Great sites and German pancakes

Let's first start off with the cool websites I wanted to share with you!

There's many, many more, of course, but since I've decided to get back into meal planning (slowly.. I'm not 100% there yet again... Babysteps! ;) ), these immediately came to mind:

http://www.vegkitchen.com/recipes-galore/ - Nava Atlas' website

http://justthefood.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html - Joni Marie's website

Another great one is Kathy Hester's site, http://www.healthyslowcooking.com 

If you're a cookbook lover (err.. addict) like me, this one will be quite awesome to use as well: http://vegansprout.com/browse/cookbooks/

And speaking of slow cookers, I absolutely love my pressure cooker!!! I think it's my most-used kitchen item (after the Vitamix ;) ).

So that being said, I came across this website and found it quite helpful! (I have a short list in my Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure -which is an awesome book, by the way! [I should cook more out of it, now that I mention it...]): http://fastcooking.ca/pressure_cookers/cooking_times_pressure_cooker.php#pulses

Now off to talk about my German pancakes! :)

Ironically enough they're also called 'Eierkuchen' in some regions in Germany, which means literally 'egg cakes', so having veganized it seems a bit like a paradox but it works well! (I haven't had German pancakes ever since I've become vegan ~3 years ago and while they lack the eggy taste [naturally], I have to say I really liked them a lot! )

I got inspired to make them the other day after coming across 2 different blog posts about crepes as well as the 'Top 10 Pancakes', one of the latter being described as Swedish pancakes, which are pretty much the same as German if you ask me! ;) [All I did was add 1 tsp of baking powder to the mix..- not sure if it's really necessary or not-.. and increased the flour amount to ~2 cups; 1/2 c chickpea flour and the other 1.5 c white AP and added 2 Tbsp oil and added ~ 2 1/4 c of home made coconut milk until the batter was nice and thin.]

This is how we did it in Germany, spreading some jam on it and having a bit of apple sauce on the side.

You can however make this dish savory too by adding herbs and mushrooms etc. (Just like you would with a French crepe! ;) )

My grandmother used to make a typical southern Germany soup with pancake leftovers, called 'Flaedle Suppe', for which you simply cut the pancakes in small strips and put them in a clear broth kind of soup. Simple but delicious! Unfortunately we didn't have any leftovers from this batch! LOL

You can find the recipe through here:

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/foodandhealth/recipe-swedish-pancakes/ 

but also in Isa's Vegan with a Venegeance (Easy vegan crepes)!

The Vegan Slow Cooker

I'm finally trying to get myself better with the weekly menu planning and decided to blog from now on, which book I will cook from in the current week!

For this week I've picked Kathy Hester's "The Vegan Slow Cooker".

I love the convenience of being able to put everything in one pot (some prepping steps before don't bother me) and have it all ready a few hours later.  

Even though we have A/C in the house here, I still appreciate not heating up my kitchen, so using a crock pot/slow cooker is another big plus right now in the summer time!

I've already made 2 things from the book; the 'Foolproof Focaccia' bread (page 161) as well as the Chickeny Bouillon (page 19). 

The Focaccia bread was delicious; maybe a tad too thick for my liking.. I've used the entire dough this time. Kathy suggests one can do so *or* split the dough in half for 2 thinner Focaccias, which I'll try next time! The taste was great though and again, the convenience of the CP just perfect! 

I didn't grease the CP well enough *blush* so I had to split the bread while it was still in the CP in order to get it out!

The fresh Focaccia bread in 'action' with some faux tuna as well as sun dried tomato & white bean mix as well as some pickled artichoke hearts fresh from the market! :)

I currently have the Balsamic Onion Marmalade (page 30) in the CP; it'll be ready for tonight's pizza and smells divine!!!

I'll keep this blog updated with the dishes I'll be cooking! =)

Update: The Balsamic Onion Marmalade:

Soo good on pizza!

Alright, next up is the Eggplant Tofu-Ricotta Casserole! (Pg. 94)

I actually forgot to plug the crock pot in yesterday and only realized it late afternoon! *duh!!!* Clearly it was too late for having this for dinner that very evening but luckily it was done cooking before I went to bed!
Well.. I guess because of having kept it in the fridge over night, the sauce got soaked up a bit, so it wasn't as saucy as it would have been freshly out of the CP, but the flavors were still great! 

The tofu-ricotta made it all thicker than my Norma sauce (tomato sauce with eggplant) and I'm sure I'll use this tofu-ricotta mix for many other dishes in the future as well! ;)