Healthy Breakfast Idea

I'm a healthy eater by nature. I enjoy the awesome things good and healthy food can do for our bodies. Being vegetarian and lactose intolerant means I have to find creative ways to get iron, calcium etc. into my system. I like the challenge as it makes my food interesting, colourful and filled with vitamins and antioxidants from things I never knew contained them.

 

I have a quick breakfast recipe to share. It is specific to my needs so feel free to add in normal milk or yoghurt - cause I definitely would if I could! The amounts are adjusted to the size of bowl you have and how hungry you are!

 

You will need:

 

 

Cereal (of choice), Almond Milk, Banana, Sliced Raw Almonds,

Mixed Berries (frozen or fresh), Crunchy Oat Bar (of choice)

 

 

You will need to:

 

Place a small amount of cereal in the corner of your bowl. I used Hubbards Light & Right in the flavour Fejoia, Apple and Honey. Then chop up as much banana as you need and place that in a crescent shape around the cereal. You will end up continuing this shape through the whole dish. I chose now to pour my Almond Milk over the cereal, the banana acts as a general barrier although some may leak through. Take the sliced almonds and place these around the banana. Then do the same with the mixed berries - mine were frozen. Then take the Oat Bar, mine was Nature Valley's Crunchy Apple Crisp bar and grind it down into tiny pieces. Sprinkle this around the berries, continuing the crescent shape. That is your last layer.

 

 

This breakfast is delicious, healthy, quick and full of texture and flavour. If you want to add or remove items it will still work as it's so versatile. Eat as is or mix it all together. Drizzle a bit of honey over the top if you're feeling cheeky or replace cereal with yoghurt.

 

Fruit, nuts, grains and a whole slew of beneficial natural goodness;

what a way to start the day!

 

-ShaniJoy

 

 

 

 

 

Strangers

Why does this term exist? Why do we ignore the people we pass on the street? Why is it awkward to make eye contact with another human just because you've never seen them before? Are they not like you? Why is one superior to the other making one afraid or perhaps both. Our pre-perceived judgements of others, be them negative or not, create a withdrawn society. Our broken hearts and trust issues make it hard for us to communicate and interact with new people. Walking down the street becomes a game of who can look away the fastest.

 

I'm an extrovert, I work in retail, I have no problem conversing with or meeting new people; in my work environment. Why are some situations more okay to break the "stranger" line than others? Could I walk up to someone new on the street and become instant friends or at least acquaintances? Yeah perhaps I could, but would I? Why should I? I have friends of my own, why should I make the effort? They look very serious, they wouldn't like me anyway. I bet they are judging me.

 

 

 

Maybe they need that companionship, they could be going through something massive and the attention of one individual taking the time to say hi could slightly ease that heavy burden. A girl crying on the street corner, who stops to help her? Another soul, just like yourself, in need, but because society says it is socially unacceptable, we leave her be?

 

Sometimes it's those closest to us that feel most like strangers. Until we open up and confess the things we hide away we will never break that stranger line no matter how "close" we are to someone. We are a shut off generation who would rather send a friend request than ask "Are you okay?" to a passer by with tear stained cheeks.

 

I'm not saying trust everyone, don't be naïve. There is a time and place for "stranger danger." But I feel we have taken that saying too far and made it a blanket rule for anyone we don't know.

 

Challenge: Look up while walking down the street, smile and make intentional eye contact.  Say hi to someone new. Be present, exist.

 

You can't expect great things to happen if you're always looking away.

 

-ShaniJoy

Purpose

I was riding back from town on the 83 bus the other day and a lady pressed the buzzer to stop in Petone. She gathered her belongings, stood up as the bus slowed and walked to the front. She swiped her card to pay the fare, and called out to the driver, wishing him a lovely rest of his day.

I don't know if it was her tone that prompted me to remember this particular moment in my week or my scepticism. I remember thinking she wasn't being completely truthful in her comment to him, but then I doubted myself; worried I was judging her on false terms. It affected me enough to note it down in my "notes" app on my phone and it became the focus of my thoughts until my stop.

My issue wasn't with the words she used or even her tone, those things only drew my attention to the small throw-away line. It was more focused on her purpose, what she meant behind the actual words, the sub-text. Did she feel obliged to say those words or free? Were they a habit or specific because she especially enjoyed this particular bus driver? Was it forced or could she see his smile wavering but as a stranger all she felt she could do was wish him joy and grace in the form of a common sentence.

I personally think she was being a polite citizen which in fact isn't a terrible thing at all. But I can't help but wonder if she truly felt her words and the meaning behind them.

