a puddle when I left the house this morning, but had absorbed aaaall the liquid when I got back. Amaze.):

Which then got its’ ass fried and served for my dinner:

Or, I could send you on a crazy flashback in time to when I used to have Green Monsters, all the live long day:

Except this wasn’t a flashback…it was part of dinner!

1/2 c. soya milk, 1/2 serving PB flour, 1 frozen banana, KALE, cinnamon, vanilla extract.

Or – I could show you dessert:

But that would all be dull :p

So instead, I’ll just accept that I have little to say! If you really do feel deprived of your BCR hit of the day, feel free to go and view my amazing incredible vlog from yesterday, and marvel at the fact that I – ignorant fool of all things technological – managed to get an actual VIDEO onto my blog. MARVEL AT ME!! 😛

Question: Have you been a good daughter/son/girlfriend/boyfriend/friend/sibling recently? Now’s the time to show off what a lovely person you are 🙂

PS – has anyone seen Blue Valentine?

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blue+valentine+trailer&aq=0

Is it good? I desperately want to see it!

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Decisions, decisions….

YAAAWW you GUYS! You’re all so freaking awesome! After my last plea-post for someone to give me some peanut flour in return for some British goodies, I had lots of offers! Soo what I’m gonna do, is quite literally put all of yo’ names in a hat, draw one out, and then I’ll email that person and we can do some swappeh-swappeh action. Sounds good right? Sorted.

—–

I thiiiink it’s been a while since I showed you what my life was like. So without further adieu, what have I been up to? (rhyme? yes?)

Decisions!

Such as….

How far to run? Last week, I ran an almighty 34miles, including a 10miler on Saturday (the most mileage in a week AND the longest run since my Halloween marathon). This week, I’m on target to run about 36miles.…that’s if I do decide to do another 10miler on Saturday. I might do 9, I might do 11 – decisions, decisions!

To keep myself entertained running (my iPod broke in October, so I have been running sans-music since then) I think about life, people, horses (ok, Chika) and food. What to have for breakfast – oatmeal or an Epic Green Monster? Ay, yet more decisions. However, the answer is always the same; EGMs!

I love how xanthan gum TRANSFORMS a bowl into fluffy puffy goodness 🙂

Good old traditional ones – made with pumpkin, or pear, and ALWAYS banana. Frozen cranberries as a topping are Da BOMB too!

They are amaze 🙂

For some reason though, the oatmeal always seems 10x more appealing at lunch – in fact, i’ve had steel cut oats FIVE lunches running! Sheesh. That’s why I don’t do daily eats anymore! But hey, I’m not complaining – if that’s what my body is craving, that’s blates what it needs 🙂

I have this thing about hot oats, with cold milk poured over…..b l i s s. Veggie stews often accompany my oats –

Sometimes, i just can’t decide between pictures

One must have one’s vegetables 🙂 (though today, the veggies were delayed; I made the decision to crazy-woman dance to the Chicago soundtrack round my kitchen, as opposed to sitting down and eating and being sensible. A girl needs her fun :))

Some other decisions? What to bake:

hehe, they’re like little soldiers 😀

Cookie dough balls, that’s what to bake 🙂 They were sent off with my mum to her place o’ work today. They shooooould all be finished by now, but she ain’t home yet 😥 I can’t wait to find out how they’ve gone down! It’ll probably be the highlight of my day; I’m quite the loser really.

What decisions to losers have to make, I hear you say? Namely, whether to have an out-of-date Odwalla bar with my oats, or a Raw Organic bar (use by date – 13th jan! It’s close…..)

The Odwalla bar won that ceeeerrAZY round.

Impressive! Very chocolatey, I approved. It’s a shame there was only 4g of protein though 😦 with calorifically dense foods, I like them to have a good kick of protein…which it didn’t. Alas, you win some you lose some!

The biggest decision of late though, has been about My Life. Yeah…you all know I’ve posted about many a mid-life-crisis over the past year, but I think (think think THINK) I might have solved it! Here goes:

culinary school!

