Brit Chick Runs

Rawhrhgthgy!?*&%!.

You know those days where you just wake up in the most foul mood known to man, and nothing will make it go away? I’ve had one of those It’s been horrible. BUT, I shall put on a Big Cheesy Grin and recap the day!!

It began wiiittthhh…an apple, a square of chocolate and 2 tsp wheatgerm! OH how repetitive am I :p I then went out on another 5k run (in almost exactly 27minutes) as per the marathon training programme.

Now, I had left myself plenty of time this morning to run, cool off, pretty myself up, have breakfast etc and then leave my for job interview which was at 11am. However, the Powers That Be decided to send in some bloke to read the electricity metre today, which totally threw me! As Hannah was still asleep, I had to sort him out – he took aaggggeesss!! It was SO frustrating, cos I could see the clock ticking away…..anyway, he left, and I continued – somewhat hurridly – to get ready. I was just packing up my stuff when I realised my CV was missing – cue manic searching for it. In the end, I had to boot up my mum’s OAP-speed desktop to re-print it out :/ That was another like, 15minutes wasted!!?? SOOO as a result – breakfast was tres rushed and very dull!!

Smoothie – a banana, 1 cup yogurt, 1 tbsp protein powder, cinnamon, 1tsp carob powder:

No time for toppings ;( but it was delicious in the 5 or so seconds I had to drink it :p

Other half of breakfast was eaten on my way, cos I ran out of time. Twas a blend of 1 cup of cereal with some cantaloupe melon and a splash of milk:

It looks gross, and I thought it would taste gross – after all I didn’t even have time to blend it properly! BUT, after the 1/2 hour or so it waited before it was eaten, it became a delicious cake-like mixture!! It was WONDERFUL! Moral of the story – don’t knock ugly food til you’ve tried it

Next up was my job interview – quite informal, and the job looks AMAZING but to be honest, I don’t want to get my hopes up…so far I haven’t heard anything, so I’m going to try and put it out of my mind

I then shot home at Superman-on-crutches speed, so I could change and take my gran out for a delayed birthday lunch We went to a little farm cafe not far from us – the vegan selection was non-existent (as is the case outside of London…), but they did have a bean burger which was vegan apparently, so I had that with a salad of sweet potato, cous cous, beetroot and raisins:

Hmm..somewhat lacking on the sweet tater and cous cous!!?? There was like, one giant mouthful’s worth!! Alas :s The burger itself was just ok – just like something you could buy in Tesco, ie a bit processed tasting. But meh, that’s what you get for being vegan apparently!! Anyway, I ate all of it, bar the burger bun.

When I got home, I tucked into a very very delicious juicy pear for dessert:

If I had a way with the words, I’d write a poem declaring my love for the simple – yet BEAUTIFUL – pear….said poem will have to wait I think :p

What was left of the afternoon was spent doing Jillian part TROIS, sorting out the horses, having a mini freakout, and taking Poppy out for a half hour.

In between all that, I ate the most skanky, dusty (!?) apple ever (yes – it was dusty. That’s the only way I can think to describe it!!), and having another ‘cake’ snack:

That would be a cup of cereal blended with 1/2 cup yogurt and sprinkled with cinnamon (yes, I was hungry ). Again, it looks gross – but believe me, it was SOO lovely!! TRY IT!

My dindins was very comforting – I seriously needed it today…Tempeh, with peanut butter/maple syrup parsnip fries, kabocha, celeriac and butter beans:

Gosh darn it, that meal was perfect – it hit the spot 100% and was just what I needed Plus, those fries were SO darn crispy!! A true delight

My mum and I are now going on a Poppy walk – I actually have a few problems at the moment which I really need her help on (actually, I could use all of you guys’ help! But I’m reluctant to blog about it, cos I’m not sure who reads my blog :s) so I better dash off! Have a nice evening

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Ok – I just said I wasn’t sure who read my blog right? So, I’m going to completely nick this lovely lady’s idea, and ask y’all, chat roomy stylee – A/S/L!?

(That’s age/sex/location tell me about yourselves! Come out of the woodwork! I want to know everyone )

I would die if I didn’t have my blender.

