markets & meal planning

Back in the day, I used to be quite disciplined about meal planning. I would plan our dinners one or two weeks at a time, and my husband and I would do one big shop on a Sunday afternoon. Now that we live near a supermarket (and now that I'm significantly less organised than I used to be...), I find myself winging it every night. My current system goes something like this: it's 2pm, I start wondering what I should make for dinner tonight. I hem and haw, flip through cookbooks and peruse pinterest before finally choosing a recipe and heading to the grocery store. This "system" wastes so much time, energy and money each week and it's been my intention to do something about it for a while now. Just this weekend, I finally got around to it.

On Saturday afternoon I sat down with a cup of tea, notebook, pen, stack of my favourite cookbooks and my notes from Whole Food Kitchen. I started by assigning each night of the week a theme. I ended up with:

Monday: Mexican
Tuesday: Indian/Asian
Wednesday: Italian
Thursday: casserole/crockpot
Friday: pizza
Saturday & Sunday: wildcards

I then went through each of my cookbooks jotting down the recipes I use most often, and their corresponding page numbers. I kept in mind that it's winter, and stuck with meals appropriate for this time of year. When spring rolls around, I'm planning to change my nightly themes and compile a new list of favourite recipes. Armed with my new list, planning this week's dinner was a matter of simply filling in the blanks. The whole process took me around an hour, and it was actually quite enjoyable.

With this week's meal plan in mind, we moseyed over to our favourite farmer's market early on Sunday morning. While I bought our produce for the week, my husband took Clementine to a sunny patch of grass where she could run free. It was the perfect place to sit, drink coffee and eat breakfast while not having to worry about Clementine destroying anything (restaurants and cafes are pretty much out of the question at this point). She was super interested in the ponies who she kept calling woof, so we paid for her to have a ride. Much to my surprise, she got quite scared once the pony started walking. It was cute while it lasted though.

I'm feeling optimistic about this new approach to meal planning. My goal was to keep it simple, and I think I've done that. I'll keep you posted on my progress. In the meantime, my friend Stace has also written a post on meal planning, which you can read here.

sydney maternity photographer: katia

A few weeks ago, the lovely Katia got in touch to see if I could do maternity and newborn photos for her. As you all know, I'm a big fan of baby bellies so of course I said, "yes please!" We met last week for a session in Bondi, and spent an hour dodging tourists and chasing the sun to get the shot. No baby news to report yet, but if you'd like to find Katia you can read her blog here and check out her shop here.

vegetarianism, marriage & babies

When my husband and I met, dated, and got married, I was an omnivore. We bonded over food right from the beginning; one of the first times we hung out, he brought my friend and I to a pub that served $5 meals (which was great news to us poor backpackers). I'm pretty sure we had burgers, or maybe steak. Because he had a real home with a functioning kitchen, he also liked to cook for me. I clearly remember the morning he made me scrambled eggs with chorizo and avocado for breakfast. I thought: this is the man for me.

Fast forward a couple of years and I found myself training to become a yoga teacher. Vegetarianism was an important focus of the course, and we read books and watched videos that showed us, no holds barred, where our meat came from. Eating meat had always made me uncomfortable, but it was the easier choice so I suppressed that little voice that told me it wasn't right. Once I learned about the horrors of factory farming I knew I had to make a change. And while there certainly are options for those who want to eat meat and not support factory farming, I couldn't bring myself to eat an animal when I could be just as healthy and happy without taking an animal's life.

My transition was slow. I started by cutting down on meat consumption, then I became a pescatarian and finally, months later, I converted to full fledged vegetarianism. While I admired my vegan friends for their moral consistency, I knew I could never be vegan myself.

Immediately, our marriage came under strain. I couldn't understand why my husband didn't seem to care about animal welfare, and he was annoyed that I was no longer the girl he married. Cooking for me had always been one of the ways he'd shown his love, and now he couldn't make any of our favourite meals. We both had to make some pretty major compromises.

