November, 2012 - AnnaTheApple

November 28, 2012

Turn back? Never!

Dear Britain, please stop raining. It messes with everything. The commute is longer and more dangerous…

[Took photo while in stand-still traffic!]

…choosing an outfit (and shoes!) requires more thought [real-world issues here], Alfie has to stay in the kitchen longer after going outside… It makes for a very grumpy Anna. I wouldn’t mind if it’s really cold and dry. Rain is just so miserable. We don’t have it nearly as badly as others around the UK but it still sucks.

It also makes for very wet and muddy runs! I ummed and arr’ed about going for a run at lunchtime on Monday. I had brought in my stuff but I kept looking anxiously out of the window and watching the on-and-off rain. Also I knew the woman who had originally invited me to run with her group wasn’t in the office. So it would mean running with a bunch of guys I didn’t know as well…

In the end I sucked it up and went. The guys were still up for running despite the weather and sheer amount of rain we’d had over the weekend (“Rain? Pah! We are men!”). This time I’d decided to wear my shorts rather than leggings because my leggings just got covered in so much mud that it made more sense that my legs just got covered in mud instead and that I could wash them in the shower.

It began with a lot of slipping and sliding in lots of mud, then sploshing through fields with lots of surface water…and then we got to the path that runs parallel to the local canal. Well, where it should have been. Normal people would have seen the sheer amount of water and flooding and would have turned around. Nope. We continued on – thigh deep in freezing water. Still running!

To be honest, it was good fun. It made for a rather interesting (albeit wet) run. My feet and legs were numb, very pink, wet and muddy by the end.

But it was great! And 6 miles, which I was so chuffed with as I haven’t run that distance in a while. My Garmin died of battery though which really annoyed me.

But all the guys had their Garmins on so at least I knew in the end it was about 6 miles (we were all beeping away on the run it was quite funny).

Anyway, it’s Wednesday! So here’s my WIAW (thanks, Jenn. Check out her blog to see what it’s all about).

I’ve got a bit of a mix of meals from different days as I’ve been changing things up a bit lately.

Breakfast: On Saturday I tried my hand at some coconut and oat pancakes. *Sighs* Disaster. My first one was promising…

But then it got progressively worse. They just all crumbled. So I just gave up and threw it all into a bowl.

Despite how it looks, it tasted pretty good once I’d jazzed it up with some toppings:

I added some frozen berries that I’d microwaved with some cinnamon and then a dollop of Greek yogurt. Not too shabby for a disaster! If anyone has tips for coconut flour pancakes, please let me know! I used 1 tbs. oats, 3 tbs. coconut flour, 2 egg whites, 1/4 cup pumpkin puree and a splash of almond milk.

I also made some rather delicious coffee that we haven’t been able to try until now. We got it in America but thought it was just instant rather than ‘proper coffee’. And we didn’t have a coffee machine or a cafetiere so we couldn’t try it when we got home! But we got one the other weekend purely to try this coffee.

French Vanilla…and it tasted fabulous. Not like donuts as I think Ben was secretly hoping

Lunch: I loved the sound of Laura’s cauliflower coconut soup so I made a variation for lunch for Saturday and Sunday.

I fried a diced white onion in coconut oil, then added some diced garlic and then several large florets of cauliflower. Once that had cooked for about 5 mins, I added 1.5 cups veg stock, mixed herbs, then 1 cup full-fat coconut milk and 3 tbs. Greek yogurt. I cooked it for 5-6 mins and then whizzed it up using a hand blender. Really yummy!

Alongside this on Saturday I made some cornbread using Kelly’s recipe.

A really quick recipe using the microwave. It was lovely and light and great for dunking. I used a funny mug hence the weird shape.

And then Sunday I had the soup with some butternut squash roasted in coconut oil on the side.

These were great to dunk into the soup. Nom nom nom.

Dinner: I’ve still be clinging to my salads despite the weather, but I’ve been adding in some ‘warmer’ ingredients.

With our usual feta salad, I added more of the roasted butternut squash.

