Well, this weekend definitely felt like it was spring. The sunshine was beautiful and warm, and there were blue skies finally! And I have my first ever giveaway (is it sad that I’m quite excited about this??) – which I will get to shortly.
On Saturday morning I got up and went for my usual long run. I was wearing my usual running jacket, long leggings and gloves and within the first few miles I realised this was going to be a fairly warm run. At least I hadn’t warn my hat! By the end I was stupidly hot, but I won’t complain!
It felt like a tough run. Normally I quite enjoy my long runs as they’re just relaxed and I enjoy listening to my podcast (normally the BBC 5 Live movie review with Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode, or Marathon Talk). But I found this run really tiring and a bit of a slog.
I wolfed down my breakfast, showered and then got on with my usual housework. Then I had a nice huge lunch as I was starving by the time I’d finished my jobs.
I made one of my favourite meals that I always keep on rotation when I have canned pumpkin (my stocks are getting dangerously low – one tin!! Panic!!). It’s creamy pumpkin chicken (but without the pineapple). Honestly, I can’t get enough of cream cheese at the moment. Philadelphia can do no wrong in my eyes.
Then Ben and I took Alfie for a lovely long walk in the glorious weather.
Unfortunately as we both stepped out of the house and the door slammed shut we looked at each other sheepishly and said “do you have keys?”…to which neither of us did. Whoops. So our lovely long walk was indeed lovely but a little bit more long than originally intended as we had to wait for my mum to drive round with our spare key! We were very grateful!
Sunday I had to get myself into gear and get some food made for my sister’s baby shower which was later in the day. As I mentioned a few posts ago, my sister had a beautiful baby girl the other week, called Megan. But she was 6 weeks premature so very unexpected! She’s all well and lovely thankfully, if a little small (dinky I like to say). Anyway, the baby shower was obviously planned ages ago when we thought Rachel would still be pregnant. However now little Megan could join in the fun too.
For the food, I made a few things and also bought some nibbles, like crisps and sausage rolls.
I wanted to keep things fairly simple and easy for myself, so I made hummus.
Hummus (based on THIS recipe)
- One tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 150g tahini paste
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 2 tsp. paprika
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 2 large garlic gloves, diced
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- A good pinch of salt
I basically whizzed up the chickpeas using my hand blender with a few tablespoons of water to begin with and then added the lemon juice. I whizzed again and then added all the other ingredients in. Simple as that really!
I peeled and cut up some carrots and took breadsticks with me for dunking.
I also made a large batch of coronation chicken.
Lime and Mango Coronation Chicken (based on THIS recipe)
- 1 cooked chicken (about 1.5kg)
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- ¼ tsp. ground turmeric
- 1 tbsp. curry powder
- 200ml Greek yogurt (I used 0% fat but any would do nicely I think)
- 150ml mayonnaise (again I used light)
- Grated zest of 1 lime and juice of ½
- 2 tbsp. mango chutney
- 1 small ripe mango, cut into chunks
- 25g toasted flaked almonds
I removed and discard the skin from the chicken and then basically pulled the meat from the chicken using my hands which I put into a large dish. [The entire time I did this Alfie sat at my feet and didn’t take his eyes of me]
I then dry-fried the cumin, turmeric and curry powder on a low-heat to ‘release the fragrance’ of the spices.
Then put the yogurt, mayo, lime zest and juice, and chutney into a small bowl and mix, then add the spices. Add this to the chicken and mix in well. Then add the chopped mango and almonds. I didn’t have any fresh coriander, but I sprinkled dried coriander on at the end to add some oomph.
It was very creamy, fragrant and tasty. As I had made stupid amounts I was able to take some home with me after the shower and Ben and me had that for dinner as well. Yum.
I also made a very simple couscous salad which was basically couscous, herbs, and roasted vegetables. I added in a spoonful of harrissa paste, lemon juice and garlic as well to liven things up.
The baby shower was lots of fun. There was a quiz (of which my team did not win, boo!) and a ‘guess what’s in the nappy’ game. There is something quite wrong about seeing mango chutney and marmite in a nappy. It ain’t pretty.
But the best part by far (OK maybe after Laura, my sister’s sister-in-law’s AMAZING cupcakes) was holding Megan. She was so beautiful, soft, warm and lovely.
Literally a bundle of joy.
But after hearing all the different birth stories from the different mums and watching one small child, Leah, eat a chocolate cupcake…I wasn’t quite convinced about having kids just yet!!
A very proud nana!
[Apologies for the terribly dark photo] This was Rachel feeding Megan.
As I said above, Laura (who occasionally reads my blog – hello!), made some extremely tasty cupcakes. Usually I’m not a big fan of chocolate cake but these were heavenly.
I only managed a bit of a skewwhiff photo as I didn’t want to look like a weirdo taking photos of my food but check out how good that cake looks! I’ll need to get the recipe I think 
It was so lovely to spend the time with Rachel, friends, my mum and, of course, Megan.
After getting home I was shattered. I felt like the weekend was a bit non-stop. I did have a meal planned but in all honesty I couldn’t be bothered so Ben and I had leftovers.
Coronation chicken, couscous and salad. Perfect.
Now… time for my first ever giveaway!
SlimKicker recently contacted me asking if I would host a giveaway for the blog and of course I thought this would be very exciting. I haven’t had a giveaway before!
Baiscally SlimKicker is an online calorie tracker where you can track your workouts, exercises and calories. It’s a great way to stay accountable because you can enter diet and fitness challenges with others and “check-in” to report on how you’re doing.
And if you’re looking for recipes, SlimKicker has a bunch of them for many diets such as Dukan Diet.
So if you needed that boost to keep yourself on track with whatever goal you have in mind, it’s a great way to stay organised and stay motivated.
And the giveaway prize that SlimKicker have kindly offered is a Hamilton Beach Powder Elite Multi-Function Blender!
For all your smoothie and milkshake needs! Especially with summer coming around the corner as well (apparently…).
To enter the giveaway, you need to leave a comment with what your fitness or health challenge idea would be. For example, “do 20 squats a day” or “do a 1 minute plank every day”. SlimKicker will then pick the best one after 1 week, and use it on their site!
So Monday 15th I will announce the winner that SlimKicker have chosen and they will ship you the blender!
**Unfortunately I can only limit this to USA residents though due to shipping costs. Apologies to my non-US readers!!**
Have a great start to the week everyone
