Avocado toast is one of our favorite breakfast food to eat for brekfast.
Remember the vegan Mozzarella I just made (previous post)?
I thought the “cheese”, tomato, and basil together would be great served on avocado toast.
It looked so good!
I wanted it to keep this simple.
So I just sprinkled Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and crushed red pepper, and drizzled extra virgin olive oil.
Love breakfast like this.
And yes, I had to put the homemade vegan bacon on this plate, too.
This is a perfect summer salad.
Fresh and light.
I made “Mozzarella cheese” with silken tofu.
I have another recipe for vegan Mozzarella, but this tofu version is much easier, and still delicious.
Just sprinkle salt all over the Tofu.
Wrap it with layers of paper towel, place in a container, cover, and refrigerate for 2-3 days; excess liquid is removed and the texture becomes creamy.
(Next time I will probably use cheesecloth instead of paper towel. With paper towel, I had to change it a few times as it gets soaked quickly.)
The white, red, and green color combination is just beautiful!
Served with Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Very satisfying.
Today I didn’t have to go to the office.
So I decided to make lunch for myself and my husband, who is working from home as usual.
I happened to have some potatoes I wanted to use, so I decided to make a “breakfast” plate for lunch.
This is one of my recent vegan find.
This was sold at Costco, and the word “No Dairy” caught my eye.
I got so excited.
It’s creamy but not too thick.
It really tastes just like the Buffalo sauce.
This time I was going to use it as is (without blue cheese dip), so I wanted a little sweetness in it.
So, I added a little agave syrup, and oh my, it was so good!
(My husband suggested that I should just pour agave syrup into the bottle!)
This was before the sauce.
Doesn’t this look good?!
The potatoes were peeled, cut up, and then roasted in the convection oven at 400F.
I don’t use any oil, and it turned out great every time.
Crispy outside and perfectly cooked inside.
I contemplated an air fryer purchase for a long time, but finally I came to the decision that the convection function in my oven works well for what I would want to do with an air fryer.
I think these potatoes are a good example.
The Buffalo potatoes were served with homemade vegan bacon (love this!), scrambled turmeric tofu, spinach-arugula, orange, and grapes.
Who else like breakfast food for non-breakfast?
This was something I made a few weekends ago.
I was in a mood for Danish pastry, but something less sweets-like and more suited for breakfast.
I still had a few red currants from my mother-in-law’s backyard left, so I thought they would be pretty showcased with mango.
These were pretty and delicious.
Loved them with my cup of coffee.
My husband wanted pot stickers for his birthday weekend, but he did not tell me soon enough, so I was not able to make it happen.
It seems easy to make pot stickers, but finding vegan wrappers is actually quite challenging.
I kept looking, and a month later I found the right wrappers, so it was time to make a late birthday dish for him.
I usually like garlic chives in my pot stickers, but this time I was not able to get it at the right time.
So instead I went for basil, and it worked well.
I used to make 100, but this time I decided to make only what we could eat.
They are the best when eaten right out of the pan.
I usually don’t mind leftover, but pot stickers are one of a few foods that are not fun to eat once refrigerated, unfortunately.
So happy with the result!
I even got beautiful lacy skirt.
I made these cookies for the last weekend’s brunch trays.
I had made these before.
Actually the first time I made was when I was in Japan, and with my sister.
Since we live miles apart, we don’t get to cook or bake together often, so it was the memory I cherish.
(And we loved the cookies!)
It was my first time making these Kinako cookies, but they turned out great!
The roasted soy bean flour give such a wonderful flavor and depth.
Last time when my friend and I planned brunch at our house, we had to cancel it because she did not fell well.
Well, we re-scheduled and today we go to finally do it.
I usually take a safe route and stick with traditional/basic food when I cook for someone for the first time.
But with this friend I felt I knew her food preference enough, and I was comfortable to be a bit bold about the menu.
I knew she likes Japanese food in general, and she seems to be able to be okay with (and enjoy) many Japanese-unique ingredients (e.g., miso, seaweed).
So I made a menu that features some Japanese flavors and presentation.
On the bottom (carbs) tray you’ll find two types of Onigiri (rice balls).
One was with vegan smoked salmon, capers, and dill.
The other contained homemade vegan meat, Shiso leaves, and sesame.
They were served with roasted Nori seaweed so that the rice balls can be wrapped in the seaweed sheet.
Oh, I also made miso soup, which was served separately.
Zucchini Tsukemono.
Tsukemono is a Japanese style pickles.
Some are close to the pickles you see in the U.S., but others have different flavors.
For instance, this was was marinated in salt, sugar, and sesame oil.
No vinegar.
This zucchini was from my mother-in-law’s backyard.
It was a big zucchini, but I liked that the seeds inside were not obnoxiously big; many large zucchini has such huge seeds, which I do not care for.
On the second (main) tray, you’ll find peanut tofu.
This turned out great!!
The rich peanut flavor goes so well with a bit of wasabi and soy sauce.
The texture was perfect too.
This traditional Japanese braised potato dish was also on the second tray.
These marinated grape tomatoes were sweet, fresh, and a perfect side dish this time of the year.
Pealed grape tomatoes were marinated in a mixture of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and maple syrup/agave overnight.
The top tier is of course for dessert.
Since this was brunch, I didn’t want it to be too sugary.
Having said that, however, a few cookies seemed very appropriate to be on this tary.
These are white sesame cookies and Kinako (roasted soy bean) cookies.
Along with the cookies I also served small nectarine yogurt cups and fresh grapes.
My friend brought me this beautiful bouquet of flowers!!
I was eying on this last time I was at the farmers market, so I was super excited.
The colors are amazing!
She said it’s called Butterfly Weed.
Apparently butterflies are attracted to it.
I didn’t notice until later, but it has such a wonderful fragrant.
A mild vanilla-like very pleasant sweet smell.
This is the individual setting I made for this blog photography.
I wanted to take some pictures this way before my friend arrived (I wanted to focus on us not on food during our time together).
We just each used a large plate to make a one-plate meal, but I thought it would be fun to make a setting like this for the picture anyway.
I’m glad I kept these bamboo leaves in the freezer.
These are great for this type of presentation.
I love girls brunch.
I think it’s good for mental health (lol).
The same night I made the double chocolate version (previous post), I baked these too.
I just used my usual go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe and used a-p flour and rye flour 50/50.
These turned out amazing!!
“The Land” Rye Cookies.
Yes, I still have a lot of Rye from my brother-in-law’s farm, which we call “The Land.”
After being satisfied with some rye bread I made with the rye, I started thinking about making cookies with the rye flour.
Interestingly, our neighbor, Mr. K, subscribes the Food & Wine magazine brought one of their edition that featured many vegan and vegetarian dishes because he knows that we are on the plant-based diet.
Then, I found a rye cookie recipe in it!
How perfect was it?
So I used their rye double chocolate cookie recipe and made these.
The only thing I changed was that I used vintage Merlot fusion salt to sprinkle on top.
These were very good.
Definitely very chocolaty.
The texture was a bit cakey rather than chewy.
Here is the last post of the three-part Korean series.
And this was the reason why I decided to have Korean lunch.
I wanted to try the Korean liqueur called Mak Gul Li for a long time, and when I found out that a local liqueur store carries it, I didn’t waste any time to go and get a bottle.
Basil Korean Savory Pancakes.
Sweet Spicy Korean V-Chicken.
I also made a few side dishes.
The Mak Gul Li was not exactly what I had expected.
I guess I wanted it to be a little more sweet, tangy, and thick.
It was still pretty good though.
