July, 2012 - AnnaTheApple

July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

On the Edge

This weekend has really made me realise how stressed I am about the wedding. I feel under quite a bit of pressure. Not from anyone, but from myself. I’m counting down the weekends and counting up the tasks left to do and it’s not good, people. It’s frightening me! I keep reassuring myself that it’s all under control. I’ve got lists coming out of my ears (weekend breakdown of tasks, day before schedule, wedding day hour by hour timeline) but still I feel stressed. I feel that terrible feeling that I have forgotten something.

Our family friend is doing the bouquets and button holes. She’s fabulous and I have no doubt that it will all be beautiful. But we sat there and she asked me simple questions, like do you want the stems to be covered with material or just the stalks showing? And simple things like that and I started to panic and feel overwhelmed. In the middle of our meeting I was almost in pieces. Come on, Anna, pull it together! I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I can’t shake the panic.

Well, in the end we managed to tick the flowers off the list, then Ben’s outfit off the list after he had his fitting. He looked very dapper. And we chose our hymns. Whew! So it is going well, it just doesn’t feel like it, you know? There’s still so much to do.

Though I am generating some of this stress myself by taking on more things than strictly necessary. Like the sweet/candy buffet. I don’t have to have one, but the wedding has a candy theme and both Ben and me love love love sweets so it seemed rather apt. Anyway, I’ve been hunting around charity shops and Amazon and have found pretty much the selection I want to use. Then I went to Hobby Craft and got some ribbons and decorative bits to jazz them up a bit:

I want to add another larger vase and a big round bowl and I think that should be enough…maybe? The triangle white thing is polystyrene so I can display lolly pops on there. I’ve got shredded white paper to fill the bottom of some of the larger contains so it adds that little something else to it. And labels to hang off the lids or prop next to the containers. In the pink bag is our collection of sweets so far:

It doesn’t look much but it’s quite a big bag and I think I’ve got about half of what I need. So good progress! I’m also going to attempt to have marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkles on display and my friend is baking me some cupcakes. So not too shabby!

On a non-wedding note (though that doesn’t seem to exist for me at the moment), I ran just over 7 miles on Saturday…

…and then had the best smoothie breakfast afterwards. It was really yummy!

Post Run ChocNut Smoothie

Approx. 200ml almond milk

1 x Alpro almond chocolate dessert

1tbs crunchy PB (no added sugar)

1tbs chia seeds

A pinch of xanthan gum

It was so thick and delicious. Really filling. I ate it with a spoon, it was like pudding. Definitely a winner for me.

Right I will calm myself and stop stressing so much about the wedding…or at least I will try to!

Hope your week is starting well!

July 28, 2012

Proud To Be British

Woohoo it’s the weekend! Off to a good start: Friday night TV was great (crazy party animal that I am). Ben and me watched the Olympics opening ceremony. Now, originally I wasn’t fussed about the Olympics. It’s been soo over-hyped and you can’t go a day without hearing something about it. However, I thought we best watch the opening ceremony because, well, let’s face it. The Olympics only happen every four years and it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever see Britain hosting the games again.

So we watched it. Well, not all of it – it went on until midnight! And I have to admit, it was pretty good. Off the wall, yes. But quite a show. Best part? Mr Bean playing the keyboard sketch. That was hilarious. I loved that the Queen got on board with some funniness as well. Danny Boyle did good and made me proud to be British

Source: arthouse.com via Anna on Pinterest

Alfie also enjoyed it too, though he did fall asleep after about ten minutes:

Dinner was very late on Friday night as I attempted a cauliflower pizza. Not a pizza covered in cauliflower as my dad thought, but a cauliflower based pizza – i.e. the base is made out of grated cauliflower. I mentioned to Ben that that’s what we were having for tea and he looked at me as if I’d told him we were eating Alfie. He was horrified. But I managed to persuade him by assuring him there would also be mozzarella in the base and it would be very cheesy. He looked slightly less scared. I’m really trying to get Ben to eat more healthily and lose a little bit of weight before the wedding. He’s not fat by any means. But, and he would agree, he has a little excess he’d like to get rid of. So hence the cauliflower pizza.

