Just call me Bob / Thrills and Spills!

Horse photos coming!

Just call me Bob. Bob the Builder, that is. Is he as famous overseas as he is in England? If not, you had a lucky escape, cos my GOSH is he one annoying character.

(source)

However, we do have one major thing in common; building skilllz, innit!!

He builds toy constructions, I build sandwiches. Oh yes.

Just like he mixes cement, I mix my sandwich fillings. In this case – boiled parsnip and butternut (I did drink the water the veggies boiled in, fyi; I love veg water! Think of the vitamins, the VITAMINS!! Gah), mashed with a blob of soya yogurt, a splash of cocoa-balsamic, mixed herbs, agave, salt, pepper and mixed spice (or cinnamon, I cannae remember which):

Appetising, non?

That went onto layer one:

Layer two = good old Tesco value cooked beets!

Layer three – squishy roast aubergine (or eggplant, if you roll that way)

Lidded:

A beastie boy of a sandwich!!! Beats a house any day :p

A cabbage garlic soy sauce left over butternut stir fry acted a side dish 🙂

I also built jelly donut CUPCAKES this weekend!! From the wonder that is Veganomicon, no less-

They may be ugly, but they sure did go down a storm!! Booooo yeah.

What else did I build….oh yeah, OATS with peanut flour/melted banana/cinnamon sauce:

I had to snap it quick before that lovely peanut banananananary sauce just sunk right in…

But OH boy it was good! The next day, I gave almond extract a run in the oats:

Didn’t work as well as vanilla…good, but not good enough, in my expert opinion. Hurrumph. I still repeated it this morning (Sunday) though, for whatever balmy reason:

Pre-mix above, post-mix below 🙂

Why do I never learn – don’t fix what ain’t broken! (even if Bob encourages you too…‘Boooob the Builder, CAN WE FIX IT!? Booooob the Builder, YES WE CAN!’ NO. We CAN”T. No idea what I’m on about? lookey here)

Ok, so I’ve done the Bob half of the title…how about the Thrills and Spills part!?

Thrills:

I RAN!!!!!!!

Ohemgee.

I got up, laced up my shoeloos, ate an apple the size of my head, 2tsp of wheatgerm and a finger full of jam, and headed out. My aim was to run about three miles – but I did six!

SIX!

I actually ran/walked seven miles, with LOADS of little breaks to stretch, walk, have a drink etc etc, so all in all it took about 1hr20mins, but I actually RAN a total of about 6miles *happy dance*! The pain that began in my calf muscles (way back when) and moved to my shins (2 weeks ago) is retreating back again, HA! Shins were cool, calf muscles a little achey. But not, ohmygosh-we-want-to-die achey, just-we’ve-worked-hard achey. I’ll take that 🙂

I reckonz another week off of running, and by next weekend I should be raring to go. I cannot contain the joy! FYI: The doc appointment on Friday was pointless; he can’t refer me to a sports physio on the NHS 😦

Another thrill – yet more Veganomicon produce! Chewy chocolate raspberry cookies this time, except made with gran-made bramble and blackberry jam, as opposed to raspberry 😀

I don’t know about the cookies (they’re for my mum’s work) but damn did that dough taste good :p

The final thrill of the day? Why, gram flour pancakes for lunch of course! Topped with boiled mashed parsnip (mixed with agave and cinnamon) and a blob of melted banana:

Parsnip mush:

Banana mush:

You’d be amazed at how well parsnip and banana go together – seriously! Plus, I am LOVING gram flour pancakes – packed with protein, and oh-so chewy 🙂

Now, let me tell you about the Spills:

Hannah took Tig (her horse) out for a hack today, which is fair enough. She’d been out for 20mins or so, when – whilst i was upstairs – my mum got a phone call from the sister herself, saying she’d come off and Tig was on the road! ERrrrr cue PANIC from sweet mutti bear! She dashed out of the house, and a few mins later, I came downstairs (unawares) and my step dad said to me ‘Hannah’s fallen off on the road and Tig is loose’!!

Obvs, I shoved my trainers on and ran out of the door and down the road. I couldn’t see my mum ahead (as it turns out, she hitched a lift with a random car – she couldn’t drive her car out cos if Tig was loose, she’d need to catch him) but as I ran further down the road, I could see the tell-tale white marks on the road, from Tig’s metal shoes. I kept going, turned up the path where Hannah had gone, and saw my mum.

