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 🙂

Read Full Post »

Sometimes…

….all you want is a big plate of veggies!

More than once too:

Below would be shredded brussels sprouts stir fried with hoi sin, garlic, soy sauce and roasted parsnip:

Quite possibly one of the best plates ever.

Plates of veggies can be in blended form too – pear, leek, garlic, maple syrup, celeriac, parsnip + mixed spice:

All cooked of course 🙂 [sometimes these good combos get repeated…three times!)

Sometimes, I get bored of Green Monsters for breakfast (actually, that is happening A LOT – I can’t remember the last time I had one!), so I venture out….

I saw an idea on Gena’s blog, so I ran with it 🙂 This morning’s mix was simply pumpkin, water, salt, agar powder (yeah, that did NOTHING. Fail.), mixed spice and cinnamon and molasses, heated up on the stove and topped with 1 tsp maple syrup:

Oohh my! Served with a side of puff 🙂

Sometimes, it’s good to just honour what your body craves. Even if it is a plate of roast veg at 5pm. And even if it does ruin your appetite for dinner! But it’s all about balance – I know that if my ‘lunch’ ends up being only a small English muffin at 2pm and some veg at 5pm, because that’s all I’ve had time for, that’s ok – cos I can make up for it with different meals later on! A whole cup of oats for dinner, cooked with roasted and mashed squash, for example…or one too many cappuccinos whilst running errands in town 😛

Balance, and listening to what my body really wants, is something I’ve struggled with post-marathon. During marathon training, it was all eat eat eat, to fuel for the marathon. But when I got home afterwards, I felt lost! No more marathon to fuel for…and it’s been..4 or 5 yrs? since I’ve had to eat ‘normally’ (no starving, no gaining, no marathon-eating – just maintaining), and let me tell you – it’s been tough! Am I eating too much? Too little? I’m still running about 20miles a week, and doing workout DVDs, but knowing how much to eat….WHAT a kerfuffle.

My running times have been ACE – my pace is back to about 8.25 min/mile!!!! – which suggests that I’m eating right. BUT I think I’m eating far, far less than I used to! It’s somewhat confusing. Somewhat being an understatement…I feel like I’m running through a wood blind! Plus, I seem to have NO appetite at the moment – I’m so extrrrrremely stressed at uni, and busy, and food feels like an inconvenience atm! I just never, ever want to eat, which makes it 10x harder to listen to my body and eat naturally. Hurrumph.

Do any of you lose your appetite when your stressed? What do you do? Do you think it’s better to just eat when/if you get hungry, or do you think it’s better to make yourself eat at set times/meals? Advice appreciated!

Random other happenings – we totally lost ALL our electricity the other day!! Some cable blew underground, so on pretty much the coldest night this year, I was lying in bed, shivering and cold- I even had to resort to a massive hoodie to keep warm! Drastic measures for someone who normally wakes up too hot 😛 The next morning wasn’t fun either – it was still pitch black at 6am, and all I had was my phone light and a candle* to get dressed, do my hair, do my make-up, and get out the door! Gah. Anyway, we now have a generator (a massive ugly thing that sounds like a tractor is sitting in our drive) to give us power til the problem is fixed…..it better not break. There is SNOW on the ground right now!

HOW we lived without electricity is beyond me……

*Don’t leave candles alone – they drip wax EVERYWHERE:

————————-

I’ve been on cat-kick 🙂 Carter and Kovac looked SO adorable the other day, I couldn’t resist taking a ton more photos!! Enjoy 🙂

Old man face!!

Carter?

Or paw?

i swear I should re-name this blog CrazyCatLadyRuns,,,,

🙂

Read Full Post »

I Love My Boys

Seriously. How could you not love these two?

Carter:

I don’t care how many similar photos I put up – you can never have too many cat pictures :p

He’s my little fatty kitten who sleeps on my bed (so close that his whiskers touch my face!), walks across my face if he wants attention when I’m asleep, burrows under my quilt, pounces on my feet, cries at my door if it’s shut, plays with his prey (for ages..and ages…and ages…). He’s always sneezy (thank you, kitten cat flu, for that), he has poor self cleaning skills…

….but I adore him!

Kovac:

I’m sad..I didn’t get many of him! Some older ones..

He’s my supermodel 🙂 He has the silkiest coat known to Cat World, he’s an incredible hunter (birds, rabbits, voles, SQUIRRELS), he’s gorgeous, he’s precious and delicate, especially since he got hit by a car when we first had him, he likes to ride on people’s shoulders, wrapped round your neck like a scarf, he likes to lick all the gravy off his cat meat but leave the chunks….

…and I adore him just as much 🙂

Gah, I’m totally going to have to do a post dedicated to my favourite lady sometime soon too –

– she’s been PERFECT recently!

