Last day of Vegan Mofo

I made it!!! 31 day of blogging about vegan food! My first mofo! Yay!!

I thought that I would finish Veganmofo III the way that I started - with a picture of my goodies from a trip to the Preston Markets.

All for $38.15! I got:
6 Pears
1kg Bananas
4 blood oranges (a request from Tweenie)
Bunch coriander
7 Tomatoes
7 Lemons
11 onions
1 red capsicum
4 green capsicum
1 whole butternut pumpkin
8 purple potatoes (so experienced am I, I don't even know the proper name for them!)
300g baby spinach
1 bunch silverbeet
700g peas-in-a-pod (my absoute favourite - brings back childhood memories)
3kg brushed potatoes
1 bunch of spinach
2 cauliflowers
500g mushrooms
2 kumera
200g snow peas
6 heads of broccoli
15 carrots
2 small bags of red chilli
bag of pink ladies (For YM - only $3!)

I specifically got the potatoes, pumpkin and kumera for a 'Melbourne Uncup Day Before' Dinner party we are having at our friends house in Frankston on the Monday night - complete with dinner party attire! It's Indian themed food and I'm making Coconut Pumpkin Curry, Aloo Gobi (YM's favourite), and Chai spiced biscuits. I'm really looking forward to it!!!!

World Vegan Day tomorrow! See you all at the Melbourne celebrations!

Tahn

I heart the Preston Markets

The usual Saturday event occurred today. Lunch from La Panella Bakery followed by a visit to the Preston Markets for our weekly fruit and vegetable shop.

This is what we got today:

All for only $40.15!

This is what I got:

1/2kg grapes

5 sweetcorn

1kg carrots

2 zucchinis

1 continental cucumber

300g snow peas

1 whole butternut pumpkin

1/2 seedless watermelon

6 red capsicums

8 corella pears

10 mandarins

16 assorted apples

300g baby spinach

1 whole cauliflower

2 pineapples

2 punnets blueberries

5kg potatoes

2.5kg bananas

20 onions

All for $40.15 

 Not bad, I reckon! Being vegan is sooo cheap IF you stay away from all the processed crap!

And here is lunch:

 Baby and Nephew chose the plain 'pie', Tweenie had the 'pastie' and YM the 'sausage roll'. I had the mushroom 'pie', but I usually fight the mobs getting the bargains on the fruit and veges while the kids eat and so I eat mine at home. They had run out of apple slice today :( so I got an apple pastry, but it's not the same. I like the sweet apple slice the best.

This morning, as we were all heading out for a jog I noticed this sign on my fence.

I was so angry that they had put this sign up on my fence with out my permission!! How dare they!!!!
Silly I know, but I really felt annoyed! As soon as we got home I had to un-ban the use of the telephone and I called the local police to see where I stood. Next I called the local Ray White office only to be told that they didn't think it was them. I don't care who it was, get it off my fence! Apparently the owner of the local office was going to drive past my house and look at it. Well, 4 hours later, and on returning from the markets it was still there and I hadn't even been contacted about it again. So YM went out with a screwdriver and took it off. I know I should have just done that in the first place, but I wanted Ray White to know how totally inappropriate I thought that was! Oh well, it's off now, but still annoying!

I've also had just about enough of the school holidays. I am going mental being surrounded by kids all day with no adult interaction. Not sure how I will go when I return to relief teaching next term :(. That is one of the reasons why I was trying to give it up...I used up all my patience on the kids at school and then came home with none for my poor babies! At least I will get some adult conversation in the staff room (unless I get stuck with ALL the yard duties- which usually happens for a relief teacher!). Anyway, can't wait for them to go back to school. May just spend the whole of Monday in my pyjamas, tucked up in bed, alone and child free.

Tahn

First Foodie Post

So off to the markets we went.

Check out what we got:

And I got change from $20!!

I grabbed some tomatoes, 10 kiwi fruit, some mushrooms (sorry Earth, for the plastic bag), a continental cucumber, snow peas, spinach, carrots and 3 punnets of strawberries (one punnet fell on the floor and I forgot to include it in the photo). Also the bag in the trolley is mostly apples with a few pears thrown in (YM LOOOVEES apples!). I got that for $5.00. When Saturday rolls around again, whatever apples are left I usually make stewed apples for an 'apple sauce' so we can have it in our yummy porridge (I'll post that one day!).

These cool earth-saving, plastic bag-dissing fregie bags are Australian made by TwoGirls. I love them!! My mum and I bought some when she was here the other week from CERES. She took two home and I kept 5. I wish I had more!! I really only shop on Saturdays and today's fruit and vege hall is only one third of what I usually buy so I end up having to use some plastic. The great things about them is that they hardly weigh anything, the shop assistants can see what is in them and I am happy that I am taking home less plastic. You can check out their website at www.thefregiesack.com.au

As mentioned in my first post, Saturday shopping is nothing without a visit to La Panella Bakery on High Street, Preston. So much of their bakery delights are vegan! Yippee for us! (Although one day I was there I overheard a sweet little boy of maybe about four ask his mum if he could have 'that' [not sure what 'that' was, but he pointed to something sweet in the cabinet] and mum replied 'oh no honey, we can't have that. It's vegan) Anyway, I always buy yesterdays bread if I can, mostly because I am poor but also because not only does it freeze really well but it still tastes so fresh! I grabbed 6 loaves for 90 cents each! Great for school holidays! I also grabbed my favourite from there - mushroom pie and apple slice. MMMMMMMM

As an added bonus, although nothing really to do with any of the above items, Lord of the Fries has finally opened at Northland Shopping Centre! Popeye took us there for dinner last night before he left. Let's just say there was room for improvement and they were very apologetic that Popeye's food came well after we had all started eating, but they are to be forgiven in my mind as they have only been open for about a week and may still be ironing out the bugs. I look forward to the next time I get to eat there.

What is your best/worst vegan food story?

Tahn