Breakfast Scramble

It's Father's Day weekend and I am home with the family which means great vegan meals all weekend! This morning I made my favorite breakfast scramble from 'The 30 Minute Vegan' by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray. There are tons of different recipes for tofu scrambles but I really like this simple recipe to start and then you can add whatever veggies or spices you want.

1 1/2 T. olive oil
1 C. yellow onion, chopped small
4 medium-size garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1 pound extra-firm tofu, crumbled into large chunks
3/4 t. paprika
3 T. nutritional yeast
1 1/2 t. soy sauce, or to taste
sea salt and black pepper

Start off with heating the oil over medium heat in a sauté pan. Next add the chopped onions and garlic and cook until the onions are soft, around 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Next add the tofu. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the remaining ingredients and coook 3-5 more minutes. Next I added a big handful of spinach, a tomato chopped, 1 t. oregano, and a small bunch of fresh basil from my parent's garden.

We had a lovely breakfast with a nice fruit salad with cantaloupe, blueberries, and blackberries

Yummmm I love being home! good food and family!

I hate McDonald's

I have not posted in forever because...
1. I was just on spring break for the past week
2. The two weeks before that I had midterms
3. I am very lazy :)

Anyways on the way home from the beach we stopped at micky D's to get some breakfast and I figured oh I will get oatmeal that should be nice and vegan right.. NOPE haha of course they put milk and cream in there Thanks Mcdonald's

Here is some one who agrees Mcdonald's stinks!

A more accurate description than “100 percent natural whole-grain oats,” “plump raisins,” “sweet cranberries” and “crisp fresh apples” would be “oats, sugar, sweetened dried fruit, cream and 11 weird ingredients you would never keep in your kitchen.”

On a brighter note I spent a glorious 2 hours today at the grocery and made a delicious quesadilla for dinner with refried beans, vegan cheddar, black olives and a plethora of toppings

Procrastination..

I have a paper to write for my epidemiology class but instead I am on twitter and what do I find...

bacon is a gateway drug! check it out

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/01/30/133304206/why-bacon-is-a-gateway-to-meat-for-vegetarians?ft=1&f=1001&sc=tw&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

and another interesting article

http://pcrm.org/news/dietary_guidelines_back_plant-based_diets_fight_obesity_110131.html

and my lunch from today/dinner from Saturday night :) (I love left overs)

falafel, spinach, saffron rice, veganese, kalamata olives, and home made hummus
nom nom nom

Enjoy!

Breakfast

My daddy just surprised me with two new cookbooks in the mail and I was so excited because I love getting presents and I love getting mail! On wednesday I accidently slept through my class so to cheer myself up I made brainless banana pancakes from How it all Vegan by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. These are the easiest pancakes to make and they were delicious!

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 banana, mashed
1 1/4 C soy milk
1 Tbsp sweetener (I used agave)
sliced fruit for garnish (I used raspberries)

In a large bowl sift together dry ingrdients and in a small bowl mash the banana and add 1/4 cup soy milk and mix untill there are no lumps. Then add the banana, the rest of the soy milk, and the sweetener to the dry mix and stir until just combined. Then just cook them on both sides and you have some delicious breakfast. I added some dark chocolate chips to mine but they would be just as good plain. This recipe makes 2 or more servings.

Today I woke up extra early for class so I wouldn't sleep through it again and I needed to catch up on some reading. Since I was up I decided to make another delicious breakfast, Fabulous French Toast from this same awesome cook book.

1 1/2 C soy milk
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp sweetener
1 tsp cinnamon
8-10 slices of bread, stale or lightly toasted (I missed the memo about stale or toasted and would recommend this because my toast was a little soagy but still delicious)

In a large bowl whisk together milk, flour, yeast, sweetener, and cinnamon vigorously. Soak one slice of toast in batter until bread is gooey. Fry on both sides and garnish with fruit. I used bananas and put a little powdered sugar on top. Makes 8-10 slices.

GOOD MORNING!

Vegan Nutella

The first time I ever had "real" nutella was when I was in middle school and I spent the night at my cousin Kari's house and her husband Max from Italy made me some delicious waffles for breakfast and instead of syrup we had nutella.... and it was heavenly! Ever since I have been obsessed but unfortunately the real stuff is full of milk and non vegan ingredients. So in my new VEGANOMICON cook book, by Isa Chandra Miskowitz, I found a nice mocha-y recipe for not-tella!

Ingredients include:

1 generous cup of toasted and skinned hazelnuts
2 T hazelnut liquor (such as an airplane bottle of Frangelico)

1/4 t vanilla extract
3/4 C. powdered sugar
1/4 C. unsweetened cocoa powder
8-10 T peanut oil

First toast your hazelnuts at 300 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes until the skin is peeling back but do not burn your nuts!

Take the hot nuts and put them into a dish towel and roll them in with the ends all twisted to remove the shells. If you cant get all the shell off its okay it will just give it a more nutty taste which some may prefer.

Next put your hazelnuts, which I found out are also called Filberts, into either a food processor or if you have a juicer with a blank used to make nut butter use that (I used my juicer and will take a lot less time).

Blend until you have a creamyish butter and then add the hazelnut liquor, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, and cocoa.

