Hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter weekend.
This year we are having a quiet weekend by ourselves.
But in style!
Itadakimasu – Thank you for the food.
-Cucumber Sandwich
-Curried Chickpea Sandwich
-Mushroom Omelet
-Potato Broccoli Corn chowder
-Salad
-Mandarin Orange
All plant-based.
And a cup of Harney & Sons Paris tea and a homemade lime lemon cake.
This is one of my favorite teas.
The flavor is so elegant.
Happy Easter everyone.
I enjoy trying new food ideas.
Particularly for breakfast.
They make the routine a bit more exciting.
So, when I saw this idea, I had to try it!
https://www.instagram.com/p/ClMHYakp6DJ/
First, frozen store-bought hashbrowns.
You don’t have to thaw them.
They cook with the “eggs” just fine.
Some scallion and plant-based meat slices were added to the “egg”.
This was really good.
Field Roast is one of the vegan meat brands that we like.
Looks good, doesn’t it?
I used tofu and chickpea flour as the main ingredients for the egg.
It was delicious.
I will make it again for sure.
My husband and I recently watched a Japanese show called “First Love” on Netflix.
Hubby actually found this show and wanted to see it because he thought it would help him learn some Japanese phrases.
I enjoyed it, but it was a bit confusing to him, because the actors who played the main characters at a younger age and the current time looked very different, and he would repeatedly ask me, “who is that again?”
It’s a cute story, but I’m not sure if it appeals to western audiences because of cultural differences.
In the show you’ll see “Napolitan” spaghetti several times.
Adding the omelet at the bottom is something I grew up with.
It’s a regional thing, popular in the Nagoya area.
My omelet was made of chickpea flour.
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!
I was in the mood for ramen.
When I thought I got everything to make a couple of bowls of ramen, I realized I was out of ramen noodles!
So I decided make noodles myself.
By the way, this is the noodles I usually keep in my pantry.
I get them either at a local Asian grocery store or from Amazon.
I’ve done made this type of noodles before, so I was pretty confident.
But still I was so happy when they turned out well.
For the toppings I chose Ikea ground “meat”.
Ear wood mushrooms (sauteed).
And my homemade vegan egg!
If you have time and do not mind cleaning up the floured kitchen later, I definitely recommend making noodles yourself.
Just like homemade pasta, homemade ramen noodles are sooo good!!
I typically use a mixture of tofu and chickpea flour to make this type of omelette, but I was out of tofu (which is rare!), so chickpea was used as the only major ingredient for this.
The texture is a bit different from that made with an addition of tofu, but I kind of liked it.
The first one didn’t turn out well…
It’s just like pancakes; the second batch is better than the first batch.
The fried parsley rice was wrapped by the thin chickpea omelette, and then it was served with Italian meat sauce.
I thought I put almost too much meat on top, but my husband added probably the same amount on top of it!
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.
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!
What do you think?
Regardless how close to the real thing they look, they were pretty nonetheless.
Don’t you agree?
When I got these red currants from my mother-in-law’s backyard, I knew there must be some great way to showcase their jewelry-like beauty.
And then this idea came to me!
Salmon roes!
They were marinated in a mixture of soy sauce and sugar.
They look exactly the way I wanted them to look on the sushi rice.
Along with the “salmon roe”, I also made a few other versions.
Turmeric tofu.
Or vegan “egg”.
Vegan “tuna”.
Can you tell what it is?
Okay, these do not taste like salmon roes, but they are as juicy and delicious!
Do you eat your sushi with your hands or chopsticks?
I always enjoying making vegan sushi, because I get to be creative.
I’m really cutting down on sugar, and instead I’m eating more fresh fruits.
Another fun dish to make when I have homemade vegan eggs.
Toasted sourdough bread.
Hummus.
Vegan ham.
Vegan eggs.
Then I drizzled homemade green sauce, which I made with cilantro as the major ingredient.
These sliced “boiled eggs” were my first attempt, but they turned out great.
This was super fun to make and a super tasty breakfast!
I don’t have any specific plans for this weekend, except that I will probably go to my mother-in-law’s house to pick fresh currants from her garden.
