My love for cookbooks

I have a confession to make: I love cookbooks. After eating mostly vegan, the number of books that catch my eye has reduced a little bit, the ordinary Family-Cooking-thing is not the kind of cookbook that I really want to flip through.
But have you noticed the growing number of VEGAN cookbooks? I could visit the bookstore every week and still find a new book! How many recipes can someone write about kale and green smoothies?
Sometimes, I think I need a new book because I like the cover or I just love the author. (I absolutely adore Isa Chandra Moskowitz for her funny writing and -well- because she is about my age).

My latest finds from the bookstore

 
But sometimes, my expectations go beyond that. Sometimes I see a book and think "Yes, this is just what I need, this will change the way I cook and will make life waayyy easier!"
Yes, I believe that books can change your live, even cookbooks. *blush*

This is the reason why I bought: "Das vegane Familienkochbuch" ("Vegan Family Cookbook") by author Jasmin Hekmati.I was fed up a little bit by vegan books like those written by German Vegan "Guru" Attila Hiltmann. There are lots of books on the market for Singles with high income and lots of time for sports, books with unsual ingredients andrecipes that you better not serve to a teenager.

"Das vegane Fai´milienkochbuch" provides recipes that are basic, easy to recreate in my kitchen and they are kid-friendly. It contains a chapter about eating healthy as a vegan, with an easy-to-follow guideline on how much protein, carbs and fruits and veggies you should eat in one day. My son has decided to go vegan three weeks ago and as a mom I am concerned that maybe he could get a deficit in calcium or protein, so I need some guideline. No, he does not like veggies. He is fourteen.
I am looking forward to try some recipes from this new kitchen helper, especially those little almond-tartes and some of the spreads the author is offering. Do you have a favourite family-friendly cookbook? I am thankful for every suggestion...

Some thoughts on being organised...

This is what it looks like when I try to get organised... I desperately need to find a better system!
Don't get me wrong, I love planning, making lists, routines, that drew me to the Flylady system, her concept responds with me so much.
But my biggest mistake might be: I do not take the time to plan.
I do my menu planning half an hour before I want to go shopping. I have a strong tendency to write birthday cards and forget to put them in the mail (!), I have birthday cards but no stamps. I pay bills in the last moment because I am the biggest procrastinator ever. A colleague once commented on my great just-in-time-management skills. Yeah, maybe I have them, but this is so exhausting! I am always trying to catch up on things.

And I really want to be organised, I always wanted to be. I have read so many books about decluttering, time management and cleaning:

 

Yes, I have read them all... I especially love the book on the right side, its name is "Praktisches Rezeptbuch" or "Handy Recipebook" and it is from the 1930... Of course it has recipes, but there is also a large chapter about general organisation in a household, how to do the washing (without machine...), how to mend clothes, how to do a spring cleaning. This book alerady has some Flylady rules in it, believe me. Things like evening routine, planning out your day, take care of yourself, they are given as rules for the "modern" housewive.

My favourite chapter is maybe the one about the "Tag der kleinen Dinge", the Day for The Little Things. 

You set aside a special day, maybe once in a month and do things like: Replace buttons on laundry. Hang up a picture. Change the covers of the sofa cushions. Simply do some things that get neglected during the everyday rush.

So, one of my resolutions for August and the summer holidays will be: Make a date with myself, sit down and take the time to plan. Keep and USE my calendar (actually, I have two...) and do menu planning in time.

I hope this will help. I definitely need to feel on top of things, everything else is driving me crazy.

How do you stay on top of things? Any useful tips or ideas are welcome...

 

A vegan Monday

So...Monday started way to early, on sunday, we had a late eid celebration over here with couscous and family, so everyone was quite sleepy the next morning.
I was ready to start again with my "Be a good Vegan"-Project, here is my breakfast:

     

 Some tomatoe and avocado, green tea, orange juice, sugar beet molasses, a roll with herbed vegan spread.This was quite satisfying, so at noon I simply had an apple. A very lovely apple, crisp and fresh:

Of course, I was hungry an hour later. I was not quite prepared for starting all over with that vegan thing, so I stared into the fridge for about five minutes, wondering what to eat...
This is what I came up with:

Bread with avocado, tomatoe and some salad, fresh from the balcony. Some black olives and turkish pickles on the side. Delish.
Dinner was easy: Pasta! During Ramadan, we do not eat any pasta, imagine that! So today it was the time to cook up a big pot of Fusilli. I made a creamy bechamel-style sauce with garlic and some broccoli. Yummy!!

What are you planning to cook this week?

Eid Mubarak 2015 / 1436

Our iftar table, featuring the pot of shorba, a soup that is eaten everyday during Ramadan. Yes, every day...

Selection of sides for the iftar dinner. Salad, avocado, hot pepper salad and beet salad.

Breakfast today. Beghrir, North African pancakes with honey butter and oj. In the background inspiration for the vegan start-over on Monday

Today, everone in the Muslim world is celebrating the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. We started celebrating yesterday, like most countries, today Morocco and some other joined us, so:
Happy Eid, everybody!

To be honest, i am not the biggest fan of staying away from food and water during the long, hot summer months. It is so exhausting not to eat and drink (and sleep during the night) while you try to maintain your usual lifestyle of going to work or school and -well- simply getting things done. Impossible in Ramadan!
What I love about this month, though, is this feeling of starting all over, once the celebrations of Eid begin. It is like the beginning of a new year.Today, I am full of new ideas, dreams and motivation to tackle some problem areas in my life.