I love food. I love cooking and baking. I know very little about either. At some point, I want to be some kind of nutritional therapist. I love America.

America, wh-? Weellll. The culinary school I’m thinking of applying to is in Charlotte, North Carolina! In fact, it’s the very same one Emily went to! They have an amazing programme there which really, really appeals to me. It’s one (lonnnnng) year long, but it sounds incred. Obvs at the end, you don’t HAVE to be a chef (though that wouldn’t be a bad thing; I’d specialise in vegan fare!), there are a ton of foodie things grads go on to do (the site gives a list). After some emailing back and forth with Emily (who is lovely- I met her at the HLS and we were planning on running my marathon together, til she got hit by a car and had to pull out…), and reading this post by Megan, I think I’m gonna do it. I wouldn’t plan on going til 2012, so I’d finish uni (ohmygod I hate uni and can’t wait to leave….it’s killing me!), then spend a year saving/working, then go Sept 2012. Here’s how my thoughts have been cranking away:

Pros:

• I love love love food and cooking – maybe it’s finally time to say ‘yes. That IS my passion, I should follow it!’
• I want to do something food-related with a career, and ultimately, probably end up being a nutritional therapist. However I’m a firm believer that one needs life experience before going into anything therapy related; IMHO, if I were a 40yr old married mother unable to cope, I wouldn’t reaaaally want to go and see a childless, care-free 25yr old for help!
• I love America, and want to live there (yeah, I make NO secret of that!). Originally, I was thinking about going down the school psychology route – however, the past year has shown me that the amount of academic work required would NOT suit me. Nor would the approaching-6-figure-debt at the end of it…..
• I have a dream, and I need to follow it. Food & America are my PASSIONS, the things I think about all the time. Sometimes, you just have to do it.
• You never know, maybe I’d meet a bloke, we’d have a whirlwind romance and get married in Vegas, and before you know it- BOOM, Visa, I live there. I kid, I kid….

Cons:

• Money (obvs). it’d cost a bomb, BUT it is only one year, and I’ve been emailing the uni (and Emily told me this too), and there does appear to be a lorra financial assistance available for funky foreigners like me, with no income 😀 Hooray!
• I’d be away from home & family & would miss them. But in all honesty – I WANT to get away. England has been tough for me and I’m not happy, and I desperately need to get away and maybe just start over. And you know, three times in my life stick out as being the happiest EVER for me – Washington DC, August 2007 (I met up with a friend there). Chicago, August 2010 (I went alone, to the Healthy Living Summit). Washington DC, October 2010 (I went with my mum, to run a marathon). Theme…..!!?
• It would be one giant risk. But the worst that could happen? I come home again.

I will leave y’all with a fun fact – my main main Arnold, who( (whom?) I idolise:

had two dreams when he was a nipper. Actually, he had more than 2, but these are the 2 I’m using as illustrative points 🙂

1) Move to America

2) Marry a Kennedy.  

Did he achieve them both? you bet yo ASS he did! (Maria Shriver the wifey is of Kennedy blood, as in Pres. Kennedy) When he became an American citizen, he hugged the US flag around his shoulders and cried- true story! You never know, maybe in 30years, I”LL be governor of California.

🙂

Thoughts? Have you ever thrown caution to the wind and just followed a dream? Taken a big risk?

100% of shots you don’t take, you miss.

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Bake, blend, fight…

…lots of FIGHT. Not the naughty, duff-you-in-the-face kind, but the ‘damn you Swine Flu, I will fight you off’ kind!! Remember in my last post, I showed you all a simply wunderbar picture of my fittie mamma going off to a party? Well, some *lovely* person who went to the same party had Swine Flu – and has promptly given it to my mum. Thanks for that. As I type this, she’s laid up in bed, with a temperature, a bowl, lots of sniffing and lots of drugs (the good kind, not the nasty kind). Poor lady! The implications of her illness?

