Barre, books and more!

Surprise! Guess who? I was up early this morning and committed to making time for a post. Things have been pretty hectic in HPG-land but I thrive when my life is busy and I feel on top of things at the moment so we’re back! I’m still working on a major blog overhaul which includes moving to self-hosting (when my tech-head Mum sorts out my server space for me) and custom template and all that stuff. But for now, what has been happening…?

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Barre Body studio, Flinders Lane

This morning I got up at 6am (okay, I snoozed until 6:20am) and dragged myself into the city for a Barre Moves class at the recently opened Barre Body studio. It is located inside the gorgeous Endota Spa and smells just amazing. Note to self: book in for a massage next time I’m in for class. The class was a combination of traditional Ballet barre exercises think demi & grande pliés in first and second position – and flowing yoga. It may haver been the humid morning but I definitely worked up a sweat, especially with my DOMS from Pole Power/Advanced Pole on Monday night. Even after assisted stretching and a massage, my legs and abs are still recovering. I noticed a few celebrities being spotted at Barre classes and thought I’d give it a try. I will definitely be going as often as I can get myself out of bed that early!

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Pole Divas stand at FitX

Last weekend the FitX Sports & Fitness Expo was on and Pole Divas had a stand. I was there “manning the booth” on Saturday and we had two instructors doing demonstrations like the lovely Giada pictured. We also ran the FitX Pole Power Championship which was a real test of strength amongst all the pole dancers competing. Two of our instructors came first and second place which was great! The competition was pretty tough, there are definitely some really strong women in this sport. I didn’t get much of a chance to see the rest of the Expo but I did get to meet Amanda from Me vs the Bulge! I could see a bit of the strongman competition from the stand and it was pretty crazy, the guys were lifting and carrying hundreds of kilos and it was very impressive!

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My life right now

So yes, I have been very busy. I’m taking four subjects at Uni this semester and it’s halfway through week 3 and so far I have managed to stay on top of everything. It’s been hard as I’ve only received one textbook and two study guides but since I don’t drive I can read on public transport which is awesome. My life has pretty much consisted of working, studying, trying to fit in Pole classes (and now Barre and maybe a few runs) and not a lot else! I have moved house, been to a couple of exciting things like Soundwave and a couple of the side shows,  had an amazing Vegan degustation at Ezard which I may write on later – I didn’t take any pictures because I just wanted to enjoy the whole experience, and written a few things like reviews and a series on Pole Dancing & Aerial Hoop over at Viva La Vegan!

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City of Melbourne's Food Policy Discussion Paper

In my “spare time”,  I’ve been trying to keep up with my personal interests including reading The China Study, my local council’s Food Policy Discussion Paper – which I have been taking notes and answering questions about, in order to provide a detailed response to how I think our food policy should be developed. It’s so interesting! Never thought I’d get into policy but then again I never thought I’d get into Economics which I’m taking this semester, and I have.

Yes, I’m very busy but I am happy and that’s the best part! For more regular updates, please make sure you follow me on Twitter & Instagram@healthypartygrl.

Barre Body – 69-71 Flinders Lane, Melbourne – http://www.barrebody.com.au

The China Study – http://www.thechinastudy.com

City of Melbourne Food Policy Discussion - http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/CommunityServices/Health/FoodPolicy/Pages/FoodPolicy.aspx

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Getting my cook on – minikins, burritos & more

Over the last few weeks I’ve been making a concerted effort to eat out less, plan my meals better to try to spend less money and get more out of my nutrition. This has resulted in some fun and tasty adventures.

First, I decided that caramelized balsamic vinegar is the greatest dressing to have with a drizzle of olive oil on my favourite salad which includes baby spinach, cherry Roma tomatoes, red capsicum, avocado, cucumber, Kalamata olives and 5 bean mix. I actually missed the taste of it hours later. Can anyone say “Salad Nerd”?

Confession: I ate a whole (small) tub of hummus with carrot sticks and rice crackers for afternoon tea one day this week. The tub was less than 200 calories and it was really tasty. But I decided not to buy another one for a few days anyway, just to try and exercise some control.

