Sunday Morning Indulgence

I like to make myself a little treat on Sunday mornings, when everything is quiet in the house. I promise I don't usually eat ice cream for breakfast (really!).

I don't have measurements or a real recipe for this treat, because you shouldn't have to think on Sunday mornings.  So here's a pictorial:

Pull out your French press and add a spoonful or so of cocoa powder and lots more spoonsful of coarse ground coffee.  I use decaf and still get a buzz, but use whatever you want.    

Add boiling water and let sit for a while.  Not sure how long.  You shouldn't have to use timers on Sunday morning.  

This is the best part.  Now scoop a little scoop of vanilla ice cream into a glass or mug and pour the cocoa coffee over it.  Enjoy and then try to talk yourself out of a second cup.

A Little Unconventional

Not everyone is going to like this snack.  And even fewer are going to eat it for breakfast like I prefer to do.  But I figure I'd better share this because it's crazy simple and really good for you, too.

Kimchi and Tahini on Crackers

Take 1 very sturdy (that's code for break-your-teeth-hard) whole grain cracker, such as Dr. Kracker or Wasa.  Spread generously with tahini (that's sesame butter) and top with spicy kimchi (that's Korean-style fermented cabbage).  Enjoy.  Then make another because it's so damn good.

I love this snack/breakfast because:
1. It's crunchy, savory and creamy all in one.
2. Dr. Kracker flatbreads are from Texas, like me.
3. It's an excuse to eat kimchi for breakfast.
4. Slathering tahini on anything makes me think of the Seward Cafe.
5. The "Seedlander" variety of Dr. Kracker reminds me of Zoolander.
5. It's more exciting than toast.  And I LOVE toast.

Nothing Better

Is anything better than apricot-vanilla jam on a homemade biscuit?

The correct answer is no.

Lucky Ducky

I'm feeling pretty lucky right now.  We had a fantastic Christmas with family we love, delicious food and way too many gifts.  Christmas Eve included a candlelight dinner with homemade tamales and eggnog.  

If you're like us and not drinking dairy eggnog, but not wild about tons of soy either, you'll LOVE this recipe. 

Soy-free, Dairy-free Eggnog

1 1/2 cups almond milk

1/2 cup unsweetened Mimicreme (cashew & almond creme)

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of ground cinnamon

Bigger pinch of ground nutmeg

Blend all this together in a blender or shake it up really good in a sealed jar.  Serve in a frosty cold mug with a pinch of nutmeg on top- Yum!

I knew I wanted to serve cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, so the night before I whipped up some of my favorite gluten free cinnamon rolls and refrigerated them in the pan, ready to go in the oven the next day.  Here's a tip to add to the recipe, though: when rolling up the dough, just put the whole log in the freezer for an hour or so to firm it up nicely. It makes slicing the rolls a breeze!  

I hate to brag, but these were crazy good.  I used the orange glaze from the orange scone recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance for a little something special.  But really, these don't need frosting.  But I guess I don't need cinnamon rolls.  

We all got some great presents this year.  My favorites?  A reverse osmosis water filter for the kitchen, CSI game for the Wii, tickets to see Snoop Dogg and tons of my favorite pens!

Billie Cat's favorite (only) present is a new bed.  

Unfortunately for Billie Cat, Hannah Dog also loves this present. 

Cranberry Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits are the ultimate comfort food for me.  I've been craving them ever since my trip to Texas.  That trip stirred up all sorts of memories of late nights at IHOP, eating biscuits and gravy and goofing off with Brandon.  Alas, those biscuits and gravy aren't even close to vegan or up to my super snobby standards.  

Here are the biscuits and gravy I enjoyed tonight.  

I mixed up a batch of the baking powder biscuits from Vegan with a Vengeance as soon as I got home from work.  Then I started browning a half of a sweet onion to flavor some gravy.  There's no real recipe for this gravy- just browned onions, Earth Balance, flour, almond milk and salt and pepper.  Sometimes the simplest gravy is the best.   Who am I kidding...Gravy is just the best.  

 But I wanted to add a little something different to the biscuits and gravy.  After working on Thanksgiving promotions at work, I felt the need to add some cranberries!

I had a nice big bag of Wisconsin cranberries in the fridge, so I added about a cup of them into a little skillet with a few tablespoons of cane sugar and a bit of water.  Then I brought it to a boil very quickly.  As the cranberries heat, they pop.  It's fun!

