eggs - AnnaTheApple

April 12, 2013

Running with the big boys

Well hello there Friday, nice to see you around again. These last couple of days in the office I have been FREEZING. A choice few of my fellow workers have decided to commandeer the air con dial and make it sub-zero temperatures. I spend my time glaring at them while hunching over my laptop sipping hot drinks all day long. They’re comments of “there’s nothing of you” for reasons why I’m cold are not well accepted. I mean, what if I was to say the reverse to them hmm? I’m not sure that would go down so well.

Anyway, it’s Friday!

This week has been fairly good (hypothermia aside). I’m really pleased with a few runs I did –especially my out of the blue super speedy run the other evening for example. And though I skimped on the Tuesday night running club run, I did go to the Thursday night (last night) one instead.

I didn’t really know what to expect to be honest. I got to the meeting place and there were like 30 people. And they were planning on doing an off-road style run, but in different paced groups. There were three paces 11mins/mile, 9-10mins/mile and 7.30-8mins/mile. My plan had been to take it easy and just enjoy the run but I really didn’t want to be running 9mins/mile or slower. I hugely faffed about not deciding what to do. Then after speaking with the three guys who were doing the 7.30mins/mile they persuaded me to join them.

It started well, I was happy with the pace. UNTIL we got to like three consecutive hills. Oh my goodness, these hills. And these guys were just bouncing along happily while I was ~~quietly~~ dying. It was definitely an ego check for me. I’d say about 60% of the run I was trailing behind them. To put this into perspective, one of these guys had just done the Paris marathon and was treating this as a RECOVERY run.

I think I held my own quite well, and the guys looked after me well and looped back if they went off too fast and pushed me on when I lagged. There was a great team-feel between us. But by the end I was just couldn’t maintain the pace and had to lag back. I felt terrible that I was holding them back but they didn’t seem to to mind.

I was so shattered by the end that when I past a fellow runner (not part of the club) who said hello to me I replied “morning” in a spluttering daze.

But it was brilliant. Though at the time there were many points where I literally wanted to cry it was so hard (ahh OK maybe it wasn’t that bad) and when we ran close to where I live it took every ounce what strength I had left to not run away home, it pushed me and I felt hugely satisfied by the end. I’d run with the big boys and done myself proud. They seemed happy to have a female member in their clan as well! Haha.

When I got home it was just after 8pm and I literally didn’t want to eat at all. Though obviously I did have dinner it was really hard to get myself motivated to feel hungry.

But I am never one to miss dinner and I knew it was really important to refuel after such an epic run. So I had three whole eggs, a LARGE scoop of cream cheese, and lots of veggies.

When I stood up after dinner my calves had massively cramped and were so painful, so after I showered I made sure to get some of this action in.

Yes those are my PJs

And I am so glad I did because honestly this morning my legs were still quite painful but I imagine not half as bad as they would be. THOSE HILLS!!!

Though I enjoyed running last night it did mess with my system last night. Like not wanting dinner, feeling a bit unsettled in my tummy (lots of strange noises going on in there when I went to bed) and not being able to feel tired at all. Usually I’m ready for bed at like ~~8.30pm~~ 9pm but I got into bed at 10pm and just didn’t feel sleepy. I didn’t fall asleep until after 11pm!!

I know this is because of doing quite intense exercise in the evening and it is a bit annoying but I’m happy to have a change in routine, and plus the next day is FRIDAY so it isn’t that big a deal.

On a non-running related note, I am so excited that my lovely parents have let us borrow their slow cooker so we can give it a test drive to see if we want to buy one ourselves. I have seen so many recipes using slow cookers that I’ve look longingly at and pinned in the hopes that one day maybe we’d invest. But the thing is, I know the slow cooker is potentially one of those appliances that could end up on the Dead Shelf. You know the shelf. The shelf where those amazing, gadgety appliances you bought ages ago because they’d save time and looked cool and of course you’d use every day…that you now never use. Yes, hand-held milk-frother, I’m looking at you.

To stop this from happening, I’m going to see if I’d actually make use of a slow cooker before parting with my hard-earned moolah. I’m hoping it’ll work out well. Especially with me doing the running club now it would be ideal to not have to worry about cooking when I get in late.

