January
Taste at least one new beer every month
I love beer! This
challenge is not a challenge at all if it’s worded as try a new beer every
month, I shall need to introduce some form of a challenge to this, in saying
that I have tried a lot of different beers in my time so I have already tried
most main stream easily available at shops and bars beers! So many in fact it
would be hard to find one every month from a local supermarket or bar that I
haven’t tried! I did consider buying a scratch of poster with 100 craft ales to
try before you die and make this challenge one of these, but I gave that poster
away as a Christmas gift, this month I have made it to a quirky beer I haven’t
tried before and topical to the month of January which for me personally is two
things new year and Rabbie burns so I bought a bottle of Belhavens Robert burns
ale the description says its Hops
are Challenger & Goldings, A Rich Scottish toffee combined with
subtle malty aftertaste. Perfect for Burns night (obviously!) but also great
with stews, sausages and rich onion gravy. Due to me giving up beef and dairy
for a year there will be no sausage or stew for me this year to try it with, A team from the University of Glasgow have been
studying the composition of the inks used by the famous bard in order to
identify in future whether manuscripts were written by Burns himself or are
among the many forgeries in circulation. They found Burns, who was known to
make his own ink, used stale beer, carbonised elephant tusk, lard and sulphuric
acid as the main ingredients in an ink known as “Ivory Black’ ,Robert
Burns moved to Edinburgh to try to make his writing career a success. Whilst
there he would have probably enjoyed an ale Edinburgh being one of the biggest
brewing cities in the UK at the time,
pre written bucket list or of my scratch of wall poster
As I was heading to
the Alps for my ski holiday in cervinia Italy I decided to tick of a bucket
list wish of my personal list which was to make a travelling book! I first
encountered a traveling book on a train journey in Bolivia I met an American
couple and got chatting to them. the lady was reading a year in province which
she had been given in Peru from a woman who had picked it up on a bench in New
York , the book had instructions inside to tell its original owner where you
found it how you enjoyed it and where you left it , I thought this was cool but
unfortunately the woman hadn’t finished reading when the train stopped at the
argentine border and we parted before I could receive the book and join in the
game ,so I bought a copy of Yvonne chounards let my people surf I Typed up a message to glue and tape on the
inside cover , let’s see where this experiment goes ! Here is what I put on the
inside cover
This is a
travelling book
Hello my name is Kenny I bought this book specifically as a social
experiment! My hope is that whoever picks up this book from wherever they find
it then reads it whilst travelling to a new destination, I hope you enjoy the
read and then visit my web page http://www.kennyalexander.scot/
to let me know what you thought of the book and where you found it and where
you left it, Thank you in advance from me and the book I hope you enjoy it as
much as I did and this book gets a good trip round the world
Kenny
Alexander
Scotland
I
then left that book in the apartment in cervinia the Italian side of the Alps
near Zermatt and the Matterhorn I hope I hear from the book again? But that was
not the only things I ticked of my bucket list, I had bought a poster at Christmas
for myself a scratch of list of 100 things to do before you die! So I also
scratched of the boxes of these things to be done and out of the 100 things to
do I scratched of 59 out of the one hundred .between this poster and my
personal bucket list I should have a busy year
One day a month vegan (preferably a new recipe)
This
was extremely easy this the first month with me pledging to eat no beef or
dairy for a year dropping eggs chicken fish pork for a day was very easy, so I
shall have to make this challenge slightly more difficult or change or drop it
altogether as it was no challenge at all and what’s the point of that, perhaps
I should make it a specific new attempt to cook some style of vegan dish? This month
I made a five bean chilli and although not a new thing for me to cook I did add
a few personal extras it was delicious as always and I will continue to perfect
my recipe on this my new favourite dish next time I am going to try some soya
sauce or something similar in it to give it a bit more richness
Plant something every month
I bought two decent sized bags of
spring bulbs and planted them in my front garden, I was hoping to put more
edible plants in my gardens but these were right down the front next to the
pavement and road and I didn’t like the idea of fruit veg or herbs with car
fumes and dog pee for personal consumption, but close to the path and front of
the house does make for a pleasant colourful border for myself and the
neighbours and it was a bee friendly pack so all good I’m looking forward to
seeing them in bloom
