Sunrise, Sunset, Recipes and Review

We are losing daylight FAST! I set my alarm for 5.20am this morning with the best intentions of getting up for a run to make up for not going last night. I really did not expect it to be dark outside! I've been thinking about making some investments in my safety for winter running, but it hadn't really crossed my mind that I need to be doing it now. I decided to investigate the sunrise/sunset times on TimeandDate.com

Can you believe that we are losing nearly 4 minutes of daylight a day!! Up north your losing nearly a minute more a day. It is crazy!

I think it is time to be thinking about my action plan for winter.

Stage 1 - buy a new blow heater so we don't have to put the central heating on for a while longer. It's getting seriously nippy in the mornings, especially as we get up so early and we sleep with our windows wide open. I'm off into town this lunchtime to get a fan heater so we don't freeze in the dark mornings after getting out of the shower. I've seen a funky retro looking De'Longhi number

Stage 2 - buy a head torch for running. There are next to no pavements where I live, if I'm running at dawn, dusk or in the dark I need to be able to see where I am going and need others to see me. This is the bad boy I'm thinking about getting. The Petzel Tikka XP 2. It seems to have some pretty good reviews on line for people who run, and it also comes in two attractive colour combinations. I just need to search around for a good price now as I've seen the price vary quite widely. I also need to wait for payday which luckily is only 6 days away.

Stage 3 - High Vis and clip on lights. Finding a new high vis running jacket will be a piece of cake, but I'm having trouble finding mini clip on lights. Ideally I want something red that I can clip to the waistband of the back of my running tights. Something a bit like this maybe. I'll need to do some more Googling I think.

Moving away from winter planning into what I got up to last night. I made muffins. This was the second time I've made Chocolate, Banana & Oat muffins and was a makeshift recipe as I lost the original one.

Ingredients:
75g Butter/Marg
125g Sugar
150g Wholemeal SR Flour (I used Light Wholemeal from Waitrose)
40g Porridge Oats
3 Bananas
1 Egg
50g 70%+ Dark chocolate chopped into chunks

Makes approximately 15 mini muffins.

Method
Cream the butter/marg with the sugar until pale and add the egg. Mix in 3 mashed bananas, the oats and flour. Stir in the chocolate chunks.

Pour into mini muffin tray and bake at 180C for approximately 10-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Place on a wire tray to cool (although they are super yummy oven warm too). Store in an airtight container & eat within 3 days or freeze and defrost when you need them.

Yum-er-oo!

Me and Mr H must have eaten about 3 between us (they are tiny - honest!) when they came out of the oven last night. So gooey.

Whilst I was making dinner last night, I also thought I'd do a quick review of a product I'm quite pleased with. When we saw my MIL a few weeks back, she gave me a little pressie. A pink knife from Lakeland.

This little beauty is not only pink (it is available in other colours too), it comes with a protective casing to avoid sliced fingers from diving into the kitchen drawer and it's sharp as heck. In fact, it is a true joy to use. I'm quite particular when it comes to kitchen knives. I've been using the same black handled thing for about 10 years, it's the knife I know best and I trust myself to use it. I think it has just been replaced by this £3.99 wonder. I've read some reviews which suggest that the blade does dull after a while, but to be fair, it is only £3.99! So far I've used it to slice through fruit, cheese, meat, bread, infact, it's all I've used for my cutting needs for the last week and a half. ***** 5 Stars from me!

Now moving onto my daily stuff, starting with a food diary:

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 1 Scoop Porridge Mix, 150ml Skimmed Milk, Berocca.

Mid Morning: Yellow Watermelon, Blueberries, Raspberries & Strawberries all mixed together.

Lunch: 3 Slices of Ham, a chunk of Mexican Cheese & the other M&S Santini Salad.

Mid Afternoon: Chocolate and Banana Muffin

Dinner: Leftover Bolognese turned into Chilli with a Wholemeal Pitta, served with a little grated Mexicana cheese and some iceberg lettuce.

Looking at my daily goals:
* Vitamins everyday - check!
* Food Diary everyday - check!
* Run 3 miles everyday - check! report in next post
* Drink 2 litres of water a day - check!
* Do my physio workout everyday - check!

....and breathe.