Oh hey there, it's been a while. 

I would apologize for being away for so long (again) but life is so funny and I just needed some time away. But I got those blogging endorphins flowing again and I feel great! I think I tend to worry too much about blog topics, so I'm going back to basics. Sometimes you need time to regroup and figured out what direction you need to go. 

I've been binging on Ugly Delicious on Netflix lately and one of the shows participants is a food writer. 

BOOM. EPIPHANY.

How have I never considered this as a job before?! It's perfect for me right? 

That's what MarvelSteph might just become a food based blog (not unlike my Instagram which is 99.5% food pics.) I'll be mixing in life stuff too, but if food is what makes me wanna write for days, then I'm gonna do it. 

So let's start with a fun one: A typical day of eating! 

Breakfast today was my favorite oatmeal bake with stewed apples. I prepped this super-quickly one night after work and it makes my mornings so easy. Plus I spent the first few hours of my shift really looking forward to my breakfast break. I shared the recipe over on my Instagram recently and have made it countless times already. If you're looking for an easy/delicious start to the day, this is for you. 

My favorite topping is apples and raisins that I've just stewed up over a medium heat with water, cinnamon, and a little coconut sugar. Perfect for the cold winter mornings we gave been having. 

Thursday lunches always take us to one of my FAV cafes in Christchurch, Park Ranger. 

They have amazing cabinet food: fresh salads, adventurous pizzas, and filled rolls that make me wanna drop my rules on carbs. Normally I get one of their salads with a side of haloumi, but the hand-made fruit bagels called to me. Bagels have great protein, plus I had a healthy breakfast so why not. 

Mum and I also split a raw snickers slice. This place makes one of the best ones in the city too! Perfect way to end a meal and start some midday shopping. 

I found a fun afternoon snack at the supermarket today: Apple Chips! I forgot how much I love these. 

Now for one of my favorite meals of the day: My afternoon Berry Protein Smoothie. I've been making these a lot lately and it keeps me so full until dinner time. Plus it's the perfect way to get a boost of protein, calcium and vitamins into your diet. Here's what I used:

1 yogurt tub

1 banana

frozen berry/spinach mix

1 scoop banana whey protein

1 cup calcium milk

It's Taco Thursday! Not really a thing, but I recently bought these cool taco shells that taste like nachos and we are obsessed. I prepped a big pot of bean chili on Monday, so it worked out perfect for an easy dinner. I just toasted them in the oven with some cheese and layered on the sour cream of course. So quick and easy after getting home late from work. 

That's it! A pretty typical day of eating. Most of the time I'm healthy and thinking of what nutrients I'm getting, but with a few treats in between. I love food, so I always let myself have something if my day is already balanced nutritional-wise. Plus I've lost weight recently due to sickness and I wouldn't mind building it back up so I can get back to lifting ALLLL the weights. 

What foodie topics would you love to see on my blog? 

Steph x. 

Why I've Decided To Start Tracking My Food Again

I've always had a decent knowledge of nutrition and always thought I could trust myself with food choices. And that's largely still true. 

However

Lately I've been feeling lost with knowing the nutritional value of what's going into my body. I've found myself more hungry than usual (clearly not enough focus on protein.) So I feel like if I have the info on my phone ready to input and read, I'll be aware and smart like Sally. 

I've tracked my food in the past and found it super-helpful. It made me realize how many calories were in a cup of rice! Plus I never wanted to put in when I ate a naughty biscuit or candy bar, so I lost weight out of the guilt for not eating it. I definitely need that accountability in my life right now, especially seeing as I want to be able to train harder. Weight isn't an issue for me. I wouldn't even care if I go over my calorie limit for the day. Because, you know, gains for lifting. But being responsible with my eating is a lesson I need to teach myself again.

Nutrition is the key to everything in health and it deserves more focus.


So, what killer app am I using? And no, it's not MyFitnessPal.

I was gonna use the old favorite, but I wanted something new. Something that had the same features, but was a new system and looks cooler. Literally the first item upon searching "food trackers" in the app store was Lifesum.