Like actually, physically, die. The blender in question has been worked off its’ socks today Carrots, smoothies, more smoothies, breadcrumbs….bless its’ lil heart

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Before the blender action, I had the usual apple/wheatgerm/chocolate snack, and then went on a 5mile run, as per day2 of Marathon Training. Again, it was super super hot out!! I let myself walk for 30 seconds in each mile, so I could drink and – if needed – have a quick stretch. I’ve definitely noticed a correlation between hot weather and achey legs. All I can say is thank GOODNESS my marathon won’t be hot! Anyway, the run was done and dusted in 42minutes Though I seriously need a head/sweat band…I could feel sweat drip into my eyes at one point..isn’t that rum!? I long for the days when I used to run in a whooly hat and gloves…….*sigh

Breakfast was [shockingly!] NOT an EGM! Oh no people, I mixed it up today I had a big banana-peanut butter smoothie, consisting of:

• 1.5 frozen bananas
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1/2 cup milk
• a big blob of peanut butter ( a tbsp maybe?)
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• granola sprinkle

The resulting deliciousness:

SO good. It’s such a novelty having a smoothie that isn’t green!! The carby bit of breakfast was a cupful of mixed cereal with some strawberries:

Fabulous darling. Fabulous.

I then spent a good few years slathering the sun cream on, before taking Poppy out for a desert forest walk. We did a good hour and a half of power walking, which was pretty cool! Though she actually managed to get tired on the way back (it never happens!!) – so much so she had a little lie down I think it was cos I didn’t bring any dog water with me (oops…), so she was panting rather a lot. Howeverz the forest is only 5mins from home, so as soon as we got in, she kicked back with an iced pina colada and a Magnum I did actually try and give her water on the walk – by trickling my own bottle in front of her – but alas, she is a dumb dog and actually ran away from the water!! And they say dogs are smart….:P

My forest trek took up most of the morning, cos I was hanging out with Chika before I left, and then when I got back, I went to a cafe to hand in an application form…the nice people there gave me one when I went on that epic Find A Job expedition on Thursday or whenever…anywayz.

When I got back, I was starving! I ate a hunk of parsnip though so I was fully able to create a proper lunch and what a lunch it was! I picked this up while I was at the cafe place:

It’s a melon…but I have no idea what sort…anyone care to enlighten me!? A few slices of it made up part of my lunch:

I also did some more blending action A pear, frozen strawberries, xanthan gum, nutmeg, a tsp of maple syrup, and spinach. It looked so pink and lovely before the spinach grubbied it up :/ Pre-grub:

Post-grub:

Hurrumph. Despite the colour, it still tasted wonderful – almost like kiwis!!

I’m not done yet The third part was a veggie burger in a wholemeal English muffin, with bbq sauce, and roast parsnip/fennel:

Praaaaaiiiissseee BE for the glory that is all that food! STUPENDOUS meal folks, STUPENDOUS. As were the So Crispy bites for dessert

Then the kitchen magic reaaaally got going…first up – Jenna’s lentil loaf. I’ve seen this recipe all over the darn blogosphere recently, and it won her a lifetime supply of lentils, so I figured a) it had to be good, therefore b) it was high time I made it.

The only slight alterations I made were using fennel instead of celery (I had none), using mixed herbs instead of oregano (likewise) and 1/2 cup walnuts, not 3/4 cup (I ran out). Oh, and I made my own ketchup out of tomato puree, vinegar, mixed herbs and sugar, cos we had no ketchup either! Other than that, I followed it to a t

Just before topping…

After topping….

And you’ll have to wait til dinner to see how it turned out

Next on my list was these chocolate cupcakes, that I saw baked on Jess’ blog. But..they didn’t work For one, the mix only made 10 cupcakes, and they also took about 1/2 hour to bake – yet even then, they were all sinky and weird:

I’m yet to have one, but I was a bit miffed Soooo, what do you do when baking goes (possibly) wrong? You bake again! This time, I consulted the expertise of my favourite vegan cooking book:

I love Isa The recipe in question:

Carrot raisin muffins! These guys came out much better:

That book is so wonderful – afterall, it holds the recipe for those AMAZING pumpkin muffins from a while back If I could marry it, have its’ children, and be buried next to it when I pass, I would.

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I ate my afternoon snack of this:

Whilst watching England get proper thrashed 4-1 by Germany. Oof! I’m a little bit ashamed to call myself English I swear we once used to be good at football….oh well. We’re good at eventing! Did you know the British eventing team (that’s horse riding, with 3 phases, instead of just one) has won 7 consecutive team gold medals at the European championships, which happen every 2 years? That’s 14 years of being freaking fabulous (and beating those pesky Germans who seem to win everything :p) Pretty darn impressive!!

Moving on -

Dinner!

Lentil loaf:

Looks good right!!?

I had my serving with celeriac, parsnip and kabocha:

It was SO delicious! My mumma and step dad loved it too – that Jenna girl is a genius Seriously guys, if you haven’t made this recipe yet, you totally should – it’s worth it!