As it turns out, Tig and Hannah had been galloping in one of the stubble fields about 1.5miles from home, and were going to cross from one to the other. As they got closer, the bit she thought was a track for crossing, was actually a huge open ditch! It totally took them both by surprise, Tig slammed on the breaks and spun, and Hannah went out the side door. Tig then cantered off (feeling somewhat shaken! Horses don’t like losing their riders) and crossed a MAIN road, back down the track he’d been up, and then was caught by my mum, cantering down the road leading to our house!

And do you know what the crazy thing is? LOADS of cars passed him – loose, on the road, with no rider – and not one car stopped. What the-?

So anyway – my mum caught Tig and led him back up the track to meet Hannah (who was unharmed – the ground was soft and muddy, she’s young and still bounces :p). She got back on, and finished her ride, including going over the ditch. Phew!

Whilst all that was going on, my poor lady Chika was in the field, freaking out! She gets terribly upset when her boyfriend goes anyway, but today, I think she knew something was wrong – she spent the whole time neighing and galloping circles round the field (i took these before The Phonecall):

Her poor stressed lil face 😦

Le sigh. She is so silly sometimes! At least she got a half decent workout 😛

Soo that was Sunday – somewhat eventful! I spent the afternoon baking, mucking out, and watching eBay like a hawk; I was bidding on a (very cheap, we’re talking £200) car cos, now Hannah is working full time and I need the car for uni, we’re in a predicament! Alas, I was the highest bidder til the LAST second when i got pipped – by £10! – at the post. Bah. I hate eBay sometimes.

How was your weekend? Have you had any thrills (or spills!?)?

Read Full Post »

Talk of the Town

Hello hello hello!

Is it possible to overdose on oatmeal? Cos I think i have:

You wouldn’t believe how long I’d been waiting to use that jar!! It was quite possibly, the best meal ever. And enjoyed whilst watching X Factor (Saturday night, breakfast for dinner = perfection).

The very next night, I had oats again – 1/2 c. oats, salt, cinnamon, 1/4c. peanut flour (16g protein, wam bam!), 1 banana. BLISS! In fact, it was so good, I had the exact same mix on Monday night too:

Yez, that’s a Starbucks coffee holder.

My aunt asked my mum to let out her dogs whilst she was away on a business trip, but my poor old mama didn’t get back from work til 7. 1/2hr drive to my aunts + dog walk + 1/2hr drive back meant it’d be a very late dins…so I packed it up 😀 genius right!?

Funnily enough, my mum got home early, and I actually didn’t break into my oats til we got home..so bowl it was:

Something wasn’t right. It wasn’t til the last mouthful when I realised what was wrong – NO PEANUT BUTTER! Oats without nut butter is a sin, A SIN!! Needless to say, I sorted it out pronto 🙂

Much better. [Note: I may have had oatmeal the next night too :p]

What else has happened….oooh! After a week of snow and absolutely ZERO running, by Saturday it had thawed enough for me to venture out – 7 blissful miles later, I was cold and had wet feet, but was very happy 🙂 On Sunday, I did NINE miles! My longest run since the marathon a month ago, and let me tell you – it felt GREAT. I wanted to go further, but I ran out of fuel. Originally I hadn’t thought I’d go that far, so all I had before I left was an apple. Needless to say, by the end of 9miles, I was flagging somewhat, which was a shame 😦 I can’t wait to get my mileage up again though – all this talk of marathon training and recaps floating about the blog world is inspiring me 😛

Talking of…er…talking….anyone noticed the pumpkin trend seems to be on its’ way out? Boooo to that! Especially since I ate the most yummiest pumpkin dish EVEr t’other night!

I used Mama Pea’s pumpkin tofu curry as a base, but made a few alterations and totally altered the technique…and now it’s been about 5 days since I had it and I can’t for the life of me remember what I did different!! D’oh. Anywhoooo, look:

Tofu:

Millet + durum wheat pumpkin curry mix:

Added together:

= pure yum!

I was very proud of my inspired-and-altered creation. I just wish I could remember what I’d done!!?? Meh.

Just randomly – tofu and pear goes well together 🙂

You heard it here first!

