WIAW: It was all going so well...!

Yep, I'm back on the What I Ate Wednesday bandwagon again! Today has been quite tasty, but not exactly as I'd planned...

I started off with good old apple and blueberry Oat So Simple...

(...yes, that is the same photo as last time!)

And then I made use of my latest amazing discovery - toaster bags for making toasted sandwiches in the toaster. Our office only has a very basic kitchen, so being able to make a toasted sandwich is a real revelation! This one started life as an M&S egg and watercress one - sounds like an odd choice for a toastie, but it was lovely! I also had a salad from M&S on the side - their 'classic side salad' which had cherry tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, spring onion, radish and chive dressing.

I'm trying to get back into doing Pilates, so instead of my usual Wednesday run, I headed off for a Wednesday Pilates class. Which required fuel in the form of a banana...

Pilates was good (I think my stomach muscles will be complaining tomorrow but that's the point - core strength!) but when I took the homemade carrot, chickpea and lentil curry I'd been looking forward to out of the fridge, I spotted mould on the top of it. Not happy! Mind you, it was the last of the batch and it had been in the fridge for over a week, so I'm not all that surprised. So I had to raid the fridge for something to eat, and ended up with a Tilda microwave pilau rice pack with added frozen spinach and a sprinkle of dried chilli flakes. It was nice enough, but it wasn't my delicious curry!

Go and have a look at what everyone else around the web has been eating...!

What I Ate Wednesday...The Return!

I haven't done What I Ate Wednesday for ages, but the theme at the moment (as you can see) is 'Fall into good habits' and after a few less-than-healthy weeks, that's definitely something I want to do!

I've been using MyFitnessPal to log my food intake - I find keeping a diary of what I eat helps me to make better choices (most of the time...although I do slip up fairly regularly!) so I want to really focus on logging everything and not 'cheating'. It's not a 'diet' - although I have a calorie goal that I want to stick to in order to shift the pesky half a stone I've been meaning to shift for about six months now, I'm in charge and I can play around with my food to account for treats and occasional slip-ups.

So here's what I ate yesterday...Wednesdays are running days so my evening meal is always really uninspired (beans on toast or an omelette or whatever's quickest and easiest to make when I get home) so I thought I'd post my Tuesday food instead!

Breakfast was a bowl of Oat So Simple apple and blueberry porridge. We've got some lovely chunky new bowls in the office (I always have breakfast at work) and they're perfect for our descent into porridge and soup season!

Lunch was some lovely vegetarian sushi from M&S, with one of their edamame salads. My sister sent me a photo of the amazing sushi she'd made on Monday evening and it looked so nice I ended up fancying sushi for lunch! I also had an apple, but I didn't take a photo of that. You know what an apple looks like!

Then, with the autumnal weather we've been having, I really wanted something warm and comforting for supper. I made a really easy spinach and chickpea dhal by toasting some spices (cumin, mustard seeds, garam masala, curry powder and chilli flakes) in a pan and adding red lentils, a small tin of chickpeas and a few chunks of frozen chopped spinach. Then I added a bit of veg stock and let it all bubble until the lentils were cooked and the whole thing was nice and thick. It was gorgeous (if not very photogenic!)

And finally I treated myself to a little slice of homemade Somerset apple cake (there's a post about that on its way too, don't you worry...) while watching the Great British Bake Off. I love the Bake Off!

All of that came in within my goal for the day, and it was all delicious! Have a look at the WIAW post on Peas and Crayons to see what everyone else has been eating...

WIAW: nine miler

Yet again it's been ages since I last participated in What I Ate Wednesday, but never mind, here I am again!

Today kicked off with my current breakfast of choice, which is still Activia yogurt (vanilla this morning) with Mesa Sunrise cereal. This was the last bit from the bottom of the box, hence all the crumbly bits!

Then at about midday I had this lovely juicy apple...

...and lunch itself was my new favourite food for running days, a Tilda microwave basmati rice pouch thing (this one was brown basmati with butternut squash) with my customary broccoli and Brussels sprouts! WIAW this month is all about the vegetables, and as you probably know by now, I have a bit of an obsession with those little packs of veg that you can get in M&S and Waitrose. They're perfect for lunch because you can just steam them in the microwave for a minute or so (our work kitchen only has a microwave, toaster and kettle) and you've got lovely fresh veg. I eat them all the time.