I’m going to possibly watch Come Dine With Me now..then later have a carrot raisin muffin – they look to good to resist! Have a relaxing evening my lovelies

QUESTION – What kitchen appliance could you not live without? Blender, hands down, for me!

Ooooh word just in – my mum saw Chahara’s foal again today briefly; apparently his legs are looking a little bit better, thank goodness! Still not there, but it’s a step in the right direction

Happy Saturday my lovelies!! Are you having a wonderful day? It’s so SUNNY where I am!!

Today also marked the first day of my marathon training :O :O I had to shift it all forwards a couple of days, cos my proposed 14mile run falls on the Sunday of the Healthy Living Summit…so instead, I’ve planned it so I do that the day before I leave, then I can have a few days off at the HLS, and get back on track when I get home Genius right? Anyway:

Day 1 of my programme called for a simple 3 mile run – easy! I did 5k in 27minutes (I was slow cos it was way hot out) and then had my precious EGM:

Straight after, I went out on a reading walk. I was obviously feeling very emotional today…I finished the end of my book, which was just your average chick lit, rom-com type thing – yet I burst into tears not once, but TWICE reading it. It had a happy ending for goodness sake!! What can I say…I’m a romantic. I tear up at weddings in films, when people talk about love, at people who have boyfriends…I’m hopeless I just want a boyfriend of my own really. Alas!

I then played with my favourite breathing animal in the whole wide world – Chika! We just did 25mins or so schooling, but she was trying very hard and was all light and soft, so there was no need to push it

The rest of the morning was spent killing some time (apparently, cos I can’t remember what else I did :/), then, something kind of amazing happened….

THAT happened! I broke into my first spaghetti squash To make it look like above, I just cut it in half, scraped out the seeds, seasoned it, and baked it for about 40mins or so, or til it was all soft. I then let it cool while I got on with the rest of lunch.

I had a sweet section – spaghetti squash, mixed with the same gooseberry/pear concoction as yesterday, with a sprinkle of grape nuts:

A random bit of spaghetti squash on the side, just so I could reaaaally taste it:

And a lentil mix thing – 55g dry weight of green and red lentils, boiled with stock, tomato puree, sundried tomato, cinnamon, celeriac and green pepper:

All together:

A lunch fit for a King, wouldn’t you agree? Squash verdict: It hasn’t got the flavour of kabocha, but I love the texture, and in its’ own right, it has a good taste. Overall I’m pleased – but if I was on the Titanic, and I had one seat on my lifeboat left, I’d have to pick the kabocha…sorry spaghetti!!

Straight after lunch, my mum, Hannah and I went to go and see Chahara’s new foal again. My aunt really wanted me to see him today, cos I saw him 2 days ago so I could judge if there was an improvement in his dodgy leg situation. Sadly, there really wasn’t His back legs are awful To be honest, the chances are he will have to be put down. He’s probably in a lot of pain already, he just isn’t aware of it because he was born like it. But the more he grows, the worse it’ll get. It’s terribly sad, especially for Chahara. She’s a fab mum, and he’s her first foal But anyway, I think my mum is going to recommend the vet comes out to give him lots of scans etc to see if the leg can be splinted – but her gut feeling is the problem is too high up, right in his hips, so it can’t be helped.

HOWEVER, I did get some nicer pictures today He’s such a sweetheart, I have to show y’all!!

I love him a little bit

This is the other foal too (this guy is now about a month old I think):

His mum, Aurabelle:

Precious!!

After the foal fun, we shot off to Poplar Park – Hannah has an event there with Tig tomorrow, so we walked the cross country course. I snacked on an apple on the way (I wasn’t hungry, but I missed my apple from the morning :p) and then we walked…oohh, like a mile or so round the course. Some randomer on the course had the most BEAUTIFUL  German Sheppard type dog…ohmygosh, it was stunning!! Jess will know what I mean when I say it floated about like a warmblood

My lunch today held me over SO well! I totally wans’t hungry for the afternoon snack :s but it was an old favourite, so I couldn’t say no Bear granola with yogurt:

HURRAAHHH!! It’s been too long, Bear granola, too long. Never again will I leave such a gap between eating you!

Dinner – immensely dull, I am sorry!! I had had bigger plans, but then I was tired and to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t be bothered to do them anymore sooo, I had tempeh, with a peanut, banana and maple sauce, usual veggies as well as some leek, and a 3grain mix:

I can truly say, that was the best sauce EVER!!! Recipe -

Peanut-Maple-Banana sauce

• 10g peanut butter
• a few dashes of soy sauce
• a pinch of salt
• a tsp of maple syrup
• approx. 1inch piece of banana, frozen then ‘melted’ in the microwave
• a dash of cinnamon
• splash of water

Mix everything together, microwave it, mix a bit more. I then let mine cool so it thickened up. Serve on tempeh, chicken, whatever! And ENJOY

That’s all from me now I’m going to do what I do best- read the newspaper and watch something crap on TV. Wild night right?!

