General ramblings - Maria Runs

Speeding up again

Hey folks.

So this week I went to Sweatshop as usual, and luckily as we did the hill last week, we were on a flatter (but more boring) course this week. I started off chatting to one of the girls who is quite a bit faster than me, so I decided to try and keep up with her for as long as possible. I managed it for over half a mile, but then after we stopped to cross a couple of roads she was right up to speed and whizzed off. Then I tried to keep up with a couple of others who are normally a bit further ahead of me. I kept them in sight for the next couple of miles, and caught them up when they were stopped at traffic lights- at that point I did an 8.56 mile so I was pretty pleased. Still not quite my parkrun pb speed, but getting there (and it is hard to compare as we have to cross a lot of roads, and it is not pancake flat which the normal parkrun route pretty much is).

This week I have been adding some of the course oatmeal to my porridge- it is really lovely. It gives the porridge more of a texture and of course makes it even more filling too.

On Thursday I was on a course when meant I got home nice and early. Before dinner I made some muesli bars for work, as we were all doing a mile for Sport Relief. I took the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook- basically they were raw flapjacks- you melted butter and syrup together, then stirred in oats, cornflakes, muesli, dried fruit/ nuts and coconut.

Then you pressed the mixture into a pan, covered in another sheet of baking paper and put it in the fridge with something heavy to weigh it down.

I sliced it in the morning, but it had not really set that well. I don’t think I would make them again, but anyway people seemed to enjoy them.

On Friday my car has it’s MOT and service to Andy had to pick me up after work. It wasn’t quite ready so we went down to the park and walked around the lakes- the paths are still underwater! So parkrun will be off road for the next few weeks I imagine. I looked on the Jantastic website to see if I could change my distance for my predicted time (as I could choose my 6 mile Sunday run) but you can only change the time, so I will have to do that as there is no way I can do 26 something for the off road route!

Right, I am off to run my 6 miles for Sport Relief in a bit- have a great Sunday.

Topping up the distance

Hey peeps, I hope you are all well.

After having a rest on Monday I went for a little run on Tuesday. I was going to go for about 3 miles and at first I was feeling fine. As it was still almost light I went to the fields near my house and did out and back laps a couple of times- I think running on the fields was good as the ground is softer, plus I run slower anyway so wasn’t tempted to try and go at my normal speed. After doing this a couple of times (2 miles) I suddenly felt really tired, so came home and did some yoga and foam rolling instead.

I had to stop at the shops on the way home so picked up some tulips, and Andy bought some daffodils too- I hope spring is set in now.

On Wednesday I was off to Sweatshop. My brother went too, and so we ran at the back and chatted.as we hadn’t seen each other for a few weeks. It was good to catch up, and also lovely to run at that easier pace. We did one of our normal routes in reverse which was harder- it seemed uphill all the way! I only used to start my Garmin at the start of the group run, but since I have been logging my miles on Daily mile I have been starting and finishing it at home (as I run there and back too)- I glanced down as I got to the end of my road and saw 4.5 miles, and decided to make it up to 5, so I ran to the end of our estate and back. I managed to pick up the pace a little at the end and was feeling pretty good.

I was so thirsty when I got home so had this coconut water- I had bought it to have after Bath and then forgot to take it with me.

Last night I went to Pump and it was tough! I have missed 3 weeks due to various things, so I knew it would be hard work and did drop my weights for the squats, back and lunges and they were still just as hard!

As we had been away for the weekend we didn’t have much in the house for lunches, so on Monday I stopped to get a few bits, and these sweet potato falafels caught my eye. I have been having them for lunch with a bit of salad and some hummus, plus a little sprinkling of pine nuts. Very tasty indeed.

Favourite spring flower?

Favourite easy lunch?

Weekend plans? I am going to make a red velvet cake!

National Porridge Recipe Competition

Hey peeps.

This week I was contacted by the folks at Mornflake as they are running a competition to find the best porridge recipe. Now, you all know how much I love porridge. I eat it every week day for breakfast (and most weekends, except when I have pancakes), and only when it is super hot do I change to bircher muesli. It is my staple food for sure.

A while back I even did “Pimp My Porridge” to see how many add-ins I could come up with.

My favourite porridge at the moment is this: 40g oats, some milk (at the moment Alpro soya light)- I just pour it in until it looks right but it is probably around 150ml-200ml, a tbs of chia seeds and a few dried cherries (those Sainsbury’s dried cherries are so delicious)- I leave that in a bowl in the fridge overnight so the oats and seeds and dried fruit all soak up some of the liquid. Then (sorry porridge purists) it goes in the microwave for 2 mins 20. I can nearly empty the dishwasher in that time! Then I add a blob of peanut butter.

They also sent me a lovely recipe by The Porridge Lady.

Sweetheart Porridge

This recipe uses the natural sweetness of berries topped with the sweet treat of white chocolate.

Serves: Two

Cooking & preparation time: 6 mins

Ingredients

15g white chocolate

80g Mornflake jumbo oats

200ml milk

200ml cold water

80g frozen berries

1 dessert spoon runny British honey

Method

Coarsely grate the white chocolate and set aside.

Into a deep saucepan place the oats, water and milk.

Then put the saucepan over a high heat and cook for 2 mins stirring constantly.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the oats for a further 2-3 mins or until you have a nice creamy porridge.

Pour the porridge into two bowls.

Swirl the frozen berries into the porridge (they will be like little frozen fruit pops!).

Top with a swirl of honey.

Finally garnish with the grated chocolate and serve hot to your sweetheart for breakfast.

Sounds good, huh? I think I would have dark chocolate instead (I prefer it)- plus Andy is not a porridge fan but of course the recipe could be easily halved.

