The Ultimate Stoner Breakfast....

 

It's not called The Ultimate Stoner Breakfast for nothing. This meal is pure 'meat' and potatoes, it's 'carbs, carbs, and more carbs.' it is exactly the kind of food you want to eat and should indulge in when you're grooving in your happy place, and everything is beautiful. One of the best things about it is how low effort it is, yet the flavor is not sacrificed. It's also super hearty, it'll tame even the wildest munchies, of course, don't limit yourself to just eating it at breakfast time!

Now, there are two ways you can eat this. The 'traditional' way with each food having it's own separate space on the plate. Or you can eat it like a taco. Yeah, you heard me, a pancake breakfast taco. How awesome is that? I know it sounds strange but trust me when I say it's amazing. My husband was really skeptical at first too, but after he watched me down 3 of these bad boys he was convinced enough to try it. If you enjoy it in Taco form then you can essentially add anything you like as a topping which is awesome, it makes it versatile. So trust me on this one, and give it a try.

(PS: You can use any pancake recipe you like, but I've included my go-to just incase you don't have one. I have also made these with gluten-free flour before and they have turned out well.)

Cheese Tots

Olive Oil
1lb Frozen Tater Tots
1 Small Yellow Onion Diced
Garlic powder
Sea Salt
4 Sliced Green Onions
1/2-1 Cup Daiya Cheddar or Mozzarella Cheese.

- Preheat Oven to 400'F

- Dump the tater tots into a baking dish with the diced onions. Drizzle a little olive oil over them then sprinkle them with salt, and garlic powder. Stir to combine everything.

- Pop it in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until tots are cooked to your taste.

- Remove from the oven, Sprinkle cheese, and green onions over top. Return to the oven and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese has just melted and the onions are soft.

- Enjoy on their own as part of your breakfast, smothered in ketchup, sour cream, or mayo. Or enjoy in a taco!


Classic Go-To Pancakes

2 Cups White Flour
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Sea Salt
1 1/2 Cups water
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 Tbsp Maple Syrup

- Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.

- Combine the water, maple syrup and olive oil.

- Pour the wet into the dry and stir until just combined.

- Heat a pan, spread a 1/4 C of batter out into the pan, spread it thin, but not too thin, similar to the thickness of a flatbread.

- Cook for a few minutes until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake. flip and cook another couple of minutes until golden brown. Repeat.

The Ultimate Stoner Breakfast.

Add-Ons and Extras

Avocado
Sour Cream
Mayo
Ketchup
Maple Syrup
Your Favorite Tofu Scramble
Jalapeno Slices or Hot Sauce if you like it spicy

To Serve the "Traditional Way" Heap a mound of Cheese Tots onto your plate, Slap down 3-4 Pancakes next to it, then add on a portion of your favorite Breakfast Sausage, a portion of your favorite bacon, with half an avocado on the side. Serve with ketchup and mayo for the tots, and Maple Syrup for the pancakes and sausage.

To Serve it the "Taco Way" Spread a thin layer of Syrup over one pancake. Place 1/2 a slice of bacon (or a full slice if you prefer) on top of the pancake, then a breakfast link.  Pick the pancake up, and hold it in your palm like you would a taco shell. Take a spoon and scoop a small portion of the cheese tots inside your pancake shell. If you're using tofu scramble as well, scoop a small portion of that into the pancake taco along with the tots. Drizzle a bit of ketchup over top, and then serve with dollops of sour cream and/or mayo and whatever other add-on's you wish. It's great with or without avocado, and I personally like the mix of sour cream and mayo. So delicious!

Vegan Mofo #12: Bacon Salad with Farmhouse Cheese Dressing...

I don’t know how typical of an Irish Salad this is, but I found a recipe for bacon salad with cheese dressing in an Irish cook book and found my mouth watering at the thought. The original recipe says to use cooleeney cheese and apples from Tipperary, I’ve never had cooleeney cheese in my life and have no idea what it tastes like, but it seems to me that most farmhouse cheeses have a strong or distinct flavor. Unfortunately while the vegan cheese market is growing it has not yet grown so big as to incorporate ‘off beat’ or regional or specialty cheeses. So I chose to use a combination of vegan Provolone and cream cheese as that was all I had available outside of cheddar, jack, mozzarella or Jalapeno Havarti. Still, despite my recreation not being as accurate as possible I do think it turned out damn delicious, and I will definitely be making it again.

