T.G.I Friday!

Evening guys! I’m a bit late posting today – my best friend is leaving for holidays on Monday, and then straight after is doing 8 weeks of work experience hundreds of miles away, so I won’t see her for ages 😦 She invited me to a little art exhibition though (her stepdad’s gran had some stuff in there) so I went along 🙂 ANYWAY:

I like this whole ‘getting up earlier’ thing! I did it again today, so I could run before the desert sun descended down upon England…Before I left I had 2tsp wheatgerm and a square of chocolate, then I set out with a mission – SPEED WORK. Yes, the dreaded interval-y type stuff..I hate it so much! But I’m getting a bit bored of the same pace, so for once I actually wanted to do some intervals. I know right, what is the world coming to?? My run was 4 miles, done in 33minutes. I just did the usual pace for the first 800m, then I did either 100m or 200m faster running (not sprinting, but enough to make you reaaaally puff and go ‘ooff’), with 200-300m normal running breaks in between. Then I just did another normal mile to cool off. Twas fun folks, twas fun!

I got in and had….yep, you guessed it. One of these:

I’ll get tired of them soon, I promise 😛 But hey, it’s my breakfast – if I want an EGM every morning, then that is what I shall do 😀

I think I’ve learnt my lesson now. Instead of riding straight after breakfast, I was a clever girl and took the doggeh out for a 40minute walk instead 🙂 genius right? No exercise-induced queasy tummy for me, no thank you!!

THEN I rode my Mrs Horse Face. She was – of course – a super pony, albeit a rather sweaty one. The poor dear finds it hard to be active and engaged in the heat, but she did try 🙂

Next up was Jillian Part Deux of the 30 Day Shred – yes I ran this morning, but I was bored and energised 🙂 I normally shy away from part II of her 30 D.S. For some reason, it’s stuck in my mind that it’s all about weights with no cardio (I love cardio, and have crap hand weights) so I normally do Part III. However, I thought today would be the perfect excuse to re-discover it 🙂 And re-discover I did. It was looveely – I was a very sweaty lady by the end of it 😀

Straight afterwards, I wasn’t hungry, but I thought I should re-fuel with my – very missed! – morning apple, sprinkled with cinnamon and grated cacao:

Please take a second to appreciate the AMAZINGNESS of that slicing 😛

It still wasn’t lunchtime yet though – I had to first get Hannah from the station… THEN I got to have lunch 🙂

A seedy wholemeal English muffin, with a veggie burger, Hoi Sin sauce, and roasted parsnip/turnip/beets/finely sliced celeriac. Oh, and a strawberry:

You didn’t think that was it though, did you, vegetable wise? Of course not – this is me we’re talking about!! I also had a pear/gooseberry mix:

I haven’t had gooseberries in yeeeaaaarrrs, but boy are they sour! To sweeten them up, I stewed them with a finely chopped pear, a splash of water, a tsp of agave, cinnamon and carob powder for about 8minutes:

Til they were all mushy 🙂 I topped with 2tbsp Grape Nuts:

That, my friends, was DELICIOUS!! The gooseberries were still sour, but sweet sour..like sour in a lovely way?! I was happy anyway :). Dessert = So Crispy bites (what else?).

I spent the afternoon being a Proper Girl today – well, kind of. I mucked Chika out, blistered my hands raking the arena, did 15mins or so of yoga and felt all jibbly after, then I attempted to pretty myself for tonight 🙂 (Read – I washed my hair, and put on some powder and mascara :p). I didn’t have an afternoon snack, simply cos my dinner was an hour earlier than usual, but I have somehow munched my way through about 15 of these babies during the day:

(Most ugly strawberry ever??) I seriously have no self control around berries, of any sort….

It was a fab dinner when it came though! Scrambled Noosh-flavour tofu (with onion powder, smoked paprika, garlic and cinnamon), on a bed of mixed lentils/sundried tomato, kabocha, parsnip and mushrooms, all seasoned with a whole ton of spices of which I don’t remember 😛

Lovely 🙂 That’s some strawberry soya milk as accompaniment, by the way…

And now I’ve just got back home from my friend’s house 🙂 On the way home, I had ‘dessert’:

That was another present sent over from the lovely Jess a while back! Totally scrummy😀

ANyways, I’m going to go watch some crap TV for a little while, then run orf to the land of bed 🙂 Goodnight!

