Category: Recipes

Hey everyone, I hope your weeks have all got off to a good start.

Yesterday we had to go to a funeral down in Southampton, and didn’t get home until about 8pm. But today has been back to normal, thankfully.

At the weekend I bought some of the new Meridian nut butters- Almond and peanut. They are lovely! I tried to make some apricot and almond jam (from my Superjam cookbook) but I think I overcooked it as it has set very solid!

Andy had bought some hot cross buns as Grand Prix snacks, so I toasted one for lunch on Sunday with some peanut butter, and put some of the jam on one side (you can see how solid the jam was!). Plus apricots and doughnut peach (from Asda- so delicious).

I have also been loving it for breakfast on overnight muesli. This one had strawberries and blueberries as well as chia seeds, muesli and almond milk. Today I had a similar one with a peach in there too.

I posted this the other day but it was sooooo good! Sourdough toast, nut butter and then blueberry sauce (made with blueberries, a splash of water and a tsp coconut sugar cooked in a pan until bubbly).

When I was in town on Saturday I saw this peanut butter ice cream in M&S- Andy had mentioned before that he wanted to try it, so I bought some as a treat. Then I realised that I had parked in Waitrose and also needed to pop in there so I had to do some speedy walking and shopping so I could get home before it would melt!

It is such delicious ice cream- the best peanut butter stuff I have tried in England (and I have tried a few…)- the peanut butter swirl was quite salty so I have had it with fresh strawberries (these are from the allotment) and a sliced peach. At least because it is so rich we only need a small amount- we have already had two servings each and there is still quite a bit left in the pot.

Today I went on a short run after work. I bumped into some of the Sweatshop runners (there is a beginners course on Tuesdays and I found out at the weekend that some of the Wednesday group have been volunteering as sweeper runners on Tuesdays)- they did invite me to join them but I want to save my legs for tomorrow. I actually had really stiff legs today which surprised me. I appreciate a rest day after a long run, but often find the first run back tough as I think my legs prefer to keep moving. Normally I would have a more “active” rest day (with a walk or the allotment or something) but that couldn’t happen yesterday of course.

Sadly no nut butter in my dinner! I have made 3 more lots of this for lunch this week. I sliced a big pack (350g) cherry tomatoes and put them in a tray with some balsamic, dried basil and a little salt. I then left them in a low oven for nearly an hour (I had a shower and Andy cooked his dinner). I cooked some quinoa and then served it with beetroot, avocado and some basil tofu.I poured over the tomato/ balsamic juices which were delicious.  Mozzarella would have gone well with it too, or some fresh basil, but I didn’t have either of those.

A while ago I was sent some ZMA vitamins from Activate Nutrition. It is a supplement with zinc, magnesium and vitamin B6, and it is designed to help people recover from workouts as often people are deficient in these minerals and vitamins. You can read more about it here.

The directions were to take two about half an hour before bed, and I quite liked that as I got into a bit of a routine. Normally I have a multivitamin every other day as a top-up, but I do often forget as I am rushing about in the morning. I am not sure I felt much of an effect, but I never feel that supplements like this can do any harm. (I have not taken my multivitamin on the same days to make sure that I don’t get an overload).

Do you have supplements or just rely on your diet?

Do you have a favourite nut butter? I much prefer the drippy ones, and the 100% nut ones, so we often make a trip top Sainsbury’s as it is the only place that sells the pb&co stuff. I used to buy the big tubs of Meridian stuff in Holland and Barrett, but it used to get really solid near the bottom of the tub so I have stopped. I thought they had just re-branded their packaging, but I think they might have blended them up a bit more as I have had a stir around in the jar and it seems drippy all the way to the bottom.

Hey peeps- how are we all doing?

Just back from a walk to the allotment- the strawberry plants are loaded and I picked a big handful of ripe ones today- they smell wonderful.

On Saturday I mentioned I was off skiing- not on holiday, just a lesson!

When I was younger there was a dry ski slope in Hemel (near where we lived) and so I had lessons, and my family had a few skiing holidays in France. I was always very nervous and I liked to find an easy slope and go up and down it all day, whereas my Dad, sister and brother would go on all the slopes and ski to all different places. Once, they convinced me to come with them, and we skied from France into Italy on nice easy slopes (the ski pass included lots of different places) and then it turned out the only way back was a red run (green= easy, blue= OK, red= hard, black= plummet vertically to your death )- after being stuck on several runs my poor Dad had to walk home with me while we carried our skis! Anyway, the last time I went skiing was a good ten years ago, but last year Andy got some skiing lessons as a birthday present and really enjoyed them. The dry slope has now turned into a Snow Dome, and a Groupon popped up for a double lesson, so we booked it.

