“You’re so lucky”

Hi guys! Hope you’re all having a good week. Hurrah it’s Friday!

Right, I have a bit of a rant. OK, maybe rant is a bit strong. A reflection then.

You might have noticed I enjoy exercising (most of them time when it’s not stupidly early and I’m feeling grumpy). As much as sometimes I’d just rather have more sleep or sit on the sofa watching TV, I ultimately enjoy what exercise brings me. I love the rush of endorphins. I love the satisfaction of completing a challenging run or finally being able to hold a plank for three minutes. I love setting goals for myself and striving to complete them. I’m competitive with myself. And others. If I hear someone I know has run further than me I have a strong urge to race out the door to beat them.

I love feeling healthy and strong. Knowing that I could out-run a lot of people (who don’t exercise regularly) is a good feeling to me. Aesthetics aren’t everything I know, but I like the way I look because of exercising. Let’s be honest, I wouldn’t be over-weight if I didn’t exercise. But I wouldn’t feel as confident with myself.

I eat healthily as well. No I’m not on a diet. No I don’t stop myself eating certain food groups. Yes I do have preferences for certain foods and yes they’re highly likely to be on the healthier side of the scale. I have a massive appetite and eat a lot, but generally it’s mammoth salads and monster veg portions. That’s my thing. I think about food a lot. What’s for lunch? What’s for dinner? Do I have enough apples??

                                                      Source: muffintop-less.tumblr.com via Jordan on Pinterest

 

So why do people feel the need to tell me “I’m so lucky”. When I reach for the a biscuit or a slice of cake people say to me, “Oh you’re so lucky. You’re so slim. You can eat anything”.

Hang on. Yes I can eat anything – anyone can pretty much eat anything. I just don’t eat anything all the time. That biscuit isn’t my fifth biscuit, it’s my first. I might go back for a second or third if I particularly enjoyed it, but I don’t do that every day.

Lucky? I like to think that luck has a small part to play in the way I am. Maybe it’s lucky that I have a small frame – genes? Maybe it’s lucky I have a tendency to enjoy fruit and veg. I’ll give you that.

But I put a lot of effort into being healthy. Every day. I love exercising but it’s tough. Mentally and physically. Consistently exercising every week and pushing yourself so you’re not just ‘ticking the box’. Just getting out of a warm bed earlier than you have to is tough!

I make sure I eat well. It’s so easy to eat rubbish. Cheap microwave meals ready in 2 minutes. Fast food restaurants on every corner. Buy one get one free. Now, don’t get me wrong. I eat rubbish too. Mainly sweets (pic ‘n’ mixes are my nemesis) and desserts. But I prepare and cook all my meals. Lunches are pre-packed in the morning or weekend. Dinners are made when I get in from work. I’m not talking crazily exciting meals with a hundred ingredients and hour long cooking times. Omelettes, stir fries, salads…I plan at the weekend the meals we’ll have, buy the food at the supermarket and then make the meals in the week. It does take effort and time to plan ahead but I think it’s important.Healthy foodThis isn’t luck. I’m pretty sure if I ate rubbish and didn’t exercise I wouldn’t look so slim. My hair probably wouldn’t look as shiny. My skin would break out in spots more often. Yes I can eat anything – I just choose not to. I smile and nod and looked flattered when people say I’m lucky. But inside I’m proud. Because I earned that biscuit.

 

 Does anyone else get annoyed at things like this? I just needed to shout about it!

Merry Christmas??

Brrrrr it is cold! Though it’s actually quite nice in a weird way. To be snuggled up inside nice and warm and for it to be chilly outside. Though getting out of bed in the morning is not fun – nor is taking Alfie out for a walk first thing. Winter coat: check, Uggs: check, gloves: check. Result = a happy Alfie but a cold Anna.

And Christmas seems to have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. One minute we’re all vigorously carving our pumpkins and admiring the autumnal colours of the trees when suddenly, boom! hello tinsel, hello Christmas adverts on the telly! Now don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas so as far as I’m concerned this is brilliant. HOWEVER, I have now been thrown into a state of stress. When am I going to bake our Christmas cake? When will I have time to go shopping? What do my friends and family even want??

And breathe. Anna, it’s the beginning of November. But I am getting excited. I love Christmas. I love the food (who doesn’t?), I love how everyone is just more merry than normal, I love the Christmas decorations, the time with the family…the never ending boxes of Celebration chocolates (I don’t love that Supermarkets seem to think that they’ve put them on offer at the moment…erm, weren’t they always that expensive??) It’s without doubt my favourite time of year. So the sooner the better! Smile

As usual as it’s Wednesday it’s WIAW. A big thanks to Jenn for hosting this as usual. I’ll show you a selection of different meals from the week as my best eats were spread rather than an individual day if that’s alright!

