Thinking Out Loud!

Hidy-ho folks! In the words of Amanda at Spoons- Thursdays are for Thinking out loud, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do!

Steph's weekly random thoughts, pictures and musings :)

1.Recently my organisational skills have been through the roof! I do so much in a day and I feel so accomplished. It does make me wonder though, if I always have to do something everyday to be organised for the next- aren't I still doing as much work as I would for that day, just a day in advance?  (Did you catch all that- or should I say it again? ;)

I'm mainly being organised because of the amount of tests and assignments piling up, for example:
2. I have to write an exposition of a novel for English. It can be any genre, any style, anything... just 500-1000 words and and exposition. I wrote my first draft and I tell you what... I really want to finish this story.. I should probably think of a title first though... does anyone else find the titles to be the hardest part of writing a story, or is that just the perfectionist in me?

3. We've all started feeling the pressure at school and I was talking to one of my friends who was almost having breakdown about the amount of work we have to do. She decided that on the weekend she was going over to another friends place to play Lego... because she physically needed a day to be a kid again. Come on school's- is this not proof enough that you push us too hard!?! :)

One of these days this will be us:

4. The other day I knew Spring was coming. How? Not by the birds chirping, or the longer days but by the smell. Ever since I was young, memories, seasons and occasions were suddenly brought back to me by a familiar smell and I remember being a bit confused and asking everyone if they could smell Christmas as well, or was it just me? I think I just have an over sensitive smelling sense, the same way my mum has bat ears.

5. I came across this fact a few days ago and thought it was the sweetest thing ever:

 I mean, come on? How awesome is that! I wouldn't mind someone searching to find the perfect something for me; pebble, rock, diamond- I don't discriminate :)

6. On the subject of love and relationships (we were sort of on the subject ;) this is me right now:

I tell ya, if my appetite was decreasing a few weeks ago and I thought I was going to become one of those people who never ate.. that changed! Maybe I'm growing again? Yewh let's go with that- all I know is the beast needs to be fed!
This is me when I'm being civilized and talking about my love of food:

Jennifer Lawrence is my hero:)

This is me when I'm hungry and talking about my love of food:

I think that's enough thinking out loud for one day!

Is anyone else's brain hurting? Nope? Good!

Click over to Running With Spoons to see what everyone else is thinking about :)

Bye for now friends :D

WIAW #20

Happy midweek/ hump day/ day after Tues/ before Thurs.../ WEDNESDAY! You know what that means ;) FOOD-GLORIOUS-FOOD!
Well, most of my posts are about food- but this time I have a reason to show you a day of eats- for no particular reason... we all know we love it!
Thanks to Peas and Crayons for hosting the link-up!
Let's get cracking!
 This WIAW, is going to show my Sunday eats (where I actually managed to snap everything I consumed):

Breakfast:

As mentioned in this post, this was my strawberry vanilla steel cut oats I couldn't wait to dig into!

It was 1/3 cup steel cut oats, 1 sliced banana, many sliced very ripe (but not over-ripe!) strawberries, a scoop of vanilla protein powder and 1 1/3 cups of milk, (I used oat milk) bubbling away in a medium saucepan over low heat until desired thickness (about 20 mins) then I let it sit for another 20 to cool.

Lunch:
SNACK PLATE! On the weekend I always seem to have a snack plate. After seeing Spoon's awesome plates, I knew I would like them; a little bit of everything that doesn't necessarily go together, but tastes great!

On my plate there was 2 poached eggs topped with hommus, a little bowl of plain greek yoghurt, a cup of spiked popcorn and a side of healthy baked potato + sweet potato fries.

How was my popcorn spiked? I love adding raisins whilst cooking them, they sort of become like candy :)

Of course even if the foods on the plate don't appear to go together you can always try out some dipping:

Popcorn and greek yoghurt

Cooked raisin and greek yoghurt

Snack:

My usual, go-to, tried and true, daily, whiz-bang (ran out of words meaning repetitive;) snack:

Fruit with soy milk!

