Your Vegan Mom

Toast Cups and Easy, Kid-Friendly Brunch Fare

I'm thinking about you.  Will you, perchance, be cooking up something to replace your mom's Cheese Baked Judy this Easter Sunday following the egg hunt?  Yes?  No?  Okay, I'm thinking about me.  And I'll need a super simple brunch-y main dish that I can easily make in not-my-own kitchen.  Bonus points if my kids will eat it.  

Super score.  This is it.  Tofu Scramble in Toast Cups.  The mundane meets the unexpectedly festive in one perfect brunch dish.  Happy Easter!  

I have to thank Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Cookbook from 1959 for the inspiration for this recipe.  Right there in the Easter spread on page 31 there is a recipe for toast cups (with eggs baked inside) that leaves me wanting to serve everything in a vessel of oven crisped bread - pot pie filling and creamy mushrooms and then I even start to think about all the creamed things that my mom hankers for on toast and I wonder about plopping vegan equivalents into these edible receptacles.  Creamed Tempeh in Toast Cup - I bet that's good.  

But for now, this scramble will meet your Sunday brunch needs.  It's easy and delicious, and actually, after it serves its festive, holiday needs, I could see this becoming a simple, savory breakfast on the go staple.  Did I mention that both boys (and their parents to boot) loved it?  Hallelujah.  

Toast Cups with Tofu Scramble and Spring Vegetables
Makes: 12 appetizer or 6 light main dish servings
Takes: 30 minutes (20 active)

• 12 slices soft whole wheat bread, crusts removed
• 4 tablespoons vegan butter, divided
• 1 spring onion with the tops, finely chopped (or 3 green onions)
• 2 smallish carrots, shredded
• 1 medium zucchini, shredded
• 1 19-ounce package medium-firm tofu (I mostly use the pink one from Trader Joe's for scrambling.)
• 1/4 cup tofu seasoning blend (recipe below)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried dill

To make the toast cups: Heat the oven to 325.  Lightly butter your bread squares and gently smoosh into the cups of a muffin tin.  (If your bread is too stiff - you'll know when it doesn't smoosh nicely - cover a stack of buttered slices and stick them in the microwave for 30 - 60 seconds or until soft, working in 2 or 3 batches) Bake for 20 minutes or until crisp and golden brown - they will crisp up more as they cool.

To make the scramble: In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter.  Add the white parts of the onion and the carrot.  Cook for about 2 minutes, until soft and fragrant.  Stir in the zucchini.  Season with a pinch of salt and cook for another 2 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and beginning to brown.  Add the green parts of the onion and cook just until wilted and smelling delicious.  Crumble the tofu into the pan.  Add the seasoning mix and a bit of dill.  Smash the seasoning into the tofu and vegetables, cooking and stirring.  Season with salt and pepper if necessary.  If your tofu is very wet, let most of the liquid cook off.  Otherwise, you're done with this part.

To assemble: Place a dollop of scramble in each toast cup and serve.

Toast cups and scramble can both be made a day ahead.  Reheat the scramble and proceed.

Basic Tofu Seasoning Blend
Makes: about 2 cups
Takes: less than 5 minutes

• 2 cups nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Place all ingredients in a jar.  Shake.  Use as needed.   

Strawberry Milkshakes and SunPower Natural Cafe

 

About a year ago, shortly after they opened, we had a quick lunch at SunPower Natural Cafe.  We happened to sort of be in the neighborhood, and I had heard good things.  Paul, Desmond, and I sat in a sunny window seat and shared a couple sandwiches.  There was a good seitan salad (the cafe is not entirely raw).  And something else.  And something on the side.  It was pleasant.  We enjoyed it.  If it were in our neighborhood, we'd be regulars, but since it's not it's just a fuzzy memory of a pleasant lunch and a mental note for anytime I happen to be passing through North Hollywood.

But what does remain vivid, what I have thought about approximately everyday since is the strawberry milkshake.  It was so rich and creamy and perfect, and magically created without actual ice cream, the sort of decadent treat that you really don't mind your kid indulging in.  But it's in North Hollywood.  And we're not.  And we have two small children.  So that shake might as well be in another state.  We needed to make one at home.  And really, you do too.