Make or repair
something
I can’t count the gloves that I wore
skiing which were really due for the bin but Patagonia’s worn wear repaired
them for me even though they are not Patagonia gloves ,I can’t count these as
they were repaired in November and not by me , what I did do though is make my
very own book it’s called hatches matches and despatches and I had fun making
it , the only problem its now grew arms and legs and now it’s a whole new
bigger project that I’m enjoying but possibly don’t have the time for ! my make
something in January has already spread to February as I am still working on it
Do a new hill
I never managed a new Scottish hill
which was the objective of this challenge but I did go up Europe’s highest
cable car this month which was awesome the new Matterhorn Klein The highest cable car station
in Europe (3,883 m), yes metres! It was exhausting up there in the thinning
atmosphere but the views and experience was fantastic
This month’s writing
Well exceeded all my writing targets
in the first week I will definitely need to make this challenge harder than my
original 1000 words a month towards one of my writing projects .because I had
done 1000 words before the fourth of the month easily, over the space of the
first 10 days I averaged at least 500 words a day on various projects.
I am still thinking how I should
make this challenge more challenging but achievable possibly by making it toward a fictional
novel or short story or something that it would be completed by the end of the
year ? !
Then after some thought I decided I
would do 1500 words every month toward my fun writing project called 76 x 76 , then promptly changed it again due
to this blog the ski blog and the hatches matches and despatches book taking up
too much of my already limited time for writing
Phone visit write or
txt to a friend I’ve not seen for a while
This month I went above and beyond
the original concept of this monthly challenge and made my start something for
this month a challenge to write a card letter or postcard to family or friends
, which I done hopefully I will not have ran out of people to send cards
letters and postcards to for the rest of the year ! Because it’s not easy
finding 31 people to send cards or letters to, I shall post up a list and who
all responded once I’ve gave everyone enough time to respond, it was a
difficult challenge
Wild food foraged
January is a difficult month for this,
I have looked at booking myself on a foraging course this month but to pardon a
pun they are thin on the ground at this time of year, just like the food
I done some
research online in the hope I could book on a course in January but there was
none available. So I signed up for newsletters and started following these
people on twitter
Galloway wild foods
Williams wild booze course - http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com/about-galloway-wild-foods-and-mark-williams/
Amy rankin foraging
Hipsters and hobos - https://www.hipstersandhobos.com/book-online/woodland-walk-livingston
I did
grab the last of the rocket that I had grown in the garden last year and had a
look at a wild apple tree I know of that I was hoping would still have some
apples hanging from it but this has been a fail this month , I research things
to do and I am hoping that next year I will gather birch sap for wine in January
Live music or event
I had a gig called burns and beyond festival
of the moon with Rachel sermani at the st giles cathedral Edinburgh, the team behind the acclaimed Scotland’s
new festival called Burns & Beyond, celebrating the life and
legacy of Robert Burns and bringing together the best and brightest of
Scotland’s cultural landscape. This new event will invite audiences to
experience free and ticketed events from 22 – 27 of January in venues
throughout Edinburgh city Centre, including the spectacular Museum of the
Moon @ St Giles’ Cathedral, The Burns Supper and a brand
new Culture Trail experience.
I do love a good burns supper
and annually try to get to at least one, but working away from home comes with
a price and this year I am at home for the 25th but I fly off skiing
on the 26th I shall have a look for some burns music or poetry to
download and celebrate in my own way this year
Film book or album
Scott jurek eat and run Audiobook
completed 3/1/19, I also ordered ross edgleys the worlds fittest book same day,
on recommendation I also ordered a booksellers diary on 4/1/19 even though with
these two physical books adding to a huge backlogged of to read books I have
already so I have no idea when I will get round to reading them,
I am giving serious thought to
restarting my new Scottish album every month for 2019 as this was fun so I have
done it this month to keep me up to date should I decide to go for it , I
bought tickets to go see a young highland Celtic rock band called tide lines
in May .I thought it best to downloaded
their new ( only ) album so I at least knew their stuff when I went to see them
, I seen them at Belladrum music festival but among god knows how many other
bands and beers I remember little of it !
