Brit Chick Runs

Good day to you! Has it been a nice one?

Yesterday was really quite bittersweet – I had a nice day, walking with my mum and getting work done etc – but you know what I should have been doing? Running my fourth half marathon!! GAH!

On the plus side – my injured ankle feels 100% fine today – tomorrow, I’m going to test it out with an 800m run….if it gives way after that, I think I’ll stamp my foot, cry, and phone an ambulance

Anyway! As I’m banging on about yesterday, I might as well show y’all my creative dinner that I was oh-so proud of

It began with reading Jess’ post with her honey-mustard baked tofu – twas quite literally yelling at me to try it. Noowww side note: honey and vegans. I know there are some vegans who do eat honey, but the majodge don’t. I personally know so little about honey production that I’ve just shied away from it – but my gran gave me a jar of honey made by her neighbour a few months back, which has sat almost untouched. 1) I hate wasted food, 2) I can know for sure that my gran’s neighbour was not mean to her honey-producing buzzers. THUS – I used the honey. I would still stay away from commercially produced stuff (partly cos I don’t trust big ££-making companies to be cruelty free, partly cos that stuff isn’t a good as the REAL stuff – which is hard!) but this local jar? I’m gonna use it

BUT beside the point! I’ll start again….

I read Jess’ post, and decided to give it a go! Except then I decided I wanted an orange:

One bite in, I didn’t want it anymore – I wanted the juice to be mixed with the honey and dijon mustard So I did! I then loosely followed Jess’ recipe – except I made the dim mistake of watering down my dijon/honey/OJ mix, so it was like…well, water consistency! D’oh. I also skipped the flour step, and just rolled the tofu cubes in polenta, then baked them (I think this may have been laziness on my part, and a strong desire NOT to get flour and polenta and sticky mess all over my hands :p):

I say I say – what’s that on the right!? Well, that was me trying to get creative!

I had this stupid small chunk of onion squash left, which is very mashable when cooked. Sooo I baked it up, and whilst it was sizzlin’, I got:

- rye flakes

- a tiny splash of water

- a small shallot

- cinnamon

- seasoning

I fried the shallot, then added in everything else – JUST enough water to soften the rye flakes, but not to cook them. Theeeeeeen I mashed the now-cooked squash, added everything in together, and made little cakes, ready for baking!!!

25mins later, they were crispy and crunchy on the outside, soft and juicy on the inside

Medals to the usual address plez.

I still had a problem though – what to do with all the watery (yet very tasty) OJ/dijon/honey mix that was left over? WELL. I utilized leftovers, that’s what. Remember I made buckwheat/oat flour the other day? I added in a spoonful of that to the liquid, microwaved it for 30secs, and it thickened up like mad and formed a delicious sauce! Served with the crispy baked tofu, and roast aubergine, leek and parsnip:

I was one proud lady Oh – and the tofu was FABULOUS! Thank yoooouuuu Jess! I inadvertently discovered another tofu idea whilst making that though…another post

Rightio- today!

It. Was. Cold.

Hence why I was rockin’ the superthick jumper and rollneck combo:

Apparently I don’t believe in footwear :/

In reality, it wasn’t even CLOSE to freezing temps, but after one day of sun, I’m as sensitive as a newborn lamb again…if I could sit in a lecture hall wrapped in a fluffy foil blanket, I would.

Breakfast though…aaah despite a weekend of pancakes and creativity, all I wanted was chocolate pudding oats – but with a twist…

What do you get if you add in extra cinnamon, nutmeg and GINGER into the chocolate pudding oats?

Why, extra super delicious ones of course!

Topped with:

Them! Wow, SO tasty. I’ve been hoarding that packet for about 7months, but I realised today the sell-by date is fast approaching. You know what REALLY miffs me about packets though? When they’re only half full:

I mean, really?? At least the taste (and smell! OOOHHH the smell) was bang on trend

Ok, see now would be the time to say,

AAHH PEANUT FLOUR SOCCA RECIPE!

But, I’m not gonna! I had it again today, but it wasn’t quite as nice…and I’ve no idea why. So I kinda don’t want to post it, cos if y’all go mad and start making it, and think ‘that’s it?’ you’ll stone me and chase me out of town, and I don’t want that So I’m going to make some MORE, see what happens and THEN think about posting it. MK? You can have a picture though!

Oh, my generosity knows no ends.

Blerch – green pepper in the background. let’s skip that monstrosity yeah?

