It finally happened!!

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

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

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

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

—–

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

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

Ok, two.

Two is enough.

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

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

—

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

Served alongside….what else, roasted veggies!!

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

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

Ummmm…did it work?

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

I got a bit carried away taking pictures 😛

It WORKED! It

was

delicious

🙂

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

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

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

*insert picture of oats here*

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

Oh well.

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

So I made some more 🙂

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

…for the dippeh-dippeh, obvs.

5 stars 🙂

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

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

Bars:

Jar:

Mission: accomplished.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Highlights of my weekend 🙂

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

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Freya Say Relax

Yeah she does.

(source)

You know who needs to relax? Chika baby:

I adore taking photos of horse eyes 🙂

Poor thing, she is SO tense at the moment – after the hunt came through ‘our grounds’ (as the posh folk say :p) the other say – horses, hounds, horns – she’s been a tight ball of tension 😦 Soo today, to RELEASE the fury, I just took her in the school loose and let her do her thang 🙂

Ok, now I got a little carried away :p

How can you not get carried away, photographing Chika!!?? Good gosh I love this mare.

I lova ma baba.

—–

BOOOOOyeah. I finished testing all my five year olds for my dissertation project todayio! And let me tell y’all, what a RELIEF to have that job done! It was kinda fun today – the five year olds I worked with were super sweet (and smart as buttons) and so keen to do the task. AND the school was SO lovely – it made me want to be a primary school teacher! Seriously, it was impossible to feel sad in a school like that. Bright and airy and fun feeling. *Sigh*

Before I left, I fitted in (is that a phrase, ‘fitted in’? Hmm) a workout – Jillian Level 3 30 Day Shred, and a few random other circuits and sections, total time – an hour. I ate a monster apple before, and then had some delish oats after 🙂 Today, I cooked them with a scoop of Vega vanilla-almond mix for an added protein hit:

That would be my own personal crack cereal on top. I’m a cereal addict when it comes to brown crunchy varieties…

`Twas horrendously yummy.

On the side, I had a lil baby orange – now I simply have to show you this photo, as living proof that I could peel the whole skin off in one piece 😀

I still feel so very proud of myself, when I manage that 🙂

Then it was school fun, THEN a baby pear, which I started to eat and then had to chop up cos I still have that nasty mouth ulcer 😦

The sting was worth it though! That beast was full of juice 😀

THEN there was a walk/run, THEN I made a real, proper recipe!

Curried cauliflower rice and lentils!

Hmm..I’m not sure whether to do the recipe today, or do it in my next post as this one is already photo heavy…..maybe next post 🙂 Here’s a taster:

I was actually really quite proud of myself for making something so tasty and different! Maybe I’m clawing my way out of that silly food rut I’ve been in!!?? Herrrre’s hopin’.

Afternoon activities included horsey playtime, flooding the field with water after I forgot to turn the tap off [filling their field water] for the second time today – I like to do my bit for the environment…! -, and baking mocha chip muffins, minus the mocha:

They turned out pretty well considering I didn’t have any soya yogurt, so subbed with 3tbsp soya milk soured with lemon juice 😀 genius right!? I got that tip off of the comments bit on the webpage 🙂 Oh, I am so resourceful sometimes.

So I got my green in me today too, in a form other than muffin cases – a banana-kale-chocolateVegaMix-soya milk green monster:

Doesn’t everyone top their smoothies with bran flakes? No? Just me? Oh ok.

Which was the carby greeness to balance out a chocolate-ofied meal!

Cocoa roasted veggies, with tofu marinated in cocoa balsamic vinegar. Bliss.

(by the by – if you’ve never had a green smoothie, I urge you too! You can NOT taste the green! Start with a handful of spinach, 1/2 – 1 c. milk, and a banana (plus cinnamon, nutmeg, peanut butter – whatever you fancy) and go from there. It’s delicious!)

Obvs I continued the chocolate theme with proper good dark chocolate for dessert 😀

But now, bed time calls me. it’s 11pm on a Friday night, and I literally feel like I’m going to pass out with tiredness. Since when did I become such an old lady!!??

Question: Favourite way to relax?

When do you go to bed? Are you an early bird or a night owl?

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Redeeming myself

Guten abend, readers from far and wide. How are we all on this fine pre-Hump Day-day?

