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