WIAW #76 Back to Old Favourites!

Hello there lovely people!

The week is halfway over already, can you believe it!? Where has this year gone?? Any who, I hope you've all had a great week so far, ready to finish it off with a bang- and if not a bang, then atleast with some delicious meals!!

Speaking of, it's Wedensday and on Wednesdays we share a full day of eats! WIAW style!! Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for the creation of this weekly link-up and all the bloggers who participate and allow me to drool over their fantastic eats!

Now onto the FOOOD!

Breakfast: 7:10am
Back into the school routine of up early, brekky early, pre-packed lunches the night before and being super organised!

Holding no negative influence over my breakfasts though- they're still as big and delicious and filling as ever!!

A big bowl of blueberry/banana cheesecake steel cut oats with almond butter and peanut butter spread throughout!

There's nothing like a big bowl of oats to warm your heart!

This was also eaten after a short (but intense!!) blogilates workout- new favourite fitness craze of mine in case you were wondering! Cassey Ho is just so enthusiastic and motivating- half the time I don't even feel like I've been working out for that long because she would have been talking about the weather or something else!! ;)

So these oats were even more enjoyable as a result! (everything tastes better after a hard workout!).

Lunch: 1:40pm
Sorry about the blurry photo, but it was actually the clearest one I got (my camera has been acting up a bit lately) but in that tupperware container was some roasted-night-before cold potatoes and sweet potato (so good!), spinach, lentils and mixed four beans.

This lunch will never get old!

Snack: 4:00pm
When I returned home from school today I was rather ravenous, so I chopped up a granny smith apple and some honey dew and crunched on that with a mug of soy milk to wash it down.

 Homework followed...

Dinner: 6:45pm
Cooking motivation= 0, therefore favourite low-maintenance meal to the rescue!!

 Two boiled eggs with spelt bread toast soldiers (hommus and avocado) and some oven roasted eggplant, capsicum, zucchini and mushrooms rubbed with minced garlic and roasted for around 45 mins at 180 degrees celcius.

 After dinner featured a piece of Lindt Excellence 90% chocolate because I am hooked!! So delicious! :)


Your turn:
Are you a blogilates fan/ have another favourite fitness youtuber?
Do you like to stir greek yoghurt into your cooked oats?
Favourite low-maintenance meal when you just cannot fathom cooking?

I hope you all have a great day, do something you love, do something cool for someone else and if all else fails just smile- you'll feel better for it! Bye for now friendly friends!! :D

Make ahead meatless balls!

Hello friendly friends!

I hope you're all having a lovely week and today I'm going to make your day even better by throwing at you (well, not literally) a tasty recipe for some freezer friendly super tasty bean balls made with lots of sauteed veg in garlic and onion-y goodness!

So, without further ado- here by the recipe!

Sauteed Cabbage and Eggplant Bean Balls!

Ingredients:
1/2 small brown onion, chopped
1/4 medium eggplant, chopped
1 heaped cup shredded cabbage
1 heaped teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup lentils, drained and rinsed
Handful spinach
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
sprinkle of dried chili flakes

Method:
1. Heat the oil and garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat until fragrant:

 2. Add the onion and eggplant and saute for around 5 mins until golden and slightly tender

 3. Add in the cabbage and cook for a further 5 mins until the eggplant is soft and cooked through
4. Place the sauteed veg, beans, lentils, spinach and nutritional yeast and chili flakes into a food processor and process to combine (not too much, you still want some bean and veg chunks for interesting texture!)

5. Stir to combine and then transfer to bowl

 6. Form into balls, wrap in glad wrap and place in freezer until required:

 7. When you want to nom on one of these delicious bean balls, heat up a frypan/ heat up the oven and cook until golden brown on the outside.

I ate mine for lunch with a fresh salad of cucumber, tomato, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, bean sprouts and green capsicum:

And it was delicious!

What about you?
Are you a fan of bean balls?
Favourite add-ins? I love to spice things up with cumin/ coriander/ cinnamon etc.

That's it for today, I hope you have a fabulous day and eat something yummy!! Bye for now friends! :D

The Smoothest Smoothie and Links You'll Love!

Hello and happy Sunday to all you gorgeous people!!
Firstly;  I think I've been using my Vitamix wrong! See, I've been making smoothies that look like this by simply switching the machine on and changing the speed:

Don't get me wrong, they've been amazing and smoothie-like, but I just didn't get why everyone get expressing there love for never having a smoothie so smooth after getting their vitamix's.

Then I simply turned it on the High setting and approximately 3.5 seconds later this happened...

Oh. My. Word.

Hands down, the best smoothie I have ever had in my life.

It was the epitome of the word SMOOTH.

 Sharing similarities with that of soft serve ice cream and light fluffy clouds.

 I just need a moment.

Ok, we're good. But yeah, I found out how to properly make smoothies in the vitamix and now I'm ready for ALL the smoothness!

Into this particular mix was 1 large chopped frozen banana + 1 beautifully ripe chopped frozen mango + 3 big scoops greek yoghurt + 3/4 cup water- whazzed together (on high) until SUUUPER smooth!

Eaten alongside some peanut butter truffles (3/4 cup rolled oats + 1/4 cup oat bran + sprinkle chia seeds + 1 teaspoon cinnamon + 1 1/2 tablespoons PB +1/3 cup almond milk- PB and almond milk heated in microwave for 30 seconds before stirring into oats etc.- placed in freezer for 20 mins to firm up)

Smoothie thick enough to need a spoon- just the way I like it :)

 Also great for dipping:

So very full right now :)

Alrighty, so that was brekky!

Now onto some awesome links from the week that was!!

Links:

Food:

Extra Thick Sweet Potato Hot Chocolate (Paleo, Vegan & Gluten-Free)

No Bake Carrot Cake Protein Bars (Paleo, Vegan, Gluten Free)

Fudgy Adzuki Bean Brownies with Coconut Whip

Homemade Puy Lentil and Mushroom Vegan Sausages

Dairy-Free No Churn Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream

Maple Cashew Coconut Fudge Squares (Raw, Paleo, Vegan)

Fitness:

The Right Way to Get the Abs You Really Want For Summer

Even When It’s Hard to Run, You Should Run

How Lazy Ladies Can Get the Perfect Body

Health:

7 Foods To Eat For Your Best Complexion Ever

How to Feel Less Bloated by the End of the Day

POP Songs in REAL LIFE when Losing Weight is Hard

Funny:

17 Brilliant Things That’ll Keep You From Ever Having To Share

17 Snacks That Do A Convincing Impression Of Fries

I hope you have a fun/relaxing/enjoyable rest of your Sunday, ready to tackle another great week! Bye for now friends!! :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