Market Day!

I know I already blogged today but I also wanted to quickly share the lovelies I bought for lunch at the market today:

A 'Mumbai' scotch egg (meat-free of course). There was some interesting spicing going on in the 'sausagey' part from chili to fennel seeds, and the texture was enriched with whole chickpeas and chunks of hazelnut!

The 'Glastonbury Crumble' has "Vintage sheep's cheese, buckwheat, peas, onion, courgette and mint from the garden. Gluten free as well!" (http://www.theveggiedeli.com/vegetarian-food-blog.html) I could taste all the flavours listed, and the sheep's cheese was a new one for me and it's lovely mild flavour didn't over power.




Yes, it was greedy of me to have both for lunch today (with a whole baby cumber too!), but no, I do not care, they were both delicious! I topped my day of with an awesome one hour spin class at my new club, and felt right at home speaking at the end with my instructor and 'class-mates'

Next time I exercise will be my 10K on Sunday, and I will share this with you on Monday. I have a busy weekend lined up so I probably won't find the time to blog 'til then.

Anyway, hope you all have amazing weekends!

Hannah xxx

Foodie Penpal!!!!

This month I participated for the first time in foodie penpals, which is organised in the UK and Europe by Carol Ann on Rock Salt. The idea is that you are paired up with another foodie (you can be either a blogger or a reader) and you are sent a foodie themed parcel while you send one to another penpal to which you've been assigned. I found out about the US version through my love of the Lean Green Bean blog, whose author, Lindsay created it/hosts it over there.  Today I'm going to review the wonderful box of treats that I recieved from Emma who has a wonderful baking page on facebook for the Norfolk Cake & Bake Club.

First out of the box was this super cute card with a note inside, and very appropriate given Emma's love of baking!

I was too impatient to take a picture of the packed box (though it was done sooo neatly and efficiently and picture-worthy in itself!) but here's a photo of the line-up:

First thing, I tried was the strawberry and cream tea which was lovely. Fruit teas usually disappoint me as they never taste as sweet or fruity as I want them too, but these ones don't disappoint! I have tried them with and without a little manuka honey and the flavour is sweet and fruity either way.

I then gobbled up the licorice log after my ouzo and tomato pasta on Tuesday, as the ouzo sauce had given me a real taste for aniseed! This little treat is even vegan :-)

The locally made peach jam is something I am SO excited to try, though I'm resisting opening it at the moment to stop me from just tucking in with a spoon - I love peaches and had them every morning in Greece, but I need to watch my sugar intake so I'll be looking for ways to indulge in the jam without overdoing it. I saw this great pastry recipe on Johanna's Green Gourmet Giraffe blog and I think the peach jam would be great with the pastry in baby jam tarts. Looks like I'll be getting my bake on!

Emma also treated me to a gorgeous dark chocolate bunny that Emma said is made locally to her and you can even watch them make it.....sounds like choccy heaven to me. Dark chocolate is of course my preference, though as a veggie I was reluctant to bite this little lovely's head off....but I did and it was YUM!

I actually can't remember the last time I had popcorn and even then it was probably the processed sugary stuff from the cinema so the little package of pink popcorn kernels has got me so excited to get popping as I know they have potential to be a healthy snack, either sweet or savoury. The ones that Emma sent me are PINK which is awesome. Anyone have any ideas for flavouring?

And dried portobello mushrooms! Any mushrooms are a meat-free staple, for both textural, flavour and health reasons (one of the best sources of plant-based vitamin B12, I believe) and I'm excited to cook up something new and exciting with the dried version of my favourite portobellos. If I can find it, I'd like to cook up some orzo like I had on holiday , so not quite a risotto, and tart it up with these beauts!

Taking part in Foodie Penpal has been so exciting. My participation meant that I sent a box myself to Cyn at Life of Cyn who is really into self-care from mental well-being to make-up and blogs about acceptance for all body shapes and sizes. Here is her review of what I sent her.

