AnnaTheApple - AnnaTheApple

March 22, 2013

One Lovely Blog Award

TGI Friday, am I right? Ohh yes.

This week has been quite tiring I must say. The first half of the week my legs were aching like crazy from the weekend race and I was just generally tired. I made sure I took it relatively easy on the running front. I ran a 3 mile easy run on Tuesday (PAINFUL, very painful), 5 miles more normal run on Thursday (getting back into my groove which felt nice) and then this morning I went for a 2 mile run with Ben (helping him do intervals).

Ben is really keen on getting back into running and I couldn’t be more pleased. His whole attitude has changed; he’s excited about runs, he’s keen to get into shape and he’s quite upbeat about it all. Even while giving up alcohol! I don’t drink at all to be honest (occasionally a gin and tonic now and then) but Ben does like his wine. He doesn’t drink stupid amounts by any stretch of the imagination but it is his way of relaxing at the weekend. Hopefully he won’t find it too hard this weekend!

Anyway, the very lovely Meghan nominated me for the One Lovely Blog Award! I’m very flattered and pleased. I love Meghan’s blog and really recommend, if you haven’t already, to go and check it out.

The rules are that I share 7 random things about myself and then nominate 7 other bloggers. So let’s get going!

1) I sweep our kitchen floor every morning and every evening. It’s obsessive I know, but it really, really annoys me when I walk bare feet and can feel crumbs on the floor. Also I think Alfie is out to make me crazy because when he eats his kibble he doesn’t eat it over his bowl, but crunches it in the middle of the kitchen and leaves a whole load of crumbs on the floor. It drives me mad.

2) Though I’m sure Ben is wholly unaware of this, in my mind we are having a ‘bathroom product paraphernalia’ war that has been raging (in my mind) for weeks. He leaves his hair gel out every single morning and I put it away every single morning.

3) I passed the time during the half-marathon by checking out other runners. This sounds weird I know, but looking at other runners and what they were wearing (especially the ladies) was a good way to stop myself getting bored. I’d be like “Oooh I like her leggings…” or “he has a cool running belt”.

4) I don’t mind watching scary films as long as they’re not gory. Any scenes of mutilation or torture and I’m outta there. Give me floating ghosts and creaky floorboards any day. I love Game of Thrones but why do they have to make it so violent and painful?? It was bad enough reading it in the book, but seeing it is so much worse.

5) I used to get really bad night terrors when I was younger so much so I had to have my sister sleep in my room on our camp bed. I made her pack that thing away and tidy her stuff out of my room every morning though. How mean was I??

6) I avoid my neighbours. They’re so chatty and nosey. I swear they watch at the window for me to walk past before leaping out of their door to catch me for a stupidly long catch-up. Invariably I’m about to walk Alfie and Alfie is just shooting them the Death Stare the entire time as he wants to actually get going. Ben and I have been known to hide from them at times.

7) I’m not a baby person. Like at all. Don’t get me wrong, I love my little niece, Ellie, to pieces but any other babies or small children? Nope. I have no maternal instinct whatsoever. Good luck, Ben

And the 7 lovely and brilliant bloggers I nominate are:

Maria @ Running Cupcake

Chelsea @ Chelsea Eats Treats

Sara @ Nourish and Flourish

Jemma @ Celery and Cupcakes

Laura @ Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish

Ffion @ Raspberries and Chocolates

Eleanor @ Eating Like a Horse

Obviously there are so many more I could have nominated but these are some of my favourites

Name something random about yourself? It’s actually quite hard! I don’t think I’m as unique as I’d like to be!

What’s your favourite genre of movie to watch? Mine is a gripping story, like Erin Brockovich, or a romantic comedy classic, like Four Weddings and a Funeral or When Harry Met Sally.

Do you like stuff put away like me, or left out for easy access like Ben? I’m all for keeping things minimalistic and tidy!

Have a wonderful weekend

March 20, 2013

A bits and bobs post

Firstly, thank you for all your kind words about Sunday’s half marathon. It made my day I’ve literally been floating along with happiness since then. What was also nice was everyone at work was so lovely about it and there was a lot of banter as there were about four other guys from work who did it too (I beat all but one! One guy did it in 1hour 36mins wowza).