The key to this salad I think is to make sure you use quality products, because it’s so simple you want the best flavor you can find. Get the freshest fall apples, get the crispest lettuce, use your favorite vegan cheese and buy the good coconut flakes to make the coconut bacon. You do that, and you’re going to have a shining star of a side salad. A great accompaniment to any meal, or a nice light lunch, if serving as a lunch enjoy with some brown soda bread scones!

Bacon Salad with Farmhouse Cheese Dressing 

2 Heads Romaine lettuce chopped or torn
½ Cup Coconut Bacon (Recipe Follows)
1 Large tart Apple Chopped (I Used Pink Lady)
Dash of Sea Salt
Dash of Cracked Black Pepper
1 Tbsp Minced Fresh Parsley

Cheese Dressing

1/3 Cup Vegan Sour Cream
1- 2 Tbsp Vegan Cream Cheese
2- 4 Slices Vegan Provolone (or favorite sharp vegan cheese)
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Cracked Black Pepper to taste
A Dash of Agave if a sweeter dressing is desired (Optional)

Coconut Bacon 

½ Cup Dried Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
½ Tbsp Liquid Smoke
Dash of Smoked Paprika
Dash of Garlic Powder
Dash of Smoked Sea Salt

Instructions - Coconut Bacon 

- Combine all liquid ingredients in a bowl, and pre-heat a small pan over medium heat. Once heated add the coconut flakes and pour the sauce over, mix with a spatula to combine. Fry for 3-5 minutes turning occasionally so the flakes don’t burn. Once browned and most of the liquid has been absorbed turn off the heat and remove the coconut to a plate to cool. Let cool 5 minutes. Leave any remaining liquid in the pan.

Instructions - Salad 

- Cook the chopped apple in the liquid remaining in the pan you used to cook the coconut bacon. Saute apple until golden and then remove from the heat.

- Place Romaine, Coconut Bacon, and Apple in a large bowl and garnish with salt, pepper and parsley.

Instructions - Dressing 

- Combine all dressing ingredients in a small pan over medium heat. Whisk together until cheese has melted and everything is smooth and heated through.

- Pour the warm dressing over the salad, toss to combine and serve!

Vegan Mofo #4: Salade aux Noix....

Today we’re moving on from Ireland and onto France with this tasty yet simple salad.  Honestly I don’t know much about the origins of this salad, but it’s a pretty typical and traditional French Salad, I saw it on a lot of menus when I was there this past Spring but unfortunately because the traditional version contains bacon I was never able to eat it. Traditionally the dressing also uses the leftover bacon drippings as an ingredients, which I think is kind of gross, but to mimic the flavor I used the leftover liquid from cooking my coconut bacon. If you want it a bit more ‘greasy’ you could add some additional oil - perhaps coconut oil - and a dash more of liquid smoke for extra bacon flavor.

Originally I hadn’t intended to make this salad but I’m happy I decided to put a vegan spin on it after all, because it turned out great. It’s the kind of salad that’s perfect for a light lunch, or as the first course to a larger meal.

Salade aux Noix

1 Head Green Leaf Lettuce
Handful of Arugula.
½ Cup Walnuts
½ Cup Coconut Bacon (recipe follows)
5 Thin Slices Baguette
1 Garlic Clove
1 Tbsp Walnut Oil
1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
Olive Oil as needed
Coarse Black Pepper to taste.

Coconut Bacon 

½ Cup Dried Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
½ Tbsp Liquid Smoke
Dash of Smoked Paprika
Dash of Garlic Powder
Dash of Smoked Sea Salt

Instructions - Coconut Bacon 

- Combine all liquid ingredients in a bowl, and pre-heat a small pan over medium heat. Once heated add the coconut flakes and pour the sauce over, mix with a spatula to combine. Fry for 3-5 minutes turning occasionally so the flakes don’t burn. Once browned and most of the liquid has been absorbed turn off the heat and remove the coconut to a plate to cool. Let cool 5 minutes. Leave any remaining liquid in the pan.

