Ballarat in Bloom luncheon

What a sensational day we had in Ballarat yesterday!! I was thrilled to be invited to attend the "Ballarat in Bloom" luncheon and take my wonderful readers on a journey to some of Ballarat's key venues, beautiful food and brilliant attractions. 

The day saw us hear from key speakers and visit some amazing places. The day commenced at Jackson and Co. for a delicious fruit cocktail punch and some light refreshments. This Hotel sits on the site of the first major intersection in Ballarat, Lydiard and Mair Streets. It has recently experienced a sympathetic restoration including the original verandah.

Life is all about having balance. I enjoyed both the scones with fresh cream and jam, along with a plate full of fresh fruit. Everything is made fresh, daily.

Funny, funny historian Barry Ryan runs us through the history of Jackson and Co. in the rooftop terrace.

Did you know there were 466 pubs in the Ballarat region during the 1800's and now only 46 exist. Amazing how times and lifestyles have changed!

I love fruit especially with a rooftop view. Overlooking our beautiful city

Our day then saw us walk to Doveton Street towards The Forge Pizzeria and past some amazing vintage cars. 

To arrive at a beautifully styled table filled with lunch specials including their most popular pumpkin vegetarian and Shearer's lamb pizza's. The Forge Pizzeria is a great casual dining restaurant and I highly recommend to any visitors (if you can get a seat). This place caters for everyone and has an awesome industrial feel to it.

I then struck gold when some special guests arrived....

What an awesome tourist attraction Sovereign Hill is. Our kids absolutely love that place and personally, I love it too. I remember visiting when I was younger so it's great to share this same experience with our kids today. My tip is to take advantage of the multi-day pass as there is not enough time to see and do everything in one day. If you are a local, I recommend a yearly pass allowing you to come and go as you please 365 days of the year. Sovereign Hill hosts so many events throughout the year you will get value for money. 

We then arrived at The Golden City Hotel, named after our glorious city which earned it's nickname in the 1850's during the gold rush. We had some more super tasting canapés and refreshments. Check out these little miniature hamburgers over looking Sturt Street. 

What a view right? We have such a picturesque regional city and we are super lucky to have these historic buildings surround us. Ballarat is steeped in history and is within reach of Melbourne. Only a little over an hour from the CBD it is well worth the trip to see what I am talking about.

Hang on!!! Who's this??? 

Pickles the wombat from the Wildlife Park popped in. He couldn't miss out on this luncheon. He's even changed his eating habits and eating more healthier "green" meals too. 

Such a beautiful variety of canapés. Hats off to the chef at The Golden City Hotel!

It was then time to head around Lake Wendouree and visit the Botanical Gardens, at which point I had to bid farewell to my amazing group. I waved everyone goodbye as they rode off on a vintage bus. 

This following picture is courtesy of The Couriers IG page. A Knight in shining armour pictured with some beautiful flowers from The Botanical Gardens 

This amazing knight can be found at another awesome theme park in Ballarat, Kryal Castle. Another one our favourite family things to do. See more on our experience at Kryal Castle here.

Happy Saturday everyone!

XxDani 

November #ffs_style challenge

Let's have some fun this week. Please tag the word per day, use the hash tag #ffs_style and get creative. You can Tweet, Facebook, Pin, Google+, Instagram etc... We'll find you!!!

Day 1 - lunch at The Golden City Hotel, Ballarat

How amazing do these little hamburgers look??? I attended the Ballarat in Bloom luncheon today and can't wait to share more pictures of my day on my next post. 

For now get snapping! I look forward to checking out the #ffs_style gallery and seeing all your pictures. 

Happy Friday!

XxDani 

2XU giveaway and the #richardbransonproject

Here's a little thank you to all my readers, followers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

2XU giveaway

My great friends at 2XU have been extremely generous by offering one of my FFS friends to win a $200 x-card. They want to show their support with my Ride To Conquer Cancer and my recent #richardbransonproject. The winner be based on creativity. Enter as many times as you like. Simply take a picture holding up a sign "Please Richard come ride with Dani and the VisionCrusaders.com" and post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and if you don't have any of those social media's, email me dani@fitnessfoodandstyle.com.au with the subject line #richardbransonproject.

Please ensure you use the hashtag #richardbransonproject

Here are some ideas;

OPSM #RichardBransonProject

Polly Shoes #RichardBransonProject

Mannequins #RichardBransonProject

Workers #RichardBransonProject

Skin Ski Surf #RichardBransonProject

Sovereign Hill policeman #askRichard #RichardBransonProject

So use your imagination. I will announce the winner first week of July. Have fun and thank you ALL for your love and support with this amazing cause.

XxDani

Fresh fruit and vegetable exclusive 10% offer at Peach's Fruit Market

I have some fabulous news for my local readers here in Ballarat.


Mention Fitness Food And Style for your exclusive 10% discount off all your produce next time you go and shop at Peach's on Eastwood St! I am so overwhelmed and so thrilled that owner Vicki wanted to collaborate with me for this months STAND UP AND BE RAWESOME challenge.

Why is this so important to me? 

It will be so nice to know that Ballarat families have specifically gone to Peachs on Eastwood St, and are putting fresh fruit and vegetables on their dinner table!! It's all about encouraging their kids to eat more produce too!!!

My aim is to improve families awareness of healthy eating and help children feel confident about preparing vegetables and fruit. Our kids love prepping food, seeing it in the juicer or blender and then drinking it. Nothing is more powerful than watching your kids eat those vegetables that so many parents struggle to get their kids to eat. That is why I want to help in some way! 

