To detox or not to detox –

– that is the question!

Now don’t go getting huffy on me – I’m not talking about some celeb-style maple syrup lemon water detox here, or drinking only water and eating air for 2 weeks. Not at all!

I actually want to go on a processed food detox. Here’s Da Thang: despite my more regular blogging, I’m not posting every meal for 2 reasons. 1) I don’t want my blog to be a ‘this is what I ate for breakfast/This is what I ate for lunch/This is what I ate for dinner’ blog (nothing against them – I just don’t want to do that). 2) My meals really are, on the whole, very dull and very similar (I’m ashamed to say it…but I’ve had oatmeal (cooked with butternut) and a side of parsnips *four* nights running for dins!). Also, when I’m at the universistat, I tend to rely on bars for lunch far too much. I’m not eating my legumes, my grains, my superfoods…

I’m also feeling pretty crummy at the moment – difficulty sleeping, dry hair, crappy looking skin, down mood, dark eye circles etc – and I think A LOT of this has to do with the lack of variety in my diet, with too much reliance on quick-fix processed things, like Clif bars. I can’t even remember the last time I had a tbsp of flaxseed, or some spinach in a green monster! Girl misses her vits!!!!

SO – after reading about Ashley’s super looking detox the past few weeks (and feeling incredibly inspired), and the aforementioned reasons (plus the fact I really want to break out of my foodie rut with some new recipes) – I’m thinking a No Processed Food detox.

– no more bars for lunch!

– no oatmeal! (I really REALLY need to get out of this oatmeal rut I’m in – oats twice a day every day for 2 weeks is nicht gut, for me, in my book)

– no coffee! / limited to one a day

– no added sugar! (I seem to be adding some sort of syrup to everything these days <- I think my tired body wants the quick energy fix. But in all honesty, I am having too much sugar…)

– no Diet Pepsi (nooooooooooooooo!)

– Lots and LOTS of legumes, grains, spinach, new recipes, healthy fats, & new ideas.

What do y’all think? I had so much more energy, slept better and looked and FELT healthier over the summer when I was eating more variety, and I want to feel like that again! And you know, I respond well to rules :p if I just said to myself ‘try new recipes, avoid bars’, it just wouldn’t happen 😛

——-

Moving on! And this is gonna be quick cos OHMYGOSH I am tired, and have a Google reader bursting at the seams :s

This morning started bright and early with a giant apple + wheatgerm, and then a date with Jillian and a 4miles/50minute walk/run 🙂

Melon followed:

As well as some beautiful maple syrup walnut black coffee in my Healthy Living Summit swag bag mug thing:

Delish! I drank that on my way to taking Hannah to work. Before I left though, i cooked some oats – 1/2 c., with just under 2c. water, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. I let it sit for 45mins (whilst I was out driving) on the keep-warm plate on the Aga. By the time I came back – OH MY!

The oats had puffed and were sooo thick and fluffy and chewy! I could nay believe it, they were DELICIOUS! I topped them with some cold soya milk:

I wish these photos could do the oats justice 😥

Best EVER!

Theeeen it was off to uni, with a little baggie of roast celeriac and parsnip 😀

As you do!

I ate at uni, came home, and ate more – cereal, yogurt, dinner, lots o’ chocolate :p

OH, and I baked these bars for my mum (except I added in walnuts, sunflower seeds, coconut and apricots too) but totally forgot to take a photo 😦 My mum LOVED them though!! She’s banned them from going to work – they’re for her stomach only 🙂

Annnd now I’ve spent the evening working (learning about animal behaviour; my favourite module!) and sorting out car business….I bought a car on eBay last night! Cheap as chips, but it has MOT til August and will get me from A to B whilst Hannah uses Erica (our share car) for work. When she finishes work in June to move to London for Teach First, I’ll sell the car I just bought and use Erica again. Confusing…!? Yes 🙂

——-

PS – so after my Sunday run, I iced my legs:

(Everyone uses chips and frozen black eyed beans, right?) But my question iiiss – are you meant to put something between the iced stuff and your skin? And how do you hold the iced stuff there? Elastic bands just didn’t cut it

G’night!

Read Full Post »

I needed that

Erro erro!

I fear this post may be somewhat all over the place – I have topics I want to talk about, and i have photos of tasty food, but neither match up with each other….soooo you’ll just have to deal 😀 Oh, and I also have my first ever GIVE AWAY coming up!!! All the deets next week 😀 (oh, I despise that phrase).

—

I needed that – needed what, Freya? I hear you say. Well, apart from the 2 squares of 90% Lindt I just consumed – a spur of the moment trip to London’s biggest Whole Foods was needed, that’s what. The next 6months are gonna be cceeerrrrraaaaaaazy over my way, with exams, children to test for my dissertation, revision, work, commuting…I’m not looking forward to it. And seeing as the madness begins on Monday coming, I decided – at 9.20am whilst out for a wonder – I needed to have one last trip. Cue mad rush-walk-home, mad make-up and hair, and mad driving, til I was safely seated on the 10.06am train 🙂 Phew!

