Fast finish

Hey all

I was excited to look at my Nike+ after the run today.  Miles went like this; 9.43, 10.08, 10.08, 10.09, 9.00 (woohoo!) and not sure what the last half mile was. I wanted to finish fast and feeling strong (after my race last week where I struggled at the end) so I am feeling very pleased that I managed to go that fast too!

I left work promptly today, so once home in preparation for my run I tried another Mule bar- this one was pina colada with goji berries.

I was going to try a chocolate one, but they both said refuel, whereas this one says fuel and that’s what I needed! ( I am sure they actually have similar nutritional values- will compare at a later date!). Anyway, it was really nice and chewy (down to the rice syrup I suppose) and had loads of bits of coconut in it- yum. I only had half in the end as it was quite big (I am going to credit it with the 9 min mile at the end!!!) and I had the rest when I got home as dinner took ages to cook.

I might make something with the silken tofu later on- might melt in some chocolate or something. Or maybe mix it with some cherries. Or maybe both. I’ll try to remember to take a pic anyway.

I have a busy week at work, as I have parents evenings on two nights, plus all the usual end of half term paperwork etc that needs to be done, but on the plus side next week is half term. Having half term makes all the late nights and working on a Saturday and Sunday worth it. So, nosy old me is wondering what are the pros and cons of your job? I would not swap mine for another, as I do love it, but it is interesting to hear what others think about their jobs.

Night 🙂

Garden apple excitement!

This was my first taste of home-grown apple;

It was delicious! So crunchy and sweet and tasty. Yum! (The space on the plate was for a piece of toast with PB and homemade plum jam).

Yesterday I tried the pumpkin pasta that Alison suggested from Heather’s blog. I changed it a little bit; mine had 50g wholewheat pasta (cooked), 1/2 a tub of silken tofu, 80g pumpkin puree and 3 sunblush tomatoes all blended in the mini chopper. I mixed it all together and baked it in the oven for 20 minutes. When I came out I mixed in some goats cheese (had some to use up) and served it with a salad. It was super delicious! The goats cheese went really well with the pumpkin flavour, but even without it, it was really creamy. The sundried tomatoes added little flecks of red and a nice tang.

I was really impressed with the tofu- I have only had the flavoured stuff before. I think I am going to try the other half in a sweet recipe, just to compare.

Today I made the pumpkin gingerbread, only this time I made it in a brownie pan as oppose to in a loaf tin, and it cooked in about 25 minutes.

Yumilicious!  Such a moist texture and such a lovely spicy smell. I won’t keep on!

I had a lovely walk in the sunshine today- I wish I had taken my camera with me as there are some trees that are so beautiful at this time of year- one tree has a mixture of gold, yellow and deep red leaves, and in the sunshine it looks so pretty.

I also had some of these;

Yummy veggie cherry sweeties. Again with the cute koala bear. They are super tasty but I need to remember that just because they contain no nasty gelatin or artificial colours, they are still very sugary!! It has been quite novel eating sweets as I normally avoid them because they generally aren’t suitable for veggies.

Tomorrow I have to leave work fairly early, so I am hoping this weather will carry on as I have a nice run planned. I must remember to keep up the distance in the week as I have a 5 mile race in November and I want to keep my pace up for that.

I also saw about a fun jingle bell race in December where you get to wear reindeer antlers, but we haven’t entered it yet because Andy thinks the weather will be rubbish. There is a halloween one in the dark (you have to wear headtorches) but I think I would get myself worked into a panic and freak myself out! But I fancy doing something fun- any good fun races coming up? Or any fun fancy dress type runs that you have run before?

The gloves are on!

It is so cold out there! What a chilly wind! This morning I was better prepared- I wore my nice warm craft top and running tights, but I left the jacket at home (I was so cold at the beginning). I also had on my lovely gloves- left the ear warmer for a few more weeks I hope!

