Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

OK I guess that I have to live up to it. After a very successful first week on the McDougall plan, I fell of the wagon. In spite of my McDougallings, my body started retaining water like crazy(more on that personal issue later, I promise). I quickly grew frustrated with my body. It was a lot of work to avoid ALL oils, and going through that trouble without seeing any results was a disheartening experience. I just had to give up the McDougall plan for the time being, with the intention of returning to it.
Of course there is one major exception, and that is that I continue to cut back on oil when I cook at home. By eliminating some of the empty calories that were coming from oils, I've been able to work in more whole grains. They're full of fiber and really do help control your appetite. Last week, I made some delicious oatmeal for breakfast. The recipe serves two, so you can either find a breakfast partner or save half for the following day. It tastes just as good re-heated, so I give this recipe a D for delicious.

 Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

• 2 cups apple juice
• 1.25 cups oats
• 1 apple, cubed
• 2 tbsp raisins
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1tbsp cinnamon 

Bring the apple juice and cinnamon to a boil over medium heat. Add the oats and cook for 5 minutes, or until the liquid disappears. Add the cubed apples and stir. Sprinkle with raisins and brown sugar.

Breakfast Bran Muffins

One of the many diet books that I have consulted over the years was the Fat Smash Diet. Yes, that's right, it's written by Dr. Ian from VH1's Celebrity Fit Club. He actually has a degree from Harvard, so I felt comfortable listening to his advice. Unfortunately, that diet was hard to maintain and I came upon it before I really discovered willpower. However, the one thing that always stuck with me was how much Dr. Ian loathed muffins. He would have taken every muffin from every coffee shop and bakery in America, rounded them up, and marched them to their deaths. Why?
Because muffins are totally bad for you. Starbuck's Apple Bran muffin has 470 calories. It's a bran muffin! It's supposed to be healthy, or so one would think. Wash that sucker down with a frappuccino, and your breakfast has 800 calories in it. To give you some perspective, my caloric intake is somewhere around 1800 a day to maintain my weight. So, I could have that "healthy" muffin and some sugary syrupy goodness, but what would I do about the rest of my day?
Now, I wouldn't actually ever eat a Starbuck's bran muffin, because it has little baby animals in it, and I do not eat little baby animals. That whole rant was just a hypothetical exercise. Anyway, since regular muffins are so unhealthy, and since I decided to try out the McDougall plan for a week, here is a decent recipe for oil-free bran muffins. They're very dense and chewy, and it is my experience that one is more than enough for a filling breakfast.
Disclaimer: It's not the most delicious muffin ever, but If you are looking for non-fat recipes, than this is the way to go.

Oil-Free French Toast

Wow, or as the French would say, Oo-la-la. I am a girl who loves sweet foods for breakfast. However, when I think of French Toast I can't help but feel a little guilty thinking about all of the fat involved in cooking. Veganism took care of eliminating the cholesterol, Dr. McDougall took care of eliminating the fat. I, however, will take credit for my brilliant elimination of processed syrup by replacing it with a date compote.
Last month, I made my first-ever trip to Farmer's Choice, a brand new produce store on Pico in Santa Monica. It is in the same shopping center as the Trader Joe's and it is absolutely amazing. The produce looks, feels, and tastes as fresh as a farmer's market, but it's also incredibly cheap. On my second visit, I managed to buy 90% of the weekly produce for 2 people, and it only ran me $17. From talking to the checkout girl, I learned that they get most of their produce shipped in daily and use local sources whenever possible.
I ran in there to pick up some raspberries, but ended up taking a "quick look" around. My quick look turned into an excuse to fill my basket with fresh fruits and vegetables, including some of the sweetest, softest dates I've had in a long time. I previously have sworn by the date lady at the Virginia Avenue Park farmer's market. However, I am switching my allegiance over to Farmer's Choice.

Tex-Mex Breakfast!

