Recipe - AnnaTheApple

November 14, 2012

Caprese Chicken – WIAW

Hi guys, hope you’re week is going well. It’s official. It’s cold. The heating has been put on at home. It had to be done. We held out as long as we could.

Aren’t the weeks are flying by?! I have less than four weeks left working on the customer site so can then go back to a more reasonable commute. It’s not too bad as I drive in with my dad (yes I work with him, yes he sometimes drives me mad) and we listen to podcasts (love the movie review ones). Any recommendations for podcasts are welcome I want to find a good health and fitness one but haven’t found anything I like yet.

So it’s WIAW as per usual. Thank you Jenn – check out her blog to catch all the other blogs involved and of course her own blog which always has some great recipes on.

This is what I ate Sunday.

Breakfast: I didn’t have pancakes (*sob*)…as I couldn’t be bothered and fancied porridge – but slightly different (I stress the word slightly here as I struggle with change…baby steps!) I had my usual oats cooked with almond milk but I added a heaped tbsp. of unsweetened coconut.

It adds a lovely coconut taste to it. I sprinkled some more coconut on it after it was done. It was a great change (OK fair enough, not massive but, like I said, small steps).

Yum. I’m really not keen on sweet porridge (sacre bleu I know) so it’s hard to find ways to jazz up porridge in a savoury-ish way, if that makes sense.

We didn’t do much on Sunday to be honest. Just the usual cleaning of the bathrooms, ironing and hoovering. We watched some Grey’s Anatomy as well. If you’ve never seen it then I can’t stress enough how much I love this programme. We watched the last two episodes of Season 6 and it was AMAZING. Literally Ben and I just sat there gripped. Even Alfie was gripped. OK that’s a lie, Alfie was asleep. But I’m sure he would have been gripped if he’s been paying attention.

Lunch: a fairly standard meal. A three egg omelette with half a tin of tuna and some fried veggies, with Brussels Sprouts of course.

One of my favourite easy meals. Not as good as Saturday’s omelette obviously, but I can’t eat that all the time…somehow I don’t think it’s that good for me!

Dinner: I was at a bit of a loose end for exciting recipes this week but I decided to try making my own Caprese chicken. It’s a very simple meal but I’ve written the recipe below anyway.

Caprese Chicken (serves 2)

1 tbsp. oil

2 chicken breast fillets

4 large tomatoes, sliced

1 large ball of mozzarella, sliced

Bunch of fresh basil leaves

Lemon juice

Season the chicken and then heat the oil in a frying pan and add the chicken. After golden on both sides and cooked through, put on a plate. Then just pile the tomato slices, mozzarella and basil leaves on top. Season and squeeze the lemon over.

It’s a very easy recipe (as you can see) but it was delicious. I loved the simple and fresh flavours.

Alongside this I made my cauliflower mash potato with some cheese thrown in and had some roasted root vegetables. I really enjoyed this.

Snack: obviously my usual ~~million~~ apples, a banana and some Snack a Jacks. And I’ve been enjoying some Greek yogurt for a change.

Total Greek Yogurt is my favourite brand for Greek yogurt. I love this side pot of honey! Scrummy.

I also dabbled in a bit of baking on Sunday. I decided to try THIS recipe. Don’t get me wrong, I love big fat unhealthy cookies, but I saw this healthified recipe, had the ingredients to hand and thought might as well give it a try.

I just decided to make four larger cookies, rather than 16 tiny bites. They’re quite crumbly and fall apart fairly easily, but they’re not bad! Ben enjoyed them – and that, people, is the deciding vote.

Fitness: just my usual really. I ran Tuesday morning as I was meant to run Monday at work but it was tipping it down. I avoid washing my hair at work as it takes forever to a) wash b) comb, and c) dry. I tend to just tidy it up a bit and carry on. However, rain is a game changer. Rain = Anna looks like a drowned witch at work. So I thought it best to avoid, for everyone’s benefit really. I did enjoy the morning run though.

