Happy Boxing Day (?)

Today is Boxing Day in Australia and apparently shopping day as well.

I'm flying back to Melbourne tonight! Can't believe I only have two days left in Australia before I fly back home.

Breakfast:

Green smoothie (celery, capsicum, rocket, spinach, white nectarine, banana, peppermint tea), blueberry yogurt w/cereal, peppermint tea

Snack:

Pineapple

 Snack:

Cereal w/blueberry yogurt

Snack:

Caramel Lindt truffle (2)

Dark chocolate Lindt truffle

Drink from Noosa Chocolate Factory, Brisbane, Australia:

90% iced dark chocolate
(Mmm. Very dark chocolate.)

Sample in Myer Department Store, Brisbane, Australia:

Affogato
(I liked the bitterness of the coffee, but didn't like the white chocolate shavings.)

Lunch at Fat Noodle in the Treasury Casino & Hotel, Brisbane, Australia:

Stir-fry Shanghai noodle w/pumpkin, shiitake mushrooms (gave to my cousin) & Asian greens
(Very salty. I ended up "washing" the dish with water to get rid of the sauce.)

Snack:

Milk chocolate

Merry Christmas!

Today did not feel like Christmas at all.

Breakfast:

Green smoothie (spinach, celery, chocolate protein powder, pb, banana), blueberry yogurt w/cereal, green tea

Sample:

Candied kumquat (ate a bite)
(Too sweet.)

Christmas Lunch Party:

The menu.

All the dishes.
(My cousin wanted me to do something with the napkins so I folded them into stars, trees and an elf shoe! Festive, right?)

The desserts featuring Australia's beloved pavlova.

  My Christmas Lunch:

Apple, mango & spinach salad, beer
(I wasn't a big fan of the menu so I ended up making my own dish. Chef's special! Hah.)

Crab carisma potato salad
(I did try the potato salad, but it was a bit too acidic and I don't like crab and cheese.)

Cucumber & carrot (basically ate all the ones on the table)

  Christmas Dessert:

Pavlova (ate a bite, gave the rest to my cousin), mango chunks (ate a lot of these)
(Pavlova is already sweet, but this one was ridiculously sweet. I tried pavlova when I first came to Australia, and I think that the only reason why I liked that one was because it wasn't overly sweet and there was lots of fruits and chocolate. This one was blatantly very sweet meringue with even sweeter cream.) 

Carrot cake (didn't eat the frosting)
(Very sweet, but not bad.)

Snack:

Blueberry yogurt w/cereal

Snack:

Rice wrap filled w/lettuce, vermicelli noodles, cucumber & spinach (3)

Late night dessert:

Warm carrot cake w/vanilla ice cream & macadamia honey ice cream

Happy birthday Marie!!!

Breakfast:

Green smoothie (celery, spinach, capsicum, banana, pb) topped w/cereal

Snack:

Apple

Snack:

Green tea, blueberry yogurt w/cereal & cherries

 Snack:

Blueberry yogurt w/cereal & chocolate shavings

Snack:

Green smoothie (red plum, spinach, banana, rocket) topped w/cereal

Happy birthday Coleen!

Road tripping back to Brisbane today. I spent my morning in the pool instead of running along my almost perfect beach since I overdid it yesterday. So sad.

Breakfast:

Iced peppermint, lemon & ginger tea, green tea, passionfruit yogurt parfait (w/cereal, banana, spinach, pineapple & mango layers)
(I love yogurt parfaits! So delicious and a great way to start a hot day.)

Samples at Tropical Fruit World, Duranbah, Australia:

Lemon myrtle tea
(Nothing special.)

Chocolate fruit sauce
(Tasted mildly tangy, sort of like a cheap balsamic vinegar knock-off.)

Mango butter
(Tasted like mango-flavoured sugar.)

Macadamia paste, chocolate macadamia paste
("Paste" is what we'd call macadamia butter. Really enjoyed both!)

 Dinner:

Green smoothie (spinach, rocket, chocolate protein powder, pb & red plums) topped w/cereal, chicken broth w/veggies
(My cousin made some chicken soup and a chicken salad, but I didn't want to eat the chicken or noodles so I just picked them out. The vinegar from the salad dressing went really well with her broth. Also, I am ecstatic that my cousin has a blender. Absolutely thrilled. I can't wait to make a smoothie in the morning!) 

Byron Bay

Short road trip to Byron Bay today! It's more of a tourist beach town and used to be filled with hippies.

Breakfast:

Green tea, iced peppermint, lemon & ginger tea, passionfruit yogurt w/spinach, banana, pineapple & cereal, mangoes
(I've missed breakfast spreads!)

Snack:

Red plum

Drink at the Beach Hotel Bar, Byron Bay, Australia:

Black beer
(Not bad. I think this is Monteith's black beer, but I'm not sure because my cousin's husband bought it. I just told him to get the darkest beer on tap, and I guess this was it.)

Sip of my cousin's apple cider
(I'm used to non-alcoholic apple cider, but apple cider here is a light beer. Wasn't a big fan of this because it's too bubbly and tastes like diluted apple juice w/no sugar added. I don't even like apple juice in general.)

Drink:

Iced peppermint, lemon & ginger tea
(The beach resort I'm staying at opens to a beautiful, relatively empty beach that stretches on and on. There's barely any birds, the terrain is pretty flat and the sand is pretty soft. So the beach pretty much met most of my "perfect" conditions and I took full advantage of that, running around 15k in the morning. What I somewhat forgot was that my knee is still recovering and I haven't ran in awhile. So now I'm mildly disabled and was gulping down glasses of iced tea to "ice" parts of my right leg.)