Lunch & Snacks

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!

Weekend Eats!

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!

Raw Strawberry Banana Pie and Rosé Champagne

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!!!

Strawberry Blueberry Smoothie

I had some leftover strawberries that weren't tasty enough to eat plain so I figured "Hey, you got blueberry soy yogurt in your fridge, what about another Soyoothie?"
It was yummm.
I always end up drinking my smoothies within a matter of minutes which leads to stomach ache, but I can't help it. It's too tasty =p

Ingredients
about 6-8 strawberries
1 cup blueberry soy yogurt
1 1/4 cup soy milk
1 Tbsp. apple sauce
1 tsp. agave syrup (optional)

1. mix everything in a blender
2. enjoy!

=)

Purple Berry Smoothie

Ingredients

1/2 cup frozen berries
1/3 cup soy yogurt
1 - 1 1/2 cups soy milk
2 Tbsp. agave syrup
3 Tbsp. apple sauce

1. mix everything in a blender
2. enjoy!

=)