To this day, I describe myself as a reluctant vegetarian. I miss cooking with meat, and sometimes I even miss the taste of meat. But even more, I miss being the easygoing 'eat anything, anywhere' kind of person I used to be. I hate that now I'm the one with special dietary requirements, and that people have to go out of their way when they invite me over. They do, though. My friends and family make special meals just for me or cook vegetarian, which I appreciate so much.

During my pregnancy, I maintained my vegetarian diet until the last few months, when I started eating small amounts of seafood again. I'm still a pescatarian, and while it causes me some cognitive dissonance, I'm going with it for now because it makes my life a lot easier. As for the baby who was growing in my belly, we had discussed how we wanted to raise him/her before I was even pregnant. I wanted to raise vegetarian children; my husband did not. We compromised and decided that our babies would be vegetarian for their first 2 years of life and then we would re-assess. Of course, I knew that at some point it would no longer be in my control. Children will make their own choices eventually, all I could do was gently guide them.

Things were going to plan with our little pescetarian. She was happy, she was healthy but she wasn't putting on any weight. To be fair, she's been a slow gainer since birth. Even on a mixture of breastfeeds and breastmilk/formula top ups she never put on the "required" weight each week. Finally, shortly before her first birthday we weighed her at the doctor and discovered that she had hardly gained any weight in 2 months. I decided then and there to offer her meat and see if that made a difference.

It did. She took to her new diet immediately and started to put on more weight. Nowadays, this means that there are many nights where the three of us are eating three different meals, or variations of the same dinner. It's not ideal, and it's not what I would have chosen, but it's yet another lesson in surrender. Parenting is hard, and sometimes you have to make compromises for the wellbeing of your whole family.

I do wonder how this will play out in the future.  I imagine that Clementine and my husband will remain omnivores while I continue to eat a pescetarian diet. I have come to accept that my husband and I will never be on the same page, and that that's ok. What's important is that we show respect for each others' decisions, and model that for Clementine.

I know that many of you are in mixed marriages and families as well, how do you handle it? Does it cause conflict or is it just accepted? How did you deal when babies came along?

p.s. the first post I wrote on marriage and vegetarianism
p.p.s. my friend Katie has a new website filled with lots of helpful info on vegetarianism, animal rights, parenting, natural birth, activism, yoga and more… check it out here

a list

I haven't meant to be absent from here for so long. We're in the middle of nap transition hell, and my to do list just keeps growing longer. Times like these, I always opt for a list. This week I am:

• hoping that Clementine gets back into a good rhythm with napping soon
• glad that we spent the day at the beach yesterday
• working on streamlining my yoga class planning process 
• consumed with all things photography, and reading way too many tutorials from this site
• hoping to make a hot water bottle cover out of an old sweater
• coveting this dress
• trying to take my camera out with me more often in an effort to capture the everyday
• speaking of, thinking of participating in this project
• warming my hands with a mug of chai with milk and honey
• loving her new blog and swooning over her wedding video
• wondering what to make for dinner tonight, the eternal question
• listening to The Paper Kites (and Raffi, Clementine's a fan)
• wishing my bedroom looked like this
• reading this
• looking forward to the weekend, when I will make these pancakes (a new Sunday morning tradition)
• thinking that Kate is pretty damn cool
• obsessed with this amazing home, which my fellow Offspring fans will surely recognise

the cold

The cold finally arrived this weekend, about a week after the official start of winter. We woke up under our cozy duvet and my husband said to me, "wow, you were cuddly last night." A sure sign of the weather; I usually want as much personal space as possible. After six years here, I'm becoming a total wuss. Once the temperature drops below 25 degrees, I start carrying a sweater with me, just in case. When I lived in Vancouver, anything above 20 degrees meant summer. It's amazing how you adapt.

