Today’s breakfast: Shokupan toast, vegan omelet, homemade vegan bacon, grapes, and sauteed kale, mushrooms, and peppers, vegan.
I enjoy baking different types of bread, but I always come back to this, something I grew up eating on the regular basis.
Food doesn’t have to be pretty to taste good, but if it tastes good AND pretty, that’s better, right ?
Bright colors are great on a plate particularly in the morning!
Beet hummus, arugula, spinach, and radish.
Salt and pepper.
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Served with scrambled turmeric tofu.
Whenever I got to make bagels, I like making sandwiches.
Yesterday I made these beautiful vegan, gluten-free bagels.
They were not only tasty but also smaller than the regular size, which worked well because I wanted to make two different sandwiches (and eat them).
One was the savory one.
In this sandwich you’ll find homemade vegan cream cheese, crispy homemade vegan bacon, vegan egg, avocado, cilantro pesto, and arugula.
This was cocoa bagel with homemade vegan cream cheese and fresh strawberries.
I purposely did not sweeten the cream cheese, as I simply wanted to enjoy the natural sweetness from the strawberries.
I’m making so many of these folded tortilla wraps that I can’t keep up with posting all of them, but this one has to be posted because it was so good!!
On the left side are cashew butter, banana, cinnamon, shredded carrot, coconut flakes, and raisins.
On the right side are homemade vegan cream cheese and walnuts
As you can tell I put all the carrot cake inspired stuff.
Carrot cake is one of my favorite cakes, and I’m always looking for ways to enjoy the flavors without the extra calories.
You probably noticed, but I didn’t add any sugar or sweetener to this wrap.
I didn’t want it to be a dessert but a meal (breakfast), so I kept the sweetness minimal and natural.
The natural sweetness from the banana, raisins, and carrot was just perfect.
I’ve learned that as much as I want to load with a good stuff, it’s better to not put too much.
Perfect color and crunchiness!
This was SO GOOD!!
I call this “pancake”, but this is a much thicker version that I grew up with eating.
We call it “hotcake” in Japan, and whenever I eat it, it brings back all the memories from my childhood.
I still remember exactly what pan my mother would use to make us hot cakes.
I was in the mood for a hot cake, and when I found an interesting recipe that uses Mochi, I had to try it.
Remember a few days ago I said I used the last pieces of Mochi.
Well, I still wanted to eat more, and I decided to make some myself.
I learned from my Instagram friend, Ms. Tomomi, that it is possible to make Mochi in the U.S. without a Mochi maker.
It turned out great!
It is somewhat a shame that you cannot really see the Mochi in the first dish I made with my first homemade Mochi, but I was super happy with how this Mochi pancake turned out.
It’s soft, moist, and slightly sweet.
It’s thick but not heavy at all.
It was so good that I only used vegan butter.
It was delicious as it was, and I didn’t want to cover it with syrup.
I thoroughly enjoyed my first Mochi pancake.
This black tea was the perfect beverage to accompany the pancake.
This is my absolute favorite black tea, “Hot Cinnamon Sunset” by Harney & Sons.
The sweetness and warmth created by the blend of spices is so wonderful.
It’s so sweet that I have to check the ingredients listed on the tin frequently to make sure there is not added sugar or sweetner.
The ingredients listed are…
“Black tea, orange peel, natural and artificial cinnamon flavor, cinnamon, cloves.”
I hardly pay attention to fashion trends, but I do like to check out what’s going on in the culinary field.
Apparently, this tortilla hack is seen everywhere, and I thought it would be fun to try it myself.
You can basically use any flavors you like.
This time I decided to go with the breakfast theme and used homemade vegan bacon, spinach/arugula, kimchi tomato jam, homemade cheddar, and vegan egg.
The pictures show exactly how you make it, self-explanatory!
And then, once you finish folding it, you cook both sides until the tortilla gets crunchy.
This turned out so good!!
No wonder people are crazy about this.
This is the third recipe I tried from https://carolineschoice.com/ ‘s e-book, “Sweet Vegan”.
These pancakes are vegan, gluten-free, and oil-free (except from natural oil from nut butter).
You don’t use oil to cook them!
The ingredients are a few and very simple, and I wasn’t sure if these would even look like pancakes.
No baking powder or baking soda either.
The pancakes turned out great!
I was amazed at how perfectly they all got the smooth and brown colored side.
A few tips though.
Add salt to the batter and the date syrup; maybe it’s intentional that she does not use salt in her recipes, but I add salt to all of her recipes (at least the three I’ve tried) and it definitely enhanced the taste.
Cook them more than “a couple of minutes” each side.
The texture was “much” better when they were cooked much longer.
I served my pancakes with coconut oil, date syrup, banana slices, and blueberries.
Delicious!!
Scones can be enjoyed with many different things.
I like them simply with butter, but I also like eating them with jam and homemade white cheese.
This vegan cheese has the texture and taste similar to those of cream cheese/goat cheese, and one of my favorite homemade vegan cheeses.
The left is cherry jam.
This one is lemon jam.
I just finished this, so I need to get another jar soon.
With more time at home, I’ve been spending more time reading.
I like reading, but I’ve been having such a hard time finding a book that I like.
Reviews help, but not always, unfortunately…
The most recent book I really liked was “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand, which was recommended by a neighbor/friend.
(But the next book recommended by the same friend was not my cup of tea…)
I wish I knew an effective way to pick books that guarantees I will love them…
Why not putting all your favorite breakfast items on pizza?
It’s good to be an adult as I can make and eat whatever I want at any time of the day (lol).
On this pizza you will find red sauce, hash browns, vegan cheese, vegan eggs, vegan bacon, and Aojiso (Japanese basil).
There is a lot of love put into this pizza, as many of the things are homemade, including the crust.
Happy Wednesday everyone.
Yes, I’m still eating Mochi.
In Japan we typically celebrate New Year over three days, from the first to the third of January, so I’m doing things correctly.
This time I decided to serve Mochi in a nontraditional way.
Toasted Mochi was served with melted vegan butter, cinnamon, and date sugar.
A great thing about Mochi is that you can enjoy different textures.
Some part is crunchy, and the other is soft and chewy.
This was delicious!!
Loved my Mochi with this wonderful combination of butter, cinnamon, and (date) sugar.
I’ve been really enjoying my date sugar.
Because it doesn’t dissolve into liquid, it cannot be used for everything, but I try using it in as many things as possible.
