The life of a girl who loves apples

The little things

Posted on May 17, 2013 by AnnaTheApple

Hello Friday! Wow where did this week go? It went crazily fast. Not that I’m complaining.

I thought I’d do a post on some random thoughts and occurrences of late. It’s the little things in life that keep things interesting!

1. It’s a well known fact that cake on a Friday doesn’t count (FYI this was last Friday’s cake – I didn’t eat cake that went off yesterday. Would I refuse a one-day-stale piece of cake though over no cake? I’d rather not answer that…). Cake is an indulgence I need every week. Without fail.

2. Mini trolleys are AMAZING. This is a tiny trolley from M&S, almost like a basket with wheels which makes me feel like I’m six again. Anyone from the UK: do you remember when they used to do trolleys for children?? So the kids could push a little trolley with their parents as well. I wonder why they disappeared…Oh yes, that’s right because who ever decided to allow young children to push trolleys around a busy supermarket is CRAZY. Hello ankle pain.

3. I can destroy half a melon easily in under 10 minutes. Like a boss. In fact, I have to finish Ben’s off as he is so rubbish at getting all the melon flesh. Take no prisoners.

4. This display on my Garmin annoys me SO MUCH.

The loading bar is full therefore it should be done, right? Oh no. It stays with that full bar for minutes afterwards. While I am stood in the cold just waiting to run. Garmin, stop lying to me!!

5. Why do people leave the teabags in their drinks? Maybe this is a British thing (or a specifically Anna thing) but whenever I see TV programmes (I must say, usually US programmes) and someone is drinking a tea they always leave the teabag in so the little piece of string hangs down the side. It baffles me because doesn’t this over-steep the tea?? Doesn’t the teabag hit your mouth when you drink? It really freaks me out.

Yes, this is not my usual mug. This is my back-up Scooby mug.

6. One of our knives broke the other day when I was chopping vegetables. The knife blade literally pinged past me and hit the wall behind me. It was like the vegetables were fighting back. It would have been funny if I hadn’t been in shock.

7. This photo makes me feel a little sad inside:

He looks so helpless and upset at having being bathed. It needed to happen though. He was getting to one stinky pooch.

8. However this photo brings me right back up to a significantly happy level:

Sea salt Green and Blacks! On offer! Still expensive though. And definitely beaten to the punch by Lindt.

Well, I hope you guys have a great weekend. Ben and me are running a 5k Parkrun tomorrow so I’m quite excited but also nervous. I hate 5ks, they’re just so fast and painful…but we’ll see how it goes! We might be running a 10k run through Moors Valley Country Park on Sunday depending how we feel. I will be taking that one easy if we do go for it. I’m going to take it more of as a nice trail run then a proper race I think as I think I’ll be shattered after tomorrow!

What’s been making you happy this week?

What are your little things in life that keep things interesting for you? Wow there’s a vague question for you Winking smile

Teabags: in or out?

Prematurely dressing for spring

Posted on May 15, 2013 by AnnaTheApple

Hello! Thank you for your kind comments about Sunday’s 10k race. I tell you what, Ben and I are experiencing some serious race fever now. We are raring to go with our 5k Parkrun this Saturday (potentially doing another 10k on the Sunday that we can sign up for on the day – but we’re going to see how we’re feeling). And we’ve got the following dates for our diaries:

10 mile New Forest Run – Sunday 14th July
5 mile National Lottery Run – Sunday 21st July
10 mile Great South Run – Sunday 27th October
Gosport half marathon – Sunday 17th November

Whew! And I am SO excited. I am hugely excited that Ben is back into running and keen to do these races as well. It was so lovely chatting to him about Sunday’s race afterwards and comparing notes.

Though I have a slight confession…I am a terrible wife. The National Lottery Run is running around the Olympic stadium and ends on the track inside (very cool in my opinion). So it’s quite an experience and had limited entry numbers and only a small window of opportunity to grab tickets. As soon as I found out about it I knew I wanted to do it. I checked with Ben and he was keen too. Brilliant. Unfortunately in my haste to grab tickets I only bought one ticket. It was such a lengthy process to buy one that I just forgot to do the whole thing again to get another ticket.

And I didn’t realise until the next day. When all the tickets were gone.

