Lille Taste of Indian

I finally got my drivers licence now yay :D (8 years after i could have had it :x)

The driving exam went pretty good, so thats great =p To celebrate me and my family went out to eat at an indian restaurant in Bergen called Lille Taste of Indian, located in Marken =p

I ordered the dish called Degree Channa, with chickpeas, mushrooms and curry sauce. It was served with rice =p They other ordered non-vegan food. It was yummy and had a spiced taste, but without being spicy. I would have liked it a bit more spicy though, but then again I'm kinda unfamiliar with indian food, so I'm not sure how it's supposed to be like xD Think I'll try something different next time though, because it was yummy, but not superyummy for my taste =p

It was a quite cosy place though, and the woman serving us was wearing an indian dress or sari or whatever it's called that was very pretty =p

We had a nice time together, and I like to go out and eat and test out new places and dishes, so I hope we will do it more in the future =D

Work trip to Spain

Last week me and a colleague from the same shop went on a work trip to Alicante in Spain. There were other colleagues who work in the other Right Price Tiles shops in Norway also on the trip. We from Bergen travelled down in the middle of the day on Wednesday. I had to work first before we travelled, so it was a long day, with me starting work at 7 in the morning until we had to leave for the airport at 12:30. Also we had to travel back early Friday morning, so it was a very short trip.

I've never been to Spain before (unless Mallorca counts), so it was nice to travel somewhere i haven't been before :D The weather was nice too, coming from rainful, cold Bergen, it was a nice change with sunny and warmish (15-20°C i think). 

When we arrived in Alicante we took a taxi to the Malia hotel 10-15 minutes from the airport. It was very cool with palm trees and the beach there :D 

The hotel was really nice with good view from the hotel balcony to the beach and the mountain, and the room was nice and big. 

After changing clothes we went to eat at a restaurant closeby next to the boat place. It seemed like a seafood restaurant,  but they also had meat and veggie options. I ordered a plate of grilled vegetables, while everyone else ordered meat or fish :x Most of the people also drank shitloads of beer, while me and a couple of others stack to cola and water. We had to wait like 1-2 hours or so for the food. While waiting we got some appetizers, most of them non-vegan. Lucky i had snacked on dates on the plane :p 

After some hours it got dark and colder, so i was freezing a bit. People were getting drunker, one even fell over the neighbouring table and the children there, so was time to get back to the hotel because we had to get up early the next morning. A guy from one of the other shops and my colleague wanted to go on the mountain and take some pictures so i decided to join them. We never got that far though because they were drunk and just wanted to drink, so we eventually had to return to the hotel. I'm reminded why i don't drink from seeing all these drunk people :p it's not tempting to drink after seeing what it does to you x)

After getting to the hotel i sadly couldn't fall asleep. Long day and already little sleep from before didn't help. I think i slept like 2 hours, from 4 to 6. Alarm went off at 7. I took a shower before going yo breakfast. Should have timed it a bit better though because i only had 5 minutes to eat breakfast before the bus should leave to the tile fabrics at 8, so i just grabbed some bread and fruit and stuffed some in my mouth and some in my purse. Seems some of the guys overslept though so they had to wake them up before we could leave, so i was one of the early ones.

The tile fabrics were pretty far from Alicante, we had to pass Valencia, so it was a 3 hour bus trip. I couldn't sleep much now either, only like 30 minutes, so i just looked out the windows on the beautiful Spanish nature :p When we finally arrived at the first tile fabric, Cristacer, we had to wait a bit outside. It was sunny and warm so that was just nice :p they also had clementine trees just across the road so i sneaked some clementines :D Very delicious and totally fresh :D 

In the tile fabric we got a tour where they explained all the steps of how ceramic powder becomes tiles. It was very cool to see, and everything was automated :D We get some of our tiles from this fabric; blanco mate 30x45, partenon marfil, and canada :p 

So shortly the tile making process is that the ceramic powder gets its humidity decreased to like 6% then it's shaped into tiles, then it's heated to remove more humidity, then it's primered and gets a top layer, then it is burned. Somewhere in there it's also checked that it's the correct color and size and no bad stuff on the tiles. After burning they are packaged and transported. 

There were like 300 tile fabrics in the area, which means shiiiitloads of tiles being produced every day.

From Decocer

After the first tile fabric we visited another tile fabric, Decocer. This one we get some hexagon and devon tiles from. It was pretty much the same, except here they make more decorative tiles and they had more manual labor than the first fabric.

