Rave Review with Monster Health Food Company Breakfast in a Bag

Welcome to our very first Rave Review campaign with Monster Health Food Company!

A very big Fitness Food And Style thank you to our first bunch of Rave Reviewers for taking part and congratulations on being the first to try the brand new range of "Breakfast in a Bag" from Monster Health Food Company. 

Jessica from Deloraine, Tasmania

Amanda from Perth, Western Australia

Jodie from Ballarat, Victoria (see below LHS pic)

Alix from Sunbury, Victoria and (see below RHS pic)

Michelle from Frankston, Victoria

Check comments stream below

Jodie's little girl and Alix's little man enjoying Monster Muesli breakfast in a bag

Amanda takes her Breakfast in a Bag to the beach and gym. Jess' little boy enjoying his Monster Muesli.

About Monster Health Food Company

Monster Health Food Company (MHFCo) is a family-run, 100% Australian made and owned company dedicated to delivering healthy breakfast foods. MHFCo has been providing Australians with breakfast mueslis for over twenty years and is focused on the delivery of high quality, nutritious cereal with a great taste. Monster Health Food Company carries an extensive range, and are specialists in a range of ‘free from’ products, with gluten, dairy, soy, nut, preservative and wheat-free alternatives available, as well as being Halal and Kosher certified.


Don't forget to submit your favourite muesli recipe for your free sample pack and to be in the draw to win a hand blender. Click here to register. 

My first personal experience with the muesli was last week on our way to the airport.

Stevens family give Monster Muesli breakfast in a bag a thumbs up!

The beauty of these bags is that you pour your preferred milk directly into the bag or natural greek yogurt, which is what I had. Kids thought it was Christmas as we don't normally eat breakfast in the car in the mornings on our way to school. However this was a special day and what better way to eat than a healthy muesli mix. However now that we have this convenient breakfast in a bag, it's definately coming away with us on our road trip to the Gold Coast over the summer holidays. 

There are so many flavours to choose from. I love that it tastes real, no added sugar and so glad there are no preservatives added. Noah isn't a fan of nuts, so there is a nut free range. We love the fruits and nuts, so there is a flavour to suit everyones taste buds. 

Super happy that it's jam packed with all the vitamins, minerals and protein for our growing kids. They love the fact they know they are feeding their bodies healthy foods. Our kids have a bad habit of asking if things have added sugar in them so, glad these don't.

My only recommendations to the pack, is to make the base a bit more flat as we couldn't scoop all the muesli out. Also the serves need to be the next size up, we had to have 2 serves each of the 60g packs. When something tastes this good, you don't want them in small packs. We couldn't get enough of them.

Thank you to all the Rave Reviewers, I am so glad you had fun tasting and reviewing the Monster Health Food Co Breakfast in a Bag packs. Thank you so much for your comments below, the Monster Health Food Co family are very appreciative of all your feedback.

For those that wish to be a part of our FFS Rave Reviews team, click here to submit your interest.

Much love and friendship,

XxDani 

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Workout Wednesday and reset your goals

Reseting my goals. Seriously I have dropped the ball this winter, I know...... 5kgs 11lbs isn't a big deal but that's when I get comfortable and just keep eating crapola, not exercising and before you know it!!! 20kgs later you are wondering how the heck you got here?

Are you ready to reset your goals? Here are a few simple things to remind us.

I will help you by listing what I will be eating and my exercise regime.

So breakfast is going to be purely based on goodness from now on like this amazing apple & strawberry crumble sprinkled with cinnamon. 

Breakfast

Apple and strawberry crumble for breakfast

Morning and afternoon snacks will consist of fresh fruit and vegetables, protein based products such as yogurt and cottage cheese. Also for those busy days, a smoothie on the run is always a winner!

Morning and afternoon snacks

Morning and afternoon snack ideas

Can't forget my amazing 180 Nutrition protein drinks for pre and post workouts. I love the chocolate protein powder with a banana, walnuts, vanilla essence, your choice of milk (or you can use water) and I add some oats to fill me up even more. Simply delish. 

Smoothie

Healthy chocolate protein smoothie

Lunch will depend if I am at home or I take it away. Here is a fresh lunch idea which you can have at home and also take with you if you are on the go! 

