Tag Archives: Fannetastic Food

I am not a breakfast person. I don’t like sweet breakfast foods, and I have a smoothie every morning. If there isn’t a smoothie, usually breakfast gets skipped and I have an early lunch. But I am warming up to brunch, mostly because of booze. But this list is probably just breakfast foods. *shrugs* Oh well. They are brunch to me. Almost all are sweet things, so don’t get too mad is you are a savory fan. 

One Bowl Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

These were super fast to put together, and the result is a super soft and yummy muffin. I subbed spelt flour for all purpose flour since I had it on hand. But as promised, you used only one bowl, making it a quick muffin to make. This is a great dish to make for a super sweet muffin on the weekends.

She suggests adding cream cheese to the middle, and I used whatever I had left for the centers. I wasn’t impressed with the centers as they were too tart in my opinion. She says the sugar is optional, but I think it is a must. I used Tofutti cream cheese, and it cooked up fairly stiff. If anyone else tries as different cream cheese with different results please share! Since I didn’t have enough cream cheese only some of the muffins got the center. I found that they baked up fine without the cream cheese center.

Bottom Line: Super yummy, mix sugar in the cream cheese!

Raw Buckwheat Breakfast Porridge

I’ve mostly been eating chia pudding for my pre-morning run. It is easy to make and pretty much something to make the night before. This buckwheat porridge ranks up there with easy accessibility. It is simple and easy, and very yummy. My only problem is that you need access to fresh fruit as a topping, which sometimes isn’t as readily available during the winter.

I also found that sometimes buckwheat can be pricey, depending on where you go. And this recipe will use to up a good amount of buckwheat groats fast. But you CAN find buckwheat for cheaper prices, you just need to keep your eyes peeled. 

Bottom Line: Good for weekday OR weekend

Easy Vegan and Gluten-Free Pancakes

What a boring name for these? Banana Buckwheat Pancakes is more interesting. Gluten-free Banana-Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes is even better. But hey, whatever. Doesn’t matter what they are called because these are delicious! I was shocked at how well it all worked together.

Sure they aren’t 100% like normal pancakes, but they don’t really seem “gluten-free” either. They have an earthy-nutty flavor that is welcomed. The bananas add a nice sweetness to the pancakes without it being overwhelming. The only downside is that the batter is thick so I had a hard time getting “pretty” cakes.

I didn’t start with buckwheat groats, but instead had some leftover buckwheat flour from a local Asian food market. I can only imagine that this helped the texture in the end since the store bought flour would have a more consistent texture than home ground flour. I was lazy and didn’t make the homemade whip cream, but these pancakes tasted great with some blueberry syrup.

Bottom Line: Yummy but not too heavy like more “gluten-free” pancakes

Norwegian Cinnamon Buns (Norske Kanelsnurrer)

I am so excited to finally try a recipe from Seitan is my Motor. I love how much thought and planning goes into Constanze’s recipes. I’ve learned quite a lot of European baked goods, and given me a much needed window outside of American sweets. This was the first year having my In Laws over for Christmas morning, so I wanted to include them on our growing tradition of brunch on Christmas.

My overall biggest complaint is that the recipe uses rapid action yeast. So you can’t make it as quickly as regular cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. I tried my best to wake up and start the dough right away, but I don’t think they were fully finished until 12:30-ish. You need to proof the dough twice, once for 90 minutes and another for 60 minutes.

Aside from that, the recipe worked wonderfully. I liked how the rolls weren’t too sweet and used healthier flour than just all purpose. Having the spelt and whole wheat makes them more filling, though I am sure a little more tough compared to if I made them with just all purpose flour. I may have also overbaked them slightly working against a fluffy texture.

Bottom Line: Yummy, but wished there was an overnight option

Scramble Tofu Breakfast Bahn Mi

I feel like the dish is the definition of brunch- breakfast and lunch combined into one. Taking a lunch sandwich (Bahn Mi) and mixing it with the classic scrambled tofu for breakfast. This is something I love since I am more of a lunch person than and breakfast person.

I have a confession. I’ve never actually ate Bahn Mi before. I’ve heard about it, but never took the dive before giving up meat. Steak was never my favorite. So I can’t judge it on how authentic it is. I can judge on how tasty it was. The tofu is wonderfully spiced, and does look a lot like eggs. The Star Anise Daikon Pickles were a great add on. They were crisp and probably gave it that Bahn Mi feel. The downside? There was a little bit of leftovers. No big deal. It will just make a Bahn Mi wrap for lunch. This is definitely a something that will grace our table over and over again.

Bottom Line: Great for people who prefer more of the Lunch of Brunch

Almond Butter Banana Breakfast Bars

I always hate when I find vegan recipes that use lots of expensive ingredients. One cookie recipe used teff flour, maple syrup, and almond butter in huge quantities. It made me wonder how much each cookie cost? I was too afraid to find out. This recipe does use some expensive items like maple syrup and almond butter, but uses them in small reasonable amounts. I like that. All the other ingredients are cheap and commonly found in a vegan pantry.