Question: Anyone else have any weird food obsessions? For example, you’ve prrrrobably noticed I eat a lot of squash, parsnips and EGMs. The day isn’t complete without them!

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I shall leave y’all with some cute pictures 🙂

LOL!

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Rewired (and a lorra lorra photos)

Gah, we’re having like, our WHOLE house rewired today (well, we were. It’s done now I think…), which meant we had 6 or so men crawling all over our house, in EVERY room (bar mine :P) ALL day. HURRUMPH!! I hate days like that 😦 they kept cutting the electricity out, the internet went…it was evil. AND they arrived at 8.15am! I’d literally only just left for my morning run (after an apple … yadda yadda).

The run was good though! 5 miles in 41.46mins 🙂 fastest mile was bang on 8.00 min/mile!! Maybe my speed is coming back 😀

When I got in, it was EGM time:

Isn’t it beautiful? I’m in love with a) the new camera, and b) the EGM. Combined = infatuation….

After breakfast, I took Poppy out for an hour and 10mins; we actually walked to the store so I could get Heat magazine (Tuesday is MAGAZINE DAY! ALL the weekly trash comes out :P) and some pasta sauce for my sister 🙂 Poppy didn’t enjoy it though – too many cars and strangers, cos the store is on a skanky housing estate 😦 so she couldn’t go off the lead. But meh, I figure a less-good walk is better than no walk!

When we got back, I helped my sister jump Tig in the field (I say ‘help’ – I actually just lent her my Garmin so she could time herself, and took a few photos).

 

When I got back inside, it seemed like the electrician bloke men had decided the kitchen was PARTY CENTRAL and they were all hanging out in there (with their papers all over my laptop :/)…anyway, Hannah decided she was going to go swimming cos the house was a bit crap, so I thought I’d tag along (after a bit of persuasion :p). That was right over lunch, so actual lunch was a little odd.

Pre-swim, I (was most definetly NOT hungry) had a carrot cake Clif bar (sent over by the lovely Jess a while back):

It was SO yummy! I know those things are pretty processed, but seriously, once in a while? Who cares! Twas worth it 😀

We swam for only 25mins, cos Poppy was at home with all the scary men and she didn’t like it 😦 but despite the short session, it was fun! I haven’t swum since last summer, so it was real nice to get back in. We had a good time!!

When we got back home, I still wasn’t hungry but I knew I needed some more calories, so I had a toasted whole wheat organic English muffin, with sunflower butter, almond butter and chocolate peanut butter, and a pear:

Delicious 😀 😀 I also demolished an apple:

Good times.

After that, it was mucking out and tidying – tomorrow, we have (at 8.15am AGAIN) a PAINTER coming in to finally paint our hall! We shifted the stairs about 10years ago in our house, but never actually repainted it….until now…..

Snack was this loooovveeeely chocolate orange Nakd bar:

My ‘lunch’ had only been 2hrs earlier so I was pretty stuffed, but again, I knew I needed to eat. Plus who can refuse the natural, healthy, chocolate-orange flavour goodness!? It even counted as a portion of fruit 😀 (Dates, raisins, cashews, cocoa, natural flavour)

For my dindins, I had the rest of my basil tofu, with durum wheat (cooked in cinnamon, smoked garlic and stock), kale, kabocha, leek and parsnip:

As per usual, it was a proper incredible tasting meal!

Annnd also as per usual, later on I’ll have some dessert 🙂

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Oh! Totally random story – so I was in the kitchen, blending my soon-to-be-oatgurt, when one of the electrician blokes goes ‘ay, someone’s at the door’. So I went to answer – who’s staring back at me? My MATHS teacher from when I was 15!! How weird is that!? Turns out one of the guys doing the electrics in our house goes to my old high school and was on work experience (15yr old boy re-wiring my house? Worrying.), and his form tutor – my old teacher – came to visit him to see how he was getting on! Ha, I was literally speechless when I saw him 😛

Have you ever had a random, ohmyIt’s-a-small-world-encounter like that?

