Breakfast is Hard. Make it Easy.

I've never been a big breakfast eater. I was usually not hungry, so I'd skip it, and then eat at around 2 p.m. when I was ravenous. I had slumps in energy this way, but it was just so hard to eat when I wasn't hungry. Bobby finally convinced me about a year ago to just start trying to eat something small, even just a piece of fruit. I did that for one week, and all of a sudden I started waking up ravenous. My metabolism kicked up, my energy evened out, and I didn't get cranky headaches late in the day. I'm a bit believer in eating only when you're hungry, but this experience showed me that sometimes one may need to kick start things. Now I couldn't skip breakfast if I wanted to, because my growling stomach flat out won't let me.

All that being said, I'm still not going to tuck into a mound of food at the crack of dawn. A light and simple breakfast is still easiest for me to eat. As a result, the first meal of the day (after a big glass of water) usually looks like this:

 My standby has become either an apple or a banana, sliced, sprinkled in apple pie spice (this doesn't have sugar) and chia seeds. I round it out with one tablespoon each of almond butter and peanut butter. The "rules" of combining proteins don't really apply as long as you're eating a varied diet, but I like to eat almond and peanut butter together because it is a complete protein, and if I'm eating one or the other, I may as well eat them together. This gets me through my morning run, or an hour of power yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays mornings. After those activities I'm much more interested in a larger meal. Plus, between the chia seeds and the nut butter I get a good head start on protein for the day, and the fiber of the apple keeps me full through my morning workout. Last but not least, a day started with apple pie spice is guaranteed to be a bit more awesome than a day without, right? Right.

Good Morning!

I'm not much of a breakfast eater. I used to skip it religiously, since I was never hungry. Now I make myself have something, usually either an apple or a banana, sliced, sprinkled with with apple pie spice and chia seeds, with a side of peanut butter. However, I'm never going to be someone who leaps out of bed and wants to chow down on biscuits and veggie sausage and a plate full of pancakes at 7 a.m. Bobby, however, is precisely that someone. So I made these guys on a random weekday morning.

Banana chai pancakes with toasted coconut + mystery sauce

The recipe came from one of my favorite cookbooks "How it All Vegan ". A lot of vegan cookbooks can be overly fussy and they seem to call for ridiculously expensive health store ingredients just to be jerks about it. This cookbook is refreshingly basic. Pretty much every recipe has less than 15 ingredients (including spices) and they don't constantly rely on tofu. These guys were made with no oil thanks to mashed bananas, and I subbed a half a cup of the almond milk for a half  a cup of chai tea. While one side was cooking, I sprinkled unsweetened coconut on the top, flipped it, and finished cooking it while toasting said coconut. Bobby ate his plain. I had mine a few hours later, and drizzled it with that mysterious brown sauce. What is it, you ask? Chocolate? Blueberry syrup? Nope. It's balsamic. Vanilla fig balsamic, to be exact.

I'm a bit obsessed with balsamic anything, and it was just the thing to cut the sweetness of the pancakes. We picked up these three little friends at the farmer's market last weekend. They are all delicious. The woman makes her own special flavor blends, and I'm grateful for every single one. That blackberry ginger is going to be so good on some vanilla coconut ice cream...

Trash Can Magic Smoothie

I think bananas have some sort of magical property when blended smoothie style. They can simultaneously mask certain things- kale, spinach, chunks of broccoli- while stepping aside and graciously amplifying the flavors of other things- a dollop of peanut butter, a swirl of coconut milk, a handful of berries. Knowing the magical properties of bananas was what convinced me that the following smoothie would actually be edible. Plus, it allows me to use up all sorts of bits and bobs in my fridge.

I had about 1/4 a cup of pureed organic pumpkin along with about 1/4 a cup of unsweetened, organic, full fat coconut milk leftover from other kitchen endeavors during the week. Respectively those two items are not the most thrifty of ingredients, and I was loathe to waste them. So I threw them in with about 1/4 a cup of blueberries, a tbsp each of ground flax seeds and chia seeds, a splash of almond milk, and the crucial ingredient that would make it all awesome- an overripe, but still very magical, banana.

I also threw in what I *thought* were frozen peaches from our CSA...

