My dinner today - veggieballs

Today for dinner: veggieballs (from veg-veg.no *norwegian*) with salad, tzatziki and oven roasted cherry tomatos (on 200°C for i dunno how long xD). 

Quite yummy =)

Broccoli puree with carrots in pasta sauce

This is bit old post, but finally imported picture to pc so now i'll post =p

I wanted to make broccoli puree for some days =p Before i've made broccoli pesto with pasta a couple of times, but now i wanted to use carrots instead of pasta =p So i went into my closets and found some stuff i wanted to use xD Tasted pretty good too so here's the blog about it =p

The measures are +- what i used (i didnt measure), and i ate everything myself xD

Ingredients:
0.5 broccoli, simmered
1 dl green peas, i used frozen so let them thaw with the broccoli
0.5 onion, in slices then in half moons
1 carrot, peeled in strips
Little bit of red bell pepper in pieces
Pasta sauce (i have no idea how much xD)
Mustard to taste =p
1 tomato, in boats
Chickpeas, maybe 1 dl, i used frozen ones, but canned works too
Yoghurt, i used alpro =p maybe some tablespoons
Soy sauce, to taste
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Simmer broccoli with some of the onion (if you want) until tender (i used like half a slice of the onion), then add peas at the end if they are frozen.
Meanwhile i simmered the remaining onion in some water, then added pasta sauce, peeled carrots, red bell pepper and the tomato. Then i added mustard to taste, and when it was almost done i added chickpeas.
Now the broccoli should be done so i pureed it in my food processor along with some yoghurt. I also added some of the water it boiled with to get a lighter consistency. Then i added soy sauce, salt and pepper and enjoyed =D

Very yummy =D

Halloween 2013

Sorry blog for not sharing much lately. Since last i've had my hopefully last exam, and i have travelled on vacation to Belgium to my sweet bf where i had some nice 2 weeks that passed by too fast. On the other hand it's nice being back at work again (yes i actually missed work while i was on vacation xD) and also to be home with my own family =p I wish the distance was shorter though, so i could visit my bf more often.

Anyways back to the topic of halloween. I kinda love holidays and celebrations, and ofc i had to prepare some fancy food for the occation. I also managed to acquire a pumpkin but it's still just laying on the desk, waiting to be used, no carvings or anything in it xD So gotta figure out some pumpkin recipes for next week since i'll probably end up eating pumpkin every day again or so until its gone xD

So for this years halloween i wanted colored food and heres what i came up with:

Dinner:

I guess it might look like i murdered someone ? xD Was yummy atleast =D

I sadly dont have any recipe since i didnt really measure well, but i can give a short summary of what it is in case anyone else wants to try making it =p

So the green is a pesto made of green peas (mine were thawed frozen ones), broccoli (boiled), spinach (i used frozen but fresh is probably good also), soy yoghurt, veggie bullion, salt, pepper, garlic, basilicum (i didnt have fresh so used dried), pumpkin seeds, and nutritional yeast mixed in food processor or blender (could be i forgot some ingredients too).

The red is spaghetti boiled together with a small red beet that i chopped in pieces (great for food coloring!!!).

The orange is mashed sweet potato and carrots. I boiled them to they were soft along with some onion, then mashed them together with some vegan butter, coconut milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and possibly some other ingredients i forgot about xD


Then over to dessert:

This is a banana-blueberry marzipan cake xD

I kinda started using half of the recipe for my 17th may cake, but added some blueberries, bananas and raisins, and dropped the almonds and used a bread shape. It had to stay in oven for way longer than the other recipe and it came out quite dense when it finally wasnt dough anymore xD

For topping i used raspberry jam, bananas mixed with whipped vegan cream, and marzipan mixed with some leftover red beet water from the boiling spaghetti to get it bit more pinkish. Then i did some more jam and some candy skulls for decoration =p

In case someone wondered why i didnt decorate the whole cake it is because someone wanted to have it non-decorated. Personally i prefer with decoration =D But i guess you taste more of the cake part without decoration =p I also made a kiwi-jelly that failed (it wasnt jelly xD) but dont have a picture of it.