I also went to the cinema to see the
new film about Mary queen of scots , I chose to go through to Glasgow to the independent
Glasgow film theatre I like it there , I went to see outlaw king at this film
theatre ( I prefer calling it that rather than a cinema as it seems more like a
theatre experience than a film) last month as it wasn’t showing at the cinema
complexes , I loved both these films and my nights out at this theatre much
more civilised events for me I even got a good beer to take in
Start or stop
something
It was hard
enough learning the ins and outs of no beef no dairy for a year that I am using
January as a bedding in month for that ,that will be a stopping something for a
month this month, As previously mentioned I also made a pledge to write a physical
letter to someone everyday of January and that would be my start something, I done ok with this challenge it
wasn’t possible to have the time to write a letter everyday so some days were
just postcards , mostly it was nice novelty cards with personal written
messages inside so I completed my start
something for a month with the letters postcards and cards , my stop something
no beef or dairy went like this
Day one New Year’s Day 2019 and I’m at work staying in
accommodation where your breakfast is sorted for you in some ways makes dietary
decisions easier and sometimes harder , I looked at the breakfast choices with
fresh eyes ( I’ve spent half the last five years living here that’s roughly 126
weeks having the same breakfast spread here ) , there was porridge I don’t know
if I can trust that possibly milk in there , the usual hot selection that I
rarely take any meat products from but I could have bacon if I want but
wouldn’t trust sausages or black pudding due to possible beef in those , no
scrambled egg there would be butter or milk in there , poached eggs beans and tomatoes
yep there ok , potato scone or hash
browns I wouldn’t trust and the mushrooms looked like they may have been butter
cooked ( I will ask one day ) I went for beans with poached eggs , from the
cereals I could have had and put some almond milk in there and there was toast
and peanut butter plus some chopped fruit , breakfast will be ok !
Once in
at work the lads had brought in what we would normally consider bags of treats crisps
cakes biscuits, many of them I knew from experience had dairy in them there
would be no milk chocolate for me and there was various types of crisps which
had dairy flavourings, it meant there was very little things among these three
big bags of tea break treats.
Lunchtime
at the canteen I was concerned about the lunchtime fair here is very dairy and
beef based , this is one of the main reasons I haven’t went for being vegan for
a year I knew that living and working away from home meant I couldn’t really
choose my own food I had to choose what was available , which to be fair is the
same for everyone else but when I’m at home I have a wider range of non-meat non-dairy
choices , it was a sort of buffet we picked up our tray and passed by a
selection of sandwiches I knew all these would be buttered so I never even
looked to see what was on them , next there was soup it had said on the menu
board it would be veg broth ( excellent ) but it turned out to be leak and
potato thankfully not cream and I could see there was no cream in it , next was
the heated choices sausage roll ( out ) quiche ( out ) loaded half-baked
potatoes with cheese (out) I opted for some chips with beans and made a salad
bowl with some boiled eggs . Which was fine there was also bags of crisps and
some fruit I wouldn’t starve for sure.
Because
it was New Year’s Day every office and the canteen had chocolates out all of them
milk chocolates, I love a nice Bourneville but had no chocolate unlike everyone
else always amazes me just how much milk chocolate there is in this country
every house has it every shop every garage every supermarket every restaurant
some bars, machines in gyms cinemas where does all this milk chocolate come
from and how many gallons of cow’s milk does the production of it use?
