Getting Oat-rageously creative!

Hidy-ho friendly friends.
I like oats, you probably like oats (unless you don't) so today you are going to enjoy a full post about...

OATS!!

YES!!!

Ok, ok I know oats may not be the most exciting thing in the entire universe but before you go jumping to such oat-rageous claims, hear me oat! (Ok, I'll stop now ;)

I love being creative with the different flavours I can add to my oats to keep them new and exciting (because let's keep it real here, I eat oats A LOT) and of recently I have come up with some rather delicious creations!

So read on below to find two of my (if I do say so myself) rather fabulous oat experiments that you just might like to try out yourself!

The first concoction to enter my bowl:

 Creamy lemon cheesecake oats:

Topped with a pool of melted coconut butter! Nom!

I've added citrus to my oats before (see orange poppy seed oats) so I already knew adding lemon to a creamy bowl of whipped banana oatmeal would be brilliant:

So into a saucepan went 1/2 cup steel cut oats with 1 chopped banana, sprinkling of chia seeds, zest and juice of half a lemon, 1 cup almond milk, 1 cup water- bubbled away on medium heat until all the liquid is absorbed (may need to add more). Then leave to cool slightly before adding in some greek yoghurt (optional) and transfer to a bowl (lined with coconut butter if you want the ultimate delicious experience) and top with more coconut butter!

Lemon-y, cheesecake-y, coconutt-y... this was a pretty good way to start off my day!

Big spoons is the only way to go:

I'll just let the pictures do the talking :)

My next oat success came in the form of chocolate... and orange.

Now, I was never really a big fan of the whole choc-orange combo.
My entire childhood was spent avoiding the deadly choc-orange chocolates in those mixed variety chocolate boxes people love to give as presents.
And then I made Mindy's tart for the first time and was converted. (If you're not a fan of chocolate and orange- MAKE THIS NOW- it is so good!

So these oats feature that traditional flavour of citrus and chocolate and boy-ohboy does it do it proud!

To make this guy I simply placed 1/2 cup steel cut oats in a saucepan with 1 chopped banana, sprinkle of chia seeds, 1 heaped teaspoon raw cacao powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 cup almond milk, 1 cup water, bubbled away until the liquid was absorbed (stirring every so often for about 15 minutes), before folding in 1/2 of an orange's zest. Then I folded in some greek yoghurt (again, optional) transferred to a mug (in thirds, as there was nut butter scattered throughout!) and topped with some cashew butter:

And once again, a big spoon of oats is utterly essential for full enjoyment of this flavour-packed delight!

There you have it! Two very different bowls of oats, filled with fresh, vibrant flavours to please anyone's palate and jam-packed full of wholegrains, vitamins, minerals, fruit, protein- it just doesn't get much better than a bowl full of dessert-flavoured oatmeal for breakfast!

Your turn:
Lemon cheesecake or choc-orange cheesecake? I don't think I can decide between them! It all depends on what I'm feeling like on the day!
Favourite oat cration you've ever made?
Typical ingredients you always add to your oats? Mine would probably be a thinly sliced banana. Nothing can beat that delicious creaminess with bonus sweetness!


I hope you all have a wonderful day, do something you love and, as always, eat something delicious. Bye for now friends!! :D

A few ways with cacao powder!

Who here likes chocolate? Everyone? Good.
Who here doesn't like the fact that eating too much (especially low cacoa content) chocolate will make us unhealthy? Most people- right? Me included! If chocolate didn't contain masses of sugar and other unhealthy (sometimes even unpronounceable) ingredients I'd be bucketing it down like I do spinach... and sweet potato.... and nut butter :)

My name's Stephanie and I'm a chocoholic! There it's out there! Judge me if you will!
Ok, drama-ing it down.

So what's a girl to do when she needs her choccy fix?

I mean I could go out and buy some sugar free, (tastes like cardboard) full-of-artificial-stuff chocolate bars. Or some 100% cacao choc (I never walk down the chocolate aisle so I'm not sure if my super market even sells it). Or I could buy raw cacao powder.

Now guys- raw cacao powder is where it's at. It's on point. It has swag and sass and a bunch of other recently popularized words I don't entirely know the meaning of. It's good stuff.

Don't believe me? JUST WATCH! (shout out to Bruno Mars, in case you missed that)

First of all when I saw raw cacao powder I don't mean cocoa powder.

