hummus - AnnaTheApple

September 19, 2012September 19, 2012

Sweet Sunday and WIAW

So last post I mentioned that I had very busy Saturday with lots of wedding arrangements and having lunch out with my mum and sister. Sunday was equally busy as well. We had our ceremony rehearsal at the church in the morning after the Sunday service, and all the ‘main players’ (ushers, bridesmaids, etc.) met us there and we had a dry run-through.

It was quite surreal and we joked all the way through it. Like my dad and me did a funny walk together up the aisle. People objecting to our marriage. Then when Ben was repeating his vows I kept winking at him or pulling faces so he kept laughing. It was very funny and the vicar joined in as well. It made things a lot less scary!

Then from there we went straight to our reception venue to go through the final details and timings. So I feel a lot more ready now. I know what’s going on and that everything is pretty much sorted.

Then came the fun part of the day; buying our sweets for our candy buffet. We looked in old vintage-style sweet shops but it was all a but too expensive (but I enjoyed looking anyway – anyone else get excited by things like that??)

So then we went to more cheap shops to get better value for our money.

And we bought just a few things…

Hehe. Yum!

And then it was a case of deciding which jars which sweets would go into.

This was fairly difficult as I didn’t want to open any sweets yet so they would keep fresh for as long as possible…so it might need tweaking on Friday when I’m sorting out last minute details.

The doilies are great! I love the vintage look. And the paper plates will be for cupcakes that my friend is baking me for the day.

So it’s going to be a plethora of sweet goodies…I’m so pleased with how it’s turning out! I’m absolutely the least creative person, so this is pretty good for me. I got all the jars from charity shops so the costs have been kept down.

And I’m chuffed with the table favours too. I bought the paper bags from Amazon for like next to nothing and got some ribbon from Hobbycraft. Each table has a sweet name (like Jelly Babies or Liquorice Allsorts) and then each person on that table gets a bag full of that sweet. Top table gets a mixture of everything (win!).

So that was Sunday! Now on to WIAW. Thank you Jenn for hosting as always. Check out her blog to view what other bloggers have been eating (all very interesting!!)

As always, I’ll show you a bit of a mix of meals as Wednesday isn’t usually that exciting in terms of meals…

Breakfast is usually the same every day (apart from random pancake days!):

I mix about 1/2 cup of oats with 1tsp of wheatgrass and a sprinkle of ground flaxseed (a new addition!) and then unsweetened almond milk. Nuke in the microwave for 3.30 mins (stirring half-way) and it’s good to go!

Fills me up really well until lunch time (which is like a good 4.5 hours later!).

Then lunchtime [at work I usually have a tuna salad or homemade veggie chilli that I batch make at the weekends]. But I’ll show you a lunch I had at the weekend which rocked my world. Home-made hummus:

Chickpeas, lots of herbs (mixed and coriander), lots of minced garlic, lemon juice and a big dollop of tahini paste.

Then whizzed up in a food processor.

I had this with salad, chicken and one of my new favourite chutneys (Cheeky Monkey – banana chutney!)

Lovely. Really sweet and flavoursome, which complimented the hummus perfectly!

Dinner (from Friday night) was hands down the best meal of the week! Cauliflower pizza. The base was made with grated cauliflower, one egg and a big blob of goat’s cheese. I baked this for a few minutes, then added a tomato base…

Then I threw on lots of toppings (more goat’s cheese, chicken, mushrooms & courgette) and baked for about 8 mins.

Doesn’t look like pizza, granted (except that it’s round) but it tasted gooood and I was stuffed.

Snacks…well I thought I’d show you my every day dessert after dinner:

Two chopped apples (always chopped, never whole).

With the wedding coming up I’ve not been that adventurous with my cooking (there are quite a lot of repeat offenders) but during my honeymoon I hope to have some very exciting eats!!

Workouts have been fairly standard. I did manage a quick interval run on Sunday (2 miles) despite not thinking I’d get anything in. And then yesterday I ran another 2 miles and did some core workout. I can now hold a plank for 3 mins, woohoo! Abs of steel! *Cough* Well, moderately firm.

And outfit of the day [dress from Warehouse]:

Important meeting in London today, so the smart dress is out in full force!

Happy WIAW all! Happy eating [and viewing]!

September 17, 2012January 5, 2017

Almost there now…

What a busy weekend! Wow I can be super efficient when I want to be (an impending deadline looming ahead helps quick things I must say…W-Day is approaching sooooon!)

