WIAW - AnnaTheApple

June 5, 2013

You can never have too many puddings…

I don’t know about you but this week is dragging. But it’s finally mid-week. On a side not, embarrassingly, it has taken me ages to get why people say “happy hump day” on a Wednesday. Yep, I’m that slow. (Pssst, if you didn’t know too it’s because you’re over the ‘hump’ of the week!)

And being Wednesday I’m back in the game for What I Ate Wednesday.

Thanks, Jenn, for hosting as ever.

This is food is from Sunday – aka 5 mile race day (recap still to come!)

Breakfast – what a surprise I know. If you’ve been a long-time reader you know this is fairly standard stuff. And on race day it isn’t going to change!

Oatmeal and unsweetened almond milk

I had this before 8am, the race started at 10.30am so enough time to digest adequately! And perfect fuelage for the race.

And to make things interesting, here’s what Ben ate:

He wanted to share as he felt his breakfast was up to healthy standards for once He went for oatmeal with cow’s milk, dried fruit and a chopped banana. Notably absent was any added sugar!

After the race, hanging about chatting to people and getting home, we were famished! So we straight away had lunch.

This is re-used photo as I forgot to snap it before the hunger beast took over

I had one of my favourite quick meals. Chicken, random veggies and half a tin of pumpkin puree with cream cheese. I know it looks pretty grim there, but seriously this is heavenly.

Sunday was a great day of snacking as well… I might have had another one of these my granddad had left with us:

Meringue with dark chocolate and strawberry on top

And dinner was another repeat offender but one we hadn’t had in a while.

Beef meatballs. Mine is on the left and Ben’s is on the right. If he can put cheese on something, he will. I love this meal. I am still loving beef mince.

And pudding…well pudding was fantastic.

This was a slice of raspberry sponge cake that I got at the end of the 5 mile race. No medals, but a choice of cakes! That’s my kinda running. I didn’t eat it straight after the run as I just didn’t fancy cake straight away (food immediately after running just doesn’t go well in my stomach, plus I wanted to savour it later with a hot drink), so I had it after dinner with a hot chocolate. And I reaaaally enjoyed it.

Er…I might have nabbed another slice of cake as well at the race. I twinkled my eyes and gave my best smile to wrangle another slice of cake… Absolute lie, I offered cold hard cash. All of 50 pence to be exact

Slice of banana bread (infected a little with the raspberry sponge)

Unfortunately I had to share this slice with Ben. *Sighs* I do hate being married. Totally joking

An honourable mention this week is the appearance of one of our favourite salads.

Grilled halloumi (or fairly well done halloumi, whoops) with a whole host of veggies and roasted butternut squash. Divine.

As you can, I love my balance. On the one side I’m a huge fan of salads, fresh vegetables, home-cooked meals, and obviously my beloved and ever-present apples. But on the other side, I will always have my cake. Cake is my indulgence. Cake is my weakness. I need it every week to feel 100% Anna and 100% happy. It’s my soul food. I like to give my body good foods and good fuel to keep it healthy and happy. But for my soul, my mind, my spirit – whatever you want to call it – I need cake. My happy food. Don’t get m wrong I don’t have it every day (seriously, who can afford cake every day?) but it definitely makes a routine appearance every week. Whether I’m curled up on the sofa watching a film on a Saturday night, or sat in a cafe having a chinwag with my mum, or munching on something a co-worker has brought in to the office, I will have my cake. And it is always eaten

Just don’t get me to choose between cake and apples. It can’t be done.

What is your soul food? It doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘naughty’! I would class apples as my soul food too. Basically it’s the food I always look forward to eating, always enjoy eating, it never gets old, and always makes me a happy happy Anna.

What are your repeat offender meals? Halloumi salads are a winner in our house, but meatballs are more of a weekend food as they take a bit longer to throw together,

What’s your ideal pre-race/workout fuel? Oatmeal has always worked (race or no race). Ben will always have a banana but sometimes will leave it at that or have something bigger.

