WIAW - Getting back to normal

Everything has been a whirlwind since the wedding day. My eating has been going up and down, healthy food, not so healthy food, too much food and too many skipped meals. Now that I am back from honeymoon (unfortunately) and back to work, I feel like there is a little more routine to my day and I feel like my eating is getting back to normal.

Before I start breakfast or a workout in the morning I have been adding Define8 + Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) cocktail to my day. Define8 is a energy booster/pre-workout supplement which is awesome to get me through a tough morning workout and to kick start my day. I have also been trying to take a bit of ACV in the morning to receive the myriad of health benefits associated with it.

Breakfast this morning was pretty similar to most of my breakfasts, an english muffin with egg + egg whites along with some grilled asparagus. 

My new husband also made me a delicious and cute cappuccino to go along with breakfast. 

These delicious little eggs have been featuring predominantly in my diet this week before Easter. It is quite difficult to resist when they are freely offered at work! 

Lunch was quite healthy and a little bit boring. A steam pack of peas, beans and corn along with some Nando's marinated chicken. If you can pick up any of these Nando's cooking sauces I highly recommend them, they are delicious :)

Dinner doesn't look too exciting either but it was so yum! I topped some chicken thighs with sundried tomato pesto & goats cheese and roasted it in the oven. I served the chicken alongside roasted potato and a tasty mediterranean style salad.

And that is about all I have to share with you today, please be sure to check out Jen's blog and join in the WIAW party.

Also check back here in the next few days for the start of my wedding series of posts!

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The Last Thing

Last thing I bought...

I finally caved and bought myself a Clarisonic after reading and watching so many rave reviews on how it can improve and clear skin. I bought the Plus model but after reading multiple YouTube reviews I think I could've saved myself a bit of money by just buying the Mia version. Anyhoo... I am excited to see how this works! For those interested in Australia, Adorebeauty.com sells it and I noticed they also sell many US brands that I find hard to come by here. If anyone wants a review on this once I have tried it out, please let me know.

Last thing I ate...

This Coconut Cod in Parchment Paper was a hit in our house. They boy hates coriander so I try to sneak it into lots of food so one day he will secretly love it. I told him after he gobbled this up that ALL the green was coriander... he didn't believe me at first and then admitted it was delicious. PS All Bev's recipes are amazing, go check out her blog and be as jealous of her food photography as I am.

Last Blog I Read...

I always look forward to catching up on Anna's blog. I find her very relatable. She enjoys good food, fashion/makeup, is in the mist of wedding plans (which I am loving!) and is so very genuine on her blog.

Last pang of Wanderlust...

I want to be here. Ziplining looks like so much fun! I don't even think I would be scared if I had a view like this one in Grindelwald, Switzerland. Sighhh...

And finally! The reason I have been AWOL for sooo long!

Last wedding I had...

It was such an amazing, memorable day! I can't wait to share more with you guys very, very soon!

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Christmas 2012 Recap!

Merry belated Christmas to all! I hope every one had a wonderful holiday.

I have had a very relaxing Christmas break - I was on-call for work but luckily I can address any issues from home so it didn't cause much of a disruption to my holidays...

It was impossible to travel for Christmas due to work so my family travelled the 5 hours from their home to ours to spend Christmas with me and the boy. Although it was pretty hot for the majority of the Christmas week it was still awesome to spend time with the fam!

Much to my delight, Christmas started off with a delicious breakfast prepared by my mum and I. Soon to be followed by presents!

Toasted Turkish Bread ~ Roasted Asparagus ~ Roasted Tomato ~ Roasted Potatoes ~ Prosciutto Wrapped Chipolatas ~ Soft Boiled Eggs ~ Cappuccinos ~ Mimosas (my new favourite cocktail!)

