So special

My only known allergy is to Penicillin and although I am intolerant to a number of things, none of them fall under the category of food so never before have I ticked the box of special dietary requirements...until this week-end.

On saturday afternoon, along with a few friends, I went to a High Tea party to celebrate a friend's birthday. He is not gay, he just likes the more sophisticated things in life. He also made a grander entrance than he might have liked, hoping across the floor of the fancy Victoria Room with what he discovered later to be a broken foot.

High Tea is not a code for beer. It really means Tea accompanied with some delicious morsels of sweet and savory foods presented on an elegant tiered platter. Scones with cream and jam on the bottom, mini cheesecakes, red velvet cupcakes and fruit tartlets in the middle and little sandwiches on top. Well, that's if you're not special because I got my little sandwiches on my very own little plate on the side. I even got more than everybody else's allowance. The only downside was that my sandwiches were exactly the same but without the meat. Cucumber and cream cheese sandwich anyone?

If that wasn't enough to make me feel "different", just a few hours later, I had to tackle the quintessential pub meal, an icon of the Australian food scene. Over the years, I have built a reputation for ordering almost exclusively the burger. I usually scan the menu in search of it without bothering to read about other options. So when the time came to order food, and I had read the whole menu in search of a vegetarian friendly meal, my options were limited to say the least. I could have wedges, chips or a platter of dips. In a feat of despair, I asked Chris to order the wedges for me but he convinced me to negotiate with the bar tender in the hope I could have something a bit more meal-ish. In the end, we settled on a chickpea fritter burger which was the closest thing to a veggie burger. It worked out pretty well with my only punishment for annoying the staff with my special needs being that I was given the two bottoms of the bun while Emma, with her more traditional beef burger, enjoyed both tops...

All in all, it was a successful vegie day despite the obstacles and maybe I was dealt an extra challenging day to make up for the accidental concealed bacon I had the night before. As far as I am concerned, I came out of the week-end with a clean slate!

Tajine style pumpkin and chickpea bake

So here's a tasty little invention which might help you forget about meat for a minute...

INGREDIENTS

1 brown onion - chopped finely
2/3 cloves of garlic - crushed
1/2 tsp tajine mix spices
1 butternut pumpkin (or other type) - cut into chunks - boiled for 5 minutes or just softening
1 can diced tomatoes
200g frozen spinach
1 can chickpeas

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 180C.

In a large frypan, heat up a good lug of olive oil. Fry onion and garlic until onion softens. Add tajine spices and fry until fragrant.

Add the pumpkin to the pan for a few minutes until coated in spice mix. Remove from pan and pour into a lightly oiled baking dish.

Pour can of tomatoes and frozen spinach into frypan. Stir until the spinach is unfrozen. Pour mixture into baking dish.

Add chickpeas to baking dish and some water to almost cover.

Bake for 30/40 minutes until pumpkin is cooked through.

Serve with couscous and enjoy!

To meat or not to meat?

I'll start by saying that after a little over 2 meat-free weeks, I am very happy with the experience to date. I can't say I have had any cravings for it. More the opposite actually and I think that is because I have been feeling really light this week and my brain has decided to associate meat with feelings of heaviness. I have felt full of energy and positive. This could have to do with many things but in a time when life could seem a little bit overwhelming and challenging, I have been feeling great and have decided that this new diet might be responsible, at least to some extent.

Therefore, I think that the month of June and after will be a breeze on a personal level. I assumed that the trickier part would on a social level and I have been surprised by how easily the people around me are dealing with it. Surprisingly, most people seem to have made the decision not to use what I may have said about Vegetarianism against me and I am grateful. Yes, there was a time when I couldn't understand how to cook something without meat or why anyone would want to eat it. The lesson is "only a fool never changes his mind", "treat others as you want to be treated" and the old "never say never".

Nevertheless, it is a "coming out" of sorts. I am not about to call myself a true vegetarian. I am definitely only experimenting at the moment but still, I do feel that to go back and start eating meat straight away would be kinda lame and if I do use my joker, it will be because I have thought it through and through.

Last night was a good test actually. After a long day of driving from Newcastle to Albury, we walked into the kitchen to find a slow cooked chicken casserole nicely simmering away. A few hours earlier I had told Chris in the car that although I was enjoying it, a slow cooked meal could well be what tips me over the edge. Well, turns out, I didn't even wince. It smelled delicious and I'm sure it tasted just as good but I felt just as happy tucking into my vegetarian tajine, which Chris' mum got the ingredients for in a last minute dash after our very short notice announcement of my new regime...oops. I made it up by cooking it myself while Chris' parents were away.

In fact it was so good that I'll be enjoying the leftovers tonight while everyone gets stuck into a juicy roast beef around me. Manouf!

My Meat-Free June Challenge...

Hi everyone,

I am back on this blog, as opposed to that blog or even this other blog to introduce you to a self-inflicted and not terribly rational challenge. This month, I am going meat-free. I therefore fall under the category of ovo-lacto vegetarians because there is nothing in this world that could make me give cheese up.

Why? I can hear you asking yourself...Well, dunno. Just felt like it really. If I must delve a little bit deeper into my intentions, it probably stems from a couple of reasons:

1- We didn't have that much meat during our travels and I realised that I didn't miss it quite as much as I would have expected.

2- At the moment, Australia is in such a way that meat of any kind of quality is extremely dear and therefore, I would rather pick quality over quantity. Although, in this case, I am picking neither.

3- I want to observe and pay attention to changes to my body and mind this modified diet might incur.

4- The effects of the meat industry on our fragile planet is pretty major...

This is how I rate my chances at achieving success in the short-term (ie. June):

1- Hopefully, my will power alone will get me over the line. Will power is something I believe I have but feel the need to test at the moment. Just so you know, I am giving myself one Joker to use when I see fit. Maybe tomorrow, maybe never...

2- I love legumes! (lentils, chickpeas, beans...)

3- We have recently been buying our fresh produce from the Newcastle Farmer's market. The quality of the fruit and vegetables means that it is conceivable to create a dish around those rather than a meal being all about the meat.

Long term :

1- I will probably re-introduce fish into my diet.

2- I will probably eat meat occasionally, just because sometimes, being a vegetarian is a pain.

3- Tofu can only go so far...

But for now, I am sticking to it and will pop onto the soup chef once in a while to share some thoughts, recipes and whatever else I can think of...

Until then, Wish me luck, feel free to join me or just give a few words of encouragement,

Cheers, L.

Tip for today: There are heaps of websites like this one which tell you what is in season at the moment. Buying seasonally means that you will pay less money and have better produce, with better taste and more nutrients.