The first Christmas lunch

So, I promised photos of the lunch I had with my work buddies. We went to a rustic restaurant, where we were sure the food would be comfy and delicious. I chose the vegetarian menu, cause they sadly didn't know or want to make me a vegan one. Never mind, the cheese was yummi, scratching aside.

The appetizer: marinated zucchini squash (on olive oil) & fresh cheese with herbs on a bed of arugula. Oh my f-ing broccoli. So good, SO GOOD! I finished it all and was sadly already full after the appetizer! A few more courses to go.

Grilled young cheese in a honey & pine nuts sauce on a bed of corn salad (this corn salad from the lettuce family, not actual corn - is there any other name for it?). MY f-ing broccoli again! 

After the first I had to prepare myself for the second. I was expecting a small amount of gnocchi, as usually one gets, but this is what I actually got:

That's a whole huge plate of home-made gnocchi in vegetable sauce with carrots, zucchini and eggplants diced. I mean, I wouldn't eat it for a single serving and not after 2 courses! But guess what, although I almost exploded, had to hold my stomach and down a few more glasses of a delicious cabernet, I finished almost everything.

Sadly, I had no more room for desert, but the rest of the people each ordered cakes! My oh my, where did they put it?!

Is your mouth watering by now? :-) 

Eat something :)

Becoming a broccoli

It's Christmas time again and I can say, finally, I truly feel the Christmas spirit. The temperatures dropped, there's luckily no snow, but the trees are white nonetheless due to cold temperatures. So I have a really nice view from my office :-)

I've been working like crazy. December is always a busy time for us, what with things to complete before new year.

So even when I was home, this was a usual:

Eating by the computer. No time to take it slow. That's actually penne pasta in a vegetable sauce by Barilla with tomato, peas, carrots and pumpkin. Reminds me of a soup or baby food, really. 

I'm wrapping it up at work today and have vacation next week! Hooray! So I've finished most of my work and I'm finally taking it a bit easy.

 Soup. Do you really expect me to remember every soup I make? I think it was leek soup, though.

The past years during Christmas we would always fight which family to visit first, for christmas dinner or lunch because we always forgot where we spent the past christmas and both families want us home, like always.

So last year I said, we'll just stay home for Christmas, the two of us and then we'll visit during the week. Oh joy, how handy it came this year, when the usual "when are you coming for christmas??" began and we said "we'll stay home like last year!" 

It's like, we're a family now, the two of us, or something :-)

Cereal burgers with mashed potatoes and raddichio.

So the past weekend I did visit a newborn family of ours - my brother, sister-in-law and my niece! Oh gosh, she's so tiny and sleeping like the dead! I can't post photos because I promised I would not, so - sorry. But she is the cuttest button ever. The other family baby, my cousin's daughter Eva we will visit after the new year, we let them enjoy this time in peace, I know they have enough of other visits.

Soy burgers with broccoli, fries and mixed salad.

I'm planning a huge baking / cooking session this weekend. I have my eye on a few cookie recipes and although I'm not a cookie-making fan, I like to make my own cookie gifts to give to friends, so I'll just endure it :)

 Nothing beats freshly squeezed orange juice. Lots of that around here these days.

Risotto with broccoli, carrots and pumpkin, salad mix. If you are what you eat, I'm broccoli these days.

So I'll be posting more the next days, hopefully, since I'll be home much and cooking. Stay tuned.

How about your days? Are you busy? Eating properly? :-)

Oh remind me to post pics of the company's Christmas lunch :) So much yumminess!

Getting in Christmas mood

It's been some crazy days since the birth of my niece, and I still didn't get to see her at all, but maybe this weekend brings more luck.

It's hectic at work, too, as every December is.

Luckily, I got to enjoy some peace and quite this past weekend, when me and M. just stayed home for a change and focused on cooking, eating, resting and, well, some cleaning and ironing, too.

I like cleaning, or, I like the final result when the house is clean and tidy, but I hate the moments, when you're gathering yourself and like "ok, I'll go clean now". It takes me forever to get to the point when I actually take a mop in my hands :) but when I do, I clean just about everything. Plant leaves included.