Talking of perfection – I love food, and ohmydays did I eat some good stuff recently! I know it’s probably boring to just see endless pictures of meals with little content, but..well, whatever :p My meals were good enough to share, so SHARE I WILL!

Chocolate lentil stew thing with grilled aubergine rounds:

I’m suddenly on an aubergine kick – it’s so GOOEY!

Tofu, marinated in soy sauce, maple syrup, smoked garlic, veg stock, mixed spice (I think…), cocoa powder and a few other bits (again, I think – I can hardly remember now):

Looks gross right?

Fried with spelt/wheat:

Oh. My. Days.

This morning, I had THE most delicious pumpkin bowl! I saw the recipe on Gina’s blog, but I had to change it slightly – I didn’t use Vega mix, subbing instead with 1 spoon of pea protein powder, a spoon of cocoa powder, 1 tsp agave and extra cinnamon.

It was still totally delicious!! And filling too 🙂

Lunch today – wowzers!

You know what the below photo is?

Why, it’s brussels sprouts. Roasted. Then fried. With soy sauce. And..BANANA!

I originally saw the idea here the other night, and HAD to try it!!! It was so so worth it – amazing tasting! I only used soy sauce with my version, but it was proper incred 😀 Sounds weird, but I really do recommend you try it, oh yes 🙂

Other than eating weird food combos, what have I done…christmas shopping!! I even bought all my tags today, in prep for wrapping. I’m so excited! My excitement almost went overboard when I got a cappuccino today, and the takeaway cup was in CHRISTMAS colours! Seriously, there was one major happy dance in my head 🙂

Anyone else excited about Christmas!!??

Read Full Post »

You Can Do It – 20miles!

I DID IT!!!!!

————–

Herro!

Wow, just 2 days without a proper post and it feels like it’s been forever! I’ve been keeping busy though –

On Friday, I ran 5miles – my last one before the big Two-O – 46minutes, 9.12 min/mile pace. Not fast, but not slow either. I also had a ton of good eats 😀

Giant apples…

A thickie – cereal, yogurt, banana, maca, Vega vanillia-almond, xanthan gum, banana, strawberries, spinach:

Kovac caught and ate a squirrel…

I know a squirrel is just a rat with a furry tail, but it still seemed so wrong! Squirrels don’t steal horse feed, they eat acorns and they live up trees..they’re adorable!

Lunch highlights – the most scrummiest sweet potato ever! I cut up and cubed a very large sweet p., and coated it with:

• maple syrup
• molasses
• ketchup
• vegan worcestershire sauce
• balsamic vinegar
• salt

Baked it for a half hour or so, and served it with celeriac and gran-grown squash fries, and some courgette, and a Mojo bar for added carbs + protein:

The Mojo bar was sent to me a while back by America’s Nutrition to review.

It was very sticky, but completely delicious! I loved the little nutty chunks in it, plus it was a super source of protein – 9g per bar – and carbs – about 21g. Seeing as I was having a late lunch and needed to carb load AND needed some more protein with my meal, it was perfect 🙂 Plus, it tasted like a dessert or something :p It’s love.

Later on, I managed to make myself a vanilla cappuccino:

I use the term ‘vanilla’ loosely. Couldn’t taste it at all! I’ve tried instant vanilla coffees many a time, and I never, ever taste their flavour. Maybe my taste buds are dead?

Other delicious food in the day – a load of roasted veggies- brussels and kabocha – with peanut butter/soy sauce coated parsnip fries, and a side of seitan:

As well as an biiig bowl of oatmeal, made with 1c. milk, 50g oats, roasted and mashed squash, maple syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg and salt. Bliss.

Saturday brought another busy day, and another trip to uni, and a failed attempt at sleeping in!

I’d hoped to sleep til about 8.30 to reserve valuable energy stores for Sunday, but alas! twas not meant to be. My body decided that 6hrs of sleep was perfectly fine, so when I woke up at 7.24, that was that – I couldn’t get back to sleep! 😦

Breakfast – another amazing thickie blend:

Then it was a ssuuuuuper lesson on Chika with my mum helping <- they’re both stars!

I packed up a quick lunch to take with me to uni (Fresher’s Fair was 12-4pm) – an extra big serving of lentils:

Along with a load of roasted veggies:

I also had a Nakd bar for some added carb 🙂

Fresher’s Fair itself was pretty good (despite the 2hr commute) – i’ve found lots of different project things I want to get involved in, which should keep me busy! On the way home, I stopped at Waitrose for the weekly shop and got some great stuff 😀

Hooray!

Dinner – oatmeal!!! Except this time I did 1c. dry oats (about 95g)! If that isn’t carb loading, I don’t know what is. I cooked it with the same mix as yesterday and (like yesterday) left it in the oven for 10mins to harden up:

Amaze. On the side, i had a tiny but of roast aubergine and parsnip with garam masala:

All eaten whilst watching X Factor! [Louis’ old folk – AWFUL! Nicolo – very disappointed. Aiden/Matt/Rebecca/Paige/Treyc (or however she spells it)/Mary – LOVE! Cher/Katie/all the bands – HATE!

