a rainy weekend

It has been a drizzly end to the week here in Bairnsdale.
I have also been getting mighty excited about nutrition, exercise, health, & especially raw & vegan diets. I'm already generally pretty picky about what meat I eat - I don't like to support factory farming or land clearing or any kind of cruelty. I don't like to put overly processed food into my body.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.

Or so they say!

So it has been a fulfilling week of food shopping, & cooking, & baking, & continuing to endeavor to make my own or at least make smarter choices. Of course, I don't commit to all of my ideals ALL of the time. That's life. Sometimes there's a lot going on. But when I can - I do.

THURSDAY:

 We have a bread maker - I'm not so crash-hot at using it, that's generally Ryan's nighttime domain so we can awake to fresh bread baking. So when I got a hankerin' for some hot, fresh bread, I made my own in the oven. Out of BEER! BEER BREAD! Amazing. 

That's the picture at the top. If it's not slathered in real butter, it's not worth it.

FRIDAY:

This is an energy slice I made for snack times. Each serve has roughly 240 calories, for those of you playing at home,  and it's made of delicious raw foods to give you energy and make you feel great.

I did make this recipe up, and I did cheat on the vegan here. I used butter to help it all stick together, because I had no dates. I could have used dates.

SO:

1/2 cup goji berries

1/2 cup sesame seed

1/2 cup almonds 

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup pepitas

1/2 cup puffed rice

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup agave syrup

Blend blend blend, mush together & press into a slice tin! Easy

And it's very delicious. Quite sweet though, even for the most-sweet living person ever, me.

You could leave out the agave syrup & butter, use dates instead.

YOU COULD MAKE IT HOWEVER YOU LIKE!

 

SATURDAY:

We woke up slowly, happy it was raining lightly, happy we had nothing to do except continue to try & get the house in order. I got wind of a farmer's market in Metung so decided it would be fun, we packed backpacks & set off to the lake-side in search of cider.

To tide puppy over, we gifted her a bone to play with in our absence. She pulled a really beautiful face I couldn't resist snapping.

 

 Alex & Sam (the poms) make life look like a catalogue for sneakers or something. So photogenic.

We got our hands on some cider, from Mt Markey Brewery in Casilis. We also got some honey & fruit mead, & some beer. Then some pumpkin bread from the bakery, to have with feta & basil dip. 

Delicious. Alex also had bought some hedgehog & yoyos which she whipped out for an impromtu dessert.

We took turns flicking the fishing rod into the lake from the sand, no luck today.

The drizzle got heavier & the sun couldn't quite make it through the haze, so we all huddle under a tree to watch the birds swim & talk nonsense. 

It could only last so long though before the thought of boxes that need sorting got to me - so we headed back home to do some cleaning.

I found an amazing blog that evening, with raw vegan recipes aplently. 

I modified some of the common ingredients to make us a frozen dessert of fruits & nuts.

(Lucky Ryan had realised how much we needed warm food on a night like it was as well, so he made us slow-cooked venison shanks with veggies. Yummo!)

This is a completely vegan (except the chocolate drizzle on top, you can;t get cacao here at 8pm on a Saturday evening) ice cream cake!

The top layer is frozen berries with a bit of almond meal.

The middle layer is frozen banana, coconut cream, & vanilla.

The bottom is dates, walnuts, sesame seeds & agave syrup.

The best part is, it's not ice cream, and it's not cake, so I can have it anytime!
Like breakfast!

I am also crocheting Ryan a beanie.

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