EAT: BLUEBERRY COCONUT CREAM PIE OATS

A healthy breakfast recipe that tastes just like a delicious creamy dessert? You bet. Brimming with fruit, filling oats and refreshing coconut, this overnight oatmeal recipe has become my go-to recipe not just for breakfast but for lunch and dinner as well. 

This recipe is perfect for on-the-go meals because the earlier it is made ahead of time, the better. I take it to work for those mornings when I have 5 am starts and it goes down beautifully with a hot cup of coffee.

BLUEBERRY COCONUT CREAM PIE OVERNIGHT OATS

(can be vegan, dairy-free)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 heaped teaspoon shredded coconut
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon coconut essence
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/2 milk of choice (I use So Good coconut milk)
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• Optional: 1 tablespoon peanut butter and/or 1/2 cup Greek or coconut yoghurt to serve)

How-to:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Add wet ingredients and stir well
3. Add blueberries and fold in carefully
4. Leave for at least four hours or overnight
5. Top with peanut butter and/or yoghurt to serve

Peanut butter and yoghurt to serve are entirely optional, but I'm not huge on snacking so find the bit extra helps me get through til lunch. Plus, peanut butter goes with everything. Fact. Enjoy!

TRAVEL: MARRAKECH

While most of our friends abroad headed straight home after our six months abroad, my mate Trish and I continued the fairytale, venturing down to North Africa and exploring the beautiful country of Morocco. We began in Marrakech, a tried and true starting point (at least according to Lonely Planet) and a wonderful city to soak up while beginning to come to terms with the fact that our time in Lancaster was over.

Our time was filled with balmy days getting lost in the maze of the Old Town, conversations over long dinners of tagine and cous cous, and hours on end by the pool in our weirdly-hotel-like hostel. On a whim, we signed up for a 36 hour whirlwind trip to the Sahara Desert, an experience that was easily one of the highlights of all my time abroad. On the way we visited some Game of Thrones filming locations, which was mighty exciting for my inner tourist and Khaleesi fangirl, among various Moroccan towns and villages. In the Sahara, we were treated to a delicious meal before a traditional Moroccan music performance, after which we slept in wildly over-insulated tents. It was like nothing I've ever experienced before and after six months worth of travel around Europe it was refreshing to be taken completely out of our comfort zone. 

x

TRAVEL: AMALFI COAST

  

It seems a far cry from rainy old England, but it's comforting to know that these kind of beaches lie barely an hour's flight from where I'm living right now. With a few weeks study behind us and several more to come, a few friends and I booked ourselves a post-exam escape on the Amalfi Coast to get us through our revision, and, oh boy, was it worth it.

We stayed in Salerno for a few nights, making day trips to Maori and Positano for a couple of glorious beach days, and a trek to Pompeii to see the city, Mt Vesuvius and surrounds. Our final night was spent in Rome, dining on pasta, red wine and coconut gelato next to to the Trevi Fountain and wandering the streets of beautiful Roma in the wee hours of the morning.

I don't think words can describe how wonderful it was, but perhaps these photographs help. I'll be saying goodbye to the two of the three ladies I traveled with at the end of this week and the only thing that makes it okay is the incredible memories we've got to hold onto.

Hold your pals tight, friends.

x

LIFE: THE DREAM

I'm on holidays at the moment and this is pretty much what my life looks like right now. I've been smashing my way through a bunch of books, catching up on magazines, taking the time to make and eat some really delicious food and I've started knitting. I'm making a scarf at the moment.

It's so nice to have some time to myself to relax - I worked really hard last semester at uni and it seems a bit bratty to post my results on the internet but suffice to say I did really well and I'm proud of my efforts which makes it even more satisfying to take a big mental and physical break from it all.

I read Quiet by Susan Cain when we were in Melbourne and it's honestly one of the best books I've read. If you're an introvert (and even if you're not), I highly recommend it. It was a really refreshing perspective on introversion and one you don't often hear - it definitely changed the way I see myself and has had an influence on the way I approach all sorts of situations in regard to my introversion.

I'm reading Jane Eyre at the moment and enjoying it a lot - it's hard to put down! Next on the list is Love In A Cold Climate, has anyone read it? I haven't read any Nancy Mitford before.

