Lemon water

Lemon water is supposed to be good for your health, and it's also bit more refreshing than just water, but also not as unhealthy as soda or other sugared drinks. Most places i read to drink it warm (in the morning), but cold is probably more refreshing in the summer =p

So heres what you do:
Have a glass of water (warm or cold), and squeeze 1/4-1/2 lemon in it (or how you prefer it) and enjoy =D

You dont even have to use a juicing device, just squeeze the lemon =p I just used it to get out the rest of the juice from an almost empty lemon, but normally i just squeeze.

Marzipan cake

Heres the cake i made for the norwegian national day 17th of may.

I used more or less the same recipe as last year that i found on vegetarbloggen, but i did some adjustments, so this years cake tasted better =p

Ingredients i used:
400 g flour
2.5 dl sugar
25 g grounded almonds
2 ts baking powder
2 ts vanilla sugar
Some salt
4.5 dl plantmilk
1.5 dl vegetable oil
Some drops of vanilla and almond essence to taste

Mix together dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients and mix together. Divide dough into two buttered and floured 20-24 cm diameter round cake forms and bake in oven on 185°C for 20 minutes. Let it cool.

For me, one of the cakes was bit bigger than the other one. In the original recipe, both are supposed to be sliced in half, but i only did the bigger one in half. Then i did the unsliced cake in the middle.

But ye, back to the assembling. Heres what i used:
Juice (i used tropical juice)
Jam (i used strawberry, but others are fine too)
2 bananas
Vegan whipped cream (i used 2 boxes of GoGreen Visp (2 dl each box), but would be smart to have an extra just in case of need)
Vanilla cream/pudding (i used Freia vaniljesaus mixed with 2.5 dl milk, but alpro vanilla pudding or other vanilla puddings would work too)
Marzipan
Fresh berries for decoration

I had 3 cakepieces so this is what i did:
First i took one of the cut cakepieces and poured over it with juice until it was pretty wet. Then i added the jam, then bananas in pieces, and then whipped cream. Then i added the uncut cakepiece and poured juice over that one too so it got wet. Then i had a layer of jam followed by a layer of vanilla pudding. Then i added the 3rd cakepiece and poured juice over that one too. Then i did whipped cream all around the cake, and on the sides too. Then i rolled out marzipan and covered the cake with it. Then i decorated with berries and some leftover whipped cream.

Heres the result

Tofu scramble

Today is the 17th of may which is the norwegian national day, so then all the norwegians are celebrating =p Ofc i join in with some yummy food =D But other than that, i'll just stay at home and be lazy =p Many people wear the norwegian national costume (called bunad) and are in town, but i dont wear it unless i have to xD

I kinda wanted to have a bit the same as the rest of my family had for breakfast, and they had scrambled eggs, so i had scrambled tofu =D This time i added some (vegan) sausage in it too for extra coolness =p

Heres what i used, and sorry for not more specific amounts, i kinda did a splash of each xd
About 85 g tofu
Water (maybe 0.5 dl? more if needed)
Turmeric (to make it yellow =D)
Paprika powder (dunno why i added this, so it's optional)
Coriander (also dunno why i added this, so it's also optional)
Black salt (for eggy taste)
Nutritional yeast (makes it even more yummy!)
1 vegan sausage in pieces (i used Taifun Tofu-Wiener) optional
Pepper
Chives (optional)

First i squeezed some of the water out of the tofu (mine had been frozen btw). Then i ripped it into little pieces and put it in a pan and put on medium high heat. In a cup i mixed some water with turmeric, paprika powder, coriander, black salt, and nutritional yeast, then i added the mixture to the tofupieces and mixed it nicely while tasted if i needed more of some spices (where i needed more black salt, nutritional yeast and water xD). Then later when it was warm, i added the sausage pieces and let it heat up some more. Then i did fresh grinded black pepper on top and mixed in some fresh chives.

