Oat May 4, 2009
Posted by tuimeltje in administrative, breakfast, food, travel.Tags: grain-base, strange and unusual foods, vegetable
2 comments
Before I went ahead and spent two months living somewhere not my flat most of the time, I wondered about what facilities would be available to me there and how easy it would be for me to cook and store anything decent. It all turned out very well, both the available facilities (the freezer has some door-issues, but is still usable) and the totally cool and considerate omnis, but before I was able to find this out I figured I might as well go prepared.
Make sure I at least had a decent start to my days.
Some time ago Dino had an episode of his podcast in which he shared some ideas on how to have easy meals when traveling. Apart from saying things that made me want a rice cooker like crazy, he talked about little bags or containers or whatever you have containing quick-cook oatmeal with little additions that would become a decent breakfast or snack after adding some hot water.
I first went with this idea some time ago, when we went to Germany with the band again (and again I didn’t come across any falafel places. Saw lots of snow, though, which more than made up for it), mostly trying it to have something decently filling in case the catered foods weren’t too vegan.
Something where I could just add hot water.
I didn’t have much hope for a decent taste, but I could live with that provided it filed up my belly nicely.
Turns out my combination of things to mix in with the oats gave me something that was actually quite tasty, even with just hot water added, so I thought that might be a nice thing to bring along now.
Hot water tends to be easy to come by.
The things I used for this easy breakfast mix:
-Oats. The quick-cook sort that only requires a minute or so of boiling/microwaving.
-Dried things. Raisins, goji berries, dried red date bits I got at an Asian supermarket.
-Crunchy things. Mixed nuts, sunflower seeds, some more things from an Asian supermarket, like foxnuts, lily seeds(? something lily-like, anyway), and thin little almonds.
-Powdery things. Cocoa, cinnamon.
Basically what you do is put the desired amounts of each thing in a container with a good lid, shake it around for a bit to mix it up properly, and take it with you when you think it might come in handy. You can play with the additions for a bit, see what you like and what you can find.
I used a 1.2L flat Curver container which got me through the first two weeks with a few breakfasts left.
As for final preparations, in Germany I put a little bit in a plastic tumbler with a decent seal, shook it a bit (decent seal, yeah? Important), let it soak for a few minutes, and ate it.
Around here I just put some in a bowl, added some boiled water, and it stand for a bit while I took a shower before eating it.
Not only properly filling, but quite tasty too. Yay.
It’s likely to become a standard food to bring along to places where getting a decent vegan meal might not be that easy. I always used to take along some handy packets of salt, pepper, and ketchup, maybe some insta-soup, but this will make a nice addition to my survival kit.
As a bonus, a picture of a bell pepper I found in the supermarket recently. I didn’t intend to buy any, but I couldn’t resist this one. One side solid green, the other side wholly red.
It made me happy.
Not the same kind of happy as a humourously-shaped carrot would, but that’s fine. Happy’s good.
Some administrative things. Soon I will shut down the fandom veganism blog. I don’t have the time to properly maintain it, so I’ll just move the two posts here and see where it goes. I still very much like the idea of a blog like that, though. If someone else is setting one up and wants contributions I might just add my bit, but for now any fannish veganism will be posted here.
Linked August 5, 2008
Posted by tuimeltje in breakfast, food.Tags: fruit, project, randomness
9 comments
I’m rock! Apparently. Which is why Sinead thought I should have this:
Brillant, eh?
I think I’m supposed to pass it on, so here goes.
Janet, because she writes in an informative and very accessible way about Chinese (Cantonese) food which makes me want to try and make some of those things.
Tofufreak’s blog is making me want to do all kind of sweet things to beans, which makes me happy.
Bonnie and VeggieGirl because they make me want to bake things.
Renee, because she writes about gluten-free vegan things that are proper meals, not only the sweet treats.
To continue with the linkage, a most interesting list of red, white, or Swiss foods can be found here. While I enjoyed making and eating the müesli, it looks a little boring when compared to some of the things others made. There are some truly stunning things there.
Still, that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with müesli, does it? So I made it again. After all, I’ve had the oats for a while now and I’m still trying to do that pantry thing.
This time I used more oats and let them soak an entire night, which is supposed to be a good thing. And because it was meant for breakfast and I’m always rather rushed and unable to properly prioritise in the morning, I subbed a banana for the grated apple. I also added some cranberries. I had planned to use some dried coconut, but I couldn’t find it. I’m sure I still have some somewhere, though. Weird.
Picture:
While the fruit added was nice, I think I used too much water for the soaking. While it looked good, it tasted a little too diluted. I almost added some sweetener to it. Next time I’ll either soak it in less water or soak it in part water/part soyamilk. Maybe that’ll taste better.
Swiss Food July 29, 2008
Posted by tuimeltje in breakfast, food.Tags: festive, randomness, swiss
4 comments
Because August 1st is a relevant day in the life of me and I wanted to live in Geneva after visiting it just once, I thought I’d play along with Zorra’s Swiss National Day event.
Either make something Swiss, or make something red and/or white.
My knowledge of Swiss foods doesn’t extend beyond rösti, müesli, cheese, chocolate, fondue, and some mysterious dish generally referred to as “raclette” which I suspect involves cheese, but that won’t stop me.
With the recent trip and the moving and me finding out about it relatively late, this is going to be something simple. Initially I wanted to make some rösti because I love that stuff and unlike the other Swiss foods I know about, it’s vegan by default. However, when looking for some instructions, I came across this lovely recipe video mentioning something about chilling the potatoes overnight being necessary. And with the deadline being today, well, that wouldn’t have worked.
It also taught me Dutch people tend to mispronounce rösti, even when they remember the ümlaut.