So watch this space… if you don’t hear anything about it, you know it’s gone back to my parent’s Dead shelf after failing.

Right, lovely readers, have a lovely weekend!

Do you exercise in the morning or at night?

Does mixing up your exercise (or eating) regime mess with your system?

Do you use a slow cooker? What’s your favourite recipe?

January 20, 2013

Snow day

So I didn’t get to North Wales. Snow hit Southampton (and pretty much every place we would have driven through to get to North Wales) which just made it impossible to go. It was a real shame as we were looking forward to heading up there and celebrating my granddad’s 80th birthday with him. But the weather was just ridiculous.

Ben was able to quickly change his holiday into a day working from home but I wasn’t so lucky. Well, it depends on your perspective. I got to chill and do what I wanted all day whereas Ben had to be on his laptop working. It also means that I’m not off tomorrow either. Ho hum!

But back to the snow. It started snowing a little bit as I left work on Thursday night.

And then by the time we woke up in the morning on Friday there was a beautiful blanket of snow covering everything.

This was the view from our bedroom window. It became clear quite quickly we wouldn’t get to Wales

I took Alfie out for a walk first thing and had my running gear on as I foolishly thought I could go for a run afterwards.

Alfie absolutely loved the snow. Bounding through it like a happy puppy. I quickly came to realise I wouldn’t be going running. It was just too risky to fall over and break my ankle or something similar.

I felt so annoyed. Not only could we not go to Wales anymore but I couldn’t do my planned run either. I was really frustrated. I know it’s silly but I hate it when my plans are ruined. It also meant I didn’t know what to do with myself at home. I couldn’t run, couldn’t chill out with Ben as he was working…So what does any normal person do? Watch TV. What does Anna do? Start a big clean of course!

I cleaned the fridge completely.

Not much in there as we didn’t expect to need much as we were away for the weekend. Perfect timing considering the snow and not being able to get to the supermarket.

I cleaned all our cupboards out and rearranged them. OK it doesn’t look that organised but it’s better than it was. Don’t you just hate it when herbs and spices just cover the cupboard in herby/spicy dust?? (Just me?)

After my mad cleaning dash, I had a really delicious lunch of a turkey omelette with cranberry sauce on the side. So good! That’s officially all the turkey from the freezer gone no. Sad times.

At the moment with food Ben and I are having to be quite creative and thoughtful about our meals as we don’t actually have that much in! We walked to the mini Tesco’s down the road but obviously everyone else had the same plans and we couldn’t get a huge amount. Just fresh vegetables and fruit really. So we’re eating out our freezer!

Though I missed my run on Friday, I’ve been loving listening to the Marathon Talk podcast and basically immersing myself into all things running-related, like websites and magazines. I read a great post by this lovely lady that really struck a cord with me.

I’ve been dreading the longer runs that I have coming up. Not dreading, maybe just feeling quite anxious as I don’t usually run 6+ miles on a regular basis. But this post and the article Ashley mentions really honed into my head that I should make my pace a lot slower for longer runs. I think I’ve just been so concerned with maintaining a certain pace that it’s been so tough. OK I know I haven’t done any ‘proper’ long runs yet but it’s all relative I suppose as to what you call a long run. It didn’t made me feel a lot less anxious about it. I really need to stop over-thinking things and getting myself all worked up. So what if I don’t get an amazing time at the half-marathon! I need to set a stake in the ground for this one to then beat next time around anyway

Despite the snow, Alfie still got his run in though. He ran around the garden like a crazy dog! I videoed just a segment of it. Apologies for my clearly inept videoing skills!!

Alfie in the snow

And then after his mad dash around in the snow…

Alfie was quarantined to the kitchen as he was soaked. Those big old puppy eyes no longer work on me anymore!

Right, I’m off for some lunch and maybe a cheeky episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians!

Have you been affected by the snow?

Do you enjoy long runs? Any tips?

November 21, 2012November 21, 2012

Christmas, coconut flour and Ben & Jerry’s

Hi guys, errrrm how is it 21st November? I’ve been married now almost two months. That is mind-blowing!

I’ve really being feeling Christmassy. I love Christmas – it’s my favourite time of year. I love how everyone has that Christmas feeling; that expectation and excitement. I love the music and the decorations. And, obviously, I love the food.

