Archives for May 2012

Protein Waffles with Berry Compote

This morning before work I needed waffles… bad. We were out of our homemade bulk mixture and didn’t have any box mix as a backup! Then I remembered the new Vegan Baking Classics cookbook I bought had a quick whole wheat waffle recipe! (A special thanks to my DM friend Danielle for that tip, too!  I quickly loaded my handy-dandy Kindle app and got to measuring. I modified some things here and there, like cutting the oil in half, adding a banana and some protein powder and adding vanilla. They turned out great! I even mixed up a quick berry compote to top it off.

Protein Waffles with Berry Compote

Protein Waffles with Berry Compote

Ingredients
2 tbsp. water
1 1/2 c. rice milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/3 c. mashed overripe banana
1 tea. vanilla
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 scoop vanilla flavored protein powder
4 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. light brown sugar (loosely packed)
1/4 tea. salt
Compote: 
1 c. frozen mixed berries
1-2 tbsp. maple syrup

Preheat your waffle iron.

Measure out all wet ingredients into a bowl and set aside. Measure out all dry ingredients into a separate bowl and stir to combine. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until just combined, some lumps are ok. Spray vegetable oil onto your waffle iron and fill bottom waffle tray with batter until it spreads to the edges. Close iron and cook based on your iron’s instructions.

For the compote, place frozen mixed berries in a microwave safe dish for 1 minute. Remove from microwave and add 1-2 tbsp. maple syrup and stir. Pour over waffles and enjoy!

Tofu Scramble with Soyrizo

I love the flavor of eggs; I always have. When I gave up eggs for about 4 years, I always missed having them while out to breakfast with family or friends; but they just grossed me out SO much I couldn’t bring myself to eat them. Then one day my sister made egg salad with our decorated Easter eggs and it looked SO GOOD, I had to try a little bite. I missed eggs, even though they still grossed me out. Slowly, I convinced myself it was OK to eat eggs as long as they were prepared a certain way – NO RUNNY STUFF at all. Fast forward about 5 years: I was still eating eggs cooked “well done” and raw eggs STILL grossed me out. They also needed to be vegetarian fed and cage free, preferably purchased from the local farmer’s market when buying them ourselves. I would gladly pay $5/12 versus $1.50/48 eggs at Costco.

I’ve recently reached a point where I wanted to upgrade my already vegetarian diet to an all plant based diet. I’m well on my way to not eating eggs for breakfast and slowly I am cutting out foods with eggs IN them too. Mostly, eggs just gross me out, which to me is the most important reason. They taste good, but the concept is disgusting to me.

Enough of my egg soap box. Enter a delicious and tasty egg-free breakfast protein. Doesn’t it look yummy? I can assure you it is, and no slimy, gooey stuff either.

Tofu Scramble with Soyrizo

Tofu Scramble with Soyrizo

Ingredients
1 lb. extra firm tofu, drained, cut into 1/3″ strips, squeezed dry and crumbled (see photo captions below by clicking on photos)
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 tea. onion powder
1/2 tea. garlic powder
1/2 tea. ground cumin
1/4 tea. tumeric
1/2 tea. sea salt
1/4 tea. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pkg. soyrizo (remaining can be frozen)
corn tortillas
fresh diced tomatoes
vegan sour cream (optional)
olive oil for pan frying

While the tofu is being compressed to release excess moisture (see photo captions above by clicking on photos), prepare your spices and nutritional yeast in a small bowl. Once the tofu is dry and crumbled, add the bowl of spices to the tofu and stir to combine.

Soyrizo is another great find that Dan and I stumbled on years ago while grocery shopping. I never had chorizo, so I didn’t know what it was, but Dan being the daring food guy that he is, insisted we try it. We LOVED it! It was the perfect compliment to, well, eggs! So, in this dish, we decided to pair it with the tofu scramble and see how it went!

We also wanted a vehicle to deliver this delicious duo so we landed on corn tortillas. Heat a separate skillet on medium heat, no oil, and quickly heat on each side for about 1 minute or less. You just want the tortilla to get soft and bring out the flavors. Spread a layer of soyrizo onto a corn tortilla, a layer of tofu on top, then top with diced fresh tomatoes and vegan sour cream or cream cheese if desired. Top with another tortilla and serve!

I’m not gonna lie, logistically this was not the best way to serve these, but the flavors were there. Next time, I would probably just make them tacos. These are a perfect weekend breakfast when you have time to prepare the tofu. This particular dish was made after one of my long runs and it hit the spot!

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