Raw Strawberry Milkshakes

• 1/2 cup raw cashews 
• 1 cup water
• 6 ounces (or half a 12-ounce bag, or about 1 1/2 cups) frozen strawberries
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar (or to taste)
• a teensy, tiny pinch of salt  

In a blender, cover the cashews with the water and set aside to soak for at least an hour or overnight. Puree the water and cashews until very smooth.  Add the strawberries and agave nectar.  Blend again until smooth and thick.  Taste for sweetness.  Slurp.   

Makes 2 cups.  Or enough for Paul, Desmond, and I to each have a very small milkshake.  

 

 

Meyer Lemon Pancakes

 

I'm still mentally stretched out on a chaise lounge in the backyard, the sun warming my knees.  My book's open in the overgrown grass next to me where it fell out of my hand when I last dozed off.  And the ice is slowly melting in the glass of freshly squeezed imaginary lemonade on the little iron side table next to me.  

You probably don't observe the holiday in your house, but here May means Trina Appreciation Month where my birthday is followed by Mothers Day and then warm weather and barbecues and picnics, so I'm trying very hard to shake off the pampered fog and get my head around to writing something.  I was thinking, maybe something about pancakes - meyer lemon pancakes with cashew ricotta and berries?  With your own mother to celebrate this Sunday, I thought you might need an edible "I love you and I think you're great."  That's what meyer lemon pancakes with cashew ricotta and berries are - a hug and a kind word - that you can eat.  Here's the recipe:

Meyer Lemon Pancakes  
Makes about 40 3-inch pancakes, or less if you like them bigger.  

• 1 meyer lemon
• 2 cups soy milk (a little less actually, see below)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup melted non-dairy butter

Zest lemon into a large bowl.  Squeeze two tablespoons of juice into a large measuring cup.  (If you have a medium-sized lemon it will probably yield about 2 tablespoons of juice - a little more or a little less is fine.  If it's a very large lemon, then measure out the juice and save the rest to make cashew ricotta.) Add enough soy milk to the lemon juice to make two cups.  Set aside to curdle and thicken.  

Add the dry ingredients to the zest and whisk to combine.  Make a well in the center and add the rest of the ingredients.  With dainty little strokes, whisk together the wet stuff in the middle and then mix the whole thing together to make a smooth-ish batter (a few lumps are okay and much preferable to over mixing).  

Heat a griddle over lowish medium and brush with more melted butter or oil.  For small pancakes, pour a couple tablespoons of batter onto the hot griddle, or for larger, pour out 1/4 cup pools.  When the edges are dry and bubbles have formed and popped, flip and cook on the other side.  Repeat.  

Serve with berries - whatever sort you can get.  Though I know it's early, I was gifted some black berries (probably from the wilds of Costco) so we used those, but fresh strawberries or defrosted blueberries would be good too.  To turn black berries or raspberries into a pancake topping without cooking them into a syrup, I sprinkle them with a bit of sugar, smash a few against the side of the bowl, stir, and let sit while I make pancakes.  The juice from the crushed berries will melt the sugar and give you a bit of fresh syrup.  

And I highly recommend a good dollop of cashew ricotta.  

What the Jaconi Bierys Ate for Dinner, the April Edition

 

Paul says that I shouldn't pull aside the curtain quite this far - that I should maintain (establish?) some sort of Martha Stewart-style magical un-realism.  I say this blog is pointless if I'm not showing you how this incredibly imperfect family eats - quite well, thank you - just not always according to plan.  

The men-folk have been working crazy hours, so we got some moms and kids together for dinner a couple nights last week which led me to improvise a bit for larger quantity meals and more universally kid-friendly fare.  Then, there was a last minute girls night out when my pal, Alexis, came into town from North Carolina, necessitating a mid-week sleep-over at grandma's house and more welcome changes to the plan. 

