The journey of the fauxsage

'You mean,' said Arthur, 'you mean you can see into my mind?'
'Yes,' said Marvin.
Arthur stared in astonishment.
'And . . ?' he said?
'It amazes me how you can manage to live in anything that small.'
- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

It was Friday. It was hot. I had some time on my hands before I had to go out in the afternoon. So what did I decide to do?

I made a double batch of Celine's Ginger Hoisin Fauxsage. Not being a fan of seitan, I really wasn't convinced I'd like them (especially 'cause they had a really weird smell before being cooked and the texture before baking was kind of nauseating) but actually it was delicious! And the bonus? J loved it too.

We've since had the fauxsage in a creamy stir-fry (it's amazing how creamy an avocado and some sheese can make a dish when you're not even trying)...


...and in several sandwiches (it's perfect!). Here's my sandwich from work the other day with the peanut butter spilling out the hole in the top of the bread (I'd run out of hummus).


Not content with just the fauxsage making, I also whipped us up a batch of giant cookies (after all, if you hardly ever have cookies why not make them HUGE!).


And prepped dinner (in amongst cleaning and washing)...I am so a domestic goddess!


Marinated and baked tofu cubes with potato rosti, stir-fried broccoli (fresh from my Mum's garden!), avocado and homemade tomato sauce (care of J's Mum).

Tonic and Grin

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.

Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.

A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!

Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?

How much can you lose? How much can you win?

- Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss

It's been pretty hectic round here lately...

The weekend after we got back from our South Island adventure I was competing in TONIC (The Orienteering North Island Champs), 4 days of full-on racing on various maps in Woodhill Forest. From fast, open forest to thick native bush to the Maze, an open area filled with impassable patches of scrub that proved a technical minefield it was one very intense weekend.

Here's the last control on Day 2 (this course was one hell of a bush crash) peeping out from the forest.

The view down towards the West Coast and the Kaipara Harbour on the road into Day 3.

Fruit salad in the sun after Day 3's racing. Glorious.

The next weekend was spent putting in some last minute mountain bike training at Woodhill before competing in the P6 the following weekend. The P6 is an annual 6 hour adventure race held North of Auckland by Lactic Turkey, known for some pretty fun and crazy events. This was no exception. The event involved mountain biking (always my bane), running and tubbing (swimming down a river inside an inner tube from a car tyre) as well as mystery activities to earn extra points all while trying to navigate your way around the course.

Chaos as the beginning of leg 2 as everyone tries to work out exactly what's going on.

The P6 was our first race together as just the 2 of us and hopefully not our last. Just next time we'll remember to bring sunblock!

While visiting my new local health food shop, Huckleberry Farms, in search of lara bars for the various races I discovered they now also stock a selection of Clif and Luna bars so obviously I had to get some to test...

First up, Luna Bars. So far I've tried Caramel Nut Brownie, Cookies 'n Cream Delight and Chocolate Peppermint Stick. Honestly? They taste kinda artificial or something but I keep desperately trying to like them (they look so pretty after all!). Perhaps a non-chocolate flavour will be better. I have an Iced Oatmeal Raisin flavour so I'm hanging great hopes on it!

Clif Bars. Here I've only tried the Chocolate Brownie and Oatmeal Raisin Walnut flavours and J has tried the Cranberry Apple Cherry. I definitely prefer the Clif bars to the Luna bars but the Chocolate Brownie was way too dense and sweet, especially before a race! Next time, stick to the fruity, oatmeal flavours!

So basically, Lara Bars win hands down! I've yet to meet a flavour I don't like.

Amongst all our adventuring we've still had to eat. Here's last night's dinner - Pumpkin Gnocchi with soy sausages, capsicum, courgette, mushrooms, baby spinach and tinned tomatoes. One day I will have to try my hand at making gnocchi but for now Delmaine make a pretty good version for those days you don't have much time to spend in the kitchen (like every day lately!).