My weekend

Hiho. This weekend there was something called alternativmessen, which is a gathering or festival or something for like healers, palm readers, people who can tell the future, rystal sellers, and more. I helped out at NOAHs stand, trying to get more people to become member in this animal rights organization or to volunteer. I stood there Friday evening after work and Sunday morning together with some other really nice people. It was quite fun and meaningful, and many people were positive and interested in our organization, and we had some people signing up as members as well. :D

After i left the alternativmesse i went to the birthday party of my grandpa :p he's turning 81 this year :D there i met some family members and we had some nice chats. I was bit tired and unfocused though.  I brought a vegan chocolate cake (recipe from veganmisjonen), which was quite popular. We almost ate up everything, and i ate the most cuz it was the only vegan option for me. Later we also had fruit and chips that i snacked on :p

On Saturday i tried for the first time to make pulled jackfruit. It was kinda a disaster because I used too much extra hot chili pepper. I could basically feel the flames shoot out of my mouth :x i tried to tone down the spiciness by adding citrus, tahini, soy yoghurt and ketchup, but it was still waaaayyyyyy too spicy :x i think if i could taste anything else than SPICYYYYYY though that it actually would taste good, so i'm gonna try next time without chili xD

Now time to rest before a new week starts :p hope everyone else had a nice weekend too, and feel free to sign up as members to NOAH :D NOAH works for helping all animals, mostly in Norway. Big campaigns are fur farms, circus animals, animal police, and veganism, and we need as much support as possible to make great things happen! :D

Product review: Crispy dark chocolate with puffed rice

Time for a product review again =) I found this crispy dark chocolate with puffed rice from the brand Perle d'Or in Lidl in Belgium, and i've wanted to try it for a while. They also have with lighter chocolate, but that one isn't vegan, so dark chocolate it is =) It costed 1.49 € for 125 g in Lidl.

It kinda looks like chocolate pringles =p

The chocolate tastes quite dark, even though the darkness is only 57%. Also the puffed rice content is only 11%, and the puffed rice pieces are quite small. Personally i would prefer more puffed rice so the chocolate chips would taste milder, and also larger pieces of the puffed rice for more crispiness =) 

This chocolate is nice for an occasional snack, but personally i couldn't eat too many chips at the same time (which probably is a good thing, or i would eat the whole thing in 5 minutes  xD). 

I might buy it again in the future, but i'm not sure. There are other things that i like better. With my suggestions for how it would taste better i would probably buy it more often though. I'm glad i tried it out though =p

My new favorite chocolate!

Last week I decided to try out a chocolate I found in Het Natuurhuis in Antwerpen. I've seen it before but I've never tasted it, but it sure looked delicious! I mostly buy the cheap vegan dark chocolates, which are also very yummy, but it was time for me to try something new and lighter. So I bought this one:

 

It was really delicious!!  It's rice milk chocolate with hazelnut nougat filling (or truffel filling as it says on the package) =D The chocolate cover was light and yummy, and the filling was creamy, delicious with a good taste of hazelnut nougat. It was perfect and I enjoyed every single piece of it. It sadly disappeared too fast... Luckily I can buy more =D Nirwana Vegan is 2,19 € for 100 g at Het Natuurhuis in Antwerpen. I already bought it twice, and it won't be the last time to say it like that =p

Nirwana Vegan kinda reminds me of these Norwegian chocolates pieces that I used to eat back in my non-vegan days:

From: http://www.matvareguiden.no/bilder/8673.gif

So now I have a super-yummy chocolate that's vegan, animal friendly, ecological, fair, and did I mention delicious? =D Everyone who loves chocolates with hazelnut nougat filling should definitely try Nirwana Vegan!

Jacques Chocolate with Banana Filling

Next up for my reviews is the Jacques chocolate with banana filling. These chocolates comes with different fillings, such as vanilla, banana, blueberry, pistache, almond, and cranberry-orange.

I bought mine in Colruyt. For 200 g it was 1.68 € for the banana filled chocolate. The prices varies from taste to taste, with the highest for about 2.14 € and the cheapest for about 1.38 €. They also have smaller sizes.

