Hello July!

It is, indeed, July already. People are already buying Christmas presents, either doing their tax returns or throwing it in the too hard basket, and shivering under MANY MANY BLANKETS AND/OR DOONAS.

BECAUSE IT IS SO COLD. Actually it's not so bad right now because it is raining, foggy and humid. Our cats have the right idea - Charlee finds the hot water bottle and sits on that part of the bed. Hogger.

It was BLOODY FREEZING when we got up for the half marathon. A lot of people wear jumpers they don't want while they warm up them throw them to the side of the road when done with them. They get collected for the red cross or some other charity I think. Pretty sure I'll do that next year. This year we palmed ours off to Nadine's mother who gallantly got up with us at 4am for support!

I managed to run 15 of the 21.1km (in hindsight this probably wasn't the greatest idea I've ever had, considering the lack of training) and managed to finish in 2:48:34 - 15 mins faster than last year. And it took only a couple of days for my legs to start working properly rather than the week it took last year. I was quite chuffed =D

This Sunday coming we are running the 5k Jetty to Jetty in Redcliffe, hopefully the rain ceases...

In other things, I was nominated by Theresa at the Tropical Vegan for the Food Stories blog award which asks that we share a random fact about ourselves and then pass it along to 5 other bloggers.

Yay! Thank you :) I like to get awards. I dunno about my story telling though, it's mostly just babbling...

So here is my random fact:

I miss my long hair (longer than this picture, I could sit on it but I couldn't find a photo), and the red, and my eyebrow piercing. I've still got the ponytail I hacked off just before my yr 12 formal (considering selling it - how does one go about that?) Can't really get another eyebrow thing cuz there is scar tissue on both and it'll hurt like hell, besides, one got infected and the other...I walked into a door and that was the end of that. I'm going to try dying my hair more naturally with red henna because bleach is just Not Good. I may even keep growing it - we'll see how long it gets before I crack the shits and get the clippers out.

Now for the 5 other bloggers: I nominate anyone who reads my blog to go ahead and do it if you want :)

I promise there will be food in the next post! I found gluten free cous cous! Nadine has been cooking yummy things this week! My sister had us over for a delicious Japanese curry with apple and raspberry crumble for dessert!

Life Update + Deconstructed hummus pasta

I have been fairly lazy blog-wise lately. I've been busy setting up house, reorganising what I've done to set up house, working, running and crafting. This year is turning into The Year of Doing Things I Always Wanted to But Didn't Because I am Too Lazy or Otherwise Unmotivated. (breath).

I've signed up for my first 5k race of the year (I intend on doing more than one) - The RACQ International Women's Day Fun Run/Walk, and I've been running pretty much every second morning to get ready for it. I'm lucky to live in an area that is FULL OF HILLS which is excellent for running training. I also figure that if I run for 15 mins up and down (steep ish) hills, it'd be like running for half an hour on dead flat ground. =P I actually enjoy this whole running business now. I've managed to get up at five am to fit it in before work and I've found on those days that I do run I have a lot more energy at work. I of course practically fall asleep by 7pm that night but that's ok :)

I have 3 craft projects going on at once at the moment (including my curtains which I have only finished one of so far) and I'll be trying hard to update about them if any progress has been made every Wednesday.

My house is coming together and I just bought a lawn mower (just in time too, the lawn is getting loooonnngg). It is a battery powdered one and I may review it once I've used it.

Now onto some food that of which this blog is about.

Ever had the best intentions of making hummus to eat but finding that the food processor is dirty turns you off?

Deconstructed Hummus Pasta

One Giant Serve.

Ingredients:

Pasta for one

2/3 cups cooked chickpeas

1 tbsp tahini

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1 clove garlic, grated/minced

1 wedge of lemon, squeezed

Black pepper

Cook pasta. Put the rest of ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine. Add pasta to bowl and stir again. Enjoy!

I added about 5 cherry tomatoes that I found in the fridge to give it some colour. If I make it again I'd also probably add a little bit of water to thin the tahini a bit. It got quite thick :) 

This whole recipe provides you with 24% of your daily iron needs, 14g of protein, 13% calicum, 9% vitamin C, and only 21g sodium. (According to nutritiondata.com) I'm particularly impressed with the first three.

Or if you HAVE hummus, just cook some pasta and whack maybe half a cup of it on top. Yum.

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On other nonrelated news, this year I have signed up for the World's Greatest Shave for leukaemia! This is another thing I've been wanting to do forever.

I'll be shaving off what we like to refer to as 'The Bieber'. I'll miss him a little. :)

If you would like to sponsor me, please click here and follow the instructions :) Any amount is appreciated!

Titles are hard to come by...

