chocolate - AnnaTheApple

May 17, 2013

The little things

Hello Friday! Wow where did this week go? It went crazily fast. Not that I’m complaining.

I thought I’d do a post on some random thoughts and occurrences of late. It’s the little things in life that keep things interesting!

1. It’s a well known fact that cake on a Friday doesn’t count (FYI this was last Friday’s cake – I didn’t eat cake that went off yesterday. Would I refuse a one-day-stale piece of cake though over no cake? I’d rather not answer that…). Cake is an indulgence I need every week. Without fail.

2. Mini trolleys are AMAZING. This is a tiny trolley from M&S, almost like a basket with wheels which makes me feel like I’m six again. Anyone from the UK: do you remember when they used to do trolleys for children?? So the kids could push a little trolley with their parents as well. I wonder why they disappeared…Oh yes, that’s right because who ever decided to allow young children to push trolleys around a busy supermarket is CRAZY. Hello ankle pain.

3. I can destroy half a melon easily in under 10 minutes. Like a boss. In fact, I have to finish Ben’s off as he is so rubbish at getting all the melon flesh. Take no prisoners.

4. This display on my Garmin annoys me SO MUCH.

The loading bar is full therefore it should be done, right? Oh no. It stays with that full bar for minutes afterwards. While I am stood in the cold just waiting to run. Garmin, stop lying to me!!

5. Why do people leave the teabags in their drinks? Maybe this is a British thing (or a specifically Anna thing) but whenever I see TV programmes (I must say, usually US programmes) and someone is drinking a tea they always leave the teabag in so the little piece of string hangs down the side. It baffles me because doesn’t this over-steep the tea?? Doesn’t the teabag hit your mouth when you drink? It really freaks me out.

Yes, this is not my usual mug. This is my back-up Scooby mug.

6. One of our knives broke the other day when I was chopping vegetables. The knife blade literally pinged past me and hit the wall behind me. It was like the vegetables were fighting back. It would have been funny if I hadn’t been in shock.

7. This photo makes me feel a little sad inside:

He looks so helpless and upset at having being bathed. It needed to happen though. He was getting to one stinky pooch.

8. However this photo brings me right back up to a significantly happy level:

Sea salt Green and Blacks! On offer! Still expensive though. And definitely beaten to the punch by Lindt.

Well, I hope you guys have a great weekend. Ben and me are running a 5k Parkrun tomorrow so I’m quite excited but also nervous. I hate 5ks, they’re just so fast and painful…but we’ll see how it goes! We might be running a 10k run through Moors Valley Country Park on Sunday depending how we feel. I will be taking that one easy if we do go for it. I’m going to take it more of as a nice trail run then a proper race I think as I think I’ll be shattered after tomorrow!

What’s been making you happy this week?

What are your little things in life that keep things interesting for you? Wow there’s a vague question for you

Teabags: in or out?

May 15, 2013

Prematurely dressing for spring

Hello! Thank you for your kind comments about Sunday’s 10k race. I tell you what, Ben and I are experiencing some serious race fever now. We are raring to go with our 5k Parkrun this Saturday (potentially doing another 10k on the Sunday that we can sign up for on the day – but we’re going to see how we’re feeling). And we’ve got the following dates for our diaries:

10 mile New Forest Run – Sunday 14th July
5 mile National Lottery Run – Sunday 21st July
10 mile Great South Run – Sunday 27th October
Gosport half marathon – Sunday 17th November

Whew! And I am SO excited. I am hugely excited that Ben is back into running and keen to do these races as well. It was so lovely chatting to him about Sunday’s race afterwards and comparing notes.

Though I have a slight confession…I am a terrible wife. The National Lottery Run is running around the Olympic stadium and ends on the track inside (very cool in my opinion). So it’s quite an experience and had limited entry numbers and only a small window of opportunity to grab tickets. As soon as I found out about it I knew I wanted to do it. I checked with Ben and he was keen too. Brilliant. Unfortunately in my haste to grab tickets I only bought one ticket. It was such a lengthy process to buy one that I just forgot to do the whole thing again to get another ticket.

