Stuff I love! - Maria Runs

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?

Mangoes on the move with Urban Fruit

Recently Urban Fruit sent me some goodies to review- I love their “gently baked” fruit; some dried fruit with a few almonds or brazil nuts is such a good snack. Although chocolate covered dried mango, and cherries inside brownies are also very good.

They have a huge range of dried fruits (with no horrible sulphites added either) so there is something for everyone . I love the mango and strawberries the most but I have not yet tried a fruit that I have not liked (although I have not yet tried the dried banana- I like real banana but am not keen on strong banana flavours so am saving them…).

I have been loving the fruits combined with a few nuts for snacks to take with me to work. I often tend to opt for snack bars, because I don’t always eat the snacks I bring with me, and so they will last.. But these also last (unlike fresh fruit which gets squashed/ goes mouldy after a few days). I love the dried strawberries- perfect with a few almonds.

I made a tropical mix with dried pineapple, coconut and a few nuts (brazils and almonds).

So I have an exciting giveaway for you!

Urban Fruit are offering 5 readers a tote bag filled with their delicious dried fruits!

They are trying to encourage people to have healthier on the go snacks, so all you need to do it leave a comment on this post saying your favourite healthy on the go snack. For an extra entry, comment on the link to this post on my facebook page.

Entries are open to UK residents only.

Entries will close on Saturday 12th July at 6pm, and I will then pull names out of a hat.

Good luck!

Colouring coconut

So, this week was another cake club meeting. After last time I decided that a practise was most definitely in order! The theme was Rio carnival, which meant you could be inspired by any country in the world cup, but as soon as I read it I fancied a lime and coconut cake.

I found this recipe on the Ocado website, which I tried last weekend. I baked it in two tins instead of one (I am not that good as slicing cakes in half) and it seemed to bake fine.

But I wasn’t that much of a fan. It has cream cheese icing, which I didn’t think went that well with the cake. Plus the icing had waaaaaay too much icing sugar in it. After spending a lot of time on google it seems that icing sugar makes the icing runnier, when you would think it would thicken it. Anyway the icing was too runny.

I did have fun colouring coconut though. I had read that all you needed to do was put some dessicated coconut into a sandwich bag with some colouring (I used a little gel paste) and then shake and squeeze it. I was planning on trying to recreate the Brazilian flag, but in the end opted for the main colours.

Of course I sampled it (before taking the rest to work) but I decided I needed to adapt it a bit.

Round two was on Thursday evening (no pump= more time). After a walk up to the shops I got on with the baking, and decided that as I wasn’t going to do the cream cheese icing I would bake it in one big tin instead.

But I cooked it for too long! Even though the recipe said 1-1 1/4 hours and I only baked it for the hour, it was too long. The thing is with a cake, is that you can only really see how it is once you slice it, and I had to take it to the meeting whole. I cut a slice and it looked OK, but by then I had already cut it- I didn’t think I could stick it back together again.

So, Friday night was my final chance!

Friday nights’ cake on the left (with some spilled icing sugar) and Thursdays’ on the right!

I changed the recipe a bit. I used 50g ground almonds instead of 50g flour, I used 4 medium eggs (the recipe says large) so added the juice of 2 limes and 1 lemon to make up for the liquid, and also added in lemon zest.

I only baked it for 50 mins and that seemed much better.

Then I made a soaking syrup (from a recipe book)- caster sugar mixed with lemon and lime juice, and I added in the zest too. As soon as the cake was out of the oven I pierced it all over, and then poured over some of the syrup. You were meant to do this 3 times, but I didn’t use all of the liquid in the end.

Then, my favourite part.

I had seen lots of recipes for icing/ frosting using coconut cream, so I used that. All the recipes talked about using a can of coconut milk, putting it in the fridge and letting it separate and harden, and then only using the solid cream part. I had a little tin of coconut cream, so I put that in the fridge for a day before using it. It still contained some liquid though, so the icing ended up being just glaze. (Also I put it on the cake while it was still a little warm- I would wait until it was properly cool next time). I whisked it for a bit, added a couple of tbs of icing sugar, and whisked again.

