Abstinence

….from solids. No, I am not going on a juice fast, or Master Cleanse diet, on anything like that. I just can’t eat solids because I can’t chew. And my new dental braces are to blame for it. I went to the dentist two days ago, and now my mouth hurts so much that I have the feeling that my teeth are going to fall. I know that is temporary (it will always hurt so much the first three or four days after adjusting the braces), but it’s annoying anyway.

So, I have been surviving on smoothies (like the one of the photo on the top,  made of melon, cabbage, lettuce and nuts), juices (my father bought a liquidizer yesterday. It’s wonderful! I ate 5 apples, 3 plums and about 4 carrots without noticing it O.o) and oatmeal with lots of water.

I don’t have a recipe today because I have not cooked in two days. Maybe I will post about juices combinations or smoothies later =)

Today’s breakfast: chocolate smoothie. I realized that just putting chocolate into the blender doesn’t work because after blending for almost five minutes there are still pieces of it left. So I melted it with a little bit of soymilk. I also added lettuce and cabbage (a must in all my smoothies), walnuts, pineapple, some jam and more soymilk. Oneof the most annoying things of wearing braces is…no whole nuts! They can stick to the teeth =( I can’t eat either anything very hard, chewing gum and I must crumble everything in pieces.

Orange glazed plum cake

I feel guilty. If there is a word that can describe me, it is perfectionist. Not because I want to be the best in front of the others, but because I think I always must do my best for me, to feel well with myself. And these last days I have not been exactly working and doing by best. Actually, I have not done anything related to school in the whole week (and believe me, I have a lot to do).

Instead, I have been playing with my camera. As my parents must have suspected, I didn’t have enough with the camera alone, and I demanded too all kind of accessories. Of course, they didn’t buy me an objective for macro shots (which is understandable, because it costs more than 200€), but they agreed to buy a tripod, large cards of all colors (for backgrounds), including a couple of silver cards that I use as reflectors, and my father managed to repair a spotlight (with 500-watt lights!). So for the last three days I have been mainly shooting. Yeah, I am a spoilt child =P

But don’t worry; I have a recipe for you this time. After all, I need to cook if I want to shoot something interesting! I have discovered that reflectors really make all the difference. A softened light makes the food look much better (I did all the shots of the today’s orange glazed plum cake with reflectors and tripod). And you don’t need to waste money! You can use a silver card as I did (which by the way, cost only 0,50€), or paste some aluminum foil on the card and….volià!

I have lots of photos of Barcelona (again), but this time of Barcelona at night. We went to the theater (by the way, we loved the play. The actor did an awesome job playing six characters at the same time), and it finished at 10 PM it was already dark. I think next time I will take the tripod with me : )

