Trying Veganism

Chocolate Cupcakes

2010-02-16T14:58:00.003+01:00

I don't care for Valentine's Day at all. But since I knew I'd be given something I felt obliged to have something on my hands aswell and whipped up the Basic Chocolate cupcakes from VCTOTW.

Threw in some mixed frozen berries and they were devoured by happy people! =)

Clean-out-fridge-lentil-soup

2010-01-25T17:39:00.003+01:00

Since it's still freezingly cold here I've been cooking soup non-stop. And that always comes in handy when one's trying to use up whatever there is left in the fridge.

I threw together broccoli, bell pepper, carrots, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes and lentils and 45 minutes later enjoyed hot soup with chicorée leafs for spooning.

Now I feel like having hot chocolate and some of Katie's fudge babies. But I'm out of milk and nuts and pretty much everything else I'm craving at the moment. If I run to the supermarket, can I count that as my exercise for today? =p

When in doubt, make curry!

2010-01-22T12:30:00.003+01:00

I believe we've all had those days where we just couldn't decide on what we felt like eating. So many possibilities, yet none of them convinced you really. I had that a couple of days back and decided you can never go wrong with Thai Curry.

So I cooked some spinach linguine and whipped up a curry sorta thing with broccoli (I could live off that alone, my ever favorite vegetable to eat), bell pepper, onions, coconut milk, green + yellow curry paste, curry and ginger powder and some pepper. On top of it I threw some mixed salad and cherry tomatoes.

And last night I had a salad that I topped of with coleslaw and mungbean sprouts. I forgot how much I love coleslaw. Can you blame me? I'm German... we don't get called "Krauts" for no reason =p

It's been so long since I updated this blog... I'll try to whip out my camera more often and revive this thing a bit.

Raw Cheesecake

2009-05-09T13:14:00.005+02:00

I made this for my mom's birthday and she has been raving aout it ever since. Ha ha, I love how I can get out of stressing over what to buy someone as a gift by simply baking - or in this case freezing - a cake.

She even bought the ingredients to make it herself next time. After the birthday brunch I was left with three notes of her friends asking for the recipe. I used this one.

On Thursday I'll finally have my written exam. Oh the weight that's gonna fall off my shoulders...

La Mano Verde - Organic Gourmet Cuisine

2009-04-16T15:43:00.003+02:00

This is a 100% organic vegan restaurant (with raw&gluten-free options) around my corner which I highly suggest you to pay a visit should you be in Berlin for whatever reason!
Hey, even Woody Harrelson & Ben Foster were there.

The first time I went there I almost fainted from all the goodness and was close to dropping down on my knees in front of the cook and praise him =p
Whenever I have extra money to spare I stop by and pretty much order the same things every time. The Curry or the raw Red Beet Ravioli. Just writing this makes me want to go over there immediately =p

The first (and only) time I've had vegan cheese that was actually melted

Yellow Thai Curry with Tofu

Raw Red Beet Ravioli with Fennel Salad & dried Figs

Summer Rolls

Chocolate Mousse

Donauwelle

Salad and fruity treats.

2009-03-24T19:33:00.004+01:00

It's been friggin cold here lately and there was a snow storm today, so I've been craving and eating lots of soup lately and the only raw things consumed were apples and some salads. Here are a few from a couple of days back though.

Lamb's lettuce, red cabbage, zucchini & tomatoes with green olive tapenade and lots of chives and basil.

Banana, pear, raspberries & a date (gotta get more of those soon, I'm hooked) sprinkled with shredded coconut.

Blueberry-Banana Ice Cream (1/2 frozen, 1/2 fresh, 1/3 cup frozen blueberries) with a pear. This stuff is brilliant, even better than the raspberry one due to no annoying seeds being stuck between your teeth ;)

Well, back to hitting the books. Or should I say book, only 1/4th through the 500-pages one. We finally got the topics for the final exam though, so now I don't have any justification for procastination =p

Raw Eats

2009-03-14T15:02:00.002+01:00

I've decided to eat more raw instead of having PBJ sandwiches all the time.

Banana sprinkled with cinnamon in romaine leafs along with dates & red grapes.

Yes, the penis was intentional. =p

Mixed salad with tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper and ABM-dressing.

Breakfast this morning was half an orange and for lunch I made a salad which I couldn't even finish.
Mixed salad with yellow bell pepper, fennel, red cabbage, tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli, red grapes, ABM-dressing and raisins.

ABM-dressing
1 small apple, cored and diced
1/4 banana
1/4 cup mango
dash cinnamon

blend until creamy

Salads, Soups and Oatmeal

2009-03-08T11:39:00.004+01:00

Thai Curry (coconut milk, curry paste, soy sauce, zucchini, champignons, fennel, carrots, sauerkraut, tofu, bell pepper, broccoli, scallions, red onions, garlic etc.) over romaine & lamb's lettuce and cherry tomatoes.

Some tabbouleh mix over romaine & lamb's lettuce, cucumber and cherry tomatoes with a free soup mix on the side (with the Thai Curry leftovers mixed in).

And breakfast this morning. Oatmeal with cinnamon, ginger, a tsp. maple syrup and peanut butter, 1/2 mashed banana, fresh blueberries and 1/2 pear.

Raw Raspberry Banana Ice Cream & Pizza Veggie Wrap

2009-02-28T16:04:00.004+01:00

1/4 banana blended with a handful of frozen raspberries and frozen banana slices. Can't wait for the hot days as I know what I'll be having for breakfast then. Try it out if you haven't yet!

1/4 avocado, lambs lettuce, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, raw zucchini slices and a pizza pattie sort of thing.

Date Coconut Confect

2009-02-15T18:00:00.000+01:00

New addiction after having bought these.

Just puree some dates and roll in shredded coconut. Not to mention Damn delicious!

Cauliflower Curry Soup

2009-02-15T17:56:00.000+01:00

Not to toot my own horn, but damn this was good. Hot and spicy!

I don't know why, but I never taste my food while cooking. I just wonder which herbs and spices might fit, throw in an estimated amount, add tons of pepper just about every 5 minutes (seriously) and taste it for the first time about 5 seconds before serving it.

Cauliflower Curry Soup

(all of this is pretty much estimated; like I said I kept dashing in curry powder, more and more pepper and some of this and that, so adapt it to your liking if you're the kind of person who tastes stuff during cooking)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium-big cloves of garlic, minced

1 inch fresh ginger, minced

2 cups water (or more if you prefer a water based soup)

1 vegetable broth cube

4 cups cauliflower

1.5 cups broccoli

2 celery stalks, chopped

5 Tbsp. hot curry powder (estimated, I think I had more, but adapt to your liking)

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. paprika powder

1 tsp. ground caraway seeds

salt, pepper

1 Tbsp. fresh parsley

1/4 cup soy cream or soy milk (estimated & optional)

1. bring the water & broth to a boil, add onions, set heat to medium, cook for ca. 3 minutes

2. add garlic, cook for ca. 1 minutes

3. add cauliflower, celery, broccoli and spices & herbs, cook for ca. 7-8 minutes until veggies are tender

4. puree everything to consistence of your liking (I like it a little chunky), add salt and pepper to taste, adapt spicing if neccessary

5. add parsley, stir and add soy cream or soy milk

Cabbage Soup

2009-02-11T18:09:00.000+01:00

Really simple and basic, yet really good! Can't remember where I got the recipe from, I just adapted the amount of cabbage thyme and added pepper & ground caraway seeds.

Cook the following for ca. 7 minutes:

1 1/4 cup water + vegetable broth
4-5 cups chopped cabbage
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 tsp. thyme
1/2-1 tsp. ground caraway seeds (or whole ones):
salt, pepper

add the following, stir and see if the cabbages consistence is to your liking

1 cup soy milk (for a creamier version use a little less milk and replace it with soy cream)
2 tsp. chopped parsley

Along with it I finished off the pattie things.

Lunch & Snacks

2009-02-10T22:20:00.001+01:00

After getting spoiled with a wide selection of fantastic smoothies at AH in Amsterdam, seeing the options here are pretty depressing. We have like three different brands available and they're not that mind blowing. And since I found frozen nectarines and blueberries in the freezer this morning I blended them with some soy milk, water, half a banana and a little apple-mango-puree and a tsp. ground flax seeds. Took a tiny apple (seriously, can't resist buying small versions of things because I feel like they're made for me) and a Lubs bar to school.

The fruit bar was bleh, rather dry and not worth the money. I made some kind of Lara bar fakes this afternoon (they're not available here, but I wanted to know what the hype is all about). Didn't add any nuts though after the dryness of the bar from this morning and made Date-Cranberry-Banana, Date-Mango-Apple-Pineapple and Date-Apple-Cranberry ones instead. All the dried fruit was bought long before I went to Amsterdam so the expiration date was coming close and since back then I bought them with the intention to make the Lara bars anyway I figured now or never. I was actually afraid my blender would die on me, but it worked surprisingly well.

I also still had a chocolate coconut bar lying around that tasted fucking brilliant!

And some blueberry yogurt with banana and a ripped date-cocount confect.

Gotta pack some more food on days where we do so many calculations and theoretical stuff at school though, I felt like I was dying.
On days like these I wish I lived with Erin and would get a Lunchbox like hers (all the friggin goodness) prepared every morning. This lady really knows how to lunch!

Tortellini&Broccoli in a Spinach Cream Sauce and Peanut-Coconut-Curry Stir-Fry

2009-02-09T18:31:00.007+01:00

Drinking ginger tea while eating ginger chocolate chip cookies, I sense my ginger phase is coming back. Ahh, the joy of relaxing for a couple of minutes... I actually have to study like crazy (which - honestly - I am not really doing so far, being the procastination whore that I am), because my finals are coming sooner than I thought they would and time just fucking flies by way too fast!

Still had time to cook something though (it's so good to actually cook and use an oven again after living off microwaved vegetables and sandwiches for the last 6 months). I made some spelt veggie tortellini with broccoli in a sauce made of cream cheese, some leftover spinach, soy milk, vitam-r, nutritional yeast, bindobin, oregano, pepper, salt, parsley, nutmeg and some curry powder (could've needed some garlic and onions, but I didn't feel like peeling and cutting anything... lazy much?). And I bought these things, because I'm too lazy to make my own. They taste alright, but then again I'd always prefer homemade chickpea cutlets or some other patties.

And from a couple of days ago: Peanut-Coconut-Curry Stir-Fry that was absolutely fabulous! I ate it three days in a row and probably still would be feasting on it if there were more leftovers. A mix of asparagus, bell pepper, ginger, fennel, zucchini, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, soy sprouts, brussels sprouts, snap peas and broccoli in a coconut milk/soy sauce/peanut butter mix. So so so good!

Managed the stir-fry eating with chopsticks quite well, but I always need the smurf kids fork my grandma gave me for the salad ;)

Back in Berlin

2009-02-04T17:42:00.003+01:00

Home sweet home... I've missed it!
And I noticed that I missed it a lot more than I thought I did now that I'm back. The dirty air, the bitchy people, the angry faces, the fact that you feel like you actually live in Turkey, the wide streets and sidewalk, the ridiculously small fietspaad, the dog shit everywhere, the smell of Döner on every corner, the late night supermarkets, the ability to drink as much beer on the street as your heart desires, everything!

Oh and of course the fact that there are more than 2 supermarket chains. And the fact that I have two organic ones in a 2 minute walking distance away from home. Stocked up on vegan cookies, crackers, mango strips and all kinds of fruit and yogurts haha!

And since school started I figured I'd need some energy to concentrate (plan didn't fan out though, I was tired as hell and not listening at all...). Spelt müsli with dried pears and raisins, topped with plain soy yogurt, apple-mango puree, fresh apple & banana slices and dried cranberries.

I can't even recall when the last time was that I had breakfast so early in the morning. Realized I don't like eating so early. Give me coffee and I'm in heaven! Oh yeah fuck, I have to start buying coffee again. Means I'll drink much less now that I have to pay 1€ per cup. So I'll probably go from around 10+ cups of coffee a day to around 3 or 4. I know that this is supposed to be a good thing, but I feel like someone who gets their baby taken away from her, haha!

Anyway, I'm glad to have my kitchen back which means finally getting my hands on an oven again. Ah, the simple things =)

Yellow Tomato Cauliflower Lentil Curry with Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts & Spinach

2008-10-21T22:10:00.001+02:00

Phew, what a title.
Followed by an incredibly ugly cell phone image *shudders* (left my camera at my old appartment, moved into a new one yesterday).
So as ugly as this might look, it was a wonderfully comforting food for a fucking cold day.

I mixed together about 4-5 cups cauliflower florets & brussels sprouts, ca. 3 cups of potato slices, a can of lentils, about 1 1/2 cups Yellow Curry Sauce, 1 cup chopped spinach, 2 cups tomato sauce and 1/2 onion. And I put some fresh chopped basil on top.
Perfection, seriously. Luckily I made enough to live off it for the next two days.

Ha ha, see that Katie? I took my chopsticks with me ;) I hold them in my very own and special - and no way near correct - way, but I somehow manage to have the food land in my mouth and not on my lap (the way it happened every single time someone tried to teach me how you're actually supposed to hold chopsticks... seriously can't be done) and that's what important, non?

Yellow Brussels Sprouts & Cauliflower Curry

2008-10-19T11:23:00.005+02:00

Lately I've been craving either Thai or Indian food like crazy. Yesterday I bought a delicious - but quite expensive - Yellow Thai Curry Sauce and made brussels sprouts and cauliflower with it.

So this sauce has to be used within 4 days after opening.

Do you think it would go well added to Split Pea Soup (never had Split Pea Soup to begin with so I wouldn't know...) with some additional cauliflower?

Persian Food

2008-10-08T21:33:00.003+02:00

Wow it's been quite a while... but I was internetless for quite some time. Aswell as lazy... ;)

First pictures from Berlin. We went to this vegetarian bistro/restaurant/caterer ALSA and the owner is persian and holy moly his food was extremly delicious. I even liked the rice&raisins combo, something I've always detested.
This was a vegan dish, eggplant casserole with beans, lentils, nuts and whatnot. So fucking amazing!!!

And a mix of salads he had left (we got there at around 4 and almost all the plates were pretty much empty already=good sign!).

Anywho, I finally had some money to buy food. Raspberries are so addictive ♥

Spinach with cucumber, raspberries and a surprisingly good tasting basil dressing (storebought dressings mostly suck... or maybe I just always pick the bad ones).

I've been trying to catch up with your blogs and the last days were simply horrible because I had no food/money/whatsoever and your pictures almost made me cry! And realize what amazing chefs each and every one of you would make (this is not neccessarily the starving person from a couple of days ago talking, he he). Anyone up for inventing beaming and starting a delivery service worldwide with amazing vegan food creations? ;)

Yummy Salad

2008-09-12T17:50:00.003+02:00

Avocado with cucumber, tomatoes, mixed salad and white beans. What a filling and nice dinner!

And a delicious juice, mhhh!

Cookiemouse & some food I've been eating...

2008-09-07T16:00:00.010+02:00

I wrote this post so long ago... anyway, here goes!

I met Leighton (aka Cookiemouse) at the Noordermarkt and got to learn how you get vegetables for free!

Here's the crowd being rewarded for all the waiting and grabbing lots of lovely organic produce.

She was very successful as you can see ;) And that's Cookiemouse in the back.

I got lots of zucchini from Cookiemouse (thanks again) so my dinner plans for the next couple of days are already set ;)

See? This is what I've been eating pretty much all the time. Rice, Salad, fresh tomatoes and steamed garlicy herbed string beans, zucchini, lima beans and tofu (came to the realization that I don't really need it so I'll save my money for other stuff instead of buying tofu).

His German was so good! He speaks amazingly well Schwäbisch which is funny because my mom originally comes from Schwaben and hearing him speak in this dialect totally reminded me of my childhood when we would visit my moms realtives and she would start speaking in that dialect again =)

Here's some more food. People at work told me about the BioMarkt and I stocked up on beans there.