When the berries are done, they should look like this.  It's basically a thick, tart jam.

I slathered a thick layer of berries between the steaming hot biscuits and then poured the onion gravy over the top.  Holy yum.  IHOP's got nothing like this.

Granola Taste-Off

When Nature's Path sent me a big ol' box of their Kirkland (Costco) line of granola, I knew I had to turn the taste-testing over to my stepsons.  A couple of years ago they decided that they wanted to eat granola every morning for breakfast.  And they've stuck with it, except for the occasional surprise pancakes when the mood strikes me.

I'm pretty stubborn about not buying any granola or cereal, though.  I've seen how quickly teen-aged boys can decimate a box of cereal and I'm terrified of what the future will do to my grocery budget.  Can every kid eat bowl after bowl of cereal for breakfast and snacks?  I myself really don't care for most cereal and find that it never really satisfies me.  So I'm very much in favor of my homemade granola, made with our favorite ingredients for super low prices.

But when Mike saw the big box of granola on the counter and he couldn't eat it (it has wheat), he had to buy some Cascadian Farms granola that was on sale.  He was pretty jealous of the giant, free box of granola.


Here's what the kids had to say about each of the two different granolas, my thoughts on the nutrition and whether they liked it better than the usual homemade granola:

Nature's Path Organic Ancient Grains Granola with Almonds
"Very crunchy.  Tastes like honey.  Really filling.  Looks fluffy.  There's nothing I don't like about it.  I would like this for breakfast every day.  I don't want to mix it with yogurt or fruit, just plain."

Nutrition (in 3/4 cup): 6 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein, 9 grams of fat and 9 grams of sugar.  Pretty darn good!

Verdict: Tastes better than Liz's homemade :(

Cascadian Farms Organic Maple Brown Sugar Granola
"Too crunchy.  Feels really, really dry.  No chunks of nuts.  Tastes a little stale.  Tastes like it has peanut butter in it (that's good). Not too ornate, I like that it's kind of plain."

Nutrition (in 2/3 cup): 3 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein, 4.5 grams of fat and 14 grams of sugar.  A bit too sugary, I think.  And lacking in fiber for an oat-based product.  The 2nd, 4th and 6th ingredients are all sugar (sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup).

Verdict: One boy says it's better than mine just because it's something different.  Other boy says mine is better.


Now I have to explain to Mike why all of his granola is gone...

Beanie Breakfast

Here's one of my favorite things to do on my big cooking day (usually Sundays).

Each week I take one day to prep meals for the rest of the week.  Sometimes it's just pre-chopping some vegetables or marinating some tofu.  Sometimes it's more involved, like making lasagna or pizza crusts.  Just about every week I cook some beans, though.

I like to cook my beans in the pressure cooker to save time and then store them in the fridge for quick meals later in the week.  When I pack away the beans, I like to put just a little bit of the bean broth in the jars- so that my beans and rice aren't too soupy later.  But what to do what that delicious broth?

I reserve just a bit of the beans and lots of broth and puree with my immersion blender to eat right away!  It's a perfect Sunday morning brunch with some whole grain toast slathered in Earth Balance.  Tons of fiber, protein and water.  This Sunday the soup was spicy pinto bean.  Any kind of lentil is really good as well.

Just another example of beans for breakfast.

Hickory Scones

A couple of weeks ago I was in Madison, WI and got to visit the awesome farmer's market there.  I was really excited to find (among other things) hickory nuts.  I actually squealed, I was so excited.  

But, honestly, I'd never even had hickory nuts before.  

I had an idea of what they might taste like, though, from hearing descriptions of them and loving the smell of  hickory wood.  So I shelled out six bucks for a little baggie of nuts that I didn't really know if I liked or not. I LOVE finding locally grown nuts, even if they're unfamiliar.  

Lucky for me, I loved them.  They taste like richer, woods-ier pecans.  I'm sorry to have to make up words like that.  There's just no other way to say it.

But how to use them...  

They'd been sitting on my shelf for weeks and I kept saving them for something special.  So this morning I decided to make something special.  