I kinda like these chocolates, but at the same time i feel that they have too much sugar. The main ingredient is sugar. The banana filled chocolate tastes like banana, but the taste is overpowered by the sugar, making it too sugary. It would have tasted much better if they filled it with more banana, and less sugar. The banana content is only 0.9 %, and should have been way higher! The dark chocolate covering tastes good and has minimum 53% cacao. The pairing of dark chocolate and filling is nice, with the downside of the overpowering sugariness.

Oops, i ate half already

Another thing i feel i feel could be improved is to divide the chocolate rows into smaller pieces, so it's easier to divide it and not eat so large pieces at a time. There is 6 rows in a 200 g chocolate, making each row about 33g each. If they would make for instance 4 pieces per row it would be better i think.

I think i have tasted all the different tastes, and i more or less like them all even if they are too sugary for my preferences, but i will probably buy random tastes every now and then whenever i feel like some filled chocolate. I think my favorite is the cranberry-orange taste.

I will give this chocolate 4-/6 cuz its a nice alternative for vegans who wants some filled chocolate, but has too much sugar taste, so it could definitely be better if they replaced some(much) of the sugar with more of the filling that's actually supposed to be in it.

Anyone has tasted these chocolates? Did you like them? =) Feel free to comment! =D

New icecream maker =D

Seems I'm not the pro, much updating blogger xD

I'm now done with my master thesis, finally =D but i don't really know what kinda job i want. Seems there's not so many jobs where you need a master in renewable energy...

Some weeks ago i bought myself an ice cream maker in a Norwegian shop called Europris =D It was on sale so i got it for 100 Kr instead of 300 Kr =D

With this ice cream maker you must freeze the bowl for minimum 12 hours, then you pour your cooled ice cream mix into the bowl while the rotating blade is spinning and wait for it to become ice cream =) It should take about 30 minutes before it's slushy consistency. If you want the ice cream more frozen you can put the bowl back into the freezer for an hour or so.

Of course i had to test it out by making various ice creams =D

Pistachio ice cream

Strawberry ice cream

Chocolate ice cream

I'm very satisfied with this ice cream maker, I'm happy i bought it =D Now i can make any ice cream that i want =D

For more inspiration and recipes check out veganeren and vegetarbloggen, or google =p

Anyone got suggestions for more ice creams to test out? =p Or any favorites? From these three i prefered the pistachio and chocolate one =p

Almond cake with banana and chocolate

I had some remaining almond pulp after trying to make almond milk inspired by oneingredientchef *english*. I also had a brown banana (actually i had 2 xD), and i wanted to make a cake.

I kinda wanted to use the almond pulp as flour, and not as filling, although i drooled a bit at fyrstekake/macaroon cake *norwegian*.

Inspired by veganeren her almond cake with raspberries *norwegian*, and her chocolate chip cookie bars *norwegian*, i decided to make an almond banana chocolate cake xD

Ingredients:
2 dl almond pulp
3 dl flour
2 - 2.5 dl sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
0.25 teaspoon salt
0.75 dl vegetable oil
3 dl vegetable milk
1+ teaspoon almond essence
1 banana, chopped in pieces (not mashed, i divided mine in 3 lengthwise along the natural division and then chopped in cubes)
100 g chocolate, chopped in pieces

First stir together the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and mix. Then add the banana pieces and chocolate and mix them carefully into the dough. Put in cake shape sized about 20x30 cm and put in preheated oven on 175°C for about 35 minutes. Check if ready.

