Bacon, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwich

I wanted to round out the breakfast series today with my take on a diner breakfast sandwich. I thought this would be a good one to finish things off with partly because I do occasionally miss a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on the run and partly because I have a ton of leftovers from this series of breakfast posts cluttering up my fridge and I need to make room for the amazing amount of impulse purchases I just made at Costco. Don't shop hungry, kids.

If you're the sole vegan in the house, you are probably like me and have food for the week in your fridge after making one recipe. Earlier in the week I made tempeh bacon and tofu omelets, which both make about 4 servings apiece. Between trying to plan my son's 3rd birthday party, taking care of two preschoolers by myself while the hubby was on shift and some general insanity in the day-to-day life of me, by the time dinner rolled around I was completely spent. Basically, it was the perfect night for leftovers.

Cashews, how I love thee

The first thing I grabbed was some Spreadable Cashew Cheddar I made a few days ago. I like having this recipe on hand for smearing on veggie burgers and sandwiches, but it's really good on chips for nachos too. I also add a tsp or so of Earth Balance along with a couple tablespoons of this stuff to some noodles and make a quick mac and cheese. It really is a good staple. 

Spreadable Cashew Cheddar Cheese (Pub Cheese)

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

3/4 cup cashews (soaked 2-24 hours)

1/3 cup water

3 Tbsp tahini

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp yellow or dijon mustard

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Drain cashews and place in blender or food processor along with other ingredients. Blend until smooth. 

(Blendtec users: Use Twister Jar if you have it and use the dips and batters mode. If you don't have the twister jar, the other jars will work perfectly fine, you'll just have to scrape the sides a time or two.)

Moons Over My Hammy should be ashamed of its inferiority

I spread a layer of cashew cheese on the inside of a pita and then sprinkled a little bit of the bacon salt that I mentioned in my previous post over it. Then, I layered a leftover tofu omelet, some sliced roma tomatoes and some leftover tempeh bacon that I reheated in a pan with a drizzle of maple syrup (see this post for the technique on this. It's really easy).

In the words of Turk from Scrubs, Brinner is served

I washed the whole thing down with this lovely Califia Farms Salted Caramel Iced Coffee that I found at Sprouts. It was salty, caramely, cold brewed coffee-tacular and made with almond milk. I actually run for one of these instead of going for a Starbucks fix these days. Of course it was a bit of a tragic misstep that I drank this for breakfast at dinnertime because the little bugger packed quite the caffeine punch and I was up until one o'clock in the morning watching a McDougall seminar on youtube. I wish I could tell you I was making this up. I truly do.

This was my kind of comfort food. Is the nutritional content of this meal a stand out? No. You are not going to impress Michelle Obama with this meal, or Dr. McDougall for that matter. You will, however, satisfy that craving you've been having since the last time your brother-in-law insisted that you go to Wildflower Bread Co. for breakfast and you had a bagel with peanut butter, which was perfectly enjoyable don't get me wrong, but you watched as everyone else got ooey gooey breakfast sandwiches and you couldn't help but feel a little hosed even though you were glad that you went with the bagel instead. Remember that time? 

Fig Newton Oatmeal

I suck hard at baking.

I'm like the kid in gym who gets picked last for dodgeball and I'm all pissed about it because I like dodgeball and I totally wanna play but once I finally get settled onto a team and the coach blows the whistle I get all ramped up and flail around like a spaz, which gets me nailed in the head immediately by that sporty girl I kinda hate and completely reinforces to everyone why I was picked last in the first place. Like,I  really suck at it.

Me.

I genuinely have no idea what my problem is but my bread comes out flat, my cookies come out kinda hard and really cakey and my cakes come out crumbly. My husband has resigned himself to the fact that anything I bake will be a Shakespearean tragedy and gamely chokes down my attempts, but it verges on assault to make him do this very often. I plan on dedicating time at some point to attempt an improvement of my baking skills, but until then I rely on buying mostly ready made things from the store and satisfying my sweet tooth in other ways.

Enter Trader Joe's Fig Butter.

During a recent shopping trip to my local mecca of all things delicious and random, I came across an item that caught my eye. It was in the jelly section and so I think its intended use is for sandwiches, which is going to happen I assure you, but my brain immediately went to other applications. Breakfast applications.

The idea of Fig Newton Oatmeal was born. I used to love me some fig newtons back in the day. Since I'm too unskilled to bake some vegan ones, I figured this would be a fun homage to those doughy little squares of fabulous without attempting to produce a version that would inevitably be a rock hard while simultaneously undercooked mess, producing not happiness but instead the tears of children.