And managed a good time so I was chuffed. Usually it’s easier to get a good time during the day rather than the morning so I was pleased. I just need to get myself back into longer distances soon…my half-marathon training will start late December and I just know it’s going to be a shock to the system.

My strength training is still going well. I feel that it’s getting easier so it should be soon time to change things up again…The worst routine is the lower body workout though. I hate lunges. I like strength training because it really does shape my body nicely, whereas running has never really done that to a great extent. But it’s deadly dull, isn’t it? At least with running you can look around or zone out. Using weights is just so damn repetitive and boring. Just my personal observation!

I also can’t wait for the Pilates class to begin – two weeks time!

And here’s what I’m wearing today:

I really like this top, I got it in American Eagle when I was in America. I LOVE that shop. I bought a ridiculous amount of clothes from there. And blazer is from New Look, and jeans from Top Shop.

Not much else to report really. I’m feeling a bit boring lately, sorry!

How’s Wednesday treating you?

Oatmeal/porridge – does it always have to be sweet for you?

November 4, 2012

No-plans weekend

Hi guys, hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! I’ve had a great weekend of pretty much doing nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I do love weekends where you go out shopping, or see your friends or do something crazy. But I also thoroughly enjoy doing absolutely nothing. Ben and I got the boring jobs done Saturday morning and then pretty much just chilled. I got some nagging tasks done that had been bothering me for ages (like cleaning the kitchen floor – we have the world’s smallest kitchen so it’s not a big job but still). We also saw both mums (an essential task that apparently can’t be left for long stretches of time…)

I mentioned in my last post that I had been planning a long run for this weekend but…it didn’t happen. Ben and I both did go running Saturday morning but when I started I just wasn’t feeling it. It was a struggle. So I just stuck with a quick sprinting two miles and called it a day.

Not too shabby. Ben really enjoyed his run (this is Big News, people) and said he wanted to go again on Sunday [I love it when Ben enjoys running = happy Anna]. So I thought why not as I hadn’t done the big run I’d planned. And because we’re a boring married couple now and were tucked up asleep by 10.30pm it was easy to get up early and run.

Shaved some time off as well! I’m happy with that

No Pilates this weekend unfortunately. My one-to-ones are over and I need to wait for the classes to begin…in 3 weeks! Boooo.

On a plus note, this weekend was filled with some good food. I’ve had a recipe for coq au vin sat in my diary for ages. I finally bought the ingredients and then kept putting it off. Neither of us fancied it and it seemed a lot of effort. But I had eight shallots sat in my kitchen that wouldn’t be used and I hate wasting food…I mean seriously, I’ve never bought shallots in my life. What do people do with them?

So I made coq au vin. Actually Ben was quite up for it after I told him there would be a glass of red wine in it. Suddenly he was all keen *rolls eyes*.

Coq au Vin – serves 2 (The recipe’s from Zest magazine which I’d torn out)

1 tsp. oil

2 skinless chicken breasts, seasoned

1 rash lean back bacon, diced

10 button mushrooms

8 shallots, peeled

1 large carrot, roughly chipped

1 cove of garlic, chopped

1 tbsp. plain flour

1 tbsp. tomato purée

300ml red win

150ml chicken stock

1 bay leaf

Leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme

– Heat oven to 180 degrees C. In a casserole dish, heat the oil and brown the chicken on each side. Take out of the pan and set aside.

– Sauté the bacon for 2-3min until browned. Add mushrooms, shallots and carrots and put on the lid and reduce the heat. Sweat for 10 mins, occasionally shaking to stop veg sticking. Add in the garlic at the last minute.

– Stir in the flour and the tomato purée and cook for 1 min, stirring. Gradually add the wine, and then add the stock and stir to prevent lumps. Add the bay leaf and thyme and seasoning. Return chicken to the pan and put the lid on and put in the oven for an hour, stirring halfway.

Apparently this is about 390 calories Zest tells me. Not bad for what was a hearty, rich meal. I served mine with Brussels sprouts. Ben had garlic bread.

Very pleased with this! It was so yummy. The sauce was divine. OK it took an hour in the oven which was a pain but while that was cooking away I got on with other stuff and wasn’t tied to the kitchen. Excellent for the weekend!

