WIAW #11

After a little bit of a break due to me being so busy I am back with another

As I am still busy this will still be a short post.

On Sunday I made Jamie Oliver's Yemeni pancakes. These are kind of like a cross between a pancake and a crumpet. There were still some left so I reheated one of them and had it with some banana and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Followed by a delicious green smoothie made with the rest of the banana, some spinach, some chia seeds and some peanut flour.

My mid morning snack was pretty tasty. I had some creamy rice pudding topped with kiwifruit. I havn't had creamy rice in ages and I forgot how much I love it!!

I had lunch at Mum and Dad's house as Mum was helping me do some research in the afternoon. Mum had made a beautiful slowcooker pumpkin and apple soup. We had this with some bread, cheese and chutney. I finished lunch off with an apple and a small malteser egg.

As a break from our research, mum and I had a coffee and one of these chocolate chip cookies each. I made these on Monday and they are so yummy. I really like the flavour the oat flour gave them

Dinner tonight was hungry males new specialty, pasta carbonara. While he made the pasta I made myself some maple roast pumpkin and a huge salad. This is where my extra cup of veges came in today as I made my salad bigger than usual.

An to finish off my day I had an unpictured apple, sliced with some peanut butter and 2 small squares of whittakers peanut butter chocolate. Num num num

WIAW #10- Hidden Greenery

Hi again. Sorry that I have been absent all week but I have been really busy and then it happened... Despite all of my best efforts my hectic life at the moment caught up with me and I got sick. So I ended up having a very unproductive weekend finishing off the 2nd Hunger Games book and starting on the 3rd (I finished that yesterday). I have heaps of recipes that are backing up, so during my easter holidays in 2 weeks time there will be heeeeaps of posts.

Anyway, since this is the last Wednesday of March (Aaaaargh where is my year going?!) it means that it is the last week of Green month. I think that I did really well adding green to my diet and have actually had lots of fun doing it.

As usual, I actually photographed yesterday (Tuesdays) foods to share with you. While a lot of this isn't in your face green, there was actually quite a lot of green things lurking away in my meals.

First off breakfast was quite obviously green with a tasty tropical green smoothie. This contained 1/2 banana, a kiwifruit, some pineapple, some baby spinach, a shredded wheat biscuit and some rice milk. I got some protein enriched rice milk over the weekend for when I was sick. As my stomach seemed a bit dodgy I though that I would avoid dairy. This milk was actually really nice! My green smoothie was rounded off with a piece of peanut butter toast.

My mid-morning snack itself didn't have any green in it but it did come in a green wrapper. This was a  Nature Valley fruit and nut bar and the other half of the banana that I used for breakfast. I actually really liked this muesli bar.

On Monday since I was getting over my sickness I decided to make myself the ultimate sick food, chicken soup. Chicken and vege soup to be more precise, so I had more of that for lunch. No visibly very green but it had lots of green peas and green zuchinni hidden in it. I served this with a rye roll turned into garlic bread.

My afternoon snack was hiding some more green. I had 1/4 of an avocado that needed used up so I mashed it with a tsp of peanut butter, a tsp of cocoa powder a few drops of stevia and some natural youghurt to make a creamy chocolate pudding. Yum! I definitely need to buy some more avocados to make this again.

And finally dinner time. I made some delicious sweet potato gnocci with a tomato based sauce. This was served with some green broccoli and cauliflower and a green salad. I really loved this gnocci so I will try to share the recipe with you soon.

It wasn't until after dessert that I realised that I hadn't photgraphed it and it was so good too! It was a green apple hollowed out, stuffed with half a mars bars and then baked till the apple was soft and the mars bar was all gooey. Mmmmmm.

There were also a few sweet snacky things that hid from the camera in my mouth such as a few pieces of chocolate, a xmas mince pie and a girl guide biscuit.

Overall a pretty tasty day

What is your ultimate sick food? I think mine would be smoothies and soup but I also seem to really enjoy plain buttered toast when I'm sick.

WIAW #9- Green Juice Fail

Another Wednesday and another week of trying to eat green for

I was very proud of myself for again managing to include something green into almost all of my meals. So here goes.......

Winter is on its way in New Zealand and along with it those horrid winter clothes. Therefore, I thought that I would start off today with a super green juice. This juice was made with an apple, a carrot some spinach and some ginger. Great combo buuuuuuuut........ I made this juice with the juicer fitting on the magic bullet. Pretty much this is just a thin mesh thing that goes around the blender blade and it didn't work overly well so the juice was very thick and pulpy. Not the most pleasant thing to drink....

