I've MOVED!

Heyyy!

My blog has moved so PLEEEEASE come check it out!
 http://cinnamonalicious.wordpress.com/

Thankiessss!

x

BB Bummer

Hiya amigos :)

I was gonna post a pic of my sleepy head before leaving my flat for my morning workout....
But it's waaaaay too embarrasing!HAHA!

Anyhooo, this morning I was back to my sweet breakfast ways after a short stint in savoury town yesterday.

I had a  toasted cinnamon-raisin bagelwich with PB and banana again. 

Just LOVE this combo!

Since we have a half-day every Wednesday, I came home for lunchies before heading into town.

Oh exciting story!

When I was in work this morning, I got talking to a girl who just started working there cos someone told me she's Irish (us Irish need to stick together here yaknow?! :P), so anyway, we discovered we're from the same place!!

Well, we live in neighbouring villages, so it's like 5 minutes away - HOW COOL is that?!

We both got SO excited about it and I literally forgot that I was on placement for a few minutes and being observed and graded on how I do :/

Oh well, everyone else just thought it was really funny! Made my morning :D

BUT THEN I went into town, all ready to get my new blackberry, when the guy in T-Mobile told me I can't have one cos I don't have a credit history!!

What a load of bulls**t!

How am I supposed to get one so?!

UGH!!! I can't afford to buy it on pay as you go cos it's like £400 or something stupid.

So I guess I'm stuck with my stupid £10 piece of crap till I can build a credit rating.

Does anyone know how I can do that?!

I was sooo upset after that I decided to go shopping to cheer myself up.

I spent pretty much all day in town, but actually didn't buy very much.

My new obsession! I had to try them in every flavour :)

The poor pecan pie one was just a wrapper - he didn't make it very far past the shop door ;)

I will not rest until I've tried every nut butter made.

I had to buy these ugly ass but super comfy shoes cos my back's been killing me from standing up working all day - hopefully these'll help!

I was starving when I got home, but luckily I used my head before I left and had some salmon marinating in teriyaki sauce in the fridge ready for the inevitable :)

I ate it with leftover roasted veg (yep, still going strong!) and a small salad.

Do ya like my new square plate? New purchase right there :P

I didnt take a pic of desert as I just melted some dark chocolate and dug right into the jar of hazelnut butter.

HEAVEN :D

Have a nice night guys, I'm off to google how to get a credit rating!

Later :)

x

Stark Racing Mad!

I reckon I MUST be going crazy!

Reason #1

This morning during my workout (prime breakfast planning time :P) I decided that I wasn't in the mood for a sweet breakfast.


WHAT?!

I'm always in the mood for a sweet breakfast!
But today I just wasn't feeling porridge or cinnamon-raisin bagels or French toast or granola.

Instead, I had this!

Savoury breakfast of scrambled egg and roasted root veg with a little bit of ketchup on a wholewheat tortilla.

I also enjoyed some coffee with soymilk.

Lemme tell ya - this breakfast was a WIN!

For lunch, I had the exact same thing as yesterday, it was THAT good ;)

Reason #2

At lunchtime today, I was chatting with one of my friends (a fellow gym bunny :D), and we decided to run a half marathon!

Neither of us are able to run much more than about 5k at the moment, so we're gonna make a plan and train for it together.

How exciting!!

Wooohooooooo! It's so good to have a goal to work towards, and even better to have someone to train with :D

I dunno when we're gonna start our training, but the half's not till October so we have plenty of time to prepare :)

I'm SO excited, but am I mad?!

Only time will tell I guess :P

Back to the fooooood.

Here's a pic of tonight's easy, delicious and nutritious dinner.

Salad with lettuce, rocket, red pepper & almonds, drizzled with balsamic, and leftover piri-piri chicken.

Now I'm gonna have the last 2 carrot cake cookies for dessert and look up 1/2 marathon training plans.

Oooooh BTW, Freya and Jemma are both hosting giveaway of Nakd bars! My new OBSESSION!

I hope I winnnn! But if I don't, I hope someone reading this does :D

Good luck & seeeeyyyaaaaa!

x

Carrot Cake Cookies

So I thought I should continue my fabulous food day by baking a little somethin'somethin'.

After browsing through a few recipes, I decided on this recipe by Angela from OhSheGlows, one of my favourite blogs :)

I made a few adjustments to the recipe as I went along.

Mini Carrot Cake Cookies

1/2 c flour

1/4 c oats

1/3 c dessicated coconut & chopped mixed nuts

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 medium/large carrot, finely grated

Handful raisins

Handful chopped dates

1/4 c maple syrup

40g melted dairy-free margarine

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mixed spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg etc.) to taste

Preheat oven to 180 C

Throw everything in a bowl and mix it all up

Use your hands to make 15 little balls out of the mixture, and place them on greaseproof paper on an oven tray.

