Focus on the Positive

After a day of the blues, I was excited to start changing my mindset. It's easy to fall into the trap of "poor me." I'm exhausted by school and the prospect of not practising in AU for so long. My skin and I are fighting, and it's getting ugly. The scale is heading in the wrong direction. Motivation left me like a baby daddy running from responsibility. Oh wait, I'm *supposed* to be over the blues ;)

I decided the only way to fight the blues was to do something (anything) that would make me feel good about myself. Today I did just that.

I re-created a childhood favorite--a twist (bacon/egg/cheese sandwich)

Enter--tempeh, nutritional yeast and spinach as the replacements


I'm a super-star wife, so I made the Aussie a healthy twist to go for his away cricket game. He inhaled it.

I also spent several hours knee-deep in constitutional law, which wasn't fun but I felt better getting things started.

And the sure fire way to beat the blues is to get your butt kicked by the new release of bodypump. I *may* not be able to lift my arms to the keyboard tomorrow, but my blues are gone :)

Here's to a good week!

-B

Life Update

School is taking over my life, which I kinda hate (a lot). I just want to be done with it already, but I have awhile to go until I'm certified over here. Our friends from the States came to visit and we took them on a little hike to a place about 90 minutes from the apartment called Hanging Rock.





While there I managed to catch an in-flight picture of the lovely Rosella


I know, I know you're impressed with my photography skills. Try not to be too jealous . . . haha.

In other bird news, the Aussie saved a bird that knocked himself out on the window at the in-laws. My MIL likes her house clean, really clean. It seems to be a hazard for birds.


On the decorating front, I hung my first painting. And I do mean *I* because I was the one that was able to get the wire to sit on the screw. Okay, perhaps the Aussie deserves a bit of credit because he did put in the screw.


The painting was done by the Aussie's great-uncle and bought as a wedding gift from the in-laws. LOVE IT!

In eats, we've been devouring tempeh sammies ever since we found this recipe

**Eyes shutting**

It's 9pm on this end but my eyes feel like it's 3am. I plan to be asleep within the hour for an early, killer session of bodypump. I am still painfully sore from Monday's session, so let's hope I can walk after tomorrow.

The work people loved Katie's chickpea blondies, which was good, and also the cookies. Yippy for healthy, sneaky food

My highlights for the day including feasting on sourdough bread w. pumpkin and sweet potato soup and staring at my lovely flowers from the Aussie :)

The flowers went from this . . .


To this . . .



Bed is calling,

B

Whoah Two Days In Row

Who am I? Posting two days in a row is not the usual now-a-days, but after I ran home (okay, trammed home more like it) to do my lectures, I found out that none are up until tomorrow.

I'm not sure if work is ready for Choc Covered Katie's blondies made from this . . .


So I made another dish of Choc Covered Katie's, her healthy oat flour choc chip cookies. So good I got a bellyache from too many spoonfuls.

Let's hope the work peeps like them (if they make it out of the house). In other news, the alarm went off at 5:40am today and we actually got up. I felt great all day. It's amazing how the gym gives you the happies :)


Off to my heated bed (my MIL rocks for getting us a heated blanket),

B

Sick of School

Aside from work and school and work and school, there hasn't been much going on in my life. The past few weeks I have slept until 7:30am, worked 8:30-5pm, tram ride home, 2 hours of lectures, blogreading ;) and bed. With the 7:30 rise that means there hasn't been any gym happening. The Aussie and I have been lacking in the motivation dept., but we're hoping Aug 1 will bring it back :) I always feel so much better after a solid session at the gym, especially Bodypump.

In the past weeks I have gone to an awards ceremony for the Aussie's work . .

My feet started to hate me, so I had to free them :)


We had a delicious meal with the SIL and BIL at the Burmese House.
Eggplant dish:


Coconut rice I wanted to be buried in:


Fermented tea leaf salad that I dream about:


And lots of unpictured roti was enjoyed. They make the best fermented tea leaf salad and coconut rice and roti and okay I love it all.

The Aussie has fallen in love with overnight oats. He's been making his with strawberries, nuts, oats, rice milk, protein powder, raisins, and chia seeds.

Pre-soak:

Post-soak:


I realized I like my oats crunchy, so I make my mix and add a bit of rice milk right before I inhale it. I put nuts, oats, chia seeds, protein powder and PEANUT BUTTER. Ohhh so tasty.


It's Sunday, which means we're in the kitchen. I'm off to make some soup, while the Aussie prepares a curry :)

Let's make this a great week!

-B

Another Weekend Goooooone

This weekend was unproductive, which is never a good thing. In went for a few drinks with some people for work, but the Aussie had a full-on session with his brother, which meant Saturday he spent a solid chunk of his day praying to the porcelian gods ;) I, therefore, didn't do much either. I *may* have spent some time harassing him to go somewhere, but he was really in no state. So glad he only drinks more than a few a couple times a year. On the brightside he did manage to win at the casino :) which means I got a pressie . . .


Why hello Blackberry, welcome to my life :) Ps. That's the Aussie's man-hand.

I also did a bit of baking this weekend. One (I'm looking at you coconut cookie!) was a complete failure, and one wasn't too bad.

Not so bad mixed berry muffins . . .



After the baking session I spent some time with chickpeas. Geez, it takes awhile to take the "skins" off each pea.


I used Angela's recipe but it didn't blow me away. I will keep trying flavor combinations though, because I'm sure I can make a hummus I adore (for a fraction of the store-bought prices)




We also watched a girlie flick that left a lot to be desired--Beastly. I know, know an Olsen twin was in it so I should have known, but so was Dougie MD ;)

Now it's time to get ready for another week (which will include starting classes again, oh-the-joy). Let's hope Friday comes very quickly.

