Last week I blogged about being really inspired
by my friend who seems to be a far healthier vegetarian than I am. At the
beginning of last week, I moved into my new flat in Camberwell and decided to
take on the challenge of eating only home cooked healthy vegetarian food (with
the exception of coffee because there is no way on earth I would survive a
whole week without visiting coffee roasters and trying out different brews –
but strictly coffee, just pure joy of caffeine). I have to say that I am very
proud of myself because I did not give into temptations. For the whole week, I
managed to prepare and cook all my meals at home and only used fresh and
healthy ingredients.
This might
sound like a rubbish challenge, however, I am definitely a person who enjoys
eating out and also quite easily gives into temptations and laziness. When I
see a nice café or restaurant, I have to eat there! Or when I am too tired
after a busy day, I normally tend to either grab a take-out or buy something
ready made from the supermarket. Luckily (although not really luckily) as I
have only been in Melbourne for a short period of time, I do not know that many
people yet who I could potentially tempt to join me for brunch or dinner. Also,
last week I did not have any commitments so I was flexible in terms of cooking
my meals whenever I felt the need.
I have to
admit that I did not attempt to cook anything too complicated and mainly just
tried to use more vegetables, legumes and prepare dishes that would include
proteins and fibres rather than carbohydrates (especially sugars). I ended up
making some interesting observations about my body’s reactions to different
foods. Most of the time I felt really good and full of energy but I have to
admit that reducing sugars in my diet did affect me quite a bit. There were a
couple of mornings when I felt really dizzy and almost nauseous. On those
occasions, I decided to include some sugars into my breakfast and in general
mornings were the main times of the day when I felt that my body was trying to
challenge my experiment.
Lunchtimes
were the easiest meals because I had already broken the natural fast. It also
happened to be that I did my jogging between breakfast and lunch last week (I
am normally an afternoon jogger but the weather was so hot all week that it was
more tolerable to be outside before noon). My dinners were plentiful and
nutritious. Whenever I felt after finishing my meal that I could eat more, I
tried to figure out if I was actually still hungry or just craving for
something sweet. I realised every single time that it was just my cravings and
after drinking some water and waiting for 20 minutes, I no longer felt the need
to eat any more.
What I
ate for breakfast
As a
vegetarian, my absolute favourite breakfast is toast with peanut butter. I
especially love adding some sliced bananas and I could literally have that for
every single breakfast for the rest of my life. Peanut butter and jam is also
great and I had that when I felt like I needed a little bit more sugar first
thing in the morning.
My other
favourite breakfast item is fruits and berries with a choice of carbs. I
usually have oatmeal because I tend not to trust supermarket granola but
because I had a lot of time in my hands, I decided to make some maple cinnamon
granola with nuts and cranberries. Camberwell has a great selection of health
food shops and I discovered The Source Bulk Food store that sells nuts, seeds,
tea, coffee and other organic varieties of grains. The quality is superb and the
prices are reasonable.
On Sunday,
I decided to make some pancakes so that was the only day that my carb intake really
went up significantly.
What I
ate for lunch
Lunch as a
vegetarian always frustrates me the most when relying on cafes or take-away
places. I love bread so sandwich would be naturally my favourite lunch item but
it seems that people who are not vegetarians do not seem to understand that we
do not want to have sandwiches that only have a slice of tomato and lettuce in
it (it is almost like taking out the meat and giving us the left overs). Even
some of the grilled vegetable sandwiches seem boring and do not keep me full
for very long.
For me the
perfect lunch item is egg. There is no particular way I like it the most
although normally a fried egg sandwich with different sides keeps it interesting.
My friend who I stayed with told me about her favourite – fried egg and
beetroot. I have to admit that it is quite a good combination. When I lived in
Vancouver, my housemate could not tolerate the smell of hot oil on a frying
plan for health reasons so I got used to making hardboiled eggs. Egg and
avocado is still my personal favourite. Avocado on its own or avocado mash with
squeezed lemon, chopped red onion and some seasoning is also good.
Quite a few
times at lunchtime, I ended up eating leftovers of my dinner from the night
before which is a good option and saves some money as well.
What I
ate for dinner
Dinnertime
was when I really tried working my vegetarian magic and cook some fulfilling
dishes. I tried vegetarian chilli with kidney beans, spaghetti Bolognese with
lentils, egg fried rice with black beans and spinach quinoa salad with black
beans. I have also started liking corn on the cob as a side dish or snack. It
is perfectly sweet and helps making the meal nice and colourful. As of
vegetables, I tried adding at least one green vegetable into each dinner dish
or as a side dish - these happened to be broccoli, asparagus, spinach and green
bell pepper. Spinach is still my favourite because it tastes really nice either
raw or cooked. In the future, I am also planning to try eat some kale which has
been rated even more of a superfood than spinach but I just sometimes find its
texture a bit too crunchy.
My homemade
week was a very productive one and I did a lot of healthy cooking. However, it
will not be my goal to try eat every single meal at home for the rest of my
life. I think it was just good to try different foods and decide what works
best for me. As I have started working in a restaurant in Camberwell, I will be
eating some of their food during my breaks but luckily the menu has a variety
of vegetarian dishes and lots of the items are reasonably healthy. I will
definitely also try discover some interesting new recipes that can make my
dinners more exciting.