Hey peeps
I am sure everyone had a lovely weekend. We had a relaxing time on the Saturday- wandering around the lanes (laines?) in Brighton. We found a lovely coffee and tea shop (hooray, it had a tea menu) called naked.
In the end I went for peppermint tea, and some carrot cake which was made on the premises that morning- delish. But the choice of teas meant it was hard to choose. It was all loose-leaf tea, and when it had brewed in the jug for a bit, you slotted the jug on top of the cup, and it filtered down into the cup. Very clever. They also did gluten free cakes, and sold their tea, so I bought a pack of the peppermint as it was the nicest peppermint tea I have ever had. It was such a nice place too- upstairs it was filled with comfy chairs, sofas etc, and had all the papers out to read, so we spent a while relaxing there.
We also found Infinity Foods (I realised after that the health food shop in Welwyn stocks some of the Infinity Food products like special flours) so I bought a few things from there, and of course from Montezuma’s.
Lots of tea (loose leaf chai and chocolate chai, plus apple and ginger), almond milk (as it was on offer), pesto (as it is so hard to find even vegetarian pesto usually so I went crazy and got the vegan version), peanut butter truffles, dark chocolate with marzipan and cherries, and some of their pudding bars. I also bought some Carley’s Sunflower seed butter but it didn’t make the photo for some reason.
Although I am OK, moving around for a long time makes me get sore and tired, so we had a stop in Starbucks too, and a rest in the hotel in the afternoon. Poor Andy was carrying all my shopping bags as well.
Anyway, the next morning we were up bright and early. I wrapped up warm as although it was lovely and sunny, it was also cold. I was originally thinking I would wander around the shops, but then realised that it was a Sunday morning and nothing would be open- plus I was tired from all the wandering on Saturday.
I love layers! And thermal tops. And hats, gloves and scarves. And taking this photo was very hard because of the flash! This was take 3!
The race started at 9am which I much prefer to later starts. Plus we stayed in the town centre, so we got to walk to the start line- what a treat- no panicking about car parks or finding the right bus etc. Andy left me to find a space while he went to find where to start- I was worried (ridiculously) that I would somehow end up in the starter pen with all the runners. Duh!
I found a good place to watch (leaning on the fence) and did see Andy go past, but I was not quick enough with the camera- I think he is totally hidden by high-viz guy!
The runners took about 15 mins to go past- there was an awful lot of them. They kept announcing that late starters would not be allowed, but there were still a lot of stragglers.
I had a little wander by the beach- it all looked very pretty. That is the pier in the distance.
The wheel was going around very fast!
Now, my plan was to go to the naked tea shop, get some tea and have a read for a bit. I was prepared:
(That is my Kindle with it’s new Paperchase cover- it does fit in my bag if I pack it all carefully because my new purse (well, new from Christmas) is also quite big).
But, when I found it (and if you know anything about my sense of direction that should be impressive)I realised it didn’t open til 10.30am. So in the end I went to get a drink from Starbucks, and took it back to the hotel for a bit. Andy was hoping to finish in under 2 hours so I wanted to head down there a bit before and do some cheering.
It was fun- there were some soldiers carrying heavy packs (not sure of the proper term), people dressed up as taps and toilets for Water Aid- I love seeing the fancy dress costumes and was giving them all a cheer.
Andy finished in just under 2 hours, so he was pleased as he has not done as much training as he would have liked. We then headed back to the hotel for him to have a quick shower before we had to check out- another luxury- normally we have to sit in our sweaty clothes for the journey home.
From what I saw, the half marathon was well organised. It started pretty much bang on time, and for a spectator there were places to cross the route and so on. The medal is rather nice (I may have a bit of medal envy right now), although the goody bag was not so good (literally a £5 off Sweatshop voucher/ 10% off online and a few pages of Men’s Running mag). Andy did get a banana when he finished and that is always my fave post race food item. The route seemed lovely and scenic (no offence to Portsmouth but The Great South Run just does not compare on the running-by-the-water scenery), and fairly flat after the first bit. We have been to Brighton a few times and really like it there anyway, so perhaps next year we will both manage to run it?
Oh, and guess what turned up on the doormat today- yup- the race pack for the Silverstone Half. Grrr. Yet another one I cannot do. Their website is terrible, I cannot work out if I can transfer the number or anything (I expect not) so not sure what to do with it really. Any takers?
They are the front cover recipe, and this time look more like it (last time I used white chocolate to top them). Some went in this tub, some went in bags for various friends. Some went in the fridge for me too 🙂 It is super easy- you need a pan (I use a brownie pan which I think is 15 x 20cm) lined with baking paper.
I also made some more sourdough- I added the last of my Munchy Seeds to it- I am hoping that it still turns out well. I oiled the pan this time so fingers crossed! 🙂
The almond milk is lovely in tea. I think I had a walk then (I did at some point) and needed warming up.
Plus apple, persimmon and pb (I only dip the apple in it though).
Sweet potato with hummus (I was in a hummus mood that day obviously), with salad and cucumber.
Yes! I even got some veggies in my dessert- I love carrot cake!
I had some friends over and one of them gets migraines from chocolate. I mentioned carob to her, and she had never heard of it, so I took it upon myself to make her some carob chip cookies (half also with dried cherries- the bag is separating them!)- she loved them! 🙂 I used the 
Peanut butter and some beyond dark chocolate drops (found these again in Sainsbury’s- hooray). (We did also have pittas, veggie crudités, grapes and strawberries- we are not all bad!).
Tofu/ pesto quinoa and broccoli. It needs perfecting, but basically I cooked some quinoa (30g dry), whizzed up some silken tofu (about a third of the pack) with a few tsp meridian pesto, then mixed in the quinoa. I put some broccoli in a baking dish and topped it with the tofu/pesto/quinoa mix, and baked for 20 mins. Then I topped it with pine nuts. It was tasty, but I think it needed some more pesto in there.
I mixed up peanut flour with cinnamon and almond milk, and had it with apple and wholemeal pitta to dip. Very tasty indeed.
It was a selection of fabrics, but as they all had pink/ pale teal in them I thought they would look quite nice.
I had no idea how to do this so I started sewing them in pairs, then joining them together.
Anyway, since then I have read that it is better to sew them into strips and then join the strips together. Not quite sure how to turn it into a blanket once I have sewn them all together either! Really I don’t mind how it turns out because (to quote an early years teaching phrase) it is the process, not the product.
Pancakes made with half spelt and half peanut flour, topped with DCD and sliced banana. Mmm.
I also tried some real (caffeinated) tea- Teapigs chocolate tea. I have them on my facebook page and the photos were tempting me! (I am not against caffeine, but the cyst I have is pressing on my bladder, and caffeine tends to make it a bit worse sometimes which is why I have been only having herbal/ rooibos teas lately).
I made some carrot, sweet potato and butternut soup, and had the leftover-leftovers (well, me and Andy had one lot the other day- this wasn’t reheated that many times don’t worry) for Friday lunch with a slice and my fave hummus. Yum.
It was also lovely toasted for Saturday lunch (topped with almond butter/ almond butter and apple/mango jam). Even though the top looked burnt, it was really tasty inside. Phew.
Saturday Andy was out and I needed to use up a lot of veggie from our fridge that were a little past their best. I decided to make a lentil chilli, and also roasted some extra veg (carrots and sweet potato) for more soup.
I cooked some lentils:
Then mixed it all up in a pot with some passatta and some chilli.
Nice and warming on a cold night. Plus two more portions in the freezer. Although we need a bigger freezer- it was a real squeeze fitting the pots in there.