Scrambled Benny.

Back in the day, when I was a non-restrictive-meat-eating-fat-loving-young girl, Eggs Benedict used to be my favorite meal. The delicious muffin and bacon combo topped with running poached egg yolk and a zingy butter sauce has in my later years, become the anti-christ. What's a vegan to do? TOFU OF COURSE!

My father makes the best hollandaise sauce I, or anyone I know, has ever tasted. The secret is a perfect balance between lemon and mustard. To emulate my fathers age old recipe, I scrambled some tofu this morning with a rich polish mustard, a splash of lemon juice and some good old S'n'P. Should I have had soy margarine (and my stomach not throw a hissy fit when trying to digest extra fat) it would have been a delicious addition to the scramble but, oh well. Throw the tofu on some doubled toasted g-free toast (double toasting for extra crispiness), top it with everyone's favorite tomato incarnation - Ketchup and of course, my favorite garlic dressing. Voila, some delicious vegan Scrambled Benny.

Blood Red

Seasonal summer fruit is one of the best things about summer. Upon my parents return from the Okanagan valley in B.C, I found the fridge full of delicious Okanagan peaches and cherries. What to do with such a plethora of goodness? Well first stuff a few down you in whole form then make a Vega Protein smoothie, of course! Pitting the cherries was one of the messiest but most delicious jobs of my summer, and the only kind of blood red juice I will ever lick off my fingers.

My little Sandwich

The quest for a good slice of gluten free bread is a long and arduous one. While I've had some good slices and some awful slices, I will be saving my g-free bread analysis report for a later date.

Regardless of the bread, you can always improve it with toppings. When I was younger I used to LOVE vegetarian faux meat slices and would basically just have those with chesse or later, once the lactose intolerance and resulting veganism surfaced, soy cheese. They're not bad, all those faux meat things but they all have gluten in them so, no more. I must now expand my mind, broaden my horizons, and make a sandwich that would blow Subways mind.

My favorite little sandwich: Mustard (of the polish variety), Wineland Garlic dressing (see yesterday's post), tomatoes, tofu (left over agedashi is awesome), spinach and a hefty topping of sprouts. The sprouts are the best part. Can't get enough of those alfalfa sprouts.

Due to the nature of g-free bread (thick, crumbly, not very malible) I do most sandwiches open faced. 2 open faced is like 1 real sandwich, right, so like, 4 is only like 2 real sandwiches right? That's what i tell myself every time i start eating these non stop.

Vega: part of a balanced breakfast

This morning I woke up with a vengeance. Put my on greek godess dress at the early hour of 9:06, started the laundry, and whipped out the Betty Crocker (cookbook this time, not icing). As far as baking goes, most recipes transfer well from regular to gluten-free-vegan with simple substitution. For this mornings pancakes I used a g-free flour master mix, apple sauce instead of oil, soymilk instead of milk and some egg replacer for the egg. Easy enough. G-free flour isnt as nice to cook with as regular so I added a couple more tablespoons of soymilk and apple sauce then Betty originally suggested. Because of the xantham gum already present in the master flour mix, the replacer was probably not necessary as the flour is pretty adhesive already. Mix it up, slop some of that goop in the fry pan and voila, out turns some fairly decent pancakes.

Now for the protein.

With the boyfriend helping me house sit my parents place for the week, all bacon in the area was gone by day three. To bad for him but luckily for me left over agedashi (deep fried) tofu isn't as in demand as slices of pork sides. Boiled that tofu up (makes it nice and warm and gets ride of some of the oils), sliced it and doused it with the worlds greatest salad dressing - Wineland Dressings "Roast garlic balsamic vinaigrette. It's from the Okanagan valley in BC and I put it on almost every savory dish I eat these days. For my animal eating counter part I made my signature egg - fried with melted havarti (throw a lid over the egg and cheese for the last 30 secs and the havarti melts in to a beautiful blanket of lactose).

Lastly, the VEGA. Two scoops of this protein powder, a handful each of frozen blueberries, raspberries and ice, topped with a 1/2 cup ish of whatever veggie/fruit juice v8 blend is in the fridge and a splash of soymilk. Now, most vegans don't eat honey and that's cool but at my parents local farmers market there is some very nice beekeepers who make very nice honey and I feel the bees are doin fine so I added two tablespoons of lemon flavored honey right before blending all of the above. Should your bonnet get in a buzz about honey some raw sugar and a dash of lemon juice would do nicely as well. This was my first time using any VEGA product and it was honestly one of the best smoothies I've ever had. The Hemp protein in the vega mix gives the smoothie a really raw, kind of grassy taste that I love. Even the non Vegan, meat eating man's man sitting beside me liked it. Should mother nature not be your favorite morning taste, simply add just one scoop of powder and you'll still get a balanced and nutritious smoothie.

I am now healthy, not hungry, and off to fold the laundry and other such domestic things.

Snack Attack.

So, like almost every North American human being, vegans love to snack. There is tons of vegan snacks out there. For Example: Carrots, celery, dessert tofu, trail mix, crackers with soy cheese. Yum. Right? Well some days healthy eating and snacking just doesn't cut it. Remember when you used to go to the mall everyday in junior high and get deep dish frozen ice cream cakes and corndogs and A&W teen burgers? Sometimes I just long for the days of consciously feeding my body crap. Well thanks to Betty Crocker and modern science, this dream can live on.
While most of these delicious store bought instant frosting contain modified milk ingredients, Betty Crockers Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting is surprisingly free of cream, cheese, or any other dairy product. A little bit of artificial flavoring and a lot of vegetable oil made THIS vegan's snack attack a little more tasty today. While it was delicious, after half a tub I definitely felt the repercussions as my body doesn't do so well with fat but it was worth it.

Guess What's Cooking.

Vegan: One who does not ingest or use any part of an animal or any animal by products. Generally a large fan of vegetables, beans and animals in living form.

Summer Job: anything and everything that will pay my rent for the upcoming school year.

In my case, these two things didn't coincide quite as well as I would have liked.


and thus begins the tales of my hard knock Vegan Life.