THIS:

Is much nicer to look at Look again:

See!?That’d be blackberry and pear mousse Highlight of my morning.

One thinks one liked it

But nooww – I have a Google reader bursting at the seams, socca that needs to come out of the oven (at 11.06pm…) and an inbox full of 10 trillion emails.

Laterssss!

Question: What’s your view on honey? If you’re vegan – do you eat it? If you’re not vegan – would you if you were? What are the ethical concerns surrounding honey production?

FAQs? Go to the page! It’s been updated…..but keep the questions coming! Maybe I don’t shroud myself in enough mystery though, cos there hasn’t been many :/

——–

I tried really really hard this weekend, to get out of my foodie rut of the same ol’ same ol’ oatmeal and socca – and it worked! This is a light on the words/heavy on the pictures post <- I shall let them do zee rambling

Breakfast on Saturday – part gram flour, part buckwheat/oat flour. These pancakes officially proved to me that my brand new baking powder is DEAD. Boohiss!

Yeah, let’s not zoom in on the ugliness of the pancakes :p

Sauce was good though! 1/2 serving peanut flour, mixed with cinnamon, wasser, a peeled/finely chopped super ripe pear, and..I think that was it

More melon mousse – except I put in waaay too much vanilla extract – it almost tasted alcoholic! I reckon if I’d gone driving, got pulled over by da coppas, and breathalized – I would have failed. Off to jail I go…

Bright, colourful salad

Pictures like that just make me happy But not as much as this faBOOSH …

Chickpea, Squash and Rosemary Soup! And I really hope I’ve got this recipe right – I’ve all but forgotten exactly what I did and what went in it :p

• 1/2 a 240g can chickpeas, keep the liquid
• a few sprigs of fresh rosemary (probably about a tbsp+, if you cut all the little leaves off the sprigs)
• approx. 1/3 – 1/2 c. cubed and cooked (roasted) kabocha squash
• 2 shallots / 1/2 smallish onion (I used shallots), chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• About 1/4 of a stock cube
• 2 – 4 tbsp TVP/soya mince (dry)

1) Saute the chopped shallot and garlic in a splash of water for about 5mins, with 1/2 of the rosemary

2) Add the chickpeas (with the liquid), TVP/soya mince, a splash more water (so it’s all covered) and let simmer away for 20mins or so, stirring and making sure the water doesn’t run out. Add in the 1/4 stock cube, crumbled, whilst this is happening.

3) Add in the rest of the rosemary, the squash and mix it around. Season.

4) Transfer to a blender, add a bit more water – depending on how thick you like it – and blend til smooth.

5) Re-heat and serve

SO thick and creamy and delicious!

And very. very. filling. Talk about a fibre belly, woaaaah :O

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CHEAP ROTTEN BANA-NAMA HAUL!

The girl at the checkout gave me a funny look and said, ‘are you sure you want these??’ She probably guessed that they looked like THIS on the inside:

Perfect for baking, IMHO! Oatmeal bars, for my mum:

From a Reader’s Digest cookbook, no less.

You know what else skank bananas are good for?An AMAZING green monster!!

Vanilla Banana Squash Green Monster

• one very very ripe frozen banana
• approx. 1/3 – 1/2 c. frozen strawberries
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (although I used a 1/2 tsp of vanilla powder flavouring, designed for protein shakes – it’s very very sweet, so maybe add some sweetener if you have a sweet tooth)
• 1/2 – 3/4 c. cooked squash – I used a mix of onion and kabocha squashes
• 1/2 c. milk of choice
• 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 2 biiiig handfuls of green (I went for kale)
• a few grinds of salt (if you did all 3 levels of the 30 Day Shred and got yo’ sweat on, that is!)

Blend!

Liquid at the bottom, then kale, then powder/gum, then soft stuff, then frozen stuff at the top.

Eaten once.

Eaten twice. It was THAT good!

—–

I discovered these in the deep dark depths of my freezer on Saturday….

Sometimes it’s fun to put on my paeleontology hat and dig

SO. Freakin. DELICIOUS!

Really, really hearty – like…no words, I haven’t had anything like them before! They were almost tough, not soft like tofu.

It’s love, between me and those burgers. And the 20g of protein that went with them. Oh boy.

Also love? Chocolate.

Especially bin chocolate! If you follow me on Twitter (BritChickRuns) you may have heard that I *accidently* threw away my 99% Lindt (:O *gasp*) – but I discovered it the next morning, still wrapped. I did a Twitter poll, asking whether I should eat it..and y’all said yes. It wasn’t touching anything gross, it was wrapped, it was at the top of the bin….so it got salvaged

—–

Overnight oats – oats, milk, yogurt, chia seeds, carob powder, vanilla essence.

