IT'S TIME!

So I've had this blog for a while now (read, 3 and a half years!!) and throughout the entirety of this blog I have umm-ed and ahhh-ed over whether or not to become vegan, frequently posting vegan recipes and meal ideas and admiring all those vegans out there with their huge plates of plant-based goodness...

And so it might seem shocking as to why I didn't go vegan a long, long time ago. But I think there was this tiny part of my brain that doubted whether or not i could/ should give up all animal products entirely.

But the other thing was, I was basically vegan anyway (especially throughout this year as I finished up with school and had more time to think about who I wanted to be as an adult in this world. I was really only eating greek yoghurt as my everyday animal product and eggs maybe twice a week max! So really, the transition wouldn't be so hard at all...

Which is why... come Sunday morning I whipped up a bowl of berry oats and just... poured over some extra almond milk instead of the greek yoghurt scoop and haven't looked back!

Yep, ya girl is vegan now and let me tell you, even in the last few days I've already noticed my digestion is heaps better, my hunger levels are back, my appetite is roaring, I'm energetic and I'm just happy.

You know the post about how easy it is to fall down the rabbit hole of restriction?? Well now that I've told my brain I'm vegan it's sort of like broken down that food restriction barrier and I'm eating in abundance and ALL the good stuff too! Soooo many veggies and my creativity for cooking has returned!

Thus, the real reason for this post:

Put down whatever it is you are doing right now and go and make this bowl of vegan AWESOMENESS!! So awesome (and healthy) I even made it for lunch! Plus a sneaky secret ingredient to keep you full and firing for hours!!!

Rich choc protein granola with coconut yoghurt, frozen mango and fresh dates:

a splash of cold almond milk over the top:

Such a simple and out-of-this-world delicious meal to make and yep, I have the recipe right here for all of you to enjoy (and seriously- MAKE THIS NOW!)

Vegan Choc Granola Yoghurt Bowl:

Ingredients:
1 cup red kidney beans (told ya there was a sneaky secret ingredient)
3/4 heaped cup rolled oats
1 scoop Sunwarrior vegan choc protein powder
1 teaspoon maca powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
splash almond milk

Few scoops coconut/ soy yoghurt

four fresh dates (fell free to use dried dates I just happened to have the fresh ones from the grocery store the other day)

few handfuls frozen mango

Extra almond milk to splash over

Method:
1. Drain and rinse red kidney beans and microwave for 30 seconds
2. Add beans, protein powder, maca powder, cinnamon and almond milk to blender/ food processor and process until smooth and creamy.

3. Massage into oats and then spread onto tray lined with baking paper

4. Place in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for around 30 mins or until the granola starts to get a little crunchy on the outside and smells incredible!!

Little dark and crispy on the outside- just the way I like it!! :D :D

5. Leave to cool slightly and then layer up your bowl! First some granola, then some dates, yoghurt, frozen mango, more granola, dates, frozen mango, granola and almond milk- hey presto! It's the best-o!!!

Enjoy for breakfast, lunch or dinner and thank me after your done devouring this bowl of goodness.

Absolutely needed after today's leg day- the hanger was real!!

Now, as for the red kidney beans added to the granola? No my friends- you cannot taste them at all! In fact they even add another dimension of fudginess I often find lacking in typical crunchy/ dry commercial granola and that browns-like texture is just incredible! Trust me my friends- this addition is legit!

I can't wait to discover what other mad creations I am yet to come up with and am so excited to be excited about food once again (and EATING!!) so here's to the next amazing chapter in my life (I'm cheers-ing with this bowl of chocolate goodness by the way :P :D)

No questions today, just a fun happy post filled with goodness and foooooooodd!!

Have a wonderful day my friends (and eat something delicious!! :P :D :D)

Life Lately and Make-Ahead Meals!

Hidy-ho friendly friends and Happy SUNDAY!!

Sundays for most might mean a bit more of a sleep-in followed by an easy-going restful day... for others it might mean running 17km before 8am, like I did, today :P

 This is my, I'm finally home face!! ^^

 And this is my; did I actually just do that?? What kind of crazy person am I, face ^^

And these are my legs... they don't really show too much emotion.

Anywho, it was a lovely run, running against the wind was a bit of a battle at times, but luckily the last few km's back were with the wind (honestly, when I was running against it I almost couldn't move!!)

Refueling after my fasted cardio with:

 Utter deliciousness.

 This was the creamiest of creamy green cherry and banana smoothie with a side of warm, crunchy, straight-from-the-oven PB granola :D

 The smoothie was simply chucking a handful frozen cherries, 1 large frozen banana, 3 big scoops greek yoghurt, 1 handful frozen zucchini, 4 chunks frozen spinach and splash of water into the Vitamix and whazzing until smoothie-smoooooth! Into the freezer until required.

