Sunday Link-a-licious

Hello folks! Happy, happy, happy Sunday (three happy's because Sunday's are nice :)
I hope you have something lovely planned for today (or absolutely nothing planned which makes today lovely!)
As for me, the past few days have left me with a funny back (hello spasms, you guys are fun. Especially when I have no clue when you'll hit!) and was told to rest until the cross country carnival on Thursday. However I woke up this morning and just felt stiff... but not in bad pain... and my body was telling me that a run would feel good.

Now I was pretty apprehensive about this, don't get me wrong. I have in the past made myself exercise just because I think I should (even when my body thinks I shouldn't) so I went about putting on my running gear nice and slowly and stretching up for a bit. Then I decided to just give it a little go, stepped onto the treadmill with my trusty iPad full of good blog reads I'd missed from my hectic school week and took it slow.

I was right guys! I didn't go fast, or push myself too hard, but it was what my body seemed to need to stretch out the little aches and stiffness that had resulted from me being cautious because of the spasms. 30 minutes at a slow pace, reading some great blog posts- that's what I call a great start to Sunday! It also made me realise how in tune we can be with our bodies- and that truly excites me! :)

Almost as much as a great breakfast!

I picked up this bad boy out grocery shopping yesterday because I'd heard mixed review about carob, but wanted to give it a shot (compare it to cacao etc.)
I was kind of hesitant when I smelled it after opening because it smelled pretty sweet and strange.. but mixed into rolled oats with a sliced banana, cinnamon and some almond milk and then at the end some greek yoghurt and I was one happy camper!

Served in an almost empty jar of peanut butter for extra awesome-ness!

It definitely didn't taste like the rich darkness of raw cacao powder but I must say raw carob powder is pretty good :)

And because it's Sunday I have some links for you- posts/ recipes/ sights that have intrigued me over the week and hopefully will intrigue you too!

Food:
My Cantaloupe Fro-yo!!

No bake peanut butter cocoa puff fudge marshmallow protein treats

Healthy No Bake Triple Peanut Butter Bars

Easy Vegan Peanut Butter Mug Cake

Meet Noémie's Beetroot Burgers with Avocado Sauce

Home-made nut and seed butter

Gourmet Chia Seed Pudding (from scratch!)

Fitness:

Learn to Breathe Better While Running

Figure Out Your Stomach Troubles (for long runs)

The best workouts to do while reading

Five Tips For Adapting How You Train for Shorter Races

Feeling stressed? These exercises will make your anxiety disappear

15 of the best things that can happen to you during a run

Learn to breathe better while running

Learn to Breathe Better While Running

Learn to Breathe Better While Running

Learn to Breathe Better While Running

Fun/Good/ Insightful reads:

WIAW: do what matters

5 Healthy Foods to Eat Every Day

Giving Up Exercise: The Science

Easy Healthy travel snacks

 

If Disney Princesses Swapped Hairstyles- Ahh, this one made me laugh so much :)

Well that's it from me today- again I hope you have a wonderful day filled with wonderful things, eat something delicious, and just take a moment to take in life currently- I really need to work on being in the moment!! Bye friends! :D

CANTALOUPEEE!!

I LOVE SATURDAYS!
As you may or may not have already guessed. I get the feeling that I start most of my Saturday posts out like that ^.
Any who, I love them and I hope you do too!

One of the main reasons I've come to have a deep, loving and real relationship with Saturday (seriously, we're like start-crossed lovers.... star crossed because a person can never truly be with a day... alas we are dooooomed! Ok, back to reality ;) is the long and luxurious morning to make something for breakfast and not be rushed to whip it up and scoff it down. To spend time with my belly in deciding what it feels like eating and then taking my own sweet time to create it.