And added some roasted sweet potato to our halloumi salad…

And then a range of roasted veggies to it another night…

One night I also had some smoked mackerel that had been sat in the freezer for too long. So I added some Greek yogurt, some spices, garlic, lemon juice and whizzed it up to make a very yummy pate:

Absolutely heavenly! And so easy

Snacks: well, obviously banana bread from the weekend has been picked at…

Very yummy. Definitely need to make more breads I think. Devine.

And more of these very nice yogurts:

Basically, I’ve really had some great days of nice food (perhaps not the best looking food: pancakes, I’m looking at you) but food nonetheless.

Fitness: obviously my off-road runs have been great! And what perfect timing with the weather haha. I hope to do three of those a week with the group but it really depends on how busy work is. And Pilates on Saturday was brilliant. I’ve also switched up my strength training a bit so I’ll do an update on that soon!

Do you enjoy running off-road?

What’s your favourite pancake variation? Have you tried coconut flour?

Have a lovely Wednesday

November 25, 2012

Starbucks, banana bread and a very muddy run

Hurrah for the weekend! What’s everyone up to?

Work has been crazy lately. Looks like I’ll be in Reading for longer than expected. This is a bit of a pain as the commute is so long. But I’m loving what I’m doing so I can’t complain too much. I just get sick of the same roads and the same traffic. Anyone have a helicopter I can borrow for a few months…? No? Damn.

Friday was a pretty good day. My dad and me work together so we’re sharing the commute to Reading (take that as a plus and a minus ) and I persuaded him to stop at Starbucks just before we got to the office. He treated me to a hazelnut syrup Americano and a HUGE mince pie. First one of the season, wheeee!

It brought some light amusement of watching my dad drip coffee all over himself as I drove the last mile and a half back to work. This was just ten minutes after him telling me he had put his newly washed beige chinos to look smart…whoops

The mince pie was deeeelicious. I was chuffed for this as my Graze box didn’t arrive (*sobs*) and I needed something to fuel my run at lunchtime.

Speaking of my run, though in my last post I mentioned I was a bit dubious about it as it’s always weird running with people you don’t really know – and work with. Anyway, it was great! There were five of us in total and they took me on a great 4.5 mile route around some lakes and fields. We got covered in mud and at times it was more splashing than running but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There was a range of running ability and this was great. One guy was super speedy – we’re talking 6 minutes a mile at his best! I started off fairly easy going running with the woman I knew and then I ventured out to run with a guy who ran at my usual pace (not the 6min a mile guy!!). This really pushed me to keep up. With the rough terrine and the speed of the run, I was pooped by the end!It’s funny because after showering and basically inhaling my lunch afterwards, I went to stand up and my calves were aching already! I’m guessing this was the crazy terrine as I’m used to plain old roads. Anyone else find this?

Saturday morning I had my Pilates class.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s not a class to get sweaty and out of breath in but you definitely feel it in your muscle the next day. The class was quite small with a total of six of us. But it was a lovely friendly atmosphere and instructor is so attentive and ‘hands-on’. That sounds weird, but it really helps if she sort of guides your leg or foot or whatever to the right position as it can be quite complicated.

The rest of the day was filled with chores and looking after an unwell Ben. He does not have a simple cold, oh no. Nor is it flu. How foolish to think it would be something quite so simple. He has…Man Flu. Full on, at death’s door, incapacitated, can’t do anything Man Flu… He is currently a pathetic human being. We’re talking blankets, Lemsips, and constant sofa attachment. I am trying to be the caring and loving wife but it’s tricky as I’m not naturally sympathetic and, ladies, we all know about this Man Flu business. It’s a cold. Joking aside though, I am looking after him and he does have a waiver for all chores. Fun for me.

I did a bout of baking as well. Apparently one of Ben’s work friends finds the idea of banana bread crazy and Ben has enlisted me to change his mind. I mean, who doesn’t like banana bread??

It got rid of some dying bananas as well and it was fairly easy to whip up.

Banana bread (based on THIS recipe)

75g (1/3 cup) butter, softened
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed

110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
125g (1 heaped cup) plain flour
100g (1 level cup) wholemeal flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. mixed spice

– Preheat oven to 180C.

– Combine butter, sugar, eggs and mashed bananas.

– Sift flours, baking powder and spices together. Then fold into the banana bread and stir until combined.

– Bake in a loaf tin for 50 mins (until a tooth pick comes out clean).

