Pancakes in the Jungle

Another breakfast in the Ecaudorian jungle, but not pancakes

When I went to Ecuador last year, the tour company warned me that the jungle homestay may be challenging for a vegan. They make the food, and there are no restaurants for miles around, so I was a little worried. I brought extra food with me, as I always do, in case I was stuck in the middle of nowhere watching everyone else eat hot food while I finished my plate of fruit and stared forlornly at the kitchen.
Instead, the homestay family fed me like royalty. I even had pancakes. Vegan pancakes in a shack in rural Ecuador, can you believe it?? Sadly I did not get a picture of the most surprising pancakes I ever had--I was still in shock after our tour guide brought down another plate of pancakes and put them down in front of me saying, "No an-ee-mal." And I may also have eaten them too quickly to take a picture.
I still have a lot of travelling to do, and I hope I am never held back because of what I can or can't eat--and I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Breakfast is 'Snice

In my experience, the trickiest meal for a vegan is breakfast, while travelling or not. I have spent many a morning thankful I packed peanut butter to go along with my toast and orange juice and hope it would keep me full until lunch. While I whole-heartedly recommend packing a little jar of peanut butter for your travels (or another nut butter of your choice), I also make every effort to seek out vegan breakfasts wherever I am.
Both times I was in New York, I was fortunate enough to be staying within walking distance of 'Snice, a cafe that catered to the latte-and-laptop crowd that happened to have delicious vegan options for all three meals. I hear it has closed, but it made all the difference for my stays in NYC. There is something about starting your day with actual options in your breakfast menu, and setting off with warm food in your belly.
If there isn't such a lovely vegan-friendly cafe near wherever you are staying, it helps if you have use of a fridge. Find a market or grocery store and pick up a few small things that make your morning easier and your stomach happy, like bread with hummus and olives, and some fruit. It is not only cheaper than whatever you could get in a restaurant, it will make your entire day just a little bit more fulfilled. And if you do find a place with an amazing vegan breakfast, be sure to go at least once, even it costs a little bit more than your market finds, and profusely thank them for helping out a travelling vegan.

World-changing avocado

My first trip to New York was awesome. Firstly, it's like vegan mecca. I hear a lot of places are like this;
Portland, for example, is supposed to be filled with delicious vegan food. And I suspect my hoemtown, Toronto, would impress many a vegan who came to visit, with our many delicious vegan restos. But way back in 2010, I was delighted to find a city with so many delicious vegan and vegetarian places to eat, including the breakfast joint of my dreams, 'Snice.
This delicious breakfast was in the restaurant in the main floor of the hotel I stayed at. The hotel is The Jane, and the restaurant is called Cafe Gitane. It is vaguely retro-Moroccan-themed, and I read a review recently that called it overpriced. But I was really impressed--it had all the breakfast staples an mnivore expected, so my friend could enjoy herself as well, and I had a solid 4 or 5 breakfast options, way up from usual choice of, um, dry toast.
The dish that really blew me away was the, um, toast. Avocado on toast, actually, which I was so impressed with that I actually took a photo. It was beautifully presented, of course--much better than the green smudge I normally make myself--and served on whole-grain bread with fresh lime juice, a drizzle of olive oil and chili pepper flakes.
I now make this dish ALL THE TIME. If I can find ripe avocados I snatch them up and and devour them, guilt-free, for as many meals as I can before losing my ripe avocados to the Brown Spots of Doom. I recommend you do, before the Brown Spots set in and wreck your delicious travel-nostalgia breakfast. 

