Thinking Out Loud- The Food Edition!

Hidy ho friendly friends and happy Thursday!

On Thursday's we Think Out Loud, thanks to the awesome Spoons and today I am thinking about FOOD! Shocker, I know ;).

Any who, I like food, you like food, we all like food, so let's jump into the randomness that is food (from my passed week!).

1. I go through phases of being a smooth or a crunchy lover.
Which is kind of strange, because it is the age old debate! You know what I mean:

 The smooth vs Crunchy debate has also sparked multiple arguments and feuds between my friends (including me! Depending which type I'm liking at the moment ;) over which is superior and which is totally gross.

I don't really get how a few chunks can make that much of a difference to taste... but I know as a kid I wouldn't even consider putting crunchy peanut butter in my sandwich! Strange, huh?

As I said before, now-a-days, it's whatever I'm feeling like when I'm at the shops that gets thrown in my trolley:

Finishing off the crunchy with some choc protein oats :)

Opening up the smooth:

I totally see the love for smooth.. but sometimes crunchy just adds that little extra something!

2. Speaking of phases. Guess which obsession is back?

Not pesto.

Not cookies.

Not oats.

Nope.
We're back to roast potatoes!

Baby potatoes, orange sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, Japanese sweet potatoes, regular white potatoes... ALL THE POTATOES!

You know how much I love my Japanese white sweet potato... and that love has come back strong!!

That texture and flavour though...

I'm pretty sure I may have eaten my weight in different types of potato this past week!

3. On the topic of potatoes:

This dinner contained potatoes, which means it is relevant. In saying that (even though they were amazing) I'm not talking about the potatoes (which were lovingly roasted in delicious coconut oil along with some cut up parsnip!).

Nope I'm talking about this delightful side which I should definitely be making more often:

It was simply some steamed greens topped off with some vegan cheese. Like a cheesey bake of some sort and so, so, so delicious (and simple) this sure was a winner. Especially if you're not a fan of the taste of plain steamed veg (I wasn't really feeling it that night) this will take it to a whole new level. Who knows, you might even enjoy eating your veg?

4. Sometimes I lie with my food pictures though.

You know the jist. Taking a picture of a plate of food misrepresenting the amount you actually eat. I mean, take a look at this:

I claim this to be my dinner. When it actual fact, while I was taking the photograph I was also nom-ing on...

A CARROT! Bum, bum, buuuuuuum!

In all seriousness though, I do know that some bloggers conveniently forget the fact that along with their miniscule salad they ate for dinner they might have had a cookie, or a chocolate or something, so don't believe everything you read! You had absolutely no idea about that carrot!

Until I showed you.

:)

5. Lastly, what's the deal with coconut flour.

I keep coming back to it every now and again to see if it somehow magically got easier to work with when baking, and every time I'm severely disappointed in the results. See, I generally use it to make microwave mug cakes, but they just turn out so dense and chewy and weirdly cooked and.. yeh.

Banana +

Almond milk, spelt flour, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking powder, coconut, chia seeds, rolled oats and oat bran:

Mix it up and...

The coconut flour soaked up ALL the liquid! Had to add more water because I was out of milk.
Microwaved for around 2 mins and topped with coconut butter:

I mean it still tasted pretty darn tasty, I just think coconut flour is more hassle then it's worth.

I still ate the whole thing of course- it had a great flavour!

Aaaaand that's been my life currently in regards to food!

Your turn:

Smooth or crunchy nut butters?

 Current food obsession?

Have you had any success baking with coconut flour? Any horror stories? ;)

Want to see what everyone else is thinking about this Thursday? Head on over to Spoons to find out!

 I hope you all have a fabulous day, take some time out to do something you truly enjoy and as alaways; eat something delicious! Bye for now friends!! :D

WIAW #72 Yum-tastic eats!!

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you're all having a great day and are eating/have eaten/ will eat something utterly delicious. Because everyone should eat something delicious. It's a law. Seriously.

And if I'm somehow mistaken and it isn't a law.... it should be.

Okidokie, now onto...

THE FOOD!! On Wednesdays we wear pink share our daily eats. So let's go. Thanks as always to Peas and Crayons for this awesome link-up!!

P.s. these eats are carefully selected from Monday :)

Breakfast: 7:25am
The day started off with some lovely yoga! Recently I've been getting into yoga with Fightmaster yoga on Youtube- super fun!

And then I was hungry. So I ate food.

Inspirational? I try.

Smoothie bowl!!!

Smoothie:

 Frozen banana + frozen zucchini + greek yoghurt + frozen blackberries + spinach + water- whazzed until smooth and paced in the freezer to harden up a little.

Meanwhile; granola cooking and smelling up the house with deliciousness:

 If you can tell by the picture there were two different nut butter granolas that I put together; peanut butter and mixed nut butter. So goooood!

 After hanging out in the freezer for a while:

 See, I can touch it!

