Tag: brownies

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!

Brownies and marathon pondering

I got up this morning to rain! What a shock! I am very glad that I did my long run yesterday and so today is a good old rest day. Alongside my cornflakes I had a yummy smoothie from Innocent for breakfast (Honey, lemon and ginger). It had a free packet of bee friendly seeds which I may plant later if it stops raining.

I have been watching the London Marathon on TV; I do enjoy watching events like this (Great North Run, New York Marathon and so on). It’s so amazing how fast they go! Seriously they finish the marathon quicker than my half marathon time. Some of their miles are on the 5 minute mark! It is so impressive that they can keep up a sprint pace for the entire distance.

It got me thinking about my own running “journey”. This time last year I had run a 5k race, and signed up for a 10k (my first) and I was so nervous about not being able to finish. When I ran the 10k the last mile was really hard and the backs of my legs felt like they would give way and I did think that after that I would not attempt any other longer distances. But then During the summer I did two more 5k races and had started naturally increasing my long run to 5 miles or so each week, so I decided to sign up for another 10k in the autumn. As I knew I could finish I had almost less pressure on myself. After that my long run was getting even longer (7 miles) and so I decided to sign up for a half marathon. Again I was so worried about finishing but one of my training runs (by mistake, I mapped it out wrong before I left) ended up being 12.3 miles, so I knew I could make it. To my surprise I really enjoyed the race, it was probably my most enjoyable race so far. I ran most of it with my younger brother, but we finished separately, so maybe having someone to run alongside helped (although I normally run with music so I cant hear my breathing and I kept my music on the whole time). It was such a massive achievement for me, I think I was on a bit of a post run high for the following week!! Even so that was going to be the only half for me, but I have again been persuaded to do a local half this summer! My Dad has been interested in doing a marathon and has been researching different ones. I think it is achievable, but what worries me is the amount of time for training; even if my longest run was 18-20 miles that would take me nearly 4 hours, so the time commitment would be huge. I could do a long run at the weekend but doing longer runs after work would be hard to fit in. But anyway it’s something to think about; who knows what the future holds?

I suppose for the people running today at least the rain will help to cool them down a bit, and they won’t be right in the sun as they would be on a clear day so may stay cooler.

I am seeing family later so decided to make a batch of brownies. I have a brilliant tried and tested recipe from a really old book (think I got it from a discount book shop years ago) but I still like to try new recipes. I used the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and it does smell pretty good! Although in the book they dust it with icing sugar but that really annoys me (when you inhale you end up coughing all over the place!). The ingredients are simple; butter, dark chocolate, sugar, plain flour and eggs (no baking powder or cocoa or syrup or anything). It was easy to make and is now cooling in the tin before I slice it up.