Here's what we actually ate:

Monday - pan-fried seitan (I'm going to link to the method I used.  It's a photo tutorial for pork chops.  If you don't want to see that, then don't click on this link.), mashed potatoes, and salad with agave-mustard salad dressing
Tuesday - samosa quesadillas and salad with creamy mango dressing and spicy pickled onions (recipe to come!)
Wednesday - Taco Spot
Thursday - burgers at my mom's house 
Friday - Those hand-held salads and mac and cheese
Saturday - Desmond and Uncle Denny ate the rest of the mac and cheese, but this time with peas! while Paul and I went out (two grown-up nights in one week!) 
Sunday - We finally ate the asparagus, like this, with bread (It was too wine-y for the boy so Paul and I hogged it to ourselves, smashing the garlic onto slices of bread, and I made a super-quick broccoli cheese soup for the boy from broccoli puree that I had set aside for the baby.)

Hey, let's meet back here later for recipes.  (Say, Wednesday?)

Here's some more meal plans:

• at this Menu Meal Plan blog event, (a tiny bit vegan)
• and from the fishbowl, (vegan)
• at Family Bites , (not vegan)
• and at another blog I love, Home Ec 101. (not vegan)

How was your week?  Did you stick to the plan?    

The Plan

 

I go about meal planning in several different ways.  The varied approach helps keep getting dinner on the table from ever becoming a tedious task.  This week, I'm going about it in my most favorite way - the go-crazy-at-the-Hollywood-Farmers-Market-then-figure-out-what-to-cook approach.  Here's what I've got:

• a dozen purply baby artichokes
• 7 very fat spears of asparagus
• a pound of fava beans
• 5 ounces of chanterelles
• 2 baskets of strawberries 
• 1 basket of raspberries
• 1 big bunch of kale
• 1 big head red leaf lettuce
• 1/2 pound purple blossoming broccoli
• 2 heads of garlic
• 1 bunch of tiny little purple spring onions

I also have a gazillion meyer lemons and navel oranges because my pal from Ojai just moved back into the city (4 blocks from me to be precise) and brought her rural bounty along with her.  Man, I love friends with fruit.

This is not how I shop every week, because going crazy at the Hollywood Farmers Market can get pricy.  I was doing pretty well until I inadvertently spent $15.00 on a tiny sack of chanterelles.  

We already ate the broccoli in a super-simple lemony pasta for lunch.  And then the artichokes and fava beans became a creamy gratin for dinner.  Here's what we're going to eat the rest of the week.

Monday: pan-fried seitan and asparagus (Did you click the link?  Something like that recipe.  Russ Parsons is just so convincing when he talks about asparagus.  I'm not exactly sure how a vegan brown butter sauce will go, but I'll follow his basic technique at least.  Also, this noodle dish with asparagus sounds like a great mid-week dinner, but as you can see, we already have the pasta covered this week.)

Tuesday: pasta with chanterelles (hot pan, olive oil, mushrooms, garlic, maybe some of those spring onions, salt and pepper, cashew cream - on top of fettucini) 

Wednesday: lefotvers or take-out (Wednesday afternoons are busy, man.)

Thursday: big ol' salad and bread (My current favorite salad has good lettuce, chunks of orange, avocado, and toasted pecans with a lemon chive vinaigrette.  I'll write down the recipe for this super simple salad dressing tomorrow.  Also, if there's any seitan left over, it will go in there as well.  When we eat salad, the toddler has a deconstructed version that he can pick up and dip.)  

Friday: strawberry milk shakes, kale chips, oven fries, tofu sticks (Desmond's current mantra is "I want something crunchy.")

I'm late to sharing the Meal Plan.  Here's some more from around the internet:

• I know Shelly shared her plan a few weeks ago. (Vegan.)
• Jan Scott at Family Bites shares her weekly menus.  (Not vegan.)
• And wow, 300 people share their weekly menus here.  (Not necessarily vegan.)

Hey!  If you don't have a blog, it would be super-rad if you jotted down your meal plan in the comments.  This could be a really helpful vegan resource, don't you think?