Author: Maria Runs

Delicious no bake fudge

I always love the recipes on Oh She Glows – they are generally so easy to follow and delicious too. I often look there for inspiration if I fancy something different for dinner, but the baked and sweet goods tempt me too!

Recently Angela posted a recipe for raw chocolate walnut fudge, and once I read the ingredients I just had to make it!

Coconut oil, nut butter (I used half almond and half peanut), cocoa powder, agave, vanilla and nuts. I used pecans as I don’t like walnuts that much, and I sprinkled on some coconut.

I have had it in the fridge (no space in the freezer as it was filled with ice lollies!) and it starts to melt as soon as you pick it up, but it is delicious. It reminds me of raw chocolate, which makes sense as it is similar ingredients. Next time (I am sure there will be a next time) I would slice into tiny squares as it was hard to hold once I had taken a bite!

Have you been tempted by any internet recipes lately? 

 

Summer starts here!

Hey peeps!
How are you all doing?

My summer is officially starting today! I have been off work for a couple of weeks now, but I spent the first week back in school, and have been doing work at home (and popping back in a couple of times too) since then. But today, no work, only packing, because tomorrow we are off on holiday!

I have managed a few runs this week- on Tuesday I went out for a run before breakfast- I listened to an audiofuel intervals podcast and tried to keep up. It starts off with a warm up, then you do 3 minutes at a fast pace, 3 min recovery, 3 mins even faster, 3 min recovery, and then 3 mins at the fastest pace. I did the whole thing 3 times- I went around the lake and across the park behind the lake which was a nice change- saw loads of rabbits! My best pace was 7.23 but that would have been for a 3 minute burst and not a whole mile of course. My actual average pace was much lower but I suppose that is because the recovery part is very slow. I do like them, but I find that the slow parts are very slow and I find myself doing comedy leaps to try to keep in time.

I wasn’t hungry at all when I got home, but I had been out for an hour so I had a few almonds and some water before I went for my shower. Then I had some fresh pineapple with a passion-fruit Danio (see the seeds?).

Then it was time for a bit of work before I went to see my Mum (3 weeks since she finally had her op and she is doing so well 🙂  ).

On the way back I stopped at Aldi for some washing tabs and things, and noticed pumpkin purée on offer for £1.29 per can- this is the cheapest I have seen it anywhere. The sign said limited stock, so I bought as many cans as I think I can fit in my cupboard!

Later after lunch (I treated myself to caramelised onion hummus- yum) I had some delicious raw chocolate fudge (thanks to Oh She Glows).

Yum! In the afternoon I did some weeding at the allotment, before coming home for some dinner.

Wholewheat pasta with cherry tomatoes, avocado, lime juice and a little salt. Summery perfection.

We spent some time in the evening getting out clothes and other things that we need, although we have searched everywhere and cannot find our adaptor plug- where is it???

Today is generally a “use up what we have in the fridge/ cupboards” day, so for breakfast I had the last cherry/ almond scone (topped with almond butter and home-made blackcurrant jam), along with a peach, some watermelon and some pineapple. I need to do some weeding in our garden, and do some cleaning at home too (does anyone else clean before a holiday? I hope that it means I won’t have to as soon as we get back home), as well as sorting out the packing.

We are off to the North/West USA to visit some of the National Parks that are there, so we will be doing plenty of walking, although I won’t be taking my running things this time.

Also, I just came across this article (linked to by Hungry Runner Girl) and it is very funny- I was looking at the St Albans Parkrun photos from last weekend and yes, there was a guy running the 5k run wearing a tri suit- why??? And also, I can’t understand how people can do any exercise without their hair tied back! I usually do a french plait with my fringe now to make sure that no strands ever break free!

What are you up to this summer?

Do you clean before you go away on holiday?

Do you commit any of those runner fashion faux pas?

PS I have written some posts and I am hoping that I have set it up right and they will come up while I am away. Fingers crossed!

Pancakes making an appearance!

For ages now our weekend breakfasts have been lovely acai bowls- frozen fruit (usually banana, cherries/ blueberries) mixed with some soya/ almond milk and acai powder.

Then top it with a little muesli (or some granola) and some fruit- last Sunday I had mine with a sliced peach and a few blueberries. That was perfect fuel for a walk together around the lakes in the summery weather.

Anyway, I have been missing my weekend pancakes, so on Monday morning I decided to have them for breakfast. I was going on a run first, so I made the batter the night before- peanut flour, wholegrain spelt flour, chia seeds, almond milk, almond extract, baking powder- and then after a shower all I had to do was wait for them to cook. Easier said than done!

I did a 5 mile run, some of it on the fields. I wanted to push the pace a bit, as often when I am on my own I plod along (don’t get me wrong, sometimes all you fancy is a run in the fresh air and the speed does not matter), and so I decided to do a little bit of intervals- really I chose a point ahead and ran faster towards that, and then slowed down again for a bit. Very unstructured, but it was enjoyable (and tough at times). I was expecting rain, but surprisingly it stayed dry even when I got home. All in all it was 5 miles in 50 minutes, with 10.15 being the average pace, but my best pace being 7.24 (not for long though I am sure!).On the way back I had finished all my podcasts so I skipped through to an audiofuel podcast (which is basically a podcast where you run in time with the music, and it is a bit like an interval session as it makes you run faster for a bit, then slower to recover)- I only did one of the intervals as then I got home, but I decided that the next run will be an entire audiofuel podcast. I used to do them quite a lot a couple of years ago, and I quite enjoyed them, so think I might get back into them again. Although I did find that the slowest beats per minute were a bit too slow- I think my stride is too short or something!