Has anyone grated an entire head of cauliflower? It takes flipping ages! I vaguely this recipe tweaking some of the quantities and toppings.

Anyway, so two bowls of cauliflower later and some grated mozzarella and we’re almost good to go.

Mix together with egg and herbs.

Then I separated it into cake tins as that seemed like the perfect utensil. Then cooked in the oven for 15 minutes. Then add some amazing toppings and put back in for about 5 mins until everything is lovely and cooked. Nom nom nom.

Mine’s on the left. I had beetroot, red bell pepper and diced quorn chunks and some grated Babel Bell cheese. Ben had the same but without beetroot and a lot more cheese.

These were amazing. OK they didn’t really taste like pizza (or look like pizza really). But they tasted like something else just as tasty. And they were so filling. But a lot of effort! I think we’ll be having these occasionally as they took so damn long. And Ben’s opinion? He really enjoyed them. He said they wouldn’t replace pizza (what can) but he’d have it again. That, my friends, is a top 8/10 on the Benjamin Scale.

I did my weights in the morning. I’m really struggling with finding new moves to do. I like to mix it up every week to work different muscles but I’m finding it hard to find stuff. I only have dumbbells so my equipment is fairly limited. Here’s what I did:

5 sets of 12 lunges on each leg with 5kg

3 sets of 12 bent over rows

3 sets if 12 lateral raises with 2.5kg per arm

3 sets of 12 sit-ups with 2.5kg weight

3 sets of 12 triceps presses

3 sets of 10 press-ups

1min45sec plank

60 sit-ups

I think I just need to hunt through the Internet to find some inspiration. I never really know what to do with my legs other than lunges and squats.

Anywho, hope you’re all having a lovely weekend. I’m off to choose my bouquet for my wedding. Oh and as a side note, I’m glad to inform you that I managed to drink my smoothie at work yesterday without any spillage issues. Happy days.

July 27, 2012

Wedding-related panic

Good morning! I mentioned in my last post how I really hated people commenting on my food when I’m eating or making derogatory remarks, which often makes me feel embarrassed or insecure to eat in front of people. I had a few comments form readers agreeing with me, which was lovely! I think this is why I love reading and writing blogs. You’re surrounded (albeit virtually) by like-minded people. I love my family and friends obviously but sometimes they really don’t understand my quirky food loves or ‘healthisms’ (like getting up stupidly early to run). It’s definitely a community feeling in the blog world and you never feel embarrassed to post some weird recipe or try some strange food. This just makes me happy

On a similar note…because I’m embarrassed by some of the stuff I eat (and I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m working on it), I bought a flask especially for my smoothie to take into work so people couldn’t see that I was drinking a bright green smoothie. Brilliant idea, I thought, it also keeps it lovely and cold! So I was feeling rather smug with myself as I unscrewed the lid. Unfortunately as I tipped it back to drink, it was less thick than I originally thought and it rushed out and spilt all down my front. Bright. Green. Smoothie. I’m now sat in the office covered in what looks like thick green snot. Brilliant idea, Anna.

But it’s Friday! And it’s 8 weekends until I get married. And honestly, I am stressed. So many things left to do. The most pressing being choosing my sister’s bridesmaid dress. I know the colour but that’s it. I bought one online but it looked dreadful on her. Now we need to go for a shopping trip – probably better than buying online. I’m only having one bridesmaid for my wedding as it’s quite a small affair. Originally I was going to have my girlfriends from university but they live all over the country (and one in Germany) so it’d be a nightmare to coordinate (not to mention expensive) and in the end it would have been five bridesmaids in total and I think it wouldn’t have looked right as it’s a very small affair. So just my older sister, Rachel. But the point is that every weekend is now critical to some part of the planning of the wedding.