Those orange chunks at the bottom were, presumably, peaches. I ground it all up, drank it down, and it tasted fantastic. It wasn't until the next night, when Bobby went to make a fruit crumble (mmmm, crumble) when he held up the jar of presumed peaches and said "wait, what are these? cantaloupe, or... what?". I quickly said "they're peaches" and then realized, as soon as I did, no, no they were not peaches. They were, in fact, chunks of butternut squash that I had peeled and chopped about a week before so that I could make on of my favorite soups of all time quickly.

Moral of the story, the magical properties of bananas have been MORE than confirmed. Butternut squash is delicious in a smoothie with such unlikely blend fellows as blueberries and pumpkin puree. That has to be magic, folks.

How To Scramble

I love scrambles for breakfast. You can chuck in a ton of good veggies- especially odds 'n ends that need to get used up-, get a big dose of protein, mix in some nutritional yeast for your daily allowance of B12, and the cherry on top is you can cover it all in salsa and eat it with biscuits. This particular scramble had yellow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, red and yellow onions, baby bellas, and black beans. Biscuits are from scratch- unfortunately not wheat, I'm trying to use up the rest of my white flour- and the sausage is vegan. I feel like I'm leaving a veg out, but that's all I can remember.

If you want to try your hand at making a tofu scramble, the very most important thing is to get extra firm tofu, and be sure to press the hell out of it so everything stays crumbly instead of getting mushy. Another tip is to mix all of your spices together in a little bowl, so you can sprinkle it evenly since the tofu can suck up the spices so quickly. I use this recipe-

http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=110

but I never use the lime/lemon juice, never add the carrot, you can't taste/feel a difference if you leave out the nutritional yeast, I don't measure any of the veg/onion, and I adjust the level of spices depending on how much extra veg I add. If you add in spinach/greens- ah! SPINACH, that's what I was leaving out!- add it in once you've crumbled the tofu in so it will wilt but not get slimy/sloggy/nasty. I have to admit, I wasn't over the moon about tofu scrambles until I made them myself at home. I always had to have my eggs *very* hard scrambled, so this gave me control over the cooking time. Have fun experimenting :)

P.S.- This makes a LOT of scramble. Get some tortillas and use the leftovers to roll up breakfast burritos, wrap them up well, and freeze for quick breakfasts. Or, just use half the block of tofu and try your hand at baking the other for a separate meal.

Coconut Banana Oat Cookies

Bobby and I had house guests all last week. They drove in last Monday- a 15 hour trip from Texas- and I fed them a mix of things I had in my fridge when they arrived late at night. Since we were all up and cookies don't take long to throw together and cook, I made these as they ate their dinner and we caught up. I still can't believe I'm not only making, but eating and enjoying, recipes with coconut in them. Seriously, as I've said before, getting organic, unsulphured, unsweetened dried shredded coconut to cook from has made all the difference. The stuff in the bags in the baking aisle, or whatever topped Sno-Balls or was stuffed into Almond Joy, almost ruined me for coconut forever.

These cookies had two mashed bananas, a cup of unsweetened shredded coconut, and a cup of oats, along with all the other standard cookie players like flour and oil and such. It was flavored with just a touch of cinnamon and vanilla, and I used brown sugar because I like the way it complements coconut. These cookies were awesome. I ate a good scoop of the batter and then had one fresh out of the oven. I think the sugar could have been completely omitted and they would have still been sweet from the bananas. It was a good start to a great week with friends.

Waffles and Rice

Whole wheat waffles topped with chia seeds, a big handful of raw trail mix- unsweetened coconut, dates, almonds, peanuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, walnuts- and a big drizzle of warmed up, organic, 100% maple syrup. After years of scoffing at its expense, I purchased some. I can definitely say it is both better than "pancake syrup" and is also worth the extra money.



The Caribbean rice, reincarnated as a breakfast rice pudding of sorts. Definitely fits in a bit better with waffles and mornings than it did as a dinner dish. I topped it with chopped, raw, unsalted walnuts and more chia seeds. With less sugar and the addition of the crunchy walnuts I liked it even more than I did the first time. Although I have to admit I only ate half of it thanks to filling up on waffles. Taking pictures of my food is so much better now that I stopped being lazy and learned the (absolute bare minimum basics) of Bobby's camera.

