WIAW #43

Hi everyone! I am bogged down with homework, so we're gonna keep this post short and sweet- just like me!

It's Wednesday! I ate food!  Bring on the WIAW party!!
Breakfast: 7:15 am 
I didn't run on this particular morning, so had plenty of time to make me some steel cut blueberry oats!

 Steel cut oats + 1 chopped banana+ handful blueberries +sprinkle of chia seeds + almond milk+ water+ blueberries- bubbled away on the stove for 15 mins, left to cool slightly and then stirred in with some greek yoghurt:

 Dolloped artistically with crunchy peanut butter!

 P.S. do you like my new bowl? It's the perfect size for food photography- my food doesn't get lost in it!

 Makes it taste better too. Probably.

 Oh hello there Mr Blueberry!

Snack: 11:00am
A lovely pot of peas. No picture, imagination required.
Lunch: 1:40pm- yes, really!

 Prepped along with breakfast- roasted white sweet potatoes and regular potatoes (in coconut oil for 45 mins at 180 degrees celsius) with a torn up veggie burger, spinach, capsicum and corn:

 Yummm! Love me some white sweet potato! (aka-nature's candy)

Snack: 4:00pm

 A chopped granny smith apple with a side of kiwi-fruit (that skin stayed on baby!) with a glass of soy milk.

 I've never eaten kiwi-fruit with the skin on before but then I heard people saying they did and that they didn't notice it (didn't notice the fuzz?!?) so I gave it a try and they were right- it was pretty good and I didn't have to put in all the extra effort of peeling!

Dinner: 6:45pm
Was tired. Was full of homework exhaustion. Was hungry. Was food time:

 2 soft boiled eggs with spelt soldiers (vegemite and mashed avocado on one and hommus and mashed avocado on the other) and some roasted veggies:

 Roasted mixed tomato medley, brussels sprouts, broccoli, mushrooms, eggplant and zucchini- rubbed with cayenne pepper, paprika, black pepper and garlic and roasted for about 30 mins at 180 degrees celius= happy days!

 What about you:
Do you like having small bowls so your food looks pretty?
Nature's candy- what food is it for you?
Favourite way to eat eggs? Also what did you put on your soldiers? Just butter?

That's that! Now back to work! Bye! :D

Check out Peas and Crayons for more eats!!

Quickle-stickles!

Hi everyone! How are we all today? How about this for an awesome picture:

Feeling motivated yet? How about some food then! :D

I boiled up a big bunch of beans (alliteration win!!) on the weekend to use for lunches this week was really chuffed with myself at being so prepared and organised... until I realised I would get bored of plain beans. Quickly. My solution? Bean burgers!!

In the mornings of school days I have very little time (next to none when I run) so prepping lunches the night before is pretty vital in the sense that I eat. :) So Sunday night I whazzed up some of those boiled white beans, ground cumin, coriander, nutritional yeast and garlic, then stirred in some cooked millet, chopped red onion and capsicum. Formed into balls and placed in the freezer for 30 mins before frying them up!

Super simple, super delicious and taste even better the next day cold!! Booya!!

 The millet added awesome texture and delicious chewyness and gave the patties extra volume= happy Steph!

 Simply cooled down, placed on a plate, covered in glad wrap and then popped in the fridge until needed the next morning as I'm running around like a mad thing trying to shower/ dress/ inhale water/ pack bag/.... you get the picture.

 Plonked on top of a simple salad (also prepped the night before) of spinach, carrot, cherry tomatoes, celery, capsicum, cucumber and kale.

Aaaand some salsa- because salsa takes everything to the next level! ;)


Also, remember when I posted about time-consuming dinners and quick throw-together meals? Well today I have a quick-go-to-portable dinner that saved my hungry belly from eating itself:

 A delicious blend of multi-grain quinoa pasta, sauteed eggplant, red onion, mushrooms, capsicum and asparagus with some steamed beetroot, parsnip and swede with some spinach, lentils, cannelini beans and nutritional yeast stirred in at the end (it was also a use up the leftover veggies dinner- talk about an over achiever!).

Stuffed into a container (yep, I managed to fit it all in) and popped in the fridge until required a couple of hours later.

Little close up:

So now you have some quick prepped ahead meal ideas up your sleeve! I mean, sure, you could make a sandwich and save all the prepping and time spent cooking and creating.... but sandwiches are boring. Bean burgers are exciting. Yeh, exciting.   :P


Your turn:
Do you ever have to prep food before a busy day?
Favourite lunch to pack?
Sandwiches or something else for lunches? I do enjoy the occasional sandwich every now and then- but everyday?? No thanks, this gal's gonna get bored!

Bye for now folks! Have a fabulous day!! :D

Forever changing dinners

Dinners frustrate me sometimes.

I feel like I've done a lot of eating during the day and oh, there it is again, a little whisper huge cry of hunger. I'm kind of like- come on body, I've been feeding you all day!

Then I remember I love cooking and food and eating in general and then I'm happy again. Welcome to my brain- at least you don't have to live with it! ;)

Now, there seems to be two types of dinners for me:
1. Dinners that take a long time to prepare and I can just zone out from the world and cook for an hour or two.
2. Dinners that involve quick cooking foods that can be made in a rush, yet still fill me up (generally involving veggies that can be eaten raw/ can be sauteed in a hot pan quickly.

I will admit that I'm not a big fan of the rushed/ having to be portable dinners as I believe dinner is a time that should be spent around a dinner table with family, eaten slowly and enjoyed. But then life happens and that just simply is not the case every night.

