With a new job starting soon, life has been to crazy for daily blogging for Vegan MoFo, but here are two prompts in one go! Better late than never, right?! Right!

Vegan Cookbooks

I really, really like vegan cookbooks, but I also have so much guilt surrounding them! I get really excited about them and oogle the ones I want on Amazon.com for days, weeks, etc. before purchasing, but in reality I feel like I end up using recipes off the internet more often.

It’s really an ongoing battle. I always promise myself I’ll pick a month where I only cook from cookbooks or will pick a cookbook and cook through it all one month, etc. I can’t stop collecting them though!

I used to use cookbooks religiously when I first went vegan. How It All Vegan! was my first vegan cookbook ever and I used it to guide me in the ways of veganism. Veganomicon taught me the says of seitan-making. Then, while studying abroad in England I discovered the VegWeb recipe database, do you remember that page?! I learned SO MUCH from there. I credit it with making me the cook I am now, as so many of my regular recipes are ones I’ve tweaked and altered over the years from VegWeb itself!

Then eventually…the blogosphere exploded with vegan recipes. Then Pinterest happened! So much choice, I’m overwhelmed!

There’s still something so nice about a cookbook though. It’s the same way I feel about a Kindle, sometimes you just want to hold the book in your hands and smear food all over accidentally until you can tell which recipes are your favorite just by looking at it.

So, without further ado, here’s my cookbook shelf. I have a few more at my parents’ in the US that haven’t made it over to Germany yet.

My newest cookbooks are Vegan Diner, Isa Does It, the Vegetarian Flavor Bible and Cookin’ Crunk.

I’ve been eyeing the Abundance Diet heavily, as it’s blog tour looked so tasty, but I’ve imposed a cookbook ban on myself until I cook through the ones I have a bit more. I foresee a Christmas present to myself though.

I will say I really enjoy cookbooks with a theme. First it was the Uncheese Cookbook, which I cooked a ton from back in the day. I loved all the varitions for each recipe in there and still think about the vegan nacho cheese sauce made from white beans, it was rad!

Lately though, I’ve been really excited about the Non-Dairy Evolution cookbook and very much enjoying the Gentle Chef Facebook community, which is super helpful and inspiring. All cookbooks should have a Facebook group! I like that most of the recipes don’t require rejuvelac, he also gives tons of detailed instructions. So far I made the Suisse and want to try the Brie and Camembert next.

I had some rejuvelac in process to try some of the aged cheeses, specifically the Extra Sharp White Cheddar and the Bleu Cheese, but then I decided it’d be more fun to hangout at my girlfriend’s than to go home and rinse my millet grains, so it all went a bit awry. Gonna get my a sprouting jar and give it another go soon! I’m waiting for the German Amazon.de to get vegan lactic acid powder. You can use lemon juice instead, but the internet says the lactic acid is worth it. I can’t find it anywhere in Germany, so I finally wrote the UK company that stocks it and they said it’s be on amazon.de soon!

By the way, if you’re equally as obsessed with vegan cheese experiments, try the Vegan Cheeze – Hits & Misses group!

Teff Love is another themed book I’m pretty sure I’ll love once I go on a mission to seek out the ingredients as I am super obsessed with Ethiopian food and would save myself so much money if I just cooked it myself. It sounds like the perfect winter project!

Do you have any of these books?! What are your tried and true recipes from them? I never know where to start, help!

My Kitchen

Another vegan mofo prompt was “kitchen tour”. I just have this one photo, back when my kitchen was clean. I just made potato carrot cheese in it though (it really is as miraculous as everyone said!) so it’s too messy for a video tour, I hope this will do!

I have a flat that’s a super great deal in Berlin, three separate rooms to myself in a well-connected area, when I was only trying for 1.5! However, the downside is no balcony and a small kitchen. I’m making it work though. One day I will live somewhere with a big sit-in kitchen and tons of storage space and it will be so glorious, albeit probably a bit dangerous for my kitchen gadget obsession. I’m just excited I have cabinets.

You see, in Berlin when you move into a flat it is empty. I mean, really empty. There weren’t even lights in the ceiling, just wires coming out! I had to buy my own fridge, washer, cabinets, everything. Just my stove and sink was there and they always give you the cheapest kind. This means you def need to hire movers or have really strong supportive friends and if you are power tool inept like me (I will get good at it one day!), then you have to hire and handy-person. Moving is a big ordeal, not to mention how hard it is to even find a place in Berlin!

Needless to say, I’ll probably be here awhile. I moved out of the hip area of Berlin in December and am surprised how much I enjoy it. It’s quieter and my area has its own main street. Even though it’s not cool here my local grocery store stocks Daiya cheese and Tofurky from the US and there’s a small local independantly run organic shop around the corner that stocks Vego bars and interesting vegan yogurts and teas…and even vegan cheese! When I go in there they immediately point out new vegan things to me. My neighbors even know who I am, it’s crazy living in a place where people stay for long periods of time, new world!

Anyway, that’s my kitchen and my thoughts on living here! MoFo you soon!