1. More Panache goodness. 2. Book Club 3. $50,000 diving helmet. 4. The best kind of Date Night. 5. Roasting chickpeas 6. Her first day out! 7. ‘Lavender Dreaming’ 8. We like red wine. 9. Tried to avoid the donuts!
Tag: coffee
My Day on a Plate
I am obsessed with reading about what people eat. It’s a bit stalker-ish, but I love to see how they fuel their bodies and get ideas for my own meals. Each body is different, and the amount you eat should equate to how much exercise you’re putting in every day, so what works for someone I follow might not work for me…
Won’t stop me from having a good ole sticky beak!
Pop Sugar’s My Day on a Plate series is fantastic eating inspo. They tend to interview the healthier celebrities, which I must admit, I do appreciate. If I keep reading about Jus burgers or Tutti Frutti, I won’t be able to resist!
Anyway, I thought it might be fun to jot down my day; plate form. So here we go!
Breakfast 
I’m up at 6:30, and take my breakfast into work with me so I can sleep as long as possible.
My winter brekky has been a bowl of oats and a drizzle of honey, then extra toppings if I’m feelin’ it. Now that spring has sprung I’ll soon make the transition back to overnight oats or bircher muesli for a cooler breakfast.
I gulp this down with a cup of tea, black with a dash of milk.
Snack
I’m such a creature of habit, 10am is always coffee time. In the interest of saving money I’ve been using our work’s Nespresso machine and adding in lactose free milk. If I’m peckish around now, I’ll grab a handful of raw nuts.
Lunch
I used to HATE lunch, I thought it was so boring. Now I’ve been dedicating time on Sundays to prepare, I’m getting more creative and incorporating different ingredients so I actually look forward to this meal. The last two weeks have been Moroccan chicken, roasted chickpeas and carrot and broccoli salad, and roasted sweet potato, sautéed mushroom, spinach and baked chicken salad.
I eat packed lunch Monday – Thursday, and Friday’s a treat myself to a bowl of deliciousness from Panache. Heaven!
Snack
1:30pm is green tea time, and at 3pm I have a piece of fruit to see me through the afternoon.
Dinner
Dinner varies from vegetarian Mexican, prawn curry, salmon with asparagus and broccolini and this avocado pasta dish, which we looooooove. (I sub in broccoli for half of my pasta serving).
Dessert
If it’s still early I’ll have a peppermint tea and a couple of pieces of dark chocolate for dessert, but I try not to indulge too much during the week!
Weekends are completely different, and no day is ever the same, but I am definitely improving on keeping my healthy eating habits through Saturday and Sunday… with the occasional cheat meal – everything in moderation!
So that’s me. God I love food, and my relationship with it is becoming so much healthier.
Bring on spring and summer, and the fresh fruits and vegetables they bring with them!
Hanbel.
x
The Breakfast Club
Shout out to miss Linley Wall for suggesting this post!
I love breakfast. In all forms.
Toast with peanut butter, banana slices and cinnamon
A big bowl of porridge with swirls of honey
Smashed avocado and feta with a poached egg
A green smoothie
PANCAKES
A bowl of cereal
Oh, it’s just the best, and without a doubt my favourite meal of the day.
It is also the most important, as they say…
Breaking the fast from a good night’s sleep is so important to kick-start your metabolism and restore your glycogen levels; so you have energy throughout the day. Eating a healthy breakfast within an hour of waking up can help your lil’ body out in so many ways. Plus: it’s delicious!
Luckily, in Perth, we have SO many options for a decent brekky. Sure, you can eat at home (which I often prefer), but sometimes a sunny Sunday calls for a breakfast outing.
Sunshine, on My Window
27 degrees and sunny, on a winter’s day. Are you joking? But also, how amazing!
God, I love a Perth winter. Saturday was absolutely glorious, and Sunday didn’t disappoint either.
So what does a gal do with all this sun? Soak it UPPPPP!
Papa Bell asked me kindly to housesit his place while he and Melissa flew to Broome for the weekend.
As his house is a 5 minute walk from the beach, I’m so glad I didn’t turn this offer down. After waking up early (cheers Andrew) I took myself for a little beach stroll, breathing in the fresh air and stretching my legs. I came back to a very sad looking dog, begging to be taken out… so I went for another walk. On a day like this, I couldn’t resist!
Look at that face! I hate these kind of dogs, but Sparki is so beautifully ugly – with a huge underbite and disproportioned body, it’s so hard not to love him!
Until he steals one of your socks, develops lock jaw and then cries like a baby because he doesn’t know what to do with it.
The rest of the day was equally as blissful, celebrating a dear friend’s birthday over delicious breakfast and incredible coffee.
Laura chose the new spot Finlay and Sons for her special day, and it couldn’t have been more perfect. I can see this becoming my new favourite local. A full menu with too many choices, coffee I knocked back in about 30 seconds, and the most gorgeous, aesthetically pleasing interiors make this girl very happy.
Just look at that rose gold and exposed brick; love love love!
