Happy Easter Morning!

Good morning chummies!
Happy, happy Easter to all of you!
How much chocolate have you consumed already? Don't lie to me ;).

So this morning I woke up hungry! Hangry, even- I'm not too sure... I did know I had to eat though!
I always find I'm like this the day after a really long run. I need ALL. THE. FOOD. And- not being one to ignore my body- I eat ALL. THE. FOOD! :)

Not only did I go for a long run yesterday, but I also spent the majority of the day standing (because my body is not a fan of sitting) then had to have an early dinner at 6:00pm, followed by 2 1/2 hours of waitress-ing (all my waitress buddies out there know how much running around it entails) followed by collapsing into bed a little hungry. Therefore, I kinda knew I would be a crazy ravenous beast when I awoke this fine Sunday morning!

I'm not going to lie... chocolate was consumed at breakfast... I thought Easter was the perfect excuse to make one of my all time favourite truffle recipes:

Chocolate coconut fudge truffles! They may look small- but looks are definitely deceiving here! These guys fill me up so much, they're perfect! :)

Choc Coconut Fudge Truffles

Ingredients:
2 heaped teaspoons rolled oats
1/3 cup muesli (with/ without fruit- today I went without)
1 heaped scoop choc protein powder (or 1/2-1 tablespoon raw cacao powder)
1 tablespoon coconut butter
1/2 cup almond milk (or any milk)
Optional- ground cinnamon

Method:
1. Place the coconut butter, protein powder/ cacao powder and almond milk in a small microwavable container and microwave for around 30 seconds (alternatively heat on stove in small saucepan until all melted together) stir to combine.
2. Place the oats and muesli and optional ground cinnamon in a bowl. Add in the chocolate-cocon ut mixture and stir with a spoon to combine (of course hands are the quickest method of combining- it does get a little messy though ;)
3. Wet hands slightly, roll mixture into balls and place on a plate lined with baking paper and pop in  the fridge for 30 mins until hard.
4. EAT!

I enjoyed mine with a delicious berry banana green smoothie- which was awesome!

Inside view of fudgy heaven:

Unfortunately this epic breakfast cleaned me straight out of my favourite brand of chocolate protein powder:

Not only is this guy vegan and full of wonderful plant based, organic ingredients- it also tastes great too- not chalky or bland or funky at all! Unfortunately though, my local supermarket has stopped selling it (and my all time favourite vanilla vegan protein powder too!) and I think I'll have to resort to buying it online (which is probably even easier than having to go to the shops, pick it up, take it to the counter... etc.)

Any-who, where I'm going with this is that last time I was at the shops I decided to branch out and try a new brand- dun, dun, DUN!

This bad boy looks pretty promising, so I'm hoping his awesome nutritional stats don't bring his taste down!
I'm thinking my first experiment with him will be this super rich/ thick chocolate protein green monster! Fingers crossed for a delicious outcome!

What about you?
What did you eat for brekky this morning? My mum was very traditional and had a hot cross bun with butter- good call!
What is the most filling breakfast you make when you're starving?
Ever had chalky/ bland/ funky tasting protein powder?

That's it from me today folks. I hope you all have a lovely Easter, hopefully you're with your friends/ loved ones! Enjoy the chocolate, enjoy the long weekend, enjoy life! Because that's what life is all about! Bye friends! :D

A craving...

Hello friendly friends!
You know, I had almost forgotten what a craving felt like. It has probably been a good few months (maybe more?) since I have genuinely needed something to keep my body from crying out.

I mean, I still had certain moods for what food I wanted but not a full-throttle craving.

Then I woke up Wednesday morning and my body told me it needed something!

 This guy!
Well this guy in particular:

 I was craving oats. C.R.A.V.I.N.G!

 So I whipped up a big mug full of banana steel cut oats and generously blobbed peanut butter throughout.

 Craving satisfied! Or so I thought...
Then I woke up Thursday morning...

