Today marked my return to reality as I had to go back to the lab and continue with that little thing called a PhD. I seriously loved my 4 day weekend it has been so much fun and yesterday I just chilled out at home yesterday recovering from all that walking around London. I may not have ran my 10K this weekend, but I sure walked it.
Yesterday for breakfast I continued with the 7 Day Smoothie Challenge and whipped up a Choco, PB and Nana green smoothie.
Ingredients
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1 frozen banana
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1 apple
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1 head of batavia lettuce
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2 tbsp of crunchy peanut butter
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1 cup of chocolate soya milk
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lots and lots of water
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xanthan gum
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2 tsp of cocoa powder
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ground flax
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pea protein
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wheat germ
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maca powder
Additional toppings included PB2 sauce, Bear Tropical granola and omega mixed seeds…YUM!
For lunch I had a tasty salad that consisted of quinoa, organic feta cheese, celery, mango, gala melon, courgette and mixed leaves.
I made a dressing from canola oil, lemon juice, mixed herbs and mild chilli powder. The sweet mango and melon in this was amazing!
My pre-workout snack was a portion of Yeo Valley Lemon Curd yoghurt with two pink lady apples. I headed out for a short run covering 3.16 miles in 31 minutes with a pace of 10 minutes/mile. I was quite chuffed with this as my speed has increased since my last run. I’m hoping to get my speed down into single digits, which is looking more and more likely. The longer longer runs I have been doing these past few weekends have really increased my endurance making the shorter runs a lot more easier. After the run I did my usual ab and core workout.
Dinner was a lovely sweet potato and kidney bean stew with courgette, green and red peppers, mushrooms, red onion and celery with a side of steamed kale.
For the sauce I used one of Levi Root’s Caribbean Curry Sauces and added vegetable to stock to make the sauce thinner. I wasn’t sure about using this particular sauce at first, but after reading the label the ingredients list is really short, making it a quick and easy meal on a busy week night.
For dessert I indulged in a birthday cupcake that I Alfie bought for me in London form the Humming Bird Bakery.
Can you believe that there was a queue to get in to this place? But boy was it worth it-check these out!
Everything looked so pretty but we picked a red velvet cupcake for Alfie and a chocolate cupcake with a personalised decoration for me.
My cupcake was amazing, probably the best I’ve ever tasted. They had lots of gluten free varieties of their cupcakes too. I think I will definitely have to buy the recipe book after being blown away by the deliciousness of my cupcake.
This morning started bright an early with my my usual toning workout and some extra ab work. Afterwards I made another green smoothie. I’m loving this challenge and could easily continue it beyond the 7 days at this rate. Today I went for a Strawberries and Cream flavour combo…
Ingredients
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strawberries
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celery
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1 frozen banana
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batavia lettuce
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vanilla rice milk
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sweet freedom sweetener
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soya protein powder
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xanthan gum
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wheat germ
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lucuma powder
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maca powder
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ground flax
*Just to let you know all the flavours of Rice Dream are on a £1 promotion at ASDA at the moment!*
Lunch today was three Ryvita pumpkin seed crackers with my Mediterranean Hummus, two plums, a banana and a pear.
I made this hummus last night and is based on the recipe for my Sweet Potato Hummus, except instead of sweet potato I added sundried tomatoes and green olives for a Mediterranean inspired yumfest!
My afternoon snack consisted of an Apple Pie Nakd bar and a large orange. For dinner I just had the leftovers from the sweet potato and kidney bean stew from yesterday.
It was time to open my jar of Dark Chocolate Dreams for dessert. I baked two chopped pink lady apples and dates in the microwave, dusted with cinnamon and topped it with a healthy serving of DCD.
This stuff is amazing! Who knew that peanut butter mixed with dark chocolate would be so good? I wish I had bought two jars now- it really is heaven sent!
Have you tried Dark Chocolate Dreams before? I’ve seen it on so many blogs and knew that I had to get me a jar when I saw it in Whole Foods. I’m so glad I did! I think I will try Emma’s recipe for homemade Dark Chocolate Dreams when my stash runs out, which may be sooner than I hoped.
What is your favourite cupcake recipe? I’m a huge cupcake fan, hence the name of my blog. The Humming Bird cupcakes were amazing and I really want to get their recipe book now. I think at the moment red velvet cupcakes are my favourite, although the chocolate one I had from the bakery is a good contender.
Don’t forget to enter my world wide giveaway!!!
Dark Chocolate Dreams really is heaven sent stuff!
White Chocolate Wonderful and The Bees Knees are pretty epic too 😉
The Heat Is On is blow-your-mouth-off hot!
I wish they sold all their flavours over here 🙁
I haven’t tried White Chocolate Wonderful and The Bees Knees. I don’t think they are available in the UK yet. 🙁
DCD IS SO SO GOOD!! ahh i love your smoothie iwth pb2!!!.. i know! i always see lines for hummingbird!!! i wish there was a vegan cupcake shop!
maybe you could open your own vegan cupcake shop and take over the world with vegan cupcakes!!!! 😀
I love the Hummingbird recipe book! I use it lots- the cookies are so good but the recipes make massive amounts so I normally halve the recipe. Plus with the cupcakes they make the proper amount but the frosting is way too much so again I halve that.