I got up early to rush off to my beauty appointment Saturday morning, then had to rush home and do some housework (yes I am that OCD). And then my sister, my mum and me rushed off to have lunch in Chichester. Chichester is such a lovely place and the weather was fabulous. There were all these little stalls about selling local foodie things which just made my day. I was like a kid in a sweet shop! [Apologies for the photos, it was very sunny and I was using my IPhone!]

So obviously I had to pick myself up a little something…or three…

I’m in love with these chutneys. I could have bought more than this to be honest but I had to restrain myself (well, my sister had to restrain me). Banana chutney sounds crazy, but it’s SO good. I cannot wait to start using these!

We then went to a lovely restaurant called Trents.

That’s my mum and me.

And my sister and my mum. We’re a very small family (with my dad) but we’re very close. I have such fun with my sister and mum, we all just have a lot of banter with each other and are always there for each other if we need them.

For starter we shared a platter of hummus-type dips and a baked camembert…

Divine. We dove into it and hoovered it all up like locusts. Very yummy.

For main I chose a lime and chilli chicken salad.

And I was STUFFED. Let’s be honest, I was quite full after the starter! But it a perfect lunch.

Then we ambled along Chichester high-street just moseying about really. We ended up in Lakeland Plastics which is one of my favourite shops (seriously, they have they answer for every chef’s problem!!) And similar to those mini-spatulas I found last week, I found this mini-frying pan:

I mean how cute is that! It’s to fry a solitary egg.

And we also found some random items that made us laugh. A tin for all of Ben’s essential items!

You know what I mean though…all that random Man Stuff that get scattered about the house(batteries & screwdrivers…things like that). Hehe.

And this card made me giggle:

Now this might sound sappy, but there was a violinist playing outside as we were mooching about and while we walked along I realised he had started playing the music I’m going to walk down the aisle to!!

Canon in D Major (by Pachelbel). It was so lovely.

Hope you all had lovely weekends!

August 22, 2012January 5, 2017

WIAW #5

I haven’t posted in a while as I’ve just been rushed off my feet like crazy!

Anyway, as it’s What I ate Wednesday, I will stop harping on…Check out Jenn’s blog (Peas & Crayons to find out more):

My breakfast from Tuesday (prepare yourselves!) was overnight oats!! I’m so chuffed I finally managed to get on and do it. I feel a little bit more part of the healthy living blogging community. That’s a tick in that box! Did I enjoy it? Well…I did, but I did miss my lovely gooey hot green (wheatgrass) oats…But it was a nice change.

So Monday night I put about 40g of old-fashioned oats, 100g of Alpro soya yogurt, a splash of coconut milk, a tsp chia seeds and a handful of berries into a bowl (not that cool to have a jar yet…not quite that cool yet) and popped it into the fridge:

Then in the morning I grabbed it out of the fridge. It looked a little suspicious to me…

…but I gave it a stir and it was lovely a thick:

It was yummy. A nice change for once in a while I think! I did make things a lot quicker getting ready in the morning though.

My lunch was my standard salad that I take to work. This time I jazzed it up with some Brussels sprouts (which I’m loving right now) and avocado (along with my usual tuna, salad leaves, beets and tomatoes). With this I had two Babel Bells (anyone else get excited about Babel Bells because you get to peel them…? Just me?)

And dinner. Well I got a bit creative and made some hummus! And let me tell you, it rocked my world:

I used a tin of chickpeas, a tablespoon (ish) of tahini paste, lots of garlic, lemon juice and cumin. Then just whizzed it all up. Served over salad and chicken fried in a tagine paste:

It was so good (if I do say so myself). And so filling. A definite winner. I do have lots of snacks through the day but they’re fairly standard and boring (apples – obviously, a banana, and a pack of Snack a Jacks Cheese and Chive flavour – the best flavour in the world, honestly I could eat these all day long).

Maybe over kill on the salads but it is a summer staples theme of WIAW! And they’re so easy to whip up. And I do love my veggies…

Onto fitness. I’m continuing on with my new line of exercise routines. On Monday I ran only two miles (it’s still so hard to not to feel funny about not running for longer, you know? It feels like I’m copping out of exercising). But it was tough! And I was totally out of breath and dying by the end:

Only 17 mins worth of running and I was pooped! I’m keeping up the intervals and it’s tough. it really makes you focus on the run. Then I did 30 minutes of ab work. The first exercise video I found on YouTube almost killed me. So I quickly switched (yes yes I’m a wuss). It still hurt but I was actually able to complete the routine!