Shredded Breakfast

I know you're probably thinking "What the what, I come to this supposedly vegan blog and this chick is putting cheese on her cereal? That's just ridiculous." No worries though, that is actually a nice sprinkling of unsweetened shredded coconut. What *is* weird is that I despised coconut until about, oh, 6 months ago. Apparently Sno Balls are not the best way to be introduced to it. Who knew? Moral of the story- if you think you don't like something from your childhood, it might just be that you ate the lowest common denominator of it. Things I thought I hated but really didn't once I tried them fresh include not just coconut, but spinach, peas, and mushrooms. But for now the topic at hand is breakfast, so...

This morning I found a wrinkly peach hiding behind an orange in my fruit drawer. I chopped it up, and put it on top of 100% whole wheat, unsweetened shredded wheat. I added the aforementioned coconut, a good sprinkle of chia seeds, some cinnamon, and a drizzle of agave. I experimented with using my vanilla chai soymilk, and while interesting I don't think I'll be doing it again. It's only very lightly sweetened, but when I add in the agave, and the peach, and the natural sweetness of the coconut, it was a bit much for breakfast. I really liked the peach/coconut combo though. I could see myself making a peach/coconut compote for whole wheat pancakes in the future, with maybe a touch of ginger and brown sugar.

It's Friday!

I have always liked the totally boring, good for you cereals. The only ingredients in this shredded wheat are wheat, and Vitamin E added to preserve freshness. On top of the shredded wheat are: blackberries, half of a banana, a handful of raw/unsalted peanuts, walnuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds, a good sprinkle of chia seeds, drizzle of agave, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. The other half of the banana that didn't fit in the bowl just hung out on the side and got a good dusting of chia seeds as well. A bit of almond milk finishes it off.

Since the protein question is asked so much, I'd like to point out that this unassuming cereal breakfast has 15 grams of protein in it.

Lots of Fruit and Veggies!

Breakfast: Mmmmm fruit bowl. This is a mix of mango, kiwi, peach, plum, and orange, with fresh mint and a sprinkle of ginger, topped with a raw, unsalted trail mix of sunflower seeds, coconut slices, peanuts, dates, almonds, and walnuts, all finished off with a sprinkle of chia seeds.



The other half of breakfast- 1/4 a cup of steel cut oats, soaked overnight, then cooked in water. Mixed with- half of a chopped up peach, a handful of unsalted, raw walnuts, a drizzle of agave, splash of vanilla, and cinnamon. Topped with about a tbsp of almond butter (no sugar/no salt) and chia seeds. I ended up only eating about 2/3 of this, I always forget how filling oatmeal is when I go a bit without having it. I think the water dense fruit salad definitely played a part in filling me up as well.



Lunch- I had leftover sauteed veggies and mushrooms from last night's pizza toppings. This sandwich is STUFFED- I hollowed out the inside to fit the almost a cup's worth of veggies, plus two large swiss chard leaves from our CSA, and two very thin slices of Vegan Gourmet mozzarella. A generous grind of fresh black pepper and spicy horseradish mustard rounded it out. Most importantly, however, is the amazing bread. I picked up more of the take and bake rosemary bread from Sprouts. It's whole wheat plus it has vital wheat gluten added, so it's *loaded* with protein. This is a very small salad plate, and that serving gave me 10 grams of protein, 6% of my DV for calcium, and almost 20% of my DV for iron.



A close up. I love lunch pictures, because I can use the natural light and turn off my flash. It's a bit blurry, but I prefer to say it has "warm colors" ;)

Yesterday..

A quick sandwich breakfast as I ran out the door to my internship yesterday- almond butter (no sugar/salt) and no sugar added raspberry pomegranate jelly on sprouted whole wheat bread with no sugar. A big glass of water, and a shy unphotographed banana.

Lunch was a salad I picked up, baby greens, pickled beets, pumpkin seeds, croutons. It comes with goat cheese, which I usually have them leave out, but I really, really, really wanted some goat cheese- it's seriously the *only* thing I ever remotely "miss". So, not a vegan meal. And, interestingly enough, after I ate it I just felt kind of... heavy.