We also were getting in xmas spirit. On Friday I put up the xmas tree in the office and Saturday I did it at home.

 

We live in a tiny flat and we can only afford to have a tiny xmas tree, that we place on the kitchen table, right next to my cookbooks and blender. Not the best position, but one has to work with the resources she has and I'm making the best I can. And it only lasts a few weeks, right? So, we'll just endure a smaller eating space for some short time.

One other thing I also did this past weekend was relaxing, full time. Like this:

A cup of nettle&mint tea and good reading. Life doesn't get much better.

In cooking news, these are some dishes I made the past week:

The Redwood's Falafel with baked potatoes & peas in creamy sauce

Risotto with tofu & zucchini

Baked polenta with cauliflower and a "mexican" sauce with zucchini, bell peppers, carrots, tomato sauce & corn.

Some more rice: stir-fry with broccoli and cabbage

It's official

Just a quick note to you, who, like me, have been waiting for the big news.

I'm an AUNTIE!! Forever and ever to my NIECE, who they named KARIN :-)

The birth was smooth and it all lasted about 4 hours. My brother was there all along, joyful, and he said it was a very interesting experience :-)

I'll be seeing my niece for the first time this weekend, and strangely (since I'm not a baby person, but blood is not water) I cannot wait! :)

Welcome to the world, sunshine. Your auntie will surely teach you many stupid things that will make your parents very uncomfortable! :))

Yeah, and by the way: Karin was the name I had in mind for my own offspring if there was ever a need. I always felt there should be a Karin in the family... and now, there is, just not how I pictured it :) and now I have to come up with a new baby name haha :)

Waiting

There were a few times in my life when time seemed to stop and dragged endlessly.

First was the time I heard on TV about a mountain accident when the person who died fit the description of one of my best friends. The hours when I was calling him on the cellphone with no response, calling around to learn the news, just waiting for any kind of information I could get, were horrible. It could have been 2 hours, but it felt like a year. At last, I learnt it was him and time stopped.

Then there were the cute hours, a few years back, when I met my partner and since we were long-distance at that time, each time we were to see each other, the time spent travelling was dragging in anticipation.

Today, at 4.15pm time stopped again. My sister-in-law's water broke and she and her husband, my brother, are in the hospital, delivering a new soul to the world. I hold my breath, I wait around, just to hear any news. Time is going to drag tonight.

Fingers crossed.

Early Christmas

I just can't seem to keep with one blogger template, everything bugs me. Maybe it's time to get an own blog and own domain and a tailor-made blog :-)

In other news, I can't have enough of this delicious, hearty barley soup:

It's become a regular on my menu and I love it, that I can just pack it to work and eat it hot for lunch in my Aladdin Bento Lunch Box. Mmm, my mouth is watering just looking at the picture. Barley is good for you. It  has plenty of non-animal protein, vitamins B, iron, magnesium, zinc and dietary fiber.

Yesterday I had a tough day, was on the go all day and barely ate, but for 2 bananas and a sandwich that I couldn't even find vegetarian, so I just went for the tuna version. Either that or starvation. When I returned home in the evening I found my man in bed (with a terrible headache who just wanted to be left alone to sleep) and a note from the postman to go pick up an order. So I just turned arouned, got in the car again and drove to the post office (10 minutes before closing time), only to recieve my birthday / christmas present:

My Amazon order! Back in July I recieved a 100$ gift certificate from my friends to spend as I like on Amazon and it took me a long time to finally decide how to spend it! And this is how:

My oh my! I must have the largest vegan cookbook collection in the country :-) I shall take the time to photograph my cookbook collection one of these days. Seriously, I should just open a library. My bf is amazed, and not in the good sense. He thinks I'm a bit crazy. Maybe he is right :-)

In this package:

• Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson
• Going Raw by Judita Wignall
• Plate to Pixel by Helene Dujardin
• Big Vegan by Robin Asbell
• Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

I think I'll be cooking and baking this weekend :-)

Day 276.

Fogged

I've developed a new smoothie love these past days. It's a combination of banana, apple, blueberries, cinnamon & water. It's simple and you get to eliminate plenty of apples :)

It's also fluffy and rich and ideal for this cold days, as the cinnamon&apple combination remind you of apple strudel or mulled wine.

