Lunch at Herman's

Today’s lunch was a girl’s lunch at our favorite vegetarian restaurant Herman’s in Stockholm. It’s buffet style with a few warm dishes and lots of cold and raw food. They also boost a very impressive dessert table with tons of raw goodies as well as baked things. They had an Indian theme today so two of their warm dishes were some spicy kind of stew, very yummy. Bella enjoyed everything and loved that after lunch she got a mango smoothie that was super refreshing.

Beach Day and Food Pictures

As you can tell I'm not cooking as much as at home but I'm instead enjoying eating out and having other people cook for me. So today's post is not a recipe but rather food pictures.

Today was nice and warm day so we spend it on the beach and had a great time. We ate lunch in a small cafe near beach and I enjoyed an amazing tomato soup served with a dollop of yogurt, a lentil salad, fresh water melon and home baked bread with a bean pate. For dessert we off course had fresh made cinnamon bun while Bella enjoyed a vegan strawberry ice cream. I love that we can find that in any place selling ice cream.

Ice cream time

Nothing better than beach and water on a hot day

Cinnamon bun time!

Love, love when lunch looks like this:)

A Great Food Day In Pictures!

Today we spend the whole day with our friends Ulrika and Gustav at their home in the countryside. They cooked for us and that's such treat for me so I have no recipes but want to share our day in pictures instead. 

Vesper and Bella busy making raw energy balls with raw food expert Josefin

Raw nut butters; one walnut butter and cashew spread

Hummus

Done and two proud chefs

Noah loves raw flax seed crackers and granola

Bulgur and vegetable salad

Green juice

Challenge of Traveling As An Vegetarian

It's a challenge for sure to eat vegetarian while traveling. On more than one occasion I have found myself on a plane ride across the world where my meal has been forgotten or is off putting that eaten it is just not an option. One time for breakfast on a flight from Stockholm to Italy my breakfast were three kinds of beans!!! I have no idea what the thinking was but clearly someone thought a vegetarian eat beans and nothing else. So these days I pack a lot of snacks to be prepared for all kinds of possibilities. I like to pack nuts, fruits, sandwiches etc.

On this trip we had a 3 hour layover in London Heathrow airport. I love this airport because they have a restaurant called Wagamama there where there are plenty of good and vegetarian option for both adults and kids. When we lived in London this was one of our favorite restaurants. Now I found out they are located all over the world. This time when we ate there Bella ate a noodle soup with vegetables and fried tofu. She also split and fresh squeezed apple juice. I ate fried spicy fried noodles and James had Pad Thai. It was all really good. So I highly recommend if you going to London or anywhere there is a there is a  Wagamama make sure to try it out.

First trip away and La Costa Spa

This weekend was our first trip away from the kids since before Noah was born over 15 month ago. We only went away for one night pretty close to home, at La Costa spa in Carlsbad. We've been there once before a couple of years ago with Bella and we had a great time but really did not get you enjoy their restaurant Blue Fire Grill and Bistro which is known for it's farm to table feasts. Off course this was something we wanted to check out. 

 I was happy to see they had two vegan dishes and some vegetarian dishes on their menu and off course a lot of it is organic. I started out with a vegan creamy roasted tomato soup and for main course I tried their Ayurveda dish that was quinoa with mushrooms, turnips and green drizzled with amazing vinaigrette dressing. The soup was amazing. It was perfectly sweet, rich in flavors with a slight tang to it. I could have eaten that as my main meal along with the papardam that they served along with the bread. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the soupL

The main dish I was a little disappointed with. The quinoa and mushrooms along with the green was in harmony however, the turnips were undercooked and so bitter that even I who loves bitter vegetables could not eat them.  We also started out with a very good service but by the end of our evening we sat around and waited a lot which was quit annoying when all we wanted to do was finish up, pay and leave. 

View from our room

It looked beautiful and I wanted to like it.

Hiking to work up an appetite before our dinner. 

Our trip to San Francisco

I love eating in San Fransisco because there so many fun and unique options and many healthy alternative. So here I want to share in our experience and our favorite places to eat in San Francisco!

La Boulange
This is a great place for breakfast, lunch or just coffee and goodies. Most of their items are organic and handmade in the restaurant. I loved their oatmeal served with sliced bananas, flax seeds, blueberries and an option for maple syrup, honey or brown sugar.

The plant Organic cafe

This is an amazing place for organic lunch and dinner. They have many vegan and vegetarian options and everything is incredible fresh. I love their drafted kombucha which was served as is or with fresh pressed vegetable or fruit juice. I also loved their vegan and gluten free chocolate/hazelnut cake.

Wonderful mild kombucha on tap and you could mix it with fresh juice

Amazingly rich vegan and gluten free cake

Super fresh avocado and grape fruit salad served on a bed of baby arugula tossed with a macadamia nut dressing

Greens
This restaurant in the Marina has an amazing view as well as menu. It gets quit busy so a reservation is recommended. They have brunch on Saturday and lunch and dinner everyday. The food is fresh and all vegetarian and some vegan options. Make sure to check out their dessert menu.