And the granola? around 1/2 heaped cup rolled oats, 1 handful wholemeal reduced-sugar cheerios, 1 teaspoon maca powder, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 heaped tablespoon smooth PB with 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, heated up in the microwave until warmed through and then mixed into dry mix until combined and sticky- onto baking tray and into the oven at 200 degrees celsius for 15-20mins or until golden brown, crunchy and fragrant- nom!

So that was this morning, but what else has been crack-a-lacking in the life of Steph-2-Chef??

Working.

Lots and lots of working.

Because it is holidays and uni break I have been rostered on almost every single day and whilst I'm definitely not complaining (getting paid definitely makes it worth it) I have had to get a little more creative and organised with planning my meals and creating dishes that can be eaten hot/ cold and made-ahead to sit in the fridge.

Majority of said meals have been dinners but I did have an early shift on one of the days and also wanted to get in a good arm workout that morning...

 Which I totally smashed by the way!

 The baby biceps are growwwwiiinnnggg!!

 Yes.

So, I whipped up a batch of rich, dark choc granola to make a killer yoghurt bowl that could be thrown together in two minutes after I finished assassinating my arms:

 Enjoyed with a frozen banana, greek yoghurt and almond milk- this was so so good!

 To make the make-ahead granola I simply placed 1/2 cup muesli + 2 heaped tablespoons rolled oats + 1 heaped tablespoon raw cacao powder + 1 teaspoon cinnamon  into a bowl and then stir to combine then + 1 tablespoon almond butter warmed up with 1/2 cup almond milk, stirred into the dry mix and baked in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for 20-25 mins or until crunchy and golden!

 Then I just left it to cool and popped it into an airtight container in the fridge until the next morning when I just popped it into a bowl with all the other goodies!!

 Let it soak in the almond milk a little and hey-presto! The besto!!

 And the frozen banana is a must. Because then it tastes like ice cream. Rich chococlate granola ice cream.

 Happiness.

 But mainly, dinners:

 Simple-pimple make-ahead meals that literally have less than 5 ingredients!

 This bad boy was roasted broccoli, purple cauli, brussels and cheese-y baked tofu (hard tofu mixed with garlic, nutritional yeast and water- baked in oven for 15-20mins until puffed and golden)

 And this one was simply steamed greens and curried pumpkin and corn falafel- nom!

 And last but not least... but definitely ugliest! This whole baked sweet potato (so good eaten cold!!) with a side of mixed veggie chili:

Which was basically just sauteed and then bubbled away zucchini, eggplant, tinned tomatoes, mushrooms, blackbeans, mixed four beans, mixed dried herbs and turmeric

Eating healthy doesn't have to be complex and by the looks of these meals- super easy when super busy!! I definitely have a heck of a lot more make-ahead meal recipes so just let me know if you want more ideas folks!

Your turn:
Are you a rester on Sunday or is it just the same daily crushing it??
What's your favourite breakfast of recently?
Best make-ahead meal that saves the hanrgy monster??

I hope, once again, you have a lovely Sunday, do all the things you love, spend time with those you love and as always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D

The Steph Life

If you've ever wanted to live exactly like me- do exactly what I do, eat exactly what I eat, be the identical replication of me- STEPH- then look no further! This is the post for you!!

Ok, ok just kidding, but I did want to share with you a post that does kind of detail the way in which I do live my life and thus the way of life that is known as; The Steph Life!

Hint: It involves lots of veggies, good delicious foods, exercise, sun and randomly bursting into cartwheels, handstands, bend backs and random dance moves at any time of the day/night.

So I decided to share with you a typical day (yesterday) whereby the Steph-life was in full swing and I was living life just the way I wanted to!

It started out with an early morning.

Yep, most of my mornings start out around 5-5:30am because in all honesty- that's when I feel most energised! I don't generally go to bed too late, so around this time is when I hit the 7-8 hours of sleep mark and my body is wiiiiiidddeeee awake and ready to go go go!

Zat be why I exercise first thing in the morning. Even before breakfast. *Gasp*

Just a nice little pic of my legs post-beach run... seriously guys, soft sand running is like a HIIT workout- gets your heart rate up soooo high! And those legs were a-burning!!

I know a lot of people can't understand this because they can't even fathom breaking a sweat with nothing in the tank, but I've either a) Gotten used to it from doing it for a few years now, or b) am one of those types of people who function better on an empty stomach (food in ma belly makes me feel heavy and weighed down- not the best feeling when working out!!)

 Post-run head shot- sweaty, messy hair, tired legs and super pumped with all those good endorphins- plus that Summer sun! Love, love, love working out with the sun on me!!!!