Aside from reading, I seem to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Yesterday I made banana bread and a batch of amazing oatmeal raisin muffins which I may even post the recipe for, they are that good. I bought a jar of almond, brazil nut and cashew spread which is SO GOOD with strawberry jam on rye or sourdough, and I'm starting to document my continued experimentation with oatmeal on my Instagram alongside the rest of my adventures.

Is anyone else on holiday? How are you spending your break? If not, I'm sorry for the obnoxious I'M ON HOLIDAY AND YOU'RE NOT tone you must be getting from reading this.

x

Song of the Day: The Dream by Thee Oh Sees

INSPIRE: SEA STRANGERS

I'm feelin' pretty sleepy and worn out today so I decided it was a good day to benefit from the creativity of others share the love. Instagram is the social media channel of choice today as I've become a wee bit of an obsessive - a year or so late but c'est la vie. These lovely profiles continually light up my feed!

Claire - the gypsy hart - provides my daily dose of wanderlust and tranquility with a side of pretty food.

Hollie's blog, Ditzy and Whimzy makes me so jealous due to my lack of grooviness and her abundance of it but I follow her on Instagram anyway.

The lovely Jaymie blogs at By Jaymie and sells her beautiful illustrated wears at Jewellery by Jaymie.

Kathy blogs at half agony and she Instagrams (is that a verb?) an array of yummy food, good reads and pretty clothes.

Russh is unequivocally my favourite magazine and everything they post is hip and rad and swell and all manner of positive adjectives.

Please share your favourite Instagrams and your own. Mine is @elizabuzacott!

I'm continuing with the relaxation by heading to the movies this afternoon. I haven't managed to see the Great Gatsby yet but that will change in a couple of hours. I've heard very good things and very bad things, but at least if all else fails I know the costuming and soundtrack will be superb. 

The amazing Ball Park Music are the reason for my lack of sleep, kicking off their Thank Ewes tour last night in Brisbane. It was seriously such a rockin' show, I went by myself and I'm almost glad I did because I got right up the front where I could dance the night away alongside all the other eager beavers. Support came courtesy of Eagle and the Worm and Jeremy Neale. I am a little obsessed with Jeremy Neale's music so it was wonderful to see him live again, and I found that I actually knew a bunch of Eagle and the Worm songs without realising it. Definitely one of the best gigs I've been to in a while!

Hopping on the Bloglovin' bandwagon, you can follow me here if you'd like to keep up with my updates (I've only got 44 followers there at the moment - sad face!). There is also an option to import all of your followers but I'm not quite sure how I did it... so, uh, maybe Google it?

x

Song of the Day: Sea Strangers (I Don't Really Know You) by Ball Park Music (They're playing this song for the LAST TIME EVER LIVE on this tour)

EAT: A CERTAIN ROMANCE

After a week of opting for a good old muesli/yoghurt/banana combo whipped up and consumed in the hotel room, we ventured out for breakfast on the morning of our last day in Melbourne to the lovely Caffe e Torta on Little Collins Street, just inside the Block Arcade. It was chosen on a whim partly by how groovy it looked, though the lighting inside was very dim so none of those photos worked out very well. You'll just have to take my word for it.

All three of us started off with freshly squeezed juice - my brain is testing me right now but I'm pretty sure it was orange, ginger and... something else. My mother went for mushrooms, feta and poached egg on sourdough rye and my dad went for 'Eggs Italiano.' They both looked equally delicious and by all accounts tasted just as swell. I went for (the incredibly dull choice of) a bowl of porridge with banana, cinnamon and maple syrup, but it was worth being unadventurous because it was SO GOOD.

I don't know why I felt the need to spell that all out for you, but I guess I just really like talking about food so there you go. I also don't really know what else to write because I've spent all weekend at work and, lets face it, food is far more interesting than work.

