Suggestions .. :)

Happy Saturday everyone! Who's pumped for the weekend? ME ME ME!
It's been a loooooonnnggg week (even though it seemed to fly??) long in the sense that I am completely wiped out and need a break!

I seem to find that during busy times like now, my brain is worked extra hard and as a result all creativity and motivation to try new things leaves me and I stick to a repetitive routine day in day out. Wake up, eat brekky, go to school, come home from school, do homework, have a bath/shower, cook dinner, watch TV.

Same goes for my cooking. I resort back to old favourites that I know will taste good and that I've made so many times I could cook them in my sleep (I wouldn't be surprised if I did- stress can do strange things to a person ;)

So as I was munching (not really munching seeing as it was warm, mushy oats and a smoothy- more like.. swallowing?) my way through breakfast, I felt a little spark of creativity jump throughout my brain, whispering tiny little ideas that I just couldn't make out- but I knew I wanted to do some creating!!

 Oats + pumpkin seeds + dried cranberries + chia seeds all mixed together with some coconut butter and almond milk heated in the microwave and left to sit (and absorb) for around 10 mins.

 The smoothie was simply 1 chopped frozen banana + 1 chopped frozen plum (extra juicy!!) + 3 big scoops greek yoghurt + 1 handful of spinach + 1 handful of kale + 1/4 cup water- whazzed!

 I had no mental power to think of a new smoothie idea, or fancy oat creation, I simply got up after a lovely sleep in (7:00am! :) and a quick Purely Twins workout, followed by a nice long plank (emphasis on the word nice of course ;) and then strode into the kitchen not overly hungry (I did have a pretty big dinner last night... but still- that was like 12 hours ago!!) in the mood for simple.

 The oats and smoothie hit. the. spot. So glad I made up a big batch of coconut butter! Oh how I've missed it!

 So, anyways, I was sitting outside with my crazy friend Ash, enjoying my simple breakfast when numerous recipe ideas started flowing through my brain.
I was beyond delighted.

Second thing running through my brain- where are you going to find the time for all that recipe creating/ testing/ photographing etc.

Good question, brain. Good question.

The answer is simple- make the recipe creations for said meal, photograph meal, eat meal- it'll take pretty much the same amount of time as my normal meal prep and create normally does.

Wanna know some of the ideas flowing through my brain? Maybe you can give me a heads up as to which ones you want to see happening sooner rather than later!

All these are going to be 'healthified/ Stephified' versions of the originals, filled with quirky ingredients but still tasting absolutely fabulous!

1. I have a cooking blow torch from a recipe involving meringue that I haven't used in a while, so I was thinking making a vegan version of a creme brulee sort of thing?

2.  I just bought a bag of frozen raspberries and would love to have a crack at a raspberry cheesecake with granola crust (for breakfast of course!)

3.With said raspberries- I also want to make some coconut, lemon, raspberry muffins- Y.U.M!

4. I was also thinking about creating a peanut noodle stir-fry with tofu- sounds pretty good to me right now!

5. I'm also thinking a new version of pizza crust is in order (mainly because I'm craving pizza ;) so maybe I'll do some weird pizza thing)like a pizza pocket, or a Middle Eastern style pizza (I'm thinking middle eastern spiced base too with some eggplant, chickpeas, olives and lots of other toppings finished off with some greek yoghurt- sounds good!


So let me know what you think- what you want to see first on the blog and if you have any other recipe requests for me- I'm all ears!

Your turn:
Do you resort back to old favourites when you're time poor/ stressed/ have used your brain too much on other stuff?
Favourite simple breakfast?
Which recipe should I create first?

Well, this was a wordy post! Any who I hope you all have a fabulous Saturday, relax (or get busy, if Saturday's are busy days for you!) and remember to take a moment and just SMILE :) Bye for now friendly friends!! :D

Thinking Out Loud on a budget!

Happy Thursday friends! As usual this is a day dedicated to Thinking Out Loud, thanks to the wonderful Spoons who creating the TOL link-up!!

On my mind today? Eating well... without the superfood price tag...

I was thinking back to Tuesday's post about stress and nutrition when I realised the common thought process of most people when upping the nutritional content of their diets is to include all of those new-fandangle super foods that boast so many amazing benefits and health properties that will cure you of anything.

Now, I'm not a super food hater, and in fact have many so-called 'super foods' hanging around inside my cupboard at this very moment (looking at you quinoa, chia seeds and goji berries- which FYI I'm not the biggest fan of and much prefer sultanas :)

So, yes 'super foods' can be really great, however what's more important is making sure you're overall diet is full of fresh wholesome, natural, straight from the earth foods that will truly nourish your body. I don't care how many goji bears you can stuff in your mouth, them alone are not going to make you feel as good as a lifestyle full of fruits veggies and all the other good stuff will!

