Not Veggie

Well, myself aka nearly vegetarian, a flexiatarian, insert label here has had a few days of not-even-near-being-vegetarian.

I had a few days in the city and indulged in my favourite urban takeaway - McDonalds chicken. However, at the hotel Hubbie and I were staying at served me chicken that definitely made my stomach turn - it was a really expensive hotel (his work was paying cause he was there for a work conference) so I expected the food would be fantastic. None of the veggie options sounded ever close to appealing to me, so I ordered a chicken breast filled with herbed mashed potatoes, roasted tomatoes, and basil pesto. The veggie part was fantastic. And so was the chicken... at least the cooked part was. The breast fillets (there were 2 of them) were incredibly thick which I know from doing it at home, makes them harder to cook - especially in a restaurant environment where there's the pressure of time and perfection. And there was just way too many blood vessels in my chicken.

Tonight I wanted to try an apparently easy and delicious recipe my friend gave me. Its for carbonara and it was easy and very yummy. But the problem I have is one of my own - the cheese is not good. It had some white solid stuff on the outside (rennet I assume) but I just grated up some cheese and thought it would melt down and be fine. It isn't. Every now and then I get a crunchy bite and its just gross. So much that I don't want to finish eating. But the meal itself is fantastic so I'd like to buy different cheese tomorrow and try again.

The Perfect Pizza

When I was vegetarian in my teen years, my mum made the best veggie pizzas. The base was made from scratch, and the topping were whatever I wanted (usually pineapple, capsicum, broccoli and carrot). Its an incredibly cheap meal (even if you just have plain old tomato and cheese) and its delicious and can be adapted to anyones tastes.

This weekend I've been making the easy and yummy tomato and cheese, and tomato, capsicum and cheese.

The base is: 1 cup of plain flour, 1 tsp dried yeast, a pinch of salt, 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, 5 tbsp warm water. Mix the dry ingredients and make a well in the centre. Add the oil and the water and mix until a dough forms. Turn onto a floured board/benchtop and knead for a few minutes. Leave in an oiled bowl (pour some olive oil on a paper towel and wipe over a bowl) and leave for an hour - the dough should roughly double in size.

Preheat your oven to 240 C. Use your fist to punch the dough, and then knead slightly. Roll out the dough until about big enough to fit a 27cm tin. Spread tomato paste over the dough, put your toppings on (cheese goes last) and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Voila! Perfect home cooked pizza. No frozen or fast food pizza can beat that. Plus, you know exactly what's gone in it. What more could you ask for?

My stance on Aussie animals

Now I know I won't win any fans with my opinions on the following, but hear me out.

I live in rural SA, a fair way from our state's metropolis (ok, only 250km - I'm not out on a station off the Stuart Highway or anything...). Our primary industries are sheep, cows, barley, oats, lentils, peas. I haven't personally witnessed mulesing (because I'm a sook and can't stand the bleating of the lambs) but I do support it.

Now before you package up that hate mail, have you ever seen a fly struck sheep? Its a million times more inhumane than mulesing is. Our little pocket of the world isn't exactly up with the latest technology and methods - our farmers (bless their cotton socks) do what's been done and handed down through the generations. Well, partially. I don't think our original settlers had GPS units in their tractors - but then again, only our more prosperous farming empires do. We know there are new techniques being developed for a more animal friendly way of preventing fly strike. But for now, all they have is mulesing. Which is better than fly strike in my book any day.

Ok, topic number 2.

Kangaroos. Every so often, numbers of kangaroos soar and they approach on being defined as a pest (like our disastrous imports, the fox, and the rabbit - I know kangaroos are native, but in their massive numbers, they can be put in the pest box). So, what happens to the roos? They get culled. And every time there is a big outcry about animal cruelty but what would happen if the culling didn't happen? We'd be over run with our pesty kangaroos and crying out for a solution to stop their destruction. Its not like culling transforms them into an endangered species.

Alright, now send your hate mail. But respect my right to an opinion, and I'll respect yours.

Mmm, veggie delight

I've taken inspiration from AlmostVegetarian's post at Amy's blog and made my own concoction.

