Interval Workouts & Roasting Chick Peas

This is where I went last night!

I LOVE the Mailbox.  It is one of my favourite places in my city to hang out at.

There are many shops in this place, as well as restaurants.

Around the back, is the canal!

(I stole these photos off google images by the way.  I didn’t have my camera with me!)

The restaurants back on to the canal and on nights like last night it is so nice to sit outside.

We ate at a place called Red Peppers.  Love love love!! I have been here a lot, and it’s one of Steve & I’s favourite place to eat.  I had the red pepper hummus w/ flatbread and a side greek salad as my meal.  It was so good! I also had two glasses of wine. Pinot Grigio- yummO.

I can’t say enough how much I love this restaurant.  All of you UK’ers need to try it if you haven’t yet! The prices are good and the food is fabulous.  I’ve never had a bad meal there!

This morning I was in the mood for a little green goodness.

Another thing I will always rave about… hazelnut almond milk in smoothies.  Divine!

  This smoothie had:

  1 cup hazelnut almond milk

  1 banana

  2 handfuls spinach

  1 tbsp flax

  2 fresh mint leaves

  strawberry for decor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had some strawberries on the side as well.  Like my pineapple yesterday, these were better on their own!

 

I had an amazing work out today!
I’ve really wanted to get good at hill running/ hill walking.  Hills and I have a love/ hate relationship.  I love them because I know how good they are for my butt, BUT I hate them because they wear me out haha.  Today at the gym I did walking & running intervals varying the hill from 10% – 15%.  I was a sweaty mess by the end of the 30 minutes but darnit I loved it!  I started at 10% incline and then each minute that passed I raised the incline by 0.5% until I got to 15% (which is bloody hard!).  Then I would lower the incline and run for 5 minutes.  Repeat repeat repeat.  Once I was done my tredmill workout I did 5 miles on the bike!  I have to say, I LOVED this workout because my hrm told me the calories I burned were 45% fat!! Normally on my regular runs it says 35%.  It was likely because my heart rate would go way up, then come back down, then up again… challenging myself throughout the whole workout.  Moral of the story? I love interval workouts. 

Do you ever do interval workouts? What is your favourite??

Lunch was much needed when I got home!

I roasted some chick peas the other night!

I was checking out ED&BV for a recipe with chick peas and unfortunately I didn’t have any tahini to make the recipe from the book.  Instead, I ran with some spices and just mixed a bunch to make roasted chick peas in the oven.  I used a tiny bit of EVOO, paprika, cumin and dried rosemary.  Straight out of the oven these babies are crisp and so yummy.  Almost like chips! But once I put them in the fridge with cling film on top they lost their crispiness.  Something to think about for next time.  Still amazing though! I just baked them in the oven on a baking sheet with parchment paper for about 25 minutes on 150 degrees celcius.

I had a huge vegetable salad.  Additions were raisins, ground flax, chick peas and a bit of lf mozza cheese.  We barely ever have cheese in the house, so as you can see i’m trying to use it up from the bit that Steve bought on Friday.  We maybe have it once every few months!

I absolutely loved this and I ate every last morsel! I drizzled a bit of Kraft Balsamic dressing on top as well.  Chick peas on salad is so good!  I can’t wait to use them for lunch this week. 

I’ve had a busy day! Washing the floors, grocery shopping, laundry…. i’m such a housewife eh?  I also have a lesson observation tomorrow that I have to prepare for.  Seriously, 3 weeks and 2 days left of work. The count down is on.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!