Running - Maria Runs

Almond and chocolate heaven

Hey peeps

Yesterday I was perusing the internet and I saw that Marijke made some almond chocolate fudgy bars. They sounded amazing and I had all the ingredients to hand, so I went for it!

First I roasted some almonds (took about 15 mins in a low oven- shaking the tray every now and then).

And then I whizzed them up in the food processor.

Along with some dark chocolate.

I used Waitrose soft dates (these are soooooo yummy) and dark chocolate dreams instead of regular nut butter- thought it would go.

Then out came the nuts, in went the dates and pb, then after it was whizzed for a bit, the nuts went back in again. Yum.

Dollop it onto a lined brownie pan.

Then smooth down and refrigerate.

Then cut into bars and enjoy 🙂

I had one last night and it was delish- the crunch from the almonds is lovely and they are so rich and fudgy.

The rest are wrapped in cling film for another day.

On holiday I bought some of these (excuse the awful photo!)

Dark chocolate covered almonds (from Disney!) and they are lovely! So after eating the packet (and not being able to get any in the UK) I decided to attempt my own.

Roasted almonds in a bowl (one cup), dark chocolate melted in the microwave (probably around 40g?).

Mix it all up in a bowl.

Spread out on a baking tray and leave to set.

Put into a jar and try to make them last longer than a day! 🙂 Mine are not as shiny as the shop bought ones, but are in big chunks and taste so good!

I never used to like almonds, but at the moment I think they are my favourite nut! And with chocolate they are amazing.

What combinations do you like?

This morning I did a 10 mile run- it took me 1 hr 49, which I was pleased with as I think on my GSR entry form I put my estimated finish time as 1hr50. I made sure I started off really slow, and that helped as I was more consistent for the whole run. Plus my batteries lasted on the mp3 for the whole run- phew.

I made a lovely almond chai latte- heated some almond milk, used my tea strainer thing filled with Whitards cinnamon chai (which is just spices, no tea) and then enjoyed.

Yum! It went very frothy and was delicious. Mmmmmm. 🙂

Belated budget challenge

So the lovely Laura has set up a blogger budget challenge and I have (rather belatedly) decided to join in.

big budget buttonbig

I am quite happy with our general grocery budget, but there are a few things I want to improve upon- with Christmas (and a holiday) approaching I would like to be more mindful of my finances.

So here are my aims:

Cancel the milkman milk. (Simple- I like an easy one to start with- we got persuaded to sign up to the milkman ages ago, but it has been getting more expensive, and I prefer other milks so we don’t use that much any more. It is getting to the point that we will have to start throwing milk away as it goes out of date before we use it. Plus I don’t think it is organic).
Attempt my own almond milk (I am saving this project for half term)- it is my fave non dairy milk but it is expensive.
Check my on-line bank once per week (as I pay everything by direct debit I never have to go on for bills or anything).
Save money each month towards general, car stuff and holiday fund.
Start to buy Christmas presents now- I prefer to spread the cost of things like that over a few months.
Make some Christmas gifts instead of buying them all. I always make a Christmas cake for my parents and Andy’s, but I would like to make other gifts for other people too.
Look into getting a veg box delivered- I have only looked at one company and at the moment I can’t decide- I think I need to look at various other companies to make an informed decision.
Use all my travel sized skincare- I love Clinique skincare for their cleanser, toner, moisturiser and the intensive skin rescue cream (I get super dry skin in the winter) and when you buy them in Boots at bonus time you get freebies! I love mini things, and I love freebies, so together it is very exciting! I save them for when I travel, but I never finish a travel sized one before I get back home, so I have lots of half used ones. So I need to use up all the freebies before I buy new normal sized ones. I am not going to buy any over the next 2 months!
These are the main ones I use.
And all the travel sized mini freebies that I need to start using up!

That is quite a long list isn’t it?

They are quite random ones (can you see the Christmas theme creeping in too?) but they are what I will be aiming for. Having them on here will help me stick to them too 🙂

Plus a few random things- look at the size of my hummus carrot sandwich!

Wow!

One carrot in a big pile! I am loving my food processor grating the carrot for me- so much quicker! And less mess!

I have been working my way through blog swap items;

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.

And, look what came in the post!

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!

Anyone else a big sucker for freebies like me?

Foggy running

Evening all

This was what greeted me this morning.

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.

The run was good- 8 miles was the plan and I managed it, although I set off too fast- 10.03 per mile for the first 5 miles. Whoops! Paid for it later- went down to 11.30’s for the next 2 (a lot of them are uphill, plus my mp3 ran out of battery so I had nothing to distract me from my breathing!)- the final mile went back to 10.03- think I was glad to be near home! Took me 1hr34, and some of that was stopping to cross roads etc, so I am pretty pleased with that. The plan is next weekend to try 10 miles, and to do some shorter faster (?) ones in between.

My post run snack (well, lunch sort of) was delicious! Sorry for the blurry photo- I had to take it with my left hand as I was pouring with my 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.

I have also been practising my icing skills.

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!

Also thanks to everyone who has sponsored me– I am nearly at the £200 mark now which is pretty brilliant! If you want to check out the giveaway post, click here. Exciting news is that I have another prize to add, from the lovely people at nuun.

2 more prizes to add! Each prize is a 4 pack of their rehydration tabs (which I use all the time) and a big bottle to mix them in. Cool. 🙂

So if you fancy winning these, or any of the other fab prizes that were donated, then please see my sponsorship post. The minimum amount is £2, and all those are adding up for a very good cause.

