Birthday celebrations!

Hello, hello everyone! How are we all today on this lovely Sunday?
Me? I'm already pooped- as is the usual case when I've run for 90 minutes and it isn't even 9:00am yet. But happy, healthy and feeling good none the less!

Especially after a filling and delicious breakfast to fuel up my body after said run:

My favourite bowl of steel cut oats with a big side of water!!

Some almond butter was spread around the bowl, then topped with the oats and dolloped with some peanut butter, because, you know, why not? ;)

Delicious!

So as you all have probably figured out by now, I have this thing for cooking. I sorta like it. A lot. I think the hint was in the title of this blog.

The thing that confuses people the most, however, is the fact that even though I'm a vegetarian who doesn't eat added sugar, tries to find alternatives to wheat and consumes zero cow's milk or cheese- I still love making foods with all these things in it. Yes that results in me not eating it- the part that horrifies people.

I cook/ bake/ create because I love to do that- cook/bake/create. Now, I love to eat too, just other things, that make my body feel good.

Therefore what's a girl who loves to bake and loves all things creative going to do when her birthday rolls round? (It's actually tomorrow, though school/ work sort of make it hard to celebrate)

She creates her own birthday cake of course!!

Presenting my 16th birthday cake:

The cake is alternating layers of white chocolate mud cake and dark chocolate mud cake with either a white chocolate ganache between the layers or a dark chocolate ganache.

Around the outside, there's white fondant, a bow made from pink ready-roll icing, smarties, and of course ice cream!

Well the ice cream may have been some more chocolate cake formed into a ball with a little extra melted butter and then covered in blue ready-roll icing, though it looks like ice cream all the same!

With a few sprinkles on top and of course a waffle cone!

Cake decorating is so much fun! (and pretty time consuming too:D)

So, no I did not eat my birthday cake, but I got to make it- which for me is just as good, if not better!

I did eat my celebratory birthday dinner though (which I cooked for myself as well- guys, seriously, I. LOVE. COOKING. This is like a present for me!)

A big plate of roasted veggies with some spinach and garlic tofu!

The veg was pumpkin, swede, beetroot, sweet potato, potato, eggplant, zucchini, red onion, mushrooms and asparagus all roasted in some olive oil with some fresh rosemary (at varying times) and then gobbled up!

A great *early* birthday with family, love and lots of good food!

What about you?
What is your favourite post workout food?
Do you like to cook on your birthday?
Best birthday cake you've ever had?

That's all for today, bye for now folks! Remember- everyday may not be good but there is something good in every day. :D

Love me some lunch!

Happy Friday everyone!
Geeze Louise I am a thirsty monster this morning! No amount of water seems to be able to satisfy me, I must have drunk a few liters by now!! I have been on a run and it is quite hot today.... but still, I drink a glass and then I'm practically gasping for water!

Moving on though because this is not a post about drinking water (however important it is!) this is actually a post about lunch. I like lunch and I feel as though I should write a post about it. So here it is. :)

I will admit that when school returns I will probably enjoy lunch a lot less than now (as I'm on holidays) seeing as I'll have to prepare it at the same time I'm making breakfast and something about chopping and roasting veggies and veggie burgers and tofu and whatever else, just seems wrong with the sweet smell of oats cooking away in a pot on the stove.

So I am trying to make the most of every last day of freedom holidays before returning to school by making delicious, BIG lunches every single day!
 I've enjoyed breakfast for lunch:

Reduced salt baked beans, 2 soft boiled eggs, oven roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, capsicum and brussels sprouts and some rye toast topped with vegemite and mashed avocado.
Mashed in the skin- why dirty up a bowl?

 There is something so amazing about the crunchy-ness of bread paired with the saltiness of vegemite and the creaminess of avocado that makes this perfect little creation taste so good!

 Also oven roasted veggies. That's it. No more needs to be said. ;)

 And eggs. Little treasure troves of delicious golden awesomeness that make my life that extra bit happy. Yes.

 Interesting fact- The word luncheon actually only came about in the 17th century combining the words: lunch. a northern dialect word for hunk of bread or cheese, and nuncheon,a midday snack from Old English.

