Easy Vegan Migus

Mingus is a great Tex-Mex breakfast food traditionally made with eggs but this easy recipe uses tofu instead creating a hearty meal for a great start to a morning!

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves garlic (Minced) 
• 2 table spoons Mexican Seasoning
• 2oz Nutritional Yeast 
• half yellow onion (diced) 
• 1 Poblano pepper (Sliced) 
• 1 package firm tofu (Drained)  
• Corn Tortillas
• Salsa to taste
• Salt and Pepper to taste 

Heat small amount of oil into a pan over medium to high heat.  Add garlic, onion, pepper and tomato to pan and saute until they at soft and slightly golden brown.

After tofu is drained crumble into pan.  Add nutritional yeast and mexican seasoning.  Cook through (About 8 minutes)

In second pan heat tortilla's for about 1 minute on eat side.  Plate and serve with salsa, tortillas and Migus.  Add salt and pepper as desired.  

Cinnamon Bun Smoothies

Here is a nice sweet smoothie recipe packed full of yummy banana!  Perfect for breakfast or as a sweet cooling snack.
Makes 2:

2 frozen bananas
2 cups of none dairy milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients together in blender and blend well.  Feel free to use some extra ground cinnamon for a garnish as seen in the picture.

Erika's Morning Wake Up Juice

A spectacular way to clean out your system and have a super duper nutritious breakfast in the morning!  If you are not partial to green drinks I would drink this through a straw so that you don't smell all of the veggies. The apple will make this surprisingly sweet.

1 green apple
1 inch slice of ginger pealed
3 romaine leaf
3 Kale leaf
2 stalks of celery
1 cucumber

Send all of these items through your juicer together.  I always send the leafy greens through with other more water dense items to get the maxim juice out of them.

Stir well and enjoy!

Peach Mango Smoothie

Sometimes when my family gets gift cards for air line or credit card points, they send them to their poor, broke, civil servant daughter, aka Me. This time it was for JCpenny. Now, when most girls get a gift card its about the cloths. Now not this little vegan. I go straight to the kitchen wear section, where, this time I happened upon a Magic Bullet like machine by Cooks.

Perfect for a hot summer in south Texas (May and we have already passed 100 degrees once or twice.)

Smoothie ingredients:
-4 small peaches (Skinned and chopped)
-1 mango (Skinned and chopped)
-1/2 cup of ice

Blend well. See? Who needs a fancy when you have a blender and a stock of fresh fruit.

Steele Cut Oats

Steele Cut Oats are one of those amazing foods that everyone should eat. They have 4 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein, with 150 calories and 2.5 grams of fat per every one cup serving. Oats are an excellent source of manganese and a good source of phosphorus, thiamin, and magnesium. Plus there is a lot of evidence that everyone has heard that oatmeal can help regulate blood sugar (Almost everyone I know says they are hypoglycemic so maybe everyone should think about this) and lower risks of heart issues.

Amazing and oh so tasty! Plus at 99 cents a pound in the bulk section who can say no?

Ingredients:
-2 tablespoons non dairy butter
-1 cup Steele Cut Oats
-1 cup non dairy milk (I like hemp milk to keep it nice and thick, plus its naturally sweet!)
-1/3 cup brown sugar
-3 cups boiling water

Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add oats to butter and stir for 2 minutes, until lightly toasted.

Add 3 cups boiling water to oats in saucepan. Stir and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer gently for 25 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Stir 1 cup of hemp milk into oatmeal. Continue to cook for another 8 to 10 minutes, or until most of the milk has been absorbed. Make sure oatmeal is not sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Remove oatmeal from heat. Cover and let stand for 2 minutes. While you do this, stir in brown sugar so that it can caramelize. Feel free to add your choice of nuts too! I particularly like eating Walnuts in oatmeal!

Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to three days. To reheat, stir in a little milk and heat on high in the microwave for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring midway through.

Fruit Bowl with Apple Tahini Sauce

Oh. My. God. I love international food. Which is a plus because international food tends to love me right back.

Tahini. That is the word of the day. Familiarizing yourself with it. Become part of it. Eat it. Tahini is a sesame paste that is ground from either shucked or un-shucked seeds (depending on what culture you are getting it from). It is high in proteins and complex carbs. It has a nice nutty taste and when combine with the ingredients in this sauce has the perfect satisfying nutty after taste that can throw a sauce right over the edge of good into greatness.

Sauce (4 servings):
1/4 cup of Tahini
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 tbsp agave
2 tbsp water

Combine all of these into a food processor and blend well.

Dish:
4 cups of assorted fruit. (I used oranges, banana, pears and green grapes)
1/4 cup of toasted, unsweetened coconut flakes.

