Not-so-lazy-Sunday

It's been awhile since I had a completely free Sunday, with nothing to do, no shifts or sleeping after shifts... and I loved it! I thoroughly enjoyed doing stuff without actually having to do something. First I needed to do something about my home...it was in desperate need of some cleaning... but I actually enjoyed it while dancing to some music. I took a very long walk with my dog, did the laundry and all that other stuff I tend to do on Sundays when I have one...

But I also did some cooking. As a result of my enthusiastic-I-am-vegan-again-let's-buy-anything mood I had lots of fresh fruits and veggies that needed some attention.

Carrot cupcakes
First I baked some glutenfree-soyfree-vegan carrot cupcakes. I browsed some recipes on the internet but couldn't quite find what I needed so I decided to try and bake something of my own with some inspiration from different websites (sorry but I can't quote as I have no clue where I got it from, but try google and vegan carrot cupcake and you'll find some recipes). I used the following ingredients (measurements are an estimate, I didn't really measure anything):
1 cup of shredded carrots
1 cup of cranberries and goji berries (or you can use raisins or any other dried fruit)
1 cup of buckweith (don't know the English word...) flower
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of dates
100 gr walnuts
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of orange juice (freshly squeezed)
A bit of shredded coconut (you can omit that, I just had some leftovers)
1 cup of chopped walnuts (I pulsed them in my kitchen machine, not for too long, no walnut flower!)
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder
1 tablespoon of ahorn syrup

First I cooked the water with the chopped dates, cranberries and goji berries and the cinnamon and ginger. I let it simmer for a few minutes. Then I shredded the carrot and poured the warm mixture over the carrots and let it cool off.

I then mixed everything together with the walnuts added at the last moment. I baked them at 190 C for about 40 minutes (a bit too long). I tasted them and they are a bit dense but taste GREAT :). As you may have noticed, there is little fat and no sugar added, only natural sources of sweetness and deliciousness.... The recipe yielded 9 cupcakes, enough for a week (or maybe less....)

Pumpkin and sweet potato chips
For lunch I ate some pumpkin and sweet potato chips, yummmmmmy! I had read about these chips before but never made them. As I had some of both the pumpkin and the sweet potato but didn't want to use them all for the curry I'd make later, I decided to have some for lunch with a sauce of vegan mayonnaise and mustard. I'll definitely make these more often! The only mistake is that I used too much oil for them, so they were a little soggy. I drained (yuk...) them and let them bake a bit more (oven about 200 C, I had them in there for about 30 minutes). Good to know for next time!

Vegan Pumpkin Curry

Last time I was vegan I made a lot of curries. As I had so many vegetables I decided to make one again, and a lot of it so I can put some in the freezer for shifts etc. I baked some onions with ginger and garlic in some coconut oil and then cooked the vegetables (cauliflower, pumpkin, sweet potato, green and red bell peppers, spinach and carrots) in coconut milk. I added some spices and other stuff: orange juice, cinnamon, tahin, tamari, rice vinegar, salt, curry, kurkuma, and pepper. I also added half a package of quinoa for some good amino acids. I think I had too much tasting and smells from cooking as I had a very small bowl for dinner and was super stuffed afterwards. 

Well that was my sunday... time flies by unfortunately. Have a good (vegan) week!

Loving the animals & Zucchini pasta

Well, I picked up my dog yesterday (part-time dog as I share him with my ex), and I always feel much better when he's around. As I was cuddling my dog and meanwhile looking at facebook messages I came across the following picture:

Well that's some common logic! I looooove the picture as it exactly states how I feel these days about animals! There is no good reason to slaughter these lovely animals, we don't need them to survive and we surely don't need them to have a healthy and lovely meal.

Today I ate:
Breakfast: Smoothie (almond milk, raw cacao, maca powder, bee pollen, hemp seeds, banana)
Lunch: none actually, not so good
Dinner: Zucchini pasta with bolognese sauce (onions, garlic, basil, mushrooms, grilled paprikasauce and sun-dried pesto (self-made) with a splash of bio-red-wine, topped with some nutritional yeast  (which is actually better as parmesan!). Adapted recipe from the vegan for fit book.
Snack: Vegetarian sausages with bread, pickles, ketchup and fried onions

I bought this funny little kitchen helper (only 6 euros) that makes zucchini into spaghetti easily. It's nice without all the extra carbohydrates and it's a nice way to get some easy raw veggies! And it tasted yummy!

I went to the birthday party and my friends were so lovely as to buy me some vegetarian sausages instead of the regular ones. There was some milk-traces in them but the gesture was so nice and so were the sausages ;). I didn't tell them yet from my change to a vegan diet, and I don't care when I eat something once in a while which isn't 100% vegan.

Today I drank a few glasses of coke. This Dutch store the Albert Heijn, sells coke with stevia instead of sugar or some carcinogenic aspartam. I love coke, it's one of my weaknesses. After I get back from my course next week (more on that later) I want to follow the 30 day vegan for fit challenge. It's a nice transition period at the moment, eating vegan but not a 100% healthy. Of course I'll post updates about that later!

Have a nice Sunday and think about some lovely animals, vegan hugs!