Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Exploring Prague's Vegetarian restaurants.


Before I went to Prague I checked out if there was any vegetarian restaurants. I found several of them.
I only made it to 2 while there though. We wasted one night searching for one place. The roads over there go in all directions and maps are hard to read.

The first one we went to was a place called Maitrea. It was on a side street but right off the old town square, the busiest area.
We were brought downstairs where the main part of the restaurant was. It was really relaxing and cozy.
The menu was sooo delish. So many things to choose from. But of course I had zeroooo appetite that night.
I went with the Quesadilla with tomatoes, fresh spinach, olives and feta cheese, guacamole, tomato salsa and sour cream.

And my Mom got Red bean chili baked with cheddar in a flour tortilla, rice, tomato salsa, sour cream and fresh coriander

we got a salad to share as well. We didn't need it in the end because our dinners were huge and so was the salad.
Chief salad - Green leafy salad with pan-fried baked potatoes and red onions, spring vegetables, roasted garlic, Madeland cheese, croutons and yoghurt dressing



Another place we ate was 'Country Living' a vegan buffet style restaurant and health food store. I wasn't as into this one.






We ate in the court yard
I ate this. I can't even remember what it was. Some tofu stuff and some tempeh stuff. The tempeh was pretty shitty and I wasn't into it.
And some salad!

I bought some vegan raw chocolate in the shop. It tasted alright, I still ate the whole bar on a boat ride after!

I have become so lazy when it comes to blogging. I need to be a good mood to do this. I could write loads more but EFFORT.
For the other times we ate, it was pizza and pasta and lots of ice cream.
There was a little market we came across and they sold loads of punnets of fruit. It all looked so nice!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Select Stores Health Food Store- Dalkey



I am way to lazy right now to write long stuff.
Select Stores is a health food store in Dalkey. They also serve food and smoothies! They do mostly vegi food. They do falafels, sandwiches, salads, soups and have a lot of baked stuff.



Window seat with a view!






http://selectstores.ie/


Blackberry picking/Apple and Blackberry crumble pie


All the blackberries have nearly ripened and there is plenty growing in my area. You find them growing everywhere.
Mulins Hill, where I walk the dogs a fair bit had loads growing. I was always walking by them on walks so decided to go up and pick some!
So Jesse and I went up and went Blackberry picking, as you do!
I love Mulins so much. When I'm up there I feel as if I am somewhere no where near home. They're are great views from it too.
Success!

I decided to make a Apple and Blackberry crumble pie. I made shortcrust pastry myself. I had never done it before and it turned out real well.
I also made crumble and my god it was my favorite bit. It had porridge oats in it so it was really crunchy! Also and lots of cinnamon! Yum yum yum. Will be making again.
I thinly slices cooking apples and layered them up with sugar and blackberries in between the layers.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Cornucopia cookbook adventures, Family Dinners, More cupcakes and a lot of fruit.


I decided to give one of the recipes a go from the Cornucopia cook book I have. I went with the ' Sweet potato, Broccoli and Lentil Sambar'. I had no idea and still no idea what a sambar even is but it looked nice in the picture. Some sort of a curry anyway, I think :/.

The recipes in the book are written in paragraph from. I find this pretty confusing and hard to follow so I wrote it out in a simple form. Step by step :).
I also decided to be extremely organised, so I did all my chopping before hand and sorted it into bowls.
There's onions, Carrots, Sweet potato, Red lentils, Tinned tomatoes, Broccoli, Cumin, Coriander, Ginger and other spices. I didn't have enough Sweet potato so I added some Butter nut squash. Some Peppers too.

So all this into this. Doesn't really look very appetizing.
I served it up with some short grain brown rice. I had first tried Short grain brown nice in Fresh. I had asked the chef what it was. I found some in Holland and Barret. It's yummm!
Verdict. It tasted pretty Bland. The recipe didn't have enough spices for the amount of water that is to the added. It would have really watered the spices down. So I added a bit more of everything until it had more flavour.
I would love to be great making curries. Always the same problem, not enough flavour.


Last night before I was going to Katie's house to commence on the weekly X factor sessions, I made Muffins. I also used a cornucopia recipe. Last winter most Saturdays, a load of us would go to Katies' to watch the X factor and I would always bake! So I made muffins with raspberries.
Over all I liked the recipe. Real simple and the muffins came out lovely and huge. I love huge muffins.

Last week my Mum was going to a Birthday dinner party for one of her friends. I always ask her to say she will bring dessert so I can make it!
We were thinking of what cake I could make when she thought I should make a big cupcake stand. Something different. So I did so. I made the usual Raspberry cupcakes. They turned out well! I also made a few chocolate ones.




So the cake. I decided to be summery and make a double layer victoria sponge cake with summer fruits. In the middle there is whipped cream, raspberries and raspberry jam. On top- Butter cream icing, Strawberries, Raspberries and Black berries.
My decoration was influenced by this photo.


But didn't go as smoothly as I hoped it would :/
The whipped cream in the middle of my one started to melt everywhere. The strawberries on top started to slide off. So It looked a bit of a mess and not as nice as I imagined it to be. But I learned that wet fruit and icing do not mix well!
This is just before the sliding began.


And I made Bean Burgers. I love these so much. So easy to make. They are vegan too unless you add honey to them like I do. They don't hold together very well so I might add a egg to them next time. A few posts below show you how to make these. Seriously try! Easy, quick and delish.
This is the mixture before I mould them into burgers.

And after! Gotta keep watching them because they burn real easy if you don't keep an eye on them.

My dinner.



After Dinner. I thought it looked rather nice.