Only downside was a brief appearance of the clumsy idiot that is Anna. We don’t have a casserole dish so I decided to risk it for a biscuit (or chicken in red wine) and put my actual saucepan in the oven. This was fine. It worked brilliantly. I took it out of the oven and told Ben approximately five times “DO NOT TOUCH THIS PAN IT IS STUPIDLY HOT”. So what does Anna then go and do? She grabs the metal handle of said pan which has been out of the oven, oh I don’t know, 10 seconds. Cue Anna screaming blue murder and then standing with her hand in freezing cold water for the next five minutes. Yes I am that much of an idiot. So I’m sat here typing away but I have to stop every two sentences to hold an ice cold Coke can to soothe my still very painful hand. The things I do for food…

Was it worth it? Of course it was

What have you gotten up to this weekend?

Do you have a clumsy streak like me?

November 2, 2012

Pumpkin oatmeal spice cookies

Wow the week has gone quickly. I must say this all the time but seriously. This week has been fairly tough. We’re working on the customer site at the moment and this adds an extra 30 mins on to my already one hour commute. And it’s half term at the moment which means traffic is amazing. Next week is just going to be terrible. I’m here for another five weeks!!

Right, moan over. As I said in my last post I had meant to post on Monday but it just didn’t happen. Sleep was chosen instead. Sorry I’m not sorry.

I wanted to do a quick mention of the mammoth task that was cooking my pumpkin. I was devastated when I’d used up my one and only tin of pumpkin puree that I’d got from America on my honeymoon. I almost bought ~~a million~~ a few more tins but decided I should try making my own.

OK I realise pumpkin might be a bit old news now as Halloween is over and October is finished but this was quite an arduous process and I just want to at least document it as, honestly, a fair amount of effort went into it and I’m chuffed at my achievement (yes, achievement). I followed THESE instructions. In the end I got a hefty amount of pumpkin puree, and I saved a quarter for roasting, and got a handful of pumpkin seeds. Fabulous. Stocked up for a few years at least!

So I’ve been using pumpkin everywhere as you can imagine. I wanted to make some relatively healthy pumpkin cookies for Halloween and this recipe was really quite easy.

Pumpkin oatmeal spice cookies (recipe adapted from HERE)

1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour (you could use whole wheat here I guess but I only had normal white flour)
3 cups of rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar (I actually subbed this for Stevia and went on taste just to make it a bit healthier)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

– Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

– Combine pumpkin, eggs and vanilla until well combined. In a separate bowl, add flour, oats, sugar/Stevia, baking powder, baking soda and spices. Combine wet and dry ingredients until mixed. The dough is very thick and fairly dry, I added a few splashes of almond milk.

– Drop onto a greased baking sheet. I did 18 fairly chunky cookies, though you could easily make them smaller to make more. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned.

They were crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. Lovely! You could probably add chocolate chips or nuts in there as well but I wanted to keep things simple.

I also threw some roasted pumpkin to a feta salad. This was great. I love salads with hot ingredients.

And I added pumpkin puree to porridge:

I’ve got to say, I didn’t notice any difference apart from it being slightly more creamy. I’m a big fan of more stodgy porridge/oatmeal so this didn’t blow me away if I’m honest. But some extra nutrients in the morning is always good I guess!

This weekend we have nothing planned. Hurrah! So I’m hoping to get a long run in tomorrow morning (we’ll see) and the usual chores. We’re loving Grey’s Anatomy (season 6) at the moment so Saturday night will probably be a fair few episodes of that with maybe a cheeky gin & tonic. Bliss.

What are you up to this weekend?

Have you gotten over the pumpkin craze or is still living strong?

