If there's a jar lying around...

Hi there friends! Having a good day? Hopefully you are, if not stay tuned for a weird breakfast of mine! Nothing new there though!

I woke up on this particular morning pretty hungry. I also had an almost empty jar of cacao hazelnut butter and a craving for overnight oats. Except I had not prepared some oats to soak overnight. So I placed some oats in a cup, spooned on a lot of greek yoghurt and some oat milk and let sit for a grand total of 30 minutes:

Ta-da!!
So what did I fill my almost empty jar with??

Any guesses??

Banana ice cream! Because everyone knows bananas and chocolate and ice cream and chocolate are best buddies- and I just rolled all three into one! You can literally fill a jar with anything and it will be awesome (when I say anything, you know I'm lying. Do not, I repeat do not put melted cheese, cinnamon and licorice in an almost empty jar) I usually rotate between oats, ice cream, overnight oats and... nope that's it. I should try some new jar fillers.

Pretty purple and yellow spoons to nom with. (Purple and yellow make a pretty good combo actually!)

Yeh, so the oats weren't as creamy or 'cooked like texture' as regualr overnight oats, but they were still pretty good!!

Ice cream and chocolate hazelnut butter:

With some cheesecake-y flavoured oats- that's like seven desserts in one!

Now, if you don't have a jar lying around, bowls work fine too:

Smoothie bowls for the win!
This particular smoothie was 1 frozen banana + 1 handful red grapes + 3 big scoops greek yoghurt + 1 handful of kale + 1 handful of spinach + sprinkle of chia seeds+ 1/2 cup almond milk- whazzed up until smooth.

Topped off with some almond butter granola:

Deee-lish!

Oh breakfast, how I love you so!

Yes, I may have over-filled this particular smoothie bowl and yes I may have spilled it a little bit.... but it was awesome, so I don't care!

We are not even going to talk about today's breakfast.

Ok, we are, because I need to vent. Or simply tell someone ;)

See I headed out for my run at around 6:10am thinking 'that's plenty of time before school!' then I realised I now run for like an hour and a half (see, I don't track my time I just come home when I'm tired) so I raced in the door, saw that I only had 20 minutes before we had to leave for school, jumped around trying to make lunch, and shower and stretch and gulp water and wash my hair and get in my uniform... so breakfast was some very quickly prepared oats with peanut butter that I scoffed down in 5 minutes! I hate eating rushed meals!! I was super hungry too!! Must plan that better... maybe overnight oats. Yep definitely overnight oats!

How about you?
What do you typically fill your almost empty jars with?
Do you like/ have you ever tried banana ice cream?
Ever have simply no time for breakfast? What do you eat when you're short on time?

Have a fabulous day friends! Bye! :D

HASH BROWNS!

Morning sun-shines! Happy Birthday to me I'm 103 16!! Whoop Whoop!! And I'm off to go celebrate at school- yes the first day of school happens to coincide with my birthday. Love it. (Shall eat my favourite smoothie bowl for brekky before though!) Now onto the post!

Can you believe that as a kid I didn't really like hash browns at all. They were too salty and potato-y and crispy and oily. If they were available, I wouldn't even look twice.

Then something happened.

I decided to try making my own.

You can see some of my previous ones here and here. Now I love them.

Of course the ones I make are slightly different to the typical fried shredded potato delights in that they are grain free (no plain flour), egg free (some recipes called for eggs), dairy free (no butter added to these bad boys) and filled with a lot more vitamins, nutrients and flavour because of the inclusion of several other delicious root veggies.

However in my most recent hash brown-y type creations I only used potato.

Just several different types ;)

For these out-of-this-world delicious hashies I grated about 1/4 medium potato, 1/2 small sweet potato and half a small white sweet potato and mixed together in a bowl. Then I added a tablespoon of chickpea/ besan flour and a tablespoon of oil and mixed (with my hands) everythiung together until combined.
Easy- peasy, simple-pimple!

All you have to do then is preheat a non-stick fry pan, form the potato mixture into balls in your hands (squeeze hard to make sure they stay together and flatten out in your pan to brown on both sides:

Smells amazing too!

I typically fry my hash browns until nice and golden and crispy and then whack them on a baking tray to go in the oven at a low heat for around 20 mins while I prepare the rest of my dinner so they are nice and cooked through and soft and mmmmmmm when dinner is ready!

Crispy goodness!

Et voila! Dinner:

My delicious hash borwns with some steamed pumpkin, parsnip, beetroot and swede, fresh spinach, chopped cucumber and tomato and a torn up lentil burger. Hit. The. Spot!

So many veggies, so much love!
Seriously- those hash browns though!

I think the addition of the white sweet potato just bring them up to this whole new level and add a sweetness and beautiful texture that normal potato just can't achieve. White sweet potato- you are still my favourite!

Tell me your thoughts:
Do you like hash browns?
Do you have them for breakfast? I hear they are a breakfast food... although I think dinner is good for hash browns too! ;)
Favourite type of potato?

That's it from me today folks! Make sure you have yourself a very awesome day, possible filled with hash browns, definitely filled with love, laughter and happiness! See ya later! :D

Birthday celebrations!

Hello, hello everyone! How are we all today on this lovely Sunday?
Me? I'm already pooped- as is the usual case when I've run for 90 minutes and it isn't even 9:00am yet. But happy, healthy and feeling good none the less!

