AWonderDownUnder

I woke up this morning knowing it was going to be a good day. I started my day off with a protein pancake that portrays how I was feeling:

The maple syrup hair didn’t turn out too well, but it still tasted great :)

After breakfast I went into the city to meet up with the other Melbourne TIU girls for a dance class. Luckily it turned out to be more of a yoga-pilates type class than a dance class! It was very relaxing and just what I needed.

After our class we went to grab some coffee and traded some more treats

That big tub is fresh peanut butter that Emma made for all of us! Lindsay made some DELICIOUS maple quinoa cereal and brought us all a pack of Perfect Fit protein to try. I made the gingerbread bar and chocolate fudge ball for the girls. Oh how I am starting to love all the benefits of these TIU meet ups. Can’t wait to see what next week brings!

After coffee we did a little bit of shopping at the sports store outlets and a little organic food shop…where I finally found canned black beans! wooohoooo

So in ending this post I realize I forgot to take any pictures of the girls and myself during our day, but I remembered to take photos of my food? This seems like a pretty common TIU girl characteristic though! I’ll remember for next time!

After meeting up with some of Melbourne’s other Tone It Up girls last week I was inspired by one of the girls to make some yummy protein balls. 

I had a bunch of the ingredients she used just sitting in the pantry waiting to be used up.

I’ve had that almond and chia seed spread forever and just couldn’t use it up. Until now! The agave and oats, along with the almond butter, work as the base for the balls. I also want to try and use up my current protein powder before my Perfect Fit protein gets here! The add-ins I used were pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and dried cranberries. I bought the sunflower and pumpkin seeds from the farmers market ages ago and even though I always sprinkle some on my salads, the supply doesn’t seem to go down.. I also rolled a few of them in coconut flakes, because we all know how I feel about coconut.

I didn’t measure any of the ingredients, I just mixed and stirred until I got the right constancy. You can find the original TIU recipe here. But this recipe is so easy to change up and make it your own!

A new Cole’s just opened up in our shopping center and it is prettttty nice! I was able to FINALLY find some coconut water! I just wish that Cole’s would start selling Chobani so I don’t have to run all around for my groceries!

The Melbourne TIU girls and I are meeting for another workout day tomorrow. We are going to do a dance class (I’ll let you know how that one goes…….) and then follow it up with some coffee and shopping at some sports store outlets! Since I didn’t bring a treat to the first meet up I made some treats (recipes from chocolatecoveredkatie.com) for the girls to have after our class tomorrow….

Some gingerbread Larabars made out of dates, almonds and a few spices….

…..and some hot fudge brownie balls made from dates, walnuts, cocoa powder and chocolate chips

Look at how fudgey and chocolaty they look! Wouldn’t believe they were healthy if I hadn’t made them myself…..

Even though today has been cold and rainy, I have been pretty productive. I went to the farmers market and restocked all my fruits and veggies, and then I made all the treats above. I haven’t been to the gym yet, I’m still deciding if I want to take today as rest day or not. Though after munching on dates, nuts, and chocolate chips and sampling my snacks, I think I may need to.

When Ben gets home later we have to go to the Apple store because my Mac won’t turn on….ughhhhh technology. On the bright side, the Apple store is in a gigantic mall so we may do some light shopping (depending on the cost to fix the computer!) and go out to dinner. 

Anyway it’s time for me to go have some lunch….hot soup on this cold day sounds about perfect!!

(PS- us Melbourne girls were featured on the Tone It Up website for Motivation Monday! Check it out!)

Good to know I’ve been doing it the right way.

The lovely ladies of the Tone It Up team in Melbourne had a meet up today at the Botanical Gardens for a little workout and some coffee.

Emma, Lindsay, Sarah, Katelin, Becky, & Kari

Look at us in all our matching TIU teal

We started the day off with a pre-workout photo shoot…..

.

Then we got into some boxing drills….

We did the HIIT the Beach workout from the Beach Babe DVD and followed that up with some stretching…..

These TIU ladies sure came prepared to this workout! We had boxing equipment, yoga mats (thanks to Kari and Emma), and there was some trading of TIU approved snacks,  home made protein balls, Larabars and even some organic dark chocolate :) Only a few people stopped to stare at us as we did our burpees and plank jacks on the lawn

After our workout we went across the street to have some coffee (and got pretty excited when we saw they had stevia!) and enjoyed our protein balls. I may or may not have already started munching away on the dark chocolate that Emma brought us…

I had such a great morning with these amazing girls and cannot wait for our next Tone It Up meet up! And I promise I’ll bring a healthy snack for everyone next time ;)

See you ladies soon!