Question – what makes you cry? Romance does it for me, every time

Evening guys! I’m a bit late posting today – my best friend is leaving for holidays on Monday, and then straight after is doing 8 weeks of work experience hundreds of miles away, so I won’t see her for ages She invited me to a little art exhibition though (her stepdad’s gran had some stuff in there) so I went along ANYWAY:

I like this whole ‘getting up earlier’ thing! I did it again today, so I could run before the desert sun descended down upon England…Before I left I had 2tsp wheatgerm and a square of chocolate, then I set out with a mission – SPEED WORK. Yes, the dreaded interval-y type stuff..I hate it so much! But I’m getting a bit bored of the same pace, so for once I actually wanted to do some intervals. I know right, what is the world coming to?? My run was 4 miles, done in 33minutes. I just did the usual pace for the first 800m, then I did either 100m or 200m faster running (not sprinting, but enough to make you reaaaally puff and go ‘ooff’), with 200-300m normal running breaks in between. Then I just did another normal mile to cool off. Twas fun folks, twas fun!

I got in and had….yep, you guessed it. One of these:

I’ll get tired of them soon, I promise But hey, it’s my breakfast – if I want an EGM every morning, then that is what I shall do

I think I’ve learnt my lesson now. Instead of riding straight after breakfast, I was a clever girl and took the doggeh out for a 40minute walk instead genius right? No exercise-induced queasy tummy for me, no thank you!!

THEN I rode my Mrs Horse Face. She was – of course – a super pony, albeit a rather sweaty one. The poor dear finds it hard to be active and engaged in the heat, but she did try

Next up was Jillian Part Deux of the 30 Day Shred – yes I ran this morning, but I was bored and energised I normally shy away from part II of her 30 D.S. For some reason, it’s stuck in my mind that it’s all about weights with no cardio (I love cardio, and have crap hand weights) so I normally do Part III. However, I thought today would be the perfect excuse to re-discover it And re-discover I did. It was looveely – I was a very sweaty lady by the end of it

Straight afterwards, I wasn’t hungry, but I thought I should re-fuel with my – very missed! – morning apple, sprinkled with cinnamon and grated cacao:

Please take a second to appreciate the AMAZINGNESS of that slicing

It still wasn’t lunchtime yet though – I had to first get Hannah from the station… THEN I got to have lunch

A seedy wholemeal English muffin, with a veggie burger, Hoi Sin sauce, and roasted parsnip/turnip/beets/finely sliced celeriac. Oh, and a strawberry:

You didn’t think that was it though, did you, vegetable wise? Of course not – this is me we’re talking about!! I also had a pear/gooseberry mix:

I haven’t had gooseberries in yeeeaaaarrrs, but boy are they sour! To sweeten them up, I stewed them with a finely chopped pear, a splash of water, a tsp of agave, cinnamon and carob powder for about 8minutes:

Til they were all mushy I topped with 2tbsp Grape Nuts:

That, my friends, was DELICIOUS!! The gooseberries were still sour, but sweet sour..like sour in a lovely way?! I was happy anyway . Dessert = So Crispy bites (what else?).

I spent the afternoon being a Proper Girl today – well, kind of. I mucked Chika out, blistered my hands raking the arena, did 15mins or so of yoga and felt all jibbly after, then I attempted to pretty myself for tonight (Read – I washed my hair, and put on some powder and mascara :p). I didn’t have an afternoon snack, simply cos my dinner was an hour earlier than usual, but I have somehow munched my way through about 15 of these babies during the day:

(Most ugly strawberry ever??) I seriously have no self control around berries, of any sort….

It was a fab dinner when it came though! Scrambled Noosh-flavour tofu (with onion powder, smoked paprika, garlic and cinnamon), on a bed of mixed lentils/sundried tomato, kabocha, parsnip and mushrooms, all seasoned with a whole ton of spices of which I don’t remember

Lovely That’s some strawberry soya milk as accompaniment, by the way…

And now I’ve just got back home from my friend’s house On the way home, I had ‘dessert’:

That was another present sent over from the lovely Jess a while back! Totally scrummy

ANyways, I’m going to go watch some crap TV for a little while, then run orf to the land of bed Goodnight!