-B

Watermelon Smoothies and Oreo Balls

Health is all about some good and some bad, right? Watermelon smoothies are super healthy & oreo balls are, well, not.

I started my day with the healthy . . .


And I'm about to end it with the not :)


I'm taking these bad balls to my sister-in-laws for dessert. Easy peasy to make--vegan cream cheese + oreos + blend = wow!

Also, it should be noted that I actually made it to bodypump on a Monday . . . no small achievement, because it's certainly been awhile since I had the 5:30am wake-up call. Too bad it won't cancel out the oreo balls ;)

Off to dinner,

B

Productive Weekend

It's been a busy time on this side of the world. I've been getting things organized so I can take classes to get my practising certificate, because I'm dying to practice! I really love the law, and can't wait to use my J.D. :) It will be a bit of a process, but you can't fight city hall, as the saying goes. I'll just be grateful that I have a temporary job in the meantime (which may or may not end Aug 1).

In other news, we FINALLY got a vacuum, which got an intense first-run today by the lovely Aussie . . .


Despite the holding-it-like-gun stance, the Aussie is quite domesticated ;) I also was inspired by Angela to make a high-protein breakfast salad. It's a base of quinoa with fresh fruit (I decided on strawberries), nuts (walnuts for me!), and liquid sweetner (maple syrup). I kicked it up a notch with grated coconut. I tasted a sample and it was delish, so hopefully it will be all soaked up in goey maple syrup and fruit juice by tomorrow.




I also made an easy and healthy dish of broccoli, brown rice and "cheesy sauce" (made with nutritional yeast, seasonings, and veggie broth)



I had the most foodgasmic dessert last week that must be shared (and recreated)--banana soft-serve, raw cookie dough, and a dipping sauce of melted choc chips on the side. So intensely good. It killed my sweet tooth for the week :) Definitely not healthy, but healthier than cows milk icecream ;)


This weekend we went to the Queen Victoria Market. I love that place. We *may* have bitten off more than we can chew (literally) with one of our purchases . . .



You're looking at 10 kilos of clementines! I may OD on vitamin C.

Time to veg before bed. Early morning tomorrow--my fabulous sister-in-law is waking up at the crack of dawn to go to bodypump with me and then preparing us dinner later! I won the sister-in-law lottery :)

-B

Mixer Makes Me Happy

Sorry for being MIA this past week. It's hard to fit in work, gym, and blogging. Plus, most weeknights are pretty boring so not too much to write about.

This week I did find an awesome place near work to get my Greek fix (falafal wrap, I love you!)


I *may* have gone here twice this past week. Shame on me! Especially because I had leftovers to eat. I also got caught snapping pictures :(

I tried to snap some pictures of the food place from the alley before I entered. He turned after the flash :(


The guy definitely asked if I was snapping pictures of him. I did an ackward laugh.

The weekend has been going well. We woke-up for a 9am Bodypump session that left my arms feeling like noodles and my chest in pain :) The Aussie prepared the amazing peanut butter protein milkshake for us.


The Aussie has lots of work to do, so he did some.


I *may* have had a shower and nap. OH HOW GLORIOUS! No pictures, but imagine a fluffy pillow and lots of blankets :)

After the nap the Aussie broke-in the new mixer to make chocolate chip cookies



Peeeeerfect, pretty bottoms . . .



Off to veg,

B

Green Smoothie get in my Beeeeeeeeeelly

It's been a work-filled two days with lots of important things (okay, mainly photocopying . . . hehe). Gym slacking is still going on in our home :( The "system" isn't working too well. We'll see how I go tomorrow. I struck out on Wed, the Aussie failed today, but who knows what tomorrow holds ;)

I didn't blog yesterday nor did I smoothie-it-up, but today I'm doing both.


The Aussie enjoyed his . . .


After brekky I did something very American.


I got a venti (which was much smaller) iced black tea (which they called iced english breakfast), and I have to say I miss American Starbucks :( I didn't take a picture of the drink (bad blogger) but at least I did take a picture of the building ;)

The city was looking lovely today.


Tomorrow is FRIDAY and in Australia we celebrate the Queen's bday, so we're off Monday. Woot, Woot! Let's hope tomorrow's work day goes by quick, because the night will be spent with beer and friends :)

-B

Brown Rice On All Sides

I wanted to get up this morning but **enter lameass excuse** Actually I have no excuse. I was lazy and I own my laziness. The Aussie has come up with a foolproof (well, perhaps not completely foolproof) plan; it assigns "responsibility" to one person each morning for getting the both of us up. I'm taking tomorrow :) My muscles need a cry, so I'll be getting up for Bodypump.

In good morning news, the amazing green master brought us another tasty creation--tons of rainbow chard, a lemon, two apples and orange juice into the blender.


Morning Aussie . . .


I also took a picture of morning Babs, but you're not ready for that picture yet (in fact, I don't think the Aussie is ready for that picture yet either . . . hehe).

At work we had morning tea, which meant I tossed a ton of pineapple and grapes into my belly :) along with a tasty tea. No pictures, because it would have been akcward ;)

I did, however, snap a picture of my lunch. I had to do it very discretely, which is difficult with an open-plan office.


Yep, I hunted down brown rice sushi. It was worth the hunt!

Brown rice made a dinner appearance too ;) Grains are good for you.


If you guessed it was Vegout, you would be correct. We are obsessed.

I washed it all down with a pressie from the father-in-law, who knows me so well.


Fancy cider . . . woot, woot. Although it isn't as good as the beloved mixed berry flavor.

Time to cuddle up with the heater or the Aussie, whichever is providing more warmth!

-B