OK, so I probably talked a lot of shit about tex-mex breakfast when I found the recipe on the McDougall website. I probably continued to poke fun at it as I reworked the recipe. I continued to be a smart-ass even as we sat down and ate tex-mex breakfast. However, I was eating my words once I realized 1: it's delicious and 2: it's really, really good for you.
I made this breakfast a few weeks ago and substituted tofu for the brown rice recommended by the officiall McDougall recipe. Some members of my household can't really get behind the entire "rice for breakfast" idea.
On the day I took the picture, I may have undermined the entire "oil-free" concept by adding some crumbled vegan sausage. The reason behind the addition was pretty straightforward. I had the vegan sausage patties on hand from before I went on my McDougall bender, and didn't want to let it go to waste. I'm big on not letting things go to waste.

Pirates Chai for Breakfast

Due to a ridiculous language requirement at USC, I spent about twelve thousand dollars (that's three semesters worth) trying to cultivate an interest in the French language and culture. I know a few words "Je suis la jeune fille" for example, but for the most part all of that classroom time was wasted. I really wanted to learn French, but trying to do so while also working, taking a full courseload, and slogging through my Freshman year of college was not a good idea. I did, however, come away from the class with two things: 1: a new appreciation for The Cure's Killin an Arab and 2: a real love of crepes.
It only makes sense that I would be into crepes, considering the fact that I am mad about pancakes. It's worth noting that lately I have been reserving pancakes for weekend mornings and getting by with tofu scramble during the week. I do, however, make a pretty impressive crepe. I think there are a few very key elements to a good crepe.
1. Mixing the batter: I like to use my stand-up blender for this one. It gets the batter really smooth which is important.
2. The flour: you want to use a fine-ground whole wheat pastry flour. It will be light and smooth enough to make your crepes delicate.
3. A large spatula: for flipping.
4. A kick-ass filling: for my crepes I used a filling very similiar to bananas foster, except that I made a mockery of it.
5. Patience: you have to cook the first side of the crepe for a little bit longer than you think, because the top should be pretty much firm before you turn them over.

Strawberry Banana Pancakes

I think that it's really commendable that I am so good at beating a dead horse re-inventing this vegan pancake recipe. At this point in the game, I'm doing it just to challenge myself and see just how versatile of a little recipe this is. Future implementations will include granola, chocolate (not chocolate chip, actual chocolate), and coconut macadamia. Maybe I should open up my own vegan pancake restaurant. I suppose that I would need some savory pancakes to round out my menu. I would also need capital: lots of capital. I've been toying lately with the idea of writing my own book. The concept would be a guide to healthy living, a way of turning your life around, through improving your diet, exercise, and lots of delicious and nutritious recipes. I worry that no one would want to buy it, so feel free to post reassuring comments about how you would buy two if you had the chance.
The other day I ended up with a banana on the edge. You know what I'm talking about. The skin is starting to develop some brown splotches and you know that a matter of hours stand between you and a wasted quarter. I knew that I had to act fast. I really love bananas. The potassium in them is great for light-headedness, which I sometimes have a problem with. Some people argue that 100 calories for a piece of fruit is excessive. Those people are stupid, bananas are great, and here's a new recipe.

Vamping on French Toast

Being vegan doesn't always have to mean being healthy. In fact, I have seen a number of people who are vegan, but continue to eat shitty diets full of carbs and oils. So, this conception that all vegans are rail thin with perfect skin is not something that is always true. Although, it is something that this particular vegan aspires to, and 95% of the time, I eat meals that further this goal. On the other hand, sometimes it's the morning of my birthday and I feel entitled so something just a little more special.
Before moving to West LA and becoming one of those people who needs to work up the motivation to journey east of La Cienega, I used to reside in uber-hip Los Feliz. Out of habit, I still go to the doctor over there every couple of months. I used to always round out the trip with a little visit to Fred 62, which used to be my favorite kitschy diner until I discovered Swingers' and her vegan pancakes.
Fred's is a great place, if you are willing to look past a less than stellar wait-staff and the fact that sometimes you have to wait an hour for a table. The food is absolutely delicious, and one of my favorites was always the Bearded Mr. Frenchy, a french toast coated in corn flakes and then deep fried. Even before I went vegan, I felt that the dish was a little heavy, which means that to someone with normal taste buds, it probably tasted like a lard parade. Anyway,I made this special occasion-only breakfast in April when I wanted something absolutely bananas for my birthday.

