Working VeganMofo: Tips for non-breakfast folks during the busy week

Sadly no photos today as this post is coming from you during my lunch break at work, but I wanted to send out some love for VeganMofo <3 br=""> If you are anything like me then breakfast is generally one of those meals you know you should eat but can never quite figure out what I want to eat or can stomach so early in the morning. Mostly, its a struggle to function without coffee and harder still to make breakfast and get out on time.

Breakfast cereal is an easy solution but just doesn't cut it for a full morning of fuel and make ahead muffins or oatmeal seem great but I am pretty well a savoy breakfast fan 98% of the time. So what works best for me is the old stand by of fake bacon/ham and hasbrowns/roast potatoes which when you work in the morning or are busy rushing to school can be a bit hectic.

My solution although basic seems worth sharing and honestly makes a huge difference in my mornings. The night before or beginning of the week I wash and chop enough potatoes for either the next morning or the next couple of mornings. Dice some onion/garlic and toss the cubed potatoes, garlic/onion, assorted seasoning and oil into a bowl/tupperware container and shake them to coat. Place it in the fridge and have them ready when you get up simply preheat the oven to 400, toss them on a pan and jump in the shower.


For fake bacon or additional fillers I marinate the tofu over night and toss it on to bake part way through or simply pan fry it once the potatoes are nearly done.

How to unfuck breakfast for busy VeganMofos

The night before/Sunday Evening:

• Dice enough potatoes for your morning crew or for a couple of breakfasts
• optional: dice an onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic
• Toss the potatoes and garlic with a few dashes of olive oil and your favourite seasoning (Rosemary, oregano, paprika, cumin, coriander, pepper, salt, cajun spice mix, savory, thyme etc) optional as well sesame seeds for added nutrients
• place sealed bowl or tupper ware with potato mix into the fridge and shake to coat (bonus this allows you to use less oil when cooking)
• In the morning preheat oven to 400, add the potatoes to a pan and grab your shower. Awake to hashbrowns on a weekday .

Veganmofo: Autumn's Seed roastin

Autumn is a great time of year, brilliant colours, bounty harvest of produce and above all Squash, Pumpkin and more Squash.

Veganmofo has been going crazy for pumpkin recipes and it's only fitting. These babies are cheap and boy do they scream fall when you bite into cupcakes, pies, pastries, doughnuts, biscuits, soups, stews, roasts and anything else infused with this orange goodness.

As you will likely be gutting all kinds of these seed filled gems, I figured I do a quick post on how to prep your seeds for roasting and eating.

1. Gut your squash. Spoon all the stringy seedy mess into a light mess straigher.
2. Running warm water over the mess, squish with your hands to seperate the seeds form the orange muck.
3. Remove orange muck into compost and continue rinsing until seeds are clear and clean.
4. Allow seeds to fully dry.
5. Pre-heat a cast iron skillet with a light coating of oil.
6. Add dry seeds and toast over medium high heat 5-10 minutes or until browned. Tossing with seasoning of choice. Splatter guards are your friend!

And Voila! super tasty snack to munch while you wait on the squash/pumpkin.

Seasoning options include

• coarse sea salt
• dill and thyme (and salt)
• Coarse pink and black pepper with salt
• Chili powder, paprika and garlic salat
• Cinnamon and sugar, finely ground
• Cinnamon sugar and cayanne
• Cajun mix
• Cumin, Coriander, Salt, ground mustard seed and curry powder
• Oregano, thyme, sage, poultry spice and vegan-chicken-stock-powder
• Nooch, salt, paprika and garlic

But don't limit yourself to the list! Try all kinds of combos!

Note: these can also be baked, sans oil at 400 but watch them carefully!

Veganmofo V: Autumn Mac-N-Cheeze

So once upon a time a brilliant Mac-N-Cheeze recipe appeared on my mofo feed using butternut squash. Better still, it used all the other ingredients I have laying around the apartment. It was calling my name and unlike the majority of things my greedy mofo-eyes started bookmarking for later, it wouldn't require I get up, put on pants and drag myself to the grocery store or market.

 

 Hurrah! I had a butternut squash in the fridge that was planned for AFR's Coconut Squash rice, but the stem had started going funky on me, so I roasted that sucker and cut off all the questionable chunks of skin just to be safe.

For those of you who don't know there are a variety of schools of thought on the Squash roasting process, to make things simple, I'm going to give you mine:


Lazy Woman's Guide to Roasting All Large and Orange Things:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Cover your baking tray in a silapat or tinfoil (or lightly grease it, sugars can get messy as they cook)
3. Take a sharp knife and carefully slice your squash/pumpkin in half length wise. I also cut off the bit with the stem, but mine was starting to go bad.
4. Remove pulp/seeds. (Optional: put seeds aside for roasting later)
5. Lightly coat cut side of squash in olive oil and place cut side up on the baking sheet.
6. Place squash in oven for approximately 30 minutes.
7. Flip the squash over and return for another 30 minutes or until a fork easily peirces the squash

You can then slice, scoop or eat as is. I find it easier to scoop out the flesh and leave the skin intact, it also saves copious amounts of peeling/chopping while the squash is hard and resistant.