My little loaf tin struggled to contain all the loaf so I had to make mini banana loaf muffins as well. What a shame

Then we headed to Ben’s mum for dinner. We brought along Alfie as well (which is always a bit worrying as Alfie is Alfie and Ben’s mum’s house is pristine).

Apart from an accident on the carpet he was good as gold (this was mainly our fault anyway as we hadn’t let him outside before going out as it was raining so much so we weren’t angry at him).

How could I be mad at that furry face? And Alfie too

The meal was so good. We had honey smoked mackerel to start (apologies, no photo I was too busy gobbling it up). And then we had roast chicken for main with a whole host of veggies and stuffing:

Definitely a winner! Made up for enviously ~~drooling~~ seeing all those delicious Thanksgiving meals on many blogs this week.

And then fruit salad for pudding. Again no photo, but imagine a HUGE bowl of pineapple, melons, grapes, blueberries and strawberries. I love having meals at Ben’s mum’s house as she and I have similar tastes (big fruit & veggie fans). It was a lovely and relaxed evening.

So now it’s Sunday and I’m just watching the world go by while looking after the poorly husband. Well, as much as I can do while he plays on the XBox…

Hope you’re having a lovely weekend and for my fellow Britains, I hope the rain stops soon!!

November 23, 2012November 23, 2012

Running with the enemy

Hi guys, and to all those who are enjoying/have enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving, I hope you’ve had a great day!

In light of this event, I thought I’d have a think about what I’m thankful for. So I’m linking up with Jessie‘s Thankful Thursday post. Seems appropriate, even though I’m not American, to get involved!

It’s easy to dash through day-to-day life without stopping and taking stock of what you’ve got. It’s often the case that is when something happens that you realise how much you really appreciate something. For instance, you’re car breaking down. It’s an absolute nightmare situation – how do you get to work? How do you get to the shop to buy food for the week? You forget how easy a car makes your life.

Definitely my family is top of my list of what I’m thankful for. I know that whatever happens they’ll be there for me. Ben consistently supports me in anything I do and I always know he’s there if something goes wrong.

The great thing about Ben is he is so selfless. He would drop anything and everything if I needed him. I can’t be thankful enough for him. He’s teaching me to be a less selfish person – it’s baby steps!

Obviously I’m also thankful for my parents and close family. I’ve been extremely lucky to have had a great childhood and a good upbringing.

Both my sister and me are polite and well-educated and this is largely due to my parents hard work with guiding us through life (sorry this sounds a bit sappy I know).

And the best mum in the world. I’ll let her off for sending me to school with a broken arm (oh did I mention she was a nurse…?) The heart the size of the country, a wardrobe the size of a small planet. Luckily we have the same size feet and the same love for Accessorize

I’m also thankful for my health and fitness. There are so many people in the world not blessed with the ability to even walk, so I’m thankful for having a complete working body.

I’m thankful for my job as I know a lot of people are unemployed and are struggling at the moment. So I’m thankful for both Ben and my income that has allowed us to live in our little house and start building towards a lovely life.

There are so many other things I’m thankful for and I could write all day, but I’ll leave it there.

So today I will be running with the enemy, aka our current customer. No I am joking, they are lovey. It’s just I’m a little nervous as I’m just used to being in meetings with them and having arguments professional disputes with them regarding different factors. There’s quite a few of them and they invited me out this lunchtime and honestly I’m scared. I don’t know how fast they are. I don’t know if we will chat…or if it’s purely running. It was easy with the guy I was running with before as he was on my team and we laugh and joke all the time in the office. Well, I’ll keep you informed!

Speaking of my last run (Wednesday lunchtime), I got drenched and muddy. Lovely. Perfect for half-way through a working day. I did shower but I don’t wash my hair after a lunchtime run so it wasn’t the best look I’ve had for the afternoon. But it was a good run and though I grumbled and complained when he persuaded me to run (I had originally looked out the window and said “hell no” because of the weather), I’m glad I went. I didn’t take a photo of my Garmin, but we ran 3 miles in 26 mins. Not too bad.

This weekend is the start of my Pilates class on Saturday. I’m really looking forward to this as I had a couple of one-to-ones and loved it. And then Saturday night we’re off to Ben’s mums for a nice meal. Sunday I’m hoping to do a run but we’ll see how Saturday night goes I guess hehe.

