Raising sponsorship

Hey

So some of you may know that I am running The Great South Run at the end of October. It is a 10 mile race and I have chosen to raise money for Cancer Research UK. I even have a Cancer Research vest to wear (proves I am taking it seriously). They are a charity close to my heart, and usually I run a Race for Life to raise sponsorship- this year I am doing the GSR instead.

I will be doing some sponsorship incentives (?) with work and things, and I wanted to do something on my blog as well.

With the help of some really generous companies I have put together a little giveaway which you can enter if you sponsor me.

Teapigs are launching their brand new website this week. You can follow them on Twitter (@teapigs) and also like their facebook page. I reviewed some of their teas last year and I love them!

They have kindly contributed some sets of Teapigs English Breakfast tea, Peppermint tea and a very very cool mug.

Natures Path make lots of flax based cereals and really delicious flavours- check out my review here.

They are generously contributing some hampers of their entire range of cereals. They are on facebook too.

I also love Rude Health cereals- I tried some of their cereals earlier in the year and loved them too.

They kindly contributed some Rude Health muesli and Granola.

I also love seedstacked bars (in my opinion much tastier and healthier than 9 bars)- see their products here.

Seedstacked kindly sent me some cases of their original bars for this giveaway. Check them out on facebook too.

And some baking/ fudge from me (winners get to choose what I send)- an example:

There will be 7 prizes open to UK residents only:

  • 3 x Nature’s Path Hamper
  • 3 x Teapigs set (English breakfast, Peppermint and mug)
  • 1 Rude Health Muesli +Rude Health Granola

All prizes also include some Seedstacked bars, and one lot of baked goods (e.g. peanut butter cookies/ white chocolate fudge/ vegan cookies of some sort).

I will also be having one prize for people in the rest of the world;

Some nice nakd cereal bars, some other things from the UK too (still getting these bits together) , and some home-made fudge too.

To enter, please sponsor me by clicking here (or use the button at the top of my blog). Please leave your name/ blog name (however I will know you), and then comment on this post to say you have done so. A small plea to say please do not mention my blog as I am asking people at work to donate and I keep my blog separate from my work. The minimum is £2 and I really really appreciate every penny that is raised.

To get an extra entry, please link to this page from your blog and comment on here to say you have done so.

The competition will be open until I have run the Great South Run, so I will close it at the end of October.

Then I will be taking names out of a hat and winners will be notified in the beginning of November.

I really appreciate any donations to this Cancer Research, so thank you in advance if you do choose to sponsor me- every penny counts.

Pancake Sunday!

What??????? I hear you all cry- no porridge??

No, I answer. I fancied pancakes today. So that is what I have. But, do not panic (were you all panicking?)- pimp my porridge will continue next week. Especially when I get some more coconut.

These are super easy- 100g flour, 100ml milk, 1 egg, I tbsp sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, and cook away. I put on some dried cranberries and Andy had his with some maple syrup.

I had mine with Whole Earth caramel and chocolate spread. Mmmmm.

They look so much better in natural light!

We needed this as today we had planned to do a load of gardening. This warm weather has been fantastic, but it has sent some of our plants into overdrive. We spent an hour in the garden, chopping things back and getting out the nettles that grow from under the fence. Then we headed to the allotment for another hour- we planted some strawberries, a blackcurrant bush, some rhubarb and some daffodil bulbs. A lot of weeds had grown back, but the earth is so lovely and soft that they pull out easily. We decided to only weed the bits we need right now.

After that we were super hot and tired. I made us smoothies, which turned into soft serve! A frozen banana, some frozen mango and a carton of coconut water= 2 delicious smoothies that need to be eaten with a spoon!

It was a bit later for lunch, so I went for an apple and a pear covered in honey pb (from my blog swap). 🙂 Yum.

I also did a little review for Rawr chocolate- look here if you fancy seeing their lovely flavours, and one for Beyond Dark who make delicious (and healthy) dark chocolate drops- look here for that one. Have you tried any of these products?

I am about to have more autumn chilli with sweet potato fries- yummy 🙂

Hope everyone else is having a lovely Sunday 🙂

Parcels in the post!

I love getting things in the post! These last couple of days I have been super lucky and have been opening up so many parcels!

I did a blog swap with Errign and she sent me a massive pile of goodies! Nut butters, energy gels, different types of clif and luna bars, plus lara bars which I am super excited to try!

I had the mint brownie bite straight away and it was delicious! Thanks Errign 🙂

I also got my Graze box– we get one of these every other weekend and share the punnets as a snack at the weekend- it included a new one which was apples to dip in caramel sauce. Sounds yummy!

Some lovely looking almond desserts from Ecomil- I cannot wait to try these, perhaps in my new bowls?

How cute are they???? I got them from Paperchase when I was getting some birthday cards, so not actually in the post, but I just love them!