Delicious. I then ate a few too many mini flapjack bites, but we'll gloss over those and call them 'fuel' for this evening's run! I also had a banana and some rye toast as further fuel before I headed out with the running club - and it seemed to work, because I ran 9 miles in 1:22.37 - an average pace of 9:06/mile. I was really pleased with that, because the first four miles were really hilly and there was a fair bit of waiting around at traffic lights, and my race pace is meant to be between 9 and 9:05/mile, so I was pretty much there! It felt like a really good run, too - I felt like I easily had a few more miles in me at the end. Good job, too, because this arrived today...

Not long to go now! My first organised half-marathon since March 2010...!

Then when I got home I settled down in front of Masterchef (I still don't know who I want to win!) with a bowl of leftover tomato and barley risotto, a poached egg, and some oatcakes. A slightly odd supper, but very nice and just what I needed after my run!

WIAW: vegging it up!

I haven't done What I Ate Wednesday for ages, but I thought I'd try to get back into the swing of things this week! And it's Veg Month over at Peas and Crayons - luckily I think my food today was suitably veggified!

Today started off slightly differently - I usually have porridge but I decided to have a bit of a change and lighten things up a bit, so this morning's breakfast was a cherry Activia yogurt topped with Mesa Sunrise flakes. I'd been meaning to try them for ages and they're delicious!

I'd planned to have something boring like soup for lunch, but I ended up going to the lovely veggie restaurant around the corner with one of my bosses - I didn't take a photo of my lunch but it was pretty much the same as this:

Just replace the juice with half a bottle of wine...yeah, not quite as healthy! Wednesdays are usually running nights for me, but I've been suffering with a horrible cold for two weeks now, complete with a cough that makes me sound like a 60-a-day smoker, so I've missed loads of runs. I've been doing my long Sunday runs, but not the shorter midweek ones. Not good. I really wanted to give it a go tonight, but a combination of not feeling 100%, lunchtime drinking and a late finish at work meant that I skipped yet another run. I'm starting to get a little bit scared about how little time there is between now and my half-marathon on April 1st, but hopefully I can get back into training from Sunday onwards!

Anyway, as I'd had a big lunch I had a reasonably small supper - some of my nut roast from the freezer, with basmati rice and some tomato sauce left over from last night's savoury pancakes. I decided to add a bit of chilli to the sauce and slightly overdid it, but it was gorgeous nonetheless (despite being seriously un-photogenic!)

WIAW: Running

I've gone for the Polaroid approach again for this week's What I Ate Wednesday! Well, it's much easier to snap a quick photo of my lunch at work with my phone than it would be to get my camera out - my office is very small and very friendly, but I still think people would think I was barking mad if they saw me taking photos of my food!

Anyway, today started off with some Mornflake instant oats with oatbran, topped with a sprinkle of crack Tesco Finest nut granola.

And lunch was a bowl of New Covent Garden 'Jammin Jamaica' soup, which was lovely and spicy, plus a couple of Krisprolls with a Laughing Cow cheese triangle spread on them.

Plus (unpictured) a small handful of chips - whoops! One of my workmates had fish and chips for lunch and I 'helped' her eat a few chips. I also had a chocolate digestive at about 3.30, but we'll gloss over that as well!

Before my run, I had my usual couple of rice cakes (just plain today) and a nakd bar...

...and then supper (after another 39-minute run - I got a PB last week but I had to stop at some traffic lights today, boo) was a fabulous veggie fry-up with a fried egg, beans, mushrooms and two Linda McCartney Italian sausages. Yum yum - protein-tastic!

As usual, head on over to Peas and Crayons to see what everyone else has been eating!

WIAW: Polaroids

It's WIAW time again! This week I took photos of Sunday's food, and just for a change I used the funky app on my phone that makes things look like Polaroid pictures.

Breakfast was a weekend treat - Oat So Simple chocolate brownie porridge. Yum yum!