Store in an airtight container and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice when you are ready to eat. Grab whatever seasonal vegetables/salad you have in your fridge, wash, chop, grate and slice your vegetables. For added protein add either a tin of tuna/salmon, legumes or cooked meat. 

Lunch

Healthy lunch ideas

For dinner, I like to eat light and not too heavy so I will either omit the heavy tummy feeling I get from eating ordinary pasta and replace it with vegetable ones or wholemeal pasta. Here is my zucchini pasta (simply use a vegetable peeler and slice your raw zucchini) served with bolognese sauce. 

Dinner

Fresh healthy dinner ideas

As far as those nights that I feel like something sweet, I will either drink water or herbal teas to curb my cravings but if I am really desperate I will make these amazing peanut butter chocolate filled raspberries. Simply mix cacao powder with peanut butter.

Healthy snack ideas

So as you can see, we can do this together. We just need to plan and be prepared for those times we just grab a take away meal or a bad food choice. The main point to remember is you will eat what you buy. So please stock up your pantry and fridge with goodness.

Fitness

This is the other thing I am committing to. The Freeletics program is really intense so I want to ensure that I am getting enough sleep and fuelling my body. The next session I am doing is burpee max and between you and I, I loathe burpees but it's a total body workout so I know it's doing me good. For those that haven't registered or got their Freeletics guide CLICK HERE. 

We can also track one another on the app on iTunes so come find me and please join our 15 week transformation challenge. I will post my before pics ASAP to give me motivation not to give up over these next 15 weeks.

Please list your goals below as we strive to get back on track. 

Much love and friendship,

XxDani 

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Food Challenge - Healthy Spin Dishes

We typically buy those traditional "golden" Corn Flakes but since we are taking the "healthy spin" approach with our food challenge this week, these all organic with apple puree corn flakes are such a better substitute.

Healthy Spin Cornflakes With Fruit

This week 2 lucky winners will receive one of Nicky's 2 recipe books Sweet Nothings and Food Junkies from Live Pure and Fit.

To be in the draw to win these amazing ebooks, all you have to do is;

1). Like my Facebook page
2). Subscribe to my blog  
3). Share and hashtag your pictures #ffs_septemberchallenge on either social media platform

Thank you so much Nicky for your amazing recipes, they ALL look delicious. Here are just a sample of some of Nicky's healthy spin recipes;

Cherry ripe

Macaroni and cheese

Nutella fudge

Peanut butter cup cheese cake

Which is your favourite?

Last weeks Super Sets fitness winner was Kylie Telford who won a $50 Lorna Jane voucher, thank you Kylie for joining our challenge. Your voucher will arrive next week.

Happy hump day xxDani

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Banana pancakes

Life should always be this easy. Got some bananas? Got some eggs? Check this out...............

Banana passiona (pash-i-ona) pancakes

Banana pancakes with passionfruit yogurt 

All you need is 1 banana and 2 eggs. Of course there is 6 of us so I tripled the ingredients and here is baby Zali showing you how simple and easy this recipe truly is.

I use a hand blender to ensure the mixture is blended perfectly hence the little bubbles appearing when I pour the mixture in the fry pan (which has been lightly oiled with olive oil).

Be very careful when turning them over as they are pretty delicate but once you get the hang of it, you will be a pro. Unfortunately you can't flip these pancakes like I do in this picture but you will enjoy eating them.

Here's a birds eye view of these little beauties.

Banana and passionfruit pancakes

There you have it! Experiment with different toppings (of course with no added sugar) we mixed passionfruit with some natural yogurt and the kids had some maple syrup. We have done them with blueberries, check them out here.

What is your quickest and easiest recipe?

Xx Dani

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Healthy living and what we typically eat

I was looking through some of my old posts today and came across this one I did in the very first month of my blogging venture.

Not much has changed and it's great to see that we are not on any yoyo diets, this is now our healthy lifestyle.

June 2012

Here is what we ate today....

Almond Milk

I occasionally substitute cows milk with almond milk which is 1 cup of almonds blended with 2 cups of filtered water (or just depends how thick and creamy you like it). I know some recipes suggest to soak the almonds overnight, I find the result is the same......so just keep blending the almonds until they completely infuse into the water making it look all creamy like milk. Then strain in a cheese cloth and voila! you have an amazing tasting milk alternative, especially for those that get some tummy bloating after having too much cows milk.

