Rum & Raisin Frozen Yoghurt

I normally don't post that many recipes, because most of what I make is pretty simple, or is somebody else's recipe with a few changes. This was one of the simple ones, but it tasted so great I had to share!!!

If you're a fan of rum & raisin flavours, which I am... this will hit the spot :)

In a recycled Skinny Cow container ;)

I was trying to think of more ways to get more calcium in my diet, and brainstorming ideas for mix-ins to make frozen yoghurt. Especially as it's so hot here right now. Then I remembered I had rum essence...

Yum! Forgot to take pictures till I had almost finished ;)

Anyway, this is a pretty loose recipe since it depends how much you want, and I kinda threw it all together last minute last night, but:

Ingredients:
100-200g of your favourite greek yoghurt (I used half and half - one was full fat greek and one a lower fat)
Tablespoon of raisins (or more / less...)
Drop of vanilla essence
Drop of rum essence
2T Cocoa powder
2T Sweetener of choice (or however much you want!)
Splash of almond milk

I also added half teaspoon of vodka because I thought that might help keep it softer, but that didn't work... so maybe don't bother.

I pretty much smooshed it all together in the Skinny Cow cup, and left it to freeze overnight, then microwaved it for 15 seconds to get it to froyo consistency. I suppose you could also just put it in the freezer for an hour and it would be at the consistency.

One modification you could make would be to soak the raisins in actual rum for a while first to infuse them with the flavour, or leave the chocolate out... I like my rum & raisin with chocolate :)

WIAW - Migraine foods...

Yay! 50th WIAW... can't believe it's been going that long.
I will preface this WIAW by saying that I haven't logged everything I ate today - and that also it was a lighter eating day since I was crook all day. I was pretty bummed. Kickboxing went back last night (after Christmas break), and a migraine started to develop so I went to bed early. Unfortunately it persisted through today, so I can't go tonight either. And then I'm going away for two weeks again with work! D'oh!
So I spent today watching trashy TV like "Glamour mums" and "Dance mums" haha. They're fascinating... what can I say... and also rummaging through my massive pile of running magazines and pulling out inspirational bits to keep. While the migraine came with lovely nausea & epic bloating, that can never put me totally off food. I love it too much.
Anyway, without further adou / adieu / ado???? here is the food.

A weird creation I made over Christmas break - chocolate cherry bread with eggnog & using chickpea flour. A little too chickpea-ish, but yummy all the same.

The best lunch ever. It looks pretty simple.. but it was so tasty!

1: Ricotta with blackcurrant jam on four seed bread.

2. Yellow capsicum (called bell pepper in the US I believe?) avocado and rock salt on the same bread

3. Hommus with homemade cherry tomato chutney and rock salt. Probably the best one!

Dutch mints. Mints seem to help with the nausea that accompanies my migraines. I had to hold off buying the whole Dutch section at the supermarket... stroopwafels, chocolate hagel, almond fingers... *drools* (... I'm half Dutch if you're wondering)

Another snack, self-explanatory. 

Chocolate avocado mousse - this is a recycled picture, the one I had today didn't have the fancy fruit going on.

Soy cappuccino, caffeine helps dull the pain.

Oats... recycled pic. This morning's oats were actually cranberry & vanilla ;P

Dinner... I know everyone's probably sick of seeing sweet potatoes with nut butter.. but that's what I had for dinner, so there :P

WIAW #9 or #10... Random goodness.

I originally started WIAW for a few reasons - meet new bloggers, find new recipes & to encourage myself to try new foods - mainly vegetable related as that is my weakness (love veg - can't be bothered preparing it) But I've gotten a bit lazy with it and end up just taking pictures when I eat something interesting - and mainly only stealing recipes for sweet foods ;). Oh well, at least I'm trying! :) 

Here's some eats from the last week or so.

One of the ugliest bowls of oats - steel cut oats soaked overnight and then cooked in the microwave this morning, mixed with a banana, tbsp maple syrup, cinnamon and about a tsp of peanut flour. Great combination :D

Peanut butter protein cookie by Titan. Only seem to be able to buy these at my gym, but it was sooo good! Soft and gooey like a cookie should be. Should definitely try making my own.

These were some peanut flour pancakes that didn't really go to plan... needed waaay more liquid because they were super tiny and fat. Tasted great though! Topped with mixed berries & cottage cheese.

A packed breakfast for Sunday since I was out all day Sat up until Sunday afternoon. Chocolate Hazelnut milk + Dark Choc, Cranberry & Almond Bar.

Packed snacks for Sunday - cherry tomatoes, blueberries & medjool dates. 