The recipe is easy and fast to make. I made a change with the maple syrup since I ran out of it. I used a little blackstrap molasses and agave to fill in the rest of the syrup needed. I think blackstrap molasses was too strong, and I wish I used the maple syrup since the flavors would of worked really well. I also swapped spelt flour for whole wheat since i had it on hand. The dough was thick, but the end result is very soft and fluffy.

I divided the bars up into 8 pieces not 10 or 12 as suggested to give a hearty breakfast, but dividing them up smaller makes a great side for breakfast. Maybe a tofu scramble? Or sauted veggies? These are drool inducing bars, but they are tasty and not too desserty like some baked breakfast foods.

Bottom Line: Really tasty!

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Alexa meets her dream man- Daniel Bryan <3

Hey guys, I had a HUGE scare this weekend. So on Friday night my husband and I were talking about what we were planning on doing since my computer is 8 years old, and it isn’t fast enough to process up to date browsers. To put in perspective, to have chrome and firefox open at the same time, it uses up HALF of our processing speed. Ouch. That is how my husband and I function, I use Chrome, he uses Firefox. So after coming up with a replacement plan, the computer crashes the next day. UGH! I freaked out, shouted, then came up with an emergency plan, then magically the computer started working again. I backed our harddrive up and I am just waiting for our computer to crash again, you know at some point. Oh and when the computer WASN’T working I managed to spill hot coffee on me, freak out if the mac store would be open on the 4th of July (it is BTW), cut my thumb badly, and almost hit a deer. It was a great morning. DX

But I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July (or Canada day, or good weekend) I got to see two fireworks, one from our apartment window on the 3rd and the other in person. There are so many places doing fireworks within a 2 mile radius from our apartment, hell you could even hear the fireworks going off in the next town WHILE watching the fireworks.

We are also going to watch the Women’s World Cup Game because USA is awesome.  If you need a little refresher before watching the game, here is a little preview of the game. Honestly, I don’t know if it will be nearly satisfying as it was to watch the US beat Germany. I love seeing upsets. But really how did Sausage miss that kick?! Well, I am glad they got eliminated since it was so hard to hear the announcers say sausage so many times. Side note- google WANTED me to add sausage at the end of the search “Célia Šašić.” I betcha she HATES sausages.

Farm Round Up:

What I got:
2 quart of green beans
A handful of snow peas
buttload of sweet basil & parsley
1 large yellow squash
A few beets with greens
A few radishes with greens
1 small bunch of carrots with greens
1 small bunch of collard greens
garlic scapes

What I’m cooking:
Snow Pea + Nappa Cabbage Stir-fry
Buffalo Hummus Wraps with lettuce cucumber and radishes
Carrot Top + Parsley Tabbouleh
Summer Garden Pasta (for company BBQ)

History:

My friend who is an art history buff (and has a masters in it) found this interesting article that has proof of same sex marriage in 100 AD! Okay so it isn’t quite the same being that they only have males and that can marry each other and it seems less about love and more about legally joining bank accounts. But still very interesting regardless.

I found this article about the history of the tampon really interesting. I think we should all be a little open about periods and all the embarrassing stuff. I was so engrossed by the article that by the end of it I felt like I should be watching lifetime and eating some yogurt.

Food:

Bryant Terry has contributed some recipes to the Kitchn, and I am drooling! I seriously need to pick up his cookbooks. It is past the 4th of July but maybe some other day for a cookout.

These baked cauliflower in a manchurian gravy looks amazing. Just enough crunchy to match the tender cauliflower and flavorful sauce. Mmmm..

These banana nut muffins are probably the best gluten-free muffin I’ve ever made. They are slightly gritty (a little much flax egg) but still super yummy. Totally recommend making these.

I was never a chicken and waffles fan, but these would want me to give it a second chance.

Franklin Fountain is doing a dairy free BLUEBERRY ICE CREAM! BRB I’m just going to run into Philly to get a cone. Alton Brown also named them as one of his top ten restaurants in the US! Wow.

Think Pieces:

I love Raechel’s Mindfulness Mondays. I like her newest post about leaving things better condition than when you found them. I personally find this mindset relaxing, taking care of what you own. And she goes even further and talks about leaving your friends and family in a better mindset 

So my husband and I started to watch the women’s world cup (yes! tonight USA vs Japan!) and it got me thinking, why don’t we watch more women’s soccer? I know the WNBA is fairly popular, and I feel like soccer is just as interesting with women as it is with men. I got even more confused when I read this article about why the USA always has a solid female soccer team. It is a really interesting read, but it is a shame there isn’t more recognition for the female soccer leagues overall.