Ben is obviously miles better in the marriage department and being a better person than me as he has said that I can do the run and he will merely spectate. I do love him. But obviously feel a) extremely bad and b) extremely stupid.

Anyway, on to the food side of things. It’s What I Ate Wednesday (thanks Jenn).

This is from yesterday (Tuesday):

Breakfast has been the same old same. After the quinoa breakfast fail the other day I quickly went back to what I knew.

Whew, all better. Oatmeal and almond milk in my lovely new bowl from Waitrose. The bowl is tiny so the porridge really piles up in it and also takes ages to eat because it’s like an oatie inferno in the middle (the correct technical phrase I assure you).

Lunch has been my monster tuna salads, popcorn and (frozen) fruit salad with Greek yogurt.

The house smells deliciously of popcorn in the mornings now I’ve been whipping up batches to take to work with me. I love munching on popcorn at work but I tend to forget I’m in public and when I’m reading something I have been known to miss my mouth or drop copious of crumbs on myself. Not attractive or elegant. And apparently sitting next to me while I have lunch is like being at the movies.

Dinner has been more salads recently and we’ve been getting into the spring vibe (ha – though the weather invariably hasn’t).

We’ve been into our steaks with salad and goat’s cheese recently. This is steak marinated with lime, cumin and garlic. Then fried in olive oil with sliced onion, and thrown on top of lots of salad with a good amount of goat’s cheese. Really simple and fresh meal.

Last night’s dinner was a bit of a wing-it meal. I had failed on the meal planning side of things. But I knew I had some frozen coconut milk in the freezer and tinned pumpkin. So I went with an aromatic coconut chicken curry (with pumpkin).

Coconut chicken curry (serves 2)

1 tbs. oil
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp. chilli powder
Clove of garlic
1/2 inch grated ginger
2 chicken breasts, cubed
Small onion, diced
Half a zuhcchini, diced
3 mushrooms, diced
Half a can of pumpkin puree
Half a can of coconut milk (I used light)

- Heat the oil in the pan, then fry the spices to release their aroma. Add in the onion and cook for about 5 mins until golden, then add the ginger and garlic.

- Add the zucchini and mushrooms and fry until soft.

- Add the chicken and coat with all the lovely spices. Then add the pumpkin puree and cook for about 2mins.

- Add the coconut milk and heat through

I sprinkled dried coriander over the top and served.

So what’s with this weather, people of Britain? Seriously depressing. Yesterday I optimistically wore this outfit to work:

Sneaky photo bomber in the back

This is a new dress from Dorothy Perkins, with an old necklace my mum gave me, shoes from Tesco (small heeled wedges) and belt and cardigan from New Look.

However, it started raining pretty much as soon as I got to work and throughout the day. So when I got back home to walk Alfie in the evening this is what I wore:

This is post walk. I was freezing and soaked. So then this is what I wore for the rest of the evening:

Can’t beat pyjamas and a nice loungy jumper. Cozy and warm.

But seriously, what happened to our blue skies??

And lastly before I leave it there…this is the latest chocolate that I have been LOVING.

Lindt, you will obviously always be in my heart as good quality chocolate that I always go back to…But I can’t indulge in a little chocolate affair with these crazy concoctions.

Errr, a piece of heaven anyone??

Have a great Wednesday!

What’s your preference: good quality chocolate, or crazy but extremely sweet chocolate?

Have you brought out the summer wear prematurely like I have?

Are you enjoying summery salads or warming suppers?

Marwell Zoo 10k race recap

Posted on May 13, 2013 by AnnaTheApple

Hello! How was your weekend? Mine went crazily slow (Saturday) and then crazily fast (Sunday). We survived our 10k Marwell Zoo race, hurray!

Saturday Ben and me did an easy ‘shake-out’ run in the morning to loosen us up ready for the race the next day. I know some people like to leave a couple of days before a race and not run at all but I’m in the boat of tapering down during the week but always doing a really easy 2-3mile run the day before. Maybe it’s psychological, but I find it helps.

Then we pretty much did nothing but get all the chores done, walk Alfie on a lovely sunny walk (an hour later it tipped it down) and watched Grey’s Anatomy (series 8). On a side not, we finished House of Cards. So. Good. Watch it immediately.