I felt like I needed to redeem myself today – why? Cos yesterday, a) I had oatmeal for dinner, which is boring, and b) the muffins I made were NOT up to scratch. Nothin’ wrong with them as such…but I’m a perfectionist, and I wasn’t happy!

So, first job when I got home (after eating and seeing to the horsey shaped lumps in the field) was BAKING! I used this recipe, except I added in crushed walnuts, shredded toasted coconut, and chopped fresh dates. Oh, and nutmeg in place of the cardo-whatever, cos I had none. That makes sense right? Anyway:

Muffins!

Lots of big fat beautiful muffins!

They smelled divine, and are definitely an improvement on yesterday 🙂 Success! Baking skillz redeemed. Though I’ve now run out of black bananas…Le sigh.

Next redeemation project (yes, not a word, i know) – dinner! I was flicking through Eat, Drink & Be Fabulous (ok, Vegan) and I stumbled upon this recipe:

It sounded yummeh, so I turned it into a marinade for some tofufu:

Blob of mustard.

A few splashes of apple balsamic (I never measure marinades, plus I had no apple cider :'()

Agave, lemon juice, cinnamon, mixed spice (no cumin, I couldn’t find it in the cupboard. Darn our huge spice collection/poorly laid out cupboard!!!)

I let the tofu sit in the mix whilst I got on with the rest of my day, which involved – as y’all so kindly asked – frozen grapes:

And oatmeal (1/2 c. oats, 1 & 3/4c. water, salt, vanilla extract, cinnamon, milk at the end):

Photo-toe-doed on a beautiful wrinkled tea towel :p

Pre-breakfast, i’d had a small apple, and did a ‘brick workout‘ of sorts – see, I’m trrrrying to keep my endurance running fitness up, without running – so i’ve taken to attacking my dvd workout collection with fury (praise be for Jillian!) and then going for a 3mile ish walk/run (mainly walking!). I really hope my fitness doesn’t go….

ANYWAY!

After oats, I shot off to uni to meet up with my dissertation partner and attend a tres dull lecture (on the history of psychology. Dry dry dry). I ate the most foul orange/clementine whilst I was there, drank some coffee, and ate a mini oatmeal raisin Clif bar 🙂 On the way home, I had some roasted celeriac/parsnip, and demolished this pear I’d been craving ALL. DAY.

Be gone, pear! Be gone.

Cereal and soya milk aussi made an appearance:

Coming home was good, cos these babies arrived!

Shin sleeves! Can i afford them? No. BUT if they mean I can run again, I don’t care 😀 I’ll test them out tomozzle, and see what happens.

Whilst we’re on the subject of running, I’m a published writer! Uni newspaper:

Article by moi:

With my name spelt wrong. Hmph.

You know what’s annoying? They EDITED my article, so any heart, soul, spirit (and grammatical correctness….!!!) it had are GONE! I actually really don’t like what is published at all, the sentence structure is awful, and I’m really sad that my original article became that 😦 Here’s hoping the second article is more true to life!

Ok – back to my tofu! I fried it:

And it was good 😀 Lemon juice and mustard are two flavours I very rarely use – and heck knows why, cos they are SUPER!!!

DinnerSelf – redeemed.

Dessert was chocolate, obviously:

And a lonnnnng date with my textbooks. The excitement never ends.

Have you ever had a sports injury?

Have you ever tried using shin sleeves?

(ps – aren’t you proud of me!? Three days, three posts! I’m on a roll :p)

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Under the sea

I have trouble sleeping!

A LOT of trouble sleeping! Last night I was practically falling asleep, I was so tired..yet I couldn’t actually sleep. My mind was busy with a billion different things (hence why I have a little notepad by my bed) and last night, I was thinking about blog posts. In a moment of sheer genius (or exhaustion?) I came up with a theme for my post this evening, so i quickly scribbled it down – ‘under the sea…swan lake…friday night…’….saayyaa whaaa-?

I had no idea what all that meant today :p

Til just now, when i looked at my photos, saw the sea spaghetti I ate, and everything came flooding back! See, look: sea spaghetti:

Funky stuff. Dry as a bone, soak it for an hour, it expands like mad and tastes like seaweed;

I paired it with my remaining tofu sea cake at lunch on Sunday:

Along with soy-sauce/garlic stir fried cabbage, and lots n lots (n lots) of veggies.