Onion pilaf

Today for breakfast i decided to make onion pilaf from my gourmet vegetar cookbook (page 185). It's actually more of a dinner recipe but oh heck xD

It was yummy so figured might as well put the recipe on the blog =p I did a couple of changes from the original recipe though, so heres what i did:

(1 person)
Ingredients:
0.5 onion (mine was maybe 0.75 but i guess it depends on the size), chopped
75 g rice
Ca 2,1 dl veggiestock (water + stock cube)
2 tablespoons frozen chopped spinach
50 g green peas (i used frozen)
1 teaspoon coriander
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

First i sauteed the onions in some veggiestock until they were soft, then i added the rice and the rest of the veggie stock and let it simmer until most of the water was evaporated. Then i added spinach and green peas and let it be on low heat until they all were ready. Then i added coriander and nutritional yeast, mixed and ate =p

Pretty easy and yummy =D

Choco-lemon-mousse

I've been seeing some other bloggers making chocomousse a while ago (this, this and this for example), so i wanted to try it myself too.

Since i was so lucky to have a plate of chocolate, an alpro whip-able cream, and a lemon, i decided to make choco and lemon mousse. I kinda failed a bit though, adding too much lemon to my lemon mousse so it became lemon sauce or so, so i added some (or too much) lemon mousse to my chocomousse, and it became chocolemonmousse.

Well, heres the ingredients and directions i used:
1 alpro cream or other brand (alpro one is 2,5 dl)
About 100 g chocolate (i used a 72%) can use more or less as you want too.
0,5 - 1 lemon (i used 1, and it was bit way too much i guess according to everyone else except me xD)
1 - 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Whip the cream until its nice and creamy.
Melt as much chocolate as you want (i did about 80 g , and the remaining 20 g i chopped into pieces and mixed in later).
Press the juice out of the lemon (as much as you want) and the zest you want from the lemon. Separate the whipped creams into two bowls and add lemon to one and chocolate to the other and mix carefully so they are still fluffy.
Also add powdered sugar to the lemon one so it gets a bit sweeter and the chocolate pieces in the chocolate mousse =p
Then if you want you can have two separate mousses, or you can add the lemon mousse into the chocolate mousse like i did, until it taste good. I added almost the whole lemon mousse, so it got a pretty strong taste of lemon, might have been better with less lemon.
Put in glasses or so and put in fridge until serving (or eat immediately).

Enjoy ;p

You can use other tastes too ofc =p think caramel or peanuts might be good =D or strawberry or orange or pineapple =p

An update from Belgium

Hi guys =p

This easter i went to Belgium to be with my bf who lives in Antwerpen =p I came here on sunday and will go back on tuesday together with my bf, so i'll be bit more than a week here =p

From the airport in Bergen

I travelled via Copenhagen, and my 2nd plane was 1.5 hours delayed (happens quite often i think that there are delays xD)
My luggage also got lost on the way, but luckily they found it next day and brought it to me =D As compensation for my lost luggage i got a kit with some toothbrush, toothpaste, deo, hairbrush etc to survive the night without my luggage so that was pretty nice =p

So far i havent done a lot, my bf has still school this week, so i've been following him there, and tried to do some schoolwork of my own too (still laying some behind :x), but i typically ended up on fb or so xD

The weather has been nice, but cold.

Today we went on a trip where my bf showed me where he used to live (was pretty close to where he lives now). Was really nice to see =D

Me and some statue

My bf with the same statue

My bfs old home (jk ofc xd)

Fancy house, ofc need posing pic xd

Me posing too =p

We also went into a shop where i found vegan candy! =D So tested out two of them, the chocobanana and the fruit jelly things (made with agar-agar and not gelatine, and no carmine or milk in it either ;p)

Looked tempting to enter xd

Middle row is vegan =D (ignore top row and lowest row xd)
Btw check ingredients first to be sure, i didnt check everything

Candy we bought =p I ate half already @_@

I was hoping the bananas would be skum bananas like i used to eat before, but they were jelly bananas (it actually says on too :>) but they were still good ofc =p Fruit jellies were kinda sugary and not so chewy as some jelly might be, but they were good too =p Now i got sugar shock @_@

Hope rest of the vacation will be nice too =D

Broccoli risotto

Just gonna admit immediately, my risottoes arent made like risottos but like rice with veggies. I'm too lazy to add bit and bit with water and use special risotto rice, so i just add everything at the same time and use normal rice.