What I hate about Christmas is this sudden fear of the dreaded holiday weight-gain. All these articles start appearing about “How to avoid the Christmas bulge” and “What foods to avoid at a Christmas buffet” etc. It sort of takes the fun out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to throw myself into a giant-sized box of Celebration chocolates with abandon. But I’m not going to sit here and deny myself the treats that I so look forward to. Mince pies? Yes please. A slice of stollen? Ohhh yes. I just wish the media could tone things down a bit and stop making people feel so damn guilty about eating the food of the season. Come on people, let’s relax a little shall we?

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working at the customer site at the moment. It’s quite a good team we have; there’s only seven of us and it’s nice and relaxed. The work is tough as the system that’s being developed is fairly complicated but we’ve got a good atmosphere. However. Outside our little bubble the normal business-as-usual life of the customer is working around us. And I don’t think they like us. They practically growl at us when we laugh. Raise their eyebrows when we have moderately loud conversations. And the worst part? They have the radio on. And it’s the same station. All. Day. Long. If I hear Skyfall ONE MORE TIME I might cry. Whew, sorry about that. Got that outta my system.

Right, so it’s What I Ate Wednesday – though this is Sunday’s eats. Let’s get started, shall we? Thanks to Jenn as usual!

Breakfast: I’ve been experimenting with breakfast. OK, still my usual porridge/oatmeal. But I’ve jazzed it up with my new favourite ingredient: coconut flour.

OK, it doesn’t look any different. But let me assure you, this has a heaped tbsp. of coconut flour added to it. It adds a lovely subtle coconut taste and makes it very thick and stodgy. Perfect porridge consistency in my books. And it’s added a lovely smooth texture to it now. So with this at 7am I’m good to go until midday (with coffee as well, obviously).

Lunch: during the week I either have a mixed bean chilli or a salad, but at the weekend I can be a bit more exciting. Usually in the form of something eggy. As enticing as that sounds…

I whipped up three eggs, some chopped cherry tomatoes, chopped onions and half a cup of pumpkin puree. The pumpkin was a great add. Really thickened it up. And made the eggs a lovely, er, colour

And I’m obsessed with Brussels’s sprouts at the moment. Might need to tone that down before I overdo it before Christmas – and what’s Christmas without sprouts??

Dinner: I decided to try a Thai-style coconut curry. Unfortunately I didn’t have any coconut milk but I thought with my new favourite ingredient I could attempt it anyway. I didn’t really follow any recipe. I just threw things together.

Coconut Chicken Curry (serves 2)

Blob of coconut oil

Clove garlic, diced

Inch of fresh garlic, grated

2 chicken breasts, diced

2-3 mushrooms

1 cup of frozen mixed veg

1 white onion, diced

1 cup Greek yogurt

2 tbsp. coconut flour

1 tbsp. unsweetened shredded coconut

1 tsp. chilli powder

1.5 tsp. dried coriander

– Heat a pan with the oil, then add the onion and fry until the onion is golden. Add the mushrooms and fry for 1 minute before adding the garlic.

– Add chicken and brown.

– Add the yogurt and mixed veg. Cook for 3-4 mins.

– Add the coconut, herbs and spices.

– Once the chicken is cooked and the sauce has thickened up serve.

It was really tasty. The coconut flour helps to thicken it up and the yogurt makes it very creamy. Perfect. You can add other spices to make it more interesting if you fancy – I was just using what I had to hand.

Snacks: yeah…I might have had some Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Brownie Frozen Yogurt. My favourite flavour and it was brilliant to have alongside watching Erin Brockovich. Anyone else love Julia Roberts? Brilliant film!

Fitness: I ran on Monday and though it went really well in terms of speed it really didn’t agree with me.

I finished the run feeling like I was going to be sick. It really wasn’t fun. I wasn’t sick, thankfully. I think it was a mix of pushing myself a bit too hard and I’m thinking the ice cream the night before didn’t help things.

I plan on running this lunch time with Mr Ego so we’ll see how that goes. He’s toned down a bit now which is nice. We motivate each other but I’m still finding the runs a bit too easy as his pace is slower. But you know, I’m not too bothered as it’s just good to get out. I like to have the company and it’s so refreshing to get out of the office. Though we tend to chat about work while we run which isn’t so good!

Important question: too soon?

