Main courses - vegetarian Archives

by Ellen Bannink - January 9, 2014January 9, 2014

Sweet potato and kale mash

It’s hard to break from those bad holiday eating habits, isn’t it? You probably have some leftover cookies at home, or delicious marshmallows to go with your hot chocolate.

I know all about it. Even though I kept on hiking and juicing in between the holidays I gained some weight again. Not fun!

So to force myself to break with my new habit of eating some chocolate after dinner or go out for hamburgers I did a juice cleanse this week. This really forces me to eat healthy the days up to the cleanse.

by Ellen Bannink - October 10, 2013March 4, 2014

Oven pasta with fennel and spinach

I have a crush. A crush on fennel.

I totally love this vegetable with its funny shape and its slightly sweet anise taste. Before I got to know P I would always roast the fennel with goat cheese and honey on top. But P doesn’t like goat cheese. Or blue cheese. And that sucks!

by Ellen Bannink - September 20, 2013March 4, 2014

Vietnamese spring rolls with black pepper tofu

I love these fresh Vietnamese spring rolls. Sure, I also love them fried but a fresh one is healthier and quicker to make.

If you go to a Dutch market you will definitely find a food truck that sells fried Vietnamese spring rolls. It was always a treat if my mom bought these for us on the market on Wednesdays. On Wednesdays you have the afternoon off at elementary school, so when we came home at 12.30pm my mom sometimes bought us fried spring rolls and fresh steamed baozi for lunch.

And still, every time I eat a fried spring roll

by Ellen Bannink - August 1, 2013March 4, 2014

Stuffed Zucchini

I never really liked vegetables. Growing up I remember I always picked out those tiny bits of onion in the pasta sauce. And vegetables always had to come with some kind of sauce for me to like them. Well ‘like’ them… I mean to eat them.

I also remember trying zucchini as a child. A friend of my mom had homegrown them so she gave some to us.
I didn’t like it. Well in fact I didn’t like them at all. I think they tasted like nothing and the texture was way to ‘snotty’.

Oh my, I shouldn’t be telling this to you.

by Ellen Bannink - July 18, 2013March 4, 2014

Corn chili skillet

One of the great things of living in California are jalapeños. Spicy, green, fresh and fiery jalapeños.

Believe it or not but it is impossible to find fresh jalapeños in the Netherlands. Unless you grown them yourself of course. I was about to start a jalapeño project this year, but then P found a job in Los Angeles so we moved.

And I bought a jalapeño plant in LA! So I’m harvesting like crazy now, and we have to eat a lot of spicy Mexican food.

by Ellen Bannink - July 12, 2013September 8, 2014

Green Frittata

Sometimes you know you need to step down for a moment.

Just take a step back and rest or change something in your way of living. After all these hectic months of saying goodbye to our live in Amsterdam en figuring out how living in Los Angeles works I finally feel we have settled in.

Life is never boring at the West Coast, unless you lock yourself up every night at your house 😉

But since my life finally has become more relaxed I have time to think about my way of eating again.

by Ellen Bannink - June 5, 2013March 3, 2014

Noodle salad with peanuts

Moving to another country is not the easiest thing to do. You have to leave everyone and everything you know behind to start a new life. So now in LA we have to discover everything: where do I need to go for some good pizza? How do I know which groceries can be ‘trusted’? Where do I have to buy underwear (or better: what will be my favorite underwear)? Who can I trust to cut my hair? Oh and I can go on with this list for -let’s say- forever!

One of the things I have to miss in Amsterdam is good dim sum. I regularly went to a really good dim sum place where the weekends were packed with Chinese customers. So then you know it’s good! 😉