Oh well, heres the recipe inspired by the broccoli risotto at vegandad.

Ingredients:
0.5 onion
1/3 broccoli
0.75 dl rice
2.5+ dl water
1 bullion cube
0.5 ts oregano
Margarine/oil
Nutritional yeast (optional)
Salt and pepper

Chop the onion and saute it. Add the rice, then the water and bullion cube, followed by the oregano and broccoli in small pieces. Let it boil to water is gone, add more water if nessesary. When ready, taste with nutritional yeast, salt and pepper and some margarine if you wanna =p

Easy peasy

Here served with tomatoes with salt and pepper, and sauted mushrooms with salt and pepper and soy sauce.

Chili sin carne

This used to be my favorite dish =D

I dont remember exactly how much i use of everything, normally i do so the ratio looks more or less good and taste if it needs more of something xD

Well, heres the ingredients (from memory):
0,5 medium-small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
Some chili, chopped (optional)
2 small potatoes, in cubes
0.5 red bell pepper, in cubes
Paprika/chili powder
1 vegetable bullion cube
Around 3 dl water (i dont remember how much i use, i just add something, and depends how liquid you want it, i just add more water if i feel its needed)
Basil spice, oregano spice (i normally use shitloads xd)
+- 250g (0.5 jar) pastasauce
0.5 can of kidneybeans

Saute the onion, garlic, potatoes, chili and red bell pepper. Add the paprika/chili powder, water, bullion cube and basil/oregano and let it boil for 5-10 min. Add the pasta sauce, then add the kidneybeans and let it boil bit more. And always remember to taste meanwhile if you need more of something =p

Tortilla chips with rice dip

This happened one evening after work when i got home with a tortilla chips bag that i had bought since one of the recipes in my cook books (carrot dip) was calling for tortilla chips (and just for the record, i still havent made the carrot dip, and the tortilla chips bag is empty now :x).

Sooooo, i was snacking on tortilla chips with salsa sauce/dip/whatever until the salsa was empty, and then i started dipping in the leftover boiled rice of my parents dinner, and it actually worked out pretty well!! =D The crunchy salty tortilla chips went very nicely along with the soft, chewy rice. So if you ever have leftover rice and tortilla chips, its not a bad idea to mix them =p Maybe would be even better with salsa on top of it too xD Sorry for bad pic btw =p

Yesterday i went to doctor and checked my blood, seems my iron is lil bit low, but i've been kinda slacking with my healthy eating lately (or always), so mostly just eating bread with jam, fruits, snacks, more snacks, even more snacks, bunch of chocolate and nuts etc kinda every day >.>

My willpower is extremely weak ._. And weird thing is i'm too lazy for baking too, normally i baked cakes and stuff all the time (really, all the time, like, every day), and now i've barely baked something since xmas except for cookies when i went on trip, and some muffins i baked to use some blueberries, pineapple, lemon and orange. I followed this recipe a bit except for the obvious substitutions.

So in the back is orange-chocolatechip muffins (with bit lemon in too), to the left is blueberry lemon muffins, and in front is pineapple muffins. My favorite was the blueberry-lemon one with pineapple as 2nd and orange last.

Valentines day

Since i went to school and worked whole day (8-20) and wasnt home until 21 i didnt really have time to prepare something fancy (i know i could have done on wednesday, but i was too lazy then xD).

