Thanks Dave!

My lunch today: my fat (so they would fit in the tiffin) rice paper rolls with tomato, carrot, coriander, and smoked tofu, and seaweed salad, pickled ginger, salted cucumber and fruit.

When Dave suggested I put tomatoes in rice paper rolls I thought he was crazy. But I decided to give it a try and it rocks.

I love how easy it is to make rice paper rolls, the only problem is Mr T and I find ourselves eating them one by one in the kitchen as soon as we finish making each one instead of making several and then sitting down to eat.

I've decided that they are also better with the sauce inside. These ones have the yummy peanut based sauce from 'vegan lunch box' inside.

Now what else should I try inside the next batch of rice paper rolls? Avocado?

Love is all about writing made out of tomato sauce

Mr T wrote this on my meal when I went to the toilet at vegie bar the other day. It made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

Love is also about getting chocolate for your loved one when they have the worst period pain in the world.

That's all I want really. Chocolate especially when I have my period, writing made out of food or sauce and silly dancing to cheer me up when I've had a bad day.

It's the little things!

Agar Agar Rocks



My lunch today:peach and orange agar agar kelly, pasta salad topped with nutritional yeast and temeh strips with beetroot dip in my new bigger tiffin.

Claire inspired me to try agar agar after she made agar agar vodka and lychee shots for her birthday party. They were yummy and she also said they were easy to make.

So I set about yesterday determined to make some. I googled and found a few recipes and combined them to make up my jelly cups.

I combined orange juice(2 cups) with the agar agar powder(2 teaspoons) if you are using agar agar flakes use 2 tablespoons and then cook it until it boiled and poured it into the moulds filled with different types of fruit.

I tried blueberries, banana and canned peaches. Peaches were by the far the best but next time I will try it with apple juice instead of orange juice.

Although a word of warning, some fruits unless cooked will not set in agar agar including: kiwi fruit, pineapple, fresh figs, paw paw /papaya, mango and peaches. I used canned peaches which are precooked so it was fine.

Agar is high in iodine and trace minerals although apparently the powder is not as good as the flakes.

Goodbye Pretzels

Three things have increased my motivation to give up pretzels.

1. An ex coworker turning vegan. Once I realised I was the motivation for the diet change I felt bad because I am a bad role model. OK pretzels aren't the only bad thing in my diet but probably the worst at the moment.

2. A recent sickness and death of a member of my family. Not related to excess salt but still it gave me more motivation. I hate hospitals and want to do everything I can to avoid ending up in one especially for something that can be prevented.

3. Mr T likening me to a drug addict and hiding the bag of pretzels.

So whats wrong with pretzels? Unfortunately the very thing that lures me in: Salt!

Like most people I get enough salt in my diet without actually adding salt to any meals let alone eating lots and lots and lots and lots of pretzels.

Excess salt consumption is linked to increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and kidney damage and a lot more.

Besides when I turn to pretzels I am turning away from actual nutritious foods. I plan on replacing pretzels with unsalted nuts and more fruit.

Wish me good luck I am going to need it!

Sexist housework

I can't believe how many women in their 20s do all the female stereotypical household roles while the male gets away with just the 'men's jobs'.

I also can't believe how often I hear women my age complaining about their male partners who do nothing.

And they say patriarchy doesn't exist.

How else do you explain both partners going to work and one coming home cooking, doing the dishes, washing, cleaning floors, doing the grocery shopping, cleaning the bath/shower/toilet and more in exchange for the male partner fixing things, putting out the rubbish and mowing the lawns.

How often do things really need to be fixed?

I don't get how they think that is a fair deal. Fixing things is very very rarely required. And mowing and putting out the rubbish are not exactly daily tasks. Taking out the rubbish take 2 minutes at the most.

I expect it with older couples, but younger couples.

This is 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A friend of mine had a good idea she swapped roles with her partner for a few weeks. He couldn't believe how much work was involved and wanted to swap back immediately.

There are men out there who do equal amounts, but there seemed to be some 1950s mindset that it is just the way it is and men won't do it.

I want to scream at the women: "demand more, demand equal shares of housework, that's not unrealistic, it's just equality" or when I get really angry I just want to scream "dump the loser and get a better guy" but instead I end up just saying that "Mr T and I do all the houswork together, 50/50".

They look at me like I am from Mars and then say "ohhhhhhhhh, Mr T sounds like such a great guy".

Yes he's a great guy, but doing half of the housework is not great it's just fair.

Rant over, thanks!

Rice paper rolls and New years eve

We made rice paper rolls tonight. These are Mr T's ones, mine were not wrapped quite as well. We made it from a vegan lunch box cookbook recipe with apple pieces, lots of coriander, baked and marinated tofu, spring onions, and cabbage. They were good and very easy to make and the peanut sauce that went with it was also very good. Mr T's made his with some sauce in it and I think I will make them all that way next time. I will certainly be making rice paper rolls again but trialing other ingredients next time.

Had a great new years eve. Went along to a BBQ with the intention of having dinner there and then going off to another party but we were having so much fun that we didn't leave til about 1.30am. It was excellent. There was probably about 20 people there and yet no meat, no boring typical questions like 'what do you do' and all sorts of interesting people. Lots of alternative creative individuals as opposed to yuppie creative types. Most people bought food along and there was lots of great vegan food. We chatted to lots of people about food, art, music, travelling and lots of other things and ate and ate and ate. It almost felt like I walked into this cool underworld gathering of creative and interesting people many of which were vegetarian. Don't get me wrong many of my friends are creative and amazing but this was different. It kind of inspired me to do something creative unfortunately it didn't help with my desire to work on my thesis. I have to start doing some serious work on it. Any words of wisdom from those who have actually finished a masters thesis when they initially struggled with motivation? I've completed a honours thesis but it was so long ago and I don't actually remember struggling with motivation.