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14

Oct

Cold and rainy mornings call for hearty sustenance. I pulled out my new standby: Joy of Cooking Pancakes and Paul’s Surprise Eggs. That’s right—not Egg Surprise, because as Paul explains it, “they surprise you with how good they are.” Which is true, and after tasting them, I let all care for naming convention fly out the window…the man knows his eggs. In fact, the only thing I dislike about them is that they don’t magically appear on my plate, and I have to do the unthinkable—wait for them, while they cook. Paul’s Surprise Eggs: Makes One Serving Brown 1 link of sausage of your choice in a skillet (I use a phenomenal vegan version, Field Roast, Italian variety which I get from Whole Foods) Once sausage is completely cooked through, add 2 egg whites to skillet, on top of sausage Mix around with your spatula, so eggs cover the sausage Heat until eggs are cooked to your liking Joy of Cooking Pancake Recipe Variation: Instead of regular milk, I use almond milk I opt for honey to cover my pancakes, rather than maple syrup I still use the called for white flour (gasp!) but, it’s organic

Cold and rainy mornings call for hearty sustenance. I pulled out my new standby: Joy of Cooking Pancakes and Paul’s Surprise Eggs. That’s right—not Egg Surprise, because as Paul explains it, “they surprise you with how good they are.” Which is true, and after tasting them, I let all care for naming convention fly out the window…the man knows his eggs. In fact, the only thing I dislike about them is that they don’t magically appear on my plate, and I have to do the unthinkable—wait for them, while they cook.

Paul’s Surprise Eggs:

Makes One Serving

Brown 1 link of sausage of your choice in a skillet (I use a phenomenal vegan version, Field Roast, Italian variety which I get from Whole Foods)

Once sausage is completely cooked through, add 2 egg whites to skillet, on top of sausage

Mix around with your spatula, so eggs cover the sausage

Heat until eggs are cooked to your liking

Joy of Cooking Pancake Recipe Variation:

Instead of regular milk, I use almond milk

I opt for honey to cover my pancakes, rather than maple syrup

I still use the called for white flour (gasp!) but, it’s organic




2 years ago

breakfast/eggs/joy of cooking/joy of cooking pancake recipe/vegan sausage/Miranda Marie/Miranda Marie Valentine/

07

Oct

Morning Food: Part Deux, Part Disaster

As Fall is undeniably in the air, I went about spicing up my breakfast this morning, with a twist. A vegan twist, in honor of my friend Andy over at Eat Like a Monk who is embarking on a journey of veganhood, as a way to connect with her Chinese heritage via her tummy.

“Oh my gosh—eating vegan is super easy; there are so many great recipes, and places to eat!” I promised her, all sure of myself and my animal product substitute prowess. After all, I have been a veggie for years, and even went the way of the hardcore health food warrior, by going raw for three whole days. Which may not sound all that impressive, but until you’ve put your spoon in another woman’s raw soup glue horror, you can’t possibly understand. Shudder. ODB and I did not have the same experience, as evidenced by his ode to raw food.

I have a well documented love affair with pancakes, but since the regular white flour variety has little in the way of nutrients, I opt for a multigrain mix, and try to yummy it up the best I can, as I did this morning. After following the instructions on the back (just add rice milk or water—I used almond milk), I added a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice (a blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, etc.), a dab of honey, and a dollop of greek yogurt to thicken.

Which I then realized had totally veered this recipe off the vegan path, due to the honey and yogurt. But, it was too late, and I decided to make up for it by using coconut butter for greasing the skillet, rather than real butter, or oil. Many health food enthusiasts believe that regular oils (olive, veggie and the like) actually become rancid when heated, and so they use coconut butter as a substitute. I had some lurking in the cabinet from my own (brief) raw food movement, and plopped it in the pan.

It promptly burned—toasted coconut good, charred bad. I rinsed out the pan, and went at it again, lowering the flame to just above the lowest setting. It sort of melted, but mostly just globbed around the pan, despite my best smearing techniques. In went the batter, and when it was ready to flip, I slid my spatula under the newly formed pancake, and…there was no sliding to be had. I gave a shove this time, and up came my spatula part way through the pancake. I shrieked, and sort of stab-shoved the ruined bits until they flipped, and then unceremoniously threw them onto my plate:

While they tasted just fine—pumpkin spice will be going into heavy pancake improvement rotation ‘round here—I was still miffed about the presentation. I didn’t just want yummy pancakes; I wanted pretty pancakes, too. And so, I called in the pro: also known as my friend Sheila, the mastermind behind the popular healthy living blog Live Well 360. Sheila would know what to do; I knew for a fact that she used coconut butter, and there was no way her food came out looking like mine (just look at her recipe page).

Well, it turns out I was wrong again. Sheila explained that she only uses coconut butter as an addition to smoothies, oatmeal, and the like, because the coconut butter has the coconut flesh in it, hence why it was burning. She uses coconut OIL for cooking, and sweetly sent me the link to where I can find her favorite brand.

2 years ago 1 note

Miranda Marie Valentine/breakfast/coconut oil/pancake recipe/pumpkin pie spice/vegan/