We've been in a state of fog these past... weeks, actually. I had to take a trip back home, to finally enjoy me some sunshine, after being stuck over 2 weeks in fog, fog and more fog. So after 2 weeks I finally saw this:

What a sight! And warmth! My eyes could hardly focus, unaccostumed to bright light.

We're expecting my niece/nephiew any day now and we have invited the newlyweds over for a traditional Sunday lunch feast. My, her belly grew out! It's hard to imagine there's a living being growing inside, feels so bizzare :) And you see the little feet sticking out, making bumps in the belly :-) I recon, next time I visit, I'll be an auntie :)

Anyway, we cooked delicious food, and with leftover pumpkins rolling around from Halloween, we made - for the first time ever ever - pumpkin soup, served in pumpkin shells with an addition of roasted pumpkin seeds :)

Wow, was it delicious! I sure am making it again! 

I also discovered that Loving Hut has gone winter-style, now serving food in heat-preserving containers, that are - OF COURSE - eco friendly, made of sugar cane and biodegradable! Wow! I wonder, if they can serve food like that, also using biodegradable bags, why can't everyone? We pay for it, we deserve to have what we want! :-)

This is so important and most easily comes to attention when buying vegatables and fruit in supermarkets, where you need to put everything in plastic bags, that are only used for about 20 minutes! And then, to waste with it. When I can, I put price tags on the products directly (bananas, large veggies etc), but I would seriously appreciate biodegradable bags, thank you. I was long one of the rare freaks that brought tote bags to supermarkets, just because it seemed ridicolous always buying new plastic bags I had no use for. Now everywhere they support reusable bags, totes. It's time to take that a step further, do you agree? Let us have biodegradable fruit & veggie bags!

Just think: when I buy groceries I usually buy: lettuce (1 bag), cabbage (wrapped in foil??), cauliflower (foil), chinese cabbage (bag), peppers (bag for each kind of pepper), courgettes (bag), eggplant (bag), bananas (never a bag!), apples (bag), tanjerines, lemons, grapes, ... you name it. That's like 10 or more plastic bags in one shopping spree! And they're too small to actually be reused for other things or garbage, and I cannot use it for bio waste since it's plastic. So, a petition seems in order to supply shoppers with eco bags!

Celebrated

We had our 5th anniversary of just being together, yesterday :-)

To celebrate we agreed on going out to dine, but our initial plan to try Indian quickly changed to Mexican when I said the magic words "apple crisp".

I have been saving myself all day for this feast. I ate almost nothing, just drank tea and water. So in the evening I was ready to eat, but even I could not have predicted what followed.

We started with a classic Chips&dips. I did not hold back. I indulged in cream and nacho cheese.

For the main course I chose a Queso Grande or something like that: a tortilla, filled with grilled veggies and cheese, with a side of salad and other stuff like guacamole and corn on the cob and extra spicy chilly rice bowl. As Gordon Ramsay would probably say: What a mess!

There was so much of everything I did not know where to start. And the salad was absolutely soaked in mayo, which I hate. But all in all, it was good, I must say. Not extraordinary, though.

By this time we were full already, but couldn't pass the opportunity, even if we were to explode.

An absolutely perfect apple crisp with vanilla ice cream & cherry on top.

Oh, my! My arteries are clogged today.

Returned

Hope you did not fear I died or vanished since my last post. Things have been crazy around here. I mean, really crazy. I fear December when things usually get out of control altogether.

I will not bother you with what I have been eating this past weeks, here's just a quick overview:

I made a delicious vegan feast this past weekend. We have a holiday on 11/11 it's called St. Martin's, when we celebrate the grape juice turning into wine. Sort of like Jesus, huh? :-) It's not a national holiday and we don't get to stay at home from work, but we do celebrate it and there's usually plenty of drinking involved. What is also involved is usually roasted duck or geese (that I used to adore, but am not eating it anymore) with braised purple cabbage in a yummi cream & apple sauce and a side of potatoes or mlinci. My tweak: I made a vegan burger (chicken for the man). The cabbage was so delicious we literally emptied the pot and I got permission to make it again :-)

Salad is still a regular on the menu. Yesterday I actually weighed it and I got a 700 g of salad!