And lunch was a socca (chickpea flour) pancake topped with loads of leftover roasted veg (beetroot, pepper, broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes and the food blogger's favourite, kabocha squash) and tahini sauce.

I then ate the other half of the tub of leftover veg, because it was so nice!

Then I chopped up loads of leeks, mushrooms and pak choi and had a great big bowl of stir-fried green veg with soy sauce and chilli.

And finally, I finished the day off with a nice big mug of mint tea!

Jenn and Peas and Crayons hosts WIAW - have a look over there to see what everyone else has been eating!

WIAW: Catching Up...

I haven't taken part in What I Ate Wednesday for weeks - I've just been ridiculously busy, and then last Tuesday, when I had all sorts of good intentions about photographing my evening meal, it ended up looking like this:

Whoops.

But today I remembered to take pictures of everything, hoorah! I started off with a new breakfast experiment - Mornflake 'Oats 2 Go' with added oatbran. The boxes of oat sachets were on special offer in the Co-Op near work so I bought some, and they're really nice! Plus the box is really cheery on a dull winter morning.

Then I returned to an old lunch favourite - baked potato with cottage cheese. Excuse the rubbish photo - the lighting in the kitchen at work leaves a lot to be desired! I'd originally planned to have a baked sweet potato, but Waitrose didn't have any (!) so I had to have an ordinary one. It's hiding somewhere, under a pile of broccoli (which I added to bump up the veg quota in the absence of the sweet potato) and some onion and chive cottage cheese.

Once I got home it was time for a pre-run snack - usually I don't put my rice cakes and cereal bar on a pretty plate, but I thought I would seeing as I was going to be taking a photo of it!

Had a decent run - I managed 39:38, which is just under 9-minute miles! I've been stuck on 40 minutes for ages, so it was nice to get a 39. And then, finally, supper! Just look at the amount of effort I put into styling my plate. Oh, wait...I just ate it out of the bowl it came in...

I had planned to have egg and beans on toast, but then I felt like I really ought to go all-out on the veg, so I went to M&S and got one of their new Thai noodle soup bowl things, which you just add water to and microwave. As you can see, I clearly have some kind of broccoli problem, because I couldn't resist adding some of that and some Brussels sprouts just to make absolutely sure I got my five-a-day!

Head on over to Peas and Crayons to see what the other WIAW-ers have been eating!

Chilli roasted veg with tofu, pearl barley and tahini

I was completely rubbish with What I Ate Wednesday this week - I've been here, there and everywhere, and doing lots of running (and therefore eating lots of boringly quick post-run meals like egg and beans on toast) and I just didn't manage to get myself organised.

But you can have a recipe for What I Ate This Evening instead! It's not even really a recipe, more a load of things thrown together, but it was gorgeous. I came up with it on Saturday evening and it was so nice I made it again for tonight's supper! 

Chilli roasted veg with tofu, pearl barley and tahini
Serves one fairly greedy person

Olive oil/olive oil spray/cooking spray
As much chilli as you like (I used a couple of blobs of that lazy chilli that comes in a tube)
150g butternut squash, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 orange pepper, deseeded and chopped into chunks
100g tofu (my favourite is Dragonfly smoked tofu) chopped into chunks
50g pearl barley
100g broccoli, cut into florets (I actually used half a pack of tenderstem and I could have done with more broccoli!)
Handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Tahini sauce (I found some lovely tahini sauce in Waitrose, in a squeezy bottle!)

1. Preheat the oven to about 200C. Put your prepared butternut squash and broccoli into two separate plastic containers, with a little splash of water in each, and microwave until just tender (about three minutes for the squash and a minute and a half for the broccoli).
2. Put your olive oil/cooking spray, chilli and a bit of salt and pepper into a roasting tray, add the pepper, butternut squash and tofu, and stir or toss everything around so it's evenly coated with chilli.
3. Roast until the tofu is starting to brown and the pepper is softening, about half an hour.
4. Meanwhile, cook the pearl barley - it doesn't matter if it's ready before the veg, it'll sit quite happily in the pan with a lid on.
5. Remove the roasted veg from the oven, add the broccoli and tomatoes, and return to the oven for another 15 minutes, until everything's nicely browned and the tomatoes are bubbling.
6. Mix the veg into the pearl barley, pile onto a plate or into a bowl, and top with a nice drizzle of tahini sauce.