Thanks again for reading, guys. Why not get involved????

Hannah xxx

Some things I ate and lifted today...

So I wanted to share my Foodie Penpal experience today but I checked the terms and conditions and it looks like I have to hold that back 'til Friday. So I'll just do a quick share of today's exercise and food (except dinner, as I'm eating at my dad's again and don't know what that'll consists of and don't really want to start taking photos!)

I started the day a little differently with some porridge which is something I always used to enjoy, and still do but as as more of a dessert. I tried almond milk (thanks, Em!) and it made the oats lovely and creamy, and I flavoured it with cinnamon and a VERY ripe banana, and topped with some seeds and goji berries to bump up the calories and good fats. It filled me right up and I'll be looking to get some almond milk of my own asap.

At lunch I used another of my Greek purchases, the Hot Chickpeas, with some pasta, broccoli and cherry tomatoes. It tasted really good and wasn't as spicey as I was expecting it had the chili kick I wanted and the chickpeas were lovely and buttery, and the olive oil carried all the other flavours well and gave it the slightly oily and indulgent feel, to stop it seeming like diet food.



That's all I can really share on the food front today. As for exercise, I visited my new gym (had my finger print swiped -so novel, I love it!) and got onto the treadmill for some intervals. My intervals lasted about 12 minutes at one minute high, one minute low (max speed 13.5kph) and I made it up to a 30 minute run at a steady 10-11.5kph pace. The left me pretty sweaty (not like the Greek gym though!) and I decided to explore the ladies only studio. I don't like the idea of such a facility because I feel that it kind of encourages the fear of heavy lifting many ladies have. It had some resistance machines, but the only free weights were 1-10kg dumb bells so my expectations were confirmed really. I used the free weights to work my chest, lifting the 10kgs to do a chest press (I can't do any heavier without a spotter....yet ;-) ) and 6kgs to do flies. 3 sets. I had had enough of that so went back into the main studio to the heavier weights section and sought out the Smith machine to do some squats. I did 5 sets with 20kg on each end (can't figure out the total weight because I don't know the bar weight) followed by the leg press machine and straight leg deadlifts, and finishing with some stretches.

Sorry, this will be boring if you aren't into lifting, though I will recommend an article 'The Zen of the Barbell' as I came across this today (via No Meat Athlete on facebook) and it seems appropriate to share given my workout. If you need a new reason to hit the weights, maybe this will do it for you!

Thanks for reading, catch ya later!

Hannah xx

Bringing a bit of Greece back to the UK

I am so excited to blog to show off some of the foodie treats I have acquired in the last two days!

Today I will share my Greek treats, and tomorrow I will share my incredible Foodie Penpal goodies!

Yesterday was an aeroplane day, back to a rather miserable-looking UK. In the time I had to spare at the airport I went to browse the duty free shop, and though I don't usually buy anything I spotted these and decided they were worth my leftover euros:

From left to right:

• Sundried tomato and ouzo sauce - I couldn't bring myself to order an ouzo while I was in Greece (past experience of ouzo has left me feeling quite nauseated by the thought of it) but I was just so intrigued by the thought of it as a food that I just had to get a jar! I stirred it into some wholewheat pasta bows for today's lunch and the aniseed flavour was noticeable and an exciting flavour with the sweet tomato, but not over powering. I'm trying to think of other ways I can use it though....hmmm!
• Tahini - this is like peanut butter made from sesame seeds rather than peanuts and I bought some to make my own houmouses (or houmice????) and to try in dressings and sauces. They did have chocolate tahini too, and thinking of a dessert houmous blog post at  The Lean Green Bean I hesitated....then saw the sugar-y nasties on the label and reminded myself that I can add cocoa myself, and plain would be more versatile anyway!
• GIANT Beans - I love how butter beans/lima beans are referred to as giant beans in Greece! I posted before about the beans in tomato sauce I ate on holiday and when I saw a jar of the same thing I wanted to have it either to re-live it (they were good giant beans!) or to compare.
• Hot chickpeas - I'm a little tentative to find out exactly hot these will be! They are in obligatory Greek olive oil with herbs, peppers and onion.