Enter: crusty bread roll, fresh green capsicum, luscious red tomato, shiny red onion... and pineapple out of a can. I also added some sundried tomatoes, tomato paste (Leggo's Pizza Sauce), and some cheese. Unfortunately, I'd turned my frypan up too high (in an attempt to cook the capsicum quickly), and then it didn't cool down fast enough for the other ingredients, so it kinda stuck and burned a little... But, not to worry! The pineapple was left out to put in the roll last, and the sweetness of that masked the slight hint of burnt tomato sauce. It sounds gross, but it was honestly really nice. My only disappointment is I used the last of the cheese we had in it, so now my second helping will be sans cheese.

Going Veggie

Since I'm new to the adult world of vegetarianism (I've been veg before, but that was during my teenage years where I didn't know anything about nutrition - basically, I lived on potatoes and cheese sandwiches - it was when my husband and I first started seeing each other and he thought I looked like a ghost!). Anyway, where was I? Since going veg again, I'm eagerly devouring anything good I can find on the web. I'm an avid reader of both Amy's blog and Almost Vegetarian's blog and am always on the lookout for blogs or articles that catch my eye.

Tonight I've been reading some new stuff at about.com and its really reminded me of stuff I've read before, but about weight loss, not vegetarianism. It seems to me that they're writing as if people are addicted to meat which surprises me - I'm overweight because I'm addicted to food and I eat a lot of calorie dense food (junk food). I'm not addicted to meat at all. I take a vitamin supplement because I'm still educating myself and trying to get all the right nutrients etc and don't want to end up lacking in iron like I have in the past. Good thing I love my greens.

Morbid Obesity... and Soup!

Tonight I've come home from netball training and was ready to put a batch of soup (a new red lentil & sweet potato recipe from taste.com.au) and turned the tv on for some company (Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares was wrapping up - a giblet club sandwich? Eww, no thanks!!!). Anyway, after that, some sort of medical show came about morbidly obese people - in particular, the most obese man alive. I've only heard snippets, but its making me sad and happy at the same time. This man hadn't had a shower or bath in 4 years. He had massive fat deposits hanging between his legs - they went int surgery to have them removed, and it took them 5 hours to just remove one. Its just really sad. But the happy part is more acceptance of myself.

I weigh 94kg - this is the heaviest I've been in my life, but I'm making changes. I don't know if I will ever be super skinny (I'd rather be healthy looking with a bit of muscle definition) but I can take pride that I'm able to get out of bed easily every day (ok, maybe not on the cold days, but that's got nothing to do with my weight!), I can wash myself, walk somewhere, run on a treadmill, play netball, know the difference between healthy and unhealthy (although that doesn't mean I always choose healthy!) and take responsibility for myself.

Not so long ago, one of our casuals at work was required to come and work. She's quite a large lady and was having meal replacement shakes so she could lose enough weight to have gastric bypass surgery. Please forgive my naivety, but isn't that cheating? I would much prefer the personal satisfaction and pride of losing weight all by myself - without the aid of surgery.

Now that I'm done ranting, my soup is just about done! I'm really surprised at how quick that's been. I wonder how good it'll taste!

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Edit (added 5 minutes later): oh my god, this soup is heaven. The sweet potato really gives a beautiful sweet twist, and the lentils make is so hearty. Delicious, cheap, healthy, perfect.

Disgusting

The long weekend has brought me much disgust with myself. We went out for dinner at the golf club on Saturday and the menu options were: fish or chicken. I've never liked seafood, so I chose chicken and planned to eat bugger all of it and just chow down on the salad and bread. Hubby got the same because he doesn't like seafood either. After a long wait, we got our food and sat down. We'd already been forewarned that the chicken might not have been cooked properly, but could be taken back and cooked more. It was not cooked. They deep fried it, so it was crispy on the outside, but still raw and juicy on the inside. And, to make matters worse all I could think of were beakless chickens in disgusting overcrowded cages.

Not appetising.

So, we sent the chicken back, got it fried a bit more, and tried again. I'd already freaked a little and told hubby there was no way I was going to eat it. He got annoyed with me so I asked him if it would make him happy if I had some. He said yes, so I proceeded to take 2 bites, find a blood vessel and refuse to have anymore. He thought I was over-reacting until he cut his entire schnitzel in half and found it pink and raw on the inside.

