Hello lovely people! How is everyone? What an amazing few days it has been. The sun has been shining hard and I am having quite a productive week. I’m really happy at the moment with life in general. I’m in a really good place and just generally content with everything in my world.
For breakfast on Wednesday I made a green smoothie, nothing fancy, just a throw it all in a blender kind of thing. I mixed spinach, a frozen banana, two plums, a banana, vanilla rice milk, water, xanthan gum, mesquite, maca powder, maple syrup, wheat germ and ground flax.
I think I have been having green smoothie withdrawal symptoms after the Seven Days, Seven Smoothies Challenge. This was so great! Especially when topped with puffed wheat, dried cranberries, coconut, brazil nuts and vanilla pumpkin seeds.
Is there a Green Smoothie Anonymous that I could join, because I’m seriously addicted! And I know that I’m not alone on this one. 😀
I’ve tried quite a lot new foods this week and another new food was the main ingredient for lunch yesterday- kabocha squash! For all this time I expected all squashes and pumpkins to taste pretty much the same way. How wrong was I? It has a much denser texture than regular butternut squash and becomes dry and flaky when cooked.
It tastes amazing! I can’t believe I have waited so long to try one. As soon as I got it home it went straight in the oven to roast to make a simple soup for lunch. The soup was just the roasted squash and stock but it was unbelievably creamy due to it’s dense texture. I’m definitely converted to kabocha, but its a shame that it is so damn hard to get your hands on!
Since I managed to leave the lab pretty early I thought I would fit in a mid afternoon workout that consisted of 30 minute of interval training on the treadmill, a 30 minute cross country workout on the cross trainer and my usual ab workout. My treadmill workout was hard due to the fact that the pre-programmed interval workout on the treadmill included inclines on the faster intervals. It was a pure sweat fest, but I got through it in the end-just! I refueled with a delicious Kashi Go Lean bar. I really wish we could get this brand over here in the UK as all the bars I’ve tried so far have been fab.
My neighbours neatly formed hedges and scissor trimmed lawns have been putting my weed infested garden to shame. After spending an hour or so tackling the Amazon jungle of a garden it was time to fill-mah-belly . When I picked up the kabocha squash I also bought a huge pile of reduced veg and the best way to use up reduced vegetables is a stir fry of course.
I used up a red pepper, mushrooms, French beans, baby corn, courgettes and kale. The sauce was made from sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, black rice vinegar and sesame seed oil and served it with some Clearspring buckwheat soba noodles.
…and a generous sprinkling of Chilli Mix from Munchy Seeds.
As the weather was so beautifully sunny I decided to enjoy dessert in my newly and proudly de-weeded garden.
Copious scoops of strawberry frozen yoghurt topped with dried cranberries, choccy seeds and grated Lindt ginger dark chocolate. I loved the strawberry and ginger together. Lindt have done it again with another divine flavoured chocolate and dare I say it a strong contender against their dark chocolate sea salt.
This morning started bright and early with an ab workout and some yoga stretches followed by another yummy chia pudding.
I love these things! I mixed chia seeds, quinoa flakes, vegan chocolate protein powder, ground flax, sweet freedom sweetener and topped it with strawberries and vanilla pumpkin seeds.
I need to order myself some more chia seeds sharpish as I can see my demolishing my tiny packet pretty fast.
For lunch I reconstructed a reduced pot of salad that I picked up in my reduced veggie haul.
I added courgettes, tomatoes, celery and chickpeas and added a dressing made from peanut flour, sweet white miso and water inspired by Laura’s yummy tahini version.
Before heading to the gym I snacked on a 9bar flax and an apple and boy did I need the energy. I decided to go to the evening spinning class so it was a different instructor to my usual- she was fab! The class had more structure to it then usual and we did a section of last years Tour de France. I loved it! After the 50 minute class I did a 30 minute cross country workout on the cross trainer. The 6 flights of stairs to the top of the multi story car park made for another killer workout.
