Maria’s review of the week

(To be sung to the Harry Hill song- eg TV highlight of the week/ longest pig wee wee of the week/ TV expert of the week etc).

But first- my breakfast;

Heavenly! One packet of Dorset cranberry porridge made with coconut milk, and a sprinkling of dessicated coconut. Added in one peach which had been chopped up and microwaved, and a blob of pb. Amazing. I need to add peaches in to my porridge more often.

Hey guys!

Guess what- this review of the week is going to be brilliant!

I was totally prepared to make my runs shorter if I was feeling bad, but I also had an idea in my head of the ideal distance, and I managed them!

Monday- 6 mile steady run. Felt good- only planned to do a 5k but kept going.

Tuesday- Aerobics- took it a little easier but still managed most of the highest impact stuff.

Wednesday- 7.5 mile run- was going to do 6 miles at the most, but felt good so kept on going.

Thursday- Body pump- stayed away from the heavy weights during the back track, and struggled (more than usual) in the shoulders track, but enjoyed it. I had a walk that day too as my legs were stiff from the run the day before.

Friday- Originally was considering a short run, but decided to be sensible and rest to up my chances for the saturday run. Had a walk instead.

Saturday- 13 miles! I did it! I am still excited about this today. It was hard work (but I was expecting that),but I was so glad to complete it, psychologically as well as physically.

Sunday- rest day! And a nice walk.

This week has been a bit leap in terms of total miles- 27 miles run. My longest week before this was 22.5 miles, and that was a while back. So on reflection it was more important that I did not run on friday, but gave me legs a little rest.

I kept my compression socks on all night too, and my calves feel alright today. My hips were stiff on the walk, but not unbearable- I was worried I would be joining the ministry of silly walks, but I must be saving that for after the longer runs.

Today I have continued to get my bake on!

Yesterday I made pumpkin pie from my beloved Hummingbird book, and I had some pastry off cuts (I do not make pastry normally, sorry) so made a mini one too, which I tried, for quality control purposes of course.

Yummy- I totally love pumpkin pie and I don’t think it should be confined to autumn.

I had pumpkin left over, which meant one thing (mainly because I keep on forgetting to put it in my porridge)- cookies!

Pumpkin cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar . Reducing the pumpkin puree was a bit of a faff, but once that was done, the dough took 5 minuites to get together. Fab. The recipe calls for oat flour, but I could not be bothered to get out the mini chopper and so I used normal oats, and also it required corn starch (corn flour) which I did not have, so I left it out, but they seem fine. Also pretty low cal- 72 cals per cookie, as they have hardly any margerine in them.

I also had some evaporated milk left over (again from the pumpkin pie) and was searching the web for something to use it up in. Peanut butter fudge kept coming up, only the recipes required marshmallow fluff as an ingredient. Anyway, once this idea was in my head, I went for it.

In a pan went 2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup evaporated milk and 2tbs golden syrup,Β which I heated it up until it got to the soft ball stage on the sugar thermometer. Then I stirred in 4tbs smooth peanut butter, and 1tsp vanilla. I stirred it about a bit, then poured into a pan that I lined with greaseproof paper. It didn’t need long to cool (maybe 30 mins) so it is already cut up and in a tin.

It is not as crumbly as the fudge I normally make, and the peanut flavour is very strong, so I would perhaps reduce the amount I added in if I made it again. But anyway, a pretty good way to use up the leftovers.

So in keeping with my positive theme- what happened to you this week that was brilliant?

πŸ™‚

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11 thoughts on “Maria’s review of the week”

  1. Glad you’ve had such a great week! Your cookies and fudge look amazing. I’ve had loads of brilliant things happen this week, signing up for my course, getting my camera and garmin and signing up for body pump finally πŸ™‚

  2. Your week sounds GREAT and I LOVE the positivity!! Everything looks DELISH! Send me some vegan cookies pretty please? πŸ™‚

    Aaah so much good stuff has happened this week that I don’t know where to start!! All the Whole Foods trips, and I think the best thing has to be the vegan chocolate-raspberry truffle cake I ate. I HAVE to recreate that! I could not BELIEVE it was vegan! SO yummy! πŸ˜€

  3. OMG, I am so impressed! Seriously. Awesome review of your workouts — shaboom! — and then mini pumpkin pie and FUDGE! I hardly ever ate fudge as a veggie, but on the odd occasion that I did, I used to LOVE it. You can tell by how I’m capitalizing stuff!!

    Remember to still take things cautiously this week, with the jump in mileage and return to work your body has a lot to deal with after only just getting over an illness.

    Have a good Sunday evening πŸ™‚

  4. Your review of the week is indeed brilliant: it’s interesting to see your peaks and dips in energy and it might be interesting to perhaps reflect on what might have caused the tiredness etc on the more ‘down’ days?

    I’m so happy you had a positive week: roll on the next one, it seeems πŸ™‚

    xxx

  5. Great week! I love all your baking. I really need to bake more – I’m more of an on-the-hob person. I’m revising next weekend, so perhaps I’ll do some baking then to procrastinate πŸ™‚

  6. Mmmm peanut fudge, now that has got to be good!

    The best thing to happen to me this week was doing a food swap with a fellow US blogger – I got sent some great stuff including a jar of White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter that I have wanted to try for ages! It has literally made my week. πŸ™‚

  7. Drool! I love peanut butter fudge! I’ve made Sophie Dahl’s recipe before – not usually someone I’d think of to get cooking ideas from but it turned out really well!! Problem is Liam refused to eat it (he’s funny about combinations of flavours!) so I ended up eating whole batch myself!!

    Glad you liked the peaches in the porridge, looks good! πŸ™‚

  8. congratulations on the running! Brilliant, not only that you topped your best but the ones when you felt so good you kept going πŸ™‚
    The fudge looks brilliant. Did you find that all the recipes that came up called for chocolate in them?? I’ve got nothing against chocolate, far from it, but I think fudge is better without!

  9. Love all the capitals in the comments πŸ™‚
    Laura- I hope you enjoy body pump- I am excited for you!
    Emma- your week sounds brilliant as usual.
    Alison- you are very right about the jump in mileage and also returning to work so I will be being careful on my runs. I never used to make fudge, but then a friend gave me a sugar thermometer, and it turns out that people at work love fudge more than cakes or cookies.
    Jessica- you are right I need to think about it- I think it’s the evening workouts that are harder- I must naturally have more energy in the mornings. But I am going to keep an eye on it.
    Sarah- baking is an excellent way to spend/ waste time/ procrastinate!
    Stacey-I saw about your food swap= white chocolate pb sounds soooo amazing!
    Lucy- yes thanks to your idea I love peaches in porridge yummy! I take stuff to work so that it is not just me and Andy eating all of it!
    Jemma- thanks πŸ™‚
    Eleanor- yes so many of them had chocolate, and you are right I think fudge it nicer on it’s own, or with chocolate chips- I have never had success when mixing it right in.
    Laura- I had just watched Harry Hill when I typed it!

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