 This is an oldy but a goodie and you've probably seen it millions of times before.... and probably will again. Millions of times.

 My favourite grilled veggie sammy!

 This one had hommus, spinach, a grilled lentil burger, grilled pumpkin, capsicum, mushrooms and eggplant, with some sliced tomato, all on a mixed grain ciabatta roll and toasted.
Along with all the stuff that didn't fit in the roll:

 Nom.

Oh, there goes another cup of water!
I don't ever remember a time when I've skipped lunch. I've had late lunches and early lunches and small lunches and ginormous lunches but I've always managed to have lunch. Which is great because it is a very important part of our day!

 Home-made veggie burgers (beans, lentils, cumin, ginger, nutritional yeast, garlic, peas, capsicum, tomato, quinoa flakes)

See lunch re-energizes your body and can raise blood sugar levels when focus and concentration are flagging. (One of the many reasons I hate watching my friends skip it at school!) There are heaps of other benefits but I only have so much water near me to keep me going! (I'm seriously starting to worry ;)

 2 home-made grilled veggie burgers atop some spinach, tomato and cucumber with a side of white sweet potato and regular potato wedges.

 Roasted white sweet potato. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Gaaahhhhh.

Topped off with some salsa! Deeelish!

When lunch rolls around today, don't just choose the usual old, boring, un-filling sandwich- mix it up, fill it with colourful vibrant and oh-so-yummy veggies! Snack plates are fun too!

Your thoughts:
Do you ever have days when you're ridiculously thirsty?
What's your favourite thing to make for lunch?
Do you ever skip lunch?

Bye for now friends! Make today great! :D

Colds, oats and the simplest of meals

First of all, I have a question for all the Australian readers out there:
Have you ever been to the Cheesecake Shop and have you ever bought the Jamaican chocolate cheesecake?

The Jamaican Chocolate Cheesecake used to be my sisters birthday cake of choice (with perhaps a little nagging from me) and each year I would savour that thin slither I was given (way to rich for a big chunk) and lock the memory of the rich taste in my mind.

Now I'm guessing not many of you have tried this particular cheesecake, but if you have just take a minute to recall the taste of that extremely rich, decadent and intensely chocolatey, smooth, baked cheesecake.

Got the flavour in your head mouth? Good, because for breakfast this morning I created something that tasted almost exactly the same! (except for the smooth, baked cheesecake texture)

Yes, for breakfast.

Yes, it was super rich.

Yes, it was actually healthy.

This may look like a simple bowl of oats but once that spoon hits your tongue (filled with the oats, preferably) then you will understand my fascination.

 Topped off with some melted coconut butter.... ahhhhhh my tummy is literally singing.

So, if you're feeling something extremely decadent, delicious, healthy and filling for brekky- give this one a whirl!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup (heaped) steal cut oats
1 scoop choc protein powder
2 teaspoons raw cacao powder
A couple of dashes of ground cinnamon
A sprinkle of chia seeds
1 cup milk of choice (I used almond milk)
1 cup water
1/3 cup greek yoghurt
Optional- small handful of cacao nibs
Optional- coconut butter

Method:
1. Place the oats, protein powder, cacao powder, cinnamon and chia seeds in a medium saucepan
2. Pour in the milk and water and stir to combine
3. Place over medium heat and stir occasionally for around 15 minutes (it should bubble away consistently) I added some coconut butter at this stage just to give it some coconutty flavour.
4. If it looks a bit dry and sticky that's fine because now you add in the yoghurt and give it a nice stir together. Again I added a touch more (teaspoon) coconut butter here.
5. Pour into bowl and top with coconut butter.
6. Et voila!

Pretty simple right? And no nasties hiding in there!

 I must say, this was quite rich and I was definitely satisfied after this bowl (I could not eat any more at all!) so my chocolate cravings have been sufficiently silenced.

And that blissful memory of my first spoonful will be with me forever (see how emotional and deep I get with food ;)

For some other news:
My party yesterday went great- lot's of laughter, fun, swimming, games and FOOD!