This week has been crazy busy. And what makes it worse is I think I’m one day ahead…Friday is going to be painful. Because of the half marathon on Sunday it’s just skewed my perception of the week as the race took the entire day and I was so tired afterwards it didn’t feel like a proper weekend!

Anyway it’s Wednesday so we’re not too far off from the weekend. And it’s What I ate Wednesday link up.

I’ll show you a random selection of eats as it’s been a bit of a random week.

Breakfast is the standard oatmeal with almond milk. No changes there I’m afraid. Still as satisfying.

Lunch this week has been a mixture of my usual salads as I’ve missed them and they’re also so easy to throw together the night before (whereas my sandwiches don’t tend to be as nice if I make them the night before). I tend to make two lots of salads at the same time on Sunday night and then that means I can have a more relaxed mornings. Monday morning I was shattered and didn’t set my alarm till 7am which was heaven (usually I get up anywhere from 5.45 to 6.15am).

And with this I have a fruit salad with Greek yogurt and a Babybel.

But! This morning because I’m off to Cambridge (a two hour journey) a bit later for a FIFTEEN MINUTE presentation I didn’t know what was going to happen with lunch. I couldn’t realistically bring in a massive box of salad and I don’t know if I can buy lunch there or en route. And I’m not sure we’ll even get a proper time for lunch so I basically packed a stupid amount of snacks that I can discreetly eat at any point.

This is rye bread with peanut butter smeared onto it which I’ve sandwiched together. A bit more discreet than a ‘proper’ sandwich I hope…and I’ve got a Babybel, a packet of Snack a Jacks, an apple and these:

Which I got in my swag bag from the half marathon.

I think I’m sorted!! I hate not knowing what’s happening with lunch and like to be prepared.

Dinners have been a lot more interesting. On Monday night Ben and me had one of our usual easy go-to meals: salad with grilled halloumi. Normally I roast a lot of veggies to go with this to make it more filling (butternut squash, sweet potato, zucchini, peppers, etc.) But I had the leftovers from that side salad I had at Jamie’s Italian on Sunday that needed using up.

It’s basically bulgur wheat and quinoa mix. Ben looked extremely sceptical about it. I had to convince him it was basically like couscous. And…he loved it! In fact he’s requested I attempt to recreate it. Win!

Last night I tried my hand at moussaka again (which I got wrong in the previous post by saying moussaka is usually made with pasta – it’s actually potato. Apologies, I should have done my research!)

This time though as I wanted a more quick mid-week meal, I left out the eggplant as that’s what took ages last time (salting, frying etc.). I basically just fried a small onion, lean beef mince, crumbled in a beef stock cube, added Worcestershire sauce, passata and herbs and let it reduce a bit while I made the top sauce. This was using one egg, a good few dollops of Greek yogurt and a tablespoon of parmesan. I put the mince mixture in an oven dish and poured the sauce on top and then grilled for about 10 mins. Perfect!

I did miss the eggplant but it was still very yummy and definitely filled me up nicely.

In terms of running. My legs have been aching hugely since Sunday. I was hobbling like an old lady on Monday. On Tuesday though I thought I’d venture out for a very easy run just to shake myself out. Plus, I am pleased to say that Ben has been inspired to get back into running! So we went out together and I stuck with him the entire time to force myself from not trying to go too fast (though I doubt I could have as it was so tough). So we kept at a nice 10min/mile pace for 3 miles.

Ben has decided to give up alcohol for the next 8 weeks and to get back into running as we’ve both signed up for a 10k race in May (in 8 weeks time). I’m so proud of him! It’ll be lovely to do a race together as it’ll be nice to talk to someone after the race specifically about different parts that you know they’ll have experienced, you know?

My next run will be tomorrow and I’m just going to see how I feel. I don’t want to push myself and be silly as I need to recover properly, but at the same time I’m desperate to get back out and run again. So easy pace, no more than 5 miles.

And that’s all I’ve got. Like I said, it’s all a bit busy and crazy with work which isn’t ideal as I just wanted an easy week this week! But such is life.

Hope you have a great week!

Do you run/workout with your partner?

What do you do if you don’t know what’s happening with lunch at work? I think I’ve over-prepared!

