Posts Tagged by Apple
I am beautiful and totally normal…
| May 26, 2011 | Posted by Sweet Tooth Runner under Uncategorized |
HEY friends, and Happy Thursday!! I want to thank you all SO MUCH for your kind words and personal experiences that you shared with me in the last post! It meant SO MUCH to me 
First up, FOOD!! Today was a rest day for me, so I just did some yoga to stretch out, and I don’t know about you guys but I am always MUCH more hungry on rest days! I guess it all catches up with me! Bring it onnnn I say! 
Here are a few foodie pics from the last two days…
Banana oatbran pudding with goji berries, apricot jam and cashew-date butter.
A big ol’ salad with brocc, red pepper and sweetcorn, topped with a tofu-cheeze-hummus dressing. I just blended 2/3 block of silken tofu with water, nooch, hummus and salt/spices and it was AWESOME! Enjoyed for lunch with a baked sweet tater on the side
Apple with almond butter.
Apple with PB&Co Crunch Time! Best crunchy PB EVER!!
Red pepper with spicy Sabra hummus.
Angela’s Easy Creamy Tomato Barley Risotto (AMAZING, and so simple to make!) with courgette/zuchinni on the side.
And these x1000 of course! 
Okay, enough food!! I have tons more but this post would be SO long and I don’t want to bore you guys to death! 
Yesterday I also got in an hour long sesh on the indoor bike:
30 mins of High Cadence Speed Intervals and 30 mins HIITs= SWEAT!! Then I hit the weights for an Upper Body workout.
Oh, and the lovely gals Olivia and Ragnhild awarded me this a while back…
The Smiling Award!
The rules:
1. Smile!
2. Write 3 things you like about your looks.
3. Write 3 things you appreciate about your personality.
4. Write about something you find beautiful in other people (looks, personality – whatever)
5. Award as many other people as you like and let them know!
1. SMILE!
The smile had to involve nut butter of course
2. Three things I like about my appearance…
ONE: I like my hair when it’s washed, so maybe I should do that more often…
TWO: I like that my stomach is like a bottomless pit and somehow manages to contain all the food I put in it without me exploding. Don’t ask me how it works.
THREE: I like my huge clown feet. I’m pretty sure if they weren’t big boats then I’d fall over.
3. Three things I appreciate about my personality…
ONE: I like that I don’t care much what people think of me. The only person whose approval I need is God’s, so it’s okay for me to be slightly insane in public and do things like crazy-pose with foam rollers in the gym in front of people.
TWO: I love that I’m a little obsessed about some things/people. Like Paula Radcliffe…
…and nut butter. I’m opening up now you guys, and revealing The Collection…
Those are just the open ones. 10 jars and 1 bucket. PB&Co White Chocolate Wonderful, Tahini butter,PB&Co Crunch Time, Cashew-Date butter, Almond butter, Smooth PB, Cashew butter, Hazelnut butter, PB&Co Dark Chocolate Dreams, Crunchy Sunflower Seed butter and Artisana coconut butter. There are also other unopened ones in my Nut Butter Cupboard, but lets not go there today. Gotta let the crazy out in small doses.
THREE: I love that I’m a hugger.
Bananas…
Trees…
Myself…
…and sometimes other people too…
HAHA don’t you just LOVE my friend’s expression there?! I promise I’m not THAT bad at hugging!
4. Something I find beautiful in other people. Oh gosh this is HARD! I find so many things beautiful in other people! I love people who are genuine, caring, and positive! People who aren’t afraid to be themselves are beautiful too…but I think caring is the most beautiful thing. People who show kindness and selflessness are SO beautiful and you can always tell when someone has a kind heart
I have that stuck in my Bible actually to remind me to try to be more caring and conscientious, and I love it!
5. Tag other people and let them know. This is the bit I can never do!! You are ALL so beautiful to me, and I know this is cliché, but CONSIDER YOURSELF TAGGED! I’d better see this on your bloggies later, or else!!!
Something you like about your appearance? This isn’t being vain, it’s being self-loving, so tell me pleeeease!! If you don’t, I’ll reply with a list of things that I love about your appearance instead
One thing you love about your personality/something you find beautiful in other people?
Do you have a big nut butter collection, or a big stash of something? Aside from my slightly ridiculous nut butter collection, I also have a pretty impressive snack bar stash!
Love you all, have an AMAZING day!!
What I…Wednesday
| April 20, 2011 | Posted by Sweet Tooth Runner under What I...Wednesday |
YO friends!!
Today I’m joining Jen from Peas and Crayons as well as tons of other bloggers, and I present to you, my ‘What I…Wednesday’!