Buffet
dinner at night was good a few choices that were suitable I did nearly eat some
pringles at the bar with the lads at whisky club which would have been a
mistake on day one as they have milk in them but I had them in my hand and
thought wait a minute I think and checked ,
That’s
it day two and this challenge is on its way and looking easy so far eggs for
breakfast with beans, lunch was fine vegetable soup and I just had a baked
potato with salad and mixed veg as the other choices were beef or dairy, when I
asked for just a baked potato the canteen chef asked if I was sure I didn’t
want mince with that!
The
office is still full of goodies and I sometimes feel a bit out of the gang not
being able to eat the same as them and checking stuff, but its fine I think
they are happy enough its all the more for them, dinner at the accommodation
was fine curried vegetable soup followed by ling in a tomato sauce with green
beans and sweetcorn, no sweet or biscuits with cheese anymore for me this year
though as would previously been the case
Eggs
and beans for breakfast this morning again I will definitely need to mix it up
I ended up having a piece of bacon with it and I never usually have bacon with
my breakfast it was a replacement for the tattie scone that I used to enjoy .
one of the lads slept in for work and the rule is sleep in and you need to
bring the lads chocolate , he brought in big bars for everyone including me but
it was all dairy chocolate so I’m going to miss out on all chocolate fines this
year if I don’t insist on dairy free chocolate for me ! Maybe I should tell
them I’ve developed lactose intolerance!
At
lunch there was scotch lamb broth to start and the rest didn’t look beef or dairy
free my head dropped , then I realised I am not vegan I am allowing myself lamb
pork chicken fish and eggs , so I had a bowl of broth and a veg stir fry I was
full ,
Soup
|
Lentil
|
Scotch broth
|
Curried vegetable
|
French onion
|
Cauliflower & stilton
|
Chicken noodle
|
Cream of tomato
|
Fish Main
|
Smoked haddock mornay
|
Thai baked salmon
|
Pesto baked ling
|
Fish pie
|
scampi
|
Salmon & chive pasta bake
|
Fish cakes
|
Meat Main 1
|
Roast
rib eye of beef
|
Steak
pie
|
Southern
fried chicken burgers
|
Tandoori
roast turkey
|
Beef
enchiladas
|
Chicken
curry
|
Roast
pork
|
Meat Main 2
|
Haggis with whisky sauce
|
Black pudding stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon
|
Moroccan lamb
|
Sausage casserole
|
Thai pork meatballs
|
Barbecue ribs
|
Chicken & mushroom carbonara
|
Vegetarian Main
|
Vegetable
lasagne
|
Broccoli
& cauliflower pasta bake
|
Mushroom
& blue cheese tartlets
|
Vegetable
kebabs
|
Cheese
& tomato pizza
|
Butternut
squash & coconut curry
|
Cauliflower
& lentil tagine with cous cous
|
Vegetable 1
|
Bashed neeps
|
Mixed vegetables
|
Corn on the cob
|
Peas
|
Stir fry vegetables
|
Sweetcorn
|
Roast vegetables
|
Vegetable 2
|
Roasted
parsnips & carrots
|
Braised
red cabbage
|
Broccoli
|
Medley of vegetables
|
Mushy peas
|
BBQ
beans
|
Mixed
greens
|
Carb 1
|
Mashed
potatoes
|
Chips
|
Cous cous
|
Baby potatoes
|
Chips
|
Turmeric rice
|
Chips
|
Carb 2
|
Chips
|
New
potatoes
|
Cajun
chips
|
Chips
|
Coconut
rice
|
Chips
|
Roast
potatoes
|
Hot Pudding
|
Sticky toffee pudding
|
Chocolate sponge
|
Apple crumble
|
Male syrup sponge
|
Jam & coconut sponge
|
Pineapple upside down cake
|
Chocolate brownie
|
Cold Pudding
|
Scottish
tipsy trifle
|
Ice
cream bar
|
Victoria
sponge
|
New York cheesecake
|
Belgian
chocolate cheesecake
|
Fruit
pavlova
|
Ice
cream bar
|
That’s
a week menu from the accommodation ,as you can see its all good stuff and I am
lucky it can get tricky doing my personal challenge`s as you can see and I
don’t see the point in going through a daily diary of had this couldn’t have
that ! so I shall stick to writing about any mistakes fails disappointment’s
and things I miss , I am writing this on day five and so far things are going
really well on this challenge , I am getting plenty to eat and possibly more
nutrients than I would have done without this challenge , strangely I’m not
missing chocolate at all and there’s lots of it lying around the office , I do
get a bit annoyed when I see milk as an ingredient in a bag of crisps I’ve got
to check every bag before touching them ,I used to love taking a cracker with cheese to my room at
night , I do miss that with my bedtime tea , I am probably doing myself a
favour by not eating the after dinner sweets they are always rich with dairy I
would normally not be able to resist a bit sponge and custard but it’s been
easier to resist than I thought , I wonder what I will miss at the end of a
full year if I actually will miss anything !!
