As I wrote in my most recent post it was Guys 25th b-day a few days ago. I really wanted to surprise him and give him the best birthday that he truly deserves (which is hard to plan/do when you don't have the best budget and when you're with each other 24/7). But thanks to Trish and Martin, the day turned out exactly as planned!
I woke him up with my home made kladdkaka (a Swedish style mud cake that is so chocolaty and sticky that it's dangerously good) with an coconut icing and handed him the gift with car keys (to Trishs car that she kindly lended to us) and a set of house keys to a beautiful house right by Lake Rotoma, half an hour drive away from Rotorua.
And so the road trip began! Our first stop was in the town center where we went for a food shop at Pak'N'Save and stocked up on everything we thought we might need for food for a few days.
The first thing we did when we reach the house was to change into our swim wear and go for a swim in the lush lake
This is such a gorgeous house and we felt so happy to be able to spend three nights here. (Which is also the reason I haven't been doing any updates - no reception or internet our here!)
Every morning when we woke up, we were stunned by the view from the window.
We spent the evening playing board games (mostly monopoly..), listening to music, cooking and enjoying some kiwi wine.
Since we brought a lot of pasta and avocados, the standard dinners for these nights were pasta with a creamy avocado sauce with a variety of flavours and ingredients.
In the pic on top there's the fake mince meat I made from this nutmeat that comes in a jar, I didn't have the energy to make patties of it, but eating it this way was really good.
The dish I'm most proud of though, is the one we made for Guys birthday dinner: pasta in avocado sauce with stir fried tofu and zucchini - so yummie! (See recipe below :)
Besides enjoying the house and its surronding to its fullest, we took another road trip further away, to gorgeous Tarawera Falls.
To get to this waterfall, you first have to pay like 5 dollars for your vehicle to pass and then drive in the big forest for like 25 minutes until you walk the rest of the way.
Besides this amazing experience, we made an epic fail when we thought Awakeri hot spring was gonna be a really cool nature's-wonder-kind-of-thing to see and swim in. Turned out we paid 7,50 dollars to swim in a swimming pool in a holiday park.
But to be fair, it was a hot thermal mineral pool (like 39 degrees) and it was nice to swim in. Even though I wouldn't do it again..
Pasta with creamy avocado sauce and stir fried tofu and zucchini.
This is such an amazingly creamy dish! I'm a sucker for creamy pasta sauces and I love how easy it is to make this without having to find vegan cream - all you need is avocado!
You'll need:
300 g pasta
For the tofu and zucchini:
400 g unflavoured tofu
5 table spoons soy sauce
2 table spoons lemon juice
1 garlic clove
A little bit of sugar
1 large onion
1 large zucchini
For the avocado sauce:
2 ripe avocados
2-3 garlic cloves
2 table spoons dried basil
2 table spoon lemon juice
Make it:
Start with opening up the package of tofu and drain the tofu in water. Wrap it in paper roll and put it on a plate with another plate (and some extra weight on it) on top of the tofu. Let it rest like that for about an hour, this is so the tofu will lose some weight from all the fluids that stuffed into it when you buy it in the store..
In the meantime: make the marinade by blending the soy sauce, crushed garlic, lemon juice and sugar into a bowl. After an hour, cut the tofu into smaller pieces and use a plastic bag to mix the tofu pieces with the marinade. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Cut up the zucchini and onion into smaller chunks and put it into a frying pan along with some cooking oil. Season and mix well. Fry on medium heat until softened and add the tofu. Continue to fry on medium/low heat for a few minutes and add some extra soy sauce and pepper if needed. (I love the salty flavour from the soy sauce!)
Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Put the avocado, garlic, lemon juice and basil into a blender along with some water and blend until smooth.
When the pasta is done, drain it and pour all the avocado sauce into the pan and mix it up. Serve with the tofu and zucchini! Done and yum!
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