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

Wasted Sunday...

I was very hungover yesterday, and a bit of a waste of space really! Joe and I saw some friends on Saturday and had a fab night, lovely food, wine, company... :-)

unfortunately we were playing Buzz on the PS2 until the wee small hours, and to be honest, I don't remember much about the walk home, or really anything from that point onwards - there was evidence of washing being hung up and peanut butter and jam on toast being consumed - though I couldn't tell you if that was me or Joe!!

I'm getting too old for this. And, although I has a wicked time, I did regret not going to the gym as planned. There wasn't any point though, I had no energy and it would have been a half-hearted workout, a lacklustre performance to say the least, pointless really!

Instead I cooked a couple of nice spatchcock chickens for us with sweet potato mash (me) and sautéed new potatoes (the boys) and a yummy salad.

We ventured out to watch the new Harry Potter movie, but unfortunately the tickets had all sold out, which is a shame as I'd figured that wasting of a couple of hours on comfy seats in a dark cinema watching a bit of brainless fun (sorry to all HP fans!) would be the perfect panacea to a hungover soul like me.

Instead we all watched an absolute classic - Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, what a jolly good lark :-)

I made my first protein pancake on Saturday, it was hilariously horrid!!

I used *far* too many egg whites, and too much Promax Diet, and cooked it too long... the result was a thick piece of pink/brown cardboard - ha!!



I smothered it with fruit, and then later peanut butter, and forced it down... wasn't going to let it go to waste! The hilarious thing was that my son actually thought it was tasty and kept pinching some! Maybe it was the addition of blueberries that rescued it a little for him?

I was ridiculously full for hours afterwards mind, very effective!!

I was quite pleased with myself yesterday though, despite being smelly and hungover, I resisted the bacon and egg sandwich that Joe made himself and my son *smug mode*

Instead I gave the protein pancake another bash... this time with just 3 egg-whites and 1 scoop of Maximuscle Promax Diet in Strawberry flavour - I almost got it right but unfortunately I couldn't find the fish slice scoopy thing so one side got overcooked and was a bit rubbery.

However, it was much nicer than Saturday's effort and I covered it with 125g of Quark, mixed with a little acacia honey (my fave) and some blueberries and raspberries.

With my pancake I drank a lovely glass of smoothie. I'm not sure if I've posted this before, but this is my smoothie maker, it's the Kenwood Smoothie 2GO and I absolutely adore it, perhaps comparably, or even a little more, than my breadmaker as I get to benefit from this a little more than the boys :-D

I love this machine because it's so easy to use and so clever! You attach the lid with the blade directly to the jug, then turn it upside down and slot it into the machine. Once you've finished blending you take it out and replace the lid with the blade with a lid with a drinking spout, it's so simple - and easy to clean which is a BIG plus :-)


Into my smoothie went:

1 nectarine
1 banana
handful of blueberries
big handful of raspberries
100g cherries (they're actually a bastard to stone and my hands looked like how Lady Macbeth imagined hers did afterwards, so not sure if I'll bother in future!)
1 kiwi
a few blackberries (though not too many as they're a little tart)
250g ultra low fat natural yogurt
1 scoop Maximuscle Promax Diet in Strawberry flavour

It was LUSH!!

I must point out that I didn't drink this entire shake, in fact I only managed half as my son nabbed the rest, he loves my smoothies almost as much as I do!

I feel very lucky to have a 13 year old who actually enjoys healthy food, he's a big salad fan and adores fruit. He eats practically all vegetables too... just doesn't enjoy mushrooms on their own (but will have them if they're part of a meal) or cooked tomatoes (but likes them raw in salads). If we go to a restaurant he'll pick something adventurous off the menu (unlike in pubs when it's invariably the burger and chips that he goes for!!), at a French restaurant once he picked snails - yuck! He didn't like them very much though, but only because apparently they have the texture of mushrooms!

Anyway, going to get on now but will post later about my Operation M-BOT which stands for Maximuscle Body Of 2009 - you like ;-) ?!!

August is my 'getting my shit together' month and, as from today, I am launching the Four Week Fat Attack, today being Day One... very exciting, more later!

TJ x