The Jalow Bars were deeeelicious!!!

Other than beans I got Brocolli Sprouts and some fruit/fruit&nut bars and a Pumpkin-Lentil Soup that I've been living on for a couple of days. I tried to mix it up a little so I had it with some fresh tomato on top (I was out of everything else)

and then with broccoli sprouts & the last of Cookiemouses zucchini.

& a salad from De Bolhoed.

Amsterdam goes Members Only

2008-08-15T09:55:00.002+02:00

Hey ho!

I decided to make my Amsterdam blog accessible for only the people I know, because stupidly enough I gave this address to some Americans yesterday who I actually do not want to be able to read this.
Same old story, they seemed nice and turned out to be creepy.

So let me know if you would like to be added =)

Lettuce Bean Veggie Salad

2008-08-05T21:00:00.000+02:00

My this was a great lunch!

Lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, red cabbage, green garlicky beans with great northern beans and some ripped Falafel.

I'll have to make these kinds of salads more often! Especially now to take it to work with me.
When I arrived for the interview at Mattmo they had some sort of peperoni cut into pieces and asian crackers... the typical dutch snack, except there was no cheese. So yeah, I will definitely need to brin my own food, ha ha!

Oh btw, if anyone's interested I decided to make a blog for the time I'll be in Amsterdam. For friends and family to read so I won't have to email every single person.

I'm Loushka, in case you were wondering =p It's what basically everyone who knows me calls me.

Amsterdam Pictures from De Bolhoed

2008-08-05T13:23:00.000+02:00

As I said, here are the pictures.

My sister & me in Vondelpark, expressing our joy that after 3 years of living apart we will finally be able to see each other again daily =D

Oh yeah and those white glasses.... I bought them in red and black aswell, ha ha! And no, I'm not balding, it's just a bad hairstyle =p

At De Bolhoed. My sister, looking still a liiiiiiittle bit sceptical, ha ha!

The salad was DELICIOUS! Although there were only two lettuce leafs, it contained some tomato-ish bulgur/rice/whatever, string beans in some delicious red creamy sauce, a mixed mush of black beans and avocado, sweet potato (my sister and I both didn't know what it was, but it was orange and sort of sweet so I guess it was a sweet potato), radishes, tomatoes and cucumber.

And oh, can anyone tell me what's on the top? I ate it aswell, but have no clue what it was exactly =p

I ordered hummus with pita (how boring am I) and it was delicious aswell. I wrapped up two pita halves and 3/4 of the hummus that was leftover to take home with me. The guy was so nice, he brought it back and had put some extra sprouts and a radish in there =)

My sister ordered what was called croissant something (sorry I can't name anything here, ha ha) that was filled with tofu, potatoes, some seaweed sort of thing and some more stuff and tasted very curry like. It was FANTASTIC! The dough was so crispy and the sesame seeds on top made it perfect.

And a picture of the dessert my sisters boyfriends mom made me. Beautiful presentation in a fancy glass and lovely fresh mint, non?

I'd love to browse all your blogs and catch up on what I've missed and most importandly comment, but I still have so many things to do until Sunday. I'll try to find the time, don't hate me!
Oh dear, what will it be like in Amsterdam without internet at home? =O The last week was hard already, I felt pretty much disconnected to the world, ha ha!

Lemon Lime Corn Waffles & Veggie Ricotta Lasagna

2008-07-23T11:37:00.001+02:00

May I present you vegan waffles that were requested by a person who thinks soy milk will kill him.

That's right, my boyfriend asked for his own waffles (Jennifer, you can do the I-told-you-so dance now ;)) when he arrived at my apartment and saw me eating these Lemon Lime Corn Waffles with the most delicious strawberries & blueberries.

He had a few bites and declared he'd go for vegan waffles aswell. I made his with oil instead of apple sauce and white flour so they wouldn't be too healthy and scare him away =p

And here's a picture of the yummy Lasagna my mom & I made when my sister & her boyfriend arrived.

I had my vegan corner and the rest had regular lasagna. We used soy creamer instead of bechamel sauce and nobody noticed. I also crumbled my basil tofu ricotta inbetween the layers and nobody complained. I LOVED my part of the Lasagna, that's for sure!

Yumm yumm... and yes, I eat my Lasagna with applesauce ;)

Last night I made another dinner requested by my boyfriend: Potato Soup!
I had my mom's potato soup in mind which was very creamy and mild in flavor, but of course I improvised (as I pretty much always do) and got out something totally different, yet extremly delicious: Curry-Potato Soup!

I served this to my parents, my sister, her boyfriend and my boyfriend and everybody LOVED it! You know, when I started cooking my sister replied with an "Ew." when I said I'd be making potato soup, my mom said she wasn't hungry yet when dinner was ready everybody raved about it! Seriously, stuff like that makes me so happy, ha ha! I mean how often do you cook something and everybody likes it? I'll post pictures later, because I made a huge pot. Leftovers, hooray!!!

Other than that I want to apply for an internship in Amsterdam. I have found three agencies I'll apply at and I specifically favor one of them. Oi, please cross your fingers, I am so nervous! I really really want to do this, it would be like a dream come true!

Apparently I made an impact.

2008-07-21T17:07:00.000+02:00

"I can't even imagine having a girlfriend who eats meat anymore! I got all puzzled when you told me what a meat lover your best friend is... it just seems so hard to believe now [that a girl likes meat]."

My boyfriend randomly said this the other day, ha ha!

Ping Pong Paddles & Vöner

2008-07-20T15:24:00.002+02:00

"When he gets going he can rattle a headboard like a sailor on leave!"

Ahh, the joys of living in an apartment building!

Last night my boyfriend and I spent some quality time listening to my new neighbour downstairs fucking his girlfriend like a madman, ha ha! Seriously, the walls & ground were literally shaking and it sure did sound like lots of spanking action was going on (I sensed a ping pong paddle was involved).

She sure did get some good lovin' from what I heard... which was so loud that we might just aswell had been sitting right next to them. Kinda made me wonder if they were just really really reeeally loud or they can hear us just as well...

Anywho, now for those who want to read about food instead of loud sex I am proud to say that, inspired by Mihl, I made a trip to Vöner.

And I got THE LAST ONE! It was 22:15 (they close at 22:30) and there was basically nothing left so I asked if it was still enough for one Vöner. It was.

Seconds later the guy behind me who knew the woman ordered a Vöner, too. She made a sad face and apologized. He was like "Noooo, I've been at work all day and was so looking forward to this!" She made him a fancy burger instead, all good!

I ordered it with garlic sauce and hot sauce. The hot sauce was amazing! Extremly hot though, my tummy ached afterwards. I think the garlic sauce may have been made with tahini. The consistence kind of reminded me of the tahini sauce they put on falafel.

I apologize for the mess that I call "pictures". Cell phone camera at night... need I say more?

Now I've tried Seitan only once before and wasn't too blown away by it. This time the taste was great, but it were huge chunks (not the thin slices you get in real Döner), but that was only because there had been so little left over that there was no way to make thin strips out of it. While chewing I was like "This kind of reminds me of Leberkäse!" Once again I realized I'm not a fan of meat substitutes, especially if it's big chunks like that.

Since it was so chunky and therefore too much for me and my boyfriend didn't want them (he tried the Vöner and loved the sauces and said the Seitan was quite alright, too) I started picking out Seitan strips.

And honestly, I felt bad! Because when I looked down I figured the guy behind me could've easily gotten his Vöner. And Mihl could've gotten more Motor.

I'm off to make Lasagna now since my sister will be here soon! She's gonna stay for a week, hooray!!!

Ricotta Filled Pasta Shells With Beets & Borscht

2008-07-17T14:53:00.001+02:00

What a perfect lunch! I had craved this for aout a week now and finally made it: pasta shells filled with VwaV's Tofu Basil Ricotta with chunky beets and borscht.

This time I pureed some beets to make it a little thicker.

Yummm!

Cocoa Chocolate Chip Banana Waffles & Italian Inspired Veggie Tomato Stew on Brown Rice

2008-07-15T12:32:00.002+02:00

Oh man, for dessert last night I made - you guessed it - WAFFLES again! Sadly no picture since I was charging my batteries.

I can't help it but get excited everytime I say the word waffles, ha ha! I look up into the air and look like Spongebob...

I made Cocoa Chocolate Chip Banana Waffles.
Had them with maple syrup (heavenly) and fresh raspberries, banana slices and blueberries (whatever comes after heavenly, this was it)

Ingredients (for 2 waffles)

3/4 cup flour (I use spelt)
2 heaped Tbsp. natural cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup soy milk (I used Soy Macchiato which gave it a lovely coffeeish flavor)
1 Tbsp. mashed banana (I used about 1/4 of a big one)
2 tsp. maple syrup (more or less depending on the sweetness of your milk)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
2 Tbsp. chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

This was chocolate heaven on a plate. Seriously, waffles combine everything awesome: crispyness/chewyness of cookies and doughyness like pancakes or cupcakes.

I know I will make these again! Probably tonight, because how else could I use up the leftover half banana? Ha ha! I'm also thinking of cutting up cherries and throwing them into the batter... mhhh!

For dinner I cooked up some brown rice and threw together a bunch of vegetables to accompany it.

I used
- 2 cans of tomatoes in juice
- 2 chopped onions
- 5 crushed cloves of garlic
- 1 huge zucchini, chopped
- some leftover frozen italian vegetable mix which fit very well (it was zucchini, onions, string beans, bell pepper, mushrooms (eh!) and black olives seasoned with oregano)
- 1/2 cup frozen spinach
and seasoned everything with thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.

It was very garlicky, but not in an overpowering way. Very delicious, the rest agreed with me!

My dad asked my mom for Parmesan cheese, but there was none. I couldn't really feel for him because I had tons of nutritional yeast to sprinkle over my food ;)
Seriously, sprinkling nooch on stuff makes it so much better, at least if one's looking for a cheesy kind of flavoring.

My boyfriend even asked for another serving at 1 AM. Ha ha! Luckily I still have a small serving leftover for myself tonight.

Chocolate Blueberry Lemon Corn Waffles

2008-07-14T11:08:00.002+02:00

The WAFFLE HYPE continues!

An adaption of VwaV's Lemon Corn Waffles turned into Chocolate Blueberry Lemon Corn Waffles by adding about 2 Tbsp. blueberries and chocolate chips each. The batter turned out a little thick though, but they tasted good nevertheless!

My mom got me elderberry jelly from her trip. So sweet! And it was quite good, too!

I had my waffle with raspberry jam and the elderberry jelly because I was all out of fruit.

Gotta get back to work! I'll check your blogs & comment later. Oh, good morning and happy monday, btw!

Chocolate Chip Ginger Waffles & Lemon Corn Waffles

2008-07-13T19:27:00.001+02:00

The 40 € I spent on my new waffle maker/sandwich maker/grill were well invested!

Today as a pre-dinner snack (odd I admit, but I craved some yummy waffle-berry action) I had Ginger Chocolate Chip Waffles with selfmade apple-mango puree, red grapes, blueberries and raspberries.
The combination of ginger and chocolate really has become a new favorite of mine ;)

I used Jennas recipe for Chocolate Chip Whole Wheat Waffles, using spelt flour, a Tbsp. of apple-mango puree instead of oil, an additional Tbsp. corn meal and 1/2 tsp. ground ginger (definitely could've used more).

They were devine!

I wish I had my own Niles at home who'd bring me a plate like this to bed every morning!

Yesterday I invited my Dad over for some Lemon Corn Waffles (from VwaV).

Lots of fruit on the side (honeydew, watermelon, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, apple, grapes and banana) and a soy macchiato of course...

... aswell as strawberry jam... (can't you just feel the crispyness from looking at this picture?)

... and apple-mango puree (1/4 cup mango chunks blended with 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce)

Nothing beats those crispy crunchy fantastic Lemon Corn Waffles!!! Especially with blueberry sauce as she recommends.

I'm off to cook soon. My mom's coming back and I'll make Pesto Spaghetti (they also taste incredible on their own) with Pesto and my standard salad: lamb's lettucce with mango and roasted sunflower seeds!

Hope you had a nice weekend! =)

I can foresee an addiction to Scones here...

2008-07-11T13:48:00.001+02:00

Alter Schwede, have I been missing out!

After putting a scone recipe to my to-try-recipes about 5 months back I never got around to try them. Too busy, not in the mood, out of some required ingredient... yadda yadda!

But yesterday I craved some sweet snack because I resisted and didn't buy my beloved Schoko Haferlinge (Quit Now Challenge).
I rediscovered a cookbook I got back when I was 14. It's called 1001 Keks Rezepte (Cookie Recipes) and I wanted to remake another favorite store bought cookie: Spelt Ginger Cookies with chocolate chips.
The cookbook contains about 8 different ginger cookie recipes, but all of them require cooling the dough for at least 45 minutes and up to 24 hours. It was close to 11 pm already, so this was out of option.

Then I remembered an appetizing recipe at Isa's blog for Ginger Chocolate Chip Scones. My mind was set! I made half a batch and had three straight out of the oven, ha ha! Truth to be told, when it comes to sweets I have no self-control. I could've easily eaten the other three - my head definitely wanted to - but my tummy was full as I had eaten my leftover Equilinia & Veggies not long before.

They were delicious! Only thing I would change next time is add more ginger and make them flatter to get more of the awesome crispyness.

Had another one for breakfast yesterday morning. They taste much better fresh & crispy so next time I'll freeze some unbaked scones so I'll be able to have fresh ones within minutes! Yeeehaaa for Scones =D

[edit] I made them again last night. This time flatter with more ginger and baked them for, oh I don't know maybe 40 minutes!? I lowered the heat at some point and they came out extremly crispy but had lost a lot of the ginger taste.

I also made Lindsay's Carrot Cake Cupcakes. This time with 1/2 cup less applesauce, some ground cloves and an additional 15 minutes in the oven.

I used my new silicon muffin "pan" (after buying a mini version first). They are slightly bigger than the usual muffins and SO EASY TO TAKE OUT! I love how you don't need to grease them and they still come out perfectly easy. Nothing's left in the pan!
My cupcakes often used to stick hardcore to the liners, so much that you were only able to eat about half of the muffin because the rest stuck.
Well, not anymore =D

My best friend will come over later for Coffee & Cupcakes, yay!

Pasta Squares with grilled Asparagus & Zucchini, Basil Mint Cucumber Yogurt Dip & Messy Equilinia with Slow Roasted Veggie

2008-07-11T13:47:00.001+02:00

(two posts in a row from various days where I was either at work and forgot my USB-stick at home or I was at home and my internet didn't work)

I purchased these Spinach-Leek Pasta Squares last week and had two left over aswell as half a jar of pasta sauce so I used my leftover veggies and made myself a delicious dinner last night.

Although it was only two pasta squares I felt so stuffed afterwards. One would've been sufficient as they are filled with a mixture of tofu, flour & potatoes all of which fill you up quite well!

The zucchini & asparagus were grilled on my newly purchased 3-in-1 Grill, Sandwich- & Wafflemaker.
I still have a waffle maker at home, but it's my mom's... and I ruined it (whoops) aswell as a sandwich maker that my sister took to Amsterdam with her. Last time I was there I considered taking it back with me, but it didn't look very appealing (she wasn't using it anymore either). So this was a very good purchase =)
The grill works like a charm, it's so fast and easy. I just hope my boyfriend won't get the idea to buy meat and grill it on there... *waggles finger* It was hard enough for me to let him use my non-stick perfect pancake skillet for his burger patties... I always fear my pancakes might taste like meat at parts. Ha ha, das ist Paranoia, mhh hmmm mhhhh!

The Basil-Mint Cucumber Yogurt Dip was great! I think this would go great with some fresh baguette or crackers. Sadly I didn't have any.

