Breakfast

Bar Food, Breakfast, Cheese, oil free vegan recipes, Plant Based, Sandwiches, Vegan

Cheesy Vegan Scramble Sandwich

Posted on January. 2024January. 2024 by writinstuff

Recently I was participating in a writing exercise that was meant to help writers reconnect with memories that allow you to fully flesh out a scene or a memory. It was a fun exercise that brought to mind weekend mornings in the summer back when I was in elementary school. I can’t say exactly when it was but I was skinny and I was looking forward to church, neither of which has been true for decades.

Anyway this memory involving something I used to love. A lot.

For a few years I lived with my grandmother and at the time she was still working, which meant I was on my own for breakfast before I headed off to school. One of my favorite things to make was a scrambled egg sandwich with a slice of “cheese”. I can say “cheese” with quotation marks in confidence because there was nothing remotely cheese-like about those so called cheese products.

But that memory made me want to recreate and veganize this particular scrambled egg sandwich. I’ve made a few different scramble recipes over my vegan years but this one had a few basic requirements that the others do not.

You have to keep this one simple because I was in elementary school and had a limited palate so I used table salt, black pepper, garlic powder and an Italian seasoning blend because I thought it was the height of sophistication with fancy words like thyme and oregano. Also, I used a basic vegan cheddar slice because it perfectly resembles that electric orange cheese square I loved so much. (thanks for that, casomorphin!)

What’s your favorite vegan cheese brand? Drop links in the comments!

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Breakfast, Plant Based, Vegan, Vegan Food Products

Vegan Food Product Review ~ Iezeress Vegan Breakfast (Mic Dejun)

Posted on November. 2023November. 2023 by writinstuff

Hey there and happy Thursday, friends and followers. I hope this week has been good to you!

I’ve been slightly under the weather this week but I’m about 98% healthy again thanks to a lot of vitamins, soup and sweating it out through exercise. I’m not good about being sick because I get sick about once a year, if that, and only for a few days. Anyway yeah, I’m feeling better in case you were wondering.

Today’s vegan food isn’t a recipe but a food product that I didn’t make. In fact, I didn’t even choose it. My hubs saw vegan eggs and his head exploded.

And a few days later our vegan mic dejun (Romanian for breakfast) arrived in the mail for us to try and review.

I’m not much of a breakfast eater anymore as I try to only eat when I’m hungry and I’m rarely hungry for anything but coffee first thing in the morning. Still, I always like to try new vegan products and see what food scientists have come up with lately.

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Breakfast, International vegan cuisine, Plant Based, Travel, Vegan

Vegan in Roma: FINAL DAY

Posted on June. 2023June. 2023 by writinstuff

Okay y’all, I promise that this is the last day of my fantastic trip to Rome. There are literally hundreds of photos I could share with you but this is The Spicy Spatula and I’ll keep it–mostly–to vegan food in Rome.

The last day in Rome was a short-ish one. Our flight back to Romania was at five so we had about half a day to soak up a bit more Italian culture and sites in Rome. We hit up a few of the places that were too crowded the first (or second) time we swung by to really see it, like Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona. I took a few (hundred) more photos and got a really great tan, and if you’re wondering, yes black people can get tan!

My in-laws were also surprised.

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Beans, Breakfast, International vegan cuisine, Sides

A Day in the Mountains + Full English Breakfast Recipe

Posted on September. 2022September. 2022 by writinstuff

Last week I meant to add a bonus post because I’ve been so spotty lately while working and writing my new novel, not to mention taking in all the sights Romania has to offer. I didn’t get to it because I had a really trippy dream last week and it put me off while I dealt with the after effects of that, so I’m giving you a Friday freebie post/recipe.

Last week the Hubs and I decided to take a trip to the mountains but instead of going in the car, he wanted me to experience the Bucegi Mountains on the back of his motorcycle. I was on board–mostly–but there’s always a bundle of anxiety when it comes to being on a two-wheeled vehicle. Still, I promised him we would go so I sucked it up and put on my gear and we hit the road.

Of course, there was the promise of a vegan lunch at Snow in Sinaia which soothed my frazzled nerves by about 10% which any sufferer of anxiety knows isn’t basically nothing. But the Bucegi Mountains are beautiful and the scenery is magnificent so that alone was worth it.

We’ve been to Snow Restaurant many times and you can see the post about it here. The vegan sausages with grilled mushrooms, cabbage and mamaliga is wonderful but this time there were NO mushrooms–boo, hoo–but the food was decent.

