Green Vegan Protein Breakfast

I can't say I'd do this again. But it was edible and at times even good.

I heated some soy milk with a half a scoop of each of my protein powders (the Pure Green protein vanilla and the Biochem sports vegan vanilla). I tossed about a cup of yesterday's cream of wheat in there with a small apple (chopped of course) and lots of cinnamon. I topped it with mixed raw nuts.

Fall flavors chicken salad

Yesterday, I used my Target pharmacy rewards and did a huge shopping order-- household items, Christmas shopping, clothing and groceries. My fridge and freezer are so full I had to toss a whole chicken in the crockpot yesterday. 

Today I have chicken bone stock brewing and I made some of the chicken into chicken salad.

I used about 32 ounces (?) chicken.

My other dry ingredients were:

- the biggest organic carrot I've ever seen, which, once my daughter peeled and grated it, yielded about 1 1/2 cups

- a small local apple, also grated

- and two tablespoons of the cranberry-clementine-almond relish I made last fall.

And the dressing:

- about two teaspoons mayo

- about one teaspoon organic peppercorn ranch dressing

- about two tablespoons plain nonfat yogurt

School breakfast

Yesterday was my nine-year-old's first day of school. Her breakfast was Chobani blood orange yogurt, graham crackers, and banana with a glass of cold water.

Today it's a gala apple with homemade cashew-almond butter made with local raw honey and topped with golden raisins. Glass of Very Vanilla soy milk and a side of one peanut butter pop tart. 

(She was in a mood. I was trying to cheer her up.)

Sausage and apple vegetarian waffles

I promised my family a pancake breakfast. I told the family they could pick the variety. They picked waffles. My husband suggested the funky French sausage waffles. When I started to gather the ingredients, I noticed something horrible.

We had one tablespoon of butter in the house.

HOW COULD SUCH A CATASTROPHE OCCUR?

So, we walked to Bottom Dollar and bought 4 pounds of butter at $2.09 a pound.

The waffle recipe is based on this:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/03/apple-sausage-waffles.html?m=1

But since there is a universal law that I cannot make the same meal twice, here is the new version.

Keep in mind this is based on a French gaufre recipe and I think gaufre might be French for "dripping with butter."


- 1 egg
- 1 single serving applesauce
- parsley
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 cup unbleached white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup oats
- 1-2 cup diced apple
- 3 Morningstar vegetarian breakfast patties, broken into tiny pieces
- 1-2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar

I think that's everything.

Vegetarian sausage topping

To accompany the cornbread I made today, makes three servings:
- 2 Morningstar breakfast patties broken into bits
- one small green pepper (my first from the garden), diced very small
- one apple, sliced very thin
- butter, if desired
- local honey, if desired

Using butter, no stick spray, oil or your favorite vegan spread, sauté peppers and apples until soft. Add vegetarian sausage. Stir fry until hot. Drizzle with honey. Serve over cornbread.

Apple fun breakfast

We're in a hurry this morning because child is taking three times longer than usual to do everything. Sigh.

Her breakfast this morning is "fun apples."

Slice an apple and serve with:
- a small dipping bowl of cinnamon sugar
- a butter knife and peanut butter
- raisins

Chicken salad on pretzel rolls

I bought Gabby's Pretzel Dinner Rolls at Target. These are scrumptious little things.

I make many varieties of chicken salad, and the label 'chicken' salad will take you to them. I liked this one, despite the low volume of crunchy bits.

- one can, 12-ounce, canned white meat chicken, diced
- about 2 teaspoons mayonnaise (I often use vegan mayonnaise, but today I used regular)
- one teaspoon country herb seasoning
- 1/4 cup mandarin oranges (I use a sharp knife to cut the oranges into thirds)
- 1/4 cup chopped apple (leftover from the orchard)
- 1/4 cup blueberries (I let frozen blueberries thaw inside the mix)
- shredded carrots and red cabbage picked out of a Fresh Express Veggie Lover's Salad

Steak stuffed with feta and apples

This is what I'm attempting for tonight's dinner with my dad and stepmom:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-flank-steak-stuffed-with-apple.html

Of course, being me, I have deviated from the recipe.

It's 7 a.m. and I have just set 4 pieces of sirloin tip steak to marinate in the crock pot reservoir in the fridge. I made my marinade with:
- somewhere around 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette dressing

I came home about 12:30 and embarked upon the stuffing. Her recipe calls for one golden delicious apple, "one half block" of feta, something like 1/3 cup chopped almonds and two cloves garlic. I had more steaks than her, but she said she had leftover stuffing. Now, my stepmom doesn't like garlic...