I was super nervous before, but I ended up loving it. It was a beginners lesson which turned out to be a bit easy, but I wasn’t sure what I would remember from all those years ago. We got there about half an hour early to give us time to get boots, skis and helmets, and then spent an hour and a half walking up and skiing down. There were only 6 of us in the lesson and the instructor was really good- he kept giving us challenges, so in the end I had to ski down the slope, turning around certain poles while doing “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”! I was hoping we would get to use the lifts, but not this time. We think we will book one more lesson at a higher level, and then just go for fun.

We ended up being really busy over the weekend but I did manage to spend a bit of time baking. I made Cherry and Marzipan Tray-bake.

I based it on a cherry cake recipe from the Great British Book of Baking, as I could not find a recipe that fitted what I wanted.

I preheated the oven to 170C, and lined my brownie pan with paper.

Then I creamed together 175g pure spread and 170g caster sugar. I added 3 eggs, and a tsp almond extract (I used Dr Oetker). Then I stirred in 200g plain flour, 3 packets of baking powder (I have these little packets which I think are the equivalent of a tbs each), and 50g ground almonds. Finally I chopped up a tub (200g) of glace cherries, and mixed them in.

I poured this mixture into the pan, and then topped it with 50g chopped white marzipan.

I baked it for 35 minutes- it is hard to tell when it is cooked as the marzipan will be liquid at oven temperatures, so will leave residue on the cake tester.

I find they slice much better when they are cold, so I left it on the wire rack for a while.

I had a piece on Saturday afternoon to give me some energy for skiing (as our session wasn’t going to finish until 8pm)- delish! I love the combination of cherries and marzipan. I took most of it to work on Monday and wasn’t sure how it would go down as I know marzipan is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it was all gone by lunchtime!

Once we were home I was quite chilly, so I had a hot chocolate to warm up with too- I love that Montezuma’s stuff.

I had Sunday as a rest day (we went out for breakfast to Bill’s, then watched some of the children from school in a parade in town, then spent the afternoon visiting our parents) so Monday after work I went out on a run. It was much warmer than I had expected. I headed for the fields as I didn’t fancy running near to traffic, and was enjoying listening to podcasts I went a bit further than I had planned- 5 miles in 50 minutes. Tomorrow we are doing the long fields run which was tough last week- not sure I am quite looking forward to it- I’m just hoping it won’t be as humid as it was last week as that is what makes it really tough.

Have you ever been skiing? Or would you be tempted by it? 

So the weather this week has been more…. English? On Wednesday it threatened to rain all day- it was so humid and muggy. I headed up to Sweatshop and was so hot and sticky by the time I got there (and it’s about .75 miles away, so not far). I was hoping we would choose a short-ish and shaded route as I didn’t feel like putting in a max effort! Then it turned out that someone had invented a new route, which actually was going on the fields, then across sort of cross country fields to add on another mile. At one point I was running through knee high grass, and couldn’t see the runners ahead of me as there were lots of trees around. By the time I got back to the shop we had run 3.85 (fast) miles, and I still had to run home. Tough!

Thursday at pump we had the new release- I am not a fan so far. Tough on the legs, no music I really knew/ liked, and the abs track is just weird and hurt my neck.

On Friday after work I went on a short (2 mile) run to try to ease the aches in my legs, and was back just before it poured! Later on it brightened up so we headed to the allotment after dinner for some weeding, and I picked my first lot of strawberries!

This morning I went on a run before breakfast- I was going to try to avoid the rain but that just seemed impossible so I put on my tennis visor and went for it. The first mile was gently uphill but right into the wind so my glasses were covered! I was really cold and wished I had worn gloves. But then later on the sun came out and it was suddenly baking. In the end I did 5 miles which I was pleased with- we are going skiing later so need to save some energy! I was going to have pancakes, and had made the batter the night before (spelt + peanut flour, chia seeds, almond extract, baking powder) but decided to bake it instead while I showered. (I had the coconut water when I got home)

I put sliced apricots on the bottom with a little coconut oil to stop it sticking (should have put that on the sides too) and then some blueberries on the top. I also topped it with a little coconut/ chocolate butter.

I had it with a mint black tea, and some strawberries from the allotment which taste amazing. It baked for 30 mins at 160C, but I think I could have left it for a little longer to firm up more. Baked apricots are always a winner in my book anyway.

I don’t mind running in the rain, unless it is torrential as I hate soggy shoes. Plus once I was out running and it rained so hard that the water filled up my eyes (so weird) and I actually couldn’t see. That was not good! And lightning makes me a bit nervous. I think the thought of running in the rain is worse than the actual act- if I am at home and it’s raining I might do some prevaricating to put it off a bit, but if I am out there and it rains I don’t really mind, as I think I will be having a shower when I get home anyway.

Do you mind running in the rain? Are you growing any of your own fruits or veggies this year? Favourite baked fruit?