Steak, chicken and peanut flour pancakes

Ah Monday. So we meet again.

Seems like just a few seconds ago it was Friday and I was leaving work. Ah well. And it seemed to rain from Friday until Saturday night.

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This is the dismal view from the window by my desk at work. It looks like February. It felt like February.

Friday night I decided to whip up a different meal from usual. You might have seen that I eat a lot of chicken and not much other meat. I don’t mind pork and I don’t mind beef mince but I can’t stand lamb. Not sure why but there we go. Anyway, I saw a recipe and knew I needed to try it. Main ingredient? Steak.

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Basically it’s steak with a honey marinade and goat’s cheese salad. I used THIS recipe but subbed the gorgonzola for goat’s cheese just because I love goat’s cheese. I also left out the walnuts and portabella mushroom as I thought I’d keep it simple.

The marinade was this:

  • pinch of sea salt
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. onion powder
  • 2 tbs. honey
  • 1 tbs. soy sauce
  • good splash of Worcestershire sauce

I used thin steaks (as the recipe says) which I was glad for as I’m not that adventurous to try a big old thick steak. They took next to no time to fry. So a very simple meal all in all. And very tasty. The goat’s cheese and steak went perfectly together.

Then we watched a whole lotta House of Cards (the new series we’ve gotten into as we signed up to Netflix). I love Kevin Spacey, there is something strangely attractive about him and his smooth talking. Am I alone in this?

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Saturday morning I managed to dodge the rain and get out for a 9 mile run before it started again with a vengeance about 30 mins after I got back. I knew that the run would be tough because of Thursday’s super charged run. Honestly, even if I wanted to run faster I couldn’t have. My legs were so fatigued.

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As soon as I started I knew it was going to be tough, so I kept the pace easy and just enjoyed being outside listening to my podcast. Sometimes it’s good to just let your mind wander and just relax into a nice pace.

And guess what I had for breakfast afterwards? You’ll be forgiven for guessing oatmeal, but I had something different. Yes. I know, shocking.

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I was going to have some basic pancakes but realised I didn’t actually have any regular flour. Ages ago I bought some peanut flour but have never used it so I thought I might as well give it a whirl.

Peanut Flour Pancakes (Serves 1)

  • 1/4 cup peanut flour
  • 1 tbs. oats
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tbs. sugar/alternate preferred sweetener
  • 2 egg whites/1 egg 
  • 1/4 cup almond milk (or regular milk)
  • pinch of salt

– Basically, mix all the ingredients together, then heat a tsp. oil in a frying pan and pour in the mixture in batches to make about 4-5 pancakes.

– Then add your favourite topping! I served mine with some mango that needed using up.

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A random choice perhaps and not particularly beautiful but it tasted pretty good. To be honest, I couldn’t really taste the peanut flour. It tasted just like normal pancakes, but I guess the mango could have helped disguise any differences hehe.

Hurrah a different breakfast for once! Though I did miss my oatmeal…well, you can’t have everything Winking smile

After getting ready we then had to take Alfie to the vets for his booster injection.

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Bless him, he was all fine in the waiting room sniffing around but as soon as we got into the vet’s room he was not a happy bunny. And he really didn’t want his injection and tried as hard as he could to avoid it Sad smile But in the end it was fine. Honestly he’s a big girl’s blouse. Also, check out the crazy dog hair products you can buy.

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They were £9.99 for a spray to make your dog’s fur smell nice. I don’t even spend £10 on my own shampoo!! I think Alfie would be offended if we suddenly turned him into a pampered pooch. In his mind I’m sure he believes he’s a big scary Rottweiler (incidentally, one of my friends has a 2-1 shampoo and conditioner for her pug…).

Saturday evening we met up with Ben’s mum and went out for dinner at a local pub. Usually this pub is quite nice; we’ve been a fair few times. But it wasn’t amazing. Ben and me shared a mezze board for starters which was tasty but nothing spectacular (and we know our mezze boards!)

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The falafels were nice, as was the hummus and obviously the sweet potato was good if not a bit huge for a starter. But three olives? Hmmm. And the square pastry things were tasteless.

The main I was really excited about, but the portion was quite small considering it was one of the more expensive things on the menu and this isn’t a fine dinning restaurant, it’s just a regular pub!

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It was turbot steak with mango salsa and more sweet potato. The two bits of sweet potato at the top were actually from Ben as he had them with his meal and didn’t want them. They must have had a stupid amount of sweet potato in the that kitchen!!