Cost of last minute train ticket to London? More £ than I’d like to admit….

Cost of 2 fancy running magazines at the station waiting for the next train? More £ than I’d like to admit…

Cost of a half melon stuffed with blackberries? £4.99 (and so darn worth it)

Cost of a bottle of fizzy water, thrown after 1 sip when I realised it was fizzy? 65p

Cost of a fancy brownie for my sister as a souvenir? £1.59

Cost of renewed running inspiration (thank you, Runner’s World), a more relaxed mind (thank you, walk round Londres town), a happy tummy (thank you, Whole Foods salad bar), and a visit to a chocolate shop? Priceless.

Aside from the pumpkin seeds I spilt over the large business man hogging the seat space next to me on the way home [serves him right], it was a fab day out 🙂 I got so many free samples! Cranberry and ginger bread chunks (x 3), multigrain bread chunks, miso soup (x 3 – wow was that seller lady good – i ended up buying some!), sea salt crisps, raw kale crisps, raw crackers, various balsamic vinegars and oils with bread sticks for dipping…..Whole Foods, you have stolen my heart! I wonder how long it’ll be til my 4th trip to the Kensington paradise?!

Anyway – moving swiftly on!

How about a random food photo to break the post up?

yes, they are Christmas themed socks.

Whaa-? That’s not food! No, it’s my leg after it got shredded my brambles on a run the other day! I thought it hurt, but it wasn’t til I looked down and saw blood running down my leg, did I realise quite how bad…the photo does NOT do it justice, especially since the rip-shred continues up my leg. Beware brambles, that’s my lesson learnt.

Ok, NOW how about a food photo?

Ha. Not food no, but comical (IMHO) :p a nice thank you note from Battersea Dogs Home after I donated £10 over Christmas – the joys of being able to pick your own name!

NOW here is some food:

Nothing you haven’t seen before really; milky, squash-y oats, with a peanut flour maple-y sauce 😀

TOAST! Maaaan I’ve been craving toast like a mad one recently; FINALLY hit the craving the other night with dinner 🙂

I needed that 🙂

Know what else I need? Cookies! Mama Pea peanut butter cookies, to be precise. Two sad facts for you:

1) I think my mix was too warm, cos they flattened out like…something that flattens:

Which led to some rather queer shapes….

2) These were not for me, but rather a request of folk at my mum’s place o’ work.

Oh how they love me (/use me) there!

Talking of funky shaped food – I was reading Ashley’s [freakin’ amazin’] blog t’other day, and came across a recipe for a chickpea bake thing which used chickpea flour (aka gram flour). I wanted! Today, i spied some for about £1 so OBVS I had to nab it. I was gonna do the actual chickpea bake, but then i decided to do pancakes instead –

50g chickpea flour (it’s so rich in protein! and fibre!)

1/2 c. soya milk

1 tsp baking powder

1 or 2 tsps cocoa powder

mixed spice

salt

Soo….the first flip didn’t go so well:

But after a bit longer, I was getting somewhere:

U – G – L – Y – They UGLY! Served with a cherry/cocoa/banana sauce, and veggies:

Very, very good. Chewier than the spelt pancakes I normally do, and the flavah takes a bit longer getting used to, but they grew on me just like mould on cheese. I can’t wait to play with the flavours!

I think i need to redeem my cooking skills though by showing you somethin’ delish:

The BEST smoothie non-green epic green monster ever!

Melon, cereal (inclu. puff cereal!), left over tofu (uncooked), soya milk, banana, cinnamon, xanthan gum, vanilla extract. Hoooooooooly cow. No words!

Mk, so this post is getting long now isn’t it? I’ll finish (the photos) with what i baked for the fam earlier this evening:

Jammy buns! 🙂

So cute and so simple!

ooh now I’m in 2 minds…do I ramble about the list of topics I have written in front of me (literally! I have a sheet filled with scribbles!) oorrrrr finish this post now before it gets to long, and leave y’all hanging…..

Well, seeing as I have a 10mile run planned sometime tomorrow AM (bringing my total mileage to FORTY miles this week! Holy bejeeezas), I think I’ll finish! Barrrrhhht, I’m very hopeful that I’ll get another post up very very soon 😀

Goodnight cherubs!

Read Full Post »

The day after the day before

Hello lovelies! Did you all have a fabby Christmas/regular old Satdee? Ours was pretty quiet here (we weren’t even going to do one, til Chrsitmas Eve, when my mum and I finally felt well enough) – we normally have my mum’s parents and my aunt over, but since my mum and i have been suffering from some weird flu-like thing, we decided inviting over two frail 88year olds – whilst we’re sniffing, snorting and coughing everywhere! – was probably not wise. Sooo it was just my mum, stepdad, sister and I. Ah – Hannah!

Hannah came back Christmas Eve, after spending the last 3months in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Uganda and a gazillion other places 😛 First thing she did when she got back? Drove into town to do some last minute shopping 😛 each to their own!