You also got reminded of peanut butter and nooch covered parsnip fries here first:

Oh yeaaaah. Best thing ever! Served alongside a roasted veggie sandwich, and toast+yogurt:

I’ve been maaajjorly craving dry, burnt toast recently. Weird right? Does anyone else like dry toast, or am I alone!!??

—

Other talks of the town recently (besides oatmeal and pumpkin :p) have been SNOW! England came to a standstill last week with all the crazy ice and minus-temperatures. – so much so, my exam got cancelled! It’s now rescheduled for tomorrow 😦 But anyway – [post] snow pics!

So creepy and foggy…this was about 3pm!

Bored yet? I don’t care, there’s more :p

herro Chika!!

Spot the dog!

The end 🙂 Of the photos and of the post – I have a heck of a lot of work to get through 😦

Buuuut I do have a topic I really really want to blog about in my next post! It’s quite..important? to me – a big thing! But until then, I’ll leave you with some proof of my sheer stupidity – About a 1/2hr ago, I smashed an ENTIRE jar of runny honey, all over the floor. I then proceeded to slam my knife down on the counter, which bounced and smashed the sugar jar too. Wahey.

Have you ever done anything like that?

Read Full Post »

It’s all in a sandwich

Happy Friday lovelies!

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know this already –

I don’t like sandwiches.

Seriously, how often do you see a sandwich or a wrap appear on here? Hardly ever, that’s how oft! I find bread very blaaah. My mum and sister go wacky over fresh crusty bread (as do a number of bloggers), but I’ve just never got it… In the past 6 or 7 months, there’s been 2 sandwiches I’ve liked. One was a tempeh, banana and peanut butter sandwich, and one was a roasted veggie sandwich. But, my dears, the other day, I had the sandwich DREAMS are made of!

It involved hummus and canned pumpkin….

….spread thickly on seedy wholemeal toast (fyi, random side note: Jesus Walks by the one and only Kanye just came on the radio..PARTY IN MY HEAD! Ever since I saw Jarhead, I have LOVED that song! Bliss.):

Then piled with roasted mushy aubergine:

I then stuck it in the keep-warm oven for 10mins or so, so it went REALLY crispy and hot through.

Oooooooooooooh my days.

Never have I had such a gooey, delicious sandwich! Seriously!! I mean, it must’ve been good – I’ve just dedicated a post to it!! It was even good enough to repeat the next day too, with the addition of some roasted mashed kabocha:

GOO!!!

Happy days 🙂

All my other eats kinda paled in comparison to be honest 😦 But some highlights, food wise? Reduced-to-clear blackberries:

Reduced-to-clear sharonfruit (permissons or something, to all you crazy Americans):

I worked out if you go into a supermarket [Waitrose] the minute it opens [cos your bladder is about to burst], you can pick up a ton of bargains 😛 (ohemgee, fyi, the same radio station is now playing a song by Notorious B.I.G and co, which I love! You know, the one that was released a few years back – Nasty Girl -, despite the B.I.G bloke being dead for years…beyond the grave singing. Quite a talent!)

I had the best tempeh the other night too – after reading a post by my fellow horsey blogger about steaming tempeh, I decided to go for it. I steamed my T for 10mins, then marinaded it in a white wine vinegar/smoked garlic/soy sauce/maple syrup/something else which I forget mix, I fried it and the result was the most succulent lump of soy I’ve ever had!

The photo does it NO justice.

Today’s breakfast was somewhat random – an out-of-date Mojo bar.

As you do. I was in a rush!!

But lunch…oh did lunch make up for my breakfast! I made parsnip, maple and apple ‘soup’!!

A tiny weeny apple cooked with a chunk of leek, mixed spice and EVOO spray:

When mushy, I added in 1 tsp maple syrup and a load of parsnip chunks, with weak stock for boiling:

It simmered away for however long it simmered away for, til the parsnips were all soft. While it was cookin’ up a storm, I made a tiny roasted salad – kale, kabocha, broccoli:

Hurrah!

By the time I’d eaten that, I’d also blended the soup and was ready to eat it, with a blob of soya yogurt:

See, I very loosely use the term ‘soup’. I don’t like watery soup (blates), but add more water in to get the consistency you like 🙂

oooyyyy vveeeyyy! It was soososososos DELICIOUS!!! Party in the tummy, I tell ya.