This morning? The lemon/oatmeal combo just sounded too good once again! So into the saucepan went around 1/3 cup oat bran + 1/2 banana + 3/4 cup almond milk + 1/4 cup water + 1/2 lemon rind + 1 teaspoon lemon juice + 1/4 vanilla bean seeds scraped (sub in a drop of vanilla essence)

With some crunchy peanut butter on the bottom, in the middle and on top for even coverage!
But that wasn't all folks! Ohhhh no!
I was mindlessly peering into the freezer for some inspiration for this morning's fro-yo (tummy wanted yoghurt!) and noticed the snap lock bag with some beautifully ripe chunks of cantaloupe inside. Oh yes.

Into my mini food processor went a few chunks + the other half of banana:

Whazzed up slightly before adding in 3 big scoops of greek yoghurt and whazzing until smooth:

I made this before the oat bran so it could  set slightly in the freezer while the lemon-y oats cooked.

My super-super delicious breakfast:

Seriously though, my tummy was fairly impressed- good job Saturday morning, good  job.

That was one of the better aspects of the morning (not that the morning was bad in any means!) but I did have a chiropractic appointment to work out some of these funny back spasms I've been getting lately (Chiro thinks it's the beach running with cross country training at school- I agree!!) and then mum and I spent a ridiculous amount of time at the bank waiting to transfer some actual cash into my bank account (soo many people!)

But this cantaloupe fro-yo made up for all of that (even before all of that happened!)

Creamy, smooth, flavoursome, delicious!

And lemon oat bran is where it's at now-a-days:

Happy Days!

What about you?
Did your Saturday start with something delicious? What was it?
Do you prefer Saturdays or Sundays? For some reason I'm more of a Saturday fan... maybe because Sunday is closer to Monday? ;)
Ever put frozen cantaloupe in something?

That's it from me today folks. I hope everyone has a fabulous day- do something you love doing, enjoy yourself, smile and tell someone a compliment- it just might make their day! Bye friends!! :D

Just another picture of the cantaloupe fro-yo for your enjoyment :)

Thinking Out Loud- A look at life :)

Hi friendly friends! Today for Thinking Out Loud Thursday I thought I would have a deeper look into my life currently- because life changes all the time and my current life seems pretty hectic! In other words, I thought it would be funny to present my life to you in the form of TOL- thanks to Spoons for this awesome link-up!

'Ok, so today is Thursday which mean I've got to prep breakfast and lunch for tomorrow this afternoon as I have cross country on Friday and I also need to whip something up for tonight to take to acrobatics however I need to make sure I'll have enough containers and what can I make that will be portable...' 

^Welcome to my brain^

At this current stage in my life I have found myself in the position of having to make around 80% of my meals portable...

Pre-breakfast on the way to cross country training:

And so the current state of my brain is constantly thinking about what meal I need to prep for the next day in order to have food in my belly when I need it!

'Man this banana with nut butter is so good! Why have I never thought of doing this before? Uh oh, spent too long photographing my banana and nut butter- eat Steph, EAT!'

'Just one more, I didn't get it on this angle!' :)

There has never been a time in my life where I've had so many different sized containers to bring around with me until now...

'Breakfast- done. Snack- done. Lunch- done! BOOM Steph you're a machine!'

'Ok, time to relax. Haha good joke Steph, you're a funny guy girl!'Now what in foods name am I gonna pre-prepare for dinner?? Wait, what have I even eaten today? Did I make that salad for today or yesterday. Or was that for tomorrow? Meh- I feel like a veggie mash- I wonder if that would taste good cold?'

Sometimes I get pretty random and creative in what I consider an easily portable meal. I'm sure not many people would think of a big veggie mash!

This was some steamed pumpkin, parsnip, beetroot and swede, mashed up with some falafel:

'Ahh, look at that yummy baby food. Lol, it's ok, only mum will see me eat this ;)'

My other favourite foods to prepare would be roasted veg but sometimes there just ain't no time in the day to roast up some pumpkin- so mash it is!

'Ok, pre-breakfast, breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner- DONE! I hope no body needs any containers! :)'

So that is a typical day with my brain in regards for food prepping! Fun times, right? It is interesting to look at my life now and then look back later when I might have all the time in the world- or even less time and think to myself- 'Wow, life changes all the time!'

