Smoothies... and the weird things I put in them

Smoothies are one of my absolute favourite meals. True.

I fill smoothies with all the typical ingredients. False.

Now, I'm not saying that my smoothies are made up of the leftover roast veggies and tofu I had last night, or that I throw in some tomato sauce for added flavour. No, I add in strange ingredients to add to the awesome-ness that is a smoothie.

Source

Adding silken tofu for added creaminess, thickness and filling protein, some frozen avocado for a deliciously ice-cream like texture, soaked oats for a cake batter flavour,spinach and kale for all their benefits and vibrant colours, mint for an mouth-watering
chocolate and mint combo, even steamed and mashed pumpkin for added flavour and... magical pumpkin powers.

 I have no fear when it comes to adding slightly odd foods that you wouldn't consider smoothie worthy, to my smoothies and there are quite a few other strange (but probably amazing) ingredients that I have yet to try!

I hear sweet potato makes an awesome smoothie addition and that quinoa adds great volume and filling protein to the delicious drink.

There was one ingredient I cam across however that left me slightly sceptical.

Frozen zucchini.

See, growing up I'd only thought of zucchini as that disgusting green veggie that was always served to me extremely mushy and cooked to the point of appearing almost grey (it kinda grew on me and now I sometimes overcook my zucchini circles voluntarily!). It was definitely on the list of some of my least favourite vegetables along with cauliflower and mushrooms.

I also didn't realise it was possible to eat raw zucchini until I started blogging myself and immersed myself into the Healthy Living community (where I read numerous blogs showcasing pictures of cut up raw veg including zucchini and cauliflower, as a snack.

So, for a while, I always told myself I should try frozen zucchini in my smoothies, and then never got around to it.

Until yesterday.

The night before, I cut up 1/2  a medium zucchini, popped it in a zip lock bag and chucked it in the freezer overnight.

The next day, I threw the zucchini, a chopped frozen banana, 1/4 frozen avocado, spinach, greek yoghurt, vanilla protein powder, crunchy peanut butter, soaked oats in macadamia milk and some water into a blender and blended until smooth.

The result was a HUGE green smoothie, super thick, super delicious, it was simply SUPER!

There was absolutely no trace of the zucchini (and spinach for that matter) other than the gorgeous bright green colour, and with the delicious flavours of banana, peanut butter and cake-batter like protein powder, this totally hit the spot!

If you're looking for something to add more substance, nutrients and creaminess to your smoothies without sacrificing on the taste- zucchini is the answer!!

Boy was I full after this monster!!

As usual, the thicker the better, I love straining to get the thick smoothie threw the straw- it lasts longer and gives my mouth a workout!!

So double tick for frozen zucchini!

Your turn:
What strange ingredient/s do you add to your smoothies?
Have you ever added frozen zucchini?
thick or thin smoothies? If it requires a spoon to eat, it is perfect for me!

That's it from me today friends, I hope you all have a lovely day, remember to smile and as usual eat something delicious!! Bye for now! :D

A make-ahead lunch recipe!

As a high school student, part time job working, extra curricular, teenager who loves to eat healthy, I find that I need to make a lot of make-ahead meals.

Anything from make-ahead breakfast (overnight oats, truffles etc.) to make-ahead snacks (home made bean muesli bars, cut up fruit) to make-ahead dinners (roast veggies, quiches) I've made it all. And nothing compares to the amount of make-ahead lunches I've prepared in my time. Hello school lunches 5 times a week.

There's a few briefs that a meal needs to meet in order to be a good make-ahead meal. One- it has to maintain it's shape/ consistency/ texture that it would normally have made at the time. Two- it has to be transportable (in that it won't 'break' if it gets tossed around a little bit). And three, it has to taste super yummy cold. And super yummy period.

And what would be an example of a brilliant make-ahead lunch? Give this one a try:

'Cheesy' Pumpkin and Veggie Pasta!

I guess you could say it's my take on a 'healthified' pasta bake/ mac and cheese. But trust me, you'll forget all about how healthy it is when you taste how delicious it is!

Sweetness from the pumpkin, cheesiness from the hommus and nutritional yeast, savoury mixed beans and sweet popping peas.

All of that intensified after a couple of hours in the fridge and then eaten cold. YUM.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup mashed pumpkin
Serving of pasta (I used spelt spirals)
Small 125g tin of mixed four beans
A heaped cup of mixed steamed greens (I used broccoli, string beans and peas)
1 heaped tablespoon hommus
1 heaped tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes

Method:
1. Steam and mash pumpkin, cook pasta as to packet instructions, steam greens and drain and rinse beans.
2. Mix the hommus and nutritional yeast with the mashed pumpkin.
3. Drain the pasta, and add the steamed greens, mixed four beans and pumpkin mixture to the saucepan with the pasta and stir to coat everything with the cheesy pumpkin mixture.
4. Transport to a bowl/ container, leave to cool and then place in the fridge until required.
5. Serve hot/ cold (but cold. Because it tastes so good!)

 This was my saviour after not eating for about 6-7 hours. So happy I had a make-ahead lunch!

 Full of veggies (Not sure, but I'd probably estimate a good 3+ serves in that one bowl!!), fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals. Very good lunch indeed!

So next time you need to pull together a little something to bring with you/ make-ahead for when you come back later, why not give this one a try? You won't regret it (and I'm sure you're blood levels and satiety will thank you after passing on that tempting fried fast food).

Your turn:
What's your go-to make-ahead meal?
Is there anything else I should add to the brief for make-ahead meals?
Do you ever prefer to eat your meals cold over hot? I pretty much always do!

