A breakfast recap

Hello everyone!
On this blog, I've said a few times how I'm not a creature of habit, I like to mix things up and rarely have the same thing two days in a row and I'm not lying, however I do seem to have a sort of breakfast rotation starting to happen for some reason, with all of my favourites appearing once in my week.
What's on my rotation?

• A big bowl of oats (rolled/steel cut/ oat bran)
• A PB & banana toastie
• A smoothie with a wholemeal crumpet & nut butter
• Overnight oats (generally in a jar)
• And of course my beloved smoothie bowls

So it may come as a surprise to you to see what kinds of breakfasts appeared in my hot little hands last week...

A wholemeal crumpet with peanut butter!

Smoothie= nudie juice plus some black grapes :)

The next day I did something totally wild and made...

A smoothie bowl!
The smoothie was 1 frozen banana, half a chopped deliciously ripe mango, 3 big scoops of greek yoghurt, a big handful of spinach, a big handful of kale and a splash of almond milk, all whazzed up until smooth:

Topped with some cashew butter granola (1 tablespoon of cashew butter placed in the microwave with 1/3 cup almond milk for 30 seconds- stir then rubbed into 1/2 cup fruity muesli, spread onto baking paper lined tray and baked in oven at 180 degrees celsius for 15 mins)

Then of course made even prettier when I began to actually eat it:

Seriously though, smoothie bowls are just so fabulous, why would I take them off my weekly rotation?

I wouldn't :)

Ok, so you may not have been shocked by my first two breakfasts, but buckle in, this one is so unpredictable...

Ok, I lied again. Smoothie + OIAJ! (oats in a jar)
Now guys, this may have been the best smoothie I have ever made. I don't even know what I did differently, but it was super big, super yummy and just plain- SUPER!

Same recipe as above just with frozen mango, instead of not frozen and a tad more yoghurt I think?

Just admire the smoothie's beauty for a second.

Good admiring people. Of course the oats were great too. Based off this recipe and chucked into an almost empty jar of almond butter! Best bowl ever!

So what's in store for next weeks breakfasts? I'm not sure, it could be anything, I could have a complete personality change and have scrambled eggs and toast or a croissant (don't really like croissants though) or hash browns. Although I could be the exact same Steph and end up having the relatively similar stuff listed above (I always mix up the flavours) and the smoothie bowls will be going now where... especially now that I've re-stocked my frozen fruit supply:

 Bring on the yummies!

Tell me:
Do you love breakfast? It just so happens to be my favourite meal of the day :)
Do you often have the same thing every day?
Are you a sweet/ savoury breakfast eater? I am definitely a sweet, fruity kinda brekky girl, however every once in a blue moon I get the craving for the toast and eggs!

Ciao for now! :D

Eggplant Parmigiana!

Hello sunny citizens! (or should I just stick with happy people... I don't know, sunny citizens sounds cooler :)
Question:
Who likes parmigiana?
Unsure of what it is (really?) here is the definition:

Parmigiana is an Italian dish made with a shallow or deep-fried sliced filling, layered with cheese and tomato sauce, then baked.

I've always liked parmigiana, but only ever had my mum's veal parmigiana. I sort of didn't know it could be made with anything else until my big sister cooked chicken parmigiana one night for the family.

I became intrigued and did some research on the infamous Italian dish (now considered 'pub grub'). Apparently you can used pretty much everything as long as it's topped off with some sauce and cheese! Another thing that caught my eye was all the eggplant parmigiana recipes, so I decided to give it a crack.

Get ready for a super quick, easy, vegan, healthy and DELICIOUS eggplant parmigiana! 

 Oh, yes :)

To make this super simple, yet sensational dish, you will need:

Ingredients:

1 eggplant (as big as you like/ small, depending on amount of people your serving- to serve two I would use 1 big eggplant)

Tomato paste (again buy a tub/ squeezy bottle so you have enough for the amount your making- I used 1 sachet of tomato paste for 1 person)

Dried oregano & basil (to your taste)

Vegan cheese (1 quantity serves 1, so double/triple/quadruple quantities if necessary)

Cracked black pepper for top

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a tray with baking paper.