It was tasty but just a bit small (I was grateful for Ben’s off casts – though I was feeling a bit sweet potato’ed out by this point). But the company was lovely and we had a good natter Smile

Sunday (today) we enjoyed another roast chicken, this time a bit bigger and I left it to roast without adding anything to it as I wanted some plain meat for other meals in the week.

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I love how the house smells when you’re cooking a roast! So warming.

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I had a whole lot of chicken with veg and, er, yeah more sweet potato…I obviously wasn’t put off too much last night! Deliciously simple. I could have made gravy to go with it but we just fancied something really fresh and simple. And Ben wanted to drown his with lots of garlic mayo sauce. Lovely.

Speaking of Ben…he was keen for me to mention that he’s still going well with not drinking alcohol (he gave up four weeks ago in effort to get more healthy, run more and be ready for the 10k which is in 4 weeks time). Unfortunately his running has had to stop for a bit as he’s had some knee and back issues but hopefully, after seeing the physio a few times, he’ll be raring to go again. Though he is counting down the days until he can have a glass of wine again haha.

*** I’m still waiting to hear back from SlimKicker regarding the giveaway, I’ll post the winner as soon as I  know***

What did you get up to this weekend?

What’s your favourite way to roast a chicken?

Do you have a dog? What’s his feelings on the vets?

Friday catch-up and Valentine fail

It’s Fridaaaay! I think my absolute favourite time of the week is Friday evening just as I get in from work. It’s that glorious moment of ‘whew the week is done’.

This week has been pretty good in terms of key dates – Shrove Tuesday and Valentine’s Day. And also, my dad’s birthday (which is also 14th February). Happy birthday for yesterday, dad!

So Tuesday evening Ben and me celebrated Pancake Day with eating pancakes for dinner. Ben had the standard egg, milk and flour pancakes with sugar and lemon. I even managed to convince him to use wholemeal flour (OK, we didn’t have any regular flour so there wasn’t much choice). I’m not a big fan of the sugar and lemon variety, but luckily I was inspired earlier in the day from the lovely Ffion from ChocolateAndRaspberries blog.

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Definitely wanted to give them a go and such a simple recipe! So I microwaved some chopped sweet potato for around 5 minutes, let is cool and then whizzed it up with one egg with a hand blender and then fried a few batches in coconut oil. They didn’t quite work out as I hoped in terms of presentation – they fell apart. However, they tasted mighty delicious!!

IMG_3760I topped them off with some stewed plumbs (cooked in a bit of a water and sugar) and then added a good dollop of PB2. Really, really good. Thank you Ffion!

Thursday was obviously Valentine’s Day and my dad’s birthday and it was our work bake off and bake sale. I was planning on making lemon drizzle cake and some cheese scones but on Wednesday night I didn’t get back from work until fairly late…So I decided to just stick to cheese scones. I used THIS recipe and didn’t amend it at all.

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In true Anna fashion, something always goes wrong with me and baking. It’s usually because I don’t read recipes properly. It doesn’t matter so much in cooking but baking is more precise and so the problems arise for me. The recipe instructions said:

Lightly dust the surface with a little flour. roll out the dough no thinner than 2cm

I read that to be that I was to roll it out to be 2cm, no thicker. So I got very mini flat scones. And loads of them! They were more cheese biscuits than scones. They still tasted good though – and the recipe says they’re 130 calories per each one, but as I made twice as much they’re likely to be half that Smile

On Thursday morning I put my scones next to all the other bake goods that had been brought in and I felt mine didn’t quite living up to their peers. Ah well.

Bake off

There was a carrot cake, two banana breads, chocolate muffins, chocolate cupcakes, Mars Bar crispy cakes, ginger cake, lemon drizzle, my cheese scones/biscuits, more muffins, and a marble cake.

Well, we had to stand there and watch one of the managers try a small piece of each cake to make his mind up which was going to win. It was excruciating as I just wanted cake!! And watching him stuff his face was unbearable. At this point I couldn’t care less who won!

In the end one of the banana breads came third, the Mars Bar cake came second, and the marble cake came first.

Marble cake We later found out that it was actual the winner’s wife who made this cake, not him! Haha.

Anyway, though I wanted a bit of everything I went for two Mars Bar crispy cakes as honestly they were UNBELIVABLY good (I had one and just had to go back for a second), a small slice of carrot cake (very moist and yummy) and a small slice of lemon drizzle as this was my dad’s cake. I couldn’t believe it when he told me he’d baked. He never bakes. I have never known him to bake anything in my entire life.

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And it was very good!

I was hyped up and full of sugary goodness by 10.30am. Can’t complain.

We then sent them down to reception to sell for charity to the other companies in the building. I was really chuffed later as I saw a woman from another office walking along with two of my biscuits.