Don't be afraid to get messy ;)

Place in the preheated oven for 12 minutes

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 mins.

Serve with yogurt/ice-cream, sprinkled with cinnamon & coconut.

LUSH!

Enjoy your evening :D
x

Then THIS Happened

Hola!

Today I kick started my day with a quick workout involving 10 mins elliptical, 15 mins strength & 5 mins treadmill.
Even though it doesn't seem like much, I was nice'n'sweaty after it! :P

I've been in an amaaaazingly happy mood all day today.
I think it could have been something to do with food.....
After my shower:

THIS HAPPENED

Oh delicious cinnamon-raisin bagelwich with peanut butter and banana how I adore thee! :D

Seriously, I think I may have to have this every day from now on :P

THEN THIS HAPPENED

Mushroom burger on wholewheat English muffin with tomato and mixed leaves that I prepared last night for today's packed lunch.

Seriously divine!

THEN THIS HAPPENED

Grilled piri-piri chicken with roasted veg (carrots, parsnips, swede & onion) and mixed leaves sprinkled with vegan parmesan.

OH Lord, I was in food heaven aaaallll day!
:D

From this

Now I have enough veg to last me another few days - just as well cos they take so darn long to cook, but are SO worth the wait!

To this

Do you ever have days of being in a fantastic mood due to the amazing food you eat?
What can I say, good food makes me haaaaapppyyyyy!


Now I'm off to whip up some sorta dessert....
Still haven't decided what to have - I'll keep ye posted :)

x

Scrub A Dub Dub

I spent pretty much aaaalll day today cleaning.
Any excuse not to study eh?! ;)

After having a long lie-in, I got up, had my porridge and got to work.
I scrubbed the flat from top to toe!
Seriously, it's sparkly clean now, and I can see my bedroom floor again!
Yay me :P

After that I refueled with a nakd bar.

They're 100% raw fruit and nut bars, and I've seen them before but never actually tried one. I was intrigued when I saw them yesterday and just HAD to buy them.
I'm so glad I did, they're delicious!

I did some studying after that and before I knew, it was dinner time.
I ate leftover pizza from last night ( Domino's Veggie Supreme on a thin crust with light mozzarella - my FAVE!) with a sliced green pepper on the side.

After chilling with my friends for a few hours, I decided it was time for dessert.

I whipped up this simple yet delicious treat of mandarins, plain yofu and dark choc chips.

It was so good I went back for seconds :P

That's me done for the night!

See ya'll tomorrow!

x

Chill, Eat, Repeat!

Bonjourno fellow foodies :D

Last night was so much fun! We partied into the early hours of the morning, with the help of our dear friend, tequila :P

Today was fun and food-filled!

After waking up at 9 am (after just 4 hours sleep!), and finding this waiting for me

my friend and I decided it was time to do our weekly Tesco grocery shopping.
Now, I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE grocery shopping!
I could browse the aisles for hours, gladly even spend the whole day in a big Tesco store!

I had quite alot to buy today as I had run out of the basic human necessities such as porridge and peanut butter (the horror!). So here's my Tesco haul :P

It came to nearly £50! Eep!
As you can see, I stocked up on PB and had to buy a new bottle of tomato ketchup after the one I bought last week mysteriously disappeared...
I was delighted to find wholewheat English muffins as I've been looking for a few weeks now and had only been able to find the white ones.

I was starving for lunch when I got back so whipped up a toasted English muffin with sliced tomato and an egg.

I did a bit of study after that but my tiredness finally caught up on me and I gave up and went to hang out with some friends for the afternoon and the rest of the evening.

We decided to get dominos pizza - gooooood choice!
There was 8 of us, so ALOT of food :)

After we finished stuffing our faces, we just chilled and watched a lighthearted movie - Confessions of a Shopaholic - while we sipped on our hot chocolate with marshmallows :)

We all were so tired we nearly fell asleep during the movie!
It was a lovely relaxing day, I guess you could say a typical lazy student day.

Do you ever have days like this where you just chill, eat and chill some more?
I think they're a necessity, just as much as PB and porridge :P

It's nearly midnight now and I'm SO ready for bed!
Night!
x

I got that Friday feelinggg!

Holaaa!

I'm SO happy it's Fridayyyy! I was a happy bunny all day today because of it :)

This morning I had a very sweaty workout involving 20 mins elliptical and 10 mins stair master...it was intense!