This is turning into psychobabble so I'm going to put an end to this post and wish you all a lovely week!

x

Song of the Day: A Certain Romance by Arctic Monkeys

~pls be prepared for all my blog posts to be named after arctic monkeys songs for the next 3995872 weeks they have been on replay since do i wanna know? was released~

EAT: MOTHER'S DAY

Hello friends,

For the first time in a good few years, my family actually did something together for Mother's Day. This morning my mother, my father, and myself, went into South Bank for the Mother's Day Classic fun run. We all ran the 8 km, which I haven't run in a race before. I was very happy with my time and I'm looking forward to the 10 km run I'll be doing in a couple of months. I also beat my dad by about 30 seconds which was very exciting for me, hehe.

The weather was a little drizzly, so we headed home fairly soon after and on the way we stopped at an incredible Italian bakery on the way to buy an assortment of treats for morning tea and dessert (we take celebratory eating seriously in my house).

My dad and I split this amazing pistachio, uh, thing, this morning (...and a tiramisu). I'm not quite sure what it's called. But it tasted so flippin' good that I probably would have forgotten what it was called anyway.

How did you celebrate Mother's Day? And what did you eat?

x

PS On Friday night I went to The Best Gig Ever and saw Jeremy Neale and Go Violets. You can read my review here!

LIFE: LEFT ALONE

mornings with my kitty and a book

wanting a white shirt

bits and pieces

relaxing

russh and white chocolate cake

uni breaks

waiting for midnight juggernauts

standard uni fare

Thought it was about time for another Instagram post. As is evident in these photos,  I've been going through books like nobody's business lately. I really loved The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. All highly recommended.

I finished A Spy in the House of Love by Anais Nin this morning. I really liked the concept but I had to make myself finish it and I was left feeling a bit flat. So next I'll be going with something I know I'll enjoy; I still have an Austen and a Dickens, and a Coco Chanel biography, from my birthday so it will more than likely end up being one of those. What have you been reading lately?

I went to Flume and Chet Faker last night at Riverstage, which was incredible. It was an amazing show, I'm so glad I went. The lighting and visual effects during Flume's set was mindblowing. The two of them did some stuff together at the end as well, and I'm hoping that some of their collaborative work gets properly released soon! The only downside was that it was an all-ages show, and the multitude of twelve-year-olds made it feel a bit like a grade eight social. And everyone around me was talking through Chet Faker's set! Big boo to that because his voice is like something-out-of-this-world live. Little kids stink.

I'm going to Matt & Kim on Thursday, and Jeremy Neale on Friday so I'm going to be very sleepy by the end of the week, but, hey, it's worth it for live music, right?

x

Song of the Day: Left Alone feat. Chet Faker by Flume

LIFE: ENTERTAINMENT

went to Mooloolaba for a long weekend

went shopping while on holiday

loving shift dresses for uni

just finished an assignment on The Sartorialist

been listening to lots of music and reading lots of books

fro-yo before uni with friends

smoothies before 8 am lectures

post-gym treats

Hey pals!

I've been stupidly busy with uni lately, but luckily this long weekend I've got a bit of time to post/queue a couple of things, so yippee for that! But I decided that a little 'life update' by way of Instagram might be a good interlude.

I think the last time I posted was just before I went to Mooloolaba for the weekend! The weather was absolutely divine, and I spent the weekend shopping up a storm and stuffing my face with mocha frappucinos and frozen yoghurt. Funny story, though, we were actually up there watching my dad compete in a triathlon, and on the Sunday morning while my mum and I were watching, I fainted! It was so embarrassing, they took me to the medical tent and I spent the rest of the day holed up in our apartment watching Gossip Girl and reading Persuasion, for fear someone would recognise me as 'the girl that fainted.'

I'm well and truly back in the swing of things at uni now, and I'm really enjoying three of my four subjects, so that's not a bad ratio. I just finished an assignment on globalisation/media convergence/all that jazz last night and I chose to focus on Scott Schuman, so that was really interesting.

Aside from uni, I've decided to train for a 10 km fun run in August, so I've also been running, riding and going to the gym. I like to exercise anyway, but I'm really excited because I absolutely LOVE to run so it's nice to have a goal.

I also turned nineteen, which is way too old for my liking, but I figure cake and presents make up for turning a year older.

I hope everyone is well and massive congratulations if you got through all that babble.

x

Song of the Day: 'Entertainment' by Phoenix