Sunday 28 February 2016

Frozen Overnight Oats!

Yesterday I had an almost empty jar of almond butter hanging out in my fridge.
In Steph land that equates to one thing. Filling it with something and enjoying the last few scrapes of nut butter to its full potential.

In the past this could have been warm oats, cold oats, torn up muffins, layered parfaits and the good ol' overnight oat saviour.

The brekky that comes to the rescue when one has limited time to even think about breakfast, let alone create something. Pour, mix, lid and leave the night before and voila! Next morning; a delicious, nutritious and filling breakfast awaits!

So when I wanted to use up my almost empty jar of almond butter, I decided overnight oats were the way to go. However I kind of wanted to shake things up a little. So I chucked them in the freezer for the night rather than the mainstream fridge idea :P.

The next morning, I had a frozen, sweet, delicious treat to devour and savour, especially good after a run/ workout when oats give you the energy and recovery you need and the frozen-ness gives you the cooling off factor!

So, without further a do- THE RECIPE!

Frozen Vanilla Protein Overnight Oats:

Ingredients:
Optional- 1 almost empty jar of nut butter (just place in any jar/ bowl if you don't have one like this)
1/4-1/2 cup oats (depending on size of jar- fill jar to half)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/2 banana, mashed
1/2 cup-1 cup almond milk (again, fill until reaching top of jar)

Method:
1. Find jar:
2. Mash banana:

3. Add oats, protein powder and banana to jar:
4. Fill to brim with almond milk and stir:

5.Place lid on top and pop in freezer overnight:
6. Freeze rest of banana to make frozen cherry fro-yo (or whatever type of fro-yo if you so desire!)
1/2 a frozen banana + handful of frozen cherries + 3 big spoons of greek yoghurt- whazzed until smooth:


7. Remove frozen oats from freezer at least 30 minutes prior to eating (I had to heat slightly in a small amount of simmering water in a saucepan) just to soften it a touch.

8. Then I would recommend getting a butter knife and separating it all up into frozen chunks to enable easier eating:
9. And enjoy you're froze breakfast!
I can't profess enough how tasty this breakfast was- and the fact that it was frozen forced me to slow my eating down a little and enjoy the flavours even more (as breakfast follows an 8 hour+ time frame of not eating, I get a little ravenous when eating brekky!!)
So good!
The oats give it a fudgey texture and mouth feel and the banana gives it that slight ice cream taste!
Full of healthy, nutritious ingredients, yet tasting like a truly decadent dessert- my favourite kind of breakfast :D.
Frozen cherry yoghurt- always a winner!
Combine the two and you have quite the combo!

Happy, happy days :)





Until ofcourse, you don't chunk up your frozen oats enough and end up breaking your spoon...
 Well, I'll know for next time! And yes, there will definitely be a next time! I can't wait to try out all the different flavour combos!!

Your turn:
What's your favourite thing to put in an almost empty jar of nut butter?
Favourite overnight oat recipe?
Ever freeze your breakfasts?

I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful day, eat something utterly delicious and SMILE! Bye for now friendly friends!!:D

Wednesday 24 February 2016

WIAW #90- Food excites me!

What has two legs, two arms and a confused, dizzy mental state of a teenager with a huge pile of homework, tests and assignments coming out her ears and a desire to flee to a foreign country and take up residence for eternity?

MEEE-ZAAAAA!

I lie though. Life's not that hard/ stressful... yet.

I'm totally loving year 12, all the extra stuff I get to do, the leadership rolls I can take on, the shifting of teacher student relationships to a more appreciative exchange- it's all super fun! Also, the American- varsity style bommer jackets with our names and year 12 caps sweeten the deal a little too.

In saying all this, I can definitely feel the extra work needed to be put into maintaining a healthy diet and exercise regime.

But you know what else I've found; my spark and excitement for my future meals is back baby! Especially breakfast- I will literally go to bed at night with the excited butterflies of the anticipation of a delicious breakfast filled with so much yum!

So, in honour of the re-ignited spark- here's a WIAW from yesterday (Tuesday) including awesome meals- random meals and meals that reflect the current state of my mind- FRAZZLED! Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for this weekly link-up!!

Breakfast: 7:15am
A super delicious green smoothie with a side of gigantic straight-out-of-the-oven warm nut butter oat cookies!
One cookie was made with oats, oat bran, wholegrain cheerios with headted up peanut butter and almond milk rubbed in, the other with the same ingredients but almond butter heated up with almond milk and rubbed together.
Rolled into balls, flattened and baked for around 15 mins at 180 degrees celsius
Into the Vitamix went 1 chopped, frozen banana, some frozen mango chunks, frozen zucchini, kale, spinach, greek yoghurt and water- whazzed up until smooth and creamy, dreamy delicious:
And happy, happy days:

Whoever said cookies are not a breakfast food?!? I beg to sincerely disagree!
So gooood!
Nutty, fudgey, warm... Steph was extremely happy!
Lunch: 1:40pm
After classes then  recess (peas and corn) and two more classes at school, it was finally lunch time!
Although I forgot Tuesday's were year 12 bible study day at school, so sort of regretted my decision to take in brussels sprouts and broccoli...

