Cauliflower Curry Soup

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

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

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 ;)

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?

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

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!

Sandwiches, Bagels and a Spicy Tomato-Veggie Soup

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 =)

Tofu Tortellini with Spinach, Broccoli & Zucchini and Nutmeg Sauce

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

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

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.

Pizza Pizza!

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!

Grilled Veggie Pita and Easter Goodies

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!

Cinnamon Rolls, Berry Crisp, Pizza and Spinach Chickpea Curry

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

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

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

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!

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

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.