Waiting for the post…

I am looking forward to the post this week as I have ordered a few bits from www.ethicalsuperstore.co.uk. I had an email for free postage for any spend over £10, when usually it is higher than that. I do like getting things from there that you can’t normally get in shops. I have ordered some millet and quinoa flakes as I might have a go at making my own muesli (without the yucky dried milk or whey powder that all but Dorset cereals have). I will post the recipe on here once I sort a nice one out. I also ordered some cacao nibs as the cocoa beans from Graze have been super tasty so I might add those to yoghurt to liven it up a bit. Plus some meridian cherry spread (this is so good in 0% yoghurt) and some blueberry spread to try. I often order hazelnut or cashew butter from there too, but have not used all of mine yet and I can’t justify the cupboard space to store things that I don’t need. Fingers crossed it all arrives soon!

For lunch today I tried something new; Rye bread with quinoa and amaranth, spread with cream cheese. I served it with cucumber sticks, pear slices and a yoghurt. It was super tasty! I have had “normal” rye bread before and I am not sure if the flavour is that much different, but it was lovely and dense and filling with that lovely strong rye flavour.

After work I had a Trek Peanut and Oat bar. These are my favourite (although variety is good- I would get bored if I had only these); anything peanut-butter-flavoured is always good. They are made of dates, raisins, oats, peanuts, soya crispies, peanut butter, apple juice, maize starch, ginkgo biloba and ginseng extract. Each bar is 68g, with 239 calories, 11g protein (super filling) and 33g carbs (good for before a workout). Good for a vegetarian (with the protein) and have just read on the pack that they are vegan also. The bar is dense but moist, tasty and filling, and totally delicious!

It is aerobics later on and I am looking forward to it, especially as I missed it last week. If only I could use my new gadget!

A grand day out and running with my new gadget!

Well the weather was not so bad so we set off for Hampton court this morning. When we got near, there was hail (yes, hail in May!). There were a few showers but thankfully we were always near the indoor bits when it rained so we managed to stay dry. We had a lovely day wandering around, we even managed the maze (well it took all of 5 minutes!) and a nice walk around the gardens. The biggest grape vine in the world was pretty impressive.

On our way home we popped to the shops, and both of us treated ourselves (both using birthday money) to a new pair of trainers. They both had the Nike+ hole in the shoe, so when we got home we both fitted them in and went off on a short run to try them out. My it was windy out there today! I was pretty impressed with how easy it was to start the Nike+ band, and I managed the 3.25 mile course in 33 minutes (not bad for me), although the band estimated that it was 3.8 miles. If only I had longer legs! I have re-calibrated it so hopefully it will be more accurate on my next run.

I have spent a bit of time fiddling around on the Nike website, and think I will get the hang of it. I have not joined any of the challenges yet but I am sure I will at some point.

Had another slice of carrot cake this evening (it is so tasty- if you have the book then try the recipe out!!!).

Birthday surprises! And make your own birthday cake.

Well I have had a lovely birthday today. I was most excited to be given a Nike+ sports band (pink one!) to complement my running. This may see an end to my notebooks with lists of runs and times. Or maybe I will still keep them just in case the computer loses the info.

The weather was not that great (wind and rain is not a good mix for a day out) so we have postponed until tomorrow. So instead I made myself a birthday cake (carrot cake from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook). I cooked it in 2 tins instead of 3 (only have 2 that are the same size) so it needed longer. Also it said to use double the amount of cream cheese frosting but one lot seemed plenty. You can tell this is an American recipe book! Yet again I forgot about using the electric whisk for the icing, so used it for the cake batter and then got all hot and bothered making the icing by hand. I think next time I would make normal cream cheese icing (cream cheese plus icing sugar) instead of their recipe (which also has butter in it). The finishing touch was to sprinkle it with cinnamon, which would also be good to hide any lumps in the icing! Let’s face it, cinnamon makes most things taste even better.

The two of us went into the garden while the rain had stopped and managed to plant all the purchases from yesterday. The wind had battered the garden a bit though and a lot of the tulips had been blown over. Once that was done we came inside for a cup of tea (and a slice of yummy carrot cake) to warm up because it was freezing outside.

I also made some flapjacks to take to work (from Rachel’s Food for Living book)- they seemed to turn out really well. Sometimes when I make flapjacks they are too gooey and they all stick in the tin, or they are too crumbly and turn into granola when I slice them. I would definitely use the recipe again; at the bottom of the page there were ideas to make other flavour ones (ginger ones sound nice) so it’s a recipe that can be adapted.

I was also given a book about women’s running, some chai tea from Whitards (I had chocolate chai for Christmas which was yummy, am looking forward to seeing what they one is like- it’s chai tea but without black tea so just cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and a few other spices), some pretty butterfly and dragonfly sculpture things for the garden, and a lovely pink cake stand. Watch this space for my creations being displayed on a pretty cake stand instead of a plate (or the lid of a tub).

I am hoping that tomorrow I will have enough energy after my day trip that I squeeze in a run so I can try out my new toy, it’s all so exciting!!!

What to eat after a run

Well looks like my order to the weatherman worked! After my breakfast I made some dough for bread later on, and then went out on a ten mile run. Sun cream-check! Sunglasses- check! Raincoat- I got it ready but decided to leave it behind. I was pretty pleased with my time of 105 minutes, but by the end I was really flagging; I had run out of water and I was so hot, and yet again I have had a headache all day. I think I am going to investigate proper hydration drinks instead of water as I think it may be due to dehydration. My run was lovely; I saw so many wild flowers growing (cornflowers, tulips, bluebells) and the weather held out the entire time.

Once home I had the other half of my banana and a Trek Cocoa Brownie Bar. One word; yum! It is similar to the Nak’d cocoa bars but I think it seems more dense. With 11g protein it seems a good choice for veggies, and the soya crispies give it a bit of a different texture. I have seen on other blogs people putting them in the microwave for a little to heat them up, so next time I might try that.

After a shower I finished making the bread. I used the recipe for foccacia bread from The Italian Dietbook, but I made 1/3 of it (so 150g flour, yeast, salt,1tbs olive oil and 100ml warm water for the dough), and changed the topping to some red pesto (the veggie stuff I got in Morrison’s the other day), tomatoes and sun blush tomatoes. It was tasty! I also shared a punnet of Graze rocky mountain mix (one of my faves- pecans, cranberries and dark chocolate buttons).

I spent the afternoon going round the garden centre and am very pleased with my purchases. I have a few plants for the garden (lavender, geranium, clematis) and then more food plants; pumpkin, butternut squash, yellow cherry tomatoes, sweet pepper, another strawberry plant (in my opinion you can never have too many strawberry plants!), and a thornless blackberry bush (for an extremely bargainous £2.99!!!). It is basically a twig with leaves on it at the moment, so not sure if I will get any fruit from it this year, but my blackcurrant bush started out as a twig (it actually arrived in the post in a jiffy bag- someone had sent off to Ribena for me and I nearly threw it away!!) and last year I got a little bit of fruit, and this year it has a lot of flowers on it. So I will be patient with my blackberries.

Tomorrow I was hoping for a day out as it’s my birthday, but as rain is forecast we may have to postpone. If not, I am planning on spending the day baking. I have carrot cake planned, and maybe some kind of flapjack (to take into work). So check back for recipe reviews tomorrow!