Sunday

MEEP! I got up extra early today to allow a good 2hrs to digest 😀 and digest I did! 50g oats/spelt flakes soaked overnight in 1/2 c. milk, 2 tsps wheat germ, vanilla, salt and a mashed banana:

As well as some raspberries nuked with agave, then mixed with 2tbsp Grape Nuts:

And a tiny apple (which I ate in a nervous haze!). To kill time, I watched 25mins of Ugly Betty and took some gorgeous early morning ChikaTig photos 😀 I might put them up later in the week 🙂

Just before I left, I ate a date, then I was gaaaaawn.

I set off with a grin on my face; I decided this run was going to be AWESOME and I was going to kICK BUTT.

Which I did!

I kept a steady 9.30-9.50 pace for the first 7miles, and didn’t walk once. I was feeling great! At 7miles, i met my mum, so I could top up on water/Lucozade. I deserved a medal for bravery for the next 3miles – I was feeling so ace that I found a 1.5mile long steep hill, and ran all the way up it!! The best bit was coming back down 😀

At mile 11, I’d started to walk 1minute out of every mile, which was a great help, although my pace slowed a bit. No worries! i was hardly caring about pace anyway 🙂

At mile 13, I felt sick – I’d eaten a Powerbar too fast and in basically one chomp…lesson learnt! Luckily, that mile was when I saw my mum again, so I stood about for a few mins, the sickness passed, and I continued on my merry way.

I got back home at mile17, where my mum was waiting. I ran 1more mile alone, and then for the last 2miles, she came with me on the bike and sang crap songs to me 🙂 It was the best 2miles ever!

During the run, I had about two bottles of Lucozade Sport, a Powerbar and some Powershots. It worked perfectly 🙂 Mile Totals: 20miles in 3hr20 (my goal time had been 3hr22, so, er, BOO YEAH). Average pace – 10.01min/mile. I’m so super pleased with it!

In fact, I’m over the moon. I so badly needed this run to go well, and with the power of positive thought (plus a lot of carbs and many, many wonderful comments on my last post), it did. I’m living proof – If you put your mind to it, if you want something enough, you can do it. Last week, I struggled and cried my way through 14miles. This week, I smiled my way through 20. YOU CAN DO IT!!

As soon as we finished, I grabbed a banana from the house, and took some celebratory photos 😀

BIG thanks go to my mum!

We went for a 10minute walk round the fields afterwards to stretch out and say howdey to the horses:

Take note of the Chika fluff: in about 2hours, it’s going to be clipped off 😛

Lunch wise – I just had one big bowl of nutrients [which tasted bang on like marzipan]!

• soya yogurt
• cereal
• spinach
• melon
• 1.5banans
• maca powder
• xanthan gum
• Vega smoothie mix
• dates, almonds, blackberries, and a scuffin on the side

My mum had the other scuffin – twas the least I could do!

Perfect meal to celebrate a perfect run.

I am going to ROCK this marathon!

—-

Ok, so here’s my announcement, which I feel bad about mentioning cos a) lots of you said you couldn’t wait for it(!) and b) it’s not so big anymore… basically – I’m not sure if I can keep my blog going…

My final year of uni starts tomorrow (Monday), and I’m going to be super busy this year – lectures, my final dissertation (which involves having to collect a boatload of data, as it’s a psychology experiment), and a long commute there and back each day. On top of that, I really want to keep up with riding Chika, which obviously takes up a lot of time, as well as get involved with some more volunteering and clubs at uni (this Tuesday, I have to be in uni from 9.30am – 8pm…). The few weeks after my marathon are going to be manic too, as I’ll have all my lectures and work to catch up on. So basically, I’m unsure as to how to fit everything in. I think I’m going to keep blogging as much as possible, but probably in a different style, and not as regularly.

But – regardless of whether I resume a regular blogging or not, I will still keep reading everyone’s blogs (cos I genuinely think of a lot of you guys as friends :D), and I’ll be back with a big old marathon recap (or 10!).I just don’t want to lose touch with the blogosphere – I love it too much! You all have helped me so much, with your positive comments, good luck wishes, funny stories..You’re all the best 😀

Anyway, enough talk from me – this is a looooong post. Have a good afternoon!

Read Full Post »

Autumn

Purple sprouts!! Oh how I love autumn and the fruits and veggies that come with it…ESPECIALLY ones that are purple! My aunt grew those ones, and you can be sure they’ll be making an appearance in tonight’s dinner 😀 Along with other autumnal favourites…squash, parsnip….is garlic an autumn thing too!? Le sigh.

In other news – thank you so so so so much to every single one of you that commented on yesterday’s post – I haven’t gotten round to replying to everyone yet as I’ve been at work today, but I will. Regardless, every comment was useful, and every comment meant a lot. *in a soppy American accent from some dappy family film* I am so lucky to have you guys!!!