Orange glazed plum cake From: own creation I baked this cake for my mother’s birthday (although we celebrated it a week later). If regarded as a birthday cake, is not a heavy one. There is no cream (even vegan) or chocolate involved, very common in party cakes. Nevertheless, it is not a very light cake either. The amount of margarine is considerable, as well as the amount of sugar of the icing. If you want a lighter cake, you can omit the icing, but it will lose that sweet touch that combine so well with the sharpness of the plums. You can also play with the amount of fat, trying to substitute it with apple sauce or why not, with homemade plum sauce. I have never seen it and I don’t know if it is available in stores, but I suppose it is possible to make. Just imagine they are apples….but be sure to pit them before ;)   ¼ cup soymilk + 1 Tbspoon sugar 25 g fresh yeast 200 g margarine, softened 150 g sugar 2 Tbspoon corn flour + 4 Tbspoon water Zest 1 lemon 175 g flour ¼ cup soymilk + about 4 teaspoons coffee ¼ cup pumpkin seeds (any other nuts can be used. Walnuts or almonds would work very well too) 5 dates, pitted and chopped 4-5 medium plums, pitted and thinly sliced 2 Tbspoon margarine, melted Orange icing -1 Tbspoon orange juice - 5 Tbspoon confectioner’s sugar + 2 extra Tbspoons -1 tspoon soymilk Heat the ¼ cup of soymilk. It must be warm, but not boiling. Dissolve the sugar and add the fresh yeast. Put it in a bowl, not in a cup, because it will rise a lot. Leave the yeast to stand for about 20 minutes. In another bowl, beat with a mixer the margarine and the sugar, until it becomes fluffy. Add the two tablespoons of corn flour plus the water, the zest and mix. Brew a strong coffee with the ¼ cup of soymilk, and add it (filtered,  of course) to the mixture. Add as well the flour and the yeast mixture. Mix it better with a spoon or a fork, not with a mixer (you could over mix it) Preheat the oven at 170º C (325º F).Leave the mixture to stand for about one hour, in a warm place (I always place the bowl with the dough on the stove, over the heated oven) Once it has risen, flatten the dough and add the nuts (pumpkin seeds in my case) and the dates (if you don’t have dates, try with dried apricots or cranberries). Mix again, and pour it in pan. I used a 22 cm (8 inch) round pie pan made of silicon. Although silicon pans don’t distribute the heat as traditional pans do (you can finish with a charred bottom and an unbaked top), they allow you to remove the cake from the mould without breaking it in two. Line the slices of plums over the cake, overlapping them. I did two rows: near the borders and in the center. Push them slightly into batter. Bake for about 35-40 minutes (depending of the pan you used). Before letting it cool, brush it with the melted margarine. Orange icing Mix all the ingredients except the extra confectioner’s sugar. It will make a quite light icing. Cover all the cake with it. If you want to go creative, leave a little bit of the light icing and mix with the extra two tablespoons of sugar to make a thicker one. I decorated the borders and the center with it.

The theatre was placed in the Raval, the most multicultural are of Barcelona. You can find people of all the nationalities there.

But Raval is one of the poorest areas too. It’s the Barcelona that is not shown in the touristic guides. If you are not used to it, it can be a little bit disturbing walking alone on its streets at night.  Actually, some people that was walking and appeared in my shots (although I was not shooting them, but the street) were upset, and one of them even showed me a very specific finger of the hand =O

The Rambla of Barcelona at almost 11 PM. It’s difficult to believe seeing all this people on the street, isn’t it?

On the top left corner, a view of Catalunya Square and the Corte Inglés which is placed there (El Corte Inglés is one of the biggest departament stores in all the country. Sometimes I go there for a walk, because it is enormous, but I hardly ever buy anything) . On the right corner, Paseo de Gracia and on the bottom the crossing at the beginning of the Rambla, next to Catalunya Square.

On the top, Catalunya Square again. Its fountain is more impressive at night, with all the light, than during the day. I did a shot of it when it was still sunny, but the photo was quite dull. On the bottom, Paseo de Gracia.

A green smoothie for chocoholics

Who said that green smoothies taste as greens? If you still think it, you should try this one. It’s a green smoothie…for the people who don’t like green smoothies ;)

 Before trying my first green smoothie, I was quite skeptical too. Lettuce? Cucumber?? Cabbage???? I must confess that at the beginning my smoothies really tasted like greens. In fact, they were inedible. I remember that I throw half of the second I did (a especially awful one), although I hate throwing food.

My mistake was adding too much greens, water instead of juice and no avocado or nuts for the moistness. I also discovered that reserving some of the fruit and nuts (and not blending it) adds much more texture. I like to find something I can bite in my smoothie. Another thing that can spoil you creation are too bitter greens. To avoid it, I don’t use the outer leafs and remove the stems. 

Using juice instead of water also makes a difference. If you don’t aim for a 100% raw smoothie, you can use any non dairy milk too (by the way, as you have already seen this not a 100% raw smoothie either. Does anybody know if raw chocolate exist?). Try with freshly squeezed orange, lemon or even grapefruit juice. Sometimes I throw some cereals on top, or pieces of crackers (have you tried a sweet smoothie with savory crackers? Delicious!) Although I have never tried it, I suspect that coconut milk will add a nice texture too. Frozen bananas are a staple for me when it’s about smoothies, but you can also try other frozen fruits.  In short, be creative!

