It’s a dreary, dreary day outside.  After working inside for the last 3 or 4 days, when there was beautiful sunshine outside, I couldn’t face another day of yucky weather.  So, I made my own sunshine!

Rainy Day Waffles
1/2 cup oats (not instant)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp orange zest
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla
 1/2 cup water, orange juice, or milk of your choice
1/4 banana

Blenderize all ingredients. In a sprayed frying pan over medium heat, cook until done. Top with raspberries and remaining banana, or syrup and trans-fat free margarine. Enjoy!

Oh, sorry!  I didn’t see you come in.

But let me tell you, I’m glad we’re alone.  I can tell that in a moment, you’ll be devouring me in a hot and hasty, elbows on the table and no holds barred feeding frenxy. 

Yup, I’m scrambled tofu.  Lashed with guacamole and spiked with zesty salsa, I’m one sexy pita.

You know you love me.

Somewhere along the line, I read a children’s picture book where the heroine proclaimed anything delicious to be “Numbly!”  That certainly describes my breakfast this morning.  With a guiding hand from Fat Free Vegan’s Sweetheart French Toast recipe, I took off and tried out a new use for my beloved nutritional yeast.

 Does anyone out there have a tried and true way to keep your breakfast warm while photographing it?  Despite quick whirl in the microwave, this “eggy” toast was still that scrumptious mix of crunchy and gooey that denotes a 1st-class French Toast.

What’s truly great about this toast, though, is that it’s mostly hands-off.  Having battered the bread, you boot it into the oven and batten the hatches!  Make a cup of tea, find some berries and ground almonds to put on the top, and then your breakfast is done!

Numbly French Toast
2 slices multigrain bread
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more to taste)
15g almonds, ground
Berries

1. Preheat oven to 375*
2. Lightly toast the bread in a toaster.  Meanwhile, whisk together all ingredients except for the almonds and the berries. 
3. Soak the bread in the batter, flipping once to coat.  Pop the slices onto a lightly greased cookie sheet, spray the tops with cooking spray, and slide that sucker into the oven to bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until crisped around the edges but still gooey in the middle
4. Top with ground almonds, berries, syrup, powdered sugar, more cinnamon, etc….
5. Devour with such frenetic abandon that your pet cockatiel looks at you with prissy disdain.
*To make this breakfast extra special, after soaking the bread in the batter, take a cookie cutter and cut the center of the bread out.  Put all the prettily-shaped pieces on the pan and bake as normal.  Then, fill the center well of the bread with berries and pop back in the cookie-cuttered piece.  Then top and serve.

Somewhat belated, but still beauteous, here is the last part of my birthday posts.  After the cake was safely unpanned and on a rack, I washed my dishes and turned to the next project on my list.  Another wish of my mom was to have the Orange Poppyseed Pancakes from “The Garden of Vegan” for breakfast on her birthday.  Being a school morning, I won’t have much time to make these tomorrow, so I mixed up the wet and dry ingredients (separately, of course!) ahead of time.

These yummy pancakes have a delicate yet intense citrus flavour and a pleasant texture- light but not exactly fluffy, and crunchy due to the pumpkin seeds and poppy seeds liberally sprinkled throughout.  I like them with maple syrup, but my mom prefers plain or with powdered sugar.  It’s all personal preference :)

The secret to making perfect pancakes when there are oats in the batter (as is the case here) is to mix the batter up as soon as you can, and let it sit while the skillet is heating up.  By the time it’s hot enough to cook your pancakes (or flapjacks, if you want to be all Tall Paul Bunyan about it), the oats will have absorbed all the liquid and the leaveners will have done their duty.

Some mornings, you just want food to be fun. Something decadent, yet playful and healthy at the same time. And of course, as it is morning, having it be easy to make is always a bonus.

After waking up insanely early and being utterly unable to fall back asleep, these waffles were just the ticket. Not a namby-pamby fluffy waffle, like the ones my mom always made growing up, these creatures keep you full all morning and are delicious to boot! In fact (and don’t tell my mom this!), I like these ones better. They have a lovely robust texture from the oats and flax seed, and the cinnamon adds a delicate note.

Oaty Waffles
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oats
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2-3 tsp molasses
1 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tbsp flax seed
1tbsp Nutiva Organic Hemp Protein Shake (optional) (*I add this because I have a honkin big 16oz container of the Berry Pomegranate flavour to eat before I can open my Chocolate flavoured one. Besides, it’s yummy and adds a subtle fruitiness to the waffles)
2 tbsp applesauce
1 cup “milk” of choice

BUT! Although I have made these waffles before, this morning they were not enough! That’s when I got my thinker on, and realized that I had a whopping container of canned pumpkin in the freezer left over from Thanksgiving. After several minutes of hacking at the frozen orange blob with a chef’s knife, I succeeded in whipping up what is known as Gingered Pumpkin. But that doesn’t do this spread justice! It’s velvety texture and blatant spicy sweetness are reminiscent of pumpkin pie- only without all of the other crap that usually gets tossed into pies.

Gingered Pumpkin
1/3 cup canned pure pumpkin
1 tsp maple syrup (or more, to taste)
1/4 tsp ginger (not fresh, the dried stuff. We’re thinking pumpkin pie here, people, not stir fry!)
“shake” cinnamon (again, to taste)
pinch nutmeg

1) Stir all ingredients together. Microwave for 20-30 seconds. Use as a topping for waffles, toast, pancakes, crepes- you name it!

After all this, all my waffles needed were some peaches and raspberries (Fairly basic: cut up canned peaches, throw in a handfull of frozen berries and a sploosh of vanilla, microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Add about 1/2 to 1 tsp cornstarch. Stir. Microwave for another 30 seconds. Devour, lick the bowl, and wipe pink goo off your nose)