A joke I heard the other day.
How many vegans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Answer: Two. One to change the lightbulb and one to read the ingredients. Ba-dum-ba. Here's the recipe.

My First Time

The other day I was sifting through my desk at work, and somehow a recipe had gotten trapped in a folder full of very project management important documents. It was a hand-written copy of my very first vegan recipe. My younger sister went vegan when I was in college. I believe that she ran into some "vegangelists " at a concert and was quickly converted over to a plant-based diet. I am not proud of the fact that I was not as understanding as I should have been. It just seemed so foreign to me that she would choose to avoid all animal products. Plus, she's always been thin and gorgeous, so the benefits to her appearance were not as evident as they were on someone like me. Now I realize that she had it right back then. One Christmas I went home and, as a show of good faith, baked vegan pumpkin muffins for breakfast. Even though I wasn't sold on the whole "vegan thing" at the time, I do remember very distinctly that these muffins were more delicious than I thought they would have been.
I've tweaked the recipe just a little bit, because it did include a fair bit of sugar and fat. I left out some of the sugar, which leads to a spicier muffin, and replaced most of the fat with applesauce. Applesauce is hands-down the best fat replacer when it comes to breakfast breads. It keeps them moist and delicious without adding unnecessary inches to your waistline. These muffins are really delicious and perfect for a chilly morning, or, if you live in Southern California like me, just any time that you get a craving for some pumpkin awesomeness.

Light and Refreshing Fruit Salad

Is this really a recipe? I guess that I'm not sure. I think that on a very technical level, any time you put together more than 3 or 4 ingredients, it can be considered some kind of a recipe. Also, my fruit salad is more than just a couple of pieces of fruit cut up and thrown in a bowl. It has a very secret, very special dressing that is chock full of cinnamon. When I make it in the afternoon, I use champagne, but when I make it for breakfast, I use orange or pomegranate juice or whatever juice I have laying around. Obviously, such a fancy dressing gives this fruit salad a wow factor that makes me look brilliant and the people around me look very satiated.

Fruit Salad "Recipe"
4 cups of assorted fruit. I like apples, strawberries, and bananas. You can get exotic and use kiwis or even throw in some berries, it's up to you.
1/4 c. fruit juice or champagne
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. agave
I'm not going to belittle you with instructions, just be sure to mix the dressing before you toss it with the fruit.

Quinoa Rice Pudding

Last week I decided to screw around experiment with quinoa. I cooked up a big batch to use as a side dish for my chana masala, but it expanded more than I thought it would, and I was left with a whole bowl left over. I industriously put it in the fridge and vowed to figure out what to do with it later. As it turns out, later came the next morning. It was unnaturally cold for Los Angeles, although I think my vintage apartment building might have a bit of a draft problem. So, I turned on my extremely dangerous gas heater and set about making something warm and comforting for breakfast.
My inspiration was this youtube video from Bethany Frankel, star of The Real Housewives of NYC and an organic chef (or something). Let's take a moment to rant about Bethany. Her method of naturally skinny dieting basically focuses on eating 2-3 bites of something and then pawning it off on someone else. Originally this method, like Bethany herself, annoyed the hell out of me. But as I cook more and more for this blog, I can empathize with her at least a little bit. Plus, her idea of using leftover brown rice was my inspiration. The biggest difference in mine is that I cooked mine on the stove, because I do not own a microwave. I don't believe that anyone should be eating anything that can only be cooked in a microwave. Sure, I use it at work to heat up leftovers, but at home I cook only on the stove. If I need to reheat something, it's going to get re-heated the same way it got cooked in the first place. That's it for me on my soapbox, now on to the breakfast pudding!

