WIAW - IPhone Edition & 6 reasons you should consider being a cat

It is Wednesday again so its time for WIAW. Big thanks to Jen for hosting. Check out her awesome blog, wacky humour and yummy recipes here.

Since I have had such an insanely busy week, I thought I might be super hipster and take all my pics iphone style AKA I have been too lazy to pull out my dslr and take proper shots.

For Breakfast I have been having chocolate protein oats with mixed berries every morning.
So easy and quick to make - just oats, half a scoop of chocolate protein powder, almond milk & mixed berries.
Pop into the microwave and watch it explode (I always put it on for way too long)

Work was super busy so I grabbed a can of salmon so I wasn't starving.

Of course, I had one (or two) coffees with almond milk throughout the day....

Lunch was super yum. Sanitarium Veggie Burger with a head of pan-fried brocolli.
Salsa is fantastic on everything so I added a dollop for flavour.

Work quieted down a bit in the afternoon so I made my new favourite yummy and warming snack.
I don't know if I mentioned this previously but they only have about 75cal but are super filling.

The boy had a bad day so I made him steak and veggies.
In Australia this is kinda a staple old school dish and something Josh loves.
For veggies we had steamed brocolli, zuchinni and honeyed carrots.
I also made 'healthy mash' which is 1 white potato and 1 sweet potato with greek yoghurt, chopped chives and chicken stock. This tastes the same (I think better) than regular mash.

And I am sooo bummed! I didn't take a picture of the lovely lemon meringue pie I made!

I just dug in and remembered after I had already demolished it :(

I am super excited! I have the rest of the week off work and I have plans of doing a blog redesign so if your viewing this blog later in the week and you wondering what the heck is going on (FYI it is me breaking it!)

I also have a bundle of wedding planning to do so I will be so relieved to get some of that stuff sorted.

Sorry I had to share this. It is just sooo cute!!

What is everyone elses plans for the remainder of the week?

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Anniversary Dinner at Gips Restaurant

 

 A few nights ago, Josh and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary with a very indulgent dinner at Gip's Restaurant. A while ago I posted a sneak peak at our Wedding Venue but we had still never dined at this highly regarded restaurant. This was for a few reasons, we wanted to make it a special event if we did go there AND Gip's is a little out of our wining and dining budget. 

Just before we were about to head off, Josh surprised me with Peanut Butter M&Ms. These actually are pretty hard to come by in Australia, only a few stores in Toowoomba sell them so I was so excited that he got some for me. We had previously decided no presents since we knew our dinner would be expense enough but I guess he just loves me (and knows how much I love PB M&Ms)

While we were trying to decide what to order, I asked for a Champagne cocktail which contained Raspberry Sorbet, mixed berries and champers of course!  The boy is very happy with a beer so Corona it was for him :)

At the start of the night, I was determined I would make this a three course event so for my entree I picked the 'Seared Scallops, cauliflower puree, pinenut texture, watercress, currants, persian feta & lemon air' The dish was divine - perfectly cooked scallops and all the other elements were perfect. Josh was super impressed by the foam (or lemon air) because we are avid viewers of the Masterchef series so we were able to try something similar to what they do on the show.

The boy ordered 'Seared tiger prawns, prociutto wrapped monkfish, green pea risotto, creme fraiche & micro herbs'  He was pretty happy with his dish, of course it was delicious but Josh is always disappointed by the difference in quality of seafood from where we used to live (a coastal town with an abundance of fresh seafood) to where we live now.

Onto mains, I ordered the 'Orange & thyme duck breast, braised French lentils, wilted spinach,celeriac puree, cherry & walnut pie, cherry jus'  I always pick duck if I can and this was a lovely dish but probably my favourite part of the whole dish was the cherry & walnut pie. It was so sweet and delicious.

I knew the boy would pick 'Rib eye on the bone 400g, potato & thyme rosti, roast swiss brown mushrooms, paris butter, dutch carrots, béarnaise sauce' for his main. He was not disappointed. The steak was cooled perfectly and he really liked the accompaniments :)

I was absolutely stuffed by the end of dinner and desperately wanted to try a dessert but I knew I wouldn't be able to fit it in. Josh was eager to continue though and ordered Brioche bread & butter pudding fine chocolate sauce with maple & walnut icecream. All I could manage was to eat the strawberry on his plate and a tiny spoonful of icecream haha.

I forgot to take a picture of the boys dessert before he dug in!

 Overall, it was a perfect night (♥ with an absolutely perfect man ♥) and so fun because it was something completely out of the ordinary for us. We are so happy we picked Gip's for our wedding and now know our guests are going to have an awesome time :)

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WIAW - Asparagus Love & New Food Discoveries!

