Ausfood: March Day Three

Breakfast:

Juice:
Orange Juice (Nudie)

Muesli:

Rolled Oats Lowan Whole Grain)
Bran (McKenzie’s 100% Australian)
Bran Cereal (Nature First)
Sunflower Seeds (tba)

Yoghurt (Schulz Timboon)
Strawberries
Milk – reduced fat (Pura Light Start)

Beverages. Nerada Tea and milk – reduced fat (Pura Light Start)
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Main meal

Chicken
Marinade: Lemon juice, olive oil & garlic.
Red onion*
Tomato*
Green beans*

Fresh fruit: Pear**

Beverages. Nerada Tea and milk – reduced fat (Pura Light Start)

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Other meal

Tomato*
Onion*
Cucumber *
Green beans*
Sunflower kernels

Dressing: Red wine vinegar and olive oil.


Snacks: sunflower kernels, banana and Yukoh!! Carrot***.

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*** Yukoh!!! is not a new variety of carrot. It is the polite & precised version of the words that I said as I chomped into the raw sliced carrot pieces. And then immediately spat them out in a very undignified manner. Thecarrot tasted as if it had been liberally doused with kerosene and was a lesson in buying produce out of season.


* Eastern IGA
** Local Green supermarket
*** Next suburb to the west (red supermarket)

Ausfood: March Day Two

Breakfast

Juice: Orange Juice (Nudie)

Muesli:

Rolled Oats (Lowan Whole Grain)
Bran (McKenzie’s 100% Australian)
Bran Cereal (Nature First)
Sunflower Seeds (tba)

Milk – reduced fat (Pura Light Start)

Beverages – Nerada tea and reduced fat milk (Pura Light Start)

Main meal                                               Salmon mash and green beans.

Smoked salmon (Chopped)

Potatoes** – butter & milk & spring onion tops

Green beans*                                        Dressing

Parsley                                                      Olive oil & red wine vinegar

Other meal

Salad:

Lettuce*

Cucumber*

Spring Onions*

Mini Roma tomatoes*

Beverages – Nerada tea and reduced fat milk (Pura Light Start)

Snacks:  Sun flower kernels & a banana

** Green Supermarket

*Eastern IGA

Ausfood: March Day One

Breakfast

Rolled Oats Lowan Whole Grain)
Bran (McKenzie’s 100% Australian)
Bran Cereal (Nature First)
Sunflower Seeds (tba)

Milk – reduced fat (Pura Light Start)

Beverages – Nerada tea and reduced fat milk (Pura Light Start)

Main meal

Smoked salmon strips (Australian Gold)
                                                                          Dressing
Lettuce *                                                           Olive oil
Spinach *                                                          Red wine vinegar
Cucumber*
Parsley*
Spring Onion*

Other meal

Lettuce *                                                            Dressing
Spinach *                                                           Olive oil
Cucumber*                                                         Red wine vinegar
Spring onion*


Beverages – Nerada tea and reduced fat milk (Pura Light Start)

Snacks: sunflower seeds, peanuts in shell & a banana.

*all vegetables from Eastern IGA

Saved by Emma and Tom

Today I had agreed to walk up to the local shops with one of my neighbours for a long overdue coffee and catch-up.

What I had totally forgotten was, until we were halfway to the small shopping centre, that starting with breakfast today, I was well and truly on my way through another day of eating only Ausfood.

Well damn it!!

I was not about to turn back and I was not going to quit my Ausfood day and start all over tomorrow. There are now only four days left in March and I really can’t afford to fritter one of them away. Lessons to be learned here – start the Ausfood eating schedule early in the month – don’t leave it to the last minute.

The worst that could happen would be to sit with a glass of cold water in front of me on the table and quite possibly, Andy the barista might fall down in a dead faint on the floor when I do not order a coffee.

Neither of these worst case scenarios eventuated.

Inside the coffee shop, near the front door, sits the cold cabinet and inside it an array of cold drinks are on offer. At first glance it seems the only things available are all the usual soft drink and fruit juice suspects, who shall remain nameless. Closer examination, which means holding the fridge door open, which effectively blocks the doorway for new customers, and peering closely at the shelves brings a result.

I find a selection of Emma and Tom’s fruit juices; scanning the labels I consider my best option will be the Straight OJ - 100% orange juice. Turning the bottle around the words ‘made in Australia from the best ingredients we can find in Australia’ seal the deal. This orange juice will be the coffee replacement for today.

Emma and Tom save the day!!

Setting the rules

When you undertake a task and you are the person in charge of, as well as the person as undertaking the task, it is always easy to set the rules. You set them to suit yourself and who is going to notice anyway if you don’t toe the line.

The business of toeing the line is one of the reasons I decided to set up the In Search of Ausfood blog. There is only a very, very slim chance that anyone will take me to task as that requires readers and as readers, at this point, are virtually non-existent this is something I’m not unduly concerned about right now.

Right now my main concern is the decision around the guidelines I will follow next year when the really serious business of eating Australian gets underway. To this end I've made the following decision; stringent measures will be set in place.

It will be 100% Australian or nothing.

There I've put it out there for everyone to see.

Already I hold the opinion that by the end of this year I will be well and truly fed up with looking at the trickier items that are marked product of Australia but may have, for example, palm oil in the ingredient list. Australian palm oil producers? Where?

Anything I eat will have to be clearly defined on the label whether it is a grocery shelf line or meat or vegetables and fruit. If there is no signage in the shop (or on the website) then I don’t buy the product. The statement often made to me about “all our meat or all our fruit and vegetables are Australian” when there is no clear evidence, won’t wash for me in 2014.