Tofu Scramble

This morning I woke up and had an intense craving for tofu scramble. I have done some recipe research on it  in the past, but never gotten around to making it. Usually I want something sweet for breakfast: pancakes, french toast, or even just an english muffin with peanut butter, but every once in a blue moon I want something salty and with a little heat.
I luckily had all the ingredients on hand for my tofu scramble, except for onions. Somehow I never seem to have onions in the house when I need them, and when I do have them in the house, they go bad because I don't use them. Luckily it was a Saturday morning and the farmers market was in full swing across the street. I threw on my sneakers and my members only jacket and "rolled out" as I like to call it when I leave the house looking like an abonimable snowman in the morning. I am NOT a pretty sight to wake up to in the morning, in case you were wondering. I got to pay a visit to my favorite farmer, a Brit who sells Spanish Onions, which are smaller than regular onions and thus the perfect size for my table-for-one lifestyle. I came home and put together my scramble. I'll be honest, it was a little off. I think that the nutritional yeast plus the daiya just gave it too strong of a flavor, so I adjusted the measurements before posting it below. That's right, readers, I do all of the mis-adventuring so that you don't have to.

Florentine Tofu Scramble

This past weekend, I made a spinach and basil pasta salad for a veggie hikers potluck. It was a pretty good pasta salad, although nowhere near as delicious as some of the other food that people brought. It left me with a good deal of leftover basil. One day I'm going to get myself a window box and plant some herbs in it, so that I can avoid the mess of having to buy such a huge package of basil. I've literally used basil every day this week: pesto pasta salad on Sunday, pesto sauce on my pizza on Monday, basil on top of my stir fry on Tuesday, and today I used it in my tofu scramble. 
Catherine de Medici is credited with introducing the term "florentine" into french cooking. In 1550, she declared that anything with spinach would be refered to as florentine. Unfortunately, it has come to traditionally refer to a dish with spinach AND a creamy sauce. My tofu scramble has no such creamy sauce, but I'm going to stick with Catherine on this one and call it Tofu Florentine. The important thing is that it is absolutely delicious. I've tried making tofu scramble before and was not 100% impressed with the flavor profile that I put together. This scramble, however, is exactly what one would expect. It's made light by the spinach and grape tomatoes, but is still delicious and filling. I served it on top of an english muffin, and it is probably the best breakfast I've had so far this week.

100 Calorie Vegan Muffins

I am always a woman on a mission. My ongoing goal is to develop a vegan baked good that is low in calories and fat while still being delicious. My idea is that once I find this perfect baked good, I will be able to open a vegan bakery in the Cayman Islands and retire for the rest of my life. That, or I will be able to eat it for every meal until I get sick of it (which would probably never happen). Last week, my mission was to find a great blueberry bread recipe. I ended up not being able to make it to the potluck where I intended to bring said  recipe, but I still consider last weekend's study in blueberries a success. One might think that I would be sick of blueberries after working with them all last weekend, but the fact of the matter is that I had one more recipe I was dying to try.

I have had a recipe for weight watchers 1-point blueberry muffins for awhile now. I used to make them all the time before I went vegan, so I have been meaning to re-work the recipe to eliminate the eggs and milk. The recipe also calls for vegetable oil, and I wanted to experiment with replacing it with applesauce. This time around, I decided to try using almond milk and complemented it with an almond and date crumble on top of the muffins. I also cut out the sugar from the muffin batter, prefering to harness the natural sweetness of the dates. I used my new favorite flour for this recipe: Arrowhead Mills Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. It's got the fiber of whole wheat flour, but the lightness of a good pastry flour, which leads to delicious and hearty baked foods. The frugalistas out there will be happy to know that it's available in the bulk section of Whole Foods for I believe $1 a pound. Now that's cheap. 

These muffins are delicious and they weigh in at only 99 calories each, with 1.5 grams of fat (from the almonds and almond milk) and 3 grams each of protein and fiber (not bad for a little muffin).