What are you up to this weekend?

What are you thankful for?

November 21, 2012November 21, 2012

Christmas, coconut flour and Ben & Jerry’s

Hi guys, errrrm how is it 21st November? I’ve been married now almost two months. That is mind-blowing!

I’ve really being feeling Christmassy. I love Christmas – it’s my favourite time of year. I love how everyone has that Christmas feeling; that expectation and excitement. I love the music and the decorations. And, obviously, I love the food.

What I hate about Christmas is this sudden fear of the dreaded holiday weight-gain. All these articles start appearing about “How to avoid the Christmas bulge” and “What foods to avoid at a Christmas buffet” etc. It sort of takes the fun out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to throw myself into a giant-sized box of Celebration chocolates with abandon. But I’m not going to sit here and deny myself the treats that I so look forward to. Mince pies? Yes please. A slice of stollen? Ohhh yes. I just wish the media could tone things down a bit and stop making people feel so damn guilty about eating the food of the season. Come on people, let’s relax a little shall we?

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working at the customer site at the moment. It’s quite a good team we have; there’s only seven of us and it’s nice and relaxed. The work is tough as the system that’s being developed is fairly complicated but we’ve got a good atmosphere. However. Outside our little bubble the normal business-as-usual life of the customer is working around us. And I don’t think they like us. They practically growl at us when we laugh. Raise their eyebrows when we have moderately loud conversations. And the worst part? They have the radio on. And it’s the same station. All. Day. Long. If I hear Skyfall ONE MORE TIME I might cry. Whew, sorry about that. Got that outta my system.

Right, so it’s What I Ate Wednesday – though this is Sunday’s eats. Let’s get started, shall we? Thanks to Jenn as usual!

Breakfast: I’ve been experimenting with breakfast. OK, still my usual porridge/oatmeal. But I’ve jazzed it up with my new favourite ingredient: coconut flour.

OK, it doesn’t look any different. But let me assure you, this has a heaped tbsp. of coconut flour added to it. It adds a lovely subtle coconut taste and makes it very thick and stodgy. Perfect porridge consistency in my books. And it’s added a lovely smooth texture to it now. So with this at 7am I’m good to go until midday (with coffee as well, obviously).

Lunch: during the week I either have a mixed bean chilli or a salad, but at the weekend I can be a bit more exciting. Usually in the form of something eggy. As enticing as that sounds…

I whipped up three eggs, some chopped cherry tomatoes, chopped onions and half a cup of pumpkin puree. The pumpkin was a great add. Really thickened it up. And made the eggs a lovely, er, colour

And I’m obsessed with Brussels’s sprouts at the moment. Might need to tone that down before I overdo it before Christmas – and what’s Christmas without sprouts??

Dinner: I decided to try a Thai-style coconut curry. Unfortunately I didn’t have any coconut milk but I thought with my new favourite ingredient I could attempt it anyway. I didn’t really follow any recipe. I just threw things together.

Coconut Chicken Curry (serves 2)

Blob of coconut oil

Clove garlic, diced

Inch of fresh garlic, grated

2 chicken breasts, diced

2-3 mushrooms

1 cup of frozen mixed veg

1 white onion, diced

1 cup Greek yogurt

2 tbsp. coconut flour

1 tbsp. unsweetened shredded coconut

1 tsp. chilli powder

1.5 tsp. dried coriander

– Heat a pan with the oil, then add the onion and fry until the onion is golden. Add the mushrooms and fry for 1 minute before adding the garlic.

– Add chicken and brown.

– Add the yogurt and mixed veg. Cook for 3-4 mins.

– Add the coconut, herbs and spices.

– Once the chicken is cooked and the sauce has thickened up serve.

It was really tasty. The coconut flour helps to thicken it up and the yogurt makes it very creamy. Perfect. You can add other spices to make it more interesting if you fancy – I was just using what I had to hand.

Snacks: yeah…I might have had some Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Brownie Frozen Yogurt. My favourite flavour and it was brilliant to have alongside watching Erin Brockovich. Anyone else love Julia Roberts? Brilliant film!