*Edit: I just thought I’d add a few points, as I go through replying to all the comments: I know that the bad run came from a bad week, mentally. I’ve been having non-running/food related problems, which have really gotten me down, and that obviously had a knock-on effect to the run – which is sad, because running truly is so joyful to me. Hopefully, thanks to all your words of encouragement and support, I’ll pick up this week, so that by Sunday’s 20miler, I can kick some ass!! Thank you again, everyone, for showing so much support. *LOVE YOU ALL!*

In further other news – it was a wonderful day off from running today…negatively tinted by having to go to work at the shop (hello, boring steaming for hours on end) BUT – I did have a) a soya cappuccino (did I mention I’m addicted??) and b) my last day there 😀 Yep – I’m now a free woman! Well, at least until next week, when uni restarts. THEN life gets hectic and messy and full of long commutes and busy days and lots of reading and work……gah. Better to be busy than not busy though right!? (Random side note: I just wrote ‘busy’ as ‘busty’, twice. Hmm.)

Asides from work, I also – ate 2 tsps of wheatgerm before taking da Dawg for a walk. Ha! It wasn’t pleasant – when I set out, there was grey clouds but nothing major. By the time I got back, it was heavy heavvvvvvy rain!! Thank goodness for umbrellas. Well, for me – not for Poppy though; she was shivering! She needs a coat methinks. To go with her pink diamante collar and lead. Yeha, she knows how to roll.

When I got back, I had breakfast – cereal, banana, yogurt, vanilla and spinach, all blended together:

Good gosh. I topped it all with a boatload of blackberries:

Oh my, how did Kovac get in there!!? :p

Extra good gosh. That thing was DIIIIIvine! So thick and so delicious, it was as good as Christmas.

Before work, I had my beloved soya cappaccino, and then later on, lunch. Last night, I roasted up a whole bunch of veggies in smokey bbq seasoning and ketchup:

Aubergine, sprouts, mushroom, carrot, parsnip, a tiny tiny chunk of kabocha. Theeeen this morning I tipped it all in a tub and it was good to go 🙂 I also had some mixed dry roasted bean things (the ones that are chokka with calories, protein and carb :D):

Yum!

By the time I got home though, my body was crrrraving carb, although I wasn’t actually hungry. Of course, I broke out the cereal/yogurt bowlmesscombo:

Awesomeness in a bowl. Pretty incredible!

In further further other news – if you go on Twitter (btw – I’m on Twitter, BritChickRuns, follow me or follow the path to serious pain and death…your choice :p), or read other big blogs, you may have heard about the dreadful Marie Claire article on blogging. I read it late last night, and was shocked and upset. It is the most one-sided, propaganda like article ever – quotations taken out of context, situations twisted..it’s horrific. I urge you to read it, and if you feel as angry as I did, email the editor (as I did too) at joannacoles@hearst.com. The article is basically tearing apart the healthy living blogging community, accusing people like Caitlin of having serious eating/exercise disorders…I really encourage you to read it. However, don’t read it if you’re about to go and play with small children, or an untrained puppy – your blood WILL boil and you WILL be angry!!!!! So don’t make that anger worse 😛

Anyways – that’s all I have to say about the issue! The bloggers criticised have all written their own replies, so go read them 🙂 While y’all do that (or write your emails to Marie Claire editor lady), I’m gonna cook my dinner. Fare yee well!

Quick question: favourite thing about autumn? Veggies!!! All. About. The. Veg.

Read Full Post »

My Favourite Things

Good evening my lovelies 🙂

Firstly, thank you to every single one of you who commented on my last post – you are all so kind and wonderful and lovely and understanding! I swear, the people who read my blog are the best readers our there :p you guys kick ass!! I don’t really want to write what’s bothering me at the moment, although i will just say that, for once (!) it has nothing to do with food, weight, eating disorders or anything to like that – which in itself is a blessing in disguise I suppose!

Secondly, this is a slightly weird post – I didn’t feel like writing a proper post today, cos…well, I just didn’t 🙂 So instead, I shall show y’all my favourite things today, and over the past few days, cos they make me happy 😀

1) This little ponyface:

  

  

If you’re not horsey, it’s hard to put across the feeling they give you..but I know a number of my readers are, so I’m sure they’ll understand how much just hanging out with a horse helps a mood 🙂 Last night, I remembered I hadn’t put Chika’s rug on yet (it was too warm when they went out), so at 10.30pm I put the floodlights on and went to the field. It was so peaceful – the light was shining through the trees, creating beautiful shadows, and all I could see was mist and Chika and her breath in the cold night. It was beautiful! She somewhat spoilt the moment however when I took her onto the driveway – she spotted her rug and assumed it was that pesky lion from the other day, ready to pounce, and in a split second she’d pinged away from me and was back at the fence…VERY nearly taking my finger with her!!! I didn’t actually lose my finger (believe me, that happens <- my mum’s friend had her finger ripped off when it got caught in the rope and the horse pulled back), but I broke 2 nails and it sure did hurt. Hurrumph. Still love her though :p After 5.5years together, there’s little she can do to stop the love!!!! *Le Sigh*

2) All my kitties together as one:

Do you know what momentous occasion brought them together? Dog meat.

