Here we go again...

In the aftermath of your visit, I am moving slowly, as if I'm swimming underwater. I had hoped to see you because I am selfish, but now I wish you hadn't come...I am no longer a source of protection for you, but a source of pain.

- Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

It was Dad's birthday last weekend so that called for a little celebration. And what do all celebrations need to have? Good food!

For dinner I made a vegetable and lentil lasagna with whatever I could find in the kitchen. I haven't made (or eaten) lasagna since I last was living at home and this made me wonder why since it was so simple and quick...plus it freezes really well for leftovers.


Instead of cake I opted for one of my favourite recipes, Celine's Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. I couldn't find the recipe on her website any more but luckily I had a copy stowed away. This time though, I made Chocolate Almond Butter Pie with a chocolate crust.


So delicious! We all went back for seconds even though we knew we were well and truly full. It's so rich I don't know how we even managed it but life is too short to waste good pie!


On another note, I moved into my new flat on Friday so you can expect to see some decent food coming out of my kitchen shortly!

Homeward bound

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Thanks everyone for your really kind thoughts. Things are still not going well here but today I did get some exciting news so hopefully life starts brightening up soon.

Anyway, I've been staying at my parents' place for the last couple of days so have finally been able to have some decent meals. I think Mum secretly likes it when my brother and I come over 'cause it gives her an excuse to cook up a storm!

She made my favourite sweet and sour tofu (with peanut butter too this time so I guess that sort of makes it a sweet and sour satay tofu!!) the other night which is always delicious.


I had leftovers on a bagel for breakfast the next day...perfect fuel before a long run around the neighbourhood a couple of hours later. Near the end the sky opened up and I got completely drenched but it was so good to be outside and running...clears my head and gives me space from the chaos.

Mum even made dessert...stewed apple and rhubarb crumble. The rhubarb is straight from her vege garden.


Last night I was home really late so I picked up some kind of curried tofu pie from the health food store for dinner which I had with salad and potatoes Mum had made for their dinner. Quick and tasty.


Then this morning for a bit of fun Mum and I decided to make green smoothies since everyone seems to be making these! Naturally the thought of putting spinach in a smoothie seemed a little on the scary side so I added quite a few berries which ended up making it, well, not green...but you get the idea.


This had a frozen banana, baby spinach, almond butter, frozen mixed berries and soy milk. The mixture was a bit thick so we actually ended up eating them with spoons but it tasted SO good! I'll definitely make these more often.

Feeling a little at a loose end this afternoon I made molasses muesli bars. They are kind of (in a very round about way) based on this recipe.


They were very sweet so next time there will be even more serious adaption, but a nice change from store-bought bars.

Remembering to breathe...

Everyone talked about food, all day and all night! No sooner had lunch been finished and cleared away, than supper would be discussed and a shopping list drawn up for the second meal of the day.

- from Viva l'Italia by Julie Biuso

Sometimes you just need a change of scene, some time to yourself, a break. Life has been incredibly difficult lately. I’ve never been that good with change, coping when things don’t go to plan. Everything suddenly feels so much harder and food tends to get pushed lower down the list and when it does get eaten it tends to be very basic - cereal, toast, muesli bars...

So about the middle of last week I jetted off down to Queenstown to stay at our fancy work apartments with the most amazing view (see the photo below) and a feeling of lightness inside for the first time in a while...


I got picked up from the airport by a good friend and workmate who promptly took me on a tour of the local supermarket and Mediteranian Markets where I well and truly stocked up on enough food to feed me (and a small army) for the week! It was fun as she took me round her favourite places to shop and pointed out some of her favourite things at the Mediteranian Market.


There was no way I was going to get through all this food but I hadn't even thought about what I needed and what I was going to cook so made sure I had plenty of choice. Some of it is coming back with me in my suitcase since I didn't have a chance to use it (hopefully I'm not overweight...it was close on the way down as I had all my art gear packed too).

Despite the fact that it's winter, the idea of salad seemed highly appealing since minimal effort is required (hmmm, I'm sounding really lazy about now). Salads are not something I’ve had that often but if they are good they can be the best thing in the world.


This one was SO good. I should totally do this more often.

Queenstown has quite a cool little health food store, Destination Organic, which I always check out when I come here.


I picked up this prune and linseed bar there which was pretty good - tasted very healthy but I won't hold that against it! It was perfect fuel for my run that day which took me right up into the snow!

Of course, a trip to Queenstown is not complete without a visit to Patagonia Chocolates.