——-

In other news:

Obama came back (whenever I say that, I want to start rapping ‘Baby got back’. Mah! It takes some real self-control to defeat the urge!). She’s a weird one. She disappears for a month, then appears – looking fat and shiny – and hangs about for a week. Then she goes, and the cycle repeats. Honestly, if she was in the army, she’d get shot for deserting. Maybe I should dig out my gun, no?

In more, other, news:

I had a lovely jubbly 5mile run this week 🙂 my first one since…my 7miler the other week!? The weather has been AWFUL all week; gales, rain, wind (a lady died!), so I’ve been sticking to indoor workouts. It felt GREAT to be out!

In more, more, other, news:

I think I have a post coming up soon about Life Post-Marathon. Eating, exercising, that kinda thing. It’s been interesting!

By the by – you probably don’t watch X Factor, nor care about it. But that does little to put me off. Check out my favourite X Factor performances 🙂

My fave boy, Matt, who I want to win:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-5M93tovEs

My other fave boy, Aiden (he’s 18!! yet I find him incredibly attractive….:p):

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

Mary Tesco:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr4Zfhox3t0

Matt’s audition – don’t you LOVE him!!??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSph1cRiG4M

Uh..I’ll leave it at that. Believe me, I could go on and on and on……

Oh no! One more song I’ve been loving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkcrNAQbU2Q

Loooooooveeee it.

Question: Any Brits out there watching X Factor? Who do you love/hate? For me – LOVE Matt, Aiden and Rebecca! HATE Cher, Katie and Wagner 🙂

(PS – I don’t seem to be updating my recipe page atm..BUT when I make something I feel is recipe-worthy, I tend to tag it under ‘Recipe’. So if you have too much free time, feel like trawling through back posts, and want to cook something you probably won’t like all that much, you know where to go! :p)

Read Full Post »

Imagine this….

….or, as the case may be, don’t.

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

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

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

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

—-

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

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

– 1/2 c. soya milk, 1/2 c. water

– a large 1/2 c. pumpkin

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

– cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, almonds

Oh, I squealed with joy!

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

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

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

Pre-run fuel of an O bar:

Fab ingredients:

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

Peanut butter coated parsnip and brussels sprouts:

A very gooey peanut butter sammeech:

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

Chocolate roasted chickpeas, with hummus and tempeh:

Actually one of my all time favourite meals 🙂

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

Holy cow.

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

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

Yeah, it was goooood.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 »

A Fun Fifteen

Hello!

I ran 15miles today 🙂 Buuuut as usual, I’ll do a quick foodie run through of Satdee first 😀

An Epic Plum Monster (with added kale) was my breakfast of choice:

• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. yogurt
• 1 tbsp flaxseed
• vanilla extract
• 1c. cereal
• 1 biiiig banana
• lots of plums
• a handful of kale

We have trees – literally – collapsing under the weight of all the plums currently growing, so I kiiinda needed to eat some!

It was luv-leh!

Post breakfast, I had a faaaabulous lesson on Chika! She came out with her I-want-to-be-a-silly/spooky-and-lazy-horse hat on, but with a tremendous amount of skill and knowledge (blatantly :p), we turned that energy into good, powerful, fancy dressage horse energy!! She finished sweaty and with a very pleased rider 🙂

Oh! I also picked up a squash at the store before my ride:

I think it wins the award for Prettiest Mystery Variety of Squash Ever??

Lunch was an awesome veggie/tofu sandwich. I marinated a few small slices of tofu in soy sauce, hoi sin, agave nectar, Japanese rice vinegar, smoked garlic and salt and pepper:

Then it was time to do some layering! Squash:

Panfried tofu, with a side of burnt crispyness:

Roast beets:

The lid!

Waitrose own-brand organic wholemeal bread <- preeeetty much (bar maybe one or two others) the only loaf of pre-sliced/mass produced bread I’ve EVER come across that has real ingredients – ie no glucose or random E-numbers. And cos it’s own-brand, it’s super super cheap! My heart flutters at the thought.

On the side, I had the rest of the beets and squash as well as a few chunks of parsnip and celeriac:

Annnnd as a final side, some stir fried kale and mushroom (done in apple cider vinegar and maple syrup):

All in all a simply DIVINE meal!

