James' 21st Birthday!

Special K vanilla almond cereal w/ 1/2 sliced banana & soy milk. So good.

With a long black coffee from the Paddington Grind. Like my shoes? ; )

I grabbed a quick bite from the food court at the Westfield mall in Maroubra where we were busy buying some last minute things for James' birthday party. This yummy salad from Sumo Salad gave me the energy I needed to blow up all 150 balloons. Whew.

A hodge podge of sorts. Mixed greens w/ corn, tomato, carrots, chickpeas, avocado & pumpkin w/ balsamic vinaigrette, a bread roll, & a diet coke.

At James' party there was a ton of food. I only got a pic of some of the appetizers including brie & crackers, hummus, guacamole, quiche, & spanakopita. For dinner there were unpictured kebabs, sausages, & lots of salads.

For dessert there was the healthy option of a big fruit salad...

& James' amazing birthday cake that his aunty had made for him. This cake was insane! I love the surfer. It was made by Chris at Cake Occasions.

It was such an amazing night. James' sister & I made a slide show of photos and videos of James' throughout his life, and some of his friends and best mates (along with me) gave speeches.

A million drinking songs later this cute couple from the beginning of the night turned into....

girlfriend taking care of a very wasted boyfriend. Poor James was more trashed than he has ever been in his entire life. I guess that's what 21st birthday parties are for. Interesting fact: the dress I was wearing was James' moms from about 20 years ago.

After sleeping in super late at James' parents house, we made it back to Paddington where I grabbed a soy long black w/ honey from The Grind.

We lucked out & there were tons of leftovers from the party so lunch was as easy as warming up some roasted vegetables & adding the usual hummus & BBQ sauce.

Even though it was James' birthday I was spoiled & received a gift from friend and fellow blogger Winnecke. She works at a bakery, Sonoma, and after reading my blog and seeing how much I love grains she gifted me some of their muesli.

For dinner I had a bit of both the honey & breakfast spice and spelt maple & almond cooked w/ soy milk. I think I died and went to heaven this muesli was so delicious, it won't last long. Thanks Winnecke!

Emad's

This morning I laid in bed & finished watching Julie & Julia, which completely inspired me w/ my purpose in writing this blog & made me want to start cooking more (no beef bourguignon for me though!). A lot of the main character, Julie's, doubts when she first started writing her blog were feelings I could commiserate with. Like, what is the point of sending messages out into the abyss to randomly be read by people I have never even met, and does anyone even read what I am writing? Also, the entire point of blogging is quite narcissistic, who am I to think that strangers would be interested in my life & what I eat on a daily basis? Like I said this movie inspired me, so rather than these questions making me want to give up blogging they made me reevaluate & remember my original purpose in writing this blog.I know I haven't written an 'about me' section yet so I have not explained my main purpose for having this blog. My main goal is to share how I fit eating vegan and healthy (most of the time) into my busy schedule of being a student, traveling, & enjoying life w/ my family and friends. I have always been passionate about food, and about 14 months ago I made the transition into becoming vegan for both moral and health reasons. I would have never been able to make this lifestyle change without first becoming involved in reading vegan blogs (namely hungryhungyhippie) which showed me that eliminating animal products from your diet & eating healthy is really not that difficult. This was a relief for me considering that I have never eaten 'red' meat, and always have had a hard time on those rare occasion when I did eat chicken not imagining the life of the bird that I was eating.While I am not trying to pressure everyone into becoming vegan (I am far from the perfect vegan myself), I do want to help people understand that they can become less reliant on animal products and still enjoy food. Worse case scenario even if no one follows my blog it can serve an entirely selfish purpose and give me an excuse to dine out more frequently & try new recipes. Another benefit is that I have always loved journaling and by capturing images of the food I consume it helps me keep a record of my life since food is inextricably linked w/ everything I do.

Enough ranting, back to the food!

Breakfast as usual (special K vanilla almond cereal w/ soymilk & 1/2 banana). I also had a coffee at the Paddington Grind but wasn't able to take a pic since I got caught upin a conversation w/ a woman I met there.