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I did discover Minikins though. Miniature pumpkins which I thought would be great stuffed with quinoa. Alas, quinoa was either out of stock or out of my budget so cous cous it was. I also got to play with the work pizza oven since it was a quiet night at my evening/weekend job. See my action shot at left. Basically I put cous cous, chopped almonds, chopped dried apricots and salt & pepper together inside a tiny pumpkin, covered it in foil and roasted it for around 25-30mins at about 190-200degrees. About 10 minutes to go I took the foil off and put cherry tomatoes, broccolini and a mushroom on the tray.  The pizza oven was annoying, because in between doing other things I’d have to come back and run it through again. But you make do.

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Roasted minikin with apricot & almond cous cous

20120203-191757.jpg I thought that being on a budget was probably an indication that I should probably cut down on burritos, which made me sad. But then I remembered that I could probably make something close enough to the real thing and I was happy again. I cooked rice with a little lime juice and salt & pepper added at the end, cooked half an onion with a can of black beans and put it some on top, then about 1/8-1/4 of an avocado mashed coarsely, some corn, a couple tablespoons of salsa, and a small handful of shredded nacho cheese flavoured Cheezly. I ended up being able to make 2-3 small burritos and then I got a bit excited and decided to toast them in the sandwich press at my day job. So very, very tasty.

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Black bean & lime rice burrito with things

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Last but not least, tonight’s dinner was leftover cous cous from the Minikin last night, with a vegetable and chickpea stew. This is totally the easiest thing ever but it looks pretty special if you serve it in anything other than a plastic container. Warm a few tablespoons of olive oil in a big pot. Dice vegetables to about 1/2-3/4inch cubes – eggplant, zucchini, red capsicum, tinned tomatoes and also half an onion (can you tell I was preparing two meals at the same time?) then add a can of chickpeas and season with salt, pepper and any spices you like eg. cardamon, cumin, cloves etc. It’s a bit Moroccan if you use the right spices or you can use oregano & basil, maybe rosemary to make it a bit more Italian. Whatever you want to play with. Seriously, go play!

If you hadn’t figured it out yet, I have a pretty laissez-faire approach to recipes and cooking to a formula. I learnt to cook from eating, reading recipe books, watching my Daddy prepare meals and a whole lot of trial and error. Generally if you pay enough attention to food to watch someone cook or stop and think about the flavours and what goes into a meal, you’ll generally be able to cook basic things without much training.

I get excited by food and having a Vegan diet means (among other things) I can eat lots of things and larger amounts of things so that suits me given I am crap at portion control. I also get excited about pole dancing and aerial hoop for fitness which I am now writing about once a month over at Viva La Vegan so go and check it out, there’s also writing by Robert Cheeke of Vegan Body Building and a bunch of other amazing Vegans so I’m super proud to be among the ranks over there.

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Chocolate protein pancakes

It’s a gorgeous sunny day in Melbourne with an expected maximum of 35-38 degrees deep ding on your source. I live for days like this but unfortunately we are down staff due to the Big Day Out festival so I’m off to host kids birthday parties for 3 hours.
Just like yesterday when I downloaded Lana Del Rey‘s album to bribe myself to do chores, to make working today better I decided to have chocolate protein pancakes for breakfast with an iced coffee. After I posted a picture on instagram I quickly got a bunch of likes & comments do I thought I’d put up a quick “recipe” before I forget. The problem with the way I cook is that I go by sight, not measurement. But I’ll try.