Ingredients
1/4 cup soy yogurt
1/3 cup chopped cucumber
~ 10 mint leafs, chopped
~ 10 basil leafs, chopped
dash salt, black pepper & cayenne pepper

The slow roasted vegetables were so good I made them again this week. This time with more red onion and 2 cloves of garlic.
To go with it I made Vcon's Messy Rice (with an addition of cayenne pepper which everyone but me seems to have... now I do, too and I must say 'I liiiiiike'), but with 7 Grain-Equilina (a mixture of brown & wild rice, spelt, oats, barley, rye & wheat, used it here before) instead of white rice. Mainly because I didn't have any.

It was a nice dinner, the perfect balance of grains and vegetables with a hint of spicyness.

While the Equilinia was cooking I realized I didn't know the exact cooking time and when I took the box out of my cupboard to check the quinoa pack fell straight at me, top down and open. And it was a new full pack. Quinoa everywhere, ugh!
That left me cursing and smacking cupboard doors for a while... it was worse than when I dropped the open bag of mustard seeds because it was only a few Tbsp's (annoying nevertheless), but I assume I had about 4 cups of quinoa splattered in my kitchen.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread / Mini Muffins

2008-07-09T11:24:00.001+02:00

Yumm yum yum!

Everyone who raved about Vcon's Banana Bread wasn't lying! It's great (although a tad bit too sweet). I shared some with Spongebob who was clearly satisfied with the result =p
Yeah, I love Spongebob! I wouldn't go as far as Marc Jacobs and wear him on my arm, but I do love my little Spongebob and Patrick dearly ♥ I'm ready for motion! Watching Spongebob always makes me happy, he he!

I didn't add enough chocolate chips though... but then again this came out more bread-like than I had expected (probably because I only knew Banana Cake before) so to have only a little chocolate chippy here and there probably won't kill me. It tastes great with some strawberry jam and fresh banana slices on top!

I took a slice to work with me yesterday and enjoyed it with red grapes.

Last night I was getting the munchies and (here comes the missing chocolate in again) totally plucked the mini muffins to pieces in quest of finding more chocolate, ha ha!
But the leftover pieces will go great with some yogurt and fruit - sounds like I'll have a trifle soon!

Cookies, Snacks, Lunches, Dinner & Fruit

2008-07-07T12:28:00.001+02:00

I've been trying more store bought cookies: the midget one is a gluten-free carob cookie and tastes, well, not very good. The Chocolate Chip ones in plastic taste awesome though!

Such milky chocolate chips and a yummy crumbly chocolate center. These are delicious!!!

Washed them down with hot & foamy cocoa latte. 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder with hot regular soy milk & 1/4 cup soy macchiato milk and foam.
♥ I love drinking cocoa through a straw!

Another lunch/snack from some day.
Seitenbacher chocolate cereals & oats with cocoa soy milk (2 Tbsp. cocoa powder plus soy milk) & strawberries.

Boy, and this was by far the best lunch I've had in a long time!

Pita pocket, grilled in a non-sticking pan with raspberry preserves, banana slices, shredded brazil nuts and pieces of 85% chocolate. With red grapes on the side, of course ;)

Probably not exactly eye candy, but look at the gooey goodness going on there (and on the plate, ha ha)!

On Saturday I finally baked something I had been wanting to make for a long time!

All seemed so well... the top was sticky, the way it's supposed to be.

And it sure did look right!

But it was way too sticky. The piece in the photo remained unfinished, it was just too heavy. Too bad though, I really craved some Ontbijtkoek!
I guess that means you can't replace molasses with the same amount of sugar beet molasses. Oh well, I'll ask my sister to bring some when she comes here.

Yesterday I made slow-roasted veggies (bell pepper, carrots, fennel, asparagus, zucchini) and with quinoa (haven't had it for quite a while) for dinner.

The veggies were sooo delicious! The red onions were caramelized... oh my, so good!

Ingredients
2 bell peppers, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 zucchini, quartered
2 carrots, quartered
1/4 of a big fennel bulb, sliced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
handful of green baby asparagus
rosemary, oregano
salt, pepper

1. preheat the oven to 320° F
2. chop all the vegetables
3. in a baking dish combine the bell peppers, carrots, fennel, onion, garlic and drizzle with olive oil, mix well & sprinkle with herbs and salt & pepper
4. after 30 minutes in the oven add the zucchini and asparagus, stir again and add some more salt & pepper (if needed)
5. another 30 minutes in the oven et voilà, dinner's ready!

"Dessert"... I've discovered red grapes as you can probably tell since they're in almost every picture in this post =p

My fantastic new Magic Bullet made a smoothie: watermelon, banana, raspberries, blueberries, nectarines (all frozen) and a splash of soy milk.

A White Bean Stew (white beans, carrots, zucchini, red & yellow bell pepper, tomato puree, onions, garlic etc.) I made last week. Topped with leftovers from my mom's bulgur salad (bulgur, tomatoes, cucumber, yellow bell pepper, tomato paste, parsley, chili etc.) which went very well together!

I'm looking forward to bake Banana Bread tonight & getting home in general. Work is so boring and I would much rather go home and keep on cleaning my apartment since I had a deep-cleaning phase yesterday... my kitchen almsot sparkles (which it usually never does... erm) and I still have some leftover energy lingering around!

Anyway, enjoy your start into the week! Hope you'll have a great day!!!

Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies

2008-07-04T11:53:00.002+02:00

They're Vcon's Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. Delicious, delicious! I just had one for breakfast ;)

Go make some!!!

Lately I've been addicted to Schoko Haferlinge and wanted to make my own version. So far I still like them better than the Vcon ones though. They were more neutral and on the crumbly-crispy side (but I guess all American Cookies are supposed to come out chewy so I didn't expect them to taste like my new favorites).
I added some cornstarch to the batter and doubled the baking time to get crispier cookies. I was also out of vanilla extract and used 1/4 cup less sugar.
Next time I'll try relpacing some of the oil with a little applesauce and make the cookies smaller and flatter so they'll hopefully be Lizzy-crispy enough when they're done!

Salad, Pasta, another Cake & Curry Cauliflower Carrot Soup

2008-07-01T11:06:00.002+02:00

I wonder, why do I always feel like salads are a pain in the ass to make? Am I seriously that slow? And am I the only one? Mhh...
Anyway, the delicious salad I had last night sure did remind me that all the washing and chopping and mixing and roasting is simply worth it!

Roasted zucchini, eggplant & orange bell pepper on a bed of iceberg & lamb's lettuce, some cucumber slices, tomatoes, red onion & avocado chunks (I actually prefer avocados in form of guacamole... oh well, next time), drizzled with a balsamic yogurt dressing. Oh and some Nachos with mexican salsa.

Now onto my dad's cake. He and my mom enjoyed it a lot! Of course so did I ;)
A layer of raspberry perserves, banana slices and chocolate mousse.

I didn't have any fresh berries to add so I simply used pieces of cake crust, spread them with more chocolate mousse and arranged them on top. Some chopped chocolate on the sides & on top and it could've passed as the mouthwatering Starbucks Chocolate Fudge Cake I used to have quite often ♥

A few days ago I wanted something quick, so here goes Kamut pasta in olive tapenade mixed with broccoli & scallions sautéed in garlic. And a few drops of soy yogurt. Yumm!

Last week I made a Curry Cauliflower Carrot Soup with potatoes & red lentils! This was hearty & filling, yet light.
I ate it 3 days in a row yet never managed to take a picture. Even my boyfriend loved this!
I'll have to increase my soup cooking skills and make more of them.

I used about 6 medium potatoes & 2 carrots cut into small chunks and about 1/4 cup red lentils that I cooked in broth.
Midway cooking I added about 8-10 cauliflower florets, cut into smaller pieces, nutritional yeast, curry, ginger, garam masala, nutmeg, chili, paprika, salt and pepper.
I added 1/4 - 1/3 cup soy milk and puréed 2 cups of the solids in my blender and poured it back into the pot.
With a slice of whole wheat toast spread with a layer of olive tapenade, this was a perfect dinner!

The 100th post screams for CAKE PICTURES!

2008-06-27T10:57:00.002+02:00

My best friend loved it!!! (And totally cracked up when I said the word "Seidentofu", ha ha ha! I love you Axl ♥)

She was recommending me to open up a vegan bakery in Prenzlauer Berg (an area where many 'alternative' people live... and therefore the area where most vegan Deli's in Berlin are located already), ha ha!

Next time I'll have to put the cake into a pretty cake box, because she was like "I totally would've believed you had you told me that you bought it somewhere."

I have to admit that this cake seriously was incredible. I'll make another one tonight for my dad because he was in Italy and I still owe him something for Father's Day. This time with chocolate mousse & cherries between the layers.

Yumm, I can't wait!

Cupcake Berlin, Baby Chocolate Cakes, Bulgur dishes & Salads

2008-06-26T13:40:00.002+02:00

After days of being absent this is a very random post, just this and that!

First of all: Sunday... what a day!

After wanting to go there for at least three months my buddy & I finally managed to go to Cupcake Berlin.

While my friend chose a Cookies & Cream Cupcake I went with the vegan Raspberry Delight.

I savoured the lonely little raspberry and I could've eaten many more (had it been my call the frosting tops would've been loaded with as many as possible, ha ha)!

I'm not a very big fan of frosting. But that pink buttercream top looked too pretty! I ate half of the frosting because I couldn't stand the taste of margarine anymore at some point which is pretty much all it tasted like.
And Jennifer, look! They have awesome fancy vintage plates like you =D

He got another one with Peanut Butter frosting.

All in all we decided to go there again, soon! The texture of the cupcakes was so light and fluffy!!!

Afterwards we went to Café V, my friend's uncle's restaurant.
I had a mixed salad with grilled veggies (& yogurt-balsamic dressing, not vegan =( but I totally craved this salad... yet I was rather disappointed in myself and felt quite guilty afterwards). I couldn't even come close to finishing it. Doesn't look so big to you?

Well then check out my knees for comparison =p The plate was loaded with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, grilled zucchini, eggplant & bell pepper, olives, shredded carrots and arugula.

But I have to admit that I ate lots of the incredible tomato-garlic bread they served, because this bread seriously just hits the spot!!

I took the salad leftovers with me, but gave it to a homeless guy on the subway.

Dinner yesterday was delicious - my mom cooked for me! Bulgur cooked in some broth, a tomato-veggie side dish she had left over (this was perfect!) and grilled zucchini, bell pepper and eggplant. I had soy yogurt as a replacement for sour cream and I am honestly still amazed by what a perfect substitute it is (as there is no vegan sour cream to be found around here)!

Iceberg & red lamb's lettuce, scallions, carrot, cucumber, tomatoes and mango.

My best friend came back from Arizona so I baked Vcon's Chocolate Cake again. This time without blueberries, but with raspberry preserves and banana slices between the layers and VCTOTW's chocolate mousse. I'll post pictures some time soon!

I saved about 1 cup of the batter, mixed in maybe 1/4 cup blueberries and tried out my new silicone mini tartlett thingy & made 3 muffin sized ones with the leftover batter.

I'm in love! I'll definitely get a muffin sized version of this, too!

Bananas with leftover chocolate mousse and cashews. Wow, that was delicious!

And another Pancake dinner!
This time I had Cocoa Blueberry Pancakes with maple syrup and bananas because I didn't have anything else.

Dinner a few days ago was bulgur mixed with sauteed onions, garlic, broccoli, orange bell pepper, zucchini and scallions.
Side dishes were baked beans (made them before) and mashed avocado with tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, garlic & lime juice.

We also had a salad of iceberg lettucce, red lamb's lettucce, cucumber, tomato, orange bell pepper, carrot, red onions and sweet corn on the side.

Have a great Thursday everyone! =)
I'll try to catch up with all your posts asap!

La-la-lunch

2008-06-20T13:45:00.001+02:00

Boring post, just my lunch from yesterday snapped with my cell phone camera.

I'll post more interesting things after the weekend.
A hint: today's shopping will include getting a mini muffin pan and sunday we'll have a cupcake brunch here! They have vegan cupcakes, too! Weeee =D

Raspberry-Peach Smoothie, I love this one!

Rye bread with mustard, red lamb's lettucce, tomato, cucumber & orange bell pepper.

Yumm! Cheaper & healthier option compared to Subway (I knew I'd be in the mood for a Veggie Delight, but since they got my last two orders wrong - once with yogurt sauce instead of sweet onion & once with cheese - I don't think they deserve my money).

And HOORAYYYYY WE WON !!!!!
I honestly expected Germany to lose as everyone else around here did. So it was quite a nice late-night surprise! And to see them celebrating with their fans and jumping around with such joy (especially Podolski) oddly enough made me feel incredibly happy!

Cherry Chocolate Pancakes & Lentil-Veggie Lasagna

2008-06-18T13:23:00.004+02:00

Yes, that brownblackish smear on the right one is indeed 85% dark chocolate oozing out of the pancake! And yes, I used cherries from a jar.

While watching France loose against Italy last night (I thought of you Romina and was like "I bet she's totally celebrating right now!" ha ha) I suddelny craved pancakes! I could totally identify myself with Ruby's statement from a while ago, he he!

"I can't stop making them - I'm obsessed. I can't control myself: I just wake up and my hands start making pancakes!!!"

They were delicious! The intense taste of the dark chocolate with the juicy and fruity cherries inbetween was a festival for my tastebuds!
I had them with raspberry jam (pictured) and maple syrup.
If you ever want to try them definitely go with the maple syrup as the tastes fit together perfectly!

I mixed together the following, aiming to get no more than two pancakes out of the batter as I wasn't actually very hungry.

Ingredients
makes 2 pancakes

important: I used a rather small Tbsp. (I used children's silverware, erm...)

3 Tbsp. water
4-5 Tbsp. soy milk (or any other milk)
1/2-1 Tbsp. apple sauce
1-2 Tbsp. agave syrup (sweeten to taste)
a few dashes of cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
5 Tbsp. flour (I used whole meal)
dash baking soda
pinch salt
1/2-1 cup cherries (I'm the kind of person who likes it best if there's more fruit than dough so I went with a cup)
cuple of small chocolate pieces (I used two and broke them into small pieces; chocolate chips would be the easiest way to go I guess but 1/4 cup costs about 1.50 here)

After work I went shopping. Look at how tiny the zucchini is!
Everytime I see something incredibly small version of a usually bigger item I buy it because I'm like "Aww look, it's a Lizzy-Zucchini!" as I'm only 5'2", ha ha!

I also found red lamb's lettuce which I've never heard of before. I'll make it tonight with nectarines and a raspberry-lime dressing I've been wanting to try, hence the raspberry jam and limes.

I didn't like this fruit bar too much as the coffee taste was rather wird... but luckily I had also purchased this fantastic dark chocolate that made my pancakes extra special!

As a snack I made myself a bowl of fruit: golden kiwi, watermelon and honeydew melon!

Later I reheated my last piece of Lasagna.
I had mixed together the leftover sauces from here with tomato purée and seasoned it with oregano, salt & pepper.
I also cooked a cup of red lentils and added them to the sauce. While the lentils were cooking I sautéed an orange bell pepper and 3 carrots cut into chunks. Everything was combined and filled into the Canneloni.
The rest was used as a filling for the Lasagna with additional frozen spinach inbetween the layers which was just perfect!
My mom, dad and boyfriend ate the Canneloni & the rest of the Lasagna as I had topped it with cheese for them (my mom's request). They enjoyed it a lot!
I was fine without it and enjoyed my piece with some soy yogurt sprinkled with a little pepper.

At first I thought I'd miss the white sauce, but turns out that the red lentils give the filling a creamy texture which was completely awesome! Lentils working in Lasagna, who would've thought?

Weekend Eats!

2008-06-17T12:30:00.001+02:00

What do you get when you have no regular soy milk left to make breakfast with? That's right -- Latte Macchiato Oatmeal with Cherries, Banana, Nectarines and maple syrup!

Luckily the macchiato soy milk tasted fantastic in combination with the chosen fruit and syrup!