Pasta in tomato sauce with vegan Cheezly Mozzarela 

Gnocchi with carrots and broccoli in creamy soy sauce, yum.

Apple pie. 

Fried noodles with wok veggies.

Mashed potatoes, a whole lot of spinach and Redwood's Fish fingers, really good!

Pancakes in tomato sauce, filled with a mixture of spinach, tofu and vegan cheeze.

And the usual cauliflower soup.

There's been plenty of other stuff, too, but I got lost in the middle of documenting everything :)

I hope today we manage to finally go visit the Indian restaurant that we have been talking about going since September when M. celebrated his 29th birthday.... but maybe today we manage, since we are celebrating our 5th anniversary.

And I have a new smoothie beloved combination, winter style: banana, apple, frozen blueberries & cinnamon. Heaven.

In other news, my diet has gone with the Summer :-) I just don't seem to manage to lose anything and with Winter arrived and freezing temperatures, I don't really want to. Give me hearty food :)

Cured

I'm well today, thank you for asking :) My bladder is ok, I have regular healthy temperature and, the most sure sign of my well being is - I'm bossing around and doing chores.


Yesterday I had a protein breakfast that really kept me full a long time. So I didn't think about food up until about 4 pm, when I decided for pizza. Problem was, we were running really low on flour (and well, other ingredients), so I ended up mixing regular flour, fullcorn rye flour and another type of wheat flour that is not really for baking. All this for a 200 g crust! Then, topping the pizza was another major adventure but thank god for mom's zucchini that keep 2 weeks in the fridge! I made half the pizza vegan for me, and the other half non vegan for the man. And guess what, we liked the crust even better than the regular! So next time I'm making pizza, I'll be using the same combination... on purpose!

Today's lunch was improvisation at its highest. Since I haven't been outside the house all week the fridge was just as good as empty. While I was looking around for edibles to cook for 2 I almost gave up and settled for pre-made gnocchi that can keep in the fridge and I like to save such things for days when cooking time (or ability) is limited.

So, in my opinion, you can pretty much grade a cook by the dish he or she does with limited resources and from scratch.

Had a quarter of small cauliflour turning brown, 2 carrots (literally), 2 tiny zucchini turning soft, 1 big onion turning to jelly and a tiny one still good, some rotting leeks and fresh (wow) garlic. I turned all this (save the rotting and jelly parts) into a veggie soup.

Gosh my phone camera is crap

Then I took bio potatoes (by bio I mean it was half unusable and I only had 4 small of them), that became fried potatoes, and luckily for the freezer where I found stashed a cup of peas that I cooked in a cream sauce and already roasted peppers (curtesy of my mother&sister-in-so-called-law!) that I simply thawed super-fast (lunch time was approaching), and added some chopped garlic on top (YUM!). I made me some mock fish fingers by the Redwood, and he got some barbecue chicken wings, everything also from the freezer, God bless it.

Although we're leaving tomorrow for visiting, I made the man go grocery-shopping for flour, yogurts and canned goods, and some apples, too, so at least when we return we'll have food in the house. It took him almost 2 hours, I was getting worried. Turns out he bought almost everything from the list and spend an agreeable amount of money. If I had gone shopping I'd buy the list + another off-list and spend twice the amount! So I'm seriously considering the idea of making him in charge of groceries. Even though he did not bring me the requested pommegranat, but mandarines instead.

