What I Ate Wednesday #55 – Spring Fair Snack Attack

The sun has finally decided to come out to play in good old Bavaria, so I’ve been feeling the strong urge to get outside. I’m not fighting it.

Last Friday, my hometown’s annual Spring Fair started, and it still runs until next Sunday. Of course, I had to go! This fair is quite similar to the Oktoberfest, just a lot smaller. But even more fun, because it’s less crowded. Usually.

A day at the fair has to start with the right kind of fuel. I seriously can’t understand people who skip breakfast. I get so cranky when I don’t get regular meals!

There’s so much delicious food at the fair! Most of those treats are far from healthy, but not all of them are that bad. This time I focused on my absolute favorites, to avoid feeling overly stuffed. Corn on the cob is definitely a must-have for me, whenever it’s available.

Special thanks go out to my handsome hand model.

Must-have food item #2 is a thin crepe with apple sauce and cinnamon. It almost burned my hands! That’s why I only have an ‘almost done’ photo for you. Next time I have to ask them to use the galette batter, which is made with buckwheat flour, instead of the standard white wheat batter. Why didn’t I think of this sooner!?

The spice booth is my favorite one at the entire fair, I guess. They have so many amazing teas, herbs, and spices. I want to buy everything! But I mustered up some restraint, and only bought a few fun mixes, that I’m going to share with my Foodie Penpals.

The preparations for the Landshut Wedding are already in full force. This is a really big deal, people! This royal wedding from the year 1475 is re-enacted every four years. It’s on again this summer, from June 28th to July 21st. Come over if you like! It’s fun!

Dinner was a quick one. I was busy preparing some food for the work week, so I wasn’t in the mood to cook an elaborate dinner. I had udon noodles in black been sauce, with a side of roasted broccoli and carrots. Not very pretty, but quite tasty, and incredibly filling! I shared some with my husband because I couldn’t finish that plate.

What is your hometown famous for?

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What I Ate Wednesday #54 – More Than Rabbit Food

Most people I know think of salads, vegetables, and fruit as rabbit food, believing that plant-based meals can’t be filling and satisfying. I disagree, of course.

As I’ve mentioned here before, my favorite breakfast is a sandwich, and my favorite lunch option is a giant salad. How can those plant-based meals keep me full until the next snack or meal, and how come I’m not bored to death by eating the same things every day? Today I’m going to share some of my tricks below.

Recent breakfast: Whole grain bread with sunflower seed spread and cucumber for me on the right, cheese sandwich for the husband on the left.

Tip #1: Choose complex carbs. E.g. in the form of whole grains. They digest slowly, so they don’t send your blood sugar levels on a rollercoaster ride, but keep you full for quite a while. I love whole spelt bread, oats, brown rice, among others.

Tip #2: Include {good} fats, in reasonable amounts. Whole nuts and seeds, avocados, nut butters, and cold-pressed oils are generally the best options. How much fat someone needs varies greatly. Some people thrive on low-fat diets, while others need more fat for optimal health. I personally feel best somewhere in the middle.

Recent lunch: Big, colorful salad with lamb’s lettuce, quinoa, tomatoes, mushrooms, sunflower seeds.

Tip #3: Don’t forget about protein! While I’ve stopped worrying about getting enough protein quite a while ago, it’s still important to not totally ignore this macro nutrient. Plants generally contain less protein per gram than let’s say meat, fish, or eggs, but plant foods like beans, lentils, soy products (TVP, tofu, tempeh, soy milk, soy yogurt), nuts, seeds, whole grains (especially quinoa), and green vegetables do contain a significant amount of protein. In the end, it all adds up.

Tip #4: Eat a rainbow! In other words, try to eat a large variety of different foods, don’t eat the same things over and over again. With that approach you avoid getting bored and can increase your chances to get it all the nutrients that your body needs.

Recent dinner: Mexican-style pizza with homemade spelt flour crust.

Tip #5: Find delicious replacements! I love to use whole spelt flour instead of white wheat flour, soy yogurt instead of Greek yogurt, nutritional yeast instead of parmesan, rice milk instead of cow’s milk, Alsan instead of butter, TVP instead of ground meat, etc. The options are nearly endless! Experiment as much as you like, and find things that you enjoy.

Tip #6: Think outside the box! Who puts kidney beans and nutritional yeast on a pizza? Well, I do. And I will do it again, because it’s delicious. Embrace #StrangeButGood meal ideas and combinations!

Recent dessert: Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Yes!

Tip #7: Have a treat! There’s room for chocolate in every diet, or at least there should be, in my opinion.

What would you like to add to that list?

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What I Ate Wednesday #53 – Carrot Cake Fail

Easter has come and gone and it’s April already. It’s still way too cold for this time of year, which makes me a little grumpy. Also, I had to go back to work yesterday, and have a lot of catching up to do, so let’s make this a quick one, okay?

