Let's Eat: Baked Falafel Salad

This should also be called: I was trying to use up the leftover things in my kitchen before I move salad.

I diced a slightly soft tomato, 1/4 head of a cabbage, and 5 baked falafel patties which I reheated first, making this salad slightly warm. I tossed the whole salad with ... [don't laugh] malt vinegar. No, I don't remember when I bought or why I have malt vinegar in my cabinet- but it was quite tasty on this salad.

Let's Eat: [Vegan] "Toll House" Cookies

I made these beauties the other week for my flatmates. They devoured them within 6 hours.
This recipe yields 3-5 dozen depending on the size of the cookie. [That's a lot of cookies to eat.]

The original recipe is here. For Megan [and anyone else who wants vegan substitutions!] here are the changes I made to the recipe.

Instead of:

• butter I used margarine [Earth Balance would be the best American alternative.]
• granulated/white sugar I used raw sugar. Raw sugar is great in this recipe because it gives them a nice texture since raw sugar doesn't dissolve all the way like granulated/white does.
• eggs I used 1/3 cup of water. I'm sure egg replacer or even soy milk would have been better, but I didn't have any so I simply used water to get the cookie dough moist enough. I didn't really notice an issue with the cookies not staying together. Use an egg alternative if you have it, if not, tap water will do fine it seems.
• obviously using dairy-free dark chocolate chips is the way to go. I also really like using walnuts. I tend to use a cup of each when I make them.

I've actually made this recipe so many times I have it memorized! [That's really sad, Robin.]

Well, then again, so is referring to yourself in the third-person on your own blog ...

Let's Eat: Crazy Eastern European Rice Diet

A few weeks ago, I embarked on a Crazy Eastern European Rice Diet with my flatmate Zuzanna. She's apparently done this diet lots of times before (and each section of the diet is supposed to last for 9 days or something ridiculous like that). I was only willing to commit to one day for each of the four sections, just to try it out. Each day consists of 3 meals of the following:

Day 1: just wholegrain brown rice

Day 2: 75% wholegrain brown rice and 25% selected steamed vegetables

Day 3: 65% wholegrain brown rice, 25% selected steamed vegetables, and 10% legumes

Day 4: 60% whole grain brown rice, 20% selected steamed vegetables, 10% legumes, and 10% fresh vegetables

It was not a pleasant 4 days for me. I can see the value of this diet for someone who has a meat, dairy, or fat heavy lifestyle. It's a stripping down to very basic food elements of whole grains and vegetables, without any salt or fats. But I'm a lifelong vegetarian and an almost 10-year vegan who tends towards raw foods, so this diet, for me, just felt very limiting. No fruit and only certain vegetables [ones that are supposedly "cleansing"] prepared in certain ways.

I did not feel particularly "cleansed" by this diet. Mostly I felt tired, but I did not feel especially hungry, which I suppose was a good thing. One side effect was my skin [which is normally fairly clear] looked like a 15 year old male pizza delivery boy's face. It's getting better now, but I was not pleased. Zuzanna said its the toxins in my body coming out through my pores. I'm not sure that I buy that, but I do not like having gross skin, so I'm happy my skin is returning to normal.

So would I recommend this diet? Only if you're really eating poorly and need a dramatic change of pace. Otherwise, just try to eat more vegetables and fruits and less burgers and fries.

PS - the picture is from Day 3 of a mixture of wholegrain rice, steamed vegetables, and legumes.

Let's Eat: Raw Salads

Purple "green" beans from the Eveleigh Market.
A salad of heirloom tomatoes, squash, and purple beans.
A pear, an apple, a mandarin, and a pomegranate.
A delicious fruit salad with the above ingredients.


Sorry I haven't been posting much this week, I haven't had a whole lot to say and I've been working a lot [I leave Sydney in 2 weeks!]. I promise more posting soon! Hope everyone is doing well!

Let's Eat: the Fruits of Tu Bshvat

Two kinds of figs.
Seeds, nuts, and fruit.
A rather dark pile of fruit (apples, mandarins, pears, nectarines).
I made lemon and pistachio shortbread cookies. The recipe is here. [Megan- I substituted margarine for butter, that was the only thing I had to do to vegan-ize them.]
Tart, gooey passion fruit. Delicious.

Let's Eat: Heirloom Tomatoes

I just can't get enough of them. Heirloom tomatoes are the highlight of my trip to the Eveleigh market each Saturday morning. I usually only buy 3-4 at a time, so it's fairly cheap* [always under $2].

*I realize more and more how 'cheap' is such a relative concept.

Let's Eat: Nigella's Perfect Chocolate Cookies

The other night my flatmate and I had a chocolate craving. So I made Nigella Lawson's Perfect Chocolate Cookies for us. And I ate mine with a giant glass of orange juice [don't ask- I love chocolate and orange together]. Recipe here. [Note: I modified this recipe to be vegan and it was amazing, I'm sure it's even better with real milk/butter.]