I mixed up a batch of plain scones from Vegan with a Vengeance and added 1/2 cup (maybe a bit more?) of the coarsely chopped nuts.  A happy accidental deviation from this recipe is that I was out of any type of milk except light canned coconut milk.  So I used coconut milk for all the milk/cream called for in the recipe.   I also reduced the oil by about 2 Tbsp. (because the light coconut milk still has a good bit of fat) and added 2 Tbsp. maple syrup to compliment the earthy nuts.  

And because I feel pretty strongly that scones in wedges are far superior to the round variety, I patted the dough out and cut it into triangles (Follow the instructions for the orange scones for this shape if you're already looking up the recipe.  Just turn the page.).  

These babies baked up pillow-y and studded with hickory nuts throughout.  I mixed up a little coconut-maple glaze for the top (sifted powdered sugar, maple extract, vanilla bean paste, and just a couple drips of coconut milk to form a thick liquid) and then sat down to breakfast.

Black Walnut Banana Bread

Okay, I know that logically I shouldn't turn on the oven in the middle of a heat/humidity wave.  But I can't help myself.  Heat makes my bananas get ripe faster and then I'm forced to bake banana bread!

I also had a big jar of black walnuts that were burning a hole in my pantry (That's the cooking equivalent of money burning a hole in your pocket).  I had never baked with black walnuts before, so I just had to see how they tasted in a banana bread.

Oh. my. gawd.  This banana bread knocked my socks off.  I used the recipe for banana muffins from The Joy of Vegan Baking and left our the chocolate chips and added 1 cup of chopped black walnuts.  The walnuts were fragrant and almost... don't think this is weird... floral.  I loved it.  The walnuts had none of the bitterness that regular walnuts have.  If you ever have a chance to get black walnuts, get 'em and bake some banana bread.

In a Blanket

This is admittedly not the most aesthetically pleasing meal.  It even looks kinda dirty.  But it was all I wanted for dinner on Thursday night and I've thoroughly enjoyed the leftovers for breakfast.  

Pigs in a Blanket!!!

I just made a batch of my favorite biscuit dough and cut long triangles, a la Pillsbury crescent rolls.  Then I wrapped up some Smart Dogs.  I think I should have shaped them differently because they ended up with huge biscuits around a very small part of the dog.  I enjoyed mine dipped in Silver Spring horseradish mustard and homemade ketchup- Yum!!!

Also in blankets are my plants.  It's supposed to get down to freezing temperatures tonight and possibly (okay, probably.  Like 90% chance probably) snow.  So I have my strawberries, green beans, grapevine and lettuce under blankets, tarps, sheets and empty compost bags.  All of my newly purchased plants (from the Mississippi Market plant sale and Friends plant sale) are safely in the garage for the night.  I'm especially worried about my strawberries because they've already flowered and mostly fruited!  Please don't die!!!

I forgot to cover my baby apricot and pear trees.  Got to go...

Good Vinegar and Good Conversation

I have a little problem with oils and vinegars.  Much like spices, I love them a little too much and tend to buy any that look new or interesting.  Imagine my delight upon entering Vinaigrette, a shop that has dozens of super high quality olive oils and vinegars on tap.  Yep.  That means you get to taste any and all of them (I did).

These were my favorites of the bunch: Fig and Balsamico di Modena vinegars and Rosemary and Garlic infused olive oils.  It was a tough decision, let me tell you!  There's something really special about being able to hear the story of each of the farms and families that produce these oils and vinegars.  Each one was unique in flavor and history and I really wanted to take them all home with me.  Plus, where else can you go to talk about oil and vinegar for 40 minutes?  No where.

I drank tasted plenty of oil and vinegar on Friday, but Saturday morning I wanted to put this balsamico to good use with my breakfast, so polenta seemed in order.

This is soft polenta with oil-packed, home-dried, home-grown cherry tomatoes and oil-cured black olives topped with fresh basil and lots of black pepper.  And drizzled with balsamico, of course.  It was insane, really.  I could get used to this kind of breakfast.

Potato ~ Potato ~ Potato

Mike's birthday was last week- He requested no presents and no parties, so he got a casserole instead.  

This isn't just your average casserole, though.  (Maybe I should say "hotdish" now that I've lived in Minnesota for 10 years?) Mike loves potatoes in all forms, so I made a triple potato hotdish for his birthday breakfast.  

The bottom layer: mashed potatoes with peas

The second layer: Cascadian Farm Organic Spud Puppies.  Mike's love of spud puppies is surpassed only by his love for me, the kids and banjos, in no particular order.

