Freezing in the Summer!

Hello, hello everyone!

First and most importantly... have you realised yet that Christmas is next week!?! WHAT!! I only sort of "realised" yesterday when my sister told me. Next week. Wow.
Luckily for me I got all my Christmas shopping (and also bought a whole new bed spread/ pillow mix for my room as well!) done yesterday, so I'm all set and ready to go and can simply focus my energy on what stunning dessert to create this year!

Now, secondly- onto the post!

Funny title, huh? Well, I promise you that the 30 degrees celsius plus days have not in fact left me freezing at all. What I'm referring to is taking advantage of the freezer (the considerably cooler box-y thing right by the fridge;) by freezer all manner of items.

I have this theory you see. I believe that freezing almost anything (there are some exceptions) takes that particular foods awesome-ness to a whole new level.

Exhibit A: Cream

Exhibit B: Frozen grapes

Exhibit C: Frozen banana

Exhibit D: Yoghurt

And that list goes on and on (you all already know my indisputable love for frozen peas)
 So it comes as no surprise that my freezer (well my designated shelf on the freezer) is chock-ablock full of food! This ranges from bread (both homemade and bought) to rolls, to various cut up fruits (think rockmelon, mango, honey dew, cherries, berries etc.) to veggies (beans, peas, corn, avocado, zucchini, spinach) to pre-prepared dinners, veggie patties, tofu and more!

I also love how I can prepare a delicious breakfast the night before, freeze it and enjoy something insanely delicious the next day with little to no preparation. For example this raw, high protein, filled-with-fibre, choc fudge brownie bar:

 Into a processor went 1/2 cup rolled oats, 2 tablespoons oat bran, 4 dates, 1 scoop choc protein powder, 1 teaspoon raw cacao powder, 1 teaspoon chia seeds, a dash of cinnamon, 1 super large scoop of peanut butter :) and enough almond milk to make a sticky glob :)

Then pressed down into a mini loaf tin lined with baking paper and popped in the freezer to freeze overnight!

 Popped out and wrapped in foil making an easy grab-and-go breakfast for a super busy day starting at 5:30am (where I had some fruit and yoghurt) and inhaled this glorious bar at around 9:15am for second breakfast!

 Seriously, it may not look like much, but this guy tasted goooood!

 Then I must have caught the freezing bug because when I came home from grocery shopping the other day I had these two fabulous guys:

 That needed to be cut up and stored away somewhere that would both prolong their life span and also raise their glorious tastiness that much more!

 By the way, that was one of the best tasting rock melons I've ever had!!

 Leftover halves were simply wrapped in glad wrap to be enjoyed fresh during the week!

 Scoop, cut, wrap, done!

 And then I realised I had a heck of a lot more perfectly ripe produce that needed freezing (think apricots, bananas, avocado, mango etc.) and this was the after math:

 Felt quite accomplished!

What about you:
Are you also of the freezer?
Favourite fruit/ veg to freeze?
Ultimate freezing hack you swear by?

I hope you all have great rest of your day! Eat something extremely delicious and I will be back next time with some more of the stuff we all love so dearly. FOOOD!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D

Sunday smoothie bowls and links :)

Hello friends!! And a big happy Sunday to you all!

I know I've been a little less present than usual on the blog lately, but things have been B.U.S.Y. (End of the year is crammed with so much stuff, am I right?). So I'll continue to pop in when I can (things should calm down a bit by the second half of this week)! In the mean time, I will leave you with some pics of my food (because that's what we do here!) and some lovely links to get you through a bored/ can't be bothered doing anything section of your day (we all have them!).

Say hello to breakfast!!

 Deliciously vibrant green smoothie (banana, big handful frozen mango, greek yoghurt, spinach, water)

Topped with some mixed nut butter and peanut butter granola (with cheerios!!)

And utterly devoured:

 Nom.

And that was breakfast!

Now I'm curious, what did you have for brekky? Comment below!

Now onto the links from the week!


Food:

Vegan Beast Burger & Cucumber Dill Salad 

Paleo Peppermint Chocolate No-Bake Bites

Thanksgiving Vegan Mini Pot Pie Jars

23 Healthier Versions Of Your Favorite Holiday Treats

Snickerdoodle Vegan Overnight Oats {Gluten Free + 6 Ingredients}

Fiesta Sweet Potato Nachos

Fitness:

Voices in My Head

3 Brutal Truths No One Tells You About Being A Fitness Instructor

Dorm Friendly Workouts Every Student Should do

Exercise is Not Punishment for Eating and You Do Not Have to Earn Your Food.

9 Ways to Make Fitness a Priority

Health:

The Health and Fitness Trends You'll Be Following in 2016

12 Signs Your Unrealistic Diet Is Making You Unhappy

7 Easy Ways To Eat Healthier This Week

Happiness:

21 Genius Ways To Eat Peanut Butter And Jelly

12 Insanely Easy DIY Christmas Treats That’ll Spread Some Holiday Cheer



That's all from me today folks, I hope you all have a fabulous, restful and rejuvenating Sunday, do something you love and eat something delicious!! Bye for now! :D

Fruit- glorious fruit!