Choco-green smoothie Although this can be a green smoothie for chocoholics, in my case I didn’t add too much chocolate. So if you are a real chocoholic, consider adding a little bit more. Or add too some cocoa powder, although I think that extra chocolate will give a better flavor. Mine was 85% cocoa, because I love dark chocolate (99% is something out of this world). I would like to try it too with vegan milk chocolate, but I can’t find it here =( **If you want a 100% raw smoothie, omit the chocolate 1 medium nectarine (reserve ¼) ½ Apple juice (any juice can be used instead) ¼ avocado 4 dates (reserve two of them) 4 leafs lettuce 4 leafs cabbage 1 cucumber 4 Tbspoon black currants (reserve 1 Tbspoon) A couple of squares of a chocolate bar (reserve one of them) 1 Tbspoon honey, agave nectar or any other sweetener of your choise (yeah, although I am vegan, I eat sometimes honey, because agave is impossible to find here : ( Also, it’s veeeery expensive) Water (as much as needed) For decoration (optional) A handful of nuts (I used pumpkin seeds) A few peanuts covered in chocolate Put in a high speed blender all the ingredients except the reserved ones. Do it slowly: I add first the juice and then some of the vegetables (if you don’t put any liquid, it will be almost impossible to blend) , like the cucumbers and lettuce, pulse, add more greens and fruits, pulse again, until you finish blending it all. Add as much water as needed. I don’t like my smoothies very liquid, because it would not hold the nuts and pieces of fruit on the top. Chop the reserved nectarine, dates, black currants, the chocolate and nuts and mix together. Pour the smoothie in a cup or bowl, and decorate with the mix. Finish with some peanuts covered in chocolate (you can use too any kind of chocolate covered nuts instead. Almonds are delicious, as well as covered raisins)

Yesterday I went to Barcelona, to Asian House (it has got the most comfortable library I have ever seen). I tried to do some photos of the city, but then I realized that I had 5 minutes to arrive to the train station. I did them in a hurry, and as you can imagine the results were not the best. Also, it was very sunny and I couldn’t see anything on the LCD screen, and therefore couldn’t adjust the exposition time =( Nevertheless, I decided to post them anyway. Enjoy the photos! (I was going to add the photos I did on the beach, but I thought that there were already too much. In the next post ;)

On the top left corner, La pedrera, by Antoni Gaudí. I visited a cuples of times the roof, but I don't have any photo =O On the right, Paseo de Gracia. Although it's impossible to see on the photo, on the corner of the street there is a shop of Burberry. Actually, Paseo de Gracia has become a showcase for the most expensive brands: Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Escada, Dolce Gabbana....

Asian House, inside view. There was too much people in the library, so I didn't dare to take a photo : ( On the right corner, at the bottom, a shot of a open air café in Paseo de Gracia (Passeig de Gracia in Catalan), the center of the city. A nice place to sit under its umbrellas and drink a cup of coffee, but not suitable for tight budgets: last Saturday I met there with the teacher who is helping me with my research project and she paid almost 8€ for two tiny cups of coffee and a croissant. I am sure that in other countries coffee (and other things) are more expensive, but this is really expensive for a country where about a 60% of the population earn 1.000 € a month (they are the so called "mileuristas", from "mil" (thousand) and euros). A cup of coffee doesn't cost less in Starbucks, but at least there you get a good, filling amount it =S

My foot and the skirt I bought on the sales =3

No, I won't never get tired of Starbuck's :) It's one of the best places to study for me. I am not joking! I work more and better in Starbucks than at home =S

Next stop: Moscow

Yes, I am going on holidays to Russia. I have already bought the plane tickets, and I will leave on 5th August. Direct flights cost a fortune, so I had to choose a flight with a stopover in Rome, Italy. But I don't mind, because I love the moment of the take-off and landing, and a stopover means more take-offs and landings. I don't know if I am going to be able to write during the holidays, so maybe there are not going to be posts until 26th August. Nevertheless, I am going to take the CD of the camera software and the cable with me. The software of my new camera. I am sooooo happy! We bought it yesterday, and I spend all the day jumping for joy. And the best of all, it's not another crappy point-and-shot, it's a DSLR: a Sony DSLR-A200. It was the cheapest DSLR we could find (370€), but I am happy anyway. After all, is better than any point-and-shot. I couldn't wait and did my first photos in the Starbucks where we drank a cup of coffee. Now, I have to learn how to use it!

