Berlin, part one

I'm back!

As always, I had two really great weeks and a lot of funny, exciting and crazy experiences!

I'll have to tell you about all that in my next few posts, as I can't manage to do it all in one.

Right now I have only half an our left to get ready for work at the bar, so I'll have to hurry a bit- maybe I'll add some more words tomorrow!

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On the first evening, soon after Flo and I arrived in Berlin, my Dad took us to our very favourite Restaurant in Berlin: Miss Saigon!

They have a south Vietnamese kitchen and a lot of vegan and vegetarian meals, and tey're all unbelievably tasty and filling. The pictures show the meal and the non-alcoholic fruit cocktail I chose.

Again, it was super-tasty and I couldn't even finish it, as the portions are so big.

I had a Seitan meal with soybean sprouts, banana blooms and lots of other vegetables and herbs =)

Veganz, the newly opened vegan supermarket =)

They have a HUGE selection of vegan cheese! I chose a "cheezly" garlic one at first- It was very tasty, but the second one that we bought was even better!

(You'll see it two pics below)

Flo and me also bought some non-alcoholic beer, a thai peanut seitan snack bar and a vegan coconut milk yoghurt that day. Plus, I had a chickpea-tomato soup they freshly make there. Yum!

Our first Veganz-haul: The cheezly cheese, the Seitan snack bar, silken tofu for a dessert I made a few days later, vegan chocolate with Stevia sweetener and a Vitamin B12- toothpaste for Flo (I already had one).

The fresh goodies bar in Veganz. They have lots of sweets, cakes and cookies, but also some warm spicy meals.

Some random graffiti that I quite liked somehow. I always photograph much streetart during my stays in Berlin, as there are so many good ones there!

A lovely suitcase I bought in TK MAXX on the second day =)

In the next picture, in the suitcase you can see some more stuff I bought there!

I bought a romantic rosey teacup, a light blue size 2 Jeans, an ornamental decorative heart and a very cute flowery dressing gown.

This was our second Veganz haul:

Seitan fix, soy strips, soy cutlet, mozzarella style "sheese" (the better one- you really couldn't taste any differences from normal cheese), vegan slices of cheese (also very tasty!) and some soy whipping cream.

My dad and me, playing chess =)

We used to play a lot of chess during our stay in Berlin.

Today I had a talk on the phone with my Dad: From now on, I'm going to visit him more frequently!

One of his best friends, Detlef, is driving to Berlin to see him once a month now, so I'll be able to go with him- otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford going there that often.

That means much more Daddy, much more chess-playing and much more Berlin for me =)

I even had the opportunity to be there at the upcoming weekend, but I said no, as I'm working on Saturday and Sunday.

Also, Flo and I were thinking about moving there during the next months, but we found out that he can't relocate his apprenticeship to Berlin, so we'll have to wait another two years until we can do it.

But however that's okay, as I will anyway go tere monthly now, and as I'm enjoying my small town life as yet =)

More photos and stories from Berlin will follow on thursday!

Love, PL

Berlin, here I come again =)

As expected, I don't have the time to do a proper Post today. 

So here's just a picture of  Rainer von Vielen and me from last weekend. I look like shit, but that's okay as I was quite drunk at that time haha =)

Now im off for bed, our flight will be at 10:30 tomorrow morning. Have a nice time everyone, I'll be back in two weeks!
Love, PL

Sweets, vacation & partytime!

Yesterday I made vegan cookie monster cupcakes (from the sesame street) for a friend's birthday.

I think he really liked them, and my mom, her boyfriend and Flo ate their cupcakes in slowmotion so they wouldn't be done too fast because they were so yummy =D (I kept one cupcake for each of them and gave the other ones to my friend)

This is how the production looked like:

(click to enlarge!)

1st step: mix the dough and fill it into the cupcake forms.

(as always, I'm not posting the detailed recipe without request, but if you want it, just tell me and I'll add it =))

2nd step: BAKE!

3rd step: give them a juicy vanilla pudding frosting

4th step: 

•          prepare the monster eyes (made from coffee beans and marzipan formed into small balls )
•          prepare cookie monster's "coat", made from coconut flakes and blue food colouring

5th step: add the coat!