This weekend I hope to make progress in the sweet buffet I hope to have. I want something like this or this basically. I’ve got some jars and glass pieces so I now need to work out what’s going in them, some decorative labels and things like that…Any tips or suggestions are very welcome

And we hope to have Ben’s outfit in the bag as well this weekend. He finally got around to booking his fitting (the one task he had been assigned) – cutting it a bit fine I think! Men! Honestly, I swear there wouldn’t be a wedding if he’d have had to organise it! How do programmes like Don’t Tell The Bride manage?? But anyway, we’re off tomorrow to get him suited and booted.

My run yesterday was OK.

I’ve decided to mix up my workouts a bit. I usually run three times a week (usually one longer run at the weekend and two 5 miles in the week) and do a strength training session as well. But I’m really enjoying running at the moment and really want to improve my speed. So every other week I’m going to add a 3 mile run and try and run as fast as I can. It’s shorter so mentally it seem possible. But we’ll see. I’ll start that next week. And sometime I want to add yoga. There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day! I think it’ll have to be at the weekend as I just can’t get up earlier in the week and I need one day in the week where I have a ‘lie-in’ and don’t do anything exercise-related. I think yoga will be important for me as I run so much and often feel my muscles are a bit tight. It would be good for my body to stretch properly, you know? So I have a few ‘beginner’ positions to try. I hope to try this at the weekend. I’ve never done yoga before so this could all go wrong!

As it’s Friday, I thought I’d leave you with a funny photo that might make you smile:

Source: piccsy.com via Anna on Pinterest

Have a lovely weekend everyone and finger’s crossed the sun keeps shining!

July 25, 2012July 25, 2012

WIAW – #3

Beware, I’m about to have a bit of a rant. Apologies in advance.

It’s so lovely and warm. The sun is shining. It’s amazing. Everyone is so much more happy. I get to work. I AM FREEZING. Apparently there is the need to crank up the air con to MAX and turn it into winter into our office. I look longingly out of the window at the beautiful sunshine and gentle warm breeze swaying the trees. And I’m sat with my cardigan on and jeans shivering. Shivering. I walk out of work in the evening (even at 6pm) and the heat hits me. My car is roasting. And yet I’ve spent 95% of the day shivering. Now I know I don’t have a huge amount of insulation going to provide some benefit against this, but that is not the point. It’s finally summer and I’m still cold.

OK, I’m done. Whew. I feel better now.

Sooo, WIAW. It’s that time of the week where I ‘enlighten’ you the fascinating (mildly interesting?) meals that I’ve had today (well, Tuesday). As always, hosted by Jenn from Peas and Crayons.

So for breakfast:

Yep, that is green porridge. I added half a teaspoon of wheatgrass to my oats before cooking them. It didn’t impact the taste at all which was nice. I’m really into my wheatgrass at the moment and want to get it in where I can. I might make a green smoothie sometime this week to take to work and put in the fridge. I’m just concerned that they might think I’m a bit strange with my bright green smoothie…

Does anyone else get worried about what people think of what you eat? I eat quite healthily and get a few comments about my lunch or snacks and it really bothers me. I hate people looking at my food and judging me. I know I shouldn’t care but it makes me nervous eating around other people (except for close family and friends who know me well enough). I hate feeling like I have to justify what I’m eating. There are always the questions about why I eat so healthily and how I don’t need to eat all that salad, I’m skinny enough. I’m not eating it to get skinny I’m eating it to keep healthy and because I enjoy it! I eat rubbish as well but not all the time. I’m very conscious of what I put into my body and I like to feel good about myself.

Anyway, for lunch I had some quorn chilli that I’d made the other night and took some in to work with me [Check me out being a bit more adventurous with meals!]:

This is an appalling photo, sorry. I was trying to take a photo on the sly so my work colleges didn’t think I was crazy. They’re not from the “take a photo of your food” era. This lunch was really yummy. A bit of quorn, a handful of haricot beans, chopped bell pepper, chopped courgette, diced onion, bit of garlic, chilli, mixed herbs and a tin of chopped tomatoes. This made two very yummy portions. Very easy ‘bung it all in a saucepan’ meal.