100-Calorie Vegan Muffins

• 1 3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• ener-g egg replacer for 2 eggs, pre-mixed
• 3/4 c. almond milk
• 1/3 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 3/4 c. blueberries
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 6 dates
• 20 almonds
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

1. Pre-heat over to 400 degrees and line a muffin tin with liners. Because these muffins tend to stick, I also spray the inside of the liners with a little cooking spray. 
2. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. 
3. In a separate bowl, combine ener-g, almond milk, vanilla, and applesauce and mix well. 
4. Add all of this mixture to the dry ingredients at once and stir until moist.
5. Fold in he blueberries
6. Drop by heaping tablespoons into muffin cups and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes
7. Combine the dates (be sure to take the pits out), almonds, and cinnamon in a food processor and blend until it resembles a slightly sticky crumb.
8. Sprinkle the crumble on top of the muffins and then bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Yields 12 muffins at 99.3 calories, 1.5 g fat, 3 g. of fiber, 3.1 g. protein.

Tea Party Treats

I love baking. There's nothing more satisfying than the smell of baked goods filling up an apartment. I was looking for a good scone recipe for my Valentine's Day tea party, specifically something that would pair well with pumpkin butter. I found a great recipe online at recipezaar. It incorporates raisins, oatmeal, and cinnamon. Cinnamon has been my number one secret ingredient lately. I use it every morning in my coffee, and I jazz up almost every recipe with a sprinkle here or there. Cinnamon has been scientifically proven to help reduce fasting blood sugar in diabetics (that's a good thing).In Ayurvedics, it's used to soothe indigestion and colds. I've been doing some reading about Ayurvedics lately (I am a Kapha in case you were interested),
Scones are great candidates for being veganized. Regular scones are made without eggs, and it is easy to replace the butter and milk with earth balance and soy milk. This recipe will create scones that are crumbly and dense, which is exactly what we are looking for. If you're daring, you could probably incorporate some almonds, pecans, or walnuts. It makes 8 large wedge-shaped scones that clock in at 248 calories each, which is significantly less than the average 400 calories in those scones from Starbucks.

Vegan French Toast

Special consideration and thanks have to go out to my friend Carl, who makes one mean Vegan French Toast, and was nice enough to share this nearly-perfect recipe with me.

I love breakfast. It is my most favorite meal of the day, and I would indulge in breakfast foods for lunch and dinner if I could (and to be honest, I often do). One of my favorites is French Toast, but by the time I finish dipping the bread in eggs and slathering it with butter and maple syrup, I might as well have just eaten a Big Mac and washed it down with some orange juice.

I believe that a certain advertising campaign touts the beauty of the incredible, edible egg. An egg contains 54 calories,33 of which are from fat. It also contains 52% of your daily recommended cholesterol. My ener-g egg replacement powder contains a mere 15 calories per serving. Eggs are gross, they're just little baby chickens who never got fertilized. Think about that the next time you're confronted with a buffet's omelet station.

I love French Toast, and when I was at the peak of my dieting, I used to wish that I could have it every day for breakfast. But, I shied away from it because of the cholesterol associated with the eggs, the carbs from the bread, and the sugar from the maple syrup. Vegan french toast addresses the egg problem, and the substitution of whole wheat bread instead of worthless white will provide you with important fiber. I like this recipe because it includes lots of cinnamon and vanilla, which makes the end result sweet enough that I use less syrup. Voila, french toast every morning.

A note on the bread: you can use any kind of bread you want with this recipe, with special consideration given towards whole wheat. This morning I tried it with Country Harvest Bread. It's a special kind of bread that I buy from the farmer's market across the street, and it's full of carrots, raisins, whole grains, and nuts. Nuts are a little fatty, but the health benefits far outweigh any caloric short-comings.

Vegan French Toast
1 1/2 tsp. egg replacer (I use less than the original recipe, which calls for 2)
3/4 c. soy milk
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
3 slices whole wheat bread
2 tbsp. earth balance

1. Add egg replacer directly to the soy milk. Add vanilla and cinnamon and stir with a whisk. You may need to stir pretty hard, because you need to make sure the egg replacer completely blends with the soy milk.
2. Dip each side of the bread in the "egg" mixture. I like to let it sit for a few seconds so that it really soaks up some of the liquid.
3. Bring a pan to medium heat and coat the bottom with 1 tbsp. of earth balance. This is not the time to be stingy with the earth balance, as it is very important in getting a good crust on your french toast.
4. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until you have a nice golden brown crust on the bottom.
5. Flip the french toast, adding the second tbsp. of earth balance to your pan as you are flipping. It's a technique that requires some practice, but again, you need the earth balance to get a perfect french toast.
6. Serve with fruit, powdered sugar, maple agave, or whatever else floats your boat. I've been meaning to try pumpkin butter.
Servings: 2 at 307 calories each