So I googled for a bit, working my way through a variety of NOT VEGAN meat-and-potato-and often-also-cheese dishes before realising I’d probably best stick to some traditional Birchermüesli. While I’ve spent a good many mornings breaking my fast with something the label insisted was, in fact, müesli, or at the very least muesli or even cruesli, I don’t recall ever eating anything like the original version.
So. No time like the present, eh? And what better occasion than Swiss celebration.
While there are many variations, I figured I’d best start with the basics, which also serves the purpose of this post best.
Some of the recipes I found specified that the apples should be the sour sort. While I like my apples, I’m not sure which ones are generally seen as sour, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the Granny Smith was on that list. I just got whatever organic local kind I could find at the supermarket, which ended up a good old-fashioned jonagold.
What I made:
How I made it:
-Soaked a tablespoon of oats in three tablespoons of water and a tablespoon of (bottled, not freshly squeezed) lemon juice.
-Let it stand for a while.
-Added a tablespoon of soyamilk.
-Cut a jonagold apple, with my Swiss Army knife of course, and shredded it over the oats.
-Mixed it all up.
-Ate it, enjoyed it.
I think I may have messed up with the quantities somewhere. I ended up with a little bit of oatmeal-like stuff and a lot of grated apple.
As for some more random Swiss-ness, mixing it up with some veg*an-ness, there’s this vegetarian restaurant, Hiltl, in Zürich, which is over a hundred years old. I want to visit it.
And to mix random Swiss-ness up with some lovely piping, something I loved before I even knew about veganism, I give you this, a video of an old Swiss bagpipe.
Falafel Again July 9, 2008
Posted by tuimeltje in breakfast, eating out, food, review.Tags: falafel
4 comments
Last week I took this little exam that I should’ve passed a few years back. This time, despite not actually having physically practiced some of the skills for at least a year, I passed. Go me! (And everyone else, since the other students taking the exam that day all passed as well)
I thought this called for a little celebration and I figured I might as well feel a little more festive about the Maoz falafel I’d promised myself after Bonnie mentioned something about aubergines.
So yesterday I figured I might as well go, since I had the day off and waiting any longer would make the exam results-link a bit fuzzy. Again this falafel ended up being effectively what I had for breakfast even though it was technically speaking early in the afternoon.
My Maoz aubergine with lots of stuff on:
It was very tasty. While the aubergine taste wasn’t very obvious, it was this slight difference, mixed with the falafel, that made the whole thing better. I’m very glad I learned about this option.
It’s been a while since I last visited De Falafel, so I’m not sure I can make a proper comparison but I’m going to try anyway.
-I think the price is about the same at both places. There might be some differences, but nothing huge.
-Both places have green olives as part of their salad bar. However, the Maoz ones still have the stones, which is a little inconvenient.
-The rest of the salad bars are quite similar, with similar veg and similar sauces, though there are some minor differences. I think De Falafel has sauerkraut and that yellow sauce, and Maoz has some salad that looks like it has mayo on it and an extra chili sauce on top of that other red, peppery-looking sauce.
-Maoz, however, has more variety. You can have your falafel with added hummus, aubergine, feta (not vegan, but still. It’s an option), and avocado, and you can have large and small Maoz. They also sell chips. The pictures suggested fresh juice was sold, but all I saw was your basic cooler with bottled crap. Apart from getting those things on their own, you can get one of their menus.
De Falafel is just falafel. You can buy some bottled drinks and choose between white pita or wholemeal pita, but that’s it.
-I think both have both while and wholemeal pitas available, though I didn’t know this about Maoz until the surly guy asked the customer after me what kind of pita he wanted. I’d have gone for wholemeal if I’d known…
-When I visited, both places were staffed by a slightly surly and not particularly inviting guy. I suspect the students work weekends and possibly some afternoons, because I know that, at De Falafel, at least, I’ve usually had generally friendly people serving. Next time I might try visiting during the weekend or something.
-Last time I visited De Falafel, things were a bit messy there.
-I have no clue about the labour practices and working conditions in either place, though I know Maoz is one of those franchise chains. As I’ve only seen one of De Falafel, I suspect that one isn’t. I’m not sure it makes much of a difference to me or the workers, though.
-I’m not entirely sure, but I think both places have their hours tied to shop hours so if you want falafel after 6-ish (9-ish on Fridays), you’ll probably have to go elsewhere.
-De Falafel has been too long ago to accurately compare flavour, so I can’t say too much about that.
At this point, I’ll probably divide my falafel-buying between the two, but if De Falafel continues to be somewhat messy or I find that Maoz is actually tastier, this may well change. At the moment the main things De Falafel has going for it is not looking like its part of a chain and my habit of walking in that direction, and I’m not actually sure those things are all that relevant.
Late Melon June 26, 2008
Posted by tuimeltje in breakfast.Tags: smoothie
2 comments
Late breakfast smoothie.
Today I thought I should really do something with that last part tasteless toad skin melon before it went bad. I’d already decided to make it into a smoothie so I could mix it with some more flavourful things.
Ingredients:
No soymilk added today. The melon is pretty watery so it just was’t required.
Result:
I’m not a big fan of cold smoothies. I sort knew this already I think, but somehow I didn’t really do anything with it. While freezing is a convenient way of storing bananas for a bit, I prefer to use room temperature ones for making my smoothies.
Next time I’ll let it warm up a bit if I need to use a frozen banana. Provided I remember, of course. It’d be easier for my immersion blender, too.
Apart from the coldness, it was pretty tasty and had a lovely colour. I think I even tasted a faint bit of melon, which was odd since the melon itself didn’t have much flavour on its own.