Note: They have never, ever all eaten together. EVER.

3) Native American music!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug2TrGD7INY

It’s so full of emotion, I love it!

4) Dressage to music – I’m a big, biiig dressage fan anyway (that was what Chika and I did) but after watching the World Equestrian Games, my passion has been briefly reignited! – Ulla Salazgeber and Rusty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41bqwX8JExs

Edward Gal and Gribaldi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl2KxcSgobI

Even if you’re not horsey, you must watch! These 2 examples are far from the best – but I adore the music and I love love love the riders.

5) Shopping with my mamma. Exactly what I shall be doing all day tomorrow!

6) Delicious food!

cereal messes….

Quinoa mixed with garlic and kale, a sea cake tofu thing…

Cocoa-beet-tomato sauce with rosemary and garlic seasoning, sprouts, broccoli, kabocha…

Spiced veggie burgers…

A lot of cereal blended with pressed coconut milk and blackberries and cinnamon and cocoa powder, topped with date syrup

The spiced veggie burger with aubergine, leek, kabocha and parsnip…

Too much yummy food! (this isn’t all I had today, FYI. A cappuccino with my gran and some So Crispy Bites, amongst other things, went unphotographed..).

What are some of your favourite things at the moment?

(PS – gah – 14miles on Sunday…in the POURING RAIN! That’s what the weatherman is predicting – eek!)

Read Full Post »

The Dentist Will See You Now…

Goooood EVENING! And how are we all on this fine Monday?

I’ve had a busy day 🙂

Up bright and early for a little power walk 🙂 It’s lovely to stretch my legs on these running days off; it always feels SO good! Plus, I get to eat blackberries on the way 😛

However when I got home, I – totally randomly – felt tremendously nauseous for about 10mins. Like, for no reason. It was very odd!! But just as quickly as it came on, it left again, so I grabbed a quick breakfast. It was the epitome of a boring breakfast! Cereal and yogurt, with a little muesli sprinkle:

Imaginative? No. Tasty? Heck yes! And it only took 10mins to eat (plus an apple), which was good cos I had the vet coming.

No need to panic though 😀 He was just here to stab jab the horses (for flu), and do their teeth. FYI, non-horsey readers, horses teeth keep on growing as they age – they never stop. In the wild, all the roughage they eat wears their teeth down, but precious lil domesticated horses don’t have such groovy diets, so we have to get the dentist or vet out to rasp them 🙂 Sounds violent (and looks it!) but it’s ok 🙂 Besides – my sister and I love having the vet over, cos he is HOT!

Carter was a div though – he caught a vole, then proceeded to torture it and run about under the vet’s feet chasing it, having a great time. It was sad to see 😦

After the vet had been and gone, I set off for work. Whilst in town just before, I bought a delicious soya cappuccino <- I actually think I’m becoming addicted 😛 I love them! I also saw this Indian bloke (not Indian as in ‘from India’, but Indian as in ‘Hello, my name is Dances With Wolves [love that film!]’…I’m ignorant and don’t know the correct term, so please no-one take offence!! *EDIT* Native Americans! Thankyou Little Bookworm :)) playing great music in the street, so I bought his cd 😀

Lunch at work –

Roast mixed veggies (2 types of squash, carrot, parsnip, leek):

Lentils:

Salsa:

SO scrummy!!! I had to eat it real quick though; there was ton of steaming and hanging to do today….joy.

When I got home, I was getting rather haaaangry, so I chowed down quickly on Bear granola nibbles with yogurt:

Amaze. Except the little freeze dried pink bits. I HATE freeze dried fruit!! Anyone else with me!?

Question – now, before I forget, when I’m in the US running my marathon at the end of October, I won’t be able to blog (I don’t think..you never know). Sooo I was wondering if anyone wanted to do a guest post? I’ll probably need quite a few (I’ll be gone for 8days), so if you’re interested, leave me a comment on this post 🙂

—–

Ooooh – I’ll show you some of the pictures I took the other day now! I hope y’all like them 🙂 I was meant to edit some of them to make them better, but…well, I can’t be bothered :p so, in all their un-altered glory, here they are!

I took some flower ones too, but I won’t post them – I find flowers pretty dull sometimes…plus this post will probably crash my computer anyway :p

Have a good evening!

