Bodyrockin

I'm back to the grindstone, two days have already gone by in a flash! It's good to be busy but sometimes it's so exhausting. Nevertheless, I dragged myself out for a quick 3.5 miles last night. I don't think I would have gone if I hadn't agreed it early in the day with Eamonn. By the end of the run I was sprinting, it was great to shake the day off. I wasn't particularly hungry though, as I'd had a big pile of sunday dinner leftovers at lunch, so I had a tiny bowl of Quorn (fake 'chicken' made out of microscopic fungi) in tomato sauce, topped with nooch.

Later on I was peckish though, and that resulted in cake. Not the healthiest thing to eat in the evening, but it's sitting there!

Today started with Ready Brek made with soya milk and topped with frozen berries and a scoop of plain yogurt.

I had a really great lunch with a grated carrot and red pepper (I meant to turn the grating plate over to slice, but I was rushing so got grated pepper!), lots of lettuce, some Quorn and a scoop of cottage cheese, oh, and a few sundried olives, mmm.

I snacked on bananas (2) and had a few cups of coffee and lots of water.

I got home and tried some Bodyrock, the epic burpees one- I only got 200 reps done (half the workout) and it took me 35 mins which isn't too bad I guess although I did have to switch to press ups from the knees early on (I suck at press ups which is why I'm trying to do more strength training).

Dinner was baked brown rice, sauteed mushrooms and onions, boiled broccoli and a little blue goat cheese.

There was more cake...it was really tasty but I didn't feel so good after. I have been thinking of giving myself a break from desserts/sugar/refined carbs or something in March, but I haven't worked it out yet. I am happy with my main meals but I think my snacking could be 'smarter'. I am definitely going to challenge myself to improved eating habits next month so stay tuned!

Green Ribbons and Cake

After reading about Dainty Pig's ridiculously cool rice cooker cake I decided to bake something this weekend. I have a baking box with plenty of flours, sugar, dried fruit etc but I hadn't dug into it since my Dundee cake. I knew I would have a chocolate fan visiting, so I got some chocolate while doing the shopping today and settled on a sour cherry chocolate cake. Skip to the bottom to hear all about it if you don't want to be bored by yet more aquajogging and fish eating.

After the late lunch of pasta and ice-cream yesterday I had a quick trout egg sandwich for tea. I had leftover trout, broke it up into chunks into a beaten egg, stirred in some mustard and heated in a nonstick pan until the egg set. I had it between two slices of toast and a generous shake of hot sauce. Later on I had a Rekordelig while watching The Tudors. Yum! The Tudors was a bit gory this week though. At least the cider was tasty.

Yes, I went aquajogging this morning. I got up and had a quick brekkie of toast with a little PB and a banana. I usually only eat toast at the weekends because I have my breakfast later then, and toast at 7am would NOT keep me going for very long on a workday. I did an hour's aquajogging, then goofed around breaststroking for 15 mins and doing chin ups and dips between laps. I spent a toasty 10 mins in the sauna in between. I always feel like a new pin after a watery workout.

I got back home and got organised to go shopping. Feeding two active people (one of whom could eat cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner, not move and still not gain weight) when you're fussy about quality is expensive! But it's not too bad, I guess, as we don't buy food at work or eat at restaurants much (except for our little pizza feast on friday night, hehe).

I was ravenous after the shopping as it was after 2pm, and with cake baking and deciding to roast a celeriac for lunch, it was nearly 4pm by the time we ate. I had a baked salmon fillet, leftover pasta, loads of lovely ribbony spring greens and a few pieces of the roast celeriac.

I had a cup of coffee with a splash of chocolate soya milk after dinner.

I read for a while and then later in the evening we tried out the cake. It was very good, but tasted really rich to me- I haven't had cake made with proper butter for such a long time! To be honest, I felt a bit queasy after, it was basically half refined carbs and half saturated fat. I was pretty impressed with the great crumb though.

The weird thing was although I felt a bit sickened for an hour, I was hungry again two and a half hours later so I'm having a teacup of frozen berries and soya milk and a sprinkle of the Quaker granola. Much more to my liking! Frozen strawberries taste as good as ice-cream to me:)

The soya milk has turned a greyish blue!

Hope you all had a good weekend- I'm ready to take on the week! I have more or less exactly what I had for dinner today in a tupperware box for tomorrow's lunch and breakfast will almost certainly involve ice-cream I mean frozen berries! I hope this will give me plenty of energy to try out my first Bodyrock workout tomorrow :)

Happy New Year Cake

The yummy citrus scented batter. I used an electric blender for this cake (I usually just beat by hand).

The cake after it came out of the oven. It spent almost 3 hours in there! First 45 minutes covered with a foil 'tent', then out to put the nuts on, another 90 minutes, then apply a brandy and sugar wash, then a final 15 minutes. Worth waiting for!

The crumb is a lovely golden colour and beautifully moist, and light but not at all crumbly.

Close up of the cherries. Confession- I love glace cherries. I know they're more sweets than fruit. And I don't care.

This cake was a real revelation for me, the complexity of the flavours and the amazing texture has landed this cake right up there above even chocolate cake. My tastes have definitely changed, these days I'd rather have a fruit or ginger cake than a victoria sponge with buttercream or a chocolate cake. If you'd like to try this Dundee cake out, here's the recipe and the instructions. I saved the recipe a year ago and I'm only making it now! There were some small departures from the original and I used vegan subs obviously. I used egg replacer powder for the eggs and also the juice of an orange and a few tablespoons of soya milk, Sainsbury's own brand Free from spread for the butter, homemade grapefruit marmalade, 2 tablespoons of apple brandy (Calvados) in the mix and I brushed the top with brandy and sugar rather than milk and sugar.

I should also point you in the direction of the cake's creator, Dan Lepard. Click the link to go to his website. He has a great column in the Guardian every saturday.

Happy New Year, may it bring plenty of yummy cakes!

Oh, P.S.-did you see Toast on the BBC during the week?? It was a film of the autobiography of my favourite food writer. Check it out if you haven't already.