So i ended up with love hearts, fanta exotic, chilinuts, chocolate and watching the movie Love Actually with my bf =D So very sweet for valentines evening <3 I love you my sweetheart! <3

Love hearts and fanta exotic

Hope you had a nice valentines day too =D

Mothersday + trip + fastelavn + sausage testing

Today it's both mothersday and fastelavn (better if they do it on 2 seperate days i think xD), so me and my sis decided to give a family trip as mothersday present, and i also made cookies for the occasion and i also wanted to make a cake, but would kinda be too much with the fastelavn boller too @_@

Sadly i didnt take pic of the cookies but they were yummy =p With carrots, hazelnuts, chocolate and raisins =D If i make them again i'll try to take pic and post recipe xD

So ye, whole family went on a hiking trip to a small mountain nearby called Storrinden. From there we can see the airport, so it's pretty cool =p It was nice sunny weather, but ground was frozen snow on it, so was kinda slippery some places, but luckily no one fell even if it was pretty close sometimes xD (a different story on saturday when i went to work and i fell 2 times in a row >.>) We ate the cookies when we reached the top =p

Here are some pictures from the trip (all pictures are taken by my sister):

When we got home after a bit, fastelavn boller was ready =D It's normal bolle with jam and cream in it and powdered sugar on top. Recipe on boller you can find here. We also had hot chocolate with it =p

Later in the evening i shared some Wheaty ToRo sausages i had bought on veganlife with my bf =p They were really good =D He said the taste was really the same as with meat sausages, but the texture was bit harder and drier, but they were still awesome! We ate the whole package in short time, so time to buy more now xD Hopefully they will arrive before he has to leave again =(

We also ate some Spacebar Chorizo and vegan white chocolate that were also very yummy! The white chocolate is more or less just as i remember it, but it melted bit quicker in my mouth i think, and i missed some crunch in it (probably cuz the other white chocolate i ate in my non-vegan days was toblerone xD). The spacebar chorizo was really yummy too and sausagy =D

So i think everyone should test out those things if you like it =D It's really nice that you can get everything vegan version so theres no need for the more cruel animal based products =D

Pizza!

I kinda started eating pizza way more rarely after becoming vegan, mostly because im used to pizzas with meat and cheese, so the carrot pizzas werent really the same xD (+ i mostly had tiny crust and a huuuge layer of filling and no "meat" or "cheese", so wasnt really pro xD). So other food was mostly more tempting.

Ofc there is a bunch of vegan meat and cheese options, im mostly just too lazy to buy it cuz i dont wanna spend too much money so i just didnt make it xD But it really is possible to make any kind of pizza as vegan version as you can see from the menu of this vegan pizzeria Sfizy Veg in Berlin (one day i wanna go there! xd). Why use meat/cheese when you can do a more animal friendly option =D

Well, i got inspired by some blogs to use bearnaise sauce on the pizza, so i wanted to try that. Here are some of the blogposts that inspired me: Brennheit and Harrypizza from veganeren, and the pizza from hverdagsveganeren.

Sadly not all bearnaise sauces are vegan, so check before you buy! In Norway these from Toro are vegan: lett bearnaise sauce (light), and krydder bearnaise sauce (spiced).


So ye, here for the "recipe" aka what i used for this pizza xD But as you all know, you can put whatever you want on pizza =p

Pizza crust/dough (mom always makes pizza saturday evenings so if i want i can have some of the dough so i just used the one she made =p)
Tomato sauce (i just use pasta sauce from jar, but homemade sounds more pro =p)
Pizza spices
Vegan bearnaise sauce with a bit of nutritional yeast (this time i used the spiced one and 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, next time i will try the light one, nutritional yeast is optional, can skip it too ofc, i also added salt and pepper in it)
Mushrooms (i used canned)
Corn (i used canned)
Pineapple (i used canned)
Green bell pepper
Olives
Sun dried tomatos
Cherry tomatos

Then i putted in oven on 225°C for a while until i felt it was ready xD


It came out very well, so i think i'll make more of this =p It's probably the best pizza i have made for years =D

Skiengryte

I made this recipe a while ago that i found in VeganMisjonens kokebok on page 33, by the author of veganmisjonen.blogspot.no. The recipe is not on the blog (though there are many other yummy recipes there), so i recommend everyone to buy the book (you can buy it here) =p Many yummy recipes in there, and this one i think was extra yummy! =D

Some of the ingredients in this recipe are onions, zucchini, tomato, bell pepper, sundried tomatos (i love sundried tomatos!!) and chickpeas =p I also added some salad and cucumber with it =p Really superyummy! =D

Nut quiche

One of the days (or nights xd) in xmas i made a nut quiche from one of my cookbooks page 43.

