Sometimes a girl just needs to eat her feelings. I'm lucky that my beautiful and wonderful and tough as nails friends agree. I've moved a lot since I married The Captain over 7 years ago and San Diego is where I've blossomed. In those years I stumbled a lot, I had a lot of things to figure out once I moved away from my friends and family. Now over the years growing up and finding security in myself and my faith is what really helped me become the Lauren I am today. For the first time in years have true [non-crazy] adult friends. I'm just beyond blessed that I've found people who love and accept me for the right-nutter that I am! Okay, I digress. Back to the food. So my kick ass friends decided we needed to do brunch and they are so awesome they let me make my crazy vegan food and one buddy even made the fluffiest most delicious vegan pancakes ever!! I mean like whoa.
I made The Minimalist Baker's Best Damn Vegan Biscuits and I can assure you that they are insanely delicious and absolutely live up to the name! I finish them off with Fat Free Vegan's killer Mushroom Gravy and it tastes like unicorns and fairy dust. The awesome pancakes from Food.com were so yummy, I was amazed at how fluffy they were!!! Definitely try making these at your next big breakfast! And now my vegan quiche, the love of my life. I keep all the ingredients on hand to make this quiche just in case the craving hits… and yes, it hits often. Like really, really often.
Yields 8 Pieces [basically it feeds 2 hungry people or 4-6 normal people]
1 vegan pie crust, I love the Wholly Wholesome brand
1 box of silken tofu
1/4 of refrigerated firm tofu [basically like an inch or so]
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 tablespoon of arrowroot [you can substitute corn starch]
1-2 tablespoons of unsweetened almond milk
Preheat oven to 375. Mix all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
For this particular filling I used:
1 onion, sliced very thin
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup of kale, chopped
I like to caramelize my onions with water. Crazy thought I know, but seriously. I put the onions in a hot pan with 1/4 cup of water. Cook on high heat until water evaporates, then continue the process until the onions are browned and yummy. It usually takes about 10 minutes. Then I pop in the red pepper and kale until heated through. Mix with tofu mixture and place in pie crust and bake for 45 minutes. Take out and let sit for at least 5 minutes.
Now there are a tons of options here, like seriously, whatever your heart desires. Here are a few of my favorite combos.
[sautéed onions and mushrooms] [red bell peppers, artichoke hearts, and kalamata olives] [chopped spinach and vegan cheese, like Daiya]
Enjoy!!!!
And by wrap, I mean lettuce wraps, duh. I'm hungry all the time. Like all the time. Every damn thing I eat gives me some level of heart burn and acid reflux, but magically this meal gives me none of the painful affliction. Also, it tastes good as hell!! I'm a huge fan of all things Minimalist Baker and I love all of her spring roll recipes, but on this particular night I was too lazy to deal with rice wrappers. I thought, ya know what, this would taste delish in some yummy butter lettuce. And it was. It was delish. Here's whatcha gotta do to make these tasty suckers.
Step one. Preheat oven to 450. Place sliced, pressed tofu on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Cook for 25-20 minutes. This is a Minimalist Baker technique and it turns out crispy and perfect. You would swear that it was deep fried.
Step three. Thinly slice cucumbers, red peppers, mango, carrots, jalapeño, etc. Slice limes. Add a pile of bean sprouts, for the non-preggos. Coarsely chop peanuts or cashews.
