BACK AGAIN! :) :)

I'm Baaaaack!!
Did you miss me?
Well I missed you!!! When I returned from my week away from my usual world (6 hour drive down south to Albany) I checked everything. Boy was that over whelming! Emails, face book, messages, blog posts- I had missed so much, all in the space of one week! So I decided that last week just didn't happen to me in the technological side of things and that I'd just start a fresh this week. To keep last week as simply the week that was camp!

I. Loved. Camp!

Now I usually hate camps- the only ones I've been on being school ones, so when I was getting ready to go on this one I was sort of apprehensive. Along with only recently publishing my post about orthorexia and how being in control of my food and diet has affected me simply added to this worry.

But that's the thing- camp helped me so much with that!

I wasn't in control of any of my meals, I was thrown out of my comfort zone and I was left with a choice on how I wanted this week to pan out. And you know what- I did it. Not only that I enjoyed it. I met brilliant people, formed extremely tight bonds with some and had the time of my life everyday without the constant worry of what I had eaten or how much sitting I had done.

I ate a lot of tofu because that's what the camp chef decided was my only source of protein ;) I ate processed foods like veggie soy sausages and heavily marinated tofu. Lot's of my food was fried in oil and there was significantly less veggies on my plate than I'm used to. I didn't have a shred of spinach for 8 whole days and not only that- no pumpkin!

And can you believe it? I survived! Haha, very funny. In all seriousness though this camp truly opened my eyes to the important things in life. Relationships with other people, good times, just hanging out and of course seeing as it was a Christian/ bible camp learning and loving God. I could finally see that the world would not end if I had a squirt of tomato sauce from a bottle or some dip that wasn't dairy free. I ate what I was given and I enjoyed it. The end.

Now that's not to say I wasn't absolutely thrilled to come home and cook up a storm with a bucvket load of veggies- because that's exactly what I did!

 Roasted pumpkin, carrot, swede, parsnip, beetroot, potato, sweet potato and brussels sprouts with some wilted spinach and two poached eggs!

 I missed my veggies!

 I will admit that after 8 days of a different style of eating my body wasn't all that happy. I did get quite a bit bloated after the white rice and lack of veggies and some other stuff that we don't need to go into detail about, but nothing too serious.

 Because we were always so busy on camp I know I ate quite a bit less than usual but I didn't even realise it until we sat down in the dining hall for the next meal and I was famished!

Also, breakfast was at 9:00am every morning and I was up at 5:30 am... so I did have a snack of something I had brought along to hold me through until second breakfast (apple/ muesli etc.)

That's the other thing I was looking forward to- smoothies for brekky!

 Along with chocolate steel cut oats!

 Topped with some coconut butter= YUM!

 I didn't have any yoghurt in the fridge so this smoothie was 1 frozen banana + 1 small frozen mango + 3 chunks of frozen spinach (didn't have any fresh stuff- must go grocery shopping) some chia seeds, LSA mix and oat milk all whazzed up until smooth:

 And very green!

 This filled me up nicely after my hour long run (another thing I missed) and tasted sooo good!

You know what they say- absence makes the heart grow fonder! And I definitely greatly appreciate being at home and all the wonderful things I can eat and do etc. Although I would go back to camp any day any time!

To sum my week away up in one word- helpful. It helped me realise that I wouldn't die if I didn't have a green smoothie, that I didn't have to run every day that I could just be with others and enjoy life. For that I am truly thankful!

Onto you guys:
Did/ do you go on camps?
Do you sometimes like taking a break from your usual routine?
Do you enjoy returning and being in control of your food again?

I have a lot to do today (school's starting back in a week!) so I best be going! Talk to ya later! Bye! :D

Be Back Soon!

Happy Friday everyone!!

 Who's excited for the weekend? ME ME ME! Whyza? Becuaza I'm ma going camping!

Yeah!
 So unfortunately that means a little holiday from blogging with you guys- but I'll be back baby! Bigger than ever! Maybe... :P
Any way- before I head off on my little adventure I'll leave you with something I seem to like to talk about a lot... that be food in case you were wondering!

 Pink food!
Seeing as I'm going away I don't know how much control I'll have over my food so I've decided to eat all of my favourite foods until I go. Starting with this delicious breakfast of frozen grape and blueberry ice cream topped with nutty granola!

 The 'ice cream' was simply I large frozen banana + a handful of frozen grapes and blueberries whazzed up in a food processor until ice creamish. (Placed in freezer until ready to eat)

 Then topped off with the cooled granola:

 Soooo good!

 On the menu tonight, I'm thinking pizza. Yep definitely thinking pizza.
Who knows maybe I'll do a pink beetroot base? Maybe the theme of the day will be pink? Only time will tell!!

What I do know- this brekky is good, you should try it and then wait until I'm back next week to thank me. Because you'll want to thank me. ;)

 Seriously- who wouldn't want dessert for brekky? (besides all those people who prefer savoury breakfasts).

 Any who I best be going to finish up some packing- I just know I'll forget something!

I hope you all have a great day and then a great weekend and then a great week and I guess I'll see you guys soon!

Will miss you!!

Bye! :D

Sort of recipes :)

If you know me, even in the slightest, you would know that I like things fairly... in order. I like to follow the rules/ regulations/ instructions/ anything, to a T and get kind of worried if I don't.

Except....

When I'm cooking.

