Workout Playlist

When it comes to exercise, we find that music is such a good source of motviation! This means that we regularly update our cardio playlists in order to keep us focussed whilst at the gym. We both like to run to loud, upbeat music during our workouts and have compiled a list of our top 10 songs at the moment.

1. I Know - Shift K3Y

2. Shut Up and Dance - Walk The Moon

3. Make Me Feel Better - Alex Adair

4. Levels - Avicii

5. Doing It - Charlie XCX

6. Runaway - Galantis

7. Don't Look Down - Martin Garrix

8. House Every Weekend - David Zowie

9. Stole the Show - Kygo

10. The Mother We Share - CHVRCHES

                                                       

Superfood salad

Salad; not often something that comes to mind when you think of your most loved foods. Most people think of salads as boring, but with the discovery of a new recipe, I would disagree completely and even go as far as putting it up there with my favourite foods. With the right ingredients, it is easy to create a salad that is not only healthy and nutritious, but is also extremely delicious.

Ingredients:
1 large avocado
1 broccoli
1 packet of quinoa
1 whole pomegranate/1 pack pomegranate seeds
20g feta/Greek cheese
500g fresh spinach
Fresh coriander
Balsamic vinegar
2 sweet potatoes
Dried chili flakes
Paprika
Freshly ground black pepper

We teamed our salad with seasoned sweet potato wedges; they have amazing flavour that accompanied the salad perfectly. So firstly begin by preheating the oven, wash and chop the sweet potatoes into wedge sized chunks and spread out on a roasting tray. Sprinkle with a little pepper, chilli flakes and paprika, spray with a little fry light before placing in the oven for about 20 minutes.

While the sweet potatoes are cooking you can prepare the rest of the salad; cook the quinoa according to the packet instructions in a pan of boiling water. Meanwhile, chop up the broccoli into small chunks and add to another pan of boiling water and allow to boil until tender. Once both are cooked, drain and allow to cool while you prepare the spinach in a large salad bowl. Then add the cooled broccoli and quinoa, and roughly chop the coriander before adding it to the salad along with the sweet potato and avocado. Toss well to ensure the salad is fully mixed, and finally add a crumbling of feta cheese and a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds. Finish with a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar and enjoy!

This salad has become a definite new favourite and I have no doubt that it will be making regular appearances at meal times.

Summer fitness regime

So now the summer months are over and we are both home from university we have more time to spend mixing up our meals and trying new recipes to share with you, as well as altering out fitness regimes! 

Coming back home for the summer means signing back up to my other gym, which I have been really enjoyed getting into now I have more time on my hands. I try and do at least 3 one hour sessions a week with this including 45 minutes of cardio alongside weights and toning. I also may start doing some monthly challenges such as the 30 day squat challenge to set myself some goals and try and further my progress.

One of the other things I love about summer is that it encourages salad weather! I love having a lighter lunch when the weather is nice and have been trying out some new recipes of which I will be sharing soon! My current favourite has to be a simple salad with smoked salmon, avocado, lettuce and balsamic which fills me up and is perfect with this lovely weather! 

Look out for lots of summery exercises and recipes to come in the upcoming weeks!

       

Perfect Poached Eggs and Accompaniments

So like many of you, mastering the art of poaching eggs took a while, but after trying a variety of different methods, I've finally found one that seems to work!

I do this by taking a small bowl or rammacan and placing a large square of cling film over the top, before pushing the centre of the film into the bowl to create a well. I then lightly spray/coat the bowl with some oil and crack in an egg. After this, simply gather all of the edges of the cling film and bring them to the middle, before tieing a knot just above where the egg is in order to secure the wrapping. Once this is done, take a saucepan of boiling water and poach your eggs for around 3-4 minutes or until you can see the egg is cooked through, however I like my eggs quite soft in the middle so you may want to cook them for an additional few minutes. Once your egg is cooked simply remove it from the water, cut off the cling film and serve it alongside a delicious side dish!

There are many ingredients that go perfectly with poached eggs, and I love trying new things whether I'm cooking for myself or out for breakfast. I thought I would give you some of my favourite accompaniments to poached eggs!

Smashed Avocado on Rye/Crispbread:

Simply take a half an avocado and mash it into a soft consistency, before adding optional flavourings (I often opt for salt, pepper, lemon juice and occasionally some chilli flakes.) Take a slice of your bread of choice and add the avocado on top, before placing the poached egg on the plate and seasoning.

Smoked Salmon:

I personally think that eggs and salmon are such a good combination. There are a couple of different serving ideas you could use with these ingredients. I love Bills' version of 'Eggs Royale' which consists of poached eggs and smoked salmon on sour dough toast, with hollandaise sauce and pumpkin seeds on top - this really is so tasty! If I am creating a more simply meal at home, I love adding spinach to my poached eggs and smoked salmon, which I often flavour with chilli flakes for an extra kick. All of these are winning combinations in our eyes!

                                                                                     

Healthy Snacking

There’s absolutely no reason why snacking should be unhealthy. With so many diverse ways to make a variety of sweet and savoury snacks, there’s no need to fell guilty about having a little munch on something in-between meals.