It should make for easier shopping if I have a list of stores where I can rely on Australian labelled food products. And as for the limitations imposed by my guidelines, I shall just have to live with them. It may mean repetition or it may mean I will have to be more creative in my approach to recipes and menus.

As far as I am concerned all of the above can only be a good thing.

Ausfood : February Day Two

The bare bones plus a small bonus and few words to finish off the day.

Breakfast

Juice : Nudie 5 1/2 oranges

Muesli
Oat bran                                                                                   milk - Physical reduced fat
Bran cereal                                                                              yoghurt  -  Shaw’s Buffalo Milk
Rolled oats                                                   with                    blueberries
Sunflower seeds
Sultanas

followed by

Tea – Nerada plus milk – Physical
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Snacks – Peanuts in shell.

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Main meal

Chicken
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salad
Red onion
Mini Roma Tomatoes
Lettuce
Corn (off the cob)

Salad Dressing  - Olive oil  & lemon juice

followed by

 Nerada teabags  &  milk - Physical reduced fat

 Foot note.

My days are not as well structured as the days of many other people and thereby hangs the tale of what might appear to be a meagre food intake for a whole day; whether this meal format changes at all remains to be seen.

A word of caution here - don't hold your breath waiting for the meal format changes......

February Ausfood - Day One

The bare bones.......

Breakfast

Juice :
Nudie 5 1/2 oranges

Muesli:
Oat Bran                                                                                   Milk - Physical reduced fat

Rolled Oats                                                         with              Yoghurt - Shaw's Buffalo Milk

Sunflower seeds                                                                        Tasmanian honey
Sultanas                                                                                     Blueberries

followed by

Nerada tea & milk -  Physical reduced fat

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Main Meal

Cold Chicken strips
Tomato
Cucumber
Lettuce
Red wine vinegar & olive oil

followed by

Nerada tea & Pura Light start milk

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Other Meal

2 eggs - hard-boiled
Lettuce
Brown Onion
Red Wine vinegar & olive oil

followed by

Nerada tea & Pura Light start milk

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Facing up to the Challenge

I’m aiming to stay head of the game here and not allow myself to be subjected to another haranguing from the dreaded Plans.

Here is the outline for my Ausfood Challenge. I must stress the word outline – I don’t want to paint myself into any tight corner that I might wish to wriggle out of at a later date.

The idle thought which crossed my mind as I was setting up this blog went along these lines:
What would happen if one third of the adult population of this country elected to eat only Australian produced food for one third of each year?

Would this make any difference to Australian farmers regarding their income?

All very fanciful, you might be thinking as you read along here. However fanciful it might be, I decided I might put it to the test and see what was involved. Already at this early stage I am aware that it might not be that easy, there has to be a will to make this happen and where people cannot see an immediate outcome which benefits the person participating (think money here), there will be little or no interest.

I decided, quite rightly - after all, I’m the one making the rules here - that I should ease into this month by month through this year and then face the real challenge next year.

Now, for some boring but simple mathematical calculations.
One third of a year equates roughly with 120 days; this divides neatly, over a twelve month period, into ten days per month. These ten days will be random and as time passes I may find grouping the days into threes, twos or single days may work best.

I will apply the Australian only food rule to all ingredients used in the preparation of all meals, snacks and drinks consumed on the Ausfood days.  There will be no eating and drinking out at cafes etc. because it is impossible to verify the ingredients; eating at the tables of friends will be allowed if I am able to verify the ingredients. I foresee some problems here; close questioning about the verification of ingredients making up a dish and snooping through pantries and kitchen bins may not endear me to many people and may lead to invitations to make my own meals or to stay away until the following year.

It will now be abundantly clear why I have allowed myself such a long lead time; a certain amount of fine-tuning will be taking place throughout this remainder of this year.

I hope, when December 2013 rolls around, to be eating Ausfood for ten days each month and not eating my words.

Dipping a toe in the water

Today was my first shot at an all Ausfood day.

As this is the first cab off the rank in the Ausfood search, you will find certain refinements being made along the way. For example the product verification (proof the product/ingredient used is an Australian product) will be re-shaped into a format that will hopefully not bore the socks off the reader but will still provide accurate verification I am using genuine Ausfood items.

I started late in the day which gave me the sneaky advantage of only having to fit in two meals; breakfast and another meal late in the day to prevent a total collapse from starvation.

The breakfast menu was the usual muesli with some modification (interpret modification as a scramble to find any ingredients that met the Ausfood criteria) Wandin strawberries, Elgaar Dairy milk and Schulz yoghurt. Hurrah for the summertime and berry products readily available.

All this washed down with a cup of Nerada tea/Elgaar milk.

The Other Meal:

• chicken from the local butcher, marinated in the juice of a Woori Yallock lemon.
• Cobram olive oil for pan frying the chicken
• Victorian potatoes
•  Australian green beans

Another cup of Nerada tea with Elgaar milk

I managed the meals around a late start, time at the library and later a tram trip down to the beach at Albert Park.  I also managed to walk past cafes and the ice-cream shop to beat all ice-cream shops in Albert Park and not stray inside any of the doors.This is the down side to the Ausfood eating challenge - eating out is off limits due to the unknown ingredient factor.

At the end of the day I was still a little peckish; however I managed to resist all temptations in the kitchen cupboard and the fridge.  At this rate, by the end of next year I'll scarcely throw a shadow if I stand sideways.


In my dreams......