Smoothies... and the weird things I put in them

Smoothies are one of my absolute favourite meals. True.

I fill smoothies with all the typical ingredients. False.

Now, I'm not saying that my smoothies are made up of the leftover roast veggies and tofu I had last night, or that I throw in some tomato sauce for added flavour. No, I add in strange ingredients to add to the awesome-ness that is a smoothie.

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Adding silken tofu for added creaminess, thickness and filling protein, some frozen avocado for a deliciously ice-cream like texture, soaked oats for a cake batter flavour,spinach and kale for all their benefits and vibrant colours, mint for an mouth-watering
chocolate and mint combo, even steamed and mashed pumpkin for added flavour and... magical pumpkin powers.

 I have no fear when it comes to adding slightly odd foods that you wouldn't consider smoothie worthy, to my smoothies and there are quite a few other strange (but probably amazing) ingredients that I have yet to try!

I hear sweet potato makes an awesome smoothie addition and that quinoa adds great volume and filling protein to the delicious drink.

There was one ingredient I cam across however that left me slightly sceptical.

Frozen zucchini.

See, growing up I'd only thought of zucchini as that disgusting green veggie that was always served to me extremely mushy and cooked to the point of appearing almost grey (it kinda grew on me and now I sometimes overcook my zucchini circles voluntarily!). It was definitely on the list of some of my least favourite vegetables along with cauliflower and mushrooms.

I also didn't realise it was possible to eat raw zucchini until I started blogging myself and immersed myself into the Healthy Living community (where I read numerous blogs showcasing pictures of cut up raw veg including zucchini and cauliflower, as a snack.

So, for a while, I always told myself I should try frozen zucchini in my smoothies, and then never got around to it.

Until yesterday.

The night before, I cut up 1/2  a medium zucchini, popped it in a zip lock bag and chucked it in the freezer overnight.

The next day, I threw the zucchini, a chopped frozen banana, 1/4 frozen avocado, spinach, greek yoghurt, vanilla protein powder, crunchy peanut butter, soaked oats in macadamia milk and some water into a blender and blended until smooth.

The result was a HUGE green smoothie, super thick, super delicious, it was simply SUPER!

There was absolutely no trace of the zucchini (and spinach for that matter) other than the gorgeous bright green colour, and with the delicious flavours of banana, peanut butter and cake-batter like protein powder, this totally hit the spot!

If you're looking for something to add more substance, nutrients and creaminess to your smoothies without sacrificing on the taste- zucchini is the answer!!

Boy was I full after this monster!!

As usual, the thicker the better, I love straining to get the thick smoothie threw the straw- it lasts longer and gives my mouth a workout!!

So double tick for frozen zucchini!

Your turn:
What strange ingredient/s do you add to your smoothies?
Have you ever added frozen zucchini?
thick or thin smoothies? If it requires a spoon to eat, it is perfect for me!

That's it from me today friends, I hope you all have a lovely day, remember to smile and as usual eat something delicious!! Bye for now! :D

Feeding the beast!

Hello friendly friends and happy WEEKEND!! Yay!

Now, the topic of today is a serious one.

Super serious, super important and needs to be discussed. It's just too big of a deal not be thought about and put into words for the world to know.

Monumental, even, in it's entirety.

It's my hunger.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only teenage girl in my year who experiences [extreme] hunger. Who experiences the deep, demanding throb of an empty stomach, pounding for food, or the magnificent hallucinations my brain conjures up of beautiful plates and bowls of food.

And that's probably true ;)

Any who, if you're a long time reader of Steph 2 Chef, you would have noticed that I seem to go through phases of being ravenously hungry at every meal, to not even feeling a slight tinge of hunger, even upon waking up (which is INSANE for me!)

Currently? I'M HUNGRY!!

Exhibit A:

 Whipping up MONSTER smoothies that are basically over flowing with creamy deliciousness.

Exhibit B:

 Enjoying snack plates for lunch...

 Yes, snack platessss :)

Exhibit C:
Oats, oats for everyone (but not really, just for me. Because I'm hungry!)

 And you thought this overflowing jar of oats was it? You should have seen the saucepan :)

 More oats...

 Plus more nut butter to ensure the staying power... stays!

 Exhibit D:
Coconut oil for all the veggies!!

 To make a simple pasta dish that much more satisfying.

 There was also some hommus added in afterward!

So you see friends, the hunger is real!

But the thing that confuses me most is why?

I mean, flashback to around 2-3 months ago and I was running for around 1.5-2 hours, logging around 20km each time and doing some other workouts on the side (which was too much for my body btw.) and yet, I didn't actually feel all that hungry.

Now, after reducing my exercise significantly, and doing less cardio each week- I'm starving??

I know enough now to listen to my body and feed it when it tells me it needs food and my body looks exactly the same as it did when I was over training.

