Author: Maria Runs

A while ago I was sent some Good Hemp products to try out. I thought I would be sent a few sample packs, but I was sent a massive box- it has been keeping me going for a while!

Some hemp seed oil (Original, and Mild and Light), some shelled hemp seeds, some plain hemp protein, and two flavoured shake mixes (strawberry and chocolate).

I loved the sprinkles and have been adding them to salads and dinners to add some crunch. They are not as crunchy as seeds, and when I put them into some bread I could not really taste them, but when they are on their own they have a faint nutty taste.

I really liked the oils too- I have used them for roasting vegetables, and in general cooking in place of our usual olive/rapeseed oil. Sometimes when it burns it has a bit of an unusual taste, and so I am not sure I would use it in a sweet recipe (like a carrot cake) but for normal cooking it has been great.

I was not such a fan of the hemp proteins- I tried the chocolate one first, and I just found it had a funny after-taste. I was not sure if that was the sweetener used, or the hemp in it, but it did not taste much like chocolate to me. I also found it hard to mix, although I did see some reviews on the internet say to mix it and then leave it a few minutes for the hemp to dissolve a bit, and when I tried that it seemed to work a bit better.

I found the strawberry one similar- it had a strange aftertaste. I didn’t try the plain hemp protein on its own, but I used it in Laura’s wonderful cherry protein brownies, and it was lovely in those.

You could taste the hemp powder, and it tasted less sweet, but not bitter or anything like that. My favourite way to use it anyway.

I will be making them a lot I am sure.

Anyway, hemp protein has many benefits: it is 47% protein, contains all the essential amino acids, and is rich in omega 3, so it is a great addition to any diet. You can read more about it here. The website also has some lovely looking recipes (I like the look of the carrot cake) so I will be trying them out at some point too, I am sure.

I feel like I would rather get my protein from whole foods instead of powders, but I also know that I don’t always have protein heavy meals, and I do feel better (more full anyway, and more recovered after body pump) if I have had more protein, so powders are convenient. I think I prefer the plain hemp powder to the flavoured, as then at least I can add my own flavour to it.

But I liked using the oils and the sprinkles 🙂

Do you ever use protein powders? How do you incorporate them into your diet if you do use them? Any good recipes to try?

And thanks to Good Hemp for letting me try them 🙂

Hey peeps

I am still totally shattered from the weekend, so I am not sure that typing a lot will make much sense- I had a non-stop day at work today (eating lunch while typing- I can multi-task) and finally got home at 6.30.

So I am just going to show some photos from Nice- these were taken with my phone so they are tiny, compared to the ones Andy took with his camera (but he has not sorted them out yet).

The beautiful sea.

The beach was pebbles, so we did walk on it some times, but tended to stay on the path bit (promenade?).

A couple of evenings we walked right to the end, and it goes up a bit higher so you have the view of the whole cove (or whatever it is called)- the sun was shining still and I love how it reflects off the water, although the picture didn’t come out too well.

The final day- I could just look at the colour of the sea and sky all day.

There were people sun bathing all the time (plenty of brown and wrinkly leather skin), and we also got caught in a rain/hail/thunderstorm at one point (we had to go back to the hotel, we were soaked through, and as we each only had one pair of shoes with us, had to try to dry our shoes with my hairdryer).

Anyway, it was such a lovely place to visit- very Italian feeling (lots of gelato- yum)- we went to Monaco for the day on the train, and walked around the Grand Prix track (as it was the previous week the grandstands were being packed away still, and a lot of the signs were still up) and then a few other towns on the train on another day. The old town was lovely for a wander, and there was a lovely flower market too. We even went to a modern art museum (how cultured) but I was not really a fan of much of it at all, and a museum of the history of Nice, but it was all in French so I could not translate that much! Anyway, a lovely place to visit.

It might be one of my favourite European places to visit- I love Barcelona, and that has the sea and also loads of parks, but then it also had more of the street hassle. Have you ever been? What is your favourite place in Europe to visit?

Hey all

I hope everyone enjoyed the Jubilee celebrations- they seem a long time ago now. We had a lovely time in Nice- I had not been before and it was lovely- a place I would recommend for sure. We got home at about 1am Thursday night (or Friday morning) and I was off for the hen weekend Friday lunch time, so it was a speedy turn around. I even managed a quick run on Friday morning before breakfast, before unpacking and packing.

I convinced my friends to go to the naked tea and coffee for some lunch, and of course some tea! I love the teapots.

We did a spot of shopping:

Lovely Zest pesto, teabags, and some coffee truffles for Andy.

Plus a case for my sunglasses- they are quite big and I have never found a case to fit them, so normally have to pack them in a tuppaware tub!

