i thought i would break away from the usual for my post today. so instead of sharing a recipe post with you i thought i would give you a little insight into how i spent my weekend.
of course majority of my day is spent thinking about food, eating food, planning what i want to eat and where. even when i'm at work (the source bulk foods in camberwell *melbourne) i am surrounded by ingredients and get to hear what other people love creating and dishes they wish to make. i love helping people find things they may not have tried or give them inspiration to branch out in their diets.
any way, i digress. here is a little insight into what i got up to on my weekend off, which was actually a friday and saturday.
Friday
as my partner works monday to friday i had the apartment to myself today, but decided to spend some time in the city/center of melbourne for a while.
my breakfast fuel for the day was bananas and a dandelion chai with almond mylk and coconut sugar.
i took the train into the city getting off at melbourne central shopping centre, not the biggest fan of public transport but i am getting the hang of it now and it isn't as scary as it used to be.
made my way into lululemon at the emporium and picked up a new pair of leggings that are warmer than my current pair to wear to yoga. so far i have only tried a 10 day trial but i seriously think i have an addiction... and cannot wait to sign up! luckily my partner generously gave me a voucher at christmas for the studio at the end of our street.
i love walking the streets of melbourne, especially all those little side streets, filled with little boutiques and eateries. i made my way down to degraves street, to pick up a little vegan doughnut at doughnut time.
as it has been a few hectic weeks for both of us, my partner and i decided to have a good old fashion date night at home. so i took it upon myself to make sure we were fully stocked with delicious goodies. they had 2 vegan options the day i went and i decided to go with their vegan fox. its a simple doughnut coated in dark chocolate, pistachios and freeze dried strawberries. it was sooo good, but i am a bit of a doughnut fiend.
as you will see this 'weekend in my life' is far from the healthiest representation of diets but i don't eat this way all that often and therefore have no regrets!
before leaving the city to head back home, i ducked into raw trader for the last of tonight's treats. they have an absolutely amazing range of raw vegan goodies, and if you are a little nervous about making these kind of treats but want to try them, this place is perfect!
i picked up an apple crumble cake, black forest cake and a trifle slice. We shared these later that night and the apple crumble was our fave, followed but the black forest cake. i'm not a fan of trifle and that slice tasted spot on, so i tried but couldn't eat it because it was so close to the original!
since i knew i'd be having a few treats later that night, when i got home from the city at lunch time i decided to get in my daily dose of veg.
i had a bowl of left overs from thursday nights dinner. veggie lentil bolognese with tri-grain pasta from work, the source bulk foods in camberwell.
so saturday actually started off with a sleep in, which never happens for me. i'm usually wide awake early on my days off to get the most out of my day, even if it's just to sit around watching foodie videos on youtube!
so friday night ended with kombucha, popcorn coated in tahini, cinnamon and vanilla powder, shared treats from my trip to the city, while rugged up watching some of the new season of penny dreadful!
Saturday
then one of my best mates messaged me asking if i wanted to catch up over lunch, so of course i said yes!
my partner had gotten a restaurant recommendation during the week at his work, for an american style burger joint in richmond called the collection bar, that offered a vegan burger. so we decided to try it out, as our mate loves all things american!
this was the burger, and wholly moly, it was delishiously messy! and even though i haven't had the chance to try many vegan burgers, it was actually realllyy yummy!
i tend to keep away from soy products because i know my tummy really doesn't like it at all, but decided the discomfort was worth it.
it was called a bbq tempeh cheeseburger, made up of a hickory smocked tempeh patty, with dill steamed onions, vegan cheese, dill pickles, and vegan burger sauce. sorry for the really poor food photo!
as a little snack to tide me over until dinner, i tried out a new to me snack bar. it was actually really good as well! i had a surprisingly good food choices day today, as i find a lot of these types of energy bar/natural food bars are hit or miss for me. most of the time they are a miss actually, i prefer to make my own. but this had a deliciously fudgy texture and good flavour pay off.
dinner ended up being a baked sweet potato boat. which has become a bit of a staple dinner recently, along with spicy lentil stews.
this guy was baked in the oven for quite a while (forgot how long exactly sorry!) until you could poke it with a skewer and feel no resistance in the flesh. also a gooey caramel begins to ooze out of the potato when it's close to done.
once it was baked i opened it up down the middle and spooned over a lentil bolognese i made while the potato was cooking, then drizzled unhulled tahini and nutritional yeast on top.
thankyou for making it to the end of this little adventure, and i'll hopefully catch up with you all again soon.
have an awesome day!
Cinnamon Courtney xoxo
