breakfast

Scramble on a Sunday… or, um, Monday

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

This morning, I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was c-c-cold. Even though I was wrapped up, cocoon-like, in a fleece blanket beneath my sheet and light summer blanket, it wasn’t enough to keep out that October chill. Even though the weather’s not frigid by any means, it’s still cold enough to leave my poorly-insulated body shivering. I guess it’s time to break out the cold-weather comforter, eh?

Needless to say, when I got up, I knew I wanted a nice warm breakfast to fill my tummy. Although the idea of eating another big bowl of Brownie Batter Oats was tempting, I had half a block of tofu in the fridge that was just begging to be used. So I decided to go with that vegan breakfast standby, tofu scramble. Nothing beats an old classic, right?

Scraaamble it up.

Right. Although I’ve tried various scramble “recipes” in the past, I usually end up just throwing a hodge-podge of pantry items into the pan and calling it a day. This one included – along with tofu – onions, garlic, red peppers, turmeric, cumin, a bit o’ coriander, a roasted potato spice blend, some veggie stock, and a bit of nutritional yeast. With an English muffin and a glass of apple cider, this filled my tummy, warmed me up, and generally made for a wonderful autumnal breakfast. :)

On another note, it’s the first day of the first week of Project Feed Me! This week, Natalie is asking participants to purchase two cans of chili. I’ll be heading to the grocery store tomorrow to pick some up, and I encourage you to do the same. Check out this post for more info about the project and how you can help give back during MoFo. Thanks, guys!

Oh, and PS: Happy Thanksgiving, my Canadian friends! Hope you have a wonderful day. :)

B-foods for B-fast

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

When I woke up this morning and saw Katie’s “There’s Chocolate in my Banana Brulee” post staring me in the face in my Google Reader, I knew I exactly what I was going to make for breakfast. I’ve made Brownie Batter Oats for breakfast in the past, and I always use the Melted Banana Trick in my oat bran, but today I took things to a whole new level. I didn’t have that Hershey’s Extra Dark cocoa last time I made my Brownie Batter Oats, but now I do, so today I totally rocked the house with this Dutch-processed delight. My recent discovery of Momma’s immersion blender (hallelujah!) allowed me to create a creamy confection that tantalized my taste buds and satisfied my Sunday morning hunger pangs.

B-foods for b-fast.

What a decadent breakfast, right? I used Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal in this bowl; it contains an impressive variety of healthy grains and fills my belly quite well. In fact, this morning’s bowl was so filling and so rich that I was barely able to finish the thick slice of Blueberry-Banana Bread I’d cut for myself! I followed this recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen, although I subbed regular sugar for agave nectar since I’m running low on agave. I also used a mix of unbleached AP flour and whole wheat flour as I don’t have any white whole wheat flour. The bread tastes wonderful and was a great way to use some of the blueberries we picked during the summer. I love having frozen blueberries available at a moment’s notice! Knowing that we picked them from a local farm just sweetens the deal. :)

Before I end, I just want to encourage everyone to check out my post about Project Feed Me. This is really important to me, and I’d love for you all to get involved! So please please please give it a read! Thanks, friends. You’re the bestest. :)

Deliveries & Delicacies

/ Kelly / 2 Comments

Yesterday, the UPS truck drove up to my house. As my little doggies reached epic levels of barking frenzy, the delivery man deposited this innocent-looking package on my front step.

A mystery!

Hmm, what could it be?

Aha!

Aha! Of course – it’s the spiralizer I won from Katie‘s contest a few weeks ago! Just look at this lovely little lady.

Pretty girl.

Ain’t she a beaut’?

Alas, I haven’t yet broken in my new friend yet. She arrived yesterday just before dinnertime, and as my dear daddy was already making a delicious dinner feast, I didn’t want to usurp his role as top chef for the night. But rest assured that some super spiralized meals while be making their way onto my little blog in the very near future!

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a quick photo from this morning’s breakfast. After spending a wonderful week with my boyfriend, best friend, and another close friend from college, I’m in a bit of a funk now that they’ve left. What better way to cheer myself up than by making french toast and dousing them in locally-made maple syrup?!

French yum!

Yum. While this tasty breakfast didn’t quite salve my saddened heart, it definitely helped to ease my woes. My visiting aunt and uncle – who are both vegan! – have never made vegan french toast before and were amazed by how “real” it looked. I’ll have to share the VWaV recipe with them in the future. :)

Rhapsody in Blue: my love affair with blueberries

/ Kelly / 3 Comments

Happy Sunday, folks!

Guess what? It’s time to solve some math problems! Yep, you heard that right – Kelly the English major is breakin’ it down elementary school style for some word problems. So, in honor of my impending registration for the GRE (gag), I’d like to present a couple of math problems to you.

Question: If Kelly has 13 lbs. of handpicked local blueberries, how many bags does it take to hold them all?


Answer: 3 big ol’ bags!

Question: If Kelly has a boatload of blueberries and a copy of Vegan Brunch she won in a Twitter contest by the fabulous folks at Da Capo Cooking, what happens when she combines the two?