The pb cookies I made at the weekend are from there and they are heaven!
I love dark chocolate dreams too! I did make some homemade stuff (copied Emma too!) but it was not quite as good as DCD! Keep practising I suppose!
I seriously have to get their recipe book, because those cupcakes was impressive. I’m not suprised the recipes make so much frosting as the frosting on my cupcake was pretty thick.
Great news on the running — if you’re running 10m/m now then the 9s are definitely not far off!
Thanks! 😀
I really wanna try that peanut butter, cupcakes look and sound delish! x x
DCD is amazing. You should get your hands on some. I think you would love it! x
those cupcakes look so good! love the butterfly detail~someday I aspire to be a grrreaaaat baker even just as a hobby hehe. o man! today i tried PB&Co’s product for the first time!! boy was I missing out haha! i tried the raisin cinnamon one and it’s literally like some drug. 😛 have a beautiful day!
This may be a shocking confession, but I have never eaten a cupcake. The closest I have come was one of those little Butterfly Cakes with buttercream and jam when I was a nipper.
Thankfully I cannot get Dark Chocolate Dreams except online, as the jar I did order a while back lasted precisely two days. I kid you not.
Your sweet potato hummus was so lovely I may have to give this latest version a try.
<3
xxx
You’ve never eaten a cupcake?!?!!? Jess you need to jump on the cupcake band wagon ASAP! I’m not surprised you ate your jar of DCD so quickly-it is that GOOD! xxx
Dark Chocolate Dreams is the BEST!!! ahhh it’s so freaking good. I just wish it wasn’t so expensive.
Jessica @ How Sweet It Is has an AMAZING Cupcake/brownie recipe. I tried it out and I love love loved it 🙂
Cupcake brownie! WoW! That sounds good. My cupcake as kind of browie-ish, rich and dense- YUM!!! 🙂
I love Dark Chocolate dreams but my favorite of all time is Cinnamon Raisin. I’m obsessed with the stuff! 😀
I haven’t tried that one yet. I don’t think it is available in the UK. 🙁
I bought it off Amazon for super cheap! 6 for $17, amazing 🙂
Those cupcakes look ahhhhhmazing- my favourite are red velvet! I need to make cupcakes soon 🙂
Your green monsters look great… I had my first one yesterday and i never knew what i was missing, so delicious!
I can’t get Dark Chocolate Dreams 🙁 I wish i had a Whole Foods around
I love red velevet cupcakes too. Green monsters are also good. Hmmmm I wonder if anyone has created a green monster cupcake yet?
Haha hmmmm… that sounds like an idea in the making 😉
All your food looks lovely, but oh my – those cupcakes look like heaven! I don’t know what my favourite cupcake is, I don’t think I’ve had enough experience … I need to get out there and start eating!
heaven is the right word lady! They were so good!
I just tried DCD last week- I may be addicted! It’s SO good!!
I know it’s amazing! 😀
Those cupcakes look so amazing! So pretty, I don’t know if I could eat them…wait, a minute…yes I could haha! 🙂 Dark chocolate dream PB is so delicious, but my fave is the Cinnamon Raisin!
I haven’t seen or tried the cinnamon raisin, but it sounds delicious!
Those cupcakes look fabulous! Sadly, I don’t have a cupcake recipe. I have just recently realized this. Hm… I probably need to fix that soon!
The cupcakes were gorgeous-so tasty!
Those cupcakes look incredible! I think I need to take a trip to Hummingbird Bakery, now 😀
And I tried DCD for the first time the other day, after purchasing it at Whole Foods in Kensington too! Its life-changing. Literally.
DCD is so good! I’ve been missing out for way too long.
I had a comment about how amazing all those eats look and then I stumbled upon the cupcakes and got lost-AMAZING
Ha!!! Those cupcakes are pretty amazing!
I love dark chocolate dreams and hopefully will be getting my hands on some soon (you will find out how soon!) Your green smoothies look fabulous! I had the red velvet cupcake from hummingbird when I was in London last year, to die for! 🙂
Is that your good news? Are you going to America?!?!?! I’m in love with DCD already. I can see me getting addicted!
I’ve never had Dark Chocolate Dreams but it sounds amazing, I need to get some ASAP!
I have an unopened jar of Dark Choc Dreams in my kitchen cupboard…..Carrie sent it to me in our food swap (can’t get it in Newcastle!) and I’m scared to open it as I know it won’t last long. Your quinoa salad looks so good!
The cupcakes look gorgeous, almost too pretty to eat!
I bought Dark Chocolate Dreams after seeing it on another blog and im still debating if its better eating it from the jar than nutella!! 2 fav things choc and peanut butter in one jar what can be better!!! Do know they do a rasin and cinnimon one too?!? Soo want to try that love cinnimon on loads of things!! Yum 🙂