Breakfast

One of the great things about travel is finding a new food.

We spent a long weekend in Boston last weekend, and I fell in love with something unexpected!

Granola!!

Well, not just any granola, but it has to be crunchy and big pieces.

I was never a granola person, but when I tried Pitaya Smoothie Bowl which had crunchy cococa granola on top at a vegan organic cafe called Cocobeet, I absolutely loved it.

We liked the bowl so much that we went back to get the exact same thing the next day.

That surprised myself because I’m not really a smoothie person.

But quickly I realized it was not that I liked smoothie (don’t get me wrong, their pitaya smoothie was delicious!!), but rather I liked their homemade granola (large pieces, which is super important) that happened to served with the smoothie.

So the first thing I made once we got home was this granola.

I made sure that it has enough cocoa flavor just like the cafe’s, but I also added cinnamon to mine.

I was patient letting it completely cool because a lot of people said that’s very important to achieve crunchiness.

Once it was completely cool, I carefully broke it into large pieces.

This turned out great!!

It’s crunchy, has a great cocoa and cinnamon flavor, and perfectly sweet (not too sweet).

By the way I found something else in Boston.

I’m a sucker for a small bowls with a design inside, and these were so cute.

I haven’t done yet, but it will be a perfect granola-yogurt breakfast bowl.

The camera always automatically focuses on me, not the food…

Our avocado toast does not always look like this.

But this morning I had the right ingredients and right amount of motivation.

Homemade crusty bread, avocado, tofu scramble, asparagus, and tomatoes.

The fresh chives from my mother-in-law’s garden was perfect to make this plate prettier.

I was so impressed with the chocolate pudding (a few posts before) that I wanted to make something different using this idea.

Since the pudding ingredients are so healthy, I thought this could be eaten as a meal.

In order to keep the rest of the ingredients healthy and simple, the pie crust was made with only a few items that I feel good about eating in the morning.

Well, the filling is made with bananas, cocoa powder, soy milk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon, and the pie crust is made with oats, apple sauce, cashew nut butter, and salt.

You can certainly make a bowl filled with these exact items, but it’s more fun to have a “pie”, isn’t it?

Oh, the white creamy-looking thing on top is plant-based yogurt.

I didn’t post any for a little while because I’ve been busy both with work and private stuff (yes, now I have a little more things to do outside work (lol)).

But I’m still cooking and baking, and there are a lot of pictures to share.

These sourdough waffles were so delicious!

I had a lot of strawberries that weekend, and I added some to the dough and sprinkled the rest on top later.

The cinnamon and strawberry combo is one of my favorites.

Served with homemade vegan ricotta cheese and and maple syrup along with lots of fresh strawberries.

I’m not adventurous when it comes to other things, but I am when it’s about food.

When I saw a video showing the egg sandwich hack which has been popping up on Instagram lately, I had to try it myself.

I had all the ingredients ready, and I felt pretty good about it although I was going to make a vegan version.

And then I had a mishap pretty early in the process.

Flipping the egg with the toast turned out to be challenging, as my vegan “egg” was much more fragile.

We (my husband came to rescue) barely managed it.

It was not pretty, but it was rescuable.

I only made one and my husband ate it.

He said it was good.

I may try it again with a few changes.

We like hot sandwiches for breakfast.

I had some leftover tortillas in the freezer.

The smallest bag is still a lot for us, and I sometimes let them stay in the freezer too long.

This time, however, I made a mental note to use them soon, and I decided to make enchilada.

I filled the corn tortillas with hash browns, “egg” mousse, and sauteed peppers.

In the morning you don’t want to spend too much time preparing.

Quick and easy is the key.

More sauce and homemade vegan nutty cheese on top.

It was served with black beans and cabbage salad.

Hearty and delicious.

Scones are quick and easy to make.

It takes less than 30 minutes, from start to finish.

So it’s perfect for Saturday breakfast.

When I add something (in this case, Earl Grey tea), I want to make sure you can taste it.

I hate it when you buy something for a specific flavor that is part of the name of the product, yet, you don’t taste the flavor (or you taste it but it’s very subtle).

When I looked at the final product, the dark color, I was afraid that I had put too much tea.

However, the flavor was perfect.

It’s definitely there.

You can taste it, no doubt, but it did not make the scones bitter.