Easy Spicy Vegetarian Chili...

Wednesday has been busy, to say the least. I've been out searching for a new place to live next year already , as housing in Tubingen fills up super fast. When there are 28,000 students new/happy places are rather difficult to find. In order find some inner peace and spicy-ness I decided to make some yummy soul food. I love spicy food.

I have to admit when I make food I generally just look at recipes for a list of ingredients. I think just sorta throw things together. Taste test and roll it out. This probably isn't how everyone cooks but I like to change things up.
Here is a link to the ingredient/recipe I sorta adhered to:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Insanely-Easy-Vegetarian-Chili/Detail.aspx

I changed it however-
this is the what I used:

1 can 250g kidney beans, 1 can 250g corn, 1 can 250g whole tomatoes, 3 stocks of asparagus, 1/3 of a zucchini cubed, 1 carrot, 2 mushrooms, 1 of a green pepper, 1 half of a red pepper, 1 whole purple onion sliced into small bits, 3 cloves of garlic. For seasoning I used probably about 1/2 tablespoon cayanee pepper, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp oregano and 1/4 cup olive oil.

1 deep frying pan with a lid

1. wash, cut all your veggies
2.  Put the carrots, and zucchini into the pan about a minute before all the other veggies.
3. throw all the remaining veggies in pan.( onions, garlic, mushrooms ect.)

4. Add seasonings and sautee all of veggies till tender- aka the onions will be softer/clearer. It took me about 10 mins.
5. Open all the canned items- corn, kidney beans and tomatoes. I like to put them in a measuring cup so they dont spill all over, but do as you wish, and pour them into the veggies.
6. Cover all the ingredients and bring to a simmer for about 20 mins. If it isnt thick enough add a pinch of flour and stir.
7. Good luck :)

Banana bread, Zucchini bread, sauteed asparagus spears....whats next?

Okay, I'll admit it, I've been on a rather baking/cooking with vegetables craze the past couple weeks. One reason is that being a vegetarian in a foreign country can sometimes be difficult and not leave you many options besides pasta or salad, especially if youre a student with not a ton of time. Basically it started about two weeks ago with my need to have, maybe  need is better than have,  Banana Bread. I saw over ripe bananas sitting sadly on the counter, so I decided action was needed. I really dislike wasting food, especially fruit and vegetables. Therefore I began my cooking adventure. Last weekend I made Zucchini bread. It turned out way better than i expected. I dont have measuring spoons and all the recipes I do find I have to convert to the metric system( which is really for the most part painless thanks to online conversion sites for baking). Secondly I always want to change up recipes. Tonight was no exception. I made sauteed asparagus, and added some oil with a bit of butter and garlic. Superb. I am really excited about cooking for once, it doesnt feel like a chore but an adventure. In the next weeks I am planning try some new recipes and try to make the following one at a time:

1. Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting- one of my favorite things
2. Chickpea Potato Curry- for some reason I really want to make curry
3.Spicy Vegetarian Chili- well because chili is awesome
4.Zucchini Fritters- I just like fritters in general and zucchini ones sound fun
5.Vegetarian Brownies
6.Vegan Chocolate Cake
7.Vegan Strawberry cobbler
8.Vegan Strawberry and Spinach Salad

Hopefully these will keep me busy, and help me learn more about Vegan options as well.

here are the links to the places I got the recipes for my past adventures!


http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

- I really liked this recipe because it was super simple and requires very little to make it.

Plastic trees in May with Friends.

Yesterday, was the first real weekend in May where I got the chance to go out exploring. I was lucky the weather was superb. I met a friend, kyu who had just recently returned from a trip to the USA where he visited friends. I as well met with another dear friend of mine, Genevieve  who is from Oregon and studies here in the same university as me. I was really glad to get to see them both, as I dont see them often. My friend Kyu and I went to a flohmarket, which is like a huge sidewalk sale with all kinds of interesting  used trinkets and treasures to be found. Its quiet fun to see all the tables with eccentric things on them and mixed about. I happened to find a red plastic inflatable christmas tree. I know what am I going to do with a red inflatable tree, right. I just couldn't resist, it was just so perfect. It will be nice to have a decoration in my room that is rather silly and cheerful. Not to mention I'm ready for christmas and going to an area with water having a floatation device that is a tree shape. Anyway despite its silliness I'm very happy with my purchase. My friend Kyu bought a small drum covered with animal hair and a cup, maybe a bit more useful.

After this we all met and went to Neckarmuller, which is a place in tubingen that has both a Beer Garden and a Restuarant. We all got enjoy eachothers company while having a nice beer outside in the beer garden by the neckar river.  

It was so nice to get to see both Kyu and Genevieve, I was really glad about it. So all in all a good start to May.