There's a difference.
I mean the good, un-processed (and uttelry delicious!) kind.

It can be a little tricky to use though, as it is quite bitter on it's own, but I have a few recipes that might just help you out (and let you enjoy that chocolatey goodness!)

You've seen this guy before- he is an old-time blog favourite of mine and has been around since the beginning (last January). It's the super-thick, super-chocolatey green monster!!

Not the prettiest of colours, but one of =my all time favourite smoothies- taste, filling-ness and chocolate power.

Into your blender goes 1 chopped frozen banana+ 1/2 chopped frozen avocado+ 1 scoop chocolate protein powder (optional- make sure it contains raw cacao ;) + 1 heaped teaspoon raw cacao powder+ 1 huge handful of kale/ spinach+ sprinkle of chia seeds + sprinkle raw oats+ 1/2 cup almond milk+ tablespoon nut butter+ 3 scoops greek yoghurt (optional)- whazz it up!

Z-OMG so good!
Banana- for sweet-ness and ice cream qualities, avocado for creaminess and healthy fats, raw cacao for chocolate!

So that one kinda looks a bit too healthy though... don't you think? How about something that looks almost as decadent as it tastes? (I say almost because this bad boy tastes... bad! In an extremely rich, delicious and fudgy kind of way)

Chocolate coconut steel cut oats with a side of kiwi fro-yo

1/3 cup steel cut oats + 1 cup almond milk+ 1/2 sliced banana+ 1 scoop choc protein powder + 1 heaped teaspoon raw cacao powder + sprinkle of chia seeds+ big few shakes of cinnamon+ 1 teaspoon coconut butter (extra for serving) +extra water if necessary

To make- place everything in a pot, stir to combine, then bubble away on low-medium heat for 15-20 mins and then sit for another 10 mins. Pour into bowl (or cup;) and top with extra coconut butter.

Guys, this was so rich and chocolatey that I couldn't finish the last bite! Can you believe it? Your challenge is to be able to!

Finally ice cream. Chocolate ice cream.

 I always remember as a kid that when it came to choosing ice cream my flavours of choice would be crazy rainbow bubblegum flavour or banana or cookies and cream. Always. My brother on the other hand always chose the richest deepest chocolatiest chocolate flavour and I would never look at it with envy. Chocolate just wasn't that high on my list of food loves. I remember tasting his ice cream and not really liking/ disliking it either way.

 That flavour got locked in my brain though and a few years later, the cravings for chocolatey chocolate ice cream like the ones my bro used to get hit hard.

 So into my high speed, super strong, mini food processor went 1/2 frozen avocado, 1/2 banana (preferably frozen but I just used an un-frozen one), 1 big teaspoon raw cacao powder and two spoons of greek yoghurt, whazzed up to produce a beautifully smooth, creamy and chocolatey ice cream. Place in freezer for 30 mins to harden it up a bit (if preferred) or just eat it like soft serve! Ahhh, so good!

Those are just a small sample of my favourite ways to incorporate chocolate into my diet. I would say I consume chocolate in the form of my raw cacao concoctions about 3-4 times per week and it's only 3-4 times and not 7+ times because I want to make sure I don't get sick of it. I still want chocolate to seem like a treat! :)

Your turn:
How do you eat your chocolate? Regular choc bar/ raw cacao powder/ cocoa powder/ hot choc/ protein powder/ baked goods etc.
Do you think chocolate for breakfast should become a thing? I do.
Ever tried chocolate avocado ice cream? No? Go make it now.

That's it for today folks, I hope everyone has a good one! Eat some chocolate! Bye!! :D

If breakfast was a person...

If breakfast was a person....
We would be best friends.
We're both morning people, we're both fans of breakfast foods (eggs, yoghurt, cereal, oats, smoothies etc.) and we're both unforgettable! (Haha, that last one was mainly for breakfast- you should never forget breakfast!!)
This passed week has dealt out some killer breakfast (killer in taste not effect) and I feel like sharing is caring (and I also feel like that is an over-used cliche... that I just used- no shame :)

OIAJ (oats in a jar) made a come back twice this week (that's what happens when you have two jars of opened nut butters in the fridge that you alternate between each day- they both run out at the same time) and both times have been gooood.

