So Much to Blog about… so little time

Hello all
I’ve had a busy few days since I last blogged on Saturday and so much I wanted to blog about but not enough time to sit down & get typing. So here goes I’ll try not to bore you too much.

Saturday:
We had Mum & Dad Smith over for dinner. I think it’s fair to say it was enjoyed by all.

Starter: Baked Haggis Filo parcels with plum chilli sauce
For the haggis filo parcels I took 4 sheets of filo. I sprayed one sheet with spray oil & then put another sheet on top. I cut this into quarters. I put approx a teaspoon of haggis in the centre & then scrunched up. I did the same with the other 2 sheets of filo. I then put the parcels on a baking tray sprayed with spray oil & baked in the oven at gas 4 for 20 minutes.
This made 8 wee parcels. You could also try this with vegetarian haggis.

The plum sauce was a bit of classic fudgey experimentation of just chucking stuff in but it turned out amazing:
4 plums stone removed & chopped up
60 ml water
30 ml white vinegar
Generous pinch of ground ginger
2 tablespoons of granulated sweetener
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
Wee bit of lazy red chillies

I put everything in a pan, brought to the boil & then simmered for 12 – 15 minutes. I removed from the heat & once cool blended till smooth. I made this in advance & simply reheated later when I wanted to use it.

Main Course: Roast Chicken Breast, Stuffed Tomato & pearl potatoes.
Decided to keep it simple & roasted my 4 chicken breasts in the oven.
Cooked 500g of pearl potatoes & drained & added a little bit of butter..

I made my stuffed tomatoes with light Philadelphia with basil, spring onions, red onion, a couple of cherry plum tomatoes, a little chopped red pepper & some wafer thin ham & of course not forgetting my oil & vinegar store wild garlic mix– pretty much per my previous blog on these. The plum sauce also got used with the main course as there was some left & everyone liked it :-)

Dessert: Chocolate Peach Flan
This is an adaptation of a favourite Scottish Slimmers Recipe of mine. So easy to make.
1 small flan base
1 small tin of peaches in juice
200g quark
Drop of vanilla essence
1 tablespoon granulated sweetener
Sachet of options hot chocolate

Remove sponge flan case from pack. Take a tablespoon of juice from the fruit & drizzle over flan. Mix quark with sweetener & vanilla essence. Spread this over flan base. Drain the remaining peaches & arrange on top of flan.
Mix the options hot chocolate with 1 to 2 tbsp of water to make a smooth fairly thick paste & then drizzle over the peaches. Put in the fridge and serve when ready. I served with a spoon of half fat crème fraiche.

You can vary the fruit, you can use any non flavoured soft cheese (eg Philadelphia) & you can experiment with the flavoured hot chocolates.


Week 2 Run 4
This should have been Friday’s swapped Run 3 consisting of 5 minutes easy run, 10 minute steady run, 10 minute temp run, 5 minute faster run, 10 minutes easy run = Total 40 minutes, however I find it quite hard to judge my pace outside so decided to just run. This will change soon though as I bit the bullet and ordered a Garmin :-D which I hope will really assist my training
It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning and for the first time this year I ran outside without long sleeves or a hat. 8.16km and 49 minutes 16 seconds later I returned home a happy energised little Fudge. Mr Fudgey was amused by my co-ordinating pink & white top, pink watch & pink joggers alarm….I probably had a matching pink face too!
We headed out to see Mum & Dad Smith so we could deliver the Mother’s Day gift we forgot to give her on Saturday evening.
Then we headed over to Glasgow to meet some friends for a fabulous meal. It was great to catch up and a lovely evening was had by everyone, we weren’t even too late home and I am still on the half marathon training wagon ….though the wine did smell amazing.

So the Stats for Week 2
Total distance run this week 32.83km
Total running time 3 hours 29 mins 06 secs
10 weeks Sunday till the half Marathon :-$

Week 3 Run 1
Well a new week, a step closer to the half marathon, I was feeling positive that I managed 4 runs last week – yet I was not in the mood to run today! Training plan has a 35 minute easy run. Monday night is my weigh in night so I got home from work and started to get my stuff together and get ready to run, much procrastinating later I finally left 20 minutes later than I should have which meant either a) running or b) catching the bus, since I was in my running gear option a was the winner. I had to add an extra loop onto my route as I can make it to ‘fat club’ in a round 23 mins so I added an extra 2.76km on & managed to run 6.16km in 38 mins 31 seconds. 2 minutes 19 quicker than I ran the same route the previous week – so much for lack of running mojo. So this is my tip – even if you don’t fancy training – give it a try – you might be surprised – but if it’s not working for you don’t beat yourself up over it either. I find that I normally run best when I’m not up for it – I think it’s because there is no expectation and once I start running I unwind and all my frustrations / annoyance / stress get relieved even if just a little.

Week 3 Run 2
Interval Training day. 10 minutes easy run followed by 5 x (4 mins at tempo pace & 2 mins jog) finishing with 10 mins easy run. Another 8.48km clocked up.
I was so invigorated I also went on the cardio wave machine for 10 minutes
Then 3 sets 12 reps bicep curls 6kg dumbbells
3 sets 15 reps bosu squats
And then a lovely triset for my abs 3 sets of (15 ab extensions with 8kg medicine ball, 12 Russian twists with 8kg medicine ball & 15 reverse curls)

Well that’s my training right up to date so I’ll say cheerio for just now and will be back soon with more chat

Lots of love
Fudgey xxx