Carob ice cream, ricotta pie and an announcement

If I had not been reading blogs, I probably would not have known about carob. And boy am I glad Mr. Carob and I got acquainted! I love raw carob fudge, carob bars (the Dutch brand Molenaartje makes delicious ones) en apparently, I love carob ice cream too.

I used 3/4 cup coconut milk, 1/4 cup water, a tablespoon of cashew butter, less than a tablespoon of agave syrup and two tablespoons of carob. The carob gave it a wonderful structure (not to mention great taste, if you like carob).



Next up is the Florentine Ricotta Pie from Jo Stepaniak's The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. And let me tell you: it is DELICIOUS! I used phylo as a crust and used a 600 gram bag of fresh spinach that I sautéed instead of the frozen spinach. I used onions instead of the scallions and chose the tofu and rolled oats options (instead of white beans and flour).

Have to make this again really soon!



To celebrate the fact that the supermarket I usually go to (Albert Heijn) finally has individually frozen fruit (they had mixes and raspberries, but now they also sell strawberries, mango pieces, pineapple pieces, blueberries and blackberries), I made a green smoothie with spinach, banana and pineapple. And, instead of my usual swamp-coloured smoothies, this one actually looked green!
For the first time in my life, I have been consistent with running during the winter (not that I did not exercise during the winter, I just wasn't a runner. In fact, I hated running and thought people who ran, especially when it was cold, were just plain mad). I always thought it was too cold (or you dress too hot, which you discover after five minutes of running). But with the right gear and my mp3-player with audio tapes I kept running. I don't run long distances, because I get bored after half an hour, 45 minutes (I tried to push myself to run further, but that did not work at all. I just started skipping runs, and after a while I figured that maybe 30/40 minute runs that DO happen are a lot better than 50-60 minute runs that don't...).

The only thing I am not very fond of though, is that after all the ice started to melt, a few parts of my running trail are now one big puddle of mud. This is what my shoes look like after a run:


And finally, my announcement... This year, the Vuelta a España (like the Tour de France, only in Spain) starts in a town only 15 minutes by train from where I live (why is the 'round of Spain' starting in the Netherlands, you ask? I have absolutely no idea!). They also organize a 'friendly non-profs competition', over a distance of 60, 90 or 120 kilometers).

My boyfriend decided to enter with a bunch of coworkers. He asked me if he could use my racing bike (which used to belong to my dad and is a little bit too big for me), I said of course and then.. it started to itch.

I went to see the Tour de France when I was little once, and it seemed way cool to me to do something like that one day. I did not think it was possible, but still, very cool. I never did anything with it, until now. I signed up for the race too! And not for the 60 or 90 km distance, but for the 120 km one (which is approximately 75 miles). Yikes!

So, first thing I have to do now is find a racing bike. (I would like to buy a second-hand, but no luck yet. They were either not the right size, really gross and moldy, way too old or still way too expensive...). Then I really need to make a training schedule and of course: start training. i'll post my training schedule and keep you updated.

The big day will be on the 29th of August, so fortunately, I still have some time to prepare!

Katie's yogurt and buckwheat pancakes

I'll admit: I'm trying to get me some extra entries to Katie's Jocalat giveaway at the last minute with this:

I actually whipped it up long before she announced her giveaway: yogurtlicious vegan yogurt. I used mixed frozen berries. The yogurt in the picture was the second time I made it. The first time, I used frozen strawberries only. That one was my favorite. It's too bad I can't find silken tofu in the city where I live, because it is mighty tasty!

These are some buckwheat corn pancakes I made using a recipe from PCRM, found on Kris Carr's website Crazy Sexy Life (here). Loved them.

Aren't they pretty? I got them in my fruit and veg box and although I read I was going to get blood oranges, I completely forgot until I cut them open. Nice surprise!

London

M., my friend whom I met while we were living and working (she)/doing an internship (me) in London with the same company (while living in the same house...) went to London again (we try to visit as often as possible, because we LOVE London).

The first night we were there, we went straight to the RedVeg to buy ourselves a mushroomburger (ask for a vegan one and they'll leave off the cheese and use vegan mayo). If you are ever in London, do yourself a favor, go to the RedVeg (Dean Street, a street off Oxford Street, near Tottenham Court Road tube station) and order a mushroomburger. They are unbelievably good.

The second night, we went to dinner at Mildred's. It was my second time there, and I ordered the light meal I ate last time as a starter. Then I ate a couscous dish with chickpeas, which could have used some more veggies in my opinion. And ah.. dessert!

Coconut tofu cheesecake with caramelised banana. We made sure to make lots of yummy-noises because the guy sitting next to us had been mocking the tofu part of the tofu cheesecake for about 15 minutes before we got it. ;-)

In the Netherlands, we do not have a Whole Foods. Reading about it on blogs for ages now, I was really curious. I have been to the Fresh & Wild in Soho (a British Whole Foods 'daughter'?), but I knew there was a 'real' Whole Foods in Kensington, near our hotel.

And oh my, it was BIG! I actually got lost in there.

I bought lots of things, including a small to-try-packet of chocolate hemp protein powder, Larabars, Bounceballs, a small raw Goji & Lucuma chocolate bar and a vegan cupcake. It was the first time I bought a vegan cupcake (they do not sell those over here...) and... it was a major disappointment actually. (I hope that this is just the how all of there cupcakes taste, not just the vegan ones, because I know vegan cupcakes do not have to taste this dry, bland, and have such a weird butter cream frosting - and I wouldn't like people to associate this taste with vegan cupcakes!)

