Category: Reviews

Feeling better (better do some baking then)

Hello!

I enjoyed everyones cheese answers yesterday! It seems the vegan cheeses just do not cut it, but also people miss it less than they would have thought. Thinking about it more, I am not a massive cheese lover anyway- I really only like cream cheese, mozzerella, goats cheese, strong cheddar and wenslydale. No blue cheese, or brie, or feta or anything like that. I think I just got into the habit of topping meals with grated cheese, when they did not really need it.

Anyway, I forgot on my post yesterday so say that I was better (as my post was about Tuesday I suppose). But I was. Yesterday I had a run and it was great! I didn’t want to go too far, in the end I did just under 4 miles, but I managed it all with an average pace of 10 min miles, a speed I have not got up to for a while. Plus no walk breaks (well, except for annoying crossing the road ones). I was super pleased as I was starting to get a little worried about the upcoming 10K- I was hoping to beat my previous best time, but now I am hoping to run the whole way! I seem to have gone backwards!

I also got back into baking.

Some pumpkin whoopie pies! I was so excited to make these 🙂 Although I did not have any marshmallow fluff to add to the filling, so I made it without and the filling was super runny!

They were a hit with Andy and at work- gently spiced and really tasty. 🙂 Ones to make again for sure.

Also it is National Cupcake week this week. I am not sure if it is an excuse for the Food network to show more of Cupcake wars than usual, but I was emailed a few recipes from this cupcake book and asked to try some on my blog. I went for the black forest cupcakes, only half way through I found out I did not have any black cherry jam (I was sure I still had some of the lovely meridian cherry spread) so they turned into chocolate and raspberry cupcakes. Ffion I hope you approve 🙂 More for work anyway!

And now I am making some autumnal spiced apple crumble bars, based on this fruit crumble bar recipe from the lovely Katie. Happy days indeed.

And if that is not enough, I have body pump later 🙂

Lastly, it is nearly the weekend! We are off to see Steven Merchant on Friday night (I keep forgetting) and then up to Sheffield on Saturday for some Shakespear. How cultured! 🙂 I will have to tape the Great North run as I am getting a bit excited about it!

Any exciting weekend plans?

Busy weekend

Hey all

This is a random heart-shaped potato that I dug up the other day! Plus it sort of fits with the wedding weekend?? Maybe ??

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. I was off to a family wedding yesterday, which was great. I did not take any pictures (fail), but what was brilliant was that the colour scheme was so bright! The bride had a lovely deep green sash on her dress, and the groom had that colour (what are those hanky things called that go in the top pockets to match the ties?) tie etc, but then one bridesmaid was in bright red, one was in purple, and then each of the men in the party had a different colour tie etc- yellow, purple, red, blue- it looked fab! And at the reception each table had a different colour (we were on the red table)- so the flowers and favours all co-ordinated. It actually looked brilliant. Anyway, it was fun (although I did have a rather interesting man next to me who kept on and on about how his meal looked better than my veggie meal- I always find those situations awkward as I do not mind other people eating meat- I am not a militant type and I do not lecture people, but I also think that some people can be very insulting!) although it was a late night!

Today we went out for breakfast, and then to a family garden party to continue the celebrations. I am home now for a little bit, to unpack,and then repack (ahem and read/write blogs as I eat my lunch/dinner) as I am off for a girly trip to Bristol for a couple of days!

So not much blogging will be going on still! Anyway it is Sunday so time for the weekly review;

Monday- faster 5.8 miles.2 and a hlaf hours of weeding at the allotment.

Tuesday- 3 hours digging, aerobics.

Wednesday- audiofuel run before breakfast. Small amount of easy weeding.

Thursday- Yoga in the morning, body pump in the evening.

Friday- 10 mile run.

Saturday- Yoga before breakfast.

Sunday- rest.

I am planning on having a run tomorrow morning before we leave, but the only exercise will be shopping over the next couple of days! Then it will be time for my magic mile for marathon talk! Not holding out much hope but participation counts for more than a good time! And it is all about the taking part, yes?  🙂

Byeeeee

Baking extravaganza!