We went for a walk by the sea (and even had some ice cream) but it was so windy and the waves were huge! They must have been easily 6ft high!

Then headed to the house where we had a lovely evening (caterers in, games after).

Then events got rather dramatic- we all went to bed, and my friend (who was in a bunk bed above me) got up to go to the toilet at about 3.30- I heard her get up, and then I heard her say “Oh my God there is a fire”- I thought I had drifted off and so I shouted “Are you awake?” as I was a bit panicked, but also wondered if she was dreaming. I got up, and saw the orange glow coming from the garden. By then a few other girls had woken up, and we realised that the wooden surround for the swimming pool was on fire- it looked like a garden bench at first. She called the fire brigade (there was a fire blanket and an extinguisher, but we wondered whether it was electrical as it was in lines on the surround), and then we decided to wait outside in the road (we did stop to get coats and shoes on over our PJ’s even though we know with a fire you should not stop- we figured as it was not in the house we had a minute). My friend even called the fire service again as they seemed to take an age (the two calls were only ten minutes apart, but when there is a big fire, that seems a long time)- there were huge ashes and sparks and smoke pouring over the roof as it was really windy.

Finally they turned up, and as soon as they saw it they were getting axes to chop off the wood- the swimming pool was about a metre from the house and surrounded by wooden decking.

We did make the classic hen party jokes about strippers, and my friend even got her photo taken!

By the time they left it was about 5am (we had to call the land lady too), and so of course we all took photos of the aftermath.

All the wood they chopped off.

Some of the burnt bits.

And more.

The decking had burnt right through in places. Anyway, we eventually went to bed for a couple of hours, but no-one really slept, as an electrician had to come out (it was an electrical fire as some water had got to the plug under the pool), and someone had to come and re-fit and test the smoke alarms. We had taxis booked for the next day so we could not just lay in.

Anyway, everyone was rather shell shocked, and so relieved that my friend had woken up in the night and smelt the smoke (she thought someone was burning joss sticks and went to check it out) as who knows what would have happened otherwise.

Anyway, after some dozing we got ready and went for a walk on the pier before afternoon tea for lunch at this place. The decor is just hilarious, and I cannot do it justice, so check it out! We tried to have an afternoon nap, but I think the adrenaline was still going.

Then we got all dolled up and went to the Brighton Ballroom for an evening of dinner, burlesque and dancing.

It was fun, and we were going to stay til 2am, but by midnight we were all flagging (but trying to keep it up for the hen) so we decided to go back. Seeing as some people had only had about an hour of sleep on Friday night, I think we did pretty well!

Anyway, I think the tiredness hit me today- we had a good journey back but then I have been trying to do work this afternoon and my brain is just rather foggy! Ah well, it was a memorable one anyway.

I might post some Nice photos later this week, when I have caught up!

Anyway, please can you all go and check your smoke alarms right now. And what did I miss this week?

Hey all

I have not got around to joining in with WIAW for ages and ages! For some reason getting back into the swing of work has thrown out my days even more, and by the time I am reading the posts from Wednesday it is too late. Ah well, I did it this week (Tuesday).

Breakfast:

Lovely overnight muesli (blueberries, muesli, almond milk, almonds and some alpro pouring yoghurt which I bought to try this week)- covered in cinnamon, plus iced mint tea, well, chilled, not iced!

Lunch and snacks:

Crunchy pear, juicy watermelon (sounds like the hungry caterpillar or something), pumpkin seed ryvitas and chocolate philadelphia. I bought it but I have no idea why as I didn’t really like the sound of it! It is OK, but not that nice- I might use the other tubs for icing or something to use them up.

Dinner:

I made a massive salad- I have been having these a lot recently and making loads so I have them cold for lunch for the rest of the week. I roasted some sweet potato, yellow and orange pepper, courgette and beetroot. I had this with spinach leaves, roasted pepper from a jar, balsamic, tomatoes, lentils and hummus. Delicious!

Dessert:

One square of this- me and Andy have been very restrained only having one square each- but it means that if I had an extra one it would make us uneven! I can recommend this anyway (and it was on offer in Tescos – 2 for something anyway).

We were planning on going to the cinema, as we had Tesco vouchers that ran out at the end of May, but we could not find anything we really fancied, and when we checked they actually run out at the end of June! So we walked up to the allotment instead. Shame because I had already packed this:

Will have to save those peanut butter beauties for another time. 🙂

The beetroot totally stained my fingers pink! I had been scrubbing and washing them but it took so long to fade!

Late night nibble:

Fresh apricots and a persimmon- so tasty.

I am off to the Sweatshop running again this evening- I am sort of excited but also now I know how hard it will be (and not a run/walk!) I am a bit more nervous about it too. Ah well, I know I can do it.