WIAW #85 Summer eats edition!!

Hello, hello friendly friends!

Happy Wednesday and more importantly... happy What I Ate Wednesday! A day when bloggers of the world unite to share and drool over a full day of eats and most likely become quite a bit hungry along the way!
Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for creating this link and the various bloggers who host the link-ups!!

Now, onto the FOOOOD!

Breakfast: 7:30am
Breakfast was accompanied with the warm Summer sunshine and heat after quite a sweaty 45 minute run (trust me- it. was. hot!):

 Involving a lovely refreshing and hydrating creamy cherry smoothie (with some spinach and frozen zucchini added in there for extra veg and volume!) and some peanut butter granola on the side, because I'm a weirdo! ;P

May or may not have filled my smoothie jar up a little too much prior to sitting in the freezer to thicken for around 15 mins:

 Super refreshing, tasty and exactly what I needed to refuel after my run!

 Happy, happy days!

 P.S. The granola was still warm :)

Lunch: 12:30pm
I was a little peckish come lunch time so I chopped up half a white potato and half a medium white sweet potato, drizzled in olive oil and roasted in the oven for 40 mins at 180 degrees celsius.

 I also chopped up some raw veg sticks to dip into some mashed avocado with lime juice:

 And a HUUGEE bowl of popcorn on the side (and that wasn't even all of it!)

Snack: 3:50pm
Fruit was on the brain come afternoon and my beautifully ripe and gorgeously sweet watermelon was calling to me from the fridge..

 So I chopped some up, along with a small pink lady apple and a handful of red grapes:

 So good!
Dinner: 6:35pm
Dinner featured some quinoa pasta with sauteed veg (eggplant, mushrooms, onion, garlic, peas, spinach etc.) with some lentils, mixed beans, tinned tomatoes and nutritional yeast:

 Not the most appetising looking meal, but mighty tasty!!

 And totally hit the spot- was not hungry after this big bowl!!

 Then I was done for the day!

All in all, a wonderfully delicious day filled with many good eats, delicious foods and a happy stomach!

Your turn:
What was the best thing you ate this fine Wednesday?
Favourite post sweat session food/ meal?
Pasta- tomato-y/ sauce-y/ creamy? I'm much more of a fan of tomato/ pesto/ other sauce based pastas... creamy ones just never really appealed/ appeal to me (unless of course it's creamy avocado pasta!)

That's it from me today folks, I hope you all have a lovely day, do something you love and eat something delicious!! Bye for now! :D

The Things I Love Love Love!!

Happy Monday friendly friends!!

We're getting closer and closer to Christmas and are probably well under way with many celebratory dinners/ lunches/ catchups/ parties and just having fun!

And yet it seems that almost  every website I love to follow and frequent often (healthy living/ food blogs/ fitness etc.) are all centralised around one main topic at this present time; How to keep healthy/ maintain weight/ reduce kilojoules in this holiday season.

(finally learnt how to screen shot on a desktop!)

Now I'm not going to go off on a long rant about how the festive holidays and all the delicious treats and changes to normal routine only comes around once a year and should therefore be savoured and enjoyed, not stressed over and planned around to ensure you don't gain a single gram of weight!

Nope, I'm not going to go into that because I believe you are all smart enough to know that already and are instead focusing on the things (people and/ or food ;) you love these holidays! And so I am going to do the same!! :)

First of all, I love food. Food is healing, replenishing, rejuvenating, energising, tasty and down right happiness inducing. So these holidays I'm going to enjoy my food!

I love thick, chocolate smoothies:

 That require a GREAT amount of slurping energy to drink and also a spoon if required:

 I love bread and 'cheese' that doesn't give me a stomach ache (thankyou hommus, nutritional yeast and water) and tomato and combining them to make an old childhood favourite:

 Grilled cheese and tomato :)

 The crusty bit of my home-made wholemeal spelt bread topped with some vegan cheese, tomato slices and more vegan cheese:

 Popped under the grill at 180 degrees for 5-10mins until golden brown :)

 I also love my minions plate..