Instructions - Salad 

- Tear the lettuce into bite sized pieces and place in a large salad bowl along with the arugula.

- Re-heat the pan in which you cooked the coconut bacon, and add the walnuts. Toast them until browned then remove them to a plate.

- To the pan add the walnut oil, red wine vinegar, and Dijon Mustard. Whisk to combine, and simmer for a minute until warmed though. Turn off the heat and set aside.

- Preheat your Broiler. Slice the garlic clove in half. Drizzle the baguette slices in a bit of olive oil and rub the garlic halves over the bread.

- Place the bread on a broiler sheet and broil on high for 1-2 minutes a side until brown. Remove from the broiler and let cool.

- Finally, add the cooled coconut bacon and walnuts to the salad. Breaking the pieces a part as necessary. Crumble the sliced baguette pieces over top, and then drizzle the dressing over. Toss the entire thing together, and sprinkle with black pepper if desired. Enjoy!

9 Days of Valentine's: Part 4...

For day 4 of our Valentine’s Week Celebration I decided to go Italian again with another dish from Chloe Coscarelli's book "Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen." I ordered this book pretty much as soon as it came out but with all the cook books I own I haven’t had much chance to use it. I was particularly happy to pull it out for Valentine’s Week, and Chloe’s Pasta Carbonara with Shiitake Bacon was one of the first recipes I set my sights on.

To be honest I’m not sure if I’ve ever eaten a non-vegan Pasta Carbonara before. I sure ate a lot of pasta growing up, and all different kinds but I can’t recall if Carbonara ever made it into rotation. Considering it uses a lot of bacon, and my family never ate much pork it’s probably safe to say I didn’t. I have however made vegan carbonara’s, and I’ve always enjoyed them.

Chloe’s version is a little different then Carbonara’s I’ve made in the past. Most of the ones I’ve made have contained peas, and a rich non-dairy cheese or cream substitute, also some kind of store-bought vegan bacon. The most obvious difference in Chloe’s version is that she makes her own Shiitake bacon which is super easy and way more delicious then most store-bought vegan bacon. The only thing I did different to the recipe was add a touch of liquid smoke for added smoky flavor. Otherwise this was perfect.

The Carbonara sauce too is a little different. It’s very simplistic in it’s ingredients using tofu as the base. This makes it somewhat less rich then the vegan versions that use fancy diary subs but it doesn’t make it any less satisfying. What I always love about Chloe’s dishes is that they’re packed with flavor and yet so simple. The ingredients list is usually short, the cooking method is relatively simple, she makes vegan food easy, and accessible and she can make it as fancy or as comforting as you want. One of the greatest things about this dish is how quick the sauce comes together, you basically just blend it all up, then pour it on the hot pasta and let it sit for a few minutes to warm through and thicken. Voila, dinner done!

Seriously, this is a damn good dish, that shiitake bacon is so worth it! If you’ve never had shiitake bacon you need to make some now!

Check back tomorrow, we’re going French again, and there’s dessert!

PS: Before you ask, I put a whole ton of parsley into my bowl, that's why it looks so green! and it's topped off with a nice home-made Nooch based Parmesan.

9 Days of Valentine's: Restaurant Edition...

No Chicago is not snow-free this winter
I forgot to take a picture of the front yesterday so this is
a picture I took during the summer

Are you wondering what the surprise I talked about yesterday is? Well, it’s that my husband and I found out that for this entire week one of our favorite restaurants The Chicago Diner is having a special Valentine’s Day Menu. Now, despite having already picked out 9 Romantic dishes to cook for our little celebration, once we caught sight of the menu we really couldn’t pass it up.

In our relationships I’m the one that does the cooking, I cook everyday regardless of how busy I am, how tired I am or how sick I am. - I typically need to be either very sick or very tired, not to cook. Each evening I cook dinner, many other days of the week - though not necessarily every day - I also make a breakfast or lunch depending on what our schedules are, and how hungry we are. So on average I make two meals per day. My husband doesn’t cook at all, and that’s alright with me. He can make a killer pot of pasta, and an amazing jambalaya and occasionally he surprises me with these, but usually when he wants to ‘give me the gift of food’ it involves taking me out for dinner. Which is just as good in my opinion since we don’t often go out to eat.

