St. Kilda and Lord of the Fries

While staying in Melbourne, we took a day trip to St. Kilda, a suburb just south of the city.  We walked around and headed to the breakwater to look for fairy penguins.  Camera poised and ready, we carefully climbed wet rocks on the lookout for these tiny birds...unfortunately, we didn't see any.  Overall, it was a quiet kind of day.  It reminded me of November at the Jersey Shore, most of the rides and games are closed, few people walking around, and just one or two restaurants open.  St. Kilda sort of had a less seedy Coney Island kind of vibe. 

 

The quiet streets had some fun little shops and some of the houses had Victorian architecture.  The slanted boardwalk surprised me, this was my first time seeing a boardwalk that wasn't raised off the sand. Kind of weird, but cool.

It was the middle of Australian winter with temps in the low 50's F.  The beach was empty, but I could see why this would be a popular destination in the hot summer months.  I don't have food pictures, but we did eat at Soul Mama, a vegetarian buffet-style restaurant with beach views.

After walking around for a while, the cold sea breeze started to get a bite to it.  We walked into the building that housed the St. Kilda Sea Baths, a spa, and Soul Mama.  The place was expansive with a nice lounge area, really fancy restrooms, and a fireplace going.  It kind of had a high end beach restaurant/ski lodge effect, and it was most welcome!  Hunting for fairy penguins works up an appetite, and it gets cold in southern Victoria! 

We settled in and after figuring out that we wanted the option of rice and four selections from the buffet (we had three choices: soup and salad, rice and four choices, and a bigger one that I can't remember), we ate.  Overall, I was happy with Soul Mama.  Some of the selections were a little plain, but their menu does change seasonally and you can definitely taste the freshness of the veggies.   As always, we couldn't turn down a vegan chocolate cake, so we topped off our meal with that and headed back to Melbourne on the tram.

Earlier in the day, after finding enough change to cover the journey and before making our way to the tram, breakfast was in order.  Since Lord of the Fries was right across from the train station, we decided on some vegan fast food.

You would never know that this place was vegetarian if you didn't come up close and read their sign that says, "100% veg".  It was always packed with students and business people.

While their delicious fries are in the name, their other specialty is vegan nuggets and veggie burgers. On this particular day, I decided on the breaded and fried soy protein that is their chicken nuggets.

You had a choice of sauce, and I went with the "Aussie": they call it tomato sauce and vinegar, I call it ketchup.  The "American" sauce is barbeque, and I definitely had that on another occasion.  Sometimes you just have to go for the quick and easy food.  Lord of the Fries was a really fun and economical treat for a couple of traveling vegans!

Getting Clean, the Vegan Way

I ate too many white, processed, sugary foods over the holidays, and I want to give my body a rest.  I'd like to press reset and maybe learn a few more healthy recipes and adopt some healthier habits.  So, I'm going to follow a veganized version of the Clean Program.  It's a 21 day detox plan that utilizes whole foods, avoids common allergens, and is written by an MD. 

Dr. Alejandro Junger details the why's and how's of his program in his book, Clean.  I thought a lot of what he wrote made sense, the only issue I have with it is that he says it's OK to eat some animals.  Dr. Junger writes that organic lamb, chicken, and fish are OK to eat while detoxing, but I obviously am not going to do that.  

He does have plenty of vegan recipes in the program and it's generally vegan friendly.  As a vegan I'm already pretty "clean", but to faithfully do the cleanse I also need to take a break from caffeine, sugar, gluten, soy, corn, nightshade vegetables like potatoes, some fruits that are common allergens, and processed food.  The diet consists of a smoothie for breakfast, a whole food lunch that can be cooked, and a smoothie, juice, or soup for dinner.  You can have snacks too, if you really need them.  The idea is to reduce acidity in the body, reduce the toxic load, and eliminate any possible allergens and foods that could promote inflammation in the body.  

Apparently, strawberries and chocolate are common allergens.  Bananas and wheat are acid-making foods, grapefruit tends to suppress some key liver functions when detoxing, and peanuts tend to have fungus on them.  Corn is often genetically modified, and caffeine taxes the adrenal glands.  The goal is to create a nice, gentle, chilled out state in your body so that it can heal itself.  

So what can I eat on Clean?  A lot of my favorite foods!  Kale, quinoa, brown rice, ginger, apples, cashews, green juices, smoothies, lentils, most vegetables, soup.  I think this will be a healthier, slightly amped up version of what I usually try to do.  

