Sundays lunch and dinner

Seems it's been a while since i've posted any food that i've made, so i guess it's time for a little update =p

Yesterday i decided to make pizza since i had bought some out of date pepperoni slices from vbites for half price (and violife cheese since i wanted to put the pepperoni slices on pizza).

I had some leftover yeast too so i also made cinnamon rolls with that, and some without cinnamon because my boyfriend doesn't like cinnamon, but seems he didn't want to taste them either :x I made half portion and dropped the cardamom, but added some vanilla sugar instead. I also used 1/3 whole wheat flour to pretend to be healthy (and used 1/3 extra sugar cuz it fell too much into my measuring cup... so much for being healthy :x). Personally i liked the cinnamon rolls and seems someone else in my boyfriends house also dared to taste (most of the time they don't dare to taste what i make), and they liked it too =) I ate like half of them and i still had half over that i put in the freezer so they wouldn't go dry. It's nicer with my family in Norway, they would have eaten all =p

So to the pizza. This one was kinda fail. First off i used to much whole wheat flour that it is darker than most of the dark breads (i think 50% is when they can call it dark?). The crust kinda tasted like dark bread (healthy ftw xD). Personally i didn't mind, but i think i'll use more white flour next time and less of the whole wheat one xD Secondly, i first baked it too short so the crust tasted like sponge, so i had to bake it more. Thirdly, the crust was glued to the pan, so i kinda had to do some effort to get this dark bread crust loose so i could eat it.

Failures aside it was still yummy =)

I'll be so nice that i'll provide +- recipe too =p

Dough:
2-2.5 dl medium temperature water
0.5 bag of yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1-2 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Some pizza spices and nutritional yeast (optional)
Flour until nice consistency

Mix ingredients, knead it and let it rise for some time (i did some hours), then shape to pizza shape =) Use more flour if needed.

Topping:
Pasta sauce
Shredded vegan cheese (i used violife for pizza, it didn't shred though :x)
Onions
Bell peppers
Pizza spices (i think i used oregano, but it didnt say on the box what it was)
Corn
Canned mushrooms
Vbites pepperoni slices
Tomatos
Nutritional yeast

So i guess basically slice and dice and put on what is wanted =p Started with tomato sauce, then cheese then veggies then more cheese =p Into the oven on max temperature (remember to use something below the dough in the pan or pizza stone :x) until it's ready (which depends on oven temperatue and some other stuff and is hard to know, but 20 minutes in my case wasnt enough xD).

Since only me liked the bread crust i pretended it was bread and added chocospread on it xD

Dark bread is always yummier with chocospread ;)

Pizza!

I kinda started eating pizza way more rarely after becoming vegan, mostly because im used to pizzas with meat and cheese, so the carrot pizzas werent really the same xD (+ i mostly had tiny crust and a huuuge layer of filling and no "meat" or "cheese", so wasnt really pro xD). So other food was mostly more tempting.

Ofc there is a bunch of vegan meat and cheese options, im mostly just too lazy to buy it cuz i dont wanna spend too much money so i just didnt make it xD But it really is possible to make any kind of pizza as vegan version as you can see from the menu of this vegan pizzeria Sfizy Veg in Berlin (one day i wanna go there! xd). Why use meat/cheese when you can do a more animal friendly option =D

Well, i got inspired by some blogs to use bearnaise sauce on the pizza, so i wanted to try that. Here are some of the blogposts that inspired me: Brennheit and Harrypizza from veganeren, and the pizza from hverdagsveganeren.

Sadly not all bearnaise sauces are vegan, so check before you buy! In Norway these from Toro are vegan: lett bearnaise sauce (light), and krydder bearnaise sauce (spiced).


So ye, here for the "recipe" aka what i used for this pizza xD But as you all know, you can put whatever you want on pizza =p

Pizza crust/dough (mom always makes pizza saturday evenings so if i want i can have some of the dough so i just used the one she made =p)
Tomato sauce (i just use pasta sauce from jar, but homemade sounds more pro =p)
Pizza spices
Vegan bearnaise sauce with a bit of nutritional yeast (this time i used the spiced one and 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, next time i will try the light one, nutritional yeast is optional, can skip it too ofc, i also added salt and pepper in it)
Mushrooms (i used canned)
Corn (i used canned)
Pineapple (i used canned)
Green bell pepper
Olives
Sun dried tomatos
Cherry tomatos

Then i putted in oven on 225°C for a while until i felt it was ready xD


It came out very well, so i think i'll make more of this =p It's probably the best pizza i have made for years =D

The spices in this dish makes it extra yummy ! =D (i spice it extra much! xD) (my bf didn't agree though, he don't like spices too much so i made rice for him too after but with just bullion and vegetables =p xD)

The recipe i found here on the norwegian meatfree monday site. It says they found it in the book “Worlds best vegetarian dishes” by Linda Fraser, Bladkompaniet AS. I will translate the recipe to english, if you want the norwegian recipe press the link =p I made some changes that i add in cursive, you can also use all frozen vegetables too =)

Vegetablepilaf

Ingredients
4-6 portions

• 225 g basmati rice
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (i use just normal cumin spice, not seeds)
• 2 bay leaves (i skip these normally since i don't have)
• 4 green cardamom seeds (i use normal cardamom spice)
• 4 cloves (i use cloves spice)
• 1 nicely chopped onion
• 1 carrot in small pieces
• 50 g frozen peas
• 50 g corn
• 25 g cashew nuts
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin

