In my post about peanut butter and jelly macarons I talked about “breakfast pizza” that was often served in my high school cafeteria. It still holds a special place in my stomach and I always enjoy the challenge of veganizing an old favorite.
You can definitely use your own favorite scrambled tofu recipe or homemade sausage in this. My favorite cheese on this is the mozzarella from the Non Dairy Evolution.
Last year we planted a cherry tomato plant…if only I knew then what I know now. It was a prolific plant that produced more tomatoes than we knew what to do with. In fact, quite a few were lost to the ground in the months while it was growing. Little did we know, those lost tomatoes would sprout with a vengeance this year.
We have a two car garage and the entire area behind the garage is full of tomato plants. I can barely keep up with them – these were picked 3 days after I had picked a similar amount. My husband has been taking them in his lunches and I’ve been snacking on them, but we still had four cups that had gone untouched.
I made this recipe multiple times last year with our abundance of tomatoes. If you want it really red, add tomato paste or red wine, otherwise the sauce will have an orange tinge to it.
While on a walk last night, my husband and I were discussing our plans to visit a Renaissance Faire over the weekend. I jokingly lamented the lack of a vegan turkey leg for us to eat there. “I could probably make one,” I said, and my husband replied “Yea, but it would have to be crunchy, like it had a skin.”
Later that night I was laying in bed thinking of how to make this happen. It has been years since either of us has had meat, but the idea of a crunchy, chewy protein on a stick still has its appeal. I’d made the turkey loaf recipe a few times and it had the same texture i wanted for my “turkey” leg. Using the basic technique for the loaf recipe, I played with different measurements and seasonings to better replicate the turkey flavor and create a denser structure. I then made fresh yuba to wrap around the turkey cutlets and give that satisfying crunch. Miyoko Schinner was the inspiration for the yuba as skin in her Unturkey recipe, available here.
Mapo tofu is still one of our favorite meals here – it’s one of my go to dishes when I’m low on time, because it doesn’t require a huge prep time. I’ve improved on my original recipe a lot, specifically by adding the broad bean paste and szechuan pepper. The szechuan pepper adds an almost – citrus flavor that’s perfect for this spicy dish.
I grew a successful pot of basil this year, all from seeds. I’ve always purchased basil already started then moaned at how straggly and thin the plants grew throughout the summer. But not this year! I tossed in the seeds and now have a thriving, bushy plant!
I had leftover roasted hazelnuts from making my dacquoise and I figured “hey, throw them in the pesto, can’t hurt.” It’s been quite a while since I had pine nut pesto, but I can tell the hazelnuts have a different complexity to them. If you don’t have hazelnuts on hand, pine nuts or walnuts would work just as well!
We loved the potato carrot cheese, but I wanted a firm product to be able to throw on top of burgers and even to snack on plain. I grew up eating American slices from that company with the blue box, so I have fond memories of unwrapping cheese slices.
These are much more breakable than those rubbery squares and require a gentle hand. I would highly recommend the recipe I created for the cheese, specifically the coconut oil because it will firm upon refrigeration.
I even like this cheese in sandwiches, which is usually not true for vegan cheeses (besides Chao.)
Without further ado…
My home town high school had a breakfast available every morning for the kids who were dropped off early or who rode the bus. My favorite was breakfast pizza (the cafeteria would be full every other Thursday morning.) This is, unfortunately, not a recipe for breakfast pizza macarons. The other popular breakfast there were the Smuckers Uncrustables peanut butter sandwiches, because apparently it was too hard to make real peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. These macarons remind me of the cloying, sweet flavor of those sandwiches in a bite size package.
If this is your first time here, be sure to check out Charis’s recipes at Floral Frosting, as she is the creator of this recipe. She’s got some beautiful recipes there, her buttercream is one of our favorites! You also should take a look at the Vegan Meringue Facebook group for more amazing recipes. If you have trouble with the directions, try reading my troubleshooting guide for a little more in depth description.
Since making Nina’s vegan butter a few days ago, I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen if I added cashew cream to the mixture. When I get ideas like this in my head, they tend to stick there until I actually make them. Some might call it “obsessive”, I call it “dedicated.”
I never think to plan ahead to soak my cashews, so I boiled them for 15 minutes to soften them for blending. This recipe will be much easier for you if you have a high powered blender – I only have a Ninja and it worked well.
I also added a few more ingredients to increase the “tang” for the cream cheese. It might seem really tangy originally but it will mellow a bit in the fridge. There isn’t a great substitute for the vegan lactic acid powder, but it’s not that expensive to purchase on Amazon or Modernist Pantry and it will really kick up your vegan mac and cheese! You can try 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice for a similar acidic flavor.
So you like Earth Balance, eh? Wait until you try this!!! I’ve been meaning to make my own vegan butter for months now, but it hasn’t been high on my agenda as most recipes call for a few ingredients I didn’t have, mainly soy lecithin. But this recipe?? Well, I had all of those ingredients in my fridge! I know you’re probably tired of hearing about aquafaba by now, but this recipe just proves it can do anything. Don’t forget to check out the Facebook group for other great recipes.
The lovely Nina at Plante Pusherne gave me permission to share this recipe here, but be sure to check out her blog for the original! She gives a lot of helpful tips and information that I’m not including here, especially for some ingredient substitutions.
This truffle herb version is amazing spread on bread or tossed with pasta (how I used it!)
A few Christmases ago I received Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and it sat on my shelf for months before I finally opened it up. Once I did, I baked as many of the recipes as I could and sent them off to work with my husband. The consensus thus far is that the caramel pecan bars are the best, but these are a close second. Here’s where to buy it!!
I decided to try using aquafaba instead of flax egg in these and I wasn’t quite sure it would work. To my surprise, it worked perfectly and resulted in a fluffy and chewy cookie, as opposed to the dense flax – egg cookie. If you loved the covered shortbread girl scout cookies by the same name, you will love these, plus they’re way easier to make!
Avocados and Ales 