Of course going out on actual Valentine’s Day would be a nightmare. We usually avoid going out on actual holidays, opting instead to celebrate early to avoid crowds, so we decided to hit up The Chicago Diner yesterday, in the late afternoon when we figured the ‘holiday’ crowd would be at it’s thinnest. We were right. We had The Diner virtually to ourselves and we enjoyed a nice leisurely meal, of laughs and love and damn good food. The Valentine’s Menu was limited to 1 appetizer, 1 entree, and 3 dessert options. Which was nice. Don’t get me wrong, I love having options, but there is such a thing as having too many options you know?

For drinks we ordered milkshakes, because hello, it’s THE CHICAGO DINER! Milkshakes are a must! My opinion was that we could have wine anytime, but you can only have milkshakes every now and then. I got my usual Peanut Butter Cookie Dough shake which is out of this world, my husband got his usual mocha which is also very good.

We got the appetizer which was Dates stuffed with Jalapeno’s wrapped in Vegan bacon. Oh my god were these delicious! Seriously, one of the best appetizers I’ve ever had. These were sweet, salty, savory, with just a touch of spice and they were served with a sweet tart sauce that tasted like Tamarind. So amazing, I wish we’d had more.

Since the Diner’s appetizers are so good, and my husband is a hungry man we decided to order a second appetizer off of their regular menu. The Thai Chili Wings. These are incredible, I think I’ve mentioned them before but I’ll do it again. They’re seitan wings, drenched in a sweet spicy Thai chili sauce, served with a squeeze of lime and Sriracha Ranch for dipping. Fan-freaking-tastic. Though we had a hard time decided between this and the Poutine, such a difficult choice always.

Our entree was a braised Portobello Mushroom cap served on a bed of creamed leeks, with a Potato-Daikon Cake, and asparagus. Man, this was good too! That mushroom was so chewy and delicious, the asparagus was cooked to perfection! The leeks were perfect, sweet and savory and buttery, and the potato cake, oh boy, well that was my favorite part. Like eating a German Potato Pancake - almost.

For dessert I went with the Strawberry Rose tart, which was a chocolate crust, a strawberry coulis in the middle, with rose essence and rose petals, topped with some whip cream. This was amazing! It wasn’t too sweet, and the contrast between chocolate, strawberry and rose were all wonderful. I loved that the rose flavor was very prominent but not overwhelming.

My husband chose the Chocolate Whoopie Pie with Lavender filling. He gave me a bite and this was just as good! Subtle lavender cream in the middle of two big, soft, moist chocolate cakes in the shape of hearts. Also served with a delicate whipped cream. Amazing!

Interestingly despite all that food we left The Diner feeling pretty good. Honestly most of the time we leave the diner my husband and I either feel like we’re going to throw up or die. And I have to say that isn’t any fault of the Diner, it’s all on us. We always order WAY too much food, and we always eat it all! This time around I don’t think we necessarily ordered less food, but it was the kind of food we ordered. It was mostly vegetable based, when normally at the Diner we stuff ourselves with seitan, tempeh, poutine, bread, burgers and all the bad, decadent stuff. Yesterday we ate relatively ‘light’ by comparison and left feeling perfectly satisfied and happy. The Diner always makes us happy, and this was a lovely way to celebrate an Early Valentine’s Day.

So if this all sounds good to you, and you live in the Chicagoland area be sure to drop by The Chicago Diner sometime this week. I think Saturday is your last chance for the Valentine’s Day menu so get there fast! And check back tomorrow for Part 4 of our celebration.

The Chicago Diner - 

Halsted Location 
3411 N Halsted St
Phone: 773-935-6696
.
Logan Square Location 
2333 N. Milwaukee Ave
Phone: 773-252-3211

Breakfast For Dinner: My Husband's Birthday Celebration 2014...

