Veganmofo: Breakfast on the run! 2015

 Short post today, as I over slept and need to head out to the restaurant. Thankfully I had cold coffee in a jar in the fridge (Screech coffee in fact! Pretty tasty) so coffee was fast.

And my roommate was making oatmeal chocolate chip muffins before she left for a conference. So Veganmofo-ians, I bring you a short post of my breakfast before I left for work.

Might not have been the fanciest but it was pretty darn good.

Happy Mofo!

Veganmofo15: lazy mornings

One of the easiest and best ways to enjoy your monring and eat brekafast during hte busy weeks or pre-morning-coffee is an old resturant trick: keep a batch of pancaker batter handy wiht lots of add ins for a customaziable breakfast any day of the week.

Really any pancake recipe will work and you should be able to keep them for about a week in the fridge. I opted for a plain white batter, so I could raid the pantry or fruit section throughout the week to spice things up. In the morning just heat your pan over high heat, pour/laddle in your batter and add a topping or filling of choice (here I did coconut walnut) as the batter is cooking in the pan. Then struggle valiantly to flip them and if you're me throw some vegan meats or seitan sausage on the pan post pancakes.

Simple and filling breakfast you can make in minutes, you are welcome!

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 .

Halifax Eats: Heartwood's new Bruch

Ok, so I've blogged about Heartwood a few times. But being the last remaining veggie place in Halifax (there is obviously Formosa's in Dartmouth), it's bound to happen.

Recently they've had a few ascetic make overs but best of all they have started serving Brunch! With an all new brunch menu from 10am-3pm on Saturdays and Sundays [Also they are now open Sundays!].

Over all exciting times.

I went with my Dad who was in town and my little brother Zane.

I did the classic tofu scramble platter: comes with fries and toast. Zane opted for the Wild Card Salad, brunch edition, which turned out to feature a tiny bit of everything they serve, so I was jealous. Dad went with the Kamut/Spelt Waffles topped with berry sauce and fruit salad.

Everything was super tasty and we lucked out with our fresh coffee and fresh mango/orange juice as the special of the day along with Banana Walnut Muffins.

As the platters were huge, I lucked out with leftovers so I have breakfast tomorrow too!

Quick-n-Easy-Student-Smoothie

Something cheap and easy to throw together in the morning or the night before a busy day of classes.

Cheapest option is always to use what you have, Bananas are a great smoothie food and one of the cheapest foods around, but get creative with whatever you have.

Quick-n-Easy-Student-Smoothie

• 2 Bananas
• Chocolate Soy-milk
• Pea Protein powder
• hand full of spinach

Blend the spinach, pea protein and a splash of chocolate soy-milk until totally smooth. Add the banana in sections and blend until smooth.

Toss in a travel mug if you are supper short on time.

Enjoy!

I have saved Veganism! (Potentially): The theoretical vegan flapjack

I just had a brilliant idea, which seems like it will almost work (being unable to get to the health food store to buy coconut oil and test my theory, I figure I'd run it by the ppk) Vegan Flapjacks.

FlapJacks are some what of an obsession of certain people, essencially they boil down to pancakes cooked in bacon grease (kinda gross when you say it out loud).

So for the vegan version, I was thinking of melting some coconut oil as its a rich fat that is solid at room temperature like bacon grease. It's also known for going a bit crispier than the traditional oil.

For the bacon-y flavour I was thinking a hickory smoke and some soy sauce, possibly garlic or some other flavour.

Ideas thoughts? Food science ?

Pumpkin French Toast Casserole (or banana, apple, other fruit)

This is basically my lazy, casual rendition of French toast, with less work. This recipe is about using what you have on hand or things that you may have no other use for or are about to get up and leave you.

The original Recipe is from Vegan Brunch by Isa, amazing book and worth your hard earned money.