Also- super foods are expensive! Should we really be forking out all our grocery budget to a third of our usual trolley size when in actual fact some of the cheapest products are jam-packed full of essential nutrients?

Recently I've been following a weekly budget and for the first time am having to consider every item I toss into my trolley (I do my own separate shopping to mum- why should she have to go out and buy all of my food?) Scanning every bar code and jumping for joy at every sale. I've some to realise that many of the foods I purchased before I started on this budget were relatively cheap anyway and made me feel great too!

To give you a picture of what I mean:

A typical lunch plate of mine. Filled with cheap roasted veg (pumpkin, potato and white sweet potato) as well as roasted brussels sprouts and brocoli, with a side of hommus (on special- you can also make your own for next to nothing!) some fresh veg (also very cheap- celery, capsicum and cherry tomatoes) and some air popped popcorn (another fav of mine, simply place some popcorn kernels in a bowl, top with a plate and microwave for 2:30- air popped popcorn!)

You may notice no ancient never-heard-of-before grain, or no magical berry but instead lots of delicious fresh foods that leave our bodies nourished and packed full of vitamins and minerals!

So- fruits and veg- relatively cheap and full of so many good nutrients- a must on my grocery list.
As for grains- brown rice, wholemeal pasta, cous cous, wholemeal crumpets, wholemeal wraps- they're are all pretty cheap! And stacked with fiber and protein- yes please!

Another cheap dinner of mine with some roasted veg (pumpkin, beetroot, parsnip and potato), spinach (family pack... cheaper and makes me use more spinach!) and a torn up veggie burger (so easy to make from scratch and relatively cheap to buy too!)

Wrapped up in a wholemeal wrap and toasted in a sandwich press:

My other tricks?
Instead of buying super expensive jars of nut butter that contain around 3 servings (well for me any way!) I sometimes look out for sales on big bags of raw nuts and then whip up my own in a food processor. I do the same with coconut butter as well (because that stuff is expensive! And a big bag of dessicated coconut is only around $3 :)

And we all know the best way to eat nut butter (other than straight form the jar with a spoon/ finger ;)

Can't get enough this banana + nut butter sandwich at the moment!

Now these are just a few of my little food loves I fall back on when life gets hectic, busy, low on cash ;) and I need an extra boost (nutrition is the answer guys!!) I'm sure I have a stack of other ideas and cheap food additions but my brain is fried from a day of SCHHOOOOOLLLL :) Why, math, do I need to work out the equation of a circle... and then move it 2 units to the right??

Your turn:
What is your favourite cheap 'super food'?
Ever add in some extra nutrients when you're not feeling your most sparkly?
Do you make your own nut butter? If so- favourite combo?

That's it from me today folks! Don't forget to head over to Spoons to see what everyone else is thinking about this fine Thursday! Bye!! :D

WIAW #56 What I eat when I NEED FOOD!

Hello, hello friendly faces!
It's that time of the week again! The time where the week is halfway through, my brain is fried once more with wonderful chemistry calculations and maths problems and I'm in the mood for some pictures of food!

As always thanks to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for linking this awesome weekly link-up and now lets party! WIAW style (with a full day of Tuesday eats- my busiest day of the week! :)

Pre- breakfast: 6:30am
Up and at-em' at 6:00am to be ready for cross country training before school by 7:00am, stuffing a banana in my mouth to make sure I get through the grueling hour of hard running/ easy pace exercises for an hour.

Forgot a picture of my banana. It was yellow and bendy. Good?

My early mornings mean I also have to prep brekky for after training and my recess and lunch for school:

Line up of Tupperware!

Breakfast: 8:00am

After training (and sweating and dying :) I inhaled these delicious choc protein balls that I made the night before and stuck in the freezer (hence the icicles)

In the mix was some rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, 2 chopped dates, 1 scoop choc protein powder, 1 teaspoon choc flax & berries powder- all mixed together. Then combined with some slightly heated peanut butter (1 HEAPED tablespoon) and some almond milk. So GOOD!

Snack: 11:00am

A little pot of peas. My obsession with peas hasn't -and I suspected will never- go away. Yummy little peas :)
Lunch: 1:40pm
Luckily for me I also had PE today so that was lovely on my legs :)
Luckily I had a delicious lunch to tuck into before my stomach decided it was hungry enough to eat itself:

Also prepped the night before: A quinoa salad with oven roasted eggplant, mushrooms, capsicum and zucchini, rubbed with garlic and paprika, some chili tofu and baby spinach leaves.

