Mostly about food!

Not much to report today, it’s been a busy one. So I will report on my food as I haven’t been on a run today.

I had some tasty basil tofu for lunch, in a wholemeal muffin with some tomatoes. I have not had that for a while and it’s making a nice change. I also had a lovely fruit medley for lunch (strawberries and raspberries from boyfriends’ parents garden, plus a nectarine)- so so summery. I also had a mini apple pie Nak’d bar for a snack, and a lovely 50 minute walk before dinner. Dinner was a sort of Mexican bean wrap- onions, chilli and kidney beans cooked and mashed, with red pepper, corn, tomato puree, then baked in a wrap in the oven, sprinkled with cheese and served with a salad (topped with some flax oil- I’m upping those omega 3’s).

I have ordered some pumpkin puree from Americansweets.co.uk (they do grocery items as well as sweets!), as I have a few delicious looking pumpkin recipes (bread, cupcakes…) but you can’t seem to get it anywhere in England. I will be super excited when it arrives, the only problem will be which recipe to make!

I haven’t been out I the garden yet- might pop out in a bit.

A super easy fudge recipe! Plus you guessed it, more running!

The other day I did make some white chocolate fudge, and I didn’t have time to post about it! Poor fudge, it must feel left out, I hope the cookies aren’t laughing at it.

The recipe was from Home Cooking , and I would normally shy away from a recipe like that because it involves scary sounding things like “the soft ball stage”. But now I have a sugar thermometer the world of sweets is my oyster!

The recipe was super simple; sugar (nice brown sugar), condensed milk and butter. Heat it all up, stir it about, then take it off the heat and beat. Now on the TV show Rachel puts the pan in the sink and beats it by hand. No thank you! I got out my electric hand-held whisk thing, and used that instead. Genius! It worked a treat! Once done I poured half in the tin, sprinkled on some white chocolate chips, poured the rest over and left to cool. It is so yummy! The stuff I took into work has already disappeared, we still have some in our fridge but I am sure it won’t last long! I am not sure that the photo does it justice as I am not much of a photographer. But I really recommend the recipe.

Today was medium run day; I am now close to the next colour level on Nike+. Not sure what will happen when I get up to the next level, but it is quite exciting nonetheless! After an Apple Pie bar (cinnamon=yum) I headed out. I kept my fingers crossed and it stayed dry the whole way! After the hail and rain of this afternoon I was super surprised. I didn’t take any water with me because I keep getting a stiff shoulder and I am sure that even though it is a proper runners holdy-water bottle thingy, it still makes me run a little wonky. So when it is hot or I am doing a very long run I will take it, I have decided to see if I can manage without on shorter runs.

In the end I managed my loop in 61 minutes, my fastest time yet so I am pretty pleased.

I am now one mile away from the next colour level; so close! I have a long one planned for Saturday so am preparing to smash through the barrier!

Nak’d= running fuel!

The weather had forecast rain but I wanted a run after work so kept my fingers crossed and it worked! I had half of my Nak’d Apple Pie bar when I got home for some energy, as I had 6 miles planned and lunch seemed a while ago.

The Apple Pie bar was delicious (one of my favourites)- it tastes like a cross between fresh apple juice and dried apple slices with a bit of cinnamon sprinkled in. They are a similar texture to the other bars; nice and soft, like a soft baked cookie or something. It has 221 cals and 4.6g protein per bar, not bad for a snack. Thumbs up for top running fuel! (I had the other half when I got back).

My run was hard work but I decided that as my legs were tired I would take it easy and not look at my watch at all (normally I look at each mile so I can up my pace); when I got home I had covered 6 miles in 67 minutes, so not my best time but not my worst either (thanks to the apple pie bar?). It was lovely to be out there after work, the sun came out and there are a few more flowers out now.

When I got back I had such a yummy tea- it was a recipe in the Asda magazine which I adapted a little bit for Mexican bean wraps. I chopped and browned one red onion and one red pepper, added some paprika and a tiny bit of lazy chilli (that stuff is spicy!), added a tin of kidney beans (meant to be pinto beans but they looked weird in the tin plus I have a lot of kidney beans to use up) and mashed them up a little bit. Then added a little tin of sweetcorn and put the mixture into a multigrain wrap, folded it up to make a parcel and baked it in the oven for 10 minutes. Served with a lovely salad and some grated cheese; delicious (that mixture made 4 wraps-full but I only had one).

Off to relax in front of the TV in a minute.

P.S. Those Hummingbird Brownies were delish! Nice and gooey in the middle, with a sugary crust on top; great for a treat!