Evening all!
I am super excited because it is half term! Yes! A massive bonus of the profession! But also I have had some exciting deliveries!
A squash box!!!! I kept seeing these on blogs and loving the look of them. Then, while I was looking online at various veg box places (for my budget challenge) I found that Riverford do squash boxes! Plus you can order one-off boxes, and other things too. So to try them I ordered a squash box and a fruit bag (great idea, 3 types of fruit for 2 people- Andy only likes bananas really, so it would be down to me to eat everything in the normal fruit boxes which might be a challenge!).
I got some apples (I think they are russet apples?) pears and oranges- lovely.Plus I just noticed I made a hidden Mickey with the orange and apples! Now I cannot wait to make lots of soup, roasted squash things, baked apple desserts and other bits this week- yay! All recipe ideas gratefully received!
I also got a prize! I won a prize from Jemma at Celery and Cupcakes– so exciting! I have not had a gingerbread nakd bar for so long- really looking forward to that one! Thanks Jemma/ nakd people.
I also got an order from planet organic. I always used to order bits from them, but have not for ages. Then when I did the review of those Ecomil desserts I asked them where to get them from (I have not seen them in any shops) and they told me Planet Organic. So I also got some hazelnut milk (how amazing does that sound?), white almond butter and almond and dark chocolate spread (love Carley’s Organic range), figs, cherries and mixed peel (for Christmas cake making) and some conscious chocolate. Yum.
Wednesday I got home late (work has been really busy this week) so only did a 3.6 mile run (I was originally planning for a 5 mile run) but I managed it in 36 mins so pleased I could keep up that fast pace for that long- think I am getting back to my best! Body pump last night was brilliant- I decided to go even heavier on the squats – 17.5kg (my heaviest ever)- my legs were fine but I was so worried that I would not get the bar back off my shoulders at the end! I also chose heavier weights (slightly) for the shoulders track. Nearly didn’t make it through the triceps track though- seemed harder than last week, not sure why.
Pimp my porridge continues:
Cherry bakewell (ish?)- cherries, oats, almond milk, almond extract, mixed spice.
Tropical- dried mango, oats, dessicated coconut, oats, almond milk.
Peaches, oats, almond milk- which I then topped with flaked almonds. Yum.
We are still keeping our heating off too! It has been soooooo cold here- I have ordered some more thermal vests, and have been wearing thick gloves and scarves outside- it will be time for a hat soon! I feel we will have to give in this weekend though! Anyone else still keeping the heating off ? One of my friends does “the November challenge” and they do not have their heating on til November- I do not think I could last that long. One year (I could write a long moan about British Gas here but I won’t) our heating broke, and even though we had the British Gas people out every week, they would fix it then the next day it would break again- from October until January. We were freezing (and had no hot water for that time either!) but we did have an oil heater which we plugged in. I am going for the hot water bottles at the moment!
And what shall I make first with all my squashes and apples?
Enjoy the weekend folks 🙂
Soya yoghurt, rude health muesli, apple from my garden and a fig.
Rye bread with pb, and DCD, and a pear from Andy’s parents garden. Loving the garden produce today.
Cocoa mint Lara bar from my blog swap with Errign. It was nice, but I think that our UK nakd bars are better. 🙂
It was super tasty 🙂
One of the cakes I decorated! Can you guess which one I ate?
I did give Andy one of the roses though- super sweet! 🙂 I am going to choose it as my favourite even though I did not really want to eat it- I wanted to just look at it!
These are the main ones I use.
And all the travel sized mini freebies that I need to start using up!
Wow!
One carrot in a big pile! I am loving my food processor grating the carrot for me- so much quicker! And less mess!
Luna nutz over chocolate bar- tasty but I think peppermint stick is still the winner. Yesterday I did a short run- 2 miles (in the crazy wind) in 20 mins- I was super pleased to be that fast! 🙂
Chocolate chip clif bar for some pre-aerobics fuel. Looking forward to that tonight.
Apple crumble porridge (yes still pimping)- chopped garden apple sprinkled with cinnamon, oats, almond milk, raisins, left to soak overnight and then cooked and topped with flaked almonds and more cinnamon. Could have added some almond extract too.
The pack for the Great South Run! I love it! My name already on the number (which is good as the Cancer Research people sent me “Marie” instead which is not my name!!!! Some very fancy info, a magazine- now I can see why the cost of entry is so high! Less than 2 weeks to go now, how exciting!
Right past the fence is a road, then a field, then some big buildings. It was so foggy I could not even see the other side of the road! This was around 9am too- normally the fields are misty but it clears quickly. It was also cold, and I could not decide what to wear for my run. In the end I went for a loose long sleeved top and running tights (first outing of the season!). Half way around the sun came out and it got hot, but only for about 5 mins, then it got cloudy and cold again. Think I played it just right.
I made a sort of chai latte! I heated up a carton of almond milk (it was sweetened but I normally have the unsweetened stuff) and then added some Christmas tea (which is from Whitards- black tea with orange and spices- soooo good). The latte was yummy. Plus a peanut toffee clif bar. Mmmm. The nest thing about running in this weather (well, as well as not getting too hot or dehydrated) is coming home to a nice warm drink.
Yesterday I made some carrot cake cookies- I never usually use boxed mix but I found this in my cupboard(only 7 months past the best before date so must have had it for years!), and one of the suggestions was to add grated carrot. I used my food processor to grate the carrots- even though it took me ages to work out how to add the disk in to the mixer, it was so speedy! Much better than grating by hand, plus I do not have orange fingers!
Mix it all up- yum! I think they soak their raisins or something as they are super squidgy- yum.
And then today I made some cream cheese icing- I used cream cheese, a little honey (brought back from Romania by my parents), and icing sugar.
I have a lot of nozzles and I am not sure if I chose the right one?
Anyway I think the swirl looks nice- when I get some colours I might even attempt some mini carrots!
We made bows (like the spots? We even learnt how to make spotty icing!)
We learnt how to pipe different designs with butter icing- a rose and a swirly thing;
And made some little doves (that is the swirly icing technique)
Here is the rose underneath some roses made of icing which I also learned how to make!
So pretty! With some edible glitter on there for fun!
We also got to choose our final cake! I went for fondant icing (so I had 2 of each) with some little flowers and butterflies.
And a close up;
I was so excited about this and the course was just brilliant. We all started off with white fondant icing (tescos is the best apparently) and then we had to choose our colours- I used navy and melon colours in varying amounts to make yellow, blue and green. We got given drinks and cake (and biscuits were available) while we decorated, and they were so good at demonstrating and then coming around to each table to help. I have some great ideas for how to decorate my Christmas cakes this year. Plus, if I get some colours I could go all fancy and make marzipan carrots for the top of carrot cakes! 🙂 Plus we got to take our 4 cakes home in a box!
Piglet of peppermint teapigs tea!!!!!!! How exciting! Yes, I really do scream over 2 teabags. I just love freebies, and mini things, and tea, so all three together= amazing!
Mint tea, a mixed box of various teas including vanilla strawberry, and blueberry, unsweetened almond milk (to tide me over before I attempt my own in half term), 2 packets of un-sulphared cranberries, Doves wholegrain spelt flour, Maca powder (although I think I actually wanted lucuma?), cherry licorice (to even it out as it was buy one get one half price).
Some desserts made with pea protein!
And some coconut flour! I keep reading about this so when I saw it I went for it. Plus it is gluten free so I can make something for my friend who has coeliacs. Any recipe recommendations will be well received 🙂
Which one do you think looks most impressive? Have you ever made things like that for cakes before? Anything else I should try besides carrots?