They started as this:

But turned into this:

Banana blackberry softserve! OH yes!

You really can’t beat natural light. le sigh. Roll on summer!!

Superb bowl, and perfeq fuel for a 3mile walk in the forest with the mummabear. And we actually DID do 3miles this time – no getting lost and doing 6 like the other week

Ok, now I really want to blog dinner, cos I really DID get creative! But I think it’s gonna have to wait til tomorrow – this post is getting looooooong!! So I shall leave you with a pretty part of lunch:

Why pretty?

Do you SEE my apple slicing skills!? I’m proud! I tend to mangle fruit when I cut it up, so to slice an apple like that…well, it’s beyond me. (except, it’s obvs not anymore – I got SKILLZ.)

ANYWAY – tomozzle there shall be not only my creative dinner (really, I was quite proud! Lots has made me proud this weekend, obvs ) but also a much requested PEANUT SOCCA recipe! Hurrah! Rejoicing all round

Question: Did you make anything new or creative this weekend?

…Lance Armstrong!

Ayay, I’ve been channeling my inner-cyclist today, and BIKING!

I dug out my sister’s old bike yesterday, as a way of getting some quality heart-pump time in whilst resting my injured ankle, and boy – SO worth it! The bike itself isn’t pretty – it’s about 15years old, cost £100, and the seat made my butt ache like a trooper after just 5mins of riding…but it was still fun! I did 8.5miles in 1hour ish on Thursday (I did walk on foot up two hills though :p) and 7miles today. I don’t quite have thighs of steel yet (more like thighs of laminated paper…!), but I think I will if I keep this up! Good times

I do wonder how hard I work when I’m cycle-yingying sometimes – I wasn’t feeling out of breath as I went along, so I stopped to feel my heart rate, and it was up! Maybe I work harder than I think….hmm…

—

Thursday breakfast? Somewhat repetitive, to say the least! More melon mousse, with a yogurt blob:

And more chocolate pudding oats

Howeverz, I decided today that I needed to switch things up a bit I’ve been reading about Ashley’s amazing breakfast bakes a whole ton recently, and I really liked the idea of using buckwheat (13g protein per 100g! Bingbong!), but I had pancakes on my mind this morning (I blame Jess for that – she always has pancakes on her blog, and it makes me crave them like a madwoman :/). Soo I did the impossible – I grinded up (ground up?) buckwheat groats, mixed with oats, and didn’t make anyone mad at me for using the Vita! Primarily cos I was alone

Anyway – the result was a flour-consistency -> oat + buckwheat flour = happy times. I used 50g of the mix, with 1/2 c. soya milk, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and cinnamon, and then cooked it in the pan. I also made a super strawberry-cocoa sauce to go with…then decided that – cos I had an unusual flour mix – I wanted the pancakes to do the talkin’ by themselves

They got a good drizzle of date sizzup tho

Downside – they were very, very flat. Come to think of it, the cake I made the other day was flat too. I think my (brand spanking new) baking powder is dead

Remember – the more pictures I take of something, the more I liked it

Can you tell I liked these!? BIG fan of the buckwheat/oat flour – a much nuttier taste Tho ohemgee, I coulda screamed when I took those photos – the second I got my camera out, I’d snapped ONE photo when the batteries died. Hurrumph! Cue manica battery finding, whilst all the sizzup soaked in and the pancakes got cold…le sigh, the life of a food blogger.

The only downside was that they didn’t hold me over very long. My oats normally hold me 3hrs, but I was a hungahunga after about 2-2.5 after those. Poooosssssiibly due to the hour long bike ride, but who knows….lunch was super either way!

I was craving COLD when I finished my very-warm bike journey (if you count 55degrees as warm!?) so I made the most delicious thick SIAB

Melon, frozen strawberries, banana, pear, cinnamon, vanilla, xanthan gum. True bliss

Alllmost as good as the amazing socca I had yesterday! Yep, socca AGAIN, I know….but I mixed it with PEANUT FLOUR this time (for a protein bang, + cinnamon and a pinch of sugar) and it was THE BEST YET!