So I mixed:
- About 3/4 cup feta (instinct says I should have used more)
- two gala apples
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- about 3/4 teaspoon minced garlic (the jar kind)

And I eliminated the nuts. Cheese and meat are enough protein. The nuts can't add that much texture...

I rolled about a large handful and a half of stuffing into each steak and returned it to the juice in the crockpot and put the crockpot on high. Then I tossed some extra stuffing on top. I planned to reduce the heat to low when I get home from my meeting, which will probably be after school at 3:30.

There was also a lovely raspberry, spring mix, feta, raisin and sesame stick salad...

Chicken "pork with apples" in the crock pot

So, I offered to pop in on a friend who just had surgery and bring dinner. Spur of the moment. And she has this brood of four children that eat like starving piranhas. It's a sign of my friends' superb parenting skills that they haven't eaten each other.

I wanted to make the candy chicken from Sunday because my husband bought enormous amounts of chicken thighs and it's the only think I have enough of to feed this family. I love them, but they scare me with the rate they can obliterate a normal family's groceries.

But, as I collected the ingredients, I discovered that my daughter and husband drank the open can of 7-up/lemon lime soda I needed for this concoction. So, I had to improvise.

Into the crock pot went:
- about one cup 100% apple juice
- about two teaspoons honey mustard
- about 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon country herbs (blend of sea salt, Rosemary, parsley, oregano, basil, mint, sage, thyme
- two tablespoons minced garlic, the kind in oil
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce (low sodium)
- one chopped golden delicious apple
- 20 chicken thighs
- one small box peach-infusions golden raisins from Target
- 1 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon pepper

Oh-- and I found this which sounds worthy of a try:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/02/tofu-in-peanut-sauce-crockpot-recipe.html

Crazy vegan Thai medley

There are nights where I make things for dinner that I would never share with company. They are too unpredictable and weird.

Like tonight.

I put two cups rice in the steamer with 2.5 cups Thai stock from Wegmans and 1.5 cups water. (to keep it from getting too spicy for my daughter)

In my skillet I combined:
- about 14 ounces(?) black beans
- about two to three cups stock
- two cups water
- one can water chestnuts
- two cups frozen French cut green beans
- chunks of 2/3 of a large golden delicious apple

It's simmering now. I'm hoping a slow simmer will allow the apples to cut the 'heat' of the broth and sweeten it some.

My stepmother ate broccoli!

I have had a difficult week, and for some odd reason I thought it would be a good idea to invite my dad and stepmom over for dinner on Friday night. My parents have treated me to a lot of meals and it felt like time to return the favor.

I haven't slept much this week, and our finances and my gumption for heading to the grocery store are not promising. I had eight thin pork chops in the freezer and thought I'd make a variation of my pork with apples.

Pork with apples and berries

- 8 thin pork chops, lightly browned in the Le Creuset skillet and arranged nicely in a large Pyrex dish

In the skillet, make the sauce:
- one cup apple cider
- one 1/4 cup brown mustard
- two tablespoons Dijon mustard with lemon and dill
- less than 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon organic four color peppercorn, ground
- 1 teaspoon country herb mix, a blend of sea salt, Rosemary, parsley,
Oregano, basil, mint, sage and thyme (I found it in a grinder at Aldi.)
- 1 fresh sage leaf, chopped
- 1 gala apple, chopped
- 1 cup mixed berries (frozen and crumbled before added to the sauce) These were blackberries, raspberries and blueberries

Boil until well combined

Pour over pork chops and bake in the oven about 30 minutes at 350. If they dry out, add more apple cider 20 minutes in. I had run out so I used about 1/2 cup white grape raspberries juice instead.

The crowd loved it.

I served with corn, a boxed apple walnut rice stuffing, wheat brown and serve rolls, a Beaujolais Villages and an invented recipe: buffalo blue cheese broccoli with cheese curls.

Now, my stepmom HATES broccoli. She loved this. I'm still shocked and complimented.

Buffalo blue cheese broccoli with cheese curls

Start with about 10 large spears of broccoli, cooked a little less than done. I used frozen Giant brand broccoli florets and they were still kind of cold, but thawed in the microwave.

Arrange broccoli in the bottom of an oven proof dish in a single layer.