Good WIAW to all you fine people across the globe.
Jen is of course the hostess of this fun and hunger inducing party. Check out her awesome blog, wacky humour and yummy recipes here.


Onto my day of food...

Breakfast - My favourite breakfast of all time. Asparagus with eggs. To be precise, pan fried asparagus with 1 egg/2 egg whites and topped with a blop of salsa.

I may have an unhealthy addiction to asparagus ♥

Unpictured is my morning coffee fix with ALMOND milk. In the past few months I have converted from trim milk to rice milk and now to almond milk and I think I am in love. In the past I tried almond milk and it was soooo disgusting. I had been reading all my favourite food bloggers raving about almond milk and I just thought they were all bonkers! Until I came across Almond Breeze! YUMMM!

Moving onto lunch, on Sunday I prepared my weekday lunches by knocking up a batch of quinoa 'fried rice' I adapted the recipe from one of my favourite websites of all time. (my version just included a frozen pack of asian greens because I ran out of fresh veggies)
This was actually my first time trying quinoa and I LIKE it... a lot :) 

My tummy was getting a tad rumbly mid afternoon so I prepared one of my squeeze tubes of tomato soup. A few people asked about these last week and I think they are pretty new to Australia. They look to be condensed tomato soup (and other tomato based soups varieties) in a tube. You just squeeze the contents into a mug and fill with boiling water. It tastes pretty good to me, so if you like tomato soup and if you can find it. Give it a try. I am loving them because they are easy to make, portable and perfect for work!

For dinner I was feeling pretty lazy after a big day at work so I just cut up an onion, popped it into a fry pan with some lean mince, added some frozen spinach (I bagged and froze a bunch of spinach after a bumper garden crop), an egg and 100g of feta. 

I divided the mixture among ramekins and topped with puff pastry. Into the oven until the pastry was crispy and dinner was served!

I finished my day with a cornetto...

It was a bit of an indulgence but oh so yummy!

I think the boy agrees :)

To finish my WIAW, let me leave you with this pretty bunch of roses! 

Thanks so much for reading! I love reading the comments that you lovely people leave :)

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Preston Peak Winery - Parental Outing

My parentals came to visit on a recent weekend so we thought we would take them for a drive and explore our lovely town.

Generally, the boy and I keep to our regular favourite places to have coffee and brunch but we decided to go crazy and try somewhere else :) So happy we did because Preston Peak Winery & Cafe was delicious and the location was completely gorgeous!

Be warned I am about to photo bomb you into another dimension :)

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WIAW - Summer Compensation & Best (Healthy) Lasagna in the UNIVERSE

Welcome to another edition of WIAW!
Hosted by the ridiculously good looking Jen over at Peas & Crayons! 

Even though I am freezing my butt off this Winter in one of the coldest towns in Sunny Queensland.

I am still trying (a little bit) to share in the fun of the Summer Staples theme for this month - maybe if I pretend hard enough then I will be able to crawl out of my snuggie...

Breakfast today consisted of an experimental 'summer' smoothy.
~ 1 small frozen banana ~
~ cup of blueberries ~
 ~ 1/2 cup of natural yoghurt ~
~ 1/2 scoop of chocolate protein powder ~
~ Handful of ice ~

Am I crazy for trying to drink a freezing cold smoothy in the middle of winter? Yes, yes I am.
Am I intentionally trying to catch pneumonia and freeze to death? Not intentionally but it is on the cards.

In a vain attempt to dethaw after injecting liquid winter into my veins for breakfast I decided to try this new cool soup  tube for a snack. Matched with some wakeup coffee I managed to make it through the first half of the day.

Cue dull salad for lunch. Baby Spinach, tomato, red capsicum (bell pepper), sugarsnap beans and marinated steak with nutritional yeast. I forgot salad dressing! Woe is me! So I crunched through a boring salad for lunch.

I am loving popcorn at the mo. Low calorie and hits the spot when I start getting hungry at the end of the work day :)

Now get ready be witness to the most delicious and healthy lasagna I have ever tasted!

I don't know about you guys... but I LOVE LOVE LOVE lasagna!

Due to the insane amount of calories in my classic go to recipe for traditional lasagna I hardly ever make it unless I am wanting a blow out.

I think it will become a staple now I have found the skinnytaste.com zucchini version. Cheesy, delicious and pasta free! Prepping the zucchini did take a bit of work but it was so worth the wait!

We paired a portion of lasagna with steamed sugar snap beans and plenty of broccoli :)

I picked up a few skinny cow products on sale in my last grocery trip. Tonight I treated myself to a delicious summery caramel sundae! Sooo good and such a perfect (and not too unhealthy) sweet finish to my day!

If you have recently found a staple healthy alternative to a favourite food please share it with me!

Happy WIAW :)

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