Stuff I love! - Maria Runs

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.

Hurraw Obsession

Hey peeps- I hope the UK folk had a fab 3 day weekend! I did- more on that another day!

I always have lip balm in my bag, by my bed, at work and so on. I used to like the Nivea stuff but I have been trying to use more natural products (especially lip balm as I am sure I eat a lot of it!) and last year ordered some Hurraw stuff from i-herb. I bought two; a chai spice (lovely) and a coconut one which I didn’t like so much. But they are so moisturising and are cold pressed and organic, as well as being vegan, so I was well and truly converted to the brand.

When I ran out of chai spice I went on i-herb and spent ages trawling the flavours.

In the end I went for Almond, Earl Grey, A night treatment one, and Almond, Cardamom and Rose.

Then, while I was waiting for them to arrive I went to London and saw that Wholefoods stocks them, so along with some other goodies I bought the almond flavour then too.

Annoyingly I thought I had bought the chocolate mulberries but they turned out to be goji berries which I didn’t like as much.

The almond one is gorgeous, if you like marzipan, which by now you must know that I am slightly addicted to.

The Earl Grey one is fab too. The Almond, Cardamom and Rose one is nice, but I prefer the plain almond one. The only one I am not so keen on is the night treatment one, but it is not too bad it just has a bit of a rich flavour/ scent which is not great for just before bed.

Anyway, I would highly recommend these. Next time I run out I shall be going to London instead of ordering them from i-herb, but if you can’t get to Wholefoods then it is worth a look- the almond one is here. I have signed up to the i-herb rewards scheme so if you click through the link I get a small % of credit if you spend anything.

Also, we were in Brighton on Monday and I found some of the flavours in Infinity Foods- I managed to resist even though they had a lovely sounding black cherry one. They did however stock chocolate mulberries so I bought a couple of little packets- hooray!

Are you a lip balm fan? What flavours do you like?

Pretty dresses and a few reviews

Isn’t the weather lovely first of all??? I am not sure which weather forecast I saw but I didn’t expect this!

Yesterday we popped into town- we have a wedding to go to in a few weeks time and although I have the dress, I needed a cardi or something, so I wanted to have a look. Anyway, no success there, but Debenhams were having 20% off dresses, so I came away with this:

This morning I went for a 9 mile run. I found it very tough as I wasn’t expecting it to be so warm- I wore a t-shirt when really I should have worn a vest. I also think I was a bit dehydrated- my mouth felt really dry from early on, and then I started to imagine all my blood getting thicker and my heart having a hard time pumping it around which didn’t help things either. Anyway, all done now. As soon as I got home I had an apple and some coconut water, and then after my shower made pancakes.

One with honey pb, one with blackcurrant curd, and one with coconut butter and jam.

Onto the reviews.

Seed and Bean sent me some gorgeous chocolate to enjoy.

Seed and Bean make their organic Fairtrade chocolate by hand in England. Recently they have changed their packaging and I must say that I think it is gorgeous and really eye catching. I also like it when the colours “match” the flavours if that makes sense. Also their inner “foil” wrappers are all home compostable as they are made from cellulose.

They sent me four flavours; Milk chocolate with Sicilian hazelnut and almond, Milk chocolate with Cornish sea salt and lime, Fine Dark chocolate with Espresso, and Extra Dark chocolate with mint.

I love nutty chocolates, and the combination of hazelnut and almond is just gorgeous. The lime and sea salt really impressed me too- I love trying more unusual flavours and this was great- the lime was fresh and zingy.

Andy has been enjoying the Espresso chocolate as coffee is not my thing, but it does smell good (I love the smell of coffee, but do not like the taste).

The Mint chocolate is delicious. Mint and chocolate is a classic combination- I have been having a couple of squares after dinner. The dark chocolates have the Vegan society logo on them, but also the disclaimer that they may contain milk traces.

Holland and Barrett stock them, but they never seem to have a big range of flavours, so if you fancy having a look there is an online shop here.

I was also sent some Viva drinks to try. Now, I would not agree to being sent something unless I thought I would like it (for example I was offered some Quorn products but I don’t tend to eat “fake meats” so declined as I didn’t think I would enjoy them), but when the drinks arrived I was not sure about them as I read the ingredients. They are drinks made with fruit juice, water and herbal extracts, but they also use stevia to sweeten them, and I have not always got on well with stevia in the past.

The first one I tried was the Mind drink, as it was flavoured with mangosteen and pineapple, which I liked the sound of. I liked it more than I thought I would, and I didn’t get the weird chemical/ metallic aftertaste I have had with stevia drinks in the past, so maybe they have the balance a bit better.

The Calm with melon and white peach was also quite nice- pretty refreshing. I am not convinced by the claims of the botanical extracts- I would imagine you would need to consume on a regular basis to glean any benefits, but I am sure they don’t do any harm.

My favourite one was the Detox- the Mint and Lemon flavour was lovely- like a fresh mint iced tea made with real mint leaves. If I was out and about on a hot day and needed a refreshing drink I would buy this, although some might find it quite sweet tasting due to the white grape juice and stevia.

I liked these more than I thought I would. I did find the packaging a bit hard to read- it was hard to find where the flavours were written as it was not immediately obvious.

Finally I was sent the most gorgeous cookery book:

Treat Petite by Fiona Pearce is filled with gorgeous miniature recipes for pastries, cakes, meringues and savoury bites. If you were holding an Alice in Wonderland themed party, or a delicate afternoon tea, this is the book for you!

How gorgeous do the mini macaroons look?

I love that each recipe has a photo and an “actual size” picture too.

I have not made anything from here yet, but I am sure it won’t be long!

Fiona runs a blog, Icing Bliss, which I urge you to check out as it is filled with beautiful photos of afternoon teas and delicate cakes.

Right, I had better get on with some real work! I have been excellent at procrastinating today (in a good way I suppose- I have ploughed through tidying, dusting, cleaning bathrooms and the kitchen, loads of washing and catching up on blogs from the past week) but now I have run out of other things!

Do you like getting dressed up? Personally I do not like it at all. Tights are my nemesis! Finding the right size is hard, and even the short length ones end up under my rub cage, and then I always manage to rip them when I put them on/ when I go to the loo.