And I didn’t realise until the next day. When all the tickets were gone.

Ben is obviously miles better in the marriage department and being a better person than me as he has said that I can do the run and he will merely spectate. I do love him. But obviously feel a) extremely bad and b) extremely stupid.

Anyway, on to the food side of things. It’s What I Ate Wednesday (thanks Jenn).

This is from yesterday (Tuesday):

Breakfast has been the same old same. After the quinoa breakfast fail the other day I quickly went back to what I knew.

Whew, all better. Oatmeal and almond milk in my lovely new bowl from Waitrose. The bowl is tiny so the porridge really piles up in it and also takes ages to eat because it’s like an oatie inferno in the middle (the correct technical phrase I assure you).

Lunch has been my monster tuna salads, popcorn and (frozen) fruit salad with Greek yogurt.

The house smells deliciously of popcorn in the mornings now I’ve been whipping up batches to take to work with me. I love munching on popcorn at work but I tend to forget I’m in public and when I’m reading something I have been known to miss my mouth or drop copious of crumbs on myself. Not attractive or elegant. And apparently sitting next to me while I have lunch is like being at the movies.

Dinner has been more salads recently and we’ve been getting into the spring vibe (ha – though the weather invariably hasn’t).

We’ve been into our steaks with salad and goat’s cheese recently. This is steak marinated with lime, cumin and garlic. Then fried in olive oil with sliced onion, and thrown on top of lots of salad with a good amount of goat’s cheese. Really simple and fresh meal.

Last night’s dinner was a bit of a wing-it meal. I had failed on the meal planning side of things. But I knew I had some frozen coconut milk in the freezer and tinned pumpkin. So I went with an aromatic coconut chicken curry (with pumpkin).

Coconut chicken curry (serves 2)

1 tbs. oil
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp. chilli powder
Clove of garlic
1/2 inch grated ginger
2 chicken breasts, cubed
Small onion, diced
Half a zuhcchini, diced
3 mushrooms, diced
Half a can of pumpkin puree
Half a can of coconut milk (I used light)

– Heat the oil in the pan, then fry the spices to release their aroma. Add in the onion and cook for about 5 mins until golden, then add the ginger and garlic.

– Add the zucchini and mushrooms and fry until soft.

– Add the chicken and coat with all the lovely spices. Then add the pumpkin puree and cook for about 2mins.

– Add the coconut milk and heat through

I sprinkled dried coriander over the top and served.

So what’s with this weather, people of Britain? Seriously depressing. Yesterday I optimistically wore this outfit to work:

Sneaky photo bomber in the back

This is a new dress from Dorothy Perkins, with an old necklace my mum gave me, shoes from Tesco (small heeled wedges) and belt and cardigan from New Look.

However, it started raining pretty much as soon as I got to work and throughout the day. So when I got back home to walk Alfie in the evening this is what I wore:

This is post walk. I was freezing and soaked. So then this is what I wore for the rest of the evening:

Can’t beat pyjamas and a nice loungy jumper. Cozy and warm.

But seriously, what happened to our blue skies??

And lastly before I leave it there…this is the latest chocolate that I have been LOVING.

Lindt, you will obviously always be in my heart as good quality chocolate that I always go back to…But I can’t indulge in a little chocolate affair with these crazy concoctions.

Errr, a piece of heaven anyone??

Have a great Wednesday!

What’s your preference: good quality chocolate, or crazy but extremely sweet chocolate?

Have you brought out the summer wear prematurely like I have?

Are you enjoying summery salads or warming suppers?

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?

April 17, 2013

A busy week = WIAW

Firstly, and most importantly, I want to start this post by saying my heart goes out to all those affected by the Boston Marathon tragedy. When I heard what happened my heart literally stopped. I couldn’t believe something as terrible like that could happen. Obviously as a human being I find this abhorrent, and as a runner I am shocked that any one could target should an event. I can only imagine how horrific it must be to the runners who trained so hard to have their dreams shattered by something so terrible. And not just the runners, but all the other people, spectators and race officials etc., to have to experience such a truly nasty attack.