March 18, 2013

Reading Half-Marathon

**I warn you now this might be a bit of a lengthy post**

I survived my first half marathon! It was brilliant Here’s my recap. I’ve tried not to ramble on too much…

So on Friday I had my last physio appointment. This was really good as she gave my leg muscles a good (albeit painful) massage and also used ultra-sound on my Achilles which was just brilliant. Definitely worth the money I think! And a perfect way to prepare for Sunday.

Saturday I had a busy day of trying to get all the housework done and sorting bits and pieces out as we knew we wouldn’t have Sunday because of the race. I also did a very relaxed and easy 2 mile run to just shake myself out. It was horrific though as it was so wet and windy. This was a bit worrying as I didn’t mind any weather as long as it wasn’t windy. And Saturday was like gail-force winds.

Saturday night Ben and I had a ‘make-your-own’ pizza from Sainsbury’s. I had a thin and crispy vegetable feast without cheese…with added chicken (I’m not a big fan of melted cheese). When the guy behind the counter had made it he said to me “you might need to cook it for a bit longer than the directions say as there are so many toppings”. Haha I should have been embarrassed but I wasn’t.

Before I cooked it I put some BBQ sauce over it. Let me tell you, this was AMAZING. Perfect carb-loading dinner.

I had an early night and surprisingly fell asleep very quickly.

Sunday morning we woke up early (6.30am…on a Sunday), I walked Alfie, had breakfast (my regular oatmeal – what else?) and a black coffee. Ben’s mum and my mum arrived to drive with us and we were on our way. [Unfortunately my dad couldn’t make it as he’d been called into work – this was quite sad as, apart from Ben, he’s one of my biggest supporters]

Because I was so worried I’d lose my head and run like an idiot for the first half of the race and thereby kill myself for the second I wrote down the times I wanted to hit for each mile on my hand to try and focus myself.

This way I could keep looking at what pace I should be aiming for. Basically I aimed at increasing the speed as the race went along, leaving myself a bit of energy for a speedy finish.

We got to Reading and hung about in the race village for a fair amount of time. At this point the rain hadn’t quite kicked in but it was cold.

Then it started really raining. Possibly the worst part of the day was taking off my big coat and handing it to Ben so I could then go and stand in the racing pen to wait for it to begin. I was FREEZING. We all had to stand and wait for around 15 mins before the race began in the tipping rain. Everyone was jumping around like lunatics trying to keep warm.

And then we were off!

It was such an effort to keep my pace at 8.20 for the first mile because the majority of people were starting quite fast so it felt very unnatural to hold myself back. My inner competitiveness was screaming at me. But I didn’t want to start too quickly and poop myself out right at the beginning.

I saw Ben and the mums during the first mile so it was nice to wave to them at the beginning. Miles 1-4 zoomed by. They felt very easy and relaxed. It was just so nice to be running with so many people.

I had my music in and it was great to just look around and watch other people and see the spectators cheering us on. So many people watched us run, it was really lovely. Especially considering the weather! I kept having to check my pace though as I felt myself wanting to zoom off.

At mile 5 I increased my pace as planned. I still felt very good and was quite happy with how things were going.

Saw some interesting costumes!

The course was relatively flat, except for about three hills that were quite substantial. But they were fine, I just found a rhythm, looked down and ploughed on. If I look up when running hills then I lose my motivation because I think “Jeeze am I not there yet?”

There were loads of water stations about which was a bit of a minefield, especially when they were like bags of water that squirted all over the place. I didn’t go for any water but I almost got hit by jets of water several times haha. As if I wasn’t wet enough!

I can’t remember what mile it was (maybe 6?) but we went under a bridge and there were drums playing by a band which was brilliant. Really livened things up and kept us motivated. It was nice as well because people shouted my name as I had it on my vest. At first it felt weird because I was like “I don’t know you!” but it was a great motivator. And little kids wanting high fives – that was cool!

Mile 7 went really quickly because this was where Ben and the mums were aiming to be to wave and hand me a drink (I’d made my own drink from half water, half pure orange juice and a little bit of salt). So I spent a lot of time looking out for them which passed the time. I finally saw them and gave Ben my gloves, he gave me the drink and then we had a quick smooch (ahh the romance) and I ran off.

I thought I’d struggle around 8-9 as it’s a bit of a funny mileage as you’ve ran quite far but you’re still quite far away. But I was fine. I felt very comfortable and happy. Though it started raining again which wasn’t amazing.

