Who Doesn't Love Pancakes?

I love breakfast, especially on the weekends. The sun slanting in through the windows of my tiny, bright kitchen, all day to do nothing but relax (okay, not really but I can dream), and a full morning to feed myself. And maybe share.

A couple of weeks ago I got spontaneous and decided to make Vegan YumYum's "Easy Weekend Pancakes" along with some hash browns. I love when being spontaneous doesn't result in me rushing to the store for that one ingredient I didn't have the foresight to just have. So, this ended up being the perfect recipe for me. And the pancakes are very easy to make (as always) and slightly less easy to make perfect. But their tiny-ness helps! It is always easier for me to make pancakes that are small than to have the patience to let the big ones cook through. I am a very impatient cook.

I also had some frozen berries that I thawed in maple syrup over a medium flame--delicious topping. The hash browns were thanks to my fiance (but I totally could have done em), just a grated potato and some oil, salt, pepper, and high heat. Yum.

Here's a close up of the syrupy berries:

tempeh reuben

for my inaugural recipe recommendation: tempeh reuben! an exceedingly popular sandwich that requires a bit of assembly, but is definitely worth the effort. also, it is delicious vegan. cheese=totally not necessary. vegan cheese=also not necessary. there are a lot of good recipes out there, and i am not saying mine is the best. but i am writing to you folks who are not looking for terribly complicated recipes, but do-able, down-to-earth foods they can make without lots of special training. so what i use is this.

dressing:
1T ketchup
2T vegan mayo (i love wildwood aioli, or veganaise)
1/2t mustard
splash lemon juice

'wich:
some bread (this time i used trader joe's whole wheat rye--a twist on tradition)
1/2 package Tofurkey five grain tempeh (or preferred brand), sliced thin
1T earth balance or olive oil
1/2c Bragg's liquid aminos (or soy sauce)
1/2c sauerkraut
1 tomato
1/2 avocado
lettuce

First, slice the tempeh lengthwise as thin as possible without it falling apart. Then carefully put it in the marinade. I usually throw together whatever occurs to me, with Bragg's as the base. You could try some sriracha for heat, a little bit of sesame oil, curry, dried thyme, garlic powder, dehydrated onion, etc. sorry to be vague, but i tend to cook with what i got.

Let the tempeh sit there in its wading pool. It will enjoy a rest before the big debut
.
Now whip up the dressing. All of these ingredients can be adjusted according to taste. Also, if you don't have lemon or mustard, don't sweat it. The ketchup and may will be fine just the two of them. The dressing should be a light pink/salmony color and slightly runny.

Now fry up that tempeh! Lay them neatly next to each other in a lightly oiled, medium-high heat skillet. Flip them (gently) when they get brown and crispy (3-5 minutes usually) and get the other side. As they're cooking, either put earth balance on the pan side of your bread, or oil another skillet. Or just wait, and use the same skillet. Bread goes in the skillet, and slathered with the dressing on both sides. then put cooked tempeh on one side and sauerkraut on the other.
There you go! Doesn't look too exciting, does it? But it will be...

So really all that needs to happen in the skillet (if you didn't sneak in some cheese that requires melting) is for the bread to toast and get nice and crispy. Do check on it after a minute or so-this can happen fast.

Assemble.

Voilà:

Also tasty, and pretty easy considering the timing of the sandwich--slice up a potato fry-style and layer in a pan, drizzle with olive oil, add salt and freshly ground pepper and let them cook at 425F for about 20-30 minutes (flipping once). Again, I know those are lo-fi instructions, but this doesn't need to be exact for me. I'm lazy. I throw stuff in ovens and then eat it.

out of the millions of blogs out there and people writing them, why add another one? especially another one about food? well, why not, i guess. but really, i was driven to venture into this project by my own journey to become more conscious about the food i put in my body. i have been a vegetarian since i was 18 (and before that had very little meat just from force of habit as well as a nice hippie vegetarian mom), so that makes 10 years of feeling pretty good about myself and my choices.

but lately i have been thinking more and more about the fact that although i do think eating vegetarian makes a difference, it is really just a drop in the bucket. not to be discouraging--a drop is still a part of the whole bucket...but once you start learning about the effect we can have on our surroundings, both positive and negative, it's hard to forget it.

that said, i am trying to go slowly vegan. which i always thought was impossible for me, a huge lover of cheese. i own two books. i love it. also, pastries. but really, cheese. it's kind of impossible to duplicate (at least the singularly delicious ones like selles-sur-chere or real camembert, or greek feta or...oh the list goes on and on. i love it.) and even the cheeses that melt really well (which can definitely be an invaluable quality) are only good melted, in my opinion.

back on track! i have found that even i who thought i could never do it have found myself gravitating more and more towards a vegan lifestyle. i gave up milk and real butter and sour cream several years ago at the griping of my boyfriend who said he never saw someone put so much butter on stuff, or put cheese on the stuff i put cheese on. hmmph (broccoli is delicious with cheese, i'm sorry).