Hello everyone! How’s your week going? Mine has been a strange one as I’ve been working from home / at meetings so my routine has been completely thrown out of sync!
I started yesterday with a fantastic run, unfortunately I set off and forgot to hit the start button on my Garmin. I was gutted as I had a really wonderful run which felt very fast, especially as I managed to include a few intervals in the middle. As its a usual route I know I covered about 6.4 miles. My last mile (once I glanced down and realised I hadn’t started the Garmin I started it up) was 8.41 so if that’s anything to go by I could have set a new pb for my 10k!
This morning I was up early and did some free style yoga for 15 minutes and tonight I’ve been to the gym for my usual Thursday 3,2,1 workout which was fun but hard work, it was so hot in the gym! I’m not complaining about this lovely weather we’ve had today though :-)
I’ve had a couple of doubled up meals these last two days, but as always I like variety in my breakfasts!
Post run green smoothie containing spinach, mixed frozen summer berries, half and avocado, coconut water, scoop of chocolate amazing grass powder, spirulina, mesquite, maca, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums for thickness then topped with the most delicious cashew butter sauce and Alara Goji Muesli:
This was just so good, it was almost like eating thick chocolately fruit sorbet, the cashew butter sauce was gorgeous as well.
This morning I had two slices of toasted quinoa and amaranth bread toasted and topped with a sachet of Justin’s Maple Almond butter and sliced strawberries plus the remaining strawberries on the side and a vanilla decaf with rice milk and stevia:
Loved that maple almond butter! Lunches have been the same salad beast with romaine, lambs lettuce, carrot, cucumber, radish, basil tofu, olives and braggs liquid aminos plus an organic pear:
For my dinners I decided to try and recreate one of my favourite high street supermarket lunches:
The Marks and Spencer Wholefood Shaker Salad! I kept the label the last time I had one and created this recipe based on some of the ingredients:
I can’t believe its not M&S Whole Food Salad (makes 2 servings, vegan)
- 1/4 cup of cooked rice (the M&S version uses wild rice but I didn’t have any so used a red and wild rice mix)
- 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa
- 1/4 cup of cooked green lentils
- 1/2 cup of edamame / soya beans defrosted
- 1.5 cups of cubed and roast butternut squash
- 2 tbsp of pumpkin / mixed seeds
For the lemon and herb dressing:
- 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (I used my cool oil)
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- Handful of fresh basil, finely chopped
Combine the salad ingredients in a large lunch box or bowl with a lid. In a separate bowl combine the dressing ingredients then pour over the salad, pop the lid on and shake then serve:
I served mine with some spinach, steamed broccoli and asparagus. I loved this! It really did taste like the M&S version even though this had a much simpler ingredients list. I just used the ratio of rice / lentils / quinoa and edamame that was easy for me to put together (lentils leftover from another meal etc) but any combo of these ingredients in whatever amount would do the trick. I love mixed grain and bean / legume salads – I think that’s why I enjoy the salad bars at Whole Foods so much!
Dessert last night was 6 squares of Green and Blacks Dark Chocolate with Peppermint filling:
Nom! Tonight I made a big bowl of Spiru-tein Peanut Butter Swirl Protein ice cream:
Topped with some peanut flour sauce and cacao nibs, fabulous!
I’m very happy this evening as I am now finished work for the week – I decided to book in a day off so I can have a ‘me’ day. I have a few nice things planned including a trip to town, fruit and veg and clothes shopping, perhaps some cooking and watching a couple of old movies. If you had a ‘me’ day planned what would it include?
I really enjoyed my I can’t believe its not M&S salad!’ Do you have a favourite shop bought lunch or dinner option? Have you ever tried to recreate something you’ve bought at a shop?
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
My favourites are the Innocent veg pots, I copy them at home!
That smoothie looks incredible. I really, seriously need to get a blender and start trying some of your smoothie recipes.
My favourite shop bought lunch option is by far and away Pret’s Crayfish and Avocado salad. It’s delicious! Mmm… avocado.
I am soooo impressed with the effort you put into every single meal and the variety of ingredients you’re feeding your body!
ahahha i love ur i cant believe its no M&S salad I LOVE M&S so i would love this salad!!.. i also LOVE UR BIG salad with tofu! WOW great run!!!!