Arrange fruit in serving bowls. Drizzle with Tahini sauce and top it off with the toasted coconut.

Blue Berry Green Tea Smoothie

1/2 cup of frozen blueberry's
2 cups of green tea (Room temp)
1 tbs agave nectar

Divide blueberry's into the compartments of an ice cube tray and fill with green tea. Freeze.

Puree in blender with remaining tea and agave until smooth.

Bagels

I am a huge fan of bagels....but its more of a northern thing. Making my own seems like a good idea when I do go to the few places to get them...I mean $3.25 for a bagel?

Ingredients:

-1 cup warm water
-3 cups unbleached white flour
-2 tablespoons sugar
-1-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1-1/2 teaspoon yeast
-sesame seeds, toasted

Except for sesame seeds, place all ingredients in bread machine and set for normal dough. (You may also add whatever seasoning you'd like for a flavored bagel at this step.) I always put the water on the bottom and the yeast on the top so it will not become immersed in the warm water until the cycle has started.

Let the machine knead once and then turn off the machine and set a timer for 20 minutes.

Cut into eight equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 1 inch thick, wet ends and stick together. Transfer to a greased cookie sheet, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes in a warm place.

Fill a wok (or whatever you use) with about three inches of water. Place sugar in this water and bring to a boil. Add bagels for 1 minute, turning them as they boil. Drain. This might seem a but weird but it is what makes the crust harder then the doughy inside.



Return dough to the greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Bake at 500 degrees F for 7-10 minutes, or until desired browning occurs.

Vegan "Egg" Salad

This is adapted from a recipe I found. I really do miss egg salad. A friend of mine (Febe) and I went on a binge about a year ago where we had it at least once a day. I use it as a snack or a meal and bring it with me to parties so that myself and other vegans have something to eat. Not only that but if you don't serve it on the bread and cut out the Vegenaise it is totally raw.

Ingredients:
2 cakes of firm tofu
2 small onions (diced)
2 celery stalks (diced)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 table spoon Canola or safflower oil
1 teaspoon of Tumeric
1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt
1 teaspoon of Vegenaise
whole wheat break
Paprika (to taste)

Directions:
Mash your tofu up in a mixing bowl until it is chunky but not smooth. Add the onions, celery, soy sauce, tumeric and salt. Mix up well. Stir in the vegenaise and stick in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Put the salad on the slice of bread. Garish with thinly cut radish's, cucumber, bean sprouts and anything else that you would like. Sprinkle some of the paprika on top.

Home Made Granola

Buying granola is so expensive! It will Drive you mental to put six bucks down for a tiny bag! So I decided it was high time I try making one of my own. It was fun and easy...not to mention how cheap it was! Plus when you make your own you can try anything that you like in it!

Ingredients (For about 2 quarts):
6 cups of quick cooking oats
1/2 cup of maple or other natural sugar (dont use white. Its bad for you and wont hold the same way)
3/4 cups of wheat germ
1/2 cup of shredded coconut
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of chopped nuts (I use walnuts because they are so good for your skin)
1/2 cup of canola oil
1 cup of dried fruit (cranberry's rock but experiment!)
1/2 cup of maple or agave syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

Spread your oats on a rimmed pan or baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Move the oats into a mixing bowl before adding the sugar, wheat germ, coconut, dried fruit and nuts. Mix the oil, syrup and vanilla and than add to the oat mixture. Stir so that all of the oats are moist.

Spread again onto to baking sheets. You want to have two so that they brown evenly and are not too thick. Bake for another 10 minutes, stirring after 5 to brown. If they are not brown that check at 2 minute intervals and rotate pans.

Let them cool in the pans on the counter top before placing them in an air tight container!

Let the granola

Left over rice porriage

okay not to toot my own horn but this is one of those spur of the moment things that makes me wonder why I didn't go to culinary school. This is a breakfest rice porriage.

1 cup left over brown rice
1 1/2 cups of water
Dried friut diced
parsley
maple syrup
nuts

This on if kinda hard to write down cause its really a whatever you feel like food. Take the rice, water and dried fruit and place in a pot. Bring to a boil, than reduce and let simmer until water is absorbed. place in a bowl and add your toppings. I prefer putting more of the fruit (dried apricotes for me) cinommon, maple syrup, parsley and walnutes on top.

The drink next to it is a refreshing way to start your day too. Its just pure fruit necter (NOT from concentrate) mixed with sparkling mineral water!

Health points:
Brown rive: http://hubpages.com/hub/Health_Benefits_of_Brown_Rice
Maple syrup: http://www.puremapleproducts.com/health_benefits_maple_syrup.html

Again this has a serving of fruit in it to kickstart your day!