I don’t know about you but this week is dragging. But it’s finally mid-week. On a side not, embarrassingly, it has taken me ages to get why people say “happy hump day” on a Wednesday. Yep, I’m that slow. (Pssst, if you didn’t know too it’s because you’re over the ‘hump’ of the week!)
And being Wednesday I’m back in the game for What I Ate Wednesday.
Thanks, Jenn, for hosting as ever.
This is food is from Sunday – aka 5 mile race day (recap still to come!)
Breakfast – what a surprise I know. If you’ve been a long-time reader you know this is fairly standard stuff. And on race day it isn’t going to change!
Oatmeal and unsweetened almond milk
I had this before 8am, the race started at 10.30am so enough time to digest adequately! And perfect fuelage for the race.
And to make things interesting, here’s what Ben ate:
He wanted to share as he felt his breakfast was up to healthy standards for once 
He went for oatmeal with cow’s milk, dried fruit and a chopped banana. Notably absent was any added sugar!
After the race, hanging about chatting to people and getting home, we were famished! So we straight away had lunch.
This is re-used photo as I forgot to snap it before the hunger beast took over
I had one of my favourite quick meals. Chicken, random veggies and half a tin of pumpkin puree with cream cheese. I know it looks pretty grim there, but seriously this is heavenly.
Sunday was a great day of snacking as well… I might have had another one of these my granddad had left with us:
Meringue with dark chocolate and strawberry on top
And dinner was another repeat offender but one we hadn’t had in a while.
Beef meatballs. Mine is on the left and Ben’s is on the right. If he can put cheese on something, he will. I love this meal. I am still loving beef mince.
And pudding…well pudding was fantastic.
This was a slice of raspberry sponge cake that I got at the end of the 5 mile race. No medals, but a choice of cakes! That’s my kinda running. I didn’t eat it straight after the run as I just didn’t fancy cake straight away (food immediately after running just doesn’t go well in my stomach, plus I wanted to savour it later with a hot drink), so I had it after dinner with a hot chocolate. And I reaaaally enjoyed it.
Er…I might have nabbed another slice of cake as well at the race. I twinkled my eyes and gave my best smile to wrangle another slice of cake… Absolute lie, I offered cold hard cash. All of 50 pence to be exact
Slice of banana bread (infected a little with the raspberry sponge)
Unfortunately I had to share this slice with Ben. *Sighs* I do hate being married. Totally joking
An honourable mention this week is the appearance of one of our favourite salads.
Grilled halloumi (or fairly well done halloumi, whoops) with a whole host of veggies and roasted butternut squash. Divine.
As you can, I love my balance. On the one side I’m a huge fan of salads, fresh vegetables, home-cooked meals, and obviously my beloved and ever-present apples. But on the other side, I will always have my cake. Cake is my indulgence. Cake is my weakness. I need it every week to feel 100% Anna and 100% happy. It’s my soul food. I like to give my body good foods and good fuel to keep it healthy and happy. But for my soul, my mind, my spirit – whatever you want to call it – I need cake. My happy food. Don’t get m wrong I don’t have it every day (seriously, who can afford cake every day?) but it definitely makes a routine appearance every week. Whether I’m curled up on the sofa watching a film on a Saturday night, or sat in a cafe having a chinwag with my mum, or munching on something a co-worker has brought in to the office, I will have my cake. And it is always eaten 
Just don’t get me to choose between cake and apples. It can’t be done.
What is your soul food? It doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘naughty’! I would class apples as my soul food too. Basically it’s the food I always look forward to eating, always enjoy eating, it never gets old, and always makes me a happy happy Anna.
What are your repeat offender meals? Halloumi salads are a winner in our house, but meatballs are more of a weekend food as they take a bit longer to throw together,
What’s your ideal pre-race/workout fuel? Oatmeal has always worked (race or no race). Ben will always have a banana but sometimes will leave it at that or have something bigger.