Answer: Bakery-Style Berry Muffins, of course! I like to make big, fluffy muffins to make ’em seem even more bakery-esque, and this recipe yields 10 good-sized muffins. My mom loves when I make these; she constantly compliments my baking in a blatant attempt to flatter me into making more. And honestly, I’m happy to oblige when the results are so yummy.

Question:If Kelly’s in the mood for something a little healthier than oil-rich muffins and and still has bundles of blueberries, what can she make?


Answer: What else but Susan‘s Blueberry-Oat Bars? I’ll admit, my version doesn’t look nearly as presentable or as scrumptious as Susan’s, but hey, I never claimed to be a fat-free kitchen goddess! And at least they tasted good, right? Next time I’ll be a better judge of my batter and distribute it more evenly between top and bottom.

Question: If Kelly’s getting a little tired of baked goods and is curious about exploring new flavor combinations, how can she use corn and blueberries together to create something delicious?


Answer: She can make the Cornbread Waffles from Vegan Brunch and top them off with a sweet blueberry sauce! I’ll admit that these waffles didn’t turn out as fabulous as I’d expected, but I think that’s because I used very coarse cornmeal. I froze the leftover waffles and LOVE popping one in the toaster and munching on it as a handheld brekkie snack.

Bonus question: If Kelly’s family is hungry for blueberry-laden baked goods and Kelly wants to mix up the flavor profile in her blueberry muffins, what can she use?


Answer: Orange juice! She can make delicious Blueberry Orange Muffins from Have Cake, Will Travel. Although I cheated and didn’t use fresh orange juice, these muffins were still quite tasty. I used a mix of white and whole wheat flour instead of the whole wheat pastry flour called for in the recipe, and it worked out just fine.

And the easiest problem of all – if Kelly has 13 lbs. of handpicked local blueberries and just wants to have a delicious, simple, snack, what must she add to her blueberries to enjoy them? Answer – absolutely NOTHING. A bowl of fresh berries has got to be one of the greatest pleasures on earth.

I knew blue was my favorite color for a reason. Blueberries are the quintessential summer fruit for me. I love spending a couple of hours at the local U-pick farm with my mom and sister, feeling the hot sun on my arms and letting my mind wander as I scour the already picked-over bushes for hidden troves of berries. I love coming home with heavy bags bursting with the tiny blue orbs and going on a baking frenzy for a few days before calming down and freezing the unused berries in the hopes that they’ll last through the winter. In short, I love blueberries.

But, for the love of seitan, please don’t call blueberries “bloobs.” My mind works in strange ways and “bloobs” conjures up images the descriptions of which I will spare you. Just trust me on this one. ;)

Breakfast, CCK Style

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

I love breakfast.

I know, who doesn’t, right? But all through high school and most of college, breakfast definitely didn’t get much love from me, except on the weekends when my dad might make a big batch of pancakes. I wasn’t much of a morning person, and in high school I was guilty of breaking my fast on whatever I could shove down my gob in the least amount of time, much to my disapproving mom’s chagrin. Actually, I usually brought my food to school and downed a bagel during my Academic Decathlon homeroom (nerd alert!) before classes started in earnest. In college, I rarely ate breakfast at all until last year, when I lived in a townhouse and had my own kitchen. Not having to get up, get dressed, and trek to the dining hall changed the way I approached breakfast, especially during the frigid Minnesota winter! I have grown to love and appreciate breakfast, and now I never skip it. From pancakes to potato-laden brekkie burritos, I love me my mornin’ eats.

I especially love all things oatmeal, and that’s one reason I’ve always had a soft spot for [Chocolate Covered] Katie and her blog, even back in the days when I was blogging over at Blogspot. Her oatmeal creations are inspired and inspirational! When you can have Brownie Batter for breakfast, who wouldn’t?! Especially when your breakfast creations look like this:

Brownie Batter Oat Bran for brekkie!

My unfortunate lack of an immersion blender means I can’t quite pull off her blended grains technique, but whatever, man – my Bob’s Red Mill oat bran tasted scrumptious enough without being blended! Plus, my Brownie Batter Oat Bran was super brain food for my daily GRE study session.

But I didn’t stop there. Oh no, my love for dessert-for-breakfast fueled me to greater heights of sweet breakfast euphoria when I made Snickerdoodle Oat Bran, a variation of Katie’sSnickerdoodle Hot Cereal!

Snickerdoodle yumminess!

Cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla gave this bowl a flavor totally reminiscent of the snickerdoodles I made a few days ago.

This morning, I ended my trifecta of CCK-inspired breakfasts by coming up with one of my own. I call it… Apple Pie Oat Bran! This “recipe” is super easy and involves one of my favorite ways of eating apples, even those banged-up, bruised, sad-looking ones that sit dolefully in your fruit bowl for days waiting to be used. I’m kind of guesstimating on the measurements here, because I really don’t measure much except my oat bran and milk.

Apple Pie for breakfast...