Raspberry Pancakes... OH SO GOOD! Especially with überdelicious strawberries and banana on the side!
This was quite a pancake weekend. I had these for breakfast on Sunday. Saturday I had carob blueberry pancakes again with lots and lots of honeymelon. They were gone before I could snap a picture!

Bulgur with a zucchini-tomato sauce - my mom cooked this so of course it was delicious (I love the typical mom's-seasoning-taste in her sauces)! This is also the first time I had bulgur and I must agree with everyone else that it tastes great!
I like it better than CousCous (here's an unknown fact about couscous... they didn't add the 2nd -cous until 1979! hahaha I laughed so long about this =p Friends lovers will get it) and will have to pick up a pack tonight.

Then at some point during the weekend I made Gazpacho.

And had it with the last chickpea cutlet, mustard-yogurt dip, red beets & cucumber.

And a Honeymelon-Kiwi Yogurt Smoothie with some flax meal I made - so yummy! I love the thickness of yogurt smoothies... I could've eaten this one with a spoon. I made another shake with honeymelon, kiwi, banana, strawberry and soy milk which was not so good. The soy milk made it taste way too sweet, the banana was pretty overpowering although it was the amount of no more than a Tbsp.! Oh well, I'll keep on experimenting nevertheless.

From my mom's leftover zucchini-tomato sauce & my leftover gazpacho I created the filling for Cannelonis and Lasagna. I forgot to copy the pics onto my USB-stick so I'll post about it tomorrow. Enjoy your day everyone!

Fruit Infusion, Black Bean Burger, Frozen Yogurt & Blueberry Chocolate Cake

2008-06-12T12:41:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I enjoyed this colorful fruit medley consisting of strawberries, watermelon, nectarines, kiwis and apples throughout the day.

Started in the morning and put it on top of a delicious berry soy yogurt I recently bought. I also added half a banana... you can see the leftover half crying over the loss of her better half at my photo blog.

For lunch I reheated a black bean burger and had it with cucumber, tomato, avocado and lamb's lettucce drizzled with a mustard-agave-lime dressing and made some more mustard-yogurt dip because it was a rather dry burger. But still a very very satisfying yummy dish!

And for dessert I had fruit salad of course ;)

Oh and the berry soy yogurt I bought - I froze it! I need more of these ice things, IKEA carries them for 2 € so I'll have to make a stop there soon.
Then I'll be able to enjoy individually made frozen yogurts during the hot days, yay!!!

A few days ago I made Vcon's Lower-Fat Chocolate Bundt Cake, but added a cup of blueberries. The cake was extremly delicious. Very chocolatey, yet not at all sweet - just perfect!

I brought a few slices to work and they loved it! I brought more the next day because they kept fighting over the last crumbs, ha ha!

Raw Strawberry Banana Pie and Rosé Champagne

2008-06-09T15:39:00.001+02:00

I love it when my dad gets alcohol as thank you gift from his patients, because my parents happily (most of the time) share it with me.
Yesterday I hung out on the balcony and drank this delicious rosé champagne with strawberries (talk about perfection) as my parents shared the raw pie (I've had mine the day before).

The "crust" consisted of ground almonds and agave syrup. I think I put in a little too much agave, but I want to give raw pie making another chance anyway, this time using more nuts and seeds for the crust (I only had ground almonds on hand).
I laid banana slices on top, spread them with a little mashed banana mixed with vanilla extract and topped it off with a layer of strawberry slices.
I've got to say that even though it wasn't mind blowing I'll definitely make more raw pies in the future and hopefully perfect the crust making soon. Nuts, seeds, fruit... what's not to love when all this combines to a delicious dessert?

On Saturday I made Canneloni following this recipe. Except I didn't follow it correctly because I missed something very important: adding 3 cups of water... whoops!
That said they came out a bit dry and very salty. My parents had it with crème fraîche and were totally happy with it (it was really salty so I guess they used quite a lot of crème fraîche to balance it out). I on the other hand poured some tomato puree over mine to reduce the saltiness a little.

And now here comes... the first time I used soy crisp and I have the following to say: it tastes pretty damn real, consistence and taste like wise.
My mom came home "Did you cook...? Nooo it can't be... but it smells like... did you cook meat?" Ha ha! And my boyfriend, a meat lover, also said that it tasted like the real deal, BUT he would've preferred vegetable Cannelonis. In no way did I ever expect to hear that from him, but hooray! Veggie ones it'll be next time. I think I'll use the leftover soy crisp next time I make Chili to give it more texture.

And I am very sorry that I'm totally behind commenting, but I'm so busy at the moment I really don't know where my head stands (German saying "Ich weiß nicht wo mir der Kopf steht"... probably something completely different in English -- just checked, translator says "I don't know whether I'm coming or going." sounds weird to me, but oh well) =p
I'll catch up on commenting as soon as I can!

I wish you all a great start into the new week =)
Don't melt away!!!

Meant to be.

2008-06-06T13:39:00.002+02:00

I am convinced that nature's plan was from the beginning on to have people eat peanut butter and bananas together.

A few dashes of cinnamon and I was in snack heaven!
In that particular moment it was seriously better than any chocolate, cookies or cakes - and that's gotta mean something when I say it, ha ha.
So a big Hooray for finding a new favorite snack... I was set on thinking that I didn't like bananas that much and was an apple-girl, but I think this combination will have me buy bananas on a rather regular basis from now on =)

Carob Blueberry Pancakes = sweet & comforting dinner

2008-06-04T19:12:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I had planned to roast some asparagus and have it with tzaziki and baked beans.
But the cupboards where the beans usually are were completely empty (seriously, not even a single jar was left) when I went into the store so I went to the other bio market and accidentally got white beans in tomato sauce - only to discover at home that they contain honey. Wtf? Honey in beans?

Anyway, I had the idea of making spring onion pancakes (I still must do this some time!), but I was actually craving something chocolate-y and sweet.
So I whipped up my own carob blueberry pancakes (I don't have ED&BV so I improvised and surprisingly made just enough batter for 3 perfect sized pancakes) and topped them with banana slices and nectarine chunks (it was so perfectly ripe & sweet, yumm!).

The other half banana was mashed (there were a few frozen blueberries left in the bowl hence the color) with a little agave syrup and vanilla extract.

A Crispy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie that deserves its praise!

2008-06-03T14:53:00.000+02:00

Celine, you are the best!

For the first time last night I tried a cookie recipe that resulted in a crispy, not chewy, cookie.
I LIVE FOR CRISPY COOKIES =D
Chewy ones are nice, but I remember having my first American chocolate chip cookie and thinking "Are they kidding me? The cookie is almost raw!" German cookies are rock hard, so I was really surprised, ha ha!
Come to think of it, maybe this cookie was supposed to turn out chewy and I simply used too little maple syrup!?

Ruby's picture totally caught my attention and I had been eyeing Celine's cookie recipes for a while now, I just couldn't decide which one to try.
But after I read what Ruby had to say, I knew I had to make it.

[...] the peanut butter cookie from the Chicago Diner. It's one of the most astoundingly tasty cookies/desserts I've ever had, and Celine's cookies taste just like them. Only Celine's version has chocolate chips, which translates to an even better cookie.

Sadly the bottom was burned. I tried scraping it off at first, but then thought screw it and happily gobbled it up. And the recipe results in 2 big cookies which is just perfect - the other one's waiting at home to comfort me after work!

I also had some of my mom's nut muesli and pimped it with chunks of mango, nectarine, kiwi (all covered up sadly) and banana slices. Then I added a few Tbsp. soy yogurt, mixed it with a squirt of agave syrup and topped it off with unsweetened apple sauce, a few raisins, almonds and flaxmeal. Delicious!!!

Work is crazy today, I can't wait to get home, relax and comment on your posts.
Have a nice day everyone!

Linguine & Kamut Pasta in Avocado Cream Sauce with Asparagus & Broccoli and Grilled Veggies & Potatoes with Tomato-Onion Baked Beans

2008-06-02T13:13:00.006+02:00

Yesterday after a long hot day outside I came back home and found a perfectly ripe avocado waiting to be used. I didn't feel like making guacamole so I mashed the avocado, mixed it with 2 Tbsp. soy creamer, a tsp. lemon juice and seasoned it with salt & pepper.

Then I cooked the rest of the Linguine and added the recently purchased kamut noodles. They taste wonderful - how I love whole wheat!
In the meantime I cooked some broccoli and asparagus, seasoned with lots of minced garlic, salt, pepper, a little oregano and a dash of nutmeg.

I tossed everything together in a bowl, added two chopped tomatoes, a few fresh basil leaves and sprinkled on some nutritional yeast and pine nuts.
I'll have the leftovers as a cold noodle salad tonight =)

A few days ago I had the following... and the beans were incredibly good! I used what was left in the jar (about 1/3 cup) and I really wished I'd have more.

Anywho, I just sauteed a medium onion in a Tbsp. water, added a clove of garlic and the baked beans, 2 Tbsp. tomato paste, salt, pepper and 2 fresh tomatoes.

And this is the first time I had a yellow zucchini. Nothing too special about it, my grocer just happened to carry them one day.

Onto the baking. I'm having PBJ sandwiches around the clock it seems and I figured I might be able to losen my cravings if I made PB cookies. I halfed the Crispy PB Cookie recipe from VwaV and got out 7 cookies. Thing is, my natural peanut butter is rather runny (although all it contains is peanuts) yet I didn't add more flour. This lead to a very crumbly cookie. Like be-careful-taking-it-off-the-rack-crumbly, as you can maybe tell from the picture.

I had it with a few Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce. And yeah, I ate the cookie with a spoon =p

Now I'll go back to work and enjoy my first watermelon this year for lunch... SO SO GOOD!!!

Purplelicious Oatmeal, Pink Cucumber Soup & Chickpea Cutlets

2008-05-29T10:49:00.004+02:00

I made a delicious oatmeal with alpro's wild berry soy milk, cinnamon and frozen blueberries.
Talk about eye candy! Oh, how I love purple food!

Then I made a cold cucumber soup with red beets, soy yogurt, dill and parsley. I had cooked potatoes on hand which I wanted to add, but somehow totally forgot about.

And I had a good laugh when it turned out - once again - that Isa was right with her prediction in the chickpea cutlet recipe introduction text - that it'd be famous on blogs!

My mom had the cucumber soup while I finished the chickpea cutlets I had made in advance for today (after reading that they taste even better the day after) and asked if she could have one.

She took a bite and proclaimed "Delicious! You can start mass producing them!" Ha ha! Another person hooked on the famous Veganomicon cutlets. I'll buy more chickpeas today and make about 20 cutlets to freeze for my mom & me. It was her request and she reminded me again this morning not to forget the chickpeas =p

She said she especially liked the texture. "Much better than all those veggie patties which are so crumbly they always keep falling apart!"

To go with it I had some lamb's lettucce and tomato drizzled with mustard-agave-balsamic dressing and soy yogurt mixed with mustard.

A very pleasing meal!
I can't wait to have the other cutlet tonight. I'll make yellow grilled zucchini and bell pepper to go with it. And maybe either tzaziki or homemade tomato ketchup. We'll see!

Also on my to-do list: black bean burgers! I need more protein!

Chocolate Covered Banana Cranberry Bars, Banana Cranberry Cake & Pasta with Tomato-Bean Sauce & garlicky Greens

2008-05-26T10:39:00.004+02:00

What to do on a Sunday when hung-over?

I decided to stay in my PJ's, put on Friends, got a plate, a knife and dried bananas & cranberries. This is without a doubt my new favorite sweet treat! I can only suggest you try it yourself =)

Banana Cranberry Chocolate Bars (makes 3 small bars)
1/4 cup dried bananas
1/4 cup dried cranberries
dark chocolate for covering

I guess it would be the easiest to throw it all into a food processor or blender, but I cut it all into tiny pieces with a knife.
Then I took a plastic wrap and pressed the mixture into shape.
Then I melted the chocolate and covered the bars in it.
I had some chocolate left so I got out some hazelnuts, raisins (I recently discovered that I don't really hate them anymore, yay!) and dried bananas to cover it with.

I also bought new boxes. A small one (picture below), three medium ones for only 5 € and a big lunch box divided into three sections.

And now onto the Banana Coffee Cake. I turned it into a Banana Cranberry Cake because I doubled the recipe before realizing I didn't have enough bananas.

I served it with cranberry "jam". It was delicious and I ate so much warm cake that my tummy hurt afterwards =p

And a picture of a delicious golden kiwi!
I get an allergic reaction when I eat regular kiwi, but since the golden ones contain less fruit acid I can eat them without much trouble. Another staple fruit, now that I finally found a store that carries them.

Yesterday my boyfriend came over and declared he was hungry.
We both had no idea what to make so after checking my cupboards I decided to cook the rest of the Tofu Tortellini, whole-wheat Linguine, garlicky Broccoli & Zucchini to go with it and a ready-to-eat tomato sauce that I pimped with an onion and 1/3 cup baked beans.
Then I sprinkled it with nutritional yeast(like 4 times in a row, haha, *sings* I just can't get enough) and dug in. Yummy =)

Yesterday my internet worked again, but when I turned on le big Mac this morning it didn't connect anymore. Wtf? I hate this!
I'll try to comment during my break and pray that it'll work again when I come home tonight.
Hope you had a nice weekend and a good start into the new week!

Zucchini Fritters with Tzaziki

2008-05-23T10:41:00.008+02:00

Boy, last night's dinner was good!

First off: my boyfriend enjoyed soy yogurt without knowing it (and he didn't notice a difference)! Ha ha, see? Vegan food is damn delicious!
I intentionally bought the more expensive yogurt that had a higher fat content because Tzaziki simply has to be creamy, no denying in that!

So here's what I did. I mixed together the following...

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup soy yogurt
1/2 cucumber, shredded
1 clove of garlic, crushed or minced
salt, pepper

Now that was easy! I suggest you let it rest a little so the flavor can develop.

And to the Zucchini Fritters...

Ingredients (makes about 10)

3 small zucchinis (about 16.5 oz), shredded
1 small onion
1 big clove of garlic, crushed or minced
1/2 cup soy yogurt (or another egg-replacer for 2 eggs; the yogurt worked very well though)
1 cup whole wheat flour * (I used half whole wheat, half spelt)
3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast (more or less to taste)
1/3 cup oats * (not quick cooking)
1 Tbsp. flax seeds
nutmeg (I put in about a Tbsp. I think, but season to taste)
salt, pepper

* estimated; you may need a little less or a little more; in the beginning my mixture was too wet so I added a little more of both until the consistence was right

On the side I had a salad with Tzaziki as a dressing replacer. This was so so so delicious!
If you're ever going to make Zucchini Fritters I highly suggest you make Tzaziki to go with them.

It's a match made in tastebud-heaven!

I also wanted to explain why I've been so bad at commenting lately. My internet connection at home hasn't been working for a few days and I have no idea how to fix it. That means I only get the chance to update when I'm at work and we're more busy than usual lately so I don't really have the time =(
I love checking out your blogs during breaks, but I'm afraid I'll have to wait until I get my internet back to comment on most of your posts.

Pink Summer Oatmeal

2008-05-22T11:05:00.001+02:00

As Joey Tribbiani would've said "That's like summer in a bowl!"

I cooked the oats in soymilk with a squirt of agave syrup and cinnamon and added the frozen raspberries and mango afterwards. Tried to eat a little more raw here =p

It was delicious! The flavor of the mango paired with raspberries... mhhhhhh!!!

Later I'll make the Banana Coffee Cake Ruby just made, because I have a few more-than-ripe bananas and I totally drooled when I saw it in her post. Just look at the picture... yumm!

Sandwiches, Bagels and a Spicy Tomato-Veggie Soup

2008-05-21T10:39:00.006+02:00

A few days ago I had the fabulous combination of PB, Jelly and banana on a rye toastie, which I would've never thought of hadn't it been for some of you bloggers! So thanks!