Saturday's packed lunch - my attempt at a bento box!! Included: 1 PB & J sandwich (in roll-up form), chocolate animal cookies, 2 medjool dates (stuffed with chocolate cookies), blueberries & a luna bar (nutz over chocolate?)

This was a bit of a challenge... was over a friend's place one night and we had cocktails and chocolates. First time I tried Blue Caracao... wasn't a huge fan!

A peanut & choc chip banana bread from the freezer, yummooo

Gummy vitamins... cheers to whoever's blog I saw these on. Best way to get vitamins ever :D Who cares if the packet has "Kid's vitamins" on it hehehehehe.

Here's my workout for today - I missed the BodyPump class I was going to attend due to my car having a flat battery, so I devised my own home circuit. This is copied from dailymile:

Circuit sesh 00:36 mins

Missed BodyPump but made up for it with a wicked home circuit. Had 10 "stations" with bits of paper telling me what to do (something I do often) and went around in a circle in the room 3 times (no rests). All weights used 2.5 kg per hand (or bodyweight)
1st station: Biceps x 15 & 1 min wall squat.
2nd station: chest press x 15 & tricep dips x 15
3: Lunges 15 each leg & bicycle squat thing
4: Shoulder lift thing x 15 & shoulder side lift thing x 15
5: wall squat again
6: 15 x pushups
7: situps with medicine ball x 15
8: squats with medicine ball x 15 & upright row x 15
9: plank 1 min + side plank each side 30 seconds
10: deadlifts x 15 + army situps x 15

After doing that 3 times I did this mini circuit once (all the exercises I hate ;)
mountain climbers x 15
burpees x 15
turkish getups x 15
toe taps x 15
jackknifes x 15

And then lay down for five minutes catching my breath ;)

It was a pretty good circuit, might have to repeat it next time! Definitely had my heart going a lot more than in a BodyPump class.

Things that make me happy

I'm feeling pretty down... again... story of this week. So I decided on doing a post of things that make me happy to try to cheer myself up.

The fact that all the rooms in my house still have those awesome glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the ceilings, and they still work after 20+ years. I hardly remember to look at them these days, but when I do they cheer me up.

Skinny cow icecream cookies :)

Eating random dinners with all sorts of stuff. Like, vegetarian sausages wrapped in turkey, and mushrooms spread with vegemite.

Eating lunch in the form of brown gloop. 

Mixing stuff with raspberries up so it turns pink!

Taking stupid photos of myself, so then I can look at them and laugh at how dumb I look.

People who dress like this in races :D

Pretty flowers, and photography in general.

Sunsets, the beach.

Kicking some butt! (Or getting my butt kicked)

Chocolate, in all its variations.

Dumb jokes on the back of toilet doors. The bit I thought the funniest is: "Don't fight for femmenism, fight for equal rights!" to which someone has replied "Fight for spelling!"

And the most important? Friends.

Yes, I have sacrificed my friends for the sake of my study this year. And you know what? It was stupid. I've burnt myself out because I've had little to no time with my friends, I've spent every weekend studying and this semester I just couldn't hack it. The only me time I've had is watching TV and exercising. I have literally said no to EVERY SINGLE INVITATION this year. It has turned me into a recluse, brought back social anxiety symptoms, and made me focus even more on food and diet, something I want to get away from.

So having completed absolutely no study today because I just can't face it, I'm now going to drive 3.5 hours to a dropzone where there's currently a big party, and see the friends I've been neglecting for way too long. Some things should come before study, why did it take me so long to realise this?

Yes, I've got three exams this week. But I just can't take it anymore, I need relief!!!!

(I am kinda going to listen to lectures on the car stereo on the way, but still!!)

Carbalicious Wednesday.

I love What I ate Wednesday. It encourages me to eat more of a variety of food :D

So here's my eats from today... plus one pic from yesterday because it needed documenting ;) I've been in a bit of a rut lately  which has led me to be totally uninterested in food in general - I've had to force myself to make food. Somehow it's led me to making and eating totally different food to what I normally would... and some of it has been pretty great.

I made this for breakfast yesterday. I call it "breakfast trifle". I don't know if Americans eat trifle...?? It's usually cake, jelly, fruit and custard with whipped cream on top, I think, but can be modified a lot. Anyway, mine included: 

a Mini Chocolate PB Muffin

blueberries

 strawberries

"diet" peach jelly (as in the gelatinous stuff)

and "custard" which was... umm... cashew spread, greek yoghurt and a banana whizzed up.

Believe it or not this totally tasted like yoghurt! Anyway a pretty random breakfast - but so good!

This morning I was up at 6.00 am to drive to uni... I have to get up that early or I have to spend hours looking for a car park, and I just can't be bothered with that. So today's less inspired and quick breakfast - instant oats!

