Ricotta Filled Pasta Shells With Beets & Borscht

What a perfect lunch! I had craved this for aout a week now and finally made it: pasta shells filled with VwaV's Tofu Basil Ricotta with chunky beets and borscht.



This time I pureed some beets to make it a little thicker.



Yummm!

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!

Purplelicious Oatmeal, Pink Cucumber Soup & Chickpea Cutlets

I made a delicious oatmeal with alpro's wild berry soy milk, cinnamon and frozen blueberries.
Talk about eye candy! Oh, how I love purple food!



Then I made a cold cucumber soup with red beets, soy yogurt, dill and parsley. I had cooked potatoes on hand which I wanted to add, but somehow totally forgot about.



And I had a good laugh when it turned out - once again - that Isa was right with her prediction in the chickpea cutlet recipe introduction text - that it'd be famous on blogs!



My mom had the cucumber soup while I finished the chickpea cutlets I had made in advance for today (after reading that they taste even better the day after) and asked if she could have one.

She took a bite and proclaimed "Delicious! You can start mass producing them!" Ha ha! Another person hooked on the famous Veganomicon cutlets. I'll buy more chickpeas today and make about 20 cutlets to freeze for my mom & me. It was her request and she reminded me again this morning not to forget the chickpeas =p



She said she especially liked the texture. "Much better than all those veggie patties which are so crumbly they always keep falling apart!"

To go with it I had some lamb's lettucce and tomato drizzled with mustard-agave-balsamic dressing and soy yogurt mixed with mustard.



A very pleasing meal!
I can't wait to have the other cutlet tonight. I'll make yellow grilled zucchini and bell pepper to go with it. And maybe either tzaziki or homemade tomato ketchup. We'll see!

Also on my to-do list: black bean burgers! I need more protein!

Deliciousness on top & inside of a Wrap

I bought a black olive tapenade a few days ago! It's soooo delicious and I like to spread it on every sandwich I make now ;)



Yesterday I used a tortilla, a layer of baked beans in tomato sauce, cucumber slices, then cherry tomatoes, on top of that lots of baby spinach and the perfection on top: red beets! Then I rolled it up, spread it with a thin layer of cream cheese and some olive tapenade.

I was worried the red beet might not taste that good in combination with tomatoes, but it was an incredibly tasty wrap! Oh how I love red beets!!!

Kale and Potato Hash & ChickBeetPotato Sandwich

In the mess that is called my recipe book I found one for a Kale and Potato Hash I had copied from some website quite some time ago and altered the recipe a little. When I wanted to take a picture of the bowl I realized my batteries were empty, but no panic! Luckily my old digicam was loaded.



No kidding, my boyfriend loved this! He ate at least half of the bowl! I was like "Why didn't you say anything? I would've made more!" He said "Well, I couldn't foresee that it would be so tasty!" Ha ha.

Ingredients (serves 1)

2 medium potatoes
1 cup kale, chopped
1 tsp. olive oil + 2-3 Tbsp. water (you can always omit the oil and use only water instead, but I figured a little hint of olive flavor wouldn't hurt here)
1 medium onion
2-3 Tbsp. soy milk (optional)
1 - 1 1/2 Tbsp. balsamico bianco
nutmeg, to taste (I used about 2 Tbsp. I think)
salt & pepper, to taste

1. cook the potatoes
2. in a saucepan sautee the onions in oil & water
3. add the salt, pepper and vinegar
4. add the kale to this mixture
5. add the cooked potatoes, mash them with a fork and add soy milk
6. season with nutmeg and pepper

I had beet salad on the side which I put on top of the potatoes after the first bite, because it went so well together.

And you may have been wondering... a ChickBeetPotato Sandwich? Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call it a sandwich, but I didn't know how to call this odd creation that satisfied the hell out of me!

Here you go: I had a leftover potato and leftover beet salad, we had fresh whole-wheat carrot bread so I sliced the potato, topped it with a layer of beet salad, baked two Falafel balls, mashed them a little and topped them with some more beet salad.



My two bread slices were loaded so I decided to use silverware - something that always seemed odd to me. I remeber sitting at my aunts table as a kid, wondering why on earth she was eating a small slice of bread that was only topped with a slice of cheese with a fork & a knife when one could just as well hold it in the hand.

Now I like to eat bread with silverware too, because you don't eat as fast and get to enjoy your food longer. The whole process of eating is intensified! I started eating pizza with a fork & a knife (something that always seemed so out of question) for those reasons, too.
Well, that was back in the cheese eating days I guess because cheese tastes crappy once it cools and hardens - I always got so greedy, seconds later my slice was gone and I didn't even get to really taste and enjoy it. I remember shoving my pizza down so fast just so that I'd get to enjoy the cheese while it tasted best: hot and runny. And it was on top and in the crust... jeez =p Well, that's not a problem anymore now!

Last night I made a pizza with - eek - mushrooms (often just the smell or the thought of chewing one makes me sick... apparently I can only eat them in Pierogies, don't ask me why)! I decided to give them another try - just to give them all to my boyfriend in the end. Ah well, it was good nonetheless. I had mine with lots of sliced zucchini and green asparagus (oh how I love it!) and convinced my boyfriend to let me top his with veggies, too. He loved the combination of the three!
Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture because I hadn't eaten anything the whole day and was starving so it was gone within a matter of minutes (of which I spent at least three picking the mushrooms off my pizza) .

Red Beet Salad & Sweet Potato Fries

Okay, I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes. I had three fries... but they're not for me. The sweet taste was irritating and not very much to my liking. Anyway, at least I can cross the sweet potato off my list of things to try.



The red beet salad was fantastic though, but I love red beet anyway. I used jarred ones(vinegar is in there already) and shredded them and along with an onion. Simple as that! And most importantly - it tastes sooo good!!!

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!

Borscht, first try

So, yesterday I made my Grandma's Borscht.
There was not much to veganize, I only had to replace the cream.
I used soy cream for the first time ever. Of course I used a little too much. It's so much more efficient than regular cream, I'm quite impressed.
I also feared that it might taste weird, but it's pretty neutral and I can't complain at all.
Since I didn't have any more red beets I couldn't save my Borscht though. It still tasted good, but overall it was just too creamy.



I will make the whole thing tonight: Pierogis & Borscht.
I told my dad last night that I was going to cook our traditional Christmas dinner today and his face lit up "Ohhhhh, really?" Ha ha, he can't wait. And the fact that I honour his moms recipe so much really means a lot to him.

I still need onions and mushrooms and more red beet though.
Ugh, I hate the fact that I have to work until 6 and am home at 7 which leaves me with one hour available to shop for groceries. I hate hectic.
And most of the time I forget at least half of the stuff I planned to buy, even if I have a shopping list (what's that about?)!

Oh, and here's something that never fails to impress my taste buds: Pesto Rosso topped with tomatoes. So simple, yet so wonderful.
I didn't have any whole-grain bread anymore though, so I had to settle for a plain wheat roll, hmph.