I had a super busy day today on my placement, and got a lot of responsibility which was awesome :D

Here's a few pics of my recent eats...

Desert from last night : strawberry yofu with apple and granola.

MY FAVOURITE BREAKFAST!
Porridge with melted banana, rasisins, peanut butter and cinnamon. YUM!

Omelette with roasted peppers and courgettes.

Tonight I'm going out partying with my girlies :)

Hopefully I won't lose anything tonight :(

Oh, I would hightly recommend Love and Other Drugs - reaaally good movie!

Anne Hathaway was amazing ( really wasn't expecting that kind of role from her, but she was awesome!) and Jake Gylenhall was beautiful as always ;)

I'm going to my friends now for some munchies and wine :P

Have a good night!

xx

You Snooze, You Starve

Hey guys!

Today feels like it has gone on forever! My workout this morning was hard cos I was super tired - I didn't actually go to sleep till past midnight last night, even though I had intended to go super early.

Today I had a half day from my work experience, so after I came home and made lunch, I started to read through some textbooks but fell straight asleep on the couch!
I only slept for about 2 hours but I woke up STARVING!haha.
I fixed myself a small mug of peanut butter hot chocolate and drank it with a couple of mandarins and a slice of toast with PB& B.

That hit the spot!

Come dinner time, I wasn't all that hungry, so fixed myself a salad with romaine, roasted red peppers, mushrooms and grilled chicken.

Last term, I was practically a vegetarian. In fact, I was almost vegan!

Since I've started to do a bit more strength training, I want to get the most out of my workouts, and I think that incorporating more protein rich foods such as chicken and fish will be a big help.

It's a little bit strange to be cooking meat for myself, but I think that it's for the best - well hopefully anyway!

Only time will tell!

I still avoid dairy products as much as possible however, as I hate the way I feel after eating them - really bloated and I get cramps in my tummy.

Sometimes I feel that a bowl of ice-cream or some cheese is worth the discomfort, but generally I stick to delicious non-dairy alternatives, like this ice cream, for example!

Ok so tonight I REALLY AM going to get an early night!

I've got Love & Other Drugs downloaded onto my laptop to watch in bed, so I'm gonna snuggle up with my tub of yummines and watch it in a little while!

My friend told me it's really good, have any of you seen it?? If so, what did you think of it?

x

Where's My Ketchup?!

It was coooold, wet and dark walking to the gym this morning. 

But that didn't dampen my spirits!

I had a great workout which included 10 min stairmaster switching intensity every 20 seconds, and a good 20 minutes of arms & abs strength work.

I had a serious craving for a peanut butter & banana toasted sandwich for breakfast, so that's exactly what I had :)
(Seriously though, when do I NOT have a craving for peanut butter?!)

I don't have a sandwich grill in my apartment here, so I used little sandwich pocket that you put into the toaster to make my PB and B.

It got a little bit  burnt cos the toaster was on too high a setting, but it was oooohhhhh so good!

I had a looooong day of work today, and I was super glad to get home.

Here's what I had for din-dins : Cod topped with roasted Mediterranean veg and vegan parmesan, roasted carrots and some ketchup.

(Not so) funny story about the ketchup. 

I went looking for it before dinner and could not find it aaaanywhere, so I had to use a friends.

I had it just yesterday, where the heck could it have possibly gone?!

None of my flatmates seem to know...but I dunno about that :-/

I find it quite unlikely that there's a ketchup thief on the loose....

Mandarins & dark choc-covered gingerbread

SO good with soymilk & a little sweetener.

Anyway, now I'm gonna try get a bitta work done, eat something yummy, drink a cuppa tea, catch up on blogs and watch some youtube before having an early night which I'm badly in need of.

Gonna try out Julie's plyometric workout in the morning I think :)

Have a lovely evening everyone! x

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate

This afternoon I was in the kitchen while my friend made a mug of white hot chocolate.
It got me craving hot chocolate, but I didn't just want any old cocoa.
I wanted to combine two of my all-time favourite things into the ULTIMATE hot chocolate.
So my friends, I give you:

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate
150ml milk of choice ( I used soymilk)
25/30 g dark chocolate (I used 81%), chopped into small pieces
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp peanut butter (smooth)
Pinch of salt

Heat the milk in a saucepan. 

Add in the chocolate pieces and mix until combined.

Add sugar and salt.

Add in your peanut butter and stir well.

Pour into a glass.

(I tried to froth some milk for the top, didn't work out too well :P )

Serve with some peanut butter m&m's.

Now GULP, SLURP and LICK that glass!!

Enjoy! :D