• I miss her! I love having my mum home, but it sucks that she’s upset and sick, and I can’t do squat about it (bar feed her a Green Monster, as I did today – i figure spinach, milk, chia seeds, and maca powder can only do good!). I feel helpless though! I can’t make her better 😦
• She can’t pick my sister up from the airport on Christmas Eve (Hannah’s been away on her gap year, and returns 5am on Friday. Apparently. If Heathrow can pull its act together. Seriously, 5 inches of snow and it shuts down??? Bah.)
• We will have to postpone Christmas – Christmas without my mum bouncing about would be the crappest thing ever – she’s the life and soul, y’all!
• She sure doesn’t deserve to be ill. No-one does I know – but especially not my mum; she’s the most wonderful woman in the world and IT’s. NOT. FAIR.

Talking of illness – I was ill on Saturday! I woke up feeling like junk, achey body, shivery, a football in my throat etc etc – and thought I had flu. But, food fights flu! So I opened up a packet of chocolate Amazing Grass (I got a sample online):

Chugged it down with soya milk/water, and voila! Come Sunday, I felt 10 x better! I still have a cough and a slight wheeze atm, but it sure ain’t bad, and I’ve still had 3 fabby runs (7miles, 6miles, 6miles) since Sunday, so all is well.

Anywayz! Onwardz and upwardz yeahh???

—-

BAKE – The blorld (blog + world) has gone cookie mad :s seriously! Every post I read, someone has eaten their weight in cookies, is on a sugar high, in a sugar coma, has gone to a cookie party, given birth to a cookie baby…is this some weird American trend?! I’m proud to say I’ve rejected the frenzied trend, and made just one batch of cookies – pumpkin oatmeal:

They might look like ordinary cookies, but BY GOSH, these boys (from the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook) were OUT OF THIS WORLD. No lie!! I actually made them as a Christmas present for my mum’s work, but we snagged one before they left, and hoooooly cow. I plan on making another batch for whenever we next have Christmas 🙂

Whilst we’re on the subject of things that have been baked/Christmas, I have a quick review for all my lovely Brit readers! The kind folk at Sainsbury’s contacted me with an offer of a selection of their Free From range of Christmas items:

Dairy free, wheat free, gluten free

Sadly, the items were not vegan – BUT, when I told my mum and stepdad about this offer, they jumped at the chance to review! The other night, they broke into the iced Christmas cake slices –

(I seriously need to work out how to change the ISO on my camera….a New Year’s resolution for sure. My only excuse for the dark photo, apart from my inability to use my camera to my advantage, is the crap night lighting)

– and were very impressed 🙂 Words like ‘moist…full of flavour…delicious…soft icing…lots of marzipan…juicy…’ floated about. Even my step dad liked them, which in itself is a HUGE deal – he won’t eat things that are ‘too vegan’ and prefers to live off frozen peas and mac and cheese. But I sure do think I saw a wee smile creep across his lil face when he ate a slice :p HIGHLY recommended.

More reviews to come!

——

Right – next up, BLEND!

Item One:

That would be a pumpkin pie blended cereal mess thing. I forget exactly what went in it now, but I know it involved cereal, soya milk, pumpkin, cinnamon, maple syrup (maybe?), vanilla, and banana. I also know it was one of the most incredible things I have eeeeever eaten. i know I say that a lot, but I mean it this time!

Next up – Item Two:

Ah yes. I was making my usual blended mess – cereal etc etc. Whilst I was digging about for frozen bananas in the freezers, I came across a packet of cranberries, frozen from last year. DING DING DING! I added in a laaaarge handful, accompanied by a tsp of agave (they were fresh, not dried, hence sourness – though I happily eat them fresh anyway :D).

Wowzer! Beeeeeautiful colour, incred taste!! Not sour at all, just…cranberry-y. It was lovely! If I’ve taught you nothing else in this post, take this on board – add. cranberries.

