missing in action

Good afternoon blogland! Ive been so crazy nuts busy the last few weeks. Been going mad with uni work and other stuff. I just wanted to drop by and let anyone may be interested know I have started a little side blog to this one http://ticklishtakingcontrol.blogspot.com/ 

I am starting the Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation program in a few weeks and am keeping a little seperate blog about it to track my progress etc. Its still 100% vegan but will be heavily based on exercise and stats like weight, calories, kms run etc instead of laid back vegan blogging like this one. Ill still be updating this blog with my general stuff and any awesome recipies i find. Wish me luck!!!

If anyone else is interested go check out the website at http://www.12wbt.com/


update

On the tail end now of this cold thank god!!! Back to work tomorrow which sucks but I guess ive been off work for over a week now so I should go earn some money! Going to be a very tight budget next week thats for sure! Thankfully im working all easter which will be some bonus money. Unfortunetely next month is 'dog month' here, Lucy is due for her annual vet check which is about $150 and Leon will be old enough to get his boy bits snipped off which is a few hundred dollars aswell. I dont want any hanky panky between those two though, as appealing as german shepherd puppies sound, I couldnt give them away plus there are plenty of pound puppies which need adopting. Sometimes I feel really guilty about having pure-bred dogs over pound dogs but its done now and I wouldnt give up my babies for anything. The cats are both rescues from the pound so its something I guess. Mum & dad are thinking about getting another kitty now that gobbie has passed on, im trying to talk them into going to the pound for one. I have to admit, the pound dont make it easy for people to adopt pets though. We found a kitten a few months ago and took it to the pound to hand it in and the woman in front of us was there to adopt a kitten but they told her they were $180 to buy and she didnt have enough money so turned her away. We ended up giving her the kitty we found so she wouldnt have to pay all that money and at least then we knew the kitty was going to a nice home. I understand they need the money but come on- this woman was obviously going to give this animal a good home and becuase she couldnt afford it another animal would be put down because there was no home for it. Just crazy. I remember when I adopted my kittens (from the same place) they were $80 each 5 years ago. They are now charging an extra $100 per kitten, and even the dogs are hundreds of dollars. I dunno.


Here is a picture of Leon I took yesturday. I had to take it through it the glass, he doesnt sit still and jumps all over me when I go see him. He is 5 months old now and getting so fat! What a handsome young man! His ears are so big and his paws, I think he will be much bigger than Lucy.

Havent done anything exciting vegan wise lately. Just living off budget food this week- vegies and noodles! Went to my parents house for dinner last night, they always do a big roast and ive always been served up a big plate of roast vegies when I was vegetarian anyway which is still vegan- roast potato & pumpkin, mushrooms, broccoli & carrots. Yum. So no need to change what I eat there! Was so nice to have a decent home-cooked meal like that though. I cant replicate my mums roast vegies at home, must be a mum thing. She just makes them so darn good! Plus I blame my oven anyway. Thinking about some cheap meal options for next week aswell, im hoping it wont be as bad money wise next week, I dont have any major bills due thank god but it will still be tight. Id like to try something quick & hot for breakfasts now its coming into winter here.


I was so devastated this morning, I got a letter from the vegetarian/vegan society of QLD which ive been a member of for many years and they usually send me out the 'Vegan Voice' magazine every quarter as part of my membership but apparently VV is no longer in production. And a few months ago I found out the 'Natural health & vegetarian life' magazine is no longer in production either!! What the hell??? Where am I meant to get my vegie fix now?? Does anyone know of any other vegan or vegetarian magazines out there? Preferrably in Australia, but if overseas can they mail to Australia. Im going to miss catching up on all my vegie goss at 3am at work which is when I usually catch up on all my magazines!


Recipe steal...

Still sick. It totally sucks! Have had 4 days off work now, bank balance isnt going to look very good next week! Oh well.


Felt okay enough to do a spot of baking this morning. This brownie recipe is from little billie's blog at www.little-billie.blogspot.com (i have no idea how to do proper links on this blog- if anyone could be so kind as to the how to that would be great!) But back to the brownie's. I didnt have any coconut so I just used almond meal instead and they turned out pretty good!



And for dinner I made pasta from Emma's blog at


Was soooooooo good! And so easy. I added a dash of soy cooking cream aswell which was yummo!


I need to start smashing some serious essay butt this group of days off. Its just so hard when it feels like my head is full of snot (oh wait...it is!!!!!!!!) Grr. Go away sickness!!!

update

Im sick. And it sucks!!! Head colds are just the worst. The only good thing is lemon tea I guess. Ive started going to the gym, went the last 2 nights and now im sick and my body is aching but im not sure if its from using muscles again or from being sick or a combination of both! Either way, im in pain and bummed because im full of motivation for exercising right now but this stupid cold means I cant even get up the stairs without collapsing from lack of oxygen! Just hope I make a speady recovery, then back to treadmills & crosstrainers! I joined a 24hr gym. Being a shift worker is hard to find time to exercise and I like the idea I can go to the gym at 3am if I want. I doubt that will ever happen, but I find 8-10pm is when im most likely to be free-instead of sitting on the couch watching tv waiting to go to bed at least I know the gym is open. I went at 10pm last night and it was fairly busy, so I guess im not the only one!