I had a little afternoon snack, of a small slice of that weird carrot/raisin sprouted bread from the other day:

And then it was time for dinner in front of X Factor 😀 From now until Christmas, I shall never leave my house on a Saturday or a Sunday night! X Factor is TOO important 😛

I made myself a portion of kabocha squash OIAJ –

• 1/2 c. oats
• 1/2c. milk
• 1/2 c. water
• salt
• a bit of cooked kabocha
• splash of maple syrup
• a bit extra PB
• A jar 😀

 

 

And on the side – yep, more roasted veggies! With yet more tofu :p

What can I say, I’m on a tofu kick…..!! It was all sooo good 😀

After dinner, I forced down a chocolate chip Clif bar for some extra carbs.

I felt somewhat overfull and sck after that…but I think the extra 44g of carb did me good!!

————–

FIFTEEN MILES! Meep, such a long way..but I did it!! I decided to be different today – in the actual marathon, there’s gonna be a big delay between getting up and starting the marathon. On my half marathon last week, I didn’t eat right cos I was unprepared for the time lapse between getting up and starting running (I normally am out the door 45mins after getting up). Soooo today, I was up at 7am, but I left it over 2hrs before I left.

As soon as I got up, I had 2tsps wheatgerm, and 2 pieces of toast, with half a banana and 4 types of nut butter:

SO darn delicious. And eaten whilst feeling (very) nervous and watching The Office (American version <- love that show!).

Before I left, I had a tiiiiny slice of that sprouty bread, and then I was off!

I started with a 6mile route that took me back home, where I drank a heck of a lot of Lucozade Sport, and one of my date/oat/carrot bars I made the other day. OHEMGEE!!! It was SO good! Not wanting to blow my own trumpet here..but heck, it tasted like sweet delicious cake! The best thing I’ve ever made, IMHO! I’ll make a recipe page for them 🙂

I then did another 5mile loop, back home, saw my mum (who was waiting at the end of the drive for me, sitting in a chair with the dog alseep on her lap, reading a book!) where I topped up my water, had the rest of the Lucozade Sport, and 2/3rds of the other of the homemade bars (I gave my mum a chunk of it).

The last 4mile loop was pretty crappy – I was fine up til 13miles (half marathon time – 1hr54! 4mins off last week’s time!!), but then my chest started to get tight. I actually think it’s mild asthma (my mum, sister, aunt and my great aunt all have/had it), so next week (16miles) my mum is going to lend me her inhaler. Fingers crossed it helps, cos I actually cried about 3 times in the last 2miles!!! It was a relief to finish – though I think I could have definitely kept going!

Splits:

1 – 8.26

2 – 8.42

3 – 8.35

4 – 8.08 (!)

5 – 9.12

6 – 8.32

7 – 8.44

8 – 8.58

9 – 8.59

10 – 8.53

11 – 8.43

12 – 8.44

13 – 8.52

14 – 9.15

15 – 9.12

= 2hr12

Average mile – 8.48 🙂 And, that was using the walk/run method! It works for me, for sure. I also stopped a few times for about 10secs to stretch, which doesn’t show in the splits.

When I finished, I kept on walking for 20mins or so, got inside, jumped in the shower, and eventually forced down ( I was NOT hungry) an Epic Kale/pear/plum Green Monster:

I went back for added cereal 😀

I felt pretty sick after that actually – my appetite just goes after a long run! But regardless, my mum and I took Poppy out for a half hour, then spent the afternoon watching Burghley Horse Trials on TV 😀 (I wanted William Fox-Pitt or Mary King to win <- we have friends who are verry good friends with William, and his ex-top horse is related to my aunt’s horse :P)

At about 4.45, I had a snack – cereal and yogurt, and an unpictured apple:

And now I’m going to go and wash my hair and then create a delicious dinner for myself!

Good night 🙂

Ps – I’m (hopefully) going to London on Wednesday! New running trainers and Whole Foods are calling my name….! Anyone else in Londres Town?

Read Full Post »

Smooth Operator

Nooo. Not the PB & Co peanut butter (though that stuff is freakin amazing!) – me! Yes, I was quite the smooth operator today…the timings of my day were so slick, as was the food. It was like a script! I shall explain all in a minute…

So last night, I was craving hot blackberries, sausages and lentils. I had the first two 😀 The savoury part was mixed veggies (kabocha, parsnip, aubergine, garlic, soy sauce), cooked with a vegan sausage for a good protein hit:

And served with some brown sauce:

YUM!! For some reason that meal takes me right back to when I was little; that plate is one I used to eat off all the time when I was about 6yrs old, and I can always picture having brown sauce on it and being satisfied..it’s kinda comforting 🙂 weird right!?