Breakfast of vegans, in a tortilla

When I was a young new vegan, I was kinda dumb. I didn't buy a vegan cookbook for six months or so after I went vegan. I didn't even put soy milk in my coffee, I just drank it black. In retrospect I wonder how I didn't have a hard time transitioning, because I sure didn't give myself any breaks! And I really, really, wasn't creative about breakfast. I think hummus and toast was pretty popular way back when, for me. But now my breakfast selection has dramatically improved. Vegan brunch was, frankly,  huge help. But this post is reminding me of New York City, which is where I was inspired by two vegan meals.
One is avocado on toast, which I've described here before but will again, because it's so freakin yummy. At The Jane Hotel in NYC, which is where I've stayed the two times I've visited, the hotel resto Cafe Gitane has an amazingly vegan-friendly menu. One of their breakfast items is avocado on toast, so I of course ordered it several times during my week there the first time I visited on vacation.But they don't just open up some ripe avocados and schmear it on toast--no no, they add things to it...in a way that makes you realize that the whole is wayyyyy greater than the sum of its parts. Whole-grain toast, fresh avocado spread into a perfect little pyramid, a drizzle of olive, sprinkle of salt, picnh of chili flakes and squeeze of fresh lime juice. This thing is like open-faced heaven. I will make avocado and toast like this for the rest of my life.
The second NYC meal I am reminded of is the breakfast burrito at 'Snice, a veg cafe also in the West Village. Their version has crumbled tofu and black beans, but it was so delicious it inspired me to devise my own when I got home. I usually make mine with cubed tofu (cubed tempeh is pictured), and I lean towards a Mexican-ish spice blend when left to my own devices, so I do that. But I also add some chipotles--because they're awesone, duh--and red peppers and greens if I have them, to up my nutrition first thing in the morning. And because I seriously a freak about the breads I eat, I prefer to get a sprouted tortilla instead of  those fluffy pale things most grocery stores carry--the sprouted ones are full of fiber and also have more texture. And now this breakfast burrito has become a tried-and-true favourite. Just like avocado on toast.
Um, brainwave: avocado in my breakfast burrito??

(Road) Avocado: family pancake breakfast

Today's post requires little in the way of explanation: vegan fluffy pancake breakfast. I offered to make pancakes on Saturday, since I was at my parents' with family on the weekend. Later, when I was thanked for cooking most of the meals, I just admitted it's easier. I would end up cooking for myself anyway, and I cook cook for everyone we can all eat the same thing.
The first recipe I found called for flax seeds--which were nowhere to be found. I looked high and low in the kitchen and could not find any. So I googled "vegan fluffy pancakes" and found this recipe. And they were in fact fluffy, as promised! And since my parents live in the Land of Maple Syrup, there was plenty of delicious real maple syrup to eat with the pancakes. It was a good breakfast.

Merry breakfast

Christmas morning is the kind of occasion that demands a fancy breakfast. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, two entire bonus days off basically forces you to use the time wisely. I should be doing those self-improving and  home-improving things I said I would with all this time off, but instead I choose to use it to make delicious things that normally are to time-consuming for me to bother.
That includes Mom's Morning Casserole from Vegan Brunch. It's awesome. It's one of those dishes that reminds me I don't deprive myself of deliciousness being vegan.
It has four layers, and in my opinion is vastly improved since Daiya was brought into the world. It's a layer of potatoes (pre-baked on their own in the casserole dish, which does increase the time needed significantly), then a a tofu mixture and a tempeh mixture. Then a final sprinkling/meteor shower of vegan cheese about ten minutes before it's done to finish it off. It's delicious, stands up on its own a vegan dish to omnivores too, and is perfect for fancy mornings, or just when you have some to make a bad-ass breakfast.

Satisying a craving: chipotle breakfast burrito

I was reading Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day last night when a breakfast burrito craving hit me. BAM! It was their Scrambled Burrito recipe that inspired me, but it calls for tempeh, which I can't find without making a major effort--and on a dreary, rainy October day, I didn't feel like straying too far. So I went on a major grocery mission to the store about a 5-minute walk away, and came back with, among other things (many other things), onion and red pepper to supplement the ingredients I already had.

One of the first breakfast burritos I had was in New York, at 'Snice, a veg cafe near my hotel both times I've been to NYC. It had turmeric (making the tofu yellow) and black beans and favoured crumbled tofu. I prefer to cube it (I find it easier than crumbling) and my flavour palate tends toward Mexican-style spices most days. So while I was cooking, I found myself myself reaching for cumin, chili powder and chipotles, knowing I could top it off with some salsa when assembling the the deliciousness. So here's what I made, with the addition of kale to help me get my veggies* for the day. Enjoy!

Chipotle breakfast burrito
Makes 2 to 3 burritos,  depending on how large your shells are and how much stuffing you cram in

a dollop cooking oil 1/2 red pepper
1/2 a medium onion, diced
1 block extra-firm tofu, cubed or crumbled, as you like
1/2 teaspoon dried chipotle peppers, or 1/2 chipotle in adobo sauce
cumin, paprika, and chili powder and black pepper, to taste
a few dashes liquid smoke

1/2 cup cooked kale (about 1.5 to 2 cups chopped raw kale)
dash salt
salsa, to taste
2-3 large tortilla shells

