I’m so disorganized lately! I made food and took pictures, but didn’t get around to posting them. Oh well, here’s a big post with a bunch of stuff that I ate in the past (two?) weeks.
First up, salads.
On this plate: iceberg lettuce, red onion, tomato, kalamata olives, Vcon cashew ricotta and walnuts.
This one has cucumber, tomato, red bell pepper and olives with an olive oil and lemon juice dressing. So refreshing and full of flavour, I love eating this.
Moving on: cookies. Last weekend I had the annual ‘family weekend’ with my dad’s side of the family, where we all get together to do family stuff for a weekend. It was a lot of fun. We stayed in a village called Hapert near the Belgian border. I made some of Dreena Burton’s Home-style Chocolate Chip cookies to take with me, because those are so yummy. Some people tried them and said they liked them, too – yay!
For dinner on saturday (we had dinner at home on friday before we left and on sunday when we got back), my Mum and I made the mushroom/sundried tomato risotto from Vegan with a Vengeance, which was delicious as always:
While I was away, I happened to come across a store (‘Dille & Kamille’ in Turnhout) that sold (edible) dried lavender flowers, something I had been looking for around here but hadn’t been able to find. I bought a small package, but as you don’t need much of it in a recipe, I can make all kinds of things with them now! The first thing I tried:
They’re the Lemon Lavender Cookies from Celine’s blog here. They’re really sweet and special and, above all, delicious.
Look what I else I bought in that same city in a little second-hand store:
A strawberry-shaped teapot! I’d been looking for a teapot and now I found one that I like. I’m drinking so much tea this week because I love ittttt.
Umm, is that it? I think that’s it. Oh no, wait, I was tagged by Coppe about a week ago! To take part in this meme, I have to tell you five new things about myself. OK:
1. I’m a big procrastinator! This often leads to me sitting behind my computer working on school assignments in the middle of the night, the day before I’m supposed to turn them in, drinking a lot of rooibos tea and eating mandarin oranges (apparently I like this combination when I’m really tired?) with my headphones on, listening to music to keep me awake. I admit this isn’t the best way to handle things, but it seems to work for me. Well, not always. Most of the times.
2. I love watching foreign television channels. Since my parents switched to digital television, we have a lot more different channels and though I hardly watch television by myself, I occasionally enjoy watching the British, Spanish or Italian channels. I like the British shows about people looking to buy a house (somehow I hate the Dutch versions of these, but like these programs when they’re in English) and soaps on the Spanish channel. I don’t really understand what everyone’s saying on those (I sometimes catch a few words, like “But … you … now … children!”), but they’re kind of fun. Though unfortunately they’re far from vegan most of the times, I also like cooking shows in any language. It’s still cool to see Italian people sauté onions.
3. My hair is pretty long. People keep telling me it’s getting too long and that I should get it cut, but I don’t really want to. I like long hair. Maybe I’ll dye it. Hmm…
4. I suck at making decisions. Especially when it comes to choosing an education. When I was younger and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never knew what to answer. I still don’t! I hate this, but I guess I’ll just have to deal with it. Right now I feel like I’d really like to go study English, but I feel like I can never be sure. There are so many other cool things, too. Ugh. If anyone has any good advice on this, that’s actually very welcome.
And then I don’t know what city I’m going to, either. I mean, I like Leiden, but Nijmegen is nice as well, and so is Utrecht – and those are only the places I’ve visited! Then there are more places out there that I’ve never even been to, and those are probably awesome as well! GAH
Moving away from my rambling and on to something a bit more cheerful, point five:
5. One of the walls in my bedroom is orange and I love it. It makes me happy every time I look at it and it really makes me feel bad about ever moving out. I think I posted a picture of it on Flickr once, let me go and look for it…
Here’s one:
Pretty orange.
So, there you go! While doing this, I discovered it’s actually quite hard to think of interesting things about me. I guess I’m just that boring. OH WELL.
According to the rules, I have to tag five others now, but I think most people have already done this meme. It’s always interesting to learn more about fellow bloggers, though, so if you’d like to do this (again), I hereby declare you tagged. Oh, and Tuimeltje, I don’t think I’ve seen you do this yet, so I’m tagging you too. But you don’t have to if you don’t want to! But it would be interesting. Umm…
I promise to make my next post more cohesive. It will probably involve more baked goods, as there’s a high tea at my school next wednesday. I think I’m bringing cupcakes.
Oh, thanks to Coppe for tagging me!