I prefer to cook oats on the stove due to my blinding rage at having to clean up the over spill when then microwave makes the oatmeal boil so rapidly that it grows into a swamp monster in there and tries to escape the bowl. I'll take the extra five minutes to boil some water in order to avoid the extra five minutes it takes to scrape scalding hot oatmeal goo from the microwave turntable. You may not have this issue, but you can probably bake a peanut butter cookie that wouldn't be able to double as a bludgeon so stop looking down your nose at me, okay?

For this recipe, I put some vanilla extract and the zest of about half of an orange into the water and brought it to a boil. It smelled like Christmas in my kitchen as it started to heat up.

I cooked the oats according to package directions and then mixed about a tsp of Earth Balance and a tsp of brown sugar in so they would get melty and awesome. I then stirred in a Tbsp of Fig Butter. This yielded a very mild fig taste in the finished product so if you want it to be really figgy you can always add in more. Go ahead. Get figgy with it.

(I'm so sorry.)

The finished product sports some walnut pieces and a little almond/coconut milk blend. You could top this with some cut up strawberries if you wanted to go for a bit of a Strawberry Fig Newton flair or maybe some agave if you wanted it a bit sweeter.

Fig Newton Oatmeal
makes 1 serving

Ingredients
1/3 cup oats (or however much your brand calls for in one serving)
1 cup water ( or the amount needed to make one serving of your oatmeal brand)
zest of 1/2 orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vegan buttery spread (ie. Earth Balance or Smart Balance)
1-2 tsp brown sugar
1-2 Tbsp Fig Butter
walnuts and non dairy milk to taste (optional)

Directions

If preparing your oatmeal on a stove top, add water, vanilla and orange zest to a pot and bring to a boil. Add oats and reduce to medium boil, stirring often until desired thickness. (Duration will vary depending on the type of oats you are using. Refer to the package.)

If preparing in a microwave, add water, vanilla, orange zest and oatmeal to a microwave safe bowl and cook according to package directions.

Transfer cooked oatmeal to a bowl and stir brown sugar and buttery spread into the oats until well incorporated. 

Add fig butter and stir until well incorporated.

Add toppings of your choice.

Enjoy

Breakfast Part Deux: Tofu Omelets

A true mainstay of the vegan breakfast catalog is the tofu scramble. Versatile, healthy, yummy and egg-like, it's a dish that can be dressed up to remind you of your favorite greasy spoon breakfast from days of yore or dressed down for days when you just want something simple. But, just as eggs don't only come in scrambled form, tofu doesn't have to either.

Enter the Tofu Omelet.

As I mentioned yesterday, my go-to book for all things vegan breakfast is Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Because I intend on doing a series of breakfast posts, there are going to be several recipes from this book but don't fear, I do intend on using recipes from a variety of places including the ones the voices in my head whisper to me on a semi-regular basis. 

(So soothing. So hungry.)

 

If there was one thing that I was worried about being able to give up when I transitioned to veganism, it was eggs. Usually I hear people lament their love of cheese as if they're in a co-dependent, mildly emotionally abusive relationship with it so I feel as though I may be in a small minority here but cheese wasn't the hard part.

It's amazing what you find if you google "evil cheese."

Which is why I was so excited to try this recipe once I got a blender that actually blended food as opposed to merely slapping it around for awhile before giving up.

She's so pretty. 

The recipe calls for silken tofu, garbanzo bean flour, nutritional yeast, garlic, olive oil, turmeric, arrowroot and the black salt that I mentioned yesterday. Measure them all out, dump them into your blender and mix until smooth. Seriously, that's it. I used the batter mode on my blender but any medium speed setting would work fine. 

It smells at this point. Don't be scared

Once the ingredients are blended, you're going to lift the lid off of the blender and the smell of fart is going to waft terrifyingly through your kitchen like the stink waves that emanate from Pig Pen in the Peanuts cartoons. Unless you're into that kind of thing, you may be frightened. I know I was. It's the black salt, which gives the mix an eggy, albeit sulfuric, sort of smell. This WILL mellow out substantially once the omelet is cooked, to the point that you should use a little sprinkle on the end product for maximum omelet taste. If you aren't as big of an egg fan as I am, you can use less of this stuff or you can omit it entirely but I highly recommend that you give it a chance. It really does add an extra layer of flavor that is missing from more traditional egg substitute recipes.

Starting to look omelet-y

Pour about 1/4 to 1/3 cup batter onto a skillet, preheated cast iron or nonstick pan that you've sprayed with a light misting of cooking spray and spread it around until it's thin and round. The process is not unlike making pancakes at this point. Watch the top of the omelet as it will start to go from a light, shiny yellow to a darker, more matte yellow (you can see it around the edges in the picture). Once the top is the dry, matte finish it's time to flip it.