Very moist and delicious and just..yeah. Loved every bite

Although the repetitive socca might suggest otherwise, i AM trying really hard to break out of the foodie rut; I’ve literally been rotating around 3 meals for dinner for the past few weeks, but not this eve! I stayed up til 1.30am last night reading The Happy Herbivore cookbook, and was feeling inspired to mix it up a bit. Sooooo I did a dish I haven’t done in an age:

Tofu ‘cream’ cheese sauce with kamut spaghetti :) Do you remember when i used to have that all the time!? It was so long ago, I hardly remember…but it used to be one of my favourites, that just got forgotten :’(

Twas very simple though – I Vita-d 150g tofu with a splash of water til it was a creamy smooth mess, then mixed it with about 2tbsp nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, cinnamon, a tiiny smidge of agave, and seasoned salt:

Mixed with kamut spaghetti:

Ok…it looks like cat sick.

But I promise, it was really tasty! And taste is more important than looks :p (though thank goodness I’m not a food stylist, right!?)

The belly was happy, ergo I was happy.

Still had room for raspberry dark chocolate, sent over by Jess though :p

Sometimes chocolate with stuff added tastes like junk (note: NEVER buy me almond and raisin chocolate. i DO NOT like it. I don’t like raisins cooked into anything, come to think of it…) but that stuff was SUPER! Right up in my Top 5 I’d say

SO. GOOD.

Ooh! Talking of numbers, that 7 Facts About Me thing has been going round, and seeing as I was one of the first 7 commenters on Gabriela’s post about it…here are my 7

1. When I step out of the shower, the very first thing I dry is my eyebrows
2. I plan on getting 3 tattoos as soon as I’ve built up the courage/researched it to find someone with a good rep – Chika’s name (cos she means so much to me, and has DONE so much for me – I always want her to be a PART of me), the phrase ‘this too, will pass’ (it has a lot of meaning to me), and 26.2 – to stand for marathon distance! The latter is only going to come once I’ve done a marathon i’m happy with tho..cos let’s face it, I wasn’t pleased with the first one!
3. I cannot stomach peas or sweetcorn – odd for someone with such a sweet tooth!
4. I’ve never, ever drunk a cup of tea. i HATE the stuff, it tastes like dirty water!!
5. When I was 11, I used to wash my hair and shower just ONCE a week. No wonder I didn’t make friends….
6. I was once ranked 5th best Junior in the UK for endurance riding
7. My mum will never know just how proud of her I really am. *cheeeeese*

Your turn! Tell me one random thing about you

Question – do you cycle?

And – keep those FAQ coming in! I’ve had about 5 Surely there must be SOMETHING y’all want to know!?

Hello studmuffins! I currently look like this:

(source)

That would be the first image result you get from googling ‘geek snowed under with work’. <- cos that’s what I am alright! Sooo I shall be forgoing a post tonight, in favour of learning about Kant, Leibitz, Descartes, Mutual Exclusivity and other related concepts…oh, how wild my life is.

I shall leave you with this preddy picture:

My lunch yesterday, one of my most favouritists pics in a laaaang time!!

OOHH – I have an idea!

Why don’t I suggest you ASK ME SOME QUESTIONS for my FAQ page!!!!! Anything you want to know about me? Ask in the comments section and I’ll post about them, and put them on the FAQ page

Nightnight lovelies xx

Oh crikey!

Sorry y’all, but I HAVE to have a rant. It’s my blog and I’ll rant if I want to :p

Past rants include The Roommate Who Ate All My Food, The Roommate Who Stole All My Money, Ran Off & Changed His Name (<- not even a joke!), A Horrifically Hard Stats Exam, and Getting My Keys and Mobile Locked in the Car.

Today’s Rant: My Supervisor.

For the purpose of the rant, let’s call him Colin (as Colin Firth said in some acceptance speech, Colin is a name you’d give as a joke to a pet fish LOL seems appropriate!).

Rant Background:

I commute to uni, which is a 1hour drive, plus allowing extra time (I add on about 20mins to my 1hour) for traffic (needed today), accidents, Waitrose-pee-stops (not needed today), uni open days =ing 10 x the amount of cars and 10 x less amount of parking spaces (today…) & random tree care operations blocking half the dual carriage way (today!).

Colin is my supervisor for my final year dissertation project, ie one heck of an important lab report.

Colin and I have met up a double-digit amount of times.

Colin has been on time to those appointments a grand total of ONCE.

One time, Colin was 25mins late, so I went down to the general office to see if someone could get hold of him. Low and behold, Colin was in the office, drinking tea and ‘warming up.’