After we were done on the 2nd tile fabric we got some drink and snacks, then we travelled to a restaurant by the sea. It was really beautiful view outside :D 

I got some grilled vegetables as pre-dish which was quite delicious :D 

After eating i sat outside in the sun. Later the main dish arrived: grilled vegetables xD 

I must admit it started to be quite many meals with grilled vegetables now xP Atleast it was different vegetables than the pre-dish, but I did prefer the pre-dish because it was more meal-like and less side dish-like like the main dish xD I finished eating and went back into the sun, waiting for the ride back to the hotel.

Couldn't sleep again on the 3 hour ride back to the hotel, even if i was quite tired. They also did a quiz in the bus, but i had no idea about any of the answers so I lost. Didn't care much about it though either. When we arrived back in Alicante everyone could do what they wanted to do, so i went for a walk, checking out the city a bit before i went to the mountains.  I also stopped by a shop, finding plant milk and soy yoghurt, but i didn't buy anything. It was a nice town. I found some old trees and fountains and stuff :p The mountain was nice too, but by the time i got there it was already dark. It would have been nicer in daylight. On top of the mountain there was a fort. I went on the top and looked down at the town, it was really a nice view except for the dark. Then i went back down and took a trip on the beach. It seems like a really nice vacation place for the summer :D Then it was time for bed. Had to get up early the next morning, like 5:45 or so to go to the airport. Luckily i managed to sleep a bit more now.

We had to travel via Oslo, and 2 people from the Oslo shops also took the same plane, so we shared cab and hanged together at the airport. In the plane i barely slept also, so me and my colleague played some cards, like we did on the way down to Spain :p I taught him well cuz he won every single game this time of go-fish :p

In Oslo we rechecked our luggages and bought some stuff for others in the duty free shop and found some food to eat. I had heard Upper Crust had vegan options so i ordered a vegan baguette. It came with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion. Would have been cooler with some hummus, mayonnaise or vegan cheese on, but it was nice without also :p

Then plane back to Bergen, taxi home and sleeeeeep. And my poor colleague had to work.

It was a nice trip, even though it was a bit short. Hope next time I'll go on a longer trip with more free time to look around and explore :D And eat something else than grilled vegetables :p

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

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

Vegan meeting at Pygmalion March 2016

The norwegian vegan society arranges vegan meetings the first sunday of every month in a restaurant. This sunday we were in Pygmalion, which is a cosy ecological restaurant in Bergen. They have several vegan options here and i struggled with what to order because of the many choices and i'm really sucky at making decisions. I ended up with a delicious vegan burger, served with hummus and baked potatoes. Other vegan options they had were soup, wrap, wok, salad, and cake. The burger patty is made with lentils and this dinner was quite filling. I kinda wanted ketchup with it as well (they have available), but i was too lazy to go get it or to ask the waiter to go get it for me =p

We were quite many people at this vegan meeting. Probably like 50 or so =p I stayed there to 19, and then there were only 4 people left other than me =p I met old and new people, had some nice chats, and delicious food =D I'm a bit sick atm though, having a cold, so i hope i didn't spread my sickness to any other people (although i probably did and they all will be sick now because of me :x)

Anyways, it was nice getting out of the house and meet some fellow vegans. Looking forward to next time =D

26 years old now

2 days ago i turned 26, which sounds way too old because it feels like i'm way younger =p

For my birthday i went out on the restaurant Hot Wok to eat =p I ordered dish 48: Vegan Gong Bao. I assumed it was vegan due to its name =p The dish was stir fried veggies in spicy sweet chili sauce, topped with cashews =D It was really delicious, and it also came with rice on the side which was nice because it was quite spicy (which was good cuz it was labelled as spicy =p)
It was really a lot of food too, even i had struggles eating all (but i did) xD

I've eaten there before too. Then i ordered 46: Vegan chao Mein, which was woked noodles with veggies and soy sauce. That dish was kinda disappointing because it was mostly noodles and almost no veggies, and i also had to use more soy sauce because i'm a soy sauce addict and it didn't have enough =p Would like it more if it had more veggies and maybe some spice too =p

If i go there again i'll order the 48: Vegan Gong Bao again, or maybe do some adjustments to other dishes (although i prefer doing it the easy way, ordering from what is on the menu xD).

