Stuff I love! - Maria Runs

A PSL kind of weekend

Not to be confused with PMSL, which I think of every time I walk past a Starbucks. I wish they would not use the abbreviation.

Anyway.

To re-wind a bit first. The last few weeks have been very busy- late meetings at work, evenings out (on a school night!)- including seeing Michael Palin, and going into London to see Ken Burns (he makes documentaries). Last weekend Andy promised me a trip out on Sunday if I got all my work done on Saturday, so I worked pretty late and we had a lovely day out. That is for another post though.

For a few weeks I have been wanting to visit my Nan, but I had a cold, then a cough, and then another cold, so I could not risk it. This week I was free from germs at last, so went to see her after work.

I got home to find Andy cooking dinner, and we had a lovely chilled out evening, watching Central Park Five (by Ken Burns- which is really worth a watch when you are in a serious mood) and then cheering ourselves up with Gogglebox! Hurrah!

Saturday I was out fairly early on my long run. I ended up doing 9.5 miles (I got home and my watch said 9.43, so I ran up and down the road until I got to the half!)- it was fairly slow, but I wasn’t worried about speed, I just wanted to do the miles as I don’t think I have run over 8 miles probably since doing the trail half back in the summer.

Yes, I have posted this already, but I love it. Great breakfast. Although I was a bit silly as when I got home I noticed that the kitchen floor needed sweeping, so I did that, and when getting the dustpan out I saw the dusting stuff, so dusted the living room and bedroom, and then realised how full the washing basket was, so put on a wash. Then I had a shower and suddenly after that the hunger hit. Silly me.

I got on with some work, and then popped over to see my parents. Then I had to go to the shops, and I was very excited as Starbucks had emailed an offer where if you bought a pumpkin latte you got a free slice of pumpkin bread. Free pumpkin bread? Yes please. I parked a little way from town and walked in as it was just gorgeous weather. By this point it was about 4pm, so pumpkin cake was going to be my late lunch.

Alas, when I got there they had sold out of the loaf cake. Boo.

I did look at the sandwiches, but nothing appealed so went for a cinnamon roll. (I had already ordered the drink- pumpkin latte minus the coffee, which is way sweeter than a chai latte, but I was having a bit of an energy crash so it was needed). It was so good to be sitting outside in late September without a coat on.

After getting home I did some more work and then got dinner ready (a rare occurrence now).

I roasted veggies (red and yellow pepper, courgette, red onion) with some oregano, then added some haloumi pieces, cooked some giant cous cous, and served with rocket.

On Sunday we went out for brunch with some friends. I was awake early so was trying to find coverage of the Berlin marathon on TV (according to their website, BBC2 and Eurosport had the rights) but it was not on at all. Grrrr. Shelly Woods won the wheelchair race, but I suppose she does not have a high enough profile to tempt the TV bosses….

Anyway, we went to a new place (The Bakehouse) which was really good- I had French toast with banana and maple syrup, but was tempted by home-made granola, fruit salad, or banana and raspberry loaf. After that I wanted to get a few bits in town so we walked around in the sunshine.

Fat Face were having a sale, so I picked up these two dressed that I had my eye on already- they didn’t photograph very well, but they both have short sleeves in a darker colour, so there is a sort of double neckline. Also some more shampoo from Lush as I was running low, and a new Essie nail polish. We decided to walk down into the park, so went to Starbucks to see if they had any of the loaf (the voucher ran out today)- luckily they did, so we got a drink to have whilst walking through the park.

On the way home we stopped to get some garden bits (a fence panel has come down, but our neighbours’ landlord has not replaced it, and so all their weeds are coming in our garden, so we picked up a roll of bamboo fencing to cover the gap), and also put up some pictures, and then it was time for a bit more work.

I wasn’t going to have another run, but the weather was so good, so I headed out for 5 miles around the fields before it got too gloomy.

For dinner I hadn’t planned anything, but had been flicking through the Oh She Glows book and saw this lentil oatmeal bowl. I had the ingredients, and it sounded good, so I gave it a go. Although I missed out the oats (it said you could) and just had lentils.

Lentils cooked with herbs and tomato, with tomatoes, avocado, sourdough topped with sundried tomato pesto, and some tomato and basil hummus.