It also helps when your kids can help you peel, grate and cut the vegetables rather than going through a drive through or relying on convenience foods. There are hardly ever any vegetables when you get take away foods and that is why I ran last months challenge, PUSH UP YOUR GREENS and followed this month on by eating fruit and vegetables RAW for our STAND UP AND BE RAWESOME challenge.

So please share the love and come "LIKE" their Facebook page;

www.facebook.com/pages/Peaches-Fruit-and-Veg-Eastwood 
(drop them a message saying you have come from Fitness Food And Style) 

You can also visit them online (which is currently being refurbished) SO WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

www.peachs.com.au

Juicing with kids is so much fun

Above is our weekly supply of fruit and vegetables which our kids washed, peeled (where necessary) and chopped to make their designer juices!! As you can see by the jar, they left me some to try! Gee thanks guys...

It was a bit tough today, Day 2 of our fully raw challenge which by the way, I am so grateful our kids are participating also (2nd level not fully raw). I just didn't realise how much food we all needed as we were pretty hungry after each meal which I didn't calculate properly, per person. That is why I got my hands on The Raw Food Diet Plan which saved me soooo much time. It is jam packed with a starter kit, meal planner, shopping list, recipes and much MUCH more! For $29 (that's only $1 per day over our 30 day challenge) it will be such a terrific resource for me now and any future raw challenges/detox's we want to do.

I will be posting weekly recipes courtesy of Peach's and sharing it on their Facebook page as well, so please make sure you come and "LIKE" their page and posts.

If you live in Ballarat (or know anyone that does) would you take up this offer and share it with your family and friends?

Xx Dani

Run Ballarat fun run and meeting Steve Moneghetti

Hi everyone, it's been a pretty hectic couple of days. From Mietta's birthday to my first ever fun run, it was amazing!!!

Here is Adrian and I, ready to rock and roll at 7:30am. Adrian kicked off at 7:40am for his 11km run while I stuck around and went to do my 6km at 8:20am.

Mr Adrian & Mrs Daniela Stevens

Of course, minutes after I completed the run which took me 37 minutes (yes I ran 5kms with a flippin' stitch!!!) I saw Steve Moneghetti's at the finish line and thought here is my opportunity to take a picture with one of the worlds most famous and legendary Olympians!!! I did it just for you, my beautiful blog readers! Most certainly I did it for myself as well. My first official fun run, was most definitely a day I will mark off as being a memorable one!

Olympic legend Steve Moneghetti and Dani Stevens

My beautiful friend Anita made it all the way from Melbourne and she too completed the 11km run with Adrian (he did it in 55mins). I am so proud of the both of them and especially Adrian for doing his first fun run (no training by the way) with me also. The Ballarat Base Hospital raised over $160,000 which is a phenomenal amount, I can't wait to do another one!!!

Anita, me and Adrian

Which reminds me, we got chatting and I think I am going to do a marathon before I turn 40!!!??? That's right people, you heard it here first! Or maybe I wrote it on Facebook, or hang on was it Instagram? Anywho, I am so pumped and really want to do this the year I turn 40. So I figure if I train for the half marathon next year at Great Ocean Road well then that will prep me for the big 40km and run a kilometre for each year I was born. Gosh I am sentimental or rather mental? One way or the other, I am determined and I hope to get this stitch under control otherwise I 'aint running in this much pain, what for?


Oh yes, before I go I must share this huge front cover page of our local newspaper. Can you guess who it is???

The Ballarat Courier Run Ballarat front page featuring Dani Stevens

I was pretty stoked!!! I would like to give a special thank you to all the crew at The Courier, the lovely Serena, Fiona, Jeremy and Andrew the editor, for featuring me in Saturdays newspaper. You're the best!!

Thanks everyone for reading, following and for all your love and support. It means the world to me!!!

Xx Dani

Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, gosh you can be harsh!

We were on the go this morning and when I mean on the go, like 30 minutes to get out of the door from pj mode to showered, dressed and fully fed! Well we did it in 45 minutes.... and amazingly turned up to our wonderful and sunny Lake Wendouree in Ballarat for our 6km walk....

Let me tell you though, looks can be deceiving. When we arrived it was a beautiful sunny Spring morning, but the weather turned on us so we decided to go to a cafe for some morning tea until the rain settled. Little did we know the worst was yet to come.... Let's just say, I was walking like a babushka with my scarf wrapped around my head....it was that icy cold and wet that we walked our a double s's off!!! Only to arrive back to our cars with this beautiful sunshine. Oh well. We walked the lake at least!

Workout
Day of rest (if you'd like to call it that after our walk this morning!)

Breakfast
Green smoothie

Morning snack
Egg and bacon bagel

Lunch
Grilled flat head fish with avocado and grated beetroot salad

Afternoon snack
Mountain oat flat bread chips with home made guacamole, feta and basil dips

These are super quick and real fun to do with the kids. While the flat bread is getting toasted (I do this in my non stick fry pan) we blend the feta, basil, neufchâtel cheese (or you can use philadelphia), chia seeds, add salt and pepper to taste. For the guacamole dip, we just mashed it up with a fork, squeezed lemon juice added S&P and kids just said "Yep, it's done Mum". Normally sour cream or some form of cheese used to go into this but it was all good today!

Dinner
BBQ lamb cutlets with chicken mini burgers served with salad

So sorry for the quick post. We're off to watch Noah's first Year One Concert and I'm kinda excited for him! See you tomorrow and as per usual, I will update my recipes here and then post under the food tab.

Oh yes and of course the cocoa oatmeal cake I ate at midnight....I'll provide the steps to that here as well ASAP! Promise!

Xx Dani