I also bought a mini Ciabatta with Bear's Garlic... not the best buy. It smelled like feet - and sadly didn't taste much different =(

And yesterday I made a yummy Tomato-Veggie Soup. I put in more chili powder than I had intended to, but as the boyfriend put it it was "a pleasant spicyness"!
My best PB friend brought bagels: sunflower seed, everything and spinach! And it really did taste like spinach =D

I sautéed a big onion and 3 cloves of garlic in veggie broth, added a green and a red bell pepper, cauliflower and broccoli, about 2 cups each, 1 zucchini and a pack tomato puree, two jars of crushed tomatoes and about 3 Tbsp. tomato paste, lots of oregano, some rosemary, paprika and chili powder, salt and pepper. No oil needed =)

If it ain't art... then I don't know!

2008-05-20T10:44:00.002+02:00

This is so amazing!

Probably every person I know has seen this, it's spreading fast! Maybe you've already seen it, too. I figured since you're into graffiti Lindsay, you might be a fan of street art aswell =)

It doesn't fail to amaze me every single time. All the work they must've put into this... I'm seriously speachless.

I can only say Kudos to the artist!!!

Passing time by donating Rice!

2008-05-19T14:30:00.002+02:00

I just came across this site and thought others might be interested.

About FreeRice

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com.

FreeRice has two goals:

Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.

Helpful to others and helpful to myself (as English is not my mother tongue) and a fun way to pass time (at least for me)! =)

Deliciousness on top & inside of a Wrap

2008-05-18T01:06:00.002+02:00

I bought a black olive tapenade a few days ago! It's soooo delicious and I like to spread it on every sandwich I make now ;)

Yesterday I used a tortilla, a layer of baked beans in tomato sauce, cucumber slices, then cherry tomatoes, on top of that lots of baby spinach and the perfection on top: red beets! Then I rolled it up, spread it with a thin layer of cream cheese and some olive tapenade.

I was worried the red beet might not taste that good in combination with tomatoes, but it was an incredibly tasty wrap! Oh how I love red beets!!!

Quinoa Pesto-Asparagus -Tomato Salad

2008-05-16T10:16:00.003+02:00

I've come up with this idea when my sister had a pesto noodle salad in Amsterdam. As good as my idea was I chose a rather bad day to make the salad — I had too little pine nuts, used too little garlic and the tomatoes tasted like nothing.

But I'll definitely make this again! This time with the perfect pesto and sundried tomatoes! This is exactly the flavor it was lacking.

Tofu Tortellini with Spinach, Broccoli & Zucchini and Nutmeg Sauce

2008-05-14T10:47:00.005+02:00

Another perfect example for my I-don't-really-know-what-I'm-cooking-here-until-when-it's-done / random-throwing-together-of-appealing-ingredients-found cooking.

I cooked up a recent purchase: multi-colored tortellini with a tofu filling. They were nice, but the filling was a little bland.

Then I checked the freezer and settled on a cup of spinach and six broccoli florets although the brussels sprouts were quite appealing, too. Then I cut half a zucchini and put it all into a pot. Seasoned it with nutmeg, onion & garlic powder (can you tell I was being lazy? =p), salt and pepper and decided that I needed a sauce to go with it. So I quickly remembered the cream cheese in my fridge and veganized a quick unfancy version of the sauce I usually used to eat my tortellinis with.
One Tbsp. of cream cheese mixed with a little less than 1/4 cup soy milk. Seasoned with lots of nutmeg and oregano, some salt and pepper et voilá!

I have some blueberries in my fridge slowly starting their way torwards death so I'm thinking Oat Squares (Veggie Girl raved about them), scones (I've wanted to make them ever since la mistress mexicana Jennifer gave me the recipe) or good old-fashioned muffins like Alice made a few days ago! Mhh, so many things to choose from.

This blog world is just too full of inspirational people with amazing skills!
Not that it's a bad thing, ha ha! It just makes it so damn hard to decide =p

Wise words, Ice Cream & Snacks

2008-05-13T13:52:00.001+02:00

When I went to the Karneval der Kulturen on sunday I spotted a man in the crowd wearing a black t-shirt that quoted Mahatma Gandhi.

"I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. I detest the unpardonable slaughter of innocent life in the name of science and humanity so-called, and all the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence."

That convinced me, once again, that I'm doubtlessly practicing the right lifestyle.

That said, my boyfriend's getting more and more used to it. Yesterday his friend told him about a place here in Berlin where you can get vegan Döner and he was like "I instantly thought of you! We should go there!" Yep, he knows how to make me smile!
Of course we're still arguing every now and then. He still insists that you can not and were not meant to live without meat (riiiight...). He's become more open to the points I make though.
And since I don't feel like I have enough arguments I figured it's way about time to buy The China Study(and while I'm at it I think I'll get Eat to Live, too). Too bad it's not available in German, because everytime I try to make a statement to someone even now I don't know how to translate it into German so it'll make as much as an impact as it would in English. Know what I mean?

Onto the food, I had a yummy rye bread roll this morning with soy cream cheese (finally I found one, shouldn't use it for baking though because it's rather salty), basil, arugula, tomato and cucumber.

Yesterday I had half a bread roll with cream cheese and a tomato and bell pepper to go with it.

My mom bought these ice cream waffle "bowls" a few days ago and I considered them to contain egg or butter or something, but they're completely vegan =D
You can see Tofutti's Mango & Passionfruit and Chocolate ice cream(you were right Ruby, it's delicious) with crunchy amaranth cereal on top.

I realize that this is rather a snack post, but I've cooked up this dish again because it's just too yummy so that's why there's nothing new.
Hopefully tonight =)

Another quick Tortilla dinner & chinese inspired Veggie Rice Stir-Fry

2008-05-11T10:42:00.003+02:00

More groceries! I'm really in the mood for grocery shopping at the moment it seems..

The crunchy amaranth cereal is fantastic in yogurts and the dried mango strips... well, I ate them all yesterday and felt sick because it were too many but they were seriously too good to stop =p

Also, I finally bought Hoisin sauce as you can see in the first picture! After I got back from Amsterdam I ate at this chinese place in Kreuzberg twice. They have all kinds of dishes, sushi, vegetarian dishes and even burgers that can be ordered vegan with tofu instead of fish.

I chose their veggie rice which was so good that I got the same thing twice. The sauce was delicious!! And they topped the whole thing off with pine nuts... yumm!!!

So I recreated the dish with much more veggies of course. I failed to get soy sprouts, but this was a fantastic light and very satisfying dinner nonthless.

I used a handful of baby asparagus and broccoli, 1/4 yellow and red bell pepper, 1/4 cup scallions, 1/2 carrot and pine nuts. I used to be not too fond of pine nuts and their flavor for a very long time and when I tried them this time the taste kind of reminded me of the fake ham flavor potato chips used to have... odd =p

Then on another day I had wanted to make a nice and finally more complete than usual mexican dinner à la me(meaning it's usually just inspired and I always end up making up my own variation to my liking anyway)tonight... with rice, guacamole and whatnot. But plans for tonight changed & I was left with very little time so I just cooked up a quick garlic-onion-black-and-white-bean-peperoni-tomato something and used roasted baby asparagus in it and as "the sprinkle" of my salad. Along with the new balsamico-basil dressing I bought (all the way to the left).

I used to roast it with some olive oil, but now I just wash it and put it right into the oven for about 20 minutes and it turns out perfectly.

Tortillas to the rescue!

2008-05-08T11:01:00.006+02:00

Yesterday I did some shopping and stocked up on things to have on hand when I don't feel like cooking or don't have much time. Meaning jarred stuff like a regular tomato basil sauce, baked beans in tomato sauce, spicy peperoni tomato sauce, sweet corn, lentils etc.
And after a long long time without it I got soy yogurt again: blueberry and raspberry vanilla, mhhh!

And you can not believe how I beamed with joy when I looked into the stores freezer and saw TOFUTTI ICE CREAM! I literally could've danced! Ha ha, I felt like grabbing the person standing next to me "They have vegan ice cream!!! WOOOHOOO!" just to have someone to share my joy with, even if they don't give a damn =p Finally I can have ice cream again and it's the perfect timing as it's getting pretty hot here. I've been wearing skirts the last three days and I'm usually someone who's always cold so that really says something ;)

Anyway, I settled on mango and passionfruit (will have to get chocolate and strawberry too when there's free space in the freezer again). It's delicious!!! I had actually planned to ask my boyfriend tonight if he'd like some mango ice cream and serve it to him with fresh mango and pomgrenate to see what he'd say (without telling him that it was vegan ice cream of course), but you can obviously tell that it's not dairy ice cream. So sadly no fooling today!

But I'll have this fruity treat for sure and I'll just shove a spoon with a big mango chunk in his mouth and see if he'll be able to get over himself and and ask for his own portion. Oh the evil plan, ha ha!

So anyway, after grocery shopping and cleaning out my cupboards I was happy about the fact that I still had tortillas and could use my new purchases.
Sadly I can't seem to find whole wheat tortillas anywhere which really bothers me. But these worked just aswell for a quick dinner. The lamb's lettucce I had meant to use had gone bad already so the tortilla was rather plain, but still filling and satisfying.

Baked beans mixed with a spicy peperoni sauce, seasoned with oregano & pepper, followed by fresh bell pepper strips, tomatoes and sweet corn.

The addition to my boyfriend's was a thin layer of the spicy sundried tomato-walnut paste under the beans and on top and whole peperoni inside. His was the hot version, mine the "better safe than sorry" mild version =p

My boyfriend told me he had a phase where he bought cans of baked beans and ate them plain all the time, all day long. Ha ha, so I'll definitely buy these more often!

Tonight I'll make pretty much the same, but take more time for the preparation. I have to use my avocado so guacamole will be made and I'll pimp the bean-peperoni sauce a little with fresh herbs and onions and garlic. And maybe unfreeze some rice and add more veggies (I'm thinking grilled... yummm, I love that pan!).

Adopting!

2008-05-07T15:54:00.004+02:00

For a while now I have been thinking about adopting a dog.

Reasons for why I haven't so far were that I was still at a school where it would've been impossible to bring a dog.
I would never get a dog if I wasn't 100% sure that I would be able to take care of it 24/7 or have a very reliable person I could trust would take good care of him/her in case I needed to go somewhere where I wouldn't be able to bring a dog. Too little time is the reason why most people give their dogs to shelters.

I love cats, too. And I have wanted one since forever as they do not need constant care the way dogs do which would've freed me from worrying about what to do with it when I was out of the house for a few hours, say at school.
But when I still lived with my parents I couldn't have one because my sister and dad are allergic. When I moved out I lived with my girlfriend, also allergic. And now I'm with Hendrik who is allergic, too. I think the universe doesn't want me to have a cat, tsss!

Anyway, the reason why I bring this up is that I'm doing an internship at the moment and I could bring a dog to work. After the internship I'll finish my studies at my school that - you guessed it - allows you to bring your dog. It was so adorable, last summer there were at least four dogs running around outside!

That said I don't have to worry about where to find a reliable person anymore either. My best girlfriend has a dog herself and was like "I would watch your dog all the time, no problem!" and my boyfriend who is crazy about dogs would probably want to keep him or her =p

So now I've been browsing the website from the Berlin shelter and have found a few dogs. And I totally fell for this little fella!

His name is Kalle, he's a 4-year old dachshund mix and has epilepsy. The shelter provides lifelong free care and medicine because of that. Now I'm wondering what it's like if a dog has epilepsy. But god, look at him! How could you not just want to wrap him up in your arms and provide him a loving new home?

This one is Jenny, also a 4-year old. She was found.

And that's Jessy, five years old. Also given away because her owners had too little time.

So I am planning to visit the animal shelter very soon. Of course it would be great to have a puppy, raise it and see it grow up. But when there are so many dogs in shelters who really need a home I believe it's the only way to go!
Imagine being an orphan, not getting adopted because you're "too old" and "not cute" anymore... Okay, it's a different thing if adopting a child is not an option for you because you want your "own flesh and blood". But why a new puppy? You may see it grow up, but the own flesh and blood saying won't work here.
So you might aswell rescue a little soul waiting to get all the attention, care and love it needs and love it like it was your own!

Well, I'll keep you updated on this =)

Grilled Veggie Bagels, Sundried Tomato Zucchini Mix & Linguine with Pesto

2008-05-07T14:18:00.001+02:00

Half the fun is getting there... even if it means you have to sit between bikes!

Amsterdam was so much fun! I went with my best friend, the one I made all the PB birthday treats for. He gets along perfectly well with my sister so we explored the city together and enjoyed lovely hours at Cafés & Bars and the Vondelpark of course, where I also spent my birthday lying in the sun!

Ha ha, loved it!

The parrots were there, too! I woke up, looked out of the window and was like "See, the parrots came to greet you!" "Huh, PARROTS???" Ha ha =p

I also experienced Queensday for the first time. Lovely, great weather, great music! Like a small Loveparade ;)

I did not eat out a lot though, because I had to watch my money. I got this Avocado & Tomato Bagel the first day we got there which was 4.40 or something and very tasty!

I spent lots of money at Albert Heijn, basically living on the typical soft toast-like bread that I spread with a tomato pasta sauce, ready-to-eat salad mixes and fresh tomatoes. Oh, and not to forget the tasty ontbijtkoek!

I was more than happy to come home and find a wrapped Veganomicon upon my birthday gifts =D
I was looking at the recipes and pictures going "Ohhh, I craved something like that all week!" at basically each and everything that contained veggies =p

So as much as I missed preparing my own meals I now miss my sister a whole lot and would happily go a week without vegetables again if it meant I could see her again.
Oh well, I'll see her in two months hopefully!

So after my craving for veggies and the rediscovered love for healthy bagels I finally used my grill pan I got at IKEA and it works so well, I can say I'm in love!

The grilled veggies: eet smakelig!!!

I marinated a sliced zucchini, asparagus, scallions, a can white beans, a jar roasted bell pepper and fresh mushrooms (for le boyfriend) in a Tbsp. olive oil, 3 or 4 cloves of minced garlic and lots of rosemary (fresh aswell as dried) and thyme.

With an everything bagel.

My whole-wheat sunflower seed bagel.

Het waar lekker!

Then I made this a few days ago. I don't know what I should call this. Stir-Fry? Side dish? Anyway, it was good ;)

Long grain white rice, wild rice and some special red rice which I can't remember the name of.
I used 1 zucchini, 1/2 cup asparagus and 1 cup sundried tomatoes cut into small pieces. I mixed the vegetables with 2 Tbsp. tomato paste and 3 heaping Tbsp. of a spicy sundried tomato-walnut paste I had bought, along with black olives marinated in garlic on top. This was pretty spicy! I liked the taste, but my stomach isn't used to even the slightest heat so I didn't feel too well after eating it. I gave the rest to my parents and they both liked it very much, it being spicy in particular! Seeing people happily eating my food and complimenting me always makes me wish I had my own vegan Café/Bistro =) Someday... he he!

After buying fresh basil again I finished off the whole plant in one sitting because I craved pesto. I bought whole wheat linguine because I was really in the mood for pasta.
As for the preparation... I had VwaV, HiaV and a vegetarian cookbook lying open looking at the recipes and in the end didn't follow one.

I used 3 1/2 cups basil, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 Tbsp. pine nuts and 3 Tbsp. grated almonds (estimated, I just tipped them into my blender from the bag) and about 1/3 cup water and a little salt.

Then I mixed under some zucchini sautéed in garlic and topped it off with fresh tomatoes!

This was exactly what I had needed! Pesto never fails to make my day when it's homemade. So much better than the jarred stuff!
The boyfriend ate it too. And you know what? He didn't say anything about the noodles. He HATES (better yet fears for a to me unknown reason) anything whole-wheat like so many people do. Just another proof that What the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve over. Hope the translater gave me the right saying here =p

It's good to be back! Hope everyone's doing good!

Bean Quesadillas and the fruitiest Berry Birthday Crisp

2008-04-25T12:03:00.007+02:00

For my mom's birthday I made VwaV's Quinoa Mango Black Bean Salad as requested!
Don't the colors of the flowers & salad match perfectly? Ha ha!