Tofu McMuffins

Sure, being a vegan means being healthy. It means raw fruits and vegetables and whole grains cooked in vegetable broth. It means nutrition and treating your body like a temple. However, some mornings, usually after a night of drinking, your body feels more like a temple of doom. You are hung over and feel awful and just want something heavy and greasy in your stomach. I used to rely on egg McMuffins from McDonalds to fill this void in my life. After a rough night, there was nothing I craved more than a delicious fried egg covered in gooey cheese and served on an english muffin. I could pair it with 1 or 2 (OK, usually 2) hashbrowns and some orange juice from concentrate (you know, to be healthy). What the hell was I thinking ?!?!?
It's one thing to want something salty and carb-laden, but an egg McMuffin is a cholesterol, fat, cruelty circus that is too much for me to even contemplate now. It all goes back to my blog's tagline, that there are no bad foods, just bad ingredients. This became my mantra as I set about making my own animal-free breakfast sandwich. It's not the healthiest breakfast ever, but it comes in at around 300 calories instead of 600 or whatever is in those little yellow wrappers of death. Let's face it, if this is going to be your breakfast, there's a good chance that you spent the night before doing some damage to your body. Just because you feel like crap doesn't mean you should eat crap. So, the next time that you get a little boozy, try this as your hangover cure-all along with a cup of strong black coffee.

Editor's note: It has been pointed out to me by my incredibly talented, intelligent, good-looking, scrunchie-wearing, meat-aterian, co-worker that a McDonald's egg McMuffin only has 300 calories, and a sausage egg mcMuffin has 450. Since mine comes in at just under 300, your real savings are not caloric, but rather fat, cholesterol, and karmic.

Vegan Lemon Blueberry Bread

Even though I had trouble falling asleep Saturday night, I was up super early Sunday morning so I could bust out another loaf of blueberry bread before going to tutor. This variation uses lemon zest for a delicious, citrus-y flavor. This bread is a serious contender in my blueberry competition. I modified a recipe from Joy of Baking by using agave, earth balance, applesauce, and ener-g egg replacer.
I was still up in the air about whether I wanted to do a lemon recipe or just do another regular one and vary the flour, until I had dinner at Sante La Brea, a vegan restaurant near the New Beverly.  The dinner was ok. I had a vegan patty melt with cashew cheeze, and it tasted pretty much like I expected it to. The one thing that I like about vegan food is that it's pretty consistent. It usually tastes the same no matter where you get it, so the mark of a really good vegan restaurant is one where you are pleasantly surprised. Anyway, dinner was ok, but what blew me away was the lemon cake that we had for dessert. It was moist and delicious, with the most amazing lemon icing. My recent tribulations have given me a newfound respect for any vegan baker, and this guy was on top of his game. I highly reccomend Sante La Brea for dessert. Maybe the next time I go I will try something different as a main course. Like I said, it's right next to the New Beverly, and I'm in that neighborhood quite often to fuel my double feature addiction.

So, without further adieu, here is the third contender in the Great Blueberry Bread Bake-off.

Blueberry Bread

 As you know, I am very focused on making a good showing at next weekend's vegan potluck brunch. I feel a little bit like Michelle Trachtenberg in Ice Princesses, where she had only been taking skating lessons for a few weeks when she had to enter some big ice-skating competition. Like Michelle's character, I want to make a strong showing and shoot up about 3 or 4 divisions from amateur to junior novice, or whatever the shit she did. It's been awhile since I've seen the movie, but feel free to correct me in the comments. I'm a little disappointed that no one ever comments on this blog. Let's start a flame war or something, people.
Anyway, let me shift back to the potluck. I have committed to the idea of a vegan blueberry bread, but I have 3 different recipes. One is for a straight up blueberry banana bread, one incorporates a walnut struesal topping, and one will use a hint of lemon and possibly some sort of a glaze. So, I'm going to do what any ex-highschool overachiever would do, I'm going to bake all three of them this weekend and then force my coworkers to do a taste test on Monday.