2.Slice eggplant into 1cm thick rounds, place on tray and bake for 15 mins

3. Meanwhile make the vegan cheese (stirring the hommus, nutritional yeast and water together in a small bowl) and in another bowl stir the tomato paste and herbs together

4. Once the eggplant has been baking for 15 mins, remove from oven, spread on with a spoon the tomato paste, followed by the 'cheese' and then some cracked black pepper:

5. Return to oven for a further 15 mins, or until cheese is golden and bubbling. Remove from oven and leave to cool slightly before digging in!

I absolutely love making these for when I'm on the go and need dinner to come with me as I like them even better cold and they're pretty easy to pick up and eat. I seriously love the eggplant skin around the edges, as it goes all crispy and delicious after baking and the eggplant itself- hello creamy love!

So there you go- super simple, super healthy (healthiest parmigiana I've ever seen) and super super yummy! Definitely give this one a go guys!

And you?
Do you like parmigiana?
What's your favourite type?
Do you like eggplant? See, I never really used to like eggplant, but I think that was because I'd only had it steamed into a flavourless goop and didn't realise it could taste so good fried up/ mashed into baba ganoush/ grilled into a veggie sandwich/ made into this tasty dish!

I hope you have a nice and relaxing Sunday!

Catch ya later! :D

Sunset obsessions

 Happy Saturday friends! How has yours been so far?
I, for one, woke up HUUNGGRRYYY! I think I will blame my 6-7pm hockey game, where I only brought with me some roasted veggies for tea afterwards... 12 hours later and the tummy was ready for food!
Enter breakfast:

(Photos taken on my ipad, as my real camera's memory card was in the computer loading up my many pictures of food for the blog ;)
This breakfast was some vanilla protein baked oatmeal:

Made with 1/2 cup rolled oats + some fibre mix (like LSA) + chia seeds + BIG dash of cinnamon + scoop of vegan vanilla protein powder + some chopped mixed raw nuts, all placed in a saucepan with 3/4 cup almond milk and bubbled away until majority of liquid was absorbed- then poured into a ramekin dish and baked in oven (180 degrees celsius) for 20 mins.

Whilst my oatmeal was baking I whazzed together 1 banana and 2 big very ripe strawberries and placed in the freezer:

 Like a fruit puree but better :)
Once oatmeal was done I popped it into a bowl, mashed it up a bit...

And topped it with some brazil, almond and cashew mix nut butter:

 Goodness me I much prefer my proper cameras photos over these ones! Here, just for your viewing pleasure:

A pretty picture of food!
This brekky (plus a few extra sneaky grapes) did the trick of filling my tum and now I'm ready to tackle the day... but first can we talk about sunsets?

'Steph, you're weird.'

 'World, I know :)'

Spring and Summer are definitely the best times for sunsets. They happen later so you can enjoy them after dinner for a walk or a sit outside and they are 10 x prettier with wisps of pinks and oranges and reds magically dancing across the sky. (I should be a writer, hey?)

Apparently I seem to not only have an obsession with watching sunsets, I also have an obsession with snapping pics of them, as I discovered scrolling through my recent pics.

I mean seriously- are sunsets not the most prettiest things you've ever seen? Apart from sun rises. I love both of them so much!

I think that's why I secretly go to bed relatively early, so I can be awake for the sunrises and sunsets- double dose of happiness! :)

Ok, now I'm off to go do some grocery shopping (and secret Santa shopping!)

Does your ipad/iphone/phone/whatever else take good pics?
Are you often starving in the morning after a small dinner?
Are you obsessed with sunsets?

Catch ya later! :D

My thoughts on protein powder- Thinking Out Loud

Hello friendly friends and welcome to another Thinking Out Loud Thursday! What's on my mind today? Protein powder for some reason!

Do you use protein powder?
Do you not like the idea of using protein powder?
Do you think protein powder tastes like chalk? (just wondering- I've heard it been said before)

If you read my blog, you know I use protein powder. Vegan protein powder. This one to be exact:

I love the ingredients list:

Vanilla being my flavour of choice, although I do like the chocolate flavour too. (You see, here in Australia, we don't get cool flavours like pumpkin pie, cookie dough, strawberry milkshake.. etc. We get chocolate, vanilla or no flavour. Yes.)