OH! And those grapes, they’re frozen! And holy cow, frozen grapes are da BOMB!

I froze them aggggges ago, forgot about them, remembered (thanks, Jamie Oliver Christmas tv show), and now I’ve bought a whole new pack of grapes which are sitting in the freezer, ready to munch at my leisure. Bliss.

They made an appearance on my chocolate coffee Epic Green Monster this morning too (along with 75p-per-pack cherries!)

Boo yah.

Talking of…er…food – yesterday, I did the epic Christmas food shop. I figured I needed super good fuel for it, which led to my eating THE best bowl of oats EVER. A bowl to end all bowls. It was….well, I almost cried at how good it was.

The Bowl of Oats to Trump All Bowls of Oats:

• 50g oats
• 2 tsp carob powder
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1/2 c. soya milk
• 1/2 c. water
• roasted and mashed onion squash
• extra milk on top

Oh. My. It was soooo chocoaltey, so creamy, so comforting, so DELICIOUS! I can’t wait to make it again 🙂

Another thing I want to make again – aubergine sauce! T’other day, I roasted up some aubergine, then blended it with salt, mixed spice, water and nooch, and created this:

Looks gross, but it was incred stirred into kamut spaghetti:

Hurrrrraaaahhhh!!! I rejoiced, it was lovely! Silky smooth, with a spicy cheesy flavour. YUMMEH.

Other meals worthy of the YUMMEH tag? Sweet potato, roasted with maple, cinnamon, salt, apple and walnuts:

Totally where it’s at. As was this broccoli/millet/wild/brown rice combo:

Yum!

Now, I have a slight complaint. I would give the following a big old thumbs up too, but – I just can’t. For part of lunch today, I had a wholemeal English muffin, topped with a squeezy pack of Justin’s chocolate almond butter:

My complaint? To get the thickness I wanted, the squeezy pack was only enough for ONE half of a hardly-large English muffin! Booooo.

  

Not cool. At least the taste was right up my street (it tasted like a nuttier, thicker version of Nutella, which is odd considering Nutella is made from hazelnuts. But whatevrz.).

Aaaaaaaaaaanywayz, I have some missions to do now:

1) wrap presents

2) watch the end of Lucky Number Slevin (Josh Hartnett, if you’re reading – marry me?)

3) Make pancakes

4) read my newspaper

See yaz!

Question: Have you gone on the cookie-craze this holiday?

Any tips for getting over flu real quick?

(Oh – and MERRY CHRISTMAS if I don’t have time to blog before the big day! Eat, drink and be mERRY!)

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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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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (and the plain old upsetting)

Hooray hurrah huzzah huzzah! I did my last exam yesterday!! Well, I still have ALL my exams in the summer, the 3 I just had were silly ones instead of coursework for those particular 3 modules…but still! I have no more til May, so I’m happy 😀 To celebrate, I had a complete day off from aaaall forms of work or reading or revision. And it was good 🙂 I even had time for PlayTime with my Chika – but more on that later. First – The Good:

1) No more exams for 6months. Do I even need to explain why that is good? Yeshyesyeys, I still have a dissertation project to do, 60 children to do an experiment on, a Visa to sort out (yes, a VISA! Keep readin’), 3 more modules to learn, and then all my end of year exams that will – hopefully – give me a degree in psychology….but small steps.

2) I tried a faboosh new Luna bar flavour pre-run t’other day:

Er, SCRUMMY. That would be chocolate raspberry flavah, for those of you that don’t have x-ray vision and can’t see the writing behind the bar 😛 I don’t know if it was quite my favourite, but it was right up there 🙂 Though, ha, I did have to inspect it somewhat thoroughly after reading posts by this lady – she found a dead bug-worm thing in one of her Luna bars! Or maybe it was a Larabar..I forget now. But either way, I now have to inspect food before I munch it! Talking of animals in food, i read about a lady who found a frozen dead mouse in her oven chip bag…another one who found a dead mouse cooked into her loaf of sliced bread (after she’d eaten half the load)…the list goes on. ANYWAY!

