Wednesday 10 August 2011

Day 6 & 7

What a busy week! My plans for Monday evening changed at the last moment because my eldest daughter, her hubby and sons all arrived at 5pm - two days early! They had made the mammoth drive from the bottom to the top of Australia in just 4 days. 
I cannot even tell you how wonderful it was to hug them all, and to sit around the table and share our first meal together as a family in years. :-)
I had those leftover rissoles, plus I bought a BBQ chicken. I made three fresh salads, some of my famous chick pea patties and fresh hummous, grabbed fresh rolls from the supermarket, and we finally gathered around the table and thanked the Lord for the bounty of family members and food gathered before us. What a wonderful meal! And I never once thought to bring out the camera. ;-)
~~~~~
Tuesday I baked fresh raspberry muffins for the extended family, but for myself I have stuck to fresh fruits and vegetables, lots of salads, a bit of yoghurt, and still my granola each morning. 
Last night Kezzie and her family had dinner in their new home. They were very tired and wanted to get back to some routine with the children, so I sent them home with a big pot of leftover beef and potato curry that I'd made for Blossom on Friday. 
Blossom finished off the chick pea patties, while hubby and I shared a chicken stir fry with rice noodles. I made the same raw cacao sauce from the other night, but this time I poured it over blackberries. 
I also baked my Sour Dough Bread last night, but waited until this morning to have some. It was delicious! 
Avocados are numerous and cheap right now so for breakfast I smeared some on the sour dough bread and added a little salad and some marinated Feta that I'd done the night before. With some strawberries and a freshly squeezed orange juiceto finish off, I was full of energy all day. 
 
 The ground under my kitchen window was scattered with fallen passionfruit from the blustery wind last night and I was able to gather a bowl full. I love having passionfruit with my granola and yoghurt!
 Because Kezzie and her family were coming for breakfast I also baked up some fresh orange and currant muffins. I did not eat any, but they loved them!
Kezzie also tried my sour dough bread and the granola - she loved them both so has taken some home for her breakfast tomorrow. The boys didn't want to try them as they were too hooked on the muffins! 
All the while we were sitting on the deck having breakfast, drinking tea and sharing from the Bible, we had a visitor watching us...
...a kookaburra!
It's almost spring so many birds come nesting in the huge trees that fill our back yard. We are all hoping this one stays. Kookaburras are my favourite bird, you see. :-)
For dinner tonight there was just hubby and I so we had roast beef  with a warm potato salad and a tossed green salad. It was yummy!
~~~~~
Honestly, I can say that I am feeling wonderful! This has been a good lesson for me in staying true to the goal, but I still have 24 days to go in the challenge. It's not hard to avoid treats, and it's not hard to make interesting and tasty meals. It just takes planning , motivation, and some good cookbooks/un-cooking books.
The best thing, though, has been eliminating caffeine. \o/
Hugs
Jenny
xxx
PS: I will share the Lemongrass Chicken recipe next time for AfricanAussie. :-)


2 comments:

Allie said...

I have tears of joy in my eyes for you and your family - how lovely to have them there! Some of your foods sound quite dreadful if I'm honest, but I haven't tried them so I really can't say, lol. I'll be trying new things soon!

africanaussie said...

Oh how lovely that must have been to get a surprise visit two days early. I am so impressed that you did all that baking and cooking and didn't break your resolve. Oh, thank you. I look forward to that recipe - it looked yummy.