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Okay, day two of my photog-experimentation!! Lots of cat ones today 😀 Enjoy!

(Btw – this is just a random selection; I took over 170!!)

Bless her, she was quite nervous with all the men about; I think she looks really worried in the photo above 😦

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Extra Present and EUROVISION!

Kovac brought me (and the whole family) an extra present today:

It’s as big as he is!! [I have no idea what he is doing in the pic btw…] I can’t tell you the relief I have, knowing that he is cute-cat-size and not big-cat-size – I would be next on his hit list if he were any larger…

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I have worked NON STOP today. Seriously, the only time I haven’t been working is when I’ve been eating, doing 1hour’s worth of DVDs, blogging, and mucking out Chika. Ridiculous! Oh, as I just mentioned Chika – my poor girl has had an allergic reaction to something, and has MASSIVE lumps on her neck! She’s perfectly happy (albeit itchy), but it’s not nice – if they haven’t gone down by tomorrow, we’re going to have to get the vet out to give her some anti-allergy drug things 😦

ANyway, in happier news – breakfast was a big Epic GM:

• 1 cup cereal
• 1/2 cup Kara coconut milk
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1 tbsp cocoa flax
• big frozen banana
• a lorra lorra spinach
• a small spoon of pea protein powder
• dates, granola, grated cacao and jam as toppings 😀

Went. Down. A. Storm. 😀

Whilst I was reading blogs etc over breakfast, I got invited to join a facebook group – remember my stats exam the other day, which was immensely hard? Well, there’s a FB group set up now in complaint! A) The exam was too hard, B) The questions didn’t match the lecture notes, past paper, textbook or homeworks, C) We weren’t given answers to the past paper anyway, so that was useless….and D) Uh, 4 of the hardest exams in 5 days!!?? No thank you. It’s good to know I’m not the only one who struggled with it!! And I’m not alone in suffering this past week either – a lot of people apparently have become ill due to the stress! Hmph. BAD UNI!!

Moving swiftly on….I didn’t want lunch today! I think stress makes me lose my appetite 😦 so this meal was a bit later than planned, but it was still delicious 😀 My starter was baby pak choi, tomatoes and grapes:

Followed by a nice bowl o’ steamin’ oats (it’s cold and rainy – oats are perfect for that weather!):

• 1/2 cup oats and barley flakes
• about 1.5 cups Kara coconut milk (I added more at the end)
• cinnamon, nutmeg
• a finely chopped apple which I nuked in the microwave first so it was soft
• Grape Nuts and Fru-Grains as toppings

Again with the fabulousness!! These oats were soo creamy and delicious…I always forget how good oatmeal is! Though the apple kind of got in the way; I think I like my apples to eat normally, and my bananas cooked into oats. Banana oats rule 🙂

For dessert, I had an orange spread with a little bit of jam:

During the afternoon, I had a small minor wave of sadness – my aunt is expecting 3 foals this year (well, her mares’ are, she isn’t…) and one was born the other day. So it was mega depressing when my mum and sister got to go over and see it this afternoon and I had to stay home working!! Gah 😦 At least there’s still 2more to go, due over the next 2 weeks! Sooo expect lots of foal pictures soonish 😀

Despite the woefulness, cereal and yogurt still made an appearance – they NEVER fail to lift a mood.

And lift they did.

For dinner, I did the most yummeh tempeh ever! I baked it, but towards the end of baking, I topped it with apple sauce, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg and MASHED BANANA!! OH yeah!

Twas served with my favourite veg, and roasted chickpeas:

Well well well. That was a truly scrummy way to bake tempeh, it must be said – maybe THE best way in fact! And it’s official – banana = another thing you just can’t go wrong with. LOVE IT!

Dessert, no idea, maybe a birthday muffin, we shall see.

