On the lunch front (and how to improve it!)

What's up, Buttercup? (Why am I not a poet??) ;)

If I had to choose my least favourite meal of the day it would be lunch. Not the food part (as in, not the eating part) but the coming up with lunch creations. I think the pre-conceived idea that lunch = sandwiches for so many of us leads me to go blank when I try to think about other lunch options.

Then I almost always end up with the other typical lunch idea- A salad of some sort.

Recently I've noticed my lunches falling back into old favourites and I feel like I need to spice this up a bit. I want to look forward to lunch- look forward to eating whatever I've packed away for myself. I reckon my mum had it easy when she used to make my lunch in primary school, because all I every asked for was a Vegemite sandwich. Bread, butter, Vegemite- squished to an inch of its life- I was weird ok?- done!)

Yep, she definitely had it easy. Now I'm stuck with the foodie teenager who wants to have her taste buds tantalised and her stomach growling with anticipation when she opens the lid of her pink Tupperware container.

Even on the weekends when I have considerably more time to plan out something awesome for lunch- I resort back to over done meals that feature regularly.

Exhibit A:Veggie sandwich with a chickpea burger patty: (tomato, capsicum, avocado, grilled mushrooms, hommus and spinach)

This was last Sunday (Mother's Day) where I had to rush off to work for 11:45am, so I had to quickly whip something up for lunch. I went with something I've had more times than I can count- it was good, but there's just something about variety that makes a new meal taste great!

Another stand by sandwich for me (I literally have 2- the above fresh veggie sandwich and the one below)
Exhibit B: The grilled veggie sammy:

There's almost always one day of the week where I make my famous grilled veg sandwich to wrap up in some foil and enjoy at school. The first time I did this, the smell, the taste, the sight everything was just incredible. Now- it's still one of my yummiest lunches of the week, but it's lost it's amazing-ness that only variety can achieve.

I do love this sandwich so much though- and even though I have it weekly, my friends still comment about how good it looks/ smells every time!

Exhibit C: The roasted veg...

The other lunch that features weekly is the one with the cold roasted veg.
It's generally a salad, it looks great and fills me up! However having it so often gives me no buzz of excitement when I open the lid to this awesome lunch!

Roasted potato, sweet potato and baby carrots with drained and rinsed red kidney beans and baby spinach.

Cold roasted potato is where it's at, though. That will never change.

Those 3 examples are probably the most common occurrences in my lunch box each week and the other days are generally just a raw chopped salad with either some brans/ tofu added for protein.
I know a lot of people would look at that and be like 'That's a huge variety of lunches, I only ever have ---- (sandwich/ salad/ wrap) each day.' but I'm a creature who likes different foods every single day (and weeks it seems) so it's time to spice things up a bit!

My plan?
Make some awesome dinners- make a lot of that awesome dinner- and use the leftovers in a creative way (chili turned into an awesome wrap creation? Yes!).
On the days when I don't have leftovers- whip up something I've never tried before- even if I'm not sure how it will turn out ;)

Like this lunch: Pesto cous cous salad:

Let me just say- this was awesome! Pesto + wholegrain cous cous + corn + grilled eggplant, zucchini, capsicum and mushrooms + mixed four beans:

Now that's what I call a tasty lunch!

Let the exciting new lunches continue!

Your turn:
What was your typical lunch as a kid? Vegemite sandwich + veggie sticks + muffin/ cookies
Do you ever get stuck in a lunch rut?
What would be on your ultimate sandwich? 

I hope next week seems some awesome lunch creations- for both me and you! If you do have an awesome lunch, feel free to let me know- I love seeing other people's creative creations!! Until next time- bye for now friends! :D

Lemon and Oatmeal? YES!

Hello, hello everyone!
Do you remember way back in August last year (those without a photographic memory may find this a little challenging ;) when I posted a recipe for orange and poppy seed oat bran?

I know I do- because that recipe rocked my world!
As a kid my fav muffin mix to make was orange and poppy seed (yes, from the packet. Hey, I was a kid!) and more often than not, I even preferred the pre-cooked mix to the muffins any way. So I made an orange and poppy seed oat bran to bring me back to the days of scooping out big spoons of the orange and poppy seed cake batter. Ahh the good ol' days.