I hope you all have a fabulous rest of your day, take a moment to be 'in the moment' (something I need to work on) and as always; eat something delicious!! Bye friends! :D

WIAW #65 Typical Eats

Happy hump day friends! It totally took me way too long to figure out it was Wednesday today- I had absolutely no idea what day it was! Holidays will do that to a girl! Any who, seeing as it is Wednesday (as I eventually discovered) a full day of eats is in store for you today in the What I Ate Wednesday party style! Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for hosting this weekly shebang!

This features all my eats from Monday, a fairly ordinary day with not much on- so I guess you could call this one; 'A typical day of eats'!

Breakfast: 8:00am
Now don't be fooled by the late(r) breakfast time, I was still up at around 7:00am (and actually a bit before, but Winter in Aus means at least 15 more minutes tucked up in bed willing time to slow down and cursing your bed for being so gosh darn warm!).

After procrastinating for around 15 minutes I finally shuffled out of bed shivering, drank some water, woke up a little and then headed into our 'gym' (a spare room that houses our treadmill and a few other strange machines) and did some more weights. Both my body and I are really loving this new type of movement and I'm noticing myself getting physically stronger and toned (I also appear to be getting hungrier- if that was even possible!).

Around 20-30 minutes later it was breakfast time!

A big green smoothie in my favourite drinking vessel- a huge glass smoothie jar!

Refreshing, creamy, sweet, just what I needed!
In the mix was 1 chopped frozen banana, 1/2 small chopped frozen avocado, one big handful of kale, one big handful of spinach, a heaped tablespoon peanut butter, 1/3 cup soaked oats (oats+ almond milk soaked for around 20 mins or more- preferably overnight), 3 big scoops greek yoghurt, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 cup water- all whazzed together until smooth!

Deee-lish!

Lunch: 12:30pm
Around 12 the tummy starting grumbling again, so I popped a bot of brown rice and quinoa on the stove with some hot water and boiled away for around 25 mins:

Meanwhile chopping up some veg:

Capsicum + eggplant + zucchini + brown onion + mushrooms
I also pulled together some spices:

Pepper, chili flakes, cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, coriander, oregano.
Sauteed off the veggies in a hot pan:

Added the spices to the rice after draining and cooking for 1 minute in the saucepan:

Adding rice, chopped tomato and some drained lentils to fry pan:

Et voila!

Lunch is served!

Super tasty and filling- perfect!

Snack: 3:30pm
3 hours later and a snack was in order:

A chopped up pink lady apple with a mug of soy milk.

I love apples so much!

Dinner: 7:30pm
I was out from around 4-7:20pm so prepared some steamed and mashed veggies earlier in the day for a quick throw-together meal:

Cold mashed pumpkin, potato, sweet potato, carrot, swede and beetroot.
Come 7:20pm and I added in some steamed broccoli, garlic tofu and topped my bowl off with some globs of hommus- yum!

Yeah, I'm one of those freaks who prefer meals cold to hot, I feel like you can taste it so much better and also that the flavours are intensified. :)

After dinner I had a handful of raw almonds and then I was done for the day! That my friends is a typical day of eating for me.

What about you?
What's the best thing you've eaten recently?
Are you a fan of weight lifting?
Food- hot or cold? I first heard about preferring to eat cold food from Katie and now I can't go back!

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, as always; eat something delicious. Don't foRget to head on over to Peas and Crayons to see what everyone else is nom-ing on! Bye for now friends! :D

Sunday's delicious adventures and links!!

Ahhh, hello Sunday! Oh how I have been waiting for you!

A little sleep-in (tucked up tight because it is cooooolllldddd) a little fast-pace run (30 mins) and a little brekky to start off the day on a great foot! And when I say little brekky, you know I mean utterly delicious. Yep.

I guess I was still in that phase where I wanted oats without the warmth because I made another variation on this over-30-minute (instead of overnight) oats!

This time?

Creamy vegan cinnamon apple coconut oats!!

Step 1. Mash a banana:

Step 2. Add around a tablespoon of coconut butter:

Step 3. Heat on high in the microwave for around 35 seconds, stir to combine (and test try a little bit because it is so good!)

Step 4. Cut up a cheek of apple into small cubes:

Step 5. Add 2 handfuls of rolled oats, a teaspoon of chia seeds, 1/2 teaspoon (or more) ground cinnamon and the apple to a bowl. Stir to combine:

Step 6. Add in the heated banana and coconut mixture, mash to combine:

Step 7. Pour in some almond milk (or any milk) to cover and stir to combine:

Step 8. Place in freezer for 20-30 mins (I also chopped up the remaining apple to freeze for later experiments, but you could chomp on that now if you're famished and are dreading the idea of waiting 30 minutes for breakfast!

Step 9. Remove from freezer:

Step 10. Take a photo:

Step 11. Add a spoon so you can eat it! ;)

And that's how to make this delicious, cold bowl of cinnamon apple oaty goodness!

Now, seeing as it's Sunday I also have a whole bunch of links for you all that I have been loving this past week:

Health:

What even is balance?

What to eat before and after your workout!

8 Things Happy People Do in the First 5 Minutes of Their Day

Food:

Strawberry chocolate tahini melt

Young Coconut Dark Chocolate Slushie With Smashed Berries(Vegan)

Date Paste (Paleo, Whole30, Vegan)

Pizza with Chipotle Red lentil Tomato Sauce, Basil and Vegan Ricotta

Fitness:

What's the Difference Between Pushing Hard and Over training?

20 Lazy-Girl-Approved Fitness Hacks

How to Achieve a Runner's High

Instant Inspiration Straight From the Chalkboard

Funny:


17Times Disney Princesses Totally Felt Our Workout Struggles

9 Charts For Anyone Who Hates Wearing Pants 

I hope you found some interesting reads from that list and if you want some more great links, head on over to Spoons for the Sunday Link-love! Until next time- have a great day friends!! Bye! :D