I got 71% dark chocolate with mixed peel and nuts, dark chocolate coconut and dark chocolate ginger...SO delicious.

When I got lazy (or tired) I resorted to simple food...


...a wholemeal bagel with almond butter and blackberry jam...

...and more salad.


One of my favourite quick meals to make used to be nachos but even the thought of cooking that seemed rather daunting. Too much chopping, too much cooking, too much work...but the stove here is seriously awesome...I wish it was mine!


I had leftover tofu which I chucked in for a change and tried to use up as many of the vegetables I had as possible so I didn't waste anything.


It made enough for 3 large servings which meant I didn't have to cook something each night! Not as spicy as I'd usually make it but you make do with what you have.

We had snow yesterday which was pretty cool but sent the temperatures plummeting. Here's the view out my window yesterday morning...quite a change from when I first arrived!


So here I am, about to leave for the airport and head back up to Auckland, to the place I apparently call home and the real world but I think I'm a bit more ready to deal with it now...we'll see.

Land of O

'If I'd been as bad as you, I'd have been a whole lot worse. Better at it than you've ever dreamed of.'
- Granny Weatherwax from Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

No food today...instead, not that I suspect anyone is probably interested, I thought I would give you a small glimpse into my favourite pass time, orienteering...

This last weekend was our last long weekend until the end of October and as usual it was spent orienteering, the Queen's Birthday Orienteering Competition (I've always found it weird that Queen's Birthday doesn't even fall on the same day each year let alone on the actually Queen's birthday but I get an extra day off so it's all good!) which was held down in the Waikato region (a couple of hours south of Auckland).

The theme of the weekend was mud, mud and more mud. Rinsing out all my clothes last night it took forever until the water even started to run vaguely clear and I had to attack my shoes with a scrubbing brush!

On Saturday night there was, well, a night race across the same farmland we had covered in the daylight. It was still pouring with rain so the ground had turned to a mud bath. One of the hills I ended up sliding halfway down on my arse!

The rain stopped in time for Sunday's race but instead of muddy paddocks we had to deal with deep marshes and unpredictable rivers (unpredictable in that you never knew just how deep they were at any given point until you, well, got wet).


I ended up waist-deep crossing a marsh on Sunday's race which I thought was pretty bad...only to end up chest-deep in another one on Monday and I hadn't even got to my first control! I don't think I've ever had to cross so many marshes and fight my way across so much mud...ever!


I'm guessing a lot of you don't really know what orienteering is all about. Yes, you have a compass (I have this one). You also have what's called a Sport Ident or E Card (it'll look something like this) which you wear on your finger. This will electronically record when you get to each control. You'll also have a map which has your course marked on it and basically you have to find the best, fastest way round that course. Easier said than done!

If you want to see what an orienteering map looks like I've posted some here and here and all the maps and courses for big events in New Zealand are posted on Route Gadget where we can draw out the routes we took to get to each control and compare with others (see, I told you I'm an orienteering geek). Splits and results can be compared at Winsplits.

This is what a control looks like when you get to it. There will be a number on it that will correspond to the number you've been given (so you know you've come to the right control).


The little red box you can see on the top of the control is where you insert your Sport Ident so that your splits are recorded.

Did that make any sense? Did I bore everyone to death?! I could talk about it till the cows come home! But if for some reason you were actually interested, check out the IOF website.


Yes, I will be back next time with food...I promise!

Let's burn fat, not oil

The timbers of the house, like the bones of an ageing person had 'settled' and shrunk, as the years acting like a wine-press had squeezed out their substance.
- The Carpathians by Janet Frame

Saturday was date night. After going to the gym then relaxing in the spa afterwards J and I headed off to Gina's, an Italian Pizza and Pasta restaurant that is famous for being very loud! I ordered their Alla Salute, a vegan pizza covered in garlic, onions, capers, artichoke, olives, basil, rocket and fresh chili.


It was pretty yummy but I can make better pizzas at home...the atmosphere was pretty funny though.

After dinner we headed up the Sky Tower to look over New Zealand's biggest city at night then ended the night with sorbet on Queen Street under some outdoor heating.


Delicious (and don't you just love the peacock they put on it? I'd started demolishing it before I remembered to take a photo).

If you ever visit Auckland I will give you one word of warning, it is NOT cycle-friendly. In fact it's a total nightmare. J and I are pretty pro having something done about this so the opportunity to join the protest about getting cycle and pedestrian lanes on the harbour bridge was a no brainer. The Auckland Harbour Bridge (50 years old this week) is what bridges the city to the North Shore. It's chaos during rush hour as there is no other feasible way across (other than ferries).