It was with puff pastry in the bottom and up the sides, then with a cashewnut - pistachenut - zucchini - rutabaga filling, with a "cheese" sauce over that and some cheese on top. Put in oven for an hour and yammie =p

I had been planning to make it one of the days, then my family would have pita so i wanted too so i ended up making it in the middle of the night xD Nightfood ftw! Was yummy though =D My bf liked it too <3

My Xmas and New Year

This xmas i celebrated at home with my family and my bf.

Me and my sweet bf <3

For the xmas dinner, me and my bf had the classical nut roast with brussel sprouts, potatoes, mashed rutabaga, and mushroom sauce. It was very yummy =p The nut roast i spiced with cloves (i love cloves xD) They other had salty lamb ribs instead of the nut roast though and was talking about meat and slaughter so that was a bit of a moodkiller :x Here are some bad pics of the dinner that i took later on the evening:

Nut roast with brussel sprouts

Mushroom sauce and mashed rutabaga

I also had some rice pudding with grated almonds in it earlier on the day. Bad pic though, was last leftover spoon of it xD

Rice pudding

So after dinner, we opened presents, it took like forever since of 9 people, 1 opened at a time. I got myself bunch of sweaters, a new camera, Everyday Happy Herbivore, Forks Over Knives cookbook, a vegetarian cookbook, and money.

The day after xmas we went to my grandma for cakes and cookies, she was so nice she had made some vegan for me. Sadly i forgot cam so i dont have any pictures from that day.

The day after we went to my other grandparents where all aunts and cousins also were. I made some failed spring rolls (they dont look like spring rolls at all, but atleast they taste good xd), and i also made a polenta fritatta with mushrooms and some other veggies in it, and the dream cake that i brought to the party.

Spring rolls (even though they dont look like that at all xD)

Fritatta

Dream cake

Seems the kids there thought the dream cake was pretty cool, with almond bottom with chocolate, vanilla pudding layer, and on top; jelly with strawberries. It's really a great cake! =D


Then for my birthday i got some sweet stuff too; a wilfa juicer, some more cloth, a veggie twister, and a ring from my sweet bf <3 I'm 23 years old now btw if anyone wondered =p

So nice ring =D <3

I tried making some juice to test the juicer out and it worked really well! I used apples, carrot and red beet, so it kinda tasted like beet but except for that everyone enjoyed it xD The leftover pulp i used in lasagne later in the evening, which seemed like a good usage for the pulp (i dont like throwing away foods).

Lasagne

Then some days later it was newyear, so then ate another nut roast for dinner again (i guess its kinda tradition to eat bunch of nutroast at xmas and newyear xd)

Then later went out to watch fireworks around midnight, it was pretty nice =p

Watching the fireworks

Fireworks

So was a nice 2012 i guess =p Got job, started on master studies, and got myself the sweetest bf in the world <3333333333 Hope 2013 will be good =D Happy New Year everyone!!! =D

Birthday pt with family

Since dad had birthday like a week ago, and i have birthday in like 2 weeks and theres like way too many parties during xmas holidays we both celebrated together with family (grandparents) sunday.

Ofc i saw this as nice oppertunity to make cakes, and so i did ;p

First i made this awesome "dreamcake" from vegetarbloggen with almond bottom with chocolate pieces in it, vanilla cream layer above that, and on top a jelly layer with strawberries in it.
It was really delicious, so i will definitely make this one again!

 

I also made this apple spice cake with almond topping from vegweb where i added raisins in the dough for extra awesomeness =p

 Then i made some sandwishes with cucumber and polenta with mushroom and onion and leeks.

Since we were celebrating my birthday i got some gifts! (I love getting presents!! xD) 

I got some money, some socks, a sweater, some cooking equipment, a soap, and The Happy Herbivore cookbook by Lindsay S. Nixon that i've been wanting for long time now! =D Will be sweet to try out the recipes =D

So was a nice birthday celebration, and will hopefully be an even better celebration on my birthday! =D

Pumpkin + mac & sauce

This year my parents surpriced me by buying a pumpkin (i guess i had asked/spammed for one so more likely they buy then ofc xD).