Recently I've started working out less with higher intensity and seeing better results! Again, just listening to the body and doing what I love- happy days!

 This is the workbook I use to write down all my workouts (because I'm a creative soul and like to make up my own :P) and so this guy contains an array of arm, leg, ab etc. workouts to keep things changing, different, interesting, challenging  and always fun!!

 I also love coming up with the random-est names- if you can see in the picture, one of them is called Ab Craze, another; I Can't Feel My Legs and finally, one of my favourites; Arnold Arms :P :D

Now, when I say I prefer and actually feel better working out on a fasted stomach, I do generally feel the hanger quite soon after finishing up my workout and thus breakfast within the next 30 mins is a must!!

 And this breakfast did not disappoint- in fact, I think I said on my Instagram (@steph2chef) this was one of my favourites in a while!!

 Featuring, rich, warm, crunchy, straight-from-the-oven cacao granola on top of plain greek yoghurt with some creamy, sweet frozen banana and a splash of soy milk- honestly; best. combo. ever.

 Eaten first and then one of the first (and best) mangoes of the season afterwards (because I wanted to enjoy that mango all on it's own!)

 Nice and filling, refueling from the run and ready to tackle the day!!

 So good :D

 Throughout the morning of yesterday I did a bunch of errands with mum, visited my grandparents (and brought them fresh scones from my work and some cream we whipped up), finished up the Chrissy shopping, there was probably some dancing and singing thrown in there for LOLS and before I knew it, it was lunch!

 This is the water bottle I drink from (and crazily carry with me) throughout the day to ensure I'm drinking enough water. No, I do not finish it everyday. Heck, I don't even think I've ever finished the whole thing, but it's one of those ones with the times down the side and it's just a great reminder for me to drink more often. Also, carrying it around is a great arm workout. Trust me. :P

 Lunch yesterday was a cracker (just like brekky... it was a good day for food!!)

 A toasted cape seed roll (also from work- wholemeal with9 grains and seeds!) spread with lots of hommus, topped with spinach, grilled eggplant, portobello mushroom, capsicum, zucchini and some fresh tomato slices- toasted off in a sandiwch press for a few mins until golden brown on top- NOM!

 So. Much. Yum.

I was rather hungry for this guys following the big morning of errands and so this efiniteyl hit the spot. I'm always one for listening to the body and my body was telling me to fuel up!

After lunch was a few more errands, finishing wrapping Christmas presents, drinking water (Haha) and then doing one of my other all-time favourite things; reading.

Reading is definitely a calmer for me and I love to just go out into the sun and walk around with a big hat on reading a good book. I don't really like sitting at all, so only do so when I have to (ie. it is very hard to stand in a moving vehicle etc.) and really enjoy just wandering around reading my book for an hour or so.

By then it was about 3:00pm when I decided to come back in and work on my handstands (getting pretty good at them folks- almost getting to the stage where I can hold them indefinitely- before the blood rush gets too much!!) and then mum and I worked on the Christmas menu (I'm on desserts!! Yay!)

Following that- at around 3:30pm- I was in need of a snack (lunch and dinner are just too far apart!!) and so cut myself up a pink lady apple and poured me a glass of soy milk and then I watched some Youtube videos for a while before heading upstairs for a shower and then into my jammies.

If I have a day off and don't need to go anywhere, I love getting into my pajamas nice and early (like 4:30pm) and then just mooching around the house relaxing (like I said, most energised in the morning, slowly dwindling come evening!)

Typically start making dinner at 5:30-5:45pm whilst reading blog posts on my iPad (portability :) and last night, once again, was truly delicious:

 Simply, creamy, delicious- steamed veg (pumpkin, parsnip, swede, white sweet potato, beetroot) with drained and rinsed blackbeans, mixed together with 1/2 a mashed avocado mixed with 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast- honestly so delicious (probably sounds kind of weird!)

And I hardly ever go a night without a little something for dessert after dinner :D

Yesterday it was two squares of 90% Lindt dark choc which truly just melts in your mouth and has such a rich, dark, decadent flavour- LOVE!

Brush teeth, close curtains in room, turn down bed and then head out to watch some telly (on the floor- because I guess I'm just not really a fan of furniture in general- I think when I move out all my furniture is going to be those Bohemian/ Indian style floor cushions!) until I inevitably doze off and then wake up and slowly plop down into bed, ready for a nice, rejuvenating sleep :).

And that's The Steph Life!

Your turn:
What would be the characteristics of The (enter your name here) Life?
Favourite breakfast of recently?
Are you a fan of sitting?

I hope you enjoyed this post, I always love reading about other people's lives so I thought I'd share a bit more about mine.

I hope you all have a lovely day, be with loved ones, give lots of hugs and happiness, spread joy, dance like a lunatic and as always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D