3) Epic Green Monsters:

Always, always a good thing. And before y’all ask:

1 cup cereal, 1/2 c. milk, 1 banana, spinach and/or kale (I’ve been going for kale recently, 2 big handfuls), approx. 1 small tsp xanthan gum, 1 tsp maca powder. Depending on what I fancy, I might add in vanilla extract or almond extract, a pinch of salt, a tsp of coffee – go mad!

4) Christmas plates!! (note: we still don’t have a tree. I NEED this Christmas cheer!)

I’m not sure if this should go in the Good section, or the Ugly section – I think my mamma would choose the latter :p

5) Delicious lunches, served on said christmas plate:

That’s aubergine mash, in case you were curious 🙂

6) Puff cereal!!

I’ve always been a firm hater of puffy type cereal – but since I discovered that it’s darn tasty with a splash of soya milk – I’m sold.

7) Chika (and Carter):

I wanted her to run about the school after I’d worked her, so i could take cute pictures – instead, she thought she’d just stand there and gawk at me (no doubt wondering why I was making silly noises and running about in circles round her :p)

‘What are you doing Mum?? I want my hay and warm stable!’

8) Next summer!!! Here’s the thing – I’ve applied to go to a summer camp in the USA, and – provided I don’t become an alcoholic/drug addict/[insert bad thing here] – I’m definitely going!!! Crazy! I’ll be there June-September (hence the need for a Visa), and then after, I might go travelling round the States for a bit (and hopefully meet some of you readers :p). At the moment I don’t know what sort of camp I’ll go on – it could be a fitness camp, a horsey camp, or anything in between. But one thing is for sure, it’ll be active and fun and amazing! 😀

Now onto The Bad:

1) Tuition fees in England…now you can only go to uni if you pay £9000 a year?? No thank you! There’s going to be a big class divide in England now (in my opinion) – the rich will go to uni, the poor won’t. I know I sure wouldn’t have gone to uni if that’s how much I was going to pay. Heck, I’m leaving uni with £25,000 of debt – and that’s with tuition fees of £3,000. Awful.

2) Chika (I swear she’s smiling in that pic!)

Yep, this sucks. Every single year since I was 15, when it’s come to my final exams of the year, i stop riding. I normally stop around April time, and pick it up again in June when they’re over. It’s purely cos I get mega stressed, and I don’t want to take it out on Chika, or not do her justice. Plus, she gets a little holiday, so it works well. But – next year, I’ll be stopping in April…then going to the USA. And after camp, i don’t know what will happen. I might travel, I might get a job and leave home, there’s just no telling. On top of that, Chika is not a horse that likes to sit in a field and not do anything. She puts on weight over summer (which is potentially lethal in horses – so many nasty killer diseases happen to fat horses on lush grass) and no-one will be able to work her, and she’ll be bored.

So I’ve made a decision – in March/April time, I’m going to loan her out. It is heartbreaking, like I’ll be losing a part of me. But I just can’t leave her sitting about – she’s only 12yrs old, and she’s a lovely super mare, and will make someone happy. Luckily, I’m not going to SELL her – she means too much to me, she’s priceless, and she’s helped me SO much in my recovery. She IS my family! If she’s loaned, it means if it goes wrong, she can come back (as opposed to being sold on and on and on…like in Black Beauty. I don’t want to see her skinny and sad at a horse sale in 15rs!), and it means I can take her back at any time. But it’s the most sad thing I’ve ever had to decide 😦 every time I think about it, I get a lump in my throat 😦

Annnd The Ugly:

Roast aubergine – such a gooey, gross veggie!

At least the taste makes up for it 🙂

Question: Tell me, what have been your Goods, Bads, and Uglys recently!?

