Clean-out-fridge-lentil-soup

Since it's still freezingly cold here I've been cooking soup non-stop. And that always comes in handy when one's trying to use up whatever there is left in the fridge.



I threw together broccoli, bell pepper, carrots, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes and lentils and 45 minutes later enjoyed hot soup with chicorée leafs for spooning.

Now I feel like having hot chocolate and some of Katie's fudge babies. But I'm out of milk and nuts and pretty much everything else I'm craving at the moment. If I run to the supermarket, can I count that as my exercise for today? =p

Yellow Tomato Cauliflower Lentil Curry with Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts & Spinach

Phew, what a title.
Followed by an incredibly ugly cell phone image *shudders* (left my camera at my old appartment, moved into a new one yesterday).
So as ugly as this might look, it was a wonderfully comforting food for a fucking cold day.



I mixed together about 4-5 cups cauliflower florets & brussels sprouts, ca. 3 cups of potato slices, a can of lentils, about 1 1/2 cups Yellow Curry Sauce, 1 cup chopped spinach, 2 cups tomato sauce and 1/2 onion. And I put some fresh chopped basil on top.
Perfection, seriously. Luckily I made enough to live off it for the next two days.

Ha ha, see that Katie? I took my chopsticks with me ;) I hold them in my very own and special - and no way near correct - way, but I somehow manage to have the food land in my mouth and not on my lap (the way it happened every single time someone tried to teach me how you're actually supposed to hold chopsticks... seriously can't be done) and that's what important, non?

Persian Food

Wow it's been quite a while... but I was internetless for quite some time. Aswell as lazy... ;)

First pictures from Berlin. We went to this vegetarian bistro/restaurant/caterer ALSA and the owner is persian and holy moly his food was extremly delicious. I even liked the rice&raisins combo, something I've always detested.
This was a vegan dish, eggplant casserole with beans, lentils, nuts and whatnot. So fucking amazing!!!



And a mix of salads he had left (we got there at around 4 and almost all the plates were pretty much empty already=good sign!).



Anywho, I finally had some money to buy food. Raspberries are so addictive ♥



Spinach with cucumber, raspberries and a surprisingly good tasting basil dressing (storebought dressings mostly suck... or maybe I just always pick the bad ones).



I've been trying to catch up with your blogs and the last days were simply horrible because I had no food/money/whatsoever and your pictures almost made me cry! And realize what amazing chefs each and every one of you would make (this is not neccessarily the starving person from a couple of days ago talking, he he). Anyone up for inventing beaming and starting a delivery service worldwide with amazing vegan food creations? ;)

Salad, Pasta, another Cake & Curry Cauliflower Carrot Soup

I wonder, why do I always feel like salads are a pain in the ass to make? Am I seriously that slow? And am I the only one? Mhh...
Anyway, the delicious salad I had last night sure did remind me that all the washing and chopping and mixing and roasting is simply worth it!



Roasted zucchini, eggplant & orange bell pepper on a bed of iceberg & lamb's lettuce, some cucumber slices, tomatoes, red onion & avocado chunks (I actually prefer avocados in form of guacamole... oh well, next time), drizzled with a balsamic yogurt dressing. Oh and some Nachos with mexican salsa.



Now onto my dad's cake. He and my mom enjoyed it a lot! Of course so did I ;)
A layer of raspberry perserves, banana slices and chocolate mousse.



I didn't have any fresh berries to add so I simply used pieces of cake crust, spread them with more chocolate mousse and arranged them on top. Some chopped chocolate on the sides & on top and it could've passed as the mouthwatering Starbucks Chocolate Fudge Cake I used to have quite often ♥

A few days ago I wanted something quick, so here goes Kamut pasta in olive tapenade mixed with broccoli & scallions sautéed in garlic. And a few drops of soy yogurt. Yumm!



Last week I made a Curry Cauliflower Carrot Soup with potatoes & red lentils! This was hearty & filling, yet light.
I ate it 3 days in a row yet never managed to take a picture. Even my boyfriend loved this!
I'll have to increase my soup cooking skills and make more of them.

I used about 6 medium potatoes & 2 carrots cut into small chunks and about 1/4 cup red lentils that I cooked in broth.
Midway cooking I added about 8-10 cauliflower florets, cut into smaller pieces, nutritional yeast, curry, ginger, garam masala, nutmeg, chili, paprika, salt and pepper.
I added 1/4 - 1/3 cup soy milk and puréed 2 cups of the solids in my blender and poured it back into the pot.
With a slice of whole wheat toast spread with a layer of olive tapenade, this was a perfect dinner!

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?

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!

Veggie-Lentil Curry, Carrot Cupcakes & Falafel

Tonight I had a craving for lentils and cauliflower again, but didn't want the same meal I've had in my post before so I made a few additions.



I prepared the cauliflower the same way like I did here. The red lentils were prepared like before, too with an addition of 1/2 tsp. curry powder and a dash of chili powder.
To make the dish more colorful I roasted a red & yellow bell pepper and some zucchini that I sprinkled with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder in the oven for 20 minutes on 375°F.

Yesterday I went to the Bio supermarket to get new agave and bought Falafel. Homemade ones would've tasted better for sure, but they weren't bad and the idea of having Falafel ready within 8 minutes was quite appealing so I bought them along with new whole wheat pitas.



I bought a sunflower seed based pepper & pepperoni spread that I used, along with 1/4 cup shredded red cabbage, tomatoes and cucumber.

And I made Happy Herbivore's Fat Free Carrot Cupcakes with Maple Frosting. I used a little bit too much applesauce, because after 20 minutes in the oven they were still a little gooey inside. But did I mind? Hell no, there was no egg in there so I could have just as well eaten the raw batter =p To be honest I snacked quite a lot while mixing together the applesauce, shredded carrot and vanilla. Tasted delicious! I think I'll make that as a snack again soon!
But back to the cupcakes - my best (girl)friend tried one and loved it, the icing in particular. She's an omni so I got the "There's really no egg in there? Amazing...!" between each bite, ha ha!



So, tomorrow the big baking for the night's party will take place. I'm so excited!
I have to hurry now though, the boyfriend's waiting!

Hear you on Sunday I guess. Happy Easter and have a nice weekend everyone!

Red Lentils with Cauliflower

I couldn't decide what to make for dinner last night so I just started cooking some cauliflower and then settled for red lentils to go with it. Another delicious and nutritious meal. Mhmmm! Lentils are so good and I can't believe I waited until now to make them, because they had been sitting in my cupboard for at least a month now. But hey, I think they won't be around for too long since I'm already thinking about how to use them next.



Cauliflower florets with nutmeg & salt and 1/2 cup red lentils with a tsp. vegetable broth, salt, pepper, some paprika powder and nutmeg, a small sauteed onion, a dash of garlic powder, tumeric and cumin.

And thank you all for your comments on my last post =)