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

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 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!

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?

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

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!