Im thinking about signing up for Michelle Bridges (from the biggest loser) 12 week body transformation deal. Its a 12 week program which is online but its live- its not an automated thing, everyone starts & finishes together and there is live chats with Michelle aswell. Its a diet plan aswell but from what ive read there are vegetarian & dairy free options aswell so the only thing I would need to substitute is eggs.


Does anyone have a workout regime or have ever done an online training program?

Vegie & lentil stew

Ah bills, bills, bills! I hate payday: within a few minutes all my hard earned cash towards bills!!!

Its serious budget shopping this week for groceries. I decided for dinners I would make a big batch of vegie & lentil stew and freeze heaps.

Ingredients:

Cabbage

Vegetable stock

Mushrooms

Brown lentils

Cannellini beans

Red onion

Red lentils

Carrots

Potato

Sweet potato

Zucchini

Turnip

Salt & pepper

Cook it all in a big pot and all done! I paid $18 for ingredients and got 10 serves, so $1.80 a serve aint bad. I know its as boring as bat shit but figured I could put some with toast or some rice to break it up abit! Other cheap meals this week will include avocado on rye toast for breakfasts (already had the bread in freezer and avo's were $1.20 each this week!), and udon noodles with steamed vegies. At least being broke is good for one thing- relying on cheap vegies as the only thing to eat! At least its healthy.


What seriously budget buys does everyone do when money is tight????



Vegan bolognese

For dinner last night I made a vegan bolognese. It was very quick & last minute but was still good. I didnt have any vegies to go in but I found a can of mixed beans in the cupboard so threw those in. I think some mushrooms & onion would be good for next time.




I used a vegan mince- vegemeal spicy beef mince for $6.80 from www.crueltyfreeshop.com.au its a dry mix which you add water to then cook. Along with some gluten-free pasta & some tomato & garlic pasta sauce. Word of warning- this vegan mince stuff is quite spicy! Im not a huge fan of spicy things but it was nice. I think next time I will definetely add more vegies and probably another bottle of pasta sauce to even out the spice! But overall was nice. I got 4 serves out of this, at $3 a serve.


In other news, ive lost another 1kg this week. I dont do an official weigh-in til wednesday so im a couple of days early but I was feeling particulary light this morning and fair enough, 1kg gone. So thats 1.7kg in nearly 2 weeks of being vegan. I have not counted 1 single calorie (I do look at the calories on the back of packets just for a rough idea & make sure its not massively high, but im not doing a total daily calorie count). Ive also had my fair share of vegan snacks this week! Note to self- do not purchase new & exciting vegan sweets or chocolates when doing my major thesis!!!! It will be devoured in 10 seconds flat with no memory of the event! Speaking of which, I have 17 days til my essay is due, and im working 10 of those days, so thats only 7 full days left to get this finished, and all ive done is a measly 200 word introduction! Time to pull my finger out!


I had to work in a ward yesturday. When its really quiet in ICU we get sent to other wards in the hospital to help out. I got sent to a general surgical ward and had the best shift! Its been a few years now since ive done general nursing and I was a little scared at first but turns out its like riding a bike! In ICU its 1 nurse to 1 patient as they are on life-support machines and are very sick but in the wards we had 10 patients to 2 nurses. The nurse I worked with was just loverly and was very appreciative for my help. It was just weird having patients with only 1 drip and who walk around-im used to heavily sedated patients lying in bed on breathing machines & dialysis and going into a cardiac arrest!


I have found a very nice studying companion though, soy chai lattes. My mother-in-law owns a coffee shop and I was reading the label of the chai syryp (seems all I do is read labels now- does everyone else do this?) and it was vegan yay! Ive found a brand of soy milk I actually like aswell and my MIL gave me nearly a full bottle of this chai to take home so ive been using my coffee machine to froth up some soy milk and its sooooooooooo good!!!! Yum.


Im still very unsure about some ingrediants, mainly the numbers on the back of the labels. I try to go for things with the least amount of numbers anyway. Does anyone know of a good book for vegan shopping??


Next week im going to break out my blender again and have a green smoothie for breakfast everyday! So baby spinach, a banana & ice. Ill take a photo to show how green it is! Its really nice though. I need to make the effort to make them more often. Last time I used my blender was to make mushroom soup then I left it too long til cleaning and it went quite nasty but ive been scrubbing it everyday for the last week in boiling water so hopefully its clean! Looks pretty clean. It was a $200 blender and I dont have any money to buy a new one!


Whats your most used kitchen appliance for vegan cooking??


A sad day

A got a call from my mum today to inform me their cat, also my first ever pet, Gobbie had passed away. He had to be put down, he was in alot of pain and wasnt eating or drinking anymore. He was 14yrs old. Gobbie loved his food, his favourites were prawns & ham. Goodbye sweet boy, may you be at peace. We love you and will miss you.

im losing count

Well its been over a week now of being vegan. No more need to keep track of the days! Its been very easy so far which is nice. Still havent told my husband yet. Im going to see how long I can go vegan for before he figures it out! Well just a quick update today as I need to work on my essay. Will be back hopefully with some new piccies soon. I made some awesome 'chicken' vege burgers last night but forgot to take a photo. Im having them again tonight so will try remember to take a photo!