It's just like MFP, but it's so freaking pretty and nice to look at. So easy to use and easy to read how many macros you are getting in a day. They've even added smiley faces depending on how good your food choices were with each meal. I pretend it doesn't bother me when it has the sad face, but dammit I want it to be happy!

The barcode scanner works 100 times faster than the MFP one, so adding food is so easy. Plus, it saves everything you've put in the day before so it takes you no time at all to collect a diary of food. I haven't been that person to get out the electronic scales in a long time, but it feels damn good now.

It also has a water feature to track your hydration throughout the day. You can set it to how many liters you want/are likely to drink in a day and click on each cup as you drink. It's oddly satisfying and I'm so motivated to fill each one everyday.


So far with getting back into a healthy-eating focus I'm loving how I'm feeling. I think this app is going to really help me be more knowledgeable and smart about what I choose to fuel myself with.  I'm excited for my journey in the coming months!


What are your thoughts on food tracking?
Steph x.

Weekend In Queenstown: Foodie Diary

Hey Everyone!

It's now the Monday after a weekend trip away to one of New Zealand's most famous tourist spots, Queenstown. I haven't made the beautiful drive (and I mean absolutely stunning) down to that part of our country since I was 6 or 7 years old. But every year my Mum and I look at the marathon events they run and decided to finally make the move to give it a go. We just completed the 10km run and in a great time too. The track was so stunning as you got to run by the lake and surrounding mountains that give Queenstown it's fame. All of us are planning on completing the half-marathon next year and I'm really looking forward to it! 

But enough about running, here's all the delicious food we found!

A south island trip is no complete if you don't start with a Wild Bean coffee from the service station. It's pretty much NZ's equivalent of Costa in the UK, so it has to be done. 

We had no luck the first night of our arrival in QT. Just boring Mexican that will NOT make it to the blog. Not every foodie stop is a winner!

But on race day we lucked out big time! 

At the end of the finish line there was really nothing I felt like eating. They only offered pizza, toasted artisan sandwiches, and empanadas, Which on a normal weekend I would be first in line for, but after a run all I want is some goodness to keep those healthy vibes going. After a quick search on my phone, I found the perfect spot for us: Rehab. 

It's one of those super-smoothie stores that offers fresh wraps, salads, rice paper rolls, even broth bowls! And I couldn't get enough of it. They even had raw treats for us to try out ( I HAD to get the raw tiramisu that was incredible.) 

Mum and I both got mango sprout salads that really hit the spot nicely. There were so many more items on that menu that I wanted to try, so next year we will have our post-marathon recovery sorted. 

Our lunch stop was a recommendation from Steve's Dad and he did well!  

We found another new favorite at Vudu Larder:

It doesn't look like much from the outside, but this bustling little cafe has a lot to offer. At first we thought they would be too busy, however, the waitress assured us a table would be ready once we go through the cue to the till, and sure enough we were able to get a seat. The cabinet food itself is to die for with GF, vegan and vegetarian options being available. As a vego myself, I was grateful for the selection. The sweet treats were almost too good to resist, so we had to try a raw snickers slice (10/10!) and their blueberry, kiwi, and lime raw cheesecake. Both were incredible. 

Josh ordered the burger and Mum and I shared the spiced pea, agria & turmeric cauliflower flat bread that came with yogurt and a mango chutney. It was a stunning meal with a good kick of heat for me.They offer some really different options on their menu to a regular cafe, so this place was my kinda scene for sure. 

Dinner that night was an obvious choice: Ferg Burger. 

This is the famous burger joint that everyone recommends you come to in Queenstown. You can usually find a line out the door during busy hours, although we went around 4pm and only had a 20 minute wait. This was something the boys really wanted to try so we were happy to join in. 

All of the burgers were pretty generous sizes and had some mouth-watering fillings that almost made me wish I ate meat. I went for the tofu burger that came with a satay sauce and I have to say that it was pretty good, not OMG-amazing, but still pretty good. Their onion rings are up there too!

