Menu Plan - Vegan +

i can't believe i haven't updated since Tuesday. but i haven't been at all in the mood to cook, so there's been nothing to say! i guess i could share that we were very excited to discover that our favourite takeaway store does gluten free now! yay!

it's been pretty hot here for the past week (though not a patch on the 40-45'c's that melbourne and adelaide have had) - in the high 30's and we've just been trying to stay cool any way we can. we had dinner with friends the other night at the dickson pool and it's so nice to have GF meatballs or similar in the freezer all ready to go so we just need to make a salad and off we go. (mind you i need to replenish our supplies as we're all out now)

this next week and a bit is a big one in our house with ryan starting full time school (kindergarten here in the ACT) tomorrow, and rora returning to daycare for the first time as a coeliac. emelia has her preschool interview this week and then next week she starts with a half day followed by a full day. (all these graduated starts make it really tricky for working parents) so inspired by dani we wrote out a list of lunches and snacks that the kids like for school / preschool / daycare. i wish they could / would eat more in common!!!

on top of that is the fact i am going to try the detox program that has been advertised on the radio all the time lately - yes i have IBS and in the past 6-12 months bloating has become a huge problem for me - even after losing nearly 10kg i havne't gone down a single size in clothes! it is making it hard to stay focussed when there's no result :( so anyway i'm going to give this a try and see if it helps. i've spent the past few days coping with the headaches as a result of coming off coffee (and i only have 1-2 cups a day!) so i'm pretty much ready to start the detox... i just need a menu. (i like to make things easy for myself trying to do a GF vegan menu for 2 weeks lol)

geoff and the kids will keep eating meat as they'd starve without it lmao!

jubilant daal made with oil not ghee
bean tacos / taco salad for me
pasta with bean & vegie sauce
baked beans on toast (and eggs for them)
baked spinach kofta with yoghurt sauce for them
vegetarian fried rice with tamari (possibley some meat for them)

next week
mexican rice with grilled chicken for them and beans for me
lentil soup without meat
stir fry with chicken for them and prawns for me
cauliflower dahl with panch phoran ??
homemade gnocchi with tomato sauce

Which came first?

Poached eggs with tomato sauce and greens
it was an eggy dinner tonight. needed another quick and easy, thursdays are the last day of my working week and we are all always exhausted.

This recipe from deb at smitten kitchen had me drooling when it turned up in my bloglines, so i decided that was dinner tonight. i knew the kids wouldn't be interested so their dinner was thermomix scrambled eggs *

i pretty much followed the recipe (mostly, you know me :p) for ours, though i had a bunch of greens in the fridge i wanted to try, i suspected it was Kale. as it turned out i'm pretty sure it is (the crone tells me it's the portuguese national vegie lol). anyway, i have a new love <3 YUM!!!!!!!!!! geoff wasn't as keen on teh kale but that's too bad because i'm the vegie buyer and mostly the vegie cooker and he eats what he's told or has to cook instead LMAO!!!

we ate it with leftover turkish bread from our dinner last night (which was also today's lunch and will be tomorrow's dinner LOL i LOVE turkish banquets!)

i also forgot to report back on my baking on the weekend...
the golden oat muffins are delish! so far the kids havne't got to try them ;p (they are not muffins fans anyway) i did share with g tonight but he's not a big golden syrup fan either.
the apple cake was a bit bleh, so-so, boring. not much of it was eaten and i think it will end up in teh compost (i am such a bad example of how not to waste food)
the orange cakes have been an occasional treat for the kids and they love them (except rory who seems to be anti cake atm)

oh and in other food related news rora had her paediatrician apmt this week and as soon as we can get her iron levels up to a safe level for a general anaesthetic she will be tested for coeliac disease. i'll also be asking for a proper diagnosis of my IBS as there is apparently a formal test for that too, but my gp just told me i had it. poor possum, i hope she doesn't have it. (we suspected a dairy / lactose / something intolerance)

* i still had trouble with cookign the eggs. finally got it to work, but had to up the temperature more and more. i think i did 12 minutes at 80', then 3 minutes at 100' and then 2 minutes at varoma. i also had to turn the speed up for all but the last few minutes