Che-rry... Cherry baby!

Hidy-ho folks! Happy Saturday!!
You may remember from Thursday's Thinking Out Loud post that I mentioned picking up a bag of frozen cherries...
I have been missing out people! Why'd no one tell me how awesome (and cheap/ available- complete opposite of fresh cherries) frozen cherries are!?! This reminds me of the time I first tried a Medjool date and I felt like the world had been keeping one of the best tasting things in the world from me! (Yep, definitely the world's fault... not the fact that I suspected I was allergic to them :)

Any who, I first tried the frozen cherries whazzed up in a smoothie with a frozen banana, some greek yoghurt and almond milk:

Alongside some peanut butter bites (oats + chia seeds + cinnamon + oat bran + PB + almond milk- in the freezer for 30 mins)

And my life was changed.

I always knew I loved the taste of cherries but never thought how amazing they would taste in a smoothie!!

Of course I had to keep experimenting with them then- and you know what I threw them into next:

 A big saucepan full of steel cut oats!

 1/2 cup steel cut oats + 1 chopped banana + 1 handful frozen cherries + 1 cup almond milk + 1 cup water- boiled gently for around 20-25 mins until all the liquid was absorbed and then combined with 2 spoons of greek yoghurt:

 CHERRY CHEESECAKE OATS!

Topped with mixed nut and chia seed butter :)
Again- so , so good :)

Which brings me to this morning, where I was craving crepes and thought a smoothie would go nicely with that:

So, once again I whazzed up a cherry smoothie (a lot more yoghurt this time I think, as there seemed to be more this time) which, once again tasted phenomenal:

And went about making some crepes.
Started off great!

Then I tried to flip them...

Let's just say I enjoyed some delicious pancake scramble for brekky! However one of my crepes did turn out alright:

The other... not so pretty. So I dolloped on a lot of nut butter and called it beautiful:

It was lucky I made this cherry smoothie because it lifted my crepe-broken heart and made my breakfast 1000000x better. Good job cherries!

I'm also pretty stoked with how the first crepe turned out, so all-in-all it wasn't really that much of a pancake disaster :)

I also need to mention how much (for whatever reason) this nut butter tastes like melted white chocolate (especially with those oats pictured above!) I have no idea why, but I am not complaining! NOM!

Unfortunately all this cherry love is resulting in a quickly-dwindling packet of my frozen loves! Gasp! Ahhh well, I still very much have an obsession with frozen plums as well and have a few stocked away in the freezer to keep me going ;)

What about you?
Do you have a relatively recent fav food that you feel like the world was keeping from you?
Are you a frozen cherry fan?
Favourite way to use/ eat cherries?

That's it from me today folks- I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with lots of great eats and even more smiles!! Bye for now! :D

The never-ending oat combos!

Hi friends!
Here's a question for you:
Firstly, I'm going to make a generalisation (*gasp*) about the majority of my readers being either blog writers themselves, healthy living blog writers, avid blog readers and probably avid healthy living blog readers. If not- you have surprised me- well done ;)

I'm also going to make the generalisation that the majority of you have or even regularly cook oats and share my love for them (if not, that's cool, I'm sure there's another healthy living blogger stereotype you fit :)

Anywho, my question!
Before you guys found your love of creating delicious bowls of oats with all kinds of add-ins and flavours, did you ever think oatmeal was just plain boring old sachets of mush that you had to either cover in sugar or honey? I know I did.

I had no idea about rolled oats and steel cut oats and oat bran and cooking them on a stove tops and adding berries/ bananas/ apples/ pumpkin/ chocolate/ vanilla etc. I would simply pour in a measly serving size sachet (yes! Alliteration :)) add some milk, cook it in the microwave (more often than not causing a messy microwave explosion) and top with honey.

Then I began reading blogs.
The world changed forever!
At first it was adding a sliced banana to the oats after cooking.
Then it was mashing a banana in a bowl and microwaving it after I microwaved the oats and then mixing them together.
Then microwaving together.
Then- magic! Stove top oats and all the never-ending possibilities!

Some early oat bowls:

Yep.

I was scrolling through my pictures from the previous week and was astounded at the vast array of flavours in my oats I enjoy over a week- how the times have changed!

First of all I made some overnight pumpkin oats in an almost-empty-jar of mixed nut butter- which was awesome! (with a side of berry fro-yo - forzen berries + greek yoghurt, whazzed)

Into the jar went 1/2 cup rolled oats + 1/2 cup steamed, mashed and cooled pumpkin + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon + dash of nut meg + sprinkle of chia seeds + 1 cup almond milk, all stirred up together and left in the fridge overnight:

Up next I was feeling something warmer, comforting and CHOCOLATE!

Enter chocolate protein steel cut oats!

Into a saucepan went 1/2-3/4 cup steel cut oats + 1 scoop choc protein powder (I use this one) + a few big dashes of cinnamon + 1 sliced banana + 1 cup almond milk + 1 cup water- heated on medium heat for 20 mins and let to sit for another 10 mins to cool.