The sweet part was my blackberry thing; the berries, blended with some home grown plums:

As well as little bit of watermelon, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, agave nectar, mixed spice, and 50g cereal – topped with grated cacap:

Well. It satisfied my blackberry craving, but in a ‘oh, that was disappointing..I don’t crave that anymore!’ kind of way 😦 it was nice – just not as good as it CAN be, and I have no idea why. Such a shame!

Today got off to a better start though – I had a faaaabulous night of sleep (despite Carter – literally – sitting on my face at 6am :s), and woke up feeling fit and fresh for 55mins of home workout dvds! Pre-dvd, I had an apple, a rice cake and my wheatgerm + selenium hit 🙂

Breakfast was a wooonderful Epic Green Monster:

Oh the fabulousness!

It was somewhat overflowing today, but tasted SO good!!! I will never, EVER get sick of them! (Though I said that about mac n cheese when I was little. And honey sandwiches. And Weetabix. And garlic cabbage. And Minstrels. And soya mince. I could go on…..)

After breakfast, I had a ‘challenging’ wonderful schooling session with Chika. The demon from yesterday switched sides in the arena and was back with a vengeance today!! Alas!! We got there in the end, although we both worked up quite a sweat 😛

Post-ride, my smooth-operater-ness started to fall into effect….see, between the hours of 12 and 5, we were expecting the Aga man to come fix the Aga (a weird heater/oven type thing) *coughAweekLateCough*. So that meant I had to be in the house for all that time in case he came…my timings were so perfect! I finished riding at bang on the right time. I finished lunch, got the washing in, and 5mins later, he turned up!!

Disaster :O though, when he said (as we suspected) it was an electrical fault, not an Aga fault which led to the breakage. Soo I phoned up the electrician; you know those guys, they’re like farriers – they take forever to come out, cost a bomb and often are late. Well, not this time! In fact, just 15mins after I phoned, he turned up! He fixed the problem in 15mins, and left at bang on the same time as the Aga bloke, which left me the perfect amount of time to sort the horses out, go and buy my newspaper/trash magazine, do more washing-related stuff, then sit down to pump this post out – like clockwork. JOYS!!

Working Aga and undisturbed lunch = very happy Freya.

Oh yeah – lunch! It was so fab today!!

I fried up together parsnip, beets, marrow and gran-grown yellow tomatoes, in mixed herbs, salt and pepper and balsamic:

And when that was all done, I started to make the most incredible sandwich 😀

Layer 1 – mashed cooked grey pumpkin and cinnamon:

Marrow (stained by the beets):

Beets and yellow tomatoes:

Pink parsnip chunks:

The lid!

I served it with the rest of the veggies:

AMAZING sandwich! One of the best yet 😀

I also made myself a smoothie, cos I wanted to use up this miserable looking pear:

Poor thing 😦 I blended it with some blackberries, 1tsp agar agar, 1tsp date syrup and the last tiny chunk of my watermelon – then served with a sharonfruit 🙂

Very good! Though the agar agar didn’t do the thickening I was hoping it would 😦 Disappointing, agar agar. Disappointing. Have you ever used it before?

Dinner-wise, I’ve got a Mama Pea recipe lined up (which was on Jess’ blog the other day too) – I’m so excited about it!! I can literally taste the deliciousness 😀

Have a good evening!

Question: Do you have any comforting meals, that take you back to a certain time in your life?

Are there any foods you used to love, which you’re now sick of?

Read Full Post »

Spot the kitten?

Yes – spot the kitten!

BLESS!! Isn’t that the cutest thing you ever did see!? My sister is moving back from her house in London (cos her lease is up), so we have loads of, well, crap in our hallway. The cats LOVE it! There’s so much to play with and claw and rummage in….my mum caught Kovac last night all buried in a bin bag full of toys. SO cute 🙂

[By the way – I swear I didn’t set that up! He genuinely did bury himself in a bin bag!!]