Needless to say, we got free dessert. That was delicious. And the coleslaw was fantastic too. But I was still hungry, so I popped home and munched on a few of my mini veggie pasties (see previous post).

The rest of our night was great - lots of drinking, catching up with friends, and playing a drinking game version of jenga. But the next day we were all hungover, so indulged in our new projector and watched movies all day long. Seriously, we watched about 6 or 7 movies. It was kinda gross. We got take away food - the first time I got chips with gravy - the shop's deep fryer had only been turned on so they tasted a bit gross. The second time, I asked for a hotdog bun filled with chips and gravy, but they accidentally got me chicken and gravy. So, not wanting to make a scene, I ate it up. And I must admit it tasted damn good... but I couldn't help feeling disgusting. Add that to the diet coke I had, and I just felt bad.

Hubby is going back to work tonight so I'll be alone in veggie heaven for the next 2 weeks. Can't wait to make a really filling lentil and veggie soup - for one, I'm craving it, and two, sooo cheap to make (I'm desperate for a nintendo wii, so I want to save as much money as crazy!).

Junk

Lately I have been eating more junk. Veggie friendly junk, but junk nonetheless.

I think this is a trap that most, if not all, new veggies fall into. Its so much easier to grab some chips or dried fruit or lollies than have to mess things up in the kitchen if you're short of time. The other day we had a bake sale so I cooked scones, pasties and cookies for 5 hours straight. It was good because I got into the routine of preparing, baking and washing up (normally when I cook, I prepare, bake, then eat and do the washing up later... like, a day or two later!).

I made vegetarian pasties and they're delicious! So much that not all of them made it to the bake sale, some were sold even before I got to the bake sale (bless my mother in law), and then I ended up buying some at the bake sale! I've restocked my ingredients and am set to make more of these fabulous delights. Note: they're not vegan. Just vegetarian.

From taste.com.au:

Makes 12

Ingredients
1 small (about 150g) orange sweet potato (kumara), peeled, coarsely chopped
1 small carrot, peeled, finely chopped
1 desiree potato, peeled, finely chopped
1/2 cup (80g) frozen peas
125g can corn, rinsed, drained
1/2 cup (40g) coarsely grated cheddar
2 eggs, lightly whisked
3 sheets (25cm) ready-rolled frozen shortcrust pastry, just thawed
2 tsp sesame seeds

Method

Preheat oven to 240°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Cook sweet potato in a medium saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Use a fork to mash until smooth. Set aside to cool in bowl.

Cook carrot and potato in a medium saucepan of boiling water for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Add carrot mixture, peas, corn, cheese and 1 egg to sweet potato and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Use a 12cm-diameter pastry cutter to cut 12 discs from pastry sheets. Spoon vegetable mixture evenly among pastry discs. Brush edges of pastry lightly with remaining egg.

Fold pastries in half to enclose filling. Use fingertips to gently press together to seal. Place on the lined tray and lightly brush with remaining egg. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Once completely cooled, wrap in foil and place in lunch box.

Notes & tips

You can freeze these pasties at the end of step 5. Place in an airtight container in the freezer. To defrost, place individual pasties in the fridge for 4 hours. Continue from step 6 to serve.

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I kinda cheated a bit. Firstly, I only used one egg - the second egg for sticking the pastry together isn't needed - pastry sticks together fine if you squeeze it with your fingertips (or if you're having trouble, use a little water). Secondly, I don't own a pastry cutter - if you have a sheet of shortcrust pastry, just cut it into quarters. You'll end up with a blob of pastry on top, but if you curl it over, they look like cornish pasties - yum!

Happiness is Fresh Food

I made the most delicious burger for tonight's dinner. My husband (aka the world's biggest carnivore) bought schnitzel, so I cooked that up and made it into a burger for him. For me, I had something even better!

We had beautiful fresh hamburger rolls from the local bakery - you can't beat fresh baked bread. In my burger was cheese, cucumber, roma tomato, wholegrain mustard, pineapple rings, and sundried tomatoes. It was filling and my body just sang as I devoured the freshness. Pure heaven.