So we were staying in the beautiful Arrowtown (10 min out of QT) at Steve's parent's B&B, and of course me and Mum had to go for a morning wander through the town. And hunt for coffee like always. 

Being a Sunday there were lots of little market stalls around. We couldn't resist the stand selling cherries, a favorite for me and Mum. They're a special treat this time of year and so we had to grab a bag to snack on for the journey home later. We do make some pretty tasty fruit here in NZ.

Our final meal of the trip was back at Vudu. I know we should have tried somewhere new, but we did get a seat by the lake front to watch everyone go by. It was a beautiful way to end our weekend. 

I was very jealous of my Mum's buckwheat pancakes and the coconut whip that came with it...

I decided to go for the black bean quesadilla and was pretty happy with my choice. It tasted super-fresh which is exactly what I wanted. But next time I am definitely going for those pancakes! 

We couldn't leave without trying the Cookie Time Bar! It's New Zealand's most famous cookie and they've made it into the coolest dessert bar ever. You can go for ice cream, a shake, or our choice of an ice cream sandwich. 

I got the dark chocolate ice cream and Steve went for cookies and cream. A mini one was definitely enough for me, especially with a long car ride ahead of us!

Well there we go, a fabulous weekend away with good company and great food. I'm really happy with the spots we found and will be coming back for more this time next year (or maybe sooner if I can!) Just another reason why Queenstown is one of NZ's most popular places to travel. 

Steph x. 

Have you had any foodie finds recently?

What I Eat In A Day #4

Good morning, everyone! 

It's a chilly Tuesday morning here and I got up at 6am for a CrossFit session. We did back squats for nearly an hour (10 reps, 5, 3, 1, 1, 1, 3, 5, 10) and I worked mainly on my form because my recent knee injury has prevented me from doing it properly. It's going to take some practice, but I'm happy to be taking a step in the right direction now.

I've had a nice hot shower, and now I am very ready for some food.

I've been trying to have bigger meals at the start of my day lately, mainly because my work schedule means that I don't get to eat anything again until after 12.30. Which also means I've cut carbs (except my oats. You can't take those from me) and focused on getting a tonne of protein from eggs and other options to keep me full for hours. So far it has worked and it's always good to train my body to do something different.

This morning I am combining two smaller meals for my breakfast. The first one is some muesli (the low-sugar kind) with half a cup of natural Greek yogurt, blueberries, and a little maple syrup. I can't go without my fruit in the morning and this is super-quick to put together.

My second option is vegetarian sausages with fried eggs and I'm also going to add a little barbecue sauce. Simple and tastes great, plus I can make my coffee and muesli while it all cooks. 

I didn't need lunch when I got home from work, so obviously I ate right this morning! 

I've made myself a "deconstructed sushi bowl" with 1/2 cup brown rice, 95g of tuna, celery, green pepper and sesame seeds. I topped it with some dark soy sauce and sweet chili. Yum! I've been having this for my lunch through the last month and I love it.

I've just been on the treadmill in our garage doing a little bit of running. It's hard finding time to get out with my new work schedule, so I gotta fit in some jogging where I can. And now I'm super hungry! I also craving something healthy, so I've made a messy little smoothie bowl.

I added an apple, 1/2 a banana, frozen raspberries and some turmeric/carrot juice I had that's packed with ginger. It blended up nicely, so I topped it with the other half of a banana, fejoa, paleo muesli mix, flax seeds and chia seeds. So much goodness! Plus I love the color.

Dinner tonight is zucchini and haloumi fritters with salmon. We also added a sour cream mix that had a little too much cayenne pepper in it for some heat. I would have added some greens but we don't have any left at the moment. This was delicious! We added buckwheat flour, which has a really nice nutty taste to it.


That was a pretty good day of eating! I've gotten a little off track lately, but I'm feeling good about getting back to being on a healthy plan. I've already got some recipes I'm looking forward to trying!

What's your favorite food been lately?
Steph x.