Can you tell I love my veg? Oh yes. It’s addiction. The sea spaghetti though…meh. I bought it AGES ago as a speshal treat for my fine self, had it once, then forgot about it. I think it had dried out a bit too much and wasn’t as impressive 😦 either that, or I’m losing my health-freak charm alas.

Do pancakes count as healthy? I think they do when you make them with spelt and some other flour and mashed banana right in the batter, with a yogurt/peanut flour/Dessert Dukkah sauce, 1/2 a mashed Nah-Nah, frozen grapes, and puff cereal:

Boi boi!

Obvs, as I liked these, there’s an abundance of similar photos. You know me…

Mini nubbin pancake:

Bliss! That was Sunday’s breakfast though – my rushed Monday morning breakfast did little for the imagination –

• 1/2 c. oats
• 1.5 c. water
• salt
• cinnamon
• vanilla extract
• cold soya milk splashed over at the end

I sat it on Women’s Running magazine so you’d at least have something interesting to look at 🙂

I love plain oats now 🙂 I also love frozen grapes:

And perfectly ripe bubbah pears:

Lunch ( a protein bar, an apple and a cup o’ coffee – yep, told you my eats were dull at the moment! I didn’t have time for anything else before my lecture :() didn’t hold me over thaaaat long, so 3hrs later, it was time for cereal+milk, as soon as I walked through the door:

Actually, the pear came first, cos I wanted to eat something before I did the important-immediate things I had to do asap when I walked in, but whatevz. Noone cares about chronological orders in this day and age.

Dinner was oats. Again. Cooked with carob powder, fruit syrup sweetener, salt, and cooked mashed butternut squash and cinnamon. No picture cos it was ugly and dull :p There was squishy roast parsnips covered in bbq sauce on the side though! Yum 🙂

Dessert today – yep, I’m still at the dark chocolate!

I also had a bite of a chocolate-banana muffin (E,D&BV baking) that I baked as soon as I got home:

Sadly, I wasn’t that impressed 😦 BUT I did change the flours from the recipe without altering anything else, so they were a little dry 😦 I also overmixed. Oh well!

—-

Now, back to the beginning of the post – my weird ramblings that I wrote on my pad? WELL – I remember now – I WAS going to say that the sea spaghetti reminded me of my favourite Disney film, The Little Mermaid (LOVE. it. I fancy Eric!), which reminded me of the highly underrated film cartoon The Swan Princess; dang that was a good cartoon! Odette, I used to love her 🙂 I was THEN going to suggest that you crazy folk head over to Blockbuster on your next Friday night and rent it…but now, this whole blurb doesn’t make as much sense as it did at 1.30am last night. Maybe I’ll stop typing.

—

Running update!

Still hurts 😦 tomorrow, I’m gonna phone up the Quack and try and get an appointment. It’s SO horrible not being able to run. This morning, I set out on a 3mile power walk, but ended up doing a 50minute 4mile walk-run, running til it started to hurt, then walking. I know, I know – not ideal. But oh my GOSH I miss it. When I was running pain-free, it was so effortless and blissful and I felt amazing….I feel like Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbour, when he has crappy eyesight and he says ‘don’t take my wings from me!’ (re his plane). I feel JUST like that; after all, my life is very comparable to a Hollywood world war 2 blockbuster film about blokes 🙂

Question: What’s your favourite Disney film? And don’t say you don’t have one – EVERYONE has at least one Disney film they like!

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Just food

You asked for it!

Ok, maybe you didn’t, I did..but still! As the overwhelming majority (ie everyone who commented) voted that I start doing everyday posts again, that is what I shall try and do! Ask and yee shall receiveth.

But for now, I leave you with some recent eats – hardly a wild post today is it? My excuse is that it’s Sunday evening. That’s all I’ve got. I’m not sure how that’s an excuse, but it is 🙂

My mum and I split one of the new flavour Nakd bars the other day – verdict? Impressive! It has REAL raspberries in, raw and all (as opposed to dried) and you could sure taste them. Nice and tart 🙂

If I said that was the best tofu I’d ever made, would you believe me? You should cos ohemgee it was reaaaal good! I marinated tofu slices in freshly squeezed (and very tart) orange juice, apple balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, cinnamon and fruit sweetener syrup and then pan fried it til crispy. With the leftover marinade, I added it into the pan at the end of cooking, so it reduced down and became a sticky glaze.