Chocolate Protein Pancakes

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Self-raising flour ~1/2 cup
Besan (chickpea) flour ~1/2 cup
Raw sugar ~1/4 cup (or more to taste)
Cocoa ~1 Tbsp
Non-dairy milk ~3/4-1 cup
Mix dry ingredients together then stir in milk a bit at a time until the mixture is thick but runny. Use a non-stick pan and cook just as you would normal pancakes, flipping once there are plenty of bubbles on the top and the edge lifts up easily.
Serve with syrup, berries, a pat of Nuttelex, or whatever takes your fancy. I recommend adjusting the sugar (or just adding more topping) if you feel the Besan flour is a tad bitter for your tastes, I don’t mind it but I eat 85% cocoa chocolate and don’t have a sweet tooth so do play with the sweetness.
You may possibly need maybe half a teaspoon of baking powder depending on how fluffy you like your pancakes, and this is probably enough for two people or one very hungry person. I was a very hungry person but I was definitely full just before I finished them. Besan flour packs a whopping 22g of protein per 100g, so if you eat the whole stack you’re likely to meet 50% of your protein requirement for the day, just make sure you have alternative sources like whole grains, seeds, nuts, tofu and other legumes to ensure you get complete amino acid intake.
No fail iced coffee
1.5 tsp instant coffee
1 tsp raw sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Ice ~1/2 cup
Non-dairy milk to fill
I use my favourite Kirin beer glass which is a schooner but any glass around 300-400mL is fine, just adjust strength to your taste. I put a tiny bit of hot water in to mix then fill with milk and add ice last to avoid melting. Tasty!
Get Vegucated!
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I have ordered a private viewing license of the film Vegucated and would love to host a movie night in February complete with snacks and drinks in order to raise money for not only the Vegucated causes but one of our local causes as well. If you are in Melbourne and would be interested in coming, please let me know. I’m going to try and get a community room with AV equipment probably on a weeknight. Find out more about Vegucated at the website.
What are you doing today? How do you gear up for doing something you’d rather not do?

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So this is the New Year

Hello! Yes, I’m still alive. Long and boring story but essentially a lot of life got in the way of blogging at the end of 2011 and I’m not one to preach when I’m not practicing!
This year is set to be full of amazing things already, I have already been presented with so many opportunities. I started the year off visiting my family in Perth for Christmas and New Year which was beautiful and the exact break away that I needed. I also had some very honest conversations with my favourite Aunt who inspired me in a million ways, as did being so close to the beach.

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So I’ve started the year of with a list of things I want to do and a plan for how to do them. One of the things I committed to is this blog, another is to do with Arbonne – products I have used for over 6 months now and have absolute faith in, I also want to finish my studies, immerse myself more in the Vegan community, focus on my health & training and get my finances sorted out. There’s a few more things too, as usual I am ambitious with my goals.
One thing I am excited about is reconnecting with one of my girlfriends who is also Vegan, which is something I don’t come across often in my day-to-day, leaving me to often feel quite isolated. So last night we had a movid night with quesadillas, popcorn and non-alcoholic drinkies and it was absolutely what I needed on my first Friday night back in reality!

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I’m off to lunch with one of my other close girlfriends and I’m working later tonight so it’s looking to be a very subdued weekend. But yes, I’m back. Did you miss me?
What are your goals for 2012

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Fool me once, shame on you…

... but still not Vegan.

I am offended. I’ve been duped twice recently and had one close call. The close call was false excitement that I had found a new Vegan friendly ice-cream to add to the ranks of So Good Chocolate Bliss and Tofutti tubs. When I happened across this Co Yo coconut milk ice-cream, which labelled itself as lactose free, soy free and gluten free, I thought “F**K YEAH!!” (may have actually been my exact thought) but then when I turned it over to see what was actually in it, I found out that they were being specific about no lactose as it still had dairy products in it. Seriously, why not go the whole way? I am disappoint. I shall keep dreaming about Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss.

For years growing up, I had mini-chol as a cheese replacement due to being lactose intolerant, and when I checked the ingredients it always seemed to be entirely Vegan. There are other soy cheeses in the supermarket that contain rennet so I’ve always been paranoid about it. Then a reader left a comment notifying me of it’s non-Vegan status (on my post about making pizza) that made me go back and do some research. The way it seems to me is that either the Mini-Chol manufacturing, ingredients or labelling is inconsistent and they are hard to contact for clarification but it looks like it isn’t Vegan friendly after all. Or it could be, but isn’t worth the risk.

