Walnut Chip Pancakes...that happen to be *Vegan and Low Iodine*

First off, thank goodness for vegans!!  Phew!  Now that I've gotten that off of my chest, I have to admit that I used to be a bit of a special diet hater.  I could deal with vegetarians, and even relate to them, but there was something about veganism that irritated me.  How could you dare go to someone's house and expect them to comply with your dietary needs, how can you study abroad and think that people should change everything in their kitchen to vegan just for you?  Selfish!

Well, well, well, here I am, more like a vegan than I'd ever hoped to be, but not by choice.  Health changes have forced me to temporarily forgo diary of any kind, although I can have meat.  This baker had to learn to give everything an eggless and butter-free makeover.  One of the first recipes I made to comply with my new dietary restrictions was the most basic of them all--pancakes.  My first try was delicious and tender, but it had a crumbly mouth feel, and the coconut milk flavor was stronger than I preferred.  With a few small modifications, I give to you the perfect vegan pancakes!  Test them on anyone!  They'll never know and I'll never tell...shhh!

Walnut Chip Pancakes

1 cup flour

2 TB baking powder 

1/4 tsp salt (regular, not iodized)

1 heaping TB of sugar

1c coconut milk*

2 TB oil

1 TB honey 

a few drops of butter flavoring

1 tsp vanilla extra

1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon 

1/8 - 1/4 c chopped walnuts (unsalted)

about 1/8 c Godiva dark chocolate chips

Additional oil for cooking

Procedure:

1.  Set stove to medium-low heat.

2.  Stir together flour, baking powder, salt until well-blended.

3. In a separate bowl, combine together milk, oil, honey, vanilla, butter flavoring, and cinnamon.

4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients with a whisk until smooth.  

5. Once combined, stir in chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.

6. Once pan is heated, add oil, allow to heat, and spoon batter into pan.

7. Cook pancakes until bubbles appear in the middle of the pancake.  Carefully flip and cook until golden brown.

*In addition to regular coconut milk, you can either use powdered coconut milk hydrated with water, or you can use the 5 oz can of coconut milk with additional water added to complete the full cup needed

References: http://www.food.com/recipe/5-minute-vegan-pancakes-132263(modified)

Mmm, Mmm Zesty Sausage Gravy

Although I'm not much of a breakfast meat person, I'm such a sucker for a good sausage gravy.  There's just something about that warm, delicious, comforting gravy on fluffy biscuits in the morning.  Mmmm, mmm!  There's nothing like it!

Traditionally, sausage gravy is seasoned with simply salt and pepper, but this is my zestier, more flavorful recipe that has a great mildly herby flavor and the perfect spicy bite.


Ingredients
3 breakfast sausage rounds (broken into bits) or the equivalent of ground sausage
1 TB minced onion
1 garlic clove, minced
3 TB butter (if your sausage does not make enough fat)
1/4 cup flour
1 cup of milk, more if you want a thinner gravy
1/8 tsp sage
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
a few dashes of smoked paprika if your sausage isn't smoky enough (optional)
salt and black pepper to taste

Procedure
1. Saute the onions over medium low heat until soft and translucent.  At this point, add in the garlic until fragrant.

2. Raise the heat to medium high and add in the sausage and brown it, breaking it up into bits.  Meanwhile, season it with all of the spices.

3. Once the sausage is browned and thoroughly cooked, add in the butter and allow it to melt.  After the butter melts, gradually stir in flour until you achieve a homogeneous meat paste.

4.  At this point, gradually add in the milk until you achieve a homogeneous gravy.  Bring the gravy up to a boil and cook until it thickens, about a minute or so after it boils.

5. Enjoy over split hot biscuits or incorporate into a baked breakfast casserole.

Best Ever Fluffy Pancakes!

Everyone wants that perfectly fluffy pancake in the morning.  I've found tall and fluffy pancakes, but they were never quite right--one recipe was too spongy, the other wasn't thick enough, and the other was missing that nice chewiness to it.  Finally, I've happened upon a recipe that was perfect!  Better than the restaurants perfect!  Try it and see for yourself!  This recipe makes flavorful pancakes that are tall and fluffy with just the right amount of chewiness that makes them stand up nicely to syrup.  You may not be able to resist eating these delicious pancakes before you even get the chance to pour some syrup over them.  Mmmm mmm mmm!

Enjoy :)!  The only change that I made is that I added 2-3 tsp of vanilla.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fluffy-pancakes-2/

Mmm, Breakfast Time!! Sweet, Salty, and Deeeelish!

I'm not the type of person to sit down and eat a slice of bacon, but there's just something about that touch of saltiness that crumbled bacon lends to so many dishes.  In this particular breakfast dish, the salty and slighlty sweet flavor of the jowl bacon balances the sweetness of the syrup.  The fluffy texture of the waffle with the crunchy bacon and the velvety soft yolk of the egg is simple and easy to make, but oh so delicious!!