What I Ate Wednesday
Okay, a prize to whoever is first to spot the theme in these foods:
Apple-cinnamon-raisin oatmeal:
Apple-cinnamon-raisin microwave cake +apple+cinnamon+raisins on the side:
Apple(sauce)-cinnamon-raisin yoghurt:
Hmmm….anyone?! 
Yeah I was on a bit of a roll with that combo today! But lets be honest, that is an AWESOME combo, only just behind PB+J.
A couple of other eats:
Sweet potato and chickpeas covered in cinnamon and coconut oil and roasted. The coconut oil MADE this- DELISH!!
And a lot of these delicious double chocolate chip cookies I received from the vegan bake sale win yesterday! These are SO yummy- you are a GENIUS Eleanor!! 
What I Read Wednesday
Do you remember last Saturday my excitement about finding Paula Radcliffe’s new book?
And then getting it SIGNED by her at the VLM expo?
Well I finished it today! The book is BRILLIANT- highly recommended! It has practical running advice for everyone, from beginners to experienced marathoners, and includes lots of training plans for races too. Anyway, I collaborated with a running coach today to create my own training plan for my first half in July! I am shooting for a sub 1.35 half in my main race in October (and whatever time I can get in July!), so bring on the training! 
I’m going to do a Training Tuesday post next week to show you the plan and talk it, my injury, etc. The plan looks GREAT but so hard in parts!! I’m definitely looking forward to those 8 mile tempo runs at a 7 min/mile pace…!
What I Worked Wednesday
Early morning spin class!
There’s nothing like an hour full of sprints and hill climbs in a tiny hot room packed full of other sweaty crazies to wake you up in the morning!
Then I hit the weights and finally the mat for some ab+core work. I tried using a Swiss ball for the first time!
I think I spent more time bouncing up and down on it than anything else to be honest, and thankfully, since it was early, there was only one old man to watch me fall off again and again…
So a MOVE for ya! According to Runner’s World, this is proven to be THE best core move. 
And Runner’s World are never wrong.
Here’s how to do it:
I think I managed it once on the thousandth time of trying- SCORE!! 
I’ll keep trying though until I can do it like the woman above without falling into the mirror like I did today!! The old man was tres jealous of my skills.
What I Dreamed Of Wednesday
The holidays…..
In August I am hitting HAWAII baby!! I can’t wait…BRING ON SUMMER!!
Your turn: Tell me what you worked/read/ate/dreamed of! Share time pretty please!
Do you always follow race training plans, or do you just wing it? I’ve tried it both ways now, and I think I prefer having a plan- it means I definitely incorporate all the different workouts that’ll make me a stronger runner, including those easy/recovery runs!! Some people work well without one though, so I guess it just depends on you!
Where are you going on holiday/vacation this year? Make me jealous!!
Enjoy the rest of your week friends!! Have a great day!!
Vegan double gingerbread cookies
| December 20, 2010 | Posted by Sweet Tooth Runner under Uncategorized |
So yesterday, I made a ton of delicious gingerbread cookies! And guess what? There isn’t a single one left this evening! 
That’s 39 cookies eaten in less than 24 hours, for your information! My family and I decimate all baked goods. Fact. I’ll get to the recipe in a moment. The rest of my day first! 
Today I didn’t have oatmeal for breakfast! I can hear your incredulous gasps of disbelief, but it is true! I opted for a apple-cinnamon yoghurt parfait instead!
Simply a chopped apple, sprinkled with cinnamon, covered with soya yoghurt which was topped with my yummy Bodymatter granola.
While this was delicious, it wasn’t as filling as my oatmeal, so a mid-morning snack of this followed:
A Bounce almond protein ball! The 12g of protein kept me satisfied for ages while I hit the shops for yet more Christmas shopping! I had lunch whilst rushing round the shops, which was a houmous and falafel wrap:
All I’ve got left to get now is my brother’s Christmas card, and that’s it! Just have to keep my fingers crossed for that Amazon delivery now!
Before I left for my shopping trip, I remembered that I’d seen a gym attached to the shopping centre last time, so I packed some clothes and took some time out from my shopping to hit the gym for a quick 45 min workout! And I was super excited when I got there to find that this gym was so posh! Well actually it was probably quite average, but my local gym has very ‘vintage’ (circa 19th Century probably!) machines, so these seemed amazing to me! A treadmill with a TV?!
Wow. I loved it! Must do this whole shopping+working out thing again! 