For lunch Ben and I don’t usually have the same thing at the weekend (though for dinner we do). This is because Ben loves having either a corned beef sandwich or an egg mayo sandwich. Neither of which I like. I mean seriously, why ruin perfectly good egg with mayo?? Winking smile He’s stopped eating corned beef though after the horse meat scandal. Gross.

I was umming and arr-ing and really didn’t know what I fancied. I knew we had mozzarella that needed using up and as I’m currently addicted to BBQ sauce I thought I’d just have BBQ chicken with mozzarella all mixed together.

Excellent random meal if I do say so myself! Really simple: chopped chicken breast, random veg (zucchini, mushrooms, onion), BBQ sauce (any would work but I love Heinz) and then a whole ball of low-fat mozzarella chopped into chunks. Fry the onion, then add the veg, then the chicken and some spices (I used a random chicken mix), big squirt in the BBQ sauce and then add the mozzarella.

For dinner I had my favourite (and now standard pre-race night tradition) make-your-own pizza (chicken, veg, no cheese).

And then we had an early night, bless our old-married-couple cotton socks.

In the morning we woke up naturally bright and early before our alarms (which felt really nice actually) and took Alfie on a quick walk and then proceeded to spend the morning being nervous.

Does anyone else get stupidly nervous before a race? I just had butterflies in my stomach the whole morning (which was longer than planned as we had woken up earlier than expected – we had time to ruminate haha). We had breakfast and then Ben’s mum and my parent’s arrived and off we went in convoy to get there. It wasn’t far away at all so we were there in no time.

The race starts in the zoo and we had free entry because we were running but the parents would have had to pay to see us start (which was quite expensive per person). Bit cheeky really but I hey ho. So they waited outside with other spectators to wait until we ran out of the zoo (only the first mile was actually in the zoo).

It was quite busy and we were both still very nervous. After being delayed for 20 mins, we finally said goodbye and stood by our respective pace markers. We weren’t going to run together as we have different paces, but both of us had a time in mind to finish.

I saw someone I knew at the start which was quite nice so chatted away to them before beginning. I was a bit worried as we weren’t allowed to wear headphones as the roads wouldn’t be closed. I don’t usually run with nothing.

And then we were off! The first mile was uphill and through the zoo, which was quite fun as we got to see some animals. Though I only actually remember seeing ostriches (and then that Family Guy quote came into my head “why are there so many ostriches??” and made me laugh).

The first mile was TOUGH. I had a game plan of each mile pace I wanted to stick to to get my time. I stupidly went faster than I should. My first mile should have been 7.30mins but I did it in just under 7mins. Whoops.

Coming out of the zoo seeing my parents and Ben’s mum, blissfully unaware of the pain to come

And by mile 2 we were still hitting the hills. I couldn’t believe how tough I was finding it. So I brought my pace back down (who am I kidding, the hills brought it down!)

Mile 3 to 4 are a blur of pain and mental determination. I had heard the course was “undulating” but seriously it was killing me. I remember thinking how much I enjoyed the Reading Half-Marathon and was able to zone out. There was zero enjoyment in this run. ZERO zoning out. It was pure psychological concentration and determination to Just. Keep. Running.

The sun was shining and I was hot. I even grabbed water from the water stations TWICE which I never do. Though I only really manage to throw it over myself. How the hell do you run and drink from a plastic cup?? Mile 4 also welcomed the beginnings of a stitch which followed me to the end.

Mile 5 I remember there being less hills. More down hills. Thank God.

I also saw my parents and mother-in-law again and they cheered me on. This was much needed at this point.

They were able to take a photo

And then we were back in the zoo for the last dregs and finished!

Overall, yes it was hugely tough. I remember looking at my watch quite a bit and wishing the miles away. I remember not looking up at hills and looking at the ground because I knew it would knock my confidence if I saw for how long the incline went.

However, I also remember the exhilaration of finishing. I remember being cheered on by random spectators and my running club members. I remember being amazed at how I could maintain my pace despite the hills.

My official time was 43mins 34secs. 9th female, 64th overall out of 917. I’m very pleased Smile I was aiming for 45mins and wasn’t even certain I’d get that with the hills. Here are my Garmin times:

Ben’s time was 57mins 15secs. A full 8 minutes faster than he had planned!! I was over the moon for him and he was very chuffed.