I'm gonna dress you up and put you inside me...wow, that escalated quickly

The finished product is a bit of a cross between an omelet, a pancake and a crepe. Perfect for folding over whatever delicious fillings your heart desires.

Can't you just smell it?

I sauteed some onions, bell pepper and mushrooms in the already hot pan. It was at this moment that I kinda wished I had a little vegan Canadian bacon around so I could go Denver omelet style. Guess I'll have to pick some up for tomorrow as this recipe makes 4 large omelets or 6 smaller ones so if you're the only vegan in your household, like me, you'll have some leftovers. Not to worry though, these reheat really nicely in a microwave for 30 seconds wrapped in a damp paper towel.

I took a bite before I took the picture. I'm selfish like that.

A little avocado accompanied my fillings while some fresh blueberries and my ever present coffee rounded everything out. These are so easy and yummy, I make them a couple of times per month. It's nice to have them in the fridge for busy mornings or for a portable lunch. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to finish what I've started with that first bite and put some serious harm on my fancy breakfast.

Oh Breakfast, My Breakfast

In the words of that visionary man who paved the way for millions of children to sing triumphantly that that the cold never bothered them anyway:

Welcome to my vegan blog! Why another vegan blog when there are already a million stellar ones out there? 

Why the hell not? 

I don't know about you, but I can honestly say that when I'm in bed, scrolling through Pinterest on my phone in the wee small hours of the night while I'm supposed to be trying to sleep, I never get pissed by yet another picture of fantastic vegan food. I've seen more smoothies than you can count, more salad combinations than you can imagine and more step-by-step pictorials of how to build a vegan enchilada than you can shake a maraca at and I never get tired of it. I love me some food porn.

Especially when it's sexy, smokin' hot vegan food porn.

So, I decided to combine my love of writing and my love of seitan into a blog that will, hopefully, entertain both you and me while adding to the incredible wealth of other vegan blogs out there and I've decided to start with my favorite meal of the day.

Breakfast.

Maybe it's because I've been asleep all night long and so I wake up starving, my taste buds screaming for tastiness. Maybe it's because I prefer the flavor combinations that breakfast foods offer. Maybe it's because that first cup of coffee produces a euphoria that would make eating a shoe a transcendent experience. Who knows? I'd love to have some sort of eloquent explanation for why I love breakfast above other meals, but the best I can come up with is that it's just super fucking good. From scrambles, to oatmeal, to smoothies and tofu omelets, I can't get enough of breakfast. Hell, I even like eating breakfast for dinner (in which case I call it "brinner" as an homage to Mr. Christopher Turk, M.D. from Scrubs.)

Eat your heart out Denny's

Today's plate of awesome was made possible by the one and only Isa Chandra Moskowitz of The Post Punk Kitchen. Seriously, I have every book she's done and refer to all of them incessantly. My copy of Veganomicon is so well loved the pages are sticking together....that sounded unintentionally dirty. I'm sorry I said that.

(No I'm not.)

I used her book Vegan Brunch to make a perfect tofu scramble topped with mushrooms, bell pepper and power greens along with some truly delicious tempeh bacon. I honestly had no idea, until I used this recipe, that I had been making tofu scrambles all wrong. They always came out too dry and kind of flavorless. This recipe not only listed a perfect blend of spices, but I had no idea before I tried it that I should sprinkle the spices on and then mix a little water in so that the flavors could absorb into the tofu. The end result was light, fluffy and flavorful, especially after the addition of another ingredient that I learned about in the tofu omelet recipe from the same book.

Smells like farts, tastes like eggs. How's that for a slogan?

Black salt, or kala namak, is just table salt that has been heated along with other spices until it is pink and fairly sulfuric smelling. I picked this up at a specialty Indian market down the street, but you can find it in larger Asian grocery stores too. I first used it to make tofu omelets from Vegan Brunch and the smell that filled my kitchen imbued me with such dread that I almost couldn't bring myself to try the finished product. I'm gonna be blunt as we're all friends here, it smelled like a frat guy's nuclear beer farts. Once cooked though, the flavor mellows out a lot and you're left with a pleasant hint of eggy-ness that takes all egg inspired dishes to the next level. I sprinkle it in all of my scrambles now as well as tofu omelets. I'm a little obsessed with it actually.

A little coffee with french vanilla coconut creamer and slice of cinnamon raisin toast rounded everything out and left me wondering if I would suffer some sort of massive nutritional deficiency if I just went ahead and ate the exact same thing again for dinner. Don't worry, I probably won't.

Probably.