I got my race card in the mail, finally! Check out that number. Apparently there's about 50,000 people doing this thing. Dude. Are there that many people in Australia? Far out. I've been keeping up with my training quite well. I can now run jog 4.5km without stopping, for which I am quite proud.

Nadine baked me some cupcakes (woohoo!) today. She chose the Dulce sin Leche cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. But for the icing, instead of what it said she just made a basic chocolate icing which was delicious. I want another one but apparently I have to make them last til Saturday. Bah.

I had a beer the other night and a friend decided to join me :) I nearly had a heart attack, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when the cane toad came flying out of the potting machine at me! It was still alive so we let him go. Poor thing must've been terrified going around and around. I also nearly stood on a water dragon - the animals are coming out now! Just in time for spring :)

Basic necessities

Chocolate coated strawberries and cream.

Cream: 2 parts vegan cream cheese, 2 parts vegan marg (beat until smooth), 1 capful of vanilla essence (beat) and 1 part rice syrup (beat until fluffy). Add more rice syrup to taste. Amazing. I ate too much of it and now I feel ill. Of course.

We went to a strawberry farm and picked our own. They are divine.

Before our strawberry farm adventure we went walking in the Glass house mountains. It was a perfect day for it. We started with a mountain view lookout...(and my mug).

Then went on a circuit walk around Mt. Tibrogargan.

For ages I've been saying 'we should go up north more often and do bushwalks and stuff' and the months tick by, so this weekend we got in the car and went. It was so nice. We didn't see any koalas though :( Nadine was very disappointed.

I did see these pretty flowers though (and a stupid woman who was trampling the bush and picking every single flower she saw - she took pretty much the whole bush of a little purple pea-style flower...the exact kind of flower I wanted to see blooming!) Does anyone know what it is? The leaves are very sharp/spiny.

Happy Saturday

Today I intended to get up when I woke up (ha!), eat half a grapefruit, do some more Bridge to Brisbane training, and come home and eat breakfast. However we went and drank too much wine last night so I stayed in bed and got up when I was ravenous, ate an entire can of baked beans on toast (yummmm - I heated them up in the microwave and mixed through some liquid aminos and nutritional yeast) and proceeded to sit on the couch for a few hours, with laundry and dishes washing thrown in between.

Anyway I decided enough time had passed since my feast of a breakfast to go for a run without getting cramps or spewing, and I was getting hungry again. So I ate my half a grapefruit:

Look how bright it is! This is a ruby red grapefruit. They were really cheap at the fruit shop (something like $3/kg) and are awesome to eat in the morning to get things going.

I went for my run (I can now go for 11 minutes [for my slow jogging that's 1.6km] without stopping. That's a pretty big acheivement for me haha, the girl who walked off the 200m track in a huff in grade 7), and realised I always pick silly times to do it. Midday probably isn't the best idea in the blazing sun. I hate putting sunscreen on my arms and legs (but I did don't worry!) because it takes forever to scrub off. I use Natural Instinct Sunscreen, and it's apparently 4 hours water resistant. I tell you, this stuff does NOT come off! Which is a good thing in the harsh Australian sun.

Thankfully it's warm enough to run without a jumper on now. Goodbye cold.

When I got home I tried to do some yoga but I had the shakes - obviously didn't eat enough before hand, or perhaps I should have put some gatorade in my water or something. Tomorrow I'll be sure to do that. So I had lunch. I didn't feel like the soup we drunkenly made last night (though it's pretty good!) So I threw together this:

1 small zucchini, 1 yellow squash, 1 silverbeet leaf, 100g tempeh and 1 serve of gluten free pasta shells. It's in a satay-esque sauce I made from 1 tbsp sunflower seed butter, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/8 tsp onion powder and 1/8 garlic powder (yeah I got lazy). Damn it was good.

I bought this sunflower seed butter for my sister and her boyfriend to use (he's allergic to nuts) but it's pretty revolting. In fact it's awful. By itself that is. It's sickly sweet and salty at the same time (but smells pretty good!) I've basically just been using it in stir fry sauces. I bought some gluten free pasta the other day because I like it. Why do gf pasta packets always have 6 bazillion languages on it?

I may or may not try to make a baguette to have with our soup for tea tonight. Hmm.

A nice start to the weekend

I made the desicion to get up this morning and do some exercise before breakfast rather than late afternoon when I normally do it, and I did! Hooray!

In my first group pilates class we used a stretchy band thing that I loved, so I went to a sports shop and got myself one! With it came a 40 min workout DVD utilising the band so I did that one this morning. It was pretty good, except I felt there weren't enough repetitions! You'd do three or four of each move instead of 8-10, but I can just learn the movements and do them myself as many times as I like (I hate listening to the instructors on DVD's yack anyway!). This isn't a paid product review by the way, it's just what I use at home and like.