My Plate

December 30th is my husband’s birthday, and it’s a particularly terrible time to have a birthday if you ask me. With Christmas just barely over, and New Years right around the corner most people are full, tired and ready for the holidays to be over - myself included - the last thing anyone wants to do is go to another party, eat another massive amount of food, and have to shell out more money for more gifts. December is an especially bad time to have a birthday if you live in Chicago, because it’s so damn cold you can’t even have the consolation of being able to go out and do anything nice. Forget outdoor activities in -20 degree weather. So, with this in mind I always try to give my husband the most special birthday I can think of. We’re not big on gifts since we normally by whatever we want whenever we want but I try to pick him up a few surprises that he might not purchase himself. I offer to make him anything he wants for his birthday dinner, and since it’s his day we can do whatever he wants. This year it was simple, we saw some movies, had dinner, went bowling. Bowling is always something that happens on his birthday, because it’s something he enjoys but I do not, except since it’s his birthday it’s the one day of the year I voluntarily and un-grumpily go along.

Last year for his special birthday dinner he wanted sushi. This year, he wanted Breakfast for dinner. Breakfast is probably his favorite meal, and he loves breakfast foods but since I am so rarely in the mood to eat in the morning I don’t normally make breakfast. At first I was disappointed that he wanted breakfast. I was hoping for more of a challenge, I was hoping for something decadent, but it’s his birthday after all and after taking some time to think about it I realized what a relief it would be to make a simple meal after having made so much decadent food already.

So breakfast is what I made, specifically he requested Banana Stuffed French Toast and some kind of Tofu Scramble. He also said he wanted Sweet Earth Bacon and Field Roast Breakfast Sausages, but wasn’t more specific then that. I like to have a little freedom to play around with and so that was a good enough guideline for me.

Field Roast Breakfast Links
Sweet Earth Hickory Sage Smoked Bacon 

I decided upon the Stuffed Banana Berry French Toast from Lauren Ulm’s book “Vegan Yum Yum” I’ve made this before - and posted about it - and we’d both loved it so it seemed the right choice. The only trouble was that the french bread I’d bought was a few days too old and so it was hard as a bloody brick. Needless to say that after much effort I could not cut the bread properly to ‘stuff’ it and so I simply used it to make regular french toast and topped it with the berries and bananas. Still good. I should have known better and picked up a new bread but oh well. My husband offered no complaints as he scarfed down 4 pieces!

Stuffed Banana Berry French Toast 

Since I had never made Lauren Ulm’s Tofu Scramble before and my husband didn’t give me a specific scramble that he wanted I decided to make the Tofu Scramble with Seitan Sausage also from “Vegan Yum Yum” This is a simply seasoned scramble packed with protein. Not only does it have tofu, and seitan but black beans too! Plus broccoli, shredded carrot, wine vinegar, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, turmeric, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds. I really liked the idea of these seasonings and though it’s not how I normally make tofu scramble I have to say this was absolutely delicious!

Tofu Scramble with Seitan Sausage 

Then I decided that breakfast just couldn’t be breakfast without some kind of fried potato and so I dug out my copy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s book “Vegan Brunch” and decided on her Peruvian Home Fries. It seemed a fitting choice considering we were just in Peru in September. This potato hash uses Peruvian Purple Potatoes, Coriander Seeds, Red Pepper Flakes, Red Bell Pepper, Red Onion, salt, cilantro and oil. I loved the flavor combination on these potatoes, the coriander seeds tasted great and I liked the little pop you got when you bit into one. Though red pepper flakes are used in this dish these potatoes are not spicy, as most Peruvian food isn’t spicy. There is just enough red pepper to give them some flavor without lending much heat. I could have gobbled up the entire skillet if I wasn’t already so full.

Peruvian Home Fries 

Then there was the plate of Sweet Earth Hickory and Sage Smoked Bacon and The Field Roast Breakfast Links. Both of which cook up nice and easy and taste great, especially when dipped into some ketchup and maple syrup. All in all I’d have to say this was a damn successful breakfast dinner, unfortunately by the time we were done eating we were both too full for the cake I’d made. So instead we’re having the cake tonight as the coup de grace to our New Years/Birthday Pizza Party. Until tomorrow!