Your turn:
Does your current life leave you having to prepare meals ahead of time/ days?
Favourite portable meals?
Ever make weird meals when you know it's just you/ someone you know really well that will see you eat it?

Once again, big thanks to Amanda for hosting this awesome link-up- be sure to head on over to see what everyone else is Thinking about. Have a fabulous rest of your day guys and make sure to do something you love! Bye for now!! :D

WIAW #57 Flash back style!

Hello! Happy Wednesday everyone!!

Last week as I was scrolling through the weeks WIAW posts I came across one about comparing. Now, comparing is something WIAW is NOT about- however this was a clever post that used WIAW pictures they had taken from the same time last year to compare to their eats this year! I thought it seemed kind of cool and so why not give it a go myself?

So below is a snapshot into a typical day of eating for me (Monday) with a typical snapshot of eating from this time last year... 

I wonder what has changed!

Breakfast:

This time last year I was up bright and early (bright as in itch black and early) with a delicious big green smoothie:

With frozen banana + lots of spinach + scoop vanilla protein powder + spoonful of nut butter + raw oats + cinnamon + oat milk- all whazzed together until smooth and creamy dreamy!

(I seemed to like extreme close-ups??)

This time- this year ;) was quite amusing... it was another green smoothie!

This one was 1 frozen banana + 1 handful chopped frozen pineapple + 1 handful kale + 1 handful spinach + 3 scoops greek yoghurt + splash of water- whazzed until smooth!

Enjoyed with two toasted whole wheat crumpets spread generously with crunchy peanut butter :)

Super tasty and super filling- my kind of breakfast!

Lunch:
I'm a bit jealous of last years lunch because it looks pretty tasty:

 

Quinoa, steamed pumpkin, cherry tomatoes, lentils.... and a BERRY SAUCE!?! (Boy do I miss my random/creative days ;) It was literally just some frozen berries heated on the stove until sauce-like :)

In less exciting news- The current lunch:

A huuuuge salad with boiled buckwheat and green split peas (cooked up the night before) with cherry tomatoes, spinach, cucumber, celery, cherry tomatoes, bean sprouts, torn up pumpkin and corn falafel and an orange dressing (literally just 1/2 an orange, squeezed.... maybe I haven't changed too much since last year? ;)

It was pretty tasty!

Snack:
One thing I already knew before having to look through my previous photos was that my afternoon snack of choice was fruit and soy milk.

 Because it is still fruit and soy milk

:)

A mandarin with some red grapes and a coke glass (so fancy, right?) filled with soy milk.

Fats forward to this year.... and not much has changed:

A chopped fuji apple with some seriously delicious and perfectly ripe rockmelon (or cantaloupe if you're American) enjoyed with a mug (yep my new drinking  item is a mug now- I go through stages, alright!)

Dinner:
Once again I am envious of my dinner from last year as it included one of my very favourite sauces/ toppings/ whatever you want to call it:

PESTO!
Whole wheat pasta with red kidney beans mushrooms and steamed veg.

Sadly, I found no similarities between last years dinner and this years dinner (I honestly did not intentionally know how many similarities there would be between these two WIAW!!) however this dinner was mighty tasty:

Sort of a snack plate- a little bowl of crushed (Found the packet underneath some other stuff!) organic blue maize tortilla chips, parsnip and potato shoe-string fires, oven baked garlic tofu and roasted brussels sprouts. So good!

'Fries'

'Chicken nuggets'

'Ummmm... potato gems?'

And 'chips!'

Haha- or maybe not! ;)


Also, unlike last year, I've found a new love for an after dinner snack (last year was mainly raw nuts- which I still consume after dinner quite regularly!)

Warm almond milk with cinnamon!!

Oh my word, this is so good. I just pour some original almond milk into a mug, dash generously with ground cinnamon and heat in the microwave for around 1-2 mins (depending on how much milk I've put in) and if I have the effort I may even warm it up on the stove with my mini saucepan... but that's just more washing up!

So I hope you found that a little interesting- I know I sure did! I find it quite funny how much I haven't changed over the year and I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little jealous of myself enjoying some of those glorious meals last year- I better fix that by making some of them soon!