I had a lovely 8 ish mile run, which took me 82 minutes. I got caught in a min rain shower which was not fun. When I set off it was really sunny so I even had sunglasses on, so I felt a bit of an idiot with them on with black clouds and rain! I didn’t want to push myself today as I have had such a busy week, and next week is going to be busy with work too. I just wanted to enjoy my run. At the end I felt like I could have gone further, but that was a good place to stop as I feel tired now, but not exhausted.

Once home I tried my first mule bar;

It was small but perfectly formed. The texture reminded me of the clif bars- nice and moist but with a little crunch. It tasted so appley (don’t think that is a word) and the cinnamon flavour came through really well. One bar like this was 111 cals, 21g carbs, 2g protein and 2g fat. It does have whey protein in it so it is not vegan.

I went in the garden and picked some apples today 🙂 Some had fallen to the ground but these babies were ripe for picking;

I also picked the pumpkin as it is still turning orange, but the plant seems dead and the net was the only thing holding it up, so am putting it on the windowsill to ripen (I hope).

I am already excited about what to make with it! Andy liked the pumpkin gingerbread so much he has requested it for sunday tea tomorrow, so I will be making it again (with the left over tinned puree)! And I am going to try the pumpkin baked pasta from Where’s the Beach this evening. So exciting!

Last night we shared the other Hummingbird bakery cupcake- it was a vanilla one with butter icing and I must say that I am glad we shared it as I do not think I could have eaten another mouthful- it was so rich.

But you can see just how much icing there actually is! Almost more icing than cake. In conclusion, I much prefer home made ones (although the novelty of the bag is still exciting to me!)- and even though mine aren’t as pretty I think they taste as good (and maybe even a little better?).

Now, my question is what to do with the leftover silken tofu from my dinner? It is suggested to use it in desserts- can it be raw or does it need to be cooked? I know normal tofu doesn’t have much flavour so what makes it taste good?

Cheers- now I am off to paint my nails!

Dinner party eats

Hello!

So the other day we had friends over, and I was super busy, but I did take some pictures, so here are some of the recipes. For nibbles I made some cinnamon spiced nuts- it is such an easy recipe (from a kids book so one of the steps is to wash your hands- love it!).

Before they go in the oven:

Basically you whisk up an egg white, add a few tbs icing sugar, whatever spices you like (cinnamon and nutmeg for me) and a drop of vanilla (or orange maybe) extract. Then you pour some nuts into the mixture (just keep on going until you have as many as you want- bobbly nuts like pecans or walnuts are better as they hold the coating better, but any are fine) and put them onto a baking tray. I find it easy to scoop them up with a fork so that not too much of the mixture stays on them.Then bake at a moderate heat (165c?) for around 20 mins.

When they come out they will smell amazing, seriously, I know I say lots of things taste and smell amazing but they really do.

Ok they don’t look that great, but seriously they are so good! Warm, nutty and spices.

I also made a pumpkin gingerbread loaf- I copied the recipe from Angela at Oh She Glows– (subbing sunflower for rapeseed oil, treacle for molasses, pecans for walnuts and I used an egg).

I used a little cream cheese icing (cream cheese, icing sugar and spices).

It was soooooooo good!

We also had chilli (Andy was a star and made one meat and one veggie one) which was lovely but I didn’t take any pictures. But I am sure you can imagine it!

Tomorrow evening I might try the pumpkin pasta recipe that Alison recommended to me (exciting!). I had not had chilli for a while and it was perfect autumn warming food-  so what is your fave autumnal warming food?

🙂

The real Hummingbird!

Look what my friend gave me;

Two pretty boxes like this;

So last night after body pump (yay) I had half with Andy;

It was delicious dark chocolate with cream cheese icing- sooo good. Although Andy decided they were nothing special and the ones I make are just as good 🙂

Having friends over on Wednedsay was great, we had a lovely dinner, I made some cinnamon nuts as nibbles, which I will post about later, as well as the pumpkin gingerbread.

Hooray for Friday! Any exciting weekend plans?

I am looking forward to a run tomorrow hooray! 🙂