There's a big debate about protein powder. On one side there are people who drink it daily after workouts to feed there muscles and help in recovery or simply drink it because they don't much like meat/ are vegan / vegetarian  and then there are those who believe you can get all the protein needed from whole natural foods- even if you train everyday or are vegan/ vegetarian.

I hear both sides and agree with both too. I guess that's a weird thing to say and is actually impossible.. but I do.

Here's my opinion (remember everyone has their own :)

I believe it is possible to get enough protein from natural everyday foods whether you are a body builder, vegan, vegetarian and so on.

I believe protein powder is a handy tool for those who may need extra protein but are short on time/ energy.

I believe there are good and bad types of protein powder (more heavily processed and full of sugar vs organic + more natural types)

I believe the inclusion of protein powder in the diet can be very helpful.

I believe protein powder should not be the only source of protein in your diet. It should not supplement meals etc.

I do not believe protein powder is a food group and if it is used as one, I can't see the benefits.

To sum it up, I don't see protein powder as either a bad guy or a good guy, I just see him as a guy who can help a brother out when needed.

I use protein powder. I like the taste of protein powder. I find protein powder quite helpful.
I would say I have protein powder about 2-3 times a week. Not every day, just on days when I feel like I need a little extra protein boost, because I'm constantly on the run/ don't have much time to plan my meals and so they may be lacking in the protein department- never usually the veggie department though ;)

A big bowl of roast veggies.

I don't just shake it up with some water though... I make the most of the yummy flavour it provides.
For example:

In vanilla berry ice cream:

Brekky protein balls:

Mixed into my rolled oats:

Made into chocolate cheesecake ice cream:

Perhaps my favourite of all, the extremely thick chocolate green smoothie:

So that's my thinking on this matter... out loud of course!
Don't forget to head on over to the wonderful Spoons for some more Thinking of the Out Loud variety and a chance to find new blogs and inspirational words of wisdom!

Thoughts, questions and queries always welcome!

See ya later! :D

WIAW #33- Simple, yet delicious!

Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday! Happy yet? ...

How about now? Good :) You have to be in a good mood, especially when scrolling through endless pictures of food! (well that usually puts me in a good mood anyway:)

Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for such a brilliant link-up each week!

Let's see some eats!

Breakfast:
After a lovely 20-or-so minute run (don't really track the time) and a date and a fig as my pre-run snack, I had breakfast!

Which consisted of a smoothie made of 1 chopped frozen banana, 3 big scoops of greek yoghurt, a scoop of organic vegan vanilla protein powder, a handful of spinach and a splash of almond milk:

Drank alongside some overnight oats in a jar:

I simply filled up half the jar with fruity muesli and chia seeds and topped almost to the top with almond milk, stirred and put in the fridge overnight

Nom.

Peek-a-boo inside:

Spoonshot:

Snack:
Unfortunately I didn't believe my half a carrot was worthy of a photo. Just kidding- I forgot ;P

Lunch:
Lunch was simple- yet utterly delicious (it was what I was craving so it tasted 10 000 x better) with brown rice, mixed four beans, peas, corn, sliced tomato, green and red capsicum and spinach:

Some times my body just screams for simple, plain flavours and veggies... and I love it :)

Snack:
My afternoon snack consisted of a glass of soy milk:

A plate of fruit (delicious sweet white flesh peach and black seedless grapes)

Ergo- fruit and soy milk! :)

Dinner:
For din-dins, I was still in my simple, plain flavours mood and made myself a plate of steamed veggies (pumpkin, sweet potato, potato, parsnip, brocoli, baby asparagus and brussels sprouts) and two poached eggs topped with some salsa:

I never seem to have a problem with filling half my plate with veggies- my problem seems to be squishing all the veggies to the side so I can fit something else on the plate!

After dinner I had a small handful of nuts (I'm always super hungry on run days) and was nicely satisfied! :)
That's what I ate!

How about you?
What did you eat this Wednesday?
Do you sometimes crave simple, plain foods? This tends to happen on a pretty regular basis for me!
Do you like poached eggs with salsa? I seem to love this combo!

Bye for now folks! :D