6th & final step: add the eyes and some vegan cookies =)

Isn't it cute? ^^

Yesterday's lunch. Rosemary oven potatoes with spinach =)

Yum!

This was Yesterday's dessert after lunch (selfmade, of course):

Vegan coconut panna cotta!

Damn was that tasty.

This is one more of the pictures Flo and I made in that wonderful park last week.

I know I look kinda creepy, but somehow I like it...

And, last but not least, something completely different: A picture from the 2-months journey thorugh Sardegna my mum and I did in 2010.

I found that pictue today and just HAD to post it! It's not at all edited and still looks so great.

And if you're asking yourself now if that's really a candle underneath that glass, and if I may have tortured that little lizard when I took the photo: Of course I didn't!

My mum is just as much of a nature and animal lover as I am, and we would both never hurt any living thing. I held it over the candle for about two seconds, just in order to take the photo, and then we set it free.  Our little friend wasn't harmed at all =)

Maybe I'll show you some more of the great pictures we took during that vacation someday.

Today (as it's already 2:50 in the morning) is my mum's 53rd birthday and also Flo's and my 3rd anniversary! We actually got together on my mum's 50th birthday party ^^

Today we're having a little vegan lunchparty at my mum's boyfriend's and in the evening we'll go to a thermal spa. On Saturday, we'll have a big party in the club that I work at.

There'll be quite a lot of bands playing, and even Rainer von Vielen (the leader of the Band "Orange", *click* for some great music) will be there!

I'm sooo excited =)

Oh well, and next week, on Wednesday, Flo and I are flying to Berlin to visit my dad (he has been living there for 10 years now, so I'm going to Berlin at least three times a year).

As always, I'm really looking forward to it, but the bad thing is that I won't be able to post anything for the next two weeks.

But as soon as I'm back, I'll surely show you a lot of stuff! We'll also visit the vegan supermarket "Veganz" there for the first time, so there'll be quite a lot of stuff to tell you when I get back =)

I'll try to do a last post on Tuesday before I leave, but I can't promise.

Now I have to hurry finishing Flo's anniversary present and then go to sleep.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Love, PL

Yum

First of all, I have to say sorry (AGAIN) for my lack of uppdates during the last week.

I really am very, very busy and just can't manage to do a new post daily.

Today's post is mainly about food, everything else will follow.

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On Friday, I made vegan wraps for my mum and my best friend.

They are filled with "Arrabitom" spread from the ecostore- a paste with a spicy tomato taste, potato puree, broccoli, onions, herbs and spices.

If anyone wants the recipe, just tell me. 

(I won't post longer recipes without request)

 

These are whole grain ginger cookies that I made for some friends on thursday.

They also have apple and chocolate bits inside.

  

A button I made today, as a little gift for a girl who bought some of my old clothes.

Hope she'll like it =)

 

Our newest vegan achievements (most of them are from "Vantastic foods"): 

• Vlavorize Smoke Salt type "hickory", which gives your meals a nice smokey taste
• "no egg" egg replacement powder, one teaspoon replaces one whole egg
• An ayurvedic pancake baking mixture, which I already tried today- pictures & review tomorrow!
• Seitan fix, a premade mixture for making your own Seitan
• Vlavorize Kala Namak ("black salt"), which can be used for sweet foods such as smoothies or desserts as well as for savoury foods. It's also famous for giving a certain "egg-taste" to your meals, so you can use it for vegan scrambled eggs, for example.
• Soy medaillons and Soy cubes (e.g. for meat replacement)

This was today's dessert, made from banana, peanut mush, lemon, tofu, maple syrup and a tiny bit of cayenne pepper. It's topped with lemon zest, coconut flakes and goji berries.

Flo, my mum and her boyfriend really loved it. It's very addictive!

Again, if anyone wants the detailed recipe, just tell me =)

This is a gret idea I came across: Finally a way to prevent your recipe books from getting dirty! I wish I had thought about that earlier...

The cookbook is "La Veganista",  a quite good one with cute paintings. 