Holy.

Yum.

Melon (still rockin’ the Christmas plate 😀 you’ll see it in summer too! There’s always time for Christmas time, as they say) – part of a rushed mid-week breakfast, along wiiiiiittthh:

Oats, o’ course. Cooked simply with salt, water, cinnamon and vanilla essence, then extra milk added at the end. Swimming in it, obvs.

Hot oats + cold milk = true bliss.

The return of Whole Foods-bought sea cakes!!

I love love LOVE these things! SO meaty and thick and scrummy 😀 I stuffed one in a piece of tomato paste/basil toast as part of a super quick lunch after I spent the morning testing 19 (yes NINETEEN) five year olds for my dissertation. Man they’re excitable.

Fresh basil – my crappy attempt at presentation 😀 Makes all the difference, right? RIGHT?

Sadly, this particular sea cake had all the water, but little of the sea – ie, it tasted like tofu, and not much else 😦 where was all the fancy sea-flavour from last time!?

Of course, no meal is complete without vegetables 🙂 Soo I roasted up some very, very sorry looking broccoli with a few other bits to have on the side 🙂

I always feel sorry for veggies when they’re on their last legs 😦 they look so lonely and sad!! I’m ALWAYS the one eating the skanky mushrooms (when I don’t really like them) or having that last bit of wrinkly pepper..it’s irritating But I hate waste so…one does what one has to do.

:O

OHHH remember how I got the Eat, Drink & Be Vegan cookbook for Christmas?? WELL! I made the spiced chocolate cookies the other day:

Oh.

My.

They are SO awesome! Big and hearty and chunky and chocolate-y and the spice really shines through! One of the best batch of cookies I’ve ever made, IMHO 😀 I finally think I’ve conquered cookies now; the first time I ever baked cookies, i had these flat, weird crappy things that tasted wrong and looked like junk, and I vowed never to bake them again. Gradually, as time has passed and wounds have healed, I think cookies and I are back on track. It’s love.

Talking of love and cookies, I made pancakes for breakfast! I was doing some blog catching up before bed on Friday and was reading Jess’ post about her buckwheat pancakes. They just sounded so darn good, so i made a note on my lil bedside notepad that THEY WOULD BE BREAKFAST on Saturday! (all part of my ‘get out of the food rut’ thing :p) And breakfast they were!

I made a slight change; instead of 1/4 c. buckwheat flour, i did a 1/4c. mix of gram, spelt and peanut flour, + added cinnamon (cos I add cinnamamam to everything and anything) and salt (I got my sweat on with a Jillian workout just before, hence the need for salty goodness).

Topped with melted mashed banana (heated in the microwave with milk), date sizzup, crushed walnuts, toasted coconut flakes aannd…I think that was it 🙂

Can you tell I liked these!?

Sometimes, I can’t decide between photos of things I love – hence why you end up getting a trillion photos of the same thing 😀 Pancakes from this angle, pancakes from THIS angle, pancakes from THIs angle…you get the drift.

*GASP*! I almost forgot the Dessert Dukkah sprinkle!

Sorry for the blur :p

I tellz ya – best pancakes I’ve ever had! Thick, soft, doughy, delicious! And the banana coconut walnut thing was pretty darn cool too 😀 I really must start doing more recipes 🙂 And boy, they had some staying power sheesh! I actually finished them at 12am (or pm?), cos I had a lie-in aaall the way til 9.30am which was BLISS! I’ve been sleeping terribly recently – sleep at 2am+, waking up in the night, up at 7am, so the lie-in was well overdue :s But yeah, I finished them late, and then really didn’t want any lunch….enter an orange/balsamic/soy sauce bake of broccoli, butternut and aubergine:

Twas ugly, but good 🙂 Most things in life are. le sigh.

Non-foodie related happenings this weekend……..hmmmm…..