Read Full Post »

Time for Twelve (again)

Wow, does marathon training skew your view of what an ‘easy’ run is – all I could think today was ‘aaah I’m only running 12miles, eaaasy’…I mean, wtf!? It’s TWELVE miles! I can’t wait for the day [post marathon] where 4miles is a decent hard workout again 😀 Oh well.

Saturday

Rest day! Woo hoo! Some days, I dread rest days, cos I’m..well..restless! But I felt like I needed one today 🙂 so it was a welcome addition. And heck, I sure made the most of it! I didn’t wake up til 8.25am, then read in bed for 15mins – bliss. Plus, it was a beautiful morning today; cold but sunny. I spent about a half hour whilst I worked up a breakfast appetite snapping Chika/Kovac/Poppy photos outside – I can’t wait to show y’all later in the week 😀

Breakfast – a spinach pear Epic Green Monster, topped with hemp seeds (I didn’t blend them in today), dates, Grape Nuts and cereal:

 

Nooo!! I’ve just realised there’s a tiny little (cat!?) hair on my spoonful in the photo below! Gah. I’ll have hairballs in my stomach now

 

Tres delicious. Despite the hair. In fact, I think it was the addition of the hair that made it taste so good.

I had a good schooling session with Chika after breakfast (despite Tig being away at a competition this weekend), and then decided to do something I’ve been meaning to do for the past week – homemade bean burgers!

• 2 cans of beans (butter beans and pinto beans, all I had)
• 1/2 c. salsa
• coriander seeds
• garlic granules
• 4 tbsp vital wheat gluten
• salt
• 1/2 c. oats

 

Blended the beans and salsa and spices roughly:

Tipped it all into a dish, mixed in the oats:

And the VWG:

Shaped into 5 burgers:

Baked for 20mins on 160degrees (fan oven), and then got them out to flip. And flip they did. Onto the floor:

A hand was burnt. A spatula was thrown. A tear (or 10) were shed. It was horrible! Though I thanked The Powers That Be that I’d put the burgers on two trays, so thankfully, two were salvaged. I baked them for another 10mins:

 

Hurrumph.

Sadly, the burger fiasco totally ruined my appetite for lunch 😦 but I stormed ahead, cos it was a good ‘un!

Apple and Onion Sauce

I made a ‘sauce’ by cooking (over a medium heat) a small chopped onion and a small chopped apple, with stock (a 1/4c. to start, and I added more water as needed):

Til it was mush:

Meanwhile, I roasted swede, aunt-grown butternut squash, and carrot, and boiled 60g wholewheat pasta. All together:

 

 

 

 

The onion/apple thing? Oh my!! Delish! Sweet yet savoury….LOVED. IT.

A fig (my last one!!) was consumed for dessert 😀

Dinner – I did a tempeh thing, with a cocoa peanut butter sauce and a cocoa-lentil veggie mix 😀

Look at that rich colour….wow!

What can I say – I LOVE THAT MEAL (made better by watching X Factor whilst eating it :p)! I was going to have a burger, but I’m freezing them so my mum and I can have them on Wednesday (when it’s just us two).

Sunday

12 mile day (aka a taper week)! I was sliiiightly dreading today, cos I looked at the weather forecast, and it said rain. ALL morning. Not cool! Howeverrrrz, when I did get up, there was no rain!! Sooo I made a super quick Fitnessista inspired breakfast cookie (but made in the morning and eaten immediately 😀 no overnight-hardening for me!):

50g oats

1 banana, mashed

a big forkful of peanut butter, mashed into the banana

I then mashed everything together, and topped it with a spoon of Grape Nuts and dates:

Sooo delicious! Why have I not made these before!? Good gracious. I really recommend you make one if you haven’t 😀

I let that go down for an hour or so, ate a rice cake, then headed out into the grey and miserable glorious cloud.

Splits:

9.01

9.01

8.50

8.46

8.59

8.51

9.02

8.49

8.46

8.50

8.53

9.15 (I decided to take it slow as I was a tiiiny bit wheezy on the last 1/4 mile of mile 11)

= 1hr46 & 12miles

You know what? It was brilliant!!! I felt ACE! My best training run to date 🙂 The hardest part was actually slowing myself down – I kept looking at my Garmin and seeing 8.00/8.15 splits – good, but bad, cos I didn’t want to burn out!! But yeah, it was a really, really good one. Was it the breakfast cookie? Or the amazing tempeh sauce? Or the super night of sleep on Friday? Or a positive attitude (after all, 12 felt like cake compared to the 18 this Sunday….)? Who knows….

Weirdly, the only fuel I had was 500ml Lucozade Sport, and 2 small dates! I just did not feel the need for anything, and I actually felt better for having a lighter stomach. Very curious.

Anyway, who cares – it was a fabulous run and I felt GREAT!