One more thing: If you’re in Europe or are planning a trip to Europe and would like to find out more about vegetarian restaurants, hotels, pubs etc., check out this Flickr group! We now have lists for every country represented in the group, which makes it easier to find the place that you’re looking for.
Now… sleep.
Eating with the Rabbits 
Yum!! Sundried tomatoes in risotto sound so good. I just got 1 kg of them today… must try this!
I love that picture against the orange wall, it’s amazing! it was cool to learn new things about you too. :)
Thank you! it’s a very old picture, I should take another one sometime.
Yay, you’re back! I always LOVE reading your posts. They’re so much fun– just like you haha.
The strawberry teapot is too cute! We have three pitchers– in the form of an apple, an orange, and grapes– that would match that teapot perfectly. And speaking of too cute, I absolutely love that last picture of your room. Not only is the orange fun (and it makes ME smile too), but it’s so creative how you managed to get your shadow into the picture.
The food looks delicious as always, especially that risotto. I haven’t had risotto in tooooo long.
And of course I liked getting to know more about you through the survey-thing. Haha, I suck at making decisions too. That’s one of the great things about being vegan– there aren’t as many choices on restaurant menus, which means fewer decisions! (Except at vegan restaurants– then my head starts to spin!)
I love the orange wall, and your blog! I just discovered it- and I will be back!
I love your blog! Like super love and love that little teapot too. It’s so cute and chipper :)
I need to take a stab at making cashew ricotta! It looks amazing. I was always so intimidated by making my own Almond Milk, but after I did, it was SO EASY I felt like I should try more things :) (Though I confess, Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla is still my absolute fave)
Can I add you to my blogroll?!
Wow, what a cool picture of your orange wall, complete with your shadow. That’s photography skills, right there.
Hehe, the cookies are delectable-looking. Dreena is just the cookie master. And I haven’t tried any of Celine’s cookies yet, but I’m sure she is expert too because her photos always rock.
And this post makes me realize that I really want to try Cashew Ricotta (what a good way to make a salad exciting!) and I really need a teapot! I have all this tea I need to use! And we are procrastinator/indecisive twins. I also still change my mind about my education all the time – do I still want to go to the school I’m at? did I pick the right major? am I just in the wrong city? Sigh. Not being able to make decisions is very difficult… I’m glad we both agree on that.
Thank you for the compliments!!
@ ChocolateCoveredVegan: Ha, that’s a nice way to look at it. :D I still want to visit an all-vegan restaurant some day, though.
@ Julz: Thanks! Of course you can! I have never succesfully made my own almond milk, so I should try that once, too! It’s kind of hard to buy in stores where I live. I like the word “chipper”.
@ Ruby Red Vegan: Celine’s cookies rock as much as her photos do! The cashew ricotta is great, too, though it’s better when you don’t add too much salt like I accidentally did this time (I almost doubled it – oops!). I’m glad I’m not the only person who has trouble decididing!
salad, risotto, cookies, teapots – oh my!! :0D so much deliciousness (and gorgeousness, with the teapot – I collect them!!) in one post.
girl, you and I are quite alike – I’m a procrastinator, I suck at making decisions, I LOVE foreign movies/t.v.!! haha, love having things in common.
I have family-friends from the Netherlands, here in the US – I should send them back there to get you overseas!! haha.
I love those salads. They look wonderful. Lavender flowers sound worth trying. Dille & Kamille is a great place.
With regards to 4, I’m finishing up my English Bachelor’s in Utrecht and I would advise against it unless you really want to be a teacher, translator or work for a publishing firm (although I hear Nijmegen offers a pretty extensive American Studies programme as a part of the curriculum, so that’s an option too). I’m pretty happy with it, because I turned it into a linguistics/cognitive science study and managed to get into a prestigious (*smug*) research programme, but especially if you don’t know exactly what you want to do yet I wouldn’t recommend it. You don’t get taught much that you could use to change directions completely at a later stage.
If you really want to be able to change directions later, you’re better off studying something like management and organisation, political science, law, sociology or psychology. I know that the first three especially don’t sound all that exciting, but they give you more options later in life.
Your orange wall is pretty, btw.
@ Coppe: Thank you for the advice, it’s good to hear your opinion as you have experience with studying English yourself – the points you mention are definitely part of the reason why I’m uncertain about this.
You’re right, most of those studies don’t appeal to me very much, though do like sociology, but I’ll consider what you said. Thanks again :)
I do like my orange wall. And the lavender flowers! I need to make something else using them soon.
Your orange wall is so pretty! And that flickr group is so good, I’m from the UK originally and I’ve just found a couple of cafes that I wasn’t even aware of for when I go back, yay! =)