Thinking Out Loud- Christmas edition?

Hello Friends! Is everyone having a fantabulous day? If not- do something you love that makes you happy so you do have a fantabulous day! (words of wisdom from yours truly ;)
 It's Thursday, I'm feeling random, so let's Think Out Loud! Yes? Yes! Lettuce do it! Thanks as always to Spoons for the awesome link-up!

Let's start at the very beginning... a very good place to start :D

1. First of all I need you to see the size of this banana:

It's so teeny! It's probably the cutest thing I've ever seen (yeah...) and looks even cuter peeled:

However, cuteness is about the only thing this little guy has going for him- other than that, he's good for nothing. Too small to make a creamy dreamy smoothie, too small to satisfy a hunger pang, although he was a pretty good size to sweeten and cream-ify my oats. So I guess he wasn't all bad. The little cutey can stay!

2. On the topic of food... I seem to be going crazy over all things muesli/oats/ nut butter. Every breakfast this week seemed to feature these scrumptious foods:

Like this bowl of black grape ice cream (1 handful black grapes + 1 large frozen banana whazzed up in a food processor until smooth) topped with cashew butter granola.

When I actually go to eat it:

;)

Or this bowl of simple banana cinnamon oats (1/2 cup rolled oats with a lot of cinnamon, 1 chopped banana, some chia seeds and about 1 cup of almond milk- bubbled on stove for a few mins)

Topped with PB because what are oats without nut butter?
Well, they'[re still oats... but it's not the same!

 On the side- some mango fro-yo (1/2 frozen mango whazzed up with 3 big spoons of greek yoghurt)

 And eaten with some green and gold spoons because I was feeling very Australian.
Or I just happened to pick out those two colours when reaching for spoons. Either way.

 3. One breakfast that didn't feature oats (though did feature a lot of peanut butter) was my all-time favourite brekky:

 A peanut butter and banana toastie. Best. Meal. Ever.

 With a side of blackberry fro-yo (a handful of frozen blackberries with 3 big scoops of greek yoghurt)

 I don't think this brekky will ever get old and it never fails to fill me up (impressive if you know me)

 Nom.

5. Enough about food though. For now :)

I'm in the spirit of Christmas! The tree's up, the carols are blaring, the days are getting hot, hot, hot!

The Christmas tree (beautifully decorated by moi and siblings)

Now I know it's probably a bit funny for all you Northern hemisphere folk who enjoy a cool/white Christmas but I guess seeing as I've only ever known warm, sunny December 25th's then it's completely normal for me. Don't worry- we don't miss out:

 6. Now- secret santa. 

Yes- the sneaky little gift giving fun we all enjoy either with friends/ family/ peers- but seriously and truthfully.... whose secret santa identity ever remains secret? Is it just me and my friends or does everyone else figure out who has who either before or as soon as the presents are brought out?

It's either the handwriting on the secret present or the little smile watching their person open it, or the type of gift, or the blurting out of who you got, but either way we never seem to be able to keep our identities secret. In all honesty, I think it just adds to the fun :)

Favourite holiday movie hands down!

7. I think I definitely need to experience a white Christmas at some point in my life though, as that strange tingling in my gut and increased pulse can only be interpreted as jealousy when I see pictures like this:

 8. Ok, so I hadn't planned on talking about Christmas so much in this post- but I guess that's what happens when it's EXACTLY 2 WEEKS TIL CHRISTMAS!!!

And I think that wraps things up quite nicely!

 

Do you have an obsession with oats and nut butter?

What's your favourite oat / nut butter combo?

Hot or white Christmas?

 

Like reading random thoughts? There'll be plenty more over at Spoons, where everyone gets to think- out loud!

 Bye for now folks! :D

WIAW #35

Hidy Ho friendly friends! (Wow. Just wow, Steph)
How are feeling today on this fine Wednesday? Happy? Jolly? Christmas-y? I know I am!

In the glorious mood I'm in- I think I should talk about a glorious topic- FOOD! In particular- the food I have been nom-ing on. WIAW (on Tuesday) style! Thanks Peas and Crayons for this awesome link-up every week, where I always seem to find a fabulous new blog that I never knew existed!

Now onto the eats!
Tuesday was a day when the stomach wanted food. And a lot of it too. Hey- I'm only here to please!
So, bright and easrly, I skipped into the kitchen and nom-ed on a delicious medjool date and dried fig before lacing up my running shoes and going for a lovely run! Upon return, breakfast was created and bubbling away and lunch was being prepared too. Boy life's busy!
Breakfast:
On the breakfast scene was a big bowl of chocolate steel cut oats topped with mixed nut butter:

There was probably 1/2 cup steel cut oats with a scoop of choc protein powder, 1 teaspoon raw cacao powder, a few big dashes of cinnamon, sprinkle of chia seeds and 1/2 a banana with 1 cup of almond milk and 1 cup of water stirred in and then bubbled away on low heat for about 20 mins (left to cool for another 10 mins)

But that's not all. These weren't just chocolate steel cut oats, these were chocolate cheesecake steel cut oats!