Probably best when cooled, but we didn't wait that long, too impatient xD

Sorry for the horrible picture xD It was nice taste though =p

Everyone should also try the almond cake with raspberries on veganeren, it's also really delicious =D <3

Mothersday

Yesterday (9th February) was mothers day in Norway, so i decided to do something nice for my mother =p

When me and my sis and bro were kids we used to give breakfast on bed for this occasion (if i remember correctly xD). Last years though she normally wakes up before us so then it's a bit harder xD

This year i wanted to surprise her with breakfast though so i putted my alarm at 7:30 (but i woke up before 7 xD) and made pancakes (with this recipe from vegetarbloggen *norwegian*). That's my favorite pancake recipe. I replaced half of the flour with whole wheat flour, and i used only half of the sugar, so it would be a bit healthier =p

I figured it would be a bit awkward though if i went into her room with food while she was sleeping, so i cleaned the kitchen a bit instead and made it a bit cozy. Then when she and my dad came, we enjoyed pancakes for breakfast ^.^ (my sister and brother were sleeping so i didn't make for them xD). I forgot to take pictures of the pancakes, but they looked more or less like pancakes xD

Then later i made pineapple upside down cake (recipe from veganeren *norwegian*) and peanut butter cookies with chocolate pieces (recipe also from veganeren *norwegian* who got her recipe from theveganzombie here *english*).

I also had a blueberry banana ice cake in the freezer (basically frozen bananas blended to cream, then frozen blueberries added, followed by some soaked almonds and dates and a bit of vanilla sugar, blended good, put in cake shape and stored in freezer).

Everyones favorite was the pineapple upside down cake. It was really fresh and tasty and so easy to make! I will definitely make it again! :D

The peanut butter cookies with chocolate pieces were also pretty good :p they kinda tasted just like they sound like xD So if you like peanut butter and cookies you will like these cookies :D

The blueberry banana ice cake was nice as well xD This one is more healthy and could probably have a bit better taste xD Actually it is so healthy that you can eat it for breakfast every day without feeling guilty xD It is practically a frozen smoothie, and it can be made with infinite varieties and can be made raw xD

We kids also gave my mom an orchid flower since she likes them :D

So i hope it was a nice day for her =)

Choco-lemon-mousse

I've been seeing some other bloggers making chocomousse a while ago (this, this and this for example), so i wanted to try it myself too.

Since i was so lucky to have a plate of chocolate, an alpro whip-able cream, and a lemon, i decided to make choco and lemon mousse. I kinda failed a bit though, adding too much lemon to my lemon mousse so it became lemon sauce or so, so i added some (or too much) lemon mousse to my chocomousse, and it became chocolemonmousse.

Well, heres the ingredients and directions i used:
1 alpro cream or other brand (alpro one is 2,5 dl)
About 100 g chocolate (i used a 72%) can use more or less as you want too.
0,5 - 1 lemon (i used 1, and it was bit way too much i guess according to everyone else except me xD)
1 - 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Whip the cream until its nice and creamy.
Melt as much chocolate as you want (i did about 80 g , and the remaining 20 g i chopped into pieces and mixed in later).
Press the juice out of the lemon (as much as you want) and the zest you want from the lemon. Separate the whipped creams into two bowls and add lemon to one and chocolate to the other and mix carefully so they are still fluffy.
Also add powdered sugar to the lemon one so it gets a bit sweeter and the chocolate pieces in the chocolate mousse =p
Then if you want you can have two separate mousses, or you can add the lemon mousse into the chocolate mousse like i did, until it taste good. I added almost the whole lemon mousse, so it got a pretty strong taste of lemon, might have been better with less lemon.
Put in glasses or so and put in fridge until serving (or eat immediately).

Enjoy ;p

You can use other tastes too ofc =p think caramel or peanuts might be good =D or strawberry or orange or pineapple =p

Chocolate-zucchini muffins

Zucchini rocks, specially in baking ^.^ (and for dinner =p)

I found a recipe for chocolate-zucchini muffins here at happy herbivore (english), and i just had to make it! =D

I'm happy i did, this stuff is yammie! =D

I also added nuts in, which made it even better ^.^

So if anyone got leftover zucchini that they wanna use, chocolate-zucchini muffins is a yammie way to do it =p

Banana chocosoymilk

I found a chocosoymilk at Lidl made by Soywell, so i bought it to test it out. It wasn't the best chocosoymilk i have tasted (i think Naturli' is the best, and Alpro has the 2nd best chocosoymilk =p). The chocosoymilk from soywell tasted kinda a bit watery, and they could have added more chocolate in it i think to get a deeper taste xD

