So after my last blog (and losing much of what I initially wrote), I thought I’d come back and share what we’d been up to anyway as the journey has been pretty exciting!
Day 2 is went well – I spent a lot of time munching on fruit from my fruit n veg box and almonds that I bought from a man up the street during the festivities in Stawell on Saturday (from his tree in Drung near Horsham) that I shelled and dry roasted the day before – very tasty! That was after walking into work, which I used to do frequently but have been slack of late, and it felt great.
Lunch for me was cabbage/kale/turnip/veg (etc) bake I made using my fruit ‘n’ veg box, local milk and cheese and homemade yoghurt whilst Kev had a lentil/veg pie we’d made a week or two ago (and frozen in portions) from our fruit ‘n’ veg box as well as local lentils I picked up at the fruit orchard in Bacchus Marsh on NYE.
Last night we had a friend over for some fish that mum and dad had caught, served with roasted potatoes/red onions (fruit n veg box) and lemons (mum and dad’s tree in Stawell) and lettuce (fruit n veg box). She loved it which was great as she’d initially asked us to come out for fish ‘n’ chips in Brunswick Street with her.
Today I was absolutely flat out at work and 
barely had time to think. We had an international speaker visiting speaking about food and urban design/planning. Fascinating stuff and she is just a wealth of knowledge; very privileged to have had the opportunity to have not only met her but hear her speak! Breakfast was egg yolk (white went into a cocktail the night before last) on toast (already had – Bergen rye) with Yarra Valley Dairy Cardi goats cheese purchased at the Queen Vic Market yesterday and some grilled fennel from the fruit ‘n’ veg box. Yum!
Lunch was a repeat of yesterday – the cabbage/kale/turnip/veg (etc) bake I made using my fruit ‘n’ veg box, local milk and cheese and homemade yoghurt whilst Kev had a toasted cheese (Great Ocean Road low fat), basil (fruit ‘n’ veg box) and tomato (from lady at work) sandwich (bread made by us at Abbotsford Convent) sandwich.
I must admit, at both the morning and afternoon sessions with today’s speaker we had fruit platters to cater for the masses but I was reluctant to eat it as I didn’t know where it had come from. At the same time, my nutrition brain grappled with ‘it’s fruit – surely you can eat fruit – it’s good for you!’. Alas, I didn’t eat it and thus stuck with my challenge.
Now, tonight we ate slow cooked Irish stew. The thing is, we’d got some vouchers for Myers for our engagement recently and, with that, we purchased a slow cooker (and pasta maker) amongst other things. Today was the first time we’d tried the slow cooker. Kev prepared the half leg of lamb (from a local farmer in Stawell through my dad) to go in, along with the lamb stock he’d made previously and carrots, potatoes, leek and parsnips (was meant to be turnips, but he got confused!) from our fruit ‘n’ veg box, put it all in and set it going around 10:30am. At 1ish he called to tell me that it was still stone cold! The slow cooker was either not working or just damn slow!! As it turned out, he ended up pouring it all into a big pot and letting it simmer for a good part of the afternoon, approximately 5 hours. It. Was. Delicious! (and we’ll be taking that piece of junk back to Myers and demanding a refund) Oh yes, we washed it down with some Rose Creek Estate cab sav – can’t believe that is made just 10km or so away from here!
Bring on day 4!