I’m so pleased with how things are going. I definitely feel like I’m getting stronger (possibly psychological?) But, regardless of anything else, I am enjoying it! And that, people, is the most important part of exercise I think. If you don’t enjoy it, find something else you do enjoy!

Right, this was a bit of a whirlwind post. I hope to write a longer one delving into my hen party activities… But for now, happy WIAW!!

August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

WIAW #3

How depressing that the nights are now drawing in and summer seems to be ending (had it ever begun?) I’ll miss walking Alfie early in the morning when it’s still light, and then I’ll miss running in the morning light. I’m definitely not looking forward to running along in darkness hoping to either a) not run into carefully concealed street paraphernalia, b) run through cold, muddy puddles that I hadn’t spotted, and c) step on slugs – possibly the most disgusting running-related incident. Or a snail…that horrible crunch. *shudders*

But summer is surely not over yet. I’ve had strong words with it over a certain specific date in September where I need a reasonably warm temperate and sunny blue skies (though not too sunny)…specific requirements for good wedding weather! We’re still in negotiations…

So, on the theme of summer: WIAW! Thank you, Jenn

Now prepare yourselves for something a bit crazy (or at least mildly different):

Yes, that is a plate of banana pancakes that I made on Saturday morning. Not my usual green porridge! I made them using Katie’s recipe. They look a little bit well-done…but they tasted great! A dollop of yogurt and they were good to go. Trying to keep it varied. Baby steps…

So, lunch time over the weekend Ben and I had another salad (we’re going crazy for them at the moment; so easy to prepare and so many possible varieties):

We had chicken fried with garlic over a bed of salad (cucumber, bell pepper, tomatoes, beetroot, & leaves) with a massive dollop of roasted red pepper hummus. So simple but very nice. And! on the side (as I had soo many courgettes to use up) I whipped up a tzaziki side dip, but using Jenn’s amazing recipe.

Fantastically refreshing. Ben didn’t even realise it was using his least favourite vegetable rather than cucumber (which he has a better relationship with). So a nice summery salad to fit in with the Summer Staples style!

And dinner last night:

This was chicken curry. I followed this recipe from BBC Good Food website.

I subbed actual peanut butter with PB2. It wasn’t as creamy as I thought it was going to be, which was a bit disappointing and it didn’t taste overly nutty. So maybe next time I’ll use ‘proper’ peanut butter and that might make a difference. It was tasty though. On the side I made some kale chips and had some steamed veggies. I loved the kale chips. I think it was purely for the satisfying crunch you got when eating them. But Ben didn’t like them at all (no surprises) but a win-win situation for me. Mountains of kale chips! Apparently it sounded like I was burrowing around in a pile of leaves when I was eating. Well, no one said being healthy was a quiet occupation!

Snack-wise I’m loving my green smoothies (I mix it up a bit and have some kale instead of spinach and Alpro hazelnut milk instead of almond – a review of Alpro products to come very soon!) and I’m loving this dark chocolate:

74% dark chocolate with cocoa nibs in it. It’s soo rich and the small nibs in it are add a lovely texture. I’ve got into the habit of having a square in the evening to savour after dinner. It just hits the spot, you know? When you fancy that something sweet but don’t want to push the boat out too much.

In terms of fitness, the week didn’t start off well. I ran on Tuesday and it was tough. My legs felt heavy, I felt tired…it just wasn’t amazing. I got through it but honestly the fun factor wasn’t there (OK I use the word ‘fun’ loosely here).

But hey ho, such is life! I haven’t been sleeping amazingly recently. Lots on my mind with the wedding and up-and-coming hen do. I always have problems sleeping when I’ve got too much to think about. This is usually when my friend G&T comes and gives me a hand (to qualify that sentence, as it does sound like I’m slightly alcoholic, I don’t drink every night!! And only a small measure when I do hehe).

On an Olympics side-note, I’m so proud of Britain! We’re doing spectacularly. I can’t believe we’re third! I’ve been watching as much as I can. I’ve found myself screaming at the T.V (scaring Alfie in the process). And the 100m men finals…wow they were stupidly quick, weren’t they? And they all had a certain swagger. Well, I guess you would if you could run that fast!

And Ben has even been influenced by the Olympics…to the extent that we have bought a rowing machine! He is now rowing in the evening. Crazy. I really miss rowing as I used to do it in the gym quite a lot but now I just run so this should be good for me vary things up a bit. However, we don’t really have the space in our tiny little house for a rowing machine!! Ben didn’t quite think about this when he ordered it *sighs* oh well. Our lovely little spare room has been taken over. But with healthy intentions.

Happy WIAW! And happy eating!