So it was Valentine’s Day. Ben and me had previously agreed to do nothing. I’m not that sentimental in that I need a card or chocolates to know Ben cares. Now I have nothing against other people celebrating it together and sending flowers – if that makes you happy, enjoy it! For Ben and me it was important at the beginning of our relationship when I was at university and he was at home, so sending flowers and cards was lovely as I didn’t get to see him that regularly. This year we just wanted to save some money and not bother.

BUT in the afternoon I was sat in a meeting when someone came in and told me there was a huge bunch of flowers in reception for me. I couldn’t stop the huge grin on my face and feebly saying “we said we weren’t doing Valentine’s Day this year…”. I skipped off down to the reception and found a box of flowers waiting for me to unwrap. The receptionist helped me and we giggled together about how lovely it was. I opened it to find twelve beautiful roses.

Ben’s never sent me roses before (other flowers, yes, but not roses) so I was surprised and initially thought it was a little bit of a cliché but these thoughts were quickly swept away with happy thoughts of how romantic Ben was in a very classic way.

As I headed upstairs I opened the little card that comes with it:

“Love you lots, love Rob xxx”

Who the hell is Rob?? They must have confused the cards! That’s all I could think. As I headed back to the office one of my colleagues saw the flowers and commented how lovely. I told him about the card and said how strange it was. He burst out laughing and said “Rob is the other Anna’s partner”.

Oh. My. God. Reception rang the WRONG Anna (there are two Anna’s in our office) and gave me her flowers. So I walked back into the office, sheepishly gave the other Anna her flowers and apologised for opening them. How embarrassing is that? The whole office thought it was hilarious. I did find it quite amusing (after my cheeks had faded from the beetroot colour). I mean, you have to laugh, right? I told Ben and he felt really bad.

As he should Winking smile

So that’s my week. I’ll do a recap on my running at the weekend – it’s been a hard week! And I have a 10 mile run planned for tomorrow morning so finger’s crossed it goes well.

Did you celebrate Pancake Tuesday? What kind of pancake did you have?

Did you enjoy Valentine’s Day? Any surprises?

What would you make for a bake off?

Creamy dreamy WIAW

Happy What I Ate Wednesday, people! It’s that time again.

 

I think that most people are intrigued about what other people eat. I mean obviously WIAW is clear evidence – it has a huge following. But I’m pretty sure that even people who don’t have as keen an interest in food and fitness have a bit of curiosity.

Everyone eats. But everyone eats different foods, different amounts, at different times and even for different reasons (we can try and convince ourselves that chocolate is a good sustaining fuel but really who are we kidding??). And I think people are nosey and like to know what their neighbour is doing. Whether to compare, trade notes, or just curiosity for curiosity’s sake. And I’m a great believe in food bringing people together.

Sorry random tangent!

Riiiight, on to the good stuff. I’ll share Saturday’s eats just because it was so darn tasty.

As I mentioned in the last post I did a really scenic 7 mile trail run in the snow. I never eat breakfast before a morning run. I know I probably should but I like my sleep and I don’t want to get up earlier than I have to. Plus I love getting back from a run and really enjoying my breakfast. Yes I could just have a snack beforehand but honestly, I literally wake up, walk Alfie and then run – pretty much 20 minutes from waking up I’m outta that door. I can’t run if I’m digesting.

But anyway, so I finished the run and decided it was that time again. PANCAKE TIME. It has been too long! I used THIS recipe but also added 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree to get some really beasty, chunky pancakes.

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Yep, I am not ashamed to say I wolfed all those bad boys down no problemo.

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With a side of PB2 which I intermittently smeared over them. Oh it was divine! Oh pancakes how I missed you.

So then after some housework and mooching about we had lunch. I’ve been really loving my soups lately. And as we actually didn’t have that much food in the cupboard since the snow prevented our weekly shop, chicken soup was the perfect choice to just kind of throw the dregs of the freezer together and hope for the best (really selling this aren’t I?).

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Basically chicken with a lot of frozen veg as we had nothing fresh, apart from a couple of lonely onions. But it was goooood. Especially with the cold weather. I also had a side of (unpictured) roasted butternut squash. I have tried putting the squash in the soup while it cooks but it’s just not as good as roasting it and then dipping it in the soup – is that weird?

Hmm I’m sure I did some fanscinatingly interesting activities on Sunday but I can’t quite remember them…maybe watched some reality rubbish TV, read a magazine…took Alfie for a walk in the snow…usual Sunday leisure activities post-household chores are complete.

