A craving...

Hello friendly friends!
You know, I had almost forgotten what a craving felt like. It has probably been a good few months (maybe more?) since I have genuinely needed something to keep my body from crying out.

I mean, I still had certain moods for what food I wanted but not a full-throttle craving.

Then I woke up Wednesday morning and my body told me it needed something!

 This guy!
Well this guy in particular:

 I was craving oats. C.R.A.V.I.N.G!

 So I whipped up a big mug full of banana steel cut oats and generously blobbed peanut butter throughout.

 Craving satisfied! Or so I thought...
Then I woke up Thursday morning...

 Chocolate steel cut oats!

 With a delicious blueberry and green grape fro-yo to balance out that awesome chocolatey-coconuty richness. :)

 Frozen blueberries + frozen grapes + 3 big scoops greek yoghurt whazzed.

 This was a good breakfast!

 Better together:

 Craving satisfied?!?
Guess again!
Come Friday morning...

 OIAJ! Banana, cinnamon steel cut oats in an almost empty (you know there was quite a bit of PB left ;) jar of peanut butter with a side of mango fro-yo.

 Mango fro-yo; you will always be my one and only!

 Again- such a good brekky! Warm, gooey, MANGO-Y!

 Perfect.

 Ok, so you would think by now- after 3 breakfasts in a row involving oats- that my cravings would have been satisfied?
Woke up this morning, ran a glorious 20km, came home and....

Steamed some pumpkin:

 Why?
PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE OATS!!

 After steaming and mashing about 1/2 cup pumpkin I added 3/4 cup rolled oats to a pot with 1 thinly sliced banana, 1 heaped teaspoon of cinnamon, a dash of nut meg and around a cup of almond milk- heated until absorbed.

 Then steamed pumpkin stirred through along with 1/2 heaped cup greek yoghurt (optional) for the cheesecake flavour.

 Half poured into my bowl, sneakily dolloped in some cashew butter, added the other half, topped with more cashew butter- et voila!

 Another glorious bowl of oats!

 I wonder what's on the menu tomorrow? ;)

What about you?
Do you ever go through phases of loving the same thing over and over? I think I've been in that phase with white sweet potatoes for quite a while now!
Favourite bowl of oats? I've gotta say, I'm getting a new obsession with chocolate oats!
Oats hot or cold? I like both, but hot- warm and gooey- will always have my heart. As well as sticking to my ribs :)

Have a fabulous Easter weekend- enjoy the chocolate, don't fear it! Have fun! Bye friends! :D

WIAW #35

Hidy Ho friendly friends! (Wow. Just wow, Steph)
How are feeling today on this fine Wednesday? Happy? Jolly? Christmas-y? I know I am!

In the glorious mood I'm in- I think I should talk about a glorious topic- FOOD! In particular- the food I have been nom-ing on. WIAW (on Tuesday) style! Thanks Peas and Crayons for this awesome link-up every week, where I always seem to find a fabulous new blog that I never knew existed!

Now onto the eats!
Tuesday was a day when the stomach wanted food. And a lot of it too. Hey- I'm only here to please!
So, bright and easrly, I skipped into the kitchen and nom-ed on a delicious medjool date and dried fig before lacing up my running shoes and going for a lovely run! Upon return, breakfast was created and bubbling away and lunch was being prepared too. Boy life's busy!
Breakfast:
On the breakfast scene was a big bowl of chocolate steel cut oats topped with mixed nut butter:

There was probably 1/2 cup steel cut oats with a scoop of choc protein powder, 1 teaspoon raw cacao powder, a few big dashes of cinnamon, sprinkle of chia seeds and 1/2 a banana with 1 cup of almond milk and 1 cup of water stirred in and then bubbled away on low heat for about 20 mins (left to cool for another 10 mins)

But that's not all. These weren't just chocolate steel cut oats, these were chocolate cheesecake steel cut oats!

Once they were done cooking I stirred in 2 spoons of greek yoghurt and let that sit for a few mins= deliciousness! It also makes it a bit more filling too :)

Can you believe I was still a bit hungry after this? Well I was! So I had a handful of green grapes  as well :)

Snack:
For my snacky snack at school I had a small pot of frozen peas. Yum. :) :)

 Lunch:
I sure was hungry when lunch rolled round as Tuesday happened to be our year day and we went ice skating. So after already running and then ice skating on top of that- feeding was required!

 This is a recycled pic because I was sort of in a rush but it's basically the same thing. A huuuuuge veggie sandwich with home made spelt bread, hommus, spinach, a veggie patty, grated carrot and beetroot, sliced tomato, capsicum, more spinach and top of bread. Yep.

Snack:
After school my snack of choice was a small fuji apple with some apricot and a glass of soy milk:

This apple was sooo crisp, sweet and delicious and the apricot was pretty good too!

Soy milk always tastes the same. Very, very scrumptious!

Dinner:
Dinner was another huuuge plate of food, (told you I was hungry) mainly veggies:

On top of a bed of spinach there was 2 scrambled eggs with garlic, pepper and garlic tofu, beside that was some steamed veg (pumpkin, swede, potato, parnsip and sweet potato and next to that was some roasted brussels sprouts and brocoli- so good!

Even after this mammoth of a dinner I still had a small handful of nuts because I was still a teensy bit hungry... (can you believe it!?!) you know what they say- growing boy girl! I'm lying- I think I've finished growing. Unfortunately I think I will remain this short.

What did you eat Wednesday? (or Tuesday, if you're like me)
Do you sometimes eat a lot on days you run/ work out/ do a lot of activities?
Do you like frozen peas?

Like snooping out what others are eating? Head on over to Peas and Crayons for even more eats!

Bye for now folks! :D

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