This Week's Brunch...

Pancakes

Another repeat, I know, but again, such a classic brunch!

These are plain pancakes with Earth Balance margarine and the little dog carafe is filled with syrup.



These are carob-chip pancakes drizzled with chocolate fudge sauce and topped with soy whipped cream.

Los's Banging Pasta with Beans

Los makes this delicious pasta it's so simple but so good!

He uses spinach penne, cannellini beans, and Yves 'chicken' strips.

Vegan Jello

I got some vegan fruit gel from Food Fight Grocery:

I got the cherry flavor - I mixed it up with 2 cups boiling water in a measuring cup:
I poured it into small glasses to 'set' and then topped with soy whipped topping when serving.
The gel had a light texture with a nice cherry flavor. I think I would prefer strawberry flavor with perhaps some chopped strawberries in it, but Food Fight only carries cherry and unflavored!

Dogs

We always keep blankets on our couch, and here's why:



These dogs just love to lounge out on it!



They barely moved all day!!

Peppers and 'Eggs'

This is such a simple dinner or brunch, before cooking your tofu scramble, sautee onions and red peppers in a frying pan - add the tofu scramble and cook as usual - put on toasted bread with some Vegan Rella and Veganaise.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

This one is from Vegan Treats, it's an old-stand-by -- it's become one of their top sellers and I can understand why - the sweetness of the cheesecake is paired with a tart fresh raspberries and swirled together with rich white chocolate before being baked into the cheesecake. It's a perfect dessert.

Heirloom Tomatoes

I got a few heirloom tomatoes from my parents' garden. I let them ripen on my windowsill - they looked so delicious!

This Week's Brunch...

French Toast Bake (again)...

I love this recipe so much I tend to make it frequently.



This time I topped it with sweetened condensed 'milk'. It was perfectly sweet and savory, as usual!

Ginger Molasses Cookies

This cookies is paired with Temptation Vanilla Ice Cream an soy whipped topping.


It tasted like a shoo-fly pie a la mode!

I am not a paper cup...

This is the best purchase I've made in a while -- it's DCI's I'm not a paper cup porcelain coffee travel mug.

It looks like those paper cups you can get a coffee shop but is 100% reusable -- the cup itself is made of insulated porcelain and the top is silicon. It's microwave and dishwasher safe. The biggest drawback is that it only holds about 6 ounces - I prefer a little more tea than that, but the tradeoff of not using an actual paper cup makes the lost ounces worth it.

I got it at Myxyplyxyk in NYC but their website is temporarily down. They also had them at Exit 9 and a few other "gift shops."

A Journey into Vegan Cream Puffs

I randomly remembered how much I liked cream puffs with pineapple cream filling - I recreated the pineapple filling perfectly (a mixture of Toffuti cream cheese, soy whipped topping, and crushed pineapple)


But was not so successful with the puff part -- the first round, I used a standard cream puff recipe with disasterous results. These were little round rocks, the term 'hockey pucks' came to mind several times.



I did a little more research and found a more promising recipe on Yahoo! answers:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (or baking powder)
2 tablespoons margarine (such as Spectrum)
equivalent of 4 eggs (2 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer whipped until stiff with 1/3 cup water)
1 cup soy milk

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare baking sheet--either parchment paper or a non-stick pan. Prepare egg-replacer. Stir together flour, vegan sugar, salt, cream of tartar. In a sauce pan (non-stick works well), bring the soymilk and margarine to a boil, stirring constantly. Add the flour all at once, and reduce heat to low. Stir constantly until the dough forms a ball that pulls away from the pan and the spoon and is glossy and smooth. Working quickly, remove from heat and add the Ener-G Egg Replacer, about a third at a time, beating well after each addition until the dough is glossy, smooth, and pulls away from the pan.

Shape the puffs as desired--I made mini-puffs about a rounded teaspoon each. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then lower heat to 350 for another 10 minutes, then turn off oven and allow to cool, with door slightly cracked for another 20 minutes, then cool completely on wire racks before serving or filling.







The result? Not bad!
Definitely not as light and airy as a 'regular' cream puff, but not totally gross!
Surprisingly 'puffy'!
Stuffed with pineapple cream it was a pretty good stand-in.
Next time I'll use a lighter flour to try to refine it a little more...

BBQ Ribs

I really like Gardenburger BBQ Riblets
. They're super-easy to prepare, you just take them out of the freezer and stick them in the microwave for about 3 minutes. You can serve them with mashed potatoes, corn, and collard greens or on a sandwich, here is my version on a sandwich:



I used rosemary toast and Veganaise as a condiment and stuck a pickle on the side, delicious!

Tomato Basil Sandwich for Lunch

I don't often take pictures of my lunch as it's usually left-overs from the night before or something uninteresting. I took a picture of this because it's a really delicious meal!



Sliced tomato with chopped basil on rosemary olive oil bread with chocolate cream cookies for 'dessert'!


That's my fun pink Sigg bottle next to it. I don't usually use Saran wrap, but I was out of clean tupperware for the bread.

Pizzas

This time I decided to make my own crusts.

This pizza is the Yeast-Free Crust from How it All Vegan:



This one is from cooks.com

2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2/3 c. water
1/4 c. vegetable oil
Mix flour, salt, baking powder and water. Knead on floured counter just until workable and spreadable, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate for 20 minutes before spreading on pan.



Both were very good!

Cooks.com slice:


A side view of the crust from HIAV, the crust is flaky and VERY flavorful!



We topped both with marinara sauce, Follow Your Heart Cheese, and Yves Veggie Pepperoni, yum!

Apple-Spice Ice Cream with Caramel

This is a dish of soft-serve apple spice soy-ice-cream drizzled with warm caramel from Vegan Treats. Yum!!

This Week's Brunch...

French Toast Sticks

Before becoming vegan I REALLY REALLY liked French Toast Sticks. I make my own French Toast pretty frequently, but there is just something about the crispy, sweet goodness of French Toast Sticks that I have not been able to replicate.

I found these in the gluten-free freezer section of Wegman's:



Here they are all cooked up and on a plate with a small monkey cup of syrup.


The verdict?

Well, for gluten-free French Toast Sticks I guess they were good. They tasted more like lightly battered bread sticks than traditional crispy, well- battered French Toast. In fact, they were shaped like sliced bread cut into strips, crust and all - not really what I was hoping for.

All-in-all a let down.

Green Ramen

Unlike the 'fancy' ramen I had a few weeks ago, this is my own simple concoction, ramen noodles, green beans, peas, and fresh basil seasoned with a little Bragg's...

It's fresh-tasting and delicious!

BLTs

Using Tofu-Bacon, of course!
I marinated the tofu in maple syrup, Braggs, and liquid smoke, then fried them up, using the marinade as a sauce.

With lettuce, tomato, and Veganaise on toasted rosemary-olive oil bread, it was bangin'!
The whole meal with cut from the cob sweet corn, tomato and cucumber salad, and lupini beans, delish!