Monthly Archives: March 2012

Forty days without meat (36 & 37), plus some crochet

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Let’s start with the crochet. I taught myself to crochet last summer. Before that the holding of yarn & hook and the movements never clicked. It might have helped that I also taught myself to knit holding the yarn on the left hand instead of on the right (although the latter is still my preferred method). Since today I didn’t have class (yay!) after studying some in the morning I decided to pay a visit to my dear Knit Flanders. I’ve missed them terribly! I finished the sleeve on my cardigan, but I couldn’t cast off because I forgot to bring a bigger needle (silly me). So I moved onto practicing some crochet. And the results are these:


My first flower motif. It doesn’t look too bad.

My first granny hexi. It was actually supposed to be a square (right on the picture) but I failed miserably at counting to four and ended doing six repeats… Oh well!

On to the menu:

Breakfast:

  • Orange juice
  • Musli with milk

Lunch:

  • Baguette with brie, tomato & rocket from Exki (36)
  • Sammiches with Delhaize veggie salads, cheese & nutella (37)

Dinner:

  • Salad :(ettuce, carrot, tomato, cucumber, mozzarella cheese, hardboiled egg, olives, yogurt dressing (36)
  • Whatever falls in the pot dinner: pasta, peas, mushrooms, tomato pieces, minced quorn, white wine, smoked paprika (37)

Snacks:

  • Banana
  • Drink yogurt
  • Cookie
  • Coffee
  • Iced tea
  • Piece of chocolate

Forty days without meat: 32

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Breakfast:

  • Orange juice
  • Musli with milk

Lunch:

  • Fresh baked bread with assorted cheeses & “mediterranean spread” (Delhaize)

Dinner:

  • Veggie bbq!

Snacks:

  • Coffee, tea
  • Drink yogurt
  • Cookie
  • Scone, jam & clotted cream (what can I say, we were at Huize Colette!)

Today we made our first every bbq. We have gone to a couple, but never lighted one ourselves. We had bought a portable one a couple years ago (pretty much like this one) and today was so nice outside that we finally decided to use it! We bought the stuff we still needed (lighting fluid, food, aluminium trays, we already had the bag of coconut bricks for a while) and did it.

Lighting the barbie was a new experience. We starting using way too little lighting gel. Which means it didn’t really get hot enough to get the coconut bricks red. And once we had added enough and let it burn, we didn’t wait long enough to put our stuff to cook. Next time we know that it needs half an hour instead of the ten mins the instruction leaflet says.

Onto the actual food. Big pieces of courgette and red bell pepper, whole white mushrooms & pieces of seitan. All marinated in 2tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp dry thyme, 1/2 tsp dry rosemary, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder for as long as the barbie takes to get hot at least. More is always better. Once the barbie is hot (coals are covered in white ash – wait for this, not like us that started cooking too early), put a disposable foil bbq tray on top and put your marinated food in one layer. Chances are you have to cook in several times. Anyway, cook for about 10 minutes, getting everything hot and golden, turning a couple of times at least. Serve with a nice boiled potato (forgot to put these on the barbie!) with a pat of butter.

And that’s how you make your first barbie, veggie, in a balcony, with a mini grill!

Forty days without meat: days 25 & 26

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Breakfast:

  • Orange juice
  • Musli with milk

Lunch:

  • Freshly baked bread & cheese (day 25)
  • Tofu loaf (day 26)

Dinner:

  • Wok with tofu (day 25)
  • Freshly baked bread & cheese (day 26)

Snacks:

  • Cookie
  • Ice cream

Bonus recipe:

Tofu loaf

 Ingredients:

  • 2 blocks tofu, mashed
  • 150 ml dry quinoa, cooked
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 250 gr mushrooms, chopped
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 100 ml broth
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • black pepper to taste

Make it:

  1. In a pan, heat oil. Saute garlic, onion & carrot until light golden, then add mushrooms and cook until halved in volume. Add herbs and cook a couple more minutes.
  2. In a big bowl, mix tofu, cooked quinoa & mushroom mix.
  3. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs, mix in soy sauce, worcestershire sauce & broth.
  4. Add egg mixture to tofu mixture. Stir to combine. Add pepper to taste.
  5. Place mixture in oven proof pan. Bake at 200°C for 45 mins. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

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