Category: General ramblings

The results are in

Hey!

Yesterday I went to aerobics, and first of all, a newbie turned up wearing (I kid you not) a roll neck woolly jumper. She must have been boiling by the end!

Anyway, that was all fine and dandy.

Today was a 6 mile run (fartlek- ooh get me using the proper runner terms!)- I like this because it is a bit like intervals (eg you get the endorphins from running fast) but you can stop/ slow down when you want. Kind of. Anyway the 6 miles went well, a slow warm up and then 3 miles at 9.54 (what?????? that was actually my average speed! I am always excited to see anything under a 10!) and finished, get this, average speed 9.04. I cleaned my glasses just in case I read it wrong! To be fair the first few miles as well as being a warm up, were gently uphill, in the rain and facing into the wind. The next ones were slightly downhill with the rain easing off and then stopping, and the wind blowing me home! But I am still taking it!

Dinner was the pumpkin quinoa tofu experiment.

The results are in and it turns out this is just as yummy as plain pasta. Although a little drier- I think the quinoa soaks up more liquid as it cooks in the oven so I might have to add something next time. But still delicious and so creamy. I love the beetroot too- pink food 🙂

I made some rice pudding with the last of my Kara coconut milk too (no picture coz I was hungry like the wolf).

I have a question about feet;

Normally after most showers I like to put cream on my feet as I don’t want too much dry skin. But then I read somewhere that it is good to have harder skin on the feet to help with running for long amounts of time. So come on all you runners- do I let the skin dry up or keep going with the cream?

Random, but hopefully helpful.

Night 🙂

A foodie post

Hello!

I was busy yesterday, mainly in the kitchen as you will see (and also the garden centre- I love this time of year- time to plant out some seeds soon yay!).

First up a clue;

Pumpkin tofu pasta.Of course you all got it from the clue- well done- stickers all round.  Only I changed it up a bit. I cooked 70g quinoa and 100g wholemeal pasta first. Then I whizzed up 1/2 tin pumpkin with the block of tofu and 25g sundried tomatoes.

I mixed that with the pasta/ quinoa, and layered it with some spinach.

And topped with sliced beetroot. It is going to be yummy I am sure (but currently it is all in the freezer- fab for a midweek meal).

I also made some cookies for sunday tea (which merged on the tray to make super cookies!) ;

I used the good old Hummingbird Peanut cookie recipe, and I used some new wholegrain spelt flour. Ocado didn’t have Dove’s farm stuff so I ordered this stuff- it is amazing! It has a proper texture, and the cookies were so nutty and chewy and delicious.

Can you see?

I also did some snacking!

Some yummy mango with no sulphur dioxide! How exciting! This was also amazing.

And some delicious dark chocolate. Although for some reason I thought this was going to have cacao nibs in it, but it was plain. Still tasty (and some left for another day yay).

Today was a 9 mile run and I slept fine (unlike before the 10 milers where I was really nervous). I think for some reason 10 miles after work seems like a massive deal, but 9 was fine. The pace was still a bit changeable, and I managed a few at 9.55 and 10.09 in the middle. 96 mins (9.2 miles) so not bad overall.

I am off to start mega commenting so watch out! 🙂

PS- do you know what I saw on my run this evening????

A man doing a poo in a field. And the weirdest thing? He had toilet paper with him and even wiped his bottom.

Sorry about that just had to share!

Weirdest gym sign ever

Hey

So at the gym they often have signs on the doors- things like “make sure you wear appropriate clothes to classes”, “members still need to book on to classes” and so on.

Well, the sign this week was the most strange yet. Basically, this:

“Will members please refrain from using body oil before partaking in exercise classes“.

I mean, what is that about????? Seriously! What class needs body oil? Who wants to add to the sweat with oil???

Answers on a postcard please!

Body pump was great, but it was the new release and boy is it hard! The clean and presses have changed- one clean and then 3 presses in a row (I think that is what the individual parts would be called)- mental. Triceps are back to the bar which I always find soooo tough. We also had loads of newbies (some of whom turned up late grr)- one left half way through! I told Andy how tough it was and his reply “well, that’s what you want, otherwise you may as well do Zumba”. (No offence meant to anyone that loves Zumba…you get his drift!)