When I'm cooking something for lunch/ dinner/ breakfast (baking is a different story- you must follow every instruction! Trust me!) and I have a recipe in front of me, I'll almost always use it as a rough guideline, examine the flavours and recreate my own version. Some times I don't even have a specific recipe in front of me, but I have several in my head so I mush them all together!

Either way, there is no measuring or weighing or trying to figure out what the heck a small- medium sized beetroot is. Nope. It's whatever starts to look good.

For example oats:

To make my oats you simply have to pour in some steel cut oats, add in a chopped banana, some chia seeds and lot's of almond milk and water and then let it bubble away for 15 or so mins before adding in some blueberries for the last 5 mins and more often than not most of the liquid is absorbed by then!

I know it's slap dash but it is the only area in my life where I'm not a total control freak with numbers and measurements buzzing around my brain. It's actually the only time in my life when my brain is just there. Not full of thoughts/ worries/ random. Running sort of shhh's my brain, but cooking actually ties it up to a chair and gags it. How's that for imagery? ;)

Any way what I'm trying to say is for some reason, even though I don't follow any type of recipe or measurements when I cook, everything I make usually turns out delicious (in my opinion!) and also in my opinion I think this is what separates someone from simply cooking to being a cook.

 So I have a recipe for you today!
A sort of recipe. A typical Steph-style recipe!
It involves this:

 A hunk of slightly stale home made spelt bread (any bread will work)

And one of these bad boys:

A huge portobello mushroom! (from the farmers market of course!)

Any guesses?

If you guessed a stuffed mushroom then you are cooorrrreeeccctt!

 Simply take a hunk of bread (maybe 2 slices of regular stale-ish bread) and tear it up into a food processor:

 Add a dash of cumin, sprinkle of dried oregano and dried basil, pinch of cayenne pepper and a dash of ground cinnamon along with some pine nuts and whazz until bread-crumby!

 In a separate bowl place 125g rinsed four beans + 2 scoops of rinsed lentils + 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic, stir to combine:

Chop up some spinach and capsicum and add that and the bread crumb mixture to the beans and lentils:

 Along with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of water. Then remove the stem from the mushroom, roast in an oven at 180 degrees celsius for 15 mins and then bring out to stuff!

 I also roasted up this little guy to go with my stuffed mushroom. Look how cute and little this eggplant is!

 Start spooning the stuffing mixture into the 'shroom and press down to fit lots in! If you still have quite a bit leftover, you can stuff just about anything! (tomatoes, zucchinis, eggplants etc. ) I simply found some little button mushrooms!

 Roast at 180 degrees celsius for around 20-30 mins (depending on how crispy you want your filling)

 Ta-da!

 Spicy, comforting, full of punchy flavours and meaty mushroom- yum!

 Served with some steamed parsnip, beetroot and oven roasted eggplant and mini zucchinis.

Very filling indeed. I was stuffed! ;)

Your turn!

Do you follow recipes?

Do you simply throw lots of ingredients into a pot and hope for the best like me?

Do you like stuffed mushrooms? I've got to say, I used to hate them... now I think they're pretty darn good. I guess I hated them because I hated mushrooms in general. And stuffing. Ha.

See ya later friends! Have a very very good day! Do something unexpected! :D

WIAW!! Veggies for the win!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I think I should be congratulated for remembering what day it is, seeing as I'm still on holidays... I may or may not have just checked the day on the computer... but still, I was fairly sure before I checked!

Now, because it is Wednesday- how about an insight into my daily eats What I Ate Wednesday style. Featuring the eats of Tuesday. *cough*

Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for hosting this awesome link-up each week!!

Pre-breakfast: 6:00am
2 dates before my run

Breakfast: 8:00am
By the time I was back from my looong run, dressed and showered I was ready for brekky!

Vanilla protein powder rolled oats (1/2 cup rolled oats, 3/4 banana, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, big dash of cinnamon, sprinkle of chia seeds and around 1 cup almond milk- heated on stove) and some blueberry fro-yo.

Served in an almost empty jar of cashew butter= perfection :)

The blueberry fro-yo was just a handful of frozen blueberries, rest of banana (1/4) and three big scoops of greek yoghurt, whazzed up in my mini food processor until smooth:

And of course matching spoons! Maybe next time I should switch them over just to mess with my mind! ;)

LOVE BLUEBERRIES!

Lunch: 12:45am

Oh yes. My famous grilled veggie sammy!

Home made spelt bread, hommus, spinach, grilled pumpkin, veggie burger, sliced tomato, grilled mushrooms, capsicum, eggplant and zucchini (all grilled) and then topped off with the other slice of hommus spread bread and squashed! In a sandwich press ;)

I will never ever tire of this sandwich- way too good!

Snack: 4:00pm

Chopped pink lady apple with some green grapes and glass of soy milk.

Ahh, fruit, thank you for tasting so good!

You too soy milk. Also, thanks for being full of protein and added calcium- good on ya!

Dinner: 6:45pm

Just feeling the veggies, you know?
Big ol' bowl of roasted potato, white sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, swede and beetroot, roasted with olive oil, cumin, oregano and basil for 45 mins at 180 degrees celsius served with some grilled tempeh and spinach:

This definitely filled me right up!

Aaaand that's what I ate!

What did you eat today?
Favourite sandwich?
Favourite roasted vegetable? Mine is either roasted pumpkin or roasted sweet potato. Sweet potato wins if it is a Japanese white sweet potato because that stuff roasted is... nope I can't even put it into words!

Hungry for more? Check out Peas and Crayons to see what everyone else is nom-ing! Bye!! :D