Some of my thoughts include:
With the addition of weights into my routine, my muscles need fuel to grow :)
As it is Winter and I FEEL the cold, all that shivering amounts for a loss of energy :)
After putting my body through ridiculous amounts of cardio for quite some time, it's finally de-stressing and is trying to repair itself, requiring fuel to do so.

There are some other, more personal signs, that I may not be eating enough to properly fuel my body so it can properly function, and it seems to be becoming more and more prevalent amongst many bloggers I follow, who have been through the same sorts of things and found that reducing exercise and eating more fixed their problems, so maybe it is just my bodies way of telling me that's what I should do.

Whatever the case may be, the body is hungry, food is amazing, and therefore I shall eat!

Your turn:
Do you ever go through stages in your life where you have uncontrollable hunger and then zero desire to eat?
Has a change in your exercise routine ever affected your diet?
Have you ever had to significantly increase your food intake to ensure your body's functioning properly?

That's it from me today guys. I hope you all have something nice planned for your weekend, and if not, plan something nice! Even if it's just an hour to yourself to do whatever it is you feel like! Bye for now!! :D

Thinking Out Loud- What baffles me!

Hidy-ho friends and happy, happy Thursday!

First of all, the weather. Because that is an acceptable topic to discuss in an introduction and I feel like it needs to be discussed.

Winter, go away!

Ok, discussion over.

Ha ha, okay let me expand. It is Winter over here in Aus and as much as I like rugging up, shuffling around the house with a big, fluffy duna wrapped around me like a very puffy vertically standing caterpillar, there is no way I can get away with doing that at school; a place where I spend the majority of my time! So Winter- go away! I want Summer back!!

Now, with that random intro out of the way, why don't we jump into the other random thoughts that have been traveling around my head during the week in the Thinking Out Loud Style! As always, thanks to the awesome Spoons for hosting this link-up each week!

1. It absolutely baffles me how quickly I can fill up a memory card, now that I'm a food blogger. To be quite honest with you, I didn't actually memory cards could fill up as I had never done so with my regular cameras one.

Since starting this blog, I've gone through about 5.

Yep.

2. Another thing that baffles me is the amount of mess I can create after cooking something as simple as oats.

Like, where did all this stuff come from? And why does it take that much longer to pack it all away than it does to get it out and make a huge mess? Life's not fair!

3. On the topic of number 2, I have a question for you:
Do you guys make a meal and sit down as soon as it's finished cooking to eat it, or do you have to clean up the kitchen entirely before you enjoy your meal.

I think I do both. At breakfast, I am so so so hungry that I make whatever it is I'm making, add some water to whatever bowls/ saucepans I used to create said breakfast and then EAT!

When it comes to dinner, however, I like to have everything cleaned up and packed away so I can enjoy my meal and not have to worry about a massive clean up afterwards.

Strange.

4. What are your thoughts on artichoke?

Artichoke is still a very foreign vegetable to me and I still don't think I've found the perfect way to cook/ eat it. I decided this time to steam/ roast it and then eat the leaves dipped in hommus (because it's the closest thing to the typical butter sauce without any butter ;).

I'd love to hear your favourite way of cooking/ preparing/ eating it. Tips are appreciated!!

5. When I was making a list of different blog posts I wanted to write this week I scrolled through my post list and noticed that I had three un-titled draft posts. I clicked curiously on the drafts and was left scrolling through pictures and pictures of past meals that didn't make the blog.

Does anyone else find that they have so many pics they want to share but so little posts to share them in? That and the fact that most of the time a picture of a perfectly boiled egg isn't really all that relevant! ;)

 6. Lastly, this wouldn't be a thinking out loud post if I didn't talk about the week that was my exercise (seriously, this seems to come up every week!) So what's changed?

Nothing, really. Still loving lifting, still loving HIIT, still loving shorter faster runs. I like being in this phase where nothing is really hurting/ stressful/ too good/ too bad. It's a good place to be and it's times like this that go unappreciated. You only think about them when they're gone. So I'm thinking about it now!

 Aaaaannddd that's probably a wrap on this week. Just some of the thoughts tumbling through my mind as I juggle the rest of the hectic nature of life.

Your turn:
Do you go through memory cards at a terrifying rate?
Are you a clean up before/ after eating person?
Favourite form of movement for your body currently?


Want to see what everyone else is thinking about? Head on over to Spoons!

Have yourself an utterly fabulous day, smile, give someone a compliment and give yourself a compliment- 'coz you deserve it!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D

WIAW #68 Just another Manic Monday

Hidy-ho friends and happy Wednesday!
Super-pumped that the week has flown by (it's been quite the stressful/ busy one in these parts with many stressful decision as well as the busy-ness from assignments/tests/homework) and also super pumped that it is Wednesday for the reason of....

WIAW! Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for being the creator of this awesome link party and providing me with so much foodspiration from the links added to the WIAW link-up! #AlwaysDrooling

For this WIAW I have included a full day of eats from Monday- typical, delicious and filled with food!!