Then I had half of the loaf (I saved the other half for Andy, as he had gone to Wembley to watch the NFL). It was tasty, but not particularly spicy. I had a chilled out evening catching up on TV and doing a spot of baking (again, for another post).

Did you have a good weekend? Any other annoying abbreviations or acronyms?

Apples

I have a little apple tree in our garden- I think it is about 4 years old now. This year it was so weighed down with apples that some of the branches were touching the ground!

On Sunday we were going to see Andy’s family, so on Saturday I made an apple cake. Again, from the Clandestine Cake book (honestly the best ever cake recipe book). This one involved cooking apples in juice with spices.

In there is star anise, cardamon pods, cinnamon and nutmeg. It smelled amazing, so when it had finished I made some more to have with yoghurt.

Then you lined the tin with butter, a bit of brown sugar and a sprinkling of flaked almonds, poured the apples on, and then topped with the cake batter.

Once baked, I left it to cool in the tin for a while before carefully turning it out.

It was delicious. I love cooked apples and the spices were perfect with it. The star anise was really unusual, but went really well.

Another favourite to add to the list!

What would you do with a load of apples? I think a crumble might be next, if the weather cools down!

The best nail polish remover

So I love painting my nails, but I hate using nail polish remover. It smells, it makes any tiny cuts sting, and it leaves my nails stained if I use a dark colour (yes, even if I use a base coat).

Until I came across this stuff. Priti Soy Polish Remover.

It is is 100% biodegradable, non-toxic and not carcinogenic, made from farm crops and does not contain any petroleum ingredients. I bought the lemongrass scented one, but they do an unscented one too. It is expensive, but I thought it would last a while as I only use a little bit each time.

I read a few reviews online, and they were mixed, but generally positive, and I am so glad I bought it. I ordered it from the Love Lula site (seeing a link on Laura’s blog) but google can show you other places.

Anyway, the verdict. It is amazing. A few tips of the bottle onto a cotton wool pad is all that is needed for each hand. The polish does not come off instantly but after a few rubs each nail is clean. It feels very oily, which is much better than the normal drying feeling, and it really does smell lemony. Also, no stains. I tend to choose darker colours like navy or deep pink, and normally my cuticles and under my nails get stained when I take the polish off (no idea why), but with this there is no such thing. No idea why. I have used it twice with different colours and each time has been brilliant.

If you are looking for a more natural product, or something that actually smells good, then I would recommend it 100%.

Any miracle products that you have been converted to recently?

Epic afternoon tea

Last week I was off to London to see some friends. We try to meet up in the holidays, and recently have been going for afternoon tea as it means we are left to it and can spend hours catching up.

Andy dropped me off at the station on his way to work, so I had a bit of time in London to myself.

It was a lovely sunny day, so I headed to Trafalgar Square.

We live pretty close to London but don’t go in that often. According to my friend this giant chicken has been there for ages, but I had not seen it before.

I also popped to the Wholefoods in Piccadilly, for a cold drink but also a little browse.

Ocado now stock the kids ranges of these, so I had tried the chocolate and chocolate orange versions (they are coconut milk based drinks, and are delicious)- of course seeing the word “chai” I was sold straight away. I did buy a few bits in there too. Although I wish I had bought a few more of these chai drinks as they are so tasty.

Restrained purchases: Carrot, apple and cinnamon granola, cacao powder and some raw chocolates.

Then I walked to meet my friends. We went to the BB Bakery in Covent Garden (well really it is off The Strand and really near Trafalgar Square)-and it was amazing.

There was a tea menu, which I love, and the teapots were so pretty (and each one different) with little infuser balls hanging in them. We were also given some orange juice- this seems to be at a lot of afternoon tea menus now. All the crockery was pretty but mis-matched-I loved that to.

This was for 3 of us to share, and they had put all the vegetarian sandwiches together. It was a mountain of food! A little blini thing, cream cheese + cucumber sandwiches, ciabatta bread with tomato and mozzarella, a little quiche (I don’t really like them so didn’t have mine, but it is nice to have some variety). Also there were 3 of each cake- sometimes you have to bargain or cut them in half, but we all had the same. A lemon meringue tart, a ginger cake topped with custard and fresh berries, a strawberry cupcake with strawberry icing (this was really good- we all thought it would be a plain cupcake with pink icing, but it had fruit in the cake, and the icing tasted really fruity too), a macaroon, and the most amazing squidgy pecan brownie. The bakery also sell cupcakes and brownies, and I would say if you are nearby have a look and treat yourself because they were so good. (Also, we booked in advance so it was a little cheaper I think, although their website seems to have 2 different prices so I am not sure).

