Today has been far too busy, mainly with admin chores.  I do hate sorting out tax affairs and I feel as if that is all I have done all day.

I did begin with a reasonably decent smoothie but I think it’s fair to say the nutrient content was far superior to the taste.  My photo of the toppings I planned to use was photo bombed by the Little Fella.

I was fridge clearing today hence the strange mixture of ingredients in this smoothie: half an avocado, 1 orange, 1 frozen banana, a handful of frozen raspberries, a handful of fresh spinach, a splash of macadamia nut mylk and 1 tbsp cashew nut butter. Topped with Goji berries, cacao nibs and dessicated coconut. Appropriately fuelled we headed out for a walk with the dogs.  This photo is for Lara.  I tripped over a branch and fell flat on my face which Lara always finds hysterically funny.  Harvey managed to not laugh too much and is actually quite horrified by the large purple bruise I now have on my knee.  So there you go Lara, sorry you missed an opportunity to laugh at me but hopefully this will make you smile 🙂 Apart from falling over, it was beautiful outside today and I enjoyed our walk. Not really t-shirt weather though! Back at the ranch our healthy eating continues.  Harvey wanted pizza for lunch so we made our own base.  I compromised in the white vs brown debate and used half white flour and half wholemeal.  The smell of yeast always transports me back to my Nana’s kitchen as she used to make her own bread. She used dried yeast and when ever I see the little yeast balls rolling down the flour mound and smell the yeast I think of her in her kitchen. Very happy memories indeed. I used a Hugh F-W recipe from the Veg Everyday! book which makes enough bread for 3 things e.g. pizza bases, loaves of bread, wraps etc.  I have 1/3 in the fridge, 1/3 made some bread rolls and 1/3 was cut in half so Harvey and I could each have our own pizza.

I followed the recipe for a kale pizza which did not use tomatoes on the base but instead added lots of gently cooked kale and onions. Hugh’s recipe had lots of cheese but I am trying to avoid dairy so I left out the cheese and instead added some red pepper. It was ok and the kale kept it moist enough but it would have been better with cheese some tomato on the base.  I added some Cholulah (pepper sauce) which was an improvement. Harvey did put tomato on his base and chorizo on top and declared his to be one of the best pizzas he has ever had! 4 bread rolls which will hopefully last all week and provide a breakfast roll each morning for Harvey. Supper was a made up vegetarian chilli and some avocado and humous on baked potato.  Yes, there really is a potato under all those toppings.  Baked potatoes are nowhere near as exciting without all the butter I like to add but this is a much healthier version. The chilli was a conduit for some more veg clearing from the fridge and I used up some onions, fennel, a large carrot, 2 courgettes plus some tinned tomatoes, sweetcorn and red kidney beans.  It was flavoured with half a red chilli, garlic and a sprinkling of thyme and oregano.  It wasn’t as good as the one I made last week but very edible.

So another day of complying with my new meat and dairy free lifestyle has concluded.  The white flour was not good as I am trying to be all plant foods and whole foods but sometimes a compromise is needed.