Heat pan, add oil and saute red peppers and onions until translucent. Add spices and stir to combine and heat thoroughly. Add tofu and a few dashes liquid smoke and stir to combine and heat thoruhoughly. Watch out, the tofu is prone to sticking! But I didn't want to add more oil so I kept stirring until the tofu was warm and then turned off the heat. I took a tortilla shell out from the package and laid it over the mixture and the spatula in the pan to steam it--I use sprouted grain tortilla shells so they can be a bit stiff right out of the fridge.You could also microwave them for 30 seconds or heat them in the oven (be careful not to burn them!! I ALWAYS toast my tortillas when I try to heat them in the oven. Just sayin'--learn from my stupid-ass mistakes). I spread the tofu mixture and the kale on a shell, added some salsa, folded it up and toasted in my panini press. If you want a toasty exterior but don't have a press, you could dry-fry it in a pan, again being very careful not to burn it. I thought I would use about half the mixture in today's burrito, but there are a good 2 tortilla's worth left. Like most burritos, you end up with a fair amount of filling on your plate by the time you're done eating, but that's half the fun.

*Does anyone actually eat 7 servings of veggies a day? Tell me if you do, I'll pick your brain for tips.

Grilled cheese breakfast

Breakfast today: grilled cheese with cheddar-style Daiya, cooked in my panini press. An excellent way to start the day.

Brunch at Fresh

Food photo from the past: vegan brunch at Fresh in Toronto: blueberry pancakes, tofu scramble, and vegan sausage.

Break out of your recipe rut

Sometimes we find ourselves doing the same thing over and over again. Habit can be comforting but it can also be boring. Often we don't even realize we're stuck in a rut until we're on the verge of the umpteenth iteration and we think, "Of course. This again."
I do that with food a lot. I'm sure I'm not the only one--they say most of each person's diet consists of the same 20 foods. And that wouldn't surprise me. There are a few foods I have in the fridge all the time--two of them being toast with hummus and fruit and soymilk smoothies. Both of which I eat for breakfast almost every day. There are sound reasons for this: I don't have a lot of time on weekday mornings and it's simply easier to make the same thing time and again. However, it definitely counts as a breakfast rut. So I was pleasantly surprised when I tried Polenta Rancheros from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch. It was something I could make on the weekend and heat up in the morning, and it would shake up my morning routine enough that it would get me on a new track for breakfast. And frankly, it's delicious. When fresh, the polenta (in place of eggs in the non-vegan huevos rancheros) is soft and creamy, and the contract with the spicy, saucy rancheros is divine. I also love the chance to cram more avocado into my day. So join me, get out of your rut--polenta rancheros for breakfast!

Brunch for dinner

Breakfast and brunch are a meal and a half that vegans don't have easy. I organize events at work and planning breakfast for the vegan guest is the most challenging. Let's just ponder a moment and think about all the dishes that vegan unfriendly in the usual state. First off--duh!--there's eggs. And omelettes, also known as "eggs with stuff inside it." Sausage and bacon are not only corpse bits, they are also drenched in pending-coronary sauce (saturated fat). Cereal can be difficult depending on the availability of non-diary milk. French toast, pancakes and waffles should be safe--don't waffles even look innocent? I would never suspect them!--but those sneaky little bastards hold more than just sryup in their nooks and crannies. Muffins just emanate home-baked goodness, but don't fall for it--that's their ploy. And let's not get started on butter.

And then along came Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, who finds the empty holes in my meal planner and fills them with vegan cookbooks. I had previously pondered--brief, fleeting thoughts with no basis in reality, like wondering what it would be like to walk on the moon--about eating French toast again, or breaking out my waffle maker and making Saturday morning into the spectacular start to the weekend that it always should be. But alas, it did not happen. (As much as I love the Interweb, googling recipes does not always yield delicious results.)

Unlike Google's "I feel lucky!" button, Vegan Brunch never disappoints. Purchasing this book re-ignited my love affair with brunch, which was doused when I went vegan and came to terms with the fact that my old Saturday morning standby (fried eggs and toast) and I were going to "have a break." (It's not you, eggs, it's me--no wait, it's you. Yuck.)

But it is Fronch Toast that has taken hold of my heart (from Vegan With a Vengeance, not Vegan Brunch. I know, the old bait and switch!). I make it all the time. I buy whole grain baguette at my grocery store and try not to use it all for brunch (it's great with hummus, too). Today, I slept in, lazed around (a boy is making me sad today), got groceries, dashed off to bike downtown (in the rain) to my yoga workshop, and when I came home I happily realized I finally had time for Fronch Toast. I don't know how bread soaked in a mixture of chickpea flour and soymilk can turn into golden, crispy fried goodness, but it does. Let's call it a Vegan Miracle. (Every time you eat Fronch Toast, an angel gets its wings!)

One last Very Important Comment: use real maple syrup. Anything else is an afront to maple trees everywhere.