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I know it feels almost irrelevant and small to think of writing something as trivial as a post on What I Ate Wednesday, so please forgive me for continuing ‘business as usual’.

Thanks to Jenn for hosting as usual

These are my eats from Tuesday. The week has been busy with a new project kick-starting so it’s all go-go-go. I feel a bit stressed out with trying to juggle different things. But hey it keeps life interesting.

Breakfast was my usual oatmeal. The consensus being, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I love it, it works, I have it every day.

(Re-used photo – but seriously, it doesn’t change!)

However, I did make protein flour pancakes with mango topping on Sunday.

They were pretty tasty I must say, and helped reawaken my love for pancakes. And you can’t beat the fresh taste of mango. It’s such a treat for me to get as I can never be bothered to go through the effort of cutting up a mango as it’s so darn messy!

Lunch was my usual salad but livened things up with adding some turkey bacon and regular sliced turkey.

OK I know there looks like just a load of veg there but I assure you there was a good portion of turkey that I put into that beast. You can’t beat a big old salad for lunch. I like food that takes me ages to eat so I can savour the process! I also had a Babybell and fruit salad with Greek yogurt.

(Recycled photo again but essentially identical)

I had some great snacks in between. I’ve been loving my Graze box which honestly is a huge temptation sitting on my desk all day long. The struggle not to eat it all in one sitting is quite strong…

I ate these yesterday when I got peckish some time after lunch. They were Thai crackers with sweet chilli dip. Very yummy. It felt quite novel dunking and crunching at work. Then a banana and apple just before going home.

Dinner was a wing-it meal. But it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself. And thankfully quite quick and easy to throw together when getting in from work later than usual.

I used chicken from the roast chicken at the weekend, fried it with mushrooms and zucchini and BBQ sauce and seriously this was taaaaasty. I had this on salad. The only sad thing is that I used up all my BBQ sauce. I would have the chicken swimming in this stuff if I could! Maybe a good thing it ran out…

Also I have been indulging a bit in eating a few slices of cake now and again in the evenings…

This, if you’d believe it, was a slice of our wedding cake! I have been slowly defrosting and making a dent in the vast amount of cake we have saved (seriously a lot). It was a slice of the lemon flavoured tier. Delicious.

And, erm, yeah some chocolate as well. But they’re only little!!

Not as good as Lindt but yummy none-the-less. Speaking of Lindt…hello offer in Tesco!!

Well, it’s important to have a balance. With running five times a week I need to bump the calories up a bit so I’m happy to fill this need with chocolate and cake. Shhh all you nutritionists out there, I know this isn’t the healthiest way to do it! But I need a bit of fun now and again.

In terms of fitness, I ran on Monday morning and still felt tired. I am so frustrated that my recovery from a tough run takes so long.

OK it wasn’t a rubbish run, I know that. But it felt TOUGH. Really, really hard going. My body just felt tired. I am clearly not superwoman!

However my run last night (Tuesday evening) went better, though it was shorter.

I will be going to the running club on Thursday evening again and I guess I’m thinking of running with the faster guys again but I’m scared. Genuinely scared because of how tough it was last time. I might look into running with them every other week and running with the slower paced guys…I’m a wuss…

And that’s all I have! Not the most exciting eats, I grant, but in this busy week I’m happy with them

How do you cope when you’re busy?

Do you still try to eat well when you’re running out of time?

How quickly do you recover after a tough workout?

April 5, 2013

Chicken and chocolate

Well I am glad we’ve almost finished this week. It has definitely been a strange one! What with it being Easter and having Monday off, and then having Tuesday off because of my little episode (thank you all for your kind words by the way), it’s just been a bit crazy.

