05 March 2006

Cereal Treats & Pancakes for Dinner

Last night I was going to make a soba noodle/veggie recipe from "Veggie Life" magazine but at the last minute I realized I was out of edamame (frozen). I was in my pj's most of the night and didn't feel like running to the store just for edamame. And I wasn't about to make this meal without it.

My tastebuds quickly changed and I wanted pancakes. Then I realized I was out of bananas (going to the store later today for the weekly trip). I have never dreamed of making pancakes without bananas but I searched and searched for recipes and had no idea which was going to be best. I also didn't have certain ingredients that were called for. In that case, I pretty much made up my recipe based on about 20 google-searches and searches through my own books/mags at home. Of course, my standard syrup is Dreena's (Vive le Vegan) Blueberry Maple syrup and I have made it so it's 75% blueberries, 25% syrup. Yum.

*Note: tahini server turned syrup server.


This is my recipe for these chocolate-strawberry pancakes with blueberry maple syrup.

2 cups whole wheat flour (sifted)
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
2 cups soymilk
2 T. oil (or apple sauce but good oils are ok)
1 t. cinnamon, ground
1/2 t. nutmeg, ground
pinch of sea salt
1 T. flax seed, ground
1 handfull chopped strawberries (I use frozen, it doesn't matter fresh/frozen)
1 handfull barley sweetened chocolate chips (I have fairly small hands, although I probably ate the equivalent of a handfull while preparing all of this!)

Method: Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, flax seed, cinnamon and nutmeg all together in a large bowl. Add the milk and oil, stir in, but don't overstir. Add fruit and other good stuff. Stir. Pour spoonfuls onto a lightly oiled or nonstick pan and heat both sides until desired brownness. Enjoy. I highly recommend serving all pancakes and breakfast foods with Blueberry Maple Syrup from Vive le Vegan.

What you see above here is my weird-ass plate on the left. You see, I attempted to make whip cream but it didn't turn out (obviously. If it's not obvious, click the photo to zoom in and you'll see). I see tofu whip cream recipes everywhere but have never tried. I can't remember the last time I ate whipped cream. Anyway, I got this recipe from "How it All Vegan" by Sarah Kramer. I also recommend all of her books (even though this recipe didn't turn out for me). I cannot post the exact recipe, but I do have ingredients.

I beg of everyone... if you have a fabulous recipe for vegan whip cream, please comment and let me know. I would like to hear ideas, variations, etc. By the way, it's now the next day and I had to wait over an hour for the mixture to chill in the fridge before serving and it was still runny, let alone serving it onto hot pancakes. I will have to do a test for it today but I don't feel like eating whip cream right now (too early), especially if it still sucks. These were the ingredients used.
tofu, silken
vanilla
cornstarch
agave nectar (sugar was listed in the book, I modified)



MOVING ON... well, really, moving a few days backwards...
The other night it was late and I was not about to cook, let alone spend more than 30 seconds in the kitchen. I had an idea when I made treats that were too dry, to save them in a bag (in the fridge) and add milk to it to make cereal. Wonderful idea. Ray reminded me of that idea the night I didn't feel like anything... just add milk. YES!!!

You can look up the recipe for the treats somewhere below. I make these all the time, never exactly the same, but pretty much all the same concept. This was wonderful and super-nutritious.

Does this make you want some?!?!?

Fin.

13 comments:

Dreena said...

That cereal idea is brilliant!! Very clever and creative, love it!

Re whipped cream, it's tough because it is very hard to mimic dairy-based whipped cream that forms into peaks. Mostly you get a tofu-based creamy sweet sauce, which is fine on its own, but not a true sub for the dairy whipped cream. I did come across a product years ago called "Hip Whip" that was cashew based and found in the freezer section - somewhat like Cool Whip. I haven't seen it for a while, so I don't know if it is still on the market...?

Anyhow, super post, Leslie! :)

Eat Peace Please said...

Hi Dreena. Thanks for the compliments! I have seen Hip Whip, it's on the shelf above those frozen phillo pies I bought at the store. I just haven't looked at it because I usually like to make my own thing with dips/topping/other stuff. I will check the ingredients later today when I go, but I won't buy it if there's too much weird stuff in it.

Not only was the consistency of this tofu cream I made weird, the taste was funny. I can taste the cornstarch, yuck. I tried adding more vanilla and more agave nectar later,but it was still pretty bad.

Julie said...

That's a great idea--turning the treats into cereal!

btw, I've been noticing you have the cutest dishes!

Fiber said...

Actually, it does make me want to make some.
Looks wonderful!

Eat Peace Please said...

Hey Julie. It was a great, simple idea. A lot of my dishes are either from the dollar store (yep, I'm admitting it), but I am careful as to buying the ones that are dishwasher safe as well as being made in certain countries. I don't want to eat off of lead paint, you know?!? Other dishes I get randomly at thrift stores or Lee Lee's Oriental Market in Chandler. They have great stuff there, lots of my bowls are from there.

Eat Peace Please said...

Hi Fiber... Thanks! I finally was able to get your comment up. Glad to see you back again.

e-rex the vegan dinosaur said...

yum, cereal. sometimes i forget that a big bowl of cereal can be a nice meal. bravo for having a lazy meal!

i thought your comment about banana-free pancakes was funny since the only ones i ever eat are banana-nut pancakes. i always keep some bananas in the freezer for such emergencys (well, being just me in the house its hard to eat a huge amounts of produce before it gets too ripe)

Eat Peace Please said...

Hi Zoracky. It was a nice "lazy" meal. How do you freeze your bananas? I had some that were pretty ripe, but I didn't know what would happen. I have some questions:
1- how do you freeze them?
2- how long do you keep them frozen for?
3-when do you freeze them?
4- do you cook with them the same as fresh?

Thanks!

Susan Voisin said...

That's such a coincidence! This morning my husband was making pancakes, and he said, "I can't make pancakes--we don't have any bananas!" So he feels the same as you about bananas. He wound up adapting a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, and they came out great.

Love the syrup server. But I loved it when it was a tahini server too! :-)

Eat Peace Please said...

Hi Susan, that's funny about the bananas this morning! I guess now all of us have new pancake recipes for when we are out of bananas.

Flo @ Yielded Heart said...

I've been mostly out and about during the last few days and now just catching up on some of my favorite blogs. First thing I looked for, the snacks... yeah, Leslie- the no-bake SNACKS! Did I miss them or what??
Anyway, I'm glad to report that over the weekend, I did my share of making snacks, batches of snacks, for the family. That was awesome! I couldn't thank you enough for the inspiration! And for all the nuts and seeds I got the previous week- I guess I just needed "Vive Le Vegan!"
WOO HOO TOFU! (hehe)

Anonymous said...

i love your blog! as soon as i finished reading it today i went to abbysvegetarianrecipes.com and they had a recipe for cashew "whipped cream"... how funny! i just wanted to let you know. thanks for all your posts!!

Eat Peace Please said...

Kai. I'm working on it!!! I think I may just do a "snack" post and that should be good for you to print out.

Hi Anonymous, thanks for the compliment! I am for sure going to check out cashew whip cream. That sounds more like my type of thing anyway. I hope to hear from you again (in non-anonymous form if you want).