Especially after a filling and delicious breakfast to fuel up my body after said run:

My favourite bowl of steel cut oats with a big side of water!!

Some almond butter was spread around the bowl, then topped with the oats and dolloped with some peanut butter, because, you know, why not? ;)

Delicious!

So as you all have probably figured out by now, I have this thing for cooking. I sorta like it. A lot. I think the hint was in the title of this blog.

The thing that confuses people the most, however, is the fact that even though I'm a vegetarian who doesn't eat added sugar, tries to find alternatives to wheat and consumes zero cow's milk or cheese- I still love making foods with all these things in it. Yes that results in me not eating it- the part that horrifies people.

I cook/ bake/ create because I love to do that- cook/bake/create. Now, I love to eat too, just other things, that make my body feel good.

Therefore what's a girl who loves to bake and loves all things creative going to do when her birthday rolls round? (It's actually tomorrow, though school/ work sort of make it hard to celebrate)

She creates her own birthday cake of course!!

Presenting my 16th birthday cake:

The cake is alternating layers of white chocolate mud cake and dark chocolate mud cake with either a white chocolate ganache between the layers or a dark chocolate ganache.

Around the outside, there's white fondant, a bow made from pink ready-roll icing, smarties, and of course ice cream!

Well the ice cream may have been some more chocolate cake formed into a ball with a little extra melted butter and then covered in blue ready-roll icing, though it looks like ice cream all the same!

With a few sprinkles on top and of course a waffle cone!

Cake decorating is so much fun! (and pretty time consuming too:D)

So, no I did not eat my birthday cake, but I got to make it- which for me is just as good, if not better!

I did eat my celebratory birthday dinner though (which I cooked for myself as well- guys, seriously, I. LOVE. COOKING. This is like a present for me!)

A big plate of roasted veggies with some spinach and garlic tofu!

The veg was pumpkin, swede, beetroot, sweet potato, potato, eggplant, zucchini, red onion, mushrooms and asparagus all roasted in some olive oil with some fresh rosemary (at varying times) and then gobbled up!

A great *early* birthday with family, love and lots of good food!

What about you?
What is your favourite post workout food?
Do you like to cook on your birthday?
Best birthday cake you've ever had?

That's all for today, bye for now folks! Remember- everyday may not be good but there is something good in every day. :D

Love me some lunch!

Happy Friday everyone!
Geeze Louise I am a thirsty monster this morning! No amount of water seems to be able to satisfy me, I must have drunk a few liters by now!! I have been on a run and it is quite hot today.... but still, I drink a glass and then I'm practically gasping for water!

Moving on though because this is not a post about drinking water (however important it is!) this is actually a post about lunch. I like lunch and I feel as though I should write a post about it. So here it is. :)

I will admit that when school returns I will probably enjoy lunch a lot less than now (as I'm on holidays) seeing as I'll have to prepare it at the same time I'm making breakfast and something about chopping and roasting veggies and veggie burgers and tofu and whatever else, just seems wrong with the sweet smell of oats cooking away in a pot on the stove.

So I am trying to make the most of every last day of freedom holidays before returning to school by making delicious, BIG lunches every single day!
 I've enjoyed breakfast for lunch:

Reduced salt baked beans, 2 soft boiled eggs, oven roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, capsicum and brussels sprouts and some rye toast topped with vegemite and mashed avocado.
Mashed in the skin- why dirty up a bowl?

 There is something so amazing about the crunchy-ness of bread paired with the saltiness of vegemite and the creaminess of avocado that makes this perfect little creation taste so good!

 Also oven roasted veggies. That's it. No more needs to be said. ;)

 And eggs. Little treasure troves of delicious golden awesomeness that make my life that extra bit happy. Yes.

 Interesting fact- The word luncheon actually only came about in the 17th century combining the words: lunch. a northern dialect word for hunk of bread or cheese, and nuncheon,a midday snack from Old English.

 This is an oldy but a goodie and you've probably seen it millions of times before.... and probably will again. Millions of times.

 My favourite grilled veggie sammy!

 This one had hommus, spinach, a grilled lentil burger, grilled pumpkin, capsicum, mushrooms and eggplant, with some sliced tomato, all on a mixed grain ciabatta roll and toasted.
Along with all the stuff that didn't fit in the roll:

 Nom.

Oh, there goes another cup of water!
I don't ever remember a time when I've skipped lunch. I've had late lunches and early lunches and small lunches and ginormous lunches but I've always managed to have lunch. Which is great because it is a very important part of our day!

 Home-made veggie burgers (beans, lentils, cumin, ginger, nutritional yeast, garlic, peas, capsicum, tomato, quinoa flakes)

See lunch re-energizes your body and can raise blood sugar levels when focus and concentration are flagging. (One of the many reasons I hate watching my friends skip it at school!) There are heaps of other benefits but I only have so much water near me to keep me going! (I'm seriously starting to worry ;)

 2 home-made grilled veggie burgers atop some spinach, tomato and cucumber with a side of white sweet potato and regular potato wedges.

 Roasted white sweet potato. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Gaaahhhhh.

Topped off with some salsa! Deeelish!

When lunch rolls around today, don't just choose the usual old, boring, un-filling sandwich- mix it up, fill it with colourful vibrant and oh-so-yummy veggies! Snack plates are fun too!

Your thoughts:
Do you ever have days when you're ridiculously thirsty?
What's your favourite thing to make for lunch?
Do you ever skip lunch?

Bye for now friends! Make today great! :D