The Neil Young Concert and Preparing for Meat Free Week

I'm aching all over from being drenched to the bone and dancing with frozen limbs for 8 hours straight, but we had an incredible time at the Neil Young concert yesterday.

My wet frittata might tell you another story however. It rained almost the whole time, except for this brief sunny moment when I took the shot of the soggy Greek frittata and our pathetic and very unmotivated display of picnic food.

Husky opened the show with a terrific set of beautiful tunes just as the sun peeked through a gap in the clouds, but before long the rain settled in again and it was all raindrop-pelting engines are go for the rest of the evening. Shane Howard followed with a great performance as the clouds thickened and the rain steadily fell on our heads.

The enthusiastic crowd of around 5,000 were determined to endure the onslaught of cold, windy rain in order to see our hero, Neil Young. It was wonderful to be a part of such collective stamina! Our plastic ponchos did nothing to keep us dry – the wind blowing rain in all directions, including underneath us. It became quite surreal and all we could do was laugh, dance and just enjoy the show!

Neil was such a good sport to share such horrendous weather with us. Quite appropriately, the unmistakable guitar riff of Hurricane began just as one of the biggest storms of the night moved in. The rain absolutely bucketing down, the wind carrying huge sheets of water straight onto the stage, all over the equipment and totally drenching Neil and his band. But they kept on playing – Neil wiping his guitar between strums with his trademark flannelette shirt. What a legend.

What a trooper.

Look at that rain! The large circles in the picture are water drops on the camera lens. Good thing I only had the little point and shoot with me!

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We are now back home, warm and dry with the heater on (can you believe it? After two months of continuously hot weather, suddenly it's winter!) and we've just finalised our menu plan for Meat Free/Carb Free Week.

If you've been following the Greek Vegetarian blog you'll know that starting tomorrow my partner Tony will be taking the Meat Free Week challenge. To provide some encouragement (and to also give myself a dietary challenge), I will be joining him by going carb free for the week. You can read more about our Meat-free/Carb-free challenge here.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been scouring all our recipe resources to come up with a menu plan for the week that complies to the following criteria:

1. The meals need to be vegetarian.
2. They must be almost carbohydrate-free, which means no wheat or other grains, no sugar, no rice, no pasta, no legumes, no FRUIT, no CHOCOLATE (this is going to be HARD), no desserts of any kind, no beans and definitely no bread. Can you imagine the will power I'm going to have to muster up here? The only carbohydrates that can be consumed must come from vegetables, however potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, corn, peas and pumpkin, among other sweet and starchy vegetables, are all out.
3. There must be a significant vegetarian protein component.
4. The meals need to be Greek inspired.

This is going to be very challenging for both of us but if we can get through the week (and if enough people get on board with the Meat Free Week challenge) several things may happen, including:

1. The lives of two animals will be saved for every person that goes without meat for the week.
2. The message will be made clear that Australians care about animal welfare and want to stop factory farming for the sake of the animals, the environment, and human health.
3. Tony and I might find a middle ground where we can actually cook some meals together, despite our dietary differences.

We would love to inspire others taking the Meat Free Week challenge with some of our recipes so I will be documenting each meal, every day here on the blog.

Here's what we plan to eat for the week:

Monday: Vegetarian Tofu Moussaka topped with Baked Ricotta
Tuesday: Soy Flour Pizza with Greek-inspired toppings
Wednesday: Stuffed Capsicums with Ricotta, Feta and Walnuts
Thursday: Tofu Greek Salad with Capsicum, Rocket and Dill
Friday: Briam with Feta and Cinnamon-Baked Tofu
Saturday: Greek Roast Vegetable and Mixed Olive Frittata
Sunday: Tofu Souvlaki with Green Bean and Avocado Salad

All the best to everyone else taking the Meat Free Challenge and I'll be back tomorrow with Day One of our Meatless Carbless Cookfest!