Gosh, you never cease to amaze me with your creativity! I’ve never seen anything like it! Truly inspiring honestly!
I’ve actually been copying some of M&S’s meals too as they do actually have some nice stuff in at the moment. The other day I copied one of their new vegetarian bowls that they do which was red lentil patties with pomegranate seeds over bulgur. I took a photo of the ingredients of the patties on my iPhone and simply based my recipe of that! They were good :)
That salad looks fab! I have recreated the innocent veg pots before- they did a lovely beetroot and quinoa one. I think that sort of thing is perfect for lunch when it is warm. The dressing sounds yum.
Also, I have a question about the spirulina- I got some today and tried it in a green smoothie and it tasted so fishy and salty- I only used a tsp! Can you disguise the taste or do you get used to it? Thanks :)
And well done on the speedy run
What a fab way to recreate that salad, love the clean ingredients list! There are loads of fancy m&s and waitrose lunch salads that I love but rarely treat myself to… I never thought of saving the labels or taking a sneaky photo of the ingredients, such a good idea. I’m jealous of your day off tomorrow, I’d love a day off to workout, bake, shop and chill with a few movies… Bliss!
M&S do another nice salad with chickpeas, blueberries, dried cranberries and a grain (I think it’s mixed barley and quinoa?) with mango in it. My only trouble is that I like grains cooked to mush so the M&S salads have them a bit al dente for me…my tum needs things that resemble baby food in order not to throw a hissy fit, it seems. My favourite sandwich ever was/is the Bugsy sandwich Boots sometimes do made by Fresh Organics. I don’t understand how they get it to be so low calorie! When I was an undergraduate I once ate three in a day: Lunch, Snack and Dinner. I lived off them. Might be why I have a wheat intolerance of sorts now…I tried to recreate them many times but never came near the mark.
Not starting my Garmin is my worst non-injury running nightmare. I did that once recently before I got injured and luckily I was only one mile in. It still messed with my mind though. Strange to think that for the first eighteen months of my three years of running I had no conception of pace and estimated distance, later using mapmyrun.com. I’m a certified Garmin addict now.
xxx
Awesome, I love that M&S salad, so thanks for taking the time to come up with a recipe! I also had no idea that G&B did dark chocolate with peppermint filling — that sounds amazing! I’m going to have to hunt that down…
love M & S salads….I must recreate some of them too!
Sorry you didn´t start the garmin to see how your workout was going, but you know – it is much more important how YOU felt after it than what any garmin or whatever said!:)
The toasted bread with strawberries look so freshly and tasty! I need to find that type of bread, seems to be really healthy:)
I loathe burger joints but say I’m on a hen do or rugby football match and out with a crowd and I have to….I admit I do love Burger King beanburgers. I have tried to recreate them. I have never tried properly tho. So with that in mind that is something I should try for the summer barbie.
ooh… and also I think my peanut butter bars are better than meridian ones.
Your salad looks lovely and should be stocked by M&S immediately! I hope you have a great “ME” day. I think it’s great to just indulge yourself every now and then! :)
Embrace Nut – I still can’t believe I haven’t had a veg pot yet! I must see what varities they have for inspiration!
Konni – oh you should def get a blender! mmm avocado indeed!
The make up fairy – thanks! I do try, I just enjoy it so much, I love the variety :-)
Carrie – oh yes if you like M&S food I think you’d like this too!
Nicky – I can remember you blogging that and it looked delicious!
Maria – I think it may depend on the size and ingredients in the smoothie and if it will diguise the taste – try reducing the amount down a bit.
Bronagh – bliss indeed! Yes, I think thats such a good idea to copy that mix of ingredients when it sounds so good :-)
Jess – yes I think I tried that one a little while ago, so good! I’ve tried to see that bugsy sandwich but its never there!
Alison – that chocolate is seriously good – like after eights!
Quirky kitchen – I think its a really good idea, saves some money too!
Lenna – that bread is really lovely – just like rye bread. It was like pb and jam! Yes, i agree, how I felt was the main thing :-)
Fattolean – I still have your pb bars recipe bookmarked – I wasn’t that imptressed with those meridian ones anyway – home made is always better in my opinion!
Jemma – it is, I like to make sure I make time for myself :-)
That smoothie looks (and sounds!) INCREDIBLE, seriously. And I’m jealous of your maple almond butter. Looks like such a delicious day…