Anyway, my band is gaiam brand, I got it at AMart Allsports, but gaiam also has a website. Unfortunately I couldn't find the band on it, but I can find the mat I use! When I bought the band I noticed Amart also had a million different kinds of yoga and pilates mats, so after I finished the half marathon I got myself a little present! This pilates mat by gaiam. It says it's thicker than most gym mats and has extra cushioning, both of which I reckon are untrue! It's as hard as a rock! I have to assume it softens up with more use. Other than that it's fine to use, and even with the lack of apparent cushioning it doesn't hurt. One thing it IS though, is sticky! Which is excellent because I often slide all over the place on our yoga mat we got from Target.

And also what I can't find on the site (I'm probably blind!) is that the mats are also free of the bad stuff in plastics (pthalates? I don't know how to spell it) I chucked out the (plastic! hahaha) wrapper on mine and I can't recall the exact kinds.

After my little bit of exercise I made some apple and cinnamon porridge for breakfast:

1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 cup soy milk, half a large apple grated and the other half cubed, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. If you want the apple to be more cooked and mushy, precook it a little first. I didn't so I did it all at once.

Sprinkle some extra cinnamon on top (in this case I used allspice because I couldn't bothered opening the cinnamon packet again!) and enjoy. I discovered that if I set my camera to 'shoot waterside scene with rich blue colour' it picks up real colours in my food, instead of the usual greyish tone it all gets. Strange that the 'food' setting doesn't do it!

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Yesterday I also recieved some good news from the bank which means I can now go and buy my new (used) car! I am very, very excited =D

We finished!



From left: Nadine, Nadine's mum, Nadine's aunt and me!

Well, we didn't 'officially' finish, as in our time wasn't recorded but Nadine did it in 3 hours 7 minutes and 29 seconds, and I finished in 3 hours 7 minutes and 9 seconds. We can just see the time in our official photo they took as we stood on the finish line haha. Nadine's aunt officially finished in 2 hours 55 minutes. I want to be able to jog 21km when I'm 60.

The night before our carb-tastic meal was spaghetti and meatballs (this is an old photo) and they were delicious. Everyone had seconds. At 4am we got up and ate some toast with peanut butter, and after we finished we got breakfast out at a cafe - we both had baked beans, spinach, mushroom, tomato and avocado on gluten free toast (The only veg option was also gluten free and we just got them to take off the cheese ha).

I have never been in so much pain in my life! I can't walk. Why did we choose to do this again haha? Oh yeah, for the satisfaction! We're quite chuffed, considering the utter lack of training we did. My feet hurt, my upper thighs hurt, everything. I obviously didn't stretch enough afterward - oh well, lesson learned. Getting up stairs and in and out of my car is a mission though! When's the next half marathon?

Speaking of cars, I officially started looking for a new one today. Ugh.

Saturday morning pancakes

I think Saturday is my favourite day of the week. I can sleep in and fart ass around all day if I feel like it - it doesn't matter since the next day is Sunday and I still don't have to go to work! I like to make a nice breakfast on Saturdays, because all week I've probabaly eaten the same thing, usually oats, and it's nice to have a fancy cooked brekkie when I'm not awake before sunrise. Sometimes it'll be scrambled tofu with baked beans, or I'll make my own hash browns (maybe I'll do that tomorrow! Nadine isn't working hooray!), a lot of the time it's pancakes, specifically, buckwheat because I've decided I love buckwheat flour, and besides, every time I've attempted vegan pancakes with regular flour it's failed miserably.

I know it's like the exact same picture as all my other pancakes I've posted on this here blog, but it's different because they are giant and have raspberries in them. I also used a different recipe since I don't have any bananas - at a million dollars a kilo, I'm sorry!

The recipe I used is 'Grandma's Buckwheat Pancakes' onVegWeb.com. They are delicious. I also ate the entire lot, I wish I hadn't because now I feel sick! I put a blob of nuttlex and tofutti cream cheese and some lemon juice on mine. I also made them with almond milk, and cut the oil down to 2 tbsp and had no issues. These pancakes also commemorate the first time my smoke detector hasn't gone off while making pancakes! Amazing. Last time it didn't stop. As in, when I took the batteries out it was still beeping.

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In other news, I had my first pilates class on Thursday! It was great. My abs STILL hurt (which is kind of annoying but it shows that they did some work!) my legs hurt my arms hurt my butt hurts.

Thursday couldn't possibly have been a better day to do it, either! We had been weeding while standing and bening ALL DAY at work so my back and legs and feet were just killing me. Wedding like that is like a constant lunge, and because I'm uncoordinated on my left side I always use my right leg so that hamstring wants to kill me. Also my right knee always hurts, so I think this class is really going to be helpful. Also I reckon a couple more goes and I might be able to touch my toes without struggle. Ha.