So, i figured i would "spice" up the taste a bit, so i took 1 banana and about 2 dl chocosoymilk in the blender and blended until it was well-mixed. Very much improvement of the taste! =D Kinda reminds me of something i had when i was younger, i can't remember if it was medicine or candy though haha xD Maybe both =p

Anyways, taste got perfect now, so maybe i should buy more of the chocosoymilk to mix with bananas =p Soywell is kinda cheaper than alpro ^.^ (less than 1€)

Snickers

Homemade snickers =p Very easy recipe, i think i found it on www.kakeprat.no but it's not there anymore, so could be it's on another site, oh well let's jump to the recipe the way i remember it =p

Snickers

Ingredients:
Ca 1 jar of (crunchy) peanutbutter, around 350g i guess (i use the one from green choice)
Ca 1 jar of syrup (i guess 500g, could be im wrong xd) (i use this one)
Ca 1 liter of corn flakes (lol =p)
Around 200g (dark) chocolate

Warm the peanutbutter and syrup until it's nicely mixed and liquidish, remove pan from the heat and add corn flakes and mix it so the corn flakes are covered of peanutbutter-syrup mix. Put the cornflake-mix in a small bake pan and pour melted chocolate over until its covered. Put cold until chocolate is stiff, for example in the fridge or in the freezer. Cut into pieces and serve =)

Donut/cake

This cake is actually very deformed donuts (mostly because we didnt have donut shapes, and when we finally had they sticked to it so hard that we had to eat the donuts from the shape kinda, so seems we bought the wrong donut shapes xD) but ye, in original recipe you are supposed to make donuts from it, so we call it donut cake since we make it as cake xD

The recipe i found here on veganyumyum.com (english): Mini Donut Test Kitchen 
I reccomend to visit the blog for directions, and if you wanna make the donuts instead of the cake.

Here's what i did, more or less following the recipe:

Dry ingredients:
2 dl flour
1 dl sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon NoEgg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Some cinnamon

Wet ingredients:
1 dl soymilk
1/2 teaspoon (apple cider) vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

First i combined dry ingredients, then i added the wet ingredients, then i poured it into a (bit smaller than usual) cakeshape and had in oven at 175°C for 15+ minutes until it was ready (i dont remember exactly the time). Then i let the cake cool, and poured over 100 - 200 g melted dark chocolate.

Easy vegan chocolate cake

This is the "main" chocolate cake that i make, mostly because it's both easy and yummy! It mostly use ingredients everyone has at home so it's very easy! ^.^ So i would classify it as the best chocolate cake there is! =D

The recipe i found on vegweb here (english): Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake

Here is what i did, following the recipe of the link above more or less.

Ingredients

6 dl flour
4 dl sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 dl water
1,5 dl vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
Raisins and chopped nuts (optional)

I mixed the dry ingredients, then i added the wet ingredients and mixed well, then i poured it into a 20x30 cm cake shape and baked in oven at 175°C for about 40 minutes. It also works with a circular cake shape =)

  The picture i took wasn't so good, but the cake is ;) Recommended for everyone to make! =D

Easter marzipan

I wanted to make some yellow easter candy and what isnt better than using marzipan then?! =D Actually the cheapest marzipan in shop is vegan ^.^ To yellow it i used turmeric (gurkemeie) which leaves some taste, but i like this taste so the marzipan gets even better then ^.^

Easter marzipan

Ingredients:
Vegan marzipan
Turmeric
Vegan chocolate

Method:
Mix the marzipan with turmeric until its yellow and form random shapes from it. Melt the chocolate and dip the marzipan in. Put in fridge or freezer until chocolate is stiff. If you have more melted chocolate you can do more layers of chocolate. Enjoy ^.^

Enjoy =p

Chocolate baked banana

I've been wanting chocolate baked banana for a while now, so today i made it. I didnt really follow any recipe, but it worked out well. I would prefer if my banana was a bit more "grilled" though, so i guess higher temperature or longer baking time would be better then.