Oh you know I’m a big fan of soul foods! Mine is gelato and pastries, oh and frappes as well! That sponge cake looks divine 🙂
Ahh gelato, yes I agree 😀
eoihflreiufghrehiqre can I come over and eat that banana bread and that chicken dish? Kthanks.
Haha 🙂
Obviously I’m a big lover of cupcakes. Also ice cream/gelato/fro yo and fruit based dessert.
Yes to all of those!!
I just assumed it was the “hump” of the week, but honestly the expression is a little strange to me. I just prefer “mid-week” or “Wednesday” lol.
Hum. Your husband’s breakfast is looking good. Two thumbs up! 😀
I’m not sure how I would feel about cake instead of a medal. At the time I’d be like– Cake! Yes please! But then later once said cake had been eaten and forgotten, won’t you want something to remember it by? Well… I guess that picture of cake would be good enough. Especially if you recreated it
Yeah I agree about the medal. I mean I did enjoy the cake and it was a nice change, but I do like medls as it’s a memeto you can always keep. And you feel like a rockstar 😉
Look at all of those brussel sprouts!! Yum! 🙂
I know, heavenly!
I really have no idea about what to have for breakfast before a race- I used to have porridge before a long run but it would have to be hours before (eg 3+ hours), and then I would start getting hungry again. I have had success with malt loaf, and I had toast before my last 10k, but normally now if I run in the morning I have breakfast when I get back, but with races it seems they start a bit too late for that.
And a race with cake at the end sounds perfect! When we did a 20 mile run a few years ago there was cake for sale at the end but it was a hot day and I felt icky when I finished, plus it was for donations and I had left my money in the car, so I didn’t have any. Although later that day we bought ice creams (and had one each!!)
Yeah it’s a bit of a mission to work out what to eat before a race with timings. I remember with the Reading half I left eating breakfast until 10 mis before we left as it was such a drive there and then a lot of hanging around. Though lots of people started munching bananas around me and I started panicking thinking I needed a banana haha.
Cake is my favourite ‘me’ food too!
😀
I’m excited to hear you’ve successfully converted Ben over to the pre-race oatmeal bandwagon! Who knows…he may soon be joining you in oatmeal-eating every morning! :-p
I’m a huge fan of beef mince (or as we say in the U.S., ‘ground beef’…but mince sounds SO much better!) too. I feel as though it’s kind of demonized in the HLB world, but the flavor is so good, especially if it’s grass-fed! The meatballs you ate for dinner have totally sparked a craving! I’d probably cover mine with cheese like Ben did, though. Everything tastes better with cheese! 😉
…Except maybe cake? Yeah, I’m not sure raspberry sponge cake would taste so great with cheese. Unless it was *cream* cheese. Now, that would be fantastic. Your slice looks absolutely divine; I’m glad you were able to save it and thoroughly enjoy it on race night. Totally worth the wait!
Your dessert philosophy is exactly like mine; vegetables may nourish my body, but sweets nourish my soul. I can’t imagine a week without ice cream and chocolate (my two soul foods) – I’d be so sad! As cliche as it sounds, the secret to a healthy body/mind/spirit truly is balance. We can definitely have our cake and eat it too -literally and figuratively!
Hope you’ve had a fantastic week, Anna! <3 xoxo
Yeah it is a shame about beef and lots of other meats in general not making much of an apparance on HLBs. Ho hum! Ahh cream cheese frosting YES. So so good 😀
OMG I have ALWAYSSSS wanted to try halloumi cheese. I saw it once on the Food Network and now I’m dying to try it. Do you eat it often? I love the sound of your quick chicken meal- I’m planning to make something similar for dinner tonight! Cream cheese makes any dish better!! 😀
Honest, it’s amazing. It has a ‘rubbery’ texture but if you grill it it becomes less rubbery. It’s quite a salty cheese but nice and filling. I want to say meaty, if you know what I mean.