After eating i went to cinema and watched James Bond Spectre =D It was a nice movie with lots of explosions and action and stuff =p I liked this movie ^.^

After the movie i went home and watched Star Wars 4 with my family =p We are doing a slow Star Wars marathon (1 movie/day) this xmas, so we're grabbing every oppertunity to watch one =p

I also got some nice gifts =D A necklace, ear rings, a cutting board, jogging pants, jogging t-shirt, thug kitchen cookbook, cutting equipment, a donation in my name to an animal sanctuary and sponsoring to get my eyes checked and get new glasses =D Thanks everyone for the nice gifts and for making me have a nice birthday =D <3

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

Shepherdess Pie

So, time for a recipe again =p I had some leftover boiled potatoes, onion, tomato, carrots, cauliflower and chinese cabbage that needed to be used in the fridge, along with some freshly purchased, boiled and frozen black eyed beans in the freezer, so that sounds pretty much like a shepherdess pie to me (except it's normally made with lentils as far as i know xD) I didn't really measure or follow any recipe (but i looked at some recipes for inspiration), but just added what seemed to be a reasonable amount of each ingredient (typically the remaining of what i had laying around) xD

Ingredients (with +- my use in paranthesis):

Tomato sauce:
Onion (+- 0.5)
Garlic (1 clove)
Tomato (+- 1/4th cuz that's what i had, would have used more if i had more =p)
Carrot (2)
Cauliflower (+- 1/2 kinda small)
Chinese cabbage (+- 1/3 small)
Black eyed beans (+- 1,5 dl, other beans or lentils can also be used)
Canned tomatoes (1 400g can)
Tomato paste (+- 1 tablespoon)
Sugar (+- 2 teaspoons)
Bullion cube (1)
Spices (i used pizza spice, oregano, thyme, paprika, fresh basil, salt)
Water if needed

Mashed potatoes:
Boiled potatoes (i had like bit less than 500 g maybe?)
Vegan margarine (1-2 tablespoons)
Plant milk (i used oat milk, dunno howmuch though)
Salt and pepper

Chop veggies in small pieces, saute them and add canned tomatoes, tomato paste, bullion cube, sugar and spices (i added my basil at the end). Add water if needed. Simmer for a while then add beans (add earlier if not cooked). Make mashed potaoes (i guess everyone knows how to). Taste if they both taste good and add more salt or spices if needed. Pour the tomato sauce in an ovenproof dish and distribute the mashed potatoes on top. Here you can have some vegan cheese on top for extra yumminess =p Into the oven on 200°C for like 20 minutes or more =)

Enjoy =D

Some of the food i have eaten recently xD

Sorry for the lack of updates lately =p To make people happy i'll post some images of some of the food i have eaten xD If anyone is interested in more info about the food feel free to ask xD

Polenta with vegetables

Macaroni with sauce

Pizza =D

Chana masala with rice

Chocomousse (even though it doesn't look like it xD)

Chipsies =D

Nom nom nom =D

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 ;)

Halloween 2014

I love holidays, they give a good opportunity to celebrate =D

As always, halloween is a time for spookiness =D And gross (but still yummy) food =D

So for this years meny i chose to eat mummies, larvaes, blood, and gore ^.^

Followed by way too much candy (and also before and while making the dinner xD)

And some chips and popcorn too =p

I even made some green spooky muffins with some bugs, brains and other nasty stuff in it, but everyone was too full to eat, including me :x

I dressed up as a witch who had been in a witchfight xD

In the evening we watched a movie called the collector. This movie had too much torture and blood and stuff so i was watching computer screen instead luckily, else i would have nightmares still. My brother and sister weren't the biggest fan of it either, but they wanted to know how it ended so they kept watching. I read the summary on wikipedia instead, gave me enough info, without all the visual details :x

Was a nice halloween, looking forward to next years halloween already =D

Curried veggies

This was my dinner today =)

Ingredients i used:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
0.5 onion, chopped
0.5 garlic, minced (can use 1 too, i had 0.5 leftover from yesterdays hummus)
1 chilipepper, chopped
1 mushroom, in pieces
1 carrot, in pieces
3 small potatoes, in pieces
Some tablespoons of red curry paste
Soy sauce to taste
2 teaspoons tomato paste
Some dl of water
A little bit of leftover chickpeas
Pepper
Freshly squeezed lemon

I sauteed the veggies, adding water when needed, then i added curry paste, tomato paste and soy sauce and some more water and let it simmer a bit before adding chickpeas. When water was more or less evaporated it was ready to eat so i sprinckled on some pepper and freshly squeezed lemon juice =) It's probably yummy with rice, but i figured that out 2 minutes before it was ready to eat, so maybe i should start with boiling some rice next time xD