Oh, also – check out Ffion’s blog (Chocolate and Respberries) for a great Christmas-themed giveaway! Delicious Hotel Chocolat Advent Calendar 🙂 Hotel Chocolat do amazing chocolates…toss up between them and Lindt for my favourite.

What songs are really getting on your nerves?

Are you feeling Christmassy yet?

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 11, 2012November 11, 2012

Moral of the story

Hi guys, hope you’re having a lovely weekend. The weather has been chilly but sunny and dry here which makes for lovely crisp days.

Yesterday I can’t say I did anything terribly exciting I’m afraid. Ben and I went for a nice run. Mine was a short, sharp 2 miles as I ached from my lower body routine from Friday…

…but Ben went for a whopping 6mile run. I’m so proud of him! He’s starting to get back into it which is great as I missed running with him. I have to say, I was a bit jealous when he told me how far he’d run.

This week’s workouts have been great. My usual strength routine’s Monday, Wednesday, Friday and a 3 mile run on Thursday. The 3 miler was really tough. I’m running a new route that hits a hill about a mile in and the hill goes on for .5mile. I think I started a bit cocky as by the end of that hill I was ruined. It really took it out of me. Moral of the story: PACE MYSELF.

I was going to run on Friday as well but I just didn’t have the energy.

In a slightly related story…When I said I was running the other week a guy I work with seemed keen to join me. He goes to the gym and kept bragging about how many miles he’s run and how fast he goes la-de-da so I was really excited about running with him as (and please don’t take this as me being big headed or anything like that) I haven’t run with anyone who runs at my pace before. OK I don’t really run with many people so that’s probably why!

So anyway, I was looking forward to it. We started off at a nice pace of 8.10mins/mile. Then we hit that hill I mentioned above. Suddenly all that bragging and hot air disappeared very quickly. The pace dropped to over 9 mins and he was dying. I felt quite chuffed with myself as I was OK. By the end of the run, he was done for. Now, I might be a leeeeetle bit too competitive for my own good and we weren’t racing. But if we were…I would have won that race. Just saying.

So my run on Thursday was the same route but me on my own to see how fast I could do it alone. Hence why I ruined myself.

I have to mention lunchtime yesterday. It was amazing. Now I realise that this may seem gross and wrong and random, but it tasted gooooooood.

Three egg omelette with chocolate peanut butter (PB2) and Brussels sprouts. Before you judge me, you need to try it. I love it when lunch tastes a little bit like a dessert. With vegetables. Win-win situation. Basically I ran out of my plain peanut butter and had to improvise quickly before the hungry beast that is Anna at lunchtime took over the world. Not my finest hour, but definitely one of the tastiest.

Then last night Ben and I went out for a fireworks night at a friend of the family’s house. It was Ben, my mum, my dad, my sister, brother-in-law, niece and me in convoy. The house was packed full of people and it was all very relaxed and fun.

The fireworks were brilliant. A home-made affair in the back garden. Ellie, my niece (on the right), and her new found friend Abbie loved it. Abbie kept asking her dad to turn it down though haha.

There was a slightly unsafe feel to the fireworks when two fireworks clashed together and made a huge explosions. Cue all the mum’s grabbing the small children and running inside (yes, that might have including me. I’m small and I was scared).

But otherwise it was great! Seat of your pants stuff.

The hosts provided a mass of food and drink – amazing punch (the bottom one was apple and ginger – with marinating apples floating about, the top one was tropical punch):

And I happily tucked into a bowl of hearty chilli.

Followed by pudding.

Look at those home-made cupcakes! The were sparkly and everything.

Ah yes, that is a piece of rockyroad. To be honest, I’m not sure how that got in my bowl. Think it fell in there by accident…

As amazing as the cupcake and rockyroad was I think I was too quick for my own good (yes I’m one of those people who’s pretty much first in the queue at buffets). After stuffing myself full they brought out crumble. I was devastated. I did contemplate having crumble as well but I’m not sure I could have driven us home afterwards without being sick. Moral of this story? Wait until they’ve finished putting all the food on the table before stuffing yourself.

So, a pretty good evening!

And we woke up this morning to this furry, scruffy hound:

I really need to get his haircut sorted. He is a mess, bless him.

What’s everyone up to this weekend?