Sunday 13 March 2011

Weekend Highlights

I've decided not to post photos of everything I've eaten the last few days - I've eaten lots of standard foods like egg mayo sandwiches, a repeat of basil tofu, brown rice & peas, plus many grabbed handfuls of almonds and Brazil nuts. I seem to have become unable to go into the kitchen without grabbing a handful from the bag of mixed nuts in the cupboard! Plus the post would just be too long if I posted every single thing I ate - I've become a real snacker recently!

Here are the more interesting things I've eaten though...

Friday:
After the gym I never fancy a heavy breakfast, usually opting for a smoothie. Friday morning I had the energy to make it a bit more visually creative. Smoothie made of a banana and frozen exotic fruit mix (mango, melon, papaya and pineapple), layered with Rachel's coconut yoghurt, topped with a sprinkle of desiccated coconut...


this tasted as good as it looked! I loved being able to taste the individual flavours of the fruit and the yoghurt, although it has made me want to buy a whole new collection of glassware!!

The rest of my meals on Friday were less interesting, but I had some fun snacks! Total split pot yoghurt with honey...


I loved this! I loved that the honey was set, and tasted really good quality...it immediately carted my mind back to when I was about 11, and we went over to Portugal to visit my Auntie and her (Portuguese) husband. They both worked in the hotel we stayed in, and I remember most mornings my Uncle would make my Auntie breakfast...usually toast and yoghurt with honey and jam. I remember watching with fascination as he first mixed the honey and jam before adding the yoghurt...to my child's mind it seemed so exotic! I of course tried it at the buffet breakfast the next morning and it was delicious. The thickness of the Total yoghurt with the yummy honey reminded me of that...I think I'll have to buy some decent honey to enjoy with yoghurt more often :)

My daughter was still off school on Friday. The thing she was most upset about? Missing the fruit salad that was meant to be part of her school lunch! I know I could've made some up for her, but it was a treat for her to buy some, and for £2 I think this was quite good...


Tesco mini fruit platter - kiwi, melon, grapes, mango and pineapple. The children ate most of this (with baby squeaking to make sure he got his fair share!!) but I was left with some pineapple and kiwi, yum.

Saturday:
Another great breakfast. Katie's Pumpkin "Boatmeal" or baked oats...delicious.


I followed her recipe except I used 2 tbsp date syrup to sweeten it, and I added 25g of crunchy peanut butter from her list of optional extras.


This was amazing. I really enjoyed Jess' Carrot Cake Breakfast Bake and Averie's Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cake, but Katie's Boatmeal tasted the most how I thought baked oats should taste...I'm looking forward to playing around with different variations of this!! :)


the texture of this was so good. Not as "cakey" as the breakfast bake, but not as chewy as the microwave cake...I don't really know how to describe it...just soft, yummy baked oats...divine.

Dinner was the other highlight of Saturday. Not even a pre-planned meal - just a way to use up the kale that was delivered in our veg box. Stir fry with onion, garlic, ginger, kale, peppers and frozen soy beans, served with noodles, soy sauce and sesame oil (plus prawns for the others)...


Sometimes a big plate of veggies is just what's needed :)

Sunday:
My gym plans changed today (my sister was only free to look after the children in the afternoon instead of the morning as I'd hoped) which meant my breakfast plans could change...I took the opportunity of being able to have a heavier breakfast to eat a variation on yesterday's boatmeal. Chocolate-banana = divine.

Choco-Banana Baked Oats
  • 40g oats
  • most of a banana, mashed
  • 50ml milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp Sweet Freedom, to taste
Mix all the ingredients and cook in the oven at 190C for 20-25 minutes. Topped with Rachel's coconut yoghurt and the rest of the banana. This was so good...


I love the texture of this, even without the crunchy peanut butter that yesterday's had. A great start to the morning (especially alongside an unpictured maple walnut latte!)...


I plan to make many more of these in the future...thanks for the inspiration Katie! :)

Going to the gym straight after Liam's lunch break (the only time my family could look after the children) does not really work well with our routine. I didn't want to eat the pasta that everyone else was eating for lunch, so instead I had a small smoothie to keep me going. This was really tasty and so simple. Just 1 small banana, 100g tinned pumpkin puree, 1 tsp cinnamon, 25g Meridian peanut butter and 5g agave nectar all blitzed up in the blender. So smooth and sweet, and surprisingly filling too...


When I went to the gym, there was only one other person there, fab! (not particularly surprising as it was sunny and the rugby was due to start) Unfortunately I couldn't do a particularly long work-out as my sister wanted to watch the rugby child-free, but I managed to fit in 20mins on the cross trainer (changing levels up and down every 2 minutes, this worked me really hard!) plus free weights, leg weight machines and 10 minutes on the rowing machine.

When I got home, my appetite was all over the place! I wasn't hungry when I got back, but equally couldn't last until dinner. I ended up eating about 5pm - leftover passata veg pasta sauce that the others ate for lunch, with wholewheat penne and nutritional yeast flakes...


I hadn't had nutritional yeast in such large quantity before (and I can't believe this is only 1 level tbsp!) but it was great...and the protein for calories is so much better than cheddar, yet it doesn't feel like I'm missing out, ideal! :)

As well as my recent nut addiction, I have also been eating lots of yoghurts. Since I went shopping a week ago I have finished the entire big tub of Rachel's coconut yoghurt, plus all the Total split pots I bought. I ate the last one this evening - tropical fruits...


this was nice, I liked that the fruit compote had chunks in it, and of course I still love the thickness of the Greek yoghurt. My favourite still has to be the honey version, but I prefer this to the blueberry (I didn't buy the strawberry one as I find strawberry yoghurts boring!)

So that's my weekend. A quiet one, but a good one. I hope you've all had a nice time too!

2 comments:

  1. I love the idea of layering your smoothie on top of the greek yoghurt. It looks amazing as does the baked oats...yum!!

    ReplyDelete

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