Woohoo, dip station! I can't wait to use it for a Bodyrock workout...

And pull up bar and rings

Lunch today was salmon salad on a seeded bagel with an apple. I made the salmon salad with 1 tin salmon, 1 tsp tahini, 1T yogurt, some chilli, cup of chopped spinach and 1/3 big yellow pepper.

Dinner was an old favourite- coconut curry- this time with Quorn, collards and red pepper. With full fat coconut milk and a cup of brown rice, this beast comes in at about 850 calories! Needless to say, there was no need for dessert tonight;)

MrPeskyRunner decided to join me in the salmon eating at lunch time, AND he had scrambled eggs for breakfast (as well as his usual cup of muesli). He used to think eggs were really unhealthy and never really liked fish. He's trying to put some weight on so I have been helping him with suggestions for plenty of protein. Today he got to over 3300 calories (128g protein), although when we're at home this is much easier. We also did an upper body workout with the new dip station and pull up bar:)

Today I ran for the first time since last Wednesday, and despite the hacking cough, I banged out a paced run (I'm aiming for at least 7:20 min/mile for the 10k in three weeks)- today's pace over 3.8 miles was 6:49min/mile. So proud! I've been looking finishing times for last year, I would need to get 40 minutes to be in the top 10 women, don't think it's going to happen, although with 43-44ish minutes, I will probably finish in top 20, which is pretty good for my first real 10k.

Pretty good day!!

And I'm off again tomorrow. We are running around the race course in the morning to get a feel for it and to try and work out MrPeskyRunner's target time.

Back to porridge...or cottage cheese on toast

After intending to eat by a series of snacks rather than a few meals today, I forgot my boss was taking some of us out for lunch. I had a delicious breakfast of blackcurrant jam and low fat cottage cheese sprinkled with cinnamon on toast with half a melon on the side but I'd left the bluetooth switched on on my phone which ran the battery right down so I didn't get a snap of my pretty breakfast:( I also had a glass of grapefruit juice. I read in Runner's World that cinnamon and grapefruit juice are good at raising one's metabolism (to try and burn off my Christmas and Edinburgh pounds).

Lunch was vegetable korma, which was tasty but I had heartburn most of the afternoon. I went for a long walk after work and chugged loads of peppermint tea when I got home and this helped settle my tum and after a while I was hungry again. I baked some Witch/Torbay sole in the oven with herbes de provence and a lemon and had it with tomatoey brown rice but I didn't like the fish. I guess it was just one of those days when you have no luck with food.

To take the taste away, I had a heap of frozen raspberries, topped with low fat organic plain yogurt, a splash of hazelnut liquer and a couple of crumbled dark chocolate oatcakes (they're like very low sugar, high fibre biscuits/cookies).

Anyone else have any not-so-good eats recently? Normally I get really peeved but I've eaten so well recently I can hardly complain! I think I've learnt with the sea's bounty I prefer oily fish and shellfish.

Something fishy's going on...

It was my Dad’s 60th birthday at the weekend and since my mum and sister had cooked on Christmas day, I offered to do this one. I got most of my recipes from Nigel Slater’s new book, Tender v. 2, which my boss kindly bought me for Christmas. The book is really beautifully presented, and worth the price alone for the gorgeous photos. However it is chocful of wonderful ideas for growing and cooking fruit and nuts. Each fruit is dealt with separately, a little about the author’s own experience with growing the fruit, followed by a run through of some of the common garden varieties and then ideas for pairing the fruit with other flavours. The recipes follow after that. I already own the first volume of Tender, and found it invaluable as a source of ideas for flavour combinations. I haven’t cooked many of the recipes, but I have featured the pumpkin scone recipe a few times here. All in all, the books have made Nigel Slater my current favourite food writer because the books are about growing AND cooking- they cover the whole process, and they are both beautiful ‘coffee table’ books and yet full of information.
I used his measurements for the New Waldorf salad, but skipped the mayo dressing and made my own with the same herbs (mint and parsley) but with lemon and walnut oil. The salad was served with smoked mackerel, homemade toasted no knead bread and a horseradish crème fraiche with the fish.



For the main courses I did two dishes- a pork, perry and pear dish,



and a chicken, lemon, celery and grape dish, both from Tender v.2. I skipped this course (I don’t intend to expand my diet beyond eggs, dairy and fish).



Dessert was a hazelnut praline tiramisu




and a pudding cake of plum, honey and cinnamon (again from Tender v.2).


My piece today with a little yogurt. The cake tastes like ginger cake because of the dark treacley sugar.



Aside from the party, I did a bit more experimenting with fish over the weekend. I had a smoked salmon scrambled egg and salad breakfast,




and a Cornish yarg (type of artisan cheese), smoked salmon and apple sandwich for lunch on saturday.



This morning I was back to fruit and brown rice puffs and a big salad for lunch (although with some leftover mackerel) and dinner was stir fried leeks, portabello mushrooms and lots of collards with soy sauce, rice vinegar and toasted sesame oil. The photo is rubbish because I took it with my laptop cam as I'd left my phone in my car. The photo is really just here to prove I'm still eating all plant meals, but the photo is so bad, that could be beef rather than mushrooms!



I am finding my meals much more satisfying and my IBS continues to stay away despite the cheese and yogurt. Out of curiosity, I ‘nutritiondata’ed the smoked salmon scrambled egg breakfast and it came in at around 370 calories (58% fat, 23% protein, 19% carbs), about the same as a typical bowl of oatmeal and nut butter, but kept me full longer. The dish is a little high in salt but I didn’t add any and of course plenty of cholesterol which isn’t a big worry for me since I eat so little normally. I found myself eating a lot less carbs and sugar with the additional of these foods. I’ll be keeping a log of what I eat for the first while, something I usually do when I change my diet.

I haven't been exercising much, it's quite cold and wet here. Yuck. I have done some indoor cycling and weights, but that's the height of it. I can't get up early enough to go to the pool before work, and once I get home from work I just can't face going out again. I have been a few times at the weekend over the winter months, but that's it. And I haven't got up the Mourne mountains at all because every weekend I'm free the weather has been rubbish. We're hoping for this weekend! I hope I will have some nice photos of the mountains to show you at the weekend, as well as some winter picnic food.