Let's Eat: Brunch at Four Ate Five

Kitchy snow globes on the table are a real win.
Justin's haircut is adorable and he was really excited about his fancy coffee!
Fancy coffee!
Durand's very English-inspired breakfast. Really, I expected fruit.
Deborah's colorful [and delicious] ricotta sandwich.
Inside Deborah's sandwich!
The vegan breakfast: cous cous with roasted veggies, tofu, Moroccan spices, and rocket.
Vegan breakfast, all mixed together!

Let's Eat: Picnic at Sydney's First Night Festival

A repurposed sarong and heaps of food make for a great picnic at the First Night Sydney festival in the Domain.

I contributed this vanilla tofu cake with lime glaze icing. Recipe here. It was AMAZING. I may have to make another for the next Kesher.

Let's Eat: Raw No Bakes!

A raw twist on an American midwestern classic. Recipe here.

Let's Eat: Homemade Guacamole

For the record, I'm baffled about why black beans are (1) so hard to find and (2) so expensive here. I've been using red kidney beans as a replacement, but I miss black beans for their (1) deliciousness and (2) cheapness. Only 9 weeks until I'm eating yummy inexpensive black beans in America again.

Speaking of America - my good friend/former coworker Megan is doing a 21-day vegan jumpstart to get back on the "eating healthy" track for the new year. Here's her progress so far.

Good luck Megan! [And everyone else trying to stick to their new year's resolutions/goals!]

Let's Eat: Raw Fennel and Apple Salad

This salad came to the beach with me on Christmas. Nothing like jumping around in the waves at Bondi to work up an appetite. Recipe here.

PS The salad was really good and I'm not a huge fennel fan, so that says a lot!

Changes: Weeks 4-5

I am feeling much, much better from last week's yuckiness. I'm still spotted but that's getting better too. I've been good at sticking to the changes from weeks 1 and 2. I have been on holiday this week while my office is closed but I have been trying to stay active and eat well.

I mentioned two weeks ago that I was making some big changes and I have been fairly successful in overhauling my diet and adding in a new exercise regiment.

I've been eating almost all raw food. Aside from my morning coffee, my diet was almost completely raw for two weeks. Raw food is incredible. I feel amazing! No more sugar crashes when the carbs wear off, tons of energy, and I'm sleeping better.

I think a total raw food diet would be a bit extreme for me all the time, but I like the idea of incorporating more raw foods into my diet [something like one totally raw meal a day or only raw after 2 pm, something along those lines]. There will be a few raw recipes coming that I've made over the last few weeks that I would like to share with you, so be on the look out.

I've also started running again! I ran a good bit in 2007 - 2008 but got out of the habit after I graduated from university and got a "real" job in DC. I've been transitioning myself back into running the last few weeks with the help of the Couch-to-5k plan. I'm taking it slowly, doubling the sessions in each "week" of the program to help my muscles remember how great running is. I'm running every other day and on my non-running days I'm trying to do other activities [today for example, I'm playing tennis with my former boss after work]. I'm feel really great after I run, the good kind of tired, and- my jeans fit without a terrible struggle yesterday!

I think the changes over the last five weeks are already starting to show improvements in my body, mind, and health so my plan for next week [and the last 9 weeks I have left in Australia!] is to stick with them and keep you updated on my progress.

Let's Eat: Brunch at Sloane's Cafe Paddington

Durand, per usual, got fruit.

Deborah got the quinoa and ricotta hotcakes.


I got toast with avocado, olive tapenade, and tomato basil salsa.

Sloane's Cafe is 312 Oxford Street, Paddington.

[Walk straight back on the right-hand side and there's a beautiful garden in the back to brunch in.]

Let's Eat: Lychees

Lychees have been a recent wonderful discovery of mine.

Changes: Week 3

I'll be honest with you: I made no changes during Week 3 of my plan to get healthier. I got really sick with a sore throat and ear infection and it was all I could do to stick with the four previous changes I made during weeks 1 and 2.

So I walked to and from work every day, only drank one cup of coffee, ate tofu instead of toast, and really tried to go for walks with friends [but no tennis or anything else I just wasn't feeling up to it.]

Now that I'm feeling better [thanks to some illegal antibiotics I got from another immigrant friend that I swapped for sauerkraut- long story there] its time to make up for some lost time. I've got big plans for Week 4, in addition to keeping up with the changes I implementing during weeks 1 and 2.

I'll give you a hint: it involves lots and lots of raw food. [!]

Let's Eat: Carob Banana Cookies

I made these banana carob cookies last week for a friend and I to enjoy. The healthy basic dough recipe is a real winner, I will be using it again. I substituted banana for egg [since I like to live in an egg-free world] and put a piece of carob on each cookie before baking for some extra added health benefits [and because I had no chocolate in the apartment!]

