RUN FIT FINALE, SPANISH PANZANELLA & AWESOME ABS

Last week was the finale week of the current Run Club & Run Fit Season & so while some girls were completing their final work out in Cobham, Saturday morning started for me with a 5k/10k run in the beautiful surroundings of Richmond Park with another group of girls from the Fit 4 Mum Run Club!  Everyone ran really fast and enjoyed the route! Thank you The Fix Events

Before heading out for the run a hearty bowl of porridge was consumed by me, to keep my energy flowing through the race. Then a few of us headed to Cafe Nero in Sheen for a post race lunch with our lovely little supporters!

Later in the evening we enjoyed another tasty recipe from Nicky at The Little Cooking Company & I squeezed in a quick Awesome Abs workout to round off the day!

Try it yourselves and let us know what you think…..:)

Awesome Abs

Spanish Panzanella

Nicky says she came up with this recipe as she almost always has a chunk of stale bread lurking at the end of the weekend! With the lovely ripe tomatoes starting to appear on the supermarket shelves, she said she thought she’d come up with something using usual fridge & store cupboard staples of onions, herbs, olives & Parmesan. It makes a great lunch and would work well alongside a Spanish tortilla, adding some extra protein.

Here’s how to enjoy it!

Serves 2 (main) – 4 (starter)

Ingredients:

Half a stale baguette or country loaf
Two large handfuls of ripe cherry or baby plum tomatoes
½ red onion
200g chorizo, chopped into bite size chunks
Handful pitted black olives
Large handful of flat-leaf parsley

Small handful of basil
3 tbsp red or white wine vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan

Directions:

Start by thinly slicing the red onion and putting it in a bowl with the 3 tbsp vinegar. Set aside for 20 mins. The vinegar will take away some of the pungency, leaving a bowl of sweet, pink ribbons of onion.

Next, using a sharp breadknife, cut (or tear) the stale bread into large chunks, about the same size as the cherry tomatoes. Put in a large bowl, big enough to hold all of the ingredients.

Place a frying pan on a medium high heat and cook the chorizo for 2-3 mins, until it releases its lovely paprika-flavoured oil, and is starting to get a little crispy. Be careful not to let it burn. Remove from the heat and pour the chorizo and the rendered oil onto the cubes of bread. Toss to combine – the bread will start to turn a bright orange colour.

Slice the tomatoes in half (or quarters if larger) and add them to the bread and chorizo. Roughly chop half of the parsley and add to the mixture.

Add the olives and the marinated onions to the bowl, as well as the vinegar, and toss well to ensure that the tomatoes, vinegar, parsley and olives are evenly distributed throughout the panzanella.

Lastly, drizzle with a couple of glugs of extra virgin olive oil and season to taste. Give everything a final toss and leave in the fridge for 2 hours or so, for all of the flavours to develop.

Take the panzanella out of the fridge about 20 mins before serving. Roughly chop the basil and add to the salad. Using a vegetable peeler, shave a good handful of Parmesan into the panzanella, and fold in gently.

To serve, scatter the rest of the chopped parsley over the salad, add a few more shavings of Parmesan on top and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil.

Let us know what you think…..

Now go and do your Awesome Abs while you are waiting 🙂