I asked my father to take a shot of my hand, because I like how my blye nails look on the white paper cup. On the top, our two cups of coffee of the week (this week was from Tanzania), mine with soymilk....and lots of chocolate!

Me, near the center of Barcelona. Ahem...without make up ¬¬.

Fusion apricot cherry birthday cake

I have the feeling that I have been passed through a shredder. I thought that I least my legs would be able to take it. I go running many times a week, and I even can’t remember the last time my legs were stiff.  I was absolutely wrong. On Friday night I participated in a night volleyball tournament, from 8 PM to 3 AM. We didn’t win any prize, of course (the level was impressive), but  we won a dose of stiffness for the whole week instead. Because I can’t sleep after 6 AM (it’s an habit u_u) I only slept 2 hours. It would be not as important as all that if my friends didn’t have the brilliant idea of celebrating a party the next night. And if it was not enough, on Sunday my family and I had a very important meeting.  You should have seen me walking from the train station to the hotel where we had to meet. I was giving a grimace of pain on every step. I stopped in a café and drank a cup of very strong coffee (Blue Mountain, by the way) because it seems that the coffee I drank at home was not strong enough. Thank goodness I did it, or I would have felt asleep while talking

.

Parties can be quite challenging if you are a vegan, especially if you are just beginning or if you are meeting with people who is not close to you. Fortunately, almost all those present in the party where very close friends, so I didn’t feel embarrassed when I asked for some bread, tomatoes, lettuce and oil to make a sandwich because all the others were going to eat pizza.

Today’s recipe is one that I should have posted a long time ago, but I was always postponing it for one reason or another. It’s the cake I baked for my father’s birthday, the last 21th June, just imagine! I thought that I had to post it before my mother’s birthday, which on 19th  of this month, because another birthday cake will be required. Actually, I still want to post another cake recipe, this time from Vegan Yum Yum, so I think that I am beginning to accumulate too much cake recipes.

Fusion apricot cherry birthday cake It’s curious, but it seems like in Spain people prefer cakes made with cream or ice cream cake. In any case, I have the impression that people eat less baked cakes than in Russia. At least, in all the birthdays or celebration where I assisted, there was a non-baked cake, flourless, or just with a thin layer of biscuit and lots of cream. In Russia instead, baked cakes are more popular (although the ones made with cream are very common too). This is why I have never tried yet to do a “cream” cake or tart, although I have many recipes that use tofu or avocado instead: my family just prefers cakes made from flour. And my father’s birthday was not an exception because I didn’t want to risk. Maybe for my mother’s birthday. I am not sure if I can say that this cake is my own recipe, because actually is a fusion between many recipes. I didn’t want a plain sponge cake because I thought it was too easy and not spectacular enough for a birthday, so I baked my version of the quarkstollen I found in Delicious Days and cut it in two. Then, for the filling I used the same method as Susan in her strawberry snack cake and a peanut butter coating, with some cherries on the top to give it a birthday cake Dough 25g fresh yeast **instead of the 50g of the original recipe 1/8l lukewarm non dairy milk 125g sugar 500g flour 150g margarine zest of 1 lemon, and juice of ½ of it pinch of salt 200g tofu 50g dried apricots, diced 50g raisins 50g sunflower seeds Cherries Flax seeds (optional) Fruit filling More or less 1 kg of apricots, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup water Peanut butter icing 3 Tablespoons peanut butter 1 Tablespoon soymilk 3 Tablespoons confectionary sugar Preheat the oven to 175ºC (347 Fº). Meanwhile, begin by dissolving the fresh yeast with the 4 tbspoons of the warm milk (I used soy milk) and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Let it rise for 20 min. In a bowl, mix the flour, the sugar, the salt and the lemon zest. Add the margarine and the remaining milk. Instead of curd, I used tofu: mix the tofu with the lemon juice with a fork, or if you prefer it with a blender. Cook on a saucepan for 3-4 minutes. Add it to the flour and milk mix. After kneading it very well, let it rise in a warm place for 60 min. Knead it again, adding this time the sunflower seeds, raisins and apricots (feel free to experiment with other dried fruits or nuts) Put the dough in a round pan, add the cherries on the top, sprinkle with flax seeds and bake for 50 minutes (I baked it a little bit more than an hour, and I over baked it) Let it cool. Meanwhile, prepare the fruit filling and the icing. For the filling, mix the slices apricots (you can try with other fruits), the cornstarch, the sugar and water. Put it in a saucepan and cook for 10 minutes. For the peanut butter icing, just mix all the ingredients . Slice the cake in two halves, so you can spread the filling on one of them. Do it better when the filling is still hot, because it will give more moistness to the cake. When the cake is already cool, pour the icing over it. Serve with a good cup of tea =)