So ye, slice a banana open, with scale or without, i did with. Add some (vegan) chocolate in the slice, then wrap in with aluminum foil and bake in oven till the chocolate is melted and the banana is baked. I baked it on 175°C  since i had apple cake in the oven on that temperature, but i think higher temperature is better, and i baked it for for 10-15 minutes i think (i didn't time it).

I think i will try it out more to get the banana more well-baked, but not today =p

Banana ice cream

I don't know where i found the recipe for this, but its extremely easy to make banana ice cream! xD

The only ingredient you need is a frozen ripe banana! xD (also some liquid is handy, for example soymilk or water)

So put the frozen banana in a blender/food processor (you can mix with other stuff too, like chocolate or nuts or whatever you want, add liquid also so it gets creamy) and mix till its creamy (my banana normally gets stuck to the edges if i dont use liquid, so i just end it there and let it melt a bit more  or use liquid, before i eat it full of chocolate sauce and caramel sauce xD njam! =p)
 

So if you got some ripe bananas, the freezer is the place they should be! =p or in one of the other cakes/cupcakes/breads/cookies! xD


Edit: I recently started adding liquid to the bananas in the food processor so it would rotate better and not just get stuck on the edges, and the consistency gets really great then! It's just perfect! =D I tested with soymilk and water, both works ^.^ Here's pic of ice cream like it's supposed to be! xD

 

I also once added soymilk and stawberry jam and got a creamy sauce-thingy tasting like strawberry cream or something xD Could be handy in case someone needs strawberry cream =p

Pain au chocolat

My bf, kev, (and me) loves pain au chocolat and i had promised now for some days to make it for him so today i did =p

This recipe i found here (norwegian): Pain au chocolat

Its really easy to make it (if you got the frozen puff pastry that i have xD)

Btw heres the puff pastry i use, its 6 plates in it and its frozen =p

Here is what i used, more or less following the recipe:

 

Ingredients: 

One package frozen puff pastry, 6 plates, half-unfrozen (i guess you can use self made or other brand too =p)

100 - 150 g melted dark chocolate

1-2 tablespoons water

I cutted each puff pastry plate in 2 to get double amount of pain au chocolat (12 instead of 6!) ^.^ Then i stretched each part so they became bigger! =D Then i did some waters along the edges around the plates so they would stick better, but sometimes im too lazy to add water. Then i putted melted chocolate on one half of the puff pastry plate and folded the other half over it and squeezed the edges so they would stick together. Then i baked them in oven on 200°C for about 12 minutes or untill they got golden color.
Its funny how much they grew in the oven:

So ye, very simple and yummy! ^.^

Fabulous cookies =p

Sunday i was at club with my friends, and i got an sms saying that i could bring some food it i wanted, and ofc i wanted so i decided to make cookies! =D

I use the recipe i found here, i recommend reading more of the blog also if you understand norwegian, or is interested xD I translate the recipe though, since it's original on norwegian =p All credits goes to the author of the recipe and not to me =p

Fabulous cookies

Ingredients
4 teaspoons "no-egg" (egg-replacer (powder))
6 tablespoons (90 ml) water
225 g vegan  margarine
150 g white sugar
170 g brown sugar
1 ts vanilla sugar
5,25 dl flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
100-200 g vegan chocolate, chopped
About125 g (hazel)nuts, chopped (i used almonds since i didnt have hazelnuts =p)

Procedure
Set the oven on 190°C. First, whisk together no-egg and water until the mix gets a slightly thick consistency. Mix margarine, white sugar and brown sugar well together, and then add the no-egg mix. Then mix together flour, baking soda, salt and vanilla sugar, and add it gradually in the wet mix until it becomes a nice batter. Add the chocolate and nuts in the batter. Use a tablespoon and lay the batter as small medium-squeezed balls on the baking tray (they will get more flat during baking-time). Set the tray in the oven and let the cookies bake for about 8 minutes (more if you make them very big). Let them cool down before you start moving them, they are very soft when they come straight from the oven, but they get yummy and crispy when they cool down.

 

The cookies were a success! =D My friends asked for recipe, so here it is ;) Enjoy! =D