Yesterday, my dissertation partner booked she and I in to see Colin at 1.30 – that act in itself was a huge task, as Colin does NOT reply to emails. Ever. DP doublechecked and doublechecked again that we were DEFINITELY on for 1.30 today.

Today was important – now all the testing is done for my psychology project, it’s time to do results. DP and I need Colin to show us how to do this. We present our results in 2 or 3 weeks. We have A LOT of results to process, and A LOT of writing up to do, none of which can be done til results are done.

Thus, today’s meeting was A Very Bloody Important Meeting.

At 2.15pm, 45mins AFTER we arrived, and 2hrs15 since I left home, Colin still had not shown up.

We complained at the office. We were told to email Colin.

I had to go home – I had no work with me, and was not going to sit on campus twiddling my thumbs for no reason, when I could go back home and work.

When DP got hold of Colin, he had ‘forgotten’. That’s it.

So – I wasted 5hrs of my day, spent £15 in fuel, spent £2 on coffee, and achieved bugger all – because, yet again, Colin forgot about our meeting.

vbsf4767284281!£££@@$$$b^^!!! [insert strong swear words here]

Rant over!

—————

Blimey lunch was good today:

It kinda had to be to make up for the awful morning!! Aside from the Colin-debacle, other awfulness happened: seeing as my ankle injury seemed pretty much super-o yesterday, I stepped up the impact part of my weights workout – FAIL. I felt a bit of pain, and stopped immediately, but as the day has progressed, it’s become official – the ankle has re-injured itself, and is superduper painful again. I’m limping! Back to square one! Looks like I WILL have to cancel my Friday physio after all

Anyway – back to lunch :p That’d be a peanut butter (mixed with cinnamon and sesame seeds) on toasted seedy bread, with almonds

I was actually gonna do banana – til I looked in the fruit bowl, and realised my step dad took 3 (!??) bananas with him to work today. BAH.

It was gooooood

Seeing as I’ve had a veggie-pic theme going on the past 2 days, I thought I’d continue the trend:

Parsnip and carrot chunks, with a background of Mummabear and I, about a 1/2hr before I started the marathon!

It kinda looks like there are space ships landing in the background (maybe there were?) but I believe they were just floodlights. Spaceships would’ve made for a better story though….

Ah! Talking of me – here’s what I rocked today:

The snood, oh yes. I LIVE in my snood, I adore it! Mumma got me it for 25th Dec celebrations, and I’ve worn it non-stop; it goes with everything!! And it covers up nicely the food stain that I may or may not have given my top that morning….yes, I could’ve changed my top – but then I’d have to have changed my jeans too (long top covers broken flies), and things would just get silly after that. Yahnahwhatimean??! [yes, I re-wore basically the same outfit days running. I do that a lot; I think I was a tramp in a past life).

Before the picture above was taken though, breakfast was consumed!

Melon Mousse!

I'm on a theme :p

Melon, however much your wee heart desires.

1/2-3/4 tsp xanthan gum

a splash of water (1/7th- 1/4 cup, somewhere round there)

Add number 1) and 3), blend.

When liquid, ass 2), blend a boatload more.

Serve!

Looooove it.

Chocolate pudding oats were also consuuum-ed:

As was a cereal-mess when I sprinted/hobbled through the door later that afternoon :p

Tasty...but nothing will compare to the AMAZING green monster I had *with* dinner (not *for* dinner):

Check out the VIBRANCY of that baby! Talk about green

My secret weapon of choice? WELL. I have this nasty tasting pea protein powder - it tastes like JUNK but it was cheaper than anything I could fine (£10 for 1kg), and seeing as I add PP to things (I don't have protein shakes), I thought it would work (which it does - I never taste it). I had to order some more the other day, I was browsing the website when I came across vanilla flavouring, in powder form, for protein shakes (ingredients = vanilla, suclarose [or something similar]. Yummy.). I bought some! And OH MY DAYS! 1/2 a tsp, and the sweet vanilla flavour is INCREDIBLE! This GM actually had the texture of mousse, but the taste of CANDY FLOSS! No lie. It was amazing!

Even better than the dark chocolate and mini grapes for dessert:

Aside from the injured ankle and Colin-gate and wasting precious fuel $£ and the rain that poured all day and the sheer confusion over my uni work, it’s been a good day

I am just a’ hopin’ and a’ prayin’ that my ankle heals overnight! Fingers crossed….

Tell me – what do you want to rant about>? What was the last thing that bugged you like mad? Do you hate lateness, like me, or are YOU the late one?