Breakfasts and an Easy Dinner

I don't usually make fancy breakfasts because I generally prefer leftover stir-fries, pizza, or bagels for breakfast. But when I have time I like to make a nice breakfast for the family. The last two really good breakfasts I've made were using new recipes. The first is Susan's Vegan Omelet for One, only quadrupled. I filled it with sauteed onions and kale from the garden and the Gee Whiz cheese from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. I love that "cheese" by itself, but it was so similar to some of the ingredients in the "omelet", that it made the texture of the omelet seem too undercooked (it was a bit undercooked anyways because I had the flame too high and it browned too fast). But really, this is so close to a real omelet that it's almost scary. Very versatile and the kids loved it! I'll definitely try it again.

I baked some thin slices of locally grown yams and sprinkled them with coriander, cumin, and salt to serve with the omelets. They were crispy and really tasty!


My next good breakfast is these cornmeal pancakes. I just substituted Earth Balance for the butter, rice milk with vinegar for the buttermilk, and Egg Replacer for the eggs. They look just like regular pancakes, I guess. But they are corny! The kids enjoyed them with Earth Balance and maple syrup, but I was excited to try them with a savory topping. So I melted some Earth Balance and mixed it with the South River Miso Company's Garlic and Red Pepper Miso. WOW! It was great- Now I'm mixing that miso with my Tofutti cream cheese on my bagels, too. (But I just noticed that I don't see that variety of miso on their website anymore...But the Dandelion Leek Miso looks good as well. And in another 9 months I'll have more homemade miso than I know what to do with.)


Tonight I got home from a long day of work at around 5:30pm. Mike and the boys were out exploring, so I quickly put some dinner together for when they got home. This looks complicated, but only took about 30 minutes. I made my favorite secret recipe for fake chicken breasts made from wheat gluten that is ready (mixing and baking) in 20 minutes and I chopped up potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, and one lonely garden eggplant with salt, pepper, fresh parsley, sage, and oregano. I sealed the veggies in a baking dish with foil and baked them at 450 for about 30 minutes. While those were baking I mixed up an Apple Buckle. I know the recipe calls for blueberries, but this is my favorite buckle recipe and I have tried it with peaches, mulberries, and cherries (separately) with great results. I also mixed up some gravy that was so good I later stood in front of the stove for a good 15 minutes, breaking off little pieces of "chicken" and scooping up the last of the gravy.
We washed this all down with Hoch Orchard's local apple cider. The best!

The picture of the buckle to really bad. But I think you get the idea: Cakey on the bottom, apple slices in the middle, and crumbley on the top. Like apple crisp on top of cake! You can't beat that!