Cooking with good friends

I'm sitting here with a sleeping baby and dreaming about the day we had. We spend time with our good friends Ulrica, Gustav and their little girl Vesper. They are soon to be parents to another little one. They live out in the country side on a property filled with berries, fruits and herbs and an amazing view.

We're treated to a super yummy lunch which we helped cooked. We ate a new potato salad with chives and a dressing made from, I believe lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper, veggie burgers, many different kinds of vegetables, tahini sauce and for dessert mint tea from their herb garden and water melon. It was a perfect lunch with friends:) Thanks guys and we'll see you soon again I hope.

We started out with a tour of their property and sampling of everything they grow:)

Bella loved helping Ulrica make the dressing for the potato salad

The table looked so nice with candles, especially since it was pouring rain outside

Table set for lunch

Noah was very curious about Ulrica's belly

Celebrating midnight sun with a BBQ

Finally we have arrived and starting to adjust to jetlage. We had a very long journey over here which made us 12 hours delayed, not a fun things with two kids. I don't think I ever been so tired. On top of this, Noah had a really hard to time adjusting to the time change and ended up being awake only when Bella slept so it was non-stop.

But now we're adjusted and enjoying our very short trip here. The weather has been amazing so we've been BBQ everyday. I made up a new marinade which tasted as good with soy meat as with vegetables.

Off course we have also been enjoying the swedish sweet strawberries. I love eating them with tofutti ice cream while Bella likes hers without.

1/4 cup red wine

1/8 cup ketchup

1 tbs sweet chili sauce

1 tbs vegetable bouillon powder

1 tsp brown sugar

Pepper to taste

Blend everything and marinate veggies and soy, tofu or seitan proteins for one hour before BBQ.

San Francisco weekend

We decided to take one last trip before I can't fly anymore. We wanted to go somewhere pretty close which also featured great culinary experince so we ended up in San Francisco again. The weather was amazing with highs in the 80th.

One night we went to Fleur de Lys which is a french restaurant owned by Top Chef master and judge Huber Keller. Me and James both really admire him. We already been to his Burger Bar in Las Vegas and they feature the best lentil burger ever. It even got top marks from our friends who are hard core meat eaters. At Fleur de Lys I was happy to see great options for vegetarians such as; vegetable ragout, roasted fennel barigoule and roasted chestnut fondant. We had Bella with us and she was the only child in there but she was treated like royalty and got so much attention. When we were ready to leave, the hostess told us the chef really wanted to meet Bella and us. Boy were we surprised when Hubert Keller himself showed up. Sure I was honored the chef wanted to meet us but that it was THE chef we had no idea. He was as amazingly kind and warm hearted as he seems on Top Chef and even walked us to our car and waved bye bye to Bella as we drove away, She absolutely loved him and now walking around saying "I meet Hubert and he is the best chef in the world!!!!".

The day after we had lunch at one of our favorite vegetarian restaurant Greens. It's has an amazing view of the bay and Golden Gate bridge as well a huge variety of foods. It was a great weekend and we ate so well but now I'm happy to be home and cooking again.

Vegan while camping

We're going on our first camping trip as a family. Me and James loved camping BB (before baby) and probably should have done it a long time ago. But what can I say, we got comfortable. It's always a challenge going camping when you eat as much fresh produce as we do but I'm up for the challenge. This is what is on our menu for one night of camping we of for. 

Breakfast Saturday: at home, probably a green smoothie

Lunch Saturday: Bean and pasta soup (see previous post) This is a very easy soup to do while camping since it's mostly canned or dried goods but the soup will not be creamy.

Dinner: Veggie burgers with avocado, veganaise and jicama chips

Breakfast: Pancakes and hot chocolate. 

We'll also have a snack of Jessica's homemade cinnamon buns and strawberry lemonade. Dessert will be s'mores so I get a chance to try our vegan marshmallows. 

Vegan donuts

Ok it has been a while since I posted something but we have been out of town, in Seattle actually. I was so amazed how many good vegan restaurants there were in Seattle. We eat like royalties! I have to admit that donuts does nothing for me but perhaps that is because I didn't grow with them. My husband on the other hand LOVES them so when I saw that there is a vegan donut shop called Mighty O's in Seattle I knew we had to try it. I'm sooooooooo happy we did because I LOVE them. They had so many flavors and despite "really" working hard at it, we did not try all flavors. James actually did not believe they were vegan and asked and they gave us a list of ingredients and sure they are vegan and organic. My favorite donut was called "devils play ground" and was a chocolate with frosting and sprinkles. James loved the maple one.

Bella and daddy enjoying a donut breakfast. No this is not a usual breakfast for either of us.

Look at those perfect donuts! I enjoyed also a wonderful cup of red tea.