For the sauce:
In the bottom of a small saucepan, combine on low heat
- about 1/4 cup 2% milk
- about an ounce sharp cheddar, crumbled
- about two ounces Velveeta
- about two tablespoons Archer Farms buffalo blue cheese dip

Cook, stirring constantly until melted and combined.
Pour on broccoli.
In another dish, melt two tablespoons butter and mix with about 1/2 cup Cheetos crumbs

Sprinkle on top of broccoli and bake in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Apple & Potato Pancakes

I got the idea today to make apple-potato pancakes for dinner. So, first the research: standard recipe from Taste of Home and vegan recipe from VegWeb. Mr. Breakfast has a baked version.
The standard version:

Ingredients

• 2 large potatoes, peeled
• 2 medium apples, peeled
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Oil for deep-fat frying
• Sour cream, optional

Directions

• Finely shred potatoes and apples; pat dry. Place in a bowl; add the eggs, onion, flour and salt and mix well.
• In a skillet, heat 1/4 to 1/2 in. oil over medium-high heat. Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls into hot oil. Flatten to form 3-in. pancakes. Fry until golden brown; turn and cook the other side. Drain on paper towels. Serve immediately with sour cream if desired. Yield: 10-12 pancakes.

 The vegan one:
Apple Cinnamon Potato Pancakes

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

    5 tablespoon flour
    1 cup shredded potatoes
    chopped apple
    cinnamon to taste
    sugar to taste
    salt to taste
    water - enough to make pancake batter
    oil to fry in

Directions:

Mix potatoes, apple, cinnamon, sugar, salt, and flour in a bowl. Add enough water to make pancake batter. Taste test to make sure its sweet enough.

Heat oil in a frying pan and spoon in the batter. Cook until bottom is golden brown with a few darker spots, then flip until the other side is the same.

I experimented with what to serve this with, but powdered sugar didn't exactly please my taste buds. They were okay alone, but they need something... vegan margarine topped it for me.

I took the recipe for potato pancakes from the vegetable section and tweaked it... I am a new vegan and was desperate for breakfast. Thats why I don't have specifics on the cinnamon, sugar, and salt. Sorry about that.

Serves: 6

Preparation time: 30 minutes

And from Mr. Breakfast:

Apple-Potato Pancakes

(4 servings)    

• 1 and 1/4 cups unpeeled apples - finely chopped
• 1 cup peeled potatoes - grated
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparations: Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot. Drop rounded Tablespoons of batter 2 inches apart into the skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until lightly browned.

Place pancakes on prepared cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until crisp. Serve with additional apple sauce or apple slices.


Healthy and tasty. You'll love these groovy suckers.


Mr Breakfast would like to thank Mr Breakfast for this recipe.

Angel's Apple-Pear-Potato cakes
Ingredients:

• 4 potatoes, grated
• 2 jersey mac apples, grated
• 1 sugar pear, grated
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 tablespoon local honey 
• 1 teaspoon four color pepper
• about 1/4 cup unbleached flour
• canola oil and Le Creuset skillet for frying

I patted the potato dry, but left the fruit wet. Mixed it all up and fried.

Pork Loin with apples?

This is a variation of my pork with apples recipe:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/pork-with-apples.html

I have a two pound pork loin that I'm going to make using the glaze from pork with apples as a sauce and slow cooking it in the oven. And basting often.

Which involves sticking my head in the oven on a 100 degree day.

But I am determined to cook.

So, my first step is to prepare everything from the sauce in the Le Creuset skillet. While that's simmering, I'll start baking the loin a bit... and then combine it all...

More as the experiment gets underway...

Okay... So... This turned out to be one of my simplest, best meat-based meals ever. Served with a harvest salad from Dole.

Ingredients:
- 2 lb pork loin, still frozen
- 2 cups good quality apple juice
- about 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped (I could have easily used three times as much)
- 1 red delicious apple chopped.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
On the stove top, in the skillet, pour 1 cup apple juice, the brown sugar and the rosemary. Simmer and stir gently until the sugar melts. Add the apple. Then add the loin. Leave the heat of the skillet on medium. Cook the loin for five minutes on each side.

Lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the top of the skillet. I did not cover completely. Put the skillet in the oven and baste ever half hour, turning every hour.

After two hours, add another cup of apple juice. Continue basting.

I served after three hours. Around the 2.5 hour mark, the color changed from porky gray to a rich orange brown. The apples more or less melted.