But now, work calls. Which SUCKS cos The EUROVISION Song Contest is on now and I don’t have time to watch it!! This will be the first year I’ve missed the cheesy awfulness that is the sum of Europe + singing. Gutted!! Here’s a taster of past Eurovisions if you’ve never seen it:

Does anyone else watch Eurovision!? I do every year (bar this one):P it was last year’s Eurovision [held in Russia] that led to my family and I going to see the Cirque du Soleil in London earlier this year (cos it was a Cirque-themed competition that year), AND it was that same year that that cute little Norwegian guy won with ‘Fairytale’ (see below if you don’t know what I’m talking about :p) – I STILL have that song on repeat in my car!! I’m such a loser 😛

Anyway: here is Fairytale @ Eurovision last year, the winning entry! Can this year do better…??

Have a good evening!

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Brit Chick Runs

Yaayy! Brit Chick Runs is up and running at last! After a few emails back and forth between me and Mr Tech Guy @ WordPress that is…I managed to work out the ‘quick’ method of importing all my info from Food Fitness and Freya over to here, but it kept telling me there was an error, or only loading half up…very frustrating! But, minus about 30 or so random comments and a few posts, everything should be working smoothly….

I’m just really quite sad that I’m at zero hits again 😦 I loved getting to over 10,000! Ah well :s

So, Sunday – EW!!

It’s SO SKANK outside! Raining heavily (the stables are beginning to flood) and cold and windy 😦 I was originally going to go for a run, but I scrapped that plan and instead just did some DVDs in my living room (after I’d had an apple and so on..I’m sure you know the drill!). It’s meant to be sunnier from Tuesday, so I’ll pick up running again then 🙂

Breakfast was somewhat delayed…my sister is competing Tig today in some showjumping, so in the morning she was cleaning all her tack, boots etc (hence the bags and mess everywhere :p) – she’d opened up the cupboard under the sink to get some stuff out, turned her back…and Carter went in! Except, the cupboard under the sink doesn’t have a back all the way up to the top, so he went over the edge, and disappeared! Like, completly vanished :s and he doesn’t know his name yet!! We have NO IDEA what happens behing the cupboard (ie if it links round to all of the cupboards or what :s) so we were pretty worried!! Eventually, after about 10minutes, we managed to get hold of him by the scruff of his neck (we couldn’t see him, it was a case of GRAB when he went past!) and drag him out. Phew!! He obviously had a great time, cos he kept trying to get back in:

Bless!! Kovac meanwhile was still mega cute as ever – he loves bags!!

Ready to pounce….

When I eventually did get round to breakfast, it was the usual: 1/2cup oats, 1 cup ++ milk, banana, nutmeg and cinnamon, and topped with 1tsp PB, 1/3cup Quinoa O’s and 2 tbsp Grape Nuts:

Fabulous 😀

I ended up not riding – not only was it pouring, but Chika had put her back out after Wednesday’s escapades (though my mum is a horse back therapist, so she sorted it pronto :D), so she got a day off. So it meant I had an hour and a half free….I BAKED! At last, it’s been so long!! I did an apple cake:

Thankfully I did switch to a metal spoon before I folded in the flour 😛 We need that air!!

Apple slices were pressed into the batter, before I sprinkled it liberally with cinnamon sugar:

And baked it for 25mins:

I sent my mum and sister away with a wedge just before they left with Tig to go showjumping 🙂

Then came LUNCH! Albeit a very late one, I didn’t finish it til 2.50…. But still – I had 2 of these vegetarian burgers:

Which were baked in the oven with some cauliflower (I can’t believe I’m even typing that, considering my disgust for the vegeatable…funny how tastes change!), broccoli, cherry tomatoes and kale (added at the end), all covered with soy sauce and dried mixed herbs. I also aga-squished some swede and parsnip chips, then topped it all with 1/2tbsp Nutritional Yeast and a glob of brown sauce:

Nothing like a burger and fries on a cold day right!!??

On the side, I had a very very generous 1/2cup serving of Quinoa O’s (25g – what they call a serving :))

And the last 3 strawberries, with some mango chunks:

Lovely fresh finish to my meal!

And unsurprisingly, I now have to dash – Chika is neighing the roof down, so I better go turn her out so she can vent in the field, instead of in the stable :s

Have a good Sunday afternoon 🙂

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