Exciting things... and a Barcelona question...

I've had exciting things (well for me anyway!) happen to me yesterday and today! :)

Yesterday... I discovered that I'd won Celery and Cupcakes Booja Booja giveaway... I never normally win anything so it was a huge shock to see my name on the results post...eeeek!! Thanks Jemma, I can't wait to try them! :)

Yesterday was a good day. Aside from winning the giveaway, I loved my food. Breakfast was a cinnamon & raisin bagel with my new Meridian crunchy peanut butter and half a sliced banana...

I really like this peanut butter. It was a bit difficult to spread, but I love how crunchy it is and it really tastes like peanuts :)

I've also been trying to reduce the amount of processed sugar I add into my diet, so yesterday morning I had a hazelnut latte with a tsp of date syrup...

and at toddler group I managed to drink my tea without any sugar...a huge difference for me as I normally have 2-3 tsp of sugar/sweetener in any hot drink! I also bypassed the biscuits at toddlers', woo hoo!!

I got home from toddler group to find that my Graze box had arrived. I haven't had one for about 3 weeks so I was looking forward to this! (apart from that it kind of goes against the whole not eating processed sugar thing...I fell at the first hurdle!!) This week's box:

West Country cheddar, red onion and chutney focaccia; fruit and seed flapjack; lemon meringue pie (lemon infused raisins, yoghurt coated peanuts and mini meringues); and paper tiger (peanut rice cracker mix)...

I was pleased to see the focaccia bread as I hadn't been sure what to add to my lunch and this went perfectly! Sliced red pepper, caramelised onion houmous and the focaccia...

This was a really yummy lunch. I love raw peppers with houmous and the focaccia was the perfect size to accompany and bulk it out a bit.

Mid-afternoon I had some more of Katie's fudge...

this is so good! I gave my Mum a couple of pieces yesterday to try, and today she asked me to make her a whole batch! She's training for the London Marathon so is trying to incorporate healthier snacks into her diet, plus she agrees this is super yummy! :)

Last night's dinner was a quick fried rice...with eggs, sweetcorn & peas from the freezer and a little leftover turkey, plus soy sauce and sesame oil...

I love fried rice, so simple yet tasty, and good to throw any lurking leftovers into!

In the evening I snacked on the fruit & seed flapjack from Graze...

I was a bit reluctant to eat this as it had demerara sugar and golden syrup in, but it didn't taste too sweet and was actually really tasty. The main flavour was all the dried fruit - apricots, dates, currants, sultanas and raisins! Plus sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds on top...we can pretend this is healthy!! :)

On to today...

A knock on my door...

My Goodness Direct order had arrived! Nice and early so no waiting in all day, yey!

In the box:

Cacao nibs, coconut flour, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast flakes, pineapple & ginger fruit spread...and lots of chocolate...

Montezuma's Organic Peru chocolate with fine sea salt 30g, Montezuma's Sea Dog (Dark chocolate with lime & salt) 100g, Montezuma's Spice It Up (Dark chocolate with ginger) 100g, Conscious Cherry Christmas 40g, Booja Booja Flambeed Banana Truffles 80g and Booja Booja Ginger Truffles 80g. I'm a little bit annoyed with myself that I didn't wait to see if I'd won Celery and Cupcake's giveaway before ordering the Booja Booja truffles...but I deliberately didn't order hazelnut ones just in case, so I'm still looking forward to receiving those too! :)

Luckily my Goodness Direct delivery arrived before I started eating today, so I could use the cacao nibs along with the black strap molasses in my breakfast...

Pumpkin porridge with black strap molasses, topped with cacao nibs...

the molasses gave the pumpkin porridge a gorgeously rich flavour...a new favourite! The cacao nibs...well I think they may take a little time to grow on me!! They're quite bitter, but not altogether unpleasant...I'll give them another try soon.

Mid-morning I couldn't resist trying the Conscious chocolate...

Oh. My. Gosh. This has to be the nicest chocolate I have ever tasted! Like a bar of chocolate truffle with sweet cherry pieces in, delish! I only wish it was more easily accessible and not so expensive...and that I'd bought more than one bar in this order! I've already directed several family members to the Conscious Chocolate website if they ever want to buy me a gift!! :-D

Lunch was meant to be a bagel with melted cheese and sliced apple. But Liam had used the last of the cheese making packed lunches this morning. And it was raining outside. So I just snacked on the Graze paper tiger mix...

and a hazelnut latte...

I then went to the gym. I went at 4.30pm, which is usually early enough for it to not be busy, but it was heaving! I got really annoyed as we only have 2 cross trainers and both were in use by the same people for ages. There are signs up everywhere saying that when the gym's busy only use the machines for 12 minutes max, but these two had been on the cross-trainers for 55 minutes when they were finally kicked off by the receptionist, having laughed and ignored a couple of people who'd asked how much longer they were gonna be. Grrr. I just silently seethed...it did not make for a stress-free gym experience! I didn't get on a cross trainer at all, and the weight section (which is tiny as it is) was completely jammed...this is what I did manage to do:

• rowing machine - 8 minutes
• machine similar to cross trainer but legs and arms moving in opposite directions (?) - 11 minutes
• wave machine - 12 minutes
• 'arm cycling machine' - 8 minutes
• stationary bike - 10 minutes

Bit of a random routine but better than nothing, I was just relieved to be back to exercising at all - hadn't got back to the gym since I got ill 3 weeks ago, oops!

When I got back from the gym the others were eating sausages and mash, which I didn't fancy. I had my sausages as a sausage sandwich instead...

Yum! Pappy white bread, sausages and ketchup...I love sausage sarnies!!

I still had lots of calories left due to lack of proper lunch/gym visit, so when I got hungry I decided to have my intended lunch (Liam had gone to the shops while I was at the gym, bless!). Multi-seed bagel, toasted, then grilled with one layer of cheddar, sliced apple and another layer of cheddar added before being grilled again...with the rest of the apple on the side...

This tasted great, like cheese on toast but better!

Off to bed soon, tiredness beginning to hit.

Before I go though...

Have any of you been to Barcelona before? And if yes, do you have any hotels you can recommend??

I'm trying to sort out our honeymoon at the moment (another exciting thing!) but can't decide on a hotel to book - they all seem to be in a good location or be a good hotel, but not both! Ideally we'd like the hotel to have a pool (although the one's I've seen are only tiny rooftop pools anyway so will probably end up just making more effort to go to the beach!), be relatively close to the city centre but not too close that we're kept awake all night (got to make the most of rare child-free time to catch up on sleep!!) and be "nice"...none of the ones I've looked at so far seem special enough for our honeymoon, although that would probably take us out of our budget!

We'll be going for 6 days at the start of July, I can't wait!