Pastry puffs / Blätterteigtaschen

An idea for an easy and delightful snack that you can easily take with you (to school/work/...):
Pastry puffs filled with: boiled potatoes, asparagus and capers.
I used frozen asparagus so I could use it just after letting it defrost. If you use fresh one, put it in a casserole with some water, lemon juice, salt and sugar. Heat it up until it starts to boil - but it must not boil at any time! Leave it in the hot water for about 10 to 15 minutes (depends on how thick the asparagus is).
Chop up potatoes (I didn't peel them) and asparagus and put it on your puff paste, add capers. Form any shape you like (I made rectangles and triangles) and put it in the oven. That's it!

You can use whatever vegetables and spices you like!

Isidar Mithrim

Spaghetti with mediterranean vegetables / Spaghetti mit mediterranem Gemüse

Mmmmh that was my lunch and dinner for yesterday. I steamed some vegetables and added soy cream and spicery. Then i mixed everything with spaghettis. You can use whatever vegetables you like, but since it's late summer and lots of mediterranean vegetables are ripe now, I used bell pepper, onion, garlic, tomatoes, green onions and carrots. To make it even more mediterranean, I added salt, pepper, basil, parsley and rosemary.

Isidar Mithrim

Vegan chocolate / Vegane Schokolade

Today I want to review a few different vegan chocolates. Since I am a big chocolate lover, I'm glad that I found some very delicious alternatives to dark chocolate and milk chocolate.
I bought three different chocolates so that I can compare them directly one after another.

I like the one by Naturata best. It tastes exactly like swiss milk chocolate, mmmmh! Second one is the one by Bonvita, it tastes good too but is very sweet. Last one is the soyabella one. BUT it's not fair to compare them equally because the third chocolate contains 22% of carob powder, so the taste varies with the other chocolates. I personally don't like the taste of carob, but I wanted to try it. Maybe it's just because I am not used to the taste since carob isn't very popular in Germany (or even whole Europe?).
All three chocolates are comparatively expensive, but if you don't buy it often and see it as a special goody, it's okay. Furthermore all of them are fair trade products and organic and one is actually a climate neutral product.

Ingredients:

Naturata "Chocolate with rice glucose syrup"
Raw cane sugar*°, cocoa butter*°, rice glucose syrup dried*, 17%cocoa mass*°, hazelnuts*, ground bourbon Vanilla*°, sea salt.
*certified organic, °Fairtrade-ingredients (78% in total)
EU-organic-certification, independent fairtrade certification, myclimate neutral product

Bonvita "Rice Milk Chocolate Couverture"
Raw cane sugar*, cocoa butter*, rice milk powder* (17%), cocoa mass*, vanilla*.
*from organic agriculture, minimum 83% fairtrade products
EU-organic-certification, independent fairtrade certification

Natudis Molenaartje "soyabella" carob with soya
cocoa butter*, carob powder* (22%), dehydrated barley malt syrup*, dehydrated corn glucose syrup*,
soya flour* (7%), vanilla*.
*verified organically grown
"our products contain select organic ingredients only, wich are as unrefined as possible"

EU-organic-certification

Independent fairtrade certification

For lunch I made me tomato salad with onion and took it with me to work. Matches great with any type of bread.


Isidar Mithrim

Recipe / Rezept

I took the recipe for the red lentil cream out of this cookbook:

150g red lentils
2 cloves of garlic
1 red bellpepper
2 red jalapeño-peppers
basil
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
salt

Put lentils and garlic (peeled and cut in half) in a pot and add 350ml water. Heat everything until it boils, then reduce heat and simmer until the lentils are very soft. If necessary, add a litte more water while simmering. Put it away and let the lentils cool down. Chop the bellpepper and the jalapeños in very very small pieces. Chop the basil as small or big as you like. Puree the lentils with the olive oil, then mix everything together and season with lemon juice and salt. It stays fresh for a few days in the fridge, but anyway try to use it up fast.
It tastes delicious on all kinds of bread, especially whole-grain bread.

Give it a try!


Isidar Mithrim

Red lentil cream / Rote Linsen Creme

Just a picture for today...

...tomorrow comes the recipe.


Isidar Mithrim

First ideas for snacks to go / Erste Vesperideen

Since I am going to start my apprenticeship on monday, I thought about what to take with me for lunch. My working day will start between 7am and 10am and will end between 4pm and 7pm (there will be alternate shift), so I have to eat either somewhere at a restaurant or snack stall (that's quite nice every now and then, but not for everyday) or bring my own lunch with me. Not to forget some kind of snack for inbetween like fruit or granola bars.

I watch some videos of MissChievous on Youtube, she has some cool make up on there and fitness and nutrition ideas, too. She led me to the idea of making wraps, because they are very nice to take with you (you can put them in a (tupperware-)box or just wrap them with tin foil (what is very easy but I would like to avoid that because it produces lots of rubbish).
So I bought some ready-to-serve wraps (they were disgusting - I am going to make my own ones next time - but yesterday I had no time for baking some) and a lot of vegetables and gave it a try! I used some vegan spread to coat the wraps with, then I added a whole bunch of chopped up vegetables (red cabbage, green salad, tomatoes, cucumbers) and rolled everything up. it was quite good but the ready-to-serve wraps weren't very delish...  I am going to make some for taking with me to work, it is made very fast and easy to eat. There are many variations for the filling and spread, you could use hummus or guacamole or (vegan) mayonnaise or ajvar, for the filling raw or stir-fried and seasoned vegetables as zucchini, corn, spinach, carrots, olives, onions, bell pepper, and add some nuts, seeds or seedlings or jalapeños.

As a second idea I thought of couscous salad - cook the couscous as described on the box and after that, let it cool. Then add some chopped up vegetables, I prefer cucumber, bell pepper, onion, garlic and tomato in this salat. Make a salad dressing out of balsamic vinegar (the dark one), mustard (optional), basil, parsley, pepper, salt and olive oil and put everything together. Now it is very fluid. Put it in the fridge for a few hours (over the night) and after that the couscous will have absorbed the dressing.
Instead of couscous you could use quinoa, amaranth, rice, chickpea, glass noodles or what else you like.

Sadly I did not made any pictures of these dishes but I will post some when I made them again.

I have a resolution: I want to make me / eat something healthy for lunch everyday (or prepare it in the evening and take it with me the other day). I want to prepare and drink a smoothie every morning or at least a glass of juice. I want to live vegan when I'm on my own (at the moment I am slowly introducing my grandparents into vegan living - so when I eat at their place I accept dairy and egg in small amounts).

That's it for now :)


Isidar Mithrim