Pictured above was some choc protein steel cut oats (1/3- 1/2 cup steel cut oats + 1 scoop choc protein powder + 1 heaped teaspoon raw cacao powder+ a few big dashes of cinnamon + 1 cup almond milk + 1 cup water- bubbled on medium heat, stirring occasionally for 15-20 mins, left to cool for 10 mins) in an almost empty jar of almond, sesame seed and chia seed butter.

Love a good chocolate-filled breakfast!
Lettuce not forget the cool side-kick though!

This cup of beauty was a BIG handful of frozen blackberries whazzed up in a small food processor with 3 scoops of greek yoghurt. So good!

Also very essential as the refreshing-ness of the berries makes the richness of the chocolate more bearable= you can eat more! :) Logic.

SPOON SHOTS!

My favourite type of breakfasts usually feature a smoothie too, however simply sipping sculling down a smoothy will do nothing for the hunger that torments my inner being (yep, hunger is that deep people) so smoothies go with something else that actually requires the use of my teeth. I am not an old granny yet.

They go especially well with coconut butter truffles! 1/2 cup muesli+ 1 tablespoon coconut butter melted with 1/3 cup almond milk in the microwave- 30 seconds- rolled into balls and placed in the freezer for 30 mins until set.

This bad boy was 1 large chopped frozen banana+ 1 handful kale and spinach+ 3 big scoops greek yoghurt+ juice of 1/2 squeezed orange- whazzed until smooth.

Inside view:

Let's just take a moment to appreciate that fudgey-ness.
Good.

Very good.

And finally... I cannot believe in all of my fro-yo creations I have never created this one:

The oats in this pic are just a bowl of my favourite oats.

Topped with a good amount of peanut butter. :)
The fro-yo?
Now, I've made mango fro-yo, I've made peach fro-yo, kiwi fro-yo, banana fro-yo, blueberry fro-yo, blackberry fro-yo, grape fro-yo and probably some others that aren't coming to mind. For some reason I have never, ever made...

PLUM FRO-YO!
Boy have I been missing out!
On the weekend I bought some seriously ripe and juicy plums and knew I was going to freeze them for smoothies. Then my brain eventually remembered my beloved fro-yo obsession. Happy days.

Not only is the colour amazing, but the taste- oh my green peas! Sweet, plum-y... perfect.

See what I mean by a good week of breakfasts? Yep if breakfast was a person we would be BFF'S (best foodie friends :)

What about you?
Do you love breakfast?
Favourite breakfast. Ever?
Favourite way to eat oats? In a jar? In ball form? In a bowl with spoons and spoons of nut butter? ;)

Bye for now friendly friends- have a great day!! :D

SUNDAY LINKS!!

Hello lovelies! Happy Sunday!!
Even though it's dark and dreary and rainy over here in Aus (I miss Summer!) my day still started off great with a 40 min treadmill run (For those of you who hate running on the treadmill- bring something to read, I use my iPad, the time goes by super fast!) that resulted in a lot of sweat! Followed by some delicious raspberry steel cut oats with peanut butter...

Basically a PB & J bowl of oats :)
Raspberries:

 Plus 1 thinly sliced banana, around 1/2- 2/3 cup steel cut oats and a sprinkle of chia seeds:

 Cooked with 1 cup almond milk and 1 cup water until all the liquid's absorbed.
PB in the bottom of the mug and in the middle of the oats for even coverage- IMPORTANT! :D

 Top it off with the rest of the pretty pink oats and more peanut butter and you're good to go:

 Even though it was bucketing down, it wasn't too cold outside, so I enjoyed my wonderfully late breakfast outside listening to the rain :) Ahhh Sunday- you are awesome!!

 Speaking of Sunday, how about some fun links from the week?

Fun/ Awesome:

This Is What It Would Look Like If “Friends” Were On TV Today

These Designers Want To Remove The Stigmas Surrounding Mental Illness

The terrible and wonderful reasons why I run long distances

Fitness/ Running:

Eat fat, be fit

30 workouts to stay in shape while traveling

How to exercise your mental muscle

How to carb load the right way

Food/Nutrition:

 

Vegan falafel curry

Red Pepper & Almonds Pasta Sauce

Perfect sweet potato burgers

Chocolate chip whip cream bars topped with cookie crisp cereal

 

Activated almonds anyone?

Runner tested veggie burgers

 

 There you have it! I hope you found some interesting reads in the above links as I did! Have a wonderfully relaxing Sunday, eat something utterly delicious, be kind to your body and have a great day! Bye for now friends!! :D