May 22, 2013

What I Ate at the Weekend

Hi lovely people! Thanks for your nice comments regarding my last post. I really do worry too much about the most stupid things, don’t I? In the great scheme of things, it just doesn’t matter!

And it’s WIAW already. Unbelievable. Check out Jenn’s blog Peas and Crayons to get involved or just for a nosey about.

Here’s some bits and pieces of what I ate over the weekend.

Breakfast (*sighs* fat lot of good that did me on Saturday…) was my standard oatmeal and almond milk:

I had this both Saturday morning and Sunday.

Saturday and Sunday lunch were exactly the same as for some reason we had an overload of eggs in the house. I personally blame the husband for he did the food shop…

Saturday, I made kind of a frittata/omelette.

I used tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, onions and three eggs and then big blobs of cream cheese. With this I had Brussels, a bit of lettuce and beets.

On Sunday Ben and me had to rush back after our 10k race and eat lunch super fast to go out and meet our friends. So this happened:

Not nearly as pretty. It sort of failed – flopped if you will. But the taste was absolutely fine. That’s all that matters…right??

We had a great afternoon then hanging out with my friends at a local country park where there was a farm you could look around.

We had a lovely time waking round looking at all the animals. And we saw a sheep being sheered as well. The sheep was seriously not happy. To be fair, nor would I be. It’s not that warm at the moment…And it looked naked afterwards!

And we saw some ducklings and chicks. One of them we named the Smurf Chick because it was blue!! Apparently its dye marking had run a bit. Awww.

We even got to try milking a cow! The farmer said we could try our hands at milking Buttercup the cow, who I must say was very accommodating. Then they got the machine and showed us how they machine milk a cow.

Buttercup can produce 40 pints a day. Jeeze. The farm can’t sell the milk as it hasn’t been pasteurised (so it’s raw milk) and you need a special licence. The staff there can drink it and use it themselves but they can’t let anyone else try it or have any. The farm try and use as much as they can with making cheese, cream and lots of puddings during their lunch and dinner breaks and also feeding other animals but unfortunately a lot has to be wasted. Such a shame.

Dinner on Saturday night was two tortilla pizzas:

Times by two

Lots of veggies, chicken and BBQ sauce and a bit of goat’s cheese. Perfect. I’m all about the toppings for pizza. We were going to buy some make-your-pizzas from Sainsbury’s (as is our post-race standard dinner) but we were so busy we never got to the shop so we had to make do with a proper DIY version. Still good in my book!

Dinner on Sunday was a meal out with the friends after the farm visit. We went to our local Harvester. Though the Harvester chain isn’t going to win any awards any time soon for inventive cooking or fine dining, it was pretty good for an inexpensive relaxed meal.

And an all you can eat salad bar?? Amazing. And when I ordered a Diet Coke the barmaid then pointed to the refill machine and I, embarrassingly, got overly excited by this prospect – free refills?? It’s been a while…I was significantly caffeined up that evening

As soon as I saw BBQ ribs on the menu I was set.

And alongside this there was a corn on the cob. Yum!! We had such a laugh with our friends it was a great end to the weekend.

Ben and I were shattered when we got home. Such a busy weekend of running, fun times and good food. Just the way I like it!

For me weekends are all about enjoying good food. I quite like going out for dinner or lunch one day (though we don’t always manage it). I also like to spend the time on a Saturday night making a good recipe that I wouldn’t get the chance to make during the busy week because it takes a bit longer. Weekends are also about enjoying some less healthy snacks, like slices of cake, a good pudding or ice cream. Don’t get me wrong, these things can appear during the week but it’s not always possible and it’s nice to really appreciate it when watching a good film or spending some fun times with your friends.

Do you eat differently at the weekend?

Raw milk: would you ever try it? I was disappointed we didn’t get to try it but understood the reasoning behind. From what the man said to us, it sounded like it was quite heavy and creamy.

What’s your favourite meal? I think BBQ ribs are definitely one of my favourites.