Chicken salad picnic

As part of our picnic, Gayle made the following chicken salad:

20 ounces of shredded cooked chicken
1 small apple, diced small
15-20 grapes cut in half or quarters if large
1 handful sliced almonds

Mix together

Add dressing of 1 part Mayo and 1 part plain Greek Yogurt or regular
yogurt drained.

There was a lot of grapes (which I liked, they were *perfect* red grapes) and we could have used some more almonds, but then, I love almonds. I love fruity chicken salad. And Gayle and I had the discussion that we're not fans of mayo, so hence the yogurt substitution. Gayle said she read you could used mashed avocado instead of mayo for the fat, and so we added sliced avocado. That was yummy. So there may be something to this avocado idea.

Sausage and rice with veggies

Tonight I prepared Trader Joe's chicken sausage with apples (3 sausages) in my Le Creuset skillet with about 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and 2 cloves fresh garlic. When the sausage finished cooking, I sliced it and added the broccoli from one broccoli crown and a couple cups of fresh chopped cauliflower. I let that sizzle for a while until the vegetable soaked up all the "juice" and then I added another tablespoon olive oil, the last of my French butter (probably three tablespoons) and about three tablespoons champagne vinegar.

And then I added the long grain white rice I had cooked in the steamer with garlic powder and four color black peppercorn. (It was 1.5 cups unprepared rice) And stirred it all up and let it cook until the rice turned a soft yellow (and wanted to stick to the bottom as I stirred. I stirred constantly.)

I was nervous about it because of the champagne vinegar, but it was good. Really good. I had two plates and I'd really like another...

Eggs and Trader Joes sausages

My daughter woke up starved this morning and helped herself to a Nature Valley granola bar. This meant she had no interest in breakfast, so we started a school project instead of eating.

At nearly 10, I realized I was dangerously starving so I made us both scrambled eggs with parsley and the leftover chicken-apple sausage from Trader Joes.

Lunch will be leftover pasta, and dinner depends on whether or not my daughter has girl scouts. My thoughts are vegetarian cheese steak wraps, blueberry pancakes, or parmesan-herb breaded pork with a side of fresh mango and steamed veggies...

Simplicity tonight: Trader Joe's Chicken-Apple Sausage

I found some mozzerella sticks in the back of the freezer, which I served tonight with popcorn cauliflower and apple-chicken sausage from Trader Joes. The original recipe for popcorn cauliflower is a favorite in this house.

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/04/popcorn-cauliflower.html

Pineapple Pork with Apples

So, tonight I decided to make pork with apples because I needed to make something in my Le Creuset skillet and this is a good winter dish.

Here are all my pork recipes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/pork

Here is my original post on pork with apples:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/pork-with-apples.html
(It doesn't look good because that was early in my food styling career)

Tonight I started with two one-inch boneless pork chops and had my husband slice them into stir-fry stips. I browned them in butter and added about 3/4 teaspoon rosemary from my freezer. I added about 1/2 cup sweetened pineapple sauce I had in the freezer after my last poire tartin. Then I added about 1/2 teaspoon organic four color pepper and one cup white grape juice and a handful of brown sugar and 1/2 cup mustard-- in my case about 1/3 cup plain yellow mustard and the rest brown horseradish mustard. Boil then return to a simmer. Finally, add one large green apple sliced. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until sauce thickens.

Tonight I'm serving over chow mein noodles.

When I tasted the sauce in the pan, I wasn't very keen on the lingering flavor of the juice. But with the meat, the apples and the chow mein noodles it was yummy. The chow mein noodles are definitely the perfect texture to serve with this meal.

Misc.

It was a quick but hearty food day:

• Breakfast: Cream of wheat and sliced apples
• Lunch: Leftover pork, noodles, broccoli and beans from last night
• Dinner: (because Daddy's at a holiday party) scrambled eggs and tator tots with ketchup and a side of baby carrots with dressing. And blueberry juice to wash it down.
  

Apple platter breakfast

Apples with dippings this morning.

My five-year-old sighed and asked for something special for breakfast. I don't have a whole lot of special these days.

So, I did my best.

My girlfriend sent some Harry & David apples and pears. I took a big old red delicious apple and sliced it. Made some cinnamon sugar. I put the cinnamon sugar in a tea cup, put the tea cup on a coaster. Arranged the apple slices on the coaster and put a hunk of peanut butter on a plate. I gave the child the plate and a butter knife and told her to coat the apples with peanut butter and/or cinnamon sugar.

It's a hit.