We're visiting his place tomorrow for lunch, then I need to head south to my place (2,5 hours of driving) because we have much going on. It's my aunt's birthday so we're visiting her in the evening, then on Monday is national holiday and my boss is making me and half the company work, so hooray super happy about that. We have a family dinner planned in the evening and then on Tuesday (All Saint's Day, also national holiday) I need to visit the graves and so on and finally returning home. And a close friend of mine is having her birthday and I do not even know when to plan visiting her, what with the calendar being packed to the brim. *sigh* at least I get to have more time for her birthday present! And I am not telling yet what it is, but I think it's pretty awesome :)

I also need to start planing for a mini-trip. Heading to Milan next weekend for work and still need to book the hotel. So, another full weekend of work, no rest. Luckily, my boss is letting me bring along my boyfriend for free, so while I'm visiting the fair, he can go tour Milan. And I have company and a driver for the road :)

Saturday, 29/10/2011
breakfast: blueberry soy yogurt
lunch: veggie soup, mock fish fingers, fried potatoes, roasted red bell pepper & garlic, peas in creamy tamari sauce
dinner: 1 thin slice of pumpkin seed bread, 2 raw carrots, 1 apple, 2 mandarines


Friday, 28/10/2011
breakfast: vegan ham&eggs with bit of cheezly mozzarela, slice of bread
lunch: vegan pizza with rye-flour crust
dinner: half an apple and I totally forgot if there was anything more, but I had lunch at 5pm, so I highly doubt

No cacciatore in here, but the dog

First of all, I want to give a warm hello and welcome to all of the hundred readers that visit me daily and never bother to say hello :-) I know you're there, you cannot hide :-) I hope you're not shy and will soon man up to greet me properly :) or ask me questions or just simply support my point (and I do have one).

Next, I'm getting better, thankgod. My bladder is ok, I think, no major problems today or yesterday, but I'm running a bit of a temperature, so I'll mind myself for another day. No use of going back to the office on Friday, of all days, just to fall ill again on weekend, right? (I so hate that).

You'd think I'd have time to blog while laying around the house all day (oh well, I AM working, so) , and I just don't. Then I skip a day, or two, and I totally forgot what I ate. Shame on me.

Thursday, 27/10/2011
breakfast: banana cake
lunch: spaghetti non-cacciatore
dinner: soup, 2 cups, with bits of zwieback bread, and another piece of banana cake :)

I made me spaghetti again because feeling a bit ill I don't have the will to cook anything that takes longer than heating up a liter of water. And such a meal takes about 10 minutes, so it's fine with me. It is however not fine with my behind. Chinese noodles with mock meat (wheat gluten mostly) and zucchini. And I don't know why I had to throw an extra egg in there, but I did. And some soy cream and tamari sauce, just because. I baptised it spaghetti non-cacciatore :) Cacciatore actually means hunter in italian (and the recipe does call for tomatoes, but who cares, right?), thus the title. And our dog is a hound dog (a beagle). And that's the only resemblance there is. Actually, funny story, the beagle has never hunted for real, but she is excellent for spotting mice in the cellar. Just bring the dog in and she'll show you right away.

Wednesday, 26/10/2011
breakfast: banana cake, me thinks
snack: apple
lunch: barley minestrone with a piece of bread
dinner: a whole lot of everything (grapes, zwieback bread with lactose-free dairy spread, some peanuts, probably some banana cake, too)

Keeping warm

Yesterday I woke up not feeling too good. It all actually began Monday evening, when returning from grocery shopping, I found myself having bladder problems. I don't know the medical term for it, but we simply say the bladded caught cold. It's a really nasty sensation of constantly feeling the urge to pee, although you just went and experiencing pain and burning while doing so. As I say, nasty. The only cure there is, beside antibiotics of which I do not approve, is plenty of unsweetened tea, cranberries and heating the belly with a hot water bottle.

So that's mostly what I've been doing the past two days. Yesterday afternoon & evening I felt good enough to cook me lunch and in the evening I even made me salad and baked a batch of banana bread with alterations, because I thought I'd be taking it to the office today.

My plans fell into deep deep water this morning when I woke up to the familiar nasty sensation and while I was packing my barley minestrone for lunch and making coffee, I went to pee like 4 times, that is I didn't pee much, I just felt the urge to.

So my plan of going to the office was cancelled, I heated up another hot watter bottle, made me a liter of cranberry tea and back I went to the couch, wrapped thight in blankest and working from home again. Today I'm taking it seriously and will just heath the belly all day long, because I need to be ok by weekend! I have to!

I've fallen behind on my menu and now I cannot recall the things I ate this paste days. I'll go backwards, it might be easier.

