Lunch - AnnaTheApple

July 25, 2012July 25, 2012

WIAW – #3

Beware, I’m about to have a bit of a rant. Apologies in advance.

It’s so lovely and warm. The sun is shining. It’s amazing. Everyone is so much more happy. I get to work. I AM FREEZING. Apparently there is the need to crank up the air con to MAX and turn it into winter into our office. I look longingly out of the window at the beautiful sunshine and gentle warm breeze swaying the trees. And I’m sat with my cardigan on and jeans shivering. Shivering. I walk out of work in the evening (even at 6pm) and the heat hits me. My car is roasting. And yet I’ve spent 95% of the day shivering. Now I know I don’t have a huge amount of insulation going to provide some benefit against this, but that is not the point. It’s finally summer and I’m still cold.

OK, I’m done. Whew. I feel better now.

Sooo, WIAW. It’s that time of the week where I ‘enlighten’ you the fascinating (mildly interesting?) meals that I’ve had today (well, Tuesday). As always, hosted by Jenn from Peas and Crayons.

So for breakfast:

Yep, that is green porridge. I added half a teaspoon of wheatgrass to my oats before cooking them. It didn’t impact the taste at all which was nice. I’m really into my wheatgrass at the moment and want to get it in where I can. I might make a green smoothie sometime this week to take to work and put in the fridge. I’m just concerned that they might think I’m a bit strange with my bright green smoothie…

Does anyone else get worried about what people think of what you eat? I eat quite healthily and get a few comments about my lunch or snacks and it really bothers me. I hate people looking at my food and judging me. I know I shouldn’t care but it makes me nervous eating around other people (except for close family and friends who know me well enough). I hate feeling like I have to justify what I’m eating. There are always the questions about why I eat so healthily and how I don’t need to eat all that salad, I’m skinny enough. I’m not eating it to get skinny I’m eating it to keep healthy and because I enjoy it! I eat rubbish as well but not all the time. I’m very conscious of what I put into my body and I like to feel good about myself.

Anyway, for lunch I had some quorn chilli that I’d made the other night and took some in to work with me [Check me out being a bit more adventurous with meals!]:

This is an appalling photo, sorry. I was trying to take a photo on the sly so my work colleges didn’t think I was crazy. They’re not from the “take a photo of your food” era. This lunch was really yummy. A bit of quorn, a handful of haricot beans, chopped bell pepper, chopped courgette, diced onion, bit of garlic, chilli, mixed herbs and a tin of chopped tomatoes. This made two very yummy portions. Very easy ‘bung it all in a saucepan’ meal.

Dinner was even better:

Goat’s cheese, chicken, chopped pear, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and pecan nuts with a balsamic dressing. I am loving salads at the moment. And I’m loving goat’s cheese. And surprisingly so is Ben. Another win!

Throughout the day I munched on some apples (obviously), a banana, Snack a Jacks (I am literally addicted to these) and a home-made jelly. No pictures as these are fairly dull. Well, maybe one photo:

Ahh, perfection.

Here’s what I wore (yay summer outfit!):

OOTD (outfit of the day): top is from Forever 21, jeans are soo old (from Topshop) and necklace from Accessorize. Can’t remember about the bracelets – probably Accessorize knowing me.

And for my fitness… I did my usual 5miles in the morning. I’m pleased with how it went. It was a nice cool temperature to run:

Not sure why my Garmin showed a different view today. I only recently jumped on the Garmin band wagon last month so I’m still getting used to it, and to be honest I’m not sure how to navigate through it. I just jab random buttons and hope for the best. I could read the manual. That would be the most sensible approach. But that’s an effort really, isn’t it?

Hope you’re all having a great WIAW. I love noseying (sp?) on people’s meals

July 18, 2012July 24, 2012

Eat outside the box

So we were vaguely tempted with a couple of hours of yesterday. But then it was rudely swiped away and replaced by cold and general cloudiness. *Sighs* well, I’m looking forward to my honeymoon in September…sunny Florida and Colorado. Woohoo!