And do you know what topped off the race finish? They were giving out apples with the goodie bags. Seriously. They knew I was coming Winking smile

So what comes after running? Food! Obviously Open-mouthed smile Well actually, a quick hop back home to shower and then FOOD. Again in convoy with the parents.

Good food with the husband and parents. You just can’t beat it.

And Ben made it 8 weeks without drinking!! So he had his celebratory pint with the meal. He thoroughly enjoyed it obviously hehe.

I’m so proud of him!

For the first course…This is getting seriously predictable. But Ben and I shared a mezze board to start. I know, I know.

I just love them.

And for mains I went for BBQ chicken (oh God, I really am becoming a boring broken record) with avocado and bacon salad.

Heavenly. Ben got the same and asked me what the ‘green things’ were. That’s avocado, Ben…*sighs* I love him regardless though Winking smile

Then we parted ways with the parents, got home and collapsed on the sofa. That’s where we pretty much stayed.

All in all, a perfect weekend I’d say!

I definitely think that 10k races are pushing my boundaries of what I prefer to run. I enjoyed running the half marathon far more than the 10k. I’m definitely more of a distance runner and 10k is just on that cusp I think. Saying that, I should be doing a 5k Parkrun this Saturday!! I just know it’s going to be painful…

What did you get up to this weekend?

What’s your perfect post-race meal?

What’s your favourite running distance? I think mine is a half-marathon (though 10 miles is my favourite running distance, but I’ve yet to run a 10mile race)

Hills – are they the bane of your running/cycling life? I hate hills. I hate wind as well. Wind and hills = Anna goes home.

Coffee mugs, egos and interesting books

Posted on May 10, 2013 by AnnaTheApple

I do believe I’m getting a bit of a reputation at work…We’ve had a few new starters and they clearly have not been on-boarded with regards to the usage of my mug.

I’ve spotted a couple of them using my mug (on separate days) but decided not to mention anything. But they are quickly informed of their error by the other members of staff when they see them using it. Apparently I seem to strike fear in my co-workers. Can’t be a good thing…or can it? Winking smile

Speaking of work, on Thursday night after work we had a little light-hearted fitness competition of running 100m. In the end it was four of us competing for the title. Three men (all either in or close to their fifties) and me.

Now, I love running (did you notice??). I pretty much thought I had this in the bag. These men weren’t terrible unfit, far from it for example, one of them does triathlons and one is a regular runner. But still, I’m practically half their ages, in the prime of my fitness and youth. I’ve got this.

I really didn’t.

I came last. Not even close to third. Within 10 seconds of the race (after Usain Bolt would have finished…) I realised I had lost. They were long gone. Yep, I was pretty embarrassed. Needless to say, the one who does neither triathlons nor regular running won. Jeeze.

Well, what can I say! I’m an endurance runner not a sprinter. Let’s leave it there shall we?

So I thought I’d do a review of a book I just finished called Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss.

I was hooked from the moment I started reading. It was so interesting and definitely enlightened me to ‘the stuff behind the scenes’ that we, as consumers, might not be aware of.

Why read it?

There was loads of information from interviews with food industry ‘insiders’/experts/scientists/etc. giving first-hand accounts of what actually goes on in places like Kellogg’s, General Mills etc. and some of the techniques they use to get us to buy and ultimately eat their food, which I found fascinating.
It makes you realise just how much influence these big businesses have over the government and nutritional advice. Scarily so.
It explains why salt, fat and sugar are used within processed food and what happens when they’re taken out.

Negatives

I disliked how pretty much the whole way through it was emphasised how the food industry was pushing all this nutritionally defunct food to the consumer and that the consumer was purely the victim. It gave the impression that the food industry is making us obese through no fault of our own, which I disagree with. It’s all about choice. As consumers we are as much, certainly if not more, responsible for what we eat than the food industry. If we stopped buying the food the industry keeps churning out than they’d have to find a new way to make money, i.e. make nutritionally sound food.
Fat is demonised. In general, I disagree. Saturated fat is making a come-back and doesn’t seem to be as terrible as once assumed (check out THIS article). It seems the real bad guys are the hydrogenated oils, but within the book fat is mainly just scooped up under the saturated fat heading which I don’t think is justified.
You can get a bit lost in all the anecdotes and he sometimes strays from his points.