Tuesday, 25/11/2011
breakfast: bread & marmalade
lunch: delicious wine risotto with spring wok veggies & vegan protein burger, diced
dinner: large mixed salad
snack: a piece of my altered banana cake

You may recall the recipe for the simple banana cake, that has been a huge success in the house. Since I first made it, I've become quite bold in cooking, so much so, I rarely look at recipes these days, I just need meal ideas and I take it from there. So yesterday, while making the banana cake, I took it a step further, which my boyfriend simply called "cleaning the pantry". I took all the opened packages of nuts I could find, put it all in the food processor, blended it and added to the batch. I think there were almonds, pecans and macadamia nuts involved. Then, I went ahead and added cocoa to the batch as well, which really made it delicious! So now, we're left with a whole tray of yummi cake pieces and only two mouths to feed, but my boyfriend has taken this duty up to himself, mostly. Well, someone needed to.

Monday, 24/11/2011
breakfast: bread & marmalade
snack: blueberry soy yogurt, 2 carrots
lunch: lunching out, fried eggplants, grilled zucchini and pommes frittes
dinner: 1 cup of barley minestrone, few peanuts

Diet, anyone?

After the first week of my diet you might wonder, how I've done. Well, after the initial -1kg success the weight went right back to its steady point, where I've been the last few years, not counting the occasional drop that I always gained back. I'm beginning to think this weight, although I do not like it, is my "steady adult" weight. No, I will not accept it. I'd like to be able to wear tight skirts and mini jeans that today look ridicolous on me. And I know I'm not the fattest there is and I know heavier girls than me wear absurd wardrobe (and it always make my eyes pop; self-esteem is good, but everything has its limits), I'm just self-conscious enough to not want make ridicule out of me.

So, I reckon it's time for the heavy weapons. That is, taking this diet seriously, cutting the amounts, and going back to more raw foods and less carbs. And I still didn't do much about exercising.

Sunday, 23/10/2011
breakfast: fried egg with vegan ham&cheese, slice of bread (couldn't help it, woke up so hungry!)
lunch: soup with dumplings, gnocchi vegetarianese leftovers
dinner: pommegranate, pop-corn

*sigh*

Let it snow, I am ready

Whenever I manage to have weekend for myself (or better said, for ourselves), it's relax time. Just to not have to pack and go anywhere, no driving, no cursing the traffic, weather or whatever, it's a blessing. And this weekend came unexpected. We have alone time. Which means, we're sleeping, cooking, not doing anything.

Yesterday for lunch I made gnocchi by request.

Gnocchi vegetarianese, no meat in there.

I spent the morning peeling potatoes, cooking, mashing, kneading, cutting,...

No store-bought pre-made gnocchi can compare, not even close! I made quite a bit of it, just because it takes time and I like to freeze the extra for future use.

Lunch is served.

After lunch, we went shopping for new shoes. Boyfriend suggested, I'm still amazed, cause he naturally hates shopping, but knew I needed the shoes.

You see, I have this problem with winter shoes. Before I moved I almost didn't know what snow was, because it never snowed in my hometown. That is, I ski, and enjoy going skiing and similar, but I never had the pleasure of experiencing the snowy slush on streets after snowing. So the first winter caught me unprepared. It also didn't snow very much and I made through it using regular winter shoes, stilletos and tennis shoes.

Next winter, thinking the winter would be pretty much the same, I just bought some snow-shoes for show. Cost about 30 €. Of course, they were not waterproof. Into the garbage they went.

Third winter I had a plan. I went and bought some real snow-shoes. Cost me about 80 € too. I asked the salesperson about 3 times if they were waterproof, and 3 times she said yes. I also bought some fency Tom Tailor boots for show, cost about 50€. Both turned out to be inusable right after snowing with the all present snow slush. The snow shoes were great for walking on frozen snow, though. The one that stays when there's -15°C and the snow doesn't melt. They stay, for those rare occasions, the Tom Tailor's almost fell apart after 3 outings. Garbage.

