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! =)

I can foresee an addiction to Scones here...

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!

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread / Mini Muffins

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

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

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!

The 100th post screams for CAKE PICTURES!

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

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!