I wrapped it up in a Tortilla later: a tasty idea! I really enjoyed it this way.

I usually hate peeling and cutting mango, but the skin was easily removable this time and left the mango flesh looking funny.

Doesn't it totally look like mango sorbet inside of a mango? =p

The Berry Crisp goodness! Frozen blueberries & raspberries and fresh blackberries & blueberries.

Before it went into the oven.

We had so much fun eating this dessert and couldn't stop laughing over each others blue teeth and lips =p

And about dinner two days ago. I must apologize. When I made quesadillas with my leftover salsa I made my boyfriend's first. Took a picture, then made mine. Forgot to take a picture of it, erm... anyway, mine looked basically the same minus the mushrooms and the cheese on top.

As he ate he went "I'm eating so healthy because of you!" "Well, sorry.." "No no, you can be proud!" Ha ha =p
I'll never understand why so many people fear healthy and nutritionous food (such as whole wheat for example)!?

Sorry, you can't even see the filling =( I spread it with salsa that I had mixed with kidney beans before, put bell pepper slices and corn on top and that was it. Very tasty!

This will be my last post for a week as I am going to visit my sister! I'm so excited, my best friend is coming along and I'm sure this will be such a fun week!! With LOTS of pictures!
So have a great week everyone and take care! =)

Mexican Pizza makes my night!

2008-04-23T10:39:00.006+02:00

The pizza pan came to the rescue last night. And the result did not diappoint!

I felt the need for a change, not the regular broccoli bell pepper pizza again so I looked through the cupboards and the fridge and decided to make... Salsa (or whatever you want to call it)

Ingredients
1 can chopped tomatoes (omit the juice)
4 cherry tomatoes, chopped (ha ha not neccessary, I just found them in my fridge)
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1/4 cup premade tomato sauce (or tomato puree seasond with a little oregano)
1/4 cup chopped scallions
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
chili powder (about 1/2 tsp.)
salt & pepper, to taste

I topped our pizza with salsa, black beans, corn, yellow and green bell pepper, scallions, a little onion and put vegan mozzarella on my half, the other half was my boyfriend's with regular cheese and additional mushrooms and peperoni.

Mhh, close-up! The crust was so perfectly crispy, just the way I like it!

This pizza was so delicious! I loved the beans and corn, so good!
I have a little salsa left over, as well as black beans so I'm thinking tonight will be the night I'll finally make burritos. I bought an avocado for guacamole and now all else I need is tortillas.

On another note it's my mom's birthday tomorrow. She requested Vcon's Quinoa Black Bean Mango Salad which she couldn't stop raving about ever since we first had it, ha ha =)
And for dessert I think I'll go with another one of her favorites: the delicious berry crisp by the Happy Herbivore!

PBJ Banana Goodness and an "Asian" Veggie & Rice Stir-Fry

2008-04-21T17:08:00.007+02:00

A few days ago I had the grilled Peanut Butter Jelly Banana Sandwich people seem to eat all the time. It was so good! I just couldn't decide how to cut the banana =p

Last night I made a simple, light and satisfying dinner after being inspired by the take-out chinese food I had this weekend that was way too oily in my opinion.
Seriously, why do people think it's neccessary to drown tiny vegetable pieces in cups of oil? Not only am I pretty sure that most people would appreciate low-fat versions (I don't demand them to be no or low fat, but get the amount right damnit), the restaurant itself would probably save quite some money in the long run if they used 4 Tbsp. less oil for each dish.

Oh well, in that case I'll rely on myself and recreate the dish the way I want it to be. And that would be it:

Ingredients
2 bell peppers, chopped (I used 1/2 yellow, 1 red & 1/2 green)
3 cups chinese cabbage, chopped
1/3 bamboo shoots
2 carrots, shredded
3 scallions, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced
soy sauce
salt, a dash pepper

First sautee the bell pepper & celery for 10 minutes, then add the bamboo shoots, carrot and chinese cabbage and under stirring cook for 5 more minutes.

Completely fat free and again, boyfriend and father approved!

I had rice left over and craved something dessert-like, but didn't have anything on hand really so I came up with this. Rice, 3 Tbsp. apple sauce, a squirt agave and a few dashes of cinnamon. And not to forget cashews.

PYROG Salad & Baba Ganoush

2008-04-16T13:55:00.013+02:00

What a burst of color and taste!

The name PYROG was put together simply because of the colors. I mixed chopped red cabbage (P=purple), a bell pepper (Y=yellow), cherry tomatoes (R=red), shredded carrot (O=orange), regular and lamb's lettucce and cucumber slices(G=green) and topped it all with roasted sunflower seeds. The dressing pretty much consisted of Balsamico bianco, a little olive oil and 1 tsp. fig mustard.

I don't have salad often enough and I always wonder why. It's not that time consuming and it always tastes good. Plus, the boyfriend loves to eat it. He gets all excited when I make salad (the kind of excitement I get when I see the Lindt commercial and start to believe that I will one day work in that exact same setting =p) - even more reasons to toss together some greens every now and then!

I also made Baba Ganoush for the first time and used this recipe(added some additional fresh parsley). But being the way I am I did not start small and then added more, as suggested by Susan. I used 2 cloves of garlic. BIG cloves! So when I tasted it... woooosh, hardcore garlic infusion! Even for a garlic lover like me.

So I didn't eat much of it and decided not to grill my veggies (I wanted to use my new grill pan to try out Katies recipe using asparagus, zucchini and bell pepper to accompany the Baba Ganoush) and just had some slices of raw bell pepper instead. I don't eat enough raw vegetables... I'll really try to eat a big salad every day(or at least every other day)!

Pizza Pizza!

2008-04-14T13:10:00.007+02:00

I went to IKEA on Saturday and got a pizza pan!!! =D
So on Sunday I made my first pizza crust using this recipe (which I can highly recommend!!). I made my dough with whole wheat and spelt flour, used cornmeal and no oil. My boyfriend who fears whole wheat insisted on regular flour and oil and was more than happy with the result!

My pizza (with garlic broccoli, fresh basil, red onions, cauliflower, red bell pepper, scallions and peperoni).

My boyfriends pizza. I have to admit - his crust tasted better!

Other than that I tried alpros new Soya Macchiato milk. It tastes great in coffee, but just as good on its own!

Ratatouille with roasted rosemary potatoes

2008-04-09T19:38:00.004+02:00

After finding fresh rosemary at the supermarket yesterday I immediately thought of roasted potatoes. So I bought two zucchini, an eggplant and tomatoes and had the following for dinner last night. Again, a well received classic. But there's not much you can do wrong with this anyway.

Cabbage Rolls & Sauerkraut

2008-04-05T19:29:00.003+02:00

Mhh, this leftover stuffing did a good job serving as a filling for cabbage rolls!

I love this meal, despite of the smell that lingers in the kitchen afterwards.

Equilinia-Veggie Stuffed Bell Peppers

2008-04-02T14:15:00.007+02:00

A winner!!!

My mom said "Oh, yummyyyy!" between each and every bite and my fathers only complaint was that it wasn't salty enough. They both really appreciate the fact that I cook for them. In particular that I cook very healthy!
My mom said after dinner "That's what I love about meals like these... you don't feel so full and bloated afterwards!"
My father already thought of additions "Falafel would taste great with this!"

My boyfriend came over with a steak (the sight of that bloody red piece of flesh seriously made me sick) and fries his mom got him that he wanted to make for dinner.
He asked if he could have a stuffed pepper first and inhaled it within a matter of minutes!

Another dinner he really enjoyed, because after he ate his steak and fries - he kept complaining that the steak didn't taste good because it wasn't medium anymore - he asked if he could have another plate of my delicious vegan veggie food! Well that's not how he put it, ha ha! But he wanted more of it.

So he got it, topped with fresh basil! Mhhhhhh!!!!

The stuffing itself would have made a delicious dinner. I bought this Uncle Bens mix a while ago (a mixture of brown & wild rice, spelt, oats, barley, rye & wheat) and mixed it with the following:

Ingredients
1 can mushrooms, finely chopped added to 2 medium sauteed onions, seasoned with salt & pepper
1 cup asparagus, chopped
1 green and 1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/3 cup paprika-hot pepper spread (based on sunflower seeds)
1/3 cup tomato puree
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

I prepared the mushrooms seperately, sauteed the bell pepper with the asparagus and just cut the fresh tomatoes in small pieces and folded them into the rice mixture along with the basil.

I preheated the oven to 428°F

Then I cut the bell peppers in half. I didn't fill whole ones because that would've made only three. That way we had six =)

I filled the halfs with stuffing, lined them up in the baking dish I had filled with about 1/3 cup tomato puree (I'd usually use half a can of tomatoes but I only had a pack of tomato puree on hand), put more filling into the middle of the dish (I still have leftovers - my mom had the fantastic idea last night to make cabbage rolls with the stuffing, I LOVE IT!) and poured the rest of the tomato puree (I used one pack, 1/3 cup for the stuffing) over it.

Covered it up and baked it for about 25 minutes.

Mhhh, can't wait to have that in cabbage rolls =)

Garlic-Thyme String & Black Beans with roasted Garlic Zucchini, Asparagus & Tomatoes

2008-04-01T10:59:00.015+02:00

String Beans with lots of garlic and thyme... that has always been my favorite side dish.
This time I added some black beans which I found in the freezer. Fit very well =)

What a delightful garlic scented dinner! This is a rather fast meal if you have canned beans on hand. Both dishes only need about 15 minutes to cook so they are done at the same time and can be enjoyed right away!

My parents savoured this and my dad asked for more, but I had to disappoint him because I didn't cook that much. Ah well, next time! But I really appreciate it that they enjoy my food and are always willing to try and to comment on everything I make.

So this serves 2-3 I'd say. Or one very hungry person.

Garlic-Thyme String & Black Beans

Ingredients

2-3 Tbsp. water (or more as needed)
1 medium/big onion (I prefer a big one)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can string beans, drained
1 1/2 cup black beans, cooked
thyme (at least 1 Tbsp., but do as you please)
salt & pepper, to taste

1. in a saucepan sautee the onion in water for a few minutes, then add the garlic
2. add the string beans, sprinkle with thyme, some salt & pepper, stir, cover and cook on low-medium for 13 minutes
3. after 13 minutes add the cooked black beans, stir and season with more salt & pepper if needed
4. cover again and cook for 2 more minutes

Roasted Garlic Zucchini, Asparagus & Tomatoes

Ingredients

1 zucchini
1 cup asparagus
2 cups cherry tomatoes
1 clove of garlic, minced

1. preheat the oven to 350°F
2. cut the veggies, line them up on a rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle with garlic, salt and pepper
3. roast for 15-20 minutes

My parents had a sunflower seed pita pocket to go with it.

And I finally made a recipe index, check it out if you like!

Kale and Potato Hash & ChickBeetPotato Sandwich

2008-03-30T19:59:00.000+02:00

In the mess that is called my recipe book I found one for a Kale and Potato Hash I had copied from some website quite some time ago and altered the recipe a little. When I wanted to take a picture of the bowl I realized my batteries were empty, but no panic! Luckily my old digicam was loaded.

No kidding, my boyfriend loved this! He ate at least half of the bowl! I was like "Why didn't you say anything? I would've made more!" He said "Well, I couldn't foresee that it would be so tasty!" Ha ha.

Ingredients (serves 1)

2 medium potatoes
1 cup kale, chopped
1 tsp. olive oil + 2-3 Tbsp. water (you can always omit the oil and use only water instead, but I figured a little hint of olive flavor wouldn't hurt here)
1 medium onion
2-3 Tbsp. soy milk (optional)
1 - 1 1/2 Tbsp. balsamico bianco
nutmeg, to taste (I used about 2 Tbsp. I think)
salt & pepper, to taste

1. cook the potatoes
2. in a saucepan sautee the onions in oil & water
3. add the salt, pepper and vinegar
4. add the kale to this mixture
5. add the cooked potatoes, mash them with a fork and add soy milk
6. season with nutmeg and pepper

I had beet salad on the side which I put on top of the potatoes after the first bite, because it went so well together.

And you may have been wondering... a ChickBeetPotato Sandwich? Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call it a sandwich, but I didn't know how to call this odd creation that satisfied the hell out of me!

Here you go: I had a leftover potato and leftover beet salad, we had fresh whole-wheat carrot bread so I sliced the potato, topped it with a layer of beet salad, baked two Falafel balls, mashed them a little and topped them with some more beet salad.

My two bread slices were loaded so I decided to use silverware - something that always seemed odd to me. I remeber sitting at my aunts table as a kid, wondering why on earth she was eating a small slice of bread that was only topped with a slice of cheese with a fork & a knife when one could just as well hold it in the hand.

Now I like to eat bread with silverware too, because you don't eat as fast and get to enjoy your food longer. The whole process of eating is intensified! I started eating pizza with a fork & a knife (something that always seemed so out of question) for those reasons, too.
Well, that was back in the cheese eating days I guess because cheese tastes crappy once it cools and hardens - I always got so greedy, seconds later my slice was gone and I didn't even get to really taste and enjoy it. I remember shoving my pizza down so fast just so that I'd get to enjoy the cheese while it tasted best: hot and runny. And it was on top and in the crust... jeez =p Well, that's not a problem anymore now!

Last night I made a pizza with - eek - mushrooms (often just the smell or the thought of chewing one makes me sick... apparently I can only eat them in Pierogies, don't ask me why)! I decided to give them another try - just to give them all to my boyfriend in the end. Ah well, it was good nonetheless. I had mine with lots of sliced zucchini and green asparagus (oh how I love it!) and convinced my boyfriend to let me top his with veggies, too. He loved the combination of the three!
Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture because I hadn't eaten anything the whole day and was starving so it was gone within a matter of minutes (of which I spent at least three picking the mushrooms off my pizza) .

Lemon Corn Pancakes

2008-03-27T20:22:00.002+01:00

Yumm, these were good! Inspired by the Lemon Corn Waffles from VwaV I came up with the following.
Topped with black currant jelly and blueberry jam this was a fluffy yet crunchy and very fruity breakfast!

Ingredients (yields 3 pancakes)

4 Tbsp. whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. corn meal
1/2 tsp. baking powder
pinch salt
1 Tbsp. apple sauce
2-4 Tbsp. water
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. soy milk
juice and zest from 1/2 lemon (or 1 lemon, depends on how lemony you like it)
1 Tbsp. agave syrup

Red Beet Salad & Sweet Potato Fries

2008-03-25T20:57:00.006+01:00

Okay, I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes. I had three fries... but they're not for me. The sweet taste was irritating and not very much to my liking. Anyway, at least I can cross the sweet potato off my list of things to try.

The red beet salad was fantastic though, but I love red beet anyway. I used jarred ones(vinegar is in there already) and shredded them and along with an onion. Simple as that! And most importantly - it tastes sooo good!!!

Peanut Butter Invasion

2008-03-24T20:03:00.009+01:00

First off here's a pic I meant to post in the beginning of March, but totally forgot in the mess that is my images folder ;)
Anyway, I pretty much had the same breakfast today: a pear, Blueberry Raspberry Pancakes with applesauce, blueberry sauce and maple syrup.

And now onto the birthday baking. I apologize because we were in a hurry and when we arrived at his place I honestly just didn't think of taking more food pictures although there was A LOT of food. His mom made many turkish dishes. I had the vegetarian ones: couscous and hummus. And even though her hummus was perfectly prepared I still don't get why so many seem to go nuts over it.

But now I present you the best chocolate cookies! I am not kidding. If you're into the combination of banana, peanut butter and chocolate you will love these! If you're not into the banana taste simply use another egg-replacer.

They were actually supposed to have a PB core inside, but we were out of peanut butter and made only the chocolate cookies. I'll post the full recipe though, they are totally worth it!