I’d definitely recommend it if you like this sort of stuff. I’m a big fan of these sort of things but you can get a bit bogged down with one side of the picture.

Anyway, it’s Friday – hurrah! This weekend is the Marwell Zoo 10k run (on Sunday) which both Ben and I are running so we’re quite excited. Ben’s mum and my parents are going to cheer us on and then we’re off for lunch somewhere nice. And Ben will finally be able to have a glass of wine after his 8 weeks of not drinking. He’s developed a nervous twitch Winking smile

And I get to wear my running club vest to this race, which is quite exciting!

I am proud to be a Hedgie! Smile

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

What have you got planned for this weekend?

What’s your next race (or sporting event)?

What good books have you read recently? I’m a huge fan of reading and don’t have any particular genres that I stick to so I’m always open for recommendations!

What I ate Sunday

Posted on May 8, 2013 by AnnaTheApple

How quickly is this week going? It helps having had Monday off I know…

The sun has still been shining which is crazy. In fact, I’m not sure I should even type it as I don’t want to jinx it. Let’s prepare for rain. Or snow. Who knows! Funny side story, my parents just got back from Barbados all brown and tanned (there’s no bitterness in my voice, is there…?) and then my mum sits in the garden for an afternoon in Britain and gets absolutely fried because she didn’t put suntan lotion on. Oh the irony.

I thought this week I’d do What I ate ~~Wednesday~~ Sunday as it was pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself.

Thanks to Jenn as always for hosting this party. Let’s get started then!

Breakfast was something a little bit crazy for me. I tried quinoa oatmeal.

I’m not going to lie, this will never replace normal oatmeal. It was alright but nothing amazing. Quite a nutty taste. OK I probably could have put something more than just almond milk in it but I’m used to just plain oats so I was all at odds with what to do. I’m not good with change, people.

Lunch however was a show-stopper. I was inspired by Sara’s recipe HERE which I just had to make at the nearest opportunity as it sounded so good.

Mine doesn’t look nearly as good but it tasted AMAING. Ben looked aghast at what I was making (“goat’s cheese….and strawberries…in an omelette???”)

I made the strawberry sauce as per Sara’s instructions, using a little bit of Stevia and organic strawberries, microwaving them up to get them all jammy and amazing.

Absolutely heavenly.

This has been happening a lot around these parts as well. Thrown in the microwave in a hardy container, then sprayed with Fry Light and coated with salt. Cannot. Get. Enough.

Dinner was two tortilla pizzas. Yes two, I am a pig. No judgement please.

Can I just say that when lunch requires two dinner place mats you know it’s going to be good.

I used wholemeal tortillas, covered them with a home-made tomato sauce using half a tin of chopped tomatoes and a load of Italian herbs. I then covered it with a whole load of veggies (onion, zucchini, mushrooms), chopped chicken and blobs of cream cheese. And BBQ sauce. Just because Winking smile Then oven-cooked them for like 12mins.

So good.

An honourable mention also needs to go to Monday night’s dinner. Strawberries, quinoa with a tablespoon of honey mixed in, and feta on salad.

Salty, sweet…deeelicious.

And Ben even enjoyed this. In fact, if I remember correctly he said “can we have this again?” Jackpot!

And my outfit featuring two items from my shopping adventure:

Apologies for the concentrated look on my face…there’s no non-awkward way to take a selfie

Top from Warehouse (new!), jeans from Top Shop, wedges from Dorothy Perkins (new!). Absolute school girl error though in wearing my new shoes to work and then walking to the shops at lunch in them. Stupid. Now I have two big old blisters.

What’s the best thing you ate today? I think mine was popcorn as part of my lunch at work…see, I’m addicted.

What’s your favourite pizza (or tortilla pizza) topping? Mine is BBQ chicken with loads of veg.

Does your partner eat the same food as you? My hubby will normally eat what I eat but if it sounds ‘too healthy’ he will opt out and have something more “manly’”, like cheesy pasta. He avoids sweet potato like the plague, it’s heart-breaking.