After everyone was stuffed and satisfied the gifting began. We all gathered around the tree and distributed pressies! Everyone was thoroughly spoiled including me, Josh gave me a gorgeous Michael Kors watch I have been swooning over and the rest of my family know me so well and I received lots of kitchen things and other cute girly items. I think the cow onesie I gave my sister caused the most laughs for the day. She looked soo funny!

Mid afternoon we decided it was time for a late lunch. We decided to pre-prepare as much on Christmas eve as we could so we pulled out the glazed ham and turkey and cooked a huge variety of veggies to serve with lunch. Another round of mimosas and lunch was ready! Easy peasy and stress free - our aim for this Christmas was to make it as laid back as possible and I think we did a pretty good job :)

Sorry I am a little late with my Christmas recap - I was hoping to get this up before 2013 but its 2am on the 1st of January (whoops)!

As any regular readers may have noticed I may have taken a little hiatus from my blog - seems life just got a little in the way over the past few months but hopefully I will be back with a little more regularity now.

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WIAW - Holy Deliciousness

I don't have a lot of exciting things to say today but I do have some pretty delicious food to share with you. Thanks Jenn for being so awesome! <-- Check out her blog if you haven't come from there... it's heaps of fun :)

Breakfast - Hands down my favourite type of breakfast. I could easily live on this for the rest of my life. 1 whole egg + 1/2 cup of egg whites. Chopped chives and parsley. Big handful of baby spinach. Half an avocado. Toast a tortilla and spread with hommus. Then top it off with a dollop of salsa. Holy deliciousness.

Morning Snack - I am not a huge snacky person but I always have an almond milk coffee in the morning. To be honest, I am really bad at moderating snacks and currently at work, especially in the morning finding spare time to sit down and eat is impossible. Sad but true.

Lunch - Ok... ok. Settle down and don't get too jealous of my awesome lunch :) The boy panfried some scored squid and prawns in chilli, garlic and butter, I paired it with some yummy crunchy wombok salad and it was a winner.

Afternoon Snack - A tub of Peach Chobani Yoghurt. I think this has been in the majority of my WIAW posts for the last few months but they are so delicious, protein packed and easy for snacking on at work. 

Dinner - The smell in our house when I came home to this in the slow cooker was amazeballs! This slow cooker veggie chilli was meant to be a recipe to post up on the blog but I just wasn't completely happy with the way it turned out. Don't get me wrong... it tasted great but would I want to cook it again... probably not. Doesn't it suck when that happens.

Dessert - I was really craving something sweet and this hit the spot. Plain quick oats mixed microwaved with 1/2 cup of almond milk & 1/2 cup of water. After it is creamy and cooked I mixed in a serving of vanilla IsoWhey powder and handful of dark chocolate chips. Seriously good. Try it!

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WIAW - It is heating up!

While it seems everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is pulling out their winter clothes and sipping on pumpkin spice hot chocolates (damn you guys and your pumpkin spiced everything!)

Down here is Australia, the temperature is rising rapidly and the necessity for wearing clothing is becoming more and more ridiculous... If I could turn up to work in a singlet, short shorts and thongs I would be one happy girl :)

In response to the dramatic change in season I find myself craving those refreshing foods that help chill me out! Sending a big thanks to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting WIAW every single week :)

Breakfast - In case you missed my last post (check it out here) I have been loving icy cool shakes for breakfast lately, they are super quick to prepare after my morning workout and keep me energised well into the morning. Today was a little remix of my choconana shake, I used my vanilla IsoWhey protein powder and 2 tablespoons of P2B instead of the chocolate protein powder. I loved the peanut butter flavour and it works so well with banana.

Morning Snack - IsoWhey were kind enough to send me a sample of the Vanilla Yoghurt & Apricot Protein Bar which I tried for my mid morning snack :)

Lunch - My boy was kind enough to make me a yummy refreshing salad for lunch. It contained chicken, microwaved chunks of sweet potato, marinated feta, tomato and mixed salad leaves. So good!

Afternoon Snack - Chobani has become a regular staple in my daily eats - today was mango!

