Vegan double gingerbread cookies

So yesterday, I made a ton of delicious gingerbread cookies! And guess what? There isn’t a single one left this evening! That’s 39 cookies eaten in less than 24 hours, for your information! My family and I decimate all baked goods. Fact. I’ll get to the recipe in a moment. The rest of my day first!

Today I didn’t have oatmeal for breakfast! I can hear your incredulous gasps of disbelief, but it is true! I opted for a apple-cinnamon yoghurt parfait  instead!

Simply a chopped apple, sprinkled with cinnamon, covered with soya yoghurt which was topped with my yummy Bodymatter granola.

While this was delicious, it wasn’t as filling as my oatmeal, so a mid-morning snack of this followed:

A Bounce almond protein ball! The 12g of protein kept me satisfied for ages while I hit the shops for yet more Christmas shopping! I had lunch whilst rushing round the shops, which was a houmous and falafel wrap:

All I’ve got left to get now is my brother’s Christmas card, and that’s it! Just have to keep my fingers crossed for that Amazon delivery now!

Before I left for my shopping trip, I remembered that I’d seen a gym attached to the shopping centre last time, so I packed some clothes and took some time out from my shopping to hit the gym for a quick 45 min workout! And I was super excited when I got there to find that this gym was so posh! Well actually it was probably quite average, but my local gym has very ‘vintage’ (circa 19th Century probably!) machines, so these seemed amazing to me! A treadmill with a TV?!

Wow. I loved it! Must do this whole shopping+working out thing again! In my post-workout shopping I picked up this Trek bar and munched happily away…

So how is your Christmas shopping going? Got everything yet? Oh, and have you regulars noticed the blog theme change? Like it? I do! I think it’s much more ‘me’ than the last one! On that note, there are going to be a more few minor blog changes coming up soon, just so ya know!

Anyway, back to the cookies!

Vegan double gingerbread cookies (adapted from here)

• 140g vegan spread (or unsalted butter)
• 100g molasses sugar (or dark brown sugar)
• 3 tbsp maple syrup (or molasses, golden syrup etc.)
• 350g plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda 
• 2 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 balls stem ginger from a jar, chopped finely <—-hence the double gingerness of the cookies, for Maria who asked!

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Melt spread, sugar and syrup in a pan until a smooth liquid forms. Mix the flour, soda and spices together in a bowl. Stir in the liquid and chopped ginger to make a stiff-ish dough.
2. If necessary, wait until cool enough to handle, then roll out dough to about 5mm thick. Stamp out shapes using cookie cutters, re-rolling and pressing the trimmings back together and rolling again. Lift onto baking sheets. Bake for approx 8-12 mins (depending on the size of your cookies and on your oven) until golden. Cool 10 mins on the sheets, then lift onto cooling racks. Once fully cooled, ice/decorate if desired. Enjoy!

First, assemble your ingredients for melting (spread, sugar and syrup):

Melt away!

Panic because you realise you didn’t check first to see if you had any ground ginger. Toss everything out of your cupboards until you finally find some, and try not to faint with relief.

Or you can just be organised and check beforehand. Up to you really!

Mix together your dry ingredients:

I actually just threw in the spices (couldn’t find a teaspoon measurer- can you tell I’m slightly disorganised? ), so I’m not sure exactly of the amounts I used, but it turned out fine anyway!

Finely chop your ginger (I used two stem ginger balls that were in syrup, drained well).

Mix everything together until a dough is formed. Warning: this dough, like most cookie doughs, is highly addictive. Now, if you gorge yourself like I did, you can’t say I didn’t warn you!

And then comes the fun bit…rolling and cutting! As its Christmas, I used small angel and star cookie cutters…

…and a few other random cutters for the scraps:

I then added a bit of green icing (green=Xmas!) to some of them. I would have iced them completely, but I had less than 50g of icing sugar in the house, so I made do with what little I had!

That’s for all you wonderful readers, who are all stars to me!

I. Hate. Snow.

Well, my plans for today were shaken up a lot by the arrival of more snow! I had planned to go to an early morning BodyPump, but having woken up to this sight, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get there:

Those are abandoned cars and buses you can just about see! I live on a main road, right on the top of a steep hill, so I think these people (wisely!) chose not to try and go down it!

Also, because of the snow, I received an email from Amazon this morning, saying that because of the weather, they cannot guarantee my order will be here before Christmas, but they ‘hope’ it will be! Well ME TOO AMAZON, ME TOO!

So I had a completely unproductive morning, spent pottering around, watching Gilmore Girl reruns on TV, and avoiding all forms of work. Whilst eating constantly of course! Mainly this delicious stuff…

…that I’ve almost finished! Definitely an excuse to hit Whole Foods again soon I think!

I don’t know why the Snack Monster was out this morning, especially since I had a filling, yummy breakfast, but hey, I’m all about the intuitive eating! If my body wants food, I gotta please it!

