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?

See you!

Read Full Post »

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!

Read Full Post »

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!

Read Full Post »

What I Ate Wednesday #50 – Germs & Cravings

Flu season is still in full force around here, and I got hit hard last week. I was so sick. Which is rather unusual. The last time I felt that horrible was two years ago. So I guess I’m still lucky. But being sick is annoying. Period.

I’ve always wished that I was one of those people who lose their appetite when they are sick. I’m the exact opposite. I get ravenous! What’s even worse, I tend to crave junk food. Still, I’ve been doing my best to eat mostly healthy food. I know that when I’m sick my body needs nutrients more than ever.

So here’s what I ate last Sunday, when I wasn’t coughing and sneezing.

The usual breakfast. Spring can’t come soon enough. Cucumbers and tomatoes are so freaking expensive right now. But that can’t stop me from eating them on a daily basis.

Second breakfast! Who else feels like a hobbit when having a mid-morning snack? Just me? Okay. Last week I bought another bag of my beloved Alnatura Früchte-Müsli. It’s so good! I like to soak it in rice milk to soften the oats and dried fruit just a little. And I added a sliced banana.

Having a big salad for lunch has become an almost daily habit. I’m not fighting that craving.

That’s probably the most random dinner in quite a while. I was running out of inspiration, obviously. Just a bowl of rice with vegetable pancakes and black beans, that were simmered in soy sauce and syrup.

To be honest, I also had some chocolate. But I ate it to fast to get a photo.

What foods do you crave when you are sick?

See you!

Read Full Post »

What I Ate Wednesday #49 – Grandma Food

Look! The theme for March’s What I Ate Wednesday is GREEN! Can you tell I’m a little exited?

But this post is not only about green things, it is actually a tribute to my grandma, who will celebrate her 86th birthday in just a few days. When I was a little girl, my parents both worked full-time, so I often went over to my grandma’s place after kindergarten or elementary school, to have lunch and do homework. Last week, I took a few of her signature dishes and adapted them to my current preferences.

My grandma’s favorite breakfast has always been a slice of sourdough bread with butter and honey. I subbed whole grain bread for the sourdough, and used Alsan instead of butter. I haven’t had honey in quite a while and had totally forgotten how tasty it is!

All of my grandma’s dishes are very simple, cheap, and use mostly unprocessed ingredients. All I had to do to adapt them to my style of eating is to remove the meat. Just like this chunky potato soup. It’s loaded with vegetables, and still delicious and filling, even without any animal products.

As a little kid, I ate a lot of potatoes. They are very cheap here in Germany, as they basically grow just around the corner. Three cheers for local produce! My favorite way to prepare them is pan-fried. We call that Bratkartoffeln. I always chop and boil the potatoes before frying them, so I only need very little oil for my non-stick pan. See, they’re not greasy at all! The key ingredient is a hefty sprinkle of caraway seeds. If you haven’t tried that yet, do it now! Also, please note the green beans on the side.

One of our favorite snacks was a banana, mashed on a small plate, and topped with yogurt and a little sugar. See? So freaking simple! These days I prefer soy yogurt and raw cane sugar, but it still tasted just like I remembered. Oh, and we also used to share that snack with my grandma’s pet bird. Minus the sugar, of course.

About once a week or so, we usually enjoyed a sweet lunch. That is quite an old tradition in our region. Our Austrian neighbors are actually quite famous for their sweet main dishes, known as Mehlspeisen. My grandma used to make French toast, rice pudding, or my absolute favorite, yeast pancakes! I know, the idea of adding yeast to your pancakes might sound strange to most of you, but I those fluffy little cakes are just amazing. They are similar to Russian blinis or Polish racuchy, but still unique. I’ll try to post the recipe in the next few days.

What was your favorite dish when you were a child?

See you!

Read Full Post »