October 31, 2012

Murder mystery, skiing and good food – WIAW

Hello! Refreshed from the weekend and ready to go? Yep me neither. I’m manically busy at work and wanted to do a post on Monday but time just disappeared…

This weekend was good fun. I went to Pilates on Saturday morning again. It was once again brilliant. It’s tough but in a completely different way, you know? I tried out the Hundred move this week so I was chuffed as that’s the only Pilates move I’d heard of! And it was tough. I think I struggle mostly with the technical aspects of inhaling/exhaling at the appropriate moments and making sure my spine is where it should be while tensing my stomach…It hurts my muscles and my head!

I decided to run there as it’s only 1.5 miles away. Well, it’s only 1.5 miles if you don’t get lost that is. I thought I was being all cunning by taking a short-cut. I was so sure of where I would end up after going down this long, long road. Only to find I’d added another mile on to my journey! It meant my lovely leisurely paced run turned into a fast dash as I was in danger of being late. Whoops.

On Saturday evening we went round our friend’s house for a murder mystery evening. It was brilliant. Everyone got into their character that they’d been set and we just had such a good laugh. It was a 1920s theme which was brilliant.

All the girls in their flapper dresses and all the guys in there suspenders and hats.

I wasn’t the murderer but I guessed correctly

Then on Sunday Ben and I went skiing at our local dry sky-slope with some friends.

I was nervous as I haven’t been for a year and I’m still very much a beginner. I can snow plough and that’s pretty much it. But we’re kicking it off again as we’re planning on going skiing next year so I need to be able to not fall over all the time (I’ve never actually been properly skiing before!)

It was great fun as I’m beginning to learn parallel turns. OK not very well but I’m getting there! And I didn’t fall over which, considering I’m the most clumsy person known to man, is a great accomplishment.

So it’s the last WIAW for October. Thank you Jenn for hosting (check out her blog for more information). This is my what I ate Sunday as it’s probably my most exciting eats.

Breakfast: Sundays are pancakes day. It just seems like such a perfect day to spend that extra effort into creating something that is quite magical.

Pumpkin pancakes! I know, I know, how original. Almost getting as boring as my green porridge… But I made my own pumpkin puree from a mammoth of a pumpkin so I’m really chuffed with these (on a slightly related note – I now have so much pumpkin I’m set for the next few years! Ben thinks I’m ~~more~~ crazy).

It was amazing. I used 3 tbs rolled oats, 1 heaped tbs of wholemeal flour, 1/2 cup of egg whites, 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp pumpkin spice, few drops of Stevia. I got three chunky pancakes out of that. Then some peanut butter thrown on top.

Lunch: after skiing we were famished and wanted to grab something quick. So I made a three egg omelette with more peanut butter inside. And some avocado alongside.

OK it does look like the omelette and avocado aren’t speaking at the moment. Maybe a smaller plate would have been better… Regardless though I love this. Why haven’t I ever had this combination before? The avocado addition I could take or leave to be honest but the omelette itself was so good. And very filling. A nice change from my usual tuna omelette.

Dinner: as you know, I love my salads. They rock my world. And this was a new combination.

My usual salad of leaves, cucumber, beets but with some fabulous added extras. I added some roasted pumpkin (like I said, I have so much pumpkin at the moment it’s laughable). I also finely chopped some red onion, sliced cherry tomatoes and pomegranate seeds and mixed them with diced garlic and lemon juice. Then I topped it all with a chunk of grilled halloumi. I’m new to this cheese and though it’s verrrry rubbery it really is very tasty. The sweet (pomegranate, tomatoes) and salty (cheese) of this salad were perfect.

Oh and I sprinkled some pumpkin seeds on top too. Mega variety salad. Definitely going to happen again some time!

Snacks: Completely out of the ordinary, I did some baking on Monday night. Usually anything I bake turns out rubbish or looks nothing like the recipe picture. In some shape or form I do something wrong. I’m better at throwing things together randomly rather than accurately following a recipe…HOWEVER! These cookies turned out exactly like the photo.