I will deliver my final verdict on these as and when I use them.

Exercise Update

My final super-sweaty Greek workout was inspired (or rather, taken directly) by a guest blog post at The Lean Green Bean (seriously, check out this blog, it's a fab resource. I used a treadmill to warm-up and cool down and 3kg dumb bells. I was so sweaty that the sweat from my hands and the sweat that had dripped onto the floor meant that the weights wouldn't grip the floor when I did the renegade push-ups - I had to put a towel down!

I have also joined a new gym now that I'm settled in and not likely to be moving on again anytime soon. It's a really reasonable tariff (£14.99 a month and it's no-contract!), great equipment and studios and free classes (I love my exercises classes), and they scan your finger print to let you in (no card to lose/forget!). I'm looking forward to checking it out properly tomorrow, because I signed up online, and all the job hunting I've been doing today and visiting my dad won't leave me time to get down there later.

And it's now less than a week until my race and though it is tempting to go on long runs to prepare me for the distance, I know that overdoing it in the final few days can be detrimental, and I don't want to risk injury either. The sponsorship I have recieved from friends and family has been so generous, so I don't want to let anyone down!

Hope you are all having a happy and healthy day, I will write again tomorrow.

Hannah xxx 

Another Greek Update

Hello again from Greece!

I'm still having a wonderful time here and though it's stiflingly hot, I've still managed several sweaty workouts and refreshing myself with wonderful Greek food.

With only 10 days to go until my first ever race (10K Race for Life, if you're interested in sponsoring me/donating to Cancer Research UK, checkout my fundraising page) I have tried to keep up my distance running by doing 6K treadmill runs, 30/90 second sprint walk intervals, and mini circuits of skipping, boxjumps and press-ups. I have not left the gym without being dripping in sweat, though this doesn't take long in these temperatures! Seriously, last night we made a 25 minute walk to the next town at about 7pm and even that was sweaty work. I have also been on the beach and in the sea, and love the idea of a workout on the sand and in the sea, but in this heat and with the mass of people and parasols around, I can't see that happening!

I have still been enjoying the lovely home cooked dishes at the hotel though I did want to quickly share some of restaurant meals I've had since the last blog:

For this meal, I ordered a plain tomato and cucumber salad and 'large baked beans'. The salad was lovely and fresh and seasoned with fresh parsley which was a nice surprise as other salads I have had out here have been seasoned with dried oregano and basil. The 'baked beans' certainly weren't the standard UK baked beans - creamy butterbeans in a rich herby-garlicky tomato sauce. From the look of a dish, I think it was meant as a sharing side dish, but I had nearly all of them to myself!

These were the stuffed pepper and tomato I had after the long sweaty walk I mentioned before, bizarrely served in a terracotta roof tile, though I think the head waiter thought this was an exciting restauranty, chefy touch that he was very proud of, so much so that it looked like he was taking it upon himself to serve every order of this dish. Unfortunately, the tile made the food cold. Maybe this was their intention, though I would have preferred them hot. I also enjoyed the tomato more than the traditional green pepper as the flavour was more rich and sweet, whereas I tend to find green peppers a little bitter.








I also wanted to quickly mention a snack I have been enjoying here and though I have always meant to try them/make them, I never have. I spotted 300g of roasted chickpeas (or chickpea nuts I think they can be called) for less than 2 euros so they definitely seemed worth a go. They're a great snack, that hit that savoury crisp/nut spot with a decent supply of protein too. These ones were plain, though I think I'll experiment with herbs and spices when I attempt to make these when I'm back.


I may not blog again 'til I'm back in the UK, but in the meantime thanks for reading and feel free to drop a comment or message :-)

Hannah xx

Greetings from Greece!