 

Breakfast: OK, OK you’ve seen pancakes a fair few times now if you’ve been reading my blog for some time…before you fall asleep, I did try a new topping to jazz things up a bit (and use some of the mass of fruit I have sitting in our freezer…)

IMG_2782

As it was too difficult for me to work out how to defrost my pumpkin purée from the freezer (yep I’m that person) I decided just to stick with the standard recipe I use (find it HERE). The topping I decided to just have fun with.

IMG_2783

I thawed some frozen blackberries, then sprinkled them with quite a generous amount of cinnamon and a few drops of Stevia. Then I zapped it in the microwave for maybe a minute. Basically so the fruit turns a bit mushy and is warm. Then I poured it over the pancakes. Bliss!

Lunch: During the week I always take food with me to save on costs. I used to have chilli using Quorn mince but I’ve gone off that mince a bit now and much prefer using mixed beans.

6.11

[Apologies for seriously bad photo]

I used a yellow bell pepper, onion, courgette, mushrooms, chopped tomatoes and mixed beans (like butterbeans, kidney beans, chickpeas, etc.). I also added chilli powder, paprika, cumin, a little bit of sugar and some mixed herbs. To spruce it up I added a large tablespoon of Philadelphia cheese. This made it so creamy and delicious – definitely adding this again! Along with this for lunch I have two Baby Bells and an apple. Maybe not the prettiest lunch, but it works for me!

I’ve set myself a little target for November to make a new recipe every week as I was finding myself in a bit of a food rut. You know what’s it like…getting in from work, being tired, you don’t want to whizz up some all singing and dancing dinner. But I’m pushing myself to try – at least on Friday and Saturday nights! So far this is going really well. I made coq au vin the other day and that was deeeelicious. But I also made another meal this week as well. And I probably say this about everything I cook I cook but it was such a good meal! Filling and sneakily nutritious.

IMG_2776

I used THIS recipe. Basically it’s chicken coated in a ground almond coating and then baked in the oven. Crunchy and spicy!

IMG_2777

And alongside that I cooked some cauliflower and then mashed it with some mozzarella cheese (well I blended it with a hand-blender).

IMG_2778

I LOVED this. Seriously easy and a good alternative to mash potato if you fancy a lighter dinner. With all the ground almonds and chicken, this was a very filling dinner.

Snacks: I sponsored Maria for her Great North Run a while back and she very kindly sent me some baked goods (Swedish Apple Muffins) as a thank you. How sweet is that?? (Due to me going on my honeymoon she sent them to me now – I’m very chuffed):

PICTURE

[Please don’t judge the photo too harshly, they have travelled via post to get to me!]

So I have been happily tucking into these this week. They are so moist and yummy. Perfect evening snack. I thoroughly recommend Maria’s blog, she always has such yummy recipes and ideas!

Oooh and I’ve also been indulging in a few squares of these in the evening:

IMG_2779

I can’t always be snacking on apples after all I guess!

Fitness: I’m still following my strength routines three times a week. It’s not quite as difficult as it was originally so I feel I’m making some progress. I’ve got my plank back to 3 minutes. Does anyone else get bored doing the plank? I mean, it’s tough and painful but so boring. I just end up staring at my stopwatch…

I’m thinking of getting a resistance band – has anyone tried this? Is it worth it?

Running is going well. The only problem I have at the moment is that now I’m running at work it means that if I have a busy day I can’t always run. I’m quite a structure, routine person (have you noticed??) so I find this really frustrating. I hate pushing workouts to a different day. But it’s one of those things I guess.

Outfit of the day:

7.11

[Can you spot Alfie hiding in the background?]

I can’t actually remember where I got this dress from, whoops. But the cardi is from New Look!

Have a great Wednesday!

Do you hate it when you have to postpone a workout?

Are you in a Christmassy mood yet?

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.

IMG_2780

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.

4.11

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

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*.

IMG_2792

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.

IMG_2793

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 Smile

What have you gotten up to this weekend?

Do you have a clumsy streak like me?

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.

Pumpkin

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.

image

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.

photo

And I added pumpkin puree to porridge:

IMG_2766

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?

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.

IMG_1571

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

IMG_1572 

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.

IMG_2753

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!)

IMG_2751

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.

Spooky Snacks and Healthy Halloween Treats

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.

image

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).

IMG_2749

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.

IMG_2733

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.

image

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.

image

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.

image

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:

Outfit 16.10

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?