Brunch was an Epic Green Monster…once again, with a pear instead of spinach 😛

• 1 c. cereal
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. yogurt – soya yogurt, so it is vegan 🙂 I’ve had a lot of questions about that recently…
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds
• a pear
• frozen banana
• toppings: Grape Nuts, homemade jam, almonds, dates

That’s plum jam, made from our very own plums growing in the garden 🙂

Fantastique!

I was then a complete fool though – straight after that big meal, I had a lunge lesson on Chika (almost like yoga on a horse – it felt GREAT!), which was fab in itself. My mum gives us such difficult exercises to do, in trot and canter 😀 however…1/2 hour of sitting trot does NOT do wonders for a stomach! I felt SOO sick after!!! The whole of my brunch was just being bounced about and it was horrible :p I shan’t make that mistake again…..

I had an afternoon snack of cereal and yogurt:

As well as a small apple, blackberries and large (large) amounts of hummus whilst making my mamma’s lunch for tomorrow 😛

I also got some cuteeee pics of Carter 😛 (I put them up mainly for your benefit, Lily :p)

I love this cat SO MUCH.

And so he doesn’t feel left out..here’s Kovac too:)

He’s the supermodel of the family!!

Rightio, I hear the Call of the Cookery right now, so I’m gonna obey it and go cook me some dinner 🙂

Have a lovely evening (hopefully watching X Factor, if you’re British :P)

Oh! – I mentioned it in my last post, but in case you missed it – do you like the new header!? The wonderful Jess made it for me 🙂 She’s a super star!!

—–

Question – do you take rest days? How many do you take per week?

——

ps – Listen to this song!! it’s only 1.30mins long, and is BEAUTIFUL!

pps – my current squash collection :p

Lol 😀

Read Full Post »

In Threes

Guys, I need to introduce you to someone. This person has just recently come into my life, and I can honestly say, I don’t know how I coped without them. They mean the world to me. They comfort me when I’m down, and cool me off when I’m hot. They sit with me comfortably for hours, not even needing to speak, and will just chill patiently, waiting for that special time in the evening when I come and see them….without further adieu, I give to you:

Pear and Strawberry Pudding!

Yep, this was the delicious dessert I made last night, and who I was referring to just now 😛 Oh boy. It was SO good..:

• a small ripe pear
• like..8-10 smallish strawberries (depends how much you like strawberries and the colour pink :p)
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 170g silken tofu

AMAZE.

———–

ENOUGH with the romance! Let’s move on to the joys of Thursday. Actually, Thursday hasn’t been particularly joyous today, not at all 😦 You know how they say bad things come in threes? Well, my first one was that cheeky parking ticket the other day, and the other two came today 😦

– MY BLENDER BROKE!!! Not the mini one, the actual real PROPER blender, the one I use to create my beloved EGMs 😥 I was halfway through blending my EGM today, when I smelt the burning rubber, heard the scream, and knew the inevitable had happened…*le sigh. I transferred the half blended contents into my reserve, REALLY DARN CRAP blender, and stood there for – literally – 10minutes, trying to blend just 2 or 3 strands of spinach and beet leaves. BOOOOO. Oh well. It did blend in the end…just:

Mangled date…

The EGM lost its’ magic today though, alas!

After breakfast, a really really [excuse my French] shit thing happened (Bad Thing Three), which I don’t want to blog about (nothing to do with food or anything though). Needless to say, it sure made me upset and I did become a tad woeful, if you know what I mean!

BUT!

I then rode Chika 🙂 And bless her, she so knows when to behave. Yep, she can be a cowbag and she can spook and be a div, but she never, EVER does it on a day when I’m upset. It’s like she senses I need her, so she puts on her halo, pricks her ears, and does her thang 🙂 After a 25minute fast hack round the trails, I came back feeling much better. In fact, I decided to look at the positives – after all, if my blender hadn’t broke, I wouldn’t now be thinking about raiding my savings and investing in a Vitamix….and if Bad Thing Three hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have appreciated Chika so much 😛 There’s always a positive! You just have to dig around for it sometimes 🙂

Lunch was lovely and a random mix – and I broke into my tempeh rashers at last!!

I’ve been wanting to eat these for AGES, and today – the time came……Not the most ‘real’ food ever, but hey – packed with protein and nobody’s perfect 😀 I had them with some roasted beans, as well as a pear, and roasted leek/turnip/celeriac/mixed spice:

It was very, very delicious! Note how the blasted cat stole my photography ledge…..

Dessert was a Cashew Cookie Nakd bar:

Why do I always forget how AMAZING these things taste!!?? Seriously, I’m stunned by my own foolishness sometimes.

The afternoon was spent read/Poppy walking in the forest (finished my book – needless to say, the waterworks were flowing at the end! Praise be for the coverage of trees :p), and doing some cleaning :O I really don’t clean enough…heaven knows why, cos it’s so satisfying when it’s done 😀 But then if I cleaned all the time, you’d never notice the difference…right?