Evening all 🙂

Hope you all had a good weekend despite the crazy weather. I ended up stuffing my trainers with brown paper yesterday, as they were so soggy. Today I took the paper out and it was wet through, and so I put my trainers in the airing cupboard. Hopefully they will be dry for a run tomorrow.

This weekend I have mainly been baking.

First I attempted some mint chocolate fudge. I made my usual fudge recipe, and then added some chopped dark chocolate before pouring it into the pan. I then sprinkled it with sugar which I had mashed with a pestle and mortar with some mint essence. The fudge tastes fine, but it was so crumbly so cutting it was not so easy!

Interesting shapes no? Anyway, I hope it will still be happily received.

Then I made some peanut butter cookies from my Peanut Butter & Co cookbook. I was a bit wary of trying this recipe, mainly because the Hummingbird recipe is so good!

These were amazing- so chewy and almost gooey on the inside- stuffed with peanut buttery goodness. These were for Sunday tea so we have none at home now.

Then I made some of those brownies that Katie invented and Rachel also made.

I also had some white chocolate stars from Sainsbury’s so I added these on the top (sadly no edible glitter!). I had a minor problem in that I did not have enough apple sauce, so I used some mashed banana instead- hopefully they do not taste too banana-ey. I am going to freeze this in slices ready for later. 🙂

Then it was the piece du resistance- white chocolate and coconut fudge. I used the normal recipe (from Rachel Allen’s Home cooking) and added some shredded coconut to the middle and to the top.

There it is cooling (all the white chocolate melts from the heat of the fudge and pours out the sides).

And sliced! This batch sliced much easier, and looks so pretty too. These will be in bags soon, for end of term gifts. So not too much to tempt me with at home!

I did have a lovely lunch;

Andy bought some Wensleydale and cranberry cheese to have at our picnic on Friday (and he bought rocket salad too which I was very impressed with as he is normally very fussy with salads and only buys iceberg!)- so I had some on some toast with a red pear. And you can see my lovely teapot so of course I had to have some tea.

OK so time for a quick training recap of this week;

Monday- attempted a mid length run but cut it short due to having to stop and walk- think this was tiredness and dehydration.

Tuesday- Aerobics hooray!

Wednesday- Audiofuel run which is still hard work but in a good way I think! Plus yoga for runners podcast.

Thursday- Body pump hooray! Upped weights only for dumbells in the triceps track, and forgot to take a towel. Whoops.

Friday- Rest day.Picnic concert. Plently of body pump aches!

Saturday- Long and wettest run ever.

Sunday- Rest day- yoga for runners podcast.

So fingers crossed that my trainers are dry by tomorrow.

And it is on to the final week of work before the summer holidays, so I was wondering does anyone have any lovely school memories from the last day/ week of term? We used to get to take in games from home on the last day which always seemed like such fun! I was easily pleased I think!

How to make chia pudding?

Evening all! Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Especially the tennis! I got a text from my Dad saying he would be doing the Men’s final, but I had already arranged to go and visit a friend, so I taped it and am watching it now (just saw him!!)- I did listen to the match on my drive home but it is hard to listen while driving.

Anyway, I spent Sunday out visiting, and did do some yoga in the evening. So here is the belated (yet again) training for the previous week.

Monday- Just under 6 mile run- it was baking that day and I really struggled.

Tuesday- Aerobics- I was full of energy and loving it!

Wednesday- Rest day- walk up to cinema only to find film sold out! Walk home and yoga.

Thursday- Body pump- most notable was the full real press ups! OK so only 4, but still!

Friday- Audiofuel intervals- hard work (esp the fastest ones as you would expect)- followed by cheesecake! (Well, not right away)

Saturday- 8.5ish mile run, then helping at Summer Fayre

Sunday- Rest day- and yoga.

I am pleased I have kept up the yoga twice a week, and I might look at some of the other podcasts available for some variety.

Other stuff- I tried some chia seeds yesterday. They have been a bit of a craze (and raved about in Born to Run) and I looked for them in the little Wholefoods in London. Anyway, Lucy offered to send me some!