This recipe is great for when you have some stale or dry bread that is past it's prime. Because this recipe is the my lazy vegan version, you can use any old bread or an assortment of breads. No matter how old, dry, stale, hard, broken or decrepit it is, because instead of perfect slices our bread is going to be cubed, torn and shredded. I also made sure to save and add all the bread crumbs I had laying around, so dump out those bags and scrap your cutting boards! Waste not, want not.

This recipe is all about using what you already have, so experiment and substitute to suit your needs. If you don't have pumpkin try squash, banana, fruit compote, sweet potato, apple sauce. Anything!

What you will need:
Baking Dish
Bowl
Cutting Board

Ingredients:
1 cup canned pumpkin (alternative, depending on what you have could be apple sauce, compote, mashed bananas)
1 cup almond milk (or any other vegan milk)
2 T corn starch (again, it you like potato or other starches use them)
2 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
two shakes of all spice
optional: Earth balance for buttering the baking dish and dotting the top
Optional add ins: Anything you have laying around, nuts (whole, broken, ground), coconut, dried fruit, chocolate chips, oats, flax seeds, this is your dish and it is about using what you have.

Add ins can either be mixed with pumpkin mixture, or tossed with the bread, or even sprinkled over top of the dish! Whatever you want.

a little liquid from jarred ginger or a little bit of grated fresh ginger (again, this is to taste so for stronger bite add more)
expired bread, I had a good 3/4 loaf but you could round this out with fresh bread, all bread crumbs or any bread like items you have around.

Dice your bread into bite sized cubes or tear into chunks if using soft bread save all end pieces, crumbs, fluffy bits and odds and ends. Set aside.

Mix everything else together in a bowl and preheat your oven to 350.

Place all your bread into a shallow rimmed baking dish (you can use a casserole dish or deep dish, this will result in a softer casserole. As the pumpkin mixture is pretty wet, and depending on how hard/dry your bread is you may want more layers to keep in moisture.) Since I like mine less-moist and a little crispy, I'm using a shallow baking dish so my bread is effectively in a single layer.

Pour pumpkin mixture over bread and let sit until oven is ready, the longer it sits the more it absorbs and the softer it gets. So depending on the tough/dryness of your bread and your preference for soft/pudding style eats you may want to let it sit longer.

Alternatively you can prepare this and place it in your fridge to dish out smaller amounts to cook on an as needed bases. Or even fish out your bread cubes to fry, traditional French toast style throughout the week. MMM

But since I'm being lazy, I'm just gonna plop the whole mess in the oven and not let it sit very long. About 12 minutes, stir let it sit another 12, then bake.

Baking time was around _____, again if you'd like a more pudding style dish you could stir/mix it as it cooks and reduce the cooking time.

Voila!

Serve alone, dusted with sugar, spices, citrus zest, berry sauce, syrup, ice cream or w/e.

Veganmofo: A lazy day and quiet breakfast

Pumpkin French Toast Casserole (or banana, apple, other fruit)

This is basically my lazy, casual rendition of French toast, with less work. This recipe is about using what you have on hand or things that you may have no other use for or are about to get up and leave you.

The original Recipe is from Vegan Brunch by Isa, amazing book and worth your hard earned money.



This recipe is great for when you have some stale or dry bread that is past it's prime. Because this recipe is the my lazy vegan version, you can use any old bread or an assortment of breads. No matter how old, dry, stale, hard, broken or decrepit it is, because instead of perfect slices our bread is going to be cubed, torn and shredded. I also made sure to save and add all the bread crumbs I had laying around, so dump out those bags and scrap your cutting boards! Waste not, want not.

This recipe is all about using what you already have, so experiment and substitute to suit your needs. If you don't have pumpkin try squash, banana, fruit compote, sweet potato, apple sauce. Anything!