The third layer: cheezy nutritional yeasty gravy.  Because if you're going all-out with potatoes, there's got to be gravy involved.

The fourth layer: crushed potato chips

This casserole barely made it onto the table.  I thought it would be nice to broil the top of the chips so that they browned nicely.  I wouldn't really recommend that you try this.  Potato chips are little grease bombs just waiting to catch fire.  I'm going to try to remember this next time we're camping and need to get a fire started. Luckily, my oven escaped going up in flames (all the other appliances have broken this month, so why not the oven, too?) and I was able to scrape off the little flaming charcoal chips and top the casserole with freshly crushed, unbrowned/blackened chips.  Despite the drama and distinct smokey flavor, this casserole was amazing!  Super rich, totally indulgent and very potatoey.  Then we had dessert!

Dessert had to be gluten free, soy free and vegan.  Not super easy.  Mike's been switching up his diet lately and soy is the latest thing to go.  He's not so strictly vegan anymore, but he's feeling really good- Hooray!

Chocolate Peanut Butter is a pretty rockin' flavor combination in any form and this was no exception. I made little peanut butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla balls to hide in the center of the GF chocolate cupcake batter (I use an adaptation of the GF cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World). Then I top with more batter and bake.  

The finished cupcakes were topped with ganache for a quick and easy frosting.  

Now I just have to think of another excuse to make that potato casserole.  I think the dog's birthday is coming up.  She'd want us to eat a nice breakfast in honor of her birthday, I'm sure of it.

PS- I was really lazy about posting this past week, but I've got tons of photos to share of springy meals and beginnings of this year's garden.  Look for them this week!

Toast Toppings

I love toast.  But, like many things, it's really what goes on top of the toast that makes it so wonderful.  This morning I had the most lovely darkly toasted whole grain bread with tahini and some of the first local hydroponic tomatoes of the season.  With a little salt and freshly ground black pepper, this was perfection.

Other mornings I want a sweeter toast, though.  So sometimes I prefer homemade jam.  There's always something delicious to serve on toast!

Anyone else read Nigel Slater's book entitled Toast?  A great book of food memories, including plenty about toast!

Here's a list of some of my favorites:
Mashed avocado with lemon, salt and pepper (plain guacamole)
Baked beans
Peanut butter and jelly
Tahini and kim chi
Earth Balance margarine and miso
Earth Balance, cinnamon and sugar

What's your favorite toast topping?

Breakfasts and My Favorite Gift

Wow- This week flew by, filled with relaxation and goofing off...and good food!

Mike and I spent Christmas morning together before the kids came over.  We ate a rockin' breakfast and then I worked a jigsaw puzzle while he played banjo- fun!

Breakfast was spicy roasted potatoes, scrambled tofu topped with avocado and home-canned garlicky tomatoes, and roasted portabello mushrooms.  And I had an organic mimosa- a super rare treat.

I think my favorite Christmas present might be the stainless steel drinking straws that Mike got me.  I prefer drinking nearly every cold beverage from a straw, with the only exception being carbonated drinks (then it's glass bottles, all the way).  But plastic is nasty and I end up washing and reusing them so many times that I worry about the plastic degrading and leaching more nasty endocrine-disruptors into my food.  Perfect solution- Stainless steel straws!

Here's Billie Cat enjoying the sunshine while I mix up a breakfast milkshake.

A couple days ago my friend told me about a savory bread pudding she whipped up for dinner and I couldn't stop thinking about how good it sounded.  Usually bread pudding sounds totally disgusting to me- soggy bread, raisins, eggs and too much sugar.  But savory bread pudding opens up new doors.  Delicious doors.

Spinach, morel and sundried tomato bread pudding

Spinach, Morel and Sundried Tomato Bread Pudding

1/2 cup dried tomatoes (I used home-dried cherry tomatoes)

1/2 cup dried morel mushrooms

Boiling water

12 oz. firm tofu

1 1/2 cup almond milk

1 Tbsp. mustard

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black salt (if available)

1 tsp. dried thyme

2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced

4 cups stale crusty French bread, cubed

2 large handfuls baby spinach

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Lightly grease a 9x9 inch glass baking pan.  Pour boiling water over the dried tomatoes and mushrooms in a heat-safe bowl.  Let soak for about 10 minutes or until rehydrated.