Because of how the course twisted, Ben and the mums could get to mile 10 before I did so they hurried there to wave again and Ben got a photo of me.

Yep that’s a manic smile I’m wearing there.

And then from mile 10 I was ready to kick a bit more into a faster pace. When I got to mile 12 that’s when I had to dig a bit deeper to keep going. When I saw the sign for ‘400m to go’ I let rip a bit more and it got painful. We got into the Madejski stadium and BAM it finished. It was over. I couldn’t believe it.

The feelings of absolutely happiness were so overwhelming. I felt like I could fly. I saw someone from work who was also running it and I went over to him to chat and I was just bursting with joy. I just needed someone to talk to and bounce good vibes off of.

And how did I do in terms of timing? My official chip time was 1 hour 41 minutes and 19 seconds. And my Garmin breakdown:

Almost a perfect negative split! I’m so proud of myself for being sensible. Honestly, I don’t know what it was…the crowds, the other runners, the vibes, the adrenaline…but the race just felt good. I only struggled on the last mile – and even that just required a bit more focus and mental motivation. I am so pleased.

On a random point, the funniest thing was seeing the steam rise of the runners at the end. Lovely

I eventually found Ben, my mum and Ben’s mum (at this point I was once again FREEZING).

They were cold and wet as well – I felt so bad that they had to stand in the rain for me, but very grateful for their support. We headed back to the car and then had to wait about 50 mins for the car park to open to let us (and seventy five million other cars) out. We blasted the car with heat and we eventually got a bit warmer and dryer. I managed to get out of my clothes and into my spare dry clothes inside the car without revealing myself to the world or my family (a lot of help from Ben holding up his jumper haha).

Then the cars started moving. This was stressful. There was just no order, cars were everywhere.

They look like parked cars in the photo, but they’re actually creating their own queues. It’s just not British!!! Queue jumping is not socially acceptable, people!!

Anyway, we FINALLY got out and headed for lunch. By the time we arrived it was 2.30 (I finished the race at 11.45). I was ready to eat my arm at this point.

We got parked and got out of the car. My legs were so painful and achy I almost fell over! But we got to Jamie’s Italian and got a table (despite being so late for our reserved time!)

Straight away we ordered hot drinks. You know when you’re warm but you’re not really warm inside? That’s how we felt, if that makes sense. I ordered a peppermint tea which I can tell you tasted pretty darn good at this point.

Can you guess what I had for main? Turkey Milanese, which I’ve now had four times…embarrassing really but nothing sounded better.

I ordered a quinoa and bulgur wheat salad on the side as well.

The turkey went down very well but I couldn’t make a dent on the side; it was HUGE. You know when you go from being really hungry to being very full in a short period of time? Well it didn’t make me feel amazing, but I got it packed up to take home with me.

This smile pretty much never left my face.

Then we walked (I hobbled) back to the car and went home. After having the best shower in the world, there seemed only one outfit appropriate to wear at this point:

A onesie with my medal. Obviously

And needless to say my legs are fairly painful today. I almost fell over getting up this morning.

In a nutshell: I loved the half marathon and I’m definitely doing another.

Have you done a half marathon before?

What’s your favourite race distance?

Are you a proud owner of a onesie?

March 13, 2013

Old favourites

I know I begin pretty much every post talking about the weather but I’m British and it’s our small talk, what can I say. It is cold. Windy, freezing. Snowing (well, a slight smattering). This is not spring behaviour.

It is, however, What I ate Wednesday. Hurrah midweek already.

Thanks Jenn.

I have to say this week has been fairly quiet. Nothing exciting has occurred. Though I’ve found a programme on TV that I’m now inexplicably hooked on. 16 and Pregnant. It’s car crash telly. I only put it on when Ben was away so I could have some background noise while I chilled in the evening reading blogs and surfing the Internet. But I got drawn in and absorbed. It’s gripping. No judgement please

Breakfast this week has been the obvious. Oatmeal, almond milk, done.

Breakfast is one of my favourite times in the day. I eat it with my book. Currently I’m reading the Eragon series…yes I know, I’m a geek. I’m a very eclectic reader; I don‘t have a particular genre that I go for. I just read a blurb and if I like it I go for it. I read Michael Crichton, to James Patterson, to chic flics, to historical fiction, to classics, to non-fiction. Anything goes as long as it’s interesting. As soon as I finish one I’m on to the next.