What I really like about it, apart from the nice pictures, is that it has many sites with basic vegan recipes on how to make Seitan and stuff.

Only thing to critisize is that the recipes are way too high in calories if you ask me =/

                                                  

                                        

This is what happened to my avocado kernel meanwhile- tomorrow I'll finally put it in a flower pot.

I already did five more.

I hope this post leaves you a bit satisfied!

My boyfriend Flo is here and I totally have to cuddle with him a bit, although he's already sleeping- So I'm off now =)

Have a cozy evening eceryone!

Love, PL

Impressions

Today I'll just show you some pictures I made during the last days.

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These two were shot today, mostly in order to show you that hairstyle =)

I usually never do up my hair, as I think it doesn't look good on me and I just love long, open hair- but this one is great!

Nothing to say here. Mirrors kinda scared me as long as I can remember...

Generations 

(Mum, Grandma & me)

This is my lovely grandma. As I told you quite a lot of stuff about her already, I thought it would be nice to show you what she looks like =)

My granddad isn't doing very well at the moment (he has diabetes and a sick heart, and has gotten quite weak lately), that's why she looks so worried especially in the second picture...

Grandma is the one with the ginger-genes in my family. And she's the only person I know that even has freckles on the insides of her hands!

Oh, I love her <3

And this is a picture of my boyfriend that was shot last weekend when we had a little Shooting in a wonderful park (the place where our love-lock is placed). I'll show you some more of the pictures we took in tomorrow's post!

That's all I have for you today, I'm pretty tired and I have a nasty eye inflammation, so it isn't easy to keep looking at the screen for too long. My eyes are all red and glassy, that's why they're closed on the first pictures. If it doesn't get better tomorrow, I'll go see a doctor.

Love, PL

Finally.

                           First of all, I want to show you what I look like with my new dress, as promised =)
                                                              It's also my new look on lookbook!
                                                                            (click for bigger)

This is how my second time of making energy balls turned out!

I tried to be a little more creative and formed some of them into small hearts =)

This time, I chose almonds and figs and tossed the balls in a mixture of carob- and gingerpowder. 

This is a purse my mom gave me as a present. She was so in love with it, that she actually bought it two times, one for her and one for me!

I aboslutely adore the cheesy design it has =)

This is what it looks like on the inside. I use it for pictures of my loved ones, so I can always take them with me. The pictures on the right side are my mom and my "brother" (obviously, he's not really my brother! He's my best friend, but the way I feel about him feels quite much like he's the brother I never had), and the pictures on the left side both show my boyfriend. (Isn't he just super- handsome? ^^)

This is my non-finished project on making my own jewellery stand. In the next step, I'll paint it cream white and then add some vintage-look flowers to it! I'll show you the result as soon as I'm done.

And this is what I had for lunch today, as I was way too lazy to cook something (yep, unbelievable).

It's a salad from beetroot, Champignons, sauerkraut, alfalfa germlings, half of an avocado and some linseed oil, salt and yeast flakes. Yum!

I can't post the pictures of my ship collection today, because it was already too dark outside when I tried to photograph them- and I really hate using the flash! So I'll try to take some proper photos of it tomorrow.

Since yesterday, animal testing for cosmetical products is finally forbidden in Europe!

I had absinthe with my boyfriend to celebrate that =)

Also, Flo took me to a very beautiful bridge yesterday, after he told me that he has a little surprise for me. When we stood on that bridge, he first told me that he chose that bridge because it was so beautiful and you could see a weeping willow standing next to it (weeping willows are my very favourite trees! They're so melancholically beautiful...). Then he took out a little red lock with an engraved heart and our names on it, and I almost cried over how romantic he can be! We locket it at the bridge's railing and threw the key into the water. I'll never forget that moment, as it felt like we were throwing away the possibility of ever leaving each other =)

Tomorrow evening, he'll take me to a sushi restaurant and then we'll have a cuddly evening watching an ARTE documentary about aluminium that was on TV yesterday.

If I find the time for it, I'll do a small post tomorrow before I leave for the weekend!

My yogi tea says:

Don't just love because, but despite.

PL