Dinner - I cooked up the cuban picadillo recipe I found on skinnytaste.com. This was delicious served with Basmati Rice and a really simple dish to make.

Does anybody else find that their taste/craving change with the seasons? What is your favourite summer food?

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Hungry Recipe - Choconana Protein Shake

The other day in the mail I was lucky enough to receive a bundle of new products kindly sent to me from IsoWhey.

French Vanilla IsoWhey Complete - IsoWhey High Protein Snack Bar - Double Chocolate IsoWhey

For those who don't already know I am a big advocate of protein supplements. I find them to be such an easy way to get extra protein in my diet and to also get my sweet fix at the same time.

There are a few things I look for in a protein supplement... calories, protein stats and most importantly TASTE!

So far I have tried the Double Chocolate IsoWhey powder and it was pretty darn good.

Calories: 118 per 35g serving size
Protein Stats: 15.8g per 35g serving size
Taste: Surprisingly delicious - great chocolate flavour and no funky aftertaste

Another awesome bonus I noticed after reading through the ingredients is that it includes glutamine, I generally add this (in powder form) to my post workout shakes to help with muscle recovery. No need to anymore because this stuff already does it for me :)

I thought I might share the recipe to my favourite protein shake. I will generally whip this up as a post workout drink but I also use it for breakfast, a snack during the day or even as dessert.

Choconana Protein Shake - Serves 1

Ingredients
1 serve of chocolate protein powder
1 small banana - I used a ladyfinger
100g of light cottage cheese - this makes your shake super creamy and extra protein too!
1/4 cup of water
Stevia or other sugar supplement - if desired
1-2 cups of ice - alter depending on your preferred consistency

Get Blending!
Put all ingredients except for the ice into the blender. Blend these ingredients until completely combined. Start adding the ice gradually until you get the consistency and thickness you like :)

It is that simple. I like to serve mine with some muesli sprinkled on top. Adds a bit of crunch :)

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WIAW ~ Getting my seafood fix

I am getting in a little late with my WIAW today... must be a little distracted. Because my boy is home!!! Yay :)

He has been gone for 2 weeks. I have to admit... the first week was kinda nice. The house stayed clean. I got to catch up on girly TV shows and just do my own thing. The second week sucked... I think I may have had way too many one sided conversations with my cat during those final last days of loneliness :)

Another positive of having my boy back from his fishing trip is that he bought home a bazillion kilos of seafood! Prawns (shrimp), calamari, Moreton Bay bugs, fish and scallops. Let's just say I am pretty stoked about this. Anyhoo onto my eats for the day. Big thanks to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting WIAW every single week :)

Breakfast - Scrambled 1 egg/2 egg whites with chives and parsley topped with salsa, pan fried asparagus and toasted mountain bread with hummus. This is basically my perfect breakfast! Also had my almond milk coffee on the side.

Snack 1 - Handful of marinated olives because I was getting a bit peckish for lunch (unpictured)

Lunch - The lunch has been on the blog before... Antipasto salad is just freakin' amazing - so flavoursome, fresh and darn delicious. In today's version was rocket, cheese stuffed baby peppers, sundried tomato and green olives. Forgot to add any meat/protein... whoops still tasted great.

Snack 2 - Luckily I got my protein fix in with some beloved chobani... Pineapple is probably my favourite of all that I have tried :)

Dinner - Decided to use some of my new stock of seafood for dinner. I stirfried some calamari, frozen pack of stirfry veggies with some garlic, ginger and chilli. Served with some rice, sweet chilli sauce and crushed peanuts for an awesome and healthy dinner :)

Dessert - I ended my day with a yummy bowl of chocolate protein oats and topped it with sliced banana, shredded coconut and some dark chocolate chips.

Well thats all folks :) I also want to thank everyone who left such kind, lovely words on my engagement shoot post from Monday. You guys are just sooo sweet!

If you missed it you can check it out here.