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Munchies

Ingredients (makes 32 cookies)

Chocolate Cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup vegan margarine, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy)
1/2 banana, mashed (or egg-replacer for 1 egg of choice)
1 Tbsp. soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla

1. stir together flour, cocoa, and baking soda, set aside
2. in a separate bowl, mix margarine, sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter
3. add mashed banana, soy milk, and vanilla, beating well
4. beat in as much flour mixture as possible using a mixer, stir in the remaining flour mixture
5. form into 32 balls, about 1 & 1/4 inches in diameter, set aside

Peanut Butter Filling
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp.s granulated sugar

1. beat together powdered sugar and peanut butter until smooth (knead by hand if necessary) and shape into 32 balls
2. preheat oven to 350°
3. slightly flatten a chocolate dough ball and top with a peanut butter filling ball, shape the chocolate dough completely around the peanut butter dough, roll into a ball and repeat with remaining dough
4. place cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking pan
5. bake for about 8 minutes or just until set

The cookie surfaces should be slightly cracked. Cool on pan for about a minute. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Can be frozen for up to 3 months!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake.
You were right Jennifer, this crunchy but soft cake was fantastic!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Crispy Bars from Have Cake, Will Travel!

The Peanut Butter Cinnamon Rolls which my friend liked the most.
They looked pretty much like those, but we didn't have time left for icing but had already mixed powdered sugar, cinnamon and vanilla sugar together and just put that on top which lead to the picture - lots of sugar, but where are the rolls?

And not very photogenic, but damn tasty! Crunchy, sweet and perfect with the raspberry jam in the middle: Peanut Butter Cupcakes from VwaV. We just added jam and 71% chocolate pieces.

All in all this was a huge success, everything was very well recieved and I was called the MacGyver of baking because everyone was like "I'll call you when I want to bake and am missing an egg so you can tell me what to use instead!" Ha ha =p

I wanted to make a pie with silken tofu, too. But the stores were closed on Friday and when I wanted to buy it on Saturday I looked at the recipe again to read that it was supposed to cool in the fridge overnight. So no pie, but there was wayyy to much food anyway.
Talking about way too much food, I just came back from my best friend who's polish and her mom made Pierogies & Borscht, roasted rosemary potatoes, red beet salad and lamb's lettucce with oranges... SUCH a filling and wonderful dinner!

Grilled Veggie Pita and Easter Goodies

2008-03-24T11:39:00.005+01:00

Just a quick update about my dinner yesterday. The PB Birthday goods will be posted later, I'm just off to meet my friend to take pictures.

First, salad: red cabbage with red beet, a little balsamico bianco and sunflower seeds.

And my "main course": grilled red bell pepper, zucchini slices, broccoli, scallions, brussels sprouts and tomatoes on a mashed Falafel in a sunflower seed pita pocket with a layer of pepper-peperoni spread.

I'm proud (and totally surprised by myself to be honest) to announce that I managed to resist the temptation until Sunday and therefor highly enjoyed my espresso chocolate last night.
And my mom was so sweet! She got me a Lindt Goldhase mug and lots of dark chocolate =)

Hope you had a good time with your friends and family aswell!

Veggie-Lentil Curry, Carrot Cupcakes & Falafel

2008-03-21T20:13:00.004+01:00

Tonight I had a craving for lentils and cauliflower again, but didn't want the same meal I've had in my post before so I made a few additions.

I prepared the cauliflower the same way like I did here. The red lentils were prepared like before, too with an addition of 1/2 tsp. curry powder and a dash of chili powder.
To make the dish more colorful I roasted a red & yellow bell pepper and some zucchini that I sprinkled with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder in the oven for 20 minutes on 375°F.

Yesterday I went to the Bio supermarket to get new agave and bought Falafel. Homemade ones would've tasted better for sure, but they weren't bad and the idea of having Falafel ready within 8 minutes was quite appealing so I bought them along with new whole wheat pitas.

I bought a sunflower seed based pepper & pepperoni spread that I used, along with 1/4 cup shredded red cabbage, tomatoes and cucumber.

And I made Happy Herbivore's Fat Free Carrot Cupcakes with Maple Frosting. I used a little bit too much applesauce, because after 20 minutes in the oven they were still a little gooey inside. But did I mind? Hell no, there was no egg in there so I could have just as well eaten the raw batter =p To be honest I snacked quite a lot while mixing together the applesauce, shredded carrot and vanilla. Tasted delicious! I think I'll make that as a snack again soon!
But back to the cupcakes - my best (girl)friend tried one and loved it, the icing in particular. She's an omni so I got the "There's really no egg in there? Amazing...!" between each bite, ha ha!

So, tomorrow the big baking for the night's party will take place. I'm so excited!
I have to hurry now though, the boyfriend's waiting!

Hear you on Sunday I guess. Happy Easter and have a nice weekend everyone!

Red Lentils with Cauliflower

2008-03-18T10:53:00.005+01:00

I couldn't decide what to make for dinner last night so I just started cooking some cauliflower and then settled for red lentils to go with it. Another delicious and nutritious meal. Mhmmm! Lentils are so good and I can't believe I waited until now to make them, because they had been sitting in my cupboard for at least a month now. But hey, I think they won't be around for too long since I'm already thinking about how to use them next.

Cauliflower florets with nutmeg & salt and 1/2 cup red lentils with a tsp. vegetable broth, salt, pepper, some paprika powder and nutmeg, a small sauteed onion, a dash of garlic powder, tumeric and cumin.

And thank you all for your comments on my last post =)

Birthday Baking!

2008-03-17T15:49:00.005+01:00

My best friend turns 20 in four days and I want to spoil him with baked goods.
He's a peanut butter lover BIG TIME and here's what I've planned to make for him so far:

- No Bake Black Bottom Peanut Butter Silk Pie (VwaV)
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Swirl Cookies (I'll veganize an old recipe I used once which he loved)
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

Now what I'm asking you to do is: post your favorite recipe that includes peanut butter. I want him to squeal like a little girl when he sees the baked goods =p

I'd love you forever and ever if you helped me out with this. I just need more ideas and reviews (especially on the No Bake Pie... is it good?), because these goods will represent veganism (there will be omnis only) and under no circumstances do I want people to be able to say "See, I told you vegan food tastes like crap!". I think you know what I mean ;)

Thanks in advance! I'm off to lunch now!

Granola Bars

2008-03-17T10:28:00.005+01:00

So I'm back at work. I've been here for an hour and my bosses are chatting next door. Oh well, that gives me time to update my blog! I don't mind chilling a little longer ;)

Last night I had a toasted pita pocket. Not whole wheat, but at least with sunflower seeds ;)
One half with mustard & red bell pepper, the other half with the all-time favorite peanut butter & jelly.

Yeah, as you may be able to tell I wasn't really in the mood for cooking.

This weekend I made Rominas Granola Bars. The recipe sounded wonderful, exactly like what I was looking for. Sadly I think I pressed them in the pan too much because they tasted pretty gum-like. Or I should've left them in the oven longer.

I topped it with peanut butter because it was rather dry. That kind of helped, but nevertheless I wasn't able to eat more than one half.

I'm sure they would've tasted great if only they had turned out like hers. I will give them a try again some time and get them right!

Classic Breakfast Food

2008-03-13T14:48:00.004+01:00

Of course I'm talking about oatmeal ;)

Mhhh, this one was so good. The pear was perfectly ripe and the whole combination was highly satisfying!

Ingredients
1/4 cup oats
2/4 cups + 2-3 Tbsp. soy milk
1 Tbsp. sugar (or sweetener of choice)
1-2 Tbsp. flax seeds
dash cinnamon
1 pear, chopped

I let half the pear cook with the oats and added the other half when it was done. and sprinkled it with almond slices.

This one's a little more fancy. Or let's say it just included more ingredients than the Pear Oatmeal.

Ingredients
1/4 cup oats
2/4 cups soy milk
1/2 mashed ripe banana
1 Tbsp. sugar (or sweetener of choice, I'm out of agave atm)
dash cinnamon
1 apple, chopped
walnuts
toasted almonds

Luckily I still had some Blueberry Sauce from VwaV that went perfectly well with this breakfast!

I'm off to enjoy the beautiful weather now! The sun is shining and I can't wait to cruise on my bike again!

It's Waffle Time!

2008-03-11T19:30:00.004+01:00

I made VwaV's Lemon Corn Waffles with blueberry sauce yesterday for breakfast and I can only reccomend them to anyone who likes lemon and corn meal. They were lemoney, crunchy and overall delicious! I didn't take a picture though because my batteries were empty.

This morning I made Vegan Dad's waffles and Jennas Banana-Walnut Waffles.
Since I made the regular waffle batch first I was left with 1/4 cup too little flour, added some corn meal but the mixture was still runny. Anyway, I had to scratch it out of my waffle iron, but the taste was still wonderful! Thanks so much for providing the recipe Jenna, I'll definitely give them another try once I have flour in the house again =)

My messy breakfast table after breakfast(as you can see I made too many regular waffles, there were more left over than the picture shows): green tea, some pear slices, berries, waffles, blueberry sauce, powdered sugar...

I'm on my way to meet some friends now, but I'll definitely comment on your blogs tomorrow. I've been checking out your new posts, but haven't had the time to comment yet. But as always I gotta say: your dishes are awesome!!!

Cinnamon Rolls, Berry Crisp, Pizza and Spinach Chickpea Curry

2008-03-07T18:00:00.006+01:00

So here we go: food from the last days!

CINNAMON ROLLS! Mhh, they were so good! My boyfriend loved them and it's extremly hard to get him to say something like "Wow, they are delicious!"
Success!!! I used Bjorkedoffs recipe!

Spelt pizza crust with Barilla Basil Sauce, spinach, broccoli, yellow bell pepper, tomatoes, shredded zucchini and vegan mozzarella.

Chickpea Spinach Curry from VwaV. It was a little bland and sure did not look very pretty, but after adding more spices it was really good! Too many chickpeas for my taste, but other than that this was quite a success.

Happy Herbivores Blueberry Crisp. Such a quick and berrylicious dessert!!!

With ice cream - my dad's plate.

And the raspberry version, because I was out of blueberries.

And then I got fresh blueberries, yumm!

Mashed Cauliflower with Broccoli & Chickpea - Pepper Salsa

2008-03-04T20:08:00.002+01:00

I went grocery shopping today and came home with the following!

Yes, I bought a sweet potato for the first time in my life. We'll see what will happen with it.
And since I'm craving pizza quite often lately, yet never make any dough, I bought spelt pizza crusts.

So here's what I cooked. Rather simple, but verysatisfying.

Katie's Mashed Cauliflower, garlic Broccoli and Chickpea - Pepper Salsa (red pepper, yellow bell pepper, fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 cup cooked & partly mashed chickpeas, onions, garlic, balsamic vinegar, garam masala, dried basil, nutmeg, salt, pepper).

I'm off to enjoy a long night now! I mean hey, I' haven't been on vacation for 6 months. So it really was about time!

Spinach Tortellini, my magical place & something that made my day

2008-03-03T09:01:00.001+01:00

I just cleaned up my kitchen, so now it's about time to show you where the magic happens!

If I should get myself to throw out the couch already I'd have more space, space I need actually. But I love my couch too much ♥ Some day, some day...

For dinner 2 days ago I had the following.

There were no nice tomatoes available at the supermarket so I bought a jar of Bertollis Basil Sauce. I usually don't like to buy something like pasta sauce, because you can easily make it yourself. But this one tasted quite good. Nevertheless I had to add vegetables of course: zucchini, bell pepper, asparagus, broccoli, scallions.

Last night I had the tortellini again, with the same veggie-pimped sauce. I also made spaghetti and Pesto (which was delicious), but I totally forgot to take a picture *slaps*

I'm on vacation for 2 weeks now though so hopefully I'll start cooking more. My parents already mentioned that they like the idea of me having dinner ready every night for the next days when they come home from work, ha ha ;)
I have a loooooong list of things to try so finding recipes shouldn't be hard.

And now it's time to squeal like a little kid... LOOK WHAT I GOT! He he.

Thank you so so much, Jennifer!
I feel incredibly honoured that people enjoy this blog and reading your lines absolutely made my day =) Thank you SO much!!!
There are so many vegan blogs out there I enjoy, and yours is definitely one of my all-time favorites!
Here's also a small list of blogs I visit frequently and enjoy a whole lot:

The Happy Herbivore

Vegan for one

Eat, Live, Run

Chocolate Covered Vegan

Love like a Vegan

Veggie Delight

Eat, Live, Run

The Metal Femme's Vegan Living

Ruby Red Vegan

Melo Meals

Veggie Girl
There are many more... Like Jennifer said I think we can rate the vegan community 'E for Excellent'.

Asparagus Bell Pepper & Broccoli Stir-Fry

2008-02-29T11:03:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I threw together another stir-fry with quinoa on the side because I needed some yummy food fast, I was starving!

I had the following on hand: broccoli, scallions, a red bell pepper and asparagus since I went to the Asian market again. Everything is so cheap there, I love it! But just like last time I went in with nothing more than 2.30 or something, otherwise I would've stocked up on more food. Tofu for 80 cents... seriously, I can't get over it =p

In a different supermarket I found a vegan bell pepper onion dip with mustard and garlic etc. listed as ingredients. I bought it because I thought, thinned out with milk or water, it might make a nice sauce. So I had it with my stir-fry (just a Tbsp. on the side) to try it.
I must say... the taste was in no way to my liking! *shudders* It tasted exactly like eggsalad - a store-bought artifical tasting eggsalad! Yuck!
You could't recognize any of the listed ingredients in the taste of this dip and that really freaked me out. Plus, it tasted very much like mayonnaise and overall just artifical. This was a waste of money. What a disappointment!

I don't know what I'll have for dinner tonight, but a few days ago I had a weird craving. To some people this is probably an odd combination, but I think it may even taste pretty good. I'll try it some time to make sure. The dish I have in mind is: Quinoa with applesauce and red cabbage!

Chinese Cabbage and Asparagus Stir-Fry

2008-02-26T21:46:00.006+01:00

I slowly roasted an onion, asparagus, yellow bell pepper and scallions on medium heat in a saucepan.
I added soy sauce, chopped chinese cabbage and stirred until it was covered in soy sauce. Then I covered it up, let it simmer for about 2 minutes, added half a shredded carrot, sprinkled it with sesame seeds (I got 'em Jennifer!) and ready was another all veggie dinner!

Baked Bean and Veggie Casserole & a Survey

2008-02-26T10:40:00.011+01:00

Mhhh, I had another all veggie meal for dinner. Except for the MozzarelART on top, but this was the first time I tried vegan cheese. Although it didn't melt(luckily Romina had already told me this) it was good, the perfect finish for the dish!

The casserole consisted of a layer of baked beans in salsa (tomato, tomato paste, onion, garlic, herbs) topped with a layer of gently roasted garlicky vegetables (red & yellow bell pepper, zucchini and scallions) and sprinkled with grated vegan Mozzarella. And not to forget delicious green asparagus with salt & pepper on top.

Delish!

Baked Bean and Veggie Casserole
serves 1

Ingredients

for the baked beans in salsa:
1 (1/2) cups baked beans (I used beans from a jar)
1 onion
2 Tbsp. water (or 1 Tbsp. olive oil)
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
salt, pepper, to taste
thyme, rosemary, oregano, to taste
fresh basil leaves, chopped (optional)

1. in a saucepan sautée the onion and add water as needed to prevent it from burning, add the garlic
2. add the baked beans, tomato paste and the fresh tomato and stir well
3. on low heat cover up for 2-3 minutes
4. add salt, pepper and herbs to taste

for the gently roasted vegetables:
2 Tbsp. water (or 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil)
1 onion
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 zucchini
1 scallion
salt, pepper, to taste
thyme, rosemary, oregano, to taste

1. in a pan sautée the onion, add water as needed to prevent it from burning, add the garlic
2. add the chopped bell peppers and scallion, on medium heat keep stirring for about 4-5 minutes
3. add the zucchini (sliced or in chunks) and stir occasionally for another 5 minutes or until veggies have reached the desired consistence
4. add salt, pepper and herbs to taste

combine everything:
- preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C)
- use a casserole dish small enough that the ground will be covered with baked bean mixture
- before putting the baked beans into the casserole dish, add a handful of fresh chopped basil if you like
- once the baked beans are spread out in the dish, add the vegetables on top
- sprinkle with vegan Mozzarella
- put some green asparagus on top, sprinkle with pepper and some salt
- bake for about 10 minutes and enjoy!