After the not so super juice I made up for it with some delicious porridge. This was rolled oats cooked up with some peanut butter, some dried cranberries and sprinkled with chocolate chips. Yummy yummy yummy!

Mid morning snack included green in the form of an avocado that needed using up. I mashed it up with sweet chilli sauce and lemon juice to make guacamole. I put this on some crackers and had these along with a nectarine and some broken cookie pieces (The cookie factory in Christchurch sells bags of these so I had to get some when I was up there).

When lunch time rolled around I was pretty hungry! Lunch was a pita pizza made with some tomato paste, lots of herbs, some antipasto mix and topped with cheese. I had this with a nice big beetroot salad. Lots of green in all of that lettuce. I also had a handful of chocolate covered peanuts... just cos they're awesome.

At afternoon snack time I was trying to come up with something green but inspiration was escaping me. Instead I had a couple of  multigrain rice crackers, one topped with hummus, the other with homemade chocolate almond butter. Amazingly I found a couple of leftover Christmas mince tarts lurking in the back of the fridge so I also had one of those and some grapes.

Dinner was very green! I had a crumbed fish fillet, some garlicky beans and zucchini and some broccoli, all topped with a delicious green sauce. I made the sauce with some plain yoghurt, some basil and some parmesan. The sauce was really good as it tasted a lot like pesto which I love.

After dinner I treated myself with some milo self-saucing pudding and some icecream. For those of you who are confused, milo is a malted chocolate drink powder.

So that rounds off another WIAW. As a side note, I think that I am doing pretty well with my healthy eating and so far no signs of sickness. Fingers crossed!

WIAW #8- Green Monsters!!!

Its Wednesday again! I will admit that I have been pretty slack today at taking photos of my snacks but I have been eating some pretty amazing green foods for




First off I started with a hot water and lemon. This helped to tide me until breakfast as I decided to make lunch first.

When it was time for breakfast I made myself this Green Breakfast Monster!!!Basically I adapted this banana mug muffin by adding in some baby spinach. I then topped it with some homemade chocolate almond butter and served it with some mango slices. While it may not look like the most appetizing of breakfast it was pretty darn tasty.

My (unpictured) midmorning snack was some carrot sticks.... I think you can imagine what they looked like...


Now remember how I said that breakfast didn't look too appetizing.... yea....well... lunch looked even less so.......

This was a spinach and apple soup with some leftover kale thrown in there for good measure. You know its gotta be good for you because of the colour and it was actually really really tasty. I sprinkled with just a little parmesan and an amazing lunch was made.


Along with lunch I had another amazing food item, a freshly baked hot cross bun. I have recently been drooling over these in the supermarket but was struggling to justify the cost on my limited food budget so I decided to make my own this morning. They turned out perfectly!

To round off lunch I also had a delicious nectarine as the stone fruit season is almost over.


I also forgot to photograph my afternoon snack but I had a couple of rice crackers topped with hummus and avocado and I made myself an iced coffee. Yum!


Hungry male was on dinner duty tonight so we had burritos. These were made up of some wholegrain tortillas, a chilli mince mixture and lots of veggies. I had this with some steamed broccoli and some roast bushfire pumpkin.

And the perfect end to a pretty awesome food day a homemade passionfruit-lemon yoghurt iceblock (I almost forgot to photo it).

WIAW #7- Keep it green

Hello again. We are now into the month of march, so this month over at Peas and Crayons it is...





Normally my What I Ate Wednesday posts are based around what I ate on Tuesday's, however on Monday night I ended up driving up to Christchurch (about 4.5 hours away) with hungry male to look at a jet ski. Hungry male now has a fun new toy to play with as will I, but it did mean that Tuesday was spent testing the Jet ski then driving home. I did get to visit my grandma though which was great. As a result my food was quite random and not photographed today at all.

Today I decided to give Green Month my all and I am very proud to say that all of my meals and snacks had something green in them. A plus side to all my green food is that I actually feel great today. Its probably because in my effort to eat green I automatically reach for lots of great fruit and veg.

Breakfast didn't start out overly green. I had a glass of hot water and lemon and then had a piece of toast with some homemade chocolate almond butter on it.

However, this was followed by a beautifully green, tropical smoothie. This was made with some banana, mango, greek yoghurt, chia seeds and a handful of baby spinach. For all of you who are afraid of green smoothies, I tested one on my flatmate and the verdict was that despite the scary appearance, you cannot taste the spinach at all!

My mid morning snack was a piece a yummy, green fruit that is just coming back into season... a pear. The pear was also eaten with a few crackers to tide me over until my very green lunch...