Thanks

WIAW- race day!

Hey all! It is that time of the week again- one more day closer to the weekend! Thanks Jenn for hosting the midweek party.

I chose Sunday as my day, as I was running the Willow 10K.

Breakfast;

A little bowl of porridge with raisins and cinnamon (made with coconut milk)- I don’t like to be too full when I run, but I can’t run that far without anything either so I only used 25g oats I think.

Race drink;

I love the nuun tabs. I find it really hard to drink from the cups of water, plus I don’t want to drink too much before I set off, and I prefer to sip on my way around. So I take this with me on 10K + runs (and have it when I get home usually on shorter runs).

Yay I finished the race and didn’t have to walk!

Post race snack;

Alpro yoghurt and Lizi’s chocolate granola- the bomb! I was starving by this point as I finished the run at 12.10ish, and as we wandered around the shops for a bit got home after 1pm.

Lunch followed soon after;

Fruity bread (from the freezer, not home-made sorry) with pb, plus nectarine and fig. Me and Andy also shared a Graze box;

Copacabana which is milk and dark chocolate buttons and brazil nuts! Yum.

Dinner;

No photo here- we went to Andy’s parents- they always do a buffet style meal so I had 1/2 jacket potato, salad, beetroot, cucumber and some peppers/ tomato/ mozzerella on a tortilla.

And one of these- I baked these for work but also took some around to their house for tea – I had to have one!

Late night snack;

One of the scones I made with some blackcurrant spread and teapigs spiced winter tea. Mmmm.

There we go- a carb-tastic day!

I think the fig was my favourite- I have not had one for ages and they were on offer so I decided to go for it 🙂 Glad I did. Do you like figs? I used to be put off my the skin and only liked dried ones, but I really like the fresh ones now too, especially when baked, mmmm.

PS- I am so touched by the number of people who are donating for Cancer Research UK for my Great South Run- the giveaway is still open so check it out here. Thanks

Willow 10K race

Evening all!

Have you checked out my wishes post first of all- you never know some readers might get lucky!

Today was the Willow 10k- I kept calling it the Hatfield House one, as it is around the grounds.

We ended up parking in the wrong car park (as the written directions said to go there, and the map was of a different entrance) so had a bit of a walk to get to the start. I was hoping to run it all, and I was hoping for 66 mins, as I think that is the pace I am capable of at the moment. The run was lovely- gently undulating, through fields and on tracks- some lovely shaded parts (I wore a long sleeved top as it was so cold yesterday, and I was rather hot!). There were a couple of very steep hills- one at 5K where I really wanted to give up. There were very enthusiastic marshalls, which is always so fantastic as they give up their time to help out at these races. I didn’t take my mp3 player so it was just me and the sights, so I really felt I took it in more- although I was rather alarmed at my heavy breathing going up the steep hill! The final part was a killer too- you came out of the woods and into a strong headwind, up a hill and on long grass- the finish line in sight but 1k away! I wanted to stop and walk then (I felt a little sick and had real jelly legs), and the thought did pop into my head “if I am finding 10k hard, how am I going to manage 10 miles in 3 weeks time” but I pushed it away and tried for a strong finish. Even got to shake Bob Wilson’s hand (he set up the charity)- lucky him as I was sweaty haha!

This is me once I got home with my medal! I do love a good medal 🙂 Andy’s parents surprised us by coming down to see us (as it was almost a loop which you repeated I saw them just at the 5K mark) and so after we finished running we wandered around the lovely shops at Hatfield House before heading home.

The all important goody bag- including a £5 sweatshop voucher, kitkat and mikly way (no banana though), and a little Mr Benn pin.

I got a pirate one and Andy got a cowboy one! Pretty cool mementos I think.

Anyway, I was pleased because I ran all the way, and I think I came in at around 66 mins- the clock time said 67 but I was near the back and had to walk a bit before I went over the start line (the chip times are not available yet). So not my best 10k time, but not my worst either.

Onto the baking! I have been making some bribes for my colleagues- I often bake during the year for work anyway, so once a year asking for sponsorship I think it is ok.

Thanks Jess for the guess- but it was white chocolate (not cheese)- first up;

Pb and white chocolate blondies- these are always super popular at work 🙂

Using my new Lakeland baking trays!

I am so pleased at how they turned out! I keep saying to Andy I think they look like they could be on a market stall. He thinks this is me insulting my baking, but I mean on a nice farmers market stall or something. Like at the start of Rachel Allen’s Bake show. Do you know what I mean?

I also made some dark chocolate brownies- again these are always popular.

Yummy 🙂

I also made white chocolate fudge. Then I put them all into individual bags with a tie saying “in exchange for this blondie/brownie/fudge please sponsor Maria“- with the website and stuff. Fingers crossed it helps me raise some more. Fudge bags;

My table is covered in the little bags!

Blondie bags:

And brownie bags;

And one of each;

I think they look so pretty anyway! It was a lot of work to make them all, and bag them up and decorate them etc, but it is for a good cause and I am hoping people will see that.

Remember, if you sponsor me (see here for details) you can win some pretty awesome prizes, plus some of my baking too. 🙂

Anyone else racing this weekend? Hope you got on OK.

Oh and for fun, here is the first pic I took of myself;

I think I am looking a bit suspiciously at the camera! OK I have taken worse but it did make me laugh!

Night 🙂