Getting Back To It

Do you ever find that if you leave it too long in between blog posts, it's really hard to get back into it?? It's not that I don't want to write, I do, and I think about my blog way more than is probably good for me (!) - I'm still taking photos of all my food, thinking of what I'll write about the food as I'm eating it. It just gets hard to get back into it, you know? Even after deleting all the "bad" photos I've taken and getting it down to the bare minimum, I'm still left with 43 "blogworthy" photos that I've taken since I last posted on Thursday! I don't want to bore everyone with them, or indeed take all night to write one post, so I will just have to accept that some photos will get missed and post the highlights of the highlights - it's not really going to affect anyone's lives by not seeing a photo of a bagel or a smoothie that I've eaten is it! So...stop rambling and start talking about food! :)

First though, I just want to briefly talk about the London Marathon. I'm not a runner, nor will I ever be a runner, but I made sure to watch it this year because my Mum and her partner were both running it! It was my Mum's first ever marathon (and I think last from what she's now saying!!) and she found it so hard. She did it though, we're all so proud of her! She didn't manage it in the sub-5 hours she was hoping for - coming in at 5 hours 43, but she made it, and ran about 80% of it as well, yey! :) For my Mum's partner, it was his 3rd Marathon - he did Dublin in 2008 in 3 hours 53 minutes, then London 2009 in 4 hours 4 minutes, so he desperately wanted to at least come in under 4 hours to beat his previous London time. He came in at 3 hours 50 minutes - his personal best! :) So proud of them both. My Mum especially is very glad it's over though, they both did so much training, and whilst she will still keep running, she can now concentrate on over things...like planning my wedding!! That's next on her list - only 2.5 months to go, it's come round so quick! :)

Ok...food. I've taken even more photos than usual since Liam came home from uni with a DSLR camera...got to make the most of it before he has to take it back in a week! However most of my foods seem to have been snacks, so I'll start with the few main meals there have been first.

On Friday morning, I finally made it back to the gym!

It had been way too long since I'd last been - glad I made it back though. I was only there an hour - 40 minutes cardio plus free weights and weight machines - but it felt good! When I got home, I enjoyed a tropical green smoothie - this one didn't contain pear - just spinach, banana, pineapple and milk, topped with coconut - and was much smoothie than the last version thanks to my new blender!!

I forgot to put the xanthan gum in this so it was soupy/foamy rather than thick, but delicious nonetheless!

On Friday lunchtime, everyone else ate corned beef hash that my Mum had made for us (she needed to use up her potatoes before going away for the weekend!) which meant there was no arguments over who got to eat the leftover roast vegetable lasagne, yey, all the more for me!

This was still delicious, I love the combo of the roast peppers and the lentil sauce so much. The broccoli went really well too - the only thing the lasagne is missing is green veg & I do love my broccoli! (one of my sister's doesn't like it/refuses to eat it - so odd!!)

Friday dinner is always a bit of a mission to motivate myself to eat properly as Liam is at work and the children tend to be tired from the week so eat early. This Friday was no exception - I ended up eating my last two peanut butter cups...

and a bowl of granola...

a bit random and perhaps not the healthiest of dinners, but certainly tasty!

I woke up Saturday morning fancying a bagel...a peanut butter and mashed banana bagel...

so good...

I love the texture contrasts and the sweet banana with salty peanut butter, plus the doughy cinnamon raisin bagel, delicious!

Saturday lunch was what I should have made for Friday dinner if I'd had the energy - I'd been having major egg mayonnaise cravings. In wholemeal pitta breads with some diced cucumber mixed in...

I love egg mayonnaise, I normally just have it in a regular sandwich but it was even nicer in these pittas. Bit of an excess of bread for the day, but hey ho!

Despite being quite full from lunch, I couldn't resist going out for a walk with the family and stopping in at a cafe. I had a Luscombe raspberry lemonade and a chocolate rum truffle...

I can never resist these when I see them...thankfully for my waistline (!!) I hadn't spotted one since Christmas, but it was worth the wait...

rich cakey chocolatey deliciousness with a few raisins thrown in as well...so good!!

Saturday night dinner was another favourite in our family - butternut squash risotto. I followed the same recipe as before except I added in some pesto mixed with a little oil as one of the (many!) toppings, as inspired by the risotto I had out on my Mum's birthday.

All the ingredients go so well together in this, and the pesto was a great addition, yum yum.

On Sunday morning, daughter and I made a smoothie from her magazine - slightly altered to include the ingredients we had, this was a simple banana, frozen pear, milk, yoghurt and honey combo...

This was ok, but nothing amazing...luckily as baby drank most of mine!