I've Cracked

My glorious string of meat free and caffeine free days has come to an end, but also begins again today. On Friday after having drinks at the golf club, we were invited to our friend's place for tea. We stopped by the local chinese shop on the way and got some spring rolls and fried rice (I was sneaky enough to order ahead and ask for vegetarian spring rolls, and meat free fried rice). But dinner was lasagna - it didn't have too much meat it in actually, but it was definitely there. By the time we sat down for tea, we were all hungry enough to just wolf it down so I didn't think about it too much.

And a few days with lots to do have resulted in me consuming caffeine in the form of iced coffee - because its milk, its filling and therefore an easy (but not healthy) breakfast on the run. We had to go to Adelaide for my husband to attend a training course for work, and then yesterday we spent the whole day at our new house moving rocks and building a garden bed - we worked non stop for the whole day (from about 9am to 5pm) so that meant no lunch, but one hell of a tea. Since we were both so tired, our chefs for the night were the cooks at the local take away. I had a cup of chips with gravy, and some wedges with sweet chilli sauce. Oh, and also, we had dinner at the pub with some friends and I've found the only veg option is usually one of the special (or just stuff from the salad bar) - I had some penne pasta with a beautiful roasted capsicum sauce. Delicious!

This whole vegetarian thing is kind of secret from everyone in the way that I don't mention it because I don't want to make a big deal about it or make people feel like I need special treatment.

But on the way to Adelaide we drove past a chicken place (lots of big sheds with way too many chickens inside), and a livestock exchange (take your pigs, sheep and cattle to be sold) and then once we got to Adelaide, we drove past an Ingham Chicken factory - just made me feel sick.

Soy Milk is Out

Another thing I bought yesterday was chocolate soy milk (I only drink flavoured milk, so I didn't think I'd like plain soy milk). But I don't like that either. It tastes alright at first, but then has a terrible aftertaste. So, that's soy milk out for me as well. I'll never be vegan!! Now, where's my cup of organic green tea...

Shopping Time

Today my mother in law and I drove 100km to get to our nearest major supermarket (we have a small one in our home town, but it just doesn't have much variety). Considering the size of the bigger one, I figured it would have a great range of veggie friendly foods and perhaps even some tofu, seitan or tempeh which I've never had but want to try.

I was very surprised to find they didn't have any! But, I was able to stock up on some bits and pieces that my little supermarket doesn't have - organic chickpeas, lentils, beans, pasta, cheaper nuts and dried fruit, flaxseed oil, and organic green tea.

I haven't had meat since... well, I'm not sure but it was sometime in the last fortnight! Now I'm trying to kick caffeine. I haven't had diet coke in about a week, but I had an iced coffee the other day. Next will be sugar - that will be a harder one to kick and I won't ever kick it completely, but I will cut down a lot.

On tonight's menu is cheese & tomato pizza - small pita bread with tomato paste spread on top, and grated cheese, cooked for about 10 minutes or until cheese has melted. Yum!

The Nacho Burger

Yesterday I had a long and brain-frying day at work so by the time I got home, I wanted something easy and a bit of comfort food.

Enter: The Nacho Burger

I'd bought some fresh bread rolls the day before, and wanted to start using those before they lose their mouth watering freshness. I have been a nacho fan ever since I discovered the cheesy goodness in my teen years. The way I make them are dead easy, but also not healthy in any way, shape or form! I simply get some corn chips (usually doritos), a jar of salsa (again, doritos), and then just grate some cheese over the top. Bake for about 10 minutes or until cheese has melted perfectly. So, that's what I did last night, but instead of eating it out of the baking dish, I piled it all into a bread roll - voila! The Nacho Burger!

Is a warm roasted veggie salad nirvana?

Oh my god - so many delicious flavours have just delighted me, filled my tummy, and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So easy to make (just required a bit of cooking time) and well, my tastebuds are still spinning with satisfaction.