It tasted divine. Seriously, totally delicious, not too coconutty but really creamy without that weird richness that butter icing has (I am not a huge fan of butter icing as I find it really sickly). I will be making this again for sure. Perhaps next time with a tin of coconut milk as they are bigger.

I topped it with a mixture of the coloured coconut, and lime zest.

The cake club meeting was great again.

We chatted about our cakes, finding recipes, what we were happy with etc, as well as general chat about holidays, work and so on.

The trick is to have a very thin slither of cake, and then of course you can sample most of the cakes (there were only 6 of us, but there were 2 I didn’t manage to try).

At least you can take some home to sample the other ones later. We gave some to the staff, and then shared out the rest.

My leftovers! A gorgeous pistachio and rosewater cake, a dried fruit-studded jewel cake with an orange icing, brazil nut and coffee cake, and a special Brazilian cake that I cannot spell or pronounce (baked in a bundt tin) topped with chocolate icing and nuts.

This cake club was perfect timing, as I have the Ashridge half marathon tomorrow (thanks for those who have sponsored me too- it is for a local hospice so if you feel you can spare a pound or two then please visit my page). Although this has made me think loads about how my attitude towards food has changed- I have mentioned this to a few people, and they have all agreed it is great timing. But my thoughts are “I shall be full of fuel to get me around the run” whereas the people I spoke to thought about it in terms of “burning off” the cake eaten. I think it is a shame that so many people have that attitude. It is not as if I ate until I felt sick- this morning I helped out at parkrun, and as I usually go to parkrun before breakfast (and I didn’t feel hungry when I woke up) I just waited until cake club (10am) to eat something- and we only cut thin slices so probably I had the equivalent of a big slice, but nothing crazy. Of course cake is not something to eat every day, but I don’t like the association with feeling guilty after eating food, or needing to “burn it off”.

As for tomorrow, I am not going for a pb. Someone else at parkrun was doing it tomorrow too, and she had been advised to wear trail shoes as apparently some of it is still really muddy after the wet winter, and I know my long runs have not been at my fastest speed. So my aim for tomorrow is to enjoy the run. I don’t even know if I get a medal! But of course, I shall be back with my usual rambling race recount- get the kettle on ready!

Okobay coconut water ice

I am very excited to tell you about this! I was contacted by the folks at Okobay who let me try some of their products.

This is what they say:

Coconut Water has been taking the world by storm. That super healthy liquid born out of baby green coconuts that’s virtually fat and cholesterol-free, low-calorie, super-hydrating, and naturally rich in electrolytes.

But if there’s one problem with coconut water…there’s just not enough of it. 6 or 7 gulps and its gone.

Then we had a brain wave – why not freeze it to prolong that coconut water experience? So after two years of head scratching and some serious brain freeze we finally perfected the Coconut Water Ice. Found in 2 flavours: Original Coconut Water Ice and Original & Pineapple Coconut Water Ice.

Oh my word they are amazing.

I bought them from my local Tesco (which is a large shop) – and currently they were on offer for £2 per box of 3. I could only find the original, but I shall be hunting down the pineapple flavour too.

They are packaged like those calypso lollies, which I like, as I eat slowly so “normal” lollies drip all over me as they melt.

First up, they are delicious and refreshing. If I am really hot I would usually prefer a lolly/sorbet over ice cream as it is more refreshing, but ice lollies are often very sugary. These have a delicate coconut flavour and as it melted it went a bit like sorbet (in a very good way).

The ingredients are minimal too- coconut water, water, lemon juice, natural flavouring and stabiliser. So they are dairy free, vegan, gluten free, soy free and have no artificial sweeteners, flavours or stabilisers. Plus because they are made from coconut water you are getting hydrated while you cool down. Wins all around.

These would be amazing as a post run cool down instead of refrigerated coconut water.

Also, rather excitingly, on their website they have “coming soon” coconut milk ice cream.

If you fancy trying them, their stockists are listed here, but Tesco and Wholefoods seem to be the biggest shops that stock them.

Do you like the sound of a coconut water lolly? Or the coconut milk ice cream?

I was refunded for the cost of the products.