1. Clean the rice in cold water, have it in a bowl/pan and add water till it covers the rice. Let the rice lay in the water for 30 minutes. (Or skip this part if you are lazy xD)
2. Warm the oil in a pan and fry the cumin seeds for 2 minutes. Add the bay leaves, cardamom and cloves and fry for 2 more minutes. (If you use spice and not seeds, then you can skip this part also)
3. Add onion and fry it till its soft and light brown for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the carrot pieces and fry for 3-4 minutes.
5. Remove the water from the rice and have it in the pan together with peas, corn and nuts. Fry for 4-5 minutes
6. Add 5 dl water, cumin and salt. Cover it and let it simmer for 15 minutes till all the water is gone. Let it stand covered for 10 minutes before serving. (If you aren't hungry and wanna eat it right away =p)

I used frozen vegetables here (American mix) and over-spiced it a little =p Very yummy though! =D

Corn

I bought corn cobs since they were 2 for 10 kr (normally its more) to test it out. I fried one in nutana margarine and did some salt on it, and tried to eat it (my technique wasn't too good, so i looked up on internet how to do it xD). The 2nd one i did in the microwave then did margarine and salt on that one too ^.^ It was very yummy, so this i will buy more of! =D

Nachos

In the first days of easter vacation my sister had made non-vegan nachos, and after the lasagna success i decided to make vegan nachos ^.^

This time i kinda did measure, but since its 6 days since i made it i kinda forgot all, so could be recipe is bad xD

Nachos

Ingredients:
0,5 - 1 onion
Around 2 gloves of garlic
0,5 - 1 bell pepper (paprika) (optional)
1,5 dl TVP (i think this is what i used xD)
0,5 - 1 vegetable stock (i dont remember what i used)
1 jar of pasta sauce (i know jarsize differ a bit, so take as much or little as you want xD)
0,5 dl (or more) water
Spices, for example basil, oregano etc xD (i think i added cumin and paprika powder and other stuff too xD)
Corn
Tortilla chips
Vegan cheese for topping (optional)

Method:
Fry the onion and garlic until soft and add the bell pepper, TVP mixed with stock, pasta sauce, water and spices and boil for a bit. Put a layer of tortilla chips in a pan (you can spray the pan with oil) and then some corn then a layer of TVP mixture and then more corn and top it with vegan cheese (if i remember correctly i added some olive oil on top also). Bake in oven on 200°C - 225°C for 5-15 minutes (i did 10) until the cheese is melted (if the cheese does it lol).


I did 2 layers, and the tortilla chips ended up soft then so if you want soft tortilla chips then add them in layers but i wont do this again xD I think i will use the white sauce from the lasagna recipe as topping next time, since i liked it and i think it would fit =p So its kinda like nacho-lasagna xD

I will make this again for sure! =D

Zucchini burgers

Today i wanted to make something (new) with zucchini for dinner since i have some zucchinis in my fridge, so i searched on the internet and found this recipe: Zucchini Patties that i found on vegweb.

I'm not so good on following recipes though, so i mixed it with the amazingly yummy mexican burgers from veganmisjonen her blog (the recipe is removed so i cant link to it anymore, but it kinda use beans and not zucchini).

The end result: Yummy!! =D

I didn't really measure carefully, its kinda like take what you got/want xD I guess this credit goes to the vegweb recipe, veganmisjonens recipe, and my mixing together skills xD


Zucchini burgers

Ingredients:
0,5 - 1 grated zucchini (i had like 0,5 left)
0,5 - 1 onion, finely chopped (i used 0,5)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 box of mushrooms (fresh ones might work as well, or you can skip it completely or use more or less =p i only had boxed mushrooms, my boxes are pretty small btw)
0,5 box of corn (if you have/want/like it xD we had some (around 0,25 box) spare in the fridge so i just added it xD you can skip it aswell)
Some parsley, or in my case i used spring onion, or leek could work as well, or you can skip it xD (="green stuff" in the method below)
Dried oregano (and maybe some other spices if you like, for example basil, coriander, chili, paprika/bell pepper (i think actually fresh one would rock! xD), cumin, or other stuff, add what you have/want/like =p)
0,5 - 1 vegetable stock cube (i used 0,5)
Salt and pepper to taste
Oatmeal or bread crumbs (i used oat meal, i think maybe 0,5 - 1 dl depending on how wet your mix is, i didnt measure, i just added)
Flour (to make it stick together better, just add till its nice consistency)


Method (if its still needed since most of it is in my ingredient list Oo)
Add the grated zucchini, the chopped onion and the minced garlic together in a bowl and add the box of mushroom and the corn and the green stuff and the spices and the stock and the salt and pepper and mix together at the end or in between (i did in between =p). Add the oatmeal or bread crumbs and the flour until you got nice consistency. Fry them in a pan with oil on medium heat on both sides till they are ready ^.^

  

Since they were so yummy i ate almost all myself! xD But i guess its better sharing on 2 or more people, specially if you have a side-dish with it =p

I kinda liked it more with zucchini than with beans, since its more "fresh" taste then (if i remember correctly xD), so i think its time to put zucchini on my regular shopping list =p If you don't have zucchini you can use beans instead, for example kidney beans =p