I did add a spoonful of cashew spread to spice it up, though (I so love overcooked oats when it goes all dark in the corner...)

When I got to uni (7.30 am) I was feeling pretty tired. I didn't get my usual eight hours of sleep, and anything less than that makes me super cranky. So I got a cappuccino (plus it's half price this week, so how can I say no?)

I ate this after the cappuccino to 'freshen the breath' ;P You can see the riveting chemistry study that consumed my hours from roughly 7:30 am - 1:30 pm. Organic chemistry is evil. I pretty much sat in the one spot in the library all that time, only moving for coffee and the toilet. It was super fun.

I was hungry again in like, 30 minutes after the coffee... so I ate these both in quick succession! (Brain food?)

Quick lunch grabbed before sitting my test at 2pm, salmon sushi & a selection from the salad bar. Think there was pumpkin, capsicum, onion, couscous, spinach... dunno what else, random stuff!

Then I sat my test, after waiting for one hour!!! (There was like 100 people trying to sit the same test in a tiny room, so I had to stand in line... ugh!) I got 85% which I am fairly happy with, as it was a difficult test. I may have dreams about 1,2-dichloro-cyclo-hex-2-ene tonight or something though...!

On the way home there was traffic because of a car accident. Seriously, every single time I drive to uni there is a car accident. I usually take the train because traffic makes me crazy. So I got home at 4.30 and was starving, I immediately dug into one of these that I made yesterday...

Not sure what to call it - peanut flour apple apricot oat bread/brownie/cake? They were based on a banana sultana bread recipe, but they came out super fudgey. I won't share the recipe because they aren't that great... like, the batter tasted AWFUL and I almost threw it out, but I added stevia quickly before putting it in the oven and now they taste good :) Which is good - because I doubled the recipe!

I also had a bunch of roasted chickpeas.

And an apple with some water.... (I was sooo hungry..)

Then I went for a walk for about 30 mins. I wasn't feeling up to a workout since I was tired - plus yesterday I went for an hour walk, 20 min run & kickboxing - which ended up being quite a difficult session!

Dinner was light after that with spinach, beetroot, cauliflower and carrots... but then I followed it with the best dessert ever...

Chocolate Avocado Banana Pudding!

I've had chocolate avocado pudding heaps of times before with just the avocado and cocoa powder, but this time I mixed in a banana, some protein powder, a splash of almond milk, and a tsp of greek yoghurt and it was soooooooooooooooo good. Then obviously strawberries and blueberries - I even prettified it for the blog ;P

This picture makes me drool.

I kinda want to jump on the outfit bandwagon as well, because honestly most of the time I am way too lazy and just wear jeans and a shirt and don't make much effort. I think if I take pics of my outfit it might encourage me to make the effort?

And I'm not the question kind of person but... have you ever had chocolate avocado pudding??? It's amazing...

Oh and if you're American I have a few questions: What is candy corn? Do you guys eat trifle? aaand... have you ever tried vegemite! (I guess we all ask that lol!) ;)

Just for my own curiosity!

Surprises at the local

I've been feeling a little like I'm coming down with something the last couple of days, as Friday and Saturday I had almost no appetite (HUH? When does that ever happen...) so have been dosing up on the good stuff.... moreso than usual.

Friday's dinner: Cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, baby spinach, beetroot, goat's feta cheese, and japanese marinated tofu (store bought already marinated)

Last night's dinner: gigantic mushroom stuffed with baked beans, pesto, baby spinach, a tomato, onion & basil vegie sausage all smooshed up, and cheese - grilled. I loooove giant stuffed mushrooms!!

This morning's post-workout smoothie (did 8km, and I so wasn't feeling it!) anyway: blueberries, strawberries, frozen raspberries, banana, choc protein powder, cinnamon and some soy milk. Super delicious!

Bought some of these yesterday. It's one of those multipacks. I dunno why, but I always want something unhealthy when I'm unwell. I think it's because when I was little and sick, mum would always buy us those glucose jellybeans at the pharmacy along with our medication. Anyway, turkish delight was always a fave pre-ED, so time to rekindle the love, I think - one tiny fun size bar at a time!

And here's where the title came from. Was shopping at the local supermarket here in suburban Western Australia (where you usually find nothing like this - almost always have to go to specialty health stores for the good stuff) and I found these two gems!!! Never even seen them before - Unsweetened coconut milk, and a four pack of single serve hazelnut milk (with chocolate). OMG. Super excited! Was going to have a hazelnut milk post-workout but it has virtually no protein or calcium, so thought it would be better to have something with that in.

Super tired from my run this morning (It's longer than I usually do...) and all the chores I've also been doing - the dishes, vacuuming, watering the garden, cleaning the cat's "stuff" up, laundry... time to settle down with a good book a few assignments.