We split the sausages, mamaliga and cabbage along with a vegan burger & fries meal. The vegan burger was tasty as were the toppings (lettuce, tomato & red onion) but the bun was entirely too big for the burger and not warmed so it totally fell apart as we each ate our halves.

With that in mind I decided to share with you a vegan meal that I’ve made a few times, Fully Vegan Full English Breakfast while also enjoying a great view in Sinaia of the Bucegi Mountains.

Let’s do it!

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Breakfast, Grains, International vegan cuisine, Potatoes, Vegan

Vegan Breakfast Recipes ~ Vegan Sausage & Potato Hash

Posted on November. 2021November. 2021 by writinstuff

I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret. I don’t eat breakfast. I drink about half a liter of water in the morning before I have my single cup of coffee (with brown sugar and almond milk), and a little later I pop a few vitamins. That’s it.

I know “they” say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but is it? I mean, most breakfast food isn’t really all that conducive to getting a productive start to your day. Pancakes or waffles? Tons of protein in the form of vegan eggs, meat alternatives, various types of vegan bacon which often include added fat and sugar to anything, whether it’s carrot bacon or mushroom bacon. Then there are potatoes, which can honestly do no wrong in my book, but who wants to feel sluggish and lethargic before you’ve even fired up your laptop to start working?

Not me.

I guess you could say that I am an intuitive eater, though not consciously. If the hubs makes the coffee a little too strong and I need something to settle my coffee, I’ll eat something. If I’m hungry, I will eat something. Otherwise, I skip the first meal of the day and I usually eat what I call ‘day meal’ and ‘evening meal’ with a snack or two tossed in there somewhere.

Do what that information what you will.

*Shrugs*

Now, does that mean i turn my nose up at all breakfast foods? No way, man! I have very fond memories of the days of brunch, and boozy breakfasts in college and my absolute favorite breakfast food in the world, the breakfast burrito. It just means that I don’t eat it first thing in the morning.

Breakfast for dinner is one of the greatest creations since the smartphone and e-books, and let me just tell ya, it is my JAM! American style breakfast, English breakfast, vegan corned beef hash or any other type of breakfast, it’s all right by me as long as it’s not in the morning.

So, let’s dig into this easy vegan breakfast recipe that you can eat for any meal you want because you’re an adult and you can do what you want.

Track Your Nutrition & Health Data with cronometer.com

Now the first thing I want to tell you about this easy vegan recipe is that it is SUPER easy to make. You don’t have to love to cook, be a proficient home cook or any of that jazz. All you have to do is collect four basic ingredients, raid your spice cabinet and you’re good to go.

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Breakfast, Potatoes, Sides, Vegan

Lazy Vegan Brunch

Posted on July. 2021July. 2021 by writinstuff

I’m not here for a long post today, just to share a few quick photos of our most recent vegan brunch!

It was simple and easy; vegan eggs, sausage, toast and hash browns. It’s more food than we would normally eat but I just got the vegan sausage and the eggs, so I had to try them out.

The spinach sausage from Verdino was surprisingly delicious but the other…not so much. It came wrapped in an inedible casing and the flavor was off-putting. The “eggs” were oddly good and not all that eggy.

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Breakfast, International vegan cuisine, Plant Based, Potatoes, Vegan

Vegan Breakfast Anytime ~ Vegan Corned Beef Hash

Posted on May. 2021May. 2021 by writinstuff

Way back in the day when I was a kid, my favorite thing to have for breakfast on Saturday morning was corned beef hash. No one made it better than my grandmother and I really just couldn’t get enough of it. In college, it was my go to donation during any mid-morning breakfast event.

I was even happy to introduce this weird concoction to my international friends.

Then, my eating habits started to change. Long before going vegan, I started to make changes that included less fried foods, fewer processed foods and a lot more vegetables. And dishes like this slowly faded away. And then I moved to Europe and you just can’t find that weird corned beef stuff there.

But after going vegan and getting comfortable with my new way of life, I started to experiment.

And today I think I have a vegan corned beef hash that recalls the flavors of the original, minus the cruelty and the greasiness.

This is a pretty easy vegan recipe because the base ingredients are: potatoes, bell pepper, vegan mince (or a vegan burger chopped), onion, water/broth & nutritional yeast. Pick the flavor profile you want using the herbs and spices available to you.

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Beans, Breakfast, Cheese, Plant Based, Potatoes, Sides, Vegan

Vegan Brunch Recipe ~ Hangover Edition

Posted on January. 2021January. 2021 by writinstuff

Happy New Year!

I’m not much for resolutions and all that, so my sincere hope for you is that 2021 is better than the previous year. Cook better. Eat better. LIve better. Be better.

And I just might be able to help you with the first two. Maybe.