Pumpkin cookies! [OK yes I might have a bit of an obsession. It’ll pass one I’ve gotten through my twenty container-fulls of pumpkin puree.] I’ll post the recipe soon! The cookies are for any trick or treaters who come knocking tonight. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. Fingers crossed no one will knock…

Fitness: Obviously Pilates on Saturday. And I’ve been sticking to my new strength routine which has been really good but quite tough. I did the upper body routine on Thursday and the lower body on Friday and basically woke up feeling verrry achy on Saturday morning. Perfect for Pilates…whoops. And I’ve been running three times a week as usual. I’m enjoying running at lunchtimes far more than dragging myself out of bed in the morning. Though it’s harder to motivate myself when my lunch is sat there waiting for me…but no quitting yet! And it feels great coming back into the office after a run. I don’t feel the afternoon dip.

And here’s my outfit of the day:

Scarf from mum, jeans from Top Shop, top from Dorothy Perkins, necklace from Mango.

That’s all from me! Hope you’re having a great Wednesday.

How are you celebrating Halloween? Any scary treats to enjoy?

Have you been skiing before?

August 29, 2012

WIAW #5

Wow I can’t believe this is my fifth What I Ate Wednesday. My blog is only in its infancy and I’m still learning and working on it to make it better, but I’m proud of what I’ve done so far. It’s got a long way to go I know but I’m happy. It’s just so great to have somewhere to put the random stuff in my head! It’s very cathartic.

I love being involved in WIAW as well because you definitely feel a sense of community and it’s great to see what other blogs are out there. So thank you Jenn (over at Peas and Crayons)! I’m still grasping desperately to summer with my summery salads and fresh flavours. Just want to hold out a little bit longer!!

On that note of summery yumminess, I had some fun over the weekend making these really tasty pancakes. I just kept reading about pancakes everywhere and thought as a Sunday treat I’d whip up a batch of them:

I used this recipe but missed out the cinnamon (not a big fan) and then drizzled PB2 mixed with water as a sauce and served with blackberries. I managed to get three quite chunky pancakes out of this mixture. Honestly, they were to die for!

Really spongy and filling. Basically I wanted a really filling pancake that didn’t contain protein powder as I don’t have protein powder!

Lunch time I tried my hand at making falafels. I had them in salad with some chicken fried with tagine paste. They didn’t turn out amazingly I must admit. They were a bit crumbly.

However, they tasted GREAT. I’m all about chickpeas at the moment. So yummy. Really went well with the tagine spices as well.

Dinner from Monday night was AMAZING.

I coated a chicken breast in chickpea flour with paprika and cumin and then fried it in a little oil. Alongside this I made roasted veggies with a sliced peach and crumbled goat’s cheese. Holy yum! (Yay my first holy yum! Sorry, novice moment…). This was epic. Just everything about it. I’m really enjoying peaches at the moment as well. They’re so great in smoothies, salads, grilled, baked…just as a snack. A bit more messy than apples but very juicy and yummy.

Snack-wise I’ve been enjoying beasty portions of honeydew melon:

And as a bank holiday treat on Monday night, I was very naughty….

I ate A LOT of this. It was so good. And not that bad really…erm…well, it’s not Ben and Jerry’s! I love this product and all it stands for. Fairly natural (gluten free, soya free, dairy free) and her story behind it it’s really sweet (no pun intended…sorry that was lame). Well, I enjoyed my scoffing session and life’s all about a balance! Can’t be good all the time

So all in all a very pleasing WIAW if I do say so myself.

Here’s what I’m wearing today:

The top’s from Oasis, jeans are from Top Shop, the gladiator sandals are from Aldo and the necklace is from Forever 21 (I think!).

In terms of fitness, as I mentioned last post, I’m enjoying my change in running. I’m not running more than 3 miles and always following it with a strength training routine. Whether that be an arm workout, a leg workout, abs or full body. I feel really invigorated with mixing it up like this. Definitely keeps me interested! I also don’t dread working out like I used to. Waking up and thinking “I’m running 2 miles or 3 miles” is a lot easier to digest than “I’m running 5 miles”, you know? I just need to think about nutrition a bit more – I’m trying to get my head around whether I should be ramping up my protein intake and when I should be eating carbs…it’s too complicated!!

Hope you all have a great WIAW! I look forward to sneaking a look through my lunch break/random times during work (shhh!)