To prepare for the detox, you're supposed to gradually eliminate some of the detox-unfriendly foods from your diet.  I knew my biggest challenge was going to be my morning coffee.  So, this week I slowly weaned myself off.  On Monday, it was my usual travel mug full of black coffee with a scoop of organic sugar.  Tuesday, half a mug without sugar.  I had a giant headache.  On Wednesday, I replaced my coffee with a green juice (my favorite: green apple, lemon, ginger).  I was tired all day!  Thursday came along, juice again.  Weirdly, I wasn't tired!  It was the opposite, I had all this extra energy in the morning-almost too much.  On Friday, I juiced again and I was fine.  I actually expected a more dramatic state of affairs. Maybe all the natural sugars in the juice helped me out there.

I'm planning out my meals now so that I can go food shopping and start full-force on Monday morning.  I'm not a morning person, apparently this program will help me with that.  I'm also hoping for a miraculous cure for my allergies.  I tend to get hives when I come into contact with environmental allergens like pet dander, dust, and pollen.

Next week, I'll update you on Week 1 of the vegan Clean Program.  In the meantime, look out for a post on vegan St. Kilda and a fabulous vegan lip balm.  

Have you ever detoxed?  I'm looking for yummy juice and smoothie recipes, so if you have one, let me know!

Sloppy Joes, Tempeh Puffs, and Cajun Chickpea Cakes

Here are some dinner hilights from the past week or two.

Snobby Joes from Veganomicon

This is my favorite Sloppy Joe recipe.  I love the fact that there's no fake meat in it, just veggies, spices, and lentils.

  Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs from Vegan Brunch

Tempeh Puffs from Vegan Brunch are a fun treat.  I usually stay away from puff pastry, but combined with this super savory Italian-seasoned tempeh, it's one of my favorite recipes from Vegan Brunch.

Crispy Cajun Chickpea Cakes from Vegan Dad

I had my eye on this recipe for a while.  It didn't disappoint!  Super yummy, and I will definitely make it again.

Tofu Dinner Favorites from Tofu Cookery

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Since Santa brought me two new vegan books, I had to make some room on my cookbook shelves.  Looking through, I realized how awesome and important some of these books are and the impact they've had on me.  They took me from Slightly Anemic Teenage Junk Food Vegan that can make toast and spaghetti to Super Healthy Whole Foods Vegan that can actually cook!

Tofu Cookery by Louise Hagler was one of my first vegan cookbooks.  I remember flipping through this book thinking that these recipes were so unusual.  Back then, I didn't cook much and I wasn't too concerned with healthy eating.  If I'm remembering correctly, it was a Christmas gift from a family friend.  The pictures looked so good, but recipes were so foreign to me.  Could I really make dinners that looked like this?  Looking back, this might have been one of the best presents ever because it was the beginning of my vegan cooking life.  These days, the pages are stained and folded in evidence to the important place it has on my cookbook shelf.  Here are two of my favorites:

Barbequed Tofu

Seen here with sauteed kale, this barbequed tofu is made with frozen tofu and a few other simple ingredients like black pepper, soy sauce, and peanut butter.  It's easy to make and soooo delicious!

Sesame Tofu

This is one of my favorite tofu dishes ever, and I've had some crazy amazing tofu in my life.  The combination of ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, and soy sauce are just perfect!  Both of these dishes are baked, so they aren't oily or heavy at all.  Just crispy and delicious!

Happy New Year!

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Happy 2011!  It's a balmy 53 degrees here at the Jersey Shore.  Plows and front end loaders scooped up most of the snow that was blocking the roads, and now the sun is doing the rest.  Yay!  I could almost feel spring and longer days around the corner!

It's time for resolutions, so here are some of mine.  I like to think of them more as wishes or goals because some of them are pretty out there and it's really not a huge deal if they don't happen in 2011.

1.  Go to Southeast Asia. Eat Thai curries in Thailand, scuba dive, see ruins in Cambodia.
2.  Surf.  Anywhere really, but preferably in warm water with waves that are challenging but not completely terror-inducing. A trip to Hawaii, perhaps?  Maybe Puerto Rico or Costa Rica?  I don't know!  I might end up just buying a wetsuit and surfing New Jersey.
3.  Scuba dive.  Somewhere warm, clear, and tropical.
4.  Visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida.  I've read all the books over and over, so to have the book come to life would be amazing!  Is butterbeer vegan?  I don't know, but I'd like to find out!
5.  Use less sugar.  This is coming straight from the sugar-heavy holiday season, I've had too many cookies.  Maybe use brown rice syrup and agave in place of it in baked goods.
6.  Run a 5K.  There's an annual Harbor Seal 5K in Seaside that raises money for the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.  That sound like a good fit for me!
7.  Get crafty.  I want to learn how to make cool stuff like here and here.  I have a glue gun, now I want to use it!