Dinner was pretty much the same as yesterday to use up the vegetables. This time instead of the noodles I added a chopped up half a sweet potato and added some crunchy peanut butter. I’m a PB fanatic and I’m not ashamed! 😀
Have you had an awesome workout recently? Something that made you think how the hell did I get through that?
What’s your favourite machine to use at the gym? At the moment I’m favouring the cross trainer over the treadmill at the moment. The cross country workout is awesome!
I’m loving your positive outlook – matches the nice weather at the mo 🙂
My favourite pieces of gym equipment are the cross-trainer and the summit trainer. When I first started out with the summit trainer I could only manage 5 mins – I’m now up to 20 mins and it’s awesome!
Haha, great minds indeed – you know my tough workout, and no need to start green smoothies anonymous it would be me you and Jess I think! Did you know you can roast the kabocha with the skin on? I’ve made that soup a few times now – yours is a prettier colour than mine with the skin but I love the taste the skin brings to it, plus I’m too lazy to peel it 😉 Try adding sweet white miso and some chopped parsley to the soup, delish!
Haha, did you and Laura coordinate your post today? 😀
Hmm, my favourite machine.. Cardio wise, it has to be the rower. For weights, the incline leg-press.
And that stir-fry looks fantastic!
Fellow green monster addict right here.
I don’t tend to use gym machines because of my low boredom threshold, and the fact that my physio won’t let me near a lot of them due to the jarring effect on my back (most ellipticals, steppers) or the pressure of sitting (bikes, rowing machines) Spin bikes are okay though, so I’ll have to go for those!
My toughest workouts are always races: I’m actually pretty lazy when I’m not competing!
xxx
ahh i know i wish kashi would bring stuff here!!! i seriously love your soba noodle din din!! hmmm havent ahd a hard workout with my foot. but the other day i was just SO tired and totally thought i wouldnt get thru my workout but i did!
Yaaay I’m SO glad you loved the kabocha!! My all time favourite food ever ever! Haha! I prefer to eat it in chunks though as opposed to making soups with it because I love the texture so much.
ALL of your food looks seriously amazing..I am so inspired now!
My favourite machine is definitely the cross trainer at the moment…one thing I know for sure though is that I will NEVER like bikes!
I need to join that ‘green smoothies anonymous’ also…I have a serious problem! Haha! Your meals look lovely as always!
If I had to choose it would definitely be a spin bike or the summit trainer roll on tomorrow morning! Loving the food porn! x x
Everything looks sooo good Jemma! Especially that stir fry!
I love those vanilla pumpkin seeds too 😀
As for the machine q… even though I LOVE running I much prefer to run outside vs. treadmill. So I’d have to say the cross trainer!
Your stir-fry looks so yummy. I really want to try Go Lean bars – looks really nice!
The cross-trainer or rower are my favourite gym machines, don’t really enjoy the treadmill – much prefer outdoor runs. x
I am also an outdoor runner and cross trainer girl… but my favourite machine would have to be the powerplate to massage out all my muscles 😉
That Kashi bar looks really really big lol XD Love the chia pudding, everyone in the blogging world keeps making them, I had my first one yesterday 🙂 I had an awesome workout today! I love my weight lifting days
I was loving body pump tonight! Felt strong and on form 🙂
My last awesome workout was last week’s long run- I hope I can do it again on Saturday 🙂
Yes! I love the Go Lean products, all of them are amazing!
Dang that soba veggie dish looks sooo good! I was cravin’ something like that today hahaha. I don’t go to the gym so I can”t say.
They’ve been selling kabocha in the Asda near my work for a while – and it’s cheaper!
I’m going to have to try that Yeo Valley frozen yoghurt with this amazing summerness we’re having and I NEED those choccy seeds!
I was a member of a gym for a while years ago and my favourite was the cross trainer, I think that’s what it was anyway 🙂
Yes! I can’t get enough of green smoothies. The combinations are ENDLESS! 🙂
Your dinner is gorgeous. Stir frys are so easy and an excellent way to get in the veggies!
I ask myself that question everytime I finish a p90x workout. Absolutely brutal.