—–

I wish I had loads of interesting things to write about today, but I actually don’t. It’s rather annoying! I’ll go through all my eats instead and see if something pops up :p

Pre-Jillian – an apple, a square of chocolate, 2 tsp wheatgerm (I wrote chocolate just then, and suddenly pictured Johnny Depp..NICE! Anyone else seen the film Chocolat!? Talk about HOT!)

Theen – Jillian, Davina and I did our thing.

Post-Jillian – EGM time! With a fresh chopped apricot:

Yet another one of those holy-crap-this-bowl-is-amazing bowls. 😀 But this bowl was SOOO filling! When I had lunch (at 2.40) I still wasn’t hungry! Ah well, it was worth it.

I spent the morning making hazelnut hummus, walking round the fields reading/Poppy walking, schooling Chika, and attempting to tidy my room; it’s got sooo messy recently, it’s been driving me MAD. I can’t wait for it to be clutter free again 😀

So yea – I made hazelnut hummus! I can’t really post a recipe yet though, cos it needs tweaking. It was nice – but not nice enough. Anyway, to make it, I blended:

• a 1/2 can of chickpeas
• 15g hazelnut butter
• 1 tbsp noosh
• s + p
• cinnamon spice blend

I was having a major hummus craving, so my mix hit the spot for lunch. Aaaaah yes, lunch..it was SO good! I made the most beastliest beast of a sandwich known to man!

• 2 pieces of nice seedy bread (as in full of seeds seedy, not creepy-old-man seedy)
• lots of hazelnut hummus
• grated carrot
• roast mushrooms
• roast whole hazelnuts
• roast turnip (I love turnip!! It’s like a poor man’s parsnip :p)
• roast parsnip
• roast kale
• roast leek

YAY!

See? Doesn’t that look SO delicious!?? It seriously was! As were the rest of the roast veggies on the side 🙂

I wish I could eat that sandwich again. ALAS.

Dessert after was 2 squares of chocolate 🙂

After lunch, my mum and I walked Poppy for an hour; blates my attempt at exercise with her this morning was not sufficient/I’m way too boring, cos she was proper bouncing round the house! And then she bounced down the driveway, and down the road, and across the fields…she’s asleep now though, so whatever we did, it did the trick!

When we got back, we did the horses and then I made a smoothie. Obviously from my raaaather late lunch I was quite full, but I needed the cals; smoothies are always so easy to eat so why not? I blended up:

• 1 very ripe pear
• 1/2 cup Kara coconut milk
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• a cinnamon sprinkle

Bah, my blender was leaking everywhere as I did it, so I couldn’t blend it long enough, which meant the XG didn’t really get a chance to work it’s magic 😦 but either way, it was still tasteh 🙂 I drank it like the French do – straight from the bowl (the spoon was discarded after 1 mouthful, when I realised it would take me about an hour to eat if I did it that way…)

I also had an unpictured tbsp of Grape Nuts, just cos I like them 😀

Dinner was one of my favourriiiiteeee meals! Kamut spaghetti, kabocha and parsnip, with a tofu sauce! The sauce is so easy; tofu, blended with peanut butter, soy sauce, cinnamon, salt and pepper, and a bit of water and milk. SIMPLES!

It might look ugly, but it sure doesn’t taste it. It’s actually the most delicious, creamy, peanutty meal EVER!

I think I’m now going on another short Poppy walk (seriously, dogs have NEVER ENDING energy), then it’ll be dessert, Jonathon Ross (if there’s anyone good on) and bed. I can’t wait – it’s been like, 16hours (?) since I was last with my bed. I’ve missed it so.

Question: Have you seen the 2nd Twilight film? I’m seeing it this Sunday (my friend bought it specially so she could make me watch it!), which I’m very excited about! BUT, the 2nd book was so bad…I’m wondering if the film is any better!?

