Snow-lar bear

Guess what I did today!

Yes, the snow was calling to me! I went into my garden and it was so pretty, with only bird foot prints in the snow. So I decided to have a bit of fun 🙂 He is looking up at my window so I can see him from my house! It was so cold out there, luckily my breakfast was keeping me warm;

One packet of plain porridge, 40g pumpkin (left over from pasta), 5g cranberries and some mixed spice. It was delish- the perfect amount of pumpkin 😉

I rang the gym this morning and according to them, body pump class was on (they often shut down over christmas but I didn’t take a leaflet as I wasn’t supposed to be here). SO I will be off to that later on, it is the new one so I am hoping I like the music. I was feeling very productive again today, and cleared out my kitchen cupboards. Do you know I have 12 cans of pumpkin? Yes, 12. I kept adding one each week to the online shopping. Hmm. I also found some chickpea flour and I have no idea what I planned to do with it. Any ideas?

For fresh air, (as well as snowlar bear) I walked up to the post office and boy I was freezing when I got home!

I also packaged up some home-made christmas fudge.

Here is the recipe if you fancy a go (adapted from Rachel Allens Home Cooking recipe);

The trick is to get it all ready, so- line a brownie pan with baking paper. Get your electric whisk out of the cupboard, attack the whisks and check it works! Assemble add-in ingredients (for me, 50g cranberries, 50g pistachios and 50g chopped white chocolate for those christmas colours). Also get a side plate to put the hot stuff on.

In a big pan, put 100g butter, 450g soft light brown sugar (or caster sugar) and 1 tin condensed milk. Put the sugar thermometer in there so it heats up slowly. Stir until it all melts, then keep the heat low and keep it bubbling (for about 7 minutes) until it reaches the soft ball stage on the sugar thermometer. (Or fiddle about with a saucer from the freezer or some water or something.).

Once it reaches that temp, remove the thermometer and spoon, (place on side plate) and beat with the mixer. It will take a while, 5- 10 minutes, until it is not runny, but thicker and harder to mix. The beaters should leave a thick trail in the mix.

Then, quickly pour half into the tin, sprinkle on the add-ins, and then cover with the rest of the mixture. It will start to harden quickly, but I find that pushing it down firmly with a non stick spatula works well. It will not set for a while, but the quicker you work, the smoother the final fudge will look. Leave to cool for a bit (lick excess fudge from beaters before washing up) and then place in the fridge. I find that you need to take it out of the fridge for a bit before you slice it. Then cut it into pieces, put into bags or tubs or whatever. It keeps fine at room temp or in the fridge. Enjoy 🙂

I keep reading that Emma keeps getting bargains from Sweatshop with codes from Womens Running mag. Well, I subscribe to the mag but never noticed the codes- luckily I looked as there is a code for 10% off, plus free postage, which expires tomorrow. I looked and they have my fave running trainers for £60 (the other day they were £80) and so I have ordered some yay 🙂

Although I am not sure if it is torturing myself by ordering shoes when I can’t go running? Hurry up and melt snow!

Festive plans

Evening

I managed to get out for some more fresh air today- walked up to the shops in the other direction (saw a dead rat frozen in the snow which was pretty gross!)- it was icy in places, slushy in places, deep snow in places, and no clear paths at all. Shame as I was hoping that I might find a route for a run. No such luck. I also did level 2 shred (I did the cardio gently as my calves are still stiff)- actually it helped to loosen the muscles.

This afternoon I had such a christmassy snack- 2 clementines, 2 gingerbread cookies (I had some left over dough from the mini house) and some christmas tea. Love it!

Here is the tray of cookies- I decorated then with a few squares of dark chocolate which I melted, and then assorted sprinkles from one of those decirating tub things- we will be giving some of these away too;

I also did some more cooking, this time it was savoury stuff! I made some yummy pumpkin pasta. I could not remember the recipe that I did before, so I sort of made it up. Anyway, it was 1 pack of silken tofu whizzed up with around 300g canned pumpkin and 5 sundried tomatoes. I then stirred in 150g cooked wholewheat pasta and 150g cooked spinach. This made 3 portions (I put them in those silver foil tubs)- one for tonight and 2 for the freezer. Not bad 🙂 Once I am back at work I love having meals in the freezer that can defrost during the day and be cooked quickly while I am in the shower in the evening.