Breakfast: 7:30 am
Monday morning started bright and early at around 6:15 ish with some early morning weights! I'm finding that I'm looking forward to these days in my exercise routine more and more... and the hunger associated with dumbbell lifting etc. is real folks!

So after around 25 mins of dumbbell work, I poured some oats with barely flakes into a saucepan along with a sliced banana and sliced rhubarb stick, some macadamia milk and water and cooked down until absorbed (5-10 mins)

With some greek yoghurt stirred in at the end and an almost empty jar of mixed nut butter to serve as a bowl, breakfast was ready!

Rhubarb adds such an awesome tang and texture to the oats and pairs so well with the greek yoghurt- definitely give it a try!

Snack: 11:00 am
PEAS. But you already knew that.

Lunch: 1:15 pm
After another 2 periods, the stomach was growling...

Luckily, preparation the night before enabled me to enjoy a super delicious lunch of roasted baby potatoes, roasted white sweet potato (eerrrmmaagguuuhhhdd) spinach, lentil and eggplant falafel and perfectly ripe and juicy tomato.

Pat on the back past Steph. Present Steph was very happy!

Future Steph is jealous.

Snack: 4:00 pm
I tell you, there's something about lifting weights that creates a whole new level of hunger for me! By 4 I was STARVING!

A super crisp and crunchy pear (just the way I like it) with a mug of soy milk to wash it all down!

The picture doesn't do justice to the size of that pear!!
Dinner: 6:45 pm
Come dinner time, the hunger was back, I steamed up a whole bunch of veggies (pumpkin, beetroot, parsnip, carrot and swede), mashed them up, sautéed off some mushrooms, drained some mixed beans and lentil and threw in some spinach for good measure. Topping it all off with a few globs of hommus. Mighty tasty.

Yes, quite similar to baby mush, no I don't care, it tasted awesome. :)

After dinner the hunger was still hanging round so I rounded out the say with 2 dates.

What about you?
Do you lift weights? Do you look forward to it?
Have you found that on days you do lift weights you're super-duper hungry?
Ever make up a big bowl of easy to chew and digest food?

I hope you all had a delicious Wednesday and if you're hungry for more, don't forget to check out what everyone else has been nom-ing on!

Bye for now friendly friends!! :D

Avocado- more than just guac!!

Quick, first thing that comes to your head when you see...

AVOCADOS!

Now, I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and assume that the majority of people would go straight to guacamole. Go to the shops to buy an avocado? Probably making guac (unless you're part of the more creative food blogging community who buys it, freezes it and whazzes it into smoothies!) But I'm talking in general.

You may/may not know this (I think I've mentioned it once or twice) but avocados and I have a long and complicated past. Long in the sense that I only really truly started eating them and enjoying them around a year and a half ago and complicated in that I told myself I absolutely detested them for the 14+ years prior to that. I mean, who goes up to their worst enemy one day and says; 'I love you!'

Awkward.

It's all good though, now. Avocado has forgiven me :)

Anywho, even though I have only been enjoying avocados for a short, sweet time, I have come to realise that they are truly an amazing food. Like eggs, they can magically change the properties and textures of dishes and their mild flavour means I can add them to just about anything- sweet and savoury!

Heck, if you miraculously find yourself mindlessly scrolling through pinterest (this happens way too often to me!) and you type in avocado, the grand array of different types of recipes that pop up is astounding! Anything from the famous avocado chocolate mousse to ice cream, cupcakes, cookies, brownies and more!

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I have also been one to dabble with avocados magical properties, as shown in my own version of avocado ice cream:

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My favourite chocolate green monster smoothie: 

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Using it's creamy properties in a pasta sauce:

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And of course, the many many times I have mashed up my avocado with some lemon juice and enjoyed it as guacamole like the rest of the world :)

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So where am I going with this?

I simply wanted to make it known that food should be experimented with. We should be constantly trying new ideas out on foods that have traditional meals associated with them. Only then will we come across the ridiculously awesome creations like the creamy chocolate avocado mousse, or the vegan meringue made from the juice of chickpeas.

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Never stop by just eating your food as it comes. Play with it (yep, you're allowed!) and discover all the different tastes/textures/appearances these foods can create. 

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Of course there are days when I just slice open my avo and chop it up to place it on top of a piece of toast with an egg, or baked beans, or the best combo ever:

Avocado + Vegemite on a wholemeal toasted crumpet. Perfection.

So here's to avocado; so much more than meets the eye!

Your turn:
How do you eat avocado?
Do you ever find yourself sticking to certain foods with certain meals because it's traditional?
Most creative dish you've made with a strange ingredient (for said meal)?

Just food for thought on this fine Monday! Hope you all have a fabulous day, eat something delicious and just smile! Bye friends!! :D