What’s your favourite film? That is SUCH a hard question to answer…I love everything from The Terminator to Black Beauty to Remember Me to Moulin Rouge!! I totally couldn’t pick 😛

Read Full Post »

Did you know…

…that I’ve kept a food diary every day, since October 2008? Bet you didn’t 😀 I only bring it up cos I just read Kath’s post about her old food journals, and it reminded me 🙂 I adore reading over them sometimes, and seeing how I used to eat. It’s so fascinating! I was thinking it’d be fun (fun – yes, I use the term loosely :P) to start putting at the end of each post a random day of how I used to be. It’d be interesting to see how far I’ve come – would anyone else be interested? Do you think it’s a good idea? Let me know your thoughts 🙂

———

Mondeeeee, I hate Mondeee. It’s been weird and damp and overcast here today – er, where did June go?? Seriously?? It’s actually not funny. Yet it’s still muggy… though when I got up this morning, I was boiling hot; I touched the radiator and it was blasting!?? So I went to go turn it off, but the heating was already set to off..yet the radiators were on…I’m obviously very dim, but this confused me massively. Am I missing something? Any heating experts/plumbers who read my blog who’d care to shed some light on this weird phenomenon?? Hm. Anyway! I ate powdered through the tropical temperatures, ate an apple, a square of chocolate and 2 tsp wheatgerm and then did some DVDs. Theeen I had a big EGM:

It was gooood today; I used a smaller banana, and less spinach, but added in a very soft, juicy pear – it created a whole new flavour! DELIGHTFUL!

I have actually finished my Lizzi’s Chocolate Granola (one of my toppings) now *sob* – but FEAR NOT! I replenished my stock today was some Maple & Treacle granola, so there’s no need to panic folks 🙂

After breakfast I went into town to pick up some food, pay in some cheques for my mamma, and buy a bargain:

Yes, that’s SIX [crappy chick lit] books for £4.99! Reduced from £42!! I actually could not believe my luck – I’m a huge chick lit fan 😛 Although I have read the book on the top right – but still, 5 books for less than the price of one. Can you say cheap!?

When I got back, I tucked into lunch. I actually had it all packed up cos I thought I’d be out over lunch, but I obviously had my Wonder Woman wings on today, and so was far quicker. Lunch conseeesteeed of: aubergine, carrot, courgette and cherry tomatoes, coated in apple sauce and cinnamon:

Apple sauce + tomatoes – a slightly strange combination…but nevertheless, it went down the hatch.

The other part of lunch was a delightful basil tofu, grated beetroot, salad leaves, flaked almonds and tomato puree sandwich:

A beauty of a sandwich! I enjoyed every bit 😀 Dessert was a few squares this skanky chocolate:

I’ve had dairy free chocolate before, and normally it’s lovely – but this was GROSS. Remind me NEVER to buy that stuff again :s

After lunch, I pretended to be a good housewife, and whipped up some dinner for my mum and me (well, I prepped it anyway – I didn’t have dinner at 3pm…). I made (AT LAST!) Emily’s famous black bean burgers! I have been DYING to try these out for soooo long! The only changes I made was to use red kidney beans instead of black beans (black beans are so hard to get hold of!), and garlic instead of onion powder (as I had none :/). Oh, and I had to use the blender, not a food processor (cos we don’t have one). Not ideal, it must be said :s

I also made some Fakd bars for my mum – a blend of dried blueberries/cranberries, dates and almonds. Here everything is, all wrapped up and ready to be viciously eaten:

Good stuff 🙂

Theeen I went for a 1 mile run – I almost took Poppy and then at the last minute decided against it (it was about to rain) – thank goodness I didn’t! I almost got mauled by a nasty hideous dog, the same one that scared Chika the other day! It was running about loose, and charged me barking and growling :s I actually thought it was going to bite me, so I just stood there and tried to look a bit angry (you don’t want to look weak and scared do ya!?). After a few minutes of grrrr-ness, the owner came running after it and dragged it away. BAH. One of my pet hates: PEOPLE WHO DON’T CONTROL THEIR DARN DOGS!!!

Moving swiftly on….

For afternoon snacks, I had some cereal and peach yogurt:

My appetite was in Coventry somewhere, which was a shame 😦 but weirdly, when I’m not hungry, cereal and yogurt is the easiest, nicest thing to eat…very odd!

Dinner was oblioblously (I like saying that word like that :)) the burgers, along with red quinoa, toasted for a few minutes first to ‘bring out the flavour’ [apparently], along with beetroot, squash and parsnip. All together now:

Hurrah! The bean burgers were DELICIOUS! So full of flavour, and I loved how the outside was crispy, but the inside was all soft and plump. Delish 😀 Even my mum loved them, and she doesn’t care for red kidney beans 🙂

RIGHT. I think my mum and I are going to take Poppy for a walk now, so I best dash 🙂 I’ll be back for my dessert though :p

Have a good evening!

Read Full Post »