Running accessories and getting higher tech!

Hey all, hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. A few of you have asked how I have been (and I don’t want to harp on about it)- I am feeling uncomfortable, but not in awful pain or anything. I have tried going for little walks (as am still off work but want to see how I get on with being a bit more active) but for some reason that makes it much worse, so I am not walking too far. Still a week and a half to my hospital appointment, and although my brain is going mad I know that I can cope with how I feel right now.

First and most exciting news- I bought myself a Garmin . What with the Kindle I am now nearly in the 21st Century according to Andy (still only have a texting phone, no internet for me!). Anyway, I got a postcard from Sweatshop saying that the Garmin 110 would be half price for this week, so I decided to get one. I did read reviews on Amazon and it seemed pretty good. I have run a few times with Andy’s Garmin- no idea of the number but it was a basic and pretty big one (plus he has it set to km so I spend the entire time working out the miles). At the moment I have got it out of the packet, charged it, and read some instructions. Oh, and located the satellites. I am thinking I will try it on a walk at some point, and so the plan is once I can start running again I will know how to use it. I have had my Nike+ for nearly 2 years now, and although I really like it, I do need to callibrate it a lot because it works on foot striking, not GPS. Plus I know that I really do love running, and it is not just a fad, so I know I will get some good use out of it.  This one has no HRM, but I did not think I would use it, and the HRM ones were much more expensive.

I also got a couple of running magazines to read- again not sure if I am just taunting myself because I can’t do any of it yet. Ah well, I will be well prepared. (Sweatshop postcard in the background too).

And guess what- there are bloggers popping up in magazines all the time! Freya was in Women’s Running mag, Rose is in Runners World, and.

Phil is in Running Fitness! How exciting!

OK, so if you have a Garmin (or other brand of GPS watch) which one do you have and what features do you really find great?  Does anyone have the same one (and any pointers would be fab- like how do you turn it off???).

How into the 21st Century technology are you? Internet/ smart-phones etc? I have had my current phone for over 2 years and it does me fine,although when I was in hospital I was thinking that an internet phone would be good as it would have given me something to do. But then I am not sure if I would feel the need to check things at lunch time/ all the time, and feel a bit more stressed, whereas now I can only check emails at home and other times I know it will wait. Makes sense?

Making mexican casserole

Hello everyone.

Cooking counts as one of the “pottering about” activities that I can get on with while being at home. I needed something for Tuesday tea, so I decided to make another lot of the mexican casserole that I made a while back. It is loosely based on this recipe from Oh She Glows. I think my version is easier!

For 3 big servings you will need:

1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 1 red onion, 2 sticks of celery.

1 carton of passata, 75g dry quinoa, 1 small tin sweetcorn, 1 small tin borlotti beans, paprika, easy chilli, assorted herbs.

Cheese (optional but tasty).

Avocado/ salad/ other stuff to serve.

First up, chop the veggies and roast in the oven for about 25 mins (220C). I sprinkled with paprika for fun. While that is going on, cook 75g quinoa in water, again add some paprika if you like.

Some quinoa should be rinsed first- check the packet. All I do is weigh out the dry quinoa, pour over cold water (just enough to cover it) then gently simmer. Stir to stop it sticking, and add more water if you need to as it will soak up a lot of water. Add any flavours you like- stock cubes etc as it will soak up the flavour. When it is done they go from looking like tiny balls to all squiggly. There is no other way to describe it. A bit like rice you need to be careful when cooling and reheating it- make sure it cools quickly if you are not eating it right away.

Once the quinoa is cooked, put it all together. Pour the passatta (and a little water if it looks dry), the drained tin of sweetcorn, the drained tin of beans and a tsp easy chilli over the roasted veggies. Then stir in the quinoa and add any herbs if you like- I think I added oregano.

Before baking, add a little cheese if you like. Or just bake for about 20 mins.

I left 1/3 in the tray (saves on washing up) and the other 2/3 into foil trays. Once cooled they went in the freezer- I did not cook them first.

Then, the best bit! This time I chopped up a small avodado, mashed in some lemon juice and served it, alongside some rocket. Yum.

Plus the best part (well, aside from the fact I have 2 more of these in the freezer) is that you can easily change it to your tastes or to what you have. Last time I used black eyed beans and did not have any sweetcorn (or celery). You could swap in different veggies, different beans, use a different grain…. Endless yummy meals.