In case you have ever wondered how do Spanish trains look =P We were on the second floor. When we came to Spain, the two floor trains were one of the things that surprised me the most, because I have never seen that kind of trains in Russia (actually, I think they don't exist). Are there two floor trains were you live? Ah, and that is me with my parents, on the way to Barcelona. I really look as if I haven’t had any sleep. Actually, I have almost felt asleep in the train

An alternative to classic chickpea hummus: white beans with avocado

Have you ever wondered why does time pass faster when you don’t want it to pass fast? It’s already July, and I almost haven’t realized it. Thanks to everybody for you words after my disappointment with the job. I suppose you are right: I will find something better =)

There is a heat wave in Spain now. At this moment, I think that it would be colder in an oven than outside. I don’t know how does people survive in the Sahara, but I don’t envy them. My father has been struggling with the air conditioning, but it has been a waste of time: the temperature is still so high that we even had to put the chocolate in the fridge to prevent it from turning in an almost done hot chocolate.

My mother told me that I was born in 30’ minutes, and I think that such a fast birth affected me, my brain and my common sense, because today I went running at 5 p.m., during almost one hour, at 32ºC. Nevertheless, I have survived, and now I am sitting in front of the laptop, in the living room (I escaped from my tiny bedroom at its stifling atmosphere), next to the fan (it’s better than nothing, although I have the feeling that it only moves the hot air) and sweating buckets (after finishing the post I will dash off for a shower), but very happy.  Some people don’t understand why I love running, they say it’s a torture, but for me the endorphin injection after it worth all the effort. I also love the feeling of the blood moving through the veins and the heart bombing it. It makes me feel alive =)

Now, it’s enough of talking about running, and let’s talk about food. After all, we need food to run, to cycle, to walk your dog or even to move your fingers to type on the keyboard (in case is the only exercise  you do). The problem is that when it’s hotter than in the hell (I have never checked it personally, though, if you are wondering), the last thing you want to is to be near the stove. Actually, the last days I forgot about my morning oat porridge, and substituted it with cold granola (it was the first time I did it and I burned it) and green smoothies. But because I am not a raw vegan, although I tried to go high raw for a time, I can’t survive on smoothies, and my body also craves some protein.  The solution? Delicious, creamy, highly nutritious and the best of all, cold, hummus. You can even do it without turning on the stove, just opening a can….although with such a heat wave I think that it would be enough to make you sweat.

White bean avocado hummus This time I wanted to try an alternative to the classic chickpea hummus, and I chose white beans. Just plain they have a creamy texture, but to give them more creaminess I also added avocado, but left outside the tahini (mainly because I didn’t have any). Nevertheless, I thought that it needed some nutty touch, and I threw a little bit of peanut butter …and of course, olive oil for the fatty acids (and extra flavor).  I encourage you to try different versions, substituting the white beans with black beans, kidney beans, cannellini beans or why not, chickpeas. Serve with diced avocado on top. From: my own creation Ingredients: -1 cup of cooked white beans -1 ripe avocado -2 Tablespoons of peanut butter -2 Tablespoons of olive oil -Salt and pepper to taste -Water as much as needed If using uncooked beans, soak them overnight and cook during one hour or more. If not, just open the can ;) Put half of the beans in the food processor and add a little bit of water. Puree until smooth Add all the other ingredients slowly, adding as much water as needed during the process. Adjust the water to the desired consistency (I like my hummus on the fluid side)

Last Friday I had to do some passport photos because I didn't have any and I needed them for the school fees. I'm not photogenic at all, but it could have been worse.