Changes: Week 2

Tuesday

Friday

Saturday

I just finished my second week of making changes to my lifestyle to combat my recent weight gain and get healthier.

Just as a refresher, my plan is to make two changes each week and then compound them the following week with two new changes, so that I am improving all the areas [diet, fitness level, attitude, etc.] a little at a time.

The changes from Week 1 were:

1. Walk to and from work = 5 miles a day, roundtrip.

2. Limit myself to ONE cup of coffee per day.

Last week ["Week 2"] I added these changes:

3. Tofu not toast. You probably noticed from earlier posts that I love scrambled tofu. But usually I only get around to making it on the weekends and during the work week I wolf down toast and fruit for breakfast. I thought, what if I swapped my morning carb intake for protein-rich tofu instead? Tofu is cheap, easy to prepare, and keeps me feeling full.

4. Go out and do something active! Aside from my walking to and from work, I don't move very much. I like coffee shops and reading, neither of which gets my heart pumping and my muscles in motion. So this week I decided to say YES to every physical activity offered to me. Tennis on Monday with my former boss, bowling on Tuesday with friends, swimming in the ocean on Friday, and hiking in the Blue Mountains on Saturday.

So how am I doing? Well, apparently I'm 15 lbs, not 10 lbs heavier than I was when I got here in August. Stepping on the scale was a bit of a blow to my self-esteem. Normally I wouldn't step on a scale, but I tried on a pair of pants that no longer fit and I wanted to see how I'm doing weight-wise. The answer is: not well. :(

The tofu instead of toast idea is a keeper, I don't feel hungry when I get to my office, even after walking 2.5 miles to get there. I realize that I was really active this week [tennis, bowling, swimming, and hiking] and that for normal weeks when I'm working full-time that may be a bit ambitious and unrealistic. But I am going to make a conscious effort to be more active.

My new roommate Suzanna wants to go running, so I am going to do that with her. And I am going to go to the beach more [the close proximity and summer weather would be wasted if I didn't]. I am also going to try to meet up with friends and just go for walks or do something that doesn't involve eating or coffee shopping going.

I've been sticking to the one coffee-a-day rule and I feel fine! I didn't need that much caffeine running through my body and walking to/from work has become unconscious habit already that I don't even think about taking a bus or train.

I'll keep you updated on how I'm doing with the first two weeks of goals as I establish new ones for this week. Here's hoping I can get those pants to fit soon!

Changes: Week 1

I've mentioned that I gained 10 lbs after I moved here to Sydney in August. I have been really down about the weight gain; part of moving here was an attempt to lose some extra weight, not gain more.

I thought without a car, living in a sunshine-filled city, and being generally more active than I was in DC that I could lose the last little bit of extra weight that I gained last year working two jobs and not taking good care of myself.

Since that didn't happen, I've decided I have to take a more proactive approach to helping myself feel better and be healthier.

I tend to be one of those extremist people who thinks I can magically do everything all at once: eat better, work out more, make big lifestyle changes and then everything will be all better, real fast! Which usually just results in my failing, terribly, because its the exception, not the rule that you can overall everything at once and it'll all work perfectly and everything will be good.

Incremental changes seem to be the way to go. Start by changing one thing this week and then next week, continue with the change from the first week and add another change, until you've managed to improve all the different areas you aimed for.

I started this approach this past week. I can't do just one change though [not enough of a challenge for my super competitive personality] so I started with two changes:

1. Walk to and from work = 5 miles a day, roundtrip. The weather is perfect; there are no excuses for taking the train or a bus.

2. Limit myself to ONE cup of coffee per day. Instead of my usual 2 - 3, which is not good.

I've been really successful with these changes this week. Even when I was running late Thursday morning, when normally I would take the train, I forced myself to walk and stayed a bit longer at work to make up for the time difference [I realize I have a flexible job, so this works for me, but maybe not for other people on a stricter time schedule].

I have also treated myself to a $3 AUD soy latte at the bakery on Riley Street on my way to work, as extra motivation to walk. Instead of getting coffee in the afternoon I have brought peppermint tea bags to my office to use as an afternoon pick-me-up. If I start thinking that cheating on the one coffee rule is okay, I remind myself that not only is this healthier for me- I'm saving heaps of money by not buying/consuming so much coffee.

I'm going to keep up with these changes next week [and the week after, and the week after that ...] and set one or two new goals for next week. I'll keep you posted!



[PS Latte photo is not from the bakery on Riley Street- it was from Artisan Focaccesia 230 Palmer Street Darlinghurst, in case you're curious.]

Let's Eat: Scrambled Tofu with Cherry Tomatoes

It's obvious I really like scrambled tofu. I don't really like cherry tomatoes, however. But I had some left over from a dish I made for a Kesher dinner, so they got salted and tossed into my breakfast because I just can't stand wasting food.