I mixed a small mashed banana with some cocoa powder, then added a tbsp chia seeds and a splash of milk, and left it in the fridge all day. I had it after my yoga in the evening and it was lovely- the chia seeds soaked up the milk and obviously banana and cocoa is already a winning combo!

I topped it with a pear and some garden strawberries- yum 🙂

Also ages and ages ago I tried some of the Nature’s Path cereal, and also joined their mailing list. A while back they sent an email saying “click here for free cereal” and I did, thinking it would be a small pack. Well it came in the post!

A real proper sized box of cherry and coconut cereal. Yummylicious indeed!

And today I had a run after work- I did the same route as last week but my legs felt heavy (not sure why as I rested yesterday- maybe teaching PE all afternoon in the heat?)- I picked up the pace at the end but it still took me 64mins (only a couple of mins faster than last week in that baking weather). Ah well I will take that I suppose.

I have also signed up to some more races- The Brighton half marathon and the Silverstone half marathon, and…..

.. next weekend Andy and I are off to Silverstone to see the Grand Prix!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo! 🙂  He surprised me on Friday and I am so excited! 🙂

Any exciting races or other plans for you guys?

Final review

Ahhhhhhh!

That is how my brain feels! I keep having dreams about the marathon- about running too slow, or not passing the checkpoints in time, or not being able to see the pacer runners, or just not actually running it for some reason. I am not sure how I can take a whole week of these nerves!

Anyway, one of my main worries was breakfast- I like porridge and really thought about this aspect far too late. Not sure if our hotel does breakfast (we think it does but not 100%)- I looked on google to see if there are Starbucks in Stockholm as they do porridge (apparently one at the airport so no use for the morning), then for MacDonalds (but then when I looked on the Swedish MD site they did not list porridge on the menu). Anyway, when looking on Ocado at our shopping I spied a tub of grasshopper porridge (like the Stoats ones I tried but never see in the shops)- all you do it add hot water. Enter stage 2. Do we have a kettle in our room? If we have breakfast provided could I take the pot and use the hot water from the coffee machines? Etc. Anyway, I considered buying a travel kettle but then I rang my Mum and it turns out she has one (well, in fact 2, but I only need 1!). So now my breakfast is sorted. Phew.

Today I also did some more baking (no food processor this time). Andy requested blondies, and I saw this recipe and decided to have a go. In the end I used my normal blondies recipe from Bake by Rachel Allen, and then copied the icing idea from that blog. They look good and we had a little nibble from the offcuts when I was slicing them.

I can not slice things into even sized pieces! Dearie me. Anyway, luckily we took these to Andy’s parents so they won’t be around to tempt us.

(This was not the off-cut, it just shows the layer of blondie and icing)

Onto the review. It was a different week as I had the 2 runs last Saturday and Sunday, so I have not really done much running this week.

Monday- Yoga podcast and a walk- rest day really

Tuesday- Aerobics

Wednesday- 5 mile run after work (work was a school trip so lots of walking and stress!)

Thursday- Body pump- lower weights for legs etc again.

Friday- Rest day- was going to have a walk but went to see my Nan instead.

Saturday- 7 mile run- fab 🙂

Sunday- Yoga/ rest day

Total miles- 12 miles!

I am feeling a bit antsy now, but I keep telling myself that this is how I am supposed to feel???

Also, I am not sure about going to aerobics this week? I could go and do lower impact stuff, but then am I better to save money (and time) and go on a gentle run straight after work instead? At the moment I am leaning towards the second option, but I am not sure. I think that I will be tempted to fling myself about a bit too much if I do end up going.

Anyway, the packing has started (very slowly) and I am going to wear my running trainers on the plane to save space in my hand luggage, and have as much as I can with me (all the essentials) just in case.

Regarding the sports bra incident is that I have 2, so I will be taking the other one with me! And I have had them a while (well, since earlier this year or maybe the Autumn?) and they have not done that to be before, so I will be double checking before I leave the hotel room! 🙂

Also I got an email saying that it is going to be broadcast on-line, and also as it records our chip times every 5k approx that they will be on the net too, so I have already emailed my Mum and Dad with the details so they can sit glued to their computer for 5 hours on a Saturday afternoon, or is that being unrealistic??

Right, enough of my rambling. I am off.