What you will need:
Baking Dish
Bowl
Cutting Board

Ingredients:
1 cup canned pumpkin (alternative, depending on what you have could be apple sauce, compote, mashed bananas)
1 cup almond milk (or any other vegan milk)
2 T corn starch (again, it you like potato or other starches use them)
2 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
two shakes of all spice

optional: Earth balance for buttering the baking dish and dotting the top
Optional add ins: Anything you have laying around, nuts (whole, broken, ground), coconut, dried fruit, chocolate chips, oats, flax seeds, this is your dish and it is about using what you have.
More Options: If you don't want to serve the casserol with syrup or sugar, I would add brown sugar or maple syrup directly to the pumpkin mix to bake in the sweetness so no toppings will be needed.

Also, if you bread mixture looks a little dry once all the juices are absorb splash some more almond milk on top.

Add ins can either be mixed with pumpkin mixture, or tossed with the bread, or even sprinkled over top of the dish! Whatever you want.

a little liquid from jarred ginger or a little bit of grated fresh ginger (again, this is to taste so for stronger bite add more)
expired bread, I had a good 3/4 loaf but you could round this out with fresh bread, all bread crumbs or any bread like items you have around.

Dice your bread into bite sized cubes or tear into chunks if using soft bread save all end pieces, crumbs, fluffy bits and odds and ends. Set aside.

Mix everything else together in a bowl and preheat your oven to 350.

Place all your bread into a shallow rimmed baking dish (you can use a casserole dish or deep dish, this will result in a softer casserole. As the pumpkin mixture is pretty wet, and depending on how hard/dry your bread is you may want more layers to keep in moisture.) Since I like mine less-moist and a little crispy, I'm using a shallow baking dish so my bread is effectively in a single layer.



Pour pumpkin mixture over bread and let sit until oven is ready, the longer it sits the more it absorbs and the softer it gets. So depending on the tough/dryness of your bread and your preference for soft/pudding style eats you may want to let it sit longer.

I added broken walnut pieces to mine and mixed them in last. Mine also looked a little dry so I added a splash of soymilk on top and dotted it with Earth Balance.

Alternatively you can prepare this and place it in your fridge to dish out smaller amounts to cook on an as needed bases. Or even fish out your bread cubes to fry, traditional French toast style throughout the week. MMM

But since I'm being lazy, I'm just gonna plop the whole mess in the oven and not let it sit very long. About 12 minutes, stir let it sit another 12, then bake.

Baking time was around 15-20 mins, again if you'd like a more pudding style dish you could stir/mix it as it cooks and reduce the cooking time.

Voila!

Now because I didn't add any sugar to the casserole the end result isn't overtly sweet. I prefer to sweeten it to taste on the plate with icing sugar and maple syrup (I also lived with my dad, who hated sweets so I tend to let people add their own sugar). However, if your looking for a sweetened dish ready scoop and eat, I would mix in some maple syrup or brown sugar right into the pumpkin puree.

Serve alone, dusted with sugar, spices, citrus zest, berry sauce, syrup, ice cream or w/e.

alternatively if you like pumpkin, you could make this a savory dish by adding sauted garlic, Rosemary, thyme and onions to the pumkin mixture and extra earth balance.

Good morning

As per usual I open one of my cookbooks find something that looks good, seems do-able. And then I make something completely different. Today it was pancakes and for the first time ever, it seems I have made a pancake recipe I can actually cook! For the first time ever I have cooked pancakes by myself.

Now these cakes are pretty dense and easy to flip in the pan with a wrist toss, you know like those pros do. These are not your fluffy light pancakes, they are almost biscuity in texture but certainly filling in the morning.

Chocolate Banana Pancakes
1 cup WW flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1/4 cup Cocoa
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/4 cup of Vanilla Soy Milk (or non-dairy milk of choice)
1 Tbsp Canola oil + more for greasing pan
1 Banana sliced as thick or thin as you like

In a large bowl combine your flour, cinnamon and sea salt. Be sure to sift in your cocoa and baking powder to remove any lumps. Next measure out your soy milk in a large liquid measuring cup and add your canola oil and mix in the measuring cup. Don't be alarmed that the batter is pretty thick. Now add your wet ingredients to your dry. Now gently stir in your banana slices.