Eat! It's filling, hearty, autumnal, warming and absolutely delicious. Not to mention ridiculously easy.

WIAW - or rather, WIA-Sunday-and-Tuesday!

I really need to get better at this WIAW lark! This week I thought I'd ring the changes and give you a Sunday's worth of food - a particularly interesting Sunday, too, as I was down at my parents' house. However, having lovingly taken a photo of my Sunday morning breakfast...

 ...which was my usual porridge and grated apple with a cheeky drizzle of maple syrup, I then completely forgot to take photos of my lunch. If you're interested, it was a tuna sandwich! I then also completely forgot to take a photo of dinner, which was a lovely prawn stir-fry with loads of veg and rice. I did remember about pudding, though!

As I've mentioned, there's a bit of a glut of apples at home, and Mum and I decided to revive a favourite recipe from my childhood - fruit sponge. Amazingly it's made in the microwave, and it's lovely and light and fluffy. We made an apple compote, piled it into a Pyrex dish, spread the sponge topping over the fruit and microwaved it for about 12 minutes. And of course we had it with good old Bird's custard! I've asked my mum for the recipe, so I'll post that when I get it.

And then we move on to Tuesday! Breakfast was the same as Sunday but with no maple syrup, so you don't need a photo of that. For lunch, I went out with a colleague to a fantastic veggie restaurant just round the corner from the office.

They do an all-you-can-eat lunchtime buffet for £7.50 - that was my first plate, plus my carrot, apple and ginger juice, but I ended up having two helpings! There are all sorts of gorgeous things to choose from - here I think I've got some bean and avocado salad, raw broccoli salad with mushrooms and onion, stir-fried veg, a stuffed tomato and some of their incredible vegan carrot quiche thing.

After all of that, I wasn't particularly hungry in the evening, but I had a yummy bowl of stir-fried cabbage, courgette and mushrooms with a few prawns. I never used to eat prawns but I love them now!

WIAW: Running on Full

It's Wednesday again already! How on earth did that happen? And Wednesday means it's time for this...

Yep, it's WIAW! Today began as days usually begin at the moment. Look at the lovely leaf on my 'heritage' apple!

Said apple ended up on top of my morning porridge - my usual mix of oats and wheatbran and date and coconut porridge, although I'm slightly bored now and am quite looking forward to finishing the tub! I think when it's done I'll just get some plain oats and wheatbran and then add different things to it.

Then lunch was an M&S Super Wholefoods salad with blueberries and mango (and quinoa, pearl barley, cranberries, raisins, pumpkin seeds and various other things) - and of course, being broccoli-obsessed as I am, I bought one of the handy little mini bags of broccoli that M&S do and microwaved that to add into my salad. Yum yum!

Then I came home and had another bowl of porridge and my usual pre-run rye toast with peanut butter. I didn't bother taking pictures of those! I wouldn't usually have the porridge as well, but I'd planned to run 10 miles so thought I should have something extra. In the end I didn't run 10 miles - there was only a small group doing that route and they were all going to be way faster than me, and I didn't know the route so I'd either have got lost or slowed them all down, and as they're training for things I didn't think that would be fair! So I ran the middle distance, 4.4 miles, and made sure I kept up a decent 9:30-mile pace.

When I got back, I had the chocolate hemp shake I'd made before my run - I didn't really need it but it was sitting in the fridge so I thought I might as well have it! I tried the strawberry hemp powder on Monday night and it was actually much nicer than the chocolate, which surprised me!

And then I had a proper dinner - I always need something quick and easy after running club, as I don't usually get home until 8:45pm, and tonight I decided to use up the bag of spinach and ricotta tortellini that kept falling out of the freezer at me every time I opened the door. I just fried up some mushrooms and added garlic, herbs and a mini tub of extra-light Philadelphia, and mixed it all in with the pasta. It was lovely - I haven't had pasta for ages!