He had a big foamy moustache afterwards, cute! Unfortunately this meant I didn't really eat a proper breakfast on Sunday, and consequently spent most of the morning snacking, oops! We went for lunch at my Grandparents, where I had some egg mayonnaise sandwiches...

as well as unpictured grapes, cucumber slices, cubed cheese and a delicious lemon curd yoghurt to finish.

Sunday evening, I made Mama Pea's Quinoa Pizza Casserole, which I topped with roasted pepper slices and cubed goat's cheese... this was delicious, however the photo has got lost in the unknown that is Liam's laptop, and as he is currently working on his dissertation with a deep frown on his face, I think it's best not to disturb!!

Finally (well apart from many snacks!) on to today, and another early morning gym visit! I find it so much easier to go to the gym as soon as I wake up, unfortunately for the next 4 days that will not be possible as Liam will be at uni/work. After the gym, I really fancied porridge. I had no bananas to bulk the oats out, so used some jarred apple sauce instead. Oats, apple sauce, cocoa powder and milk, topped with a drizzle of maple syrup and a blob of peanut butter...

this definitely hit the spot. Despite the sunny weather, I was in the mood for something warm, chocolatey and gooey...

So good :)

No lunch for me today as, by the time I got back from the gym, breakfast was a late one, and then we had to go to the dentist (boo!) early afternoon, but I made up for it with a ginger icecream after the dentist...

Does anyone else feel they "deserve" a sweet treat after a dentist visit (presuming no local anaesthetic from fillings of course) or is it just me?? Probably the reason the dentist felt the need to tell me to avoid all sugar (incl fruit etc) except at mealtimes, oops! He said similar to my Mum and sister when they went, and clarified it with that they should only eat 5 times a day to limit the acid attacks on their teeth. I think I've managed that today...just... 1) porridge, 2) icecream, 3) random tofu picking, 4) dinner, 5) cocoa pudding...but normally I eat way more times that that each day!!

Anyway, onto dinner. The others had meatballs and I'd planned to make myself lentil ragu, but in the end was too tired to cook. Leftovers made dinner simple for me though - leftover quinoa pizza casserole with goats cheese and the last of my sesame smoked tofu mixed in...

easy and tasty! :) and finally for today - Jemma's Choco Pb Nana Pudding - I made it before I sat down to write this post, leaving it chilling in the fridge for a while - and am enjoying it now - so good!

I really love this - so glad I discovered the idea on Jemma's blog! It's even better once it has set in the fridge for a bit too - goes all rich and fudgy...very filling too!

Well, that's all of my main eats over the last few days...nearly finished now I promise!! I have also eaten lots of snacks, but I will limit the photos to just a couple of favourites. First up, medjool dates stuffed with peanut butter. Nothing special here I know, but I have always failed to get decent photos of this gorgeous snack with my regular camera, whereas the DSLR did a pretty good job!

So sweet and filling, although sadly, despite being what I'd consider pretty healthy for a "treat", they still fall under what the dentist would consider to be "evil sugar"!!!! It seems silly to eat other things as well as a couple of stuffed dates to make it a "meal", so I will just try to stick to the eating 5 times a day thing I think. I rarely eat between breakfast and lunch anyway, so, at least when my eating is relatively under control, I should be able to manage it - 1) breakfast, 2) lunch, 3) afternoon snack, 4) dinner, 5) evening snack. Sadly the dentist also includes drinks, so if I want a latte, or even a no added sugar squash (apparently this is still sugar?) then I have to only drink it with a meal. Grrr. Stupid rules!!

Anyway, there were no other particularly noteable snacks consumed over the weekend. I did however make the mistake of stocking up on some more "luxury spreads" at Lidl...

2 coconut spreads (delish), 1 mocha spread and 1 hazelnut & chocolate spread. I thought the hazelnut & chocolate one would be like Nutella, so this was intended for Liam/daughter, but in actual fact it was like Ferrero Rocher - full of hazelnut bits - yummy to me, but not Liam's cup of tea...luckily I didn't like the mocha version so we swapped! He has way more self control than me - he still has loads more mocha left whereas all 3 of my jars are now empty!!

Sadly I would have to agree with the dentist on these jars - looking at the ingredients list, in no way are they healthy for me, or my teeth!

Sugar and vegetable oil as the top two ingredients anyone?! Must not buy anymore!!

Right, I think that's me finished for this post. Apologies for the rambling! Tomorrow Liam is back to uni, so whilst I'll be back to using my regular camera, at least I should be able to get back into some form of routine, and have a greater chance of avoiding a trip to the icecream shop!!

Oh and if you haven't already spotted it, Jemma at Celery and Cupcakes is holding a great Pulsin' Giveaway - closing date 1pm on 22nd April, go check it out! :)