Recipe success!

So a while ago with the teapigs giveaway my fave sounding recipe was the spiced apple cupcakes from Laura, but when I made them they sunk and burnt- I had halved the recipe but don’t think I did it right! So anyway, I decided to make the recipe again but this time bake it in a tray, instead of cupcake cases. I also made the icing and I have to say that the icing is amazing- so fudgey and delicious! I didn’t have any dried milk powder but it seemed fine without it.

The recipe is from Veganomicon , and I would say that they are amazing- I only had a little slice but the apple is so sweet and spiced, and they have a lovely autumnal flavour. Mmmm.

I did some wrapping when I got back from work today so now the tree looks lovely.

After work it was time for aerobics (after a nakd gingerbread bar- very seasonal! )- there were loads of newbies today, and although it was freezing I had bags of energy. The songs were great which always helps. Also I normally try to avoid looking at myself in the mirror (one side of the studio is mirros and we spend most of the time facing ourselves) but today I was thinking that actually I looked okay in the mirror. Workout gear is not very forgiving and normally shows any lumps, plus when you are leaping up and down the jiggle doens’t always look that attractive. But today when I caught glimpses of myself I was quite happy with what I saw. So I am feeling good about that too. I feel healthy on the inside (which I think is really important) but it was good that I felt I looked healthy too- does that make sense?

Now it is time for a gingerbread cookie with some tea- love it 🙂

More festive fun

Evening all

I was inspired by some other blogs for some close ups of my decorations, so skip to the bottom if you want to read about my run instead!

I got this moose candle holder from Copenhagen last year- Andy and I went there for 3 days last December for our christmas presents to each other. It is so pretty 🙂

I love the Happy Holidays theme in america- and I also love gingerbread, and Minnie mouse. Andy got this for me one summer from the disney christmas shop.

The Snowman is my ultimate Christmas film, so when I saw these I had to get them. Normally they hang on the tree, but they are heavy and the little branches cannot hold them this year.

This is a tealight holder from Whitards. When there is a candle in it, the light glows from the little holes and it looks so pretty 🙂

Another disney present from Andy- a cute gingerbread Mickey with the disney recipe in it too- bonus 🙂

Ok, now onto the normal stuff!

After work I wrapped up and went out on a 5.7 mile run. I was thinking I would take it easy as my legs were stiff today, but I did it in 54 minutes so I was pretty speedy, not sure what happened! I think the cold is helping! There was fog while I was driving home, and the frost did not melt from the trees all day, so it was quite spooky, but also really beautiful as all the trees looked like they belonged on a card. I was a bit worried that the pavements would be icy, and as I was running there were twinkling bits, but they were fine. Phew.  I did see a couple of other runners, which is always nice- I always feel pleased to see other people getting out there (and it proves I am not crazy for going out).

I also got around to icing some of the gingerbread cookies to take into work;

I am hoping to spread the festive cheer, as it is so busy at the moment that no-one is pausing to enjoy the fun stuff.

I might do some wrapping later 🙂 The bottom of the tree is all lonely!

Night

Feeling festive

Hello all.

So today, the saga with the tree reached a good conclusion! We took back the fake one and swapped it for a real one.

It is only a diddy one but it smells so good! Have not had a real tree since I was little. I do now have a rash from the needles though! This evening we decorated it;

Keeping it simple. Plus the poor little branches would not take the weight of some of the decorations!

I also decorated a christmas cake for my parents and one for Andy’s parents;

And to check that the recipe was still good I made some gingerbread cookies in preparation for making a gingerbread house next weekend;

Fun cookie cutter shapes- stars, heart and snowman.

They make the house smell so festive 🙂

For breakfast I enjoyed festive porridge- porridge with a handful of cranberries, a tbs pumpkin puree and some mixed spice.

Yum 🙂

I also posted the cards I had written the other day, and bought some wrapping paper so I am getting prepared.

One of my favourite things is to get home from work and put on the lights on the tree- it makes the evenings feel special.

In the shops today I heard A Winter’s Tale being played, and I love that song. When I was younger I was in a choir and we sang that one winter, it’s such a beautiful song. I also love Winter Wonderland for some upbeat singing. My favourite carol is Silent Night, which reminds me of my Grandad so makes me a little teary. So, fave festive song or carol?

