A Simply fantastic lunch

I was surprised with the amount of motivation I had today to cook. I'm horribly exhausted from my trip to The Netherlands and just want to sleep. Instead, I used my free time today to make a huge, light lunch which was amazingly fulfilling. When I get home from work tonight I may have to make more. It was amazing. My mother introduced me to Zucchini pasta while I was home and I fell in love. I cut up a zucchini into thin strips, sauteed mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and green pepper with red wine, garlic powder, onion powder, and a secret seasoning I put into everything. Then I added 1/4 cup of pasta sauce and tadahhhh. Amazing and dskfhsak

I need to venture to work now, so more pictures of the process will be posted later.

The Misc. Collection of my final Dutch enjoyments.

My mom made homemade pizza twice and I've never enjoyed something as much as I did this Pizza. It was Greek, with feta cheese, olives, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and spinach.



For Valentines day my mom got me the most adorable box of chocolate I've ever encountered. It amazed me with how little each chocolate bar was.



Her boyfriend Tom, also got me a really nice Valentines gift, a mug from a music store in The Hague. Today I made coffee and was thrilled to finally have a special mug to enjoy it from.



I also purchased a bunch of my favorite snacks, including Digestive cookies. These snacks were my absolute favorite part of my day in elementary school and I cannot wait to indulge again.



And finally, my favorite snack of all time, Chocolate covered raisins. Typically consumed with peanut butter.

Mexican Reunion.

Another quest during my trip to The Netherlands landed me inside Popo's, A Mexican restaurant in The Hague. I met up with a group of high school friends that I haven't seen in ages. The four of us managed to have 120 Euro bill, mostly due to the insane amount of beer consumed, but also due to the ridiculous price of the food. Luckily, the food was delicious. I ordered Veggie and goat cheese fajitas.




One of my favorite things to do after a late night in Holland, was to eat a bowl of grapenuts. It's somehow amazingly refreshing and is one of my most loved comfort foods. So, to honor tradition I had a bowl at 1.30 in the morning.

High Society.

Miss Anika and I ventured out to The Hague for tea and cupcakes one evening and it made me feel quite high society. We got the cupcakes for free as our waiter wanted to take me out on a date. I turned him down, as I have a perfect boyfriend of my own already, and he still let us have the delightful cupcakes for free.

I flew all the way to Amsterdam for a american bagel.

I find it really amusing that I only really eat bagels (a completely American food) in Amsterdam. It's odd but I love it. My mother and I ventured to my home town, Wassenaar's very own bagel place, Bagel Alley. Started while I was in middle school, this place was where all the cool kids ate. Eventually, my mother and I started eating lunch there every Saturday while doing our chores on the shopping street by my house. Even though it's management has changed to Dutch owners, as pictured above, I still really enjoy their food. Plus they have amazing carrot cake (which my mom purchased for my 19th birthday and I managed to eat completely on my own over the course of two weeks in which that was all I consumed). As always she ordered the Tasty Tom Bagel, some disgustingly amazing bagel with egg and onion coating it, and I ordered the Mozzarella Bagel (made with Pesto, tomato, and mozzarella cheese) on an everything bagel.

A little more home feasting.

My mom's famous Kale salad. Heaven on a plate.
She got the recipe from her friend who is an amazing Vegan cook and has always welcomed me into his home. This salad consists of Kale (a popular type of green that was highly consumed during WWII in The Netherlands, it is even mentioned in The Diary of Anne Frank), yellow pepper, various nuts including almonds, tomatoes, avocados, and Annie's Goddess Dressing.

Eating out in NL.

So another great thing about being home is that I get to eat out at all of my favorite places with amazing people. I went out for lunch with Mathijs and we stayed at this place, Bagels and Beans, for hours. I really enjoyed it. That was number one of his cappuccinos that Mathijs had, and I really enjoyed the cup.
Our food was awesome as well, or at least mine was. His had meat, so I refused to photograph it.


I got an everything bagel with avocado, tomatoes, and chive creamcheese. Pure heaven. And in the background you can see my everything juice. It includes orange juice and grapefruit juice.

The first thing I ever tried at this place was their cinnamon, banana, and maple syrup bagel. Weird and awesome.

Overeating at home and Thrilled to do so.

Ahhh! I'm home in Holland and feasting daily. My mom has been spoiling me with some really good food and sugary snacks (I just realized that I forgot to take pictures of her cinnamon rolls. Damn it.) But either way, I've probably gained 20 pounds this week and couldn't care less. Dieting will come in America. :P.