Big news- Pumpkin scones are even nicer when topped with Meridian Blueberry spread.

(The other half is maple pb but the blueberry was by far the winner- I am thinking marmalade next).

More big news- PB2 is awesome when made into a pb sauce and served with Worthingshaws chocolate iced dessert stuff;

PB and chocolate ice cream is the best! This is even better as it mixes together so well. Mmmmmm.

Final big news- when making rice pudding in the microwave, do not cook for too long as it will explode out of the cup, all over the whirley tray thing and make a big (unedible) mess.

Any big news? Any weird gym (or other) signs?

Another beautiful day

Spring is most certainly here 🙂

I am loving this weather so much!

I was so tired last night that I actually fell asleep for half an hour while reading my run less run faster book- oops!

Today after work I had a 3 mile run with some intervals. I warmed up for a mile (although it was so warm I only had on a vest- anyone else feel weird exposing their arms after months of layers? I felt really self conscious but I know it will go after a few runs!) then measured it by distance- 0.1 mile faster, 0.1 mile slower, for a mile and a half, then a little cool down. In the faster bits I averaged 9.55 miles so not half bad 🙂 Total – 3.1 miles in 31 minutes.

Hooray!

By the end I felt quite tired and my legs felt more stiff so lots of stretching is on the cards this evening. I had some yummy pumpkin pasta (the last of my current freezer stash so I must remember to make some more) -I added some beetroot to it while it cooked and it went all pink and even more tasty! No picture as I was so hungry!!!

I am also looking forward to a pumpkin scone later on.

With the weather getting warmer does anyone else a- struggle to work out what to wear and b- feel weird exposing their bodies after months being wrapped up in many layers?

I wear a vest and ron hill trackster things at the gym all the time, but for some reason running outside by people in their coats and things (and randomly a man out running with shorts and a hoodie with the hood over his head) makes me feel very self conscious.

Toodle-pip 🙂

Pumpkin scones

Evening all!

Thanks for the comments yesterday- I am feeling stronger with my running (and, dare I say it, a little faster) and today that was confirmed. I was so worried about feeling stiff and sore as I was tired last night (and last week I had a rest day after the 10 miles) but today was aerobics as usual, and I felt full of energy.

You will be glad to know that after the rice pudding in a jar yesterday I decided to make my own rice pudding for this evening- I am loving it at the moment, but the Rachel’s one is pretty high in fat (which is ok for me as I do not eat many fatty things) but anyway, I prefer to make my own.

So in a cup I put 25g flaked rice, added 100ml milk (normal this time, but I will try with Kara coconut milk when I have some open) and 50ml water. I left it to soak all day. Then I microwaved it for 1min 20, stirred it, added some cinnamon, a bit of vanilla and a few raisins, and microwaved again for 40 seconds.

Ok so the picture is rubbish! But it is thick and creamy (helped to cool my mouth down after my home made bean burgers- I think this batch had twice the amount of chilli than normal whoopsie!). I added a drizzle of maple syrup but actually the vanilla and raisins make it nice and sweet anyway.

But that isn’t why you are reading is it? You were promised pumpkin scones. I found a good looking recipe ages ago here, but kept forgetting and would only remember when I only had a little amount of pumpkin left. I halved the recipe and weighed them out (the original recipe is in cups etc so I used my cups but put the bowl on the scales)- 30g brown sugar, 200g wholegrain spelt flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp bicarb, 2tsp ginger (plus other assorted spices- cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, mixed spice) all mixed up in a bowl, cut in 55g pure spread, then stirred in 190g pumpkin. Knead it together , shape into a circle and then cut into wedges. Uncooked they looked like this;

Cooked they look like this;

They smell so good, and I think they are pretty healthy as the recipe does not have much sugar or marg in it 🙂

Goodnight 🙂