Snack – ultimate comfort food – cereal and yogurt! And even better, the dusty crappy bit from the end of the packet (my favourite bit!!) – note how I got my photography ledge back 😛

Good times.

Dinner waaaas – basil tofu, with pink durum wheat, kabocha, parsnip and beetroot, as well as fresh basil and cinnamon:

Dessert, without a doubt, will be a Mama Pea millet muffin with some yogurt 😀 But now, I’m going to settle down with Big Brother and this:

—

OH! I almost forgot (though I doubt your lives are any more enriched by knowing this info :p – but today was a DVD day, so post my usual AM snack, I had an hour of DVD awesomeness :))

—–

QUESTION: Can you recommend a super super good blender/smoothie maker? Anyone have a Vitamix? I want to invest – I can either keep buying cheap-o ones that break within a year, or I can shell out once and for all and buy a darn good one. I’m thinking the latter 🙂

What’s your favourite chore? If I had to pick, I’d say washing up or hoovering. I love being able to see a difference 😀

—-

CAT PICTURES!

My cat after my heart – he likes garlic 🙂

Seductive Carter…!!

I love my boys 🙂

Read Full Post »

Bama got back

Look:

You know who that is? OBAMA!!

Literally, ten minutes after I posted that she’d moved out for good, she came back! I was topping up the horses’ water in the field, and she just appeared, making tons of noise..it was magical! I sat on the grass and played with her for a while, cos boy did I miss that girlie! I don’t know if she’ll stay back for good, but so far she’s been camped in my room since Friday night (she has not left once!)….watch this space!

—-

Today’s run distance was a beastly 3miles (or 5k to me)….ohmygosh, it was SO much easier today! I had my usual pre-run snack, and although I was a bit slower today (my first mile was 9.08 or something – after that it was about 8.30), the thing in general was better, cos it was SO much fresher after the rainfall in the night. A pleasant way to spend 27minutes if I do say so myself:D

When I got back, I had a beautiful EGM:

They are so freaking fabulous at re-fueling! Filling and cold and delicious – everything a little girl could hope for 🙂

Next on the agenda was a Chika hack – again, the fresher weather made a huge difference, cos she wasn’t completely plagued by flies the whole time (only mildly….).

When I was done with her, I did a super quick change and shot into town so I could hand in my volunteer application form. Yep, as of Monday, I shall be an Official Volunteer at a Real Proper Shop!! Oh the excitement 😛

While I was out, I stopped at a local farm shop, where I found a YELLOW COURGETTE!!

Oh my, I’ve never seen one of them! Believe me, it was an exciting find (anyone noticed how I seem to get excited by the smallest, most trivial things!? I think I need more excitement/a boyfriend – alas – in my life :p). I also picked up a whole load of really overripe bananas:

Banana bums. Gotta love them.

Which were perfect for a bit of this:

Ay, I’ve been meaning to do it for a while, but I had to keep waiting til I had enough ripe bananas. The ‘it’ in question is this gorgeous banana bread! After some smashing and mashing, my oven/myself produced a fine loaf:

I can’t wait to have some for dessert later!! HURRAH for banana bread!

Next up – lunch! I was totally craving my favourite veggie burgers, so I had one of them in a seeded wholemeal English muffin, half spread with a tiny bit o’ this:

Blackstrap molasses (bought for 99p!) – apparently, packed full of calcium! In fact, 2tbsp of it gives you 400mg which is pretty impressive. For a veggie kick, I roasted turnip, parsnip, broccoli and aubergine. I ADORE turnips….

They are so beautiful! Maybe I could make a turnip my boyfriend. They’d probably be a good sub – beautiful, never talk back…. Anyways, I also had 2 figs and a few grapes:

 

So. Yummy.

Dessert = So Crispy bites. Horror – I have only one bag left!!! I think I need to go on a So Crispy trek….:p

I’m going to shock you all here with my afternoon activities; wait for it…..I did: the mucking out, 10minutes of abs work [which I’ve majorly been neglecting recently] I went for a walk and I baked some oatmeal bars for my mumma, as requested 🙂 The poor woman worked from 8.40 – 7pm today 😦 She was so tired! I also did some snackage of the 1/2 cup of yogurt variety:

Love it!

My dinner time chow consisted of some soy sauce/white wine vinegar bathed tofu, which I fried in the pan, along with agave/cinnamon coated kabocha, yellow courgette, parsnip and sweet potato smoked paprika fries;

I love love LOVE that meal!! Along with…well, most of the things I eat…I could eat it every darn day and never get tired of it 😀

Dessert later will probably be a nice big slice of banana bread 😀 Can’t say no!

—-

Random Shock of the Day: A giant spider strolling across the counter top, over my knife and right near my hand! You can sure there were some squeaks to be heard for many a mile….

Random Question of the Day: What job do you have? I’m a volunteer in a charity shop as of Monday, if you forgot to read it :p

Random Cat Picture of the Day:

No shame!

Read Full Post »