Blend until it is crumbly and then add 4 to 5 T of oil and scrape down the sides and keep blending in your food processor. Now you will have a some what fudge like mixture. Add the rest of the oil a tablespoon at a time until you have a desired consistency. If not sweet enough add 1-2 more tablespoons of powdered sugar. Store in an air tight container in the fridge. When you take it out of the fridge let it sit out for 20 minutes to let it become spreadable again. I had mine on toast and by the spoonful but it is also great on fruit or with your soy ice cream!

ENJOY!

best vegan blog and bread

Amazingly I had never seen cup cake wars until the other night which is very hard to believe because I am obsessed with anything to do with cupcakes, cakes, and baking! I love ace of cakes and the food network so how I over looked this wonderful little show is just unknown, but go figure the first time I watch there is an adorable vegan girl who makes the best vegan cupcakes, Chef Chloe. She has some amazing award winning recipes on her blog so check them out

http://www.chefchloe.com/blog.html

Any ways after watching her I got the baking bug and was just itching for exams to be over so I could get home and start making some delicious food with my family! Later that night instead of studying for my exams of course I was surfing the net looking at vegan blogs and I stumbled on another blog, which so far has been the best vegan blog I have found http://www.meettheshannons.net I some how found their challah bread recipe and since it was the last night of Chanukah and my family occasionally celebrates jewish holidays I decided it would be perfect especially since my jewish grandparents were coming to town. Any ways I ended up staying up all night with nothing else to do (nothing to study for the next day) kneading my bread and it turned out perfect so here is the recipe taken from

The Betty Crocker Project: Challa Atcha'! on http://www.meettheshannons.net/2010/12/betty-crocker-project-challah-atcha.html

Challah Bread

3 Cups Flour
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Nutritional Yeast
1 Package Quick Active Yeast
1 Cup Very Warm Water
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Applesauce
Olive Oil Cooking Spray - for baking sheet
Vegan Vegetable Shortening - for greasing bowl (I just used some vegan butter and it worked fine)

Vegan "Egg Wash"

1 Tablespoon Water
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Apple Juice (I used fresh juice from a juicer)
1 Teaspoon Nutritional Yeast

In a large bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups of the Flour with Sugar, Salt, Nutritional Yeast and Quick Active Yeast. Add the Water and Oil and blend with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Be sure and scrap the sides of the bowl often to make sure all the ingredients are mixed in. Then blend in the Applesauce and remaining Flour until the batter is smooth.

Place Dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Grease a large bowl with Vegetable Shortening. Place the Dough in the greased bowl and spin it around a few times to get a light coating. Loosely seal the bowl up with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise for an hour or until it doubles in size. We let ours sit overnight.

Heat oven to 375.

Spray a light coating of Olive Oil Cooking Spray over a cookie sheet.

Once the Dough has doubled in size and is springy to the touch, remove it from the bowl and divide it into 3 equal segments. Roll each segment into a long rope - try to keep them about the same size. Here's a tip : Don't stretch your dough. We did and you can see it caused the bread to have that pulled and well just not smooth appearance. Just roll it out.

Lay the 3 ropes in a row and start braiding them loosely from the center out. Then pinch the ends under to secure them. Brush a light coating of Olive Oil over the bread and then place the Loaf on your greased cooking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for another hour.



In a small bowl mix mix all the ingredients from the Vegan Egg Wash with a whisk. Once the loaf has risen, brush the Loaf with the Vegan Egg Wash.

Bake 20-30 minutes (I baked mine for 15 minutes). Remove from the oven once it is golden brown. Thicker braids may take longer to bake.



I hope you enjoy this recipe and this blog it really has some great recipes I can't wait to try out a few more!

Mushroom pasta

During exam week food is usually the last thing on everyones mind and I usually end up eating out a lot or eating animal crackers for dinner. After a long day at the library and a very difficult exam I wanted something delicious and luckily we had some mushrooms in the fridge and I thought why not try to make something delicious. My room mate had told me about these irresistible mushrooms she had at thanksgiving a few years ago and it was just simply button mushrooms sautéed in worcestershire sauce. I decided to put my own spin on this and use what I had so this is what I came up with.




1/2 a package of White mushrooms
a sprinkle of red pepper flakes for some heat
olive oil
worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup bow tie pasta or as much as you want

This was only a single serving so if you want to make more just use more shrooms and pasta and use a little more sauce for marinating.

Put a pot of water on the stove to boil for the pasta while you are preparing the mushrooms. I don't usually wash my shrooms I just brush off any dirt or peel back any of the dirty spots. Then heat up the oil, worcestershire sauce and let the red pepper flakes heat up so the oil can absorb some of their heat. Next throw in the mushrooms, I left mine whole, and sautéed them in a fry pan with the olive oil, worcestershire sauce, and pepper flakes. let them cook on medium low until they are a darker color and a little bit smaller. Be careful how early you start cooking them because I had a hard time resisting them and ended up eating half of the mushrooms before the pasta was even done!



Next throw the pasta in the boiling water and cook for 7 to 8 minutes or however long your pasta package recommends. You can taste a bow tie and see if there done around 7 minutes if you like your pasta al dente. Then toss with the mushrooms after draining the pasta and enjoy!