What’s your favourite way to eat eggs? I do like fried eggs but as a meal I like omelettes or scrambled egg with loads of added extras. I’m all about variety!

May 8, 2013

What I ate Sunday

How quickly is this week going? It helps having had Monday off I know…

The sun has still been shining which is crazy. In fact, I’m not sure I should even type it as I don’t want to jinx it. Let’s prepare for rain. Or snow. Who knows! Funny side story, my parents just got back from Barbados all brown and tanned (there’s no bitterness in my voice, is there…?) and then my mum sits in the garden for an afternoon in Britain and gets absolutely fried because she didn’t put suntan lotion on. Oh the irony.

I thought this week I’d do What I ate ~~Wednesday~~ Sunday as it was pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself.

Thanks to Jenn as always for hosting this party. Let’s get started then!

Breakfast was something a little bit crazy for me. I tried quinoa oatmeal.

I’m not going to lie, this will never replace normal oatmeal. It was alright but nothing amazing. Quite a nutty taste. OK I probably could have put something more than just almond milk in it but I’m used to just plain oats so I was all at odds with what to do. I’m not good with change, people.

Lunch however was a show-stopper. I was inspired by Sara’s recipe HERE which I just had to make at the nearest opportunity as it sounded so good.

Mine doesn’t look nearly as good but it tasted AMAING. Ben looked aghast at what I was making (“goat’s cheese….and strawberries…in an omelette???”)

I made the strawberry sauce as per Sara’s instructions, using a little bit of Stevia and organic strawberries, microwaving them up to get them all jammy and amazing.

Absolutely heavenly.

This has been happening a lot around these parts as well. Thrown in the microwave in a hardy container, then sprayed with Fry Light and coated with salt. Cannot. Get. Enough.

Dinner was two tortilla pizzas. Yes two, I am a pig. No judgement please.

Can I just say that when lunch requires two dinner place mats you know it’s going to be good.

I used wholemeal tortillas, covered them with a home-made tomato sauce using half a tin of chopped tomatoes and a load of Italian herbs. I then covered it with a whole load of veggies (onion, zucchini, mushrooms), chopped chicken and blobs of cream cheese. And BBQ sauce. Just because Then oven-cooked them for like 12mins.

So good.

An honourable mention also needs to go to Monday night’s dinner. Strawberries, quinoa with a tablespoon of honey mixed in, and feta on salad.

Salty, sweet…deeelicious.

And Ben even enjoyed this. In fact, if I remember correctly he said “can we have this again?” Jackpot!

And my outfit featuring two items from my shopping adventure:

Apologies for the concentrated look on my face…there’s no non-awkward way to take a selfie

Top from Warehouse (new!), jeans from Top Shop, wedges from Dorothy Perkins (new!). Absolute school girl error though in wearing my new shoes to work and then walking to the shops at lunch in them. Stupid. Now I have two big old blisters.

What’s the best thing you ate today? I think mine was popcorn as part of my lunch at work…see, I’m addicted.

What’s your favourite pizza (or tortilla pizza) topping? Mine is BBQ chicken with loads of veg.

Does your partner eat the same food as you? My hubby will normally eat what I eat but if it sounds ‘too healthy’ he will opt out and have something more “manly’”, like cheesy pasta. He avoids sweet potato like the plague, it’s heart-breaking.

May 1, 2013

Hello May!

Hi guys, we made it to Wednesday and May amazingly enough! Actually this week hasn’t been that much of a drag for me. The sun has been shining and work has been good. Aaaaaaand we booked a holiday! I am so excited about this. We are going to…*drum roll* Mexico! We’re heading for 10 days all-inclusive to a resort in Playacar for September of this year to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. I’ve never been to an all-inclusive so this is rather exciting for me.

Usually I’m not a beach fan as I get bored. There’s only so much lounging around I can do. But with this resort they have loads of planned activities, sight-seeing opportunities and water sports. It’s a compromise between Ben and me as Ben likes holidays where he does nothing (bless him he could have two weeks off just playing the Xbox I imagine) but I need something to do. So this works out well!

