Vegan New Years Feast: Recipe Suggestions

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm trying to go sugar free in January. It's tough! Another goal I have for 2015 is to eat more vegan - I'm a vegetarian but I'm hoping to reduce my carbon footprint further by eating less eggs and dairy. And I got off to a great start on New Years eve with a delicious vegan New Years dinner! 

Keith and I spent a pretty quiet New Years with his parents and sister. With me being a vegetarian and my sis-in-law being allergic to both gluten and dairy, the New Year's dinner proved a bit of a challenge. In the end we went with three recipes from the fantastic vegan food blogger Oh she glows. And since it was such a hit, I thought I'd share the menu with you!

My apologies for the bad flash photo, I didn't think to document the process so all I had was my phone camera. But you'll find much more appetizing photos on the Oh She Glows blog anyway - I definitely recommend checking it out!

- Glazed Lentil Walnut Apple loaf. Though a bit labor intensive, this loaf was a big hit. I love bean/lentil loaves, they're so hearty and filling. The tasty glaze made this loaf feel a bit more festive, and I loved the addition of the apple and celery.

- Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Avocado Garlic Aioli. This was my sis-in-law's favorite recipe of the bunch - the potatoes were the perfect amount of crispy and the avocado aioli was fantastic. We did "cheat" a bit here as we didn't manage to find vegan mayo at my in-laws' local grocery store, but next time I make these I fully intend to use vegan mayo (I have used this brand before with great results).

- Nut Butter Crusted Parsnip Fries. Since Keith is not a fan of potatoes, we made these parsnip fries as an alternative side dish. They were fantastic, and far healthier than regular fries since they were baked rather than deep fried. I've already bought another bag of parsnips to make them again!

- Vegan Chocolate Mousse Without Added Sugar. This is a recipe from another (now dormant) blog called Vegan Magic. I was very excited to find a creamy vegan mousse recipe without added sugar. It may be because we were already so full from the main course, but we found the chocolate mousse almost TOO rich - next time I will try adding a bit more liquid coconut milk to dilute it a bit.

With fantastic recipes like these, there's no need to miss dairy. I'll keep you posted as I venture further into the world of vegan cuisine!

Spring is almost here!

We've had a couple of lovely days here in Gothenburg, the snow is melting and the sun is shining. I'm so ready for spring to come!


I've been crazy busy with my thesis, so there hasn't really been much crafting for the last couple of weeks... But here's a couple of completed pages. I'm a bit late with my March page for the calendar challenge, but here it is finally!


A little bit of spring decoration... The two little cupcakes are handmade by me, finally got them painted a few weeks ago... And don't you just love the table runner? It was made by my mom when she was a kid, circa 1965! Still looks good as new, and I love it so!


Please forgive the goofy expression and my hunchback pose! :-D My dear friend Johan had his 30th birthday this weekend, and Keith and I offered to help with the food prep. This is a traditional Swedish Smörgåstårta (literally translates as "sandwich cake"). An odd dish if you ask me, but Johan loves them so there you go... If anyone's curious, here's a link with some info about this Swedish curiosity... Hope you're all having a great week!

Learning a new craft - bento boxes!

Remember I told you about having a new food-related obsession? Yes, I've started to make bento lunches! These japanese lunchboxes are a blast to make and eat, and help a lot with portion control - but though they look tiny, they really do hold a lot!

Many bento makers spend a lot of time making beautiful, cute and elaborate bentos. Take a look at this or this bento to see what I mean! But I am still a beginner, so I'm focusing on making my bentos healthy and filling rather than pretty. Cookie cutters are a great way to make simple bentos look more fun though - like the heart and star sandwiches in the box above! :-)

My sister got me this blue box and two others when she visited London a few months ago - unfortunately, bento boxes are really hard to find in Sweden. Thanks, sis! Having a nice box makes bringing leftovers to work a lot more fun. The above bento is just a mix of what I happened to have in the fridge that day - and it still manages to look somewhat appetizing!

If you want to learn more about bento making, I warmy recomment the blog Lunch in a Box, it's got all the information you could possibly need and more! I'm hoping to improve my bento making skills this summer, so there will be more bento related posts to come!

Back from my vacation

I had a great week visiting my parents and my sister, and of course my little niece. Stella is completely adorable! My father, Keith and I were the first to visit her, just four days after she was born. I thought I'd share a photo of her wearing the little booties I made!

Most of my vacation week was spent at my mom's house, relaxing, enjoying the countryside and of course, crafting! I spent an entire day helping my mom organize her fabric stash. It was a lot of fun sorting through all that fabric. We found lining fabric from a jacket my mom made for me when I was a child, left over corduroy from an awful pair of trousers I made in high school, and scraps from all sorts of other projects. We are both very proud of the result - what do you think?

We also arrived at the house at the perfect time for berry picking, so we spent a lot of time picking raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and gooseberries. My mother and her husband-to-be have the most amazing wild raspberry plants in their garden, they pick like a kilo every day and there are still berries left! So of course Keith and I couldn't pass up the chance to take home some amazing home made jam and juice!

The picture shows all the berry goodness we brought home with us: raspberry jam, raspberry and blackcurrant jam, raspberry juice, rhubarb syrup and fresh redcurrants. Are you jealous yet?

I'll leave you with a shot of some of the lovely flowers in mom's garden. Pretty, aren't they?

Fresh fruit

Whew, it's hot! I've been enjoying our great weather by visiting two awesome organic and natural food stores (FRAM and ekostore, pay a visit next time you're in the area!) and buying lots of tasty and healthy food. My favorite cookbook of all time is Dr Gillian McKeith's You Are What You Eat Cookbook - I read it whenever I need inspiration. And since Dr Gillian goes on and on about how important it is to buy organic, I thought I'd follow her advice. Shopping at organic food stores is so much nicer than rushing around the supermarket anyway! These pictures show some of my purchases; lots of fruit and veg and some really nice extra dark cocoa powder.

Keith has been feeling a bit under the weather the past couple of days, so to cheer him up I thought I'd use some of the lovely fruit to make pie! I made six sorts of crumble, mixing rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and apples. I used mini baking pans - the perfect size for two! Here they are before I added the crumble...

...and here they are all done!

We had the rhubarb and strawberry one for dessert today, and it was really tasty. Yum!