I have been reading on lots of blogs about how people tend to manage being healthy over christmas. Generally I don’t find it too hard, but I think as I am vegetarian I miss a lot of the typical massive meals (plus the sides like those pigs in blankets etc), plus I don’t like roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy or sauces, can live without yorkshires etc. As a family we have never had starters, whereas I know some people would have a 3 course meal at lunch for christmas. Plus I don’t drink alchohol- water and tea are the best liquids for me! I don’t ever tend to have different breakfasts- porridge is where it is at for me!  Lunches will stay fairly similar to normal. I have nice festive snacks like clementines and a few nuts. I also try to keep up with the exercise. I know myself that if I don’t exercise I start to feel lethargic and a bit bleurgh, so I make sure it is in my plan to get something done each day. 

The main issue I have is that I get given loads of chocolates from work (the children are always so sweet and like to help me open their gifts, and this year I think I was given 13 boxes of chocolates (including 2 mammoth trays of MIlk Tray)- I always manage to give lots away, and have left some at school for the staffroom, but I keep a couple, and if I open a box it is easy to have a couple here and there. They add up pretty quick! I use WLR so I make sure I log my meals each day, log my exercise (once done- I am a bit supersticious about logging it before I actually do it) and then seeing what I have left for snacks.

If I know that I have enough calories for a slice of christmas cake in the evening, then I look forward to that during the day. I won’t beat myself up if I go over my calories on a few days, but I know myself that I will start to feel rubbish, so it is in my interest to keep as healthy as possible. Gosh I have written a lot!

So, to conclude- during the festive period I try to;

  • Get some fresh air each day
  • Get some exercise each day
  • Eat lots of portions of fruit and veg each day
  • Allow for a “treat” each day (so keep the diet balanced, not totally restrictive and not all out unhealthy)
  • Drink lots of water
  • Keep and eye on calories in and calories out

Enjoy the festive season 🙂

Gingerbread house number 2

Hey! So you all know that running and baking are my fave hobbies. I went on a walk up to the shops today (for some fresh air and also to see if I could find a patch of clear or safe pavements for a run). It was lovely, I spent about 90 mins wading through snow there and back. Unfortunately I did not find any clear pavement at all, so tomorrow will be a DVD at home again. (Reminder to myself- I much stretch more after that dvd as my calves are killing me today!).

I did pick up a bargain in the shops- I love Whitards Christmas tea, and they had a tub for sale (normally £8) for only £3, because of a little dent in the tin. So after lunch it was time for Christmas tea – my old tin (on the right) has only enough for a few teapots left. (Can you see the little dent? It’s tiny!). I also got a bargain long sleeved cardi in Gap for £11.

After that,  in order to occupy myself I decided to make a mini gingerbread house.

I put the cards there so you can see how little it is 🙂

This time I made up my own template and was pleased that the roof actually fits! Hooray I can still do maths!

I decorated it on the coffee table in front of Marley and Me- we decided to treat ourselves to the movies on Sky over Christmas as we will have plenty of time to watch them- such a sweet film.

I also made some roasted spiced nuts- this time along with the egg white I mixed in some brown sugar, maple syrup, mixed spice, cinnamon and cloves, before toasting in the oven for around 20 minutes. I put them in a jar and we will take them round to Andy’s parents on Christmas day- I love giving edible gifts.

Also we have been planning our replacement holiday- we got flights to Miami and back from Atlanta, so we can hire a car and visit all the places (and a few more) that we planned to see this Christmas. So although it is months and months away it is good knowing that we will get there in the end.

Feeling better

Today I have achieved lots of things;

1- Finished unpacking the suitcases

2- Two loads of washing

3- Filled in insurance forms

4- Spent 10 minutes trying to clear snow and then ice from my car, before I gave up and took Andy’s car instead (from the garage)

5- Went to the post office to photocopy forms, only to find out that the post office is now a mini-market with a post office counter and no photocopier in sight!

6- Bought ingredients to make more fudge for more presents (and a squash to make some soup)

7- Watched Kirsty’s Home-made christmas and wish I had icing left to make a polar bear for my cake!

8- Made roasted vegetable calzone for tea

9- Did exercise DVD (Shred level 1 and 2)

10- Cleaned the carpet where the dirty snow (from the cases) had left lots of stains

11- Spent a long time reading blogs!

12- Notice that I was given a fun blogger award by Kaitlyn 🙂 Thanks 🙂

13- Book flights for the summer to help cheer us up!

Since I was tagged I have to think of 7 things to put on here. So lets begin another list;

1- I love lists. I make lists for everything. I am one of those people who, if I do something and forgot to put it on my list, will write it on my list after just so that I can tick it off.