Happy Sunday friendly friends!!

The sun is out, the birds are singing and it. is. HOT!

Hellooooo Summer!

And you know what else comes with Summer??

ALL. THE. FRUIT!

I'm not going to lie here. This is a place of truth, trust and honesty. I have been eating a lot of fruit. And I love it!

Behold: FRUIT!

So, yes, fruit has been on the regular lately, which is why when I woke up not feeling too flash I knew some nice easy fruit was the way to go (any dairy at all was not on the brain.) And I also had perfectly ripe mangoes sitting patiently in the fruit bowl:

This was the mango prior to slicing up...
This was the mango post slicing up and also eating the remains :P

I also made pancakes... because, well- pancake Sunday!

These guys were just my typical banana bread spelt pancakes :) Topped with mixed nut and seed butter and crunchy peanut butter.

Breakfast was awesome:

Now for some of the links I've been loving from the past week!

Food:

Raw Protein Brownies

Healthy Low Carb Cake Batter Spread (Paleo, Vegan, Gluten Free)

Baked Falafel Tater Tots

 17 Weird Pizza Crusts That Are Actually Brilliant

Caramel Apple Overnight Oats

Fitness:

5 Ab Exercises That Are More Effective Than Crunches

What Gift Should Every Runner Get For Christmas?

Try These 17 Crazy Workout Challenges

Do you have to be sore after a workout to see results?

Health:

Why Am I So Hungry After Breakfast?

5 Vegetable-Packed Meals For People Who Hate Salads

Happiness:

Watch Adele Go Undercover To Surprise Her Biggest Fans

What about you?
What's your favourite thing about Summer? (even though I know many of my Northern Hemisphere friends will be heading into Winter now!)
Fav Summer fruit?
Nicest breakfast on a wobbly tummy?

That be it from me today folks! I hope you all have a lovely rest of your weekend, rest, rejuvenate and be energised for the week to come and as always- EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!!! Bye for now! :D

When you don't have it for 3 weeks...

Happy Saturday everyone!!

I hope everyone has had a fabulous week and are just as excited to tackle the next one (and if you're not- pump yourself up so you become crazy positive and annoy absolutely everyone around you! ;)

Now, I'm one of those bloggers who scrolls through her recent pictures and decides on blog posts from there. This can get a bit redundant when you see the seventh photo of roasted veg (on several different occasions) and are thinking to yourself- 'Nope, there is no way I can work that into a post'

Not my pictures- but kind of what it ends up looking like to me anyway!

(If you're interested in posts where I have talked about roasted veg, see here, here, here and here and there's more!!)

So anyway, back to me scrolling through endless pictures of my food.

As I mentioned before recently, upon returning from Africa, I have definitely been craving all the foods that normally make up my diet (ie. VEG!) and so really, it shouldn't have come as a surprise when I came across picture after picture of...

OATS!

You and I both know I go through phases with oats. If I'm in an oats phase I'll eat them every second day. If I'm not, they will hang tight in the pantry for a good few weeks untouched (awesome that they last!)

So after 3 weeks of no oats (apart from the traditional plain soup-like ones they served us occasionally- which I still ate because, hey, I needed my energy!) I guess I'm going oat-of-my-mind with some cravings!

Second day back:

 Lemon blueberry steel cut oats with coconut butter:

 New favourite oats :)

Day after: My second favourite bowl of oats:

Creamy vanilla and cinnamon banana steel cut oats:

 Topped with all the almond butter (and some spread throughout :)

Few days later: Overnight oats!

 Or perhaps some super fresh, delicious and sweet watermelon with a side tub of peanut butter?

 Just kidding:

 Choc protein overnight oats

 With quite a lot of crunchy PB left in the jar. Problem? I don't think so! ;)

And finally this mornings- which I shall be naming Strawberry Shortcake!

Into the pot went 1/2 cup steel cut oats + 1 VERY ripe banana + 4-5 VERY ripe strawberries + sprinkle of chia seeds +fresh vanilla pod seeds (sub in a small dash of vanilla essence) + 1 cup almond milk + 1 cup water- bring to the boil, stirring occasionally until liquid has been absorbed (around 20 mins)

 Sweet, strawberry-y, lusciously swirled with smooth creamy almond butter and filling the house with  a warming smell that can only be likened to strawberry cake baking in the oven.

 There were also butterflies and rainbows and angels singing.

 Too far? Any who, it was delicious and has only made my hankering for oats even stronger!

 Happy days :)

What about you?
What's on your craving/ repeat-practically-daily list at the moment?
Do you find you go through oat phases?
Favourite way to use strawberries in cooking?

I hope you have a lovely rest of your weekend, make the most of it, smile, laugh and eat delicious food! Bye for now friendly friends!! :D