by : Reiko Sandwiches

Bagel Open Sandwich (Sour Cherry BBQ & Tomato Avocado Scallion)
ベーグルオープンサンドイッチ（サワーチェリーバーベキュー＆トマアボねぎ）

I was making bagel sandwiches wrong for the longest time.

It was always too messy to eat.

I know I tend to put too much stuff, which was probably one of the problems.

But now I learned that open sandwich is the way to go.

My favorite tablemat!

Lunch is served.

Bagel open sandwiches, salad, and soup.

This one is homemade vegan cheese, sour cherry BBQ soy meat, and sweet scallion oil (chopped scallion, sugar, salt, olive oil).

This is avocado, tomato, and sweet scallion oil.

Big salad is always a good idea, if you ask me.

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by : Reiko Bread, Sandwiches, Tofu

Tofu Nugget Sandwich Lunch
豆腐ナゲットサンドイッチランチ&ちょこっと”大掃除”

This is the kind of lunch plate I like to eat.

Tasty sandwiches, salad, and soup.

There are a lot of veggies, and the whole plate is plant-based.

Homemade buns.

I loe them when they are just out of the oven.

They are so soft and smell good.

Homemade tofu nuggets.

This is a basic recipe for which I only wanted to use ingredients that are easy to come by and for which I don’t need to use a knife.

I used Ao-nori (seaweed flakes) to give them umami.

These are small sized ones.

They make a great snack.

These are the larger ones that I used for the sandwiches.

I love how these mini sandwiches looked.

Gochujang veggie soup.

Who is interested in this lunch plate?

This is the time when you deep-clean your house, called “O-soji” in Japan.

I’ve been keeping the house in a good shape, by cleaning a little every day, so I don’t feel like we need to do “O-soji”.

But today I cleaned the fridge inside and out, and I felt good.

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by : Reiko Sandwiches, Tofu

Breakfast Open Panini Sandwich
ブレックファストパニーニオープンサンドイッチ

A lot of times what I cook heavily depends on what produce I have to use up.

For this one I had several ripe grape tomatoes in the fridge.

First, I decided to panini-press sandwich bread slices.

I thought it would be fun to have them really crispy.

This is homemade vegan white cheese.

Scrambled turmeric tofu.

It was finished with garlic and tomato cooked in extra virgin olive oil and fresh arugula.

Simple.

But super tasty!

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by : Reiko Bread, Sandwiches, Vegan Cheese

Vegan Cream Cheese & Sweet Black beans in Homemade Dog Buns
クリームチーズ黒豆餡ドッグサンド

We, Japanese, love the combination of cream cheese and sweet beans as much as the butter-sweet bean combination.

As I always say, you have to have good bread if you want to make a good sandwich.

Homemade bread is always a good idea.

Homemade vegan cream cheese.

Red beans, or Azuki beans, are typically used for sweet beans, but this time I used black beans mostly because they are easier to come by here in the U.S.

And really why not?

Nobody said it has to be red beans.

Moving to a different country encourages me to try new things and often makes me realize that there are so many other ways to do things (I’m not just talking about cooking).

I liked how they turned out.

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by : Reiko Sandwiches, Vegan Cheese

Vegan Turkey Cranberry Cream Cheese Pumpkin Focaccia Sandwich
ヴィーガン七面鳥ハムとクランベリークリームチーズ入り、パンプキンフォカッチャサンドイッチ

The pumpkin focaccia (previous post) is tasty simply with vegan butter.

But I thought it would be fun to make a sandwich with it.

I like this Sweet Earth brand’s vegan oven roasted-style turkey.

I don’t understand why reviews are not great on some sites….

I added chopped dry cranberries to my homemade vegan cream cheese.

I drizzled a little bit of maple syrup.

It is great for lunch or brunch.

So good!!

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by : Reiko Breakfast, Sandwiches, Vegan Egg

Bagel Breakfast Sandwich with Vegan “Unfried Fried Egg”
焼かないヴィーガン目玉焼き入り朝食サンドイッチ

It’s always fun to make a vegan egg.

It’s almost like an art project.

My mission is to create something that looks like the real thing AND tastes good.

It doesn’t have to taste like an egg, but I want it to taste good.

I was pretty happy with how this one turned out.

I used my homemade sesame bagel for this sandwich.

A good thing about making a sandwich at home is that you can add anything you want.

In this one you will find lettuce, vegan cheese, tomato slices, avocado, vegan unfried fried egg, and vegan mayo.

Air fryer potatoes.

Unsweetened vegan yogurt with homemade green plum jam and rhubarb jam.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

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by : Reiko Bread, Sandwiches

Vegan BLTC Sandwich
ヴィーガンBLTCサンドイッチ

This was not planned, but when my Instagram friend told me about a new vegan bacon, I had to check it out.

She said it was the best vegan bacon she had ever had.

I’ve never tried store-bought vegan bacon, but with the strong recommendation I thought it would be fun to try.

It was pretty convincing.

It smelled and tasted good and like bacon.

And it got crispy.

I liked that it was not too salty.

Parsley bread.

I got lettuce and tomatoes for my BLT sandwich, but when I got home I realized I didn’t have the type of bread I wanted to use for the sandwich.

So, I decided to bake one quick.

This is my favorite Boule bread, but this time I baked it in my Le Creuset Dutch oven.

I did it because the dough was a bit loose, and I didn’t want it to be flat (I wanted a nice height for the sandwich).

This trick did work, but it also ended up creating a nice soft crust, which I didn’t expect.

I liked hard-crusted Boule too, but this was actually perfect for a sandwich.

Homemade cheese spread, romaine lettuce, mayo, tomato, and bacon.

And everything is vegan!

Air fryer Japanese sweet potatoes.

I love my air fryer (I know you’ve heard me saying it so many times now!).

I know coating them with more oil would have made them “look” better, but it was perfectly tasty without the extra oil.

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by : Reiko Breakfast, Sandwiches, Vegan Egg

Sunday Brunch Picnic in the City
日曜日のブランチピクニック

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!

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by : Reiko Sandwiches

Best 3 o’clock Snack Sandwich
３時のおやつサンドイッチ

Out of desperation (!) this sandwich was created.

I was hungry and wanted a quick snack.

Something substantial and tasty.

But I didn’t want to spend too much time making one.

I just put together I found in the fridge and freezer, and it turned out awesome!

So since then I’ve made this sandwich so many times.

It’s my current favorite sandwich for snack.

These are all you need.

Everything sourdough bread from Aldi.

The saltiness and garlic flavor from the crust are an important part of this sandwich.

Dairy-free plant butter with olive oil.

We usually get this at Target.

Vegan cheddar style slices from Aldi.

Medjool dates.

Again I get this from Aldi.

I like to keep a package in the fridge.

One of my favorite snacks.

Make sure you remove the pit and the stem end.

Arugula.

Well, this is a package of spinach and arugula mix.

I just pick arugula leaves for this sandwich.

Spread butter on bread and place the cheese.

Place the dates.

And arugula.

A snack plate is ready!

This combination works just so well.

The saltiness from the cheese.

The sweetness from the dates.

The bitterness from the arugula.

The garlic from the bread.

And the right amount of fat from the butter…

I hope you give it a try!

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