Also- I have developed a cold. Yay. Which is why I was a bit surprised when I made my delicious cheesecake breakfast because I've been sticking to simple, no fuss meals lately that I always crave when sick. Like last nights dinner:

A baked bean, avocado and hommus jaffle on rye bread, side of peas and corn and two fried eggs on top of some spinach, sliced tomato, avocado and baked beans.
Seriously, this dinner was perfect. It was exactly what I wanted and is without a doubt one of my favourite meals.

 Best part of the meal is always the jaffle!

 Second best= fried eggs. Yum!

Aaaand some soy milk, as I felt like I needed some more protein yesterday after a 90 minute run, a party and a ginormous appetite (yep, even when I'm sick)!
See, when I get sick I only really get sick in my head, my body is still full of beans and felt great running! (trust me I wouldn't have been running for that long if I was dying of the flu!)

So, I think you're all caught up on the life of me and my tummy! :D

Your turn:
Favourite type of cheesecake (flavour etc.)? I must say this was my favourite dessert before my healthy shift.
Favourite type of oats (flavour)?
Favourite meal when sick?

And I'm really just Thinking Out Loud, so head on over to Spoons to see what everyone else is thinking about! :)

See ya later friends! Have a great day! :D

WIAW #41

Hidy-ho friendly friends! What a wonderful Wednesday it is! Maybe take away a few degrees, seeing as it's shaping up to be a 38 degrees clesius (11.4 degrees farenheit) day!!

Why am I complaining though? I love the heat!

It also happens to be my party today! Woop Woop! Pool party to the rescue on a hot Summers day in Australia! There's a pinata, pass the parcel, stick the carrot on the Olaf and a Mad Hatters Tea party set up (if you didn't guess already the entire theme is Disney!) and of course everyone will be in costume (Mad Hatter right here :))

Before I get too excited about the day's happenings I thought I'd share with you an entire day of eats from yesterday in WIAW style! Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for hosting this awesome link-up each week!

Breakfast:
After not one, not two, but three Purely Twins workouts, I splashed my sweating face with water and jumped into the kitchen to make some FOOD!

 2 wholemeal crumpets topped generously with some raw cacao and hazelnut butter and crunchy peanut butter (see I made up for my lack of peanut butter)

 With a green smoothie to wash it all down:

 1 chopped frozen banana + handful of frozen grapes + 3 big scoops of greek yoghurt + dash of LSA mix + sprinkle of chia seeds + juice of half an orange + 2 big handfuls of spinach, all whazzed up together until smooth!

 Smiling crumpet!

 Does anyone else do this:

 Eat around the middle of the crumpet (where all the nut butter is) and leave the best last bites (fuf nut butter) to the end?

Lunch:
After spending the morning shopping for party stuff (cups, plates, pinatas, decorations, food) I made myself a little feast:

 Yes I do have a tendency to eat like a baby with separate bowls for different tastes and textures :)
This bowl had a grilled lentil and veggies burger with roasted potatoes (roasted white, white sweet potato and orange sweet potato) with some spinach:

 Another bowl had some air popped popcorn, plain and delicious!

 And lastly a bowl of raw chopped veg, because raw chopped veg is amazing :)

 Close-up of my favourite bowl from that lunch (trust me, popcorn was a close second!)

 Snack:
As usual my snack of choice was some fruit and soy milk:

 Apple with red grapes:

 Perfect energy boost and some calcium and protein to keep me satisfied:

Dinner:
For dinner I made boiled up some spelt spaghetti, steamed some pumpkin, parsnip, swede and beetroot, pan-fried some tempeh, wilted some spinach and stirred it all together at the end with some tomato and garlic stir-through pasta sauce:

 Yum!

To finish off the day I had 4 brazil nuts and spent the rest of the evening watching some shows with the fam. :)

How about you?
Firstly- do you like crumpets? I love crumpets and don't know what I would do without them?
Secondly- Do you ever just have a series of bowls with different things in them for a meal?
Lastly- Favourite afternoon pick-me-up snack?

Hungry for more? Check out Peas and Crayons for some other link-ups and meal ideas! Make sure you have a fabulous day, no doubt my head will be full of Disney songs by the end of today! Bye for now! :D