Do you like seafood? What would be your favourite seafood/favourite way to prepare seafood?

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WIAW & my need for green

It seems to be that time again for some sharing of food for the wonderful and fabulous WIAW.

As always be sure to go say hi to Jenn because she is so awesome to host this fun link party (also she shared some awesome cookies on her blog- I need to make them!)


While I was trying to think up some kind of catchy title for this blog post, I did happen to notice a very defined trend in my eating habits. I need to add green.... to everything. Yes, it is my favourite colour and there are the gazillion health benefits of green foods to think of... but it is also that they taste so darn good.

If your looking for an easy way to ramp up the health benefits (and taste) of any dish - my advice is to add a bit of green!

Breakfast was an amazing cookup of poached eggs, bacon, mushroom, asparagus on a bed of baby spinach. I will often substitute salad greens in place of toast or english muffins - cuts the calories but also really freshens up the dish.

For lunch, I mixed up a nifty, quick and healthy lentil dhal mix I found at the grocery store the other day. The packet mix is brought out by the chef Ainsley Harriott and I thought I might give it a go (I found it at Woolworths for anyone interested). The dhal took no time to prepare and didn't taste artifical in any way (as I find many premixes do). I also put the dhal on a bed of baby spinach in substitution for rice, added a dollop of greek yoghurt and some coriander.

My afternoon snack was a chobani strawberry greek yoghurt - I can't believe the protein stats on these little suckers. Makes me love them even more.

Dinner was magnificent. I recreated Skinnytastes Sante Fe Turket Stuffed Capsicums and added some oven roasted zucchini fries. I greenified by adding the zucchini side also so some sliced green onions to the capsicums which added a bit of a kick to the dish.

I even managed to add green to my dessert! I initially was only going to have custard protein oats (quick oats, milk and 1/2 cup of vanilla protein powder) but there was a lonely granny smith apple in my fruit bowl so I zapped one in the microwave and served with some shredded coconut and a baby pack of m&ms. So yummy!

Do you try to add green to your meals? How? What other ways do you vamp up your food?

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Trip to the Gold Coast and Max Brenner Overdose

As I have mentioned in my last few posts, my sister came to visit! We had plenty of activities planned and just one of those activities was to jump in the car and head of to the GC for a day of shopping!

I don't have any pictures of the actual shopping in action but I did manage to snap a few of our foodie finds during the day.

We started off at Harbour Town which is a factory outlet for many, many shops that I love, everything was kinda meh though. I don't think Georgia or I bought anything...

We decided to go to Shokuraku for lunch. Shokuraku was a Japanese fusion style restaurant with an abundance of sushi, noodle and rice dishes. I ordered Karaage Chicken Fried Rice which was ok but maybe a bit bland for me and George ordered Teriyaki Chicken with noodles and fried vegetables - it looked much more appealing and I kinda regret not ordering the same... oh well.

We then headed onto Robina shopping center which is probably the biggest shopping center I have ever visited. We roamed the levels but were pretty over shopping and really just hanging out to get to the bottom level to visit MAX BRENNER!

This place is seriously chocolate heaven. We spent about 10 minutes gaping at the menu before we ordered.

Georgia ordered The Spectacular Choc-Fudge Brownie Sundae - as you can see it was massive and tasted ridiculously good. Double choc icecream with Fudge Walnut Brownie on top with caramelised pecans. If that isn't enough you also get a bowl of melted chocolate and chocolate waffle balls as well! George got about half way through before she admitted defeat.

I ordered The Chocolate Soufflé and because my eyes are too big for my stomach I thought I could handle the Peanut Butter Iced Chockie too. I tell you what it tasted soo good just pure chocolate indulgence. As hard as I tried I didn't get through it all... It was way too rich and sadly I only made it a quarter way through my 'choctail'.

Seriously an amazing chocolate experience for anyone out there and I will be back again but I think I will need to build up quite an appetite so I can completely enjoy it next time (or just don't order so freakin' much)

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