Here are some recent meals and snacks that I whipped up in my kitchen over the Easter weekend:

Recent breakfast: This is what happens when I can’t decide which kind of jam I want with my peanut butter toast.

Recent dinner: Whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, topped with nutritional yeast and pine nuts. That one happens at least once a week.

Recent lunch: Chopped romaine lettuce with quinoa, mixed vegetables, ajvar, and vegan cucumber raita, which was inspired by a recent post on Sprint 2 the table. I used soy yogurt instead of Greek, and it was amazing. Gave me really bad garlic breath, though. Not save for work, folks!

Recent dinner: Not-so-traditional Korean tofu stew (jjigae), spicy and meaty for the husband, mild and vegan for me. With a side of rice, of course.

Easter basket: What do vegans eat on Easter? Chocolate eggs! And chocolate bunnies! I didn’t even miss our traditional hard-boiled eggs. Yeah, that surprised me, too.

And finally, the carrot cake mentioned in the title of this post. I loosely followed a recipe that I had found online, but something went wrong. That cake turned out mushy and dense, not fluffy and cakey as I had hoped. Not sure what it was, maybe too much shredded carrots, not enough baking powder, oven temperature too low. Whatever. I’m eating it anyway. No baked goods will go to waste in my house!

What was your last cooking or baking fail?

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What I Ate Wednesday #52 – Being Grateful

I’m currently enjoying another staycation week. The month of March has been very hectic for me, filled to the brim with work and other duties, and April will probably be just the same, so I decided to take a few days off to relax and get some paperwork done.

Last Saturday I convinced my husband to go to Munich, which is the nearest bigger city from where we live. Before we hit the road I needed breakfast, of course, in the form of my usual sandwiches.

My favorite sandwich toppings at the moment are this sunflower eggplant spread and mild ajvar. That combo rocks!

Before we left, I also shoved one of these no bake chocolate macaroons into my mouth. I found the recipe on Oh She Glows, noticed that I had all the ingredients at home, and had to make them right away. They are so easy to whip up, and so delicious.
When we finally arrived in Munich, we first got our bi-monthly food haul at the Korean grocery store done. It always amazes me how much money we can spend on food in just 10 minutes.

A few months ago, I discovered that a German Gratitude Restaurant had opened in Munich. How awesome is that!? Of course I had to try it as soon as possible. The Munich location is rather small but cosy, and offers a small but fine selection of vegan, organic, mostly raw dishes and treats. I ordered a salad with roasted squash and sprouts, and the husband had a quinoa dish. Both were delicious and only mildly seasoned. I just wished that my salad would have been a little more filling. On the other hand, I still had enough room in my belly for dessert.

This raw raspberry chocolate cake looked so good, I just had to have a slice. I was very fruity and tart, not too sweet, and so good. Overall, I really enjoyed our trip to Gratitude, and I will surely visit again when I get the chance.

Later that night, we got hungry again, so I used some of the things we bought at the Korean store for a quick and simple dinner. I had pan-fried rice cakes in black bean sauce, edamame, and some dumplings. Yum!

I’m a very curious eater and love trying new things. This bag of sweet potatoes got my special attention. I just had to try them as a late night snack. I expected some kind of crispy chips, but no, those were simply roasted and cut up sweet potatoes, without and seasonings or oil. They were delicious! And now I kick myself for not buying more bags, as these would be a perfect road trip snack. I hope those will still be around on our next shopping trip.

Have you ever tried a raw dessert?

See you!

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What I Ate Wednesday #51 – Party Time

It’s Wednesday already? Dang, where did that week go!?

Last Saturday I hosted a Tupperware party at my place. Yes, they still exist, that fact surprised me, too. We were a small group, just my mom, one of her friends, and my pregnant neighbor. We still had fun, and I bought a few nice things that will be delivered sometime next week.

Breakfast was business as usual. I normally have two slices of toast, but this time I decided to have a third one. I needed extra fuel for my spring cleaning adventure.

After scrubbing my apartment from top to bottom, I had the last slice of leftover pizza. I made that one completely from scratch, including the dough and the tomato sauce. There’s no other way to do this, in my opinion. I crumbled some tofu rosso on top instead of cheese. That was the best pizza I have ever made! And completely vegan.

The party started at 3pm, so I made a batch of muffins to go with our coffee. I adapted a recipe for apple maple muffins from one of my (many) cookbooks, and it turned out really good. I wish I had taken some notes. Oh well, next time.

Yes, I have a salad for dinner sometimes. This particular one was nicely filling, don’t worry. It contained brown rice, edamame, tomatoes, cucumbers, lambs lettuce, and sunflower seeds. So much green on one plate! That’s how I like it.

Have you ever been to a Tupperware party?

See you!

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