With some cashew butter hidden on the bottom, half the oats poured in, a little more PB in the middle, rest of the oats and topped with a tad more peanut butter- so good!

Then I was feeling something a little fresher, a little fruity, a little tangy!

Some mixed berry cheesecake oats!

This was 1 cup rolled oats + 1 sliced banana + 1 handful mixed frozen berries + 1 cup almond milk + 1/2 cup water, heated on medium heat for around 10 mins until all the liquid was absorbed and then let sit to cool for another 10 mins before stirring in a couple of scoops of greek yoghurt.

Into a bowl (you know there was some extra nut butter hidden throughout it) and topped with some mixed nut butter

That was just from one week of breakfasts!

I love experimenting with my oats and the possibilities really are never-ending (I haven't quite become brave enough to try savoury oats, or to add egg whites to my oats- apparently it makes the texture better) and I can't wait to experiment further and enjoy some awesome bowls (or mugs, or cups) of oats!

Your turn:
Did you ever have quick oat sachets?
What did your first bowls of oats look like? Mine were not photo-worthy that's for sure!

Current favourite flavour combo in your oats?

That's it from me today folks! Anyone else got a sudden hankering for oats? Just me? Ahh well there's a cure for that one! ;) Have a fabulous day and I'll be back tomorrow! Bye friends! :D

My 'perfect' morning routine

Phew! What a hectic week!
Of course I highly anticipated this and also of course, I didn't get into my usual prepping ahead and organising that I usually, meticulously, do when school is back on the cards. But we'll go into more on that in some later posts- for now, I'm just happy it's SATURDAY!

Snoopy happy dance totally happening over here!

Without a doubt, the best way to ensure that my day kicks off on an upbeat, positive and energetic foot, is to include my 'perfect' morning routine! I say 'perfect' because it is perfect! For meee! Someone else might find this to be the cruelest form of torture on the planet. Each to their own!

Firstly? Waking up! Specifically, waking up nice and early (unless I'm ssuupppeeeerrr tired, then sleep is higher on the priority list!) and now that it's Winter, that means waking up when the stars are still shining :)

Next? Water :) I drink lots of water because my body tells me it needs it- and then thanks me with feeling good :)
Then I researched why and discovered there was some actual science behind it:

After some water and a touch of blog reading (waking me up fully) I change into my running gear, stretch up the sleepy limbs, do some active stretches:

(really good for running!) and head out (or in- to the treadmill- as was the case this morning) for a quick run.
You may remember from this post that I've decided to take a break from my long (around 2 hours, 20km.. yep still can't believe I did those) runs and focus more on shorter and quicker runs.

The verdict?
Good decision! Apart from not stressing over getting to bed early enough to get enough sleep to wake up at 4:30am to run 20km (which, now that I look back on it, caused way too much stress for my liking) I've actually noticed some changes physically as well as mentally! I have more energy, I feel better, I don't have the runner's bloat that comes with super long distances, I don't get over-exercising head aches, or fatigue and I just feel... better!

So, today I ran it out nice and fast for 30 mins on the treadmill and felt great!
Something I had no idea about- how different shorter faster runs are compared to extremely long distances. I am out of breath about 10 minutes in to a quick run and quite worn out after only 30 mins- but in a really good way. Whereas I could run for 2 hours at a very slow pace and not collapse afterwards- but didn't feel the happy buzz of exercising.

Don't believe I get worn out after a quick run? I have picture proof:

Yep, sweat, puffing and frizz galore! We don't all look like models when we workout!

My final stage of a perfect morning?

BREAKFAST!!

(And maybe a shower first :)

This morning there were some overly-ripe plums in our fruit bowl, a small spotty banana, an almost-empty-jar of peanut butter and a girl with a slightly large obsession for oats ready for breakfast...

Can you guess what I did? ;)
Into a saucepan went 1/2-3/4 cup steel cut oats + 1 small banana + 1 juicy, chopped plum (I froze the other one for some plum fro-yo) + 1 cup almond milk + 1 cup water- cooked on medium heat for 20 mins, until liquid absorbed and the let to sit for another 5 to cool before adding in a few scoops of greek yoghurt for added protein and cheesecake-ness :)

Poured into an almost empty jar of peanut butter (with a little extra peanut butter in the middle and on top)

Mmmmmmm, this was so good!

May have gone a little over board with the peanut butter... but can you ever really go overboard with peanut butter? (I guess if you grab a spoon and the entire thing...)

Anywho, it was delicious, filled me up and is a great option for recovery fuel after working out

It also looks really pretty too- another fundamental element of my breakfasts (unless it's a chocolate green monster smoothie- no one can make that look pretty!)

That's what a perfect morning looks like for me! (Of course finishing it off with writing up a blog post ;)

What about you?
What does a perfect morning include for you?
Do you prefer running in the morning or at the end of the day? I've switched from after school to early morning- who knows maybe I'll switch back!
Favourite recovery breakfast? Oats, and lots of em'!

Well, I seem to have rambled on for far long than anticipated, so I'll leave you now to your weekend!Relax, have fun, take a breather (that's what I'll be doing!) and eat something delicious! Bye friends! :D

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