Delicious pancakes! I added blueberries while they were cooking, and had them with a big dollop of coconut peanut butter, a peach and some watermelon, plus a Tea India vanilla chai.

I felt a bit nauseous when I first got back from my run- not sure if the fast bursts were tiring me, or I was just thirsty (I did drink water before I went out but it was very muggy)- I waited a while before breakfast and just had a nuun tab in some water- that seemed to help.

Have you ever used podcasts to help with running? 

Helping and baking

Saturday started out by me picking up my Dad and brother and heading to Parkrun. I had been on a lot of runs in the week, and they needed volunteers so I had signed up in the week. This time I was barcode scanning- pretty simple you would think …

For those of you that don’t go to Parkrun, it is such a clever system- on the finishers line is someone with a timer device- they press a button each time someone finishes so it records the time, then at the same time when you finish you are handed a numbered chip, 1 for the 1st finisher and so on, and then you queue up and have your personal barcode- from the Parkrun website– scanned along with the chip so they link your barcode with the time that you finished- later on they must upload the scanners and calibrate them with the timer– it is so clever!

Anyway, they started off by announcing that last week there was a new record for fastest female at any UK Parkrun! Hannah Walker came first in the St Albans one last week, finishing in an amazing 15.55! We gave her a clap even though I don’t think she was there, although with around 200 runners it would be hard to spot everyone.

Then they headed off- the course heads off and then is 3 laps of the lake, so you can’t see most of the runners from the start/finish area, but it was not long before the first person (I keep wanting to say winner, but it is not a race!) was heading back. I liked scanning as it was good to congratulate all the runners- a few first timers asked about how it worked, and one lady pointed out that her friend had “never done anything like this in her life before” which is one of the reasons why it is so great- there are loads of children but also older people giving exercise a go.

My scanner was not very sensitive (it had trouble with laminated barcodes or sweaty ones!)- one lady handed me her barcode and it was wet (I hope from water, but possibly from sweat!)- I tried about 4 times to scan it, but it wouldn’t beep, so I tried stretching it as it was a bit wrinkly, and it ripped totally in half! I was mortified! They can take down the barcode number and link them up later, but luckily the other scanner worked! Phew!

My Dad managed a new pb (23.14- I can only dream of that time!) and my brother did well too.

After that it was a bit of pottering around town, and then some baking.

While wandering around the internet the other day I came across a recipe for Nutella cookies which looked like the easiest thing ever! All you needed was nutella, flour, an egg and some fudge pieces (which I still had from Dr Oetker).

I thought they would spread more when I baked them, but they didn’t.

They are tasty (we shared one just to check quality control purposes of course) but I am not sure they were as gooey as I expected- perhaps I should have made them bigger as then the centres would have been softer.

I also made some more scones- I used the gluten free recipe from the other day, but added in a tsp almond extract (again from my Dr Oetker parcel) and some dried cherries.

They smell wonderful!

As they were cooling all I kept getting was wafts of almond- if only Andy would let me have scones instead of a proper dinner!

Did you have a good weekend?

Waffles and walks

Gosh, Friday already! Time flies when you are having fun!

Earlier in the week I made some ice lollies and they are delicious! I could not find my ice lolly mould so I bought a new one from Lakeland (in the sale, plus the mould can be used to bake with too).

I had to measure the capacity of the moulds first- I think these came to about 250ml. I used a couple of tablespoons of coconut cream, a little agave, and then raspberries (from our allotment- the novelty is not wearing off!)- puréed it in the food processor and then into the freezer they went.

They came out of the mould really easily (they are silicone) – I was very impressed. I am already thinking about my next batch- something with peaches I think.

On Thursday I started on a watermelon- this was so refreshing. I had a busy morning (doctors visit, seeing my Mum, then going in to work) so in the afternoon I just tried to stay cool at home.

Then I went to pump- my that was a sweat fest (and battling to put on my sports bra was not fun- such hard work in the heat)! They have air-conditioning in the studio so at first it felt so cool, but that didn’t last for long. I did manage a slightly heavier weight in the biceps track (I tacked them on the outside- last time I did this I gave up a few seconds before the end as I didn’t realise we were that close to the finish), and my arms have been paying the price today!

Earlier in the week I was sent some Cocofina coconut water, so I had some to cool down with as soon as I got home- delicious. I like most coconut water that I have tried, and I loved that this was 100% coconut water, nothing else, and the 200ml carton was a great size too.

While the sun has been shining I have been going out on walks during the day too. I could not believe how brown the grass had got on the fields, but after a couple of showers it has gone back green again.

This morning I went on a run- I went on the 6.8 mile loop and listened to Marathon Talk- they had a team do the Thunder run (which is a 24 hour race where you see how many loops of a 10K route you can do- they had a team of 8 but some people did it solo- so impressive)-I found the run tough yet again, but I am not worrying about it. My next half marathon is October, so I have time in September to start increasing the length of runs, hopefully when it is cooler again.

I had some fruit and yoghurt when I got home, and then as Andy was working from home we went to The Waffle House for lunch.

I went for a fresh mint tea with a hummus and avocado waffle- Andy had one of the specials which was pulled pork with coleslaw, plus a coffee milkshake (he wanted to try one as one of our friends always raves about the milkshakes)- the dessert waffles (as always) were so tempting but we were both very full after that.

I spent the afternoon relaxing and listening to the film show on radio 4- it was good listening to them talk about films I have actually seen (we went to see The Heat on Wednesday and I giggled quite a lot during it)- then we went out on a walk  (and later we have to walk up to the allotment)- so lots of walking recently but that’s all good!

Tomorrow morning I am barcode scanning at Parkrun, and then after that I don’t know…

Plans for the weekend?