Anyway, time went on and I finally decided that I had eaten enough leftovers to warrant making myself some Mac. But suddenly, the original post was not in my feed, it wasn't stared or showing up when I search. Distraught, I found a few other tasty looking offerings but they were not the same. Thankfully a few google searches later I had found it On Raw for 10$ a day! (link to recipe).

Now  despite having everything I need right there, I did make a few changes for one I used my blender (which proved to be a  bit of a hassle) instead of a food processors. Actually, in my usual fashion I bastardized the poor recipe to death.

Complete list of changes made

• Used blender instead of food processor
• As such only used 1/2 of squash and closer to 3/4 cups of almond milk
• Apparently forgot about the lemon juice all together (whoops)
• Used Earth Balance
• Took some panko/Earth balance and toasted them together in my skillet
• Blended sauce, added it to a mixture of Gluten Free Rice Macaroni and steamed kale
• Topped with toasted bread crumbs and paprika/chili powder
• Baked for 20 minutes covered at 350, removed cover and baked for 10 more minutes

So for this version you will need (original recipe from Raw on 10$ a Day Here)

• 1/2 roasted squash, skin removed
• 3/4 cups almond milk
• 4 tablespoons Nooch
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons earth balance
• 1 tsp garlic, 1 tsp onion powder, 
• Fresh ground pepper
• 1 tbps parika and 2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 cup panko
• 2 more tablespoonsof earth balance
• 1/2 pack of rice-macaroni
• 1/2 bunch of kale

Preheat oven to 350 and bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta as directed on box, chop kale and add to a steamer basket above your pasta. Blend the first 7 ingredients in your blender/food processor until smooth. Stir it a few times to be sure.

Once pasta/kale is done, drain liquid and rinse under cold water. Dump pasta/kale into casserole dish and toss together with sauce until everything is evenly coated.

 

Pre-heat your cast iron skillet and melt 2 tbsp of Earth Balance, add your panko and toss until evenly browned.

 

Add these to the top of the Mac-N-Cheeze sprinkled with paprika and chili powder. Cover with lid and bake for 20 minutes until sauce is bubbly. Remove cover and turn to 400 to crisp top (approximately 10 minutes).

Eat with salt, pepper and hot sauce!

Let's get Fancy now

Here is a cheap and easy way to impress your dates, friends and family and to make your everyday vegan food look uber fancy. We've all seen the fancy restaurant portions of little food artistically mounted onto a plate for the "ouuus" and "ahhhs" only to leave you still fucking hungry! So my solution, stack your own food.
Stacking food, especially into little towers of alternating flavours looks impressive and isn't very hard. Best of all, you get enough to eat and hey, this might even get you laid. Now, normally I don't give two rats asses about presentation, I want tasty food and I wanted it now damn it. But if you have people to impress or want to try something new here are a few easy tips.
1)Use edibles to create beds, baskets, mounds or cups to present your food on. Because no one wants to pick out paper or plastic from their food when they sit down to eat. Dress up plain plates with drizzles of sauce, a bed of lettuce or get really fancy and cut carrots and other vegetables into cute little shapes to arrange.

2)For some reason humans are fascinated and excited about food in shapes. Molds are an easy way to do this, now this doesn't mean you should go out and buy all kinds of fancy equipment but the next time you make say a grain/noodle/mashed potatoes try experimenting with what you have available. Spray some oil into a mug, tupper ware contain, old EB container etc and try different shapes it may take some practice but once you master it you can create layers by alternating sauce, vegetables (squash etc works nicely). Rissorto work really well for this.

3) finally the easiest of all is food towers. Which is basically stacking your food on the plate, alternating sauces/toppings with your main dish. This works in a variety of ways, you could do tofu rounds, eggplant rounds, polenta rounds and basically make all your food round or you could use different shapes and for an alternating pattern. Sometimes I find using a variety of shapes gives a dish more appeal for example my breakfast:


Tofu triangles stacked onto a bed of sauteed mushrooms with onion and then repeated until finished surrounded by rounded potatoes. This is a very simple dish, but it gets fancier just because of the way it is plated.

Home Sweet Home

First meal back home a simple vegetable stir fry. Basic principles for stir fries, heat wok with some oil (i like to use a splash or two of sesame oil for taste) fry your onions, fresh garlic or ginger (or both!), sesame seeds or nuts, then add the vegetables in order of which cook the longest like carrots.

Be sure to add your favorite spices and sauces half way through cooking. With this stir fry I added my sauce when I added the faux chicken strips. Things like bean sprouts should be added just before consumption.

Fresh vegetables always taste best but frozen works just as well, especially if you plan on using a thick sauce that will coat your stir fry. You can even mix and match frozen with fresh. Be sure to serve your stir fry with your favorite whole grain or grain mix. Here I have a herbed wild rice.