Right, enough of that. It’s time for What I ate Wednesday.

Thanks Jenn!

Soo this is what I had yesterday.

Breakfast has been the usual business. Oatmeal, almond milk. Fabulously filling though, yes, predictable….

Boring maybe, delicious definitely.

Lunch has been my usual salad. With tuna and lots of veggies.

Next I had popcorn, which I currently have a huge obsession for at the moment.

I prefer it salted for lunch, though I do love sweet popcorn too. Or a mixture…yum.

And then for afters (do people still say that??) I had Greek yogurt with organic strawberries. Oooh err.

I thought I’d go crazy and push the boat out and have some organic strawberries as they weren’t that much more expensive than the normal ones (and, if you caught one of my previous posts, I’ve been doing some thinking about organic). It’s crazy that alongside the British strawberries you can buy Spanish ones cheaper. What a way to make people buy locally sourced! Ha. Come on, Britain, get behind your farmers.

An honourable mention needs to be made to lunch on Sunday though as it rocked my world.

Roast chicken, roasted butternut squash and broad beans…with of course:

BBQ sauce! I didn’t actually use any of the apple and fig chutney as the BBQ sauce stole my heart. Though the chutney has been a star in many salads. Both are keepers. Yum.

Work snackages have been in the form of my Graze boxes…

In the box I got mini banana cake with an ‘afternoon infusion’ teabag, some pretzelly things, crackers with a salsa dip and some Japanese crackers. Fabulously tasty.

Dinner last night was a new-to-me recipe. I was inspired by Jess’s recipe HERE.

I really enjoyed these stuffed peppers. I filled them with lean beef mince cooked in chopped tomatoes, herbs and some crumbled beef stock cubes. I ten added a big tablespoon of cream cheese just because

Then I popped the mince in the peppers and oven cooked them for about 15 mins. I love this photo of the peppers in the oven. Bless Alfie for photo bombing.

I popped the peppers in a muffin tray to make sure they didn’t fall over and it worked well! Ben and I had two of these bad boys each.

I had mine with broad beans. Really enjoyed this meal.

Evening snackages come in the form of some chocolate that really needed eating (doesn’t it all…?)

These were from a box of truffles that we’ve had loafing around for ages. I’m forcing myself to use up all our chocolate supplies before allowing myself to buy any more (specifically Lindt). Otherwise we just get backlogged with chocolate we’re not going to eat because there’s always the better Lindt option. *sighs* It’s a hard life I know

I snack on other stuff during the day (fruit & Snack a Jacks) but it’s all fairly standard and boring!

Fitness-wise, it’s been my standard running. Last week I managed to get my mileage up to 32.5miles!

Monday: 6 miles tempo
Tuesday: 3 miles interval
Wednesday: 5.5 miles no particular goal
Thursday: 8 mile with the running club
Friday: rest
Saturday: 10 mile long run
Sunday: rest

I’ve been loving it! My body seems to be copying well, no twinges, no aches, no nothing! Though I have been gently increasing my mileage to help prevent any shocks to the system.

I love the variety I have as well. Monday and Tuesday are solo runs stupidly early in the morning (but lovely and light now thankfully). Wednesday is a lunch-time run usually with guys from work. Thursday is my running club and Saturday is my favourite long run listening to a good podcast.

And here’s what I wore:

The dress is one of the ones I got from Camden market, belt and necklace are from Accessorize, leggings and cardigan from New Look

Nothing else to report. Did I mention I’ve booked a holiday to Mexico…? Shoot, I already did? Whoops I promise I won’t go on about it hehe.

Runners out there, what kind of mileage do you like to hit during a week?

Do you, like me, hate wasting food? The chocolate truffles are no where near as good as Lindt but I can’t throw them away. I hate throwing food away!!

Favourite sauce – ketchup? BBQ? Mustard?

Have you ever been on an all-inclusive holiday?

April 24, 2013April 24, 2013

Small meals and big meals

Hello sunshine! Ahh I think we finally are experiencing spring. We’ve had several consecutive sunny days, hurrah.