Then dinner! I have found my latest favourite recipe. And unfortunately cannot recreate it until I get more pumpkin puree *sobs uncontrollably*. But apparently Waitrose sells it and my parents shop there quite a lot so I might put in an order to them Smile

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OK I realise it doesn’t actually look that appetising. However, it tasted amazing. I didn’t use a recipe, I just kind of threw some bits and pieces together due to lack of alternate options. Ben refuses to eat pumpkin (can I get a collective, whhaaaaat??) so he had a corned beef sandwich…enough said.

Creamy Pumpkin Pineapple Chicken (serves 1)

  • 1 tsp. oil of choice
  • Clove of garlic, diced
  • 1 small white onion, diced
  • 1 chicken breast, cut into cubes
  • 1/2 small tin of pineapple and 2 tbs. of pineapple juice
  • 1/2 cup of pumpkin (I roughly estimated this, I probably used a bit more to be honest) 
  • Big dollop of light Philadelphia
  • 1 tsp. paprika

– Fry the onion in a little oil until golden, add garlic and fry for another minute before adding chicken.

– Add the pineapple, juice and pumpkin.

– When heated through add the Philadelphia and paprika.

– When all combined and heated through feel free to add some random veggies to bulk it up a bit (that’s what I did!)

It was creamy, dreamy and I didn’t want it to end! The hint of sweetness from the pineapple really complimented the creaminess of the sauce. Seriously, this needs to be in your life. I am devastated that I have no more pumpkin.

I have to say that Philadelphia is my saviour for meals. It can liven up anything. The other night when I had fish I didn’t have anything apart from vegetables to accompany it. Now I’m not much a carb fan. You can take your rice and pasta and, to some extent, bread. I’d much rather have some more protein or fat, like cheese. So I roasted up some butternut squash and added a dollop of Philadelphia and blended it all together.

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I had the fish with a herby/spicey sprinkle, veg and roasted creamy, dreamy butternut squash.

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It rocked my world. It rocked my taste buds! Really delicious. And really easy.

In the evening we treated ourselves to some ever so yummy but probably not healthy at all Krusher dessert.

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It’s basically angel delight. You mix the powder with milk (I used almond milk) and then put it in the fridge for 5 minutes and it goes all airy and thick. Then you sprinkle chocolate sprinkles on it and voila. Done. Creamy and dreamy Winking smile

On Sunday we did a task that has really been too long not done. Bathing Alfie. Oh he was not impressed. He literally stood in our bath with a look of absolute indignation on his furry face. He didn’t even try to escape for the futility of his situation, but just shot daggers at Ben and me. But afterwards he smelt so clean and lovely and he was so fluffy!

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He still needs a haircut though…

On a fitness-related note. I’ve been trying to get the runs in early this week as I’m off to Derby on later today until Friday for work and though I know the hotel has a gym I can’t guarantee I’ll be bothered get there. So I ran 6 miles on Monday.

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It was a good run but my route was all over the place trying to find a safe place to run without a) falling over in the snow and b) getting hit by cars. I’ve found I have to run on the road to guarantee that I won’t hit any ice but then I can’t guarantee I won’t get hit by cars!! Nightmare.

Then yesterday I ran 4 miles with intervals spread through it.

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So I’m pleased I’ve banked some runs in early. Today I’m off out at lunch with the guys from work but I’m seeing this as more of a recovery run than an intensely fast run.

Now please don’t judge me. I’ve had my Garmin a while now. Until recently, I haven’t ever connected it to my laptop…I  know, that’s terrible isn’t it? I finally did it on Monday after getting hassle from the people at work for being such a technical dunce and seriously what have I been missing?? Full stats of every run, splits, maps, times, average paces, fastest paces, PBs. Oh wow!! You could waste hours analysing your runs. I haven’t. Yet…

Annnd lastly, here’s what I’m wearing today!

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Yay new jumper from Next!

That’s all I’ve got! Have a lovely day Smile

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten this week?

What do you prefer, carbs or protein? A warm crusty piece of bread or a lovely roast chicken?

Turn back? Never!

Dear Britain, please stop raining. It messes with everything. The commute is longer and more dangerous…

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[Took photo while in stand-still traffic!]

…choosing an outfit (and shoes!) requires more thought [real-world issues here], Alfie has to stay in the kitchen longer after going outside… It makes for a very grumpy Anna. I wouldn’t mind if it’s really cold and dry. Rain is just so miserable. We don’t have it nearly as badly as others around the UK but it still sucks.