Dinner was even better:

Goat’s cheese, chicken, chopped pear, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and pecan nuts with a balsamic dressing. I am loving salads at the moment. And I’m loving goat’s cheese. And surprisingly so is Ben. Another win!

Throughout the day I munched on some apples (obviously), a banana, Snack a Jacks (I am literally addicted to these) and a home-made jelly. No pictures as these are fairly dull. Well, maybe one photo:

Ahh, perfection.

Here’s what I wore (yay summer outfit!):

OOTD (outfit of the day): top is from Forever 21, jeans are soo old (from Topshop) and necklace from Accessorize. Can’t remember about the bracelets – probably Accessorize knowing me.

And for my fitness… I did my usual 5miles in the morning. I’m pleased with how it went. It was a nice cool temperature to run:

Not sure why my Garmin showed a different view today. I only recently jumped on the Garmin band wagon last month so I’m still getting used to it, and to be honest I’m not sure how to navigate through it. I just jab random buttons and hope for the best. I could read the manual. That would be the most sensible approach. But that’s an effort really, isn’t it?

Hope you’re all having a great WIAW. I love noseying (sp?) on people’s meals

July 23, 2012July 25, 2012

Monday again??

I can’t believe it’s Monday again. Even though I had three days off it seems to have zoomed by. The weather was gorgeous though. Now I know us Britains are going on a bit about the weather (some may say whining…) but seriously, it’s been pretty bad. Yes our summers aren’t amazing, but we usually get some sunshine and warmth. Anyway, rant over. The sun is out…for now.

We had a pretty good weekend. Ben and I drove up to Cardiff to spend the afternoon with our friends. It’s a 2 and a half hour journey so we topped up on some amazing smoothies after breakfast:

Mixed summer berried, cow’s milk and banana on the left for Ben. And another spinach, banana, wheatgrass and almond milk one for me. Nom nom nom.

There’s me, chugging down my green monster as fast as I can. We are always late. It’s always a mad dash around at the last minute (OK taking photos probably didn’t help either…).

We took loads of burgers, sausages and buns. It was perfect weather for a BBQ. However, when I got there my friends looked at my raw food selection quizzically. It wasn’t a BBQ, it was a picnic. I’m not sure how I came round to think we were having a BBQ, especially when it was confirmed several times of it’s picnic status. Hmmm. Well Ben and I bought a little throw-away BBQ and had ourselves a small BBQ while they munched cold selections of finger food (I’m sure they were jealous of our sizzling delights…well I’ll tell myself they were). Note to self: read invitations properly. It was quite funny though…Ben obviously blamed me as well *sighs*.

Regardless of our poor choice of food, it was a great day. Over the weekend I also had a bit of an attack of the Hunger Monster. The Hunger Monster is when you JUST NEED SOMETHING NAUGHTY TO EAT, NOW! We had Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in the freezer. I hate an entire litre of frozen yogurt chocolate brownie. I’m not proud of myself. It wasn’t my finest hour. But it was damn tasty. Ben managed 3/4 of his Oh My Apple Pie. I feel a sense of achievement to have finished a litre. In retrospect I was starting to feel a bit sick towards the end, but I’m no quitter. Stomach of steel.

So this fuelled me nicely for a very warm run on Sunday morning:

I’m really loving running at the moment. I feel myself improving as well which is a great feeling. And I’ve jazzed up my playlist a bit more (which I hadn’t done in ages) and I find this always helps. Ben is coming running with me more which is nice.

Then to finish off the weekend nicely, we had a really tasty meal:

It was a chicken stir-fry with sliced courgette, bell peppers, red onion, cashews and kelp noodles with Chinese Five Spice and soy sauce. Delicious! It took me a while to convince Ben to eat the kelp noodles and also to keep him away from the kitchen while I prepared them as though they looked fine to me, I reckon it might have put Ben off. He’s not big into trying new and ‘strange’ food, especially if it’s healthy food. However, after trying it he proclaimed “Yeah it’s not bad actually”. Success!! Hurrah!

Hope you all had lovely weekends! Was anyone else attacked by the Hunger Monster?