 + granola

 + mixing up the semi-frozen top with the rest of the smoothie

 = happy Steph!

 Extreme close up to get you drooling:

 And several hundred pictures because I took so many:

 Breakfast was good!

Snack: 11:00am
Guys, I finally changed things up for my snack!

But you and I both know I didn't.

Peas. For the win.

Lunch: 1:15pm
T'was also a good one:

 Coconut oil roasted taters (baby and Japanese white sweet potato) spinach and a veggie and quinoa veggie burger.

 Nom.

Snack: 3:45pm
A sliced up pear (too soft, I prefer suuuuper hard ones!) with a mug of soy milk:

 Just what I needed. I was HUNGRY!

Dinner: 6:45pm
Dinner was another good one. I wasn't feeling too great and if I even pictured grains/ bread I felt sick. So I cooked up what sounded good!

 ALL. THE. VEG. Eggplant, zucchini, brussels, broccoli, capsicum, red onion mushrooms and tomato. Placed on a tray and roasted in the oven at 180 degrees for around 40-45mins.

 Topped off with two soft poached eggs and some sliced avocados:

 So good. And just because I think your neck needs a stretch, here's a pic of the awesome runny yolk 'sauce' of my dinner sideways! (not intended ;)

 After dinner I remembered that I was super hungry so I had a pretty big handful of almonds :P

Your turn:
Are you a fan of Youtube yoga?
Favourite smoothie bowl add-ins? 
Ever just crave the veg?

Hungry for more? Check out what everyone else is eating this WIAW!

I hope you all have a hippidy-hop day (I think that's good. It sounds good.) eat something DELICIOUS and just smile! Bye friends!! :D

A freezer meal (with dessert!!)

Hidy-ho folks!
I hope your week has been traveling well so far and if it's been anything like mine; flying along so far! Where does time go??

Any who, that's not why I'm here today.

Nope, today I have a treat for youuuuu! Raise your hand if you like lasagne.

Raise your hand if you like fudge.

Ok, now lower both your hands down because you look quite strange with both your arms up in the air! ;)

You may remember me mentioning the hectic-ness of life returning with early morning athletics training and the rest of life as well, so today I thought I'd give you two recipes that I made over the weekend to make this week a little easier (and a lot more delicious!).

And yep, it's freezer friendly lasagne and fudge (not together, that would be a little too strange but good!)

First and foremost- to make a good lasagne, you need a good bolognaise sauce-type thing. This one just happens to be healthy and choc full of veggies too. Did I forget to mention the whole recipe is vegan? :)

Ingredients:
1 handful diced onion
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 whole tomato chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
some cracked black pepper
3 button mushrooms, chopped
1/4 carrot, grated
3/4 cup lentils, drained and rinsed
3-4 slices eggplant (around 0.5cm thick)
3-4 slices capsicum
1 tablespoon tahini
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

Method:
1. Into a saucepan throw in a handful of diced onion, 1/2 teaspoon garlic and 1 teaspoon of oil and cook on medium heat for  few mins until softened and fragrant.
2. Add the tomato and mushrooms and cook until softened (you may want to add in 1/4 cup water at this stage)
3. Throw in the dried herbs, pepper and carrot along with 1/4 cup water (if previous water has evaporated) and cook until tomatoes fall apart (around 3-5 mins)
4. Add the lentils and grated carrot and stir to combine.
5. Cook on low for 5 minutes until most of water is absorbed (still want some), stirring occasionally (add more water if required)

6. Meanwhile place the eggplant and capscium in a frypan over medium heat and cook until softened through:

7. Stir the tahini, nutritional yeast and 2 tablespoons water together in a small bowl.
8. Now layer up!
1st: some lentil bolognaise:

Then either eggplant/ capsicum 'pasta' sheets

Followed by some 'cheese tahini sauce'

Repeated until reaching the top:

9. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes or until golden on top and bubbling!
10. Remove from oven to cool:

11. And transfer to container for freezing!

Lasagne layer love:

Now picture this. A frozen lasagne all ready and waiting for you in the freezer...

AS WELL as some choc fudge bites! YES!!

Ingredients:
1/3 heaped cup rolled oats
tablespoon oat bran
2 pitted dates
1-2 tablespoons peanut butter (I chose two :)
1 tablespoon choc protein powder
1 heaped teaspoon raw cacao powder
2 heaped tablespoons greek yoghurt

Method:
1.Place everything but the yoghurt into a small food processor and whaz until broken up into what resembles very fine bread crumbs

2. Place in a bowl, add the yoghurt and stir to combine:

It will be quite fudgey and delicious!
3. Roll into ball and freeze in a container until required!

These bad boys will not disappoint and served as a great brekky for me post-athletics training!

So there you have it- lasagne AND chocolate fudge bites, both freezer friendly, health friendly and super duper tasty!

Give these a go if you're short on time during the working week and still want a taste sensation to bring a smile to your face in the midst of all the crazy! Have yourself a great day!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D