By day
8 I had obviously completed my first week one week down 51 to go! Did I feel
any different physically? no if anything I had more energy and was more alert
but with a background sore`ish head ( I never ever get a sore head probably
unrelated ) , maybe I should have had a blood test done to check for
cholesterol blood iron etc. and compare it after a year , I had my office
situation sorted as I took in loads of milk free products to eat hob nobs
Bourneville milk free crisps nuts some crackers with hummus , I’m still at work
after a week but now into a routine with canteen lunches and accommodation
dinners and its going ok no mistakes so far , I did consider the chicken satay
last night but then decided I was kidding myself on if I thought there was any
chance of chicken satay being dairy free !
Into
day 10 and I feel it’s worthwhile writing about the interaction with my work colleagues,
it’s a strange thing working away from home on an industrial site with a tight
group of co-workers we not only work together we travel together lunch together
and event eat and socialise together away from site, I could possibly have not
told them about my pledge and got away with it but I decided to tell them what
I was up to! of course its great banter for them certainly breaks any monotony
they all want me to fail of course and love checking what I’m eating and saying
there’s got to be dairy in that soup or that sauce, all of which of course I
come back with banter about what they are eating today at lunch for example
they were saying no way could they do it! so I through the question at them
would you rather Kill a cow on new year’s day and then butcher it into edible
products for the year having steak potatoes and beans or peas every night for a
year , or plant a tree every day for a year and eat any kind of fruit veg nuts
pulses seeds berries and fruit you like for a year , of course out of the table
of 6 only I chose the trees , BUT I secretly wonder if any of them were
actually truly capable of killing a cow , I have killed for sport and didn’t
like it we all did when I was a kid I know I would kill for food if I was
required to but it would sadden me now
I have
a whole year of this to go so I don’t want to put too much all in the first month!
today’s update is that all the gelatine and dairy free products I took into the
office were eaten before all the dairy and gelatine rich treats, now the office
treats have returned to the usual dairy rich biscuits and milk chocolate,
strange how everyone says they couldn’t go dairy free but put out a pack of hob
nobs a bar of Bourneville and a bag of starburst and they get inhaled by the
lads
Flight
home day and we get a biscuit with our in-flight coffee I didn’t take my usual
caramel wafer obviously, it looked like all the other biscuits all had dairy in
them so no biscuits for a year now, the journey home is always good and being
at home was easy I can easily be a vegan in my own home, but I was flying to
the alps for a week’s ski holiday with friends and family it was to cervinia the
Italian side of the alps
I am weird officially apparently!
I
packed some herbs and spices as there may be a chance to do some cooking at our
apartment in the alps , the first night we arrived we went out for dinner one
look at the menu and it struck me this was going to be a hard week , I asked
the waitress if something was dairy free and of course the company I was in
started asking if I was on a fad diet or turned vegan , with Gary being the worst
vocally pointing his fork sideways to say that’s it your officially weird in my
book why do that a full year of beef and dairy what’s the point of denying
yourself , I don’t mind this kind of chat sometimes I welcome the banter but we
were in mixed company so I just said let’s not talk about it and we can accept
I am an eccentric , Italian alpine meals
are either creamy cheesy or beef dishes there wasn’t much fish or chicken on
any menus . And the rest of the week I mostly ate pizza with zero cheese or
pasta in tomato sauce checking there was no beef or dairy in them all week that
was it first month done eleven to go
1.