Brussels sprouts, brocvoli and eggplant roasted in coconut oil until tender over some baby spinach:


Quite tasty- even though the smell was a little more powerful than I would have liked!!

Snack: 3:45pm
The weather turned as I got home from school before my flute lesson- dark clouds and rain appearing. A snack was in order to keep up the happy vibes:
Chopped green apple with some tasty rockmelon :)

Dinner: 6:45pm
Dinner was one of those examples of 'Steph can't be bothered using her brain right now, please call back later.'
Featuring reduced salt baked beans, boiled eggs, hommus rye bread toast soldiers... with a side of carrot.
Yep, I was in the mood to chomp on a full sized carrot. Yep.

So that's what I ate this past Tuesday!

What about you?
Do you ever love going to bed because you know breakfast will soon follow?
Favourite breakfast to make currently?
Weirdest dinner you've thrown together recently?

I hope you all have a lovely rest of your week- do something you love, love, love to do, stay positive, stay happy- BECAUSE THE WORLD IS AWESOME! Bye for now friendly friends!! :D

Sunday 21 February 2016

A Teenage Concern

Hello, hello :)


A couple of weeks ago the entirety of my year 12 cohort and I (along with our gracious parents) were all invited to a compulsory (yes, I wrote that irony myself) year 12 meeting whereby study techniques, support, dealing with stress and simply ‘playing the game’ of year 12 were all discussed.
First of all, I don’t like thinking of experiencing year 12 as a game in which everyone else is my competitor and you’re trying to win. It seems almost like the Hunger Games, studying style!

But, what actually got my attention was the small, almost insignificant, briefly mentioned topic of food. This ultimately grabbed my attention and then resulted in the annoyance of such a major, helpful factor being left out of the meeting’s topics of discussion.

Good nutrition and consistent healthy snacks were probably the only pieces of advice given to my fellow students as we sat and listened to multiple study techniques, stress managing tips and how to create a study plan to organise yourself through the year. Oh, wait, I lie- they also told us to eat lots of blueberries because they are good for the brain (I will not kid with you people, I have noticed people pulling out a punnet of blueberries for recess on more than one occasion following that meeting!)

It pains me to think that nutrition is being overlooked once again in order to ensure we all have our priorities right. I was comforted by the fact that they drilled into use how important adequate sleep is, but nutrition- come on people! I don’t have to teach myself how important and how much impact a good diet holds over a person. I’ve experienced it first hand, from dramatic weightloss, insomnia and extreme fatigue, to a bright, bubbly and energetic girl, I know what miracles diet alone can achieve!
 Post
Too often I hear my friends foregoing eating because they feel their bodies are not worthy of the food, or they woke up and didn’t like what they saw in the mirror, so it’s water for the meal plan today! This not only annoys me, but it scares me too. Watching way too many of my classmates come to first form with a greasy brown bag of some form of fried food either from our very own canteen or the shops across the road and continue on to eat and label this ‘breakfast.’

And then you wonder why your brain is foggy all the time. Why you don’t have the energy to focus in class or pick up your books to study at home. Why you simply cannot fathom the thought of exercising and why sleep is suddenly becoming increasingly addictive and yet increasingly ineffective for your energy levels.

Eat something. And eat something other than McDonalds for breakfast. Be kind to your body.
As teenagers, we require a heap of energy. We are growing, moving, developing, learning, 10000 things are happening to our bodies and at the same time we are dealing with all the stresses and pulse raising events that come with our final year of school.

You need to eat. And you need to eat a lot. Carbohydrates producing the bodies preferred source of energy should enter our bodies at around 6-11 servings per day (depending on energy outputs). Protein needs to be consumed to ensure our muscle growth and repair keeps us happy, healthy and moving. Good fats to insulate our bodies, keep our skin smooth, again raise those energy intakes. You wonder why there’s no energy in the body? Because there’s no food in the body. Or perhaps the wrong kind of food!

This was the topic missing in that year 12 meeting and this is the topic that holds such importance in a studying year 12’s life. 

Food is essential. Good food is essential. A good diet can change a life, trust me I know, and this message needs to be preached more at schools- at uni’s at workplaces- all over the world!

Because when one feels extreme fatigue, exhaustion, inability to sleep, focus, concentrate, carry out daily tasks, the first person we seek out is a doctor for that magic little pill that is going to make everything instantly better. And when that ‘works’ we carry on. But does it work? In the long run are you healthy? The only solution is a revamp of the one medicine that can truly perform miracles- food.


Ok, little rant over, now over to you!

What do you think?
Do you think nutrition should hold greater prominence in schools?
Have an epic experience with nutrition that changed your life?
Do you/ did you eat well when you were a teenager?

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I got an adrenaline rush from writing it! Have an absolutely awesome day, smile, do something you love and as awlays; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS! (Feeling some blueberries now!!) Bye for now friends! :D
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