Long Weekend

I don't know why, but it seems like this weekend lasted for about a month.

Friday, Andy and I spent half the day at uni. We came home and made some sandwiches for lunch, and then worked from the comfort of our spare room/office. I spent the afternoon in the beanbag, reading the new issue of Vegan Voice magazine (yay!), while Andy sat in front of his laptop writing and re-writing his thesis. We had half a pineapple in the fridge, as well as a grapefruit and some kiwis that needed using. One of my favourite things about Townsville is the cheap, abundant, colourful produce you can get:

So Vegan Voice--this issue seemed to centre on vegan children and families. I don't have children, and I absolutely never intend to have them, but it was really good to see that there are some ethical adults out there who are raising sensitive vegan kids. In addition to the vegan families, there are a bunch of dessert recipes I'll be making soon (apple cake, pineapple fruit cake, tropical carrot cake, etc), some book reviews, a few health columns, and lots of news recaps. Once again, I highly recommend checking this magazine out.

For dinner, we mixed the leftover beet green/rocket pesto from Andy's birthday into twice-baked potatoes. The filling is just the baked potato insides plus a bit of milk, then pesto and a tin of borlotti beans. Not pictured is the sauce I made to go on top--avocado and half a tin of tomato soup (leftover from something else), plus parsely and heaps of pepper. The sauce was weird but good, though avocado has better uses. On the side was simple sauteed veggies.


Saturday I had to wake up early to go help out at Sorry Day. Townsville's Sorry Day events were held at a park on the ocean, and there were a few tables and entertainment and food and stuff. I was helping out at the Indigenous Human Rights Group table, where we were selling shirts, raffle tickets, and wrist bands to raise money for some actions around Sgt. Chris Hurley's trial in June. He is the first police officer ever to be charged for an Aboriginal death in custody. His trial is in Townsville in June. The first police officer EVER.

After 6 hours at the park (watching amazing dancers, kids running around, and just a general good feeling of community), I was pretty tired. We went shopping and got some mushrooms for half-price, so Andy made stuffed mushrooms for dinner. I guess I reminded him how much he likes them, so he made them once again. We also made spring rolls, filled with rice vermicelli (I like bean threads better), baby wombok, carrots, capsicums, and thai basil. We baked them, so they got a little crispy without all the fat.


Sunday morning we went to the markets, as per usual, and then found out that a new organic food store has opened. It's called BlueWater Organics, and most of their produce is from their own property which has been certified organic for 10 years. They also have bulk bins (the only place in Townsville, as far as I know)! It's a bit pricey, especially on certain items, but the woman in charge is going to see about getting some wheat gluten and nut. yeast in for me. We got some quinoa, and a date/coconut roll.

For dinner, Andy mixed together a few leftovers (fried rice, sauteed veggies and spring roll filling) with some soy sauce and garlic, and stuffed it into tiny pumpkins. We toasted the pumpkin seeds for a snack, but they didn't come out the way I remember. How do you all roast your pumpkin seeds?? The little stuffed pumpkins were served with tofu skewers--tofu marinated in chilli/ginger/lime/soy and then baked, plus mushrooms, green and red capsicum, and cherry tomatoes (all tomatoes were 50 cents at Woolie's this weekend!).


So, there was a nice long post to describe my looooong weekend.