Taste at least one new beer every month yes
2.
Do at least one thing of my personal pre written bucket list or of
my yes scratch of wall poster of 100 things to do before you die lists yes
3.
Spend at least one day a month vegan or do one month as a vegan yes
4.
Plant something a tree some bulbs or seeds at least once every
month yes
5.
Make create or repair something once a month yes
6.
Do a new hill ?? maybe yes
7.
Write 1000 words a month on one of my writing projects yes
8.
Phone /txt /email /write or call someone I haven’t seen for a
while yes
9.
Eat something I’ve picked out the countryside ( foraged ) No
10.
Go to a live music event or even just book one yes
11.
Watch a film I’ve never seen before read a new book or music
album yes
12.
Do a month challenge to either start or stop
something each month yes
Month number one of a fresh years challenge
January
No beef or dairy for a year
Day one
New Year’s Day 2019 and I’m at work staying in accommodation where your
breakfast is sorted for you in some ways makes dietary decisions easier and
sometimes harder , I looked at the breakfast choices with fresh eyes ( I’ve
spent half the last five years living here that’s roughly 126 weeks having the
same breakfast spread here ) , there was porridge I don’t know if I can trust
that possibly milk in there , the usual hot selection that I rarely take any
meat products from but I could have bacon if I want but wouldn’t trust sausages
or black pudding due to possible beef in those , no scrambled egg there would
be butter or milk in there , poached eggs beans and tomatoes yep there ok , potato scone or hash browns I wouldn’t
trust and the mushrooms looked like they may have been butter cooked ( I will
ask one day ) I went for beans with poached eggs , from the cereals I could
have had and put some almond milk in there and there was toast and peanut
butter plus some chopped fruit , breakfast will be ok !
Once in
at work the lads had brought in what we would normally consider bags of treats crisps
cakes biscuits, many of them I knew from experience had dairy in them there
would be no milk chocolate for me and there was various types of crisps which
had dairy flavourings, it meant there was very little things among these three
big bags of tea break treats.
Lunchtime
at the canteen I was concerned about the lunchtime fair here is very dairy and
beef based , this is one of the main reasons I haven’t went for being vegan for
a year I knew that living and working away from home meant I couldn’t really
choose my own food I had to choose what was available , which to be fair is the
same for everyone else but when I’m at home I have a wider range of non-meat non-dairy
choices , it was a sort of buffet we picked up our tray and passed by a
selection of sandwiches I knew all these would be buttered so I never even
looked to see what was on them , next there was soup it had said on the menu
board it would be veg broth ( excellent ) but it turned out to be leak and
potato thankfully not cream and I could see there was no cream in it , next was
the heated choices sausage roll ( out ) quiche ( out ) loaded half-baked
potatoes with cheese (out) I opted for some chips with beans and made a salad
bowl with some boiled eggs . Which was fine there was also bags of crisps and
some fruit I wouldn’t starve for sure.
Because
it was New Year’s Day every office and the canteen had chocolates out all of them
milk chocolates, I love a nice Bourneville but had no chocolate unlike everyone
else always amazes me just how much milk chocolate there is in this country
every house has it every shop every garage every supermarket every restaurant
some bars, machines in gyms cinemas where does all this milk chocolate come
from and how many gallons of cow’s milk does the production of it use?
Buffet
dinner at night was good a few choices that were suitable I did nearly eat some
pringles at the bar with the lads at whisky club which would have been a
mistake on day one as they have milk in them but I had them in my hand and
thought wait a minute I think and checked ,
That’s
it day two and this challenge is on its way and looking easy so far eggs for
breakfast with beans, lunch was fine vegetable soup and I just had a baked
potato with salad and mixed veg as the other choices were beef or dairy, when I
asked for just a baked potato the canteen chef asked if I was sure I didn’t
want mince with that!