At UNSW I regretfully had to buy lunch from this women who drives me nuts because nothing else was open except for the Indian vendor where I had already eaten the day before. She literally yells at people & makes racist remarks all the time. My toasted sandwich was decent though, and filled w/ avocado & grilled zucchini, eggplant, and pumpkin.

For dinner James & I were both craving some hummus so we ventured into Surry Hills' Little Lebanon & picked the restaurant that looked the least sketchy & had the best decor which is how we ended up at Emad's. I was immediately impressed by the hot pink walls, silk pillows decorating the benches, and bright jewel toned gauze draping the ceiling. By the time that I walked through the kitchen to get to the bathroom and saw that the kitchen was staffed by only one little old Lebanese women, drinking wine & wrapping dolmas, I had fallen in love w/ the place.

We started out w/ some hummus & flat bread of course. This hummus was insane; super rich and creamy & topped with lots of olive oil. There is nothing better than homemade, traditional hummus.

I had the tabouleh salad &...

rice wrapped in vines leaves.

Emad's is BYO so we went to the bottle-o across the street & grabbed a bottle of Promise Land Chardonnay. While this is James' moms new favorite (she always used to drink Yellow Tail like me), it is a bit too sweet for my liking.

After both of our meals we weren't entirely satisfied so we ordered some more flat bread & hummus. If anyone loves hummus more than me it's James, he can eat tubs and tubs of it on his own. Emad's was great, but I would recommend going with more than two people so that you can try lots of different dishes since the menu is all meze w/ no real main courses.

Carbaholic

Two posts in one day I must be feeling productive. No not really, far from productive I've been lounging around all day at home & only left the house once. James even brought me coffee. I know, I know I am such a bum. Usually being a sloth all day leads lots of eating, and today was the epitome of unhealthy eating. Not a vegetable in sight for me.

The unpictured soy latte held me over until lunch time when I started craving carbs like no other. I decided to give into a big bowl (or two) of whole wheat spaghetti w/ marinara.

I was so stuffed from the pasta that I only wanted a snack for dinner. The cupboards were a bit bear so I made some peanut butter banana cookies from any ingredients I could find.

The cookies ended up being pretty good, they cooked a bit funky but I think that was because there was something wrong w/ the oven. I dunked them in a big cup of soy milk (note the cup I bought James).

I think I'm officially a carbaholic. Milk and cookies for dinner?

Peanut Butter Banana Cookie Recipe

1 mashed banana

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cup flour (I prefer to use whole wheat if you have it on hand)

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

* Mix all ingredients in a big bowl, roll the dough into 2-inch balls, place on an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake at 400 for about 10 minutes.

bread + lettuce+ hummus

As much as I love eating out, after awhile I start to feel a little guilty about spending all of that money & I usually always eat healthier when I cook for myself. So this time instead of buying lunch at the UNSW cafeteria like I have been doing lately, I decided to pack a lunch to bring to the library.

Mixed nuts & dried fruit, a banana, & an english muffin sandwich w/ mixed lettuce, avocado, tomato & hummus.

Before leaving the house though I had a big bowl of Special K Vanilla Almond cereal w/ soy milk.

Then before getting down to studying I of course needed some caffeine so I went to the coffee stand on campus & grabbed a soy latte w/ hazelnut syrup.

The coffee warmed me up a bit & gave me the kick I needed to hit the books.

I think James needed to coffee more than I did though!

That night once I got home I made myself a salad w/ mixed lettuce, steamed broccoli & corn, & hummus w/ a piece of Lebanese bread.

After a long day of studying we needed to blow off some steam so first James & I went to the Paddington Inn across the street from us & then we took the bus down to Bondi where we had some drinks w/ a bunch of James' guy friends at the Beach Road Hotel. Afterwards we ended up at the White Revolver to celebrate our friend's birthday. We danced a bunch & there was an open tab so....

I had some champagne ; )

Once I got home I had the late night munchies so I made a little snack wrap w/ lettuce & hummus in rotti bread. I just realized that all of my eats for the day were a variation of the same thing- bread + lettuce + hummus. Go figure.