Chocolate Blueberry Lemon Corn Waffles

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

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! =)

Cookies, Snacks, Lunches, Dinner & Fruit

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!!!

Cherry Chocolate Pancakes & Lentil-Veggie Lasagna

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?

Lemon Corn Pancakes

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

Peanut Butter Invasion

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!

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

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.

Low-Fat Vanilla Cupcakes and homemade Jam

I just made VCTOTWs Sexy Low-Fat Vanilla Cupcakes.



Filled with jam, topped with chopped 85% cocoa chocolate, crushed cashews and a dried cranberry.



Homemade jam. It's so fruity, unbelievable. I doubt I'll ever buy jam again.



And it's so easy. I used 2 cups mixed berries, 1 cup raspberries, 1/3 cup sugar and 2 grams Bindobin. Mix everything in a blender and tadaa - you have delicious selfmade jam.

[edit] Aww, I just brought my mom some jam for breakfast. She was eating bread with plain peanut butter and when she topped it with my jam and took a bite her eyes lit up "Wow, how did you do this? This tastes great!!! Here, try it!" handing it over to my dad. Ha ha, so sweet!
My dad prefered to eat my Peach Pear Cobbler with ice-cream for breakfast instead!