In my post-workout shopping I picked up this Trek bar and munched happily away…
So how is your Christmas shopping going? Got everything yet? Oh, and have you regulars noticed the blog theme change? Like it? I do! I think it’s much more ‘me’ than the last one! On that note, there are going to be a more few minor blog changes coming up soon, just so ya know!
Anyway, back to the cookies!
Vegan double gingerbread cookies (adapted from here)
- 140g vegan spread (or unsalted butter)
- 100g molasses sugar (or dark brown sugar)
- 3 tbsp maple syrup (or molasses, golden syrup etc.)
- 350g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 balls stem ginger from a jar, chopped finely <—-hence the double gingerness of the cookies, for Maria who asked!
- Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Melt spread, sugar and syrup in a pan until a smooth liquid forms. Mix the flour, soda and spices together in a bowl. Stir in the liquid and chopped ginger to make a stiff-ish dough.
- If necessary, wait until cool enough to handle, then roll out dough to about 5mm thick. Stamp out shapes using cookie cutters, re-rolling and pressing the trimmings back together and rolling again. Lift onto baking sheets. Bake for approx 8-12 mins (depending on the size of your cookies and on your oven) until golden. Cool 10 mins on the sheets, then lift onto cooling racks. Once fully cooled, ice/decorate if desired. Enjoy!
First, assemble your ingredients for melting (spread, sugar and syrup):
Melt away!
Panic because you realise you didn’t check first to see if you had any ground ginger. Toss everything out of your cupboards until you finally find some, and try not to faint with relief.
Or you can just be organised and check beforehand. Up to you really!
Mix together your dry ingredients:
I actually just threw in the spices (couldn’t find a teaspoon measurer- can you tell I’m slightly disorganised? 
), so I’m not sure exactly of the amounts I used, but it turned out fine anyway!
Finely chop your ginger (I used two stem ginger balls that were in syrup, drained well).
Mix everything together until a dough is formed. Warning: this dough, like most cookie doughs, is highly addictive. Now, if you gorge yourself like I did, you can’t say I didn’t warn you! 
And then comes the fun bit…rolling and cutting! As its Christmas, I used small angel and star cookie cutters…
…and a few other random cutters for the scraps:
I then added a bit of green icing (green=Xmas!) to some of them. I would have iced them completely, but I had less than 50g of icing sugar in the house, so I made do with what little I had!
That’s for all you wonderful readers, who are all stars to me!
I. Hate. Snow.
| December 19, 2010 | Posted by Sweet Tooth Runner under Uncategorized |
Well, my plans for today were shaken up a lot by the arrival of more snow! I had planned to go to an early morning BodyPump, but having woken up to this sight, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get there:
Those are abandoned cars and buses you can just about see! I live on a main road, right on the top of a steep hill, so I think these people (wisely!) chose not to try and go down it!
Also, because of the snow, I received an email from Amazon this morning, saying that because of the weather, they cannot guarantee my order will be here before Christmas, but they ‘hope’ it will be! Well ME TOO AMAZON, ME TOO! 
So I had a completely unproductive morning, spent pottering around, watching Gilmore Girl reruns on TV, and avoiding all forms of work. Whilst eating constantly of course! 
Mainly this delicious stuff…
…that I’ve almost finished! Definitely an excuse to hit Whole Foods again soon I think!
I don’t know why the Snack Monster was out this morning, especially since I had a filling, yummy breakfast, but hey, I’m all about the intuitive eating! If my body wants food, I gotta please it! 
Breakfast was a repeat of yesterdays: apple and cinnamon oatmeal.
How-to:1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup coconut or other milk, 1/2 cup water and 1/2 chopped apple heated on medium heat in a small pan on the stove top until thick and bubbling! And try not to make such a mess like I always do!
Oats everywhere!
Later in the afternoon, it finally stopped snowing!
Our road was still clogged up with the abandoned vehicles, so I decided to walk to the gym to get in a quick workout! Turned out getting to and from the gym took more time than I actually spent in there! I was all jazzed up for my workout, when I realised I had made the rookie mistake of leaving behind the water bottle that I take with me everywhere! So I ended up paying for the gym’s ridiculously overpriced water, and was not a happy bunny!
However, a combination of my sweaty workout (I did quite a bit of weights as well as some cardio to make up for the missed BodyPump!) and finding a surprise on my camera case cheered me up!
A ladybird! I love them! 
Post workout snackage included a PB rice cake sandwich…
…and an Apple Pie Nakd bar
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think this is my new
favourite flavour. Yes, even better than the chocolate one! 
I was supposed to be going out to a restaurant for a Christmas meal this evening, but it was postponed because of the snow. 