The bad thing in norway is they only got pumpkins week before halloween and not the rest of the year, atleast not that i have seen, and you have to buy a superbig one then. The one i had was probably 6+ kg.

I was too lazy to carve it out for halloween, so i just ate it =p Like every day for a week, so got a bit tired after a while xD So i tried different things, and what i found out worked best was pumpkin pieces in curry or soup, or grated pumpkin in different dishes (i tried in sauce and lasagne). In muffins/pancakes was also good =p What wasnt good was oven roasted, but could be i did it badly.


This i made twice (with and without cauliflower). I dont remember exactly what i did, so ill just put what i think i did.

Mac & pumpkinsauce:

Ingredients:
Macaroni (or other pasta)
Margarine
Onion
Garlic (optional)
Cauliflower (optional, and can also use other veggies)
Grated pumpkin + maybe pumpkin puree if you got that (i had leftovers)
Flour
Non-dairy milk
Stock cube
Nutritional yeast
Salt and pepper

Boil macaroni. Saute onion and garlic and cauliflower (could be i used water also, i dont remember). Mix in some flour and add milk, grated pumpkin, stock cube and let it simmer. Add nutritional yeast and salt and pepper.

Yammies! (yes it looks like puke, but tasted very good =D)

Ratatouille-nacho-hybrid XD

Long time since i made/ate this but it was awesome so i'll post recipe since i wrote it down when i made it xd And yes im still alive, just havent been updating blog in like forever xD


So ye, wanted to use eggplant i had laying in the fridge, normally was gonna make some pasta thingy with eggplant and red bell pepper, but my sis had leftover taco shells, so i figured i would be using them in recipe, so instead i took inspiration my nacho recipe lol xP

Here we go!

Ingredients i used +- since i didnt really measure =p Feel free to skip or add anything you like if you want to make something similar
1 onion, diced
0,5 eggplant, 0,5 cm thin slices, into 1-2 cm pieces
1,5 vegetable bullion cube + water
1 jar pasta sauce
Some water
Some tvp (maybe 0,5 dl?)
1,5 red bell pepper, (i ovenroasted 1 while 0,5 raw, pieces)
0,5 zucchini, grated
1 carrot, grated
Spices: paprika powder, cumin, coriander, onion powder, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper
0,5 can corn
Taco shells (in pieces) or tortilla chips
Taco sauce

I sauted the onion and eggplant in the bullion water, while ovenroasting a bell pepper where i had removed the green part (i forgot name xD) and seeds on 200°C grill function until all sides were blackish and then i removed skin and chopped in pieces. I added pasta sauce + water (for more wetish consistency)+ tvp + grated carrot and zucchini and the bell pepper pieces and let it simmer nicely. Then i spiced it and let it simmer some more. Then i added corn into the sauce. I crushed taco shells and laid a layer in the bottom, then putted the sauce on it, then a new layer with crushed taco shells, and then some taco sauce on top. I putted in oven for 15 minutes on 200°C.

For some reason the bottom taco shells tasted bit cheesy (it was all softish xD).

Bit more veggies than normal nachos i guess xD But thats cool ;p

Norwegian constitution day cake =p

Since its norwegian constitution day today i wanted to make a cake, and so i did =p

This time i made this cake from vegetarbloggen (norwegian): Marsipan cake, folloing the recipe more or less (probably less xD).

It was good, but could have been better (probably if i followed recipe it would have been better haha). But it wasnt bad for being the first time making a marsipan cake like that! =D

I normally wanted it circular though, but we didnt have enough shapes for that, so just made it rectangular then xd

Facon

Finally got myself liquid smoke, nutritional yeast, and tofu, so i wanted to try making facon (tofu bacon)! These stuffs are very yummy and taste more or less the same as bacon!!! It really rocks! If you like/love bacon you should try it! ;)

Recipe is found here in norwegian: Facon
And here in english: Facon

So all what you need is tofu, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, liquid smoke, salt and oil to make these yummies ;p