Oh yeah, and a commiserations magazine. This was actually for Andy, who, when his marathon training was going well, decided to sign up for the London ballot (and he didn’t tell me until after the deadline! Not that I would have applied, but anyway)- after Stockholm he was hoping to have not got in, so he was very relieved to get this in the post!

Post run snack- Chocolate Cherry Almond Luna bar courtesy of Errign- delicious 🙂

With the running, it is proving hard to get back into. I tried a run this morning and managed 4 miles, but I had to walk as I was getting stomach pains- not sure what it is all about. Anyway we have the 10K next Sunday and I was originally hoping to be able to beat my previous 10K time, but I realise that it is not going to happen. So I am going to enjoy the run- it should be pretty scenic. We have the great south run at the end of the month, and we decided to sign up to this race– a 10K the week after the GSR. Maybe by then I will be back to running and might stand a chance of beating my time. And if not we have another weekend away and a run somewhere pretty.

Today I got on with more baking for my friends.

I made some carrot and raisin cakes to go with the peanut butter cookies I made yesterday.

Before the cream cheese frosting- I am getting a little obsessed with the mini loaf cases!

Oh, and one final photo- I ordered some bits from Lakeland- including piping bags and nozzles (so I no longer have to just dollop the icing on!), muslin cloth squares (for my almond milk hopefully) and these cool trays that are already divided up. I am terrible at cutting things evenly and so I am looking forward to making brownies, flapjacks, bars etc that are all perfectly the same size.

Do you love getting things in the post? I find it much more exciting than going shopping (plus no queues!). What was the last thing you received in the post?

Back pumping!

And more pimping (of the porridge kind)

I actually typed “pumpkin” for the title- shows what is on my mind haha!

First up- I went to body pump last night! Yay! I am practically all better now. Just drinking something stupid like 3-4 litres of water each day. Anyway, it was the new release- OW to the triceps track! I put a weight on my thighs for the dips- that was a mistake as I barely made it though the over the head bits at the end! I did find the squats track rather boring, but I did like the Living on a prayer song for the biceps (I think?). Good stuff.

I was hungry so I decided to try a Builders bar (20g protein- wow!)- a chocolate mint one. It was quite nice, very filling but not my fave texture.

Pimp my porridge has been going well.

Carrot cake porridge (grated carrot, chopped apple, cinnamon, few raisins, oats and soya milk).

Peach coconut porridge (small tin drained peaches, oats, soya milk, coconut extract and I think some cinnamon as always)

Carob banana porridge (mashed banana, carob powder, few raisins, oats, soya milk)

Autumn fruit porridge (chopped pear, frozen blackberries, oats, soya milk, cinnamon I think)

Stay tuned for more varieties next week! 🙂

I also had a carrot cake inspired sandwich one day this week (actually, I had run out of hummus and didn’t fancy pb!)

Tahini, grated carrot, raisins and cinnamon. This was delicious! 🙂

I went to the doctors again today for a little check, but she said that people go through spates of having these infections, so just to keep drinking lots.

When I got home I had lots of parcels to open, but I will show you those tomorrow.

I did some baking this evening- Andy has been requesting cookies for ages but I was making lots of cakes instead.

I used some Whole Earth Original crunchy and some Beyond Dark chocolate chips to make Hummingbird peanut butter cookies- the best ever recipe.

They turn into the most enormous cookies 🙂 Thin and chewy, yummy.

They do look a lot like the photo in the book too.

In a bit we are going to watch the last ever episode of The Wire . We have been working out way through the series and I cannot believe it is the last one. Anyone else a fan?

Enjoy the fab weather this weekend- it looks like it is going to be brilliant. I am hoping for a slightly longer run tomorrow (still cannot believe I am running a 10K next Sunday!) then doing some baking as I have some friends over on Saturday afternoon- and then planting some stuff in the allotment on Sunday. Any great weekend plans?

WIAW- cook fest


Hey! Doing WIAW does seem to make the week go by so fast- I say it every week but how is Wednesday here already?

Thanks as always to Jenn for organising the party.

This week I chose Monday as my day.

Breakfast;

Chopped pear, Rude Health muesli, almond milk.

Lunch and morning snack;

Hummus and red pepper sandwich, nectarine, nakd bar.

Pre-cooking snack;

Half a massive bar of rawr orange chocolate.

Dinner;

Autumn chilli (carrots, butternut, pepper, kidney beans, chickpears etc) topped with nutritional yeast and food doctor seeds.

Post baking snack;

Pumpkin spice cake (adapted from Sweet Vegan) and some Teapigs Spiced winter red tea.

I was still on antibiotics, so no running for me that day- normally I would have a run after work on a Monday. Instead I got on with baking some pumpkin spice cake, and some lovely chilli.

Not sure what my favourite thing was from that day- I might choose the pumpkin cake and tea? That combination was amazing.

Thanks for the suggestions for pimp my porridge too- I have had loads of fab ideas and cannot wait to have a bit of variety for my breakfast.

Do you tend to eat the same things for the same meals, or are you good at getting in some variety over the week?