Several thousand of us gathered on the city-side of the bridge hoping the Transport Agency would say yes and let us cross. Unfortunately they wouldn't budge in their decision but after the leader of the protest announced that we were not to use force but there wasn't enough police to hold everyone (try like 20 police officers just trying to make sure no one got run over!) the crowd pushed through onto the bridge ending up blocking every North-bound lane across.


Oh my god the bridge is awesome! Okay, so I've driven over it countless times but it is nothing compared to crossing it on foot. The views of the harbour are incredible and it's pretty cool to see the structure up close. There are places where you can see all the way down to the water below. Here's a video of the bridge crossing too.


Memorable quotes of the day have to be, "Let's burn fat, not oil" and "Less talk, more walk."


After the last couple of days you could be forgiven for thinking that Auckland is a city of protests with the Auckland Harbour Bridge protest on Sunday and the Auckland Super City Hikoi on Monday (hikoi being a Maori word meaning protest march or parade...more here if you're interested).

All my shoes are muddy

All things are defined by names. Change the name, and you change the thing. Of course there is a lot more to it than that, but paracosmically that is what it boils down to...
- Pyramids by Terry Pratchett


Yes, my shoes did used to be white but I ran through some mud when they were quite new and never quite got around to cleaning them properly! I am SO tired. Working on speed/sprint training at the moment which is not something I enjoy. The long distance event in orienteering is my specialty where endurance (and navigation but that's rather obvious and the same for any distance), rather than speed, is the key!

Things haven't been so good round here lately but when I got home last night and discovered another package for me sitting on the stairs (which J promptly ran off with and hid under his shirt and I had to wrestle him for it!) I was so excited. I ripped it open to discover...


...a whole lot of Cocoa Loco bars! Emma, you've totally brightened up my week so thank you.

I've been going to a vegan cooking class taken by Alice of Angel Foods and last week we were looking at the different grains and ways of cooking them. I was so inspired by the pearl barley dish she made that I promptly went and created my own variation the following evening.


Warming, filling, healthy, delicious plus it made leftovers for the freezer. Awesome! We also covered this really delicious quinoa salad which I can't wait to make despite the fact it's winter and totally not salad weather!

Last night's dinner was a little adventure. J's aunty had given us 2 chayotes which, for a start, I've never heard of let alone eaten before. At least she gave us instructions on how to cook it otherwise I would have had no idea. Obviously this was perfect for Katie's New Foods Challenge.


The chayote is the vegetable that looks like pear slices (hence another name for it, the vegetable pear). What did I think? It wasn't anything particularly special but not bad for a little variation from the same old vegetables in the stir fry.

And lastly, Free-Range Tofu...

Raindrops are falling on my head

A hug may be accompanied by a moment of stillness. Or it may include expressions of pleasure, like these:
(Sigh)
Whoopee!
That's nice.
Thank you. I needed that.
- The Little Book of Hugs by Kathleen Keating

It is cold, wet and pretty darn miserable here at the moment - winter has made their arrival well and truly noticed. Since Friday it has rained most of the time which means it's kept me awake most of the night (my bedroom is in the attic so rain on the roof is pretty loud).

But despite the rain one can still enjoy good food. Let me introduce you to a little slice of heaven I enjoyed recently...


Peanut Butter Midnight Pie from Revel. Umm, to say that I enjoyed it would probably be quite an understatement.

Another highlight of the week (well, that would be last week since I'm too disorganised to work out what's happening with this week yet)...


...tofu stir-fry with enough leftovers for my lunch. Ah, leftovers. Seriously, they can make a dull workday bright again!

Soup, of course, really hits the spot once the weather turns sour.


Pumpkin, kumara and lentil soup with essene bread I managed to score from my cooking class. Man, soup almost makes winter worth suffering through!

As for the package I got, I've nearly managed to eat through it already (there's only 1 thing left)! Everything is SO delicious although the fruit-flavoured Nakd bars are a bit sweet for me. My favourite so far is the Nakd Cocoa Loco which made good fuel after orienteering on Sunday...although I had to share a good portion of it with J and Mum.


No, I didn't eat them both at once and trying to decide which apple pie I was going to try first (I was just heading out on my bike, hence the gloves but needed a snack with me). But which one did I like best? Personally I thought the Lara bar apple pie tasted better. Perhaps it was the nutmeg or something like that in the Nakd Apple Pie but the taste wasn't quite as nice.