Cut up apple and black grapes

Dinner:

Dinner was a new made-up recipe, where Steph's tummy wanted a veggie burger and Steph's tummy always gets what it wants. However Steph's brain knew Steph's tummy would not be too happy with some extra bread tonight and decided to make Steph's hands create a bun-less burger! (Did you follow that?)

For the patty I simply whazzed up some butter beans, lentils and nutritional yeast in a small food processor, then stirred in some sauteed mushrooms, chili, garlic, fenugreek seeds, corn, thyme (all sauteed in a small pan with a dash of olive oil) and some raw rolled oats:

Formed into patties and placed in the freezer for 30 mins:

For my 'burger bun,' I made a pumpkin and white sweet potato mash, my 'ketchup' was salsa and my 'fries' were some steamed brocoli and brussles :)
Once my patties were ready to be cooked I sprayed a medium pan with this guy:

And cooked them until brown on both sides. YUM!
Voila!

This didn't last very long :D

That was Sunday!
What have you guys been nom-ing?
Favourite veggie burger recipe?
Snack plates- what's your opinion?

Have a good day everyone! :D

Food- the way I like it!

Hello everybody!

Whilst looking through everybody's WIAW, I came across this post by Chase The Red Grape
which talks about how everyone has different eating styles- different ways we enjoy food! 

1) How do you take your coffee?
I don't drink coffee! Name that movie! Hint:

I guess I don't like the taste (love the smell!) and I think I would get really hyperactive/ stressed... so I stick with water :)

2) How do you prefer your eggs?
Poached and runny!

The yolk makes a delicious sauce and I just prefer the taste (and awesome science-y process) of poached eggs.

3) Truffles one bite or two?
One.

Found these on images after typing in healthy truffles- what a great idea!

I've had this mentality my entire life. I don't want to suck on something for 20 minutes or eat something in miniscule bites to make it last- if it tastes good I want to enjoy it all- even if it's gone after one bite!

4) White or sweet potato? How do you prefer your potato cooked?
Sweeeeeet!
a) Because sweet potatoes taste ridiculously good!

b) Because you can get different colours (looking at you purple sweet potato!)

Favourite way of cooking them? Baked whole and then spread with coconut butter or almond butter!

5) How do you eat an apple?
Always- cut into bite-size chunks with a glass of soy milk... always :)

6) What is your perfect method of cooking veg?
Nice big chunks, drizzled and rubbed with olive oil and placed in an oven at 180 degrees celsius until cooked (usually 45mins-1 hour)

7) How do you eat a muffin?
Usually warm, split in half with something that can go all melty in the middle (nut butter, home made choc coconut spread etc.) then... I just eat it :)

 (Just had to include my awesome 'cupcake tins.')

8) Bananas- green, yellow, or speckled black?
It depends what I want to do with it:
Green- never
Yellow- eat right there and then (or in with my muesli etc.)
Speckled- cut up and place in freezer for smoothies/ ice cream
Black- Into a cake/ loaf

But really, I try not to discriminate.. if it's a banana it's a friend :)
Like Jen says- everyone has their own way of eating- let's celebrate it! If you have a blog, take the quiz! It would be interesting to see others preferences and eating quirks! 

Bye for now folks! :D

Seven Wants

Hi guys, I'm back with my 10-day-you challenge and I'm up to 7 wants! This one should be easy! Or so I thought. I figured it would be a piece of cake to come up with 7 things I really want, but honestly I don't want too much (little things like new shoes or a book I didn't think cut it)

Anyway, here is what I did manage to come up with:
7.This one was a tie between a nice big double bed ( I think I flail about a lot at night.. I've ended up in some strange places in the morning) and another puppy so that our gorgeous dog, Ash can have a play mate when she's all alone all day :)

 6. More hours in a day:

I'm sure some people would disagree with me, but I just think the days fly by so fast and there's so many things I want to do, there's just simply not enough hours (especially with 8 hours of school smack bang in the middle!)

