Shake your body

If you're stopping here for the first time, you don't know that, but ice cream is my favorite food. Like, top 1 (and I have a milkshake tattoo in my left leg!). I could eat ice cream every day. Having said that, this post is about a new (well, not too new anymore) place here in Dublin that sells milkshakes: Shakes Milkshake Bar.

I have been there three times: the first one was a bad experience 'cause me and Matteo stayed in the line twenty minutes just to heard that they didn't have the dairy free option that evening. But I didn't give up and went there before going to Brazil with the lovely Aoife. I had the chocolate option and it was delicious. They use the vegan ice cream Swedish Glace, which is really good and tasty.


Today I took some time to go there again with Matteo and my-sister-in-law that was spending some summer days here with us and I decided to try the peanut butter dairy free option! OMG! Can't believe how good it was! Matteo had the chocolate one and he was happy with that too.

I hope I can have more time in this busy (and a little bit messy) summer to come back there more times. And, you know, I will be there during the autumn and the winter too.


Shakes Milkshake Bar
15 College Green
Dublin 2

First blog giveaway and recipe!

I can't believe it took me so long but I am finally doing the first giveaway of this blog! In August I will celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the blog (and I missed the 1st one, still can't believe that). Time is really flying and it's cool to see that I'm still enjoying writing here. Cause of the blog I got in touch with amazing people and could met personally some of them. I decided to cook more and I'm writing more in English too. I won't write anymore about it today cause I have too much to share: the giveaway and a vegan raspberry "cheese cake" recipe.

First, the recipe! I finally got back into my kitchen last Saturday to bake and I decided to make a fruit vegan "cheese cake". Matteo loves chocolate (also do I) and most of the time I end up making everything with it. He wasn't here last week, my sister-in-law can't eat chocolate, so it was a perfect occasion to try this new experience. I ended up making a mix of two recipes I had and it worked very well.

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Vegan Raspberry "Cheese Cake"
Crust:
1 1/2 cups vegan graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar (or regular granulated sugar or brown sugar)
1/4 margarine

"Cheese" Cake
200 g extra-firm silken tofu
1 package vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti Creamy Smooth)
250g fresh raspberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 tablespon salt

Preheat your oven to 175°C.

For the crust, stir together the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar in a medium bowl. Melt the margarine and incorporate it into the dry ingredients, forming a crumbly mixture. Use your hands to press this mixture into the bottom of a 7 inch round springform pan (all the recipes use the 9 inch pan but this recipe is for a smaller cake). Make it further up in the sides to form a lip at the edge of the crust. Set aside.

For the filling, drain the tofu of any excess water and blend it in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add in the vegan "cream cheese" and blend it again. Add the sugar, vanilla and salt and blend it again for 30 seconds. Add the fresh raspberries and blend it for more 2 or 3 minutes (or until it achieve a very smooth and homogeneous consistency. Add the mixture over the crust and spread it.

Bake it for 35 to 40 minutes.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 8 hours before serving. Add 3 tablespoons of raspberry jelly over it. You can serve it with soya cream too.

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A big inspiration!

I have to say that since I decided to start baking (and also cooking more), some people had a HUGE influence in my life, being great inspiration. One of those incredible people is Hannah Kaminsky, author of the amazing My Sweet Vegan cookbook. I got in touch with her many times, for different reasons, and she have always been amazing. I love the recipes of her book and I love her blog, Bitter Sweet.

And about two months ago I did an interview with her to prepare a profile article for the German magazine I'm writing for. You can see the page here and I'll post the article in English in the near future. It was a pleasure to write this article and I have much to thank this girl.

Besides all this, she (and her publisher) gave me the permission to give to my lovely readers one copy of one of her new e-books: Mission: Impossible Pies that you can buy on-line. I already have it and I loved all the recipes and wanted to share the book with you!

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The giveaway

The Prize: 1 copy of the e-book Mission: Impossible Pies, by Hannah Kaminsky.

Who can enter the giveaway? It's open to everybody in the world!

How to enter: just leave a comment saying what kind of vegan food do you prefer to cook: salty or sweet and the reason.