So the picture above is one of the amazing meals I've indulged in. Steamed veggies, Zucchini pasta (my new and most favorite form of pasta), spaghetti, store bought foccatia bread from AH and of course, the red sauce in the middle is amazing red pepper and ricotta cheese. Blended into perfection with lemon zest, I couldn't have asked for a more delightful meal.


This is one of my favorite dishes of all time. It's couscous with sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese, artichoke hearts, and flat leaf parsley. Usually you put chicken in it but why? It's amazing this way and I can't imagine how chicken would make it any better. It seriously is the best dish imaginable. Once again my mom served it with bread and oil, I see a trend in our meals!


Another favorite that I make a lot when I'm home. It's simple and weird, but I grew up on it. You take a tortilla and put it in a pan, until it starts to poof up (flip it occasionally then add a small amount of butter with salt and pepper. It's one of the best fast snacks, you can imagine. Until a few nights ago I had completely forgotten about it's existence.

Vegan Muffins.

I made vegan blueberry muffins today and they turned out awesome. I got the recipee from Babycakes by Erin McKenna

Ingredients:

2 1/4 Cups Whole Spelt Flower

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Cup Coconut Oil

2/3 Cup Agave Nectar

2/3 Cup Rice Milk

2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

1 Teaspoon Pure Lemon Extract

2/3 Cup Fresh Blueberries (I used 1 and 1/2 Cups)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the oil, agave nectar, rice milk, vanilla, and lemon extract to the dry ingredients and stir until the batter is smooth. Using a plastic spatula, gently fold in the blueberries just until they are evenly distributed throughout the batter. Pour 1/3 cup batter into each prepared cup, almost filling it. Bake the muffins on the center rack for 22 minutes, rotating the tin 180 degrees after 15 minutes. The finished muffins will bounce back slightly when pressed, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

Let the muffins stand in the tin for 15 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely. Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

A little reminder of Bar life in NL.

Vegan Tosti (Grilled Cheese) and Tomato soup.

Used a dairy free american cheese flavored “cheese” slice, Sara lee’s 45 calories and delightful multi grain bread, and 1/2 a can campbell’s soup.

Eating toasties always makes me feel like I'm back in a dutch bar. They served them at everyone and it always made the perfect midnight drunken snack.

Cereal in Coffee Mugs.

My favorite morning treat. Barbara's cereal is the best invention in the world. When I get home from Holland I'll post a picture of Puffins. My new obsession.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Vegan Chocolate Banana Shake as found in The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudrau.

Ingredients:

2 cups (470ml) nondairy milk (I used Silk plain)

2 ripe bananas, cut into chunks and previously frozen

4 tablespoons (32g) unsweetened cocoa powder

1 to 2 teaspoons granulated sugar (optional, I used less than 1 teaspoon)

Banana slices to garnish (optional, but I can help making my food look pretty)

Grated chocolate for garnish (optional)

How to make:

Combine the nondairy milk, banana chunks, and cocoa in a blender, and blend everything until everything is mixed together and there are no lumps of cocoa. Taste the shake, if desired, add 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar, blending and tasting again after each addition.

Changes?

Next time I make this I think I will add nondairy icecream to make it thicker. Otherwise it was a delightful experience. (As my boyfriend just laughed I must share this with you, dessert has two s’s because it’s extra special)

Mexican Success.

So I'm going to have to do some back posts, older things I've made to catch this blog up to where I want it to be.

This is the product of three hours in the kitchen. I made tostadas with guacamole, lettuce, organic black beans, tomato rice, green bell pepper sauce, red bell pepper sauce, and my mom’s cold tomato salsa. As a side dish I had a potato adventure and made rosemary garlic roasted potatos. And let me tell you, it was amazing. Completely blew my boyfriend away who wasn’t expecting such a meal.

It was my first time making all parts of this dish. The bell peppers were difficult as I had to broil them and then remove the skins before I could blend them into the sauce. I also could not find red chili peppers at any store so I used habanero peppers which are insane. Otherwise all went well.

To make this meal low calorie, keep it vegan and use minimal rice and beans. Overall this meal is pretty good for you, besides the potatoes. But really, who wouldn't want the potatoes, so tasty it's insane.

I really like this meal but it took so much time, it will be a rare feat.

And here's a mountain of the rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes. I was pretty happy with this, considering I'd never done this before. My mom's are still much better.