Product Review - Sweet Earth: Hickory and Sage Smoked Seitan Bacon...

Look out folks there’s a new vegan bacon in town! Sweet Earth Natural Foods has just come out with a Hickory and Sage Smoked Seitan Bacon, that’s pretty darn good. I don’t normally buy pre-packaged vegan bacon as I prefer to make it at home myself but you know how the novelty of a new item always makes me want to try it at least once.

Personally I think seitan is probably the best candidate for making the most realistic vegan bacon. Of course that doesn’t do much to help those who follow a gluten-free diet, but for the rest of us I think seitan makes for the closest and most accurate bacon texture. If you like soft - think wilted - chewy bacon, seitan can do it, if you like crispy hard bacon, seitan can do it, if you like something a little in-between seitan can do it. Where as Tempeh doesn’t really do ‘soft’ and tofu never does crispy without becoming super chewy. Shiitake, coconut, and eggplant bacon are all great as well, but none of them ever stack up texture wise. So Sweet Earth has really achieved something unique with their seitan bacon, the texture is fantastic, and the flavor is pretty darn good too. When they say smokey they mean smokey for sure! Though I didn’t taste much sage. Overall this is a very savory product and satisfying to the palate, although I think - since I like a bit of sweetness with my bacon - next time I’d drizzle a bit of maple syrup over the strips as they’re cooking.

Now the nitty-gritty nutritional details. For 2 slices of seitan bacon it’s 90 calories, 30 calories from fat. 7% sodium, 2% carbohydrates, 1 g sugar, 1g fiber, 10g protein, 8% Vitamin A, 2% Vitamin C, Iron and Calcium, 50% Vitamin E and also contains several B vitamins in varying percentages. Unfortunately this is not the most allergy-friendly product out there as it contains wheat, soy, and coconut, however the only soy listed on the ingredients list is soy sauce. The ingredients are pretty basic, mostly spices, maple syrup, a bit of sugar, wheat gluten, red beans, and buckwheat groats, and the product is non-gmo, with no nitrates. According to their website Sweet Earth also works hard to ensure their products are sustainable so you can feel good knowing that too.

For all the vegan bacon lovers out there, this is a nice addition to the vegan bacon market, and tastes great served up alongside a tasty tofu scramble. I enjoyed it drizzled in a bit of maple syrup served with the Tuscan Tofu Scramble from Chloe Coscarelli’s latest book “Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen.” My husband loved it too, saying it’s one of the best commercial vegan bacon’s he’s tried, and I’d have to agree. Though honestly when it comes to any commercial vegan bacon I prefer my own homemade stuff, but this is a nice change of pace once in a while or great if you don’t want to go to the trouble of DIY.

My only real complaint is the packaging is horrible to open. It's like opening a tempeh package. You need to get our your scissors and because of all the marinade it just makes a freaking mess. So be warned.

If you want to learn more about Sweet Earth you can check them out Here.

PS: One of the craziest things about this bacon is that when you cook it, it actually smells like bacon. It’s not like when you cook tofu and tempeh or other vegan bacon’s and you just smell that salty, blackening smell. This actually smelled like bacon - but without the grease. Weird.

An American Thanksgiving Brunch...

My full plate!

I hope that everyone had a lovely American Thanksgiving last week, I know I did. I feel that this year was more relaxed then years previous, which was a real bonus. The thing I love most about American Thanksgiving is that it’s kind of a special time for me - it ‘s my veganversary. That’s right, I went Vegan on Thanksgiving Day three years ago - which wasn’t as hard as you might think since I was already vegetarian at the time. It’s fun getting to celebrate your veganversary, though I feel like such a baby-vegan when I talk to people who’ve been vegan for 10+ years, what an inspiration! I can’t wait until I hit my ten-year mark!

Anyway - onto the food. As I’ve already said my husband and I didn’t really feel like doing dinner, and so we decided to change it up and do brunch instead. A super cool idea, and damn delicious too! Even though I’m not typically a breakfast eater, I do love breakfast food. Since I don’t get it often, this meal really was a treat. Though it did require some advanced planning. The Black Forest ‘Bacon’ for instance I made the day before. I also prepared the English Muffins and the Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns the day before so that they just needed to be baked on Thanksgiving morning. The pies too were baked on Wednesday since creamy pies and cheesecakes really do require a good few hours of refrigeration, though I typically like to let them set for 24 hours if I can.