(Ps – I do still have my important post to come, but I wanted to say all this first :))

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The Month Of Hannah’s Birthday

In just a matter of hours, I can scream:

Pinch, Punch, First of the Month!

So, sooo rarely do I ever remember to say that on the actual first, so let’s just say I’m excited 🙂 In fact, I’m excited about December in general!

– Christmas. The little kid in me just LOVES everything to do with Christmas! Presents (receiving AND giving <- more so the latter, as I get older, uglier and wiser :p), time off from uni (it’s still so manic), time spent with my beautiful Chika, and with my beautiful boys:

Sick of cat photos yet!?

– Hannah’s birthday! Yep, my sister is turning 22years old on Dec 16th…sadly, she won’t be home, as she’s still on her gap year. BUT she does arrive home at stupid o’clock on Christmas Eve morning! I’m secretly quite excited about that…though I know it’ll wear off soon enough :p

– cooking! I cannot WAIT to have more time to cook and be creative and generally have more fun with my food 🙂 I feel like my meals have been somewhat repetitive recently – and very, very babylike*

Yeah, no sooner do I say that Im sick of green monsters, do I start having them again :p

*ie, mush!

i did make an aaaamzaing tomato and lentil soup t’other day though:

  

It’ll be going on the Christmas day lunchtime menu 😀

Other note-worthy eats? Hmm…butter beans cooked with vanilla and soya milk and maple syrup and cinnamon and thyme:

Attractive? No. Delicious? Yes.

Pumpkin cappuccino!!

Coffee, milk, pumpkin,mixed spice – bing bam bang bong!

Carob pancakes 😀

With a peanut butter sauce…holy yum.

Chocolate peanut butter on a wholemeal English muffin:

New Cif bar flavour pre-run the other day:

Hmm…The jury is out – I’m not sure about this flavour. It was OK…but it sure wasn’t brilliant 😦

– Playing in the SNOW!

We’ve had so much of it here!!

It was so heavy today that I didn’t have to make the 1hour drive into uni 😀 bliss!

—

Just 3 more weeks or so, then I’ll be off for almost a month…so. excited.

Question: What are you getting excited about? Asides from the obvious (Christmas!) of course 😛

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Next time you hear from me, I’ll be a MARATHONER!

PHEW what a busy day! In this order:

Eat, run, eat, pack, ride, burn, eat, iron, muck out, wash hair, pack, eat, blog. I haven’t stopped!! Starting from the top:

1) Pre-run fuel:

2) Run! 8miles, my third from last run before the marathon….crazy! Despite being blustery and proper cold, the sun was shining and I had one of my best ever runs 🙂 An even 9.26 min/mile pace, done in 1hr15 (and not a single step of walk :p). Enjoyable 🙂

(Dirty hair, no make-up, freezing cold, just ran 8miles. That picture took some bravery to put up!! :p)

3) Breakfast! An EGM:

• kale
• melon
• banana
• cereal
• soya milk
• xanthan gum
• Vega chocolate smoothie mix
• maca powder
• almonds and dates

Oh, I have missed them so! It’s been probably well over a week since my last one…it went down a treat 🙂

4) I packed, no pictures :p

5) Ride – my mum gave me a lovely lunge lesson on Chika, who – of course – was an angel. I’m going to miss her 😦

6) BURN! I was baking some munchkins in the oven, took them out with the oven glove on one hand, then thought ‘ah I’ll put them in the other hand….’. OUCH. I squeaked! The pain was intense!! After a thorough run under the cold tap, my mum bandaged a leaf of aloe vera plant onto it:

The goo in the leaves of aloe vera plants is the BEST stuff ever – totally natural, but amazing healing properties. The relief of it touching my burn was instant 🙂

7) Lunch – Operation Clean the Fridge Out of Veg Before We Leave! In honour of the operation, I had a small bowl of ketchup/bbq roasted veggies:

Aubergine, parsnip, acorn squash (hate it), brussels sprouts

As well as a baked munchkin for oats:

I scraped out the insides of the smaller one, and added it to a 1/3 cup oats, along with nutmeg, cinnamon and maple syrup:

It then got all cooked up, and put in a JAR!