So this year, my 4th winter in the capital, I bought the only thing that should assure me to prevent the slush of entering my boots and wetting my socks. I bought lined boots, that are a mixture of regular boots and rain boots, that is, the lower part is made of rubber, the upper is regular (I also have regular rain rubber boots, but they are way too cold to use in winter plus have a ridiculous pattern). This should allow me walking in about 10 cm of slush, which should be enough. And if there would be more that 10 cm of slush, well, you really have nothing to do outdoors, have you.

So, having snowed twice already, I am now ready for winter time. And I should be, the temperatures are already at freezing point.

Friday, 21/10/2011
breakfast: home-made bread with vegan margarine & marmelade
lunch: dumplings in tomato sauce, small bowl of salad
dinner: large bowl of mixed salad, cookies

Saturday. 22/10/2011
breakfast: 2 toast with vegan ham&cheese
lunch: gnocchi vegetarianese
dinner: large bowl of mixed salad

Mashed potatoes and snowflakes

Today I overslept my alarm and woke up at 8am, when I should already be behind my computer at work. Shoot. The rain was pouring, cats and dogs, it was cold and I just knew, before I managed to have my coffee, get dressed, get in the car in this weather and drive to work in traffic jam, it would be lunch-time.

So I put on the coffee, got me some breakfast, lay down on the couch, wrapped in my blanket, put the laptop in my lap and got to work, right there on the couch. Just as good, I needed alone time to do the work that had to be done. I texted my boss to let him know I'm working from home and awaited some quiet time alone with my word document. And then the mails started flying in, my gsm rang like wild and by 10am I have already answered about 20 e-mails. So much about quiet time to work in peace. I had a break for a yummi lunch:

Zucchini steaks, spinach & mashed potatoes

And then back to work. I finally said enough is enough at 8.30 pm! I worked for about 12 hours straight.

Also big news, during the day the rain turned to snow. It snowed for the second time this year! Luckily, as I only like snow while watching it fall through windows and NOT in my sleeves or shoes or frozen on the windshield or piled in mountains around the car before going to work, the snow did not stick! I'm saved for a few more day/weeks!

Thursday, 20/10/2011

breakfast: 1 slice of home-made rye bread, topped with vegan margarine & apricot marmelade

lunch: 2 zucchini steaks, spinach & mashed potatoes

dinner: 2 raw carrots, 2 zucchini steaks, peanuts

Holy goodness, bread and pasta

Yesterday I was feeling really great with myself. I took a chance at the weight scale in the morning and it already showed a minus 1 kg. Was so happy and motivated. Then, I went to work. And through the morning I got more and more hungry. I ate my soup at noon and by 4pm I was starved! So, when I returned home all I was craving was eggs and tuna! Oh my! And the cravings were really really strong!

I knew a poor salad would help nothing, I was starved. So I sighed, went ahead and made me what the body demanded. I took an egg, a canned tuna, chinese noodles, tamari sauce and some frozen wok veggies with a handful of fresh broccoli. Just because I love it.

Be damned. Today, +1 kg again! And not very vegan, is it.

While I was cooking I also decided to make some fresh bread, just because we ran out and was too lazy to go to the bakery. Plus, home-made bread is good!

Many people are scared of making bread, but there really is nothing to be afraid. Making bread is simple! I quickly put together the ingredients, rye flour (200g), wheat flour (300g), rolled oats (a handful), lots of various seeds and some dry yeast. I always keep it in the pantry for situations like this.

You just mix everything together roughly with about 0,5 l or a bit more of luke-warm water and let the batch rise in holy peace for an hour. Then you knead it by hand thouroughly and make a pretty loaf, put in the baking tray and let it rise for an hour again. So basically, you just knead and wait. That's all there is to bread-making :)

Then it's off to the oven with it and some 40 minutes later you find yourself shooing the boyfriend away from this freshly-baked home-made goodness.

Oh yum.

Wednesday, 19/10/2011
breakfast: toast sandwich with vegan ham & vegan cheddar cheese & wholegrain seed bread
lunch: 1 cup broccoli soup, 1 thin slice of bread
snack: grapes
dinner: wok pasta with egg&tuna. Damn. Some cookies afterwards, too. Shoot.


Have the weird feeling I forgot about a couple of meals :)