But I made up for it (a bit!) by having a yummy dinner of ‘saag aloo’ (an Indian dish with potatoes and spinach), which was delicious…
…and watching Slumdog Millionaire for the second time! Great film!
Tomorrow morning, I am going to test the waters and see if it is possible to run outside! Seeing as I almost slipped right over today, and I was just walking, I’m not getting my hopes up about a successful run, but wish me luck!
I’m also going to be doing some baking, so stay tuned! 
Do you have/have you had snow where you live? And what do you believe about ‘intuitive eating’? Its been all over the blogworld recently, so I’d love to hear your opinions on it!
Hope you’re having a great weekend!
One week till Christmas!!
| December 17, 2010 | Posted by Sweet Tooth Runner under Uncategorized |
ONE WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS!!!! <—–In less than 2 hours anyway- I’m jumping the gun a little bit! 
I had a last minute panic order yesterday night on Amazon, as it was the last day for (free) delivery before Christmas! I literally got my order in about half an hour before it was too late! What can I say, I’m so organised! 
The order included:
‘Salt’ DVD for my dad, as he really wanted to see it at the cinema, but never got round to it…
…‘Eat Pray Love’ for my momma, because I know she’ll love it…
…and the Operation Beautiful book for my best friend, because everyone needs to read this book!
I’ve never seen Salt, but don’t particularly want to either, as I’m am not an Angelina Jolie fan in any way! Don’t get me started on her! But I’ve read Eat, Pray, Love and Operation Beautiful and loved them both. What about you? Have you read/seen these?
After the mad late-night panic, I needed a good, relaxing breakfast! Enter: apple and cinnamon stovetop oatmeal!
Deeelicious, and so perfect for this weather! Talking of the weather, it snowed again heavily today! So no run! Boo 
It’s also sposed to snow even heavier tomorrow, so I’m going to my gym in the morning! Going to a 9am BodyPump class, then hitting the treadmill hopefully! 
The snow had only just melted from before! This was our town just 10 days ago:
I’m also looking forward to tomorrow night, as I’m going out for a Christmas meal with friends. As we had to order our food beforehand, and there was nothing vegan on the menu, I called up the restaurant about it, and they said they would sort it out. So I wonder what I’ll get…! I also haven’t gotten all dressed up in so long (my life is spent mainly in hoodies, sweats and running clothes! ), so I can’t wait!!! 
So what are your plans for the weekend? And what presents have you got for your loved ones?
Now please excuse me while I go and munch on some of this…
and all of one (or two!) of these:
Have a great weekend!
Finally…Harry Potter 7 Part 1!
| November 28, 2010 | Posted by Sweet Tooth Runner under Uncategorized |
The morning began with another bowl of stovetop oatmeal, but this time, the apple and cinnamon version I wanted to try following yesterday’s whipped banana. I diced an apple:
I only added about half of this to the oatmeal, and ate the rest whilst waiting 
I added a TON of cinnamon (seriously, not kidding here- I love my cinnamon!) and some oatbran, and ended up with a delicious and warming bowlful:
Enjoyed whilst reading the Women’s Running mag I got half price at yesterday’s Running Show:
Today, I finally got to see Harry Potter 7!!! 
It didn’t disappoint! Only complain was that it was a bit long for me, at 2.5 hours. But I seriously can’t wait for the next instalment! 
Bought lunch quickly at the shops before the movie began:
A houmous and falafel wrap and Bear apple crumble granola nibbles. Both were very yummy, and I’ll definitely be having that wrap again soon!
In the 10 minute window I had for shopping before HP began, as well as picking up my lunch, I also used the £5 Sweatshop voucher I got in last month’s issue of Women’s Running to buy a headband for cold runs:
So I only paid £2 for it because of my voucher! I also bought a few more fruity snacks to add to my collection, including:
I had to wait a long time before I could eat dinner, so I snacked on the fruit snack bar above and the Body Matter granola I bought on yesterday’s awesome Whole Foods trip:
I love this granola- so yummy with big crunchy clusters, just how I like it! And no added refined sugars! I see this making a great oatmeal topping…!
Dinner was a simple tofu stir-fry, and dessert included the dark chocolate with cocoa nibs bar I bought yesterday:
And half of yesterday’s free Eat Natural bar (with cranberries, apricots and a yoghurt coating):
I then remembered that I’m a person who doesn’t do things by halves. So I had the other half
Tomorrow, I am either going to go on a run, or go to a BodyPump class. I’m leaning towards the class at the moment, especially since it’s going to be around –7C and sleet where I live tomorrow! 