We've had quite a nice long weekend. On Sunday the three of us drove up to the Central Coast for Mason's birthday party. On the way there we went to Bouddi National Park, where I did a maternity shoot for a beautiful couple. I've never been before, but oh my is it ever beautiful there! It was wild and windy, but we rugged up Clementine and she had a wonderful time playing on the sand and exploring the cliffs. Afterwards, she wore her party dress and enjoyed the ruckus that is a kids' birthday party. We ended the day at our friends' place back in Sydney, where the social butterfly entertained us all with her shenanigans. By the time I put her to sleep, I was exhausted but buzzing with nervous energy from our day. I forced myself to unplug, do a restorative yoga practice and drink tea while reading my latest book. Tonight I'm aiming for another early bedtime because the baby (I wonder how long I can keep calling her that?) keeps waking up between 4:00 and 5:00am, not my preferred time to start the day. Here's hoping it's just a phase.

I hope you're all enjoying the last of your weekends, long or otherwise.

yoga photography: sandy

Meet Sandy, my friend and former roomie. She's a Jivamukti yoga teacher, co-creator of Yogeeks, co-founder of Queer & Trans* Yoga and all around awesome person. We got together a couple of weekends ago to do yoga photos in the backstreets of Newtown, with the many graffiti walls as our backdrop. Funny story: while we were doing our thing, there was this guy drinking beer and watching us. That sounds creepy, but it wasn't really. After a while he came up to us and explained that we were shooting in front of his work; he was so excited that we were appreciating it. Gotta love Newtown.

weekday yoga

my friend Vanessa knit me these cute and cozy  foot warmers

It's only taken me a year, but I'm pleased to say that I have finally found a good rhythm with my yoga practice. I love going to my local studio for a class, but after having a baby, I found it practically impossible to do so. Between my husband's long work hours and the constant exhaustion, it just wasn't a priority. It was a bit easier in Vancouver with my mom and husband around to help, but back in Sydney, things went downhill again.

But over the last month, I've developed a routine that works really well for me. Every weekday morning at 9 am, when Clementine goes down for her first nap, I practice yoga in the living room for 30 to 60 minutes. I also try to get to one yin class a week, and if I'm lucky, maybe one vinyasa class.

A few things that have made this possible for me:

• I keep it short, usually practicing for 30 to 45 minutes. If I go any longer I start to stress about all the things I need to do before Clementine wakes up.
• I watch videos. This helps me to feel like I'm practicing in a studio, and keeps me motivated. I use, and highly recommend, My Yoga Online. 
• After I shower, I put on my yoga clothes straight away. That way, as soon as I put the little one down to sleep I'm ready to go. No excuses.
• I make it a priority. There will always be housework to do, but it can wait. 

p.s. I'm reading Poser this week and it is so good

p.p.s. yoga at home: some tips, happy & calm

do you go by your full name?

I don't. Gaby is a nickname for Gabriela (with just one 'l'), my real name. To be completely honest, I've never really liked the name Gaby. I far prefer Gabriela, but it seems to be that one syllable too long and somewhere along the line, it got shortened. The only people who call me by my full name are my parents (and that's only if they're annoyed with me or really trying to get my attention) and my Colombian family. My husband also goes by a shortened version of his full name, though he's happy with this.

The reason all this has been on my mind is that I've been worrying about my daughter's name. I love the name Clementine, and that is what I call her most of the time. Occasionally I'll call her Clemmie, but mostly I stick with her full name. But I am definitely in the minority! Aussies are known for their love of nicknames; if you have a long name they'll shorten it (e.g. Caroline becomes Cazzie) and if you have a short name they'll lengthen it (e.g. Grace becomes Gracie). Most people here call her Clem (not my favourite), Clemmie and even Clemo (definitely not my favourite). I really hope that she grows up to be called Clementine, and not a nickname, but I'm not sure how much say I have in the matter.

Have any of you had this problem with your own children? Or perhaps with your name? How did you handle it?

p.s. how did you choose your baby's name? / her name / would you take your husband's last name?