 Chocolate steel cut oats!

 With a delicious blueberry and green grape fro-yo to balance out that awesome chocolatey-coconuty richness. :)

 Frozen blueberries + frozen grapes + 3 big scoops greek yoghurt whazzed.

 This was a good breakfast!

 Better together:

 Craving satisfied?!?
Guess again!
Come Friday morning...

 OIAJ! Banana, cinnamon steel cut oats in an almost empty (you know there was quite a bit of PB left ;) jar of peanut butter with a side of mango fro-yo.

 Mango fro-yo; you will always be my one and only!

 Again- such a good brekky! Warm, gooey, MANGO-Y!

 Perfect.

 Ok, so you would think by now- after 3 breakfasts in a row involving oats- that my cravings would have been satisfied?
Woke up this morning, ran a glorious 20km, came home and....

Steamed some pumpkin:

 Why?
PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE OATS!!

 After steaming and mashing about 1/2 cup pumpkin I added 3/4 cup rolled oats to a pot with 1 thinly sliced banana, 1 heaped teaspoon of cinnamon, a dash of nut meg and around a cup of almond milk- heated until absorbed.

 Then steamed pumpkin stirred through along with 1/2 heaped cup greek yoghurt (optional) for the cheesecake flavour.

 Half poured into my bowl, sneakily dolloped in some cashew butter, added the other half, topped with more cashew butter- et voila!

 Another glorious bowl of oats!

 I wonder what's on the menu tomorrow? ;)

What about you?
Do you ever go through phases of loving the same thing over and over? I think I've been in that phase with white sweet potatoes for quite a while now!
Favourite bowl of oats? I've gotta say, I'm getting a new obsession with chocolate oats!
Oats hot or cold? I like both, but hot- warm and gooey- will always have my heart. As well as sticking to my ribs :)

Have a fabulous Easter weekend- enjoy the chocolate, don't fear it! Have fun! Bye friends! :D

Thinking Out Loud- apple love!

Hellooooo!

It has come to that time of the week again where my brain is dead, (thank you 5 tests scheduled for the same week!) my writing abilities are not what you would call inspiring and my desire to think too hard about much at all is relatively low. So the thinking that will be done today will be out loud, Spoons style!

Let's hit it!

1. Oats in a jar are awesome right? Right. But what happens when you want oats in a jar, but don't have an almost empty jar of something to put said oats in? Well, I guess you could forcefully push them into your 3/4 full jar of peanut butter... but I'm guessing that might be a little over a serving- that's coming from me, too!

So what's a girl to do?

DIY!
Now, every time I made a warm bowl of oats, I make sure to spread some nut butter around the inside and then pour in half the oats, then drop in a little extra nut butter to the middle, top with remaining oats and top with some nut butter- nut butter in every spoon! Genius, no?

A little over-filled, but no complaining over here :)

Eaten alongside some banana fro-yo (1/2 frozen banana whazzed up with 3 big spoons greek yoghurt)

Hidden delights!

2. Anyone else a big fan of one pan meals? Of course you are! Me too, especially when one pan transforms into one awesome panini!

All my panini fillings (veggie burger, capsicum, thinly sliced carrot, eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms) in a non-stick fry pan over medium heat until char-grilled and delicious! (mushies and zucchini generally come out first)

Result:

Spread with hommus and topped with spinach and tomato. No words. Only drool.

3. In other amazing food news...
This past week on Monday I had the best apple in the universe.

You see, when I cut up my apple (or any fruit for that matter) I always sneak a little bite before I sit down (you know I really stand) to enjoy it. So I cut up this apple, snuck a bite and the whole world dissolved around me- no joke!

Let me just paint a picture for you. Ok so imagine yourself in your kitchen/ living room/ dining room/ bed room/ outside/ verandah/ wherever it is that you would eat an apple, then you take your first bite of said apple and you experience the crispiest, crunchiest, juiciest, sweetest (but not too sweet), acidic (to balance the sweetness), appliest (new word) sensation.