I’m not a big talker in the morning so this time to myself munching and reading is bliss. Ben gets the Death Stare if he interrupts. And Alfie too.

I can’t say that lunch has been any more exciting than usual unfortunately. I’ve been loving my sandwiches. No more ravishing hunger towards the end of a working day.

Turkey and cream cheese sandwich with lettuce

And of course my side salad.

Lettuce, beets, random veggies (carrots, peas, broccoli and cauliflower)

After this I have a fruit salad (chopped melon, grapes, orange segments and peach).

Throughout the day I have a few snacks and drinks to keep me ticking over. Usually this is chopped carrots, a banana and an apple. Drinks are black coffees (usually one in the morning, one in the afternoon) and ~~hundreds~~ a few herbal teas.

Last night I had one of my favourite dinners. This is the main reason I stocked up on tinned pumpkin. I love this meal.

Chicken with pumpkin and cream cheese sauce

I made this ages ago and was desperate to recreate it but didn’t have any pumpkin. Unfortunately I didn’t have any tinned pineapple but it was still so good. Plate licking good.

Then my usual chopped apples. Nothing beats chopped apple as a pudding. OK obviously a lot of things beat chopped apples as a pudding (brownies, cookies, cake, ice cream, chocolate…). Nothing beats chopped apple as an everyday-eat-it-all-the-time-run-of-the-mill-working-week-healthy pudding.

And in the evening some Snack a Jacks and a hot chocolate. And maybe some Lindt chocolate…gotta get those important antioxidants from somewhere after all!

On Friday night I finally made something I’d been meaning to make for ages. Moussaka. As you might know, I’m not a big pasta fan. And big sheets of pasta do nothing for me. So I made a pasta-less (paleo/primal??) moussaka. The terminology escapes me.

Not the greatest picture I grant you (am I always saying this?? Whoops #mustdobetter)

I followed THIS recipe, though I omitted the kale and fill as I didn’t have any and I used beef mince as I prefer it to lamb.

Basically it uses aubergine/eggplant instead of the pasta. It made three good servings (one which is currently awaiting my consumption tonight). I know the recipe says 4-6 servings but it clearly hasn’t made the Anna Adjustment whereby I am a ~~greedy~~ hungry hector and require a lot of food.

Does anyone else find that recipes say a certain number of servings and then when you make it you’re like “OK that would serve a child”, or is that just me…?

Regardless, this was a good, hearty meal. But I will warn you, it took quite a while to make. What with salting a load of sliced aubergine, rinsing, frying, then making the filling, then making the topping. It’s not an easy mid-week meal. Fiddly and lengthy. But tasty.

In terms of my running…It is getting closer to the half marathon. I was frustrated to find on my five mile run Monday morning that I had a pain in my Achilles on the last mile. I thought I had gotten over this. However, I sensibly took the next day off of running and I’m taking it very easy for the rest of the week (probably two easy 3 mile runs). And I have my last session with the phsyio on Friday where she’s going to give me a good sports massage which she claims will give me wings for the race, or at least make me feel fresh. Here’s hoping.

What are your old favourites that you keep going back to in terms of meals/snacks?

What trashy TV can’t you give up? I’m all over any reality TV. Kardashians, Made in Chelsea, The Hills, Real Housewives…I draw the line at Big Brother though.

What’s your favourite book genre? Or do you read anything and everything?

March 11, 2013

Mother’s Day and Cake

Hello! Hope you had a great weekend. We had a day of beautiful weather and then a day of freezing temperatures. But it was a really good weekend nonetheless.

On Saturday I ran my last long run before the half marathon next Sunday. It was a good run helped by the fact that it was a beautifully mild day and I went down a route that I really love. Isn’t that weird when you have a route that you get good vibes from? There are definitely certain routes I avoid purely because I don’t get good feelings about.

I like routes that head back home sooner in the run even though they might loop about before I’m actually home. It just psychologically feels like the run is almost at the end, you know?

Then after the run, I showered and had breakfast (usual oatmeal) and did some housework. Then I dared to enter ~~the jaws of hell~~ Marks and Spencer’s. On a Saturday. The day before Mother’s Day. Am I crazy??? And yes, it was MANIC. Dad’s and their kids racing about trying to get presents and flowers everywhere.