Not that long ago I bought a selection of vegetable dumplings from an Asian grocery. All the bags had translation stickers over the ingredients list with the list written in English, except one type of dumpling. I asked about it and the woman behind the counter assured me they were vegetarian but they just hadn’t been able to get stickers for them yet. Well I bought them anyway as I figured she’d know the product. What I didn’t count on was her interpretation of vegetarian dumplings including those that contained shrimp product, as I discovered when I got curious and Google translated the ingredients list.

It just goes to show that sometimes you think you are being really diligent with ingredients, asking waitstaff and servers, researching and preparing ahead but that there are so many products that contain unnecessary animal products and too often people will dismiss your need for certain dietary requirements as simply being a food dislike, “not important” or “fussy” or anything else. Well, I’m sorry that my Veganism is such an inconvenience to you, but it’s for the benefit of my health and compassion for animals and respect for the environment, so it means a lot to me!

Well, I’ve learned that lesson! I’m chalking it up as taking another step on my Vegan journey, and can now be even more diligent.

Have you learnt the hard way about ingredients in one of your regular (and assumed-friendly) food items?

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Breakfast ideas for VeganMoFos

One meal I never skip is breakfast. These days I wake up hungry and struggle to function properly until I have had breakfast, and I’m not afraid to admit I’m a bit of a zombie before coffee too. If I go for a run before eating it has to be the “foot out the door before my stomach wakes up” kind of early run. I have breakfast phases but I try and mix it up when I can. I always get annoyed when people are so narrow-minded to question what a Vegan eats for breakfast. I eat cereal or toast like the rest of them, but I have soy milk and Nuttelex, and a few way more interesting things too…

Avocado & tomato bagel

I love a bagel, usually with Better Than Cream Cheese but am also partial to a bit of tomato and avocado as well. Bagels are quite dense, and calorie heavy, so not for everyone. Other toppings could be PB&J, or anything that goes on toast. Until they create a Vegan smoked salmon, my old favourite breakfast is a thing of the past.

Millet, pepitas, almonds, bran, psyllium & raisins

Once when I was staying at my parents’ house, I raided the cupboard for breakfast and found a bunch of random healthy stuff, so I threw it all in a bowl and had it with rice milk as some kind of crazy cereal. Slivered almonds, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), oat bran, millet, psyllium husks and raisins made for quite an interesting mix. Not bad though, could have done with some fresh fruit and/or soy yoghurt.

French toast with grilled pear

If you have bread, non-dairy milk and egg replacer, French toast is easy. If you have cinnamon sugar, maple syrup and pears then French toast is awesome! I just grilled (broiled?) them with brown sugar until they were slightly caramelly and they were perfect with the toast. I think I actually used extra thick raisin toast for this, which made it even better.

Grain roll with spinach, avocado tempeh & cheeze

I am pretty much the Queen of the epic breakfast sandwich. In this case I wasn’t making it to ease a hangover but use up some leftovers, so half a grain roll with sliced, fried Tempeh with Tofutti American cheeze slices on a bed of baby spinach and avocado. Not bad for something thrown together and has a good mix of carbs & protein. Would prefer it with tomato or some other Vitamin C to help absorb the iron from the spinach.

One of my breakfast phases was wholegrain porridge, with various topping from maple syrup to fruit compote to walnuts & banana, but in this case I had stewed apple and sunflower seeds. It’s a great start to winter and for summer just have fresh apple on untoasted muesli and it’s pretty much the same.

Waffles!

My waffle iron comes with a recipe book that has a bunch of different mixtures which are all easily Veganized.  Serve with fresh fruit & maple syrup and it’s easy to impress a guest or yourself. My waffle iron is Sunbeam brand (I think) and they retail for around $20-50 depending on which model you get.

Facon, avocado, tomato, mushroom & toast

Breakfast fry-ups are something I share with my brother B, except he has eggs and bacon, I have tofu & facon, everything else is pretty much the same. If we can be bothered we get hash browns too. An awesome weekend breakfast, or put it all in a sandwich (except the mushrooms, really) or a bagel (maybe add cheeze and tomato sauce) and have an epic breakfast sandwich!

