Ahh the weekend!

My second week as a vegetarian is done and dusted. And yep, I have failed at reporting to the world about what I have been eating, so I apologise. But rest assured I have been following a no meat diet and overall I feel good.

Each lunch I have had last week was leftovers from the previous evening's meal. I had left over ravioli from when we went to dinner with friends and then we did host a barbeque with friends the next night. No rice salad, but I did do a potato bake and our guests made a nice green salad which was great for lunch the next day. I also baked a heap of vegies for myself, just to make sure.

With so many leftovers we even managed a dinner from them as well, which was just what I needed after my day at work.

The most epic fail of the week was a "Caesar salad" that I bought from a local take away. I figured I would do the right thing when I ordered and request no bacon or chicken which was fine. When my colleague returned with our food I saw the salad had no dressing or croutons. Basically my vegetarian option for a Caesar salad was lettuce, egg and Parmesan cheese! I certainly won't be ordering from there again.

The win this week was a recipe by Jamie Oliver - Happy Cow Burgers which I have eaten for dinner last night, lunch today and I will be eating again tonight with fresh steamed vegetables.
The burgers are made on frozen broad beans and the taste was amazing - I didn't even notice that it wasn't a lovely homemade rissole. I highly recommend them, even for a whole family meal.

I have planned a week's worth of meals, so let's see how this week goes.

Day 4, 5 & 6

Leftovers have been a good friend to me this week.
Besides not wasting food, it means I am not stressing out about every single meal.
Leftover lasagne without a side salad satisfied me for lunch on Day 4 after a breakfast of toast. Super boring. Dinner was a repeat of lunch WITH a salad again. I'm not a huge fan of salads everyday but it is going to be something I am going to have to get used to...

Day 5 was scrambled eggs on toast before a fabulous walk up the local gorge. My fruit snacks were enough to get me through to lunch where I politely refused a ham sandwich from my friend and hurried home to leftover falafels.
Dinner was a macaroni cheese - without the bacon.

Day 6 - today was a little more adventurous. Breakfast was scrambled eggs on portabello mushrooms (the pic at the start of this post). I am not a fan of mushrooms but I really am trying to embrace new things. Besides, they didn't taste too bad.
Lunch was a vegetarian version of a caesar salad... clearly no bacon or chicken for me.
And tonight was a spinach and ricotta agnolotti with a creamy cabonara sauce sans bacon. Mushrooms also featured in this sauce as well as peas.

Yesterday after my walk I ventured to the local library and borrowed a couple of books for recipe inspiration. Looking through the meal ideas really got the ideas flowing and I wonder how I am going to go this week when I go back to work. Usually when I get busy at work I resort back to the tried and tested meal ideas when I plan our eating for the week.

Even 6 days in I am not missing the meat. No other noticeable difference weight or feeling-wise at this stage but my increased chocolate consumption (thank you Xmas presents) may have something to do with that!

Day 3 and the lunch challenge

Today was going to be my first little challenge - eating out.
Breakfast was super boring pieces of toast with some Vegemite as I was saving myself for a lunch date with my friend, Maddy.
I chose the place because I figured being a Chinese restaurant they would have quite a few vegetarian options... unfortunately I was wrong.
While waiting for Maddy I scoured the menu - sweet and sour pork, beef and black bean, combination noodles with chicken or beef, king prawns and plenty of other dishes that were all based on meat.
I was about to ring Maddy and tell her to meet me somewhere else when I saw a stirfry with vegetarian option - bingo! Crisis averted... this time. Admittedly I did order a side of fried rice which when it arrived did have a few little pieces of pork through it. I dodged those and reminded myself to next time ASK if they could make it without meat.
Dinner was a vegetarian lasagne with side salad while my husband enjoyed the lasagne with a roasted chicken maryland. I didn't even flinch when serving it up. Not even a quick sniff to see if I miss it.
At the moment this challenge is a choice which leaves me to wonder if that makes it any easier. Usually when we are told we can't have something we crave it even more. I haven't told myself I can't have meat per se... it is more about choosing to not have it for now.
Day 3 was a success.

7 years

It is nearly 7 years since I posted on this blog. So much has happened (as does in life) and yet not much has changed.
I closed by hamper business and shed a lot of tears.
I stopped working with my husband and have worked at 3 different places (about to be a 4th).
My son has graduated high school and is about to start University this year.
Family relations have dramatically changed and some friendships have solidified while others have dissipated.
I took a year off from soccer to try different things and returned last year for what seems to be my final year.
And yet here I am writing again.
The real reason behind starting up my blog again is to document some of the self-set challenges I am going to do this year.
First up - January = Vegetarian.
31 days of no meat... as I mentioned on Facebook, it could be the best 31 days of my life or the worst. But it is just for a month. To start.
4 days out and I have begun to prepare. Will you join me in this journey?

Vision boards and other such fun stuff...

So, Wreck this journal is supposed to help me with creavity... and this blog is to help me document my wonderful journey. All sounds fairly easy.... And it is.

But in part of this journey, which is getting messier and messier as I progress I also have a business to continue and get my head in a space where I can grow both personally and professionally.

A couple of weeks ago a group of ladies and I had a networking session where we worked on getting some goals actually written down and making them more than just written down goals (if you get my drift). Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we actually have to action them!

Now, to do this it was recommended that we create some vision boards where we can have our goals plastered in a prominent place so that we see them and reinforce them EVERYDAY! Sounds like a plan...

So I bought my cardboard (that was the first step to actually actioning the goal of actioning the goal) and it has been sitting in front of me ever since. In all honesty I have been scared I was going to "mess it up" and it not be perfect. Hmm, I am starting to realise that I have a problem here...

My fear of "messing up" was preventing me from doing!! Woohoo.. now that I have realised that it is time to take action. And this is where I got the idea of Wreck this Journal. In a very long and convoluted way it was to help me not be so much of a perfectionist and get the job of starting to action some goals done so that I can achieve!

I feel I am on the right track.. even if I seem to be going in circles. This week I have been thinking more about my goals and realised that I probably needed a Daisy list like Sami which would be made up of things that I want to do, but is not so much a goal that it requires a vision board.

And that is where I am at today - I needed somewhere I could put my list of things to do and BINGO - this is it!! I am going to add a little area on the side where I can add the things I want to do and can tick them off as I go.

Problem solved!!

If you would like to know any more about Daisy lists, Wreck this Journal or Vision Boards, please email me! I would be happy to share.

K