The
office is still full of goodies and I sometimes feel a bit out of the gang not
being able to eat the same as them and checking stuff, but its fine I think
they are happy enough its all the more for them, dinner at the accommodation
was fine curried vegetable soup followed by ling in a tomato sauce with green
beans and sweetcorn, no sweet or biscuits with cheese anymore for me this year
though as would previously been the case
Eggs
and beans for breakfast this morning again I will definitely need to mix it up
I ended up having a piece of bacon with it and I never usually have bacon with
my breakfast it was a replacement for the tattie scone that I used to enjoy .
one of the lads slept in for work and the rule is sleep in and you need to
bring the lads chocolate , he brought in big bars for everyone including me but
it was all dairy chocolate so I’m going to miss out on all chocolate fines this
year if I don’t insist on dairy free chocolate for me ! Maybe I should tell
them I’ve developed lactose intolerance!
At
lunch there was scotch lamb broth to start and the rest didn’t look beef or dairy
free my head dropped , then I realised I am not vegan I am allowing myself lamb
pork chicken fish and eggs , so I had a bowl of broth and a veg stir fry I was
full ,
Soup
|
Lentil
|
Scotch broth
|
Curried vegetable
|
French onion
|
Cauliflower & stilton
|
Chicken noodle
|
Cream of tomato
|
Fish Main
|
Smoked haddock mornay
|
Thai baked salmon
|
Pesto baked ling
|
Fish pie
|
scampi
|
Salmon & chive pasta bake
|
Fish cakes
|
Meat Main 1
|
Roast
rib eye of beef
|
Steak
pie
|
Southern
fried chicken burgers
|
Tandoori
roast turkey
|
Beef
enchiladas
|
Chicken
curry
|
Roast
pork
|
Meat Main 2
|
Haggis with whisky sauce
|
Black pudding stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon
|
Moroccan lamb
|
Sausage casserole
|
Thai pork meatballs
|
Barbecue ribs
|
Chicken & mushroom carbonara
|
Vegetarian Main
|
Vegetable
lasagne
|
Broccoli
& cauliflower pasta bake
|
Mushroom
& blue cheese tartlets
|
Vegetable
kebabs
|
Cheese
& tomato pizza
|
Butternut
squash & coconut curry
|
Cauliflower
& lentil tagine with cous cous
|
Vegetable 1
|
Bashed neeps
|
Mixed vegetables
|
Corn on the cob
|
Peas
|
Stir fry vegetables
|
Sweetcorn
|
Roast vegetables
|
Vegetable 2
|
Roasted
parsnips & carrots
|
Braised
red cabbage
|
Broccoli
|
Medley of vegetables
|
Mushy peas
|
BBQ
beans
|
Mixed
greens
|
Carb 1
|
Mashed
potatoes
|
Chips
|
Cous cous
|
Baby potatoes
|
Chips
|
Turmeric rice
|
Chips
|
Carb 2
|
Chips
|
New
potatoes
|
Cajun
chips
|
Chips
|
Coconut
rice
|
Chips
|
Roast
potatoes
|
Hot Pudding
|
Sticky toffee pudding
|
Chocolate sponge
|
Apple crumble
|
Male syrup sponge
|
Jam & coconut sponge
|
Pineapple upside down cake
|
Chocolate brownie
|
Cold Pudding
|
Scottish
tipsy trifle
|
Ice
cream bar
|
Victoria
sponge
|
New York cheesecake
|
Belgian
chocolate cheesecake
|
Fruit
pavlova
|
Ice
cream bar
|
That’s
a week menu from the accommodation ,as you can see its all good stuff and I am
lucky it can get tricky doing my personal challenge`s as you can see and I
don’t see the point in going through a daily diary of had this couldn’t have
that ! so I shall stick to writing about any mistakes fails disappointment’s
and things I miss , I am writing this on day five and so far things are going
really well on this challenge , I am getting plenty to eat and possibly more
nutrients than I would have done without this challenge , strangely I’m not
missing chocolate at all and there’s lots of it lying around the office , I do
get a bit annoyed when I see milk as an ingredient in a bag of crisps I’ve got
to check every bag before touching them ,I used to love taking a cracker with cheese to my room at
night , I do miss that with my bedtime tea , I am probably doing myself a
favour by not eating the after dinner sweets they are always rich with dairy I
would normally not be able to resist a bit sponge and custard but it’s been
easier to resist than I thought , I wonder what I will miss at the end of a
full year if I actually will miss anything !!