I love breakfast breads. They are super easy to bring in to work, because they require relatively little prep time, can be healthier than cookies, and aren't as messy as cakes or pies. Everyone at work knows that my desk is usually a good place to find baked goods, and it was even mentioned at my last performance review when my boss got to the topic of "contributing to team morale". I also like the idea of anything that I can cook on a Saturday or Sunday morning and eat for the week. A loaf of this bread, baked on the weekend, can save me a lot of time in the mornings, making it easier to get to the gym. I just have to toast a slice and smear it with a little Earth Balance or perhaps some preserves. Lately I've been jonesing on Trader Joes Pumpkin Butter. It was delicious on oatmeal scones, and I imagine that it would be pretty good on this as well. Another option might be to mash up half a fresh banana and use it instead of spread. The possibilities are endless.

A coworker of mine was talking about this delicious non-vegan recipe that she has for blueberry banana bread. It got me to thinking that I would love to take said recipe and turn it into a healthy, vegan breakfast bread. I did what I always do, and consulted a couple of different recipes until I decided what to use in my own. This recipe uses a banana base. I like using bananas in cooking, but they tend to have an overpowering flavor, so I usually only put them in something that I actually want to taste like bananas. I also used some steel-cut oats to supplement the flour. This is my second blueberry bread recipe test, and I was much more pleased with the results this time. The bread is still very dense and satisfying, but it's also baked all the way through and not too chewy. So far, this is clearly the front-runner.

Blueberry Bliss

My coworker Kristin is a ray of sunshine. Even though she spends her days ,like me, as a warden at the mental institution, she has a great sense of humor about the whole thing. Yesterday, Kristin gifted me with two recipes for blueberry bread as well as a recipe for Indian Batata Nu Shaak and a collection of carefully labeled Indian spices. It was like a culinary Christmas. One of the blueberry bread recipes comes from her friend Jess Thomson, who has her own very wonderful health food blog. You can check it out at jessthomson.wordpress.com/. However, you have to promise to come back to this blog, because hers is much better and I wouldn't blame you for wanting to spend the whole day browsing over there.

Anyway, Jess's recipe for Almost Unforgettable Blueberry Breakfast Bread incorporates some really great healthy ideas, like a hearty walnut topping, whole wheat flour, and yogurt instead of some of the oil. I took some steps to veganize it, omitted the flaxseed because I didn't have any, and further reduced the fat content by using applesauce instead. I've had great success cooking with applesauce lately, as it makes my cakes and breads deliciously moist and has about 1/10th the calories of margarine or oil. If weight isn't an issue for you, I reccomend using the original recipe, just using soy yogurt and ener-g egg replacer. If you, like me, need to watch what you eat in time for swimsuit season, I hope that my recipe will do the trick.

Let me be straight with you, gentle readers. My real motivation behind this recipe is to come up with something very delicious and very vegan for February 28th, when I am attending my very first vegan potluck, with a great group of Vegan Foodies I found on meetup.com. It's going to be my first event on the Los Angeles vegan "scene". Sure, I've been to Golden Mean and shopped the Whole Foods salad bar, but on the 28th I'm going to become a real part of it. Needless to say, I'm suffering from a bit of "performance anxiety", and really want to come up with a brunch recipe that is simple, delicious, travels well, and is super-healthy. I ordered business cards, and I am hoping 1: that they will arrive on time and 2: that I won't give anyone food poisoning because they will be able to trace me back here.

The Return of the Pancake

In December, I was lucky enough to have someone make me the most delicious vegan pancakes I've ever had.

 Like a crack addict, I scoured the internet for a vegan pancake recipe similar to how I remember his. You will remember the recipe I posted earlier in the week. They were good, but they weren't "the pancakes I was looking for". So, I guilted him into providing me with his recipe. I was overjoyed at the prospect of having a steady supply of these pancakes, because I really did like them THAT much. They're the perfect combination of chewy vs. fluffy, and they taste delicious.