In a bowl, puree together the tofu, milk, mustard, salt, black salt, thyme and garlic.  Take a little taste- it should be garlicky, a little mustardy and plenty flavorful.  If not, adjust as needed.

Drain the tomatoes and mushrooms. Chop them into bite-sized pieces if needed.  Add to the tofu mixture and stir to combine.  Add bread crumbs and spinach and stir until they are completely coated.  Dump everything into the baking dish and smooth out the top.

Put in the oven and bake uncovered for about 30-35 minutes.  Serve hot!  This will keep in the refrigerator and is super easy to cut a slice and pop in the toaster over for a quick and rich breakfast.

Carrot Harvest and Omelets

Hmmm.... I'm not really sure what happened. Except that I got lazy and just didn't feel like blogging for the remaining days of VeganMoFo. Oh well.

I swear that I have been cooking, though. I just forgot to blog about it! I went on a cooking spree on Sunday and made brown rice, lasagna for Monday night, cashew cheese from VT, "Swizz Cheeze" from the Uncheese cookbook, roasted carrots, roasted butternut squash and lentil soup, granola and kale salad.

I cleared out most of the garden on Sunday, too. The carrot harvest was kind of puny and I only got 4 or 5 beets. There were lots of little carrots, though, which look so cute roasted. So that's what I did! Here are some of the pretty carrots in a bowl:

Last night we just popped the lasagna I made on Sunday into the oven- super easy. The "Swizz Cheeze" went on top- Yum!!!

Tonight I was super excited to try the omelet recipe in Vegan Brunch. I was wary because I think chickpea flour is nasty and soft tofu, too. But these were amazing! Mike even declared it to be possibly the most delicious thing I've ever cooked. Many thanks to my buddy Sarah for scoring me some black salt! It was shocking how much it tasted like eggs!

I filled them with sauteed onions, red pepper, green pepper, black olives and Swizz Cheeze.

Looks like a real omelet, huh?! Amazing!

Nothing New, Just Coconut Bacon

I made some coconut bacon yesterday and thought I was creating something new and amazing...But it turns out that it's not a new idea. Really, it's not new. Even the Royal Bacon Society knows about vegan coconut bacon. But it's still delicious! My recipe is not really any different than any of the afore-linked websites. But I tried mine cooked up in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet rather than an oven. Here's what it looked like:

I ate darn near half of it before it even went into the skillet. And then I promptly ate the other half. This is definitely as addicting as regular bacon. It's fatty, salty, crisp and all around bacony. The kids loved it, too. But Mike said, "It tastes like coconut". Party pooper.

I mixed together the following:

1/2 cup large coconut flakes (I used the "Let's Do...Organic" brand, which wins the award for stupidest brand name)

4 drops liquid smoke

2 Tbsp. Bragg's aminos

1 Tbsp. maple syrup

1/2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

Lots of black pepper

I marinated it overnight and then fried it up in a hot skillet until the edges of the flakes were starting to almost burn. Yum! Baking it would probably make it crisper, but I had no problem munching on it this way and it took all of about 1 minute to cook.

Instant Gratification

If you asked me how I felt about instant oatmeal on any normal day, I'd tell you that I think they're a total waste of money and packaging for a bunch of sugar and a 1/8 of a cup of oats.

But today, when shopping for a pseudo-hiking trip, I nearly bought some.

I'm not calling our upcoming anniversary mini-vacation a hiking trip because although we're hiking in a state park during the day, we'll be staying in a posh suite and playing slot machines in a casino at night. It's not exactly worthy of the label "hiking trip" when there's a jacuzzi tub involved, right?

Anyways, even if we're not exactly roughing it, we need easy breakfasts that we can make in our hotel room. I've seen the menus at the hotel restaurant and there's not a single vegetarian item on the menu, let alone vegan and gluten free. And the microwave in the room doesn't do us much good because Mike won't eat food cooked in one (I don't mind them occasionally).

So the instant oatmeal was looking pretty appealing. I figure there's gotta be hot water for tea there. But I just can't bring myself to buy all that packaging.

So here's the solution:

1 mason jar

bulk "quick" oats (pre-steamed and sliced finer than regular rolled oats)

a big shake of cinnamon

a big pinch of salt

a healthy handful of organic brown sugar

There you have it. Waste-free cinnamon brown sugar instant oatmeal. Just pack some glass bowls to eat it out of and add hot water.