Anyway, if you want to enter the competition then here is the info:

Simon Rimmer (TV chef) and Britain’s oldest family oat miller, Mornflake Cereals, are urging porridge fans to share their oaty masterpieces, for a chance to take part in the first ever ‘Porridge Stir-Off’, at the home of Mornflake Oats, in Cheshire, on Saturday 5th April.

The ‘Stir-Off’ will take place in the scenic, 13th Century Bunbury Water Mill, near Mornflake Cereals, where the winning recipe will be chosen by Simon, Porridge guru and Golden Spurtle winner, Anna Louise Batchelor (aka the Porridge Lady), together with Mornflake MD, John Lea.

The winner will enjoy a fabulous Gourmet Evening-for-two, hosted by Simon, at his award-winning Cheshire restaurant, Earle, a year’s worth of Mornflake Porridge Oats and an all-expenses-paid trip to enter their recipe into the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Championships, in Scotland. The recipe will also feature in Mornflake’s annual Oat Recipe Book.

Fellow judge, Anna Louise Batchelor, said “For the Stir-Off we are looking for imaginative and creative recipes – we are looking to find a Great British Porridge!”.

To enter, simply upload a video clip or picture of your oaty masterpiece, with full recipe details, to their dedicated web page.

Entries end next Thursday (6th March) so if you fancy entering then get your porridge hat on quickly.

What is your favourite porridge topping? Does your other half like porridge?

The Homewares Company

Hey folks,

I am writing a post today in collaboration with The Homewares Company, who have some lovely looking kitchen equipment and appliances on their website.

I am a sucker for new gadgets, even though we don’t really have space in our kitchen for what we have, let alone any more. The other day I was ordering some bits from M&S (thermal tops- that’s how I roll) and got distracted by the Homeware section (they had a mini cake stand on offer, but luckily I stayed strong and didn’t add it to my order).

The Homewares Company have a lot of durable kitchen ware on their website. Some of my top picks include this gorgeous cake tin: You can never have too many cake tins!

These cute pinch pots: (Think I would use them for different spices and maybe some pretty pink salt)

And best of all, this pretty teapot with infuser: Perfect for loose leaf tea.

Seriously how pretty is that? Although Andy would be rather cross if I bought another teapot as we have about 6 I think. Excessive I suppose, but we have an individual one, a small one which we use most days at dinner, and a larger one that we use at the weekends for loose leaf tea. And then old ones that I can’t bare to throw away (one has penguins on it). And my gingerbread Christmas one.

Do you collect (or hoard) any kitchen gadgets?

*In collaboration with The Homewares Company, all opinions are my own.

And relax!

This post may not turn out to be that coherent (compared to normal)- we shall see.

I have just had a really busy week and feel like I will need the entire weekend to catch up. Today I got home at 6, had to take Andy to the station and then came home and did a couple more hours of work. Then I did some tidying (our house gets very messy when I run out of time) and have now put on some scented candles to help me relax.

Including this candle, which Airwick have sent to me to for my blog as they have a big range of air freshener products. I can’t take photos of candles burning, it just does not work. There is something calming and cosy about the flame on a candle, and I love scented candles, especially spicy or citrus ones.

Normally if we are both home on a Friday night we listen to the film podcast, Andy cooks dinner (sausage and bean bake for him, and plain bean bake for me with some sourdough) and we watch a film. I had grand plans for dinner- first it was going to be polenta, then I downgraded it to avocado pasta, but then the time came and I was hungry and busy so I went for the easiest option- toast with sundried tomato pesto, avocado and a little basil oil. Oh, and a splodge of hummus. Andy would tell me off for having toast for dinner- shh!

I realised earlier in the week I didn;t even do a Jantastic review of week 2, and now week 3 is nearly over, so I will combine them over the weekend I think.

Last week I raved about my new compression socks (from Running skirts UK if you are interested)- the pink ones are fab- the feet parts are sort of padded and patterned (hopefully you can see that in the photo). The green ones are more like normal socks- they still have the markings on them but not as much detail. So go for pink if you get some.

Check out the grip on these babies!

I have been on the hunt for trail shoes for a while now- I love running across the fields near me but recently they have been a nightmare due to all the mud. Plus when I did the Ware 10 mile race it was great but some of it was so slippery I needed ski poles- my road shoes are not cutting it! I have looked for ages- I had John Lewis vouchers so wanted to use them, but the shoes in the sale were not the right size, and they didn’t have any other trail shoes, so in the end I ordered from Wiggle. I love Wiggle- free postage and good prices, but they always include a packet of haribo in with whatever you order, which annoys me, as for one, they are not vegetarian, but also why not something more sporty? Anyway, this time as well as the obligatory sweetie packet, there was also a High5 energy bar- it looked a bit “fake” but the ingredients are dates, sultanas, cashew nuts, chocolate chips, sunflower seeds and a few other bits- not too shabby. I look forward to sampling it.

Finally I have a question. I have signed up to Daily Mile, and now when I plug my Garmin in to my computer it will synch and find new workouts. But even if I have previously uploaded a run to my Garmin dashboard, Dailymile won’t seem to be able to find it (eg if I forget to log it right away). Am I doing it wrong? I don’t normally plug in my Garmin after each time I use it as it is a bit of a faff. Or, can I log something on there that is not from my Garmin?

Plans for the weekend?

I am not going to Parkrun this weekend as I need to run around 8 miles, and should not be running 2 days in a row, plus the weather for Sunday looks pretty bad so I am going to go out tomorrow morning. Other than that I have some work to do but also some relaxing to catch up on. Have a good one!