The whole recipe is at taste.com.au and its called Warm Roasted Vegetable Salad. As usual, I had to modify it slightly for my personal taste, and the fact that I left my bok choy in the fridge at work... So, what made this delicious delight? Cocktail/mini potatoes, sweet potato, red capsicum, garlic, red onion, pine nuts, fresh oregano, wholegrain mustard, lemon juice and olive oil. No greens unfortunately, but I didn't really care once I took my first bite! Such a rollercoaster ride of flavours - in any one moment you can taste the tang of the mustard, the sourness of the lemon juice, the warming comforting feeling that roasted potato and sweet potato give, the contrast of the onion that reminds me of summer barbecues, the distinct nuttiness of the pine nuts, and the squishiness of the capsicum (ok, so I ran out of describing words...)!

No doubt this will become a regular feature on my menu - I was going to serve with a warmed bread roll, but this dish is a meal all on its own.

Not Rocket Science

Today has featured yet another meal disaster, which ended up in me going back to basics and making stuff that isn't exactly rocket science.

First: the disaster

Iwent to make a smoothie out of fresh rockmelon, fresh pineapple, dash of milk, and some muesli. Now, I know how good muesli is for me, but it literally makes me sick when I eat it (my theory is there's too much fibre in one hit for me). So, I thought putting some in a fruit smoothie would be a good way to get it into me. Little did I know, that little combination practically needed a spoon, and the fruit flavours were completely distinguished and gone.

So for breakfast today, I ended up having an iced coffee which isn't nutritious at all, but it filled my tummy.

That left me to come up with a quick and easy idea for lunch that I could make in the office kitchen. So I went back to basics and made something so simple that it sounds boring, but it satisfied me perfectly - a bread roll with hommus, cheese and cucumber. And strangely enough, all I feel like for dinner is a toasted bread roll spread with margarine. These bread rolls were baked today, so they are super fresh and I think that's what making me wanting to keep them simple - the freshness of them is just perfect and doesn't need jazzing up at all.

I'm easy to please, eh?

Not An Eggplant Fan

And so continues my adventures in Veggie Land - on tonight's menu was spicy rice filled eggplant (from taste.com.au)... which didn't really like. So I thought I'd try a new instant meal - instant meditteranean couscous (from Continental).. which I didn't really like either! I'm not sure if it was its a new completely new food (I've never had couscous before) or if it was simply the flavouring. So what ended up on my dinner plate? I'm ashamed... 2 peanut butter cookies (I'm totally obsessed with Amy's blog at vegcooking.com) and a really big piece of apple slice (I have the best mother in law!).

However, today was not a total write off - I had a pretty good lunch of Continental instant rice (I forget what the flavour is... italian sundried tomato something-er-rather) with steamed broccoli and baked sweet potato. I'm so in love with baked sweet potato at the moment - I cut a whole sweet potato in half (lengthways), spray with cooking spray, put on an oven tray and bake at 180-200 degrees for 40 minutes. Then, scoop the flesh out of the skin - absolute heaven!!

One thing I'm not so in love with is red kidney beans but I think that's because I've kind of used them in a lot of new recipes and have overdosed a bit. I'm making a lot of changes and it might be too fast - so, back to the drawing board and slowing down.

So - some menu options for the rest of the week. Since I'm in the swing of my sweet potato addiction, I figure the fennel and cheese stuffed sweet potato (taste.com.au) will be a regular feature. Its easy, its delicious, and its cheap. As always on standby are my stash of Continental Oriental Fried Rice - another easy, yummy and cheap meal (which goes even further with some simple fresh steamed veggies thrown in). I'm eager to try the Warm Roasted Vegetable Salad from taste.com.au - sounds easy peasy and it has my beloved sweet potato in it! On Saturday I think I'm going to continue my weekend food indulgence trend by making my mother in law's famour Cauliflower & Chickpea curry - it takes a while to prepare, but damn its good!!

Breakfast has always been an obstacle for me - I love toast with vegemite, but 2 slices just don't fill me up. This morning I had a smoothie made out of a dash of Pura Light Start milk, a good 1-2 cups each of fresh rockmelon and pineapple, and a blob of honey. Tomorrow I think I'll do the same, but throw in a bit of muesli to fill it up a bit and hopefully make me feel fuller for longer.