I have jotted down some ideas:

•  Go strictly vegan from Monday on
•  Lay out several healthy sides with our dinners like I did during Ramadan. This was well appreciated by everyone in the family. ( Example in the second picture)
• Drink more water. Will give infused water a try...
• Develop a new skincare routine. One morning I looked in the mirror and looked really old. I am now in my forties and need to takebetter care of my skin.
• Eat a big salad everyday. Should be no problem during the summer months.
• Find a cleaning routinge that works for me. This one has been driving me nuts since the day I got married!

I am looking forward to a shopping trip on Monday, need to stock up on some vegan basics.
Have a lovely weekend, folks!

Changes...

So many things have changed during the last few months, I am still trying to cope with everything.
The maybe most important thing is that I will be unemployed, come April. I have worked with the same company for roughly 24 years, that is more than half of my life, so this will be a BIG change.
At the moment I am already at home, which is sometimes fun and sometimes a real challenge.
I always wanted to be a stay-at-home-Mom, waving my son and hubby goodbye in the morning as they leave for work and school, and wait with milk and cookies when they return in the afternoon.
In between, there would be enough time to do the washing, clean the house, cook healthy food and sometimes sit down with a cup of tea and a good book. Oh, how I envyed those women who were able to live like his.
So, now I am one of those women. During the first three weeks at home, I felt like I lived in a vacuum, there was so much time, but still, I had no energy to move at all. I realized I had to create a new routine, a stay-at-home-routine. Gosh!
During the last two weeks, I found a new routine that works quite well, still it has to be tweeked here and there. I found the time to do a bit of the much neglected housework everyday, declutter one room at a time and there is also time to look for a new job. For financial reasons I have to get back to work, hopefully I will be able to find a new job soon.
Another change in my life is that I finally decided to go vegan. Again. But this time, I think it works much better. I still cook "normal" food for the rest of the family, with a vegan twist. I have exchanged their butter with vegan butter and cream with soy or oat cream. No one noticed. (They do not touch the vegan cheese, though...)They still think they would be starving without eting meat, but it's okay with me, I just have some tofu instead. Of course there are days when cooking two different meals is driving me crazy, but I am getting better and better with it. Having a menu is a great help!
I found that planing is soo important, even -or even more- when you are staying at home. It gives my day some much needed structure, and, so important, I can enjoy the afternoon with my family. This is so new to me. Maybe this year I will be able to enjoy spring a bit more!
Next point on my To-Do-List: Create a capsule wardrobe. I have been wearing jeans and sweaters for work for ages, I desperately need some new clothes. Still trying to find out which style would suite me best... Any tips on this subject??

A real challenge... (Vegan MoFo #6)

Last week I had to attend a funeral. After having lived  a wonderful life my uncle had died at the age of 84. Traditionally, after the funeral itself, family and friends of the diceased perosn go to a restaurant and have coffee or a little snack.
Having just returned to vegansim, I didn't want to deal with asking my aunt for vegan food after the funeral, so I packed some nuts and muffins, just in case...
Well, we went to  nice little garden restaurant close to the graveyard and they served drinks and ... my vegan non-helal nightmare: Flammkuchen!
If you are not familiar with it: Flammkuchen is some kind of "French pizza", Dough, mostly yeast, is rolled out very thinly, spread with sour cream, then topped with onions and bacon. In the oven it gets very crispy and yummy. We were able to get a vegetarian variety for hubby and son (we do not eat any pork), but this vegetarian Flammkuchen was made with rucola and parmesan on top. It looked so good andsmelled heavenly, but I decided to stay with my nuts and muffin.
Today, I made a vegan Flammkuchen and it came out quite nice. Will try with rucola next time!

Flammkuchen, ready to go in the oven!

Here's some kind of recipe:
Prepare dough like you would for pizza, roll ou very, very thin.
Then mix about a cup of dairy-free cream (our sour cream, if available) with salt, pepper and a bit of broth powder and garlic powder, you want it to be really spicy!)
Slice two onions and sautee them in a little bit of water for some minutes. Finely dice some smoked tofu and fry it in a little oil.
Spread the sour cream on top of the dough, top with onions and tofu.
Place in the hot oven, lowest rack and bake for about fifteen minutes at 220 Celcius or 450 Fahrenheit till crispy and slightly browned on the edges. Grind some pepper on top and enjoy!

I wish you could smell that, soooo yummy!

Autumn Comfort Food (VeganMoFo #5)

Manage to save three dumplings from my husband!!

Autumn is just around the corner here in Germany, with rainy weather and colder temperatures. Time to revamp our weekly menu, ditch the salads and turn to soups and stews instead.
When rummaging through my pantry I found some soy chunks, so I decided to make vegan goulash. I have been wanting to make this for ages, but never found the time.
I have always loved a hearty goulash with potatoe dumplings (Knoedel) or noodles, but never cared much for the meat, the best was the sauce, with lots of onions and red pepper.
I had no real idea how to veganise this, but decided to give it a go.
I used soy chunks I bought online a while ago from Vegan Wonderland.  Due to some sad circumstances, this shop no longer exists, any suggestions for a good online shop?

Soy chunks, ready to be turned into goulash

I rehydred the chunk in some salty broth, chopped up some onions and garlic and proceeded like I would have with a "real" goulash:
Sautee the onions in some oil, add the paprika (2 Tbs) when the onions are translucent together with the garlic, then add the soy chunks and brown them in the oil.
When the soy chunks are nicely browned, add about two cups of broth, 2 bayleaves, salt, pepper and let it simmer for about 40 minutes. Then I added about 2 Tbs of soy sauce and checked for some more salt. I was pleasantly surprised, the taste was very close to the orignal. Ready to serve, with some dumplings. Dinner made me very happy that night!!