Hello! It felt about time that I posted a blog on my time in Greece so far, especially since I'm so keen to share the meal I had out this evening.

Up until tonight, I have eaten all my meals at the hotel - gorgeous Greek salads, aubergines, peppers, yoghurt, omelettes and tzatziki (sp?). The first night I even broke my meat free streak and had the swordfish, because I've had it before and KNEW it'd be good!

Tonight we ate out in a lovely village called Afytos. I was excited to try some new Greek specialities and wasn't afraid to indulge in some beautiful starters.

Fried courgette flowers - I have never had these before but they were amazing,a little like good quality vegetable crisps but more delicate. They came with a garlic puree/spread that had a lovely garlic flavour but it didnt linger or turn bitter in my mouth.

Grilled aubergine stuffed with feta - also delicious. It came whole and without the skin which was a new one to me, and stuffed with feta cubes and dried herbs. Feta wasnt too salty either which was good as it stopped it from overpowering the smokiness of the aubergine.

For main I had orzo (a rice shaped pasta), another first, with a tomato sauce and mixed vegetables (onion, tomato, pepper, courgette, mushroom). It had a very rich flavour and the texture of orzo was some way between risotto rice and overcooked pasta and was a good vehicle for the rich flavour. I couldn't even finish it, showing how satisfying it was!

I have kept up my exercise while here as there is a small but decent enough gym and fitness studio. So far my workouts have been interval run/walks, a body circuit instructed by my boyfriend, and today I was dripping after a 6k treadmill run. My average speed was about 10kph, which is slower than I would usually manage, but a greater effort in this heat! I've also swam and walked a little each day!

Will update again in a few days, I expect!

Hannah x

Stuffed with Success!!!

Hello all!

Today has been an exciting day on both the fitness and food front so I shall split the blog into two

Fitness

A PB for outdoor running - six miles (almost 10K) - the furthest that I have ever run outside before, and I did it on sore legs too (thanks to just 10 minutes of messing around with a kettle bell yesterday). I then followed it with a quick yoga sequence recommended by Sarah at Sarah Learns and I could really feel it stretching all those key running muscles - very satisfying! Sarah says that it has changes her running recovery experience so I'll keep this up in the home of similar results.

My feet are now a mess though! They were already in pretty poor condition thanks to wearing high heels a couple of weeks ago and running in worn out trainers didn't help....I'll spare you the photos anyway!

For those of you on facebook, I also wanted to share with you today a page called Reasons to be Fit - check it out, motivattional images are posted daily with great mantras to inspire you. I loved this one today:

 

Definitely a healthier and more accurate saying than the 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels', in my opinion!

And finally, this post on FitFluential caught my eye as I will be trying to keep my 10K training up (and general fitness) while holidaying in Greece for the next fortnight. It's about adapting and preparing yourself for changes in climate for runners and couldn't have come at a better time!

Food

I fuelled  my run this morning with one of my usual green smoothies (kiwi and strawberry this time)

I ate lunch out with my mum and indulged in a butternut squash and rocket risotto and I'm kicking myself for not photographing it for you! However it looked pretty much like this:

And dinner was an actual success! My first ever proper attempt at stuffed peppers based largely on this recipe from The Vegan Foodie, a blog which I shall be exploringa bit more in future I'm sure!

I followed the recipe almost exactly, though I had to use a combination of green and red lentils (ran out of green) and I unveganised it by subbing the crumb topping for some lovley melty cheese! I also used kale rather than spinach as I save spinach for breakfast. Aren't they sexy????

And I had it served with some pitta chips and some mushed up avocado with a squeeze of a lime to pump up the goodness...oh yeah...

These went down a treat with my mum and her boyfriend (both meat-eaters), so would definitely recommend if you're wanting to feed omnivores a veggie option!

Thanks again for reading, gang! I'll be checking in again tomorrow for perhaps my last blog for a while as I'm not sure how easy it'll be for me to blog in Greece.

Hannah x