And today, we got a bit of snow! So I’m intrigued: what’s the weather like where you live at the moment?
Hope you’ve had a great weekend!
A Bittersweet Thanksgiving
| November 25, 2010 | Posted by Sweet Tooth Runner under Uncategorized |
Hey everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving for those of you who are celebrating it today! 
Sorry I didn’t post yesterday- I got back late from a concert, so I took a packed dinner:
Wholewheat noodles in soy sauce, with tofu and courgette (zucchini), which made a great, filling dinner that took less than 10 minutes to throw together!
And when I got back later, I snacked on an apple and cinnamon yoghurt mess:
Apple and cinnamon complemented this season perfectly! Thanks for all your comments on Tuesday’s post by the way- it seems as though the majority agree with me in thinking that autumn/fall is the best food season!
Breakfast today was pumpkin oatmeal with the last remainders of my open can of pumpkin. I have many more cans, but am trying not to go through them too fast as I am very miserly (they aren’t cheap!), so sadly it may be a while before it returns! 
Well actually, it probably won’t be that long- self control was never one of my strong points! 
That miniscule blob was all that was left in the tin! Still made it lovely and pumpkiny though! 
All stirred in and topped with a crumbled pumpkin cookie:
Today sadly was my uncle Raj’s funeral. If you didn’t know, my fit+healthy uncle Raj died suddenly of a heart attack two weeks ago aged just 48. The funeral was very sad, but it was great talking to everyone at the reception and hearing all their funny stories about him! He was such a joker! The funeral programme:
He shared my love of running, and was actually running when he had his first heart attack a few days before the second one that killed him. He also shared my love of food, so they made sure that the funeral reception had lots of his favourite foods. The buffet included these cute mini quiches:
And these cupcakes:
I had a ton of savoury food (quiches galore!), so by the time they brought out the cupcakes, I was too stuffed to eat them! But my brother made up for me by eaing three, and I did enjoy quite a bit of my delicious pumpkin gingerbread a few hours later when I got back home!
Also, this was waiting for me when I got home:
A package! And y’all know how much I love packages! 
I knew it would be my protein powder that I <
a href="http://sweetoothrunner.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/protein-time/">ordered a few days ago before I opened it, but I was in for a bit of a surprise!
Soya protein? I thought I ordered pea protein?
Nope, looks as though I accidently ordered soya protein instead! As I had had some stomach issues with soya milk, I had decided to go for the pea protein, but as I can’t really be bothered to send it back and get the right one, I think I’ll just try this and see how I feel! So it called for a quick Protein Green Monster:
Oat milk, pear, spinach, xanthan gum, cinnamon and protein powder, all blended:
Wasn’t quite sweet enough for me- had to add some agave. The stomach’s feeling fine at the moment, but we’ll see later! Hopefully there’ll be no problem
So what are you thankful for today? I’m thankful that Raj’s life was one filled with happiness and joy, and that his wife and children know how very much he loved them. Better to live a short but happy life than a long and unfulfilling one, right?
“Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” <—— So make sure you do!
A banana-less morning
| November 20, 2010 | Posted by Sweet Tooth Runner under Uncategorized |
Why do we run out of bananas so often??? Probably because I eat at least one a day, but still! 
I hate banana-less mornings 
So this morning I got up, all ready for my quick pre-9am rehearsal early morning workout, but was greeted with this sight:
No bananas hanging from the banana hook, no apples, three questionable satsumas, and a pear. So immediately my usual pre-workout snack of banana+peanut butter was out! And what about my planned post-workout Green Monster, with the lack of bananas?
I managed to find an apple and a pear in our other fruit bowl (we actually have three for some reason!) so pre-workout snack was an apple+peanut butter:
And after Nell McAndrew’s Ultimate Challenge worked me into a sweat after half an hour, I turned my attention to the Green Monster… I decided to try it without the usual banana and with two of these instead:
I had no need to worry-it was delicious! Pear and Cinnamon Green Monster: 2 handfuls fresh spinach, 2 pears, 3/4 cup soya milk, 1 cup cereal (optional) 3 ice cubes, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum and about 1 tsp cinnamon. All blended:
And served with more cereal on top:
Deliciousness! Green Monsters are so good! 
It was enjoyed whilst reading some more of this:
It’s really good so far, but I’ll give a full review when I’m done 
Off to do some baking now hopefully! Another loaf of apple and cinnamon bread is currently baking in my bread machine, and is smelling divine!
What is your morning routine not complete without? I always have a banana, whether it’s in something or on its own- couldn’t live without them!
Hope you’re having a good Saturday!