Dates: the entries will be accept from today (July 26th) until August 4th. The winner will be announced on August 6th. If the winner is not a blogger user, please come back here to check the blog post of August 6th and get in touch with me because I will need the winner's email :)

Increase your chances! You can do one or more of the following things, return here and leave a comment saying which one you did (leave a comment for each extra entry so you can have more chances):

a. Tweet about the giveaway and mention @GlaucexVx and @bittersweet__
You an use this text: "All about... (vegan) food (@GlaucexVx) is giving away a copy of Mission: Impossible Pies, by @bittersweet__ http://TwitPWR.com/MGB/"

b. Join the All about... (vegan) food Facebook page and "like" our wall post about the giveaway.

c. Write about the giveaway in your blog and leave a comment here with the link.

PS. AOS LEITORES BRASILEIROS: mesmo nao traduzindo o post todo, o sorteio do ebook "Mission: Impossible Pies" vale tambem para o Brasil e para respostas em portugues! Basta responder a pergunta com um comentario. Para aumentar as chances, basta divulgar no Twiter ou no seu blog (e postar um comentario aqui com os links) e se clicar em "Like" (ou "curtir") na pagina do blog no Facebook e tambem no post (e sempre voltar aqui e deixar outro comentario dizendo que fez isso tambem!).

Belo Horizonte: another place to eat

I'm so late with the blog posts this month but I have no excuse. I'm enjoying the summer, traveling and being happy. I really like to write here, but sometimes is not possible and, besides that, English is not my mother-tong, so it's hard to me to think about good posts everyday in another language.

Having said that, this is my last blog post about my travel to Belo Horizonte (Brazil), my lovely home town. I spent 15 days there with my friends and family and went to some cool places. One of the good surprises was the new restaurant, Alegria de Comer Bem (that means "Happiness of Eating Well"). I got a flyer about the restaurant at the healthy fair and me and Matteo decided to go there before leave the city.



The restaurant was opened in March and it's one more choice for those who look for a natural nutrition. It is not vegetarian (although the owners have the goal - or the dream - to make it vegetarian in a near future), having some fish and seafood options in the menu, but most of its menu is vegetarian and many dishes are also vegan or easy to "veganize". Inspired by different international cuisines such as Asian and Peruvian, the dishes look tasty and attractive.


Also, the restaurant is in a beautiful old house that was reformed to home it. For the lunch time, there is the option of the "special meal of the day", that include two or three dishes with a more affordable price and also other options of the fixed menu (more expensive). The staff is very friendly too. Currently the restaurant does not have any option of vegan dessert on the menu, but you can request it if you want (and be attended!). The evening menu is more informal, with entries and the restaurant also serves alcohol.


Me and Matteo asked for two different dishes - one more Thai and the other one an Indian option - and we also had fried pineapple with a vegan cream made with "condensed milk" and cinnamon and strawberries.


It's good to see more people investing in options to vegetarian and vegan people in Brazil and I hope they can turn the restaurant in a vegetarian place soon (and keep it open till my next visit to Belo Horizonte!).

Restaurante Alegria de Comer Bem
Rua Congonhas 510, Santo Antônio
Tel: 2511-4168

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*** Para quem quiser ler mais sobre o restaurante em portugues, clique aqui!
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An amazing winter day in Belo Horizonte

Healthy fair and vegetarian/vegan food

At our second weekend in Belo Horizonte we did some amazing things. On the Saturday we went to an awesome place called Inhotim. It's a very beautiful place that houses a botanic garden and some art galleries. Everybody that visit Belo Horizonte should take one day to go there (it's in another city, but very close to BH). I went there with Matteo and my family and we had a great time.

On the Sunday morning, my brother's wife called me, telling me about a healthy fair (3o. Festival Andando de Bem Com a Vida) that was happening in one of the most beautiful squares of my city, Praça da Liberdade. She said there were stands about Yoga, Pilates and organic food, so we decided to go there. It was the last day, but it was good. All the food stands were selling vegetarian or vegan options and I tried a lot of food. The tofu pizza was my favorite one, but I also enjoyed the snacks. It's really good to see this kind of event going on in my city, helping to spread the word about vegetarianism and veganism. And going there we also heard about a restaurant with vegan/vegetarian options that we went a few days later (and I will post about it in the next few days).


I'm back in Dublin since Tuesday and mom (and a friend) came with us. It's being amazing and we're going to Italy. It will be perfect to spend my 35th birthday with her and in Rome (L).