*Next trip I want to use maple sugar instead of brown sugar for maple flavor. No way am I packing maple syrup in my bag- That's just asking for a spill!

Baking Day

Yesterday was definitely a day for baking.  What else can you do when it feels like a blustery fall day in JUNE?  

The second I saw Tracy's gorgeously pillowy High Calcium Bread, I knew I had to try it.  I'm a sucker for a soft, high-rising bread and the recipe is really simple, calling for items I always have in my pantry.    

Mine didn't rise quite as beautifully, but they look, smell and taste awesome!  I'm eating an end-piece right now, smeared with Earth Balance.  This bread has a very soft, moist crumb and it's got to be high in calcium with all that molasses in there.  The only thing I might change is to increase the salt just a touch.  Maybe by 1/2 tsp.  

I also decided to use up some rhubarb by making the Rhubarb Cake from Meagan's blog, except in cupcake form.  It's always great to see a recipe that uses barley flour.  It's so underappreciated!  Sadly, because of my choice of pans they just barely got cooked all the way through before the sugar in the batter started to burn.  I should have stuck with Meagan's method of using the cake pan!  Rest assured, they will be eaten, no matter how ugly.  

I'll definitely be trying this recipe again, because I LOVE the idea of a cake-y rhubarb muffin.

And because it'll use up more rhubarb.

I also made some granola yesterday.  Just the usual PB and maple granola.  It looked especially pretty in the afternoon light, I thought.

Here....Lassi.....

In the world of easy breakfasts, a lassi is definitely in my top 10 favorites.  A lassi is an South Asian blended drink made from yogurt, water, spices, and/or fruits.  Like a yogurt smoothie, only thinner and it can be savory or sweet.  

Six reasons why a lassi is a rockin' good drink for everyone

1.  You don't need much fruit- Even a 1/2 a mango or a couple of berries is enough.

2.  Out of milk?  No problem.  Water is traditionally used in this smoothie.

3.  Avoiding sugar?  Use unsweetened yogurt and just a smidge of agave nectar or stevia to sweeten it.

4.  No time?  Ha.  A lassi takes about 30 seconds to make.

5.  Don't really like yogurt?  Tough.  It's good for you and tastes awesome.

6.  Can't use soy or dairy yogurt?  Use coconut milk yogurt!  Yum!

Mango lassis are a staple in this house, especially in the last few weeks when mangos have been amazing and on sale.  But the organic Mexico-grown strawberries have been usually sweet and flavorful for this time of year (and on sale), so I picked some up.  Here's how I like to use them:

Strawberry Rose Lassi

1/2 cup plain, unsweetened non-dairy yogurt (Wildwood plain is my fave)

4-5 de-stemmed strawberries

1 cup unsweetened almond milk or water

1 tsp. rose water

a drizzle of agave nectar

Blend.  Taste.  Adjust rose water or agave nectar if needed.  A pinch of cardamom is super good in here, too!

First Breakfast of the New Year

Well, I started this new year off by sleeping 11 hours- until noon!  At least I stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve.  Sometimes I only make it until 11pm.  I do love my sleep!

Once I enjoyed my morning routine of feeding the animals and bribing crazy barking Hannah dog back into the house with banana pieces, I got to work on making a rocking good breakfast.

This is a variation on the wheat free corn cakes I made for Christmas breakfast.  Except...I undid the whole local thing by serving them with California spinach, avocados, and jarred roasted organic red peppers.  Oh, well!  These cakes are super versatile- they can be sweet like pancakes or savory!

I just wilted some onions and spinach in the cast iron skillet after the corn cakes were all cooked and tossed together some avocado chunks with 1 roasted red pepper, a little cilantro, minced onion and salt.  This felt like a pretty darn healthy brunch with the good avocado fat, spinach, and whole grain flours in the corn cakes.  

Now I've got to run to the co-op to pick up some black eyed peas!  How could I have forgotten to get them yesterday?  That was a close call.  I've eaten black eyed peas on New Year's Day for as long as I can remember.  I remember one year when we ran out of black eyed peas at the co-op and I had to go from store to store trying to find one that was open on NY day!  I'm just a little superstitious...