By day
8 I had obviously completed my first week one week down 51 to go! Did I feel
any different physically? no if anything I had more energy and was more alert
but with a background sore`ish head ( I never ever get a sore head probably
unrelated ) , maybe I should have had a blood test done to check for
cholesterol blood iron etc. and compare it after a year , I had my office
situation sorted as I took in loads of milk free products to eat hob nobs
Bourneville milk free crisps nuts some crackers with hummus , I’m still at work
after a week but now into a routine with canteen lunches and accommodation
dinners and its going ok no mistakes so far , I did consider the chicken satay
last night but then decided I was kidding myself on if I thought there was any
chance of chicken satay being dairy free !
Into
day 10 and I feel it’s worthwhile writing about the interaction with my work colleagues,
it’s a strange thing working away from home on an industrial site with a tight
group of co-workers we not only work together we travel together lunch together
and event eat and socialise together away from site, I could possibly have not
told them about my pledge and got away with it but I decided to tell them what
I was up to! of course its great banter for them certainly breaks any monotony
they all want me to fail of course and love checking what I’m eating and saying
there’s got to be dairy in that soup or that sauce, all of which of course I
come back with banter about what they are eating today at lunch for example
they were saying no way could they do it! so I through the question at them
would you rather Kill a cow on new year’s day and then butcher it into edible
products for the year having steak potatoes and beans or peas every night for a
year , or plant a tree every day for a year and eat any kind of fruit veg nuts
pulses seeds berries and fruit you like for a year , of course out of the table
of 6 only I chose the trees , BUT I secretly wonder if any of them were
actually truly capable of killing a cow , I have killed for sport and didn’t
like it we all did when I was a kid I know I would kill for food if I was
required to but it would sadden me now
I have
a whole year of this to go so I don’t want to put too much all in the first month!
today’s update is that all the gelatine and dairy free products I took into the
office were eaten before all the dairy and gelatine rich treats, now the office
treats have returned to the usual dairy rich biscuits and milk chocolate,
strange how everyone says they couldn’t go dairy free but put out a pack of hob
nobs a bar of Bourneville and a bag of starburst and they get inhaled by the
lads
Flight home
day and we get a biscuit with our in-flight coffee I didn’t take my usual
caramel wafer obviously, it looked like all the other biscuits all had dairy in
them so no biscuits for a year now, the journey home is always good and being
at home was easy I can easily be a vegan in my own home, but I was flying to
the alps for a week’s ski holiday with friends and family it was to cervinia the
Italian side of the alps
I am weird officially apparently!
I packed
some herbs and spices as there may be a chance to do some cooking at our apartment
in the alps , the first night we arrived we went out for dinner one look at the
menu and it struck me this was going to be a hard week , I asked the waitress
if something was dairy free and of course the company I was in started asking
if I was on a fad diet or turned vegan , with Gary being the worst vocally
pointing his fork sideways to say that’s it your officially weird in my book
why do that a full year of beef and dairy what’s the point of denying yourself
, I don’t mind this kind of chat sometimes I welcome the banter but we were in
mixed company so I just said let’s not talk about it and we can accept I am an eccentric
, Italian alpine meals are either creamy
cheesy or beef dishes there wasn’t much fish or chicken on any menus . And the
rest of the week I mostly ate pizza with zero cheese or pasta in tomato sauce
checking there was no beef or dairy in them all week that was it first month
done eleven to go
