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

The smoothie bowls are back in town!

Hi folks, how are we all today? I'm pretty fabulous because it's almost Summer here in Aus. The good fruit is coming back in season. The bright sun is warming up the place and I've been craving smoothies like it's no body's business. Especially smoothie bowls!

 Post

I started this blog back when it was Summer, so if you're a long term reader, you've probably seen a few of these bowls... however they seemed to disappear for a bit in winter in favour of my warm comforting oats!

Don't believe me? Here's a look at the past few weeks:

Cannot get enough!
This is my kind of cereal and milk!

All the granola in the pics are home made and you can find lots of different recipes for them on the blog here, here, here, here and here!
There are also heaps of different smoothie recipes on my recipe page:) So get cracking on those smoothie bowls. It sure does beat soggy flakes of processed stuff in bland milk!

I am not a creature of eating the same thing day-in-day-out, so I either change up the smoothie.. or change up the granola. Usually just the flavour of the granola, but the other day I changed it's very form!

My smoothie base consisted of 1 chopped banana (didn't have any frozen ones left) a handful of mixed frozen berries, a big handful of spinach, 3 big scoops of greek yoghurt and a splash of almond milk all whazzed up in a blender until smooth. Poured into a bowl and placed in the freezer until ready to eat.
I wasn't ready yet because I was making my granola.. balls:

:)
All I did was make a typical granola (1/2 cup muesli in a bowl with 1/3 cup almond milk and 1 tablespoon of peanut butter heated together in microwave and then rubbed into muesli) and formed into balls, before baking in oven at 180 degrees celsius for 15 mins until golden. Left to cool slightly because you don't want a warm smoothie!

 It's like the breakfast version of meatballs in sauce :D

Ok, probably not the best comparison, but you have to admit they look quite similar ;)

Before I go I wanted to leave you with a smoothie no bowl included that was absolutely fabulous and that you should make right away (It would work wonderfully in a smoothie bowl too :)

 This was 1 chopped frozen banana + 1 handful of frozen red grapes + 3 scoops of greek yoghurt (omit if vegan- or sub in vegan yoghurt) a splash of almond milk (it all depends on how thick you want your smoothie)

 It's extremely creamy and makes you question whether or not you added ice cream to the mix! Seriously, if I hadn't made this myself I would be interrogating the maker to prove there was no cream/ ice cream- frozen bananas are amazing!

Y-U-M

Your turn!
What's your favourite smoothie?
Do you like green smoothie? I know some people get freaked out by them- not me!
Smoothie bowls- best things ever or what?

Bye for now friends! :D