Tag: nuun

Mexican Monday

Happy Monday everyone!

After work I was so cold I came home and put the kettle on, for some teapigs English Breakfast tea. It’s ingredients are ; a gusty Assam, a mellow Ceylon and a powerful Rwandan newcomer.

The tea was just what I fancied; pretty strong but without the bitter aftertaste that some english breakfast teas can have. Plain and simply good tea 🙂

I did some work for about an hour, and then it was dinner time! I was organised and took pictures as I went along! So for mexican bean wraps:

Chop a red onion and cook with a squirt of olive oil, then add some kidney beans:

Add some tomato puree, a little lazy chilli (or a chopped chilli) and mash.

Then add a chopped pepper and some sweetcorn:

Then grate a little cheese, sprinkle on a wrap and then spoon on the bean mixture;

Then fold up and place in a baking dish or tray and bake for around 8 minutes (it only needs warming through really);

Then serve how you like it; I had it with some salad with flaxseed oil and balsamic vinegar.

Yum! (mine kind of went apart a bit in the oven but it was still just as tasty as the parcels).

I had a walk this evening, although I was not feeling as stiff as I thought I would be.

Today I was thinking about snacking, or spacing meals out. I never used to have a moring snack ( I didn’t always have a moring break due to being with the children) and by lunch time I would be starving. The staffroom would often be filled with treats, and it would be tempting to have a nibble while I was getting my lunch/ waiting to use the microwave and so on. But now my lunch time is going to start even later and I was concious this year that I didn’t want to be really hungry by lunch (as I have breakfast around 7, waiting until 12.30 for lunch is a long time), so I have decided to have a snack. At the moment I have either 2 oatcakes (the ginger/ spiced ones) or a small nak’d bar. So far it has worked really well for me. I have found that although I am still hungry at lunch, I am not as starving as I used to be (craving a sugar boost) and am now having a smaller lunch. I always used to have a pot of yoghurt along with fruit, sandwich, veggies, but am now finding I don’t need the yoghurt.

I also have a snack at the end of the day usually (that is when I normally do exercise, and we don’t tend to eat dinner until around 7pm), and I am still having that. But for me the snacking is working much better, and so far I have not had a single nibble from the staffroom table! 🙂

It is such an easy habit to fall into- just have one chocolate, or a tiny piece of cake or whatever, and I really don’t want to get back into that. They all add up and I would rather plan to have something a little healthier than waste my food on these empty treats.

So today I am saying hooray for snacks!

Any snacks which you love to have on hand?

Also after trying the nuun yesterday I am pleased to report that I did not get a post-run headache at all! Which has not happened for a long time- yay 🙂

Frozen Yoghurt

OK well Monday I was rather busy (hence no post)- coming home from work I got stuck in a massive traffic jam (in that hot weather too)- had to shop on the way home, then I was busy doing work. I also made some Rachel Allen marmalade gingerbread and some Hummingbird Bakery chocolate cupcakes for work (to bribe people to sponsor my race for life- and so far I have raised quite a bit so a good tactic I feel!). Then I planted some plants (goji berry plants how exciting- they are only plug plants at the moment but the info that came with them says they can get to be 2 metres high if we don’t prune them! My garden isn’t big enough for that. Anyhoo it’s all quite exciting. Then I had a walk in the cooler air.

I also discovered a new fave snack perfect for the hot weather. In my mini chopper I put 80g frozen raspberries, 100g fat free greek yoghurt, and a squirt of agave, whizzed it all up and voila! Raspberry frozen yoghurt! It was so tasty and refreshing- the texture of sorbet or ice cream, yum. The raspberries worked much better than the blueberries.

Today work was busy (as usual!), I normally have aerobics but the instructor is away and they never get a good replacement. So instead I had a quick run after work. It was a good run, mostly in the shade and despite having tight calves I finished in my quickest time. Although I did see a man with no top on (why do men feel the need to walk around topless as soon as it is vaguely warm?) and a few kids who decided to run alongside me for a few metres for their own amusement. These are times when I am very glad to have in earphones- even though I can hear them as I have my music very quiet it means I can ignore them and pretend I don’t hear anything.

Yesterday I had sore shins and thought it was from the 10k on Sunday. In the shower I looked and found a massive bite on my leg- possibly a horsefly bite or something- it is huge and weird looking. Turns out that is what is sore on my leg and not my shin at all!

I have been looking more into re-hydration products and in Women’s Running mag this month they mentioned a company called “nuun” that do little tablets to be put in water to make a drink. They are vegetarian, different flavours, so I am hoping to give them a go. Watch this space!