*Just as a note, I'd caution against substituting with a store bought waffle in this dish.  The flavor is not nearly good enough to make this dish shine.*

Ingredients
1 fluffy and crisp waffle
2 eggs, fried easy over
1 slice of jowl bacon, cubed and fried

Procedure
1. Take the freshly prepared waffle and drizzle lightly with syrup  (I do my syrup with just vanilla and butter flavoring, no maple flavoring)

2. Top with easy over fried egg (don't go greasy, all you need is a nonstick pan and a spray of Pam)

3. Sprinkle with crispy fried jowl bacon

4. Enjoy the sweet and salty, fluffy and crunchy goodness!!  Mmm, mmm, mmm!!

The Absolutely Perfect Omelette

Mmmm, look how thick and fluffy!

I'm not much of a eggs and bacon breakfast type of girl, so I never actually tried to make an omelette until now.  I tried out a recipe this weekend and once I got to the second omelette, everything turned out wonderfully.  Just the same, I wanted to perfect the recipe tonight.  I decided to see what adding half sour cream would do to the texture.  It did just what I expected--my omelette turned out super soft and fluffy and oh so delicious!!  Try it for yourself.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Omelette:

3 eggs

1 TB heavy cream

1 TB sour cream (or plain yogurt, use heavy cream if you have neither of these--2 TB of either of these in lieu of heavy cream could also work)

salt to taste (about 1 tsp or so)

pepper to taste

a shake of garlic powder

 1 TB of butter and a drizzle of oil (the oil raises the smoking point of the butter and prevents burning)

Filling:

1 tsp finely chopped green pepper

1 tsp finely chopped onion

1 TB sliced black olives

1 TB chopped tomatoes, excess moisture removed

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 large handful of washed fresh spinach, lightly salted (or desired amount of thawed frozen spinach), sauteed with excess moisture squeezed out)

1 slice of jowl bacon, chopped and fried (regular bacon is fine too, you want the end result to be about 1 tsp of chopped bacon)

shredded cheese, desired amount (I like about 1/4 cup or 1/3 cup and I like to put cheese on the top and bottom of the other fillings to hold them in place)

Procedure:

1. Place omelette ingredients in a blender for one minute, allowing the mixture to become foamy

2. Melt butter and heat oil together over medium low heat in an 8" skillet (this smaller pan will ensure optimal fluffiness)

3. Pour blended egg mixture over the pan and allow edges to set just enough to lift them with an oiled spatula

4. Lift the outside edges of the omelette and allow egg mixture to flow beneath the set eggs.  Do this for all edges and smooth out the omelette with spatula to even it out

5. Continue this process until the omelette is nearly set

6. Once the omelette is nearly set, sprinkle toppings evenly across one side of the omelette and fold the other side of the omelette on top of it

7. Cover the pan and allow the omelettes to set and the cheese to melt

8. Slide the omelette out of the pan and onto a plate and enjoy :).

Don't laugh but my boyfriend will not eat his omelettes without ketchup, and I finally tried it...I must say, if you drizzle just a little good ketchup over the top, it sure is yummy.

Fluffy and Crisp Waffles

Surprisingly, I haven't made waffles since I moved from Miami.  I was a bit obsessed when I first got my waffle maker.  I used to make them every week :), and I tried all kinds of recipes.  Since my little cousin from back home was staying over for the first time, I wanted to make a good breakfast for her.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find my manufacturer's waffle recipe book, which was surprisingly good, so I had to Google new recipes.  I took a big risk with a recipe that only had one review, but the ingredients looked pretty promising.  The recipe actually turned out to be my favorite!!  With a little tweaking, the texture was perfect--tender, fluffy, and somewhat crispy (I cook mine for 15-17 minutes, depending on the amount of batter--I like my waffles on the darker side).  With a little added sugar, the sweetness was spot on, and the honey created a great flavor!  I enjoyed my waffles with some homemade syrup (I use a little butter flavoring instead of maple) and scrambled eggs to which I added some chopped up pork left over from last night's dinner.  Talk about deeeelish!

Try this recipe out and let me know what you think.  I just added  a TB or so of sugar for added sweetness. My batter was runny and much looser than I prefer, so I also added about 3/4 cup of flour to get a somewhat thick, but still liquidy (as opposed to pasty) batter.  Just eyeball it.  A thicker batter makes for a denser waffle.  For the eggs, I separated the whites and beat them to soft peaks with a mixer before folding them into the blended battler.  The recipe with my adjustments makes 5 Belgian-waffle-sized waffles.  Enjoy :)!