Anyway – Christmas day!

I got up about 7.45 after a pretty crap night of sleep, and took myself for a 7 mile run. Weirdly (despite being flat out and unable to move on Thursday) I now feel fine in my body; I just have the world’s worst cough/throat thing, and as I type I can’t quite breathe through my nose…lovely right? But the run was blissful – quiet, cold, slow, peaceful. My legs felt so strong and fresh, and I wished I could have gone further.

Breakfast was a quick pear/banana EGM without the green, then my mum and i took the dawg for a walk. Theeeeen it was PRESENT TIME! No pictures sadly – so instead you can have a pic of some amazebugs Vega-chocolate-protein-powder-infused-pancakes, with a carob-cherry sauce I had the other day:

Drooling yet?

As well as some sick-person oatmeal I made for my mamma, the day before I caught whatever she had:

I was a good doctor 😀 It’s just a shame that the next day, we were both laid up on the sofa, drugged up with paracetamol, moaning about our aching limbs and pounding heads 😦 Taking hay and water out to the horse – in the sleet – was NOT fun that day.

ANYWAY! Where was I?

I got lots of lovely things from my very generous family 🙂 The best bit was seeing Hannah open up twice the amount of stuff as everyone else; her birthday was Dec 16th, so she got all her b’day presents too 🙂 Twas fun!

Lunch was a quick spur of the moment carrot and potato soup:

It was really, really good! My mum added some peanut butter to it, which gave an ace flavour 🙂 I only had a ladleful though; breakfast for me (as I’d been running) was later than everyone else’s, so I wasn’t hungry. I did have some cereal and yogurt later though (x2! Plus raw Brussels sprouts and random nuts…).

The afternoon was spent prep-prep-prepping! My mum and I act as The Women of the House at Christmas, whilst Hannah and my stepdad are The Men of the House, who metaphorically retire to the dining room to smoke cigars and drink whiskey. Or eat mince pies and read books and play with new toys :p

Anyway – I took charge of Brussels sprouts & carrots (which were boiled), parsnips (roasted in stock, wholegrain mustard, fruit sweetener, thyme) and a modified dish from Veganomicon – butternut squash, roasted with pear, walnuts, maple syrup, mirin and raisins. My mum did the guinea fowl (freshly shot about 3 days ago :s…), roast potatoes and sauce. The spread:

Twas delish! I oblebloosly didn’t have the guinea fowl; instead I made myself sooooome:

Holiday Tofu!

• 1 serving tofu
• juice of a clementine/small orange
• approx. a tbsp/to taste apple balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp sweetener (maple syrup/agave etc etc)
• a couple of tbsps fresh cranberries
• cinnamon, to taste (i like a lot)
• salt, to taste

I started by microwaving the cranberries til they burst and turned mushy (2-3minutes, on about 600). Theeeen I combined everything up, mushed the cranberries a little into the mix, scored the tofu, and marinated it overnight.

A few hours before dinner, I fried it over a low heat (it took about 25mins+ to get where I wanted it).

Pink tofu? At this stage, i KNEW i’d love it :p

Then I set it in a dish, poured the leftover marinade liquid into the pan, and cooked it over a medium heat til it was reduced to a syrupy consistency. Theeeeeeen I poured it over the tofu, heated it up in the microwave just before serving, and voila!

Christmas-y tofu 😀

Before I had that though, we had a small started of fruit (dragonfruit, clementine, kiwi, pomegranate seeds – leftover from LAST Christmas! – dried figs, and frozen grapes, added after the picture):

Then it was time to begin….

Why do they all look so unimpressed by me!!? Pity smiles I tell you, PITY SMILES!

Best parsnips EVER. Fact. Soft and gooey and sweet and full of flavour 🙂

My plate:

You bet I went back from a boatload more parsnips :p and I may have finished off my mum’s sprouts and parsnips too :p Bless her, she still has a tiny weeny appetite thanks to The Illness!

No-one felt like christmas pudding for dessert, so we left it at that (bar a few squares of Lindt for yours truly!!) 🙂 The perfect amount of food in the end! I think the cats appreciated the leftover bird bones though 😛 Animals need a special dinner too!

I’ve now got the rest of the week to look forward to now – which is going to involve some major uni work, Fo Sho’. No slackin’ my end!

Did you all have a simply fahbulous Dec 25th? What did you have for dinner?

Read Full Post »

P-p-p-um……

OH.

EM.

GEE.

Canned pumpkin has arrived in the UK!

Life as I know it is about to get very interesting. Very interesting indeed….

As interesting as some of the food I’ve eaten the past few days?

Maybe not. But still!

Ps – woah, I had the best run today! It was just like old times:

mile 1 – 8.31

mile 2 – 8.32

mile 3 – 8.28

mile 4 – 8.04

Fast AND effortless! Believe me, there was a BIG smile on my face after I finished it!!

Question: What’s made you excited recently? For me – pumpkin and CHRISTMAS CARDS and cold weather!!

Read Full Post »