And since Cookie Mouse tagged me you'll get to know a little bit more about me now.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago? In 1998?
Let's see, I was in 5th grade. So I guess I was just being a regular kid dealing with regular kid stuff back then. I believe I invested most of my money in stupid teen magazines back then. And I probably started wearing make-up. Horrible make-up choices like: blue eye shadow and dark red lipstick, oh my ha ha!

What were you doing 1 year ago?
My then girlfriend and I moved from Neukölln to Tempelhof and I was basically just busy with my career training as a mediadesigner that had started 7 months earlier.

2. Five favorite snacks?

Nuts (Cashews are probably my #1, followed by almonds)

Nut butter (Cashew or peanut - I dip my nuts in it)

Fruit (apples and pears or berries if I happen to have some)

Bruschetta

Soy yogurt or a Smoothie

3. Five favorite toys?

my MacBook which is called Le Big Mac (after listening to the wonderful Pulp Fiction conversation in the car)

my Nikon camera, doesn't have a name (yet)

my Electra bike (clearly "her" name is Carmen) =p

my crosstrainer

my Wacom tablet

4. What I like doing:
I really like photography a lot! I mostly photograph objects or landscapes, but I'd love to do more shoots with people. So if anyone happens to be in Berlin one day, make sure to ring my door bell ;)
Of course: cooking and baking!
I also love doing sketches and scribbles and whatnot, but sadly haven't done that a lot lately.
So apart from that it's basically hanging out with people I love and whose company I enjoy and feel is worth my time, listening to music while having mind movies, reading ... and I have to admit that exercising grew to me lately. I'm thinking about starting Pilates again.

5. My bad habits?
Cookie Mouse, I'm sorry to steal some of your answers, but we seem to have the same bad habits.

laziness & hardcore procastination

absent-minded

takes ages to make up my mind

too much coffee

cigarettes

Now let's see, who isn't tagged yet?
I don't have the time to check now, so everyone who hasn't been tagged yet grab this survey and let the rest of us learn a little something about you =)

Asian Stir-Fry, Brussels Sprouts and 2 Minute Chocolate Cake

2008-02-25T10:36:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I had some Asian Stir-Fry my mom made for Dinner.

And I had Paulinas Chocolate Cake for Dessert.

I added crushed cashews to the batter and had 3 layers of sliced banana. I was out of oil and my applesauce had gone bad so I used apple apricot sauce instead. Not a good decision because it tasted pretty much just like that and maple syrup. And I think using carob powder didn't help to save anything either.
I'll try it again with the right ingredients the next time, because honestly - who doesn't dream of cake that can be devoured after 2 minutes in the microwave?

And here's a picture of Brussels Sprouts with nutmeg and some mustard for dipping from few days ago. I borrowed my dads fisheye lense as you can see =p

Garlicky Broccoli & Green Beans, Mashed Cauliflower, Baked Beans and Spinach

2008-02-22T23:30:00.004+01:00

I didn't get to buy the missing ingredients for Lasagna today so I had an all veggie meal instead. It was delish!

This is the first time I had baked beans.
I will surely make these on a regular basis from now on, they taste so good! I added an onion and a fresh tomato.

The Plan, Raspberry Oatmeal, Chocolate Temptation Challenge and finally... Mozzarella!

2008-02-21T13:01:00.009+01:00

The plan:

Three days each week I will consume vegetables only. Every dish I eat will have to consist of vegetables. As in soups, stir-fries, roasted veggies, mashed veggies... anything really. As long as it's vegetables only! No bread, pasta, rice, whatever.
That way I hope to try out more veggies I have never had yet. And to be honest, I love all-veggie meals!

I will starting next week, because I plan on making pizza, lasagna and black bean burgers this weekend. After that it's veggies-only time!
Anyone joining? =)

And the reason why I'm so eager to make pizza and lasagna this weekend is that last night I finally found vegan cheese!!!
You guys can't imagine how excited I was! Now I can have pizza and Lasagna with 'cheese'!

Besides having this veggie idea and drooling over my Mozzarella find I craved oatmeal last night.
Remember: never judge an oatmeal by its color!

It was delicious, but I have to admit that it didn't look very appealing.
I used the same recipe as in this one, used 2/3 cups raspberries, maple syrup instead of brown sugar & agave syrup, didn't put in any nutmeg and topped it with cashews.

The fair trade chocolate I bought last night for Cookie Mouses Chocolate Temptation Challenge! I decided to buy an Espresso chocolate. Can't wait for Easter Sunday now ;)

Still in my bag (for now)!

Vcon's Quinoa, Black Bean, Mango Salad

2008-02-20T11:35:00.005+01:00

First off I want to thank Ashasarala a thousand times for giving me the recipe for this salad as I am not yet an owner of this apparently amazing cookbook.

It probably tastes even more amazing than it did last night because I had neither red wine vinegar, grape seed oil, nor fresh cilantro. So I used a tsp. olive oil, bianco and balsamic vinegar and about 2 Tbsp. chopped parsley (didn't have any more).
It still tasted awesome!

My parents were still at work so I placed the bowl on the dinner table and when they came home later my mom called "I see there's something on the table. Can we have that?" I was like "Sure, it's all yours. I already had a big bowl!"
Five minutes later I got a text message from my mom saying nothing but "M m m m h"! Ha ha, she's so awesome! When I saw her again she apologized that there weren't any leftovers. She and my dad really enjoyed this. To quote my mother "Not only did it taste fantastic, it looked so pretty and colorful! A joy for the eyes and the tastebuds!"

Yup, I will definitely start making more "real" dishes(less baking as my jeans are getting tight and I can not afford new pants at the moment).
Not only do I get to try various dishes I have always wanted to try, my parents are also open people who will definitely try new things and be honest about how they like it and a big plus - my parents will get to eat healthier!
So I guess I know who I'm going to ask for Vcon ;)

Apple Cinnamon Almond Oatmeal

2008-02-17T14:53:00.004+01:00

Oh my, this tasted like Christmas morning!

Apple Cinnamon Almond Oatmeal

Ingredients
1/2 cup oats
1 cup soy milk
1 heaped tsp. brown sugar
1-2 Tbsp. agave syrup
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 apple, chopped
1-2 tsp. sliced almonds

1. put all the ingredients in a saucepan (cut 3/4 of the apple in small chunks, keep 1/4 of the apple & almonds for decorating)
2. bring to a boil, turn the heat to low and under stirring let simmer for 5-10 minutes
3. sprinkle with sliced almonds and apple slices

I will try Veganomicons Black Bean Quinoa Mango salad later, I can't wait!!!

Quinoa with Asparagus, Bell Pepper and Soy Sprouts & Whole Wheat Raspberry Corn Pancakes

2008-02-16T16:10:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I rediscovered the Asian Supermarket that's only 2 minutes away from my apartment.
I didn't like to go there(weird sickening smell, rude employees) and hadn't gone inside for at least 4 years.
But last night I needed soy sprouts so I went in.
Surprise: the bad smell is now mostly gone and the employees have become more or less friendly.

I went in with 2 € and came out with a bag of fresh soy sprouts and fresh green asparagus, each for 90 cents. How awesome is that? Everything there is so cheap(Tofu costs 2 € less than the one I used to buy) and fresh. I could slap myself for not going there earlier. Ah well, at least I know where I'll go shopping from now on =)

I made Wok Veggies with peanut butter and coconut sauce with my mom last night and tried quinoa for the first time (yes, I love it, too). Sadly I didn't take a picture. And when I came home at 5 in the morning and wanted to heat up the left overs and then photograph them, I discovered that my dad had already eaten them(this morning he mentioned how much he enjoyed the quinoa). So I cooked myself a quick night snack and went to bed.

And this morning I had Whole Wheat Raspberry Corn Pancakes for breakfast. An adapted version of the recipe found in How it all Vegan!

Looking ugly, but tasting so so so damn good! Cornmeal gives pancakes such a fantastic texture. Yumm!

Yes, I'm cranky!

2008-02-13T14:01:00.003+01:00

I'm at work, looking at food blogs and tons of wonderful recipes and I wish for nothing more than to go home right now and COOK!
Somehow I'm always motivated the most when there is no chance to cook at all. Like right now. In around five hours I'll be able to make dinner. I hate this.
I mean honestly, I like my job. I love it actually. Because for me it's not work, it's more like a hobby. But to get off work at six means I'll be home at seven which leaves me with dinner at eight. ARGH!

My plan for tonight: Roasted Mustard Brussels Sprouts, Roasted Bell Pepper, Spinach & Quinoa.

Oatmeal-Carob Pudding for Dinner

2008-02-12T21:00:00.000+01:00

I am so full! This is the first time I had oatmeal pudding and it is so filling, I couldn't even finish the whole bowl. I tried, because it's yumm. But I just couldn't swallow any more, I look like 4 months pregnant already =p

I made Ruby Red Vegans Oatmeal-Carob Pudding. I got to use the carob powder I bought a few weeks ago for the first time, yay! Although when I opened the box I was like "Puh...", because it smelled exactly like the stuff my sister used to feed her bunny back when we were kids. But it tasted nothing like it smelled, I really like it.

I topped it with 1/2 mashed banana (+ 1 tsp. agave syrup) and sliced the other half along with a strawberry.
Thumbs up, Ruby & Katie!

What I learned? That oatmeal probably really is the perfect breakfast, because it's filling, it's healthy and one can add nuts, seeds or fruit to make it even healthier.

Crunchy Cinnamony Vegan Granola

2008-02-12T10:56:00.000+01:00

Last night I finally got around to make Granola, something I have never had before, but always wanted to try, and it turned out so good! I had it for breakfast with vanilla soy yogurt and applesauce. In combination it was a tad bit too sweet, although the yogurt isn't very sweet itself and the applesauce is unsweetend.
So I guess next time I will add only a Tbsp. brown sugar or none at all. And no Pecans next time, they became kind of salty.

But apart from that I'm very much in love with this! And I will make these next, I just didn't have any peanut butter. Who knew the thought of making my own granola bars would excite me this much?

Vegan Granola
an adaption of this homemade granola

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut flakes
3 tablespoons flax seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (or pumpkin, I just didn't have any)
1/2 - 1 cup mixed nuts, chopped (I used almonds, cashews and Pecans)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup brown sugar (make that less if you don't want it too sweet)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons agave syrup
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups mixed dried fruit (I used cranberries, didn't have anything else)

1. Preheat the oven to 375
2. line a baking sheet with aluminum foil
3. combine all the ingredients (except the dried fruit) and stir well
4. spread the mixture out into an even layer on the prepared baking sheet
5. bake for 20 to 30 minutes (depending on the depth of goldenness you’re looking for), stirring every 10 minutes
6. remove the granola from the oven and and cool completely
7. once it's cool, mix in the dried fruit

Oh man, I found so many new incredible recipes I want to try. So much to cook and bake and so little time...

Falafel (Crumbs) from VwaV

2008-02-11T16:35:00.000+01:00

I had been so excited to make Falafel. I have always loved it and couldn't wait to do it myself.

So last night I finally had enough time on my hands. I prepared the chickpea mixture and the tahini sauce. Both had to cool in the fridge for 30 minutes. And I was starving already. So were my boyfriend and my parents downstairs whom I had promised to bring some of my selfmade Falafel.

Finally, after 30 long minutes, I started shaping the patties. Or better yet, I tried. They totally fell apart. I squeezed them together as hard as I could and put them into the boiling oil. They fell apart and nothing but deep fried crumbs were left.
This was 1/4th of the mixture. Ugh!
I wasn't too excited about the deep frying anyway, so I took out a pan and baked 3 patties a time in just a tiny bit of oil. They didn't stay in shape too well either, but at least you could call them a patty.

Eventually, after lots of swearing, I had 9 small patties to serve to my hungry folks. 4 for my parents and 5 for my boyfriend and me. I forgot to take a picture until I had one more bite left and that was mostly just pita bread with some cucumber and tomato.
They tasted good though. My mom gave me a call "Wow, the patties tasted great. The sauce wasn't right somehow, but the patties... mhh!" I used VwaVs recipe.

Bottom line: I will not make these again. Although the taste was good, it was just too much work. Not to mention that my apartment stank like crazy. Like I had fried fish in tons of oil, yuck. Not to mention I almost fainted when I entered my kitchen this morning.

And a picture I just found online...
I always look like that when I walk past meat in the supermarket, when my boyfriend devours a steak, my mom prepares chicken etc.
But a few days ago I had the same facial expression when I passed some people grabbing huge amounts of gummi bear bags. All I wanted to say to them was "You are aware of the fact that you're going to eat boiled pig skin, are you?" I can't help but shudder at this thought every single time. I can't believe I used to eat this stuff.

Vogue Paris October 2007 | Photographer: Steven Klein

Pancakes for Breakfast & Tortellinis with Broccoli and Cauliflower in Mustard Sauce

2008-02-09T14:47:00.000+01:00

I just finished my huge, but fantastic breakfast.

VwaVs Banana Pecan Pancakes. In my case: Banana Pear Cashew and Banana Blueberry Cashew Pancakes. Yumm!

With some fresh pear slices and maple syrup & my jam for dipping. Perfect combination!

I cut the recipe for 9 small pancakes in half and guess how many small pancakes I got out? Nine.
Mhh... what does small mean to Americans? =p

And here's what I had for dinner last night.
I bought spelt tortellinis with a vegetable stuffing a few days ago. And since I'm on a mustard-trip right now and Jennifer sent me a recipe I was able to whip me up with a very filling dinner. And yeah, I'm very much into cauliflower at the moment, too.

Here's my adapted version of the Mustard Sauce:
Ingredients

1 clove of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. Sherry
2 Tbsp. Dijon
1/2 - 1 Tbsp. veggie broth (I used 1 heaped Tbsp. and it was definitely too much/salty)
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1-2 cups soy milk
pepper, to taste

1. in a bowl mix the veggetable broth with cornstarch and set aside
2. sautee the garlic in a little bit of olive oil, for about 2 minutes
3. add the Sherry and mustard and under stirring add the veggie broth cornstarch mix
4. on medium heat let simmer for about 1-2 minutes, add the soy milk (start with 1 cup)
5. on low-medium heat let simmer for about 5 minutes, add more soy milk to reach desired consistence
6. add a little pepper to taste

Sadly I didn't cook the tortellinis long enough so the stuffing was still a bit dry, but they were fine soaked in mustard sauce and paired with broccoli, cauliflower and sunflower seeds.

Banana Split Pudding Brownies & Caramel filled Golden Vanilla Cupcakes

2008-02-08T10:16:00.000+01:00

Okay, there is no denying: this is the best brownie ever!

I gave my omni friend the last small piece and she rationed it and was like "I'm sorry I'm not giving you a bite of this, but oh my this is so good!" Ha ha, I was like "Never mind, enjoy it! I ate almost the whole batch myself last night."

When I ate a piece while it was still warm, I swear it felt like velvet melting in your mouth! After refrigerating for a day the consistence was fudgy. Different, but just as good! And they were so rich in chocolate, because I used Lindt's 85% cocoa chocolate!

Believe me, I wanted to slap myself for cutting the recipe in half. I will definitely make these again, soon.
My friend wants to bake them with me!

And here are the cupcakes I gave her for her birthday.

I filled them with the Caramel glaze from the Dulche Sin Leche Cupcakes. She loved the chocolate ganache! And I was surprised that you can create such a fudgy topping by only using soy milk, chocolate and a Tbsp. of maple syrup. Go vegan recipes!
These were good, but the brownies were better!!!