Question: Anyone else have any weird food obsessions? For example, you’ve prrrrobably noticed I eat a lot of squash, parsnips and EGMs. The day isn’t complete without them!

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I shall leave y’all with some cute pictures

LOL!

Eveeeeening folks.

So I went to go visit my aunt/Chahara’s new foal today (the one born the night before last!), and I took my spunky new camera with the hope of taking lots of delightful photos! However. EPIC FAIL. Literally, the second I turned the camera on, the [2nd] set of batteries went all red in the face and angry, and died after only a handful of photos ;’( Gutted!! A tiny tiiiiiiiiny part of my brain did actually think ‘oohh, bring some more batteries’..but obviously the rascal side of my brain decided to overrule the first thought. HURRUMPH. I’m going back this weekend to get more though. Anyway, here’s what I did get! (Apologies for the quality – I haven’t found the right setting for indoor/dull-light photos, that need a fast shutter speed :s)

My aunt has freaking huge fields!!

Proud aunt!

Proud/tired mumma!! Apparently it was quite a long birth :s

The foal is the SWEETEST thing ever! He’s so so friendly – most day old foals are pretty timid and scared of humans, but this guy doesn’t give a crap! He’s so sweet But, there’s a downside – you might have noticed his hind legs in the pics? Well, sometimes when foals are born, they have slightly wibbly wonky legs, which should straighten up pretty quick. His don’t seem to be though…which is bad. If they don’t, he will probably have to be put down; after all, it’s a deformity, and it’ll ruin his growth (ie his back is being twisted etc), so it’d be the only option. My aunt is gutted finger’s crossed he sorts himself out over the next week!!

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I was up extra early today – lots to do! Cos I’d gotten up earlier, I totally wasn’t in the least hungry, so I just had a square of chocolate and 2 tsp wheatgerm to Break My Fast, as I couldn’t face anything else pre-workout :s Anyways, I did some DVDs, then had an EGM:

I missed thee! It was B. E. A. Utiful, as Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty would say (loveeee that film!!).

Theeeen, I shot off to my aunts, saw the foal, had a tour of her vegetable patch, and stared in awe somewhat at her dogs; three generations – gran is a Boxer, daughter and grandchild are Boxer crosses, so they’re not massive. But after being round Poppy for so long, they looked HUGGGEE!! Crazy.

When I got home, I made a super quick packed lunch, then set out with a mission in mind – Find A Job! Basically, I went into town, and a few places along the way, and asked if anyone had any part time work. I’ve left my details at quite a few places, and I have an interview on Monday….wish me luck!!

It turns out I was actually home by lunch, so I got to enjoy my sheer yumminess at a table

A curry hummus and beetroot/salad sandwich:

Carrots-in-a-curry-hummus-jar:

A pear, and cherries:

Amazing! The hummus and the beets went SO well together – I was rather taken aback by the delight :p

For dessert, I had some cereal

Straight after lunch, I got Chika out and took her for a hack. WHY do I keep riding straight after a big meal??? Will I ever learn?? Apparently not :/ ANYWAY – It was SO HAWT! Poor old Chika was very lethargic; it’s hard being a tubster horse in the heat

When I was done with her, I mucked her and Tig out, and went out on a  random 1mile run. 9 minutes of running, and I was literally dripping with sweat heeeeaaattt wwaaavvveee!! Sheesh.

THEN, I took Poppy out for an hours’ walk – she was bursting to get out while I was walking down the driveway, I took some horsie photos

Bucket Face!

They love each other

Any excuse right?

I was quite peckish when I got back, so I decided it was the perfect opportunity for a bit of cereal love…not just any cereal though. THIS cereal:

Have you had it before? It was SUPER delicious!! And the ingredients list was delightful I had it with some Crunchy Bran and yogurt:

Hurrah I also had a tiny tiny apple – remember folks, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Never forget.

Dinner was another old favourite: tempeh, peanut butter mess, durum wheat, veggies. Or, to put it more nicely:

Softly baked tempeh fillets, with an oriental spiced peanut glaze, on a bed of lightly seasoned, carob dusted durum wheat, and accompanied by garlic and cinnamon baked fresh winter vegetables.

Sounds a bit better right!? Here’s the mess anyway:

Hurrah again!! Best meal ever

Can you guess what’s coming now? Maybe something that sounds like Doppy Palk, and Hessert…oh, and Dig Dother

Answers on a postcard people

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Questions: What’s your all time favourite meal?

What’s your all time favourite baby animal? Kittens win, hands down for me

PS: MyMarbleRye is hosting a giveaway!