It also makes for very wet and muddy runs! I ummed and arr’ed about going for a run at lunchtime on Monday. I had brought in my stuff but I kept looking anxiously out of the window and watching the on-and-off rain. Also I knew the woman who had originally invited me to run with her group wasn’t in the office. So it would mean running with a bunch of guys I didn’t know as well…

In the end I sucked it up and went. The guys were still up for running despite the weather and sheer amount of rain we’d had over the weekend (“Rain? Pah! We are men!”). This time I’d decided to wear my shorts rather than leggings because my leggings just got covered in so much mud that it made more sense that my legs just got covered in mud instead and that I could wash them in the shower.

It began with a lot of slipping and sliding in lots of mud, then sploshing through fields with lots of surface water…and then we got to the path that runs parallel to the local canal. Well, where it should have been. Normal people would have seen the sheer amount of water and flooding and would have turned around. Nope. We continued on – thigh deep in freezing water. Still running!

To be honest, it was good fun. It made for a rather interesting (albeit wet) run. My feet and legs were numb, very pink, wet and muddy by the end.Muddy run

But it was great! And 6 miles, which I was so chuffed with as I haven’t run that distance in a while. My Garmin died of battery though which really annoyed me.

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But all the guys had their Garmins on so at least I knew in the end it was about 6 miles (we were all beeping away on the run it was quite funny).

Anyway, it’s Wednesday! So here’s my WIAW (thanks, Jenn. Check out her blog to see what it’s all about).

I’ve got a bit of a mix of meals from different days as I’ve been changing things up a bit lately.

Breakfast: On Saturday I tried my hand at some coconut and oat pancakes. *Sighs* Disaster. My first one was promising…

Coconut pancake

But then it got progressively worse. They just all crumbled. So I just gave up and threw it all into a bowl.Coconut pancake 2

Despite how it looks, it tasted pretty good once I’d jazzed it up with some toppings:

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I added some frozen berries that I’d microwaved with some cinnamon and then a dollop of Greek yogurt. Not too shabby for a disaster! If anyone has tips for coconut flour pancakes, please let me know! I used 1 tbs. oats, 3 tbs. coconut flour, 2 egg whites, 1/4 cup pumpkin puree and a splash of almond milk.

I also made some rather delicious coffee that we haven’t been able to try until now. We got it in America but thought it was just instant rather than ‘proper coffee’. And we didn’t have a coffee machine or a cafetiere so we couldn’t try it when we got home! But we got one the other weekend purely to try this coffee.

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French Vanilla…and it tasted fabulous. Not like donuts as I think Ben was secretly hoping Winking smile

Lunch: I loved the sound of Laura’s cauliflower coconut soup so I made a variation for lunch for Saturday and Sunday.

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I fried a diced white onion in coconut oil, then added some diced garlic and then several large florets of cauliflower. Once that had cooked for about 5 mins, I added 1.5 cups veg stock, mixed herbs, then 1 cup full-fat coconut milk and 3 tbs. Greek yogurt. I cooked it for 5-6 mins and then whizzed it up using a hand blender. Really yummy!

Alongside this on Saturday I made some cornbread using Kelly’s recipe.

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A really quick recipe using the microwave. It was lovely and light and great for dunking. I used a funny mug hence the weird shape.

And then Sunday I had the soup with some butternut squash roasted in coconut oil on the side.

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These were great to dunk into the soup. Nom nom nom.

Dinner: I’ve still be clinging to my salads despite the weather, but I’ve been adding in some ‘warmer’ ingredients.

With our usual feta salad, I added more of the roasted butternut squash.

Halloumi and bsquash

And added some roasted sweet potato to our halloumi salad…

Halloumi and sweet potatoe

And then a range of roasted veggies to it another night…

Halloumi and r.veg

One night I also had some smoked mackerel that had been sat in the freezer for too long. So I added some Greek yogurt, some spices, garlic, lemon juice and whizzed it up to make a very yummy pate:

Mackarel pate

Absolutely heavenly! And so easy Smile

Snacks: well, obviously banana bread from the weekend has been picked at…

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Very yummy. Definitely need to make more breads I think. Devine.

And more of these very nice yogurts:

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Basically, I’ve really had some great days of nice food (perhaps not the best looking food: pancakes, I’m looking at you) but food nonetheless.

Fitness: obviously my off-road runs have been great! And what perfect timing with the weather haha. I hope to do three of those a week with the group but it really depends on how busy work is. And Pilates on Saturday was brilliant. I’ve also switched up my strength training a bit so I’ll do an update on that soon!

Do you enjoy running off-road?

What’s your favourite pancake variation? Have you tried coconut flour?

Have a lovely Wednesday Smile

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…)

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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.

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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.

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[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.

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

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

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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):

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[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:

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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?