Tofu Benedict

After much thought and consideration as to what was going to be the focal point of our Thanksgiving Brunch I decided on a Tofu Benedict. In my pregan days - pre-vegan - I used to love a good eggs benny, and though I have made vegan versions it’s not something I do often, so it seemed like the perfect center piece. The only problem was which Benedict recipe to use? I debated between Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Benny in “Vegan Brunch” and Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s Benny in “The Vegan Table” until I finally settled on a compromise. I used Colleen’s Benny recipe and Isa’s Hollandaise Sauce recipe! I also made my own home-made English Muffins using Isa’s recipe from Vegan Brunch. It was delicious.

Colleen’s Benny itself was pretty straight forward. You make a tofu scramble, toast some English muffins, saute some spinach with garlic and assemble. It goes Muffin - tomato - vegan bacon - scramble - spinach - hollandaise sauce. Perfection!

Isa’s Hollandaise Sauce was pretty good too. It was thick and creamy like I remember, though more lemony and less rich then I recall dairy based Hollandaise to be. Still good, and it was super simple to make just shallots, white wine, vinegar, flour and a few other things.

Hollandaise Sauce

Isa’s English Muffins were spot on though, and so freaking delicious. I was a bit intimidated making these as I thought it was going to be a lot of trouble and a lot of effort but in reality these whipped together pretty quick, and man they’re better then any English Muffin I’ve ever eaten. Unfortunately I do not own cookie or biscuit cutters and so I used a drinking glass to cut the muffins. Which means they were way smaller then an actual English Muffin, but that was alright. We had many benedicts instead and it was great.

English Muffins 

Now when it comes to the ‘bacon’ or ‘ham’ that is used in a ‘traditional’ benny, Colleen uses tempeh bacon. She has a recipe in “The Vegan Table” for it, and I’ve made it several times but I wanted to try something a little different and ‘out-there.’ this time around. For more then a year I’ve been eying the Black Forest Bacon recipe in Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman’s wonderful book “The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions.” I keep telling myself that I’m going to try it one day and then never do. It always seems like so much work but finally I found myself determined to give it a try. That’s the thing with me, when I’m already laboring over something I might as well jump in with both feet and do even more work you know? Anyway, it ended up being way easier then I thought it was going to be, and every second of effort was worth it. This is hands down one of the best damn bacon recipes I’ve ever made. The cool thing about it is that it’s a seitan bacon. It’s made with liquid smoke, garlic, paprika, maple syrup, black pepper and of course vital wheat gluten. Then you make a glaze out of maple syrup, salt, brown sugar, black pepper and liquid smoke. Whisk the glaze together pour it over the bacon and bake in the oven wrapped in aluminum foil. So easy! This is really a delicious blend of sweet, salty, smokey and peppery. Once it’s done you let it cool, and then slice thin and fry up as you would any other bacon. Amazing, and it was great on the benny’s!

Black Forest Bacon!

I also used this delicious bacon in the amazing Smokey Tempeh Bacon, Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche recipe from “Spork-Fed” by Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg. Honestly I’ve never been the biggest fan of quiche, ‘traditional’ or ‘vegan.’ I’ve made several vegan quiches over the past few years and they’ve always either been gross or mediocre. I suppose quiche is just not one of my things, but this particular quiche looked so good, and I’ve had such great luck with this particular cook book in general that I thought I’d throw caution to the wind and just go with it. Turns out this is the best damn quiche I’ve ever eaten and I loved it. It was slightly sweet, very savory, a little salty, kinda smokey, and oh so creamy. Absolute perfection and the black forest bacon really knocked it out of this world. Plus who doesn't love the broccoli cheddar combo? I used Daiya Cheddar by the way. I also really liked that the crust used cornmeal, oregano, and Dijon mustard to liven things up, and I was happy that even though this quiche uses both nutritional yeast and tofu that neither of those flavors was overpowering.