Just looking at a pic of these muffins makes my mouth salivate!

So can you believe that since August last year I have not added a single drop of citrus to my oats? What am I- crazy!?!

Thankfully my brain reminded me about how good it was by gifting me with a craving for some creamy, lemony oats for breakfast one morning.

I also had an almost empty jar of mixed nut butter too- WIN!

This my friends is a small snippet of bliss. Sweet, lemony, creamy, goodness.

It would be cruel of me not to share the recipe with you!!

Luscious Lemon cake oatmeal:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 small lemon, zested
1/2 of above lemon- juice
1 medium sized and slightly over-ripe banana
1/4 vanilla seed pod, scarped (or just add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence)
1/2 cup almond milk
1/3 cup water

Method:
1. In a medium saucepan place the oats, lemon zest,  juice, thinly sliced banana, vanilla seeds, almond milk and water and stir to combine
2. Cook on medium heat, stirring every so often for about 10 mins or so- or when all the liquid is absorbed
3. Pour into bowl/ mug/ almost empty jar of nut butter and leave to cool for at least 10 mins (It will thicken a bit too :)
4. ENJOY! Top with anything you like- nut butter tasted great, I'm sure coconut butter would taste phenomenal and really anything that goes well with lemon! Go crazy!!

The yellow spoon seemed appropriate. I do like matching my spoon colours to what I'm currently eating.

Seriously though, try this oatmeal- you won't be disappointed!

Simple and delicious- my favourite type of breakfast!

What about you:
What was your favourite muffin flavour as a kid?
Did you prefer the muffin mix, or the cooked muffin? I always thought the mix tasted soooo good, making sure to never put all of it in the tins so I could eat some while they cooked :) I'm pretty sure my brother once just made up a mix of brownies to eat the mix from the bowl, with no intention of the cooking them ;)
Ever put citrus in your oats? I love adding citrus to smoothies too- awesome tropical flavour!

That's it from me today folks- I hope you all have an awesome day and eat something yummy! Bye friends! :)

SUNDAY LINKS!!

Hello lovelies! Happy Sunday!!
Even though it's dark and dreary and rainy over here in Aus (I miss Summer!) my day still started off great with a 40 min treadmill run (For those of you who hate running on the treadmill- bring something to read, I use my iPad, the time goes by super fast!) that resulted in a lot of sweat! Followed by some delicious raspberry steel cut oats with peanut butter...

Basically a PB & J bowl of oats :)
Raspberries:

 Plus 1 thinly sliced banana, around 1/2- 2/3 cup steel cut oats and a sprinkle of chia seeds:

 Cooked with 1 cup almond milk and 1 cup water until all the liquid's absorbed.
PB in the bottom of the mug and in the middle of the oats for even coverage- IMPORTANT! :D

 Top it off with the rest of the pretty pink oats and more peanut butter and you're good to go:

 Even though it was bucketing down, it wasn't too cold outside, so I enjoyed my wonderfully late breakfast outside listening to the rain :) Ahhh Sunday- you are awesome!!

 Speaking of Sunday, how about some fun links from the week?

Fun/ Awesome:

This Is What It Would Look Like If “Friends” Were On TV Today

These Designers Want To Remove The Stigmas Surrounding Mental Illness

The terrible and wonderful reasons why I run long distances

Fitness/ Running:

Eat fat, be fit

30 workouts to stay in shape while traveling

How to exercise your mental muscle

How to carb load the right way

Food/Nutrition:

 

Vegan falafel curry

Red Pepper & Almonds Pasta Sauce

Perfect sweet potato burgers

Chocolate chip whip cream bars topped with cookie crisp cereal

 

Activated almonds anyone?

Runner tested veggie burgers

 

 There you have it! I hope you found some interesting reads in the above links as I did! Have a wonderfully relaxing Sunday, eat something utterly delicious, be kind to your body and have a great day! Bye for now friends!! :D