This delicious but strange looking thing is a red quinoa salad. I tossed together some cooked quinoa, some roasted cauliflower, some broccoli and some dried cranberries together. I then made a very vibrant dressing from some plain yoghurt, a couple of handfuls of spinach and some cheddar cheese. This was very tasty and very satisfying! I will post a proper recipe tomorrow.

My afternoon snack was an oatmeal cake thing.... not so green. But I also had some kale chips with it. Ok so they don't look quite so green anymore :).

And then we come to dinner time. As both hungry male and I were working late no one could be bothered cookie, so I hauled some leftovers out of the freezer. I had some cauliflower mac and cheese drizzled with apricot sauce and some Pizza pie. On the side I had some strips of green capsicum.

After tea just to change up my colour scheme a little I had an orange

I actually really enjoyed the challenge of adding lots of green to my food and can't wait to see what great ideas other people have come up with!

WIAW #6- Last week of veggies month

This week is the last week of Love your Veggies month over at Peas and Crayons. Thank you Jenn for making What I Ate Wednesday more fun and challenging. Next month looks even more exciting....



Anyway for this last week of Love Your Veggies month I would say that I had a bigger fruit than vegetable day. It is the end of summer here in New Zealand so I have to make the most of the beautiful stone fruit!

Yesterday I decided to start my day off by going to the gym with a friend. My pre-gym snack was a cup of hot water and lemon and a plum just to keep the hunger pains away until I came home for these babies...

Pancakes made with a combination of oat flour and regular flour and then topped with a delicious peanut butter sauce. My first recipe of the day from my 200 list. I then sat in bed and watched Amelie with my flat mate. I really love that movie. Before I knew it it was lunch time.

Lunch was slightly more vegeful. I had 2 pieces of rye toast, one topped with avocado, tomato and cheese and the other topped with cottage cheese, apple slices and raisins.

I also had a beautiful nectarine with lunch.

My afternoon snack was a couple of rice crackers topped with cream cheese and some sliced peach. While this was delicious, it wasn't quite filling enough so I also had a piece of bread with some peanut butter on it.

Dinner definitely involved some vegetables as it always does for me. Dinner was some slow cooker roast pork with some roast potato, kumara and carrot and some spiced peaches on the side. Yum!

And to wrap up my day I had more fruit in the form of apple whirlgig. This is essentially cooked apples sweetened with some jam with some wee scone-like swirls cooked on top. I served this with a small scoop of lemon cheesecake icecream as it is so amazing! The second recipe from my 200 list.

There was also a little bit of chocolate involved after dessert. What would life be without chocolate?

So that was my day of eats. Possibly not very inspiring but very yummy!

WIAW #5- Study Edition

I spent all of Monday studying for an exam that I had yesterday, so I thought that I would theme this weeks What I Ate Wednesday around this. I find that with studying it is very easy to get fed up and mindlessly wander to the pantry, so over the weekend I stocked up on brain foods and prepared some delicious snacks for me to munch away on.

Breakfast was some choc-berry breakfast soft serve. This was pretty much a frozen banana, some frozen berries and cocoa powder all whizzed up. To give me a little more staying power I also had a cookie ball.

I find that snacking during study is important for me as I definitely cannot study if my stomach is rumbling! My snack was some crackers with brie and tomato and a Ryvita with some peanut butter. 

I also make sure that I include plenty of fresh fruits and veges to my diet. The peaches are so delicious at the moment so I added one to my morning snack.

 Lunch included more vegetables in the form of some leftover spinach and feta pie and some cumin roast veggies. On the side I had some bean salad.

After quite a few hours of studying I was feeling a bit drained. My snack was some celery sticks and hummus and some grapes...... as well as a wee study treat.....

This amazing raw freezer brownie!!!! It was so good and fudgy and yummy that I ended up eating two pieces. Not that it mattered as this was jam packed full of healthy nuts. Recipe to come tomorrow.

Finally my dinner was some beautiful,omega 3 filled fish. I crumbed and pan fried this and had it with some chips and coleslaw. Simple but so yummy.

So here are my top study tips....

1. Break the study that you need to do up in to manageable chunks. For example, the course that I was studying had four modules so I focused on one module at a time.

2. Give yourself breaks in between the chunks. Breaks are so important for me! I take 15-20 minutes and completely separate myself from the work by doing things like having a hot drink and a flick through a magazine, doing some exercise or even some housework.

3. Surround yourself with good food!! I try to eat as much fresh food as possible to help to avoid any sugar slumps

4. Treat yourself. Have something to look forward to at the end of your study day, whether it be a movie, a pamper session or something really nice to eat. The thought of my freezer brownie helped keep me going a bit longer.... but maybe that's just me.

I hope this post helped all of you out there studying. Love your veggies!