Breakfast ~ Quinoa with strawberry, kiwi and raspberries

Simply cook the quinoa as per package instructions, add milk and load up with fresh fruit and there you have an amazing supportive and clean eating breakfast that will keep you fuelled for the morning!

Quinoa with strawberries and kiwi fruit

Morning snack ~ Yogurt with pineapple pieces

Super fast, as there is always yogurt in the fridge and if ever your fresh fruit supply is down, make sure you have some handy "tinned" fruit to add. Also nuts are power protein food!

Yogurt with pineapple

Lunch ~ Salmon beetroot salad with corn kernels

We had salmon last night and this was my left over. Mixed some salad, canned corn kernel and beetroot. Super fast, super tasty!!!! Simply splashed vinegar and olive oil and voila!

Salmon beetroot salad

Afternoon snack ~ Chick peas, celery, gala apples with dip

Our kids are famished when they come home from school and kinda and love this snack. We also incorporate rice crackers too

Chickpeas with with dip 

Dinner ~ Poached chicken with broccoli & peas on a bed of rice

These are considered my cheat nights, where I just wrap the chicken in foil and spice accordingly, in a steamer beside the broccoli and peas whilst the rice cooker does it's magic. Then crumble feta cheese over it. There's no slaving over a hot stove for this ripper dinner!

Poached chicken with broccoli and peas

So that was our day of meals. I hope it gives you some insight on how you can eat healthy and colourful dishes and not spend too much time in the kitchen. I'd rather play "cars" with our kids, as I did while dinner was steaming away :-) XxDani

Do you plan your meals and keep a record of what you eat? 

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Day 14 - no added sugar challenge on Valentines Day

WE DID IT!!!! 14 days with no added sugar! Bravo! I am so pleased you all took the plunge and read your labels with all that extra uneccessary added sugar and replaced it with the natural foods that have already has sugar in them (as our bodies still need some sweetness :-)

How do you feel? Did you think you were not able to do the no sugar over 14 days? What now? Can you try to continue it and allow yourselves a treat once or twice a week? I'd love to hear your thoughts!!!

Breakfast
180 Nutrition coconut protein drink
1 banana
chia seeds
milk

*For your exclusive 10% discount on any 180 Nutrition product simply use my 264464 promo number at checkout 

Morning snack
Watermelon and mango fruit salad with ricotta

Lunch
Eggs with asparagus

Asparagus with poached eggs on wholegrain bread

Afternoon snack
Spinach dip (store bought with no added sugar or preservatives) with wholemeal crackers

Healthy kids snack dip with crackers

We've had a superb day! A lot of fun in the sun today with the heat being over 30C degrees. I was going to make dessert from Sarah Wilson's I QUIT SUGAR but we opted against it as we just wanted the frogurts we made yesterday! Although having said that Noah did ask for a special request that we go buy that healthy dark chocolate because a little sugar is okay as long we don't consume the entire block! He obviously doesn't know his mother!!!! HA! Well the old one anyway......




Dinner
BBQ porterhouse steak with vegetables

Porterhouse house steak with steamed vegetables

Instagram your day!!!


I will be running a mini challenge called #igyourday over in Instagram land until the end of the month and of course here on my blog, Twitter and Facebook page. Just share what you do throughout your day and we can all learn off each other, how to best utilise our day as everyone says how busy they are. Let's see how everyone fits in their healthy living, eating, fitness regime, work/study, family time, hobby etc.... so it doesn't matter if you are student, single parent, family of 8 we can all get ideas on how best to manage our time and day. Please join in and invite your friends!

Watch this space and let me know if you will still be doing the no added sugar as part of your new healthy regime. I know I will be!!!! Especially when I see results like this!!!

NO SUGAR CHALLENGE 

Until next time.

♥ Dani

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Day 13 - no added sugar challenge

Hello there! Feeling more energised? Skin clearer? Mood better? That's all the feedback I have been receiving about this challenge and you know what? That's brilliant!!! That's what this is all about. Becoming healthier and happy peeps.

Today was a struggle for me. I have a pretty hectic day when Mietta goes to Kinda (early learning centre) for 2 hours as I drop off the boys to school in the morning, run some morning errands before heading back home for Zali to have her sleep, we then have lunch and then wake up Zali to take her big sis to Kinda for 2 hours! Then it's either another errand or walk around the lake during those hours. Then pick up the boys between 3-3:15pm and then rush to grab Mietta at 3:30pm!!! WHOOSH! That's the day GONE!