I’ve been saving that jar for AGES, and today was the perfect day for it….

Before the unveiling….

Ta da!

My mum loves the crunchy peanut butter in sandwiches 🙂

….bliss. I also had an unpicturerd carby energy bar thing, that was foul 😦

8) No pictures of me washing my hair, shockingly.

9) Nor of me mucking out. No-one wants to see horse poop.

10) Nor of my packing…

11)…and nor of my eats (my camera is charging :D) – but they consisted of an apple, cereal and yogurt. No surprises there! To make up for it, here’s a pretty picture of a pumpkin yogurt cereal swirl mess from yesterday 😀

LOVE. PUMPKIN.

And now for the second part of my post, which I wrote yesterday 🙂

—————–

Here’s something crazy – I fly to Washington DC to run to my first ever marathon on TUESDAY! I don’t have time to blog on Monday (though whilst I’m gone, I may well be tweeting from the iPod Touch – BritChickRuns is my name :)) , so I thought I’d do a kinda recap post today.

I did my final long-ish run today – 8miles. Just a 4miles and a 2miles left to go, 3 days off, then MARATHON! Training has been tough, and there’s been a lot of runs:

Early 8milers back in June here

11milers...

13 milers...that went really, really well!

And 13milers that didn’t go quite to plan….

I tried new methods of running here

And ran 15milers here! (ps – the stripy-ish crazy squash in that pic? Still haven’t eaten it :p it’s getting riper by the day!)

There has been really tough 16 mile runs…

That have skewed my view of what a ‘long’ run is!

I’ve also run 18miles in training, which were brilliant!!

And 14milers which were awful.

But, my final LONG training run – 20miles – was one of the best runs ever. It’s good to finish on a positive note!

Training was nothing like I thought it’d be – I thought it would take up much more time mid-week than it did, but I also thought I’d find those long runs easier than I did. Yep, some of them were fab, but some were crap too. I didn’t anticipate my reaction to the heat (praise be for my CamelBak, or I may not even be writing this post :p), or the effect loooong runs would have on my speed! In fact, when I started my training, I wanted to do the marathon in about 4hrs. That soon changed to 4hr15 as training progressed, then to 4hrs30. My current goal? 1) Finish! 2) Finish in sub 5hrs 3) Finish in 4hrs30. Goal 1 first, then we see how it goes 😀

Also – I don’t know if – at this moment in time – I’d ever want to do another marathon. If Marine Corps goes well, and I do finish, I doubt I’ll do another one, at least not for a few years! Though knowing me, if I’m not happy with my time, or I can’t finish it, you can be sure I’ll be signing up for another one!! Post-marathon though, my plan is to just stick to 3 and 4mile distances for a while. I want 6miles to be a LONG run, not a short training one!! I want 3miles to be a good workout, instead of finishing it and thinking ‘where’s the next 4miles?’. I also want to do a bunch more half marathons. Going by my training runs, I think that 13mile distance is my favourite. Of course, nothing compares to the AMAZING feeling of completing a 20miles..but a half marathon is pretty cool too :p

But anyway – I’ll stop looking back, and look FORWARD! For the next week, my life is about 2 things, and 2 things only:

• thinking positively (I WILL kick ass in this Mary!)
• eating carbs! This week is going to be carb loading week. Lots of oats 🙂 Oh, what an effort :p

It’s also about rest…and packing…and working…so with that in mind, I need to get on with it all!!

WISH ME LUCK!!!!

(PS – I doubt I’ll be blogging in DC – bar Twitter – but I’ll take lots of photos, and hopefully do a fab post – or 10 – when I get back, on November 3rd.)

(PPS – I have to say, thank you all SO much for your support. I’ve had some tough runs, but you guys have always had the best and most encouraging things to say. I appreciate it!! xo)

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