I worked Ze Orse, who was VERY fresh after her week off – wind and cold and [yet more] lions in the grass didn’t help. But she controlled herself – just! – and we had a nice session 🙂 I also watched a trailor for Scream 4 (CAN”T WAIT!) and watched the first 2 episodes of 30 Rock season3 (LOVE IT), did 40mins of power yoga (good old Kristin McGee and her MTV dvds) and I started work on my 2nd article for my student newspaper at uni 🙂 The first one was on running for beginners. This one is on superfoods, the top5, and 5 recipes 😀 YAY! Oh, and Kovac brought in a dead (shot) pheasant, and got it stuck in the catflap. Just the usual everyday happenings really….

See ya tomozzo! (maybe :p)

Oh – ps – running update; I ran 3miles today after a week off from running, and there was still lots of shin pain 😦

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The Curious Case of the Painful Shins

Don’t forget to enter my give away!

Sorry for the wordy post..better wordy than nothing right!!?? At least I hope so…

I swear this week I don’t know if I’m coming or going! The work has piled up already, and I’m having THE hardest time trying to sort out schools and nurseries for going in with my trusty laptop to test the children. All these darn rules and regulations – they all seem to think I’ve come to kidnap the children, or at least cause them serious physical or mental harm (fyi – I won’t be doing either). Gah.

Onwards and upwards right?

Well, actually not really 😦 So, last week was a strange one, running wise. I did a Grande Total of 40miles (equal to the toughest week in my novice training plan for the marathon last year) – 2 x 6milers (one of which was broken down into two, 3miles), 1 x 5miler, 2 x 6.5milers, plus 1 day off and a 10mile run on Sunday. I’ve been building up to this mileage for a while now, keeping the old 10% rule in mind – but my runs on Saturday and Sunday (two three milers on Sat, 10miles Sun) were…..hellish, to say the least.

In fact, I almost had to give up completely on Sunday. Why?

PAIN!

Lots n lots of PAIN!

Down the front of my shins….ie, I think I have shin splints.

Which is crap.

Especially since:

• I have brand new running shoes (same as the ones I got professionally fitted)
• I haven’t disobeyed the 10% rule (don’t increase mileage more than 10% week to week)
• I haven’t suddenly upped my pace
• I haven’t stopped eating right
• I’m not dehydrated
• I have rest/easy days
• ….get my drift?

I seem to be following the rules, so why is this happening?? On Saturday, I had to stop – literally – every .3 of a mile to relieve my legs. On Sunday, I desperately wanted to do a long run, so I decided to go for it and arranged to meet my kind hearted mumma at the 6mile point, so if I felt awful, she could drive me home. Sadly, I did feel awful. The pain down the front of my legs was intense! But ONLY when running, and after about .1 or .2 of a mile did it kick in. The second I walked, the pain would go. When I met my mum at mile6, I was only 3miles from home, so I arranged to walk for 2miles (I needed the headspace time!) and then meet her again.

I think mentally, knowing I was going to see her helped, cos I ran walked those 2miles, at about a 12min/mile pace, walking as soon as I felt pain. I got to our meeting point early, so I ran/walked another mile or so, at about a 10.30pace, then I met her and she dropped me off 1/2 mile from home, so i could finish bang on 10miles. I have never, ever EVER not done the mileage I set out to do, hence why i sooo badly wanted to finish!

My total time was 1hr40, averaging a 10min/mile pace – but that time doesn’t include all the stopping to stretch, talk to my mum etc. I was actually out of the house for just over 2hrs.

I’m not really sure where to go from here…

My mum suggested I go see a physio, cos maybe my style of running is at fault and is causing stupid pressure points and so on, each time I hit the ground(after all, the trainer foot people, when I went to get gait analysis for my Brooks, told me I had a really weird gait!) – suuuucks, cos they cost a BOMB!

My other option is to start focusing on doing some more core work, to improve my running style; Runner’s World told me core work is very, very important for runners, and DOES lessen the chance of injury, cos you’re more stable and strong as you run- sooo maybe it’s my (sloppy?) style that is putting my legs out of whack? (holy batman I have a gum craving right now, as I type this…)

The other option is, of course, to stop running. Buuutt, i am really not happy about that – I’m entered for a half marathon in a few weeks, I have a marathon planned later in the year, and to be honest- I NEED my running right now! For stress relief, for a sense of freedom and accomplisment,..running has become so much a part of ME that I would really struggle if I had to stop for weeks on end! Naaa wha’ ah meeen?

