Tomato soup and olive tapenade

Yoyo. Had some leftover tomato puree i wanted to use, and some black olives, so why not make tomato soup and black olive tapenade then :D (actually i made the black olive tapenade yesterday and had leftovers today, but it was yummy together so heck why not xD)

For the soup i used:
Tomato puree
Water
Dried mint
Olive oil
Vegetable bullion
Alphabet pasta (other pasta also works)
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice

Basically i just boiled the ingredients until the pasta was done :p and ye i didnt measure the ingredients xD

For the olive tapenade i used:
Black olives
Garlic
Vegetable oil
Salt
Pepper

This i blended. Also here i didnt measure.

This tapenade is perfect on roasted bread with vegan margarine on :D

Very delicious :D

My Xmas 2015

Yoyo everybody, merry xmas! =D

I'm still alive, even though it doesnt seem like it from my posting frequencies xD

So yesterday i celebrated xmas with my family. As usual norwegian tradition i made xmas rice pudding or whatever it's called in english for lunch, made with porridge rice, soy + coconut milk, vanilla powder, sugar, and grounded almons. With cinnamon, raisins and vegan margarine on top =p Very delicious =D

They got a new vegan margarine in Norway now that was actually whiter than my rice pudding as you can see on the picture, which i found a bit funny, cuz normally the margarine/butter is yellow =p
Also my vegan rice pudding was darker in color than my families non-vegan rice pudding =p


After eating we visited my grandparents for a short while before we drove back home (or i drove back home because i'm training for my driving licence). Then i prepared the nut roast that i would have for dinner. I used the recipe that i always use on veg-veg their sites, except i used some more nuts, regretting i didn't make even more =p Guess i'll write the ingredients on my blog so i have it here for later =p

Ingredients:
200 g mixed nuts (i used cashews, brazil nuts, almonds, peanuts, walnuts)
100 g crumbled bread
1 chopped onion
2 chopped garlic cloves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon spice mix (i used paprika, cloves, ginger, pepper, chili, garlic, nutmeg)
1 cube vegetable bullion
1,5 dl boiling water
salt and pepper

So i did the nuts and bread in my food processor until it was chopped into pieces, sauted the onion and garlic in the oil, then i added all the ingredients in a bowl and spiced it as much as i wanted, then did it in an oiled bread shape, covered with aluminium foil, and baked in the oven on 180°C for about 1 hour.

Next to the nutroast i had boiled potatoes, brown sauce, mashed rutabaga, mushrooms, onions, brussel sprouts, and lots of soy sauce =p

After eating we opened the presents.

Here's what i got:

A purse, 2 different cooking books, vegan chocolate, tvp chuncks, mini cake shapes, touchscreen gloves, lavendel smelling candle light, hand soap, sweater, pizza pan, circular glass shape, power plug thingy, huge pillow and cash =p

Pretty nice gifts, i'm very happy for all of them =D

After opening gifts we wanted to watch the movie "The Holiday". Sadly we didn't have the dvd in our house, so we tried streaming it. Sadly internet wasn't in a very cooperating mood (slow and falling out), so we could watch about 10 minutes before we had to load it for like 5 minutes to continue watching it, so we only got 49 minutes into the movie before we gave up xD

It was a nice xmas for me and i got a lot of cool stuff that i wanted, yummy food, and i had a nice time together with my family =D I hope everyone else had a nice xmas aswell =D

Out of date ingredients becomes bread

Have you ever looked at foods in the back of your closet and found out it says "best before: last year" or some other date? Happened to me this week when i figured out i would clean out of the closets. After finding very many products that were out of date i decided to put it all into one shelf for easier and faster use:

We have 6 shelfs in total, so 1/6 of the shelfs were out of date (and probably more than 1/6th of the food since i had to squeeze stuff into the out of date shelf).

When people find products that are past the "best before" date (but otherwise seem fine) there are different kind of reactions:

- throw it in the trash
- use it (after reassuring that it still is fine)

If the products however looks, smells or tastes wrong, it should indeed not be consumed and should be thrown away. Also be cautious with the "to be consumed within: date", because this food might make you sick if eaten after this date. "To be consumed within: date" is mostly used for flesh though, so vegan food is mostly safe eating after this date if it seems to be in fine condition. My family compost food that has gone bad so it will turn back into soil where we can grow new food, and i recommend composting for everyone who has the possibity to do it.

Personally i don't understand the people who throw away fully eatable food once it's past the "best before" date. Depending on the food it can often be consumed several years after this date, although it's better eat it within days/weeks/months rather than years after this date =p Throwing away eatable food is just a waste of food and money. Producing food uses a lot of land, resources, water and causes pollution, especially the production of animal products, so to produce food just to throw it away is very bad for the environment. There are also a lot of people who are starving in the world, and even if eating or throwing away this out of date food won't have any immediate effect on these starving people, it seems rude to just throw away eatable food. If you don't wish to eat it yourself you could donate it to someone poor, who will appreciate having something to eat, even if it has been "best before".

People throw away too much eatable food each year, but this can be reduced by planning so you don't shop too much food, correct storing, being aware what should be used from what you already bought, and by being creative in ways to use this food. Old bread can become bread crumbs, bruchetta, crutons, toast, pudding and more. Old bananas can become milkshake, banana bread, smoothie etc. Old apples can become apple cake/pie/crumble, apple sauce/jam, smoothie etc. Plantmilks can be used in puddings (breadpudding?), pancakes, milkshare (mix with the old banana =p), cakes (applecake?) etc. Vegetables can be used in soups, stir fry, oven baked, lasagne, etc =)

By having all that's out of date in one shelf now me and my family have a better overview of what should be used first, and can plan our meals from that. I found some out of date products i could use to make bread, and since our previous bread was eaten, it only seemed natural to make a bread. Here are the out of date ingredients i used in the bread:

The out of date yeast (9th april 2015) in the fridge was sadly turned bad, so i used a fresh one instead and threw the old one in the compost. I mixed the yeast with 6 dl water, sunflower oil (april 2015), dark syrup (februar 2014), salt, wheat bran (kruskakli, july 2012), psyllium husk (june 2013), various seeds (linseeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds (march 2006)), grated carrots, whole wheat flour, and white wheat flour. I mixed the ingredients together and let the dough rise for an hour or so, then i put the dough in bread shapes and let it rise for another hour. Then i baked the bread in the oven on the lowest rack on 200°C for 1 hour.

Everyone found the bread delicious, and it seems that i have to make more breads since i still have more of all the out of date ingredients =p Next time i'll put fewer seeds on top though and rather more inside the dough, since they fell off too easily.