Vegan Breakfast with Extra Breakfast

And kudos to anyone who knows where I stole my title from...

I must preface this by saying I do not often eat breakfast foods, at least not at breakfast time. This was no exception, as I ate it at night, and encourage people to mix up their food eating habits to break the rut every now and again. Curry for breakfast is delicious, and pancakes for dinner is divine!

On this sunday early evening, I bring you something which many vegans may feel they can no longer have... a delightful scrambled egg breakfast, with potatoes and sausage.

I am here to tell you "Stop being so silly!"

While you might not be able to have EXACTLY that, you can get something which fills the same craving for breakfast foods, without the cholesterol and sad animals! There are many recipes similar to this that you can find, this is just how I make em!

Without further ado:

Vegan Breakfast with extra Breakfast


This is a three part meal, so I give you 3 different recipes!

Simple Fried Potatoes (For 2 People)
Ingredients:
4-5 smallish potatoes, cut into cubes, about 3/4 inch in size
1 tbsp vegan margarine
Freshly ground salt and pepper

Directions:
In a frying pan on medium, melt the margarine.
Toss the potatoes in, and stir around to coat them in the melted margarine.
Fry, stirring occasionally, until cooked through and crispy on some sides.
Grind some salt and pepper on top of them, and toss.
Eat :)

Tempeh Sausage Patties
Ingredients:
A few slices of tempeh, cut about 1/4-1/2 inch thick (enough for 2 people!) (You can also use tofu if you want, but tempeh just has something... amazing about it)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tsp Tamari
a dash of liquid smoke

Directions:
Mix the oil, maple syrup, tamari, and liquid smoke.
Toss the tempeh or tofu in it, coating evenly.
In a smallish frying pan (nonstick works nicely) fry the tempeh on medium heat, flipping every minute or so until the outsides are nice and crispy.
Nom!

Slightly Spicy Tofu "Eggs" With Peppers, Mushrooms, and Onion
Ingredients:
1 block medium or firm tofu, crumbled into tiny pieces (I like medium usually, because I liked my eggs slightly runny, however I used firm when I made it last night)
1/2 pepper, cut into chunks
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
4-5 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tbsp turmeric (to make it all yellow and egg looking)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil (for frying)

Directions:
In a frying pan (I use a wok, I find it easiest to make this in), heat some olive oil, and fry the onion, peppers, and mushrooms, for about 5 minutes.
Add in the nutritional yeast and turmeric, to evenly coat.
Add in the tofu, and toss everything together, coating the tofu crumbles with the veggies and spices.
Cook for about 5 more minutes, heating everything together.
Spice with the salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
If the tofu gets really dry, add in a bit of olive oil to stop it from sticking.
Eat!

Enjoy!

Thursday's Quick Lunch

Some yummy quick lunch for today!

For today I made fried polenta topped with sauteed peppers, onions, mushrooms, and garlic, with some marinara sauce, and freshly ground salt and pepper. 

It was delicious, I might have to make seconds! :)

Announcement for Sept + Veggies!

Hi Darling readers!

Recently, one of my closest friends, and blog sister Ashley declared to me that she wasn't feeling particularly healthy lately. She then announced to me "You know, I think it's time. I'm going to finally join you and go fully vegan."

To this, I applaud her! However, it was then followed by something I hear variations of all the time. "I have no idea what I should eat."

The most common version I hear is "What do vegans eat?" (a much better version of "Where do you get your protein?" But we've all heard that, amirite?)

So this month, I want to help out with this conundrum, in two ways- Every week I will be posting an easy to make and nutritionally balanced (as well as yummy balanced) recipe, as WELL as twice a week posting lunch recipes to bring to work/school! (Sandwiches begone!)

However, I've been sort of letting the blog slide by the wayside for the past few weeks (My bad!) so I am posting the first recipe today, on the 31rst of August, as a post of goodwill.

Roasted Mixed Vegetables
Ingredients:

Mixed Vegetables
1/2 can chickpeas
Olive Oil
coarse Salt
Pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 400
Chop up your vegetables into coarse chunks
Chuck them and the chickpeas into a casserole dish, and drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over them, and sprinkle on some coarse salt, and freshly ground pepper.
Mix up to combine.
Put the veggies into the oven, and bake for like 45 minutes, taking them out and mixing them up every 10 minutes or so to get everything cooked up nicely.
Once it's all baked up, eat up!

So delicious!

What vegetables did I use? Tonight I used an eggplant, radishes, carrots, and a pepper. I know that radishes might seem weird, but they are actually quite wonderful when roasted!

What other vegetables could a new vegan use for good roasting? Here are a few ideas: Broccoli, Cauliflower, plantains, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and even fruit like apples and pineapple!

To complete your meal, I like to serve it on top of brown rice, however it would also work on top of pasta, mostly fusili.

But what to top the rice and veggies with! The answer is very simple:

 nom nom nom!

Cheezy Stuffed Peppers

Happy August!

No preamble today! Just a delicious yummy Recipe!

Cheezy Stuffed Peppers

(Makes a bunch of filling!)

Ingredients:

Peppers, for stuffing, tops cut off and seeds removed.

4-5 medium carrots, chopped

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 largish yellow (or green, whatever!) zucchini, chopped

4 pattipan squashes, chopped into pieces (i love these little things!)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup chopped mushroom

1 1/2 cup rice cooked in veggie broth instead of water (still hot!)

2 tbsp vegan margarine, divided

1 cup Daiya mozzarella, with a bit more for topping

Oregano, Salt and Pepper (to taste!)

Directions:

Heat your oven to 350.

In a bowl, mix the rice, 1 tbsp margarine, daiya, and spices. Set aside. 

Heat a sautee pan, and melt the remaining margarine, adding in the onions and mushrooms. Saute for 2 minutes. 

Add in the rest of the vegetables, and saute for about 5-8 minutes, until all are softened. 

Dump the vegetables into the rice mixture, and toss to combine. 

Jam as much as possible into your peppers! If you have peppers that won't stand up straight, cut them in half lengthwise, and lie them on their sides instead of standing them up, it'll still taste great!

Top the peppers with a bit more Daiya, and then place their jaunty little caps back on (if you want to!)

Chuck in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until the cheese is all melty, and the peppers have softened up!

Then, eat you crazy vegans, EAT!

As a note, these are also popular with non-vegs!

'Risotto' stuffed peppers

I got a gift of a day off of work!

As a babysitter, I often get the day off when the kids are sick, or their mom gets off work early. So I enjoyed a little afternoon off today, and thus decided to make something slightly fancier than usual for dinner!

So I made 'Risotto' Stuffed Peppers. The Risotto is in parenthesis because while it's the same flavors as the risotto I am sort of known for making amongst my friendlies, I didn't cook it in the time consuming regular method, but faked it.

Anyhoo, here you go!

Risotto Stuffed Peppers


Ingredients:

1 Cup cooked jasmine rice
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1/3 cup sundried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped
1/4 cup of the oil from the jar of Sundried Tomatoes
2 Bell Peppers, deseeded and cut in half.
basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350.
Take the rice and dump it in a bowl. Combine with most of the oil, (leave about 1 tbsp) sundried tomatoes,  and the spices.
In a frying pan, sautee the carrots, onions, and mushrooms in the remainder of the oil.
When the onions are transluscent and mushrooms cooked down, dump the cooked vegs into the rice.
Stir to combine.
Place the bell peppers side by side in a casserole dish  and spoon the rice mixture into them. Don't be afraid to overstuff! They'll be fine!
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until steamy and the peppers are softened.
Serve and Enjoy!