That was me Monday afternoon at 4:13pm.

That is why I took 75.3 billion photos of this one apple.
The apple was amazing. I'm weird. The stats add up people!

Ok, I think I may be scaring a few of you with this ridiculous number of apple shots.. so I'll stop (yes- stop, I had more :).

Lastly I'll leave you with my favourite quote of the week:

Ahhh life, you just crack me up sometimes!

Your turn:
Do you spread nut butter around your bowls (or cups :) before scooping in your hot oats?
Have you ever experienced the best apple? If so, what type of apple was it?
Favourite panini filling? My friend is always talking about this pesto and semi-dried tomato one she makes and I definitely think it should enter my mouth soon!

So that's just me Thinking Out Loud! Make sure you head on over to Spoons to see what everyone else is thinking about (probably not apples...)

Bye friends!! :D

WIAW #50!!

So guess what!?!
It's my 50th WIAW!! Can you believe it? (Probably, if you've read all 50 of them... probably, if you haven't :) Well I can't. I still remember my first ever WIAW like it was yesterday...

"Now, I'm not usually part of the What I Ate Wednesday Club,  but on this last particular Wednesday I managed to take a picture of all of the yummy meals I enjoyed on Wednesday"

...Which it most definitely wasn't!! Any who, I guess I kinda liked it as I've done a whole 49 of em' (soon to be 50!)

So, as usual, thanks to the fabulous Peas and Crayons and all the other helpful blogs hosting this awesome link-up. Now onto the food!! 

Tuesday in the form of food:

Breakfast: 7:15am
My day began with a little sleep-in- for the first time in what seems like... my life. When I say sleep-in, I mean 6:30 am. Each to their own.

So after an awesome surge of energy from extra sleep and a quick, easy Purely Twins Workout, I through together a delicious brekky of wholemeal crumpets topped with [lots] of cashew butter with a delicious green berry smoothie (that seemed to lose it's green-ness?)

Into the blender went 1 chopped frozen banana + 1 handful of frozen blackberries + 1 handful kale + 1 handful spinach + 3 spoons greek yoghurt + 1/4 cup almond milk.

Stomach was happy.

Eaten how I always do- edges first, mass amount of nut butter in the middle last!
Snack: 11:00 am
I feel like you can only see so many pots of peas... so I had a pot of peas. Which were needed after a morning of tests!
Lunch: 1:40pm- Starving
For lunch I prepped some roasted potatoes and roasted white sweet potatoes with spinach, capsicum, cucumber and garlic tofu, in the morning:

There are no words to describe cold roasted potatoes. None.

I'm not going to lie. I ate everything else but the white sweet potatoes so I could enjoy all of them at the end. :)

Snack: 4:00 pm

Ahhh, it all looks so yellow and colourful and pretty :) Again, just what I needed to get through an afternoon of studying for more tests the next day!!

A chopped Fuji apple (favourite type of apple)

With a bright yellow mug of soy milk. Soy milk is required so as I am not hangry by the time dinner rolls round.
Dinner: 7:00 pm

Although, you all know I'm still hangry when dinner time rolls round.

Enter buckwheat and quinoa pasta with steamed pumpkin, parsnip, carrot, beetroot and swede, oven roasted cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and eggplant, mixed with spinach, mixed four beans and lentils and then dolloped with hommus and stirred through- YUM!

Then I was full.
And done with studying. TV and zoning out time!

Tonight's dinner is going to be a little different though as I have my first work trial thing at a small local restaurant (slightly nervous!) and so am planning on eating a small something before and after my trial shift. Wish me luck!!

What about you?
What's a sleep-in for you look like?
Cold roasted potato fan?
What was your first-ever job?

That's it from me today folks, make sure you fill your bodies with something nourishing and equally tasty! Check out what everyone else is nom-ing on over at Peas and Crayons. Bye friends! :D