2- When I was younger I used to sing in a choir. For the audition I sang The Bear Neccessities from Jungle Book!

3- I cannot stand parsnips. The thought of them makes me feel like my throat is closing up. This is down to my Mum disguising them with the roast potatoes in the hope that we would all grow to love them. It did the opposite as I don’t really like roast potatoes either.

4- I love the smell of coffee but do not like the taste at all.

5- When I was little we lived in Denmark for a few months and I even went to the kindergarten at the local school- all the kids spoke English and now the only Danish I can remember is how to count to ten!

6- I am known to get very grumpy when I am hungry. At a wedding last year another friend actually packed a cereal bar for me in case we had to wait a while for food! Other than that I like to think I have a sunny disposition.

7- In my teenage years I was really into rock/indie music. I used to go to festivals (Reading for the hardcore peeps!) and I even crowd-surfed at an Ash gig!  I am definately old now as the last few I went to I had a seat! And I could not face camping any more!

So, if you read this and want to join in, consider yourself tagged! I try to read the blogs of everyone who comments on here, so feel free to join in 🙂 I look forward to reading more lists! 🙂

No Christmas getaway

Guess where I am.

Thats right, the getaway did not happen 🙁

Long recount so be warned!

On Friday we left here at about 7, and got to the hotel near the airport just before ten. At half 6 the next morning we were up and glad to see there had been no snow overnight, so we got the bus to the airport, dropped off our bags, got our money, went through security (still no snow)- boarded the plane (it just started snowing very lightly at that point), watched the safety video (snow got heavier), the plane got de-iced and we were told that we were going to take off before the “storm”. Then we were told that the runway was closed until 10am (our flight was meant to go at 9.15), but the crew were good until 1.30 that afternoon. Then the runway was shut til 12. and when we were about to get off we were told the runway was shut until 3, which meant the plane would not be going anywhere that day. Then the chaos started. We had to go and collect our bags, but because of the snow they were having trouble, and we ended up waiting in the reclaim area for our bags until about half 1 in the afternoon. Luckily we had some raisin bread with us, and had bought a bottle of water in the airport, as we were given nothing on the plane. After a few hours of waiting a lady came around with a piece of paper that said we would be rebooked on a flight leaving on Sunday, but nothing about hotels or food or anything. The desk for the airline had a massive queue, which turned out to be to use a phone as the desk was only manned until 9am (There was a lady screaming down the phone as she had been told that there was no 11am flight so we did not know what to think). I did try calling the airpine on my mobile, but it told me to go to the website, and when I called back and pressed different options it put me on hold for ages. I won’t go into it, but it was stressful- we were ringing our parents to see if they could book us a hotel, but there were none available nearby and the cheapest was over £200- the airline website said they would pay “reasonable cost” towards a hotel but we had no way of knowing what that meant. Then Andy told me that for my christmas present he had booked us tickets for Discovery cove (the Seaworld park where you can swim with dolphins)- but for Monday. As the new flight was to get to Atlanta on sunday evening, we would have an 8 hour drive to do in order to get there in time, which after spending a night in the airport (only option) we did not think was safe, so then we would have to book another hotel somewhere on the way, and miss the booking we had made on the next hotel too. Complicated I know.  We also found out that if we missed the day of collecting our car for hire there were no guarantees that there would be one for us. Anyway, to cut a long story a little shorter, we eventually made the painful decision to come home and get our money back, and hopefully re book for the summer.

Even getting home was awful as half the trains were cancelled, there were signal failures on the underground, but eventually we got home at about 10 last night. It seems silly because I know it was “just” a holiday, but we were both looking forward to it so much- having some winter sunshine, spending time outside, spending time together, seeing all the christmas decorations, the special shows (candlelight processional at Epcot is amazing), and of course the discovery cove. We spent so long weighing up our options, but the insurance people said that anything we missed if we still travelled would not be covered for anything we missed, and we could not really afford to pay out more for new hotels, tickets and another car. We also thought that after a night in the airport, we would take a few days to recover and it would affect the first few days of our holiday. We are still not sure if we made the right decision- that was all I dreamt about last night. I had to be on hold for over an hour last night to cancel the flight and start the process of getting the refund.

So, this is where I am at!

Snow joke.

I am trying to look forward to all the things that I can do at home that I could not do on holiday at christmas- so any ideas would be welcome!

And I am thankful after seeing the news that we did not get stuck on the roads, on the runway, or spent the night at the airport. We got home safe and sound, which is the most important thing.