Banana ‘Nice-Cream’ and Banana Pudding

As summer is fast approaching, ice cream cravings are probably going to start to kick in. But this healthy alternative is absolutely delicious yet so easy. Simply chop up bananas and put them in the freezer, once they are frozen add them to a food processor or a blender and blend for a few minutes until the bananas become creamy. You can serve it as it is, or you can add different fruit, like strawberries, for various flavours. Alternatively,  you can add different toppings such as dried fruit or honey. Another favourite of mine is a take on ' banana pudding.' Simply whisk a mashed banana and two egg whites until the mixture is really fluffy, then microwave on a low heat for a few minutes. It tastes amazing on its own but you could also add some fresh fruit or a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Protein Balls

We found during revision we wanted something healthy to pick at, so we came up with this recipe. Add ground almonds, finely chopped dates and a splash of almond milk to a food processor and blend until the mixture is smooth. Then take a small amount of the mixture, roll out into a ball shape and keep in the fridge. They taste like little fudge bites and you can use whatever nuts you want as an alternative option.

Kale Crisps

Using a bag of fresh kale, spread out the contents of the bag onto a baking tray with some fry light and a pitch of salt. Put into the oven for about 15 minutes on 180 degrees or until you can see the kale start to crisp up. You will love this if you are a fan of salty crisps as the kale becomes a quite salty, but you obviously won’t have to feel bad about over indulging as it is literally just vegetables.

Frozen Yogurt and Dried Fruit

Another yummy summery snack, spread out an even level of Greek yogurt onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment, then sprinkle your favourite dried fruit and pop in the freezer overnight. Once it is set you can cut it into squares for bite sized pieces and keep in the freezer.

Apple Crisps

Slice up an apple and spread the slices out onto a baking tray.  Paint the apple slices with lemon juice and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes, before turning them over to paint the other side with lemon juice and pop back in the over for another 15 minutes. They should then be nice and crispy, pop them in some Tupperware for a perfect snack for on the go.

What I Eat in a Day

We have officially finished our first year of University and are super excited to have more time to dedicate to our blog over the summer months! We both LOVE reading what other people eat in a general day, so decided to do our own version to offer some inspiration!

Breakfast: Smoothie Bowl

An amazing way to make a simple smoothie a little bit more interesting and substantial! We make a basic smoothie mixture with a range of ingredients such as frozen bananas, blueberries and mangos, and blend this up with some almond milk and some macha protein powder. We then pour the mixture into a bowl and top it with whatever we fancy, we usually opt for more fruit and things like oats, granola or chia seeds.

Lunch: Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry

We are both complete lovers of Sweet Potatoes and this recipe is so simple and easy to make even at lunchtime (this recipe serves two). Chop up around 4 sweet potatoes and roast them in the oven for around 10 minutes to get the cooking process started before adding them to a saucepan with the other ingredients. Then add in one onion, one clove of garlic, a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tin of drained chickpeas. The spices we added were around 2 tbsp each of hot chilli powder, dried chilli flakes, paprika, garam masala, as well as salt and pepper for seasoning - but this is completely down to individual taste! Continue to cook this all until combined for around 5-10 minutes before adding spinach leaves. This can be served with either wholegrain rice, cauliflower rice or a side of spinach leaves for a lighter version - all are delicious accompaniments!

Dinner: Courgetti

An amazing substitute for complex carbs such as pasta and spaghetti are courgettes! We use a spiralser to create ours, but you could equally use a basic peeler for a similar effect. Simply put your courgette in a saucepan and cover with boiling water and leave this to simmer for around 4 minutes before draining. We change up our toppings all the time, but some of our favourites include prawns cooked with garlic, chilli and tomato or chopped tomato with feta cheese and spinach. If you are like me and believe that the best part of the pasta dish is the sauce anyway - this option may work well for you!

Snacks:

We usually have around two snacks a day and some of our favourites include dried or fresh fruit. We also have recently loved making Kale crisps, simply place a large handful of Kale on a baking tray and spray with light oil and salt before baking for around 10 minutes - so simple yet delicious!

Revision break anyone?

It's that dreaded time of year again, exams are looming and deadlines seem to be dominating everything - hence why we have had a little break from blogging, but now we are feeling more prepared we are excited to share some more posts! Since exercising makes for the perfect revision break, there is no excuse for slacking! We have been trying to mix up our workouts a bit, so we’ve been doing about 45 minutes of cardio, followed by 20-30 minutes focusing on a specific area of the body. Since there are so many different exercises that target specific muscle groups, we find this adds a massive amount of variety to our workouts, whilst really working certain muscles hard! The key is never to over-complicate things, stick to the well-known exercises, they are generally well known for a reason; they work!

Today we focused on lower body, which must have been effective as it made walking up the stairs a struggle due to our legs aching so much!

Here are some of the exercises we performed using different equipment: 

Gym balls 

Well we all know they are pretty fun to bounce on, but gym balls are also incredibly beneficial in terms of improving strength, cardio endurance and balance. There are literally so many different ways to use gym balls; once you’ve mastered the art of balancing on them you can tell they are really effective. We tried: 

·      Ball lunges 

·      Wall squats

·      Squat and reach 

·      Bridges

 

Barbell 

We were familiar with using the barbell from our pump and tone classes, which are such great classes for toning and conditioning the muscles. We decided to replicate some of the exercises we learned in the classes: 

·      Squats 

·      Calf raises 

·      Lunges 

·      Step-ups

                                                   TRX

There are so many exercises you can do using the TRX, which are ideal for a full body workout. But as we were just focusing on the lower body we did a variation of the following: 

·      Lunges

·      Squats

·      One-legged squats

·      Jumping squats

Dumbbells

Dumbbell exercises target legs, upper, lower and inner thigh muscles as well as the calves, performed properly these exercises will make your muscles burn a lot:

·      Lunges

·      Dumbbell swing through

·      Side lunges

·      Goblet squats

We thoroughly enjoy the variety using such equipment adds to our workouts, it seems to make it go by so much faster and we can definitely feel the effects which is always good too!