Afternoon practise

Evening all

Today was the Christmas Fayre so my morning run was put back to later (also as the stockholm marathon starts at 2pm I need to start doing some long runs in the afternoon so I am used to it). The fayre was fun (lots of face painting, present wrapping, carol singing, mulled wine and mince pie eating (not by me though)) and after that I popped to the shops. To cut the story short, we are away for Christmas and so Andy has said we won’t bother putting up the tree or decorations which I wasn’t happy about. In the end we compromised by saying we would get a little tree, so I got one. Only the misunderstanding was that I was meant to get a real tree. Which I was tempted by but thought I was being so good at resisting. So tomorrow the saga will continue.

Anyway, I had lunch and then started making some stollen (currently addicted to it).

It takes ages as you have to soak the fruit, make the dough, leave it for ten mins, add butter and sugar, leave it again for a few hours, add in the fruit, leave it again, shape into loaves (add marzipan in), leave again….. It’s a day project that keeps on needing to be revisited.

After a lot of the prep, I went out on my run. This morning was quite bright, but as I got ready the rain started. Not too hard, so I thought it would be ok. After about 30 minutes the rain got very heavy, but I was not feeling cold so I carried on. But my glasses fogged up and the tissue in my hand was also wet so useless for clearing them. At the lakes there was a lot of slush about, and the lakes were still half frozen (randomly with a lot of seagulls sat on the ice). Then on my way back I was so mad because by this time the puddles were quite big, and the puddles on the roads were bigger too. As I was on the pavement right by the road a car actually swerved into the puddle to actually splash me with a wave of icy muddy water. My shoes were soaked through, the wet got through my capris and tights, and so the last 15/20 minutes of my run were spent freezing and soggy. I was not a happy bunny.

I was also starving when I got home. I normally now have porridge in the morning before a long run, but I tried 2 slices of toast with sunflower seed butter (peanut butter is a no-no before a run for me). I didn’t want anything too heavy, but I think I need a little more protein possibly. Anyway, I downed some chocolate milk and a normal clif bar, before peeling off my soggy cold clothes and warming up in the shower.

Then it was time for some tea;

Christmas tea 🙂 It was from Whitards last year (black tea with orange peel and festive spices) but I saw it in a pretty new tin this year too. I love my teapot 🙂

After my post a few weeks back on nutrition, my amazon order arrived so I spent a bit of time flicking through it;

Vegetarian Sports Nutrition . I look forward to reading it.

After dinner it was time for some stollen (still warm, mmmm);

Love those cranberries.

So I am pretty pleased with my first afternoon run, it went ok- my pace was pretty similar to my other runs of that length, and as I know that fuelling is the main issue it is something I can experiment with between now and May. Anyone taken part in an afternoon race/ race at a funny time? Any good tips?

Fayre fun?

Today was the turn of the plain porridge. Yesterday I tried the apple porridge (pictured), which was also delish (lots of pieces of dried apple, a few sultanas to add some more sweetness). I added a tbs of dried cranberries and some mixed spice to the plain porridge to amp it up a bit and it was gooooooood. Well, isn’t all porridge delicious 🙂

On my way home today I was closely inspecting the pavements (well, as closely as you can while driving along) to check for the level of ice. There was a mile which was clear, near home, so I piled on the layers (3 on top and bottom seem to be working although I do look like a michelin woman) , warmed up by doing step ups on the bottom stair, and carefully walked along my road over the smooth ice pavements (and road) to get to the clear stretch. I then managed just over 4 miles by going out and back twice, and then a out a little way and back at the end. Annoyingly, when I got to the first mile I looked at my Nike+ and noticed it had stopped on 2 mins, so I had to re-start it (no prob)- and then add on the time at the end.

Once home it was time for a warm shower, and vegetable and bean bake with a little bit of home-made wholemeal bread. Delish 🙂

It’s the christmas fayre tomorrow so I am looking forward to helping on a stall and seeing all the children getting super excited 🙂 We always have a chocolate tombola which is always so popular, and we also have a cute secret present room where children can go in, get a present for mum and/or dad, and wrap it, so the parents will actually get a surprise from the children come christmas- it is so sweet to see the things they choose. They also do fun christmas crafts like making paper chains. I used to love making paper chains- we used to buy the strips of gummed paper so they only needed to be dampened to stick.  So, fave stall or fave christmas activity?