The other thing which I learnt from Runner’s World (I love that magazine – seriously though RW, why the big bucks in cost!!? Not fun!) was about symptoms of overtraining.…

Poor performance during training (apparently so, if Sunday was anything to go by)

Persistent muscle soreness (when running – yes)

Altered sleep patterns (YES – I’ve had many 2am cereal snacks recently…)

Reduced appetite (yes – ironic considering what I just typed above :p)

Elevated pules (no idea, I’d love to start keeping track!)

Mood disturbances (yes)

Am I overtraining?

Gah bajeezahs, am I doing too much??! Am I doing the right amount for me? Is my pain an INJURY or just tiredness? Should I see a physio? Should I take a week off from running (do DVDs instead) and see what happens? Should I crawl into a dark hole, slice off my own legs, and re-grow them, alien style?

HEELLPPP!!

*UPDATE* (the next day – I write some of my posts in advance)

I watched this video (actually, the first two) about running form and heel striking (I have crap form), posted by (the hilarious and fabulous blog lady!) Marie, on Tuesday night, and decided to try out the running tips on Wednesday. I did 1mile, making sure to flick my heels up and have my wheel behind me (it would make sense if you watched the videos!). I THINk there was less pain, but there was still pain…so I’m not really sure what to do. Time for a physio?

—–

To ease my mental pain on Sunday, my late lunch consisted of one of the best dishes on earth – Oats in a jar. It was the ONLY thing that could even slightly lift my ground level mood….

Spill over on the side :p (it was a mini jar)

Sadly, it wasn’t as spezzal as I remembered it to be! WHY Why!!???? Boooo.

Maybe it was just my mood? Even Stinky Chika outside couldn’t put a smile on my face:

She was a naughty pony – full of spooks and freshness. Blasted horses! Normally she can read my mood like a book, and knows when she need to be angelic, and when she can mess around and I’ll just chuckle. Obvs today, we were a bit out of sync! Alas.

There have been two cheery things of late though!

1) A very belated Christmas present from my mum arrived the other day:

SO many chickpea recipes – riiiight up my street.

YAY! I’ve been wanting this cookbook for SO long, and really, I am tremendously excited now 😀 Cooking passion = reignited! (In fact, as I type, I have some tofu marinating in a modified recipe :D)

2) This stuff, which I picked up on my London trip last Friday:

SO worth the £12 (though my poor, sad bank balance doesn’t think so :'()

Chocolate and balsamic? oh yes.

I used it to marinate some tofu (mixed with extra cocoa powder):

Which was then fried up:

Delish! It was nice to eat something other than cereal and yogurt, or oatmeal…..

(bang on 0.250kg!! And that was just chance! wowzer)

[my step dad’s car died, hence the car adverts, FYI]

Being extra busy means less time for proper cooking 😦 Oooooh well.

Anywayz, this post has been long enough right!? Please please do help me out with any running advice y’all might have..I really need it at the moment! OH – and if anyone British would like to do a food swap with a lovely American girl (who has PEANUT FLOUR) shoot me an email, and I’ll get you in touch 🙂 * someone found! So don’t worry 🙂

Ps – that darn gum craving is STILL here – why why whhyyyy do I have to run out of gum now!?

PPS – the search term (to get to my blog) ‘brit chick, keep on running!!!’ was too cute ;p as was ‘I desperately want to move to the uk’ – eerr why?

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I needed that

Erro erro!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway – moving swiftly on!

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

yes, they are Christmas themed socks.

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

Ok, NOW how about a food photo?

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

NOW here is some food:

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

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

I needed that 🙂

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

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

Which led to some rather queer shapes….

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

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

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

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

1/2 c. soya milk

1 tsp baking powder

1 or 2 tsps cocoa powder

mixed spice

salt

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

But after a bit longer, I was getting somewhere:

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

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

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

The BEST smoothie non-green epic green monster ever!

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

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

Jammy buns! 🙂

So cute and so simple!

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

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

Goodnight cherubs!

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The day after the day before

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

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

Anyway – Christmas day!

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

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

Drooling yet?

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

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

ANYWAY! Where was I?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holiday Tofu!

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas-y tofu 😀

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

Then it was time to begin….

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

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

My plate:

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

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

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

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

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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!!??

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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?

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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!!??

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