Your Vegan Mom

Sweet Potato Hash

I've been thinking about camping a lot lately.  One of the reasons I've been thinking about camping a lot lately is that it's more fun than thinking about cleaning pee off the floor.  We have just completed our three day family festival of all things execratory, Happy Underpants Days!  Some people call it potty training.  With the big brother it was called Pee Pee Summer Camp and it took place almost entirely in the backyard in August.  That was better.  This time around there has been a lot of pee on the wood floors.  (All rugs were removed in preparation last Thursday night.)  

On Sunday morning, day 3 of Happy Underpants Days!, I decided that a powerful breakfast was in order to get us through our last day.  I made hash - the sort that my dad used to make in the giant cast iron skillet over an open fire outside of the VW camper van somewhere in rural Oregon or coastal California on bundled up mornings when all that fresh air and running around made everything delicious, even canned corned beef.  

Mine didn't have that.  It had little cubes of soft sweet potato, and tempeh, and onions, and kale.

Sweet Potato Dinner Pie

 

We had such a nice break.  The boys had two weeks off school.  Paul managed to take the whole time off too.  I lined up activities and pals to play with for every minute of it, and then on approximately the first second of vacation Desmond came down with a cold.  And then the next day, of course, so did Felix.  So I called the pals.  Cancelled plans.  And it was just the four of us.

Totally Sick of Thanksgiving? Make Taquitos.

Take a couple cups of leftover roasted vegetables.  Ours were an amalgam of onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, delicata squash, and kale from several roasts I made in the days and weeks approaching Thanksgiving.  I had 8 roasts and their surrounding vegetables in my fridge and freezer at one point.  Toss your vegetables in the food processor with a few slices of your leftover untofurkey, a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of chipotle powder (or smoked paprika if you're hoping children will eat this), and a teaspoon of oregano.  Process until chunky smooth.  Cover a small skillet with a slick of canola oil.  Wrap a dozen corn tortillas in a wet dish cloth, and heat in the microwave for a 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, until the tortillas are soft and pliant.  Spoon a generous tablespoon of leftovers into each tortilla, tightly roll, and pan fry seam side down, flip, fry some more, and serve with gaucamole or if it's really all leftovers all the time, then in tapatillo-spiked cranberry sauce. (Yeah, that's the level we've sunk to in this house.  Man, am I done with Thanksgiving.)    

Pancake Taco

Start with Paul's Buttermilk Pancakes.

In a small bowl, stir together some almond butter and maple syrup with a fork.

Spread a big dollop of the sweet almond butter onto each pancake.

Arrange slices of fruit on one half - pears or peaches or raspberries or whatever you have are all nice.

Fold in half and devour.  

Your Tuesday Tip: Reheating Leftover Pizza

Stove Top.  Medium Heat.  Heavy skillet.  About a minute, or until it starts to smell like a pizzeria in your kitchen.    

The crust will crisp and the toppings will heat as long as you're not working with too thick of a slice.  In that case I would probably cover the pan.  You might lose a teensy bit of crunch to the benefit of warm pizza, but I imagine it would be worth it.