 

Do we mean the words we say and are we in control of their meaning? Everyone is going to take things differently depending on their upbringing and their character. It also depends on how someone first said it and meant it toward you, that can depict how you see the meaning. This can create a major war in the world of communication and can cause issues in the strongest of relationships. There is no neutral meaning to anything anymore and what becomes important is the purpose behind this language that can be taken in so many ways.

When you speak try to question your purpose. Acting and pretending have become second nature and facades are more common than truth.

Is it better to act nice or be true?

-ShaniJoy

Hidden Treasures

Pushing against the wood as that's where I assume it is the strongest, I can't seem to quite push it open. I lean with all my weight and it suddenly gives way, sending me tumbling into the room. A loud creak escaped from the door as it became un-wedged from its frame. I land slightly unsteadily in a room that my eyes have trouble adjusting to. It looks like one of those Eye-Spy puzzles where there is something new and strange every which way you look. A family of mis-matched china dogs sit upright on an ethnic coffee table atop a family room rug. A collection of devilish clowns are perched on the top shelf behind a sheath of protective glass in a cabinet on which the paint is stripping. Over 20 lamps from every era light the cluttered living room, illuminating the creatures lurking in the shadows. A mannequin is looming behind me dressed in animal fur and a red feather hat; her eyes have a demonic quality that makes me uneasy.

And it's all for sale.

An Egyptian looking necklace catches my eye and I immediately fall in love; it's nice to have something to focus on due to the overwhelming amount of "stuff" in this place. Old children's toys dented and marked lay strewn across the floor among price tags for beautiful treasures hidden amongst the terror. Eyes from figurines are watching me take in all the beauty and horror of this cluttered cave masked as an opshop.

There is definitely opportunity here. From a blouse that looks like it was salvaged from a pirate ship, to a cracked tea pot that I'm sure means something to someone. Overalls from an old laborer hanging near a broom stick that looks like it would assist more with flying than cleaning. Nic-nac's on every flat counter top, a box of fake fruit hidden beneath an old writing desk. I can see tiny carvings possibly from the owner or perhaps their kids, little drawings unreadable to those not in the know.

My writers mind is exploding with the possibilities of this "store." If I am ever at a loss of what to write I plan to drive all the way to this far away land and emerse myself in its treasures. So rich in ideas and stories, you could never be bored here. I couldn't live if my house were this cluttered but this space feels to magical and homely when I expected to feel overwhelmed and anxious. It was like visiting a picture book, my hands running over all the different materials not wanting to alter or remove a single thing.

I want to go back. I want to relive it. But I'm in love with this memory.

I feel like it never existed or more that something that insane could never have been, but it's there, in the heart of the tiny township of Foxton, New Zealand. There lies a place of wonder, of beauty, of treasure.

-ShaniJoy

The light in the dark

One of my favourite types of days belongs in the depths of winter. It's one of those unexpected gem's in life.

You wake up expecting it to be as freezing as when you went to bed, all wrapped up in your pj's that you only wear because they're warm but you secretly love. You gently open one eye, only enough to see that its far too bright for this time of morning and "Who turned all the lights on!!" Annoyed, you roll back but you know that once you've opened that one eye, there's no going back. The sunlight has pierced your eye and you must open the other to see why on earth it's this bright. You search your mind for a reason before your curiosity forces you to look.

Rays of glorious sunshine pour into your chilly room, still huddled in blankets kidding yourself you could have slept through winter and woken up in summer. You venture out of your room to investigate this confusing phenomenon (everything is a little more interesting when you're still half asleep.) Dragging your blankets behind you, still freezing, you open the door to what appears to be more sunlight than you have ever seen almost completely convinced that it is summer. But how can it be, it's June and you live in the southern hemisphere, all those Tumblr posts of summer must be getting to your head.

It is at this point that half of me wants to crawl back into bed and wait for December to roll around and the other half wants something completely different.

I want to get up, get dressed, forget the make up, go for a run somewhere beautiful, buy a coffee, drive to the beach, stay in the car cause it is far too cold to get out. Go to the library, check out some books, write a story, ignore my phone, see a friend, laugh too much. Enjoy the fact that the sun is shinning when the sky should be storming.

I feel one with the world in this moment, like everything is connected in some way. For the sky to put on a beautiful day even though it should naturally be all thunderstorms and raindrops helps me realise that we've all got stuff beneath the surface and our brave faces can sometimes hold more meaning that just being a way to hide. I think they prove our strength. We push through despite the worries and struggles that press on our hearts.

- ShaniJoy