Sunshine just makes everything better. Waking up in the morning, driving home from work (wearing sunglasses!!)…

(This was before I started driving! Don’t use your phone while driving!)

Taking Alfie for a walk…

…and even being at work and looking out of the window.

Even my parent’s constant Facebook updates on their holiday in Barbados is bearable. (Seriously though, how many “just sitting in the hot sunshine drinking cocktails” can I take before I crack?)

It’s Wednesday, meaning What I ate Wednesday. Pop over to Jenn’s blog to check out what’s happening.

So this week has been a lot easier than last week as I’m time-managing a bit better. This tends to mean:

Getting up a bit earlier,
Running in the morning rather than the evening,
Preparing meals in advance.

Life is much less stressful when you’re prepared for anything!

In the morning I go into what my dear husband calls Efficient Anna Mode. I am on a mission. I get up, walk Alf, go running if it’s not a rest day and shower. Then have a moment of slowness where I gaze uninspiringly at my wardrobe to decide what to wear…

Finally get dressed…

Then speed around tidying, which is an essential morning activity which literally is me doing stupid stuff like sweeping, putting last night’s washing up away…just odds and ends really, and then make breakfast.

But I tend to do all this in like a little bubble of non-communication and rushing around in a controlled, efficient manner (in my eyes)…in Ben’s eyes I am a moody wife who refuses to swap pleasantries.

Lunch hasn’t really changed this week, just my usual beast of a salad (as someone at work called it…cue cringe moment).

I’ve been seeing some great salads about the blogging world with nuts, cheese, avocado, sundried tomatoes. So I really need to start mixing things up (<—hello broken record??)

For my lunch I always like a big salad (lots of variety, yum) but I also like bits of the side, like my Babybels:

Or what I had yesterday, popcorn from my Graze box…

And my (frozen) fruit salad with lots of Greek yogurt.

If I just have a sandwich or a more ‘proper’ meal, I feel a bit cheated. I guess it’s because I’m a grazer and I like to stretch my meal out for a nice lengthy period of time and have individual bits and pieces to munch my way through. Also because I make my lunch to take to work I am somewhat limited by what I can bring.

And I like to have my snacks throughout the day as well. Whether that’s carrots…

Or nuts…

Or nibbles from my Graze box…

I guess what is clear in the way I eat is that I like to eat little and often throughout the day. My lunch may not seem huge in it’s pieces but in it’s entirety I am definitely satisfied. And then a few hours later I’m eating again! It’s just how I roll. I’m not one of those people who can eat lunch and then eat nothing until dinner.

Dinner however is a whole different ball game. I like a BIG meal. I know they say you’re supposed to eat your smallest meal of the day in the evening but that’s not my style. It’s not like I’m eating supersized burgers and fries every night, obviously, but I do like BIG healthy meals. Here are some of my favourite meals:

Cottage Pie with Cauliflower Mash

Chicken Caprese with Cauliflower mash and Roasted Veg

Paprika Sweet Potato Chicken

Last night was fajitas:

This was delicious. I used the Discovery Fajitas spice mix and sauce and it was perfect. I don’t usually buy jars of sauces but this one I love. The main ingredient isn’t sugar, which is what I try to be careful about. OK, that’s a little bit of a lie, when it comes to certain sauces I’m careful. BBQ sauce is a different story. I’m pretty sure the one I have has the second ingredient being sugar…but I like it that way

And the snacking doesn’t stop during the day. After dinner I always need that post-dinner pre-bedtime snack. Usually a packet of Snack a Jacks and a hot chocolate. Heaven.

OK, maybe some chocolate too

I usually have one or two of these mini-chocs in the evening. As good as they are, they’re not as good as Lindt I must say…

So I’m a grazer through the day, a big meal eater at night, and a snacker in the evening. I’m good with that!

Have a great week

How would you describe your eating patterns? Big meals? Mini meals? Lots of snacks?

What’s your favourite evening snack? Healthy or naughty!

How do you time-manage?