Then after eating my family watched the movie "White Noice" while eating some burnt popcorn (i always burn them xD). Was nice movie i think =p Not too scary xD

Hope everyone else had a nice halloween too =D

Onion pilaf

Today for breakfast i decided to make onion pilaf from my gourmet vegetar cookbook (page 185). It's actually more of a dinner recipe but oh heck xD

It was yummy so figured might as well put the recipe on the blog =p I did a couple of changes from the original recipe though, so heres what i did:

(1 person)
Ingredients:
0.5 onion (mine was maybe 0.75 but i guess it depends on the size), chopped
75 g rice
Ca 2,1 dl veggiestock (water + stock cube)
2 tablespoons frozen chopped spinach
50 g green peas (i used frozen)
1 teaspoon coriander
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

First i sauteed the onions in some veggiestock until they were soft, then i added the rice and the rest of the veggie stock and let it simmer until most of the water was evaporated. Then i added spinach and green peas and let it be on low heat until they all were ready. Then i added coriander and nutritional yeast, mixed and ate =p

Pretty easy and yummy =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

Veggie-soup

I wanted to use some vegetables to make a soup so i just mixed alot of random stuff =p Its 1 month ago so could be i remember bad xD

Veggie-soup

Celery
Carrot
Potato
Veggie bullion/stock + as much water you need
Tomato if wanted
Paprika/bell pepper if wanted
Leeks/onion/garlic if wanted (i regret i didnt use onion)
Peas/lentils/beans/pasta if wanted (i used some frozen peas i had xD)
Spinach if wanted (<3 spinach, i used frozen ones)
The spices you want ^.^ for example salt and pepper

Cut the vegetables in pieces and boil it until its tender, then if you want you can do it in a food processor (i did that now, but normally i don't do it). A lot of variation possibilities depending on what you have and like ^.^

This soup tasted like a vitamin bomb or so, probably because of the food processor  xD But was also yummy ofc =p

Samosa

I like samosas a lot, but they take a while to make (specially since i'm slow and take many breaks xD) so it's not so often i make it =p The vegetables in it can be varied from what you have and like i think =)

So here's the recipe copy-pasted from here: Samosa

Vegetable Samosa Filling

1 Potato finely diced (5 to 10 mill cubes)
1 carrot finely diced - as above
2 cloves of crushed garlic.
1 Onion finely chopped
1 Cup of frozen peas
1 tblspn vegetable oil
2 tspn curry powder or your own spices according to taste
Salt, Pepper to taste.
100ml of vegetable stock.
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and garlic, mix in  the spices and fry until soft. Add the vegetables, seasoning and stir well until coated. Add the stock, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until cooked.
Now it's time for the pastry.

Making the Samosa Pastry

You don't have to make your own pastry. You can simply buy some ready-made pastry from the shop. For samosas you want to fry, use Filo Pastry and for samosas you want to cook in the oven use Puff Pastry.
This recipe will make enough pastry for 24 samosas and you will need:
225gm. plain flour
2 tspn. salt
2tblspb. vegetable oil
80 ml warm water.
Mix flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well into the centre and add the oil and enough water to make a firm dough. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth and roll into a ball. Cover in plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Divide the pastry into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and roll out into a circle of 15 cm. Divide this circle into two equal pieces with a knife.
Brush each edge with a little water and form a cone shape around your fingers, sealing the dampened edge.
Fill the cases with a tblpns of your chosen mixture and press the two dampened edges together to seal the top of the cone.
Deep fry the samosas in hot oil until crisp and brown take out and drain on a paper towel.

Yammie!! =D

Some dinner i had =p

I've been sick since Sunday now (throat infection or something) so i have been weak and tired, and it hurts in my throat when i swallow, so haven't been posting a lot lately and i haven't been cooking a lot lately either, but i looked through the pictures i have taken earlier and i found a picture of my dinner last Tuesday, so i guess it's time to post it =p

I had been working at a place kinda far away from home (30 min with car or 1 hour 30 min with bus xD), so i asked my bf if he could make some dinner for me, and he cooked up some potatoes and chopped some zucchini and peeled some carrots, so i used that in a mix with onion, bell pepper, cucumber, salad, tomato, and a frozen mix with peas, cauliflower and more carrots. Worked out pretty well with soy sauce on top of course ^.^

Fried potatoes with brussel sprouts and carrots

This recipe i have made myself ^.^ It's a bit different from the buljong rice with fried vegetables, but at the same time it's pretty similar ^.^ The vegetables you add can differ from what you want/have. I got empty of brussel sprouts for example, so i added broccoli instead (they got the same color =p). I think this recipe should be for around 2-3 persons, but could be im wrong.


Fried potatoes with brussel sprouts and carrots

Ingredients:
4-6 medium potatoes
0,5 onion
6-10 brussel sprouts (or broccoli =p)
(Peas)
2 carrots
Soy sauce <3

Method:
Peel the potatoes, then boil them till they are ready. Cut the potatoes in smaller pieces and put them in a frying pan with oil and fry it a bit. Add onion, brussel sprouts (i use frozen), peas if you want (i use frozen) and let it get soft/unfreeze. Peel the carrots until whole carrot is just a bunch of peels. Mix the carrot peel with the rest and fry it a bit more. Serve with soy sauce and salt and pepper if you want it =p

Looking at the picture, i see no brussel sprouts actually, only broccoli, but the brussel sprouts are there too! xD