My go-to quick dinners include:

• Fried eggs, sauteed mushrooms/ capsicum/ eggplant/ zucchini, with toast that's usually topped with hommus/ avocado/ vegemite (and sometimes a combo of these)
• salads- spinach, tomato, carrot, capsicum, peas, beetroot, drained beans/ torn up veggie burger/ tofu
• Microwave rice cups with frozen peas, corn capsicum, beans, other veggies and salsa
• Omelettes
• toasted sandwiches (my favourite being a hommus, avocado and baked bean jaffle!)

My generally-take-longer-than-half an hour meals include:

• Anything with long, slow roasted veggies (Y.U.M)
• Barley salads (generally with roasted veggies)
• Baked sweet potatoes with a delicious topping of some kind
• Lasagne (wow, I haven't made lasagne in ages! I better remedy that!)
• PIZZA! (me loves pizza :D)

Friday night was one of those precious nights when I had no where to be. I had the whole weekend to do my homework and I had a few spare hours to create whatever I wanted for dinner. Some may see cooking dinner as a chore but it is definitely a treat for me (when it isn't rushed or hectic)

So I started off by making this:

Mmmm, love me some beetroot juice for dinner!
Ok, maybe not. Any who I steamed up 1/4 large beetroot for about 30 mins, whazzed it up in my mini food processor and then squeezed all the juice (and a bit of the actually beetroot) into a small bowl to make...

A pink beetroot pizza base!! Yay pizza!

To make follow the directions in the link above.
I topped my pizza off with some no-added-salt, 100% tomato paste, lots of vegan cheese, fresh basil leaves, sliced tomato and mushrooms, chopped capsicum and eggplant, sliced olives, sliced red onion and a little lot more vegan cheese (I was in a cheesy mood!)

Baked in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for around 25 mins (until base was hard and 'cheese' was golden)

Yum, yum. Although I couldn't enjoy it 100% as when I was rolling it out after resting for 45 mins my Dad goes 'So you made play dough for dinner?' Then I couldn't get the thought of eating play dough out of my head. Thanks Dad.

Who am I kidding, I probably enjoyed it more thinking it looked like play dough! ;)

I ate that baby at home, at a table, with plenty of time swirling around me, enjoying every second. Saturday night was a totally different experience, but that's a story for another day (ie. tomorrow or the next ;)

What about you?
Go-to quick-to-throw-together meal?
Favourite lengthy meal to create?
Favorutie pizza dough recipe? Mine will probably forever me my pumpkin base, although I love the play-doughy appearance of the beetroot base.

Bye for now folks! Remember to make today a fantastical day! :D

Trying something new :)

Hi everyone! Happy, happy Sunday!

 So true right? ^^
 I feel like time  scampering away at break neck speed and I just can't seem to get everything I want to get done! I blame school. It takes up 7 hours of my day, Monday to Friday and that's not even including the morning- getting ready for school and the afternoon- doing homework for school... no wonder I have no time for life!

But that's just me complaining. If I truly think about it, I'm so grateful I have school and an opportunity for an education which will hopefully lead to a job in my future.

Wow, this was not the kind of post I had in mind! I think I may be going off topic. What was my first clue? The fact that I came onto this little blogging platform to talk to you about buckwheat. Yep.

When I first tried buckwheat... I was not a fan. I don't normally say I hate things, but I really very much disliked this grain. I had it quite plain in an eggy-bake thing-o. It was gross.

So, there has been a bag of buckwheat sitting in my pantry for a while now. I can never bring myself to throw it out because it seems like such a waste... which is sort of ironic because I never even think twice about using it- it's an immediate no.

Something magical was in the air this Sunday morning however, and when I reached into my pantry for my tin of steel cut oats my hand deviated from it's intended path and started patting around for that abandoned bag of buckwheat kernels.

Look at all those benefits! Good job buckwheat! Source

It was an adventurous and daring act on my behalf but I soldiered on pouring about 1/2 a cup into my oat-making saucepan, along with 1/2 banana, 1 scoop choc protein powder, 1 heaped teaspoon raw cacao powder, sprinkle of chia seeds, a few big dashes of cinnamon, 3/4 cup almond milk and 3/4 cup water and then simmered stirring occasionally for 15-20 mins until the liquid was absorbed:

It smelled amazing. Good first sign!

After letting it cool for 5-10 mins, I scooped it into an almost empty jar of my home-made coconut butter along with a cup of banana/ blueberry yoghurt (the other half of banana+ small handful of blueberries + 3 big scoops of greek yoghurt- whazzed up in a small food processor until smooth)

It smelled good, it looked good, I was preeetttyyy hungry- the spoon went into my mouth...

Oh. My. Grape jelly! (Grape jelly is a thing... I just looked it up!)
On first bite I may or may not have sighed in pleasure at the taste of my 'oats'. I did by the way. I sure did!

There's something about the texture of buckwheat that makes my normal chocolate steel cut oat recipe so much more.... fudgier? Decadent? Rich? I dunno, but it was gooood!

I'm not going to lie though, as with all rich things you can only take so much, so it was a bit of a struggle for me to finish that jar (yeh, I know- me!) still I managed to get through it (you can tell I suffer, right?) ;)

And I'm not going to lie about this either- I really, really enjoyed this buckwheat porridge! If you haven't tried buckwheat before I would recommend going the sweet/ breakfast-y/ porridge-y route first because I'm still not sure if I could tolerate this pseudo-cereal on its own (I'll happily stick with plain brown rice and pasta for that!)

I just wish I had tried this buckwheat experiment before my first- I've been missing out for so long! I guess I'll just have to make up for lost time- oh well! ;)

Your turn:
Have you ever tried something, hated it and then tried again in something different and liked it? (I'm so good at asking succinct questions, hey?)
Have you ever tried buckwheat?
Favourite way to eat buckwheat?

Remember to have a lovely Sunday, relish any spare time you have and just have an all-round great day! Bye for now! :D