Doesn’t this look like a meal that gives you all the energy you need?
One popular dish with this Nira in Japan is called “Nira-Tama”, where Nira is cooked with eggs.
So that is what I made.
But mine is a vegan version.
The Nira-Tama was served with Next Meats’ plant-based meat over Barley.
Yum!!
Yes, you can still eat something like this as a plant eater.
Since we enjoyed our last picnic so much that we decided to do it again.
I was initially thinking of making rice balls, but I didn’t prepare enough for that, so instead I went with pizza.
I still needed to make crust, but it takes much less time than cooking rice.
I usually make my egg with tofu or a mixture of tofu and chickpea flour, but today I just used chickpea flour (because the cheese I was going to use is made of tofu), and I really liked it.
Hash browns.
I found these on sale ($2.99 instead of $6.99).
Of course, I grabbed some.
I cooked the sausage as another topping.
I used my favorite tofu crust and make the sheetpan pizza.
This turned out great!
I packed up a few more things.
I also got my hot green tea packed just like the last time.
We decided to go to the same spot as the last time.
It was another cloudy day.
Today I didn’t even bother to bring a hat or sunglasses.
The pizza was so good!
We got some veggies and dip.
Green tea for me.
My husband brought coffee.
Unsweetened vegan yogurt with blueberries and currants.
It was another successful picnic breakfast.
But toward the end it started sprinkling, so we packed everything up quick once we finished eating.
Love Japanese curry.
I have to make it at least once a month.
The chicken was this.
Soy curls!
It’s such a great product.
This was so good.
I usually eat my curry with rice.
But my husband has been into barley lately, and he actually cooked a large batch of barley.
I’ve never really paid much attention to this grain, but I’m hooked.
The texture is awesome.
This time the added corn made the whole meal even tastier.
I marinated the red currants in the soy-based marinade for a while.
Now they taste so flavorful!
I placed a big spoonful of the V-salmon roe (that’s what I like to call them for the fun of it!), along with natto, avocado, seaweed, and cucumber on freshly cooked soba noodles.
I made this soba dish cold.
Okay, it’s good without the vegan salmon roe, but it definitely makes the dish very special!
Since I bought a picnic basket, I wanted to have a pinic.
We’ve been busy, but a few weeks later finally this morning we decided to do that.
Since it was brunch, I didn’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen.
I slept in, put together this breakfast sandwich quick.
The only thing I made was the tofu-chickpea omelet.
Our favorite everything sourdough bread, dijon mustard, vegan cheddar cheese, vegan deli meat, homemade vegan omelet, arugula, and vegan mayo (I used store-bought mayo for this, but I doctored it up a little; it’s convenient, but I haven’t found any vegan mayo that tastes right as is.).
Some veggies and grapes.
Homemade vegan cheese dip.
This basket is smaller, but really perfect for the two of us.
I got hot green tea in a thermal tumbler.
Now ready to go.
Unfortunately, right before we left, we saw the weather forecast predicting rain.
Initially we were planning to walk to the picnic spot, but we decided to drive.
It actually turned out to be a perfect weather.
75 degrees.
No strong sun.
Very comfortable.
Luckily, the rain that was supposed to come disappeared before getting to our area.
Simple but satisfying!
But first.
Pictures.
This is me arranging things so that they look good in pictures.
My husband is so patient.
Love him :).
Now we get to eat!
These are the savory muffins I made a while ago (I kept some in the freezer).
Everything tastes extra good when you eat outside.
The hot green tea tastes great too.
This was our picnic view.
The Mississippi river.
Not bad, right?
We were only a few blocks from our place.
This is the city view behind.
It’s fun to go for a drive to a countryside and have a picture in the nature, but I also enjoy a city picnic like this very much too.
I took a few more pictures before we left.
This was such a great idea.
We enjoyed it so much.
I can’t wait to do it again!
The funny thing about checking ingredients…
For certain recipes, I’m attracted to a small list.
The fewer, the better.
This pancake is made of two main ingredients plus two extra ingredients.
The main ingredients are bananas and rice flour.
I use two ripe bananas to make four small-medium sized pancakes.
That’s perfect for the two of us to eat for breakfast, two pancakes each.
I mash the bananas first (I usually use my hand blender) and then add rice flour until the texture achieves your preferred texture.
Don’t put too much rice flour.
I’ve done that before, and it makes the pancakes tough and not good.
Oh, the other two extra ingredients are salt and baking powder.
I never skip them, but I have a feeling that the pancakes still probably turn out okay without them, just not as fluffy, I assume.
The pancakes turned out great!
I made this pancake so many times while we were in a vacation home in Hawaii last winter.
Anything you can make with a few ingredients is great when you are in a temporary residence.
These pancakes are delicious with butter and maple syrup.
But this time I was in a mood to keep them light.
So I ate them with vegan yogurt and fig butter, both from Trader Joe’s.
The sourness of the yogurt goes so well with the sweet and rich fig butter.
And they were lovely eten with the banana pancakes together.
I eat a lot of cold noodles in summer.
I make various versions of dipping sauce, but it’s usually a little spicy, and a little sweet.
I usually like to add some milk to make it rich.
This time I used coconut milk because I had a big carton that someone gave to me.
It instantly made the sauce exotic (in a good way)!
This is the somen noodle.
It’s a popular noodle to eat cold in Japan.
I remember that when I was on a summer break, we would have somen noodles almost every day for lunch.
Somen noodles are so thin that they are perfect for dipping.
Never forget veggies!
Or soy curls!
It looks like chicken, and its texture and taste are pretty similar to those of chicken.
So good!!
I’ve tried various types of savory pancakes, and at this point I have to admit I like them all (lol).
This Korean version is packed with a lot of vegan meat (Next Meats) and veggies.
Like I need cabbage for the Japanese version, for the Korean version I have to have “nira”.
I was surprised to find it at the local Asian grocery store.
It’s got wonderful garlicky flavor.
I would strongly recommend if you’ve never tried it.
As you can see, the batter is very thin.
I made the batter with rice flour this time, and it turned out perfectly fine.
Doesn’t it look great?
I enjoyed it simply with a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar.
Tasty!!!
I’ve been trying not to eat sweets.
The toughest part is not that I cannot eat sweets, but rather that I cannot “make” sweets (lol).
So this was kind of a compromise.
These are… okay, slightly sweet, but definitely savory.
When I don’t for a while, I definitely miss baking.
I can’t wait to get my corn from a farmers’ market yet, so this is from a grocery store.
But this was super sweet!
Corn.
Wild Rice.
Scallion.
Our old pepper mill broke, and it took us a long time to get a new one.
I looked everywhere online and stores, and I had a very hard time finding something that looked good, unique, functional, and not too pricy.
I finally gave up and asked my husband to pick one.
This is what he found, and I’m happy with it.
It’s reasonable, certainly functional, and it looks fine.
Not unique, but that’s okay.
A lot of freshly ground black pepper.
I also added some dry cranberries.
These papercups are from Ikea.
I bought them a long time ago, and I never had a chance to use them.
They are tall and skinny, so I used the canelé pan instead of the regular muffin pan.
They fit very well.
These turned out so cute!
I liked the cup designs and the shape both.
I liked that they created the cute top, but next time I may put more batter to make the top even bigger.
This makes a great breakfast!
I love a dish like this.
Simple, yet fresh and fun.
Crispy chickpeas are my favorite.
I added some spices such as cumin and cinnamon to create some exotic flavor.
Yogurt, sauteed zucchini, cilantro chimichurri, crispy chickpeas, and red currants.
They were perfect on sourdough toast.
Where is white wine?