Today did not start out in my favor. My car wouldn’t start so I had to walk to the gym. I would call that a blessing in disguise, but it also meant that I had to miss my boxing class. I am also starting to realize that my brand new sneakers do not fit my feet well at all and are actually giving me blisters. I think I may have pulled a muscle in my neck during the RPM class that I took. On a brighter note, I scored this awesome gem at the grocery store today:

Look at that face! How could I not buy it? Only $5!

They were also handing out free pieces of Cadbury chocolate at the mall. BIG pieces. 

And so my day gradually got better.

Dinner tonight was orange chicken with green beans served over some quinoa. The original recipe called for asparagus, but seeing as Ben hates asparagus, I decided to go with the green beans instead. It also said to serve over brown rice, but I decided to go use quinoa because a) I already had a whole bag of quinoa and had no brown rice, and b) it’s a healthier option packed with protein! I also used only a small sprinkle of the red pepper flakes because neither of us like really spicy foods. 

Dessert was even better than dinner: plain Greek yogurt with some cocoa powder, a couple drops of hazelnut flavored liquid stevia, and some slivered almonds. SOOOO GOOD! I ate it too fast for a picture. I kind of want seconds.

Anyway, it’s time for me to go watch the most recent episode of Game of Thrones yayyy

saturdaynightsalrite:

Ahahahahaha!!!!! Australia….

(Source: fantasymuffler)

I didn’t really go anywhere but I’ve been MIA lately! I guess ‘cause I’ve been pretty busy at work :) I’m not complaining though, I love getting that paycheck! It’s getting colder here in Melbourne so I’ve traded my daily salad for some nice hot homemade soup and homemade cornbread! The first soup I made this winter (fist soup I’ve ever made actually….) was a mushroom soup. It was fantastic! I don’t have a picture but you can go here for the recipe. I cannot wait to make it again! It paired perfectly with one of Chocolate Covered Katie’s cornbread muffins. I made the “cake like” ones this time, and they were so thick and dense as muffins, but I loved them!

I tried making some spring rolls the other day and they were delicious and actually pretty easy to make! I used rice paper and stuffed them with veggies and shrimp! 

I also made some turkey meatloaf for dinner the other night, which was a huge success! Ben is a big fan of this meal so obviously the left overs didn’t last very long!

Today was very productive for me. I slept in until 7:30 this morning (hah! yup that’s sleeping in now) and enjoyed a nice bowl of cereal and some vanilla green tea. Then I made some protein-oatmeal muffins which are the perfect pre or post workout snack for me. I went to gym, met Ben for lunch (sushi yummm) and then went grocery shopping. When I got home I made some carrot and sweet potato soup. I haven’t tried it yet but I will let you know how it is when I do! Oh, and I also did about 3 loads of laundry in between. For dinner I made myself some stacked roasted vegetable enchiladas.

A fabulous dish for any vegetable or Mexican food lover!

Hopefully tomorrow will be just as productive, I have a lot of laundry to fold and cleaning to do. Now it’s time for a Fererro Rocher dark chocolate and a cup of hot chocolate :)

Anonymous asked: Hi there, where are you ordering think thin bars from? I fell in love with these in the US, and need to get them! Thanks :)

iherb.com! they have a ton of stuff, and as long as your shopping cart stays under 4 lbs it ships for only $6! 

I made more coconut banana bread today. This would be the third loaf in about 2 weeks. I had to make more since Ben secretly ate the last slice last night. 

I changed a few things up this time however. I used almond milk instead of coconut milk (only because I didn’t have any) and added some coconut extract for the flavor. I also used raw sugar instead of white, and sprinkled some coconut flakes on top of the bread before I cooked it. 

We all had off work today because in Australia it’s ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day. What better way to celebrate an Australian holiday than to cook a very American dinner? Hence the pulled pork.

..and sweet potato fries, coleslaw, Caesar salad, and baked beans. I used my brother’s recipe for the pork (cooking it with root beer) and it turned out so well!

Then for dessert I made some pumpkin pie. Totally random and out of season, but Ben’s family has never had pumpkin pie so why not?

They all thoroughly enjoyed it.

The other day Ben and I went to a store near the city called “USA Foods”. Yep, an all American brand food store (it’s where I found the canned pumpkin for the pie and the root beer for the pork). And not surprisingly, it was basically all junk food. Buying all your groceries there would most likely lead to the development of type 2 diabetes. They had everything from reece’s puffs, to cheeto’s, to combos to twinkies to dr. pepper, and way way more. I am guilty of buying some Synder’s honey mustard & onion pretzel pieces though. Ahh well, a rare treat :)

whatshouldwecallme:

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