Oil your non-stick skillet and heat the pan on medium high heat until heated through, then reduce your heat to medium/medium-low and let it settle. Using a big spoon scoop batter into the center of the pan, using a spoon to flatten the batter (this can be tricky). Wait until bubbles form around the edges and then toss your pancake. Be sure to press down the flipped cakes, once cooked transfer to a plate in the oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter.

Serve with a berry laced syrup or plain sugar/maple and earthbalance.

Iron A-hoy!

Breakfast Rich in Iron. Potatoes and Kale!

As some may know, that year in res killed my iron supplies. So they are low (not anemic or dangerous or unhealthy in any way). However, despite the goodness of my health, I like having an iron supply should i ever be forced to go without decent human vegan food again.

Cue farmers market and a big old batch of kale (mmm kale).

So with my bounty and no recipes I set out to make myself this breakfast, and I think it went quite well.
Kale For Breakfast (or any other meal)
*Feeds one small small person, double as needed

what you will need:

• A handful of kale (you may want to chop/tear it more than I did, these huge leaves were not bite size)
• 4 potatoes
• One large garlic clove
• Half a large onion
• Paprika
• Pepper

Spiced salt
Room mate's lemon juice (shhh)



Directions:
First wash and then chop all your potatoes into small cubes and toss in boiling salted water.

Take out your kale and rinse well (make sure no dirt is hiding in the folds, or don't because what do I care it's your digestive tract). Tear or chop kale to desired sizes and place inside a shifter/mesh basket on top of potatoes to steam a little.


While the kale is softening and the potatoes boil away (keep an eye that they don't boil over). Dice your onion and preheat a cast iron skillet (more iron!). As you chop and the skillet heats consider something nice you can do for someone today or some other happy thought. Toss some EB (earth Balance) into the skillet (oil also works, olive is preferred) heat and move until pan is coated. Add in onions and toss around.






Now use your knife to crush the garlic (place garlic on board and knife horizontal/on its side atop your monster clove and push down with your hand (Mind the blade! but I am sure you knew this). Once properly crushed chop garlic and add to onions which should now be translucent and fragrant.

As onions and garlic fry toss in pepper and paprika (as much as desired, for me this is a lot).

check the kale, if its softish you can take it off the potato pot and dumb into your pan which should be frying blissfully away.

Fry kale and re-season as you like (except spiced salt, save this for serving time). Continue to fry as potatoes boil.

Check your taters with a fork after 20ish minutes, they should be soft. If not leave until they are, then drain and add to skillet.

Fry everything until good and cooked. If simply heated is your thing then eat away, I like a bit of crunch/char on my taters/veggies. So I leave it on for a little longer. Once you have reached your desired cooked status take a few squirts of someone else's lemon juice and cook some more.
Now your ready to toss onto a plater and season with spiced salt (and more pepper). Enjoy!

Not fully yet in the swing of things

First weekend, simple comfort brunch home fries and crumble Vegan sausage patties.
Boiled potatoes while taking notes, then fried in cast iron. Simple easy, filling.











Other breakfasts this week have been strawberry soy yogurt, bran cereals, oatmeal, nuts and grapefruit. I am not so much a morning person and school drains any energy I might have had.









In other news I went back to the school basement and this time I took photos, you can find them here: Dalhousie Animal Testing

















Anyways I am beat and have loads to get done, sorry I cannot be bothered to fix the layout on this thing. Formating is messed and I have no clue why, apologies.

As usual I slacked off

So for today's post breakfast!
With my dad, here's what we had:
Yves bacon fryed in garlic infused oil
Homefriends with onions, pepers, green onions, mushrooms, fake burger and spices.
Some grapefruit juice and tomatoe slices.

For lunch we'll be going to Calatus, I'll probobly get the veggie burger because it is sooo good.
Later!