Breakfast was a repeat of yesterdays: apple and cinnamon oatmeal.

How-to:1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup coconut or other milk, 1/2 cup water and 1/2 chopped apple heated on medium heat in a small pan on the stove top until thick and bubbling! And try not to make such a mess like I always do!

Oats everywhere!

Later in the afternoon, it finally stopped snowing!

Our road was still clogged up with the abandoned vehicles, so I decided to walk to the gym to get in a quick workout! Turned out getting to and from the gym took more time than I actually spent in there! I was all jazzed up for my workout, when I realised I had made the rookie mistake of leaving behind the water bottle that I take with me everywhere! So I ended up paying for the gym’s ridiculously overpriced water, and was not a happy bunny!

However, a combination of my sweaty workout (I did quite a bit of weights as well as some cardio to make up for the missed BodyPump!) and finding a surprise on my camera case cheered me up!

A ladybird! I love them!

Post workout snackage included a PB rice cake sandwich…

…and an Apple Pie Nakd bar

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think this is my new favourite flavour. Yes, even better than the chocolate one!

I was supposed to be going out to a restaurant for a Christmas meal this evening, but it was postponed because of the snow. But I made up for it (a bit!) by having a yummy dinner of ‘saag aloo’ (an Indian dish with potatoes and spinach), which was delicious…

…and watching Slumdog Millionaire for the second time! Great film!

Tomorrow morning, I am going to test the waters and see if it is possible to run outside! Seeing as I almost slipped right over today, and I was just walking, I’m not getting my hopes up about a successful run, but wish me luck!

I’m also going to be doing some baking, so stay tuned!  

Do you have/have you had snow where you live? And what do you believe about ‘intuitive eating’? Its been all over the blogworld recently, so I’d love to hear your opinions on it!

Hope you’re having a great weekend!

One week till Christmas!!

ONE WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS!!!! <—–In less than 2 hours anyway- I’m jumping the gun a little bit!  

I had a last minute panic order yesterday night on Amazon, as it was the last day for (free) delivery before Christmas! I literally got my order in about half an hour before it was too late! What can I say, I’m so organised! The order included:

‘Salt’ DVD for my dad, as he really wanted to see it at the cinema, but never got round to it…

…‘Eat Pray Love’ for my momma, because I know she’ll love it…

…and the Operation Beautiful book for my best friend, because everyone needs to read this book!

I’ve never seen Salt, but don’t particularly want to either, as I’m am not an Angelina Jolie fan in any way! Don’t get me started on her! But I’ve read Eat, Pray, Love and Operation Beautiful and loved them both. What about you? Have you read/seen these?

After the mad late-night panic, I needed a good, relaxing breakfast! Enter: apple and cinnamon stovetop oatmeal!

Deeelicious, and so perfect for this weather! Talking of the weather, it snowed again heavily today! So no run! Boo It’s also sposed to snow even heavier tomorrow, so I’m going to my gym in the morning! Going to a 9am BodyPump class, then hitting the treadmill hopefully! The snow had only just melted from before! This was our town just 10 days ago:

I’m also looking forward to tomorrow night, as I’m going out for a Christmas meal with friends. As we had to order our food beforehand, and there was nothing vegan on the menu, I called up the restaurant about it, and they said they would sort it out. So I wonder what I’ll get…! I also haven’t gotten all dressed up in so long (my life is spent mainly in hoodies, sweats and running clothes! ), so I can’t wait!!!

So what are your plans for the weekend? And what presents have you got for your loved ones?

Now please excuse me while I go and munch on some of this…

and all of one (or two!) of these:

Have a great weekend!

Finally…Harry Potter 7 Part 1!

The morning began with another bowl of stovetop oatmeal, but this time, the apple and cinnamon version I wanted to try following yesterday’s whipped banana. I diced an apple:

I only added about half of this to the oatmeal, and ate the rest whilst waiting

I added a TON of cinnamon (seriously, not kidding here- I love my cinnamon!) and some oatbran, and ended up with a delicious and warming bowlful:

Enjoyed whilst reading the Women’s Running mag I got half price at yesterday’s Running Show:

Today, I finally got to see Harry Potter 7!!!

It didn’t disappoint! Only complain was that it was a bit long for me, at 2.5 hours. But I seriously can’t wait for the next instalment!  

Bought lunch quickly at the shops before the movie began:

A houmous and falafel wrap and Bear apple crumble granola nibbles. Both were very yummy, and I’ll definitely be having that wrap again soon!

In the 10 minute window I had for shopping before HP began, as well as picking up my lunch, I also used the £5 Sweatshop voucher I got in last month’s issue of Women’s Running to buy a headband for cold runs:

So I only paid £2 for it because of my voucher! I also bought a few more fruity snacks to add to my collection, including:

I had to wait a long time before I could eat dinner, so I snacked on the fruit snack bar above and the Body Matter granola I bought on yesterday’s awesome Whole Foods trip:

I love this granola- so yummy with big crunchy clusters, just how I like it! And no added refined sugars! I see this making a great oatmeal topping…!