Full disclosure: I was not hungover when I whipped up this recipe but as I put it all together, it occurred to me that this the perfect vegan breakfast fry up for when you consume a little too much booze the night before. But hey, even if you don’t overdo it, this is a great vegan meal to put together on a Sunday afternoon, or any other day you enjoy brunch.

Unlike most vegan breakfast recipes, you won’t find tofu scramble here but not becuase I don’t love them, I totally do. The real reason is just simple oversight, I thought I had firm tofu in the fridge and when I went to search for it, surprise! No tofu.

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Breakfast, Desserts, Grains, Plant Based, Snacks, Vegan

Vegan Pumpkin Spice Pumpkin Cupcakes

Posted on October. 2020October. 2020 by writinstuff

I know we all love to make fun of those who go a little crazy when pumpkin spice season rolls around, but the truth is these people are just taking advantage of an abundance of a spice blend that really should be available all year long. I mean, ask yourself, what is so wrong with any of these:

Cinnamon
GInger
Cloves
Allspice
Nutmeg

I can’t think of one reason to hate on these spices, especially when you have every type of squash and pumpkin at your disposal! It’s like being mad that your market has broccoli, cauliflower and romesco! Unfathomable, that’s what it is.

All I’m saying is, embrace the season and not just because we are all living in the Upside Down known as 2020, just enjoy because it’s tasty, easy to make and readily available.

All you have to do is take your favorite vegan pumpkin cupcake recipe, or a vegan cake recipe, or any other vegan autumn recipe and add the pumpkin spice blend to the dry ingredients. It really is just that simple.

And if you’re feeling really sauce, like I apparently was, add a pumpkin spice glaze by adding the same blend to powdered sugar along with almond milk, or any other nut milk, plus pinch of bourbon or brandy. For these vegan cupcakes, I used a splash of Apple Pie Moonshine because it has that extra hint of sweetness and booze that turn these vegan cupcakes into something truly amazing.

Want to make’em?

Here we go:

250g All Purpose Flour
225g Brown Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
3 and 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (homemade or store bought)
335g Pumpkin Puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract (I’m in love with this Madagascar vanilla from Dr. Oetker.
60ml Coconut Oil (or other oil, like EVOO)
1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Vegan Egg (I like Arche or Megga Exx, both are German brands if you’re interested)

Mix the dry ingredients together and pour the wet into the dry, stirring until bend but be careful not to overmix or you’ll end up with tough, dense vegan pastries.

Bake at 180C for 20 to 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Now you’re done and ready to gobble up your vegan pumpkin spice cupcakes!

If you plan to add a glaze, let the cupcakes cool for 15 to 20 minutes or you’ll end up with a big, gooey mess.

What do you like drink with your vegan cupcakes…beer? Cocktails? Almond milk?

Drop your answers in the comments!

Breakfast, International vegan cuisine, Plant Based, Vegan

Quick Scallion Pancakes & Spicy Seitan Sausage

Posted on May. 2020May. 2020 by writinstuff

Sometimes you just feel like breakfast for dinner but without the zillion calorie meal that’s common for a breakfast at night feast, even a vegan one.

Sometimes I miss having breakfast even though I’ve never been much of a breakfast eater and I don’t eat it at all these days if I’m not hungry, but when those longings hit, they hit big. So I set aside all my thoughts of breakfast being a useless consumption of the worst kind of calories, and I indulge.

Some.

I like to bargain with myself. “You can have pancakes but make it savory instead of sweet.”

I had plans of making a Korean style scallion pancake that I saw on YouTube but time got away from me and I ended up doing a quick reconfig of a regular old fluffy pancake recipe, making it vegan and removing the sugar, adding scallions and enoki mushrooms to the batter.

It turned out pretty well thanks to the addition of soy sauce and ground ginger in the pancake batter.

For the spicy maple vegan sausage, I relied on my old friend seitan. The color isn’t striking but damn, these are just so tasty that they are totally worth the time it takes to make them. Well, that and the fact that the stove does all the work by…simmering. Add whatever you like but I used spicy paprika, adobo chile pepper flakes, scotch bonnet powder and maple syrup as the primary ingredients in my sausage dough.

Then came time for the tofu scramble. Tofu, turmeric, onions and bell peppers in a skillet until crispy and fragrant and your quick and easy vegan breakfast is complete. Feel free to add ketchup, hot sauce or even syrup if that’s your jam.

This vegan breakfast dinner was a good way to splurge on a workout day without going over 600 calories…if you care about that. If not, just know that this is still plenty of food. Plenty.

What’s your go to breakfast at night meals?