Smokey Bacon, Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche

To go along with all of that I also made a half-batch of the Tempeh and White Bean Sausage patties from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s book “Vegan with a Vengeance!” these were really tasty, though they crumbled easily. I think I also put a tad too much tomato paste in them because they were kind of orange-pink looking In the end, but they were still great. I paired them with a half batch of Isa’s Navy Bean Gravy from her book “Vegan Brunch” which was also fantastic - although In the haste of eating I neglected to take a picture of that, sorry! Take my word for it when I say this was a super easy gravy recipe. It was thick, creamy, and delicious, the perfect breakfast gravy and I love that it used beans!

Tempeh and White Bean Sausage Patties 

Also from Isa’s “Vegan Brunch” I made the home-style potatoes, because what’s a lavish brunch without potatoes? These were seriosuly some of the best breakfast potatoes I’ve ever had. Oh my, where they amazing! I could have eaten the whole pan, and they were so simple. Just potatoes, onion, green bell pepper, salt, pepper and oil. Perfection.

Home-Style Potatoes 

Last but not least we capped our mid-day meal off with something sweet and decadent. The Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Glaze from Chloe Coscarelli’s beautiful and fantastic book “Chloe’s Vegan Desserts” these were a dream, simply amazing, and so flavorful. Right off the bat my husband and I ate 2 each! We ate another one when we got home that night. By Saturday morning the whole dozen were gone! The glaze is simple, powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla. The buns themself are a typical cinnamon roll pastry with the addition of pumpkin. The filling a delicious blend of brown sugar, cinnamon and earth balance studded with raisins. Holy carrots guys! These were incredible! There is not a doubt in my mind that I’ll be making these again.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Glaze 

Now, after brunch we were stuffed and so we happily relaxed. Then later in the afternoon we went to my husband’s aunts house to visit family. We did not eat there, as the whole idea of brunch was so that we wouldn’t have to eat dinner. I did however make three pies to bring along. I mean, I didn’t want us to look like total outcasts as the only vegans! I figured as long as I brought pies then we could enjoy dessert with them and ‘fit in.’

I chose to make the pumpkin cheesecake from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s joint effort “Vegan Pie in the Sky.” and it was delicious. You can’t have Thanksgiving without a pumpkin dessert of some kind and this fit the bill. I like that the base was made using cashews and tofu - though it didn’t taste like either. This was a very rich, and decadent tasting cheesecake, and I loved the pecan topping. Sorry for the blurry photo, I don’t know what happened!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Topping

I also wanted to make some totally off the wall stuff to enjoy and so I made the Banana Tapioca Pudding Pie from Hannah Kaminsky’s wonderful book “Easy as Vegan Pie” I loved the sound of it, and I was not disappointed. It’s like a banana cream pie but with tapioca. Except the tapioca isn’t so noticeable and kind of blends into the pudding you make. My favorite part of this pie though is the home-made coconut whip cream. This was amazing, I am literally blown away by the ease and genius of this particular vegan alchemy. All it is is chilled coconut cream whipped with sugar and vanilla extract and it tasted better then any whip cream I’ve ever eaten, and way better then any commercial vegan whip cream too. Now that I know it’s so easy I’ll be making my own from here on.

Banana Tapioca Pudding Pie 

Next I was completely captivated by Hannah’s recipe for Cannoli Pie - which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a Cannoli filling inside of a pie crust, delicious! In my pregan days I loved Italian Cannoli. My dad used to take me to this great Italian Bakery in Vancouver and we’d get a whole box of them! It’s been years since I’ve had an actual cannoli so when I saw this pie I knew I’d have to try it out. It’s actually quite easy, mostly it’s made with tofu and cashews though it also uses vegan yogurt - I used my own home-made yogurt - lemon juice, sugar, vinegar, nutritional yeast, and Agar. You top the finished pie with shaved chocolate and chopped pistachio’s and it’s incredible. It’s extremely rich, and very creamy. I loved all the pies I made but this just might have been my favorite - you know, for old times sake. However as far as the rest of the guests were concerned I think the pumpkin cheesecake was the overall winner.

Cannoli Pie

And that about wraps up American Thanksgiving this year. I hope you all had as lovely time as I did.