Dinner was a simple tofu stir-fry, and dessert included the dark chocolate with cocoa nibs bar I bought yesterday:

And half of yesterday’s free Eat Natural bar (with cranberries, apricots and a yoghurt coating):

I then remembered that I’m a person who doesn’t do things by halves. So I had the other half  

Tomorrow, I am either going to go on a run, or go to a BodyPump class. I’m leaning towards the class at the moment, especially since it’s going to be around –7C and sleet where I live tomorrow!

And today, we got a bit of snow! So I’m intrigued: what’s the weather like where you live at the moment?

Hope you’ve had a great weekend!

A Bittersweet Thanksgiving

Hey everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving for those of you who are celebrating it today! Sorry I didn’t post yesterday- I got back late from a concert, so I took a packed dinner:

Wholewheat noodles in soy sauce, with tofu and courgette (zucchini), which made a great, filling dinner  that took less than 10 minutes to throw together!

And when I got back later, I snacked on an apple and cinnamon yoghurt mess:

Apple and cinnamon complemented this season perfectly! Thanks for all your comments on Tuesday’s post by the way- it seems as though the majority agree with me in thinking that autumn/fall is the best food season!

Breakfast today was pumpkin oatmeal with the last remainders of my open can of pumpkin. I have many more cans,  but am trying not to go through them too fast as I am very miserly (they aren’t cheap!), so sadly it may be a while before it returns! Well actually, it probably won’t be that long- self control was never one of my strong points!

That miniscule  blob was all that was left in the tin! Still made it lovely and pumpkiny though! All stirred in and topped with a crumbled pumpkin cookie:

Today sadly was my uncle Raj’s funeral. If you didn’t know, my fit+healthy uncle Raj died suddenly of a heart attack two weeks ago aged just 48. The funeral was very sad, but it was great talking to everyone at the reception and hearing all their funny stories about him! He was such a joker! The funeral programme:

He shared my love of running, and was actually running when he had his first heart attack a few days before the second one that killed him. He also shared my love of food, so they made sure that the funeral reception had lots of his favourite foods. The buffet included these cute mini quiches:

And these cupcakes:

I had a ton of savoury food (quiches galore!), so by the time they brought out the cupcakes, I was too stuffed to eat them! But my brother made up for me by eaing three, and I did enjoy quite a bit of my delicious pumpkin gingerbread a few hours later when I got back home!

Also, this was waiting for me when I got home:

A package! And y’all know how much I love packages!

I knew it would  be my protein powder that I ordered a few days ago before I opened it, but I was in for a bit of a surprise!

Soya protein? I thought I ordered pea protein?

Nope, looks as though I accidently ordered soya protein instead! As  I had had some stomach issues with soya milk, I had decided to go for the pea protein, but as I can’t really be bothered to send it back and get the right one, I think I’ll just try this and see how I feel! So it called for a quick Protein Green Monster:

Oat milk, pear, spinach, xanthan gum, cinnamon and protein powder, all blended:

Wasn’t quite sweet enough for me- had to add some agave. The stomach’s feeling fine at the moment, but we’ll see later! Hopefully there’ll  be no problem

So what are you thankful for today? I’m thankful that Raj’s life was one filled with happiness and joy, and that his wife and children know how very much he loved them. Better to live a short but happy life than a long and unfulfilling one, right?

“Every man dies.  Not every man really lives.”  <—— So make sure you do!

A banana-less morning

Why do we run out of bananas so often??? Probably because I eat at least one a day, but still! I hate banana-less mornings

So this morning I got up, all ready for my quick pre-9am rehearsal early morning workout, but was greeted with this sight:

No bananas hanging from the banana hook, no apples, three questionable satsumas, and a pear. So immediately my usual pre-workout snack of banana+peanut butter was out! And what about my planned post-workout Green Monster, with the lack of bananas?

I managed to find an apple and a pear in our other fruit bowl (we actually have three for some reason!) so pre-workout snack was an apple+peanut butter:

And after Nell McAndrew’s Ultimate Challenge worked me into a sweat after half an hour, I turned my attention to the Green Monster… I decided to try it without the usual banana and with two  of these instead:

I had no need to worry-it was delicious! Pear and Cinnamon Green Monster: 2 handfuls fresh spinach, 2 pears, 3/4 cup soya milk, 1 cup cereal (optional) 3 ice cubes, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum and about 1 tsp cinnamon. All blended:

And served with more cereal on top:

Deliciousness! Green Monsters are so good! It was enjoyed whilst reading some more of this:

It’s really good so far, but I’ll give a full review when I’m done

Off to do some baking now hopefully! Another loaf of apple and cinnamon bread is currently baking in my bread machine, and is smelling divine!

What is your morning routine not complete without? I always have a banana, whether it’s in something or on its own- couldn’t live without them!

Hope you’re having a good Saturday!