All the while they kept offering to top up our teapots with fresh water, and hours later when we had finished most of the tier, they brought out warm scones with home-made jam and cream. No photos of those though!

We ended up being there for about 4 hours I think! A good catch up! Then it was time to brave the rush hour tube and get the train home. I was planning on walking back from the station, but it was much later than I thought we would be, so Andy picked me up which meant I could get to body pump on time. It turns out that afternoon tea is pretty good fuel for pump!

I would not like to live in London, but I do like being close by and it is great to be able to pop in for the day. Do you enjoy being a tourist to places close to you?

Deliveries!

Hey peeps!

I have been very lucky over the past few weeks to be sent a few some parcels with goodies to review.

I was sent a few products from the My Protein group. I chose some True Women vitamins from myvitamins.com, some flaked coconut from myprotein.com, and some almond butter from thehut.com. I love the packaging that the vitamins come in- these will be easier to take on holiday than a little jar. Although they are rather large! I did get a tip from someone at work- to look to one side as you swallow as that helps open up your throat. The vitamins are suitable for veggies, and have plenty of iron and B vitamins in there, which is what I was looking for as I have been a bit worried about being tired recently. A small point was that I did find the website hard to navigate as I could not see an option to sort by dietary requirements- something I would find useful as so often I would click on something and find it was not suitable.

The coconut is gorgeous – it does have a small amount of added sugar (1%) but no sulphur dioxide which is what I was looking for, as so many dried fruits contain it, and it does not agree with my tummy. I am looking forward to baking with it, but so far have enjoyed some slices as a snack.

This almond butter is so good- really drippy, and no salt added either, just 100% almonds. I decided to make some cookies from my Oh She Glows cookbook. The recipe is pretty much this one, only using almond butter not peanut butter. I just used normal flour instead of the oat flour, and they turned out pretty awesome!

I added some flaked coconut to some of them before I baked them.

Seriously- make them. Almond + chocolate + coconut is an amazing combination.

On Sunday morning I was up early so decided to head out for a run. I did 6.5 miles over the fields, but it was really humid and I was roasting by the time I got home. To cool down we had our first acai bowl of the year.

This was a frozen banana, some frozen cherries and frozen blueberries, all blended up with some almond milk and acai powder. We put muesli in our bowls, top with the frozen smoothie, then top with a chopped nectarine and some coconut. Summer in a bowl.

I had a few Holland and Barrett points so ended up ordering a little parcel of goodies online (although later found out that Ocado now stock coconut oil and for much cheaper, so I shall be getting it from there next time). I wanted to try the Salt of the Earth deodorant, as I would quite like to avoid aluminium (and have tried a few natural brands but not been that impressed). Unfortunately it is just that, a deodorant, and not an antiperspirant. I like the fact that they are both unfragranced, as often the fragrance irritates my skin, but I do still feel a little bit sticky still, so I think I might use them on cool days, but use my bad stuff on hot days.

I saw these meridian bars and had to try them (they are vegan and soya/gluten free)! The almond one is made with almonds, brown rice malt, agave nectar, rice bran, concentrated fruit juice, rice protein, rice starch and sunflower lecithin. It was rather sweet, but I liked it, and the texture reminded me of a less chalky Pulsin bar (I do like Pulsin bars, but they are just on the verge of being that weird chalky texture that some protein bars have). I bought the toothpaste on a whim- I have been using Green People moisturiser and liking it, so thought I would try it, although am using my current toothpaste first.

But my favourite delivery of all…..

Wow look at these beauties! Wiggle were having a sale, and I could not resist. I have Asics trail shoes which I really like, and thought I would give a normal pair a go. I had to swap them for half a size up as the 5.5’s I ordered were more like 5’s (according to the US and European sizes on the box) but they are really comfortable. The only trouble is I don’t want to get them muddy.

Now, that should be enough for me, but Thoosa are now having a sale and I am really in love with their workout tops and slogan t-shirts…

Anyone else an online shopping addict?