Avocado pasta #MicroblogMonday

Catering for vegan guests is always that bit more challenging. There are some really delicious recipes out there but so many of them require a LOT of preparation time. While searching for something easy and vegan I came across this recipe for avocado pasta. It sounds a bit strange when you first hear it but I remembered enjoying something similar in a restaurant once. The instructions looked straightforward to follow and the ingredients easy to procure so hubby and I decided to give it a go last weekend.

It only took around a half hour or so to prepare and cook and we were both happy with how it turned out! Hubby added some chilli flakes to his portion in the end but I'm not a big fan of very spicy food and was happy with the taste as it was. The picture probably doesn't do it justice but it really was quite tasty. Handy if you are avoiding dairy too! If you wanted to make it non vegan you could always serve it with some Parmesan cheese / grilled chicken or prawns.

Life Lately

Reading
Michelle Obamas's Becoming. I started this months ago and haven't been able to finish it but that's not a criticism. Firstly it's really long but secondly I rarely have time to read it! It's a big book so not one that fits into my handbag to pull out when I have a few minutes on public transport. Whenever I have a free moment, I usually end up doing something else but when I do have a nice 10-20 minutes of undisturbed time ahead of me then I have been delving back into the book and really enjoying it!

Watching
We finally got around to watching two very different films, "The Greatest Showman" and "Avengers-Endgame". The former has been one I've been dying to watch for ages and the latter my husband was keen to see!  I think I can safely say we ended up loving both. 

The Greatest Showman is a story around Barnum who comes from poverty and has big dreams. I don't want to go into the story in more detail as I often find that even watching trailers these days can have loads of spoilers and it's nice to watch something without knowing too much in advance. The screenplay, music and dance numbers were amazing and it was just entertaining and good fun. The songs are catchy too and I find myself humming along to them weeks days later!

You've probably heard of Avengers: Endgame even if you aren't a fan because it was a massive hit this Summer.  I enjoy the Marvel stories and films though at times find the format somewhat predictable (time for another huge fight scene with lots of special effects anyone?). That said, this one was particularly entertaining and well done!

Eating/cooking
Well now it's autumn we've been making pumpkin soup and curries again - yum! My main favourite German treat are pretzels though! A lovely freshly baked pretzel with butter and cheese or avocado on top with a cup of tea is just perfect.

Traveling
In August we were in Ireland on holidays which was lovely. This month apart from our usual outings to all the local playgrounds, we went to the zoo for the day which was fun.

A few holiday photos

We are just back from a trip to Dublin. We had a really lovely time visiting family and friends and we loved introducing Mini to everyone. I hope this will be the first trip of many to her "second home"! Loads of people commented on what a happy baby she is and she seemed to enjoy being in a new place. The journey to and from Dublin was stressful though. On the way over we got distracted chatting to some friendly mormons on the train (as you do) and ended up forgetting one of our suitcases! Luckily it was found and we're getting it sent to us now we are back in Germany but when we realised at the time it was too late to go back for it or we would have risked missing our flight. At least it was a fun excuse to go shopping for some new outfits in Dublin!

However, our journey back to Germany was worse. First the flight was delayed almost an hour and a half and then we had to wait ages for the baby car seat to appear on the carousel causing us to then miss our train connection. Of course, Murphy's Law, the subsequent train connections were all delayed but the one we had been aiming for was perfectly punctual. We eventually ended up having to get a taxi home part of the way. By that stage poor Mini was overtired and was getting upset. It's awful when you are in a car and your baby is crying as there is little you can do, especially if you are not in a position to pull over. Distracting her with toys and songs didn't work long but in the end I showed her a cartoon on my phone and it calmed her down! We eventually made it in the door by 1am (we had left Dublin at 5pm) tired but glad to be back. We've decided to try to book flights earlier in the day in future and be more aware of how many bags we have with us!

No visit would be complete without enjoying some scones with butter, jam and cream with my afternoon tea! This was taken at a cute little cafe called The Cake Room in south Dublin.

I love seafood and Irish salmon is really delicious. In a restaurant called Taste in Dublin city centre they served it with sweet potatoes and asparagus.

The last picture is a Sunday roast with a pint of Guinness the GerMann enjoyed in one of the local pubs. I had the cottage pie.

We went to Airfield estate one day. This is a working farm in Dublin with a nice house and grounds with various farm animals. Here are some donkeys being fed. One of them clearly didn't know how to share and helped himself to his pal's food bucket too.

Another day we walked around Sea Point which is a beach in the south of Dublin. It's certainly not the prettiest of beaches. It's quite stoney. However I used to swim there as a child and it's still a really popular swimming area these days. Last time my brother was back in Dublin in December he swam there on Christmas morning which is a tradition for some Dublin people. I've never been brave enough myself as it is absolutely freezing that time of year in the Irish Sea!

What I've been eating lately

Yes, I'm one of those annoying people who takes photos of their food in restaurants before eating! Anyway I thought I'd share pictures of some of the meals I've enjoyed lately while eating out or at home.

Firstly, pumpkin risotto. Yum. I'm a big fan of risotto. Love it with mushrooms or pumpkin in particular. This one was covered in lots of parmesan cheese too. (Meaning I had to take several lactase tablets but so worth it!) This was eaten an international restaurant chain with Italian cuisine, Vapiano.

Another time I had a burgerless burger with avocado sauce and salad. I generally love all things avocado. This was at another restaurant chain, though it's only in Germany as far as I know, called Hans im Glück (happy Hans!). I got the burger bunless as I wanted to avoid any gluten. I also didn't get any cheese as I was trying to be dairy free that day. It came with a vegan sauce.

At home I cooked a yummy vegan meal recently; butternut squash, lentil and spinach curry. I was loosely following this recipe and it turned out really well. Hubby said it was "delicious". The following day I used the leftover squash to make a carrot and butternut squash soup by basically throwing it into a pot along with ginger, onion, garlic, vegetable stock, italian herbs, turmeric and black pepper then using my smoothie maker to blend it once it was soft. I also added coconut milk so it would be creamy. That's a good cream alternative when you are dairy free.

I made myself a healthy salad one evening with rocket leaves, cocktail tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts, avocado and cheese. For the dressing I used olive oil, a little lemon juice and basil and oregano with black pepper.

My husband and I eat a lot of vegan meals as we try not to eat a large amounts of animal products. When we do eat meat, then ideally it's organic and not processed. This was gnocchi with mediterranean veg and rocket leaves at the vegan place in town.

I've got quite a sweet tooth. Dessert used to be my favourite course when I was younger! This is a gluten free carrot cake I enjoyed recently with a caffeine free cappuccino and soya milk.