Now try and tell me that I am missing out on awesome breakfasts, eh? I get to have healthy breakfast, hearty breakfasts AND treat breakfasts. I never feel like I’m missing out. Ever.

What’s your favourite breakfast? What do you actually end up having most days?

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My food heaven: The Gasometer Hotel

It’s no secret that I absolutely adore The Gasometer Hotel. The menu has carnivorous, omnivorous and herbivorous options! Vegan, vegetarian and gluten free are all taken care of. The staff know which beers/ciders in stock are Vegan and double check whether you want a Vegan meal on all the menu items where it’s an option, they also have separate fryers and chopping boards and everything. The food is amazing and the atmosphere is great, but what really wins me over is the propensity for hot, tattooed, alternative people to gather there in groups. It’s like Windsor people but in Collingwood!

I’ve been there plenty of times but not nearly enough. I haven’t tried everything on the menu yet (and now they’ve changed it, drat!), and rarely have room for dessert. It’s still heavenly though.

Seitan ribs with beet & carrot salad, mac & cheeze

Oh yes, I hipstergrammed it. How’s about Seitan ribs with sides of Mac & Cheeze and beetroot salad? These ribs are possibly one of my most favourite meals ever. They taste just like any other ribs but without the greasy, stringy, animal bony bits. Seitan is quite filling though, so after this meal and a couple of beers, it’s almost impossible to fit dessert in. The mac & cheeze is more mac with olive oil and cheeze on top, it’s not cheezy all the way through, which is a shame but fairly inconsequential. Comfort food at it’s finest.

Chopped salad, leftover fries & pumpkin pie

The multi-talented and super organised Carla from Easy as Vegan Pie organised Veg*n drinks and the Radical ladies from the grocery store of the same superlative attended, as did the ever so lovely Marieke Hardy who I shared a mutual appreciation of lipstick shade with. Determined to actually fit in a slice of pumpkin pie with gingerbread ice cream, I elected to share the communal fries and ordered the chopped salad. Probably not quite enough food but I got pumpkin pie so I was happy. I love pumpkin pie a lot, and it is rare that I actually get to have it. The chopped salad was awesome too, just what I wanted and would be perfect in Summer.

Vegan Southern Fried Chicken burger

This isn’t actually my Southern Fried “Chicken” burger, but it’s a better picture than the one I actually ate. This is V’s burger, with the chipotle dressing and pickle which I was going to steal and then forgot because I was too busy with my Seitan ribs (not the ones you saw before either, but the ones below). The Forbidden Fruit apple cider that he ordered to go with said burger isn’t Vegan, just so you know. Probably an isinglass thing, which is pretty common. The burger is pretty amazing though, and is definitely one of my favourites. It even made the Top 5 burgers list in The Age newspaper.

Seitan ribs with greens & jalapeno cornbread

I had to order the ribs again, it was just necessary. They were different though. The sides weren’t in the cute dishes, which is okay, I can deal with that, but the ribs looked more like brownies that had been cut out of a big loaf instead of like the individual ribs I had last time. So loss of points for presentation unfortunately. They still tasted amazing and the cornbread was ace as well. The greens (browns) were pretty average though. I will still to salady sides from now on.  I didn’t have room for the new pumpkin pie sundae which was a shame because I thought I should probably try something on the new menu. I will be back for you, pumpkin pie sundae!

So yes, I absolutely adore The Gasometer Hotel, I love that they have Growler on tap and the bartender with the moustache who is absolutely rad. I don’t really love that Smith St is two tram trips away from my house but everything else is great. I need to go back and try the pulled “pork” roll and also order from the starters menu because I haven’t even touched it.

The Gasometer Hotel - Gasometer on Facebook - 484 Smith Street, Collingwood, ph: (03) 9417 5538.

More about The Gasometer: Vegan About TownEasy as Vegan PieIn The Mood For Noodles  and Where’s The Beef?

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