5. Kabocha and Spaghetti squash:

Why? I've seen so many bloggers post about how much they love kabocha (mainly American) and I just think spaghetti squash looks soooooo cool! I would eat them both daily!

4. A VITAMIX!!!

I can't tell you how badly I want one of these.. or how long I've wanted one! Why you have to be so expensive Vitamix?

3. Either one day travel/ live in a beautiful suburb in America:

I get so entranced when watching American movies, or reading American blogs by some of the Suburbs they live in. Plus I would be able to go to Wholefoods to do shopping and also have a hot lunch and pick up a kabocha! ;)
2. To go to University (I seriously can't wait!) and learn and maybe even eventually become a Registered dietitian :)

Part of this one involves after leaving school I want to do something everyday that helps others:

1. I know this sounds exactly like a pageant answer for my top response but I want it so it makes the list:
World peace :)

But seriously, wouldn't that be so awesome? A girl can only dream- although a world can change!

There you have it! It took a bit of thought and creativity, but I managed to come up with my top 7 wants :)

What would be on your top seven?

Have a great day everyone! :D

Weekend noms

Waking up at 6:30 (late for me) having a lie in with the i pad and my favourite blogs, sipping a warm glass of lemon juice, then completing a purely twins workout, writing this blog post with the sound of my strawberry vanilla steel cut oats (picture to come later) bubbling away- it's definitely my favourite day of the week- Sunday :)

I love Saturday too and yesterday was no different- food was the main focus, followed by blog organization (drafting posts for this week etc.) followed by all my homework... priorities right? Well, I got it all done any way, so I don't see why the order in which I do them should matter.

I also had plenty of time to cook brekky- so I went with a bake!
Blueberry oatmeal bake:

The funny stuff on top is just chunks of cold cashew butter :) It melted soon after.
Super simple to make and super tasty.

 That's 1/2 cup of rolled oats with 1 cup of milk (I used oat milk), a sprinkle of chia seeds plus a handful of blueberries. Cooked on stove until ready (about 5+ mins) and then poured into a mini loaf tin:

Push down and place in oven (180 degrees celsius) for about 15 mins, or until dry to touch on top and slightly golden. In the meantime, why not make a smoothie?
 My favourite green smoothie.

Once your bakes done, turn it out onto a plate, top with whateveer you like and enjoy! (Maybe wait a few mins to let it cool :)

After fueling up with this great brekky, it was time for some grocery shopping (lot's of great produce at the shops!) and some organisation of older stuff/ new stuff that would task me a while to eat, to be frozen:

 Bananas, wholemeal rolls, corn, cauliflower and veggie burgers.
I left one roll and a veggie burger out for my lunch:

Where I toasted my roll with a burger, beautfully ripe tomato slices and hommus, with a side salad of spinach, corn, beetroot, carrot and baby cucumber with a squeeze of lemon juice... yum!

I had a bit lot of pumpkin leftover from the week, so chopped it up with some leftover parsnip and whipped up a pot of soup :)
Sorry about the pics- it was pretty dark at this time.
All my soup ingredients:

Pumpkin, parsnip, 1/2 a brown onion, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper an a touch of olive oil.

I placed the onion, 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon of garlic, 2 teaspoons of ginger, 1 sprig of rosemary leaves, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 a teaspoon of nutmeg in a medium saucepan and sauteed until the onion was translucent.
Then I added the pumpkin, parsnip and water to just cover: (I also added a few spoonfuls of lentils at this stage)

Brought to the bowl and covered on a low heat for 45-50 mins:

Take off the heat and drain a bit of the water (To your preference- I might have drained a few tablespoons) and whaz up with a stick blender, or pour into a food processor:

Then I stirred in some garlic tofu:

And almost forgot to add a nice bit of cracked pepper to the top- disaster- but I remembered ;)

So that was my Saturday- full of food (I also baked the family a big apple cake with streusel topping and m&m fudge) and now I'm off to enjoy my oats (I've let them cool for a bit- soo hungry!)

See ya later! :D