Speaking of exercise, our half marathon walk is next Sunday! Nadine wasn't working at the start of the week so everyday as soon as I got home we went for a quick walk up the street and back, (about 2.5km) which has been good since it stretches out my legs from work and it makes us exercise and thus spend more time together. This weekend we'll have to bust out a much longer walk - at least 10km. Tomorrow we have to pick up our kit from the city so I think we should walk there and back.

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My plans for the day include doing the laundry (the homemade detergent really does make it softer!), baking some more bread (I'm seeing how long I can go without buying a loaf from the shop! So far I've made one loaf.) and making some vegan pepperoni from Vegan on the Cheap to put on a pizza for dinner. I should also probabaly practise some of the pilates stuff I learnt - I'll see how sore I am and if I can toughen up and handle it :)

The Training Begins, Homemade Sausages and Scones!

Nadine stretches woo!

We started training for our half marathon last week, really. We accidentally walked 10km! We thought the distance would be about 6km but it took us 2 hours to get there and back, so we looked it up and it was actually ten. No wonder our legs hurt. But today we did just a short one - 5km walking with sporadic jogging to break up the monotony. I just bought two cheapie pedometers, so hopefully it makes it a little easier to see exactly how far we are going. Google maps isn't really accurate enough for my liking!

Like my stretchy pants? I love them. About $10 at Target, they are SO COMFY and prevent chafing - important in a 21km walk. They come in all different lengths. I got one pair in full length and one in 3/4.

After lunch we wanted to go to have coffee somewhere but the place had closed up for the day so we came back home and I made some fluffy white scones and coffee! (To celebrate the royal nuptials hahahaha). I made them as traditional as I could - bought white self raising flour and everything! I used this recipe I found on the BBC. Unfortunately it barely makes 4 scones, but that's probably a good thing as scones don't really reheat well. We had them with jam and some cashew cream I had leftover from the Panna Cotta I made yesterday. I'm not too fussed on the cashew cream - I wanted to make the 'clotted cream' I found on this entry by Oh She Glows (which inspired me to make scones to celebrate the wedding in the first place) but I couldn't find Tofutti cream cheese (or any other vegan kind) at woolies (and the shop I would otherwise get it from was closed) so I couldn't. Next time.

I have a three level steamer! It certainly comes in handy.

I decided to make some sausages for dinner! I found the recipe yonks ago on Vegan Dad's blog and have always wanted to make them (but I am lazy and keep buying the sanitarium ones which are good). I doubled the recipe and made about 8 or 9 I think. I could have made them smaller, they were a bit giant!

I also didn't mash the beans enough (I used black beans) and I thought they would be ruined but they weren't at all. Though next time I am pureeing them in the food processor first. Yes it looks like a poo.

I also didn't put enough herbs in, but trial and error! They were still delicious. We made mashed sweet potatoes (with rosemary), and steamed brussels sprouts, carrots, peas and corn with lemon and pepper and garlic. Yum. I didn't think as far ahead as sauce though! Gravy would have been good.

Caaaaarbs

Fettucine with tomato-garlic-olive sauce, Cheezly white cheddar and a basil leaf fresh from the garden.

Just a simple olive and tomato sauce on pasta for dinner these past few nights. I was going to make up some pumpkin gnocchi today to have with it instead of fettucine again but I couldn't be bothered! It shall have to wait until tomorrow - but this was the last of the sauce so I'll make and freeze it for another time!

Anyway, it turns out dad may be able to fix my poor little overheating car tomorrow evening, and today rang around Super Cheap Autos and the like to see if they were open and had any thermostats suitable for my car. And strangely enough the one up the road from my house was open and had what I needed so I jumped on a bike (Nadine's, because my tires were flat) and raced to the store before they closed! A bit of an unexpected cardio workout. It's only a 6 km round trip but the speed coupled with the fact that Nadine is short and her bike seat is very low, the fronts of my thighs burned!

I didn't die though. :)

I had already gone for a walk this morning (up and down our nice little hilly area) to test out my new shoes, and they are lovely! I say it's worth spending a little extra to get good shoes. I wore my last pair twice before they stretched and became too loose for me to even walk in comfortably. These ones are bouncy and hug my feet. Yay! (By the way, I got them at a marked-down price at A Mart All Sports. They are an Adidas womens running shoe - all synthetic materials!)

Tomorrow Nadine and I start training together. This is a terrifying thought. I am a very solitary person and while I love Nadine very much I hate exercising with other people! Ugh. Last time we attempted it I got so cranky we ended up having a silly fight! Oh well - time to toughen up I reckon, considering we'll be stuck exercising together for 21.1km!