Very tasty and filling!
Snack: 4:00pm
Before rushing off to a flute lesson I quietened the growl in my stomach once more with a chopped fuji apple and a mug of soy milk:

Dinner: 6:45pm
By dinner the stomach was at it again and I was also really craving a baked sweet potato with coconut butter (I feel like I haven't had this in yonks!). However I didn't have any coconut butter... and wasn't sure how coconut oil would taste instead... Luckily I had a big bag of dessicated coconut!!

Coconut + food processor+ a heck of a long time whazzing in the bathroom with the door closed (and me in the kitchen doing other stuff) = COCONUT BUTTER! (If you want a better tutorial, please visit this page :)

Perfect!
Even better when it's poured into a what-was-once-Mexican-salsa jar ;)

Baked sweet potato:

Take a look at all that sweet potato sugar splurging out! :)

Some homemade baked beans (onion- caramelised with some olive oil + capsicum, tomato, then adding in some red kidney beans and no-added-salt tomato paste= deliciousness!)

 Some oven roasted broccoli (I steam it first then place in the oven (180 degrees celsius) for 20 mins)
And a small bowl of greek yoghurt:

I was pretty hungry if you can't tell!

I was still not 100% satisfied after dinner so I had a small handful of walnuts to round out the day- yum:)
A day in the life of my stomach!

What about you?
What do you bring for breakfast if you won't be at home? portability is kinda tricky for most of my brekky favourites.
Favourite packed lunch?
Favourite after dinner snack? I always find either some raw nuts, greek yoghurt or glass of soy milk seem to stop the hunger pangs for good after dinner.

Still hungry for more? Check out what everyone else has been eating over at peas and Crayons! Have a great day friendly friends, eat something yummy and smile :D Bye!!

Stress and Nutrition

Hi, my name is Stephanie and I'm a stress-head.
Probably one of the biggest stress-heads you'll ever meet.
Yep.

And currently I'm going through one of the top ten most stressful times of our entire lives. My final years of school.
So when I noticed a headline article on a healthy living magazine about stress and the affect it can have on our body I became more than a little intrigued and decided to research more about this. Here are some things I found about the despised stress monster:

• Stress can decrease nutrient absorption
• Can increase nutrient excretion
• Can affect how the body uses the nutrients

Now I'm no medical student/ dietician/ expert in any way shape or form (unless being a stress-controlled being my entire life counts? ;) So I'm not going to try and explain how the heck stress can affect our nutrient balances/ storage/ usage. Instead I wanted to talk about how I'm trying to use my diet to maximise my nutrition through a time that will no doubt leave me pulling at my hair every now and then!

First and foremost I don't have a drastic change in my diet when I know a stressful period is coming up. I don't need the added stress of my body freaking out over a whole-new way of eating (for example becoming paleo- I don't think my vegetarian body would cope) instead I try adding things in to what I'm already eating just to add a bit more bang for my buck nutrition wise.

Exhibit A: Chia seeds
They may seem small and insignificant, but they pack a mighty punch nutrients wise and the fact that they are so small and insignificant means I can literally chuck them in anywhere and not notice them:

Smoothies:

 Oats:

Pancakes:

 Exhibit B: Lentils
I think I can/ have added lentils to just about anything. They may be little but they are super nutritious packed with fiber, folate, iron protein- the list goes on!
I pop some drained and rinsed lentils into lasagnes, curries, soups, stews, nachos, salads and even sandwiches!

Tacos:

 And finally...
Exhibit C: Spinach/ kale
I know this one seems kind of obvious but I can unquestionably feel a difference when I up my intake of these dark leafy greens. If I feel like I'm going under the weather or just lacking in something I'll chuck a handful of either of these into whatever I'm cooking. And when I say whatever I'm cooking:

I mean whatever I'm cooking!

Those were just a few of the examples of common foods I up in my diet when times get stressful and I know my body needs extra help. Nutrition is so important to stay on top of when times get busy/ stressful, even though it can fall swiftly to the bottom of our priorities list- it will make =life so much easier if we nourish our bodies with the whole/ healthy/ delicious foods it craves.

Your turn:
Are you a stress head?
Do you ever enhance your diet when you're going through a stressful period of life?
Spinach in smoothies? Yay/ nay? I am a super yay for this one! So easy to include so many nutrients!

Well that's it from me today folks, I hope you all have a fabulous day, don't stress too much! Bye for now!! :D