The staff are lovely, and the food is divine. I caved to my standard order of bircher muesli, and was not disappointed in the slightest.
Anh’s mushrooms on goat’s cheese toast looked and smelt unbelievable, the truffle oil wafting in my direction almost gave me food envy. I can’t wait to come back here!
The birthday girl, what a doll! Happy Birthday LB, we love you enormous amounts!
The rest of the day was spent riding to watch my girl’s play netball, quickly popping in to see Andrew and racing back to Dad’s place to feed the pooch.
Anh, Brooke and I had the perfect night in – thai takeaway, rosé, 10 Things I Hate About You and Sean’s homemade caramel slice.
What a classic! Bless you Heath Ledger.
Sunday began with a coffee run to meet up with Book Club over a home cooked breakfast. THANK YOU BROOKE!
Also, please do not ever read The Virgin Suicides. Or watch the movie, we made both errors.
One netball world cup final (YES AUSTRALIA!), a sneaky vino for a friend’s birthday and a fajita bowl on the couch whilst watching House of Cards; and that was my weekend, done and dusted.
I live for the weekend, and I’m sure you can see why! Gotta love these days in the sun, exercising, eating, talking absolute nonsense with the people I love most – I couldn’t ask for anything better.
I hope you all had an equally lovely weekend.
Happy Monday!
Hanbel.
x
Standard Sunday
Adventures with Hannah and Sheena; the best kind of adventures! (because they usually involve food).
I picked up Mum yesterday to join me for some location scouting. I’ve been put in charge of this year’s Christmas Party (queue panic attack) and wanted to scope a couple of places out.
I ignored my flashing petrol light and took Stella, my little Golf, out West to suss out Tropico in North Beach.
Arriving after 11am, we were just looking for a quick coffee but were told there was an hour wait for a table.
I honestly thought the buzz from this place had died down, but apparently not!
Instead we ordered two coffees and a cronut to go, and walked down to the coast to check out the view.
We managed to catch the only nice part of the day, and enjoyed our treats while basking the sun.
The space is gorgeous, I love the breath of fresh air that this café has given that little strip and it’s obviously still very popular.
The coffee was perfect; Will and Co beans treated very well, and the accompanying lemon meringue cronut was to die for.
It’s a shame that you don’t actually have a view of the ocean from inside the café (knowing how close it really is), and for that reason I don’t think this is the right place for our Christmas party.
I would love to go back one early morning, though, as I have heard wonderful things about their breakfast.
Having topped up our caffeine and sugar levels, we hopped back in the car and travelled onwards. Destination: Northbridge.
We were both feeling a little too full to begin eating again, so I suggested we check out the current [free] exhibition at the Museum.
They are currently hosting the 2015 World Press Photo exhibit, which holds some unbelievably confronting and exquisite photography. If you’re in the area, I encourage you to pop your head in and have a quick squiz. Be warned though, it’s not the most pleasant collection of pictures, but it is true to the current situations across our globe.
One of the happier shots, I would have taken more but I didn’t want to snap away like a tourist in there.
Sourcing out something to lighten the mood, we kept on exploring our own neighbourhood. Perth is changing in the blink of an eye, with new bars, restaurants and hotels popping up all over town, and we were eager to see the new additions.
One in particular that caught our eye was the Alex Hotel.
After poking our heads in for an unashamed sticky-beak, we were actually given a tour of the hotel! “It’s so Melbourne” was a phrase being thrown around by Mum and I, which made me cringe a little and yet was a fitting description.
With very minimal, but high standard rooms the guests are encouraged to mill around in the common areas, or explore the nearby streets. Described as a ‘hostel for adults’ the floors are decked out with book shelves, reading nooks and huge common tables intended for people to socialise.
It does seem a little hipster with exposed piping, concrete walls, a rooftop bar and cruiser bikes for hire, however I think that it’s exactly what Perth is crying out for! Bring on some more boutique hotels just like this one.
Finally admitting defeat to the weather gods, we found cover and comfort at The Standard.
Having been here before, this restaurant/bar was at the top of my ‘potential Christmas party’ list.
We just needed to double check…
The friendly, bubbly staff pointed us the direction of a dry Tempranillo rose and we placed our order for some nibbles (my favourite way to eat lunch), starting with olives. 
My lunch date; isn’t she a beauty? (God bless my genes)
We had our eye on the fava chips with mushroom ketchup and aioli, and were also recommended the mushrooms doughnuts – little dough parcels filled with mushroom ragu topped with lemon and chive curd and paprika sugar.
The fava chips were cooked differently from what we remembered, crispier and with more of a batter and the doughnuts could have held more ragu to balance out the heavy dough. However, these were small nitpicks, as the food was delicious and comforting.
The Standard have found such a great location, which will only improve as the Northbridge-City Link is developed. I fall in love with their outside section everytime I visit; the fairy lights and blossoms just do it for me!
The food is delectable, drinks selection on par and the staff are so, so helpful.
Ladies and Gentleman, I think we have a winner.
Thank you for exploring with me Mum, let’s do it again ASAP.
Hanbel.
x
The World of Hanbel 