Category: Recipes

I made these the other week and forgot to post the pictures- whoops!

They are from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar , and they are delicious- make them now! It took about 5 minutes to make the batter and pour it into a pan.

It only had 5 ingredients- peanut butter (that is how my tub of meridian crunchy pb is already half empty!), rapeseed oil, brown sugar, milk (they do not specify which dairy free one to use) and flour (I used wholegrain spelt). Stuff that is normally in the cupboard anyway 🙂 Actually the recipe did say to sprinkle peanuts over the top, but I left this part off as I didn’t have any peanuts not in butter form.

I was pretty pleased that they looked fairly similar to the picture in the recipe book.

And a fancy stack picture, just for fun!

Normally blondies have white chocolate in them (you know, like brownies are made with dark chocolate) but these ones are soooo good, they don’t need chocolate. Although a few chocolate chips would surely complement the pb flavour…..

Onto other things, body pump was great last night. I was back to the higher weights for most of the back track (that is still my limit but glad to get back there) and I also managed the abs track without going to my knees for the last bit. I have no idea of the technical bit, (the first bit is sit ups on a block and reverse curls) but for the last half of the track you are in a plank position with wide legs, and you have to go onto one arm and reach the other arm out to 12’0clock and then 6 0’clock position, and then swap to the other arm (12 and then 9 o’clock) which is the hardest abs move. Even harder than the plank rolling forwards and backwards. Normally I managed the first set, and then have to go to my knees for the second bit but I made myself do it all. 🙂

Also the weather today was so beautiful again- I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is alright for me tomorrow as I feel like I have had so many long wet runs recently.

I am so glad that friday is here- anyone have any nice plans at the weekend? I am going out for dinner on saturday with some friends- I am hoping that I will be not so worn out from my run that I am rubbish company! Perhaps I will be a good listener instead!

Hey

So after yesterdays post on iron, I started my mission to concentrate a little more on iron rich recipes. The other day when I was browsing blogs, I came across this recipe for courgette quinoa lasagne. It sounded good to me, so I have made a few tweaks (added in lentils, spinach, pepper and taken out the cheese) to make my own version.

Mine made 3 portions and I had trouble fitting them in the foil tubs!

First, cook 60g quinoa in some vegetable stock (I use a tsp vecon stock in about 150ml water). Once the quinoa goes “wiggly” add 1 tin chopped tomatoes, some dried basil + oregano, a chopped pepper and a tin of drained lentils.

While this simmers, slice 2 courgettes and line the bottom of the trays with half the courgette.

After about 15 minutes (once it has thickened a bit) add in a big bag (150g) of spinach, and some garlic puree.

Then spoon half the mixture onto the courgettes, top with the last of the courgettes.

(Excuse the blurry shot!)

Then bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. I would probably add a little grated cheese on the top, but I wait until it comes out of the oven as I do not like burnt cheese. The rest is going in the freezer for another day.

While I was making this I did think that I could amp up the protein (and iron) content even more, by blending in some silken tofu with some of the sauce to make a creamy layer. So I might try that next time as I love the creamy texture of the tofu pumpkin pasta bake.

According to WLR, one portion (no cheese or anything, just the ingredients above) contains 209 calories, 12.7g protein, 32.6g carbs, 3.5g fat, and 7.1g fibre, and I reckon it would go perfectly with some home made bread. Yummy.

Onto other things- body pump was great last night, although I found it harder than usual, and did not have the extra weights for the back track. But by next week I am sure I will be back to normal.

Today I also tried some of the raw chocolate (I shared a bar with Andy this afternoon alongside some tea)- I had the Twilight bar which is made of cacao butter, fructose, cacao mass and carob. It was lovely- the texture was a bit like an aero bar or something, not crunchy but not totally smooth. It was lovely and sweet too (the combination of fructose and carob I suppose), so if you are vegan and liked milk chocolate, this would be a good one to try I would say. Although Andy objected to the name!

We shared the 44g bar, and half was the perfect amount which is always good.

I was originally considering a run today, but I did not sleep well and was very tired, so I settled for a walk and decided to rest my legs in preparation for my long run tomorrow instead. I find it hard getting the balance between keeping the legs loose, and just tiring them out. If I have not run on the wednesday, then I find a gentle run on friday does not affect my run on saturday, but in fact I have not had a rest day since sunday, and as I am still not quite 100% I did not want to make myself over tired.

I need to plan my route now, as I have only run 13 miles during my half marathon races, not around here- how do you guys go about planning routes? I have a main route of about 8 miles that I can add loops to here and there, but I think now I need to get another “base” route to add to.

Oh, and the nakd offer I got here– it is still going on at the moment. 🙂