5 Ingredient Recipe: French Toast

After finally unpacking most of my moving boxes from September, I pulled out my mom's old breadmaker and decided to give it a spin. I tried the recipe from Robin Hood that fit my machine size, substituting the butter for vegan margarine. It was so moist and delicious! The only problem with fresh bread is the preservation. It usually goes a bit stale after a day or two, but this is perfect for french toast! Here is my easy-peasy recipe.

Ingredients:

The Matcha Series: Saturday Morning Pancakes

My prefect Saturday morning includes pancakes and a movie, with the inevitable cuddles from furry babies.

I've tried lots of pancake recipes in the past, and it has resulted in quite a few kitchen disasters. My favourite so far is the one in Chloe Coscarelli's cookbook, Chloe's Kitchen. Using this, I've developed my own version that can be pre-mixed and handy when needed. This is my pancake mix recipe:

Fried Bananas

Sushi is one of those things that you either love it or hate it. For me, it's an incredible love that sometimes turns abusive (all-you-can-eat is dangerous). One of the highlights of a sushi outing is the fried bananas for dessert, so I set out to re-create them in the simplest way possible.

5 Ways To Like Salad More

We've all made resolutions to eat healthier. You start off great and then you realize all you've been eating is quinoa and lettuce. Let's talk salad... urgh. If vegans got pennies for every time they got offered a salad, they would be rich. *daydreaming*... But let's not get carried away here, the real issue today is salad's bad rep. In general, people don't love salad. We might enjoy it after a week of winter comfort foods (guilty), as a nice light lunch, etc. But we don't LOVE it, we don't lust after it. We seem to lack the excitement and enthusiasm that other foods give us, such as pancakes on a weekend morning. Here, I give you my tips to bring back that love for a big bowl of crunchy freshness.

Photo from www.care2.com : Vegan Salad Dressing Recipes

Beauty Review: Purple Urchin

You need soap. P.U.

Probably one of the best slogans I've ever heard. Why? The "P.U." not only stands for "pee-you" (you stink), it also stands for the brand Purple Urchin. Genius! This is an Ottawa-based homemade soap and body product company that was originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (shout out to my Northern Ontario peeps!).

Here's a little bit about their products: (excerpt taken from their About Us page)

Our goal in making this soap was to make a wide variety of soap that contained only vegetable oils and delicious fragrances, while avoiding the use of unnecessary chemicals. We wanted to make soap that felt luxurious and would not strip the skin of moisture, and that was as natural as possible while still offering a wide range of scents...

Purple Urchin soap is not tested on animals, nor do we use lard or tallow in our soap. Most of our products are 100% vegan-friendly, and all are 100% vegetarian-friendly, and biodegradable. We refrain from using palm oil in our soaps since the demand is extremely high...

Being environmentally-friendly is also extremely important to us in our everyday business operations, and we try to reduce waste and to use as many recyclable and/or recycled products as possible. We also use local, Ontarian, and Canadian suppliers whenever possible...

Coco-Berry Oatmeal

My last post was about pancakes. This one is about oatmeal. You can tell I like breakfast foods! Just like pancakes, oatmeal can be customized in limitless ways. Every once in a while I do something crazy with my add-ins and it actually turns out pretty delicious. I've had this huge jug of coconut oil that I've had for months, so I'm always trying to find ways to use it up. When I bought it, I didn't realize it was unrefined. I got a big surprise when I opened it and found out it smells and tastes very coconut-y. It's a good thing I like that flavor!

I've also been playing around with cranberries and goji berries lately, putting them in salads, cereal, trail mix, and most recently oatmeal. I came up with this recipe for some tasty tropical oatmeal. This mix packs a solid blend of nutrients to kick-start your day with protein, carbs, antioxidants, fats, and of course the deliciousness... That counts as a nutrient, right? The best part about this recipe is that the measurements are totally up to you. You can mix and match and add more mix-ins all you want with this, just make sure the oats/water ratio stays proportional.