What about you?
Do/ have your eating habits change/d dramatically over the course of a year?
Do you sometimes make completely random sauces for your salads... and then surprise yourself when they're actually good?
Favourite after dinner snack?

Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for this awesome link-up and if you're still hungry for more be sure to head on over and check out what everyone else has been nom-ing on! Until next time, Bye!!

On the lunch front (and how to improve it!)

What's up, Buttercup? (Why am I not a poet??) ;)

If I had to choose my least favourite meal of the day it would be lunch. Not the food part (as in, not the eating part) but the coming up with lunch creations. I think the pre-conceived idea that lunch = sandwiches for so many of us leads me to go blank when I try to think about other lunch options.

Then I almost always end up with the other typical lunch idea- A salad of some sort.

Recently I've noticed my lunches falling back into old favourites and I feel like I need to spice this up a bit. I want to look forward to lunch- look forward to eating whatever I've packed away for myself. I reckon my mum had it easy when she used to make my lunch in primary school, because all I every asked for was a Vegemite sandwich. Bread, butter, Vegemite- squished to an inch of its life- I was weird ok?- done!)

Yep, she definitely had it easy. Now I'm stuck with the foodie teenager who wants to have her taste buds tantalised and her stomach growling with anticipation when she opens the lid of her pink Tupperware container.

Even on the weekends when I have considerably more time to plan out something awesome for lunch- I resort back to over done meals that feature regularly.

Exhibit A:Veggie sandwich with a chickpea burger patty: (tomato, capsicum, avocado, grilled mushrooms, hommus and spinach)

This was last Sunday (Mother's Day) where I had to rush off to work for 11:45am, so I had to quickly whip something up for lunch. I went with something I've had more times than I can count- it was good, but there's just something about variety that makes a new meal taste great!

Another stand by sandwich for me (I literally have 2- the above fresh veggie sandwich and the one below)
Exhibit B: The grilled veggie sammy:

There's almost always one day of the week where I make my famous grilled veg sandwich to wrap up in some foil and enjoy at school. The first time I did this, the smell, the taste, the sight everything was just incredible. Now- it's still one of my yummiest lunches of the week, but it's lost it's amazing-ness that only variety can achieve.

I do love this sandwich so much though- and even though I have it weekly, my friends still comment about how good it looks/ smells every time!

Exhibit C: The roasted veg...

The other lunch that features weekly is the one with the cold roasted veg.
It's generally a salad, it looks great and fills me up! However having it so often gives me no buzz of excitement when I open the lid to this awesome lunch!

Roasted potato, sweet potato and baby carrots with drained and rinsed red kidney beans and baby spinach.

Cold roasted potato is where it's at, though. That will never change.

Those 3 examples are probably the most common occurrences in my lunch box each week and the other days are generally just a raw chopped salad with either some brans/ tofu added for protein.
I know a lot of people would look at that and be like 'That's a huge variety of lunches, I only ever have ---- (sandwich/ salad/ wrap) each day.' but I'm a creature who likes different foods every single day (and weeks it seems) so it's time to spice things up a bit!

My plan?
Make some awesome dinners- make a lot of that awesome dinner- and use the leftovers in a creative way (chili turned into an awesome wrap creation? Yes!).
On the days when I don't have leftovers- whip up something I've never tried before- even if I'm not sure how it will turn out ;)

Like this lunch: Pesto cous cous salad:

Let me just say- this was awesome! Pesto + wholegrain cous cous + corn + grilled eggplant, zucchini, capsicum and mushrooms + mixed four beans:

Now that's what I call a tasty lunch!

Let the exciting new lunches continue!

Your turn:
What was your typical lunch as a kid? Vegemite sandwich + veggie sticks + muffin/ cookies
Do you ever get stuck in a lunch rut?
What would be on your ultimate sandwich? 

I hope next week seems some awesome lunch creations- for both me and you! If you do have an awesome lunch, feel free to let me know- I love seeing other people's creative creations!! Until next time- bye for now friends! :D