This was followed a little later by some grilled pineapple.

I grilled it with some coconut, and had it with an alpro vanilla pot. Delicious.

Now you get some random things that I have photographed over the last few days.

I fancied a smoothie for breakfast, and also fancied using up the last of some lemon marmalade my Mum made. I also realised I had a pouch of protein powder to try, so I had that in a smoothie with half a frozen banana, some frozen cherries and soya milk. It did smell lovely and chocolatey, but it had maybe a chalky texture? I am not sure I really liked it, although it did fill me up for hours and did not give me stomach ache (when I tried whey protein, years ago, it gave me tummy ache). So smoothie, toast and a very ripe nectarine were eaten.

I have also been enjoying more chai lattes- I used some white christmas tea (which has white tea and lovely spices) and frothed like crazy!

I think that is enough for now.

What is your favourite easily adaptable meal?

WIAW- rye-lly tasty

I need to work on those titles!

I chose Saturday for my day- we went out for a little walk in the afternoon.

Breakfast:

Nectarine, muesli and soya milk.

Lunch:

Rye bread with peanut butter and dark chocolate dreams, a persimmon (I sliced it the other way around and ate the skin this time- I think when I sliced it like an apple the skin seemed too thick) and clementines.

Snack:

A chocolate/ peppermint cookie.

Dinner:

We were given a load of pickles and chutneys for Christmas, so we had some lovely walnut rye bread with salad, cucumber, celery, wenslydale with cranberries and started the red onion chutney. Yum. That tin (with the mouse on) has biscuits for cheese, but I was full after a couple of slices of rye bread so I didn’t have any. But I love the cute tin!

Dessert:

Alpro dark chocolate pot with a little Lizzi’s granola.

The observant among you may have noticed that for breakfast I was still using my nice red coasters, but by dinner I had a new tablecloth and spotty coasters. Time to stop with the festive things I feel!

If you fancy having a look at what other people had on their menu’s this week, head over to Peas and Crayons for WIAW.

Anyone else a rye bread fan? I love it! Big question- anyone ever made it successfully? I had rye flour but it was so hard to make into bread- it really seemed to turn into concrete! But I would love to make it properly.

Zalando winner!

Is it just me, or do you get that ABBA song in your head every time you see the word Zalando. (“There was something in the air tonight, the skies were bright, Zalando….” Just me? OK).

Right, it is time to announce the winner. Of course being the super high tech person that I am, I wrote all the names down on paper (and of course if you entered 2 or 3 times you got more pieces of paper) and put them in a cake tin. What else.

And the winner is Sarah! (In case you can’t read that!). So Sarah please email me and I can sort out Zalando emailing you your voucher.

Also, before Christmas I was sent some veggie sweets to review- look here to see what I thought.

Any songs you get stuck in your head at certain times/ for certain things? For Teapigs I get the silly Moonpig jingle stuck in my head.

Leftover cookies

I am sure a lot of you will be in the same boat- lots of left over chocolates and things from the festive period. I decided to use some of the leftovers by making some cookies.

I had lots of chocolate (especially milk chocolate which I am not such a big fan of) and peppermint candy canes, so I decided to attempt mint chocolate cookies.

As I had had success using the Millie’s style recipe that I saw on Lucy’s blog, I decided to adapt that. They really are super easy and pretty quick.

First up I chopped up some milk chocolate (I even used some truffles in there), and bashed up the candy canes in a pestle and mortar. That was fun, although bits of peppermint flew everywhere so I needed to crush up more (and vacuum up a lot too!).

Then I followed the recipe, only I added a tsp peppermint extract instead of the vanilla, and mixed in chopped chocolate and candy canes. I find that I need to cook them for about 11 minutes, but that might be my oven. The recipe says 7 mins for really soft ones, and 10 mins for more traditional cookies. These ones are still chewy and delicious.

They are so pretty with the little flecks of pink candy cane in there.

Andy said that the crunch from the candy canes was really good too. 🙂

Now I just have to find a use for all the other candy canes….

What are your favourite ways to use up leftovers? I am talking savoury or sweet. I love making up a hotch potch warm quinoa salad with anything I have, or some lovely bread is great to use up any cheese and pickle, and of course most sweeter things are fab for topping porridge (not sure if I could handle peppermint porridge though!), or brownies.