Breakfast
180 Nutrition coconut green smoothie (needed something to take away for the kids school run!)
spinach
celery
apple
ginger

Green smoothie spinach, apple, celery and ginger

*For your exclusive 10% discount on any 180 Nutrition product simply use my 264464 promo number at checkout 

Morning snack
Fruit salad with yogurt

Lunch
Tuna salad wholemeal wrap

Afternoon snack
Tzaziki dip with cherry tomatoes, hard boiled eggs and wholemeal rice crackers

Healthy snack

Dinner
Steamed vegetables with legumes

Steamed vegetables

Wasn't feeling overly hungry tonight, especially with the warm weather today. So we just steamed some vegetables and served the kids with tuna while we had a chickpea/legume mix.


Dessert
Yogurt mango and berry icy poles

Method:
Mix natural yogurt or coconut milk with mango and berries (or whatever fruits you have) freeze and enjoy!!

Can I just say how pleased I am to see such wonderful no added sugar meals in our #noaddedsugar #nashchallenge gallery. I am blow away!! Here's just a few that caught my eye!!!

No added sugar challenge

Thanks to @pippafitness for her mexican inspired stuffed capsicum @mrs_parkinson for her amazing protein pancake stacks layered with coconut yogurt and banana @fithealthymade sweet treat ideas for Valentines Day and @laura_rixon for her array of food colours!


This challenge has been fantastic and I am so proud of you all for taking the plunge! I'm loving my Sarah Wilson I QUIT SUGAR ebook, grab a copy here if you need some inspiration.

What about next month? And the rest of the year? Please let me know what other challenges you would like to see me run!!!

Ready for next months challenge?

List them in your comments below and see you tomorrow on the most romantic day ever.

♥ Dani

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Day 12 - no added sugar challenge

Day 12.....can you smell the roses????

I love Valentines Day, I'm one of those hopeless romantics (and yes my husband tends to deliver every year) however, we have agreed I'd much rather them spread out throughout the year. I see no point spending $200 on the one day!!! Well, I do but that's another romantic story....

How have you survived the last couple of weeks? Can you believe we only have 2 days left? Awesome! I'm pumped and so proud to know there are many of you across the globe doing this with me. I really appreciate you. I sincerely do.

Do you think you will be able to continue this way of living after the challenge ends? I really do hope to do our best. Our kids are brilliant and are such a supporting force to make this happen and live a more healthier lifestyle. It's not that we ban the sugar or say no! no! no! YOU CAN'T HAVE THAT!!! IT'S GOT SUGAR IN IT! Instead we just know it's not healthy for us, no panic, no fretting of missing out. Well, let's just see how we go.                                                                                                                      

As a super treat on Valentines Day I will be making our family Gwyneth Paltrow's berries with caramelised cream which she shares in Sarah Wilson I QUIT SUGAR ebook. Make sure you grab yourself a copy. Pretty cool meals in there that won't even make you want sugar any more.


Our day today in a nutshell.

Various errands, plenty of home domestic bliss, more errands and of course fun times with the kids!!! Trying to fit in one on one time with the boys and their reading whilst girls are playing together. We also plan for our day and get everything ready for another day at school, work and my home office of course! :-)


Breakfast
Pear porridge with blueberries

Pear and blueberries porridge

Method: Cook oats on stove top with canned (or fresh) pear with juices and add milk. Cook until fluffy. When serving I mix frozen blueberries to cool it down for us all as we are typically rushing to get all kids out for our school run!


Morning snack
Ricotta & watermelon with almonds

Watermelon with ricotta and almonds

Lunch
Beef salad

Afternoon snack
180 Nutrition coconut (green smoothie)
handful of spinach
1 banana
A glass of milk/water

Incredible HULK and SHREK green smoothies

Our kids love these and named them a few years ago when SHREK was out so for those that need to get greens into their babes, name it after their favourite super hero and cartoon character. I do the same when I make broccoli soup!


Dinner
Quinoa turkey burgers with salad

Just a reminder to send me your meals that you would like me to "make over" into more of a healthier option for us all!! I know I love to eat taco's but have converted them into cos salad cups. Little things like that make a huge difference and can change your entire family's health around! We still need it looking and tasting cool.

Until we meet again tomorrow.

♥ Dani 

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