OK it doesn’t look so bad in the photo, but literally it was heaving.

I was only in there (thankfully) to pick up some nice flowers as I had everything else I needed for the mums. I wanted the flowers to be fresh for the next day, hence why I dared to go to M&S the day before.

Then I ~~escaped~~ got home and did some housework and had some lunch with Ben. I had my favourite butternut squash soup again.

I’m just so addicted at the moment. I should make big batches of it but I can never be bothered and I know I’d probably eat stupid amounts in one sitting that way rather than putting it in the freezer…Plus I quite enjoy making the soup rather than defrosting it and reheating, you know?

After lunch and walking Alfie, we finally got our act together and saw our wedding photographer to get our photos. How terrible is that considering we got married last September?? Oh well! I might upload some of the photos on the blog as a little memoir to wedding…watch this space.

And because we don’t have a Waitrose near where we live I forced Ben to go to the Waitrose near the photographer’s office so I could stock up on tinned pumpkin. Waitrose is the only place I’ve found stocks it!

I restrained myself in to buying only four. The lady behind the till thought I was mad. Hey, I don’t care!

Then we got ready to take both the mums for a nice meal out. We went to a lovely little pub/restaurant near us called the Jolly Sailor.

We chauffeured the mums so they could drink and relax.

It’s so lovely because Ben’s mum and my mum are friends and go out together anyway so it wasn’t odd having them both there for a Mother’s Day meal. it was just nice to spend the quality time with both of them simultaneously.

Both Ben and me get on really well with our own mum’s and mother-in-laws so it was such a good night out. We are so lucky to have such lovely family surrounding us!

For starters Ben and me went for a sharing platter. Well, what happened was I saw a vegetarian sharing platter that literally had everything I could dream on it and I really wanted to try it but Ben was convinced it wouldn’t come with bread and didn’t want to be overcome by so much veggie-ness so wanted to order a bread basket with it to ‘balance it out’. Fair enough. Until we saw this beast arrive:

Enough to feed an army! There were different cheeses, a falafel, a potato cake thing, hummus, guacamole, grilled vegetables, tzatziki, cauliflower salad, regular salad…and bread. And then our bread basket. Whoops.

Needless to say we were quite full after this. However, on days where I run a long run I’m always more hungry that normal (obviously, I guess) so this was a welcome dinner I have to say!

For my main I went for poussin and fries. This is an unusual choice for me as I’m not a big ‘fries’ fan. I prefer chunky chips or sweet potato fries

But you know what, this pretty much hit the spot. The fries with ketchup went down like a treat. Really yummy and exactly what I was craving. And I might have helped out Ben with his fries too. Hey, I need the carbs what can I say!

No pudding as seriously, no room at the inn. Such a good evening with the mums. I hope they enjoyed it; they definitely deserved to be treated. Speaking for myself, I am so grateful to my mum and everything she’s done for me. She’s a hardworking lady and juggled a lot of things when my sister and I were growing up to make sure we had happy, healthy childhoods so I’m very thankful for that. And I know Ben appreciates his mum just as much. Like I said, we’re both extremely lucky.

On Sunday I didn’t do a whole lot if I’m honest. My mum and dad popped round in the morning and we had coffee and I gave my mum her flowers and card. Once again, a lovely time with my family. Then in the afternoon, Ben’s mum dropped round with a little, delayed surprise for Ben… His birthday cake! As a surprise Ben’s mum and me decided to treat him to an amazing birthday cake from the same lady that made our wedding cake and Ben’s mum’s birthday cake.

It has a little Xbox on it!

How cool is that? Ben loves playing on his Xbox so this seemed like the perfect thing to put on the cake. He was very chuffed.

And it tasted so good

Lemon sponge and buttercream…ahh heaven.

Ben’s mum had to take quite a bit of the cake home with her to put in her freezer unfortunately as our freezer is just bursting with cake (as I might have mentioned before). There’s no way we could eat it all before it goes stale – I mean it’s a BEAST.

So lots of good food, great family time, and cake. That my friends is a damn good weekend in my books.

What did you do this weekend?

If you’re from the UK, what did you do for Mother’s Day?

If you could have any cake in the world for your birthday, what flavour would it be? I think mine would be fruit cake with marzipan and royal icing…or maybe just regular birthday cake style with jam and buttercream…