Apple Pie Oat Bran
Ingredients:
1 apple + cinnamon and sugar to taste
1 cup water or your favorite nondairy milk (I mix half water with half soy or almond milk)
1/3 cup oat bran (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

First, chop up your apple into small cubes and put ’em in a small bowl. Liberally douse the suckers with sugar and cinnamon and let the apples sit and macerate for a while until they become nice and juicy. Then start making your oat bran. Start heating your liquid of choice along with the vanilla, and once it’s boiling add the oat bran. Keep a bonny eye on your oa tbran, stirring fairly often, for one minute. Add about 3/4 of your macerated apple mixture and keep on cookin’ for another minute. Then turn off the heat, add the cinnamon and nutmeg, and remove your pot from the heat. Unless you’re impatient like me, you probably want to let your oat bran cool a for a couple of minutes before pouring it into a bowl, but once you’ve done that, top the oat bran with the rest of your apple mixture, give it all another sprinkle of cinnamon, and you’re good to go! (Also, feel free to sub oat bran with your breakfast cereal of choice.)

Oh, helpful tip – I like to keep a premade cinnamon sugar mixture in a repurposed spice jar so I have it ready at all times; it’s quite convenient. ;)

Now, while these breakfasts are completely worthy of a devotional post such as this one, I also have an ulterior motive in baring my love for dessert-like breakfasts to the world. Katie is
giving away a spiralizer, and she’s generously offering up six extra entries to anyone who blogs about one of her recipes. But even if you don’t have a blog, you can still enter by checking out her contest. Thanks, Katie!

Brain Games, Wheat Berries, & Pudding for Breakfast

/ Kelly / Leave a comment

I’m happy to report that my grumblings about the weather seem to have driven it away, as yesterday was sunny and generally lovely. I celebrated the return to summer by taking Tamale on a nice long walk, which would have been perfect if half my neighbors hadn’t decided it was a perfect day to mow their lawns. You’ll probably think I’m a freak, but I severely dislike the smell of freshly cut grass, most likely because I think I’m allergic to it since I get headaches whenever I smell it. But whatevs – I’ll gladly take a headache if it means I get to feel the sun on my face and hear the delighted screams of youth as I walk past a group of children bouncing on a trampoline. Ah, summer.

Anyway, on to the healthiness. Let’s start with my healthy mind, shall we? I think you should all check out GamesfortheBrain, a fun little website with a nice selection of games to help wake up your grey matter and justify all the time you spend puttering around the internetz! “But, ma, I was developing my brain’s ability to adapt quickly to new situations!” Heh heh heh. Brilliant.

Although some of the games are kind of lame – “Marsmoney” seems better suited for some sort of elementary school exercise – others are fun. “What Was There?” is one of those pesky ones that asks you to memorize a scene and then questions you on its details. “Memocoly” asks you to repeat patterns of colors. There are also a bunch of word games, but I haven’t tried them yet – I’m too addicted to Word Warp to branch out just yet. ;) All in all, these are not incredibly mentally taxing, but they’re still a fun way to give your brain a mini-workout. And the little “brain tips” you get when you answer a question correctly challenge you to do more – try taking a shower with your eyes closed to let your other senses take over! Hmm… we’ll see about that one. So check it out and have some fun!

But I don’t spend all my time playing on the internetz – I’m workin’ on having a healthy body, after all! Last night I experimented with wheat berries for the first time. I know I came late to the wheat berry party, but better late than never, right? Anyway, I cooked these suckers according to the package and used them as a bed for some tofu I marinated in a variation of the Italian marinade from Vegan with a Vengeance and then grilled on the George Foreman grill my aunt gave our family. I’d never used ol’ George’s grill for tofu, but it worked pretty well, even if one piece was a little more blackened than grilled.

Tofu & wheat berries & veggies, oh my!

To be honest, I was a little wary of all the balsamic vinegar in Isa’s marinade – I kinda sorta despite vinegar in all forms – but I couldn’t taste the acidity of the vinegar once the tofu was cooked, so overall it was a success. Since it was a clean out the fridge kind of night – more on that in a later post – I had some leftover garlicky green beans and sliced the corn off a leftover half corncob for my veggie sides. Yum. The wheat berries were chewy yet tasty, and I felt satisfied knowing that I was filling my body with lots of fiber and protein.

While I was hunting around in the fridge for leftovers, I noticed a big container of cooked rice. “Aha!” I thought to myself, “I can do something with that!” After dinner, I took some soy creamer that needed to be used up and poured it over a big bowl of the rice. I added some dried cranberries (because raisins are nasty, y’all – they’re like big bloated bugs when they swell up in liquid!) and a bit of almond extract and let that bowl marinate overnight. This morning I heated the conglomeration up in the microwave and had Brekkie Rice Pudding!

Rice pudding for breakfast? You bet!

So it’s not the most gorgeous mixture in the world, but I thought it tasted pretty darn good. Next time I’ll add less almond extract, because the taste was *almost* a little too strong. But overall, I was pleased with my fridge emptying skillz.

Ciao!