I think I have spent the last day and a half hibernating in the kitchen baking up Christmas goodies.  I managed to whip up a fresh batch of my Guilt Free Ginger Bread Cookies and some more mince pies for my hamper that I am giving to my Nan…

The mince pies look a little anemic in this pic, but nothing a sprinkle of icing sugar won’t fix! 🙂 I also made sure I used my snowman cutter that Tam bought as part of my Secret Santa for my cookies. 

They turned out really well!

I also made some festive sausage rolls for Alfie, which have cranberries in the stuffing.

My eats have been pretty good despite all of this baking.  On Tuesday for breakfast I decided to make a huge bowl of warm Cherry and Vanilla Oats that I topped with trail mix.

I mixed frozen cherries, oats, macca powder, vanilla rice milk, water and agave nectar together for this delicious oaty bowl.  I love a huge bowl of oats in the morning to start my day, especially in this freezing weather.   My mid-morning snack was the Goji Goddess energy ball that was also in my Secret Santa stash.  I really want to get my hands on some more of these.  It was really tasty and had the same kind of chewy consistency of a Nakd bar. I definitely had enough energy after this to get me through my batch baking session.

My lunch was a huge salad of mixed leaves, diced apple and smoked tofu and dried cranberries:

Yum!!! I love fruit in my salads.  I followed this with two clementine’s and a plum.

The boyfriend was eager to cook dinner and he didn’t do that badly.  He made a stew type dish and added pork to his, but I had load of veggies in mine.

I have no idea what he put in it, but it was really quite tasty! 😀

Yesterday morning started off busy and I didn’t really stop for the whole day.  I baked up my last batches of mince pies and cookies…finally!  A mammoth cleaning spree followed another bowl of delicious sweet mince meat porridge made with vanilla rice milk…

I had a bundle of fruit mid morning and for lunch I had some Roasted Pepper and Tomato Soup with some more fruit…

After some more cleaning we popped out to run some errands, including getting in some more Christmas food that we forgot to pick up the day before and visiting a gym that I have been considering to join.  The gym is great!  It is a 10 minute drive from my house and the membership allows me to use two other gyms in the city, one of which is close to my uni. 

I think it is part of some kind of scheme that is trying to help the city get fit.  It has all of the usual features of a steam room and free breakfasts for members too.  I’m going to join next week and I cannot wait!!!!  They have a whole range of classes too that I want to get involved with, especially the spinning classes.

We also went to Dunelm where I picked up some cute tins to put my ginger bread cookies in…

They are like Russian dolls, one fits inside the other. I thought these would look much nicer than freezer bags as I was struggling to find any food gift bags in the shops. 

When we got home which was around 5pm the postman finally arrived.  Does your post man do his rounds this late???  I’m not going to complain though has he had 3 packages for me…

Package ONE:

After reading about my love of Nakd bars on my blog the lovely people at Natural Balance Foods, who make these lovely treats have asked me to review these flavours for them.  The Cocoa Delight, Berry Delight and Cocoa Mint are the latest flavours to join the Nakd family.  I haven’t tried these flavours yet so I cannot wait to get stuck in!

Package TWO:

Pulsin’ have been very generous and sent me this huge package of goodies to review including samples of their protein isolates and protein bars.  I’ve wanted to try some protein products for a while, so I am truly grateful for this opportunity.

Package THREE was a DVD box set that I had ordered from Amazon as part of my Dad’s Christmas present.  I was sent an email last week from Amazon saying that they were struggling with the amount of orders they have and the snowy weather, meaning that some packages may not arrive before Christmas.  You cannot believe how happy I was when the postman passed this package over. 

So overall I was very happy with my postman yesterday!!! 😀

Back to yesterdays eats…

Before stepping out to run my errands I chomped on two mince pies and fruit, after which I fitted in a work out consisting of 40 minutes of cardio and some ab work…

Dinner was a lovely festive chicken salad made from mixed leaves, edamame beans, red peppers, bean sprouts, savoy cabbage, carrot, half a shredded chicken breast and pomegranate seeds…

I’m loved the pomegranate in this salad, I really should eat it more often.  I found that smacking the back pomegranate halves with a wooden spoon was an easier method of getting the seeds out.  It really works a treat!

After reading about coconut yoghurt on Laura’s blog I knew I had to get some to try for myself.  Although I could find the Rachel’s Organic version in the supermarket so I had to make do with Onken Biopots. 

I loved it!  It has shredded pieces of coconut in it and it is really rich and creamy.  I had to raid the fridge again for another portion!

Not long to go now till  the big day!!!! Have you got everything ready yet???  I  have a few more gifts to get, but I am not seeing these particular people till after Christmas so there is no immediate rush to get those gifts.  I’m so excited…I’m spending this Christmas with Alfie’s family, which is going to be so much fun.  I’m getting my hair done this morning and then doing the rounds and visiting my family in the afternoon.  I can’t wait to see them all.

Have a great day everyone! 😉