And, also for the first time ever, I saw vegan chocolates. I am not a chocoholic, but I couldn't resist buying one of all the vegan ones (except the chocolate orange one. I know people go crazy for that combination, but I think it is really, really gross).

The mouse and owl were just plain chocolate (I figured that out when I ate them, I thought they would be filled). Top right is a truffle (I like ED&BV ones better!), below that one a raspberry filled one. Bottom left is a rose filled one and not pictured a violet one. I loved those last three ones. If I'll ever visit that Whole Foods again (and I will, haha), I'll definitely buy a box of the raspberry, violet and rose flavoured chocolates!

The next day, we went to a new-to-us restaurant, 222 Veggie Vegan. It's not situated in the city centre, so that's probably the reason we had not visited yet. I actually thought it would be bigger, but it looked really nice.

We lunched there, and they serve a buffet for lunch. It's all you can eat for 7 pounds 50. Everything I piled on my plate was really delicious, but OMG, the lasagne. I completely stuffed my face with that.

I had to try there cheesecake to. As you can see, it was not as smooth as the ones they served at Mildred's. I ordered it with a side of vegan blueberry ice cream, which was delicious. They really know how to make vegan ice cream there! Next time, I'll order a bowl of ice cream.

We also went to Three Days of Rain, with James McAvoy. I loved the play, and the actors. They played so well!

Next time I'm in London, I am going to stock up on these:

Why o why do they not sell Nestle cereals (Cheerios!) in the Netherlands? (Everywhere in Europe, but not in the Netherlands...)

Oatmeal Raisin cookies and Wagamama

My mom and dad came to visit, and I baked Dreena's Raisin Oatmeal Cookies (ED&BV). They are so good!

Playing with my dad's new macro lens:

We went to dinner at Wagamama's. It was my first time there, even though the restaurant came to my city a few years ago. It was my first time eating edamameh (so tasty!) and I ordered Yasai Itame, stir-fried cabbage with tofu and rice noodles in coconut milk soup.

And, they even had a vegan dessert: coconut ice cream with mango sauce.

I'll definitely visit Wagamama more often in the future!

Valentine's Day Brunch

Yowza, looong time no posts over here! But, I come bearing cupcakes as a peace offering! And even though it is already March, I'm still going to post about Valentine's Day, because... well, we celebrated it last week.

Since a few years, two friends and I are throwing ourselves a little Valentine's Day party (most years we don't celebrate it on the day itself) . We decided on brunch (or should we call it an excuse to eat sweet treats, because we didn't have any savory food?) this year.


In the pink dish on the left: American pancakes (Dutch pancakes are more like crepes, only a little bit thicker) and lemon corn waffles (VwaV). In the small dishes lemon red fruit sauce (based on the lemon sauce from Smooed food, to which we added frozen red berries and cherries) and a cooking pear sauce. Mimosas and on the cake dish mini rosewater cupcakes.

Mini rosewater cupcakes with pink rosewater frosting (recipe: Vegan Cupcakes take over the World, of course).

That frosting is SO yummy!

Lemon corn waffles with lemon red berry sauce and a dollop of pink frosting

Frustration and kniepertjes

And then... our internet got cut off. Since our old internet company already gave us one month free, extra internet, I'm thankful to them. And I really, really do not like our new one. We were supposed to have their internet on the 21st of October... And numerous calls later, still no internet... We do have some wireless internet. And right now I am at my parents' place.

Loooong overdue, the pictures of the kniepertjes from the last post.

My 'kniepertjes-ijzer' (kniepertjes iron)

I wanted to take a picture of the whole stack of them, but I forgot and by the time I remembered to take the picture, there was only one left. These ones are flat, representing the old year.

And one rolled up, representing the new year (it/the near year hasn't been 'rolled out' yet). These are usually filled with whipped cream.

They were gone in no time! Note to self: make 3 batches next time.

I tried half a batch with the egg-replacer, one with vanilla soy yogurt and one without egg-replacer or soy yogurt. I thought the ones with yogurt didn't have a great texture (which surprised me, because normally I really like using soy yogurt as an egg substitute). I couldn't taste the difference between the ones with egg replacer and the ones without, so next time I think I leave it out.

And a question for you: I get a few organic fruits and vegetables delivered to my doorstep every week. This week, I will get beets. I have never been particularly fond of beets, but then again, I didn't like Brussels sprouts before Isa/Vegan with a Vengeance. Maybe I just don't know how to prepare them properly, so what it your favorite way of preparing beets? Any raw recipes?

Kniepertjes/knieperties recipe

For anyone who wants to make kniepertjes/knieperties tomorrow, 31st of December... (I'll post about them, with pictures, in the coming days, but I saw someone already searched my blog for the recipe, so I thought I'd give it in time for New Years...

125 gr margarine
120-140 gr sugar (I use 'basterdsuiker')
1 Orgran No-egg (I just add it because I have lots of the stuff, but I think it can easily be made without. And maybe it can be made with soy yogurt as well. Hmm, maybe i'll try that tomorrow!)
250 gr flour
375-425 ml water
few dashes of cinnamon
packet of vanillasugar

Cream the margarine and sugar together, add rest and mix. It depends on your waffle iron how thick you want the batter, so just try a few waffles with 375 ml water and add more of the batter doesn't spread when you close the waffle iron. I always need to add more than 375 ml. Use the iron according to the manufacturer's instruction (note to self: the red light indicates the waffles are not done yet). I use one gravy spoon of batter per waffle.