Fitness: I ran on Monday and though it went really well in terms of speed it really didn’t agree with me.

I finished the run feeling like I was going to be sick. It really wasn’t fun. I wasn’t sick, thankfully. I think it was a mix of pushing myself a bit too hard and I’m thinking the ice cream the night before didn’t help things.

I plan on running this lunch time with Mr Ego so we’ll see how that goes. He’s toned down a bit now which is nice. We motivate each other but I’m still finding the runs a bit too easy as his pace is slower. But you know, I’m not too bothered as it’s just good to get out. I like to have the company and it’s so refreshing to get out of the office. Though we tend to chat about work while we run which isn’t so good!

Important question: too soon?

Oh, also – check out Ffion’s blog (Chocolate and Respberries) for a great Christmas-themed giveaway! Delicious Hotel Chocolat Advent Calendar 🙂 Hotel Chocolat do amazing chocolates…toss up between them and Lindt for my favourite.

What songs are really getting on your nerves?

Are you feeling Christmassy yet?

November 18, 2012November 20, 2012

Oxford day-trip

Happy weekend all! Hope you’re all having a nice chilled weekend

So far this weekend has been brilliant. Yesterday I caught the train to Oxford to meet up with my friends from university. Usually we go to London or Reading as it’s a nice half-way point for us all as we’re all scattered over the country, but we decided to meet up in Oxford this time for a change. I’m so relieved we didn’t decide to go to Reading because that’s where I’ve been working for the past three weeks and if I’m quite honest I’m sick of it.

I think I’ve been to Oxford once before when I was looking around at universities (in the end the whole interview process and academic snobbery put me off – no offence to anyone who went there but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Plus I’m not sure I would have gotten in! It’s a whole different league of smartness).

Anyway, so I got the train (oh how I loathe trains) and met up with my four lovely girlfriends. Obviously the first thing we did was go to Starbucks for a coffee. Well of course, right?

Americano with a splash of hazelnut syrup thank you very much.

And we nattered on for a good hour I’d say. You know what girls are like…

Then we moseyed about for a while looking around the shops. We went into the Covered Market where there were all these little boutquey-style shops.

And we found a cake making shop where I bought some decorations for our Christmas cake (which is still to be made…).

Check out this amazing cake that was in the window:

Wow, right??

After the market, we meandered around the streets and admired all the colleges and old buildings, which were just beautiful.

It was such a perfect day to wander around. It thankfully didn’t rain! We decided to look around the Deer Park. But when we arrived at the entrance the man told us it would cost us a £5 each. I mean seriously?? To walk around a park! We obviously looked a bit devastated so he said we could have a quick look. So we had a quick look and then moved to leave. The man then said “Oh alright, you don’t have to pay, just go in”. How nice is that? Thank you Mr Deer Park Man!

So we had a lovely walk in the park and saw some deer (albeit from a distance).

And then we started to get hungry and went to find some lunch. One of my friends suggested a pub, The White Horse, that she’d been to before which was 50% vegetarian. I’m not a vegetarian but one of my friends is and none of us are really your steak and kidney pie kinda girls so it made sense.

It was quite small and busy but it was just nice to be in the warm as the day was starting to get very nippy. I decided to go for the hummus and olive salad.

Very yummy. Can’t go wrong with hummus in my books! After we’d finished eating and we’re digesting we noticed the pub suddenly became even more packed. Ah ha, the rugby was starting. So we scampered quickly.

So we looked round more of Oxford.

It was just lovely. It felt like Harry Potter (yes, go ahead and laugh at me) with all the cloisters and old buildings. I took so many photos! (Hence my collage explosion in this post, apologies).

And finally we visited the Oxford Castle, which is basically just a mound of earth now. The Oxford Castle is also the site of the old prison as well so we had a bit of fun with the props at hand…

And then after another coffee we parted ways. It was such a lovely day-trip. I love our meet-ups. We just slot back into place like we’ve never left uni. I wish I could see them more often but it’s so tricky with us living so far apart. But it was a great day regardless!

Then Ben picked me up from the station and he dashed off for the evening to see his friend. So obviously I watched Pretty Woman on my own with a couple of my other friends.

Perfect day!

What have you been getting up?

Have you been to Oxford before?