VeganMoFo IV: Pancake or Death?

Breakfast is my absolute favorite meal of the day.  No hesitation in that statement.  In fact, I would like to campaign to make breakfast foods a part of every meal.

In the beginning of my veganism I never really knew what to eat for breakfast.  I didn't know anything about tofu scrambles and my first pancake ventures ended horribly.  So I decided to take pictures of what I ate for breakfast this week.

Often times it's just a smoothie or maybe some oatmeal.  Sometimes, I'll just eat leftovers from dinner.  As witnessed here:

eggplant rollatini and kale salad

With VeganMoFo going on, I've had to eat leftovers for breakfast or freeze a lot of stuff.  It's much harder to cook new things everyday than I thought!  Ha ha.  Here are some leftovers from last week's Iron Chef challenge.  The bowl looks deceptively big.  It's only 1/2 cup and the plate behind is a tiny appetizer plate.

quinoa caviar and eggnog quinoa & tapioca pudding

Some days I'll crave something super sugary for breakfast: cinnamon rolls, cake, fritters.  Other days I only want a green smoothie or juice of some kind.  I love juicing carrots because they almost get a creamy texture.

carrot, apple, celery, kale, parsley juice

Yesterday I woke up and wanted an epic breakfast, so I had a full English (a first for me)!  It was seriously delicious, though I'm making my own sausage next time.

sausage, baked beans, creminis, sourdough toast, scramble, potatoes, fresh tomato, and English breakfast tea

Last night we went out with a friend to see a deejay in Palm Springs.  I guess staying out as late as we did got to me because I woke up with a sore throat.  I opted for tea and cream of rice this morning.  Cream of rice is my absolute favorite!  I eat it with a bit of cashew butter and brown sugar.  I just noticed that my health food store sells cream of brown rice, so I'll have to try that next time.

horrible picture, but I assure it's delish...served with English breakfast tea

Other breakfast regulars for me are: pancakes, cereal and yogurt, toast with Earth Balance and jam, breakfast tacos, fruit and yogurt, muffins, smoothie made with frozen fruit and pea protein, and Barnard's brown rice breakfast (from How It All Vegan).

What's your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

VeganMoFo IV: Ain't Nothin' But a Pizza Party...Party...

I am in a serious funk right now.  You know when you think you've offended somebody, but don't know how to ask without sounding cuckoo?  That's how I've felt and the paranoia has turned me into a ball of nerves and inexplicable guilt.  So, today I wanted nothing more than something quick and easy to do for MoFo.  What's quicker and easier than pizza?  How about pizza that doesn't involve making dough or sauce?

chasing daylight: pizzas on my favoritest piggy cutting board

Pita, polenta, and sourdough pizzas!  The pita pizza is stuffed with ricotta, a brilliant idea I got from Tahinitoo!  I topped it with pesto, a small bit of Daiya, and fresh tomato.  The only thing I had to make here was the pesto, which took all of 30 seconds.

The polenta pizza was a small round topped with soyrizo and Daiya.  Then, I added a bit of sour cream.  Next time, I will definitely make the polenta less thick with a bigger surface because I wanted crunch and there wasn't any.  Also, I should have added avocado.  Word.

The sourdough pizza was topped with mac n cheeze.  It sounds weird, but it really is the best in decadent pizzas!  Usually, there is a bit of cheese sauce added before the mac goes on.  I was feeling way too lazy for that and just did a pat of Earth Balance.  I added broccoli because I always feel like there has to be greenery in a field of all yellow.

Well, I'm gonna get back to this Angel marathon.  I'm blaming my extreme need for Whedon shows on the PPK and the power of suggestion!

Tomorrow is a post dedicated to breakfast and Saturday's will be about my second gay cake attempt.  Truly excited!  I have some blogs to read.  Peace out.

VeganMoFo IV: Thanksgiving Tryouts

Before I begin, run to your nearest Trader Joe's and pick up the pear cinnamon cider!  So. flippin. fantastic.

Thanksgiving is most definitely my favorite eatin' day of the year. It's always a recipe for disaster when your entire family gets together, but the food is good (and the booze is even better). I usually start planning as early as September, trying to narrow down the menu. This year is different because I'm really trying to find the perfect recipes to keep as regulars. We never have the same menu every year and things would be simpler if I kept some staples and maybe had one rotating dish a year.

I've been trying to figure out the main dish since last month. We actually bought a Vegetarian Plus vegan turkey, but I had (and still have) extreme doubts. Era thought it would be a good idea to have one less major thing to worry about, so he bought it anyway. As far as mains go, I've already made the Festivus Loaf and Seitan En Croute from 500 Vegan Recipes. Right now, the Seitan En Croute is winning as an alternate to what we already have.  I took this picture when my camera broke so it's not the best:

I still need to make Bryanna's soy and seitan turkey to see if that's what I'm going with. My sides are pretty set.  I'm just trying to find the best version of them  Tonight I made some mac and cheeze, collard and sausage stuffing, baked tofu, and cashew gravy.

The mac and cheeze was good, but I'm probably just making Jess' adaptation of the New Farm recipe.  The stuffing was a ridiculous thing on my part because I was never a fan of meatiness in stuffing.  This called for andouille, but I used the sausage I had on hand (Yves Italian).  The collards and sausage took away from the "cornbreadiness", which is my absolute favorite part about stuffing.

closer look at stuffing

The baked tofu is just something I threw together.  I marinated extra firm tofu in fresh squeezed orange juice, soy sauce, olive oil, poultry seasoning, thyme, and slivered garlic.  The cashew gravy was from Megetarian, and that ish is the jam!  It's seriously good and frickin' easy.  Totally added to my menu.  I might throw some mushrooms or thyme in there, but it was delicious as is.

Thanksgiving at our house is a meal with huge variety and it's usually filled with soul food.  Growing up the sides were cornbread, mac and cheese, pinto beans, collard greens, cornbread stuffing, canned jellied (brrr) cranberry sauce, and dinner rolls.  Maybe some other stuff that I can't or don't want to remember.  This year I'm going back to that sorta...except I always needed green salad and tons of color.  Also, I cook entirely too much food because I have to have variety.  At least there are guaranteed leftovers.

The Tentative Menu
Appetizers
deviled tofu
pickle and olive tray

Main
cornbread stuffing
mashed potatoes
collard greens (adding garlic and veg broth to this)
sweet potatoes
maque choux (w/ Viva Vegan chorizo)
mac and cheese
pea salad (maybe)
green salad
cashew gravy
cranberry sauce from Vcon (w/ orange juice/zest and brown sugar)

Dessert
Pumpkin Cheesecake

After tonight and the two slices of meat cake last week, I'm almost Thanksgivinged out.  I'm gonna freeze all of tonight's leftovers so if I get a hankering for stuffing in March it's there.

What about you?  Have you finalized your menu yet?

P.S.-Thanks for all the great words yesterday.  Y'all made me smile when I was having a bad day.
P.P.S-Smackers and I baked a mini gay cake.  I'll be sure to post it later this week.
P.P.P.S.-I forgot to say that I won a giveaway!  I'm getting Vegan Unplugged!  Thanks again to Robin Robertson!