Speaking of cheese, let me start off by defending the cheese in this picture- the white chunks you see. It's Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet mozzarella, and it's *amazing*. It tastes soft and salty and mellow just like regular mozzarella, and contrary to pictorial evidence, I assure you it *does* melt. But,this time I wanted more cubed, feta like texture, so I chopped it in little tiny squares. It gave it a texture very similar to feta, and when you bit into it it melted in your mouth. Anyway, now that I've redeemed the soy cheese- try it, it's really good!- on to the details. This is the other whole wheat crust from the package I bought at Whole Foods, topped with tomato basil marinara and a mixture of red onions, green and red bell pepper, and garlic sauteed in a smidge of olive oil. On top of those veggies are sliced baby bellas, shredded soy pepperoni, and the aforementioned and much talked about soy cheese. Generous sprinkle of Italian seasoning, 12 minutes in the oven, and hello delicious. We scarfed this down pretty quickly and headed out the door for our West Coast Swing lessons. A very fun dance, I highly recommend it!

Yogurt and Cereal

Coconut milk yogurt, vanilla flavor, with a plum mixed in and overflowing, sprinkled with chia seeds.



There was about 1/3 of a cup of shredded wheat left, so I finished it off with unsweetened coconut milk, a big handful of the raw/unsalted trail mix- walnuts, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, coconut slices, raisins, dates, half a banana, sprinkle of cinnamon, sprinkle of chia seeds. Then it was out the door to yoga!

I Did Not Want to Wake Up This Morning

While that three hour nap yesterday afternoon was great and all, it left me wide awake at 1 a.m. this morning. And then the alarm went off at 7 a.m. But since Bobby works outside the house I had promised blueberry cornmeal pancakes from scratch. It's a recipe from "Veganomicon", one of my favorite (albeit fussy and involved) cookbooks. These pancakes had whole wheat flour, cornmeal, maple syrup, and lemon zest in them, among the other standard pancake dry/wet ingredients. I had two small guys with a drizzle of pure maple syrup, sprinkle of cinnamon, and chia seeds. Fruit on the side- about 1/4 of a mango, a peach, and a kiwi, also topped with more chia seeds. Unsweetened hot decaf green tea with leftover lemon zest.

As a side note- one tbsp of chia seeds gives you about 10% of your DV for calcium and iron, and 2 grams of a complete protein. They also have B vitamins and other good nutrients, and while they're pretty tasteless they gel up in liquid, which feels cool in your mouth. But, for the love of all that is good and holy, please research and buy in bulk if you can. My local Sprouts sells them for $7.99 a pound- frequently $5.99 a pound on sale- which, as you can imagine, gets you a ton of chia seeds. But I've seen them go for as high as TWENTY-FIVE dollars a pound. That's ridiculous. Search around and see if you have a health foods store that sells bulk items. Bring your own container to avoid waste, and save a load of money too :)

Out of Order Breakfast...

So, this is the breakfast I ate before all the food in the next post :) Smoothie- frozen strawberries, one banana, a cup of raw organic local chard from our CSA, about 2 tbsp of almond butter, a plum, and a splash of unsweetened coconut milk. I had about 8 oz and the rest went to Bobby. Rounded it out with 1/4 of a leftover waffle topped with about a 1/2 a tbsp of almond butter, no sugar added raspberry pomegranate jam, and chia seeds.

Waffles and Sleeping In

Friday was crazy awful busy and super hot. I drove 45 minutes to drop off a resume/fill out an application, drove back, then hurriedly changed and scarfed down a salad- baby greens, pickled beets, pumpkin seeds, croutons, grilled portabella mushrooms- and some gatorade before I ran out the door to observe a community organizing position from 1:45 to 11:00 at night. I ate some fruit on the way to the community, walked around for 5 hours in the 97 degree heat, and then we all went out afterwards and I ate a portabella burger at almost midnight. Collapsed into bed blistered and tired at 1 a.m.

So, this morning, I slept in until 10:30, and then Bobby woke me up to this breakfast. Whole wheat made from scratch waffle topped with a tbsp of almond butter (no sugar/no salt) and a handful of blueberries. A drizzle of honey and a lot of chia seeds and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Half a banana on the side topped with more chia seeds. These waffles pull apart into four sections, and I ate three sections and all of the banana. Homemade hot cocoa on the side- unsweetened coconut milk, unsweetened cocoa powder, a tsp of of honey. This guy I live with is kind of a catch I think :)