Mmmm lush, drooolllll slurp

I was meeting friends last night for a quick drink last night (diet coke mind, I'm giving my liver a bit of a rest and won't be drinking until next week!!) at the Ha Ha bar in Embankment. On the way there I passed a Holland & Barrett so decided to pop in and get another jar of BarleyCup for home. I've got one at work and I love it... it does actually taste like coffee, but less harsh, and it doesn't give you coffee breath - and it doesn't have caffeine as it's made from chicory and barley - really yummy! I also picked up some licorice but unfortunately they didn't have the quinoa bars that they do in the branch in Victoria... they're lush, think Sesame Snacks but with quinoa instead, even more yummy!

By the drinks section they also had the nut butters. I already have almond butter that I bought a few months ago, which is nice, quite strong savoury though, I think I prefer eating actual almonds (which I do, most days!), but I noticed they had some cashew nut butter... I HEART cashew nuts... OMG, they are lovely, I used to visit this shop in Wimbledon Station called 'The Nut Tree' and buy honey-coated cashews and macademias by the bag-full... droollll.... this stuff is nicer than the almond butter, they roast the cashews before grinding them, so tasty!

Anyway, so I bought some cashew nut butter as well as some more rye flour for the bread maker, met up with my girlfriends for some drinks (one of whom still works at House of Fraser, my old employer, fucking awful soul-destroying organisation, going to try and get her a job in my current work place, it will make her life a lot happier I can tell you!!!) and then headed back home.

I didn't get in til quite a bit later than planned so I literally had 30 mins I could spend in the gym before kick-out time

It's always a constant battle between me and the staff when it's like 10/15 minutes to closing time:-

Staff: closing time now
Me: I thought you're open til 10pm
Staff: we are but you have to be out the door by 10pm
Me: how long do you think it'll take me to walk from this machine to the door
Staff: well we give you time to shower first
Me: I live round the corner, I don't use the showers here
Staff: Oh {grudgingly} alright then
Me: {false smiles} thanks very much

I wouldn't mind but I never leave there *after* 10pm and I do literally walk straight out as we do live a couple of minutes walk away... PLUS I'm there quite a lot in the week you'd think they'd recognise me by now!!!

Anyway, I managed to get 30 mins in on the Cardio Wave, love that machine, legs felt suitably numb and floaty-light afterwards and I had a decent sweat built up - not nearly the same as running but I did that the day before and don't want to overdo it...

Anyhoo, as I didn't get back home til after 10 I didn't feel in the slightest bit hungry but decided I needed to munch on something so I made a protein pancake with a scoop of promax diet in banana flavour and topped with half a tub of quark with cashew butter and honey all mixed up together.

I think this might have been the tastiest ever... it was like eating my honey-coated cashews but without the guilt, haha! At nearly 50g of protein and only 300 cals and < 5g fat it was pretty damn perfect for me, I'm so super chuffed.

Here's the recipe, I challenge you to not adore it (unless you have nut allergies and then I withdraw my challenge with abundant apologies...)



Enjoy!

TJx