Monday 8 January 2007

First day back at work after getting back from Spain, and with a whole Sunday spent in the house, and a trip to the supermarket there was no excuse for a sloppy start to the New Year. I promise that my eating isn't quite as virtuous looking as this!

Pre gym snack - 2 cooked beetroot and 6 dried apricots. I usually just have a handful of dried apricots before I leave the house, but there was some beetroot in the fridge so, what the hell, I had a couple of those too. 2 portions of fruit and veg before 6.15, yay me!

Breakfast - Porridge with berries and yoghurt. I have this every day, and never get sick of it. I mix up some porridge with some frozen berries (usually mixed berries, raspberries or blueberries), and water, then whack it in the microwave. When it's cooked I stir a pot of yoghurt into it. Another portion of fruit and veg under my belt. I had some Twinings lemon & ginger tea with it. I'm not convinced about this stuff, but they say that hot lemon wakes your digestion up, and it's drinkable so I'll persevere with it at least until the end of the box.

Mid-morning - some espresso (at about 10) and an apple (at about 11). Apples just don't fill me, but I carry on bringing them to work anyway. Maybe they'd be better eaten with some protein?

Lunch - spicy parsnip soup from the freezer. I got the recipe from this from the BBC Good Food Magazine "Vegetarian Christmas" special, made some up before christmas and froze the rest. It freezes pretty well, and was nice and warming. I went out for a walk then had the second half of my lunch, Apple and Apricot Compote with low fat greek yoghurt. I cooked the compote up yesterday evening and split it into four little pots and I'll be having it most lunchtimes this week.

Mid-afternoon - raspberry and echinacea tea. I've only recently started drinking these fruit teas and I'm still not sure that they taste of much, but I'm perservering hoping to find one I actually like. I picked a box of these up at lunchtime. Verdict - drinkable, but not the holy grail. Another apple (Pink Lady) still doesn't fill me. There were also a couple of squares of Cocoa Farm merlot chocolate and some teeny toffees (only 2 or 3). Pre-run energy...

Evening - Pumpkin and Parsnip Cassoulet - again a recipe from "Vegetarian Christmas", but with some modifications. This is the recipe as I actually cooked it. I loved this the first time round and froze the rest (it made tons), and I think the recipe could be adapted for all sorts of vegetables.

After my run I had some freshly squeezed orange, papaya and berry juice (the juice of 4 oranges, half a papaya and whatever frozen fruit I have in the freezer whizzed with a stick blender).

I also did some prep for tomorrow - I put some chickpeas on to soak for a houmous making experiment tomorrow and I prepared a pomegranate to take into work tomorrow so I don't need to fiddle around getting the seeds out at work.

Finally, the big question of the day - do I start getting an organic veg box delivered? Even if it's not actually better for me , I like the idea of eating more locally and seasonally, and of being forced into trying things because they appear on my doorstep. But will I just end up with mounds of potatoes that I never get to the end of? I'll ponder a little more.