Once they were done cooking I stirred in 2 spoons of greek yoghurt and let that sit for a few mins= deliciousness! It also makes it a bit more filling too :)

Can you believe I was still a bit hungry after this? Well I was! So I had a handful of green grapes  as well :)

Snack:
For my snacky snack at school I had a small pot of frozen peas. Yum. :) :)

 Lunch:
I sure was hungry when lunch rolled round as Tuesday happened to be our year day and we went ice skating. So after already running and then ice skating on top of that- feeding was required!

 This is a recycled pic because I was sort of in a rush but it's basically the same thing. A huuuuuge veggie sandwich with home made spelt bread, hommus, spinach, a veggie patty, grated carrot and beetroot, sliced tomato, capsicum, more spinach and top of bread. Yep.

Snack:
After school my snack of choice was a small fuji apple with some apricot and a glass of soy milk:

This apple was sooo crisp, sweet and delicious and the apricot was pretty good too!

Soy milk always tastes the same. Very, very scrumptious!

Dinner:
Dinner was another huuuge plate of food, (told you I was hungry) mainly veggies:

On top of a bed of spinach there was 2 scrambled eggs with garlic, pepper and garlic tofu, beside that was some steamed veg (pumpkin, swede, potato, parnsip and sweet potato and next to that was some roasted brussels sprouts and brocoli- so good!

Even after this mammoth of a dinner I still had a small handful of nuts because I was still a teensy bit hungry... (can you believe it!?!) you know what they say- growing boy girl! I'm lying- I think I've finished growing. Unfortunately I think I will remain this short.

What did you eat Wednesday? (or Tuesday, if you're like me)
Do you sometimes eat a lot on days you run/ work out/ do a lot of activities?
Do you like frozen peas?

Like snooping out what others are eating? Head on over to Peas and Crayons for even more eats!

Bye for now folks! :D

The greenery

Hi friends, how are we all feeling today?
I just want to jump in here and say I'm feeling great!I have a suspicion why as well!
Over the past few weeks I've been upping my consumption of all things green- and boy have I been feeling 1000x better!

Now, I've always been good at eating my veggies, but sometimes I forget about the green guys- the dark leafy greens, the broccoli, the brussles and beans (not the peas though- I always eat a lot of peas!) so I decided to make sure I ate a few more of these to see if I noticed any differences and I was a little surprised to see differences!

I definitely upped the amount of green smoothies I was consuming, as this is probably the easiest and most delicious way to get in one or two servings of leafy greens before lunch has even rolled round!

This mammoth of a smoothie was my absolute favourite- 1 large chopped frozen banana + 1/2 large chopped frozen mango + 2 large handfuls of spinach + a dash of almond milk (add however much to create your desired thickness- I like mine thick!) super simple and super delicious!

Eaten with some oats because oats are also delicious ;)

Avocado was another veggie that I seemed to forget I had lying around so I made it a priority to eat the ones hanging out in the fridge before they went brown and icky. In the Big Man's World style, I ate half a chopped avocado on top 2 wholemeal crumpets spread with Vegemite:

Along with some baked beans and 2 poached eggs with hommus.
This was so delicious, creamy, crunchy, salty... gah- I want it again now!

Perfection.

This breakfast was a double-whammy on the greens as it featured a delicious chocolate green thick shake (that not only contained spinach but also frozen avocado) with a side of blueberries and green kiwi-fruit.

I really do adore this smoothie and also the fact that the spinach goes by unnoticed ;)

Again- perfection.

More examples:
A delicious weekend lunch of home-popped popcorn (I simply place popcorn kernels in a saucepan with a lid and pop! I love popcorn!) along with a small baked sweet potato topped with mixed beans and with salsa, topped again with avocado and some spinach on the side with a few dollops of hommus:

This was soooo good! Why does sweet potato have to taste so good and yet make me so... orange!

So green :)

So good :)

Perfect little sweet potato bowl!

Lastly, I didn't want kale to go by unnoticed because it is my second favourite dark leafy green- after spinach and so here it is:

Spelt spaghetti with roasted veg (pumpkin, beetroot, parsnip, carrot, swede) grilled tempeh, peas and kale! I added the peas and kale to my boiling spaghetti a couple of minutes before I drained it.

I love the colour green go when cooked quickly! So vibrant!

So what have I been feeling? More energised, less bloated, less tired and grumpy, clear head, and a weird sort of healthy tummy feeling that I can't quite explain. In other words- happy Steph!

Talk to me:
Do you like/eat your greens?
What's your favourite way to slip em' in?
Favourite green smoothie recipe?

That's it from me folks! See ya later! :D