Ballarat Begonia Festival and my Lake Wendouree push ups

What a great day we had today at the Ballarat Begonia Festival. Here's a quick snap shot of some of the 52 community groups, businesses and schools entered into The Courier Begonia Parade;

~ Chinese Community

~ Zumba

~ Stems flower market

~ Ballarat Regional Multicultural Centre  

~ Ballarat Fire Brigade

~ Ballarat Yacht Club

Just to name a few......

Ballarat Begonia Festival

It's amazing! this festival has been running strong for more than 6 decades!!! They marshall in Carlton St between Sturt St and Wendouree Parade and along Wendouree Parade between Morrison Street and Hamilton Avenue.

It was a jam packed day today and we had such amazing weather.

Ballarat Begonia Festival

Fitness

Today I managed to do my female version push ups beside our beautiful Lake Wendouree! I did do 2 proper ones but still not 100%. Little Oscar attempted his version and then collapsed on his belly. 

This is Week 2 for our Day 3 push ups, reps 8, 8 &9 (rested 2 minutes in between sets). Where is the time going? Tomorrow is a day of rest and then we move onto Week 3!!! Whoosh! How time flies when you are having fun.

Lake Wendouree push ups

I know it's only been 2 weeks but I am starting to see some muscle definition in my arms & shoulders, I really should've taken a before picture. Totally forgot!

Food

I got into making our meatballs again this weekend and made a big batch for this week to freeze as I will be going to Sydney next week for a 2 day Digital Parents Conference where there is jam packed information with panel sessions, workshops, keynote speakers, networking opportunities and a sponsor expo. It's one the biggest social media events catering to Australia's mum, parent and personal blogging communities. So I look forward to meeting new people and especially meeting my dearest friend Shari from Your Family Survival Coach. 

Spinach wholemeal pasta with basil meatballs bolognese

My typical meatball recipe is found here however today I pushed up our greens by adding more basil and parsley!!! Boy were they divine!! Also pushed up our greens with these amazing spinach based wholemeal pasta!!! Now that's some serious green action on a plate!!! 

I hope you had a sensational long weekend (for my Victorian readers) and please leave me your comments below on your most favourite freezer meals?

♥ Dani 

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March challenge ~ push ups and greens week 2

Hello everyone, I hope you are having an awesome weekend. We are having such great summer weather even though we're in our first week of Autumn.

Sending you plenty of hugs and sunshine your way especially to all of you in -20C degrees, I can't believe how cold your winter has been. I hope the sun comes your way pronto!!!

Summer time in Autumn

Food

The last few days I have been making some super quick "cheat" meals where I don't have to cook for too long or prep up.

We had a bbq the other night and had some left over organic turkey sausages so I simply whipped up some curry sausages!!! Of course pushed up my greens with these luscious frozen peas!!!

Left over bbq sausages

I checked out my fridge, pantry and freezer and these were the ingredients I found:

- 4 left over bbq turkey sausages (sliced them up)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- yellow curry paste
- mustard powder
- 180 Nutrition coconut protein powder
- splash of milk
- 1 can of corn
- x2 cans of mixed beans/legumes
- 1 cup of frozen peas

Method:

1). Heat frying pan and add sliced sausages, sprinkle mustard powder
2). Crush a garlic, add canned corn and beans
3). Mix curry paste some hot water, added 180 Nutrition coconut protein powder and milk (instant coconut milk/cream)
4). Place all in frypan, add peas and allow to simmer until peas are cooked. Add S&P to taste if required

***NB: A special 10% promo code is provided for those that order 180 Nutrition products via my blog. It's a little thank you from me for supporting my blog***

You can serve this with quiona, brown rice or like us we just had it plain. Added yogurt with some mint and it was super flavoursome.

The end product, inspired by Jamie Oliver as he is renowned for his bangers and mash type recipes.

curry sausages with beans

Here are some more wonderful array of green recipe ideas being tagged to our #pushupsgreens challenge. How glorious do these look?

Push ups and greens challenge

Even baby Zali is loving her green juice, we simply placed apple, celery and parsley and both girls were asking for more! more! more!

Green juice for baby's

We have had some amazing push ups pictures tagged to our challenge as well, here are some more amazing people participating in our March challenge.

Push ups 4 week program

Fitness

Week 2 is already here. Below are our increased reps. Please ensure you rest in between the sets and let me know how you are going with your push ups?

4 week push up program

I have managed to squeeze my 15 minutes workouts this weeekend, loving the short bursts of resistance and interval training. Beats working out for hours at the gym especially when I have our 4 little angels to play around with. For more information on the fitness program I follow, go here.

Leave me your thoughts on how creative you have been in the kitchen with your greens, how your push ups are going etc..... Are you enjoying it? Also have you been cutting down your sugar since our No Added Sugar challenge. If you need inspiration and how to quit sugar completely, you can buy Sarah Wilsons I QUIT SUGAR here or click on the side tab. It's a real eye opener!

Until we meet again. 

♥ Dani 

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