After Tuesday I felt a bit battered and bruised with a HUGE head ache, but otherwise I was OK. On a random note, when I had an ECG in the ambulance to check my heart they stuck these coin-sized sticker things (the things they attach the wires to to read your heart…or something *pretends to sound like she knows what she’s talking about*) on various places on my body. When I got back from the hospital I kept finding the stickers. I had no idea they put so many on me! When I thought I got them all I then found them on my legs! Crazy. And painful to unstick.

I’m now terrified to get up in the morning (or the middle of the night for my various pee trips, sorry TMI) for fear I may faint again. I’m like an old lady getting up in the morning, bracing myself and taking my time.

I went into work on Wednesday because the doctors told me I couldn’t be alone for the next 24 hours in case I fainted again and Ben couldn’t be off work again. But in all honestly, I was fine. And it was rather fun telling people what happened. I know that hospitals are not funny places and God forbid anyone needs to go there, but thankfully my episode was just sheer bad luck of the location of our stairs and nothing serious. If I’d have fainted on the bed I’d have been fine!

Anyway, so I wanted to recap a bit more of Easter (before I was rudely interrupted by my delicate disposition). After looking after Ellie, my niece, on Saturday Ben and I were definitely up for a more relaxed day. Our families had agreed to have a bit more of a quiet Easter and most of us aren’t religious, so Ben and me decided to have a nice relaxed meal on Sunday.

After inspiration from Sara and her Bucket List of recipes I decided to do what I’ve been meaning to do for ages. Roast my first ever whole chicken. I decided to keep things relatively simple so just put some Nando’s mild sauce on and under the skin, pop an onion and some garlic inside it and season before popping in the oven for an hour and a half.

I bought a whole brand new baking tray for this culinary adventure only to find I could cook it in it’s foil container *sighs*. But I’ve got it for next time!

We kept the meal simple as we wanted to maximise the chicken experience (…or I couldn’t be bothered to do all the trimmings).

I had broad beans (the king of all vegetables in my humble opinion), roasted vegetables and mashed cauliflower cheese. Ben declined the cauliflower and had potato waffles instead. Honestly I can’t get this boy away from cheese but if it’s near cauliflower he’s like “helllll no”.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I went back for ~~thirds~~ seconds of the chicken. It was so good.

And I was inspired by another blogger (I know, seriously I have no independent ideas) for using the chicken carcass to make stock. Laura always talks about the pros of respecting the meat you eat by using as much of it as you can and the health benefits involved in bone broth that I was really chuffed to finally try it myself. I felt like a proper housewife with my stock simmering away in the pot. It’s now safely stowed away in the freezer ready to be used in soups or sauces. Yum.

Then mums also popped over on Sunday and we had a nice catch up and coffee with them both. I only wanted one Easter Egg this year because honestly we have so much chocolate in the house it’s ridiculous, so my mum got me this AMAZING egg.

A dark chocolate egg with TWENTY-FOUR mini bars. There are loads of flavours like chocolate and almond, chocolate and raisin, white chocolate… Oh I am loving this. I might have eaten the entire egg in one sitting while watching Downton Abbey in the evening with these two dashing chaps…

…and felt very sick. But I find it so hard with Easter eggs because you keep wanting to ‘tidy up’ an edge and then suddenly you’re just left with a few chunks…and well, you can’t leave them…

Monday started with a 6 mile run:

That mile 5 was TOUGH. I had spotted another runner a distance ahead of me at mile three and I gradually began to gain on him. But he was clearly running just that tiny bit slower than me because it took forever to get to him. Then around mile 4-5 it became a bit uncomfortable because I was right at his heels and I didn’t want to be like a weird runner stalker. So I had to pick up my pace to get past him and then maintain that pace to make sure he didn’t feel like a weird runner stalker to me. Hence my 7.14min/mile pace for mile 5!

And then the rest of Monday was a day of chilling. I might have hoovered to liven things up, but otherwise we just relaxed. I spent some really nice lazy time on the couch watching more Downton Abbey and reading magazines…

I know my Easter weekend might not sound very exciting, but honestly, it was perfect. I got to spend it with the people I love and enjoy good food. What else could I want?

How was your Easter?

What can’t you help but keep eating once you start?