 I love super huge sandwiches filled with a rainbow of veggies:

 Hommus, veggie patty, spinach, grated carrot and beetroot, tomato, capsicum and avocado:

 And no, that is not a cucumber in the background, that would be my foam roller :P I was tricked for a second there too!!

 I love chocolate... especially for breakfast:

 Steel cut choc protein oats

 And I especially love warm, gooey oats with nut butter swirled throughout:

 I love, love, love roasted white sweet potato:

 As well as a big plate of ALL the roasted veg:

 And nothing can beat a cool refreshing smoothie bowl, topped with slightly warm, crunchy granola:

 Recipe here.

 And that's just the food!!
I love my friends, family, being together, watching corny holiday movies, baking, playing games, laughing, talking, soaking up the sun (Aussie Summer), the beach:

 I also forget how lucky I am to have a gorgeous white sandy beach at my backyard..

 And it truly fills me with so much joy to simply walk along the sand and just be.

Wow, that got a little lengthier than intended!

Your turn:
What do you love most about the holidays?
Best thing you ate this week?

I hope you all have a lovely day, be with those you love and as always; eat something delicious!! Bye for now friends! :D

Coconut Friday

Hello there beautiful people!

I hope you are having a brilliant Friday, filled with brilliant Friday things and if you're still going to work/ at school somewhere/ not basking in the happiness of the freedom obtained from a Christmas holiday... then when you do finally get a break it will be so much sweeter anyway!!

Today, I'm back to that taboo topic of the time (alliteration.. I like it) otherwise known as coconut.

If you would like some more in depth posts on my thoughts and opinions surrounding all things coconut visit here, in a nutshell- I think everything in moderation :) Coconut oil/ butter etc.like nut butter or avocado is high in fat, but filled with so many other great properties that make me believe it's not the devil quite a number of people categorise it as.

Instead, I would like to shed light on a slight obsession/ overload/ happiness inducing use of coconut  I've unintentionally delved into over the past few days!

It all began with last night's dinner:

 Into a warm frypan went a heaped tablespoon of coconut oil, chopped eggplant, zucchini and butternut squash.
This was browned for around 5-10 mins until slightly golden and slightly tender.
Next went in some chopped mushrooms and frozen broad beans:

 After another few minutes I tossed in some frozen peas, corn, lentils and spinach, added a little more coconut oil and cooked over medium heat for another 5 mins until everything is nicely golden brown, fragrant and tender.

 And into a bowl ready to be devoured! (letting it cool for 20 mins because I'm a freak who likes cooled food :)

After last nights dinner, I woke up with the craving of some coconut butter in some form or other. Would it be truffles? Oats? Pancakes?
All I knew was that I had run out of my home-made coconut butter and needed to whip up some more, so when I was decided what to whip up, I whipped up a fresh batch of liquid gold white!

 It's so simple-pimple to whip up, you only need to half fill your food processor with desiccated coconut and then whaz for quite a while until liquid and smooth (I probably whazzed it all up for around 10-15mins)

 Then into a sterilised jar (ran out of jars, so used a mason jar mug instead :) lid on and hey presto! You can either keep it in the fridge or cupboard (I choose cupboard).

 And you can have fun tricking both yourself and others that it's a glass of milk! Slightly more fat than milk. Slightly ;)

 devoidness of coconut now corrected!

 Happy, happy days!

 Which brings us straight to this morning's breakfast:

 A super delicious bowl of raw coconut butter granola with s splash of almond butter:

 Simply some rolled oats, cinnamon and low-sugar cheerios with some freshly made, warm coconut butter rubbed in and then some almond milk poured in at the end:

 So tasty:

 Alongside that delicious bowl was a frozen orange creamsicle smoothie with a frozen banana, frozen orange, frozen zucchini, kale, spinach, greek yoghurt and water:

 Spoon shot

 Slightly better spoon shot:

 Happy Steph :)

So yes, these past few days have seen a reignited love affair between me and coconut and there have been no complaints from me!

What about you?
Are you a coconut fan?
Favourite way to use coconut oil?
Coconut butter- how much do you love it? (Yes, you can only love it! ;)

That's it from me today folks, have a fabulous day, do something you love and EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D