As it’s Wednesday…

Thanks to Jenn for this – honestly I could spend an entire day looking at what everyone eats. It’s fascinating stuff and also gives me loads of inspiration for recipes (and a big dose of food envy!!) I’m still such a newbie and getting into the swing of things. Anyway here’s my what I ate for Tuesday. As usual for me I had lovely hot plain porridge for breakkie:

As you can see I ran out of almond milk! So, I had to have soya milk today. Not as good but it’ll do *grumble grumble* [love the fact that Tesco is doing an offer on almond milk right now – £1!! What a bargain]. I know it’s boring to have porridge for breakfast all the time but I just love it. I see all these lovely recipes for overnight oats with exciting fruits and nut butters and I think “wow, they look so yummy” but I can’t bear to not have my usual porridge. Sad isn’t it?? Well I’m thinking of maybe taking some overnight oats to work with me and having it for lunch. Is that excessive? Having oats twice in one day…?

For lunch I had my tuna salad which is always so yummy but again I probably need to mix things up a bit. I later had some olives and a banana.

I’m trying to think (or eat) outside the box. I want simple, healthy food, easy to prepare and cheap to buy – not much, eh? I think I’m just a creature of habit and routine and I find myself getting stuck in these ruts. I know it’s not that difficult to create a salad and vary it up, I’m just being lazy. Well, I’m going to try and think of some different ideas so watch this space.

At least dinner was a bit more interesting. We had a piece of chicken with BBQ marinade and some roasted vegetables. To jazz up the veg I was going to crumble some goat’s cheese on it. However, I was devastated to find my goat’s cheese had gone off! I was so looking forward to it and was so disappointed to find it mouldy. So I had to improvise. I grated a Babel Bell over the veg instead. Not as good but what can you do?! And as always, a mountain of veg on the side…I could have a side of veg with anything really. A meal isn’t complete without it.

After dinner I always have two smallish (OK maybe medium-ish) apples. I used to just have one but it was never enough. I literally could eat about six apples a day but I’ve toned it down a bit (fighting off the withdrawal symptoms and shakes). Hence my blog name! I always have at least one apple a day. It’s like a comfort food for me. It’s dependable; you can take it with you wherever you go, it holds up better than a banana in your handbag, and there are so many delicious varieties (though I detest Granny Smiths – too tart for me!) Golden Delicious and Braeburns are my favourite.

Here’s what I wore yesterday:

(Pretty much all from New Look – love that shop).

Well, I hope you all have a lovely day (and those in the UK don’t have too much rain, booo). I hope to get more exciting with my food soon (pst, I’ve bought a blender!!). There might be some hope for me soon in this blogging world, hehe.

July 12, 2012July 24, 2012

First WIAW

Now I know I’m very new to this but I’m very excited about my first ever What I Ate Wednesday (hosted by Jenn from Peas and Crayons).

So here we go (apologies for the rubbish photography skills and quality – I am clearly very much a newbie in this area!).

For breakfast:

A bowl of regular Scottish oats with almond milk and a bit of water. Microwaved until at the perfect consistency of just the right amount of stodginess (a very technical and scientific term). I’m a big fan of soya milk (and skimmed milk) and I’ve only just started using almond milk after reading about it on pretty much every blog around. So I jumped on the band wagon and, unsurprisingly, it’s delish!

Very simple but very filling and warming on yet another rubbish British’s summer day (is there any more rain left in the sky?? Because I’m pretty sure we’re all going to drown soon, or live life perpetually feeling slightly damp).

And a nice mug of black coffee after getting into work:

For lunch:

I’m a creature of habit and routine so I usually have the same thing for lunch during the week as it’s just so easy, cheap and yummy. Basically, it’s flaked tuna, lettuce, beetroot, cherry tomatoes and some random bits of veg (like broccoli, peas & cauliflower) with a quick spray of Caesar dressing. Some olives on the side and two Babel Bells.

For dinner:

I got in late last night from work so I threw together something easy and healthy for Ben (The Other Half) and me:

Scrambled egg with tuna (yes, more tuna…whoops) and cherry tomatoes with a portion of soya beans (I meant to buy broad beans but got these by mistake – a nice change actually), Brussels sprouts, artichoke hearts and some left over cucumber that needed eating. Quite a meal! Very yummy. I must confess that Ben didn’t quite get on board with the sheer amount of veg…

I’m really enjoying artichokes at the moment. Going to try and find some recipes to do some interesting things with them because at the moment I’m just throwing them on the plate as a side (though they are damn good like that).

Wednesday was a lot better than Tuesday – but then it didn’t take much considering how bad Tuesday was!