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!

Confessions

Surprisingly this morning did not start out w/ oats, but instead cereal & a long black coffee.

1 cup Special K Vanilla Almond cereal, 1/2 cup nonfat soy milk, 1/2 sliced banana

My day was pretty darn boring just studying, studying & more studying at the library. I snacked on a mix of dried fruits & nuts to keep me going. Luckily my favorite salad bar was open in the cafeteria for lunch. In my head I was planning an amazing salad w/ strawberries & walnuts, but when it was my turn to order my salad they salad informed me that they had no strawberries. Stuck w/ making a last minute decision I ended up w/ a pretty random salad...

Mixed greens w/ chickpeas, avocado, raisins, pumpkin seeds, sun-dried tomatoes, pumpkin, & tofu w/ balsamic vinaigrette.

Is it weird that I get pumpkin & pumpkin seeds in my salad? Guess I'm just obsessed w/ all things pumpkin.

Dinnertime is when things started to get weird. James & I went to Bondi Junction to go see a movie, Animal Kingdom, and we were expecting to grab something there but everything was closed. Much to my disdain, the only thing nearby that we could grab quickly was Oportos, a fast food restaurant that specializes in chicken (James' favorite). I am not a fan of fast food & it has been ages since I have eaten at a fast food restaurant. I thought I was really smart when I asked them to replace the chicken on the green salad w/ the veggie patty. Our dinner was ready in a minute & I stuffed our Oporto bag into my purse and we ran quickly to the theatre to not miss the start of our movie. As I was munching away in the dark of the movie theater I thought that my salad seemed a bit creamy. I told myself that it was just the avocado that they added; my taste buds have been shot the past couple of days due to a cold & I haven't been able to taste much of anything. Upon throwing away my trash at the end of the movie though I read on top of the salad container that the dressing was mayonnaise... yes MAYO, the kind w/ eggs in it that I have disliked way before I was even vegan.

Errr, frustrating. I guess this is what happens when you try to eat vegan at a fast food restaurant

: (

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.

Laurie's Vegetarian & Paddington Markets

I fought past a group of about twenty bicyclist sitting at the Paddington Grind before I was able to get my large soy latte with honey.

Coffee in hand, I walked down the road to the Paddington Markets that take place every Saturday at the Paddington Public School. They sell lots of different food, vintage clothing & clothing made by local designers, jewelry, art, flowers, etc..

When I came home I made myself a bowl of Special K Vanilla Almond cereal w/ 1/2 banana & soy milk before heading to the UNSW library to study.

Come lunch time there were only a couple of vendors open in the cafeteria. I ended up eating Indian food and had the vegetable naan bread filled w/ lettuce, cucumber, & onion pakora.

I needed another soy latte in the afternoon to keep me going. Ughhhhh GRE studying, such a pain in the butt!

Thankfully that night James & I ventured to one of my favorite vegan friendly restaurants in Sydney- Laurie's Vegetarian in Bondi. While this restaurant primarily does take-out (eating in costs you an extra dollar), we decided to eat there.

Laurie's menu is pretty simple. There is a choice of six hot dishes (lasagne, pasta, mild chickpea curry, Mexican beans, lentil casserole and roast veggies) and five salads (cajun tofu, persian rice, two green salads, and a cous cous salad). All dishes are vegan, except for the lasagne and pasta.

I had a combination of three of their salads. Brown persian rice made w/ almonds & cinnamon, spinach salad w/ avocado, onions, & raspberry vinaigrette, and underneath it all cajun tofu w/ corn & carrots. I was so stuffed from this meal that I didn't even try their vegan sticky date pudding, next time I will for sure though.

The best thing about Laurie's is their veggie burgers. All Laurie’s burgers come with a toasted brown bun and a side of either the coleslaw or persian brown rice. You then add your choice of ‘burger’ (from tempeh, tofu, chilli bean and soy) and your choice of sauce (satay, homemade tomato, and sweet chilli). Extra condiments like cheese, guacamole and sour cream can be added. All for only $6.00 AU. You can also add a side salad for just $5 which James ended up doing after he tasted how delicious my salad was.

James had the tempeh burger w/ cheese & a mix of the sweet chili & satay sauce. I'm lucky that James loves eating vegan food, but I don't think he will trade in his beloved chicken schnitzel sandwich w/ extra mayo for a tempeh burger anytime soon.

Afterwards we visited our friend Tom while he was bar tending at the Sunset Grill & then when he got off we went to Beach Road for a few drinks w/ some friends. We were thoroughly entertained by a group of guys having dance offs w/ each other and a group of questionably underage girls w/ their bums hanging out of itsy bitsy skirts in the middle of winter. Ahhh how I love people watching.

On the way home we spotted this little guy in a tree. Who knew bats could be so cute?

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.